_Forerunners continued to 1787--divided from this time into four
classes--First class consists principally of persons in Great Britain of
various description--Godwyn--Baxter--Tryon--Southern--Primatt--
Montesquieu--Hutcheson--Sharp--Ramsay--and a multitude of others, whose
names and services follow._
I have hitherto traced the history of the forerunners in this great cause
only up to about the year 1640. If I am to pursue my plan, I am to trace it
to the year 1787. But in order to show what I intend in a clearer point of
view, I shall divide those who have lived within this period, and who will
now consist of persons in a less elevated station, into four classes: and I
shall give to each class a distinct consideration by itself.
Several of our old English writers, though they have not mentioned the
African Slave-trade, or the slavery consequent upon it, in their respective
works, have yet given their testimony of condemnation against both. Thus
our great Milton:--
"O execrable son, so to aspire
Above his brethren, to himself assuming
Authority usurpt, from God not given;
He gave us only over beast, fish, fowl,
Dominion absolute; that right we hold
By his donation;--but man over men
He made not lord, such title to himself
Reserving, human left from human free."
I might mention bishop Saunderson and others, who bore a testimony equally
strong against the lawfulness of trading in the persons of men, and of
holding them in bondage, but as I mean to confine myself to those, who have
favoured the cause of the Africans specifically, I cannot admit their names
into any of the classes which have been announced.
Of those who compose the first class, defined as it has now been, I cannot
name any individual who took a part in this cause till between the years
1670 and 1680. For in the year 1640, and for a few years afterwards, the
nature of the trade and of the slavery was but little known, except to a
few individuals, who were concerned in them; and it is obvious that these
would neither endanger their own interest nor proclaim their own guilt by
exposing it. The first, whom I shall mention, is Morgan Godwyn, a clergyman
of the established church. This pious divine wrote a Treatise upon the
subject, which he dedicated to the then archbishop of Canterbury. He gave
it to the world, at the time mentioned, under the title of "The Negros and
Indians Advocate." In this treatise he lays open the situation of these
oppressed people, of whose sufferings he had been an eye-witness in the
island of Barbadoes. He calls forth the pity of the reader in an affecting
manner, and exposes with a nervous eloquence the brutal sentiments and
conduct of their oppressors. This seems to have been the first work
undertaken in England expressly in favour of the cause.
The next person, whom I shall mention, is Richard Baxter, the celebrated
divine among the Nonconformists. In his Christian Directory, published
about the same time as the Negros and Indians Advocate, he gives advice to
those masters in foreign plantations, who have Negros and other slaves. In
this he protests loudly against this trade. He says expressly that they,
who go out as pirates, and take away poor Africans, or people of another
land, who never forfeited life or liberty, and make them slaves and sell
them, are the worst of robbers, and ought to be considered as the common
enemies of mankind; and that they, who buy them, and use them as mere
beasts for their own convenience, regardless of their spiritual welfare,
are fitter to be called demons than Christians. He then proposes several
queries, which he answers in a clear and forcible manner, showing the great
inconsistency of this traffic, and the necessity of treating those then in
bondage with tenderness and a due regard to their spiritual concerns.
The Directory of Baxter was succeeded by a publication called "Friendly
Advice to the Planters: in three parts." The first of these was, "A brief
Treatise of the principal Fruits and Herbs that grow in Barbadoes, Jamaica,
and other Plantations in the West Indies." The second was, "The Negros
Complaint, or their hard Servitude, and the Cruelties practised upon them
by divers of their Masters professing Christianity." And the third was, "A
Dialogue between an Ethiopian and a Christian, his Master, in America." In
the last of these, Thomas Tryon, who was the author, inveighs both against
the commerce and the slavery of the Africans, and in a striking manner
examines each by the touchstone of reason, humanity, justice, and religion.
In the year 1696, Southern brought forward his celebrated tragedy of
Oronooko, by means of which many became enlightened upon the subject, and
interested in it. For this tragedy was not a representation of fictitious
circumstances, but of such as had occurred in the colonies, and as had been
communicated in a publication by Mrs. Behn.
The person, who seems to have noticed the subject next was Dr. Primatt. In
his "Dissertation on the Duty of Mercy, and on the Sin of Cruelty to
Brute-animals," he takes occasion to advert to the subject of the African
Slave-trade. "It has pleased God," says he, "to cover some men with white
skins and others with black; but as there is neither merit nor demerit in
complexion, the white man, notwithstanding the barbarity of custom and
prejudice, can have no right by virtue of his colour to enslave and
tyrannize over the black man. For whether a man be white or black, such he
is by God's appointment, and, abstractedly considered, is neither a subject
for pride, nor an object of contempt."
After Dr. Primatt, we come to baron Montesquieu. "Slavery," says he, "is
not good in itself. It is neither useful to the master nor to the slave.
Not to the slave, because he can do nothing from virtuous motives. Not to
the master, because he contracts among his slaves all sorts of bad habits,
and accustoms himself to the neglect of all the moral virtues. He becomes
haughty, passionate, obdurate, vindictive, voluptuous, and cruel." And with
respect to this particular species of slavery he proceeds to say, "it is
impossible to allow the Negros are men, because, if we allow them to be
men, it will begin to be believed that we ourselves are not Christians."
Hutcheson, in his System of Moral Philosophy, endeavours to show that he,
who detains another by force in slavery, can make no good title to him, and
adds, "Strange that in any nation where a sense of liberty prevails, and
where the Christian religion is professed, custom and high prospect of gain
can so stupefy the consciences of men and all sense of natural justice,
that they can hear such computations made about the value of their
fellow-men and their liberty without abhorrence and indignation!"
Foster, in his Discourses on Natural Religion and Social Virtue, calls the
slavery under our consideration "a criminal and outrageous violation of the
natural rights of mankind." I am sorry that I have not room to say all that
he says on this subject. Perhaps the following beautiful extracts may
suffice:
"But notwithstanding this, we ourselves, who profess to be
Christians, and boast of the peculiar advantages we enjoy by means
of an express revelation of our duty from heaven, are in effect
these very untaught and rude heathen countries. With all our
superior light we instil into those, whom we call savage and
barbarous, the most despicable opinion of human nature. We, to the
utmost of our power, weaken and dissolve the universal tie, that
binds and unites mankind. We practise what we should exclaim
against as the utmost excess of cruelty and tyranny, if nations of
the world, differing in colour and form of government from
ourselves, were so possessed of empire, as to be able to reduce us
to a state of unmerited and brutish servitude. Of consequence we
sacrifice our reason, our humanity, our christianity, to an
unnatural sordid gain. We teach other nations to despise and
trample under foot all the obligations of social virtue. We take
the most effectual method to prevent the propagation of the gospel,
by representing it as a scheme of power and barbarous oppression,
and an enemy to the natural privileges and rights of man."
"Perhaps all that I have now offered may be of very little weight
to restrain this enormity, this aggravated iniquity. However, I
shall still have the satisfaction of having entered my private
protest against a practice, which, in my opinion, bids that God,
who is the God and Father of the Gentiles unconverted to
Christianity, most daring and bold defiance, and spurns at all the
principles both of natural and revealed religion."
The next author is sir Richard Steele, who, by means of the affecting story
of Inkle and Yarico, holds up this trade again to our abhorrence.
In the year 1735, Atkins, who was a surgeon in the navy, published his
Voyage to Guinea, Brazil, and the West-Indies, in his Majesty's ships
Swallow and Weymouth. In this work he describes openly the manner of making
the natives slaves, such as by kidnapping, by unjust accusations and
trials, and by other nefarious means. He states also the cruelties
practised upon them by the white people, and the iniquitous ways and
dealings of the latter, and answers their argument, by which they
insinuated that the condition of the Africans was improved by their
transportation to other countries.
From this time the trade beginning to be better known, a multitude of
persons of various stations and characters sprung up, who by exposing it
are to be mentioned among the forerunners and coadjutors in the cause.
Pope, in his Essay on Man, where he endeavours to show that happiness in
the present depends, among other things, upon the hope of a future state,
takes an opportunity of exciting compassion in behalf of the poor African,
while he censures the avarice and cruelty of his master:
"Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutor'd mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
His soul proud Science never taught to stray
Far as the solar walk, or milky-way;
Yet simple Nature to his hope has giv'n
Behind the cloud-topt hill an humbler heav'n;
Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd,
Some happier island in the watry waste,
Where slaves once more their native land behold,
No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold."
Thomson also, in his Seasons, marks this traffic as destructive and cruel,
introducing the well-known fact of sharks following the vessels employed in
it;
"Increasing still the sorrows of those storms,
His jaws horrific arm'd with three-fold fate,
Here dwells the direful shark. Lur'd by the scent
Of steaming crowds, of rank disease, and death,
Behold! he rushing cuts the briny flood,
Swift as the gale can bear the ship along,
And from the partners of that cruel trade,
Which spoils unhappy Guinea of her sons,
Demands his share of prey, demands themselves.
The stormy fates descend: one death involves
Tyrants and slaves; when straight their mangled limbs
Crashing at once, he dyes the purple seas
With gore, and riots in the vengeful meal."
Neither was Richard Savage forgetful in his poems of the Injured Africans:
he warns their oppressors of a day of retribution for their barbarous
conduct. Having personified Public Spirit, he makes her speak on the
subject in the following manner:--
"Let by my specious name no tyrants rise,
And cry, while they enslave, they civilize!
Know, Liberty and I are still the same
Congenial--ever mingling flame with flame!
Why must I Afric's sable children see
Vended for slaves, though born by nature free,
The nameless tortures cruel minds invent
Those to subject whom Nature equal meant?
If these you dare (although unjust success
Empow'rs you now unpunish'd to oppress),
Revolving empire you and yours may doom--
(Rome all subdu'd--yet Vandals vanquish'd Rome)
Yes--Empire may revolt--give them the day,
And yoke may yoke, and blood may blood repay."
Wallis, in his System of the Laws of Scotland, maintains, that "neither men
nor governments have a right to sell those of their own species. Men and
their liberty are neither purchaseable nor saleable." And, after arguing
the case, he says, "This is the law of nature, which is obligatory on all
men, at all times, and in all places.--Would not any of us, who should be
snatched by pirates from his native land, think himself cruelly abused, and
at all times entitled to be free? Have not these unfortunate Africans, who
meet with the same cruel fate, the same right? Are they not men as well as
we? And have they not the same sensibility? Let us not therefore defend or
support an usage, which is contrary to all the laws of humanity."
In the year 1750 the reverend Griffith Hughes, rector of St. Lucy, in
Barbadoes, published his Natural History of that island. He took an
opportunity, in the course of it, of laying open to the world the miserable
situation of the poor Africans, and the waste of them by hard labour and
other cruel means, and he had the generosity to vindicate their capacities
from the charge, which they who held them in bondage brought against them,
as a justification of their own wickedness in continuing to deprive them of
the rights of men.
Edmund Burke, in his account of the European settlements, (for this work is
usually attributed to him,) complains "that the Negroes in our colonies
endure a slavery more complete, and attended with far worse circumstances,
than what any people in their condition suffer in any other part of the
world, or have suffered in any other period of time. Proofs of this are not
wanting. The prodigious waste, which we experience in this unhappy part of
our species, is a full and melancholy evidence of this truth." And he goes
on to advise the planters for the sake of their own interest to behave like
good men, good masters, and good Christians, and to impose less labour upon
their slaves, and to give them recreation on some of the grand festivals,
and to instruct them in religion, as certain preventives of their decrease.
An anonymous author of a pamphlet, entitled, An Essay in Vindication of the
Continental Colonies of America, seems to have come forward next. Speaking
of slavery there, he says, "It is shocking to humanity, violative of every
generous sentiment, abhorrent utterly from the Christian religion--There
cannot be a more dangerous maxim than that necessity is a plea for
injustice, for who shall fix the degree of this necessity? What villain so
atrocious, who may not urge this excuse, or, as Milton has happily
expressed it,
"And with necessity,
The tyrant's plea, excuse his dev'lish deed?"
"That our colonies," he continues, "want people, is a very weak argument
for so inhuman a violation of justice--Shall a civilized, a Christian
nation encourage slavery, because the barbarous, savage, lawless African
hath done it? To what end do we profess a religion whose dictates we so
flagrantly violate? Wherefore have we that pattern of goodness and
humanity, if we refuse to follow it? How long shall we continue a practice
which policy rejects, justice condemns, and piety revolts at?"
The poet Shenstone, who comes next in order, seems to have written an Elegy
on purpose to stigmatize this trade. Of this elegy I shall copy only the
following parts:
"See the poor native quit the Libyan shores,
Ah! not in love's delightful fetters bound!
No radiant smile his dying peace restores,
No love, nor fame, nor friendship heals his wound.
"Let vacant bards display their boasted woes;
Shall I the mockery of grief display?
No; let the muse his piercing pangs disclose,
Who bleeds and weeps his sum of life away!
"On the wild heath in mournful guise he stood
Ere the shrill boatswain gave the hated sign;
He dropt a tear unseen into the flood,
He stole one secret moment to repine--
"Why am I ravish'd from my native strand?
What savage race protects this impious gain?
Shall foreign plagues infest this teeming land,
And more than sea-born monsters plough the main?
"Here the dire locusts' horrid swarms prevail;
Here the blue asps with livid poison swell;
Here the dry dipsa writhes his sinuous mail;
Can we not here secure from envy dwell?
"When the grim lion urg'd his cruel chase,
When the stern panther sought his midnight prey,
What fate reserv'd me for this Christian race?
O race more polish'd, more severe, than they--
"Yet shores there are, bless'd shores for us remain,
And favour'd isles, with golden fruitage crown'd,
Where tufted flow'rets paint the verdant plain,
And ev'ry breeze shall med'cine ev'ry wound."
In the year 1755, Dr. Hayter, bishop of Norwich, preached a sermon before
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in which he bore his
testimony against the continuance of this trade.
Dyer, in his poem called The Fleece, expresses his sorrow on account of
this barbarous trade, and looks forward to a day of retributive justice on
account of the introduction of such an evil.
In the year 1760, a pamphlet appeared, entitled, "Two Dialogues on the
Mantrade, by John Philmore." This name is supposed to be an assumed one.
The author, however, discovers himself to have been both an able and a
zealous advocate in favour of the African race.
Malachi Postlethwaite, in his Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce,
proposes a number of queries on the subject of the Slave-trade. I have not
room to insert them at full length. But I shall give the following as the
substance of some of them to the reader: "Whether this commerce be not the
cause of incessant wars among the Africans--Whether the Africans, if it
were abolished, might not become as ingenious, as humane, as industrious,
and as capable of arts, manufactures, and trades, as even the bulk of
Europeans--Whether, if it were abolished, a much more profitable trade
might not be substituted, and this to the very centre of their extended
country, instead of the trifling portion which now subsists upon their
coasts--And whether the great hindrance to such a new and advantageous
commerce has not wholly proceeded from that unjust, inhuman,
unchristian-like traffic, called the Slave-trade, which is carried on by
the Europeans." The public proposal of these and other queries by a man of
so great commercial knowledge as Postlethwaite, and by one who was himself
a member of the African commitee, was of great service in exposing the
impolicy as well as immorality of the Slave-trade.
In the year 1761, Thomas Jeffery published an account of a part of North
America, in which he lays open the miserable state of the slaves in the
West Indies, both as to their clothing, their food, their labour, and their
punishments. But, without going into particulars, the general account he
gives of them is affecting: "It is impossible," he says, "for a human heart
to reflect upon the slavery of these dregs of mankind, without in some
measure feeling for their misery, which ends but with their lives--Nothing
can be more wretched than the condition of this people."
Sterne, in his account of the Negro girl in his Life of Tristram Shandy,
took decidedly the part of the oppressed Africans. The pathetic, witty, and
sentimental manner, in which he handled this subject, occasioned many to
remember it, and procured a certain portion of feeling in their favour.
Rousseau contributed not a little in his day to the same end.
Bishop Warburton preached a sermon in the year 1766, before the Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel, in which he took up the cause of the
miserable Africans, and in which he severely reprobated their oppressors.
The language in this sermon is so striking, that I shall make an extract
from it. "From the free savages," says he, "I now come to the savages in
bonds. By these I mean the vast multitudes yearly stolen from the opposite
continent, and sacrificed by the colonists to their great idol the god of
gain. But what then, say these sincere worshippers of mammon? They are our
own property which we offer up.--Gracious God! to talk, as of herds of
cattle, of property in rational creatures, creatures endued with all our
faculties, possessing all our qualities but that of colour, our brethren
both by nature and grace, shocks all the feelings of humanity, and the
dictates of common sense! But, alas! what is there, in the infinite abuses
of society, which does not shock them? Yet nothing is more certain in
itself and apparent to all, than that the infamous traffic for slaves
directly infringes both divine and human law. Nature created man free, and
grace invites him to assert his freedom."
"In excuse of this violation it hath been pretended, that though indeed
these miserable outcasts of humanity be torn from their homes and native
country by fraud and violence, yet they thereby become the happier, and
their condition the more eligible. But who are you, who pretend to judge of
another man's happiness; that state, which each man under the guidance of
his Maker forms for himself, and not one man for another? To know what
constitutes mine or your happiness is the sole prerogative of him who
created us, and cast us in so various and different moulds. Did your slaves
ever complain to you of their unhappiness amidst their native woods and
deserts? or rather let me ask, Did they ever cease complaining of their
condition under you their lordly masters, where they see indeed the
accommodations of civil life, but see them all pass to others, themselves
unbenefited by them? Be so gracious then, ye petty tyrants over human
freedom, to let your slaves judge for themselves, what it is which makes
their own happiness, and then see whether they do not place it in the
return to their own country, rather than in the contemplation of your
grandeur, of which their misery makes so large a part; a return so
passionately longed for, that, despairing of happiness here, that is, of
escaping the chains of their cruel taskmasters, they console themselves
with feigning it to be the gracious reward of heaven, in their future
state"--
About this time certain cruel and wicked practices, which must now be
mentioned, had arrived at such a height, and had become so frequent in the
metropolis, as to produce of themselves other coadjutors to the cause.
Before the year 1700, planters, merchants, and others, resident in the West
Indies, but coming to England, were accustomed to bring with them certain
slaves to act as servants with them during their stay. The latter, seeing
the freedom and the happiness of servants in this country, and considering
what would be their own hard fate on their return to the islands,
frequently absconded. Their masters of course made search after them, and
often had them seized and carried away by force. It was, however, thrown
out by many on these occasions, that the English laws did not sanction such
proceedings, for that all persons who were baptized became free. The
consequence of this was, that most of the slaves, who came over with their
masters, prevailed upon some pious clergyman to baptize them. They took of
course godfathers of such citizens as had the generosity to espouse their
cause. When they were seized they usually sent to these, if they had an
opportunity, for their protection. And in the result, their godfathers,
maintaining that they had been baptized, and that they were free on this
account as well as by the general tenour of the laws of England, dared
those, who had taken possession of them, to send them out of the kingdom.
The planters, merchants, and others, being thus circumstanced, knew not
what to do. They were afraid of taking their slaves away by force, and they
were equally afraid of bringing any of the cases before a public court. In
this dilemma, in 1729 they applied to York and Talbot, the attorney and
solicitor-general for the time being, and obtained the following strange
opinion from them:--"We are of opinion, that a slave by coming from the
West Indies into Great Britain or Ireland, either with or without his
master, does not become free, and that his master's right and property in
him is not thereby determined or varied, and that baptism doth not bestow
freedom on him, nor make any alteration in his temporal condition in these
kingdoms. We are also of opinion, that the master may legally compel him to
return again to the plantations."
This cruel and illegal opinion was delivered in the year 1729. The
planters, merchants, and others, gave it of course all the publicity in
their power. And the consequences were as might easily have been
apprehended. In a little time slaves absconding were advertised in the
London papers as runaways, and rewards offered for the apprehension of
them, in the same brutal manner as we find them advertised in the land of
slavery. They were advertised also, in the same papers, to be sold by
auction, sometimes by themselves, and at others with horses, chaises, and
harness. They were seized also by their masters, or by persons employed by
them, in the very streets, and dragged from thence to the ships; and so
unprotected now were these poor slaves, that persons in nowise concerned
with them began to institute a trade in their persons, making agreements
with captains, of ships going to the West Indies to put them on board at a
certain price. This last instance shows how far human nature is capable of
going, and is an answer to those persons, who have denied that kidnapping
in Africa was a source of supplying the Slave-trade. It shows, as all
history does from the time of Joseph, that, where there is a market for the
persons of human beings, all kinds of enormities will be practised to
obtain them.
These circumstances then, as I observed before, did not fail of producing
new coadjators in the cause. And first they produced that able and
indefatigable advocate Mr. Granville Sharp. This gentleman is to be
distinguished from those who preceded him by this particular, that, whereas
these were only writers, he was both a writer and an actor in the cause. In
fact, he was the first labourer in it in England. By the words "actor" and
"labourer," I mean that he determined upon a plan of action in behalf of
the oppressed Africans, to the accomplishment of which he devoted a
considerable portion of his time, talents, and substance. What Mr. Sharp
has done to merit the title of coadjutor in this high sense, I shall now
explain. The following is a short history of the beginning and of the
course of his labours.
In the year 1765, Mr. David Lisle had brought over from Barbadoes Jonathan
Strong, an African slave, as his servant. He used the latter in a barbarous
manner at his lodgings in Wapping, but particularly by beating him over the
head with a pistol, which occasioned his head to swell. When the swelling
went down, a disorder fell into his eyes, which threatened the loss of
them. To this an ague and fever succeeded, and a lameness in both his legs.
Jonathan Strong, having been brought into this deplorable situation, and
being therefore wholly useless, was left by his master to go whither he
pleased. He applied accordingly to Mr. William Sharp the surgeon for his
advice, as to one who gave up a portion of his time to the healing of the
diseases of the poor. It was here that Mr. Granville Sharp, the brother of
the former, saw him. Suffice it to say, that in process of time he was
cured. During this time Mr. Granville Sharp, pitying his hard case,
supplied him with money, and he afterwards got him a situation in the
family of Mr. Brown, an apothecary, to carry out medicines.
In this new situation, when Strong had become healthy and robust in his
appearance, his master happened to see him. The latter immediately formed
the design of possessing him again. Accordingly, when he had found out his
residence, he procured John Ross keeper of the Poultry-compter, and William
Miller an officer under the lord-mayor, to kidnap him. This was done by
sending for him to a public-house in Fenchurch-street, and then seizing
him. By these he was conveyed, without any warrant, to the Poultry-compter,
where he was sold by his master, to John Kerr, for thirty pounds.
Strong, in this situation, sent, as was usual, to his godfathers, John
London and Stephen Nail, for their protection. They went, but were refused
admittance to him. At length he sent for Mr. Granville Sharp. The latter
went, but they still refused access to the prisoner. He insisted, however,
upon seeing him, and charged the keeper of the prison at his peril to
deliver him up till he had been carried before a magistrate.
Mr. Sharp, immediately upon this, waited upon Sir Robert Kite, the then
lord-mayor, and entreated him to send for Strong, and to hear his case. A
day was accordingly appointed. Mr. Sharp attended, and also William McBean,
a notary-public, and David Laird, captain of the ship Thames, which was to
have conveyed Strong to Jamaica, in behalf of the purchaser, John Kerr. A
long conversation ensued, in which the opinion of York and Talbot was
quoted. Mr. Sharp made his observations. Certain lawyers, who were present,
seemed to be staggered at the case, but inclined rather to recommit the
prisoner. The lord-mayor, however, discharged Strong, as he had been taken
up without a warrant.
As soon as this determination was made known, the parties began to move
off. Captain Laird, however, who kept close to Strong, laid hold of him
before he had quitted the room, and said aloud, "Then I now seize him as my
slave." Upon this, Mr. Sharp put his hand upon Laird's shoulder, and
pronounced these words: "I charge you, in the name of the king, with an
assault upon the person of Jonathan Strong, and all these are my
witnesses." Laird was greatly intimidated by this charge, made in the
presence of the lord-mayor and others, and, fearing a prosecution, let his
prisoner go, leaving him to be conveyed away by Mr. Sharp.
Mr. Sharp, having been greatly affected by this case, and foreseeing how
much he might be engaged in others of a similar nature, thought it time
that the law of the land should be known upon this subject. He applied
therefore to Doctor Blackstone, afterwards Judge Blackstone, for his
opinion upon it. He was, however, not satisfied with it, when he received
it; nor could he obtain any satisfactory answer from several other lawyers,
to whom he afterwards applied. The truth is, that the opinion of York and
Talbot, which had been made public and acted upon by the planters,
merchants, and others, was considered of high authority, and scarcely any
one dared to question the legality of it. In this situation, Mr. Sharp saw
no means of help but in his own industry, and he determined immediately to
give up two or three years to the study of the English law, that he might
the better advocate the cause of these miserable people. The result of
these studies was the publication of a book in the year 1769, which he
called "A Representation of the Injustice and dangerous Tendency of
Tolerating Slavery in England." In this work he refuted, in the clearest
manner, the opinion of York and Talbot. He produced against it the opinion
of the Lord Chief Justice Holt, who many years before had determined, that
every slave coming into England became free. He attacked and refuted it
again by a learned and laborious inquiry into all the principles of
Villenage. He refuted it again, by showing it to be an axiom in the British
constitution, "That every man in England was free to sue for and defend his
rights, and that force could not be used without a legal process," leaving
it to the judges to determine, whether an African was a man. He attacked,
also, the opinion of Judge Blackstone, and showed where his error lay. This
valuable book, containing these and other kinds of arguments on the
subject, he distributed, but particularly among the lawyers, giving them an
opportunity of refuting or acknowledging the doctrines it contained.
While Mr. Sharp was engaged in this work, another case offered, in which he
took a part. This was in the year 1768. Hylas, an African slave, prosecuted
a person of the name of Newton for having kidnapped his wife, and sent her
to the West Indies. The result of the trial was, that damages to the amount
of a shilling were given, and the defendant was bound to bring back the
woman, either by the first ship, or in six months from this decision of the
court.
But soon after the work just mentioned was out, and when Mr. Sharp was
better prepared, a third case occurred. This happened in the year 1770.
Robert Stapylton, who lived at Chelsea, in conjunction with John Malony and
Edward Armstrong, two watermen, seized the person of Thomas Lewis, an
African slave, in a dark night, and dragged him to a boat lying in the
Thames; they then gagged him, and tied him with a cord, and rowed him down
to a ship, and put him on board to be sold as a slave in Jamaica. This base
action took place near the garden of Mrs. Banks, the mother of the present
Sir Joseph Banks. Lewis, it appears, on being seized, screamed violently.
The servants of Mrs. Banks, who heard his cries, ran to his assistance, but
the boat was gone. On informing their mistress of what had happened, she
sent for Mr. Sharp, who began now to be known as the friend of the helpless
Africans, and professed her willingness to incur the expense of bringing
the delinquents to justice. Mr. Sharp, with some difficulty, procured a
habeas corpus, in consequence of which Lewis was brought from Gravesend
just as the vessel was on the point of sailing. An action was then
commenced against Stapylton, who defended himself, on the plea, "That Lewis
belonged to him as his slave." In the course of the trial, Mr. Dunning, who
was counsel for Lewis, paid Mr. Sharp a handsome compliment, for he held in
his hand Mr. Sharp's book on the injustice and dangerous tendency of
tolerating slavery in England, while he was pleading; and in his address to
the jury he spoke and acted thus: "I shall submit to you," says Mr.
Dunning, "what my ideas are upon such evidence, reserving to myself an
opportunity of discussing it more particularly, and reserving to myself a
right to insist upon a position, which I will maintain (and here he held up
the book to the notice of those present) in any place and in any court of
the kingdom, that our laws admit of no such property[A]." The result of the
trial was, that the jury pronounced the plaintiff not to have been the
property of the defendant, several of them crying out "No property, no
property."
[Footnote A: It is lamentable to think, that the same Mr. Dunning, in a
cause of this kind, which came on afterwards, took the opposite side of the
question.]
After this, one or two other trials came on, in which the oppressor was
defeated, and several cases occurred, in which poor slaves were liberated
from the holds of vessels, and other places of confinement, by the
exertions of Mr. Sharp. One of these cases was singular. The vessel on
board which a poor African had been dragged and confined had reached the
Downs, and had actually got under weigh for the West Indies. In two or
three hours she would have been out of sight; but just at this critical
moment the writ of habeas corpus was carried on board. The officer, who
served it on the captain, saw the miserable African chained to the
mainmast, bathed in tears, and casting a last mournful look on the land of
freedom, which was fast receding from his sight. The captain, on receiving
the writ, became outrageous; but, knowing the serious consequences of
resisting the law of the land, he gave up his prisoner, whom the officer
carried safe, but now crying for joy, to the shore.
But though the injured Africans, whose causes had been tried, escaped
slavery, and though many, who had been forcibly carried into dungeons,
ready to be transported into the Colonies, had been delivered out of them.
Mr. Sharp was not easy in his mind. Not one of the cases had yet been
pleaded on the broad ground, "Whether an African slave coming into England
became free?" This great question had been hitherto studiously avoided. It
was still, therefore, left in doubt. Mr. Sharp was almost daily acting as
if it had been determined, and as if he had been following the known law of
the land. He wished therefore that the next cause might be argued upon this
principle. Lord Mansfield too, who had been biassed by the opinion of York
and Talbot, began to waver in consequence of the different pleadings he had
heard on this subject. He saw also no end of trials like these, till the
law should be ascertained, and he was anxious for a decision on the same
basis as Mr. Sharp. In this situation the following case offered, which was
agreed upon for the determination of this important question.
James Somerset, an African slave, had been brought to England by his
master, Charles Stewart, in November 1769. Somerset, in process of time,
left him. Stewart took an opportunity of seizing him, and had him conveyed
on board the Ann and Mary, captain Knowles, to be carried out of the
kingdom and sold as a slave in Jamaica. The question was-"Whether a slave,
by coming into England, became free?"
In order that time might be given for ascertaining the law fully on this
head, the case was argued at three different sittings. First, in January,
1772; secondly, in February, 1772; and thirdly, in May, 1772. And that no
decision otherwise than what the law warranted might be given, the opinion
of the Judges was taken upon the pleadings. The great and glorious result
of the trial was, That as soon as ever any slave set his foot upon English
territory, he became free.
Thus ended the great case of Somerset, which, having been determined after
so deliberate an investigation of the law, can never be reversed while the
British Constitution remains. The eloquence displayed in it by those who
were engaged on the side of liberty, was perhaps never exceeded on any
occasion; and the names of the counsellors Davy, Glynn, Hargrave,
Mansfield, and Alleyne, ought always to be remembered with gratitude by the
friends of this great cause. For when we consider in how many crowded
courts they pleaded, and the number of individuals in these, whose minds
they enlightened, and whose hearts they interested in the subject, they are
certainly to be put down as no small instruments in the promotion of it:
but chiefly to him, under Divine Providence, are we to give the praise, who
became the first great actor in it, who devoted his time, his talents, and
his substance to this Christian undertaking, and by whose laborious
researches the very pleaders themselves were instructed and benefited. By
means of his almost incessant vigilance and attention, and unwearied
efforts, the poor African ceased to be hunted in our streets as a beast of
prey. Miserable as the roof might be, under which he slept, he slept in
security. He walked by the side of the stately ship, and he feared no
dungeon in her hold. Nor ought we, as Englishmen, to be less grateful to
this distinguished individual than the African ought to be upon this
occasion. To him we owe it, that we no longer see our public papers
polluted by hateful advertisements of the sale of the human species, or
that we are no longer distressed by the perusal of impious rewards for
bringing back the poor and the helpless into slavery, or that we are
prohibited the disgusting spectacle of seeing man bought by his
fellow-man.--To him, in short, we owe this restoration of the beauty of our
constitution--this prevention of the continuance of our national disgrace.
I shall say but little more of Mr. Sharp at present, than that he felt it
his duty, immediately after the trial, to write to Lord North, then
principal minister of state, warning him, in the most earnest manner, to
abolish immediately both the trade and the slavery of the human species in
all the British dominions, as utterly irreconcileable with the principles
of the British constitution, and the established religion of the land.
Among other coadjutors, whom the cruel and wicked practices which have now
been so amply detailed brought forward, was a worthy clergyman, whose name
I have not yet been able to learn. He endeavoured to interest the public
feeling in behalf of the injured Africans, by writing an epilogue to the
Padlock, in which Mungo appeared as a black servant. This epilogue is so
appropriate to the case, that I cannot but give it to the reader. Mungo
enters, and thus addresses the audience:--
"Thank you, my Massas! have you laugh your fill?
Then let me speak, nor take that freedom ill.
E'en from _my_ tongue some heart-felt truths may fall,
And outrag'd Nature claims the care of all.
My tale in _any_ place would force a tear,
But calls for stronger, deeper feelings here;
For whilst I tread the free-born British land,
Whilst now before me crowded Britons stand,--
Vain, vain that glorious privilege to me,
I am a slave, where all things else are free.
"Yet was I born, as you are, no man's slave,
An heir to all that lib'ral Nature gave;
My mind can reason, and my limbs can move
The same as yours; like yours my heart can love;
Alike my body food and sleep sustain;
And e'en like yours--feels pleasure, want, and pain.
One sun rolls o'er us, common skies surround;
One globe supports us, and one grave must bound.
"Why then am I devoid of all to live
That manly comforts to a man can give?
To live--untaught religion's soothing balm,
Or life's choice arts; to live--unknown the calm
Of soft domestic ease; those sweets of life,
The duteous offspring, and th' endearing wife?
"To live--to property and rights unknown,
Not e'en the common benefits my own!
No arm to guard me from Oppression's rod,
My will subservient to a tyrant's nod!
No gentle hand, when life is in decay,
To soothe my pains, and charm my cares away;
But helpless left to quit the horrid stage,
Harass'd in youth, and desolate in age!
"But I was born in Afric's tawny strand,
And you in fair Britannia's fairer land.
Comes freedom, then, from colour?--Blush with shame!
And let strong Nature's crimson mark your blame.
I speak to Britons.--Britons, then, behold
A man by Britons _snar'd_, and _seiz'd_, and _sold_!
And yet no British statute damns the deed,
Nor do the more than murd'rous villains bleed.
"O sons of freedom! equalize your laws,
Be all consistent, plead the Negro's cause;
That all the nations in your code may see
The British Negro, like the Briton, free.
But, should he supplicate your laws in vain,
To break, for ever, this disgraceful chain,
At least, let gentle usage so abate
The galling terrors of its passing state,
That he may share kind Heav'n's all social plan;
For, though no Briton, Mungo is--a man."
I may now add, that few theatrical pieces had a greater run than the
Padlock; and that this epilogue, which was attached to it soon after it
came out, procured a good deal of feeling for the unfortunate sufferers,
whose cause it was intended to serve.
Another coadjutor, to whom these cruel and wicked practices gave birth, was
Thomas Day, the celebrated author of Sandford and Merton, and whose virtues
were well known among those who had the happiness of his friendship. In the
year 1773 he published a poem, which he wrote expressly in behalf of the
oppressed Africans. He gave it the name of The Dying Negro. The preface to
it was written in an able manner by his friend counsellor Bicknell, who is
therefore to be ranked among the coadjutors in this great cause. The poem
was founded on a simple fact, which had taken place a year or two before. A
poor Negro had been seized in London, and forcibly put on board a ship,
where he destroyed himself, rather than return to the land of slavery. To
the poem is affixed a frontispiece, in which the Negro is represented. He
is made to stand in an attitude of the most earnest address to Heaven, in
the course of which, with the fatal dagger in his hand, he breaks forth in
the following words:
"To you this unpolluted blood I poor,
To you that spirit, which ye gave, restore."
This poem, which was the first ever written expressly on the subject, was
read extensively; and it added to the sympathy in favour of suffering
humanity, which was now beginning to show itself in the kingdom.
About this time the first edition of the Essay on Truth made its appearance
in the world. Dr. Beattie took an opportunity, in this work, of vindicating
the intellectual powers of the Africans from the aspersions of Hume, and of
condemning their slavery as a barbarous piece of policy, and as
inconsistent with the free and generous spirit of the British nation.
In the year 1774, John Wesley, the celebrated divine, to whose pious
labours the religious world will be long indebted, undertook the cause of
the poor Africans. He had been in America, and had seen and pitied their
hard condition. The work which he gave to the world in consequence, was
entitled Thoughts on Slavery. Mr. Wesley had this great cause much at
heart, and frequently recommended it to the support of those who attended
his useful ministry.
In the year 1776, the abbé Proyart brought out, at Paris, his History of
Loango, and other kingdoms in Africa, in which he did ample justice to the
moral and intellectual character of the natives there.
The same year produced two new friends in England, in the same cause, but
in a line in which no one had yet moved. David Hartley, then a member of
parliament for Hull, and the son of Dr. Hartley who wrote the Essay on Man,
found it impossible any longer to pass over without notice the case of the
oppressed Africans. He had long felt for their wretched condition, and,
availing himself of his legislative situation, he made a motion in the
house of commons, "That the Slave-trade was contrary to the laws of God,
and the rights of men." In order that he might interest the members as much
as possible in his motion, he had previously obtained some of the chains in
use in this cruel traffic, and had laid them upon the table of the house of
commons. His motion was seconded by that great patriot and philanthropist,
sir George Saville. But though I am now to state that it failed, I cannot
but consider it as a matter of pleasing reflection, that this great subject
was first introduced into parliament by those who were worthy of it; by
those who had clean hands and irreproachable characters, and to whom no
motive of party or faction could be imputed, but only such as must have
arisen from a love of justice, a true feeling of humanity, and a proper
sense of religion.
About this time two others, men of great talents and learning, promoted the
cause of the injured Africans, by the manner in which they introduced them
to notice in their respective works.
Dr. Adam Smith, in his Theory of Moral Sentiments, had, so early as the
year 1759, held them up in an honourable, and their tyrants in a degrading
light. "There is not a Negro from the coast of Africa, who does not, in
this respect, possess a degree of magnanimity, which the soul of his sordid
master is too often scarce capable of conceiving. Fortune never exerted
more cruelly her empire over mankind, than when she subjected those nations
of heroes to the refuse of the gaols of Europe, to wretches who possess the
virtue neither of the countries they came from, nor of those they go to,
and whose levity, brutality, and baseness so justly expose them to the
contempt of the vanquished." And now, in 1770, in his Wealth of Nations, he
showed in a forcible manner (for he appealed to the interest of those
concerned) the dearness of African labour, or the impolicy of employing
slaves.
Professor Millar, in his Origin of Ranks, followed Dr. Smith on the same
ground. He explained the impolicy of slavery in general, by its bad effects
upon industry, population, and morals. These effects he attached to the
system of agriculture as followed in our islands. He showed, besides, how
little pains were taken, or how few contrivances were thought of, to ease
the labourers there. He contended, that the Africans ought to be better
treated, and to be raised to a better condition; and he ridiculed the
inconsistency of those who held them in bondage. "It affords," says he, "a
curious spectacle to observe that the same people, who talk in a high
strain of political liberty, and who consider the privilege of imposing
their own taxes as one of the unalienable rights of mankind, should make no
scruple of reducing a great proportion of their fellow-creatures into
circumstances, by which they are not only deprived of property, but almost
of every species of right. Fortune perhaps never produced a situation more
calculated to ridicule a liberal hypothesis, or to show how little the
conduct of men is at the bottom directed by any philosophical principles."
It is a great honour to the university of Glasgow, that it should have
produced, before any public agitation of this question, three
professors[A], all of whom bore their public testimony against the
continuance of the cruel trade.
[Footnote A: The other was professor Hutcheson, before mentioned in p. 49.]
From this time, or from about the year 1776, to about the year 1782, I am
to put down three other coadjutors, whose labours seem to have come in a
right season for the promotion of the cause.
The first of these was Dr. Robertson. In his History of America, he laid
open many facts relative to this subject. He showed himself a warm friend
both of the Indians and Africans. He lost no opportunity of condemning that
trade which brought the latter into bondage: "a trade," says he, "which is
no less repugnant to the feelings of humanity than to the principles of
religion." And in his Charles the Fifth, he showed in a manner that was
clear, and never to be controverted, that Christianity was the great cause
in the twelfth century of extirpating slavery from the West of Europe. By
the establishment of this fact, he rendered important services to the
oppressed Africans. For if Christianity, when it began to be felt in the
heart, dictated the abolition of slavery, it certainly became those who
lived in a Christian country, and who professed the Christian religion, to
put an end to this cruel trade.
The second was the abbé Raynal. This author gave an account of the laws,
government, and religion of Africa, of the produce of it, of the manners of
its inhabitants, of the trade in slaves, of the manner of procuring these,
with several other particulars relating to the subject. And at the end of
his account, fearing lest the good advice he had given for making the
condition of the slaves more comfortable should be construed into an
approbation of such a traffic, he employed several pages in showing its
utter inconsistency with sound policy, justice, reason, humanity, and
religion.
"I will not here," says he, "so far debase myself as to enlarge the
ignominious list of those writers, who devote their abilities to justify by
policy what morality condemns. In an age where so many errors are boldly
laid open, it would be unpardonable to conceal any truth that is
interesting to humanity. If whatever I have hitherto advanced hath
seemingly tended only to alleviate the burthen of slavery, the reason is,
that it was first necessary to give some comfort to those unhappy beings,
whom we cannot set free, and convince their oppressors, that they were
cruel, to the prejudice of their real interests. But, in the mean time,
till some considerable revolution shall make the evidence of this great
truth felt, it may not be improper to pursue this subject further. I shall
then first prove that there is no reason of state, which can authorize
slavery. I shall not be afraid to cite to the tribunal of reason and
justice those governments, which tolerate this cruelty, or which even are
not ashamed to make it the basis of their power."
And a little further on he observes--"Will it be said that he, who wants to
make me a slave, does me no injury, but that he only makes use of his
rights? Where are those rights? Who hath stamped upon them so sacred a
character as to silence mine?"--
In the beginning of the next paragraph he speaks thus: "He, who supports
the system of slavery, is the enemy of the whole human race. He divides it
into two societies of legal assassins; the oppressors, and the oppressed.
It is the same thing as proclaiming to the world, If you would preserve
your life, instantly take away mine, for I want to have yours."
Going on two pages further, we find these words: "But the Negros, they say,
are a race born for slavery; their dispositions are narrow, treacherous,
and wicked; they themselves allow the superiority of our understandings,
and almost acknowledge the justice of our authority.--Yes--The minds of the
Negros are contracted, because slavery destroys all the springs of the
soul. They are wicked, but not equally so with you. They are treacherous,
because they are under no obligation to speak truth to their tyrants. They
acknowledge the superiority of our understanding, because we have abused
their ignorance. They allow the justice of our authority, because we have
abused their weakness."
"But these Negros, it is further urged, were born slaves. Barbarians! will
you persuade me, that a man can be the property of a sovereign, a son the
property of a father, a wife the property of a husband, a domestic the
property of a master, a Negro the property of a planter?"
But I have no time to follow this animated author, even by short extracts,
through the varied strains of eloquence which he displays upon this
occasion. I can only say, that his labours entitle him to a high station
among the benefactors to the African race.
The third was Dr. Paley, whose genius, talents, and learning have been so
eminently displayed in his writings in the cause of natural and revealed
religion. Dr. Paley did not write any essay expressly in favour of the
Africans. But in his Moral Philosophy, where he treated on slavery, he took
an opportunity of condemning, in very severe terms, the continuance of it.
In this work he defined what slavery was, and how it might arise
consistently with the law of nature; but he made an exception against that
which arose from the African trade.
"The Slave-trade," says he, "upon the coast of Africa, is not excused by
these principles. When slaves in that country are brought to market, no
questions, I believe, are asked about the origin or justice of the vendor's
title. It may be presumed, therefore, that this title is not always, if it
be ever, founded in any of the causes above assigned."
"But defect of right in the first purchase is the least crime with which
this traffic is chargeable. The natives are excited to war and mutual
depredation, for the sake of supplying their contracts, or furnishing the
markets with slaves. With this the wickedness begins. The slaves, torn away
from their parents, wives and children, from their friends and companions,
from their fields and flocks, from their home and country, are transported
to the European settlements in America, with no other accommodation on
ship-board than what is provided for brutes. This is the second stage of
the cruelty, from which the miserable exiles are delivered, only to be
placed, and that for life, in subjection to a dominion and system of laws,
the most merciless and tyrannical that ever were tolerated upon the face of
the earth: and from all that can be learned by the accounts of people upon
the spot, the inordinate authority, which the Plantation-laws confer upon
the slave-holder, is exercised by the English slave-holder, especially,
with rigour and brutality."
"But necessity is pretended, the name under which every enormity is
attempted to be justified; and after all, What is the necessity? It has
never been proved that the land could not be cultivated there, as it is
here, by hired servants. It is said that it could not be cultivated with
quite the same conveniency and cheapness, as by the labour of slaves; by
which means, a pound of sugar, which the planter now sells for sixpence,
could not be afforded under sixpence-halfpenny--and this is the necessity!"
"The great revolution, which has taken place in the western world, may
probably conduce (and who knows but that it was designed) to accelerate the
fall of this abominable tyranny: and now that this contest and the passions
which attend it are no more, there may succeed perhaps a season for
reflecting, whether a legislature, which had so long lent its assistance to
the support of an institution replete with human misery, was fit to be
trusted with an empire, the most extensive that ever obtained in any age or
quarter of the world."
The publication of these sentiments may be supposed to have produced an
extensive effect. For the Moral Philosophy was adopted early by some of the
colleges in our universities into the system of their education. It soon
found its way also into most of the private libraries of the kingdom; and
it was, besides, generally read and approved. Dr. Paley, therefore, must be
considered as having been a considerable coadjutor in interesting the mind
of the public in favour of the oppressed Africans.
In the year 1783, we find Mr. Sharp coming again into notice. We find him
at this time taking a part in a cause, the knowledge of which, in
proportion as it was disseminated, produced an earnest desire among all
disinterested persons for the abolition of the Slave-trade.
In this year, certain underwriters desired to be heard against Gregson and
others of Liverpool, in the case of the ship Zong, captain Collingwood,
alleging that the captain and officers of the said vessel threw overboard
one hundred and thirty-two slaves alive into the sea, in order to defraud
them, by claiming the value of the said slaves, as if they had been lost in
a natural way. In the course of the trial, which afterwards came on, it
appeared, that the slaves on board the Zong were very sickly; that sixty of
them had already died; and several were ill and likely to die, when the
captain proposed to James Kelsall, the mate, and others, to throw several
of them overboard, stating "that if they died a natural death, the loss
would fall upon the owners of the ship, but that, if they were thrown into
the sea, it would fall upon the underwriters." He selected accordingly one
hundred and thirty-two of the most sickly of the slaves. Fifty-four of
these were immediately thrown overboard, and forty-two were made to be
partakers of their fate on the succeeding day. In the course of three days
afterwards the remaining twenty-six were brought upon deck to complete the
number of victims. The first sixteen submitted to be thrown into the sea;
but the rest with a noble resolution would not suffer the officers to touch
them, but leaped after their companions and shared their fate.
The plea, which was set up in behalf of this atrocious and unparalleled act
of wickedness, was, that the captain discovered, when he made the proposal,
that he had only two hundred gallons of water on board, and that he had
missed his port; It was proved, however, in answer to this, that no one had
been put upon short allowance; and that, as if Providence had determined to
afford an unequivocal proof of the guilt, a shower of rain fell and
continued for three days immediately after the second lot of slaves had
been destroyed, by means of which they might have filled many of their
vessels[A] with water, and thus have prevented all necessity for the
destruction of the third.
[Footnote A: It appeared that they filled six.]
Mr. Sharp was present at this trial, and procured the attendance of a
short-hand-writer to take down the facts, which should come out in the
course of it. These he gave to the public afterwards. He communicated them
also, with a copy of the trial, to the Lords of the Admiralty, as the
guardians of justice upon the seas, and to the Duke of Portland, as
principal minister of state. No notice however was taken by any of these,
of the information which had been thus sent them.
But though nothing was done by the persons then in power, in consequence of
the murder of so many innocent individuals, yet the publication of an
account of it by Mr. Sharp in the newspapers, made such an impression upon
others, that new coadjutors rose up. For, soon after this, we find Thomas
Day entering the lists again as the champion of the injured Africans. He
had lived to see his poem of The Dying Negro, which had been published in
1773, make a considerable impression. In 1776, he had written a letter to a
friend in America, who was the possessor of slaves, to dissuade him by a
number of arguments from holding such property. And now, when the knowledge
of the case of the ship Zong was spreading, he published that letter under
the title of Fragment of an Original Letter on the Slavery of the Negroes.
In this same year, Dr. Porteus, bishop of Chester, but now bishop of
London, came forward as a new advocate for the natives of Africa. The way
in which he rendered them service, was by preaching a sermon in their
behalf, before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Of the wide
circulation of this sermon, I shall say something in another place, but
much more of the enlightened and pious author of it, who from this time
never failed to aid, at every opportunity, the cause, which he had so ably
undertaken.
In the year 1784, Dr. Gregory produced his Essays Historical and Moral. He
took an opportunity of disseminating in these a circumstantial knowledge of
the Slave-trade, and an equal abhorrence of it at the same time. He
explained the manner of procuring slaves in Africa; the treatment of them
in the passage, (in which he mentioned the case of the ship Zong,) and the
wicked and cruel treatment of them in the colonies. He recited and refuted
also the various arguments adduced in defence of the trade. He showed that
it was destructive to our seamen. He produced many weighty arguments also
against the slavery itself. He proposed clauses for an act of parliament
for the abolition of both; showing the good both to England and her
colonies from such a measure, and that a trade might be substituted in
Africa, in various articles, for that which he proposed to suppress. By
means of the diffusion of light like this, both of a moral and political
nature, Dr. Gregory is entitled to be ranked among the benefactors to the
African race.
In the same year, Gilbert Wakefield preached a sermon at Richmond in Surry,
where, speaking of the people of this nation, he says, "Have we been as
renowned for a liberal communication of our religion and our laws as for
the possession of them? Have we navigated and conquered to save, to
civilize, and to instruct; or to oppress, to plunder, and to destroy? Let
India and Africa give the answer to these questions. The one we have
exhausted of her wealth and her inhabitants by violence, by famine, and by
every species of tyranny and murder. The children of the other we daily
carry from off the land of their nativity, like sheep to the slaughter, to
return no more. We tear them from every object of their affection, or, sad
alternative, drag them together to the horrors of a mutual servitude! We
keep them in the profoundest ignorance. We gall them in a tenfold chain,
with an unrelenting spirit of barbarity, inconceivable to all but the
spectators of it, unexampled among former ages and other nations, and
unrecorded even in the bloody registers of heathen persecution. Such is the
conduct of us enlightened Englishmen, reformed Christian. Thus have we
profited by our superior advantages, by the favour of God, by the doctrines
and example of a meek and lowly Saviour. Will not the blessings which we
have abused loudly testify against us? Will not the blood which we have
shed cry from the ground for vengeance upon our sins?"
In the same year, James Ramsay, vicar of Teston in Kent, became also an
able, zealous, and indefatigable patron of the African cause. This
gentleman had resided nineteen years in the island of St. Christopher,
where he had observed the treatment of the slaves, and had studied the laws
relating to them. On his return to England, yielding to his own feelings of
duty and the solicitations of some amiable friends, he published a work,
which he called An Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of the African
Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies. After having given an account of the
relative situation of master and slave in various parts of the world, he
explained the low and degrading situation which the Africans held in
society in our own islands. He showed that their importance would be
increased, and the temporal interest of their masters promoted, by giving
them freedom, and by granting them other privileges. He showed the great
difficulty of instructing them in the state in which they then were, and
such as he himself had experienced both in his private and public attempts,
and such as others had experienced also. He stated the way in which private
attempts of this nature might probably be successful. He then answered all
objections against their capacities, as drawn from philosophy, form,
anatomy, and observation; and vindicated these from his own experience. And
lastly, he threw out ideas for the improvement of their condition, by an
establishment of a greater number of spiritual pastors among them; by
giving them more privileges than they then possessed; and by extending
towards them the benefits of a proper police. Mr. Ramsay had no other
motive for giving this work to the public, than that of humanity, or a wish
to serve this much-injured part of the human species. For he compiled it at
the hazard of forfeiting that friendship, which he had contracted with many
during his residence in the islands, and of suffering much in his private
property, as well as subjecting himself to the ill-will and persecution of
numerous individuals.
The publication of this book by one, who professed to have been so long
resident in the islands, and to have been an eye-witness of facts,
produced, as may easily be supposed, a good deal of conversation, and made
a considerable impression, but particularly at this time, when a storm was
visibly gathering over the heads of the oppressors of the African race.
These circumstances occasioned one or two persons to attempt to answer it,
and these answers brought Mr. Ramsay into the first controversy ever
entered into on this subject, during which, as is the case in most
controversies, the cause of truth was spread.
The works, which Mr. Ramsay wrote upon this subject, were, the Essay, just
mentioned, in 1784. An Enquiry, also, into the Effects of the Abolition of
the Slave-trade, in 1784. A Reply to personal Invectives and Objections, in
1785. A Letter to James Tobin, Esq., in 1787. Objections to the Abolition
of the Slave-trade, with Answers: and an Examination of Harris's Scriptural
Researches on the Licitness of the Slave-trade, in 1788;--and An Address on
the proposed Bill for the Abolition of the Slave-trade, in 1789. In short,
from the time when he first took up the cause, he was engaged in it till
his death, which was not a little accelerated by his exertions. He lived
however to see this cause in a train for parliamentary inquiry, and he died
satisfied, being convinced, as he often expressed, that the investigation
must inevitably lead to the total abolition of the Slave-trade.
In the next year, that is, in the year 1785, another advocate was seen in
monsieur Necker, in his celebrated work on the French Finances, which had
just been translated into the English language from the original work, in
1784. This virtuous statesman, after having given his estimate of the
population and revenue of the French West Indian colonies, proceeds thus:
"The colonies of France contain, as we have seen, near five hundred
thousand slaves, and it is from the number of these poor wretches that the
inhabitants set a value on their plantations. What a dreadful prospect! and
how profound a subject for reflection! Alas! how little are we both in our
morality and our principles! We preach up humanity, and yet go every year
to bind in chains twenty thousand natives of Africa! We call the Moors
barbarians and ruffians, because they attack the liberty of Europeans at
the risk of their own; yet these Europeans go, without danger, and as mere
speculators, to purchase slaves by gratifying the avarice of their masters,
and excite all those bloody scenes, which are the usual preliminaries of
this traffic!" He goes on still further in the same strain. He then shows
the kind of power, which has supported this execrable trade. He throws out
the idea of a general compact, by which all the European nations should
agree to abolish it. And he indulges the pleasing hope, that it may take
place even in the present generation.
In the same year we find other coadjutors coming before our view, but these
in a line different from that, in which any other belonging to this class
had yet moved. Mr. George White, a clergyman of the established church, and
Mr. John Chubb, suggested to Mr. William Tucket, the mayor of Bridgewater,
where they resided, and to others of that town, the propriety of
petitioning parliament for the abolition of the Slave-trade. This petition
was agreed upon, and, when drawn up, was as follows:--
"The humble petition of the inhabitants of Bridgewater showeth,
"That your petitioners, reflecting with the deepest sensibility on
the deplorable condition of that part of the human species, the
African Negros, who by the most flagitious means are reduced to
slavery and misery in the British colonies, beg leave to address
this honourable house in their behalf, and to express a just
abhorrence of a system of oppression, which no prospect of private
gain, no consideration of public advantage, no plea of political
expediency, can sufficiently justify or excuse.
"That, satisfied as your petitioners are that this inhuman system
meets with the general execration of mankind, they flatter
themselves the day is not far distant when it will be universally
abolished. And they most ardently hope to see a British parliament,
by the extinction of that sanguinary traffic, extend the blessings
of liberty to millions beyond this realm, hold up to an enlightened
world a glorious and merciful example, and stand foremost in the
defence of the violated rights of human nature."
This petition was presented by the honourable Ann Poulet, and Alexander
Hood, esq., (now lord Bridport) who were the members for the town of
Bridgewater. It was ordered to lie on the table. The answer, which these
gentlemen gave to their constituents relative to the reception of it in the
house of commons, is worthy of notice: "There did not appear," say they in
their common letter, "the least disposition to pay any farther attention to
it. Every one almost says, that the abolition of the Slave-trade must
immediately throw the West Indian islands into convulsions, and soon
complete their utter ruin. Thus they will not trust Providence for its
protection for so pious an undertaking."
In the year 1786, captain J.S. Smith of the royal navy offered himself to
the notice of the public in behalf of the African cause. Mr. Ramsay, as I
have observed before, had become involved in a controversy in consequence
of his support of it. His opponents not only attacked his reputation, but
had the effrontery to deny his facts. This circumstance occasioned captain
Smith to come forward. He wrote a letter to his friend Mr. Hill, in which
he stated that he had seen those things, while in the West Indies, which
Mr. Ramsay had asserted to exist, but which had been so boldly denied. He
gave also permission to Mr. Hill to publish this letter. Too much praise
cannot be bestowed on captain Smith, for thus standing forth in a noble
cause, and in behalf of an injured character.
The last of the necessary forerunners and coadjutors of this class, whom I
am to mention, was our much-admired poet, Cowper; and a great coadjutor he
was, when we consider what value was put upon his sentiments, and the
extraordinary circulation of his works. There are few persons, who have not
been properly impressed by the following lines:
"My ear is pain'd,
My soul is sick with every day's report
Of wrong and outrage with which earth is fill'd.
There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart,
It does not feel for man. The nat'ral bond
Of brotherhood is sever'd as the flax
That falls asunder at the touch of fire.
He finds his fellow guilty of a skin
Not colour'd like his own, and having pow'r
T'inforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.
Lands intersected by a narrow frith
Abhor each other. Mountains interpos'd,
Make enemies of nations, who had else,
Like kindred drops, been mingled into one.
Thus man devotes his brother, and destroys;
And, worse than all, and most to be deplor'd
As human Nature's broadest, foulest blot,--
Chains him, and tasks him, and exacts his sweat
With stripes, that mercy with a bleeding heart
Weeps, when she sees inflicted on a beast.
Then what is man? And what man, seeing this,
And having human feelings, does not blush
And hang his head to think himself a man?
I would not have a slave to till my ground,
To carry me, to fan me while I sleep,
And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth
That sinews bought and sold have ever earn'd.
No! dear as freedom is,--and in my heart's
Just estimation priz'd above all price,--
I had much rather be myself the slave,
And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him.
We have no Slaves at home--then why abroad?
And they themselves once ferried o'er the wave
That parts us, are emancipate and loos'd.
Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs
Receive our air, that moment they are free;
They touch our country, and their shackles fall[A].
That's noble, and bespeaks a nation proud
And jealous of the blessing. Spread it then,
And let it circulate through every vein
Of all your empire--that where Britain's pow'r
Is felt, mankind may feel her mercy too."
[Footnote A: Expressions used in the great trial, when Mr. Sharp obtained
the verdict in favour of Somerset.]