55 are called to adminster, rather than to any particular disposition, on their part, to administer it oppressively, or to abuse the tremendous power they possess.
H e conceives them to be forced, by c i r c u m -
stances, " t o continue to whip on their unwilling gangs, as a postboy does his hacks from mile to m i l e . "
W h a t an idea does this
single sentence convey o f the nature of N e g r o slavery ! B u t , after all that can be said in favour of the slave-holders is admitted, we would ask, Is it possible to expect that such power as theirs should not be abused ? O r that the men who possess i t , and who are stated to have cast off the fear o f G o d , and to experience little or no controul from human laws, should not be t y r a n n i c a l , capricious, and cruel ? T o suppose this, would be to suppose
the
planters of Jamaica to be angels and not m e n . II.
E V I D E N C E OF JOHN WILLIAMSON, M . D .
In the year 1817 D r . W i l l i a m s o n published a work, in two v o lumes 8vo, entitled
" Medical
and Miscellaneous Observations
relative to the West India Islands*, by J o h n W i l l i a m s o n , M . D . F e l l o w of the R o y a l College of Physicians, E d i n b u r g h , formerly Surgeon of the Caithness Highlanders, and late o f Spanish T o w n , Jamaica."
H e dedicates this work to the E a r l of H a r e w o o d , o n
whose estate of Williamsfiekl, in the parish of S t . T h o m a s in the V a l e , J a m a i c a , he had lived for about four years i n a professional capacity +. H i s residence i n the island appears to have extended from August 1793
to A p r i l
1812, a period of nearly fourteen
years. T h e testimony o f D r . W i l l i a m s o n w i l l be less liable to exception, in the estimation o f W e s t Indians, as he shows himself, on all o c casions, a sturdy advocate of their system ; and when he finds fault with them, it is manifestly w i t h extreme reluctance.
H e even
hopes, by an exhibition of facts, to place i n their true light the unfair representations of the enemies of the colonies, " the officious would-be friends" (as he calls them) " o f h u m a n i t y , " who, he assures us, have only to " l e a v e the Negroes to their own judgement, and to improvement by the wisely framed resolutions of their own * See an able review of this work in the Edinburgh Review, vol. xxviii. p. 340. + On this estate Dr. Williamson states, that every thing was conducted on principles of liberality highly honourable to his lordship.
He resided there free of expense,
and every comfort was afforded hiin he could have wished for. Vol. i. p. 76.