Great Britain might abandon her share of_The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839)

abolish it. Parliament was not an assembly of delegates from the powers

of Europe, but of a single nation. It could not therefore suppress the

trade; but would eventually aggravate those miseries incident to it,

which every enlightened man must acknowledge, and every good man must

deplore. He wished the traffic for ever closed. But other nations were

only waiting for our decision, to seize the part we should leave them.

The new projects of these would be intemperate; and, in the zeal of

rivalship, the present evils of comparatively sober dealing would be

aggravated beyond all estimate in this new and heated auction of bidders

for life and limb. We might, indeed, by regulation give an example of

new principles of policy and of justice; but if we were to withdraw

suddenly from this commerce, like Pontius Pilate, we should wash our

hands, indeed, but we should not be innocent as to the consequences.

On the first agitation of this business, Mr. Wilberforce had spoken

confidently of other nations following our example. But had not the

National Assembly of France referred the Slave Trade to a select

committee, and had not that committee rejected the measure of its

abolition? By the evidence it appeared, that the French and Spaniards

were then giving bounties to the Slave Trade; that Denmark was desirous

of following it; that America was encouraging it; and that the Dutch had

recognized its necessity, and recommended its recovery. Things were bad

enough indeed as they were, but he was sure this rivalship would make

them worse.

He did not admit the disorders imputed to the trade in all their extent.

Pillage and kidnapping could not be general, on account of the

populousness of the country; though too frequent instances of it had

been proved. Crimes might be falsely imputed. This he admitted; but only

partially. Witchcraft, he believed, was the secret of poisoning, and

therefore deserved the severest punishment. That there should be a

number of convictions for adultery, where polygamy was a custom, was not

to be wondered at; but he feared, if a sale of these criminals were to

be done away, massacre would be the substitute.

An honourable member had asked on a former day, "Is it an excuse for

robbery to say that another would hare committed it?" But the Slave

Trade did not necessarily imply robbery. Not long since Great Britain

sold her convicts, indirectly at least, to slavery; but he was no

advocate for the trade. He wished it had begun, and that it might soon

terminate. But the means were not adequate to the end proposed.

Mr. Burke had said on a former occasion, "that in adopting measure we

must prepare to pay the price of our virtue." He was ready to pay his

share of that price; but the effect of the purchase must be first

ascertained. If they did not estimate this, it was not benevolence, but

dissipation. Effects were to be duly appreciated; and though statesmen

might rest everything on a manifesto of causes, the humbler moralist,

meditating peace and good will towards men, would venture to call such

statesmen responsible for consequences.

In regard to the colonies, a sudden abolition would be oppression. The

legislatures there should be led, and not forced, upon this occasion. He

was persuaded they would act wisely to attain the end pointed out to

them. They would see that a natural increase of their negroes might be

effected by an improved system of legislation; and that in the result

the Slave Trade would be no longer necessary.

A sudden abolition, also, would occasion dissatisfaction there. Supplies

were necessary for some time to come. The negroes did not yet generally

increase by birth. The gradation of ages was not yet duly filled. These

and many defects might be remedied, but not suddenly.

It would cause, also, distress there. The planters, not having their

expected supplies, could not discharge their debts; hence their slaves

would be seized and sold. Nor was there any provision in this case

against the separation of families, except as to the mother and infant

child. These separations were one of the chief outrages complained of in

Africa. Why, then, should we promote them in the West Indies? The

confinement on board a slave-ship had been also bitterly complained of;

but, under distraint for the debt of a master, the poor slave might

linger in a gaol twice or thrice the time of the Middle Passage.

He again stated his abhorrence of the Slave Trade; but as a resource,

though he hoped but a temporary one, it was of such consequence to the

existence of the country, that it could not suddenly be withdrawn. The

value, of the imports and exports between Great Britain and the West

Indies, including the excise and customs, was between seven and eight

millions annually; and the tonnage of the ships employed about an eighth

of the whole tonnage of these kingdoms.

He complained that in the evidence the West Indian planters had been by

no means spared. Cruel stories had been hastily and lightly told against

them. Invidious comparisons had been made to their detriment; but it was

well known that one of our best comic writers, when he wished to show

benevolence in its fairest colours, had personified it in the character

of the West Indian. He wished the slave might become as secure as the

apprentice in this country; but it was necessary that the alarms

concerning the abolition of the Slave Trade should, in the mean time, be

quieted; and he trusted that the good sense and true benevolence of the

House would reject the present motion.

Mr. Matthew Montagu rose and said a few words in support of the motion;

and after condemning the trade in the strongest manner, he declared,

that as long as he had life he would use every faculty of his body and

mind in endeavouring to promote its abolition.

Lord John Russell succeeded Mr. Montagu. He said, that although slavery

was repugnant to his feelings, he must vote against the abolition as

visionary and delusive. It was a feeble attempt, without the power, to

serve the cause of humanity. Other nations would take up the trade.

Whenever a bill of wise regulation should be brought forward, no man

would be more ready than himself to lend his support. In this way the

rights of humanity might be asserted without injury to others. He hoped

he should not incur censure by his vote; for, let his understanding be

what it might, he did not know that he had, notwithstanding the

assertions of Mr. Fox, an inaccessible heart.

Mr. Stanley (agent for the islands) rose next. He felt himself called

upon, he said, to refute the many calumnies which had for years been

propagated against the planters, (even through the medium of the pulpit,

which should have been employed to better purposes,) and which had at

length produced the mischievous measure, which was now under the

discussion of the House. A cry had been sounded forth, and from one end

of the kingdom to the other, as if there had never been a slave from

Adam to the present time. But it appeared to him to have been the

intention of Providence, from the very beginning, that one set of men

should be slaves to another. This truth was as old as it was universal.

It was recognised in every history, under every government, and in every

religion. Nor did the Christian religion itself if the comments of Dr.

Halifax, Bishop of Gloucester, on a passage of St. Paul's epistle to the

Corinthians were true, show more repugnance to slavery than any other.

He denied that the slaves were procured in the manner which had been

described. It was the custom of all savages to kill their prisoners; and

the Africans ought to be thankful that they had been carried safe into

the British colonies.

As to the tales of misery in the Middle Passage, they were gross

falsehoods; and as to their treatment in the West Indies, he knew

personally that it was, in general, indulgent and humane.

With regard to promoting their increase by any better mode of treatment,

he wished gentlemen would point it out to him. As a planter he would

thank them for it. It was absurd to suppose that he and others were

blind to their own interest. It was well known that one Creole slave was

worth two Africans; and their interest, therefore, must suggest to them,

that the propagation of slaves was preferable to the purchase of

imported negroes, of whom one half very frequently died in the

seasoning.

He then argued the impossibility of beasts doing the work of the

plantations. He endeavoured to prove that the number of these adequate

to this purpose could not be supplied with food; and after having made

many other observations, which, on account of the lowness of his voice,

could not be heard, he concluded by objecting to the motion.

Mr. William Smith rose. He wondered how the last speaker could have had

the boldness to draw arguments from scripture in support of the Slave

Trade. Such arguments could be intended only to impose on those who

never took the trouble of thinking for themselves. Could it be thought

for a moment, that the good sense of the House could be misled by a few

perverted or misapplied passages, in direct opposition to the whole

tenor, and spirit of Christianity; to the theory, he might say, of

almost every religion, which had ever appeared in the world? Whatever

might have been advanced, every body must feel that the Slave Trade

could not exist an hour, if that excellent maxim, "to do to others as we

would wish that others should do to us," had its proper influence on the

conduct of men.

Nor was Mr. Stanley more happy in his argument of the antiquity and

universality of slavery. Because a practise had existed, did it

necessarily follow that it was just? By this argument every crime might

be defended from the time of Cain. The slaves of antiquity, however were

in a situation far preferable to that of the negroes in the West Indies.

A passage in Macrobius, which exemplified this in the strongest manner,

was now brought to his recollection. "Our ancestors," says Macrobius,

"denominated the master, father of the family, and the slave, domestic,

with the intention of removing all odium from the condition of the

master, and all contempt from that of the servant." Could this language

be applied to the present state of West India slavery?

It had been complained of by those who supported the trade, that they

laboured under great disadvantages by being obliged to contend against

the most splendid abilities which the House could boast. But he believed

they laboured under one, which was worse and for which no talents could

compensate; he meant the impossibility of maintaining their ground

fairly on any of those principles, which every man within those walls

had been accustomed, from his infancy, to venerate as sacred. He and his

friends, too, laboured under some disadvantages. They had been charged

with fanaticism. But what had Mr. Long said, when he addressed himself

to those planters, who were desirous of attempting improvements on their

estates? He advised them "not to be diverted by partial views, vulgar

prejudices, or the ridicule which might spring from weak minds, from a

benevolent attention to the public good." But neither by these nor by

other charges were he or his friends to be diverted from the prosecution

of their purpose. They were convinced of the rectitude and high

importance of their object; and were determined never to desist from

pursuing it, till it should be attained.

But they had to struggle with difficulties far more serious. The West

Indian interest which opposed them, was a collected body; of great

power, affluence, connexions, and respectability.

Artifice had also been employed. Abolition and emancipation had been so

often confounded, and by those who knew better, that it must have been

purposely done, to throw an odium on the measure which was now before

them.

The abolitionists had been also accused as the authors of the late

insurrection in Dominica. A revolt had certainly taken place in that

island. But revolts there had occured frequently before. Mr. Stanley

himself, in attempting to fix this charge upon them, had related

circumstance which amounted to their entire exculpation. He had said

that all was quiet there till the disturbances in the French islands;

when some negroes from the latter had found their way to Dominica, and

had excited the insurrection in question. He had also said, that the

negroes in our own islands hated the idea of the abolition; for they

thought, as no new labourers were to come in, they should be subjected

to increased hardships. But if they and their masters hated this same

measure, how was this coincidence of sentiment to give birth to

insurrections?

Other fallacies, also, had been industriously propogated. Of the African

trade, it had been said, that the exports amounted to a million

annually; whereas, from the report on the table, it had on an average

amounted to little more than half a million; and this included the

articles for the purchase of African produce which were of the value of

140,000_l._

The East Indian Trade, also, had been said to depend on the West Indian

and the African. In the first place, it had but very little connexion

with the former at all. Its connexion with the latter was principally on

account of the saltpetre which it furnished for making gunpowder. Out of

nearly three millions of pounds in weight of the latter article, which

had been exported in a year from this country, one-half had been sent to

Africa alone; for the purposes, doubtless, of maintaining peace, and

encouraging civilization among its various tribes! Four or five thousand

persons were said, also, to depend for their bread in manufacturing guns

for the African trade; and these, it was pretended, could not make guns

of another sort.--But where lay the difficulty?--One of the witnesses

had unravelled it. He had seen the negroes maimed by the bursting of

these guns. They killed more from the butt than from the muzzle. Another

had stated, that on the sea-coast the natives were afraid to fire a

trade-gun.

In the West Indian commerce, two hundred and forty thousand tons of

shipping were stated to be employed. But here deception intruded itself

again. This statement included every vessel, great and small, which went

from the British West Indies to America, and to the foreign islands; and

what was yet more unfair, all the repeated voyages of each throughout

the year. The shipping, which could only fairly be brought into this

account, did but just exceed half that which had been mentioned.

In a similar manner had the islands themselves been overrated. Their

value had been computed, for the information of the privy council, at

thirty-six millions; but the planters had estimated them at seventy. The

truth, however, might possibly lie between these extremes. He by no

means wished to depreciate their importance; but he did not like that

such palpable misrepresentations should go unnoticed.

An honourable member (Colonel Tarleton) had disclaimed every attempt to

interest the feelings of those present, but had desired to call them to

reason and accounts. He also desired (though it was a question of

feeling, if any one ever was,) to draw the attention of the committee to

reason and accounts--to the voice of reason instead of that of

prejudice, and to accounts in the place of idle apprehensions. The

result, he doubted not, would be a full persuasion, that policy and

justice were inseparable upon this, as upon every other occasion.

The same gentleman had enlarged on the injustice of depriving the

Liverpool merchants of a business, on which were founded their honour

and their fortunes. On what part of it they founded their honour he

could not conjecture, except from those passages in the evidence, where

it appeared, that their agents in Africa had systematically practised

every fraud and villany, which the meanest and most unprincipled cunning

could suggest, to impose on the ignorance of those with whom they

traded.

The same gentleman had also lamented, that the evidence had not been

taken upon oath. He himself lamented it too. Numberless facts had been

related by eye-witnesses, called in support of the abolition, so

dreadfully atrocious, that they appeared incredible; and seemed rather,

to use the expression of Ossian, like "the histories of the days of

other times." These procured for the trade a species of acquittal, which

it could not have obtained, had the committee been authorised to

administer an oath. He apprehended, also, in this case, that some other

persons would have been rather more guarded in their testimony. Captain

Knox would not then perhaps have told the committee, that six hundred

slaves could have had comfortable room at night in his vessel of about

one hundred and forty tons; when there could have been no more than five

feet six inches in length, and fifteen inches in breadth, to about

two-thirds of his number.

The same gentleman had also dwelt upon the Slave Trade as a nursery for

seamen. But it had appeared by the muster-rolls of the slave-vessels,

then actually on the table of the house, that more than a fifth of them

died in the service, exclusive of those who perished when discharged in

the West Indies; and yet he had been instructed by his constituents to

maintain this false position. His reasoning, too, was very curious; for,

though numbers might die, yet as one half who entered were landsmen,

seamen were continually forming. Not to dwell on the expensive cruelty

of forming these seamen by the yearly destruction of so many hundreds,

this very statement was flatly contradicted by the evidence. The

muster-rolls from Bristol stated the proportion of landsmen in the trade

there at one twelfth, and the proper officers of Liverpool itself at but

a sixteenth of the whole employed. In the face again of the most glaring

facts, others had maintained that the mortality in these vessels did not

exceed that of other trades in the tropical climates. But the same

documents, which proved that twenty-three per cent were destroyed in

this wasting traffic, proved that in West India ships only about one and

a half per cent were lost, including every casualty. But the very men,

under whose management this dreadful mortality had been constantly

occurring, had coolly said, that much of it might be avoided by proper

regulations. How criminal then were they, who, knowing this, had neither

publicly proposed, nor in their practice adopted, a remedy!

The average loss of the slaves on board, which had been calculated by

Mr. Wilberforce at twelve and a half per cent., had been denied. He

believed this calculation, taking in all the circumstances connected

with it, to be true; but that for years not less than one-tenth had so

perished, he would challenge those concerned in the traffic to disprove.

Much evidence had been produced on the subject; but the voyages had been

generally selected. There was only one who had disclosed the whole

account. This was Mr. Anderson of London, whose engagements in this

trade had been very inconsiderable. His loss had only amounted to three

per cent.; but, unfortunately for the slave-traders of Liverpool, his

vessel had not taken above three-fourths of that number in proportion to

the tonnage which they had stated to be necessary to the very existence

of their trade.

An honourable member (Mr. Grosvenor) had attributed the protraction of

this business to those who had introduced it. But from whom did the

motion for further evidence (when that of the privy council was refused)

originate, but from the enemies of the abolition? The same gentleman had

said, it was impossible to abolish the trade; but where was the

impossibility of forbidding the further importation of slaves into our

own colonies? and beyond this the motion did not extend.

The latter argument had also been advanced by Sir William Yonge and

others. But allowing it its full force, would there be no honour in the

dereliction of such a commerce? Would it be nothing publicly to

recognise great and just principles? Would our example be nothing!--Yes:

every country would learn, from our experiment, that American colonies

could be cultivated without the necessity of continual supplies equally

expensive and disgraceful.

But we might do more than merely lay down principles or propose

examples. We might, in fact, diminish the evil itself immediately by no

inconsiderable part,--by the whole of our own supply; and here he could

not at all agree with the honourable baronet, in what seemed to him a

commercial paradox, that the taking away from an open trade by far the

largest customer, and the lessening of the consumption of the article,

would increase both the competition and the demand, and of course all

those mischiefs, which it was their intention to avert.

That the civilization of the Africans was promoted, as had been

asserted, by their intercourse with the Europeans, was void of

foundation, as had appeared from the evidence. In manners and dishonesty

they had indeed assimilated with those who frequented their coasts. But

the greatest industry and the least corruption of morals were in the

interior, where they were out of the way of this civilizing connexion.

To relieve Africa from famine, was another of the benign reasons which

had been assigned for continuing the trade. That famines had occurred

there, he did not doubt; but that they should annually occur, and with

such arithmetical exactness as to suit the demands of the Slave Trade,

was a circumstance most extraordinary; so wonderful, indeed, that, could

it once be proved, he should consider it as a far better argument in

favour of the divine approbation of that trade, than any which had ever

yet been produced.

As to the effect of the abolition on the West Indies, it would give

weight to every humane regulation which had been made; by substituting a

certain and obvious interest, in the place of one depending upon chances

and calculation. An honourable member (Mr. Stanley) had spoken of the

impossibility of cultivating the estates there without further

importations of negroes; and yet, of all the authorities he had brought

to prove his case, there was scarcely one which might not be pressed to

serve more or less effectually against him. Almost every planter he had

named had found his negroes increase under the good treatment he had

professed to give them; and it was an axiom, throughout the whole

evidence, that, wherever they were well used, importations were not

necessary. It had been said, indeed, by some adverse witnesses, that in

Jamaica all possible means had been used to keep up the stock by

breeding; but how preposterous was this, when it was allowed that the

morals of the slaves had been totally neglected, and that the planters

preferred buying a larger proportion of males than females!

The misfortune was, that prejudice, and not reason, was the enemy to be

subdued. The prejudices of the West Indians on these points were

numerous and inveterate. Mr. Long himself had characterised them on this

account, in terms which he should have felt diffident in using. But Mr.

Long had shown his own prejudices also: for he justified the chaining of

the Negroes on board the slave-vessels, on account of "their bloody,

cruel, and malicious dispositions." But hear his commendation of some of

the Aborigines of Jamaica, "who had miserably perished in caves, whither

they had retired to escape the tyranny of the Spaniards. These," says

he, "left a glorious monument of their having disdained to survive the

loss of their liberty and their country." And yet this same historian

could not perceive that this natural love of liberty might operate as

strongly and as laudably in the African Negro, as in the Indian of

Jamaica.

He was concerned to acknowledge that these prejudices were yet further

strengthened by resentment against those who had taken an active part in

the abolition of the Slave Trade. But it was never the object of these

to throw a stigma on the whole body of the West Indians; but to prove

the miserable effects of the trade. This it was their duty to do; and

if, in doing this, disgraceful circumstances had come out, it was not

their fault; and it must never be forgotten that they were true.

That the slaves were exposed to great misery in the islands, was true as

well from inference as from facts: for what might not be expected from

the use of arbitrary power, where the three characters of party, judge,

and executioner were united! The slaves, too, were more capable on

account of their passions, than the beasts in the field, of exciting the

passions of their tyrants. To what a length the ill-treatment of them

might be carried, might be learnt from, the instance which General

Tottenham mentioned to have seen in the year 1780 in the streets of

Bridge Town, Barbados: "A youth about nineteen (to use his own words in

the evidence), entirely naked, with an iron collar about his neck,

having five long projecting spikes. His body both before and behind was

covered with wounds. His belly and thighs were almost cut to pieces,

with running ulcers all over them; and a finger might have been laid in

some of the weals. He could not sit down, because his hinder part was

mortified; and it was impossible for him to lie down, on account of the

prongs of his collar." He supplicated the General for relief. The latter

asked who had punished him so dreadfully? The youth answered, his master

had done it. And because he could not work, this same master, in the

same spirit of perversion, which extorts from Scripture a justification

of the Slave Trade, had fulfilled the apostolic maxim, that he should

have nothing to eat. The use he meant to make of this instance was to

show the unprotected state of the slaves. What must it be, where such an

instance could pass not only unpunished, but almost unregarded! If, in

the streets of London, but a dog were to be seen lacerated like this

miserable man, how would the cruelty of the wretch be execrated, who had

thus even abused a brute!

The judicial punishments also inflicted upon the Negro showed the low

estimation, in which, in consequence of the strength of old customs and

deep-rooted prejudices, they were held. Mr. Edwards, in his speech to

the Assembly at Jamaica, stated the following case, as one which had

happened in one of the rebellions there. Some slaves surrounded the

dwelling-house of their mistress. She was in bed with a lovely infant.

They deliberated upon the means of putting her to death in torment. But

in the end one of them reserved her for his mistress; and they killed

her infant with an axe before her face. "Now," says Mr. Edwards,

(addressing himself to his audience) "you will think that no torments

were too great for such horrible excesses. Nevertheless I am of a

different opinion. I think that death, unaccompanied with cruelty,

should be the utmost exertion of human authority over our unhappy

fellow-creatures." Torments, however, were always inflicted in these

cases. The punishment was gibbeting alive, and exposing the delinquents

to perish by the gradual effects of hunger, thirst, and parching sun; in

which situation they were known to suffer for nine days, with a

fortitude scarcely credible, never uttering a single groan. But horrible

as the excesses might have been, which occasioned these punishments, it

must be remembered, that they were committed by ignorant savages, who

had been dragged from all they held most dear; whose patience had been

exhausted by a cruel and loathsome confinement during their

transportation; and whose resentment had been wound up to the highest

pitch of fury by the lash of the driver.

But he would now mention another instance, by way of contrast, out of

the evidence. A child on board a slave-ship, of about ten months old,

took sulk and would not eat. The captain flogged it with a cat; swearing

that he would make it eat, or kill it. From this and other ill-treatment

the child's legs swelled. He then ordered some water to be made hot to

abate the swelling. But even his tender mercies were cruel; for the

cook, on putting his hand into the water, said it was too hot. Upon this

the captain swore at him, and ordered the feet to be put in. This was

done. The nails and skin came off. Oiled cloths were then put round

them. The child was at length tied to a heavy log. Two or three days

afterwards, the captain caught it up again; and repeated that he would

made it eat, or kill it. He immediately flogged it again, and in a

quarter of an hour it died. But, after the child was dead, whom should

the barbarian select to throw it overboard, but the wretched mother? In

vain she started from the office. He beat her, till he made her take up

the child and carry it to the side of the vessel. She then dropped it

into the sea, turning her head the other way that she might not see it.

Now it would naturally be asked, was not this captain also gibbeted

alive? Alas! although the execrable barbarity of the European exceeded

that of the Africans before mentioned, almost as much as his

opportunities of instruction has been greater than theirs, no notice

whatsoever was taken of this horrible action; and a thousand similar

cruelties had been committed in this abominable trade with equal

impunity: but he would say no more. He would vote for the abolition, not

only as it would do away all the evils complained of in Africa and the

Middle Passage; but as it would be the most effectual means of

ameliorating the condition of those unhappy persons, who were still to

continue slaves in the British colonies.

Mr. Courtenay rose. He said, he could not but consider the assertion of

Sir William Yonge as a mistake, that the Slave Trade, if abandoned by

us, would fall into the hands of France. It ought to be recollected,

with what approbation the motion for abolishing it, made by the late

Mirabeau, had been received; although the situation of the French

colonies might then have presented obstacles to carrying the measure

into immediate execution. He had no doubt, if parliament were to begin,

so wise and enlightened a body as the National Assembly would follow the

example. But even if France were not to relinquish the trade, how could

we, if justice required its abolition, hesitate as to our part of it?

The trade, it had been said, was conducted upon the principles of

humanity. Yes: we rescued the Africans from what we were pleased to call

their wretched situation in their own; country, and then we took credit

for our humanity; because, after having killed one half of them in the

seasoning, we substituted what we were again pleased to call a better

treatment than that which they would have experienced at home.

It had been stated that the principle of war among savages was a general

massacre. This was not true. They frequently adopted the captives into

their own families; and, so far from massacring the women and children,

they often gave them the protection which the weakness of their age and

sex demanded.

There could be no doubt, that the practice of kidnapping; prevailed in

Africa. As to witchcraft, it had been made a crime in the reign of James

the First in this country, for the purpose of informations; and how much

more likely were informations to take place in Africa, under the

encouragement afforded by the Slave Trade! This trade, it had been said,

was sanctioned by twenty-six acts of parliament. He did not doubt but

fifty-six might be found, by which parliament had sanctioned witchcraft

of the existence of which we had now no belief whatever....

It had been said by Mr. Stanley that the pulpit had been used as an

instrument of attack on the Slave Trade. He was happy to learn it had

been so well employed; and he hoped the Bishops would rise up in the

House of Lords, with the virtuous indignation which became them, to

abolish a traffic so contrary to humanity, justice, and religion.

He entreated every member to recollect, that on his vote that night

depended the happiness of millions; and that it was then in his power to

promote a measure, of which the benefits would be felt over one whole

quarter of the globe; that the seeds of civilization might, by the

present bill, be sown all over Africa: and the first principles of

humanity be established in regions where they had hitherto been excluded

by the existence of this execrable trade.

Lord Carysfort rose, and said, that the great cause of the abolition had

flourished by the manner in which it had been opposed. No one argument

of solid weight had been adduced against it. It had been shown, but

never disproved, that the colonial laws were inadequate to the

protection of the slaves; that the punishments of the latter were most

unmerciful; that they were deprived of the right of self-defence against

any White man; and, in short, that the system was totally repugnant to

the principles of the British constitution.

Colonel Phipps followed Lord Carysfort. He denied that this was a

question in which the rights of humanity and the laws of nature were

concerned. The Africans became slaves in consequence of the constitution

of their own governments. These were founded in absolute despotism.

Every subject was an actual slave. The inhabitants were slaves to the

great men, and the great men were slaves to the prince. Prisoners of

war, too, were by law subject to slavery. Such being the case, he saw no

more cruelty in disposing of them to our merchants, than to those of any

other nation. Criminals, also, in cases of adultery and witchcraft,

became slaves by the same laws.

It had been said, that there were no regulations in the West Indies for

the protection of slaves. There were several; though he was ready to

admit that more were necessary; and he would go in this respect as far

as humanity might require. He had passed ten months in Jamaica, where he

had never seen any such acts of cruelty as had been talked of. Those

which he had seen were not exercised by the Whites, but by the Blacks.

The dreadful stories which had been told, ought no more to fix a general

stigma upon the planters, than the story of Mrs. Brownrigg to stamp this

polished metropolis with the general brand of murder. There was once a

haberdasher's wife (Mrs. Nairne) who locked up her apprentice girl, and

starved her to death; but did ever any body think of abolishing

haberdashery on this account? He was persuaded the Negroes in the West

Indies were cheerful and happy. They were fond of ornaments; but it was

not the characteristic of miserable persons to show a taste for finery.

Such a taste, on the contrary, implied a cheerful and contented mind. He

was sorry to differ from his friend Mr. Wilberforce, but he must oppose

his motion.

Mr. Pitt rose, and said, that from the first hour of his having had the

honour to sit in parliament down to the present, among all the

questions, whether political or personal, in which it had been his

fortune to take a share, there had never been one in which his heart was

so deeply interested as in the present; both, on account of the serious

principles it involved, and the consequences connected with it.

The present was not a mere question of feeling. The argument, which

ought, in his opinion, to determine the committee, was, that the Slave

Trade was unjust. It was, therefore, such a trade as it was impossible

for him to support, unless it could be first proved to him, that there

were no laws of morality binding upon nations; and that it was not the

duty of a legislature to restrain its subjects, from invading the

happiness of other countries, and from violating; the fundamental

principles of justice.

Several had stated the impracticability of the measure before them. They

wished to see the trade abolished; but there was some necessity for

continuing it, which they conceived to exist. Nay, almost every, one, he

believed, appeared to wish that the further importation of slaves might

cease, provided, it could be made out that, the population of the West

Indies could be maintained without it. He proposed, therefore, to

consider the latter point; for, as the impracticability of keeping up

the population there appeared to operate as the chief objection, he

trusted that, by showing it to be ill founded, he should clear away all

other obstacles whatever; so that, having no ground either of justice or

necessity to stand upon, there could be no excuse left to the committee

for resisting the present motion.

He might reasonably, however, hope that they would not reckon any small

or temporary disadvantage, which might arise from the abolition, to be a

sufficient reason against it. It was surely not any slight degree of

expediency, nor any small balance of profit, nor any light shades of

probability on the one side, rather than on the other, which would

determine them on this question. He asked pardon even for the

supposition. The Slave Trade was an evil of such magnitude, that there

must be a common wish in the committee at once to put an end to it, if

there were no great and serious obstacles. It was a trade, by which

multitudes of unoffending nations were deprived of the blessings of

civilization, and had their peace and happiness invaded. It ought,

therefore, to be no common expediency, it ought to be nothing less than

the utter ruin of our islands, which it became those to plead, who took

upon them to defend the continuance of it.

He could not help thinking that the West India gentlemen had manifested

an over great degree of sensibility as to the point in question; and

that their alarms had been unreasonably excited upon it. He had examined

the subject carefully for himself: and he would now detail those

reasons, which had induced him firmly to believe, not only that no

permanent mischief would follow from the abolition, but not even any

such temporary inconvenience as could be stated to be a reason for

preventing the House from agreeing to the motion before them; on the

contrary, that the abolition itself would lay the foundation for the

more solid improvement of all the various interests of those colonies.

In doing this he should apply his observations chiefly to Jamaica, which

contained more than half the slaves in the British West Indies; and if

he should succeed in proving that no material detriment could arise to

the population there, this would afford so strong a presumption with

respect to the other islands, that the House could no longer hesitate

whether they should, or should not, put a stop to this most horrid

trade.

In the twenty years ending in 1788, the annual loss of slaves in Jamaica

(that is, the excess of deaths above the births,) appeared to be one in

the hundred. In a preceding period the loss was greater; and, in a

period before that greater still; there having been a continual

gradation in the decrease through the whole time. It might fairly be

concluded, therefore, that (the average logs of the last period being

one per cent.) the loss in the former part of it would be somewhat more,

and in the latter part somewhat less, than one per cent; insomuch that

it might be fairly questioned, whether, by this time, the births and

deaths in Jamaica might not be stated as nearly equal. It was to be

added, that a peculiar calamity, which swept away fifteen thousand

slaves, had occasioned a part of the mortality in the last-mentioned

period. The probable loss, therefore, now to be expected, was very

inconsiderable indeed.

There was, however, one circumstance to be added, which the West India

gentlemen, in stating this matter, had entirely overlooked; and which

was so material, as clearly to reduce the probable diminution in the

population of Jamaica down to nothing. In all the calculations he had

referred to of the comparative number of births and deaths, all the

Negroes in the island were included. The newly imported, who died in the

seasoning, made apart; but these swelled, most materially, the number of

the deaths. Now, as these extraordinary deaths would cease, as soon as

the importation ceased, a deduction of them ought to be made from his

present calculation.

But the number of those, who thus died in the seasoning, would make up

of itself nearly the whole of that one per cent. which had been stated.

He particularly pressed an attention to this circumstance; for the

complaint of being likely to want hands in Jamaica, arose from the

mistake of including the present unnatural deaths, caused by the

seasoning, among the natural and perpetual muses of mortality. These

deaths, being erroneously taken into the calculations, gave the planters

an idea that the numbers could not be kept up. These deaths, which were

caused merely by the Slave Trade, furnished the very ground, therefore,

on which the continuance of that trade had been thought necessary.

The evidence as to this point was clear; for it would be found in that

dreadful catalogue of deaths, arising from the seasoning and the

passage, which the House had been condemned to look into, that one half

died. An annual mortality of two thousand slaves in Jamaica might be

therefore charged to the importation; which, compared with the whole

number on the island, hardly fell short of the whole one per cent.

decrease.

Joining this with all the other considerations, he would then ask, could

the decrease of the slaves in Jamaica be such--could the colonies be so

destitute of means--could the planters, when by their own accounts they

were establishing daily new regulations for the benefit of the

slaves--could they, under all these circumstances, be permitted to plead

that total impossibility of keeping up their number, which they had

rested on, as being indeed the only possible pretext for allowing fresh

importations from Africa? He appealed, therefore, to the sober judgment

of all, whether the situation of Jamaica was such, as to justify a

hesitation in agreeing to the present motion.

It might be observed, also, that, when the importations should stop,

that disproportion between the sexes, which was one of the obstacles to

population, would gradually diminish; and a natural order of things be

established. Through the want of this natural order, a thousand

grievances were created, which it was impossible to define; and which it

was in vain to think that, under such circumstances, we could cure. But

the abolition, of itself, would work this desirable effect. The West

Indians would then feel a near and urgent interest to enter into a

thousand little details, which it was impossible for him to describe,

but which would have the greatest influence on population. A foundation

would thus be laid for the general welfare of the islands; a new system

would rise up, the reverse of the old; and eventually both their general

wealth and happiness would increase.

He had now proved far more than he was bound to do; for, if he could

only show that the abolition would not be ruinous, it would be enough.

He could give up, therefore, three arguments out of four, through the

whole of what he had said, and yet have enough left for his position. As

to the Creoles, they would undoubtedly increase. They differed in this

entirely from the imported slaves, who were both a burthen and a curse

to themselves and others. The measure now proposed would operate like a

charm; and, besides stopping all the miseries in Africa and the passage,

would produce even more benefit in the West Indies than legal

regulations could effect.

He would now just touch upon the question of emancipation. A rash

emancipation of the slaves would be mischievous. In that unhappy

situation, to which our baneful conduct had brought ourselves and them,

it would be no justice on either side to give them liberty. They were as

yet incapable of it; but their situation might be gradually amended.

They might be relieved from everything harsh and severe; raised from

their present degraded state; and put under the protection of the law.

Till then, to talk of emancipation was insanity. But it was the system

of fresh importations, which interfered with these principles of

improvement; and it was only the abolition which could establish them.

This suggestion had its foundation in human nature. Wherever the

incentive of honour, credit, and fair profit appeared, energy would

spring up; and when these labourers should have the natural springs of

human action afforded them, they would then rise to the natural level of

human industry.

From Jamaica he would now go to the other islands. In Barbadoes the

slaves had rather increased. In St. Kitts the decrease for fourteen

years had been but three-fourths per cent.; but here many of the

observations would apply, which he had used in the case of Jamaica. In

Antigua many had died by a particular calamity. But for this, the

decrease would have been trifling. In Nevis and Montserrat there was

little or no disproportion of the sexes; so that it might well be hoped,

that the numbers would be kept up in these islands. In Dominica some

controversy had arisen about the calculation; but Governor Orde had

stated an increase of births above the deaths. From Grenada and St.

Vincent's no accurate accounts had been delivered in answer to the

queries sent them; but they were probably not in circumstances less

favourable than in the other islands.

On a full review, then, of the state of the Negro population in the West

Indies, was there any serious ground of alarm from the abolition of the

Slave Trade? Where was the impracticability, on which alone so many had

rested their objections? Must we not blush at pretending, that it would

distress our consciences to accede to this measure, as far as the

question of the Negro population was concerned?

Intolerable were the mischiefs of this trade, both in its origin, and

through every stage of its progress. To say that slaves could be

furnished us by fair and commercial means was ridiculous. The trade

sometimes ceased, as during the late war. The demand was more or less

according to circumstances. But how was it possible, that to a demand so

exceedingly fluctuating the supply should always exactly accommodate

itself? Alas! We made human beings the subject of commerce; we talked of

them as such; and yet we would not allow them the common principle of

commerce, that the supply must accommodate itself to the consumption. It

was not from wars, then, that the slaves were chiefly procured. They

were obtained in proportion as they were wanted. If a demand for slaves

arose, a supply was forced in one way or other; and it was in vain,

overpowered as we then were with positive evidence, as well as the

reasonableness of the supposition, to deny that by the Slave Trade we

occasioned all the enormities which had been alleged against it.

Sir William Yonge had said, that if we were not to take the Africans

from their country, they would be destroyed. But he had not yet read

that all uncivilized nations destroyed their captives. We assumed,

therefore, what was false. The very selling of them implied this; for,

if they would sell their captives for profit, why should they not employ

them so as to receive a profit also? Nay, many of them, while there was

no demand from the slave merchants, were often actually so employed. The

trade, too, had been suspended during the war; and it was never said, or

thought, that any such consequence had then followed.

The honourable baronet had also said, to justification of the Slave

Trade, that witchcraft commonly implied poison, and was therefore a

punishable crime; but did he recollect that not only the individual

accused, but that his whole family, were sold as slaves? The truth was,

we stopped the natural progress of civilization in Africa. We cut her

off from the opportunity of improvement. We kept her down in a state of

darkness, bondage, ignorance, and bloodshed. Was not this an awful

consideration for this country? Look at the map of Africa, and see how

little useful intercourse had been established on that vast continent!

While other countries were assisting and enlightening each other, Africa

alone had none of these benefits. We had obtained as yet only so much

knowledge of her productions, as to show that there was a capacity for

trade, which we checked. Indeed, if the mischiefs there were out of the

question, the circumstance of the Middle Passage alone would, in his

mind, be reason enough for the abolition. Such a scene as that of the

slave-ships passing over with their wretched cargoes to the West Indies,

if it could be spread before the eyes of the House, would be sufficient

of itself to make them vote in favour of it; but when it could be added,

that the interest even of the West Indies themselves rested on the

accomplishment of this great event, he could not conceive an act of more

imperious duty, than that which was imposed upon the House, of agreeing

to the present motion.

Sir Archibald Edmonstone rose, and asked whether the present motion went

so far as to pledge those who voted for it to a total and immediate

abolition.

Mr. Alderman Watson rose next. He defended the Slave Trade as highly

beneficial to the country, being one material branch of its commerce.

But he could not think of the African trade without connecting it with

the West Indian. The one hung upon the other. A third important branch

also depended upon it, which was the Newfoundland fishery; the latter

could not go on, if it were not for the vast quantity of inferior fish

bought up for the Negroes in the West Indies, and which quite unfit for

any other market. If, therefore, we destroyed the African, we destroyed

the other trades. Mr. Turgot, he said, had recommended in the National

Assembly of France the gradual abolition of the Slave Trade. He would,

therefore, recommend it to the House to adopt the same measure, and to

soften the rigours of slavery by wholesome regulations; but an immediate

abolition he could not countenance.

Mr. Fox at length rose. He observed that some expressions which he had

used on the preceding day, had been complained of as too harsh and

severe. He had since considered them, but he could not prevail upon

himself to retract them; because, if any gentleman, after reading the

evidence on the table, and attending to the debate, could avow himself

an abettor of this shameful traffic in human flesh, it could only be

either from some hardness of heart, or some difficulty of understanding,

which he really knew not how to account for.

Some had considered this question as a question of political, whereas,

it was a question of personal, freedom. Political freedom was

undoubtedly a great blessing; but when it came to be compared with

personal, it sunk to nothing. To confound the two, served, therefore, to

render all arguments on either perplexing and unintelligible. Personal

freedom was the first right of every human being. It was a right, of

which he who deprived a fellow-creature was absolutely criminal in so

depriving him, and which he who withheld was no less criminal in

withholding. He could not, therefore, retract his words with respect to

any, who (whatever respect he might otherwise have for them) should, by

their vote of that night, deprive their fellow-creatures of so great a

blessing. Nay, he would go further. He would say, that if the House,

knowing what the trade was by the evidence, did not, by their vote, mark

to all mankind their abhorrence of a practice so savage, so enormous, so

repugnant to all laws human and divine, they would consign their

character to eternal infamy.

That the pretence of danger to our West Indian islands from the

abolition of the Slave Trade was totally unfounded, Mr. Wilberforce had

abundantly proved; but if there were they who had not been satisfied

with that proof, was it possible to resist the arguments of Mr. Pitt on

the same subject? It had been shown, on a comparison of the births and

deaths in Jamaica, that there was not now any decrease of the slaves.

But if there had been, it would have made no difference to him in his

vote; for, had the mortality been ever so great there, he should have

ascribed it to the system of importing Negroes, instead of that of

encouraging their natural increase. Was it not evident that the planters

thought it more convenient to buy them fit for work, than to breed them?

Why, then, was this horrid trade to be kept up?--To give the planters

truly the liberty of misusing their slaves, so as to check population:

for it was from ill-usage only that, in a climate so natural to them,

their numbers could diminish. The very ground, therefore, on which the

planters rested the necessity of fresh importations, namely, the

destruction of lives in the West Indies, was itself the strongest

argument that could be given, and furnished the most imperious call upon

parliament for the abolition of the trade.

Against this trade innumerable were the charges. An honourable member,

Mr. Smith, had done well to introduce those tragical stories which had

made such an impression upon the House. No one of these had been yet

controverted. It had, indeed, been said; that the cruelty of the African

captain to the child was too bad to be true; and we had been desired to

look at the cross-examination of the witness, as if we should find

traces of the falsehood in his testimony there. But his

cross-examination was peculiarly honourable to his character; for, after

he had been pressed in the closest manner by some able members of the

House, the only inconsistency they could fix upon him was, whether the

fact had happened on the same day of the same month of the year 1764 or

the year 1765.

But it was idle to talk of the incredibility of such instances. It was

not denied that absolute power was exercised by the slave-captains; and

if this was granted, all the cruelties charged upon them would naturally

follow. Never did he hear of charges so black and horrible as those

contained in the evidence on the table. They unfolded such a scene of

cruelty, that if the House, with all their present knowledge of the

circumstances, should dare to vote for its continuance, they must have

nerves of which he had no conception. We might find instances, indeed,

in history, of men violating the feelings of nature on extraordinary

occasions. Fathers had sacrificed their sons and daughters, and husbands

their wives; but to imitate their characters, we ought to have not only

nerves as strong as the two Brutuses, but to take care that we had a

cause as good; or that we had motives for such a dereliction of our

feelings as patriotic as those which historians had annexed to these

when they handed them to the notice of the world.

But what was our motive in the case before us?--to continue a trade

which was a wholesale sacrifice of a whole order and race of our

fellow-creatures, which carried them away by force from their native

country, in order to subject them to the mere will and caprice, the

tyranny and oppression of other human beings, for their whole natural

lives, them and their posterity for ever!! O most monstrous wickedness!

O unparalleled barbarity! And, what was more aggravating, this most

complicated scene of robbery and murder which mankind had ever

witnessed, had been honoured by the name of trade.

That a number of human beings should be at all times ready to be

furnished as fair articles of commerce, just as our occasions might

require, was absurd. The argument of Mr. Pitt on this head was

unanswerable. Our demand was fluctuating: it entirely ceased at some

times: at others it was great and pressing. How was it possible, on

every sudden call, to furnish a sufficient return in slaves, without

resorting to those execrable means of obtaining them, which were stated

in the evidence? These were of three sorts, and he would now examine

them.

Captives in war, it was urged, were consigned either to death or

slavery. This, however, he believed to be false in point of fact. But

suppose it were true; did it not become us, with whom it was a custom,

founded in the wisest policy, to pay the captives a peculiar respect and

civility, to inculcate the same principles in Africa? But we were so far

from doing this, that we encouraged wars for the sake of taking, not

men's goods and possessions, but men themselves; and it was not the war

which was the cause of the Slave Trade, but the Slave Trade which was

the cause of the war. It was the practice of the slave-merchants to try

to intoxicate the African kings in order to turn them to their purpose.

A particular instance occurred in the evidence of a prince, who, when

sober, resisted their wishes; but in the moment of inebriety he gave the

word for war, attacked the next village, and sold the inhabitants to the

merchants.

The second mode was kidnapping. He referred the House to various

instances of this in the evidence: but there was one in particular, from

which we might immediately infer the frequency of the practice. A black

trader had kidnapped a girl and sold her; but he was presently

afterwards kidnapped and sold himself; and, when he asked the captain

who bought him, "What! do you buy me, who am a great trader?" the only

answer was, "Yes, I will buy you, or her, or anybody else, provided any

one will sell you;" and accordingly both the trader and the girl were

carried to the West Indies, and sold for slaves.

The third mode of obtaining slaves was by crimes committed or imputed.

One of these was adultery. But was Africa the place, where Englishmen,

above all others, were to go to find out and punish adultery? Did it

become us to cast the first stone? It was a most extraordinary

pilgrimage for a most extraordinary purpose! And yet upon this plea we

justified our right of carrying off its inhabitants. The offence alleged

next was witchcraft. What a reproach it was to lend ourselves to this

superstition!--Yes: we stood by; we heard the trial; we knew the crime

to be impossible; and that the accused must be innocent: but we waited

in patient silence for his condemnation; and then we lent our friendly

aid to the police of the country, by buying the wretched convict, with

all his family; whom, for the benefit of Africa, we carried away also

into perpetual slavery.

With respect to the situation of the slaves in their transportation, he

knew not how to give the House a more correct idea of the horrors of it,

than by referring them to the printed section of the slave-ship; where

the eye might see what the tongue must fall short in describing. On this

dismal part of the subject he would not dwell. He would only observe,

that the acts of barbarity, related of the slave-captains in these

voyages, were so extravagant, that they had been attributed in some

instances to insanity. But was not this the insanity of arbitrary power?

Who ever read the facts recorded of Nero without suspecting he was mad?

Who would not be apt to impute insanity to Caligula--or Domitian--or

Caracalla--or Commodus--or Heliogabalus? Here were six Roman emperors,

not connected in blood, nor by descent, who, each of them, possessing

arbitrary power, had been so distinguished for cruelty, that nothing

short of insanity could be imputed to them. Was not the insanity of the

masters of slave-ships to be accounted for on the same principles?

Of the slaves in the West Indies it had been said, that they were taken

from a worse state to a better. An honourable member, Mr. W. Smith, had

quoted some instances out of the evidence to the contrary. He also would

quote one or two others. A slave under hard usage had run away. To

prevent a repetition of the offence his owner sent for his surgeon, and

desired him to cut off the man's leg. The surgeon refused. The owner, to

render it a matter of duty in the surgeon, broke it. "Now," says he,

"you must cut it off; or the man will die." We might console ourselves,

perhaps, that this happened in a French island; but he would select

another instance, which had happened in one of our own. Mr. Ross heard

the shrieks of a female issuing from an out-house; and so piercing, that

he determined to me what was going on. On looking in he perceived a

young female tied up to a beam by her wrists, entirely naked, and in the

act of involuntary writhing and swinging; while the author of her

torture was standing below her with a lighted torch in his hand, which

he applied to all the parts of her body as it approached him. What crime

this miserable woman had perpetrated he knew not; but the human mind

could not conceive a crime warranting such a punishment.

He was glad to see that these tales affected the House. Would they then

sanction enormities, the bare recital of which made them shudder? Let

them remember that humanity did not consist in a squeamish ear. It did

not consist in shrinking and starting at such tales as these; but in a

disposition of the heart to remedy the evils they unfolded. Humanity

belonged rather to the mind than to the nerves. But, if so, it should

prompt men to charitable exertion. Such exertion was necessary in the

present case. It was necessary for the credit of our jurisprudence at

home, and our character abroad. For what would any man think of our

justice, who should see another hanged for a crime, which would be

innocence itself, if compared with those enormities, which were allowed

in Africa and the West Indies under the sanction of the British

parliament?

It had been said, however, in justification of the trade, that the

Africans were less happy at home than in the Islands. But what right had

we to be judges of their condition? They would tell us a very different

tale, if they were asked. But it was ridiculous to say, that we bettered

their condition, when we dragged them from everything dear in life to

the most abject state of slavery.

One argument had been used, which for a subject so grave was the most

ridiculous he had ever heard. Mr. Alderman Watson had declared the Slave

Trade to be necessary on account of its connexion with our fisheries.

But what was this but an acknowledgment of the manner, in which these

miserable beings, were treated? The trade was to be kept up, with all

its enormities, in order that there might be persons to consume the

refuse fish from Newfoundland, which was too bad for anybody else to

eat.

It had been said that England ought not to abolish the Slave Trade,

unless other nations would also give it up. But what kind of morality

was this? The Trade was defensible upon no other principle than that of

a highwayman. Great Britain could not keep it upon these terms. Mere

gain was not a motive for a great country to rest on, as a justification

of any measure. Honour was its superior; and justice was superior to

honour.

With regard to the emancipation of those in slavery, he coincided with

Mr. Wilberforce and Mr. Pitt; and upon this principle, that it might be

as dangerous to give freedom at once to a man used to slavery, as, in

the case of a man who had never seen day-light, to expose him all at

once to the full glare of a meridian sun.

With respect to the intellect and sensibility of the Africans, it was

pride only, which suggested a difference between them and ourselves.

There was a remarkable instance to the point in the evidence, and which

he would quote. In one of the slave-ships was a person of consequence; a

man, once high in a military station, and with a mind not insensible to

the eminence of his rank. He had been taken captive and sold; and was

then in the hold, confined promiscuously with the rest. Happening in the

night to fall asleep, he dreamed that he was in his own country; high in

honour and command; caressed by his family and friends; waited on by his

domestics; and surrounded with all his former comforts in life. But

awaking suddenly, and finding where he was, he was heard to burst into

the loudest groans and lamentations on the miserable contrast of his

present state; mixed with the meanest of his subjects; and subjected to

the insolence of wretches a thousand times lower than himself in every

kind of endowment. He appealed to the House, whether this was not as

moving a picture of the miserable effects of the Slave Trade, as could

be well imagined. There was one way, by which they might judge of it.

Let them make the case their own. This was the Christian rule of

judging; and, having mentioned Christianity, he was sorry to find that

any should suppose, that it had given countenance to such a system of

oppression. So far was this from being the case, that he thought it one

of the most splendid triumphs of this religion, that it had caused

slavery to be so generally abolished on its appearance in the world. It

had done this by teaching us, among other beautiful precepts, that, in

the sight of their Maker, all mankind were equal. Its influence appeared

to have been more powerful in this respect than that of all the ancient

systems of philosophy; though even in these, in point of theory, we

might trace great liberality and consideration for human rights. Where

could be found finer sentiments of liberty than in Demosthenes and

Cicero? Where bolder assertions of the rights of mankind, than in

Tacitus and Thucydides? But, alas! these were the holders of slaves: It

was not so with those who had been converted to Christianity. He knew,

however, that what he had been ascribing to Christianity had been

imputed by others to the advances which philosophy had made. Each of the

two parties took the merit to itself. The philosopher gave it to

philosophy, and the divine to religion. He should not, then, dispute

with either of them; but, as both coveted the praise, why should they

not emulate each other by promoting this improvement in the condition of

the human race?

He would now conclude by declaring, that the whole country, indeed the

whole civilized world, must rejoice that such a bill as the present had

been moved for, not merely as a matter of humanity, but as an act of

justice; for he would put humanity out of the case. Could it be called

humanity to forbear committing murder? Exactly upon this ground did the

motion stand; being strictly a question of national justice. He thanked

Mr. Wilberforce for having pledged himself so strongly to pursue his

object till it was accomplished; and, as for himself, he declared, that,

in whatever situation he might ever be, he would use his warmest efforts

for the promotion of this righteous cause.

Mr. Stanley (the member for Lancashire) rose, and declared that, when he

came into the house, he intended to vote against the abolition; but that

the impression made both on his feelings and on his understanding was

such, that he could not persist in his resolution. He was now convinced

that the entire abolition of the Slave Trade was called for equally by

sound policy and justice. He thought it right and fair to avow manfully

this change in his opinion. The abolition, ho was sure, could not long

fail of being carried. The arguments for it were irresistible.

The Honourable Mr. Ryder said that he came to the house not exactly in

the same circumstances as Mr. Stanley, but very undecided on the

subject. He was, however, so strongly convinced by the arguments he had

heard, that he was become equally earnest for the abolition.

Mr. Smith (member for Pontefract) said, that he should not trouble the

House, at so late an hour, further than to enter his protest, in the

most solemn manner, against this trade, which he considered as most

disgraceful to the country, and contrary to all the principles of

justice and religion.

Mr. Sumner declared himself against the total, immediate, and

unqualified abolition, which he thought would wound at least the

prejudices of the West Indians, and might do mischief; but a gradual

abolition should have his hearty support.

Major Scott declared there was no member in the house, who would give a

more independent vote upon this question than himself. He had no concern

either in the African or West Indian trades; but in the present state of

the finances of the country, he thought it would be a dangerous

experiment to risk any one branch of our foreign commerce. As far as

regulation would go, he would join in the measure.

Mr. Burke said he would use but few words. He declared that he had for a

long time had his mind drawn towards this great subject. He had even

prepared a bill for the regulation of the trade, conceiving at that time

that the immediate abolition of it was a thing hardly to be hoped for;

but when he found that Mr. Wilberforce had seriously undertaken the

work, and that his motion was for the abolition, which he approved much

more than his own, he had burnt his papers; and made an offering of them

in honour of this nobler proposition, much in the same manner as we

read, that the curious books were offered up and burnt at the approach

of the Gospel. He highly applauded the confessions of Mr. Stanley and

Mr. Ryder. It would be a glorious tale for them to tell their

constituents, that it was impossible for them, however prejudiced, if

sent to hear, discussion in that House, to avoid surrendering up their

hearts and judgments at the shrine of reason.

Mr. Drake said, that he would oppose the abolition to the utmost. We

had, by a want of prudent conduct, lost America. The House should be

aware of being carried away by the meteors with which they had been

dazzled. The leaders, it was true, were for the abolition; but the minor

orators, the dwarfs, the pigmies, he trusted, would that night carry the

question against them. The property of the West Indians was at stake;

and, though men might be generous with their own property, they should

not be so with the property of others.

Lord Sheffield reprobated the overbearing language which had been used

by some gentlemen towards others, who differed in opinion from them on a

subject of so much difficulty as the present. He protested against a

debate, in which he could trace nothing like reason; but, on the

contrary, downright phrensy, raised perhaps by the most extraordinary

eloquence. The abolition, as proposed, was impracticable. He denied the

right of the legislature to pass a law for it. He warned the Chancellor

of the Exchequer to beware of the day, on which the bill should pass, as

the worst he had ever seen.

Mr. Milnes declared, that he adopted all those expressions against the

Slave Trade, which had been thought so harsh; and that the opinion of

the noble lord had been turned in consequence of having become one of

the members for Bristol. He quoted a passage from Lord Sheffield's

pamphlet; and insisted that the separation of families in the West

Indies, there complained of by himself, ought to have compelled him to

take the contrary side of the question.

Mr. Wilberforce made a short reply to some arguments in the course of

the debate; after which, at half-past three in the morning, the House

divided. There appeared for Mr. Wilberforce's motion eighty-eight, and

against it one hundred and sixty-three; so that it was lost by a

majority of seventy-five votes.

By this unfavourable division the great contest, in which we had been so

long engaged, was decided. We were obliged to give way to superior

numbers. Our fall, however, grievous as it was, was rendered more

tolerable by the circumstance of having been prepared to expect it. It

was rendered more tolerable, also, by other considerations; for we had

the pleasure of knowing, that we had several of the most distinguished

characters in the kingdom, and almost all the splendid talents of the

House of Commons[A], in our favour. We knew, too, that the question had

not been carried against us either by evidence or by argument; but that

we were the victims of the accidents and circumstances of the times. And

as these considerations comforted us, when we looked forward to future

operations on this great question, so we found great consolation as to

the past, in believing, that, unless human constitutions were stronger

than they really were, we could not have done more than we had done

towards the furtherance of the cause.

[Footnote A: It is a pity that no perfect list was ever made of this or

of any other division in the House of Commons on this subject. I can

give, however, the names of the following, members, as having voted for

Mr. Wilberforce's motion at this time.

Mr. Pitt, Lord Bayham, Mr. Duncombe,

Mr. Fox, Lord Arden, Mr. Martin,

Mr. Burke, Lord Carysfort, Mr. Milnes,

Mr. Grey, Lord Muncaster, Mr. Steele,

Mr. Windham, Lord Barnard, Mr. Coke,

Mr. Sheridan, Lord North, Mr. Eliott,

Mr. Whitbread, Lord Euston, Mr. Montagu,

Mr. Courtenay, General Burgoyne, Mr. Bastard,

Mr. Francis, Hon. R. Fitzpatrick, Mr. Stanley,

Mr. Wilberforce, Sir William Dolben, Mr. Plumer,

Mr. Ryder, Sir Henry Houghton, Mr. Beaufoy,

Mr. William Smith, Sir Edward Lyttleton, Mr. I.H. Browne,

Mr. John Smyth, Sir William Scott, Mr. G.N. Edwards,

Mr. Robert Smith, Mr. Samuel Thornton, Mr. W.M. Pitt,

Mr. Powys, Mr. Henry Thornton, Mr. Bankes,

Lord Apsley, Mr. Robert Thornton,

]

The committee for the abolition held a meeting soon after this our

defeat. It was the most impressive I ever attended. The looks of all

bespoke the feelings of their hearts. Little was said previously to the

opening of the business; and, after it was opened, it was conducted with

a kind of solemn dignity, which became the occasion. The committee, in

the course of its deliberations, came to the following resolutions:--

That the thanks of this committee be respectfully given to the

illustrious minority of the House of Commons, who lately stood forth the

assertors of British justice and humanity, and the enemies of a traffic

in the blood of man.

That our acknowledgments are particularly due to William Wilberforce,

Esq., for his unwearied exertions to remove this opprobrium of our

national character; and to the right honourable William Pitt, and the

right honourable Charles James Fox, for their virtuous and dignified

co-operation in the same cause.

That the solemn declarations of these gentlemen, and of Matthew Montagu

and William Smith, Esqrs., that they will not relinquish, but with life,

their struggle for the abolition of the Slave Trade, are not only highly

honourable to themselves as Britons, as statesmen, and as Christians,

but must eventually, as the light of evidence shall be more and more

diffused, be seconded by the good wishes of every man not immediately

interested in the continuance of that detestable commerce.

And lastly, that anticipating the opposition they should have to sustain

from persons trained to a familiarity with the rapine and desolation

necessarily attendant on the Slave Trade, and sensible, also, of the

prejudices which implicitly arise from long-established usages, this

committee consider the late decision in the House of Commons as a delay,

rather than a defeat. In addressing a free and enlightened nation on a

subject, in which its justice, its humanity, and its wisdom are

involved, they cannot despair of final success; and they do hereby,

under an increasing conviction of the excellence of their cause, and in

conformity to the distinguished examples before them, renew their firm

protestation, that they will never desist from appealing to their

countrymen, till the commercial intercourse with Africa shall cease to

be polluted with the blood of its inhabitants.

These resolutions were published, and they were followed by a suitable

report.

The committee, in order to strengthen themselves for the prosecution of

their great work, elected Sir William Dolben, Bart., Henry Thornton,

Lewis Alexander Grant, and Matthew Montagu, Esqrs., who were members of

parliament, and Truman Harford, Josiah Wedgewood, jun., Esq., and John

Clarkson, Esq., of the royal navy, as members of their own body; and

they elected the Rev. Archdeacon Plymley (afterwards Corbett) an

honorary and corresponding member, in consequence of the great services

which he had rendered their cause in the shires of Hereford and Salop,

and the adjacent counties of Wales.

The several committees, established in the country, on receiving the

resolutions and report as before mentioned, testified their sympathy in

letters of condolence to that of London on the late melancholy occasion;

and expressed their determination to support it as long as any vestiges

of this barbarous traffic should remain.

At length the session ended; and though, in the course of it, the

afflicting loss of the general question had occurred, there was yet an

attempt made by the abolitionists in parliament, which met with a better

fate. The Sierra Leone Company received the sanction of the Legislature.

The object of this institution was to colonize a small portion of the

coast of Africa. They, who were to settle there, were to have no concern

in the Slave Trade, but to discourage it as much as possible. They were

to endeavour to establish a new species of commerce, and to promote

cultivation in its neighborhood by free labour. The persons more

generally fixed upon for colonists, were such Negroes, with their wives

and families, as chose to abandon their habitations in Nova Scotia.

These had followed the British arms in America; and had been settled

there, as a reward for their services, by the British government. My

brother, just mentioned to have been chosen a member of the committee,

and who had essentially served the great cause of the abolition on many

occasions, undertook a visit to Nova Scotia, to see if those in question

were willing to undergo the change; and in that case to provide

transports, and conduct them to Sierra Leone. This object he

accomplished. He embarked more than eleven hundred persons in fifteen

vessels, of all which he took the command. On landing them he became the

first Governor of the new colony. Having laid the foundation of it, he

returned to England; when a successor was appointed. From that time many

unexpected circumstances, but particularly devastations by the French in

the beginning of the war, took place, which contributed to ruin the

trading company which was attached to it. It is pleasing, however, to

reflect, that though the object of the institution, as far as mercantile

profit was concerned, thus failed, the other objects belonging to it

were promoted. Schools, places of worship, agriculture, and the habits

of civilized life were established. Sierra Leone, therefore, now

presents itself as the medium of civilization for Africa. And, in this

latter point of view, it is worth all the treasure which has been lost

in supporting it; for the Slave Trade, which was the great obstacle to

this civilization, being now happily abolished, there is a metropolis,

consisting of some hundreds of persons, from which may issue the seeds

of reformation to this injured continent; and which, when sown, may be

expected to grow into fruit without interruption. New schools may be

transplanted from thence into the interior. Teachers, and travellers on

discovery, may be sent from thence in various directions, who may return

to it occasionally as to their homes. The natives, too, able now to

travel in safety, may resort to it from various parts. They may see the

improvements which are going on from time to time. They may send their

children to it for education; and thus it may become the medium[A] of a

great intercourse between England and Africa, to the benefit of each

other.

[Footnote A: To promote this desirable end an association took place

last year, called The African Institution, under the patronage of the

Duke of Gloucester, as president, and of the Mends to the African cause,

particularly of such as were in parliament, and as belonged to the

committee for the abolition of the Slave Trade.]

The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839) · 第 28 / 36 章

Great Britain might abandon her share of this trade, but she could not