Nicholas Gyles

In 1839, Benjamin M'Mahon described the treatment of one group of enslaved people on Halifax estate by overseer Nicholas Gyles: "In 1818, Mr. Nicholas Gyles was overseer of Halifax estate, in [St Mary’s] parish. His disposition was cruel in the extreme. No man ever made larger crops of sugar: but, to effect this, he nearly destroyed the whole of the estate labourers by his tyrannical and oppressive conduct. Many of them were chained together while at work; and at night remained in the dungeon, with irons upon their necks and feet. Their food was either raw corn, or plantains, which was greedily devoured, without any kind of cooking. After six hours' rest, they were again taken out of the dungeon, and driven by the whip until the following night. From fifteen to twenty of them were worked by Mr. Gyles the whole year round, Sundays not excepted, in the manner I have described. The dungeon was underground, and had the most loathsome appearance. I have heard effective labourers say, that they did not think they could survive in it for one day. Mr. Gyles at this time had a savage African, who was in the habit of visiting the dungeon in which these poor creatures were lodged, and of carrying with him a pair of pincers, with which he pulled the hair from their heads. As an additional torture, he would sometimes employ this fearful instrument to flay their skin from their flesh. This driver was not only esteemed by Mr. Gyles for his cruelties, but was rewarded with innumerable little indulgences. After some years, however, Mr. Gyles himself was discharged; when it was found that the estate labourers were not only in a state of the most wretched debility, but, with a very few exceptions, were actually without any children to supply their place. Such are the fearful consequences of the cruelty which is resorted to for the forcing of crops, and the necessary results is the destruction of the estates capital by death of the labourers and stock."