תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

the West India iflands; add to this, that they are univerfally allowed to be a brave, generous people, and so attached to their fellow fubjects of Great-Britain and Ireland, that their houses, and their tables are conftantly open to, and their horfes, fervants, and carriages, at the call of, fuch gentlemen, as bufinefs or curiosity lead to vifit the colonies, even although they should have but the flightest introduction to them, or no other knowledge of them than, perhaps, their bearing his Majesty's commiffion; and I am happy now, that I am on the point of leaving these iflands, to have fo good an opportunity of bearing this teftimony to their

worth.

I have heard it obferved that, heretofore, the flaves in the colonies were treated with more feverity than at prefent. There were then fewer natives, and the unhealthiness of the climate deterred more people, who could live in Europe, from visiting the islands, than venture at prefent, when the country, from cultivation, is become much lefs fatal. The fcarcity, therefore, of white inhabitants, formerly, in a manner, obliged the planters to accept the fatal prefent which the humanity of the Mother Country prefented to them, of the outcafts of their gaols, or of the diffipated, drunken and yicious youth, whofe parents fent them over to the iflands to fave them from immediate disgrace or deftruction. The humane and compaffionate difpofitions of the planters, often combined with the want of worthier fubjects, to lead them to confide their negroes to fuch unprincipled and unfeeling mifcreants, as many of them praved, and their behaviour has at different times brought unmerited cenfure on the proprietors, who have, perhaps, been entirely ignorant of the ill

treatment

treatment their flaves have received, and the confequent injury their fortunes and properties have fuftained, from the men to whom they have given the bread they were not thought worthy to cat in the land of their nativity.

But what can induce the Dean to affert that the white people are unwilling to admit their flaves to the privileges of Chriftianity? Why does he appeal to the venerable Society for propagating the Gofpel for their teftimony, in proof of that affertion? I am confident that fociety, of which I have had the honour to be a member, cannot fupport him upon this occafionThey have a right to direct how their eftates fhall be conducted, and, it is not to be doubted, they have taken fuch fteps to convert their flaves as they judged moft efficacious. If their endeavours for that purpose have hitherto been ineffectual, is there not reason to fear, it must be imputed, not fo much to the unwillingness of the mafters of the flaves, as to the want of diligence and zeal, in thofe who are appointed their inftructors. The fociety's eftates have, I know, for fome years paft, been particularly under the direction of a Weft India gentleman, who has, in a most noble and difinterested manner, given his attention to their improvement; who has engaged, at all events, to pay them a certain rent; and every profit he could make of them befides, I know, he intended for them, and dare fay he has given to them. Those who know that gentleman, will not doubt his zeal as a Chriftian, or his humanity as a man. Was he himself refident in the ifland, probably, his endeavours might be more fuccefsful than, perhaps, they have been, in promoting the converfion of the negroes of thofe eftates. That

the

the proprietors of flaves are willing to have them inftructed, and that the people themselves are capable of inftruction, is clear from what has happened within these few years at Antigua, where, from the diligence and apoftolic zeal and perfeverance of the clergymen of the Moravian church, many thousands of negroes are found amongst their humble auditors, well inftructed and baptized, and many hundred communicants are conftant attendants at the Lord's Table. So far are the inhabitants from being displeased at their converfion, that, I am well informed, 20 to 30 per cent. more is given for a Chriftian, than an unconverted flave, equally valuable in other refpects. Application has been made, to my certain knowledge, to the brethren from fome of the other iflands to fend them clergymen to inftruct their negroes; and I know more than one gentleman who has offered to be at the expence of building fuch paftor a commodious houfe, and attaching a parcel of land to it, for his accommodation. Thefe gentlemen are now enlarging the circle of their labours; they are fettled in Barbadoes, St. Cruz, this, and other iflands, and their fuccefs is not to be doubted. But can it be wondered at, wher people are ordained priests and fent to the Weft Indies, whofe characters were before, not only despicable, but, fome of them, infamous, which we know has been the cafe; people fhould not have been defirous of fuch perfons attempting the converfion of their negroes, even if they fhould request it, which is not probable.

I would not be understood to throw a cenfure upon any particular person, and, therefore, I forbear pointing out thofe inftances which are however well known

amongst

amongft us; but I beg leave to add, that there is not af prefent fo much reafon for complaint as heretofore; many of the clerical gentlemen, now in the West Indies, being men of worth and character. Still, however, it is to be feared there are fome who have fought to be put into the prieft's office, merely that they may eat a morfel of bread.

I have already affigned fome of the caufes to which the annual diminution of the negroes, in the colonies, may be attributed, viz. the fmaller comparative number of females imported than males, the promifcuous amours of the females (not as it is imagined, by fome people, from a libidinous difpofition, as they fell their favours at a high rate, both to their negro and white paramours) and to the mothers fuckling their children longer than neceffary, fcarce any of them being to be prevailed on to wean their children before they are two or three years old; another reafon is the unhealthinefs attending the eftablishment of new fettlements.-The curfe of God, that "man fhall eat his bread by the fweat of his brow," is particularly manifefted upon fuch occafions; difeafe and forrow are his companions, until the ground is fully cultivated. But I cannot allow the negroes in Barbadoes are leffened in the proportion the Dean alleges-He fays, that the white inhabitants are diminished one half fince my Lord Clarendon's time; that may, for ought I know, be true, and partly owing to their migrations; but, that the blacks are stationary, I more than doubt. Great numbers of negroes have, heretofore, deserted from Barbadoes to St. Vincents, many were carried to Guadaloupe, Martinique, and to the Havanna, when the conqueft of those islands was achieved, the war before laft. For many years toge

ther,

ther, owing to the bad crops in that island, great numbers have been fold, or fent off to the Dutch fettlements upon the Continent, which owe many of their white inhabitants also to Barbadoes, who have always carried off with them as many of their flaves as they could; others have been fent to the islands of St. Vincent, Grenada, and Tobago, as well as to the French islands of St. Lucia, Martinique, and Guadaloupe, and, until within these three or four years, that Barbadoes has been again bleffed with feasonable weather, and the inhabitants enriched by abundant crops, both of fugar and cotton, very few of the negroes, imported into that island, were purchased by the inhabitants for their own ufe, but have been bought either by the merchants there, or ftrangers, and sent off to the neighbouring English, as well as foreign iflands. I do not, therefore, believe there has been any thing like the diminution of the number of flaves fuppofed by the Dean; on the contrary, I am inclined to believe, in moft old fettled estates, both in that and the other iflands, where a due proportion of females has been purchased, that, generally, there has not been any diminution, but rather an increase; leaft of all will I allow, that fuch extraor dinary diminution, if it has happened, has been occafioned by bad treatment: on the contrary, I have fhewn, from the Dean's own account, that they are much better treated at Barbadoes than the whites.

I have already acknowledged, that sometimes they are not fo well used by their overfeers as could be wished; when fuch mifbehaviour in an overfeer is difcovered, he is turned away, and, probably, will not foon find another employ; but it is much to be wifhed, that the proprietors, particularly the more wealthy of them,

K

refided

« הקודםהמשך »