Whole Psalms to be got off: 13-14-19-22-23-2527-30-31-32-34-37-38-39-40-42-46-51-53. Just published, by the Editor, a new edition of OF THE CATECHISM OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND: BY THE REV. T. VIVIAN. Price two shillings, neatly bound in sheep. Printed by A. Foster, Kirkby Lonsdale. FRIENDLY VISITOR. No. LVII. JUNE, 1823. VOL. V. Price one Penny, or 7s. per hundred. PRINTED AND SOLD BY A. FOSTER, KIRKBY LONSDALE ; And sold by Seeley, Fleet Street, London; Timms, Grafton Street, Dublin; the Religious Tract Society, at their Depository in East Register Street, Edinburgh; and by all other Booksellers: Of whom may be had, in stiff printed covers, the four first Volumes; 1s. 4d. each: also the numbers for the four first years, bound in two volumes, sheep and lettered, 3s. 4d. each. SLAVERY IN THE WEST INDIES. Mr. EDITOR, I have been thinking, that a simple statement of the miseries of the slaves in our West India islands, might be useful to your readers. It may serve to reconcile n many a poor person in our own country, to the hardships and trials of his own lot. Nor is this the only view, with which the following account is offered to your acceptance. I wish to excite the prayers of Christians, of all ranks, in aid of the kind endeavours which are now making, to better the condition of our despised and persecuted African brethren. The well-known name of good Mr. Wilberforce stands foremost in the list of the friends of wretched negroes; and great exertions are now making by him and others for their welfare. your readers, who either attend parochial Missionary meetings, or read the Missionary Register, are aware of the misery of tearing away the inhabitants of Africa from their country and their homes; and also of the heavy sufferings of the slave-ships, in which they are carried across the seas: but the cruel treatment of these poor wretches in the West F All Indies, is not given in these accounts; but has lately been fairly laid before the public by Mr. Wilberforce and others. The slaves work together on an estate, in what are called gangs; and to each gang an officer is appointed, who bears the name of "driver." The instrument of his power, and too often of his wanton cruelty, is a tremendous, heavy whip, like that with which the English carter, or drayman, drives his team; but which, the humanity of a British public would not endure to see used with the same savage brutality, even upon dumb animals. The way in which they work, has been given in these words: "When employed in the labour of the field, as for instance, in turning up the ground with hoes into trenches, for the reception of the plants of the sugarcane; from twenty to perhaps eighty in number, are drawn out in a line, like troops upon a parade, each with a hoe in his hand. Close to them, in the rear, is stationed a driver, or several drivers, according to the number in the gang. Each of these drivers, who are always the most active negroes on the estate, has in his hand, or round his neck, a long, thick, and strongly plaited whip; the sound of which is as loud, and the lash as severe, as those of the whips of our waggoners. He has power to use the whip, when he thinks right, without any previous warning. Thus disposed, their work begins; and continues without ceasing for a certain number of hours; during which, at the peril of the driver, such a portion of land must be hoed. From the nature of the work, it is necessary for all to labour with equal speed: it is therefore the business of the driver, not only to urge the whole gang forwards, but to see that all in the line, whether male or female, old or young, strong or feeble, work, as nearly as possible, in equal time, and with equal effect. No breathing time, no resting on the hoe, no pause to be repaid by brisker action and return to work, can be allowed to any: all must work, or pause together. The other labours of the plantation are conducted upon the same principle; and as nearly as the different kind of it will allow, in the same manner. And it would be as strange in a West India island, to see a line of negroes without a driver behind them, as it would be in England, to see a team of horses on the road without a carter. In the seasons, when what is called the usual labours of the plantation are carrying on, the slave is expected to work, from five in the morning 'till seven in the evening. He has half an hour allowed him in the field for breakfast, and two hours for dinner. It must be remembered, that all who are able, are compelled to work; the poor negro can have no assisting female to prepare his scanty portion of comforts at home for him. During the time which is called the season of crop, or the gathering in of the sugar-cane, which continues for about five months of the year, the labour is still more excessive. The manufacture of the sugar is begun on the Sunday evening, and continued day and night without ceasing, 'till about midnight on the following Saturday; when the work stops for eighteen or twenty hours, to begin again on the Sunday evening. To prevent interruption in this labour, the slaves chosen for it, are divided into two gangs; which besides being fully engaged in the plantations during the day, are employed the whole of the night, or alternate nights, or half of each night, in sugarmaking. Their labour during this time, is equal to six days and three nights, every week. Let the British labourer or mechanic consider, when painfully feeling, from weariness, the penalty of Adam's transgression, "have I not reason to be thankful, my providential lot did not place me, as a negro slave in the West Indies ?" Let us next see how they are lodged and fed. The state of the houses provided for them, varies according to the ability and humanity of their owners; but in general too few are furnished, for each to have a house to himself; so that one, ever so bad, is considered a great prize. These huts are usually made with posts put into the ground. The sides are wattled; some being plaistered with lime, and some not. They are thatched; sometimes shingled. They often have one room to sit in, with one or two for sleeping. They lie on boards, or on a door covered with a mat of their own making; and sometimes a blanket for covering, but not all of them. A woman with children has a blanket, and the aged men but many men have none.--- The negro must feed himself, or he must starve. He has such a portion of ground allotted to him, on which to raise the vegetables and roots required for his support; the small supply of herrings or saltfish, given him by his master, being not more in quantity, than will afford a little relish as sauce to his vegetable food. This account will doubtless at first appear incredible; for the question will be asked, what time has the negro to cultivate this land? When spent with toiling under the lash, in a sultry sun, for the fourteen hours of the day, can he continue his labours after seven, or before five? And when in that country, it is also dark, most of the year round, at these hours? No: he has, out of crop-time, which lasts, as we before observed, five months of the year-he has one day in a fortnight allowed him for this business; and every Sunday for that, and to attend market! This breach of the sabbath is not merely allowed to, but by the state of things, compelled upon the poor slave. The |