CHAP. I.

I CONCEIVE that it would become every ad­vocate of Christianity to testify against a cus­tom which is now practised by a great part of Christendom. I mean the custom of enslaving the Africans. It is said in the gospel, "thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." It would be vain to plead that a Negro is not the neigh­bour of a white man, and that a difference of complexion will alter the necessity of obeying the command of our Saviour. To plead this would be an affront to reason, as well as a direct con­tradiction to the express declaration of christian­ity,—For the same revelation which says, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," says, that GOD "hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth." [Page 6]The words here are as comprehensive and as for­cible as any words can be to prove that men of e­very color and appearance, that Negroes, as well as the rest of mankind, should be considered as their neighbours by the disciples of Christ. It is first said that GOD hath made of one blood, all nations of men, and then again it is said that these of one blood are to dwell on all the face of the earth. When therefore it can be proved that one blood signifies various bloods, that all nations signif [...]y some nations, and that all the face of the earth signifies only a part of the earth, then it may be proved that those who call them­selves Christians, are not culpable in their con­duct towards the oppressed Africans. St. Paul says, that the gospel was designed to give free­dom to all mankind. "Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumci­sion, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all, and in all." Colosians iii. 11. In short, we may apply to some of the oppres­sors of this unhappy race of men, who perhaps may conceive from their color that they are of an inferior species, and that they may be op­pressed without guilt, what this Apostle says in another place, we may say of them, that GOD hath sent them "strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had [Page 7]pleasure in unrighteousness." II. Thessalonians ii. 11 and 12. For have not Negroes the same figure, the same voice, the same passions, and the same feelings, with white men? Were they not made by the same GOD, and are they not redeemed by the same Saviour? Can it be any signification in the eye [...] of the Supreme, who the Apostle tells us "is no respecter of persons," whether we are brown, or black, or white?— In the Old Testament the Prophets frequently denounce the heaviest judgements upon the Jews for keeping their brethren in slavery. The cause of freedom is mentioned as the cause of GOD in the Bible. Jeremiah says that the peo­ple of Jerusalem made a covenant with King Hezekiah, that they should proclaim liberty un­to their servants. And afterwards he represents the Almighty as declaring, "But ye turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his hand-maid, whom he had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for hand-maids:—There­fore, thus saith the Lord, ye have not hearken­ed to me in proclaiming liberty every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbour; be­hold I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the fa­mine, and I will make you to be removed into [Page 8]all the kingdoms of the earth." Jeremiah xxxiv. 16 and 17. These severe afflictions were to be the consequence of unjustly keeping others in a state of servitude much milder than that with which the Negroes are oppressed. The making others work without payment, which is but a trivial part of the oppression of the Negroes, was esteemed by the Jewish Prophets a crime of con­siderable magnitude. Jeremiah says, "Wo unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteous­ness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work: That saith I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cut­teth him out windows, and it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion. Shalt thou reign because thou closest thyself with cedar? Did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgement and justice, and then it was well with him? He judged the cause of the poor and needy, then it was well with him: Was not this to know me? saith the Lord. But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence to do it. Therefore, thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, King of Judah, They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah Lord! or [Page 9]Ah his glory! He shall be buried (attend ye tyrants!) with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem." chap. xxii. verses 13—19. The slavery with which the Negroes in various parts of the West Indies, and in the southern states of America, and with which the peasants in Poland, and some other countries, are afflicted, is not only opposed by the principles of religion, but of reason and jus­tice. It is well said by Dr. Blackstone, "I have formerly observed that pure and proper slavery does not, nay cannot, subsist in England; such I mean, whereby an unlimited power is given to the master over the life and fortune of the slave. And indeed it is repugnant to reason and the principles of natural law, that such a state should subsist any where. The three origins of the right of slavery, assigned by Justinian ^*, are all of them built upon false foundations. As first slavery is held to be "Jure Gentium" from a state of captivity in war; whence slaves are call­ed Mancipia, quasi Manu capti. The conquer­or, say the Civilians, had a right to the life of his captive, and having spared that, has a right to deal with him as he pleases. But it is an un­true position, when taken generally, that by the law of nature or nations, a man may kill his [Page 10]enemy; he has only a right to kill him in par­ticular cases; in cases of absolute necessity for self-defence; and it is plain this absolute neces­sity did not subsist, since the victor did not ac­tually kill him, but made him prisoner. War itself is justifiable only on principles of self-pre­servation; and therefore it gives no other right over prisoners, but merely to disable them from doing harm to us, by confining their persons; much less can it give a right to kill, torture, a­buse, plunder, or even to enslave an enemy, when the war is over. Since, therefore, the right of making slaves, by captivity, depends on a supposed right of slaughter, that foundation failing, the consequence drawn from it must fail likewise. But secondly, it is said that slavery may begin "jure civili;" when one man sells himself to another. This, if only meant of contracts to serve or work for another, is very just; but when applied to strict slavery, in the sense of the laws of old Rome, or modern Bar­bary, is also impossible. Every sale implies a price, a quid pro quo, an equivalent given to the seller in lieu of what he transfers to the buy­er: But what equivalent can be given for life and liberty, both of which (in absolute slavery) are held to be at the master's disposal. His pro­perty also, the very price he seems to receive, devolves ipso facto to his Master, the instant he [Page 11]becomes his slave. In this case, therefore, the buyer gives nothing, and the seller receives no­thing: Of what validity then can a sale be, which destroys the very principles upon which all sales are founded? Lastly, we are told that besides these two ways by which slaves "fiunt," or are acquired, they may also be hereditary: "Servi nascuntur," the children of acquired slaves, are jure naturae, by a negative kind of birth right, slaves also. But this being built on the two former rights, must fall together with them. If neither captivity, nor the sale of one's self, can, by the law of nature and reason, reduce the pa­rent to slavery, much less can they reduce the offspring." Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. I. page 243. 4to. edition.

CHAP. II.

AS many have been apt to pretend that the Negroes are inferior to the white people on account of their color, it may serve the cause of humanity to prove this color to be the effect of climate. It has been said that the Negroes are the descendants of Ca [...]n upon whom GOD set a mark. If it were not for the great number in various parts of the world who have this as­sertion in their mouths, it would not be worthy of a serious answer. A little attention to scrip­ture, however, will convince us of the absur­dity of this opinion: for we there find that all who are upon earth are the descendants of Noah and his family only. The Apostle most certainly says the truth when he says that GOD "hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth." If we exa­mine [Page 13]the matter with due care we shall also find that true Philosophy will tell us the same as the scripture. It will tell us that the Negro is in every respect similar to us, only that his skin, or rather the skin of his ancestors, has been darkened by the sun. If we attend to ourselves we shall find that the part of our bodies which is exposed is of a very different color from that which is covered. If we take a piece of bread and put it to the fire for a little time it will be brown, but if it is continued there long it will be black. In the same manner it is the nature of the sun first to embrown, and then to blacken the skin. I myself knew a gentleman in the West-Indies, who from his engagements for a considerable part of his life used to be almost daily exposed to the sun, which made him so brown that he was proverbially called Mulatto Frank. The lower part of his face had as much of the Negro tinge in it as the face of a mulatto, of a person born from a white and black parent. And he, I very well knew, was descended from English parents, who had not the least Negro blood in them. It has been observed that if the black skin and the frizzled head of the Negroes proceeded from the heat of the sun, we should find people of a similar appearance in the same parallels of latitude with Africa. This is a cir­cumstance of which we have sufficient evidence. [Page 14]In Captain Carteret's account of his voyage round the world, in the years 1766, 1767, 1768, and 1769, he says, "In the night of Monday the 24th, we fell in with nine islands; they stretch nearly N. W. by W. and S. E. by E. about 15 leagues, and lie, in latitude 4° 36′ S. longitude 154° 17′ E. according to the ship's ac­count. I imagine these to be the islands which are called Ohang [...]aya, and were discovered by Tasman; for the situation answers very nearly to their place in the French Chart, which, in the year 1756, was corrected for the King's ships. The other islands Carteret's, Gower's, and Simpson's, I believe had never been seen by an European navigator before. There is certainly much land in this part of the ocean not yet known. One of these islands is of considerable extent, the other eight are scarcely better than large rocks, but though they are low and flat, they are well covered with wood and abound with inhabitants. The people are black and woolly-headed like the Negroes of Africa: their weapons are bows and arrows; and they have large canoes which they navigate with a fail, one of which came near us, but they would not venture on board." Hawkesworth's voyages, vol. 1 pages 586 and 587, quarto edition Captain Carteret says also of New-Ireland (which is nearly in the same latitude) that "the people [Page 15]are black and woolly-headed like the Negroes, but have not the flat nose and thick lips; and we thought them much the same people as the inha­bitants of Egmont's-Island: like them they were all stark naked, except a few ornaments made of shells upon their arms and legs. They had, however, adopted a practice without which none of our belles and beaus are supposed to be com­pletely drest, for the hair, or rather the wool, upon their heads, was very abundantly powdered with white powder." Page 599.—Buffon, in his essay on the varieties of the human species, says "to the south of the Mariana Islands, and eastward of the Moluccas, we find the land of the Papous and New-Guinea, which seem to be the most southerly regions of the globe. Ac­cording to Argensola, the Papous are as black as the Caffres, have crisped hair, and a meagre disagreeable visage." Vol. 3, page 92—In an­other place he says, "the Papous and other na­tions adjacent to New-Guinea, are real Negroes, and resemble those of Africa; though they are feparated from the continent, by a tract of sea more than 2200 leagues over. The natives of New-Holland have a strong analogy to the Hot­tentots." Page 96—Dampier (according to Buffon) speaking of an island in New-Guinea, called Garret Denys, says, "that the inhabi­tants are black, robust, and well made, that they [Page 16]have large round heads, and short, crisped hair, which they cut in different fashions, and paint with various colors, as red, white, and yellow." See Dampier, vol. 5, page 102. If we cast our eyes over a globe or a map of the world, we shall find all these places to be in the same parallel of latitude with Africa. Buffon says, in his above mentioned essay, that "the natives of the coast of New-Holland, which is situated in the 16th degree of south latitude and beyond the island of Timor, are perhaps the most miserable of the human species. They have no beard, and their visage is long without a feature that is agreea­ble; their hair is short, black and crisped, and their skin is as black as that of the Guinea Ne­groes." He refers to Dampier, vol. 2, page 171. In "A Journal of a voyage round the World," made by Capt. Cook, in his Majesty's ship the En­deavor, in the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, it is said, speaking of the inhabitants of New-Hol­land, in latitude 36° 21′ S. and longitude 150° 18′ E. variation 10° 42′ E. "the inhabitants were entirely naked and black, but they differed from the Negroes of Africa in having long strait hair, instead of wool upon their heads." Buf­fon speaks of the inhabitants in the 16th degree of latitude, and Captain Cook of those in the 36th, which may account for the difference in their hair, which is not so soon made crisped by the sun as the skin is darkened.

[Page 17] It has been objected that if color were the ef­fect of climate, many of the inhabitants of South America would be black. There are se­veral reasons why the same parallel of latitude in South America, may not be as hot as that in Africa. There are very high mountains in ma­ny parts of South America, which, with exten­sive marshes, may there render the air cooler than in many parts of Africa, where they have no mountains and a sandy soil. South America, however, is not without people who are black, and in Africa may be found some who are of a copper or an olive complexion. Buffon, speak­ing of South-America, says, "Some voyagers mention a nation in Guiana, of which the na­tives are blacker than any other Indians. The Arras, says Raleigh, are nearly as black as the Negroes, are extremely strong, and use poisoned arrows." Essay on the Varieties of the Human Species, vol. 3, page 183.

It may be observed by some that the inhabi­tants of New-Guinea and other places, who are black and have frizzled hair, are the descendants of emigrants from Africa. This appears, how­ever, to be an observation totally unsupported by reason. New-Guinea and these places are dis­tant more than 6000 miles from Africa. We have no record in history, whatever, to make us suppose that such an emigration was ever prac­tised, [Page 18]and indeed it is difficult to suppose how it could be practised.

It is most certain that if a white people were to emigrate to Africa, they would in the course of time become black, and have the woolly head of the Negroes. Job Ludolphus, in his "His­tory of Fthiopia or the Kingdom of Abessinia," says, "I am now about to write the History of the Abessines, concerning whom there have been many large but few true relations. For these people having transplanted themselves from the maritime regions of the Arabian Guif, into the more upland parts of Africa, &c." Page 1. And in another place he says, "The Abessines are generally black which they most admire." Page 71. The Arabians are swarthy, it must be con­fessed, but they became generally black in the course of a very few centuries from the heat of Africa. In Aftley's collection of voyages, it is mentioned, that, in the beginning of the 15th century, some Portuguese settled in Africa, mar­ried with the natives, and that their descendants have now a black skin and woolly head similar to other Negroes. On the other hand, if the Africans were to emigrate to colder climates their descendants would in the course of time become white, and have long silky hair. It is a well known fact that the descendants of the Ne­groes in America become every generation [Page 19]whiter; that their hair also gradually lengthens; and Herodotus mentions that the Colchi, of whom the Circassians are descended, were black, and had crisped hair. This will appear to the learned reader to be a fair translation of that Historian's ^* expressions in regard to this matter, if he will refer to the second book (to the Eu­terpe) of Herodotus. The Colchi were origi­nally Ethiopians, who settled upon the borders of the [...]uxine or Black Sea, and their descen­dants are now proverbially called the fair Cir­cassians. If we were able to prove, however, for which we cannot produce any thing like an argument, the Hypothesis that color is not the effect of climate in regard to the human species, and that the Almighty originally made some men white and some black as he made horses, yet this should not induce us to treat the Ne­groes otherwise than as our Brethren. For a black man, as well as a black horse, may have all the good properties of a white one. We are told by the Prophet that the Almighty does not consider us with affection from being white or black, from having long or frizzled hair, but he represents him saying, "The Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my foot-stool, but to this man will I look who is of an humble and contrite spirit, and who trembleth at my word."

CHAP. III.

IT is an assertion of Mr. David Hume, in his Essay on National Characters, that "there never arose a man of genius among Negroes." This assertion is attacked, as well as many other absurd and dangerous principles of Mr Hume, with great propriety, by the celebrated Dr. Beattie, in his Essay on the Nature and Immuta­bility of Truth. There are two disadvantages against the improvement of their talents, under which the negroes labor, from which the white people are free. They are enslaved, and they want opportunity. Slavery depresses the mind, and prevents it from expanding its faculties. It has the effect which the Latin Poet ascribes to intemperance.

The late Anthony Benezet of Philadelphia, seems to have been as well qualified as almost any man, to judge of the difference between the natural genius of the Negroes and the white people. He originally kept a school for be in­struction of white children, and afterwards for [Page 21]the instruction of the blacks. He says in a little pamphlet which he published, that "he, as teach­er of a school established by private subscription in Philadelphia, for the instruction of the black children and others of that people, has for many years had opportunity of knowing the temper and the genius of the Africans, particularly of those under his tuition, who have been many of different ages; and he can with truth and sin­cerity declare, that he has found amongst them as great a variety of talents, equally capable of improvement, as amongst a like number of whites; and he is bold to assert, that the notion entertained by some, that the blacks are inferior to the whites in their capacities, is a vulgar pre­judice, founded on the pride orignorance of their lordly masters, who have kept their slaves at such a distance, as to be unable to form a right judgement of them."

Ignatius Sancho may be produced as an in­stance of genius among Negroes under great dis­advantages. His letters are published in a vo­lume. I will transcribe his letter to the cele­brated Mr. Sterne, as it not only exhibits a fine specimen of his talents, but as it contains some­thing which may influence the mind against the detestable practice of enslaving the Negroes.

Mr. Sterne's ^* answer to this letter is to be found in the third volume of his letters, pub­lished by his daughter Mrs. Medaille.

[Page 24] Phillis Wheatley, a Negro girl, who was brought a slave from Africa to Boston, has shewn great talents for poetry. Many creditable per­sons have signed their names in favor of her being the real author of the poems which are pub­lished under her name. The following lines to the University of Cambridge, in New England, have certainly a considerable share of merit—

These also deserve equal admiration.

We read of a Negro in scripture who must have been a man of genius and learning, as well as in an elevated station. We are told (Acts, chap. 8.) that he was of great authority under Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, and that he was entrusted with all her treasure It is said that he was sitting in his chariot, and was read­ing the Prophet Isaiah (probably in Hebrew) when Philip the Apostle was led by the spirit to interpret the Prophet to him, and to finish his character by making him a Christian It is said that Job Ben Solomon, a native of Africa, who was brought to the acquaintance of Sir Hans Sloane, was by him known to be a complete mas­ter of the Arabian tongue, by his translating several manuscripts and inscriptions upon me­dals. He was thought to be a man of very ex­traordinary talents. There is a long account of him by Bluet and Moore, in Astley's Collec­tion, vol. 2. The celebrated James Ramsay in a pamphlet of his called, "An Enquiry into the effects of putting a stop to the African Slave [Page 27]Trade", says, page 43 and 44—"It is pleasing to communicate an account of the virtues and im­provements of an honest African, that I have just met with in the late travels of five Danish Philosophers (voyage en Arabie et en d'autres pays circonvoisins par C. Niebuhr) originally published in German, and since translated into French in three volumes, 4to. Farhan, a jet black Negro, was carried a boy into Arabia, and there sold to an officer in the Court of Imam or Prince of Yemen. His master gave him eve­ry advantage of education, and entrusted him, as he grew up, in the management of his affairs. These he conducted with so much propriety and address as to attract the notice of the Prince, who took him near his person, and afterwards made him Governor of Loheia, a city on the sea coast. There our travellers found him, ruling his people, as a kind father would his children. To these travellers he behaved with the utmost kindness, generosity, and even polite­ness, expressed the greatest fondness for their conversation, and a warm desire to learn, and be informed, of whatever was striking in Euro­peans. In short, they, when speaking of him, call him the good Farhan, and had many sad opportunities of contrasting his behavior with the other native Arabian Governors. Here then we have an African towering above the [Page 28]subtle Arabian; and shall his country by Euro­pean insolence, be depressed in the seat of reason and human excellence? It is ignorant pride that fancies a distinction." It is said in Dodsley's Annual Register for 1786, vol. 28, page 177— "The Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, this year, elected, as one of their foreign correspon­dents, a Mr. Listel, a free black, of the Isle of France, who had distinguished himself by a se­ries of curious and extremely well calculated me­teorological observations; thus breaking down in some degree the strong and long established line of distinction between colors, and holding out encouragement to future Africans to culti­vate the sciences and philosophy, by shewing them that the way is opened to academical ho­nors, wherever they are merited, without any regard to the country or natural hue of the in­genious proficient."

Dr. James Derham, a Negro, who is now living, may be produced as an instance of genius. He was born in the city of Philadelphia, and became a practitioner of physic at the Spanish settlement of New-Orleans on the Mississippi. He was sold as a slave to Dr. Robert Dove of New-Orleans, who liberated him, after two or three years service, upon easy terms. From having served several persons in the medical line, [Page 29]from having received some education, he be­came a physician hisself, and now [...]es busi­ness to a considerable amount. A gentleman of my acquaintance, who is a physician, told me that he lately saw Dr. Derham in Philadelphia; and that he has a very good opinion of the Doc­tor's integrity and knowledge. He mentioned that he invited Dr. Derham to tea, and that it was with difficulty his own black servant could be prevailed upon to hand a dish to him, who thought that Derham had impudently obtru [...]d himself into the parlour among gentlemen.

Olaudah Equiano, or, Gustavus Vassa, the African, is a man of talents, as appears by the narrative of his life, which was written by him­self, and published in London, in 1789. The friends of humanity by encouraging the sale of his work, might make him some recompence for the injuries which he has received from mankind.

William Dickson in his Letters on Slavery, mentions Francis Williams, a Negro, to be a poet and a mathematician. He quotes some of his verses, which are written in Latin.

Thomas Fuller, a Negro born in Africa, but who has lived almost all his life near Alexandria, in Virginia, is reported by many to have a most [Page 30]astonishing genius for calculations. It is said that in two minutes after being asked, he told, (and he is unable to read or to write) the exact number of seconds that were in a year and a half. He answered still more difficult questions in arithmetic with uncommon facility.

Monsieur Adanson, in his Voyage to Se­negal, speaking of the Negroes, says—"It is amazing that such a rude and illiterate peo­ple should reason so pertinently in regard to the heavenly bodies, for there is no manner of doubt, but that with proper instruments, and a good will, they would become excellent Astro­nomers." Page 254. It is said of the inhabi­tants Kongo, in Astley's Voyages, vol. 3, page 247. "In conversation they discover a great quickness of parts and understanding; de­livering themselves with so much good sense, and humour, that the most knowing persons take de­light in conversing with them."

Br [...]e, says of a Negro ball, at which he was present in Africa, "Every one talked upon the subject he liked; and it is easy at these meetings, to perceive what happy memoirs they are blessed with; and how great a progress they would make in the sciences, in case their genius was cultivated with study. They explain themselves [Page 31]in very choice terms: their expressions are no­ble, and manners polite." Astley's collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. 2, page 57.

In the West Indies I have seen much of the Negroes, and I think I can safely say, with An­thony Benezet, if we make the just allowances for the disadvantages under which they labor, that their capacity is equal to that of white men. They are made in the West-Indies, with little instruction, excellent carpenters, coopers, and masons. They very commonly know the art of making sugar, and some the more difficult science of distilling rum. Some of them are expert swimmers and fishermen. They have an eye, like a lynx, to detect their prey. I have been delighted when in the boat with them, to see them dive to the bottom of the sea, and strike the sea hedge-hog or other things, with an iron instrument formed for that purpose.— Some of them have been known, in this situa­tion, and when thus armed, to fight a shark, and beat him off. Their natural genius for music, is by many thought to equal that of any people upon earth.

In short, it would be difficult and tedious to enumerate the various arts in which the Negroes [Page 32]are expert, and the different men of genius who have arisen in former and in modern times a­mong them.

CHAP. IV.

IT has been said by some that the Negroes are not inferior to the white people, only in the endowments of the mind, but in the virtues of the heart; and some extravagantly assert that they generally possess he malignant spirit of Cain, from whom they are supposed to be de­scended. It is said by a sensible writer in his account of the nations of Africa. "The in­habitants of the Grain and Ivory coast are repre­sented by those that deal with them as sensible, courteous, and the fairest traders on the coasts of Guinea. They rarely drink to excess: If any do they are severely punished by the King's order. They are seldom troubled with war: If a difference happen between two nations, they commonly end the dispute amicably.

The inhabitants of the Gold and Slave coast likewise, when they are not artfully incensed a­gainst each other, live in great union and friend­ship, being generally well tempered, civil, tract­able, and ready to help any that need it. In [Page 33]particular the natives of the kingdom of Whi­dah, are civil, kind, and obliging to strangers. And they are the most gentleman-like of all the negroes, abounding in good manners towards each other. The inferiors pay great respect to their superiors: So wives to their husbands, chil­dren to their parents. And they are remarkably industrious: all are constantly employed; the men in agriculture, the women in spinning and weaving cotton.

The Gold and Slave Coasts are divided into several districts, some governed by kings, others by the principal men, who take care each of their own town or village, and prevent or appease tumults. They punish murder and adultery se­verely; very frequently with death. Theft and robbery are punished by a fine proportionable to the goods that were taken. All the natives of this coast, though Heathens, believe there is one GOD, the author of them and all things.— They appear likewise to have a confused appre­hension of a future state. And accordingly e­very town and village has a place of public wor­ship I [...] is remarkable that they have no beg­gars among them: Such is the care of the chief men in every city and village, to provide some easy labor, even for the old and weak. Some are employed in blowing the smith's bellows; [Page 34]others in pressing palm-oil; others in grinding colors. If they are too weak even for this, they sell provisions in the market.

The account we have of the natives of the kingdom of Benin is, that they are a reasonable and a good-natured people, sincere and inoffen­five, and do no injustice either to one another or to strangers. They are civil and courteous: If you make them a present, they endeavour to re­pay it double. And if they are trusted till the ship returns next year, they are sure honestly to [...]pay the whole debt. Theft is punished among them, although not with the same severity as murder. If a man and woman of any quality, are taken in adultery, they are certain to be put to death, and their bodies thrown upon a dung-hill, and left a prey to wild beasts. They are punctually just and honest in their dealings; and are also very charitable. The king and the great lords taking care to employ all that are ca­pable of any work. And those that are utterly helpless they keep for God's sake; so that here also are no beggars.

The inhabitants of Congo and Angola are generally a quiet people. They discover a good understanding, and behave in a friendly manner to strangers, being of a mild temper and affable [Page 35]carriage. Upon the whole, therefore, the Ne­groes who inhabit the coast of Africa, from the river Senegal to the southern bounds of Angola, are so far from being the stupid, senseless, b [...]ut­ish, lazy barbarians, the fierce, cruel, perfidious savages, they have been described, that on the contrary, they are represented by them, who had no motive to flatter them, as remarkably sensible, considering the few advantages they have for improving their understanding; as very industrious, perhaps more so than any nation of so warm a climate; as fair, just, and honest in their dealings, unless where white men have taught them to be otherwise; and as far more mild, friendly, and kind to strangers, than any of our forefathers were. Our forefathers! Where shall we find at this day, among the fair faced natives of Europe, a nation generally prac­tising the justice, mercy, and truth, which are related of these poor black Africans? Suppose the preceding accounts are true (which I see no reason or pretence to doubt of) and we may leave England and France to seek genuine ho­nesty in Benin, Congo, and Angola."— Thoughts on Slavery, by John Wesley, A. M. Pages 13, 14, 15, 16.

Some may think that the virtues of the Ne­groes are too highly extolled in this account of [Page 36]them; but I think that every impartial and in­telligent person will agree with me that, with the same advantages, there is as great likelihood of finding virtue in a Negro as in a white man. Mr. Ramsay, however, in his Essay on the Treatment and Conversation of African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies, page 262, gives an extract of a letter from a humane, intelligent sea officer, in which it is said—"The Negroes along the sea-coast of Africa, (particularly a­mong the French) are well-informed, easy, kind, generous, and have a better sense of right and wrong than any other people I ever visited. I was thrown among them in a state of wretched­ness and sickness, with twenty seven dying men, being abandoned by our own people, who re­fused me assistance and medicines. I cast myself on the charity of savages, and received more in­stances of compassion and goodness from them than from all Christians I have ever known. From this exemplary be [...]ignity in this people, who are inhabitants about Cape Verd, may be collected the probability of introducing freedom and christianity among them." Monsi [...]ur A­danson in his Voyage to Senegal, the Isle of Goree, and the River Gambia, says—"As the island of Senegal is within the dependance of the kingdom of Oualo, the Negroes who live there, especially those who are free, are of that [Page 37]nation. They are, generally speaking, very good-natured, sociable, and obliging. Those whom the company entertained in my service, were Oualofs, as they call themselves, or by cor­ruption, Jalofs." Page 40. And again he says—"Which way soever I turned my eyes on this pleasant spot, I beheld a perfect image of pure nature, an agreeable solitude, bounded on every side by a charming landscape. 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." Page 54. Abbe Raynal gives us a fine instance of heroic virtue in a Negro. He says, "In America it is generally believed and asserted that the Africans are equally incapable of reason and virtue. The following well-authenti­cated fact will enable us to judge of this opinion.

An English ship that traded in Guinea, in 1752, was obliged to leave the surgeon behind, whose bad state of health did not permit him to continue at sea. Murray, for that was his name, was there endeavoring to recover his health, when a Dutch vessel drew near the coast, put the blacks in irons, whom curiosity had brought [Page 38]to the shore, and instantly sailed off with their booty.

Those who interested themselves for these un­happy people, incensed at so base a treachery, instantly ran to Cudjoe, who stopped them at his door, and asked them what they were in search of. "The white man who is with you, (replied they) who should be put to death, be­cause his brethren have carried off ours." "The Europeans (answered the generous host) who have carried off our countrymen are barbarians, kill them whenever you can find them. But he who lodges with me is a good man, he [...] my friend; my house is his fortress; I am his soldier, and will defend him. Before you get at him, you shall pass over my body. O my friends, what just man would enter my doors, if I had suffered my habitation to be stained with the blood of an innocent man!" This discourse appeased the rage of the blacks: they retired ashamed of the design that had brought them there, and some days after acknowledged to Murray himself how happy they were they had not committed a crime which would have occa­sioned them perpetual remorse." Justamond's translation of Abbe Raynal's history, vol. III, page 440. Mr. Ramsay in his Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in [Page 39]the British Sugar Colonies, gives the following noble instance of gratitude in a Negro. "Joseph Rachel was a black trader in Barbadoes; he dealt chiefly in the retail way, and was so fair and complaisant in business, that in a town filled with little peddling shops, his doors were throng­ed with customers. I have often dealt with him, and found him remarkably honest and obliging. If any one knew not where to procure an article Joseph would be at pains to search it out, to supply him, without making an advantage of it. In short, his character was so fair, his manners so generous, that the best people shewed him a regard which they often deny men of their own color, because not blessed with like goodness of heart.

"In 1756, a fire happened which burned down great part of the town, and ruined many of the inhabitants. Joseph luckily lived in a quarter that escaped the destruction, and ex­pressed his thankfulness, by softening the dis­tresses of his neighbours. Among those who had lost their all by this heavy misfortune, was a man to whose family Joseph, in the early part of life, owed some obligations. This man, by too great hospitality, an excess common enough in the West Indies, had involved his affairs, be­fore the sire happened, and his estate lying in [Page 40]houses, that event entirely ruined him, he escaping with only the clothes on his back. A­midst the cries of misery and want which excited Joseph's compassion, that man's unfortunate si­tuation claimed particular notice. The gener­ous, the open temper of the sufferer, the obli­gations that Joseph had to his family, were spe­cial and powerful motives for acting towards him the friendly part.

Joseph had his bond for sixty pounds ster­ling. "Unfortunate man, (says he) this shall never come against thee. Would Heaven thou could settle all thy other matters as easily! But how am I sure that I shall keep in this mind: may not the love of gold, especially, when by length of time thy misfortune has become fami­liar to me, return with too strong a current, and bear down my fellow feeling before it? But for this I have a remedy. Never shalt thou apply for the assistance of any friend against my avarice." He got up, ordered a current account that the man had with him to a considerable a­mount to be drawn out, and with a whim that might have called up a smile on the face of cha­rity, filled his pipe, sat down again, twisted the bond, and lighted his pipe with it. While the account was drawing out he continued smoking in a state of mind a monarch might envy. When [Page 41]finished he went in search of his friend, with the account discharged, and the mutilated bond in his hand. On meeting with him he present­ed the papers to him with this address. 'Sir, I am sensibly affected with your misfortunes— the obligations that I have received from your family, give me a relation to every branch of it. I know that your inability to satisfy for what you owe, gives you more uneasiness than the loss of your own subsistence. That you may not be anxious on my account in particular, accept of this discharge, and the remains of your bond. I am overpaid in the satisfaction that I feel from having done my duty. I beg you to consider this only as a token of the hap­piness that you will impart to me whenever you put it in my power to do you a good office.' One may easily guess at the man's feelings, on being thus generously treated, and how much his mind must have been strengthened to bear up against his misfortunes. I knew him a few years after this; he had got a small post in one of the forts, and preserved a decent appear­ance." Page 254.

In Astley's Voyages it is mentioned, speaking of The Manners and Customs of the Inha­bitants of Kongo, that, "although some of them be surly and proud, yet in general they [Page 42]carry themselves very friendly towards strangers; being of a mild conversation, courteous, affable, and easy to be overcome with reason, yet in­clined to drink, especially Spanish wine and brandy." Vol. III. page 247.

It appears to me that these people must ge­nerally have possessed a good disposition, (ex­cepting their passion for strong liquors) and a great inclination to hospitality, who could be very friendly towards strangers, when they had found so many strangers to be treacherous and wicked. It is astonishing that they did not all seem surly and proud.

In short, there are some travellers who give very unfavorable accounts of the morals of some black nations. Their accounts are certainly not wholly devoid of truth. But does not history and experience furnish us with undeniable proofs of the monstrous and excessive wickedness of white nations? Have not white nations com­mitted all the crimes which are imputed to the black, nay, all which imagination can con­ceive?

CHAP. V.

IT has been said by some in defence of the Slave Trade, that the Negroes purchased in Africa, are prisoners of war, or criminals, who have justly forfeited their liberty; that the trade will prevent them from cutting one another's throats; and that it may be the means of initi­ating them into the principles of christianity. It must be allowed that some of the Negroes who are purchased in Africa are prisoners of war, or criminals; but it can be proved by the most in­contestable evidence, that most of those who are taken from thence are innocent people, who have in no manner whatever forfeited their right to freedom. Francis Moore, who was Factor for the English African Company, on the river Gambia, 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 Barsalli, 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." Page 61. In another place he says, "Whenever this King wants goods or brandy, he sends a messenger to the English [Page 44]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 [...] 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 goes with some of his troops by a town in the day-time, and re­turning in the night, sets fire to three parts of 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." Page 46. Andrew Brue, the principal Factor for the French African Company, and who resided a considerable time in Africa, says, "That having received goods he wrote to Damel, (King of Kayor) that if he had a sufficient number of slaves, he was ready to trade with him. This Prince, as well as the other Negro Monarchs, has always a sure way of supplying his de [...]iciencies by selling his [Page 45]own subjects, for which they seldom want some pretension or other. Damel had recourse to this method: he seized three hundred of his own people, and sent word to Brue that he had slaves to deliver for his goods." Astley's Col­lection of Voyages, vol. 2, page 29. After­wards he says, "that some of the natives are, on all occasions, endeavouring to surprise and car­ry off their country people. They land with­out noise, and if they find a lone cottage, with­out defence, they surround it, and carry off all the people and effects to their boat, and imme­diately reimbark." Page 98. Barbot, the French Factor, 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 110. It is also con­firmed by writers of a later date, that Negroes are frequently stolen from the coast of Africa; and that the Kings of that country, seize by vio­lence, their innocent subjects, to sell them to the Europeans. It is said in an account of the [Page 46]Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa, by Alex­ander Falconbridge, late Surgeon in the African Trade, London, printed, 1788; "Upon the windward coast another mode of procuring slaves is pursued; which is, by what they term boating; a mode that is very pernicious and destructive to the crews of the ships. The sail­ors who are employed upon this trade go in boats upon the rivers seeking for Negroes, a­mong the villages situated upon the banks of them. But this method is very slow, and not always effectual. For, after being absent from the ship during a fortnight or three weeks they sometimes return with only from eight to twelve Negroes. Numbers of these are procured in consequence of alledged crimes, which, as be­fore observed, when any ships are upon the coast, are more productive than at any other pe­riod. Kidnapping, however, prevails here.

"I have good reason to believe, that of one hundred and twenty Negroes, which were pur­chased for the ship to which I belonged then lying at the river Ambris, by far the greater part, if not the whole, were kidnapped. This, with various other instances confirms me in the belief, that kidnapping is the fund which sup­plies the thousands of Negroes annually sold off these extensive windward and other coasts where [Page 47]boating prevails." Page 18. It is said in a pamphlet, which was printed in London in 1789, entitled, Observations on the Slave Trade, and a Description of some part of the Coast of Guinea, during a Voyage made in 1787 and 1788, in company with Doctor A. Sparrman and Captain Arr [...]henius. By C. B. Wadstrom, Chief Director of the Royal Assay and Refining Office; Member of the Royal Chamber of Com­merce, and of the Royal Patriotic Society for improving Agriculture, Manufactures, and Com­merce in Sweden. "The King of Almammy had, in the year 1787, very much to his honor, enacted a law, that no slave, whatever, should be marched through his territories. At this time several French vessels lay at anchor in the Se­negal, waiting for slaves. The route of the black traders in consequence of this edict of the King was stopped, and the slaves carried to o­ther parts. The French, unable on this ac­count, to complete their cargoes, remonstrated with the King. He was, however, very unpro­pitious to their representations, for he returned the presents which had been sent him by the Senegal Company, of which I myself was a wit­ness; declaring at the same time, that all the riches of that Company should not divert him from his design. In this situation of affairs the French were obliged to have recourse to their [Page 48]old friends the Moors. These, who had be­fore shewn themselves so ready on such occasions, were no less ready and active on this. They set off in parties to surprise the unoffending Negroes, and to carry among them all the ca­lamities of war. Many unfortunate prisoners were sent, and for some time continued to be sent in. I was once curious enough to see some of those that had just arrived. I applied to the director of the Company, who conducted me to the slave-prisons. I there saw the unfortunate captives chained two and two together, by the foot. The mangled bodies of several of them, whose wounds were still bleeding, exhibited a most shocking spectacle; and their situation may be much easier conceived than described. The Director of the Company, however, used his best means to console them.

"This is a specific instance clearly shewing that one war at least was undertaken for the sole purpose of procuring slaves. I cannot, howe­ver, help observing, that if no such instance as this had come within my knowledge during my stay in those parts, I should yet have thought myself justifiable in supposing that the wars a­mong the Negroes originated in the slave trade. For in all the observations I have been able to make (and I went to the Coast of Africa, not [Page 49]with any commercial views, but for the sole purpose of inquiry and observation) I have ever considered the Negroes as a quiet, inoffensive people, happy in themselves, and in one another enjoying the comforts of life, without the in­tervention of toil and trouble. If, therefore, I had found wars among a people of such dispo­sitions, and so situated as to have no motive for them, I should certainly have set them down, as having been excited for some diabolical pur­pose, and for none so likely as the prosecution of the slave trade." Pages 4, 5, and 6. In another place he says—"A second source from whence the Europeans are supplied with slaves on the Coast of Africa, is pillage, which is of two kinds; public and private. It is public, when practised by the direction of the kings, private, when practised by individuals. I must also make a further distinction, namely, as it is practised by the blacks and the whites. This last I call robbery, which will be the subject of the next article.

"The public pillage is of all others the most plentiful source from which the slave trade de­rives its continuance and support. The Kings of Africa, (I mean in that part of the country which I have visited) incited by the merchandise shewn them, which consists principally of strong [Page 50]liquors, give orders to their military to attack their own villages in the night. Saturday night is particularly fixed upon for this purpose, being esteemed the most lucky for expeditions of this kind. However, when slaves are wanted in haste, no night is deemed so inauspicious as to prevent an attempt.

"As I have been myself an eye witness to se­veral of these nocturnal exhibitions, it will, per­haps, be better to illustrate this kind of pillage by some examples.

"The French make presents to the Negro as well as the Moorish Kings. It happened when I was at Goree, that an Ambassador was to be sent from thence to the King of Barbesin on this errand. I obtained leave with my fellow-tra­vellers to accompany the embassy. We accord­ingly set out and arrived at Joal, a place where the King resides at particular times of the year, viz. when the trading vessels arrive there.

"It is usual on the receipt of these presents to send back a number of slaves in return. It so happened, however, that the King of Bar­besin had no slaves in possession at that time. This circumstance it was that afforded me an op­portunity of seeing the expeditions before men­tioned.

[Page 51] "We resided, I believe, about a week at Joal. During our residence there, the pillage, of which I have been speaking, was attempted almost every night. The following is a descip­tion of the persons concerned in it, and of their various success.

"There were several parties of the military assembled at fix in the evening, or about dusk. Each party consisted of about ten or twelve. A large horseman's musquet was rested on each of their saddles, in the same manner as those of the English heavy cavalry. On their shoulders were suspended a bow and a quiver full of arrows.— Thus equipped, they went to different villages belonging to the King, and returned usually a­bout five in the morning, or a little before day-light." Page 7, 8 and 9. Afterwards he says, "At another time, the military, who had been sent out to pillage, returned with se­veral captives. These consisted of men, women, and children. The men, as they were brought in, exhibited great marks of dejection. One of them, however, appeared to be quite f [...]an­tic with grief. He beseeched his captors, with great fervency, that they would not tear him from his wife and children. The women, on the other hand, vented their sorrow in shrieks and lamentations. The children, in a state of [Page 52]palpitation, clung to their mother's breasts. Their little eyes were so swelled with crying that they could cry no more. During all this time the captors, to shew their joy on the occasion, and to drown the cries of their unfortunate fel­low-subjects, were beating large drums. To this was added all the noise that could be col­lected from the blowing of horns, and the hu­man voice. Taking in the shrieks and agony of the one, and the shouts and joy of the other, with the concomitant instruments of noise, I was never before witness to such an infernal scene.

"What I have said of the King of Barbesin's conduct with respect to the mode of procuring slaves is equally applicable to those other Kings of the country of whom I have any knowledge. King Damel, whose dominious lie between Por­tugal and Senegal, wanting a slave to deliver in exchange for some goods he had bargained for with a Goree trader, ordered his soldiers to seize on one of his own subjects. Finding a woman (whose husband was absent) in a hut with their children, they seized her, bound her, and tore her from her babes, who were reject­ed, as not being able to perform the journey to the shore." Pages 11 and 12.

The celebrated Mr. Clarkson, in a work published in London, in 1789, which he calls [Page 53]"The Substance of the Evidence of sundry Per­sons on the Slave-Trade, collected in the course of a Tour made in the Autumn of the Year 1788," gives a long account of an infamous transaction which happened in Old Calabar river in 1767. In page 4 and 5 he mentions, "In the King's Bench—The King against Lippincot and others—"William Floyd, of the city of Bristol, mariner, maketh oath and saith, that he hath sailed out of the port of Bristol, and been employed in the African trade, as Mate and Master of a vessel, about twenty years.

"And this deponent also saith, that in the year 1767, he, this deponent, was Chief Mate of the merchant ship, called the Indian Queen, John Lewis, Master; and saith that some time in that year, the said ship was in the river of Old Calabar, on the coast of Africa, with se­veral other English ships, particularly the Duke of York, Captain Bevan; the Nancy, Captain Maxwell; and the Concord, all of Bristol; the Edgar, Captain Ambrose Lace, of Liverpool; and a ship belonging to London, commanded by one Captain —.

"And this deponent also saith, that a quar­rel having for some time subsisted between the inhabitants of Old Town, Old Calabar, and [Page 54]those of New Town, Old Calabar, the princi­pal inhabitants of Old Town were invited on board the said English ships, then in the said river, by the respective Captains, under the pre­tence of the Captains of those ships using their utmost endeavours to put an end to the said quarrel between the inhabitants of the said two towns. And this deponent also saith, that on the faith and confidence of being protected by the said Captains and their crews, whilst on board their ships, about three or four hundred of the inhabitants of Old Town, Old Calabar, aforesaid, came in ten canoes, first along side the said Indian Queen, and afterwards, the same evening, went on board the said ship Edgar, Captain Lace, leaving three or four of their people on board the said ship Indian Queen, a­mong whom the deponent recollects was one Amboe Robin John, brother of Ephraim Robin John, then a Grandee, and afterwards the King of Old Town aforesaid.

"And this deponent also saith, that the same morning, his Commander, Captain Lewis, gave this deponent orders, that as soon as he, this deponent, should observe a jack at the mizen-top-mast-head of the said ship Edgar, he, this deponent, should seize all the people of the Old Town who were on board the said ship In­dian [Page 55]Queen, and along-side of her in canoes; and this deponent also saith, that he, this de­ponent, in obedience to the said orders, having for some time looked out for the said signal, but none appearing, he at length, to his great sur­prise, heard and saw a firing of small arms and wall-pieces from the said ship Duke of York, James Bevan, Master, into a canoe, then lying along side of the said ship Duke of York, (which canoe afterwards appeared to belong to the said Amboe Robin John, and his brother the said little Ephraim Robin John, and Ancona Robin Robin John) and presently afterwards this de­ponent observed the said canoe to fill, and se­veral of the people belonging to her swimming in the water, and the rest being either killed or seized on board the said ship Duke of York (as this deponent afterwards heard and still verily be­lieves.)

"And this deponent also saith, that imme­diately upon the said firing, all the other ships then in the said river, (except the Edgar, of Liverpool, and Concord of Bristol) began like­wise to fire on all the canoes belonging to Old Town aforesaid, and to seize the inhabitants: nine of whom were seized on board the Indian Queen and along-side of her.

[Page 56] "And this deponent also saith, that during the said siring from the ships, he, this deponent, saw sundry of the inhabitants of New Town, a­foresaid, (who this deponent believes were con­cerned in the said plot, who had lain concealed near the shore behind the bushes, until the said firing began) coming from their hiding-places, in pursuit of the inhabitants of Old Town a­foresaid, as had escaped from the ships. And this deponent saw several of the said ships' boats join the inhabitants of New Town aforesaid in such pursuits.

"And this deponent also saith, that after the firing was over, he saw many dead bodies in the said river, and on the sands; and he, this deponent, heard and believes that about three hundred inhabitants of Old Town aforesaid, (many of whom were principal men of the place) were, through the treachery of the English Captains, either killed or made slaves of. And this deponent actually saw the aforesaid Amboe Robin John delivered over from on board the said ship Duke of York, to some of the inha­bitants of New Town aforesaid, one of whom, this deponent saw, strike off his head in a canoe along side of the said ship Duke of York. And this deponent also saith, that six of the inhabi­tants of Old Town aforesaid, were carried off [Page 57]the coast of Africa in the said ship Indian Queen: and this deponent hath heard and be­lieves, that many others were likewise carried off the said coast by the Duke of York, and other ships there, and made slaves of in some of the islands and plantations in America."

That the slave-trade will prevent the Negroes from cutting one another's throats is an asser­tion totally unsupported by reason or experi­ence. It is most certain that it has a contrary effect, that it tends to promote an incessant con­tention between the people of Africa, and to deluge the land with blood. Anthony Benezet mentions, in his Historical Account of Guinea, page 119, from an original manuscript jour­nal of a person of credit, who went Surgeon on the same trade, in a vessel from New-York; "Being on the coast, the Commander of the vessel, according to custom, sent a person on shore with a present to the King, acquainting 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 [Page 58]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 fought which lasted three days, during which time the engagement was so bloody that four thousand five hundred men were slain on the spot." The author of the journal, who beheld the dead bodies on the field after the battle, says, "Think what a pitiable sight it was to see the widows weeping over their lost husbands, or­phans deploring the loss of their fathers, &c." Mr Clarkson says, in his admirable Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the human Species, particularly the African.—"Another argument yet remains, which, though nature will abso­lutely turn pale at the recital, cannot possibly be omitted. In those wars, which are made for the sake of procuring slaves, it is evident that the contest must be generally obstinate, and that great numbers must be slain on both sides, be­fore the event can be determined. This we may reasonably apprehend to be the case: and we have shewn that there have not been wanting instances, where the conquerors have been so incensed at the resistance they have found, that their spirit of vengeance has entirely got the better of their avarice, and they have murdered in cool blood, every individual, without discri­mination, [Page 59]either of age or sex: From these and other circumstances, we thought we had suffi­cient reason to conclude, that where ten were supposed to be taken, an hundred, including the victors and vanquished, might be supposed to perish. Now, as the annual exportation from Africa consists of an hundred thousand men, and as the two orders of those who are private­ly kidnapped by individuals, and of those who are publicly seized, by virtue of the authority of their Prince, compose together, at least, nine-tenths of the African slaves, it follows, that a­bout ten thousand consist of convicts and prison­ers of war. The last order is the most numer­ous. Let us suppose then that only six thou­sand of this order are annually sent into servi­tude, and it will immediately appear that no less than sixty thousand people annually perish in those wars, which are made only for the purpose of procuring slaves. But that this number, which we believe to be by no means exaggerated, may be free from all objection, we will include those in the estimate who die as they are travelling to the ships. Many of these unfortunate people have a journey of one thousand miles to per­form on foot, and are driven like sheep through inhospitable woods and deserts, where they fre­quently die in great numbers, from fatigue and want. Now if to those who thus perish on the [Page 60]African continent by want and travelling, we subjoin those who afterwards perish on the voy­age, and in the seasoning together, it will ap­pear that, in every yearly attempt to supply the Colonies, an hundred thousand must perish even before one useful individual can [...]e obtained.

"Gracious GOD! how wicked, how be­yond all example impious, must be that servi­tude, which cannot be carried on without the continual murder of so many and innocent per­sons! What punishment is not to be expected for such monstrous and unparalleled barbarities! For if the blood of one man, unjustly shed, cries with so loud a voice for the Divine vengeance, how shall the cries and groans of an hundred thou­sand men, annually murdered, ascend the celestial mansions, and bring down that punishment which such enormities deserve!" Page 152 and 153.

It seems a sorry argument in favor of the slave-trade that it may be the means of initiating the Negroes into the principles of Christianity. It was not in this manner that the Apostles pro­pagated the gospel. St. Paul, in his first Epistle to Timothy, ranks men-stealers among the very worst of mankind. The penalty for this foul crime was death by the Mosaic law. "And he that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death." Exodus, xxi. 16.

CHAP. VI.

WHEN the Negroes are objected to by the Captains on account of age, sickness, deformity, or any reason whatever, they are frequently beaten and treated with great cruel­ty by the traders. At New Calabar, it is said, by Alexander Falconbridge, in his Account of the Slave-Trade, on the Coast of Africa, the black traders have frequently in these circum­stances put them to death. They have been known to drop their canoes under the stern of the vessel, and instantly to behead them in sight of the ship's crew —Mr. Clarkson says, in his Substance of the Evidence of sundry Persons on the Slave-Trade. "Mr. — was lying in the —, in Benin river. At the time alluded to Captain Lemma Lemma, a great trader of Benin was on board. This trader, happening to be on deck, observed a canoe with three people in it, crossing the above river. Upon seeing it he dispatched a war canoe, which was then lying along side the —; and on board of which were five of his people, in pur­suit. They presently came up with the canoe aforesaid, and having seized her brought her [Page 62]along side of the —. The three people were then taken out of the canoe, and brought on board. They consisted of a father, son, and daughter. The two latter were sold to the Chief Mate, Captain — being then at the Factory at Gatoe. The former, on account of his age, was refused. Upon this Capt. Lemma Lemma ordered his people to take him into his own canoe, which they accordingly did, but laid his head upon the thwart of the boat, and in two strokes with a cutlass cut it off. This Mr. — saw with his own eyes." Page 33. The Negroes upon being brought on board the vessel as slaves, will sometimes, especially the women, become insane; which to a feeling mind must greatly add to the horror of the scene, though it may be matter of laughter to the unfeeling. They will sometimes jump into the sea to escape the fangs of the oppressor, or aim at the destruction of themselves by some other means. They often attempt insurrections. "The men Negroes (says Alex. Falconbridge) on being brought aboard the ship are immedi­ately fastened together, two a [...] two, by hand­cuffs on their wrists, and by irons riveted on their legs. They are then sent down between the decks, and placed in an apartment partition­ed off for that purpose. The women likewise are placed in a separate apartment between [Page 63]decks, but without being ironed. And an ad­joining room, on the same deck, is besides ap­pointed for the boys. Thus are they all placed in different apartments.

"But at the same time they are frequently stowed so close, as to admit of no other posture than lying on their sides. Neither will the height between decks, unless directly under the grat­ing, permit them the indulgence of an erect posture; especially where there are platforms, which is generally the case. These platforms are a kind of shelf, about eight or nine feet in breadth, extending from the side of the ship towards the center. They are placed nearly midway between the decks, at the distance of two or three feet from each deck. Upon these the Negroes are stowed in the same manner as they are on the deck underneath." Page 20.

The annexed plate is a copy of that which was lately published in England by the Commit­tee of the Plymouth Society for the Abolition of the Slave-Trade. "The annexed plate (they say) represents the lower deck of an African ship of two hundred and ninety seven tons bur­den, with the slaves stowed in it, in the pro­portion of not quite one to a ton.

[Page 64] "In the men's apartment the space allowed to each is six feet in length, by sixteen inches in breadth. The boys are each allowed five feet by fourteen inches. The women five feet ten inches, by sixteen inches; and the girls four feet by one foot each. The perpendicular height between the decks is five feet eight inches.— It may perhaps be conceived from the crowded state in which the slaves appear in the plate, that an unusual and exaggerated instance has been produced; this, however, is so far from being the case, that no ship, if her intended cargo can be procured, ever carries a less number than one to a ton, and the usual practice has been to carry double that number. The bill which was passed the last sessions of Parliament, only restricts the carriage to five slaves for three tons; and the Brooks, of Liverpool, a capital ship, from which the annexed sketch was proportion­ed, did, in one voyage, actually carry six hun­dred and nine slaves, which is more than double the number that appear in the plate. The mode of stowing them was as follows: platforms, or wide shelves, were erected between the decks, extending so far from the sides towards the middle of the vessel, as to be capable of con­taining four additional rows of slaves, by which means the perpendicular height between each tier, after allowing for the beams and platforms, [Page 65]was reduced to two feet six inches, so that they could not even sit in an erect posture; besides which, in the men's apartments, instead of four rows, five were stowed, by placing the heads of one between the thighs of another. All the horrors of this situation are still multiplied in the smaller vessels. The Kitty of one hundred and thirty-seven tons, had only one foot ten inches, and the Venus, of one hundred and forty-six tons, only one foot nine inches perpendicular height, above each laver."

Alexander Falconbridge in his before-men­tioned publication says, "About eight o'clock in the morning the Negroes are generally brought upon deck. Their irons being examin­ed, a long chain, which is locked to a ring-bolt, fixed in the deck, is run through the rings of the shackles of the men, and then locked to another ring-bolt, fixed also in the deck. By this means fifty or sixty, and sometimes more, are fastened to one chain, in order to prevent them from rising, or endeavoring to escape. If the wea­ther proves favorable, they are permitted to re­main in that situation till four or five in the af­ternoon, when they are disengaged from the chain, and sent down." Page 21.

In another place he says, "Upon the Negroes refusing to take sustenance, I have seen coals of [Page 66]fire, glowing hot, put on a shovel, and placed so near their lips, as to scorch and burn them. And this has been accompanied with threats, of forcing them to swallow the coals, if they any longer persisted in refusing to eat. These means have generally had the desired effect I have also been credibly informed, that a certain Cap­tain in the slave-trade, poured melted lead on such of the Negroes as obstinately refused their food." Page 23.

Again he says, "On board some ships, the common sailors are allowed to have intercourse with such of the black women whose consent they can procure. And some of them have been known to take the inconstancy of their para­mours so much to heart, as to leap overboard, and drown themselves. The officers are per­mitted to indulge their passions among them at pleasure, and sometimes are guilty of such bru­tal excesses, as disgrace human nature.

"The hardships and inconveniences suffered by the Negroes during the passage are scarcely to be enumerated or conceived. They are far more violently affected by the sea-sickness, than the Europeans. It frequently terminates in death, especially among the women. But the exclusion of the fresh air is among the most in­tolerable. [Page 67]For the purpose of admitting this needful refreshment, most of the ships in the slave-trade are provided between the decks, with five or six air-ports on each side of the ship, of about six inches in length, and four in breadth: in addition to which, some few ships, but not one in twenty, have what they denominate wind-sails. But whenever the sea is rough, and the rain heavy, it becomes necessary to shut these, and every other conveyance by which the air is admitted. The fresh air being thus excluded, the Negroes' rooms very soon grow intolerably hot. The confined air, rendered noxious by the effluvia exhaled from their bodies, and by being repeatedly breathed soon produces fevers and fluxes, which generally carry off great num­bers of them.

"During the voyages I made I was frequent­ly a witness to the fatal effects of this exclusion of the fresh air. I will give one instance, as it serves to convey some idea, though a very faint one, of the suffering of those unhappy beings whom we wantonly drag from their native coun­try, and doom to perpetual labor and captivity. Some wet and blowing weather having occasion­ed the port-holes to be shut, and the granting to be covered, fluxes and fevers among the Ne­groes ensued. While they were in this situa­tion, [Page 68]as my profession required it, I frequently went down among them, till at length their a­partments became so extremely hot, as to be on­ly suffered for a very short time. But the ex­cessive heat was not the only thing that render­ed their situation intolerable. The deck, that is the floor of their rooms, was so covered with the blood and mucus, which had proceed­ed from them in consequence of the flux, that it resembled a slaughter-house. It is not in the power of human imagination to picture to itself a situation more dreadful or disgusting. Num­bers of the slaves having fainted they were carri­ed upon deck, where several of them died, and the rest were with great difficulty restored. It had nearly proved fatal to me also." Page 24 and 25.

This author mentions that a small ship from Liverpool took in near seven hundred slaves.— "By purchasing so great a number (he says) the slaves were so crowded that they were obliged to lie, one upon another. This occasioned such a mortality among them, that, without meeting with unusual bad weather, or having a longer voyage than common, nearly one half of them died before the ship arrived in the West-Indies." Page 26.

[Page 69] He says, "The place allotted for the sick Negroes is under the half deck, where they lie on the bare planks. By this means those who are emaciated, frequently have their skin, and even their flesh, entirely rubbed off, by the mo­tion of the ship, from the prominent parts of the shoulders, elbows, and hips, so as to render the bones in those parts quite bare. And some of them, by constantly lying in the blood and mucus, that had flowed from those afflicted with the flux, and which, as before observed, is general­ly so violent as to prevent their being kept clean, have their flesh much sooner rubbed off, than those who have only to contend with the mere friction of the ship. The excruciating pain which the poor sufferers feel from being obliged to conti­nue in such a dreadful situation, frequently for several week, in case they happen to live so long, is not to be conceived or described. Few, indeed, are ever able to withstand the fatal effects of it." Pages 27, 28.

The Rev. John Newton, says, in his Thoughts on the African Slave-Trade. London, printed 1788. "With the English ships on the coast the great object is to be full. When the ship is there it is thought desireable she should take as many as possible. The cargo of a vessel of one hundred tons, or little more, is calculated to [Page 70]purchas [...] from two hundred and twenty to two hundred and fifty slaves. Their lodging rooms, below the deck, which are three (for the men, the boys, and the women) besides a place for the sick, are sometimes more than five feet high, and sometimes less; and this height is divided towards the middle for the slaves lie in two rows, one above the other, on each side of the ship, close to each other, like books upon a shelf. I have known them so close that the shelf would not easily contain one more. And I have known a white man sent down among the men to lay them, in these rows, to the greatest ad­vantage, so that as little space as possible might be lost. Let it be observed that the poor crea­tures thus cramped for want of room are like­wise in irons, for the most part both hands and feet, and two together, which makes it difficult for them to turn or move, to attempt either to rise or life down without hurting themselves or each other. Nor is the motion of the ship, es­pecially her heeling, or stoop on one side, when under sail, to be omitted; for this as they lie athwart or across the ship, adds to the uncom­fortableness of their lodging, especially to those who lie on the leeward, or leaning side of the vessel.

[Page 71] The heat and the smell of these rooms, when the weather will not admit of the slaves being brought upon deck, and of having their rooms cleaned every day, would be almost insupporta­ble to a person not accustomed to them. If the slaves and their rooms be constantly aired, and they are not detained too long on board, perhaps there are not many die, but the contrary is often their lot. They are kept down by the weather to breathe a hot and corrupted air sometimes for a week: this added to the galling of the irons, and the despondency which seizes their spirits, when thus confined, soon becomes fatal. And every morning, perhaps, more instances are found than one, of the living and the dead, like the captives of Menzentius fastened toge­ther.

Epidemical fevers and fluxes which fill the ship with noisome and noxious effluvia, often break out, infect the seamen likewise, and the oppressor and oppressed fall by the same stroke. I believe nearly one half of the slaves on board have sometimes died, and that the loss of a third part in these circumstances is not unusual. The ship in which I was mate, left the coast with 218 slaves on board; and though we were not much affected with epidemical disorders, I find by my journal of that voyage (now before me) that we [Page 72]buried sixty, on our passage to South-Carolina, exclusive of those who died before we left the coast, of whom I have no account.

"I believe upon an average between the more healthy and the more sickly voyages, and including all contingencies, one fourth of the whole purchase may be allotted to the article of mortality. That is, if the English ships pur­chase sixty thousand slaves annually upon the whole extent of the coast, the annual loss of lives cannot be much less than fifteen thousand." Pages 19 and 20.

This author mentions a shocking instance of inhumanity in a mate of a vessel with whom he once sailed. The mate was carrying in a long­boat, to the ship, a Negro woman whom he had bought, who had a small child. The child would often cry, which enraged him so much, that he at last snatched it from the mother and threw it into the sea.

Mr. Wadstrom the author whom we quoted in the preceeding chapter says, "I am very sorry that humanity obliges me here to divulge a most barbarous practice, frequently used by the French traders in the middle passage. I have been assured by several of their merchants [Page 73]captains, that when detained by calms or con­trary winds occasioning a shortness of provisions and water, or when some fatal disease happens to break out among the slaves, they never fail to mix corrosive sublimate, or some other active poison with their victuals, and thus coolly dis­patch the wretches committed to their charge. They affirm that it would be an act of impru­dence to undertake such a voyage unprovided with poisonous drugs, and they boast of being less cruel than the Dutch and English, who in similar circumstances, throw the innocent vic­tims over-board, without ceremony. Since my arrival in London, this horrid practice has been authenticated by the respectable authority of several French gentlemen.

"Of the above cruel practice my Journal furnishes a melancholy instance communicated to me by Capt. L. of Havre-de-Grace. About two years ago a slave-vessel, belonging to Brest, having been becalmed on the middle passage, fell short of provisions and water. The Captain on this occasion had recourse to poison, by which so great a number was daily dispatched, that of five hundred slaves only twenty-one arrived at Cape Francois." Pages 29, 30. ^*

[Page 74] It is the general custom of the Captains of the vessels in the slave-trade, if there should be occasion on account of bad weather, to throw some of the Negroes overboard to lighten the ship. This is also done without reluctance, if there should be any fear that provisions or wa­ter should fall short before the arrival of the ship at its destined port. Mr. Clarkson, however, in his celebrated Essay on the Slavery and Com­merce of the Human Species, particularly the African, says, "But indeed so lightly are these unhappy people esteemed that their lives have even been taken away upon speculation: there has been an instance within the last five years of one hundred and thirty-two of them being thrown into the sea, because it was supposed that by this trick their value could be recovered from the insurers. This instance happened in a ship, commanded by one Collingwood. On the 29th of November, 1781, fifty four of them were [Page 75]thrown into the sea alive, on the 30th forty-two more; and in about three days afterwards, twen­ty six. Ten others, who were brought upon the deck for the same purpose, did not wait to be hand-cuffed, but bravely leaped into the sea, and shared the fate of their companions. It is a fact, that the people on board this ship had not been put upon short allowance. The excuse that this execrable wretch made on board for his conduct, was the following, "that if the slaves, who were then sickly had died a natural death, the loss would have been the own­ers; but as they were thrown alive into the sea, it would fall upon the underwriters." Page 88 and 89.

I would now appeal to the heart of every feeling and intelligent person, and ask them if they think a more horrible scene of cruelty and wickedness, than this can easily be described?— One would think that every man who attends to it, if he is not a villain, must be fired with in­dignation at it. I would appeal particularly to the sensibility and the virtue of my female rea­ders, many of whom know the beauty, the cleanliness, the healthiness, the peace, the liber­ty, the dignity, the sanctity of chastity, and how preferable it is to the misery, the filth, the un­wholesomeness, the servitude, the debasement, [Page 76]the brutality, of incontinence. It is impossible but they must feel exquisitely for the condition of any of their sex where their persons can be violated with impunity. It is their duty, how­ever, to do more than to feel—to act for their relief. They can act for the relief of the Ne­groes, by subscribing to some of the various so­cieties established in America and Europe for their benefit. In the "Societe des Amis des Noirs de Paris," women are permitted to be ^* Members; and I should be happy myself, though it might appear romantic to some, to hear of this custom being established in other countries. A woman can never act in an unbecoming man­ner by executing the offices of humanity.

[Page]

CHAP. VII.

THE appearance of a slave-ship in the har­bour of a West-India Island is the most horrible and disgusting of any sight that can be conceived. It is black with filth, and emits a most fetid smell. It is surrounded with sharks of an enormous size, who have followed it per­haps from Guinea, and who appear eager to taste again of those carcases upon which they have frequently been fed. The Negroes upon their arrival in the West Indies are sometimes sold by scramble. In a scramble the Negroes bear an equal price, which is settled before-hand with the purchasers, and every man is to be con­tent with the Negro or Negroes which he can seize. It has been known that when the sale in this manner has been made on board a ship, and when upon a signal given the purchasers have rushed in upon the Negroes, they have been struck with terror, and have jumped into the sea. When they have been sold in this manner in a merchant's yard on shore, they have been known to climb over the fence or wall that sur­rounded them, and to run wild and affrighted over the whole town. This fear proceeds greatly [Page 78]from an opinion, very common among the Ne­groes lately taken from Africa, that the white people design to eat them. The most usual me­thod, however, of selling them, is on shore without a scramble. At the sale the most shock­ing indecencies are practised; and husbands and wives, and parents and children, are separated without reluctance, if it is inconvenient to the purchaser that they should be kept together. A Negro in some of the West-India Islands and in some parts of America, has scarcely a greater protection, from the laws, than a horse. The murder of a slave is in many places not punish­able by death, but by a pecuniary fine. The notorious and execrable law of Barbadoes, which is a disgrace to human nature, says that "if any man shall of wantonness or only of bloody-mindedness, or cruel intention, wilfully kill a Negro, or other slave of his own, he shall deliver into the public treasury, fifteen pounds sterling, and not be liable to any other punish­ment or forfeiture, for the same."—Laws of Bar­badoes, Act 329.

The most wanton cruelties are daily practised upon the Negroes in the West-Indies. I have [Page 79]known, in an Island in the West-Indies, where I resided for some years, a Negro to be severely whipped and to be incessantly persecuted for re­fusing his daughter to a manager of an estate, upon the plea that she was from her early youth unripe for love, and that he had designed her at a more advanced age, for a young man of his own color, who was his friend, and attached to his daughter. Reader attend to the hand of Heaven, which was palpably raised for the pu­nishment of this profligate villain, and if ever thou hast committed an act of injustice or tyranny against any of thy fellow-creatures, know that thy crime can only be expiated by repentance, or by retribution here or hereafter. This man, whose name was Thomson or Thompson, left the estate on which he lived soon after the per­secution of this Negro for refusing his daughter to his peevish and damnable lust, and entering into a privateer, accumulated in a short time the [...]m of a thousand pounds. He returned to the West-Indies, and quickly having consumed his money in riot and debauchery, he was seized with a disorder the consequence of his amours. As he lay dying in a tavern, with what is called a corona veneris upon him, and putrid before his death, there were some gamesters in a near chamber to him, who were rattling the dice-box, and he was at last, unlamented, and almost unat­tended, [Page 80]thrown into a hole like a dead dog.— "Vengeance is mine; I will repay saith the Lord." Paul's Epistles. A fellow who had the management of an estate in the same island, is said, when peevish from the gout, to have or­dered a Negro-boy, as he was lying down, to brush the flies from his face, and to have threa­tened him with thirty nine lashes for every fly that should touch him. The consequence is said to have been, what we should naturally sup­pose, that in a hot country, where flies are nu­merous, a great many settled upon the face of this scoundrel, and inexorable tyrant, and the boy was almost whipped to death. Sir Hans Sloane, in his introduction to the Natural Histo­ry of Jamaica, says, "The punishments for crimes of slaves, are usually for rebellions, 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 lesser nature, gelding, or chopping off half the foot with an axe. These punishments are suffered by them with great constancy.—For negligence they are usually whipped by the over­seers with lance-wood switches, till they be bloody, and several of the switches broken, be­ing first tied up by their hands in the mill-houses. [Page 81]—After they are whipped till they are raw, some put on their skins, pepper an [...] salt, to make them smart; at other times [...] masters will drop melted wax on their ski [...]s, and use several very exquisite torments." Vol. 1. Page 57.

There is an account o [...] the singular cruelty with which a Negro was put to death in Ameri­ca, in Letters from an American Farmer, de­scribing certain provincial situations, manners, and customs, not gener [...]ly known, and conveying some idea of the late and present interior cir­cumstances of the British colonies in North-A­merica. Written for the information of a friend by J. Hector St John, a Farmer in Pennsylva­nia. He says, "I was not long since invited to dine with a [...] l [...]nter, who lived three miles from —, where he then resided. To a­void the heat [...]f the sun, I resolved to go on foot, sheltered in a path, leading through a pleasant woo [...] I was leisurely travelling along examining some peculiar plants which I had col­lected, wh [...]n all at once I felt the air strongly a­gitated, th [...]ough the day was perfectly calm and sultry. I immediately cast my eyes towards the clear ground, from which I was but a small distance, in order to see whether it was not oc­casion [...]d by a sudden shower; when at that in­stant a sound resembling a deep rough voice, [Page 82]uttered, as I thought, a few inarticulate mono­syllables. Alarmed and surprised, I precipitate­ly looked all around, when I perceived at the distance of about six rods, something resembling a cage suspended to the limb of a tree; all the branches of which appeared covered with large birds of prey, ^* fluttering about, and anxiously endeavouring to perch on the cage. Actuated by an involuntary motion of my hands, more than by any design of my mind, I fired at them; they all flew to a short distance with a most hide­ous noise; when, horrid to think, and painful to repeat, I perceived a Negro suspended in a cage, and left to expire! I shudder when I re­collect that the birds had already picked out his eyes; his cheek-bones were bare; his arms had been attacked in several places, and his bo­dy seemed covered with a multitude of wounds. From the edges of the hollow sockets, and from the lacerations with which he was disfigured, the blood slowly dropt, and tinged the ground be­neath. No sooner were the birds flown, than swarms of insects covered the whole body of this unfortunate wretch, eager to feed on his man­gled [Page 83]flesh, and to drink his blood. I found myself suddenly arrested by the power of affright and terror; my nerves were convulsed; I trem­bled; I stood motionless, involuntarily contem­plating the fate of this Negro, in all its dismal latitude. The living spectre, though deprived of his eyes, could distinctly hear, and in his un­couth dialect begged me to give him some water to allay his thirst. Humanity herself would have recoiled back with horror; she would have balanced whether to lessen such reliefless distress, or mercifully with one blow to end this dreadful scene of agonizing torture. Had I had a ball in my gun, I certainly should have dispatched him; but finding myself unable to perform so kind an office, I sought, though trembling, to relieve him as well as I could. A shell, ready fixed to a pole, which had been used by some Negroes, presented itself to me; I filled it with water, and with trembling hands I guided it to the quivering lips of the wretched sufferer.— Urged by the irresistible power of thirst, he en­deavored to meet it, as he instinctively guessed its approach by the noise it made in passing through the bars of the cage. "Tanke, you white man, tanke you, pute some poison, and give me." How long have you been hanging there? I asked him. "Two days and me no die; the birds, the birds, aah me!" Oppressed [Page 84]with the reflections which this shocking specta­cle afforded me, I mustered strength to pass a­way, and soon reached the house at which I intended to dine. There I heard the reason for the slave being thus punished, was on ac­count of his having killed the Overseer of the plantation. They told me that the law of self-preservation rendered such executions necessary, and supported the doctrine of slavery with the arguments generally made use of to justify the practise; with the repetition of which I shall not trouble you at present." Page 233, &c.

The punishment of this Negro is somewhat similar to the punishment of a Negro for mur­der in the island of St. Eustatius: an account of which is to be found in one of Dodsley's Annu­al Registers. The conduct of the Negro in St. Eustatius seems, however, to have been more violent than the conduct of the Negro in Ame­rica. As he was working on board a vessel in the harbour of that island, he happened to kill a white man. At the instigation of ano­ther Negro, who was standing by, and who told him he could be no more than hung if he killed several white men, he jumped into the sea, swam to the town, and running a muck (as cer­tain people are described in Hawkesworth's [Page 85]Voyages to do in Batavia) he was desirous of killing every one he met. A resolute sailor at last overpowered him. He was condemned to suffer death by being put without food or water in a cage, which was raised some distance from the ground. He then became, after some time a most wretched spectacle, and his cries, for wa­ter, water, were incessant. I believe the cir­cumstances in general which are mentioned of the execution of these two Negroes to be true. It is impossible for a benevolent mind to read of the torture to which they, but especially the Ne­gro in America, were exposed, without the ut­most horror. It is said his crime was that of killing the Overseer of the Plantation. He might have killed the overseer in his own de­fence▪ or he might have been provoked to it by injuries of the most galling and afflictive na­ture (which we know to be too often inflicted by tyrants on their slaves) by injuries, through which patience itself might have been irritated, and which the uncorrected passions of an Afri­can could not in any manner brook. We are told that oppression will make even a wise man mad. But if we were to allow that the Negro killed the Overseer unjustly, still we must allow that the punishment to which he was exposed was inhuman, and such as should not have been inflicted. If he had been guilty of a deliberate [Page 86]murder, it should have been remembered, how­ever, when he was put to death that he was a man. There is something diabolical in torture; it begins to be exploded by civilized nations. It will be said that executions like these are neces­sary to strike terror into slaves. In answer to which I will observe that if such executions are necessary where slavery is practised, it is a forci­ble argument for the abolition of it.

There are ten thousand murders or more committed every year in the West-India islands belonging to the various nations of Europe; without reckoning the various thousands of Ne­groes who are destroyed in Africa, in the passage from Africa to these islands, and in the season­ing them to the climate of the West-Indies.— There are ten thousand or more Negroes who fall sacrifices every year to hunger and oppression, who have their lives shortened by the want of proper sustenance and by unkind treatment. ^* [Page 87]If we keep a slave and do not allow him food enough to support him, or time to procure food enough for his sustenance, we are guilty, in the court of just conscience, of starving him. I have known in one of the West-India islands, I have been a witness in person to the fact, where masters have allowed their slaves no food what­ever, but have only excused them from the work of a day or two in the week to provide themselves ^* with food. In some of the West India islands they allow no more than six or eight pints of horse-beans ^‡ to each Negro man or woman for a week. Will the Physicians say that this is food sufficient to support a hard-working and robust person? A healthy Negro might eat his week's allowance in two days.

[Page 88] In the West Indies the Negroes work from the rising to the setting sun, with but little in­termission, and are driven like cattle, in herds, to their labor, by the smack of the whip, some under the pressure of disease, some of the wo­men soon after being delivered, some of these unhappy people tied to a weight of fifty-six pounds by a chain around their necks, some chained together, and some of them without cloathes to conceal what decency requires to be concealed. A Negro in one of the British West India islands is said, when persecuted, to have jumped in a fit of despair into a large copper of boiling sugar, as into an asylum from tyranny. There are frequent instances of their destroying themselves from being wearied with oppression. Poor and persecuted sufferers! I have often seen your afflictions with a moistened eye and a break­ing heart. Mr. Ramsay, speaking of the island of St. Christopher, says, "In the year 1774, or before the American war, the several articles that a slave had annually returned to him out of his labor, were, in too many plantations, within the following proportion. In others, his allowance of food considerably exceeded what is here mentioned.

[Page 89]

Mr. Wesley says that a gentleman (if he may be called such) roasted his Negro-slave alive in the southern states of America. He says the following advertisement was taken from one of the North-Carolina papers.

Here is encouragement given, under the sanc­tion of an act of Assembly, to commit murder. This, with many other circumstances, should teach us not to pay too much veneration to what [Page 90]is called law. We should disregard the law of man, where it is contrary to the law of God. It is said by Attorney-General Noy, "It is a maxim of the common law of England, that "the inferior law must give place to the supe­rior, man's laws to GOD'S laws." Noy's Max­ims, page 19. It would be happy for mankind if this noble maxim were adopted by all the lawyers upon earth.

Mr. Clarkson in his Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the human species, particularly the African, says, "An iron coffin, with holes in it, was kept by a certain colonist, as an auxi­liary to the lash. In this the poor victim of the Master's resentment was inclosed, and placed sufficiently near a fire, to occasion extreme pain, and consequently shrieks and groans, until the revenge of the master was satiated, without any other inconvenience on his part, than a tempo­rary suspension of the slave's labor. Had he been slogged to death, or his limbs mutilated, the interest of the brutal tyrant would have suf­fered a more irreparable loss." Page 97.

It must give some consolation to the friends of humanity to know that the cruelty which was practised upon the Negroes, begins in some places to be restrained by law. This may be [Page 91]greatly attributed to the clamor which has been raised by various writers in defence of these per­secuted persons, and should urge those who have abilities or information to greater exertions in the noble cause of vindicating the oppressed.— The Assembly of Jamaica have lately passed an act to meliorate the condition of the Negroes, and have affixed the penalty of death to the mur­der of a Negro. The Assembly of Grenada have passed an act on the 3d of November 1788, "for the better protection, and for promoting the encrease and population of slaves." The in­tent of this act, it is mentioned in the pream­ble, is "to prescribe reasonable bounds to the power of masters, and others, having the charge of slaves, by compelling them sufficiently and properly to lodge, feed, cloath and maintain them, by introducing them to the knowledge of the christian religion, and affording them opportunity of improvement in morality, and by inducing them to regular marriage, and when married protecting them in their con­jugal rights." It is to be lamented that the act does not immediately prevent the further importation of slaves, but speaks only of the "means of removing in the course of time the necessity of further importations from Africa." It is worthy, however, of high ap­probation in many particulars. It affixes a pe­nalty [Page 92]upon the debauching the wives of the Ne­groes.

"9. And be it enacted by the authority afore­said, That if after the publication of this act, the proprietor or master of any female married slave shall debauch, and have carnal knowledge of such slave during her marriage, such master shall forfeit the sum of one hundred and sixty five pounds, current money, to be recovered in the Court of Common Pleas, by an action of debt, bill, plaint, or information, in the name of the Guardians, or any one or more of them, with the approbation of at least two of them, of the parish or town where such master resides.

"10. And be it further enacted by the au­thority aforesaid, That if any attorney, manager, overseer, book-keeper, tradesman, or other free person, shall debauch and have carnal knowledge of any married female slave, on the estate or plantation on which he resides, or in the house or family in which he is employed, he shall for­feit for every such offence, a sum equal to one half of his annual salary or wages; and if any stranger or transient visitor shall debauch and have carnal knowledge of any married female slave, he shall, for every such offence, forfeit fifty pounds; which said last mentioned for­feitures [Page 93]shall be recovered, in the said Court of Com­mon Pleas by action of debt, bill, plaint, or in­formation, in the name of the guardians of the parish, where such master resides, to be paid into the public treasury for the public use of this island.

"11. And be it further enacted by the au­thority aforesaid, That if any slave shall de­bauch and have carnal knowledge of any female married slave, during her marriage, and shall be thereof convicted before any one or more Justice or Justices of the Peace, both or either of the parties so offending shall and may receive such corporal punishment not extending to life or limb, as such Justice or Justices shall, in his or their discretion think reasonable." This act al­so aims to prevent a most horrible iniquity, which is taken notice of by Capt. J. S. Smith, in his "Letter to the Rev. Mr. Hill on the state of the Negro-Trade." I mean the giving a Negro his freedom, when he has become un­able through age or sickness to do any work. This is a cruelty often practised in the West-Indies.

"18. And be it enacted by the authority a­foresaid, That no master, owner or possessor of any slave or slaves shall, under pretence of ma­numission, or otherwise, discard or [...] [Page 94]any slave or slaves, on account or by reason of such slave, or slaves being rendered incapable of labor or service by means of sickness, age, or in­firmity; but every such owner, master, or pos­sessor shall keep such slave or slaves, on his, her, or their respective properties, and feed and provide them with wholesome food and decent comfortable cloathing and lodging, and not suf­fer them to wander about and become burden­some to others for subsistence, under the penal­ty of one hundred pounds current money for each slave so turned away or neglected as afore­said, to be recovered in the said Court of Com­mon Pleas, by action of debt, plaint, or infor­mation, in the name of any one or more, with the approbation of two at least of the guardians of the district in which such slave's residence is, or ought to be, and paid into the public Treasu­ry, for the public uses of the colony." The penalty prescribed by this act for a Negroe's run­ning away, is not death, but "such punish­ment, not extending to life and limb," as two Justices of the Peace shall in their discretion or­der to be inflicted.

It is to be lamented that this act does not lay a heavy penalty upon a crime which is very fre­quent in the West-Indies. I mean the punish­ing a young Negro girl, or her father, if the [Page 95]girl at his instigation, should not consent to gra­tify a planter's or a manager's lust. I can vouch for the authenticity of the account which I have given of the flagitious conduct of one manager in this respect. It is mentioned in the Roman History that a similar attempt in Appius, a De­cemvir, produced a revolution in Rome, and for ever overturned the power of him and his col­leagues. The people shocked at the wicked­ness of this magistrate, who wished to debauch the daughter of a Centurion, fled from the ci­ty as from a polluted place. "What have we to do, (said they) in a city, where neither chasti­ty nor liberty is safe." See Hooke's Roman History, vol. 2, page 181, octavo. The cele­brated Machiavel, though he often gives dishon­est advice to a Prince for the government of his kingdom, yet sometimes gives him that which is very salutary. He recommends to him not to debauch the wives or daughters of his subjects, as such actions have a tendency to inflame the mind with singular indignation, and to make the family who are injured attempt the subversion of a government.

CHAP. VIII.

IT surely would not be impolitic in the coun­tries of Europe, or in the states of America, to abolish the slave-trade. Here humanity would be doubly or trebly blest. It would not only bless those who receive, but those who give.— It would not only be advantageous to the Negro, but to the Planter or Farmer, and afterwards to the generous country which should stretch out its hand to relieve the oppressed. The existence of the European settlements would not be en­dangered, nor would a defalcation of revenue ensue, from an abolition of the slave-trade. I am convinced that the abolition of the slave-trade would tend to the interest of the Planters, that it would make the condition of the West-India islands more prosperous, and therefore that no diminution of revenue would ensue.— Long, in his History of Jamaica, says, "The purchase of new Negroes is the most chargeable article attending these estates, and the true source of the distresses under which their owners suf­fer: for they involve themselves so deeply in debt to make these inconsiderate purchases, and [Page 97]lose so many by disease or other means in the seasoning, that they become unable to make good their engagements, are plunged in law suits and anxiety; while for want of some prudent regulation in the right husbanding of their stock, and promoting its increase by natural means, they intail upon themselves a necessity of drawing perpetual recruits of unseasoned Africans, the expence of which forms only a new addition to their debts and difficulties." Vol. 1, page 437. The celebrated Mr. Clarkson in his essay on the impolicy of the African slave-trade says, in confirmation of Mr. Long's Observations which he quotes; that in the island of Jamaica four Courts are annually held; in each of which Courts about three thousand new actions are u­sually brought, chiefly upon bonds, nine tenths of which bonds have been given to the factors for new slaves. He says the principal part of the people who were confined in the goals of that island, were such whose persons had been seized, after their property had been found inadequate to satisfy the demands of those from whom they had purchased newly inported Negroes. I my­self when I was in the West Indies, knew a gentleman who purchased ten young Negroes at the sale of the cargo of an African vessel, for each of whom, he gave thirty pounds current money of the island of Antigua. His wife was [Page 98]remarkable for the tenderness and the care with which she caused the new, the young, and the sick Negroes to be nursed upon the estate, yet notwithstanding every art and expence, every one of them, excepting one, shortly died. The survivor was a singularly sine boy when he first was brought to the island, with a piercing eye and cheerful spirit. He, however, did not es­cape without a severe illness. In this method of proceeding every Negro from Africa, who is raised to bear the work of an estate, costs the purchaser three hundred pounds; or more, for the price of Negroes is now advanced. It is not unusual, however, that among ten Negroes im­ported from Africa into the West-Indies not one should survive the seasoning. It has been asserted by some that the abolition of the slave-trade, would cause the ruin of the European settlements, where Negroes have been used in the cultivation of the land, and of the southern states of America. It is certain, however, if the Negroes were treated with humanity, there would be no occasion for further importations from Africa. Mr. Clarkson, in his before-mentioned Essay, says, "In the year 1771, a gentleman, now in England, became the proprie­tor of an estate situated near Montego-Bay, in the parish of Hanover, Jamaica. The number of slaves at that time upon it, amounted to two [Page 99]hundred and seventy-six, all of whom had been born in the island. In the year 1786, after fifteen years had elapsed, the number was found the same: nor had any purchase whatever been made within that period, nor was any at the end of it necessary.

In the year 1754, another gentleman succeed­ed to an estate in the same parish and island.— It contained at that time, two hundred and thirty three slaves. [...]y this last account, dated in June 1786, the number appeared to have increased without any supplies from the coast, to three hundred and fourteen, though fourteen had been sent to other estates, or manumitted.

In the same island are six other estates, which have been in a similar situation, and for the truth of which I will become accountable if re­quired.

The first of these has supported itself, inde­pendently of the slave trade, for twenty years, and from no other cause than that the owner, having thought it more to his interest that his slaves should increase, by birth, than by purchase, made his arrangements accordingly.

[Page 100] The [...]cond and third, situated in the parish of Clarendon, have had no occasion for a single recruit from Africa for many years.

The fourth, in the parish of St. James, found a resource within itself, and by the following means: The proprietor made it a rule to release every woman from all obligation to labor, as soon as she had a certain number of children, sit to be put to work. The conse­quence of this was, that his slaves were conti­nually on the increase.

The fifth and sixth, situated in the parish of St. John, and vale of Guanaboa, on account of the humane disposition of the overseer, and the moderate share of labour which he imposes on the slaves, have no necessity for supplies.

The above is an account of such plantations as can be specified, and proved beyond the pos­sibility of refutation, to have subsisted indepen­dently of the slave-trade in the island of Jamai­ca. Many others are to be found there in the same predicament." Page 82 and 83.

What has been brought about in Jamaica may be practised in other places. The use of the plough in the West-Indies, would enable a [Page 101]Planter to work his estate with fewer Negroes than he uses in his present system. Mr. Long, in his History of Jamaica, says, "It was found that one plough used on an estate in the Parish of Clarendon, turned up as much ground in one day, and in a much better manner, than one hundred Negroes could perform with their hoes in the same time." Vol. 1, page 449. The objection that has been made to the plough in the island of Antigua, is that it would require more cattle upon an estate, and consequently more land to be laid out in pasture. This, in many estates, where they have a good deal of pasture, would be no inconvenience whatever, and where they are deficient in this respect, the inconvenience might be remedied by planting Guinea grass in the intervals between the cane-pieces: for the additional number of cattle re­quired would be very small. In Jamaica they have lately thought it worth the while to enter again upon this plan of working an estate, and have encouraged people from England, who are acquainted with the method of managing a plough, to live upon their estates as overseers, that the Negroes might be properly instructed. There cannot be a doubt but that with judge­ment and with patience this new system might be adopted with vast advantage.

[Page 102] The Members of the British Legislature, and those who are in authority among other nations of the world who carry on the slave-trade, if they do not endeavor by every reasonable exer­tion to abrogate that trade, are guilty indirectly of murder. They suffer murder to be com­mitted by their neglect. They will answer, there­fore, for such neglect at that dread tribunal where there will be an "Inquisition for blood." The Privy Council in England have lately been engaged in inquiries concerning the slave-trade. This surely is highly becoming in them. If a single murder is committed among a civilized people, do we not raise an immediate hue and cry after the supposed murderer? Is not the house, the city, the country, where it was done, all at once agitated? And shall the annual mur­der of an hundred thousand, or more, innocent persons, not excite our inquiries, and not inflame our indignation? In England petitions have been presented to Parliament against the slave-trade by various sects of christians, and from nu­merous cities; and it is expected that before long an act will be past for its final abolition.— In America the states of Rhode-Island and Penn­sylvania, to their immortal honor be it spoken, have led the way in this holy and glorious work. The [...]gislatures in both these states have lately past acts, which [...] a heavy penalty upon any [Page 103]of their citizens who shall be engaged in the bu­siness of carrying Negroes from Africa to any part of the world whatever. It would be hap­py if all their sister states would follow them in this path of virtue and of glory, which they have trodden.

It has been said in defence of the slave-trade that it is a nursery for seamen. Mr. Clarkson in his Essay on the Impolicy of the African Slave-Trade, has shewn that it is rather the grave of the seamen of Great-Britain. He says that

Having now furnished a comparative view of the loss sustained in some of the trades that are carried on by the subjects of this country, I will venture to assert that if we except the slave-trade, all the rest of them put together did not dissipate more than [...]ine hundred seamen in the year 1786. In the same year were destroyed by the slave-trade nineteen hundred and fifty. [Page 104]So that the truth of my former assertion, "that this iniquitous trade destroys more, in one year, than all the other trades of Great-Britain, when put together, destroy in two," will but too ma­nifestly appear." Page 66 and 67.

Mr. Clarkson says that the Captains in the slave-trade are generally the most inhuman ty­rants in the world; that they often cruelly beat their seamen for trivial or imaginary faults, and will sometimes wantonly murder them. He says that he has within his possession the most indis­putable proofs of his assertions.

It is greatly to be lamented that mankind will not relinquish the trade for slaves with A­frica, and carry on a commerce for other mat­ters. The country is fertile in the extreme. It is productive of various and important articles of trade. In the Westminster Magazine, for February, 1784, Monthly Chronic [...]e, page 106, it is said, "Authentic letters from the factory at Senegal advise that some English gentlemen have been near 150 leagues up the country, in search of natural curiosities, and that they had brought specimens of several valuable plants, a­mong others that called the Vereck, or white gum tree, which the Moors and Arabs, who know neither to sow or reap, live upon during [Page 105]their long journies. This gum is likely to prove a valuable article of commerce, being of great use in giving a body to silks, cottons, &c." ^*— Africa also produces gold-dust, ivory, indigo, tobacco, cotton, coffee, ambergris, spices, drugs, rice, silver, wool, skins, vermillion, quick-silver, musk, copper, wax, ebony, lignum-vitae, dying-woods, &c. Mr. Clarkson says, "It is a cu­rious circumstance, but it has been established by the experience of many years, that continents produce the finest cotton, and that the larger the island, and of course the nearer they ap­proximate to continents, the finer is the cotton there. In the first class is reckoned the Persian and African. In the second that from the Bra­zils, [Page 106]Siam, and Surinam. In the third that from St. Domingo; and in the fourth that from the British West-Inda islands." Page 19.— He says again, "I cannot close my account of this article without mentioning that cotton, crimson in the pod, is to be found in Africa. It grows principally in the Eyeo country, and is to be seen in many of the Whidah cloths. A small specimen of it was brought home in the year 1786.

The value of this cotton would be great both to the importer, and manufacturer of muslins. The former would immediately receive eight shillings for a pound of it, and the latter would gain considerably more by his ingenuity and taste. He might work it up into the white cotton in delicate spots and figures, and as both would be of their natural color, no inconvenience would arise from washing." Page 20. Mr. Clark­son says that the dyes of Africa are superior to those in any part of the world, and that in Africa they have the most curious as well as the most valuable woods, not only for dying, but for other purposes.

If the slave-trade were abolished, settlements of great importance could be immediately com­menced in the country, for the purpose of car­rying [Page 107]on a different commerce. It is said that the French purchased, a few years ago, a consi­derable tract of land at Cape Verd, which they now wish to use with this design. Preachers al­so of different sects of christianity would imme­diately repair to Africa to propagate the Gospel, who are now, on account of the commotions and troubles which the slave-trade produces, discou­raged from the attempt.

It might be advantageous to the European set­tlements and the southern states of America to abolish gradually the slavery of the Negroes which they at present possess, as well as to pre­vent the importation of others. Mr. Coxe, in his travels, says, "The generality, indeed, of the Polish Nobles are not inclined either to esta­blish or give efficacy to any regulations in favor of the peasants, whom they scarcely consider as entitled to the common rights of humanity: A few Nobles, however, of benevolent hearts and enlightened understandings, have acted upon different principles, and have ventured upon the expedient of giving liberty to their vassals.— The event has showed this project to be no less judicious than humane, no less friendly to their own interests than to the happiness of their peasants: for it appears that in the districts, in which the new arrangement has been intro­duced, [Page 108]the population of their villages is con­siderably increased, and the revenues of their estates augmented in a triple proportion. The first noble who granted freedom to his peasants was Zamoiski, formerly Grand-Chancellor, who in 1760, infranchised six villages in the Palati­nate of Masovia.

The revenues of the six villages since their en­franchisement, have augmented in a much great­er proportion than their population. In their state of vassalage Zamoiski was obliged, accord­ing to the custom of Poland, to build cottages and barns for his peasants, and to furnish them with seed, horses, ploughs, and every implement of agriculture; since their attainment of liberty they are become so easy in their circumstances, as to provide themselves with all these necessaries at their own expence; and they likewise cheer­fully pay an annual rent, in lieu of the manual labor, which their master formerly exacted from them. By these means the receipts of this par­ticular estate have been nearly tripled.

Upon signing the deed of enfranchisement of six villages, their benevolent master intimated some apprehensions to the inhabitants, lest en­couraged by their freedom, they should fall into every species of licentiousness, and commit more [Page 109]disorders than when they were slaves. The simplicity and good sense of their answer is re­markable: "When we had no other property," returned they, "than the stick which we hold in our hands, we were destitute of all encou­ragement to a right conduct, and having nothing to lose, acted on all occasions in an inconsiderate manner; but as soon as our houses, our lands, and our cattle, are our own, the fear of forfeit­ing them will be a constant restraint upon our actions." The sincerity of this assertion was manifested by the event.

The example of Zamoiski has been followed by Chreptowitz, Vice-Chancellor of Lithuania, and the Abbe Bryzotowski, with similar success. I was informed by a person who had visited the Abbe's estate at Pawlowo near Vilna, that the happy countenance and comfortable air of these peasants made them appear a different race of men from the wretched tenants of the neigh­bouring villages. The peasants, penetrated with a sense of their master's kindness, have erected at their own expence, a pillar with an inscription expressive of their gratitude and affection."— Coxe's Travels into Poland, &c. vol. 1, page 158, &c. octavo.

What has been practised in Poland, may in some measure be brought about in the West-Indies, [Page 110]and the southern states of America. In these latter places the receipts of a man's estate who liberated his negroes might not be tripled, but they might be considerably augmented, if his Negroes were gradually liberated in a judi­cious manner. It is well said, by the Bishop of Chester, in a sermon which was preached a few years ago in England, before the society for the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts: "If ever then we hope to make any progress in our benevolent purpose of communicating to our Negroes the benefits and the blessings of religion, we must first give them some of the benefits and blessings of society and of civil government. We must, as far as is possible, attach them and their families inseparably to the soil, must give them a little interest in it; must indulge them with a few rights and privileges to be anxious for; must secure them by sixed laws from injury and insult; must inform their minds, correct their morals, accus­tom them to the restraints of legal marriage, to the care of a family, and the comforts of do­mestic life: must improve and advance their condition gradually, as they are able to bear it; and even allow a certain number of the most de­serving to work out their freedom by degrees (according to the plan said to be established in some of the Spanish settlements) as a reward of superior merit and industry, and of an uncom­mon [Page 111]progress in the knowledge and the practise of christianity." ^* That this regulation might in a great measure answer the end proposed appears [Page 112]from the memoirs of Guilma, superior of the Indian Mission on the great river Oronoko, where he resided thirty years. He informs us, that a great number of Negroes on the coast of Curacoa, where it is said this regulation took place, had bought themselves free; that of all those who had been converted to christianity, he had not known one, who ever turned back to his former heathenish practices; and that the King of Spain had not more faithful and more industrious subjects than these Negroes who were thus liberated. It has been observed that if the Negroes were liberated they would not continue in the West-Indies, and the Planters would be ruined for the want of laborers to work their estates. If they were free they would become attached to the places where they were born, and would consider them in every respect as their country. It is probable also, if proper laws [Page 113]were made in the West-Indies for the protection of the Negroes that many would go thither from England and other places. It is said in an ad­dress to the Honorable Sir William Dolben, Ba­ronet, signed Thomas Cooper, Gustavus Vassa, Thomas Jones, Ottobah Cugoana Steward, George Robert Mandevil, John Mandevil, who are free Negroes residing in England: "We are not ignorant, however, Si [...], that the best return we can make is, to beha [...] with sobriety, fidelity, and diligence in our several stations, whether remaining here under the protection of the laws, or colonizing our native soil, as most of us wish to do under the dominion of this country; or, as free laborers and artizans in the West-India islands, which, under equal laws, might become to men of our color places of voluntary and ve­ry general resort." This address was printed in the London papers of July 1788. It is to be allowed, however, that an immediate and abrupt liberation of the Negroes in the West-Indies and the southern states of America, might often be not only disadvantageous to their masters, but to themselves, ^* and the community in general.

[Page 114] It will be objected by some that the evidence, relative to the enormities in the treatment of Negroes which have been mentioned in the fore­going chapters, should be certain and unexcep­tionable. In answer to which it may be observed that the evidence that may be produced is the most certain and unexceptionable that can be conceived. Factors, of various nations, who in different times have been in Africa, allow that that the Negroes are frequently stolen from [...]hence. They may be said to give evidence against their interest. Mr. Wadstrom, who is a man of character and rank in Sweden, went to Africa for the purpose of enquiring into the particulars of the slave-trade. He says that the Negroes are generally stolen from thence, and gives such instances of cruelty as would melt the heart if it were flesh and not stone. In this he is supported by the evidence of other impartial re­putable persons. It is regularly proved, as ap­pears in the fifth chapter, in a Court of Justice, that the crews of some ships upon the coast of Africa, murdered a King, and carried his two brothers, with many other Negroes, into slavery. Mr. Falconbridge and Mr. Newton, whom I have mentioned in the preceding part of my work, are men of credit, and were eye witnesses of the savage cruelties committed in a slave vessel. What they have declared, may be coroborated [Page 115]by the evidence of thousands. Mr. Wesley and Mr. Ramsay, who have given long accounts of the treatment of the Negroes, were religious men, (as well as myself) and could be tempted by no interest to misrepresent the matter. All candid men who have an opportunity of judg­ing, will say that we have generally spoken the truth. We were witnesses of many of the facts which we write upon, and have not, inten­tionally, I believe, uttered a falsehood in regard to the most trivial matter.

I think it necessary to observe before I con­clude that it is just to discriminate between the Planters. There are some among this class of people for whom I have a great regard. My father, who was a genuine descendant of the antient and highly illustrious House of Craw­ford, ^* settled, however, in the West-Indies.— He married a native of the island of Antigua; where, at his death, he bequeathed a sugar-es­tate to my elder brother. In the female line I have relations in the West-Indies, who are the possessors of numerous slaves, for whom I bear a becoming affection. I have also in the [Page 116]Indies, many friends, from whom I have receiv­ed great civilities. In travelling through seve­ral of the West-India islands I have met the most liberal hospitality. The Planters are some­times polished men, with the best education which Europe can afford. I have known some to live in great splendor and elegance, and who disdaining the vulgar vicious custom of pressing their guest [...] to drink, have permitted me to de­part from their houses, chearful and satisfied, but sober. Some of my relations and some of my friends are remarkable for the humanity with which they treat their slaves, and perhaps would not be unhappy if government were to adopt a rational plan for their gradual emanci­pation. It is not, therefore, from malice, that I give these Observations on Negro-Slavery, to the world, but from a firm, a holy, regard to truth, and a generous solicitude for the interests of the afflicted.

Some injudicious persons, in their rage against Negro-Slavery, are fond of representing all the Planters, as men utterly destitute of Principles and good manners. The celebrated Dr. Priest­ley, who, though all his religious tenets may not be defensible, is certainly, in many respects, an enlightened man, says, that the West-Indi­ans "are not themselves aware, how much [Page 117]their natures are debased, and how offensive their behavior often is to others." In many, there may be this offensive behavior, and whose natures may be much debased, but in other natives of the West-Indies and the southern states of America, (I think I shall not be accused of partiality by those who may properly judge of the matter) are to be found men of elegant manners and of generous spirits. The West-In­dians are remarkable, as well as the natives of the southern states of America, for one virtue, the noble one of hospitality, in which many of their opponents should endeavor to imitate them.— This under proper regulations is the virtue of a Christian. The Apostle recommends to "use hospitality one to another without grudging." 1 Peter, 4; 9.

It is to be lamented that in some of the states of America, where they have in some degree li­berated the Negroes, they have not advanced them to all the rights of men. Why, if their color is only the effect of climate, the effect of that glorious sun which we all admire, and God hath made of one blood all nations of men, and his son has impartially redeemed them all, why, if these things are so, do we haughtily keep them at such a distance from us? If these propositions are true, which I have indisputably [Page 118]proved in this work, which has been the pro­duce of much reading and consideration, a Negro should elect and be elected like other freemen; he should be suffered to marry a white woman without their being persecuted; he should sit, if he deserves it by his morals and his manners, at the first of our tables; and should be encouraged to sit in religious meet­ings, not on a bench with Negroes only, but in­discriminately with white people In short, he should be admissible to all the rights, privileges, and honors, of a white man.

It is the duty of all the nations in the world who are engaged in the slave-trade to desist from the iniquitous occupation. I am aware of the objection that would be made to a discontinu­ance of the slave-trade by interested men. It would be said that a fresh importation of Ne­groes is absolutely necessary for the carrying on a West-Indian or American plantation. I am of a contrary opinion. If the slave-trade is pro­hibited, the owners of these plantations, as it has been before observed, can work them with the Negroes which they already possess. They would be prevented from the injury of their fortunes by the purchase of newly imported Ne­groes, which experience proves to be a fasci­nating and ruinous custom to many. They [Page 119]would also be induced, that they might raise a suf­ficient number to cultivate their property, to treat their slaves with more humanity. The premium, which is said to be given of late of twenty shillings to an Overseer, who should raise any Negro child to one year's age upon any estate in Jamaica, would be offered in other places. The regula­tion established in the Spanish settlements might be introduced, which experience has proved to be wise and salutary, and not visionary and pre­judicial. In addition to this regulation, a Code of Laws might be enacted, and properly execut­ed, for the security of various rights to the Ne­groes until the final obtainment of their free­dom. And above all things it would be happy if the Moravians, who are scattered over the West-Indies, were every where invited to in­struct the Negroes in the principles of christi­anity. There is generally a remarkable difference between those Negroes who attend to the preaching of the Moravians, and the others. They become, when influenced by the doctrines of this respectable set of men, composed, and decent in their appearance. Their dress is cleanly, without any thing in it that is garish or absurd. Their conduct also is industrious and moral. They steal no more, are faithful to their trusts, and are capable, frequently, of advanc­ing, considerably, the interests of their masters. [Page 120]From relinquishing also that promiscuous com­merce between the sexes with which the others injure themselves, they are more healthy, live longer, and when married, raise more children. The slave-trade, however, in whatever gradual manner the Negroes may be liberated in various countries, should at all events be immediately abolished

If the atrocious and numberless murders which are committed by those engaged in it are not punished, they must bring down the curse of Heaven upon those governments which suf­fer their subjects to perpetrate them unmolested. It is said in scripture, "For blood it polluteth the land, and cannot be wiped out, but by the blood of him that shed it." A celebrated and pious author in a pamphlet which I before have quoted, addresses himself in a feeling and elo­quent manner to the Captains of the vessels en­gaged in this trade. These are the persons who are said to reap the greatest profit from the com­merce, and are, perhaps, the most criminal of all the parties concerned. These people see the mischiefs which are practised in the trade of which some, especially among the young plan­ters, are ignorant. He says, "May I speak plainly to you? I must. Love constrains me: Love to you, as well as those you are concern­ed [Page 121]with? Is there a GOD? You know there is. Is he a just GOD? Then there must be a state of retribution: a state wherein the just GOD will reward every man according to his work. Then what reward will he render to you. O think betimes! before you drop into eternity: think how "he shall have judgment without mercy, that shewed no mercy." Are you a man? Then you should have a human heart. But have you indeed? What is your heart made of? Is there no such principle as compassion there? Do you never feel another's pain? Have you no sym­pathy? no sense of human woe? No pity for the miserable? When you saw the flowing eyes, the heaving breasts, or the bleeding sides and tortured limbs of your fellow-creatures, was you a stone or a brute? Did you look upon them with the eyes of a tyger? When you squeezed the agonizing creatures down in the ship, or when you threw their poor mangled remains into the sea, had you no relenting? Did not one tear drop from your eye, one sigh escape from your breast? Do you feel no re­lenting now? If you do not, you must go on till the measure of your iniquities is full. Then will the great GOD deal with you, as you have dealt with them, and require all their blood at your hands." See Wesley's Thoughts on Slave­ry. We are not, however, to place the crimi­nality [Page 122]of this business wholly upon the Captains, for the Merchants who are engaged in it, as well as the Planters, and the Government which suffers it, should participate in our blame. The Merchant, who originally contrives the design of sending a vessel to Africa for the purpose of buying or kidnapping Negroes, seems to be highly guilty. He who knew the mischief, ac­cording to the doctrine of scripture and reason, appears worthy of many stripes, while he who was ignorant is worthy of few. That there are some in a great measure ignorant of the evils which are practised in the procuring slaves, es­pecially among the young Planters, and who, if they knew those evils would not defend it, is reasonable to imagine. The societies therefore which have been formed for the abolition of the Slave-Trade would render an important service to mankind by publishing the various tracts which have been written by men of talents in favor of the Negroes, and dispersing them about the world. They should solicit subscriptions for this noble purpose. They should endeavour to excite, in the words of the Apostle, "what indignation, yea what fear, yea what vehement desire, yea what zeal, yea what revenge."

It is thought by all impartial and enlightened writers to be more advantageous for a nation to [Page 123]employ the labo [...] of freemen ^* than of slaves, in any work whatever. But if it were to be al­lowed that a West Indian or American planta­tion could be worked somewhat better with Negro-slaves than without them, yet this would avail but little with wi [...]e and good men. Is the human form to be degraded to the brutal by this odious practise of slavery I would ask (for I want to wake the conscience which now slum­bers in the breasts of these tyrants; I want to rouse it, and to make it come forth "like a giant refreshed with wine") is humanity and reason, and christianity, and GOD, to be in­sulted for so trivial a purpose? It will become us to tell those who against the light of con­science, perversely and stubbornly continue to encourage this deleterious and detestable prac­tice, that they will for ever preclude themselves from the entrance into that joy which GOD has promised to the just and the benevolent. They must expect to see (for such a consequence will follow their sullen unrepentance as naturally as the night follows the day) the Redeemer and the Judge of Mankind, at that tremendous bar, to which we shall all be brought, put off [Page 124]for a while his benignant aspect, and with a look alienated from them, and clothed with terror as with a robe. They must expect to hear him pronounce these dreadful and heart­rending words, "Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels." I cannot speak with moderation of this odious custom of Negro-slavery. It is a flagrant and portentous wickedness. It com­prehends or it leads to every other crime. It makes us passionate, revengeful, unjust, inhu­man. It is the essence of iniquity. It is an in­sult to the understanding for any one to defend it, and to pretend to the character of a christian or an honest man. When I consider this gi­gantic evil in all its dismal consequences; the cruel wars it occasions in Africa; the horri­ble anguish that those who are kidnapped must feel when confined in the loathsome hold of a ship and rent from their freedom, their family, their property, and their country; the agony inexpressible in particular of a husband in such a situation who knows that the wife of his bosom cannot be used by himself while she may be pol­luted by others; the unrelenting oppression with which they are afterwards scourged in a foreign land; the insults, the famine the drudgery, the tortures to which they are exposed: when I consider these things I could say of the Slave-trade, [Page 125]in the words of the Roman Orator, that verbo satis digno tam nefaria res appellari nullo modo potest. I could almost exclaim upon this matter, as he does when speaking of a Roman citizen who was crucified in Sicily, by Verres, as he says in sight of liberty and his country, Denique si non ad homines, verum ad Bestias; aut [...]iam, ut longius progrediar, si in aliqua desertissima solitudine, ad saxa & ad scopulos haec conqueri & deplorare vellem, tamen omnia muta atque inanima, tanta & tam indigna rerum atrocitate commoverentur ^*.

The blood of the persecuted Africans, which has been shed by the merciless hand of oppres­sion, cries against many a nation to the Throne of the Almighty for vengeance.—It shakes [...]he pillars of Heaven. O let us desist from the oppression of these unhappy men, lest GOD (to use the emphatical language of the Prophet) should "come, and smite the earth with a curse."