a remuneration for their labour, and this has laid
the foundation for a course of systematic oppression
scarcely conceivable. Notices to quit were served
indiscriminately on every one, old and young, sick
and healthy. Medical attendance was refused,
and even a dose of physic from the Estates’ hospitals.
Cattle were turned into the provision-grounds of the
negroes, thus destroying their only means of support;
and assaults of the most wanton and brutal description
were committed on many of the peasantry. On one
estate the proprietor and his brother assaulted a
young man in the most unprovoked manner. One
presented a pistol to his breast, and threatened to
shoot him; while the other levelled a gun at his head
for the same purpose. They were bound over to
take their trial at the Quarter Sessions; but what
hope is there in such a tribunal as that, composed
principally of men engaged in the same reckless course,
and banded together by mutual interests? On another
estate (Content), the attorney ordered the
cattle of a poor man (a member of my Chapel) to be
taken up and impounded. It was done, and the
man was obliged to pay 6l. to redeem them; when, as
soon as he carried them back, they were again taken
and impounded. The man has been to my house with
his case of oppression, on my return from Kingston.
He states that he exhausted his last farthing to redeem
the cattle the first time, and was also obliged to
borrow of his friends; they have now been impounded
five weeks, and unless he can raise the money to redeem
them (upwards of 10l.), they will be sold to pay the
expenses. Thus is an honest and worthy man, in
a few weeks, stripped of every thing which, by years
of industry and care, he had accumulated for the comfort
of his old age, or the benefit of his family.
Yesterday a negro came and informed me that the owner
of a property had told him last year, that he must
cultivate more ground, so as to be able to continue
possession as a tenant; and now that he has done so,
another person, saying that he had purchased the property,
came a few days ago, and told him that in three weeks
he would drive him from the place. He then ordered
a man whom he had with him to climb a bread-fruit
tree, and pull the fruit, which he forcibly carried
away to give to his hogs. But I must forbear:
were I to state half the cases of oppression which
have occurred in Hanover since August 1st; I should
require a volume instead of a sheet. I think,
however, I have said enough to prove the bitter and
rancorous spirit which at present animates the planters.
Enclosed I send a specimen of another artifice adopted
to harass and distress the negroes. They have
adopted the notion (sanctioned by the opinion of the
old Planters’ Jackall, Batty, and the Attorney
General), that the people are liable to pay rent for
houses and grounds during the three months’
possession to which the Abolition Act entitled them,
and notices have been served on the people, demanding
the most extravagant amounts for the miserable sheds