Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

ment of the slave trade, the objects of it began to be considered as an inferior species, and their color as a mark of it: under this latter notion they continued to be transported for years, till different persons, taking an interest in their sufferings, produced such a union of public sentiment in their favor, in England, that the parliament was obliged, as it were, to consider their case, by hearing evidence upon it. From this evidence may be gleaned the best account of the trade upon which we are writing.

The agreements to which we have referred, as stipulating to supply Europeans with African captives and convicts, were not sufficient for the demand. Wars were made, therefore, not as formerly, from motives of retaliation and defence, but for the sake of obtaining prisoners alone. When a European ship came in sight, it was considered as a motive for war, and a signal for hostilities: the despotic sovereigns, influenced by venal motives alone, first made war upon the neighbouring tribes, in the violation of every principle of justice; and, if they did not thus succeed in their main object, they turned their arms against their own subjects. The first villages at which they arrived were surrounded and set on fire; and the wretched inhabitants seized as they were escaping. These, consisting of whole families, fathers, brothers, husbands, wives, and children, were instantly driven in chains to the merchants. Many other persons were kidnapped, in order to glut the avarice of their own countrymen, who lay in wait for them; and they were afterwards sold to the Europeans, while the seamen of the ships, by every possible artifice, enticed others on board, and transported them into slavery.

Collectors of slaves were at length distributed into several classes. The first consisted of such black traders as preserved a regular chain of traffic, and a regular communication with each other, from the interior parts of the country to the sea-shore. Many of the slaves, thus driven down, are reported to have travelled at least 1200 miles from the place where they were first purchased. A pistol or a sword may have been the full value of one of these slaves, at the first cost; but his price advances as he travels towards the sea-shore. The second class of slave traders is composed of such as travel inland, but have no chain of commerce or communication with the shore. At a certain distance they strike off in a line parallel to the shore, and, visiting the fairs and villages in their way, drop down occasionally to the coast, as they have procured slaves. The third class consists of such as travel by water up the great rivers, in their canoes, which are very long, well-armed, and carry from fifty to seventy hands. These often proceed to the distance of 1000 miles, and bring down from sixty to 120 slaves at a time. The fourth class includes those who, living near the banks of the rivers or the sea-shore, scarcely travel at all, but coming by some means or other into the possession of slaves, either drive them, or send them immediately to the ships and factories. Most of the traders now described traffic on their own account; but there are some of the poorer sort who travel for the ships. The dif

ferent so rts of goods with which the traders deal for slave s, in the inland country, may be divided into thre e sorts, viz. East Indian, home-made or colonial, and Venetian. The first consists of cowries, or small shells, which pass for money on some parts of the coast; blue and white baffs, romals, bandanoes, and other cloths and productions of the East. The second consists of bariron, muskets, powder, swords, pans, and other hardware; cottons, linen, spirits in great abundance, with other articles of less note. The third consists totally of beads. Almost every ship carries the three sorts of articles now stated, but more or less of one than of the other, according to the place of her destination; every different part of the coast requiring a different assortment, and the Africans, like the Europeans, repeatedly changing their taste. This is particularly the case with respect to beads. The same kind of beads which finds a market one year in one part of the coast, will probably not be saleable there the next. At one time the green are preferred to the yellow, at another the opaque to the transparent, and at another the oval to the round.

The slave trade may be said to have begun at the great river Senegal, and to have extended to the farther limits of Angola, a distance of many thousand miles. On the Senegal and Gambia, Europeans proceeded in their ships till they came to a proper station, and then sent out their boats armed to different villages; on their approach they fired a musket, or beat a drum, to apprise the inhabitants that they were in want of slaves, when country people supplied them in part, and they also procured them from the large canoes above-mentioned.

Captains Hills and Wilson, and Mr. Wadstrom, and lieutenant Dalrymple, inform us that the kings in this part of the country do not hesitate to make war upon their own subjects, when in want of money. They send out their soldiers in the night, who lying before, or attacking or burning a village, seize such as come out of it, and return with them as slaves. On the river Sierra Leona there were several private factories, belonging to the merchants of Europe, in which their agents, being white people, resided. These agents kept a number of boats, which were sent up the river for slaves; and thus they procured for the factories a regular supply.

On the Windward Coast, the natives, when they have any slaves to sell, generally signify it by fires. Practices similar to those already recited prevail from the river Gambia to the end of the Windward Coast. Lieutenant Storey says that public robbery is here called war. Mr. Bowman, another evidence, says that when parties of robbers were setting fire to villages war was said to be carrying on. This account is confirmed by Mr. Town and Sir George Young, and all of them concur in stating that these parties go out at night, break up villages, and carry off the inhabitants as slaves. Messrs. Town, Bowman, and Story, have seen them set out upon such expeditions; and the latter, to satisfy himself, accompanied them on one occasion. These came to a town in the dead of the night, set fire to it, and took away many of the inha

bitants. The above practice is so common that both up the river Scassus, Sierra Leona, and Junk, and at Cape Mount and Bassau, the remains of burnt and deserted villages are to be seen, on which such attacks have been made, and that the natives are found to be constantly armed. In one of the towns two or three houses only are described to have been left standing, and two plantations of rice, which were ready for cutting down, but which the inhabitants, by being carried off, had been deprived of enjoying. Lieutenant Simpson, of the royal marines, another evidence, understood that the villages on the Windward Coast were always at war; and the reason given was that the kings were in want of slaves. Mr. Morley, another evidence, speaks in the same language. Slaves, he says, are generally made by robbers going from village to village in the night.

The Gold Coast, which is next to the Windward Coast, long presented the same melancholy scene. The Rev. Mr. Quakoo, who had resided as chaplain to one of the factories there for many years, informed lieutenant Simpson that wars were often made for the sole purpose of making slaves. Dr. Trotter says, by prisoners of war, the traders mean such as are carried off by robbers, who ravage the country for that purpose; the Bush-men making war to make trade, being a common way of speaking among them; and, in a large cargo of slaves, he could only recollect three who had not been so obtained. Surgeon Falconbridge defines the term war, when used by the slave-dealers on this part of the coast, to mean a piratical expedition for making slaves. Mr. Morley says, what they call war is putting the villages in confusion, and catching the inhabitants, whom they carry down to the coast and sell, where, it is well known, no questions are asked how they had been obtained. Indeed a slave-captain, when examined by the house of commons, acknowledged that he believed a captain would be reckoned a fool by any trading man to whom he should put such a question. And Mr. Marsh, the resident at Cape Coast castle, told Mr. How that he did not care how the slaves he purchased had been obtained ; and showed him instruments which were put into the slaves' mouths, to prevent their crying out for assistance, while the robbers were conveying them through the country. From the end of the Gold Coast to the extremity of An-. gola, which is the boundary of the slave trade, and which vast district comprehends many navigable rivers, a repetition of the same atrocious practices has been traced. Here, as before, going to towns in the night, setting them on fire, and seizing the people, or putting the villages in confusion, and catching the inhabitants, are called war. These piratical expeditions are frequently made by water in these parts. Mr. Douglas says, when a slave ship arrives, the king sends his war-canoes up the river, where they surprise and seize all they can. Surgeon Falconbridge, Mr. Morley, and Mr. Isaac Parker, confirm the account. Up the great rivers Bonny and Calabar the king sends fleets of canoes, with armed men, which return with slaves. Mr. I. Parker was twice up the river Calabar in one of these

fleets, and perhaps the only white person who was ever permitted to go with them. In the day time, he says, when they approached a village, they lay under the bushes; but at night flew up to it, and seized every one they could catch. In this way they proceeded up the river, till they had gotten forty-five persons, which they brought back to New Town, and sold to the European ships. About a fortnight afterwards he was allowed to accompany them on another expedition. Here, he says, they plundered other villages higher up the river than before, taking men, women, and children, as they could catch them in their huts. They seized on much the same number, and brought them to New Town, as before.

A vessel, seeking slaves, on the Gold Coast, generally anchors at Annamaboe. A certain quantity of gold must be included in the articles designed for purchasing slaves, or else none can be obtained. At Whidah, Bonny, Calabar, Benin, and Angola, gold is not demanded in ex change; and boats are unnecessary, except for reaching the shore, wooding and watering, and services of a similar kind. This is particularly the case at Calabar and Bonny, which have been the greatest markets for slaves. The traders of the first class, after an absence of about nine days, have returned frequently with 1500 or 2000 slaves at a time. The number of slaves that have been annually transported from this part of Africa has fluctuated according to circumstances. In the year 1768 104,000 natives of Africa are supposed to have been taken from their own continent; and it continued much the same for the next five years. During the American war it was diminished. In the year 1786 the numbers may be stated at 100,000, and the ships that conveyed them to the colonies at 350. The trade, before the abolition, was confined to the English, Dutch, Danes, Portuguese, and French. England, in 1786, employed 130 ships, and carried off about 42,000 slaves. These were fitted out from the ports of London, Bristol, and Liver pool; the latter of which alone sent out ninety vessels.

When the number of slaves was completed, the ships weighed anchor, and began what is termed the Middle passage, to carry them to their respective colonies. The vessels in which the were transported were of different dimensions, from 11 to 800 tons, and they carried from 30 to 1500 slaves. The height of the apartments was different, according to the size of the vessel, but may be stated to be from six feet to less than three; so that it was impossible to stand erect in most of the vessels, and in sone scarcely to sit down in the same posture.

When the vessel was full, their situation was truly pitiable. A grown-up person was allowed, in the best regulated ships, but sixteen English inches each in width, two (English) feet eight inches in height, and five feet eleven inches in length; or, as surgeon Falconbridge expresses himseif, not so much room as a man has in his coffin. Surgeon Wilson describes the slaves as much crowded below. He generally took off his shoes before he went down among them, and was obliged to be very cautious how he walked,

lest he should tread upon them. Captain Knox admits that they had not room to lie on their backs. It also appears that, if they are the least dilatory or reluctant in packing themselves, they were quickened by the application of the whip. Dr. Trotter says they were so crowded below that it was impossible to walk through them without treading on them; and also that it was the first mate's duty to see them stowed or packed together. Those who did not get quickly into their places were compelled by a cat-o'nine-tails. But now their situation became too wretched to be described. No language has words to explain it properly. Captain Hall has often heard them cry out from below for want of air. The space between decks was so hot that often, after he has been there but a few minutes among them, he found his shirt so wetted by perspiration that he could have wrung it. Mr. Ellison says that the steam from their confined bodies below came up through the gratings like a furnace. Surgeon Wilson has often heard them complain of heat. The bad effects, which resulted from this and their confinement, were weakness and fainting. He has seen some die a few minutes after being brought up, which proceeded from corrupted air and heat jointly. He has seen others go down apparently well at night, and found them dead in the morning. He had a hospital on board; but the sick slaves were obliged to lie on the bare boards, so that the motion of the vessel often occasioned excoriations from the prominent parts of their bodies. Surgeon Falconbridge declares that he has known slaves go down apparently in health, and brought up dead in the morning. He once opened one of them surgically, to discover with certainty what was the cause of his death; and found, from the appearance of the thorax and abdomen, that it was suffocation. He says that once, on going below, he found that twenty of the slaves had fainted. He got them instantly hauled up on deck; but, notwithstanding the quickness of his movements on this occasion, two or three of them died. And once, though he was only fifteen minutes in their room below, he became so ill himself that he could not get up again to the deck without help; and he never was below many minutes together but his shirt was as wet as if it had been dipped in water. He says also, that as the slaves, whether well or ill, always lie on the bare planks, the motion of the ship rubs the flesh from the prominent parts of their body, and leaves the bones almost bare. And when the slaves have the flux, which is frequently the case, the whole place becomes covered with blood and mucus, like a slaughter-house; and, as they are fettered and wedged close together, the utmost disorder arises from endeavours to get to three or four tubs, which are placed among them for necessary purposes: this disorder is still farther increased, by the healthy being not unfrequently chained to the diseased, the dying, and the dead. Dr. Trotter, speaking on the same subject, gives us an equally melancholy account. When the scuttles, says he, in the ship's sides, are obliged to be shut in bad weather, the gratings are not sufficient for airing the rooms. He never himself could breathe freely below,

[ocr errors]

unless immediately under the hatchway. Ile has seen the slaves drawing their breath with all that laborious and anxious effort for life which is observed in expiring animals, subjected by experiment to foul air, or in the exhausted receiver of an air-pump. He has also seen them, when the tarpaulings have been thrown over the gratings, attempting to heave them up, crying out, in their own language, kickeraboo, kickeraboo, that is, We are dying. Most of them have been recovered by being brought upon deck; but some have perished, and this entirely by suffocation, as they had no previous signs of indisposition. The slaves, after having been stowed, soon began to experience the effects that might be naturally expected from their situation. The pestilential breath of many in so confined a state rendered them sickly, and the vicissitude of heat and cold generated a flux. Several would die, and others were induced to destroy themselves, or to revenge themselves on their oppressors.

The ships, having completed the middle passage, anchored in their destined ports; and the unhappy Africans, now on board, were prepared for sale. Some were consigned to brokers; with this view they were examined by laborers, who wanted them for their farms; and, in the selection of them, friends and relations were parted without any consideration; when they parted with mutua. embraces, they were often severed by a lash. Another mode of sale was by vendue; in which case they were carried to a tavern, or other public place, where, being put up to sale, they became the property of the highest bidder. Such as were in a sick and emaciated state were generally sold for a few dollars. The third mode of selling them was by the scramble.' In this case the main and quarter-decks of the ship were darkened by sails: the slaves were brought out of the hold and made to stand in the darkened area when the purchasers, furnished with long ropes, rushed, as soon as the signal was given, within the awning, and endeavoured to encircle as many of them as they could. These scrambles were also frequently made on the shore: these unhappy objects being shut up in an apartment, or court-yard, the doors of which were thrown open, when the purchasers rushed in, with their ropes in their hands, as before described.

We come now to the far more agreeable part of our subject, the history of the abolition of this cruel traffic in this country and its dependencies. Mr. Thomas Clarkson, a gentleman still living, has published an account of the different measures pursued to promote this great object. These were registered at the time, either by himself, or the estimable committee which acted in concert with him; and his history, in two volumes octavo has been several years before the public; we cannot therefore, we conceive, hand down information on this topic better than by a concise abridgment of his valuable testimony.

From the beginning of this infamous traffic, to the time when our author became a public actor in the scene of its suppression, in the year 1787, there had not been wanting good men to lift up their voices against it: and as the sentiments of these, who were most of them authors, had been given to the public for a long succession of years,

hundreds of persons had been taught in England to condemn it. These, that is, the good men just alluded to, Mr. Clarkson considers as so many necessary forerunners (indeed he gives them that title); and considers them al so, though most of them lived before his own time, as so many coadjutors in the work.

Having spoken first of the men in power, Mr. Clarkson divides the forerunners who walked in humbler life into four classes. The first consists of persons in England, poets and others, who bore their testimony against the trade in their successive writings up to the year 1787. Among the poets were Pope, Thomson, Shenstone, and Cowper; among the divines, bishop Warburton, Richard Baxter, Beattie, Wesley, Whitfield, Wakefield, and Paley; among the others were Montesquieu, Hutchinson, Wallis, Burke, Postlethwaite, Day, Hartley, Millar, and Granville Sharp. The latter, however, is to be particularly distinguished from the rest; for, whereas the others had only handed down the traffic in question as infamous, by the mention made of it in their respective works, this good man spent whole years in bringing the cruelty and wickedness of it into public notice. He tried, at his own expense, the famous case of Somerset, and several others, in our courts of law. He was, in fact, the first laborer in the cause. He began to be the public advocate of the oppressed Africans in 1765, and was waiting for opportunities for farther exertion in 1787, the particular epoch before mentioned. See our article SHARP, GRANVILLE.

The second class consists of the Quakers in England. This estimable society passed a public censure upon the traffic at their yearly meeting in London, in 1727. This they followed up by other resolutions as a body, in 1758, 1761, 1763, and 1772, when they had become principalled against it as against a crime of the deepest dye. In 1783 they petitioned parliament against its continuance. In this year certain members of the society thought it their duty to make their fellow countrymen at large acquainted with the horrible nature of it: these were Thomas Knowles, George Harrison, Samuel Hoare, John Lloyd, Joseph Woods, and William Dillwyn. They formed themselves into a committee in London for this purpose; they wrote and circulated books; they conveyed also information on the subject through the London and country newspapers. It was not known, however, from whom the information came, as their names were concealed from the public. In this manner they continued to work their way from 1783 to 1787. The third class of Mr. Clarkson is formed of the Quakers and others in North America. The Quakers there entertained the same opinion as their brethren in England on this subject. In 1696 and in 1711 they condemned, as a religious body, this cruel traffic; and in 1754, 1755, 1774, 1776, and 1778, they not only passed resolutions against it, as far as their own members were concerned, but also against slavery itself. In process of time, however, individuals rose up out of this benevolent body, and became public laborers in the cause of the unhappy Africans. The two principal of these were John Woolman and Anthony Benezet. The former travelled many

hundred miles on foot, to converse with planters and others, on the iniquity of holding their fellow creatures in bondage; and the latter labored for years in collecting information concerning Africa and the slave trade, and in handing it to the world. At this time other people, of other religious denominations, came forward in North America, and contributed to increase the odium which the Quakers had been the first to excite there against the traffic; when, in 1774, James Pemberton, a pious Quaker in Pennsylvania, and Dr. Rush, an eminent physician, and a man of weight among the Presbyterians in the same province, formed a committee, in which persons of different religious sects joined for the purpose of abolishing both the slave trade and slavery on their own continent. This committee was obliged to suspend its operations during the war with Great Britain, but afterwards resumed its functions. In 1787 it added considerably to its numbers, and took in, among others, the celebrated Dr. Franklin, who was its first president in its renovated state.

It will be proper here to stop and interrupt the thread of the history. It has appeared, from what has been said above, first, that Mr. Granville Sharp, the most conspicuous member of the first of the classes now mentioned, was alive in 1787, and then waiting for an opportunity of exerting himself farther in behalf of the injured Africans; secondly, that of the second class William Dillwyn was one of the committee for the same object in the same year; and, thirdly, that James Pemberton was also alive in the same year, and a very conspicuous member of the third. It happened that William Dillwyn, who had been born and long resident in America, had been in habits of intimate friendship with Pemberton; and that in consequence of his acquaintance also with the venerable Anthony Benezet, he had been introduced, by means of a letter from him, upon coming to England, to Mr. Granville Sharp. Here then we find that a member of the second class was accidentally known to a member of the first, and also to a member of the third: and thus we see how easily Dillwyn became a medium through whom the members of all the classes might be easily united.

ners.

We come now to the fourth class of forerunThe first in this class was Dr. Peckard, master of Magdalen College, in the University of Cambridge. This gentleman had not only censured the slave trade in the severest manner, in a sermon preached before the university itself; but when he became vice-chancellor of it, in 1785, he gave out the following subject for one of the bachelors' prizes, Anne liceat invitos in servitutem dare?" or, "Is it right to make slaves of others against their will? At this time Mr. Clarkson had obtained the bachelor's prize the former year, and determined to become a candidate for that of the present. He took prodigious pains to make himself master of the subject, as far as the time would allow, both by procuring proper books, and by seeing as many persons as he could of those who had been in Africa, and who had become in any degree acquainted with the nature of the slave trade.

of

[ocr errors]

Having thus gained a considerable stock of information, he wrote his Latin Essay, and, havi ng sent it in to the vice-chancellor, soon found himself honored with the first prize. After th is, being then in London, he went down to Cat nbridge at the time of the commencement, in crder to read it publicly, as is usual, in the senatehouse. The next day he returned towards London: he was then on horseback; but while upon the road the subject of the essay entire ly engrossed his thoughts; he became at times s eriously affected as he travelled on: He once stopped his horse, and dismounted and sat down on a bank by the road-side. Here he tried to persuade himself, that the contents of the essay which he had read in the senate-house the day before were not true. The more, however, the reflected upon the authorities on which he knew them to be founded, the more he gave them credit; and the more he gave them credit, the more he was convinced that it was an imperious duty in some one to endeavour to see the sufferings of the unhappy Africans put to an end. Agitated in this manner, he reached London. This was in the summer of 1785. In the autumn of the same year he found himself often similarly ex:ercised; till at length he began to have serious thoughts of devoting his life to the cause of injured Africa. Being then but twenty-four years of age, he considered his youth and his want of knowledge of the world as a great obstacle. Many other circumstances occurred to discourage him. He thought, however, that there was one way, in which he might begin to be useful to the cause; namely, by translating his Latin essay, and publishing it in English. Accordingly he began the work, and, having finished it, he was looking out for a publisher, when he accidently met an old friend of his family, who belonged to the religious society of the Quakers. This gentleman, of his own accord, asked him why he had not published his prize essay in English. Many of his brethren (the Quakers), he said, were anxiously expecting it. Upon farther conversation, this gentleman introduced Mr. Clarkson to Mr. Phillips, a bookseller in George Yard, Lombard Street, and who was also of the religious society before mentioned; at which interview it was agreed that the latter should immediately publish the work. In a short time after this Mr. Phillips introduced Mr. Clarkson to Mr. Dillwyn of Walthamstow, one of the second class of coadjutors before mentioned, with whom he spent the day. Here it was that he heard for the first time of the labors of Mr. Granville Sharp and surprised he was to learn that Mr. Dillwyn had two years before associated himself with five others (as has been already mentioned), for the purpose of enlightening the public mind in England on this great subject, as also that a society had been formed in North America for the same purpose, with some of the principal of which Mr. Dillwyn was himself acquainted. He was almost overwhelmed with the thoughts, he says, which darted upon him on this occasion. He could not but consider that he had been providentially led to Mr. Dillwyn's house; that the day-star of African liberty was rising; and that probably he

:

himself might be now permitted to have the honor of becoming a humble instrument in promoting it.

Soon after this he was introduced to the venerable Mr. Sharp, the last and most eminent of the second class of coadjutors, and soon after this his work came out under the title of An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, particularly the African, which was honored with the first prize in the University of Cambridge, for the year 1785. The work having been now ushered into the world (this was in June 1786), Mr. Clarkson resolved upon the distribution of it in the most select manner he could, in order that the case of the unhappy Africans might be known by those who had in some degree the power of relieving them. Accordingly, at his request, Dr. Baker, a clergyman in London, lord and lady Scarsdale, Sir Charles and lady Middleton, and Mr. Bennet Langton, the intimate friend of Dr. Johnson, of Jonas Hanway, of Sir Joshua Reynolds, of Edmund Burke, and of other celebrated persons, undertook to distribute copies of it personally among their own friends, in the higher ranks of life, and to use their interest in procuring a perusal of them. Under their auspices the book was first introduced into the polite world. The mind, however, of the author became daily more and more agitated on the subject of it. He was not satisfied that what he was then doing was all that was necessary to be done; or that it was all that was required of him. To make the case of the unhappy Africans known was desirable as a first step; but would this of itself put a stop to the horrors of the trade? He believed not: he believed there would be no hope of success, unless some one would resolve to make it the business of his life. The question then was, was he himself called upon to do it? His own peace of mind required that he should give a final answer to this question. To do this he retired frequently into solitude. The result was, after the most mature deliberation, and the most painful struggle, that he determined to devote his whole life, should it be necessary, to the cause. This determination was made about the latter end of December, 1786; in the beginning of 1787 the distribution of the essay went on, but by additional hands. Mr. Sheldon, Sir Herbert Mackworth, lord Balgonie (now lord Leven), each took a part on the occasion. The Quakers joined in the distribution also, among whom Mr. Richard Phillips (still also living we believe) is to be particularly noticed. This arrangement having been made, Mr. Clarkson was now able to devote all his time to qualify himself for the arduous situation to which he had devoted himself. He gained introductions to persons who had been in Africa and the West Indies, and obtained still farther information on the subject in its different branches. He visited slave ships lying in the Thames, either as they came in or sailed out of port, that he might know their construction and other particulars. He went frequently to the custom-house in London, where he learnt the nature of the articles which constituted the traffic, the loss of seamen employed in it, and other matters which he found it essential

« ZurückWeiter »