"What Does Your Sugar Cost?" A Cottage Conversation on the Subject of British Negro Slavery. (Concluded.)

"WHAT DOES YOUR SUGAR COST?" A COTTAGE CONVERSATION ON THE SUBJECT OF BRITISH NEGRO SLAVERY.
(Concluded.)

From the Fiscal's account, printed by order of the House of Commons, June 23, 1826. page 39.

"Mr. Grade, the manager of l'Esperance, is charged by the slaves with various delinquencies. A pregnant woman, named Rosa, was employed picking coffee with some other women. Thinking they did not pick enough, or well, Mr. Grade ordered the driver Zondag to flog them. The driver did so. Rosa had previously objected to working, as being too big, and being unable to stoop; but the manager overruled the objection, and she went to pick coffee on her knees. When Zondag came to her, he said to the manager, This woman is big with child. The manager replied, 'Give it to her till the blood flies out.' She was flogged with the whip doubled. This was on a Friday. She was sent to the field on Saturday, but, being seized with pains in her loins, was sent to the hospital. The doctor examined her, and ordered her to the field again. On Sunday she was delivered of a dead child, after a severe labour. The child's arm was broken, and one eye was bruised, and sunk in the head. This woman had had seven children before by one husband. The driver Zondag, and several others confirmed the above statement. The driver being particularly asked, whether on his representing that Rosa was pregnant, the manager had used the expression, 'Never mind, flog her till the blood comes,' replied, Yes.'" (pp. 25 - 27.)

Woman weeps. - "Why, Madam, is a black woman to be used worse than a white one?"

Daughter weeps. - "I can tell you, mother - because, because, mother, she has no one to stand up for her. Father would not let you be served so - nor William, either."

Lady - "But if the father of Rosa's seven children had raised his arm to defend her, he would have been put to death. This is one of their laws - "Slaves who shall strike, or offer, or dare to strike, or use any violence towards their master or mistress, shall, for the first offence, suffer death, transportation, or such other punishment as the court may think fit to inflict. And for the second offence, death, without possibility of escape. Do not weep for them my good girl, but try to help them. Tell others how they are used, till every body helps them, and listen once more to their ale of woe."

"General Murray, the late governor of Demerara, well known by the share he had in the prosecution of Smith, the Missionary, has two estates in Berbice, Resolution, and Busses Lust. On the 2d October, 1821, the manager of the former estate, Hopkins, was reproved by the Fiscal for having given three successive floggings to a Negro named Mark, who states, -

"He has been flogged severely by the manager, on account of complaining he was sick, three different times; once twelve, another time thirty-nine, and again twenty-five lashes have been inflicted; shows marks of severe flogging, and much neglected." - (p. 49.)

"On the 29th of November there is another complaint from the same estate. Michael says he is a negro, and knows well he must work; but that they work from morning till late in the evening picking coffee, 'and when he comes home, between six and seven in the evening, instead of going home to get some victuals, he is ordered to work till twelve at night, bringing mud from one place to another. Also on Sundays they are ordered to work, and if they should refuse they would be flogged.' Philip makes a similar complaint. "Thomas says he is an old man, and the work that the manager gives him to do is impossible for him to complete, from the weakness of his body and state; for which he is always punished, and kept continually in the stocks." (p. 50.)

"The result of the complaints made to the Fiscal is seldom given. In this instance it is given in very laconic terms, and will doubtless surprise our readers: Two directed to receive SEVENTY-FIVE lashes." Mother. - "We will never, never more eat sugar."

Daughter. - "I'll never more drink any coffee at all, that I won't."
Lady. - "You may have very good sugar, not made by slaves, like this" - (shews her some free sugar.)
Woman. - "How am I to get it? I am in debt to our huckster, and I know he only sells that vile slave sugar."

Lady. - "Go and ask an honest worthy grocer, who was never known to tell a lie or deceive any one, to give you a pinch of free sugar, with its price per pound written on the paper. Then persuade twenty-four of your neighbours who deal with your huckster, every one, to tell him - 'We want sugar like this, and we will have no other:' keep your word, 'till he has got the right sugar, then eat in peace, and thank God that you were born free, and beseech him earnestly to release these poor blacks from slavery. I know a poor blind woman who is confined to her bed, and there she lies, begging God to help 'them to right who suffer wrong.' She is often asking him to pity her poor black fellow-creatures, and to rid them out of the hands of the wicked.' If every English woman would only do what I recommend: there would soon be an end of slavery; of British slavery, I mean."

Woman. - "I wish to help them too, Ma'am; but what will my husband say? I hope he will be as willing as I am to give up the slave sugar."

Lady. - "I have been told that he is a sensible man, and that he fears God: he knows that these poor creatures are slaves, and he will remember that 'all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.' If the blacks were in your place, and you in theirs, what would you wish them to do for you?"

Woman. - "Oh! I should wish them to pity me, and pray for me, and to beg others to pray for me, and pity me, and the less they eat of the sugar I was whipped to make, the less I should have to make; and if my voice could reach the ears of such kind friends, I should say, 'Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.' May the blessings of a poor black woman be on your head."

Lady. - "I think, except their own slaves, none that were greatly distressed, ever pleaded to Britons without being helped. Our slaves would have been heard before now, if their bleeding flesh could have had tongues to tell us their wrongs, but the cries of our slaves have been unheard, and their groans could not reach us; theirs 'has been silent, enduring, uncomplaining vice,' their very abjectness prevented them, like the beats, from sending messengers to us, to beg for our help; and it is this thought, 'they cannot plead for themselves,' that gave me courage to knock at your door this morning, to ask you 'what your sugar cost?' and now I have called upon you, and have begged you to help them, will you refuse? Remember that 'whoever so stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.' Prov. xxi. 13. and say with David, 'Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God.' Psalm li. 14. Good bye, I will leave you some verses to read when I am gone, and I thank you for listening to me so kindly." - (The Lady does away.)

PITY FOR POOR AFRICANS.

I own I am shocked at the purchase of slaves.
And fear those who buy them and sell them are knaves.
What I heard of their hardships, their tortures, and
groans,
Is almost enough to draw pity from stones.

I pity them greatly, but I must be mum,
For how could we do without sugar and rum?
Especially sugar, so needful we see,
What, give up our gingerbread, coffee, & tea!

Besides, if we do, the French, Dutch & Danes,
Will heartily thank us, no doubt, for our pains,
If we do not buy the poor creatures, they will,
And tortures and groans will be multiply'd still.

If foreigners likewise would give up the trade,
Much more in behalf of your wish might be said;
But while they get riches by purchasing blacks.
Pray tell me why we may not also go snacks?

Your scruples and arguments bring to my mind,
A story so pat, you may think it is coin'd,
On purpose to answer you, out of my mint;
But I can assure you I saw it in print.

A youngster at school, more sedate than the rest,
Had once his integrity put to the test;
His comrades had plotted an orchard to rob,
And ask'd him to go and assist in the job.

He was shock'd, Sir, like you, and answer'd -
"Oh no!
What! I rob our good neighbour! I pray you,
don't go;
Besides the man's poor, his orchard's his bread,
Then think of his children, for they must be fed."

"You speak very fine, and you look very grave,
But apples we want, and apples we'll have;
If you will go with us, you shall have a share,
If not, you shall have neither apple nor pear."

They spoke, and Tom ponder'd - "I see they will go,
Poor man! what a pity to injure him so!
Poor man! I would save him his fruit if I could,
But staying behind will do him no good.

"If the matter depended alone upon me,
His apples might hang till they dropt from the tree;
But, since they will take them, I think I'll go too,
He will loose none by me, though I get a few."
His scruples thus silenced, Tom felt more at ease,
And went with his comrades the apples to seize;
He blam'd and protested, but join'd in the plan,
He shar'd in the plunder, but pity'd the man.

Daughter - "Why, mother, Tom was as great a thief as the others, after all."

Mother. - "So he was; and we shall be as bad as the planters, if we share in the sugar, and pretend to pity the slaves: we shall be neither more nor less than HIPOCRITES like Tom."