Adams did not observe what ceremonies were used
in the marriages of the lower classes.
As it is common to have several concubines besides a wife, the women
are continually quarrelling and fighting; there is, however, a marked
difference in the degree of respect with which they are treated by
the husband, the wife always having a decided pre-eminence. The
negroes, however, appeared to Adams to be jealous and severe with all
their women, frequently beating them apparently for very little
cause.
The women appear to suffer very little from child-birth, and they
will be seen walking about as usual the day after such an event. It
is their practice to grease a child all over soon after its birth,
and to expose it for about an hour to the sun. The infants at first
are of a reddish colour, but become black in three or four days.
Illicit intercourse appeared to be but little regarded amongst the
lower orders, and chastity among the women in general seemed to be
preserved only so far as their situations or circumstances rendered
it necessary for their personal safety or convenience. In the higher
ranks, if a woman prove with child, the man is punished with slavery,
unless he will take the woman for his wife, and maintain her.
