The slaves who are employed in Recife may be divided into two classes; household slaves, and those which pay a weekly stipend to their owners proceeding from the earnings of some employment which does not oblige them to be under the immediate eye of the master. The first class have little chance of gaining their freedom by their own exertions, and are subject to the caprice and whims of their superiors; but some few are manumitted by the kindness of those whom they have served, and the clothing and food which is afforded to them is generally better than that which the other class obtains. This second class consists of joiners, shoemakers, &c. canoe-men, porters, &c. and these men may acquire a sufficient sum of money to purchase their own freedom, if they have the requisite prudence and steadiness to allow their earnings to accumulate; but too often, the inducements to expend them foolishly are sufficiently powerful to make these people swerve from their purpose. They generally earn more each day than the master exacts, and have besides the Sundays and holidays as their own; and if the slave feeds and cloaths himself, to these are added the Saturday of every week[234]. I think that allowing largely for him to supply every thing requisite for his support and decent appearance, and yet something for what to a person in such a rank in life may be accounted luxury, a slave so circumstanced may in ten years purchase his freedom. If his value is great, it is because his trade is lucrative, so that these things keep pace with each other. The women have likewise some employments by which they may be enabled to gain their liberty; they make sweetmeats and cakes, and are sent out as cooks, nurses, housekeepers, &c.
Creole negroes and mulattos are generally accounted quicker in learning any trade than the Africans. This superior aptitude to profit by instruction is doubtless produced by their acquaintance from infancy with the manners, customs, and language of their masters. From the little experience, however, which I have had, and from the general remarks which I have gathered from others, who might be judged better acquainted than myself with slaves, I think that an African who has become chearful, and seems to have forgotten his former state, is a more valuable slave than a creole negro or mulatto. He will be generally more fit to be trusted. Far from the latter submitting quietly to the situation in which they have been born, they bear the yoke of slavery with impatience; the daily sight of so many individuals of their own casts, who are in a state of freedom, makes them wish to be raised to an equality with them, and they feel at every moment their unfortunate doom. The consideration with which the free persons of mixed casts are treated, tends to increase the discontent of their brothers who are in slavery. The Africans do not feel this, for they are considered by their creole brethren in colour, as being so completely inferior, that the line which by public opinion has been drawn between them, makes the imported slave feel towards the creoles as if they had not been originally of the same stock.
Miserable objects are at times to be seen in Recife, asking alms in various quarters of the town, aged and diseased; some of these persons have been slaves, and when, from infirmity they have been rendered useless, their masters have manumitted them; and thus being turned away to starve in their old age, or in a crippled state, their only resource is to beg in the public streets. These instances of gross injustice and depravity in masters, are not many, but that they should occur, is sufficient to cause the aid of law to be called in, that the existence of them should be prevented.
The sugar-plantations which belong to the Benedictine monks and Carmelite friars, are those upon which the labour is conducted with the greatest attention to system, and with the greatest regard to the comfort and ease of the slaves. I can more particularly speak of the estates of the Benedictine monks, because my residence at Jaguaribe gave me daily opportunities of hearing of the management of one of their establishments; and although sugar-works were not erected upon the estate in question, still the number of negroes which were upon it, was fully adequate to this purpose. Besides, in some years canes were planted upon it, which were to be ground at some neighbouring mill. The frequent communication, likewise, which there was between the slaves of this plantation and those of the other estates, belonging to the same convent, upon which sugar is made, enabled me to ascertain that all the establishments which are owned by the Benedictines, are conducted in the same manner.
The slaves of the Jaguaribe St. Bento estate are all creoles, and are in number about one hundred. The children are carefully taught their prayers by some of the elder negroes, and the hymn to the Virgin is sung by all the slaves, male and female, who can possibly attend, at seven o’clock every evening; at this hour it is required that every person shall be at home. The young children are allowed to amuse themselves as they please during the greatest part of the day; and their only occupation for certain hours is to pick cotton for lamps, and to separate the beans which are fit for seed from those which are rotten, and other work of the same description. When they arrive at the age of ten and twelve years, the girls spin thread for making the coarse cotton cloth of the country, and the boys attend to the horses and oxen, driving them to pasture, &c. If a child evinces peculiar fitness for any trade, care is taken that his talents should be applied in the manner which he would himself prefer. A few of them are taught music, and assist in the church festivals of the convent. Marriages are encouraged; as early as the age of seventeen and eighteen years for the men, and at fourteen and fifteen for the girls, many of these unions take place. Immediately after their entrance into this state, the people begin to labour regularly in the field for their owners; oftentimes both boys and girls request the manager to allow them to commence their life of daily toil, before the age which is pointed out by the regulations of the convent; and this occurs because they are not permitted to possess provision grounds of their own until they labour for their masters. Almost every description of labour is done by piece-work; and the task is usually accomplished by three o’clock in the afternoon, which gives to those who are industrious an opportunity of working daily upon their own grounds. The slaves are allowed the Saturday of every week to provide for their own subsistence, besides the Sundays and holidays. Those who are diligent fail not to obtain their freedom by purchase. The provision grounds are never interfered with by the monks, and when a negro dies or obtains his freedom, he is permitted to bequeath his plot of land to any of his companions whom he may please to favour in this manner. The superannuated slaves are carefully provided with food and cloathing.[235]
None of the monks reside upon the Jaguaribe estate, but one of them comes from Olinda almost every Sunday and holiday to say Mass. Upon the other Benedictine estates there are resident monks. The slaves treat their masters with great familiarity; they only pay respect to the abbot, whom they regard as the representative of the Saint. The conduct of the younger members of the communities of regular clergy, is well known not to be by any means correct; the vows of celibacy are not strictly adhered to. This circumstance decreases the respect with which these men might otherwise be treated upon their own estates, and increases much the licentiousness of the women. I have seen upon these plantations many light-coloured mulatto slaves; but when the approximation to white blood becomes considerable, a marriage is projected for the individual with a person of a darker tint. No compulsion is made use of to oblige any one to marry, and therefore many of the slaves, contrary to the wishes of their masters, remain single. The monks allow their female slaves to marry free men, but the male slaves are not permitted to marry free women. Many reasons are alleged in favour of this regulation. One is that they do not wish that a slave should be useless in the way of increasing the stock of the plantation; likewise the monks do not wish to have a free family residing among their slaves (for obvious reasons), which must be the case if a man marries a free woman; they have less objection to a man, because he is during the whole of the day away from their people, or is perhaps employed by the community, and thus in part dependant upon it, and he merely comes to sleep in one of the huts; besides, a stranger is contributing to the increase of the stock.
The Jaguaribe estate is managed by a mulatto slave, who married a person of his own colour, and she likewise belonged to the convent. Her husband has purchased her freedom and that of her children; he possesses two African slaves, the profits of whose labour are entirely his own; but he is himself obliged to attend to the business of the plantation, and to see that the work of his masters is properly executed. This man has offered his two Africans in exchange for himself to the monks; but they tell him that the Jaguaribe estate could not be properly managed without his assistance; and, though much against his inclination, he continues in slavery. This is one of the strongest instances of man’s desire to act for himself; Nicolau enjoys the entire direction of the estate, and every comfort which a man of his description can possibly wish for; when he moves from home, he is as well mounted as the generality of the rich planters; he is permitted to be seated in the presence of his masters, and indeed is allowed all the privileges of free men; and yet the consciousness of being under the controul of another always occupies his mind, and leads him to desire the possession of those privileges as a right, which he at present only enjoys by sufferance.[236]
Slavery, however, in this less intolerable state exists in only a few instances; and although a great many of the planters certainly do treat their slaves with considerable regard and attention to their comforts, still, upon none of the estates, excepting those of the religious communities which have been mentioned, is the complete system of rendering unnecessary a constant supply of new labourers, made the primary object;—the end to which all other considerations must give place.
Next to the plantations which belong to the convents, stand some of those of the rich Brazilian owners, who go on quietly, if not systematically. Here the labour is not in general done by piece-work, nor do the labourers provide for their own subsistence; and the slaves are sent to the field at an earlier age than they ought, and earlier than is practised upon the convent estates. Some of the plantations, however, which are owned by individuals, do give the Saturday of each week for the slave to support himself[237]. Corporal punishments are resorted to contrary to the custom of the St. Bento and Carmo estates, and though great cruelties are not often committed[238], still the mode of punishment produces much suffering, much misery, much degradation. Confinement and privations, would, I rather imagine, be more efficacious. The pride of the slave, who is obliged to appear abroad with his back covered with scars, is at first much hurt; but the shame of being seen in this state soon wears off, and then all hopes of reform may be given up; he will continue in his faults, and be indifferent to the stripes which he must occasionally undergo for committing them. I have been requested by slaves, who had been often so treated, to punish them with the whip, and not to make them endure the misery of sitting in the stocks in solitary confinement. But the punishment is suffered in private; no exposure is occasioned by it. It would appear strange that the slave should prefer corporal punishment; and this would seem to denote that this class of men possesses none of those feelings of shame of which I have spoken; but I am convinced, that these are as deeply implanted in the negro, as in any other race of human beings. The case is this, where a slave has been often punished with the whip, and is seeing many of his companions and acquaintance undergoing the same punishment frequently, the knowledge that it is what he himself has before borne, and that so many are thus treated, takes away the horror which he would otherwise feel at the kind of chastisement. This proves the debased state,—the very low ebb to which human nature may be brought. The additional rigour which thus the slave seems to consider confinement to be, would be a recommendation to some persons, and perhaps the feeling is in the main right; for if the crime is great, the punishment should be adequate, and by this means of confinement no degradation of the human being is occasioned. Hopes may be entertained that the time which is given for reflection, and the depression of spirits which is produced by the loneliness of the situation, may bring about a correction of error; but by the whip, angry and vindictive feelings are excited, or despair is the consequence, and in either case the owner will be injured; in the former, by a determination to continue in fault, and in the latter by the death or inaction of the sufferer. The objection which is principally to be urged against the mode of chastisement, which I have accounted the least prejudicial to the slave, considered as a rational being, is to be met with in the loss of time which is incurred by confinement a due length; but I think, that this would be much more than compensated by the loss of health and of character which the negro suffers in undergoing punishment by the whip, and even of time during the period that the slave is recovering from the stripes. Iron collars, chains, and other punishments of the same description are likewise made use of, and are liable to the objection of rendering callous the sense of shame. I have observed, and have often heard it remarked, that scarcely any of the slaves who receive frequent correction, ever gain their freedom through their own exertions. The bad dispositions and inclinations of many, and the indifference which is produced in others by severe punishments, sufficiently account for this fact.[239]