SD746. Hope Masterton Waddell to Samuel Moulton-Barrett (uncle)
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 2, 372 (in part).
Cornwall
18 October 1831.
My dear Sir
We have heard with very great concern & Sincere Sorrow that you have been ill & confined to bed; but are left in much uncertainty & anxiety not knowing either what the nature of your illness is or what degree of danger maybe connected with it. This ignorance alone prevents me going to you; for if I knew that you were in danger or that I could be of any service to you I would not delay a day in personally offering any service that I could render or you require. But I beg you will not allow us to be longer ignorant deeply interested as we are on more accounts than one in your health & happiness.
I am grieved to mention the very sudden death of a fine interesting child on this estate, I mean Beatrice the daughter of Charles & Frances Hamilton, on Sunday morning she was seized with fits & by midday was a corpse. The doctor was sent for without delay but she was dead before he arrived. She was a particularly good child—quiet, obedient, quick in learning both reading & religion &, as far as could be expected in one of her years, seriously mindful of what she was taught. Mrs Waddell & I always thought her one of the most promising among the children & the following little circumstance which her parents communicated to us yesterday show that the religious instruction she received was not lost on her– While we were at Hampden last week she said to her father & mother “Come to uncle Chamber’s prayers for Misses say any one that do not mind prayers belong to hell.” On friday evening afer we had returned to Cornwall she came to her Mother & said, “Come Mammy, come to prayers now for parson & misses come home” and she was up that night & sat beside her Mother as wakeful & serious in her manner as any person present. Perhaps she was a child of grace early fitted for glory.
While I have my pen in my hand I may briefly state my thoughts on a subject that I have thought of for a considerable time & indeed feel somewhat anxious upon, & on which you expressed a willingness to hear me. While you were here, circumstances did not give me opportunity to do so; but perhaps I can with equal perspicuity & more brevity mention my ideas on it now. It is the time commonly occupied in work by the people of estates. The time for beginning on almost all estates is about an hour before sunrise; on your estates it may be a quarter of an hour later & perhaps also on some others; but more commonly I apprehend it is that much earlier. I have been informed on authority which I credit that at times & in some places when there is clear moonlight the people are called out before day. One bookkeeper told myself when praising the head driver of the estate he was on that he was remarkable for his alacrity in the morning & sometimes had the people out even by moonlight. And I heard your own head driver give as his reason for flogging a number of the people one morning—that they were too late in turning out to work—the sky was red when they came to field. This must be acknowledged to be a great abuse when the law says that the rise of sun is the time to commence work. The consequence of this is that when the people must be in the field at half past four or five they must rise ½ past 3 or at 4, and before they leave their house they have not time to do any household matter, scarcely even to worship God while if they happened to sleep ½ an hour longer than ordinary it is impossible they can have time to bow their knees in prayer unless by risking flogging for being in the field behind the others. I know also that the same cause operates in another way to hinder religion; for advantage is taken thereby to punish the people in the morning if they have held meetings for prayers the evening before under pretence that they turn out too late & that their negro house prayers & preachings make them sit up too late & consequently lie too long in the morning. Again the law says that work ceases at sunset; but we know that as long as there is day light the people must work; while they can distinguish a weed from a root of guinea grass or canes they are kept at their hoe—they go home just at dark & of course have very little time to attend to any household affair—their meeting for the worship of God cannot be before ½ past 7 or 8 & of course cannot finish before ½ past 8 or 9. on many estates this is reckoned night meetings, the people are punished for it & consequently are forced to meet in the middle of the night. Then from having no time before going to work or after coming from it for household affairs all these come on the time of shell blow. It is said that at this time they eat their dinners & rest themselves, or at most go to their dinner time grounds & pick victuals for themselves & then they return to their work fresh & strong, but this is impossible when they must get wood & water besides picking their victuals, must feed their hog, clean their house wash their clothes all at the dinner time. I believe that frequently if not commonly it is the busiest one or two hours in the day; they cannot return quite fresh to their work—the masters labour during the afternoon & evening must be less in consequence of the slave’s labour for himself during the hottest time of the day—& in the end nothing is gained. The only alternative is where the people are forced to work during the afternoon as vigorously as if they had actually rested during noon—where the full quantity of work for the master is looked for as strictly as if they had nothing to do for themselves; but this is pressing them beyond nature & the consequence is the waste of life—the dreadful decrease of population—which has been lately exposed to view. You will of course perceive that I cannot mean your estates in all I have said—for your plan of giving them the evenings after 4 oclock leaves them plenty of time for household duties but while it obviates my objection to the late evenings it does not to the early morning work; the evils of the untimely & unlawful hour at which slaves are required to work in the mornings are not remedied; while it has disadvantages of its own both to you & to your people which I will name relying on your permission. They cannot do a fair & proper quantity of work in that time such as strong men & women ought to do in a day. The usual way with all drivers is to slack work about ½ past 11 o’clock in consequence of the midday heat for three hours after they will not do much more than half the usual labour; then at two or from that till three when the heat is lessened & that cause of slack work is removed they are not able to recommence tight work for by this time they are fatigued—having been constantly employed for five or six hours it is impossible they can be urged to exert themselves strongly—if they were it would be forcing them beyond nature. I believe therefore that in ordinary your work will be ¼ or perhaps ⅓ less than it ought to be when they work till four oclock. This is a serious objection & however much the negroes like it will ever prevent it from generally being adopted in field work unless in some few particular cases. Besides this it is injurious to the people themselves I fear in point of health. Working in the open sun at noon must be oppressive. I have heard both drivers & workers say that it almost makes them faint & they are very glad to get into shade at that time. And the fondness of the people for that arrangement arises I believe from the comfort they find when they go home in having some time to put things right in their house, feed their small stock & do other little things about their habitations. The comfort of having a little daylight after they go to their houses makes them willing & even glad to stand out under the burning midday sun & to work without intermission that excessive long time from breakfast till they draw off—nearly seven hours–. Another thing to be considered in it is the improbability of its being continued after you leave the country. I do fear that when your back is turned for a very short time it will be discontinued. Your feet will hardly have touched the shores of America or of England till the old plan is resorted to of working from the first streak of day in the morning till the last in the evening & of driving them all that time to the utmost stretch of their ability. But even though it should be continued after you are gone in the face of its obviously injurious effect on your interests & their health—there is another consideration which to a person of benevolence cannot be without weight—since you adopt it for the good of the slaves you would be glad if it should be generally adopted for the same reason. But this as I have said before I believe will never be. While overseers & attornies apprehend it to be injurious in the way already mentioned to both master & slave they will not adopt it & there is no law to enforce it.
In whatever way we view it the time appointed by law of the island seems the best which is from sun rise till sun set with half an hour for breakfast & two hours of shell blow at noon for dinner & rest & relief from the heat. None of the objections are applicable to it which I have already stated to the two other times. It does not require the people to leave their houses in the dark of the morning; but affords them time as many of them wish & all might do to cook their own breakfast, to feed their stock &c it would let them I daresay have half an hour of daylight for little household matters & yet allow them to be in the field before sun rise & so put an end at once to all the morning whippings. In the evening likewise if they drew off at sun down they would have half an hour of day light after getting home to do things. And it would enable them to meet in good early time together for the social worship of God without danger of being charged with holding night meetings or of being punished for it in the morning under pretence that it made them too late in turning out. It would allow them to spend their shell blow in peace & repose in their own house; & they would then in truth turn out strong for the afternoons’ work, & without injury to themselves do as much as they do now with hard driving & to their own hurt. I believe on the whole the quantity of work would not be less than it is now on any estate while oppression being removed population would increase every place. The day’s work are well divided by the law into periods of three or four hours by breakfast & by dinner during which the people could well work stoutly & more willingly than now they do & if any were unwilling they might very properly be sufficiently coerced without hurt to them. To you it would increase the work done on your estate fully one fourth while one cause of sickness I mean noon labour would be removed yet not a comfort lessened for the half hour of light morning & evening before they go to work & after they come from it would be as good as their present long evenings. Then you could insist on the observance & continuance of it more strongly & more effectually than you can now—for being the law of the island no objection could be made to the observance of it & great fear would exist of breaking it since the violation of it would expose the person so offending to a prosecution. There would be no danger of your absence causing an alteration for the worse for when both overseer & slave knew that it was the law to begin only at sunrise & end immediately on sundown the latter would not neglect their own rights & the former would be afraid of offending. Likewise it would soon become general. No person could say a word against it—the law allowing Negro evidence would enable the slaves to maintain their own right in this & other cases—for they could with propriety & good effect refuse to begin work sooner or continue it longer than the law required. There would be no quarrels between drivers & overseers about the hour for all see when the sun rises & when it sets & there could be no mistake. It only needs someone bold enough to make a beginning & I wish most earnestly you would begin observance of this law for it would prevail & a great blessing it would be.
Now my dear Sir I have done: and have only to beg two things of you first that you will excuse the freedom I have taken in so plainly expressing my thoughts to you on the subject: & second that you will not allow any eye but your own to see it lest it should be misrepresented or misunderstood & attempts by means of it be made to injure me. I have no wish to interfere in the politics of the country yet when you asked me freely to mention to you whatever might present itself to my mind as good for your people I hope I will not be blamed for my present remarks especially when my letter goes to recommend the observance of the law of the island.
I have to acknowledge the receipt of the hammock & have no doubt we will find it useful. It is a very handsome one.
Mrs Waddell joins me most cordially in best wishes & christian love.
I remain, dear Sir, ever most faithfully yours
H. M. Waddell,
Address, on integral page: For / S. M. Barrett Esquire / Retreat Pen / St. Anns. / Alexandria.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Eton College Library.
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