considered by the whites on the coast as an indolent and inactive
people; I think, without reason. Few people work harder, when occasion
requires, than the Mandingoes; but, not having many opportunities of
turning to advantage the superfluous produce of their labour, they are
content with cultivating as much ground only as is necessary for their
own support.—(pp. 280, 281.)
“The labours of the field give them pretty full employment during the
rains; and in the dry season, the people who live in the vicinity of
large rivers employ themselves chiefly in fishing.” “Others of the
natives employ themselves in hunting.” “They are very dextrous marksmen,
and will hit a lizard on a tree, or any other small object, at an
amazing distance.” “While the men are employed in these pursuits, the
women are very diligent in manufacturing cotton cloth.” “The thread is
not fine, but well twisted, and makes a very durable cloth. A woman,
with common diligence, will spin from six to nine garments of this cloth
in one year.” “The loom is made exactly upon the same principle as that
of Europe, but so small and narrow, that the web is seldom more than
four inches broad.” “The women dye this cloth of a rich and lasting blue
colour, with a fine purple gloss, and equal, in my opinion, to the best
Indian or European blue. This cloth is cut into various pieces, and
sewed into garments with needles of the natives own making.”
“As the arts of weaving, dying, sewing &c. may easily be acquired, those
who exercise them are not considered in Africa as following any
particular profession; for almost every Slave can weave, and every boy
can sew. The only artists which are distinctly acknowledged as such by
the Negroes, and who value themselves on exercising appropriate and
peculiar trades, are the manufacturers of leather and iron.” “They are
to be found in almost every town.” “They tan and dress leather with very
great expedition.” “They are at great pains to render the hide as soft
and pliant as possible.” “The hides of bullocks are converted chiefly
into sandals, and therefore require less care in dressing than the skins
of sheep and goats, which are used for covering quivers and saphies, and
in making sheaths for swords and knives, belts, pockets, and a variety
of ornaments.”—(pp. 281, 282.)
“The manufacturers of iron are not so numerous as of leather; but they
appear to have studied their business with equal diligence.” “In the
inland parts, the natives smelt this useful metal in such quantities, as
not only to supply themselves from it with all necessary weapons and
instruments, but even to make it an article of commerce with some of the
neighbouring states.”—(p. 283.)
“Most of the African blacksmiths are acquainted also with the method of
smelting gold.” “They likewise draw the gold into wire, and form it into
a variety of ornaments, some of which are executed with a great deal of
taste and ingenuity.” “I might add, though it is scarce worthy
observation, that in Bambarra and Kaarta, the natives make very
beautiful baskets, hats, and other articles, both for use and ornament,
from rushes, which they stain of different colours; and they contrive
also to cover their calabashes with interwoven cane, dyed in the same
manner,”—(p. 285.)
“It seems to be the universal wish of mankind to spend the evening of
their days where they spent their infancy. The poor Negro feels this
desire in its full force. To him, no water is sweet but what is drawn
from his own well; and no tree has so cool and pleasant a shade as the
tabba tree of his native village. When war compels him to abandon the
delightful spot in which he first drew his breath, and seek for safety
in some other kingdom, his time is spent in talking about the country of
his ancestors; and no sooner is peace restored than he turns his back
upon the land of strangers, rebuilds with haste his fallen walls, and
exults to see the smoke ascend from his native village.”—(p. 292.)
“It was not possible for me to behold the wonderful fertility of the
soil, the vast herds of cattle, proper both for labour and food, and a
variety of other circumstances favourable to colonization and
agriculture; and reflect withal, on the means which presented themselves
of a vast inland navigation, without lamenting that a country, so
abundantly gifted and favoured by nature, should remain in its present
savage and neglected state. Much more did I lament that a people, of
manners and dispositions so gentle and benevolent, should either be left
as they now are, immersed in the gross and uncomfortable blindness of
Pagan superstition, or permitted to become converts to a system of
bigotry and fanaticism.”—(p. 312.)
“During a wearisome peregrination of more than five hundred British
miles, exposed to the burning rays of a tropical sun, these poor Slaves,
amidst their own infinitely greater sufferings, would commiserate mine;
and frequently, of their own accord, bring water to quench my thirst,
and at night collect branches and leaves to prepare me a bed in the
wilderness.”—(p. 356.)
_Effects of Slave Trade on Administration of Justice. By the Sieur Brüe,
Director General of the French Senegal Company, about 1700.—Astley’s
Voyages, vol. ii. & iii._
[Sidenote: Astley’s Voyages.]
“Crimes here are seldom punished with death, unless it be treason and
murder. For other faults, the usual penalty is banishment, to which end
the king generally sells them to the company, and disposes of their
effects at his pleasure. In civil cases, the debtor, if unable, is sold
with his family and effects, for the payment of the creditor, and the
king has his thirds.”—(p. 59.)
Barbot says, that the Negro kings are so absolute, that upon any slight
pretence, they order their subjects to be sold for Slaves, without
regard to rank or profession. Thus a Marbut was sold to him at Goree by
the Alkade of Rio Fresco, by special order of the Damel, for some
misdemeanors. This priest was above two months aboard the ship before he
would speak one word.”—(_Travels of Barbot_, p. 257.)
“The smallest crimes whatever are punished with banishment.—(p. 315.)
Criminal causes are tried by a public Palaver, or Assembly of the head
men of the country, and Slavery is the usual punishment; a circumstance
which holds out a strong temptation to prefer false accusations,
particularly as the African mode of trial furnishes convenient means of
promoting purposes of avarice and oppression.—(_Winterbottom’s Account_,
&c. &c.)
Marchais.—In case of the debtor’s insolvency, the king allows the
creditor to sell him, his wives, and even his children, for the sum due.
Here is also another extraordinary law; if the creditor, before
witnesses, three times asks his debt of a person, whom he cannot arrest
or sue on account of his dignity or power, and the debtor refuses to pay
him, the creditor has a right to seize the first Slave he meets, let him
belong to whom he will.
There is but one sort of punishment for offences here, the offender, and
all his generation, being made Slaves.
In their proceedings they take no care whether the party be guilty, or
deserves to be punished.
[Sidenote: Golberey.]
It is a striking circumstance, that in Africa, before the Slave Trade
was introduced, the punishments for offences generally consisted of
mulcts or fines, as is evident from the testimony of Artus, Barbot,
Ogilby, Bosman, Loyer, Nyendael, and others, and that nobody was mulcted
beyond his ability, except by an accumulation of crimes. Murder and
sorcery were punished capitally in some of the countries of Africa, but
in others, murder and every species of offence had no other punishment
than a fine. If people could not pay these fines, they were disposed of
in two ways. Some of them were sent into a temporary banishment in
Africa; others were sold into home slavery. Debtors also, who refused to
pay their debts, or became insolvent, were sold for the benefit of their
creditors, in case their relations would not redeem them, and worked for
these at their respective homes. But since this trade has been used,
says Moore, all _punishments_ are changed into _slavery_: there being
_an advantage_ in such condemnation, they _strain_ for crimes _very
hard_, in order to get the _benefit of selling the criminal_. Not only
murder, theft, and adultery, are punished by selling the criminal for a
Slave, but _every trifling_ crime is punished in the same manner.”[61]
Moore gives us a history of some of these crimes. “There was a man, says
he, brought to me in Tommany, to be sold, for having stolen a
tobacco-pipe. I sent for the alcade, and with much ado persuaded the
party aggrieved to accept of a composition, and leave the man free. In
Cantore, a man seeing a tyger eating a deer, which he had killed and
hung up near his house, fired at the tyger, and the bullet killed a man.
The king not only condemned him, but also _his mother_, _three
brothers_, and _three sisters_, to be sold. These eight persons were
brought down to me at Yamyamacunda. It made my heart ache, says Moore
(_for this was in the infancy of the Trade_) to see them, and I did not
buy them.” But it appears in the sequel, that this kind action in Moore
did not produce the desired end. “For they were sent, says he, further
down the river, and sold to some _separate_ traders at Joar, and the
king _had the benefit of the goods_ for which they were sold.”
In estimating the revenues of king Forbana, he mentions[62] “the
criminals that were sold, _a part of the profit_ of _which_ devolved
_upon his majesty_.” [63] “In Africa, says he, crimes are punished
either by fines, slavery, or death. _Offences_ are _rare_, but
_accusations common_; because the chiefs frequently accuse for the
purpose of _condemning_, that _they may be able to procure Slaves_.”
“The crime of magic is that which the Negro kings and chiefs most
frequently _cause_ to be preferred against individuals of the lower
class, _because this crime is punished by slavery, and consequently
produces Slaves_.”
_Evidences examined before the House of Commons._
[Sidenote: House of Commons Evidence.]
[64] Capt. Wilson, of the Royal Navy, says, it is universally
acknowledged, and he believes it to be true, that free persons are sold
for real or imputed crimes, for the benefit of their judges. Soon after
his arrival at Goree, the king of Damel sent a free man to him for sale,
and was to have the _price himself_. One of the king’s guards, who came
with the man, on being asked whether he was guilty of the crime imputed
to him, replied, with great shrewdness—he did not conceive that was ever
inquired into, or of any consequence.
[65] Dr. Trotter says, that of the whole cargo, he recollects only three
criminals in the ship where he was. One of these had been sold for
adultery, and the other for _witchcraft, whose whole family shared his
fate_. The first said, he had been decoyed by a woman, who told her
husband of the transaction, and he was sentenced to pay a Slave; but,
being poor, he was sold himself. Such _stratagems_ are _frequent_. The
fourth mate of the ship Brookes was so decoyed, and obliged to pay a
Slave, under the threat, that trade would be stopped if he did not. The
other had quarrelled with one of the Cabosheers. The Cabosher, in
revenge, accused him of witchcraft. In consequence of this accusation he
was sold with his family. His mother, wife, and two daughters, were
sentenced with him. [Sidenote: House of Commons Evidence.] The women
shewed the deepest affliction; the man a sullen melancholy; he refused
his food, tore his throat open with his nails, and died.
[66] Lieutenant Simpson, of the Royal Marines, considered two crimes as
almost made on purpose to procure Slaves. These were, adultery, and the
removal of _Fetiches_, (or of _charms founded on a notion of
witchcraft_). As to adultery, he was warned against connecting himself
with any woman not pointed out to him, for that the kings _kept
several_, who were _sent out to allure the unwary_; and that, if found
to be connected with these, he would be seized, and made to pay the
price of a man Slave. As to fetiches, consisting of pieces of wood, old
pitchers, kettles, &c. laid in the path-ways, he was _warned to avoid
displacing_ them, for if he should, the natives, who were on the watch,
would seize him, and, as before, exact the price of a man Slave. These
baits were laid equally for the natives, as the Europeans; but the
former were better acquainted with the law, and consequently more
circumspect.
James Morley, 1760 and 1776.—On pretence of adultery, he remembers a
woman sold. He learnt that this was only a pretence, from her own mouth,
for she spake good English, and from the respect with which her husband,
king Ephraim, treated her, when he came on board; whereas, in real cases
of adultery, they are very desperate.
Sir George Young, 1767, 1768, 1771, 1772.—Has always heard, that the
sovereign or chief of a district generally derives a certain profit from
the sale of Slaves.
[Sidenote: House of Commons Evidence.]
Henry Hew Dalrymple, Esq. 1779.—All crimes, in the parts of Africa he
was in, were punished with slavery.
James Towne, 1760, 1767.—He has repeatedly heard, both from the accused
and accusers themselves, and he believes it common on the coast, to
impute crimes falsely for the sake of having the accused person sold.
_Mode of Warfare, &c._
[Sidenote: Parke.]
The Moors purchase the fire-arms and ammunition from the Europeans in
exchange for Negro Slaves, whom they obtain in their predatory
excursions.—_Parke’s Travels_.
“Some neighbouring and rebel Negroes plundered a large village belonging
to Daisy (the king), and carried off a number of prisoners.”—(p. 110.)
“They accordingly fell upon two of Daisy’s (the king’s) towns, and
carried off the whole of the inhabitants.”—(p. 169.)
“I passed, in the course of this day, the ruins of three towns; the
inhabitants of which were all carried away by Daisy, king of Kaarta, on
the same day that he took and plundered Yamina.”—(p. 230.)
“Mansang separated the remainder of his army into small detachments,
ordered them to over-run the country, and seize on the inhabitants
before they had time to escape.
“Most of the poor inhabitants of the different towns and villages, being
surprized in the night, fell an easy prey.
“Daisy had sent a number of people to plant corn, &c. &c. to supply his
army; all these fell into the hands of Sambo Sego; they were afterwards
sent in caravans to be sold to the French, on the Senegal.”—(p. 109.)
_African Population._
[Sidenote: Winterbottom.]
Winterbottom’s Travels in Africa.—The towns on the seacoast are in
general small, and seldom consist of more than forty or fifty houses;
but as we advance inland, they become more populous.—(p. 81.)
The villages near the sea coast not only consist of fewer houses than
those more inland, but they also shew less neatness and ingenuity in
their construction.—(p. 83.)
Teembo, the capital of the Foola kingdom, is computed to contain about
8,000 inhabitants; Laby, the second in size, has about 5,000; and
several of those which I have visited in the Soosoo and Mandingo
countries, contain from 1 to 2 or 3,000 inhabitants.—(p. 87.)
_Domestic Slaves State in Africa.—Travels of Moore, a Factor of African
Company._
[Sidenote: Astley’s Voyages.]
They seldom sell their family Slaves, except for great crimes.—(vol.
iii. p. 242)
Some of them have a good many house Slaves, in which they place a great
pride; and these Slaves live so well and easy, that it is hard to know
them from their Owners, being often better cloathed; especially the
females, who have sometimes coral, amber, and silver necklaces and
ornaments to the value of £. 20. or £. 30. sterling.
The author never heard of but one that ever sold a family Slave, except
for such crimes as they would have been sold for if they had been free.
If one of the family Slaves (where there are many) commits a crime, and
the Master sells him for it without the consent of the rest, they will
all run away, and be protected in the next kingdom.—(p. 267)
[Sidenote: Winter-]
Winterbottom’s Travels.—Their domestics are in general treated by them
with great humanity, and it is not uncommon to see the heir-apparent of
a head man sitting down to eat with the meanest of his father’s people,
and in no wise distinguished from them by his dress.—(p. 127.)
Captain Wilson, 1783.—The Slaves employed by the Africans live with
their Masters, and are so treated as scarcely to be distinguishable from
them.
Isaac Parker, 1764.—Dick Ebro’ had many Slaves of his own, whom he
employed in cutting wood and fishing, &c. but he treated them always
very well.
James Morley, 1760 and 1776.—They treat their Slaves with the greatest
kindness, more so than our servants and Slaves in the West Indies.
Henry Hew Dalrymple, Esq. 1779.—Slaves are treated so well, eating and
working with their Masters, that they are not distinguishable from free
men.
James Kiernan,—Persons of property there have a great number of persons
under the denomination of Slaves, whom they treat as Europeans would
people of their own family.
[Sidenote: Parke.]
“The Mandingo Master can neither deprive his domestic Slave of life, nor
sell him to a stranger, without first calling a palaver on his conduct;
or, in other words, bringing him to a public trial.” (p. 23)
“He told me, that he had always behaved towards me as if I had been his
father and master.” (p. 68.)
“He sometimes eats out of the same bowl with his camel driver, and
reposes himself, during the heat of the day, upon the same bed.”—(p.
155.)
“In all the laborious occupations above described, the Master and his
Slaves work together, without distinction of superiority.”
The authority of the Master over the domestic Slaves elsewhere observed,
extends only to reasonable correction; for the Master cannot sell his
domestic without having first brought him to a public trial before the
chief men of the place.”—(p. 286.)
_Bristol Slave Trade formerly.—William of Malmsbury, book ii. ch.
20.—Life of St. Wolstan, Bishop of Worcester._
Directly opposite the Irish coast there is a seaport town called
Bristol, the inhabitants of which, as well as others of the English,
frequently sail into Ireland on trading speculations. St. Wolstan put an
end to a very ancient custom of theirs, in which they had become so
hardened, that neither the love of God, nor that of the king (William
the Conqueror) had been able to abolish it. For they sold into Ireland,
at a profit, people whom they had bought up throughout all England, and
they exposed to sale maidens in a state of pregnancy, with whom they
made a sort of mock marriages. There you might see with grief, fastened
together by ropes, whole rows of wretched beings of both sexes, of
elegant forms and in the very bloom of youth, a sight sufficient to
excite pity even in Barbarians, daily offered for sale to the first
purchaser. Accursed deed! infamous disgrace! that men, acting in a
manner which brutal instinct alone would have forbidden, should sell
into slavery their relations, nay, even their own offspring; yet, St.
Wolstan destroyed at length this inveterate and hereditary custom. The
historian goes on to state, that from the effect of religious
instruction, the people of Bristol not only renounced this vicious
practice themselves, but afforded an example of reform to the rest of
England; harsh methods however were resorted to where persuasion was in
vain; for one of the inhabitants of Bristol who resisted the good
bishop’s reform with peculiar obstinacy, was expelled from the city, and
had his eyes put out.
In 1171, on the invasion and conquest of Ireland by Henry II. it was the
unanimous judgment of a great ecclesiastical council, called at Armagh,
that the event was to be regarded as a providential visitation for their
guilt in making Slaves of the English, whether obtained from merchants,
robbers, or pirates; and this opinion was regarded as the more probable,
because England herself, the natives of which, by a vice common to that
nation, had been used to sell their children and nearest relatives, even
when not under the pressure of famine or other necessity, had formerly
expiated a similar crime by a similar punishment (alluding to the Norman
Conquest.) To the honour of the Irish, a resolution was then passed,
that throughout the kingdom the English Slaves should be immediately
emancipated. I trust their Hibernian descendants, in our day, will shew
themselves actuated by a like humane spirit, and that the English will
no longer continue subject to that foul stain with which, even in these
early days, she was contaminated.
The city of Bristol is once more exempt from the disgrace of being
concerned in the traffic of human beings.
FINIS
Printed by Luke Hansard & Sons, near Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
-----
Footnote 1:
The Report of the Privy Council to the King in 1788, and still more
the Reports of the Committee of the House of Commons, to which had
been referred the various petitions for and against the abolition, and
in the Appendixes to which is contained the Evidence at length of the
Witnesses who were examined on that occasion. For the convenience of
those who might not have leisure to peruse so voluminous a mass of
evidence, an abridged abstract of it was made. This occupies two small
octavo volumes, and is entitled “An Abridgement of the Minutes of the
Evidence on the Slave Trade. 1790.” It is to be purchased at
Phillips’s, George-yard, Lombard-street.—Various Papers and Accounts,
tending to give useful information, have also been laid before the
House of Commons from time to time. The titles of these will be found
in the House of Commons Journals. See especially a voluminous mass of
Papers respecting the Slave Trade, ordered to be printed 8th June
1804; and another very important set of Communications from the West
Indies, ordered for printing 25th February 1805. See also two very
interesting Reports of the House of Assembly of Jamaica.
Footnote 2:
Vide, especially, an Abstract of the Debate on Mr. Wilberforce’s
Motion for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1791, and of the Debate
on a similar Motion in 1792; both printed for Phillips, George-yard,
Lombard-street.
Footnote 3:
Mr. Clarkson’s publications well deserve this epithet, particularly
his “Essay on the Impolicy of the African Slave Trade.” See also
Remarks on the Decision of the House of Commons concerning the Slave
Trade, on April 2d, 1792, by the Rev. J. Gisborne.—Much valuable
information likewise concerning Africa is contained in Lord
Muncaster’s Historical Sketches of the Slave Trade. Again, almost all
the principal arguments involved in the discussion concerning the
abolition are to be found in Mr. Brougham’s Colonial Policy, stated
with that author’s usual ability.—Once more, a valuable Summary of the
Arguments in favour of Abolition, and of the answers to the chief
allegations of its Opponents (by a writer, whose name, if subjoined to
it, would have added great weight to the publication) was published
two years ago, printed for Hatchard, and Longman and Rees, entitled, a
“_Concise Statement of the Question, regarding the Abolition of the
Slave Trade_.” An Appendix, containing much valuable matter, soon
after followed. A valuable publication appeared also some years ago,
by a Member of the University of Oxford, now become a dignitary of the
church. I might specify several others on particular parts of the
case. In short, were it as easy to prevail on mankind to read
publications which have been some time before the world, as to peruse
a new one, my present task might well be spared.
Footnote 4:
In reading accounts of African wars, the attentive reader will
continually meet with expressions such as those here used; which
incidentally and undesignedly, and therefore the more strongly prove,
that the persons of the natives are regarded as the great booty; and
we may therefore not unreasonably infer, that they often constitute
the chief inducement for commencing hostilities.
Footnote 5: