Cambridge (9 page)

For hours the men will indulge themselves in gambling,
pitch and toss
being a favourite, a game occasioning loud and excitable responses, which very much suits the negro temperament. On these fine tropical nights it is possible to watch from the piazza as the negro women cook the supper and tell stories to one another. The chief meal consists of what the negroes grow and cultivate for themselves, supplemented by the two pounds of excellent salt-fish which is weekly served out to adults, with children receiving an allowance of a pound and one half from the day of their birth, and drivers a princely three pounds. Not for the hungry negro a simple cold mess to conclude a day's labour. The scent of fresh bread often flows from their ovens, and I am told that the tea they boil using the soiled waters of the nearby turbid stream is surprisingly palatable. By far the greater number of negro children happily display themselves in a state of nature. Their common form of recreation is to dance all about, after which, along with their elders, they will retire for the night unconscious of any harm until dawn, when again they are driven afield to labour. Once they reach the cane-pieces there is one strange custom which the negro seems determined to indulge in. This involves tearing off their shirts and secreting them under a bush when threatened with even the lightest rain. In this state they are wont to continue their labours, for the rain runs quickly from their oily skins. Should a negro allow dampness to enter his clothing he will almost certainly contract the tremors and fall swiftly into a decline.

Work is carried on daily except for Sunday and every other Saturday, when the slaves are free to raise their own provisions such as plantains, yams, eddoes and other tropical vegetables. They also keep hogs, rabbits and such livestock. On their free days, and the holidays of Easter, Whitsuntide and Christmas, they visit the market to sell and trade what they have cultivated. They have a keen eye for fancy articles of little practical value, and they love their free time in which to gossip on trivial matters, investing them with an almost absurd gravitas. On Sundays and holiday occasions the negro will cap his festivities by indulging a passion for dress, a love of which is curiously strong in these people. Male or female, they show the same predilection for exhibiting the finery of their wardrobes, and will generally adorn themselves in the following manner. The dandified males sport wide-brimmed hats and silk umbrellas, and promenade in windsor-grey trousers (which are generally embroidered about the seams with black cord). They complete the spectacle with white jackets, and shirts with stiff high collars. The
sable-belles
are no less extravagantly modish in their ornamental silk dresses, gauze flounces and highly coloured petticoats which, though of the best quality, display patterns more commonly employed in England for window-curtains. Those who sport bonnets blend the fiercest shades in a close companionship with each other, so that these rainbow-hats dazzle one's eyes at a mile's distance. Others seem to imagine their Sabbath toilet complete only when combs are stuck into their woolly heads, although the poor implement would be doomed should it attempt to conquer their coarse ungovernable hair. I for one take greater comfort in viewing the negroes, male and female, in their filthy native garb, for in these circumstances they do not violate laws of taste which civilized peoples have spent many a century to establish.

During the crop season those who are chosen to work in the boiling-house often drudge long into the night, and some clean through until dawn without even a momentary suspension of
labour. But this is the only real variance from a pattern which the average English labourer might consider luxurious, especially if he were to view the quarters of the plantation blacks, their cottages surrounded by trees and shrubs, the interiors often plastered and white-washed, the roofs matched with palm leaves, and the floors of the best rooms board. Their bedding is for the most part a sack filled with dry plantain leaves, which I am led to believe can prove exceedingly comfortable. Some negroes find it advantageous to drape their narrow nests with the mosquito-net so as to hinder these creatures, whose kiss is more powerful than of any English gnat or harvest-bug. Although the family is deemed the basic social unit, marriage is a mere charade and unfaithfulness a matter of course. But let not this one small sadness disguise the fact that for the negroes this is indeed a happy hedonistic life, with ample food, much singing and dancing, regular visits to the physicians, hospitals a-plenty, good housing, healthy labour, and an abundance of friendship.

I have been led to believe that in the past there was some tension between the Africans and the
Creoles.
Disputes between these different types of slave were regularly initiated by the
Creoles,
who held in contempt those closer to Africa as being the produce of
Guinea-men.
Bonds tighter than family were often struck between the offspring of two men who travelled to these shores in the same bottom, and such bonding would often lead to resentment among the
creole
blacks who had long forgotten, if indeed they had ever known, the true nature of their origins, over and above some loosely imagined fabrications relating to times long since past. These days, now that the acquisition of fresh African slaves is no longer legal, the breeding system has acquired a greater significance than hitherto. I observed a negress who, having enriched my father, held up her new-born child with the words, 'See misses, see! Here nice new nigger me born to bring for work for misses.' And her sentiments are by no means unusual. High status is granted a woman who
can bring forth many
Creole
children to populate the plantation, and it has not been unknown for a woman to be rewarded for such labour by being granted her freedom. Stella's own
sister
explained to me that she had 'twelve whole children and three half ones', by which she meant miscarriages. And should one chance to hear of a 'one-belly woman', she will be labouring under 'the pleasing punishment which women bear', and is therefore discharged from all severe labour, except of course the terrors and agonies of the labour of child-birth itself, which in these parts is no simple matter.

It is generally the elderly and most obstinately ignorant women who attend the breeders at the time of child-birth. Their tampering has in many instances led to the mother or child or both breathing their last before the mortal nature of the confinement is recognized, and a proper medical attendant can be summoned. Happy is the mother who survives this harpy-trial; her issue is added joyously to the list of the slave population in the plantation-book. But sadly, her joy will not endure beyond a few weeks, for these women are soon pressed again into service and driven afield. I heard complaints from one such bearer who claimed, 'Misses, me have pickaninny two weeks in de sick-house, den out upon the hoe again and we can't strong that way, misses, we can't strong.' On the mothers' return to the fields their progeny are lost to the charge of these self-same midwives. It is only to be expected that before long the pleasures of field-gossip far outweigh the burdens of that weary duty known as
motherhood.
In short, these
mothers
soon prefer their pigs to their own children. To conclude, I sometimes believe that the black woman can produce little
atoms
at will, and when they are barren, it is so only because they are discontented with their circumstances (as a hen will not lay her eggs on board ship). However, the pleasures and benefits that accrue to these breeders lead some dissemblers to insist, for many months more than is generally required to replenish the human race, that they are in 'a state of goodly hope'.

A trait which suggests an inconsistency with the other low characteristics of the negro is the male negro's affection for his mother, irrespective of how cruelly he may have been spurned at birth. Nothing can more provoke a negro to instant enragement and subsequent violence, than a disrespectful remark about his mother, no matter how trifling or inconsequential this remark may appear to be. The male negro son will be diligent in securing the comfort of his mother, be she in sickness or in health. It must be acknowledged that there is some virtue to the negro's loyalty in this respect, and some virtue also in the negro's attitude towards the older members of his ebon community. Old negroes are seldom allowed to live alone or required to perform the duties of cooking. Whether infirm or not, these responsibilities are borne by younger people who will administer to their needs, including attending to their provision grounds in the mountains. They do so in exchange for a trifling return of produce, and all manner of negroes, be they
creole
or African, treat the elderly with respect and kindness, and endeavour to make their old age comfortable.

Our earthly sojourn must terminate in death, and to mark this occasion the negroes have devised many strange and fantastical ceremonies which they perform in their own gardens. If the corpse is that of an adult they consult it as to the manner and location in which it pleases to be interred. Then, bearing the coffined weight of the carcass upon their shoulders, a group of negroes sets out to locate this resting place, each receiving various signals from their long-lost acquaintance, each pulling in different directions, so that it is by no means unusual for the coffin to jump from their shoulders and tumble to the ground while the bearers settle the matter with their fists. Having committed their fellow creatures to the earth, the negroes sit by the mound determined to accompany their friends wherever it may be that they are going on their final journey upon this earth before they commence a new existence.

As the negroes are very superstitious I found it unusual
that they chose to have their dead buried in their gardens, for they fear
jumbys
(ghosts) with a vengeance. These
jumbys
or apparitions are believed to compel the onlooker to follow them, and even run off from the plantation, although it might be more rationally considered that on these occasions the negroes make something of a convenience of their
jumbys.
Apparently
the jumbys
the negroes must truly fear are those of their enemies, and even in death they never suffer their foes to be buried near them. The difference between a benign and a malignant
jumby
is given much consideration. It follows then that the negroes generally believe in a life beyond this world which will involve their return to their own country. However, the decline in sable freight has led to fewer of the negroes having any idea of a country beyond these shores, so that some other place not rooted in reality has long since been substituted for the concept of a
home
country.

It was surprising for me to note how many of those negroes who claimed some memory or association with Africa denied any affection for this link. Whether I was being humoured on account of my alabaster skin I know not, but such conversations often proceeded as follows.
Were you a free man in Africa?
'Me a Mandingo and dey tek me a Guinea coast to sell to Buckra captain. But me well glad to leave that cruel place, misses, well glad.'
How old were you on your arrival in the West Indies?
'A big, big man, but me no wan' go back in Africa for they slave me and whip me to death. Whip me, lash me to death, so me like this West Indies truly.'
But what of your friends and family in Africa?
'Friends and family happy to sell pickaninny to Buckra-man so me no trust them at all. Me go yonder and see England next, me wan' to see English cold.'
Do you know what ice is?
'Me know, me know, ice is Englishman's water. Me hear so, me wan' go see with these two peepers.'

Perhaps the commonest of all the negro airs that I have given ear to, and one of the very few that I have been able to distinguish as
English,
reflects the rootlessness of these people
who have been torn from their native soil and thrust into the busy commerce of our civilized world. It is much to be doubted that they will ever again reclaim a true sense of self. The evidence before my eyes suggests that such a process will unfold only after the passage of many decades, perhaps many centuries. It will not be swift.

If me want for go in a Ebo
Me can't go there!
Since dent tief me from a Guinea
Me can't go there!

If me want for go in a Congo
Me can't go there!
Since dem tief me from my tatter
Me can't go there!

If me want for go in a Baytown,
Me can't go there!
Since massa go in a England,
Me can't go there!

I shall conclude my brief observations with the anecdote of Caesar, a poor creature who, with his thick, sullen features, over-hanging eyebrows, and face half covered in hair, gives a convincing portrayal of
Master Bruin
himself. Sadly, he was recently stricken with a progressive malady, but I
nursed
him with particular care and he is almost recovered and returned to his trade as a carpenter. The poor fellow, so he believes, cannot sufficiently express his gratitude, and whenever he sees me, dances about extravagantly, crying, 'God bless you, misses! Me glad, glad to see you. God bless you!' He will then burst into a roar of laughter so wild and clamorous that I fear I shall never accustom myself to its rude excess. The poor fellow's jargon is beyond me, but I cannot write the salt tears, affecting looks,
and piteous gestures that render it truly pathetic. Suffice to say, this Caesar appears determined to laud me to the skies with his untiring
eloquence.
It seems as though I am to be his eternal heroine, though I did but apply a small poultice to his brow and sit with him on two afternoons.

If treated with care these children are as loyal as any creatures under the sun. They may differ from us in their disregard of marriage vows, and they clearly have difficulty in performing any duty without giving voice to melody, or relaxing without tripping the light fantastic with their toes, but they are in our charge and must be provided for. These days few bottoms arrive, and those which do bear traffic from other islands, with only the occasional ship illegally carrying fresh African stock. It would thus appear that the welcome process of
creolization
is advanced and advancing apace. This being the case, we must be bold enough to take on the responsibility that comes with ownership, and learn to care with even greater dutiful application.