Chapter XIX: Slavery (2)

Medical attendance is not so well provided for as it ought, which proceeds rather from the small number of practitioners in the country, than from the negligence of the planters; indeed due attention in this respect is so much and so evidently their interest, that this alone, independent of any feelings of humanity, would make them seek every means of obtaining proper advice for their slaves[240]. I do not think that the food which the slaves receive is in sufficient quantities, or of a quality sufficiently nourishing for the labour which they are required to perform; and it would be undoubtedly much too scanty, if the days of intended rest did not supply them with an addition to the stock of provisions which the master affords. I have in another place stated, that the vegetable part of the food of the sugar plantation negroes is chiefly the flour of the mandioc; the animal food is generally the _carne do Searà_, salt meat which comes from Rio Grande do Sul; and sometimes salt fish supplies its place. The cloathing which is given to the slaves by the master consists of a shirt and drawers of the cotton cloth of the country, and a straw hat; a piece of baize and a mat are likewise afforded to them; but these things are not renewed as often as a due consideration to their comforts would demand. Although the negroes are fed by their masters, still as lands are to be had in abundance, the slaves are permitted to plant whatever they think fit, and to sell the produce to whom they please. Many of them rear pigs and poultry, and occasionally a horse is kept, from the hire of which money may be obtained.[241]

The newly-imported negroes are usually sent to work too soon after their arrival upon the estates; if proper care is taken of them, they may indeed be employed in almost any description of labour at the end of eight or ten months, but not much before this period. Damp situations should be avoided, and they ought not to be sent out in the morning earlier than eight o’clock, and they should breakfast before they leave home: by these precautions the loss of many slaves might be prevented; and they should be followed without any deviation, at least until the new negroes have been for a twelvemonth in the country to which they have been transported.[242]

I have represented slavery in what I conceive to be the state in which it usually exists upon the plantations; but any comforts which the human beings who are so circumstanced enjoy, and any respite from severe labour is so entirely at the will of the master, that the instances in which the fate of the slave is hard almost beyond endurance, are dreadfully too frequent. Some planters follow the system of performing certain kinds of work during the early part of the night, besides making the negroes labour for the full usual time during the day;—for instance, the whole of the labour of making the mandioc flour, preparing with the feet the clay for making bricks and earthenware, also building mud walls; besides removing bricks, fire wood, and so forth from one place to another. This extra work is called _quingingoo_. I even knew of one instance in which the field labour was continued until twelve o’clock at night, by the light of large fires which had been kindled in several parts of the ground. For this manner of proceeding there was no reason, excepting that it was the master’s pleasure so to act, for the season was favourable, and not too far advanced to have continued the work in the usual manner and yet have accomplished the planting of the field in proper time. Of cruelty I could say much, but I have gone far enough, and must not enter into farther details upon this part of my subject. The relation of such misdeeds do more harm than good, they serve as examples for those who have unprincipled minds and unfeeling hearts; and who may consider them as paths in which they may tread, because others have trodden in them, rather than as precipices which ought to be avoided. The power which is entrusted to an individual is too great, abuses must arise, the system is radically bad, and every possible means should be put into action for its extirpation.

I am acquainted with the owners of a few estates who profess to purchase any slaves however bad their characters may be, if they can obtain them below the usual price. The persons of secondary rank who possess only a few slaves, and have not the same means of punishing them if they misbehave which exist upon the great estates, dispose of those of their negroes who act improperly to the rich men who will purchase them. There is an estate in the Mata, of which the owner is known to buy any slave, however ill disposed he may be, provided he can obtain him at a low price. This man manages to keep his estate in the best order possible; every thing goes on regularly upon it. He even prefers purchasing creole slaves to Africans, although the former are invariably more difficult to manage. He is a man of determined character; on the arrival of one of these new slaves, he takes him to the prison of the estate and shews him the stocks, the chains, the whips, &c. saying “this is what you are to expect if you continue in your evil practices;” then a hut is given to the slave; and also cloaths and other articles of comfort, all of which are in a state of greater neatness, and are afforded in larger quantities than are usually bestowed upon the slaves of other plantations. On one occasion a negro struck the _feitor_, for which he was immediately confined, until the matter could be investigated; the freeman was found to be in fault, and was turned away. The negro suffered a certain degree of punishment for striking a superior, but he was ultimately appointed to the situation of _feitor_, having before held that of second driver. If this planter did not rule his people with great severity when guilty, his estate would soon become a den of thieves and murderers, for it is well known of what bad materials his gang of slaves is composed. This man is of mixed blood, but is nearly related to some of the first families of the province. It is well that a man should appear, who is willing, for the sake of a trifling difference in the price for which he may obtain his labourers, to take the trouble, and undergo the risk of person and of property in controuling a set of uneducated men, who cannot consequently have any principle of action, and whose habits are of the worst description. According to present circumstances he is of service to the country, for these fellows are kept quiet; but what a dreadful state it is, that the institutions of a country should be so framed that there should possibly exist in its centre, a body of human beings of which many of the individuals are criminals; men, who certainly never will be punished by the laws of the country, though punishment may or may not be inflicted by the person to whom they are subservient.

The slaves of the cotton estates undergo, as may be supposed, the same kind of punishments, and are subject to the same species of treatment as those which have already been spoken of; their management, as in other parts, is conducted on the whole in a more lenient or more rigorous manner, according to the dispositions of the owners. They are however liable to greater privations from the nature of the country in which they reside, and they do not enjoy the benefit of crop time, which is so favourable to the negroes of the sugar plantations. Food is not so easily obtained in parts which are so distant from great towns and from the sea-coast; and greater difficulty is experienced in the sale of the mandioc, the beans and the maize which the slaves raise upon their own provision grounds. Still the negroes of the cotton districts sometimes gain their freedom by their own exertions, for as cotton is a most lucrative plant, and yet may be cultivated and brought to market with little or no out-lay of money, those of the slaves who plant regularly and gather their trifling quantities, frequently in the end meet with the reward of their labours. This is not the case with the sugar-cane, for in cultivating this plant assistance is necessary, much work being required to be done within a given time, owing to the seasons in planting it, and to the nature of the cane when it ripens; and there is likewise the difficulty of having it ground, and of receiving the proceeds, &c. In the manufactory the slave has not his property under his own eye; it passes through the hands of many other individuals, and as there is no personal respect for the owner of the property, nor any means of redress in case of injustice, the slave has only a poor chance of being properly dealt with; the above circumstances being those to which the culture of the sugar-cane is subject, it is scarcely ever planted by slaves on their own account.

The cattle districts employ few slaves, and these are occupied at home, for scarcely any of them, unless they are Creoles, are deemed capable of undertaking the more arduous employments of pursuing the cattle, breaking in horses, &c. The slaves remain in the huts to attend to the less enterprising occupations. The climate of the Sertam is accounted well adapted to the constitutions of the Africans; sickly negroes are often purchased at reduced prices by persons who reside in the interior, under the idea that the climate will soon re-establish their health. The circumstance of the non-existence of the _chigua_ or _bicho_[243], in the plains of the Sertam is of much importance; for this insect is extremely injurious to some of the negroes;—notwithstanding every precaution, the feet have in some instances been destroyed by them. The _chigua_ has more effect upon the flesh of some persons than upon that of others; and the subjects who are violently attacked by this insect, are sometimes only preserved from being crippled by their removal to a part of the country in which it does not exist. The dryness of the air and soil of the Sertam generally removes agues of long standing, and likewise the complaint which frequently proceeds from the ague, and is called _amarellidam_, or yellowness. The Africans are seldom attacked by the ague, but they have often the _amarellidam_.

In the back settlements, beyond the plains of the Sertam, bordering upon the mountains where cotton is planted, and from which the plains are in part supplied with food, the number of negroes is becoming considerable. I have had opportunities of conversing with negroes from the Sertam, and have invariably found that they preferred their residence in the cattle districts even to a removal into the country bordering upon the sea. The diet of the Sertam negro is preferable to that of the plantation slave, so that this circumstance, independently of all others, would make the former be well aware of the superiority of his situation. Fresh beef and mutton are the usual food of the Sertam slaves, but upon the plantations these are rarely served out.

The most dreadful complaint to which negroes are subject more than other descriptions of men, is that which, in the Columbian islands is known under the name of _yaws_, and in Brazil by that of _bobas_. I had opportunities of seeing it, and most loathsome is the sight of the individuals who are afflicted with it. The body becomes covered with large ulcers, the patient is reduced to a mere skeleton, and is rendered generally for a time quite helpless. The facility with which it is communicated to others increases the distress of the patient; for every precaution must be taken in separating the sufferer to some distance from the other slaves. The adult who recovers from it seldom enjoys as perfect health as before. The negroes say that it gets into the bone; every change of weather is felt by those who have had the disorder, although they are again accounted in health, and in some cases the use of one or other of the limbs is occasionally lost for a time. A certain diet must be observed for many months after the disorder has apparently left the person who has had it, for the purpose of preventing a relapse; and sometimes a deviation from this, even some years after, will cause violent pains in the joints. The following circumstances occurred under my own eyes. A child belonging to one of my neighbours, whilst I resided at Jaguaribe, was in the practice of coming to amuse itself with some of the children of the plantation. He had this disorder upon him; and soon afterwards the son of a labourer caught it; all this was not made known to me, until a slave of eight years of age was reported to me to have the _bobas_; and shortly afterwards an old man, the father of this child, likewise fell sick. In the course of a short time, notwithstanding every care was taken, other persons were afflicted with the disease. A surgeon was applied to, and he prescribed mercury to all the patients. An infant of a few months old, which afterwards caught the disease, underwent the same treatment. The children who had arrived at a certain age all recovered, and until the period of my departure, they had never experienced any return, nor had felt any bad effects from it. The old man still laboured under it, but was recovering. The growth of the infant was stopped by the disease, and very little hopes were entertained of saving its life.

This horrible disorder is contracted by inhabiting the same room with the patient, and by inoculation; this is effected by means of a small fly, from which every precaution is oftentimes of no avail. Great numbers of the insects of this species appear early in the morning; but they are not so much seen when the sun is powerful. If one of them chances to settle upon the corner of the eye or mouth, or upon the most trifling scratch, it is enough to inoculate the _bobas_, if the insect comes from a person who labours under the disease. The same person can only have the _bobas_ once. The scars which it leaves upon the bodies of the negroes have a most disgusting appearance; for the wounds have in some cases been of such long standing, and have penetrated so deep as to have changed the colour of the skin, which becomes of a most loathsome white colour.[244] However, deep wounds of any description have the same effect upon the negro skin.

There are considerable numbers of white persons and of colour who possess two or three slaves, and share with them the daily labour, even of the field. These slaves are, generally speaking, creoles, who have been reared in the family, or they are Africans who have been purchased very young for a trifling sum of money; they are frequently considered as part of the family, and share with the master the food for which both are working. These slaves appear on gala days well-dressed, and they have a certain air of independence, which shews that they think themselves to be something more in the world than mere drudges. The difference of the feeling of one of these men towards his master, and that of the generality of the slaves which are owned by great proprietors, is very striking. The former will not suffer in his presence a word to be spoken against his master, whilst the latter cares not if he hears every injurious epithet made use of. The slaves of small proprietors are not so liable to imbibe many of the faults to which those of wealthy men are subject, and they possess more pride,—a greater wish to act honourably,—a greater dread of being upbraided for a fault. Upon large estates the assemblage of so many persons tends to depravation, and the wide distance which there is between the slave and the master tends to produce a greater feeling of inferiority; but among the small proprietors the difference of rank is infinitely less, owing, among other causes, to the assistance which they receive from each other, in their daily occupations.[245]

From the vastness of the country, it might be supposed that if a slave escapes from his master, the chances would be against his return, but this is not the case. The Africans particularly are generally brought back; they are soon distinguished by their manner of speaking the Portugueze language; and if any one of them cannot give a good account of himself, he will not be allowed to remain long unmolested, for the profit arising from the apprehension of a runaway slave is considerable. Besides, the manumitted African generally continues to reside in the neighbourhood of the estate upon which he has served as a slave; so that when a man of this description, that is, an African, comes without being known, to settle in a district, suspicion immediately arises that he is not free. The manumitted creoles remove to where they are not known, because they do not wish that the state in which they were born should reach their new place of residence. An African must have been brought to Brazil as a slave, and therefore his situation of a freeman proves that his character is good, or he could not have obtained his liberty; but a creole may have been born free, and consequently his former state as a slave he wishes to conceal. Creole slaves, and more especially mulattos, often do escape, and are never afterwards heard of by their masters; but even these are sometimes brought back.

A case of great hardship occurred at Recife a short time before I left that place. A negro and his wife had escaped, and as their master had not received any tidings of them for sixteen or seventeen years, he supposed that both of them had died. However, one day there arrived at his door in Recife, a number of _capitaens-do-campo_ with several persons in custody. He soon recognized his negro and negress, and was told that the five young persons who were with them were their children, and consequently his slaves. These poor creatures had been brought up until this period of their lives with the idea that they were free; and thus a young man of sixteen, and his sister of fourteen years of age, were at the season of joy and gladness to commence a life of misery. The master confined them all, until he could dispose of them to some slave-dealer, which he soon accomplished, and they were shipped from Recife for Maranham. I never heard how the discovery had been made, that these people were not free. Oh! system accursed, which thus damps the hopes and prospects of a whole life.

Some of the negroes who escape determine to shun the haunts of man, they conceal themselves in the woods, instead of attempting to be received into some distant village as free persons. They form huts, which are called _mocambos_, in the most unfrequented spots, and live upon the game and fruit which their places of retreat afford. These persons sometimes assemble to the number of ten or twelve, and then their dislodgement is difficult; for their acquaintance with the woods around gives them the advantage over any party which may be sent to attack them[246]. Sometimes a whole neighbourhood is disturbed by one of these communities, who rob the provision grounds, steal calves[247], lambs and poultry; and stories are told of the _Gabam_ negroes stealing children.

The slaves of Maranham are in a less favourable state than those of Pernambuco, on the whole; but the system which is followed respecting them is radically the same. Their food is usually rice, which is said to disagree with most of the nations which come from Africa; and the treatment which they receive upon the estates in that part of the country, is said to be more rigorous; but of this I cannot myself speak, for I had no opportunities of judging.

Negroes who are decidedly of incorrigible character, are shipped from Pernambucco to Maranham, and though the cause for which these transportations are made, is well known, they are often sold to great advantage. Nothing tends so much to keep a slave in awe, as the threat of sending him to Maranham or to Parà.

That the general character of persons who are in a state of slavery should be amiable, and that goodness should predominate, is not to be expected; but we ought rather to be surprised at the existence of that degree of virtue which is to be found among those who are reduced to a situation of so much misery. Slaves are much inclined to pilfer, and particularly towards their masters this is very frequent; indeed many of them scarcely think that they are acting improperly in so doing[248]. Drunkenness is common among them[249]. A direct answer is not easily obtained from a slave, but the information which is required is learnt by means of four or five questions put in various ways. The necessity for this is frequently caused by stupidity, or from ignorance of the language in which the slave is addressed, rather than from any wish to deceive. It is in their behaviour to their families and companions, that the good part of the human being is displayed, and natural enough it is that it should be so. The negroes shew much attachment to their wives and children, to their other relations if they should chance to have any, and to their _malungos_ or fellow passengers from Africa. The respect which is paid to old age, it is extremely pleasing to witness. Superannuated Africans, upon the estates, are never suffered to want any comforts with which it is in the power of their fellow slaves to supply them. The old negroes are addressed by the term of _pai_ and _mai_, father and mother. The masters likewise add this term to the name of their older slaves, when speaking to them. That the generality of the slaves should shew great attachment to their masters, is not to be expected; why should they? The connection between the two descriptions of persons, is not one of love and harmony, of good producing gratitude, of esteem and respect; it is one of hatred and discord, of distrust, and of continual suspicion; one of which the evil is so enormous, that if any proper feelings exist in those who are supposed to benefit from it, and in those who suffer under it, they proceed from our nature, and not from the system.

It will be seen from the above statement, that the slaves of those parts of Brazil which I have had opportunities of seeing, are more favourably situated than those of the Columbian islands; but still they are slaves, and in this word is included, great misery, great degradation, great misfortune.