We shall doubtless hear it argued on the present as on former occasions, when similar barbarities have been incontestably proved, that “individual instances of cruelty, like those which have now been produced, are no proofs of general inhumanity. Instances, of, at least, equal atrocity, might be collected from the annals of the Old Bailey. But how very unjust would it be to regard these as exhibiting a fair view of the English character?”
There is, however, a remarkable defect in the analogy which is here attempted to be established; a defect which seems fatal to the argument. In this happy country, when we hear that crimes have been perpetrated, we hear also that they have been punished: we have at least the satisfaction of knowing, that no practicable means are left unattempted for securing the criminals, and bringing them to justice. But is this the case in Barbadoes? We hear of great crimes indeed; but we hear at the same time of their impunity. The criminals are not under the necessity of endeavouring to elude detection, or of screening themselves from prosecution by concealment: they even talk of their crimes with a shocking indifference. The laws themselves conspire to defeat the ends of justice. We find, not the lawless part of the community, but the legislative assembly of the island, sanctioning the perpetration of the foulest murders, by their refusal to recognise murder as a felonious act. We find even officers of the Crown neglecting the obvious duty of instituting a legal inquest into these murders. To what is this neglect to be attributed? To the contagious influence of those prejudices, and of that savage indifference to Negro life, which evidently pervade the people at large? Or is it to be accounted for on the ground that the law has actually deprived His Majesty’s Attorney General, and His Majesty’s Coroner, of the constitutional power of instituting such an inquest? In either case our colonial system will stand justly chargeable, not only with outraging every feeling of humanity, but with violating every acknowledged principle of justice.
But the West Indians and their friends will probably have recourse to another argument. “Granting,” they may say, “in its fullest extent, the truth of all that you have stated with respect to Barbadoes, it is yet very unfair to extend the charge of inhumanity, which is justly brought against that island, to the West Indies in general. The Legislatures of all the other islands have passed laws which make the murder of a Slave felony; they have also provided such salutary regulations ‘for the support,’ and ‘for the encouragement, protection, and better government of Slaves,’ as serve to place them in a situation of even enviable security and comfort.”
It will be readily admitted, that the Legislatures of most, if not all the islands, with the exception of Barbadoes, have passed laws which make the murder of a Slave a felonious act. It must also be admitted, that many regulations have been framed and placed on the insular statute-books, which, if faithfully enforced according to their apparent intent, could not fail to produce beneficial results. But have the clauses which contain these regulations been carried into effect? Are they any thing more than a blind, intended to conceal from the eyes of the British public the enormity of our West Indian system? Was it ever even in the contemplation of the lawgivers themselves that these laws should be executed? The papers to which so large a reference has already been made happily contain a distinct answer to these questions: that answer it will now be proper to state.
On the 4th of October 1804, it appears that Earl Camden addressed letters to the Governors of the different West Indian islands, requiring from them information on a variety of points. A copy of the heads of information transmitted to one of the islands, Dominica, will furnish the reader with a sufficiently clear idea of the nature of these requirements. It is as follows:
“An account of all the Negro Slaves imported every year since 1788, and of the number re-exported in each year.
“The most authentic and particular account which can be obtained, of the number of Negro Slaves, dividing them into classes of male and female; children from 1 to 12; youths from 12 to 20, full-grown men and women from 20 to 60; and the aged; and stating, as accurately as possible, the number in each class respectively: also,
“An account of the total number of free Negroes and coloured people.
“N.B. It is desirable that the manner in which the information is obtained, and the account made up, should be stated as distinctly as possible.
“You are also desired to transmit at the same time, in original and duplicate, the following further information, viz.