have been already noticed, there is one circumstance in the manner of
conducting the trade on the coast, which so naturally tends to the
production of frequent acts of violence, as to deserve a distinct
specification. It affords another striking instance of the way in which
the Slave Trade has in a long course of years gradually imparted a taint
to all the institutions and customs of Africa. It is the general custom
for Captains of Slave ships, in exchange for the goods which they
advance on credit, and of which the value, as has been stated, is to be
repaid to them in Slaves, to receive the children or some other near
relations of the Black Factor as pledges, or as they are termed in
Africa _pawns_, whom the Slave captains are to return when the
stipulated number of Slaves has been delivered. With the goods which
have been entrusted to him he commonly goes up the country; and, knowing
that by some means or other the requisite number of Slaves must be
furnished, or that his own nearest relatives, and he himself too if he
can be taken, will be carried off into slavery, it is obvious, that when
the day for the sailing of the ship draws nigh, he will not be very
scrupulous in the means to which he resorts for completing his
assortment. Thus even parental instinct and the domestic and social
affections are rendered by the Slave Trade the incentives to acts of
cruelty and rapine. But it would be endless were I to attempt to lay
before you in detail all the various forms and modes of wickedness, and
misery, of which, directly and indirectly, the Slave Trade is
productive. It’s general and leading features have been now exhibited to
you.
[Sidenote: Recapitulation of effects of Slave Trade.]
Such are the methods by which from eighty to one hundred thousand of our
fellow creatures, a race of people too, declared by Mr. Parke himself,
to be perhaps beyond all others, passionately attached to their native
soil, are annually torn from their country, their homes, their friends,
and from whatever is most dear to them. All the ties of nature, and
habit, and feeling, are burst asunder; and, by a long voyage, the
horrors of which were acknowledged to constitute of themselves an almost
incalculable sum of misery, these victims of our injustice are carried
to a distant land, to wear away the whole remainder of their lives in a
state of hopeless slavery and degradation, with the same melancholy
prospect for their descendants after them, for ever.
Yet even this is not all. There is one consequence of the Slave Trade, a
consequence too, most important to Africa, which still remains to be
pointed out. It were much to foment and aggravate, not seldom to
produce, long and bloody wars—to incite to incessant acts of the most
merciless depredation—to poison and embitter the administration of the
laws—and in general, to give a malignant taint to religious and civil
institutions; thus, turning into engines of oppression and misery, that
very machinery of the social state, which is naturally conducive to the
protection and comfort of mankind. It is much to compel men to live at
home amid the alarm, elsewhere only felt, and with the precautions only
used in an enemy’s country,—to hold out a direct premium to rapine and
murder,—in short, to produce the general prevalence of selfishness, and
fraud, and violence, and cruelty, and terror, and revenge. And all this;
not on a small scale, or within narrow limits, but throughout an immense
region, bounded by a line of coast of between three and four thousand
miles, and stretching inland to various depths, not seldom to a distance
which it requires several months to travel. But there is one triumph
still behind; one effect of the Slave Trade; which, if it excite not at
first the same lively sympathy, as some others of it’s more direct
outrages, on the comforts of domestic or the peace of social life, will
yet, in the deliberate judgment of a considerate mind, appear on
reflection to be of more importance than all the rest. [Sidenote:
Another most important consequence of the Slave Trade.] This is, that by
keeping in a state of incessant insecurity, of person and property, the
whole of the district which is visited by Europeans, we maintain an
impassable barrier on that side, through which [Sidenote: It prevents
the civilization of Africa.] alone any rays of the religious and moral
light and social improvements of our happier quarter of the globe might
penetrate into the interior, and thus lock up the whole of that vast
continent in it’s present state of wretchedness and darkness.
[Sidenote: No natural death of the Slave Trade.]
Here, then, we see the bitter cup of Africa filled to the very brim. For
the above consideration shews but too clearly, that she cannot expect
any natural termination of her sufferings from the gradual progress of
civilization and knowledge, which have, in some other instances, put a
period to a less extended traffic for Slaves in countries differently
situated. The very channels through which alone, according to all human
calculation, Africa might have hoped to receive the blessings of
religious and moral light, and social improvement, are precisely those
through which her miseries flow in upon her with so full a tide. Thus
the African Slave Trade provides for it’s own indefinite continuance.
Here also, as in other instances which have been already pointed out, it
turns into poison what has been elsewhere most salutary, and renders
that very intercourse, which has been ordinarily the grand means of
civilization, the most sure and operative instrument, in the
perpetuation of barbarism.
[Sidenote: Our aggravated guilt.]
At length, then, we are prepared to form some judgment of the effects of
European intercourse on the state and happiness of Africa. The darkness
of Paganism were a very insufficient palliation of such a tissue of
cruelty and crimes. But surely it is no small aggravation of our guilt,
that We, who are the prime agents in this traffic of wickedness and
blood, are ourselves the most free, enlightened, and happy people that
ever existed upon earth. We profess a religion which inculcates truth
and love, peace and good-will, among men—We are foremost in a commerce
which exists but by war, treachery, and devastation. We enjoy a
political constitution of government, eminent above all others for
securing to the very meanest and weakest the blessings of civil liberty,
of personal security, and equal laws—yet We take the lead in maintaining
this accursed system, which begins in fraud and violence, and is
consummated in bondage and degradation. Blessed ourselves with religious
light and knowledge, we prolong in Africa the reign of ignorance and
superstition. In short, instead of endeavouring to diffuse among
nations, less favoured than ourselves, the blessings we enjoy; after our
crime has been indisputably proved to us, in defiance alike of
conscience and of reputation, we industriously and perseveringly
continue to deprave and darken the Creation of God.
There is scarcely any point of view in which the nature and effects of
our intercourse with Africa will appear so peculiarly disgraceful to us
as a christian nation, as when we contemplate them in connection with
the benefits which the Africans derive from their intercourse with the
Mahometans. When we cast our eyes towards the south-west of Europe, and
behold extensive countries, once possessed by the most polished nations,
the chosen seats of literature and the liberal arts; and now behold one
universal waste of ignorance and barbarism, we have always been
accustomed to ascribe the fatal change to the conquest of a band of
Mahometan invaders, and to regret that such fine countries should remain
under the benumbing effects of a Mussulman government. On the other
hand, in contemplating the superior state of our northern parts of
Europe, we have been used, with reason, to ascribe much of our light and
liberty, and many of our various blessings, to the influence of that
pure religion which is the friend of freedom, of peace, and good-will
among men. But with what shame must we acknowledge, that in Africa,
Christianity and Mahometanism appear to have mutually interchanged
characters.—Smith, the African Company’s own agent in 1722, tells us,
“the discerning natives account it their greatest unhappiness that they
were ever visited by the Europeans. They say that we Christians
introduced the traffic of Slaves, and that before our coming they lived
in peace. But, say they, it is observable, that wherever Christianity
comes, there come with it, a sword, a gun, powder and ball.”[8]
The same picture may appear to claim still greater attention from the
hand of Mr. Parke, whose visit is more recent, and whose knowledge of
Africa is more extensive.—Speaking of the Foulah nation, who are many of
them professed Mahometans, he says, “religious persecution is not known
among them, nor is it necessary, for the system of Mahomet is made to
extend itself by means abundantly more efficacious. By establishing
small schools in the different towns, where many of the Pagan as well as
Mahometan children are taught to read the Koran, and instructed in the
tenets of the prophet, the Mahometan priests fix a bias on the minds,
and form the character of their young disciples, which no accidents of
life can ever afterwards remove or alter. Many of these little schools I
visited in my progress through the country, and observed with pleasure
the great docility, and submissive deportment of the children, and
heartily wished they had had better instructors, and a purer religion.”
Again, speaking of the Mandingo country, and of other parts of Africa,
and of the eagerness which the natives, both Pagan and Mahometan, shew
to acquire some knowledge of letters, Mr. Parke speaks out still more
intelligibly, and appears feelingly alive to the humiliation of his own
religion; and, from motives of christian zeal as well as of humanity, he
recommends our endeavouring to introduce the light of true religion into
that benighted land.[9] “Although,” says he, “the negroes in general
have a very great idea of the wealth and power of the Europeans, I am
afraid that the Mahometan converts among them think but very lightly of
our superior attainments in religious knowledge. The white traders in
the maritime districts take no pains to counteract this unhappy
prejudice.”—“To me, therefore, it was not so much the subject of wonder,
as matter of regret, to observe, that while the superstition of Mahomet
has in this manner scattered a few faint beams of learning among these
poor people, the precious light of Christianity is altogether excluded.
I could not but lament, that although the coast of Africa has now been
known and frequented by the Europeans for more than two hundred years,
yet the negroes still remain entire strangers to the doctrines of our
holy religion.”— “The poor Africans, whom we affect to consider as
barbarians, look upon us, I fear, as little better than a race of
formidable but ignorant Heathens.”
Such was Smith’s relation, near a century ago, of the judgment formed by
the Africans, of the effects of their intercourse with the Christian
nations. Such is the acknowledgment of Mr. Parke, who is certainly
disposed to paint the effects of the Slave Trade in the softest colours.
Is it possible for any one who calls himself a Christian, and a member
of the British Empire, to read the passage without the deepest
humiliation and sorrow, and without longing also, not only to stop the
guilty commerce we have so long carried on, but to endeavour to repair,
in some degree, the wrongs of Africa, and with active but tardy
kindness, to impart to her some small share of the overflowings of our
superabundant blessings?
“But surely,” you will long ere now have been ready to exclaim, “Surely
the facts which you have laid before us, though believed by the
abolitionists, could not have been established in the judgment of the
majority of the House of Commons;”—and you may justly require some
decisive evidence in proof of them.
[Sidenote: Evidence by which the above statements are established.]
To adduce all the specific testimony by which the above allegations were
established, would be to fill a volume. I mean, as a specimen of the
whole, to extract, and subjoin in an appendix, a few passages from the
vast body of evidence with which we are furnished on this subject. But
it would be injustice to the great cause I am pleading, not to declare,
that the above statements were established beyond all possible dispute;
and also, that, with occasional variations, resulting from the
difference in the forms of government, and in other circumstances, they
were found to be applicable not to particular parts only of Africa, but
to the whole of that vast district which is visited by the European
Slave ships; to be, not the exception, but the rule; not the occasional,
but the general and systematic effects of the Slave Trade ships. We have
the evidence of several most respectable Officers of the navy, to prove,
that wherever they touched, acts of depredation were common. The same
practices were found to prevail in the widely distant countries of
Senegambia and the Gold coast, by men of Science, one of whom produced a
journal, kept at the time, in which he daily entered all that appeared
to him worthy of remark; and it was from this record that the Committee
read the affecting account which has been mentioned, in which one of the
African Kings, with every appearance of sincerity, repeatedly expressed
his deep remorse for having been instigated, in a season of
intoxication, into which he had been drawn by the Slave merchants, to
oppress and pillage his subjects. Much of the Abolitionists’ information
was also obtained from those who, in different capacities, chiefly as
surgeons, more commonly as mates, and in some few instances as common
sailors, had been actually employed in Slave ships; some of these
persons had likewise been for many months on shore among the natives;
and several of them had witnessed the practice of attacking villages by
armed parties in the night, and carrying away, and selling all they
could seize.
[Sidenote: Opponents’ contrary evidence.]
In opposition to all this testimony, the Slave Traders produced several
witnesses, who were either still engaged in the Slave Trade, or who had
formerly carried it on, some of whom had resided several years in Slave
factories on the coast. By them it was generally declared, that acts of
depredation for the purpose of procuring Slaves were never committed;
they had never even heard of such practices, nor had they ever heard of
the practice, or of the term, of panyaring or kidnapping.[10] Crimes and
witchcraft were said to be the chief sources of supply; a few were
furnished by insolvency. The trials were said to be fair, the
convictions just. In short, according to their report, the Africans, of
whose natural dispositions and character they at the same time gave a
highly unfavourable representation, and whose government was said to be
very loose and imperfect, must have been a people of the most
extraordinary moral excellency, who had for centuries resisted present
and strong temptations, which in every other country had proved too
powerful to be successfully opposed. Such, according to these witnesses,
was the state of things on the coast. Of the interior, from whence the
greater part of the Slaves were brought, they professed to know little
or nothing.
[Sidenote: Opponents’ evidence decisively refuted.]
The allegations of these persons, even though they had not been
effectually disproved by the concurrent testimony of the various classes
of witnesses already noticed, carried their refutation on the very face
of them. But if any doubts could have been entertained to which of the
two accounts most credit was due, to that of men who were still
concerned in carrying on the Slave Trade, or had made their fortunes by
it, on the one side; and of witnesses on the other, most of whom, highly
respectable both in point of rank and character, had no interest at
stake either way; these doubts would have been completely removed by
another branch of evidence. For, happily for the cause of truth and
justice, we were able to adduce, in support of our allegations, the
testimony of another set of witnesses, against whom our opponents at
least could urge no objections, [Sidenote: Especially by accounts of
Africa, published by Slave Traders, and before the Slave Trade had been
attacked.] persons in the employ of the African Company or of private
merchants, who had been long resident in Africa, for the express purpose
of carrying on the Slave Trade, and who, as was formerly mentioned, had
published to the world the result of their observations and experience.
It might indeed have been feared, that we should be compelled to except
against their testimony; and it must be confessed, that for the sake of
their own credit, and for that of the occupation by which they had made
their fortunes, they would naturally be disposed, even in acknowledging
abuses, to touch them with a tender and favourable hand. Yet, however
short of the truth we may reasonably suppose their representations to
fall, where they are discreditable to the Slave Trade, we find our
charges positively and abundantly proved.
[Sidenote: Slave Trade’s cruelty and guilt acknowledged by the
parliamentary opposers of the abolition.]
But it is due to our opponents themselves in the House of Commons,
excepting only such of them as were personally connected with the places
whence the Slave Trade is principally carried on, who are allowed a
certain license of speaking and reasoning, on the ground of their being
understood to utter the language of their constituents rather than their
own; to the rest even of our opponents it is due, to declare, that they
never for a moment affected to entertain a doubt of the substantial
correctness of our statements. Of the injustice and inhumanity of the
Slave Trade, there was but one opinion. The chief advocates for gradual
abolition, and even the very few who resisted abolition in any form,
reprobated the traffic in the plainest and strongest terms; avowing
their firm conviction of its incurable wickedness and cruelty. One of
them declared that he knew no language which could add to its horrors;
another, that in the pursuit of the general object he felt equally warm
with the Abolitionists themselves; another acknowledged the Slave Trade
was the disgrace of Great Britain, and the torment of Africa. Whatever
might be thought of the consistency of our opponents, who, after thus
admitting our premises, stopped short of the conclusions to which such
premises might be thought infallibly to lead, it was no great stretch of
candour in them to speak in such terms of the Slave Trade, when, so
clearly indisputable were it’s nature and effects, that Mr. Bryan
Edwards, one of the ablest, and most determined enemies of abolition,
while avowedly opposing the measure in an eloquent speech (which was
afterwards published by authority) made the following memorable
declaration. After having confessed he had not the smallest doubt that
[Sidenote: Mr. Bryan Edward’s declaration to the same effect.] “in
Africa the effects of the Slave Trade were precisely such as I had
represented them to be;” he added, “the whole or the greatest part of
that immense continent, is a field of warfare and desolation; a
wilderness, in which the inhabitants are wolves towards each other; a
scene of oppression, fraud, treachery, and blood.”—“The assertion, that
a great many of the slaves are criminals and convicts, is mockery and
insult.”
[Sidenote: Pleas against abolition.]
But if the charges which the Abolitionists brought against the Slave
Trade were thus clearly proved, you may now be much more disposed to
wonder, what arguments could be found sufficiently strong to induce the
House of Commons of Great Britain to hesitate, even for a moment, to
wipe away so foul a blot from our national character.
The grand operating consideration, which, from the very first discussion
of the question in 1791 to the present moment, has prevented the actual
abolition of the Slave Trade, though so long a period has elapsed since
Mr. Pitt congratulated the House of Commons, the Country, and the World,
that “its sentence was sealed, that it had received it’s condemnation,”
has undoubtedly been, the persuasion that it’s continuance is necessary
to the well-being of our West Indian colonies. We will, therefore,
inquire into that necessity. But as several other allegations were set
up, and various arguments urged, on the part of the Slave Traders, it
may be best to consider, previously, such of them as are included in the
African division of the subject, in order to clear the way for what may
be termed, the West Indian branch of the subject.
[Sidenote: The Negroes an inferior race.]
The advocates for the Slave Trade originally took very high ground;
contending, that the Negroes were an inferior race of beings. It is
obvious, that, if this were once acknowledged, they might be supposed,
no less than their fellow brutes, to have been comprised within the
original grant of all inferior creatures to the use and service of man.
A position so shameless, and so expressly contradicted by the Holy
Scriptures, could not long be maintained in plain terms. But many
others, which may not improperly be supposed, from their features, to
belong to the same family, were afterwards brought forward. To this
class belong the assertions, that, though it might scarcely be
justifiable to withhold from the Africans the name of men, yet that they
were manifestly inferior to the rest of the human species, both in their
intellectual and moral powers. Hence, doubtless, it was, that they never
had attained to any height of civilization; whence it was also inferred,
that they never could be civilized; that therefore they might be
reasonably regarded, as intended by Providence to be the hewers of wood
and drawers of water of the species; as a race originally destined to
servile offices, and fairly applicable to any purpose by which they
might be rendered most subservient to the interest and comfort of the
Lords of the Creation. This, indeed, was high ground, as has been
already remarked; but it was not injudiciously selected, had it been but
tenable; for our opponents well knew, that could they but obtain credit
for their representations of the incorrigible stupidity and depravity of
the Negro race, our commiseration of them would be proportionably
lessened, and then all, except perhaps a few stubborn advocates for
justice in the abstract, would be content to leave them to their fate.