Obi: or, The History of Three-Fingered Jack PDF
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OBI main 6/30/05 3:26 PM Page 1 This electronic material is under copyright protection and is provided to a single recipient for review purposes only. OBI; OR, THE HISTORY OF THREE-FINGERED JACK broadview editions series editor:L.W.Conolly OBI main 6/30/05 3:26 PM Page 2 Review Copy Frontispiece to Obi;or,the History of three-fingered Jack(), courtesy of The University of Virginia. OBI main 6/30/05 3:26 PM Page 3 Review Copy OBI; OR, THE HISTORY OF THREE-FINGERED JACK William Earle edited by Srinivas Aravamudan broadview editions OBI main 6/30/05 3:26 PM Page 4 Review Copy © by Srinivas Aravamudan All rights reserved.The use of any part of this publication reproduced,transmitted in any form or by any means,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,or otherwise,or stored in a retrieval system,without prior written consent of the publisher—or in the case of photocopying,a licence from Access Copyright (Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency),One Yonge Street,Suite , Toronto,ON —is an infringement of the copyright law. Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Earle,William Obi,or,The history of Three-fingered Jack / William Earle ;edited by Srinivas Aravamudan. (Broadview editions) Includes bibliographical references. --- I .Mansong,Jack,d.—Fiction.I.Aravamudan,Srinivas.II.Title.III.Title:History of Three- fingered Jack. IV.Series. ps1567.i155o2 2005 813'.2 c2005-902173-x Broadview Editions The Broadview Editions series represents the ever-changing canon of literature by bringing together texts long regarded as classics with valuable lesser-known works. Advisory editor for this volume:Kathryn Prince Broadview Press Ltd.is an independent,international publishing house,incorporated in . Broadview believes in shared ownership,both with its employees and with the general public;since the year Broadview shares have traded publicly on the Toronto Venture Exchange under the symbol . We welcome comments and suggestions regarding any aspect of our publications–please feel free to contact us at the addresses below or at [email protected] / www.broadviewpress.com North America POBox ,Peterborough,Ontario,Canada Tel:() -;Fax:() - email:[email protected] California Road,POBox ,Orchard Park,, UK,Ireland,and continental Europe NBN Plymbridge Estover Road Plymouth UK Tel: () Fax: () Fax Order Line: () Customer Service:[email protected] Orders:[email protected] Australia and New Zealand UNIREPS,University of New South Wales Sydney,, Australia Tel: ;Fax: email:[email protected] PRINTED IN CANADA OBI main 6/30/05 3:26 PM Page 5 Review Copy Contents Acknowledgements • Introduction • Timeline of Historical and Literary Events Surrounding New World Slavery,Abolitionism,and Obeah,– • A Note on the Text • Obi;or,the History of Three-fingered Jack • Appendix A:Historical Sources on Obeah • . From Benjamin Moseley,A Treatise on Sugar () • . From House of Commons Sessional Papers () • . From Matthew Gregory Lewis,Journal of a West India Proprietor,Kept During a Residence in the Island of Jamaica () • Appendix B:Accounts of Tacky’s Rebellion () • . From Edward Long,The History of Jamaica () • . From Bryan Edwards,Observations on the Disposition, Character,Manners,and Habits of Life,of the Maroons () • Appendix C:Literary Treatments of Obeah • . From James Grainger,The Sugar Cane:A Poem. In Four Books () • . John Fawcett,Obi;or,Three-Finger’d Jack: A Serio-Pantomime,in Two Acts () • . From Maria Edgeworth,“The Grateful Negro,”Popular Tales () • Select Bibliography • OBI main 6/30/05 3:26 PM Page 6 Review Copy Acknowledgements I am sincerely grateful to librarians at the British Library,the Institute for Commonwealth Studies, and the University of Virginia for making a number of texts available for consultation, and for helping with the construction of this edition.A partial bibliographical list of sixteen different versions of Obi;or Three- fingered Jack with comprehensive descriptions can be found in Frank Cundall,“Three-Fingered Jack:The Terror of Jamaica,” The West India Committee CircularVol.XLV No. ( February ) –.Cundall’s initial foray into documenting the multi- ple editions of Three-fingered Jack is invaluable. I would like to thank colleagues at the University of California at Riverside, the University of New Mexico, the University of Miami,Florida State University,the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS), and the Southeastern Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (SEASECS) for inviting me to give talks that helped me realize and further the implications of the project.Special thanks go to Vincent Carretta, Joan Dayan, David Barry Gaspar, George Haggerty, Jonathan Hess, Shaun Hughes, Deborah Jensen, Thomas Krise,Tom Lockwood,Dennis Moore,Philip Morgan, Felicity Nussbaum,Frank Palmeri,and Charlotte Sussman for answering questions,suggesting resources,and inviting me to lecture on the topic.For research assistance with scanning and computing work early in this project,I would like to thank Amardeep Singh.I would like to thank Hollianna Bryan for expert assistance with proofs.My greatest thanks,however,goes to the diligent cheerfulness and brilliant efficiency of my research and editorial assistant Alice Sarti,whose bibliographical,edito- rial,and computing skills over the last two years resulted in the speedy realization of this edition. Any faults that remain— whether they are errors of commission or omission, text or context,fact or interpretation—are my own. OBI main 6/30/05 3:26 PM Page 7 Review Copy Introduction The full title of this novel promises the treatment of a number of inter-related topics to those who are interested in the history and aftermath of slavery and abolition, the literature of the Caribbean,and the development of New World religions.As a novel based on a true historical incident that was rendered to the public in a number of different versions,the success of Obi;or, The History of Three-fingered Jack depended first on the literary taste of the early Romantic period and then on popular taste during its reception history thereafter.Obimet with great success through the genre of performed pantomime with an initial unbroken nine-year run,and also by way of multiple editions in chapbook and pamphlet form.Additionally,the oral dissemina- tion of folklore in Jamaica has made the novel’s historical protag- onist,sometimes referred to as Jack Mansong,into a recognizable legend even today.An early twentieth-century scholar claims that “few persons connected with Jamaica—probably none except Columbus—have been the subject of so many publications as Three-Fingered Jack,the Terror of Jamaica.” This assessment will sound hyperbolic to those who may never have heard of this colorful character before; all the same, this novel’s rousing account of a heroic individual’s attempt to combat slavery while defending family honor suggests aspects of epic tale and revenge tragedy alongside the history,memory,and syncretic legacy of the New World African diaspora.Jack Mansong,according to several historians of Jamaica,remains one of the country’s long- standing folk heroes,and his story continues to be commemo- rated through multiple retellings and song. Furthermore,the story of Three-fingered Jack is a key source for information about the Afro-Caribbean religion of obeah (or Frank Cundall,“Three-Fingered Jack:The Terror of Jamaica,”West India Committee CircularVol.XLV No.(January ) ;continued in Nos.,(January and February ).Cundall also lists sixteen different publications since that re-tell the story for popular audiences. Clinton V.Black,The Story of Jamaica:From Prehistory to the Present(London:Collins, ) ;Clinton V.Black,History of Jamaica(London:Collins,) . ; , - OBI main 6/30/05 3:26 PM Page 8 Review Copy “Obi”in the title),a set of practices and beliefs produced by the cultural synthesis of enslaved populations drawn from a number of African locations.For this reason,we might trace obeah as a religious theme treated through several genres during the time— examples of which can be found in the appendices—but we can also consider whether the complex phenomenon of obeah stim- ulated writers into experimenting with a number of generic innovations when representing it.Earle’s fiction also attempts to match the novelty of its content with several innovations of form by combining romance elements,sentimental poetry,mock-epis- tolary structure,anthropological footnote,and colonial reportage. The mock-epistolary structure,which separates the narrative out into individual letters written by the Jamaican George Stanford to his English friend Charles,mimics the many correspondences maintained between overseers of plantations and their absentee landlords,such as the extensive correspondence between Joseph Stewart,a plantation overseer,and Roger Hope Elletson,the Lt. Governor of Jamaica from –. The novel’s letters, however,are much more informal than a business correspon- dence would have been.Obi is written with a view to eliciting the feeling tear or the melancholic sigh of the sentimentalist reader and the abolitionist activist. Obiis of scholarly significance to students of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature,and to historians of empire,colo- nialism,and slavery,but it is also a highly readable novel with a compelling plot and a breezy pace. While the author had no pretensions to high aesthetics,his use of anthropological and ethnographic footnotes,his resort to poetry,and his handling of suspense alongside a romantic subplot altogether reveal consid- erable skill,and undoubtedly helped capture multiple audiences for the various versions of the story. For the Stewart-Elletson correspondence,see Huntington Library,Stowe Brydges Collection,–.As Mavis Campbell suggests in another context,there is a struc- tural relationship between two lines of flight from Jamaica,absentee landlordism and marronage.Mavis C.Campbell,The Maroons of Jamaica:A History of Resistance, Collaboration and Betrayal(Granby,MA:Bergin and Garvey,) . For a fuller account of slavery-related Anglophone fiction between and , see Srinivas Aravamudan,ed.,Slavery,Abolition and Emancipation Volume VI:Fiction (London:Pickering and Chatto,). OBI main 6/30/05 3:26 PM Page 9 Review Copy Not much is known about William Earle Junior,although his writings clearly reveal a predilection for sentimentalist excess and rhetorical flourishes.What is known is that Earle was also the subject of a couple of literary controversies.He was accused of plagiarizing Marie Thérèse De Camp’s First Faults with his published play Natural Faults () (both of which imitated Henry Mackenzie’s The Man of Feeling),but he defended himself credibly as having circulated his version of the manuscript before De Camp’s was performed.He also wrote “The Villagers,”a petite pièce;The Welshman(),a novel;and probably compiled Welsh Legends ().Another known setback to Earle’s life was in February ,when he was “sentenced to six months’impris- onment in Newgate [an infamous London prison] and a fine of pounds for a most scurrilous and malignant libel on a respectable tradesman.” Whatever notoriety he gained during his lifetime,Earle is now best remembered for this novel,in which the tale of Three- fingered Jack’s exploits is coupled with a discussion of obeah (sometimes spelled in the period as obi,obia,obeiah,or orbiah).In the West Indies,as Earle suggests in the novel,several aspects of obeah functioned as political resistance by enslaved persons to the economic and racial oppression they endured under the system of plantation slavery.The danger posed by obeah resulted in various attempts to control it through criminal and civil legis- lation.Observers characterized the practice as a form of black magic,and its opponents took preemptive actions against what was seen as obeah’s political agenda against the plantocracy—the white plantation-owners—in the colonial period and thereafter. The anthropology of obeah is still speculative when compared to knowledge about the more famous Afro-Caribbean religious syncretic religion of voudou (or voodoo),with which obeah is often confused but from which it differs considerably.This novel puts at stake the meaning,scope,and function of obeah as reli- gious practice and also as literary representation,medical cure, See John Genest,Some Account of the English Stage Vol.(London,) –; Biographica Dramatica Vol.(London,) –;and S.Austin Allibone,A Critical Dictionary of English Literature(London:Trübner and Sons,–). ; , - OBI main 6/30/05 3:26 PM Page 10 Review Copy and political resistance.In retrospect,it is very likely that obeah’s political power arose from its integration with traditional medical practices.A full understanding of the multiple meanings of obeah can come about only by surveying the different literary genres and media used to represent it.To this end,appendices from related texts have been made available at the end of this volume to serve as background materials.Readers are also invited to consult the comprehensive timeline that features significant historical and literary events of the pre-emancipation British Caribbean. The collection of documents presented in this edition situates the novel in its literary contexts,and also helps readers to evaluate the beginnings of a literary culture created around obeah.Ultimately,a close reading of this text enables a fuller understanding not just of obeah,but also of the broader field of the Anglophone literature of slavery and abolition and the cultural history of the Caribbean. The Historical Origins of Three-fingered Jack The first reference to the historical personage of Three-fingered Jack can be found in the Jamaican newspapers of .In August of that year,the first journalistic item acknowledging his exis- tence emphasized the threat posed by the group he headed: A gang of run-away Negroes of above men,and about women,have formed a settlement in the recesses of Four Mile Wood in St.David’s;are become very formidable to that neigh- bourhood,and have rendered travelling,especially to Mulattoes and Negroes,very dangerous;one of the former they have lately killed,belonging to Mr.Duncan Munro of Montrose,and taken a large quantity of Linen of his from his slaves on the road:they also have robbed many other persons servants,and stolen some cattle,and great numbers of sheep,goats,hogs,poultry &c. particularly a large herd of hogs from Mr.Rial of Tamarind Tree Penn.They are chiefly Congos,and declare they will kill every Mulatto and Creole Negro they can catch.BRISTOL, alias Three-finger’d Jack,is their Captain,and CAESAR,who belongs to Rozel estate,is their next officer.
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