Continuation from June 1788 to July 1789.--Author travels to collect
further evidence; great difficulties in obtaining it; forms committees
on his tour.--Privy council resume the examinations; inspect cabinet
of African productions; obliged to leave many of the witnesses in
behalf of the abolition unexamined; prepare their report--Labours of
the committee in the interim.--Proceedings of the planters and
others.--Report laid on the table of the House of
Commons.--Introduction of the question, and debate there; twelve
propositions deduced from the report and reserved for future
discussion; day of discussion arrives; opponents refuse to argue from
the report; require new evidence; this granted and introduced; further
consideration of the subject deferred to the next session.--Renewal of
Sir William Dolben's bill.--Death and character of Ramsay.
Matters had now become serious. The gauntlet had been thrown down and
accepted. The combatants had taken their stations, and the contest was
to be renewed, which was to be decided soon on the great theatre of the
nation. The committee by the very act of their institution had
pronounced the Slave Trade to be criminal. They, on the other hand, who
were concerned in it, had denied the charge. It became the one to prove,
and the other to refute it, or to fall in the ensuing session.
The committee, in this perilous situation, were anxious to find out such
other persons as might become proper evidences before the privy council.
They had hitherto sent there only nine or ten, and they had then only
another, whom they could count upon for this purpose, in their view. The
proposal of sending persons to Africa, and the West Indies, who might
come back and report what they had witnessed, had already been
negatived. The question then was, what they were to do. Upon this they
deliberated, and the result was an application to me to undertake a
journey to different parts of the kingdom for this purpose.
When this determination was made, I was at Teston, writing a long letter
to the privy council on the ill usage and mortality of the seamen
employed in the Slave Trade, which it had been previously agreed should
be received as evidence there. I thought it proper, however, before I
took my departure, to form a system of questions upon the general
subject. These I divided into six tables. The first related to the
productions of Africa, and the dispositions and manners of the natives.
The second, to the methods of reducing them to slavery. The third, to
the manner of bringing them to the ships, their value, the medium of
exchange, and other circumstances. The fourth, to their transportation.
The fifth, to their treatment in the colonies. The sixth, to the seamen
employed in the trade. These tables contained together one hundred and
forty-five questions. My idea was that they should be printed on a small
sheet of paper, which should be folded up in seven or eight leaves, of
the length and breadth of a small almanac, and then be sent in franks to
our different correspondents. These, when they had them, might examine
persons capable of giving evidence, who might live in their
neighbourhoods, or fall in their way, and return us their examinations
by letter.
The committee having approved and printed the tables of questions, I
began my tour. I had selected the southern counties from Kent to
Cornwall for it. I had done this, because these included the great
stations of the ships of war in ordinary; and as these were all under
the superintendence of Sir Charles Middleton, as comptroller of the
navy, I could get an introduction to those on board them. Secondly,
because sea-faring people, when they retire from a marine life, usually
settle in some town or village upon the coast.
Of this tour I shall not give the reader any very particular account. I
shall mention only those things which are most worthy of his notice in
it. At Poole, in Dorsetshire, I laid the foundation of a committee, to
act in harmony with that of London for the promotion of the cause. Moses
Neave, of the respectable society of the Quakers, was the chairman;
Thomas Bell, the secretary; and Ellis B. Metford and the Reverend Mr.
Davis and others the committee. This was the third committee which had
been instituted in the country for this purpose. That at Bristol, under
Mr. Joseph Harford as chairman, and Mr. Lunell as secretary, had been
the first: and that at Manchester, under Mr. Thomas Walker as chairman,
and Mr. Samuel Jackson as secretary, had been the second.
As Poole was a great place for carrying on the trade to Newfoundland, I
determined to examine the assertion of the Earl of Sandwich in the House
of Lords, when he said, in the debate on Sir William Dolben's bill, that
the Slave Trade was not more fatal to seamen than the Newfoundland and
some others. This assertion I knew at the time to be erroneous, as far
as my own researches had been concerned: for out of twenty-four vessels,
which had sailed out of the port of Bristol in that employ, only two
sailors were upon the dead list. In sixty vessels from Poole, I found
but four lost. At Dartmouth, where I went afterwards on purpose, I found
almost a similar result. On conversing, however, with Governor
Holdsworth, I learnt that the year 1786 had been more fatal than any
other in this trade. I learnt that in consequence of extraordinary
storms and hurricanes, no less than five sailors had died and twenty-one
had been drowned in eighty-three vessels from that port. Upon this
statement I determined to look into the muster-rolls of the trade there
for two or three years together. I began by accident with the year 1769,
and I went on to the end of 1772. About eighty vessels on an average had
sailed thence in each of these years. Taking the loss in these years,
and compounding it with that in the fatal year, three sailors had been
lost; but taking it in these four years by themselves, only two had been
lost in twenty-four vessels so employed. On comparison with the Slave
Trade, the result would be, that two vessels to Africa would destroy
more seamen than eighty-three sailing to Newfoundland. There was this
difference also to be noted, that the loss in the one trade was
generally by the weather or by accident, but in the other by cruel
treatment or disease; and that they who went out in a declining state of
health in the one, came home generally recovered; whereas they, who went
out robust in the other, came home in a shattered condition.
At Plymouth I laid the foundation of another committee. The late William
Cookworthy, the late John Prideaux, and James Fox, all of the society of
the Quakers, and Mr. George Leach, Samuel Northcote and John Saunders,
had a principal share in forming it. Sir William Ellford was chosen
chairman.
From Plymouth I journeyed on to Falmouth, and from thence to Exeter,
where having meetings with the late Mr. Samuel Milford, the late Mr.
George Manning, the Reverend James Manning, Thomas Sparkes, and others,
a desire became manifest among them of establishing a committee there.
This was afterwards effected; and Mr. Milford, who at a general meeting
of the inhabitants of Exeter, on the 10th of June, on this great
subject, had been called by those present to the chair, was appointed
the chairman of it.
With respect to evidence, which was the great object of this tour, I
found myself often very unpleasantly situated in collecting it. I heard
of many persons capable of giving it to our advantage, to whom I could
get no introduction. I had to go after these many miles out of my
established route. Not knowing me, they received me coldly, and even
suspiciously; while I fell in with others, who, considering themselves,
on account of their concerns and connexions, as our opponents, treated
me in an uncivil manner.
But the difficulties and disappointments in other respects which I
experienced in this tour,--even where I had an introduction, and where
the parties were not interested in the continuance of the Slave
Trade,--were greater than people in general would have imagined. One
would have thought, considering the great enthusiasm of the nation on
this important subject, that they who could have given satisfactory
information upon it, would have rejoiced to do it. But I found it
otherwise; and this frequently to my sorrow. There was an aversion in
persons to appear before such a tribunal as they conceived the privy
council to be. With men of shy or timid character this operated as an
insuperable barrier in their way. But it operated more or less upon all.
It was surprising to see what little circumstances affected many. When I
took out my pen and ink to put down the information which a person was
giving me, he became evidently embarrassed and frightened. He began to
excuse himself from staying, by alleging that he had nothing more to
communicate, and he took himself away as quickly as he could with
decency. The sight of the pen and ink had lost me so many good
evidences, that I was obliged wholly to abandon the use of them, and to
betake myself to other means. I was obliged for the future to commit my
tables of questions to memory; and endeavour by practice to put down,
after the examination of a person, such answers as he had given me to
each of them.
Others went off, because it happened that immediately on my interview, I
acquainted them with the nature of my errand and solicited their
attendance in London. Conceiving that I had no right to ask them such a
favour, or terrified at the abruptness and apparent awfulness of my
request some of them gave me an immediate denial, which they would never
afterwards retract. I began to perceive in time that it was only by the
most delicate management that I could get forward on these occasions. I
resolved, therefore, for the future, except in particular cases, that
when I should be introduced to persons who had a competent knowledge of
this trade, I would talk with them upon it as upon any ordinary subject,
and then leave them without saying anything about their becoming
evidences. I would take care, however, to commit all their conversation
to writing when it was over; and I would then try to find out that
person among their relations or friends, who could apply to them for
this purpose, with the least hazard of a refusal.
There were others, also, who, though they were not so much impressed by
the considerations mentioned, yet objected to give their public
testimony. Those whose livelihood, or promotion, or expectations, were
dependent upon the government of the country, were generally backward on
these occasions. Though they thought they discovered in the
parliamentary conduct of Mr. Pitt, a bias in favour of the cause, they
knew to a certainty that the Lord Chancellor Thurlow was against it.
They conceived, therefore, that the administration was at least divided
upon the question, and they were fearful of being called upon, lest they
should give offence, and thus injure their prospects in life. This
objection was very prevalent in that part of the kingdom which I had
selected for my tour.
The reader can hardly conceive how my mind was agitated and distressed
on these different accounts. To have travelled more than two months,--to
have seen many who could have materially served our cause,--and to have
lost most of them,--was very trying. And though it is true that I
applied a remedy, I was not driven to the adoption of it, till I had
performed more than half my tour. Suffice it to say, that after having
travelled upwards of sixteen hundred miles backwards and forwards, and
having conversed with forty-seven persons, who were capable of promoting
the cause by their evidence, I could only prevail upon nine, by all the
interest I could make, to be examined.
On my return to London, whither I had been called up by the committee,
to take upon me the superintendence of the evidence, which the privy
council was now ready again to hear, I found my brother: he was then a
young officer in the navy; and as I knew he felt as warmly as I did in
this great cause, I prevailed upon him to go to Havre de Grace, the
great slave-port in France, where he might make his observations for two
or three months, and then report what he had seen and heard; so that we
might have some one to counteract any false statement of things, which
might be made relative to the subject in that quarter.
At length the examinations were resumed, and with them the contest, in
which our own reputation and the fate of our cause were involved. The
committee for the abolition had discovered, one or two willing evidences
during my absence; and Mr. Wilberforce, who was now recovered from his
severe indisposition, had found one or two others. These, added to my
own, made a respectable body; but we had sent no more than four or five
of these to the council, when the king's illness unfortunately stopped
our career. For nearly five weeks between the middle of November and
January, the examinations were interrupted or put off, so that at the
latter period we began to fear, that there would be scarcely time to
hear the rest; for not only the privy council report was to be printed,
but the contest itself was to be decided by the evidence contained in
it, in the existing session.
The examinations, however, went on; but they went on only slowly, being
still subject to interruption from the same unfortunate cause. Among
others I offered my mite of information again. I wished the council to
see more of my African productions and manufactures, that they might
really know what Africa was capable of affording, instead of the Slave
Trade; and that they might make a proper estimate of the genius and
talents of the natives. The samples which I had collected, had been
obtained by great labour, and at no inconsiderable expense: for whenever
I had notice that a vessel had arrived immediately from that continent,
I never hesitated to go, unless under the most pressing engagements
elsewhere, even as far as Bristol, if I could pick up but a single new
article. The lords having consented, I selected several things for their
inspection out of my box,--of the contents of which the following
account may not be unacceptable to the reader:--
The first division of the box consisted of woods of about four inches
square, all polished. Among these were mahogany of five different sorts,
tulip-wood, satin-wood, cam-wood, bar-wood, fustic, black and yellow
ebony, palm-tree, mangrove, calabash, and date. There were seven woods,
of which the native names were remembered; three of these, Tumiah,
Samain, and Jimlake, were of a yellow colour; Acajoú was of a beautiful
deep crimson; Bork and Quellé were apparently fit for cabinet work; and
Benten was the wood of which the natives made their canoes. Of the,
various other woods the names had been forgotten, nor were they known in
England at all. One of them was of a fine purple; and from two others,
upon which the privy council had caused experiments to be made, a strong
yellow, a deep orange, and a flesh-colour were extracted.
The second, division included ivory and musk; four species of pepper,
the long, the black, the Cayenne, and the Malaguetta; three species of
gum, namely, Senegal, Copal, and ruber astringens; cinnamon, rice,
tobacco, indigo, white and Nankin cotton, Guinea corn, and millet; three
species of beans, of which two were used for food, and the other for
dyeing orange; two species of tamarinds, one for food, and the other to
give whiteness to the teeth; pulse, seeds, and fruits of various kinds,
some of the latter of which Dr. Spaarman had pronounced; from a trial
during his residence in Africa, to be peculiarly valuable as drugs.
The third division contained an African loom, and an African spindle
with spun cotton round it; cloths of cotton of various kinds made by the
natives, some white, but others dyed by them of different colours, and
others in which they had interwoven European silk; cloths and bags made
of grass, and fancifully coloured; ornaments made of the same materials;
ropes made from a species of aloes and others, remarkably strong, from
glass and straw; fine string made from the fibres of the roots of trees;
soap of two kinds; one of which was formed from an earthy substance;
pipe-bowls made of clay, and of a brown red; one of these, which came
from the village of Dakard, was beautifully ornamented by black devices
burnt in, and was besides highly glazed; another brought from Galam, was
made of earth, which was richly impregnated with little particles of
gold; trinkets made by the natives from their own gold; knives and
daggers made by them from our bar-iron; and various other articles, such
as bags, sandals, dagger-cases, quivers, grisgris, all made of leather
of their own manufacture, and dyed of various colours, and ingeniously
sewed together.
The fourth division consisted of the thumb-screw, speculum oris, and
chains and shackles of different kinds, collected at Liverpool. To these
were added, iron neck-collars, and other instruments of punishment and
confinement used in the West Indies, and collected at other places. The
instrument also, by which Charles Horseler was mentioned to have been
killed, in a former chapter, was to be seen among these.
We were now advanced far into February, when we were alarmed by the
intelligence that the lords of the council were going to prepare their
report: At this time we had sent but few persons to them to examine, in
comparison with our opponents, and we had yet eighteen to introduce: for
answers had come into my tables of questions from several places, and
persons had been pointed out to us by our correspondents, who had
increased our list of evidences to this number. I wrote therefore to
them, at the desire of the committee for the abolition, and gave them
the names of the eighteen, and requested also, that they would order,
for their own inspection; certain muster-rolls of vessels from Poole and
Dartmouth, that they might be convinced that the objection which the
Earl of Sandwich had made in the House of Lords, against the abolition
of the Slave Trade, had no solid foundation. In reply to my first
request they informed me, that it was impossible, in the advanced state
of the session, (it being then the middle of March,) that the
examinations of so many could be taken; but I was at liberty, in
conjunction with the Bishop of London, to select eight for this purpose.
This occasioned me to address them again; and I then found, to my
surprise and sorrow, that even this last number was to be diminished;
for I was informed in writing, "that the Bishop of London having laid my
last letter before their lordships, they had agreed to meet on the
Saturday next, and on the Tuesday following, for the purposes of
receiving the evidence of some of the gentlemen named in it. And it was
their lordships' desire that I would give notice to any three of them
(whose information I might consider the most material) of the above
determination, that they might attend the committee accordingly."
This answer, considering the difficulties we had found in collecting a
body of evidence, and the critical situation in which we were, was
peculiarly distressing; but we had no remedy left us, nor could we
reasonably complain. Three therefore were selected, and they were sent
to deliver their testimony on their arrival in town.
But before the last of these had left the council room, who should come
up to me but Dr. Arnold? He had but lately arrived at Bristol from
Africa; and having heard from our friends there that we had been daily
looking for him, he had come to us in London. He and Mr. Gardiner were
the two surgeons, as mentioned in the former chapter, who had promised
me, when I was in Bristol, in the year 1787, that they would keep a
journal of facts during the voyages they were then going to perform.
They had both kept this promise. Gardiner, I found, had died upon the
coast; and his journal, having been discovered at his death, had been
buried with him in great triumph. But Arnold had survived, and he came
now to offer us his services in the cause.
As it was a pity that such correct information as that taken down in
writing upon the spot should be lost (for all the other evidences,
except Dr. Spaarman and Mr. Wadstrom, had spoken from their memory
only), I made all the interest I could to procure a hearing for Mr.
Arnold. Pleading now for the examination of him only, and under these
particular circumstances, I was attended to. It was consented, in
consequence of the little time which was now left for preparing and
printing the report, that I should make out his evidence from his
journal under certain heads. This I did. Mr. Arnold swore to the truth
of it, when so drawn up, before Edward Montague, Esquire, a master in
Chancery. He then delivered the paper in which it was contained to the
lords of the council, who, on receiving it, read it throughout, and then
questioned him upon it.
At this time, also, my brother returned with accounts and papers
relative to the Slave Trade from Havre de Grace; but as I had pledged
myself to offer no other person to be examined, his evidence was lost.
Thus, after all the pains we had taken, and in a contest, too, on the
success of which our own reputation and the fate of Africa depended, we
were obliged to fight the battle with sixteen less than we could have
brought into the field; while our opponents, on the other hand, on
account of their superior advantages, had mustered all their forces, not
having omitted a single man.
I do not know of any period of my life in which I suffered so much, both
in body and mind, as from the time of resuming these public inquiries by
the privy council, to the time when they were closed. For I had my
weekly duty to attend at the committee for the abolition during this
interval. I had to take down the examinations of all the evidences who
came to London, and to make certain copies of these. I had to summon
these to town, and to make provision against all accidents; and here I
was often troubled, by means of circumstances, which unexpectedly
occurred, lest, when committees of the council had been purposely
appointed to hear them, they should not be forthcoming at the time. I
had also a new and extensive correspondence to keep up; for the tables
of questions which had been sent down to our correspondents, brought
letters almost innumerable on this subject, and they were always
addressed to me. These not only required answers of themselves, but as
they usually related to persons capable of giving their testimony, and
contained the particulars of what they could state, they occasioned
fresh letters to be written to others. Hence the writing often of ten or
twelve daily became necessary.
But the contents of these letters afforded the circumstances, which gave
birth to so much suffering. They contained usually some affecting tale
of woe. At Bristol my feelings had been harassed by the cruel treatment
of the seamen, which had come to my knowledge there: but now I was
doomed to see this treatment over again in many other melancholy
instances; and, additionally, to take in the various sufferings of the
unhappy slaves. These accounts I could seldom get time to read till late
in the evening, and sometimes not till midnight, when the letters
containing them were to be answered. The effect of these accounts was in
some instances to overwhelm me for a time in tears, and in others to
produce a vivid indignation, which affected my whole frame. Recovering
from these, I walked up and down the room: I felt fresh vigour, and made
new determinations of perpetual warfare against this impious trade. I
implored strength that I might succeed. I then sat down, and continued
my work as long as my wearied eyes would permit me to see. Having been
agitated in this manner, I went to bed; but my rest was frequently
broken by the visions which floated before me. When I awoke, these
renewed themselves to me, and they flitted about with me for the
remainder of the day. Thus I was kept continually harassed: my mind was
confined to one gloomy and heart-breaking subject for months. It had no
respite, and my health began now materially to suffer.
But the contents of these letters were particularly grievous, on account
of the severe labours which they necessarily entailed upon me in other
ways than those which have been mentioned. It was my duty, while the
privy council examinations went on, not only to attend to all the
evidence which was presented to us by our correspondents, but to find
out and select the best. The happiness of millions depended upon it.
Hence I was often obliged to travel during these examinations, in order
to converse with those who had been pointed out to us as capable of
giving their testimony; and, that no time might be lost, to do this in
the night. More than two hundred miles in a week were sometimes passed
over on these occasions.
The disappointments too, which I frequently experienced in journeys,
increased the poignancy of the, suffering, which arose from a
contemplation of the melancholy cases which I had thus travelled to
bring forward to the public view. The reader at present can have no idea
of these. I have been sixty miles to visit a person, of whom I had
heard, not only as possessing important knowledge, but as espousing our
opinions on this subject. I have at length seen him. He has applauded my
pursuit at our first interview. He has told me, in the course of our
conversation, that neither my own pen, nor that of any other man, could
describe adequately the horrors, of the Slave Trade, horrors which he
himself had witnessed. He has exhorted me to perseverance in this noble
cause. Could I have wished for a more favourable reception!--But mark
the issue. He was the nearest relation of a rich person concerned in the
traffic; and if he were to come forward with his evidence publicly, he
should ruin all his expectations from that Quarter. In the same week I
have visited another at a still greater distance. I have met with
similar applause. I have heard him describe scenes of misery which he
had witnessed, and on the relation of which he himself almost wept. But
mark the issue again.--"I am a surgeon," says he; "through that window
you see a spacious house; it is occupied by a West Indian. The medical
attendance upon his family is of considerable importance to the temporal
interests of mine. If I give you my evidence I lose his patronage. At
the house above him lives a East Indian. The two families are connected:
I fear, if I lose the support of one, I shall lose that of the other
also: but I will give you privately all the intelligence in my power."
The reader may now conceive the many miserable hours I must have spent,
after such visits, in returning home; and how grievously my heart must
have been afflicted by these cruel disappointments, but more
particularly where they arose from causes inferior to those which have
been now mentioned, or from little frivolous excuses, or idle and
unfounded conjectures, unworthy of beings expected to fill a moral
station in life. Yes, O man! often in these solitary journeyings have I
exclaimed against the baseness of thy nature, when reflecting on the
little paltry considerations which have smothered thy benevolence, and
hindered thee from succouring an oppressed brother. And yet, on a
further view of things, I have reasoned myself into a kinder feeling
towards thee. For I have been obliged to consider ultimately, that there
were both lights and shades in the human character; and that, if the bad
part of our nature was visible on these occasions, the nobler part of it
ought not to be forgotten. While I passed a censure upon those, who were
backward in serving this great cause of humanity and justice, how many
did I know, who were toiling in the support of it! I drew also this
consolation from my reflections, that I had done my duty; that I had
left nothing untried or undone; that amidst all these disappointments I
had collected information, which might be useful at a future time; and
that such disappointments were almost inseparable from the prosecution
of a cause of such magnitude, and where the interests of so many were
concerned:--
Having now given a general account of my own proceedings, I shall state
those of the committee; or show how they contributed, by fulfilling the
duties of their several departments, to promote the cause in the
interim.
In the first place they completed the rules, or code of laws, for their
own government.
They continued to adopt and circulate books, that they might still
enlighten the public mind on the subject, and preserve it interested in
favour of their institution. They kept the press indeed almost
constantly going for this purpose. They printed, within the period
mentioned, RAMSAY'S, _Address on the proposed Bill for the Abolition;
The Speech of Henry Beaufoy, Esq., on Sir William Dolben's Bill_, of
which an extract is given in Chap. xxiii.; _Notes by a Planter on the
two Reports from the Committee of the Honourable House of Assembly of
Jamaica_; _Observations on the Slave Trade_ by Mr. Wadstrom; and
DICKSON'S _Letters on Slavery._ These were all new publications. To
those they added others of less note, with new editions of the old.
They voted their thanks to the Rev. Mr. Clifford, for his excellent
Sermon on the Slave Trade; to the pastor and congregation of the Baptist
church at Maze Pond, Southwark, for their liberal subscription; and to
John Barton, one of their own members, for the services he had rendered
them. The latter, having left his residence in town for one in the
country, solicited permission to resign, and hence this mark of
approbation was given to him. He was continued also as an honorary and
corresponding member.
They elected David Hartley and Richard Sharpe, Esqs., into their own
body, and Alexander Jaffray, Esq., the Rev. Charles Symmons, of
Haverfordwest, and the Rev. T. Burgess (afterwards bishop of Salisbury),
as honorary and corresponding members. The latter had written
_Considerations on the Abolition of Slavery and the Slave Trade, upon
grounds of natural, religious, and political Duty_, which had been of
great service to the cause.
Of the new correspondents of the committee within this period I may
first mention Henry Taylor, of North Shields; William Proud, of Hull;
the Rev. T. Gisborne, of Yoxall Lodge; and William Ellford, Esq., of
Plymouth. The latter as chairman of the Plymouth committee, sent up for
inspection an engraving of a plan and section of a slave-ship, in which
the bodies of the slaves were seen stowed in the proportion of rather
less than one to a ton. This happy invention gave all those who saw it a
much better idea, than they could otherwise have had, of the horrors of
their transportation, and contributed greatly, as will appear,
afterwards, to impress the public in favour of our cause.
The next, whom I shall mention, was C.L. Evans, Esq., of West Bromwich;
the Rev. T. Clarke, of Hull; S.P. Wolferstan, of Stratford, near
Tamworth; Edmund Lodge, Esq., of Halifax; the Rev. Caleb Rotheram, of
Kendal; and Mr. Campbell Haliburton, of Edinburgh. The news which Mr.
Haliburton sent was very agreeable. He informed us that, in consequence
of the great exertions of Mr. Alison, an institution had been formed in
Edinburgh, similar to that in London, which would take all Scotland
under its care and management, as far as related to this great subject.
He mentioned Lord Gardenston as the chairman; Sir William Forbes as the
deputy-chairman; himself as the secretary; and Lord Napier, Professor
Andrew Hunter, Professor Greenfield, and William Creech, Adam Rolland,
Alexander Ferguson, John Dickson, John Erskine, John Campbell, Archibald
Gibson, Archibald Fletcher, and Horatius Canning, Esqrs., as the
committee.
The others were, the Rev. J. Bidlake, of Plymouth; Joseph Storrs, of
Chesterfield; William Fothergill, of Carr End, Yorkshire; J. Seymour, of
Coventry; Moses Neave, of Poole; Joseph Taylor, of Scarborough; Timothy
Clark, of Doncaster; Thomas Davis, of Milverton; George Croker Fox, of
Falmouth; Benjamin Grubb, of Clonmell in Ireland; Sir William Forbes, of
Edinburgh; the Rev. J. Jamieson, of Forfar; and Joseph Gurney, of
Norwich; the latter of whom sent up a remittance, and intelligence at
the same time, that a committee, under Mr. Leigh, so often before
mentioned, had been formed in that city[A].
[Footnote A: On the removal of Mr. Leigh from Norwich, Dr. Pretyman,
precentor of Lincoln and a prebend of Norwich, succeeded him.]
But the committee in London, while they were endeavouring to promote the
object of their institution at home, continued their exertions for the
same purpose abroad within this period.
They kept up a communication with the different societies established in
America.
They directed their attention also to the continent of Europe. They had
already applied, as I mentioned before, to the king of Sweden in favour
of their cause, and had received a gracious answer. They now attempted
to interest other Potentates in it. For this purpose they bound up in an
elegant manner two sets of the _Essays on the Slavery and Commerce of
the Human Species, and on the Impolicy of the Slave Trade_, and sent
them to the Chevalier de Pinto, in Portugal. They bound up in a similar
manner three sets of the same, and sent them to Mr. Eden (afterwards
Lord Aukland), at Madrid, to be given to the king of Spain, the Count
d'Aranda, and the Marquis del Campomanes.
They kept up their correspondence with the committee at Paris, which had
greatly advanced itself in the eyes of the French nation; so that, when
the different bailliages sent deputies to the states-general, they
instructed them to take the Slave Trade into their consideration as a
national object, and with a view to its abolition.
They kept up their correspondence with Dr. Frossard of Lyons. He had
already published in France on the subject of the Slave Trade; and now
he offered the committee to undertake the task, so long projected by
them, of collecting such arguments and facts concerning it, and
translating them into different languages, as might be useful in
forwarding their views in foreign parts.
They addressed letters also to various individuals, to Monsieur
Snetlage, doctor of laws at Halle in Saxony; to Monsieur Ladebat, of
Bordeaux; to the Marquis de Feuillade d'Aubusson, at Paris; and to
Monsieur Necker. The latter in his answer replied in part as follows:
"As this great question," says he, "is not in my department, but in that
of the minister for the colonies, I cannot interfere in it directly, but
I will give indirectly all the assistance in my power. I have for a long
time taken an interest in the general alarm on this occasion, and in the
noble alliance of the friends of humanity in favour of the injured
Africans. Such an attempt throws a new lustre over your nation. It is
not yet, however, a national object in France; but the moment may
perhaps come, and I shall think myself happy in preparing the way for
it. You must be aware, however, of the difficulties which we shall have
to encounter on our side of the water; for our colonies are much more
considerable than yours; so that in the view of political interest we
are not on an equal footing. It will therefore be necessary to find some
middle line at first, as it cannot be expected that humanity alone will
be the governing principle of mankind."
But the day was now drawing near, when it was expected that this great
contest would be decided. Mr. Wilberforce, on the 19th of March, rose up
in the House of Commons and desired the resolution to be read, by which
the house stood pledged to take the Slave Trade into their consideration
in the then session; He then moved that the house should resolve itself
into a committee of the whole house on Thursday the 23rd of April, for
this purpose. This motion was agreed to; after which he moved for
certain official documents necessary to throw light upon the subject in
the course of its discussion.
This motion, by means of which the great day of trial was now fixed,
seemed to be the signal for the planters, merchants, and other
interested persons to begin a furious opposition. Meetings were
accordingly called by advertisement. At these meetings much warmth and
virulence were manifested in debate, and propositions breathing a spirit
of anger were adopted. It was suggested there, in the vehemence of
passion, that the islands could exist independently of the mother
country; nor were even threats withheld to intimidate government from
effecting the abolition.
From this time, also, the public papers began to be filled with such
statements as were thought most likely to influence the members of the
House of Commons, previously to the discussion of the question.
The first impression attempted to be made upon them was with respect to
the slaves themselves. It was contended, and attempted to be shown by
the revival of the old argument of human sacrifices in Africa, that
these were better off in the islands than in their own country. It was
contended, also, that they were people of very inferior capacities, and
but little removed from the brute creation; whence an inference was
drawn that their treatment, against which so much clamour had arisen,
was adapted to their intellect and feelings.
The next attempt was to degrade the abolitionists in the opinion of the
house, by showing the wildness and absurdity of their schemes. It was
again insisted upon that emancipation was the real, object of the
former; so that thousands of slaves would be let loose in the islands to
rob or perish, and who could never be brought back again into habits of
useful industry.
An attempt was then made to excite their pity in behalf of the planters.
The abolition, it was said, would produce insurrections among the
slaves. But insurrections would produce the massacre of their masters;
and, if any of these should happily escape from butchery, they would be
reserved only for ruin.
An appeal was then made to them on the ground of their own interest and
of that of the people whom they represented. It was stated that the ruin
of the islands would be the ruin of themselves and of the country. Its
revenue would be half annihilated; its naval strength would decay.
Merchants, manufacturers and others would come to beggary. But in this
deplorable situation they would expect to be indemnified for their
losses. Compensation, indeed, must follow: it could not be withheld. But
what would be the amount of it? The country would have no less than from
eighty to a hundred millions to pay the sufferers; and it would be
driven to such distress in paying this sum as it had never before
experienced.
The last attempt was to show them that a regulation of the trade was all
that was now wanted. While this would remedy the evils complained of, it
would prevent the mischief which would assuredly follow the abolition.
The planters had already done their part. The assemblies of the
different islands had most of them made wholesome laws upon the subject.
The very bills passed for this purpose in Jamaica and Grenada had
arrived in England, and might be seen by the public; the great
grievances had been redressed; no slave could now be mutilated or
wantonly killed by his owner; one man could not now maltreat, or bruise,
or wound the slave of another; the aged could not now be turned off to
perish by hunger. There were laws, also, relative to the better feeding
and clothing of the slaves. It remained only that the trade to Africa
should be put under as wise and humane regulations as the slavery in the
islands had undergone.
These different statements, appearing now in the public papers from day
to day, began, in this early stage of the question, when the subject in
all its bearings was known but to few, to make a considerable impression
upon those, who were soon to be called to the decision of it. But that
which had the greatest effect upon them, was the enormous amount of the
compensation, which, it was said, must be made. This statement against
the abolition was making its way so powerfully, that Archdeacon Paley
thought it his duty to write, and to send to the committee, a little
treatise called _Arguments against the unjust Pretensions of Slave
Dealers and Holders, to be indemnified by pecuniary Allowances at the
public expense, in case the Slave Trade should be abolished_. This
treatise, when the substance of it was detailed in the public papers,
had its influence upon several members of the House of Commons; but
there were others who had been, as it were, panic-struck by the
statement. These in their fright seemed to have lost the right use of
their eyes, or to have looked through a magnifying glass. With these the
argument of emancipation, which they would have rejected at another time
as ridiculous, obtained now easy credit. The massacres too, and the
ruin, though only conjectural, they admitted also. Hence some of them
deserted our cause wholly, while others, wishing to do justice as far as
they could to the slaves on the one hand, and to their own countrymen on
the other, adopted a middle line of conduct, and would go no further
than the regulation of the trade.
While these preparations were making by our opponents to prejudice the
minds of those who were to be the judges in this contest, Mr. Pitt
presented the privy council report at the bar of the House of Commons;
and as it was a large folio volume, and contained the evidence upon
which the question was to be decided, it was necessary that time should
be given to the members to peruse it. Accordingly, the 12th of May was
appointed, instead of the 23rd of April, for the discussion of the
question.
This postponement of the discussion of the question gave time to all
parties to prepare themselves further. The merchants and planters
availed themselves of it to collect petitions to parliament from
interested persons, against the abolition of the trade, to wait upon
members of parliament by deputation, in order to solicit their
attendance in their favour, and to renew their injurious paragraphs in
the public papers. The committee for the abolition availed themselves of
it to reply to these; and here Dr. Dickson, who had been secretary to
Governor Hey, in Barbados, and who had offered the committee his
_Letters on Slavery_ before mentioned, and his services also, was of
singular use. Many members of parliament availed themselves of it to
retire into the country to read the report. Among the latter were Mr.
Wilberforce and Mr. Pitt. In this retirement they discovered,
notwithstanding the great disadvantages under which we had laboured with
respect to evidence, that our cause was safe, and that, as far as it was
to be decided by reason and sound policy, it would triumph. It was in
this retirement that Mr. Pitt made those able calculations which
satisfied him for ever after, as the minister of the country, as to the
safety of the great measure of the abolition of the Slave Trade; for he
had clearly proved, that not only the islands could go on in a
flourishing state without supplies from the coast of Africa, but that
they were then in a condition to do it.
At length the 12th of May arrived. Mr. Wilberforce rose up in the
Commons and moved the order of the day for the house to resolve itself
into a committee of the whole house, to take into consideration the
petitions which had been presented against the Slave Trade.
This order having been read, he moved that the report of the committee
of privy council, that the acts passed in the islands relative to
slaves, that the evidence adduced last year on the Slave Trade, that the
petitions offered in the last session against the Slave Trade, and that
the accounts presented to the house in the last and present session
relative to the exports and imports of Africa, be referred to the same
committee.
These motions having been severally agreed to, the House immediately
resolved itself into a committee of the whole house, and Sir William
Dolben was put into the chair.
Mr. Wilberforce began by declaring, that when he considered how much
discussion the subject, which he was about to explain to the committee,
had occasioned, not only in that House, but throughout the kingdom, and
throughout Europe; and when he considered the extent and importance of
it, the variety of interests involved in it, and the consequences which
might arise, he owned he had been filled with apprehensions, lest a
subject of such magnitude, and a cause of such weight, should suffer
from the weakness of its advocate; but when he recollected that, in the
progress of his inquiries, he had everywhere been received with candour,
that most people gave him credit for the purity of his motives, and
that, however many of these might then differ from him, they were all
likely to agree in the end, he had dismissed his fears, and marched
forward with a firmer step in this cause of humanity, justice, and
religion. He could not, however, but lament that the subject had excited
so much warmth. He feared that too many on this account were but ill
prepared to consider it with impartiality. He entreated all such to
endeavour to be calm and composed. A fair and cool discussion was
essentially necessary. The motion he meant to offer, was as reconcilable
to political expediency as to national humanity. It belonged to no party
question. It would in the end be found serviceable to all parties, and
to the best interests of the country. He did not come forward to accuse
the West India planter, or the Liverpool merchant, or indeed any one
concerned in this traffic; but, if blame attached anywhere, to take
shame to himself in common, indeed, with the whole parliament of Great
Britain, who, having suffered it to be carried on under their own
authority, were all of them participators in the guilt.
In endeavouring to explain the great business of the day, he said he
should call the attention of the House only to the leading features of
the Slave Trade. Nor should he dwell long upon these. Every one might
imagine for himself what must be the natural consequence of such a
commerce with Africa. Was it not plain that she must suffer from it?
that her savage manners must be rendered still more ferocious? and that
a trade of this nature, carried on round her coasts, must extend
violence and desolation to her very centre? It was well known that the
natives of Africa were sold as goods, and that numbers of them were
continually conveyed away from their country by the owners of British
vessels. The question then was, which way the latter came by them. In
answer to this question, the privy council report, which was then on the
table, afforded evidence the most satisfactory and conclusive. He had
found things in it, which had confirmed every proposition he had
maintained before, whether this proposition had been gathered from
living information of the best authority, or from the histories he had
read. But it was unnecessary either to quote the report, or to appeal to
history on this occasion. Plain reason and common sense would point out
how the poor Africans were obtained. Africa was a country divided into
many kingdoms, which had different governments and laws. In many parts
the princes were despotic. In others they had a limited rule. But in all
of them, whatever the nature of the government was, men were considered
as goods and property, and, as such, subject to plunder in the same
manner as property in other countries. The persons in power there were
naturally fond of our commodities; and to obtain them, (which could only
be done by the sale of their countrymen,) they waged war on one another,
or even ravaged their own country, when they could find no pretence for
quarrelling with their neighbours: in their courts of law many poor
wretches, who were innocent, were condemned; and to obtain these
commodities in greater abundance, thousands were kidnapped and torn from
their families, and sent into slavery. Such transactions, he said, were
recorded in every history of Africa, and the report on the table
confirmed them. With respect, however, to these he should make but one
or two observations. If we looked into the reign of Henry the Eighth, we
should find a parallel for one of them. We should find that similar
convictions took place; and that penalties followed conviction. With
respect to wars, the kings of Africa were never induced to engage in
them by public principles, by national glory, and least of all by the
love of their people. This had been stated by those most conversant in
the subject, by Dr. Spaarman and Mr. Wadstrom. They had conversed with
these princes, and had learned from their own mouths that to procure
slaves was the object of their hostilities. Indeed, there was scarcely a
single person examined before the privy council who did not prove that
the Slave Trade was the source of the tragedies acted upon that
extensive continent. Some had endeavoured to palliate this circumstance;
but there was not one who did not more or less admit it to be true. By
one the Slave Trade was called the concurrent cause, by the majority it
was acknowledged to be the principal motive, of the African wars. The
same might be said with respect to those instances of treachery and
injustice, in which individuals were concerned. And here he was sorry to
observe that our own countrymen were often guilty. He would only at
present advert to the tragedy at Calabar, where two-large African
villages, having been for some time at war, made peace. This peace was
to have, been ratified by intermarriages; but some of our captains, who
were there, seeing their trade would be stopped for a while, sowed
dissension again between them. They actually set one village against the
other, took a share in the contest, massacred many of the inhabitants,
and carried others of them away as slaves. But shocking as this
transaction might appear, there was not a single history of Africa to be
read, in which scenes of as atrocious a nature were not related. They,
he said, who defended this trade, were warped and blinded by their own
interests, and would not be convinced of the miseries they were daily
heaping on their fellow creatures. By the countenance, they gave it,
they had reduced the inhabitants of Africa to a worse state than that of
the most barbarous nation. They had destroyed what ought to have been
the bond of union and safety among them; they had introduced discord and
anarchy among them; they had set kings against their subjects, and
subjects against each other; they had rendered every private family
wretched; they had, in short, given birth to scenes of injustice and
misery not to be found in any other quarter of the globe.
Having said thus much on the subject of procuring slaves in, Africa, he
would now go to that of the transportation of them. And here he had
fondly hoped, that when men with affections and feelings like our own
had been torn from their country, and everything dear to them, he should
have found some mitigation of their sufferings; but the sad reverse was
the case. This was the most wretched part of the whole subject. He was
incapable, of impressing the House with what he felt upon it. A
description of their conveyance was impossible. So much misery
condensed, in so little room was more than the human imagination had
ever before conceived. Think only of six hundred persons linked
together, trying to get rid of each other, crammed in a close vessel
with every object that was nauseous and disgusting, diseased, and
struggling with all the varieties of wretchedness. It seemed impossible
to add anything more to human misery. Yet shocking as this description
must be felt to be by every man, the transportation had been described
by several witnesses from Liverpool to be a comfortable conveyance. Mr.
Norris had painted the accommodations on board a slave-ship in the most
glowing colours. He had represented them in a manner which would have
exceeded his attempts at praise of the most luxurious scenes. Their
apartments, he said, were fitted up as advantageously for them as
circumstances could possibly admit: they had several meals a day; some
of their own country provisions, with the best sauces of African
cookery; and, by way of variety, another meal of pulse, according to the
European taste. After breakfast they had water to wash themselves, while
their apartments were perfumed with frankincense and lime-juice. Before
dinner they were amused after the manner of their country; instruments
of music were introduced; the song and the dance were promoted; games of
chance were furnished them; the men played and sang, while the women and
girls made fanciful ornaments from beads, with which they were
plentifully supplied. They were indulged in all their little fancies,
and kept in sprightly humour. Another of them had said, when the sailors
were flogged, it was out of the hearing of the Africans, lest it should
depress their spirits. He by no means wished to say that such
descriptions were wilful misrepresentations. If they were not, it proved
that interest or prejudice was capable of spreading a film over the eyes
thick enough to occasion total blindness.
Others, however, and these men of the greatest veracity, had given a
different account. What would the house think, when by the concurring
testimony of these the true history was laid open? The slaves who had
been described as rejoicing in their captivity, were so wrung with
misery at leaving their country, that it was the constant practice to
set sail in the night, lest they should know the moment of their
departure. With respect to their accommodation, the right ancle of one
was fastened to the left ancle of another by an iron fetter; and if they
were turbulent, by another on the wrists. Instead of the apartments
described, they were placed in niches, and along the decks, in such a
manner, that it was impossible for any one to pass among them, however
careful he might be, without treading upon them. Sir George Yonge had
testified, that in a slave-ship, on board of which he went, and which
had not completed her cargo by two hundred and fifty, instead of the
scent of frankincense being perceptible to the nostrils, the stench was
intolerable. The allowance of water was, so deficient, that the slaves
were, frequently found gasping for life, and almost suffocated. The
pulse with which they had been said to be favoured, were absolutely
English horse-beans. The legislature of Jamaica had stated the
scantiness both of water and provisions, as a subject which called for
the interference of parliament. As Mr. Norris had said, the song and the
dance were promoted, he could not pass over these expressions without
telling the house what they meant. It would have been much more fair if
he himself had explained the word _promoted_. The truth was, that, for
the sake of exercise, these miserable wretches, loaded with chains and
oppressed with disease, were forced to dance by the terror of the lash,
and sometimes by the actual use of it. "I" said one of the evidences,
"was employed to dance the men, while another person danced the women."
Such then was the meaning of the, word _promoted_; and it might also be
observed with respect to food, that instruments were sometimes carried
out in order to force them to eat; which was the same sort of proof, how
much they enjoyed themselves in this instance also. With respect to
their singing, it consisted of songs, of lamentation for the loss of
their country. While they sung they were in tears: so that one of the
captains, more humane probably than the rest, threatened a woman with a
flogging because the mournfulness of her song was too painful for his
feelings. Perhaps he could not give a better proof of the sufferings of
these injured people during their passage, than by stating the mortality
which accompanied it. This was a species of evidence, which was
infallible on this occasion. Death was a witness which could not deceive
them; and the proportion of deaths would not only confirm, but, if
possible, even aggravate our suspicion of the misery of the transit. It
would be found, upon an average of all the ships, upon which evidence
had been given, that, exclusively of such as perished before they sailed
from Africa, not less than twelve and-a-half per cent died on their
passage: besides these, the Jamaica report stated that four and-a-half
per cent died while in the harbours, or on shore before the day of sale,
which was only about the space of twelve or fourteen days after their
arrival there; and one-third more died in the seasoning: and this in a
climate exactly similar to their own, and where, as some of the
witnesses pretended, they were healthy and happy. Thus out of every lot
of one hundred shipped from Africa, seventeen died in about nine weeks,
and not more than fifty lived to become effective labourers in our
islands.
Having advanced thus far in his investigation, he felt, he said, the
wickedness of the Slave Trade to be so enormous, so dreadful, and
irremediable, that he could stop at no alternative short of its
abolition, A trade founded on iniquity, and carried on with such
circumstances of horror, must be abolished, let the policy of it be what
it might; and he had from this time determined, whatever were the
consequences, that he would never rest till he had effected that
abolition. His mind had, indeed, been harassed by the objections of the
West India planters, who had asserted, that the ruin of their property
must be the consequence of such a measure. He could not help, however,
distrusting their arguments. He could not believe that the Almighty
Being, who had forbidden the practice of rapine and bloodshed, had made
rapine and bloodshed necessary to any part of his universe. He felt a
confidence in this persuasion, and took the resolution to act upon it.
Light, indeed, soon broke in upon him. The suspicion of his mind was
every day confirmed by increasing information, and the evidence he had
now to offer upon this point was decisive and complete. The principle
upon which he founded the necessity of the abolition was not policy, but
justice: but though justice were the principle of the measure, yet he
trusted he should distinctly prove it to be reconcilable with our truest
political interest.
In the first place, he asserted that the number of the slaves in our
West India islands might be kept up without the introduction of recruits
from Africa; and to prove this, he would enumerate the different sources
of their mortality. The first was the disproportion of the sexes, there
being, upon an average, about five males imported to three females: but
this evil, when the Slave Trade was abolished, would cure itself. The
second consisted in the bad condition in which they were brought to the
islands, and the methods of preparing them for sale. They arrived
frequently in a sickly and disordered state, and then they were made up
for the market by the application of astringents, washes, mercurial
ointments, and repelling drugs, so that their wounds and diseases might
be hid. These artifices were not only fraudulent but fatal; but these,
it was obvious, would of themselves fall with the trade. A third was,
excessive labour joined with improper food; and a fourth was, the
extreme dissoluteness of their manners. These, also, would both of them
be counteracted by the impossibility of getting further supplies: for
owners, now unable to replace those slaves whom they might lose, by
speedy purchases in the markets, would be more careful how they treated
them in future, and a better treatment would be productive of better
morals. And here he would just advert to an argument used against those
who complained of cruelty in our islands, which was, that it was the
interest of masters to treat their slaves with humanity: but surely it
was immediate and present, not future and distant interest, which was
the great spring of action in the affairs of mankind. Why did we make
laws to punish men? It was their interest to be upright and virtuous:
but there was a present impulse continually breaking in upon their
better judgment, and an impulse, which was known to be contrary to their
permanent advantage. It was ridiculous to say that men would be bound by
their interest, when gain or ardent passion urged them. It might as well
be asserted, that a stone could not be thrown into the air, or a body
move from place to place, because the principle of gravitation bound
them to the surface of the earth. If a planter in the West Indies found
himself reduced in his profits, he did not usually dispose of any part
of his slaves; and his own gratifications were never given up, so long
as there was a possibility of making any retrenchment in the allowance
of his slaves.--But to return to the subject which he had left: he was
happy to state, that as all the causes of the decrease which he had
stated might be remedied, so, by the progress of light and reformation,
these remedies had been gradually coming into practice; and that, as
these had increased, the decrease of slaves had in an equal proportion
been lessened. By the gradual adoption of these remedies, he could prove
from the report on the table, that the decrease of slaves in Jamaica had
lessened to such a degree, that from the year 1774 to the present it was
not quite one in a hundred, and that, in fact, they were at present in a
state of increase; for that the births in that island, at this moment,
exceeded the deaths by one thousand or eleven hundred per annum.
Barbados, Nevis, Antigua, and the Bermudas, were, like Jamaica,
lessening their decrease, and holding forth an evident and reasonable
expectation of a speedy state of increase by natural population. But
allowing the number of Negroes even to decrease for a time, there were
methods which would insure the welfare of the West India islands. The
lands there might be cultivated by fewer hands, and this to greater
advantage to the proprietors and to this country, by the produce of
cinnamon, coffee, and cotton, than by that of sugar. The produce of the
plantations might also be considerably increased, even in the case of
sugar, with less hands than were at present employed, if the owners of
them would but introduce machines of husbandry. Mr. Long himself, long
resident as a planter, had proved, upon his own estate, that the plough,
though so little used in the West Indies, did the service of a hundred
slaves, and caused the same ground to produce three hogsheads of sugar,
which, when cultivated by slaves, would only produce two. The division
of work, which, in free and civilized countries, was the grand source of
wealth, and the reduction of the number of domestic servants, of whom
not less than from twenty to forty were kept in ordinary families,
afforded other resources for this purpose. But, granting that all these
suppositions should be unfounded, and that everyone of these substitutes
should fail for a time, the planters would be indemnified, as is the
case in all transactions of commerce, by the increased price of their
produce in the British market. Thus, by contending against the
abolition, they were defeated in every part of the argument. But he
would never give up the point, that the number of the slaves could be
kept up, by natural population, and without any dependence whatever on
the Slave Trade. He therefore called upon the house again to abolish it
as a criminal waste of life--it was utterly unnecessary--he had proved
it so by documents contained in the report. The merchants of Liverpool,
indeed, had thought otherwise, but he should be cautious how he assented
to their opinions. They declared last year that it was a losing trade at
two slaves to a ton, and yet they pursued it when restricted to five
slaves to three tons. He believed, however, that it was upon the whole a
losing concern; in the same manner as the lottery would be a losing
adventure to any company who should buy all the tickets. Here and there
an individual gained a large prize, but the majority of adventurers
gained nothing. The same merchants, too, had asserted, that the town of
Liverpool would be mined by the abolition. But Liverpool did not depend
for its consequence upon the Slave Trade. The whole export-tonnage from
that place amounted to no less than 170,000 tons; whereas the export
part of it to Africa amounted only to 13,000. Liverpool, he was sure,
owed its greatness to other and very different causes; the Slave Trade
bearing but a small proportion to its other trade.