The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave
Independently of the scrutiny, which, as Secretary of the Anti-Slavery
Society, I made into her case when she first applied for assistance, at
18, Aldermanbury, and the watchful eye I kept upon her conduct for the
ensuing twelvemonths, while she was the occasional pensioner of the
Society, I have now had the opportunity of closely observing her conduct
for fourteen months, in the situation of a domestic servant in my own
family; and the following is the deliberate opinion of Mary's character,
formed not only by myself, but also by my wife and sister-in-law, after
this ample period of observation. We have found her perfectly honest and
trustworthy in all respects; so that we have no hesitation in leaving
every thing in the house at her disposal. She had the entire charge of the
house during our absence in Scotland for three months last autumn, and
conducted herself in that charge with the utmost discretion and fidelity.
She is not, it is true, a very expert housemaid, nor capable of much hard
work, (for her constitution appears to be a good deal broken,) but she is
careful, industrious, and anxious to do her duty and to give satisfaction.
She is capable of strong attachments, and feels deep, though unobtrusive,
gratitude for real kindness shown her. She possesses considerable natural
sense, and has much quickness of observation and discrimination of
character. She is remarkable for _decency_ and _propriety_ of conduct--and
her _delicacy_, even in trifling minutiae, has been a trait of special
remark by the females of my family. This trait, which is obviously quite
unaffected, would be a most inexplicable anomaly, if her former habits had
been so indecent and depraved as Mr. Wood alleges. Her chief faults, so
far as we have discovered them, are, a somewhat violent and hasty temper,
and a considerable share of natural pride and self-importance; but these
defects have been but rarely and transiently manifested, and have scarcely
occasioned an hour's uneasiness at any time in our household. Her
religious knowledge, notwithstanding the pious care of her Moravian
instructors in Antigua, is still but very limited, and her views of
christianity indistinct; but her profession, whatever it may have of
imperfection, I am convinced, has nothing of insincerity. In short, we
consider her on the whole as respectable and well-behaved a person in her
station, as any domestic, white or black, (and we have had ample
experience of both colours,) that we have ever had in our service.
But after all, Mary's character, important though its exculpation be to
her, is not really the point of chief practical interest in this case.
Suppose all Mr. Wood's defamatory allegations to be true--suppose him to
be able to rake up against her out of the records of the Antigua police,
or from the veracious testimony of his brother colonists, twenty stories
as bad or worse than what he insinuates--suppose the whole of her own
statement to be false, and even the whole of her conduct since she came
under our observation here to be a tissue of hypocrisy;--suppose all
this--and leave the negro woman as black in character as in
complexion,[21]--yet it would affect not the main facts--which are
these.--1. Mr. Wood, not daring in England to punish this woman
arbitrarily, as he would have done in the West Indies, drove her out of
his house, or left her, at least, only the alternative of returning
instantly to Antigua, with the certainty of severe treatment there, or
submitting in silence to what she considered intolerable usage in his
household. 2. He has since obstinately persisted in refusing her
manumission, to enable her to return home in security, though repeatedly
offered more than ample compensation for her value as a slave; and this on
various frivolous pretexts, but really, and indeed not unavowedly, in
order to _punish_ her for leaving his service in England, though he
himself had professed to give her that option. These unquestionable facts
speak volumes.[22]
[Footnote 21: If it even were so, how strong a plea of palliation might not
the poor negro bring, by adducing the neglect of her various owners to
afford religious instruction or moral discipline, and the habitual
influence of their evil _example_ (to say the very least,) before her
eyes? What moral good could she possibly learn--what moral evil could she
easily escape, while under the uncontrolled power of such masters as she
describes Captain I---- and Mr. D---- of Turk's Island? All things
considered, it is indeed wonderful to find her such as she now is. But as
she has herself piously expressed it, "that God whom then she knew not
mercifully preserved her for better things."]
[Footnote 22: Since the preceding pages were printed off, I have been
favoured with a communication from the Rev. J. Curtin, to whom among other
acquaintances of Mr. Wood's in this country, the entire proof sheets of
this pamphlet had been sent for inspection. Mr. Curtin corrects some
omissions and inaccuracies in Mary Prince's narrative (see page 17,) by
stating, 1. That she was baptized, not in August, but on the 6th of April,
1817; 2. That sometime before her baptism, on her being admitted a
catechumen, preparatory to that holy ordinance, she brought a note from
her owner, Mr. Wood, recommending her for religious instruction, &c.; 3.
That it was his usual practice, when any adult slaves came on _week days_
to school, to require their owners' permission for their attendance; but
that on _Sundays_ the chapel was open indiscriminately to all.--Mary,
after a personal interview with Mr. Curtin, and after hearing his letter
read by me, still maintains that Mr. Wood's note recommended her for
baptism merely, and that she never received any religious instruction
whatever from Mr. and Mrs. Wood, or from any one else at that period
beyond what she has stated in her narrative. In regard to her
non-admission to the Sunday school without permission from her owners, she
admits that she may possibly have mistaken the clergyman's meaning on that
point, but says that such was certainly her impression at the time, and
the actual cause of her non-attendance.
Mr. Curtin finds in his books some reference to Mary's connection with a
Captain ----, (the individual, I believe, alluded to by Mr. Phillips at
page 32); but he states that when she attended his chapel she was always
decently and becomingly dressed, and appeared to him to be in a situation
of trust in her mistress's family.
Mr. Curtin offers no comment on any other part of Mary's statement; but he
speaks in very favourable, though general terms of the respectability of
Mr. Wood, whom he had known for many years in Antigua; and of Mrs. Wood,
though she was not personally known to him, he says, that he had "heard
her spoken of by those of her acquaintance, as a lady of very mild and
amiable manners."
Another friend of Mr. and Mrs. Wood, a lady who had been their guest both
in Antigua and England, alleges that Mary has grossly misrepresented them
in her narrative; and says that she "can vouch for their being the most
benevolent, kind-hearted people that can possibly live." She has declined,
however, to furnish me with any written correction of the
misrepresentations she complains of, although I offered to insert her
testimony in behalf of her friends, if sent to me in time. And having
already kept back the publication a fortnight waiting for communications
of this sort, I will not delay it longer. Those who have withheld their
strictures have only themselves to blame.
Of the general character of Mr. and Mrs. Wood, I would not designedly give
any _unfair_ impression. Without implicitly adopting either the _ex parte_
view of Mary Prince, or the unmeasured encomiums of their friends, I am
willing to believe them to be, on the whole, fair, perhaps favourable,
specimens of colonial character. Let them even be rated, if you will, in
the very highest and most benevolent class of slave-holders; and, laying
everything else entirely out of view, let Mr. Wood's conduct in this
affair be tried exclusively by the facts established beyond dispute, and
by his own statement of the case in his letter to Mr. Taylor. But then, I
ask, if the very _best_ and _mildest_ of your slave-owners can act as Mr.
Wood is proved to have acted, what is to be expected of persons whose
mildness, or equity, or common humanity no one will dare to vouch for? If
such things are done in the green tree, what will be done in the dry?--And
what else then can Colonial Slavery possibly be, even in its best estate,
but a system incurably evil and iniquitous?--I require no other data--I
need add no further comment.]
The case affords a most instructive illustration of the true spirit of the
slave system, and of the pretensions of the slave-holders to assert, not
merely their claims to a "vested right" in the _labour_ of their bondmen,
but to an indefeasible property in them as their "absolute chattels." It
furnishes a striking practical comment on the assertions of the West
Indians that self-interest is a sufficient check to the indulgence of
vindictive feelings in the master; for here is a case where a man (a
_respectable_ and _benevolent_ man as his friends aver,) prefers losing
entirely the full price of the slave, for the mere satisfaction of
preventing a poor black woman from returning home to her husband! If the
pleasure of thwarting the benevolent wishes of the Anti-Slavery Society in
behalf of the deserted negro, be an additional motive with Mr. Wood, it
will not much mend his wretched plea.
* * * * *
I may here add a few words respecting the earlier portion of Mary Prince's
narrative. The facts there stated must necessarily rest entirely,--since
we have no collateral evidence,--upon their intrinsic claims to
probability, and upon the reliance the reader may feel disposed, after
perusing the foregoing pages, to place on her veracity. To my judgment,
the internal evidence of the truth of her narrative appears remarkably
strong. The circumstances are related in a tone of natural sincerity, and
are accompanied in almost every case with characteristic and minute
details, which must, I conceive, carry with them full conviction to every
candid mind that this negro woman has actually seen, felt, and suffered
all that she so impressively describes; and that the picture she has given
of West Indian slavery is not less true than it is revolting.
But there may be some persons into whose hands this tract may fall, so
imperfectly acquainted with the real character of Negro Slavery, as to be
shocked into partial, if not absolute incredulity, by the acts of inhuman
oppression and brutality related of Capt. I---- and his wife, and of Mr.
D----, the salt manufacturer of Turk's Island. Here, at least, such
persons may be disposed to think, there surely must be _some_
exaggeration; the facts are too shocking to be credible. The facts are
indeed shocking, but unhappily not the less credible on that account.
Slavery is a curse to the oppressor scarcely less than to the oppressed:
its natural tendency is to brutalize both. After a residence myself of six
years in a slave colony, I am inclined to doubt whether, as regards its
_demoralizing_ influence, the master is not even a greater object of
compassion than his bondman. Let those who are disposed to doubt the
atrocities related in this narrative, on the testimony of a sufferer,
examine the details of many cases of similar barbarity that have lately
come before the public, on unquestionable evidence. Passing over the
reports of the Fiscal of Berbice,[23] and the Mauritius horrors recently
unveiled,[24] let them consider the case of Mr. and Mrs. Moss, of the
Bahamas, and their slave Kate, so justly denounced by the Secretary for