“Bay Plantation,
“My Lord,
19th November 1804.
“I have delayed to answer your Excellency’s note of the 19th of September, enclosing queries as to some cases of cruel murders committed upon Slaves, with the hope of being able to establish the facts, so as to communicate them to your Excellency without any doubt of their authenticity; but, notwithstanding every inquiry, I can make no discovery of the murder which had been currently reported to have been committed by one Nowell, of the parish of St. Andrew[8]. The fact is by many supposed to be true, at the same time that it is denied by others; and all that I can ascertain is, that Nowell is in general a cruel man to his Slaves.
“The militia-man is —— Halls, of St. Michael’s regiment. Returning from his duty upon an alarm, after stopping at a dram-shop, where he had drank so as to be rather intoxicated; hearing some Negroes singing before him, who were returning from their daily labour, he called out to them that he would kill them; upon which a Mr. Harding, who was going the same way, told him to take care what he was about; he immediately pursued the Negroes, who not supposing that he really intended to do them any injury, but imagining that what he had said was in joke, did not endeavour to escape, but as he came up to them, they separated to make room for him to pass; the nearest to him being a woman far advanced in pregnancy, he ran his bayonet into her, without the smallest provocation, and killed her on the spot: Mr. Harding and another gentleman, who were eye-witnesses, seized him, and carried him before the President, who sent him to prison.
“In the other case, which happened in the parish of St. Lucy, two white men were concerned, Crone and Hollingsworth. A Mr. Colebeck, the manager of a plantation in the neighbourhood, had some months before purchased an African lad, who was much attached to his person, and slept in a passage contiguous to his chamber. On Sunday night there was an alarm of fire in the plantation, which induced Mr. Colebeck to go out hastily, and the next morning he missed the lad, who he supposed had intended to follow him in the night, and had mistaken his way. He sent to his neighbours, and to Mr. Crone among the rest, to inform them that his African lad had accidentally strayed from him; that he could not speak a word of English, and that possibly he might be found breaking canes, or taking something else for his support; in which case he requested that they would not injure him, but return him, and he would pay any damage he might have committed. A day or two after Mr. Colebeck was informed that Crone and Hollingsworth had killed a Negro in a neighbouring gully and buried him there. He went to Crone to inquire into the truth of the report, and intended to have the grave opened to see whether it was his African lad. Crone told him a Negro had been killed and buried there; but assured him it was not his, for he knew him very well, and he need not be at the trouble of opening the grave. Upon this, Colebeck went away satisfied; but receiving further information, which left no doubt upon his mind that it was his Negro, he returned and opened the grave, and found it to be so. I was Mr. Colebeck’s leading counsel, and the facts stated in my brief were as follows: that Crone and Hollingsworth being informed that there was a Negro lurking in the gully, went armed with muskets, and took several Negro men with them. The poor African, seeing a parcel of men come to attack him, was frightened; he took up a stone to defend himself, and retreated into a cleft rock, where they could not easily come at him; they then went for some trash, put it into the crevice of the rock behind him, and set it on fire; after it had burnt so as to scorch the poor fellow, he ran into a pool of water near by; they sent a Negro to bring him out, and he threw the stone at the Negro; upon which the two white men fired several times at him with the guns loaded with shot, and the Negroes pelted him with stones. He was at length dragged out of the pool in a dying condition, for he had not only received several bruises from the stones, but his breast was so pierced with the shot that it was like a cullender. The white Savages ordered the Negroes to dig a grave, and whilst they were digging it, the poor creature made signs of begging for water, which was not given to him; but as soon as the grave was dug, he was thrown into it, and covered over, and there seems to be some doubt whether he was then quite dead. Crone and Hollingsworth deny this; but Colebeck assured me, that he could prove it by more than one witness; and I have reason to believe it to be true, because on the day of trial Crone and Hollingsworth did not suffer the cause to come to a hearing, but paid the penalties and the costs of suit, which it is not supposed they would have done had they been innocent.
“I have the honour to be, &c.
“John Beckles[9].
“The Right Honourable Lord Seaforth,
&c. &c. &c.”
One circumstance of the above narrative may not strike the minds of some readers with its due force, although to me it appears to be the most affecting part of the whole case. They may have been led to conceive, that whatever atrocity there was in the proceedings of Crone and his companion, yet in Colbeck there was some approximation to European feeling. But how stands the fact with respect to Colbeck? On being coolly told that a Negro had been killed and buried,—told so by the murderer himself, his neighbour and frequent visitor;—is he shocked by the tale? Does he express any horror or indignation on the occasion? No! he goes away satisfied with the assurance, that the murdered Negro is not his own. Let the reader give its due weight to this one circumstance, and he will be convinced that a state of society exists in the West Indies, of which an inhabitant of this happy island can form no adequate conception. Had it been his horse instead of his Negro Slave, Colbeck would have been affected in much the same way as he is said to have been.
From this impressive circumstance may also be inferred the value of West Indian testimony, when given in favour of West Indian humanity. Mr. Colbeck, for example, would naturally enough be spoken of as a man of humanity by his West Indian brethren, and they would probably be sincere in giving him that praise. But who is this man of humanity? It is one who, hearing that a fellow-creature has been cruelly and wantonly murdered, goes away SATISFIED, because he himself has sustained no pecuniary loss by the murder! In truth, the moral perceptions and feelings which prevail in that quarter of the globe, are wholly different from those which are found on this side of the Atlantic. An exception may, indeed, be made in favour of a few men of enlightened minds; but the remark is just as applied to the bulk of the community—the people, whose prejudices are stated by Lord Seaforth to be so horribly absurd, as to resist all measures for remedying this shocking state of society.