Negroes, considered as slaves in the colonies of America . Since the excessive heat of the torrid zone, the change of food, and the weakness of white men does not permit them to stand up to hard work in this climate, the lands of America which are occupied by Europeans would still be uncultivated were it not for the help of negroes who have been brought there from almost all the parts of Guinea. These black men, born vigorous and accustomed to coarse food, find comforts in America that make animal life much better there than in their own country. This change for the good puts them in the position to stand up to the labor and to multiply abundantly. Their children are called creole negroes , to distinguish them from dandas , bossals or foreign negroes .

The majority of negroes that enrich the French colonies come directly from the coast of Africa by way of the Compagnie des Indes (which has reserved the Senegal trade to itself exclusively), or from the ships of different owners who have been permitted to trade in the other nations of the coast of Guinea. These vessels transport to the colonies the negroes that they have traded for, whether these negroes have been taken in war, or kidnapped by brigands, or handed over for money by unnatural parents, or else sold by the order of their king as a punishment for some crime they have committed.

Of all of these different slaves, those of Cape Verde or the Senegalese are regarded as the most beautiful of all of Africa. They are tall, well-built, and have a unified skin without any artificial marks. They have well-made noses, big eyes, white teeth, and their bottom lip is darker than the rest of their face, which is something they do by art by pricking this part with thorns and introducing the dust of crushed charcoal in the prick-holes.

These negroes are idolatrous. Their language is hard to pronounce, with most of the sounds issuing from the throat with effort. A number of them speak Arabic and seem to follow the religion of Mahomet, but all the Senegalese are circumcised. They are employed on the plantations in taking care of horses and livestock, in gardening and as house servants.

The Aradas, the Fonds, the Fouedas and all the negroes of the coast of Juda are idolatrous and practice circumcision for reasons of cleanliness. Although they have been under different rulers, these negroes all speak roughly the same language. Their skin is of a reddish black. They have a flattened nose, very white teeth and fairly handsomely shaped faces. They give themselves skin incisions that leave indelible marks by means of which they establish distinctions among themselves. The Aradas place their incisions on the thick of their cheeks and underneath the eyes; they look like warts the size of a pea. The Fond negroes scarify their temples and the Foueda (principally the women) have their face and, even the whole body, chiseled, forming drawings of flowers out of mosaics and very regular compartments. On looking at them, it appears that they have had a brownish fabric, worked in Marseille point, applied to their skin. These negroes are considered the best for working on the plantations. A number of them understand perfectly well the good and bad properties of several plants unknown in Europe. The Aradas, especially, make with the venom of certain insects a poison to which no certain remedy has yet been found. The effects are so singular that those who use it pass for sorcerers among the inhabitants of the country.

The Mine negroes are robust and very deft at learning trades. Some of them work gold and silver, crudely making kinds of earring, rings and other little ornaments. They give themselves two or three slashes lengthwise on the cheeks. They are courageous, but their pride brings them to destroy themselves if they are given any grief at all.

The coast of Angola, the kingdoms of Loanga and of Congo abundantly supply very good negroes who are reasonably black and have no marks upon the skin. The Congolese in general are great mockers; they are loud and are mimes who amusingly imitate their comrades and simulate very well the appearance and cries of different animals. A single Congolese suffices to put all the negroes of a plantation in good humor. Their inclination for pleasure makes them unsuitable for hard work, being additionally lazy, cowardly and much given to gluttony, a quality which gives them a strong disposition for learning easily the details of cooking. They are employed as house servants as they usually have attractive looks.

The Portuguese, who introduced an idea of Christianity in the kingdom of Congo, abolished circumcision there which was much in practice among the other peoples of Africa.

The least valued of all the negroes are the Bambaras. Their lack of cleanliness as well as several large slashes which are made diagonally across the cheeks from the nose to the ear make them hideous. They are lazy, drunken, gluttonous and great thieves.

Little is made of the Mandingo, Conger and Mondongo negroes . These last have teeth that are filed into a point and pass for cannibals among the other peoples.

It is not possible in this article to describe the nations of the Calbaris, the Caplahons, the Anans, the Tiambas, the Poulards and a number of others, of whom many live far into the interior of the land which makes the trade of them difficult and scarce.

The treatment of negroes when they arrive in the colonies . The humanity and interests of those concerned does not permit them to have their slaves sent to work as soon as they leave the vessel. These unfortunates have ordinarily suffered during their voyage and they need rest and refreshment. Eight to ten days of baths taken morning and evening in the sea do them much good. One or two bleedings and some purgations and above all, good food, puts them in condition to serve their master.

Their former compatriots adopt them by inclination. They take the new arrivals into their shacks and treat them like their children, instructing them in what they have to do and making them understand that they were bought to work and not to be eaten, as some of them imagine when they see themselves being well-fed. Their bosses then send them to work and punish them when they fall short and these grown men submit to their fellow kind with great resignation.

Masters who have acquired new slaves are required to have them instructed in the Catholic religion. This was the motive that made Louis XIII permit the trade in human flesh.

Work of negroes on the plantations . The lands that produce sugar cane and those where coffee, cocoa, manioc, cotton, indigo and madder are cultivated need a number of slaves proportionate to their size for farming the plantations. Several of these slaves are instructed in the kind of work appropriate for bringing these products to a profit. They are all under the discipline of a chief overseer, white or black, who, in the large establishments is subordinated to an administrator.

The negroes intended for the main operations that are performed in the sugar-works are called refiners . It is not without difficulty that they acquire an exact knowledge of their art which requires a great deal of application and an apprenticeship of several years. Their work is all the more tiring since they are continually exposed to the heat of the boilers in which sugar is made. The carpenters and the long-sawyers have the care of repairing the mill, and to maintain the different buildings of the sugar-works in conjunction with the masons. Wheelwrights are very necessary. It is almost impossible to do without coopers and in the large establishments a blacksmith is not short on work. All the other slaves, with the exception of house servants, are employed every day in farming the land, in maintaining the plantations, in hoeing fields or pasture, and in cutting the sugar cane, which the carters and mule drivers transport to the mill where there are normally negresses whose job it is to pass the cane between the rollers, or large metal cylinders, that press out the juice from which sugar is made. The negroes who are less compliant or poorly suited to difficult jobs are separated to maintain the fire in the furnaces of the sugar-works and the evaporators, to care for the sick in the infirmaries and to keep livestock in the fields. Boy and girl piccanninies are also put to work in jobs proportionate to their strength, so much is it the case that on whichever plantation it may be, the masters and the administrators cannot apply themselves enough to studying the character, strength, dispositions and talents of the slaves in order to employ them profitably.

The character of negroes in general . If by chance one encounters well-born men among the negroes of Guinea (the majority is always depraved), they are for the most part inclined to libertinage, vengeance, theft and lying. Their stubbornness is such that they never admit having done wrong, no matter what punishment they are made to undergo. Not even the fear of death moves them. Despite this fortitude of sorts, their natural bravery does not protect them from a fear of sorcerers and spirits, which they call zambys .

As for the creole negroes , the prejudices of education make them a little better, nonetheless, their behavior always has something of their origins in it. They are vain, scornful, proud, they like finery, gaming and above all women. These last are on a par with the men, following the ardor of their temperaments without reserve. They are, moreover, susceptible to lively passions, to tenderness and to attachment. The faults of negroes are not so universally widespread that upstanding individuals cannot be found. Several inhabitants own whole families composed of very honest people who are very attached to their masters and whose conduct would put many whites to shame.

In general, all of them are commonly nice, courageous, compassionate, charitable, obedient to their parents, especially to their godfather and godmother, and very respectful of elders.

Lodgings of negroes, their food and their customs . The shacks or houses of negroes are sometimes constructed of masonry, but more usually of wood covered by a cob of rough earth prepared with cow dung. A row of rafters raised over these sorts of walls and brandished across the length of the room forming a ridgepole makes up the roof which is covered with cane leaves, reeds or palm leaves. These shacks have only a ground floor, 20 to 25 feet long by 14 to 15 feet across, divided by screens of reeds into two or three small and very dark rooms which receive light only from the door and sometimes from a little window opened in one of the gables.

The furniture used by negroes corresponds exactly with the simplicity of their houses. Two or three planks raised on four stakes pushed into the ground and covered by a mat form their bed. A barrel broken into on one end to hold bananas and roots, some large pots for water, a bench or two, a bad table, a chest, and several calabashes and large gourds in which they stow their provisions make up all the gear of the household.

Overseers, workers and those who have lived in the country for a long time procure many little items for themselves by means of gardens that they are allowed to cultivate on their own in out of the way areas of the plantation. They also raise fowl and pigs, the profit from which allows them to dress themselves neatly and to maintain their families well. In addition to these amenities, they are fed and clothed by their master as is ordered by the black code, an edict which we will discuss hereafter.

Their main nourishment consists of manioc flour, See the article Manioc, etc. , roots of several kinds, corn, bananas and salt beef, fish, crabs, frogs, large lizards, agoutis, cane rats and armadillos serve to vary their dishes in places where these animals are abundant. They make different drinks with fruit, roots, lemons and thick sugar syrup and water, and they have plenty of sugar cane spirits. They treat themselves from time to time on holidays. Their big feasts, principally weddings, are numerous. All those who wish are admitted as long as they bring something to pay for their share. These tumultuous meals, which the overseers survey to prevent unruliness, are always followed by dances which the negroes passionately love. Those of each nation assemble and dance in the style of their country to the cadenced beat of a kind of drum, accompanied by loud chants, by the rhythmic clapping of hands and also by a kind of four-string guitar which they call a banza .

The dance that the creoles like best and which, because of this, is frequently performed, even among the naturalized Nations, is the calenda, which was discussed at the letter C.

The negroes and negresses of a same plantation may, following our customs, marry with the consent of their master. This kind of men cannot be required to have more virtue than exists among whites. Nonetheless, very regular households, in which they live well and love their children and which are maintained with great respect, may be seen among them.

Punishment of negroes, the policing and regulations to this effect . When a negro commits a light crime, the overseer can of his own accord punish him with several strokes of the whip. But if the case is serious, the master, after having had the malefactor put in irons, orders the number of strokes of punishment. If all men were equally just, these necessary punishments would have limits, but it frequently happens that some masters abuse their pretended authority by inflicting overly rigorous penalties on the unfortunate men whom they themselves, perhaps, put in the position of being derelict. To stop the cruelty of these barbarous men who, out of avarice, would let their slaves lack the things most necessary for life by demanding forced work from them, the officers of his Majesty, established in the colonies, are charged with undertaking execution of the edict of the king, called the black code, which provides regulations for the government and administration of justice and police and for the punishment and trade of slaves in the French islands of America.

The length of this edict not permitting report of it in its entirety, only some of the principal articles related to policing negroes and the obligations of their masters towards them will be mentioned.

By the second article of the black code, masters are ordered to have their slaves become instructed in the Catholic religion, etc. on pain of an arbitrary fine.

The sixth forbids masters from making them work on days of rest mandated by the church.

The ninth imposes a fine of two thousand pounds of sugar on masters who through concubinage have children with their slave. In addition, the said slave and her children are confiscated for the profit of the hospital without ever being subject to being freed. This article does not obtain if, following the forms observed by the church, the master wants to marry his slave who by this means is freed and her children made free and legitimate.

By the tenth article, the celebration of marriage between negroes and negresses can be executed without the consent of parents, that of the master being sufficient as long as he does not employ any coercion to marry them against their will.

The twelfth article holds that the children born of marriages between slaves will be slaves and these children will belong to the masters of the women slaves if the husband and wife have different masters. These alliances are not usual, the negroes and negresses of a same plantation inter-marry, and masters cannot sell off husband and wife separately.

By the thirteenth article, if a slave man marries a free woman, the children take the status of their mother and if the father is free and the mother a slave, the children are slaves.

The fifteenth article forbids slaves to carry arms for their own use, even large sticks, under pain of the whip and confiscation of the said arms.

The sixteenth forbids negroes from gathering together day and night, under pain of corporal punishment which may not be lesser than the whip and branding or even death in cases of frequent recidivism and other aggravating circumstances.

Articles 22, 23, 24, and 25 hold, essentially, that masters are required to furnish slaves, aged ten and above, every week for their nourishment with two and a half pots of manioc flour or three cassavas weighing two and a half pounds each, or the equivalent ( a pot contains two pints by Paris measurement ), with two pounds of salt beef, or three of fish or some other thing in a proportionate amount and children from weaning to the age of ten, half of the allowance above. Masters cannot give their slaves cane spirits, called guildive , to stand in the stead of the supplies mentioned above.

It is also expressly forbidden to masters to discharge themselves from the responsibility of feeding their slaves by permitting them to work several days of the week for themselves.

Masters are responsible for furnishing each of their slaves every year with two pieces of clothing of the right size or four ells of canvas.

By the twenty-sixth article, negroes who have not been looked after according to what has been commanded may inform the King's prosecutor so that the masters will be prosecuted on this request without charge.

The twenty-seventh treats the subject of negroes who are infirm from old age or some other reason, whom masters must feed and take care of. Should they be abandoned, the said slaves are awarded to the hospital and the masters required to pay six sols a day for the maintenance of each slave.

The king declares, by the twenty-eighth article, that negro slaves cannot own anything that does not belong to their master and their children and parents, whether free or enslaved, cannot claim anything in the way of inheritance, gifts, etc. It is rare that masters abuse of their privilege; those who like to make out that they think have the effects and even the money of defunct slaves distributed to their family members and, if there are none, the other slaves of the plantation benefit.

Negroes are excluded from holding offices and charges having public functions by article thirty.

They cannot, by article thirty-one, be a legal party either in trials or in civil matters, either as an accuser or a defender, neither in a civil case nor in criminal matters, etc .

In accordance with article thirty-two, slaves can be prosecuted criminally with the ordinary procedures without it being necessary to involve their master, unless it is a case of complicity.

By articles 33 and 34, the slave who has hit his master, his mistress or their children so as to cause bleeding, or in the face, will be punished with death. And as for excesses and battery committed by slaves against free persons, his Majesty understands that they will be severely punished, even with death, if the case falls into that category.

35 and 36 inflict proportionate corporal punishment depending on the nature of the theft committed by slaves, like that of horses, cattle or sheep, goats, pigs or plants, vegetables, etc.

The thirty-seventh holds that masters are responsible in cases of theft or otherwise for the damage caused by their slaves in addition to the corporal punishment of the said slaves and for making reparation in their own name unless they prefer to hand over the slave to the one to whom the harm was done.

By articles 38 and 39, the fugitive slave who will have been absent for one month, counting from the day that his master denounces him to the authorities, will have his ears cut off and will be branded with a hot iron on one shoulder. If he commits a second offense for another month, his hamstring will be cut and he will be branded on the other shoulder and the third time he will be punished by death.

Freed people who will have harbored the said fugitive slaves will pay a fine of three hundred pounds of sugar for each day they have withheld the slave.

The fortieth article holds that a slave punished by death on the denunciation of his master, who is not an accomplice, will be valued before his execution by two of the leading inhabitants of the country named to office by the first judge, and the estimated value will be paid to the master, to satisfy which, the intendant will impose per each negro head a rightful portion of the sum brought by the evaluation which will be paid by all the inhabitants and collected by the farmers of the Royal Western Domain to avoid undue financial burden.

By articles 42 and 43, although masters are permitted to chain and beat with a switch guilty slaves, it is expressly forbidden to the said masters to torture or mutilate them in any way on pain of the confiscation of slaves and of an extraordinary prosecution of the master; officers of justice are enjoined to pursue criminal prosecution of masters and overseers who will have killed a slave under their power or supervision.

Article 44 declares slaves to be goods and since they were brought into the community as such they may be divided equally among co-heirs, etc.

By article forty-seven, slaves that are husband and wife and their pre-pubescent children may not be seized or sold separately, etc.

Article fifty-eight concerns freed slaves to whom are given by article fifty-nine the privileges and immunities enjoyed by free-born people, etc.

Article sixty treats fines and concludes this edict. Decreed at Versailles in March 1685.