The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African
and stripes, reduced so low, that they are turned out as unfit for
service, and left to perish in the woods, or expire on a dunghill.
My master was several times offered by different gentlemen one hundred
guineas for me; but he always told them he would not sell me, to my
great joy: and I used to double my diligence and care for fear of
getting into the hands of those men who did not allow a valuable slave
the common support of life. Many of them even used to find fault with
my master for feeding his slaves so well as he did; although I often
went hungry, and an Englishman might think my fare very indifferent;
but he used to tell them he always would do it, because the slaves
thereby looked better and did more work.
While I was thus employed by my master I was often a witness to
cruelties of every kind, which were exercised on my unhappy fellow
slaves. I used frequently to have different cargoes of new negroes in
my care for sale; and it was almost a constant practice with our
clerks, and other whites, to commit violent depredations on the
chastity of the female slaves; and these I was, though with
reluctance, obliged to submit to at all times, being unable to help
them. When we have had some of these slaves on board my master's
vessels to carry them to other islands, or to America, I have known
our mates to commit these acts most shamefully, to the disgrace, not
of Christians only, but of men. I have even known them gratify their
brutal passion with females not ten years old; and these abominations
some of them practised to such scandalous excess, that one of our
captains discharged the mate and others on that account. And yet in
Montserrat I have seen a negro man staked to the ground, and cut most
shockingly, and then his ears cut off bit by bit, because he had been
connected with a white woman who was a common prostitute: as if it
were no crime in the whites to rob an innocent African girl of her
virtue; but most heinous in a black man only to gratify a passion of
nature, where the temptation was offered by one of a different colour,
though the most abandoned woman of her species. Another negro man was
half hanged, and then burnt, for attempting to poison a cruel
overseer. Thus by repeated cruelties are the wretched first urged to
despair, and then murdered, because they still retain so much of human
nature about them as to wish to put an end to their misery, and
retaliate on their tyrants! These overseers are indeed for the most
part persons of the worst character of any denomination of men in the
West Indies. Unfortunately, many humane gentlemen, by not residing on
their estates, are obliged to leave the management of them in the
hands of these human butchers, who cut and mangle the slaves in a
shocking manner on the most trifling occasions, and altogether treat
them in every respect like brutes. They pay no regard to the situation
of pregnant women, nor the least attention to the lodging of the
field negroes. Their huts, which ought to be well covered, and the
place dry where they take their little repose, are often open sheds,
built in damp places; so that, when the poor creatures return tired
from the toils of the field, they contract many disorders, from being
exposed to the damp air in this uncomfortable state, while they are
heated, and their pores are open. This neglect certainly conspires
with many others to cause a decrease in the births as well as in the
lives of the grown negroes. I can quote many instances of gentlemen
who reside on their estates in the West Indies, and then the scene is
quite changed; the negroes are treated with lenity and proper care, by
which their lives are prolonged, and their masters are profited. To
the honour of humanity, I knew several gentlemen who managed their
estates in this manner; and they found that benevolence was their true
interest. And, among many I could mention in several of the islands, I
knew one in Montserrat[R] whose slaves looked remarkably well, and
never needed any fresh supplies of negroes; and there are many other
estates, especially in Barbadoes, which, from such judicious
treatment, need no fresh stock of negroes at any time. I have the
honour of knowing a most worthy and humane gentleman, who is a native
of Barbadoes, and has estates there[S]. This gentleman has written a
treatise on the usage of his own slaves. He allows them two hours for
refreshment at mid-day; and many other indulgencies and comforts,
particularly in their lying; and, besides this, he raises more
provisions on his estate than they can destroy; so that by these
attentions he saves the lives of his negroes, and keeps them healthy,
and as happy as the condition of slavery can admit. I myself, as shall
appear in the sequel, managed an estate, where, by those attentions,
the negroes were uncommonly cheerful and healthy, and did more work by
half than by the common mode of treatment they usually do. For want,
therefore, of such care and attention to the poor negroes, and
otherwise oppressed as they are, it is no wonder that the decrease
should require 20,000 new negroes annually to fill up the vacant
places of the dead.
Even in Barbadoes, notwithstanding those humane exceptions which I
have mentioned, and others I am acquainted with, which justly make it
quoted as a place where slaves meet with the best treatment, and need
fewest recruits of any in the West Indies, yet this island requires
1000 negroes annually to keep up the original stock, which is only
80,000. So that the whole term of a negro's life may be said to be
there but sixteen years![T] And yet the climate here is in every
respect the same as that from which they are taken, except in being
more wholesome. Do the British colonies decrease in this manner? And
yet what a prodigious difference is there between an English and West
India climate?
While I was in Montserrat I knew a negro man, named Emanuel Sankey,
who endeavoured to escape from his miserable bondage, by concealing
himself on board of a London ship: but fate did not favour the poor
oppressed man; for, being discovered when the vessel was under sail,
he was delivered up again to his master. This Christian master
immediately pinned the wretch down to the ground at each wrist and
ancle, and then took some sticks of sealing wax, and lighted them, and
droped it all over his back. There was another master who was noted
for cruelty; and I believe he had not a slave but what had been cut,
and had pieces fairly taken out of the flesh: and, after they had been
punished thus, he used to make them get into a long wooden box or case
he had for that purpose, in which he shut them up during pleasure. It
was just about the height and breadth of a man; and the poor wretches
had no room, when in the case, to move.
It was very common in several of the islands, particularly in St.
Kitt's, for the slaves to be branded with the initial letters of their
master's name; and a load of heavy iron hooks hung about their necks.
Indeed on the most trifling occasions they were loaded with chains;
and often instruments of torture were added. The iron muzzle,
thumb-screws, &c. are so well known, as not to need a description, and
were sometimes applied for the slightest faults. I have seen a negro
beaten till some of his bones were broken, for even letting a pot boil
over. Is it surprising that usage like this should drive the poor
creatures to despair, and make them seek a refuge in death from those
evils which render their lives intolerable--while,
"With shudd'ring horror pale, and eyes aghast,
They view their lamentable lot, and find
No rest!"
This they frequently do. A negro-man on board a vessel of my master,
while I belonged to her, having been put in irons for some trifling
misdemeanor, and kept in that state for some days, being weary of
life, took an opportunity of jumping overboard into the sea; however,
he was picked up without being drowned. Another, whose life was also a
burden to him, resolved to starve himself to death, and refused to eat
any victuals; this procured him a severe flogging: and he also, on the
first occasion which offered, jumped overboard at Charles Town, but
was saved.
Nor is there any greater regard shewn to the little property than
there is to the persons and lives of the negroes. I have already
related an instance or two of particular oppression out of many which
I have witnessed; but the following is frequent in all the islands.
The wretched field-slaves, after toiling all the day for an unfeeling
owner, who gives them but little victuals, steal sometimes a few
moments from rest or refreshment to gather some small portion of
grass, according as their time will admit. This they commonly tie up
in a parcel; (either a bit, worth six pence; or half a bit's-worth)
and bring it to town, or to the market, to sell. Nothing is more
common than for the white people on this occasion to take the grass
from them without paying for it; and not only so, but too often also,
to my knowledge, our clerks, and many others, at the same time have
committed acts of violence on the poor, wretched, and helpless
females; whom I have seen for hours stand crying to no purpose, and
get no redress or pay of any kind. Is not this one common and crying
sin enough to bring down God's judgment on the islands? He tells us
the oppressor and the oppressed are both in his hands; and if these
are not the poor, the broken-hearted, the blind, the captive, the
bruised, which our Saviour speaks of, who are they? One of these
depredators once, in St. Eustatia, came on board of our vessel, and
bought some fowls and pigs of me; and a whole day after his departure
with the things he returned again and wanted his money back: I refused
to give it; and, not seeing my captain on board, he began the common
pranks with me; and swore he would even break open my chest and take
my money. I therefore expected, as my captain was absent, that he
would be as good as his word: and he was just proceeding to strike me,
when fortunately a British seaman on board, whose heart had not been
debauched by a West India climate, interposed and prevented him. But
had the cruel man struck me I certainly should have defended myself at
the hazard of my life; for what is life to a man thus oppressed? He
went away, however, swearing; and threatened that whenever he caught
me on shore he would shoot me, and pay for me afterwards.
The small account in which the life of a negro is held in the West
Indies is so universally known, that it might seem impertinent to
quote the following extract, if some people had not been hardy enough
of late to assert that negroes are on the same footing in that respect
as Europeans. By the 329th Act, page 125, of the Assembly of
Barbadoes, it is enacted 'That if any negro, or other slave, under
punishment by his master, or his order, for running away, or any other
crime or misdemeanor towards his said master, unfortunately shall
suffer in life or member, no person whatsoever shall be liable to a
fine; but if any man shall out of _wantonness, or only of
bloody-mindedness, or cruel intention, wilfully kill a negro, or other
slave, of his own, he shall pay into the public treasury fifteen
pounds sterling_.' And it is the same in most, if not all, of the West
India islands. Is not this one of the many acts of the islands which
call loudly for redress? And do not the assembly which enacted it
deserve the appellation of savages and brutes rather than of
Christians and men? It is an act at once unmerciful, unjust, and
unwise; which for cruelty would disgrace an assembly of those who are
called barbarians; and for its injustice and _insanity_ would shock
the morality and common sense of a Samaide or a Hottentot.