File:West Indian tales of old (1915) (14595102698).jpg

Identifier: westindiantaleso00aspi (find matches)
Title: West Indian tales of old
Year: 1915 (1910s)
Authors: Aspinall, Algernon Edward, Sir, 1871-1952
Subjects: Legends -- West Indies, British West Indies, British -- History West Indies, British -- Description and travel
Publisher: London, Duckworth and Co
Contributing Library: Brown University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brown University

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e beyond doubt, for, like hernamesake, she had been three times married before shebecame the wife of the widowed John Palmer and themistress of Rose Hall. What the fate of her firstthree husbands was history does not relate, but sub-sequent events justified the belief that they did notdie in their beds, and it is extremely likely thatMr. Palmer would have shared their fate if she hadsurvived, for on a ring she wore were the ominouswords: If I survive I shall have five. Many and terrible were the misdeeds of this womanwhose cruelty to her slaves became a byword in thedistrict. Overcome by jealousy at the attentions paidby her step-son to a young and pretty negress shebrought false accusations against the girl, who was takenbefore the plantation court, consisting of two magis-trates and three freeholders, which—remarkable as itmay seem—had power to pass sentences of death orof bodily mutilation. The result was that the girl wasbeheaded. Even this did not satisfy the morbid tastes244
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THE LEGEND OF ROSE HALL of Mrs. Palmer, who preserved the head in spirits,and used to invite visitors to look at the prettycreature.1,1 Many were the stories told of how passers-by heardscreams coming from the mill-yard, where Mrs. Palmerused to flog her slaves unmercifully and submit themto brutal forms of torture for the most trivial offences;how she would beat the females on their naked backswith a perforated patter which drew blood, and how shewould compel them to wear shoes the soles of whichwere studded on the inside with sharp wooden pegs.To strangers her demeanour would be affable andkind, and it was only when they heard the shrieksof her victims and saw the objects of torture thatthey could believe the extent of the enormities whichshe committed. Then the time came when the slaves could stand itno longer and entered into a conspiracy to rid them-selves of their mistress. The opportunity was soon athand. One day in the Great House at Palmyra, when,in a paroxysm of rage, she wa

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