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SCHOOLS OF JAMAICA.

ary state for, perhaps, upwards of two thousand years, and has enabled the rude and painted Britons to become the first people in the world, the most renowned for arts and for arms, for the best virtues of the heart, and the best faculties of the understanding? Not a difference in the colour of the skin; but, first, the peculiar favour of the Almighty; next, a political constitution which was sighed for, and in some degree prefigured, by Plato and Tully, but regarded as a masterpiece beyond the power of human accomplishment; and, lastly, a fond and fostering cultivation of science in every ramification and department."*

Numerous as are the common schools in Jamaica, and efficient as they have been in accomplishing the objects for which they have been established, it cannot be forgotten that a vast amount of ignorance yet remains. It is estimated that full one-half of the population are yet without the means of instruction: a reflection which becomes the more painful from the circumstance that, during the last two years, school operations, instead of increasing, have greatly diminished throughout the island from want of funds.†

* Jamaica Almanac.

The subjoined official document, while it will sustain the representation here made of the late decrease in the number of schools, will, at the same time, show the progressive advancement of education, and its occasional interruptions, from the year 1800 nearly to the present time :

"In 1800, the children taught in all the schools in Kingston, including Woolmer's, which was then the only public school, amounted to 315. They increased gradually, but slowly, till 1831, when the numbers were 4088. In 1832 they decreased to 3738. In 1836 they amounted to 7707; in 1837 to 8753; and in 1842 the numbers decreased, as already stated, to 6525."-Morning Journal, Feb. 9, 1843.

APPEAL IN BEHALF OF EDUCATION.

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The greatest calamity at this crisis of the history of Freedom, next to that of the diminution of the public means and ordinances of religion, would be the decrease of school instruction; and the present chapter cannot be concluded without presenting an earnest appeal to the Christian public to continue and increase their efforts, both for the support and extension of these institutions, until, freed from the difficulties attendant on the establishment of new settlements, added to a better appreciation of the advantages of education, parents will be able and willing to support them, independently of foreign aid.

216

NEGRO VILLAGES.

CHAPTER XIII.

SOCIAL CONDITION.

Negro Villages in Time of Slavery-Houses-Dress of Slaves-Personal and Domestic Habits-Licentiousness-Polygamy—Marriage— Treatment of Females-Indolence-Improvement in all these Respects-Opening of a new Township under Freedom-Number of new Settlements established-Growing Comfort and Prosperity of the Country-Evidences of these results.

THE negro villages were, in general, situated amongst groves of fruit-trees, presenting to the eye at a distance, especially in the full blaze of the sun, an appearance very far from forbidding; but on a nearer approach they were unsightly, and, owing to the offensive effluvia arising from quantities of decayed vegetable matter, far from healthy. The houses were thrown together without any pretence to order or arrangement; and, with a few exceptions, were wretched habitations. They consisted of posts put into the ground at the distance of about two feet asunder; the intermediate space being closed up with wattle, daubed over on the inside with mud. In some instances they were divided into two or three apartments, but thousands consisted of one room only. This served the whole of the family for all domestic uses. At night all huddled promiscuously round a fire kindled in its centre; and with scarcely any other covering than

DRESS OF THE NEGROES.

217

their scanty and well-worn daily apparel, they sought the refreshment and repose necessary for a renewal of their daily toil. A few wooden bowls or calabashes, a water-jar, a wooden mortar for pounding their Indian corn, and an iron pot for boiling the farrago of vegetable ingredients which composed their daily meal, comprised almost all their furniture. The beds used by the more decent and civilized were wooden frames, with a mat of rough material, raised about a foot from the earthen floor, and their covering a blanket. A few cottages might exhibit a somewhat nearer approach to the customs of civilized society; but these were exceptions to the general rule. Each house was surrounded by a piece of garden-ground, and the village, in general, was intersected by narrow, straggling, and dirty lanes.

The dress of the males consisted principally of a coarse cap or hat, and a pair of Osnaburgh trousers, or a shirt of the same material; that of the females of a handkerchief tied in a turban-like manner round the head, an Osnaburgh under-garment, and a coarse blue baize petticoat. Shoes or stockings constituted no part of their apparel, except on very particular occasions.

So little did they respect the decencies of life, and so little were these observed towards them by their superiors, that boys and girls of seven or eight years of age were accustomed to work together, or to roam at large, entirely destitute of covering. In this state it was not uncommon for them to be employed as domestic servants. Nor was it unusual for both sexes at thirteen years of age, and in stature almost men and

L

women, to wait at table, at parties composed of white ladies and gentlemen, with no other covering than a long shirt, or a loose habit of a similar description.

Multitudes were exceedingly filthy in their persons. Some were particular in their diet, and scrupulously clean in the process of its preparation; but with others cane-rats, cats, putrid fish, and even reptiles and animals in a state of decomposition, were their common food.*

The sanctities of marriage were almost unknown; there was no such thing, indeed, as legitimate marriage among the slaves. This sacred institute was ridiculed by the negroes, and regarded as inimical to their happiness. Under such circumstances the state of society can be easily conceived. Licentiousness the most degraded and unrestrained was the order of the day. Every estate on the island-every negro hut was a common brothel every female a prostitute, and every man a libertine. Many aged individuals have frequently assured the writer that among the female slaves there were none who had not sacrificed all pretensions to virtue before they had attained their fourteenth year; whilst hundreds were known to have become mothers before they had even entered upon their teens. Polygamy was also common. So far as an agreement between themselves was concerned, they may be said to have formed a matrimonial alliance; but their affection was liable to frequent interruptions, and divorces were consequently of common occurrence; whilst the manner in which the ceremony attending the

Rats were a common article of commerce in the public markets.