CHAP. I.

GUINEA affords an easy Living to its Inhabitants, with but little Toil. The Climate agrees well with the Natives; but extreamly unhealthful to the Europe­ans. Produces Provisions in the greatest Plenty. Simplicity of their Housholdry. The Coast of Guinea described from the River Senegal to the Kingdom of Angola. The Fruitfulness of that Part lying on and between the two great Rivers Sena­gal and Gambia. Account of the diffe­rent Nations settled there. Order of Go­vernment amongst the Jalofs. Good Ac­count of some of the Fulis. The Mandi­gos; their Management, Government, &c. Their Worship. M. Adanson's Account of those Countries. Surprizing Vegetati­on. Pleasant Appearance of the Country. He found the Natives very sociable and obliging.

WHEN the Negroes are considered barely in their present abject state of slavery, broken spirited and dejected; [Page 2] and too easy credit is given to the accounts we frequently hear or read of their barba­rous and savage way of living in their own country; we shall be naturally induced to look upon them as incapable of improve­ment, destitute, miserable, and insensible of the benefits of life; and that our permitting them to live amongst us, even on the most oppressive terms, is to them a favour; but on impartial enquiry, the case will appear to be far otherwise; we shall find that there is scarce a country in the whole world, that is better calculated for affording the necessary comforts of life to its inhabitants, with less solicitude and toil, than Guinea. And that notwithstanding the long converse of many of its inhabitants with (often) the worst of the Europeans, they still retain a great deal of innocent simplicity; and when not stirred up to revenge from the frequent abuses they have received from the Europeans in general; manifest themselves to be a humane, sociable people, whose faculties are as capable of im­provement as those of other people; and that their oeconomy and government is, in many respects, commendable. Hence it ap­pears they might have lived happy, if not disturbed by the Europeans; more especially, if these last had used such endeavours as their christian profession requires, to communicate to the ignorant Africans that superior [Page 3] knowledge which providence had favoured them with. In order to set this matter in its true light, and for the information of those well minded people who are desirous of being fully acquainted with the merits of a cause, which is of the utmost consequence; as therein the lives and happiness of thou­sands and hundreds of thousands of our fel­low men have fallen, and are daily falling a sacrifice to selfish avarice, and usurped pow­er, I will here give some account of the se­veral divisions of those parts of Africa, from whence the Negroes are brought, with a summary of their produce; the disposition of their respective inhabitants; their im­provements, &c &c, extracted from authors of credit; mostly such as have been principal officers in the English, French and Dutch factories, and who resided many years in those countries. But first it is necessary to premise, as a remark generally applicable to the whole coast of Guinea, ‘ That the Al­mighty who has determined and appointed the bounds of the habitation of men on the face of the earth,’ in the manner that is most con­ducive to the well being of their different natures and dispositions has so ordered it that altho' Guinea is extreamly unhealthy ^* [Page 4] to the Europeans, of whom many thou­sands have met there with a miserable and [Page 5] untimely end, yet it is not so with the Ne­groes who enjoy a good state of health ^† and are able to procure to themselves a comfort­able subsistance; with much less care and toil than is necessary in our more northern cli­mate; which last advantage arises, not only from the warmth of the climate, but also from the overflowing of the rivers, where­by the land is regularly moistned and ren­dered extremely fertile; and being in many places improved by culture, abounds with grain and fruits, cattle, poultry, &c. The earth yields all the year a fresh supply of food: Few clothes are requisite and little art necessary in making them; or in the construction of their houses, which are very [Page 6] simple, principally calculated to defend them from the tempestuous seasons and wild beasts; a few dry reeds covered with matts serve for their beds. The other furniture, except what belongs to cookery, gives the women but little trouble; the moveables of the greatest among them amounting only to a few earthen pots, some wooden utensils and gourds or calabashes; from these last, which grow almost naturally over their huts, to which they afford an agreeable shade, they are abundantly stock't with good clean vessels for most houshold use, being of dif­ferent sizes, from half a pint to several gal­lons.

That part of Africa from which the Ne­groes are sold to be carried into slavery, commonly known by the name of Guinea, extends along the coast [...] or [...] thousand miles. Beginning at the river Senegal, situ­ate about the 17th degree of north latitude, being the nearest part of Guinea, as well to Europe, as to North America; from thence to the river Gambia, and in a southerly course to cape Sierra Leona, comprehends a coast of about seven hundred Miles; being the same tract for which Queen Elizabeth grant­ed charters to the the first traders to that coast: From Sierra Leona, the land of Gui­nea takes a turn to the eastward, extending that course about fifteen hundred miles, in­cluding [Page 7] those several divisions known by the name of the Grain Coast; the Ivory Coast; the Gold Coast and the Slave Coast, with the large kingdom of Benin. From thence the land runs southward along the coast about twelve hundred miles, which contains the kingdoms of Congo and Angola; there the trade for slaves ends. From which to the souther­most cape of Africa, called the cape of Good Hope, the country is settled by Caffers and Hottentots: Who have never been concern­ed in the making or selling slaves.

Of the parts which are above described, the first which presents itself to view, is that situate on the great river Senegal, which is said to be navigable more than a thousand miles, and is by travellers, described to be very agreeable and fruitful. Andrew Brue principal factor for the French African com­pany, who lived sixteen years in that coun­try, after describing its fruitfulness and plenty, near the Sea, adds ^‡ ‘the farther you go from the Sea, the country on the river seems the more fruitful and well im­proved; abounding with Indian corn, pulse, fruit &c. Here are vast meadows, which feed large herds of great and small cattle, and poultry numerous: The vil­lages that lie thick on the river, shew the country is well peopled.’ The same au­thor [Page 8] in the account of a voyage he made up the river Gambia, the mouth of which lyes about three hundred miles south of the Se­negal, and is navigable about six hundred miles up the country, says ^‖ ‘That he was surprized to see the land so well cultiva­ted; scare a spot lay unimproved, the low lands, divided by small canals, were all sowed with rice &c. the higher ground planted with millet, indian corn and pease of different sorts; their beef excel­lent; poultry plenty and very cheap as well as all other necessaries of life.’ Fran­cis Moor, who was sent from England about the year 1735, in the service of the African company, and resided at James fort on the river Gambia, or in other factories on that river about five years, confirms the above account of the fruitfulness of the country▪ William Smith who was sent in the year 1726, by the African company, to survey their settlements thro'out the whole coast of Gui­nea, ^† says, ‘The country about the Gam­bia is pleasant and fruitful; provisions of all kinds being plenty and exceeding cheap.’ The country on and between the two abovementioned rivers is large and extensive, inhabited principally by these three Negro nations known by the name of Jalofs, Fulis and Mandingos. The Jalofs [Page 9] possess the middle of the country. The Fulis principal settlement is on both sides of the Senegal; great numbers of these people are also mixed with the Mandingos; which last are mostly settled on both sides the Gambia. The Government of the Jalofs is represented as under a better regulation than, can be ex­pected from the common opinion we enter­tain of the Negroes. We are told in the ‘Col­lection, ^* That the King has under him se­veral ministers of state who assist him in the exercise of justice. The grand Jerafo is the chief justice thro' all the King's dominions, and goes in circuit from time to time to hear complaints and determine controversies. The King's treasurer exercises the same em­ployment, and has under him Alkairs, who are governors of towns or villages. That the Kondi or vice Roy goes the circuit with the chief justice both to hear causes and inspect into the behaviour of the Al­kadi or chief magistrate of every village in their several districts ^†.’ Vasconcelas an author mentioned in the collection says, ‘The ancientest are preferred to be the Prince's counsellors, who keep always a­bout his person, and the men of most judgment and experience are the judges.’ [Page 10] The Fulis are settled on both sides of the ri­ver Senegal: Their country which is very fruitful and populous, extends near four hundred miles from east to west. They are generally of a deep tawny complexion, ap­pearing to bear some affinity with the Moor's, whose country they join on the north: They are good farmers and make great har­vest, of corn, cotton, tobacco &c. and breed great numbers of cattle of all kinds. Bartholo­mew Stibbs, (mentioned by Fr: Moor) in his account of that country says, ^‡ ‘ They were a cleanly, decent, industrious people and very affable.’ But the most particular account we have of these people is from Francis Moor himself, who says ^‖ ‘Some of these Fuli blacks who dwell on both sides the river Gambia, are in subjection to the Mandingos, amongst whom they dwell, having been probably driven out of their country, by war or famine. They have chiefs of their own, who rule with much moderation. Few of them will drink brandy or any thing stronger than water and su­gar, being strict mahometans. Their form of government goes on easy, be­cause the people are of a good quiet dis­position and so well instructed in what is [Page 11] right, that a man who does ill is the a­bomination of all, and none will support him against the chief. In these countries the natives are not coveteous of land, desiring no more than what they use; and as they do not plough with horses and cattle they can use but very little, there­fore the Kings are willing to give the Fulis leave to live in their country and cultivate their lands. If any of their people are known to be made slaves, all the Fulis will join to redeem them; they also support the old, the blind and lame a­mongst themselves, and as far as their abi­lities go, they supply the necessities of the Mandingos, great numbers of whom they have maintained in famine.’ The author from his own observations says, ‘They were rarely angry, that he never heard them abuse one another.’

The Mandingos are said by A. Brue before mentioned, ‘To be the most numerous nation on the Gambia, besides which numbers of them are dispersed over all these countries; being the most rigid ma­hometans amongst the Negroes, they drink neither wine nor brandy, and are politer than the other Negroes. The chief of the trade goes thro' their hands. Many are industrious and laborious, keeping their ground well cultivated and breeding a [Page 12] good stock of cattle. ^† Every town has an Alkali, or Governor, who has great power; for most of them having two common fields of clear ground, one for corn and the other for rice, the Alkali appoints the labour of all the people. The men work the corn ground, and the women and girls the rice ground, and as they all equally labour, so he e­qually divides the corn amongst them; and in case any are in want, the others supply them. This Alkali decides all quarrels, and has the first voice in all conferences in town affairs.’ Some of these Mandigos who are settled at Galem, far up the river Senegal, can read and write arabic tolerably, and are a good hospitable people, who carry on a trade with the In­land nations. ‘ ^‡ They are extreamly po­pulous in those parts, their women be­ing fruitful, and they not suffering any person amongst them, but such are guil­ty of crimes, to be made slaves.’ We are told, from Jobson, ‘ ^‖ That the mahometan Negroes say their prayers thrice a day. Each village has a priest who calls them to their duty. It's surprizing (says the author) as well as commendable, to see the modesty, [Page 13] attention and reverence they observe du­ring their worship. He asked some of their priests the purport of their prayers and ceremonies; their answer always was, That they adored God, by prostrating themselves be­fore him; that by humbling themselves, they ac­knowledged their own insignificancy; and far­ther entreated him to forgive their faults, and to grant thom all good and necessary things, as well as deliverance from evil.’ Jobson takes notice of several good qualites in these Negroe priests; particularly their great sobriety. They gain their livelihood by keeping school, for the education of the children. The boys are taught to read and write. They not only teach school, but rove a­bout the country; teaching and instruct­ing; for which the whole country is o­pen to them; and they have a free re­course thro' all places, tho' the Kings may be at war with one another.

The three forementioned nations, practice several trades, as smiths, potters, sadlers, and weavers. Their smiths particularly work neatly in gold and silver, and make knives, hatchets, reaping hooks, spades and shares to cut iron, &c. &c. Their potters make neat tobacco pipes, and pots to boil their food. Some authors say, that weaving is their principal trade; this is done by the women and girls, who spin and weave very [Page 14] fine cotton cloth, which they die blue or black. ^† F. Moor says the Jalofs particu­larly, make great quantities of the cotton cloth; their pieces are generally 27 yards long and but about 9 inches broad; their looms being very narrow; these they sew neatly together, so as to supply the use of broad cloth.

It was in these parts of Guinea, that M. Adanson, correspondant of the royal aca­demy of sciences at Paris, mentioned in some former publications, was employed from the year 1749, to the year 1753, whol­ly in making natural and philosophical obser­vations, on the country about the rivers Senegal and Gambia. Speaking of the great heats on Senegal, he says, ‘ ^‡ It is to them that they are partly indebted for the fer­tility of their lands, which is so great, that with little labour and care, there is no fruit nor grain but grow in great plen­ty.’

Of the soil on the Gambia, he says, ‘ ^‖ It is rich and deep, and amazingly fertile; it produces spontaneously, and almost without cultivation, all the necessaries of life; grain, fruit, herbs, and roots. E­very [Page 15] thing matures to perfection, and is excellent in its kind.’ ^* One thing which always surprised him, was the prodigi­ous rapidity, with which the sap of trees re­pair any loss they may happen to sustain in that country; ‘and I was never (says he) more astonished, than when landing four days after the locusts had devoured all the fruits and leaves, and even the buds of the trees, to find the trees co­vered with new leaves; and they did not seem me to have suffered much. ^† It was then, (says the same author,) ^‡ the fish season; you might see them in shoals approaching towards land. Some of those shoals were fifty fathom square, and the fish crowded together in such a manner as to roll upon one another, without be­ing able to swim. As soon as the Negroes perceive them coming towards land, they jump into the water, with a basket in one hand, and swim with the other. They need only to plunge and to lift up their basket, and they are sure to return load­ed with fish.’ Speaking of the appear­ance of the country, and of the disposition of the people, he says, ^‖ ‘Which way soever I turned mine eyes on this pleasant spot, I beheld a perfect image of pure nature; [Page 16] an agreeable solitude, bounded on every side by charming landscapes; the rural situation of cottages in the midst of trees; the ease and indolence of the Negroes, re­clined under the shade of their spreading foliage; the simplicity of their dress and manners; the whole revived in my mind the idea of our first parents, and I seemed to contemplate the world in its primitive state. They are generaly speaking, very good natured, sociable and obliging. I was not a little pleased with this my first reception; it convinced me, that there ought to be a considerable abatement made in the accounts I had read and heard every where of the savage character of the Africans. I observed both in Negroes and Moors, great humanity and sociableness; which gave me strong hopes, that I should be very safe amongst them, and meet with the success I desired, in my enquiries after the curiosities of the country.’ ^* He was agreeably amused with the conversation of the Negroes, their fables, dialogues, and witty stories with which they entertain each other alternately, according to their custom. Speaking of the remarks which the natives made to him, with relation to the stars and planets, he says ‘It is amazing, that such [Page 17] a rude and illeterate people, should reason so pertinently in regard to those heavenly bodies; there is no manner of doubt, but that with proper instruments, and a good will, they would become excellent astrono­mers.’

CHAP. II.

THE Ivory Coast; its soil and pro­duce. The character of the natives mis­represented by some authors. These mis­representations occasioned by the Europe­ans having treacherously carried off many of their people. John Smith surveyor to the African company, his observations there­on. John Snock's remarks. The Gold Coast and Slave Coast, these have the most European Factories; and furnish the greatest number of slaves to the Europeans. Exceeding fertile. The country of Axim; and of Ante. Good account of the Inland people. Great fishery. Extraordinary trade for slaves. The Slave Coast. The kingdom of Whidah. Fruitful and pleasant. The natives kind and obliging. Very popu­lous. Keep regular markets and [...] Good order therein▪ Murder, adultery and theft severely punished. The Kings reve­nues. [Page 18] The principal people have an idea of the true God. Commendable care of the poor. Several small govern­ments depend on plunder and the slave trade.

THAT part of Guinea, known by the name of the Grain, and Ivory Coast, come, next in course. This coast extends about 500 miles. The soil appears by ac­count to be in general fertile, producing abundance of rice and roots; indigo and cotton thrive without cultivation and tobac­co would be excellent if carefully manufac­tured; fish in great plenty, their flocks greatly increase and their trees are loaded with fruit. They make a cotton cloth which sells well on the Coast. In a word the country is rich and the commerce advanta­geous and might be greatly augmented by such as would cultivate the friendship of the natives; these are represented by some writ­ers as a rude, treacherous people; whilst seve­ral other authors of credit give them a very different character; representing them as sensible, courteous and the fairest traders on the coast of Guinea. In the collection they are said ^* to be averse to drinking to excess, and such at do are severely punished by the kings [Page 19] order: on inquiry why there is such a disa­greement in the character given of these people, it appears, that tho' they are natural­ly inclined to be kind to strangers, with whom they are fond of trading, yet the frequent injuries done them by Europeans, has occasi­oned their being suspicious and shy: the same cause has been the occasion of the ill treat­ment they have sometimes given to inno­cent strangers, who have attempted to trade with them. As the Europeans have no set­tlement on this part of Guinea, the trade is carried on by signals from the ships; on the appearance of which the natives usually come on board, in their canoes, bringing their gold-dust, ivory, &c. which has given opportunity to some villainous Europeans, to carry them off with their effects, or retain them on board till a ransom is paid. It is noted by some that since the European voy­agers have carried away several of these people, their mistrust is so great, that it is ve­ry difficult to prevail on them to come on board. William Smith remarks ^* ‘As we past along this coast, we very often lay be­fore a town and fired a gun for the na­tives to come off; but no soul came near us; at length we learnt, by some ships that were trading down the coast [Page 20] that the natives came seldom on board an English ship, for fear of being de­tained or carried off; yet at last some ventured on board; but if these chanced to spy any arms, they would all immedi­ately take to their canoes and make the best of their way home. They had then in their possession one Bejamin Cross, the mate of an English vessel, who was detained by them to make reprisals for some of their men, who had formerly been carried away by some English vessel.’ In the Collection we are told, ^* This villa­nous custom, is too often practised, chiefly by the Bristol and Liverpool ships; and is a great de­triment to the slave trade on the Windward Coast. John Snock mentioned in Bosman ^† when on that coast wrote, ‘We cast anchor, but not one Negro coming on board, I went on shore, and after having staid awhile on the strand, some Negroes came to me; and being desirous to be informed why they did not come on board, I was answered, that about two months before the English had been there with two large vessels, and had ravaged the country, destroyed all their canoes, plundered their houses and carried off some of their people; up­on [Page 21] which the remainder fled to the inland country, where most of them were at that time; so that there being not much to be done by us, we were obliged to return on board. ^* When I enquired after their wars with other countries, they told me, they were not often trou­bled with them; but if any difference happened, they chose rather to end the dispute amicably than to come to arms. ^†’ He found the inhabitants civil and good natured. Speaking of the king of Rio Sestro, lower down the coast, he says, ‘He was a very agreeable, obliging man, and that all his subjects are civil, as well as very laborious in agriculture and the pursuits of trade. Marchais says, ^‖ That though the country is very populous, yet none of the natives (except criminals) are sold for slaves.’ Vaillant never heard of any settlement being made by the Europeans on this part of Guinea; and Smith remarks, ^§ ‘That these coasts, which are divided into several little kingdoms, and have seldom any wars, is the reason the slave trade is not so good here as on the Gold and Slave Coast, where the Euro­peans [Page 22] have several forts and factories.’ A plain evidence this, that it is the inter­course with the Europeans and their settle­ments on the coast which gives life to the slave trade.

Next adjoining to the Ivory Coast are those called the Gold Coast and the Slave Coast; authors are not agreed about their bounds; but their extent together along the coast, may be about five hundred miles. And as the policy, produce and oeconomy of these two divisions of Guinea are much the same, I shall describe them together.

Here the Europeans have the greatest num­ber of forts and factories, from whence, by means of the Negro factors, a trade is car­ried on above seven hundred miles back in the Inland country; whereby great num­bers of slaves are procured, as well by means of the wars which arise amongst the Ne­groes, or are fomented by the Europeans, as those brought from the back country. Here we find the natives more reconciled to the Eu­ropean manners and trade; but, at the same time, much more inured to war, and ready to assist the European traders, in procuring loadings for the great number of vessels which come yearly on those coasts for slaves. This part of Guinea is agreed by histori­ans to be, in general, extraordinary fruitful and agreeable; producing (according to the [Page 23] difference of the soil) vast quantities of rice and other grain; plenty of fruit and roots; palm wine and oyl, and fish in great abundance; with much tame and wild cattle. Bosman, principal factor for the Dutch at D'Elmina, speaking of the country of Axim, which is situate towards the beginning of the Gold Coast, ^† says, ‘The Negro inhabi­tants are generally very rich, driving a great trade with the Europeans for gold: That they are industriously employed either in trade, fishing, or agriculture; but chiefly in the culture of rice, which grows here, in an incredible abun­dance, and is transported hence all over the Gold Coast. The inhabitants in lieu returning full fraught with millet, jamms potatoes and palm oyl. The same author speaking of the country of Ante, says, ^‡ This country, as well as the Gold Coast, abounds with hills, enriched with extra­ordinary high and beautiful trees; its valleys, betwixt the hills, are wide and extensive, producing in great abundance very good rice, millet, jamms, potatoes, and other fruits, all good in their kind, He adds, In short it is a land that yields its manurers as plentiful a crop as they can wish, with great quantities of palm wine and [Page 24] oyl, besides being well furnished with all sorts of tame, as well as wild beasts; but that the last fatal wars had reduced it to a miserable condition, and stripped it of most of its inhabitants.’ ‘The adjoining country of Fetu, he says, ^‖ was formerly so powerful and populous, that it struck terror into all the neighbouring nations; but it is at present, so drained by continu­al wars, that it is entirely ruined; there does not remain inhabitants sufficient to till the country; tho' it is so fruitful and pleasant that it may be compared to the country of Ante, just before described; frequently, says that author, when walk­ing thro' it before the last war, I have seen it abound with fine well built and po­pulous towns, agreeably enriched with vast quantities of corn, cattle, palm wine and oyl. The inhabitants all applying themselves without any distinction to a­griculture, some sow corn, others press oyl and draw wine from palm trees, with both which it is plentifully stored,’

William Smith gives much the same ac­count of the before mentioned parts of the Gold Coast, and adds, ‘The country a­bout D'Elmina and Cape Coast, is much the same for beauty and goodness, but more populous; and the nearer we come [Page 25] towards the Slave-Coast, the more de­lightful and rich all the countries are, producing all sorts of trees, fruits, roots and herbs, that grow within the torrid Zone.’ J. Barbot also remarks, ^† with respect to the countries of Ante and A­dom, ‘That the soil is very good, and fruitful in corn and other produce, which it affords in such plenty, that besides what serves for their own use they always export great quantities for sale; they have a competent number of cattle, both tame and wild; and the rivers abundant­ly stored with fish; so that nothing is wanting for the support of life, and to make it easy. In the Collection its said, ^‡ That the Inland people, on that part of the coast, employ themselves in tillage and trade, and supply the market with corn, fruit and palm wine; the country producing such vast plenty of indian corn, that abundance is daily exported, as well by Europeans as Blacks resorting thither from other parts. These Inland peo­ple are said to live in great union and friendship, being generally well temper­ed, civil and tractable; not apt to shed human blood, except when much provoked; and ready to assist one another.’ [Page 26] In the Collection ^‖, it is said, ‘That the fishing business is esteemed on the Gold Coast next to trading; that those who profess it are more numerous than those of other employments. That the greatest number of these are at Kommendo, Mina and Kormantin; from each of which pla­ces, there goes out every morning, (Tues­day excepted, which is the Fetish day, or day of rest,) five, six and sometimes eight hundred canoes, from 13 to 14 feet long, who spread themselves two leagues at sea, each fisherman carrying in his canoe a sword, with bread, water, and a little fire, on a large stone, to roast fish. Thus they labour till noon, when the sea breeze blowing fresh, they return on the shore; generally laden with fish; a quantity of which the Inland inhabitants come down to buy, which they sell again at the country markets.’

William Smith ^† says ‘The country about Acra, where the English and Dutch have each a strong fort, is very delightful, and the natives courteous and civil to strangers. He adds, That this place seldom fails of an extraordinary good trade from the Inland country; especially for slaves, [Page 27] whereof several are supposed to come from very remote parts; because it is not un­common to find a Malayen or two amongst a parcel of other slaves: The Malaya people are originally natives of Mallacca, in the East Indies, situate several thousand miles from the Gold Coast.’ They dif­fer very much from the Guinea Negroes, being of a tawny complexion, with long black hair.

Most parts of the Slave Coasts are repre­sented as equally fertile and pleasant with the Gold Coast: The kingdom of Whidah has been particularly noted by travellers. ^‡ William Smith and Bosman agree, ‘That it is one of the most delightful countries in the world. The great number and va­riety of tall, beautiful and shady trees, which seem planted in groves; the ver­dant fields every where cultivated, and no otherwise divided than by those groves, and in some places a small foot path; to­gether with a great number of villages, contribute to afford the most delightful prospect; the whole country being a fine easy and almost imperceptible ascent, for the space of 40 or 50 miles from the sea. That the farther you go from the sea, the the more beutiful and populous the coun­try appears. That the natives were kind [Page 28] and obliging, and so industrious, that no place which was thought fertile could escape being planted, even within the hedges, which inclose their villages. And that the next day after they had reaped they sowed again.’

Snelgrave also says, ‘The country ap­pears full of towns and villages, and be­ing a rich soil and well cultivated, looked like an entire garden.’ In the Collection ^* the husbandry of the Negroes is described to be carried on with great regularity; the ‘rainy season approaching they go into the fields and woods, to fix on a proper place for sowing; and as here is no property in ground, the king's licence being obtain­ed, the people go out in troops, and first clear the ground from bushes and weeds which they burn. The fields thus cleared they dig it up a foot deep and so let it remain for eight or ten days, till the rest of their neighbours have disposed their ground in the same manner. They then consult about sowing, and for that end assemble at the king's court, the next Fetish day. The king's grain must be sown first. They then go again to the field, and give the ground a second digging, and sow their seed. Whilst [Page 29] the king or governour's land is sow­ing, he sends out wine, and flesh ready dressed, enough to serve the labourers. Afterwards they in like manner sow the ground allotted for their neighbours, as diligently as that of the king; by whom they are also feasted; and so continue to work in a body for the publick benefit, till every man's ground is tilled and sow­ed. None but the king and a few great men are exempted from this labour. Their grain soon sprouts out of the ground. When it is about man's height and be­gins to ear, they raise a wooden house in the centre of the field, covered with straw, in which they set their children to watch their corn and fright away the birds.’

Bosman ^* speaks in commendation of the civility, kindness and great industry of the natives of Whydah; this is confirmed by Smith ^† who says, ‘The natives here seem to be the most gentleman like Negroes in Guinea, abounding with good manners and ceremony to each other. The infe­rior pay the utmost deference and respect to the superior; as do wives to their husbands, and children to their parents. All here are naturally industrious and find constant employment: the men in agri­culture, [Page 30] and the women in spinning and weaving cotton. The men, whose chief talent lies in husbandry, are unacquainted with arms; otherwise being a numerous people, they could have made a better defence against the king of Dahome, who subdued them without much trouble. ^* Throughout the Gold Coast there are regular markets in all villages, furnished with provisions and merchandize, held every day in the week, except Tuesday; whence they supply not only the inha­bitants, but the European Ships. The Negro women are very expert in buying and selling, and extreamly industrious; for they will repair daily to market, from a considerable distance, loaded like pack horses, with a child, perhaps, at their back, and a heavy burden on their heads. After selling their wares, they buy fish and other necessaries and return home loaded as they came.’

‘ ^† There is a market held at Sabi, every fourth day; also a weekly one in the pro­vince of Aplogua, which is so resorted to, that there are usually five or six thousand merchants. Their markets are so well regulated and governed, that seldom any disorder happens; each species of mer­chandize [Page 31] and merchants have a separate place allotted them by themselves. The buyers may haggle as much as they will, but it must be without noise or fraud. To keep order the king appoints a-judge, who with four officers well armed, inspects the Markets, hear all complaints, and in a summary way decides all differences; he has power to seize and sell as slaves all who are catched in stealing, or disturb­ing the peace. In these markets are to be sold men, women, children, oxen, sheep, goats and fowls of all kinds: Eu­ropean cloths, linen and woollen; print­ed callicos, silk, grocery ware, china, gold dust, iron in bars, &c. in a word most sorts of European goods: as well as the pro­duce of Africa and Asia.—They have other markets resembling our fairs, once or twice a year, to which all the country repair, for they take care to order the day so in different governments as not to interfere with each other.’

With respect to government, William Smith says, ‘ ^† That the Gold Coast and Slave Coasts are divided into different dis­tricts, some of which are governed by their chiefs or kings; the others being more of the nature of a commonwealth, [Page 32] are governed by some of the principal men, called Caboceros, who Bosman says, are properly denominated civil fathers; whose province is to take care of the well-fare of the city or village and to appease tumults.’ But this order of government has been much broken since the coming of the Europeans. Both Bosman and Barbot mention murther and adultery to be severely pu­nished on the Coast, frequently by death; and robbery by a fine proportionable to the goods stolen.

The income of some of the king's is large. Bosman says, ‘That the king of Whydah's revenues and duties on things bought and sold are considerable; he having the tithe of all things sold in the market, or im­ported in the country.’ ^† Both the abovementioned authors say, the tax on slaves shipped off in this king's dominions, in some years amounts to near twenty thousand pounds.

Bosman tells us, ‘The Whydah Negroes have a faint idea of a true God, ascribing to him the attributes of almighty power and omnipresence; but God, they say, is too high to condescend to think of man­kind, wherefore he commits the govern­ment of the world to those inferior die­ties which they worship.’ Some authors [Page 33] say the wisest of these Negroes are sensible of their mistake in this opinion, but dare not forsake their old religion, for fear of the po­pulace rising and killing them; this is con­firmed by William Smith who says, ‘That all the natives of this coast believe there is one true God, the author of them and all things; and that they have some apprehen­sion of a future state; and that almost every village has a grove, or public place of wor­ship, to which the principal inhabitants, on a set day, resort to make their offerings.’

In the Collection ^* it is remarked as an ex­cellency in the Guinea government, ‘That however poor they may be in general, yet there are no beggars to be found amongst them; which is owing to the care of their chief men, whose province it is to take care of the welfare of the city or village; it being part of their office to see that such people may earn their bread by their labour; some are set to blow the smith's bellow's, others to press palm oyl, or grind colours for their matts and sell provision in the markets. The young men are listed to serve as soldiers, so that they suffer no common beggar.’ Bosman ascribes a further reason for this good order, viz. ‘That when a Negroe [Page 34] finds he cannot subsist, he binds himself for a certain sum of money, and the master to whom he is bound, is obliged to find him necessaries: that the master sets him a sort of task, which is not in the least slavish, being chiefly to defend his master on occasions; or in sowing time to work as much as he himself pleases. ^†’

Adjoining to the kingdom of Whydah, are several small governments, as Coto, great and small Popo, Ardrah, &c. all situ­ate on the Slave Coast, where the chief trade for slaves is carried on. These are govern­ed by their respective kings, and follow much the same customs with those of Why­dah; except that their principal living is on plunder, and the slave trade.

CHAP. III.

THE kingdom of Benin. Its extent. Esteemed the most potent in Guniea. Fruitfulness of the soil. Good disposition of the people. Order of government. Punishment of crimes. Large extent of the town of Great Benin. Order main­tained. The natives honest and charitable. Their religion. The kingdoms of Kongo and Angola. Many of the natives profess christianity. The country fruitful. Dis­position of the people. The administrati­on of justice. The town of Leango. Slave trade carried on by the Portuguese. Here the slave trade ends.

NEXT adjoining to the Slave Coast, is the kingdom of Benin, which though it extends but about 170 miles on the Sea, yet spreads so far inland as to be esteemed the most potent kingdom in Guinea. By Ac­counts the soil and produce appears to be, in a great measure, like those before described; and the natives represented as a reasonable good natured people: Artus says ^* ‘They are a sincere, inoffensive people, and do [Page 36] no injustice either to one another or to strangers.’ William Smith ^† confirms this account, and says, ‘That the inhabi­tants are generally very good natured and exceeding courteous and civil. When the Europeans make them presents, which in their coming thither to trade they always do, they endeavour to return them doubly.’

Bosman tells us, ^‡ ‘That his countrymen the Dutch, who were often obliged to to trust them till they return the next year, were sure to be honestly paid their whole debts.’

There is in Benin a considerable order in government. Theft, murther and adultery being severely punished. Barbot says, ^* ‘If a man and a woman of any quality be surprised in adultery, they are both put to death, and their bodies are thrown on a dunghill, and left there a prey to wild beasts. He adds, The severity of the law in Benin against adultery ^‖ amongst [Page 37] all orders of people, deters them from venturing; so that it is but very seldom any persons are punished for that crime.’ Smith says, ‘Their towns are governed by officers appointed by the king, who have power to decide in civil cases, and to raise the publick taxes; but in criminal cases they must send to the king's court, which is held at the town of Oedo or Great Be­nin. This town which covers a large ex­tent of ground, is about sixty miles from [Page 38] the Sea.’ ^* Barbot tells us, ‘That it con­tains thirty streets, twenty fathom wide, and almost two miles long, commonly extending in a straight line from one gate to another; that the gates are guarded by soldiers; that in these streets markets are held every day of cattle, ivory, cotton and many sorts of European goods. This large town is divided into several wards or districts, each governed by its respec­tive king of a street, as they call them; to administer justice, and to keep good order. The inhabitants are very civil and good natured, condescending to what the Europeans require of them, in a civil way.’ The same author confirms what has been said by others of their justice in the payment of their debts; and adds, ‘That they above all other Guineans are very honest and just in their dealings, and they have such an aversion for theft, that by the law of the country it is punished with death.’ We are told by the same author, ^† ‘That the king of Benin is able upon occasion to maintain an army of a hundered thousand men; but that for the most part, he does not keep thirty thousand.’ William Smith says, ‘The [Page 39] natives are all free men; none but fo­reigners can be bought and sold there. ^† They are very charitable, the king as well as his subjects.’ Bosman confirms this, ^‡ and says, ‘The king and great lords subsist several poor at their place of residence on charity, employing those who are fit for any work, and the rest they keep for God's sake, so that here are no beggars.’

As to religion these people believe there is a God the efficient cause of all things, but like the rest of the Guineans they are super­stitiously and idolatrously inclined.

The last division of Guinea from which slaves are imported; are the kingdoms of Kongo and Angola, these lye to the south of Benin, extending with the intermediate land about twelve hundered miles on the Coast. Great numbers of the natives of both these kingdoms profess the christian religion, which was long since introduced by the Portuguese, who made early settle­ments in that country.

In the Collection it is said, that both in Kongo and Angola the soil is in general fruitful, producing great plenty of grain, indian corn and such quantities of rice that it hardly bears any price, with fruits, roots and palm oyl in plenty.

[Page 40] The natives are generally a quiet people, who discover a good understanding, and behave in a friendly manner to strangers, being of a mild conversation, affable and easily overcome with reason.

In the government of Kongo, the king appoints a judge in every particular division, to hear and determine disputes and civil causes; the judges imprison and release, or impose fines according to the rule of custom; but in weighty matters every one may ap­peal to the king, before whom all criminal causes are brought, in which he giveth sen­tence; but seldom condemneth to death.

The town of Leango stands in the midst of four lordships, which abound in corn, fruit &c. Here they make great quantities of cloth of divers kinds very fine and curi­ous; the inhabitants are seldom idle: they even make needle work caps as they walk in the streets.

The slave trade is here principally ma­naged by the Portuguese; who carry the trade far up into the inland countries. They are said to send off from these parts fifteen thousand slaves each year.

At Angola, about the 10th degree of south latitude ends the trade for slaves.

CHAP. IV.

THE ancientest accounts of the Negroes, is from the Nubian Geography, and the writings of Leo the African. Some account of those authors. The Arabians pass into Guinea. The innocen­cy and simplicity of the natives. They are subdued by the Moors. Heli Ischia shakes off the Moorish yoke. The Por­tuguese make the first descent in Guinea; from whence they carry off some of the natives: More incursions of the like kind. The Portuguese erect the first fort at D'El­mina: They begin the slave trade. Cada Mosto's testimony. Anderson's account to the same purport. Dela Caza's concern for the relief of the oppressed Indians. Goes over into Spain to plead their cause. His speech before Charles the fifth.

THE most ancient account we have of the country of the Negroes, particu­larly that part situate on and between the two great rivers of Senegal and Gambia, is from the writings of two ancient authors, one an Arabian and the other a Moor. The [Page 42] first ^† wrote in Arabic about the twelfth cen­tury. His works printed in that language at Rome, were afterwards translated in­to Latin and printed at Paris, under the pa­tronage of the famous Thuanus, chancellor of France, with the title of Geographica Nubiensis, containing an account of all the nations lying on the Senegal and Gambia. The other wrote by John Leo, ^‡ a Moor born at Granada, in Spain, before the Moors were totally expelled from that king­dom. He resided in Africa; but being on a voyage from Tripoli to Tunis, was taken by some Italian Corsairs, who finding him possessed of several Arabian books, besides his own manuscripts, apprehended him to be a man of learning, and as such presented him to Pope Leo the 10th. This Pope en­couraging him, he embraced the Romish re­ligion; and his description of Africa was published in Italian. From these writings we gather, that after the mahometan religi­on had extended to the kingdom of Moroc­co, some of the promoters of it, crossing the sandy desarts of Numedia, which separates that country from Guinea, found it inhabi­ted by men, who tho' under no regular government and destitute of that knowledge [Page 43] the Arabians were favoured with, lived in content and peace. The first author parti­cularly remarks, ‘That they never made war or travelled abroad; but employed themselves in tending their herds, or la­bouring in the ground. J: Leo says p. 65. That they lived in common, having no property in land, no tyrant nor supe­rior lord, but supported themselves in an equal state, upon the natural produce of the country, which afforded plenty of roots, game and honey. That ambition or avarice never drove them into foreign countries to subdue or cheat their neigh­bours. Thus they lived without toil or superfluities. The ancient inhabi­tants of Morrocco who wore coats of mail, and used swords and spears headed with iron, coming amongst these harmless and naked people, soon brought them under subjection, and divided that part of Guinea which lies on the rivers Senegal and Gam­bia into fifteen parts; those were the fif­teen kingdoms of the Negroes, over which the Moors presided and the common peo­ple were Negroes. These Moors taught the Negroes the mahometan religion and arts of life; particularly the use of iron, be­fore unknown to them: About the 14th, century, a native Negro called Heli Ischia, expelled the Moorish conquerors; but tho' [Page 44] the Negroes threw off the yoke of a foreign nation, they only changed a Libyan for a Ne­groe master. Heli Ischia himself becoming king, led the Negroes on to foreign wars and established himself in power over a very large extent of country.’ Since Leo's time, the Europeans have had very little knowledge of those parts of Africa; nor do they know what became of his great empire. It is highly proba­ble that it broke into pieces, and that the na­tives again resumed many of their ancient customs; for in the account published by William Moor, in his travels on the river Gambia, we find a mixture of the Moorish and mahometan customs, joined with the original simplicity of the Negroes. It ap­pears by accounts of ancient voyages, col­lected by Hackluit, Purchase and others, that it was about fifty years before the dis­covery of America, that the Portuguese at­tempted to sail round cape Bojador which lays between their country and Guinea; this af­ter divers repulses, occasioned by the violent currents, they effected; when landing on the western coasts of Africa they soon began to make incursions into the country and to seize and carry off the native inhabitants. As early as the year 1434, Alonzo Gonzales, the first who is recorded to have met with the natives, being on that coast, pursued [Page 45] and attacked a number of them, when some were wounded, as was also one of the Por­tuguese, which the author records, as the first blood spilt by christians in those parts. Six years after, the same Gonzales again at­tacked the natives, and took twelve prison­ers; with whom he returned to his ves­sels; he afterwards put a woman on shore, in order to induce the natives to redeem the prisoners; but the next day 150 of the in­habitants appeared on horses and camels, provoking the Portuguese to land, which they not daring to venture, the natives dis­charged a volley of stones at them, and went off. After this the Portuguese still continued to send vessels on the coast of A­frica, particularly we read of their falling on a village, whence the inhabitants fled and being pursued, 25 were taken. ‘ He that ran best, says the author, taking the most: in their way home they killed some of the natives, and took fifty-five more pri­soners. ^† Afterwards Dinisanes Dagra­ma, with two other vessels landed on the island Arguin, where they took 54 Moors; then running along the coast 80 leagues farther they at several times took 50 slaves; but here seven of the Portuguese were kill­ed. Then being joined by several other ves­sels, Dinisanes proposed to destroy the [Page 46] island, to revenge the loss of the seven Por­tuguese, of which the Moor's being appriz­ed fled; so that no more than 12 were found whereof only four could be taken; the rest being killed, as also one of the Por­tuguese.’ Many more captures of this kind, on the coast of Barbary and Guinea, are recorded to have been made in those ear­ly times by the Portuguese; who in the year 1481, erected their first fortat D'Elmina on that coast, from whence they soon open­ed a trade for slaves with the Inland parts of Guinea.

From the foregoing accounts it is un­doubted that the practice of making slaves of the Negroes, owes it origin to the early incursions of the Portuguese on the coast of Africa, solely from an inordinate desire of gain; this is clearly evidenced from their own historians, particularly Cada Mosto a­bout the year 1455, who writes, ‘ ^* That before the trade was settled for purchas­ing slaves from the Moors at Arguin, sometimes four, and sometimes more Por­tuguese vessels, were used to come to that gulf, well armed, and landing by night would surprise some fishermen's villages; that they even entered into the country and carried off Arabs of both sexes, whom they sold in Portugal. And also That [Page 47] the Portuguese and Spaniards settled on four of the Canary islands, would go to the other island, by night, and seize some of the natives of both sexes, whom they sent to be sold in Spain.’

After the settlement of America those de­vastations and the captivating the miserable Africans greatly increased.

Anderson in his history of trade and com­merce, at page 336, speaking of what pass­ed in the year 1508, writes ‘That the Spani­ards had by this time found that the miser­able Indian natives, whom they had made to work in their mines and fields, were not so robust and proper for those purposes, as Negroes, brought from Africa; where­fore they, about that time, began to im­port Negroes for that end into Hispaniola, from the Portuguese settlements, on the Guinea coasts; and also afterwards for their sugar works;’ This oppression of the In­dians, had, even before this time, rouzed the zeal, as well as it did the compassion of some of the truly pious of that day; parti­cularly that of Bartholomew Delas Casas, bishop of Chapia; whom a desire of being instrumental towards the conversion of the Indians, had invited into America. It is ge­nerally agreed, by the writers of that age, that he was a man of perfect disinterestedness, and ardent charity; being affected with this [Page 48] sad spectacle, he returned to the court of Spain, and there made a true report of the matter; but not without being strongly op­posed by those mercenary wretches, who had enslaved the Indians; yet being strong and indefatigable, he went to and fro, be­tween Europe and America, firmly deter­mined not to give over his pursuit, but with his life. After long solicitation and innu­merable repulses, he obtained leave to lay the matter before the Emperor Charles the fifth, then King of Spain. As the con­tents of the speech he made before the King in council, are very applicable to the case of the enslaved Africans, and a lively evidence that the spirit of true piety speaks the same language in the hearts of faithful men, in all ages, for the relief of their fellow crea­tures, from oppression of every kind, I think it may not be improper, here to transcribe the most interesting parts of it. ‘I was, says this pious bishop, one of the first who went to America; neither curiosity, nor interest prompted me to undertake so long and dangerous a voyage, the saving the souls of the heathen was my sole ob­ject. Why was I not permitted, even at the expence of my blood, to ransom so many thousand souls, who fell unhappy victims to avarice or lust? I have been an eye witness to such cruel treatment of [Page 49] the Indians, as is too horrid to be menti­oned at this time.—It is said that bar­barous executions were necessary to pu­nish or check the rebellion of the Ameri­cans;—but to whom was this owing? did not those people receive the Spaniards who first came amongst them with gentle­ness and humanity? Did they not shew more joy, in proportion, in lavishing treasure upon them, than the Spaniards did greediness in receiving it?—but our avarice was not yet satisfied;—tho' they gave up to us their land and their riches, we would tear from them their wives, their children and their liberties.—To black­en these unhappy people, their enemies assert, that they are scarce human crea­tures;—but it is we that ought to blush, for having been less men, and more bar­barous than they.—What right have we to enslave a people who are born free and whom we disturbed, tho' they never offended us?—They are represented as a stupid people, addicted to vice;—but have they not contracted most of their vices from the example of the christians? And as to those vices peculiar to them­selves, have not the christians quickly ex­ceeded them therein? Nevertheless it must be granted, that the Indians still re­main untainted with many vices usual a­mongst [Page 50] the Europeans; such as ambition, blasphemy, treachery, and many like monsters, which have not yet took place with them; they have scarce an idea of them; so that in effect, all the advantage we can claim, is to have more elevated notions of things, and our natural facul­ties more unfolded and more cultivated than theirs.—Don't let us flatter our corruptions, nor voluntarily blind our­selves; all nations are equally free; one nation has no right to infringe upon the freedom of any other; let us do towards these people as we would have them to have done towards us, if they had land­ed upon our shore, with the same superi­ority of strength. And indeed, why should not things be equal on both sides? How long has the right of the strongest been allowed to be the balance of justice? What part of the gospel gives a sanction to such a doctrine? In what part of the whole earth did the apostles and the first pro­mulgators of the gospel ever claim a right o­ver the lives, the freedom, or the substance of the Gentiles? What a strange method this of propagating the gospel, that holy law of grace, which from being slaves to Satan, initiates us into the freedom of the children of God!—Will it be possi­ble for us to inspire them with a love to [Page 51] its dictates, while they are so exasperat­ed at being dispossessed of that invaluable blessing, Liberty? The apostles submitted to chains themselves, but loaded no man with them. Christ came to free not to enslave us.—Submission to the faith he left us, ought to be a voluntary act, and should be propagated by persuasion, gentleness and reason.’

‘At my first arrival in Hispaniola, add­ed the bishop, it contained a million of inhabitants, and now (viz. in the space of about twenty years) there remains scarce the hundredth part of them;—thousands have perished thro' want, fatigue, merci­less punishment, cruelty and barbarity. If the blood of one man unjustly shed, calls loudly for vengeance, how strong must be the cry of that of so many unhap­py creatures which is shedding daily?’—The good bishop concluded his speech, with imploring the king's clemency for subjects so unjustly oppressed; and bravely declared, that heaven would one day call him to an account, for the numberless acts of cruelty which he might have prevented. The king applauded the bishop's zeal; promised to second it; but so many of the great ones had an interest in continuing the oppression, that nothing was done; so that all the In­dians in Hispaniola, except a few who [Page 52] had hid themselves in the most inaccessible mountains, were destroyed.

CHAP. V.

First account of the English trading to Guinea. Thomas Windham and seve­ral others go to that coast. Some of the Negroes carried of by the English. Queen Elizabeth's charge to captain Hawkins re­specting the natives: Nevertheless he goes on the coast and carries off some of the Negroes. Patents are granted. The king of France objects to the Negroes be­ing kept in slavery: As do the college of Cardinals at Rome. The natives, an in­offensive people; corrupted by the Euro­peans. The sentiments of the natives concerning the slave-trade, from William Smith: Confirmed by Andrew Brue and James Barbot.

IT was about the year 1551, towards the latter end of the reign of king Edward the sixth, when some London merchants sent out the first English ship, on a trading voyage to the coast of Guinea; this was soon ollowed by several others to the same parts; [Page 53] but the English not having then any planta­tions in the West Indies, and consequently no occasion for Negroes, such ships traded only for gold, Elephants teeth and Guinea pepper. This trade was carried on at the hazard of losing their ships and cargoes, if they had fallen into the hands of the Portu­guese, who claimed an exclusive right of trade, on account of the several settlements they had made there. ^* In the year 1553, we find captain Thomas Windham trading along the coast with 140 men, in three ships, and sailing as far as Benin, which lies about 3000 miles down the coast, to take in a load of pepper. ^† Next year John Lock traded a­long the coast of Guinea, as far as D'Elmina, when he brought away considerable quanti­ties of gold and ivory. He speaks well of the natives, and says, ^‡ ‘ That whoever will deal with them must behave civilly, for they will not traffic if ill used.’. In 1555, William Towerson traded in a peaceable manner with the natives, who made com­plaint to him of the Portuguese, who were then settled in their castle at D'Elmina, say­ing, ‘ They were bad men, who made them slaves if they could take them, putting irons on their legs.’

[Page 54] This bad example of the Portuguese, was soon followed by some evil disposed English­men, for the same captain Towerson relates, ‘ ^†That in the course of his voyage, he perceived the natives, near D'Elmina, un­willing to come to him, and that he was at last attacked by them; which he un­derstood was done in revenge for the wrong done them, the year before, by one captain Gainsh, who had taken away the Negro captain's son, and three others, with their gold &c. this caused them to join the Portuguese, notwithstanding their hatred of them, against the Eng­lish.’ The next year captain Towerson brought these men back again; whereupon the Negroes shew'd him much kindness. ^‡ Quickly after this another instance of the same kind occurred, in the case of captain George Fenner, who, being on the coast with three vessels, was also attacked by the Negroes, who wounded several of his peo­ple, and violently carried three of his men to their town. The captain sent a messen­ger, offering any thing they desired for the ransom of his men; but they refused to de­liver them, letting him know, ‘ That three weeks before, an English ship which [Page 55] came in the road, had carried off three of their people, and that till they were brought again they would not restore his men, even tho' they should give their three ships to release them.’ It was probably the evil conduct of these and some other Englishmen, which was the occasion of what is mentioned in Hill's naval history, viz. ‘That when cap­tain Hawkins returned from his first voy­age to Africa, Queen Elizabeth sent for him, when she expressed her concern, least any of the African Negroes should be carried off without their free consent; which she declared would be detestable, and would call down the vengeance of heaven upon the undertakers.’ Hawkins made great promises, which nevertheless he did not perform, for his next voyage to the coast appears to have been principally cal­culated to procure Negro slaves; in order to sell them to the Spaniards in the West In­dies; which occasioned the same author to use these remarkable words. ‘ Here began the horrid practice of forcing the Africans in­to slavery, an injustice and barbarity, which, so sure as there is vengeance in heaven for the worst of crimes will sometime be the de­struction of all who act or who encourage it.’ This captain Hawkins, afterwards sir John Hawkins, seems to have been the first Eng­lishman who gave public countenance to this [Page 56] wicked traffic: For Anderson before menti­oned, at page 401, says, ‘That in the year 1562, captain Hawkins, assisted by subscription of sundry gentlemen, now fitted out three ships, and having learnt that Negroes were a very good commodi­ty in Hispaniola, he sailed to the coast of Guinea, took in Negroes, and sailed with them for Hispaniola, where he sold them, and his English commodities, and loaded his three vessels with hides, sugar and ginger, &c. with which he returned home, anno. 1563, making a prosperous voyage.’ As it proved a lucrative busi­ness, the trade was continued both by Hawkins and others, as appears from the na­val chronicle, page 55, where it is said, ‘That on the 18th of October, 1564, cap­tain John Hawkins with, two ships of 700 and 140 tuns sailed for Africa, that on the 8th December they anchored to the south of Cape Verd, where the captain manned the boat, and sent eighty men in armour, in the country; to see if they could take some Negroes, but the natives flying from them, they returned to their ships, and proceeded farther down the coast; here they staid certain days, send­ing their men ashore, in order, as the au­thor says, to burn and spoil their towns and take the inhabitants. The land they [Page 57] observed to be well cultivated, there be­ing plenty of grain and fruit of several sorts, and the towns prettily laid out. On the 25th, being informed by the Portu­guese, of a town of Negroes called Bym­ba, where there was not only a quantity of gold, but 140 inhabitants, they resolv­ed to attack it, having the Portuguese for their guide; but by mismanagement they took but ten Negroes, having seven of their own men killed and 27 wounded. They then went farther down the coast, when having procured a number of Ne­groes, they proceeded to the West Indies, where they sold them to the Spaniards.’ And in the same naval chronicle, at page 76, it is said, ‘That in the year 1567, Francis Drake, before performing his voyage round the world, went with sir John Hawkins, in his expedition to the coast of Guinea, where taking in a cargoe of slaves, they determined to steer for the Carribee Islands.’ How queen Elizabeth suffered so grievous an infringement of the rights of mankind to be perpetrated by her subjects; and how she was persuaded about the 30th year of her reign, to grant patents for carrying on a trade from the north part of the river Senegal, to an hundred leagues beyond Siera Leona, which gave rise to the present African company, is hard to account [Page 58] for, any otherwise than to have arisen from the misrepresentation made to her of the si­tuation of the Negroes, and of the advan­tages, it was pretended, they would reap from being made acquainted with the christian religion. This was the case of Lewis the 13th, king of France, who Labat, in his account of the isles of America, tells us, ‘Was extreamly uneasy at a law by which the Negroes of his colonies were to be made slaves; but it being strongly urged to him, as the readiest means for their conversion to christianity, he acquiesed therewith.’ Nevertheless, some of the christian powers did not so easily give way in this matter, for we find, ‘ ^† That cardi­nal Cibo, one of the Pope's principal mi­nisters of state, wrote a letter on behalf of the college of cardinals or great coun­cil at Rome, to the missionaries in Congo, complaining that the pernicious and abo­minable abuse of selling slaves was yet con­tinued; requiring them to remedy the same if possible, but this the missionaries saw little hopes of accomplishing, by rea­son that the trade of the country lay wholly in slaves and ivory.’

From the foregoing accounts, as well as o­ther authentick publications of this kind, it appears that, it was the lust of unwarrantable [Page 59] gain, which first stimulated the Portuguese, and afterwards other Europeans, to engage in this horrid traffick. By the most authen­tick relations of those early times the natives were an inoffensive people, who when civil­ly used, traded amicably with the Europe­ans. Its recorded of those of Benin, the largest kingdom in Guinea, ^† That they were a gentle loving people, and Reynold says, ‘ ^‡ They found more sincere proofs of love and good will from the natives, than they could find from the Spaniards and Portuguese, even tho' they had relieved them from the greatest misery.’ And from the same relations there is no reason to think otherwise but that they generally lived in peace amongst themselves; for I don't find, in the nume­rous publications I have perused on this sub­ject, relating to these early times, of there be­ing wars on that coast, nor of any sale of cap­tives taken in battle, who would have been otherwise sacrificed by the victors ^*: Not­withstanding [Page 60] some modern authors, in their publications, relating to the West Indies, desirous of throwing a vail over the iniquity of the slave trade, have been hardy enough, upon meer supposition or report, to assert the contrary.

It was long after the Portuguese had made a practice of violently forcing the na­tives of Africa into slavery, that we read of the different Negroe nations making war up­on each other, and selling their captives. And probably this was not the case, till those bordering on the coast, who had been used to supply the vessels with necessaries, had become corrupted, by their inter­course with the Europeans, and were exci­ted by drunkenness and avarice to join them in carrying on those wicked schemes; by which those unnatural wars were perpetrat­ed; the inhabitants kept in continual alarms; the country laid waste; and as William Moor expresses it, Infinite numbers sold into slavery; but that the Europeans are the principal cause of these devastations, is particularly eviden­ced by one, whose connection with the trade [Page 61] would rather induce him to represent it in the fairest colours, to wit, William Smith, the person sent in the year 1726, by the A­frican company to survey their settlements; who, from the information he received of one of the factors, who had resided ten years in that country, says, ‘ ^† That the dis­cerning natives account it their greatest un­happiness that they were ever visited by the Europeans.—That we christians intro­duced the traffick of slaves, and that before our coming they lived in peace.’

In the accounts relating to the A­frican trade, we find this melancholy truth farther asserted, by some of the principal directors in the different factories, particular­ly A. Brue says, ‘ ^‡ That the Europeans were far from desiring to act as peace-makers a­mongst the Negroes, which would be acting contrary to their interest, since the greater the wars the more slaves were procured.’ And William Bosman also remarks, ‘ ^‖ That one of the former commanders gave large sums of money to the Negroes of one nation to induce them to attack some of the neighbouring nati­ons, which occasioned a battle which was more bloody than the wars of the Negroes usu­ally [Page 62] are.’ This is confirmed by J. Bar­bot, who says, ‘ That the country of D'El­mina, which was formerly very powerful and populous, was in his time so much drained of its inhabitants, by the intestine wars, fo­mented amongst the Negroes by the Dutch, that there did not remain enough inhabitants to till the country.’

CHAP. VI.

The conduct of the Europeans and Africans compared. Slavery more tole­rable amongst the ancients than in our co­lonies. As christianity prevailed amongst the barbarous nations, the inconsistency of Slavery became more apparent. The charters of manumission, granted in the early times of christianity, founded on an apprehension of duty to God. The an­cient Britons and other European nations, in their original state, no less barbarous than the Negroes. Slaves in Guinea used with much greater lenity than the Ne­groes are in the colonies.—Note. How the slaves are treated in Algiers; as also in Turkey.

SUCH is the woeful corruption of human nature, that every practice which flat­ters our pride and covetousness, will find its advocates; this is manifestly the case in the matter before us: the savageness of the Negroes, in some of their customs, and par­ticularly their deviating so far from the feel­ings of humanity, as to join in captivating [Page 64] and selling each other, gives their interested oppressors a pretence for representing them as unworthy of liberty, and the natural rights of mankind; but those sophisters turn the argument full upon themselves, when they instigate the poor creatures to such shocking impiety, by every means that satanick subtilty can suggest; thereby shewing in their own conduct a more glaring proof of the same depravity, and, if there was any reason in the argument, a greater unfitness for the same precious enjoyment; for though some of the ignorant Africans may be thus corrupted by their intercourse with the baser of the European natives, and the use of strong liquors, this is no excuse for high professing christians, (bred in a civilized country, with so many advantages unknown to the Africans; and pretending to a superior degree of gospel light.) Nor can it justify them in raising up fortunes to themselves, from the misery of others, and calmly projecting voyages for the sei­zure of men, naturally as free as themselves; and who, they know, are no otherwise to be procured, than by such barbarous means, as none but those hardned wretches who are lost to every sense of christian compassion, can make use of. Let us diligently compare and impartially weigh the situation of those ignorant Negroes, and these enlightened [Page 65] christians; then lift up the scale and say, which of the two are the greater savages.

Slavery has been of a long time in prac­tice in many parts of Asia; it was also in usage among the Romans when that empire flourished; but, except in some particular instances, it was rather a reasonable servitude, no ways comparable to the unreasonable and unnatural service extorted from the Negroes in our colonies. A late learned author ^* speaking of those times which succeeded the dissolution of that empire accquaints us, that as christianity prevailed, it very much removed those wrong prejudices and prac­tices, which had taken root in darker times: after the irruption of the northern nations, and the introduction of the feu­dal or military government; whereby the most extensive power was lodged in a few members of society, to the depression of the rest; the common people were little better than slaves, and many were indeed such: but as christianity gained ground, the gentle spirit of that religion, together with the doc­trines it teaches, concerning the original equality of mankind; as well as the impar­tial eye with which the almighty regards men of every condition, and admits them to a participation of his benefits; so far mani­fested [Page 66] the inconsistency of slavery with chris­tianity, that to set their fellow christians at liberty was deemed an act of piety, high­ly meritorious and acceptable to God. ^* [Page 67] Accordingly a great part of the charters granted for the manumission or freedom of slaves about that time, are granted pro amore Dei, for the love of God, pro mercede animae, to obtain mercy to the soul. Manumission was frequently granted on death bed, or by latter wills. As the minds of men are at that time awakened to sentiments of humanity and piety, these deeds proceeded from reli­gious motives. The same author remarks, That there are several forms of those manu­missions still extent, all of them founded on religious considerations; and in order to procure the favour of God. Since that time the prac­tice of keeping men in slavery gradually ceased amongst christians, till it was renewed in the case before us. And as the prevalen­cy of the spirit of christianity caused men to emerge from the darkness they then lay under, in this respect; so it is much to be feared, that so great a deviation therefrom, by the encouragement given to the slavery of the Negroes in our colonies, if continued, will by degrees reduce those countries which support and encourage it; but more imme­diately [Page 68] those parts of America which are in the practice of it, to the ignorance and barbarity of the darkest ages.

If instead of making slaves of the Negroes, the nations who assume the name and cha­racter of christians, would use their endea­vours to make the nations of Africa ac­quainted with the nature of the christian religion, to give them a better sense of the true use of the blessings of life, the more beneficial arts and customs would, by de­grees, be introduced amongst them; this care probably would produce the same ef­fect upon them, which it has had on the in­habitants of Europe, (formerly as savage and barbarous as the natives of Africa.) Those cruel wars amongst the blacks would be likely to cease, and a fair and ho­norable commerce, in time, take place throughout that vast country. It was by these means that the inhabitants of Eu­rope, though formerly a barbarous people, became civilized. Indeed the account Ju­lius Caesar gives of the ancient Britains in their state of ignorance is not such as should make us proud of ourselves, or lead us to despise the unpolished nations of the earth, for he informs us, ‘That they lived in many respects like our Indians, being clad with skins, painting their bodies, &c.’ He also adds, ‘That they brother with brother, [Page 69] and parents with children had wives in common.’ A greater barbarity than any heard of amongst the Negroes. Nor doth Tacitus give a more honourable account of the Germans, from whom the Saxons, our immediate ancestors, sprung. The Danes, who succeeded them, (who may also be numbered among our progenitors) were full as bad, if not worse.

It is usual for people to advance as a pal­liation in favour of keeping the Negroes in bondage, that there are slaves in Guinea, and that those amongst us might be so in their own country; but let such consider the in­consistency of our giving any countenance to slavery because the Africans, whom we esteem a barbarous and savage people, allow of it, and perhaps the more from our example. Had the professors of christianity acted in­deed as such, they might have been instru­mental to convince the Negroes of their er­ror in this respect; but even this, when inquired into, will be to us an occasion of blushing, if we are not hardned to every sense of shame, rather than a palliation of our iniquitous conduct, as it will appear that the slavery endured in Guinea, and other parts of Africa, and in Asia, ^*is by [Page 70] no means so grievous as that in our colo­nies. William Moor speaking of the natives [Page 71] living on the river Gambia, ^† says, ‘That some of the Negroes have many house slaves, which is their greatest glory; that those slaves live so well and easy, that it is sometimes a hard matter to know the slaves from their masters or mistresses. And that though in some parts of Africa, they fell their slaves born in the family, yet on the river Gambia they think it a very wicked thing.’ The author adds, ‘He 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.’ And in Astley's collection speaking of the customs of the Negroes in that large extent of country [Page 72] further down the Coast particularly denomi­nated the Coast of Guinea, It is said, ^† ‘They have not many slaves on the Coast, none but the king or nobles are permitted to buy or sell any, so that they are allow­ed only what are necessary for their fami­lies, or tilling the ground,’ the same author adds, ‘ That they generally use their slaves well, and seldom correct them.’

CHAP. VII.

Montesquieu's sentiments on slave­ry. Moderation enjoined by the Mo­saic law in the punishment of offenders. Morgan Godwyn's account of the con­tempt and grievous rigour exercised upon the Negroes in his time. Account from Jamaica relating to the inhuman treatment of them there. Bad effects attendant on slave keeping; as well to the masters as the slaves. Extracts from several laws relating to Negroes. Rich­ard Baxter's sentiments on slave keeping.

THAT celebrated civillian Montesquieu, in his treatise on the spirit of laws, on the article of slavery says, ‘ It is neither [Page 73] useful to the master nor slave; to the slave, because he can do nothing through principle (or virtue,) to the master because he con­tracts with his slave all sorts of bad habits, insensibly accustoms himself to want all moral virtues, becomes, haughty, hasty, hard hearted, passionate, voluptuous and cruel.’ The lamentable truth of this assertion was quickly verified in the English plantations. When the practice of slave keeping was in­troduced, it soon produced its natural effects; it reconciled men of otherwise good dispositions to the most hard and cruel measures. It quickly proved what under the law of Moses was apprehended would be the consequence of unmerciful chastise­ments. Deut. xxv. 2. ‘ And it shall be if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number; forty stripes he may give him and not exceed.’ And the reason rendered is out of respect to human nature, viz. ‘ Lest if he should exceed and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee.’ As this effect soon followed the cause, the cruel­est measures were adopted, in order to make the most of the poor wretches labour; and in the minds of the masters such an idea was excited of inferiority in the nature of these [Page 74] their unhappy fellow creatures, that they soon esteemed and treated them as beasts of burden: pretending to doubt, and some of them, even presuming to deny, the efficacy of the death of Christ extended to them. Which is particularly noted in a book intitled the Negroes and Indian's advo­cate, dedicated to the then Archbishop of Canterbury: wrote so long since as in the year 1680, by Morgan Godwyn, thought to be a clergyman of the church of England. ^* The same spirit of sympathy and zeal which [Page 75] stirred up the good Bishop of Chapia to plead with so much energy the kindred cause [Page 76] of the Indians of America, an hundred and fifty years before, was equally operating about a century past on the minds of some of the well disposed of that day, amongst others this worthy clergyman, having been an eye witness of the oppression and cruelty exer­cised upon the Negro and Indian slaves, endeavoured to raise the attention of those in whose power it might be to procure them relief; amongst other matters in his address to the Archbishop, he remarks in substance, ‘That the people of the of island Barbadoes were not content with exercising the greatest hardness and barbarity upon the Negroes, in making the most of their labour, without any regard to the calls of humanity; but that they had suffered such a slight and undervalument to prevail in their minds, towards these their oppressed fellow creatures, as to discourage any step being taken whereby they might be made acquainted with the christian religion. That their conduct towards their slaves was such as gave him reason to believe, that either they had suffered a spirit of infidelity, a spirit quite contrary to the nature of the gospel, to prevail in them, or that it must be their established opinion, that the Negroes had no more souls than beasts; that hence they concluded them to be neither susceptible of religious im­pressions, [Page 77] nor fit objects for the redeeming grace of God to operate upon. That under this persuasion and from a disposi­tion of cruelty, they treated them with far less humanity than they did their cattle: for says he, they do not starve their horses, which they expect should both carry and credit them on the road; nor pinch the cow, by whose milk they are sustained, which yet to their eternal shame, is too frequently the lot and condition of those poor people, from whose labour their wealth and livelihood doth wholly arise; not only in their diet, but in their cloathing and overworking some of them even to death; which is particularly the calamity of the most innocent and labo­rious; but also in tormenting and whip­ping them almost and sometimes quite to death, upon even small miscarriages. He apprehends it was from this prejudice against the Negroes that arose those super­cilious checks and frowns he frequently met with, when using innocent argu­ments and persuasions in the way of his duty as a minister of the gospel, to labour for the convincement and conversion of the Negroes; being repeatedly told, with spiteful scoffings, (even by some esteem­ed religious,) that the Negroes were no more susceptible of receiving benefit, by [Page 78] becoming members of the church, than their dogs and bitches; the usual answer he received when exhorting their masters to do their duty in that respect, being, What these black dogs be made christians: what they be made like us, with abundance more of the same? Nevertheless, he re­marks that the Negroes were capable, not only of being taught to read and write, &c. but divers of them eminent in the management of business. He de­clares them to have an equal right with us to the merits of Christ; of which, if through neglect or avarice they are de­prived, that judgment which was de­nounced against wicked Ahab, must befal us: Our life shall go for theirs. The loss of their souls will be required at our hands, to whom God hath given so blessed an opportunity of being instrumental to their salvation.’

He complains, ‘That they were suffer­ed to live with their women in no better way than direct fornication; no care being taken to oblige them to conti­nue together when married; but that they were suffered at their will, to leave their wives and take to other women. I shall conclude this sympathizing clergy­man's observations with an instance he gives, to shew that not only discou­ragements [Page 79] and scoffs, at that time prevailed in Barbadoes, to establish an opinion that the Negroes were not capa­ble of religious impressions; but that even violence and great abuses were used to prevent any thing of that kind taking place. It was in the case of a poor Negro, who having at his own request, prevail­ed on a clergyman to administer baptism to him, on his return home, the brutish overseer took him to task, giving him to understand that, that was no sundays work for those of his complexion, that he had other business for him, the neglect whereof should cost him an afternoon's baptism in blood, as he in the morning had received a baptism with water, (these says the parson were his own words,) which he accordingly made good, of which the Negroe complained to him, and he to the governor: nevertheless, the poor miserable creature was ever af­ter so unmercifully treated by that inhu­man wretch, the overseer, that to avoid his cruelty, betaking himself to the woods, he there perished.’ This instance is ap­plicable to none but the cruel perpetrator, and yet it is an instance of what, in a greater or less degree, may frequently happen when those poor wretches are left to the will of such brutish inconsiderate creatures as those [Page 80] overseers often are. This is confirmed in a History of Jamaica wrote in thirteen let­ters, about the year 1740, by a person then residing in that island who writes, as follows," ‘I shall not now enter upon the question whether the slavery of the Ne­groes be agreeable to the laws of nature or not, though it seems extreamly hard they should be reduced to serve and toil for the benefit of others, without the least advantage to themselves. Happy Britannia where slavery is never known; where liber­ty and freedom chears every misfortune. here ( says the author,) we can boast of no such blessing; we have at least ten slaves to one freeman. I incline to touch the hardships which these poor creatures suffer, in the tenderest manner, from a particular regard which I have to many of their masters; but I cannot con­ceal their sad circumstances intirely: the most trivial error is punished with terri­ble whipping. I have seen some of them treated in that cruel manner, for no other reason but to satisfy the brutish pleasure of an overseer, who has their punishment mostly at his discretion. I have seen their bodies all in a gore of blood, the skin torn off their backs with the cruel whip; beaten pepper and salt rubbed in the wounds, and a large stick of sealing wax [Page 81] dropped leisurely upon them. It is no wonder, if the horrid pain of such inhu­man tortures incline them to rebel. Most of these slaves are brought from the coast of Guinea: When they first arrive, it's observed they are simple and very inno­cent creatures; but soon turn to be roguish enough: And when they come to be whipt, urge the example of the whites for an excuse of their faults.’

These accounts of the deep depravity of mind attendant on the practice of slavery, verify the truth of Montesquieu's remarks of its pernicious effects. And altho' the same degree of opposition to instructing the Ne­groes may not now appear in the islands as formerly; especially since the society ap­pointed for propagating the Gospel have possessed a number of Negroes in one of them; nevertheless the situation of these oppressed people is yet dreadful, as well to themselves, as in its consequences to their hard task-mas­ters, and their offspring, as must be evident to every impartial person who is acquainted with the treatment they generally receive, or with the laws which from time to time have been made in the colonies, with respect to the Negroes; some of them being absolute­ly inconsistant with reason, and shocking to humanity. By the 329th act of the as­sembly of Barbadoes, page 125, it is enact­ed [Page 82] ‘That if any Negroe or other slave un­der punishment, by his master or his or­der, for running away, or any other crime or misdemeanors, towards his said master, unfortunately shall suffer in life or member, (which seldom happens,) no person whatsoever shall be liable to any fine therefore. But if any man shall, of wantonness, or only of bloody mindedness or cruel intention, willfully kill a Negro or other slave of his own, he shall pay into the publick treasury, fifteen pounds sterling.’ Now that the life of a man should be so lightly valued, as that fifteen pounds should be judged a sufficient indemnification of the murder of a man, even when it is avowedly done will­fully, wantonly, cruelly or of bloody mindedness, is a tyranny hardly to be parrellel'd; never­theless human laws cannot make void the righteous law of God, or prevent the inqui­sition of that awful judgment day, when, ‘ at the hand of every man's brother the life of man shall be required.’ By the law of South-Carolina, the person that killeth a Negro is only subject to a fine or twelve months imprisonment: It is the same in most, if not all the West-Indies. And by an act of the assembly of Virginia, (4 Ann. Ch. 49. sect. 27. p. 227.) After proclamation is is issued against slaves. ‘That run away and lie out, it is lawful for any person what­soever [Page 83] to kill and destroy such slaves, by such ways and means, as he, she or they shall think fit, without accusation or impeachment of any crime for the same.’—And lest pri­vate interest should incline the planter to mercy, it is provided, ‘ That every slave so killed in pursuance of this act, shall be paid for by the publick.’

It was doubtless, a like sense of sympathy with that expressed by Morgan Godwyn, before mentioned, for the oppressed Negroes, and like zeal for the cause of religion, so ma­nifestly trampled upon in the case of the Negroes, which induced Richard Baxter, an eminent preacher amongst the dissenters in the last century, in his christian directory, to express himself as follows, viz. ‘Do you mark how God hath followed you with plagues, and may not conscience tell you, that it is for your inhumanity to the souls and bodies of men.—To go as pi­rates and catch up poor Negroes, or people of another land, that never forfeited life or liberty, and to make them slaves, and sell them, is one of the worst kinds of thievery in the world; and such persons, are to be taken for the common enemies of mankind, and they that buy them and use them as beasts for their meer commodi­ty, and betray, or destroy, or neglect their [Page 84] souls, are fitter to be called devils incarnate than christians: It is an henious sin to buy them, unless it be in charity to deliver them. Undoubtedly they are presently bound to deliver them, because by right the man is his own, therefore no man else can have a just title to him.’

CHAP. VIII.

Griffith Hughes's account of the number of Negroes in Barbadoes. Cannot keep up their usual number with­out a yearly recruit. Excessive hard­ships wears the Negroes down in a sur­prising manner. A servitude without a condition, inconsistant with reason and na­tural justice. The general usage the Ne­groes meet with in the West Indies. In­human calculations of the strength and lives of the Negroes. Dreadful conse­quences which may be expected from the cruelty exercised upon this oppressed part of mankind.

WE are told by Griffith Hughes, rec­tor of St. Lucy in Barbadoes, in his natural history of that island, printed in the year 1750, ‘That there was between sixty five and seventy thousand Negroes, at that time, in the island, tho' formerly they had a greater number: That in or­der to keep up a necessary number, they were obliged to have a yearly supply from Africa: That the hard labour, and often [Page 86] want of necessaries, which these unhappy creatures are obliged to undergo, destroy a greater number than are bred there.’ He adds, ‘That the capacities of their minds in common affairs of life are but little in­ferior, if at all, to those of the Europeans. If they fail in some arts, he says, it may be owing more to their want of education and the depression of their spirits by sla­very, than to any want of natural abili­ties.’ This destruction of the human species, thro' unnatural hardships, and want of necessary supplies, in the case of the Ne­groes is farther confirmed in an account of the European settlements in America, printed London, 1757, where it is said, par. 6. chap. 11th. ‘The Negroes in our colonies en­dure a slavery more compleat, 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. The island of Barbadoes (the Ne­groes upon which do not amount to eigh­ty thousand) notwithstanding all the means which they use to encrease them, by propagation, and that the climate is [Page 87] in every respect (expect that of being more wholesome) exactly resembling the climate from whence they come; not­withstanding all this, Barbadoes lies under a necessity of an annual recruit of five thousand slaves, to keep up the stock at the number I have mentioned. This pro­digious failure, which is at least in the same proportion in all our islands, shews demonstratively that some uncommon and unsupportable hardship lies upon the Ne­groes, which wears them down in such a surprising manner.’

In an account of part of North America, published by Thomas Jeffery 1761, the au­thor speaking of the usage the Negroes re­ceive in the West India islands, says, ‘It is impossible for a human heart to reflect up­on the servitude 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. One would imagine, they were framed to be the disgrace of the human species, banish­ed from their country, and deprived of that blessing liberty, on which all other nations set the greatest value; they are in a measure reduced to the condition of beasts of burden. In general a few roots, potatoes especially, are their food, and [Page 88] two rags, which neither screen them from the heat of the day, nor the extraordinary coolness of the night, all their covering; their sleep very short; their labour almost continual: they receive no wages, but have twenty lashes for the smallest fault.’ A thoughtful person, who had an opportuni­ty of observing the miserable condition of the Negroes, in one of our West India islands, writes thus, ‘I met with daily ex­ercise to see the treatment which those miserable wretches met with, from their masters; with but few exceptions. They whip them most unmercifully on small occasions: you will see their bodies all whaled and scarred; in short, they seem to set no other value on their lives, than as they cost them so much money, and are restrained from killing them, when angry, by no worthier consideration, than that they lose so much. They act as though they did not look upon them as a race of hu­man creatures, who have reason, and re­membrance of misfortunes; but as beasts, like oxen, who are stubborn, hardy and senseless; fit for burdens and designed to bear them: they wont allow them to have any claim to human privileges, or scarce indeed, to be regarded as the work of God. Though it was consistent with the justice of our maker to pronounce [Page 89] the sentence on our common parent, and through him on all succeeding genera­tions, That he and they should eat their bread by the sweat of their brows: yet does it not stand recorded by the same eternal truth, That the labourer is worthy of his hire? It cannot be allowed, in natural justice, that there should be a servi­tude without condition, a cruel, endless, servitude. It cannot be reconcileable to natural justice, that whole nations, nay whole continents of men, should be de­voted to do the drudgery of life for others, be dragged away from their attachments of relations and societies, and be made to serve the appetite and pleasure of a race of men, whose superiority has been ob­tained by illegal force.’

Sir Hans Sloan in the introduction to his natural history of Jamaica in the account he gives of the treatment the Negroes met with there, speaking of the punishments inflicted on them, says, page 56 ‘For rebellion the punishment is burning them by nailing them down on the ground, with crook­ed sticks on every limb, and then apply­ing the fire by degrees from the feet and hands, burning them gradually up to the head, whereby their pains are extrava­gant. For crimes of a less nature, gelding or chopping off half the foot with an axe. [Page 90] —For negligence, they are usually whipped by the overseers with lance-wood switches.—After they are whipped till they are raw, some put on their skins pepper and salt to make them smart; at other times their masters will drop melted wax on their skins, and use several very exquisite torments.’ In that island the owners of the Negroe slaves, set aside to each a parcel of ground, and allow them half a day at the latter end of the week, which with the day appointed, by the divine in­junction, to be a day of rest and service to God, and which ought to be kept as such, is the only time allowed them to manure their ground. This with a few herrings, or other salt fish, is what is given for their support. Their allowance for cloathing in the island is seldom more than six yards of oznabrigs each year. And in the more northern colonies, where the piercing west­erly winds are long and sensibly felt, these poor Africans suffer much for want of suffi­cient cloathing, indeed some have none till they are able to pay for it by their labour. The time that the Negroes work in the West Indies, is from day break till noon; then again from two o'clock till dark, (dur­ing which time they are attended by over­seers who severely scourge those who appear to them dilatory,) and before they are suf­fered [Page 91] to go to their quarters, they have still something to do, as collecting herbage for the horses, gathering fewel for the boilers, &c. so that it is often past twelve before they can get home; when they have scarce time to grind and boil their Indian corn: whereby if their food was not prepared the evening before, it sometimes happens, that they are called again to labour before they can satisfy their hunger. And here no delay or excuse will avail, for if they are not in the field immediately upon the usual notice, they must expect to feel the overseers lash. In crop time (which lasts many months,) they are obliged (by turns,) to work most of the night, in the boiling house. Thus their owners from a desire of making the greatest gain by the labour of their slaves, lay heavy burdens on them, and yet feed and cloath them very sparingly, and some scarce feed or cloath them at all; so that the poor creatures are obliged to shift for their living in the best manner they can; which occasions their being often killed in the neighbouring lands, stealing potatoes or other food, to satisfy their hunger. And if they take any thing from the plantation they belong to, though under such pressing want, their owners will correct them severely, for taking a little of what they have so hardly laboured for; whilst many of themselves riot in the greatest [Page 92] luxury and excess. It is a matter of asto­nishment how a people who, as a nation, are looked upon as generous and humane, and so much value themselves for their uncom­mon sense of the benefit of liberty, can live in the practice of such extreme oppression and inhumanity, without seeing the incon­sistency of such conduct, and feeling great remorse. Nor is it less amazing to hear these men calmly making caculations about the strength and lives of their fellow men; in Jamaica if six in ten, of the new imported Negroes survive the seasoning, it is looked upon as a gaining purchase. And in most of the other plantations, if the negroes live eight or nine years, their labour is reckoned a sufficient compensation for their cost. If calculations of this sort were made upon the strength and labour of beasts of burden it would not appear so strange, but even then a merciful man would certainly use his beast with more mercy than is usually shewn to the poor Negroes. Will not the groans, the dying groans, of this deeply afflicted and op­pressed people reach heaven, and when the cup of iniquity is full, must not the inevit­able consequence, be the pouring forth of the judgments of God upon their oppressors? But alas! is it not too manifest that this op­pression has already long been the object of the divine displeasure? For what heavier [Page 93] judgment, what greater calamity can befal any people, than to become subject to that hardness of heart, that forgetfulness of God, and insensibility to every religious impres­sion; as well as that general depravation of manners, which so much prevails in these colonies, in proportion as they have more or less enriched themselves at the expence of the blood and bondage of the Negroes.

It is a dreadful consideration, as a late author remarks, that out of the stock of eighty thousand Negroes in Barbadoes, there die every year five thousand more than are born in that island; which failure is probably in the same proportion in the other islands. In effect this people is under a necessity of being entirely renewed every sixteen years. And what must we think of the management of a people, who far from increasing greatly, as those who have no loss by war ought to do, must in so short a time as sixteen years, without foreign recruits, be entirely con­sumed to a man. Is it not a christian doc­trine, that the labourer is worthy of his hire? and hath not the Lord by the mouth of his prophet pronounced ‘ wo unto that man who buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong, who uses his neighbours service without wages, and giveth him nought for his work?’ And yet the poor Negroe slaves are constrained, like the beasts, by [Page 94] beating to work hard without hire or recom­pence, and receive nothing from the hand or their unmerciful masters, but such a wretched provision as will scarce support them under their fatigues. The intolerable hardships many of the slaves undergo is suffi­ciently proved by the shortness of their lives.—And who are these miserable crea­tures that receive such barbarous treatment from the planters? Can we restrain our just indignation when we consider that they are undoubtedly his brethren! his neigh­bours! the children of the same father; and some of those for whom Christ died, as truly as for the planter himself. Let the opulent planter or merchant prove that his Negroe slave is not his brother; or that he is not his neighbour, in the scripture sense of these appellations; and if he is not able to do so, how will he justify the buying and selling of his brethren, as if they were of no more consideration than his cattle? The wearing them out with continual labour, before they have lived out half their days? The severe whip­ping and torturing them even to death, if they resist his insupportable tyranny. Let the hardiest slave-holder look forward to that tremendous day, when he must give an account to God of his stewardship, and let him seriously consider, whether at such a time, he thinks, he shall be able to satisfy [Page 95] himself, that any act of buying and selling, or the fate of war, or the birth of children, in his house, plantation, or territories, or any other circumstance whatever, can give him such an absolute property in the persons of men, as will justify his retaining them as slaves, and treating them as beasts. Let him diligently consider whether there will not always remain to the slave a superior proper­ty or right to the fruit of his own labour; and more especially to his own person, that being which was given him by God, and which none but the giver can justly claim.

CHAP. IX.

THE advantage which would have accrued to the natives of Guinea, if the Europeans had acted towards them agreeable to the dictates of humanity and christanity. An inordinate desire of gain in the Europeans, the true occasion of the slave trade. Notice of the misre­prensations of the Negroes, by most au­thors, in order to palliate the iniquity of the slave trade. Those misrepresentations refuted, particularly with respect to the Hottentot Negroes.

FROM the foregoing accounts of the natural disposition of the Negroes, and the fruitfulness of most parts of Guinea, which are confirmed by authors of can­dour, who have wrote from their own knowledge, it may well be concluded, that the Negroes accquaintance with the Euro­peans might have been a happiness to them, if these last had not only bore the name, but had also acted the part of Christians, and used their endeavours by example as well as precept, to make them acquainted with the [Page 97] glad tidings of the gospel; which breathes peace and good will to man, and with that change of heart, that redemption from sin, which christianity proposeth; innocence and love might then have prevailed, nothing would have been wanting to compleat the happiness of the simple Africans: but the reverse has happened; the Europeans for­getful of their duty, as men, and chris­tians, have conducted in so iniquitous a manner, as must necessarily raise in the minds of the thoughtful and well disposed Negroes, the utmost scorn and detestation of the very name of christians. All other considerations have given way to an insati­able desire of gain, which has been the principal and moving cause of the most ini­quitous and dreadful scene that was, perhaps, ever acted upon the face of the earth; in­stead of making use of that superior know­ledge, with which the Almighty, the common parent of mankind, had favoured them, to strengthen the principle of peace and good will in the breasts of the incautious Negroes; the Europeans have, by their bad example, led them into excess of drunkenness, debauch­ery and avarice; whereby every passion of corrupt nature being inflamed, they have been easily prevailed upon to make war, and captivate one another; as well to furnish means for the excsses they had been habi­tuated [Page 98] to, as to satify the greedy desire of gain in their profligate employers; who to this intent have furnished them with prodi­gious quantities of arms and amunition. Thus they have been hurried into confusion, distress and all the extremities of temporal misery; every thing, even the power of their kings, has been made subservient to this wicked purpose, for instead of being protectors of their subjects, some of those rulers corrupted by the excessive love of spirituous liquors, and the tempting baits laid before them by the factors, have invad­ed the liberties of their unhappy subjects, and are become their oppressors.

Here it may be necessary to observe, that the accounts we have of the inhabitants of Guinea, are chiefly given by persons engag­ed in the trade, who, from self interested views, have described them in such colours as were least likely to excite compassion and respect, and endeavoured to reconcile so manifest a violation of the rights of mankind to the minds of the purchasers; yet they cannot but allow the Negroes to be posessed of some good qualities, though they contrive as much as possible to cast a shade over them. A particular instance of this appears in Ast­ley's collection 2 vol. p. 73, where the au­thor speaking of the Mandingo's settled at Galem, which is situated 900 miles up the [Page 99] Senegal, after saying that they carry on a commerce to all the neighbouring king­doms, and amass riches, adds, ‘That ex­cepting the vices peculiar to the blacks, they are a good sort of people, honest, hospi­table, just to their word, laborious, indus­trious and very ready to learn arts and sciences.’ Here it is difficult to imagine what vices can be peculiarly attendant on a people so well disposed as the author de­scribes these to be. With respect to the charge some authors have brought against them as being void of all natural affection, it is frequently contradicted by others: in the 2 vol. of the collec. p. 275, and 629, the Negroes of North Guinea, and the Gold Coast, are said, to be fond of their Child­ren, whom they love with tenderness. And Bosman says p. 340, ‘Not a few in his country ( viz. Holland) fondly imagine, that parents here fell their children; men their wives, and one brother the other; but those who think so deceive them­selves; for this never happens on any other account but that of necessity, or some great crime.’ The same is repeated by J. Barbot, page 326, and also confirmed by Sir Hans Sloan, in the introduction to his natural history of Jamaica; where speaking of the Negroes, he says, ‘They are usually thought to be haters of their own [Page 100] children, and therefore 'tis believed that they sell and dispose of them to strangers for money: but this is not true, for the Negroes of Guinea being divided into several captainships, as well as the Indians of America, have wars, and besides those slain in battle, many prisoners are taken, who are sold as slaves and brought thither; but the parents here although their child­ren are slaves for ever, yet have so great love for them, that no master dares sell, or give away one of their little ones, unless they care not whether their parents hang themselves or no.’ J. Barbot speaking of the occasion of the natives of Guinea being represented as a treacherous people, ascribes it to the Hollanders (and doubtless other Europeans,) usurping autho­rity, and fomenting divisions between the Negroes. At page 110 he says, ‘It is well known that many of the European nations trading amongst these people, have very unjustly and inhumanly, without any provocation, stolen away, from time to time, abundance of the people, not only on this coast, but almost every where in Guinea who have come on board their ships in a harmless and confiding manner, these they have in great numbers car­ried away, and sold in the plantations with other slaves, which they had purchased.’ [Page 101] And although some of the Negroes may be justly charged with indolence and suppiness, yet many others are frequently mentioned by authors as a careful, industrious and even laborious people. But nothing shews more clearly how unsafe it is to form a judgment of distant people from the accounts given of them by travellers, who have taken but a transient view of things, than the case of the Hottentots, viz. those several nations of Negroes who inhabit the most southern part of Africa; these people are represented, by several authors, who appear to have very much copied their relations one from the other, as so savage and barbarous as to have little of human, but the shape; but these accounts are strongly contradicted by others, particularly Peter Kolben has given a cir­cumstantial relation of the disposition and manners of those people. ^† He was a man of learning, sent from the court of Prussia, solely to make astronomical and natural ob­servations there; and having no interest in the slavery of the Negroes, had not the same inducement as most other relators had, to misrepresent the natives of Africa. He re­sided eight years at and about the Cape Good Hope, during which time he examin­ed with great care into the customs, manners [Page 102] and opinions of the Hottentots; whence he sets these people in a quite different light, from what they appeared in former authors, whom he corrects, and blames for the false­hoods they have wantonly told of them, at p. 61. he says, ‘The detail we have in seve­ral authors, are for the most part made up of inventions and hearsays, which gener­ally prove false.’—Nevertheless, he allows they are justly to be blamed for their sloth.— The love of liberty and indolence is their all: compulsion is death to them. While necessity obliges them to work, they are very tractable, obedient and faithful; but when they have got enough to satisfy the present want, they are deaf to all further entreaty. He also faults them for their nastiness, the effects of sloth, and for their love of drink; and the practice of some unnatural customs, which long use has established amongst them; which neverthe­less, from the general good disposition of these people, there is great reason to believe they might be persuaded to refrain from; if a truly christian care had been exten­ded towards them; he says, ‘They are eminently distinguished by ma­ny virtues, as their mutual benevo­lence, friendship and hospitality; they breathe kindness and good will, to one another; and seek all opportunities of obliging. Is a Hottentots assistance re­quired [Page 103] by one of his countrymen, he runs to give it; Is his advice asked he gives it with sincerity. Is his countryman in want, he relieves him to the utmost of his power.’ Their hospitallity extends even to European strangers: in travelling through the Cape countries, you meet with a chearful and open reception, in whatso­ever village you come to. In short he says, p. 339, ‘The integrity of the Hotten­tots; their strictness and celerity in the execution of justice, and their charity are equalled by few nations. In alliances their word is sacred; there being hardly any thing, they look upon as a fouller crime than breach of engagements. Theft and adultery they pu­nish with death.’ They firmly believe there is a God, the author of all things, whom they call the God of gods: but it does not appear that they have an institution of worship directly regarding this supreme Deity. When pressed on this article, they excuse themselves by a tradition, ‘ That their first parents so grievously offended this great God, that he cursed them and their posterity with hardness of heart; so that they know little about him, and have less in­clination to serve him.’ (As has been al­ready remarked,) These Hottentots are the only Negroe nations bordering on the sea, we read of, who are not concerned in mak­ing [Page 104] or keeping slaves. Those slaves made use of by the Hollanders at the Cape, are brought from other parts of Guinea. Num­bers of these people told the author, ‘That the vice they saw prevail amongst chris­tians; their avarice, their envy and hat­red of one another; their restless discon­tented tempers, their lasciviousness and injustice, were the things that principally kept the Hottentots from hearkening to christianity.’

Father Tachard a French jesuit famous for his travels in the East Indies, in his ac­count of these people, says, ‘The Hotten­tots have more honesty, love and libera­lity for one another, than are almost any where seen amongst christians.’

CHAP. X.

Man-stealing esteemed highly cri­minal and punishable by the laws of Guinea: No Negroes allowed to be sold for Slaves there but those deemed prison­ers of war, or in punishment for crimes. Some of the Negroe rulers, corrupted by the Europeans, violently infringe the laws of Guinea. The king of Barsailay noted in that respect.

BY an enquiry into the laws and customs formerly in use and still in force amongst the Negroes, particularly on the Gold Coast, it will be found, that provision was made for the general peace, and for the safety of individuals; even in W. Bosman's time, long after the Europeans had establish­ed the slave trade, the natives were not publicly enslaved, any otherwise than in punishment for crimes; when prisoners of war; or by a violent exertion of the power of their corrupted kings. Where any of the natives were stolen, in order to be sold to the Europeans, it was done secretly, or at least only connived at by those in power; [Page 106] this appears from Barbot and Bosman's ac­count of the matter, both agreeing that Man-stealing was not allowed on the Gold Coast. The first, ^† says, ‘ Kidnap­ping or stealing of human creatures is pu­nished there, and even sometimes with death.’ And W. Bosman, whose long residence on the coast, enabled him to speak with certainty, says ^‡ ‘ That the laws were se­vere against murder, thievery and adul­tery; and adds, That man-stealing was punished on the Gold Coast with rigid severity, and sometimes with death itself.’ Hence it may be concluded, that the sale of the greatest part of the Negroes to the Europeans is supported by violence, in defi­ance of the laws, through the knavery of their principal men ^*, who, (as is too often the case with those in European countries) under pretence of encouraging trade, and encreasing the public revenue, disregard the dictates of justice, and trample upon those liberties which they are appointed to pre­serve.

Fr. Moor also mentions, Man-stealing as being discountenanced by the Negroe Go­vernments [Page 107] on the river Gambia, and speaks of the inslaving the peaceable inhabitants, as a violence, which only happens un­der a corrupt administration of justice; he says, ‘ ^* The kings of that country generally advise with their head men, scarcely doing any thing of consequence, without consulting them first, except the king of Barsailay, who being subject to hard drinking is very absolute. It is to this king's insatiable thirst for brandy, that his subjects freedoms and fami­lies are in so precarious a situation; ^‡ Whenever this king wants goods or brandy, he sends a messenger to the Eng­lish Governor at James Fort, to desire he would send a sloop there with a cargo; this news, being not at all unwelcome, the Governor sends accordingly; against the arrival of the sloop, the King goes and ransacks some of his enemies towns, seizing the people, and selling them for such commodities as he is in want of, which commonly is brandy, guns, pow­der, balls, pistols and cutlasses for his at­tendants and soldiers; and coral and sil­ver for his wives and concubines; in case he is not at war with any neighbouring king, he then falls upon one of his own towns, which are numerous, and uses them in the same manner; He often [Page 108] goes with some of his troops by a town in the day time, and returning in the night, sets fire to three parts or it, and putting guards at the fourth, there seizes the people as they run out from the fire, he ties their arms behind them, and marches them either to Joar or Cohone, where he sells them to the Europeans.’

A. Brue, the French director gives much the same account, and says, ^* ‘That having received goods he wrote to the King, that if he had a sufficient num­ber of slaves, he was ready to trade with him. This prince, as well as the other Negroe monarchs, has always a sure way of supplying his deficiences, by selling his own subjects, for which they seldom want a pretence. The King had recourse to this method by seizing three hundred of his own people, and sent word to the director that he had the slaves rea­dy to deliver for the goods.’ It seems, the King wanted double the quantity of goods, which the factor would give him for these three hundred slaves; but the fac­tor refusing to trust him, as he was already in the company's debt, and perceiving that this refusal had put the king much out of temper, he proposed that he should give him a licence for taking so many more of his people, as the goods he still wanted were [Page 109] worth; but this the King refused, saying, ‘ It might occasion a disturbance amongst his subjects.’ ^* Except in the above in­stance, and some others, where the power of the Negroe Kings are unlawfully exerted over their subjects; the slave trade is carried on in Guinea with some regard to the laws of the country, which allow of none to be sold but prisoners taken in their national wars, or people adjudged to slavery in pu­nishments for crimes; but the largeness of [Page 110] the country, the number of kingdoms or commonwealths, and the great encourage­ment given by the Europeans, afford fre­quent pretences and opportunities to the bold designing profligates of one kingdom to surprize and seize, not only upon those of a neighbouring government, but also the weak and helpless of their own; ^* and the unhappy people taken on those occasions, are, with impunity, sold to the Europeans. These practices are doubtless disapproved of by the most considerate amongst the Ne­groes, for Bosman acquaints us, that even their national wars are not agreeable to such. He says ^† ‘If the person who occa­sioned the beginning of the war be taken, they will not easily admit him to ransom, though his weight in gold should be of­fered, for fear he should, in future, form some new design against their repose.’

CHAP. XI.

An account of the shocking inhu­manity used in the carrying on of the slave trade, as described by factors of diffe­rent nations, viz. By Francis Moor on the river Gambia, and by John Barbot, A. Brue and William Bosman thro' the coast of Guinea. Note. Of the large reve­nues arising to the kings of Guinea from the slave trade.

FIRST Francis Moor, factor for the Eng­lish African company on the river Gambia, ^† writes, ‘That there is a num­ber of Negro traders called joncoes or merchants, who follow the slave trade, as a business, their place of residence is so high up in the country, as to be six weeks travel from James Fort, which is situate at the mouth of that river. These merchants bring down elephants teeth, and in some years two thousand slaves, most of which they say, are prisoners taken in war. They buy them from the [Page 112] different princes, who take them; many of them are Bumbrongs and Petcharies; nations, who each of them have different languages, and are brought from a vast way inland. Their way of bringing them is tying them by the neck, with leathern thongs, at about a yard distance from each other, thirty or forty in a string, having generally a bundle of corn or elephants teeth upon each of their heads. In their way from the mountains, they travel thro' very great woods, where they cannot for some days get water; so they carry in skin bags enough to support them for a time. I cannot, (adds Moor) be certain of the number of merchants who follow this trade, but there may, perhaps, be about an hundred, who go up into the inland country, with the goods which they buy from the white men, and with them pur­chase, in various countries, gold, slaves, and elephants teeth. Besides the slaves which the merchants bring down, there are many bought along the river: These are either taken in war, as the former are, or men condemned for crimes; or else peo­ple stolen, which is very frequent.—Since the slave trade has been used all punishments are changed into slavery; there being an advantage on such condemnation, they [Page 113] strain for crimes very hard, in order to get the benefit of selling the criminal.’

John Barbot, the French factor, in his account of the manner by which the slaves are procured, says, ‘ ^† The slaves sold by the Negroes, are for the most part prison­ers of war, or taken in the incursions they make in their enemies territories; others are stolen away by their neigh­bours, when found abroad, on the road, or in the woods; or else in the corn fields, at the time of the year when their parents keep them there all the day to scare away the devouring small birds.’ Speaking of the transactions on that part of Guinea, called the Slave Coast, where the Europeans have the most factories, and from whence they bring away much the greatest number of slaves, the same author and also Bosman ^* says, ‘The inhabitants of Coto do much mischief in stealing those slaves they sell to the Europeans from the upland country.—That the inhabitants of Popo, excell the former, being en­dowed with a much larger share of cou­rage, they rob more successfully, by which means they increase their riches and trade:’ The author particularly re­marks, [Page 114] ‘ That they are encouraged in this practice by the Europeans; sometimes it happens according to the success of their inland excursions, that they are able to furnish two hundred slaves or more in a few days.’ And he says, ^† ‘The blacks of Fida, or Whydah are so expeditious in trading for slaves, that they can deliver a thousand every month.’— ‘If there happens to be no stock of slaves there, the factor must trust the blacks with his goods to the value of one hundred and fifty, or two hundred pounds, which goods they carry up into the inland country to buy slaves at all markets ^*, for above [Page 115] six hundred miles up the country, were they are kept like cattle in Europe; the slaves sold there being generally prisoners of war, taken from their enemies like other booty, and perhaps some few sold by their own country men, in extream want or upon a famine, as also some as a punishment of henious crimes.’ So far Barbot's account, that given by William Bosman is as follows, ‘ ^‖ When the slaves which are brought from the inland coun­tries, come to Whydah, they are put in prison together, when we treat concern­ing buying them, they are all brought out together in a large plain, where, by our surgeons, they are thoroughly examined, and that naked, both men and women, without the least distinction or modesty. ^* [Page 116] Those which are approved as good are set on one side; in the mean while a burning iron, with the arms or name of the com­pany, lies in the fire, with which ours are marked on the breast. When we have a­greed with the owners of the slaves, they are returned to their prisons, where from that time forward they are kept at our charge, cost us two pence a day, each slave, which serves to subsist them like cri­minals on bread and water; so that to [Page 117] save charges, we send them on board our ships the very first opportunity, before which their masters strip them of all they have on their backs, so that they come on board stark naked, as well women as men. In which condition they are obliged to continue, if the master of the ship is not so charitable (which he commonly is) as to bestow something on them to cover their nakedness. Six or seven hundred are sometimes put on board a vessel, where they lie as close together as its possible for them to be crowded.’

CHAP. XII.

Extracts of several Journals of Voyages to the coast of Guinea for Slaves, whereby the extreme inhumanity of that traffick is described. Melancholy account of a ship blown up on that coast with a great number of Negroes on board. In­stances of shocking barbarity perpetrated by masters of vessels towards their slaves. Inquiry why these scandalous infringe­ments both of divine and human laws are overlooked by the government.

THE misery and bloodshed attendant on the slave trade, is set forth by the following extracts of two voyages to the coast of Guinea, for slaves. The first in a vessel from Liverpool, taken verbatim from the original manuscript of the Surgeon's Journal, viz.

‘Sestro, December the 29th, 1724, No trade to day, though many traders come on board; they informed us, that the people are gone to war within land, and will bring prisoners enough in two or three days, in hopes of which we stay.’

[Page 119] The 30th. ‘No trade yet, but our tra­ders came on board to day, and informed us the people had burnt four towns of their enemies, so that to-morrow we ex­pect slaves off: another large ship is come in. Yesterday came in a large Londoner.’

The 31st. ‘Fair weather, but no trade yet; we see each night towns burning, but we hear the Sestro men are many of them killed by the inland Negroes, so that we fear this war will be unsuccess­ful.’

The 2d of January. ‘Last night we saw a prodigious fire break out about eleven o'clock; and this morning see the town of Sestro burnt down to the ground; (it contained some hundreds of houses) so that we find their enemies are too hard for them at present, and consequently our trade spoiled here; therefore, about seven o'clock we weighed anchor, as did like­wise the three other vessels, to proceed lower down.’

The second relation, also taken from the original manuscript Journal of a person of credit, who went surgeon on the same trade, in a vessel from New-York, about twenty years past, is as follows; viz. ‘Being on the coast, the Commander of the vessel, ac­cording to custom, sent a person on shore with a present to the King, acquainting [Page 120] him with his arrival, and letting him know, they wanted a cargo of slaves. The King promised to furnish them with slaves; and, in order to do it, set out to go to war against his enemies; designing to surprise some town, and take all the people prisoners: Some time after, the king sent them word, he had not yet met with the desired success; having been twice repulsed, in attempting to break up two towns; but that he still hoped to pro­cure a number of slaves for them; and in this design he persisted till he met his ene­mies in the field; where a battle was sought, which lasted three days, during which time the engagement was so bloody, that four thousand five hundred men were slain on the spot.’ The person who wrote the account beheld the bodies as they lay on the field of battle. ‘Think (says he in his Journal) what a pitiable sight it was to see the widows weeping over their lost husbands, orphans deplor­ing the loss of their fathers, &c. &c.’ In the 6th Vol. of Churchill's collection of Voy­ages, page 219, we have the relation of a voyage performed by Captain Philips, in a ship of 450 tuns, along the coast of Guinea, for elephants teeth, gold, and Negro slaves, intended for Barbadoes; in which he says, that they took ‘seven hundred slaves on [Page 121] board, the men being all put in irons two by two shackled together to prevent their mutinying or swimming ashore. That the Negroes are so loath to leave their own country, that they often leap out of the canoe, boat, or ship, into the sea, and keep under water till they are drowned to a­void being taken up, and saved by the boats which pursue them.’—They had about twelve Negroes who willingly drowned themselves; others starved them­selves to death.—Philips was advised to cut off the legs and arms of some to ter­rify the rest, (as other Captains had done) but this he refused to do: From the time of his taking the Negroes an board too his ar­rival at Barbadoes, no less than three hun­dred and twenty died of various diseases. ^*

[Page 122] Reader, bring the matter home to thy own heart, and consider whether any situation can be more completely miserable than that of [Page 123] these distressed captives. When we reflect that each individual of this number had pro­bably some tender attachment, which was broken by this cruel separation; some pa­rent or wife who had not an opportunity of mingling tears in a parting embrace; per­haps [Page 124] some infants, or aged parents, whom his labour was to feed, and vigilance protect; themselves under the most dreadful appre­hension of an unknown perpetual slavery; confined within the narrow limits of a ves­sel, where often several hundred lie as close as possible: Under these aggravated distres­ses, they are often reduced to a state of despair, in which many have been frequently killed and some deliberately put to death under the greatest torture, when they have attempted to rise in order to free themselves from present misery and the slavery designed them. Many accounts of this nature might be mentioned, indeed from the vast number of vessels employed in the trade, and the repeated relations in the public prints of Negroes rising on board the vessels from Guinea, its more than probable that many such instances occur every year. I shall only mention one example of this kind, by which the reader may judge of the rest; its in Astley's Collection 2 vol. P. 449, related by John Atkins, surgeon on board Admiral Ogle's squadron, of one ‘ Harding, master of a vessel in which seve­ral of the men slaves and a woman slave had attempted to rise, in order to recover their liberty; some of whom the master, of his own authority, sentenced to cruel death, making them first eat the heart [Page 125] and liver of one of those he had killed. The woman he hoisted by the thumbs, whipped and slashed with knives before the other slaves till she died.’ ^* As de­testable [Page 126] and shocking as this may appear, to such whose hearts are not yet hardened by the practice of that cruelty, which the love of wealth by degrees introduceth into the human mind; it will not be strange to those who have been concerned or employed in the trade.

Now here arises a necessary query to those who hold the balance of justice, and who must be accountable to God for the use they have made of it; that as the principles on which the British constitution is founded, are so favourable to the common rights of mankind, how it has happened that the laws which countenance this iniquitous traffic, have obtained the sanction of the legislature; and that the executive part of the govern­ment should so long shut their ears to con­tinual [Page 127] reports of the barbarities perpetrated against this unhappy people, and leave the trading subjects at liberty to trample on the most precious rights of others, even with­out a rebuke. Why are the masters of ves­sels thus suffered to be the sovereign arbiters of the lives of the miserable Negroes, and al­lowed with impunity, thus to destroy (may I not properly say to murder) their fellow creatures, and that by means so cruel, as cannot be even related but with shame and horror.

CHAP. XIII.

Usage of the Negroes, when they arrive in the West-Indies. An hundred thousand Negroes brought from Guinea every year to the English Colonies. The number of Negroes who die in the passage and seasoning. These are, properly speak­ing, murdered by the prosecution of this infamous traffic: Remarks on its dreadful effects and tendency.

WHEN the vessels arrive at their de­stined port in the colonies, the poor Negroes are to be disposed off to the plant­ers, and here they are again exposed naked, without any distinction of sexes, to the bru­tal examination of their purchasers; and this, it may well be judged, is to many an­other occasion of deep distress. Add to this, that near connections must now again be se­parated to go with their several purchasers; this must be deeply affecting to all, but such whose hearts are feared by the love of gain. Mothers are seen hanging over their daugh­ters, bedewing their naked breasts with tears, and daughters clinging to their pa­rents, [Page 129] not knowing what new stage of dis­tress must follow their separation, or whe­ther they shall ever meet again. And here what sympathy! What commiseration do they meet with! Why, indeed, if they will not separate as readily as their owners think proper, the Whipper is called for, and the lash is exercised upon their naked bodies, till obliged to part. Can any human heart, which is not become callous by the practise of such cruelties, be unconcerned, even at the relation of such grievous affliction, to which this oppressed part of our species are subjected.

In a book printed in Liverpool, called, The Liverpool Memorandum, which contains amongst other things, an account of the trade of that port, there is an exact list of the vessels employed in the Guinea trade, and of the number of slaves imported in each vessel; by which it appears, that in the year 1753, the number imported to America by one hundred and one vessels belonging to that port, amounted to upwards of thirty thousand, and from the number of vessels employed by the African company, in Lon­don and Bristol, we may, with some de­gree of certainty, conclude, there are one hundred thousand Negroes purchased and brought on board our ships yearly from the coast of Africa. This is confirmed in Ander­son's [Page 130] history of Trade and Commerce, late­ly printed; where it is said, ^* ‘that Eng­land supplies her American colonies with Negroe slaves, amounting in number to above one hundred thousand every year.’ When the vessels are full freighted with slaves, they sail for our plantations in Ame­rica, and may be two or three months in the voyage, during which time, from the filth and stench that is among them, distempers frequently break out, which carry off com­monly a fifth, a fourth, yea sometimes a third or more of them: so that taking all the slaves together, that are brought on board our ships yearly, one may reasonably sup­pose that at least ten thousand of them die on the voyage. And in a printed account of the state of the Negroes, in our plantations, it is supposed that a fourth part more or less die at the different islands, in what is called the seasoning. Hence it may be presumed, that at a moderate computation of the slaves who are purchased by our African mer­chants in a year, near thirty thousand die upon the voyage and in the seasoning. Add to this, the prodigious number who are killed in the incursions and intestine wars, by which the Negroes procure the number of slaves wanted to load the vessels. How [Page 131] dreadful then is this slave-trade, whereby so many thousands of our fellow creatures, free by nature, endued with the same rati­onal faculties, and called to be heirs of the same salvation with us, lose their lives, and are truly and properly speaking murdered every year; for it is not necessary in order to convict a man of murder, to make it ap­pear, that he had an intention to commit murder. Whoever does, by unjust force or violence, deprive another of his liberty, and while he hath him in his power, continues so to oppress him, by cruel treatment as e­ventually to occasion his death, is actually guilty of murder. It is enough to make a thoughtful person tremble, to think what a load of guilt lies upon our nation on this account, and that the blood of thousands of poor innocent creatures murdered every year in the prosecution of this wicked trade, cries aloud to Heaven for vengeance. Were we to hear or read of a nation that destroyed every year, in some other way, as many human creatures as perish in this trade, we should certainly consider them as a very bloody barbarous people. If it be alledged, that the legislature hath encouraged and still does encourage this trade. It is answer­ed, that no legislature on earth, can alter the nature of things, so as to make that to be right which is contrary to the law of God, [Page 132] the supreme legislator and governor of the the world, and opposeth the promulgation of the gospel of peace on earth, and good will to man. Injustice may be methodized and established by law, but still it will be injustice as much as it was before, though its being so established, may render men more insensi­ble of the guilt, and more bold and secure in the perpetration of it.

CHAP. XIV.

Observations on the disposition and capacity of the Negroes: Why thought inferior to that of the Whites. Affecting instances of the slavery of the Negroes. Reflections thereon.

DOUBTS may arise in the minds of of some, whether the foregoing ac­counts relating to the natural capacity and good disposition of the inhabitants of Gui­nea, and of the violent manner in which they are said to be torn from their native land, is to be depended upon on; as those [Page 133] Negroes, who are brought to us, are not heard to complain, nor do but seldom ma­nifest such a docility and quickness of parts, as is agreeable thereto. But those who make these objections, are desired to note the ma­ny discouragements the poor Africans labour under when brought from their native land. Let them consider, that those afflicted stran­gers, though in an enlightened Christian coun­try, have yet but little opportunity or en­couragement to exert and improve their na­tural talents: They are constantly employed in servile labour, and the abject condition in which we see them, naturally raises an idea of a superiority in ourselves; whence we are apt to look upon them as an ignorant and contemptible part of mankind. Add to this, that they meet with very little encourage­ment of freely conversing with such of the Whites, as might impart instruction to them. It is a fondness for wealth, for authority or honour which prompts most men, in their endeavours to excel; but these motives can have little influence upon the minds of the Negroes; few of them having any reason­able prospect of any other than a state of sla­very; so that, though their natural capaci­ties were ever so good, they have neither in­ducement or opportunity to exert them to advantage: This naturally tends to depress their minds, and sink their spirits into ha­bits [Page 134] of idleness and sloth, which they would, in all likelihood, have been free from, had they stood upon an equal footing with the white people. They are suffered, with impunity, to cohabit together, without be­ing married, and to part, when solemnly en­gaged to one another as man and wife; notwithstanding the moral and religious laws of the land, strictly prohibiting such practices. This naturally tends to beget ap­prehension in the most thoughtful of those people, that we look upon them as a lower race, not worthy of the same care, nor liable to the same rewards and punishments as our­selves. Nevertheless it may with truth be said, that both amongst those who have ob­tained their freedom, and those who re­main in servitude, some have manifested a strong sagacity and an exemplary upright­ness of heart. If this hath not been gene­rally the case with them, is it a matter of sur­prize? Have we not reason to make the same complaint of many white servants, when discharged from our service, though many of them have had much greater op­portunities of knowledge and improvement than the blacks; who even, when free, la­bour under the same difficulties as before, having but little access to, and intercourse with the most reputable white people; they remain confined within their former limits [Page 135] of conversation. And if they seldom com­plain of the unjust and cruel usage they have received in being forced from their native country, &c. it is not to be wondered at; it being a considerable time after their arrival amongst us, before they can speak our lan­guage; and, by the time they are able to express themselves, they have great reason to believe, that little or no notice would be taken of their complaints, yet let any per­son enquire of those who were capable of re­flection before they were brought from their native land, and he will hear such affecting relations, which, if not lost to the common feelings of humanity, will sensibly affect his heart. The case of a poor Negroe, not long since brought from Guinea, is a recent in­stance of this kind. From his first arrival, he appeared thoughtful and dejected, fre­quently dropping tears when taking notice of his master's children, the cause of which was not known till he was able to speak En­glish, when the account he gave of himself was, ‘That he had a wife and children in his own country; that some of these be­ing sick and thirsty, he went, in the night time, to fetch water at a spring, where he was violently seized and carried away by persons, who lay in wait to catch men, from whence he was transported to Ame­rica. The remembrance of his family, [Page 136] friends and other connections, left behind, which he never expected to see any more, were the principal cause of his dejection and grief.’ Many cases equally affecting might be here mentioned, but one more in­stance which fell under the notice of a per­son of credit will suffice. One of these wretch­ed creatures, then about 50 years of age, informed him, ‘That being violently torn from a wife and several children in Gui­nea, he was sold in Jamaica, where never expecting to see his native land or family any more, he joined himself to a Negroe woman, by whom he had two children; after some years, it suiting the interest of his owner to remove him, he was se­parated from this second wife and child­ren, and brought to South-Carolina, where, expecting to spend the remainder of his days, he engaged with a third wife, by whom he had another child; but here the same consequence of one man being subject to the will and pleasure of another man occurring, he was separated from this last wife and child, and brought in this country, where he remained a slave.’ Can any, whose mind is not rendered quite obdurate by the love of wealth, hear these relations, without being deeply touched with sympathy and sorrow; and doubt­less the case of many, very many of these af­flicted [Page 137] people, upon enquiry would be found to be attended with circumstances equally tragical and aggravating. And, if we en­quire of those Negroes who were brought away from their native country when child­ren, we shall find most of them to have been stolen away when abroad from their pa­rents, on the roads, in the woods, or watch­ing their corn-fields. Now, you that have studied the book of conscience, and you that are learned in the law, what will you say to such deplorable cases. When, and how have these oppressed people forfeited their liberty? Does not justice loudly call for its being restored to them? Have they not the same right to demand it as any of us should have, if we had been violently snatch­ed by Pyrates from our native land? Is it not the duty of every dispenser of justice, who is not forgetful of his own humanity, to remember, that these are men, and to de­clare them free? Where instances of such cruelty frequently occur, and are neither enquired into, nor redressed by those whose duty it is, to seek judgment, and relieve the op­pressed, Isaiah i. 17. What can be expected but that the groans and cries of these suffer­ers will reach Heaven, and what shall we do when God riseth up and when he visiteth, What will ye answer him? Did not he that made them, make us; and did not one fashion us in the womb. Job xxxi. 14.

CHAP. XIV.

The Expediency of a general freedom being granted to the Negroes considered. Reasons why it might be pro­ductive of advantage and safety to the Co­lonies.

IT is scarce to be doubted, but that the foregoing accounts will beget in the heart of the considerate readers, an earnest desire to see a stop put to this complicated evil, but the objection with many is, What shall be done with those Negroes already imported and born in our families? Must they be sent to Africa? That would be to expose them in a strange land to greater dif­ficulties than many of them labour under at present. To set them suddenly free here, would be, perhaps, attended with no less difficulty; for undisciplined as they are in religion and virtue, they might give a loose to those evil habits, which the fear of a mas­ter would have restrained. These are objec­tions which weigh with many well disposed people, and it must be granted these are dif­ficulties in the way; nor can any general [Page 132] change be made or reformation affected without some; but the difficulties are not so great but that they may be surmounted. If the government was so considerate of the iniquity and danger attending on this prac­tice as to be willing to seek a remedy, doubt­less, the Almighty would bless this good intention, and such methods would be thought of, as would not only put an end to the unjust oppression of the Negroes, but might bring them under regulations that would enable them to become profitable members of society. For the furtherance of which, the following proposals are offered to consideration: That all farther importati­on of slaves be absolutely prohibited; and as to those born amongst us, after serving so long as may appear to be equitable, let them by law be declared free. Let every one thus set free, be enrolled in the coun­ty courts, and be obliged to be a resident during a certain number of years within the said county, under the care of the over­seers of the poor. Thus being, in some sort, still under the direction of governors and the notice of those who were formerly acquainted with them, they would be oblig­ed to act the more circumspectly, and make proper use of their liberty, and their child­ren [Page 140] would have an opportunity of obtaining such instruction as is necessary to the com­mon occasions of life, and thus both parents and children might gradually become useful members of the community. And further, where the nature of the country would per­mit, as certainly the uncultivated condition of our southern and most western colonies easily would: suppose a small tract of land were assigned to every Negroe family, and they obliged to live upon and improve it, (when not hired out to work for the white people) this would encourage them to exert their abilities and become industrious sub­jects. Hence both planters and tradesmen would be plentifully supplied with chearful and willing minded labourers, much vacant land would be cultivated; the produce of the country be justly encreased; the taxes for the support of government lessened to individuals by the encrease of taxables. And the Negroes, instead of being and object of Terror ^*, as they certainly must be to the go­vernments [Page 141] where their numbers are great, would become interested in their safety and welfare.

CHAP. XV.

Answer to a mistaken opinion, that the warmth of the climate in the West-Indies will not permit white people to la­bour there. No complaint of disability in the whites in that respect in the settle­ment of the islands. Idleness and diseases prevailed as the use of slaves encreased. The great advantage which might accrue to the British nation, if the slave trade was entirely laid aside, and a fair and friendly commerce established through the whole coast of Africa.

IT is frequently offered as an argument in vindication of the use of Negroe slaves. That the warmth of the climate in the West Indies, will not permit white people to la­bour in the culture of the land; but upon an acquaintance with the nature of the cli­mate, and its effects upon such labouring [Page 142] white people as are prudent and moderate in labour and the use of spirituous liquors, this will be found to be a mistaken opinion. Those islands were, at first, wholly cultivat­ed by white men; the encouragement they then met with for a long course of years was such as occasioned a great encrease of people. Richard Ligon, in his history of Barbadoes, where he resided from the year 1647 to 1650, about 24 years after its first settlement, writes, ‘that there was then fifty thousand souls on that island, be­sides Negroes; and that though the wea­ther was very hot, yet not so scalding, but that servants, both Christians and slaves laboured ten hours a day.’ By other accounts we gather, that the white people have since decreased to less than one half the number which was there at that time; and by relations of the first settle­ments of the other islands, we do not meet with any complaints of unfitness in the white people for labour there, before slaves were introduced. The island of Hispaniola, which is one of the largest of those islands, was at first planted by the Bucaneers, a set of har­dy laborious men, who continued so for a long course of years, till following the ex­ample of their neighbours in the purchase and use of Negroe Slaves, idleness and ex­cess prevailing, debility and disease natural­ly [Page 143] succeeded, and have ever since conti­nued. If, under proper regulations, liber­ty was proclaimed through the colonies, the Negroes, from a dangerous grudging half fed slaves, might become able willing mind­ed Labourers. And if there was not a suffi­cient number of these to do the necessary work, a competent number of labouring people might be procured from Europe, which affords numbers of poor distressed ob­jects, who, if not overlooked, with proper usage, might, in several respects, better an­swer every good purpose in performing the necessary labour in the islands than the slaves now do.

A farther considerable advantage might accrue to the British nation in general, if the slave trade was laid aside, by the cultiva­tion of a fair, friendly and humane com­merce with the Africans, without which it is not possible the inland trade of that country should ever be extended to the de­gree it is capable of; for while the spirit of butchery and making slaves of each other is promoted by the Europeans amongst the Negroes, no mutual confidence can take place; nor will the Europeans be able to travel with safety into the heart of their country to form and cement such commer­cial friendships and alliances as might be necessary to introduce the arts and sciences [Page 144] amongst them, and engage their attention to instruction in the principles of the Chri­stian religion, which is the only sure foun­dation of every social virtue. Africa has a­bout ten thousand miles of sea coast, and extends in depth near three thousand miles from east to west, and as much from north to south; stored with vast treasures of mate­rials necessary for the trade and manufac­tures of Great-Britain, and from its climate and the fruitfulness of its soil, capable, un­der proper management, of producing, in the greatest plenty, most of the commodities which are imported into Europe from those parts of America subject to the English Go­vernment, ^* and as in return they would take our manufactures, the advantages of this trade would soon become so great, that it is evident this subject merits the re­gard and attention of the government,