this I might reply, that, even if it were so, our duty must not be sacrificed to our inclination. But it is not so; for, as we have already shewn, our duty and our happiness are joined together; the way to heaven is the only way of true satisfaction upon earth, and godliness alone has the promise of this life as well as of the life to come. Let us then strive to maintain consistency of character; let us not disgrace our profession, and mar our hopes, and deprive ourselves of our joys, and ruin our souls, by a doubtful and unsteady course. If Christianity have any truth or value, if it be not a vague name and delusion, to live according to its requirements is at once our obligation and our privilege; and in neglecting to do so we act ungratefully, hypocritically, and sinfully, to the dishonour of the Christian name, and our own eternal destruction. But it may be further asked, What means are we to make use of to assist us in maintaining a course of life agreeable to our Christian calling. I would trust, that, by the blessing of God, the considerations which have been urged have so far produced their effect, that we are not only convinced of the duty, but are desirous of putting in practice the exhortation of the Apostle, who so affectionately and earnestly beseeches us in his bonds to walk worthy of our high vocation. Let us then remember, in the first place, whom it is we serve; for our calling is of God: we need his constant grace, and the sanctifying influences of his Holy Spirit, to preserve us in the right path; and these we must seek for by humble and earnest prayer. With our prayers also we must unite our wishes and endeavours; we must watch and strive; we must deny ourselves, and take up our cross, and follow the footsteps of our Redeemer. Thus sincerely and zealously pressing forward, we shall not fail, by the mercy of God in Christ, to attain the prize of our high calling; and, having lived to his glory upon earth, we shall be received with joy to his heavenly inheritance beyond the reach of doubt, or sin, or imperfection. MISCELLANEOUS. NEGRO SLAVERY.-No. XI. FROM THE ROYAL JAMAICA that it should be done away; and happily there are, in my opinion at satisfaction of all but those who least, means of effecting this to the are determined not to be convinced. These means will be found in documents, the authority of which no one will question. I allude to the I KNOW of no argument more un- official contents of the Royal Gafounded, and which has yet been zette of Jamaica. Many other sorts more mischievous to the cause of of testimony might be objected to humanity, than that "the slaves in as fallacious. It might be said, for the British colonies are better off instance, "Your evidence is of too than the labourers in Great Bri- old a date, because things are altain itself." Some thousands have tered now;"-or, "Your evidence been imposed upon by this argu- is only of the hearsay kind;"-or, ment; and the delusion, I believe," The persons you quote were not still continues to a considerable ex- long enough in the colonies to untent. It is time then, if it be false, derstand the system of slavery;"— or," They went thither with prejudiced minds, and are therefore prejudiced witnesses." But if we go to the Jamaica Gazette, and particularly of so late a date as June 1823, for evidence, we avoid all that our opponents might call dubious, and admit only what they must admit themselves. Each Gazette contains occurrences in the island during the preceding week. It advertises, among other things, the sales of slaves. It advertises also such of the runaway slaves as have been apprehended and sent to the public jail. It mentions the prison, or work-house as it is called, where they are confined. It describes their names and persons, with other particulars, that their owners may have an opportunity of claiming them. This account and description are required every week by law, and the jailor is obliged to give them upon oath. Now I have in my possession the Jamaica Royal Gazette for the week, from Saturday June the 14th, to Saturday June the 21st, 1823, which I obtained by accident; and it is from this that I mean to try to refute the argument before mentioned. It strikes me that I shall want no other assistance than this document to realize my design. The first advertisement, which I shall notice in this Gazette, is this: "Kingston, June 14th, 1823. For Sale Darliston-Penn, in Westmoreland (parish), with 112 prime Negross, and 448 head of stock." The second is one, where Slaves are to be sold to pay their masters' debts. It begins thus:-" Deputy Marshal's Office, Kingston, Jamaica, June the 7th, 1823." It then describes three slaves, belonging to three different owners, whom it announces separately for sale. It then describes a fourth lot, belonging to one owner, among whom are, "Lucy, a drudge; William, son of Lucy, a waiting boy, supposed age nine years; Joseph, another son, supposed age seven years; Susannah, Lucy's daughter, a waiting girl, supposed age five years; and Cuffey, another son of Lucy, supposed age two years." It then goes on to advertise a farther sale, consisting of twenty-three men, and concludes thus: "Take notice, that I shall put up to public sale, at Harty's Tavern, on Monday the 23d day of June instant, between the hours of ten and twelve o'clock in the and a Cart, levied upon under and by virforenoon, the above-mentioned Negroes, tue of the foregoing writs of Venditioni Exponas. ANTHONY DAVIS, D. M." I stop now to make a few remarks upon these two advertisements. First, it appears that the slaves in the British colonies can be sold. Can any man, woman, or child, be sold in Britain? It appears, secondly, that these slaves are considered in no other light than as cattle, or as inanimate property. The first advertised were to be sold with so many head of stock, and the others with a cart. Now, do we think or speak of our British labourers or servants in the same way? Do we not consider them, on the other hand, as of the same nature as ourselves? And do we not generally entertain a tender feeling towards them, and sympathize with them in occurrences of affliction and distress? It appears, thirdly, that those slaves are sold for their master's debts. Can British labourers or servants be sold for the same cause, or on account of the imprudence or wickedness of their employers? It appears, fourthly, that those slaves who are sold for their masters' debts must often be sold separately from those with whom nature has joined them together by a consanguinity the most endearing, and by ties which are held the most sacred. In sales such as that in the first advertisement, where the estate and the slaves were to be sold together, the latter might suffer no other inconvenience than that of changing masters. But in sales which are compulsory, like those in the second advertisement; that is, where writs are executed by the De puty Marshal for debt; scenes most revolting to humanity must often take place. Lucy and her children might, it is true, be sold together. But she may have had other children not included in the same levy; or she may have had a husband, and her children a father, from whom they may now be for ever separated. And the twenty-six men; where are their wives and children, and other connexions? Here then we see the tenderest ties of nature forcibly broken asunder; and we may imagine, if we can, the distress of mind, and the sighs and tears, which accompany their final separation. Can such afflicting scenes occur among the peasantry of Britain? Who can interrupt their domestic enjoyments with impunity? It is not in the power of the king himself to separate the husband from the wife, the mother from the child, or the parents from their children. I come now to another part of the Gazette in question, which enables me to throw new light upon the argument, that "the slaves in the British colonies are better off than the peasantry of Great Britain itself." I find in this Gazette, that more than one hundred slaves are advertised as having run away from their masters, and as then detained in the gaols or workhouses of the different parishes where they were taken up!!! What a fact is this!!! More than a hundred runaways appear in one Gazette to have been taken up and committed to jail!!! ! But may I ask, runaways from what? Why, according to the accounts of our opponents, they must have been runaways from comfort runaways from happiness. Was ever such a desertion heard of before from such a cause? We have heard of persons quitting their situations, because they were uneasy in them, but never because they were 'com fortable. This is only natural. It is implanted in our nature to seek and to cleave to whatever may be agreeable, to us, but to avoid what even may give us uneasiness or pain CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 272. We may be assured then that the slaves in question ran away, not because they were happy, but because they were miserable. They must have known before hand, how difficult it would be to escape for any length of time, and that, if found again, they would be lodged in a jail, and returned from thence into the hands of their irritated masters, to be whipped, to be put into the stocks, and otherwise barbarously used, if not to be made to work perhaps a part of the rest of their lives in chains; and yet, notwithstanding all this, they ran away. What then does this prove, but that they chose rather to run the risk of the most cruel punishment, or råther of torture, at a future time, than bear their present condition? But is it true of British labourers, workmen, or servants, that they run away from their employers? I have heard of worthless individuals forsaking their home, and leaving their wife and family chargeable to a parish: I have heard of mechanics leaving their masters, to go to the metropolis, or elsewhere, for more lucrative employment: I have heard of farming servants leaving their masters in one parish, to work, for higher wages, in another; but I never heard of men leaving their masters clandestinely, on account of evils which were considered to be insupportable. Such cases, thank God, do not occur in Great Britain. It appears, then, by the Royal Jamaica Gazette, that there were, among the slaves in that colony, more than one hundred runaways from comfort in the jails and workhouses of the island, between the 14th and the 21st of June, 1823, which was probably a very small proportion of those who had absconded, being indeed only a few of those who had been caught. I say, only a few of those who had been caught; for al most every estate has its own hunter, who is sent out armed from time to time, to track and bring home his runaway fellow-slaves. Of these no account ever appeat's in the Gazette. 3 R Let us now see if we can collect any thing more from the same authority, which may enable us to judge farther as to the truth of the argument, that "the slaves in the British colonies are better off than the labourers of Great Britain itself." We are struck, on examining the advertisements in this Gazette, with the description given of many of these runaway slaves. Numbers of them appear to have been branded with the initials of their owners' names, and other marks, on the naked flesh, with a heated iron, in the same manner as young horses or cattle are branded, when they are turned into our forests. The operation, however, is probably much less painful when performed upon a brute, than when performed on one of the human species. Some of the brand-marks upon these slaves, consisting, as they often do, of several letters, must have tortured no inconsiderable portion of flesh. Thus Mary, a Creole woman, is described in this Gazette as being 5 feet and an inch high, and as marked on the shoulders W.H. and I.P. sideways, with the shape of a diamond between the I and P; and Smart, a Creole man, as being 5 feet 5 inches, and marked apparently WMC on left, and apparently HB in one on the right shoulder. Billy, a Creole, is described to be 5 feet 34 inches, and to be branded AH on the breasts, and apparently the same mark, with DIO, or DIC, on the shoulders. Tom, again, a Nago (African), is said to be 5 feet 2 inches high, and marked apparently RG on the shoulders, and PYBD on the right, and apparently LB on the left, breast. Thus we see in this last instance one individual branded with no less than ten capital letters. And here let me shew the falsehood of an assertion • This operation upon brutes has been almost every where dispensed with in the present age, and the brand is now very seldom applied except to the horns or hoofs of cattle: both these parts, it is well known, are insensible on the outside. circulated widely by our opponents, that none but Africans, or wild men from the woods, were branded by their owners; for out of the four persons just shewn to have been so cruelly marked, it appears, from the description given of them in this Gazette, that three of them were Creoles; that is, born in the colonies. The truth is, that many of the slaves are branded, whether they are Africans, or whether they are Creoles; and this operation is entirely at the will or discretion of their masters. But can any farmer perform such an operation upon his labourers, or any master upon his servants, in Britain? Woe be to him if he were to attempt it! Nor let this branding be thought of little consequence; for (independently of the pain) whatever degrades a man takes from him a portion of his comfort. Would a British peasant walk about with the same air of independence, or be as comfortable as he appears to be, if he were to carry about with him, wherever he went, a mark which would shew, that, while he bore the external image of a man, he was classed with the beasts of the earth. The very act of branding too is a proof, given by the planters themselves, that their slaves are not as happy as those with whom they compare them; for if you ask them the reason of such a practice, they will tell you at once, that they brand them that they may know them again, in case they should run away-Yes, in case they should run away! What condemning words are these! Surely liability, or a desire, to run away, does not shew any great satisfaction with the situation in which the slaves are said to be so comfortably placed. We are struck, secondly, in looking further into these advertisements, at some of the apparatus of slavery which some of these runaways from comfort are described to have been made to wear. One of the advertisements runs thus: "Escaped from the place where they were at work, two Negro men-slaves, chained together; John, a Mungola (African), 5 feet 6 inches high, marked apparently MORGAN,with another letter, not plain, before it (observe here seven capital letters), on the right shoulder; and James Henry, a Chamba (African), marked S on the left shoulder," &c. Here, then, are two slaves, who, when they absconded, were chained together. It is obvious from the advertisement, that they had been made to do the plantation work in chains, and that in this situation they had run away. 66 But, besides the comfort of wearing chains, we find others advertised as enjoying the privilege of wearing an iron collar. James, a Congo (African), is described thus: "5 feet 5 inches, marked AMC on right shoulder, with other letters, not plain, on both shoulders, and had an iron collar on when received." Again; the Creole Negro, Smart, whom we have before shewn to have been branded with five capital letters, is advertised as having had (besides these marks) a rivetted iron collar on." These collars are well known in these regions of superior happiness. They are fastened round the neck by a rivet. No slave who wears them can take them off himself, however painful they may be by excoriating the flesh. This is the business of a blacksmith. The collar is employed for the purpose of suspending to them an iron chain, sometimes with a weight attached to it. Formerly three or four projecting iron prongs were fixed to some of the collars, so as to prevent the wearers of them from even lying down to sleep, or from running away into the woods, as it would be difficult for them, on account of the projecting prongs, to pass through the matted branches of the shrubs and trees. But these prongs have been prohibited since the British Parliament have begun to inquire into the state of colonial bondage. We have seen, then, two of these runaways chained together; and we have seen two others with iron collars on their necks, to which chains had probably been suspended. I presume I may say with certainty, that no such spectacle can occur in Britain. Indeed, I know of no farmer or master who has such articles in his possession. I know of no blacksmith who would make them for him. I know of no persons who would assist him in putting them on. Besides, the use of such articles, even if he could command it, would subject him to the penalties of the law. some We are struck, thirdly, when we go farther into these advertisements, with a new species of description; namely, of certain marks and appearances on the backs of some of these runaways from comfort. I have already stated that Billy, a stout young Creole Negro-man had been branded with no less than seven capital letters on his shoulders: but the Gazette gives us farther particulars about him; one of which is, "that he had marks of flogging on his back." We find, again, in the same Gazette, Francis, a Creole, described as being "5 feet 34 inches," and as "having marks of flogging on his back." Again: William, a Mangola, is said to be "5 feet 3 inches high, to be marked WR on one shoulder, and to have marks of flogging on his back." Again; we find Harriet, a Creole girl, thus advertised in the same Gazette: "4 feet 3 inches, no brand-mark, has scars on her back and stomach from flogging."-May I call the attention of the reader for a moment to this last instance? I am sure it will excite his sympathy. The wretches were not satisfied with whipping a poor young female on the back, but they must extend the sting of their agonizing whip to her stomach!!! What would be thought, what would become, of a master in Great Britain, who should attempt to use labourers, whether male or female, in this cruel manner? He would be considered as a barbarian, as a monster. His own |