THE
SLAVERY QUESTION.
BY
JOHN LAWRENCE,
AUTHOR OF "PLAIN THOUGHTS ON SECRET SOCIETIES," AND "BRIEF
TREATIES ON AMERICAN SLAVERY."
THIRD EDITION.
THE DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY WILL PROCEED, WHEREVER TWO OR
THREE ARE GATHERED TOGETHER--BY THE FIRESIDE, ON THE HIGHWAY,
AT THE PUBLIC MEETING, IN THE CHURCH. THE MOVEMENT
AGAINST SLAVERY IS FROM THE EVERLASTING ARM.
CHARLES SUMNER.
DAYTON, O.,
PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE CONFERENCE PRINTING
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST.
VONNIEDA & KUMLER, AGENTS.
1854.
Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1854, by
VONNIEDA & KUMLER,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Ohio.
PREFACE.
American slavery is a great sin--a complicated iniquity--a gigantic
barbarism--and it "is evil, only evil, and that continually." But the
depth of this wickedness is not very frequently sounded, if, indeed it
can be sounded. The magnitude of this crime is not often measured, if,
indeed it is possible to determine its dimensions.
Slavery has narcoticized the consciences of the American people to a
most alarming extent. A deep sleep has come over the moral sense, which
it would seem cannot be broken by the cries and entreaties of three
millions of wretched bondmen. Are we not in imminent danger of being
cursed with Pharaoh's hardness of heart? May we not be visited speedily
with judicial blindness such as was inflicted upon the doomed nations
and cities of antiquity?
The standard of national morality has been degraded to the level of an
infamous lower law enacted by scheming political traders.
Our national government, in all its departments--Executive, Judicial
and Legislative--has been transformed into a pliant tool in the hands
of an unscrupulous oligarchy.
The powerful American Churches have ceased to be asylums for the
oppressed, defenders of the down trodden, uncompromising foes of
tyranny, and they have become, on the contrary, the apologists of
oppressors, a terror to the oppressed, and the only reliable bulwark of
American slavery.
The author has aimed to present in the following pages such a
discussion of the general subject of slavery as would be calculated
to awaken the thoughts, and feelings, especially of those who have not
had an opportunity of examining this question in larger and more ably
written productions. There are thousands of honest people who would
take a decided position on a Christian anti-slavery platform, and
throw their whole influence in the right direction if they were made
acquainted with slavery as it is, and with their duties religiously
and politically in relation to it. It is with the design of benefiting
the common people--the people of plain sense--who are not offended at
plain talk and plain facts, that the following work is published. If
the workingmen of the free and slave States can be aroused into action,
slavery must fly from the churches and perish from the nation.
With this purpose in view, we have sketched a history of the
African slave trade, showing how slavery originated; have defined
slavery--proving that its essential principle is property in a human
being; and laws, facts and incidents have been adduced to illustrate
the system so that even a child may see and feel its enormity.
And, as a corrupt moral sense has been still more corrupted by efforts
to bring revealed religion to the support of slavery, particular pains
have been taken to prove that not a single word, nor precept, nor
example can be adduced from the Bible which sanctions any such system;
and that the whole spirit of religion as revealed under the old economy
and the new, is utterly and irreconcilably opposed to all slavery.
It has been thought proper to present a concise view of the position
occupied by the American Churches upon this question. No church can
complain when its ecclesiastical action on so grave a subject is
re-published. And besides, it is quite necessary for honest people to
know on what platforms the religious denominations of the country stand.
The true position of a religious society or church in relation to
slavery is exhibited. This is a point of more than ordinary importance.
The doctrine is maintained that the honor of the Bible, the purity,
power, peace, and success of the Church, its duty to God, to freedom,
to slaveholders and especially to slaves, demand that it have no
fellowship with slaveholding.
Particular pains have been taken to point out the political duties of
Christians in relation to slavery.
The inquiry, "how are we to get rid of slavery?" is taken up, and the
position assumed and defended that it ought to be abolished immediately.
The book closes with a glance at the prospects. The watchman tells
us that the sky from many points of observation is dark, but still
that there are some very encouraging indications. The uncorrupted
conscience, reason, truth, Christianity and prayer, are on the side of
the oppressed; and God, who is love, is their hope, and cannot fail
to come to their help and bring them forth with a mighty hand and an
out-stretched arm.
Quite a number of works on slavery have been consulted in the
preparation of this discussion, among which may be mentioned, "American
Slave Code" by Mr. Goodell; "Barnes on Slavery;" "Bible Servitude," by
E. Smith; "Elliott on American Slavery;" "Slavery and the Church," by
Mr. Hosmer; "Debate on Slavery by Blanchard & Rice;" "Non-fellowship
with Slaveholders," by Mr. Fee; "Sermon on the Slave Trade" by Jonathan
Edwards; and "Thirteenth Annual Report of the American and Foreign
Anti-slavery Society."
No "mealy words" have been used in this book. I have only aimed to
present the plain truth, and shall be rewarded in whatever mite of
influence it may cast on the side of liberty.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
ORIGIN OF AMERICAN SLAVERY.
THE SLAVE TRADE.
Seven millions of slaves in America--Slavery originated in the
African slave trade--Slave-trade unprovoked--Excited by lust for
gold--Commenced by the Portuguese in 1434--Spaniards in 1511--English
in 1556--President Edwards quoted--100,000 annually destroyed--Report
made to the British House of Commons--Startling statistics--A slave
ship described--Slave-trade declared to be piracy and abolished
page 13
CHAPTER II.
SLAVERY DEFINED.
PROPERTY IN A HUMAN BEING.
A slave is a chattel--Authorities quoted--Advertised and sold as
property--Facts adduced--sale of a boy--a woman with an infant in her
arms--a mother--American slave-code identical in principle with the
Roman page 30
CHAPTER III.
SLAVERY ILLUSTRATED.
THE CHATTEL PRINCIPLE IN PRACTICE.
Slaves denied an education--Laws--Instances--Slavery disregards
matrimonial connections--Painful facts page 41
CHAPTER IV.
SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
Slavery disregards the parental and filial
relations--Facts--Slave-mother's lament page 56
CHAPTER V.
SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
Slavery utterly impoverishes its victims--Exposes them to unbridled
lust--unrestrained passion--irresponsible tyranny--Heart-rending
incidents! page 64
CHAPTER VI.
SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
Severity of laws against slaves--partial--unreasonable and
cruel--Practice worse than the laws--Burning of slaves--Horrible
examples page 80
CHAPTER VII.
SLAVERY AND RELIGION.
CURSE OF CANAAN--Doubtful authority--Did not allude to slavery--A mere
prediction at best--Africans not the descendants of Canaan page 88
CHAPTER VIII.
SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
PATRIARCHAL SERVITUDE AND SLAVERY--No patriarch ever owned
a slave--Slavery had no existence in the time of the
patriarchs--Diodorus, Athen├Žus and Rollin quoted--The Hebrew word
SERVANT not equivalent to the English word SLAVE--Abraham's servants
converts from idolatry page 94
CHAPTER IX.
SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
LAW OF MOSES AND SLAVERY--Levitical statutes not perfect--Allowed what
it would now be wrong to practice--Dr. Stowe quoted--Servitude under
the law of Moses essentially different from American slavery--Meaning
of "buy," "heathen," "bondmen," and "forever,"--Servants not
stolen--Voluntary--Provision for religious improvement--Kind
treatment--Could not be sold--Equal to their masters--Certain
emancipation--Salvation of the heathen the primary design of
introducing foreign servants page 107
CHAPTER X.
SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
NEW TESTAMENT AND SLAVERY--SERVANTS mentioned but not SLAVES--DOULOS
does not mean SLAVE--New Testament does not regulate slavery
because it cannot be regulated--Slaveholders not addressed by the
Apostles--Onesimus not a slave--Character of Roman slavery--Contrary
to the fundamental principles of revealed religion--The character of
God--Common origin of man--General Redemption--Moral precepts--And is
necessarily unjust and unequal page 124
CHAPTER XI.
AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY.
THE POSITION THEY OCCUPY.
Presbyterians (O. S. and N. S.)--Congregational--Methodist
Episcopal, North and South--Methodist Protestant--Wesleyan Methodist
Connection--Baptist, Regular--Freewill--Seventh Day--Evangelical
Association--United Brethren--Various Churches--Summary View page 149
CHAPTER XII.
SLAVERY AND THE CHURCH.
NON-FELLOWSHIP WITH SLAVEHOLDERS.
Scriptural view--Church must keep slaveholders out--If they get
in, it must expel them--If the Church sanction slavery officially
or practically, withdraw from it--Non-slaveholding required
that it may be holy--The pillar of truth--That it may honor the
Scriptures--Convert the world--Be faithful to slaveholders and to
slaves--Non-fellowship required by decency--humanity--If fellowshiped,
we shall have slaveholding preachers, and women-sellers and
cradle-plunderers for class-mates--Cases given page 169
CHAPTER XIII.
SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
Kind slaveholders--Examples--Excusable slaveholders--Slavery a
political matter--Fault of the public corruption--Fault of the
laws--Slaveholders from necessity--Slaves their property--All right
ONLY this one thing--Take them in to convince them of the wrong--Mr.
Fee's opinion page 184
CHAPTER XIV.
POLITICAL DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS.
EXTIRPATION OF SLAVERY FROM THE WORLD.
Necessity of government--Obligation of political action--Voters
responsible for slavery--United States Constitution does not endorse
slavery--Founders of the Republic intended that slavery should die
out speedily--Character of the government changed--Great work for
Christian citizens--Slavery in the District--Territories--Slave
States--Throughout the world page 195
CHAPTER XV.
ABOLITION OF SLAVERY.
IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION.
The duty plain and scriptural--Break every yoke--proclaim a year of
Jubilee--Slavery cannot be reformed--Slaves prepared for freedom--Free
people of color--Fugitives in Canada--West India emancipation--Colored
people not dangerous when free--Amalgamation--Our fears originate
in our guilt--Colonization scheme impracticable--Wrong--Watkins
quoted--All objections mere excuses--We must emancipate to escape the
judgments of God--Too long delayed--A good example page 206
CHAPTER XVI.
WHAT OF THE NIGHT?
THERE IS HOPE IN GOD ONLY.
The government intensely pro-slavery--Political horizon lowering--The
great denominations and benevolent societies heartily supporting
slavery--Ecclesiastical heavens dark--Deep prejudices in the masses of
the people--Douglass quoted--God is on the side of the oppressed--He
is stirring the nation--Question cannot rest--Agitation goes on--Truth
is on the side of the slave--Literature coming to his aid--A pure
Church arising to plead his cause--"TOIL AND TRUST." page 219
AMERICAN SLAVERY.
CHAPTER I.
Origin of American Slavery.
THE SLAVE TRADE.
On the continent of America and adjacent Islands there are more than
seven millions of slaves. Between three and four millions of these
are enslaved by the most liberal, enlightened and prosperous nation
on the Globe. The American _Republic_ is a great slaveholding nation,
and, viewed in its slaveholding character, might fitly be termed also,
the American _Despotism_. The highest form of freedom is here enjoyed
by about twenty millions of persons and the lowest type of slavery
suffered by more than three millions. One seventh of all born under our
Democratic Constitution and under our world-renowned stars and stripes,
are hereditary slaves.
American slavery has flourished three hundred years, being coeval with
the Reformation, and running back over one twentieth part of the whole
period of time since Adam. Nine generations of slaves, under a crushing
weight of despotism, have toiled and suffered on through a wretched
life, and have gone murmuring down to the grave.
We shall now inquire into the origin of this immense iniquity. American
slavery originated directly in the African slave trade; a trade most
dishonorable to human nature, bad as that nature is admitted to be,
and most disgraceful to christian civilization. Its history, although
not fully written, except by heaven's recording angel, cannot be read
by a humane person, even in its fragmentary form, without the deepest
sorrow. It is a history of villainy, of relentless cruelty, of raging,
hollow-hearted avarice and of unmitigated diabolism on the one side;
and of wrongs, wretchedness and writhing anguish on the other.
Nothing had occurred to provoke a marauding attack upon the Africans.
They were a peaceable and harmless people, and had no means of exciting
either the jealousy or the displeasure of Europeans. They had not
violated treaties, nor declared wars. The bloody wars among the African
tribes, of which we hear so much from those who would palliate the
atrocities of the slave trade, were excited by the traders themselves,
and so far from palliating, only add _blackness_ to the darkness of
their crimes. The old Roman soldier, who enslaved a national enemy whom
he valiantly met and conquered in what is called honorable warfare,
might have claimed, with the semblance of plausibility, that the life
he had spared legitimately belonged to him. But the African slave
trader could not plead even this unmanly and unmerciful apology. The
Africans were not national enemies, and were not in arms.
No, it was not revenge, ambition, or patriotism, but CUPIDITY which
prompted the slave trade--
"The lust of gold, unfeeling and remorseless!
The last corruption of degenerate man."
Avaricious men launched and manned the slave ship, unfurled the sails
and stood at the helm. In their perilous voyage over the wide ocean,
amid storms and tempests, not one noble impulse swelled their bosoms;
not one philanthropic purpose strengthened their courage; not one
humane pulsation throbbed in their hearts. The slaver went on its long
voyage under the patronage of the Prince of darkness, for the one and
only purpose of making gold out of the sale of the bodies and souls of
men; of distilling wealth from blood and tears and agony. Montgomery
said truly--
"Cruel as death, insatiate as the grave,
False as the winds that round his vessel blow;
Remorseless as the gulf that yawns below,
Is he who toils upon the wafting flood,
A CHRISTIAN BROKER IN THE TRADE OF BLOOD!"
But it was not avarice in the crew of the slave ship alone which
incited and drove this iniquitous business. The prime movers were
the owners of the estates to be worked. Had those men been unwilling
to grow rich upon unrewarded toil, the _slaver_ never would have
sailed to Africa and plundered its shores. But the piratical crew and
the purchasers of the victims of their nefarious traffic were in a
villainous co-partnership.
When the slaver had reached its destination and had anchored off the
slave coast, the following methods were employed in securing a cargo.
1st. Declarations of friendship were made and many of the unsuspecting
natives were induced, out of curiosity or for trade, to go aboard the
vessel, and when there were suddenly confined and permitted no more to
return. 2d. Parties of the crew were sent out to surprise and carry
off innocent children and youth as they went to the fields or gathered
in groups to play in the groves. Think of the anguish of those African
mothers and of the distress of their affrighted children! 3d. Villages
were fired in the night, and as many of the defenseless inhabitants as
could be captured by force of arms were carried off. 4th. The chiefs
of different tribes were hired to act as the agents of the slaver in
procuring slaves. Rum, of which all savages are extremely fond, was the
principal incentive. Inflamed by this demon, the native chiefs made war
upon each other, and sold the prisoners captured to the traders for a
fresh supply of rum.
The African slave trade was commenced on a small scale a few years
before the discovery of America. We learn from the Encyclopedia
Americana "that, in 1434, a Portuguese captain name _Alonzo Gonzales_,
landed in Guinea, and carried away some colored lads, whom he sold
advantageously to Moorish families settled in the South of Spain.
Six years after, he committed a similar robbery, and many merchants
imitated the practice, and built a fort to protect the traffic."
After a discovery of the Gold Mines of America, quite a number of
negroes were imported, first by the Portuguese then by the Spaniards,
to labor in those mines. In 1511 Ferdinand, King of Spain, authorized
the importation of a large number. About this period it is said, and
generally believed that _Bartolomeo las Cas_, a Catholic Priest,
influenced by a feeling of pity toward the Indians, whom the Spaniards
were enslaving, proposed to Ximenes the regular importation of negroes.
Whether this be true or not, Charles the V. in 1517, granted the
privilege to Lebresa, of importing 4000 slaves to America annually.
Lebresa sold his right to import to Genoese merchants, for about
$25,000. These merchants now commenced the slave trade in earnest.
_Sir John Hawkins_ has the honor of being the first English captain
who engaged in the business of stealing negroes. In 1556 he made an
unsuccessful effort at negro catching near Cape Verd. He made another
effort at a different point; and after burning the towns, was so
bravely resisted by the inhabitants, that he lost seven men, and only
captured ten. He continued his depredations until his ship was loaded
with human beings, which he sold in America.[1] The trade was now
vigorously prosecuted by the christian nations of Europe. It is said
that Charles the V., Louis XIII. and Queen Elizabeth had some trouble
with their consciences about this horrible trade, but they were quieted
by the argument that it brought the African into a good situation to be
converted! Pope Leo X. declared that "not only the christian religion
but nature itself cried out against a State of slavery."
These feeble expressions of disapprobation were scarcely heard and
the trade went on vigorously--cupidity triumphing over conscience and
silencing almost, for many years, the voice of humanity and religion.
An extract from a sermon preached on the slave trade by _President
Edwards_, in the year 1791 will now be quoted. At the time this good
man lifted his voice against this traffic, it will be remembered that
it was authorized by the Constitution of the United States, and was a
source of great profit to those engaged in it.
"The slave trade is wicked and abominable on account of the cruel
manner in which it is carried on. Beside the stealing or kidnapping of
men, women and children, in the first instance, and the instigation
of others to this abominable practice, the inhuman manner in which
they are transported to America, and in which they are treated on the
passage and in their subsequent slavery, is such as ought forever to
deter every man from acting any part in this business, who has any
regard to justice or humanity. They are crowded so closely into the
holds and between the decks of vessels, that they have room scarcely
to lie down, and some times not room to sit up in an erect posture,
the men at the same time fastened together with irons, by two and two:
and all this in the most sultry climate. The consequence of the whole
is, that the most dangerous and fatal diseases are soon bred among
them, whereby vast numbers of those exported from Africa perish in the
voyage; others in dread of that slavery which is before them, and in
distress and despair from the loss of their parents, their children,
their husbands, their wives, all their dear connections, and their dear
native country itself, starve themselves to death, or plunge themselves
into the ocean. Those who attempt in the former of those ways to
escape from their persecutors, are tortured by live coals placed to
their mouths. Those who attempt an escape in the latter and fail, are
equally tortured by the most cruel beating. If any of them make an
attempt as they sometimes do, to recover their liberty, some, and as
the circumstance may be, many, are put to immediate death, others,
beaten, bruised, cut and mangled in a most inhuman and shocking manner,
are in this situation, exhibited to the rest, to terrify them from the
like attempt in future: and some are delivered up to every species
of torment, whether by the application of the whip, or of any other
instrument, even of fire itself, as the ingenuity of the ship master,
or of his crew is able to suggest, or their situation will admit; and
these torments are purposely continued for several days before death is
permitted to afford relief to these objects of vengeance.
"By these means, according to the common computation, twenty-five
thousand, which is a fourth part of those who are exported from Africa,
and by the concession of all, twenty thousand, annually perish, before
they arrive at the places of their destination in America."
The same writer computed that of the one hundred thousand slaves
annually exported, 60,000 were captives taken in war, and that ten
persons were killed in the capture of one. _Sixty thousand then in the
time of Jonathan Edwards were slain in battle, 40,000 destroyed on
the voyage_ and in the seasoning, making _an annual destruction of_
100,000 men, woman and children, in order to procure 60,000 slaves!
This computation may be relied upon, as Jonathan Edwards was a careful
writer, and no enthusiast.
For three hundred years this horrible traffic had been prosecuted
before Mr. Edwards delivered the sermon from which we have quoted,
and at that period the annual slaughter was 100,000, and the annual
enslavement 60,000! How many perished during those three hundred years
God only knows. Rum had excited wars among the natives, and the whole
coast, and far into the interior was turned into a battle field. No
one was safe. The poor African could not lie down securely at night,
for men-stealers were ransacking the country watching for their prey
like hungry tigers; villages were burned, property destroyed, and the
wretched inhabitants, either captured, killed, or caused to fly from
their homes, and perish perhaps with famine.
In a report made to the British House of Commons, it was estimated
that from 1807 to 1847, including a period of only forty years, _ten
millions_ of persons had been made the victims of this traffic! TEN
MILLIONS; one-half of whom were murdered in Africa; one fourth during
the "middle passage;" and the remaining fourth reduced to _property_
and doomed, with their posterity, to a life of degradation, suffering
and toil! And all this gigantic robbery and murder perpetrated in the
favored nineteenth century!
Permit me to direct your attention to a single slave ship which sailed
only a few years ago. This ship was examined by the officers of a
British man-of-war. The following is from the pen of Mr. Walsh, an eye
witness of what he relates.
"The ship had taken in, on the coast of Africa, 336 males and 226
females, making in all 562, and had been out 17 days, during which she
had thrown overboard _fifty five_!
"The slaves were all enclosed under grated hatchways between decks.
The space was so low, that they sat between each other's legs, and
they were stowed so close together, that there was no possibility
of their lying down, or at all changing their position by night or
day. As they belonged to, and were shipped on account of different
individuals, they were all branded like sheep, with the owner's marks
of different forms. These were impressed under their breasts or on
their arms, and as the mate informed me, with perfect indifference,
quiemados pelo ferro quento--burnt with the red hot iron. Over the
hatchway stood a ferocious looking fellow with a scourge of many
twisted thongs in his hand, who was the slave driver of the ship; and
whenever he heard the slightest noise below, he shook it over them,
and seemed eager to exercise it. As soon as the poor creatures saw us
looking down at them their dark and melancholy visages brightened up.
They perceived something of sympathy and kindness in our looks which
they had not been accustomed to, and feeling instinctively, that we
were friends, they immediately began to shout and clap their hands.
One or two had picked up a few Portuguese words, and cried out _Viva!
viva!_ The women were particularly excited. They all held up their
arms; and when we bent down and shook hands with them, they could not
contain their delight, they endeavored to scramble upon their knees,
stretching up to kiss our hands; and we understood that they knew we
had come to liberate them. Some, however, hung down their heads, in
apparently hopeless dejection, some were greatly emaciated, and some,
particularly children, seemed dying. But the circumstance which struck
us most forcibly, was, how it was possible for such a number of human
beings to exist, packed up and wedged together as tight as they could
cram, in low cells, three feet high, the greater part of which, except
that immediately under the hatchways, was shut out from light or air,
and this when the thermometer, exposed to the open sky, was stand-in
the shade, on our deck at 89┬░. The space between the decks was divided
into two compartments, three feet, three inches high; the size of one
was 16 feet by 18 feet, and of the other 40 feet by 21 feet; into the
first there were crammed the women and girls, into the second the men
and boys; 226 fellow beings were thus thrust into one space 288 feet
square, and 336 into another 800 feet square, giving to the whole an
average of 23 inches, and to each of the women, not more than thirteen.
The heat of these horrid places was so great and the odor so offensive,
that it was quite impossible to enter them even had there been room.
They were measured as above when the slaves had left them. The officers
insisted that the poor suffering creatures should be admitted on deck
to get air and water. This was opposed by the mate of the slaver, who,
from a feeling that they deserved it, declared they would murder them
all. The officers (of the Eng. ship,) however, persisted, and the poor
beings were all turned up together. It is impossible to conceive the
effect of this eruption; 507 fellow creatures of all ages and sizes,
some children, some adults, old men and women, all in a state of total
nudity, scrambling out together to taste a little pure air and water.
They came swarming up like bees from the aperture of a hive, till the
whole deck was crowded to suffocation, from stem to stern; so that it
was impossible to imagine where they could all have come from, or how
they could all have been stowed away. On looking into the places where
they had been crammed, there were found some children next the sides
of the ship, in the places most remote from light and air; they were
lying in nearly a torpid state, after the rest had turned out. The
little creatures seemed indifferent as to life or death; and when they
were carried on deck, many of them could not stand. After enjoying, for
a short time, the unusual luxury of air, some water was brought; it
was then that the extent of their sufferings was exposed in a fearful
manner. They all rushed like maniacs toward it. No entreaties, or
threats, or blows could restrain them; they shrieked, and struggled,
and fought with one another, for a drop of this precious liquid, as
if they grew rabid at the sight of it. When the poor creatures were
ordered down again, several of them came, and pressed their heads
against our knees, with looks of the greatest anguish, at the prospect
of returning to the horrid place of suffering below."[2]
But the English ship was obliged to release the slaver and abandon to
despair those defenseless victims, as it was found upon examination
that it had not violated a vile privilege then allowed Brazilian ships
to obtain slaves south of a certain line.
It is a humiliating fact that for a period of three centuries the
whole christian world was engaged in plundering a heathen shore of
its inhabitants, speculating in their bodies and souls and spreading
amongst them intemperance, war and all unutterable woes. The history of
this wickedness will never be fully known until the general judgment.
Then will the ocean have a tale to tell of the thousands who were
smothered in the slave prisons which floated upon her bosom, and of the
multiplied thousands who were famished and buried in her deeps. The sea
will send up her witnesses, and Africa, wet with tears and blood, will
bear a testimony before God in that day which will make the ears of all
that hear it to tingle!
But let us glance at a more hopeful view of the subject. In 1783 a
petition was addressed to the house of Parliament, Great Britain, for
the abolition of this trade. THOMAS CLARKSON was the mover, and the
great champion of the cause. In 1788 Mr. Pitt presented a petition
against the trade and introduced the subject of its abolition into the
house of Commons. The opposition to this measure was united, powerful
and violent. At length in 1792 the house of Commons passed a bill for
the abolition of the slave trade to take place in 1795. This bill
was rejected in the House of Lords. About this time the _National
Assembly_ in France, declared all the slaves in the French colonies
free. Mr. Wilberforce brought into the British Parliament another bill
in 1796, which provided that this trade should be abolished forever
after 1797--but this bill was lost also. The efforts of the friends
of humanity were redoubled, and in "_1806 Fox moved that the House
of Commons should declare the slave trade inconsistent with justice,
humanity and sound policy, and immediately take effective measures
for its abolition_." This measure passed by a large majority--and
Jan. 1808 was fixed as the time for its abolition. _In 1824 a law
was passed declaring the trade to be piracy._ Portugal provided for
the total abolition of this trade in 1823. France in 1815--Spain in
1820--Netherlands in 1818--Sweden in 1813--Brazil in 1830--Denmark in
1804. The United States prohibited it by Constitution in 1809--and in
1814 engaged by the treaty of Ghent to do all in her power for its
entire suppression.
But, notwithstanding these praiseworthy efforts, the trade continued,
and with increased barbarity, and is even yet carried on to some extent
in defiance of all the navies of the world.
We have now seen that _avarice_ was at the bottom of the slave trade;
that it was an unprovoked and unparalleled outrage upon the Africans;
that it was prosecuted without the slightest regard to the comfort
or lives of the captured; that the whole civilized world, after an
experience of centuries, became horrified at its terrible iniquity;
that now the trade is declared to be PIRACY; that the slave-ship can
be protected by no flag under heaven; and that all who engage in the
trade may be captured and hanged up by the neck as the most execrable
wretches.
Thus a traffic which received the sanction of the Pope of Rome, and
was prosecuted under the immediate auspices of Christian kings and
governments for three centuries, was attacked by CLARKSON, WILBERFORCE
and other agitators, and, though powerfully defended by avarice and
interest; though hoary with age; though protected by statesmen, by
the commercial and planting interests, that attack was vigorously
followed up until reason, religion and humanity felt outraged by it,
and demanded in a voice which rulers dared not refuse to hear, that it
be at once and forever abolished. So much for agitation! Thank God for
this progress!