Part 2
From these Accounts, both of the good Disposition of the Natives, and the Fruitfulness of most parts of _Guinea_, which are confirmed by many other Authors, it may well be concluded, that their acquaintance with the _Europeans_ would have been a happiness to them, had those last not only borne the name, but indeed been influenced by the Spirit of _Christianity_; but, alas! how hath the Conduct of the Whites contradicted the Precepts and Example of Christ? Instead of promoting the End of his Coming, by preaching the Gospel of Peace and Good-will to Man, they have, by their practices, contributed to enflame every noxious passion of corrupt nature in the Negroes; they have incited them to make war one upon another, and for this purpose have furnished them with prodigious quantities of ammunition and arms, whereby they have been hurried into confusion, bloodshed, and all the extremities of temporal misery, which must necessarily beget in their minds such a general detestation and scorn of the _Christian_ name, as may deeply affect, if not wholly preclude, their belief of the great Truths of our holy Religion. Thus an insatiable desire of gain hath become the principal and moving cause of the most abominable and dreadful scene, that was perhaps ever acted upon the face of the earth; even the power of their Kings hath been made subservient to answer this wicked purpose, instead of being Protectors of their people, these Rulers, allured by the tempting bait laid before them by the _European_ Factors, _&c._ have invaded the Liberties of their unhappy subjects, and are become their Oppressors.
Divers accounts have already appeared in print, declarative of the shocking wickedness with which this Trade is carried on; these may not have fallen into the hands of some of my readers, I shall, therefore, for their information, select a few of the most remarkable instances that I have met with, shewing the method by which the Trade is commonly managed all along the _African_ coast.
_Francis Moor_, Factor to the _African_ Company, on the river _Gambia_, relates, ‘That when the King of _Barsalli_ wants goods, _&c._ he sends a messenger to the _English_ Governor at _James_’s Fort, to desire he would send up a sloop with a cargo of goods; which (says the author) the Governor never fails to do: Against the time the vessel arrives, the King plunders some of his enemies towns, selling the people for such goods as he wants.—If he is not at war with any neighbouring King, he falls upon one of his own towns, and makes bold to sell his own miserable subjects.’
_N. Brue_, in his account of the Trade, _&c._ writes, ‘That having received a quantity of goods, he wrote to the King of the country, That if he had a sufficient number of slaves, he was ready to trade with him. This Prince (says that author) as well as other Negroe Monarchs, has always a sure way of supplying his deficiencies by selling his own subjects.—The King had recourse to this method, by seizing three hundred of his own people, and sent word to _Brue_, that he had the slaves ready to deliver for the goods.’
The Misery and Bloodshed, consequent to the Slave-trade, is amply set forth by the following extracts of two voyages to the coast of _Guinea_ for slaves. The first in a vessel from _Liverpool_, taken _verbatim_ from the original manuscript of the Surgeon’s journal, _viz._
‘SESTRO, _December_ the 29th, 1724. No trade to-day, though many Traders come on board; they inform us, that the people are gone to war within land, and will bring prisoners enough in two or three days: in hopes of which we stay.
‘The 30th. No trade yet, but our Traders came on board to-day, and informed us, the people had burnt four towns of their enemies, so that to-morrow we expect slaves off. Another large ship is come in: Yesterday came in a large _Londoner_.
‘The 31st. Fair weather, but no trade yet: We see each night towns burning; but we hear the _Sestro_ men are many of them killed by the inland Negroes, so that we fear this war will be unsuccessful.
‘The 2d _January_. Last night we saw a prodigious fire break out about eleven o’clock, and this morning see the town of _Sestro_ burnt down to the ground, (it contained some hundreds of houses) so that we find their enemies are too hard for them at present, and consequently our trade spoiled here; so that about seven o’clock we weighed anchor, as did likewise the three other vessels, to proceed lower down.’
The second relation, also taken from the original manuscript journal of a person of credit, who went Surgeon on the same account in a vessel from _New-York_ to the coast of _Guinea_, about nineteen years past, is as follows, _viz._
‘Being on the coast at a place called _Basalia_, 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 also to surprize some town, and take all the people prisoners: Some time after, the King sent them word, he had not yet met with the desired success, having been twice repulsed, in attempting to break up two towns; but that he still hoped to procure a number of slaves for them; and in this design he persisted till he met his enemies in the field, where a battle was 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 person, that wrote the account, beheld the bodies as they lay on the field of battle. ‘Think (says he in his journal) what a pitiable sight it was, to see the widows weeping over their lost husbands, orphans deploring the loss of their fathers, _&c._ _&c._’
Those who are acquainted with the Trade agree, that many Negroes on the sea-coast, who have been corrupted by their intercourse and converse with the _European_ Factors, have learnt to stick at no act of cruelty for gain. These make it a practice to steal abundance of little Blacks of both sexes, when found on the roads or in the fields, where their parents keep them all day to watch the corn, _&c._ Some authors say, the Negroe Factors go six or seven hundred miles up the country with goods, bought from the _Europeans_, where markets of men are kept in the same manner as those of beasts with us. When the poor slaves, whether brought from far or near, come to the sea-shore, they are stripped naked, and strictly examined by the _European_ Surgeons, both men and women, without the least distinction or modesty; those which are approved as good, are marked with a red-hot iron with the ship’s mark; after which they are put on board the vessels, the men being shackled with irons two and two together. Reader, bring the matter home, and consider whether any situation in life can be more completely miserable than that of those distressed captives. When we reflect, that each individual of this number had some tender attachment which was broken by this cruel separation; some parent or wife, who had not an opportunity of mingling tears in a parting embrace; perhaps some infant or aged parent whom his labour was to feed and vigilance protect; themselves under the dreadful apprehension of an unknown perpetual slavery; pent up within the narrow confines of a vessel, sometimes six or seven hundred together, where they lie as close as possible. Under these complicated distresses they are often reduced to a state of desperation, wherein many have leaped into the sea, and have kept themselves under water till they were drowned; others have starved themselves to death, for the prevention whereof some masters of vessels have cut off the legs and arms of a number of those poor desperate creatures, to terrify the rest. Great numbers have also frequently been killed, and some deliberately put to death under the greatest torture, when they have attempted to rise, in order to free themselves from their present misery, and the slavery designed them. An instance of the last kind appears particularly in an account given by the master of a vessel, who brought a cargo of slaves to _Barbadoes_; indeed it appears so irreconcileable to the common dictates of humanity, that one would doubt the truth of it, had it not been related by a serious person of undoubted credit, who had it from the captain’s own mouth. Upon an inquiry, What had been the success of his voyage? he answered, ‘That he had found it a difficult matter to set the negroes a fighting with each other, in order to procure the number he wanted; but that when he had obtained this end, and had got his vessel filled with slaves, a new difficulty arose from their refusal to take food; those desperate creatures chusing rather to die with hunger, than to be carried from their native country.’ Upon a farther inquiry, by what means he had prevailed upon them to forego this desperate resolution? he answered, ‘That he obliged all the negroes to come upon deck, where they persisted in their resolution of not taking food, he caused his sailors to lay hold upon one of the most obstinate, and chopt the poor creature into small pieces, forcing some of the others to eat a part of the mangled body; withal swearing to the survivors, that he would use them all, one after the other, in the same manner, if they did not consent to eat.’ This horrid execution he applauded as a good act, it having had the desired effect, in bringing them to take food.
A similar case is mentioned in _Astley_’s Collection of Voyages, by _John Atkins_, Surgeon on board Admiral _Ogle_’s squadron, ‘Of one _Harding_, mailer of a vessel, in which several of the men-slaves, and a woman-slave, had attempted to rise, in order to recover their liberty; some of whom the master, of his own authority, sentenced to cruel death; making them first eat the heart and liver of one of those he killed. The woman he hoisted by the thumbs; whipped and slashed with knives before the other slaves, till she died.’
As detestable and shocking as this may appear to such, whose hearts are not yet hardened by the practice of that cruelty, which the love of wealth, by degrees, introduceth into the human mind; it will not be strange to those who have been concerned or employed in the Trade. Now here arises a necessary query to those who hold the balance and sword of justice; and who must account to God for the use they have made of it. _Since our English law is so truly valuable for its justice, how can they overlook these barbarous deaths of the unhappy Africans without trial, or due proof of their being guilty, of crimes adequate to their punishment? Why are those masters of vessels, (who are often not the most tender and considerate of men) thus suffered to be the sovereign arbiters of the lives of the miserable Negroes, and allowed, with impunity, thus to destroy, may I not say, murder their fellow-creatures, and that by means so cruel as cannot be even related but with shame and horror?_
When the vessels arrive at their destined port in the Colonies, the poor Negroes are to be disposed of to the planters; and here they are again exposed naked, without any distinction of sexes, to the brutal examination of their purchasers; and this, it may well be judged is to many of them another occasion of deep distress, especially to the females. Add to this, that near connections must now again be separated, to go with their several purchasers: In this melancholy scene Mothers are seen hanging over their Daughters, be-dewing their naked breasts with tears, and Daughters clinging to their Parents; not knowing what new stage of distress must follow their separation, or if ever they shall meet again: And here what sympathy, what commiseration are they to expect? why indeed, if they will not separate as readily as their owners think proper, the whipper is called for, and the lash exercised upon their naked bodies, till obliged to part.
Can any human heart, that retains a fellow-feeling for the Sufferings of mankind, be unconcerned at relations of such grievous affliction, to which this oppressed part of our Species are subjected: God gave to man dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over the cattle, _&c._ but imposed no involuntary subjection of one man to another.
The Truth of this Position has of late been clearly set forth by persons of reputation and ability, particularly _George Wallis_, in his System of the Laws of _Scotland_, whose sentiments are so worthy the notice of all considerate persons, that I shall here repeat a part of what he has not long since published, concerning the _African_ Trade, _viz._ ‘If this Trade admits of a moral or a rational justification, every crime, even the most atrocious, may be justified: Government was instituted for the good of mankind. Kings, Princes, Governors, are not proprietors of those who are subjected to their authority, they have not a right to make them miserable. On the contrary, their authority is vested in them, that they may by the just exercise of it, promote the Happiness of their people: Of course, they have not a right to dispose of their Liberty, and to sell them for slaves: Besides, no man has a right to acquire or to purchase them; men and their Liberty, are not either saleable or purchaseable: One therefore has no body but himself to blame, in case he shall find himself deprived of a man, whom he thought he had, by buying for a price, made his own; for he dealt in a Trade which was illicit, and was prohibited by the most obvious dictates of humanity. For these reasons, every one of those unfortunate men, who are pretended to be slaves, has a right to be declared free, for he never lost his Liberty, he could not lose it; his Prince had no power to dispose of him: of course the sale was void. This right he carries about with him, and is entitled every where to get it declared. As soon, therefore, as he comes into a country, in which the Judges are not forgetful of their own humanity, it is their duty to remember that he is a man, and to declare him to be free.—This is the Law of Nature, which is obligatory on all men, at all times, and in all places.—Would not any of us, who should be snatched by Pirates from his native land, think himself cruelly abused, and at all times intitled to be free? Have not these unfortunate _Africans_, who meet with the same cruel fate, the same right? are not they men as well as we? and have they not the same sensibility? Let us not, therefore, defend or support an usage, which is contrary to all the Laws of Humanity.’
_Francis Hutchinson_, also in his System of Moral Philosophy, speaking on the subject of Slavery, says, ‘He who detains another by force in slavery, is always bound to prove his title. The Slave sold or carried away into a distant country, must not be obliged to prove a negative, that he never forfeited his Liberty. The violent possessor must, in all cases, shew his title, especially where the old proprietor is well known. In this case each man is the original proprietor of his own Liberty: The proof of his losing it must be incumbent on those, who deprived him of it by force. Strange, (says the same author) that in any nation, where a sense of Liberty prevails, where the _Christian_ religion is professed, custom and high prospect of gain can so stupify the consciences of men, and all sense of natural justice, that they can hear such computation made about the value of their fellow-men and their Liberty, without abhorrence and indignation.’
The noted Baron _Montesquieu_ gives it, as his opinion, in his _Spirit of Laws_, page 348, ‘That nothing more assimilates a man to a beast than living amongst freemen, himself a slave; such people as these are the natural enemies of society, and their number must always be dangerous.’
The Author of a pamphlet, lately printed in _London_, entituled, _An Essay in Vindication of the continental Colonies of_ America, writes, ‘That the bondage we have imposed on the _Africans_, is absolutely repugnant to justice. That it is highly inconsistent with civil policy: First, as it tends to suppress all improvements in arts and sciences; without which it is morally impossible that any nation should be happy or powerful. Secondly, as it may deprave the minds of the freemen; steeling their hearts against the laudable feelings of virtue and humanity. And, lastly, as it endangers the community by the destructive effects of civil commotions: need I add to these (says that author) what every heart, which is not callous to all tender feelings, will readily suggest; that it is shocking to humanity, violative of every generous sentiment, abhorrent utterly from the _Christian_ Religion: for, as _Montesquieu_ very justly observes, _We must suppose them not to be men, or a suspicion would follow that we ourselves are not_ Christians.——There cannot be a more dangerous maxim, than that necessity is a plea for injustice. For who shall fix the degree of this necessity? What villain so atrocious, who may not urge this excuse? or, as _Milton_ has happily expressed it,
‘————————————————————————_And with necessity, The tyrant’s plea, excuse his dev’lish deed._
‘That our Colonies want people, is a very weak argument for so inhuman a violation of justice.—Shall a civilized, a _Christian_ nation encourage Slavery, because the barbarous, savage, lawless _African_ hath done it? Monstrous thought! To what end do we profess a religion whose dictates we so flagrantly violate? Wherefore have we that pattern of goodness and humanity, if we refuse to follow it? How long shall we continue a practice, which policy rejects, justice condemns, and piety dissuades? Shall the _Americans_ persist in a conduct, which cannot be justified; or persevere in oppression from which their hearts must recoil? If the barbarous _Africans_ shall continue to enslave each other, let the dæmon slavery remain among them, that their crime may include its own punishment. Let not _Christians_, by administering to their wickedness, confess their religion to be a useless refinement, their profession vain, and themselves as inhuman as the savages they detest.’
_James Foster_, in _his Discourses on Natural Religion and Social Virtue_, also shews his just indignation at this wicked practice, which he declares to be _a criminal and outrageous violation of the natural right of mankind_. At page 156, 2d vol. he says, ‘Should we have read concerning the _Greeks_ or _Romans_ of old, that they traded, with view to make slaves of their own species, whom they certainly knew that this would involve in schemes of blood and murder, of destroying or enslaving each other, that they even fomented wars, and engaged whole nations and tribes in open hostilities, for their own private advantage; that they had no detestation of the violence and cruelty, but only feared the ill success of their inhuman enterprises; that they carried men like themselves, their brethren, and the offspring of the same common parent, to be sold like beasts of prey, or beasts of burden, and put them to the same reproachful trial of their soundness, strength and capacity for greater bodily service; that quite forgetting and renouncing the original dignity of human nature, communicated to all, they treated them with more severity and ruder discipline, than even the ox or the ass, who are void of understanding.—Should we not, if this had been the case, have naturally been led to despise all their pretended refinements of morality; and to have concluded, that as they were not nations destitute of politeness, they must have been _entire Strangers to Virtue and Benevolence_?
‘But, notwithstanding this, we ourselves (who profess to be _Christians_, and boast of the peculiar advantage we enjoy, by means of an express revelation of our duty from Heaven) are in effect, these very untaught and rude _Heathen_ countries. With all our superior light, we instil into those, whom we call savage and barbarous, the most despicable opinion of human nature. We, to the utmost of our power, weaken and dissolve the universal tie, that binds and unites mankind. We practise what we should exclaim against, as the utmost excess of cruelty and tyranny, if nations of the world, differing in colour and form of government from ourselves, were so possessed of empire, as to be able to reduce us to a state of unmerited and brutish servitude. Of consequence, we sacrifice our reason, our humanity, our _Christianity_, to an unnatural sordid gain. We teach other nations to despise and trample under foot, all the obligations of social virtue. We take the most effectual method to prevent the propagation of the Gospel, by representing it as a scheme of power and barbarous oppression, and an enemy to the natural privileges and rights of men.
‘Perhaps all that I have now offered, may be of very little weight to restrain this enormity, this aggravated iniquity. However, I shall still have the satisfaction, of having entered my private protest against a practice which, in my opinion, _bids that God, who is the God and Father of the_ Gentiles _unconverted to_ Christianity, _most daring and bold defiance, and spurns at all the principles both of natural and revealed Religion_.’
How the _British_ nation first came to be concerned in a practice, by which the rights and liberties of mankind are so violently infringed, and which is so opposite to the apprehensions _Englishmen_ have always had of what natural justice requires, is indeed surprising. It was about the year 1563, in the reign of Queen _Elizabeth_, that the _English_ first engaged in the _Guinea_ Trade; when it appears, from an account in _Hill_’s Naval History, page 293, That when Captain _Hawkins_ returned from his first voyage to _Africa_, that generous spirited Princess, attentive to the interest of her subjects, sent for the Commander, to whom she expressed her concern lest any of the _African_ Negroes should be carried off without their free consent, _declaring it would be detestable, and call down the vengeance of Heaven upon the undertakers_. Captain _Hawkins_ promised to comply with the Queen’s injunction: nevertheless, we find in the account, given in the same History, of _Hawkins_’s second voyage, the author using these remarkable words, _Here began the horrid practice of forcing the_ Africans _into slavery_.
_Labat_, a _Roman_ Missionary, in his account of the Isles of _America_, at page 114, of the 4th vol. mentions, that _Lewis_ the 13th, Father to the present _French_ King’s Grandfather, was extremely uneasy at a Law by which all the Negroes of his Colonies were to be made slaves; but it being strongly urged to him, as the readiest means for their Conversion to _Christianity_, he acquiesced therewith.