ST. HELENA 173 



pared to that of the people in the old days of slavery. 

 Owing to the wise and gradual process of emancipation 

 adopted, i.e. the free children growing up with their slave 

 parents, the evils of sudden manumission, so disastrously 

 felt in the West Indies, were avoided in St. Helena, and the 

 result is a manly, civil people, educated quite as well as 

 the same class in the United Kingdom (in fact, the English 

 tongue is spoken by them with as great purity as in the 

 rural districts of England), living in many instances in 

 their own comfortable cottages, with generally a neat, 

 productive garden attached. Contrast this with life in 

 the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when slaves 

 were judicially tortured, hung drawn and quartered, and 

 burnt alive on mere circumstantial evidence, while for open 

 acts of diabolical cruelty their masters were acquitted or 

 very lightly punished. The records give many instances 

 of this : — 



On January 2, 1693, a slave of Deputy- Governor Keeling was 

 found guilty of sorcery and burnt to death. 



In November, 1687, Peter, and in December, 1689, Job and Der- 

 rick, slaves, convicted of poisoning their masters out of revenge, 

 were burnt to death ; all other slaves to be present, and to bring 

 down a turn of wood for the purpose. 



A black who was tried before a jury and acquitted was ordered to 

 be flogged before being discharged I For stealing a piece of cloth 

 from a sailor in the street, William Whaley was hanged on June 

 24, 1789 ; and on January 15, 1800, Job, Mr. Defountain's slave was 

 hanged for snatching a bottle of liquor from a drunken soldier. 

 Both these cases were looked upon as highway robbery. 



A young girl found guilty of burglary was sentenced to death. 

 The jury were told to reconsider their verdict, but they adhered to 

 it. She was respited for a time, but hanged herself in prison. 



Terrible sentence on a negro : A slave attempted to kill his 

 master by putting ground glass on his supper. He was condemned 

 to be burnt in the presence of all the adult blacks of the place, each 

 one of whom was compelled to bring in a load of wood to help in 

 burning him. 



Sunday was strictly observed throughout the island, and the 

 following was enjoined by proclamation : — 



" That the Lord's Day be religiously observed through the said 

 island, and all persons hereby enjoined to abstain from all bodily 

 labour, unnecessary travel, or any secular employment (except 

 works of necessity and charity) and noe person presume to spend 

 any part of that day in unlawful sports, but all (who are able) are 

 required to resort every Lord's Day unto publique place or places 

 where the worship of Almighty God is celebrated, and there joyne 



