Page 136 - Transcriptions d'actes notariés - Tome 20 - 1682-1686

recorded his experiences in the French West Indies with intelligent
observation. As he and his fellow missionaries landed in Martinique,
they saiv for the first time Negro slaves. On his arriva1 on the 2%h
Januarq-, la, he saw many h'egro slaves cnming on hoard his stiip, and
had this to say about the experience, "snrrie ol therri rvore a eap or an
oId hat and many bore the marks of stripes on their backs. 'l'his excited
the pity of those among us ivho ii-ere not accnstomed to seeing this sort
of thing."cBi
It is interesiing to note ~his reaction on the part uf a refined,
sensitive priest as he meeis for the first tirrie Negro slaves. He was
shorkly to hecome nsed to this colunial institutinri, since the Church 10
which he was attached on the island O[ hlartinique owued several Negro
slaves, With a sympathetic feeling he mentions slaves and slavery from
time to tinie in his memoirs. He noted that around 1695 the King of
France, worried ahont the increase oE the rrii~latto popnlation, impusd a
firie of 2.000 i-iounds of siloar on the father of anv mulattu. The coloured
mnther and 'child were ionfiseated by the ~iown and given to the
missionaries who lonked after ihe hospital. Father Labat elaims that
tliis attempt to prevent interracial uriions resulted onlv in more abortinns.
And what happened as well wa? that masters rvho became involred in
liaisons writh their slave wurrien irequently gave them and their children
freedom iather than have them enslaved to ihe hospital.
Lahat has a most revealing passage which hrings out something of
his douhts concerning tlic propriety of Negro slavery. "There is a very
ancient larv to the eflect that if a man ean reach eonntries subjeet to the
King of France, he is iree. Owing to this law, King Louis XII1 of
glorions memory, had tlie greatcst diûiculty iri the world bringing himself
to permit the ownership of slavcs. Finally, he only yielded to the settlers'
urgerit request nfter it was puved tri hirri that this was the one iniallible
meana to irispire the religion of God amnrig the Afrieans, and retain them
in the Christian faith which they wuuld theri be compelled to embrace."'*)
This feeling that slavery was not wholly corisonant with tlie best
traditioris of the Mother enuritry shows, at least in a few people, some
slight examination of coriscir:nce. Somewhat mitigating the system in
practiee were various acts u1 charity such as the custom for the priests
to give al1 spiritual services to the slaves without collecting any stipend.
Iriterestirig to riote, too, are Labat's remarks concerning raeial feelirig
withiri the eoloured races ihemselves. The Carib lndian considered
himself above the African slave. Reciproeating this feeling the Afriean
slave ielt himseli eaeily the snperior of the Carib Indian.
Mixed in with the picture ol slavery in the West lndies were the
Engagées or white slaves who were serving in the British West lndies.
Labat ha5 a pnignarit passage regardirig ihese wretched creatures:
Tiieee Engagées ara indeed numerous but sliould not be trusted, as
~hcy are poor Irishmen for the most patt, who groan in u very harsb
(8) The Mernoirs of Père 1,abar. 1693-/7E, translated and abridged by Joha
EaJen, Loridon, CoiistaLle and Co., Lld., 1931, p. 30.
(BJ Idem, p. 58.