The West indies in 1837

Page 21

BARBADOS.

5

JOSEPH STURGE and THOMAS HARVEY embarked this afternoon for Antigua in the mail-boat.

Dr. LLOYD and JOHN SCOBLE remained a day or two longer in Barbados before proceeding to Demerara. The following account of their visit to the jail at Bridgetown, is given by the latter. " From the council chamber we proceeded into the jail yard, where were collected a large number of ne­ gros employed in breaking stones. The male negros are required to break thirty baskets a day—the women twenty five baskets a day. The stones are very hard and the hammers very soft ; the consequence is, that it is a most laborious operation. In failure of their appointed tasks, they are flogged both male and female ! This I learned on the spot. Among the women thus employed was one very far advanced in pregnancy. I was very much pleased to learn that some of the more powerful negros would break a few more baskets than their required amount, and give their surplus to the weaker, to save them a flogging. From this part of the yard we proceeded to the back of the prison to inspect the tread-mill. It was going when we reached it—fifteen male negros of difi^erent ages, from boys to men, were on it, and the cat was in constant requisition on their sides, shoulders, and legs, to keep them up to their work ; and even when the miserable creatures kept step properly, if they did not tread down they wei-e flogged. On the top of the tread-mill were a number of negros who secured the arms of those that were too weak to hold on by the rail. The usual time for them to be on the tread-mill is ten minutes. From the mill we proceeded to the jail. The first r-oom we entered was about thirty by thirty-five feet, in which one hunB 3

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