The horrors of the Negro slavery existing in our West Indian islands — Reading Companion

This manly and becoming course has been pursued only in one instance, viz. in that of the Governor of Dominica: and his answers, though defective in some important particulars, yet contain a candid disclosure of facts, and are therefore calculated to throw considerable light, not only on the causes which may possibly have impeded the returns from the other islands, but on the general state of Negro slavery in the West Indies.

Governor Prevost, in his letter to Earl Camden, represents Dominica “as distinguished by the laws it has passed for the encouragement, protection, and government of Slaves;” but he goes on to remark, “I am sorry _I cannot add that they are as religiously enforced as you could wish_[12].” Now this is precisely what has been asserted, with respect to the laws in question, by the advocates of abolition, and as strenuously denied by West Indians. The laws may look well on paper, but they are inefficient: nay, they were never meant to be otherwise. If any one is so extremely ignorant of West Indian affairs, as not to have been already apprized of this fact, let him read the following passage in an official letter of the Governor of Dominica:

“The Act of the Legislature, intituled, ‘An Act for the Encouragement, Protection, and better Government of Slaves,’ _appears to have been considered, from the day it was passed until this hour, as a_ POLITICAL MEASURE _to avert the interference of the mother-country in the management of Slaves_[13]. Having said this, your Lordship will not be surprised to learn the clause seventh of that Bill has been wholly neglected[14]. As to the eighth clause, it is too intimately connected with the public interest to be allowed to sleep.

“I am apprehensive you will find the _account_ of all convictions had, and fines or forfeitures recovered, and of all prosecutions commenced against the defaulters, pursuant to the said act, _very unsatisfactory_; however, here, now and then, the act has shewn some signs of life.” P. 36.

After examining with the utmost attention the _account_ to which Governor Prevost refers (and which is inserted at page 39), it does not appear that _a single fine or forfeiture has been recovered_, nor _a single prosecution commenced against defaulters, during the_ SEVENTEEN YEARS that the act has been, not to say in force, for that would be ridiculous, but in existence. Of convictions there is indeed a considerable number, but, with the exception of two, they are all convictions of Negroes. Of these two, one is for the murder of a Negro: but the record which states the conviction, states also that the convict was pardoned by Governor Johnstone. The murderer was a soldier in the 68th regiment. The other case is that of a man who was fined thirty pounds currency for ill-treating a Slave, the property of Doctor Fellan. No other particulars are mentioned respecting this singular trial and conviction. The _signs of life_, therefore, which have been shewn by this act, as far as regards the _protection_ of Negro Slaves, must be admitted to be very equivocal.

Governor Prevost refers Earl Camden to a letter from the Rev. John Audain, Rector of St. George’s, as explaining “why the clauses 3 and 4 _are not carried into effect_.” Mr. Audain’s letter, however, throws little light on the subject. He can furnish no returns of marriages, because (he says) “a very few even of the free coloured people marry, and _not one Slave_ since I have been here. Why they do not, I readily conceive, particularly the Slaves. Their owners _do not exhort them to it_, and they shew no dispositions themselves to alter that mode of cohabitation which they have been accustomed to.” P. 40.

It appears then, that the 3rd and 4th clauses of this boasted act are as nugatory as the 7th: “they are not,” says Governor PREVOST, “carried into effect[15].” And yet if the reader will turn back to page 20, he will find that these clauses are introduced by a preamble of peculiar solemnity. They are enacted with the professed view of “_improving the morals and advancing the temporal and eternal happiness of the Slaves_.” What is this but impious mockery? Have they been executed? No. Has a single penalty been enforced for their non-execution? No. Surely, after this discovery, it is impossible that such mere mummery of legislation should continue to impose on the good sense of the people of Great Britain. They will see that the difference between Barbadoes, and the other islands, is in fact merely nominal: and that the same lamentable deficiency of legal protection, the same system of unqualified oppression, characterizes Negro bondage throughout the whole extent of our West Indian possessions.