186 INJUSTICE OF THE PLANTERS. pended on them previously, and which had been obtained at a high price from the apprentice in his own time to the neglect of his own provision-grounds, were not in immediate need of labourers; and thus, to the astonishment of the newly-made freemen, their offers of service were in some cases rejected, and they themselves treated with indifference or hauteur. It soon became evident that a general determination had been formed to take advantage of the feelings and dispositions thus displayed, and render them available to an uncontrollable lust of avarice and power. In a word, freedom was sought to be made more abundantly compensative than slavery; and now was the time to make the attempt. For this purpose the most oppressive and impolitic expedients were adopted. In many cases the domestic stock of the peasantry, their provision-grounds, and even their houses, were destroyed. In others, and which was general, demands were made for rent of houses and grounds from every inmate of a family, and to an extent which more than equalled in a given time the amount of wages received by them conjointly exactions which would have produced a larger revenue to the proprietor than the agricultural products of his estate. These and similar acts of oppression were justly but temperately resisted. Bickerings and heartburnings were the result. The planters persisted in their design; and at length multitudes of the labourers were compelled to sacrifice their feelings of attachment to their domiciles, and to establish themselves in their own freeholds. HENCE, and from no other cause, arose those reports of insolence and idle ness which were so widely and perseveringly circulated against the peasantry. It is delightful to add that the injustice and impolicy of such conduct have now become generally manifest; so that the causes of mutual dissatisfaction are now to a considerable degree extinct. There are, however, some laws, as already noticed, which press unfairly on the great mass of the people; but it is hoped that, from motives of good policy as well as from good feeling, they will be speedily annulled. In other respects, equal right and liberty are enjoyed; and, with these privileges, peace, prosperity, and happiness. "Great was the boon, my country, when you gave 188 CHARACTER OF THE BLACKS. CHAPTER XII. INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER OF THE BLACK PEOPLE UNDER SLAVERY. Ignorance of Arts and Sciences-Of Reading, Arithmetic, Mechanical Arts, Civil Polity-Alleged Deficiency of Mental Capacity-Establishment and Operation of Schools-The Negro under Cultivation and Freedom-Notions of his Natural Inferiority disproved-Proposal for the establishment of a College-The great importance and advantages of such an Institution-Decline of Schools-Appeal for these objects to the British Public. THE best informed among the slaves imported into Jamaica were the Mandingoes, and those of neighbouring nations from the banks of the Senegal. Some of these, especially the chiefs and princes of the tribes, displayed some acquaintance with Arabic, but their knowledge of the language generally was very superficial. Very few had any idea of the art of computation by figures, nor did the great bulk of them display any acquaintance with the simplest form of lettered knowledge. According to a tradition current among them, they were under an impression that they were prohibited the knowledge of letters by a decree of the Almighty— a tradition which it is probable originated with their oppressors for purposes by no means difficult to imagine. They believed that at the creation of the world there were both a white and a black progenitor, and that the black was originally the favourite. To try their dispositions, the Almighty let down two boxes from THEIR MUSIC AND POETRY. 189 Heaven, of unequal dimensions, of which the black man had the preference of choice. Influenced by his propensity to greediness, he chose the largest, and the smaller one consequently fell to the share of the white. "Buckra box," the black people are represented as saying, "was full up wid pen, paper, and whip, and negers, wid hoe and bill, and hoe and bill for neger to dis day." Previous to the year 1823 there were not more than one or two schools in the whole island expressly for the instruction of the black population. Hence they were generally ignorant of the art of reading; while their improvement was universally opposed by the planters as inimical to the future peace and prosperity of the island. It is generally admitted that they were not deficient in taste or ability for music, but their songs, which were usually impromptu, were destitute of poetry or poetic images. On estates, or in particular districts, there were usually found one or more males or females, who, resembling the improvisatori or extempore bards of Italy and ancient Britain, composed lines and sung them on their festive occasions. These ballads had usually a ludicrous reference to the white people, and were generally suggested by some recent occurrence:* *"Sangaree kill de captain, O dear, he must die; New rum kill de sailor, O dear, he must die; * The 190 THEIR DEFECTIVE MEMORY. They were alike ignorant of any method for computing the periods of time. The only means by which any of them ascertained, with any degree of certainty, the date of particular events, was by a kind of artificial memory, such as a recurrence to remarkable seasons of the year, to earthquakes, and hurricanes. Some of them calculated by the revolutions of the moon, their Christmas carnivals, or the arrivals and departures of Governors. Hence but few could fix any event nearer than twelve months from the period of its occurrence; and scarcely any of them were acquainted with their own age, the age of their children, or that of their domestic animals. With the exception of the Aradas, and one or two other tribes from the Gold Coast, they were almost wholly unacquainted with the mechanical arts and manufactures, while of civil polity or the use of civil institutions they were equally ignorant. Instances, indeed, were common in which interruptions of social peace and petty misdemeanors arising among themselves were decided by the head men on the property, or in the neighbourhood where they occurred; but their decisions were for the most part arbitrary, selfish, and vindictive, being usually given either under the influence of bribery, favour, or intemperance. For this latter purpose, intoxicating drinks were frequently The following is frequently sung in the streets :- "One, two, tree, All de same; All de same, All de same. One, two, tree," &c. |