The West Indies in 1837 : being the journal of a visit to Antigua, Montserrat, Dominica, St. Lucia, Barbadoes, and Jamaica; undertaken for the purpose of ascertaining the actual condition of the Negro population of those islands / By Joseph Sturge and Thomas Harvey.

  • Joseph Sturge
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The West Indies in 1837 : being the journal of a visit to Antigua, Montserrat, Dominica, St. Lucia, Barbadoes, and Jamaica; undertaken for the purpose of ascertaining the actual condition of the Negro population of those islands / By Joseph Sturge and Thomas Harvey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    420/496 (page 404)
    | D] BARBUDA. Or the three seamen in our little Schooner who were Barbadians, two were exiles from their homes, and the third was a colored boy, the son of the late Superintendent of the Island, who is menitoned by Sir Berne, Coprineron in his public correspondence on Slavery with T. F. Buxron. Many of our readers will re- member, that Barbuda is the private property of Sir Berne, and that the happy condition of its inhabitants was brought promi- nently forward by him, in the correspondence referred to. The boy, above mentioned, is left without any education, to earn his bread as a cabin boy in a small coasting schooner, a life of all others, distinguished by hardship and privation. Before Eman- cipation, there were five hundred slaves in Barbuda; none would have quitted it voluntarily as they are attached to their native soil, to their fertile gardens, and varied employments of agriculture, hunting, fishing, piloting and diving. At the present moment, however. upwards of a hundred of them are in banishment in Antigua. The will of the Superintendent is law, and for every real or supposed offence they are liable to be ordered off the Island. Our Captain, who is employed by the Superintendent, and has evidently no sympathies for the negros, told us, that on one occasion since they became free, when their labor was not wanted, in consequence of a dry season, the people were all dismissed but thirty, and that they were pardoned and permitted to return as soon as seasonable weather set in! They receive wages from the Superintendent, but as he is the sole shopkeeper, much of the money circulates back again into his till. During our stay in Antigua, we had several opportunities of con- versing with persons acquainted with the state of Barbuda. It was originally granted to the ancestor of its present proprietor for ninety nine years, and at the expiration of this period was re- granted by GrorGe IV, for a term of fifty years, on the con- dition that the grantee should present the Governor of Antigua annually with a fat wether sheep. The Island is nearly as large