356 HISTORY OF THE [book. iv. 
The great, and I fear incurable, defect in the 
system of slavery, is the circumstance already men- 
soned six months in the jail of Kingston, and until payment of the 
fine ; and afterwards to find security for his good behaviour, &c.” 
“ Surry assize, 1778. John Durant a free man of colour was in* 
dieted and found guilty of assaulting a negro man slave, named Sacco, 
the property of Eliza Wheeler, a free negro woman. Sentenced to he 
publickly flogged at the beef market.” 
“ Quarter session, Kingston, August, 1791. The King versus 
'’Thompson, for assaulting and falsely imprisoning a negro boy, the 
property of Francis Robertson, Found guilty and fined ten pounds.*— 
King versus Bender , for wantonly and immoderately punishing a ne¬ 
gro man, his own property, named Fortune. Found guilty and fined 
twenty pounds.” 
The above are extracts fairly abridged from the records in the pro¬ 
per office in Jamaica. Testimonies of the same kind, more fully sta¬ 
ted, from the island of St. Christopher, appear in the report of the 
committee of Privy Council; to whom evidence was likewise given, 
that a white man in the island of Grenada, was in the year 1776, con¬ 
victed of the murder of his own slave, and executed. If many other 
cases cannot be cited, it may fairly be supposed, from those which 
have been adduced, that fresh occasion has not often been given. The 
following shocking instance, however, happened in the island of Ja¬ 
maica, in the summer of 1791 -William Rattray, a carpenter at the 
port of Rio Bueno, in a fit of drunkenness, threw an axe at a negro 
boy, his own slave, which unfortunately killed him on the spot. The 
coroner’s inquest finding it wilful murder, the man was apprehended, 
and sent to jail in irons. He was not, it is true, publickly tried, and 
hanged for the crime; for being well assured that such would be his 
fate, he thought it best to execute justice on himself, and found in 
suicide an escape from the gallow3. This fact, which is within my 
own knowledge, is certainly no proof that the murderers pf their own 
slaves escape with impunity. 
