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diff --git a/old/11489.txt b/old/11489.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e730a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11489.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5080 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Some Historical Account of Guinea, Its +Situation, Produce, and the General Disposition of Its Inhabitants, by Anthony Benezet + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Some Historical Account of Guinea, Its Situation, Produce, and the General Disposition of Its Inhabitants + An Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of the Slave Trade, Its Nature and Lamentable Effects + +Author: Anthony Benezet + +Release Date: March 7, 2004 [EBook #11489] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF GUINEA *** + + + + +Produced by Carlo Traverso, Amy Overmyer and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + +SOME HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF GUINEA, + + + + + +ITS SITUATION, PRODUCE, AND THE GENERAL DISPOSITION OF ITS INHABITANTS. + + + + + +AN INQUIRY INTO THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE SLAVE TRADE, ITS NATURE AND +LAMENTABLE EFFECTS. + + +1771 BY ANTHONY BENEZET + + + +SOME + + +HISTORICAL ACCOUNT + + +OF + + +GUINEA, + + + +ITS + + +SITUATION, PRODUCE, and the general + +DISPOSITION of its INHABITANTS. + + +WITH + + +An Inquiry into the RISE and PROGRESS + + +OF THE + + +SLAVE TRADE, + + +Its NATURE, and lamentable EFFECTS. + + +ALSO + + +A REPUBLICATION of the Sentiments of several Authors of Note on this +interesting Subject: Particularly an Extract of a Treatise written by +GRANVILLE SHARPE. + + +By ANTHONY BENEZET + + + ACTS xvii. 24, 26. GOD, _that made the world hath made of_ one + blood _all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the + earth, and hath determined the--bounds of their habitation._ + + +PHILADELPHIA: Printed MDCCLXXI. + +LONDON: Re-printed MDCCLXXII. + + + + + + + Introduction. + + + CHAPTER I. _A GENERAL account of_ Guinea; _particularly those + parts on the rivers_ Senegal _and_ Gambia. + + + CHAP. II. _Account of the_ Ivory-Coast, _the_ Gold-Coast _and + the Slave-Coast_. + + + CHAP. III. _Of the kingdoms of_ Benin, Kongo _and_ Angola. + + + CHAP. IV. Guinea, _first discovered and subdued by the_ + Arabians. _The Portuguese make descents on the coast, and carry + off the natives. Oppression of the_ Indians: _De la Casa pleads + their cause_. + + + CHAP. V. _The_ English's _first trade to the coast of_ Guinea: + _Violently carry off some of the Negros._ + + + CHAP. VI. _Slavery more tolerable under_ Pagans _and_ Turks + _than in the colonies. As christianity prevailed, ancient + slavery declined_. + + + CHAP. VII. Montesquieu's _sentiments of slavery_. Morgan + Godwyn's _advocacy on behalf of Negroes and Indians, &c._ + + + CHAP. VIII. _Grievous treatment of the Negroes in the colonies, + &c._ + + + CHAP. IX. _Desire of gain the true motive of the_ Slave trade. + _Misrepresentation of the state of the Negroes in Guinea_. + + + CHAP. X. _State of the Government in_ Guinea, &c. + + + CHAP. XI. _Accounts of the cruel methods used in carrying on of + the_ Slave trade, &c. + + + CHAP. XII. _Extracts of several voyages to the coast of_ Guinea, + &c. + + + CHAP. XIII. _Numbers of Negroes, yearly brought from_ Guinea, + _by the_ English, &c. + + + CHAP. XIV. _Observations on the situation and disposition of the + Negroes in the northern colonies_, &c. + + + CHAP. XV. Europeans _capable of bearing reasonable labour in + the_ West Indies, &c. + + + _Extracts from_ Granville Sharp's _representations,_ &c. + + + _Sentiments of several authors,_ viz. George Wallace, Francis + Hutcheson, _and_ James Foster. + + + _Extracts of an address to the assembly of_ Virginia. + + + _Extract of the bishop of_ Gloucester's _sermon_. + + + + + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +The slavery of the Negroes having, of late, drawn the attention of many +serious minded people; several tracts have been published setting forth +its inconsistency with every christian and moral virtue, which it is +hoped will have weight with the judicious; especially at a time when the +liberties of mankind are become so much the subject of general +attention. For the satisfaction of the serious enquirer who may not have +the opportunity of seeing those tracts, and such others who are +sincerely desirous that the iniquity of this practice may become +effectually apparent, to those in whose power, it may be to put a stop +to any farther progress therein; it is proposed, hereby, to republish +the most material parts of said tracts; and in order to enable the +reader to form a true judgment of this matter, which, tho' so very +important, is generally disregarded, or so artfully misrepresented by +those whose interest leads them to vindicate it, as to bias the opinions +of people otherwise upright; some account will be here given of the +different parts of Africa, from which the Negroes are brought to +America; with an impartial relation from what motives the Europeans were +first induced to undertake, and have since continued this iniquitous +traffic. And here it will not be improper to premise, that tho' wars, +arising from the common depravity of human nature, have happened, as +well among the Negroes as other nations, and the weak sometimes been +made captives to the strong; yet nothing appears, in the various +relations of the intercourse and trade for a long time carried on by the +Europeans on that coast, which would induce us to believe, that there is +any real foundation for that argument, so commonly advanced in +vindication of that trade, viz. "_That the slavery of the Negroes took +its rise from a desire, in the purchasers, to save the lives of such of +them as were taken captives in war, who would otherwise have been +sacrificed to the implacable revenge of their conquerors._" A plea which +when compared with the history of those times, will appear to be +destitute of Truth; and to have been advanced, and urged, principally by +such as were concerned in reaping the gain of this infamous traffic, as +a palliation of that, against which their own reason and conscience must +have raised fearful objections. + + + + +SOME + + +HISTORICAL ACCOUNT + + +OF + + +GUINEA. + + + * * * * * + + +[Price 2s. 6d. stitched.] + + + + + +CHAP. I. + + +Guinea affords an easy living to its inhabitants, with but little toil. +The climate agrees well with the natives, but extremely unhealthful to +the Europeans. Produces provisions in the greatest plenty. Simplicity of +their housholdry. The coast of Guinea described from the river Senegal +to the kingdom of Angola. The fruitfulness of that part lying on and +between the two great rivers Senegal and Gambia. Account of the +different nations settled there. Order of government amongst the Jalofs. +Good account of some of the Fulis. The Mandingos; their management, +government, &c. Their worship. M. Adanson's account of those countries. +Surprizing vegetation. Pleasant appearance of the country. He found the +natives very sociable and obliging. + +When the Negroes are considered barely in their present abject state of +slavery, broken-spirited and dejected; and too easy credit is given to +the accounts we frequently hear or read of their barbarous and savage +way of living in their own country; we shall be naturally induced to +look upon them as incapable of improvement, destitute, miserable, and +insensible of the benefits of life; and that our permitting them to live +amongst us, even on the most oppressive terms, is to them a favour. But, +on impartial enquiry, the case will appear to be far otherwise; we shall +find that there is scarce a country in the whole world, that is better +calculated for affording the necessary comforts of life to its +inhabitants, with less solicitude and toil, than Guinea. And that +notwithstanding the long converse of many of its inhabitants with +(often) the worst of the Europeans, they still retain a great deal of +innocent simplicity; and, when not stirred up to revenge from the +frequent abuses they have received from the Europeans in general, +manifest themselves to be a humane, sociable people, whose faculties are +as capable of improvement as those of other Men; and that their oeconomy +and government is, in many respects, commendable. Hence it appears they +might have lived happy, if not disturbed by the Europeans; more +especially, if these last had used such endeavours as their christian +profession requires, to communicate to the ignorant Africans that +superior knowledge which Providence had favoured them with. In order to +set this matter in its true light, and for the information of those +well-minded people who are desirous of being fully acquainted with the +merits of a cause, which is of the utmost consequence; as therein the +lives and happiness of thousands, and hundreds of thousands, of our +fellow _Men_ have fallen, and are daily falling, a sacrifice to selfish +avarice and usurped power, I will here give some account of the several +divisions of those parts of Africa from whence the Negroes are brought, +with a summary of their produce; the disposition of their respective +inhabitants; their improvements, &c. &c. extracted from authors of +credit; mostly such as have been principal officers in the English, +French and Dutch factories, and who resided many years in those +countries. But first it is necessary to premise, as a remark generally +applicable to the whole coast of Guinea, "_That the Almighty, who has +determined and appointed the bounds of the habitation of men on the face +of the earth_" in the manner that is most conducive to the well-being of +their different natures and dispositions, has so ordered it, that altho' +Guinea is extremely unhealthy[A] to the Europeans, of whom many +thousands have met there with a miserable and untimely end, yet it is +not so with the Negroes, who enjoy a good state of health[B] and are +able to procure to themselves a comfortable subsistence, with much less +care and toil than is necessary in our more northern climate; which last +advantage arises not only from the warmth of the climate, but also from +the overflowing of the rivers, whereby the land is regularly moistened +and rendered extremely fertile; and being in many places improved by +culture, abounds with grain and fruits, cattle, poultry, &c. The earth +yields all the year a fresh supply of food: Few clothes are requisite, +and little art necessary in making them, or in the construction of their +houses, which are very simple, principally calculated to defend them +from the tempestuous seasons and wild beasts; a few dry reeds covered +with matts serve for their beds. The other furniture, except what +belongs to cookery, gives the women but little trouble; the moveables of +the greatest among them amounting only to a few earthen pots, some +wooden utensils, and gourds or calabashes; from these last, which grow +almost naturally over their huts, to which they afford an agreeable +shade, they are abundantly stocked with good clean vessels for most +houshold uses, being of different sizes, from half a pint to several +gallons. + +[Footnote A: _Gentleman's Magazine, Supplement, 1763. Extract of a +letter wrote from the island of Senegal, by Mr. Boone, practitioner of +physic there, to Dr. Brocklesby of London._ + + "To form just idea of the unhealthiness of the climate, it will + be necessary to conceive a country extending three hundred + leagues East, and more to the North and South. Through this + country several large rivers empty themselves into the sea; + particularly the Sanaga, Gambia and Sherbro; these, during the + rainy months, which begin in July and continue till October, + overflow their banks, and lay the whole flat country under + water; and indeed, the very sudden rise of these rivers is + incredible to persons who have never been within the tropicks, + and are unacquainted with the violent rains that fall there. At + Galem, nine hundred miles from the mouth of the Sanaga, I am + informed that the waters rise one hundred and fifty feet + perpendicular, from the bed of the river. This information I + received from a gentleman, who was surgeon's mate to a party + sent there, and the only survivor of three captains command, + each consisting of one captain, two lieutenants, one ensign, a + surgeon's mate, three serjeants, three corporals, and fifty + privates. + + "When the rains are at an end, which usually happens in October, + the intense heat of the sun soon dries up the waters which lie + on the higher parts of the earth, and the remainder forms lakes + of stagnated waters, in which are found all sorts of dead + animals. These waters every day decrease, till at last they are + quite exhaled, and then the effluvia that arises is almost + insupportable. At this season, the winds blow so very hot from + off the land, that I can compare them to nothing but the heat + proceeding from the mouth of an oven. This occasions the + Europeans to be sorely vexed with bilious and putrid fevers. + From this account you will not be surprized, that the total loss + of British subjects in this island only, amounted to above two + thousand five hundred, in the space of three years that I was + there, in such a putrid moist air as I have described." + +] + + +[Footnote B: James Barbot, agent general to the French African company, +in his account of Africa, page 105, says, "The natives are seldom +troubled with any distempers, being little affected with the unhealthy +air. In tempestuous times they keep much within doors; and when exposed +to the weather, their skins being suppled, and pores closed by daily +anointing with palm oil, the weather can make but little impression on +them."] + +That part of Africa from which the Negroes are sold to be carried into +slavery, commonly known by the name of Guinea, extends along the coast +three or four thousand miles. Beginning at the river Senegal, situate +about the 17th degree of North latitude, being the nearest part of +Guinea, as well to Europe as to North America; from thence to the river +Gambia, and in a southerly course to Cape Sierra Leona, comprehends a +coast of about seven hundred miles; being the same tract for which Queen +Elizabeth granted charters to the first traders to that coast: from +Sierra Leona, the land of Guinea takes a turn to the eastward, extending +that course about fifteen hundred miles, including those several +civilians known by name of _the Grain Coast, the Ivory Coast, the Gold +Coast, and the Slave Coast, with the large kingdom of Benin_. From +thence the land runs southward along the coast about twelve hundred +miles, which contains the _kingdoms of Congo and Angola_; there the +trade for slaves ends. From which to the southermost Cape of Africa, +called the Cape of Good Hope, the country is settled by Caffres and +Hottentots, who have never been concerned in the making or selling +slaves. + +Of the parts which are above described, the first which presents itself +to view, is that situate on the great river Senegal, which is said to be +navigable more than a thousand miles, and is by travellers described to +be very agreeable and fruitful. Andrew Brue, principal factor for the +French African company, who lived sixteen years in that country, after +describing its fruitfulness and plenty, near the sea, adds,[A] "The +farther you go from the sea, the country on the river seems the more +fruitful and well improved; abounding with Indian corn, pulse, fruit, +&c. Here are vast meadows, which feed large herds of great and small +cattle, and poultry numerous: The villages that lie thick on the river, +shew the country is well peopled." The same author, in the account of a +voyage he made up the river Gambia, the mouth of which lies about three +hundred miles South of the Senegal, and is navigable about six hundred +miles up the country, says,[B] "That he was surprized to see the land so +well cultivated; scarce a spot lay unimproved; the low lands, divided by +small canals, were all formed with rice, &c. the higher ground planted +with millet, Indian corn, and pease of different sorts; their beef +excellent; poultry plenty, and very cheap, as well as all other +necessaries of life." Francis Moor, who was sent from England about the +year 1735, in the service of the African company, and resided at James +Fort, on the river Gambia, or in other factories on that river, about +five years, confirms the above account of the fruitfulness of the +country. William Smith, who was sent in the year 1726, by the African +company, to survey their settlements throughout the whole coast of +Guinea[C] says, "The country about the Gambia is pleasant and fruitful; +provisions of all kinds being plenty and exceeding cheap." The country +on and between the two above-mentioned rivers is large and extensive, +inhabited principally by those three Negro nations known by the name of +Jalofs, Fulis, and Mandingos. The Jalofs possess the middle of the +country. The Fulis principal settlement is on both sides of the Senegal; +great numbers of these people are also mixed with the Mandingos; which +last are mostly settled on both sides the Gambia. The government of the +Jalofs is represented as under a better regulation than can be expected +from the common opinion we entertain of the Negroes. We are told in the +Collection,[D] "That the King has under him several ministers of state, +who assist him in the exercise of justice. _The grand Jerafo_ is the +chief justice thro' all the King's dominions, and goes in circuit from +time to time to hear complaints, and determine controversies. _The +King's treasurer_ exercises the same employment, and has under him +Alkairs, who are governors of towns or villages. That the _Kondi_, or +_Viceroy_, goes the circuit with the chief justice, both to hear causes, +and inspect into the behaviour of the _Alkadi_, or chief magistrate of +every village in their several districts[E]." _Vasconcelas_, an author +mentioned in the collection, says, "The ancientest are preferred to be +the _Prince's counsellors_, who keep always about his person; and the +men of most judgment and experience are the judges." _The Fulis_ are +settled on both sides of the river _Senegal_: Their country, which is +very fruitful and populous, extends near four hundred miles from East to +West. They are generally of a deep tawny complexion, appearing to bear +some affinity with the Moors, whose country they join on the North. They +are good farmers, and make great harvest of corn, cotton, tobacco, &c. +and breed great numbers of cattle of all kinds. _Bartholomew Stibbs_, +(mentioned by _Fr. Moor_) in his account of that country says,[F] "_They +were a cleanly, decent, industrious people, and very affable_." But the +most particular account we have, of these people, is from _Francis Moor_ +himself, who says,[G] "Some of these Fuli blacks who dwell on both sides +the river Gambia, are in subjection to the Mandingos, amongst whom they +dwell, having been probably driven out of their country by war or +famine. They have chiefs of their own, who rule with much moderation. +Few of them will drink brandy, or any thing stronger than water and +sugar, being strict Mahometans. Their form of government goes on easy, +because the people are of a good quiet disposition, and so well +instructed in what is right, that a man who does ill, is the abomination +of all, and, none will support him against the chief. In these +countries, the natives are not covetous of land, desiring no more than +what they use; and as they do not plough with horses and cattle, they +can use but very little, therefore the Kings are willing to give the +Fulis leave to live in their country, and cultivate their lands. If any +of their people are known to be made slaves, all the Fulis will join to +redeem them; they also support the old, the blind, and lame, amongst +themselves; and as far as their abilities go, they supply the +necessities of the Mandingos, great numbers of whom they have maintained +in famine." _The author_, from his own observations, says, "They were +rarely angry, and that he never heard them abuse one another." + +[Footnote A: Astley's collect. vol. 2. page 46.] + + +[Footnote B: Astley's collection of voyages, vol. 2, page 86.] + + +[Footnote C: William Smith's voyage to Guinea, page 31, 34.] + + +[Footnote D: Astley's collection, vol. 2, page 358.] + + +[Footnote E: Idem. 259.] + + +[Footnote F: Moor's travels into distant parts of Africa, page 198.] + + +[Footnote G: Ibid, page 21.] + +_The Mandingos_ are said by _A. Brue_ before mentioned, "To be the most +numerous nation on the Gambia, besides which, numbers of them are +dispersed over all these countries; being the most rigid Mahometans +amongst the Negroes, they drink neither wine nor brandy, and are politer +than the other Negroes. The chief of the trade goes through their hands. +Many are industrious and laborious, keeping their ground well +cultivated, and breeding a good stock of cattle.[A] Every town has an +_Alkadi_, or _Governor_, who has great power; for most of them having +two common fields of clear ground, one for corn, and the other for rice, +_the Alkadi_ appoints the labour of all the people. The men work the +corn ground, and the women and girls the rice ground; and as they all +equally labour, so he equally divides the corn amongst them; and in case +they are in want, the others supply them. This Alkadi decides all +quarrels, and has the first voice in all conferences in town affairs." +Some of these Mandingos who are settled at Galem, far up the river +Senegal, can read and write Arabic tolerably, and are a good hospitable +people, who carry on a trade with the inland nations."[B] They are +extremely populous in those parts, their women being fruitful, and they +not suffering any person amongst them, but such as are guilty of crimes, +to be made slaves." We are told from Jobson,"[C] That the Mahometan +Negroes say their prayers thrice a day. Each village has a priest who +calls them to their duty. It is surprizing (says the author) as well as +commendable, to see the modesty, attention, and reverence they observe +during their worship. He asked some of their priests the purport of +their prayers and ceremonies; their answer always was, _That they adored +God by prostrating themselves before him; that by humbling themselves, +they acknowledged their own insignificancy, and farther intreated him to +forgive their faults, and to grant them all good and necessary things as +well as deliverance from evil."_ Jobson takes notice of several good +qualities in these Negroe priests, particularly their great sobriety. +They gain their livelihood by keeping school for the education of the +children. The boys are taught to read and write. They not only teach +school, but rove about the country, teaching and instructing, for which +the whole country is open to them; and they have a free course through +all places, though the Kings may be at war with one another. + +[Footnote A: Astley's collect. vol. 2, page 269.] + + +[Footnote B: Astley's collect. vol. 2, page 73.] + + +[Footnote C: Ibid, 296.] + +The three fore-mentioned nations practise several trades, as smiths, +potters, sadlers, and weavers. Their smiths particularly work neatly in +gold and silver, and make knifes, hatchets, reaping hooks, spades and +shares to cut iron, &c. &c. Their potters make neat tobacco pipes, and +pots to boil their food. Some authors say that weaving is their +principal trade; this is done by the women and girls, who spin and weave +very fine cotton cloth, which they dye blue or black.[A] F. Moor says, +the Jalofs particularly make great quantities of the cotton cloth; their +pieces are generally twenty-seven yards long, and about nine inches +broad, their looms being very narrow; these they sew neatly together, so +as to supply the use of broad cloth. + +[Footnote A: F. Moor, 28.] + +It was in these parts of Guinea, that M. Adanson, correspondent of the +Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, mentioned in some former +publications, was employed from the year 1749, to the year 1753, wholly +in making _natural_ and _philosophical_ observations on the country +about the rivers Senegal and Gambia. Speaking of the great heats in +Senegal, he says,[A] "It is to them that they are partly indebted for +the fertility of their lands; which is so great, that, with little +labour and care, there is no fruit nor grain but grow in great plenty." + +[Footnote A: M. Adanson's voyage to Senegal, &c, page 308.] + +Of the soil on the Gambia, he says,[A] "It is rich and deep, and +amazingly fertile; it produces spontaneously, and almost without +cultivation, all the necessaries of life, grain, fruit, herbs, and +roots. Every thing matures to perfection, and is excellent in its +kind."[B] One thing, which always surprized him, was the prodigious +rapidity with which the sap of trees repairs any loss they may happen to +sustain in that country: "And I was never," says he, "more astonished, +than when landing four days after the locusts had devoured all the +fruits and leaves, and even the buds of the trees, to find the trees +covered with new leaves, and they did not seem to me to have suffered +much."[C] "It was then," says the same author; "the fish season; you +might see them in shoals approaching towards land. Some of those shoals +were fifty fathom square, and the fish crowded together in such a +manner, as to roll upon one another, without being able to swim. As soon +as the Negroes perceive them coming towards land, they jump into the +water with a basket in one hand, and swim with the other. They need only +to plunge and to lift up their basket, and they are sure to return +loaded with fish." Speaking of the appearance of the country, and of the +disposition of the people, he says,[D] "Which way soever I turned mine +eyes on this pleasant spot, I beheld a perfect image of pure nature; an +agreeable solitude, bounded on every side by charming landscapes; the +rural situation of cottages in the midst of trees; the ease and +indolence of the Negroes, reclined under the shade of their spreading +foliage; the simplicity of their dress and manners; the whole revived in +my mind the idea of our first parents, and I seemed to contemplate the +world in its primitive state. They are, generally speaking, very +good-natured, sociable, and obliging. I was not a little pleased with +this my first reception; it convinced me, that there ought to be a +considerable abatement made in the accounts I had read and heard every +where of the savage character of the Africans. I observed both in +Negroes and Moors, great humanity and sociableness, which gave me strong +hopes that I should be very safe amongst them, and meet with the success +I desired in my enquiries after the curiosities of the country."[E] He +was agreeably amused with the conversation of the Negroes, their +_fables, dialogues_, and _witty stories_ with which they entertain each +other alternately, according to their custom. Speaking of the remarks +which the natives made to him, with relation to the _stars_ and +_planets_, he says, "It is amazing, that such a rude and illiterate +people, should reason so pertinently in regard to those heavenly bodies; +there is no manner of doubt, but that with proper instruments, and a +good will, they would become _excellent astronomers_." + +[Footnote A: Idem, page 164.] + + +[Footnote B: M. Adanson, page 161.] + + +[Footnote C: Idem, page 171.] + + +[Footnote D: Ibid, page 54.] + + +[Footnote E: Adanson, page 252, ibid.] + + + + + +CHAP. II + + +_The Ivory Coast_; its soil and produce. The character of the _natives_ +misrepresented by some authors. These misrepresentations occasioned by +_the Europeans_ having treacherously carried off many of their people. +_John Smith, surveyor to the African company_, his observations thereon. +_John Snock's_ remarks. _The Gold Coast_ and _Slave Coast_, these have +the most _European factories_, and furnish the greatest number of slaves +to _the Europeans_. Exceeding fertile. The country of _Axim_, and of +_Ante_. Good account of the _inland people_ Great fishery. Extraordinary +trade for slaves. _The Slave Coast. The kingdom of Whidah_. Fruitful and +pleasant. The natives kind and obliging. Very populous. Keep regular +markets and fairs. Good order therein. Murder, adultery, and theft +severely punished. The King's revenues. The principal people have an +idea of the true God. Commendable care of the poor. Several small +governments depend on _plunder_ and the _slave_ trade. + +That part of Guinea known by the name of the _Grain_, and _Ivory Coast,_ +comes next in course. This coast extends about five hundred miles. The +soil appears by account, to be in general fertile, producing abundance +of rice and roots; indigo and cotton thrive without cultivation, and +tobacco would be excellent, if carefully manufactured; they have fish in +plenty; their flocks greatly increase, and their trees are loaded with +fruit. They make a cotton cloth, which sells well on the Coast. In a +word, the country is rich, and the commerce advantageous, and might be +greatly augmented by such as would cultivate the friendship of the +natives. These are represented by some writers as a rude, _treacherous +people_, whilst several other _authors_ of credit give them a very +different character, representing them as _sensible, courteous and the +fairest traders on the coast of Guinea_. In the Collection, they are +said[A] to be averse to drinking to excess, and such as do, are severely +punished by the King's order: On enquiry why there is such a +disagreement in the character given of these people, it appears, that +though they are naturally inclined to be _kind to strangers_, with whom +they are _fond_ of _trading_, yet the _frequent injuries_ done them by +Europeans, have occasioned their being _suspicious and shy_. The same +cause has been the occasion of the ill treatment they have sometimes +given to innocent strangers, who have attempted to trade with them. As +the Europeans have no settlement on this part of Guinea, the trade is +carried on by signals from the ships, on the appearance of which the +natives usually come on board in their canoes, bringing their gold-dust, +ivory, &c. which has given opportunity to some villainous Europeans to +carry them off with their effects, or retain them on board till a ransom +is paid. It is noted by some, that since the European voyagers have +carried away several of these people, their mistrust is so great, that +it is very difficult to prevail on them to come on board. _William +Smith_ remarks,[B] "As we past along this coast, we very often lay +before a town, and fired a gun for the natives to come off, but no soul +came near us; at length we learnt by some ships that were trading down +the coast, that the natives came seldom on board an English ship, for +fear of being detained or carried off; yet last some ventured on board, +but if those chanced to spy any arms, they would all immediately take to +their canoes, and make the best of their way home. They had then in +their possession one _Benjamin Cross_ the mate of an English vessel, who +was detained by them to make reprisals for some of their men, who had +formerly been carried away by some English vessel." In the Collection we +are told,[C]_This villainous custom is too often practised, chiefly by +the Bristol and Liverpool ships, and is a great detriment to the slave +trade on the windward coast. John Snock, mentioned in Bosman_[D] when on +that coast, wrote, "We cast anchor, but not one Negro coming on board, I +went on shore, and after having staid a while on the strand, some +Negroes came to me; and being desirous to be informed why they did not +come on board, I was answered that about two months before, the English +had been there with two large vessels, and had ravaged the country, +destroyed all their canoes, plundered their houses, and carried off some +of their people, upon which the remainder fled to the inland country, +where most of them were that time; so that there being not much to be +done by us, we were obliged to return on board.[E] When I enquired after +their wars with other countries, they told me they were not often +troubled with them; but if any difference happened, they chose rather to +end the dispute amicably, than to come to arms."[F] He found the +inhabitants civil and good-natured. Speaking of the _King of Rio Seftre_ +lower down the coast, he says, "He was a very agreeable, obliging man, +and that all his subjects are civil, as well as very laborious in +agriculture, and the pursuits of trade," _Marchais_ says,[G] "That +though the country is very populous, yet none of the natives (except +criminals) are sold for slaves." _Vaillant_ never heard of any +settlement being made by the Europeans on this part of _Guinea_; and +_Smith_ remarks,[H] "That these coasts, which are divided into several +little kingdoms, and have seldom any wars, is the reason the slave trade +is not so good here as on _the Gold and Slave Coast_, where the +Europeans have several forts and factories." A plain evidence this, that +it is the intercourse with the Europeans, and their settlements on the +coast, which gives life to the slave trade. + +[Footnote A: Collection, vol. 2, page 560.] + + +[Footnote B: W. Smith, page 111.] + + +[Footnote C: Astley's collection, vol. 2, page 475.] + + +[Footnote D: W. Bosman's description of Guinea, page 440.] + + +[Footnote E: W. Bosman's description of Guinea, page 429.] + + +[Footnote F: Ibid, 441.] + + +[Footnote G: Astley's collection, Vol. 2, page 565.] + + +[Footnote H: Smith's voyage to Guinea, page 112.] + +Next adjoining to the _Ivory Coast_, are those called the _Gold Coast_, +and the _Slave Coast_; authors are not agreed about their bounds, but +their extent together along the coast may be about five hundred miles. +And as the policy, produce, and oeconomy of these two kingdoms of Guinea +are much the same, I shall describe them together. + +Here the Europeans have the greatest number of forts and factories, from +whence, by means of the Negro sailors, a trade is carried on above seven +hundred miles back in the inland country; whereby great numbers of +slaves are procured, as well by means of the wars which arise amongst +the Negroes, or are fomented by the Europeans, as those brought from the +back country. Here we find the natives _more reconciled to the European +manners and trade_; but, at the same time, _much more inured to war_, +and ready to assist the European traders in procuring loadings for the +great number of vessels which come yearly on those coasts for slaves. +This part of Guinea is agreed by historians to be, in general, +_extraordinary fruitful and agreeable_; producing (according to the +difference of the soil) vast quantities of rice and other grain; plenty +of fruit and roots; palm wine and oil, and fish in great abundance, with +much tame and wild cattle. Bosman, principal factor for the Dutch at +D'Elmina, speaking of the country of Axim, which is situate towards the +beginning of the Gold Coast, says,[A] "The Negro inhabitants are +generally very rich, driving a great trade with the Europeans for gold. +That they are industriously employed either in trade, fishing, or +agriculture; but chiefly in the culture of rice, which grows here in an +incredible abundance, and is transported hence all over the Gold Coast. +The inhabitants, in lieu, returning full fraught with millet, jamms, +potatoes, and palm oil." The same author speaking of the country of +Ante, says,[B] "This country, as well as the Gold Coast, abounds with +hills, enriched with extraordinary high and beautiful trees; its +valleys, betwixt the hills, are wide and extensive, producing in great +abundance very good rice, millet, jamms, potatoes, and other fruits, all +good in their kind." He adds, "In short, it is a land that yields its +manurers as plentiful a crop as they can wish, with great quantities of +palm wine and oil, besides being well furnished with all sorts of tame, +as well as wild beasts; but that the last fatal wars had reduced it to a +miserable condition, and stripped it of most of its inhabitants." The +adjoining country of Fetu, he says,[C] "was formerly so powerful and +populous, that it struck terror into all the neighbouring nations; but +it is at present so drained by continual wars, that it is entirely +ruined; there does not remain inhabitants sufficient to till the +country, tho' it is so fruitful and pleasant that it may be compared to +the country of Ante just before described; frequently, says that author, +when walking through it before the last war, I have seen it abound with +fine well built and populous towns, agreeably enriched with vast +quantities of corn, cattle, palm wine, and oil. The inhabitants all +applying themselves without any distinction to agriculture; some sow +corn, others press oil, and draw wine from palm trees, with both which +it is plentifully stored." + +[Footnote A: Bosman's description of the coast of Guinea, p, 5.] + + +[Footnote B: Idem, page 14.] + + +[Footnote C: Bosman, page 41.] + +William Smith gives much the same account of the before-mentioned parts +of the Gold Coast, and adds, "The country about D'Elmina and Cape Coast, +is much the same for beauty and goodness, but more populous; and the +nearer we come towards the Slave Coast, the more delightful and rich all +the countries are, producing all sorts of trees, fruits, roots, and +herbs, that grow within the Torrid Zone." J. Barbot also remarks,[A] +with respect to the countries of Ante and Adom, "That the soil is very +good and fruitful in corn and other produce, which it affords in such +plenty, that besides what serves for their own use, they always export +great quantities for sale; they have a competent number of cattle, both +tame and wild, and the rivers abundantly stored with fish, so that +nothing is wanting for the support of life, and to make it easy." In the +Collection it is said,[B] "That the inland people on that part of the +coast, employ themselves in tillage and trade, and supply the market +with corn, fruit, and palm wine; the country producing such vast plenty +of Indian corn, that abundance is daily exported, as well by Europeans +as Blacks resorting thither from other parts." "These inland people are +said to live in great union and friendship, being generally well +tempered, civil, and tractable; not apt to shed human blood, except when +much provoked, and ready to assist one another." + +[Footnote A: John Barbot's description of Guinea, page 154.] + + +[Footnote B: Astley's collect. vol. 2. page 535.] + +In the Collection[A] it is said, "That the fishing business is esteemed +on the Gold Coast next to trading; that those who profess it are more +numerous than those of other employments. That the greatest number of +these are at Kommendo, Mina, and Kormantin. From each of which places, +there go out every morning, (Tuesday excepted, which is the Fetish day, +or day of rest) five, six, and sometimes eight hundred canoes, from +thirteen to fourteen feet long, which spread themselves two leagues at +sea, each fisherman carrying in his canoe a sword, with bread, water, +and a little fire on a large stone to roast fish. Thus they labour till +noon, when the sea breeze blowing fresh, they return on the shore, +generally laden with fish; a quantity of which the inland inhabitants +come down to buy, which they sell again at the country markets." + +[Footnote A: Collection, vol. 2, page 640.] + +William Smith says,[A] "The country about Acra, where the English and +Dutch have each a strong fort, is very delightful, and the natives +courteous and civil to strangers." He adds, "That this place seldom +fails of an extraordinary good trade from the inland country, especially +for slaves, whereof several are supposed to come from very remote parts, +because it is not uncommon to find a Malayan or two amongst a parcel of +other slaves. The Malaya, people are generally natives of Malacca, in +the East Indies, situate several thousand miles from the Gold Coast." +They differ very much from the Guinea Negroes, being of a tawny +complexion, with long black hair. + +[Footnote A: William Smith, page 145.] + +Most parts of the Slave Coasts are represented as equally fertile and +pleasant with the Gold Coast. The kingdom of Whidah has been +particularly noted by travellers.[A] William Smith and Bosman agree, +"That it is one of the most delightful countries in the world. The great +number and variety of tall, beautiful, and shady trees, which seem +planted in groves, the verdant fields every where cultivated, and no +otherwise divided than by those groves, and in some places a small +foot-path, together with a great number of villages, contribute to +afford the most delightful prospect; the whole country being a fine +easy, and almost imperceptible ascent, for the space of forty or fifty +miles from the sea. That the farther you go from the sea, the more +beautiful and populous the country appears. That the natives were kind +and obliging, and so industrious, that no place which was thought +fertile, could escape being planted, even within the hedges which +inclose their villages. And that the next day after they had reaped, +they sowed again." + +[Footnote A: Smith, page 194. Bosman, page 319.] + +Snelgrave also says, "The country appears full of towns and villages; +and being a rich soil, and well cultivated, looks like an entire +garden." In the Collection,[A] the husbandry of the Negroes is described +to be carried on with great regularity: "The rainy season approaching, +they go into the fields and woods, to fix on a proper place for sowing; +and as here is no property in ground, the King's licence being obtained, +the people go out in troops, and first clear the ground from bushes and +weeds, which they burn. The field thus cleared, they dig it up a foot +deep, and so let it remain for eight or ten days, till the rest of their +neighbours have disposed their ground in the same manner. They then +consult about sowing, and for that end assemble at the King's Court the +next Fetish day. The King's grain must be sown first. They then go again +to the field, and give the ground a second digging, and sow their seed. +Whilst the King or Governor's land is sowing; he sends out wine and +flesh ready dressed; enough to serve the labourers. Afterwards, they in +like manner sow the ground, allotted for their neighbours, as diligently +as that of the King's, by whom they are also feasted; and so continue to +work in a body for the public benefit, till every man's ground is tilled +and sowed. None but the King, and a few great men, are exempted from +this labour. Their grain soon sprouts out of the ground. When it is +about a man's height, and begins to ear, they raise a wooden house in +the centre of the field, covered with straw, in which they set their +children to watch their corn, and fright away the birds." + +[Footnote A: Collection, vol. 2, page 651.] + +Bosman[A] speaks in commendation of the civility, kindness, and great +industry of the natives of Whidah; this is confirmed by Smith,[B] who +says, "The natives here seem to be the most gentleman-like Negroes in +Guinea, abounding with good manners and ceremony to each other. The +inferior pay the utmost deference and, respect to the superior, as do +wives to their husbands, and children to their parents. All here are +naturally industrious, and find constant employment; the men in +agriculture, and the women in spinning and weaving cotton. The men, +whose chief talent lies in husbandry, are unacquainted with arms; +otherwise, being a numerous people, they could have made a better +defence against the King of Dahome, who subdued them without much +trouble.[C] Throughout the Gold Coast, there are regular markets in all +villages, furnished with provisions and merchandize, held every day in +the week, except Tuesday, whence they supply not only the inhabitants, +but the European ships. The _Negro women_ are very expert in buying and +selling, and extremely industrious; for they will repair daily to market +from a considerable distance, loaded like pack-horses, with a child, +perhaps, at their back, and a heavy burden on their heads. After selling +their wares, they buy fish and other necessaries, and return home loaded +as they came. + +[Footnote A: Bosman, page 317.] + + +[Footnote B: Smith, page 195.] + + +[Footnote C: Collect, vol. 2, p. 657.] + +"There is a market held at Sabi every, fourth day,[A] also a weekly one +in the province of Aplogua, which is so resorted to, that there are +usually five or six thousand merchants. Their markets are so well +regulated and governed, that seldom any disorder happens; each species +of merchandize and merchants have a place allotted them by themselves. +The buyers may haggle as much as they will, but it must be without noise +or fraud. To keep order, the King appoints a judge, who, with four +officers well armed, inspects the markets, hears all complaints, and, in +a summary way, decides all differences; he has power to seize, and sell +as slaves, all who are catched in stealing, or disturbing the peace. In +these markets are to be sold men, women, children, oxen, sheep, goats, +and fowls of all kinds; European cloths, linen and woollen; printed +callicoes, silk, grocery ware, china, golddust, iron in bars, &c. in a +word, most sorts of European goods, as well as the produce of Africa and +Asia. They have other markets, resembling our fairs, once or twice a +year, to which all the country repair; for they take care to order the +day so in different governments, as not to interfere with each other." + +[Footnote A: Collect. vol. 3, p. 11.] + +With respect to government, William Smith says,[A] "That the Gold Coast +and Slave Coast are divided into different districts, some of which are +governed by their Chiefs, or Kings; the others, being more of the nature +of a commonwealth are governed by some of the principal men, called +Caboceros, who, Bosman says, are properly denominated civil fathers, +whose province is to take care of the welfare of the city or village, +and to appease tumults." But this order of government has been much +broken since the coming of the Europeans. Both Bosman and Barbot mention +_murther and adultery to be severely punished on the Coast, frequently +by death; and robbery by a fine proportionable to the goods stolen_. + +[Footnote A: Smith, page 193.] + +The income of some of the Kings is large, Bosman says, "That the King of +Whidah's revenues and duties on things bought and sold are considerable; +he having the tithe of all things sold in the market, or imported in the +country."[A] Both the abovementioned authors say, _The tax on slaves +shipped off in this King's dominions, in some years, amounts to near +twenty thousand pounds_. + +[Footnote A: Bosman, page 337. Barbot, page 335.] + +Bosman tells us, "The Whidah Negroes have a faint idea of a true God, +ascribing to him the attributes of almighty power and omnipresence; but +God, they say, is too high to condescend to think of mankind; wherefore +he commits the government of the world to those inferior deities which +they worship." Some authors say, the wisest of these Negroes are +sensible of their mistake in this opinion, but dare not forsake their +own religion, for fear of the populace rising and killing them. This is +confirmed by William Smith, who says, "That all the natives of this +coast believe there is one true God, the author of them and all things; +that they have some apprehension of a future state; and that almost +every village has a grove, or public place of worship, to which the +principal inhabitants, on a set day, resort to make their offerings." + +In the Collection[A] it is remarked as an excellency in the Guinea +government, "That however poor they may be in general, yet there are no +beggars to be found amongst them; which is owing to the care of their +chief men, whose province it is to take care of the welfare of the city +or village; it being part of their office, to see that such people may +earn their bread by their labour; some are set to blow the smith's +bellows, others to press palm oil, or grind colours for their matts, and +sell provision in the markets. The young men are listed to serve as +soldiers, so that they suffer no common beggar." + +[Footnote A: Astley's collection, vol. 2, page 619.] + +Bosman ascribes a further reason for this good order, viz. "That when a +Negroe finds he cannot subsist, he binds himself for a certain sum of +money, and the master to whom he is bound is obliged to find him +necessaries; that the master sets him a sort of task, which is not in +the least slavish, being chiefly to defend his master on occasions; or +in sowing time to work as much as he himself pleases."[A] + +[Footnote A: Bosman, page 119.] + +Adjoining to the kingdom of Whidah, are several small governments, as +Coto, great and small Popo, Ardrah, &c. all situate on the Slave Coast, +where the chief trade for slaves is carried on. These are governed by +their respective Kings, and follow much the same customs with those of +Whidah, except that their principal living is on plunder, and the slave +trade. + + + + + +CHAP. III. + + +_The kingdom of Benin_; its extent. Esteemed the most potent in Guinea. +Fruitfulness of the soil. Good disposition of the people. Order of +government. Punishment of crimes. Large extent of the town of Great +Benin. Order maintained. The natives honest and charitable. Their +religion. The kingdoms of Kongo and Angola. Many of the natives profess +christianity. The country fruitful. Disposition of the people. The +administration of justice. The town of Leango. Slave trade carried on by +the Portugueze. Here the slave trade ends. + +Next adjoining to the Slave Coast, is the kingdom of Benin, which, +though it extends but about 170 miles on the sea, yet spreads so far +inland, as to be esteemed the most potent kingdom in Guinea. By +accounts, the soil and produce appear to be in a great measure like +those before described; and the natives are represented as a reasonable +good-natured people. Artus says,[A] "They are a sincere, inoffensive +people, and do no injustice either to one another, or to strangers." +William Smith[B] confirms this account, and says, "That the inhabitants +are generally very good-natured, and exceeding courteous and civil. When +the Europeans make them presents, which in their coming thither to trade +they always do, they endeavour to return them doubly." + +[Footnote A: Collection. vol. 3, page 228.] + + +[Footnote B: Smith, page 228.] + +Bosman tells us,[A] "That his countrymen the Dutch, who were often +obliged to trust them till they returned the next year, were sure to be +honestly paid their whole debts." + +[Footnote A: W. Bosman, page 405.] + +There is in Benin a considerable order in government. Theft, murther, +and adultery, being severely punished. Barbot says,[A] "If a man and a +woman of any quality be surprized in adultery, they are both put to +death, and their bodies are thrown on a dunghill, and left there a prey +to wild beasts." He adds, "The severity of the laws in Benin against +adultery,[B] amongst all orders of people, deters them from venturing, +so that it is but very seldom any persons are punished for that crime." +Smith says, "Their towns are governed by officers appointed by the King, +who have power to decide in civil cases, and to raise the public taxes; +but in criminal cases, they must send to the King's court, which is held +at the town of Oedo, or Great Benin. This town, which covers a large +extent of ground, is about sixty mile from the sea."[C] Barbot tells us, +"That it contains thirty streets, twenty fathom wide, and almost two +miles long, commonly, extending in a straight line from one gate to +another; that the gates are guarded by soldiers; that in these streets +markets are held every day, for cattle, ivory, cotton, and many sorts of +European goods. This large town is divided into several wards, or +districts, each governed by its respective King of a street, as they +call them; to administer justice, and to keep good order. The +inhabitants are very civil and good natured, condescending to what the +Europeans require of them in a civil way." The same author confirms what +has been said by others of their justice in the payment of their debts; +and adds, "That they, above all other Guineans, are very honest and just +in their dealings; and they have such an aversion for theft, that by the +law of the country it is punished with death." We are told by the same +author,[D] "That the King of Benin is able upon occasion to maintain an +army of a hundred thousand men; but that, for the most part, he does not +keep thirty thousand." William Smith says, "The natives are all free +men; none but foreigners can be bought and sold there.[E] They are very +charitable, the King as well as his subjects." Bosman confirms this,[F] +and says, "The King and great Lords subsist several poor at their place +of residence on charity, employing those who are fit for any work, and +the rest they keep for God's sake; so that here are no beggars." + +[Footnote A: Barbot, page 237.] + + +[Footnote B: By this account of the punishment inflicted on adulterers +in this and other parts of Guinea, it appears the Negroes are not +insensible of the sinfulness of such practices. How strange must it then +appear to the serious minded amongst these people, (nay, how +inconsistent is it with every divine and moral law amongst ourselves) +that those christian laws which prohibit fornication and adultery, are +in none of the English governments extended to them, but that they are +allowed to cohabit and separate at pleasure? And that even their masters +think so lightly of their marriage engagements, that, when it suits with +their interest, they will separate man from wife, and children from +both, to be sold into different, and even distant parts, without regard +to their sometimes grievous lamentations; whence it has happened, that +such of those people who are truly united in their marriage covenant, +and in affection to one another, have been driven to such desperation, +as either violently to destroy themselves, or gradually to pine away, +and die with mere grief. It is amazing, that whilst the clergy of the +established church are publicly expressing a concern, that these +oppressed people should be made acquainted with the christian religion, +they should be thus suffered, and even forced, so flagrantly to infringe +one of the principal injunctions of our holy religion!] + + +[Footnote C: J. Barbot, page 358, 359.] + + +[Footnote D: Barbot, page 369.] + + +[Footnote E: W. Smith, page 369.] + + +[Footnote F: Bosman, page 409.] + +As to religion, these people believe there is a God, the efficient cause +of all things; but, like the rest of the Guineans, they are +superstitiously and idolatrously inclined. + +The last division of Guinea from which slaves are imported, are the +kingdoms of Kongo and Angola: these lie to the South of Benin, extending +with the intermediate land about twelve hundred miles on the coast. +Great numbers of the natives of both these kingdoms profess the +christian religion, which was long since introduced by the Portugueze, +who made early settlements in that country. + +In the Collection it is said, that both in Kongo and Angola, the soil is +in general fruitful, producing great plenty of grain, Indian corn, and +such quantities of rice, that it hardly bears any price, with fruits, +roots, and palm oil in plenty. + +The natives are generally a quiet people, who discover a good +understanding, and behave in a friendly manner to strangers, being of a +mild conversation, affable, and easily overcome with reason. + +In the government of Kongo, the King appoints a judge in every +particular division, to hear and determine disputes and civil causes; +the judges imprison and release, or impose fines, according to the rule +of custom; but in weighty matters, every one may appeal to the King, +before whom all criminal causes are brought, in which he giveth +sentence; but seldom condemneth to death. + +The town of Leango stands in the midst of four Lordships, which abound +in corn, fruit, &c. Here they make great quantities of cloth of divers +kinds, very fine and curious; the inhabitants are seldom idle; they even +make needle-work caps as they walk in the streets. + +The slave trade is here principally managed by the Portugueze, who carry +it far up into the inland countries. They are said to send off from +these parts fifteen thousand slaves each year. + +At Angola, about the 10th degree of South latitude, ends the trade for +slaves. + + + + + +CHAP. IV. + + +The antientest accounts of the Negroes is from the Nubian Geography, and +the writings of Leo the African. Some account of those authors. The +Arabians pass into Guinea. The innocency and simplicity of the natives. +They are subdued by the Moors. Heli Ischia shakes off the Moorish yoke. +The Portugueze make the first descent in Guinea. From whence they carry +off some of the natives. More incursions of the like kind. The +Portugueze erect the first fort at D'Elmina. They begin the slave trade. +Cada Mosto's testimony. Anderson's account to the same purport. De la +Casa's concern for the relief of the oppressed Indians. Goes over into +Spain to plead their cause. His speech before Charles the Fifth. + +The most antient account we have of the country of the Negroes, +particularly that part situate on and between the two great rivers of +Senegal and Gambia, is from the writings of two antient authors, one an +Arabian, and the other a Moor. The first[A] wrote in Arabic, about the +twelfth century. His works, printed in that language at Rome, were +afterwards translated into Latin, and printed at Paris, under the +patronage of the famous Thuanus, chancellor of France, with the title of +_Geographica Nubiensis_, containing an account or all the nations lying +on the Senegal and Gambia. The other wrote by John Leo,[B] a Moor, born +at Granada, in Spain, before the Moors were totally expelled from that +kingdom. He resided in Africa; but being on a voyage from Tripoli to +Tunis, was taken by some Italian Corsairs, who finding him possessed of +several Arabian books, besides his own manuscripts, apprehended him to +be a man of learning, and as such presented him to Pope Leo the Tenth. +This Pope encouraging him, he embraced the Romish religion, and his +description of Africa was published in Italian. From these writings we +gather, that after the Mahometan religion had extended to the kingdom of +Morocco, some of the promoters of it crossing the sandy desarts of +Numidia, which separate that country from Guinea, found it inhabited by +men, who, though under no regular government, and destitute of that +knowledge the Arabians were favoured with, lived in content and peace. +The first author particularly remarks, "That they never made war, or +travelled abroad, but employed themselves in tending their herds, or +labouring in the ground." J. Leo says, page 65. "That they lived in +common, having no property in land, no tyrant nor superior lord, but +supported themselves in an equal state, upon the natural produce of the +country, which afforded plenty of roots, game, and honey. That ambition +or avarice never drove them into foreign countries to subdue or cheat +their neighbours. Thus they lived without toil or superfluities." "The +antient inhabitants of Morocco, who wore coats of mail, and used swords +and spears headed with iron, coming amongst these harmless and naked +people, soon brought them under subjection, and divided that part of +Guinea which lies on the rivers Senegal and Gambia into fifteen parts; +those were the fifteen kingdoms of the Negroes, over which the Moors +presided, and the common people were Negroes. These Moors taught the +Negroes the Mahometan religion, and arts of life; particularly the use +of iron, before unknown to them. About the 14th century, a native Negro, +called Heli Ischia, expelled the Moorish conquerors; but tho' the +Negroes threw off the yoke of a foreign nation, they only changed a +Libyan for a Negroe master. Heli Ischia himself becoming King, led the +Negroes on to foreign wars, and established himself in power over a very +large extent of country." Since Leo's time, the Europeans have had very +little knowledge of those parts of Africa, nor do they know what became +of his great empire. It is highly probable that it broke into pieces, +and that the natives again resumed many of their antient customs; for in +the account published by William Moor, in his travels on the river +Gambia, we find a mixture of the Moorish and Mahometan customs, joined +with the original simplicity of the Negroes. It appears by accounts of +antient voyages, collected by Hackluit, Purchas, and others, that it was +about fifty years before the discovery of America, that the Portugueze +attempted to sail round Cape Bojador, which lies between their country +and Guinea; this, after divers repulses occasioned by the violent +currents, they effected; when landing on the western coasts of Africa, +they soon began to make incursions into the country, and to seize and +carry off the native inhabitants. As early as the year 1434, Alonzo +Gonzales, the first who is recorded to have met with the natives, being +on that coast, pursued and attacked a number of them, when some were +wounded, as was also one of the Portugueze; which the author records as +the first blood spilt by christians in those parts. Six years after, the +same Gonzales again attacked the natives, and took twelve prisoners, +with whom he returned to his vessels; he afterwards put a woman on +shore, in order to induce the natives to redeem the prisoners; but the +next day 150 of the inhabitants appeared on horses and camels, provoking +the Portugueze to land; which they not daring to venture, the natives +discharged a volley of stones at them, and went off. After this, the +Portugueze still continued to send vessels on the coast of Africa; +particularly we read of their falling on a village, whence the +inhabitants fled, and, being pursued, twenty-five were taken: "_He that +ran best_," says the author, "_taking the most_. In their way home they +killed some of the natives, and took fifty-five more prisoners.[C] +Afterwards Dinisanes Dagrama, with two other vessels, landed on the +island Arguin, where they took fifty-four Moors; then running along the +coast eighty leagues farther, they at several times took fifty slaves; +but here seven of the Portugueze were killed. Then being joined by +several other vessels, Dinisanes proposed to destroy the island, to +revenge the loss of the seven Portugueze; of which the Moors being +apprized, fled, so that no more than twelve were found, whereof only +four could be taken, the rest being killed, as also one of the +Portugueze." Many more captures of this kind on the coast of Barbary and +Guinea, are recorded to have been made in those early times by the +Portugueze; who, in the year 1481, erected their first fort at D'Elmina +on that coast, from whence they soon opened a trade for slaves with the +inland parts of Guinea. + +[Footnote A: See Travels into different parts of Africa, by Francis +Moor, with a letter to the publisher.] + + +[Footnote B: Ibid.] + + +[Footnote C: Collection, vol. 1, page 13.] + +From the foregoing accounts, it is undoubted, that the practice of +making slaves of the Negroes, owes its origin to the early incursions of +the Portugueze on the coast of Africa, solely from an inordinate desire +of gain. This is clearly evidenced from their own historians, +particularly _Cada Mosto_, about the year 1455, who writes,[A] "That +before the trade was settled for purchasing slaves from the Moors at +Arguin, sometimes four, and sometimes more Portugueze vessels, were used +to come to that gulph, well armed; and landing by night, would surprize +some fishermen's villages: that they even entered into the country, and +carried off Arabs of both sexes, whom they sold in Portugal." And also, +"That the Portugueze and Spaniards, settled on four of the Canary +islands, would go to the other island by night, and seize some of the +natives of both sexes, whom they sent to be sold in Spain." + +[Footnote A: Collection vol. 1, page 576.] + +After the settlement of America, those devastations, and the captivating +the miserable Africans, greatly increased. + +Anderson, in his history of trade and commerce, at page 336, speaking of +what passed in the year 1508, writes, "That the Spaniards had by this +time found that the miserable Indian natives, whom they had made to work +in their mines and fields, were not so robust and proper for those +purposes as Negroes brought from Africa; wherefore they, about that +time, began to import Negroes for that end into Hispaniola, from the +Portugueze settlements on the Guinea coasts; and also afterwards for +their sugar works." This oppression of the Indians had, even before this +time, rouzed the zeal, as well as it did the compassion, of some of the +truly pious of that day; particularly that of Bartholomew De las Casas, +bishop of Chapia; whom a desire of being instrumental towards the +conversion of the Indians, had invited into America. It is generally +agreed by the writers of that age, that he was a man of perfect +disinterestedness, and ardent charity; being affected with this sad +spectacle, he returned to the court of Spain, and there made a true +report of the matter; but not without being strongly opposed by those +mercenary wretches, who had enslaved the Indians; yet being strong and +indefatigable, he went to and fro between Europe and America, firmly +determined not to give over his pursuit but with his life. After long +solicitation, and innumerable repulses, he obtained leave to lay the +matter before the Emperor Charles the Fifth, then King of Spain. As the +contents of the speech he made before the King in council, are very +applicable to the case of the enslaved Africans, and a lively evidence +that the spirit of true piety speaks the same language in the hearts of +faithful men in all ages, for the relief of their fellow creatures from +oppression of every kind, I think it may not be improper here to +transcribe the most interesting parts of it. "I was," says this pious +bishop, "one of the first who went to America; neither curiosity nor +interest prompted me to undertake so long and dangerous a voyage; the +saving the souls of the heathen was my sole object. Why was I not +permitted, even at the expence of my blood, to ransom so many thousand +souls, who fell unhappy victims to avarice or lust? I have been an eye +witness to such cruel treatment of the Indians, as is too horrid to be +mentioned at this time.--It is said that barbarous executions were +necessary to punish or check the rebellion of the Americans;--but to +whom was this owing? Did not those people receive the Spaniards, who +first came amongst them, with gentleness and humanity? Did they not shew +more joy, in proportion, in lavishing treasure upon them, than the +Spaniards did greediness in receiving it?--But our avarice was not yet +satisfied;--tho' they gave up to us their land and their riches, we +would tear from them their wives, their children and their +liberties.--To blacken these unhappy people, their enemies assert, that +they are scarce human creatures?--but it is we that ought to blush, for +having been less men, and more barbarous, than they.--What right have we +to enslave a people who are born free, and whom we disturbed, tho' they +never offended us?--They are represented as a stupid people, addicted to +vice?--but have they not contracted most of their vices from the example +of the christians? And as to those vices peculiar to themselves, have +not the christians quickly exceeded them therein? Nevertheless it must +be granted, that the Indians still remain untainted with many vices +usual amongst the Europeans; such as ambition, blasphemy, treachery, and +many like monsters, which have not yet took place with them; they have +scarce an idea of them; so that in effect, all the advantage we can +claim, is to have more elevated notions of things, and our natural +faculties more unfolded and more cultivated than theirs.--Do not let us +flatter our corruptions, nor voluntarily blind ourselves; _all_ nations +are equally _free_; one nation has no right to infringe upon the freedom +of any other; let us do towards these people as we would have them to +have done towards us, if they had landed upon our shore, with the same +superiority of strength. And indeed, why should not things be equal on +both sides? How long has the right of the strongest been allowed to be +the balance of justice? What part of the gospel gives a sanction to such +a doctrine? In what part of the whole earth did the apostles and the +first promulgators of the gospel ever claim a right over the lives, the +freedom, or the substance of the Gentiles? What a strange method this is +of propagating the gospel, that holy law of grace, which, from being, +slaves to Satan, initiates us into the freedom of the children of +God!--Will it be possible for us to inspire them with a love to its +dictates, while they are so exasperated at being dispossessed of that +invaluable blessing, _Liberty?_ The apostles submitted to chains +themselves, but loaded no man with them. Christ came to free, not to +enslave us.--Submission to the faith he left us, ought to be a voluntary +act, and should be propagated by persuasion, gentleness, and reason." + +"At my first arrival in Hispaniola, (added the bishop) it contained a +million of inhabitants; and now (viz. in the space of about twenty +years) there remains scarce the hundredth part of them; thousands have +perished thro' want, fatigue, merciless punishment, cruelty, and +barbarity. If the blood of _one_ man unjustly shed, calls loudly for +vengeance; how strong must be the cry of that of so _many_ unhappy +creatures which is shedding daily?"--The good bishop concluded his +speech, with imploring the King's clemency for subjects so unjustly +oppressed; and bravely declared, that heaven would one day call him to +an account, for the numberless acts of cruelty which he might have +prevented. The King applauded the bishop's zeal; promised to second it; +but so many of the great ones had an interest in continuing the +oppression, that nothing was done; so that all the Indians in +Hispaniola, except a few who had hid themselves in the most inaccessible +mountains, were destroyed. + + + + + +CHAP. V. + + +First account of the English trading to Guinea. Thomas Windham and +several others go to that coast. Some of the Negroes carried off by the +English. Queen Elizabeth's charge to Captain Hawkins respecting the +natives. Nevertheless he goes on the coast and carries off some of the +Negroes. Patents are granted. The King of France objects to the Negroes +being kept in slavery. As do the college of Cardinals at Rome. The +natives, an inoffensive people; corrupted by the Europeans. The +sentiments of the natives concerning the slave-trade, from William +Smith: Confirmed by Andrew Brue and James Barbot. + +It was about the year 1551, towards the latter end of the reign of King +Edward the Sixth, when some London merchants sent out the first English +ship, on a trading voyage to the coast of Guinea; this was soon followed +by several others to the same parts; but the English not having then any +plantations in the West Indies, and consequently no occasion for +Negroes, such ships traded only for gold, elephants teeth, and Guinea +pepper. This trade was carried on at the hazard of losing their ships +and cargoes, if they had fallen into the hands of the Portuguese, who +claimed an exclusive right of trade, on account of the several +settlements they had made there.[A] In the year 1553, we find captain +Thomas Windham trading along the coast with 140 men, in three ships, and +sailing as far as Benin, which lies about 3000 miles down the coast, to +take in a load of pepper.[B] Next year John Lock traded along the coast +of Guinea, as far as D'Elmina, when he brought away considerable +quantities of gold and ivory. He speaks well of the natives, and +says,[C] "_That whoever will deal with them must behave civilly, for +they will not traffic if ill used_." In 1555, William Towerson traded in +a peaceable manner with the natives, who made complaint to him of the +Portuguese, who were then settled in their castle at D'Elmina, saying, +"_They were bad men, who made them slaves if they could take them, +putting irons on their legs_." + +[Footnote A: Astley's collection, vol. 1. page 139.] + + +[Footnote B: Collection vol. 1. p. 148.] + + +[Footnote C: Ibid. 257.] + +This bad example of the Portuguese was soon followed by some evil +disposed Englishmen; for the same captain Towerson relates,[A] "That in +the course of his voyage, he perceived the natives, near D'Elmina, +unwilling to come to him, and that he was at last attacked by them; +which he understood was done in revenge for the wrong done them the year +before, by one captain Gainsh, who had taken away the Negro captain's +son, and three others, with their gold, &c. This caused them to join the +Portuguese, notwithstanding their hatred of them, against the English." +The next year captain Towerson brought these men back again; whereupon +the Negroes shewed him much kindness.[B] Quickly after this, another +instance of the same kind occurred, in the case of captain George +Fenner, who being on the coast, with three vessels, was also attacked by +the Negroes, who wounded several of his people, and violently carried +three of his men to their town. The captain sent a messenger, offering +any thing they desired for the ransom of his men: but they refused to +deliver them, letting him know, "_That three weeks before, an English +ship, which came in the road, had carried off three of their people; and +that till they were brought again, they would not restore his men, even +tho' they should give their three ships to release them_." It was +probably the evil conduct of these, and some other Englishmen, which was +the occasion of what is mentioned in Hill's naval history, viz. "That +when captain Hawkins returned from his first voyage to Africa, Queen +Elizabeth sent for him, when she expressed her concern, lest any of the +African Negroes should be carried off without their free consent; which +she declared would be detestable, and would call down the vengeance of +heaven upon the undertakers." Hawkins made great promises, which +nevertheless he did not perform; for his next voyage to the coast +appears to have been principally calculated to procure Negro slaves, in +order to sell them to the Spaniards in the West Indies; which occasioned +the same author to use these remarkable words: "_Here began the horrid +practice of forcing the Africans into slavery: an injustice and +barbarity, which, so sure as there is vengeance in heaven for the worst +of crimes, will some time be the destruction of all who act or who +encourage it_." This captain Hawkins, afterwards sir John Hawkins, seems +to have been the first Englishman who gave public countenance to this +wicked traffic: For Anderson, before mentioned, at page 401, says, "That +in the year 1562, captain Hawkins, assisted by subscription of sundry +gentlemen, now fitted out three ships; and having learnt that Negroes +were a very good commodity in Hispaniola, he sailed to the coast of +Guinea, took in Negroes, and sailed with them for Hispaniola, where he +sold them, and his English commodities, and loaded his three vessels +with hides, sugar and ginger, &c. with which he returned home anno 1563, +making a prosperous voyage." As it proved a lucrative business, the +trade was continued both by Hawkins and others, as appears from the +naval chronicle, page 55, where it is said, "That on the 18th of +October, 1564, captain John Hawkins, with two ships of 700 and 140 tuns, +sailed for Africa; that on the 8th of December they anchored to the +South of Cape Verd, where the captain manned the boat, and sent eighty +men in armour into the country, to see if they could take some Negroes; +but the natives flying from them, they returned to their ships, and +proceeded farther down the coast. Here they staid certain days, sending +their men ashore, in order (as the author says) to burn and spoil their +towns and take the inhabitants. The land they observed to be well +cultivated, there being plenty of grain, and fruit of several sorts, and +the towns prettily laid out. On the 25th, being informed by the +Portugueze of a town of Negroes called Bymba, where there was not only a +quantity of gold, but an hundred and forty inhabitants, they resolved to +attack it, having the Portugueze for their guide; but by mismanagement +they took but ten Negroes, having seven of their own men killed, and +twenty-seven wounded. They then went farther down the coast; when, +having procured a number of Negroes, they proceeded to the West Indies, +where they sold them to the Spaniards." And in the same naval chronicle, +at page 76, it is said, "That in the year 1567, Francis Drake, before +performing his voyage round the world, went with Sir John Hawkins in his +expedition to the coast of Guinea, where taking in a cargo of slaves, +they determined to steer for the Caribbee islands." How Queen Elizabeth +suffered so grievous an infringement of the rights of mankind to be +perpetrated by her subjects, and how she was persuaded, about the 30th +year of her reign, to grant patents for carrying on a trade from the +North part of the river Senegal, to an hundred leagues beyond Sierra +Leona, which gave rise to the present African company, is hard to +account for, any otherwise than that it arose from the misrepresentation +made to her of the situation of the Negroes, and of the advantages it +was pretended they would reap from being made acquainted with the +christian religion. This was the case of Lewis the XIIIth, King of +France, who, Labat, in his account of the isles of America, tells us, +"Was extremely uneasy at a law by which the Negroes of his colonies were +to be made slaves; but it being strongly urged to him as the readiest +means for their conversion to christianity, he acquiesced therewith." +Nevertheless, some of the christian powers did not so easily give way in +this matter; for we find,[C] "That cardinal Cibo, one of the Pope's +principal ministers of state, wrote a letter on behalf of the college of +cardinals, or great council at Rome, to the missionaries in Congo, +complaining that the pernicious and abominable abuse of selling slaves +was yet continued, requiring them to remedy the same, if possible; but +this the missionaries saw little hopes of accomplishing, by reason that +the trade of the country lay wholly in slaves and ivory." + +[Footnote A: Collection, vol. 1. p. 148.] + + +[Footnote B: Ibid. 157.] + + +[Footnote C: Collection, vol. 3, page 164.] + +From the foregoing accounts, as well as other authentic publications of +this kind, it appears that it was the unwarrantable lust of gain, which +first stimulated the Portugueze, and afterwards other Europeans, to +engage in this horrid traffic. By the most authentic relations of those +early times, the natives were an inoffensive people, who, when civilly +used, traded amicably with the Europeans. It is recorded of those of +Benin, the largest kingdom in Guinea,[A]_That they were a gentle, loving +people_; and Reynold says,[B] "_They found more sincere proofs of love +and good will from the natives, than they could find from the Spaniards +and Portugueze, even tho' they had relieved them from the greatest +misery_." And from the same relations there is no reason to think +otherwise, but that they generally lived in peace amongst themselves; +for I don't find, in the numerous publications I have perused on this +subject, relating to these early times, of there being wars on that +coast, nor of any sale of captives taken in battle, who would have been +otherwise sacrificed by the victors:[C] Notwithstanding some modern +authors, in their publications relating to the West Indies, desirous of +throwing a veil over the iniquity of the slave trade, have been hardy +enough, upon meer supposition or report, to assert the contrary. + +[Footnote A: Collection, vol. 1, page 202.] + + +[Footnote B: Idem, page 245.] + + +[Footnote C: Note, This plea falls of itself, for if the Negroes +apprehended they should be cruelly put to death, if they were not sent +away, why do they manifest such reluctance and dread as they generally +do, at being brought from their native country? William Smith, at page +28, says, "_The Gambians abhor slavery, and will attempt any thing, tho' +never so desperate, to avoid it_," and Thomas Philips, in his account of +a voyage he performed to the coast of Guinea, writes, "_They, the +Negroes, are so loth to leave their own country, that they have often +leaped out of the canoe, boat, or ship, into the sea, and kept under +water till they were drowned, to avoid being taken up_."] + +It was long after the Portugueze had made a practice of violently +forcing the natives of Africa into slavery, that we read of the +different Negroe nations making war upon each other, and selling their +captives. And probably this was not the case, till those bordering on +the coast, who had been used to supply the vessels with necessaries, had +become corrupted by their intercourse with the Europeans, and were +excited by drunkenness and avarice to join them in carrying on those +wicked schemes, by which those unnatural wars were perpetrated; the +inhabitants kept in continual alarms; the country laid waste; and, as +William Moor expresses it, _Infinite numbers sold into slavery_. But +that the Europeans are the principal cause of these devastations, is +particularly evidenced by one, whose connexion with the trade would +rather induce him to represent it in the fairest colours, to wit, +William Smith, the person sent in the year 1726 by the African company +to survey their settlements, who, from the information he received of +one of the factors, who had resided ten years in that country, says,[A] +"_That the discerning natives account it their greatest unhappiness, +that they were ever visited by the Europeans."--"That we christians +introduced the traffick of slaves; and that before our coming they lived +in peace_." + +[Footnote A: William Smith, page 266.] + +In the accounts relating to the African trade, we find this melancholy +truth farther asserted by some of the principal directors in the +different factories; particularly A. Brue says,[A] "_That the Europeans +were far from desiring to act as peace-makers amongst the Negroes; which +would be acting contrary to their interest, since the greater the wars, +the more slaves were procured_," And William Bosman also remarks,[B] +"That one of the former commanders _gave large sums of money to the +Negroes of one nation, to induce them to attack some of the neighbouring +nations, which occasioned a battle which was more bloody than the wars +of the Negroes usually are_." This is confirmed by J. Barbot, who says, +"_That the country of D'Elmina, which was formerly very powerful and +populous, was in his time so much drained of its inhabitants by the +intestine wars fomented amongst the Negroes by the Dutch, that there did +not remain inhabitants enough to till the country_." + +[Footnote A: Collection, vol. 2, page 98.] + + +[Footnote B: Bosman, page 31.] + + + + + +CHAP. VI. + + +The conduct of the Europeans and Africans compared. Slavery more +tolerable amongst the antients than in our colonies. As christianity +prevailed amongst the barbarous nations, the inconsistency of slavery +became more apparent. The charters of manumission, granted in the early +times of christianity, founded on an apprehension of duty to God. The +antient Britons, and other European nations, in their original state, no +less barbarous than the Negroes. Slaves in Guinea used with much greater +lenity than the Negroes are in the colonies.--Note. How the slaves are +treated in Algiers, as also in Turkey. + +Such is the woeful corruption of human nature, that every practice which +flatters our pride and covetousness, will find its advocates! This is +manifestly the case in the matter before us; the savageness of the +Negroes in some of their customs, and particularly their deviating so +far from the feelings of humanity, as to join in captivating and selling +each other, gives their interested oppressors a pretence for +representing them as unworthy of liberty, and the natural rights of +mankind. But these sophisters turn the argument full upon themselves, +when they instigate the poor creatures to such shocking impiety, by +every means that fantastic subtilty can suggest; thereby shewing in +their own conduct, a more glaring proof of the same depravity, and, if +there was any reason in the argument, a greater unfitness for the same +precious enjoyment: for though some of the ignorant Africans may be thus +corrupted by their intercourse with the baser of the European natives, +and the use of strong liquors, this is no excuse for high-professing +christians; bred in a civilized country, with so many advantages unknown +to the Africans, and pretending to a superior degree of gospel light. +Nor can it justify them in raising up fortunes to themselves from the +misery of others, and calmly projecting voyages for the seizure of men +naturally as free as themselves; and who, they know, are no otherwise to +be procured than by such barbarous means, as none but those hardened +wretches, who are lost to every sense of christian compassion, can make +use of. Let us diligently compare, and impartially weigh, the situation +of those ignorant Negroes, and these enlightened christians; then lift +up the scale and say, which of the two are the greater savages. + +Slavery has been of a long time in practice in many parts of Asia; it +was also in usage among the Romans when that empire flourished; but, +except in some particular instances, it was rather a reasonable +servitude, no ways comparable to the unreasonable and unnatural service +extorted from the Negroes in our colonies. A late learned author,[A] +speaking of those times which succeeded the dissolution of that empire, +acquaints us, that as christianity prevailed, it very much removed those +wrong prejudices and practices, which had taken root in darker times: +after the irruption of the Northern nations, and the introduction of the +feudal or military government, whereby the most extensive power was +lodged in a few members of society, to the depression of the rest, the +common people were little better than slaves, and many were indeed such; +but as christianity gained ground, the gentle spirit of that religion, +together with the doctrines it teaches, concerning the original equality +of mankind, as well as the impartial eye with which the Almighty regards +men of every condition, and admits them to a participation of his +benefits; so far manifested the inconsistency of slavery with +christianity, that to set their fellow christians at liberty was deemed +an act of piety, highly meritorious and acceptable to God.[B] +Accordingly a great part of the charters granted for the manumission or +freedom of slaves about that time, are granted _pro amore Dei, for the +love of God, pro mercede animae, to obtain mercy to the soul_. +Manumission was frequently granted on death-beds, or by latter wills. As +the minds of men are at that time awakened to sentiments of humanity and +piety, these deeds proceeded from religious motives. The same author +remarks, That there are several forms of those manumissions still +extant, all of them founded _on religious considerations_, and _in order +to procure the favour of God_. Since that time, the practice of keeping +men in slavery gradually ceased amongst christians, till it was renewed +in the case before us. And as the prevalency of the spirit of +christianity caused men to emerge from the darkness they then lay under, +in this respect; so it is much to be feared that so great a deviation +therefrom, by the encouragement given to the slavery of the Negroes in +our colonies, if continued, will, by degrees, reduce those countries +which support and encourage it but more immediately those parts of +America which are in the practice of it, to the ignorance and barbarity +of the darkest ages. + +[Footnote A: See Robertson's history of Charles the 5th.] + + +[Footnote B: In the years 1315 and 1318, Louis X. and his brother +Philip, Kings of France, issued ordonnances, declaring, "That as all men +were by nature free-born, and as their kingdom was called the kingdom of +Franks, they determined that it should be so in reality, as well as in +name; therefore they appointed that enfranchisements should be granted +throughout the whole kingdom, upon just and reasonable conditions." +"These edicts were carried into immediate execution within the royal +domain."--"In England, as the spirit of liberty gained ground, the very +name and idea of personal servitude, without any formal interposition of +the legislature to prohibit it, was totally banished." "The effects of +such a remarkable change in the condition of so great a part of the +people, could not fail of being considerable and extensive. The +husbandman, master of his own industry, and secure of reaping for +himself the fruits of his labour, became farmer of the same field where +he had formerly been compelled to toil for the benefit of another. The +odious name of master and of slave, the most mortifying and depressing +of all distinctions to human nature, were abolished. New prospects +opened, and new incitements to ingenuity and enterprise presented +themselves, to those who were emancipated. The expectation of bettering +their fortune, as well as that of raising themselves to a more +honourable condition, concurred in calling forth their activity and +genius; and a numerous class of men, who formerly had no political +existence, and were employed merely as instruments of labour, became +useful citizens, and contributed towards augmenting the force or riches +of the society, which adopted them as members." William Robertson's +history of Charles the 5th, vol. 1, P. 35. ] + +If instead of making slaves of the Negroes, the nations who assume the +name and character of christians, would use their endeavours to make the +nations of Africa acquainted with the nature of the christian religion, +to give them a better sense of the true use of the blessings of life, +the more beneficial arts and customs would, by degrees, be introduced +amongst them; this care probably would produce the same effect upon +them, which it has had on the inhabitants of Europe, formerly as savage +and barbarous as the natives of Africa. Those cruel wars amongst the +blacks would be likely to cease, and a fair and honorable commerce, in +time, take place throughout that vast country. It was by these means +that the inhabitants of Europe, though formerly a barbarous people, +became civilized. Indeed the account Julius Caesar gives of the ancient +Britons in their state of ignorance, is not such as should make us proud +of ourselves, or lead us to despise the unpolished nations of the earth; +for he informs us, "That they lived in many respects like our Indians, +being clad with skins, painting their bodies, &c." He also adds, "That +they, brother with brother, and parents with children, had wives in +common." A greater barbarity than any heard of amongst the Negroes. Nor +doth Tacitus give a more honourable account of the Germans, from whom +the Saxons, our immediate ancestors, sprung. The Danes, who succeeded +them (who may also be numbered among our progenitors) were full as bad, +if not worse. + +It is usual for people to advance as a palliation in favour of keeping +the Negroes in bondage, that there are slaves in Guinea, and that those +amongst us might be so in their own country; but let such consider the +inconsistency of our giving any countenance to slavery, because the +Africans, whom we esteem a barbarous and savage people, allow of it, and +perhaps the more from our example. Had the professors of christianity +acted indeed as such, they might have been instrumental to convince the +Negroes of their error in this respect; but even this, when inquired +into, will be to us an occasion of blushing, if we are not hardened to +every sense of shame, rather than a _palliation_ of our iniquitous +conduct; as it will appear that the slavery endured in Guinea, and other +parts of Africa, and in Asia,[A] is by no means so grievous as that in +our colonies. William Moor, speaking of the natives living on the river +Gambia,[B] says, "Tho' some of the Negroes have many house slaves, which +are their greatest glory; that those slaves live so well and easy, that +it is sometimes a hard matter to know the slaves from their masters or +mistresses. And that though in some parts of Africa they sell their +slaves born in the family, yet on the river Gambia they think it a very +wicked thing." The author adds, "He never heard of but one that ever +sold a family slave, except for such crimes as they would have been sold +for if they had been free." And in Astley's collection, speaking of the +customs of the Negroes in that large extent of country further down the +coast, particularly denominated the coast of Guinea, it is said,[C] +"They have not many slaves on the coast; none but the King or nobles are +permitted to buy or sell any; so that they are allowed only what are +necessary for their families, or tilling the ground." The same author +adds, "_That they generally use their slaves well, and seldom correct +them_." + +[Footnote A: In the history of the piratical states of Barbary, printed +in 1750, _said to be_ wrote by a person who resided at Algiers, in a +public character, at page 265 the author says, "The world exclaims +against the Algerines for their cruel treatment of their slaves, and +their employing even tortures to convert them to mahometism: but this is +a vulgar error, artfully propagated for selfish views. So far are their +slaves from being ill used, that they must have committed some very +great fault to suffer any punishment. Neither are they forced to work +beyond their strength, but rather spared, lest they should fall sick. +Some are so pleased with their situation, that they will not purchase +their ransom, though they are able." It is the same generally through +the Mahometan countries, except in some particular instances, as that of +Muley Ishmael, late Emperor of Morocco, who being naturally barbarous, +frequently used both his subjects and slaves with cruelty. Yet even +under him the usage the slaves met with was, in general, much more +tolerable than that of the Negroe slaves in the West Indies. Captain +Braithwaite, an author of credit, who accompanied consul general Russel +in a congratulatory ambassy to Muley Ishmael's successor, upon his +accession to the throne, says, "The situation of the christian slaves in +Morocco was not near so bad as represented.--That it was true they were +kept at labour by the late Emperor, but not harder than our daily +labourers go through.--Masters of ships were never obliged to work, nor +such as had but a small matter of money to give the Alcaide.--When sick, +they had a religious house appointed for them to go to, where they were +well attended: and whatever money in charity was sent them by their +friends in Europe, was their own." Braithwaite's revolutions of Morocco. +Lady Montague, wife of the English ambassador at Constantinople, in her +letters, vol. 3. page 20, writes, "I know you expect I should say +something particular of the slaves; and you will imagine me half a Turk, +when I do not speak of it with the same horror other christians have +done before me; but I cannot forbear applauding the humanity of the +Turks to these creatures; they are not ill used; and their slavery, in +my opinion, is no worse than servitude all over the world. It is true +they have no wages, but they give them yearly cloaths to a higher value +than our salaries to our ordinary servants." ] + + +[Footnote B: W. Moor, p. 30] + + +[Footnote C: Collection vol. 2. p. 647.] + + + + + +CHAP. VII. + + +Montesquieu's sentiments on slavery. Moderation enjoined by the Mosaic +law in the punishment of offenders. Morgan Godwyn's account of the +contempt and grievous rigour exercised upon the Negroes in his time. +Account from Jamaica, relating to the inhuman treatment of them there. +Bad effects attendant on slave-keeping, as well to the masters as the +slaves. Extracts from several laws relating to Negroes. Richard Baxter's +sentiments on slave-keeping. + +That celebrated civilian Montesquieu, in his treatise _on the spirit of +laws_, on the article of slavery says, "_It is neither useful to the +master nor slave; to the slave, because he can do nothing through +principle (or virtue); to the master, because he contracts with his +slave all sorts of bad habits, insensibly accustoms himself to want all +moral virtues; becomes haughty, hasty, hard-hearted, passionate, +voluptuous, and cruel_." The lamentable truth of this assertion was +quickly verified in the English plantations. When the practice of +slave-keeping was introduced, it soon produced its natural effects; it +reconciled men, of otherwise good dispositions, to the most hard and +cruel measures. It quickly proved, what, under the law of Moses, was +apprehended would be the consequence of unmerciful chastisements. Deut. +xxv. 2. "_And it shall be if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that +the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, +according to his fault, by a certain number; forty stripes he may give +him, and not exceed_." And the reason rendered, is out of respect to +human nature, viz. "_Lest if he should exceed, and beat him above these +with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee_." As +this effect soon followed the cause, the cruelest measures were adopted, +in order to make the most of the poor _wretches_ labour; and in the +minds of the masters such an idea was excited of inferiority, in the +nature of these their unhappy fellow creatures, that they soon esteemed +and treated them as beasts of burden: pretending to doubt, and some of +them even presuming to deny, that the efficacy of the death of Christ +extended to them. Which is particularly noted in a book, intitled _The +Negroes and Indians advocate_, dedicated to the then Archbishop of +Canterbury, wrote so long since as in the year 1680, by Morgan Godwyn, +thought to be a clergyman of the church of England.[A] The same spirit +of sympathy and zeal which stirred up the good Bishop of Chapia to plead +with so much energy the kindred cause of the Indians of America, an +hundred and fifty years before, was equally operating about a century +past on the minds of some of the well disposed of that day; amongst +others this worthy clergyman, having been an eye witness of the +oppression and cruelty exercised upon the Negro and Indian slaves, +endeavoured to raise the attention of those, in whose power it might be +to procure them relief; amongst other matters, in his address to the +Archbishop, he remarks in substance, "That the people of the island of +Barbadoes were not content with exercising the greatest hardness and +barbarity upon the Negroes, in making the most of their labour, without +any regard to the calls of humanity, but that they had suffered such a +slight and undervaluement to prevail in their minds towards these their +oppressed fellow creatures, as to discourage any step being taken, +whereby they might be made acquainted with the christian religion. That +their conduct towards their slaves was such as gave him reason to +believe, that either they had suffered a spirit of infidelity, a spirit +quite contrary to the nature of the gospel, to prevail in them, or that +it must be their established opinion that the Negroes had no more souls +than beasts; that hence they concluded them to be neither susceptible of +religious impressions, nor fit objects for the redeeming grace of God to +operate upon. That under this persuasion, and from a disposition of +cruelty, they treated them with far less humanity than they did their +cattle; for, says he, they do not starve their horses, which they expect +should both carry and credit them on the road; nor pinch the cow, by +whose milk they are sustained; which yet, to their eternal shame, is too +frequently the lot and condition of those poor people, from whose labour +their wealth and livelihood doth wholly arise; not only in their diet, +but in their cloathing, and overworking some of them even to death +(which is particularly the calamity of the most innocent and laborious) +but also in tormenting and whipping them almost, and sometimes quite, to +death, upon even small miscarriages. He apprehends it was from this +prejudice against the Negroes, that arose those supercilious checks and +frowns he frequently met with, when using innocent arguments and +persuasions, in the way of his duty as a minister of the gospel, to +labour for the convincement and conversion of the Negroes; being +repeatedly told, with spiteful scoffings, (even by some esteemed +religious) that the Negroes were no more susceptible of receiving +benefit, by becoming members of the church, than their dogs and bitches. +The usual answer he received, when exhorting their masters to do their +duty in that respect, being, _What! these black dogs be made christians! +what! they be made like us! with abundance more of the same_. +Nevertheless, he remarks that the Negroes were capable, not only of +being taught to read and write, &c. but divers of them eminent in the +management of business. He declares them to have an equal right with us +to the merits of Christ; of which if through neglect or avarice they are +deprived, that judgment which was denounced against wicked Ahab, must +befal us: _Our life shall go for theirs_. The loss of their souls will +be required at our hands, to whom God hath given so blessed an +opportunity of being instrumental to their salvation." + +[Footnote A: "There is a principle which is pure, placed in the human +mind, which in different places or ages hath had different names; it is, +however, pure, and proceeds from God.--It is deep and inward, confined +to no forms of religion, nor excluded from any, where the heart stands +in perfect sincerity. In whomsoever this takes root and grows, of what +nation soever, they become brethren in the best sense of the expression. +Using ourselves to take ways which appear most easy to us, when +inconsistent with that purity which is without beginning, we thereby set +up a government of our own, and deny obedience to Him whose service is +true liberty. He that has a servant, made so wrongfully, and knows it to +be so, when he treats him otherwise than a free man, when he reaps the +benefit of his labour, without paying him such wages as are reasonably +due to free men for the like service; these things, though done in +calmness, without any shew of disorder, do yet deprave the mind, in like +manner, and with as great certainty, as prevailing cold congeals water. +These steps taken by masters, and their conduct striking the minds of +their children, whilst young, leave less room for that which is good to +work upon them. The customs of their parents, their neighbours, and the +people with whom they converse, working upon their minds, and they from +thence conceiving wrong ideas of things, and modes of conduct, the +entrance into their hearts becomes in a great measure shut up against +the gentle movings of uncreated purity. + +"From one age to another the gloom grows thicker and darker, till error +gets established by general opinion; but whoever attends to perfect +goodness, and remains under the melting influence of it, finds a path +unknown to many, and sees the necessity to lean upon the arm of divine +strength, and dwell alone, or with a few in the right, committing their +cause to him who is a refuge to his people. Negroes are our fellow +creatures, and their present condition among us requires our serious +consideration. We know not the time, when those scales, in which +mountains are weighed, may turn. The parent of mankind is gracious, his +care is over his smallest creatures, and a multitude of men escape not +his notice; and though many of them are trodden down and despised, yet +he remembers them. He seeth their affliction, and looketh upon the +spreading increasing exaltation of the oppressor. He turns the channel +of power, humbles the most haughty people, and gives deliverance to the +oppressed, at such periods as are consistent with his infinite justice +and goodness. And wherever gain is preferred to equity, and wrong things +publickly encouraged, to that degree that wickedness takes root and +spreads wide amongst the inhabitants of a country, there is a real cause +for sorrow, to all such whose love to mankind stands on a true +principle, and wisely consider the end and event of things." +Consideration on keeping Negroes, by John Woolman, part 2. p. 50.] + +He complains, "That they were suffered to live with their women in no +better way than direct fornication; no care being taken to oblige them +to continue together when married; but that they were suffered at their +will to leave their wives, and take to other women." I shall conclude +this sympathizing clergyman's observations, with an instance he gives, +to shew, "that not only discouragements and scoffs at that time +prevailed in Barbadoes, to establish an opinion that the Negroes were +not capable of religious impressions, but that even violence and great +abuses were used to prevent any thing of the kind taking place. It was +in the case of a poor Negro, who having, at his own request, prevailed +on a clergyman to administer baptism to him, on his return home the +brutish overseer took him to task, giving him to understand, that that +was no sunday's work for those of his complexion; that he had other +business for him, the neglect whereof would cost him an afternoon's +baptism in blood, as he in the morning had received a baptism with +water, (these, says the clergyman, were his own words) which he +accordingly made good; of which the Negro complained to him, and he to +the governor; nevertheless, the poor miserable creature was ever after +so unmercifully treated by that inhuman wretch, the overseer, that, to +avoid his cruelty, betaking himself to the woods, he there perished." +This instance is applicable to none but the cruel perpetrator; and yet +it is an instance of what, in a greater or less degree, may frequently +happen, when those poor wretches are left to the will of such brutish +inconsiderate creatures as those overseers often are. This is confirmed +in a _History of Jamaica_, wrote in thirteen letters, about the year +1740, by a person then residing in that island, who writes as follows, +"I shall not now enter upon the question, whether the slavery of the +Negroes be agreeable to the laws of nature or not; though it seems +extremely hard they should be reduced to serve and toil for the benefit +of others, without the least advantage to themselves. Happy Britannia, +where slavery is never known! where liberty and freedom chears every +misfortune. Here (_says the author_) we can boast of no such blessing; +we have at least ten slaves to one freeman. I incline to touch the +hardships which these poor creatures suffer, in the tenderest manner, +from a particular regard which I have to many of their masters, but I +cannot conceal their sad circumstances intirely: the most trivial error +is punished with terrible whipping. I have seen some of them treated in +that cruel manner, for no other reason but to satisfy the brutish +pleasure of an overseer, who has their punishment mostly at his +discretion. I have seen their bodies all in a gore of blood, the skin +torn off their backs with the cruel whip; beaten pepper and salt rubbed +in the wounds, and a large stick of sealing wax dropped leisurely upon +them. It is no wonder, if the horrid pain of such inhuman tortures +incline them to rebel. Most of these slaves are brought from the coast +of Guinea. When they first arrive, it is observed, they are simple and +very innocent creatures; but soon turn to be roguish enough. And when +they come to be whipt, urge the example of the whites for an excuse of +their faults." + +These accounts of the deep depravity of mind attendant on the practice +of slavery, verify the truth of Montesquieu's remark of its pernicious +effects. And altho' the same degree of opposition to instructing the +Negroes may not now appear in the islands as formerly, especially since +the Society appointed for propagating the Gospel have possessed a number +of Negroes in one of them; nevertheless the situation of these oppressed +people is yet dreadful, as well to themselves as in its consequence to +their hard task-masters, and their offspring, as must be evident to +every impartial person who is acquainted with the treatment they +generally receive, or with the laws which from time to time have been +made in the colonies, with respect to the Negroes; some of them being +absolutely inconsistent with reason, and shocking to humanity. By the +329th act of the assembly of Barbadoes, page 125, it is enacted, + +"That if any Negroe or other slave under punishment by his master, or +his order, for running away, or any other crime or misdemeanors towards +his said master, unfortunately shall suffer in life or member, (which +seldom happens) no person whatsoever shall be liable to any fine +therefore. But if any man shall, _of wantonness, or only of +bloody-mindedness or cruel intention, wilfully kill a Negroe, or other +slave of his own, he shall pay into the public treasury, fifteen pounds +sterling_." Now that the life of a man should be so lightly valued, as +that fifteen pounds should be judged a sufficient indemnification of the +murder of one, even when it is avowedly done _wilfully, wantonly, +cruelly, or of bloody-mindedness_, is a tyranny hardly to be paralleled: +nevertheless human laws cannot make void the righteous law of God, or +prevent the inquisition of that awful judgment day, when, "_at the hand +of every man's brother the life of man shall be required_." By the law +of South Carolina, the person that killeth a Negroe is only subject to a +fine, or twelve months imprisonment. It is the same in most, if not all +the West-Indies. And by an act of the assembly of Virginia, (4 Ann. Ch. +49. sect. 27. p. 227.) after proclamation is issued against slaves, +"that run away and lie out, _it is lawful for any person whatsoever to +kill and destroy such slaves, by such ways and means as he, she, or they +shall think fit, without accusation or impeachment of any crime for the +same_."--And lest private interest should incline the planter to mercy, +it is provided, "_That every slave so killed, in pursuance of this act, +shall be paid for by the public_." + +It was doubtless a like sense of sympathy with that expressed by Morgan +Godwyn before mentioned, for the oppressed Negroes, and like zeal for +the cause of religion, so manifestly trampled upon in the case of the +Negroes, which induced Richard Baxter, an eminent preacher amongst the +Dissenters in the last century, in his _christian directory_, to express +himself as follows, viz. "Do you mark how God hath followed you with +plagues; and may not conscience tell you, that it is for your inhumanity +to the souls and bodies of men?"--"To go as pirates; and catch up poor +Negroes, or people of another land, that never forfeited life or +liberty, and to make them slaves, and sell them, is one of the worst +kinds of thievery in the world; and such persons are to be taken for the +common enemies of mankind; and they that buy them and use them as beasts +for their mere commodity, and betray, or destroy, or neglect their +souls, are fitter to be called devils incarnate than christians: It is +an heinous sin to buy them, unless it be in charity to deliver them. +Undoubtedly they are presently bound to deliver them, because by right +the man is his own, therefore no man else can have a just title to him." + + + + + +CHAP. VIII. + + +Griffith Hughes's account of the number of Negroes in Barbadoes. Cannot +keep up their usual number without a yearly recruit. Excessive hardships +wear the Negroes down in a surprising manner. A servitude without a +condition, inconsistent with reason and natural justice. The general +usage the Negroes meet with in the West Indies. Inhuman calculations of +the strength and lives of the Negroes. Dreadful consequences which may +be expected from the cruelty exercised upon this oppressed part of +mankind. + +We are told by Griffith Hughes, rector of St. Lucy in Barbadoes, in his +natural history of that island, printed in the year 1750, "That there +were between sixty-five and seventy thousand Negroes, at that time, in +the island, tho' formerly they had a greater number. That in order to +keep up a necessary number, they were obliged to have a yearly supply +from Africa. That the hard labour, and often want of necessaries, which +these unhappy creatures are obliged to undergo, destroy a greater number +than are bred there." He adds, "That the capacities of their minds in +common affairs of life are but little inferior, if at all, to those of +the Europeans. If they fail in some arts, he says, it may be owing more +to their want of education, and the depression of their spirits by +slavery, than to any want of natural abilities." This destruction of the +human species, thro' unnatural hardships, and want of necessary +supplies, in the case of the Negroes, is farther confirmed in _an +account of the European settlements in America_, printed London, 1757, +where it is said, par. 6. chap. 11th, "The Negroes in our colonies +endure a slavery more compleat, and attended with far worse +circumstances, than what any people in their condition suffer in any +other part of the world, or have suffered in any other period of time: +Proofs of this are not wanting. The prodigious waste which we experience +in this unhappy part of our species, is a full and melancholy evidence +of this truth. The island of Barbadoes, (the Negroes upon which do not +amount to eighty thousand) notwithstanding all the means which they use +to increase them by propagation, and that the climate is in every +respect (except that of being more wholesome) exactly resembling the +climate from whence they come; notwithstanding all this, Barbadoes lies +under a necessity of an annual recruit of five thousand slaves, to keep +up the stock at the number I have mentioned. This prodigious failure, +which is at least in the same proportion in all our islands, shews +demonstratively that some uncommon and unsupportable hardship lies upon +the Negroes, which wears them down in such a surprising manner." + +In an account of part of North America, published by Thomas Jeffery, +1761, the author, speaking of the usage the Negroes receive in the West +India islands, says, "It is impossible for a human heart to reflect upon +the servitude of these dregs of mankind, without in some measure feeling +for their misery, which ends but with their lives.--Nothing can be more +wretched than the condition of this people. One would imagine, they were +framed to be the disgrace of the human species; banished from their +country, and deprived of that blessing, liberty, on which all other +nations set the greatest value, they are in a measure reduced to the +condition of beasts of burden. In general, a few roots, potatoes +especially, are their food, and two rags, which neither screen them from +the heat of the day, nor the extraordinary coolness of the night, all +their covering; their sleep very short; their labour almost continual; +they receive no wages, but have twenty lashes for the smallest fault." +_A thoughtful_ person, who had an opportunity of observing the miserable +condition of the Negroes in one of our West India islands, writes thus, +"I met with daily exercise to see the treatment which those miserable +wretches met with from their masters; with but few exceptions. They whip +them most unmercifully on small occasions: you will see their bodies all +whealed and scarred; in short, they seem to set no other value on their +lives, than as they cost them so much money; and are restrained from +killing them, when angry, by no worthier consideration, than that they +lose so much. They act as though they did not look upon them as a race +of human creatures, who have reason, and remembrance of misfortunes, but +as beasts; like oxen, who are stubborn, hardy, and senseless, fit for +burdens, and designed to bear them: they won't allow them to have any +claim to human privileges, or scarce indeed to be regarded as the work +of God. Though it was consistent with the justice of our Maker to +pronounce the sentence on our common parent, and through him on all +succeeding generations, _That he and they should eat their bread by the +sweat of their brows_: yet does it not stand recorded by the same +eternal truth, _That the labourer is worthy of his hire?_ It cannot be +allowed, in natural justice, that there should be a servitude without +condition; a cruel, endless servitude. It cannot be reconcileable to +natural justice, that whole nations, nay, whole continents of men, +should be devoted to do the drudgery of life for others, be dragged away +from their attachments of relations and societies, and be made to serve +the appetite and pleasure of a race of men, whose superiority has been +obtained by illegal force." + +Sir Hans Sloane, in the introduction to his natural history of Jamaica, +in the account he gives of the treatment the Negroes met with there, +speaking of the punishments inflicted on them, says, page 56. "For +rebellion, the punishment is burning them, by nailing them down to the +ground with crooked sticks on every limb, and then applying the fire, by +degrees, from the feet and hands, burning them gradually up to the head, +whereby _their pains are extravagant_. For crimes of a less nature, +gelding or chopping off half the foot with an axe.--For negligence, they +are usually whipped by the overseers with lance-wood switches.--After +they are whipped till they are raw, some put on their skins pepper and +salt, to make them smart; at other times, their masters will drop melted +wax on their skins, and use several _very exquisite torments_." In that +island, the owners of the Negroe slaves set aside to each a parcel of +ground, and allow them half a day at the latter end of the week, which, +with the day appointed by the divine injunction to be a day of rest and +service to God, and which ought to be kept as such, is the only time +allowed them to manure their ground. This, with a few herrings, or other +salt fish, is what is given for their support. Their allowance for +cloathing in the island, is seldom more than six yards of oznabrigs each +year. And in the more northern colonies, where the piercing westerly +winds are long and sensibly felt, these poor Africans suffer much for +want of sufficient cloathing; indeed some have none till they are able +to pay for it by their labour. The time that the Negroes work in the +West Indies, is from day-break till noon; then again from two o'clock +till dark (during which time, they are attended by overseers, who +severely scourge those who appear to them dilatory); and before they are +suffered to go to their quarters, they have still something to do, as +collecting herbage for the horses, gathering fuel for the boilers, &c. +so that it is often past twelve before they can get home, when they have +scarce time to grind and boil their Indian corn; whereby, if their food +was not prepared the evening before, it sometimes happens that they are +called again to labour before they can satisfy their hunger. And here no +delay or excuse will avail; for if they are not in the field immediately +upon the usual notice, they must expect to feel the overseer's lash. In +crop time (which lasts many months) they are obliged, by turns, to work +most of the night in the boiling house. Thus their owners, from a desire +of making the greatest gain by the labour of their slaves, lay heavy +burdens on them, and yet feed and cloath them very sparingly, and some +scarce feed or cloath them at all; so that the poor creatures are +obliged to shift for their living in the best manner they can, which +occasions their being often killed in the neighbouring lands, stealing +potatoes, or other food, to satisfy their hunger. And if they take any +thing from the plantation they belong to, though under such pressing +want, their owners will correct them severely for taking a little of +what they have so hardly laboured for; whilst many of themselves riot in +the greatest luxury and excess. It is matter of astonishment how a +people, who, as a nation, are looked upon as generous and humane, and so +much value themselves for their uncommon sense of the benefit of +liberty, can live in the practice of such extreme oppression and +inhumanity, without seeing the inconsistency of such conduct, and +feeling great remorse. Nor is it less amazing to hear these men calmly +making calculations about the strength and lives of their fellow men. In +Jamaica, if six in ten of the new imported Negroes survive the +seasoning, it is looked upon as a gaining purchase. And in most of the +other plantations, if the Negroes live eight or nine years, their labour +is reckoned a sufficient compensation for their cost. If calculations of +this sort were made upon the strength and labour of beasts of burden, it +would not appear so strange; but even then, a merciful man would +certainly use his beast with more mercy than is usually shewn to the +poor Negroes. Will not the groans, the dying groans, of this deeply +afflicted and oppressed people reach heaven? and when the cup of +iniquity is full, must not the inevitable consequence be, the pouring +forth of the judgments of God upon their oppressors? But alas! is it not +too manifest that this oppression has already long been the object of +the divine displeasure? For what heavier judgment, what greater +calamity, can befal any people, than to become subject to that hardness +of heart, that forgetfulness of God, and insensibility to every +religious impression, as well as that general depravation of manners, +which so much prevails in these colonies, in proportion as they have +more or less enriched themselves at the expence of the blood and bondage +of the Negroes. + +It is a dreadful consideration, as a late author remarks, that out of +the stock of eighty thousand Negroes in Barbadoes, there die every year +five thousand more than are born in that island; which failure is +probably in the same proportion in the other islands. _In effect, this +people is under a necessity of being entirely renewed every sixteen +years._ And what must we think of the management of a people, who, far +from increasing greatly, as those who have no loss by war ought to do, +must, in so short a time as sixteen years, without foreign recruits, be +entirely consumed to a man! Is it not a christian doctrine, _that the +labourer is worthy of his hire?_ And hath not the Lord, by the mouth of +his prophet, pronounced, _"Wo unto that man who buildeth his house by +unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; who uses his neighbour's +service without wages, and giveth him nought for his work?"_ And yet the +poor Negro slaves are constrained, like the beasts, by beating, to work +hard without hire or recompence, and receive nothing from the hand of +their unmerciful masters, but such a wretched provision as will scarce +support them under their fatigues. The intolerable hardships many of the +slaves undergo, are sufficiently proved by the shortness of their +lives.--And who are these miserable creatures, that receive such +barbarous treatment from the planter? Can we restrain our just +indignation, when we consider that they are undoubtedly _his brethren! +his neighbours! the children of the same Father, and some of those for +whom Christ died, as truly as for the planter himself_. Let the opulent +planter, or merchant, prove that his Negro slave is not his brother, or +that he is not his neighbour, in the scripture sense of these +appellations; and if he is not able so to do, how will he justify the +buying and selling of his brethren, as if they were of no more +consideration than his cattle? The wearing them out with continual +labour, before they have lived out half their days? The severe whipping +and torturing them, even to death, if they resist his unsupportable +tyranny? Let the hardiest slave-holder look forward to that tremendous +day, when he must give an account to God of his stewardship; and let him +seriously consider, whether, at such a time, he thinks he shall be able +to satisfy himself, that any act of buying and selling, or the fate of +war, or the birth of children in his house, plantation, or territories, +or any other circumstance whatever, can give him such an absolute +property in the persons of men, as will justify his retaining them as +slaves, and treating them as beasts? Let him diligently consider whether +there will not always remain to the slave a _superior_ property or right +to the fruit of his own labour; and more especially to his own person; +that being which was given him by God, and which none but the Giver can +justly claim? + + + + + +CHAP. IX. + + +The advantage which would have accrued to the natives of Guinea, if the +Europeans had acted towards them agreeable to the dictates of humanity +and christianity. _An inordinate_ desire of gain in the Europeans, the +true occasion of the slave trade. Notice of the misrepresentations of +the Negroes by most authors, in order to palliate the iniquity of the +slave trade. Those misrepresentations refuted, particularly with respect +_to the Hottentot Negroes_. + +From the foregoing accounts of the natural disposition of the Negroes, +and the fruitfulness of most parts of Guinea, which are confirmed by +authors of candour, who have wrote from their own knowledge, it may well +be concluded, that the Negroes acquaintance with the Europeans might +have been a happiness to them, if these last had not only bore the name, +but had also acted the part, of Christians, and used their endeavours by +example, as well as precept, to make them acquainted with the glad +tidings of the gospel, which breathes peace and good will to man, and +with that change of heart, that redemption from sin, which christianity +proposeth; innocence and love might then have prevailed, nothing would +have been wanting to complete the happiness of the simple Africans: but +the reverse has happened; the Europeans, forgetful of their duty as men +and christians, have conducted themselves in so iniquitous a manner, as +must necessarily raise in the minds of the thoughtful and well-disposed +Negroes, the utmost scorn and detestation of the very name of +christians. All other considerations have given way to an infallible +desire of gain, which has been the principal and moving cause of the +most _iniquitous and dreadful scene_ that was, perhaps, ever acted upon +the face of the earth; instead of making use of that superior knowledge +with which the Almighty, the common Parent of mankind, had favoured +them, to strengthen the principle of peace and good will in the breasts +of the incautious Negroes, the Europeans have, by their bad example, led +them into excess of drunkenness, debauchery, and avarice; whereby every +passion of corrupt nature being inflamed, they have been easily +prevailed upon to make war, and captivate one another; as well to +furnish means for the excesses they had been habituated to, as to +satisfy the greedy desire of gain in their profligate employers, who to +this intent have furnished them with prodigious quantities of arms and +ammunition. Thus they have been hurried into confusion, distress, and +all the extremities of temporal misery; every thing, even the power of +their Kings, has been made subservient to this wicked purpose; for +instead of being protectors of their subjects, some of those rulers, +corrupted by the excessive love of spirituous liquors, and the tempting +baits laid before them by the factors, have invaded the liberties of +their unhappy subjects, and are become their oppressors. + +Here it may be necessary to observe, that the accounts we have of the +inhabitants of Guinea, are chiefly given by persons engaged in the +trade, who, from self-interested views, have described them in such +colours as were least likely to excite compassion and respect, and +endeavoured to reconcile so manifest a violation of the rights of +mankind to the minds of the purchasers; yet they cannot but allow the +Negroes to be possessed of some good qualities, though they contrive as +much as possible to cast a shade over them. A particular instance of +this appears in Astley's collection, vol. 2. p. 73, where the author, +speaking of the Mandingos settled at Galem, which is situated 900 miles +up the Senegal, after saying that they carry on a commerce to all the +neighbouring kingdoms, and amass riches, adds, "That excepting _the +vices peculiar to the Blacks_, they are a good sort of people, honest, +hospitable, just to their word, laborious, industrious, and very ready +to learn arts and sciences." Here it is difficult to imagine what vices +can be peculiarly attendant on a people so well disposed as the author +describes these to be. With respect to the charge some authors have +brought against them, as being void of all natural affection, it is +frequently contradicted by others. In vol. 2. of the Collection, p. 275, +and 629, the Negroes of North Guinea, and the Gold Coast, are said _to +be fond of their children, whom they love with tenderness_. And Bosman +says, p. 340, "Not a few in his country (viz. Holland) fondly imagine, +that parents here sell their children, men their wives, and one brother +the other: but those who think so deceive themselves; for this never +happens on any other account but that of necessity, or some great +crime." The same is repeated by J. Barbot, page 326, and also confirmed +by Sir Hans Sloane, in the introduction to his natural history of +Jamaica; where speaking of the Negroes, he says, "They are usually +thought to be haters of their own children, and therefore it is believed +that they sell and dispose of them to strangers for money: but this is +not true; for the Negroes of Guinea being divided into several +captainships, as well as the Indians of America, have wars; and besides +those slain in battle, many prisoners are taken, who are sold as slaves, +and brought thither: but the parents here, although their children are +slaves for ever, yet have so great love for them, that no master dares +sell, or give away, one of their little ones, unless they care not +whether their parents hang themselves or no." J. Barbot, speaking of the +occasion of the natives of Guinea being represented as a treacherous +people, ascribes it to the Hollanders (and doubtless other Europeans) +usurping authority, and fomenting divisions between the Negroes. At page +110, he says, "It is well known that many of the European nations +trading amongst these people, have very unjustly and inhumanly, without +any provocation, stolen away, from time to time, abundance of the +people, not only on this coast, but almost every where in Guinea, who +have come on board their ships in a harmless and confiding manner: these +they have in great numbers carried away, and sold in the plantations, +with other slaves which they had purchased." And although some of the +Negroes may be justly charged with indolence and supineness, yet many +others are frequently mentioned by authors _as a careful, industrious, +and even laborious_ people. But nothing shews more clearly how unsafe it +is to form a judgment of distant people from the accounts given of them +by travellers, who have taken but a transient view of things, than the +case of the Hottentots, viz. those several nations of Negroes who +inhabit the most southern part of Africa: _these people_ are represented +by several authors, who appear to have very much copied their relations +one from the other, as so savage and barbarous as to have little of +human, but the shape: but these accounts are strongly contradicted by +others, particularly Peter Kolben, who has given a circumstantial +relation of the disposition and manners of those people.[A] He was a man +of learning, sent from the court of Prussia solely to make astronomical +and natural observations there; and having no interest in the slavery of +the Negroes, had not the same inducement as most other relators had, to +misrepresent the natives of Africa. He resided eight years at and about +the Cape of Good Hope, during which time he examined with great care +into the customs, manners, and opinions of the Hottentots; whence he +sets these people in a quite different light from what they appeared in +former authors, whom he corrects, and blames for the falsehoods they +have wantonly told of them. At p. 61, he says, "The details we have in +several authors, are for the most part made up of inventions and +hearsays, which generally prove false." Nevertheless, he allows they are +justly to be blamed for their sloth.--_The love of liberty and indolence +is their all; compulsion is death to them. While necessity obliges them +to work, they are very tractable, obedient, and faithful; but when they +have got enough to satisfy the present want, they are deaf to all +further intreaty_. He also faults them for their nastiness, the effect +of sloth; and for their love of drink, and the practice of some +unnatural customs, which long use has established amongst them; which, +nevertheless, from the general good disposition of these people, there +is great reason to believe they might be persuaded to refrain from, if a +truly christian care had been extended towards them. He says, "They are +eminently distinguished by many virtues, as their mutual benevolence, +friendship, and hospitality; they breathe kindness and good will to one +another, and seek all opportunities of obliging. Is a Hottentot's +assistance required by one of his countrymen? he runs to give it. Is his +advice asked? he gives it with sincerity. Is his countryman in want? he +relieves him to the utmost of his power." Their hospitality extends even +to European strangers: in travelling thro' the Cape countries, you meet +with a chearful and open reception, in whatsoever village you come to. +In short, he says, page 339, "The integrity of the Hottentots, their +strictness and celerity in the execution of justice, and their charity, +are equalled by few nations. _In alliances, their word is sacred; there +being hardly any thing they look upon as a fouler crime than breach of +engagements. Theft and adultery they punish with death_." They firmly +believe there is a God, the author of all things, whom they call the God +of gods; but it does not appear that they have an institution of worship +directly regarding this supreme Deity. When pressed on this article, +they excuse themselves by a tradition, "_That their first parents so +grievously offended this great God, that he cursed them and their +posterity with hardness of heart; so that they know little about him, +and have less inclination to serve him_." As has been already remarked, +these Hottentots are the only Negroe nations bordering on the sea, we +read of, who are not concerned in making or keeping slaves. Those slaves +made use of by the Hollanders at the Cape, are brought from other parts +of Guinea. Numbers of these people told the author, "That the vices they +saw prevail amongst christians; their avarice, their envy and hatred of +one another; their restless discontented tempers; their lasciviousness +and injustice, were the things that principally kept the Hottentots from +hearkening to christianity." + +[Footnote A: See Kolban's account of the Cape of Good Hope.] + +Father Tachard, a French Jesuit, famous for his travels in the East +Indies, in his account of these people, says, "The Hottentots have more +honesty, love, and liberality for one another, than are almost anywhere +seen amongst christians." + + + + + +CHAP. X. + + +Man-stealing esteemed highly criminal, and punishable by the laws of +Guinea: _No_ Negroes allowed to be sold for slaves there, but those +deemed prisoners of war, or in punishment for crimes. _Some_ of the +Negroe rulers, corrupted by the Europeans, violently infringe the laws +of Guinea. The King of Barsailay noted in that respect. + +By an inquiry into the laws and customs formerly in use, and still in +force amongst the Negroes, particularly on the Gold Coast, it will be +found, that provision was made for the general peace, and for the safety +of individuals; even in W. Bosman's time, long after the Europeans had +established the slave-trade, the natives were not publicly enslaved, any +otherwise than in punishment for crimes, when prisoners of war, or by a +violent exertion of the power of their corrupted Kings. Where any of the +natives were stolen, in order to be sold to the Europeans, it was done +secretly, or at least, only connived at by those in power: this appears +From Barbot and Bosman's account of the matter, both agreeing that +man-stealing was not allowed on the Gold Coast. The first[A] says, +"_Kidnapping or stealing of human creatures is punished there, and even +sometimes with death._" And, W. Bosman, whose long residence on the +coast, enabled him to speak with certainty, says,[B] "_That the laws +were severe against murder, thievery, and adultery._" And adds, "_That +man-stealing was punished on the Gold Coast with rigid severity and +sometimes with death itself._" Hence it may be concluded, that the sale +of the greatest part of the Negroes to the Europeans is supported by +violence, in defiance of the laws, through the knavery of their +principal men,[C] who, (as is too often the case with those in European +countries) under pretence of encouraging trade, and increasing the +public revenue, disregard the dictates of justice, and trample upon +those liberties which they are appointed to preserve. + +[Footnote A: Barbot, p. 303.] + + +[Footnote B: Bosman, p. 143.] + + +[Footnote C: Note. Barbot, page 270, says, the trade of slaves is in a +more peculiar manner the business of Kings, rich men, and prime +merchants, exclusive of the inferior sort of blacks.] + +Fr. Moor also mentions man-stealing as being discountenanced by the +Negroe Governments on the river Gambia, and speaks of the inslaving the +peaceable inhabitants, as a violence which only happens under a corrupt +administration of justice; he says,[A] "The Kings of that country +generally advise with their head men, scarcely doing any thing of +consequence, without consulting them first, except the King of +Barsailay, who being subject to hard drinking, is very absolute. It is +to this King's insatiable thirst for brandy, that his subjects freedoms +and families are in so precarious a situation.[B] Whenever this King +wants goods or brandy, he sends a messenger to the English Governor at +James Fort, to desire he would send a sloop there with a cargo: _this +news, being not at all unwelcome_, the Governor sends accordingly; +against the arrival of the sloop, the King goes and ransacks some of his +enemies towns, seizing the people, and selling them for such commodities +as he is in want of, which commonly are brandy, guns, powder, balls, +pistols, and cutlasses, for his attendants and soldiers; and coral and +silver for his wives and concubines. In case he is not at war with any +neighbouring King, he then falls upon one of his own towns, which are +numerous, and uses them in the same manner." "He often goes with some of +his troops by a town in the day time, and returning in the night, sets +fire to three parts of it, and putting guards at the fourth, there +seizes the people as they run out from the fire; he ties their arms +behind them, and marches them either to Joar or Cohone, where he sells +them to the Europeans." + +[Footnote A: Moor, page 61.] + + +[Footnote B: Idem, p. 46.] + +A. Brue, the French director, gives much the same account, and says,[A] +"That having received goods, he wrote to the King, that if he had a +sufficient number of slaves, he was ready to trade with him. This +Prince, as well as the other Negroe monarchs, has always a sure way of +supplying his deficiencies, by selling his own subjects, for which they +seldom want a pretence. The King had recourse to this method, by seizing +three hundred of his own people, and sent word to the director, that he +had the slaves ready to deliver for the goods." It seems, the King +wanted double the quantity of goods which the factor would give him for +these three hundred slaves; but the factor refusing to trust him, as he +was already in the company's debt, and perceiving that this refusal had +put the King much out of temper, he proposed that he should give him a +licence for taking so many more of his people, as the goods he still +wanted were worth but this the King refused, saying "_It_ might occasion +a disturbance amongst his subjects."[B] Except in the above instance, +and some others, where the power of the Negroe Kings is unlawfully +exerted over their subjects, the slave-trade is carried on in Guinea +with some regard to the laws of the country, which allow of none to be +sold, but prisoners taken in their national wars, or people adjudged to +slavery in punishment for crimes; but the largeness of the country, the +number of kingdoms or commonwealths, and the great encouragement given +by the Europeans, afford frequent pretences and opportunities to the +bold designing profligates of one kingdom, to surprize and seize upon +not only those of a neighbouring government, but also the weak and +helpless of their own;[C] and the unhappy people, taken on those +occasions, are, with impunity, sold to the Europeans. These practices +are doubtless disapproved of by the most considerate amongst the +Negroes, for Bosman acquaints us, that even their national wars are not +agreeable to such. He says,[D] "If the person who occasioned the +beginning of the war be taken, they will not easily admit him to ransom, +though his weight in gold should be offered, for fear he should in +future form some new design against their repose." + +[Footnote A: Collection vol. 2. p. 29.] + + +[Footnote B: Note, This Negroe King thus refusing to comply with the +factor's wicked proposal, shews, he was sensible his own conduct was not +justifiable; and it likewise appears, the factor's only concern was to +procure the greatest number of slaves, without any regard to the +injustice of the method by which they were procured. This Andrew Brue, +was, for a long time, principal director of the French African factory +in those parts; in the management of which, he is in the collection said +to have had extraordinary success. The part he ought to have acted as a +christian towards the ignorant Africans seems quite out of the question; +the profit of his employers appears to have been his sole concern. At +page 62, speaking of the country on the Senegal river, he says, "It was +very populous, the soil rich; and if the people were industrious, they +might, of their own produce, carry on a very advantageous trade with +strangers; there being but few things in which they could be excelled; +_but_ (he adds) _it is to be hoped, the Europeans will never let them +into the secret._" A remark unbecoming humanity, much more +christianity!] + + +[Footnote C: This inhuman practice is particularly described by Brue, in +collect. vol. 2. page 98, where he says, "That some of the natives are, +on all occasions, endeavouring to surprize and carry off their country +people. They land (says he) without noise, and if they find a lone +cottage, without defence, they surround it, and carry off all the people +and effects to their boat, and immediately reimbark." This seems to be +mostly practised by some Negroes who dwell on the sea coast.] + + +[Footnote D: Bosman, p. 155.] + + + + + +CHAP. XI. + + +An account of the shocking inhumanity, used in the carrying on of the +slave-trade, as described by factors of different nations, viz. by +Francis Moor, on the river Gambia; and by John Barbot, A. Brue, and +William Bosman, through the coast of Guinea. _Note_. Of the large +revenues arising to the Kings of Guinea from the slave-trade. + +First, Francis Moor, factor for the English African company, on the +river Gambia,[A] writes, "That there are a number of Negro traders, +called joncoes, or merchants, who follow the slave-trade as a business; +their place of residence is so high up in the country as to be six weeks +travel from James Fort, which is situate at the mouth of that river. +These merchants bring down elephants teeth, and in some years two +thousand slaves, most of which, they say, are prisoners taken in war. +They buy them from the different Princes who take them; many of them are +Bumbrongs and Petcharies; nations, who each of them have different +languages, and are brought from a vast way inland. Their way of bringing +them is tying them by the neck with leather thongs, at about a yard +distant from each other, thirty or forty in a string, having generally a +bundle of corn or elephants teeth upon each of their heads. In their way +from the mountains, they travel thro' very great woods, where they +cannot for some days get water; so they carry in skin bags enough to +support them for a time. I cannot (adds Moor) be certain of the number +of merchants who follow this trade, but there may, perhaps, be about an +hundred, who go up into the inland country, with the goods which they +buy from the white men, and with them purchase, in various countries, +gold, slaves, and elephants teeth. Besides the slaves, which the +merchants bring down, there are many bought along the river: These are +either taken in war, as the former are, or men condemned for crimes; _or +else people stolen, which is very frequent_.--Since the slave-trade has +been used, all punishments are changed into slavery; there being an +advantage on such condemnation, _they strain for crimes very hard, in +order to get the benefit of selling the criminal_." + +[Footnote A: Moor, page 28.] + +John Barbot, the French factor, in his account of the manner by which +the slaves are procured, says,[A] "The slaves sold by the Negroes, are +for the most part prisoners of war, or taken in the incursions they make +in their enemies territories; others are stolen away by their +neighbours, when found abroad on the road, or in the woods; or else in +the corn fields, at the time of the year when their parents keep them +there all the day to scare away the devouring small birds." Speaking of +the transactions on that part of Guinea called the Slave Coast, where +the Europeans have the most factories, and from whence they bring away +much the greatest number of slaves, the same author, and also Bosman[B] +says, "The inhabitants of Coto do much mischief, in stealing those +slaves they sell to the Europeans, from the upland country.--That the +inhabitants of Popo excell the former; being endowed with a much larger +share of courage, they rob more successfully, by which means they +increase their riches and trade," The author particularly remarks, +"_That they are encouraged in this practice by the Europeans_; sometimes +it happens, according to the success of their inland excursions, that +they are able to furnish two hundred slaves or more, in a few days." And +he says,[C] "The blacks of Fida, or Whidah, are so expeditious in +trading for slaves, that they can deliver a thousand every month."--"If +there happens to be no stock of slaves there, the factor must trust the +blacks with his goods, to the value of one hundred and fifty, or two +hundred pounds; which goods they carry up into the inland country, to +buy slaves at all markets,[D] for above six hundred miles up the +country, where they are kept like cattle in Europe; the slaves sold +there being generally prisoners of war, taken from their enemies like +other booty, and perhaps some few sold by their own countrymen, in +extreme want, or upon a famine, as also some as a punishment of heinous +crimes." So far Barbot's account; that given by William Bosman is as +follows:[E] "When the slaves which are brought from the inland countries +come to Whidah, they are put in prison together; when we treat +concerning buying them, they are all brought out together in a large +plain, where, by our surgeons, they are thoroughly examined, and that +naked, both men and women, without the least distinction or modesty.[F] +Those which are approved as good, are set on one side; in the mean while +a burning iron, with the arms or name of the company, lies in the fire, +with which ours are marked on the breast. When we have agreed with the +owners of the slaves, they are returned to their prisons, where, from +that time forward, they are kept at our charge, and cost us two pence a +day each slave, which serves to subsist them like criminals on bread and +water; so that to save charges, we send them on board our ships the very +first opportunity; before which, their masters strip them of all they +have on their backs, so that they come on board stark naked, as well +women as men. In which condition they are obliged to continue, if the +master of the ship is not so charitable (which he commonly is) as to +bestow something on them to cover their nakedness. Six or seven hundred +are sometimes put on board a vessel, where they lie as close together as +it is possible for them to be crowded." + +[Footnote A: John Barbot, page 47.] + + +[Footnote B: Bosman, page 310.] + + +[Footnote C: Barbot, page 326.] + + +[Footnote D: When the great income which arises to the Negroe Kings on +the Slave-Coast, from the slaves brought thro' their several +governments, to be shipped on board the European vessels, is considered, +we have no cause to wonder that they give so great a countenance to that +trade: William Bosman says, page 337, "_That each ship which comes to +Whidah to trade, reckoning one with another, either by toll, trade, or +custom, pays about four hundred pounds, and sometimes fifty ships come +hither in a year." Barbot confirms the same, and adds, page 350, "That +in the neighbouring kingdom of Ardah, the duty to the King is the value +of seventy or eighty slaves for each trading ship_." Which is near half +as much more as at Whidah; nor can the Europeans, concerned in the +trade, with any degree of propriety, blame the African Kings for +countenancing it, while they continue to send vessels, on purpose to +take in the slaves which are thus stolen, and that they are permitted, +under the sanction of national laws, to sell them to the colonies.] + + +[Footnote E: Bosman, page 340.] + + +[Footnote F: Note, from the above account of the indecent and shocking +manner in which the unhappy Negroes are treated, it is reasonable for +persons unacquainted with these people, to conclude them to be void of +that natural modesty, so becoming a reasonable creature; but those who +have had intercourse with the Blacks in these northern colonies, know +that this would be a wrong conclusion, for they are indeed as +susceptible of modesty and shame as other people. It is the unparallel'd +brutality, to which the Europeans have, by long custom, been inured, +which urgeth them, without blushing, to act so shameful a part. Such +usage is certainly grievous to the poor Negroes, particularly the women; +but they are slaves, and must submit to this, or any other abuse that is +offered them by their cruel task-masters, or expect to be inhumanly +tormented into acquiescence. That the Blacks are unaccustomed to such +brutality, appears from an instance mentioned in Ashley's collection, +vol. 2. page 201, viz. "At an audience which Casseneuve had of the King +of Congo, where he was used with a great deal of civility by the Blacks, +some slaves were delivered to him. The King observing Casseneuve +(according to the custom of the Europeans) to handle the limbs of the +slaves, burst out a laughing, as did the great men about him: the factor +asking the interpreter the occasion of their mirth, was told it +proceeded from his so nicely examining the slaves. Nevertheless, _the +King was so ashamed of it, that he desired him, for decency's sake, to +do it in a more private manner._"] + + + + + +CHAP. XII. + + +Extracts of several Journals of Voyages to the coast of Guinea for +slaves, whereby the extreme inhumanity of that traffick is described. +_Melancholy_ account of a ship blown up on that coast, with a great +number of Negroes on board, _Instances_ of shocking barbarity +perpetrated by masters of vessels towards their slaves. _Inquiry_ why +these scandalous infringements, both of divine and human laws, are +overlooked by the government. + +The misery and bloodshed attendant on the slave-trade, are set forth by +the following extracts of two voyages to the coast of Guinea for slaves. +The first in a vessel from Liverpool, taken _verbatim_ from the original +manuscript of the Surgeon's Journal, _viz._ + +"Sestro, December the 29th, 1724, No trade to day, though many traders +came on board; they informed us, that the people are gone to war within +land, and will bring prisoners enough in two or three days, in hopes of +which we stay." + +The 30th. "No trade yet, but our traders came on board to day, and +informed us the people had burnt four towns of their enemies, so that +to-morrow we expect slaves off: another large ship is come in. Yesterday +came in a large Londoner." + +The 31st. "Fair weather, but no trade yet; we see each night towns +burning, but we hear the Sestro men are many of them killed by the +inland Negroes, so that we fear this war will be unsuccessful." + +The 2d of January. "Last night we saw a prodigious fire break out about +eleven o'clock, and this morning see the town of Sestro burnt down to +the ground; (it contained some hundreds of houses) So that we find their +enemies are too hard for them at present, and consequently our trade +spoiled here; therefore, about seven o'clock, we weighed anchor, as did +likewise the three other vessels, to proceed lower down." + +The second relation, also taken from the original manuscript Journal of +a person of credit, who went surgeon on the same trade, in a vessel from +New-York, about twenty years past, is as follows; _viz._ "Being on the +coast, the Commander of the vessel, according to custom, sent a person +on shore with a present to the King, acquainting him with his arrival, +and letting him know, they wanted a cargo of slaves. The King promised +to furnish them with the slaves; and, in order to do it, set out to go +to war against his enemies; designing to surprise some town, and take +all the people prisoners. Some time after, the King sent them word, he +had not yet met with the desired success; having been twice repulsed, in +attempting to break up two towns, but that he still hoped to procure a +number of slaves for them; and in this design he persisted, till he met +his enemies in the field, where a battle was fought, which lasted three +days, during which time the engagement was so bloody that four thousand +five hundred men were slain on the spot." The person who wrote the +account, beheld the bodies, as they lay on the field of battle. "Think +(says he in his Journal) what a pitiable sight it was, to see the widows +weeping over their lost husbands, orphans deploring the loss of their +fathers, &c. &c." In he 6th vol. of Churchill's collection of Voyages, +page 219, we have the relation of a voyage performed by Captain Philips, +in a ship of 450 tuns, along the coast of Guinea, for elephants teeth, +gold, and Negroe slaves, intended for Barbadoes; in which he says, that +they took "seven hundred slaves on board, the men being all put in irons +two by two, shackled together to prevent their mutinying or swimming +ashore. That the Negroes are so loth to leave their own country, that +they often leap out of the canoe, boat, or ship, into the sea, and keep +under water till they are drowned, to avoid being taken up, and saved by +the boats which pursue them."--They had about twelve Negroes who +willingly drowned themselves; others starved themselves to +death.--Philips was advised to cut off the legs and arms of some to +terrify the rest, (as other Captains had done) but this he refused to +do. From the time of his taking the Negroes on board, to his arrival at +Barbadoes, no less than three hundred and twenty died of various +diseases.[A] + +[Footnote A: _The following relation is inserted at the request of the +author._ + +That I may contribute all in my power towards the good of mankind, by +inspiring any individuals with a suitable abhorrence of that detestable +practice of trading in our fellow-creatures, and in some measure atone +for my neglect of duty as a Christian, in engaging in that wicked +traffic, I offer to their serious consideration some few occurrences, of +which I was an eye-witness; that being struck with the wretched and +affecting scene, they may foster that humane principle, which is the +noble and distinguished characteristic of man, and improve it to the +benefit of their children's children. + +About the year 1749, I sailed from Liverpool to the coast of Guinea. +Some time after our arrival, I was ordered to go up the country a +considerable distance, upon having notice from one of the Negroe Kings, +that he had a parcel of slaves to dispose of. I received my +instructions, and went, carrying with me an account of such goods as we +had on board, to exchange for the slaves we intended to purchase. Upon +being introduced, I presented him with a small case of English spirits, +a gun, and some trifles; which having accepted, and understood by an +interpreter what goods we had, the next day was appointed for viewing +the slaves; we found about two hundred confined in one place. But here +how shall I relate the affecting sight I there beheld! How can I +sufficiently describe the silent sorrow which appeared in the +countenance of the afflicted father, and the painful anguish of the +tender mother, expecting to be for ever separated from their tender +offspring; the distressed maid, wringing her hands in presage of her +future wretchedness, and the general cry of the innocent from a dreadful +apprehension of the perpetual slavery to which they were doomed! Under a +sense of my offence to God, in the persons of his creatures, I +acknowledge I purchased eleven, whom I conducted tied two and two to the +ship. Being but a small ship, (ninety ton) we soon purchased our cargo, +consisting of one hundred and seventy slaves, whom thou mayest, reader, +range in thy view, as they were shackled two and two together, pent up +within the narrow confines of the main deck, with the complicated +distress of sickness, chains, and contempt; deprived of every fond and +social tie, and, in a great measure, reduced to a state of desperation. +We had not been a fortnight at sea, before the fatal consequence of this +despair appeared; they formed a design of recovering their natural +right, LIBERTY, by rising and murdering every man on board; but the +goodness of the Almighty rendered their scheme abortive, and his mercy +spared us to have time to repent. The plot was discovered; the +ring-leader, tied by the two thumbs over the barricade door, at sun-rise +received a number of lashes: in this situation he remained till sun-set, +exposed to the insults and barbarity of the brutal crew of sailors, with +full leave to exercise their cruelty at pleasure. The consequence of +this was, that next morning the miserable sufferer was found dead, +flayed from the shoulders to the waist. The next victim was a youth, +who, from too strong a sense of his misery, refused nourishment, and +died disregarded and unnoticed, till the hogs had fed on part of his +flesh. Will not christianity blush at this impious sacrilege? May the +relation of it serve to call back the struggling remains of humanity in +the hearts of those, who, from a love of wealth, partake in any degree +of this oppressive gain; and have such an effect on the minds of the +sincere, as may be productive of peace, the happy effect of true +repentance for past transgressions, and a resolution to renounce all +connexion with it for the time to come.] + +Reader, bring the matter home to thy own heart, and consider whether any +situation can be more completely miserable than that of these distressed +captives. When we reflect that each individual of this number had +probably some tender attachment, which was broken by this cruel +separation; some parent or wife, who had not an opportunity of mingling +tears in a parting embrace; perhaps some infants, or aged parents, whom +his labour was to feed, and vigilance protect; themselves under the most +dreadful apprehension of an unknown perpetual slavery; confined within +the narrow limits of a vessel, where often several hundreds lie as close +as possible. Under these aggravated distresses, they are often reduced +to a state of despair, in which many have been frequently killed, and +some deliberately put to death under the greatest torture, when they +have attempted to rise, in order to free themselves from present misery, +and the slavery designed them. Many accounts of this nature might be +mentioned; indeed from the vast number of vessels employed in the trade, +and the repeated relations in the public prints of Negroes rising on +board the vessels from Guinea, it is more than probable, that many such +instances occur every year. I shall only mention one example of this +kind, by which the reader may judge of the rest; it is in Astley's +collection, vol. 2. p. 449, related by John Atkins, surgeon on board +admiral Ogle's squadron, of one "Harding, master of a vessel in which +several of the men-slaves and women-slaves had attempted to rise, in +order to recover their liberty; some of whom the master, of his own +authority, sentenced to cruel death, making them first eat the heart and +liver of one of those he had killed. The woman he hoisted by the thumbs, +whipped, and slashed with knives before the other slaves, till she +died."[A] As detestable and shocking as this may appear to such whose +hearts are not yet hardened by the practice of that cruelty, which the +love of wealth by degrees introduceth into the human mind, it will not +be strange to those who have been concerned or employed in the trade. + +[Footnote A: A memorable instance of some of the dreadful effects of the +slave-trade, happened about five years past, on a ship from this port, +then at anchor about three miles from shore, near Acra Fort, on the +coast of Guinea. They had purchased between four and five hundred +Negroes, and were ready to sail for the West Indies. It is customary on +board those vessels, to keep the men shackled two by two, each by one +leg to a small iron bar; these are every day brought on the deck for the +benefit of air; and lest they should attempt to recover their freedom, +they are made fast to two common chains, which are extended on each side +the main deck; the women and children are loose. This was the situation +of the slaves on board this vessel, when it took fire by means of a +person who was drawing spirits by the light of a lamp; the cask +bursting, the fire spread with so much violence, that in about ten +minutes, the sailors, apprehending it impossible to extinguish it before +it could reach a large quantity of powder they had on board, concluded +it necessary to cast themselves into the sea, as the only chance of +saving their lives; and first they endeavoured to loose the chains by +which the Negroe men were fastened to the deck; but in the confusion the +key being missing, they had but just time to loose one of the chains by +wrenching the staple; when the vehemence of the fire so increased, that +they all but one man jumped over board, when immediately the fire having +gained the powder, the vessel blew up with all the slaves who remained +fastened to the one chain, and such others as had not followed the +sailors examples. There happened to be three Portugueze vessels in +sight, who, with others from the shore, putting out their boats, took up +about two hundred and fifty of those poor souls who remained alive; of +which number, about fifty died on shore, being mostly of those who were +fettered together by iron shackles, which, as they jumped into the sea, +had broke their legs, and these fractures being inflamed by so long a +struggle in the sea, probably mortified, which occasioned the death of +every one that was so wounded. The two hundred remaining alive, were +soon disposed of, for account of the owners to other purchasers.] + +Now here arises a necessary query to those who hold the balance of +justice, and who must be accountable to God for the use they have made +of it, That as the principles on which the British constitution is +founded, are so favourable to the common rights of mankind, how it has +happened that the laws which countenance this iniquitous traffic, have +obtained the sanction of the legislature? and that the executive part of +the government should so long shut their ears to continual reports of +the barbarities perpetrated against this unhappy people, and leave the +trading subjects at liberty to trample on the most precious rights of +others, even without a rebuke? Why are the masters of vessels thus +suffered to be the sovereign arbiters of the lives of the miserable +Negroes, and allowed with impunity thus to destroy (may I not properly +say, _to murder_) their fellow-creatures; and that by means so cruel, as +cannot be even related but with shame and horror? + + + + + +CHAP. XIII. + + +Usage of the Negroes, when they arrive in the West Indies. An hundred +thousand Negroes brought from Guinea every year to the English colonies. +The number of Negroes who die in the passage and seasoning. These are, +properly speaking, murdered by the prosecution of this infamous traffic. +Remarks on its dreadful _effects and tendency_. + +When the vessels arrive at their destined port in the colonies, the poor +Negroes are to be disposed of to the planters; and here they are again +exposed naked, without any distinction of sexes, to the brutal +examination of their purchasers; and this, it may well be judged, is, to +many, another occasion of deep distress. Add to this, that near +connexions must now again be separated, to go with their several +purchasers; this must be deeply affecting to all, but such whose hearts +are seared by the love of gain. Mothers are seen hanging over their +daughters, bedewing their naked breasts with tears, and daughters +clinging to their parents, not knowing what new stage of distress must +follow their separation, or whether they shall ever meet again. And here +what sympathy, what commiseration, do they meet with? Why, indeed, if +they will not separate as readily as their owners think proper, the +whipper is called for, and the lash exercised upon their naked bodies, +till obliged to part. Can any human heart, which is not become callous +by the practice of such cruelties, be unconcerned, even at the relation +of such grievous affliction, to which this oppressed part of our species +are subjected. + +In a book, printed in Liverpool, called _The Liverpool Memorandum_, +which contains, amongst other things, an account of the trade of that +port, there is an exact list of the vessels employed in the Guinea +trade, and of the number of slaves imported in each vessel; by which it +appears that in the year 1753, the number imported to America by one +hundred and one vessels belonging to that port, amounted to upwards of +thirty thousand; and from the number of vessels employed by the African +company in London and Bristol, we may, with some degree of certainty, +conclude, there are one hundred thousand Negroes purchased and brought +on board our ships yearly from the coast of Africa. This is confirmed in +Anderson's history of Trade and Commerce, lately printed; where it is +said,[A] "That England supplies her American colonies with Negroe +slaves, amounting in number to above one hundred thousand every year." +When the vessels are full freighted with slaves, they sail for our +plantations in America, and may be two or three months in the voyage; +during which time, from the filth and stench that is among them, +distempers frequently break out, which carry off commonly a fifth, a +fourth, yea sometimes a third or more of them: so that taking all the +slaves together, that are brought on board our ships yearly, one may +reasonably suppose, that at least ten thousand of them die on the +voyage. And in a printed account of the state of the Negroes in our +plantations, it is supposed that a fourth part, more or less, die at the +different islands, in what is called the seasoning. Hence it may be +presumed, that at a moderate computation of the slaves who are purchased +by our African merchants in a year, near thirty thousand die upon the +voyage, and in the seasoning. Add to this, the prodigious number who are +killed in the incursions and intestine wars, by which the Negroes +procure the number of slaves wanted to load the vessels. How dreadful +then is this slave-trade, whereby so many thousands of our fellow +creatures, free by nature, endued with the same rational faculties, and +called to be heirs of the same salvation with us, lose their lives, and +are, truly and properly speaking, murdered every year! For it is not +necessary, in order to convict a man of murder, to make it appear that +he had an _intention_ to commit murder; whoever does, by unjust force or +violence, deprive another of his liberty, and, while he hath him in his +power, continues so to oppress him by cruel treatment, as eventually to +occasion his death, is actually guilty of murder. It is enough to make a +thoughtful person tremble, to think what a load of guilt lies upon our +nation on this account; and that the blood of thousands of poor innocent +creatures, murdered every year in the prosecution of this wicked trade, +cries aloud to Heaven for vengeance. Were we to hear or read of a nation +that destroyed every year, in some other way, as many human creatures as +perish in this trade, we should certainly consider them as a very +bloody, barbarous people; if it be alledged, that the legislature hath +encouraged, and still does encourage this trade, It is answered, that no +legislature on earth can alter the nature of things, so as to make that +to be right which is contrary to the law of God, (the supreme Legislator +and Governor of the world) and opposeth the promulgation of the Gospel +of _peace on earth, and good will to man_. Injustice may be methodized +and established by law, but still it will be injustice, as much as it +was before; though its being so established may render men more +insensible of the guilt, and more bold and secure in the perpetration of +it. + +[Footnote A: Appendix to Anderson's history, p. 68.] + + + + + +CHAP. XIV. + + +Observations on the disposition and capacity of the Negroes: Why thought +inferior to that of the Whites. Affecting instances of the slavery of +the Negroes. Reflections thereon. + +Doubts may arise in the minds of some, whether the foregoing accounts, +relating to the natural capacity and good disposition of the inhabitants +of Guinea, and of the violent manner in which they are said to be torn +from their native land, are to be depended upon; as those Negroes who +are brought to us, are not heard to complain, and do but seldom manifest +such a docility and quickness of parts, as is agreeable thereto. But +those who make these objections, are desired to note the many +discouragements the poor Africans labour under, when brought from their +native land. Let them consider, that those afflicted strangers, though +in an _enlightened Christian country_, have yet but little opportunity +or encouragement to exert and improve their natural talents: They are +constantly employed in servile labour; and the abject condition in which +we see them, naturally raises an idea of a superiority in ourselves; +whence we are apt to look upon them as an ignorant and contemptible part +of mankind. Add to this, that they meet with very little encouragement +of freely conversing with such of the Whites, as might impart +instruction to them. It is a fondness for wealth, for authority, or +honour, which prompts most men in their endeavours to excell; but these +motives can have little influence upon the minds of the Negroes; few of +them having any reasonable prospect of any other than a state of +slavery; so that, though their natural capacities were ever so good, +they have neither inducement or opportunity to exert them to advantage: +This naturally tends to depress their minds, and sink their spirits into +habits of idleness and sloth, which they would, in all likelihood, have +been free from, had they stood upon an equal footing with the white +people. They are suffered, with impunity, to cohabit together, without +being married; and to part, when solemnly engaged to one another as man +and wife; notwithstanding the moral and religious laws of the land, +strictly prohibiting such practices. This naturally tends to beget +apprehensions in the most thoughtful of those people, that we look upon +them as a lower race, not worthy of the same care, nor liable to the +same rewards and punishments as ourselves. Nevertheless it may with +truth be said, that both amongst those who have obtained their freedom, +and those who remain in servitude, some have manifested a strong +sagacity and an exemplary uprightness of heart. If this hath not been +generally the case with them, is it a matter of surprize? Have we not +reason to make the same complaint of many white servants, when +discharged from our service, though many of them have had much greater +opportunities of knowledge and improvement than the blacks; who, even +when free, labour under the same difficulties as before: having but +little access to, and intercourse with, the most reputable white people, +they remain confined within their former limits of conversation. And if +they seldom complain of the unjust and cruel usage they have received, +in being forced from their native country, &c. it is not to be wondered +at; it being a considerable time after their arrival amongst us, before +they can speak our language; and, by the time they are able to express +themselves, they have great reason to believe, that little or no notice +would be taken of their complaints: yet let any person enquire of those +who were capable of reflection, before they were brought from their +native land, and he will hear such affecting relations, as, if not lost +to the common feelings of humanity, will sensibly affect his heart. The +case of a poor Negroe, not long since brought from Guinea, is a recent +instance of this kind. From his first arrival, he appeared thoughtful +and dejected, frequently dropping tears when taking notice of his +master's children, the cause of which was not known till he was able to +speak English, when the account he gave of himself was, "That he had a +wife and children in his own country; that some of these being sick and +thirsty, he went in the night time, to fetch water at a spring, where he +was violently seized and carried away by persons who lay in wait to +catch men, from whence he was transported to America. The remembrance of +his family, friends, and other connections, left behind, which he never +expected to see any more, were the principal cause of his dejection and +grief." Many cases, equally affecting, might be here mentioned; but one +more instance, which fell under the notice of a person of credit, will +suffice. One of these wretched creatures, then about 50 years of age, +informed him, "That being violently torn from a wife and several +children in Guinea, he was sold in Jamaica, where never expecting to see +his native land or family any more, he joined himself to a Negroe woman, +by whom he had two children: after some years, it suiting the interest +of his owner to remove him, he was separated from his second wife and +children, and brought to South Carolina, where, expecting to spend the +remainder of his days, he engaged with a third wife, by whom he had +another child; but here the same consequence of one man being subject to +the will and pleasure of another man occurring, he was separated from +this last wife and child, and brought into this country, where he +remained a slave." Can any, whose mind is not rendered quite obdurate by +the love of wealth, hear these relations, without being deeply touched +with sympathy and sorrow? And doubtless the case of many, very many of +these afflicted people, upon enquiry, would be found to be attended with +circumstances equally tragical and aggravating. And if we enquire of +those Negroes, who were brought away from their native country when +children, we shall find most of them to have been stolen away, when +abroad from their parents, on the roads, in the woods, or watching their +corn-fields. Now, you that have studied the book of conscience, and you +that are learned in the law, what will you say to such deplorable cases? +When, and how, have these oppressed people forfeited their liberty? Does +not justice loudly call for its being restored to them? Have they not +the same right to demand it, as any of us should have, if we had been +violently snatched by pirates from our native land? Is it not the duty +of every dispenser of justice, who is not forgetful of his own humanity, +to remember that these are men, and to declare them free? Where +instances of such cruelty frequently occur, and are neither enquired +into, nor redressed, by those whose duty it is _to seek judgment, and +relieve the oppressed_, Isaiah i. 17. what can be expected, but that the +groans and cries of these sufferers will reach Heaven; and what shall we +do _when God riseth up? and when he visiteth_, what will ye answer him? +_Did not he that made them, make us; and did not one fashion us in the +womb_? Job xxxi. 14. + + + + + +CHAP XIV. + + +The expediency of a general freedom being granted to the Negroes +considered. _Reasons_ why it might be productive of advantage and +_safety to the Colonies_. + +It is scarce to be doubted, but that the foregoing accounts will beget +in the heart of the considerate readers an earnest desire to see a stop +put to this complicated evil, but the objection with many is, What shall +be done with those Negroes already imported, and born in our families? +Must they be sent to Africa? That would be to expose them, in a strange +land, to greater difficulties than many of them labour under at present. +To let them suddenly free here, would be perhaps attended with no less +difficulty; for, undiciplined as they are in religion and virtue, they +might give a loose to those evil habits, which the fear of a master +would have restrained. These are objections, which weigh with many well +disposed people, and it must be granted, these are difficulties in the +way; nor can any general change be made, or reformation effected, +without some; but the difficulties are not so great but that they may be +surmounted. If the government was so considerate of the iniquity and +danger attending on this practice, as to be willing to seek a remedy, +doubtless the Almighty would bless this good intention, and such methods +would be thought of, as would not only put an end to the unjust +oppression of the Negroes, but might bring them under regulations, that +would enable them to become profitable members of society; for the +furtherance of which, the following proposals are offered to +consideration: That all farther importation of slaves be absolutely +prohibited; and as to those born among us, after serving so long as may +appear to be equitable, let them by law be declared free. Let every one, +thus set free, be enrolled in the county courts, and be obliged to be a +resident, during a certain number of years, within the said county, +under the care of the overseers of the poor. Thus being, in some sort, +still under the direction of governors, and the notice of those who were +formerly acquainted with them, they would be obliged to act the more +circumspectly, and make proper use of their liberty, and their children +would have an opportunity of obtaining such instructions, as are +necessary to the common occasions of life; and thus both parents and +children might gradually become useful members of the community. And +further, where the nature of the country would permit, as certainly the +uncultivated condition of our southern and most western colonies easily +would, suppose a small tract of land were assigned to every Negroe +family, and they obliged to live upon and improve it, (when not hired +out to work for the white people) this would encourage them to exert +their abilities, and become industrious subjects. Hence, both planters +and tradesmen would be plentifully supplied with chearful and +willing-minded labourers, much vacant land would be cultivated, the +produce of the country be justly increased, the taxes for the support of +government lessened to individuals, by the increase of taxables, and the +Negroes, instead of being an object of terror,[A] as they certainly must +be to the governments where their numbers are great, would become +interested in their safety and welfare. + +[Footnote A: The hard usage the Negroes meet with in the plantations, +and the great disproportion between them and the white people, will +always be a just cause of terror. In Jamaica, and some parts of +South-Carolina, it is supposed that there are fifteen blacks to one +white.] + + + + + +CHAP. XV. + + +Answer to a mistaken opinion, that the warmth of the climate in the +West-Indies, will not permit white people to labour there. No complaint +of disability in the whites, in that respect, in the settlement of the +islands. Idleness and diseases prevailed, as the use of slaves +increased. _The great_ advantage which might accrue to the British +nation, if the slave trade was entirely laid aside, and a fair and +friendly commerce established through the whole coast of Africa. + +It is frequently offered as an argument, in vindication of the use of +Negroe slaves, that the warmth of the climate in the West Indies will +not permit white people to labour in the culture of the land: but upon +an acquaintance with the nature of the climate, and its effects upon +such labouring white people, as are prudent and moderate in labour, and +the use of spirituous liquors, this will be found to be a mistaken +opinion. Those islands were, at first, wholly cultivated by white men; +the encouragement they then met with, for a long course of years, was +such as occasioned a great increase of people. Richard Ligon, in his +history of Barbadoes, where he resided from the year 1647 to 1650, about +24 years after his first settlement, writes, "that there were then fifty +thousand souls on that island, besides Negroes; and that though the +weather was very hot, yet not so scalding but that servants, both +christians and slaves, laboured ten hours a day." By other accounts we +gather, that the white people have since decreased to less than one half +the number which was there at that time; and by relations of the first +settlements of the other islands, we do not meet with any complaints of +unfitness in the white people for labour there, before slaves were +introduced. The island of Hispaniola, which is one of the largest of +those islands, was at first planted by the Buccaneers, a set of hardy +laborious men, who continued so for a long course of years; till +following the example of their neighbours, in the purchase and use of +Negroe slaves, idleness and excess prevailing, debility and disease +naturally succeeded, and have ever since continued. If, under proper +regulations, liberty was proclaimed through the colonies, the Negroes, +from dangerous, grudging, half-fed slaves, might become able, +willing-minded labourers. And if there was not a sufficient number of +these to do the necessary work, a competent number of labouring people +might be procured from Europe, which affords numbers of poor distressed +objects, who, if not overlooked, with proper usage, might, in several +respects, better answer every good purpose in performing the necessary +labour in the islands, than the slaves now do. + +A farther considerable advantage might accrue to the British nation in +general, if the slave trade was laid aside, by the cultivation of a +fair, friendly, and humane commerce with the Africans; without which, it +is not possible the inland trade of that country should ever be extended +to the degree it is capable of; for while the spirit of butchery and +making slaves of each other, is promoted by the Europeans amongst the +Negroes, no mutual confidence can take place; nor will the Europeans be +able to travel with safety into the heart of their country, to form and +cement such commercial friendships and alliances, as might be necessary +to introduce the arts and sciences amongst them, and engage their +attention to instruction in the principles of the christian religion, +which is the only sure foundation of every social virtue. Africa has +about ten thousand miles of sea coast, and extends in depth near three +thousand miles from east to west, and as much from north to south, +stored with vast treasures of materials, necessary for the trade and +manufactures of Great-Britain; and from its climate, and the +fruitfulness of its soil, capable, under proper management, of producing +in the greatest plenty, most of the commodities which are imported into +Europe from those parts of America subject to the English government;[A] +and as, in return, they would take our manufactures, the advantages of +this trade would soon become so great, that it is evident this subject +merits the regard and attention of the government. + +[Footnote A: See note, page 109.] + + + + + +EXTRACT + +FROM A + +REPRESENTATION + +OF THE + +INJUSTICE + +AND + +DANGEROUS TENDENCY + +OF TOLERATING + +SLAVERY; + + +OR + + +Admitting the least CLAIM of private Property in the Persons of Men in +_England_. + + +By GRANVILLE SHARP. + + +FIRST PRINTED IN LONDON. + + +MDCCLXIX. + + +CONTENTS. + + +_The occasion of this Treatise. All Persons during their residence in_ +Great Britain _are subjects; and as such, bound to the laws, and under +the Kings protection. By the English laws, no man, of what condition +soever, to be imprisoned, or any way deprived of his_ LIBERTY, _without +a legal process. The danger of_ Slavery _taking place in England. +Prevails in the Northern Colonies, notwithstanding the people's plea in +favour of_ Liberty. _Advertisements in the New-York Journal for the sale +of_ SLAVES. _Advertisements to the same purpose in the public prints in +England. The danger of confining any person without a legal warrant. +Instances of that nature. Note, Extract of several American laws, +Reflexions thereon._ + +EXTRACT, &C. + +Some persons respectable in the law, having given it as their opinion, +"_That a slave, by coming from the West Indies to Great Britain or +Ireland, either with or without his master, doth not become free, or +that his master's property or right in him is not thereby determined or +varied;--and that the master may legally compel him to return again to +the plantations_,"--this causes our author to remark, that these +lawyers, by thus stating the case merely on one side of the question, (I +mean in favour of the master) have occasioned an unjust presumption and +prejudice, plainly inconsistent with the laws of the realm, and against +the other side of the question; as they have not signified that their +opinion was only conditional, and not absolute, and must be understood +on the part of the master, "_That he can produce an authentic agreement +or contract in writing, by which it shall appear, that the said slave +hath voluntarily bound himself, without compulsion or illegal duress_." + +Page 5. Indeed there are many instances of persons being freed from +slavery by the laws of England, but (God be thanked) there is neither +law, nor even a precedent, (at least I have not been able to find one) +of a legal determination to justify a master in claiming or detaining +any person whatsoever as a slave in England, who has not voluntarily +bound himself as such by a contract in writing. + +Page 20. An English subject cannot be made a slave without his own free +consent: but--a foreign slave is made a subject with or without his own +consent: there needs no contract for this purpose, as in the other case; +nor any other act or deed whatsoever, but that of his being landed in +England; For according to statute 32d of Henry VIII. c. 16. Sect. 9. +"_Every alien or stranger born out of the King's obeisance, not being +denizen, which now or hereafter shall come into this realm, or elsewhere +within the King's dominions, shall, after the said first of September +next coming, be bounden by and unto the laws and statutes of this realm, +and to all and singular the contents of the same._" + +Now it must be observed, that this law makes no distinction of _bond or +free_, neither of colours or complexions, whether of _black, brown_, or +_white_; for "_every alien or stranger_ (without exception) _are bounden +by and unto the law_, &c." + +This binding, or obligation, is properly expressed by the English word +_ligeance, (a ligando_) which may be either perpetual or temporary. +Wood, b. I. c. 3. p. 37. But one of these is indispensably due to the +Sovereign from all ranks and conditions of people; their being bounden +unto the laws, (upon which the Sovereign's right is founded) expresses +and implies this subjection to the laws; and therefore to alledge, that +an alien is not a subject, because he is in bondage, is not only a plea +without foundation, but a contradiction in terms; for every person who, +in any respect, is in subjection to the laws, must undoubtedly be a +subject. + +I come now to the main point--"_That every man, woman, or child, that +now is, or hereafter shall be, an inhabitant or resiant of this kingdom +of England, dominion of Wales, or town of Berwick upon Tweed,_" is, in +some respect or other, the _King's subject_, and, as such, is absolutely +secure in his or her _personal liberty_, by virtue of a statute, 31st +Car. II. ch. 11. and particularly by the 12th Sect. of the same, wherein +subjects of all conditions are plainly included. + +This act is expressly intended for the better securing the liberty of +the subject, and for prevention of imprisonment beyond the seas. It +contains no distinction of "_natural born, naturalized, denizen, or +alien subject; nor of white or black, freemen, or even of bond-men_," +(except in the case already mentioned _of a contract in writing_, by +which it shall appear, _that the said slave has voluntarily bound +himself, without compulsion or illegal duress_, allowed by the 13th +Sect. and the exception likewise in the 14th Sect. concerning felons) +but they are all included under the general titles of "_the subject, any +of the said subjects, every such person_" &c. Now the definition of the +word "_person_," in its relative or civil capacity (according to Wood. +b. I. c. 11. p. 27.) _is either the King, or a subject_. These are the +_only capital distinctions_ that can be made, tho' the latter consists +of a variety of denominations and degrees. + +But if I were even to allow, that a _Negroe slave_ is not a subject, +(though I think I have clearly proved that he is) yet it is plain that +such an one ought not to be denied the benefit of the King's court, +unless the slave-holder shall be able to prove likewise that he is not, +a _Man_; because _every man_ may be _free_ to sue for, and _defend his +right in our courts_, says a stat. 20th Edw. III. c. 4. and elsewhere, +according to law. And _no man, of what estate or condition_ that he be, +(here can be no exception whatsoever) _shall be put out of land or +tenement, nor taken, nor imprisoned, nor disinherited, nor put to death, +without being brought in answer by due process of the law_. 28th Edw. +III, c. 3, _No man_ therefore, _of what estate or condition that he be_, +can lawfully be detained in England _as a slave_; because we have no law +whereby a man _may be_ condemned to _slavery_ without his own consent, +(for even convicted felons must "_in open court pray to transported_.") +(See Habeas Corpus act, Sect. 14.) and therefore there cannot be any +"_due process of the law_" tending to so base a purpose. It follows +therefore, that every man, who presumes to detain _any person_ +whatsoever as a slave, otherwise than by virtue of a written contract, +acts manifestly without "_due process of the law_," and consequently is +liable to the slave's "_action of false imprisonment_," because "_every +man may be free to sue_," &c. so that the slave-holder cannot avail +himself of his imaginary _property_, either by the assistance of the +common law, or of a court of equity, (_except it appears that the said +slave has voluntarily bound himself, without compulsion or illegal +duress_) for in both his suit will certainly appear both unjust and +indefensible. The former cannot assist him, because the statute law at +present is so far from supposing any man in a state of slavery, that it +cannot even permit such a state, except in the two cases mentioned in +the 13th and 14th Section of the Habeas Corpus act; and the courts of +equity likewise must necessarily decide against him, because his mere +mercenary plea of _private property_ cannot equitably, in a case between +_man and man_, stand in competition with that _superior property_ which +every man must necessarily be allowed to have in his own _proper +person_. + +How then is the slave-holder to secure what he esteems his _property?_ +Perhaps he will endeavour clandestinely to seize the supposed slave, in +order to transport him (with or without _his consent_) to the colonies, +where such property is allowed: but let him take care what he does, the +very attempt is punishable; and even the making over his property to +another for that purpose, renders him equally liable to the severe +penalties of the law, for a bill of sale may certainly be included under +the terms expressed in the Habeas Corpus act, 12th Sect. viz. "_Any +warrant or writing for such commitment, detainer, imprisonment, or +transportation," &c._ It is also dangerous for a counsellor, or any +other person _to advise_ (see the act "shall be advising") such +proceedings, by saying, "_That a master may legally compel him_ (the +slave) _to return again to the plantations_." Likewise an attorney, +notary-public, or any other person, who shall presume to draw up, +negotiate, of even to witness a bill of sale, or other instrument for +such commitment, &c. offends equally against the law, because "_All, or +any person or persons, that shall frame, contrive, write, seal, or +countersign any warrant or writing for such commitment, detainer, +imprisonment, or transportation; or shall be advising, aiding, or +assisting in the same, or any of them_," are liable to all the penalties +of the act. "_And the plaintiff, in every such action, shall have +judgment to recover his treble costs, besides damages; which damages so +to be given shall not be less than five hundred pounds_;" so that the +injured may have ample satisfaction for their sufferings: and even a +judge may not direct or instruct a jury contrary to this statute, +whatever his private opinion may be concerning property in slaves; +because _no order or command, nor no injunction_, is allowed to +interfere with this _golden act of liberty_. + +--I have before observed, that the general term, "_every alien_," +includes _all strangers whatsoever_, and renders them _subject_ to the +King, and the laws, during their residence in this kingdom; and this is +certainly true, whether the aliens be Turks, Moors, Arabians, Tartars, +or even savages, from any part of the world.--Men are rendered obnoxious +to the laws by their offences, and not by the particular denomination of +their rank, order, parentage, colour, or country; and therefore, though +we should suppose that any particular body of people whatsoever were not +known, or had in consideration by the legislature at the different times +when the severe penal laws were made, yet no man can reasonably +conceive, that such men are exempted on this account from the penalties +of the said laws, when legally convicted of having offended against +them. + +Laws calculated for the moral purpose of preventing oppression, are +likewise usually supposed to be everlasting, and to make up a part of +our happy constitution; for which reason, though the kind of oppression +to be guarded against, and the penalties for offenders, are minutely +described therein, yet the persons to be protected are comprehended in +terms as general as possible; that "_no person who now is, or hereafter +shall be, an inhabitant or resiant in this kingdom_," (see Habeas Corpus +act, Sect. 12th) may seem to be excluded from protection. The general +terms of the several statutes before cited, are so full and clear, that +they admit of no exception whatsoever; for all persons (Negroes as well +as others) must be included in the terms "the subject;"--"_no subject of +this realm that now is, or hereafter shall be, an inhabitant, &c. any +subject; every such person_;" see Habeas Corpus act. Also _every man_ +may be _free_ to sue, &c. 20th Edward III. cap. 4. and _no man, of what +estate or condition that he be_, shall be taken or imprisoned, &c. True +justice makes no respect of persons, and can never deny, to any one that +blessing to which all mankind have an undoubted right, their _natural +liberty_: though the law makes no mention of Negroe slaves, yet this is +no just argument for excluding them from the general protection of our +happy constitution. + +Neither can the objection, that Negroe slaves were not "had in +consideration or contemplation," when these laws were made, prove any +thing against them; but, on the contrary, much in their favour; for both +these circumstances are strong presumptive proofs, that the practice of +importing slaves into this kingdom, and retaining them as such, is an +innovation entirely foreign to the spirit and intention of the laws now +in force. + +--Page 79. A toleration of slavery is, in effect, a toleration of +inhumanity; for there are wretches in the world who make no scruple to +gain, by wearing out their slaves with continual labour, and a scanty +allowance, before they have lived out half their natural days. It is +notorious, that this is too often the case in the unhappy countries +where slavery is tolerated. + +See the account of the European settlements in America, Part VI. Chap. +11. concerning the "_misery of the Negroes, great waste of them_," &c. +which informs us not only of a most scandalous profanation of the Lord's +day, but also of another abomination, which must be infinitely more +heinous in the sight of God, viz. oppression carried to such excess, as +to be even destructive of the human species. + +At present, the inhumanity of constrained labour in excess, extends no +farther in England than to our beasts, as post and hackney-horses, +sand-asses, &c. + +But thanks to our laws, and not to the general good disposition of +masters, that it is so; for the wretch who is bad enough to maltreat a +helpless beast, would not spare his fellow man if he had him as much in +his power. + +The maintenance of civil liberty is therefore absolutely necessary to +prevent an increase of our national guilt, by the addition of the horrid +crime of tyranny.--Notwithstanding that the plea of necessity cannot +here be urged, yet this is no reason why an increase of the practice is +not to be feared. + +Our North American colonies afford us a melancholy instance to the +contrary; for though the climate in general is so wholesome and +temperate, that it will not authorise this plea of necessity for the +employment of slaves, any more than our own, yet the pernicious practice +of slave-holding is become almost general in those parts. At New-York, +for instance, the infringement on civil or domestic liberty is become +notorious, notwithstanding the political controversies of the +inhabitants in praise of liberty; but no panegyric on this subject +(howsoever elegant in itself) can be graceful or edifying from the mouth +or pen of one of those provincials, because men who do not scruple to +detain others in slavery, have but a very partial and unjust claim to +the protection of the laws of liberty; and indeed it too plainly appears +that they have no real regard for liberty, farther than their own +private interests are concerned; and (consequently) that they have so +little detestation of despotism and tyranny, that they do not scruple to +exercise them whenever their caprice excites them, or their private +interest seems to require an exertion of their power over their +miserable slaves. + +Every petty planter, who avails himself of the service of slaves, is an +arbitrary monarch, or rather a lawless Bashaw in his own territories, +notwithstanding that the imaginary freedom of the province wherein he +resides, may seem to forbid the observation. + +The boasted liberty of our American colonies, therefore, has so little +right to that sacred name, that it seems to differ from the arbitrary +power of despotic monarchs only in one circumstance, viz. that it is a +_many-headed monster of tyranny_, which entirely subverts our most +excellent constitution; because liberty and slavery are so opposite to +each other, that they cannot subsist in the same community. "_Political +liberty (in mild or well regulated governments) makes civil liberty +valuable; and whosoever is deprived of the latter, is deprived also of +the former_." This observation of the learned Montesquieu, I hope +sufficiently justifies my censure of the Americans for their notorious +violation of civil liberty;--The New-York Journal, or, The General +Advertiser, for Thursday, 22d October, 1767, gives notice by +advertisement, of no less than eight different persons who have escaped +from slavery, or are put up to public sale for that horrid purpose. + +That I may demonstrate the indecency of such proceedings in a free +country, I shall take the liberty of laying some of these advertisements +before my readers, by way of example. + +"_To be SOLD for want of Employment_, A likely strong active Negroe man, +of about 24 years of age, this country born, (_N.B._ A natural born +subject) understands most of a baker's trade, and a good deal of farming +business, and can do all sorts of house-work.--Also a healthy Negroe +wench, of about 21 years old, is a tolerable cook, and capable of doing +all sorts of house-work, can be well recommended for her honesty and +sobriety: she has a female child of nigh three years old, which will be +sold with the wench if required, &c." Here is not the least +consideration, or scruple of conscience, for the inhumanity of parting +the mother and young child. From the stile, one would suppose the +advertisement to be of no more importance than if it related merely to +the sale of a cow and her calf; and that the cow should be sold with or +without her calf, according as the purchaser should require.--But not +only Negroes, but even American Indians, are detained in the same +abominable slavery in our colonies, though there cannot be any +reasonable pretence whatsoever for holding one of these as private +property; for even if a written contract should be produced as a voucher +in such a case, there would still remain great suspicion, that some +undue advantage had been taken of the Indian's ignorance concerning the +nature of such a bond. + +"_Run away, on Monday the 21st instant, from J----n T----, Esq. of +West-Chester county, in the province of New-York_, An Indian slave, +named Abraham, he may have changed his name, about 23 years of age, +about five feet five inches." + +Upon the whole, I think I may with justice conclude, that those +advertisements discover a shameless prostitution and infringement on the +common and natural rights of mankind--But hold! perhaps the Americans +may be able, with too much justice, to retort this severe reflexion, and +may refer us to news-papers published even in the free city of London, +which contain advertisements not less dishonourable than their own. See +advertisement in the Public Ledger of 31st December, 1761. + +"_For SALE, A healthy NEGROE GIRL_, aged about fifteen years; speaks +good English, works at her needle, washes well, does houshold work, and +has had the small-pox. By J.W. &c." + +Another advertisement, not long ago, offered a reward for stopping a +female slave who had left her mistress in Hatton-garden. And in the +Gazetteer of 18th April, 1769, appeared a very extraordinary +advertisement with the following title; + +"_Horses, Tim Wisky, and black Boy_, To be sold at the Bull and Gate +Inn. Holborn, _A very good Tim Wisky_, little the worse for wear, &c." +Afterwards, "_A Chesnut Gelding_;" then, "_A very good grey Mare_;" and +last of all, (as if of the least consequence) "_A well-made +good-tempered black Boy_, he has lately had the small-pox, and will be +sold to any gentleman. Enquire as above." + +Another advertisement in the same paper, contains a very particular +description of a Negroe man, called _Jeremiah_,--and concludes as +follows:--"Whoever delivers him to Capt. M---- U----y, on board the +Elizabeth, at Prince's Stairs, Rotherhithe, on or before the 31st +instant, shall receive thirty guineas reward, or ten guineas for such +intelligence as shall enable the Captain, or his master, effectually to +secure him. The utmost secrecy may be depended on." It is not on account +of shame, that men, who are capable of undertaking the desperate and +wicked employment of kidnappers, are supposed to be tempted to such a +business, by a promise "_of the utmost secrecy_;" but this must be from +a sense of the unlawfulness of the act proposed to them, that they may +have less reason to fear a prosecution. And as such a kind of people are +supposed to undertake any thing for money, the reward of thirty guineas +was tendered at the top of the advertisement, in capital letters. No man +can be safe, be he white or black, if temptations to break the laws are +so shamefully published in our news-papers. + +_A Creole Black boy_ is also offered to sale, in the Daily Advertiser of +the same date. + +Besides these instances, the Americans may, perhaps, taunt us with the +shameful treatment of a poor Negroe servant, who not long ago was put up +to sale by public auction, together with the effects of his bankrupt +master.--Also, that the prisons of this free city have been frequently +prostituted of late, by the tyrannical and dangerous practice of +confining Negroes, under the pretence of slavery, though there have been +no warrants whatsoever for their commitment. + +This circumstance of confining a man without a warrant, has so great a +resemblance to the proceedings of a Popish inquisition, that it is but +too obvious what dangerous practices such scandalous innovations, if +permitted to grow more into use, are liable to introduce. No person can +be safe, if wicked and designing men have it in their power, under the +pretence of private property as a slave, to throw a man clandestinely, +without a warrant, into goal, and to conceal him there, until they can +conveniently dispose of him. + +A free man may be thus robbed of his liberty, and carried beyond the +seas, without having the least opportunity of making his case known; +which should teach us how jealous we ought to be of all imprisonments +made without the authority, or previous examination, of a civil +magistrate. + +The distinction of colour will, in a short time, be no protection +against such outrages, especially as not only Negroes, but Mulatoes, and +even American Indians, (which appears by one of the advertisements +before quoted) are retained in slavery in our American colonies; for +there are many honest weather-beaten Englishmen, who have as little +reason to boast of their complexion as the Indians. And indeed, the more +northern Indians have no difference from us in complexion, but such as +is occasioned by the climate, or different way of living. The plea of +private property, therefore, cannot, by any means, justify a private +commitment of any person whatsoever to prison, because of the apparent +danger and tendency of such innovation. This dangerous practice of +concealing in prison was attempted in the case of Jonathan Strong; for +the door-keeper of the P----lt----y C----pt----r (or some person who +acted for him) absolutely refused, for two days, to permit this poor +injured Negro to be seen or spoke with, though a person went on purpose, +both those days, to demand the same.--All laws ought to be founded upon +the principle of "_doing as one would be done by_;" and indeed this +principle seems to be the very basis of the English constitution; for +what precaution could possibly be more effectual for that purpose, than +the right we enjoy of being judged by our Peers, creditable persons of +the vicinage; especially, as we may likewise claim the right of +excepting against any particular juryman, who might be suspected of +partiality. + +This law breathes the pure spirit of liberty, equity, and social love; +being calculated to maintain that consideration and mutual regard which +one person ought to have for another, howsoever unequal in rank or +station. + +But when any part of the community, under the pretence of private +property, is deprived of this common privilege, it is a violation of +civil liberty, which is entirely inconsistent with the social principles +of a free state. + +True liberty protects the labourer as well as his Lord; preserves the +dignity of human nature, and seldom fails to render a province rich and +populous; whereas, on the other hand, a toleration of slavery is the +highest breach of social virtue, and not only tends to depopulation, but +too often renders the minds of both masters and slaves utterly depraved +and inhuman, by the hateful extremes of exaltation and depression. + +If such a toleration should ever be generally admitted in England, +(which God forbid) we shall no longer deserve to be esteemed a civilized +people; because, when the customs of uncivilized nations, and the +_uncivilized customs which disgrace our own colonies_, are become so +familiar as to be permitted amongst us with impunity, we ourselves must +insensibly degenerate to the same degree of baseness with those from +whom such bad customs were derived; and may, too soon, have the +mortification to see the _hateful extremes of tyranny and slavery +fostered under every roof_. + +Then must the happy medium of a well regulated liberty be necessarily +compelled to find shelter in some more civilized country: where social +virtue, and that divine precept, "_Thou shalt love thy neighbour as +thyself_," are better understood. + +An attempt to prove the dangerous tendency, injustice, and disgrace of +tolerating slavery amongst Englishmen, would, in any former age, have +been esteemed as superfluous and ridiculous, as if a man should +undertake, in a formal manner, to prove, that darkness is not light. + +Sorry am I, that the depravity of the present age has made a +demonstration of this kind necessary. + +Now, that I may sum up the amount of what has been said in a single +sentence, I shall beg leave to conclude in the words of the great Sir +Edward Coke, which, though spoken on a different occasion, are yet +applicable to this; see Rushworth's Hist. Col. An. 1628. 4 Caroli. fol. +450. + +"It would be no honour to a King or kingdom, to be a King of bondmen or +slaves: the end of this would be both _dedecus_[A] and _damnum_[B] both +to King and kingdom, that in former times have been so renowned." + +[Footnote A: Disgrace.] + + +[Footnote B: Loss.] + + + * * * * * + + +Note, at page 63; According to the laws of Jamaica, printed in London, +in 1756, "If any slave having been one whole year in this island, (says +an act, No 64, clause 5, p. 114) shall run away, and continue absent +from his owner's service for the space of thirty days, upon complaint +and proof, &c. before any two justices of the peace, and three +freeholders, &c. it shall and may be lawful for such justices and +freeholders to order such slave to be punished, by _cutting off one of +the feet of such slave_, or inflict such other corporal punishment as +they _shall think fit_." Now that I may inform my readers, what corporal +punishments are sometimes thought fit to be inflicted, I will refer to +the testimony of Sir Hans Sloane, (see voyage to the islands of Madeira, +Barbadoes, &c. and Jamaica, with the natural history of the last of +these islands, &c. London 1707. Introduction, p. 56, and 57.) "The +punishment for crimes of slaves (says he) are usually, for _rebellions_, +burning them, by nailing them down to the ground with crooked sticks on +every limb, and then applying the fire, by degrees, from the feet and +hands, and burning them gradually up to the head, whereby _the pains are +extravagant_; for crimes of a lesser nature, _gelding_, or _chopping off +half the foot_ with an axe. These punishments are suffered by them with +great constancy.--For negligence, they are usually whipped by the +overseers with lance-wood switches, till they be bloody, and several of +the switches broken, being first tied up by their hands in the mill +houses.--After they are whipped till they are raw, some put on their +skins pepper and salt, to make them smart; at other times, their masters +will drop melted wax on their skins, and use several _very exquisite +torments_." Sir Hans adds, "These punishments are sometimes merited by +the Blacks, who are a very perverse generation of people; and though +they appear very harsh, yet are scarce equal to some of their crimes, +and inferior to what punishments other European nations inflict on their +slaves in the East-Indies, as may be seen by Moquet, and other +travellers." Thus Sir Hans Sloane endeavours to excuse those shocking +cruelties, but certainly in vain, because no crimes whatsoever can merit +such severe punishments, unless I except the crimes of those who devise +and inflict them. Sir Hans Sloane, indeed, mentions _rebellion_ as the +principal crime; and certainly it is very justly esteemed a most heinous +crime, in a land of liberty, where government is limited by equitable +and just laws, if the same are tolerably well observed; but in countries +where arbitrary power is exercised with such intolerable cruelty as is +before described, if resistance be a crime, it is certainly the most +natural of all others. + +But the 19th clause of the 38th act, would indeed, on a slight perusal, +induce us to conceive, that the punishment for rebellion is not so +severe as it is represented by Sir Hans Sloane; because a slave, though +_deemed rebellious_, is thereby condemned to no greater punishment than +transportation. Nevertheless, if the clause be thoroughly considered, we +shall find no reason to commend the mercy of the legislature; for it +only proves, that the Jamaica law-makers will not scruple to charge the +slightest and most natural offences with the most opprobrious epithets; +and that a poor slave, who perhaps has no otherwise incurred his +master's displeasure than by endeavouring (upon the just and warrantable +principles of self-preservation,) to escape from his master's tyranny, +without any criminal intention whatsoever, is liable to be _deemed +rebellious_, and to be arraigned as a capital offender. "For every slave +and slaves that shall run away, and continue but for the space of twelve +months, except such slave or slaves as shall not have been three years +in this island, shall be _deemed rebellious_," &c. (see act 38, clause +19. p. 60.) Thus we are enabled to define what a West Indian tyrant +means by the word _rebellious_. But unjust as this clause may seem, yet +it is abundantly more merciful and considerate than a subsequent act +against the same poor miserable people, because the former assigns no +other punishment for persons so _deemed rebellious_, than that they, +"_Shall be transported_ by order of two justices and three freeholders," +&c. whereas the latter spares not the blood of these poor injured +fugitives: For by the 66th act, a reward of 50 pounds is offered to +those who "shall kill or bring in alive any _rebellious slaves_," that +is, any of these unfortunate people whom the law has "_deemed +rebellious_," as above; and this premium is not only tendered to +commissioned parties (see 2d. clause) but even to any private "_hunter, +slave, or other person_," (see 3d. clause.) Thus it is manifest, that +the law treats these poor unhappy men with as little ceremony and +consideration as if they were merely wild beasts. But the innocent blood +that is shed in consequence of such a detestable law, must certainly +call for vengeance on the murderous abettors and actors of such +deliberate wickedness: And though many of the guilty wretches should +even be so hardened and abandoned as never afterwards to be capable of +sincere remorse, yet a time will undoubtedly come, when they will +shudder with dreadful apprehensions, on account of the insufficiency of +so wretched an excuse, as that their poor murdered brethren were by law +"_deemed rebellious_" But bad as these laws are, yet in justice to the +freeholders of Jamaica, I must acknowledge, that their laws are not near +so cruel and inhuman as the laws of Barbadoes and Virginia, and seem at +present to be much more reasonable than they have formerly been; many +very oppressive laws being now expired, and others less severe enacted +in their room. + +But it is far otherwise in Barbadoes; for by the 329th act, p. 125. "If +any Negro or other slave, under punishment by his master, or his order, +for running away, or any other crimes or misdemeanors towards his said +master, unfortunately shall suffer in life, or member, (which seldom +happens) (but it is plain by this law that it does sometimes happen) _no +person whatever shall be liable to any fine therefore; but if any man +shall, of wantonness or only of bloody-mindedness, or cruel intention, +wilfully kill a Negroe or other slave of his own_;"--now the reader, to +be sure, will naturally expect, that some very severe punishment must in +this case be ordained, to deter the _wanton, bloody-minded, and cruel_ +wretch, from _wilfully killing_ his fellow creatures; but alas! the +Barbadian law-makers have been so far from intending to curb such +abandoned wickedness, that they have absolutely made this law on purpose +to skreen these enormous crimes from the just indignation of any +righteous person, who might think himself bound in duty to prosecute a +bloody-minded villain; they have therefore presumptuously taken upon +them to give a sanction, as it were, by law, to the horrid crime of +wilful murder; and have accordingly ordained, that he who is guilty of +it in Barbadoes, though the act should be attended with all the +aggravating circumstances before-mentioned--"_shall pay into the public +treasury_ (no more than) _fifteen pounds sterling_," but if he shall +kill another man's, he shall pay the owner of the Negroe double the +value, and into the public treasury _twenty-five pounds sterling_; and +he shall further, by the next justice of the peace, be bound to his good +behaviour during the pleasure of the governor and council, _and not be +liable to any other punishment or forfeiture for the same_. + +The most consummate wickedness, I suppose, that any body of people, +under the specious form of a legislature, were ever guilty of! This act +contains several other clauses which are shocking to humanity, though +too tedious to mention here. + +According to an act of Virginia, (4 Anne, ch. 49. sec. 37. p. 227.) +"after proclamation is issued against slaves that run away and lie out, +it is lawful for any person whatsoever, _to kill and destroy such +slaves, by such ways and means as he, she, or they, shall think fit_, +without accusation or impeachment of any crime for the same," &c. And +lest private interest should incline the planter to mercy, (to which we +must suppose such people can have no other inducement) it is provided +and enacted in the succeeding clause, (No 28.) "That for _every slave +killed_, in pursuance of this act, or _put to death by law_, the master +or owner of such slave _shall be paid by the public_." + +Also by an act of Virginia, (9 Geo. I. ch. 4. sect. 18. p. 343.) it is +ordained, "That, where any slave shall hereafter be found notoriously +guilty of going abroad in the night, or running away, and lying out, and +cannot be reclaimed from _such_ disorderly courses by the common method +of punishment, it shall and may be lawful to and for the court of the +county, upon complaint and proof thereof to them made by the owner of +such slave, to order and direct every such slave to be punished by +_dismembering, or any other_ way, not touching life, as the said county +court _shall think fit_." + +I have already given examples enough of the horrid cruelties which are +sometimes _thought fit_ on such occasions. But if the innocent and most +natural act of "_running away_" from intolerable tyranny, deserves such +relentless severity, what kind of punishment have these law-makers +themselves to expect hereafter, on account of their own enormous +offences! Alas! to look for mercy (without a timely repentance) will +only be another instance of their gross injustice! "_Having their +consciences seared with a hot iron_," they seem to have lost all +apprehensions that their slaves are men, for they scruple not to number +them with beasts. See an act of Barbadoes, (No 333. p. 128.) intituled, +"An act for the better regulating of _outcries_ in open market:" here we +read of "_Negroes, cattle, coppers, and stills, and other chattels_, +brought by execution to open market to be outcried, and these (as if all +of equal importance) are ranged together _in great lots or numbers to be +sold_." + +--Page 70. In the 329th act of Barbadoes, (p. 122.) it is asserted, that +"brutish slaves deserve not, for the baseness of their condition, to _be +tried by a legal trial of twelve men of their peers, or neighbourhood_, +which neither truly can be rightly done, as the subjects of England +are;" (yet slaves also are subjects of England, whilst they remain +within the British dominions, notwithstanding this insinuation to the +contrary) "nor is execution to be delayed towards them, in case of such +horrid crimes committed," &c. + +A similar doctrine is taught in an act of Virginia, (9 Geo. I. ch. 4. +sect. 3. p. 339.) wherein it is ordained, "that every slave, committing +such offence as by the laws ought to be punished by death, or loss of +member, shall be forthwith committed to the common goal of the county, +&c. And the sheriff of such county, upon such commitment, shall +forthwith certify the same, with the cause thereof, to the governor or +commander in chief, &c. who is thereupon desired and impowered to issue +a commission of Oyer and Terminer, _To such persons as he shall think +fit_; which persons, forthwith after the receipt of such commission, are +impowered and required to cause the offender to be publicly arraigned +and tried, &c. without the solemnity of a jury," &c. Now let us consider +the dangerous tendency of those laws. As Englishmen, we strenuously +contend for this absolute and immutable necessity of trials by juries: +but is not the spirit and equity of this old English doctrine entirely +lost, if we partially confine that justice to ourselves alone, when we +have it in our power to extend it to others? The natural right of all +mankind, must principally justify our insisting upon this necessary +privilege in favour of ourselves in particular; and therefore if we do +not allow that the judgment of an impartial jury is indispensably +necessary in all cases whatsoever, wherein the life of man is depending, +we certainly undermine the equitable force and reason of those laws, by +which _we ourselves are protected_, and consequently are unworthy to be +esteemed either Christians or Englishmen. + +Whatever right the members of a provincial assembly may have to enact +_bye laws_, for particular exigences among themselves, yet in so doing +they are certainly bound, in duty to their sovereign, to observe most +strictly the fundamental principles of that constitution, which his +Majesty is sworn to maintain; for wheresoever the bounds of the British +empire are extended, there the common law of England must of course take +place, and cannot be safely set aside by any _private law_ whatsoever, +because the introduction of an unnatural tyranny must necessarily +endanger the King's dominions. The many alarming insurrections of slaves +in the several colonies, are sufficient proofs of this. The common law +of England ought therefore to be so established in every province, as to +include the respective _bye laws_ of each province; instead of being by +them _excluded_, which latter has been too much the case. + +Every inhabitant of the British colonies, black as well as white, bond +as well as free, are undoubtedly the _King's subjects_, during their +residence within the limits of the King's dominions; and as such, are +entitled to personal protection, however bound in service to their +respective masters; therefore, when any of these are put to death, +"_without the solemnity of a jury_," I fear that there is too much +reason to attribute _the guilt of murder_ to every person concerned in +ordering, the same, or in consenting thereto; and all such persons are +certainly responsible _to the King and his laws, for the loss of a +subject_. The horrid iniquity, injustice, and dangerous tendency of the +several plantation laws which I have quoted, are so apparent, that it is +unnecessary for me to apologize for the freedom with which I have +treated them. If such laws are not absolutely necessary for the +government of slaves, the law-makers must unavoidably allow themselves +to be the most cruel and abandoned tyrants upon earth; or, perhaps, that +ever were on earth. On the other hand, if it be said, that it is +impossible to govern slaves without such inhuman severity, and +detestable injustice, the same will certainly be an invincible argument +against the least toleration of slavery amongst christians, because the +temporal profit of the planter or master, however lucrative, cannot +compensate the forfeiture of his everlasting welfare, or (at least I may +be allowed to say) the apparent danger of such a forfeiture. + +Oppression is a most grievous crime, and the cries of these much injured +people, (though they are only poor ignorant heathens) will certainly +reach heaven! The scriptures (_which are the only true foundation of all +laws_) denounce a tremendous judgment against the man who should offend +even one little-one; _"It were better for him_ (even the merciful +Saviour of the world hath himself declared) _that a millstone were +hanged about his neck, and be cast into the sea, than that he should +offend one of these little ones."_ Luke xvii. 2. Who then shall attempt +to vindicate those inhuman establishments of government, under which, +even our own countrymen so grievously _offend_ and _oppress_ (not merely +_one_, or a few little ones, but) an immense multitude of _men, women, +children_, and the _children of their children_, from generation to +generation? May it not be said with like justice, it were better for the +English nation that these American dominions had never existed, or even +that they should have been sunk into the sea, than that the kingdom of +Great Britain should be loaded with the horrid guilt of tolerating such +abominable wickedness! In short, if the _King's prerogative_ is not +speedily exerted for the relief of his Majesty's oppressed and much +injured subjects in the British colonies, (because to _relieve the +subject_ from the oppression of petty tyrants is the principal use of +the royal prerogative, as well as the principal and most natural means +of maintaining the same) and for the extension of the British +constitution to the most distant colonies, whether in the East or West +Indies, it must inevitably be allowed, that great share of this enormous +guilt will certainly rest on this side the water. + +I hope this hint will be taken notice of by those whom it may concern; +and that the freedom of it will be excused, as from a _loyal and +disinterested_ adviser. + + + +Extracts from the writings + +of several _noted authors_, + +on the subject of the, _slavery of the Negroes_, + +viz. + +George Wallace, + +Francis Hutcheson, + +James Foster. + + +George Wallace, in his _System of the Principles of the Laws of +Scotland_, speaking of the slavery of the Negroes in our colonies, says, +"We all know that they (the Negroes) are purchased from their Princes, +who pretend to have a right to dispose of them, and that they are, like +other commodities, transported, by the merchants who have bought them, +into America, in order to be exposed to sale. If this trade admits of a +moral or a rational justification, every crime, even the most atrocious, +may be justified. Government was instituted for the good of mankind; +kings, princes, governors, are not proprietors of those who are subject +to their authority; they have not a right to make them miserable. On the +contrary, their authority is vested in them, that they may, by the just +exercise of it, promote the happiness of their people. Of course, they +have not a right to dispose of their liberty, and to sell them for +slaves. Besides no man has a right to acquire, or to purchase them; men +and their liberty are not _in commercio_; they are not either saleable +or purchaseable. One, therefore, has no body but himself to blame, in +case he shall find himself deprived of a man, whom he thought he had, by +buying for a price, made his own; for he dealt in a trade which was +illicit, and was prohibited by the most obvious dictates of humanity. +For these reasons, every one of those unfortunate men who are pretended +to be slaves, has a right to be declared to be free, for he never lost +his liberty; he could not lose it; his Prince had no power to dispose of +him. Of course, the sale was _ipso jure_ void. This right he carries +about with him, and is entitled every where to get it declared. As soon, +therefore, as he comes into a country in which the judges are not +forgetful of their own humanity, it is their duty to remember that he is +a man, and to declare him to be free. I know it has been said, that +questions concerning the state of persons ought to be determined by the +law of the country to which they belong; and that, therefore, one who +would be declared to be a slave in America, ought, in case he should +happen to be imported into Britain, to be adjudged, according to the law +of America, to be a slave; a doctrine than which nothing can be more +barbarous. Ought the judges of any country, out of respect to the law of +another, to shew no respect to their kind, and to humanity? out of +respect to a law, which is in no sort obligatory upon them, ought they +to disregard the law of nature, which is obligatory on all men, at all +times, and in all places? Are any laws so binding as the eternal laws of +justice? Is it doubtful, whether a judge ought to pay greater regard to +them, than to those arbitrary and inhuman usages which prevail in a +distant land? Aye, but our colonies would be ruined if slavery was +abolished. Be it so; would it not from thence follow, that the bulk of +mankind ought to be abused, that our pockets may be filled with money, +or our mouths with delicacies? The purses of highwaymen would be empty, +in case robberies were totally abolished; but have men a right to +acquire money by going out to the highway? Have men a right to acquire +it by rendering their fellow-creatures miserable? Is it lawful to abuse +mankind, that the avarice, the vanity, or the passions of a few may be +gratified? No! There is such a thing as justice to which the most sacred +regard is due. It ought to be inviolably observed. Have not these +unhappy men a better right to their liberty, and to their happiness, +than our American merchants have to the profits which they make by +torturing their kind? Let, therefore, our colonies be ruined, but let us +not render so many men miserable. Would not any of us, who should--be +snatched by pirates from his native land, think himself cruelly abused, +and at all times entitled to be free? Have not these unfortunate +Africans, who meet with the same cruel fate, the same right? Are they +not men as well as we, and have they not the same sensibility? Let us +not, therefore, defend or support a usage which is contrary to all the +laws of humanity. + +"But it is false, that either we or our colonies would be ruined by the +abolition of slavery. It might occasion a stagnation of business for a +short time. Every great alteration produces that effect; because mankind +cannot, on a sudden, find ways of disposing of themselves, and of their +affairs; but it would produce many happy effects. It is the slavery +which is permitted in America, that has hindered it from becoming so +soon populous as it would otherwise have done. Let the Negroes be free, +and, in a few generations, this vast and fertile continent would be +crowded with inhabitants; learning, arts, and every thing would flourish +amongst them; instead of being inhabited by wild beasts, and by savages, +it would be peopled by philosophers, and by men." + +Francis Hutcheson, professor of philosophy at the university of Glasgow, +in his _System of Moral Philosophy_, page 211, says "He who detains +another by force in slavery, is always bound to prove his title. The +slave sold, or carried into a distant country, must not be obliged to +prove a negative, that _he never forfeited his liberty_. The violent +possessor must, in all cases, shew his title, especially where the old +proprietor is well known. In this case, each man is the original +proprietor of his own liberty. The proof of his losing it must be +incumbent on those who deprive him of it by force. The Jewish laws had +great regard to justice, about the servitude of Hebrews, founding it +only on consent, or some crime or damage, allowing them always a proper +redress upon any cruel treatment, and fixing a limited time for it; +unless upon trial the servant inclined to prolong it. The laws about +foreign slaves had many merciful provisions against immoderate severity +of the masters. But under christianity, whatever lenity was due from an +Hebrew towards his countryman, must be due towards all; since the +distinctions of nations are removed, as to the point of humanity and +mercy, as well as natural right; nay, some of these rights granted over +foreign slaves, may justly be deemed only such indulgences as those of +poligamy and divorce, granting only external impunity in such practice, +and not sufficient vindication of them in conscience." + +_Page_ 85. It is pleaded, that "In some barbarous nations, unless the +captives were bought for slaves, they would be all murthered. They, +therefore, owe their lives, and all they can do, to their purchasers; +and so do their children, who would not otherwise have come into life." +But this whole plea is no more than that of _negotium utile gestum_ to +which any civilized nation is bound by humanity; it is a prudent +expensive office, done for the service of others without a gratuitous +intention; and this founds no other right, than that to full +compensation of all charges and labour employed for the benefit of +others. + +A set of inaccurate popular phrases blind us in these matters; "Captives +owe their lives, and all to the purchasers, say they. Just in the same +manner, we, our nobles, and princes, often owe our lives to midwives, +chirurgeons, physicians," &c. one who was the means of preserving a +man's life, is not therefore entitled to make him a slave, and sell him +as a piece of goods. Strange, that in a nation where the sense of +liberty prevails, where the christian religion is professed, custom and +high prospects of gain can so stupify the conscience of men, and all +sense of natural justice, that they can hear such computations made +about the value of their fellow-men, and their liberty, without +abhorrence and indignation. + +_James Foster_, D.D. in his _discourses on natural religion_ and _social +virtue_ also shews his just indignation at this wicked practice; which +he declares to be "_a criminal and outrageous violation of the natural +right of mankind_." At _page_ 156, vol. 2 he says, "Should we have read +concerning the Greeks or Romans of old, that they traded with a view to +make slaves of their own species, when they certainly knew that this +would involve in schemes of blood and murder, of destroying, or +enslaving each other; that they even fomented wars, and engaged whole +nations and tribes in open hostilities, for their own private advantage; +that they had no detestation of the violence and cruelty, but only +feared the ill success of their inhuman enterprises; that they carried +men like themselves, their brethren, and the off-spring of the same +common parent, to be sold like beasts of prey, or beasts of burden, and +put them to the same reproachful trial, of their soundness, strength, +and capacity for greater bodily service; that quite forgetting and +renouncing the original dignity of human nature, communicated to all, +they treated them with more severity, and ruder discipline, than even +the _ox_ or the _ass_, who are _void of understanding_--should we not, +if this had been the case, have naturally been led to despise all their +_pretended refinements of morality_; and to have concluded, that as they +were not nations destitute of politeness, they must have been _entire +strangers to virtue and benevolence_? + +"But notwithstanding this, we ourselves (who profess to be christians, +and boast of the peculiar advantage we enjoy, by means of an express +revelation of our duty from heaven) are, in effect, these very untaught +and rude heathen countries. With all our superior light, we instill into +those, whom we call savage and barbarous, the most despicable opinion of +human nature. We, to the utmost of our power, weaken and dissolve the +universal tie, that binds and unites mankind. We practise what we should +exclaim against, as the utmost excess of cruelty and tyranny, if nations +of the world, differing in colour, and form of government, from +ourselves, were so possessed of empire, as to be able to reduce us to a +state of unmerited and brutish servitude. Of consequence, we sacrifice +our reason, our humanity, our christianity, to an unnatural sordid gain. +We teach other nations to despise, and trample under foot, all the +obligations of social virtue. We take the most effectual method to +prevent the propagation of the gospel, by representing it as a scheme of +power and barbarous oppression, and an enemy to the natural privileges +and rights of men. + +"Perhaps all that I have now offered, may be of very little weight to +restrain this enormity, this aggravated iniquity; however, I still have +the satisfaction of having entered my private protest against a +practice, which, in my opinion, bids that God, who is the God and Father +of the Gentiles, unconverted to christianity, most daring and bold +defiance, and spurns at all the principles both of natural and revealed +religion." + + +EXTRACT + + +From an ADDRESS + +in the + + +VIRGINIA _GAZETTE_, + +of MARCH 19, 1767. + + +Mr. RIND, + +Permit me, in your paper, to address the members of our assembly on two +points, in which the public interest is very nearly concerned. + +The abolition of slavery, and the retrieval of specie in this colony, +are the subjects on which I would bespeak their attention.-- + +Long and serious reflections upon the nature and consequences of slavery +have convinced me, that it is a violation both of justice and religion; +that it is dangerous to the safety of the community in which it +prevails; that it is destructive to the growth of arts and sciences; and +lastly, that it produces a numerous and very fatal train of vices, both +in the slave and in his master. + +To prove these assertions, shall be the purpose of the following essay. + +That slavery then is a violation of justice, will plainly appear, when +we consider what justice is. It is truly and simply defined, as by +_Justinian, constans et perpetua voluntas ejus suum cuique tribuendi_; a +constant endeavour to give every man his right. + +Now, as freedom is unquestionably the birth-right of all mankind, +_Africans_ as well as _Europeans_, to keep the former in a state of +slavery, is a constant violation of that right, and therefore of +justice. + +The ground on which the civilians who favour slavery, admit it to be +just, namely, consent, force, and birth, is totally disputable; for +surely a man's own will and consent cannot be allowed to introduce so +important an innovation into society, as slavery, or to make himself an +outlaw, which is really the state of a slave; since neither consenting +to, nor aiding the laws of the society in which he lives, he is neither +bound to obey them, nor entitled to their protection. + +To found any right in force, is to frustrate all right, and involve +every thing in confusion, violence, and rapine. With these two, the last +must fall; since, if the parent cannot justly be made a slave, neither +can the child be born in slavery. "The law of nations, says Baron +_Montesquieu_, has doomed prisoners to slavery, to prevent their being +slain; the _Roman_ civil law permitted debtors, whom their creditors +might treat ill, to sell themselves. And the law of nature requires that +children, whom their parents, being slaves, cannot maintain, should be +slaves like them. These reasons of the civilians are not just; it is not +true that a captive may be slain, unless in a case of absolute +necessity; but if he hath been reduced to slavery, it is plain that no +such necessity existed, since he was not slain. It is not true that a +free man can sell himself, for sale supposes a price; but a slave and +his property becomes immediately that of his master; the slave can +therefore receive no price, nor the master pay, &c. And if a man cannot +sell himself, nor a prisoner of war be reduced to slavery, much less can +his child." Such are the sentiments of this illustrious civilian; his +reasonings, which I have been obliged to contract, the reader interested +in this subject will do well to consult at large. + +Yet even these rights of imposing slavery, questionable, nay, refutable +as they are, we have not to authorise the bondage of the _Africans_. For +neither do they consent to be our slaves, nor do we purchase them of +their conquerors. The _British_ merchants obtain them from _Africa_ by +violence, artifice, and treachery, with a few trinkets to prompt those +unfortunate people to enslave one another by force or stratagem. +Purchase them indeed they may, under the authority of an act of the +British parliament. An act entailing upon the _Africans_, with whom we +are not at war, and over whom a British parliament could not of right +assume even a shadow of authority, the dreadful curse of perpetual +slavery, upon them and their children for ever. _There cannot be in +nature, there is not in all history, an instance in which every right of +men is more flagrantly violated._ The laws of the antients never +authorised the making slaves, but of those nations whom they had +conquered; yet they were heathens, and we are christians. They were +misled by a monstrous religion, divested of humanity, by a horrible and +barbarous worship; we are directed by the unerring precepts of the +revealed religion we possess, enlightened by its wisdom, and humanized +by its benevolence; before them, were gods deformed with passions, and +horrible for every cruelty and vice; before us, is that incomparable +pattern of meekness, charity, love and justice to mankind, which so +transcendently distinguished the Founder of christianity, and his ever +amiable doctrines. + +Reader, remember that the corner stone of your religion, is to do unto +others as you would they should do unto you; ask then your own heart, +whether it would not abhor any one, as the most outrageous violater of +that and every other principle of right, justice, and humanity, who +should make a slave of you and your posterity for ever! Remember, that +God knoweth the heart; lay not this flattering unction to your soul, +that it is the custom of the country; that you found it so, that not +your will; but your necessity, consents. Ah! think how little such an +excuse will avail you in that aweful day, when your Saviour shall +pronounce judgment on you for breaking a law too plain to be +misunderstood, too sacred to be violated. If we say we are christians, +yet act more inhumanly and unjustly than heathens, with what dreadful +justice must this sentence of our blessed Saviour fall upon us, "_Not +every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of +heaven, but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven."_ +Matth. vii. 21. Think a moment how much your temporal, your eternal +welfare depends upon an abolition of a practice which deforms the image +of your God, tramples on his revealed will, infringes the most sacred +rights, and violates humanity. + +Enough, I hope, has been asserted, to prove that slavery is a violation +of justice and religion. That it is dangerous to the safety of the state +in which it prevails, may be as safely asserted. + +What one's own experience has not taught; that of others must decide. +From hence does history derive its utility; for being, when truly +written, a faithful record of the transactions of mankind, and the +consequences that flowed from them, we are thence furnished with the +means of judging what will be the probable effect of transactions, +similar among ourselves. + +We learn then from history, that slavery, wherever encouraged, has +sooner or later been productive of very dangerous commotions. I will not +trouble my reader here with quotations in support of this assertion, but +content myself with referring those, who may be dubious of its truth, to +the histories of Athens, Lacedemon, Rome, and Spain. + +How long, how bloody and destructive was the contest between the Moorish +slaves and the native Spaniards? and after almost deluges of blood had +been shed, the Spaniards obtained nothing more than driving them into +the mountains.--Less bloody indeed, though, not less alarming, have been +the insurrections in Jamaica; and to imagine that we shall be for ever +exempted from this calamity, which experience teaches us to be +inseparable from slavery, so encouraged; is an infatuation as +astonishing as it will be surely fatal:--&c. &c. + + +EXTRACT + + +OF A + + +SERMON + +PREACHED BY THE + +BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER, + + +Before the SOCIETY For the PROPAGATION of the GOSPEL, at the anniversary +meeting on the 21st of _February_, 1766. + +From the free-savages, I now come (the last point I propose to consider) +to the savages in bonds. By these I mean the vast multitudes yearly +stolen from the opposite continent, and sacrificed by the colonists to +their great idol, the GOD OF GAIN. But what then? say these sincere +worshippers of _Mammon_; they are our own property which we offer up. +Gracious God! to talk (as in herds of cattle) of property in rational +creatures! creatures endowed with all our faculties; possessing all our +qualities but that of colour; our brethren both by nature and grace, +shocks all the feelings of humanity, and the dictates of common sense. +But, alas! what is there in the infinite abuses of society which does +not shock them? Yet nothing is more certain in itself, and apparent to +all, than that the infamous traffic for slaves directly infringes both +divine and human law. Nature created man free, and grace invites him to +assert his freedom. In excuse of this violation, it hath been pretended, +that though indeed these miserable out-casts of humanity be torn from +their homes and native country by fraud and violence, yet they thereby +become the happier, and their condition the more eligible. But who are +You, who pretend to judge of another man's happiness? That state, which +each man, under the guidance of his Maker, forms for himself, and not +one man for another? To know what constitutes mine or your happiness, is +the sole prerogative of Him who created us, and cast us in so various +and different moulds. Did your slaves ever complain to you of their +unhappiness amidst their native woods and deserts? Or, rather, let me +ask, did they ever cease complaining of their condition under you their +lordly masters? where they see, indeed, the accommodations of civil +life, but see them all pass to others, themselves unbenefited by them. +Be so gracious then, ye petty tyrants over human freedom, to let your +slaves judge for themselves, what it is which makes their own happiness. +And then see whether they do not place it in the return to their own +country, rather than in the contemplation of your grandeur, of which +their misery makes so large a part. A return so passionately longed for, +that despairing of happiness here, that is, of escaping the chains of +their cruel task-masters, they console themselves with feigning it to be +the gracious reward of heaven in their future state, which I do not find +their haughty masters have as yet concerned themselves to invade. The +less hardy, indeed, wait for this felicity till over-wearied nature sets +them free; but the more resolved have recourse even to self-violence, to +force a speedier passage. + +But it will be still urged, that though what is called human happiness +be of so fantastic a nature, that each man's imagination creates it for +himself, yet human misery is more substantial and uniform throughout all +the tribes of mankind. Now, from the worst of human miseries, the savage +Africans, by these forced emigrations, are intirely secured; such as the +being perpetually hunted down like beasts of prey or profit, by their +more savage and powerful neighbours--In truth, a blessed change!--from +being hunted to being caught. But who are they that have set on foot +this general HUNTING? Are they not these very civilized violaters of +humanity themselves? who tempt the weak appetites, and provoke the wild +passions of the fiercer savages to prey upon the rest. + +THE END. + + + +INDEX. + + + + +A + + +_Adanson_ (M.) his account of the country on the rivers _Senegal_ and +_Gambia_, 14. Extraordinary fertility, _ibid._ Surprising vegetation, +15. Beautiful aspect of the country, 16. Good disposition of the +natives, _ibid._ + +_Advertisements in the New-York Journal_, for the sale of slaves, 158. +Also in the news-papers of _London_, 160. + +_Africa_, that part from whence the Negroe slaves are brought, how +divided, 6. Capable of a considerable trade, 143. + +Alien (every) or stranger coming within the King's dominion, becomes a +subject, 148. + +Antientest account of the Negroes, 41. Were then a simple innocent +people, 43. + +_Angola_, a plentiful country, 39. Character of the natives, 40. +Government, _ibid._ + + + +B + + +_Barbadoes_ (laws of) respecting Negroe slaves, 170. + +_Barbot (John)_ agent general of the _French African Company_, his +account of the _Gold Coast_, 25. Of the _Slave Coast_, 27. + +_Bosman (William)_ principal factor for the _Dutch_ at _D'Elmina_, his +account of the _Gold Coast_, 23. Of the _Slave Coast_, 27. + +_Brue (Andrew)_ principal factor of the _French African Company_, his +account of the country on the river _Senegal_, 7. And on the river +_Gambia_, 8. + +_Benin_ (kingdom of) good character of the natives, 35. Punishment of +crimes, 36. Order of government, _ibid._ Largeness and order of the city +of _Great Benin_, 37. + +_Britons_ (antient) in their original state no less barbarous than the +_African_ Negroes, 68. + +_Baxter (Richard)_ his testimony against slavery, 83. + + + +C + + +Corruption of some of the Kings of _Guinea_, 107. + + + +D + + +_De la Casa_ (bishop of _Chapia_) his concern for the _Indians_, 47. His +speech to _Charles_ the Fifth Emperor of _Germany_ and King of _Spain_, +48. Prodigious destruction of the _Indians_ in _Hispaniola_, 51. + +_Divine principle_ in every man, its effects on those who obey its +dictates, 14. + + + +E + + +_Elizabeth_ (Queen) her caution to captain Hawkins not to enslave any of +the Negroes, 55. + +_English_, their first trade on the coast of Guinea, 52. + +_Europeans_ are the principal cause of the wars which subsist amongst +the Negroes, 61. + +_English_ laws allow no man, of what condition soever, to be deprived of +his liberty, without a legal process, 150. The danger of confining any +person without a warrant, 162. + + + +F + + +Fishing, a considerable business on the Guinea coast, 26. How carried +on, _ibid._ + +_Foster (James)_ his testimony against slavery, 186. + +_Fuli_ Negroes good farmers, 10. Those on the _Gambia_ particularly +recommended for their industry and good behaviour, _ibid._ + +_France_ (King of) objects to the Negroes in his dominions being reduced +to a state of slavery, 58. + + + +G + + +_Gambia (river)_8, 14. + +_Gloucester_ (bishop of) extract of his sermon, 195. + +_Godwyn (Morgan)_ his plea in favour of the Negroes and Indians, 75. +Complains of the cruelties exercised upon slaves, 76. A false opinion +prevailed in his time, that the Negroes were not objects of redeeming +grace, 77. + +_Gold Coast_ has several European factories, 22. Great trade for slaves, +_ibid._ Carried on far in the inland country, _ibid._ Natives more +reconciled to the Europeans, and more diligent in procuring slaves, +_ibid._ Extraordinarily fruitful and agreeable, 22, 25. The natives +industrious, 24. + +_Great Britain_, all persons during their residence there are the King's +subjects, 148. + +_Guinea_ extraordinarily fertile, 2. Extremely unhealthy to the +Europeans, 4. But agrees well with the natives, _ibid._ Prodigious +rising of waters, _ibid._ Hot winds, _ibid._ Surprising vegetation, 15. + + + +H + + +_Hawkins_ (captain) lands on the coast of Guinea and seizes on a number +of the natives, which he sells to the Spaniards, 55. + +_Hottentots_ misrepresented by authors, 101. True account given of these +people by Kolben, 102. Love of liberty and sloth their prevailing +passions, 102. Distinguished by several virtues, 103. Firm in alliances, +_ibid._ Offended at the vices predominant amongst christians, 104. Make +nor keep no slaves, _ibid._ + +_Hughes (Griffith)_ his account of the number of Negroes in Barbadoes, +85. Speaks well of their natural capacities, 86. + +Husbandry of the Negroes carried on in common, 28. + +_Hutcheson (Francis)_ his declaration against slavery, 184. + + + +I + + +_Jalof_ Negroes, their government, 9. + +_Indians_ grievously oppressed by the Spaniards, 47. Their cause pleaded +by Bartholomew De la Casa, 48. Inland people, good account of them, 25. + +_Ivory Coast_ fertile, &c. 18. Natives falsely represented to be a +treacherous people, _ibid._ Kind when well used, 19. Have no European +factories amongst them, 21. And but few wars; therefore few slaves to be +had there, 22. + + + +J + + +Jury, Negroes tried and condemned without the solemnity of a jury, 174. +Highly repugnant to the English constitution, 176. Dangerous to those +concerned therein, _ibid._ + + + +L + + +Laws in Guinea severe against man-stealing, and other crimes, 106. + + + +M + + +_Mandingoe_ Negroes a numerous nation, 11. Great traders, _ibid._ +Laborious, 11. Their government, 13. Their worship, _ibid_. Manner of +tillage, _ibid._ At Galem they suffer none to be made slaves but +criminals, 20. + +_Maloyans_ (a black people) sometimes sold amongst Negroes brought from +very distant parts, 27. + +Markets regularly kept on the Gold and Slave Coasts, 30. + +_Montesquieu's_ sentiments on slavery, 72. + +_Moor (Francis)_ factor to the African company, his account of the +slave-trade on the river Gambia, 111. + +Mosaic law merciful in its chastisements, 73. Has respect to human +nature, _ibid._ + + + +N + + +National wars disapproved by the most considerate amongst the Negroes, +110. + +_Negroes_ (in Guinea) generally a humane, sociable people, 2. Simplicity +of their way of living, 5. Agreeable in conversation, 16. Sensible of +the damage accruing to them from the slave-trade, 61. Misrepresented by +most authors, 98. Offended at the brutality of the European factors, +116. Shocking cruelties exercised on them by masters of vessels, 124. +How many are yearly brought from Guinea by the English, 129. The numbers +who die on the passage and in the seasoning, 120. + +_Negroe_ slaves (in the colonies) allowed to cohabit and separate at +pleasure, 36. Great waste of them thro' hard usage in the islands, 86. +Melancholy case of two of them, 136. Proposals for setting them free, +129. Tried and condemned without the solemnity of a jury, 174. + +_Negroes_ (free) discouragement they met with, 133. + + + +P + + +_Portugueze_ carry on a great trade for slaves at Angola, 40. Make the +first incursions into Guinea, 44. From whence they carry off some of the +natives, _ibid._ Beginners of the slave-trade, 46. Erect the first fort +at D'Elmina, _ibid._ + + + +R + + +_Rome_ (the college of cardinals at) complain of the abuse offered to +the Negroes in selling them for slaves, 58. + + + +S + + +_Senegal_ (river) account of, 7, 14. + +Ship (account of one) blown up on the coast of Guinea with a number of +Negroes on board, 125. + +Slave-trade, how carried on at the river Gambia, 111. And in other parts +of Guinea, 113. At Whidah, 115. + +Slaves used with much more lenity in Algiers and in Turkey than in our +colonies, 70. Likewise in Guinea, 71. Slavery more tolerable amongst the +antient Pagans than in our colonies, 63. Declined, as christianity +prevailed, 65. Early laws in France for its abolishment, 66. If put an +end to, would make way for a very extensive trade through Africa, 143. +The danger of slavery taking place in England, 164. + +_Sloane_ (Sir Hans) his account of the inhuman and extravagant +punishments inflicted on Negroes, 89. + +_Smith (William)_ surveyor to the African company, his account of the +Ivory Coast, 20. Of the Gold Coast, 24. + + + +V + + +VIRGINIA (laws), respecting Negro slaves, 172. _Virginia_ (address to +the assembly) setting forth the iniquity and danger of slavery, 189. + + + +W + + +WALLACE (_George_) his testimony against slavery, 180. + +_West Indies_, white people able to perform the necessary work there, +141. + +_Whidah_ (kingdom of) agreeable and fruitful, 27. Natives treat one +another with respect, 29. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Some Historical Account of Guinea, Its +Situation, Produce, and the General Disposition of Its Inhabitants, by Anthony Benezet + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF GUINEA *** + +***** This file should be named 11489.txt or 11489.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/4/8/11489/ + +Produced by Carlo Traverso, Amy Overmyer and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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