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Lot 446
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Incredible Content: British Military Surgeon's Reflections on Black Troops in West Indies and Alcohol Consumption in British Army
Incredible Content: British Military Surgeon's Reflections on Black Troops in West Indies and Alcohol Consumption in British Army
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Description:

British Army
Windsor, England, ca. December 1834 - March 1835
Incredible Content: British Military Surgeon's Reflections on Black Troops in West Indies and Alcohol Consumption in British Army
ALS
This trio of letters from Dr. William Fergusson, who served as Inspector-General of Military Hospitals, to Henry Colburn, the editor of The United Service Journal and Naval and Military Magazine, published in London, discuss the spirit rations issued to British soldiers and the performance of black troops in the West Indies.

[BRITISH ARMY].
- William Fergusson, Autograph Letter Signed, to [Henry Colburn], Editor of the United Service Journal, December 31, 1834, Windsor, England. 10 pp., 8" x 13" Re spirit ration for troops.
- William Fergusson, Autograph Letter Signed, to [Henry Colburn], Editor of the United Service Journal, February 1835, Windsor, England. 8 pp., 8" x 12.75". Re "Spirit Drinking in Naval & Military Service."
- William Fergusson, Autograph Letter Signed, to [Henry Colburn], Editor of the United Service Journal, March 1835, Windsor, England. 10 pp., 8" x 13". Re Major General Lord Robert Manners (1781-1835).

Excerpts
[Spirit ration:]
"Having seen the question of the propriety of a spirit Ration for our Troops when on Service agitated in your widely circulated Journal, & the abolition of all Garrison & Barracks Canteens for the authorized sale of spirits recommended, I have thought that the testimony of a veteran who from the earliest period of the last war served for a quarter of a century in every climate & in every variety of service, might be of some use in discussing this highly important I may almost say vital point as it bears upon the health character & efficiency of our Naval & Military Forces." (p1)

"In the year 1815 when I was principal Medical Officer of the Windward & Leeward Colonies & it was in agitation to embody into Regiments the prize Negroes, as they were called, whom our cruizers had rescued on the middle passage, I found myself called upon to address the following to the Commander of the Forces dated Barbadoes September 28th 1815. ‘With respect to the Ration of spirits that by the existing regulations is directed to be administered to all ages, I feel at a loss for language to express the cruelty & absurdity of the practice. As an article of diet it is most pernicious to every description of human beings before they have attained their full growth, & had the ingenuity of man been tasked to invent an article, exclusive of the acknowledged poisons, for the destruction of their health, their strength, & their faculties, one could scarcely have been found more efficacious towards the purpose than the Rum of the West Indies. Happily for the young Negroes it is so abhorrent to the organs of many of them, that they cannot be prevailed upon to taste it, & thereby they escape the danger, which however differently meant, is thus made to beset them when they take their daily food. To the young unseasoned white Soldiers it is scarcely less pernicious.'" (p1-2)

"These extracts were adapted to the occasion & spirit of the times in which they were written. The young black Troops were saved from the contamination by the cheap substitution of sugar or syrup & water (to them a most delightful and wholesome beverage) in place of Rum, but the time had not arrived for advocating the total withdrawal of what the white Troops from long habit had considered their right, & drunkenness with all that it brings in its train, notwithstanding every exposure & remonstrance that could be made, reigned paramount." (p4)

"National infamy, mutiny, madness, murder, suicide, crime in every revolting shape have been its fruits, & are we for ever to reap the horrid harvest?" (p9)

"Let us hope that religious Education & the progress of useful Knowledge joined to the cultivation of Military honour, may hereafter teach men more duly to estimate themselves & rise superior to so base a vice, but above all let us call upon our rules to expunge for ever so foul a stain from the National records, & in the practice of a wiser code to efface in as far as it may be possible the recollection of our degradation our errors & our crimes." (p10)

[Spirit drinking:]
"In my last letter I stated that I would in this offer some suggestions for remedying the evils of spirit drinking in our Naval & Military Service, & first of the Garrison & Barrack Canteens which the writer in your Journal of last November proposed altogether to abolish. I feel disposed to argue with him only so far as to prohibit in them the sale of spirits under any shape and form, but I would keep them open for the supply of fermented liquors, tobacco, dried provisions &c. in fact make them a sutlers shop, with only the above exceptions, for all that the Soldier usually requires, without subjecting him to the temptations of going to supply his wants from the shops of suburb hucksters, where every excitement to spirit drinking abounds. In thus departing from my principle & sanctioning, as it were, drunkenness under another shape, I consider the cases of the beer drinker & the spirit drinker to be widely different." (p1)

"From beer then the Soldier need not be debarred: indulgence, in a certain degree, carries its own cure, without spirits fermented liquors will rarely make him a drunkard or impair his bodily powers." (p1)

"As the first remedy for so crying an evil, I would propose the establishment of saving Banks in every Corps, Ship, or Garrison, of the Service." (p2)

"The next best safeguard of the Soldiers character as offering a chance of restoring him to respectability & inducing a more respectable class of the population to enter the Army, would be the abrogation for ever of service for life; for what can be expected from the man who has thus sold himself but the most reckless disregard of all civil ties, of all moral restraint, or respect for the laws of general society to which he is never—never at least while fit for Service—to return." (p4)

"I now approach in the last place & I do it with much fear & diffidence the subject of punishment. Our system has of late been greatly ameliorated; still I believe much is yet to be done before its frequency can be diminished, or the necessity obviated." (p5)

"Should you approve of my correspondence & deem it suitable for the United Service Journal, I will trouble you with another letter upon the nature formulation & uses of a Negro force in the West Indies, now more necessary than ever for the preservation of these valuable Colonies." (p8)

[Black Troops:]
"The Negro now destined by law to be the future agriculturist of these possessions [the West India Colonies], the Militia man & soldier (for all this must be the consequence of manumission) upon whom will depend their defences, has many qualities that fit him admirably for the purpose, where there are defects in his character which, if disregarded, might lead to military misfortune. A child of the sun, his physical adaptation for warfare in a tropical climate is admirable in all respects; his morale requires more consideration: good humoured & attached to his leaders, apt to learn in a military sense, docile, imitative & fond to distraction of military parade, with all its music, trappings, & glitter, he would seem the very material for forming a good soldier; but on the other hand, he is unsteady & sensual, devoid of necessary firmness & perseverance, & easily disheartened by difficulty & reverses. In many respects he has greatly the advantage of his white superior for West India service, being full of resources for subsisting himself, naturalized to the climate, simple in his diet, therefore healthy contented & efficient." (p1)

"of all the races of mankind, the negro tribes are the least addicted to the vice of intoxication." (p1)

"The adaptation of the African Negro to West India Service is most happy & singular. From peculiarity of idiosyncrasy he appears to be proof against endemic fevers." (p2)

"The black comes into our hands an uncivilized African from his native woods, & we immediately dub him a British Soldier, clothe him in full uniform, not forgetting shoes, by which he is rendered lame & useless at least for a year. We ordain moreover that he shall at once have the appetites & digestive organs of his new estate & exchange his vegetable diet of the fruits of the earth for salt beef & rum.... The black Troops are not so healthy as their half-naked brethren on a well regulated plantation, which is not to be wondered at, & I am only surprised that under the rude experiment I have just detailed, & the unnatural mode of living to which we have condemned them, they are not generally cut off by the diseases which follow all rash attempts to controul nature, & the habits which are justly said to be a second nature." (p4)

"From the foregoing will be seen of what vital importance to the preservation of our dominions in the West Indies must be the keeping up of a strong black force. The fate of our white Troops there can be told in few words, for it has been uniformly the same." (p5)

"The Soldiers cap for a hot climate should be light in itself of a light colour & above all have a glazed external surface so as to reflect the suns heat. If it were possible to make one of the bark of the cork tree, covered with varnished linen, it would be the most perfect conceivable." (p5)

"The question of shoeing the Negro requires more consideration, for we must acknowledge that some protection of that kind should be afforded to the Battalion Soldier who is under the necessity of marching in line & cannot therefore pick his steps; but on the other hand it is evident that the Army shoes ordinarily issued to the troops are any thing but adapted to the foot of the negro, which is flat, thin & spread out to a great degree, with toes, that were they as long, would radiate as wide as the outstretch'd fingers, & that before his foot could be compressed into the common shoe, he must, till then, be rendered nearly inefficient from lameness, besides being constantly liable to corns & blistering from their pressure. An open sandal made to the form of the foot, which would give all necessary protect to the sole, & freedom to the toes is all that is wanting, & the shoe now in use should be for ever discarded...." (p7-8)

"If in the foregoing I have shewn that in the Negro we possess a power capable of ensuring colonial dominion with incalculable saving of life & treasure to the mother country this letter will not have been written in vain." (p8)

"I have thus ventured to treat of the Negro because I have had opportunities twice in the course of my life to view him nearly for a series of years, with a long interval between." (p9)

William Fergusson (1773-1846) was born in Scotland and studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He joined the army in 1794 as an assistant surgeon. He served as surgeon to several regiments in the West Indies and Europe and served as principal medical officer and inspector of hospitals in the Portuguese army commanded by Marshal William Beresford (1768-1854) during the Peninsular War (1807-1814). In 1815, Fergusson accompanied the expedition against Guadeloupe and retired from the army in 1817. He settled in Edinburgh and practiced medicine there for four years before relocating to Windsor, where he continued his medical practice. He also served as Inspector General of Military Hospitals, a position that required much foreign travel.

Henry Colburn (ca. 1784-1855) was well-educated and fluent in French. He became an apprentice printer in 1800 and began publishing his first books in 1806. He pioneered what became known as "silver fork novels," which allowed readers to peer into the lifestyles of rich and aristocratic families. He also founded several periodicals, including the New Monthly Magazine, and Universal Register (1814), the Literary Gazette (1817), the Court Journal (1828), and The United Service Journal and Naval and Military Magazine (1829). The last appealed to both a general audience and military and naval officers.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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