The Journal of Negro History
Chapter 79 : A great dividing line in the history of Jamaica runs across the record between the year

A great dividing line in the history of Jamaica runs across the record between the years 1834 and 1838. On the further side lay slavery; on the hitherward side lies the freedom, partially proclaimed on August 1, 1834, and made complete and absolute on a like date in the year of grace 1838. Amid the noise and gloom of the period from these years back into the past, it is only here and there that the face and figure of a son of Africa stands out with anything like clearness or distinction against the background of historic events. It was in 1494 that the European first came to Jamaica. The island was then discovered by Columbus. Fifteen years later the Spaniards, who had meantime harried and slain the native Indians, set to work seriously to settle in the island. As the Arrowaks withered from the land, before the cruelty of the conqueror, the African was brought in to supply slave labor.[211] It is not our immediate task to enquire into the condition of the slaves during the Spanish occupation, nor does there exist very much material for answering such an enquiry, but it may be noted, as an interesting fact, that a black priest was in the deputation that came forth to negotiate with the British conqueror when, in 1655, the surrender of the capital city, St. Jago de la Vega, became a necessity. The Spanish Governor, Don Arnoldi Gasi, sent as one of his representatives Don Acosta, "a n.o.ble Portuguese."

Belonging to his establishment and accompanying him as chaplain was a Negro priest. His name has not come down to us but we know his fate.

One of the conditions of the surrender was that the Spaniards were not to attempt to remove their belongings.[212] The town, however, contained a party, chiefly of Portuguese, hostile to the surrender.

The first article of the capitulation required that all "goods, wares, merchandizes, or what else upon the said island, be delivered up, etc., without any deceit, embezzlement, or concealment whatever." A certain Colonel made bold to drive away into the woodlands all the cattle he could collect. Don Acosta was not only as a man of honor shocked at this breach of a solemnly signed agreement, but he had the painful personal interest in it of being a hostage in the hands of the British for the due performance of the treaty of surrender. He therefore, we are told, sent to the Colonel "his priest, a discreet Negro, to remonstrate."[213] The Colonel put the priest to death, and apparently suffered no worse punishment for this dastardly act than to have the cattle he had gone away with discovered and brought back to the British lines.[214]

When the Spaniards a few weeks after evacuated the island, going by s.h.i.+p to Cuba, they took the liberty of further transgressing the treaty made with Penn and Venables, the British commanders, for, instead of taking their slaves with them, they turned them loose into the hills, with directions to hara.s.s the British as much as was possible. These slaves formed the nucleus of the Maroons, a body of mountain warriors whose deeds of daring and battle form a story too long and too interesting to be dealt with here.[215]

The British speedily introduced African slaves into the island, and, after a few generations, the population had taken the contour it still preserves, namely, the pure whites, the colored folk (mixed breeds) and the pure blacks. For one reason and another, individuals in the last-named section obtained their freedom. Sometimes it was granted to them by masters who appreciated some special service rendered.

Sometimes it was bequeathed to them by kind-hearted masters. At times it was a gift from the state for services rendered in times of rebellion or other disaster to the commonwealth.[216]

Among the colored element of the population the tendency towards manumission was even more marked and extensive, for there the white fathers often not only bestowed freedom on their offspring but bequeathed to them comfortable, if not ample, means. Our immediate interest is, however, to be found among the blacks, for it is among them that we see a face and figure that holds our attention.

Among the earliest Negroes in Jamaica freed because of services rendered to the state was one John Williams. Under date of 1708, a law stands on record, the first of its kind, forbidding slave testimony being received in evidence against two Negroes, to wit, Manuel Bartholomew and John Williams. This was bestowing on them one of the vital privileges as a rule confined to whites. Eight years later there was pa.s.sed another act extending the privilege to Dorothy Williams, wife of John, and also to the sons of these two, namely, John, Thomas, and Francis. Exactly what led to such marked discrimination in favor of Williams and his family the records have not so far revealed, but the mere continuation of the concession and its extension suggest that there was something special about the character and worth of John Williams, Senior, as viewed by the ruling authorities. Another fact emphasizes this. John Williams, between 1708 and 1716, had to endure the rather dangerous hostility of a member of the legislature. This legislator applied to Williams the term "a black Negro," as one of contempt. Williams replied with the term, self-contradictory no doubt but effective enough to rile a Jamaican legislator in the early part of the eighteenth century. He styled his would-be traducer a "white Negro." As a result he ran the risk of seeing his valued privileges withdrawn once and for all. Supported by a few of his friends, the irate legislator brought the matter before the House of a.s.sembly, and it was actually proposed that the Act of 1708, the Magna Charta so to speak of the Williams family, should be revoked. The effort, however, failed, and it seems reasonable to view that fact as a testimony to something of worth in John Williams, especially when we find that soon after his privileges were extended to his wife and his three sons.[217]

Francis Williams now replaces John, his father, and Dorothy, his mother, against the background of the past. The Duke of Montague wished to put to the test some of his opinions about the capabilities of the Negro. He desired to see whether a black boy taken and trained at an English school and then at a university would not equal in intellectual attainments a white youth similarly educated.[218] The links that would explain how it was that the choice for this experiment fell on Francis Williams are missing, but there it did fall. He must certainly have been, as Gardner suggests, "a lively, intelligent lad,"[219] but that by itself would not fully explain his being chosen. Someone fairly high up in Jamaica must have been taking a special interest in the Williams family, and that interest, in view of the collateral facts, must have been based on something of note in John Williams, Senior.

Francis received preliminary training in Jamaica, and then was sent to an English grammar school. Thence he went to Cambridge University.

Only the bare facts of his story remain, like a skeleton, but we can safely argue that he did not disappoint the expectations of his patron to any serious extent, for, when the time came for Francis to return to Jamaica, the Duke of Montague used his influence with some determination to get his protege appointed to a seat in the Council, that his abilities might be fully put to the test. The Governor of the island with whom the Duke had to do was Edward Trelawny, and this shows that Williams returned to Jamaica between 1738 and 1748, for it was between those years that Trelawny held sway. They were stormy times, and Trelawny was a man with anything but a placid temper or compliant views. The famous war of "Jenkin's ear," between Britain and Spain, began in 1738. Porto Bello was destroyed by Vernon and Cartagena was attacked with troops whose base was Jamaica. In fact, Trelawny added a Negro detachment to the army employed.[220] In the quarrels that followed the disastrous failure at Cartagena, Trelawny had even more than his fair share of the cursing, and it is hardly surprising to find that a man of such temper, and amid such storms of fate, was anything but malleable to the Duke's request. The Governor knew his mind, and it was that setting a black man in the Council would excite restlessness among the slave population. The Duke's experiment with Williams was, therefore, not completed as the Duke himself intended it should be.[221]

Williams settled down in Spanish Town (St. Jago de la Vega), the then capital of the island, and conducted a school for imparting a cla.s.sical and mathematical education. He became known also in the island, and to some extent abroad, as a poet and the fragments of his work that have come down to us show that he was at any rate a fair literary craftsman. Of the sort of man he was personally, we have not the material for a fair judgment, for we are practically shut up to surveying the man through the very colored gla.s.s that the historian Long inserts in the loophole of observation he has turned on Williams.

Long, who published his History of Jamaica in 1774, was of the planter cla.s.s, and his prejudice on such a matter was probably so complete that he was not even conscious that prejudice existed. He says of Williams: "In regard to the general character of the man, he was haughty, opinionated, looked down with sovereign contempt on his fellow blacks, entertained the highest opinion of his own knowledge, treated his parents with much disdain, and behaved towards his own children and slaves with a severity bordering on cruelty. He was fond of having great deference paid to him, and exacted it with the utmost degree from the negroes about him. He affected a singularity of dress and a particularly grave cast of countenance, to impart an idea of his wisdom and learning; and to second this view, he wore in common a huge wig, which made a very venerable figure."[222] The influence of prejudice on this picture is easily to be detected. There is not a single line of sympathy through the whole presentation, and it is something more than probable that there is actual misrepresentation of facts. Long would repeat what was current in his own circle, without feeling himself at all bound to investigate the a.s.sertions before setting them down for future generations to read.[223]

That Williams was set in a most difficult position is obvious. It was one that could only be creditably filled by one highly and exceptionally gifted, both in intellect and spirit. Still more difficult was it so to fill that position that he would appear before an age of wider and sweeter altruistic principles without disfavor in its eyes. Long credits him with the saying: "Show me a negro, and I show you a thief";[224] and Gardner, who enters in his behalf a defence that is in many ways effective, merely says regarding this accusation: "The race to which he belonged was then almost universally despised, and the temptation to curry favor with the whites by denouncing the negroes was too great for him to resist."[225] But it seems to me that something more deserves to be said on the subject.

We do not know whether Williams' epigram was a sober opinion or merely one cast off in a fit of irritation, that moment of "haste," which even the Psalmist knew, when he was led to sweep all mankind in under the term of "liar." But, further, if Williams was the deliberate sycophant and racial toady Gardner strives to shelter behind his s.h.i.+eld of excuse, how was it that he had not won from the planter party, whose voice reaches us through Long, a more softened if not a more favorable opinion? There must have been some marked independence of spirit about a man who cut himself off thus on the one side and on the other. He was an educated man, placed in a false position; cut off by the narrowmindedness of the educated men around him from the environment for which training and education had fitted him. Had his savage epigram employed the term "slave," instead of "negro," and that was practically what it meant, it could stand as a thought-compelling truth, pointing beyond the slave to the tyrant system that made the slave.

Gardner, whose history was published in 1876, was, by cla.s.s, of the missionaries, and by disposition a liberal, and a conscientious liberal. His estimate of Williams is thoroughly well-intentioned, and not wholly inadequate. It lacks subtlety, rather than sympathy. I cannot help hoping that time will bring to light material by which something may be attempted regarding the personality and character of Francis Williams, nearer what one feels instinctively is the truth than the outline at present holding the field.

Francis Williams has been mentioned as the author of the song: "Welcome, welcome, fellow debtor," but on what grounds, beyond tradition, it is not clear. We have, however, a Latin poem which is indubitably his work. It was addressed to General George Haldane, who arrived in Jamaica as Governor, April 17, 1758. It is panegyric, after the fas.h.i.+on of the eighteenth century, that is excessively so, but there are lines in it worth remembering. It is thus inscribed:

Integerrimo et Fortissimo Viro GEORGIO HALDANO, ARMIGERO, Insulae Jamaicensis Gubernatori; Cui, omnes morum, virtutumque dotes billicarum, In c.u.mulum accesserunt, CARMEN.[226]

DENIQUE venturum fatis volventibus annum (_e_) Cuncta per extensum laeta videnda diem, Excussis adsunt curis, sub inagine (_f_) clara Felices populi, terraque lege virens.

(_g_) Te duce, (_h_) quae fuerant malesuada mente peracta Irrita, conspectu non reditura tuo.

Ergo omnis populus, nee non plebecula cernet (_h_) Haesurum collo te (_i_) _relega.s.se_ jugum, Et mala, quae diris quondam cruciatibus, insons Insula pa.s.sa fuit; condoluisset onus Ni victrix tua Marte ma.n.u.s prius inclyta, nostris Sponte (_k_) ruinosis rebus adesse velit.

Optimus es servus _Regi_ servire _Britanno_, Dum gaudet genio (_l_) _Scotica_ terra tuo: Optimus heroum populi (_m_) fulcire ruinam: Insula dum superest ipse (_n_) superstes eris.

Victorem agnoscet te _Guadaloupa_, suorum Despiciet (_o_) merito diruta castra duc.u.m.

Aurea vexillis flebit jactantibus (_p_) _Iris_, c.u.mque suis populis, oppida victa gemet.

Crede, (_q_) menum non est, vir _Marti_ chare! (_r_) _Minerva_ Denegat _aethiopi_ bella sonare duc.u.m.

Concilio, caneret te _Buchana.n.u.s_ et armis, Carmine _Peleidae_ scriberet ille parem.

Ille poeta, decus patriae, tua facta referre Dignior, (_s_) altisono vixque Marone minor.

(_t_) Flammiferos agitante suos sub sole _jugales_ (_u_) Vivimus; eloquium deficit omne focis.

Hoc demum accipias, multa fuligine fusum Ore sonaturo; non cute, corde valet.

Pollenti stabilita manu, [(_w_) Deus almus, eandem Omnigenis animam, nil prohibente dedit]

Ipsa coloris egens virtus, prudentia; honesto Nulus inest animo, nullus in arte color.

Cur timeas, quamvis, dubitesve, nigerrima celsam _Caesaris occidui_, candere (_x_) _Musa_ domum?

(_y_) Vade salutatum, nec sit tibi causa pudoris, (_z_) _Candida quod nigra corpora pelle geris!_ Integritas morum (_a_) _Maurum_ magis ornat, et ardor Ingenii, et _docto_ (_b_) _dulcis in ore decor_; Hunc, mage, _cor sapines, patriae_ virtutis amorque, (_c_) Eximit e sociis, conspicuumque facit.

(_d_) Insula me genuit, celebres aluere _Britianni_, Insula, te salvo non dolitura (_e_) patre!

Hoc precor; o (_f_) nullo videant te fine, regentem Florentes populos, terra, Deique locus!

FRANCISCUS WILLIAMS

(_e_) _Aspice venturo laetentur ut omnia Saeclo. Virg. E._ iv. 52.

(_f_) Clara seems to be rather an improper epithet joined to _Imago_.

(_g_) _Te duce_, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri _Irrita_, perpetua solvent formidine terras.

_Virg. E._ iv. 13.

(_h_) Alluding perhaps to the contest about removing the seat of government and public offices from _Spanish Town_ to _Kingston_, during the administration of governor Kn----s.

(_i_) Pro _releva.s.se_.

(_k_) Quem vocet divum populus _ruentis_ Imperi _rebus. Hor. Lib._ I. _Od_. ii.

(_l_) Mr. Haldane was a native of North Britain.

(_m_) Tu Ptolomaee potes magni _fulcire ruinam_. Lucan.

_Lib._ viii. 528.

(_n_) This was a promise of somewhat more than antediluvian longevity. But the poet proved a false prophet, for Mr. Haldane did not survive the delivery of this address many months.

(_o_) Egerit _justo domitos_ triumpho.

_Hor. Lib._ I. _Od_. xii.

(_p_) _Iris._ Botanic name of the _fleur-de-luce_, alluding to the arms of France.

(_q_) _Phoebus_, volentem praelia me loqui Victas et urbes, increpuit lyra Ne. _Hor_.

(_r_) Invita Minerva. _Hor. de Art. Poet._

(_s_) _Maronis altisoni_ carmina.

_Juv. Sat._ xi. _ver._ 178.

(_t_) _Flammiferas_ rotas toto caelo _agitat_.

(_u_) I apprehend Mr. Williams mistook this for _jubara_, fun beams.

(_w_) This is a _pet.i.tio principii_, or begging the question, unless with Mr. Pope,

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole, "Whose body nature is, and G.o.d the Soul."

But, "Far as creation's ample range extends, "The _Scale_ of sensual _mental_ powers ascends."

(_x_) Mr. Williams has added a _black Muse_ to the Pierian choir; and, as he has not thought proper to bestow a name upon her, we may venture to announce her by the t.i.tle of madam aethiop.i.s.sa.

(_y_) _Vade salutatum_ subito perarata parentem Litera. _Ovid._

(_z_) See his apophthegms before mentioned.

(_a_) _Maurus_ is not in cla.s.sic strictness proper Latin for a _Negroe_.