76 CECILY JONES

 power they possess; but generally speaking, I believe the slaves are
 extremely well used. (Wright 86)

Certainly, they appeared happier, healthier and altogether enjoyed better
material conditions than the Irish labouring classes. As she lamented, "I only
wish the poor Irish were half as well off" (Wright 86).
 The slaves themselves were "all good-humoured and merry" but
irritatingly, seemingly immune to her efforts to impose her own rigorous
standards of cleanliness upon them. King's House was woefully squalid, the
result of neglect by lazy "blackies" who were themselves "dirty," and "smelly,"
motivate d to work only with the promise of material incentives. Fortunately,
the domestics responded to her cajoling with good humour, "singing odd
songs, only interrupted by peals of laughter" as they went about their work
(Wright 53). Their good humour was not surprising, for "I must say, they
have reason to be content, for they have many comforts and enjoyments."
Still, even with inducements, the efforts of the Governor's Lady to wrest
labour out of the domestics at Kings House continued to be a source of
personal frustration, and she failed to recognize their 'languor' as a strategy
of resistance, seeing instead her housekeeping problems as symbolic of the
innate dirtiness and laziness of Africans. She "reflected all night and make
up my mind that the want of exertion in the blackies must proceed from this
cause."
 According to Nugent, the fundamental problem was not slavery per se,
but rather that slave-owners had failed in their duty to inculcate a sufficiently
strong work ethic in their slaves. If anything, slave-owners perhaps over-
indulged their slaves. Touring the island, she observed the numerous
provisions planters made for their slaves -hospitals for the sick, public baths,
'maternity leave' for expectant mothers, time off to raise provision grounds,
Christmas and other holiday entertainment, annual clothing allowances,
regular food rations- evidence, to Mrs. Nugent's mind, of the
benevolence of Jamaican planters. To be sure, she conceded, some planters
did mistreat their slaves, but these constituted a minority.
 Conversely however, the association of whites and blacks produced
detrimental effects on the social, cultural and sexual morals of society.
Jamaican planters, Mrs. Nugent observed, displayed total disregard for the
spiritual state of their slaves' souls not surprising, given what she perceived
as white society's own laissez faire attitudes towards religion. The planters'
disregard for religion had a particularly pernicious effect on the "blackies."
Mrs. Nugent fervently believed that the inculcation of religion among the
enslaved would not only produce a more orderly slave community but would
lend towards the eventual abolition of the Slave Trade. As she reasoned,
"there would certainly be no necessity for the Slave Trade, if religion, decency
and good order, were established among the negroes." The absence of formal
Christian marriages among the enslaved represented a particular source of