Poems
To sir toby
Sugar Planter in the Interior Parts of Jamaica, Near the City of San Jago de la Vega, (Spanish Town), 1784
´The motions of his spirit are black as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.´
-Shakespeare
If there exists a hell—the case is clear—
Sir Tobyfs slaves enjoy that portion here:
Here are no blazing brimstone lakes—ftis true;
But kindled rum too often burns as blue;
In which some fiend, whom nature must detest,
Steeps Tobyfs brand, and marks poor Cudjoefs breast.
Here whips on whips excite perpetual fears,
And mingled howlings vibrate on my ears:
Here naturefs plagues abound, to fret and teaze,
Snakes, scorpions, despots, lizards, centipedes—
No art, no care escapes the busy lash;
All have their dues—and all are paid in cash—
The eternal driver keeps a steady eye
On a black herd, who would his vengeance fly,
But chained, imprisoned, on a burning soil,
For the mean avarice of a tyrant toil!
The lengthy cart-whip guards this monsterfs reign—
And cracks, like pistols, from the fields of cane.
Ye powers! who formed these wretched tribes, relate,
What had they done, to merit such a fate!
Why were they brought from Eboefs sultry waste,
To see that plenty which they must not taste—
Food, which they cannot buy, and dare not steal;
Yams and potatoes—many a scanty meal! —
One, with a gibbet wakes his negrofs fears,
One to the windmill nails him by the ears;
One keeps his slave in darkened dens, unfed,
One puts the wretch in pickle ere hefs dead:
This, from a tree suspends him by the thumbs,
That, from his table grudges even the crumbs!
Ofer yondf rough hills a tribe of females go,
Each with her gourd, her infant, and her hoe;
Scorched by a sun that has no mercy here,
Driven by a devil, whom men call overseer—
In chains, twelve wretches to their labours haste;
Twice twelve I saw, with iron collars graced! —
Are such the fruits that spring from vast domains?
Is wealth, thus got, Sir Toby, worth your pains!—
Who would your wealth on terms, like these, possess,
Where all we see is pregnant with distress—
Angolafs natives scourged by ruffian hands,
And toilfs hard product shippfd to foreign lands.
Talk not of blossoms, and your endless spring;
What joy, what smile, can scenes of misery bring?—
Though Nature, here, has every blessing spread,
Poor is the labourer—and how meanly fed!—
Here Stygian paintings light and shade renew,
Pictures of hell, that Virgilfs pencil drew:
Here, surly Charons make their annual trip,
And ghosts arrive in every Guinea ship,
To find what beasts these western isles afford,
Plutonian scourges, and despotic lords: —
Here, they, of stuff determined to be free,
Must climb the rude cliffs of the Liguanee;
Beyond the clouds, in sculking haste repair,
And hardly safe from brother traitors there. —
1784 1792
Title: originally published in the National Gazette (July 21, 1792) as gThe Island Field Handh.
Epigraph: from The Merchant of Venice, 5.1.79. Freneau substitutes the word gblackh for gdullh in the original.
l. 6. Cudjoe: common name for a slave. gThis passage has a reference to the West Indian custom (sanctioned by law) of branding a newly imported salve on the breast, with a red hot iron, as evidence of the purchaserfs property.h (Freneaufs note)
l. 21. Eboe: gA small negro kingdom near the river Senegal.h (Freneaufs note)
l. 41. Angola: Portuguese colony in West Africa.
l. 47. Stygian: refers to the river Styx in Greek mythology, which souls must cross to reach the underworld.
l. 48. gSee Aeneid, Book 6th—and Fenelonfs Telemachus, Book 18.h (Freneaufs note)
l. 49. Charon: in Greek mythology, the character who ferries souls across the River Styx to Hades.
l. 50. Guinea ships: slave ships from West Africa.
l. 54. Liguanee: gThe mountains northward of Kingston.h (Freneaufs note).
l. 56. brother traitors: gAlluding to the Independent negroes on the blue mountains, who for a stipulated reward, deliver up every fugitive that falls into their hands, to the English Government.h (Freneaufs note)
