A Practical View of the Present State of Slavery in the West Indies; Or, an Examination of Mr. Stephen's "Slavery of the British West India Colonies.." Containing More Particularly an Account of the Actual Condition of the Negroes in Jamaica (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1827 Excerpt: ...of the colonies, as the price of sugar would not repay such an enormous expence of manual labour. In Jamaica the canes are carried by mules upon hilly estates, and in carts drawn by oxen in the plains. The practice of making the negroes, when returning from the field at night, procure and carry home with them a bundle of grass for the overseer's stable, was also obsolete before my time. I have often heard it spoken of, and always reprobated as a hardship to the negroes, which the value of the object did not at all compensate. Mules are now employed to do this; and as the negroes return home at night or at dinner-time, every industrious individual may be seen laden with a bundle of firewood, hog-meat vine, or cane tops for the use of his hogsty; unless in situations near the sea or a river, where many of them go to examine their jish-pots, or traps, which they are ingenious in constructing, and with which they catch a great quantity of fish. There can scarcely in any country be a more pleasing sight than a group of young negroes returning home from the field in the evening, dancing together on the road, singing, laughing, and making such a noise as in the serenity of a West India evening, may be heard at the distance of a mile. Houses and Gardens of the Negroes, their Mode of Life, 8$c. The most common size of the negro houses is 28 feet long by 14 broad. Posts of hard wood about 9 feet long, or 7 above ground, are placed at a distance of two feet from one another, and the space between is closely wattled up and plastered. The roof is covered with the long mountain-thatch, palmeto-thatch, or dried guinea-grass, either of which is more durable than the straw thatch used in this country. Cane tops are also used for the purpose, but are not so lasting. To throw...