Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/93

( 59 ) brought home wounded, and almost cut to pieces, by the watchmen.

Their Clothing.

On the subject of their clothing, there is the same variation as to quantity as in their food. It depends on the disposition and circumstances of their masters. The largest allowance in the evidence is that which is mentioned by Dr. Harrison. The men, he says, at Christmas, are allowed two frocks, and two pair of Ofnaburgh trowsers [sic], and the women two coats and two shifts apiece. Some also have two handkerchiefs for the head. They have no other clothes than these, except they get them by their own extra labour. Woolrich and Coor agree, that as far as their experience went, the masters did not expend for the clothing of their slaves more than half a crown or three shillings a year; and Cook says that they are in general but very indifferently clothed, and that one half of them go almost naked in the field.

Their Houses.

With respect to their houses and lodging, the accounts of the three following gentlemen will suffice.

Mr. Woolrich states their houses to be small square huts, built with poles, and thatched at the top and sides with a kind of bamboo, and built by the slaves themselves. He describes them as lying in the middle of these huts before a small fire, but to have no bedding. Some, he says, obtain a board or mat to lie on before the fire. A few of the head-slaves have cabins of boards raised from the floor, but no bedding, except some, who have a coarse blanket.

The Reverend Mr. Rees, describing their houses nearly in the same manner, observes that their furniture consists of stools and benches, that they had no beds or bedding in the houses he was in, but that some of them slept on the ground, and others on a board raised from it.

Some of the new slaves, says Dr. Harrison, have a few blankets, but it is not the general practice: for in general they have no bedding at all.

OfH 2