The Domestic World of a Vincentian Planter and his "Sable Venus"

Mark Quintanilla

Throughout the Americas the estate house symbolized both the economic success of European investors and the distress of plantation slaves. Central to this conflict was the relationship between European males and the women they promoted to the "great house."¹ However, the effort to reconstruct this domestic world has proven a difficult task. This contested space on one hand was a pronouncement of the planter's success, but also symbolized the internal conflict between him and his exploited laborers.² While Caribbean scholars have defined this conflict in monolithic terms, it appears evident that the internal developments influenced the terms of relationships between European men and bonded women and thus shaped island societies in different ways.

This case study examines the relationship between Hugh Perry Keane, a Vincentian planter, and his paramour "Betty Keane," a woman he purchased from his father in 1791 and later freed.³ Their odyssey provides an opportunity to evaluate the complex relationships between freed men and mulatto women in the Caribbean. During their five year affair, Hugh Perry and Betty engaged in a tumultuous relationship that epitomized the difficulty of such unions. While he jealously noted neighboring planters who both acknowledged and paraded their mixed children, he was unable to free himself from the conventions of his day. Although Betty was his confidante and lover, their love was expressed only in the confines of their private world.⁴ To outsiders he, like other single planters, was a dandy who pursued the daughters of prominent planters.⁵

The role of enslaved women in Atlantic societies has been of growing importance in recent years. Caribbean historians have tended to examine gender relationships in monolithic manner ignoring nuances between island societies. This problem has larger dimensions since it is reflective of the tendency to view developments in the older West Indian settlements as representative of the entire region.⁶ I argue here, that in newer settlements such as eighteenth century St Vincent the relationship between Europeans, Africans, and mixed race people was more complex than elsewhere in the Anglophone Caribbean. Although African historians have emphasized the importance of cross cultural brokers in managing the relations between Europeans and indigenous peoples, little attention has been given to the continued survival of such intermediaries in the New World.⁷ Recently, some historians have even suggested that the status of women was lost during the Atlantic voyage as they were sexually harassed by crewmen and then sold to estates.⁸ The contention here is that the need for such cultural brokers continued in the New World, albeit in a different form, and survived where possible.

The balance of power within new colonies such as St Vincent was much more precarious than in the older West Indian societies. However, Caribbean scholarship has tended to view slave societies from a static perspective emphasizing a uniformity of experience common to enslaved men and women.⁹ A rare but important exception is Barry Higman who proposes a three tier method for evaluating the experiences of communities in the Anglophone Caribbean. He divides the region into three groups: the first phase colonies of Barbados, Jamaica and the Leeward Islands; the second phase settlements of Grenada, St Vincent, Tobago and Dominica; and the third phase colonies of Trinidad and Guyana.¹⁰ This structural challenge has encouraged economic historians such as J.R. Ward to define structural differences between business activities in the first and second phase British Caribbean colonies.¹¹ Ongoing research reveals that within the Ceded Islands the rate of economic development between 1763 and 1800 was not uniform. For example, at the time of acquisition in 1763 Grenadian planters had eclipsed their counterparts elsewhere in the region. By 1795, planters in that colony had so transformed their island that it became the second most important settlement within the British West Indies.¹² By 1770, planters in St Vincent began a period of internal investment as they established cocoa and coffee plantations and then worked to transform them to sugar cane. By 1790 their efforts had been rewarded as Vincentian agriculture steadily improved.¹³

Economic success had important consequences to social development and the creation of hierarchical societies throughout the Ceded Islands. The Plantation system they created was dependent upon distant markets, coerced labor, and European investment capital.¹⁴ Only after planters accumulated and reinvested wealth could they create testimonies to their success.¹⁵ The great houses and landscaping common in the first phase settlements were rarer in eighteenth century St Vincent. Such conspicuous displays of wealth demonstrated the rank and position of planters both within colonial and imperial society. However, unlike the first phase settlements, St Vincent and the other Ceded Islands were almost completely devoid of European women. These were recruitment societies where both free and slave emigrated from more distant places.¹⁶

In the absence of European companions, colonial males turned readily to bonded women to fill and manage their homes and to lend them feminine comfort. Nineteenth-century commentators such as Mrs A.C. Carmichael, John Bowen Colthurst, and John Anderson all comment on the commonness in which European males took "plantation wives" from among their slaves.¹⁷ Although this situation was not unique to the Ceded Islands, the universal absence of European women in more isolated colonies like St Vincent and the neighboring Grenadines defined the frequency of these relationships. Outside of the major shipping lanes, planters in St Vincent were much more isolated than their counterparts in Barbados, Jamaica, or Antigua. While historians often reference the case of Thomas Thistlewood, whose promiscuity left himself and his slaves to face venereal diseases that raged in epidemic proportions on the estates he managed, his conduct seems exceptional.¹⁸ To the other extreme is Matthew Lewis whose conduct seems to have been entirely above board. However, Lewis was an outsider who wrote his account anticipating publication.¹⁹ Domestic arrangements, such as that between Hugh Perry and Betty Keane, were so common that they evoked little reaction from contemporaries. Anderson acknowledges such affairs to be so frequent that for "colored females ... to be the mistress, or housekeeper, of an European - for the words are synonymous - is a higher object of ambition, then to be the wife of one of their own class."²⁰

Plantation wives such as Betty were indispensable. Carmichael herself is defensive on the subject, admitting that "the duties of a planter's wife are most arduous" because of the constant necessity of going to distant markets, stocking pantries, tending gardens, and overseeing household production.²¹ While the work of running the domestic sphere was demanding - especially since Europeans south to make this tropical world conform to Western notions of etiquette. This was made all the more impossible since the "plantation wives" in charge were not completely familiar with European cultural norms. Betty Keane's world, and that of women like her, was a difficult balancing act. Unlike her European counterpart, she was not protected from the whip nor from her lover's tantrums.²² Yet, she was expected to organize and run a house that would conform to European notions of comfort and to respond appropriately to last minute demands on her as a hostess. For a single man, a "plantation wife" was not so much a luxury but rather a necessity. Hugh Perry was an ambitious man who pursued duel careers in law and agriculture. The recruitment of a woman such as Betty allowed him to devote himself more completely to the former while leaving his lover to oversee his plantation and its slave community.

It is evident from Keane's diaries that he viewed Betty as more than his "Sable Venus," which T. Stothard would later depict as an idealized African woman riding the waves of the Atlantic on a conch shell from Angola to the West Indies.²³ Keane was smitten with Betty. In 1792 he begins his journal noting "I wrote a few lines to Miss B."²⁴ When she left for Tobago on his behalf between 6 and 21 May 1792 he dwelled on his loneliness and refused to sleep in his own house.²⁵ Eighteenth-century St Vincent was a lonely place for most Europeans. Surrounded by a growing slave population, planters became victims of paranoia as they pondered their isolation. Hugh Perry depended upon a small circle of visitors. In addition, his outspoken criticism of the governor excluded him from the colony's inner circle that his father was a part. A voracious reader, Keane typically spent the evening in the company of his books. Betty therefore formed an indispensable part of his life. She put his house into order, arranged his meals, comforted him and was his nurse in times of illness.

As a plantation wife Betty held a diplomatic role requiring her to balance the demands of European guests and the needs of African workers and Creole tradesmen. Her position required her to guard her "husband's" interests while protecting the welfare of her community. Her role was much different than the idealized Sable Venus who rode the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean to ensure the economic feasibility of the estate - especially as Abolitionist worked to halt the slave trade.²⁶ However, Betty's task was closer to Deborah Grey White's examination of "Mammy," the maternal slave woman who successfully ordered Southern plantation life, and "Jezebel," the female temptress. Slave women were expected to be all things to all people. However, unlike Jezebel, she was to be available only to her master, while interacting with others as the asexual Mammy.²⁷

Like other "plantation wives," Betty was an indispensable part of both Hugh Perry's private and Bow-Wood Estates. She provided a vital bond that tied the slave community to the great house. Throughout the Americas, such women created cohesion within the plantation. For the African community, which would have been considerable in a new settlement such as St Vincent, such agents were extremely important. In the late eighteenth-century, few slaves were native born. Instead, the vast majority arrived either from one of the older settlements or directly from the African coast. The slave community at Bow-Wood, which the younger Hugh Perry managed for his father, undoubtedly looked to her to represent their needs. Not only was she trusted by the Keane family, but as a Creole mulatress she was more familiar with the customs of plantation society than newly arrived workers and therefore able to address the needs of the slave community more readily. Furthermore, Hugh Perry's frequent absences from the estate reinforced her authority and empowered her to act as a plantation mistress not only within the domestic sphere but in the estate's management as well.

Betty's place as a cross cultural broker would have been one familiar to newly arrived Africans. David Northrup demonstrates that such individuals were imperative to trade between Africans and Europeans in Precolonial Africa. Moreover, cross cultural brokers were typically people of mixed race who were empowered to negotiate between local communities and foreign merchants because of their familiarity and language skills with more than one culture.²⁸ Betty's elevation to the great house had advantages to the local community-whether Hugh Perry recognized them or not. She was familiar with the Keane family and the temperament of various guests. She knew her master's temperament, his routine, and his desires. She was the buffer between the slave community and the big house. She was evidently effective in this role, for Hugh Perry complained about her absences in the evenings or her returns after nightfall. Betty's challenge was to maintain the loyalty of the slave community while holding the affection of her lover.

Like other "husbands," Keane never recognized the diplomatic role that she played as she worked to keep peace between him and his slaves. He expected Betty's complete loyalty and unwavering devotion. He "shut (her) out for being out after eight" on numerous occasions.²⁹ From his own accounts it is evident that Hugh Perry even acknowledged his extreme naivety. A man in his mid-twenties, he had never had a serious relationship before nor did he understand Betty's loyalty to her fellow slaves. By his own admission he was overbearing and abusive. While she worked as a liaison between the slave community and the great house, he saw her conduct as a betrayal of his interest and "beat her" when she was deficient. He responded by pouting and "locking her out" of his chambers. These tantrums continued for days and even weeks and usually ended with Hugh Perry leaving Bow-Wood for days. His absence undoubtedly produced a more peaceful environment and cemented Betty's position in the eyes of her community. Betty's perspectives on these events are missing, but undoubtedly she worried if she would lose her status as a result of these outbursts.

Despite the volatility of their relationship, it seems evident that both Hugh Perry and Betty viewed their arrangement from the perspectives of mutual affection and necessity. The general isolation of St Vincent from the outside world allowed them to ignore the censorship of European society. Indeed, their domestic lives were commonplace. Michael Keane's 1796 will provides much evidence for the frequency that West Indian planters entered into such relationships. At the time of his death, the senior Keane, who had been estranged from his Irish wife for over twenty years, acknowledged Elizabeth or "Betsy" Keane as his plantation wife and charged his executors with the responsibility of allowing her to keep her chambers at Liberty Lodge until such time as she decided to return to Barbados; evidently Elizabeth had lived with Michael Keane since before he had moved to St Vincent in 1770. He left strictest instructions to his son that she was not to be molested or interfered with.³⁰

West Indian society placed the responsibility of fidelity on women. While plantation wives were expected to remain faithful to their common-law husbands, West Indian males were free to openly court European women. In fact, many of Hugh Perry's evenings were filled in the company of the daughters of other planters either attending occasional balls, at dinner, or frequent visits.³¹ His conduct apparently was not cause for concern to either the women he courted or their fathers. However, his journals indicated that Betty was less than happy about his exploits and received him coldly upon his return home. Eighteenth century St Vincent was a small society whose population was collected mainly around Kingstown. Caribbean slaves were well networked and undoubtedly informed plantation wives about the exploits and flirtations that their "husbands" engaged.

The social norms and conventions of West Indian society left men free to cultivate attachments with various women, while requiring the fidelity of their plantation wives. However, the numerous demands placed upon plantation wives, the racism of the plantation system, and the vagueness regarding their social status to outsiders, left women like Betty easy prey. The expectation of offering hospitality to outsiders (primarily men) left female domestics vulnerable to sexual aggression. European males, especially those in the military or seamen, with little knowledge of domestic practices in the West Indies viewed female slaves as available for their private entertainment. Slave codes prevented slaves from testifying against whites, or even defending themselves against aggression. Furthermore, many men viewed the social position of such women as one that was comparable to prostitution. To such males, the granting of hospitality entailed sexual favors.³² The build up of troops in 1794-95, brought many soldiers and sailors into the colony who posed a risk to vulnerable women.

As British soldiers filtered into the island and the local militia organized their colony's defense, women such as Betty Keane were especially vulnerable to attack.³³ The expectations and necessity of quartering troops undoubtedly made plantation wives such as Betty nervous. Keane charged that she had an "affair" with an officer quartered at Bow-Wood.³⁴ However, Hugh Perry's reaction to the event indicates that Betty was most likely raped while her "husband" was in a drunken stupor. When the incident was revealed, Hugh Perry called out the aggressor to a duel, a clear indication that his honor had been violated. The accused officer rebuffed Hugh Perry's request for a duel, thus honorably settling the matter without the necessity of guns. During the subsequent weeks, Hugh Perry blamed Betty for the affair and cast her out of his house despite her protestations and pleas. West Indian society squarely blamed plantation wives for such incidents and cast them into the category of "Jezebel." Although she had been freed earlier that same year her status as a freedwomen did not grant her protection from either her attacker or her "husband." Instead, her fate demonstrated that even the best placed colored woman was vulnerable to sexual assault. Whereas she was once Hugh Perry's Venus, her violation left her a "Jezebel" in the eyes of her estranged husband.

Conclusion

Betty's personal tragedy coincided with the growing turmoil of the Second Crib War. Months later Hugh Perry left the island for Barbados to comfort his dying father. Even on his death bed, Michael Keane warned his son about his vulnerability in throwing his affections on an unworthy woman.³⁵ In the end, Betty's humiliation was complete as her former master persuaded his son not to take her back. During the next year Hugh Perry moved forward with his life. He successfully negotiated a marriage with an English woman from a respected-gentry family. The Irish Keane put aside his "Sable Venus" and embraced the life of the English landed class. While he returned to St Vincent many times over the next two decades, he never again mentioned Betty in his journal. Betty simply disappeared from the historical record.