expense after 1840; he thought that fifty men would do as much then as a
hundred do now. We may add here a similar remark of Mr. Kirkland--that
forty freemen would accomplish as much as eighty slaves. Mr. Gordon
hires his people on Saturdays, and he expressed his astonishment at the
increased vigor with which they worked when they were to receive wages.
He pointedly condemned the driving system which was resorted to by many
of the planters. They foolishly endeavored to keep up the coercion of
slavery, _and they had the special magistrates incessantly flogging the
apprentices_. The planters also not unfrequently take away the provision
grounds from their apprentices, and in every way oppress and
harass them.

In the course of the conversation Mr. G. accidentally struck upon a
fresh vein of facts, respecting the SLAVERY OF BOOK-KEEPERS,[A] _under
the old system_. The book-keepers, said Mr. G., were the complete slaves
of the overseers, who acted like despots on the estates. They were
mostly young men from England, and not unfrequently had considerable
refinement; but ignorant of the treatment which book-keepers had to
submit to, and allured by the prospect of becoming wealthy by
plantership, they came to Jamaica and entered as candidates. They soon
discovered the cruel bondage in which they were involved. The overseers
domineered over them, and stormed at them as violently as though they
were the most abject slaves. They were allowed no privileges such as
their former habits impelled them to seek. If they played a flute in the
hearing of the overseer, they were commanded to be silent instantly. If
they dared to put a gold ring on their finger, even that trifling
pretension to gentility was detected and disallowed by the jealous
overseer. (These things were specified by Mr. G. himself.) They were
seldom permitted to associate with the overseers as equals. The only
thing which reconciled the book-keepers to this abject state, was the
reflection that they might one day _possibly_ become overseers
themselves, and then they could exercise the same authority over others.
In addition to this degradation, the book-keepers suffered great
hardships. Every morning (during slavery) they were obliged to be in the
field before day; they had to be there as soon as the slaves, in order
to call the roll, and mark absentees, if any. Often Mr. G. and the other
gentleman had gone to the field, when it was so dark that they could not
see to