even earlier cases. This one involved a Native man who abused a Black woman:
Bartlett, an Indian who was Bondman for one Malta another Indian who was apprehended and entered into a Bond of Recognizance for said Maltas appearance to the Court. He the said Malta being apprehended for striking, abusing and misusing Charlotte, a Negro woman. Both said parties in the Bond came into Court … The Court after Severely reprimanding Malta dismissed him, he appearing penitent and sorry for his fault and promising to govern himself better in the future….27
Even the Native people of that time, some who had been slaves in the past and had often been treated no better than animals themselves by the Europeans, abused the Black people and got away with it. There were so many injustices against the Negroes it would take too long to document each case. In too many cases, whippings broke not only the skin, but the spirit as well. But, one had to go on from there day by day. Amazingly, many did!
How many Blacks have been tied to the two lofty sign posts in front of Vengence House? Located in the south end of Yarmouth, it was known for half a century as a public house, sometimes as Richan’s Tavern and at different times as the Olive Branch or the Phoenix.28 When known as Vengence House, it was used as a courthouse and jail. It was there that prisoners convicted of crimes received their lashes from a cat-o’-nine-tails. Is this where young Harriet received her twelve lashes for stealing a piece of ribbon? Or Manuel Jervis his thirty-nine lashes for stealing a few sticks of wood? The original building is gone, but what stories it could tell about those times of so long ago!
The plaque commemorates Vengence House, which at one time was used as the courthouse. Knowing some of the history behind the sign that was erected by the Yarmouth County Historical Society in 1998, and seeing it for the first time, brought forth a range of emotions. How could anyone inflict such cruel punishment as flogging on another human being, no matter the colour of their skin? I tried, in my mind, to place myself in front of Richan’s Tavern/Vengence House during that period. All I could imagine was me rushing to the aid of those being punished and then being punished myself for doing so.
Fortunately, not all masters were cruel. James Lent was a United Empire Loyalist from Westchester County, New York. Having chosen land grants in Nova Scotia, he and his family sailed to Shelburne in June 1783. The family brought with them their personal possessions, appointments, cattle, and slaves. When the Lents arrived and discovered that Shelburne was becoming too crowded for their liking, they boarded their ship again and set sail up the Tusket River and settled at what became the village of Tusket. Here, the Lents constructed their house, dug their well, and, with the slave quarters built, settled in to live out the rest of their lives. James Lent, “Cobus” as he was called by those close to him, trusted his slaves and treated them with respect.29
Stories are told of James Lent’s relationship with his slaves. One concerns how one of his personal slaves was sent back to New York by packet to retrieve a small trunk containing gold sovereigns that had been hidden in a stone wall during fighting that took place at the time of the American Revolution. This slave faithfully returned to Tusket with the trunk and handed it to his master. Another tells of one particular slave named William Berry, who had become discontented and asked his master to buy him a wife, which James promptly did, paying £100 for her. Her name was Dinah.
Those who were fortunate to have caring masters escaped the indignities of being sold at an auction. This was a common practice during the early 1800s, and several slaves were bought and sold in this way in Yarmouth. One such sale was that of a young boy named Jack:
Bill of Sale for a Negro Boy Jack
Know all men by these Presents that I, A.B., of the Township of Yarmouth for and in consideration of the sum of thirty-nine pounds in hand paid to me by C.D, have bargained and sold to him and by these presents do grant bargain and sell to him the said C.D. a certain Negro Boy named Jack, about seven years of age, born in my house from a wench and a man, both my sole property; and I, the said A.B., do promise to warrant and defend the said Negro Boy Jack against all lawful claim or claims of any person or persons whatsoever.
In Witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal this twenty-third day of December, 1801.
A.B.
Signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of
E.F.
G.H., & J.K.30
Thirty-nine pounds is not much for the value of a human being, but this price was paid again for another slave. This time the slave was Manuel Jarvis (the previous spelling for Jarvis was Jervis). (Could this be the Manuel Jarvis/Jervis who received the twenty-four lashes in 1812?) He was brought from the West Indies by his owner, Colonel Lewis Blanchard. Manuel was sold to a Dr. Bond of Yarmouth (possibly the same Dr. Bond who gave evidence in the trial of the Andrews family in the murder of Jude?). He also purchased another slave named Kate in March 1802 for forty pounds. She soon after married Manuel.31
It appears that Dr. Bond was not one of the sadistic slave masters as were some others.32 The granddaughter of Dr. Bond, Mrs. Maria J.L. Thorburn, told of how her grandfather owned two slaves, Manuel and Kate, who were employed as household servants. In approximately 1802, Kate gave birth to a little girl whom Dr. Bond promptly gave to his daughter for a gift, telling her she could give the child any name she chose. The name she chose was Hester as she had just finished reading the romantic adventures of Lady Hester Stanhope.33 This slave-born baby girl was given a heroine’s name, so fitting at a time when slaves were indeed heroes and heroines for enduring the indignities forced upon them.
When slaves were finally liberated on August 1, 1834, it is said that Manuel rushed into his master’s kitchen that day, exclaiming to his wife, “Kate, we’se free!” This was all well and good, but having been slaves all of their lives and having been “cared for,” how would they take care of themselves? They had no knowledge of the world outside of slavery. Yet, to Manuel and Kate Jarvis, all that mattered was that they were free at last. Free to make a life for each other and possibly to have more children who would not be taken away and given as a gift to someone’s daughter.
Dr. Bond offered to keep Manuel and Kate on his homestead and pay them wages, knowing the hardships they would face trying to eke out a living on their own. To Manuel’s and Kate’s credit, they were so elated with this new gift in their lives called freedom, they refused Dr. Bond’s offer. Their first winter was extremely hard. To stay alive, they frequently visited Dr. Bond’s potato bin. They were never turned away. Kate helped to increase Manuel’s meagre income by making molasses candy and selling it to the juveniles in town. At any time, whenever Kate had cause to visit the old homestead, she was never sent away empty-handed. “Yet not a few of these [former slaves], by the frequent acceptance of refuge in old haunts, and by their dependence upon their former owners and upon their children after them, bore witness that the period of bondage had not been wholly without its sunshine.”34
Kate, born in 1773, was living in Weymouth Falls, Digby County, with her youngest son, Joseph, who was sixty-five years old when she died on February 6, 1878. Her obituary states that she was 110 years old when she died.
Another case involving slaves that is connected to Yarmouth concerns a Nova Scotia man named Edmund Crawley. This man was originally from Halifax, but was now in Granwich Hospital, in Kent, England. Edmund gave power of attorney to his brother John Crawley, Esquire, of the town of Yarmouth. This enabled John to sell the property that his brother Edmund owned at Pictou, Nova Scotia. It also gave him the power to execute a bill of sale for a “Negro wench” named Tamor. This was registered at one o’clock in the afternoon on of March 20, 1804, in Yarmouth.35
Since
