The slave son

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Dedication

My dear Mrs. Jameson^

I had some thought of dedicating this work to those ladies who have laboured courageously and unremittingly for the emancipation of the African race^ and many distinguished and revered names occurred to my recollection : this would also have been in harmony with the intention of my tale. Yet if homage there be in a Dedication^ I feel it ought surely to be rendered to her who has cheered and encouraged me through the difficulties which have beset my labours^ — to her whose kind and generous sympathy throughout has been to me like a beacon in the midst of darkness.

To you therefore, my dear Mrs. Jameson, I b^ to inscribe this little book, as the best expression of my respect and affection which I have to offer.

Contents

7AOB

INTBODUCTION 1

CHAPTEE I.

Introduction

who once bore sway over the nations of the earth in philosophy^ science^ and warfare. While closer again to the Negro, the caste called Capre^ sprung from the Mnlattoes and blacks, show the rounded propor* tions and plump faces of the Hindoos.

I do not apprehend that the mixed race will ever form a nation apart. In these days of swift travelling and increasing interchange of thought, it is more likely that exclusive nationality has seen its best days, than that it should spring up anew with another people. But I look forward to a thorough equalization of races, which shall procure for all equal rights by written law, social law, and the law which comes from Christ ; when man shall owe his greatness to his own striving, — to the exercise of the talents he has received from God, not to the hue of his complexion, or father, I should say, to the complexion of his parents ; and when the coloured man, taking place among his fellow-men on earth, may do credit to the generous and glorious nation which has freed him. To quote the prophetic words of Bums, —

" And let us pray, that come it may, and come it will for a' that, When man to man, through all the world, shall brothers be and a' that."

I have done ; and it only remains with me to say that I repudiate aU personal responsibility with regard to the sentiments I have put in the mouth of my hero : I have drawn him such as I have seen him, — the type of his race, — and such as may be found

10 THB SLAVB SON.

in every slave country ; and he speaks here as every slaveholder speaks when irritated by the observation of strangers or the reproaches of the abolitionists. I have only to add my grateful acknowledgments to Mrs. Jameson^ whose large warm heart found place for sympathy with my subject and earnest encouragement for my labours in the very midst of her then pressing labours on Legendary Art; and also to Mr. Patten^ the philanthropic Librarian of the Boyal Dublin Society^ a man whose liberal heart and mind will ever be admired by those who know him, and who, like myself, have derived their best ideas and happiest suggestions from the stores of his intellect. And having spoken thus much for myself and for those to whom I am indebted, I beg at once to introduce my Story.

Chapter I. A Short Revibw Of Thb History Of Trinidad

AND A LITTLE GOSSIP.

Of all the Colonies ever visited by the Abolitionists there is none where the slave was found so happy in his condition as in that most fertile ai^d beautiful of the Antilles^ the fair island of Trinidad. It lies southemmost and last of the band of isles called West Indies^ and just in the delta of the magnificent Orinoco^ of whose shores^ from its close resemblance to the mainland in point of geological formation and natural production^ it is supposed to have once formed part^ and to have only been rent therefrom by some comparatively recent convulsion of the earth. But fertile and lovely as is the isle^ it was nevertheless the latest known and the latest cultivated of all the Colonies^ for reasons I will explain^ and which^ with a short review of its history^ may go far to account for the somewhat easy life which the Negroes enjoyed. It had the honour of being named by Christopher

Columbus himself, who discovered and visited it during his third voyage to the West. It was on a Sabbath-day he first caught the outline of its mountains, from which circumstance he dedicated this new land to the Santissima Trinidad, — Sunday being set apart by the Spaniards for the particular worship of the Trinity. And as the gale tram the shore came loaded with perfume, and the opening vista disclosed, as he neared it, a richness and magnificence of vegetation hitherto unknown, he called it exultingly the Indian Paradise.

But his glowing descriptions were doomed to pass unheeded, for the great discoverer had fallen under the displeasure of Boyalty, and the island was suffered to remain as wild and uncultivated as when first proclaimed a Spanish cotiquest, till the year 1783, when by a romantic adventure it was suddenly brought into notice.

About this time Roume de St. Laurent, a French inhabitant of Oranada, happening to visit its shores in quest of natural curiosities, he was struck with its aspect, — its grandeur, its fertility, its large and numerous rivers, and, above all, the advantage of its situation. He became enthusiastic; he imagined himself a rediscoverer of the colony, a benefactor of mankind, and forthwith taking passage to Spain, he succeeded so well in advocating his views with the Ministers, as to win from them that celebrated Royal Schedule which soon after resounded throughout all Europe, inviting Catholics of every nation to establish themselves in the new colony, under promise of free trade, exemption from taxes, protection during five years from creditors left behind, and many other immunities equaUy encouraging and important.

Meanwhile St. Laurent was not idle, but continued Tisiting all the great commercial cities of Europe, lousing the indolent, interesting the speculative, holding forth golden prospects to the ruined, and so eloquently speaking on his subject, that in a short time were seen emigrants flocking from aU quarters of the globe to this new land of promise: the Colony soon acquired a political and commercial importance equal to its geographical position.

Much of all this success was owing to its first Gk)- vemor, Don Jos^ Chacon. A wiser and more benevolent man, a truer Christian, was never chosen to hold that despotic power which is vested in the hands of a Spanish Governor. He carefully watched the carrying-out of every law which protected the slave, and more than this, he set the fashion of mercy and kindness towards them, which afterwards, even under British rule, never entirely disappeared from the Colony.

We are apt to revile the Spaniards. Let ns take a glance at their laws^ such as bear upon our subject : perhaps we inajr find something to admire, perhaps ^ven to learn from. Chivabous nation I Though feudal and despotic their government, tliey nevertheless framed their laws studiously to protect the friendless; thus vrere women, children^ vassals^ and slaves^ all attended to^ their yarious cases considered^ and officers provided for their protection.

Among other privileges of the slaves^ they who firom tyranny or other cause became discontented with their masters^ service, were entitled to require a written pass, good for three days, wherein to seek another owner ; they were also entitled by law to demand and obtain manumission on producing the sum of 500 piastres purchase-money; and be it observed, that the murder of a slave, a circumstance mostly unnoticed in other colonies, was here punishable by law, and the perpetrator made liable to a fine of fifty dollars (ifilO) to Government, besides the ftQl payment of his value to the owner.

But here, as elsewhere, that damning clause was in force, which denied to the slave the power of bearing witness against a white man in a court of law; and all this talk of protection would have been but a mockery, had not the religion of the land, which was formed for a system of feudality and acted ever in harmony with it, stepped in to correct the vices of its enactments. The priests, unable, by the nature of their vows, to hold any personal property or tie, and having consequently but little interest in upholding the slaveholder, easily and naturally acquired the privilege of interference, and became, by means of confession, arbitrators-general between master and slave, thus exercising a salutary check on that irresponsible power which in other colonies has so demoralizing an effect upon society.

HISTORY OF TBINIDAD. 16

The observance of at least thirty Saints' days^ besides Sundays^ was also in favour of the slave^ who had a proportionate amount of time to himself; thus^ those Negroes who were in any way inclined to industry might very well contrive to save, — ^a disposition favoured by Chacon, who benevolently appropriated several acres of Crown-land for the sole use and profit of slaves working out their freedom.

But it was not to the slaves alone that Chacon extended his merciful protection : there were yet two more races over which he watched with equal care— the free mixed race, or Mulattoes, and the Indians. Of the former the number was at first very small, but they soon increased in proportion to the rest of the population ; for these unhappy victims of persecution had also been induced by the Royal Schedule to leave their old abodes in quest of a new and happier home, whose Oovemment consented to grant them protection in return for a stipulated portion of their wealth. This indeed was no new thing : arrangements of this sort were commonly practised in all the other French, English, and Spanish Colonies, where, in return for a considerable tribute, they received a very slender and capricious protection ; here, on the contrary, when Chacon made the agreement he kept it, and under his protection they did not so deeply sufler from the disabilities to which, in common with the Negro, they were made subject.

The priests aided Chacon here too. Far from sharing the general prejudice against a tinge of African bloody they professed it a part of their ministry to level all ranks and conditions. They had all the dead buried within the same sacred enclosure^ without excluding (as was the case in other colonies) slaves or Mulattoes ; and permitted in their churches no pews or any kind of private seats^ so that within the precincts of their temples the scene presented was one of perfect equality^ the Negro^ the Mulatto^ and the Indian kneeling fearlessly by the side of the white man^ praying to the same Grod and benefiting equally by the offices of the minister.

Thus discountenanced by the clergy^ caste prejudice lost much of its evil effects^ and the free Mulattoes also shared in the general prosperity of the island.

As for the Indians^ they only numbered a handful at first, having long before been sent to work in the mines, where they pined away in despair. Government however now considered they might be useful in the Colonies, and emissaries were accordingly sent to all parts of the adjoining continent, to bring over as many Indians as they could persuade, till in a few years their number in the island amounted to two thousand. It is true they were still sunk in heathenish superstition, and their habits, manners, virtues, and vices all partook of the savage life they had been accustomed to lead; yet, simple and inoffensive, they seldom intruded on the haunts of the white man.

As soon as they were tolerably settled in their new abodes. Government thought proper to burden them

HISTOBY OF TRINIDAD. 17

with a tax^ which Chacon subsequently commuted to a weekly portion of labour on the high-roads then in progress, and he so contrived to time and soften their labours as to avoid inducing despair among them. They lived in scattered villages along the sea-shore or on the banks of rivers, very often in the most picturesque spot; and as each hamlet was formed. Government placed there a Begidor and a missionary, by whose influence the Indians gradually seemed to progress in civilization, as rapidly as their indolent nature and inherent love of savage life permitted.

The island now presented a mass of population congregated from almost every part of the globe, not even excepting China, whence thirty families came to speculate in tea-planting; and as each day brought fresh importations of adventurers, all differing in habits, ideas, grades, and languages, confrision would soon have wrought its worst, but for the affability and wise behaviour of Chacon. He visited all, took an interest in the affairs of all, brought peace and harmony among the discordant masses, and dealt encouragement to their good endeavours; and it is even related that whenever he found a worthy individual too poor to improve on opportunities, he would generously help him with loans from his private resources.

This was the golden age of Trinidad. Its port became the mart for all merchandise going to and from the continent; wealth flowed in abundance to its coffers; and such, it is said, was the simple integrity of the inhabitants, that heavy bags of gold.

sealed with the merchant's name who issued them^ passed current among all grades of people, and were never either suspected or opened. It was common to see warehouses and shops cleared in an hour by a single purchaser, and a forest of ships from every trading nation of the earth brought life and business to its port.

But this was not to last always: war was proclaimed, the English fleet bombarded the town, and the good Chacon, left without sufficient means of defence, was forced to capitulate ; for this he was ordered to be secured in chains, and sent home to his ungrateftd king ; and many a heart regretted him, and many a tear was shed, and many a child bom years after was taught to bless his name as it rose on the lips.

The terms of capitulation were understood to secure to the inhabitants the continuance of Spanish law, the free exercise of the Catholic religion, and all the privileges granted by the Spanish Schedule, so that the Colonists still hoped that their prosperity would not be disturbed. But with British rule came taxes immediately, each one more burdensome than the last, and various enactments, among which, be it recorded, was one proclaiming that no Colonist should be empowered to purchase Crown-land unless he could show proofs of possessing eight slaves wherewith to cultivate it. Moreover the Crown-land appropriated by Chacon to the private use of the slaves was gradually withd^*awn, and, the laws which protected the Negroes were made, one by one, to give way to other statutes and a different order of things. The English Governors, unfortunately, were not men to soften matters, or to gain by comparison with the lost Chacon; and when to the arbitrary proclamations of the Home Government were added a sensible impoverishing of the inhabitants, a falling-off in commercial relations, and lastly, and most vexatious of all to the Planters, serious threats to emancipate the slaves, it is not to be wondered that disaffection increased, and murmurs were heard in this island more loud and bitter than in any other of the-West Indies. Secret emissaries, it was said, were even sent to Amenca, to offer all^iance to that mighty nation ; and it was indeed with despair in their hearts and hatred on their tongues that the inhabitants met an unsuccessful answer to their hopes ; for the Americans, it was understood, would not consider it worth their while to interfere, unless the whole group of Colonies struck rebellion at once.

But, in the midst of all this ferment and discontent, the spirit of Chacon still prevailed. The Spanish laws, set aside as they were by arbitrary Councils of State and the partiality of the Colonial employes, wore stai respected by the priests ; and the slaves, even thou^li their minds were unsettled, and the ties which bound them to their masters were fast loosening, yet their condition was easy. I refer in this more particularly, and I might almost say exclusively, to the Spaniards; for, to the shame of my

c 2 brother Protestants be it said, they were the only slaveholders I ever saw who enforced the observance of religious service among their slaves and encouraged the rites of marriage. With them the Negro married woman bore a recognized title to respect j she had influence with her master^s family, and privileges on the estates which were never accorded to the unmarried.

The Spaniard is indolent by nature; he has little ambition beyond the enjoyment of the hour, and his love of power is so mixed up with paternal care, that these become one in feeling as in action. What if, in the evening, after Vespers, the Spanish master would call his slaves around him, and make each kneel' down and kiss the rod ; in the same tone would he not meet the morning greetings of his own children, by proudly holding out his hand for them to kiss? To both he dealt continual indulgence and mercy, and if in his fits of anger his actions often bordered on cruelty, stiU, as a matter of feeling, it was understood and submitted to, and the unoffending might still remain happy.

Not so with the money-loving races of Jews, English, and Dutch, and some of the French. Unchecked by their own free laws, unrestrained by the mandates of their own free religion, and swayed only by the ambition of fortune-making, the Negroes were with them worse than beasts of burden ; souls were nothing, bodies were cattle-property; and the cold, hourly, continuous tyranny of these masters, who treated them like the cane-plants subjected to their mill^ was such as to work its own destruction^ even had emancipation never come to the aid of the oppressed. Something of this it is my purpose to show in the course of the following narrative.

Affairs were still in a state of considerable ferment in the year 1832^ when, about midcrop-time, several rich planters and some merchants from Port Spain (capital of the island) were observed suddenly to leave their residences, to flock to a very obscure hamlet on the south-east coast, where the country is wild, little cultivated, and less frequented. Of course each, as he arrived, offered some plausible excuse for his journey, — the curiosity of the villagers demanded it; but whatever was said, it seemed upon the whole to fall very far short of satisfying the gossips of the place, and the subiect was thus discussed by a ^oup of females retuing one evening from Ves^ ' when, after the usual Spanish greeting of the hour, —

'^You know,^^ said one, after listening to all the various surmising, debating, examining, and wondering, " all this can betoken nothing but a visit from the Governor. His Excellency is a quiet Hidalgo, liking to travel without much noise or ftiss.^*

''Ave Maria \" exclaimed another, struck with the grandeur of the event, " don^t say that ; for if the Governor comes here we shaU certainly receive an invitation; and my ninas (daughters) have not a thing to appear in. It was but yesterday I was turning over our stock of flowers, fringes, and feathers : bar game

Dm I they all fell in powder as I touched them, — de- Youred, I tell you, by the whiie ants; and the cockroaches have got to their laces; so what we are to do I don't know."

''Don't talk!'' said a merchant's wife, "I have got some book-muslin down here which I can sell yon, and yon can get Lanrine to trim it. She has the prettiest way in the world of gumming down green leaves and flowers in all manner of patterns upon book-musUn. I recommend her as a workwoman. I assure yon whenever there is a ball in Port Spain she is sent for expressly to help to make the ladies' dresses; and through her taste your daughters will look beautiful."

"Or," observed another, "you can trim the muslin as the lady of our good Governor Chacon once did, — quilt it all over with fireflies within the squares."

" Sty St, I remCTiber my mother talking of that," interrupted the first speaker; "when the Senora sat down to converse the fiireflies fell asleep and their lamps went out, so the dress looked as if spotted all over with black ; but when the Senora but moved, or danced, or shook her dress, it was something to see the thousands of living diamonds which sparkled all over her dress: it was a clever device. Why don't you do the same, caramba ? "

" Because," replied the complaining lady, " this is crop-time, don't you know? and I have no spare hands to catch all the necessary flies."

" WeU then," resumed the other, " I daresay I can lend you something, for my daughter is laid up, — ^she can't appear for many a day. Poor thing ! her complexion is so fair and tender, like a nifia Inglesa. Just think, mira ! she sat at a window overlooking a cottage with a slated^ roof; the sun was shining on this roof, — ^mind, not on the window at which she sat, — and the glare of the roof caught her face, and the skin has actually peeled off like a mask. Ave Maria ! but she is careless, the fair little creature. We brunettes donH suffer so much, you see ; we are not like the &esh European ladies— obliged to shut ourselves up in dark rooms during the noon-tide heat, or to wear masks like some of those Inglesas when they only just put their nose out in the morning.^'

" That reminds me," observed Maria, a young lady with some pretensions to good looks, " I had better put on my gloves: I have let my hands grow so coarse and brown lately that I am ashamed of them, and just because it was too hot to cover them. I think my gloves must be in my bag ;'^ and diving into the profundities of a black silk affair which himg &om her arm, and which also contained her missal and pocket-handkerchief, she withdrew the gloves, and commenced pulling them on. The operation however was quickly cut short. " Santos mios !" she screamed, as she convulsively capered about, and made efforts to pull off her glove, while a very respectable centipede, five inches long, crept from within the warm cavities of the glove, and coolly made its way up her arm.

And now behold the pocket-handkerchiefs, books.

bags^ parasols^ sticks^ all flourishing about in every direction ! and, kindly belabouring the invaded arm, they soon brought down the intruder and put him for ever out of all pain and pleasure of this world. But it had set the company nervous. One fancied she felt a deadly scorpion down her back ; another thought she felt a black spider on her knee, and under her arm she was sure there was something creeping, and without another word off she tore her sleeve and grasped at the offender, which proved this time to be nothing but a string, — a harmless bit of tape left fo hang unused. «

In the course of a few minutes tranquillity was restored, the ladies' nerves grew calm, and the conversation was resumed this time with many a tale of like rencontres : how one gentleman got bitten by a tarantula, and died two hours afterwards ; how a friend's Negro was killed with a bite from a coralsnake ; how a lady went to bed and found it occupied by a brood of boa-constrictors ; and then one of the company laughed, and told how another had gone to mass with the edge of her bonnet presenting one continued fringe of long disgusting black millepedes ; and audible symptoms of merriment were still going the round when a new comer came in sight, and brought back all their wandering thoughts to the point whence they started.

^' Bargame Dios!^^ they one and all exclaimed, ^^ there's Mr. Hinde ; who would have thought to see him here ? It must be that the Governor is coming.''

" Do you know Madame Hinde?^' inquired Dofia Juana : ^^ she is a fine woman^ with such an excellent heart I Have you heard how she went to the sick stranger who was lelEt ashore^ they say, in the town of Port Spain, dying in a miserable room? WeD, she took him to her house, had a doctor and a nurse, and tended him herself till he recovered : there's a good heart for you ! And has she not a spirit too ? Does she not manage her Negroes? Caramba! they are not impudent, I warrant you, in spite of all those horrid Orders in Council ; I tell you they jump and waltz about if she but holds up her little finger. Now there is her man-cook Achilles. Ahiy Senoras ! the last time I was in Port Spain I saw her flogging that man herself with a cowskin in the open yard : there's for you V

''That must be some time ago," said the young Maria, " for town servants may not be flogged now, since that Order in Council."

'' Sencillal" exclaimed Doiia Juana, looking pitifiiUy at her companion, ''do you think Madame Hinde is to be baulked by Ministers or their servants ? Not she ! That man Achilles had the impudence to go out gossiping in the middle of cooking the dinner : that's what those Orders in Council bring, teaching the Negroes to rebel. Well, Senoras, Madame Hinde saw what was going on, and she waited. She expected seven guests that day, to whom she sent an apology, and a request for postponement of their visit ; meantime the dinner-hour came, the bell was rung, and

Achilles sends up the dishes raw^ Senorias. So Madame Hinde calls up Achilles^ — ^he had just eaten his own dinner, — and there she seats him and makes him eat up the whole dinner 'for seven, every bit, ra^f and burnt. In vain Achilles begged and prayed : there she was at his elbow, and he knew that if he but showed sign of resistance he would be sent off that instant to the estate, where of course his mistress could do anything she liked with him. Achilles, Senoras, was laid up ill for a week afterwards, and they were obliged to have a doctor to him; but I promise you it was a lesson : he wonH foi^et that he is not to mind English Orders in Council more than his mistress/^

"Bravo !" cried the company, "I like that. How different she is to her sister Angelique, Madame St. Hilaire Cardon ! she is a fool, and a martyr to her servants.^'

" Ah, don't talk ! I tell you she is broken-hearted since the death of her son."

" Poor thing ! poor thing !" cried the commiserating ladies, "it is all the English people's doings, God help us ! I hear all the Colonists say it is the way with them wherever they plant their sway. It is well for us we have such a man as St. Hilaire Cardon himself; he is here, by the bye, — I saw him this ' morning."

" Indeed !" cried Maria, delighted, " then of course it is the Governor that is coming."

" SenciUa, que locura es esto .'" snapped Dona Juana^

" donH you know thfey don't speak ? DonH yon know the Governor is afraid of him^ — ^tbat St. Hilaire is his sworn enemy, — that he writes in the newspapers against him and the Government? In shorty he is the lash that keeps them all in order, those tyrants — demonios; and he is the bravest, the cleverest, the richest, and most respected man in the Colony. You should see him as I have seen him when traveUing on the high road: off goes every man's hat as he passes, his Lordship the Bishop's as well as the meanest Mulatto's. They could not do more to the Governor, and the Governor himself is afraid of him I"

Maria replied tartly that she had seen that doughty hero with an Englishman that morning, and she, for her part, did not like either Frenchmen or Englishmen : the Frenchmen were traidores todos, and the Englishmen were borrachones todos.

''Who says Englishmen are borrachones todos?'' said a gruff voice behind them.

The suddenness of the question caused the ladies to start ; some of them called out '' Ave Maria !" then crossed their hands upon their bosoms and gasped ; others elevated their voices to an angry pitch, and frowningly cried out, " Who is that ?" but in another second they had all gathered round the speaker, with questions innumerable.

" Don Duro 1" " Don Duro Harding !" '' You too?" "Why all the world is coming here nowadays !" *' What is the matter ? what is going to be done in our little village?" "Is there a gold-mine discovered? and who discovered it^ and whose is it?^' ^' Or is the Governor coming ? When will he come ? Will he be here today? Will he stay long? Will he give a dance?"