but the rude materials, of which our population are formed, require no small degree of firmness and consistency to maintain the authority of a manager. We have nothing to fear from Anti-Colonial virulence, if we are true to ourselves-once divided, with so many irresponsible incendiaries amongst us, and we shall soon see our enemies triumph, and this beautiful island, now the seat of peace, happiness, and plenty, become a sterile desert."

IV.-SOCIETY AND MANNERS OF BARBADOES ILLUSTRATED.

A gentleman of the highest credit visited Barbadoes in the early part of the present year. During the short time he was there, he made notes of what he saw. We are permitted to make a literal transcript of such of these notes as appear likely to interest our readers, and to throw light on the state of society and manners in that island. We abstain at present from any comment upon them, only premising, that we entertain the most entire confidence in the accuracy and fidelity of this gentleman's state

ments.

"One of my first objects was to learn from the slaves themselves how far they had benefited by the efforts to introduce education; and I visited the Colonial School, under the patronage of the Bishop, and a committee of the chief persons of the island. Here, I understood, are from 150 to 200 boys. The children appeared to have great pains bestowed upon them by a worthy and persevering master, and to make as much progress as European children would, surrounded by the same disadvantages. They were, as I thought, particularly expert in arithmetic. I was, however, much disappointed to find upon a close enquiry, that these children, with the exception of perhaps three or four, were exclusively the children of free people of colour. The children of slaves on this island receive instruction only in a catechetical form; in some instances they are taught to repeat hymns, but these opportunities for instruction are wholly confined to Sunday mornings in all the places which I saw and visited, except one instance, in which the slaves were assembled occasionally under the parlour window, and sang a hymn.

"I enquired of all the slaves I could get an opportunity of conversing with, as to their having any knowledge of letters; and was certainly a good deal disappointed and mortified to find, that with a very, very small exception, I believe confined to two or three individuals, I met with no slave who could read. These were slaves that held some places of more than common importance in the establishments of persons of consequence in the island who bore a high character for great humanity and benevolence, and whose slaves shewed, by their appearance and manners, that their masters were so distinguished.

"As to the means afforded the slaves of religious worship, I fear that little can be said. I was several times at the churches on the island; and, with the exception of the slaves who attended their masters and their families, and remained with the carriages during the service, I never saw any one slave there, nor could I find that they did ever attend. I did not go to the Wesleyan or Moravian meeting houses, (the former rebuilt since its destruction, and liberally subscribed to by many of the persons who assisted in destroying it.) One person I was credibly informed, who was one of the very first in the work of destruction, has since died, and left all his little property to repair the evil he had committed, and appease his conscience.

"I visited a few estates, on which I understood a sermon is read by the manager, and the usual devotional exercises gone through as contained in the ritual of the church of England, to which the slaves are invited.

"In one instance I was present, and was gratified by observing the quiet and orderly carriage of all the slaves during the time, which lasted for nearly two hours. The service was performed by the owner of them; his wife acting as clerk, in a very condescending and kind manner: but the gross ignorance in which these

poor things are kept, leads me to doubt whether many of them had the power to comprehend that which was thus presented to their minds.

"As it regards their happiness and contentedness, it may be sufficient to relate two facts. One is, that I heard it complained of by most respectable persons, that the male slaves were continually quarrelling about their wives, of whom there were numerous instances of one man possessing from two to seven; and the con. sequent dreadful immorality in both sexes is matter of notoriety.

"I could not hear that marriage was encouraged amongst them, except by the Moravians, who are most indefatigable on this subject, as well as all others, in order to assist and raise the condition of their coloured brethren: nor was I able to ascertain that more than a few instances of an union of this nature had taken place, and these were generally if not entirely the result of the diligent, persevering efforts of the Moravians.*

"There is also another source of complaint on the part of the planters, which is, the loss they sustain by the extent to which self-destruction is practised amongst the slaves; it being by no means an uncommon thing to find valuable slaves hung to a tree or destroyed in a well, in the early part of the morning. On most of the estates I was shewn the stock of negroes in the same manner as an English farmer shews his horses and cattle, and with the same view of gaining credit for the management of them.

"I was anxious to ascertain how far the slaves benefited by the sale of the commodities which I was told were grown on the small portions of ground allotted to them near their dwellings; but which, in the course of my visits to different estates, I could discover to be only partially the case, many being certainly without this provision.

“ ]

"I was likewise often assured, that the market of Bridgetown was thus supplied; and in order to be satisfied, I attended at the usual place of sale frequently, and took pains to inquire of individual slaves offering either fruits or vegetables &c. for sale, from what estate they came, and was grievously disappointed to find that they almost all had their mistress with them, to receive the amount of the sales made; or what was more common, that the major proportion of them were free coloured people, and consequently small cultivators, and not slaves.

"I find upon inquiry, that the produce which a slave may have, is always under the control and absolutely in the power of the master, if he chooses from any motive to exercise such a power.

"I went into many of their huts, which are built of mud and thatch, sometimes of stone and slate; they contain one room only for the whole family, with very little furniture, and they appear to own very little apparel.

"It seemed rather a curious custom to me as an Englishman to find that the usual place of rest during the night for the domestic slaves was on the floor of the landings: the men on the lower and the women on the upper floor, a custom better suited to a hot climate than to ours.

"I am inclined to believe, that notwithstanding the dreadful power possessed by the owners and managers of slaves over their poor pitiable fellow-men, this power is not so often exercised in overt acts of violence as might be apprehended; but almost every estate appears to be furnished with a place of confinement, to be used at the will of the master. This usually dismal room is provided generally with a pair of stocks, and a wooden or iron bedstead; the stocks are placed so as to enable the prisoner either to sit or lie on the bedstead. The duration of the confinement is determined by the arbitrary will of the master or overseer. Once for the negligence of some domestic concern, and an impertinent answer, a slave was confined three days and four nights, and I left him still in confine

ment.

"Being at home at my lodgings, I was alarmed by the most dreadful howling; and starting up, I got to the window, in time to see a free black mason, or plasterer, inflicting some severe blows with his fist upon the bosom of a female negro slave, about sixteen or seventeen years old, who, I heard, was his own daughter, This girl had been before serving him and another man with mortar, which she carried up a high ladder; and on inquiry, I learnt that not being quite so quick

But even the Moravian marriages have no legal sanction in Barbadoes.(Editor.)

as he wished in supplying them, one of them descended, and gave her a severe beating, in the manner I have just described. I immediately ran out of the house to save her from further suffering, but was agreeably surprised to see a number of individuals apparently with the same intention going towards the spot. I thought as a stranger it would be better for me to allow them to remonstrate with the barbarous fellows; but what was the borror I felt when I found that their object was not to exclaim against such treatment of the poor girl, but to tell her that they would not, and could not bear such a howling near them. Some of the tenants, accompanied by our landlady and several slaves, were there, and loudly swore at the girl, telling her they would have no such noise there, as a gentleman, (meaning a friend of mine, who was suffering from great weakness,) was very ill in the next house.

"Once it happened that I lodged at a house in Bridgetown, and was attracted to the window, whilst dressing in the morning, by piteous and loud cries. On looking out, I saw in a yard below, the mistress of the house, a free woman of colour, caning a female slave about twenty-two, very severely with a small bamboo cane, in a state of elasticity we never see them in this country, and about the size of a black-lead pencil; in which castigation she struck both fore stroke and back stroke on the unprotected shoulders, breast, back, and face of the poor girl, who leaned against a post in the yard to support herself while she received the cuts, (about thirty.) I knew it would be useless to interfere, and therefore only determined, if possible, to learn the cause of such a dreadful flogging. Very opportunely, I met the poor black girl going to market; and asked her what very bad thing she had done to make her mistress so angry? She replied, 'Yes, massa, I am very sorry, I did indeed break the tea-cup.' Her mistress afterwards allowed to me that this was the cause for which such a flogging was inflicted. I took particular notice of her neck and breast, which were swollen all over in a pitiable manner; and the weals on her neck were nearly or quite the size of my little finger."

[The remainder of these notes, with our observations upon them, will appear in our next number.]

A variety of meetings have been held in various parts of the United Kingdom, and many more are about to be held, which it will be scarcely possible for us to notice particularly. Our friends in the country therefore must attribute any omissions of which we may be guilty to their true cause, the absolute inpossibility of our keeping pace with the kindling eagerness of the public, to combine their efforts in the great work of extinguishing Slavery root and branch from every corner of the British Empire. Besides the meetings already announced, others have taken place at Belfast, Bray, Buxton, Greenwich, Tottenham, Ilfracombe, Melksham, Colchester, Peckham, Bridlington, Ipswich, Nailsworth, Chipping-Norton, Hook-Norton, Banbury, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Beverley, &c. &c., and are preparing at Wandsworth, Staines, Brentford, Mile-End, Leicestershire, Rutlandshire, Wansford, Northamptonshire, Gloucester, Oakham, Boston, Spilsby, Wainfleet, Alford, Louth, Horncastle, Hertfordshire, Penzance, Truro, Petersfield, Croydon, Stroud, Cambridge University, Witham, Maldon, Bocking, Braintree, Bristol, Reading, Wallingford, Plymouth, Wellington, Exeter, Taunton, and many more places than we can

now name.

Bagster and Thoms, Printers, 14, Bartholomew Close.

THE

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 69.]

OCTOBER 20, 1830.

[Vol. iii. No. 21.

I-STATE OF SOCIETY AND MANNERS IN BARBADOES ILLUSTRATED.

II. STATE OF LAW AND MANNERS IN JAMAICA ILLUSTRATED : 1. ST. GEORGE'S COUNCIL OF PROTECTION ;-2. THE CASE OF MR. BETTY AND HENRY WILLIAMS;-3. THE POLICE OF KINGSTON ;-4. THE VERE QUARTER SESSIONS;-5. THE DEFENCE OF THE REV. MR. BRIDGES.

III.-JAMAICA ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY PROPOSED.

IV. ANTI-SLAVERY MEETINGS ;-IPSWICH-MR. ORTON.-COLCHESTER
-MR. BLYTH.

V.-ANTI-SLAVERY SERMONS-REV. S. C. WILKS.
VI.-MAURITIUS REGISTRY AND SLAVE TRADE.

VII. THE SLAVE TRADE AND COLONIES OF FRANCE.
VIII. ON FRAMING PETITIONS TO PARLIAMENT.

I. STATE OF SOCIETY AND MANNERS IN BARBADOES ILLUSTRATED. WE continue our extracts, on this subject, from the notes of a traveller who visited Barbadoes early in the present year. (See our last Number, p. 422-424.)

"I had occasion to pass the greater part of one day on board a vessel lying in the bay; and whilst there, we were boarded by a very comely youth, of good features and engaging manners, who came on some business to the ship. I asked him from whence he came, what his name was, &c.; which questions led him to give the following description of himself: 'I am,' said he, 'the illegitimate son of —, esq. by a coloured woman; I live on his estate, and am his slave.' I was surprised and shocked at the unnatural proceeding of a man keeping his own son as a slave; but much more so when he added, I should certainly have been starved, if it had not been for the compassion of some who knew me.' He shewed me his naked body, cut, scarred, and bruised from the waist upwards in a horrible manner. A creditable person on board the vessel assured me he had known this young man for several years; and that he could assert the dreadful narrative to be correct. I determined to pay a visit to this fellow Christian, whose heart had become thus callous by a familiarity with tyranny; but was dissuaded, by an assurance that it would produce no other effect than the increased ill usage of the poor young man.

"During my residence in the island, I made the acquaintance of a middleaged and very respectable man, who assured me that he had given up a very lucrative situation for a small stipend, upon which he now subsists, because he could not conscientiously be concerned in slavery; and he added, ' if I dared, I could relate circumstances which would make every hair you have on your head stand on end; but if I were to do so, and it became known, my name would be held up to odium, and would be made to stink all over the island; and I cannot do without the scanty subsistence that I now get.' He also added, that he had the offer of another very good situation as a manager; but preferred poverty and an easy conscience to this horrible employment.

"Upon diligent and repeated inquiry, I found that during all the time I was in the island, the prison was nearly filled with blacks, and contained no white person; and also that no trial in which a slave was plaintiff was instituted; and indeed, that such a thing was never expected to occur, nor did any one seem to conceive it possible.

"The Barbadians allowed, that is, some of them who are amiable and considerate, except as far as they are under the influence of the baneful practice of slavery, that the slavery of Barbadoes was less severe and degrading, sometimes they added, even less horrible, than in some other places, especially the Mauritius; and that the children were at an early period taken from their mothers, and placed in the nursery, and that they are not afterwards allowed to be with them. They added, that they thought the plan very preferable to our English plan with the poor people, as the mothers had no time to attend to their wants. Some few admitted, that a system of free labour would be much better both for the labourers and masters, and that they earnestly desired it.

"It is by no means uncommon to see white persons box the ears of their slaves, or even knock them down sometimes, in a very brutal manner.

"I also discovered, that it was a decided loss of caste if a white person associated as a visitor with persons of colour, even free and of unblemished character. "I never saw any slave at work in the field for their masters on the Sabbath, nor was I aware that they worked all night.”

Our traveller further states, that the first impression made on his mind, on his visit to Barbadoes, was the degree of animal comfort apparent in the embonpoint and general cheerfulness of the slaves." Indeed, he says, he could not possibly avoid observing it, as it was constantly pointed out to him, frequently with the observation," that the slaves were much better off than the poor people in England." The comparison, however, he says, "appeared to him altogether improper." "Had they said, You see that the slaves are as well provided for, and much in the same way, as our horses in England, the observation would have been more just and appropriate." He notices, also, having seen a slave festival, and, he says, "it was afflicting to contemplate a number of human beings, arrived at maturity, tumbling about like children, fiddling and dancing, being an assemblage of the most inharmonious and discordant sounds."

Nothing can be more calm and dispassionate than the tone of this traveller, and considering the short time he was on the island, and the consequently superficial view he had it in his power to take of the state of society and manners, he is certainly, in proportion to his opportunities, an accurate observer.

We know that Barbadoes, notwithstanding its peculiarly harsh laws, and its frequent cruelties in practice, is placed in circumstances more favourable to mere animal comfort, and to native increase, than any other of our sugar colonies. One cause of this will be found stated in a former Number of our work, No. 41, p. 316. "In Barbadoes," we there observed, "the slaves are chiefly fed, not by provisions raised on their separate allotments, but by provisions raised in common on the working days, on the master's account, and under the same impulse by which sugar or cotton is raised. And the masters, in Barbadoes, concur with the authorities in declaring, that it requires one-third of the labour of the year to raise the food necessary for the purpose." That is to say, 103 week days are given to raise the food of the slaves, Sunday also being free from field labour and left pretty much to the slave's disposal. But this is four times the number of days, which, exclusive of Sunday, is given to the slaves in Jamaica, and six or seven times the number of days allowed to the slaves in Trinidad. In this single circumstance we have enough to account, both for the increase and the embonpoint of the Barbadian slaves, as compared with those of the other islands. But