The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-25
Slavery on Navassa.

Eight years ago the country was shock
ed by the story of a terrible massacre
which had occurred on the island of Ma
vassa, in the Caribbean sea. A number of
negro laborers in the phosphate deposits
had mutinied, and killed and mutilated
several white men who were bosses over
them in their work. The bodies of some
of the victims were thrown over the rocks
into the sea. The mutiueers were brought
in chains to Baltimore, and were put on
trial in the United States court. Three of
them were convicted, sentenced to death
and executed. 1t came out prior to and
during the trial that virtual and terri
BILE system of slavery existed on
Navassa; that the negro laborers had
been goaded to desperation by the hard
ships and cruelties inflicted upon them,
and that they took vengeance into their
own hands. The story was very sensa-
tional one, but nothing ever came of it.
According to the story of DR.. T. ]. Wood
ward of Baltimore, who is well recon-
mended as to his reliability, the condi-
ton of affairs on Navassa is no better
than was the case eight years ago, If, in
deed, ii is not worse than ever before. In
a long letter published in the New York
Herald DIR. Woodward says that the most
abject slavery exists there, together with
tyranny and abuse which cannot be de-
scribed" The place Is worse than the
mines of Siberia. Ostensibly the slaves
are paid 80 month, but the company
which employs them has the power to pay
them nothing at all If II Is 50 disposed
Besides the promised $40 a month, the
company agrees to furnish board and
lodging" The board and lodging, Dr.
Woodward says, are unfit for animals of
the lowest order The Navassa ''slave,"
he says, is treated 'incomparably worse"
than the slave of the old days In the
south. The blacks are herded like cattle,
and driven like beasts of burden to per-
form set tasks. Not only are they fogged
and robbed, but men stand over them
with revolvers and rifles TO force them to
keep steadily at work and take out the
| amount of phosphate required of them as
a daily task If laborer fails to take out
his task (six tons) between daylight and
sunset, he is forced to work over time I'M
til he has made up the deficiency. When
one of them falls sick, his wages are
stopped and he is compelled to pay fifty
cents a day for his so-called board and
| lodgings and medical treatment. The COM
pany requires a cast-iron contract under
which settlements of wages are made
only after the laborer shall have been re-
turned to the United States, but the COM
permit the laborer to run an account there
up to the amount Of the value of his work
| Prices in this store are four times what
they would be elsewhere. One clause of
the contract gives the company power to
punish laborers for failure to obey orders
to the letter by empowering the superin-
tendent at any time to adjudge a man in
competent, and upon this conclusion being
reached by the superintendent the laborer
forfeits to the company all unpaid wages.
Dr. Woodward's narrative is iun of sto-
ries of avarice and unscrupulousness. on
! the one side, and outrage and suffering on
the other.
The Navassa phosphate company, which
owns and works the deposits on the island,
is New York corporation, with offices in
Baltimore 1t would seem, from the evil
dences, that the company is made up of
many of those phlanthropists who eft
and bled and died" for the freedom of the
negro in the south. And this Is how they
love him! Navassa is United States terri
tory, yet there is no representative of the
United states resident there, or who even
visits the place, for the purpose of admin
isterlng justice The company's superin-
tendent has the power of king. aud the
| story of DR.. Woodward goes to show that