Again, slavery occasioned the planter immense trouble and perplexities in managing his slaves; it engendered continual heart-burnings and jealousies; it soured his temper, rendered him callous, deadened those feelings of humanity which the Spirit of Love has implanted in our breasts, and, however kind and benevolent he might be in his domestic circle, a few months spent in managing slaves, and he forgot to exercise his self-control, and gave way to bursts of passions which, in his calmer moments, he perhaps bitterly repented of.
Nor was this all: slavery engendered suspicion. There was not a single slave-holder or slave-manager who, one time or the other, was not made the prey to apprehensions, and had his brain filled with thoughts of rebellions and insurrections. Emancipation has entirely banished this hydra-like train of evils, and paved the way for more enlightened and happier times. It has also put an end, in great measure, to pretended illness among the negroes. During slavery, this was a practice universal. No sooner did Monday morning arrive than the manager’s door was thronged with self-elected invalids, and more diseases were then complained of than even Dr. Buchan would have us believe “flesh and blood are heir to.” Some made their appearance with their heads tied up in a bundle of banana-leaves—a negro prognosticator of a severe head-ache; others were suffering from pains in the knees and ankles, and consequently, such parts of their frame were duly enveloped in sundry particles of old cloth or dried snake-skins; while some, again, with woe-begone countenances, expressed “dat dey felt bad all ober dem.” In vain the poor manager protested their pulse was good, the tongues in
a healthy state—the negroes only groaned the more, gave a longer detail of their aches and pains, or else, in a very doleful voice, exclaimed—“Massa no b’leive he, (pointing to their tongues and wrists,) he no worth b’leiving, for he no ’peak true!” and so the end of the confab was, that the slaves in question were put upon the sick-list.
But now the case is generally different. The negroes work for money; they know if they feign illness for a week, they will be the losers at the end of the month; and as they are very quick in discovering where their own interest lies, they stick to the hoe for the sake of the dollars.
Still, however, pretended illness is not entirely extinct,—there are some of the labourers who practise it in these days of freedom, as of erst they did in slavery. In illustration of this remark, it is a customary plan upon sugar plantations, that if any of the people quit their work for a certain period, they, after that time, are required to pay rent for the cottages, with which, as stationary labourers, they are provided. This is done in order to ensure their labour, and prevent them from working upon other estates, where they may receive higher wages as strangers.[[39]]
In order, then, to gain this increase of wages, without having to pay rent for his house, the negro calls up some pseudo complaint, and very early in the morning, presents himself before the manager, with the usual bandages, and the notification that he is “quite sick.” The manager feels grieved at this intelligence, for he had contemplated doing a particular quantity of work that week, and required all the labourers he could procure; but as the negro represents himself so very ill, and he cannot deny the statement, he is obliged to remain content. No sooner, however, has the indisposed negro gained his hut, than he throws off all symptoms of illness, and choosing his best hoe, he secretly starts away to some other estate, where he is sure to obtain the additional wages; while his proper master supposes he is reclining upon his bed, a prey to ill-health.
It must be remarked, that although the free labourer acts at times in this disingenuous manner, it is a general opinion that they work better, and in a more cheerful manner than they did in days of slavery, when a driver stood over them with his long and heavy whip, to chastise their least cessation from labour. It cannot be supposed that I am perfectly cognizant of the real truth of this statement. I must, therefore, along with my own observations, take the opinions and arguments of planters, and other persons connected with agricultural employments, as the basis of my remarks.
The facts brought forward in support of this affirmation are these:—That upon some estates the extent of acres in a state of cultivation is greater than before the abolition of slavery,—other properties make a larger annual crop with one-third the number of labourers,—and that although many efficient negroes have emigrated to other islands, estates that were dismantled have been re-cultivated. In job-work, as it is termed, the negroes accomplish twice as much work as when employed by the day; the simple reason of which is, that they gain a larger sum of money by such arrangements. It is a fact that has fallen under my own observation, that when a piece of land is holed[[41]] by task-work, the negroes will rise by one or two o’clock during moonlight, go to the field, and accomplish the usual day’s work (300 cane-holes) by five or six in the morning; and after resting for a short time, are prepared to take another task, which they also complete, and have some hours left, in which to till their own little spot of provision-ground. When the excessive heat of the climate is taken into consideration, as well as the labour it requires to dig one cane-hole, the work of a negro who can open six hundred in one day, can be better estimated by those who are more acquainted with such matters than myself.
Another proposition in favour of the free system is said to be the greater docility of the negroes now they are emancipated. Of this circumstance I am not able to give personal information. To me they appear as aggravating as ever: equally suspicious, quarrelsome, and uncivil. Still there are many and great excuses to be made for them, when we consider how short has been their life of freedom!—how untutored their minds are!—how debased has been their state!—the very beast that eats the grass of the field has, in times past, been equally esteemed with the negro!
Many planters, as well as other intelligent individuals, have affirmed to the truth of the statement, “that negroes are more easily managed as free men, than they were as slaves;” and certainly such persons ought to be better judges than myself, whose intercourse with the negro population is, of course, more restricted.