A Descriptive Account of the Island of Jamaica

- Circa 1790 -

Excerpted from:  Beckford, William, Esq., A Descriptive Account of the Island of Jamaica, London, 1790. Vol I & II.

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Planters, Attorneys, Overseers, etc:

(Ref: Vol II, pp 364 – 380)

The attorney draws 6 per cent upon the produce of the plantation; makes an allowance, according to its extent and revenues, to a person to keep the books of the property, and to do in his absence such business as the overseer, from a different line of occupation, is either incompetent to, or has not leisure to superintend. He appoints the overseer, and affixes his salary according to his pretensions and his skill; and among this class of people I have seen and been personally acquainted with some, that are an honour to their profession, and who would make as responsible agents as those by whom they have been, in a subordinate capacity, employed.

The attorney who manages for the proprietor in England, derives his emoluments from the produce of the property, and charges 6 per cent for every thing he makes, and every thing he sells; and if he be not scrupulous in his trust, he may likewise draw many other advantages from his situation, which some have not scrupled to take. He may order the states to supply him with corn, may direct their carts to carry it; may be from thence supplied with mules for his servants, and with provisions and delicacies for himself; and may likewise order the attendance of any Negroes he may prefer, to wait upon him in menial capacities: and all this he may do, and all this is often done, without any ceremony or compensation.

If he have extensive concerns, he is followed about the country with a retinue of carriages, of servants, and of horses, which shake the ground as they thunder along; and when he arrives upon the plantation, the command goes forth, to catch and kill; the table is covered with profusion, and few are suffered to go empty. I had almost said sober, away.

There is not a profession in the country so much sought after as this; and if it be not the most honourable, it is certainly the most profitable, and that in which is often the greatest mediocrity of talents: for a situation that individually does not either require thought, or insist upon action, may be equally exercised by the vacant and inactive. The only things required, are confidence and protection from home, an hospitable way of life in the island, a costly table, a full cellar, and good attendance; and if you have besides an easy carriage, and am ambling horse, "all the rest shall be added unto you."

The business of an attorney, when residing upon the plantation, is to attend the overseer in a circuitous visit of the cane fields, and to obtain from him a calculation of what they may produce; and as his emoluments arise from the magnitude of the crops, his interest will point out the means of making them productive; and hence the exorbitant expence of hired labour will be added, to swell the list of payments under which the planter already labours, and for which, in seasons of storms and famine, he may find it very difficult, if not impossible, to provide: the attorney having the means of payment in his own hands, may say "that charity begins at home," and provides for his own wants before he considers those of his employer.

He makes it a point to be upon good terms with the captains of ships, and all those in short who have an opportunity to report favourably of him to his constituents in England; and according to the extent of his concerns, will be his consequence, and the respect that will be shown to him in the country.

Of this description of persons there are many who hold the first places in the community, and who are independent legislators, useful magistrates, and men of property; and who are besides attentive and just to the interest of their employers, and respectable both in public and private life: but yet I must still say, that I do not think even the best of them are so successful in the management of a property which they conduct under a mortgagee in possession, as when they hold the direction under the appointment, and confidence, of the planter alone; and I must still observe, that the latter will be in general found to be the best steward of his own affairs, as his own interest would be so much blended with his conduct; and his Negroes would more cheerfully obey his orders than attend to those of strangers; and they will go forward with warmer hopes of a redress of their complaints, to him who is so much a party in their content and welfare, than they would to one who has the same motives to direct him.

When a merchant and a planter shall have found it necessary to enter into terms for their mutual government and safety, I think it always bad policy, and ruinous to both, when the latter is deprived of the possession and management of his estate. The former might appoint an attorney to see his rights ascertained, and that justice be in the first instance done to his claims respecting the consignments, the payment of contingencies, and for whatever sums he is, from the nature of the connection, become responsible: but the actual possession and superintendence should still continue in the proprietor of the soil; for there is hardly a situation more deplorable than one of this last description, when he is obliged to turn out of his own house, without any provision being made for his wants, to make room for a man who was perhaps only the day before his servant and dependent.

If the creditor could only know the heart-felt miseries, and the neglect and insult which the planter sustains, when, in consequence of debts accumulated by the dreadful visitations that have descended from the hand of God, or the unfeeling rapacity and inhumanity of man; - if the rigorous could only feel what he endures at being ejected from his home, deprived of his attendants, and struggling under disease, and without a common subsistence to procure the means of life, he would startle at the power which the law, or an unguarded confidence, has given him; and would ultimately find, that his views of interest or importance would hardly compensate the reproach with which his rigour would be attended.

I would recommend it to the planter, to consider how very serious a thing it is, to become indebted to a merchant of an illiberal and parsimonious turn of mind; and to be particularly cautious how he entrusts him with a security that is of great magnitude compared to a small advance. That he should be just and punctual, his interest will point out the necessity, as well as the advantage: but it is much better to suffer at once a pecuniary humiliation and distress, than to behold a weight in continual pendence above him, when he has every reason to think that it will, some time or other, descend and crush him.

The merchant wants no caution to remind him of his interest: if he meet with disappointment, he has recourse to his security at last; and by advancing money upon pledges of land in Jamaica, I have never heard that one has ultimately been a loafer: but the instances of ruin to the planter under such bonds have been too frequent to require proof.

It will not, I hope, be imagined that I wish to throw the most distant reflections upon merchants of credit and honour: they are beyond my reach, and would look down with contempt upon him who could have the injustice to revile them. My remarks and strictures therefore will only apply to those of a different cast; and to them, if any such there be, I will not even condescend to make an apology.

When the proprietor takes upon himself the management of his own plantation, there are many little circumstances which he attends to as objects of amusement, which an attorney might possibly consider as irksome and disgusting; and who thinks, and perhaps wisely, that he very fully discharges his duty if he superintend the gross of affairs, without entering into those minutiae which, being trifles, are better neglected.

The planter is in general too fond of trying experiments; and his private caprice cannot fail to injure his public views. If a man be clear of debt, and is contented with what he has, the community ought to think itself obliged to every individual who may make them. He is the only person who can be injured by the miscarriage; and by his failure of success no creditor is hurt: but in those of a contrary description, the straight road of management will more certainly conduct to ease or wealth.

Every planter entertains a good opinion of his own management; and being sanguine in his expectations, he is of consequence very frequently deceived. He is tempted, in proportion to this expectations, to purchase Negroes and stock; and hence increases his debts, which were before oppressive: whereas, if he would be satisfied with what the strength and condition of his estate would give him, without clogging its wheels with unnecessary expence, he might be enabled to wipe off annually some portion of his encumbrances; and when the merchant finds that his correspondent provides with punctuality for the interest, and reduces, from year to year, however little, the principal sum, his confidence will probably increase, and he may be disposed to make allowances for seasons of hurricanes and droughts.

As the planter seems to be the spring of action in the West Indies, his manners have an effect upon those of the country. Every one pretends to be, more or less, a man of business; and trifles appear of consequence to those who are not habituated to the practice of regular and systematic occupation.

For the interested bustles of life, for that industry that begets wealth, and that circumspection that knows how to keep it, there is not a character in the world less adapted than a West Indian. Unsteady in thought, and desultory in action, he knows not how to combine his ideas for use, nor to direct their exertion to a given point. His warmth of temper is not followed by a coolness of judgement; but then I have seldom known the heat of passion to conduct him to revenge. Too indolent for the exertions of the mind, his body seems to partake of its languor; and though his spirits will sometimes lead him to the highest flights of extravagance, yet will reflection often sink him to the lowest despair. His disposition is, in some instances, not unlike that of a Frenchman, who is as easily elevated, as soon depressed. He is seldom a miser, and more often a spendthrift than barely generous; and when he is impunctual, I should rather attribute it in many instances to a want of arrangement, and a foresight of contingencies, than to the failure of an honest principle.

It is somewhat singular, that there is hardly an instance of a Creole who has excelled in the liberal professions, or in works of genius: and for this it would be difficult to account, were it not in some manner apparent from their natural indolence, and aversion to one steady and unremitting pursuit. Of one quality they are certainly possessed, and that is hospitality; and which may, some measure, cover their other failings: nor do I think that their generosity is often the handmaid of ostentation.

Their lives are certainly full of vexation and trouble: their means depending upon the favour of the climate, and the preservation of a capital so liable to incidents and mortality, make them look for danger when remote, and anticipate misfortunes that may not happen. They live well while they have the means; and think, perhaps too much, upon the entertainment that they are to give their friends: and this anxiety of making welcome, and of crowding their table with profusion, and of drinking, very frequently, to excess, is a custom that prevails too much among all classes of people in the country.

The women in Jamaica superintend the domestic affairs, and provide for the necessaries and comforts of the table. Their occupations are always unpleasant, and they too often meet with causes of disgust. In that island they suffer much, submit to much, and lead a life of toil and misery, which the most commendable patience, and the most amiable resignation, cannot brook, though doomed to bear.

The overseer has many advantages of comfort, which his employer cannot share. He has few wishes, and few cares: his provisions are found him, and those he enjoys without expense or trouble. His profession does not subject him to labour, nor his situation ame him responsible: he may be discharged indeed for mal-practices, but cannot be punished for neglect, excepting in cases of notoriety which call aloud for public example. He directs the management of the property, if he have a sensible driver and obedient Negroes, with ease to himself; and his daily orders recur, and are executed, without investigation, and without punishment. If the gross of business be well attended to, he is not difficult about trifles. He takes his daily rides into the cane pieces, to see that the work goes on with regularity and dispatch; and when he is absent, the book-keeper attends; but the driver is person whom he trusts. In crop-time he does not continue much in the field, but gives his particular attention to the works, and takes care that the Negroes are not idle, and that they do not waste, or steal, the produce. These remarks apply to a person of character and diligence; nor have I had any personal connection with any people of this rank, whose honesty I could impeach, or whole industry upbraid.

Upon some plantations there are many white people engaged; and the full establishment will be found to consist of the overseer, with a salary from 100 pounds sterling, to two, three, or more; a distiller, with 40 pounds; two book-keepers, with 30 pounds or 20 pounds; a mason, a carpenter, a blacksmith, and perhaps a cooper and wheelwright, at different rates, from indented servants at 50 pounds a year, to 100 pounds or more. Fore these the overseer provides; and these he directs and superintends in their different avocations. Upon some properties there is besides a doctor, upon a fixed salary; but otherwise he is allowed to 5 shillings currency per head for every Negro, and finds the medicines himself.

The above is a large establishment; and the average of estates in the island are contented with an overseer at 100 pounds a year, and one, or at most two book-keepers: but every white man will stand the property in the full amount of his salary besides. Where there are many servants, there will be but little work; and that which is expected to be done by many, will be frequently at last left undone by one. Besides, the lower classes of white people in Jamaica are unworthy of confidence and power: they are idle, drunken, worthless, and immoral; and it is chiefly owing to the infamy of their example, that the Negroes become idle, and turn out thieves and villains. Until therefore a reformation can be made in the manners of those with whom the slaves are so much connected, it will be impossible to enact any salutary and efficient institutions for their better government, for the decency of their conduct, the improvement of their minds, or the enforcing the comfortable or the moral duties of obedience.