ANTIGUA
AND THE ANTIGUANS:
A FULL ACCOUNT OF
THE COLONY AND ITS INHABITANTS
FROM THE TIME OF THE CARIBS
TO THE PRESENT DAY,
Interspersed with Anecdotes and Legends.
ALSO,
AN IMPARTIAL VIEW OF SLAVERY AND THE
FREE LABOUR SYSTEMS;
THE STATISTICS OF THE ISLAND,
AND BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF THE PRINCIPAL FAMILIES.
“Sworn to no party, of no sect am I.”—Pope.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
LONDON
SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET.
1844.
CONTENTS
OF
THE SECOND VOLUME.
Caribs: Domestic state—Treatment of their women—Children—Their early tuition—Superstitious cruelties—Hatred of the Arrowawks—Female children—Occupation of the men—Canoes—Bows and arrows—Cottages—Cooking utensils—Native cloth—Food—Fishing—Decoy fish—Spirituous liquors—Personal appearance—Amusements—The Carib house—Extermination of the Caribs from Antigua—Remarks upon their history
Negroes: Their introduction into the New World—Bartholomew Las Casas—His intercessions in favour of the Indians—Cardinal Ximenes—Origin of the slave trade—Its adoption by the English government—Character of slavery—Mental degeneracy—Instances of superior faculties among the Negro race—Juan Parega—Phillis Wheatley—Ignatius Sancho—His letter to the Rev. L. Sterne—Slavery in its early days—Punishment of the negroes in 1736
Negroes: Palliations, but not excuses, for former cruelties—A harsh planter—Crimes of slaves—The little negroes’ dinner-hour—A character—Negroes’ want of thought—Bartering their weekly provisions—Pilfering—The Rock Dungeon—A Tortolian slave-master—The murdered slave—Branding—Slave cargo—Remarks upon slavery—A good slave-master—A kind attorney—Negro gratitude
Negroes: The assertion that negroes are careless of all domestic ties confuted by anecdotes—“Shadows” of negro character—Excuses for them—Conversion to Christianity—Belief of the Africans that after death they shall return to Africa—Instance of it—Africans and Creoles—Superstitions—Obeah
Negroes: Superstition—Trials by ordeal—Flower-fence—Bible and key—A way to recover stolen property—Charm to prevent a scolding tongue—Jumbies—A night’s adventure—The soldier’s last jump—Jumbies calls—Betsey, the nurse—The haunted house—A cure—The drowning boys—The murdered woman—The jumby’s revenge
Seeming paradoxes explained—Negro suspicion—Instances of it—Stealing—Its various characters—Leasing—The dead canaries—Broken promises—Idleness—Negro wages—Their present lot—Domestics
Negroes: “Shadows” continued—The crime of murder—Instances of it—Hon. Sam. Martin—Giles Blizard—Adam Ogilvie
Negroes: The crime of poisoning—Instance of it—Murder of Mr. Brown—Love and jealousy—The end of unlawful love—Infanticide—Incendiarism—A late instance of it—Polygamy—Disregard of marriage vows
Negroes: A little change for the better—“Shadows nursed by night retire”—Respect to age—Filial affection—Generosity—Their kindness to the poorer class of whites—Cleanliness—the opposite vice—Behaviour at church—A black exhorter—Reading and writing—An anecdote
Negroes: Their amusements—Natural ear for music—Singing—Dancing—Subscription routs—Christmas balls—The ball-room decorations—Ball dresses—Gentlemen’s appearance—Ladies’—Politeness—Supper, and the supper-table—The morning after a ball—Cards of invitation—The “good night.”
Negroes: Fondness for “Nancy stories”—Negro loquacity—Their signification of the word “cursing”—Markets—Confusion of tongues—Weddings—The drive to church—Wedding banquet—Blushing brides—Funerals—“Wake nights”—Funeral procession—Christening—High-sounding names
Negroes: Further sentences upon “dress”—Sunday transformations—The black cook and his metamorphosis—Christmas waits—Negro houses—The mode of building upon estates—Town negro houses—Architecture—The mode of moving houses
Negroes: Occupations—Agricultural labourers—Black sailors—Their excessive gormandizing—The hungry captain’s disappointment—Black cooks—“Melted butter”—A receipt for a cookery book—The obtrusive fish—Grooms and “house boys”—An old planter’s opinion—Concluding remarks
Negroes: Employment of the women—Washing—A scene at the pond—Conversations—The sea-side—“Water frolic”—Hucksters—“Damaged flour”—Female porters—Masculine appearance of some of the females—Indelicacy—Their mode of carrying burdens
Negroes: Exterior appearance—Difference of expression—White negroes (Albinos)—Description of one—Black and white negroes—Negroes’ “bulls and blunders”—Exchange is no robbery, or the lost specimens—Negro politeness—Negro tongue—Inebriation—Concluding remarks
Remarks upon free system—State of affairs before emancipation—Trials and casualties—Improved price of land—Sugar estate during slavery—Benefits of emancipation in the moral state of the colony—Benefits arising to the planter—Pretended illness among the negroes—Propositions in their favour—Decrease of crime—Hopes indulged—“The first of August.”
A chapter on colour—Gradual removes from the negroes—Middle classes—Personal appearance—Devotions at their mirrors—Style of dress—Chapel belles—Passion for dress—Home and home scenes—The young men—Extreme officiousness—Higher classes of colour—Coloured Hebes—The chapel tea-party—Gastronomy and speeches—Wesleyan bazaar, and lunch-table—Gastronomic relics
Prejudice—Its former and present character—An act of resentment—The “Prejudice Bell”—Exclusion of persons of colour from offices of trust and polished society—The dawn of better days—The assertions of some authors contradicted—Domestic character of the coloured gentry—Hospitality—A day at a coloured gentleman’s country-house—Dwellings—Marriages—Great suppression of illicit connexions within these last few years—Funerals—A scene of riot in former days—Provincialisms
Grades among the pure in blood—Aristocrats—The tribe fungi—An overseer’s duty—Managers and attorneys—Pickings and gleanings—Managers’ wives and managing ladies—Aristocratic shops—“My daughters”—Education—“Field days” of the militia—The Antiguan aide-de-camp
The pure in blood—Aristocrats of the higher order—Law, physic, and divinity—Merchants and planters—Proprietors’ dwellings—A day at a country-seat—Gastronomy—Beef—“Mary Swift”—Mutton—Pork—Turtle and City aldermen—Christmas
The pure in blood—Places of amusement—The theatre—“Romeo Coates”—Jugglers and rope-dancers—Maroon parties—Shooting season—The Creole beauties—Dress—“The lords of the creation”—Fops and foppery—Business hours—Scene at the Antigua post-office—Auction sales—Militia doings—The gallant dragoon—Guard-nights
Zoology—Rabbits—Rats—Horned cattle—Horses—Mules—Asses—Sheep—Goats—Domestic animals—Whales—Thrasher—Grampus—Porpoise—Shark—Anecdote of the Young Creole—Death of the sailor-boy—Remora—Pilot fish—Dolphins—Jew fish—Stingray—Corramou—Beautiful colours displayed in fish—Parrot fish
Zoology: Orb-fish—Echinus, known to the ancients—Hippocampus—Trumpet-fish—Toad-fish—Sea-blubber, and galley-fish—Sea-polypus—Cat-fish—Crabs, oysters, &c.—Turtle—Land-crab—Soldier-crab—Lizards—Guana—Wood-slave—Scorpions—Centipede—Snakes—Tarantula—Cockroach—Caterpillars and butterflies—Ants—Bats—Aquatic birds—Land birds—Humming bird—Anecdote
Botany
Government—Governor-in-Chief—Council—Assembly—Government officers—Judicial officers—Ecclesiastical establishments—Schools—Fortifications and military defences—Revenue—Exports and imports—Population returns
APPENDIX.
[No. 1.]—Copy of the First Commission which was ever granted for the Government of Barbados and the Leeward Islands
[No. 2.]—Genealogy Of the Warner Family
[No. 3.]—Memorial of the Winthorpe Family
[No. 4.]—Genealogy of the Byam Family
[No. 5.]—Copy of the Grant of Land to Col. Philip Warner, after the Restoration of Antigua to the English Crown, in 1667
—— Copy of the Grant of Land to Col. Philip Warner, restored to him after his acquittal upon the charge of murdering his half-brother, the Indian Warner, in 1676
[No. 6.]—A Remonstrance of the inhabitants of the island of Antigua why they soe very earnestly craved authority and commission from his Excellency, William Stapleton, Captain General and Governor in chief in and over all his Majesties Leward Cariba Islands in America. To kill and destroy the Indians inhabiting in ye Island of Dominica and likewise for ye craveing ayde from the neighbouring Islands under his Excellency’s command which was promised us
[No. 7.]—Genealogy of the Williams Family
[Nos. 8. and 9.]—Genealogy of the Codrington Family
[No. 10.]—Genealogy of the Mathew Family
[No. 11.]—List of the Members of the House of Assembly at the time of the death of Governor Parke, copied from the Original Returns
[No. 12.]—Last Will and Testament of Governor Parke
[No. 13.]—Account of the Mackinnon Family
[No. 14.]—Papers relative to the Negro Insurrection of 1736
[No. 15.]—Genealogy of the Thomas Family
[No. 16.]—Genealogy of the Carlisles and Lavingtons
[No. 17.]—Genealogy of Sir Charles Augustus Fitzroy
[No. 18.]—Genealogy of the Willoughby Family
[No. 19.]—Genealogy of the Martin Family, of Green Castle
[No. 20.]—Genealogy of the Freeman Family
ANTIGUA AND THE ANTIGUANS,
ETC.