A FULL ACCOUNT OF THE COLONY AND ITS INHABITANTS FROM THE TIME OF THE CARIBS TO THE PRESENT DAY, Interspersed with Anecdotes and Legends.
AN IMPARTIAL VIEW OF SLAVERY AND THE FREE LABOUR SYSTEMS; THE STATISTICS OF THE ISLAND, AND BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF THE PRINCIPAL FAMILIES.
“Sworn to no party, of no sect am I.”—Pope.
LONDON SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET. 1844.
Caribs: Domestic state—Treatment of their women—Children—Their early tuition—Superstitious cruelties—Hatred of the Arrowawks— Female children—Occupation of the men—Canoes—Bows and arrows— Cottages—Cooking utensils—Native cloth—Food—Fishing—Decoy fish— Spirituous liquors—Personal appearance—Amusements—The Carib house—Extermination of the Caribs from Antigua—Remarks upon their history
Negroes: Their introduction into the New World—Bartholomew Las Casas—His intercessions in favour of the Indians—Cardinal Ximenes—Origin of the slave trade—Its adoption by the English government—Character of slavery—Mental degeneracy—Instances of superior faculties among the Negro race—Juan Parega—Phillis Wheatley—Ignatius Sancho—His letter to the Rev. L. Sterne— Slavery in its early days—Punishment of the negroes in 1736
Negroes: Palliations, _but not excuses_, for former cruelties—A harsh planter—Crimes of slaves—The little negroes’ dinner-hour— A character—Negroes’ want of thought—Bartering their weekly provisions—Pilfering—The Rock Dungeon—A Tortolian slave-master— The murdered slave—Branding—Slave cargo—Remarks upon slavery—A good slave-master—A kind attorney—Negro gratitude
Negroes: The assertion that negroes are careless of all domestic ties confuted by anecdotes—“Shadows” of negro character—Excuses for them—Conversion to Christianity—Belief of the Africans that after death they shall return to Africa— Instance of it—Africans and Creoles—Superstitions—Obeah
Negroes: Superstition—Trials by ordeal—Flower-fence—Bible and key—A way to recover stolen property—Charm to prevent a scolding tongue—Jumbies—A night’s adventure—The soldier’s last jump—Jumbies calls—Betsey, the nurse—The haunted house—A cure— The drowning boys—The murdered woman—The jumby’s revenge
Seeming paradoxes explained—Negro suspicion—Instances of it— Stealing—Its various characters—Leasing—The dead canaries— Broken promises—Idleness—Negro wages—Their present lot— Domestics