[212] This word is without doubt derived from Egypçianos; I am told that the word gitanos is also used as a name for these people.
[213] A Portugueze writer says, “When permission was given in Portugal to work upon several of the holidays, the same was not extended to Brazil from a principle of humanity, that the slaves might not be deprived of any of their days of rest.”—Correio Braziliense, for December, 1815, p. 738.
[214] In the island of Grenada “every manumission is by an act of the island, charged with a fine of one hundred pounds currency;” it is said that this law has neither operated as a productive fund nor as a prohibition.—Edwards’ History of the West-Indies, vol. i. p. 380.
At Surinam, says another writer, “Si un maître voulait affranchir son esclave, outre la perte qu’il fesait de son negre, il étoit encore obligé d’acheter fort cher des lettres de franchise, sans lesquelles aucun noir ne pouvait être instruit dans la religion Chrétienne, ni baptisé.”—Voyage a la Guiane et a Cayenne en 1789, et années suivantes, p. 224.
Bolingbroke says, “It is by no means an uncommon thing in these colonies for negroes when they have accumulated a sufficiency, to purchase their freedom; and I have known many instances of negroes who paid their owners a proportion of the purchase-money, and were allowed after emancipation to workout the balance.”—Voyage to the Demerary, &c. p. 65.
I give this statement, and should be happy to transcribe any other, with which I might meet in the course of reading, of the same tenor; but it must be recollected that the “Voyage to the Demerary” is decidedly written in favour of the slave trade and of slavery.
[215] The owner of a sugar plantation, with whose sons I was well acquainted, possessed a slave, who had the management of the sugar boiling house during crop time, and who was accounted by all who knew him and understood the business, to be a most excellent workman.—This man accumulated a sum of money, which he offered to his master for his freedom, but it was not accepted; and although the slave made great interest with persons of consideration in the country, he could not accomplish his end. His master loaded him with irons, and he was made to work in this state. He did not obtain his liberty till after his master’s death, when the widow received his money, and manumitted him. His trade of sugar-boiler renders him large profits yearly, and this injured man now lives in ease and comfort. This instance of refusal, and some others of which I have heard, would make me doubtful of the foundation upon which the custom of manumitting is placed, if I did not know how easily the laws relating to many other important points are evaded through the influence of wealth and power. I did not see a copy of the law or regulation on the subject, but I never met with any one who made a doubt of its existence. I never met with any one who doubted that the slave had a right to appeal, if he thought proper; whether he would be heard or not was another question.
[216] The major part of the slaves that abscond, are brought back to their owners, but some do escape, and are never afterwards heard of. They remove to some distant district and there reside as free men. Those who have once tasted of the sweets of free agency, for any length of time, even if they are brought back to their masters, scarcely ever remain longer than is requisite to seek an opportunity of eluding the vigilance of those whose business it is to watch them; they soon brave the risk of another detection. A young and handsome mulatto man of these unsettled habits once applied to me to purchase him. He had by mere accident been discovered only a short time before, by a friend of his master in the Sertam, where he had married a free woman, and had been considered as free himself. He was brought back to his master, was sold to another person, escaped, returned, and again fled, and had not, when I left the country, been heard of for a twelvemonth.
[217] The following circumstances occurred under my own observation:—A negress had brought into the world ten children, and had reared nine of them. These remained to work for their owners; the woman claimed her freedom, for the tenth child did not die until it had arrived at an age when it did not require any farther care from her; but it was refused. She was hired to a gentleman as a nurse for one of his children. This person did all in his power to obtain her freedom, but did not succeed; he purchased her, and immediately had a deed of manumission made out by a notary-public. When he returned home to dinner, he desired his wife to tell the woman that she was his slave, and in the course of the day the deed was given to her. When I left the country, her only fear was, that as she was free, her master and mistress might turn her away; thus proving, by her anxiety, how happy she was.
[218] Du Tertre says, speaking of negro baptismal festivals—“les parrains et les marraines qui sont ordinairement de François amis de leurs maitres, ne laissent pas de contribuer à la bonne chere.”—Histoire des Antilles, tom. ii. p. 528.