SLAVERY. 



277 



I have represented slavery in what I conceive 

 to be the state in which it usually exists upon 

 the plantations ; but any comforts which the 

 human beings who are so circumstanced enjoy, 

 and any respite from severe labour is so entirely 

 at the will of the master, that the instances in 

 which the fate of the slave is hard almost beyond 

 endurance, are dreadfully too frequent. Some 

 planters follow the system of performing cer- 

 tain kinds of work during the early part of the 

 night, besides making the negroes labour for 

 the full usual time during the day ; — for in- 

 stance, the whole of the labour of making the 

 mandioc flour, preparing with the feet the clay 

 for making bricks and earthenware, also build- 

 ing mud-walls ; besides removing bricks, fire 

 wood, and so forth, from one place to another. 

 This extra work is called quingingoo, I even 



slave takes an interest in one of his newly-arrived com- 

 panions ; the new slaves, too, may be sooner reconciled to 

 their situation, by the interest which is shown in their be- 

 half; and their wants may be made known to the master with 

 more ease. The law which was passed at Rio de Janeiro in 

 1809 (mentioned in chapter 16th) for preventing executions 

 for debt upon the property of sugar-planters, may have one 

 beneficial effect ; — the slaves cannot, unless the master 

 pleases, be sold separately from the estate for the purpose of 

 paying debts ; the master cannot be forced to dispose of 

 them, unless the debt amounts to the value of the estate ; 

 and thus the slave is advanced in some slight degree towards 

 the condition of a serf. 



T 3 



