The Journal of Negro History Volume II Part 17

[222] Long, "History of Jamaica," II, 478.

[223] Long says: "He defined himself 'a white man acting under a black skin,' He endeavored to prove logically, that a Negroe was superior in quality to a Mulatto, or other craft, or other cast. His proposition was, that 'a simple white or simple black complexion was respectively perfect: but a Mulatto, being an heterogeneous medley of both, was imperfect, _ergo_ inferior,'" Long, "History of Jamaica," II, 478.

[224] _ibid._, II, 478

[225] Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 208.

[226] Edward Long undertook to a.n.a.lyze this poem in such a way as to show the inferiority of the Negro. These notes are all his. See Long's "History of Jamaica," II, 478-485.

[227] Gardner, _History of Jamaica_, appendix.

NOTES ON THE NOMOLIS OF SHERBROLAND

Among Sierra Leoneans the Sherbro country enjoys a reputation for mysteriousness. A country where every object, from the sandy soil one treads in the streets to the bamboo chair one sits upon at home, is supposed to possess intelligence and to be capable of "catching" one, to wit, afflicting one with disease; a country where the penalty for such a venal offence as stubbing one's devoted foot against the roots of a famous cotton tree, which stands perilously near the roadside, is a sure attack of elephantiasis; a country which boasts of a certain holy city upon whose soil no man on earth may walk shod and live to see the next day, a tradition for which the District Commissioners, adventurous Britons as they are, have had so much respect that they have been content to get only a cruising knowledge of the place, always summoning the headmen to conferences on the beach and delivering instructions from the safe precincts of a boat awning; such a country evidently deserves to be called a land of mystery.

Now, to this air of mystery is added one of interest for students of archaeology in general, and particularly for all Negroes who are interested in the study of the history of their race with a view to discover whether it has really made any worthy achievements in the past or, as its traducers love to make us believe, it is indeed a backward race, that is only just emerging from barbarism and beginning to enjoy and a.s.similate the blessings of Western culture. I refer to certain sculptured finds which are from time to time made in the country and are naturally looked upon by the unsophisticated native mind as nothing short of a mystery.

These images, or _nomolis_, as they are called in the vernacular, are by no means the empirical efforts of some crude artists, but are the products of finished workmans.h.i.+p wrought in steat.i.te or soapstone, which abounds in the Protectorate. They present purely Egyptian and Ethiopian features, and are apparently of great antiquity, possibly thousands of years old. They are dug out from old graves in the course of ploughing, and the finder of one of them considers himself a lucky man indeed. He sees visions of an unprecedentedly rich harvest, or of an extraordinarily brisk trade, if he happens to be in the commercial line, as the _nomoli_ is the presiding deity of crops and commerce.

If the good services of the G.o.d are required on the farm a small shrine is erected there for it and a great big hamper and a bundle of rods placed in front of it. The demon is then addressed in some such manner as this: "I wish you to protect this farm from injury. Make the crop prosper more than everybody's else, and, to do this, every day you must steal from other people's farms and fill this hamper to the full. If you do this I shall treat you well; but if you fail, this bundle of rods is reserved for your punishment." The G.o.d is then heartily treated to a sample of the walloping it should expect in case of default. When its help is needed in the store a similar temple is put up for it in a corner within, and its duty is then to protect the store from burglary, to replenish it by theft and to "draw" custom by a sort of personal magnetism. In either case it must be well cared for. Whatever food or drink its owner partakes every day, a portion must be given to it--and don't forget the whipping. Whether you realize or are disappointed in your expectations of it the guardian angel respects force more than gentleness, and must be whipped soundly every morning.

It will be seen from this that the morality of the _nomoli_ is of a rather naughty order. The controlling principle of its life is theft; in fact it idealizes this vice, since owners.h.i.+p in regard to it cannot be transferred except by stealing. The G.o.d argues it this way: "He who is so careless of me that he allows me to be stolen from him, is not worthy to be my master; but he who so much believes in my powers that he risks the consequences of theft for the sake of getting possession of me, is deserving to be my master and I will serve him." In the event of discovery the culprit is taken to the barre or native court and the Chief inflicts a fine on him; and, "whereas, contrary to customary law, Kai Baki, the plaintiff, did harbour a 'big man'

stranger (to wit, a _nomoli_) in the chiefdom without intimating the Chief in order that his majesty might pay his homage etc., etc.," the aforesaid plaintiff, who in native law is ent.i.tled to receive the amount of defendant's fine as compensation, is not only mulcted in the same amount more or less, but his _nomoli_ becomes forfeited to the crown in the bargain. Obviously, then, it does not pay to prosecute for _nomoli_ stealing, and the robbed native would rather bear his trouble like a philosopher, secretly admiring the cuteness of the other fellow and stealing his property back at the earliest opportunity.

ORIGIN OF THE NOMOLI

If one depends upon the aborigines for a clue as to the origin of the _nomoli_ the enquiry would, like Kipling's "eathen," "end where it began." The whole thing is veiled in mystery; there is not even a legend about it. All that the native would tell you, and it is what he honestly believes to be the truth, is that the image was created by Gehwor (G.o.d) and came down directly from heaven. The fact that no sculpturing of the kind is now-a-days prosecuted in the country, although the Sherbros are clever at wood-carving, makes him ridicule the idea that the _nomoli_ is man's handiwork. The enquiring student must for the present, therefore, go upon very scanty basis to formulate his theory. In order to help in the solution of this problem I shall state one or two facts about the natives of these regions. The Sherbros and Mendis, both of whom inhabit the vast territory known as Sherbroland, are, of all primitive Africans, the least given to fetish wors.h.i.+p. This fact has always proved a stumbling-block to the spread of Mohammedanism in that part of the world. Arab as well as Negro Moslem missionaries have always found the Sherbro and Mendi man rather hard nuts to crack. Many an emissary of the prophet has invaded Sherbroland, exposing for sale all the tempting superst.i.tious paraphernalia of the faith, but the native has almost invariably beaten him with his cold logic.

"How long does it take to come here from Mecca?" once asked a native of an Arab Sheik, who went out hawking some charms in the course of a religious tour. "Oh, more than a month," answered the unsuspecting Moslem. "A month!" exclaimed the intended convert. "Yes." "And you have come all that distance to help us with these things?" "Yes."

"Then you must have paid quite a lot of money for your pa.s.sage?"

"Quite a lot." "And I dare say, you must have only a little money left now?" pursued the native. "Oh, yes, that's why I am selling these potent charms so cheaply, because I wish to raise money to go back home," confessed the true believer. "But how is that?" queried the native; "if, as you say, these charms can make a poor man become rich, how is it that you did not stay in Mecca and use them yourself to become rich instead of coming all the way here to sell them to get money?"

As this att.i.tude towards charms, which is typical of the Sherbro natives, shows that they are not a fetish wors.h.i.+pping people, it can hardly be supposed that the _nomolis_ are relics of that superst.i.tion.

If this were the case, it could easily be suggested by those who wish to discredit the race that the images might have been made by members of some foreign race and exported to the "heathen," who are supposed to delight in "bowing down to wood and stone," a sort of execution to order. This should be quite possible, because it was recently discovered that a certain London firm did a thriving business in idols with China; and it has even been suggested that the _nomolis_ were imported into Sherbroland from Phoenicia.

But such a contingency being ruled out of court, in view of the Sherbro native's antipathy to idol wors.h.i.+p, we must look for an explanation of the origin of the _nomoli_ to one other feature in the customs of Sherbroland. The Sherbros have a custom almost similar to that of the Timnis, a kindred people. The latter are given to ancestor wors.h.i.+p. At the burial of a Timni, a few stones are placed upon the grave, and after three days, when the spirit of the deceased is supposed to have entered into the stones, they are removed to a little shrine in the porch of the family house. The spirit then becomes a guardian angel, and offerings are made at the shrine from day to day.

The Sherbros also make use of stones for the reception of the spirits of their departed ones, but not with a view to ancestor wors.h.i.+p. If a Sherbro happened to die away from home, which is considered a great calamity, the remains are either exhumed and brought back to the old familiar scenes, or, if the distance be too great, three stones are taken to the last resting place and, after three days in the case of a male, or four days in the case of a female, the spirit is supposed to have entered the stones, and the latter are brought to the old town and _buried_.

Is it not possible, then, that the _nomolis_ are real pictures of some ancient Sherbro men and women, and that these people, dying away from "home, sweet home," their images, after having supposedly received their spirits, were interred in the old homeland? I believe the Rev.

Dr. Hayford in his "Ethiopia Unbound" suggests that Ethiopia or Negrodom was once the mistress of the world; that much-talked-of Egypt was but a province of hers, and the pharaohs not real kings, but merely governors sent from the mother country. If this be true, might it not be that some of these _nomolis_ are sculptures of eminent men and women, natives of the region now known as Sherbroland, who went to far-away Egypt as Empire builders, lost their lives in the land of the sphynx; and, since distance prevented the return of their bodies, their busts, after receiving their imperishable parts, were brought back home and buried with due solemnity "under the stately walls of Troy?"

WALTER L. EDWIN

SIERRA LEONE, WEST AFRICA

DOc.u.mENTS

OBSERVATIONS ON THE NEGROES OF LOUISIANA

To present a broad view of the Negroes concerned in this and the subsequent series of doc.u.ments we have given below accounts appearing from decade to decade, written by men of different cla.s.ses and of various countries. Some received one impression and some another, as the situation was viewed from different angles. In the ma.s.s of information, however, there is the truth which one may learn for himself.

CONSIDERATIONS SUR L'ESCLAVAGE; NeGRES LIBRES; MULaTRES DE LA LOUISIANE, 1801

L'esclavage, le plus grand de tous les maux necessaires, soit relativement a ceux qui l'endurent, soit par rapport a ceux qui sont contraints d'en employer les victimes, existe dans toute l'etendue des deux Louisianes. Il ne seroit pas facile de determiner pendant combien d'annees la partie septentrionale en aura besoin; mais on peut a.s.surer qu'il doit exister bien des siecles encore dans le Midi si le Gouvernement veut y encourager l'agriculture, qui est son unique ressource. Les Negres seuls peuvent se livrer aux travaux dans ces climats brlans: le Blanc qui y perit jeune malgre toutes sortes de menegemens, ne feroit qu s'y montrer s'il etoit oblige d'y cultiver son champ de ses propres mains. Pour tirer parti de cette colonie, l'on doit donc proteger l'importation des Negres qui y sont en trop pet.i.t nombre; mais il est en meme temps de l'interet du Gouvernement, de veiller a ce que les habitans n'y abusent pas du pouvoir que la loi et droit de propriete leur donnent.

Apres la cruelle experience de Saint-Domingue, qui probablement aura ouvert les yeux de tous ces philantropes qui ne comptent pour rien la prosperite des empires, lorsqu'elle semble etre en contradiction avec ces sentimens d'humanite, dont ils feignent souvent d'avoir ete doues par la nature; je suis loin d'engager aucun gouvernement a relacher les liens de l'esclavage: on doit les laisser subsister dans leur integrite, ou perdre les colonies. Cependant doivent-ils negliger cette branche d'administration et s'en rapporter aveuglement aux proprietaires, qui paroissent avoir un interet direct a menager leurs esclaves?

C'est ce que je suis loin de croire. Les pa.s.sions agissent trop fortement sur le coeur des hommes, pour ne pas en restreindre la vivacite par des reglemens sages; leur interet meme souvent mal-entendu les aveugle sur leurs propres avantages. L'avarice crie a l'un que ses esclaves mal vetus et mal nourris, n'en sont pas moins tenus a lui rendre les services qu'l exige; la colere conduit l'autre a faire des exemples terribles, sous pretexte d'effrayer ceux qui seroient tentes de lui manquer; un grand nombre enfin se croit autorise a s'en servir pour a.s.souvir ses pa.s.sions et servir ses pa.s.sions et servir ses gouts, fussent-ils meme contraires aux devoirs de la societe et opposes aux principes religieux. Aux yeux des gouvernans les hommes ne doivent etre que de grands enfans, dont, en sages precepteurs, ils dirigent les caprices de maniere a les faire tourner a leur plus grand bien.

Dans la ba.s.se Louisiane les Negres sont tres mal nourris: chacun ne recoit pas par mois audela, d'un baril de mas en epis, ce qui ne fait que le tiers d'un baril en grain;[228] encore beaucoup de proprietaries prelevent-ils quelque chose sur leur ration. Ils doivent se procurer le suplus de leur nourriture, ainsi que leurs vetemens, avec le produit de leur travail du dimanche. S'ils ne le font pas, ils sont exposes a rester nus pendant la saison rigoureuse. Ceux qui leur fournissent des vetemens, le contraignent a employer pour eux les jours de repos, jusqu'a ce qu'ils aient ete rembourses de leurs avances. Pendant tout l'ete, les Negres ne sont pas vetus. Les parties naturelles sont uniquement cachees par une piece d'etoffe, qui s'attache a la ceinture par devant et par derriere, et qui a conserve dans toute l'Amerique septentrionale habitee par les Francois, le nom de _braguet_. L'hiver ils ont generalement une chemise et une couverture de laine, faite en forme de redingotte. Les enfans restent souvent nus jusqu'a l'age de huit ans, qu'ils commencent a rendre quelques services.

Un maitre ne doit-il pas a son esclave le vetement et une nourriture substantielle, a proportion du travail qu'il en exige?

Le jour du repos n'appartient-il pas a tous les hommes, et plus particulierement a ceux qui sont employes aux penibles travaux de la campagne? Ce sont des questions qui n'en seroient pas, si l'avarice, plus forte que l'humanite, ne dominoit presque tous les hommes, mais sur-tout les habitans des colonies. Que resulte-t-il cependant de cette avarice mal entendue? les Negres mal nourris et trop fatigues s'epuisent et ne peuplent pas; de l'epuis.e.m.e.nt nait la foiblesse, de la foiblesse le decouragement, la maladie et la mort. Pour augmenter son revenue le proprietaire perd donc le capital, sans que son experience le rende ordinairement plus sage. Je n'ignore pas que les Negres sont loin de ressembler aux autres hommes; qu'ils ne peuvent etre conduits ni par la douceur, ni par les sentimens; qu'ils se moquent de ceux qui les traitent avec bonte; qu'ils tiennent par la morale a la brute, autant qu'a l'homme par leur const.i.tution physique; mais ayons au moins pour eux soins que nous avons pour les quadrupedes, dont nous nous servons: nourrissons-les bien pour qu'ils travaillent bien, et n'exigeons pas au-dela de leurs facultes ou de leurs forces.

Les Negres sont naturellement fourbes, paresseux, voleurs et cruels; il est inutile d'ajouter qu'ils sont tous dans le coeur ennemis des Blancs: le serpent cherche a mordre celui qui le foule aux pieds; l'esclave doit har son maitre. Mais ce dontil est difficile de rendre compte, c'est l'aversion et la brutalite des Noirs libres pour ceux de leur espece. Parviennent-ils a se procurer des esclaves? ils les traitent avec une barbarie dont rien ne peut approcher; ils les nourrissent plus mal encore que ne font les Blancs, et les surchargent de travail: heureus.e.m.e.nt leur penchant a la faineantise et a l'ivrognerie, les tient dans un etat de mediocrite dont ils sortent rarement.

Quoique les Negres libres perdent tres-peu de leur haine pour les Blancs, ils sont cependant loin d'etre aussi dangereux que les Mulatres. Ces hommes qui semblent participer aux vices des deux especes, comme ils out participe a leurs couleurs, sont mechans, vindicatifs, traitres et egalement ennemis des Noirs qu'ils meprisent, et des Blancs qu'ils ont en horreur. Cruels jus qu'a la barbarie envers les premiers, ils sont toujours prets a saisir l'occasion de tourner leurs bras contre les seconds. Fruits du libertinage de leurs peres, dont ils recoivent presque tous la liberte et une education a.s.sez soignee, ils sont loin d'en etre reconnaissans; ils voudroient en etre traites comme des enfans legitimes, et la difference que l'on met entr'eux les porte a detester meme les auteurs de leurs jours. On en a vu un grand nombre, dans le ma.s.sacre de Saint-Domingue, porter sur eux leurs mains parricides. Les plus delicats se chargeoient mutuellement de cette detestable commission. Vas tuer mon pere, se disoient-ils, je tuerai le tien.

Mais, dira-t-on, le premier droit de la nature est de se racheter de l'esclavage, comme c'en est un aussi de faire jouir des bienfaits de la liberte l'etre qui tient de nous l'existence. Ces verites ne peuvent etre contestees; mais une troisieme qui n'est pas moins evidente, c'est qu'il est du devoir d'un bon gouvernement d'a.s.surer par toutes sortes de moyens la vie et la propriete des peuples qui vivent sous sa domination: or, par-tout ou il y aura des Negres libres ou des Mulatres, l'une et l'autre seront chaque jour exposees au plus imminent danger. Un esclave fuit-il son maitre? c'est chez un Negre libre qu'il va se refugier. Un vol a-t-il ete commis? si le Negre libre n'en est point l'auteur, il en est au moins le receleur. Lorsque par la suite de son travail ou de son economie un esclave peut racheter sa liberte, qu'il aille en jouir parmi les nations qui voudront le recevoir, ou qu'il retourne dans son pays, c'est tout ce que le Gouvernement lui doit. Mais je ne crains pas d'a.s.surer que toute colonie ou l'on souffrira des Negres libres, sera le repaire du brigandage et des crimes.

Quant aux hommes de couleur, plus dangereux encore, il seroit probablement tres-avantageux d'en former des colonies dans quelques parties inhabitees du continent: cette mesure auroit une suite doublement utile; elle priveroit les colonies de ces etres par lesquels elles seront tot ou tard aneanties, et elle diminueroit ce got c.r.a.puleux des Blancs pour leurs esclaves, qui est la ruine de la societe et la cause premiere du pen de population des pays qu'ils habitent.--_Voyage dans Les Deux Louisianes_, 1801, 1802, and 1803, pp. 408-415, par M. Perrin Du Lac.

OBSERVATIONS OF BERQUIN DUVALLON ON THE FREED PEOPLE OF COLOUR IN LOUISIANA IN 1802

The cla.s.s of free people of colour is composed of negroes and mulattoes, but chiefly of the last, who have either obtained or purchased their liberty from their masters, or held it in virtue of the freedom of their parents. Of these, some residing in the country, cultivate rice and a little cotton; a great number, men, women and children collected in the city, are employed in mechanical arts, and menial offices.

The mulattoes are in general vain and insolent, perfidious and debauched, much giving to lying, and great cowards. They have an inveterate hatred against the whites, the authors of their existence, and primitive benefactors. It is the policy of the Spanish government to cherish this antipathy; but nothing is to be feared from them. There is a proportion of six whites to one man of colour, which, with their natural pusillanimity, is a sufficient restraint.

The mulatto women have not all the faults of the men. But they are full of vanity, and very libertine; money will always buy their caresses. They are not without personal charms; good shapes, polished and elastic skins. They live in open concubinage with the whites; but to this they are incited more by money than any attachment. After all we love those best, and are most happy in the intercourse of those, with whom we can be the most familiar and unconstrained. These girls, therefore, only affect a fondness for the whites; their hearts are with men of their own colour.

They are, however, not wanting in discernment, penetration, finesse; in this light they are superior to many of the white girls in the lower cla.s.ses of society, girls so impenetrably dull, that like that of Balsac's village, they are too stupid to be deceived by a man of breeding, gallantry and wit.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE NEGRO SLAVE

We come now to the cla.s.s of negro slaves, the most numerous but least fortunate of all. The negro Creoles of the country, or born in some other European colony, and sent hither, are the most active, the most intelligent, and the least subject to chronic distempers; but they are also the most indolent, vicious and debauched.

Those who come from Guinea are less expert in domestic service, and the mechanical arts, less intelligent, and oftener victims of violent sickness or grief (particularly in the early part of their transportation) but more robust, more laborious, more adapted to the labours of the field, less deceitful and libertine than the others. Such are the discriminative characteristics of each, and as to the rest, there is a strong relation between their moral and physical character.

Negroes are a species of beings whom nature seems to have intended for slavery; their pliancy of temper, patience under injury, and innate pa.s.siveness, all concur to justify this position; unlike the savages or aborigines of America, who could never be brought to servile controul.