Читать книгу Africa's Children - Sharon Robart-Johnson - Страница 13

CHAPTER 2 Early Treatment of Blacks

Andrew Lovitt arrived from Beverly, Massachusetts, in 1765, along with his family and slaves. His wife, Lydia, kept a journal. An entry in this journal reads, “When he was ready to build the ‘big house’ which is still standing, he had slaves to dig the huge foundations, hewn out of the rocky ledges.”¹ An article in an undated copy of the the Vanguard (Yarmouth) states that when Lovitt arrived in Yarmouth, he granted the slaves their freedom. They chose, however, to remain with the family.²

In 1766, Colonel Ranald McKinnon came to Yarmouth from the United States and settled in Glenwood (in what is today the Municipality of Argyle), on a narrow point of land that stretched into Argyle Harbour. He is the person who gave Argyle its name, after his home in Scotland. This particular parcel of land, which became known as McKinnon’s Neck, was part of the original land grant of two thousand acres he received for his service in the British Army.³ It is reported that he brought many slaves with him, but the exact number is not known.⁴ Another document on Ranald McKinnon claims he imported his slaves to work on his farm at Argyle.⁵

A letter he received from his nephew John in England says, “I have sent you March, who is a black boy and who it cost me some pains to procure for you.”⁶ One wonders how much March suffered? Nothing has been found, however, to indicate that Ranald was cruel to his slaves. Records indicate that after a time he set his slaves free and established them on a McKinnon land grant at Salmon River, seven miles from the town of Yarmouth.

Colonel McKinnon’s son, Major John McKinnon, also lived on McKinnon’s Neck, about a mile from his father’s homestead. He is reported to have had one of the largest farms in the Argyles. He was a collector of customs for Argyle Township, a justice of the peace, member of the House of Assembly representing Shelburne, a major of the local militia and commissioner of schools. And, like his father, he was a slave owner.

Stone walls built by slaves in Argyle, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia. Reading about the stone walls was one thing, to see them was moving. The archivist, J. Stuart McLean, and the then director of the Yarmouth County Museum and Archives, Adelè Hemple, as well as an archaeologist and two of her assistants accompanied me to see these walls. When I placed my hands upon the stones, it was almost as if I could feel the energy the slaves expended building those walls. The experience was humbling.

On McKinnon’s Neck, several large stone walls were erected by those very same slaves, gathering stones from the fields to clear the land for ploughing. The walls were five feet (one-and-a-half metres) high and six feet (nearly two metres) wide, and, if placed end to end, would be about one mile (one-and-a-half kilometres) long. These walls served two purposes — to enclose the fields and to serve as a roadway wide enough for a small ox cart. Portions of these walls built on Major John McKinnon’s property and others built on Ranald McKinnon’s property are still visible today. Today, with permission of the owners, it is possible to visit these walls. From the main road, it is quite a distance to the old homestead, but they are there. They are not marked by a sign, and some local residents persist in denying that they were built by slaves. One of today’s owners of the property, Robert Swain, an American architect, was interviewed by Edward Warner of the Boston Globe on March 4, 1990. In the article, Swain says that John McKinnon imported two hundred free slaves to work the land and build a mile-long (one-and-a-half-kilometre) stone wall from his barn to the sea.

According to Jackson Ricker: “Slaves. In my rambles through the old sites and cellars of Argyle I passed an interesting place unnoticed. It is the spot which was Colonel MacKinnon’s [McKinnon’s] ‘Slave farm.’ Colonel MacKinnon owned slaves who laboured on his farm on MacKinnon’s Hill, and on the flat land south of the hill he set off land which the slaves tilled for their own living.”⁷ The slave farm was in the southwestern corner of the field at the foot of McKinnon’s Hill. For many years the hearths where they cooked their meals could still be seen, but years of abandonment have made the exact location hard to find. It is believed that some traces of these hearths are still there, even if only some fragments of broken dishes, but the difficulty is knowing where to look. It has also been reported that there is a cemetery of coloured people on this land, but no one knows its exact location. It is most likely that some of his slaves who died before they were set free are buried there in unmarked graves. After McKinnon’s slaves were freed, some of them took the McKinnon surname as they had no last name of their own. Their descendants are still living in Yarmouth.

The next set of records to be located pertaining to a family that came to the area with slaves was that of Jesse Gray. A Loyalist fleeing the American Civil War, Gray came to Nova Scotia from Charlestown.⁸ He was given a large grant of land at Argyle in return for his military service in the South. It seems that Jesse Gray was a cruel, heartless, and vicious man who didn’t think twice about using brutality to keep the Negroes who worked for him in line. It had only to be the smallest complaint for him to drag out the cowskin and use it to tear the flesh off a slave.

In June 1786, Gray was brought before the courts in Shelburne, accused of whipping a Negro servant named Pero Davis. Gray was fined twenty pounds and ordered to keep the peace. But Gray’s problems concerning Davis did not end there. Davis, being a strong man, filed a complaint against Jesse again. Davis’s affidavit stated that he was “in the Imploy of one Jesse Gray, he was by the said Jesse Gray most severly beat with a cowskin to the number of one hundred lashes round his body in the gratest violence.”⁹ Gray was brought before the courts and charged with assault and battery against Pero Davis. No “True Bill” was found, suggesting that there was not enough physical evidence to convict him, although the jurors declared that Gray was guilty of assault. The jury’s findings in Shelburne Court Records state “Jesse Gray … with force and with arms … did make an assault against him the said Pero Davis then and there [Jesse] did beat wound and ill-treat so that his life was greatly dispaired of …”¹⁰

Jesse Gray’s cruelties seem to have escalated against several other Black people, this time against a woman and her two children. The date of this next episode goes back to St. Augustine, Florida, in 1785, although the court case only began in Shelburne County Court in 1791. On March 1, 1785, Gray abducted a freed African woman by the name of Mary Postell, and her two young daughters, Flora and Nelly. They boarded a ship at St. Mary’s River and sailed from St. Augustine to Shelburne.¹¹ The story of Jesse Gray and Mary Postell is rather bizarre and has more than one version.

One telling indicates Mary was born in South Carolina and was the property of Elijah Postell. After Elijah died, she became the property of his son, William, according to his wife Mary’s statement, provided in her testimony before the General Sessions of Shelburne on July 8, 1791. William was a captain in the American army then rebelling against Great Britain.¹² Once Charlestown was captured by the British army, Mary escaped by joining the King’s forces and taking refuge within the British lines near Charlestown. When Charlestown was evacuated, she went to St. Augustine, where she worked as a servant for Jesse Gray. Here the story changes, as seemingly Jesse sold her to his brother Samuel, then bought her back and ultimately took her to Nova Scotia when he emigrated.

Upon their arrival in Shelburne, Jesse promised to use her well while she lived with him. According to Mary Postell’s deposition, Jesse did:

despose of her to a certain William Mangham and also sold and desposed of her oldest girl (aged about ten years) to one John Henderson who carried her to South Carolina as she is informed, and thence to sell her youngest child — and this deponent lastly sayeth that said Jesse Gray has no right whatever to her or her children and that she is afraid that said Jesse Gray or William Mangham will seize her & her child and carry them away.¹³

Mary found two witnesses in the area, Scipio and Dina Wearing, who were willing to speak for her. Scipio was at one time the property of a man whose surname was Wearing and who had married the widow of Elijah Postell (with whom Mary had once lived). It is assumed that Dina was Scipio’s wife. They were willing to testify that she had been a slave of a rebel and had helped to build fortifications for which work she was given her “Certificate of Freedom.” While Scipio and Dina testified, his “house took fire, and together with the whole of his Furniture, Wearing Apparel, and other property, was consumed. That by the said fire, he had also suffered the loss of a Child.”¹⁴

But, despite all of her testimony, Mary was unable to prove that she had a Certificate of Freedom and that it had been stolen from her. Although Mary had said that she had been Jesse Gray’s mistress, she could not prove that she had not been his slave. Jesse was acquitted because many of the magistrates were Loyalists and slaveholders themselves, and, therefore, generally unsympathetic to the plight of freed slaves.

Jesse sold Mary as a slave to William Mangham “for the price and consideration of one hundred bushels of potatoes.” He sold Mary’s daughter, Flora, to John Henderson for five pounds and personally delivered Flora to the dock where she was placed on the schooner, John and Sally, that was bound for the port of Wilmington, North Carolina.¹⁵

At the July 1791 session of the court, the jury found Jesse Gray guilty of a misdemeanour for selling Mary Postell as a slave and kidnapping Flora Postell, her daughter. Jesse was described by the jurors who were charged with reaching a verdict, as “being a Wicked and Evily disposed person greedy of lucre and seeking his Own profit and advantage by the loss and damage of others.”¹⁶ Despite feeling as they did about Jesse Gray, the jury still found him guilty of only a misdemeanour.

Indictments were brought down against several Negroes who were slaves of mean-spirited owners. Such was the case of a young girl, thirteen years of age, named Harriett. A case of larceny was brought against her by Samuel Marshall, Esquire of Yarmouth, who was at that time one of his Majesty’s Justices of the Peace in the area. At the October 1810 term, the Grand Jury of Shelburne County came into court and presented a Bill of Indictment against one Harriett, a mulatto girl, for stealing a piece of ribbon, valued at nine pence, from Samuel Marshall, Esquire. Harriett pleaded not guilty and chose to be tried by a jury.

After hearing the evidence the jury decided. “It is the opinion of the Jury that Harriett is Guilty of charge alledged against her Rufus Hebbard foreman — Whereupon the court ordered the said prisoner Harriett to receive on the bare back twelve lashes, and the sheriff ordered to perform the same as soon as possible.”¹⁷ One can only imagine the pain and fear that Harriett felt as the lashes ripped into young flesh.

Punishments did not always fit the crimes.¹⁸ On January 30, 1809, a special session of the court in Yarmouth was held at which time several free Black men (there may have been one slave among them) were charged by the same Samuel Marshall on suspicion of stealing and embezzling rum, sheep, and sundry articles. These men were Jack Fell (Fells), Manuel Jervis, James Landers, Samuel Van Nostong (Nostrandt) and Samuel Van Nostong (Nostrandt) Jr.¹⁹

Jack Fell pleaded not guilty and put himself on the mercy of his country. After all the evidence was heard he was found not guilty of stealing, but was deemed guilty of receiving stolen goods, knowing that they were stolen and valued at nineteen shillings.

It was ordered “That Jack Fell prisoner shall pay a fine of forty shillings and be confined in gaol for six days.”²⁰

Samuel Van Nostong confessed to the crime of stealing one keg of rum (containing about ten gallons, or thirty seven litres) on December 25 from the premises of Samuel Marshall Esquire, and also of receiving another keg of rum from James Landers. He put himself on the mercy of the court and was found guilty of stealing and receiving stolen goods knowing them to be stolen and valued at nineteen shillings. It was ordered “That Samuel Van Nostong Snr shall receive publikly twelve lashes on the bare back and make restitution to Samuel Marshall Esqr the sum of thirty shillings.”²¹ Samuel Van Nostong Jr. also pleaded guilty to the charges against him and put himself on the mercy of the court. He was charged with having been a party to stealing about ten gallons of rum and was found guilty of receiving goods valued at ten shillings knowing that they were stolen and also secreting the same. It was ordered “That Van Noston Jnr Shall receive publikly Twelve lashes on the Bare back and make restitution to Samuel Marshall Esqr the sum of Twenty shillings.”²²

James Landers’s charges were for crimes perpetrated over a period of time:

The said James Landers having confessed himself guilty of the following charge viz. The said prisoner stands charged with having about a year ago stolen form the store of Sam’l Marshall about 12 gallons Rum-2 Brown Hatts-1 pr. Stockings, 2 Silk Handkerchiefs-12 lbs flour-2 lbs sugar — within fifteen months with having stolen 5 several sheep in company with others — about 9 Months ago with having stolen 6 pieces of pork — within 3 Months past in company with Samuel Van Nostong and others with having stolen about 30 gallon of Rum — ;within 7 months past with having stolen 2 other Hatts, a gimblet & 3 Bottles in Co with Isaac Jordan and Manuel Jervis….²³

He was found guilty of stealing to the amount of nineteen shillings. Although the value of the goods stolen was basically the same as the other men’s, given that he seems to have stolen more, his punishment was more severe — a public lashing of thirty nine lashes on the bare back and restitution payment of five pounds to Samuel Marshall.

Manuel Jervis was “charged with having, at various times within Eighteen months past in company with James Landers and others, stolen from Samuel Marshall Esqr about 30 gallons [112. Litres] of Rum,—Also that in company with James Landers, Isaac Jordan, Dinah Ackerman alias Jordan and others unknown, did steal, kill and eat 5 sheep within the time aforementioned, being the property of persons unknown….”²⁴ He was found guilty and ordered to pay the amount of ten pounds. It was ordered that Manuel be taken to gaol where he was to await the next general session of the court at which time his fellow conspirators would be called to give evidence against him. The general sessions for the April term of 1809 opened at which time Manuel Jervis pleaded guilty to his crimes. It was ordered “that the said prisoner Manuel Jervis shall receive twenty-seven lashes on the Bare Back and make restitution to Samuel Marshall Esqr the sum of nineteen shillings & eleven pence. Which said sentence was accordingly Executed….”²⁵

Manuel Jervis and Jack Fell ran afoul of the law again, and on the same day, February 14, 1812. They were brought before the courts on suspicion of Petit Larceny “for stealing and embezzling” boards, wood, and other items. This time for Manuel Jervis, the penalty was severe:

“It is the opinion of this Jury of Our Sovereign Lord the King that the prisoner Manuel Jervis is Guilty in Manner and form as he stands charged.” Yarmouth14th February 1812. Benjamin Barnard Foreman…Ordered by the Court that the said Prisoner Manuel Jervis Shall receive twenty-four stripes and lashes on the Bare Back and that the same shall be immediately performed which was Accordingly done. Publickly….²⁶

Jack Fells (spelled Fells this time) was more fortunate than Manuel. Although accused of the same crime, the jury returned with a “not guilty” verdict, whereupon the court ordered that Jack be released and acquitted.

How much did thirteen-year-old Harriet scream while the flesh was being torn from her back? Did the men scream as well or did they endure the punishments in silence because they were accustomed to being abused? Did they take the wood because they were cold; the food because they were hungry? The Van Nostongs, father and son, James Landers, and Jack Fells were not slaves, but it is not known if Harriet and Manuel Jervis were. It would, however, have not mattered. They were Black and during that time period, that was all one had to be in order to be punished more severely than others for the same crime.

Going back a few years to October 28, 1806, reveals even earlier cases. This one involved a Native man who abused a Black woman:

Bartlett, an Indian who was Bondman for one Malta another Indian who was apprehended and entered into a Bond of Recognizance for said Maltas appearance to the Court. He the said Malta being apprehended for striking, abusing and misusing Charlotte, a Negro woman. Both said parties in the Bond came into Court … The Court after Severely reprimanding Malta dismissed him, he appearing penitent and sorry for his fault and promising to govern himself better in the future….²⁷

Even the Native people of that time, some who had been slaves in the past and had often been treated no better than animals themselves by the Europeans, abused the Black people and got away with it. There were so many injustices against the Negroes it would take too long to document each case. In too many cases, whippings broke not only the skin, but the spirit as well. But, one had to go on from there day by day. Amazingly, many did!

How many Blacks have been tied to the two lofty sign posts in front of Vengence House? Located in the south end of Yarmouth, it was known for half a century as a public house, sometimes as Richan’s Tavern and at different times as the Olive Branch or the Phoenix.²⁸ When known as Vengence House, it was used as a courthouse and jail. It was there that prisoners convicted of crimes received their lashes from a cat-o’-nine-tails. Is this where young Harriet received her twelve lashes for stealing a piece of ribbon? Or Manuel Jervis his thirty-nine lashes for stealing a few sticks of wood? The original building is gone, but what stories it could tell about those times of so long ago!

The plaque commemorates Vengence House, which at one time was used as the courthouse. Knowing some of the history behind the sign that was erected by the Yarmouth County Historical Society in 1998, and seeing it for the first time, brought forth a range of emotions. How could anyone inflict such cruel punishment as flogging on another human being, no matter the colour of their skin? I tried, in my mind, to place myself in front of Richan’s Tavern/Vengence House during that period. All I could imagine was me rushing to the aid of those being punished and then being punished myself for doing so.

Fortunately, not all masters were cruel. James Lent was a United Empire Loyalist from Westchester County, New York. Having chosen land grants in Nova Scotia, he and his family sailed to Shelburne in June 1783. The family brought with them their personal possessions, appointments, cattle, and slaves. When the Lents arrived and discovered that Shelburne was becoming too crowded for their liking, they boarded their ship again and set sail up the Tusket River and settled at what became the village of Tusket. Here, the Lents constructed their house, dug their well, and, with the slave quarters built, settled in to live out the rest of their lives. James Lent, “Cobus” as he was called by those close to him, trusted his slaves and treated them with respect.²⁹

Stories are told of James Lent’s relationship with his slaves. One concerns how one of his personal slaves was sent back to New York by packet to retrieve a small trunk containing gold sovereigns that had been hidden in a stone wall during fighting that took place at the time of the American Revolution. This slave faithfully returned to Tusket with the trunk and handed it to his master. Another tells of one particular slave named William Berry, who had become discontented and asked his master to buy him a wife, which James promptly did, paying £100 for her. Her name was Dinah.

Those who were fortunate to have caring masters escaped the indignities of being sold at an auction. This was a common practice during the early 1800s, and several slaves were bought and sold in this way in Yarmouth. One such sale was that of a young boy named Jack:

Bill of Sale for a Negro Boy Jack

Know all men by these Presents that I, A.B., of the Township of Yarmouth for and in consideration of the sum of thirty-nine pounds in hand paid to me by C.D, have bargained and sold to him and by these presents do grant bargain and sell to him the said C.D. a certain Negro Boy named Jack, about seven years of age, born in my house from a wench and a man, both my sole property; and I, the said A.B., do promise to warrant and defend the said Negro Boy Jack against all lawful claim or claims of any person or persons whatsoever.

In Witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal this twenty-third day of December, 1801.

A.B.

Signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of

E.F.

G.H., & J.K.³⁰

Thirty-nine pounds is not much for the value of a human being, but this price was paid again for another slave. This time the slave was Manuel Jarvis (the previous spelling for Jarvis was Jervis). (Could this be the Manuel Jarvis/Jervis who received the twenty-four lashes in 1812?) He was brought from the West Indies by his owner, Colonel Lewis Blanchard. Manuel was sold to a Dr. Bond of Yarmouth (possibly the same Dr. Bond who gave evidence in the trial of the Andrews family in the murder of Jude?). He also purchased another slave named Kate in March 1802 for forty pounds. She soon after married Manuel.³¹

It appears that Dr. Bond was not one of the sadistic slave masters as were some others.³² The granddaughter of Dr. Bond, Mrs. Maria J.L. Thorburn, told of how her grandfather owned two slaves, Manuel and Kate, who were employed as household servants. In approximately 1802, Kate gave birth to a little girl whom Dr. Bond promptly gave to his daughter for a gift, telling her she could give the child any name she chose. The name she chose was Hester as she had just finished reading the romantic adventures of Lady Hester Stanhope.³³ This slave-born baby girl was given a heroine’s name, so fitting at a time when slaves were indeed heroes and heroines for enduring the indignities forced upon them.

When slaves were finally liberated on August 1, 1834, it is said that Manuel rushed into his master’s kitchen that day, exclaiming to his wife, “Kate, we’se free!” This was all well and good, but having been slaves all of their lives and having been “cared for,” how would they take care of themselves? They had no knowledge of the world outside of slavery. Yet, to Manuel and Kate Jarvis, all that mattered was that they were free at last. Free to make a life for each other and possibly to have more children who would not be taken away and given as a gift to someone’s daughter.

Dr. Bond offered to keep Manuel and Kate on his homestead and pay them wages, knowing the hardships they would face trying to eke out a living on their own. To Manuel’s and Kate’s credit, they were so elated with this new gift in their lives called freedom, they refused Dr. Bond’s offer. Their first winter was extremely hard. To stay alive, they frequently visited Dr. Bond’s potato bin. They were never turned away. Kate helped to increase Manuel’s meagre income by making molasses candy and selling it to the juveniles in town. At any time, whenever Kate had cause to visit the old homestead, she was never sent away empty-handed. “Yet not a few of these [former slaves], by the frequent acceptance of refuge in old haunts, and by their dependence upon their former owners and upon their children after them, bore witness that the period of bondage had not been wholly without its sunshine.”³⁴

Kate, born in 1773, was living in Weymouth Falls, Digby County, with her youngest son, Joseph, who was sixty-five years old when she died on February 6, 1878. Her obituary states that she was 110 years old when she died.

Another case involving slaves that is connected to Yarmouth concerns a Nova Scotia man named Edmund Crawley. This man was originally from Halifax, but was now in Granwich Hospital, in Kent, England. Edmund gave power of attorney to his brother John Crawley, Esquire, of the town of Yarmouth. This enabled John to sell the property that his brother Edmund owned at Pictou, Nova Scotia. It also gave him the power to execute a bill of sale for a “Negro wench” named Tamor. This was registered at one o’clock in the afternoon on of March 20, 1804, in Yarmouth.³⁵

Since the Slavery Abolition Act only became law on August 1, 1834, it would be interesting to know how many unrecorded sales of slaves there were. Slaves may have been brought to Nova Scotia as early as 1713, and while some sales were recorded, others were not. One hundred million dollars was appropriated by the British Parliament to compensate those slave owners who had lost their slaves through emancipation. There is no record of any monies being granted to the slaves to give them a new lease on life or to atone for more than four hundred years of bondage.