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THE HISTORY OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE ABOLITION
OF THE SLAVE-TRADE, BY THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT
BY THOMAS CLARKSON, M.A.
1839
[Illustration: Thomas Clarkson]
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM, LORD GRENVILLE,
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES, EARL GREY,
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE FRANCIS, EARL MOIRA,
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GEORGE JOHN, EARL SPENCER,
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY RICHARD, LORD HOLLAND,
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THOMAS, LORD ERSKINE,
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EDWARD, LORD ELLENBOROUGH,
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD HENRY PETTY,
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THOMAS GRENVILLE,
* * * * *
NINE OUT OF TWELVE OF HIS MAJESTY'S LATE CABINET MINISTERS,
TO WHOSE WISE AND VIRTUOUS ADMINISTRATION BELONGS
THE UNPARALLELED AND ETERNAL GLORY
OF THE ANNIHILATION,
AS FAR AS THEIR POWER EXTENDED,
OF ONE OF THE GREATEST SOURCES OF CRIMES AND SUFFERINGS,
EVER RECORDED IN THE ANNALS OF MANKIND;
AND TO THE MEMORIES OF
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM PITT,
AND OF
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES JAMES FOX,
UNDER WHOSE FOSTERING INFLUENCE
THE GREAT WORK WAS BEGUN AND PROMOTED;
THIS HISTORY
OF
THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE
TRADE,
IS RESPECTFULLY AND GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED.
CONTENTS
PREFATORY REMARKS ON THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
CHAPTER I Introduction.--Estimate of the evil of the Slave
Trade; and of the blessing of the Abolition of it.--Usefulness
of the contemplation of this subject
CHAPTER II Those, who favoured the cause of the Africans
previously to 1787, were so many necessary forerunners in
it.--Cardinal Ximenes; and others
CHAPTER III Forerunners continued to 1787; divided now into four
classes.--First consists of persons in England of various
descriptions, Godwyn, Baxter, and others
CHAPTER IV Second, of the Quakers in England, George Fox, and
his religious descendants
CHAPTER V Third, of the Quakers in America.--Union of these with
individuals of other religious denominations in the same cause
CHAPTER VI Facility of junction between the members of these
three different classes
CHAPTER VII Fourth, consists of Dr. Peckard; then of the
Author.--Author wishes to embark in the cause; falls in with
several of the members of these classes
CHAPTER VIII Fourth class continued; Langton, Baker, and
others.--Author now embarks in the cause as a business of his
life
CHAPTER IX Fourth class continued; Sheldon, Mackworth, and
others.--Author seeks for further information on the subject;
and visits Members of Parliament
CHAPTER X Fourth class continued.--Author enlarges his
knowledge.--Meeting at Mr. Wilberforce's.--Remarkable junction
of all the four classes, and a Committee formed out of them, in
May, 1787, for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
CHAPTER XI History of the preceding classes, and of their
junction, shown by means of a map.
CHAPTER XII Author endeavours to do away the charge of
ostentation in consequence of becoming so conspicuous in this
work.
CHAPTER XIII Proceedings of the Committee; Emancipation declared
to be no part of its object.--Wrongs of Africa by Mr. Roscoe.
CHAPTER XIV Author visits Bristol to collect
information.--Ill-usage of seamen in the Slave Trade.--Articles
of African produce.--Massacre at Calabar.
CHAPTER XV Mode of procuring and paying seamen in that trade;
their mortality in it.--Construction and admeasurement of
slave-ships.--Difficulty of procuring evidence.--Cases of
Gardiner and Arnold.
CHAPTER XVI Author meets with Alexander Falconbridge; visits
ill-treated and disabled seamen; takes a mate out of one of the
slave-vessels, and puts another in prison for murder.
CHAPTER XVII Visits Liverpool.--Specimens of African
produce.--Dock duties.--Iron instruments used in the
traffic.--His introduction to Mr. Norris.
CHAPTER XVIII Manner of procuring and paying seamen at Liverpool
in the Slave Trade; their treatment and mortality.--Murder of
Peter Green.--Dangerous situation of the Author in consequence
of his inquiries.
CHAPTER XIX Author proceeds to Manchester; delivers a discourse
there on the subject of the Slave Trade.--Revisits Bristol; new
and difficult situation there; suddenly crosses the Severn at
night.--Returns to London.
CHAPTER XX Labours of the Committee during the Author's
journey.--Mr. Sharp elected chairman.--Seal engraved.--Letters
from different correspondents to the Committee.
CHAPTER XXI Further labours of the Committee to February,
1788.--List of new Correspondents.
CHAPTER XXII Progress of the cause to the middle of
May.--Petitions to Parliament.--Author's interviews with Mr.
Pitt and Mr. Grenville.--Privy Council inquire into the subject;
examine Liverpool delegates.--Proceedings of the Committee for
the Abolition.--Motion and Debate in the House of Commons;
discussion of the general question postponed to the next
Session.
CHAPTER XXIII Progress to the middle of July.--Bill to diminish
the horrors of the Middle Passage; Evidence examined against it;
Debates; Bill passed through both Houses.--Proceedings of the
Committee, and effects of them.
CHAPTER XXIV Continuation from June, 1788, to July,
1789.--Author travels in search of fresh evidence.--Privy
Council resume their examinations; prepare their
report.--Proceedings of the Committee for the Abolition; and of
the Planters and others.--Privy Council report laid on the table
of the House of Commons; debate upon it.--Twelve
propositions.--Opponents refuse to argue from the report;
examine new evidence of their own in the House of
Commons.--Renewal of the Middle Passage Bill.--Death and
character of Ramsay.
CHAPTER XXV Continuation from July, 1789, to July, 1790.--Author
travels to Paris to promote the abolition in France; his
proceedings there; returns to England.--Examination of
opponents' evidence resumed in the Commons.--Author travels in
quest of new evidence on the side of the Abolition; this, after
great opposition, introduced.--Renewal of the Middle Passage
Bill.--Section of the slave-ship.--Cowper's _Negro's
Complaint_.--Wedgewood's Cameos.
CHAPTER XXVI Continuation from July, 1790, to July,
1791.--Author travels again.--Examinations on the side of the
Abolition resumed in the Commons; list of those examined.--Cruel
circumstances of the times.--Motion for the Abolition of the
Trade; debates; motion lost.--Resolutions of the
Committee.--Sierra Leone Company established.
CHAPTER XXVII Continuation from July, 1791, to July,
1792.--Author travels again.--People begin to leave off sugar;
petition Parliament.--Motion renewed in the Commons; debates;
abolition resolved upon, but not to commence till 1796.--The
Lords determine upon hearing evidence on the resolution; this
evidence introduced; further hearing of it postponed to the next
Session
CHAPTER XXVIII Continuation from July, 1792, to July,
1793.--Author travels again.--Motion to renew the Resolution of
the last year in the Commons; motion lost.--New motion to
abolish the foreign Slave Trade; motion lost.--Proceeding of the
Lords
CHAPTER XXIX Continuation from July, 1793, to July,
1794.--Author travels again.--Motion to abolish the foreign
Slave Trade renewed, and carried; but lost in the Lords; further
proceedings there.--Author, on account of declining health,
obliged to retire from the cause
CHAPTER XXX Continuation from July, 1794, to July,
1799.--Various motions within this period
CHAPTER XXXI Continuation from July, 1799, to July,
1805.--Various motions within this period
CHAPTER XXXII Continuation from July, 1805, to July,
1806.--Author, restored, joins the Committee again.--Death of
Mr. Pitt.--Foreign Slave Trade abolished.--Resolution to take
measures for the total abolition of the trade.--Address to the
King to negotiate with foreign powers for their concurrence in
it.--Motion to prevent new vessels going into the trade.--All
these carried through both Houses of Parliament
CHAPTER XXXIII Continuation from July, 1806, to July,
1807.--Death of Mr. Fox.--Bill for the total abolition carried
in the Lords; sent from thence to the Commons; amended, and
passed there, and sent back to the Lords; receives the royal
assent.--Reflections on this great event
Map
Plan and Sections of a Slave Ship
PREFATORY REMARKS
TO
THE PRESENT EDITION.
* * * * *
The invaluable services rendered by Thomas Clarkson to the great
question of the Slave Trade in all its branches, have been universally
acknowledged both at home and abroad, and have gained him a high place
among the greatest benefactors of mankind. The History of the Abolition
which this volume contains, affords some means of appreciating the
extent of his sacrifices and his labours in this cause. But after these,
with the unwearied exertions of William Wilberforce, had conducted its
friends to their final triumph, in 1807, they did not then rest from
their labours. There remained four most important objects, to which the
anxious attention of all Abolitionists was now directed.
_First_,--The law had been passed, forced upon the Planters, the
Traders, and the Parliament, by the voice of the people; and there was a
necessity for keeping a watchful eye over its execution.
_Secondly_,--The statute, however rigorously it might be enforced, left,
of course, the whole amount of the Foreign Slave traffic untouched, and
it was infinitely to be desired that means should be adopted for
extending our Abolition to other nations.
_Thirdly_,--Some compensation was due to Africa, for the countless
miseries which our criminal conduct had for ages inflicted upon her, and
strict justice, to say nothing of common humanity and Christian charity,
demanded that every means should be used for aiding in the progress of
her civilization, and effacing as far as possible the dreadful marks
which had been left upon her by our crimes.
_Lastly,_--Many of those whom we had transported by fraud and violence
from their native country, and still more of the descendants of others
who had fallen a sacrifice to our cruelties, and perished in the course
of nature, slaves in a foreign land, remained to suffer the dreadful
evils of West India bondage. It seemed to follow, that the earliest
opportunity consistent with their own condition, should be taken to free
those unhappy beings, the victims of our sordid cruelty; and all the
more to be pitied, as we were all the more to be blamed, because one
result of our transgression was the having placed them in so unnatural a
position, that their enemies might seem to be furnished with an argument
more plausible than sound, drawn from the Negro's supposed unfitness for
immediate emancipation.
In order to promote these four great objects, a society was formed in
May 1807, called the African Institution, and although, at first, its
labours were chiefly directed to the portion of the subject relating to
Africa, by degrees, as the extinction of the British Slave Trade was
accomplished, its care was chiefly bestowed on West India matters, which
were more within the power of this country than the slave traffic, still
carried on by foreign nations. But it is necessary in the first place,
to recite the measures by which our own share in that enormous crime was
surrendered, and the stigma partially obliterated, which it had brought
upon our national character, Thomas Clarkson bore a forward and
important part in all these useful and virtuous proceedings. His health
was now, by rest among the Lakes of Westmoreland for several years,
comparatively restored and his mind once more bent itself to the
accomplishment of the grand object; of his life, we may he permitted
reverently to suggest, the end of his existence.
Mr. Stephen and others, at first, deemed the certainty of the Act passed
in March 1807, being evaded under the stimulus, and the insurance
against capture afforded by the enormous profits of the traffic, so
clear, that they expected the law to become, almost from the time of its
being enacted, a dead letter. There soon appeared the strongest reasons
to concur in this opinion, the result of long and close observation in
the Islands where Mr. Stephen had passed part of his life. The
slave-dealers knew the risk of penalty and forfeiture which they ran;
but they also knew that if one voyage in three or four was successful,
they were abundantly remunerated for all their losses; and, therefore,
they were no more restrained by the Abolition Act, than by any moderate
increase of the cost or the risk attending their wicked adventures. This
was sure, to be the case, as long as the law only treated slavetrading
as a contraband commerce, subjecting those who drove it to nothing but
pecuniary penalties. But it was equally evident that the same persons
who made these calculations of profit and risk, while they only could
lose the ship or the money by a seizure, would hesitate before they
encountered the hazard of being tried as for a crime. And, surely, if
ever these was an act which deserved to be declared felony, and dealt
with as such, it was this of slave-trading. Accordingly, in 1810, Mr.
Brougham, then a member of the House of Commons, in moving an address to
the crown, (which was unanimously agreed to,) for more vigorous measures
against the traffic, both British and Foreign, gave notice of the Bill,
which he next year carried through Parliament, and which declared the
traffic to be a felony, punishable with transportation. Some years
afterwards it was by another Act made capital, under the name of Piracy,
but this has since been repealed. Several convictions have taken place
under the former Act, (of 1811,) and there cannot be the least doubt
that the law has proved effectual, and that the Slave Trade has long
ceased to exist as far as the British dominions are concerned.
That foreign states continue shamefully to carry it on, is no less
certain. There are yearly transported to Cuba and Brazil, above 100,000
unhappy beings, by the two weakest nations in Europe, and these two most
entirely subject to the influence and even direct control of England.
The inevitable consequence is, that more misery is now inflicted on
Africa by the criminals, gently called Slave-traders, of these two
guilty nations, than if there were no treaties for the abolition of the
traffic. The number required is always carried over, and hence, as many
perish by a miserable death in escaping from the cruisers, as reach
their destination. The recitals of horror which have been made to
Parliament and the country on this dreadful subject, are enough to
curdle the blood in the veins and heart of any one endued with the
common feelings of humanity. The whole system of prevention, or rather
of capture, after the crime has been committed, seems framed with a view
to exasperate the evils of the infernal traffic, to scourge Africa with
more intolerable torments, and to make human blood be spilt like water.
Our cruisers, are excited to an active discharge of their duty, by the
benefit of sharing in the price fetched when the captured ship is
condemned and sold; but this is a small sum, indeed, compared with the
rich reward of head-money held out, being so much for every slave taken
on board. It is thus made the direct interest of these cruisers, that
the vessels should have their human cargoes on board, rather than be
prevented from shipping them. True, this vile policy may prove less
mischievous where no treaty exists, giving a right to seize when there
are no slaves in the vessel, because here a slave ship is suffered to
pass, how clear soever her destination might be; yet, even here, the
inducement to send in boats, and seize as soon as a slave or two may be
on board, is removed, and the cruiser is told, "only let all these
wretched beings be torn from their country, and safely lodged in the
vessel's hold, and your reward is great and sure." Then, whenever there
is an outfit clause, that is a power to seize vessels fitted for the
traffic, this mischievous plan tends directly to make the cruiser let
the slaver make ready and put to sea, or it has no tendency or meaning
at all. Accordingly, the course is for the cruiser to stand out to sea,
and not allow herself to be seen in the offing--the crime is
consummated--the slaves are stowed away--the pirate--captain weighs
anchor--the pirate-vessel freighted with victims, and manned by
criminals fares forth--the cruiser, the British cruiser, gives
chace--and then begin those scenes of horror, surpassing all that the
poet ever conceived, whose theme was the torments of the damned and the
wickedness of the fiends. Casks are filled with the slave, and in these
they are stowed away; or to lighten the vessel, they are flung overboard
by the score; sometimes they are flung overboard in casks, that the
chasing ship may be detained by endeavours to pick them up; the dying
and the dead strew the deck; women giving birth to the fruit of the
womb, amidst the corpses of their husbands and their children; and
other, yet worse and nameless atrocities, fill up the terrible picture,
of impotent justice and triumphant guilt. But the guilt is not all
Spanish and Portuguese. The English Government can enforce its demands
on the puny cabinets of Madrid and Lisbon, scarce conscious of a
substantive existence, in all that concerns our petty interests:
wherever justice and mercy to mankind demand our interference, there our
voice sinks within us, and no sound is uttered. That any treaty without
an outfit clause should be suffered to exist between powers so situated,
is an outrage upon all justice, all reason, all common sense. But one
thing is certain, that unless we are to go further, we have gone too
far, and must in mercy to hapless Africa retrace our steps. Unless we
really put the traffic down with a strong hand, and instantly, we must
instantly repeal the treaties that pretended to abolish it, for these
exacerbate the evil a hundred fold, and are ineffectual to any one
purpose but putting money into the pockets of our men of war. The fact
is as unquestionable, as it is appalling, that all our anxious
endeavours to extinguish the Foreign Slave Trade, have ended in making
it incomparably worse than it was before we pretended to put it down;
that owing to our efforts, there are thrice the number of slaves yearly
torn from Africa; and that wholly because of our efforts, two thirds of
these are murdered on the high seas and in the holds of the pirate
vessels.
It is said, that when these scenes were described to an indignant nation
last session of Parliament, the actual effects of this bad system were
denied, though its tendency could not be disputed.
It was averred that "no British seaman could be capable of neglecting
his duty for the sake of increasing the gains of the station." But
nothing could be more absurd than this. Can the direct and inevitable
tendency of the head-money system be doubted? Are cruisers the only men
over whom motives have no influence? Then why offer a reward at all?
When they want no stimulus to perform their duty, why tell them that if
the ship is empty, they get a hundred pounds: if laden, five thousand?
They know the rules of arithmetic;--they understand the force of
numbers. But, in truth, there is not an individual on all the coast of
Africa who will be misled by such appeals, or suffer all this to divert
them from their purpose of denouncing the system. There are persons high
in rank among the best servants of the crown, who know the facts from
their own observations, and who are ready to bear witness to the truth,
in spite of all the attempts that have been made to silence them.
The other great object of the African Institution regarded the West
Indies. The preparation of the negroes for that freedom which was their
absolute right, and could only be withheld for an hour, on the ground of
their not being prepared for it, and therefore being better without it,
was the first thing to be accomplished. Here the friends of the
abolition, all but Mr. Stephen, suffered a great disappointment. He
alone had uniformly-foretold that the hopes held out, as it seemed very
reasonably, of better treatment resulting from the stoppage of the
supply of hands, were fallacious. All else had supposed that interest
might operate on men whom principle had failed to sway; that they whom
no feelings of compassion for their fellow-creatures could move to do
their duty, might be touched by a feeling of their own advantage, when
interest coincided with duty. The Slave-mart is now closed, it was said;
surely the stock on hand will be saved by all means, and not wasted when
it can no longer be replaced. The argument was purposely rested on the
low ground of regarding human beings as cattle, or even as inanimate
chattels, and it was conceived that human life would be regarded of as
much value as the wear and tear of beasts, of furniture, or of tools.
Hence it was expected that a better system of treatment would follow,
from the law which closed the African market, and warned every planter
that his stock must be spared by better treatment, and kept up by
breeding, since it no longer could be, as it hitherto had been,
maintained by new supplies.
Two considerations were, in these arguments, kept out of view, both of a
practical nature, and both known to Mr. Stephen,--the cultivation of the
Islands by agents having wholly different interests from their masters,
and the gambling spirit of trading and culture which long habit had
implanted in the West Indian nature. The comforts of the slave depended
infinitely more upon the agent on the spot, than the owner generally
resident in the mother country; and though the interest of the latter
might lead to the saving of negro life, and care for negro comforts, the
agent had no such motives to influence his conduct; besides, it was with
the eyes of this agent that the planter must see, and he gave no
credence to any accounts but his. Now the consequence of cruelty is to
make men at war with its objects. No one but a most irritable person
feels angry with his beast, and even the anger of such a person is of a
moment's duration. But towards an inanimate chattel even the most
irritable of sane men can feel nothing like rage. Why? Because in the
one case there is little, in the other no conflict or resistance at all.
It is otherwise with a slave; he is human, and can disobey--can even
resist. This feeling always rankles in his oppressor's bosom, and makes
the tyrannical superior hate, and the more oppress his slave. The agent
on the spot feels thus, and thus acts; nor can the voice of the owner at
a distance be heard, even if interest, clearly proved, were to prompt
another course. But the chief cause of the evil is the spirit of
speculation, and it affects and rules resident owners even more than
absentees. Let sugar rise in price, and all cold calculations of
ultimate loss to the gang are lost in the vehement thirst of great
present gain. All, or nearly all, planters are in distressed
circumstances. They look to the next few years as their time; and if the
sun shines they must make hay. They are in the mine, toiling for a
season, with every desire to escape and realize something to spend
elsewhere. Therefore they make haste to be rich, and care little, should
the speculation answer and much sugar bring in great gain, what becomes
of the gang ten years hence. Add to all this, that any interference of
the local legislatures to discourage sordid or cruel management, to
clothe the slaves with rights, to prepare them for freedom by better
education, to pave the way for emancipation by restraining the master's
power, to create an intermediate State of transition from slavery to
freedom by partial liberty, as by attaching them to the soil, and
placing them in the preparatory state through which our ancestors in
Europe passed from bondage in gross to entire independence--all such
measures were in the absolute discretion; not of the planters, but of
the resident agents, one of the worst communities in the world, who had
little interest in preparing for an event which they deprecated, and
whose feelings of party, as well as individually, were all ranged on the
oppressor's side. All this Mr. Stephen, enlightened by experience, and
wise by long reflection, clearly and alone foresaw; all this vision of
the future was too surely realized by the event. No improvement of
treatment took place; no additional liberality in the supplies was
shown; no abstinence in the exaction of labour appeared; no interference
of the Colonial Legislature to check misconduct was witnessed; far less
was the least disposition perceived to give any rights to the slaves,
any security against oppression, any title independent of his Master,
any intermediate state or condition which might prepare him for freedom.
It is enough to say, that a measure which every man, except Mr. Stephen,
had regarded as the natural, almost the necessary effect of the
abolition--attaching the slaves to the soil--was not so much as
propounded, far less adopted; it may be even said, was never mentioned
in any one local assembly of any of our numerous colonies, during the
thirty years which elapsed between the abolition and the emancipation!
This is unquestionable, and it is decisive.
As soon as it began to be perceived that such was likely to be the
result of the abolition in regard to the emancipation, Mr. Stephen's
authority with his coadjutors, always high, rose in proportion to the
confirmations which the event had lent his predictions; and his zealous
endeavours and unwearied labours for the subversion of the accursed
system became both more extensive and more effectual. If, however,
strict justice requires the tribute which we have paid to this eminent
person's distinguished services, justice also renders it imperative on
the historian of the Abolition in all its branches, to record an error
into which he fell. Having originally maintained that the traffic would
survive the Act of 1807, in which he was right, that Act only imposing
pecuniary penalties, he persisted in the same opinion after the Act of
1811 had made slave-trading a felony; and long after it had been
effectually put down in the British dominions, he continued to maintain
that it was carried on nearly as much as ever, reasoning upon
calculations drawn from the island returns. Hence he insisted upon a
general Registry Act, as essential to prevent the continuance of an
importation which had little or no real existence. The importance of
such a measure was undeniable, with a view to secure the good treatment
of the negroes in the islands; but the extinction of the Slave Trade had
long before been effectually accomplished.
In the efforts to obtain Negro Emancipation, all the Abolitionists were
now prepared to join. The conduct of the Colonial Assemblies having long
shown the fallacy of those expectations which had been entertained of
the good work being done in the islands as soon as the supply of new
hands should be stopped by the Abolition, there remained no longer any
doubt whatever, that the mother country alone could abate a nuisance
hateful in the sight of God and man. Constant opportunities were
therefore offered to agitate this great question, which was taken up by
the enlightened, the humane, and the religious, all over the empire.
The magnitude of the subject was indeed worthy of all the interest it
excited. The destiny of nearly a million of human beings--nay, the
question whether they should be treated as men with rational souls, or
as the beasts which perish--should enjoy the liberty to which all God's
creatures are entitled, as of right, or be harassed, oppressed,
tormented, and stinted, both as regarded bodily food, and spiritual
instruction--whether the colonies should be peopled with tyrants and
barbarians, or inhabited by civilized and improving christian
communities--was one calculated to put in action all the best principles
of our nature, and to move all the noblest feelings of the human heart.
Thomas Clarkson, as far as his means extended, aided this great
excitement. He renewed his committees of correspondence all over the
country; aided by the Society of Friends, his early and steady
coadjutors in this pious work, he recommenced the epistolary intercourse
with the provinces, held for so many hopeless years on the Slave Trade,
but now made far more promising by the victory which had been obtained,
and by the unanimity with which all Abolitionists now were resolved to
procure emancipation. He also recommenced his journeys through the
different parts of the island, and visited in succession part of
Scotland, almost all England, and the whole of Wales, encouraging and
interesting the friends of humanity wherever he went, and forming local
societies and committees for furthering the common object.
But it was, after all, in Parliament that the battle must be fought; and
Mr. Buxton, of whose invaluable services in the House of Commons the
cause has lately been deprived, repeatedly, with the support of Messrs.
Wilberforce, William Smith, Brougham, Lushington, and others, urged the
necessity of interference upon the representatives of a people unanimous
in demanding it; and he repeatedly urged it in vain. The Government
always leaned towards the planter, and the most flimsy excuses were
constantly given for preferring to the effectual measures propounded by
the Abolitionists, the most flimsy of expedients, useless for any one
purpose, save that of making pretences and gaining time.
At length came the great case of the missionary Smith's persecution,
trial, and untimely death, when all the forms of judicature had been
prostituted, all the rules of law broken, all the principles of justice
outraged, by men assuming to sit in judgment as a court of criminal
jurisprudence; and though assisted by legal functionaries, exhibiting
such a spectacle of daring violation of the most received and best known
canons of procedure, as no civilized community ever before were called
upon to endure. This subject was immediately brought before Parliament
by Mr. Brougham, and his motion of censure, which might have been an
impeachment of the governor and the court of Demerara, was powerfully
supported by Mr. Wilberforce, the amiable, eloquent, and venerable
leader of the party, Mr. Denman, Mr. Williams, and Dr. Lushington, but
rejected by a majority of the Commons, whom Mr. Canning led, in a speech
little worthy of his former exertions against the Slave Trade, and far
from being creditable either to his judgment or to his principles. Yet
this memorable debate was of singular service to the cause. The great
speeches delivered were spread through all parts of the country; the
nakedness of the horrid system was exposed; the corruptions as well as
cruelty of slavery were laid bare; the determination of colonies to
protect its worst abuses was demonstrated; necessity of the
mother-country interfering with a strong hand was declared; and even the
loss of the motion showed the people of England how much their own
exertions were still required if they would see slavery extirpated, by
proving that upon them alone the fate of the execrable system hung.
The effects of this great debate cannot be over estimated. The case of
the missionary became the universal topic; The name of the martyred
Smith, the general rallying cry. The superior interest excited by
individual sufferings to any general misery inflicted upon masses of the
people, or any evil, however gigantic, which operates over a large
space, and in a course of time, has always been observed. The remark was
peculiarly applicable in this instance. Although all reflecting men had,
for many long years, been well aware of the evils pervading our colonial
system, and though the iniquity and perverseness of West Indian
judicatures had long been the topic of universal comment, yet this
single case of a persecuted individual falling a victim to those gross
perversions of law and justice which are familiar to the colonial
people, produced an impression far more general and more deep than all
that had ever been written or declaimed against system of West India
slavery; and looking back on the consummation of all our hopes in 1833
and 1838, we at once revert from this auspicious era to that ever
memorable occasion as having laid the solid foundation of our ultimate
triumph.
In this important day, which has thus by its effects proved decisive of
the Emancipation question, Mr. Stephen bore no part. He had long ceased
to adorn and enlighten the House of Commons. His retirement was the
result of honest differences of opinion respecting West India slavery
with his political friends, then in the plenitude of their power. Those
differences caused him to take the noble part, so rarely acted by
politicians, of withdrawing from Parliament rather than lend his great
support to men with whom he differed upon a question admitting no
compromise; and he devoted his exertions in private life to the
furtherance of the cause ever nearest his heart, the publication of his
able and elaborate work on the Colonial Slave Laws was the fruit of his
leisure; and had he never lent any other aid to the Emancipation, this
would alone have placed him high among its most able and effective
supporters. In all the consultations which were held before Mr.
Brougham's motion in 1824, he bore an active and useful part. In pushing
the advantages gained by the debate he was unwearied and successful.
Unhappily it pleased Providence that he should not receive here below
the final reward of his long and valued labours; for he was called to
his final repose some months before the Emancipation Bill passed into a
law.
There remains little to add, except that this measure, which was carried
with little opposition in 1833, owed its success in Parliament to the
ample bribe of twenty millions, by which the acquiescence of the West
Indians was purchased. The measure had hardly come into operation, when
all men perceived that the intermediate state of apprenticeship was
anything rather than a preparation for freedom, and anything rather than
a mitigation of slavery. It is due to some able and distinguished
friends of the negro race to state, that they all along were averse to
this plan of a transition state. Lord Howick, then in the Colonial
Office as Under-Secretary, went so far as to leave the department, from
his dislike of this part of the measure. Mr. Buxton and others protested
against it. Even its friends intimated that they wished the period of
apprenticeship to end in 1838 instead of 1840; but there was a general
belief of the preparatory step being necessary,--a belief apparently
founded on experience of the negro character, and indeed of the vicious
tendency of all slavery, to extinguish the power of voluntary labour, as
well as to make the sudden change to freedom unsafe for the peace of the
community. The fact soon dispersed these opinions. Antigua in a minute
emancipated all her slaves to the number of thirty thousand and upwards.
Not a complaint was ever heard of idleness or indolence; and, far from
any breach of the peace being induced by the sudden change in the
condition of the people, the Christmas of 1833 was the first, for the
last twenty years, that martial law was not proclaimed, in order to
preserve the public peace. Similar evidence from Jamaica and other
islands, proving the industrious and peaceable habits of the
apprentices, showed that there was nothing peculiar in the circumstances
of Antigua.
An important occurrence is now to be recorded as having exercised a
powerful influence upon the question of immediate emancipation. Joseph
Sturge, of Birmingham, a member of the Society of Friends, stricken with
a sense of the injustice perpetrated against the African race, repaired
to the West Indies, in order that he might examine, with his own eyes,
the real state of the question between the two classes. He was
accompanied by John Scoble and Thomas Harvey; and these able, excellent,
and zealous men returned in a few months with such ample evidence of the
effects produced by apprenticeship, and the fitness of the negroes for
liberty, that the attention of the community was soon awakened to the
subject, even more strenuously than it ever before had been; and the
walls of Parliament were soon made once more to ring with the sufferings
of the slave, only emancipated in name, and the injustice of withholding
from him any longer the freedom which was his indefeasible right, as
soon as he was shown capable of enjoying it beneficially for himself and
safely for the rest of the community.
In these transactions, both in Jamaica, where he is one of the largest
planters, and in Parliament, where he is one of the most respected
members, the Marquess of Sligo bore an eminent and an honourable part.
His praise has been justly sounded by all who have supported the cause
of negro freedom, and his conduct was by all admitted to be as much
marked by the disinterested virtue of a good citizen and amiable man, as
it was by the sagacity and ability of an enlightened statesman. Both as
governor of Jamaica, as the owner of slaves whom he voluntarily
liberated, and as a peer of Parliament, his patriotism, his humanity,
and his talents, shone conspicuously through this severe and glorious
struggle. While such was the conduct of those eminent philanthropists,
some difference of opinion prevailed among the other and older leaders
of the cause, chiefly grounded upon doubts whether the arrangement made
by Parliament in 1833, might not be regarded as a compact with the
planters which it would be unjust to violate by terminating their right
to the labour of the apprentices at a period earlier than the one fixed
in the Emancipation Act. A little consideration of the question at issue
soon dispelled those doubts, and removed every obstacle to united
exertion, by restoring entire unanimity of opinion. The slaves, it was
triumphantly affirmed, were no party to the compact. But moreover, the
whole arrangement of the apprenticeship was intended as a benefit to
them, by giving them the preparation thought to be required before they
could, safely for themselves, be admitted to unrestricted freedom,--not
as a benefit to the planters, whose acquiescence was purchased with the
grant of twenty millions. Experience having shown that no preparation at
all was required, it was preposterous to continue the restraint upon
natural liberty an hour longer, as regarded the negroes,--the only party
whom we had any right to consider in the question; and as for the
planters there was the grossest absurdity in further regarding any
interests or any claims of theirs. The arrangement of 1833, as far as
regards the transition or intermediate state, had been made under an
error in fact, an error propagated by the representations of the
masters. That error was now at an end, and an immediate alteration of
the provisions to which it had given rise was thus a matter of strict
justice;--not to mention that the planters had failed to perform their
part of the contract. The Colonial Assemblies had, except in Antigua,
done nothing for the slave in return for the large sum bestowed upon the
West India body. So that in any view there was an end of all pretext for
the further delay of right and justice.
The ground now taken by the whole Abolitionists; therefore, both in and
out of Parliament was, that the two years which remained of the
indentured apprenticeship must immediately be cut off, and freedom given
to the slaves in August, 1838, instead of 1840; The peace of the West
Indian community, and the real interests of the planters, were affirmed
to be as much concerned in this change as the rights of the negroes
themselves. Far from preparing them for becoming peaceable subjects and
contented members of society at the end of their apprenticeship, those
two years of compulsory labour would, it was justly observed, be a
period of heart-burning and discontent between master and servant, which
must, in the mean while, be dangerous to the peace of society, and must
leave, at the end of the time, a feeling of mutual ill-will and
distrust. The question could no longer be kept from the cognizance of
the negro people. Indeed, their most anxious expectations were already
pointed towards immediate liberty, and their strongest feelings were
roused to obtain it.
Of these sentiments the whole community partook; meetings were
everywhere held; petitions crowded the tables of Parliament; the press
poured forth innumerable tracts which were eagerly received; the pulpit
lent its aid to this holy cause; and discussions upon petitions and upon
incidental motions shook the walls of Parliament, while they stimulated
the zeal of the people. The Government adopted an unfortunate course,
which contributed greatly to weaken their hold on the confidence and
affections of the country; they resisted all the motions that were made
on behalf of the slaves, and appeared to regard only the interests of
the master, turning a deaf ear to the arguments of right and of justice.
It was found, during the course of these debates, that a new Slave Trade
had sprung up in the East Indies, with the sanction of an English Order
in Council. Under pretence that hands were wanted to cultivate their
estates, the Demerara planters had obtained permission to import what
they termed, with a delicacy borrowed from the vocabulary of the African
Slave Trade, "labourers" from Asia and from Africa east of the Cape, and
to make them Indentured Apprentices for a term of years. No restrictions
whatever were imposed by this unheard-of Order. No tonnage was required
in proportion to the numbers shipped, no amount of provision, no medical
assistance; no precautions were taken, or so much as thought of, to
prevent kidnapping and fraud, nay, to prevent main force being used in
any part of Eastern Africa, or of all Asia, in carrying on board the
victims of West Indian avarice; in short, a worse Slave Trade than the
African was established, and all the dominions of the East India
Company, with all the African and Asiatic coasts, as yet independent,
were given over to its ravages. This was repeatedly denounced by Lord
Brougham in the House of Lords; and although his motion for rescinding
the order was supported by Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Ellenborough, and Lord
Wharncliffe, the influence of the Government and the planters prevailed,
and the House rejected it. A bill was afterwards brought in to check the
enormities complained of; but no remedy at all effectual is as yet
applied. The official documents, however, proved that already men had
been inveigled on board, by the agents of the Mauritius planters, in
different parts of the East, and that the mortality on that
comparatively short voyage exceeded even the dreadful waste of life
which had characterized, and impressed with marks of horrid atrocity,
the accursed Middle Passage.
This subject, as might well be expected, once more roused the energies
of Thomas Clarkson: he addressed an able and convincing letter to Lord
Brougham, his old friend and coadjutor in the sacred cause; and it was
printed and universally circulated. The subject still remains unsettled:
and the labours of the enlightened philanthropist cannot now be directed
to one more important, or more urgent.
Meanwhile, in the spring of 1838, the question of Immediate Emancipation
was agitated throughout the country. The Government proved hostile.
Immense meetings were held at Exeter Hall, which were attended by many
members of Parliament, over which Lord Brougham presided. Among others
who were present and bore a distinguished part, were certain
representatives of Ireland who promised their strenuous support. It is a
painful duty to add, that their fellow-members from Ireland did not, on
this great occasion, follow their good example; for eleven only of
those, on whose votes reliance had been placed, opposed the Government,
while no less than twenty-seven gave them support.
The question was rejected by the House of Lords, when brought forward by
Lord Brougham; but in spite of the efforts of the Government; the
defalcation of the Irish, of a still greater proportion of the Scotch
representatives, two hundred and seventeen members of the House of
Commons voted for Immediate Abolition, out of four hundred and
eighty-nine who were present on the occasion. A second effort in the
same session placed Ministers in a minority; but they immediately gave
notice, they should strenuously oppose any attempt to carry into
practical effect this decision of the House; and in this determination
they were supported by a majority on a third division.
The word, however, had gone forth all over England, that the _Slave
should be free_. It had not only pervaded Europe, it had reached
America; and the West Indians at length perceived that they could no
longer resist the voice of the British people, when it spoke the accents
of humanity and of justice. The slaves would have met the dawn of the
first of August,--the day which all the motions in Parliament and all
the prayers of the petitions had fixed,--with perfect quiet, but with a
resolute determination to do no work. The peace would not have been
broken, but no more would a clod have been turned after that appointed
sun had risen. A handful of whites surrounded by myriads of
negroes,--now substantially free, and free without a blow,--must have
been overwhelmed in an hour after sunrise on that day, had they
resisted. The Colonial Legislatures, therefore, _now_ listened to the
voice of reason, and they, one after another, emancipated their slaves.
The first of August saw not a bondsman, under whatever appellation, in
any part of the Western Sea which owns the British rule.
The Mauritius, however, still held out, and on the Mauritius the hand of
the Imperial Parliament must and will be laid, to enforce mercy and
justice on those to whom mercy and justice have so long called aloud in
vain. In truth, if the case for instant emancipation was strong
everywhere, it was in no quarter half so strong as in the Mauritius; and
the distribution of the grant by Parliament to this Colony was the most
unjustifiable, and even incomprehensible. For, elsewhere, there existed
at least a title to the slave, over whom an unjust and unchristian law
recognised the right of property. But in the Mauritius there was not,
nor is there now, one negro to whom a good title is clearly provable.
The atrocious conduct of Governors and other functionaries, in conniving
at the Slave Trade of Eastern Africa, had filled that Colony with
thousands of negroes, every one of whom was carried there by the
commission of felony, long after Slave Trading had been declared a
capital crime by the law of the land, as by the law of nature it always
was. Sir George Murray, when Colonial Secretary of State, had admitted,
that at least thirty thousand of the negroes in the settlement were
nominally slaves, but in reality free, having been carried thither
contrary to law. He understated it by twenty thousand or more: yet on
all these negroes, in respect of property, were two millions and more
claimed: for all these the compensation money was given and taken, which
Parliament had lavishly bestowed. How then was it possible to doubt,
that every slave in the Mauritius should receive his freedom, when the
only ground alleged for not singling out and liberating this fifty
thousand, was the inability to distinguish them from the rest? If ten
men are tried for an offence, and it is clear that five are innocent,
though you cannot distinguish them from their companions, what jury will
hesitate in acquitting the whole, on the ordinary principle of its being
better five guilty should escape than five guiltless suffer? The same is
still the state of the case in that most criminal settlement, which,
having far surpassed all others in the enormity of its guilt, is now the
only one where no attempt has been made to evince repentance by
amendment of conduct. But the Government which has the power of
compelling justice will share the crime which they refuse to prevent,
and the Legislature must compel the Government, if their guilty
reluctance shall continue, or it will take that guilt upon itself[A].
[Footnote A: It is truly gratifying to state, that the late Secretary
for the Colonies, Lord Glenelg, has, since this was written, given the
most satisfactory assurances of orders having been sent over for
immediate emancipation, in case the former instructions to the Governor
of Mauritius should have failed, to make the Colonists themselves adopt
the measure. Lord Glenelg's conduct on this occasion is most creditable
to him.]
The latest act of Thomas Clarkson's life has been one which, or rather
the occasion for which, it is truly painful to contemplate; but this too
must be recorded, or the present historical sketch would be incomplete.
He whose days had all been spent in acts of kindness and of justice to
others, was at last forced to exert his powers, supposed, by some, and
erroneously supposed, to be enfeebled by age, in obtaining redress for
his own wrongs. He whose thoughts had all been devoted to the service of
his fellow-creatures, was now obliged to think of himself. A life spent
in works of genuine philanthropy, alike standing aloof from party, and
retiring with genuine humility from the public gaze, might have well
hoped to escape that detraction, which is the lot of those who assume
the leading stations among their contemporaries, and mingle in the
contentious scenes of worldly affairs. Or, at least, it might have been
expected that his traducers would only be found among the oppressors of
the New World, or the slave-traders of the Old. This felicity has not
been his lot; and the evening of his days has been overcast by an
assault upon his character, proceeding from the quarter of all others
the most unexpected and the most strange.
The sons of his old and dear friend William Wilberforce,--whose
incomparable merits he had ever been the first to acknowledge, whom he
loved as a brother, and revered as the great leader of the cause to
which his whole life had been devoted,--in publishing a Life of their
illustrious parent, thought fit to charge Thomas Clarkson with having
suppressed his services while he exaggerated his own; and not content
with bringing a charge utterly groundless, (as it was instantly proved,)
they deemed it worthy of their subject and of their name, to drag forth
into the light of day a private correspondence of a delicate nature,
with the purpose of proving that their father and others had assisted
him with money, and that he had been pressing in his demands of a
subscription. Two extracts of Letters of his were printed by these
reverend gentlemen, upon which a statement was afterwards grounded in
the _Edinburgh Review_ of their book, that the subscription was raised
to remunerate him for his services in the Abolition. They further
asserted, that their father was in the field before him, and that it was
under their father's direction that he, and the Abolition Committee of
1786, acted. In the whole history of controversy, we venture to affirm,
there never was an instance of so triumphant a refutation as that by
which these slanderous aspersions were instantly refuted, and their
authors and their accomplices reduced to a silence as prudent as
discreditable.
The venerable philanthropist took up his pen, worn down in the cause of
humanity and of justice. _First_, he showed, by incontrovertible
evidence, the utter falsehood of the charge, that he had underrated the
merits of others and exalted his own. These proofs were the references
to his volumes themselves, which it really seemed as if the two reverend
authors had never even looked into. He then proved to demonstration that
he had taken the field earlier than William Wilberforce. This was shown,
first, by known dates, matter of history; next, by letters from the
friends of both parties, as Archdeacon Corbet and William Smith; but,
lastly, by the words of William Wilberforce himself, as well privately
as at public meetings, asserting that he (William Wilberforce) came into
the field after his valued friend. But a striking fact may be cited, as
a sample at once of the course pursued by the assailants, and the
completeness of the defence. The reverend authors in proof of their
unqualified assertion, that Thomas Clarkson and the Committee acted from
the first under William Wilberforce's directions, refer to "MS. Minutes
of the Committee" for their authority. But the friend who so ably
superintended the publication of Thomas Clarkson's defence, and who
added to that tract an appendix of singular merit and great interest
(H.C. Robinson), showed that the parts referred to by the reverend
authors, in proof of their assertion, completely disproved it; and that
six months after the Committee had been working, William Wilberforce
applied to them for any information of which they might be possessed on
the subject of the Slave Trade.
But the publication of the letters and the colour given to the
transaction were far worse. The preservation of that correspondence, at
all, by the sons, could only be justified by the belief of its being
accidentally kept by the father, but, of course, never intended to be
made public; least of all without the usual precaution of asking the
writer's leave, and giving him the opportunity of explaining it. The
biographers printed it without any kind of communication with him, and
he saw it for the first time in print.
Then, the attempt was made to represent this pure, and valuable, and
disinterested man as a mendicant philanthropist, who, for his exertions
in the cause of justice, stooped to the humiliating attitude of
collecting a remuneration from his friends. The words of William
Wilberforce, and other Abolition leaders, prove that he had expended a
very considerable portion of his own small patrimony in the cause, and
that the subscription was to pay a debt,--a just and lawful debt; not to
confer a bounty, or reward, or remuneration for services performed. It
is also proved, that after being reimbursed to the amount of the sum
contributed, or rather levied on those for whom the poorest of their
body had advanced his own money, he remained out of pocket far more than
others had ever given, after their share of the repayment was credited
to them, in this debtor and creditor account.
But this is not all: Mr. Wilberforce himself, then a man of ample
fortune, and Member for Yorkshire, had in 1807, published a pamphlet in
the cause. The Minutes of the Committee for 6th June, 1811, contained an
entry of an order to pay 83_l_. out of the subscription funds to Mr.
Cadell, being Mr. Wilberforce's share of the loss sustained by that
publication. There had been no mention at all of this in his life, by
these reverend authors, who scrupled not to print the garbled letters,
with the manifest design of lowering the character of their father's
friend, by ranking him among venal stipendiary pretenders to
philanthropy, and jobbing mendicant patriots.
Wherefore, it may be asked, was this matter at all dragged forth to
light, except to effect that unworthy purpose, and to give pain to a man
as eminently as deservedly respected and beloved? The false pretext is,
the vindication of their father's memory.--But it had never been
attacked. They affect to suppose such an attack, that they may have a
pretext for inflicting a wound in a fictitious and almost a fraudulent
defence.--But if it had been ever so rudely attacked, the letters are no
defence. For the only possible pretence of attack was the notion of
Thomas Clarkson having assumed the priority, and these letters can have
no earthly relation to that point. Whether Wilberforce, or Clarkson, or
neither of them, first began the abolition struggle, is a question as
utterly wide of the subscription as any one private matter in the life
of either party can be of any one public transaction in which both were
engaged.
The indignation of mankind was awakened by this disgraceful proceeding,
and it was in vain that the friends of the Wilberforces urged, as some
extenuation of their offence, the zeal which they naturally cherished
for the memory of their parent. Men of reflection felt that no
well-regulated mind can ever engage in slandering one person for the
purpose of elevating another. Men of ordinary discernment perceived that
the assaults on Clarkson's reputation had no possible tendency to raise
Wilberforce's reputation. Men of observation saw at once that there
lurked behind the wish to praise the one party, a desire to wound the
other; and gave them far less credit for over-anxiety to gratify their
filial affections than eagerness to indulge their hostile feelings. It
was plain, too, that they sought this gratification at the hazard of
bringing a stain upon the memory of their father; for what could be more
natural than the suspicion that they had obtained from him the materials
out of which their web of detraction was woven? And what more
discreditable to the author of the affectionate and familiar letters of
Wilberforce to Clarkson than their discrepancy with the charges now
urged against him? It is due to the memory of this venerable man, now
gone to his rest, to say that no one who knew him, ever so slightly,
could believe in the possibility of his holding one language to his
friend and another to his children: far less of his bequeathing to them
anything like materials for the attack upon one to whom he professed the
most warm and steady attachment. But if such be the conclusion of all
who knew the man, assuredly in arriving at it they have derived no help
from the lights afforded by his family.
The vindication of Thomas Clarkson has been triumphant; the punishment
of his traducers has been exemplary. His character stands higher than
ever; his name is lofty and it is unsullied; they have a character to
retrieve,--a name which they have tarnished since it descended upon
them, they have to restore by their own future deserts.
The astonishment of the world was at its pitch when the champion of
Abolition, the steady ally of Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharpe, the
_Edinburgh Review_, was seen attempting to rescue these parties, and
taking part against the injured man, the patriarch of a cause defended
by that celebrated Journal during a brilliant period of much above
thirty years. The boldness displayed in its pages on this occasion was
excessive. As if feeling that the weak and indefensible part in the
assault was the publishing of the letters, it had the confidence to
affirm, that this proceeding was called for in justice to Wilberforce's
memory. So daring an attempt upon the integrity of facts has not often
been witnessed. What! The publication of these letters, which had no
possible connexion with Wilberforce's character, (a character, indeed,
that no one had assailed,) letters which were absolutely foreign even to
the question of priority in the abolition cause,--the publication of
these necessary to the defence of Wilberforce? Then, upon what ground
necessary? How had he been attacked? Where was he to be defended? But,
if attacked, how did the letters aid,--how connect themselves
with,--how, in any manner of way, bear upon the defence, or any defence,
or any portion of Wilberforce's character and life? They showed him to
have contributed towards the payment of a debt he had contracted to
Clarkson. But who had ever charged him with refusing to pay his debts?
With his merits as to the Abolition, (if that be what is meant by his
character,)--merits which it was a mere fabrication to pretend that
Clarkson had ever been slow to acknowledge,--those letters had
absolutely no possible connexion; and whoever, on this score, affects to
defend this publication, is capable of vindicating the printing any
private letter upon the most delicate subject, by any man who writes the
history of any other affair, or who writes on any subject from which the
correspondence is wholly foreign. It is proper to add, that the editors
of this Journal have most properly published a retractation of the
charges made, in their ignorance of the whole facts of the case.
The acute and sagacious editor of T. Clarkson's vindication, has given
his reasons for suspecting that this criticism, in the _Edinburgh
Review_, must have proceeded from some party directly concerned in the
publication of Wilberforce's life. We enter into no discussion of the
circumstantial evidence adduced in favour of this supposition. The
editors of the Journal are the parties to whom we look; and as they,
after being to all appearance misled by some partial writer, have made
the best reparation for an involuntary error, by doing justice to the
injured party, we can have no further remark to make upon the subject.
But it is impossible to close these pages without mentioning the
extraordinary merit of this latest, and, in all likelihood, this last
production of Clarkson's pen. It is indeed a most able performance, and
has been admired by some of the ablest controversial writers of the age,
as a model of excellence in controversial writing. Plain, vigorous,
convincing, perfectly calm and temperate, devoid of all acrimony, barely
saying enough to repel unjust aggression without one word of
retaliation, never losing sight for a moment of its purely defensive
object, and accordingly, from the singleness of purpose with which that
object is pursued, attaining it with the most triumphant success,--no
wonder that the public judgment has been loudly and universally
pronounced in its favour, that its adversaries have been reduced to
absolute silence, that its author's name has been exalted even higher
than before it stood. But the wonder is to see such unimpaired vigour at
four-score years of age, after a life of unwearied labour, latterly
clouded by domestic calamity, and a spirit as young as ever in zeal for
justice, tempered only by the mellowness which the kindly heart spreads
over the fruits of the manly understanding.
There wanted no testimonials of esteem from his country to consummate
the venerable philanthropist's renown; yet these too have been added.
Various meetings have addressed their gratulations to him. Of these the
great corporation of London claims the first regard, and after
presenting him with the freedom of the city, they have ordered to be
erected in their hall, as a memorial of his extraordinary virtue, a
likeness of the mortal form of Thomas Clarkson.
HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE.
* * * * *
CHAPTER I.
[Sidenote: No subject more pleasing than that of the removal of
evils.--Evils have existed almost from the beginning of the world; but
there is a power in our nature to counteract them--this power increased
by Christianity.--Of the evils removed by Christianity one of the
greatest is the Slave Trade.--The joy we ought to feel on its abolition
from a contemplation of the nature of it; and of the extent of it; and
of the difficulty of subduing it.--Usefulness also of the contemplation
of this subject.]
I scarcely know of any subject, the contemplation of which is more
pleasing, than that of the correction or of the removal of any of the
acknowledged evils of life; for while we rejoice to think that the
sufferings of our fellow-creatures have been thus, in any instance,
relieved, we must rejoice equally to think, that our own moral condition
must have been necessarily improved by the change.
That evils, both physical and moral, have existed long upon earth there
can be no doubt. One of the sacred writers, to whom we more immediately
appeal for the early history of mankind, informs us that the state of
our first parents was a state of innocence and happiness; but that, soon
after their creation, sin and misery entered into the world. The poets
in their fables, most of which, however extravagant they may seem, had
their origin in truth, speak the same language. Some of these represent
the first condition of man by the figure of the golden, and his
subsequent degeneracy and subjection to suffering by that of the silver,
and afterwards of the iron age. Others tell us that the first female was
made of clay; that she was called Pandora, because every necessary gift,
qualification, or endowment, was given to her by the gods, but that she
received from Jupiter, at the same time, a box from which, when opened,
a multitude of disorders sprung, and that these spread themselves
immediately afterwards among all of the human race. Thus it appears,
whatever authorities we consult, that those which may be termed the
evils of life existed in the earliest times. And what does subsequent
history, combined with our own experience, tell us, but that these have
been continued, or that they have come down in different degrees through
successive generations of men, in all the known countries of the
universe, to the present day?
But though the inequality visible in the different conditions of life,
and the passions interwoven into our nature, (both which have been
allotted to us for wise purposes, and without which we could not easily
afford a proof of the existence of that, which is denominated virtue,)
have a tendency to produce vice and wretchedness among us, yet we see,
in this our constitution, what may operate partially as preventives and
corrective of them. If there be a radical propensity in our nature to do
that which is wrong, there is, on the other hand, a counteracting power
within it, or an impulse by means of the action of the divine Spirit
upon our minds, which urges us to do that which is right. If the voice
of temptation, clothed in musical and seducing accents, charms us one
way, the voice of holiness, speaking to us from within, in a solemn and
powerful manner, commands us another. Does one man obtain a victory over
his corrupt affections? an immediate perception of pleasure, like the
feeling of a reward divinely conferred upon him, is noticed. Does
another fall prostrate beneath their power? a painful feeling, and such
as pronounces to him the sentence of reproof and punishment is found to
follow. If one, by suffering his heart to become hardened, oppresses a
fellow-creature, the tear of sympathy starts up in the eye of another,
and the latter instantly feels a desire, involuntarily generated, of
flying to his relief. Thus impulses, feelings, and dispositions have
been implanted in our nature, for the purpose of preventing and
rectifying the evils of life. And as these have operated, so as to
stimulate some men to lessen them by the exercise of an amiable charity,
so they have operated to stimulate others in various other ways to the
same end. Hence the philosopher has left moral precepts behind him in
favour of benevolence, and the legislator has endeavoured to prevent
barbarous practices by the introduction of laws.
In consequence then of these impulses and feelings, by which the pure
power in our nature is thus made to act as a check upon the evil part of
it, and in consequence of the influence which philosophy and legislative
wisdom have had in their respective provinces, there has been always, in
all times and countries, a counteracting energy, which has opposed
itself, more or less, to the crimes and miseries of mankind. But it
seems to have been reserved for Christianity to increase this energy,
and to give it the widest possible domain. It was reserved for her,
under the same divine influence, to give the best views of the nature
and of the present and future condition of man; to afford the best moral
precepts, to communicate the most benign stimulus to the heart, to
produce the most blameless conduct, and thus to cut off many of the
causes of wretchedness, and to heal it wherever it was found. At her
command, wherever she has been duly acknowledged, many of the evils of
life have already fled. The prisoner of war is no longer led into the
amphitheatre to become a gladiator, and to imbrue his hands in the blood
of his fellow-captive for the sport of a thoughtless multitude. The
stern priest, cruel through fanaticism and custom, no longer leads his
fellow-creature to the altar to sacrifice him to fictitious gods. The
venerable martyr, courageous through faith and the sanctity of his life,
is no longer hurried to the flames. The haggard witch, poring over her
incantations by moon-light, no longer scatters her superstitious poison
among her miserable neighbours, nor suffers for her crime.
But in whatever way Christianity may have operated towards the increase
of this energy, or towards a diminution of human misery, it has operated
in none more powerfully than by the new views and consequent duties,
which it introduced on the subject of charity, or practical benevolence
and love. Men in ancient times looked upon their talents, of whatever
description, as, their own, which they might use, or cease to use at
their discretion. But the Author of our religion was the first who
taught that, however in a legal point of view, the talent of individuals
might belong exclusively to themselves, so that no other person had a
right to demand the use of it by force, yet in the Christian
dispensation they were but the stewards of it for good; that so much was
expected from this stewardship, that it was difficult for those who were
intrusted with it to enter into his spiritual kingdom; that these had no
right to conceal their talent in a napkin, but that they were bound to
dispense a portion of it to the relief of their fellow-creatures; and
that, in proportion to the magnitude of it, they were accountable for
the extensiveness of its use. He was the first who pronounced the
misapplication of it to be a crime, and to be a crime of no ordinary
dimensions. He was the first who broke down the boundary between Jew and
Gentile, and, therefore, the first who pointed out to men the
inhabitants of other countries, for the exercise of their philanthropy
and love. Hence a distinction is to be made both in the principle and
practice of charity, as existing in ancient or in modern times. Though
the old philosophers, historians, and poets, frequently inculcated
benevolence, we have no reason to conclude from any facts they have left
us, that persons in their days did anything more than occasionally
relieve an unfortunate object, who might present himself before them, or
that, however they might deplore the existence of public evils among
them, they joined in associations for their suppression, or that they
carried their charity, as bodies of men, into other kingdoms. To
Christianity alone we are indebted for the new and sublime spectacle, of
seeing men going beyond the bounds of individual usefulness to each
other; of seeing them associate for the extirpation of private and
public misery; and of seeing them carry their charity, as a united
brotherhood, into distant lands. And in this wider field of benevolence
it would be unjust not to confess, that no country has shone with more
true lustre than our own, there being scarcely any case of acknowledged
affliction, for which some of her Christian children have not united in
an attempt to provide relief.
Among the evils corrected or subdued, either by the general influence of
Christianity on the minds of men, or by particular associations of
Christians, the African[A]. Slave Trade appears to me to have occupied
the foremost place. The abolition of it, therefore, of which it has
devolved upon me to write the history, should be accounted as one of the
greatest blessings, and as such should be one of the most copious
sources of our joy: indeed, I know of no evil, the removal of which
should excite in us a higher degree of pleasure. For, in considerations
of this kind, are we not usually influenced by circumstances? Are not
our feelings usually affected according to the situation, or the
magnitude, or the importance of these? Are they not more or less
elevated, as the evil under our contemplation has been more or less
productive of misery, or more or less productive of guilt? Are they not
more or less elevated again, as we have found it more or less
considerable in extent? Our sensations will undoubtedly be in proportion
to such circumstances, or our joy to the appreciation or mensuration of
the evil which has been removed.
[Footnote A: Slavery had been before annihilated by Christianity; I mean
in the West of Europe, at the close of the twelfth century]
To value the blessing of the abolition as we ought, or to appreciate the
joy and gratitude which we ought to feel concerning it, we must enter a
little into the circumstances of the trade. Our statement, however, of
these needs not be long: a few pages will do all that is necessary! A
glance only into such a subject as this will be sufficient to affect the
heart,--to arouse our indignation and our pity,--and to teach us the
importance of the victory obtained.
The first subject for consideration, towards enabling us to make the
estimate in question, will be that of the nature of the evil belonging
to the Slave Trade. This may be seen by examining it in three points of
view. First, as it has been proved to arise on the Continent of Africa,
in the course of reducing the inhabitants of it to slavery. Secondly, in
the course of conveying them from thence to the lands or colonies of
other nations. And, thirdly, in continuing them there as slaves.
To see it, as it has been shown, to arise in the first case, let us
suppose ourselves on the Continent just mentioned. Well then, We are
landed,--We are already upon our travels,--We have just passed through
one forest,--We are now come to a more open place, which indicates an
approach to habitation. And what object is that which first obtrudes
itself upon our sight? Who is that wretched woman whom we discover under
that noble tree, wringing her hands, and beating her breast, as if in
the agonies of despair? Three days has she been there, at intervals, to
look and to watch; and this is the fourth morning, and no tidings of her
children yet. Beneath its spreading boughs they were accustomed to play:
but, alas! the savage man-stealer interrupted their playful mirth, and
has taken them for ever from her sight.
But let us leave the cries of this unfortunate woman, and hasten into
another district. And what do we first see here? Who is he that just now
started across the narrow pathway, as if afraid of a human face? What is
that sudden rustling among the leaves? Why are those persons flying from
our approach, and hiding themselves in yon darkest thicket? Behold, as
we get into the plain, a deserted village! The rice-field has been just
trodden down around it; an aged man,--venerable by his silver
beard,--lies wounded and dying near the threshold of his hut. War,
suddenly instigated by avarice, has just visited the dwellings which we
see. The old have been butchered, because unfit for slavery, and the
young have been carried off, except such as have fallen in the conflict,
or have escaped among the woods behind us.
But let us hasten from this cruel scene, which gives rise to so many
melancholy reflections. Let us cross yon distant river, and enter into
some new domain. But are we relieved even here from afflicting
spectacles? Look at that immense crowd which appears to be gathered in a
ring. See the accused innocent in the middle! The ordeal of poisonous
water has been administered to him, as a test of his innocence or his
guilt: he begins to be sick and pale. Alas! yon mournful shriek of his
relatives confirms that the loss of his freedom is now sealed.
And whither shall we go now? the night is approaching fast. Let us find
some friendly hut, where sleep may make us forget for a while the
sorrows of the day. Behold a hospitable native ready to receive us at
his door! let us avail ourselves of his kindness. And now let its give
ourselves to repose. But why, when our eyelids are but just closed, do
we find ourselves thus suddenly awakened? What is the meaning of the
noise around us, of the trampling of people's feet, of the rustling of
the bow, the quiver, and the lance? Let us rise up and inquire. Behold!
the inhabitants are all alarmed! a wakeful woman has shown them yon
distant column of smoke and blaze. The neighbouring village is on fire:
the prince, unfaithful to the sacred duty of the protection of his
subjects, has surrounded them. He is now burning their habitations, and
seizing, as saleable booty, the fugitives from the flames.
Such then are some of the scenes that have been passing in Africa, in
consequence, of the existence of the Slave Trade; or such is the nature
of the evil, as it has shown itself in the first of the cases we have
noticed. Let us now estimate it as it has been proved to exist in the
second; or let us examine the state of the unhappy Africans reduced to
slavery in this manner, while on board the vessels, which are to convey
them across the ocean to other lands. And here I must observe at once,
that, as far as this part of the evil is concerned, I am at a loss to
describe it. Where shall I find words to express properly their sorrow,
as arising from the reflection of being parted for ever from their
friends, their relatives, and their country? Where shall I find language
to paint, in appropriate colours, the horror of mind brought on by
thoughts of their future unknown destination, of which they can augur
nothing but misery from all that they have yet seen? How shall I make
known their situation, while labouring, under painful disease, or while
struggling in the suffocating holds of their prisons, like animals
enclosed in an exhausted receiver? How shall I describe their feelings
as exposed to all the personal indignities, which lawless appetite or
brutal passion may suggest? How shall I exhibit their sufferings as
determining to refuse sustenance and die, or as resolving to break their
chains, and, disdaining to live as slaves, to punish their oppressors?
How shall I give an idea of their agony when under various punishments
and tortures for their reputed crimes? Indeed, every part of this
subject defies my powers, and I must, therefore, satisfy myself and the
reader with a general representation, or in the words of a celebrated
member of Parliament, that "Never was so much human suffering condensed
in so small a space."
I come now to the evil, as it has been proved to arise in the third
case; or to consider the situation of the unhappy victims of the trade,
when their painful voyages are over, or after they have been landed upon
their destined shores. And here we are to view them, first under the
degrading light of cattle: we are to see them examined, handled,
selected, separated, and sold. Alas! relatives are separated from
relatives, as if, like cattle, they had no rational intellect, no power
of feeling the nearness of relationship, nor sense of the duties
belonging to the ties of life! We are next to see them labouring; and
this for the benefit of those to whom they are under no obligation, by
any law either natural or divine, to obey. We are to see them, if
refusing the commands of their purchasers, however weary, or feeble, or
indisposed, subject to corporal punishments, and if forcibly resisting
them to death: we are to see them in a state of general degradation and
misery. The knowledge which their oppressors have of their own crime, in
having violated the rights of nature, and of the disposition of the
injured to seek all opportunities of revenge, produces a fear which
dictates to them the necessity of a system of treatment, by which they
shall keep up a wide distinction between the two, and by which the noble
feelings of the latter shall be kept down, and their spirits broken. We
are to see them again subject to individual persecution, as anger, or
malice, or any bad passion may suggest: hence the whip, the chain, the
iron-collar! hence the various modes of private torture, of which so
many accounts have been truly given. Nor can such horrible cruelties be
discovered so as to be made punishable, while the testimony of any
number of the oppressed is invalid against the oppressors, however they
may be offences against the laws. And, lastly, we are to see their
innocent offspring, against whose personal liberty the shadow of an
argument cannot be advanced, inheriting all the miseries of their
parents' lot.
The evil then, as far as it has been hitherto viewed, presents to us, in
its three several departments, a measure of human suffering not to be
equalled--not to be calculated--not to be described. But would that we
could consider this part of the subject as dismissed! would that in each
of the departments now examined there was no counterpart left us to
contemplate! But this cannot be; for if there be persons who suffer
unjustly there must be others who oppress: and if there be those who
oppress, there must be to the suffering, which has been occasioned, a
corresponding portion of immorality or guilt.
We are obliged then to view the counterpart of the evil in question,
before we can make a proper estimate of the nature of it. And, in
examining this part of it, we shall find that we have a no less
frightful picture to behold than in the former cases; or that, while the
miseries endured by the unfortunate Africans excite our pity on the one
hand, the vices, which are connected with them, provoke our indignation
and abhorrence on the other. The Slave Trade, in this point of view,
must strike us as an immense mass of evil on account of the criminality
attached to it, as displayed in the various branches of it, which have
already been examined. For, to take the counterpart of the evil in the
first of these, can we say that no moral turpitude is to be placed to
the account of those, who, living on the continent of Africa, give birth
to the enormities, which take place in consequence of the prosecution of
this trade? Is not that man made morally worse, who is induced to become
a tiger to his species, or who, instigated by avarice, lies in wait in
the thicket to get possession of his fellow-man? Is no injustice
manifest in the land, where the prince, unfaithful to his duty, seizes
his innocent subjects, and sells them for slaves? Are no moral evils
produced among those communities, which make war upon other communities
for the sake of plunder, and without any previous provocation or
offence? Does no crime attach to those, who accuse others falsely, or
who multiply and divide crimes for the sake of the profit of the
punishment, and who for the same reason continue the use of barbarous
and absurd ordeals as a test of innocence or guilt?
In the second of these branches, the counterpart of the evil is to be
seen in the conduct of those who purchase the miserable natives in their
own country, and convey them to distant lands. And here questions,
similar to the former, may be asked. Do they experience no corruption of
their nature, or become chargeable with no violation of right, who, when
they go with their ships to this continent, know the enormities which
their visits there will occasion, who buy their fellow-creature man, and
this, knowing the way in which he comes into their hands, and who chain,
and imprison, and scourge him? Do the moral feelings of those persons
escape without injury, whose hearts are hardened? And can the hearts of
those be otherwise than hardened, who are familiar with the tears and
groans of innocent strangers forcibly torn away from every thing that is
dear to them in life, who are accustomed to see them on board their
vessels in a state of suffocation and in the agonies of despair, and who
are themselves in the habit of the cruel use of arbitrary power?
The counterpart of the evil in its third branch is to be seen in the
conduct of those, who, when these miserable people have been landed,
purchase and carry them to their respective homes. And let us see
whether a mass of wickedness is not generated also in the present case.
Can those have nothing to answer for, who separate the faithful ties
which nature and religion have created? Can their feelings be otherwise
than corrupted, who consider their fellow-creatures as brutes, or treat
those as cattle, who may become the temples of the Holy Spirit, and in
whom the Divinity disdains not himself to dwell? Is there no injustice
in forcing men to labour without wages? Is there no breach of duty, when
we are commanded to clothe the naked, and feed the hungry, and visit the
sick and in prison, in exposing them to want, in torturing them by cruel
punishment, and in grinding them down by hard labour, so as to shorten
their days? Is there no crime in adopting a system, which keeps down all
the noble faculties of their souls, and which positively debases and
corrupts their nature? Is there no crime in perpetuating these evils
among their innocent offspring? And finally, besides all these crimes,
is there not naturally in the familiar sight of the exercise, but more
especially in the exercise itself, of uncontrolled power, that which
vitiates the internal man? In seeing misery stalk daily over the land,
do not all become insensibly hardened? By giving birth to that misery
themselves, do they not become abandoned? In what state of society are
the corrupt appetites so easily, so quickly, and so frequently indulged,
and where else, by means of frequent indulgence, do these experience
such a monstrous growth? Where else is the temper subject to such
frequent irritation, or passion to such little control? Yes--if the
unhappy slave is in an unfortunate situation, so is the tyrant who holds
him. Action and reaction are equal to each other, as well in the moral
as in the natural world. You cannot exercise an improper dominion over a
fellow-creature, but by a wise ordering of Providence you must
necessarily injure yourself.
Having now considered the nature of the evil of the Slave Trade in its
three separate departments of suffering, and in its corresponding
counterparts of guilt, I shall make a few observations on the extent of
it.
On this subject it must strike us, that the misery and the crimes
included in the evil, as it has been found in Africa, were not like
common maladies, which make a short or periodical visit and then are
gone, but that they were continued daily. Nor were they like diseases,
which from local causes attack a village or a town, and by the skill of
the physician, under the blessing of Providence, are removed; but they
affected a whole continent. The trade with all its horrors began at the
river Senegal, and continued, winding with the coast, through its
several geographical divisions to Cape Negro; a distance of more than
three thousand miles. In various lines or paths formed at right angles
from the shore, and passing into the heart of the country, slaves were
procured and brought down. The distance, which many of them travelled,
was immense. Those, who have been in Africa, have assured us, that they
came as far as from the sources of their largest rivers, which we know
to be many hundred miles inland, and the natives have told us, in their
way of computation, that they came a journey of many moons.
It must strike us again, that the misery and the crimes, included in the
evil, as it has been shown in the transportation, had no ordinary
bounds. They were not to be seen in the crossing of a river, but of an
ocean. They did not begin in the morning and end at night, but were
continued for many weeks, and sometimes by casualties for a quarter of
the year. They were not limited to the precincts of a solitary ship, but
were spread among many vessels; and these were so constantly passing,
that the ocean itself never ceased to be a witness of their existence.
And it must strike us, finally, that the misery and crimes, included in
the evil as it has been found in foreign lands, were not confined within
the shores of a little island. Most of the islands of a continent, and
many of these of considerable population and extent, were filled with
them. And the continent itself, to which these geographically belong,
was widely polluted by their domain. Hence, if we were to take the vast
extent of space occupied by these crimes and sufferings from the heart
of Africa to its shores, and that which they filled on the continent of
America and the islands adjacent, and were to join the crimes and
sufferings in one to those in the other, by the crimes and sufferings
which took place in the track of the vessels successively crossing the
Atlantic, we should behold a vast belt as it were of physical and moral
evil, reaching through land and ocean to the length of nearly half the
circle of the globe.
The next view which I shall take of this evil will be as it relates to
the difficulty of subduing it.
This difficulty may be supposed to have been more than ordinarily great.
Many evils of a public nature, which existed in former times, were the
offspring of ignorance and superstition, and they were subdued of course
by the progress of light and knowledge. But the evil in question began
in avarice. It was nursed also by worldly interest. It did not therefore
so easily yield to the usual correctives of disorders in the world. We
may observe also, that the interest by which it was thus supported, was
not that of a few individuals, nor of one body, but of many bodies of
men. It was interwoven again into the system of the commerce and of the
revenue of nations. Hence the merchant--the planter--the mortgagee--the
manufacturer--the politician--the legislator--the
cabinet-minister--lifted up their voices against the annihilation of it.
For these reasons, the Slave Trade may be considered like the fabulous
hydra, to have a hundred heads, every one of which it was necessary to
cut off before it could be subdued. And as none but Hercules was fitted
to conquer the one, so nothing less than extraordinary prudence,
courage, labour, and patience, could overcome the other. To protection
in this manner by his hundred interests, it was owing, that the monster
stalked in security for so long a time. He stalked too in the open day,
committing his mighty depredations. And when good men, whose duty it was
to mark him as the object of their destruction, began to assail him, he
did not fly, but gnashed his teeth at them, growling savagely at the
same time, and putting himself into a posture of defiance.
We see then, in whatever light we consider the Slave Trade, whether we
examine into the nature of it, or whether we look into the extent of it,
or whether we estimate the difficulty of subduing it, we must conclude
that no evil more monstrous has ever existed upon earth. But if so, then
we have proved the truth of the position, that the abolition of it ought
to be accounted by us as one of the greatest blessings, and that it
ought to be one of the most copious sources of our joy. Indeed, I do not
know, how we can sufficiently express what we ought to feel upon this
occasion. It becomes us, as individuals, to rejoice. It becomes us, as a
nation, to rejoice. It becomes us even to perpetuate our joy to our
posterity. I do not mean, however, by anniversaries, which are to be
celebrated by the ringing of bells and convivial meetings, but by
handing down this great event so impressively to our children, as to
raise in them, if not continual, yet frequently renewed thanksgivings,
to the great Creator of the universe, for the manifestation of this his
favour, in having disposed our legislators to take away such a portion
of suffering from our fellow-creatures, and such a load of guilt from
our native land.
And as the contemplation of the removal of this monstrous evil should
excite in us the most pleasing and grateful sensations, so the perusal
of the history of it should afford us lessons, which it must be useful
to us to know or to be reminded of. For it cannot be otherwise than
useful to us to know the means which have been used, and the different
persons who have moved in so great a cause. It cannot be otherwise than
useful to us to be impressively reminded of the simple axiom which the
perusal of this history will particularly suggest to us, that "the
greatest works must have a beginning;" because the fostering of such an
idea in our minds cannot but encourage us to undertake the removal of
evils, however vast they may appear in their size, or however difficult
to overcome. It cannot, again, be otherwise than useful to us to be
assured, (and this history will assure us of it,) that in any work,
which is a work of righteousness, however small the beginning may be, or
however small the progress may be that we may make in it, we ought never
to despair; for that, whatever checks and discouragements we may meet
with, "no virtuous effort is ever ultimately lost." And finally, it
cannot be otherwise than useful to us, to form the opinion, which the
contemplation of this subject must always produce, namely, that many of
the evils which are still left among us, may, by an union of wise and
virtuous individuals, be greatly alleviated, if not entirely done away;
for if the great evil of the Slave Trade, so deeply entrenched by its
hundred interests, has fallen prostrate before the efforts of those who
attacked it, what evil of a less magnitude shall not be more easily
subdued? O may reflections of this sort always enliven us, always
encourage us, always stimulate us to our duty! May we never cease to
believe, that many of the miseries of life are still to be remedied, or
to rejoice that we may be permitted, if we will only make ourselves
worthy by our endeavours, to heal them! May we encourage for this
purpose every generous sympathy that arises in our hearts, as the
offspring of the Divine influence for our good, convinced that we are
not born for ourselves alone, and that the Divinity never so fully
dwells in us, as when we do his will, and that we never do his will more
agreeably, as far as it has been revealed to us, than when we employ our
time in works of charity towards the rest of our fellow-creatures!
CHAPTER II.
[Sidenote: As it is desirable to know the true sources of events in
history, so this will be realized in that of the abolition of the Slave
Trade.--Inquiry as to those who favoured the cause of the Africans
previously to the year 1787.--All these to be considered as necessary
forerunners in that cause.--First forerunners were Cardinal Ximenes; the
Emperor Charles the Fifth; Pope Leo the Tenth; Elizabeth, queen of
England; Louis the Thirteenth, of France.]
It would be considered by many, who have stood at the mouth of a river,
and witnessed its torrent there, to be both an interesting and a
pleasing journey to go to the fountain head, and then to travel on its
banks downwards, and to mark the different streams in each side, which
should run into it and feed it. So I presume the reader will not be a
little interested and entertained, in viewing with me the course of the
abolition of the Slave Trade, in first finding its source, and then in
tracing the different springs which have contributed to its increase.
And here I may observe that, in doing this, we shall have advantages,
which historians have not always had in developing the causes of things.
Many have handed down to us, events, for the production of which they
have given us but their own conjectures. There has been often, indeed,
such a distance between the events themselves, and the lives of those
who have recorded them, that the different means and motives belonging
to them have been lost through time. On the present occasion, however,
we shall have the peculiar satisfaction of knowing, that we communicate
the truth, or that those which we unfold, are the true causes and means;
for the most remote of all the human springs, which can be traced as
having any bearing upon the great event in question, will fall within
the period of three centuries, and the most powerful of them within the
last twenty years. These circumstances indeed have had their share in
inducing me to engage in the present history. Had I measured it by the
importance of the subject, I had been deterred; but believing that most
readers love the truth, and that it ought to be the object of all
writers to promote it, and believing, moreover, that I was in possession
of more facts on this subject than any other person, I thought I was
peculiarly called to undertake it.
In tracing the different streams from whence the torrent arose, which
has now happily swept away the Slave Trade, I must begin with an inquiry
as to those who favoured the cause of the injured Africans, from the
year 1516, to the year 1787, at which latter period, a number of persons
associated themselves, in England, for its abolition. For though they,
who belonged to this association, may, in consequence of having pursued
a regular system, be called the principal actors, yet it must be
acknowledged, that their efforts would never have been so effectual, if
the minds of men had not been prepared by others, who had moved before
them. Great events have never taken place without previously disposing
causes. So it is in the case before us. Hence they, who lived even in
early times, and favoured this great cause, may be said to have been
necessary precursors in it. And here it may be proper to observe, that
it is by no means necessary that all these should have been themselves
actors in the production of this great event. Persons have contributed
towards it in different ways:--Some have written expressly on the
subject, who have had no opportunity of promoting it by personal
exertions. Others have only mentioned it incidentally in their writings.
Others, in an elevated rank and station, have cried out publicly
concerning it, whose sayings have been recorded. All these, however, may
be considered as necessary forerunners in their day; for all of them
have brought the subject more or less into notice. They have more or
less enlightened the mind upon it; they have more or less impressed it;
and therefore each may be said to have had his share in diffusing and
keeping up a certain portion of knowledge and feeling concerning it,
which has been eminently useful in the promotion of the cause.
It is rather remarkable, that the first forerunners and coadjutors
should have been men in power.
So early as in the year 1503, a few slaves had been sent from the
Portuguese settlements in Africa into the Spanish colonies in America.
In 1511, Ferdinand the Fifth, king of Spain, permitted them to be
carried in great numbers. Ferdinand, however, must have been ignorant in
these early times of the piratical manner in which the Portuguese had
procured them. He could have known nothing of their treatment when in
bondage, nor could he have viewed the few uncertain adventurous
transportations of them into his dominions in the western world, in the
light of a regular trade. After his death, however; a proposal was made
by Bartholomew de las Casas, the bishop of Chiapa, to Cardinal Ximenes,
who held the reigns of the government of Spain till Charles the Fifth
came to the throne, for the establishment of a regular system of
commerce in the persons of the native Africans. The object of
Bartholomew de las Casas was undoubtedly to save the American Indians,
whose cruel treatment and almost extirpation he had witnessed during his
residence among them, and in whose behalf he had undertaken a voyage to
the court of Spain. It is difficult to reconcile this proposal with the
humane and charitable spirit of the bishop of Chiapa. But it is probable
he believed that a code of laws would soon be established in favour both
of Africans and of the natives in the Spanish settlements, and that he
flattered himself that, being about to return and to live in the country
of their slavery, he could look to the execution of it. The cardinal,
however, with a foresight, a benevolence, and a justice which will
always do honour to his memory, refused the proposal, not only judging
it to be unlawful to consign innocent people to slavery at all, but to
be very inconsistent to deliver the inhabitants of one country from a
state of misery by consigning to it those of another. Ximenes,
therefore, may be considered as one of the first great friends of the
Africans after the partial beginning of the trade.
This answer of the cardinal, as it showed his virtue as an individual,
so was it peculiarly honourable to him as a public man, and ought to
operate as a lesson to other statesmen, how they admit any thing new
among political regulations and establishments, which is connected in
the smallest degree with injustice; for evil, when once sanctioned by
governments, spreads in a tenfold degree, and may, unless seasonably
checked, become so ramified as to effect the reputation of a country,
and to render its own removal scarcely possible without detriment to the
political concerns of the state. In no instance has this been verified
more than in the case of the Slave Trade. Never was our national
character more tarnished, and our prosperity more clouded by guilt.
Never was there a monster more difficult to subdue. Even they, who heard
as it were the shrieks of oppression, and wished to assist the
sufferers, were fearful of joining in their behalf. While they
acknowledged the necessity of removing one evil, they were terrified by
the prospect of introducing another; and were, therefore, only able to
relieve their feelings by, lamenting, in the bitterness of their hearts,
that this traffic had ever been begun at all.
After the death of Cardinal Ximenes, the emperor Charles the Fifth, who
had come into power, encouraged the Slave Trade. In 1517, he granted a
patent to one of his Flemish favourites, containing an exclusive right
of importing four thousand Africans into America. But he lived long
enough to repent of what he had thus inconsiderately done; for in the
year 1542, he made a code of laws for the better protection of the
unfortunate Indians in his foreign dominions, and he stopped the
progress of African slavery by an order that all slaves in his American
islands should he made free. This order was executed by Pedro de la
Gasca. Manumission took place as well in Hispaniola as on the Continent;
but on the return of Gasca to Spain, and the retirement of Charles into
a monastery, slavery was revived.
It is impossible to pass over this instance of the abolition of slavery
by Charles, in all his foreign dominions, without some comments. It
shows him, first, to have been a friend both to the Indians and the
Africans, as a part of the human race; it shows he was ignorant of what
he was doing when he gave his sanction to this cruel trade; it shows
when legislators give one set of men undue power over another, how
quickly they abuse it, or he never would have found himself obliged, in
the short space of twenty-five years, to undo that which he had
countenanced as a great state measure; and while it confirms the former
lesson to statesmen of watching the beginnings or principles of things
in their political movements, it should teach them never to persist in
the support of evils, through the false shame of being obliged to
confess that they had once given them their sanction, nor to delay the
cure of them because, politically speaking, neither this nor that is the
proper season; but to do them away instantly, as there can only be one
fit or proper time in the eye of religion, namely, on the conviction of
their existence.
From the opinions of Cardinal Ximenes and of the emperor Charles the
Fifth, I hasten to that which was expressed much about the same time, in
a public capacity, by Pope Leo the Tenth. The Dominicans in Spanish
America, witnessing the cruel treatment which the slaves underwent
there, considered slavery as utterly repugnant to the principles of the
gospel, and recommended the abolition of it. The Franciscans did not
favour the former in this their scheme of benevolence; and the
consequence was, that a controversy on this subject sprung up between
them, which was carried to this pope for his decision. Leo exerted
himself, much to his honour, in behalf of the poor sufferers, and
declared "That not only the Christian religion, but that Nature herself
cried out against a state of slavery." This answer was certainly worthy
of one who was deemed the head of the Christian Church. It must,
however, be confessed that it would have been strange if Leo, in his
situation as pontiff, had made a different reply. He could never have
denied that God was no respecter of persons. He must have acknowledged
that men were bound to love each other as brethren; and, if he admitted
the doctrine that all men were accountable for their actions hereafter,
he could never have prevented the deduction that it was necessary they
should be free. Nor could he, as a man of high attainments, living early
in the sixteenth century, have been ignorant of what had taken place in
the twelfth; or that, by the latter end of this latter century,
christianity had obtained the undisputed honour of having extirpated
slavery from the western part of the European world.
From Spain and Italy I come to England. The first importation of slaves
from Africa, by our countrymen, was in the reign of Elizabeth, in the
year 1562. This great princess seems on the very commencement of the
trade to have questioned its lawfulness. She seems to have entertained a
religious scruple concerning it; and, indeed, to have revolted at the
very thought of it. She seems to have been aware of the evils to which
its continuance might lead, or that, if it were sanctioned, the most
unjustifiable means might be made use of to procure the persons of the
natives of Africa. And in what light she would have viewed any acts of
this kind, had they taken place, we may conjecture from this fact,--that
when Captain (afterwards Sir John) Hawkins returned from his first
voyage to Africa and Hispaniola, whither he had carried slaves, she sent
for him, and, as we learn from Hill's _Naval History_ expressed her
concern lest any of the Africans should be carried off without their
free consent, declaring that "it would be detestable, and call down the
vengeance of heaven upon the undertakers." Captain Hawkins promised to
comply with the injunctions of Elizabeth in this respect, but he did not
keep his word; for when he went to Africa again, he seized many of the
inhabitants and carried them off as slaves, which occasioned Hill, in
the account he gives of his second voyage, to use these remarkable
words:--"Here began the horrid practice of forcing the Africans into
slavery, an injustice and barbarity which, so sure as there is vengeance
in heaven for the worst of crimes, will some time be the destruction of
all who allow or encourage it." That the trade should have been suffered
to continue under such a princess, and after such solemn expressions as
those which she has been described to have uttered, can be only
attributed to the pains taken by those concerned in it to keep her
ignorant of the truth.
From England I now pass over to France. Labat, a Roman missionary, in
his account of the isles of America, mentions that Louis the Thirteenth
was very uneasy when he was about to issue the edict by which all
Africans coming into his colonies were to be made slaves, and that this
uneasiness continued till he was assured that the introduction of them
in this capacity into his foreign dominions was the readiest way of
converting them to the principles of the Christian religion.
These, then, were the first forerunners in the great cause of the
abolition of the Slave Trade: nor have their services towards it been of
small moment; for, in the first place, they have enabled those who came
after them, and who took an active interest in the same cause, to state
the great authority of their opinions and of their example. They have
enabled them, again, to detail the history connected with these, in
consequence of which circumstances have been laid open which it is of
great importance to know; for have they not enabled them to state that
the African Slave Trade never would have been permitted to exist but for
the ignorance of those in authority concerning it--that at its
commencement there was a revolting of nature against it--a suspicion, a
caution, a fear, both as to its unlawfulness and its effects? Have they
not enabled them to state that falsehoods were advanced, and these
concealed under the mask of religion, to deceive those who had the power
to suppress it? Have they not enabled them to state that this trade
began in piracy, and that it was continued upon the principles of force?
And, finally, have not they who have been enabled to make these
statements, knowing all the circumstances connected with them, found
their own zeal increased, and their own courage and perseverance
strengthened; and have they not, by the communication of them to others,
produced many friends and even labourers in the cause?
CHAPTER III.
[Sidenote: Forerunners continued to 1787; divided from this time into
four classes.--First class consists principally of persons in Great
Britain of various descriptions: Godwyn; Baxter; Tryon; Southern;
Primatt; Montesquieu; Hutcheson; Sharp; Ramsay; and a multitude of
others, whose names and services follow.]
I have hitherto traced the history of the forerunners in this great
cause only up to about the year 1640. If I am to pursue my plan, I am to
trace it to the year 1787. But in order to show what I intend in a
clearer point of view, I shall divide those who have lived within this
period, and who will now consist of persons in a less elevated station,
into four classes: and I shall give to each class a distinct
consideration by itself.
Several of our old English writers, though they have not mentioned the
African Slave Trade, or the slavery consequent upon it, in their
respective works, have yet given their testimony of condemnation against
both. Thus our great Milton:--
O execrable son, so to aspire,
Above his brethren, to himself assuming
Authority usurpt, from God not given;
He gave us only over beast, fish, fowl,
Dominion absolute; that right we hold
By his donation; but man over men
He made not lord, such title to himself
Reserving, human left from human free.
I might mention Bishop Saunderson and others, who bore a testimony
equally strong against the lawfulness of trading in the persons of men,
and of holding them in bondage; but as I mean to confine myself to those
who have favoured the cause of the Africans specifically, I cannot admit
their names into any of the classes which have been announced.
Of those, who compose the first class, defined as it has now been, I
cannot name any individual who took a part in this cause till between
the years 1670 and 1680; for in the year 1640, and for a few years
afterwards, the nature of the trade and of the slavery was but little
known, except to a few individuals, who were concerned in them; and it
is obvious that these would neither endanger their own interest nor
proclaim their own guilt by exposing it. The first, whom I shall mention
is Morgan Godwyn, a clergyman of the established church. This pious
divine wrote a treatise upon the subject, which he dedicated to the then
archbishop of Canterbury. He gave it to the world, at the time
mentioned, under the title of "_The Negroes' and Indians' Advocate._" In
this treatise he lays open the situation of these oppressed people, of
whose sufferings he had been an eye-witness in the island of Barbados.
He calls forth the pity of the reader in an affecting manner, and
exposes with a nervous eloquence the brutal sentiments and conduct of
their oppressors. This seems to have been the first work undertaken in
England expressly in favour of the cause.
The next person, whom I shall mention, is Richard Baxter, the celebrated
divine among the nonconformists. In his _Christian Directory_, published
about the same time as _The Negroes' and Indians' Advocate_, he gives
advice to those masters in foreign plantations, who have negroes and
other slaves. In this he protests loudly against this trade. He says
expressly that they, who go out as pirates, and take away poor Africans,
or people of another land, who never forfeited life or liberty, and make
them slaves and sell them, are the worst of robbers, and ought to be
considered as the common enemies of mankind; and that they who buy them,
and use them as mere beasts for their own convenience, regardless of
their spiritual welfare, are fitter to be called demons than christians.
He then proposes several queries, which he answers in a clear and
forcible manner, showing the great inconsistency of this traffic, and
the necessity of treating those then in bondage with tenderness and a
due regard to their spiritual concerns.
The _Directory_ of Baxter was succeeded by a publication called
_Friendly Advice to the Planters_ in three parts. The first of these
was, _A brief Treatise of the principal Fruits and Herbs that grow in
Barbados, Jamaica, and other Plantations in the West Indies_. The second
was, _The Negroes' Complaint, or their hard Servitude, and the Cruelties
practised upon them by divers of their Masters professing Christianity_.
And the third was, _A Dialogue between an Ethiopian and a Christian, his
Master, in America_. In the last of these, Thomas Tryon, who was the
author, inveighs both against the commerce and the slavery of the
Africans, and in a striking manner examines each by the touchstone of
reason, humanity, justice, and religion.
In the year 1696, Southern brought forward his celebrated tragedy of
_Oronooko_, by means of which many became enlightened upon the subject,
and interested in it. For this tragedy was not a representation of
fictitious circumstances, but of such as had occurred in the colonies,
and as had been communicated in a publication by Mrs. Behn.
The person who seems to have noticed the subject next was Dr. Primatt.
In his _Dissertation on the Duty of Mercy, and on the Sin of Cruelty to
Brute Animals_, he takes occasion to advert to the subject of the
African Slave Trade. "It has pleased God," says he, "to cover some men
with white skins and others with black; but as there is neither merit
nor demerit in complexion, the white man, notwithstanding the barbarity
of custom and prejudice, can have no right by virtue of his colour to
enslave and tyrannize over the black man. For whether a man be white or
black, such he is by God's appointment, and, abstractly considered, is
neither a subject for pride, nor an object of contempt."
After Dr. Primatt, we come to Baron Montesquieu, "Slavery," says he, "is
not good in itself. It is neither useful to the master nor to the slave;
not to the slave, because he can do nothing from virtuous motives; not
to the master, because he contracts among his slaves all sorts of bad
habits, and accustoms himself to the neglect of all the moral virtues.
He becomes haughty, passionate, obdurate, vindictive, voluptuous, and
cruel." And with respect to this particular species of slavery, he
proceeds to say, "It is impossible to allow the negroes are men,
because, if we allow them to be men, it will begin to be believed that
we ourselves are not Christians."
Hutcheson, in his _System of Moral Philosophy_, endeavours to show, that
he who detains another by force in slavery, can make no good title to
him, and adds, "Strange that in any nation where a sense of liberty
prevails, and where the Christian religion is professed, custom and high
prospect of gain can so stupify the consciences of men, and all sense of
natural justice, that they can hear such computations made about the
value of their fellow-men and their liberty, without abhorrence and
indignation!"
Foster, in his _Discourses on Natural Religion and Social Virtue_, calls
the slavery under our consideration "a criminal and outrageous violation
of the natural rights of mankind." I am sorry that I have not room to
say all that he says on this subject. Perhaps the following beautiful
extracts may suffice:--
"But notwithstanding this, we ourselves, who profess to be
Christians, and boast of the peculiar advantages we enjoy by
means of an express revelation of our duty from heaven, are in
effect these very untaught and rude heathen countries. With all
our superior light, we instil into those whom we call savage and
barbarous, the most despicable opinion of human nature. We, to
the utmost of our power, weaken and dissolve the universal tie
that binds and unites mankind. We practise what we should
exclaim against as the utmost excess of cruelty and tyranny, if
nations of the world, differing in colour and form of government
from ourselves, were so possessed of empire as to be able to
reduce us to a state of unmerited and brutish servitude. Of
consequence, we sacrifice our reason, our humanity, our
Christianity, to an unnatural sordid gain. We teach other
nations to despise and trample under foot all the obligations of
social virtue. We take the most effectual method to prevent the
propagation of the Gospel, by representing it as a scheme of
power and barbarous oppression, and an enemy to the natural
privileges and rights of man."
"Perhaps all that I have now offered may be of very little
weight to restrain this enormity, this aggravated iniquity.
However, I shall still have the satisfaction of having entered
my private protest against a practice which, in my opinion, bids
that God, who is the God and Father of the Gentiles unconverted
to Christianity, most daring and bold defiance, and spurns at
all the principles both of natural and revealed religion."
The next author is Sir Richard Steele, who, by means of the affecting
story of Inkle and Yarico, holds up this trade again to our abhorrence.
In the year 1735, Atkins, who was a surgeon in the navy, published his
_Voyage to Guinea, Brazil, and the West Indies, in his Majesty's ships
Swallow and Weymouth_. In this work he describes openly the manner of
making the natives slaves, such as by kidnapping, by unjust accusations
and trials, and by other nefarious means. He states also the cruelties
practised upon them by the white people, and the iniquitous ways and
dealings of the latter, and answers their argument, by which they
insinuated that the condition of the Africans was improved by their
transportation to other countries.
From this time, the trade beginning to be better known, a multitude of
persons of various stations and characters sprung up, who by exposing
it, are to be mentioned among the forerunners and coadjutors in the
cause.
Pope, in his _Essay on Man_, where he endeavours to show that happiness
in the present depends, among other things, upon the hope of a future
state, takes an opportunity of exciting compassion in behalf of the poor
African, while he censures the avarice and cruelty of his master:--
Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutored mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
His soul proud Science never taught to stray
Far as the solar walk, or milky-way;
Yet simple Nature to his hope was given
Behind the cloud-topt hill an humbler heaven;
Some safer world in depth of woods embraced,
Some happier island in the watery waste,
Where slaves once more their native land behold,
No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold.
Thomson also, in his _Seasons_, marks this traffic as destructive and
cruel, introducing the well-known fact of sharks following the vessels
employed in it:--
Increasing still the sorrows of those storms,
His jaws horrific arm'd with three-fold fate,
Here dwells the direful shark. Lured by the scent
Of steaming crowds, of rank disease, and death;
Behold! he rushing cuts the briny flood,
Swift as the gale can bear the ship along,
And from the partners of that cruel trade;
Which spoils unhappy Guinea of her sons,
Demands his share of prey, demands themselves.
The stormy fates descend: one death involves
Tyrants and slaves; when straight their mangled limbs
Crashing at once, he dyes the purple seas
With gore, and riots in the vengeful meal.
Neither was Richard Savage forgetful in his poems of the _Injured
Africans_: he warns their oppressors of a day of retribution for their
barbarous conduct. Having personified Public Spirit, he makes her speak
on the subject in the following manner:--
Let by my specious name no tyrants rise,
And cry, while they enslave, they civilize!
Know, Liberty and I are still the same
Congenial--ever mingling flame with flame!
Why must I Afric's sable children see
Vended for slaves, though born by nature free,
The nameless tortures cruel minds invent
Those to subject whom Nature equal meant?
If these you dare (although unjust success
Empowers you now unpunished, to oppress),
Revolving empire you and yours may doom--
(Rome all subdu'd--yet Vandals vanquish'd Rome)
Yes--Empire may revolt--give them the day,
And yoke may yoke, and blood may blood repay.
Wallis, in his _System of the Laws of Scotland_, maintains, that
"neither men nor governments have a right to sell those of their own
species. Men and their liberty are neither purchaseable nor saleable."
And, after arguing the case, he says, "This is the law of nature, which
is obligatory on all men, at all times, and in all places.--Would not
any of us, who should be snatched by pirates from his native land, think
himself cruelly abused, and at all times entitled to be free? Have not
these unfortunate Africans, who meet with the same cruel fate, the same
right? Are they not men as well as we? And have they not the same
sensibility? Let us not, therefore, defend or support an usage, which is
contrary to all the laws of humanity."
In the year 1750, the reverend Griffith Hughes, rector of St. Lucy, in
Barbados, published his Natural History of that island. He took an
opportunity, in the course of it, of laying open to the world the
miserable situation of the poor Africans, and the waste of them by hard
labour and other cruel means, and he had the generosity to vindicate
their capacities from the charge, which they who held them in bondage
brought against them, as a justification of their own wickedness in
continuing to deprive them of the rights of men.
Edmund Burke, in his account of the European settlements, (for this work
is usually attributed to him,) complains "that the Negroes in our
colonies endure a slavery more complete, and attended with far worse
circumstances, than what any people in their condition suffer, in any
other part of the world, or have suffered in any other period of time.
Proofs of this are not wanting. The prodigious waste, which we
experience in this unhappy part of our species, is a full and melancholy
evidence of this truth." And he goes on to advise the planters, for the
sake of their own interest, to behave like good men, good masters, and
good Christians, and to impose less labour upon their slaves, and to
give them recreation on some of the grand festivals, and to instruct
them in religion, as certain preventives of their decrease.
An anonymous author of a pamphlet, entitled, _An Essay in Vindication of
the Continental Colonies of America_, seems to have come forward next.
Speaking of slavery there, he says, "It is shocking to humanity,
violative of every generous sentiment, abhorrent utterly from the
Christian religion.--There cannot be a more dangerous maxim than that
necessity is a plea for injustice, for who shall fix the degree of this
necessity? What villain so atrocious, who may not urge this excuse, or,
as Milton has happily expressed it,
And with necessity,
The tyrant's plea, excuse his devilish deed?
"That our colonies," he continues, "want people, is a very weak argument
for so inhuman a violation of justice.--Shall a civilized, a Christian
nation encourage slavery, because the barbarous, savage, lawless African
hath done it? To what end do we profess a religion whose dictates we so
flagrantly violate? Wherefore have we that pattern of goodness and
humanity, if we refuse to follow it? How long shall we continue a
practice which policy rejects, justice condemns, and piety revolts at?"
The poet Shenstone, who comes next in order, seems to have written an
elegy on purpose to stigmatize this trade. Of this elegy I shall copy
only the following parts:--
See the poor native quit the Libyan shores,
Ah! not in love's delightful fetters bound!
No radiant smile his dying peace restores,
No love, nor fame, nor friendship, heals his wound.
Let vacant bards display their boasted woes;
Shall I the mockery of grief display?
No; let the muse his piercing pangs disclose,
Who bleeds and weeps his sum of life away!
On the wild heath in mournful guise he stood,
Ere the shrill boatswain gave the hated sign;
He dropt a tear unseen into the flood,
He stole one secret moment to repine--
"Why am I ravish'd from my native strand?
What savage race protects this impious gain?
Shall foreign plagues infest this teeming land,
And more than sea-born monsters plough the main?
Here the dire locusts' horrid swarms prevail;
Here the blue asps with livid poison swell;
Here the dry dipsa writhes his sinuous mail;
Can we not here secure from envy dwell?
When the grim lion urged his cruel chase,
When the stern panther sought his midnight prey;
What fate reserved me for this Christian race?
O race more polished, more severe than they!
Yet shores there are, bless'd shores for us remain,
And favour'd isles, with golden fruitage crown'd,
Where tufted flow'rets paint the verdant plain,
And every breeze shall medicine every wound."
In the year 1755, Dr. Hayter, bishop of Norwich, preached a sermon
before the _Society for the Propagation of the Gospel_, in which he bore
his testimony against the continuance of this trade.
Dyer, in his poem called _The Fleece_, expresses his sorrow on account
of this barbarous trade, and looks forward to a day of retributive
justice on account of the introduction of such an evil.
In the year 1760, a pamphlet appeared, entitled, _Two Dialogues on the
Man-trade_, by John Philmore. This name is supposed to be an assumed
one. The author, however, discovers himself to have been both an able
and a zealous advocate in favour of the African race.
Malachi Postlethwaite, in his _Universal Dictionary of Trade and
Commerce_, proposes a number of queries on the subject of the Slave
Trade. I have not room to insert them at full length, but I shall give
the following as the substance of some of them to the reader: "Whether
this commerce be not the cause of incessant wars among the
Africans--Whether the Africans, if it were abolished, might not become
as ingenious, as humane, as industrious, and as capable of arts,
manufactures, and trades, as even the bulk of Europeans--Whether, if it
were abolished, a much more profitable trade might not be substituted,
and this to the very centre of their extended country, instead of the
trifling portion which now subsists upon their coasts--And whether the
great hindrance to such a new and advantageous commerce has not wholly
proceeded from that unjust, inhuman, unchristianlike traffic, called the
Slave Trade, which is carried on by the Europeans." The public proposal
of these and other queries by a man of so great commercial knowledge as
Postlethwaite, and by one who was himself a member of the African
Committee, was of great service in exposing the impolicy as well as
immorality of the Slave Trade.
In the year 1761, Thomas Jeffery published an account of a part of North
America, in which he lays open the miserable state of the slaves in the
West Indies, both as to their clothing, their food, their labour, and
their punishments. But, without going into particulars, the general
account be gives of them is affecting: "It is impossible," he says, "for
a human heart to reflect upon the slavery of these dregs of mankind,
without in some measure feeling for their misery, which ends but with
their lives--nothing can be more wretched than the condition of this
people."
Sterne, in his account of the Negro girl in his _Life of Tristram
Shandy_, took decidedly the part of the oppressed Africans. The
pathetic, witty, and sentimental manner, in which he handled this
subject, occasioned many to remember it, and procured a certain portion
of feeling in their favour.
Rousseau contributed not a little in his day to the same end.
Bishop Warburton, preached a sermon in the year 1766, before the Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel, in which he took up the cause of the
miserable Africans, and in which he severely reprobated their
oppressors. The language in this sermon is so striking, that I shall
make an extract from it. "From the free savages," says he, "I now come
to the savages in bonds. By these I mean the vast multitudes yearly
stolen from the opposite continent, and sacrificed by the colonists to
their great idol, the god of gain. But what then say these sincere
worshippers of Mammon? They are our own property which we offer
up,--Gracious God! to talk, as of herds of cattle, of property in
rational creatures, creatures endued with all our faculties, possessing
all our qualities but that of colour, our brethren both by nature and
grace, shocks all the feelings of humanity, and the dictates of common
sense? But, alas! what is there, in the infinite abuses of society,
which does not shock them! Yet nothing is more certain in itself and
apparent to all, than that the infamous traffic for slaves directly
infringes both divine and human law. Nature created man free, and grace
invites him to assert his freedom.
"In excuse of this violation it hath been pretended, that though,
indeed, these miserable outcasts of humanity be torn from their homes
and native country by fraud and violence, yet they thereby become the
happier, and their condition the more eligible. But who are you, who
pretend to judge of another man's happiness; that state which each man
under the guidance of his Maker forms for himself, and not one man for
another? To know what constitutes mine or your happiness is the sole
prerogative of him who created us, and cast us in so various and
different moulds. Did your slaves ever complain to you of their
unhappiness amidst their native woods and deserts? or rather let me ask,
did they ever cease complaining of their condition under you their
lordly masters, where they see, indeed, the accommodations of civil
life, but see them all pass to others, themselves unbenefited by them?
Be so gracious then, ye petty tyrants over human freedom, to let your
slaves judge for themselves, what it is which makes their own happiness,
and then see whether they do not place it in the return to their own
country, rather than in the contemplation of your grandeur, of which
their misery makes so large a part; a return so passionately longed for,
that, despairing of happiness here, that is, of escaping the chains of
their cruel task-masters, they console themselves with feigning it to be
the gracious reward of heaven in their future state."
About this time certain cruel and wicked practices, which must now be
mentioned, had arrived at such a height, and had become so frequent in
the metropolis, as to produce of themselves other coadjutors to the
cause.
Before the year 1700, planters, merchants, and others, resident in the
West Indies, but coming to England, were accustomed to bring with them
certain slaves to act as servants with them during their stay. The
latter, seeing the freedom and the happiness of servants in this
country, and considering what would be their own hard fate on their
return to the islands, frequently absconded. Their masters of course
made search after them, and often had them seized and carried away by
force. It was, however, thrown out by many on these occasions, that the
English laws did not sanction such proceedings, for that all persons who
were baptized became free. The consequence of this was, that most of the
slaves, who came over with their masters, prevailed upon some pious
clergyman to baptize them. They took of course godfathers of such
citizens as had the generosity to espouse their cause. When they were
seized they usually sent to these, if they had an opportunity, for their
protection. And in the result, their godfathers, maintaining that they
had been baptized, and that they were free on this account as well as by
the general tenour of the law of England, dared those who had taken
possession of them to send them out of the kingdom.
The planters, merchants, and others, being thus circumstanced, knew not
what to do. They were afraid of taking their slaves away by force, and
they were equally afraid of bringing any of the cases before a public
court. In this dilemma, in 1729, they applied to York and Talbot, the
attorney and solicitor-general for the time being, and obtained the
following strange opinion from them:--"We are of opinion, that a slave
by coming from the West Indies into Great Britain or Ireland, either
with or without his master, does not become free, and that his master's
right and property in him is not thereby determined or varied, and that
baptism doth not bestow freedom on him, nor make any alteration in his
temporal condition in these kingdoms. We are also of opinion, that the
master may legally compel him to return again to the plantations."
This cruel and illegal opinion was delivered in the year 1729. The
planters, merchants, and others, gave it of course all the publicity in
their power. And the consequences were as might easily have been
apprehended. In a little time slaves absconding were advertised in the
London papers as runaways, and rewards offered for the apprehension of
them, in the same brutal manner as we find them advertised in the land
of slavery. They were advertised also, in the same papers, to be sold by
auction, sometimes by themselves, and at others with horses, chaises,
and harness? They were seized also by their masters, or by persons
employed by them, in the very streets, and dragged from thence to the
ships; and so unprotected now were these poor slaves, that persons in
nowise concerned with them began to institute a trade in their persons,
making agreements with captains of ships going to the West Indies to put
them on board at a certain price. This last instance shows how far human
nature is capable of going, and is an answer to those persons who have
denied that kidnapping in Africa was a source of supplying the Slave
Trade. It shows, as all history does from the time of Joseph, that where
there is a market for the persons of human beings, all kinds of
enormities will be practised to obtain them.
These circumstances then, as I observed before, did not fail of
producing new coadjutors in the cause. And first they produced that able
and indefatigable advocate, Mr. Granville Sharp. This gentleman is to be
distinguished from those who preceded him by this particular, that,
whereas these were only writers, he was both a writer and an actor in
the cause. In fact, he was the first labourer in it in England. By the
words "actor" and "labourer," I mean that he determined upon a plan of
action in behalf of the oppressed Africans, to the accomplishment of
which he devoted a considerable portion of his time, talents, and
substance. What Mr. Sharp has done to merit the title of coadjutor in
this high sense, I shall now explain. The following is a short history
of the beginning and of the course of his labours:--
In the year 1765, Mr. David Lisle had brought over from Barbados
Jonathan Strong, an African slave, as his servant. He used the latter in
a barbarous manner at his lodgings in Wapping, but particularly by
beating him over the head with a pistol, which occasioned his head to
swell. When the swelling went down, a disorder fell into his eyes, which
threatened the loss of them. To this an ague and fever succeeded, and a
lameness in both his legs.
Jonathan Strong, having been brought into this deplorable situation, and
being therefore wholly useless, was left by his master to go whither he
pleased. He applied accordingly to Mr. William Sharp, the surgeon, for
his advice, as to one who gave up a portion of his time to the healing
of the diseases of the poor. It was here that Mr. Granville Sharp, the
brother of the former, saw him. Suffice it to say, that in process of
time he was cured. During this time Mr. Granville Sharp, pitying his
hard case, supplied him with money, and he afterwards got him a
situation in the family of Mr. Brown, an apothecary, to carry out
medicines.
In this new situation, when Strong had become healthy and robust in his
appearance, his master happened to see him. The latter immediately
formed the design of possessing him again. According, when he had found
out his residence, he procured John Ross, keeper of the Poultry-counter,
and William Miller, an officer under the Lord Mayor, to kidnap him. This
was done by sending for him to a public-house in Fenchurch-street, and
then seizing him. By these he was conveyed, without any warrant, to the
Poultry-counter, where he was sold by his master, to John Kerr, for
thirty pounds.
Strong, in this situation, sent, as was usual, to his godfathers, John
London and Stephen Nail, for their protections. They went, but were
refused admittance to him. At length he sent for Mr. Granville Sharp:
the latter went, but they still refused access to the prisoner. He
insisted, however, upon seeing him, and charged the keeper of the prison
at his peril to deliver him up, till he had been carried before a
magistrate.
Mr. Sharp, immediately upon this, waited upon Sir Robert Kite, the then
lord mayor, and entreated him to send for Strong and to hear his case. A
day was accordingly appointed. Mr. Sharp attended, and also William
McBean, a notary public, and David Laird, captain of the ship Thames,
which was to have conveyed Strong to Jamaica, in behalf of the
purchaser, John Kerr. A long conversation ensued, in which the opinion
of York and Talbot was quoted. Mr. Sharp made his observations. Certain
lawyers who were present seemed to be staggered at the case, but
inclined rather to recommit the prisoner: the lord mayor, however,
discharged Strong, as he had been taken up without a warrant.
As soon as this determination was made known, the parties began to move
off. Captain Laird, however, who kept close to Strong, laid hold of him
before he had quitted the room, and said aloud, "Then I now seize him as
my slave." Upon this Mr. Sharp put his hand upon Laird's shoulder, and
pronounced these words: "I charge you, in the name of the king, with an
assault upon the person of Jonathan Strong, and all these are my
witnesses." Laird was greatly intimidated by this charge, made in the
presence of the lord mayor and others, and, fearing a prosecution, let
his prisoner go, leaving him to be conveyed away by Mr. Sharp.
Mr. Sharp having been greatly affected by this case, and foreseeing how
much he might be engaged in others of a similar nature, thought it time
that the law of the land should be known upon this subject: he applied,
therefore, to Dr. Blackstone, afterwards Judge Blackstone, for his
opinion upon it. He was, however, not satisfied with it when he received
it; nor could he obtain any satisfactory answer from several other
lawyers, to whom he afterwards applied. The truth is that the opinion of
York and Talbot, which had been made public and acted upon by the
planters, merchants, and others, was considered of high authority, and
scarcely any one dared to question the legality of it. In this situation
Mr. Sharp saw no means of help but in his own industry, and he
determined immediately to give up two or three years to the study of the
English law, that he might the better advocate the cause of these
miserable people. The result of these studies was the publication of a
book in the year 1769, which he called, _A Representation of the
Injustice and Dangerous Tendency of Tolerating Slavery in England_. In
this work he refuted, in the clearest manner, the opinion of York and
Talbot: he produced against it the opinion of the Lord Chief Justice
Holt, who, many years before, had determined that every slave coming
into England became free: he attacked and refuted it again by a learned
and laborious inquiry into all the principles of Villenage. He refuted
it again by showing it to be an axiom in the British constitution, "That
every man in England was free to sue for and defend his rights, and that
force could not be used without a legal process," leaving it to the
judges to determine whether an African was a man. He attacked also the
opinion of Judge Blackstone, and showed where his error lay. This
valuable book, containing these and other kinds of arguments on the
subject, he distributed, but particularly among the lawyers, giving them
an opportunity of refuting or acknowledging the doctrines it contained.
While Mr. Sharp was engaged in this work, another case offered, in which
he took a part: this was in the year 1768. Hylas, an African slave,
prosecuted a person of the name of Newton for having kidnapped his wife,
and sent her to the West Indies. The result of the trial was, that
damages to the amount of a shilling were given, and the defendant was
bound to bring back the woman, either by the first ship, or in six
months from this decision of the court.
But soon after the work just mentioned was out, and when Mr. Sharp was
better prepared, a third case occurred: this happened in the year 1770.
Robert Stapylton, who lived at Chelsea, in conjunction with John Malony
and Edward Armstrong, two watermen, seized the person of Thomas Lewis,
an African slave, in a dark night, and dragged him to a boat lying in
the Thames; they then gagged him and tied him with a cord, and rowed him
down to a ship, and put him on board to be sold as a slave in Jamaica.
This base action took place near the garden of Mrs. Banks, the mother of
the late Sir Joseph Banks. Lewis, it appears, on being seized, screamed
violently. The servants of Mrs. Banks, who heard his cries, ran to his
assistance, but the boat was gone. On informing their mistress of what
had happened, she sent for Mr. Sharp, who began now to be known as the
friend of the helpless Africans, and professed her willingness to incur
the expense of bringing the delinquents to justice. Mr. Sharp, with some
difficulty, procured a _habeas corpus_, in consequence of which Lewis
was brought from Gravesend just as the vessel was on the point of
sailing. An action was then commenced against Stapylton, who defended
himself on the plea, "That Lewis belonged to him as his slave." In the
course of the trial, Mr. Dunning, who was counsel for Lewis, paid Mr.
Sharp a handsome compliment; for he held in his hand Mr. Sharp's book,
on the _Injustice and Dangerous Tendency of Tolerating Slavery in
England_, while he was pleading; and in his address to the jury he spoke
and acted thus:--"I shall submit to you," says Mr. Dunning, "what my
ideas are upon such evidence, reserving to myself an opportunity of
discussing it more particularly, and reserving to myself a right to
insist upon a position, which I will maintain (and here he held up the
book to the notice of those present,) in any place and in any court of
the kingdom, that our laws admit of no such property[A]." The result of
the trial was, that the jury pronounced the plaintiff not to have been
the property of the defendant, several of them crying out, "No property,
no property."
[Footnote A: It is lamentable to think that the same Mr. Dunning, in a
cause of this kind, which came on afterwards, took the opposite side of
the question.]
After this one or two other trials came on, in which the oppressor was
defeated, and several cases occurred in which poor slaves were liberated
from the holds of vessels and other places of confinement, by the
exertions of Mr. Sharp. One of these cases was singular. The vessels on
board which a poor African had been dragged and confined, had reached
the Downs, and had actually got under weigh for the West Indies: in two
or three hours she would have been out of sight; but just at this
critical moment the writ of _habeas corpus_ was carried on board. The
officer who served it on the captain saw the miserable African chained
to the mainmast, bathed in tears, and casting a last mournful look on
the land of freedom, which was fast receding from his sight. The
captain, on receiving the writ, became outrageous; but knowing the
serious consequences of resisting the law of the land, he gave up his
prisoner, whom the officer carried safe, but now crying for joy, to the
shore.
But though the injured Africans, whose causes had been tried, escaped
slavery, and though many who had been forcibly carried into dungeons,
ready to be transported into the Colonies, had been delivered out of
them, Mr. Sharp was not easy in his mind: not one of the cases had yet
been pleaded on the broad ground, "Whether an African slave, coming into
England, became free?" This great question had been hitherto studiously
avoided; it was still, therefore, left in doubt. Mr. Sharp was almost
daily acting as if it had been determined, and as if he had been
following the known law of the land: he wished, therefore, that the next
cause might be argued upon this principle. Lord Mansfield too, who had
been biassed by the opinion of York and Talbot, began to waver in
consequence of the different pleadings he had heard on this subject: he
saw also no end of trials like these, till the law should be
ascertained, and he was anxious for a decision on the same basis as Mr.
Sharp. In this situation the following case offered, which was agreed
upon for the determination of this important question.
James Somerset, an African slave, had been brought to England by his
master, Charles Stewart, in November 1769. Somerset in process of time
left him. Stewart took an opportunity of seizing him, and had him
conveyed on board the Ann and Mary, Captain Knowles, to be carried out
of the kingdom and sold as a slave in Jamaica: the question was,
"Whether a slave, by coming into England, became free?"
In order that time might be given for ascertaining the law fully on this
head, the case was argued at three different sittings. First, in
January, 1772; secondly, in February, 1772; and thirdly, in May, 1772.
And that no decision otherwise than what the law warranted might be
given, the opinion of the judges was taken upon the pleadings. The great
and glorious result of the trial was, "That as soon as ever any slave
set his foot upon English territory, he became free."
Thus ended the great case of Somerset, which, having, been determined
after so deliberate an investigation of the law, can never be reversed
while the British Constitution remains. The eloquence displayed in it by
those who were engaged on the side of liberty, was perhaps never
exceeded on any occasion; and the names of the counsellors Davy, Glynn,
Hargrave, Mansfield, and Alleyne, ought always to be remembered with
gratitude by the friends of this great cause. For when we consider in
how many crowded courts they pleaded, and the number of individuals in
these, whose minds they enlightened, and whose hearts they interested in
the subject, they are certainly to be put down as no small instruments
in the promotion of it; but chiefly to him, under Divine Providence, are
we to give the praise, who became the first great actor in it, who
devoted his time, his talents, and his substance to this Christian
undertaking, and by whose laborious researches the very pleaders
themselves were instructed and benefited. By means of his almost
incessant vigilance and attention, and unwearied efforts, the poor
African ceased to be hunted in our streets as a beast of prey. Miserable
as the roof might be, under which he slept, he slept in security. He
walked by the side of the stately ship, and he feared no dungeon in her
hold. Nor ought we, as Englishmen, to be less grateful to this
distinguished individual than the African ought to be upon this
occasion. To him we owe it, that we no longer see our public papers
polluted by hateful advertisements of the sale of the human species, or
that we are no longer distressed by the perusal of impious rewards for
bringing back the poor and the helpless into slavery, or that we are
prohibited the disgusting spectacle of seeing man bought by his
fellow-man. To him, in short, we owe this restoration of the beauty of
our constitution--this prevention of the continuance of our national
disgrace.
I shall say but little more of Mr. Sharp at present, than that he felt
it his duty, immediately after the trial, to write to Lord North, then
principal minister of state, warning him in the most earnest manner, to
abolish immediately both the trade and the slavery of the human species
in all the British dominions, as utterly irreconcileable with the
principles of the British constitution, and the established religion of
the land.
Among other coadjutors, whom the cruel and wicked practices which have
now been so amply detailed brought forward, was a worthy clergyman,
whose name I have not yet been able to learn. He endeavoured to interest
the public feeling in behalf of the injured Africans, by writing an
epilogue to the _Padlock_, in which Mungo appeared as a black servant.
This epilogue is so appropriate to the case, that I cannot but give it
to the reader. Mungo enters, and thus addresses the audience:--
Thank you, my massas! have you laugh your fill?
Then let me speak, nor take that freedom ill.
E'en from _my_ tongue some heart-felt truths may fall,
And outraged Nature claims the care of all.
My tale in _any_ place would force a tear,
But calls for stronger, deeper feelings here;
For whilst I tread the free-born British land,
Whilst now before me crowded Britons stand,--
Vain, vain that glorious privilege to me,
I am a slave, where all things else are free.
Yet was I born, as you are, no man's slave,
An heir to all that liberal Nature gave;
My mind can reason, and my limbs can move
The same as yours; like yours my heart can love;
Alike my body food and sleep sustain;
And e'en like yours--feels pleasure, want, and pain.
One sun rolls o'er us, common skies surround;
One globe supports us, and one grave must bound.
Why then am I devoid of all to live
That manly comforts to a man can give?
To live--untaught religion's soothing balm,
Or life's choice arts; to live--unknown the calm,
Of soft domestic ease; those sweets of life,
The duteous offspring, and th' endearing wife?
To live--to property and rights unknown,
Not e'en the common benefits my own!
No arm to guard me from Oppression's rod,
My will subservient to a tyrant's nod!
No gentle hand, when life is in decay,
To soothe my pains, and charm my cares away;
But helpless left to quit the horrid stage,
Harassed in youth, and desolate in age!
But I was born in Afric's tawny strand,
And you in fair Britannia's fairer land;
Comes freedom, then, from colour?--Blush with shame!
And let strong Nature's crimson mark your blame.
I speak to Britons.--Britons--then behold
A man by, Britons _snared_, and _seized_, and _sold!_
And yet no British statute damns the deed,
Nor do the more than murderous villains bleed.
O sons of Freedom! equalize your laws,
Be all consistent, plead the negro's cause;
That all the nations in your code may see
The British negro, like the Briton, free.
But, should he supplicate your laws in vain,
To break, for ever, this disgraceful chain,
At least, let gentle usage so abate
The galling terrors of its passing state,
That he may share kind Heaven's all social plan;
For, though no Briton, Mungo is--a man.
I may now add, that few theatrical pieces had a greater run than the
_Padlock_; and that this epilogue, which was attached to it soon after
it came out, procured a good deal of feeling for the unfortunate
sufferers, whose cause it was intended to serve.
Another coadjutor, to whom these cruel and wicked practices gave birth,
was Thomas Day, the celebrated author of _Sandford and Merton_, and
whose virtues were well known among those who had the happiness of his
friendship. In the year 1773 he published a poem, which he wrote
expressly in behalf of the oppressed Africans. He gave it the name of
_The Dying Negro._ The preface to it was written in an able manner by
his friend Counsellor Bicknell, who is therefore to be ranked among the
coadjutors in this great cause. The poem was founded on a simple fact,
which had taken place a year or two before. A poor negro had been seized
in London, and forcibly put on board a ship, where he destroyed himself,
rather than return to the land of slavery. To the poem is affixed a
frontispiece, in which the negro is represented. He is made to stand in
an attitude of the most earnest address to heaven, in the course of
which, with the fatal dagger in his hand, he breaks forth in the
following words:
To you this unpolluted blood I pour,
To you that spirit, which ye gave, restore.
This poem, which was the first ever written expressly on the subject,
was read extensively; and it added to the sympathy in favour of
suffering humanity, which was now beginning to show itself in the
kingdom.
About this time the first edition of the _Essay an Truth_ made its
appearance in the world. Dr. Beattie took an opportunity, in this work,
of vindicating the intellectual powers of the Africans from the
aspersions of Hume, and of condemning their slavery as a barbarous piece
of policy, and as inconsistent with the free and generous spirit of the
British nation.
In the year 1774, John Wesley, the celebrated divine, to whose pious
labours the religious world will long be indebted, undertook the cause
of the poor Africans. He had been in America, and had seen and pitied
their hard condition. The work which he gave to the world in
consequence, was entitled _Thoughts on Slavery_. Mr. Wesley had this
great cause much at heart, and frequently recommended it to the support
of those who attended his useful ministry.
In the year 1776, the Abbe Proyart brought out, at Paris, his _History
of Loango_, and other kingdoms in Africa, in which he did ample justice
to the moral and intellectual character of the natives there.
The same year produced two new friends in England, in the same cause,
but in a line in which no one had yet moved. David Hartley, then a
member of parliament for Hull, and the son of Dr. Hartley who wrote the
_Essay on Man_, found it impossible any longer to pass over without
notice the case of the oppressed Africans. He had long felt for their
wretched condition, and, availing himself of his legislative situation,
he made a motion in the House of Commons, "That the Slave Trade was
contrary to the laws of God, and the rights of men." In order that he
might interest the members as much as possible in his motion, he had
previously obtained some of the chains in use in this cruel traffic, and
had laid them upon the table of the House of Commons. His motion was
seconded by that great patriot and philanthropist, Sir George Saville.
But though I am now to state that it failed, I cannot but consider it as
a matter of pleasing reflection, that this great subject was first
introduced into parliament by those who were worthy of it; by those who
had clean hands and an irreproachable character, and to whom no motive
of party or faction could be imputed, but only such as must have arisen
from a love of justice, a true feeling of humanity, and a proper sense
of religion.
About this time two others, men of great talents and learning, promoted
the cause of the injured Africans, by the manner in which they
introduced them to notice in their respective works.
Dr. Adam Smith, in his _Theory of Moral Sentiments_, had, so early as
the year 1759, held them up in an honourable, and their tyrants in a
degrading light. "There is not a Negro from the coast of Africa, who
does not, in this respect, possess a degree of magnanimity which the
soul of his sordid master is too often scarce capable of conceiving.
Fortune never exerted more cruelly her empire over mankind, than when
she subjected those nations of heroes to the refuse of the gaols of
Europe, to wretches who possess the virtue neither of the countries they
came from, nor of those they go to, and whose levity, brutality, and
baseness so justly expose them to the contempt of the vanquished." And
now, in 1776, in his _Wealth of Nations_ he showed in a forcible manner
(for he appealed to the interest of those concerned,) the dearness of
African labour; or the impolicy of employing slaves.
Professor Millar, in his _Origin of Ranks_, followed Dr. Smith on the
same ground. He explained the impolicy of slavery in general, by its bad
effects upon industry, population, and morals. These effects he attached
to the system of agriculture as followed in our islands. He showed,
besides, how little pains were taken, or how few contrivances were
thought of, to ease the labourers there. He contended that the Africans
ought to be better treated, and to be raised to a better condition; and
he ridiculed the inconsistency of those who held them in bondage. "It
affords," says he, "a curious spectacle to observe that the same people,
who talk in a high strain of political liberty, and who consider the
privilege of imposing their own taxes as one of the unalienable rights
of mankind, should make no scruple of reducing a great proportion of
their fellow-creatures into circumstances by which they are not only
deprived of property, but almost of every species of right. Fortune,
perhaps, never produced a situation more calculated to ridicule a
liberal hypothesis, or to show how little the conduct of men is at the
bottom directed by any philosophical principles." It is a great honour
to the University of Glasgow, that it should have produced, before any
public agitation of this question, three professors[A], all of whom bore
their public testimony against the continuance of the cruel trade.
[Footnote A: The other was Professor Hutcheson, before mentioned in p.
56.]
From this time, or from about the year 1776, to about the year 1782, I
am to put down three other coadjutors, whose labours seem to have come
in a right season for the promotion of the cause.
The first of these was Dr. ROBERTSON. In his _History of America_ he
laid open many facts relative to this subject. He showed himself a warm
friend both of the Indians and Africans. He lost no opportunity of
condemning that trade, which brought the latter into bondage: "a trade,"
says he, "which is no less repugnant to the feelings of humanity than to
the principles of religion." And in his _Charles the Fifth_, he showed
in a manner that was clear, and never to be controverted, that
Christianity was the great cause in the twelfth century of extirpating
slavery from the west of Europe. By the establishment of this fact, he
rendered important services to the oppressed Africans. For if
Christianity, when it began to be felt in the heart, dictated the
abolition of slavery, it certainly became those who lived in a Christian
country, and who professed the Christian religion, to put an end to this
cruel trade.
The second was the Abbe Raynal. This author gave an account of the laws,
government, and religion of Africa, of the produce of it, of the manners
of its inhabitants, of the trade in slaves, of the manner of procuring
these, with several other particulars relating to the subject. And at
the end of his account, fearing lest the good advice he had given for
making the condition of the slaves more comfortable should be construed
into an approbation of such a traffic, he employed several pages in
showing its utter inconsistency with sound policy, justice, reason,
humanity, and religion.
"I will not here," says he, "so far debase myself as to enlarge the
ignominious list of those writers who devote their abilities to justify
by policy what morality condemns. In an age where so many errors are
boldly laid open, it would be unpardonable to conceal any truth that is
interesting to humanity. If whatever I have hitherto advanced hath
seemingly tended only to alleviate the burden of slavery, the reason is,
that it was first necessary to give some comfort to those unhappy beings
whom we cannot set free, and convince their oppressors that they were
cruel, to the prejudice of their real interests. But, in the mean time,
till some considerable revolution shall make the evidence of this great
truth felt, it may not be improper to pursue this subject further. I
shall then first prove that there is no reason of state which can
authorize slavery. I shall not be afraid to cite to the tribunal of
reason and justice those governments which tolerate this cruelty, or
which even are not ashamed to make it the basis of their power."
And a little further on he observes--"Will it be said that he, who wants
to make me a slave, does me no injury; but that he only makes use of his
rights? Where are those rights? Who hath stamped upon them so sacred a
character as to silence mine?"
In the beginning of the next paragraph he speaks thus:--"He who supports
the system of slavery is the enemy of the whole human race. He divides
it into two societies of legal assassins; the oppressors, and the
oppressed. It is the same thing as proclaiming to the world, if you
would preserve your life, instantly take away mine, for I want to have
yours."
Going on two pages further, we find these words:--"But the Negroes, they
say, are a race born for slavery; their dispositions are narrow,
treacherous, and wicked; they themselves allow the superiority of our
understandings, and almost acknowledge the justice of our authority.
Yes; the minds of the Negroes are contracted, because slavery destroys
all the springs of the soul. They are wicked, but not equally so with
you. They are treacherous, because they are under no obligation to speak
truth to their tyrants. They acknowledge the superiority of our
understanding, because we have abused their ignorance. They allow the
justice of our authority, because we have abused their weakness."
"But these Negroes, it is further urged, were born slaves. Barbarians!
will you persuade me that a man can be the property of a sovereign, a
son the property of a father, a wife the property of a husband, a
domestic the property of a master, a Negro the property of a planter?"
But I have no time to follow this animated author, even by short
extracts, through the varied strains of eloquence which he displays upon
this occasion. I can only say that his labours entitle him to a high
station among the benefactors to the African race.
The third was Dr. PALEY, whose genius, talents, and learning have been
so eminently displayed in his writings in the cause of natural and
revealed religion. Dr. Paley did not write any essay expressly in favour
of the Africans. But in his _Moral Philosophy_, where he treated on
slavery, he took an opportunity of condemning, in very severe terms, the
continuance of it. In this work he defined what slavery was, and how it
might arise consistently with the law of nature; but he made an
exception against that which arose from the African trade. "The Slave
Trade," says he, "upon the coast of Africa, is not excused by these
principles. When slaves in that country are brought to market, no
questions, I believe, are asked about the origin or justice of the
vendor's title. It may be presumed, therefore, that this title is not
always, if it be ever, founded in any of the causes above assigned.
"But defect of right in the first purchase is the least crime with which
this traffic is chargeable. The natives are excited to war and mutual
depredation, for the sake of supplying their contracts, or furnishing
the markets with slaves. With this the wickedness begins. The slaves,
torn away from their parents, wives, and children, from their friends
and companions, from their fields and flocks, from their home and
country, are transported to the European settlements in America, with no
other accommodation on ship-board than what is provided for brutes. This
is the second stage of the cruelty, from which the miserable exiles are
delivered, only to be placed, and that for life, in subjection to a
dominion add system of laws, the most merciless and tyrannical that ever
were tolerated upon the face of the earth: and from all that can be
learned by the accounts of people upon the spot, the inordinate
authority which the plantation-laws confer upon the slaveholder is
exercised, by the English slaveholder especially, with rigour and
brutality.
"But necessity is pretended, the name under which every enormity is
attempted to be justified; and after all, what is the necessity? It has
never been proved that the land could not be cultivated there, as it is
here, by hired servants. It is said, that it could not be cultivated
with quite the same conveniency and cheapness, as by the labour of
slaves; by which means, a pound of sugar, which the planter now sells
for sixpence, could not be afforded under sixpence-halfpenny--and this
is the necessity!
"The great revolution which has taken place in the western world, may,
probably, conduce (and who knows but that it was designed) to accelerate
the fall of this abominable tyranny: and now that this contest and the
passions which attend it are no more, there may succeed, perhaps, a
season for reflecting, whether a legislature, which had so long lent its
assistance to the support of an institution replete with human misery,
was fit to be trusted with an empire, the most extensive that ever
obtained in any age or quarter of the world."
The publication of these sentiments may be supposed to have produced an
extensive effect. For _The Moral Philosophy_ was adopted early by some
of the colleges in our universities into the system of their education.
It soon found its way also into most of the private libraries of the
kingdom; and it was, besides, generally read and approved. Dr. Paley,
therefore, must be considered, as having been a considerable coadjutor
in interesting the mind of the public in favour of the oppressed
Africans.
In the year 1783, we find Mr. Sharp coming again into notice. We find
him at this time taking a part in a cause, the knowledge of which, in
proportion as it was disseminated, produced an earnest desire among all
disinterested persons for the abolition of the Slave Trade.
In this year, certain underwriters desired to be heard against Gregson
and others of Liverpool, in the case of the ship Zong, Captain
Collingwood, alleging that the captain and officers of the said vessel
threw overboard one hundred and thirty-two slaves alive into the seas in
order to defraud them, by claiming the value of the said slaves, as if
they had been lost in a natural way. In the course of the trial which
afterwards came on, it appeared, that the slaves on board the Zong were
very sickly; that sixty of them had already died; and several were ill
and likely to die, when the captain proposed to James Kelsall, the mate,
and others, to throw several of them overboard, stating, "that if they
died a natural death, the loss would fall upon the owners of the ship;
but that if they were thrown into the sea, it would fall upon the
underwriters." He selected, accordingly, one hundred and thirty-two of
the most sickly of the slaves. Fifty-four of these were immediately
thrown overboard, and forty-two were made to be partakers of their fate
on the succeeding day. In the course of three days afterwards the
remaining twenty-six were brought upon deck to complete the number of
victims. The first sixteen submitted to be thrown into the sea; but the
rest, with a noble resolution, would not suffer the officers to touch
them, but leaped after their companions and shared their fate.
The plea which was set up in behalf of this atrocious and unparalleled
act of wickedness was, that the captain discovered, when he made the
proposal, that he had only two hundred gallons of water on board, and
that he had missed his port. It was proved, however, in answer to this,
that no one had been put upon short allowance; and that, as if
Providence had determined to afford an unequivocal proof of the guilt, a
shower of rain fell and continued for three days immediately after the
second lot of slaves had been destroyed, by means of which they might
have filled many of their vessels[A] with water, and thus have prevented
all necessity for the destruction of the third.
[Footnote A: It appeared that they filled six.]
Mr. Sharp was present at this trial, and procured the attendance of a
short-hand writer to take down the facts, which should come out in the
course of it. These he gave to the public afterwards. He communicated
them also, with a copy of the trial, to the Lords of the Admiralty, as
the guardians of justice upon the seas, and to the Duke of Portland, as
principal minister of state. No notice, however, was taken by any of
these, of the information which had been thus sent them.
But though nothing was done by the persons then in power, in consequence
of the murder of so many innocent individuals, yet the publication of an
account of it by Mr. Sharp, in the newspapers, made such an impression
upon others, that; new coadjutors rose up. For, soon after this, we find
Thomas Day entering the lists again as the champion of the injured
Africans. He had lived to see his poem of _The Dying Negro_, which had
been published in 1773, make a considerable impression. In 1776, he had
written a letter to a friend in America, who was the possessor of
slaves, to dissuade him by a number of arguments from holding such
property; and now, when the knowledge of the case of the ship Zong was
spreading, he published that letter under the title of Fragment of an
Original Letter on the Slavery of the Negroes.
In this same year, Dr. Porteus, Bishop of Chester, but now Bishop of
London, came forward as a new advocate for the natives of Africa. The
way in which he rendered them service, was by preaching a sermon in
their behalf, before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Of
the wide circulation of this sermon, I shall say something in another
place, but much more of the enlightened and pious author of it, who from
this time never failed to aid, at every opportunity, the cause which he
had so ably undertaken.
In the year 1784, Dr. GREGORY produced his _Essays, Historical and
Moral_. He took an opportunity of disseminating in these a
circumstantial knowledge of the Slave Trade, and an equal abhorrence of
it at the same time. He explained the manner of procuring slaves in
Africa; the treatment of them on the passage, (in which he mentioned the
case of the ship Zong) and the wicked and cruel treatment of them in the
colonies. He recited and refuted also the various arguments adduced in
defence of the trade. He showed that it was destructive to our seamen.
He produced many weighty arguments also against the slavery itself. He
proposed clauses for an Act of Parliament for the abolition of both;
showing the good both to England and her colonies from such a measure,
and that a trade might be substituted in Africa, in various articles,
for that which he proposed to suppress. By means of the diffusion of
light like this, both of a moral and political nature; Dr. Gregory is
entitled to be ranked among the benefactors to the African race.
In the same year, Gilbert Wakefield preached a sermon at Richmond, in
Surrey, where, speaking of the people of this nation, he says, "Have we
been as renowned for a liberal communication of our religion and our
laws as for the possession of them! Have we navigated and conquered to
save, to civilize, and to instruct; or to oppress, to plunder, and to
destroy? Let India and Africa give the answer to these questions. The
one we have exhausted of her wealth and her inhabitants by violence, by
famine, and by every species of tyranny and murder. The children of the
other we daily carry from off the land of their nativity; like sheep to
the slaughter, to return no more. We tear them from every object of
their affection, or, sad alternative, drag them together to the horrors
of a mutual servitude! We keep them in the profoundest ignorance. We
gall them in a tenfold chain, with an unrelenting spirit of barbarity,
inconceivable to all but the spectators of it, unexampled among former
and other nations, and unrecorded even in the bloody registers of
heathen persecution. Such is the conduct of us enlightened Englishmen,
reformed Christians! Thus have we profited by our superior advantages,
by the favour of God, by the doctrines and example of a meek and lowly
Savior. Will not the blessings which we have abused loudly testify
against us? Will not the blood which we have shed cry from the ground
for vengeance upon our sins?"
In the same year, James Ramsay, vicar of Teston in Kent, became also an
able, zealous, and indefatigable patron of the African cause. This
gentleman had resided nineteen years in the island of St. Christopher,
where he had observed the treatment of the slaves, and had studied the
laws relating to them. On his return to England, yielding to his own
feelings of duty and the solicitations of some amiable friends, he
published a work, which he called _An Essay on the Treatment and
Conversion of the African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies_. After
having given an account of the relative situation of master and slave in
various parts of the world, he explained the low and degrading situation
which the Africans held in society in our own islands. He showed that
their importance would be increased; and the temporal interest of their
masters promoted, by giving them freedom, and by granting them other
privileges. He showed the great difficulty of instructing them in the
state in which they then were, and such as he himself had experienced,
both in his private and public attempts, and such as others had
experienced also. He stated the way in which private attempts of this
nature might probably be successful. He then answered all objections
against their capacities, as drawn from philosophy, form, anatomy, and
observation; and vindicated these from his own experience. And lastly,
he threw out ideas for the improvement of their condition, by an
establishment of a greater number of spiritual pastors among them; by
giving them more privileges than they then possessed; and by extending
towards them the benefits of a proper police. Mr. Ramsay had no other
motive for giving this work to the public, than that of humanity, of a
wish to serve this much-injured part of the human species. For he
compiled it at the hazard of forfeiting that friendship, which he had
contracted with many during his residence in the islands, and of
suffering much in his private property, as well as subjecting himself to
the ill-will and persecution of numerous individuals.
The publication of this book by one who professed to have been so long
resident in the islands, and to have been an eyewitness of facts,
produced, as may easily be supposed, a good deal of conversation, and
made a considerable impression, but particularly at this time, when a
storm was visibly gathering over the heads of the oppressors of the
African race. These circumstances occasioned one or two persons to
attempt to answer it, and these answers brought Mr. Ramsay into the
first controversy ever entered into on this subject, during which, as is
the case in most controversies, the cause of truth was spread.
The works which Mr. Ramsay wrote upon this subject were, the essay just
mentioned, in 1784. _An Inquiry_, also, _into the Effects of the
Abolition of the Slave Trade_, in 1784; _A Reply to Personal Invectives
and Objections_, in 1785; _A Letter to James Tobin, Esq._, in 1787;
_Objections to the Abolition of the Slave Trade, with Answers_; and _An
Examination of Harris's Scriptural Researches on the Licitness of the
Slave Trade_, in 1788; and _An Address on the proposed Bill for the
Abolition of the Slave Trade_, in 1789. In short, from the time when he
first took up the cause, he was engaged in it till his death, which was
not a little accelerated by his exertions. He lived, however, to see
this cause in a train of parliamentary inquiry, and he died satisfied;
being convinced, as he often expressed, that the investigation must
inevitably lead to the total abolition of the Slave Trade.
In the next year, that is, in the year 1785, another advocate was seen
in Monsieur Necker, in his celebrated work on the _French Finances_,
which had just been translated into the English language from the
original work, in 1784. This virtuous statesman, after having given his
estimate of the population and revenue of the French West Indian
colonies, proceeds thus:--"The colonies of France contain, as we have
seen, near five hundred thousand slaves, and it is from the number of
these poor wretches that the inhabitants set a value on their
plantations. What a dreadful prospect! and how profound a subject for
reflection! Alas! how little are we both in our morality and our
principles! We preach up humanity, and yet go every year to bind in
chains twenty thousand natives of Africa! We call the Moors barbarians
and ruffians, because they attack the liberty of Europeans at the risk
of their own; yet these Europeans go, without danger, and as mere
speculators, to purchase slaves by gratifying the avarice of their
masters, and excite all those bloody scenes which are the usual
preliminaries of this traffic!" He goes on still further in the same
strain. He then shows the kind of power which has supported this
execrable trade. He throws out the idea of a general compact, by which
all the European nations should agree to abolish it; and he indulges the
pleasing hope that it may take place even in the present generation.
In the same year we find other coadjutors coming before our view, but
these in a line different from that in which any other belonging to this
class had yet moved. Mr. George White, a clergyman of the established
church, and Mr. John Chubb, suggested to Mr. William Tucket, the mayor
of Bridgewater, where they resided, and to others of that town, the
propriety of petitioning parliament for the abolition of the Slave
Trade. This petition was agreed upon, and, when drawn up, was as
follows:--
"The humble petition of the inhabitants of Bridgewater showeth,
"That your petitioners, reflecting with the deepest sensibility on the
deplorable condition of that part of the human species, the African
Negroes, who, by the most flagitious means, are reduced to slavery and
misery in the British colonies, beg leave to address this honourable
house in their behalf, and to express a just abhorrence of a system of
oppression, which no prospect of private gain, no consideration of
public advantage, no plea of political expediency, can sufficiently
justify or excuse.
"That, satisfied as your petitioners are that this inhuman system meets
with the general execration of mankind, they flatter themselves the day
is not far distant when it will be universally abolished. And they most
ardently hope to see a British parliament, by the extinction of that
sanguinary traffic, extend the blessings of liberty to millions beyond
this realm, held up to an enlightened world a glorious and merciful
example, and stand in the defence of the violated rights of human
nature."
This petition was presented by the Honourable Ann Poulet, and Alexander
Hood, Esq., (afterwards Lord Bridport,) who were the members for the
town of Bridgewater. It was ordered to lie on the table. The answer
which these gentlemen gave to their constituents relative to the
reception of it in the House of Commons is worthy of notice:--"There did
not appear," say they in their common letter, "the least disposition to
pay any further attention to it. Every one almost says that the
abolition of the Slave Trade must immediately throw the West Indian
islands into convulsions, and soon complete their utter ruin. Thus they
will not trust Providence for its protection for so pious an
undertaking."
In the year 1786, Captain J.S. Smith, of the royal navy, offered himself
to the notice of the public in behalf of the African cause. Mr. Ramsay,
as I have observed before, had become involved in a controversy in
consequence of his support of it. His opponents not only attacked his
reputation, but had the effrontery to deny his facts. This circumstance
occasioned Captain Smith to come forward. He wrote a letter to his
friend Mr. Hill, in which he stated that he had seen those things, while
in the West Indies, which Mr. Ramsay had asserted to exist, but which
had been so boldly denied. He gave, also, permission to Mr. Hill to
publish this letter. Too much praise cannot be bestowed on Captain
Smith, for thus standing forth in a noble cause, and in behalf of an
injured character.
The last of the necessary forerunners and coadjutors of this class, whom
I am to mention, was our much-admired poet, Cowper; and a great
coadjutor he was, when we consider what value was put upon his
sentiments, and the extraordinary circulation of his works. There are
few persons who have not been properly impressed by the following
lines:--
My ear is pain'd,
My soul is sick with every day's report,
Of wrong and outrage with which earth is fill'd.
There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart,
It does not feel for man. The natural bond
Of brotherhood is sever'd as the flax
That falls asunder at the touch of fire.
He finds his fellow guilty of a skin
Not colour'd like his own, and having power
To inforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.
Lands intersected by a narrow frith
Abhor each other. Mountains interpos'd,
Make enemies of nations, who had else,
Like kindred drops been mingled into one.
Thus man devotes his brother, and destroys;
And, worse than all, and most to be deplored
As human Nature's broadest, foulest blot,--
Chains him, and tasks him, and exacts his sweat
With stripes, that Mercy with a bleeding heart
Weeps, when she sees inflicted on a beast.
Then what is man? And what man, seeing this,
And having human feelings, does not blush
And hang his head to think himself a man?
I would not have a slave to till my ground,
To carry me, to fan me while I sleep,
And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth
That sinews bought and sold have ever earn'd.
No: dear as freedom is,--and in my heart's
Just estimation prized above all price,--
I had much rather be myself the slave,
And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him.
We have no slaves at home--then why abroad?
And they themselves once ferried o'er the wave
That parts us, are emancipate and loos'd.
Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs
Receive our air, that moment they are free;
They touch our country, and their shackles fall[A].
That's noble, and bespeaks a nation proud
And jealous of the blessing. Spread it, then,
And let it circulate through every vein
Of all your empire--that where Britain's power
Is felt, mankind may feel her mercy too.
[Footnote A: Expressions used in the great trial, when Mr. Sharp
obtained the verdict in favour of Somerset.]
CHAPTER IV.
[Sidenote:--Second class of forerunners and coadjutors, up to May 1787,
consists of the Quakers in England.--Of George Fox and others.--Of the
body of the Quakers assembled at the yearly meeting in 1727; and at
various other times.--Quakers, as a body, petition Parliament; and
circulate books on the subject.--Individuals among them become labourers
and associate in behalf of the Africans; Dilwyn, Harrison, and
others.--This the first association ever formed in England for the
purpose.]
The second class of the forerunners and coadjutors in this great cause,
up to May 1787, will consist of the Quakers in England.
The first of this class was George Fox, the venerable founder of this
benevolent society.
George Fox was contemporary with Richard Baxter, being born not long
after him, and dying much about the same time. Like him, he left his
testimony against this wicked trade. When he was in the island of
Barbados, in the year 1671, he delivered himself to those who attended
his religious meetings in the following manner:--
"Consider with yourselves," says he, "if you were in the same condition
as the poor Africans are--who came strangers to you, and were sold to
you as slaves--I say, if this should be the condition of you or yours,
you would think it a hard measure; yea, and very great bondage and
cruelty. And, therefore, consider seriously of this; and do you for them
and to them, as you would willingly have them, or any others, do unto
you, were you in the like slavish condition, and bring them to know the
Lord Christ." And in his Journal, speaking of the advice which he gave
his friends at Barbados, he says, "I desired also that they would cause
their overseers to deal mildly and gently with their negroes, and not to
use cruelty towards them, as the manner of some had been, and that after
certain years of servitude they should make them free."
William Edmundson, who was a minister of the society, and, indeed, a
fellow-traveller with George Fox, had the boldness in the same island to
deliver his sentiments to the governor on the same subject. Having been
brought before him and accused of making the Africans Christians, or, in
other words, of making them rebel and destroy their owners, he replied,
"That it was a good thing to bring them to the knowledge of God and
Christ Jesus, and to believe in him who died for them and all men, and
that this would keep them from rebelling, or cutting any person's
throat; but if they did rebel and cut their throats, as the governor
insinuated they would, it would be their own doing, in keeping them in
ignorance and under oppression, in giving them liberty to be common with
women like brutes, and, on the other hand, in starving them for want of
meat and clothes convenient; thus, giving them liberty in that which God
restrained, and restraining them in that which was meat and clothing."
I do not find any individual of this society moving in this cause, for
some time after the death of George Fox and William Edmundson. The first
circumstance of moment which I discover, is a resolution of the whole
Society on the subject, at their yearly meeting, held in London in the
year 1727. The resolution was contained in the following words:--"It is
the sense of this meeting, that the importing of negroes from their
native country and relations by Friends is not a commendable nor allowed
practice, and is, therefore, censured by this meeting."
In the year 1758, the Quakers thought it their duty, as a body, to pass
another resolution upon this subject. At this, time the nature of the
trade beginning to be better known, we find them more animated upon it,
as the following extract will show:--
"We fervently warn all in profession with us, that they carefully avoid
being any way concerned in reaping the unrighteous profits, arising from
the iniquitous practice of dealing in negro or other slaves; whereby, in
the original purchase, one man selleth another, as he doth the beasts
that perish, without any better pretension to a property in him than
that of superior force; in direct violation of the Gospel rule, which
teacheth all to do as they would be done by, and to do good to all;
being the reverse of that covetous disposition, which furnisheth
encouragement to those poor ignorant people to perpetuate their savage
wars, in order to supply the demands of this most unnatural traffic, by
which great numbers of mankind, free by nature, are subject to
inextricable bondage, and which hath often been observed to fill their
possessors with haughtiness, tyranny, luxury, and barbarity, corrupting
the minds and debasing the morals of their children, to the unspeakable
prejudice of religion and virtue, and the exclusion of that holy spirit
of universal love, meekness, and charity, which is the unchangeable
nature and the glory of true Christianity. We, therefore, can do no
less, than, with the greatest earnestness, impress it upon Friends
everywhere, that they endeavour to keep their hands clear of this
unrighteous gain of oppression."
The Quakers hitherto, as appears by the two resolutions which have been
quoted, did nothing more than seriously warn all those in religious
profession with them against being concerned in this trade. But in three
years afterwards, or at the yearly meeting in 1761, they came to a
resolution, as we find by the following extract from their minutes, that
any of their members haying a concern in it should be disowned:--"This
meeting having reason to apprehend that divers under our name, are
concerned in the unchristian traffic in negroes, doth recommend it
earnestly to the care of Friends everywhere, to discourage, as much as
in them lies, a practice so repugnant to our Christian profession; and
to deal with all such as shall persevere in a conduct so reproachful to
Christianity; and to disown them, if they desist not therefrom."
The yearly meeting of 1761, having thus agreed to exclude from
membership such as should be found concerned in this trade, that of 1763
endeavoured to draw the cords, still tighter, by attaching criminality
to those who should aid and abet the trade in any manner. By the minute,
which was made on this occasion, I apprehend that no one belonging to
the Society could furnish even materials for such voyages. "We renew our
exhortation, that Friends everywhere be especially careful to keep their
hands clear of giving encouragement in any shape to the Slave Trade, it
being evidently destructive of the natural rights of mankind, who are
all ransomed by one Saviour, and visited by one divine light, in order
to salvation; a traffic calculated to enrich and aggrandize some upon
the misery of others; in its nature abhorrent to every just and tender
sentiment, and contrary to the whole tenour of the Gospel."
Some pleasing intelligence having been sent on this subject, by the
Society in America to the Society in England, the yearly meeting of 1772
thought it their duty to notice it, and to keep their former resolutions
alive by the following minute:--"It appears that the practice of holding
negroes in oppressive and unnatural bondage hath been so successfully
discouraged by Friends in some of the colonies, as to be considerably
lessened. We cannot but approve of these salutary endeavours, and
earnestly intreat that they may be continued, that through the favour of
divine Providence a traffic, so unmerciful and unjust in its nature to a
part of our own species made, equally with ourselves, for immortality,
may come to be considered by all in its proper light, and be utterly
abolished as a reproach to the Christian name."
I must beg leave to stop here for a moment, just to pay the Quakers a
due tribute of respect for the proper estimation, in which they have
uniformly held the miserable outcasts of society, who have been the
subject of these minutes. What a contrast does it afford to the
sentiments of many others concerning them! How have we been compelled to
prove by a long chain of evidence, that they had the same feelings and
capacities as ourselves! How many, professing themselves enlightened,
even now view them as of a different species! But in the minutes which
have been cited we have seen them uniformly represented, as persons
"ransomed by one and the same Saviour," "as visited by one and the same
light for salvation," and "as made equally for immortality as others."
These practical views of mankind, as they are highly honourable to the
members of this Society, so they afford a proof both of the reality and
of the consistency of their religion.
But to return:--From this time, there appears to have been a growing
desire in this benevolent society to step out of its ordinary course in
behalf of this injured people. It had hitherto confined itself to the
keeping of its own members unpolluted by any gain from their oppression.
But it was now ready to make an appeal to others, and to bear a more
public testimony in their favour. Accordingly, in the month of June,
1783, when a bill had been brought into the House of Commons for certain
regulations to be made with respect to the African Trade, the society
sent the following petition to that branch of the legislature:--
"Your petitioners, met in this their annual assembly, having solemnly
considered the state of the enslaved negroes, conceive themselves
engaged, in religious duty, to lay the suffering situation of that
unhappy people before you, as a subject loudly calling for the humane
interposition of the legislature,
"Your petitioners regret that a nation, professing the Christian faith,
should so far counteract the principles of humanity and justice, as by
the cruel treatment of this oppressed race to fill their minds with
prejudices against the mild and beneficent doctrines of the gospel.
"Under the countenance of the laws of this country, many thousand of
these our fellow-creatures, entitled to the natural rights of mankind,
are held as personal property in cruel bondage; and your petitioners
being informed that a Bill for the Regulation of the African Trade is
now before the House, containing a clause which restrains the officers
of the African Company from exporting negroes, your petitioners, deeply
affected with a consideration of the rapine, oppression, and bloodshed,
attending this traffic, humbly request that this restriction may be
extended to all persons whomsoever, or that the House would grant such
other relief in the premises as in its wisdom may seem meet."
This petition was presented by Sir Cecil Wray, who, on introducing it,
spoke very respectfully of the society. He declared his hearty
approbation of their application, and said he hoped he should see the
day when not a slave would remain within the dominions of this realm.
Lord North seconded the motion, saying he could have no objection to the
petition, and that its object ought to recommend it to every humane
breast; that it did credit to the most benevolent society in the world;
but that, the session, being so far advanced, the subject, could not
then be taken into consideration; and he regretted that the Slave Trade,
against which the petition was so justly directed, was in a commercial
view become necessary to almost every nation of Europe. The petition was
then brought up and read, after which it was ordered to lie on the
table. This was the first petition (being two years earlier than that
from the inhabitants of Bridgewater), which was ever presented to
parliament for the abolition of the Slave Trade.
But the society did not stop here; for having at the yearly meeting of
1783 particularly recommended the cause to a standing committee,
appointed to act at intervals, called the Meeting for Sufferings, the
latter in this same year resolved upon an address to the public,
entitled, _The Case of our Fellow-creatures, the oppressed Africans,
respectfully recommended to the serious Consideration of the Legislature
of Great Britain, by the People called Quakers_: in which they
endeavoured, in the most pathetic manner, to make the reader acquainted
with the cruel nature of this trade; and they ordered 2000 copies of it
to be printed.
In the year 1784, they began the distribution of this case. The first
copy was sent to the king through Lord Carmarthen, and the second and
the third, through proper officers, to the queen and the Prince of
Wales. Others were sent by a deputation of two members of the society to
Mr. Pitt, as prime-minister; to the Lord Chancellor Thurlow; to Lord
Gower, as president of the council; to Lords Carmarthen and Sidney, as
secretaries of state; to Lord Chief-Justice Mansfield; to Lord Howe, as
first lord of the Admiralty; and to C.F. Cornwall, Esq., as speaker of
the House of Commons. Copies were sent also to every member of both
houses of parliament.
The society, in the same year, anxious that the conduct of its members
should be consistent with its public profession on this great subject,
recommended it to the quarterly and monthly meetings to inquire through
their respective districts, whether any, bearing its name, were in any
way concerned in the traffic, and to deal with such, and to report the
success of their labours in the ensuing year. Orders were also given for
the reprinting and circulation of 10,000 other copies of _The Case_.
In the year 1785, the society interested itself again in a similar
manner. For the Meeting for Sufferings, as representing it, recommended
to the quarterly meetings to distribute a work, written by Anthony
Benezet, in America, called _A Caution to Great Britain and her
Colonies, in a short Representation of the calamitous State of the
enslaved Negroes in the British Dominions._ This book was accordingly
forwarded to them for this purpose. On receiving it, they sent it among
several public bodies, the regular and dissenting clergy, justices of
the peace, and particularly among the great Schools of the kingdom, that
the rising youth might acquire a knowledge, and at the same time a
detestation, of this cruel traffic. In this latter base, a deputation of
the society waited, upon the masters, to know if they would allow their
scholars to receive it. The schools of Westminster, the Charter-house,
St. Paul, Merchant-Taylors, Eton, Winchester, and Harrow, were among
those visited. Several academies also were visited for this purpose.
But I must now take my leave of the Quakers as a public body[A] and go
back to the year 1783, to record an event, which will be found of great
importance in the present history, and in which only individuals
belonging to the society were concerned. This event seems to have arisen
naturally out of existing or past circumstances. For the society, as I
have before stated, had sent a petition to parliament in this year,
praying for the abolition, of the Slave Trade. It had also laid the
foundation for a public distribution of the books as just mentioned,
with a view of enlightening others on this great subject. The case of
the ship Zong, which I have before had occasion to explain, had occurred
this same year. A letter also had been presented, much about the same
time, by Benjamin West, from Anthony Benezet, before mentioned, to our
queen, in behalf of the injured Africans, which she had received
graciously. These subjects occupied at this time the attention of many
Quaker families, and among others, that of a few individuals, who were
in close intimacy with each other. These, when they met together,
frequently conversed upon them. They perceived, as facts came out in
conversation, that there was a growing knowledge and hatred of the Slave
Trade, and that the temper of the times was ripening towards its
abolition. Hence a disposition manifested itself among these, to unite
as labourers for the furtherance of so desirable an object. An union was
at length proposed and approved of, and the following persons (placed in
alphabetical order) came together to execute the offices growing out of
it:--
[Footnote A: The Quakers, as a public body, kept the subject alive at
their yearly meeting in 1784, 1785, 1787, &c.]
WILLIAM DILLWYN, THOMAS KNOWLES, M.D.
GEORGE HARRISON, JOHN LLOYD,
SAMUEL HOARE, JOSEPH WOODS.
The first meeting was held on the seventh of July, 1783. At this "they
assembled to consider what steps they should take for the relief and
liberation of the negro slaves in the West Indies, and for the
discouragement of the Slave Trade on the coast of Africa."
To promote this object; they conceived it necessary that the public mind
should be enlightened respecting it. They had recourse; therefore, to
the public papers, and they appointed their members in turn to write in
these, and to see that their productions were inserted. They kept
regular minutes for this purpose. It was not however known to the world
that such an association existed.
It appears that they had several meetings in the course of this year.
Before the close of it they had secured a place in the _General Evening
Post_, in _Lloyd's Evening Post_, in the Norwich, Bath, York, Bristol,
Sherborne, Liverpool, Newcastle, and other provincial papers, for such
articles as they chose to send to them. These consisted principally of
extracts from such authors, both in prose and verse, as they thought
would most enlighten and interest the mind upon the subject of their
institution.
In the year 1784 they pursued the same plan; but they began now to print
books. The first was from a manuscript composed by Joseph Woods, one of
the committee; It was entitled, _Thoughts on the Slavery of the
Negroes_. This manuscript was well put together. It was a manly and yet
feeling address in behalf of the oppressed Africans. It contained a
sober and dispassionate appeal to the reason of all, without offending
the prejudices of any. It was distributed at the expense of the
association, and proved to be highly useful to the cause which it was
intended to promote.
A communication having been made to the committee, that Dr. Porteus,
then Bishop of Chester, had preached a sermon before the society for the
propagation of the gospel, in behalf of the injured Africans, (which
sermon was noticed in the last chapter,) Samuel Hoare was deputed to
obtain permission to publish it. This led him to a correspondence with
Mr. Ramsay before mentioned. The latter applied in consequence to the
bishop, and obtained his consent. Thus this valuable sermon was also
given to the world.
In the year 1785, the association continued their exertions as before;
but I have no room to specify them. I may observe, however, that David
Barclay, a grandson of the great apologist of that name, assisted at one
of their meetings, and (what is singular) that he was in a few years
afterwards unexpectedly called to a trial of his principles on this very
subject. For he and his brother John became, in consequence of a debt
due to them, possessed of a large grazing farm, or pen, in Jamaica,
which had thirty-two slaves upon it. Convinced, however, that the
retaining of their fellow-creatures in bondage was not only
irreconcilable with the principles of Christianity, but subversive of
the rights of human nature, they determined upon the emancipation of
these. And they[A] performed this generous office to the satisfaction of
their minds, to the honour of their characters, to the benefit of the
public, and to the happiness of the slave[B]. I mention this anecdote,
not only to gratify myself, by paying a proper respect to those generous
persons who sacrificed their interest to principle, but also to show the
sincerity of David Barclay, (who is now the only surviving brother,) as
he actually put in practice what at one of these meetings he was
desirous of recommending to others.
[Footnote A: They engaged an agent to embark for Jamaica in 1796 to
effect this business, and had the slaves conveyed to Philadelphia, where
they were kindly received by the Society for improving the Condition of
free Black people. Suitable situations were found for the adults, and
the young ones were bound out apprentices to handicraft trades, and to
receive school learning.]
[Footnote B: James Pemberton, of Philadelphia, made the following
observation in a letter to a Friend in England:--"David Barclay's humane
views towards the Blacks from Jamaica have been so far realized, that
these objects of his concern enjoy their freedom with comfort to
themselves, and are respectable in their characters, keeping up a
friendly intercourse with each other, and avoiding to intermix with the
common Blacks of this city, being sober in their conduct and industrious
in their business."]
Having now brought up the proceedings of this little association towards
the year 1786, I shall take my leave of it, remarking, that it was the
first ever formed in England for the promotion of the abolition of the
Slave Trade. That Quakers have had this honour is unquestionable. Nor is
it extraordinary that they should have taken the lead on this occasion,
when we consider how advantageously they have been situated for so
doing. For the Slave Trade, as we have not long ago seen, came within
the discipline of the society in the year 1727. From thence it continued
to be an object of it till 1783. In 1783 the society petitioned
parliament, and in 1784 it distributed books to enlighten the public
concerning it. Thus we see that every Quaker, born since the year 1727,
was nourished as it were in a fixed hatred against it. He was taught,
that any concern in it was a crime of the deepest dye. He was taught,
that the bearing of his testimony against it was a test of unity with
those of the same religious profession. The discipline of the Quakers
was therefore a school for bringing them up as advocates for the
abolition of this trade. To this it may be added, that the Quakers knew
more about the trade and the slavery of the Africans, than any other
religious body of men, who had not been in the land of their sufferings.
For there had been a correspondence between the society in America and
that in England on the subject, the contents of which must have been
known to the members of each. American ministers also were frequently
crossing the Atlantic on religious missions to England. These, when they
travelled through various parts of our island, frequently related to the
Quaker families in their way the cruelties they had seen and heard of in
their own country. English ministers were also frequently going over to
America on the same religious errand. These, on their return, seldom
failed to communicate what they had learned or observed, but more
particularly relative to the oppressed Africans, in their travels. The
journals also of these, which gave occasional accounts of the sufferings
of the slaves, were frequently published. Thus situated in point of
knowledge, and brought up moreover from their youth in a detestation of
the trade, the Quakers were ready to act whenever a favourable
opportunity should present itself.
CHAPTER V.
[Sidenote: Third class of forerunners and coadjutors, up to 1787,
consists of the Quakers and others in America.--Yearly meeting for
Pennsylvania and the Jerseys takes up the subject in 1696; and continue
it till 1787.--Other five yearly meetings take similar
measures.--Quakers, as individuals, also become labourers; William
Burling and others.--Individuals of other religious denominations take
up the cause also; Judge Sewell and others.--Union of the Quakers with
others in a society for Pennsylvania, in 1774; James Pemberton; Dr.
Rush.--Similar union of the Quakers with others for New York and other
provinces.]
The next class of the forerunners and coadjutors, up to the year 1787,
will consist, first, of the Quakers in America; and then of others, as
they were united to these for the same object.
It may be asked, How the Quakers living there should have become
forerunners and coadjutors in the great work now under our
consideration. I reply, first, that it was an object for many years with
these to do away the Slave Trade as it was carried on in their own
ports. But this trade was conducted in part, both before and after the
independence of America, by our own countrymen. It was, secondly, an
object with these to annihilate slavery in America; and this they have
been instruments in accomplishing to a considerable extent. But any
abolition of slavery within given boundaries must be a blow to the Slave
Trade there. The American Quakers, lastly, living in a land where both
the commerce and slavery existed, were in the way of obtaining a number
of important facts relative to both, which made for their annihilation;
and communicating many of these facts to those in England, who espoused
the same cause, they became fellow-labourers with these in producing the
event in question.
The Quakers in America, it must be owned, did most of them originally as
other settlers there with respect to the purchase of slaves. They had
lands without a sufficient number of labourers, and families without a
sufficient number of servants, for their work. Africans were poured in
to obviate these difficulties, and these were bought promiscuously by
all. In these days, indeed, the purchase of them was deemed favourable
to both parties, for there was little or no knowledge of the manner in
which they had been procured as slaves. There was no charge of
inconsistency on this account, as in later times. But though many of the
Quakers engaged, without their usual consideration, in purchases of this
kind, yet those constitutional principles, which belong to the society,
occasioned the members of it in general to treat those whom they
purchased with great tenderness, considering them, though of a different
colour, as brethren, and as persons for whose spiritual welfare it
became them to be concerned; so that slavery, except as to the power
legally belonging to it, was in general little more than servitude in
their hands.
This treatment, as it was thus mild on the continent of America where
the members of this society were the owners of slaves, so it was equally
mild in The West India Islands where they had a similar property. In the
latter countries, however, where only a few of them lived, it began soon
to be productive of serious consequences; for it was so different from
that which the rest of the inhabitants considered to be proper, that the
latter became alarmed at it. Hence in Barbados an act was passed in
1676, under Governor Atkins, which was entitled, An Act to prevent the
people called Quakers from bringing their Negroes into their meetings
for worship, though they held these in their own houses. This act was
founded on the pretence, that the safety of the island might be
endangered, if the slaves were to imbibe the religious principles of
their masters. Under this act Ralph Fretwell and Richard Sutton were
fined in the different sums of eight hundred and of three hundred
pounds, because each of them had suffered a meeting of the Quakers at
his own house, at the first of which eighty negroes, and at the second
of which thirty of them were present. But this matter was carried still
further; for in 1680, Sir Richard Dutton, then governor of the island,
issued an order to the Deputy Provost Marshal and others, to prohibit
all meetings of this society. In the island of Nevis the same bad spirit
manifested itself. So early as in 1661, a law was made there prohibiting
members of this society from coming on shore. Negroes were put in irons
for being present at their meetings, and they themselves were fined
also. At length, in 1677, another act was passed, laying a heavy penalty
on every master of a vessel who should even bring a Quaker to the
island. In Antigua and Bermudas similar proceedings took place, so that
the Quakers were in time expelled from this part of the world. By these
means a valuable body of men were lost to the community in these
islands, whose example might have been highly useful; and the poor
slave, who saw nothing but misery in his temporal prospects, was
deprived of the only balm which could have soothed his sorrow--the
comfort of religion.
But to return to the continent of America. Though the treatment which
the Quakers adopted there towards those Africans who fell into their
hands, was so highly commendable, it did not prevent individuals among
them from becoming uneasy about holding them in slavery at all. Some of
these bore their private testimony against it from the beginning as a
wrong practice, and in process of time brought it before the notice of
their brethren as a religious body. So early as in the year 1688, some
emigrants from Krieshiem in Germany, who had adopted the principles of
William Penn, and followed him into Pennsylvania, urged, in the yearly
meeting of the society there, the inconsistency of buying, selling, and
holding men in slavery, with the principles of the Christian religion.
In the year 1696, the yearly meeting for that province took up the
subject as a public concern, and the result was, advice to the members
of it to guard against future-importations of African slaves, and to be
particularly attentive to the treatment of those who were then in their
possession.
In the year 1711, the same yearly meeting resumed the important subject,
and confirmed and renewed the advice which had been before given.
From this time it continued to keep the subject alive; but finding at
length, that though individuals refused to purchase slaves, yet others
continued the custom, and in greater numbers than it was apprehended
would have been the case after the public declarations which had been
made, it determined, in the year 1754, upon a fuller and more serious
publication of its sentiments; and therefore it issued, in the same
year, the following pertinent letter to all the members within its
jurisdiction:--
Dear Friends,
It hath frequently been the concern of our yearly meeting to
testify their uneasiness and disunity with the importation and
purchasing of negroes and other slaves, and to direct the
overseers of the several meetings to advise and deal with such
as engage therein. And it hath likewise been the continual care
of many weighty friends to press those who bear our name, to
guard, as much as possible, against being in any respect
concerned in promoting the bondage of such unhappy people. Yet,
as we have with sorrow to observe, that their number is of late
increased among us, we have thought it proper to make our advice
and judgment more public, that none may plead ignorance of our
principles therein; and also again earnestly to exhort all to
avoid, in any manner, encouraging that practice of making slaves
of our fellow-creatures.
Now, dear friends, if we continually bear in mind the royal law
of doing to others as we would be done by, we should never think
of bereaving our fellow-creatures of that valuable
blessing--liberty, nor endure to grow rich by their bondage. To
live in ease and plenty by the toil of those whom violence and
cruelty have put in our power, is neither consistent with
Christianity nor common justice; and, we have good reason to
believe, draws down the displeasure of Heaven; it being a
melancholy but true reflection, that, where slave-keeping
prevails, pure religion and sobriety decline, as it evidently
tends to harden the heart, and render the soul less susceptible
of that holy spirit of love, meekness and charity, which is the
peculiar characteristic of a true Christian.
How then can we, who have been concerned to publish the Gospel
of universal love and peace among mankind, be so inconsistent
with ourselves, as to purchase such as are prisoners of war, and
thereby encourage, this anti-Christian practice; and more
especially as many of these poor creatures are stolen away,
parents from children, and children from parents; and others,
who were in good circumstances in their native country,
inhumanly torn from what they esteemed a happy situation, and
compelled to toil in a state of slavery, too often extremely
cruel!
What dreadful scenes of murder and cruelty those barbarous
ravages must occasion in these unhappy people's country are too
obvious to mention. Let us make their case our own, and consider
what we should think, and how we should feel, were we in their
circumstances. Remember our blessed Redeemer's positive
command--to do unto others as we would have them do unto
us;--and that with what measure we mete, it shall be measured to
us again. And we intreat you to examine, whether the purchasing
of a negro, either born here or imported, doth not contribute to
a further importation, and, consequently, to the upholding of
all the evils above mentioned, and to the promoting of
man-stealing, the, only theft which by the Mosaic law was
punished with death;--He that stealeth a man and selleth him or
if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.'
The characteristic and badge of a true Christian is love and
continual exercise of them: 'Love one, another,' says he, 'as I
have loved you.' But how can we be said to love our brethren who
bring, or, for selfish ends, keep them in bondage? Do we act
consistently with this noble principle, who lay such heavy
burdens on our fellow creatures? Do we consider that they are
called and do we sincerely desire that they may become heirs
with us in glory, and that they may rejoice in the liberty of
the sons of God, whilst we are withholding from them the common
liberties of mankind? Or can the spirit of God, by which we have
always professed to be led, be the author of these oppressive
and unrighteous measures? Or do we not thereby manifest, that
temporal interest hath more influence on our conduct herein,
than the dictates of that merciful, holy, and unerring Guide?
And we, likewise, earnestly recommend to all who have slaves, to
be careful to come up in the performance of their duty towards
them, and to be particularly watchful over their own hearts, it
being, by sorrowful experience, remarkable that custom and a
familiarity with evil of any kind, have a tendency to bias the
judgment and to deprave the mind; and it is obvious, that the
future welfare of these poor slaves, who are now in bondage, is
generally too much disregarded by those who keep them. If their
daily task of labour be but fulfilled, little else, perhaps, is
thought of: nay, even that which in others would be looked upon
with horror and detestation, is little regarded in them by their
masters; such as the frequent separation of husbands from wives,
and wives from husbands, whereby they are tempted to break their
marriage covenants, and live in adultery, in direct opposition
to the laws of God and men, although we believe that Christ died
for all men without respect of persons. How fearful then ought
we to be of engaging in what hath so natural a tendency to
lesson our humanity, and of suffering ourselves to be inured to
the exercise of hard and cruel measures, lest thereby, in any
degree, we lose our tender and feeling sense of the miseries of
our fellow-creatures, and become worse than those who have not
believed.
And, dear friends, you, who by inheritance have slaves born in
your families, we beseech you to consider them as souls
committed to your trust, whom the Lord will require at your
hand, and who, as well as you, are made partakers of the Spirit
of grace, and called to be heirs of salvation. And let it be
your constant care to watch over them for good, instructing them
in the fear of God and the knowledge of the Gospel of Christ,
that they may answer the end of their creation, and that God may
be glorified and honoured by them, as well as by us. And so
train them up, that if you should come to behold their unhappy
situation, in the same light that many worthy men who are at
rest have done, and many of your brethren now do, and should
think it your duty to set them free, they may be the more
capable of making proper use of their liberty.
Finally, brethren, we intreat you, in the bowels of Gospel-love,
seriously to weigh the Cause of detaining them in bondage. If it
be for your own private gain, or any other motive than their
good, it is much to be feared that the love of God, and the
influence of the Holy Spirit, are not the prevailing principles
in you, and that your hearts are not sufficiently redeemed from
the world, which, that you with ourselves may more and more come
to witness, through the cleansing virtue of the Holy Spirit of
Jesus Christ, is our earnest desire. With the salutation of our
love we are your friends and brethren:--
_"Signed, in behalf of the yearly meeting, by_
JOHN EVANS, ABRAHAM FARRINGDON,
JOHN SMITH, JOSEPH NOBLE,
THOMAS CARLETON, JAMES DANIEL,
WILLIAM TRIMBLE, JOSEPH GIBSON,
JOHN SCARBOROUGH, JOHN SHOTWELL,
JOSEPH HAMPTON, JOSEPH PARKER."
This truly Christian letter, which was written in the year 1754, was
designed, as we collect from the contents of it, to make the sentiments
of the society better known and attended to on the subject of the Slave
Trade. It contains, as we see, exhortations to all the members within
the yearly meeting of Pennsylvania and the Jerseys, to desist from
purchasing and importing slaves, and, where they possessed them, to have
a tender consideration of their condition. But that the first part of
the subject of this exhortation might be enforced, the yearly meeting
for the same provinces came to a resolution in 1755, That if any of the
members belonging to it bought or imported slaves, the overseers were to
inform their respective monthly meetings of it, that "these might treat
with them, as they might be directed in the wisdom of truth."
In the year 1774, we find the same yearly meeting legislating again on
the same subject. By the preceding resolution they who became offenders,
were subjected only to exclusion from the meetings for discipline, and
from the privilege of contributing to the pecuniary occasions of the
Society; but, by the resolution of the present year, all members
concerned in importing, selling, purchasing, giving, or transferring
negro or other slaves, or otherwise acting in such manner as to continue
them in slavery beyond the term limited by law[A] or custom, were
directed to be excluded from membership or disowned. At this meeting
also all the members of it were cautioned and advised against acting as
executors or administrators to estates, where slaves were bequeathed, or
likely to be detained in bondage.
[Footnote A: This alludes to the term of servitude for white persons in
these provinces.]
In the year 1776, the same yearly meeting carried the matter still
further. It was enacted, That the owners of slaves, who refused to
execute proper instruments for giving them their freedom, were to be
disowned likewise.
In 1778 it was enacted by the same meeting, that the children of those
who had been set free by members, should be tenderly advised, and have a
suitable education given them.
It is not necessary to proceed further on this subject. It may be
sufficient to say, that from this time the minutes of the yearly meeting
for Pennsylvania and the Jerseys exhibit proofs of an almost incessant
attention, year after year[B], to the means not only of wiping away the
stain of slavery from their religious community, but of promoting the
happiness of those restored to freedom, and of their posterity also; and
as the yearly meeting of Pennsylvania and the Jerseys set this bright
example, so those of New England, New York, Maryland, Virginia, and of
the Carolinas and Georgia, in process of time followed it.
[Footnote B: Thus in 1778-1782, 1784-1786. The members also of this
meeting petitioned their own legislature on this subject, both in 1783
and in 1786.]
But, whilst the Quakers were making these exertions at their different
yearly meetings in America, as a religious body, to get rid both of the
commerce and slavery of their fellow-creatures, others, in the same
profession; were acting as individuals, (that is, on their own grounds,
and independently of any influence from their religious communion,) in
the same cause, whose labours it will now be proper, in a separate
narrative, to detail.
The first person of this description in the Society, was William
Burling, of Long Island. He had conceived an abhorrence of slavery from
early youth. In process of time he began to bear his testimony against
it, by representing the unlawfulness of it to those of his own Society,
when assembled at one of their yearly meetings. This expression of his
public testimony, he continued annually on the same occasion. He wrote
also several Tracts with the same design, one of which, published in the
year 1718, he addressed to the elders of his own church, on the
inconsistency of compelling people and their posterity to serve them
continually and arbitrarily, and without any proper recompense for their
services.
The next was Ralph Sandiford, a merchant in Philadelphia. This worthy
person had many offers of pecuniary assistance, which would have
advanced him in life, but he declined them all because they came from
persons who had acquired their independence by the oppression of their
slaves. He was very earnest in endeavouring to prevail upon his friends,
both, in and out of the society, to liberate those whom they held in
bondage. At length he determined upon a work called the _Mystery of
Iniquity_, in a brief examination of the practice of the times. This he
published in the year 1780, though the chief judge had threatened him if
he should give it to the world, and he circulated it free of expense
wherever he believed it would be useful. The above work was excellent as
a composition; the language of it was correct; the style manly and
energetic; and it abounded with facts, sentiments, and quotations,
which, while, they showed the virtue and talents of the author, rendered
it a valuable appeal in behalf of the African cause.
The next public advocate was Benjamin Lay[A], who lived at Abington, at
the distance of twelve or fourteen miles from Philadelphia. Benjamin Lay
was known, when in England, to the royal family of that day, into whose
private presence he was admitted. On his return to America, he took an
active part in behalf of the oppressed Africans. In the year 1737, he
published a _Treatise on Slave-Keeping_. This he gave away among his
neighbours and others, but more particularly among the rising youth,
many of whom he visited in their respective schools. He applied also to
several of the governors for interviews, with whom he held conferences
on the subject. Benjamin Lay was a man of strong understanding and of
great integrity, but of warm and irritable feelings, and more
particularly so when he was called forth on any occasion in which the
oppressed Africans were concerned; for he had lived in the island of
Barbados, and he had witnessed there scenes of cruelty towards them
which had greatly disturbed his mind, and which unhinged it, as it were,
whenever the subject of their sufferings was brought before him. Hence,
if others did not think precisely as he did, when he conversed with them
on the subject, he was apt to go out of due bounds. In bearing what he
believed to be his testimony against this system of oppression, he
adopted sometimes a singularity of manner, by which, as conveying
demonstration of a certain eccentricity of character, he diminished in
some degree his usefulness to the cause which he had undertaken; as far,
indeed, as this eccentricity might have the effect of preventing others
from joining him in his pursuit, lest they should be thought singular
also, so far it must be allowed that he ceased to become beneficial. But
there can be no question, on the other hand, that his warm and
enthusiastic manners awakened the attention of many to the cause, and
gave them first impressions concerning it, which they never afterwards
forgot, and which rendered them useful to it in the subsequent part of
their lives.
[Footnote A: Benjamin Lay attended the meetings for worship, or
associated himself with the religious society of the Quakers. His wife,
too, was an approved minister of the Gospel in that society; but I
believe he was not long an acknowledged member of it himself.]
The person who laboured next in the society, in behalf of the oppressed
Africans, was John Woolman.
John Woolman was born at Northampton, in the county of Burlington and
province of Western New Jersey, in the year 1720. In his very early
youth he attended, in an extraordinary manner, to the religious
impressions which he perceived upon his mind, and began to have an
earnest solicitude about treading in the right path. "From what I had
read and heard," says he, in his Journal[A], "I believed there had been
in past ages, people who walked in uprightness before God in a degree
exceeding any, that I knew or heard of, now living. And the apprehension
of there being less steadiness and firmness among people of this age,
than in past ages, often troubled me while I was a child." An anxious
desire to do away, as far as himself was concerned, this merited
reproach, operated as one among other causes to induce him to be
particularly watchful over his thoughts and actions, and to endeavour to
attain that purity of heart, without which he conceived there could be
no perfection of the Christian character. Accordingly, in the
twenty-second year of his age, he had given such proof of the integrity
of his life, and of his religious qualifications, that he became an
acknowledged minister of the Gospel in his own society.
[Footnote A: This short sketch of the life and labours of John Woolman,
is made up from his Journal.]
At a time prior to his entering upon the ministry, being in low
circumstances, he agreed for wages to "attend shop for a person at Mount
Holly, and to keep his books." In this situation we discover, by an
occurrence that happened, that he had thought seriously on the subject,
and that he had conceived proper views of the Christian unlawfulness of
slavery. "My employer," says he, "having a Negro woman, sold her, and
desired me to write a bill of sale, the man being waiting who bought
her. The thing was sudden, and though the thought of writing an
instrument of slavery for one of my fellow-creatures made me feel
uneasy, yet I remembered I was hired by the year, that it was my master
who directed me to do it, and that it was an elderly man, a member of
our society, who bought her. So through weakness I gave way and wrote,
but, at executing it, I was so afflicted in my mind, that I said before
my master and the friend, that I believed slave-keeping to be a practice
inconsistent with the Christian religion. This in some degree abated my
uneasiness; yet, as often as I reflected seriously upon it, I thought I
should have been clearer, if I had desired to have been excused from it,
as a thing against my conscience; for such it was. And some time after
this, a young man of our society spoke to me to write a conveyance of a
slave to him, he having lately taken a Negro into his house. I told him
I was not easy to write it; for though many of our meeting, and in other
places, kept slaves, I still believed the practice was not right, and
desired to be excused from the writing. I spoke to him in good-will; and
he told me that keeping slaves was not altogether agreeable to his mind,
but that the slave being a gift to his wife he had accepted of her."
We may easily conceive that a person so scrupulous and tender on this
subject, (as indeed John Woolman was on all others,) was in the way of
becoming in time more eminently serviceable to his oppressed
fellow-creatures. We have seen already the good seed sown in his heart,
and it seems to have wanted only providential seasons and occurrences to
be brought into productive fruit. Accordingly we find that a journey,
which he took as a minister of the Gospel in 1746 through the provinces
of Maryland, Virginia, and, North Carolina, which were then more noted
than others for the number of slaves in them, contributed to prepare him
as an instrument for the advancement of this great cause. The following
are his own observations upon this journey:--"Two things were remarkable
to me in this journey; first, in regard to my entertainment. When I ate,
drank, and lodged free-cost, with people who lived in ease on the hard
labour of their slaves, I felt uneasy; and, as my mind was inward to the
Lord, I found, from place to place, this uneasiness return upon me at
times through the whole visit. Where the masters bore a good share of
the burden and lived frugally, so that their servants were well provided
for; and their labour moderate, I felt more easy; but where they lived
in a costly way, and laid heavy burdens on their slaves, my exercise was
often great, and I frequently had conversations with them in private
concerning it. Secondly, this trade of importing slaves from their
native country being much encouraged among them, and the white people
and their children so generally living without much labour, was
frequently the subject of my serious thoughts: and I saw in these
southern provinces so many vices and corruptions, increased by this
trade and this way of life, that it appeared to me as a gloom over the
land."
From the year 1747 to the year 1758, he seems to have been occupied
chiefly as a minister of religion, but in the latter year he published a
work upon slave-keeping; and in the same year, while travelling within
the compass of his own monthly meeting, a circumstance happened which
kept alive his attention to the same Subjects.
"About this time" says he, "a person at some distance lying sick, his
brother came to me to write his will. I knew he had slaves, and asking
his brother was told he intended to leave them as slaves to his
children. As writing was a profitable employ, and as offending sober
people was disagreeable to my inclination, I was straitened in my mind,
but as I looked to the Lord he inclined my heart to his testimony; and I
told the man that I believed the practice of continuing slavery to this
people was not right, and that I had a scruple in my mind against doing
writings of that kind; that, though many in our society kept them as
slaves, still I was not easy to be concerned in it, and desired to be
excused from going to write the will. I spoke to him in the fear of the
Lord; and he made no reply to what I said, but went away: he also had
some concerns in the practice, and I thought he was displeased with me.
In this case I had a confirmation, that acting contrary to present
outward interest from a motive of Divine love, and in regard to truth
and righteousness, opens the way to a treasure better than silver, and
to a friendship exceeding the friendship of men."
From 1753 to 1755, two circumstances of a similar kind took place, which
contributed greatly to strengthen him in the path he had taken; for in
both these cases the persons who requested him to make their wills were
so impressed by the principle upon which he refused them, and by his
manner of doing it, that they bequeathed liberty to their slaves.
In the year 1756, he made a religious visit to several of the society in
Long Island. Here it was that the seed, now long fostered by the genial
influences of Heaven, began to burst forth into fruit; Till this time he
seems to have been a passive instrument, attending only to such
circumstances as came in his way on this subject. But now he became an
active one, looking out for circumstances for the exercise of his
labours.
"My mind," says he; "was deeply engaged in this visit, both in public
and private; and at several places, observing that members kept slaves,
I found myself under a necessity, in a friendly way, to labour with
them, on that subject, expressing, as the way opened, the inconsistency
of that practice with the parity of the Christian religion, and the ill
effects of it as manifested amongst us."
In the year 1757, he felt, his mind so deeply interested on the same
subject, that he resolved to travel over Maryland, Virginia, and North
Carolina, in order to try to convince persons, principally in his own
society, of the inconsistency of holding slaves. He joined his brother
with him in this arduous service. Having passed the Susquehanna into
Maryland, he began to experience great agitation of mind. "Soon after I
entered this province," says he, "a deep and painful exercise came upon
me, which I often had some feeling of since my mind was drawn towards
these parts, and with which I had acquainted my brother, before we
agreed to join as companions."
"As the people in this and the southern provinces live much on the
labour of slaves, many of whom are used hardly, my concern was that I
might attend with singleness of heart to the voice of the true Shepherd,
and be so supported, as to remain unmoved at the faces of men."
It is impossible for me to follow him in detail, through this long and
interesting journey, when I consider the bounds I have prescribed to
myself in this work. I shall say, therefore, what I propose to offer
generally, and in a few words.
It appears that he conversed with persons occasionally, who were not of
his own society, with a view of answering their arguments, and of
endeavouring to evince the wickedness and impolicy of slavery. In
discoursing with these, however strenuous he might appear, he seems
never to have departed from a calm, modest, and yet dignified and even
friendly demeanour. At the public meetings for discipline, held by his
own society in these provinces, he endeavoured to display the same
truths, and in the same manner, but particularly to the elders of his
own society, exhorting them, as the most conspicuous rank, to be careful
of their conduct, and to give a bright example in the liberation of
their slaves. He visited, also, families for the same purpose: and he
had the well-earned satisfaction of finding his admonitions kindly
received by some, and of seeing a disposition in others to follow the
advice he had given them.
In the year 1758, he attended the yearly meeting at Philadelphia, where
he addressed his brethren on the propriety of dealing with such members
as should hereafter purchase slaves. On the discussion of this point he
spoke a second time, and this to such effect that, he had the
satisfaction at this meeting to see minutes made more fully than any
before, and a committee appointed for the advancement of the great
object, to which he had now been instrumental in turning the attention
of many, and to witness a considerable spreading of the cause. In the
same year, also, he joined himself with two others of the society to
visit such members of it as possessed slaves in Chester county. In this
journey he describes himself to have met with several who were pleased
with his visit, but to have found difficulties with others, towards
whom, however, he felt a sympathy and tenderness, on account of their
being entangled by the spirit of the world.
In the year 1759, he visited several of the society who held slaves in
Philadelphia. In about three months afterwards, he travelled there
again, in company with John Churchman, to see others under similar
circumstances. He then went to different places on the same errand. In
this last journey he went alone. After this he joined himself to John
Churchman again, but he confined his labours to his own province. Here
he had the pleasure of finding that the work prospered. Soon after this
he took Samuel Eastburne as a coadjutor, and pleaded the cause of the
poor Africans with many of the society in Bucks county, who held them in
bondage there.
In the year 1760, he travelled, in company with his friend Samuel
Eastburne, to Rhode Island, to promote the same object. This island had
been long noted for its trade to Africa for slaves. He found at Newport,
the great sea-port town belonging to it, that a number of them had been
lately imported. He felt his mind deeply impressed on this account. He
was almost over-powered in consequence of it, and became ill. He thought
once of prompting a petition to the legislature, to discourage all such
importations in future. He then thought of going and speaking to the
House of Assembly, which was then sitting; but he was discouraged from
both these proceedings. He held, however, conference with many of his
own society in the meeting-house chamber, where the subject of his visit
was discussed on both sides with a calm and peaceable spirit. Many of
those present manifested the concern they felt at their former
practices, and others a desire of taking suitable care of their slaves
at their decease. From Newport he proceeded to Nantucket; but observing
the members of the society there to have few or no slaves, he exhorted
them to persevere in abstaining from the use of them, and returned home.
In the year 1761, he visited several families in Pennsylvania, and, in
about three months afterwards, others about Shrewsbury and Squan in New
Jersey. On his return he added a part to the treatise before published
on the keeping of care which had been growing upon him for some years.
In the year 1762, he printed, published, and distributed this treatise.
In 1767, he went on foot to the western shores of the same province on a
religious visit. After having crossed the Susquehanna, his old feelings
returned to him; for coming amongst people living in outward ease and
greatness, chiefly on the labour of slaves, his heart was much affected,
and he waited with humble resignation to learn how he should further
perform his duty to this injured people. The travelling on foot, though
it was agreeable to the state of his mind, he describes to have been
wearisome to his body. He felt himself weakly at times, in consequence
of it, but yet continued to travel on. At one of the quarterly meetings
of the society, being in great sorrow and heaviness, and under deep
exercise on account of the miseries of the poor Africans, he expressed
himself freely to those present, who held them in bondage. He expatiated
on the tenderness and loving-kindness of the apostles, as manifested in
labours, perils, and sufferings, towards the poor Gentiles, and
contracted their treatment of the Gentiles with it, whom he described in
the persons of their slaves; and was much satisfied with the result of
his discourse.
From this time we collect little more, from his journal concerning him,
than that, in 1772, he embarked for England on a religious visit. After
his arrival there, he travelled through many counties, preaching in
different meetings of the society, till he came to the city of York. But
even here, though he was far removed from the sight of those whose
interests he had so warmly espoused, he was not forgetful of their
wretched condition. At the quarterly meeting for that county, he brought
their case before, those present in an affecting manner. He exhorted
these to befriend their cause. He remarked that as they, the society,
when under outward sufferings, had often found a concern to lay them
before the legislature, and thereby, in the Lord's time, had obtained
relief; so he recommended this oppressed part of the creation to their
notice, that they might, as, the way opened, represent their sufferings
as individuals, if not as a religious society, to those in authority in
this land. This was the last opportunity that he had of interesting
himself in behalf of this injured people for soon afterwards he was
seized with the small-pox at the house of a friend in the city of York,
where he died.
The next person belonging to the society of the Quakers, who laboured in
behalf of the oppressed Africans, was Anthony Benezet. He was born
before, and he lived after, John Woolman; of course he was contemporary
with him. I place him after John Woolman, because he was not so much
known as a labourer, till two or three years after the other had begin
to move in the same cause.
Anthony Benezet was born at St. Quintin, in Picardy, of a respectable
family, in the year 1713. His father was one of the many Protestants
who, in consequence of the persecutions which followed the revocation of
the edict of Nantz, sought an asylum in foreign countries. After a short
stay in Holland, he settled, with his wife and children, in London, in
1715.
Anthony Benezet having received from his father a liberal education,
served an apprenticeship in an eminent mercantile house in London. In
1731, however, he removed with his family to Philadelphia, where he
joined in profession with the Quakers. His three brothers then engaged
in trade, and made considerable pecuniary acquisitions in it. He himself
might have partaken both of their concerns and of their prosperity; but
he did not feel himself at liberty to embark in their undertakings. He
considered the accumulation of wealth as of no importance, when compared
with the enjoyment of doing good; and he chose the humble situation of a
schoolmaster, as according best with this notion, believing, that by
endeavouring to train up youth in knowledge and virtue, he should become
more extensively useful than in any other way to his fellow-creatures.
He had not been long in his new situation, before he manifested such an
uprightness of conduct, such a courtesy of manners, such a purity of
intention, and such a spirit of benevolence, that he attracted the
notice, and gained the good opinion, of the inhabitants among whom he
lived. He had ready access to them, in consequence, upon all occasions;
and, if there were any whom he failed to influence at any of these
times, he never went away without the possession of their respect.
In the year 1756, when a considerable number of French families were
removed from Acadia into Pennsylvania, on account of some political
suspicions, he felt deeply interested about them. In a country where few
understood their language, they were wretched and helpless; but Anthony
Benezet endeavoured to soften the rigour of their situation, by his kind
attention towards them. He exerted himself, also, in their behalf, by
procuring many contributions for them, which, by the consent of his
fellow-citizens, were intrusted to his care.
As the principle of benevolence, when duly cultivated, brings forth
fresh shoots, and becomes enlarged, so we find this amiable person
extending the sphere of his usefulness by becoming an advocate for the
oppressed African race. For this service he seems to have been
peculiarly qualified. Indeed, as in all great works, a variety of
talents is necessary to bring them to perfection, so Providence seems to
prepare different men as instruments, with dispositions and
qualifications so various, that each, in pursuing that line which seems
to suit him best, contributes to furnish those parts which, when put
together, make up a complete whole. In this point of view, John Woolman
found in Anthony Benezet the coadjutor whom, of all others, the cause
required. The former had occupied himself principally on the subject of
slavery. The latter went to the root of the evil, and more frequently
attacked the trade. The former chiefly confined his labours to America,
and chiefly to those of his own society there. The latter, when he
wrote, did not write for America only, but for Europe also, and
endeavoured to spread a knowledge and hatred of the traffic through the
great society of the world.
One of the means which Anthony Benezet took to promote the cause in
question, (and an effectual one it proved, as far as it went,) was to
give his scholars a due knowledge and proper impressions concerning it.
Situated as they were likely to be in after-life, in a country where,
slavery, was a custom, he thus prepared many, and this annually, for the
promotion of his plans.
To enlighten others, and to give them a similar bias, he had recourse to
different measures from time to time. In the almanacs published annually
in Philadelphia, he procured articles to be inserted, which he believed
would attract the notice of the reader, and make him pause, at least for
a while, as to the licitness of, the Slave Trade. He wrote also, as he
saw occasion, in the public papers of the day. From small things he
proceeded to greater. He collected, at length, further information on
the subject, and, winding it up with observations and reflections, he
produced several little tracts, which he circulated successively (but
generally at his, own expense), as he considered them adapted to the
temper and circumstances of the times.
In the course of this his employment, having found some who had approved
his tracts, and, to whom, on that account, he wished to write, and
sending his tracts to others, to whom he thought it proper to introduce
them by letter, he found himself engaged in a correspondence which much
engrossed his time, but which proved of great importance in procuring
many advocates for his cause.
In the year 1762, when he had obtained a still greater store of
information, he published a larger work. This, however, he entitle _A
short Account of that part of Africa inhabited by the Negroes_ In 1767
he published _A Caution and Warning to Great Britain and her colonies on
the calamitous state of the enslaved Negroes in the British Dominions_;
and soon after this appeared, _An Historical Account of Guinea, its
Situation, Produce, and the general Disposition of its Inhabitants: with
an Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of the Slave Trade, its Nature,
and Calamitous Effects._ This pamphlet contained a clear and distinct
development of the subject, from the best authorities. It contained
also, the sentiments of many enlightened upon it; and it became
instrumental beyond any other book ever before published, in
disseminating a proper knowledge and detestation of this trade.
Anthony Benezet may be considered as one of the most zealous, vigilant,
and active advocates which the cause of the oppressed Africans ever had.
He seemed to have been born and to have lived for the promotion of it
and therefore he never omitted any the least opportunity of serving it.
If a person called upon him who was going a journey his first thoughts
usually were how he could make him an instrument in its favour; he
either gave him tracts to distribute or he sent letters by him, or he
gave him some commission on the subject; so that he was the means of
employing several persons at the same time, in various parts of America;
in advancing the work he had undertaken.
In the same manner he availed himself of every other circumstance, as
far as he could, to the same end. When he heard that Mr. Granville Sharp
had obtained; in the year 1772, the noble verdict in the cause of
Somerset the slave, he opened a correspondence with him which he kept
up, that there might be an union of action between them for the future,
as far as it could be effected, and that they might each give
encouragement to the other to proceed.
He opened also a correspondence with George Whitfield and John Wesley
that these might assist him in promoting the cause of the oppressed.
He wrote also a letter to the Countess of Huntingdon on the following
subject:--She had founded a college, at the recommendation of George
Whitfield, called the Orphan-house near Savannah, in Georgia, and had
endowed it. The object of this institution was to furnish scholastic
instruction to the poor, and to prepare some of them for the ministry.
George Whitfield, ever attentive to the cause of the poor Africans,
thought that this institution might have been useful to them also; but
soon after his death, they who succeeded him bought slaves, and these in
unusual numbers to extend the rice and indigo plantations belonging to
the college. The letter then in question was written by Anthony Benezet,
in order to lay before the Countess, as a religious woman, the misery
she was occasioning in Africa, by allowing the managers of her college
in Georgia to give encouragement to the Slave Trade. The Countess
replied, that such a measure should never have her countenance, and that
she would take care to prevent it.
On discovering that the Abbe Raynal had brought out his celebrated work,
in which he manifested a tender feeling in behalf of the injured
Africans, he entered into a correspondence with him, hoping to make him
yet more useful to their cause.
Finding, also, in the year 1783 that the Slave Trade, which had greatly
declined during the American war, was reviving, he addressed a pathetic
letter to our Queen, (as I mentioned in the last chapter,) who, on
hearing the high character of the writer of it from Benjamin West,
received it with marks of peculiar condescension and attention. The
following is a copy of it:--
TO CHARLOTTE, QUEEN OF GREAT BRITAIN.
Impressed with a sense of religious duty, and encouraged by the
opinion generally entertained of thy benevolent disposition to
succor the distressed, I take the liberty; very respectfully, to
offer to thy perusal some tracts, which, I believe, faithfully
describe the suffering condition of many hundred thousands of
our fellow-creatures of the African race, great numbers of whom,
rent from every tender connexion in life, are annually taken
from their native land; to endure, in the American islands and
plantations, a most rigorous and cruel slavery; whereby many,
very many of them, are brought to a melancholy and untimely end.
When it is considered that the inhabitants of Great Britain, who
are themselves so eminently blessed in the enjoyment of
religious and civil liberty, have long been, and yet are, very
deeply concerned in this flagrant violation of the common rights
of mankind, and that even its national authority is exerted in
support of the African Slave Trade, there is much reason to
apprehend that this has been, and, as long as the evil exists,
will continue to be, an occasion of drawing down the Divine
displeasure on the nation and its dependencies. May these
considerations induce thee to interpose thy kind endeavours in
behalf of this greatly injured people, whose abject situation
gives them an additional claim to the pity and assistance of the
generous mind, inasmuch as they are altogether deprived of the
means of soliciting effectual relief for themselves; that so
thou mayest not only be a blessed instrument in the hand of him
'by whom kings reign and princes decree justice,' to avert the
awful judgments by which the empire has already been so
remarkably shaken, but that the blessings of thousands ready to
perish may come upon thee, at a time when the superior
advantages attendant on thy situation in this world will no
longer be of any avail to thy consolation and support.
To the tracts on this subject to which I have thus ventured to
crave thy particular attention, I have added some which at
different times I have believed it my duty to publish[A], and
which, I trust, will afford thee some satisfaction, their design
being for the furtherance of that universal peace and good-will
amongst men, which the Gospel was intended to introduce.
[Footnote A: These related to the principles of the religious
society of the Quakers.]
"I hope thou wilt kindly excuse the freedom used on this
occasion by an ancient man, whose mind, for more than forty
years past, has been much separated from the common intercourse
of the world, and long painfully exercised in the consideration
of the miseries under which so large a part of mankind, equally
with us the objects of redeeming love, are suffering the most
unjust and grievous oppression, and who sincerely desires thy
temporal and eternal felicity, and that of thy royal consort.
"ANTHONY BENEZET."
Anthony Benezet, besides the care he bestowed upon forwarding the cause
of the oppressed Africans in different parts of the world, found time to
promote the comforts, and improve the condition of those, in the state
in which he lived. Apprehending that much advantage would arise both to
them and the public from instructing them in common learning, he
zealously promoted the establishment of a school for that purpose. Much
of the two last years of his life he devoted to a personal attendance on
this school, being earnestly desirous that they who came to it might be
better qualified for the enjoyment of that freedom to which great
numbers of them had been then restored. To this he sacrificed the
superior emoluments of his former school, and his bodily ease also,
although the weakness of his constitution seemed to demand indulgence.
By his last will he directed, that, after the decease of his widow, his
whole little fortune (the savings of the industry of fifty years)
should, except a few very small legacies, be applied to the support of
it. During his attendance upon it he had the happiness to find, (and his
situation enabled him to make the comparison,) that Providence had been
equally liberal to the Africans in genius and talents as to other
people.
After a few days' illness, this excellent man died at Philadelphia, in
the spring of 1784. The interment of his remains was attended by several
thousands of all ranks, professions, and parties, who united in
deploring their loss. The mournful procession was closed by some
hundreds of those poor Africans who had been personally benefited by his
labours, and whose behaviour on the occasion showed the gratitude and
affection they considered to be due to him as their own private
benefactor, as well as the benefactor of their whole race.
Such, then, were the labours of the Quakers in America; of individuals,
from 1718 to 1784, and of the body at large, from 1696 to 1787, in this
great cause of humanity and religion. Nor were the effects produced from
these otherwise than corresponding with what might have been expected
from such an union of exertion in such a cause; for both the evils, that
is, the evil of buying and selling, and the evil of using slaves, ceased
at length with the members of this benevolent society. The leaving off
all concern with the Slave Trade took place first. The abolition of
slavery, though it followed, was not so speedily accomplished; for,
besides the loss of property, when slaves were manumitted, without any
pecuniary consideration in return, their owners had to struggle, in
making them free, against the laws and customs of the times. In
Pennsylvania, where the law in this respect was the most favourable, the
parties wishing to give freedom to a slave were obliged to enter into a
bond for the payment of thirty pounds currency, in case the said slave
should become chargeable for maintenance. In New Jersey the terms were
far less favorable, as the estate of the owner remained liable to the
consequences of misconduct in the slave, or even in his posterity. In
the southern parts of America manumission was not permitted but on terms
amounting nearly to a prohibition. But, notwithstanding these
difficulties, the Quakers could not be deterred, as they became
convinced of the unlawfulness of holding men in bondage, from doing that
which they believed to be right. Many liberated their slaves, whatever
the consequences were; and some gave the most splendid example in doing
it, not only by consenting, as others did, thus to give up their
property, and to incur the penalties of manumission, but by calculating
and giving what was due to them, over and above their food and clothing,
for wages[A] from the beginning of their slavery to the day when their
liberation commenced. Thus manumission went on, some sacrificing more;
and others less; some granting it sooner, and others later; till, in the
year 1787[B] there was not a slave in the possession of an acknowledged
Quaker.
[Footnote A: One of the brightest instances was that afforded by Warner
Mifflin. He gave unconditional liberty to his slaves. He paid all the
adults, on their discharge, the sum, which arbitrators, mutually chosen,
awarded them.]
[Footnote B: Previously to the year 1787, several of the states had made
the terms of manumission more easy.]
Having given to the reader the history of the third class of forerunners
and coadjutors, as it consisted of the Quakers in America, I am now to
continue it, as it consisted of an union of these with others on the
same continent, in the year 1774, in behalf of the African race. To do
this, I shall begin with the causes which led to the production of this
great event.
And, in the first place, as example is more powerful than precept, we
cannot suppose that the Quakers could have shown these noble instances
of religious principle, without supposing also that individuals of other
religious denominations would be morally instructed by them. They who
lived in the neighborhood where they took place, must have become
acquainted with the motives which led to them. Some of them must at
least have praised the action, though they might not themselves have
been ripe to follow the example: nor is it at all improbable that these
might be led, in the course of the workings of their own minds, to a
comparison between their own conduct and that of the Quakers on this
subject, in which they themselves might appear to be less worthy in
their own eyes. And as there is sometimes a spirit of rivalship among
the individuals of religious sects, where the character of one is
sounded forth as higher than that of another; this, if excited by such a
circumstance, would probably operate for good. It must have been
manifest also to many, after a lapse of time, that there was no danger
in what the Quakers had done, and that there was even sound policy in
the measure. But, whatever were the several causes, certain it is, that
the example of the Quakers in leaving off all concern with the Slave
Trade, and in liberating their slaves, (scattered, as they were, over
various parts of America,) contributed to produce in many of a different
religious denomination from themselves, a more tender disposition than
had been usual towards the African race.
But a similar disposition towards these oppressed people was created in
others, by means of other circumstances or causes. In the early part of
the eighteenth century, Judge Sewell of New England came forward as a
zealous advocate for them: he addressed a memorial to the legislature,
which he called, _The Selling of Joseph_, and in which he pleaded their
cause both as a lawyer and, a Christian. This memorial produced an
effect upon many, but particularly upon those of his own persuasion; and
from this time the Presbyterians appear to have encouraged a sympathy in
their favour.
In the year 1739, the celebrated George Whitfield became an instrument
in turning the attention of many others to their hard case, and of
begetting in these a fellow sympathy towards them. This laborious
minister, having been deeply affected with what he had seen in the
course of his religious travels in America, thought it his duty, to
address a letter from Georgia to the inhabitants of Maryland, Virginia,
and North and South Carolina. This letter was printed in the year above
mentioned, and is in part as follows:--
As I lately passed through your provinces in my way hither, I
was sensibly touched with a fellow-feeling for the miseries of
the poor negroes. Whether it be lawful for Christians to buy
slaves, and thereby encourage the nations, from whom they are
bought, to be at perpetual war with each other, I shall not take
upon me to determine. Sure I am, it is sinful, when they have
bought them to use them as bad as though they were brutes, nay,
worse; and whatever particular exceptions there may be, (as I
would charitably hope there are some,) I fear the generality of
you who own negroes are liable to such a charge; for your
slaves, I believe, work as hard, if not harder, than the horses
whereon you ride. These, after they have done their work, are
fed and taken proper care of; but many negroes when wearied with
labour, in your plantations, have been obliged to grind their
corn after their return home: your dogs are caressed and fondled
at your table, but your slaves, who are frequently styled dogs
or beasts, have not an equal privilege; they are scarce
permitted to pick up the crumbs which fall from their master's
table: not to mention what numbers have been given up to the
inhuman usage of cruel taskmasters, who, by their unrelenting
scourges have ploughed their backs and made long furrows, and at
length brought them even unto death. When, passing along, I have
viewed your plantations cleared and cultivated, many spacious
houses built and the owners of them faring sumptuously every
day, my blood has frequently almost run cold within me, to
consider how many of your slaves had neither convenient food to
eat, nor proper raiment to put on, notwithstanding most of the
comforts you enjoy were solely owing to their indefatigable
labours.
The letter, from which this is an extract, produced a desirable effect
upon many of those who perused it, but particularly upon such as began
to be seriously disposed in these times. And as George Whitfield
continued a firm friend to the poor Africans, never losing an
opportunity of serving them, he interested, in the course of his useful
life, many thousands of his followers in their favour.
To this account it may be added, that from the year 1762 ministers, who
were in the connection of John Wesley, began to be settled in America,
and that as these were friends to the oppressed Africans also, so they
contributed in their turn[A] to promote a softness of feeling towards
them among those of their own persuasion.
[Footnote A: It must not be forgotten, that the example of the Moravians
had its influence also in directing men to their duty towards these
oppressed people; for though, when they visited this part of the world
for their conversion, they never meddled with the political state of
things, by recommending it to masters to alter the condition of their
slaves, as believing religion could give comfort in the most abject
situations in life, yet they uniformly freed those slaves who came into
their own possession.]
In consequence then of these and other causes, a considerable number of
persons of various religious denominations, had appeared at different
times in America, besides the Quakers, who, though they had not
distinguished themselves by resolutions and manumissions as religious
bodies, were yet highly friendly to the African cause. This friendly
disposition began to manifest itself about the year 1770; for when a few
Quakers, as individuals, began at that time to form little associations
in the middle provinces of North America, to discourage the introduction
of slaves among people in their own neighbourhoods, who were not of
their own Society, and to encourage the manumission of those already in
bondage, they, were joined as colleagues by several persons of this
description[A], who co-operated with them in the promotion of their
design.
[Footnote A: It then appeared that individuals among those of the Church
of England, Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists, and others had
begun in a few instances to liberate their slaves.]
This disposition, however, became more manifest in the year 1772; for
the house of burgesses of Virginia presented a petition to the king,
beseeching his majesty to remove all those restraints on his governors
of that colony, which inhibited their assent to such laws as might check
that inhuman and impolitic commerce, the Slave Trade: and it is
remarkable, that the refusal of the British government to permit the
Virginians to exclude slaves from among them by law, was enumerated
afterwards among the public reasons for separating from the mother
country.
But this friendly disposition was greatly increased in the year 1773, by
the literary labours of Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia[B], who, I
believe, is a member of the Presbyterian Church: for in this year, at
the instigation of Anthony Benezet, he took up the cause of the
oppressed Africans in a little work, which he entitled, _An Address to
the Inhabitants of the British Settlements, on the Slavery of the
Negroes_; and soon afterwards in another, which was a vindication of the
first, in answer to an acrimonious attach by a West Indian planter.
These publications contained many new observations; they were written in
a polished style; and while they exhibited the erudition and talents,
they showed the liberality and benevolence of the author. Having had a
considerable circulation, they spread conviction among many, and
promoted the cause for which they had been so laudably undertaken. Of
the great increase of friendly disposition towards the African cause in
this very year, we have this remarkable proof: that when the Quakers,
living in East and West Jersey, wished to petition the legislature to
obtain an act of assembly for the more equitable manumission of slaves
in that province, so many others of different persuasions joined them,
that the petition was signed by upwards of three thousand persons.
[Footnote B: Dr. Rush has been better known since for his other literary
works, such as his _Medical Dissertations_, his _Treatises on the
Discipline of Schools_, _Criminal Law_, &c.]
But in the next year, or in the year 1774[A], the increased good-will
towards the Africans became so apparent, but more particularly in
Pennsylvania, where the Quakers were more numerous than in any other
state, that they, who considered themselves more immediately as the
friends of these injured people, thought it right to avail themselves of
it: and accordingly James Pemberton, one of the most conspicuous of the
Quakers in Pennsylvania, and Dr. Rush, one of the most conspicuous of
those belonging to the various other religious communities in that
province, undertook, in conjunction with others, the important task of
bringing those into a society who were friendly to this cause. In this
undertaking they succeeded. And hence arose that union of the Quakers
with others, to which I have been directing the attention of the reader,
and by which the third class of forerunners and coadjutors becomes now
complete. This society, which was confined to Pennsylvania, was the
first ever formed in America, in which there was an union of persons of
different religious denominations in behalf of the African race.
[Footnote A: In this year, Elhanan Winchester, a supporter of the
doctrine of universal redemption, turned the attention of many of his
hearers to this subject, both by private interference, and by preaching
expressly upon it.]
But this society had scarcely begun to act, when the war broke out
between England and America, which had the effect of checking its
operations. This was considered as a severe blow upon it. But as those
things which appear most to our disadvantage, turn out often the most to
our benefit, so the war, by giving birth to the independence of America,
was ultimately favourable to its progress. For as this contrast had
produced during its continuance, so it left, when it was over, a general
enthusiasm for liberty. Many talked of little else but of the freedom
they had gained. These were naturally led to the consideration of those
among them who were groaning in bondage. They began to feel for their
hard case. They began to think that they should not deserve the new
blessing which they had acquired if they denied it to others. Thus the
discussions, which originated in this contest, became the occasion of
turning the attention of many, who might not otherwise have thought of
it, towards the miserable condition of the slaves.
Nor were writers wanting, who, influenced by considerations on the war,
and the independence resulting from it, made their works subservient to
the same benevolent end. A work, entitled _A Serious Address to the
Rulers of America on the Inconsistency of their Conduct respecting
Slavery, forming a Contrast between the Encroachments of England on
American Liberty and American Injustice in tolerating Slavery_; which
appeared in 1783, was particularly instrumental in producing this
effect. This excited a more than usual attention to the case of these
oppressed people, and where most of all it could be useful; for the
author compared in two opposite columns the animated speeches and
resolutions of the members of congress in behalf of their own liberty
with their conduct in continuing slavery to others. Hence the
legislature began to feel the inconsistency of the practice; and so far
had the sense of this inconsistency spread there, that when the
delegates met from each state to consider of a federal union, there was
a desire that the abolition of the Slave Trade should be one of the
articles in it. This was, however, opposed by the delegates from North
and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Georgia, the five states
which had the greatest concern in slaves. But even these offered to
agree to the article, provided a condition was annexed to it, (which was
afterwards done,) that the power of such abolition should not commence
in the legislature till the 1st of January, 1808.
In consequence then of these different circumstances, the Society of
Pennsylvania, the object of which was "for promoting the abolition of
slavery and the relief of free negroes unlawfully held in bondage,"
became so popular, that in the year 1787 it was thought desirable to
enlarge it. Accordingly several new members were admitted into it. The
celebrated Dr. Franklin, who had long warmly espoused the cause of the
injured Africans, was appointed president; James Pemberton and Jonathan
Penrose were appointed vice-presidents; Dr. Benjamin Rush and Tench
Coxe, secretaries; James Star, treasurer; William Lewis, John D. Coxe,
Miers Fisher, and William Rawle, counsellors; Thomas Harrison, Nathan
Boys, James Whiteall, James Reed, John Todd, Thomas Armatt, Norris
Jones, Samuel Richards, Francis Bayley, Andrew Carson, John Warner, and
Jacob Shoemaker, junior, an electing committee; and Thomas Shields,
Thomas Parker, John Oldden, William Zane, John Warner, and William
McElhenny, an acting committee for carrying on the purposes of the
institution.
I shall now only observe further upon this subject, that as a society,
consisting of an union of the Quakers, with others of other religious
denominations, was established for Pennsylvania in behalf of the
oppressed Africans; so different societies, consisting each of a similar
union of persons, were established in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey,
Delaware, Maryland, and other states for the same object, and that these
afterwards held a correspondence and personal communion with each other
for the promotion of it.
CHAPTER VI.
[Sidenote: Observations on the three classes already
introduced.--Coincidence of extraordinary circumstances.--Individuals in
each of these classes, who seem to have had an education as it were to
qualify them for promoting the cause of the abolition; Sharp and Ramsay
in the first; Dillwyn in the second; Pemberton and Rush in the
third.--These, with their respective classes, acted on motives of their
own, and independently of each other; and yet, from circumstances
neither foreseen nor known by them, they were in the way of being easily
united in 1787.--William Dillwyn, the great medium of connexion between
them all.]
If the reader will refer to his recollection, he will find that I have
given the history of three of the classes of the forerunners and
coadjutors in the great cause of the abolition of the Slave Trade up to
the time proposed. He will of course expect that I should proceed with
the history of the fourth. But, as I foresee that, by making certain
observations upon the classes already introduced in the present, rather
than in any future, place, I shall be able to give him clearer views on
the subject, I shall postpone the history of the remaining class to the
next chapter.
The account which I shall now give, will exhibit a concurrence of
extraordinary and important circumstances. It will show, first, that in
each of the three classes now introduced, there were individuals, in the
year 1787, who had been educated as it were for the purpose of becoming
peculiarly qualified to act together for the promotion of the abolition
of the Slave Trade. It will show, secondly, that these, with their
respective classes, acted upon their own principles, distinctly and
independently of each other. And lastly, that by means of circumstances,
which they themselves had neither foreseen nor contrived, a junction
between them was rendered easily practicable, and that it was beginning
to take place at the period assigned.
The first class of forerunners and coadjutors consisted principally, as
it has appeared, of persons in England of various descriptions. These, I
may observe, had no communication with each other as to any plan for the
abolition of the Slave Trade. There were two individuals, however, among
them who were more conspicuous than the rest, namely, Granville Sharp,
the first labourer, and Mr. Ramsay, the first controversial writer, in
the cause.
That Granville Sharp received an education as if to become qualified to
unite with others, in the year 1787, for this important object, must
have, appeared from the history of his labours, as detailed in several
of the preceding pages. The same may be said of Mr. Ramsay; for it has
already appeared that he lived in the island of St. Christopher, where
he made his observations, and studied the laws, relative to the
treatment of slaves, for nineteen years.
That Granville Sharp acted on grounds distinct from those in any of the
other classes is certain. For he knew nothing at this time either of the
Quakers in England or of those in America, any more than that they
existed by name. Had it not been for the case of Jonathan Strong, he
might never have attached himself to the cause. A similar account may be
given of Mr. Ramsay; for, if it had not been for what he had seen in the
island of St. Christopher, he had never embarked in it. It was from
scenes, which he had witnessed there, that he began to feel on the
subject. These feelings he communicated to others on his return to
England, and these urged him into action.
With respect to the second class, the reader will recollect that it
consisted of the Quakers in England: first, of George Fox; then of the
Quakers as a body; then of individuals belonging to that body, who
formed themselves into a committee, independently of it, for the
promotion of the object in question. This committee, it may he
remembered, consisted of six persons, of whom one was William Dillwyn.
That William Dillwyn became fitted for the station, which he was
afterwards to take, will be seen shortly. He was born in America, and
was a pupil of the venerable Benezet, who took pains very early to
interest his feelings on this great subject. Benezet employed him
occasionally, I mean in a friendly manner, as his amanuensis, to copy
his manuscripts for publication, as well as several of his letters
written in behalf of the cause. This gave his scholar an insight into
the subject; who, living besides in the land where both the Slave Trade
and slavery were established, obtained an additional knowledge of them,
so as to be able to refute many of those objections, to which others,
for want of local observation, could never have replied.
In the year 1772, Anthony Benezet introduced William Dillwyn by letter
to several of the principal people of Carolina, with whom he had himself
corresponded on the sufferings of the poor Africans, and desired him to
have interviews with them on the subject. He charged him also to be very
particular in making observations as to what he should see there. This
journey was of great use to the latter, in fixing him as the friend of
these oppressed people; for he saw so much of their cruel treatment in
the course of it, that he felt an anxiety ever afterwards, amounting to
a duty, to do every thing in his power for their relief.
In the year 1773, William Dillwyn, in conjunction with Richard Smith and
Daniel Wells, two of his own society, wrote a pamphlet in answer to
arguments then prevailing, that the manumission of slaves would be
injurious. This pamphlet--which was entitled, _Brief Considerations on
Slavery, and the Expediency of its Abolition; with some Hints on the
Means whereby it may be gradually effected_,--proved that in lieu of the
usual security required, certain sums paid at the several periods of
manumission would amply secure the public, as well as the owners of the
slaves, from any future burdens. In the same year also, when the
society, joined by several hundreds of others in New Jersey, presented a
petition to the legislature, (as mentioned in the former chapter,) to
obtain an act of assembly for the more equitable manumission of slaves
in that province, William Dillwyn was one of a deputation, which was
heard at the bar of the assembly for that purpose.
In 1774, he came to England, but his attention was still kept alive to
the subject; for he was the person by whom Anthony Benezet sent his
letter to the Countess of Huntingdon, as before related. He was also the
person to whom the same venerable defender of the African race sent his
letter, before spoken of, to be forwarded to the Queen.
That William Dillwyn, and those of his own class in England, acted upon
motives very distinct from those of the former class, may be said with
truth; for they acted upon the constitutional principles of their own
society, as incorporated into its discipline: which principles would
always have incited them to the subversion of slavery, as far as they
themselves were concerned, whether any other person had abolished it or
not. To which it may be added, as a further proof of the originality of
their motives, that the Quakers have had, ever since their institution
as a religious body, but little intercourse with the world.
The third class, to which I now come, consisted, as we have seen, first
of the Quakers in America; and secondly, of an union, of these with
others on the same continent. The principal individuals concerned in
this union were James Pemberton and Dr. Rush. The former of these,
having taken an active part in several of the yearly meetings of his own
society relative to the oppressed Africans, and having been in habits of
intimacy and friendship with John Woolman and Anthony Benezet, with the
result of whose labours he was acquainted, may be supposed to have
become qualified to take a leading station in the promotion of their
cause. Dr. Rush also had shown himself, as has appeared, an able
advocate, and had even sustained a controversy in their favour. That the
two last mentioned acted also on motives of their own, or independently
of those belonging to the other two classes, when they formed their
association in Pennsylvania, will be obvious from these circumstances;
first, that most of those of the first class, who contributed to throw
the greatest light and odium upon the Slave Trade, had not then made
their public appearance in the world. And, with respect to the second
class, the little committee belonging to it had neither been formed nor
thought of.
And as the individuals in each of the three classes, who have now been
mentioned, had an education as it were to qualify them for acting
together in this great cause, and had moved independently of each other;
so it will appear that, by means of circumstances, which they themselves
had neither foreseen nor contrived, a junction between them was rendered
easily practicable, and that it was beginning to take place at the
period assigned.
To show this, I must first remind the reader, that Anthony Benezet, as
soon as he heard of the result of the case of Somerset, opened a
correspondence with Granville Sharp, which was kept up to the
encouragement of both. In the year 1774, when he learned that William
Dillwyn was going to England, he gave him letters to that gentleman.
Thus one of the most conspicuous of the second class was introduced,
accidentally as it were, to one of the most conspicuous of the first. In
the year 1775, William Dillwyn went back to America, but, on his return
to England to settle, he renewed his visits to Granville Sharp. Thus the
connexion was continued. To these observations I may now add, that
Samuel Hoare, of the same class as William Dillwyn, had, in consequence
of the Bishop of Chester's sermon, begun a correspondence in 1784, as
before mentioned, with Mr. Ramsay, who was of the same class as Mr.
Sharp. Thus four individuals of the two first classes were in the way of
an union with one another.
But circumstances equally natural contributed to render an union between
the members of the second and the third classes easily practicable also.
For what was more natural than that William Dillwyn, who was born and
who had resided long in America, should have connexions there? He had
long cultivated a friendship (not then knowing to what it would lead)
with James Pemberton. His intimacy with him was like that of a family
connexion. They corresponded together; they corresponded also as kindred
hearts, relative to the Slave Trade. Thus two members of the second and
third classes had opened an intercourse on the subject and thus was
William Dillwyn the great medium, through whom the members of the two
classes now mentioned, as well as the members of all the three, might be
easily united also, if a fit occasion should offer.
CHAPTER VII.
[Sidenote: Fourth class of forerunners and coadjutors up to 1787.--Dr.
Peckard, vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge, the first of
these; gives out the Slave Trade as the subject for one of the annual
prizes.--Author writes and obtains the first of these; reads his
Dissertation in the Senate-house in the summer of 1785; his feelings on
the subject during his return home; is desirous of aiding the cause of
the Africans, but sees great difficulties; determines to publish his
prize essay for this purpose; is accidentally thrown into the way of
James Phillips, who introduces him to W. Dillwyn, the connecting medium
of the three classes before mentioned; and to G. Sharp and Mr. Ramsay,
and to R. Phillips.]
I proceed now to the fourth class of forerunners and coadjutors up to
the year 1787 in the great cause of the abolition of the Slave Trade.
The first of these was Dr. Peckard. This gentleman had distinguished
himself in the earlier part of his life by certain publications on the
intermediate state of the soul, and by others in favour of civil and
religious liberty. To the latter cause he was a warm friend, seldom
omitting any opportunity of declaring his sentiments in its favour. In
the course of his preferment he was appointed by Sir John Griffin,
afterwards Lord Howard of Walden, to the mastership of Magdalen College
in the University of Cambridge. In this high office he considered it to
be his duty to support those doctrines which he had espoused when in an
inferior station; and accordingly, when in the year 1784 it devolved
upon him to preach a sermon, before the University of Cambridge, he
chose his favourite subject: in the handling of which he took an
opportunity of speaking of the Slave Trade in the following nervous
manner:--
"Now, whether we consider the crime with respect to the
individuals concerned in this most barbarous and cruel traffic,
or whether we consider it as patronized and encouraged by the
laws of the land, it presents to our view an equal degree of
enormity. A crime, founded on a dreadful pre-eminence in
wickedness--a crime, which being both of individuals and the
nation, must sometime draw down upon us the heaviest judgment of
Almighty God, who made of one blood all the sons of men, and who
gave to all equally a natural right to liberty; and who, ruling
all the kingdoms of the earth with equal providential justice,
cannot suffer such deliberate, such monstrous iniquity, to pass
long unpunished."
But Dr. Peckard did not consider this delivery of his testimony, though
it was given before a learned and religious body, as a sufficient
discharge of his duty, while any opportunity remained of renewing it
with effect. And, as such an one offered in the year 1785, when he was
vice-chancellor of the University, he embraced it. In consequence of his
office, it devolved upon him to give out two subjects for Latin
dissertations, one to the middle bachelors, and the other to the senior
bachelors of arts. They who produced the best were to obtain the prizes.
To the latter he proposed the following: _Anne liceat Invitos in
Servitutem dare?_ or, _Is it right to make slaves of others against
their will?_
This circumstance of giving out subjects for the prizes, though only an
ordinary measure, became the occasion of my own labours, or of the real
honour which I feel in being able to consider myself as the next
coadjutor of this class in the cause of the injured Africans. For it
happened in this year that, being of the order of senior bachelors, I
became qualified to write. I had gained a prize for the best Latin
dissertation in the former year, and, therefore, it was expected that I
should obtain one in the present, or I should be considered as having
lost my reputation both in the eyes of the University and of my own
College. It had happened also, that I had been honoured with the first
of the prizes[A], in that year, and therefore it was expected again,
that I should obtain the first on this occasion. The acquisition of the
second, however honourable, would have been considered as a falling off,
or as a loss of former fame. I felt myself, therefore, particularly
called upon to maintain my post. And, with feelings of this kind, I
began to prepare myself for the question.
[Footnote A: There are two prizes on each subject, one for the best and
the other for the second-best essays.]
In studying the thesis, I conceived it to point directly to the African
Slave Trade, and more particularly as I knew that Dr. Peckard, in the
sermon which I have mentioned, had pronounced so warmly against it. At
any rate, I determined to give it this construction. But, alas! I was
wholly ignorant of this subject; and, what was unfortunate, a few weeks
only were allowed for the composition. I was determined, however, to
make the best use of my time. I got access to the manuscript papers of a
deceased friend, who had been in the trade. I was acquainted also with
several officers who had been in the West Indies, and from these I
gained something. But I still felt myself at a loss for materials, and I
did not know where to get them; when going by accident into a friend's
house, I took up a newspaper then lying on his table. One of the
articles which attracted my notice, was an advertisement of ANTHONY
BENEZET'S _Historical Account of Guinea_. I soon left my friend and his
paper, and, to lose no time, hastened to London to buy it. In this
precious book I found almost all I wanted. I obtained, by means of it, a
knowledge of, and access to, the great authorities of Adanson, Moore,
Barbot, Smith, Bosman, and others. It was of great consequence to know
what these persons had said upon this subject. For, having been
themselves either long resident in Africa, or very frequently there,
their knowledge of it could not be questioned. Having been concerned
also in the trade, it was not likely that they would criminate
themselves more than they could avoid. Writing too at a time when the
abolition was not even thought of, they could not have been biassed with
any view to that event. And, lastly, having been dead many years, they
could not have been influenced, as living evidences may be supposed to
have been, either to conceal or exaggerate, as their own interest might
lead them, either by being concerned in the continuance of the trade, or
by supporting the opinions of those of their patrons in power, who were
on the different sides of this question.
Furnished then in this manner, I began my work. But no person can tell
the severe trial which the writing of it proved to me. I had expected
pleasure from the invention of the arguments, from the arrangement of
them, from the putting of them together, and from the thought in the
interim that I was engaged in an innocent contest for literary honour.
But, all my pleasure was damped by the facts which were now continually
before me. It was but one gloomy subject from morning to night. In the
day-time I was uneasy. In the night I had little rest. I sometimes never
closed my eye-lids for grief. It became now not so much a trial for
academical reputation, as for the production of a work, which might be
useful to injured Africa. And keeping this idea in my mind ever after
the perusal of Benezet, I always slept with a candle in my room, that I
might rise out of my bed and put down such thoughts as might occur to me
in the night, if I judged them valuable, conceiving that no arguments of
any moment should be lost in so great a cause. Having at length finished
this painful task, I sent my Essay to the vice-chancellor, and soon
afterwards found myself honoured as before with the first prize.
As it is usual to read these Essays publicly in the senate-house soon
after the prize is adjudged, I was called to Cambridge for this purpose.
I went and performed my office. On returning however to London, the
subject of it almost wholly engrossed my thoughts. I became at times
very seriously affected while upon the road. I stopped my horse
occasionally, and dismounted and walked. I frequently tried to persuade
myself in these intervals that the contents of my Essay could not be
true. The more, however, I reflected upon them, or rather upon the
authorities on which they were founded, the more I gave them credit.
Coming in sight of Wades Mill, in Hertfordshire, I sat down disconsolate
on the turf by the roadside and held my horse. Here a thought came into
my mind, that if the contents of the Essay were true, it was time some
person should see these calamities to their end. Agitated in this
manner, I reached home. This was in the summer of 1785.
In the course of the autumn of the same year I experienced similar
impressions. I walked frequently into the woods, that I might think on
the subject in solitude, and find relief to my mind there. But there the
question still recurred, "Are these things true?" Still the answer
followed as instantaneously "They are." Still the result accompanied it,
"Then surely some person should interfere." I then began to envy those
who had seats in parliament, and who had great riches, and widely
extended connexions, which would enable them to take up this cause.
Finding scarcely any one at that time who thought of it, I was turned
frequently to myself. But here many difficulties arose. It struck me,
among others, that a young man of only twenty-four years of age could
not have that solid judgment or knowledge of men, manners, and things,
which were requisite to qualify him to undertake a task of such
magnitude and importance;--and with whom was I to unite? I believed
also, that it looked so much like one of the feigned labours of
Hercules, that my understanding would be suspected if I proposed it. On
ruminating, however, on the subject, I found one thing at least
practicable, and that this also was in my power. I could translate my
Latin dissertation. I could enlarge it usefully. I could see how the
public received it, or how far they were likely to favour any serious
measures, which should have a tendency to produce the abolition of the
Slave Trade. Upon this then I determined; and in the middle of the month
of November 1785, I began my work.
By the middle of January, I had finished half of it, though I had made
considerable additions. I now thought of engaging with some bookseller
to print it when finished. For this purpose I called upon Mr. Cadell, in
the Strand, and consulted him about it. He said that as the original
essay had been honoured by the University of Cambridge with the first
prize, this circumstance would insure it a respectable circulation among
persons of taste. I own I was not much pleased with his opinion. I
wished the essay to find its way among useful people, and among such as
would act and think with me. Accordingly I left Mr. Cadell, after having
thanked him for his civility, and determined, as I thought I had time
sufficient before dinner, to call upon a friend in the city. In going
past the Royal Exchange, Mr. Joseph Hancock, one of the religious
society of the Quakers, and with whose family my own had been long
united in friendship, suddenly met me. He first accosted me by saying
that I was the person whom he was wishing to see. He then asked me why I
had not published my prize essay. I asked him in return what had made
him think of that subject in particular. He replied that his own society
had long taken it up as a religious body, and individuals among them
were wishing to find me out. I asked him who. He answered, James
Phillips, a bookseller, in Georgeyard, Lombard-street, and William
Dillwyn, of Walthamstow, and others. Having but little time to spare, I
desired him to introduce me to one of them. In a few minutes he took me
to James Phillips, who was then the only one of them in town; by whose
conversation I was so much interested and encouraged, that without any
further hesitation I offered him the publication of my work. This
accidental introduction of me to James Phillips was, I found afterwards,
a most happy circumstance for the promotion of the cause which I had
then so deeply at heart, as it led me to the knowledge of several of
those, who became afterwards material coadjutors in it. It was also of
great importance to me with respect to the work itself: for he possessed
an acute penetration, a solid judgment, and a literary knowledge, which
he proved by the many alterations and additions he proposed; and which I
believe I uniformly adopted, after mature consideration, from a sense of
their real value. It was advantageous to me also, inasmuch as it led me
to his friendship, which was never interrupted but by his death.
On my second visit to James Phillips, at which time I brought him about
half my manuscript for the press, I desired him to introduce me to
William Dillwyn, as he also had mentioned him to me on my first visit,
and as I had not seen Mr. Hancock since. Matters were accordingly
arranged, and a day appointed before I left him. On this day I had my
first interview with my new friend. Two or three others of his own
religious society were present, but who they were, I do not now
recollect. There seemed to be a great desire among them to know the
motive, by which I had been actuated in contending for the prize. I told
them frankly that I had no motive but that which, other young men in the
University had on such occasions; namely, the wish of being
distinguished, or of obtaining literary honour; but that I had felt so
deeply on the subject of it, that I had lately interested myself in it
from a motive of duty. My conduct seemed to be highly approved by those
present, and much conversation ensued, but it was of a general nature.
As William Dillwyn wished very much to see me at his house at
Walthamstow, I appointed the 13th of March to spend the day with them
there. We talked for the most part, during my stay, on the subject of my
essay. I soon discovered the treasure I had met with in his local
knowledge, both of the Slave Trade and of slavery, as they existed in
the United States; and I gained from him several facts, which, with his
permission, I afterwards inserted in my work. But how surprised was I to
hear, in the course of our conversation, of the labours of Granville
Sharp, of the writings of Ramsay, and of the controversy in which the
latter was engaged, of all which I had hitherto known nothing! How
surprised was I to learn that William Dillwyn himself had, two years
before, associated himself with five others for the purpose of
enlightening the public mind upon this great subject! How astonished was
I to find that a society had been formed in America for the same object,
with some of the principal members of which he was intimately
acquainted! And how still more astonished at the inference which
instantly rushed upon my mind, that he was capable of being made the
great medium of connexion between them all. These thoughts almost
overpowered me. I believe that after this I talked but little more to my
friend. My mind was overwhelmed with the thought that I had been
providentially directed to his house; that the finger of Providence was
beginning to be discernible; that the day-star of African liberty was
rising, and that probably I might be permitted to become an humble
instrument in promoting it.
In the course of attending to my work, as now in the press, James
Phillips introduced me also to Granville Sharp, with whom I had
afterwards many interesting interviews from time to time, and whom I
discovered to be a distant relation by my father's side.
He introduced me also by letter to a correspondence with Mr. Ramsay, who
in a short time afterwards came to London to see me.
He introduced me also to his cousin, Richard Phillips, of Lincoln's Inn,
who was at that time, on the point of joining the religious society of
Quakers. In him I found much sympathy, and a willingness to co-operate
with me. When dull and disconsolate, he encouraged me. When in spirits,
he stimulated me further. Him I am now to mention as a new, but soon
afterwards as an active and indefatigable, coadjutor in the cause. But I
shall say more concerning him in a future chapter. I shall only now add
that my work was at length printed; that it was entitled _An Essay on
the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, particularly the African,
translated from a Latin Dissertation, which was honoured with the first
Prize in the University of Cambridge, for the year 1785; with
Additions_; and that it was ushered into the world in the month of June,
1786, or in about a year after it had been read in the Senate-house in
its first form.
CHAPTER VIII.
[Sidenote: Continuation of the fourth class of forerunners and
coadjutors up to 1787; Bennet Langton; Dr. Baker; Lord and Lady
Scarsdale.--Author visits Ramsay at Teston.--Lady Middleton and Sir
Charles (afterward Lord Barham).--Author declares himself at the house
of the latter ready now to devote himself to the cause; reconsiders this
declaration or pledge; his reasoning and struggle upon it; persists in
it; returns to London; and pursues the work as now a business of his
life.]
I had purposed, as I said before, when I determined to publish my essay,
to wait to see how the world would receive it, or what disposition there
would be in the public to favour my measures for the abolition of the
Slave Trade. But the conversation which I had held on the 13th of March
with William Dillwyn, continued to make such an impression upon me, that
I thought now there could be no occasion for waiting for such a purpose.
It seemed now only necessary to go forward. Others I found had already
begun the work. I had been thrown suddenly among these, as into a new
world of friends. I believed, also, that a way was opening under
Providence for support; and I now thought that nothing remained for me
but to procure as many coadjutors as I could.
I had long had the honour of the friendship of Mr. Bennet Langton, and I
determined to carry him one of my books, and to interest his feelings in
it, with a view of procuring his assistance in the cause. Mr. Langton
was a gentleman of an ancient family and respectable fortune in
Lincolnshire, but resided then in Queen Square, Westminster. He was
known as the friend of Dr. Johnson, Jonas Hanway, Edmund Burke, Sir
Joshua Reynolds, and others. Among his acquaintance, indeed, were most
of the literary, and eminent professional, and public-spirited men of
the times. At court, also, he was well known, and had the esteem of his
majesty (George III.), with whom he frequently conversed. His friends
were numerous also, in both houses of the legislature. As to himself, he
was much noted for his learning, but most of all for the great example
he gave, with respect to the usefulness and integrity of his life.
By introducing my work to the sanction of a friend of such high
character and extensive connexions, I thought I should be doing great
things. And so the event proved. For when I went to him after he had
read it, I found that it had made a deep impression upon his mind. As a
friend to humanity, he lamented over the miseries of the oppressed
Africans; and over the crimes of their tyrants, as a friend to morality
and religion. He cautioned me, however, against being too sanguine in my
expectations, as so many thousands were interested in continuing the
trade. Justice, however, which he said weighed with him beyond all
private or political interest, demanded a public inquiry, and he would
assist me to the utmost of his power in my attempts towards it. From
this time he became a zealous and active coadjutor in the cause, and
continued so to the end of his valuable life.
The next person, to whom I gave my work with a like view, was Dr. Baker,
a clergyman of the Establishment, and with whom I had been in habits of
intimacy for some time. Dr. Baker was a learned and pious man. He had
performed the duties of his profession, from the time of his initiation
into the church, in an exemplary manner; not only by paying a proper
attention to the customary services, but by the frequent visitation of
the sick and the instruction of the poor. This he had done, too, to
admiration in a particularly extensive parish. At the time I knew him,
he had May-Fair Chapel, of which an unusual portion of the congregation
consisted then of persons of rank and fortune. With most of these he had
a personal acquaintance. This was of great importance to me in the
promotion of my views. Having left him my book for a month, I called
upon him. The result was that which I expected from so good a man. He,
did not wait for me to ask him for his co-operation, but he offered his
services in any way which I might think most eligible; feeling it his
duty, as he expressed it, to become an instrument in exposing such a
complication of guilt and misery to the world. Dr. Baker became from
this time an active coadjutor also, and continued so to his death.
The person to whom I sent my work next, was the late Lord Scarsdale,
whose family I had known for about two years. Both he and his lady read
it with attention. They informed me, after the perusal of it, that both
of them were desirous of assisting me in promoting the cause of the poor
Africans. Lady Scarsdale lamented that she might possibly offend near
and dear connexions, who had interests in, the West Indies, by so doing;
but that, conscious of no intention to offend these, and considering the
duties of religion to be the first to be attended to, she should be
pleased to become useful in so good a cause. Lord Scarsdale also assured
me, that, if the subject should ever come before the House of Lords, it
should have his constant support.
While attempting to make friends in this manner, I received a letter
from Mr. Ramsay, with an invitation to spend a month at his house at
Teston, near Maidstone, in Kent. This I accepted, that I might
communicate to him the progress I had made, that I might gain more
knowledge from him on the subject, and that I might acquire new strength
and encouragement to proceed. On hearing my account of my proceedings,
which I detailed to him on the first evening of our meeting, he seemed
almost overpowered with joy. He said he had been long of opinion that
the release of the Africans from the scourges of this cruel trade was
within the determined views of Providence, and that by turning the
public attention to their misery, we should be the instruments of
beginning the good work. He then informed me how long he himself had had
their cause at heart; that communicating his feelings to Sir Charles
Middleton (afterwards Lord Barham) and his lady, the latter had urged
him to undertake a work in their behalf; that her importunities were
great respecting it; and that he had on this account, and in obedience
also to his own feelings, as has been before mentioned, begun it; but
that, foreseeing the censure and abuse which such a subject, treated in
any possible manner, must bring upon the author, he had laid it aside
for some time. He had, however, resumed it at the solicitation of Dr.
Porteus, then Bishop of Chester; after which, in the year 1784, it made
its appearance in the world.
I was delighted with this account on the first evening of my arrival;
but more particularly, as I collected from it that I might expect in the
Bishop of Chester and Sir Charles Middleton two new friends to the
cause. This expectation was afterwards fully realized, as the reader
will see in its proper place. But I was still more delighted, when I was
informed that Sir Charles and Lady Middleton, with Mrs. Bouverie, lived
at Teston Hall, in a park which was but a few yards from the house in
which I then was. In the morning I desired an introduction to them,
which accordingly took place, and I found myself much encouraged and
supported by this visit.
It is not necessary, nor indeed is there room, to detail my employments
in this village, or the lonely walks I took there, or the meditations of
my mind at such seasons. I will therefore come at once to a particular
occurrence. When at dinner one day with the family at Teston Hall, I was
much pleased with the turn which the conversation had taken on the
subject, and in the joy of my heart I exclaimed, that "I was ready to
devote myself to the cause." This brought great commendation from those
present; and Sir Charles Middleton added, that if I wanted any
information in the course of my future inquiries relative to Africa,
which he could procure me as comptroller of the navy, such as extracts
from the journals of the ships of war to that continent, or from other
papers, I should have free access to his office. This offer I received
with thankfulness, and it operated as a new encouragement to me to
proceed.
The next morning, when I awoke, one of the first things that struck me
was, that I had given a pledge to the company the day before that I
would devote myself to the cause of the oppressed Africans. I became a
little uneasy at this. I questioned whether I had considered matters
sufficiently to be able to go so far with propriety. I determined
therefore to give the subject a full consideration, and accordingly I
walked to the place of my usual meditations,--the woods.
Having now reached a place of solitude, I began to balance everything on
both sides of the question. I considered first, that I had not yet
obtained information sufficient on the subject to qualify me for the
undertaking of such a work. But I reflected, on the other hand, that Sir
Charles Middleton had just opened to me a new source of knowledge; that
I should be backed by the local information of Dillwyn and Ramsay; and
that surely, by taking pains, I could acquire more.
I then considered that I had not yet a sufficient number of friends to
support me. This occasioned me to review them. I had now Sir Charles
Middleton, who was in the House of Commons. I was sure of Dr. Porteus,
who was in the House of Lords. I could count upon Lord Scarsdale, who
was a peer also. I had secured Mr. Langton, who had a most extensive
acquaintance with members of both houses of the legislature. I had also
secured Dr. Baker, who had similar connexions. I could depend upon
Granville Sharp, James Phillips, Richard Phillips, Ramsay, Dillwyn, and
the little committee to which he belonged, as well as the whole society
of the Quakers. I thought, therefore, upon the whole, that, considering
the short time I had been at work, I was well off with respect to
support. I believed, also, that there were still several of my own
acquaintance whom I could interest in the question, and I did not doubt
that, by exerting myself diligently, persons, who were then strangers to
me, would be raised up in time.
I considered next, that it was impossible for a great cause like this to
be forwarded without large pecuniary funds. I questioned whether some
thousand pounds would not be necessary, and from whence was such a sum
to come! In answer to this, I persuaded myself that generous people
would be found who would unite with me in contributing their mite
towards the undertaking, and I seemed confident that, as the Quakers had
taken up the cause as a religious body, they would not be behind-hand in
supporting it.
I considered lastly, that if I took up the question, I must devote
myself wholly to it. I was sensible that a little labour now and then
would be inadequate to the purpose, or that, where the interests of so
many thousand persons were likely to be affected, constant exertion
would be necessary. I felt certain that if ever the matter were to be
taken up, there could be no hope of success, except it should be taken
up by some one who would make it an object or business of his life. I
thought too that a man's life might not be more than adequate to the
accomplishment of the end. But I knew of no one who could devote such a
portion of time to it. Sir Charles Middleton, though he was so warm and
zealous, was greatly occupied in the discharge of his office. Mr.
Langton spent a great portion of his time in the education of his
children. Dr. Baker had a great deal to do in the performance of his
parochial duty. The Quakers were almost all of them in trade. I could
look therefore to no person but myself; and the question was, whether I
was prepared to make the sacrifice. In favour of the undertaking, I
urged to myself, that never was any cause, which had been taken up by
man in any country or in any age, so great and important; that never was
there one in which so much misery was heard to cry for redress; that
never was there one in which so much good could be done; never one in
which the duty of Christian charity could be so extensively exercised;
never one more worthy of the devotion of a whole life towards it; and
that, if a man thought properly, he ought to rejoice to have been called
into existence, if he were only permitted to become an instrument in
forwarding it in any part of its progress. Against these sentiments, on
the other hand, I had to urge, that I had been designed for the church;
that I had already advanced as far as deacon's orders in it; that my
prospects there on account of my connexions were then brilliant, that,
by appearing to desert my profession, my family would be dissatisfied,
if not unhappy. These thoughts pressed upon me, and rendered the
conflict difficult. But the sacrifice of my prospects staggered me, I
own, the most. When the other objections, which I have related, occurred
to me, my enthusiasm instantly, like a flash of lightning, consumed
them; but this stuck to me, and troubled me. I had ambition. I had a
thirst after worldly interest and honours, and I could not extinguish it
at once. I was more than two hours in solitude under this painful
conflict. At length I yielded, not because I saw any reasonable prospect
of success in my new undertaking (for all cool-headed and cool-hearted
men would have pronounced against it), but in obedience, I believe, to a
higher Power. And I can say, that both on the moment of this resolution,
and for some time afterwards, I had more sublime and happy feelings than
at any former period of my life.
Having now made up my mind on the subject, I informed Mr. Ramsay, that
in a few days I should be leaving Teston, that I might begin my labours,
according to the pledge I had given him.
CHAPTER IX.
[Sidenote: Continuation of the fourth Class of forerunners and
coadjutors Up to 1787.--Author resolves upon the distribution of his
book.--Mr. Sheldon; Sir Herbert Mackworth; Lord Newhaven; Lord Balgonie
(afterwards Leven); Lord Hawke; Bishop Porteus.--Author visits African
vessels in the Thames; and various persons, for further
information.--Visits also Members of Parliament; Sir Richard Hill; Mr.
Powys (late Lord Lilford); Mr. Wilberforce and others; conduct of the
latter on this occasion.]
On my return to London, I called upon William Dillwyn, to inform him of
the resolution I had made at Teston, and found him at his town lodgings
in the Poultry. I informed him also, that I had a letter of introduction
in my pocket from Sir Charles Middleton to Samuel Hoare, with whom I was
to converse on the subject. The latter gentleman had interested himself
the year before as one of the committee for the Black poor in London,
whom Mr. Sharp was sending under the auspices of government to Sierra
Leone. He was also, as the reader may see by looking back, a member of
the second class of coadjutors, or of the little committee which had
branched out of the Quakers in England as before described. William
Dillwyn said he would go with me and introduce me himself. On our
arrival in Lombard-street, I saw my new friend, with whom we conversed
for some time. From thence I proceeded, accompanied by both, to the
house of James Phillips in George-yard, to whom I was desirous of
communicating my resolution also. We found him at home, conversing with
a friend of the same religious society, whose name was Joseph Gurney
Bevan. I then repeated my resolution before them all. We had much
friendly and satisfactory conversation together. I received much
encouragement on every side, and I fixed to meet them again at the place
where we then were in three days.
On the evening of the same day, I waited upon Granville Sharp to make
the same communication to him. He received it with great pleasure, and
he hoped I should have strength to proceed. From thence I went to the
Baptist-head coffee-house, in Chancery-lane, and having engaged with the
master of the house that I should always have one private room to myself
when I wanted it, I took up my abode there, in order to be near my
friend Richard Phillips of Lincoln's Inn, from whose advice and
assistance I had formed considerable expectations.
The first matter for our deliberation, after we had thus become
neighbours, was, what plan I ought to pursue to give effect to the
resolution I had taken.
After having discussed the matter two or three times at his chambers, it
seemed to be our opinion, that, as members of the legislature could do
more to the purpose in this question, than any other persons, it would
be proper to circulate all the remaining copies of my work among these,
in order that they might thus obtain information upon the subject.
Secondly, that it would be proper that I should wait personally upon
several of these also. And thirdly, that I should be endeavouring in the
interim to enlarge my own knowledge, that I might thus be enabled to
answer the various objections which might be advanced on the other side
of the question, as well as become qualified to be a manager of the
cause.
On the third day, or at the time appointed, I went with Richard Phillips
to George-yard, Lombard-street, where I met all my friends as before. I
communicated to them the opinion we had formed at Lincoln's Inn,
relative to my future proceedings in the three different branches as now
detailed. They approved the plan. On desiring a number of my books to be
sent to me at my new lodgings for the purpose of distribution, Joseph
Gurney Bevan, who was stated to have been present at the former
interview, seemed uneasy, and at length asked me if I was going to
distribute these at my own expense. I replied, I was. He appealed
immediately to those present whether it ought to be allowed. He asked
whether, when a young man was giving up his time from morning till
night, they who applauded his pursuit and seemed desirous of
co-operating with him, should allow him to make such a sacrifice, or
whether they should not at least secure him from loss; and he proposed
directly that the remaining part of the edition should be taken off by
subscription, and, in order that my feelings might not be hurt from any
supposed stain arising from the thought of gaining any thing by such a
proposal, they should be paid for only at the prime cost. I felt myself
much obliged to him for this tender consideration about me, and
particularly for the latter part of it, under which alone I accepted the
offer. Samuel Hoare was charged with the management of the subscription,
and the books were to be distributed as I had proposed, and in any way
which I myself might prescribe.
This matter having been determined upon, my first care was that the
books should be put into proper hands. Accordingly I went round among my
friends from day to day, wishing to secure this before I attended to any
of the other objects. In this I was much assisted by my friend Richard
Phillips. Mr. Langton began the distribution of them. He made a point
either of writing to or of calling upon those to whom he sent them. Dr.
Baker took the charge of several for the same purpose; Lord and Lady
Scarsdale of others; Sir Charles and Lady Middleton of others. Mr.
Sheldon, at the request of Richard Phillips, introduced me by letter to
several members of parliament, to whom I wished to deliver them myself.
Sir Herbert Mackworth, when spoken to by the latter, offered his
services also. He seemed to be particularly interested in the cause. He
went about to many of his friends in the House of Commons, and this from
day to day, to procure their favour towards it. Lord Newhaven was
applied to, and distributed some. Lord Balgonie took a similar charge.
The late Lord Hawke, who told me that he had long felt for the
sufferings of the injured Africans, desired to be permitted to take his
share of the distribution among members of the House of Lords, and Dr.
Porteus, now Bishop of London, became another coadjutor in the same
work.
This distribution of my books having been consigned to proper hands, I
began to qualify myself, by obtaining further knowledge, for the
management of this great cause. As I had obtained the principal part of
it from reading, I thought I ought now to see what could be seen, and to
know from living persons what could be known on the subject. With
respect to the first of these points, the river Thames presented itself
as at hand. Ships were going occasionally from the port of London to
Africa, and why could I not get on board them and examine for myself?
After diligent inquiry, I heard of one which had just arrived. I found
her to be a little wood-vessel, called the Lively, Captain Williamson,
or one which traded to Africa in the natural productions of the country,
such as ivory, bees'-wax, Malaguetta pepper, palm-oil, and dye-woods. I
obtained specimens of some of these, so that I now became possessed of
some of those things of which I had only read before. On conversing with
the mate, he showed me one or two pieces of the cloth made by the
natives, and from their own cotton. I prevailed upon him to sell me a
piece of each. Here new feelings arose, and particularly when I
considered that persons of so much apparent ingenuity, and capable of
such beautiful work as the Africans, should be made slaves, and reduced
to a level with the brute creation. My reflections here on the better
use which might be made of Africa by the substitution of another trade,
and on the better use which might be made of her inhabitants, served
greatly to animate and to sustain me amidst the labour of my pursuits.
The next vessel I boarded was the Fly, Captain Colley. Here I found
myself for the first time on the deck of a slave-vessel. The sight of
the rooms below and of the gratings above, and of the barricado across
the deck, and the explanation of the uses of all these, filled me both
with melancholy and horror. I found soon afterwards a fire of
indignation kindling within me. I had now scarce patience to talk with
those on board. I had not the coolness this first time to go leisurely
over the places that were open to me. I got away quickly. But that which
I thought I saw horrible in this vessel had the same effect upon me as
that which I thought I had seen agreeable in the other, namely, to
animate and to invigorate me in my pursuit.
But I will not trouble the reader with any further account of my
water-expeditions, while attempting to perfect my knowledge on this
subject. I was equally assiduous in obtaining intelligence wherever it
could be had; and being now always on the watch, I was frequently
falling in with individuals, from whom I gained something. My object was
to see all who had been in Africa, but more particularly those who had
never been interested, or who at any rate were not then interested, in
the trade. I gained accordingly access very early to General Rooke; to
Lieutenant Dalrymple, of the army; to Captain Fiddes, of the engineers;
to the reverend Mr. Newton; to Mr. Nisbett, a surgeon in the Minories;
to Mr. Devaynes, who was then in parliament, and to many others; and I
made it a rule to put down in writing, after every conversation, what
had taken place in the course of it. By these means, things began to
unfold themselves to me more and more, and I found my stock of knowledge
almost daily on the increase.
While, however, I was forwarding this, I was not inattentive to the
other object of my pursuit, which was that of waiting upon members
personally. The first I called upon was Sir Richard Hill. At the first
interview he espoused the cause. I waited then upon others, and they
professed themselves friendly; but they seemed to make this profession
more from the emotion of good hearts, revolting at the bare mention of
the Slave Trade, than from any knowledge concerning it. One, however,
whom I visited, Mr. Powys, (the late Lord Lilford,) with whom I had been
before acquainted in Northamptonshire, seemed to doubt some of the facts
in my book, from a belief that human nature was not capable of
proceeding to such a pitch of wickedness. I asked him to name his facts.
He selected the case of the hundred and thirty-two slaves who were
thrown alive into the sea to defraud the underwriters. I promised to
satisfy him fully upon this point, and went immediately to Granville
Sharp, who lent me his account of the trial, as reported at large from
the notes of the short-hand writer, whom he had employed on the
occasion. Mr. Powys read the account. He became, in consequence of it,
convinced, as, indeed, he could not otherwise be, of the truth of what I
had asserted, and he declared at the same time that, if this were true,
there was nothing so horrible related of this trade, which might not
immediately be believed. Mr. Powys had been always friendly to this
question, but now he took a part in the distribution of my books.
Among those whom I visited was Mr. Wilberforce. On my first interview
with him, he stated frankly, that the subject had often employed his
thoughts, and that it was near his heart. He seemed earnest about it,
and also very desirous of taking the trouble of inquiring further into
it. Having read my book, which I had delivered to him, in person, he
sent, for me. He expressed a wish that I would make him acquainted with
some of my authorities for the assertions in it, which I did afterwards
to his satisfaction. He asked me if I could support it by any other
evidence. I told him I could. I mentioned Mr. Newton, Mr. Nisbett, and
several others to him. He took the trouble of sending for all these. He
made memorandums of their conversation, and, sending for me afterwards,
showed them to me. On learning my intention to devote myself to the
cause, he paid me many handsome compliments. He then desired me to call
upon him often, and to acquaint him with my progress from time to time.
He expressed also his willingness to afford me any assistance in his
power in the prosecution of my pursuits.
The carrying on of these different objects, together with the writing
which was connected with them, proved very laborious, and occupied
almost all my time. I was seldom engaged less than sixteen hours in the
day. When I left Teston to begin the pursuit as an object of my life, I
promised my friend Mr. Ramsay a weekly account of my progress. At the
end of the first week my letter to him contained little more than a
sheet of paper. At the end of the second it contained three; at the end
of the third, six; and at the end of the fourth I found it would be so
voluminous, that I was obliged to decline writing it.
CHAPTER X.
[Sidenote: Continuation of the fourth class of forerunners and
coadjutors up to 1787.--Author goes on to enlarge his knowledge in the
different departments of the subject; communicates more frequently with
Mr. Wilberforce.--Meetings now appointed at the house of the
latter.--Dinner at Mr. Langton's.--Mr. Wilberforce pledges himself there
to take up the subject in Parliament; remarkable junction, in
consequence, of all the four classes of forerunners and coadjutors
before-mentioned.--Committee formed out of these on the 22nd of May,
1787, for the abolition of the Slave Trade.]
The manner in which Mr. Wilberforce had received me, and the pains which
he had taken, and was still taking, to satisfy himself of the truth of
those enormities which had been charged upon the Slave Trade, tended
much to enlarge my hope, that they might become at length the subject of
a parliamentary inquiry. Richard Phillips, also, to whom I made a report
at his chambers almost every evening of the proceedings of the day, had
begun to entertain a similar expectation. Of course we unfolded our
thoughts to one another; from hence a desire naturally sprung up in each
of us to inquire whether any alteration in consequence of this new
prospect should be made in my pursuits. On deliberating upon this point,
it seemed proper to both of us that the distribution of the books should
be continued; that I should still proceed in enlarging my own knowledge;
and that I should still wait upon members of the legislature, but with
this difference, that I should never lose sight of Mr. Wilberforce, but,
on the other hand, that I should rather omit visiting some others than
paying a proper attention to him.
One thing however appeared now to be necessary, which had not yet been
done. This was to inform our friends in the city, upon whom I had all
along occasionally called, that we believed the time was approaching
when it would be desirable that we should unite our labours, if they saw
no objection to such a measure; for, if the Slave Trade were to become a
subject of parliamentary inquiry with a view to the annihilation of it,
no individual could perform the work which would be necessary for such a
purpose. This work must be a work of many; and who so proper to assist
in it as they, who had before so honourably laboured in it? In the case
of such an event large funds also would be wanted, and who so proper to
procure and manage them as these? A meeting was accordingly called at
the house of James Phillips, when these our views were laid open. When I
stated that from the very time of my hopes beginning to rise I had
always had those present in my eye as one day to be fellow-labourers,
William Dillwyn replied, that from the time they had first heard of the
_Prize Essay_, they also had had their eyes upon me, and, from the time
they had first seen me, had conceived: a desire of making the same use
of me as I had now expressed a wish of making of them, but that matters
did not appear ripe at our first interview. Our proposal, however, was
approved, and an assurance was given, that an union should take place as
soon as it was judged to be seasonable. It was resolved also, that one
day in the week[A] should be appointed for a meeting at the house of
James Phillips, where as many might attend as had leisure, and that I
should be there to make a report of my progress, by which we might all
judge of the fitness of the time of calling ourselves an united body.
Pleased now with the thought that matters were put into such a train, I
returned to my former objects.
[Footnote A: At these weekly meetings I met occasionally Joseph Woods,
George Harrison, and John Lloyd, three of the other members, who
belonged to the committee of the second class of forerunners and
coadjutors as before described. I had seen all of them before, but I do
not recollect the time when I first met them.]
It is not necessary to say anything more of the first of these objects,
which was that of the further distribution of my book, than that it was
continued, and chiefly by the same hands.
With respect to the enlargement of my knowledge, it was promoted
likewise. I now gained access to the Custom-House in London, where I
picked up much valuable information for my purpose.
Having had reason to believe that the Slave Trade was peculiarly fatal
to those employed in it, I wished much to get copies of many of the
muster-rolls from the Custom-House at Liverpool for a given time. James
Phillips wrote to his friend William Rathbone, who was one of his own
religious society, and who resided there, to procure them. They were
accordingly sent up. The examination of these, which took place at the
chambers of Richard Phillips, was long and tedious. We looked over them
together. We usually met for this purpose at nine in the evening, and we
seldom parted till one, and sometimes not till three in the morning.
When our eyes were inflamed by the candle, or tired by fatigue, we used
to relieve ourselves by walking out within the precincts of Lincoln's
Inn, when all seemed to be fast asleep, and thus, as it were, in
solitude and in stillness to converse upon them, as well as upon the
best means of the further promotion of our cause. These scenes of our
early friendship and exertions I shall never forget. I often think of
them both with astonishment and with pleasure. Having recruited
ourselves in this manner, we used to return to our work. From these
muster-rolls, I may now observe that we gained the most important
information: we ascertained, beyond the power of contradiction, that
more than half of the seamen who went out with the ships in the Slave
Trade did not return with them, and that of these so many perished, as
amounted to one-fifth of all employed. As to what became of the
remainder, the muster-rolls did not inform us; this, therefore, was left
to us as a subject for our future inquiry.
In endeavouring to enlarge my knowledge, my thoughts were frequently
turned to the West Indian part of the question, and in this department
my friend Richard Phillips gained me important intelligence. He put into
my hands several documents concerning estates in the West Indies, which
he had mostly from the proprietors themselves, where the slaves by mild
and prudent usage had so increased in population, as to supersede the
necessity of the Slave Trade.
By attending to these and to various other parts of the subject, I began
to see as it were with new eyes; I was enabled to make several necessary
discriminations, to reconcile things before seemingly contradictory, and
to answer many objections which had hitherto put on a formidable shape.
But most of all was I rejoiced at the thought that I should soon be able
to prove that which I had never doubted, but which had hitherto been
beyond my power in this case, that Providence, in ordaining laws
relative to the agency of man, had never made that to be wise which was
immoral, and that the Slave Trade would be found as impolitic as it was
inhuman and unjust.
In keeping up my visits to members of parliament, I was particularly
attentive to Mr. Wilberforce, whom I found daily becoming more
interested in the fate of Africa. I now made to him a regular report of
my progress, of the sentiments of those in parliament whom I had
visited, of the disposition of my friends in the city, of whom he had
often heard me speak, of my discoveries from the Custom-Houses of London
and Liverpool, of my documents concerning West India estates, and of
all, indeed, that had occurred to me worth mentioning. He had himself
also been making his inquiries, which he communicated to me in return.
Our intercourse had now become frequent, no one week elapsing without an
interview: at one of these, I suggested to him the propriety of having
occasional meetings at his own house, consisting of a few friends in
parliament, who might converse on the subject: of this he approved. The
persons present at the first meeting were Mr. Wilberforce, the
Honourable John Villiers, Mr. Powys, Sir Charles Middleton, Sir Richard
Hill, Mr. Granville Sharp, Mr. Ramsay, Dr. Gregory, (who had written on
the subject, as before mentioned,) and myself. At this meeting I read a
paper, giving an account of the light I had collected in the course of
my inquiries, with observations as well on the impolicy as on the
wickedness of the trade. Many questions arose out of the reading of this
little essay; many answers followed. Objections were started and
canvassed. In short, this measure was found so useful, that certain
other evenings as well as mornings were fixed upon for the same purpose.
On reporting my progress to my friends in the city, several of whom now
assembled once in the week, as I mentioned before to have been agreed
upon, and particularly on reporting the different meetings which had
taken place at the house of Mr. Wilberforce on the subject, they were of
opinion that the time was approaching when we might unite, and that this
union might prudently commence as soon as ever Mr. Wilberforce would
give his word that he would take up the question in Parliament. Upon
this I desired to observe, that though the latter gentleman had pursued
the subject with much earnestness, he had never yet dropped the least
hint that he would proceed so far in the matter, but I would take care
that the question should be put to him, and I would bring them his
answer.
In consequence of the promise I had now made, I went to Mr. Wilberforce.
But when I saw him, I seemed unable to inform him of the object of my
visit. Whether this inability arose from any sudden fear that his answer
might not be favourable, or from a fear that I might possibly involve
him in a long and arduous contest upon this subject, or whether it arose
from an awful sense of the importance of the mission, as it related to
the happiness of hundreds of thousands then alive, and of millions then
unborn, I cannot say. But I had a feeling within me for which I could
not account, and which seemed to hinder me from proceeding; and I
actually went away without informing him of my errand.
In this situation I began to consider what to do, when I thought I would
call upon Mr. Langton, tell him what had happened, and ask his advice. I
found him at home. We consulted together. The result was, that he was to
invite Mr. Wilberforce and some others to meet me at a dinner at his own
house in two or three days, when he said he had no doubt of being able
to procure an answer, by some means or other, to the question which I
wished to have resolved.
On receiving a card from Mr. Langton, I went to dine with him. I found
the party consist of Sir Charles Middleton, Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Hawkins
Browne, Mr. Windham, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Mr. Boswell. The latter
was then known as the friend of Dr. Johnson, and afterwards as the
writer of his _Tour to the Hebrides_. After dinner the subject of the
Slave Trade was purposely introduced. Many questions were put to me, and
I dilated upon each in my answers, that I might inform and interest
those present as much as I could. They seemed to be greatly impressed
with my account of the loss of seamen in the trade, and with the little
samples of African cloth which I had procured for their inspection. Sir
Joshua Reynolds gave his unqualified approbation of the abolition of
this cruel traffic. Mr. Hawkins Browne joined heartily with him in
sentiment; he spoke with much feeling upon it, and pronounced it to be
barbarous, and contrary to every principle of morality and religion. Mr.
Boswell, after saying the planters would urge that the Africans were
made happier by being carried from their own country to the West Indies,
observed, "Be it so. But we have no right to make people happy against
their will." Mr. Windham, when it was suggested that the great
importance of our West Indian islands, and the grandeur of Liverpool,
would be brought against those who should propose the abolition of the
Slave Trade, replied, "We have nothing to do with the policy of the
measure. Rather let Liverpool and the islands be swallowed up in the
sea, than this monstrous system of iniquity be carried on.[A]" While
such conversation was passing, and when all appeared to be interested in
the cause, Mr. Langton put the question, about the proposal of which I
had been so diffident, to Mr. Wilberforce, in the shape of a delicate
compliment. The latter replied, that he had no objection to bring
forward the measure in parliament when he was better prepared for it,
and provided no person more proper could be found. Upon this, Mr.
Hawkins Browne and Mr. Windham both said they would support him there.
Before I left the company, I took Mr. Wilberforce aside, and asked him
if I might mention this his resolution to those of my friends in the
city, of whom he had often heard me speak, as desirous of aiding him by
becoming a committee for the purpose. He replied, I might. I then asked
Mr. Langton, privately, if he had any objection to belong to a society
of which there might be a committee for the abolition of the Slave
Trade. He said he should be pleased to become a member of it. Having
received these satisfactory answers, I returned home.
[Footnote A: I do not know upon what grounds, after such strong
expressions, Mr. Boswell, in the next year, and Mr. Windham, after
having supported the cause for three or four years, became inimical to
it.]
The next day, having previously taken down the substance of the
conversation at the dinner, I went to James Phillips, and desired that
our friends might be called together as soon as they conveniently could
to hear my report. In the interim I wrote to Dr. Peckard, and waited
upon Lord Scarsdale, Dr. Baker, and others, to know (supposing a society
were formed for the abolition of the Slave Trade) if I might say they
would belong to it. All of them replied in the affirmative, and desired
me to represent them, if there should be any meeting for this purpose.
At the time appointed I met my friends. I read over the substance of the
conversation which had taken place at Mr. Langton's. No difficulty
occurred. All were unanimous for the formation of a committee. On the
next day we met by agreement for this purpose. It was then resolved
unanimously, among other things,--That the Slave Trade was both
impolitic and unjust. It was resolved, also,--That the following persons
be a committee for procuring such information and evidence, and
publishing the same, as may tend to the abolition of the Slave Trade,
and for directing the application of such moneys as have been already,
and may hereafter be collected for the above purpose:--
All these were present. Granville Sharp, who stands at the head of the
list, and who, as the father of the cause in England, was called to the
chair, maybe considered as representing the first class of forerunners
and coadjutors, as it has been before described. The five next, of whom
Samuel Hoare was chosen as the treasurer, were they who had been the
committee of the second class, or of the Quakers in England, with the
exception of Dr. Knowles, who was then dying, but who, having heard of
our meeting, sent a message to us to exhort us to proceed. The third
class, or that of the Quakers in America, may be considered as
represented by William Dillwyn, by whom they were afterwards joined to
us in correspondence. The two who stand next, and in which I am
included, may be considered as representing the fourth, most of the
members of which we had been the means of raising. Thus, on the 22nd of
May, 1787, the representatives of all the four classes, of which I have
been giving a history from the year 1516, met together, and were united
in that committee, to which I have been all along directing the
attention of the reader; a committee, which, labouring afterwards with
Mr. Wilberforce as a parliamentary head, did, under Providence, in the
space of twenty years, contribute to put an end to a trade, which,
measuring its magnitude by its crimes and sufferings, was the greatest
practical evil that ever afflicted the human race.
After the formation of the committee[A], notice was sent to Mr.
Wilberforce of the event, and a friendship began, which has continued
uninterruptedly between them, from that to the present day.
[Footnote A: All the members were of the society of the Quakers, except
Mr. Sharp, Sansom, and myself. Joseph Gurney Bevan was present on the
day before this meeting. He desired to belong to the society, but to be
excused from belonging to the committee.]
CHAPTER XI.
[Sidenote: The preceding history of the different classes of the
forerunners and coadjutors, to the time of the formation of the
committee, collected into one view by means of a map.--Explanation of
this map, and observations upon it.]
As the preceding history of the different classes of the forerunners and
coadjutors, to the time of their junction, or to the formation of the
committee, as just explained, may be thought interesting by many, I have
endeavoured, by means of the annexed map, so to bring it before the
reader, that he may comprehend the whole of it at a single view.
The figure beginning at A and reaching down to X represents the first
class of forerunners and coadjutors up to the year 1787, as consisting
of so many springs or rivulets, which assisted in making and swelling
the torrent which swept away the Slave Trade.
The figure from B to C and from C to X represents the second class, or
that of the Quakers in England, up to the same time. The stream on the
right-hand represents them as a body, and that on the left the six
individuals belonging to them, who formed the committee in 1783.
The figure from B to D represents the third class, or that of the
Quakers in America when joined with others in 1774. The stream passing
from D through E to X shows how this class was conveyed down, as it
were, so as to unite with the second. That passing from D to Y shows its
course in its own country, to its enlargement in 1787. And here I may
observe, that as the different streams which formed a junction at X,
were instrumental in producing the abolition of the Slave Trade in
England, in the month of March, 1807, so those, whose effects are found
united at Y, contributed to produce the same event in America, in the
same month of the same year.
The figure from F to X represents the fourth class up to 1787.
[Illustration: First Class of Forerunners and Coadjutors]
[Illustration: Second Class of Forerunners and Coadjutors]
[Illustration: Third Class of Forerunners and Coadjutors]
X represents the junction of all the four classes in the committee
instituted in London on the twenty-second day of May, 1787.
The parallel lines G, H, I, K, represent different periods of time,
showing when the forerunners and coadjutors lived. The space between G
and H includes the space of fifty years, in which we find but few
labourers in this cause. That between H and I includes the same portion
of time, in which we find them considerably increased, or nearly
doubled. That between I and K represents the next thirty-seven years;
but here we find their increase beyond all expectation, for we find four
times more labourers in this short term, than in the whole of the
preceding century.
In looking over the map, as thus explained, a number of thoughts
suggested themselves, some of which it may not be improper to detail.
And first, in looking between the first and second parallel, we
perceive, that Morgan Godwyn, Richard Baxter, and George Fox, the first
a clergyman of the established church, the second a divine at the head
of the nonconformists, and the third the founder of the religious
society of the Quakers, appeared each of them the first in his own
class, and all of them, about the same time, in behalf of the oppressed
Africans. We see then this great truth first apparent, that the
abolition of the Slave Trade took its rise, not from persons who set up
a cry for liberty, when they were oppressors themselves, nor from
persons who were led to it by ambition, or a love of reputation among
men, but where it was most desirable, namely, from the teachers of
Christianity in those times.
This account of its rise will furnish us with some important lessons.
And first, it shows us the great value of religion. We see, when moral
disorders become known, that the virtuous are they who rise up for the
removal of them. Thus Providence seems to have appointed those who
devote themselves most to his service, to the honourable office of
becoming so many agents, under his influence, for the correction of the
evils of life. And as this account of the rise of the abolition of the
Slave Trade teaches us the necessity of a due cultivation of religion;
so it should teach us to have a brotherly affection for those, who,
though they may differ from us in speculative opinions concerning it, do
yet show by their conduct that they have a high reward for it. For
though Godwyn, and Baxter, and Fox, differed as to the articles of their
faith, we find them impelled by the spirit of Christianity, which is of
infinitely more importance than a mere agreement in creeds, to the same
good end.
In looking over the different streams in the map, as they are
discoverable both in Europe and America, we are impressed with another
truth on the same subject, which is, that the Christian religion is
capable of producing the same good fruit in all lands. However men may
differ on account of climate, or language, or government, or laws, or
however they may be situated in different quarters of the globe, it will
produce in them the same virtuous disposition, and make them instruments
for the promotion of happiness in the world.
In looking between the two first parallels, where we see so few
labourers, and in contemplating the great increase of these between the
others, we are taught the consoling lesson, that however small the
beginning and slow the progress may appear in any good work which we may
undertake, we need not be discouraged as to the ultimate result of our
labours; for though our cause may appear stationary, it may only become
so, in order that it may take a deeper root, and thus be enabled to
stand better against the storms which may afterwards beat about it.
In taking the same view again, we discover the manner in which light and
information proceed under a free government in a good cause. An
individual, for example, begins; he communicates his sentiments to
others. Thus, while alive, he enlightens; when dead, he leaves his
works, behind him. Thus, though departed, he yet speaks, and his
influence is not lost. Of those enlightened by him, some become authors,
and others actors in their turn. While living, they instruct, like their
predecessors; when dead, they speak also. Thus a number of dead persons
are encouraging us in libraries, and a number of living are conversing
and diffusing zeal among us at the same time. This, however, is not true
in any free and enlightened country, with respect to the propagation of
evil. The living find no permanent encouragement, and the dead speak to
no purpose in such a case.
This account of the manner in which light and information proceed in a
free country, furnishes us with some valuable knowledge. It shows us,
first, the great importance of education; for all they who can read may
become enlightened. They may gain as much from the dead as from the
living. They may see the sentiments of former ages. Thus they may
contract, by degrees, habits of virtuous inclination, and become fitted
to join with others in the removal of any of the evils of life.
It shows us, secondly, how that encouraging maxim may become true, That
no good effort is ever lost. For if he, who makes the virtuous attempt,
should be prevented by death from succeeding in it, can he not speak,
though in the tomb? Will not his works still breathe his sentiments upon
it? May not the opinions, and the facts, which he has recorded, meet the
approbation of ten thousand readers, of whom it is probable, in the
common course of things, that some will branch out of him as authors,
and others as actors or labourers, in the same cause?
And, lastly, it will show us the difficulty (if any attempt should be
made) of reversing permanently the late noble act of the legislature for
the abolition of the Slave Trade. For let us consider how many, both of
the living and the dead, could be, made to animate us. Let us consider,
too, that this is the cause of mercy, justice, and religion; that as
such, it will always afford renewed means of rallying; and that the dead
will always be heard with interest, and the living with enthusiasm upon
it.
CHAPTER XII.
[Sidenote: Author devotes this chapter to considerations relative to
himself; fears that by the frequent introduction of himself to the
notice of the reader he may incur the charge of
ostentation.--Observations on such a charge.]
Having brought my history of the abolition of the Slave Trade up to the
month of May 1787, I purpose taking the liberty, before I proceed with
it, to devote this chapter to considerations relative to myself. This,
indeed, seems to be now necessary; for I have been fearful for some
pages past, and, indeed, from the time when I began to introduce myself
to the notice of the reader, as one of the forerunners and coadjutors in
this great cause, that I might appear to have put myself into a
situation too prominent, so as even to have incurred the charge of
ostentation. But if there should be some who, in consequence of what
they have already read of this history, should think thus unfavourably
of me, what must their opinion ultimately be, when, unfortunately, I
must become still more prominent in it! Nor do I know in what manner I
shall escape their censure: for if, to avoid egotism, I should write, as
many have done, in the third person, what would this profit me? The
delicate situation, therefore, in which I feel myself to be placed,
makes me desirous of saying a few words to the reader on this subject.
And first, I may observe, that several of my friends urged me from time
to time, and this long before the abolition of the Slave Trade had been
effected, to give a history of the rise and progress of the attempt, as
far as it had been then made; but I uniformly resisted their
application.
When the question was decided last year, they renewed their request.
They represented to me, that no person knew the beginning and progress
of this great work so well as myself; that it was a pity that such
knowledge should die with me; that such a history would be useful; that
it would promote good feelings among men; that it would urge them to
benevolent exertions; that it would supply them with hope in the midst
of these; that it would teach them many valuable lessons;--these and
other things were said to me. But, encouraging as they were, I never
lost sight of the objection; which is the subject of this chapter; nor
did I ever fail to declare, that though, considering the part I had
taken in this great cause, I might be qualified better than some others,
yet it was a task too delicate for me to perform. I always foresaw that
I could not avoid making myself too prominent an object in such a
history, and that I should be liable, on that account, to the suspicion
of writing it for the purpose of sounding my own praise.
With this objection my friends were not satisfied. They answered, that I
might treat the History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade as a species
of biography, or as the history of a part of my own life: that people,
who had much less weighty matters to communicate, wrote their own
histories; and that no one charged them with vanity for so doing.
I own I was not convinced by this answer. I determined, however, in
compliance with their wishes, to examine the objection more minutely,
and to see if I could overcome it more satisfactorily to my own mind.
With this view, I endeavoured to anticipate the course which such a
history would take. I saw clearly, in the first place, that there were
times, for months together, when the committee for the abolition of the
Slave Trade was labouring without me, and when I myself for an equal
space of time was labouring in distant parts of the kingdom without
them. Hence I perceived that, if my own exertions were left out, there
would be repeated chasms in this history; and, indeed, that it could not
be completed without the frequent mention of myself. And I was willing
to hope that this would be so obvious to the good sense of the reader,
that if he should think me vain-glorious in the early part of it, he
would afterwards, when he advanced in the perusal of it, acquit me of
such a charge. This consideration was the first which removed my
objection on this head. That there can be no ground for any charge of
ostentation, as far as the origin of this history is concerned, so I
hope to convince him there, can be none, by showing him in what light I
have always viewed myself in connexion with the committee, to which I
have had the honour to belong.
I have uniformly considered our committee for the abolition of the Slave
Trade; as we usually consider the human body, that is, as made up of a
head and of various members which had different offices to perform.
Thus, if one man was an eye, another was an ear, another an arm, and
another a foot. And here I may say, with great truth, that I believe no
committee was ever made up of persons, whose varied talents were better
adapted to the work before them. Viewing then the committee in this
light, and myself as in connexion with it, I may deduce those truths,
with which the analogy will furnish me. And first, it will follow, that
if every member has performed his office faithfully, though one may have
done something more than another, yet no one of them in particular has
any reason to boast. With what propriety could the foot, though in the
execution of its duty it had become weary, say to the finger, "Thou hast
done less than I;" when the finger could reply with truth, "I have done
all that has been given me to do?". It will follow, also, that as every
limb is essentially necessary for the completion of a perfect work; so
in the case before us, every one was as necessary in his own office, or
department, as another. For what, for example, could I myself have done
if I had not derived so much assistance from the committee? What could
Mr. Wilberforce have done in Parliament, if I, on the other hand, had
not collected that great body of evidence, to which there was such a
constant appeal? And what could the committee have done without the
parliamentary aid of Mr. Wilberforce? And in mentioning this necessity
of distinct offices and talents for the accomplishment of the great
work, in which we have been all of us engaged, I feel myself bound by
the feelings of justice to deliver it as my opinion in this place, (for,
perhaps, I may have no other opportunity,) that knowing, as I have done,
so many members of both houses of our legislature, for many of whom I
have had a sincere respect, there was never yet one, who appeared to me
to be so properly qualified, in all respects, for the management of the
great cause of the abolition of the Slave Trade, as he, whose name I
have just mentioned. His connexions, but more particularly his
acquaintance with the first minister of state, were of more service in
the promotion of it, than they, who are but little acquainted with
political movements, can well appreciate. His habits also of diligent
and persevering inquiry made him master of all the knowledge that was
requisite for conducting it. His talents both in and out of parliament
made him a powerful advocate in its favour. His character, free from the
usual spots of human imperfection, gave an appropriate lustre to the
cause, making it look yet more lovely, and enticing others to its
support. But most of all the motive, on which he undertook it, insured
its progress. For this did not originate in views of selfishness, or of
party or of popular applause, but in an awful sense of his duty as a
Christian. It was this which gave him alacrity and courage in his
pursuit. It was this which made him continue in his elevated situation
of a legislator, though it was unfavourable, if not to his health, at
least to his ease and comfort. It was this which made him incorporate
this great object among the pursuits of his life, so that it was daily
in his thoughts. It was this which when year after year of unsuccessful
exertion returned, occasioned him to be yet fresh and vigorous in
spirit, and to persevere till the day of triumph.
But to return:--There is yet another consideration, which I shall offer
to the reader on this subject, and with which I shall conclude it. It is
this; that no one ought to be accused of vanity until he has been found
to assume to himself some extraordinary merit. This being admitted, I
shall now freely disclose the views which I have always been desirous of
taking of my own conduct on this occasion, in the following words:--
As Robert Barclay, the apologist for the Quakers, when he dedicated his
work to Charles the Second, intimated to this prince, that any merit
which the work might have, would not be derived from his patronage of
it, but from the Author of all spiritual good; so I say to the reader,
with respect to myself, that I disclaim all praise on account of any
part I may have taken in the promotion of this great cause, for that I
am desirious above all things to attribute my best endeavours in it to
the influence of a superior Power; of Him, I mean, who gave me a heart
to feel--who gave me courage to begin--and perseverance to proceed--and
that I am thankful to Him, and this with the deepest feeling of
gratitude and humility, for having permitted me to become useful, in any
degree, to my fellow-creatures.
CHAPTER XIII
[Sidenote: Author returns to his History.--Committee formed as
before-mentioned; its proceedings.--Author produces a summary view of
the Slave Trade, and of the probable consequences of its
abolition.--Wrongs of Africa, by Mr. Roscoe, generously presented to the
committee.--Important discussion as to the object of the
committee.--Emancipation declared to be no part of it.--Committee
decides on its public title.--Author requested to go to Bristol,
Liverpool, and Lancaster, to collect further information on the subject
of the trade.]
I return now, after this long digression, to the continuation of my
history.
It was shown in the latter part of the tenth chapter, that twelve
individuals, all of whom were then named, met together by means which no
one could have foreseen, on the 22d of May, 1787; and that, after having
voted the Slave Trade to be both unjust and impolitic, they formed
themselves into a committee for procuring such information and evidence,
and for publishing the same, as might tend to the abolition of it, and
for directing the application of such money as had been already, and
might hereafter be collected for that purpose. At this meeting it was
resolved also, that no less than three members should form a quorum;
that Samuel Hoare should be the treasurer; that the treasurer should pay
no money but by order of the committee; and that copies of these
resolutions should be printed and circulated, in which it should be
inserted that the subscriptions of all such as were willing to forward
the plans of the committee should be received by the treasurer or any
member of it.
On the 24th of May the committee met again to promote the object of its
institution.
The treasurer reported at this meeting, that the subscriptions already
received amounted to one hundred and thirty-six pounds.
As I had foreseen long before this time that my _Essay on the Slavery
and Commerce of the Human Species_ was too large for general
circulation, and yet that a general circulation of knowledge on this
subject was absolutely necessary, I determined directly after the
formation of the committee to write a short pamphlet consisting only of
eight or ten pages for this purpose. I called it _A Summary View of the
Slave Trade, and of the probable consequences of its Abolition_. It
began by exhibiting to the reader the various unjustifiable ways in
which persons living on the coast of Africa became slaves. It then
explained the treatment which these experienced on their passage, the
number dying in the course of it, and the treatment of the survivors in
the colonies of those nations to which they were carried. It then
announced the speedy publication of a work on the impolicy of the trade,
the contents of which, as far as I could then see, I gave generally
under the following heads:--Part the first, it was said, would show that
Africa was capable of offering to us a trade in its own natural
productions as well as in the persons of men; that the trade in the
persons of men was profitable but to a few; that its value was
diminished from many commercial considerations; that it was also highly
destructive to our seamen; and that the branch of it, by which we
supplied the island of St. Domingo with slaves, was peculiarly impolitic
on that account. Part the second, it was said, would show that if the
slaves were kindly treated in our colonies, they would increase; that
the abolition of the trade would necessarily secure such a treatment to
them, and that it would produce many other advantages which would be
then detailed.
This little piece I presented to the committee at this their second
meeting. It was then duly read and examined; and the result was, that
after some little correction it was approved, and that two thousand
copies of it were ordered to be printed, with lists of the subscribers
and of the committee, and to be sent to various parts of the kingdom.
On June the 7th, the committee met again for the despatch of business,
when, among other things, they voted their thanks to Dr. Baker, of Lower
Grosvenor-street, who had been one of my first assistants, for his
services to the cause.
At this committee John Barton, one of the members of it, stated that he
was commissioned by the author of a poem, entitled _The Wrongs of
Africa_, to offer the profits which might arise from the sale of that
work, to the committee, for the purpose of enabling them to pursue the
object of their institution. This circumstance was not only agreeable,
inasmuch as it showed us that there were others who felt with us for the
injured Africans, and who were willing to aid us in our designs, but it
was rendered still more so when we were given to understand that the
poem was written by Mr. Roscoe, of Liverpool, and the preface to it by
the late Dr. Currie, who then lived in the same place. To find friends
to our cause rising up from a quarter where we expected scarcely
anything but opposition, was very consolatory and encouraging. As this
poem was well written, but cannot now be had, I shall give the
introductory part of it, which is particularly beautiful, to the perusal
of the reader. It begins thus:--
Offspring of Love divine, Humanity!
To whom, his eldest born, th' Eternal gave
Dominion o'er the heart; and taught to touch
Its varied stops in sweetest unison;
And strike the string that from a kindred breast
Responsive vibrates! from the noisy haunts
Of mercantile confusion, where thy voice
Is heard not; from the meretricious glare
Of crowded theatres, where in thy place
Sits Sensibility, with wat'ry eye,
Dropping o'er fancied woes her useless tear;
Come thou, and weep with me substantial ills;
And execrate the wrongs that Afric's sons,
Torn from their natal shore, and doom'd to bear
The yoke of servitude in foreign climes,
Sustain. Nor vainly let our sorrows flow,
Nor let the strong emotion rise in vain;
But may the land contagion widely spread,
Till in its flame the unrelenting heart
Of avarice melt in softest sympathy--
And one bright blaze of universal love
In grateful incense rises up to Heaven!
Form'd with the same capacity of pain,
The same desire of pleasure and of ease,
Why feels not man for man! When nature shrinks
From the slight puncture of an insect's sting,
Faints, if not screen'd from sultry suns, und pines
Beneath the hardship of an hour's delay
Of needful nutriment;--when liberty
Is priz'd so dearly, that the slightest breath
That ruffles but her mantle, can awake
To arms unwarlike nations, and can rouse
Confed'rate states to vindicate her claims:--
How shall the suff'rer man his fellow doom
To ills he mourns and spurns at; tear with stripes
His quiv'ring flesh; with hunger and with thirst
Waste his emaciate frame; in ceaseless toils
Exhaust his vital powers; and bind his limbs
In galling chains? Shall he, whose fragile form
Demands continual blessings to support
Its complicated texture, air, and food,
Raiment, alternate rest, and kindly skies,
And healthful seasons, dare with impious voice
To ask those mercies, whilst his selfish aim
Arrests the general freedom of their course;
And, gratified beyond his utmost wish,
Debars another from the bounteous store?
In this manner was the subject of this beautiful poem introduced to the
notice of the public. But I have no room for any further extracts, nor
time to make any further comment upon it. I can only add, that the
committee were duly sensible as well of its merits, as of the virtuous
and generous disposition of the author, and that they requested John
Barton to thank him in an appropriate manner for his offer, which he was
to say they accepted gratefully.
At this sitting, at which ten members were present out of the twelve, a
discussion unexpectedly arose on a most important subject. The
committee, finding that their meetings began to be approved by many, and
that the cause under their care was likely to spread, and foreseeing,
also, the necessity there would soon be of making themselves known as a
public body throughout the kingdom, thought it right that they should
assume some title, which should be a permanent one, and which should be
expressive of their future views. This gave occasion to them to
reconsider the object for which they had associated, and to fix and
define it in such a manner that there should be no misunderstanding
about it in the public mind. In looking into the subject, it appeared to
them that there were two evils quite distinct from each other, which it
might become their duty to endeavour to remove. The first was the evil
of the Slave Trade, in consequence of which many thousand persons were
every year fraudulently and forcibly taken from their country, their
relations and friends, and from all that they esteemed valuable in life.
The second was the evil of slavery itself, in consequence of which the
same persons were forced into a situation where they were deprived of
the rights of men, where they were obliged to linger out their days
subject to excessive labour and cruel punishments, and where their
children were to inherit the same hard lot. Now the question was, which
of the two evils the committee should select as that to which they
should direct their attention with a view of the removal of it; or
whether, with the same view, it should direct its attention to both of
them.
It appeared soon to be the sense of the committee, that to aim at the
removal of both, would be to aim at too much, and that by doing this we
might lose all.
The question then was, which of the two they were to take as their
object? Now, in considering this question, it appeared that it did not
matter where they began, or which of them they took, as far as the end
to be produced was the thing desired. For first, if the Slave Trade
should be really abolished, the bad usage of the slaves in the colonies,
that is, the hard part of their slavery, if not the slavery itself,
would fall. For the planters and others being unable to procure more
slaves from the coast of Africa, it would follow directly, whenever this
great event should take place, that they must treat those better whom
they might then have. They must render marriage honourable among them.
They must establish the union of one man with one wife. They must give
the pregnant women more indulgences. They must pay more attention to the
rearing of their offspring. They must work and punish the adults with
less rigour. Now it was to be apprehended that they could not do these
things, without seeing the political advantages which would arise to
themselves from so doing; and that, reasoning upon this, they might be
induced to go on to give them greater indulgences, rights, and
privileges, in time. But how would every such successive improvement of
their condition operate, but to bring them nearer to the state of
freemen? In the same manner it was contended, that the better treatment
of the slaves in the colonies, or that the emancipation of them there,
when fit for it, would of itself lay the foundation for the abolition of
the Slave Trade. For if the slaves were kindly treated, that is, if
marriage were encouraged among them; if the infants who should be born
were brought up with care; if the sick were properly attended to; if the
young and the adult were well fed and properly clothed, and not
over-worked, and not worn down by the weight of severe punishments, they
would necessarily increase, and this on an extensive scale. But if the
planters were thus to get their labourers from the births on their own
estates, then the Slave Trade would in time be no longer necessary to
them, and it would die away as an useless and a noxious plant. Thus it
was of no consequence, which of the two evils the committee were to
select as the object for their labours; for, as far as the end in view
only was concerned, that the same end would be produced in either case.
But in looking further into this question, it seemed to make a material
difference which of the two they selected, as far as they had in view
the due execution of any laws, which might be made respecting them, and
their own prospect of success in the undertaking. For, by aiming at the
abolition of the Slave Trade, they were laying the axe at the very root.
By doing this, and this only, they would not incur the objection, that
they were meddling with the property of the planters, and letting loose
an irritated race of beings, who, in consequence of all the vices and
infirmities which a state of slavery entails upon those who undergo it,
were unfit for their freedom. By asking the government of the country to
do this, and this only, they were asking for that which it had an
indisputable right to do; namely, to regulate or abolish any of its
branches of commerce: whereas it was doubtful, whether it could
interfere with the management of the internal affairs of the colonies,
or whether this was not wholly the province of the legislatures
established there. By asking the government, again, to do this, and this
only, they were asking what it could really enforce. It could station
its ships of war, and command its custom-houses, so as to carry any act
of this kind into effect. But it could not insure that an act to be
observed in the heart of the islands should be enforced[A]. To this it
was added, that if the committee were to fix upon the annihilation of
slavery as the object for their labours, the Slave Trade would not fall
so speedily as it would by a positive law for the abolition; because,
though the increase from the births might soon supply all the estates
now in cultivation with labourers, yet new plantations might be opened
from time to time in different islands, so that no period could be fixed
upon, when it could be said that it would cease.
[Footnote A: The late correspondence of the governors of our colonies
with Lord Camden in his official situation, but particularly the
statements made by Lord Seaforth and General Prevost, have shown the
wisdom of this remark, and that no dependence was to be had for the
better usage of the slaves but upon the total abolition of the trade.]
Impressed by these arguments, the committee were clearly of opinion,
that they should define their object to be the abolition of the Slave
Trade, and not of the slavery which sprung from it. Hence from this
time, and in allusion to the month when this discussion took place, they
styled themselves in their different advertisements, and reports, though
they were first associated in the month of May, The Committee instituted
in June, 1787, for effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Thus, at
the very outset, they took a ground which was for ever tenable. Thus
they were enabled also to answer the objection, which was afterwards so
constantly and so industriously circulated against them, that they were
going to emancipate the slaves. And I have no doubt that this wise
decision contributed greatly to their success; for I am persuaded that,
if they had adopted the other object, they could not for years to come,
if ever, have succeeded in their attempt.
Before the committee broke up, I represented to them the necessity there
was of obtaining further knowledge on all those individual points which
might be said to belong to the great subject of the abolition of the
Slave Trade. In the first place, this knowledge was necessary for me, if
I were to complete my work on _The Impolicy of this Trade_, which work,
the _Summary View_, just printed, had announced to the world. It would
be necessary, also, in case the Slave Trade should become a subject of
parliamentary inquiry; for this inquiry could not proceed without
evidence. And if any time was peculiarly fit for the procuring of such
information or evidence, it was the present. At this time the passions
of men had not been heated by any public agitation of the question, nor
had interest felt itself biassed to conceal the truth. But as soon as
ever it should be publicly understood, that a parliamentary inquiry was
certain, (which we ourselves believed would be the case, but which
interested men did not then know,) we should find many of the avenues to
information closed against us. I proposed, therefore, that some one of
the committee should undertake a journey to Bristol, Liverpool, and
Lancaster, where he should reside for a time to collect further light
upon this subject; and that if others should feel their occupations or
engagements to be such as would make such a journey unsuitable, I would
undertake it myself. I begged, therefore, the favour of the different
members of the committee, to turn the matter over in their minds by the
next meeting, that we might then talk over and decide upon the propriety
of the measure.
The committee held its fourth meeting on the 12th of June. Among the
subjects which were then brought forward, was that of the journey before
mentioned. The propriety, and indeed, even the necessity, of it was so
apparent, that I was requested by all present to undertake it, and a
minute for that purpose was entered upon our records. Of this journey,
as gradually unfolding light on the subject, and as peculiarly connected
with the promotion of our object, I shall now give an account; after
which I shall return to the proceedings of the committee.
CHAPTER XIV.
[Sidenote: Author arrives at Bristol; introduction to Quaker families
there.--Objects of his inquiry.--Ill usage of seamen on board the ship
Brothers.--Obtains a knowledge of several articles of African
produce.--Dr. Caniplin; Dean Tucker; Mr. Henry Sulgar.--Procures an
authenticated account of the treacherous massacre at Calabar.--Ill usage
of the seamen of the ship Alfred.--Painful feelings of the author on
this occasion.]
Having made preparations for my journey, I took my leave of the
different individuals of the committee. I called upon Mr. Wilberforce,
also, with the same design. He was then very ill, and in bed; Sir
Richard Hill and others were sitting by his bedside. After conversing as
much as he well could in his weak state, he held out his hand to me and
wished me success. When I left him I felt much dejected; it appeared to
me as if it would be in this case, as it is often in that of other
earthly things, that we scarcely possess what we repute a treasure when
it is taken from us.
I determined to take this journey on horseback, not only on account of
the relaxed state in which I found myself, after such close and constant
application, but because I wished to have all my time to myself upon the
road, in order the better to reflect upon the proper means of promoting
this great cause. The first place I resolved to visit was Bristol;
accordingly I directed my course thither. On turning a corner, within
about a mile of that city, at about eight in the evening, I came within
sight of it. The weather was rather hazy, which occasioned it to look of
unusual dimensions. The bells of some of the churches were then ringing;
the sound of them did not strike me till I had turned the corner before
mentioned, when it came upon me at once; it filled me, almost directly,
with a melancholy for which I could not account. I began now to tremble,
for the first time, at the arduous task I had undertaken, of attempting
to subvert one of the branches of the commerce of the great place which
was then before me. I began to think of the host of people I should have
to encounter in it; I anticipated much persecution in it also; and I
questioned whether I should even get out of it alive. But in journeying
on I became more calm and composed; my spirits began to return. In these
latter moments I considered my first feelings as useful, inasmuch as
they impressed upon me the necessity of extraordinary courage, and
activity, and perseverance, and of watchfulness, also, over my own
conduct, that I might not throw any stain upon the cause I had
undertaken. When, therefore, I entered the city, I entered it with an
undaunted spirit, determining that no labour should make me shrink, nor
danger, nor even persecution, deter me from my pursuit.
My first introduction was by means of a letter to Harry Gandy, who had
then become one of the religious society of the Quakers. This
introduction to him was particularly useful to me; for he had been a
seafaring man. In his early youth he had been of a roving disposition;
and, in order to see the world, had been two voyages in the Slave Trade,
so that he had known the nature and practices of it. This enabled him to
give me much useful information on the subject; and as he had frequently
felt, as he grew up, deep affliction of mind for having been concerned
in it, he was impelled to forward my views as much as possible, under an
idea that he should be thus making some reparation for the indiscreet
and profane occupations of his youth.
I was also introduced to the families of James Harford, John Lury,
Matthew Wright, Philip, Debell Tucket, Thomas Bonville, and John Waring;
all of whom were of the same religious society. I gained an
introduction, also, soon afterwards, to George Fisher. These were my
first and only acquaintance at Bristol for some time; I derived
assistance in the promotion of my object from all of them; and it is a
matter of pleasing reflection, that the friendships then formed have
been kept alive to the present time.
The objects I had marked down as those to be attended to, were--to
ascertain what were the natural productions of Africa, and, if possible,
to obtain specimens of them, with the view of forming a cabinet or
collection--to procure as much information as I could relative to the
manner of obtaining slaves on continent of Africa, of transporting them
to the West Indies, and of treating them there--to prevail upon persons,
having a knowledge of any or all of these circumstances, to come forward
to be examined as evidences before parliament, if such an examination
should take place--to make myself still better acquainted with the loss
of seamen in the Slave Trade--also with the loss of those who were
employed in the other trades from the same port--to know the nature, and
quantity, and value of the imports and exports of goods in the former
case:--there were some other objects which I classed under the head of
miscellaneous.
In my first movements about this city, I found that people talked very
openly on the subject of the Slave Trade. They seemed to be well
acquainted with the various circumstances belonging to it. There were
facts, in short, in every body's mouth concerning it; and every body
seemed to execrate it, though no one thought of its abolition. In this
state of things I perceived that my course was obvious; for I had little
else to do, in pursuing two or three of my objects, than to trace the
foundation of those reports which were in circulation.
On the third of July I heard that the ship Brothers[A], then lying in
King's Road for Africa, could not get her seamen, and that a party which
had been put on board, becoming terrified by the prospect of their
situation, had left her on Sunday morning. On inquiring further, I found
that those who had navigated her on her last voyage, thirty-two of whom
had died, had been so dreadfully used by the captain, that he could not
get hands in the present. It was added, that the treatment of seamen was
a crying evil in this trade, and that consequently few would enter into
it, so that there was at all times a great difficulty in procuring them,
though they were ready enough to enter into other trades.
[Footnote A: I abstain from mentioning the names of the captain of this
or of other vessels, lest the recording of them should give pain to
relatives who can have had no share in their guilt.]
The relation of these circumstances made me acquainted with two things,
of which I had not before heard; namely, the aversion of seamen to
engage, and the bad usage of them when engaged in this cruel trade; into
both which I determined immediately to inquire.
I conceived that it became me to be very cautious about giving ear too
readily to reports; and therefore, as I could easily learn the truth of
one of the assertions which had been made to me, I thought it prudent to
ascertain this, and to judge, by the discovery I should make concerning
it, what degree of credit might be due to the rest. Accordingly, by
means of my late friend, Truman Harford, the eldest son of the
respectable family of that name, to which I have already mentioned
myself to have been introduced, I gained access to the muster-roll of
the ship Brothers. On looking over the names of her last crew, I found
the melancholy truth confirmed, that thirty-two of them had been placed
among the dead.
Having ascertained this circumstance, I became eager to inquire into the
truth of the others, but more particularly of the treatment of one of
the seamen, which, as it was reported to me, exceeded all belief. His
name was John Dean; he was a black man, but free. The report was, that
for a trifling circumstance, for which he was in no-wise to blame, the
captain had fastened him with his belly to the deck, and that, in this
situation, he had poured hot pitch upon his back, and made incisions in
it with hot tongs.
Before however I attempted to learn the truth of this barbarous
proceeding, I thought I would look into the ship's muster-roll, to see
if I could find the name of such a man. On examination I found it to be
the last on the list. John Dean, it appeared, had been one of the
original crew, having gone on board, from Bristol, on the twenty-second
day of July, 1785.
On inquiring where Dean was to be found, my informant told me that he
had lately left Bristol for London. I was shown, however, to the house
where he had lodged. The name of his landlord was Donovan. On talking
with him on the subject, he assured me that the report I had heard was
true; for that while he resided with him he had heard an account of his
usage from some of his ship-mates, and that he had often looked at his
scarred and mutilated back.
On inquiring of Donovan if any other person in Bristol could corroborate
this account, he referred me to a reputable tradesman living, in the
Market-place. Having been introduced to him, he told me that he had long
known John Dean to be a sober and industrious man; that he had seen the
terrible indentures on his back; and that they were said to have been
made by the captain, in the manner related, during his last voyage.
While I was investigating this matter further, I was introduced to Mr.
Sydenham Teast, a respectable ship-builder in Bristol, and the owner of
vessels trading to Africa in the natural productions of that country. I
mentioned to him by accident what I had heard relative to the treatment
of John Dean. He said it was true. An attorney[A] in London had then
taken up his cause, in consequence of which the captain had been
prevented from sailing till he could find persons who would be
answerable for the damages which might be awarded against him in a court
of law. Mr. Teast further said, that, not knowing at that time the
cruelty of the transaction to its full extent, he himself had been one
of the securities for the captain at the request of the purser[B] of the
ship. Finding, however, afterwards, that it was as the public had
stated, he was sorry that he had ever interfered, in such a barbarous
case.
[Footnote A: I afterwards found out this attorney. He described the
transaction to me, as, by report, it had taken place, and informed me
that he had made the captain of the Brothers pay for his barbarity.]
[Footnote B: The purser of a ship, at Bristol, is the person who manages
the outfit, as well as the trade, and who is often in part owner of
her.]
This transaction, which I now believed to be true, had the effect of
preparing me for crediting whatever I might hear concerning the
barbarities said to be practised in this trade. It kindled also a fire
of indignation within me, and produced in me both anxiety and spirit, to
proceed. But that which excited these feelings the most, was the
consideration that the purser of this ship, knowing, as he did, of this
act of cruelty, should have sent out this monster again. This, I own,
made me think that there was a system of bad usage to be deliberately
practised upon the seamen in this employment, for some purpose or other
which I could then neither comprehend nor ascertain.
But while I was in pursuit of this one object, I was not unmindful of
the others which I had marked out for myself. I had already procured an
interview, as I have mentioned, with Mr. Sydenham Teast. I had done this
with a view of learning from him what were the different productions of
the continent of Africa, as far as he had been able to ascertain from
the imports by his own vessels. He was very open and communicative. He
had imported ivory, red-wood, cam-wood, and gum-copal. He purposed to
import palm-oil. He observed that bees'-wax might be collected, also,
upon the coast. Of his gum-copal he gave me a specimen. He furnished me,
also, with two different specimens of unknown woods, which had the
appearance of being useful. One of his captains, he informed me, had
been told by the natives, that cotton, pink in the pod, grew in their
country. He was of opinion, that many valuable productions might be
found upon this continent.
Mr. Biggs, to whom I gained an introduction also, was in a similar trade
with Mr. Teast; that is, he had one or two vessels which skimmed, as it
were, the coast and rivers for what they could get of the produce of
Africa, without having any concern in the trade for slaves. Mr. Biggs
gave me a specimen of gum Senegal, of yellow-wood, and of Malaguetta and
Cayenne pepper. He gave me, also, small pieces of cloth made and dyed by
the natives, the colours of which they could only have obtained from
materials in their own country. Mr. Biggs seemed to be assured that, if
proper persons were sent to Africa on discovery, they would fine a rich
mine of wealth in the natural productions of it, and in none more
advantageous to this as a manufacturing nation, than in the many
beautiful dyes which it might furnish.
From Thomas Bonville I collected two specimens of cloth made by the
natives; and from others a beautiful piece of tulipwood, a small piece
of wood similar to mahogany, and a sample of fine rice, all of which had
been brought from the same continent.
Among the persons whom I found out at Bristol, and from whom I derived
assistance, were Dr. Camplin and the celebrated Dean Tucker. The former
was my warm defender; for the West Indian and African merchants, as soon
as they discovered my errand, began to calumniate me. The dean, though
in a very advanced age, felt himself much interested in my pursuit. He
had long moved in the political world himself, and was desirous of
hearing of what was going forward that was new in it, but particularly
about so desirable a measure as that of the abolition of the Slave
Trade[A]. He introduced me to the Custom House at Bristol. He used to
call upon me at the Merchants' Hall, while I was transcribing the
muster-rolls of the seamen there. In short, he seemed to be interested
in all my movements. He became, also, a warm supporter both of me and of
my cause.
[Footnote A: Dean Tucker, in his _Reflections on the Disputes between
Great Britain and Ireland_, published in 1785, had passed a severe
censure on the British planters for the inhuman treatment of their
slaves.]
Among others who were useful to me in my pursuit, was Mr. Henry Sulgar,
an amiable minister of the gospel, belonging to the religious society of
the Moravians in the same city. From him I first procured authentic
documents relative to the treacherous massacre at Calabar. This cruel
transaction had been frequently mentioned to me; but as it had taken
place twenty years before, I could not find one person who had been
engaged in it, nor could I come, in a satisfactory manner, at the
various particulars belonging to it. My friend, however, put me in
possession of copies of the real depositions which had been taken in the
case of the king against Lippincott and others relative to this event;
namely, of Captain Floyd, of the city of Bristol, who had been a witness
to the scene, and of Ephraim Robin John, and of Ancona Robin Robin John,
two African chiefs, who had been sufferers by it. These depositions had
been taken before Jacob Kirby and Thomas Symons, esquires, commissioners
at Bristol for taking affidavits in the Court of King's Bench. The
tragedy, of which they gave a circumstantial account, I shall present to
the reader in as concise a manner as I can.
In the year, 1767, the ships Indian Queen, Duke of York, Nancy, and
Concord, of Bristol; the Edgar, of Liverpool; and the Canterbury, of
London; lay in Old Calabar river.
It happened, at this time, that a quarrel subsisted between the
principal inhabitants of Old Town and those of New Town, Old Calabar,
which had originated in a jealousy respecting slaves. The captains of
the vessels now mentioned, joined in sending several letters to the
inhabitants of Old Town, but particularly to Ephraim Robin John, who was
at that time a grandee, or principal inhabitant of the place. The tenor
of these letters was, that they were sorry that any jealousy or quarrel
should subsist between the two parties; that if the inhabitants of Old
Town would come on board, they would afford them security and
protection; adding, at the same time, that their intention in inviting
them was, that they might become mediators, and thus heal their
disputes.
The inhabitants of Old Town, happy to find that their differences were
likely to be accommodated, joyfully accepted the invitation. The three
brothers of the grandee just mentioned, the eldest of whom was Amboe
Robin John, first entered their canoe, attended by twenty-seven others,
and, being followed by nine canoes, directed their course to the Indian
Queen. They were despatched from thence the next morning to the Edgar,
and afterwards to the Duke of York, on board of which they went, leaving
their canoe and attendants by the side of the same vessel. In the mean
time, the people on board the other canoes were either distributed on
board, or lying close to, the other ships.
This being the situation of the three brothers, and of the principal
inhabitants of the place, the treachery now began to appear. The crew of
the Duke of York, aided by the captain and mates, and armed with pistols
and cutlasses, rushed into the cabin, with an intent to seize the
persons of their three innocent and unsuspicious guests. The unhappy
men, alarmed at this violation of the rights of hospitality, and struck
with astonishment at the behaviour of their supposed friends, attempted
to escape through the cabin windows; but, being wounded, were obliged to
desist, and to submit to be put in irons.
In the same moment in which this atrocious attempt had been made, an
order had been given to fire upon the canoe, which was then lying by the
side of the Duke of York. The canoe soon filled and sunk, and the
wretched attendants were either seized, killed, or drowned. Most of the
other ships followed the example. Great numbers were additionally killed
and drowned on the occasion, and others were swimming to the shore.
At this juncture, the inhabitants of New Town, who had concealed
themselves in the bushes by the water-side, and between whom and the
commanders of the vessels the plan had been previously concerted, came
out from their hiding-places, and, embarking in their canoes, made for
such as were swimming from the fire of the ships. The ships' boats,
also, were manned, and joined in the pursuit. They butchered the
greatest part of those whom they caught. Many dead bodies were soon seen
upon the sands, and others were floating upon the water; and including
those who were seized and carried off, and those who were drowned and
killed, either by the firing of the ships or by the people of New Town,
three hundred were lost to the inhabitants of Old Town on that day.
The carnage which I have been now describing was scarcely over, when a
canoe, full of the principal people of New Town, who had been the
promoters of the scheme, dropped along-side of the Duke of York. They
demanded the person of Amboe Robin John, the brother of the grandee of
Old Town, and the eldest of the three on board. The unfortunate man put
the palms of his hands together, and beseeched the commander of the
vessel that he would not violate the rights of hospitality, by giving up
an unoffending stranger to his enemies. But no entreaties could avail.
The commander received from the New Town people a slave of the name of
Econg in his stead, and then forced him into the canoe, where his head
was immediately struck off in the sight of the crew, and of his
afflicted and disconsolate brothers. As for them, they escaped his fate;
but they were carried off with their attendants to the West Indies, and
sold for slaves.
The knowledge of this tragical event now fully confirmed me in the
sentiment, that the hearts of those who were concerned in this traffic
became unusually hardened, and that I might readily believe any
atrocities, however great, which might be related of them. It made also
my blood boil, as it were, within me: it gave anew spring to my
exertions; and I rejoiced, sorrowful as I otherwise was, that I had
visited Bristol, if it had been only to gain an accurate statement of
this one fact.
In pursuing my objects, I found that reports were current, that the crew
of the Alfred slave-vessel, which had just returned, had been
barbarously used, but particularly a young man of the name of Thomas,
who had served as the surgeon's mate on board her. The report was, that
he had been repeatedly knocked down by the captain; that he had become
in consequence of his ill usage so weary of his life, that he had three
times jumped over board to destroy it; that on being taken up the last
time he had been chained to the deck of the ship, in which situation he
had remained night and day for some time; that in consequence of this
his health had been greatly impaired; and that it was supposed he could
not long survive this treatment.
It was with great difficulty, notwithstanding all my inquiries, that I
could trace this person. I discovered him, however, at last. He was
confined to his bed when I saw him, and appeared to me to be delirious.
I could collect nothing from himself relative to the particulars of his
treatment. In his intervals of sense, he exclaimed against the cruelty
both of the captain and of the chief mate, and pointing to his legs,
thighs, and body, which were all wrapped up in flannel, he endeavoured
to convince me how much he had suffered there. At one time he said he
forgave them. At another, he asked if I came to befriend him. At
another, he looked wildly, and asked if I meant to take the captain's
part, and to kill him.
I was greatly affected by the situation of this poor man, whose image
haunted me both night and day, and I was meditating how most effectually
to assist him, when I heard that he was dead.
I was very desirous of tracing something further on this subject, when
Walter Chandler, of the society of the Quakers, who had been daily
looking out for intelligence for me, brought a young man to me of the
name of Dixon. He had been one of the crew of the same ship. He told me
the particulars of the treatment of Thomas, with very little variation
from those contained in the public report. After cross-examining him in
the best manner I was able, I could find no inconsistency in his
account.
I asked Dixon how the captain came to treat the surgeon's mate in
particular so ill. He said he had treated them all much alike. A person
of the name of Bulpin, he believed, was the only one who had escaped bad
usage in the ship. With respect to himself, he had been cruelly used so
early as in the outward bound passage, which had occasioned him to jump
overboard. When taken up, he was put into irons, and kept in these for a
considerable time. He was afterwards ill used at different times, and
even so late as within three or four days of his return to port. For
just before the Alfred made the island of Lundy, he was struck by the
captain, who cut his under lip into two. He said that it had bled so
much, that the captain expressed himself as if much alarmed; and having
the expectation of arriving soon at Bristol, he had promised to make him
amends, if he would hold his peace. This he said he had hitherto done,
but he had received no recompense. In confirmation of his own usage, he
desired me to examine his lip, which I had no occasion to do, having
already perceived it, for the wound was apparently almost fresh.
I asked Dixon if there was any person in Bristol beside himself, who
could confirm to me this his own treatment, as well as that of the other
unfortunate man who was now dead. He referred me to a seaman of the name
of Matthew Pyke. This person, when brought to me, not only related
readily the particulars of the usage in both cases, as I have now stated
them, but that which he received himself. He said that his own arm had
been broken by the chief mate in Black River, Jamaica, and that he had
also by the captain's orders, though contrary to the practice in
merchant-vessels, been severely flogged. His arm appeared to be then in
pain; and I had a proof of the punishment by an inspection of his back.
I asked Matthew Pyke if the crew in general had been treated in a cruel
manner. He replied they had, except James Bulpin. I then asked where
James Bulpin was to be found. He told me where he had lodged; but feared
he had gone home to his friends in Somersetshire, I think, somewhere in
the neighbourhood of Bridgewater.
I thought it prudent to institute an inquiry into the characters of
Thomas, Dixon, and Matthew Pyke, before I went further. The two former I
found were strangers in Bristol, and I could collect nothing about them.
The latter was a native of the place, had served his time as a seaman
from the port, and was reputed of fair character.
My next business was to see James Bulpin. I found him just setting off
for the country. He stopped, however, to converse with me. He was a
young man of very respectable appearance, and of mild manners. His
appearance, indeed, gave me reason to hope that I might depend upon his
statements; but I was most of all influenced by the consideration that,
never having been ill-used himself, he could have no inducement to go
beyond the bounds of truth on this occasion. He gave me a melancholy
confirmation of all the three cases. He told me, also, that one Joseph
Cunningham had been a severe sufferer, and that there was reason to fear
that Charles Horseler, another of the crew, had been so severely beaten
over the breast with a knotted end of a rope, (which end was of the size
of a large ball, and had been made on purpose,) that he died of it. To
this he added, that it was now a notorious fact, that the captain of the
Alfred, when mate of a slave-ship, had been tried at Barbados for the
murder of one of the crew with whom he had sailed, but that he escaped
by bribing the principal witness to disappear[A].
[Footnote A: Mr. Sampson, who was surgeon's mate of the ship in which
the captain had thus served as a mate, confirmed to me afterwards this
assertion, having often heard him boast in the cabin, "how he had
tricked the law on that occasion."]
The reader will see, the further I went into the history of this voyage,
the more dismal it became. One miserable account, when examined, only
brought up another. I saw no end to inquiry. The great question was,
what was I to do? I thought the best thing would be to get the captain
apprehended, and make him stand his trial either for the murder of
Thomas or of Charles Horseler. I communicated with the late Mr. Burges,
an eminent attorney, and the deputy town-clerk, on this occasion. He had
shown an attachment to me on account of the cause I had undertaken, and
had given me privately assistance in it. I say privately; because,
knowing the sentiments of many of the corporate body at Bristol, under
whom he acted, he was fearful of coming forward in an open manner. His
advice to me was, to take notes of the case for my own private
conviction, but to take no public cognizance of it. He said that seamen,
as soon as their wages were expended, must be off to sea again. They
could not generally, as landsmen do, maintain themselves on shore. Hence
I should be obliged to keep the whole crew at my own expense till the
day of trial, which might not be for months to come. He doubted not
that, in the interim, the merchants and others would inveigle many of
them away by making them boatswains and other inferior officers in some
of their ships; so that, when the day of trial should come, I should
find my witnesses dispersed and gone. He observed, moreover, that if any
of the officers of the ship had any notion of going out again under the
same owners[A], I should have all these against me. To which he added,
that if I were to make a point of taking up the cause of those whom I
found complaining of hard usage in this trade, I must take up that of
nearly all who sailed in it; for that he only knew of one captain from
the port in the Slave Trade, who did not deserve long ago to be hanged.
Hence I should get into a labyrinth of expense, and difficulty, and
uneasiness of mind, from whence I should not easily find a clew to guide
me.
[Footnote A: The seamen of the Alfred informed the purser of their ill
usage, Matthew Pyke not only showed him his arm and his back, but
acquainted him with the murder of Charles Horseler, stating that he had
the instrument of his death in his possession. The purser seemed more
alive to this than to any other circumstance, and wished to get it from
him. Pyke, however, had given it to me. Now what will the reader think,
when he is informed that the purser, after all this knowledge of the
captain's cruelty, sent him out again, and that he was the same person
who was purser of the Brothers, and who had also sent out the captain of
that ship a second time, as has been related, notwithstanding his
barbarities in former voyages!]
This advice, though it was judicious, and founded on a knowledge of law
proceedings, I found it very difficult to adopt. My own disposition was
naturally such, that whatever I engaged in I followed with more than
ordinary warmth. I could not be supposed, therefore, affected and
interested as I then was, to be cool and tranquil on this occasion. And
yet what would my worthy friend have said, if in this first instance I
had opposed him? I had a very severe struggle in my own feelings on this
account. At length, though reluctantly, I obeyed; but as the passions
which agitate the human mind, when it is greatly inflamed, must have a
vent somewhere, or must work off, as it were, or in working together
must produce some new passion or effect, so I found the rage which had
been kindling within me subsiding into the most determined resolutions
of future increased activity and perseverance. I began now to think that
the day was not long enough for me to labour in. I regretted often the
approach of night, which suspended my work, and I often welcomed that of
the morning, which restored me to it. When I felt myself weary, I became
refreshed by the thought of what I was doing; when disconsolate, I was
comforted by it. I lived in hope that every day's labour would furnish
me with that knowledge which would bring this evil nearer to its end;
and I worked on under these feelings, regarding neither trouble nor
danger in the pursuit.
CHAPTER XV.
[Sidenote: Author confers with the inhabitants of Bridgewater relative
to a petition to parliament in behalf of the abolition; returns to
Bristol; discovers a scandalous mode of procuring seamen for the Slave
Trade, and of paying them; makes a comparative view of their loss in
this and in other trades; procures imports and exports.--Examines the
construction and admeasurement of slave ships; of the Fly and
Neptune.--Difficulty of procuring evidence.--Case of Gardiner, of the
Pilgrim; of Arnold, of the Ruby; some particulars of the latter in his
former voyages.]
Having heard by accident that the inhabitants of the town of Bridgewater
had sent a petition to the House of Commons, in the year 1785, for the
abolition of the Slave Trade, as has been related in a former part of
the work, I determined, while my feelings were warm, to go there, and to
try to find out those who had been concerned in it, and to confer with
them as the tried friends of the cause. The time seemed to me to be
approaching when the public voice should be raised against this enormous
evil. I was sure that it was only necessary for the inhabitants of this
favoured island to know it to feel a just indignation against it.
Accordingly I set off. My friend George Fisher, who was before mentioned
to have been of the religious Society of the Quakers, gave me an
introduction to the respectable family of Ball, which was of the same
religious persuasion. I called upon Mr. Sealey, Anstice, Crandon, Chubb,
and others. I laid open to those whom I saw, the discoveries I had made
relative to the loss and ill treatment of seamen; at which they seemed
to be much moved; and it was agreed that if it should be thought a
proper measure, (of which I would inform them when I had consulted the
committee,) a second petition should be sent to Parliament from the
inhabitants, praying for the abolition of the Slave Trade. With this
view I left them several of my _Summary View_, before mentioned, to
distribute, that the inhabitants might know more particularly the nature
of the evil, against which they were going to complain. On my return to
Bristol, I determined to inquire into the truth of the reports that
seamen had an aversion to enter, and that they were inveigled, if not
often forced, into this hateful employment. For this purpose I was
introduced to a landlord of the name of Thompson, who kept a
public-house called the Seven Stars. He was a very intelligent man, was
accustomed to receive sailors when discharged at the end of their
voyages, and to board them till their vessels went out again, or to find
them births in others. He avoided, however, all connexion with the Slave
Trade, declaring that the credit of his house would be ruined if he were
known to send those, who put themselves under his care, into it.
From him I collected the truth of all that had been stated to me on this
subject. But I told him I should not be satisfied until I had beheld
those scenes myself which he had described to me; and I entreated him to
take me into them, saying that I would reward him for all his time and
trouble, and that I would never forget him while I lived. To this he
consented; and as three or four slave-vessels at this time were
preparing for their voyages, it was time that we should begin our
rounds. At about twelve at night we generally set out, and were employed
till two and sometimes three in the morning. He led me from one of these
public-houses to another which the mates of the slave-vessels used to
frequent to pick up their hands. These houses were in Marsh-street, and
most of them were then kept by Irishmen. The scenes witnessed in these
houses were truly distressing to me; and yet, if I wished to know
practically what I had purposed, I could not avoid them. Music, dancing,
rioting, drunkenness, and profane swearing, were kept up from night to
night. The young mariner, if a stranger to the port, and unacquainted
with the nature of the Slave Trade, was sure to be picked up. The
novelty of the voyages, the superiority of the wages in this over any
other trades, and the privileges of various kinds, were set before him.
Gulled in this manner, he was frequently enticed to the boat, which was
waiting to carry him away. If these prospects did not attract him, he
was plied with liquor till he became intoxicated, when a bargain was
made over him between the landlord and the mate. After this his senses
were kept in such a constant state of stupefaction by the liquor, that
in time the former might do with him what he pleased. Seamen, also, were
boarded in these houses, who, when the slave-ships were going out, but
at no other time, were encouraged to spend more than they had money to
pay for; and to these, when they had thus exceeded, but one alternative
was given, namely, a slave-vessel or a gaol. These distressing scenes I
found myself obliged frequently to witness, for I was no less than
nineteen times occupied in making these hateful rounds; and I can say
from my own experience, and all the information I could collect from
Thompson and others, that no such practices were in use to obtain seamen
for other trades.
The treatment of the seamen employed in the Slave Trade had so deeply
interested me, and now the manner of procuring them, that I was
determined to make myself acquainted with their whole history; for I
found by report that they were not only personally ill-treated, as I
have already painfully described, but that they were robbed by artifice
of those wages, which had been held up to them as so superior in this
service. All persons were obliged to sign articles that, in case they
should die or be discharged during the voyage, the wages then due to
them should be paid in the currency where the vessel carried her slaves,
and that half of the wages due to them on their arrival there should be
paid in the same manner, and that they were never permitted to read over
the articles they had signed. By means of this iniquitous practice the
wages in the Slave Trade, though nominally higher in order to induce
seamen to engage in it, were actually lower than in other trades. All
these usages I ascertained in such a manner, that no person could doubt
the truth of them. I actually obtained possession of articles of
agreement belonging to these vessels, which had been signed and executed
in former voyages. I made the merchants themselves, by sending those
seamen who had claims upon them to ask for their accounts current with
their respective ships, furnish me with such documents as would have
been evidence against them in any court of law. On whatever branch of
the system I turned my eyes, I found it equally barbarous. The trade
was, in short, one mass of iniquity from the beginning to the end.
I employed myself occasionally in the Merchant's-hall, in making copies
of the muster-rolls of ships sailing to different parts of the world,
that I might make a comparative view of the loss of seamen in the Slave
Trade, with that of those in the other trades from the same port. The
result of this employment showed me the importance of it: for, when I
considered how partial the inhabitants of this country were to their
fellow-citizens, the seamen belonging to it, and in what estimation the
members of the legislature held them, by enforcing the Navigation Act,
which they considered to be the bulwark of the nation, and by giving
bounties to certain trades, that these might become so many nurseries
for the marine, I thought it of great importance, to be able to prove,
as I was then capable of doing, that more persons would be found dead in
three slave-vessels from Bristol, in a given time, than in all the other
vessels put together, numerous as they were, belonging to the same port.
I procured also an account of the exports and imports for the year 1786,
by means of which I was enabled to judge of the comparative value of
this and the other trades.
In pursuing another object, which was that of going on board the
slave-ships, and learning their construction and dimensions, I was
greatly struck, and indeed affected, by the appearance of two little
sloops, which were fitting out for Africa, the one of only twenty-five
tons, which was said to be destined to carry seventy and the other of
only eleven, which was said to be destined to carry thirty slaves. I was
told also that which was more affecting, namely, that these were not to
act as tenders on the coast, by going up and down the rivers, and
receiving three or four slaves at a time, and then carrying them to a
large ship, which was to take them to the West Indies; but that it was
actually intended, that they should transport their own slaves
themselves; that one if not both of them were, on their arrival in the
West Indies, to be sold as pleasure-vessels, and that the seamen
belonging to them were to be permitted to come home by what is usually
called the run.
This account of the destination of these little vessels, though it was
distressing at first, appeared to me afterwards, on cool reasoning, to
be incredible. I thought that my informants wished to impose upon me, in
order that I might make statements which would carry their own
refutation with them, and that thus I might injure the great cause which
I had undertaken. And I was much inclined to be of this opinion, when I
looked again at the least of the two; for any person, who was tall,
standing upon dry ground by the side of her, might have overlooked every
thing upon her deck. I knew also that she had been built as a
pleasure-boat for the accommodation of only six persons upon the Severn.
I determined, therefore, to suspend my belief till I could take the
admeasurement of each vessel. This I did; but lest, in the agitation of
my mind on this occasion, I should have made any mistake, I desired my
friend George Fisher to apply to the builder for his admeasurement also.
With this he kindly complied. When he obtained it he brought it me. This
account, which nearly corresponded with my own, was as follows:--In the
vessel of twenty-five tons, the length of the upper part of the hold, or
roof of the room, where the seventy slaves were to be stowed, was but
little better than ten yards, or thirty-one feet. The greatest breadth
of the bottom, or floor, was ten feet four inches; and the least five.
Hence, a grown person must sit down all the voyage, and contract his
limbs within the narrow limits of three square feet. In the vessel of
eleven tons, the length of the room for the thirty slaves was twenty-two
feet. The greatest breadth of the floor was eight, and the least four.
The whole height from the keel to the beam was but five feet eight
inches, three feet of which were occupied by ballast, cargo, and
provisions, so that two feet eight inches remained only as the height
between the decks. Hence, each slave would have only four square feet to
sit in, and, when in this posture, his head, if he were a full-grown
person, would touch the ceiling, or upper deck.
Having now received this admeasurement from the builder, which was
rather more favourable than my own, I looked upon the destination of
these little vessels as yet more incredible than before. Still the
different persons, whom I occasionally saw on board them, persisted in
it that they were going to Africa for slaves, and also for the numbers
mentioned, which they were afterwards to carry to the West Indies
themselves. I desired, however, my friends, George Fisher, Truman
Harford, Harry Gandy, Walter Chandler, and others, each to make a
separate inquiry for me on this subject; and they all agreed that,
improbable as the account both of their destination, and of the number
they were to take, might appear, they had found it to be too true. I had
soon afterwards the sorrow to learn from official documents from the
Custom-house, that these little vessels actually cleared out for Africa,
and that now nothing could be related so barbarous of this traffic,
which might not instantly be believed.
In pursuing my different objects there was one, which, to my great
vexation, I found it extremely difficult to attain. This was the
procuring of any assurance from those who had been personally acquainted
with the horrors of this trade, that they would appear, if called upon,
as evidence against it. My friend Harry Gandy, to whom I had been first
introduced, had been two voyages, as I before mentioned; and he was
willing, though at an advanced age, to go to London, to state publicly
all he knew concerning them. But with respect to the many others in
Bristol, who had been to the coast of Africa, I had not yet found one
who would come forward for this purpose. There were several old Slave
Captains living there, who had a great knowledge of the subject. I
thought it not unreasonable that I might gain one or two good evidences
out of these, as they had probably long ago left the concern, and were
not now interested in the continuance of it; but all my endeavours were
fruitless. I sent messages to them by different persons. I met them in
all ways. I stated to them, that if there was nothing objectionable in
the trade, seeing it laboured under such a stigma, they had an
opportunity of coming forward and of wiping away the stain. If, on the
other hand, it was as bad as represented, then they had it in their
power, by detailing the crimes which attached to it, of making some
reparation or atonement, for the part they had taken in it. But no
representations would do. All intercourse was positively forbidden
between us; and whenever they met me in the street, they shunned me as
if I had been a mad dog. I could not for some time account, for the
strange disposition which they thus manifested towards me; but my
friends helped me to unravel it, for I was assured that one or two of
them, though they went no longer to Africa as captains, were in part
owners of vessels trading there; and, with respect to all of them, it
might be generally said, that they had been guilty of such enormities,
that they would be afraid of coming forward in the way I proposed, lest
any thing should come out by which they might criminate themselves. I
was obliged then to give up all hope of getting any evidence from this
quarter, and I saw but little prospect of getting it from those, who
were then actually deriving their livelihood from the trade: and yet I
was determined to persevere; for I thought that some might be found in
it who were not yet so hardened as to be incapable of being awakened on
this subject. I thought that others might be found in it who wished to
leave it upon principle, and that these would unbosom themselves to me:
and I thought it not improbable that I might fall in with others, who
had come unexpectedly into a state of independence, and that these might
be induced, as their livelihood would be no longer affected by giving me
information, to speak the truth.
I persevered for weeks together under this hope, but could find no one
of all those, who had been applied to, who would have any thing to say
to me. At length, Walter Chandler had prevailed upon a young gentleman,
of the name of Gardiner, who was going out as surgeon of the Pilgrim, to
meet me. The condition was, that we were to meet at the house of the
former, but that we were to enter in and go out at different times, that
is, we were not to be seen together.
Gardiner, on being introduced to me, said at once, that he had often
wished to see me on the subject of my errand, but that the owner of the
Pilgrim had pointed me out to him as a person whom he would wish him to
avoid. He then laid open to me the different methods of obtaining slaves
in Africa, as he had learned from those on board his own vessel in his
first, or former, voyage. He unfolded also the manner of their treatment
in the Middle passage, with the various distressing scenes which had
occurred in it. He stated the barbarous usuage of the seamen as he had
witnessed it, and concluded by saying, that there never was a subject
which demanded so loudly the interference of the legislature as that of
the Slave Trade.
When he had finished his narrative, and answered the different questions
which I had proposed to him concerning it, I asked him, in as delicate a
manner as I could, how it happened, that, seeing the trade in this
horrible light, he had consented to follow it again? He told me frankly,
that he had received a regular medical education, but that his
relations, being poor, had not been able to set him up in his
profession. He had saved a little money in his last voyage. In that,
which he was now to perform, he hoped to save a little more. With the
profits of both voyages together, he expected he should be able to
furnish a shop in the line of his profession, when he would wipe his
hands of this detestable trade.
I then asked him, whether, upon the whole, he thought he had judged
prudently, or whether the prospect of thus enabling himself to become
independent, would counterbalance the uneasiness which might arise in
future? He replied, that he had not so much to fear upon this account.
The trade, while it continued, must have surgeons. But it made a great
difference both to the crew and to the slaves, whether these discharged
their duty towards them in a feeling manner, or not. With respect to
himself, he was sure that he should pay every attention to the wants of
each. This thought made his continuance in the trade for one voyage
longer more reconcilable. But he added, as if not quite satisfied,
"Cruel necessity!" and he fetched a deep sigh.
We took our leave, and departed, the one a few minutes after the other.
The conversation of this young man was very interesting. I was much
impressed both by the nature and the manner of it. I wished to secure
him, if possible, as an evidence for parliament, and thus save him from
his approaching voyage: but I knew not what to do. At first, I thought
it would be easy to raise a subscription to set him up. But then, I was
aware that this might be considered as bribery, and make his testimony
worth nothing. I then thought that the committee might detain him as an
evidence, and pay him, in a reasonable manner, for his sustenance, till
his testimony should be called for. But I did not know how long it would
be before his examination might take place. It might be a year or two. I
foresaw other difficulties also and I was obliged to relinquish what
otherwise I should have deemed a prize.
On reviewing the conversation which had passed between us after my
return home, I thought, considering the friendly disposition of Gardiner
towards us, I had not done all I could for the cause; and, communicating
my feelings to Walter Chandler, he procured me another interview. At
this, I asked him, if he would become an evidence if he lived to return.
He replied, very heartily, that he would. I then asked him, if he would
keep a journal of facts during his voyage, as it would enable him to
speak more correctly, in case he should be called upon for his
testimony. He assured me he would, and that he would make up a little
book for that purpose. I asked him, lastly, when he meant to sail. He
said, as soon as the ship could get all her hands. It was their
intention to sail to-morrow, but that seven men, whom the mates had
brought drunk out of Marsh-street the evening before, were so terrified
when they found they were going to Africa, that they had seized the boat
that morning, and had put themselves on shore. I took my leave of him,
entreating him to follow his resolutions of kindness both to the sailors
and the slaves, and wished him a speedy and a safe return.
On going one day by the Exchange, after this interview with Gardiner, I
overheard a young gentleman say to another, "that it happened on the
coast, last year, and that he saw it." I wished to know who he was, and
to get at him if I could. I watched him at a distance for more than half
an hour, when I saw him leave his companion. I followed him till he
entered a house. I then considered whether it would be proper, and in
what manner, to address him when he should come out of it. But I waited
three hours, and I never saw him. I then concluded that he either lodged
where I saw him enter, or that he had gone to dine with some friend. I
therefore took notice of the house, and, showing it afterwards to
several of my friends, desired them to make him out for me. In a day or
two I had an interview with him. His name was James Arnold. He had been
two voyages to the coast of Africa for slaves; one as a surgeon's mate
in the Alexander, in the year 1785, and the other as surgeon in the
Little Pearl, in the year 1786, from which he had not then very long
returned.
I asked him if he was willing to give me any account of these voyages,
for that I was making an inquiry into the nature of the Slave Trade. He
replied, he knew that I was. He had been cautioned about falling in with
me; he had, however, taken no pains to avoid me. It was a bad trade, and
ought to be exposed.
I went over the same ground as I had gone with Gardiner relative to the
first of these voyages; or that in the Alexander. It is not necessary to
detail the particulars. It is impossible, however, not to mention, that
the treatment of the seamen on board this vessel was worse than I had
ever before heard of. No less than eleven of them; unable to bear their
lives; had deserted at Bonny, on the coast of Africa,--which is a most
unusual thing,--choosing all that could be endured, though in a most
inhospitable climate, and in the power of the natives, rather than to
continue in their own ship. Nine others also, in addition to the loss of
these, had died in the same voyage. As to the rest; he believed, without
any exception, that they had been badly used.
In examining him with respect to his second voyage, or that in the
Little Pearl, two circumstances came out with respect to the slaves,
which I shall relate in few words.
The chief mate used to beat the men-slaves on very trifling occasions.
About eleven one evening, the ship then lying off the coast, he heard a
noise in their room. He jumped down among them with the lanthorn in his
hand. Two of those who had been ill-used by him, forced themselves out
of their irons, and, seizing him, struck him with the bolt of them, and
it was with some difficulty that he was extricated from them by the
crew.
The men-slaves, unable now to punish him, and finding they had created
an alarm, began to proceed to extremities. They endeavoured to force
themselves up the gratings, and to pull down a partition which had been
made for a sick-birth; when they were fired upon and repressed. The next
morning they were brought up one by one; when it appeared that a boy had
been killed, who was afterwards thrown into the sea.
The two men, however, who had forced themselves out of irons, did not
come up with the rest, but found their way into the hold, and armed
themselves with knives from a cask, which had been opened for trade. One
of them being called to in the African tongue by a black trader, who was
then on board, came up, but with a knife in each hand; when one of the
crew, supposing him yet hostile, shot him in the right side and killed
him on the spot.
The other remained in the hold for twelve hours. Scalding water mixed
with fat was poured down upon him, to make him come up. Though his flesh
was painfully blistered by these means, he kept below. A promise was
then made to him in the African tongue by the same trader, that no
injury should be done him if he would come among them. To this at length
he consented; but on observing, when he was about half way up, that a
sailor was armed between decks, he flew to him, and clasped him, and
threw him down. The sailor fired his pistol in the scuffle, but without
effect; he contrived, however, to fracture his skull with the butt end
of it, so that the slave died on the third day.
The second circumstance took place after the arrival of the same vessel
at St. Vincent's. There was a boy-slave on board, who was very ill and
emaciated. The mate, who, by his cruelty, had been the author of the
former mischief, did not choose to expose him to sale with the rest,
lest the small sum he would fetch in that situation should lower the
average price, and thus bring down[A] the value of the privileges of the
officers of the ship. This boy was kept on board, and no provisions
allowed him.
[Footnote A: Officers are said to be allowed the privilege of one or
more slaves, according to their rank. When the cargo is sold, the sum
total fetched is put down, and this being divided by the number of
slaves sold, gives the average price of each. Such officers, then,
receive this average price for one or more slaves, according to their
privileges, but never the slaves themselves.]
The mate had suggested the propriety of throwing him overboard, but no
one would do it. On the ninth day he expired, having never been allowed
any sustenance during that time.
I asked Mr. Arnold if he was willing to give evidence of these facts in
both cases. He said he had only one objection, which was, that in two or
three days he was to go in the Ruby on his third voyage: but on leaving
me, he said, that he would take an affidavit before the mayor of the
truth of any of those things which he had related to me, if that would
do; but, from motives of safety, he should not choose to do this till
within a few hours before he sailed.
In two or three days after this he sent for me; he said the Ruby would
leave King-road the next day, and that he was ready to do as he had
promised. Depositions were accordingly made out from his own words. I
went with him to the residence of George Daubeny, Esq., who was then
chief magistrate of the city, and they were sworn to in his presence,
and witnessed as the law requires.
On taking my leave of him, I asked him how he could go a third time in
such a barbarous employ; he said he had been distressed. In his voyage
in the Alexander he had made nothing; for he had been so ill-used, that
he had solicited his discharge in Grenada, where, being paid in
currency, he had but little to receive. When he arrived in Bristol from
that island, he was quite penniless; and finding the Little Pearl going
out, he was glad to get on board her as her surgeon, which he then did
entirely for the sake of bread. He said, moreover, that she was but a
small vessel, and that his savings had been but small in her. This
occasioned him to apply for the Ruby, his present ship; but if he
survived this voyage he would never go another. I then put the same
question to him as to Gardiner, and he promised to keep a journal of
facts, and to give his evidence, if called upon, on his return.
The reader will see, from this account, the difficulty I had in
procuring evidence from this port. The owners of vessels employed in the
trade there forbade all intercourse with me; the old captains, who had
made their fortunes in it, would not see me; the young, who were making
them, could not be supposed to espouse my cause, to the detriment of
their own interest. Of those whose necessities made them go into it for
a livelihood, I could not get one to come forward, without doing so much
for him as would have amounted to bribery. Thus, when I got one of these
into my possession, I was obliged to let him go again. I was, however,
greatly consoled by the consideration, that I had procured two sentinels
to be stationed in the enemy's camp, who keeping a journal of different
facts, would bring me some important intelligence at a future period.
CHAPTER XVI.
[Sidenote: Author goes to Monmouth; confers relative to a petition from
that place; returns to Bristol; is introduced to Alexander Falconbridge;
takes one of the mates of the Africa out of that ship; visits disabled
seamen from the ship Thomas; puts a chief mate into prison for the
murder of William Lines.--Ill-usage of seamen in various other
slave-vessels; secures Crutwell's Bath paper in favour of the abolition;
lays the foundation of a committee at Bristol; and of a petition from
thence also; takes his leave of that city.]
By this time I began to feel the effect of my labours upon my
constitution. It had been my practice to go home in the evening to my
lodgings, about twelve o'clock, and then to put down the occurrences of
the day. This usually kept me up till one, and sometimes till nearly two
in the morning. When I went my rounds in Marsh-street, I seldom got home
till two, and into bed till three. My clothes, also, were frequently wet
through with the rains. The cruel accounts I was daily in the habit of
hearing, both with respect to the slaves, and to the seamen employed in
this wicked trade, from which, indeed, my mind had no respite, often
broke my sleep in the night, and occasioned me to awake in an agitated
state. All these circumstances concurred in affecting my health; I
looked thin; my countenance became yellow; I had also rheumatic
feelings. My friends, seeing this, prevailed upon me to give myself two
or three days' relaxation; and as a gentleman, of whom I had some
knowledge, was going into Carmarthenshire, I accompanied him as far as
Monmouth.
After our parting at this place, I became restless and uneasy, and
longed to get back to my work. I thought, however, my journey ought not
to be wholly useless to the cause; and hearing that Dr. Davis, a
clergyman at Monmouth, was a man of considerable weight among the
inhabitants, I took the liberty of writing him a letter, in which I
stated who I was and the way in which I had lately employed myself, and
the great wish I had to be favoured with an interview with him; and I
did not conceal that it would be very desirable, if the inhabitants of
the place could have that information on the subject which would warrant
them in so doing, that they should petition the legislature for the
abolition of the Slave Trade. Dr. Davis returned me an answer, and
received me. The questions which he put to me were judicious. He asked
me, first, whether, if the slaves were emancipated, there would not be
much confusion in the islands? I told him that the emancipation of them
was no part of our plan; we solicited nothing but the stopping of all
future importations of them into the islands. He then asked what the
planters would do for labourers? I replied, they would find sufficient
from an increase of the native population, if they were obliged to pay
attention to the latter means. We discoursed a long time upon this last
topic. I have not room to give the many other questions he proposed to
me: no one was ever more judiciously questioned. In my turn, I put him
into possession of all the discoveries I had made. He acknowledged the
injustice of the trade; he confessed, also, that my conversation had
enlightened him as to the impolicy of it; and, taking some of my
_Summary View_ to distribute, he said he hoped that the inhabitants
would, after the perusal of them, accede to my request.
On my return to Bristol, my friends had procured for me an interview
with Mr. Alexander Falconbridge, who had been to the coast of Africa, as
a surgeon, for four voyages; one in the Tartar, another in the
Alexander, and two in the Emilia slave-vessels.
On my introduction to him, I asked him if he had any objection to give
me an account of the cruelties which were said to be connected with the
Slave Trade; he answered, without any reserve, that he had not; for that
he had now done with it. Never were any words more welcome to my ears
than these: "Yes--I have done with the trade;"--and he said, also, that
he was free to give me information concerning it. Was he not then one of
the very persons, whom I had so long been seeking, but in vain?
To detail the accounts which he gave me at this and at subsequent
interviews, relative to the different branches of this trade, would fill
no ordinary volume. Suffice it to say, in general terms, as far as
relates to the slaves, that he confirmed the various violent and
treacherous methods of procuring them in their own country; their
wretched condition, in consequence of being crowded together in the
passage; their attempts to rise in defence of their own freedom, and,
when this was impracticable, to destroy themselves by the refusal of
sustenance, by jumping overboard into the sea, and in other ways; the
effect also of their situation upon their minds, by producing insanity
and various diseases; and the cruel manner of disposing of them in the
West Indies, and of separating relatives and friends.
With respect to the seamen employed in this trade, he commended Captain
Frazer for his kind usage to them, under whom he had so long served. The
handsome way in which he spoke of the latter pleased me much, because I
was willing to deduce from it his own impartiality, and because I
thought I might infer from it, also, his regard to truth as to other
parts of his narrative. Indeed I had been before acquainted with this
circumstance. Thompson, of the Seven Stars, had informed me that Frazer
was the only man sailing out of that port for slaves who had not been
guilty of cruelty to his seamen: and Mr. Burges alluded to it, when he
gave me advice not to proceed against the captain of the Alfred; for he
then said, as I mentioned in a former chapter, "that he knew but one
captain in the trade, who did not deserve long ago to be hanged." Mr.
Falconbridge, however, stated, that though he had been thus fortunate in
the Tartar and Emilia, he had been as unfortunate in the Alexander; for
he believed there were no instances upon naval record, taken altogether,
of greater barbarity, than of that which had been exercised towards the
seamen in this voyage. In running over these, it struck me that I had
heard of the same from some other quarter, or at least that these were
so like the others, that I was surprised at their coincidence. On taking
out my notes, I looked for the names of those whom I recollected to have
been used in this manner; and on desiring Mr. Falconbridge to mention
the names of those, also, to whom he alluded, they turned out to be the
same. The mystery, however, was soon cleared up, when I told him from
whom I had received my intelligence: for Mr. Arnold, the last-mentioned
person in the last chapter, had been surgeon's mate under Mr.
Falconbridge in the same vessel.
There was one circumstance of peculiar importance, but quite new to me,
which I collected from the information which Mr. Falconbridge had given
me. This was, that many of the seamen, who left the slave-ships in the
West Indies, were in such a weak, ulcerated, and otherwise diseased
state, that they perished there. Several, also, of those who came home
with the vessels were in the same deplorable condition. This was the
case, Mr. Falconbridge said, with some who returned in the Alexander. It
was the case, also, with many others; for he had been a pupil for twelve
months in the Bristol Infirmary, and had had ample means of knowing the
fact. The greatest number of seamen, at almost all times, who were
there, were from the slave-vessels. These, too, were usually there on
account of disease, whereas those from other ships were usually there on
account of accidents. The health of some of the former was so far
destroyed, that they were never wholly to be restored. This information
was of great importance; for it showed that they who were reported dead
upon the muster-rolls, were not all that were lost to the country by the
prosecution of this wicked trade. Indeed, it was of so much importance,
that in all my future interviews with others, which were for the purpose
of collecting evidence, I never forgot to make it a subject of inquiry.
I can hardly say how precious I considered the facts with which Mr.
Falconbridge had furnished me from his own experience, relative to the
different branches of this commerce. They were so precious, that I began
now to be troubled lest I should lose them. For, though he had thus
privately unbosomed himself to me, it did not follow that he would come
forward as a public evidence. I was not a little uneasy on this account.
I was fearful lest, when I should put this question to him, his future
plan of life, or some little narrow consideration of future interest,
would prevent him from giving his testimony, and I delayed asking him
for many days. During this time, however, I frequently visited him; and
at length, when I thought I was better acquainted, and probably in some
little estimation, with him, I ventured to open my wishes on this
subject. He answered me boldly, and at once, that he had left the trade
upon principle, and that he would state all he knew concerning it,
either publicly or privately, and at any time when he should be called
upon to do it. This answer produced such an effect upon me, after all my
former disappointments, that I felt it all over my frame. It operated
like a sudden shock, which often disables the impressed person for a
time. So the joy I felt rendered me quite useless, as to business, for
the remainder of the day.
I began to perceive in a little time the advantage of having cultivated
an acquaintance with Thompson of the Seven Stars. For nothing could now
pass in Bristol, relative to the seamen employed in this trade, but it
was soon brought to me. If there was anything amiss, I had so arranged
matters that I was sure to hear of it. He sent for me one day to inform
me that several of the seamen, who had been sent out of Marsh Street
into the Prince, which was then at Kingroad, and on the point of sailing
to Africa for slaves, had, through fear of ill usage on the voyage,
taken the boat and put themselves on shore. He informed me, at the same
time, that the seamen of the Africa, which was lying there also, and
ready to sail on a like voyage, were not satisfied, for that they had
been made to sign their articles of agreement without being permitted to
see them. To this he added, that Mr. Sheriff, one of the mates of the
latter vessel, was unhappy, also, on this account. Sheriff had been a
mate in the West India trade, and was a respectable man in his line. He
had been enticed by the captain of the Africa, under the promise of
peculiar advantages, to change his voyage. Having a wife and family at
Bristol, he was willing to make a sacrifice on their account: but when
he himself was not permitted to read the articles, he began to suspect
bad work, and that there would be nothing but misery in the approaching
voyage. Thompson entreated me to extricate him if I could. He was sure,
he said, if he went to the coast with that man, meaning the captain,
that he would never return alive.
I was very unwilling to refuse anything to Thompson. I was deeply bound
to him in gratitude for the many services he had rendered me, but I
scarcely saw how I could serve him on this occasion. I promised,
however, to speak to him in an hour's time. I consulted my friend Truman
Harford in the interim; and the result was, that he and I should proceed
to Kingroad in a boat, go on board the Africa, and charge the captain in
person with what he had done, and desire him to discharge Sheriff, as no
agreement, where fraud or force was used in the signatures, could be
deemed valid. If we were not able to extricate Sheriff by these means,
we thought that at least we should know, by inquiring of those whom we
should see on board, whether the measure of hindering the men from
seeing their articles on signing them had been adopted. It would be
useful to ascertain this because such a measure had been long reported
to be usual in this, but was said to be unknown in any other trade.
Having passed the river's mouth, and rowed towards the sea, we came near
the Prince first, but pursued our destination to the Africa. Mr. Sheriff
was the person who received us on board. I did not know him till I asked
his name. I then told him my errand, with which he seemed to be much
pleased. On asking him to tell the captain that I wished to speak with
him, he replied that he was on shore. This put me to great difficulty,
as I did not know then what to do. I consulted with Truman Harford, and
it was our opinion that we should inquire of the seamen, but in a very
quiet manner, by going individually to each, if they had ever demanded
to see the articles on signing them, and if they had been refused. We
proposed this question to them. They replied, that the captain had
refused them in a savage manner, making use of threats and oaths. There
was not one contradictory voice on this occasion. We then asked Mr.
Sheriff what we were to do. He entreated us by all means to take him on
shore. He was sure that under such a man as the captain, and
particularly after the circumstance of our coming on board should be
made known to him, he would never come from the coast of Africa alive.
Upon this, Truman Harford called me aside, and told me the danger of
taking an officer from the ship; for that, if any accident should happen
to her, the damage might all fall upon me. I then inquired of Mr.
Sheriff if there was any officer on board who could manage the ship. He
pointed one out to me, and I spoke to him in the cabin. This person told
me I need be under no apprehension about the vessel, but that every one
would be sorry to lose Mr. Sheriff. Upon this ground, Truman Harford,
who had felt more for me than for himself, became now easy. We had
before concluded, that the obtaining any signature by fraud or force
would render the agreement illegal. We therefore joined in opinion, that
we might take away the man. His chest was accordingly put into our boat.
We jumped into it with our rowers, and he followed us, surrounded by the
seamen, all of whom took an affectionate leave of him, and expressed
their regret at parting. Soon after this there was a general cry of
"Will you take me, too?" from the deck; and such a sudden movement
appeared there, that we were obliged to push off directly from the side,
fearing that many would jump into our boat and go with us.
After having left the ship, Sheriff corroborated the desertion of the
seamen from the Prince, as before related to me by Thompson. He spoke
also of the savage disposition of his late captain, which he had even
dared to manifest through lying in an English port. I was impressed by
this account of his rough manners; and the wind having risen before and
the surf now rolling heavily, I began to think what an escape I might
have had; how easy it would have been for the savage captain, if he had
been on board, or for any one at his instigation, to have pushed me over
the ship's side. This was the first time I had ever considered the peril
of the undertaking. But we arrived safe; and though on the same evening
I left my name at the captain's house, as that of the person who had
taken away his mate, I never heard more about it.
In pursuing my inquiries into the new topic suggested by Mr.
Falconbridge, I learnt that two or three of the seamen of the ship
Thomas, which had arrived now nearly a year from the Coast, were in a
very crippled and deplorable state; I accordingly went to see them. One
of them had been attacked by a fever, arising from circumstances
connected with these voyages. The inflammation, which had proceeded from
it, had reached his eyes; it could not be dispersed; and the consequence
was, that he was then blind. The second was lame; he had badly ulcerated
legs, and appeared to be very weak. The third was a mere spectre; I
think he was the most pitiable object I ever saw. I considered him as
irrecoverably gone. They all complained to me of their bad usage on
board the Thomas. They said they had heard, of my being in Bristol, and
they hoped I would not leave it without inquiring into the murder of
William Lines.
On inquiring who William Lines was, they informed me that he had been
one of the crew of the same ship, and that all on board believed that he
had been killed by the chief mate; but they themselves had not been
present when the blows were given him; they had not seen him till
afterwards; but their shipmates had told them of his cruel treatment,
and they knew that soon afterwards he had died.
In the course of the next day, the mother of Lines, who lived in
Bristol, came to me and related the case. I told her there was no
evidence as to the fact, for that I had seen three seamen, who could not
speak to it from their own knowledge. She said, there were four others
then in Bristol who could; I desired her to fetch them. When they
arrived I examined each separately, and cross-examined them in the best
manner I was able; I could find no variation in their account, and I was
quite convinced that the murder had taken place. The mother was then
importunate that I should take up the case. I was too much affected by
the narration I had heard to refuse her wholly, and yet I did not
promise that I would; I begged a little time to consider of it. During
this I thought of consulting my friend Burges, but I feared he would
throw cold water upon it, as he had done in the case of the captain of
the Alfred. I remembered well what he had then said to me, and yet I
felt a strong disposition to proceed, for the trade was still going on.
Every day, perhaps, some new act of barbarity was taking place; and one
example, if made, might counteract the evil for a time. I seemed
therefore to incline to stir in this matter, and thought, if I should
get into any difficulty about it, it would be better to do it without
consulting Mr. Burges, than, after having done it, to fly as it were in
his face. I then sent for the woman, and told her that she might appear
with the witnesses at the Common Hall, where the magistrates usually sat
on a certain day.
We all met at the time appointed, and I determined to sit as near to the
mayor as I could get. The hall was unusually crowded. One or two
slave-merchants, and two or three others, who were largely concerned in
the West India trade, were upon the bench; for I had informed the mayor
the day before of my intention, and he, it appeared, had informed them.
I shall never forget the savage looks which these people gave me; which
indeed were so remarkable, as to occasion the eyes of the whole court to
be turned upon me. They looked as if they were going to speak to me, and
the people looked as if they expected me to say something in return.
They then got round the mayor, and began to whisper to him, as I
supposed, on the business before it should come on. One of them,
however, said aloud to the former, but fixing his eyes upon me, and
wishing me to overhear him, "Scandalous reports had lately been spread,
but sailors were not used worse in Guineamen than in other vessels."
This brought the people's eyes upon me again; I was very much irritated,
but I thought it improper to say anything. Another, looking savagely at
me, said to the mayor, "that he had known Captain Vicars a long time;
that he was an honourable man[A], and would not allow such usage in his
ship. There were always vagabonds to hatch up things;" and he made a
dead point at me, by putting himself into a posture which attracted the
notice of those present, and by staring me in the face. I could now no
longer restrain myself, and I said aloud, in as modest manner as I
could, "You, sir, may know many things which I do not; but this I know,
that if you do not do your duty, you are amenable to a higher court."
The mayor upon this looked at me, and directly my friend Mr. Burges, who
was sitting as the clerk to the magistrates, went to him and whispered
something in his ear; after which all private conversation between the
mayor and others ceased, and the hearing was ordered to come on.
[Footnote A: We may well imagine what this person's notion of another
man's honour was; for he was the purser of the Brothers and of the
Alfred, who, as before mentioned, sent the captains of those ships out a
second voyage; after knowing their barbarities in the former; and he was
also the purser of this very ship Thomas, where the murder had been
committed. I by no means, however, wish by these observations to detract
from the character of Captain Vicars, as he had no concern in the cruel
deed.]
I shall not detain the reader by giving an account of the evidence which
then transpired. The four witnesses were examined, and the case was so
far clear; Captain Vicars, however, was sent for. On being questioned,
he did not deny that there had been bad usage, but said that the young
man had died of the flux. But this assertion went for nothing when
balanced against the facts which had come out; and this was so evident,
that an order was made out for the apprehension of the chief mate. He
was accordingly taken up. The next day, however, there was a rehearing
of the case, when he was returned to the gaol, where he was to lie till
the Lords of the Admiralty should order a sessions to be held for the
trial of offences committed on the high seas.
This public examination of the case of William Lines, and the way in
which it ended, produced an extraordinary result; for after this time
the slave-captains and mates who used to meet me suddenly, used as
suddenly to start from me, indeed to the other side of the pavement, as
if I had been a wolf, or tiger, or some dangerous beast of prey. Such of
them as saw me beforehand used to run up the cross streets or lanes,
which were nearest to them, to get away. Seamen, too, came from various
quarters to apply to me for redress. One came to me who had been treated
ill in the Alexander, when Mr. Falconbridge had been the surgeon of her.
Three came to me who had been ill-used in the voyage which followed,
though she had then sailed under a new captain. Two applied to me from
the Africa, who had been of her crew in the last voyage. Two from the
Fly. Two from the Wasp. One from the Little Pearl, and three from the
Pilgrim or Princess, when she was last upon the coast.
The different scenes of barbarity which these represented to me, greatly
added to the affliction of my mind. My feelings became now almost
insupportable. I was agonized to think that this trade should last
another day. I was in a state of agitation from morning till night. I
determined I would soon leave Bristol. I saw nothing but misery in the
place. I had collected now, I believed, all the evidence it would
afford; and to stay in it a day longer than was necessary, would be only
an interruption for so much time both of my happiness and of my health.
I determined therefore to do only two or three things, which I thought
to be proper, and to depart in a few days.
And first I went to Bath, where I endeavoured to secure the respectable
paper belonging to that city in favour of the abolition of the Slave
Trade. This I did entirely to my satisfaction, by relating to the worthy
editor all the discoveries I had made, and by impressing his mind in a
forcible manner on the subject. And it is highly to the honour of Mr.
Crutwell, that from that day he never ceased to defend our cause; that
he never made a charge for insertions of any kind; but that he
considered all he did upon this occasion in the light of a duty, or as
his mite given in charity to a poor and oppressed people.
The next attempt was to lay the foundation of a committee in Bristol,
and of a petition to Parliament from it for the abolition of the Slave
Trade. I had now made many friends. A gentleman of the name of Paynter
had felt himself much interested in my labours. Mr. Joseph Harford, a
man of fortune, of great respectability of character, and of
considerable influence, had attached himself to the cause. Dr. Fox had
assisted me in it. Mr. Hughes, a clergyman of the baptist church, was
anxious and ready to serve it. Dr. Camplin, of the establishment, with
several of his friends, continued steady. Matthew Wright, James Harford,
Truman Harford, and all the Quakers to a man, were strenuous, and this
on the best of principles, in its support. To all these I spoke, and I
had the pleasure of seeing that my wishes were likely in a short time to
be gratified in both these cases.
It was now necessary that I should write to the committee in London. I
had written to them only two letters during my absence; for I had
devoted myself so much to the great object I had undertaken, that I
could think of little else. Hence some of my friends among them were
obliged to write to different persons at Bristol, to inquire if I was
alive, I gave up a day or two therefore, to this purpose. I informed the
committee of all my dis |
