It was suicide.

So was Packard's finish suicide." "I grant that precaution is necessary in dealing with them," Joan agreed; "but I believe that more satisfactory results can be obtained by treating them with discreet kindness and gentleness." "And there I agree with _you_, but you must understand one thing.
Berande, bar none, is by far the worst plantation in the Solomons so far as the labour is concerned.

And how it came to be so proves your point.
The previous owners of Berande were not discreetly kind.

They were a pair of unadulterated brutes.

One was a down-east Yankee, as I believe they are called, and the other was a guzzling German.