information received from Mr.
Hill:

1. The apprenticeship is a most vicious system, full of blunders and
absurdities, and directly calculated to set master and slave at war.

2. The complaints against the apprentices are decreasing every month,
_except, perhaps, complaints against mothers for absence from work,
which he thinks are increasing_. The apprenticeship _law_ makes no
provision for the free children, and on most of the plantations and
estates no allowance is given them, but they are thrown entirely for
support on their parents, who are obliged to work the most and best part
of their time for their masters unrewarded. The nurseries are broken up,
and frequently the mothers are obliged to work in the fields with their
infants at their backs, or else to leave them at some distance under the
shade of a hedge or tree. Every year is making their condition worse and
worse. The number of children is increasing, and yet the mothers are
required, after their youngest child has attained the age of a few
weeks, to be at work the same number of hours as the men. Very little
time is given them to take care of their household. When they are tardy
they are brought before the magistrate.

A woman was brought before Mr. Hill a few days before we were there,
charged with not being in the field till one hour after the rest of the
gang. She had twins, and appeared before him with a child hanging on
each arm. What an eloquent defence! He dismissed the complaint.

He mentioned another case, of a woman whose master resided in
Spanishtown, but who was hired out by him to some person in the country.
Her child became sick, but her employer refused any assistance. With it
in her arms, she entreated aid of her master. The monster drove her and
her dying little one into the street at night, and she sought shelter
with Mr. Hill, where her child expired before morning. For such horrid
cruelty as this, the apprenticeship law provides no remedy. The woman
had no claim for the support of her child, on the man who was receiving
the wages of her daily toil. That child was not worth a farthing to him,
because it was no longer his _chattel_; and while the law gives him
power to rob the mother, it has no compulsion to make him support
the child.

3. The complaints are generally of the most trivial and frivolous
nature. They are mostly against mothers for neglect of duty, and vague
charges of insolence. There is no provision in the law to preven