276
JAMAICA.
the information we were able to obtain, it appeared that the eight hour system* was generally enforced in this parish ; and that the apprentices were defrauded to a great extent of their time. There is one propri etor, however, A L E X A N D R E B R A V O , of whom his negros invariably speak in terms of gratitude for his just and kind treatment of them. The state of things on many of the estates is indicated by the following anecdote. A liberal overseer of a large estate complained to our informant, that " h e was compelled to defraud the apprentices every day of their time. If his make of sugar were to be reduced, it would be deemed no excuse by his attorney, to say that he could not pro duce more with the amount of labor, which the appren tices are by law required to give. The rejoinder would be, " What do they do on the adjoining estates ?" We did not go into Vere, and have no information of the state of the apprentices in that important parish, except that the non-predials are likely to be detained in slavery till the year 1840. Two of the missionaries of the London Society informed us that a local magis trate of Vere observed in their presence, that in that * W h e r e the negros, as is tlie case in Jamaica, support them selves hy working in their provision grounds, they are required by the law to work only forty and half hours instead of forty-five hours per week. Under the eight hour system the forty and half hours are di vided into five days of about eight working hours each ; an arrange ment by which the negros are eifectually deprived of the half-day of four and a half working hours, which was given them by law as an equivalent forj rations or supplies of food. A s their provision grounds are usually several miles from their houses, the distribution of the time over several days destroys it for any useful purpose to the negros. T h e enforcement of the eight hour system is therefore oppressive, besides which it is frequently made the pretext of e x torting five days labor of nine or ten hours each, instead of the legal amount of forty and half hours.