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.