For Faith and Freedom

by Walter Besant

  CHAPTER XXXV.

  THE WHITE SLAVE.

  When we dropped anchor in the port or road of Carlisle Bay we wereboarded by a number of gentlemen, who welcomed the Captain, askedhim the news, and drank with him. I meantime kept in my cabin,knowing that I must shortly come forth; and presently I heard theboatswain's pipe, and the order to all the prisoners to come ondeck. Then one knocked softly at my door. It was the Captain.

  'Madam,' he said, with a troubled voice, 'it is not too late. Sufferme, I pray you, to enter your name as one of those who died on thevoyage. It is no great deception: the villain Penne will alone behurt by it; and I swear to take you home, and to place you untilbetter times with honest and Godfearing people in London.'

  'Oh! Sir!' I replied, 'tempt me not, I pray you. Let me go forth andtake my place among the rest.'

  He entreated me again, but, finding that he could not prevail, hesuffered me to come out. Yet, such was his kindness to the last thathe would not place me with the rest, but caused his men to give me achair on the quarter-deck. Then I saw that we were all to be sold.The prisoners were drawn up standing in lines one behind the other,the men on one side and the women on the other. The hardships of thevoyage had brought them so low that, what with their rags and dirt,and their dull scowls and savage faces, and their thin, pale cheeks,they presented a forbidding appearance indeed.

  Three or four gentlemen (they were, I found, planters of theisland) were examining them, ordering them to lift up their arms,stretch out their legs, open their mouths, and, in short, treatingthem like so many cattle: at which the women laughed with ribaldwords, but the men looked as if they would willingly, if they dared,take revenge.

  'Faugh!' cried one of the planters. 'Here is a goodly collectionindeed! The island is like to become the dust-heap of Great Britain,where all the rubbish may be shot. Captain, how long before thesebags of bones will drop to pieces? Well, sweet ladies and fairgentlemen'--he made a mock bow to the prisoners--'you are welcome.After the voyage, a little exercise will do you good. You will findthe air of the fields wholesome; and the gentlewomen, I assure you,will discover that the drivers and overseers will willingly obligeany who want to dance with a skipping-rope.'

  There were now twenty or thirty gentlemen, all of them merchants andplanters, on board, and a man stepped forward with a book and pencilin hand, who was, I perceived, the salesman.

  'Gentlemen,' he said, 'this parcel of servants' (he called them aparcel, as if they were a bale of dry goods) 'is consigned to mycare by Mr. George Penne, of Bristol, their owner. They are partlyfrom that city and partly from London, though shipped at the port ofBristol. A tedious voyage, following after a long imprisonment inNewgate and Bridewell, hath, it is true, somewhat reduced them. Butthere are among them, as you will find on examination, many lustyfellows and stout wenches, and I doubt not that what you buy to-daywill hereafter prove good bargains. They are to be sold withoutreserve, and to the highest bidder. Robert Bull'--he read the firstname on the list--'Robert Bull, shoplifter. Stand forth, RobertBull.'

  There arose from the deck where he had been lying a poor wretch wholooked as if he could hardly stand, wasted with fever and privation,his eyes hollow (yet they looked full of wicked cunning). Theplanters shook their heads.

  'Come, gentlemen,' said the salesman, 'we must not judge byappearances. He is at present, no doubt, weak, but not so weak as helooks. I warrant a smart cut or two of the whip would show anotherman. Who bids for Robert Bull?'

  He was sold after a little parley for the sum of five pounds. Thenthe speaker called another, naming his offence as a qualification.No pillory could be more shameful. Yet the men looked dogged and thewomen laughed.

  The sale lasted for three or four hours, the prisoners being knockeddown, as they say, for various sums, the greatest price being givenfor those women who were young and strong. The reason, I have beentold, is that the women make better servants, endure the heat morepatiently, do not commonly drink the strong spirit which destroysthe men, and, though they are not so strong, do more work.

  '_This I did, and so stood before them allbareheaded._']

  Last of all, the man called my name. 'Alice Eykin, Rebel. Standforth, Alice Eykin, Rebel.'

  'Do not go down among them,' said the Captain. 'Let them see at oncethat yours is no common case. Stand here.'

  He led me to the top of the ladder or steps which they call thecompanion--leading from the waist to the quarter-deck.

  'Madam,' he said, 'it will be best to throw back your hood.'

  This I did, and so stood before them all bareheaded.

  Oh! ye who are women of gentle nurture, think of such a thing asthis: to stand exposed to the curious gaze of rough and ribald men;to be bought and sold like a horse or an ox at the fair! At firstmy eyes swam and I saw nothing, and should have fallen but that theCaptain placed his hand upon my arm, and so I was steadied. Thenmy sight cleared, and I could look down upon the faces of the menbelow. There was no place whither I could fly and hide. It would bemore shameful still (because it might make them laugh) to burst intotears. Why, I thought, why had I not accepted the Captain's offerand suffered my name to be entered as one of those who had died onthe voyage and been buried in the sea?

  Down in the waist the gentlemen gazed and gasped, in astonishment.It was no new thing for the planters to buy political prisoners.Oliver Cromwell sent over a shipload of Irishmen first, and anothershipload of those engaged in the rising of Penruddock and Grove(among them were gentlemen, divines, and officers, of whom a few yetsurvived on the island). But as yet no gentlewoman at all had beensent out for political reasons. Wherefore, I suppose, they lookedso amazed, and gazed first at me and then at one another and thengasped for breath.

  'Alice Eykin, gentlemen,' said the salesman, who had a tonguewhich, as they say, ran upon wheels, 'is a young gentlewoman, thedaughter, I am informed, of the Rev. Comfort Eykin, Doctor ofDivinity, deceased, formerly Rector of Bradford Orcas, in the countyof Somerset, and sometime Fellow of his college at Oxford, a verylearned Divine. She hath had the misfortune to have taken part inthe Monmouth Rebellion, and was one of those Maids of Taunton whogave the Duke his flags, as you have heard by the latest advices.Therefore, she is sent abroad for a term of ten years. Gentlemen,there can be no doubt that her relations will not endure that thisyoung lady--as beautiful as she is unfortunate, and as tender asshe is beautiful--should be exposed to the same hard treatment asthe rogues and thieves whom you have just had put up for sale.They will, I am privately assured'--I heard this statement withamazement--'gladly purchase her freedom, after which, unless she ispermitted to return, the society of our Colony will rejoice in theresidence among them of one so lovely and so accomplished. Meantime,she must be sold like the rest.'

  'Did Monmouth make war with women for his followers?' asked agentleman of graver aspect than most. 'I, for one, will have no partor share in such traffic. Are English gentlewomen, because theirfriends are rebels, to be sent into the fields with the negroes?'

  'Your wife would be jealous,' said another, and then they alllaughed.

  I understood not until afterwards that the buying and selling ofsuch a person as I appeared to be is a kind of gambling. That is tosay, the buyer hopes to get his profit, not by any work that hisservant should do, but by the ransom that his friends at home shouldoffer. And so they began to bid, with jokes rude and unseemly, andmuch laughter, while I stood before them still bareheaded.

  'Ten pounds,' one began; 'Twelve,' cried another; 'Fifteen,' saida third; and so on, the price continually rising, and the salesmanwith honeyed tongue continually declaring that my friends (as hevery well knew) would consent to give any ransom--any--so only thatI was set free from servitude: until, for sixty pounds, no oneoffering a higher price, I was sold to one whose appearance I likedthe least of any. He was a gross, fat man, with puffed cheeks andshort neck, who had bought already about twenty of the servants.

  'Be easy,' he said, to one who asked him how he looked to get hismoney bac
k. 'It is not for twice sixty pounds that I will consent tolet her go. What is twice sixty pounds for a lovely piece like this?'

  Then the Captain, who had stood beside me, saying nothing,interfered.

  'Madam,' he said, 'you can put up your hood again. And harkee,Sir,' he spoke to the planter, 'remember that this is a piousand virtuous gentlewoman, and'--here he swore a round oath--'ifI hear when I make this port again that you have offered her theleast freedom--you shall answer to me for it. Gentlemen all,' hewent on, 'I verily believe that you will shortly have the greatestwindfall that hath ever happened to you, compared with which theSalisbury Rising was but a flea-bite. For the trials of the Monmouthrebels were already begun when I left the port of Bristol, and,though the Judges are sentencing all alike to death, they cannothang them all--therefore his Majesty's Plantations, and Barbadoesin particular, will not only have whole cargoes of stout andable-bodied servants, compared with whom these poor rogues are likeso many worthless weeds; but there will also be many gentlemen, andperhaps gentlewomen--like Madam here--whose freedom will be boughtof you. So that I earnestly advise and entreat you not to treat themcruelly, but with gentleness and forbearance, whereby you will bethe gainers in the end, and will make their friends the readier tofind the price of ransom. Moreover, you must remember that thoughgentlemen may be flogged at whipping-posts, and beat over the headwith canes, as is your habit with servants both black and white,when the time of their deliverance arrives they will be no longerslaves but gentlemen again, and able once more to stand upon thepoint of honour and to run you through the body, as you will richlydeserve, for your barbarity. And in the same way any gentlewomenwho may be sent here have brothers and cousins who will be ready toperform the same act of kindness on their behalf. Remember that verycarefully, gentlemen, if you please.'

  The Captain spoke to all the gentlemen present, but in the lastwords he addressed himself particularly unto my new master. It wasa warning likely to be very serviceable, the planters being one andall notoriously addicted to beating and whipping their servants.And I have no doubt that these words did a great deal towardsassuring for the unfortunate gentlemen who presently arrived suchconsideration and good treatment as they would not otherwise havereceived.

  The island of Barbadoes, as many people know, is one of the CaribbyIslands. It is, as to size, a small place, not more than twentymiles in length by fifteen in breadth, but in population it is avery considerable place indeed, for it is said to have as manypeople in it as the City of Bristol. It is completely settled, andof the former inhabitants not one is left. They were the peoplecalled Indians or Caribs, and how they perished I know not. Theisland had four ports, of which the principal is that of St. Michaelor the Bridge, or Bridgetown, in Carlisle Bay. The heat by day isvery great, and there is no winter, but summer all the year round.There is, however, a cool breeze from the sea which moderates theheat. A great number of vessels call here every year (there is saidto be one every day, but this I cannot believe). They bring to theisland all kinds of European manufactures, and take away with themcargoes of Muscovada sugar, cotton, ginger, and logwood. The islandhath its shores covered with plantations, being (the people say)already more thickly cultivated than any part of England, with fewerwaste places, commons, and the like. The fruits which grow here areplentiful and delicious--such as the pineapple, the pappau, theguava, the bonannow, and the like--but they are not for the servantsand the slaves. The fertility of the country is truly astonishing;and the air, though full of moisture, whereby knives and tools ofall kinds quickly rust and spoil, is considered more healthy thanthat of any other West Indian island. But, for the poor creatureswho have to toil in the hot sun, the air is full of fatigue andthirst; it is laden with fevers, calentures, and sunstrokes. Deathis always in their midst; and after death, whatever awaits themcannot, I think, be much worse than their condition on the island.

  After the sale was finished, the Captain bade me farewell, withtears in his eyes, and we were taken into boats and conveyed ashore,I, for my part, sitting beside my purchaser, who addressed no wordat all to me. I was, however, pleased to find that among the peoplewhom he had bought was the girl Deb, who had been my maid (if awoman who is a convict may have a maid who is a sister-convict).When we landed, we walked from the quay or landing-place to agreat building like a barn, which is called a barracoon, in whichare lodged the negro slaves and servants before they go to theirmasters. But at this time it was empty. Hither came presently acertain important person in a great wig and a black coat, followedby two negro beadles, each carrying a long cane or stick. Aftercommanding silence, this officer read to us in a loud voice thoselaws of the colony which concern servants, and especially those who,like ourselves, are transported for various offences. I forget whatthese laws were; but they seemed to be of a cruel and vindictivenature, and all ended with flogging and extension of the term ofservice. I remember, for instance--because the thought of escapefrom a place in the middle of the ocean seemed to me mad--that, bythe law, if any one should be caught endeavouring to run away, heshould be first flogged and then made to serve three years afterhis term was expired; and that no ship was allowed to trade withthe island, or to put in for water, unless the captain had givensecurity with two inhabitants of the island in the sum of 2,000_l_.sterling not to carry off any servant without the owner's consent.

  When these laws had been read, the officer proceeded, further, toinform us that those who were thus sent out were sent to work as apunishment; that the work would be hard, not light; and that thosewho shirked their work, or were negligent in their work, would bereminded of their duties in the manner common to Plantations; thatif they tried to run away they would most certainly be caught,because the island was but small; and that when they were caught,not only would their term of years be increased, but that theywould most certainly receive a dreadful number of lashes. He added,further, that as nothing would be gained by malingering, sulking,or laziness, so, on the other hand, our lot might be lightened bycheerfulness, honesty, and zeal. A more surly, ill-conditionedcrew I think he must have never before harangued. They listened,and on most faces I read the determination to do no more work thanwas forced from them. This is, I have learned, how the plantationservants do commonly begin; but the most stubborn spirit is notproof against the lash and starvation. Therefore, before many daysthey are as active and as zealous as can be desired, and the whitemen, even in the fields, will do double the work that can be got outof the black.

  Then this officer went away followed by his beadles, who cast eyesof regret upon us, as if longing to stay and exercise their wandsof office upon the prisoners' backs. This done, we were ordered tomarch out. My master's horse was waiting for him, led by a negro;and two of his overseers, also mounted and carrying whips in theirhands, waited his commands. He spoke with them a few minutes, andthen rode away.

  They brought a long cart with a kind of tilt to it, drawn by twoasses (here they call them assinegoes), and invited me courteouslyto get into it. It was loaded with cases and boxes, and a negrowalked beside the beasts. Then we set out upon our march. Firstwalked the twenty servants--men and women--newly bought by themaster; after them, or at their side, rode the overseers, roughlycalling on the laggards to quicken their pace, and cracking theirwhips horribly. Then came the cart in which I sat. The sun was highin the heavens, for it was not more than three of the clock; theroad was white and covered with dust; and the distance was about sixor seven miles, and we went slowly, so that it was already nigh untosunset when we arrived at the master's estate.

  Thus was I, a gentlewoman born, sold in the Island of Barbadoes fora slave. Sixty pounds the price I fetched. Oh! even now, when it isall passed long since, I remember still with shame how I stood uponthe quarter-deck, my hood thrown back, while all those men gazedupon me, and passed their ribald jests, and cried out the money theywould give for me!