Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

To the northwest of Barbados we passed the fruitful island of St Vincent, noted for its indigo; and, with a favourable breeze, soon found ourselves running along the island of Grenada, whose fertile fields presented to view numerous groups of slaves at work; some getting cotton, while others were cutting sugar canes, etc. The sight of so many of their own countrymen excited the liveliest emotions of pleasure in our slaves; particularly when they were informed, that they would be engaged in the same sort of employment. The Igbos, remembering my promises and assurances, would frequently tap me on the back; smiling at the same time, and saying, I had told them true. We brought up in St George’s Bay, which is extremely capacious, and, on the following day, hauled round into the Canash, whence ships generally take in their cargoes, consisting of rum, sugar, coffee, etc. etc. Safely moored, we began to prepare the slaves for inspection; not with any view to their comfort, but to obtain a good price for them, – the one thing needful with dealers in human flesh. Those whom age or grief had rendered gray were selected, when, with a well-primed blacking brush, the silvery hairs were made to assume a jetty hue; and the body was rubbed over with palm oil, to induce a healthful appearance.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations:

• ER: East Riding
• GM: Greater Manchester
• NR: North Riding
• NY: North Yorkshire
• SY: South Yorkshire
• WR: West Riding
• WY: West Yorkshire

Comment

Comment

SlaveVoyages.org says that the Hudibras, under Captain Jenkin Evans, left Liverpool on 26 May 1786 and arrived at Grenada on 26 February 1787; that its owners were Thomas and William Earle (presumably William is Thomas’s brother, not his father); that it was registered in Liverpool in 1785 with tonnage 150. SV presumably copies Butterworth’s number of slaves on parting – 360 – but then gets confused in reproducing Butterworth’s deaths en route (60-70) and gives a mortality rate of only 3.0 instead of ca. 18%.

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Original

To the N.W. of Barbadoes, we passed the fruitful island of St. Vincent, noted for its indigo; and, with a favourable breeze, soon found ourselves running along the island of Grenada, whose fertile fields presented to view numerous groups of slaves at work; some getting cotton, while others were cutting sugar canes, etc. The sight of so many of their own countrymen excited the liveliest emotions of pleasure in our slaves; particularly when they were informed, that they would be engaged in the same sort of employment. The Eboes, remembering my promises and assurances, would frequently tap me on the back; smiling at the same time, and saying, I had told them true. We brought up in St. George’s Bay, which is extremely capacious, and, on the following day, hauled round into the Canash, whence ships generally take in their cargoes, consisting of rum, sugar, coffee, etc. etc.

Safely moored, we began to prepare the slaves for inspection; not with any view to their comfort, but to obtain a good price for them, – the one thing needful with dealers in human flesh. Those whom age or grief had rendered gray were selected, when, with a well-primed blacking brush, the silvery hairs were made to assume a jetty hue; and the body was rubbed over with palm oil, to induce a healthful appearance. The day previous to that of inspection, accompanying three of our crew in the pinnace, I crossed the Legoon, which branches from the Canash, taking with us a number of females and young boys, for the purpose of washing; each of whom had previously received a piece of check cloth, six inches square, to tie before them, the same being given to the whole of the slaves. I was surprised to see with what transport, after two months’ confinement, they stepped out of the pinnace; they were ready to kiss the ground on which they landed, and examined with the minuteness, though not the discrimination of a botanist, every herb and bit of grass that presented themselves to their astonished view. As soon as all were landed, and the first impulse of curiosity gratified, in the examination of indigenous plants, we left the banks of the Legoon, in search of a sufficiency of fresh water to wash or bathe in, directing our course inland. We had not proceeded far before we found abundance of guavas, limes, and a few oranges, though not equal in size to those obtained at Bridgetown, in Barbadoes.

In order the better to pluck some of the lastmentioned fruit, one of our sailors ascended an orange tree as nimble as a squirrel; but had scarcely stretched out his hand to reach the golden ball, ere he precipitated himself to the ground, as if he had been shot, bawling out that something had bit him. Sympathising with him, we approached the tree, to discover, if possible, the cause of his pain; but we were soon forced to beat a retreat, pursued by myriads of bees or wasps, whose puny weapons and pugnacious buzzings made us fly in every direction, having first discovered that their treasured sweets were suspended from the pendent boughs of the orange tree, in small combs. After concentrating ourselves, and killing numbers of our pursuers, who had advanced farther than the main body, we continued our route, in search of fresh water, and soon came in sight of a small pond, or reservoir, situate near a sugar-house. Without ceremony our charge entered the pond, and immediately began the wholesome operation of bathing, but were soon checked by the appearance of a man on horseback, galloping towards us at full speed. Frothing at the mouth, and vociferating oaths, he pulled up his horse, to curse us the more; and I firmly believe, that had he then had the disposal of the lightning’s swiftest shaft, he would have transfixed us to the spot on which we were trespassing. Indeed, such was his rage, that though an Englishman, we could scarcely understand one word that he said. After anathematising us a thousand times, he cooled a little, and informed us, that the water in which the slaves were bathing supplied a house contiguous to the sugar-house, for culinary uses: we made the best apology we could, which moderated his choler still more. At length, he proposed conducting us to another pond; we thanked him for the offer, and accompanied him thither: this second water was both stagnant and muddy, but, as no better was to be met with, it was made to serve; and the remainder of the females and boys, whom sickness did not prevent from leaving the ship, were washed therein.

The day of inspection being arrived, the prime slaves were secreted below, and the rest arranged on the deck: this was done to prevent the inferior ones suffering by comparison: the Eboes had such a decided superiority over those of the other tribes, that numbers might have remained unsold, to the great disadvantage of the wholesale vendors of human live stock. Several colonists had now arrived on board the Hudibras, to inspect our African cargo, and, as the secreted Eboes were young, powerful, and healthy, they began to manifest a spirit of turbulence, and, for some time, we found great difficulty in preserving order amongst them. They were particularly solicitous to know, why they should be pent up there, when others, their inferiors, were permitted to range the deck without restraint? Being now in favour with them, I insinuated, that the colonists who had already arrived were not great men, or such as could make them good masters; that the captain was desirous of befriending them, and would recommend them to the protection of some of his particular acquaintances, where, if they conducted themselves with propriety, they would soon have a number of slaves of their own. This was enough: I had gained some repute amongst them for speaking the truth, and my assurances were received as the oracles of truth itself. Gratitude was tacitly acknowledged by signs and gestures; but all was silent as the grave, from this moment up to the time that the last colonist left the ship.

The day following, a number were sent ashore for sale, it being customary to reserve some on board, for fear of depreciating their value, by bringing too many to market at once. In about ten days, all were disposed of, except the sick, and a few aged, whom no well-primed blacking brush, no palm oil, could resuscitate. Amongst those verging towards eternity, was a female, named Etam, who was quite out of temper at not going off with her friend and countrywoman, Ebah; her peevishness increased to rage, when I ascribed the neglect shown to her “to advanced age.” She averred that “Ebah was as old as she, and was mother of more children;” and she threatened to avenge herself in a disgusting manner; but she was saved the trouble, and relieved from anxiety, by being sold by auction amongst a lot of the sick and infirm.

Sarah, and the other favourite female of the captain, though sold, were, in compliment to him, allowed to remain on board the Hudibras.

1214 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Atlantic Ocean (5) ·
• Atlantic slave trade (5) ·
• Auction (2) ·
• Barbados (2) ·
• Bathing (3) ·
• Bee (1) ·
• Bridgetown (1) ·
• Butler, Samuel (1613-1680) (3), poet and satirist, chiefly remembered for Hudibras ·
• Butterworth, William (1769-1834) (5), Leeds engraver and sailor, unrelated to Henry Schroeder, good secondaries are ODNB and Thoresby Society ·
• Calabar (2) ·
• Caribbean Sea (3) ·
• Coffee (4) ·
• Cosmetics (1) ·
• Cotton (8) ·
• Duke Town (2) ·
• Earle, Thomas (1754–1822) (2), slave trader responsible, with his brother William, for the transportation of over 19,000 people, mayor of Liverpool in 1787 ·
• Grenada (3) ·
• Guava (1) ·
• Hudibras (3), a mock-heroic narrative poem by Samuel Butler, published in the aftermath of the English Civil War, and satirising Puritanism and the Parliamentarian cause from a Royalist perspective ·
• Human hair color (2) ·
• Igbo people (1) ·
• Indigo dye (1) ·
• 📌Leeds (235) ·
• Lime (fruit) (1) ·
• Liverpool (8) ·
• Middle Passage (1) ·
• Nigeria (4) ·
• Orange (fruit) (1) ·
• Palm oil (2) ·
• Rum (5) ·
• Saint Vincent (Antilles) (1) ·
• Slave market (1) ·
• Slavery (20) ·
• St. George’s, Grenada (1) ·
• Sugar (4) ·
• Sugarcane (1) ·
• Wasp (1) ·
• West Indies (8) ·

All tags.

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