Africa's Children. Sharon Robart-Johnson
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Bond recorded as being from previous traumas. He reported that the girl’s fresh wounds were made with a blunt instrument and that the superficial ones were caused by fire. He concluded from his examination and from the evidence given by Nehemiah Porter that the death of Jude may not have proved fatal had she been given immediate assistance.
Samuel Andrews Esquire was questioned regarding the death of Jude. He said that his slave had been disobedient to her mistress and would often steal from them. He also told of how, in the fall of that year, Jude would cut off the pigs’ ears and tails and roast them during the night. She would also steal watermelons, cucumbers, potatoes, and other foods. To justify his complaint of her stealing, he said that she was always allowed as much fish and potatoes as she could consume, but despite this she would steal loaves of bread and half of a cheese that, he said, she gave to the hogs the next day. So he whipped her. Samuel stated that one evening he was awakened by the shouting of his wife, Mary, calling to their son John that Jude was stealing again. John gave chase, but did not leave the house because Jude had gone over the garden fence, after having apparently escaped through the kitchen window.
The next morning Samuel sent his two sons, John and Samuel Jr. in search of the girl.7 He told them to specifically look in the hovel, a low, sheltered area for animals and possibly tools and similar implements. After finishing their morning chores, the two young men found her hiding in the hay loft. John pulled her out and ordered her to go home. Samuel Jr. claimed that there was already a considerable amount of blood in the hay where Jude had been lying. He also stated that when John told her to go home, Jude went to the window and jumped out, falling on her side when she hit the ground.
John’s account of the incident differs from that of his brother. John said that when he pulled Jude from the hay she said to him “now come behave yourself.” John pulled her to the window where she, “partly helping herself and partly falling,” went through the window. He said he then took her by the hand, forcing her toward the house. Jude was unwilling to go and John and Samuel struck her several times with sticks (according to John) the width of his finger.8
According to the testimony, Jude was brought into the house where she was laid on the floor beside the fire. She was cold and bloody, with several bruises and scratches on her face, ears, and neck. After four long hours of suffering, Jude passed away, at which time Samuel Sr. ordered his sons to make a coffin and to dig a grave.
The testimony of Jude’s sister, Diana, verifies, in part, some of what Samuel Jr. and John had said. One glaring difference was the size of the sticks. Diana claimed that “John and Samuel Andrews being [sic] with her with each a stick about the size of an Iron candlestick and of the length of my arm … That Jude came into the house and died before dinner … That there was a coffin made by Samuel and Master and Robert and John dug the grave [I saw them] after which she was buried….”9
It was extremely unusual then for an entire family to be questioned about the death of a mere slave. But it is possible that the brutality of this act caused eyes to be opened for a time, albeit a short one. However, the flagrant violence of this crime and the manner in which this young woman was beaten to death was indicative of the way some slaves were treated. The exact number that endured the sadistic treatment of their masters is not known. The unfortunate ones could only hope for redemption from the life of hell they had been cast into, or pray for death — whatever form of release would end the terror that their lives had become. Although there may have been other similar cases, research only yielded this one case of barbarity in Yarmouth that led to the death of a slave.
The severity of the crime prompted Attorney General Richard John Uniack to order a special commission of Oyer and Terminer,10 which was held in Shelburne. As a result of the evidence presented, on April 19, 1801, indictments were brought against Samuel Andrews Esquire, his wife, Mary, and their two sons, Samuel Jr. and John.11
It is not surprising that Samuel and his sons pleaded not guilty to the murder. But because of the amount of evidence against them, they were put in the local gaol (jail). Samuel’s wife, Mary, was released as there was not enough evidence against her other than that of preparing Jude’s body for burial. However, in spite of such clear evidence as:
… by striking beating & kicking the said Jude in & upon the head stomach back & sides … with the stick aforesaid & with both the hands & feet of … Samuel Andrews in manner aforesaid several mortall wounds and bruises… [Jude] for four hours did languish … on said twenty eigth [sic] day of December … died and so the Jurors aforesaid upon their oath … do say that Samuel Andrews … feloniously wilfully and of his malice aforethought did kill and murder against the peace of our said Lord the King His Crown and Dignity….
Samuel Andrews and his sons were found not guilty of the murder of their slave, Jude.12
The Andrews men were released immediately. Many at the time thought it was a miscarriage of justice. Given the evidence presented by Nehemiah Porter, coroner, and the graphic details of her injuries described by Dr. Joseph Norman Bond, surgeon, they believed it was a miscarriage of justice. According to people whose families lived in the area (Raynardton) and had the stories passed down to them through the generations, they wondered how any jury could find the Andrews men not guilty.
She was, after all, only a slave.
It is believed that after the autopsy, the body of Jude was returned to the grave from where she was removed, on the hill behind the homestead of Samuel Andrews.
CHAPTER 2 Early Treatment of Blacks
Andrew Lovitt arrived from Beverly, Massachusetts, in 1765, along with his family and slaves. His wife, Lydia, kept a journal. An entry in this journal reads, “When he was ready to build the ‘big house’ which is still standing, he had slaves to dig the huge foundations, hewn out of the rocky ledges.”1 An article in an undated copy of the the Vanguard (Yarmouth) states that when Lovitt arrived in Yarmouth, he granted the slaves their freedom. They chose, however, to remain with the family.2
In 1766, Colonel Ranald McKinnon came to Yarmouth from the United States and settled in Glenwood (in what is today the Municipality of Argyle), on a narrow point of land that stretched into Argyle Harbour. He is the person who gave Argyle its name, after his home in Scotland. This particular parcel of land, which became known as McKinnon’s Neck, was part of the original land grant of two thousand acres he received for his service in the British Army.3 It is reported that he brought many slaves with him, but the exact number is not known.4 Another document on Ranald McKinnon claims he imported his slaves to work on his farm at Argyle.5
A letter he received from his nephew John in England says, “I have sent you March, who is a black boy and who it cost me some pains to procure for you.”6 One wonders how much March suffered? Nothing has been found, however, to indicate that Ranald was cruel to his slaves. Records indicate that after a time he set his slaves free and established them on a McKinnon land grant at Salmon River, seven miles from the town of Yarmouth.
Colonel McKinnon’s son, Major John McKinnon, also lived on McKinnon’s Neck, about a mile from his father’s homestead. He is reported to have had one of the largest farms in the Argyles. He was a collector of customs for Argyle Township, a justice of the peace, member of the House of Assembly representing Shelburne, a major of the local militia and commissioner of schools. And, like his father, he was a slave owner.
Stone walls built by slaves in Argyle, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia. Reading about the stone walls was one thing, to see them was moving. The archivist, J. Stuart McLean, and the then director of the Yarmouth County Museum and Archives, Adelè Hemple, as well as an archaeologist and two of her assistants accompanied me to see these walls. When I placed my hands upon the stones, it was almost as if I could feel the energy the slaves expended building those walls. The experience was humbling.
On McKinnon’s Neck, several large stone walls were erected