Star.
London, England, 1824-03-17 00:00:00

madartoa. feel thibettegt of the;ehange, and In ate the test of
the islands at the proper time, •but who shall say when that proper
time will arrive? In the meantime the great mass of the negro
population condition subject to this horrible infliction, this cruet
outrage upon female delicacy and public decency. The Right
Honourable Gentleman up, that he Indulged considerable hopes-.
that the day is not far distant when the wish to abolish shifery will
be cherished even by the planters themselves. Happy as I was to
hear this, I should be stilt happier to hear on what he fonnds his
expectation. From what part of their conduct does he gather any
thing like a dispositionto embrace the opinions of the British Par-
liament? First let us see how this first proposition to abolish the use
of the cart-whip upon females was received in Jamaica. It was,
ferociously and scornfully rejected—the planters Actually assumed
the tone of an insulted and resolute people—of exasperated majesty.
How was it received in Barbadoes, which boasts herself superior
in civilization—where English education, it was pretended, had intro-
duced English feelings and manners? Perhaps some Honourable
Gentlemen may have heard of Mr. Hamden there, whose speech.
I have read with some feelings of satisfaction, because it is the
only one that has come from the Vest Indies either liberal in prin-
ciple or moderate in tube. Ile concurs in most of the propositions
of Ministers ; he is a friend of .education, and will pay the ex-
pense ; he is a 'friend of the abolition of Sunday markets, and he
thinks that the fines on manumission ought to be reduced. But on
the subject of whipping females he loses all his temper, contending
that this very proposition shewed that Lord Bathurst was a most
bitter enemy of the. Colonies, vanquished by his own fanatical feel-
ings. Ile then goes on'etnindulgelii several very pleasant jokes on
the subject of cart-whipping naked females—one of which is, that
the negro ladies have a tendency to the Amazonian cast of Charac-
ter, and that their husbands would be exceedingly sorry it they
were put beyond the reach of the cast-whip (ht reading this,
passage, my mind naturally reverted to some damning and conclu-
sive cases as to flogging females, one or two of which occurring
within the last six or seven years, I will take the liberty of men-
tioning. The first is that of Mr. Huggins, who, in the year 1317,
gave two naked females 100 lashes each with a cart-whip, because
they wept to see their own brother flogged. It is also to be okserved,
that the father was the executioner upon his own sue: The text I
shall notice is the celebrated case of the negress America, iu Ber-
bice. Iler crime was making a noise, and when it was represented
to the manager, he ordered her to be stripped naked , she begged to
be heard, but he replied that be would 2.,1; her ti: -t, and hear her
afterwards. :So dreadful was the punishment, having ben also
afterwards confiried fourteen days in the stocks, that the Clergyman
of the parishawlto saw her three weeks subsequent to the infltetion,
described her state in terms too shocking even to be quoted. She ,
endured one hundred and fifty lashes, with a delver on each side.
With such facts staring Mr. Hamden in the face, however good
his jokes may have been, I must say that they are the worst reason-
ing in the world. My objections to this practice are many, and
different from those of the Right Honourable Gentleman. First,
I hate it because of its brutalising operation on the mind of the
master. Next, I hate it on account of its cruelty to the slave; but
I hate it still more (and the Right Honourable Gentleman must
hate it too on this score), because it checks all progress to improve-
ment—because it defiles the man, and renders bins vile in our-
eyes and in his own. If, therefore, any improvement at all be in-
tended, to put down this practice is the first and important step ;•
with the cart-whip there can be no advancement in morals.-.-
rat haps I have dwelt upon:this topic as lung, and I will be more
brief as to the rest. One assertion I am entitled to make. Ye have
been calumniated from one end of the country to the other. Charges
of the wildest and the most inconsiderate enthusiasm have been
brought against us—((hear, hear, hear). Out of doors i cannot
say what I will say here, but here I will demand that those who
make tholcharge, shall point out the proof, article, by article, parti-
cul.:r by particular. Have we, I ask, in the first place, outrun the
feeling at the country and the House, in saying that the flogging of
females with the cart-whip ought to be abolished ?—(( fear, hear.)
If enthusiasts have gone too far upon this point, the House of Com-
mons have gone with then, the whole length. " I will now proceed
to the second point of the Right Honourable Geotlemar,the use
of the whip as applied to males. I will ask whether we have not
beard it said again and again in this House, that the whip is never
used as a stimulus of labour? We have been. repeatedly told that
the Negro driver merely carries the whip on his shoulder as an or-
nament, a symbol of office, or an emblem of authority ; but that it
is never employed as a stimulus of labour. An Honourable Mem-
ber opposite, in a pamphlet which he has recently written, intro-
duces au apt illustration of this subject, comparing the Negro driver
with his whip to the Srjeant-at-Arms with his mace; and lie
maintains that it would be just as rational to say that the Serjeant-
at-Arms carries his mace for the purpose of knocking down the
Members of this House, as to say that the N. —o driver-bears the
whip for the purpose of applying it to the hacks of the Negroes.--
Now, Sir, on reading this strong denial, I confess that •I Mt some- •
what staggered; I began to thick that 1 had".been most grossly
imposed upon, and I was considering what =atonement I could.,
make to those whom I had believed to be guilty of the charge,
but whose humanity had been unjustly Impugned, when' I hap-
pened to take up a file of Newspapers, and upon 'turning it
over, to find facts of the- following kind:—Alice, marked J. 13:
as having scars on the back- from flogging; Robert, a creole,
marked C. 6. and scarred on the shoulders with 11..gging marks..
Another slave is described as- having marks of severe
on the right side ; another slave, Sarah; 'marked G. F. G. on
the. right breast, and having marks of Bogging on her hack ;
A multitude of similar cases are to Ire found in these papers: indeed,
I have been told by a gentleman that he found upwards of 500 cases
of this kind in a single newspaper of a single island. , I will ask
them what is the meaning of *these advertisements? Can it be
pretended, when"we find a large proportion of the negroes ii, the
West Indies, I believe at least one-half of them, with marks of
severe flogging no their backs, that the whip is a mere symbol of
office, or badge of office in the hands of the negro-driver ? Do not
the advertisements to which 1 have referred, establish the fact, th it
the whip is resorted to as a stimulus of labour—( No, no, from seve-
ral Members). I suppose the next fact to which i shall adv.-re,
will b.:equally denied—a tact, of the existence of which I had my-
self no suspicion until I saw these newspapers—l allude to the
practice of stampinioir the negroes with but irons the initials of the
names and estates of their owners. I beg the attention of the !louse
to some of these adgertiserritins. " Betsey, a Crept., marked
I. 0. on the right shoulder; and S. 0. A. cut plain on her breast.
Peter, a man of -the Nongola country, •marked with a cow-iron."
One man was Marked with no fewer than the following
let-
ters :A, C, E, It, 0. N, P, 1, L, ; all on, his Crease
After this, will it be possiide to deny the existence of this brutal
practice? Ido tun mean to say that any respectable Proplietors
would commit such atrocities. I am perfectly sure that the Ho-
nourable Member whont I now see taking notes (we believe the
Honourable Member alluded to Mr..C. Ellis), is incapable of coun-
tenancing such a practice. All I mean to say is, that the thing is
'done, and that upwards of 500 Negroes have been recently appre-
hended with these marks branded an their backs. The nett point
to which the !tight Honourable Gentleman adverted, namely, the
extension of the National worship, and religious instruction to the
whole of the WeA India Islands, in the fullest degree, meets my
wishes. If, however, I Boise in understanding the Eight
nourable Grtaleman to have said that the 3lissionaries were to be-,
placed in sonic degree under the controul of the Bishops and Mem-
bers of the Established Church, this is a measiir, which never will
or can be carried into eff.:ce. If the Missionaries were at once to
embrace the doctrines of the Church, they would no longer be Dis-
silvers, but Churchmen "This part of the Right Honourable Gen-
tit:titan's plan is utterly imeracticable, and likely to meet with the
strong.st opposition. both in this country, and in the West Indies.
NVith respect to themext point, namely, the ,marriages of Negroes,
there is not likely to be any difference of opinion. Neither is it
necessary to remark upon that part of the proposed measures
which goes to secure by law the .property of the Negro, which is
already secured to him by custom. The next point to which I wish
to call the attention of the House, is the subject of Negro evidence.
The refusal to receive the evidence of the negro is, in point of
fart, a denial to the whole negra population of the protection of the
laws.— The white population in the West Indies amounts to 50,000;
the 'regents, to 700,000 ; that is fourteen blacks for one white, sup-
posing the whole population to be equally dispersed over the whole
country. Inn the population is not thus equally scattered over the
whole country ; they are generally collected together in large towns,
so that the proportion of blacks ro the white population may, in many
cases be taken at 100 to one. Now, let us suppose, 200 negrot%
within a given space, and two white men among them. Hone of
these white men walks out in the face of day without caring whether
he is stenos not, and commits a murder, the chances are just 200 to
one, that he is not seen by the only perion who is capable of giving
legal evidence to convict him. This calculation is founded on the sup-
position that be takes no pains to conceal the crime ; but if he selects
his opportunity, and takes the most ordinary precautions to prevent
detection, it is impossible that lie should ever be legally convicted of it
In time case of Thurtell, for instance, who was convicted on a chain.
of evidence against him, one liiik was wanting, and that one was
supplied by his accomplice. It was said that the negro had little
regard for truth, and was insensible to the nature and obligations
of an oath ; but he was deemed a good evidence against a fellow
negro. Surely, if true, this objection was as good in one case as in
another; but the negro was not thought fit to be ranked even with
the Proberts and Hunts of this country. There was no part of
this atrocious system mere horrible than that which permitted the
tin of social life to be cut asunder, for it was law in those coun-