Read Ebook: More Seeds of Knowledge; Or Another Peep at Charles by Corner Miss Julia

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Peter was not an English boy, he was a West-Indian: his father and mother lived in Jamaica, but they had sent him to England to be educated, so he lived with his uncle in Euston-square, and went every day to the London University school. Charles was very fond of talking to Peter, because Peter told about the slaves that worked on his father's plantations, for his father was a sugar planter, and had a large estate in Jamaica, so he was obliged to keep a great many negro slaves, for all the plantations in the West-Indies, are cultivated by negroes.

"I wish I had a slave," said Charles to his papa one evening, after he had been playing with Peter. "Do you know, papa, when Peter was at home in the West-Indies, he had a slave of his own, a black boy, to wait upon him, and do every thing he wanted; and Peter was his master, and he was not older, then, than I am. What a nice thing it must be to have a slave of one's own; I should get him to carry my kite, and my hoop and stick, when I don't want to bowl it, and mend my toys when I break them, and do a great many things for me. He could move my rocking horse, and that great wooden box where I keep my bats and balls, for it is too heavy for me to lift myself, and I often want it moved: really a slave would be very useful to me, papa."

Mr. Barker could not help laughing at Charles's idea of the usefulness of a slave, and asked him if he knew exactly what slaves were.

"Yes," replied Charles; "they are black people."

"A great many slaves are black, certainly," said his papa, "but is not being black, that makes a man a slave, and there have been many unfortunate white people sold for slaves, as well as the poor blacks."

"Sold!" said Charles, "what, do they sell people, I never heard of that before."

"Then I will tell you now, my dear, and I think you will never again wish to have a slave. When America was first discovered, which is about three hundred and fifty years ago, there were many gold mines found in the West-Indies, all the mountains contained a vast quantity of gold, but it was very hard work to dig for it, and the natives of the country, who were savages, were not strong, and had never been used to work; so that the Spaniards who had discovered the country, could not get as much gold as they wished, although they were cruel enough to force the poor savages to work in the mines, and chained them together; that they might not run away; poor creatures! they were much to be pitied, and numbers of them died every day, for they had not strength to bear such hard labour. So when the Spaniards found that the Indians could not do as much work as they wanted done, they employed sailors to go to Africa and bring them a number of black men from that country; for they knew the Africans were strong, and that they could make them work as hard as they pleased."

"But why did the Africans go, papa?" said Charles, whose eyes were full of tears at this sad tale. "Why did they not send the sailors away again, and say they would not go with them?"

"They most likely would have done so," replied his papa; "if they had known how they would be treated; but the sailors said they would take them to a fine country, where they would get plenty of food without any trouble, and live much better than they did in their own country; so the simple negroes believed them, and went on board their ships; but they soon found out how wrong they had been to trust these wicked men; for when they came to the place where they expected to be so happy, they were all sold as if they had been beasts, instead of men, and sent to work in the mines; where they led a very miserable life indeed, for the cruel masters who had bought them, did not care what they suffered, so long as they got plenty of gold.

"This was the beginning of what is called the slave trade, and a dreadful trade it has been ever since; for when the captains of ships found how much money the Spaniards would give for negroes, they went again to Africa; and when the black men refused to go with them, they took them by force, and carried them on board the ships, where they tied them together, so that it was impossible for them to escape. You would think it a very hard case, Charles, if you were walking by the sea shore, and two or three men were to come and carry you away by force to a distant land, and sell you to somebody who would make you work hard for him all the rest of your life, and consider you as much his property, as if he had bought a horse or a dog."

"But they would have no right to sell me," said Charles, "I do not belong to them."

"Neither do those poor Africans belong to the men who sell them; they have as much right to be free and happy, as you or I have."

"Then how is it, papa, that Peter's father has slaves? he is an Englishman."

"Yes, Charles, I am sorry to say, that Englishmen, as well as Spaniards, have traded in slaves, for when some of the West-India islands came into the possession of the English, they found the negroes so useful, and made so much money by their labour, that they forgot how unjust it was to keep them in slavery. However, I am happy to say, that a law is now in operation which will soon set all the slaves free. In a very short time, the negroes will be at liberty like other working men; and the masters, instead of buying them, must hire them like servants, and pay them wages; and they will be able to leave their master if he does not treat them well, and get another place, as our servants do."

"Ah, how glad I am," said Charles, "that will be a good thing for the poor blacks. I do not wish to have a slave now, papa; I would not have one for the world. But Peter's father's slaves do not work in the gold mines, they make sugar: why is that?"

"Because there are no gold mines now in the West-Indies worth working," said Mr. Barker; "the Spaniards took care to get all the gold there was, but people still make large fortunes there, by growing sugar; and there are still gold mines in other parts of America, where negro slaves work."

"How does sugar grow?" enquired Charles.

"It is made from the juice of reeds, called sugar canes," said his papa.--"A plantation of sugar canes is very pretty, they grow very high, and are of a beautiful gold colour, streaked with red; and at the top of this yellow cane are long green leaves, which hang down round it: but this is not all, for out of the midst of these leaves, there grows a long stem, like a thin silver wand; and at the top of it, is something that looks like a plume of white feathers, edged with lilac."

"Oh, how beautiful!" exclaimed Charles:--"I should like to go to the West-Indies, if it was only to see a sugar plantation; but how do they get the sugar, papa?"

"When the canes are ripe, Charles, the negroes cut them down, and tie them up in bundles, and carry them to a mill, where the juice is pressed out.

"This juice is boiled several times in large coppers, and the coarse parts separated from the fine, which at last dries into sugar. It is all brown at first, or what you call moist sugar; but by mixing different things with it, and boiling it again in a particular manner, they can make lump sugar, and sugar candy; and this is done by the black slaves, who have been dragged away from their own country to be sold to the planters: so you see Charles, that even so simple a thing as a lump of sugar, is the cause of a vast deal of cruelty and injustice."

A VISIT TO THE THEATRE.

Charles had never seen a play; but his papa and mamma had always promised him that when he was seven years old, they would take him to Covent-Garden Theatre, and as that time had now nearly come, he did not forget to remind them of their promise. His birth-day was the fifteenth of January, which was lucky, because they always perform pantomimes in the Christmas holidays, and he was very desirous of seeing harlequin and columbine, and the clown, as he had heard a great deal about them from his young friends in the square, who had been to see them. As the day approached, Charles could think of nothing but the play, and said he thought it would be the happiest day of his life; but his mamma told him she hoped he would have much greater cause to be happy many days of his life, than going to a theatre; however Charles did not think there could be any greater cause for happiness, and his mamma said, it was as well for him to think so: The night before his birth-day, he went to bed in high spirits, saying he was sure he should not be able to sleep all night; but that was a mistake, for he went to sleep almost directly; and did not wake till the morning.

As soon as he was dressed, he ran down stairs to breakfast, with a smiling face. "Here is the day come at last!" he said, "I am so glad mamma, I wish it was night; I am seven years old to-day."

"Yes, my dear," said his mamma, "and I wish you many happy returns of the day."

"Thank you, mamma, but I have a great favour to ask you."

"What is it? Charles."

"I am afraid you will not do it."

"If it is any thing very unreasonable, perhaps I shall not," said his mamma; "but if it is not very unreasonable, I think, as it is your birth-day, I may venture to promise that I will do it."

"Then this is it," said Charles; "Peter has never been to the play in his life, and he said yesterday, he should like to go with me; so I wish you would take him with us; he would be so pleased."

"Well then, we will take him with us," said Mrs. Barker; "and I am glad to find that you think of other people's pleasure, as well as your own; it shows that you are not selfish."

A message was then sent to Peter's uncle, who readily gave his consent, which made Charles happier than he was before.

At six o'clock Peter came; and very much delighted he looked, as well he might, for he had not expected so great a pleasure; and then both the boys watched at the window for Mr. Barker, who had not yet come home; but he soon came, when they all got into a coach, and away they drove.

The play was to be Macbeth, which Charles said was very fortunate, because he had read about him in 'Tales of a Grandfather,' but Peter had never read 'Tales of Grandfather,' nor any history of Scotland, so he did not know who Macbeth was, therefore Mr. Barker was kind enough to tell him the whole story as they went along; that he might be able to understand what he was going to see. Perhaps some other little boys would like to hear it too, so I will tell it.

"There was once a king of Scotland, named Duncan, who was a good man, and much beloved by his subjects. This king had a cousin named Macbeth, who being the bravest general in Scotland, was employed by Duncan to fight all his battles for him, when he was too old to fight them himself; but Macbeth, although a brave man, was not a good man, and besides that, he had a very wicked wife, who wanted to be a queen, and therefore she tried to persuade her husband to kill Duncan, that he might be made king in his stead.

"At this time the Danes, who came from Denmark, invaded Scotland; that is, they came there to fight the Scots, and try to conquer the country: but they were disappointed, for Macbeth went with a large army to the place where they had landed, and having killed a great number of them in a battle, he forced the rest to return to Denmark.

"When Duncan heard that Macbeth had gained this victory, and driven his enemies out of Scotland, he was so much pleased, that he went, with his two sons, to pay him a visit at his castle; but he little thought, poor old man, what was going to happen, for in the middle of the night, when he was fast asleep, Macbeth went softly into his room, and killed him with a dagger. So in the morning, when it became known that the king was murdered, Macbeth pretended to be very much surprised and grieved at it, and although the people all thought he had done it himself, they were afraid to say so; and he was made king of Scotland. But wickedness is sure to be punished, as you shall hear; for the two young Princes, Malcolm and Donald Bane, as soon as they heard their father was dead, escaped from the castle, fearing that if they staid they might be killed too.

"Now happened that at that very time there was in England a very good king, called Edward the Confessor, who was an enemy to all bad men; therefore the Scottish princes determined to go to his court, and tell him what Macbeth had done; for they did not doubt that when he heard of it, he would render them some assistance; and they were not mistaken. The English king declared that he would revenge the death of Duncan, and place Malcolm on the throne; so he sent a large army into Scotland, to fight for the young prince, and Macbeth was killed in a battle, which gave great joy to the people, who were very glad to have Malcolm for their king. All this happened nearly eight hundred years ago, and Malcolm, who is called in the history of Scotland, Malcolm Canmore, was one of the best kings that ever reigned over that country."

He was very much astonished at the wonderful tricks performed by harlequin with his magic sword, for to those who have never seen a pantomime before, it must be rather surprising to see a wheelbarrow turned into a steam carriage, and an umbrella into an arm chair. But what amused Charles and Peter more than all the rest, was a large pie which was brought in and placed on a table, where the king and queen, with several lords and ladies were sitting at dinner, all seemingly very anxious to taste of this pie. But the moment it was cut, a whistling noise was heard, and a number of little birds hopped out of the pie, and flew away, leaving the dish quite empty, to the great amusement of all the boys and girls in the theatre, who laughed very loud indeed.

But pleasure cannot last for ever. The pantomime was soon over, and as Charles went home, he said he should like to go to the play every night, all the rest of his life--"Ah, Charles,"--said his papa, "we are all apt to like what is new to us, but you will find out, my boy, that people get tired even of pleasure, if they have too much of it."

CONVERSATION ON HISTORY.

On the morning after the play, Charles was thinking about the king of Scotland, and he asked his mamma why there was no king of Scotland now, as there used to be, and she told him that England and Scotland were now considered only as one kingdom, and called Great Britain.

"Yes," said Charles, "I know that the queen of England is queen of Scotland too; but I want to know how it came to be so; because you see, mamma, that when Duncan was king of Scotland, there was a king of England as well."

"Yes, my dear," and for five hundred years after Duncan was murdered, there were kings of Scotland and England also; but when Queen Elizabeth died, her nearest relation happened to be the king of Scotland, James the sixth; he was her cousin, and as she left neither brothers nor sisters, nor children, James became king of England as well as of his own country; and since that time there has been but one king to govern both kingdoms."

"Thank you, mamma," said Charles, "I could not think how it was before; but do you think it is best to have one king or two?"

"I think it is best to have but one, because, if you look at your map, you will see that England and Scotland together make one large island; and while they were separate kingdoms, they were frequently at war with each other."

"What did they go to war for, mamma?"

"I believe, Charles, the true cause generally was, that the English king thought he should like to have the whole island for himself; but what made the matter worse was, that as the people who were fighting against each other, all lived in the same island, it was almost as bad as a civil war."

"What is a civil war, mamma?"

"It is when the people of any country cannot agree among themselves, and so make war upon each other: there have been civil wars in all countries at different times; they are the most dreadful of all wars, because relations and friends are often fighting in battle against each other."

"Oh, what a shocking thing!" said Charles; "But why do they do it mamma? I cannot think why people should fight battles with one another."

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