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IV. The Colonial Office and the Abolition of Slavery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Mary Reckord
Mary Reckord
Affiliation:
Dalhousie University
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Extract

Under pressure from the anti-slavery interest in the House of Commons, the British Government undertook, in 1823, to reform West Indian slavery and prepare the slaves for eventual freedom. This policy of amelioration was based on the assumption that the West Indian planters would co-operate with the British Government to improve slave conditions. As George Canning explained to the House of Commons, ‘The masters are the instruments through whom, and by whom, you must act upon the slave population.’ Ten years later the reform programme was abandoned in favour of abolition. This change of policy reflected, in part, the conversion of officials at the Colonial Office who began to urge the need for emancipation in 1831. For eight years the Colonial Office made persistent efforts to induce the co-operation of the West Indian planters; these attempts failed and a mass of evidence accumulated which suggested that the slave system could not be improved, it could only be abolished. This article demonstrates the efforts made by the Colonial Office to effect amelioration in the legislative colonies with particular reference to Jamaica and the nature of the evidence which demonstrated that emancipation was the only viable solution to the problem of West Indian slavery.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , December 1971 , pp. 723 - 734
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

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References

1 Murray, D. J., The West Indies and the Development of Colonial Government (Oxford, 1965), p. 132; Parliamentary Debates, new ser., x/1091, 16 Mar. 1824.Google Scholar

2 CO. 854/1, circular dispatches, 28 May 1823, p. 133; 9 July 1823, pp. 160–4.

3 Murray, , op. cit. p. 131.Google Scholar

4 Murray, , op. cit. p. 139, quoting Brougham, 5 Mar. 1828. P.D. New Series xviii/978.Google Scholar

5 Ibid. pp. 146–8.

6 C. O. 137/179, Goderich to Belmore. 15 Nov. 1831, draft, Stephen's minutes following Belmore to Goderich, 23 Aug. 1831, no. 82.

7 See, for example, the case of Edward Huggins of Nevis in 1810 and of Arthur Hodge of Tortola, 1811. Ragatz, L. J., The Fall of the Planter Class in the British Caribbean 1763–1833 (New York, 1963). PP. 399–402.Google Scholar

8 Two of these cases, the unjust punishment of religious slaves, are fully discussed in this article. The other cases included:

(i) Accusations of unjust punishments in two cases in the Trelawny slave court. CO. 137/168, Henry Benjamin to Wm. Huskisson, Falmouth, 22 Apr. 1828; Benjamin to Henry Twiss, 28 Aug. 1828. CO. 137/170, Memorandum, Stephen to Taylor, 15 July 1828. CO. 138/51, Murray to Keane, 19 June 1828.

(ii) The ill-treatment of a female slave, Kitty Hylton, by Rev. Bridges, G. W.. Parliamentary Papers, House of Commons 1830–1, vol. xvi, no. 231.Google Scholar

(iii) The ill-treatment of two female slaves by the Custos of Port Royal. P.P., H. of C, 1831–2, vol. XLVII, no. 737.

(iv) The ill-treatment of a slave sick with small pox. CO. 137/179, draft of dispatch Goderich to Belmore, 18 Feb. 1832. CO. 138/54, Goderich to Belmore, 2 Apr. 1832, no. 87, p. 204.

(v) The ill-treatment of a female slave by an overseer. CO. 137/178, Belmore to Goderich, 6 May 1831, no. 40. Enclosures. CO. 138/54, Goderich to Belmore, 18 Feb. 1832, confidential, pp. 120–2.

9 The owner, Rev. Adams, was an absentee proprietor residing in Inverness.

10 Methodist Missionary Society Archives, hereinafter referred to as M.M.S. Letters, Whitehouse, 1 July 1829. P.P., H. of C, 1830–1, vol. xvi, no. 91; Communications relative to the reported maltreatment of a slave named Henry Williams, p. 240.Google Scholar

11 Rev. Bridges, G. W. defended slavery in a two-volume history The Annals of Jamaica (London, 1828),Google Scholar and gained notoriety by sadistically punishing one of his domestic slaves, Kitty Hylton, for killing a turkey for lunch. The case first came to light in Jamaica in May 1829 and subsequently became the subject of a C. O. investigation.

12 M.M.S. Letters, Whitehouse, St Ann's Bay, 1 and 2 July 1829. P.P., H. of C, 1830–1, xvi, no. 91, pp. 241–3.

13 M.M.S. Letters, Whitehouse, St Ann's Bay, 16 Nov. 1829.

14 P.P., H. of C, 1830–1, xvi, no. 91, p. 243, Whitehouse, 4 Nov. 1829. M.M.S. Letters, White-house, St Ann's Bay, 29 Nov. 1829. Betty subsequently claimed Williams was moved because he was sick. The case has a characteristic coda: Betty, suspecting Whitehouse's part in the newspaper publicity, charged his servant with travelling without proper papers and kept him in St Ann's workhouse with an iron collar for four days. CO. 137/172, Belmore to Murray, 27 Aug. 1830, no. 49, enclosed Betty to Bullock, St Ann's, 5 July 1830; M.M.S. Letters, Whitehouse, 29 Nov. 1829.

15 P.P., H. of C, 1830–1, xvi, no. 91, pp. 235–9, Townley to Murray, 12 Feb. 1830, pp. 239–40, Townley to Murray, 25 Feb. 1830, Twiss to Townley, 5 Mar. 1830, Townley to Twiss, 10 Mar. 1830, p. 246, Murray to Belmore, 6 May 1830.

16 B.M. Add. MSS 38751, Huskisson Papers, Huskisson to King's Secretary, 21 Sept. 1827, fo. 40.

17 Bridges had already survived the Kitty Hylton case; despite the best efforts of the Jamaica Attorney-General, a grand jury had acquitted him.

18 C. O. 137/172, Belmore to Murray, 27 Aug. 1830, no. 49.

19 Royal Gazette, 2–9 May 1829, pp. 9–10, 15,Google Scholar account of a meeting in St Thomas in the East. The speaker quoted was Alexander Barclay, author of A Practical View of Slavery (London, 1826).Google Scholar M.M.S. Letters, Kerr, Spanish Town, 30 Sept. 1830; Whitehouse, St Ann's Bay, 8 Sept. 1830.

20 M.M.S. Letters, Whitehouse, 14 Apr. 1830, 1 Oct. 1830. The firm was Whitehorne and Forsyth, regular advisers to the Wesleyan mission. Their part in the case was probably well known to interested parties.

21 Ibid. Whitehouse to Belmore, 15 Sept. 1830, Bullock to Whitehouse, 25 Sept. 1830, Whitehouse to Bullock, 29 Sept. 1830; P.P., H. of C, 1830–1, xvi, no. 91, pp. 256, 258–60.

22 C. O. 137/173, Memorandum, Stephen to Taylor, 6 Aug. 1830, following Dyer to Murray. 9 July 1830.

23 C. O. 138/53, Goderich to Belmore, 9, 11 Dec. 1830, nos. 3, 4, pp. 184–9; P–P–. H. of C., 1830–1, xvi, no. 91, pp. 251–3, 260.

24 The Governor judged them to be respectable persons and considered that ‘All the benefit to be derived from their example has … been obtained’. Goderich commented, ‘I am bound to express my regret that more than two years’ experience of the state of affairs of Jamaica should have failed to impress your Lordship with the inexpediency of reversing a censure passed on two magisstrates for an act of gross and unlawful oppression '. C. O. 137/179, Belmore to Goderich, n Nov. 1831, no. 113, C. O. 138/54, Goderich to Belmore, 9 Jan. 1832, no. 77, p. 92.

25 C. O. 137/172, Belmore to Murray, 6 Oct. 1830, no. 64.

26 Hinton, J. H., Memoir of W. Knibb (London, 1847), pp. 95–6,Google Scholar quoting Knibb to Dyer, 26 Apr. 1830.

27 C.O. 137/172, Belmore to Murray, 1 Dec. 1830, no. 75, enclosed The Struggler, 29 May 1830. Letter from Knibb, 26 Apr. 1830. P.P., H. of C, 1831–2, vol. XLVII, no. 480; Communications from Jamaica relating to the trial of S. Swiney, a Negro slave, for certain alleged offences relating to religious worship.

28 P.P., H. of C, 1831–2, XLVII, no. 480, p. 344, Belmore to Murray, 1 Dec. 1830; pp. 347–9, Goderich to Belmore, 25 Apr. 1831, p. 350, Belmore to Murray, 23 Aug. 1831, pp. 345–6, Goderich to Belmore, 15 Nov. 1831.

29 C. O. 138/54, Goderich to Belmore, 18 Feb. 1832, confidential.

30 Ibid. pp. 130, 113, 132.

31 C. O. 138/51, Huskisson to Keane, 22 Sept. 1827, no. 3, pp. 235–63; 22 Mar. 1828, no. 16.

32 C. O. 137/165, Manchester to Bathurst, 23 Dec. 1826, no. 72.

33 Murray, , op. cit. p. 149, quoting Stephen to Taylor, 29 June 1827.Google Scholar

34 Ibid. p. 193, quoting Stephen memo., Oct. 1831, 3rd Earl Grey's papers/Colonial Papers, Slavery.

35 Howick attributed his final conversion to the abolition cause to the evidence given before the House of Commons committee by the hero of the Sam Swiney case, William Knibb. Murray, op. cit. p. 194.

36 Burn, , op. cit. pp. 102–3,Google Scholar quoting C. O. 320/8, memo., 1 Dec. 1832.

37 Stephen, G., Anti-Slavery Recollections (London, 1854), pp. 130, 139, 167.Google Scholar