THO. PRINGLE. T. P.
THE HISTORY OF MARY PRINCE, A WEST INDIAN SLAVE. When I was an infant, old Mr. Myners died, and there was a
division of the slaves and other property among the family. She had only one daughter, Miss Betsey, for whom I was
purchased, and who was about my own age. I was made quite a pet of by Miss
Betsey, and loved her very much. She used to lead me about by the hand,
and call me her little nigger. His wife was herself much afraid of him; and, during
his stay at home, seldom dared to shew her usual kindness to the slaves. I was truly attached to
her, and, next to my own mother, loved her better than any creature in the
world. A few hours after this I was taken to a strange house, and found
myself among strange people. She was a sweet, kind young lady, and so
fond of me that she wished me to learn all that she knew herself; and her
method of teaching me was as follows:--Directly she had said her lessons
to her grandmamma, she used to come running to me, and make me repeat them
one by one after her; and in a few months I was able not only to say my
letters but to spell many small words. Oh, that was a day of sorrow,--a heavy day! All
the slaves cried. I
knew nothing rightly about death then, and it seemed a hard thing to bear. Oh, that was a sad sad time! I recollect
the day well. When I reached the house, I went in directly to Miss Betsey. You are _my_ slaves, and he has no right to sell you; but it is all to
please her." It was a
sorrowful meeting; and we lamented with a great and sore crying our
unfortunate situation. "Oh, my poor slaves! I, as the
eldest, stood first, Hannah next to me, then Dinah; and our mother stood
beside, crying over us. No, no! She said
nothing, but pointed to me. [Footnote 1: Bermuda currency; about £38 sterling.] It was a
sad parting; one went one way, one another, and our poor mammy went home
with nothing. Among the stock of the farm
sold, was a female slave and her three children. I did not know where I was going, or what my
new master would do with me. "Oh, my mother! Oh, the trials! It was night when I reached my new home. I saw too much of it afterwards. I
replied, "I am come to live here." "Poor child, poor child!" they both
said; "you must keep a good heart, if you are to live here." --When I went
in, I stood up crying in a corner. Mrs. She was a stout
tall woman with a very dark complexion, and her brows were always drawn
together into a frown. I thought of the words of the two slave women when
I saw Mrs. I----, and heard the harsh sound of her voice. She was the most active woman I ever saw, and she was tasked to
her utmost. [Footnote 4: The cattle on a small plantation in Bermuda are, it seems,
often thus staked or tethered, both night and day, in situations where
grass abounds.] [Footnote 5: A cow fed for slaughter.] I got a sad fright, that night. "No, Ma'am, not
yet," was Hetty's answer from below. me dead. [Footnote 6: A thong of hard twisted hide, known by this name in the West
Indies.] She was a fearful woman, and a savage
mistress to her slaves. He rested, and then beat her again and
again. Her shrieks were terrible. After Hetty died all her labours fell upon me, in addition to my own. I ran crying to my mistress, "O mistress,
the jar has come in two." "You have broken it, have you?" Part of the roof fell down, and
every thing in the house went--clatter, clatter, clatter. It was an
awful day for us all. During the confusion I crawled away on my hands and knees, and laid myself
down under the steps of the piazza, in front of the house. But when we are very young, death always seems a
great way off, and it would not come that night to me. I was milking when my master found it
out. The cow was frightened at his
violence, and kicked down the pail and spilt the milk all about. After this I ran away and went to my mother, who was living with Mr.
Richard Darrel. Oh I was loth, loth to go back; but as
there was no remedy, I was obliged to submit. When we got home, my poor father said to Capt. He told me to hold my
tongue and go about my work, or he would find a way to settle me. He did
not, however, flog me that day. We were nearly four weeks on the voyage, which was unusually long. Such was
my new master's. Though we worked from morning till night, there was no satisfying Mr.
D----. I hoped, when I left Capt. I----, that I should have been better
off, but I found it was but going from one butcher to another. Ah, poor me!--my tasks were never ended. Cruel, horrible place! But this was not
the worst. "Yes," they said, "your mother." "Mammy," I said, "is this you?" She did not know me. "Mammy," I
said, "what's the matter?" She began to talk foolishly, and said that she
had been under the vessel's bottom. I took her on shore with
me, for I felt I should love her directly; and I kept her with me a week. her's has been a sad life, and continues so to this
day. Her
mother died after Mary went to Antigua. [Footnote 8: Negro term for white people.] He had beat her with his
fist, and almost killed her. Then I said, "Sir, this is not
Turk's Island." He had an ugly fashion of stripping himself quite naked, and ordering me
then to wash him in a tub of water. During the time I worked there, I heard that Mr. John Wood was going to
Antigua. Mr. Wood did not then want
to purchase me; it was my own fault that I came under him, I was so
anxious to go. It was ordained to be, I suppose; God led me there. The
truth is, I did not wish to be any longer the slave of my indecent master. This was about fifteen years ago. He did not then know whether I
was to be sold; but Mrs. Wood found that I could work, and she wanted to
buy me. 10s. sterling.] I thought it very
hard for a coloured woman to have rule over me because I was a slave and
she was free. This was about two or three years
after I came to Antigua. This was a great affront. He went directly to Mr.
Wood, but was informed that I was not to be sold. She complained to her
husband, and he sent me off again to look for an owner. If you intend
to sell her, I may as well buy her as another." I was very sorry at this, for I had
no comfort with Mrs. Wood, and I wished greatly to get my freedom. I did not sit still idling during the absence of
my owners; for I wanted, by all honest means, to earn money to buy my
freedom. His name was Captain Abbot. While I was in the country, I
saw how the field negroes are worked in Antigua. [Footnote 10: A dog is the 72nd part of a dollar.] His name was Henry. He prayed them all to forgive him, and he prayed
that God would forgive him. [Footnote 11: The head negro of an estate--a person who has the chief
superintendence under the manager.] I felt sorry for my sins also. I cried the whole night, but I was too much
ashamed to speak. I did not then tell my mistress about it; for I knew that she would not
give me leave to go. After we had done spelling, we tried to
read in the Bible. After the reading was over, the missionary gave out a
hymn for us to sing. I dearly loved to go to the church, it was so solemn. I did not ask my owner's permission, from the belief that it would be
refused; so that I got no farther instruction at that time from the
English Church. Mr. Olufsen. I thought it
very hard to be whipped at my time of life for getting a husband--I told
her so. I had not much happiness in my marriage, owing to my being a slave. She did not lick me herself, but she got her husband to do
it for her, whilst she fretted the flesh off my bones. After this, I fell ill again with the rheumatism, and was sick a long
time; but whether sick or well, I had my work to do. "To be free is very sweet," I said: but she took
good care to keep me a slave. I saw her change colour, and I left the
room. And she was as good as
her word. I told my mistress I was afraid that putting my hands
first into the hot water and then into the cold, would increase the pain
in my limbs. But Mrs. Wood would not release me from the tub, so I was forced to do
as I could. I grew worse, and could not stand to wash. I thought her very hard on me, and my heart rose up within me. Mr. and Mrs. Wood, when they heard this, rose up in a passion
against me. I said I would willingly
go back, if he would let me purchase my own freedom. I
continued to do my work, and did all I could to give satisfaction, but all
would not do. Shortly after, the cook left them, and then matters went on ten times
worse. I stood a long time
before I could answer, for I did not know well what to do. Don't leave, but come into the country with me." She said,
"If she goes the people will rob her, and then turn her adrift." I told my mistress I was sick, and yet she has ordered
me out of doors. This is the fourth time; and now I am going out." And so I came out, and went and carried my trunk to the Moravians. I was very sick, and she boiled nourishing
things up for me. [Footnote 14: She came first to the Anti-Slavery Office in Aldermanbury,
about the latter end of November 1828; and her case was referred to Mr.
George Stephen to be investigated. She had been in the West Indies, and was accustomed to Blacks,
and liked them. I was with her six months, and went with her to Margate. She treated me well, and gave me a good character when she left London. I did not like to go back--I did not
like to be idle. I would rather work for my living than get it for
nothing. The
Rev. Nor must I forget, among my friends, the
Rev. I endeavour to keep down my fretting, and
to leave all to Him, for he knows what is good for me better than I know
myself. Yet, I must confess, I find it a hard and heavy task to do so. I say, Not so. It is not so. All slaves want to be free--to be
free is very sweet. I have been a slave myself--I know what slaves feel--I can tell by myself
what other slaves feel, and by what they have told me. They can't do without slaves,
they say. Let them work ever so hard in
England, they are far better off than slaves. If they get a bad master,
they give warning and go hire to another. They have their liberty. This is slavery. [Footnote 16: The whole of this paragraph especially, is given as nearly as
was possible in Mary's precise words.] [Footnote 17: She means West Indians.] [Footnote 18: A West Indian phrase: to fasten or tie up.] BY THE EDITOR. "JOHN A. WOOD." "London, August 18, 1828." At my request, Mr. Edward Moore, agent of the Moravian
Brethren in London, wrote to the Rev. She is
not a native of this country, and I know of no relation she
has here. "I am, my dear Sir,
Yours very truly,
JOHN A. WOOD. "_Charles Taylor, Esq._
_&c. "J. 1. 2. This is a most extraordinary assertion. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Mr. Byam, and Dr. Coull, disproved her assertions. Of the
Hon. 9. My first evidence is Mr. Joseph Phillips, of Antigua. "I remain, &c.
"JOSEPH PHILLIPS." _To T. Pringle, Esq._
"P.S. 4, to which
we refer our readers. See also his account of his own case in the
Anti-Slavery Reporter, No. 74, p. 69.] "4, Keppel Street, 28th Sept. 2. All things
considered, it is indeed wonderful to find her such as she now is. [Footnote 22: Since the preceding pages were printed off, I have been
favoured with a communication from the Rev. Mr. Bridges and Kitty Hylton,[28] in
Jamaica. [Footnote 23: See Anti-Slavery Reporter, Nos. [Footnote 24: Ibid, No. 44.] [Footnote 25: Ibid, No. 47.] [Footnote 26: Ibid, No. 64, p. 345; No. 71, p. [Footnote 27: Ibid, No. 65, p. 356; No. 69, p. [Footnote 28: Anti-Slavery Reporter, Nos. 66, 69, and 76.] --(Notices of Brazil, vol. ii. p. The concluding passage in
inverted commas, is entirely his own. Here,
I know what God is, and read my Bible; in my country they have no God, no
Bible." A great many people, whom we called Adinyés, set fire to Egie in the
morning before daybreak; there were some thousands of them. They killed a
great many, and burnt all their houses. They sold all they carried away, to be slaves. They took away brothers, and sisters, and husbands, and wives; they
did not care about this. The Adinyés burnt a great many places besides Egie. We kept together, and went
into the woods, and stopped there two days. The Adinyés then went away,
and we returned home and found every thing burnt. They had killed
several others, but these were all that I saw. My uncle Otou was with us. At the end of this time, the Adinyés found us. We ran away. The rest of us ran on, and they did not get at us till the
next day. They
tied my feet. When we got to
the sea they sold all of us, but not to the same person. They sold us for
money; and I was sold six times over, sometimes for money, sometimes for
cloth, and sometimes for a gun. We were taken in a boat from place to place, and sold at every place we
stopped at. They bought us. We found here a great many
other slaves; there were about eighty, including women and children. They gave them enough to eat. A great many of
the slaves were ill, but they were not attended to. I am very glad I have come to England, to know who God is. I would rather stay here, where I am free, than go back to my
country to be sold. We had no king in our
country, or he would have stopt it. I think the king of England might stop
it, and this is why I wish him to know it all. I have heard say he is
good; and if he is, he will stop it if he can. "LOUIS ASA-ASA." "_London, January 31, 1831_." End of Project Gutenberg's The History of Mary Prince, by Mary Prince