Beez Neez now Chy Whella

Mary Prince

Big Bear and Pepe Millard

Tue 15 Mar 2011 22:09

Mary Prince

At the Salt Museum there was an information board and 'freedom wall' dedicated to Mary Prince, catching our attention and a need to find out more about this extraordinary woman. Mary Prince was the daughter of slaves, she was born in Brackish Pond, now known as Devonshire Marsh, Bermuda around 1788. Her father was a sawyer - owned by David Trimmingham and her mother a house-servant. Mary and her mother were the property of Charles Myners. When Myners died, Mary and her mother were sold to Captain Williams. Mary became the personal slave of his wife, Betsey. When she was twelve years old Mary was hired out to another plantation five miles away.

Mary Prince worked as a domestic slave, out in the fields and was constantly flogged by her new mistress. She later wrote "To strip me naked - to hang me up by the wrists and lay my flesh open with cow-skin, was an ordinary punishment for even a slight offence".

Mary was sold for thirty eight pounds sterling (2009: £2,040) to Captain John Ingham, of Spanish Point, but never took easily to the indignities of her enslavement and she was often flogged. As a punishment, Prince was sold to another Bermudian, probably Robert Darrell, who sent her in 1806 to Grand Turks, which Bermudians had used seasonally for a century for the extraction of salt from the ocean. Salt was a pillar of the Bermudian economy, but could not easily be produced in Bermuda, where the only natural resource were the Bermuda cedar trees used for building ships. The industry was a cruel one, however, with the salt-rakers forced to endure exposure not only to the sun and heat, but also to the salt in the pans, which ate away at their uncovered legs.

After around ten years working on Grand Turk, Mary returned to Bermuda. In 1818 she was sold to John Wood, a plantation owner who lived in Antigua, for three hundred dollars. She later wrote, "My work there was to attend the chambers and nurse the child, and to go down to the pond and wash clothes. But I soon fell ill of rheumatism, and grew so lame that I was forced to walk with a stick".

Mary Prince began attending meetings held at the Moravian Church. She later wrote, "The Moravian ladies taught me to read in the class; and I got on very fast. In this class there were all sorts of people, old and young, grey headed folks and children; but most of them were free people. After we had done spelling, we tried to read in the Bible. After the reading was over, the missionary gave out a hymn for us to sing".

While in Antigua she met the widower Daniel Jones, a former black slave who had managed to purchase his freedom. Jones now worked as a carpenter and cooper, asked Mary to marry him. She agreed and they married in the Moravian Chapel in December 1826. John Wood was furious when he found out and once again she had to endure a severe punishment, another beating with a horsewhip.

John Wood and his wife took Mary as their servant to London in 1828.

Although slavery was illegal in Britain, Mary had no means to support herself, and could not have returned to her husband without being re-enslaved. She remained with Wood until they threw her out. She took shelter with the Moravian church in Hatton Garden. Within a few weeks, she had taken employment with Thomas Pringle, an abolitionist writer, and Secretary to the Anti-Slavery Society. Prince arranged for her narrative to be copied down by Susanna Strickland and it was published in 1831 as The History of Mary Prince, the first account of the life of a black woman to be published in the United Kingdom. The book had a galvanizing effect on the anti-slavery movement. Scandalised by its account, John Wood sued the publishers for libel stating the book, "endeavoured to injure the character of my family by the most vile and infamous falsehoods". but his case failed. Subsequent attempts were made to tarnish Mary Prince's reputation, particularly by James MacQueen and James Curtin, both supporters of slavery. In turn, she and her publisher sued for libel, which suit they won. Prince remained in England until about 1833. The first black woman to be seen rallying and speaking in public in the UK.

The extraordinary testament of ill-treatment and survival was a protest and a rallying-cry for emancipation that provoked two libel actions and ran into three editions in the year of its publication. Prince inflamed public opinion and created political havoc. The sufferings and indignities of enslavement been seen through the woman struggling for freedom in the face of great odds.

Thomas Pringle (January 5, 1789 – December 5, 1834) was a Scottish writer, poet and abolitionist, known as the father of South African Poetry, being the first successful English language poet and author to describe South Africa's scenery, native peoples, and living conditions.

Born at Blaiklaw (now named Blakelaw), four miles south of Kelso in Roxburghshire, Thomas Pringle studied at Edinburgh University where he developed a talent for writing. Being lame, he did not follow his father into farming, but worked as a clerk and continued writing, soon succeeding to editorships of journals and newspapers. One of his poems celebrating his Scottish heritage came to the attention of the novelist Sir Walter Scott, by whose influence, whilst facing hard times and unable to earn a living, he secured free passage and a British Government resettlement offer of land in South Africa, to which he, with his father and brothers, emigrated in 1820. Being lame, he himself took to literary work in Cape Town rather than farming, opened a school with fellow Scotsman John Fairbairn, and conducted two newspapers, the South African Journal, and South African Commercial Advertiser. However, both papers became suppressed for their free criticisms of the Colonial Government, and his school closed.

Without a livelihood, and with debts, Thomas returned and settled in London. An anti-slavery article which he had written in South Africa before he left, was published in the "New Monthly Magazine", and brought him to the attention of Buxton, Zachary Macaulay and others, which led to his being appointed Secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society. He began working for the Committee of the Anti-Slavery Society in March 1827, and continued for seven years. He offered work to Mary Prince, an escaped slave, enabling her to write her autobiography, which caused a sensation arising from failed libel actions and went into many editions. He also published African Sketches and books of poems, such as Ephemerides. As Secretary to the Anti-Slavery Society he helped steer the organisation towards its eventual success; in 1834, with a widening of the electoral franchise, the Reformed British Parliament passed legislation to bring an end to slavery in the British dominions - the aim of Pringle's Society. Pringle signed the Society's notice to set aside on the 1st of August 1834 as a religious thanksgiving for the passing of the Act. However, the legislation did not came into effect until August 1838, sadly Thomas Pringle was unable to witness this moment; he had died from tuberculosis in December 1834 at the age of forty five.

Excerpts from The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave, Related by Herself. "At length her put me on board a sloop, and to my great joy sent me away to Turk's Island (ed: Grand Turk). I was not permitted to see my mother or father, or poor sisters and brothers, to say goodbye, though going away to a strange land, and might never see them again. Oh the Buckra people who keep slaves think that black people are like cattle, without natural affection. But my heart tells me it is far otherwise.

We were four weeks on the voyage, which was unusually long. Sometimes we had a light breeze, sometimes a great calm, and the ship made no way; so that our provisions and water ran very low, and we were put upon short allowance. I should almost have starved had it not been for the kindness of a black man called Anthony, and his wife, who had brought their own victuals (ed: food), and shared them with me.

When we went ashore at Grand Quay, the captain sent me to the house of my new master, Mr. D. to whom Captain I. had sold me. Grand Quay is a small town upon a sandbank; the houses low and built of wood. Such was my new master's. The first person I saw, on my arrival, was Mr. D., a stout sulky looking man, who carried me through the hall to show me to his wife and children. Next day I was put up by the vendor master to know how much I was worth, and I was valued at one hundred pounds currency.

I was immediately sent to work in the salt water with the rest of the slaves. This work was perfectly new to me. I was given a half barrel and a shovel, and had to stand up to my knees in the water, from four o'clock in the morning till nine, when we were given some Indian corn boiled in water, which we were obliged to swallow as fast as we could for fear the rain should come on and melt the salt. We were then called again to our tasks, and worked through the heat of the day; the sun flaming upon our heads like fire, and raising salt blisters in those parts that were not completely covered. Our feet and legs, from standing in the salt water for so many hours, soon became full of dreadful boils, which eat down in some cases to the very bone, afflicting the sufferers with great torment. We came home at twelve; ate our corn soup as fast as we could, and went back to our employment till dark at night. We then shoveled up the salt in large heaps, and went down to the sea, where we washed to the pickle (ed: the salt) from our limbs, and cleaned the barrows and shovels from the salt. When we returned to the house, our master gave us each an allowance of raw Indian corn, which we pounded in a mortar and boiled in water for our supper.

We slept in a long shed, divided into narrow slips, like the stalls used for cattle. Boards fixed upon stakes driven into the ground, without mat or covering, were our only beds. On Sundays, after we had washed the salt bags, and done other work required of us, we went into the bush and cut the long soft grass, of which we made trusses for our legs and feet to rest upon, for they were to full of salt boils that we could get no rest lying upon the bare boards.

Though we worked from morning till night, there was no satisfying Mr. D. My former master used to beat me while raging and foaming with passion; Mr. D. was usually quite calm. He would stand by and give order for a slave to be cruelly whipped, and assist in the punishment without moving a muscle of his face; walking about and taking snuff with great composure. Nothing could touch his hard heart - neither sighs nor tears, nor prayers, nor streaming blood; he was deaf to our cries, and careless of our sufferings. Mr. D. has often stripped me naked, hung me up by the wrists, and beat me with cow-skin, with his own hand, till my body was raw with gashes. Yet there was nothing very remarkable in this; for it might serve as a sample of the common usage of the slaves of this horrible island.

Sometimes we had to work all night, measuring salt to load a vessel; or turning a machine to draw water out of the sea for salt-making. Then we had no sleep - no rest - but we were forced to work as fast as we could, and go on again all the next day the same as usual.

Oh the horrors of slavery! - How the thought of it pains my heart! But the truth ought to be told of it; and what my eyes have seen I think it my duty to relate; for few people in England know what slavery is. I have been a slave - I have felt what a slave feels, and I know what a slave knows; and I would have all the good people in England to know it too, that they break our chains, and set us free.

In March 1807 the British Government outlawed the slave trade and abolished slavery in the UK. In the overseas territories slavery was still legal, but there was to be no purchasing of slaves directly from Africa. In fact the Royal Navy set up special patrols to board ships and free slaves on the journey from Africa to the West Indies. Any captured slaves became the property of the government and were placed in the hands of the Chief Customs Officer, and could be bound in apprenticeships for up to fourteen years........

The disparity of the rights of freed slaves in the UK and those of the slaves in the West Indies caused serious concerns in Britain. The Abolitionist movement grew and formed a powerful lobby. The movement put pressure on the governments of the colonial areas, much to the disgust of these Assemblies who disliked interference in their affairs. The Bahamas Legislature (covering the Turks and Caicos) decided on an Apprenticeship for the slaves. All colonies had to pass their own Abolition or Emancipation Acts, the Bahamas doing so in 1834.

Mary Prince's efforts to free herself and her fellow slaves in the West Indies was ultimately successful. On the 31st of July 1833, the House of Lords passed the Emancipation Bill which would free the slaves of the West Indies in 1834. The Mary Prince Wall, located two hundred years later in the exact spot of her suffering, stands as a tribute to her triumph over her former owners and life itself. It is also a tribute to the strength of her spirit, her fortitude, her resourcefulness and her disciplined inner self. The Mary Prince Wall asks that we take a moment to reflect on the lady herself, her brethren, the thousands of other slaves and their descendants who toiled here over the centuries.

Mary Prince was not only the first black woman to escape slavery, the first female abolitionist and the first black female to write a book - her autobiography. Her story highlights not only the suffering and indignities of enslavement, but also the triumphs of the human spirit.