Although the history of North-eastern Africa is very imperfectly
recorded, it is certain that Carthage, Egypt, and Ethiopia, early
acquired and long maintained a prevailing influence therein. The
Carthaginians possessed themselves of nearly the whole of the northern
portion, whilst the Egyptians and Ethiopians occupied the east to the
very centre. The extension of these great empires tended considerably
to limit the trade in human flesh, and the world being in feud in every
quarter, needed not to be supplied with slaves from Africa.
But this aspect of affairs was materially altered so soon as these three
empires, losing their power, became subdivided into sundry governments,
the diffusion of Christianity and civilisation in Europe and Asia
meanwhile restricting the slave-trade to the African continent.
Although not generally representing the character which their name
implies, the Christians of the Occident and Orient had at least given up
the system amongst themselves; and by the former especially it was very
little practised until after the discovery of America, when it was
revived and encouraged by the Spaniards; and the Negro being considered
better fitted for hard labour than the aborigines of the New World,
Africa began to be regarded as the slave-mart for the whole universe.
About the same period Ethiopia was first invaded by numberless hordes of
Pagan Galla, migrating from the south; and not long afterwards Graan,
the fanatic Mohammadan enemy, commenced the overthrow of this then
powerful empire, which was speedily dismembered, and has never since
been able to regain its former limits.
The heathen intruders soon relaxing in their united efforts against the
Christians, those Galla tribes which had settled on Abyssinian ground
began to contest among themselves for the supremacy over the
newly-acquired territory, and to enslave each other. The Mohammadans,
who had meanwhile gained a footing in the disturbed country, being
slave-dealers by profession, greedily availed themselves of the
opportunity afforded by these intestine divisions to trade in Pagan
prisoners, females especially, who possess the recommendation of
superior personal attractions to the generality of "Afric's dark
daughters"--and thus the traffic spread rapidly around Abyssinia.
Partly from fear of then enemies, and partly from being less interested
in slavery than the Moslems, the Christians no longer ventured beyond
the frontiers of the country they retained, and the avenues to the
sea-coast, as well as those through the Galla tribes in the interior,
thus fell together with the whole commerce into the hands of the bigoted
disciples of the Prophet. They devoted their lives to the purchase and
sale of human flesh, a trade with which they connected the propagation
of their faith, and their market was ever supplied by the out-pouring of
innumerable prisoners of war from the distant nations of the interior.
The origin of the slave-trade in these quarters may thus be referred to
the commencement of hostilities therein, and to the presence of
Mohammadans, by whom it was fostered and encouraged. Grain and cattle
excepted, the wild and greedy Galla possessed not a single commodity to
barter for the alluring foreign wares exhibited by the rover, but his
captured foe presented the ready means of supplying whatsoever he
coveted. The empire of Abyssinia being dismembered and enfeebled by the
tide of invasion, its rulers, far from seeking to crush the hostilities
that prevailed among the Gentiles, naturally rejoiced to see intestine
feuds raging throughout a nation, which, if united, could have swept
away the small remnant of Ethiopic power, once so predominant.
The Christians, moreover, had become so corrupted by evil example, that,
in lieu of opposing a barrier to the advance of slavery, they shortly
adopted and encouraged the debasing traffic. Those provinces especially
which were separated from the principal seat of government not only
afforded a market to numbers of Pagan prisoners, but extended to the
dealer in slaves a safe road by which thousands were annually exported
to Arabia; and Shoa, Efat, Gurague, and Cambat, the southernmost
provinces of Abyssinia, having more especially suffered at the hands of
the Galla hordes, it is not difficult to understand how, in a confused
political and ecclesiastical state of things, the detestation
entertained towards their heathen persecutors prompted the population to
purchase as drudges those of their enemies who had been captured in war.
When the rulers of Shoa began to extend their dominions, and to subdue
the nearer tribes of Galla invaders, Christianity was propagated by the
sword; but the Mohammadan traders, far from being checked or arrested in
their dealings, were only induced to extend their traffic to more remote
regions of north-eastern Africa. Instead of purchasing slaves at
Ankober, as had been their wont when that capital was still in Pagan
hands, they were compelled, after its recapture, to seek their victims
in Gurague, and beyond. Those provinces of Abyssinia wherein the seat
of government was established after the demolition of the Ethiopic
empire, preserved more or less of their ancient customs, which
sanctioned the enslavement of a captured enemy for the term of seven
years, according to the Mosaic law; and the practice is to the present
day retained in Gojam and Tigre--the inhabitants of these states neither
buying nor selling slaves, but consigning to a few years of bondage all
prisoners from the wild tribes of Shankela taken in war.
The enslavement of this heathen people, who are often barbarously hunted
down for sport, is defended upon the grounds that so fierce, swarthy,
and bestial a race, existing in the rudest possible form of savage
state, must be the accursed of mankind, and entirely beyond the pale of
natural rights. But the Christians of Western and Northern Abyssinia
condemn this opinion of their brethren in the south and east; and Tekla
Georgis, the late emperor of Gondar, having catechised a number of Shoan
ecclesiastics as to the reason of their countenancing slavery and slave
polygamy, reprobated both proceedings in the severest terms.
The separation of Shoa from the imperial sway of Northern Abyssinia, by
the Galla invasion, was, as may be supposed, far from improving the
morals of the people. The first rulers of Shoa, aspiring to ascendency
over all the minor independent principalities, were fain to tolerate a
variety of abuses which had crept into the Abyssinian church during the
reign of anarchy, confusion, and barbarism; and, however well they might
have felt inwardly disposed to work the reformation of their subjects,
they durst not, in the infancy of their power, attempt the suppression
of a custom to which the entire population of the subjugated districts
were so strongly wedded. Moreover, they had begun to follow the example
of the Gondar dynasty in respect to the hospitable entertainment by the
crown of all foreigners and strangers; to which end a large
establishment being indispensable for the preparation of the daily
maintenance styled "dirgo," they considered that the manual labour could
better be performed by slaves selected from among the thousands that
annually passed through their dominions than by their own free subjects.
The parsimony of their national character also doubtless favoured this
introduction of slavery as a domestic institution. The sovereign was
above all things desirous of acquiring a reputation for munificence
without actually impairing the state revenues; and he felt anxious at
the same time to pave the road to popularity by relieving his subjects
of that drudgery which would have led to an aversion towards visitors,
highly inimical to the royal interests. All despotic rulers are prone
to greater confidence in the slave than in the freeman; and Abyssinian
sophistry probably led the first kings of Shoa to argue, that
hospitality extended towards strangers and pilgrims in the land would
vindicate in the sight of Heaven the infliction of bitter bondage upon
those who at that period, even more than at the present day, were
execrated and abhorred.
The unceasing wars, wherein the feudal subjects of Shoa were personally
engaged, being unfavourable for agricultural pursuits, they were not
slow in imitating the example set by their monarch, as well in household
slavery as in slave polygamy. Both king and people believed that the
wretch exported from Africa was destined to Christian countries beyond
the seas, where the truths of the Gospel would be imparted to him; and
hence the slaveholder in Shoa, although prohibited from dealing in the
flesh and blood of his fellow-creatures as a trade, was permitted to
resell Mohammadan or Pagan purchases, who refused to embrace the
religion of Ethiopia.
Slavery amongst the Galla tribes is cradled and nursed in the unceasing
intestine feuds of that savage and disorganised people; but the
circumstances attending its existence in Gurague, although resting upon
the same basis, are somewhat different in character. Since the period
that the heathen inroads first cut off that Christian country from the
ancient Ethiopic empire, and foes begirt it on all sides like wild
beasts prowling for their prey, it has been thrown into a position of
peculiar misfortune, and would gladly seek repose by placing itself
again under the protection of its legitimate sovereign. For this boon
it has often applied to Sahela Selassie; but from motives of prudence he
has not chosen to extend either his visits or his authority beyond the
frontier village of Aimellele.
Occupying about one and a half degree of longitude, by one degree of
latitude, and swarming with population, Gurague is at this moment in a
state similar to Palestine of old, whereof the Scripture saith, "There
was no king in Israel, and every man did that which was right in his own
eyes." In the absence of a supreme head, each village or community
elects its own temporary governor, who is perpetually removed by the
cabals and caprice of the people. Whilst the Galla make constant
predatory inroads from without, anarchy reigns within. A multitude of
private feuds animate the turbulent population; and there being neither
king nor laws, it is not surprising that every man should stretch forth
his hand to kidnap his neighbour. Among the southern portions
especially, in the domicile or in the open street, the stronger seizes
upon the weaker as his bondsman, and sells him to the greedy Mohammadan
dealers, who hover round like a host of hungry vultures, and are ever at
hand with their glittering gewgaws; the innate love of which induces
brother to sell sister, and the parent to carry her own offspring to the
market.
Annually pouring out many thousands of her sons and daughters in every
direction, this wretched Christian province, a prey to lawless violence,
and the theatre of every monstrous and detestable crime, cries aloud for
the intervention of the philanthropist. Gurague is the very hotbed of
slavery in Eastern Africa, north of the equator; and it claims the
earnest attention of all who are interested in the suppression of the
evil. None of the surrounding countries would seem to be unvitiated by
the baneful influence of the slave-trade; and all are sunk in the lowest
and most grovelling superstition. Susa, Korchassie, Wollamo, Cambat,
with every other isolated principality once appended to the ancient
empire, although still professing the mild tenets of the Christian
faith, take an active part in the capture and sale of their
fellow-savages. Villages are fired, and the inhabitants seized as they
fly in terror from the flames that envelope their wigwams; and the aged
and the infirm are butchered, because unfit for drudgery. The new-born
babe is torn from its parent in the hour of its birth to be ruthlessly
immolated at the shrine of the idol; and the shores of Lake Umo are
white with the bleaching bones of hapless female victims, who have been
selected from the drove for their superior charms, and have been
launched into its depths by the superstitious Moslem slave-driver, to
propitiate the genius of the water!
Volume 3, Chapter XXXVII.
OPERATION OF LEGITIMATE COMMERCE UPON THE SLAVE-TRADE IN NORTH-EASTERN
AFRICA.
A review of the nature and actual extent of slavery in Christian
Abyssinia, where the exile is sold and purchased--of the circumstances
attending his loss of liberty in the countries whence he is stolen and
exported--and of the various causes and passions that conspire to favour
the continuance of the internal commerce in human flesh--leads naturally
to the consideration of the remedy. This is no new subject. It is one
which has been illustrated by the eloquence of British senators, and by
the pen of many private philanthropists, who have devoted their energies
to the restitution of the lost rights of man, and have sought, under
God's blessing, to dry up the baneful springs that for so many ages have
filled to overflowing the fountain of African misery.
Bondage has been shown to arise in wars and intestine feuds, and to be
nurtured by evil passions, by avarice, and by worldly interest. The
excitement and delight of the foray, the surprise, and the captivity
which follows, are by all tribes in Africa regarded as the highest
themes of their glory. The gratification of power, sensuality, and
revenge, are difficult of eradication; and the easy though infamous
acquisition of property, is a permanent incentive to violence of all
kinds. The interests, also, by which the diabolical and debasing
traffic is supported are not those of a few individuals. It is
interwoven with the government, the commerce, the wants, and the
revenues of many nations. The tribe that mourns to-day the loss of its
young men and maidens, is ready on the morrow with heart and hand to
carry on amongst others the work of captivity; and the victor of one
hour may be vanquished the next. The kings and rulers of the land
profit by the transit of slave caravans through their dominions--the
countries all derive gain from the inhuman barter--the intermediate
clans have each their share in the traffic--the merchant on the
sea-coast drives a most profitable trade--and the lazy Arab to whom the
wretched beings are finally consigned, has existed too long in a state
of utter indolence and inactivity, willingly to assist himself many of
the ordinary laborious avocations of life.
Commerce being a school for the improvement of nations, it may safely be
anticipated that the important treaty concluded by Great Britain with
the king of Shoa will tend to the temporal and intellectual advancement
of the now ignorant and degraded natives of the north-eastern interior,
in proportion to the extent of their intercourse with enlightened
Europeans. The supply of foreign manufactures, which the African deems
indispensable, has always been, and still is, exclusively in the hands
of Mohammadan merchants, declared slave-dealers, who will receive human
beings only in exchange for their wares. A strong inducement to the
continuance of the traffic will therefore be removed by the visits of
men whose tacit example, without any declamation against slavery, cannot
fail to have a beneficial influence upon untutored races, who have
hitherto been taught and compelled to believe that their wants cannot be
supplied unless through the medium of the barter of their
fellow-creatures. The restoration of tranquillity to the provinces,
which can alone be effected by a legal trade, must have the important
result of putting an end to the exportation of slaves, which is here
liable not only to the same objections as on the western coast, but to
the still greater evil, that the victims carried away are chiefly
Christians, who inevitably lose in Arabia not only their liberty but
also their religion.
The Mohammadan dealer being solely dependent for his supply of European
manufactures on the brokers located in various parts of the coast--keen,
artful, and rapacious Banians--he must speedily be driven from the
market by the British merchant, who will at the same time create
numberless new wants, to satisfy which the native will be goaded to
industrious habits. The majority, both of people and rulers, will soon
be enabled to comprehend the disadvantage of a trade which swallows up
the flower of the population; and will open their eyes to the fact, that
temporal wealth, far from being diminished, as they now believe, by the
operation of such a measure, would in reality be much augmented. They
will at the same time perceive that the regular supply of European
trinkets, so inestimable in their eyes, depends in a principal measure
upon the tranquillity of the country; and since slaves are no longer in
demand as an article of barter, they will generally be better disposed
to permit and to bring about that state of peace and quietude which is
so essential to mercantile pursuits.
An entrance to countries now only accessible by means of commerce, and
at the pace of a merchant caravan, will thus be afforded, and a friendly
understanding established, which may be expected to pave the way to the
introduction of more effectual measures towards decreasing the supply of
slaves in the quarters whence they are derived. European commerce
conveying the strongest tacit argument against the traffic in human
flesh, so long the staple business of all, must favour the speedy
formation of advantageous treaties with many native chiefs for its
entire suppression within their dominions--treaties which could not be
proposed without prejudice so long as the slave-trade, deeply rooted,
continues so intimately connected with the habits, pursuits, and
interests of the whole population. Time is of course requisite to bring
about the consummation desired to mercantile enterprise. The avarice of
some of the more ignorant and degraded potentates may long induce them
to retain the emoluments arising from the sale of their subjects,
notwithstanding the more than equivalent revenues afforded by legitimate
transit duties; but as establishments which are now fostered and
fattened on the hotbed of slavery become gradually extinguished, the
nefarious traffic cannot fail, in equal proportion, to disappear before
the golden wand of commerce.
In all those interior countries to the south, whence slaves are
principally drawn, the mass of the miserable population would hail the
advent of European intervention, towards the preservation of their
liberty. The Christian would find repose beneath the treaty concluded
by the white man, and the wild Galla would cease to have an interest in
the continual hostilities which now supply the market with human beings.
It might reasonably be conjectured, that if it be practicable to
conclude an anti-slavery treaty with any African ruler, it must be
especially so with one professing the tenets of the Christian faith, and
who may thus be supposed capable of receiving moral arguments--with a
despot whose every will is law, who is guided chiefly by avarice and by
self-interest, and who considers that the importation of slaves has a
tendency to introduce heathenish ceremonies among his subjects. Sahela
Selassie is already fully sensible of the possibility of dispensing with
slavery as a domestic institution, by the adoption of European
machinery, and of the practice of other Abyssinian states, where money
is dispensed to the visitor in lieu of _dirgo_, or daily maintenance.
His superstitions may be worked upon with the best effect by the fear of
entailing the curses and imprecations of many thousand enslaved
fellow-creatures who annually pass through his dominions; and his eyes
have been opened to the fact, that the whole of these wretched beings
become converts to Mohammadanism--a faith upon which every Abyssinian
looks down with abhorrence. The same voice that at European
intercession commanded the release of many hundred Galla prisoners of
war, could at once order the abrogation of domestic slavery within the
kingdom; but its abolition before the establishment of British commerce
shall have rendered His Majesty independent of the slave-dealing Adaiel
would be delusive. It would do harm instead of doing good; and whilst
it led to little actual reduction of human misery, it would arouse the
worst passions of the entire surrounding Mohammadan population. For
Shoa is at this moment solely dependent upon the Danakil trader, not
only for every description of foreign merchandise, but also for salt,
which here constitutes the chief circulating medium of the realm; and
the first inducement to the importation of this indispensable commodity,
is found in the great profits derived from the traffic in slaves
purchased at Abd el Russool.
In Shoa, too, every Christian subject is more or less interested in the
continuance of slave importations; and notwithstanding that the trammels
of the despot, who receives unbounded homage, render each in fact a
bondsman, he is in no danger of being kidnapped and driven into slavery.
No one would dare to disobey the royal fiat; but, involving as it must
great personal hardship to all, it could not fail to be attended with
universal loss of popularity to the monarch. No such difficulty would
attend the formation of a treaty of suppression in the northern
provinces of Christian Abyssinia, where slavery in the true acceptation
of the term has no existence, excepting in so far as it is carried on by
the Moslem traders, of whom both ruler and people are comparatively
independent. Thus in Gondar and Tigre, where domestic slavery is
neither practised nor advocated by prince or subject, the external
traffic might readily be crushed, and with the greatest advantage,
through the friendly sentiments entertained by the present patriarch.
The spiritual influence exerted by Abba Salama over the mind of all
classes, high as well as low--the spell by which he holds his supreme
power--is acknowledged by every province, however remote, which
constitutes a remnant of the ancient Ethiopic empire. Access to
hitherto sealed portions of the interior, by which the objects of
humanity would not less be forwarded than those of commerce, science,
and geography, can thus readily be obtained through his assistance.
They offer gold in return for the blessings of Christianity and
civilisation, and are believed to be accessible also from the coast of
the Indian ocean. But it ought not to be forgotten in England, that,
independently of other considerations, the surest hopes of working any
favourable change in the present degraded state of the Abyssinian
church, or of substantially promoting the views of philanthropy in
Ethiopia Proper, must be considered to rest solely upon the good
feeling, the potent influence, and the professed assistance of his
holiness the Abuna, and that one better disposed is not likely ever to
fill the episcopal throne at Gondar.
Volume 3, Chapter XXXVIII.