The greatest care was taken of child-bearing women, both with regard to relief from work and the administration of proper food; a separate building, called the lying-in hospital, was furnished with beds and other comforts for them; and if a slave reared six children so that they could walk, she obtained her liberty, or a release from work for herself and husband for three days in each week; when, if they worked on the estate, they were regularly paid for their labour.
As an improvement of this regulation, I proposed the allowing one day of rest weekly either to the father or the mother for each child; and Doña Josefa acknowledged the propriety of it, for, said she, the manumission of a slave is his ruin if young, and the origin of his distress if old. She assured me that, at different times, she had given freedom to fifty slaves, out of whom, she was sorry to say, she could not find one useful member of society; much less one that was grateful to herself, although all of them were young at the time they were manumitted, and some had been put to different trades at her expence. I have frequently observed, that nine-tenths of the convicts for different crimes at Lima were freed slaves, generally zambos.
I am convinced from experience, that if proper magistrates were appointed in all districts where there is a number of slaves, each having a competent salary for his subsistence, but removeable every year, to prevent private connexions with the planters, that the state of slavery would be freed from its greatest evil, that of a human creature being subjected to the whip of an offended, irritable, or unjust master; for how can justice prevail where the plaintiff is the judge, and the defendant the criminal? or when a prima instantia the accused is brought to receive his sentence, or suffer the infliction of an arbitrary punishment. If proprietors were prohibited from using the whip, or any other cruel chastisements, without the concurrence of an order from the magistrate, who should inquire summarily into the circumstances, under the penalty of a heavy fine, the odious epithet of slave-driver would lose its stigma, at the same time that the slave would reverence the law that protected as well as punished him, instead of hating his arbitrary master, and lurking for an opportunity of revenge. It is the interest as well as the duty of a master to preserve the health and life of his slave, and the slave has only to dread the presence of his master under the influence of passion or misinformation: let this occasion for the exercise of cruelty be avoided, by transferring the authority to punish from the interested master to an unbiassed person, and the hand of justice would fall like the invigorating dew of heaven, while that of passion often rages like the destructive tornado.
The principal food of the slaves at Huaito was the flour of maize boiled with water to the consistency of a hardish paste, to this was added a quantity of molasses; and beans boiled in the same manner. They had meat once or twice a week, either fresh or jerked beef. The quantity allowed was quite sufficient; and I have frequently seen them feeding their poultry with what they could not eat. Each married man and each widow or widower was presented annually with a small pig, which they reared with the refuse of the cane, and some pumpkins which they cultivated: it was afterwards fattened with maize from their own small plots of ground. This was an inducement to the slaves to marry, and it kept them from strolling abroad on Sundays and holidays. Indeed, all the married had small portions of land allotted to them, and were allowed the use of the oxen and ploughs belonging to the estate. On an average two hundred fat pigs were sold annually by the slaves at Huaito, and these generally produced twelve dollars each; so that two thousand four hundred dollars were distributed yearly among the slaves for this article alone; but several of the more industrious fed two, three, or four pigs, by purchasing maize for them. A convincing proof of their comfortable life was afforded on a Sunday afternoon; many of the negresses, dressed in white muslins or gaudily printed calicoes, gold ear-rings, rosaries and necklaces, stockings and coloured shoes, and a profusion of handkerchiefs, might be seen dancing with the negro youths to the sound of their large drums and unharmonious songs: this exhibition certainly evinced that their minds were uncankered with care.
Each slave had two working dresses given to him yearly; the men a flannel shirt and woollen trowsers—the women a flannel petticoat and a cotton shirt with long sleeves; they had also an allowance of blankets and ponchos, but whatever other clothes they possessed were purchased by themselves. Weekly premiums and a small quantity of tobacco were given according to the class of work in which they were individually employed; they were also permitted to have the skimmings and other refuse from the sugar-house for their guarapo or fermented drink.
The galpon, where the slaves lived, on this as on every other plantation, was a large square enclosure, walled round about twelve feet high; it was divided into streets, having an open square in the centre for dancing and their other amusements; the small houses were uniform, and whitewashed, which with the clean streets made a very neat appearance. The slaves slept in the galpon, by which means they were kept from visiting the neighbouring villages or plantations and from committing depredations.
Mass was celebrated every morning at six o'clock, and those who chose to hear it had sufficient time, as the field labourers never went to work till seven; their tasks were light, they had two hours' rest at noon, and always returned at six in the evening, and many at four in the afternoon; after which they attended to their own little farms. I am certain that a labourer in England does more work in one day than any slave I ever saw in the Spanish colonies performs in three. Those employed at the mills are more hours at work; but this is considered a punishment: those employed in the sugar-house have also more hours to attend; but they have always sufficient rest between the time of emptying one pan and waiting till it boils again, and this leisure some occupy in making baskets or in knitting stockings for their own profit.
The slaves are mustered at mass on Sundays and holidays, and are required to confess, and receive the communion once a year. The chaplain teaches the boys and girls the necessary prayers and catechisms, and superintends the moral conduct of the slaves, being allowed to order them for punishment in cases of misbehaviour, on reporting them to their mistress.
I am ignorant of the treatment which the slaves may receive in the British colonies; but I feel loath to believe that that mercy which I have observed to guide the actions of a Spaniard or a Spanish creole should be a stranger in the breast of an Englishman or an English creole. If the lot of English slaves be not worse than that of Spanish slaves, they are more fortunate and more happy than the labouring classes at home. I have no doubt, but that if a slave were brought to England, and subjected to the half-starved and hard-worked state of a day-labourer—to experience all his penury and all his privations—he would lift up his hands, and request that he might return to his master, who fed him when hungry, clothed him when naked, and attended to his wants when sick. If any thing be really wanting to ameliorate the condition of the English slave, let a wise legislature enact such regulations as will secure it to him; not place in his hand a weapon wherewith to sacrifice his master in a fit of frantic exasperation; let English slaves enjoy the blessings of the English poor, the boast of every Englishman—an impartial distribution of justice—an equality in the administration of the law. It is as preposterous to suppose that the same law should not govern the master and the slave, as that a judge should not be amenable to the law by which he judges others: and I sincerely hope, for the honour of my country and countrymen, that they all feel as did my Uncle Toby: "'tis the fortune of war that has put the whip into our hands now, where it will be afterwards heaven only knows; but be it where it will, the brave, Trim, will never use it unkindly."
END OF VOLUME I.