War and ransom were not the only agents. Even if history were silent,
it is impossible to suppose that slaves of African Barbary endured
their lot without struggles for freedom.
"Since the first moment they put on my chains,
I've thought of nothing but the weight of 'em,
And how to throw 'em off."[72]
These are words of the slave in a play; but they express the natural
inborn sentiments of all with intelligence to appreciate the precious
boon of freedom. "Thanks be to God for so great mercies!" says the
Captive in Don Quixote; "for in my opinion there is no happiness on
earth equal to that of recovering lost liberty."[73] And plain Thomas
Phelps,--once a slave at Mequinez in Morocco, whence, in 1685, he
fortunately escaped,--narrating his adventures and sufferings, breaks
forth in similar strain. "Since my escape," he says, "from captivity,
and worse than Egyptian bondage, I have, methinks, enjoyed a happiness
with which my former life was never acquainted; now that, after a storm
and terrible tempest, I have, by miracle, put into a safe and quiet
harbor, after a most miserable slavery to the most unreasonable and
barbarous of men, now that I enjoy the immunities and freedom of my
native country and the privileges of a subject of England, although my
circumstances otherwise are but indifferent, yet I find I am affected
with extraordinary emotions and singular transports of joy; now I
know what liberty is, and can put a value and make a just estimate of
that happiness which before I never well understood.... Health can be
but slightly esteemed by him who never was acquainted with pain or
sickness; and liberty and freedom are the happiness only valuable by
a reflection on captivity and slavery."[74] Thus from every quarter
gathers the cloud of witnesses.
[72] Southerne, Oroonoko, Act III. Sc. 2. It is not strange that
the anti-slavery character of this play rendered it unpopular at
Liverpool, while prosperous merchants there were concerned in the
slave-trade.
[73] Don Quixote, Part I. Book IV. Chap. 12.
[74] True Account of the Captivity of Thomas Phelps: Osborne's
Voyages, Vol. II. p. 500.
The history of Algiers abounds in well-authenticated examples of
_conspiracy against Government_ by Christian slaves: so strong was the
passion for escape. In 1531 and 1559 two separate schemes were matured,
promising for a while entire success. The slaves were numerous; keys to
open the prisons had been forged, and arms supplied; but the treachery
of one of their number betrayed the plot to the Dey, who sternly
doomed the conspirators to the bastinado and the stake. Cervantes,
during his captivity, nothing daunted by disappointed efforts, and
the terrible vengeance which attended them, conceived the plan of a
general slave insurrection, with the overthrow of the Algerine power,
and the surrender of the city to the Spanish crown. This was in accord
with that sentiment to which he gives such famous utterance in his
writings, that "for liberty we ought to risk life itself, slavery being
the greatest evil that can fall to the lot of man."[75] As late as 1763
there was a similar insurrection or conspiracy. "Last month," says a
journal of high authority, "the Christian slaves at Algiers, to the
number of four thousand, rose and killed their guards, and massacred
all who came in their way; but after some hours' carnage, during which
the streets ran with blood, peace was restored."[76] How truly is
bloodshed the natural incident of slavery!
[75] Roscoe, Life of Cervantes, pp. 32, 310, 311. In the same
spirit Thomas Phelps says, "I looked upon my condition as
desperate; my forlorn and languishing state of life, without any
hope of redemption, appeared far worse than the terrors of a most
cruel death."--Osborne's Voyages, Vol. II. p. 504.
[76] Annual Register, 1763, Vol. VI. p. 60.]