Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade (1791)/Chapter 12
The causes of the increase by births, on one of the estates mentioned, viz. on the Marquis de Rouvray's of St. Domingo, are described by Captain Hall as follows:
The slaves were never hard pressed in their work. The Marquis suffered no improper intercourse between the males and females: every man had his own wife, and no white was suffered to disjoin that union. Hospitals were built for the sick and pregnant. The latter, when far advanced, were taken in there, and employed in trifling work, till the time of their delivery. Here they might remain, separated from their husbands, and excused from field labour, till the child could be supported without the mother's help, or when their strength would permit, return with the child to their husbands, and take the chance of work. In consequence, the Marquis had not, for some years, occasion to buy negroes. Having, however, left his estate to the care of a nephew, upon his return, after an absence of two years, instead of the happiness that reigned when he left it, he found nothing but misery and discontent. The whites had seized upon the pretty women: their husbands, through discontent, ran away, and the labour falling heavier upon the rest, they became discontented, and their work was badly carried on: so that it cost him two years, before he could reestablish order. It was a pleasure to walk through his estate; for the slaves used to look upon him as a father.
It is of importance to cite this estate, because, in consequence of the above regulations, its gang increased; because when they were violated it went back; and because, when they were re-established, it was restored to its former state. These regulations also include all the regulations, except two, in consequence of which the slaves increased by births on the other estates mentioned in the preceding chapter, and therefore the citation of these, in particular, avoids a repetition, and saves time. The two regulations not included in these, are the following: — Mr. Giles asserts, that the purchasing of a few mules, on an estate which he managed, to carry the canes which the negroes had before this been accustomed to carry on their heads, so lightened their labour, as to occasion them to increase in population, whereas they had decreased before: and, on the estate cited by Lieut. Davison, the circumstance of Mr. Malcolm's going among his own negroes, hearing their complaints, and not suffering them to be punished without his knowledge, are reckoned among the causes that contributed to their increase.
Let us now see what is the general practice in the colonies, and what alterations should be made in it, to insure an universal increase.
1.It is the opinion of Mr. Fitzmaurice, as observed in chap. 4, that the forcing the slaves to labour beyond their strength, is the means of bringing many of them to the grave. Mr. Baillie says, that many of their complaints arose from extreme fatigue, and that a little rest generally restored them, without any medicine being necessary. In general, says Forster, the planters have no idea of improvements to ease their slaves. It seemed a general opinion, that, if negroes were not constantly kept at work, they would become unruly.
2.We have seen, in chap. 4, the very trifling faults, for which slaves are frequently punished, at the discretion of the overseer, and the unlimited severity of those punishments by the chain, dungeon, stocks, projecting iron collar, iron boot, cowskin, cart-whip, picket, and the like; all of which have a manifest tendency to harrass human nature, and, in conjunction with other causes, to subdue it.
3.It appears that no attention is paid to the marriage of the slaves, so that one man should be restricted to one wife, but that there is a promiscuous intercourse amongst one another as they please, (General Tottenham, Capt. Smith, Sir G. Young, Forster, Coor); and that this is not only the case of the negroes one with another, but with the negro women and the whites, the latter of whom violate the chastity of the former at discretion, (Dean of Middleham, Captain Smith, Davison, Cook, Harrison, Coor, and Dalrymple). If the women are sent for by the overseers, says Cook, for these purposes, they must come or be flogged, and to such a pitch has Dalrymple known this intercourse to proceed, that female slaves are offered by their masters, even to those who visit them, and he has known compulsion used to oblige such to submit to prostitution.
4.It appears again, from chap. 4, that pregnant women, to get the most out of them, are frequently worked within a very little time of their delivery, and so hard and so near to this period, that they often miscarry, as well as that, even in this situation, they are not exempt from the whip.
5.The sides of the huts, says Coor, in which the pregnant women are delivered, and children born, are no more defence against the cold night damps, than one of our pasture hedges. Bedding they have none, but a board or bass mat. The infant, for the first eight days, is never put to the mother's breast, but given to a woman out of the field, who nurses it, and who probably has a child two, three, or four months old: and here Mr. Coor submits it to medical men what effect the milk of a woman hardly wrought and badly fed would have on a tender infant. They mostly die convulsed about the eighth day. This want of care is the more lamentable, because, if they survive the eighth day, they mostly do well. What convinces him farther it is for want of care, is, because, where they have warm houses, kind treatment, and the child set to the mother's' breast, he very seldom knew any die.
Most of the negro-houses, says Fitzmaurice, are open to the weather, being wattled withoutplaister. They sleep on a board on the ground, near the fire, and after it goes out, they suffer from cold and damp. This causes many disorders, especially to lying-in women, who lose more children by this than any other cause, as they generally die of the locked jaw.
6.The Dean of Middleham says, it struck him, to speak generally, that negro mothers commonly went into the field too early after their delivery, taking their children with them; that the milk of the mother became feverish with labour, and the heat of the sun was too powerful for the child, which was commonly exposed in a basket, and, in rainy weather, unsheltered. The same is confirmed by others.
It is evident then, if the above be the general practice in the Colonies; if the slaves are over-wrought and hastily and severely punishied; if promiscuous intercourse be allowed; if the women are oppressed durring their pregnancy; if, while lying-in, they and their infants are so much exposed to damp and cold in their houses, that many of the latter perish: and if, after delivery, they are too soon hurried, with their surviving infants, into the field, it is evident, we repeat, that they cannot possibly, in general, increase: but that some change must be made in the system, and that the following regulations are the most likely to answer the end, inasmuch as, upon the adopting of them or similar ones, the slaves on the estates cited have experienced an increase.
Regulation 1.The maxim observed on the estate of the Marquis de Rouvray, and some of the others cited, "of never pressing the slaves hard in their work," and "the substitution of animal for human labour, wherever it is practicable," as mentioned by Mr, Giles, should be adopted on every estate.
2.A more general residence of proprietors on their own estates, as on Mr. Malcolm's, to attend to the complaints and punishments of their slaves, is necessary.
3.Marriage, or the union of one man to one woman, should take place, as in the Marquis de Rouvray's plantation; and this union no white or other person should be suffered to disturb or disjoin.
4.The women slaves, when advanced in their pregnancy four months, should be taken from the field, and should have little and light work, as practised on some of the estates cited to have increased by births.
5.During the time of their lying-in, they should be put into convenient hospitals, or, if allowed to remain in their huts, these should be so constructed as to exclude the cold and damp, and every female should suckle her own child from the birth.
6.In such hospitals or huts, they should remain, as on the Marquis de Rouvray's estate, and be excused from field-labour, till the child could be supported without the mother's aid, or, when their strength would permit, return with the child to their husbands, and take the chance of work.
Now, if it could be made appear, as it can, that the slaves in some of the estates cited, increased by the adoption of some one of the above regulations alone, and that they increased on others by adopting two or three of them, and no more, and that on no one estate, as appears by the evidence, were all of them in force at a time, it is plain, that if all of them combined were put into execution on each and every estate in the colonies, there must be an universal increase of the slaves there.