The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave
grant her manumission; and that if she returned to Antigua, she would
inevitably fall again under his power, or that of his attorneys, as a
slave. It was, however, resolved to try what could be effected for her by
amicable negotiation; and with this view Mr. Ravenscroft, a solicitor,
(Mr. Stephen's relative,) called upon Mr. Wood, in order to ascertain
whether he would consent to Mary's manumission on any reasonable terms,
and to refer, if required, the amount of compensation for her value to
arbitration. Mr. Ravenscroft with some difficulty obtained one or two
interviews, but found Mr. Wood so full of animosity against the woman, and
so firmly bent against any arrangement having her freedom for its object,
that the negotiation was soon broken off as hopeless. The angry
slave-owner declared "that he would not move a finger about her in this
country, or grant her manumission on any terms whatever; and that if she
went back to the West Indies, she must take the consequences."
This unreasonable conduct of Mr. Wood, induced the Anti-Slavery Committee,
after several other abortive attempts to effect a compromise, to think of
bringing the case under the notice of Parliament. The heads of Mary's
statement were accordingly engrossed in a Petition, which Dr. Lushington
offered to present, and to give notice at the same time of his intention
to bring in a Bill to provide for the entire emancipation of all slaves
brought to England with the owner's consent. But before this step was
taken, Dr. Lushington again had recourse to negotiation with the master;
and, partly through the friendly intervention of Mr. Manning, partly by
personal conference, used every persuasion in his power to induce Mr. Wood
to relent and let the bondwoman go free. Seeing the matter thus seriously
taken up, Mr. Wood became at length alarmed,--not relishing, it appears,
the idea of having the case publicly discussed in the House of Commons;
and to avert this result he submitted to temporize--assumed a demeanour of
unwonted civility, and even hinted to Mr. Manning (as I was given to
understand) that if he was not driven to utter hostility by the threatened
exposure, he would probably meet our wishes "in his own time and way."
Having gained time by these manoeuvres, he adroitly endeavoured to cool
the ardour of Mary's new friends, in her cause, by representing her as an
abandoned and worthless woman, ungrateful towards him, and undeserving of
sympathy from others; allegations which he supported by the ready
affirmation of some of his West India friends, and by one or two plausible
letters procured from Antigua. By these and like artifices he appears
completely to have imposed on Mr. Manning, the respectable West India
merchant whom Dr. Lushington had asked to negotiate with him; and he
prevailed so far as to induce Dr. Lushington himself (actuated by the
benevolent view of thereby best serving Mary's cause,) to abstain from any
remarks upon his conduct when the petition was at last presented in
Parliament. In this way he dextrously contrived to neutralize all our
efforts, until the close of the Session of 1829; soon after which he
embarked with his family for the West Indies.
Every exertion for Mary's relief having thus failed; and being fully
convinced from a twelvemonth's observation of her conduct, that she was
really a well-disposed and respectable woman; I engaged her, in December
1829, as a domestic servant in my own family. In this capacity she has
remained ever since; and I am thus enabled to speak of her conduct and
character with a degree of confidence I could not have otherwise done. The
importance of this circumstance will appear in the sequel.
From the time of Mr. Wood's departure to Antigua, in 1829, till June or
July last, no farther effort was attempted for Mary's relief. Some faint
hope was still cherished that this unconscionable man would at length
relent, and "in his own time and way," grant the prayer of the exiled
negro woman. After waiting, however, nearly twelve months longer, and
seeing the poor woman's spirits daily sinking under the sickening
influence of hope deferred, I resolved on a final attempt in her behalf,
through the intervention of the Moravian Missionaries, and of the Governor
of Antigua. At my request, Mr. Edward Moore, agent of the Moravian
Brethren in London, wrote to the Rev. Joseph Newby, their Missionary in
that island, empowering him to negotiate in his own name with Mr. Wood for
Mary's manumission, and to procure his consent, if possible, upon terms of
ample pecuniary compensation. At the same time the excellent and
benevolent William Allen, of the Society of Friends, wrote to Sir Patrick
Ross, the Governor of the Colony, with whom he was on terms of friendship,
soliciting him to use his influence in persuading Mr. Wood to consent: and
I confess I was sanguine enough to flatter myself that we should thus at
length prevail. The result proved, however, that I had not yet fully
appreciated the character of the man we had to deal with.
Mr. Newby's answer arrived early in November last, mentioning that he had
done all in his power to accomplish our purpose, but in vain; and that if
Mary's manumission could not be obtained without Mr. Wood's consent, he
believed there was no prospect of its ever being effected.
A few weeks afterwards I was informed by Mr. Allen, that he had received a
letter from Sir Patrick Ross, stating that he also had used his best
endeavours in the affair, but equally without effect. Sir Patrick at the
same time inclosed a letter, addressed by Mr. Wood to his Secretary, Mr.
Taylor, assigning his reasons for persisting in this extraordinary course.
This letter requires our special attention. Its tenor is as follows:--
"My dear Sir,
"In reply to your note relative to the woman Molly, I beg
you will have the kindness to oblige me by assuring his
Excellency that I regret exceedingly my inability to comply
with his request, which under other circumstances would
afford me very great pleasure.
"There are many and powerful reasons for inducing me to
refuse my sanction to her returning here in the way she
seems to wish. It would be to reward the worst species of
ingratitude, and subject myself to insult whenever she came
in my way. Her moral character is very bad, as the police
records will shew; and she would be a very troublesome
character should she come here without any restraint. She is
not a native of this country, and I know of no relation she
has here. I induced her to take a husband, a short time
before she left this, by providing a comfortable house in my
yard for them, and prohibiting her going out after 10 to 12
o'clock (our bed-time) without special leave. This she
considered the greatest, and indeed the only, grievance she
ever complained of, and all my efforts could not prevent it.
In hopes of inducing her to be steady to her husband, who
was a free man, I gave him the house to occupy during our
absence; but it appears the attachment was too loose to bind
her, and he has taken another wife: so on that score I do
her no injury.--In England she made her election, and
quitted my family. This I had no right to object to; and I
should have thought no more of it, but not satisfied to
leave quietly, she gave every trouble and annoyance in her
power, and endeavoured to injure the character of my family
by the most vile and infamous falsehoods, which was embodied
in a petition to the House of Commons, and would have been
presented, had not my friends from this island, particularly
the Hon. Mr. Byam and Dr. Coull, come forward, and disproved
what she had asserted.
"It would be beyond the limits of an ordinary letter to
detail her baseness, though I will do so should his
Excellency wish it; but you may judge of her depravity by
one circumstance, which came out before Mr. Justice Dyett,
in a quarrel with another female.
* * * * *
"Such a thing I could not have believed possible.[19]
[Footnote 19: I omit the circumstance here mentioned, because
it is too indecent to appear in a publication likely to be
perused by females. It is, in all probability, a vile
calumny; but even if it were perfectly true, it would not
serve Mr. Wood's case one straw.--Any reader who wishes it,
may see the passage referred to, in the autograph letter in
my possession. T. P.]
"Losing her value as a slave in a pecuniary point of view I
consider of no consequence; for it was our intention, had
she conducted herself properly and returned with us, to have
given her freedom. She has taken her freedom; and all I wish
is, that she would enjoy it without meddling with me.
"Let me again repeat, if his Excellency wishes it, it will
afford me great pleasure to state such particulars of her,
and which will be incontestably proved by numbers here, that
I am sure will acquit me in his opinion of acting unkind or
ungenerous towards her. I'll say nothing of the liability I
should incur, under the Consolidated Slave Law, of dealing
with a free person as a slave.
"My only excuse for entering so much into detail must be
that of my anxious wish to stand justified in his
Excellency's opinion.
"I am, my dear Sir,
Yours very truly,
JOHN A. WOOD.
"_20th Oct. 1830_."
"_Charles Taylor, Esq._
_&c. &c. &c._
"I forgot to mention that it was at her own special request
that she accompanied me to England--and also that she had a
considerable sum of money with her, which she had saved in
my service. I knew of L36 to L40, at least, for I had some
trouble to recover it from a white man, to whom she had lent
it.
"J. A. W."
Such is Mr. Wood's justification of his conduct in thus obstinately
refusing manumission to the Negro-woman who had escaped from his "house of
bondage."
Let us now endeavour to estimate the validity of the excuses assigned, and
the allegations advanced by him, for the information of Governor Sir
Patrick Ross, in this deliberate statement of his case.
1. To allow the woman to return home free, would, he affirms "be to reward
the worst species of ingratitude."
He assumes, it seems, the sovereign power of pronouncing a virtual
sentence of banishment, for the alleged crime of ingratitude. Is this then
a power which any man ought to possess over his fellow-mortal? or which
any good man would ever wish to exercise? And, besides, there is no
evidence whatever, beyond Mr. Wood's mere assertion, that Mary Prince owed
him or his family the slightest mark of gratitude. Her account of the
treatment she received in his service, _may_ be incorrect; but her simple
statement is at least supported by minute and feasible details, and,
unless rebutted by positive facts, will certainly command credence from
impartial minds more readily than his angry accusation, which has
something absurd and improbable in its very front. Moreover, is it not
absurd to term the assertion of her _natural rights_ by a slave,--even
supposing her to have been kindly dealt with by her "owners," and treated
in every respect the reverse of what Mary affirms to have been her
treatment by Mr. Wood and his wife,--"the _worst_ species of ingratitude?"
This may be West Indian ethics, but it will scarcely be received as sound
doctrine in Europe.
2. To permit her return would be "to subject himself to insult whenever
she came in his way."
This is a most extraordinary assertion. Are the laws of Antigua then so