WHITE SLAVES IN THE PLANTATIONS. 619 



two neighbors. This last provision was framed to prevent serv- 

 ants, who had been murdered or who had died from the effects 

 of ill-treatment, being buried quietly and the matter hushed up. 

 The owner was bound, under a penalty of ten shillings, to pro- 

 vide each white servant weekly with four pounds of meat, or four 

 pounds of fish, with such vegetables " as may be sufficient." Own- 

 ers were further bound to give yearly to each man-servant three 

 shirts, three pairs of drawers, three pairs of shoes, three pairs of 

 stockings, and one cap, and to a woman-servant in proportion. 



Such was the law governing the relations between bond-serv- 

 ants and their employers in the island of Jamaica, and so far 

 from being exceptional it compares favorably with others. The 

 object of the law was clearly the prolongation of bond-service, 

 most offenses being punishable by additional terms of servitude ; 

 and the master consequently had an interest in their committal, 

 and not infrequently provoked the servant to commit them. It 

 can scarcely be believed that any one should knowingly have 

 expatriated himself to serve under such conditions as these in a 

 country which then bore a very unenviable reputation for un- 

 healthiness ; and it is fairly certain that those who came volun- 

 tarily must have been ignorant of the law; but a very large 

 proportion of the bond-servants were carried off from England 

 by force, and such kidnapped laborers are those who are referred 

 to in the act as persons arriving without a contract or indenture. 

 In 1682 large numbers of laborers were seized in England and 

 shipped to Jamaica, and the fact was so notorious that an order 

 in Council was issued regarding it. In 1685 kidnapping had be- 

 come very common in Bristol, and young persons, guilty of no 

 offense, were seized, hurried across the Atlantic, and sold for 

 money. Even the city magistrates dabbled in this kind of traffic. 

 At that time many offenses which are now considered very triv- 

 ial were punishable with death, and it was the practice of the 

 mayor and justices to intimidate persons brought before them, 

 and to induce them, under fear of being hanged, to pray for 

 transportation ; the profits of the business being divided among 

 the members of the magistrate's court. In connection with this 

 scandalous abuse, Judge Jeffreys appears for once in a light 

 which is quite novel to most readers of history — viz., as the 

 champion of the liberty of the subject, and a redressor of griev- 

 ances ; for, chancing accidentally, when at Bristol, to discover the 

 proceedings of the mayor, he, when sitting as judge, took the 

 opportunity of denouncing him, and compelled him to plead for 

 mercy at the bar. 



Kidnapping was not limited to England, as we learn from the 

 pages of Esquimeling, servant of Morgan, the notorious bucca- 

 neer, and author of the History of the Buccaneers, who had him- 



