Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/169

 Jeffreys solemnly added, in his evidence, the words "So help me God.") The impression this made upon his mind, Mr. Jeffreys declared, no time could ever erase. Sampson, who made the eighth, and a negro, whose name Mr. Jeffreys does not recollect, were present at this execution. Sampson, next morning, was hung in chains alive, and there he hung till he was dead, which, to the best of his recollection, was seven days. The other negro was sentenced to be sent to the mines in South America, and, he believes, was sent accordingly. Neither of those two, during the time of the execution, showed any marks of concern, or dismay, that he could observe. A stronger instance of human fortitude, he declared, he never saw.

Having now stated the substance of the evidence on the subject of offenses and punishments, we come to a custom which appears to have been too general to be passed over in silence.

Dalrymple, Forester, Captain Smith, Captain Wilson, and General Tottenham, assert that it is no uncommon thing for persons to neglect and turn off their slaves when past labor. They are turned off, say Captain Wilson, Lieutenant Davison, and General Tottenham, to plunder, beg, or starve. Captain Cook has known some to take care of them; but says others leave them to starve and die. They are often desired, when old, says Mr. Fitzmaurice, to provide for themselves, and they suffer much. Mr. Clappeson knew a man who had an old, decrepit woman slave, to whom he would allow nothing. When past labor, the owner did not feed them, says Giles; and Cook states that, within his experience, they had no food except what they could get from such relations as they might have had. General Tottenham has often met them, and, once in particular, an old woman, past labor, who told him that her master had set her adrift to shift for herself. lie saw her about three days afterwards, lying dead in the same place. The custom of turning them off when old and helpless is called in the islands "Giving them free."

As a proof of how little the life of an old slave was regarded in the West Indies, we may make the following extract from the evidence of Mr. Coor. Once, when he was dining with an overseer, an old woman who had run away a few days, was brought home, with her hands tied behind. After dinner, the overseer, with the clerk, named Bakewell, took the woman, thus tied, to the hot-house, a place for the sick, and where the stocks are in one of the rooms. Mr. Coor went to work in the mill, about one hundred yards off, and hearing a most distressful cry from that house, he asked his men what it was. They said they thought it was old Quasheba. About five o'clock the noise ceased, and about the time he was leaving work, Bakewell came to him, apparently in great spirits, and said, "Well, Mr. Coor, Old Quasheba is dead. We took her to the stocks-room; the overseer threw a rope over the beam; I was Jack Ketch, and hauled her up till her feet were off the ground. The overseer locked the door, and took the key with him, till my return just now, with a slave for the stocks, when I found her dead." Mr. Coor said, "You have killed her; I heard her cry all the afternoon." He answered, "She was good for nothing; what signifies killing such an old woman as her?" Mr. Coor said, "Bakewell,