As for Mr Brown's opinion of Mr McDonald, he had nothing to say in favour of Scotchmen. That indeed, as he made clear, was all there was to say on the matter. I asked him if it might not be possible for there to be worthy and honourable Scotchmen, but this seemed tantamount to asking Mr Brown to contemplate the existence of generous Jews or intellectually adroit negroes. Of late, as I sit on the piazza, or walk in the grounds, or recline in the central hall, or even as I take dinner, Mr Brown has fallen into the habit of appearing before me to engage in a few pleasantries. It seems as though his initial resentment at my presence has been eroded. Perhaps he has come to realize that I pose no immediate threat to the status quo. Perhaps the discovery that I am not the carrier of bad news has lightened his heart. He has informed me further on the fate of my father's agent, Mr Wilson. Apparently this man had been stealing from the estate and has fled to another island. Whether he so chose, or was compelled by force, is unclear. However, he no longer resides on these shores. It would appear that quite apart from petty thieving, the chief complaint against Mr Wilson was that he was not sufficiently aware of the imminent threat of a slave revolt.
This intelligence I gleaned from Mr Brown when again I made reference to his unnecessary savagery towards the negro Hercules, Cambridge. And again Mr Brown reminded me that the whites in these parts live in constant apprehension of revolt, for often the only reason negro attempts at insurrection meet with no success is their lack of any regular plan. Such eruptions occur with frequency and are met with equally fierce suppression, the latitude of punishment being curtailed only by the desirability of avoiding permanent injury to valuable stock. This negro rebelliousness has led to the need for organized militia under the command of the Governor. All whites between sixteen and sixty are obliged to serve, clergymen excepted, and troops are assembled for drilling once a month, and for manoeuvres on several days of each year. On negro play-days martial law is imposed and all militia men are required to be on duty. According to Mr Brown one of the chief sources of conflict between himself and Mr Wilson was the latter's attitude towards the organization of such militia. Apparently Mr Wilson viewed them as something of a prank, whereas Mr Brown, a man closer to the moods and vagaries of the blacks, viewed their continued existence as a matter of vital importance.
I have decided to write again to Father expanding upon the nature of this conflict between Brown and Wilson, and requesting him to investigate if in the last year there has been any marked fall in the level of profits from the estate. I would be surprised should there have been any decrease, since my intelligence tells me that for all his surliness Mr Brown knows well how to manage the negroes, and does so from what one might term ground level rather than by dispensing his justice or otherwise from on high. I find it difficult to comment upon white life style in anything other than general terms, for all I know comes from conversational skirmishes with Messrs Brown, McDonald and Rogers. I have, however, in the past week seen a little of negro life, and had the opportunity to converse with both black and white on this subject. The result is that I have made some observations which, ink, paper, and time permitting, I will certainly share with Father.
The negro forms the basis of the system and is of two sorts, the imported slave and the slave of local origin. It is desirable that a predominance of the former should rapidly be altered to a majority of creole slaves. Slaves of various tribal stock, some superior in nature, some inferior, are represented, and some tribes are better suited than others to certain modes of work. Yet with the passage of time, and inter-breeding among the tribes, the single, indistinguishable Creole black emerges, who, having been in contact with whites from his birth, and having the great advantage of familiarity with only the English language, is less intractable, more intelligent, and less likely to provoke discord. He has not about him the offensive pride and natural ferocity of the African, who, having been torn from his native country, and made to toil under a burning sun in mortal fear of the lash, is hardly likely to form a favourable opinion of his masters. Memory often transports him back to his native land, where he roams in pursuit of the lion or leopard, or seeks noonday rest neath the shade of Afric's huge trees with family and friends about him, their voices raised in gentle song. Yet memories of such scenes are soon disrupted by the crack of the driver's whip, or the coarse bellow of an overseer, and the African is reduced to despair, and it is at such moments that the dark spirit of revenge enters his unChristian soul. It is to be hoped that this process of creolization will soon replace all memories of Africa, and uproot such savage growths from West Indian soil.
Of the servile negro class, only half of those on the plantation earn their daily bread by engaging in the culture of the cane. The rest are craftsmen, herders, nurses, domestics, or simply the infirm and aged, or the very young. Of the field-labourers a division into three groups is usually made. In the first group the big able-bodied men and the lusty women cut and grind the cane, and clear and hoe the land ready for replanting. The second gang is composed of boys and girls, those recently sick, and pregnant females, who weed and perform light tasks. The black boys are nearly all competent whistlers, their song-repertoires composed of variations on our traditional airs. Such harmonies aid their labour. In the third group are the mischievous pickaninnies, the little pack of black wolf-cubs who have free range simply to hoe and weed the gardens under the authority of a trustworthy old woman. The first two groups come under the jurisdiction of black drivers who differ from their sable brethren. For most negroes employment is abhorred and idleness sheer delight, but these trustees are specifically chosen for their diligence and application to toil.
The field-hand's day begins just before sunrise with the clamour occasioned by the blowing of a conch-shell. The first gang is led out to the fields by the black drivers and a white overseer, a procession of dark dreamers taking with them all they need for breakfast and work. Their most treasured and important movables are the hoe, the machete, and the agricultural fork. The list of names is thereafter called, and the names of all absentees noted, whereafter they work until nine when a break of a half-hour is permitted for the consumption of boiled yams, plantains and other vegetables seasoned with salt and cayenne pepper. By this time most of the absentees have made an appearance and are rewarded with a few stripes of the Head Driver's whip. After breakfast they continue with their labours until a bell calls them at noon, when they are permitted two hours of rest and refreshment. For the negroes this generally consists of squatting on sooty limbs while stuffing the belly, men slumbering swollen like a pig. At two o'clock they are once more summoned and at this time usually manifest signs of greater vigour and animated application until sunset, when they are released to their rum and revelry.
For hours the men will indulge themselves in gambling, pitch and toss being a favourite, a game occasioning loud and excitable responses, which very much suits the negro temperament. On these fine tropical nights it is possible to watch from the piazza as the negro women cook the supper and tell stories to one another. The chief meal consists of what the negroes grow and cultivate for themselves, supplemented by the two pounds of excellent salt-fish which is weekly served out to adults, with children receiving an allowance of a pound and one half from the day of their birth, and drivers a princely three pounds. Not for the hungry negro a simple cold mess to conclude a day's labour. The scent of fresh bread often flows from their ovens, and I am told that the tea they boil using the soiled waters of the nearby turbid stream is surprisingly palatable. By far the greater number of negro children happily display themselves in a state of nature. Their common form of recreation is to dance all about, after which, along with their elders, they will retire for the night unconscious of any harm until dawn, when again they are driven afield to labour. Once they reach the cane-pieces there is one strange custom which the negro seems determined to indulge in. This involves tearing off their shirts and secreting them under a bush when threatened with even the lightest rain. In this state they a
re wont to continue their labours, for the rain runs quickly from their oily skins. Should a negro allow dampness to enter his clothing he will almost certainly contract the tremors and fall swiftly into a decline.
Work is carried on daily except for Sunday and every other Saturday, when the slaves are free to raise their own provisions such as plantains, yams, eddoes and other tropical vegetables. They also keep hogs, rabbits and such livestock. On their free days, and the holidays of Easter, Whitsuntide and Christmas, they visit the market to sell and trade what they have cultivated. They have a keen eye for fancy articles of little practical value, and they love their free time in which to gossip on trivial matters, investing them with an almost absurd gravitas. On Sundays and holiday occasions the negro will cap his festivities by indulging a passion for dress, a love of which is curiously strong in these people. Male or female, they show the same predilection for exhibiting the finery of their wardrobes, and will generally adorn themselves in the following manner. The dandified males sport wide-brimmed hats and silk umbrellas, and promenade in windsor-grey trousers (which are generally embroidered about the seams with black cord). They complete the spectacle with white jackets, and shirts with stiff high collars. The sable-belles are no less extravagantly modish in their ornamental silk dresses, gauze flounces and highly coloured petticoats which, though of the best quality, display patterns more commonly employed in England for window-curtains. Those who sport bonnets blend the fiercest shades in a close companionship with each other, so that these rainbow-hats dazzle one's eyes at a mile's distance. Others seem to imagine their Sabbath toilet complete only when combs are stuck into their woolly heads, although the poor implement would be doomed should it attempt to conquer their coarse ungovernable hair. I for one take greater comfort in viewing the negroes, male and female, in their filthy native garb, for in these circumstances they do not violate laws of taste which civilized peoples have spent many a century to establish.
During the crop season those who are chosen to work in the boiling-house often drudge long into the night, and some clean through until dawn without even a momentary suspension of labour. But this is the only real variance from a pattern which the average English labourer might consider luxurious, especially if he were to view the quarters of the plantation blacks, their cottages surrounded by trees and shrubs, the interiors often plastered and white-washed, the roofs matched with palm leaves, and the floors of the best rooms board. Their bedding is for the most part a sack filled with dry plantain leaves, which I am led to believe can prove exceedingly comfortable. Some negroes find it advantageous to drape their narrow nests with the mosquito-net so as to hinder these creatures, whose kiss is more powerful than of any English gnat or harvest-bug. Although the family is deemed the basic social unit, marriage is a mere charade and unfaithfulness a matter of course. But let not this one small sadness disguise the fact that for the negroes this is indeed a happy hedonistic life, with ample food, much singing and dancing, regular visits to the physicians, hospitals a-plenty, good housing, healthy labour, and an abundance of friendship.
I have been led to believe that in the past there was some tension between the Africans and the Creoles. Disputes between these different types of slave were regularly initiated by the Creoles, who held in contempt those closer to Africa as being the produce of Guinea-men. Bonds tighter than family were often struck between the offspring of two men who travelled to these shores in the same bottom, and such bonding would often lead to resentment among the creole blacks who had long forgotten, if indeed they had ever known, the true nature of their origins, over and above some loosely imagined fabrications relating to times long since past. These days, now that the acquisition of fresh African slaves is no longer legal, the breeding system has acquired a greater significance than hitherto. I observed a negress who, having enriched my father, held up her new-born child with the words, 'See misses, see! Here nice new nigger me born to bring for work for misses.' And her sentiments are by no means unusual. High status is granted a woman who can bring forth many Creole children to populate the plantation, and it has not been unknown for a woman to be rewarded for such labour by being granted her freedom. Stella's own sister explained to me that she had 'twelve whole children and three half ones', by which she meant miscarriages. And should one chance to hear of a 'one-belly woman', she will be labouring under 'the pleasing punishment which women bear', and is therefore discharged from all severe labour, except of course the terrors and agonies of the labour of child-birth itself, which in these parts is no simple matter.
It is generally the elderly and most obstinately ignorant women who attend the breeders at the time of child-birth. Their tampering has in many instances led to the mother or child or both breathing their last before the mortal nature of the confinement is recognized, and a proper medical attendant can be summoned. Happy is the mother who survives this harpy-trial; her issue is added joyously to the list of the slave population in the plantation-book. But sadly, her joy will not endure beyond a few weeks, for these women are soon pressed again into service and driven afield. I heard complaints from one such bearer who claimed, 'Misses, me have pickaninny two weeks in de sick-house, den out upon the hoe again and we can't strong that way, misses, we can't strong.' On the mothers' return to the fields their progeny are lost to the charge of these self-same midwives. It is only to be expected that before long the pleasures of field-gossip far outweigh the burdens of that weary duty known as motherhood. In short, these mothers soon prefer their pigs to their own children. To conclude, I sometimes believe that the black woman can produce little atoms at will, and when they are barren, it is so only because they are discontented with their circumstances (as a hen will not lay her eggs on board ship). However, the pleasures and benefits that accrue to these breeders lead some dissemblers to insist, for many months more than is generally required to replenish the human race, that they are in 'a state of goodly hope'.
A trait which suggests an inconsistency with the other low characteristics of the negro is the male negro's affection for his mother, irrespective of how cruelly he may have been spurned at birth. Nothing can more provoke a negro to instant enragement and subsequent violence, than a disrespectful remark about his mother, no matter how trifling or inconsequential this remark may appear to be. The male negro son will be diligent in securing the comfort of his mother, be she in sickness or in health. It must be acknowledged that there is some virtue to the negro's loyalty in this respect, and some virtue also in the negro's attitude towards the older members of his ebon community. Old negroes are seldom allowed to live alone or required to perform the duties of cooking. Whether infirm or not, these responsibilities are borne by younger people who will administer to their needs, including attending to their provision grounds in the mountains. They do so in exchange for a trifling return of produce, and all manner of negroes, be they creole or African, treat the elderly with respect and kindness, and endeavour to make their old age comfortable.
Our earthly sojourn must terminate in death, and to mark this occasion the negroes have devised many strange and fantastical ceremonies which they perform in their own gardens. If the corpse is that of an adult they consult it as to the manner and location in which it pleases to be interred. Then, bearing the coffined weight of the carcass upon their shoulders, a group of negroes sets out to locate this resting place, each receiving various signals from their long-lost acquaintance, each pulling in different directions, so that it is by no means unusual for the coffin to jump from their shoulders and tumble to the ground while the bearers settle the matter with their fists. Having committed their fellow creatures to the earth, the negroes sit by the mound determined to accompany their friends wherever it may be that they are going on their final journey upon this earth before they commence a new existence.
As the negroes are very superstitious I found it unusual that they chose to have their dead buried in their gardens, for they fear jumbys (ghosts) with a vengeance. These jumbys or appari
tions are believed to compel the onlooker to follow them, and even run off from the plantation, although it might be more rationally considered that on these occasions the negroes make something of a convenience of their jumbys. Apparently the jumbys the negroes must truly fear are those of their enemies, and even in death they never suffer their foes to be buried near them. The difference between a benign and a malignant jumby is given much consideration. It follows then that the negroes generally believe in a life beyond this world which will involve their return to their own country. However, the decline in sable freight has led to fewer of the negroes having any idea of a country beyond these shores, so that some other place not rooted in reality has long since been substituted for the concept of a home country.
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