dleham as to the useful ones, I trust their own intereft will be thought a tolerable fecurity for their conduct. But, fay Mr. Sharpe and the Dean, a man may murder a negro with impunity: he is not, fays the latter, in such case, accountable to the magiftrate: if the negro is his own property, he is quit by paying a fine of 9l. I think Mr. Sharpe fays, though, as I write from memory, I am not certain as to the fum*. But is Mr. Sharpe fure, that at the time he wrote, no act had been paffed, inflicting an additional punishment for fuch an offence to that mentioned in the very old law he quoted? If there had not, I beg leave to fuggeft what inference a man of a good heart would have drawn from it. He would furely imagine, the inhabitants of Barbadoes must be a very humane set of people, as in so long a period as hath elapfed fince the first fettlement of that island, it has not been found neceffary to make feverer laws against their murdering their negroes, than that wh ch fubjects them to fo flight a penalty; whereas, in most other countries, it has been found neceffary to reftrain fueh crimes by the fevereft capital punishments. He would be the more inclined to make this remark, because neither the one nor the other of these gentlemen bring *In excufe for the colonial laws heretofore not having made the killing of a flave a capital offence, it ought to be recollected, that in England, not a great while before the first settlement of Barbadoes, the punishment for killing not only a villain, but a free man of the highest rank, might be bought off for a fmall fum of money. -It is alfo obfervable, that it is faid, Exod. chap. 21, V. 21, 22. "If a man fmite his fervant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand, he fhall be furely punished: notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he fhall not be punished; for he is his money." ( 27 ) bring any accufation against any perfon of having committed fuch murder. I will take the liberty to obferve to Dr. Nicholls, that even if fuch a crime is not punishable as murder, as an offence contra bonos mores, it would be under the cognizance of the magiftrates, and the guilty perfon might be indicted for it, and, if found guilty, might be punished with great feverity. After what I have said, I might, perhaps, be excufed by the fociety, and by the Dean of Middleham, if I troubled them no further; but I am defirous, as well as the Reverend Dean, of contributing my mite of information to the fociety: and after I have caft it into their Treasury, I shall beg to be permitted to pay my compliments in particular to the Dean, and to make a few remarks upon his letter, which the fociety have declared, by their chairman, they fuppofe may be fo ferviceable to the cause of humanity. In order to set thofe gentlemens hearts at reft, I will give them a faithful account how negroes are treated; and to be fatisfied of the truth of the account, they have only to enquire of those gentlemen of their acquaintance who have lived amongst us. In general, the houfes or huts of the negroes, are built in the most healthy and eligible spots, in the vicinity of the works, that is, of the boiling-house, mill, &c. upon a fugar eftate, confequently, near water, which is neceffary for the manufacture. They are generally not far from the manager or principal overfeer's house, and at no great diftance from each other. An hofpital is generally constructed near them, with a shop to hold medicines, an apartment for the nurfe, and different rooms for different diseases, and one common room, (generally with a pair of stocks in it,) to confine those who are troubled with fores, and prevent their getting out in the night to go to negro dances, or other improper places, which they are with great difficulty, reftrained from. Confinement of a night, in these stocks, (behind which is a platform on which they may lie conveniently and fleep, wrapped up in their blankets, the hole for their feet being parallel with the platform) is frequently the punishment for offences, for which people are hanged in England, or fent to Botany Bay, and is confidered by the negroes as a very fevere one. Thefe houses, if fingle, are about fifteen or twenty feet long; about fix or feven feet in the plate, and raised upon hard wood pofts, or mafons work, a little from the ground; if double, they are of confiderably larger dimenfions; in the fingle houfes, one, in the double houfes, two families generally refide, unless a woman fhould have feveral children, when, fometimes, a whole double houfe is allotted one family. The negroes fometimes (and principal negroes will generally) chuse to build their own houses, when they will make them of fuch dimenfions, fmaller or larger, as they think proper, the mafter finding the materials, and occafionally affifting with labour. Sometimes thefe houses are covered with fhingles, but in general the negroes prefer their being covered with thatch, as warmer, and more commodious. They love to have the fmoke of their fires, which they make upon the ground, circulate in the house, and efcape through the thatch. These houses or huts are indeed comfortable dwellings, compared pared with thofe of the labouring people in most parts of England; and from the accounts I have heard of the cabins of the poor in Scotland and Ireland, as much fuperior to them as a palace to an ordinary cottage. In the neighbourhood of their houfes, they generally have a pig-ftye, in which they fatten a barrow or two, and fometimes they keep a fow; though on fugar eftátes the latter is not always permitted, from the difficulty a negro has to procure a fufficient quantity of food for a fow and a litter of eight or nine pigs.+ Every negro is allowed a small piece of ground, feldom less than the eighth of an acre, in the islands, where it is scarce and most valuable; in Jamaica, and many other of the iflands where it is plenty, they may cultivate as much as they chufe. I have known fome induftrious negroes have an acre or two of ground, compleatly cultivated in plantains, corn, yams, cocoas, or eddowes; thyme, echallots and other pot herbs, pine apples, guavas, limes, oranges, lemons, and other fruits; which they fell for a great deal of money. The master generally allows each negro a good warm blanket, once every two years; hats or caps, woollen jackets, or wrappers, they have generally once a year, and also one or two fuits + The reafon of this prohibition is, that when a negro finds he has not a facility in procuring fufficient food for his fow and pigs, he will let them loose, that they may get into his master's canes. And very generally in the Windward islands, the negroes will teach their hogs to run into the canes at night, and as foon as the shell blows, or other fignal in the dawn of the morning, they will return to their ftyes. Thefe tricks, it may be imagined, are often detected, and the hogs are killed by the watchmen appointed to guard the canes, who take the head for their fee, and the carcafs is carried away by the owner. How are fimilar trefpaffes punished in England? How often there, has the truth of the perfecution related by poor Partridge, been verified? fuits of Ofnaburgh clothing, viz. fhirts, or jackets, trowsers, or petticoats. They for the most part work in the field naked from the waift upwards; but I must obferve, it is only the moft worthless negroes who have not very good cloaths of their own, befides those given them by their mafters; cloaths which a labourer, or his wife, or daughter, in England, would be called proud and extravagant if they were to appear in, even at church. So much for the lodging and cloaths of these poor diftreffed flaves! We come next to speak of their provifions. The laws in general throughout the islands, direct the master to allow all negroes above 10 years old, indifcriminately, fuch a quantity of plantains, yams, eddowes, Indian corn, Guinea corn, or other produce of the plantation, or other equivalent, (which, in fome of the islands, particularly in St. Kitt's, are rice, caravances, peas, or other pulfe from America, or the kernels of beans, which they get from England,) as may be fuppofed fufficient for their fubfiftence. A large bunch of plantains, and 7 to 8 quarts of Indian, or Guinea corn, yams, potatoes, or other roots in proportion, is thought a fufficient allowance of farinaceous provifions for a week; from four to feven herrings, or from 2lb. to 3lb. of falt fish a week, and to the mothers of children under 10 years old, half the quantity and thefe laws enforce fuch diftribution under confiderable penalties. I should be wanting in candour, if I omitted here to remark, that, confiftently with my obfervations before; 1 fuch |