into their cottage, and inquire whether they are there treated and respected as married people. Every man expects to be master of his own house, and to have the authority of a father over his children they are his offspring, and it is clearly his duty to bring them up with a view to usefulness and happiness, when they shall come to act for themselves. Now, in order to this, he must have a fair chance in society: no one must assume and exercise absolute authority over his family. But what is the lot of the slave in this respect? Has he the authority of a parent over his children, or the means of making his cottage the scene of domestic love and happiness? His wife, in the first place, is forced from his roof by day-light in the morning, to labour in a promiscuous gang of men and women, under the command of a driver, till dark at night. She has no choice, she cannot obey the wishes of her husband; her body, strength, and time, are the property of another, whom she is compelled, at her peril, to obey. The concerns of her family must be, to her, matters of very inferior moment, compared with the work of her owner. He insists on all the prime of her strength being devoted to his business; it is only after the toils, the indecencies, the insults and miseries of a day spent in the gang, that she can think of doing any thing to promote the comfort of her household. The husband is obliged to submit to the same cruel fate, together with the children, if they are at all able to carry a hoe. Domestic enjoyment is, therefore, I must maintain, totally impossible. Let any married couple imagine themselves placed in similar circumstances, and they will soon see that every prospect of household comfort will vanish away. Surely the idea of uniting people in the silken cords of marriage, who may be sold by auction, any day of their lives, and who are driven to work for another, like cattle in a team, is both absurd and cruel. The law places them in the condition of mere animals, and as such it treats them. When they are spoken of as Negro stock, a correct idea is conveyed to the mind. They have just about as much authority over their children as a cow has over her calf. They may feed them and train them up for the use of the estate; and if they should succeed in getting one of them made a driver, they may think themselves fortunate indeed, for in that case he will be advanced to the highest pitch of honour to which a slave can aspire.

It is, no doubt, very easy to go through the marriage ceremony with the slaves; but what is the use of a mere form? Remove the auctioneer, the driver, and the master, from the doors of the Negroes, and I will admit that they may marry: till then, Mr. Bridges may keep adding to his list without conferring any benefit, worth mentioning, either on the poor creatures or society. -Even White people, on estates, find it a most difficult thing to marry. The majority of the Planters would refuse to em

ploy them if they were encumbered with a wife and family *. I do not remember that a single married man lived on any of the estates in that part of the island where I resided. Indeed, the scenes which usually take place on estates are such as must be peculiarly shocking to the female mind, unless it has been inured, by previous custom, to all the vices and atrocities of the slave-system. I have very often heard overseers complain that they have not the chance of other men; they are driven from all good female society; and, as soon as they enter the planting business, feel themselves under the necessity of giving up the idea of ever entering into the conjugal state. And they are certainly to be pitied; though the system which renders this necessary, ought, in proportion, to be abhorred.'

XIV.-page 132.

Edwards, ii. 152. See also Ramsay's 'Address to the Inhabitants of St. Christopher's (1775), shewing the Claim of Dependants to the Privilege of the Sabbath.' (132). In the prayer before sermon Mr. Ramsay had inserted a petition for the conversion of slaves. It was deemed so disagreeable a memento, that several White people left off attending Divine worship. He was obliged to omit this prayer, to try and bring them back! (180). There is a law in Jamaica, imposing a fine on proprietors or overseers for compelling the Negroes to do certain kinds of labour on the Sabbath; but it is notorious that this law is altogether a dead letter; and that, with respect to their grounds, the Negroes not only go of their own accord to work there, as not having sufficient time allowed them otherwise; but, if they are found inattentive, it is a custom to send one of the

'The professional planter, indeed, whether overseer or book-keeper, is in a manner forced, however contrary to his inclinations, to a life of celibacy, unless he is fortunate enough to realize an independency, and at the same time preserve himself from being entangled in less reputable connexions; for, while still dependent, he would, by preferring the more honourable conjugal state, run the risk of bringing difficulty and want on his wife and children; few attorneys being disposed to employ a man with such an incumbrance. A Brown woman, with three or four children, would be no material objection; but a wife, with or without a family, is an insuperable one. There may be, a few, but only a few, who think and act otherwise.'-Stewart, 190, 191.

book-keepers on that holy day to see that all the slaves are at work, and to watch them a certain time, that there may not be a want of food.-For putting the mill about (viz. for making sugar) on a Sunday, there is a fine of 100. one half of which, believe, goes to the informer: but though this is done in defiance of law in almost every, if not every parish in the island, I never heard of an information being laid for that offence; as those planters who do not put their mills about wink at it in others; and no clergyman or other person would venture, I think, to inform, as he would be sure to meet with insult, or some worse injury, for his conscientious interference.-A short time before I left Jamaica, I was in St. Thomas in the East, the most religious parish in the island (Kingston perhaps excepted); and on one of the Sundays I was there, several overseers put their mills about in the afternoon, and the whole or greater part of the gangs were busy at work: but where the mills are not put about, they work so late on most estates on Saturday nights, that the Negroes, and even the Whites, belonging to the boiling-house department, are employed all the forenoon of the Sabbath, potting sugars, &c.; so that they are prevented from going to church.-1 will record one instance of this, as coming more particularly within my own knowledge: it was on a large estate in the parish of St. David, belonging to a gentleman who wishes (as I have been informed) to afford his people every facility that they may attend to religious duties, and encourages them to go to church as often as possible. I had been staying a week with the rector of the parish, and on my return to Kingston, on a Monday morning, called with a friend at Albion, the estate alluded to: it was about breakfast time, and the head book-keeper invited us to breakfast. We remarked to rather a fine young Irishman, who had been only a few months in the country, that we had not seen him or any of the others at church yesterday he replied, that he used to attend regularly in his own country, but having been generally engaged of a Sunday morning, since he came upon that property, he had not been able to attend church; and that yesterday, in particular, he was in the boiling-house till twelve o'clock, superintending the Negroes whilst they were potting sugars, as the mill had been kept about late on Saturday night. The young man seemed to have a sense of religion, and spoke with regret of his inability to attend a place of worship. On this estate there were six or seven White men, and four or five hundred Negroes, scarcely any of whom attended the parish church, which was only about three miles distant, and the rector of which parish was most anxious to instruct those who would attend.

:

The goodness of the Almighty in ordaining every seventh day a day of rest from labour, was of the greatest consequence to man, even in a temporal point of view, as most of the human race

are labourers; for, by ceasing from work on that day, man is cheered and invigorated, and goes to his labour or business the following morning with a willing mind, and his sinews full of strength. That Omniscient eye which looks into futurity, foresaw that, when men multiplied upon the earth, the powerful would oppress the weak, and that the rich would require perpetual labour from the poor; that this fatigue of the body would weigh down the soul, and destroy, or very much diminish, the powers of the mind: he therefore commanded the Sabbath to be kept holy.-By the Israelites the seventh day was very strictly kept, and the sabbath-breaker was commanded to be stoned to death. The Ten Commandments have lost none of their force under the Christian dispensation; and the Sabbath has been kept by most Christians, in all ages of the church of Christ; yet in the West-Indian colonies, planted by Christian nations, and particularly in Jamaica, the largest colony of highly favoured Britain, the Sabbath is worse kept than by Turks themselves. It is not enough that most of the slaves must work in their grounds a part of that holy day; but, to add to the abomination, a market must be kept also on the Sunday, for the sale of provisions, vegetables, fruit, &c. It is the only market-day which the slaves have; and, instead of worshipping their God, they are either cultivating their portions of land to preserve life, or trudging like mules with heavy loads, five, ten, or even twenty miles to a market, to sell the little surplus of their provision grounds, or to barter it for a little salt fish to season their poor meals; or, what is much worse, to spend, very often, the value in new destructive rum, which intoxicates them, and drowns, for a short time, the reflection that they are slaves.-I shall never forget the horror and disgust which I felt on going on shore, for the first time, in Kingston, in the month of August 1819: it was on a Sunday, and I had to pass by the Negro market, where several thousands of human beings, of various nations and colours, but principally Negroes, were busily employed in all kinds of traffic in the open streets. Here were Jews with shops and standings as at a fair, selling old and new clothes, trinkets, and small wares, at cent. per cent. to adorn the Negro person; there were low Frenchmen and Spaniards, and people of Colour, in petty shops and with stalls; some selling their bad rum, gin, tobacco, &c.; others, salt provisions, and small articles of dress; and many of them bartering with the slave, or purchasing his surplus provisions to retail again;-poor free people and servants also, from all parts of the city, to purchase vegetables, &c. for the following week. The different noises and barbarous tongues recalled the confusion of Babel; but the drunkenness of some, with the imprecations and obscenities of others, put one in mind rather of a pandemonium, or residence of devils.' (Bickell, 64-7, 71,2.)

XV.-page 134.

These should rather be called the triumphs of cruelty and despotism!-In another part of his work Edwards describes a prospect very different from scenes of enchantment; namelyand I cite his very words- the contemplation of human nature in its most debased and abject state; the sad prospect of 450,000-since much increased-reasonable beings (in the English islands only) in a state of barbarity and slavery; of whom-I will not say the major part, but-great numbers assuredly, have been torn from their native country and dearest connections, by means which no good mind can reflect upon but with sentiments of disgust, commiseration, and sorrow!' (ii. 34.)-Elsewhere he writes: Slavery degrades and corrupts the mind in a deplorable manner.' - So degrading is the nature of slavery, that fortitude of mind is lost as free agency is restrained. To the same cause probably must be imputed the slave's propensity to conceal or violate the truth. Cowardice and dissimulation have been the properties of slavery in all ages. It is a situation that necessarily suppresses many of the best affections of the human heart.-If it call forth any latent virtues, they are those of sympathy and compassion towards persons in the same condition of life and accordingly we find that the Negroes in general are strongly attached to their countrymen; but, above all, to such as come in the same ship with them from Africa. This is a striking circumstance: the term shipmate is understood among them as signifying a relationship of the most endearing nature; perhaps as recalling the time when the sufferers were cut off together from their common country and kindred, and awakening reciprocal sympathy, from the remembrance of mutual affliction.' (ii. 62-78.)

Such are the direct acknowledgments, on the part of the most eminent apologist of the colonial system, of its necessary effects! -See also Stewart, 169-173, 181, &c. &c.

XVI.-page 138.

Jobbers,' says Mr. Cooper, 'very frequently consist of slaves belonging to different masters, or mistresses: one has a dozen, another seven or eight, and another less; but they are all united under one superintendant, and so form a regular gang. This superintendant is generally the person to whom the greater number belongs, and he has a commission on the labour of the rest, for his trouble in overlooking them. His driver usually