A voyeuristic view of plantation society
published: Sunday March 19, 2006
Marly, or A Planter's Life in Jamaica
Author: Anonymous
Reviewer: Tanya Batson-Savage
Publisher: MacMillan Caribbean
THE THING I find most disturbing about the anonymously written text Marly; or, A Planter's Life in Jamaica is not that it deals with slavery, but that it has been labelled a 'Caribbean Classic'. This is disturbing because Marly is clearly an argument against emancipation masked as a novel.
Republished by MacMillan Caribbean the book was first produced in the very early 19th century. As such, if one uses the term 'classic' to mean 'famous because long established' or even 'of lasting value and importance', two meanings given by the Oxford English Dictionary, the term is, of course, accurately applied to the text.
As Marly presents much insight into the nature of Jamaican plantation slave society, it is quite valuable to our understanding the nature of slave society at that time.
Unfortunately, the meaning most readily associated with 'classic' and is, as such, the first that the OED throws up is 'first class' and that meaning almost always overrides value when determining a classic. It is for that reason that Marly's inclusion into what should be the hallowed halls of Caribbean classics is disturbing.
DEBATES ON SLAVERY AND EMANCIPATION
Marly has no real literary merit. Its significance comes from the historic aspects that it reveals and it is a treasure trove of voyeuristic windows for peeping in on plantation slave society. Marly's story, his quest for his lost inheritance and the love of a beautiful lady is not very interesting, nor is the character Marly himself. The plot is then squeezed in amidst the real reason for the novel, the presentation of various debates on slavery and emancipation.
That the unknown author is not particularly favourable toward emancipation is not merely indicated by the numerous apologies for slavery. Where it comes in is his insistence on the happiness of slaves, and that they really are better off as slaves as they are lazy, immoral, ungrateful, uncivilised and, as such, wouldn't have a clue what to do with freedom than to be even more lazy and immoral.
As such, reading Marly requires the accompaniment of tonnes of salt. The writer is insistent in portraying the slaves as a happy, carefree lot. He constantly refers to their singing, using it to remark on their happiness and seems even oblivious to the rebelliousness of their singing 'I don't care a damn oh' after being whipped. Furthermore, the writer renders the slaves as particularly childlike, of which his insistence on their happy singing is a part.
In attempting to highlight that slavery, as it then existed, was not neither hard nor cruel, the writer time and again points out that much labour was not required. As such, though Marly is left exhausted after overseeing the work, the narrator indicates that "[w]hat can be styled hard work was not demanded of the Negroes" (p. 112). The text is also careful to suggest that very little punishment was meted out and that punishment was usually gentle. He even goes so far as to describe 'nine lashes' as a 'gentle admonition'.
FEAST OF SUBVERSIONS
Largely because of the flaws in the writing style of Marly, the book presents a feast of subversions that go against what the writer is attempting to convey. A part of the technique used to construct Marly as a true hero, is that he does not, at least for the length of the text, have an affair with slave women but instead stays true to his fair maiden. But the writer himself seems obsessed with 'sable flesh' and cannot stop himself from constantly referring to it.
SLAVES AMUSEMENTS
The description of the Christmas and New Year festivities is particularly delightful. Several pages are spent describing the 'sports' of Christmas and what comes out is that for that time period, at least, it was the slaves who controlled the gaze, and even when the writer attempts to insist that the slaves amusements were merely 'rude', the enjoyment had by himself and the rest of the white population oozes through.
In truth, Marly is an interesting read for those interested in delving into the social make-up of Jamaica in the early 19th century. It is often more lively than seeing it straight from a history text, though it is conversely often bogged down by long arguments for slavery. Even these have their value as they relate some of the views of the planter society. As such, it is a very valuable text. Of course, to call its category Old and Valuable Works may have been too clumsy, and so Marly has been, disturbingly, dubbed a classic.
© Copyright 1997-2006 Gleaner Company Ltd.
