MARCH 31.
I am more and more convinced every day, that the best and
easiest mode of governing negroes is not by the detestable lash,
but by confinement, solitary or otherwise ; they cannot bear it,
and the memory of it seems to make a lasting impression upon
their minds ; while the lash makes none but upon their skins,
and lasts no longer than the mark. The order at my hospital
is, that no negro should be denied admittance : even if no
symptoms of illness appear, he is allowed one day to rest, and
take physic, if he choose it. On the second morning, if the physician
declare the man to be shamming, and the plea of illness is
still alleged, the negro is locked up in a room with others similarly
circumstanced, where care is taken to supply him with
food, water, physic, &c., and no restraint is imposed except that
not going out. Here he is suffered to remain unmolested as
long as he pleases, and he is only allowed to leave the hospital
upon his own declaration that he is well enough to go to work ;
then the door is opened, and he walks away unreproached and
unpunished, however evident his deception may have been. Before I
adopted this regulation, the number of patients used to
vary from thirty to forty-five, not more than a dozen of whom
perhaps had anything the matter with them : the number at this
moment is but fourteen, and all are sores, burns, or complaints,
the reality of which speaks for itself. Some few persevering
tricksters will still submit to be locked up for a day or two; but
their patience never fails to be wearied out by the fourth morning, and I
have not yet met with an instance of a patient who
had once been locked up with a fictitious illness, returning to
the hospital except with a real one. In general, they offer to
take a day's rest and physic, promising to go out to work the
next day, and on these occasions they have uniformly kept their
word. Indeed, my hospital is now in such good order, that the
physician told the trustee the other day that " mine gave him
less trouble than any hospital in the parish." My boilers, too,
who used to make sugar the colour of mahograny, are now making
excellent sugar ; and certainly, if appearances may be
trusted, and things will but last, I may flatter myself with the
complete success of my system of management, as far as the
time elapsed is sufficient to warrant an opinion. I only wish
from my soul that I were but half as certain of the good treatment and
good behaviour of the negroes at Hordley.
