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Outalissi; a Tale of Dutch Guiana (1826)

Outalissi; a Tale of Dutch Guiana

(1826)–Christopher Edward Lefroy–rechtenstatus Auteursrechtvrij

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Chapter XVII. Editorial Epilogue.

 
‘And truth alone where'er my life be cast,
 
In scenes of plenty, or the pining waste,
 
Shall be my chosen theme, my glory to the last.’
 
     Cowper.

Having now concluded my friend's manuscript, I cannot forbear availing myself of the opportunity of offering a few observations meo marte on the subject which probably suggested and forms so much of the ground work of the foregoing little fiction, (fiction at least as far as names of persons go, but fact in many particulars, and of too possible reality in all,) viz. the system of slavery as it prevails at present in the Dutch Colony of Surinam, where I have now had several years opportunity of personal observation, but never having resided in any other part of the West Indies, however applicable the general principle of my observations may be, my testimony must of

course be understood to be confined to Surinam alone.

The courteous reader, who has done me the honour to begin at the beginning of the preceding tale, may perhaps think it hard not to be permitted to leave off at the end; but I will not detain him long with my editorial supplement, indeed I have but little to say, and before I say that little, I have a postulatum to make, without which I have nothing at all; for, without that, I confess myself absolutely at sea, without either chart or compass, or a single star by which I can discern with confidence in so complex and far-spreading a subject any certain course of moral duty. My postulatum is the truth of Christianity, and if it is not true, it is an imposture of more subtle and refined cruelty than could have been the invention of any but fiends; for would it not be cruel in a parent to entangle the young conscience of his children in fetters so comprehensive, and impose upon it a standard of self-constraint and self-sacrifice so all-pervasive and unrelaxing, that an unreserved, implicit, and unsubterfugitive conformity to it, must, whilst real Christians continue the minority of mankind, involve him in a life of lingering martyrdom, or a deliberately partial, cheat-devil, and mental-reser-

vation conformity, in a misgiving of heart (if he is not a monster without one) of which truly the aptest possible figure is that of a worm which never dies; - and this hell or martyrdom so realized upon the conscience and life of the most generous and susceptible-hearted, to be, after all, (as infidels say,) only the fiction of beldames and priests! Fiction of fiends, I say, if fiction it is - but fiends are a bug-bear, if Christianity is false, - they form an essential part of Revelation - and if Christianity is true, then courteous reader, I boldly charge the system of slavery which now prevails in Surinam with being utterly incompatible with the inculcation of its doctrines and duties upon the slaves. Of this I need only here give one proof, but it is conclusive; the slaves in Surinam are forbidden to marry. There is a penalty of five hundred guilders actually imposed by the Court of Policy upon any religious minister who performs the ceremony of marriage between slaves.* If Christianity be true, can any government offer it a greater outrage? To say that marriage is the hinge upon which all the

charities of this life turn is undeniably true, but not the whole truth; it is more, it is the only link which connects the charities of time with those of eternity. It is from the religious recognition of this sacred contract that those charities derive all their sanctimony, all their refinement, all their civilizing effect, all their social value. That marriage is a civil contract is perfectly true, as all contracts must be between members of civil society; but that it is a civil contract in contradistinction to its being a religious one, is not true; for, not only does our Saviour expressly recognize it as a contract of divine obligation, but refers to the very words of its institution by God* in the original creation of man, as the great rudimental moral principle of human society. Indeed, it must be obvious to every one accustomed to trace the operation of moral institutions upon moral principles, that all communities must advance in civilization in proportion to the inviolability with which they maintain the sanctity of this institution, or retrograde towards barbarism, as it is disregarded. Now, if Christianity is of God, it cannot be overthrown; but, on the contrary, all communities which systematically defy or oppose it must be themselves overthrown with a confusion and vio-

lence and ruin to individuals, exactly proportioned to the obstinacy and daringness with which they have resisted its light and contemned its authority.

Besides the formal legal desecration of marriage by the government of Surinam, there is the greatest possible jealousy of the instruction of the slaves in any language but their own jargon, which is so scanty as not to contain perhaps above five hundred words, and must, I think, be quite an inadequate vehicle to convey any comprehensive impression in all its foundation, parts, and purposes, of the sublime spiritual temple of christianity.*

But (barring the truth of christianity for a single moment) there is but one possible ground that I know of by which the system of slavery at present existing in Surinam can be vindicated, viz. that the Africans are, if not an inferior species of rational animal, an inferior variety of the same species. Christianity, however, knows but of one species without any natural variety; but I positively deny the fact of essential inferiority, either specific or various, or that any one has a right to

assume it till the same moral apparatus of Christian education has been applied to the Africans from their childhood, as that which is employed in Europe. It has sometimes, indeed, been boldly said by the advocates of their oppression, that nothing but essential inferiority would account for their long submission to the irresponsible sway of the pride, caprice, spleen, lust, and avarice of a handful of Europeans, and those often the scum and refuse of their own countries; as there are no ties of blood, country, or community of national associations or religious faith to explain it, as there are in Russia and other national despotisms; and I grant, if it were true, that they so submitted to a handful of whites the reproach of their own country and their country's faith, it would carry a strong presumption of some great inherent inferiority. But, courteous Reader, here again I positively deny the fact. The negroes in the West Indies do not submit to a handful of whites; they know perfectly that any violent attempt at escape from the controul of their immediate masters would bring down upon them all the power and vengeance of the country to which those masters belong. They submit (at least the British negroes) to you, most courteous British Readers, and you are laying a flattering unction to your soul indeed, if you think

to transfer all the guilt of their oppression to their immediate masters. Had these gentlemen, at the commencement of the series of measures now in progress for the amelioration of the condition of the British negroes argued in this way - Do not make us the scape goats of the national sins, you are all participes criminis. We admit the evil of slavery in all its civil and religious magnitude, but we are not the authors of it; many of us are involved in it against our will, having derived our West Indian property from parents and grand parents, and having, many of us, families wholly dependent on it for their maintenance. We equally with you deplore its evils, and will lend ourselves gladly, cheerfully, and bona-fide to any experiments that his Majesty's ministers shall recommend for the removal of such evils, provided always that, in case any loss, or ultimate and permanent depreciation of our private property occurs from those experiments, the losers shall be entitled to full compensation, except where it can be proved that such loss or depreciation occurred from any obstinate obstruction offered by the losers themselves to the success of those experiments, and also except where the present holder has purchased his property since the period when the character of West Indian slavery first came into

serious agitation in the British Parliament, as such holders (by their own clamorous and eternal asseverations) purchased their properties at a price proportionably reduced by the constant fear and uncertainty they were kept in of farther parliamentary interference.

Had the Old British planters, I say, argued in this way at the commencement of the experiments now in progress, I do not see well how the justice of their argument and the contingent claims founded upon it, could have been either denied or resisted. Philanthropy at another's expense is very cheap benevolence, and unworthy of either a Briton or a Christian; whether by the argument and conduct they have adopted, they have not now completely shut themselves out from all such claims upon their countrymen, I leave to that illustrious senate which represents the national character, and takes charge of the national interests, to determine; but surely the nation need not be afraid of conceding to the old West Indians such contingent claims, as it is clear that the success of all experiments conducted by the government must depend very much upon the government itself.* And consider, most cour-

teous Reader, if you are really afraid of the possible amount of such contingent claims upon your unparalleled national affluence and inexhaustible resources, how it strengthens the argument of the old slave-holders, and weakens your claims to the credit of disinterested benevolence; but if you would only submit for a few years to an express tax for doubling all your West Indian garrisons merely during the substitution of legal and moral, for physical impulsion to labour, I am quite satisfied you might safely undertake the contingent indemnity I have mentioned; partial tumults, indeed, and casual destruction of property, might still occur, but its amount in a national point of view must, I am persuaded, be trifling. I cannot help, therefore, expressing my most humble but earnest hope that nothing will deter the christian part of the British public, which I trust is becoming, (how can I help wishing so, if christianity is true?) and will daily more and more become the influential part upon the British councils, from persevering in their glorious cause; difficulties will vanish as their determination becomes definite and immoveable.

Whilst the British government exacts of their subjects in their individual capacity a submission to their restraints, and punishes them for impugning the divine authority of Christianity, the public have a right to call upon the ministers, in common decency, to defer in their official capacity to the obligations that Christianity imposes upon them as the representatives, stewards, and depositaries of the wealth, power, and talents of a Christian country, and that country unrivalled in wealth, power, and talents by any in the world; and - let the friends of rational liberty remember, that if they do not support Christianity, Christianity cannot support them. The progress of Christianity is quite as indispensable to the progress of rational liberty, as the progress of the latter is to that of the former. Liberty unaccompanied by some strong moral principles of self-restraint (and if the truth of Christianity is surrendered, I know not whence they are to be efficiently derived,) is sure to degenerate into licentiousness and anarchy, and thence to take shelter under despotism, from the outrages which a vicious people would otherwise be continually committing upon each other. On the other hand, the progress of rational liberty is equally indispensable to the safe diffusion of the truths of Christianity, which might otherwise be

abused by a few crafty hypocrites into a source of bigotry, papacy, inquisitions, and the most abject mental thraldom, - a perversion of the glorious liberty with which true religion makes men free, into outer darkness, and a bondage worse than Egyptian, which was merely of the body. At the same time, let it not however be forgotten, that with regard to the diffusion of Protestant Christianity, the province of temporal government is merely to afford facilities and remove obstructions. It is a very objectionable thing on every ground, both of religion and liberty, to invite the legislature to give the law an inquisitorial character, by making them too busy with private vices. Let it not be overlooked, that there are portions of Christian discipline that can only be safely administered by individuals to themselves; for I would humbly submit, that there are sins of which (however much opposed to sanctification) the violent controul (where their practice involves no violence to individual will or family security) would infallibly drive numbers either into Bedlam, or into total abandonment of themselves to infidelity or Antinomianism. Acts of Parliament, for example, for bringing execrations and ribaldry off officers and seamen, and, indeed, many acts of personal immorality to courts-martial on board a ship, never have

or can be enforced; nor could any similar human law be impartially executed in regiments, colleges, inns of court, or any body of men of whom I have any experience. Now and then private malice may pounce upon a victim, but the mischief done in such cases by the encouragement afforded to the indulgence of resentment and sycophancy in the informer, and the impression made of partiality in the administration of the laws, is, in my humble opinion, more than equivalent to the benefit of the example in the way of determent. What justice of the peace could impartially levy the fine at present imposed by act of parliament for profane swearing? His equals and neighbours would be afraid of his doors, lest a careless expletive should expose them to a penalty. The amenities of private social intercourse would be destroyed by the rigid and impartial execution of such laws, and I, for one, can never agree to the legal enforcement of any moral restraints upon the poor that are not equally enforced upon the rich. Far, far from me, be such a reflection upon the noblest portion of the British people - noblest, I mean, in the leading features of their professional character - most alive to generous impulses, least actuated by mercenary motives, most disdainful of deliberate guile, and ever most alive to show ‘their

manly bosoms to the fiercest foe’ - the navy - as to suppose that a ship's crew is not to be brought into some degree of Christian consistency in their individual comportment; but it must be done by regular, painful, and persevering ministerial instruction, and the cheerful example of the cornmanding officers in deferring to those instructions themselves, but not by courts-martial. The same argument applies in part to the Christianisation of negroes; it would be much better that they should receive their religious improvement from the instruction and example of their masters, if they would afford it to them; but I am compelled to declare, from my knowledge of the resident whites in Surinam, Dutch, Scotch, and English, that this is quite a preposterous expectation. If, therefore, the Dutch or British Governments wish at length to deprecate a vengeance from heaven like that which is now desolating Spain, by deep though late repentance for the centuries during which (upon the postulatum of Christianity being true) they have in their West Indian policy defied it, they must take the Christian instruction of their negroes entirely out of the hands of their soi-disant owners. If it is urged that this will diminish the respect of the slave for his owner, I answer, no matter, if it is proportionably increased for those

who form the appeal authorities of both parties, viz. the governments of the mother countries. It is upon the confidence of the negroes in the sincerity, truth, good faith, and parental protection and redress for grievous injustice of these appeal powers, that the quiescence and forbearance of self-redress in the negroes must very much depend; for I am quite satisfied, courteous reader, that negroes are men, and to be governed upon the same general principles as any other men, and susceptible of the same moral influence. The difference in either respect, if any, is one merely of modification. That a long course of misrule and abominations can be reformed without some danger, I dare not assert; but that the danger would be greatly diminished, if not entirely removed, by the uniformity and steadiness which a scheme of West Indian evangelisation could only derive from Government's undertaking it, I contend strenuously. By danger I mean, of course, danger to the white proprietors; for danger, as far as the interests of the negroes are concerned, is utterly inapplicable to any mode of introducing Christianity amongst them, (if Christianity is true,) whether by individuals or the Government; and even to the whites, although danger must attend the partial and irregular diffusion of new light

into the negro mind according to the temper on which it acts, if there are no Government provisions made for its free circulation and safe conduct; yet I do believe that even its partial influence may also operate as their security, and that it did do so essentially in Demarara I am convinced.

The real enemies of the West Indians, I confess, have always appeared to me to be such persons as the writers who profess to defend them in Blackwood and John Bull, who deceive and tamper with them, and make them believe that the people of England sit so loosely by their affection to Christianity, that their late calls upon their Government for the distinct recognition of its authority in all parts of their empire, if they mean to maintain its authority at home, is a mere passing extravagance of enthusiasm or fanatical caprice; so that instead of setting themselves heartily and at once to assimilate their properties, and, by so doing, the security of their tenures, to those of the mother country, by the delay, and partiality, and inefficiency of their co-operation, (to say the least,) if not by direct opposition, they have often certainly betrayed a design of baffling the best wishes of their Christian countrymen; and every step that has been won by the mother country in the sub-

duction of West Indian atrocity has been won in the teeth and defiance of almost every difficulty which the West Indians could safely object to it, either in argument or practice. Either these writers are really covert infidels, or they know nothing at all about the state of slavery in Dutch Guiana, where the proprietors have the power, and generally, as far as I can learn, exercise it, of forbidding either the baptism or the marriage of their negroes. Upon the latter observance between slaves, indeed, as I have before said, there is an actual penalty upon the minister performing the ceremony. The present system of slavery, therefore, which prevails at Surinam, I again assert to be utterly incompatible with the inculcation of the doctrines and duties of Christianity upon the mass of the population involved in it; and if, therefore, Christianity is true, must be overborne by that irresistible will which has decreed its progress, and to which all opposition must recoil upon its authors, or must be superseded by one adapted to facilitate, and not obstruct, the march of divine knowledge.

Pardon, gentle Christian reader, the desultoriness of these few observations. A climate within six degrees of the equator, of which four-fifths of the soil is an absolute swamp below the level of the sea, and which has never allowed me six con-

secutive hours of health since I first arrived in it, will, I trust, disarm any very severe criticism on the composition of either this little editorial epilogue or the narrative to which it is subjoined; and which I would not have presumed to address to you, but the chances are many against my surviving my engagements in this colony, and I could not forego the opportunity of earnestly invoking you not to relax in the noble contest in which you have already won such decisive advantages. In a cause like this, remember, Government derive all their strength from the voice of the public, and however earnest their own individual wishes may be for the extension of the practical influences of Christianity, (from which alone, if Christianity be true, any reasonable hopes can be entertained of material improvement in the proportions of human happiness and misery,) cannot go in their legislative character, at least with the slightest good effect, beyond the public feeling. In despotisms, indeed, the public feeling is led by the Government; but in countries where the spirit of liberty so pervades all her institutions as in England, the converse of this must in a great measure be true; and what is the measure of good which the world may not hope to derive from the perfect concert of the popular and executive energies of England, when

perseveringly employed in subserving the bounties of heaven, and propagating the only means vouchsafed or encouraged by God for improving the condition of man?

Believe me, courteous reader,

Your most obedient humble servant,

     The Editor.

Dutch Guiana,

January 18, 1826.


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