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Title: The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the
Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839)

Author: Thomas Clarkson

Release Date: May 16, 2007 [EBook #10633]
[This file was first posted on January 8, 2004]

Language: English

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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.

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.

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.

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 Abbé 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 Abbé 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.

--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.

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 Abbé 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 discoveries in the various branches to which my
attention had been directed, and desired them in return to procure me
various official documents for the port of London, which I then
specified. Having done this, I conferred with Mr. Falconbridge, relative
to being with me at Liverpool. I thought it right to make him no other
offer than that his expenses should be paid. He acceded to my request on
these disinterested terms; and I took my departure from Bristol, leaving
him to follow me in a few days.




CHAPTER XVII.

Author secures the Gloucester paper, and lays the foundation of a
petition from that city; does the same at Worcester, and at
Chester.--Arrives at Liverpool.--Collects specimens of African
produce; also imports and exports, and muster-rolls, and accounts of
dock duties, and iron instruments used in the Slave Trade.--His
introduction to Mr. Norris, and others.--Author and his errand become
known.--People visit him out of curiosity.--Frequent controversies on
the subject of the Slave Trade.


On my arrival at Gloucester, I waited upon my friend Dean Tucker. He was
pleased to hear of the great progress I had made since he left me. On
communicating to him my intention of making interest with the editors of
some provincial papers, to enlighten the public mind, and with the
inhabitants of some respectable places, for petitions to Parliament,
relative to the abolition of the Slave Trade, he approved of it, and
introduced me to Mr. Raikes, the proprietor of the respectable paper
belonging to that city. Mr. Raikes acknowledged, without any hesitation,
the pleasure he should have in serving such a noble cause; and he
promised to grant me, from time to time, a corner in his paper, for such
things as I might point out to him for insertion. This promise he
performed afterwards, without any pecuniary consideration, and solely on
the ground of benevolence. He promised also his assistance as to the
other object, for the promotion of which I left him several of my
_Summary View_ to distribute.

At Worcester I trod over the same ground, and with the same success.
Timothy Bevington, of the religious society of the Quakers, was the only
person to whom I had an introduction there: he accompanied me to the
mayor, to the editor of the Worcester paper, and to several others,
before each of whom I pleaded the cause of the oppressed Africans in the
best manner I was able. I dilated both on the inhumanity and on the
impolicy of the trade, which I supported by the various facts recently
obtained at Bristol. I desired, however, as far as petitions were
concerned, (and this desire I expressed on all other similar occasions,)
that no attempt should be made to obtain these, till such information
had been circulated on the subject, that every one, when called upon,
might judge, from his knowledge of it, how far he would feel it right to
join in it. For this purpose I left also here several of my _Summary
View_ for distribution.

After my arrival at Chester, I went to the bishop's residence, but I
found he was not there. Knowing no other person in the place, I wrote a
note to Mr. Cowdroy, whom I understood to be the editor of the Chester
paper, soliciting an interview with him, I explained my wishes to him on
both subjects. He seemed to be greatly rejoiced, when we met, that such
a measure as that of the abolition of the Slave Trade was in
contemplation. Living at so short a distance from Liverpool, and in a
country from which so many persons were constantly going to Africa, he
was by no means ignorant, as some were, of the nature of this cruel
traffic; but yet he had no notion that I had probed it so deeply, or
that I had brought to light such important circumstances concerning it,
as he found by my conversation. He made me a hearty offer of his
services on this occasion, and this expressly without fee or reward. I
accepted them most joyfully and gratefully. It was, indeed, a most
important thing, to have a station so near the enemy's camp, where we
could watch their motions, and meet any attack which might be made from
it. And this office of a sentinel Mr. Cowdroy performed with great
vigilance; and when he afterwards left Chester for Manchester, to
establish a paper there, he carried with him the same friendly
disposition towards our cause.

My first introduction at Liverpool was to William Rathbone, a member of
the religious society of the Quakers. He was the same person who, before
the formation of our committee, had procured me copies of several of the
muster-rolls of the slave-vessels belonging to that port, so that,
though we were not personally known, yet we were not strangers to each
other. Isaac Hadwen, a respectable member of the same society, was the
person whom I saw next. I had been introduced to him, previously to my
journey, when he was at London, at the yearly meeting of the Quakers, so
that no letter to him was necessary. As Mr. Roscoe had generally given
the profits of _The Wrongs of Africa_ to our committee, I made no
scruple of calling upon him. His reception of me was very friendly, and
he introduced me afterwards to Dr. Currie, who had written the preface
to that poem. There was also a fourth upon whom I called, though I did
not know him. His name was Edward Rushton: he had been an officer in a
slave-ship, but had lost his sight, and had become an enemy to that
trade. On passing through Chester, I had heard, for the first time, that
he had published a poem called _West Indian Eclogues_, with a view of
making the public better acquainted with the evil of the Slave Trade,
and of exciting their indignation against it. Of the three last it may
be observed, that, having come forward thus early, as labourers, they
deserve to be put down, as I have placed them in the map, among the
forerunners and coadjutors in this great cause, for each published his
work before any efforts were made publicly, or without knowing that any
were intended. Rushton, also, had the boldness, though then living in
Liverpool, to affix his name to his work. These were the only persons
whom I knew for some time after my arrival in that place.

It may not, perhaps, be necessary to enter so largely into my
proceedings at Liverpool as at Bristol. The following account,
therefore, may suffice:--

In my attempts to add to my collection of specimens of African produce,
I was favoured with a sample of gum ruber astringents, of cotton from
the Gambia, of indigo and musk, of long pepper, of black pepper from
Whidàh, of mahogany from Calabar, and of cloths of different colours,
made by the natives, which, while they gave other proofs of the quality
of their own cotton, gave proofs, also, of the variety of their dyes.

I made interest at the Custom-house for various exports and imports, and
for copies of the muster-rolls of several slave-vessels, besides those
of vessels employed in other trades.

By looking out constantly for information on this great subject, I was
led to the examination of a printed card or table of the dock duties of
Liverpool, which was published annually. The town of Liverpool had so
risen in opulence and importance from only a fishing-village, that the
corporation seemed to have a pride in giving a public view of this
increase. Hence they published and circulated this card. Now the card
contained one, among other facts, which was almost as precious, in a
political point of view, as any I had yet obtained. It stated that in
the year 1772, when I knew that a hundred vessels sailed out of
Liverpool for the coast of Africa, the dock-duties amounted to 4552_l._,
and that in 1779, when I knew that, in consequence of the war, only
eleven went from thence to the same coast, they amounted to 4957_l_.
From these facts put together, two conclusions were obvious. The first
was, that the opulence of Liverpool, as far as the entry of vessels into
its ports, and the dock-duties arising from thence, were concerned, was
not indebted to the Slave Trade; for these duties were highest when it
had only eleven ships in that employ. The second was, that there had
been almost a practical experiment with respect to the abolition of it;
for the vessels in it had been gradually reduced from one hundred to
eleven, and yet the West Indians had not complained of their ruin, nor
had the merchants or manufacturers suffered, nor had Liverpool been
affected by the change.

There were specimens of articles in Liverpool, which I entirely
overlooked at Bristol, and which I believed I should have overlooked
here also, had it not been for seeing them at a window in a shop; I mean
those of different iron instruments used in this cruel traffic. I bought
a pair of the iron hand-cuffs with which the men-slaves are confined.
The right-hand wrist of one, and the left of another, are almost brought
into contact by these, and fastened together, as the figure A in the
annexed plate represents, by a little bolt with a small padlock at the
end of it.

[Illustration: Handcuffs]

I bought also a pair of shackles for the legs. These are represented by
the figure B.

The right ancle of one man is fastened to the left of another, as the
reader will observe, by similar means. I bought these, not because it
was difficult to conceive how the unhappy victims of this execrable
trade were confined, but to show the fact that they were so. For what
was the inference from it, but that they did not leave their own country
willingly; that, when they were in the holds of the slave-vessels, they
were not in the Elysium which had been represented; and that there was a
fear either that they would make their escape, or punish their
oppressors?

[Illustration: Shackles for the legs]

I bought also a thumb-screw at this shop. The thumbs are put into this
instrument through the two circular holes at the top of it. By turning a
key, a bar rises up by means of a screw from C to D, and the pressure
upon them becomes painful. By turning it further you may make the blood
start from the ends of them. By taking the key away, as at E, you leave
the tortured person in agony, without any means of extricating himself,
or of being extricated by others. This screw, as I was then informed,
was applied by way of punishment, in case of obstinacy in the slaves, or
for any other reputed offence, at the discretion of the captain.

At the same place I bought another instrument which I saw. It was called
a speculum oris. The dotted lines in the figure on the right hand of the
screw represent it when shut, the black lines when open. It is opened,
as at G H, by a screw below with a nob at the end of it. This instrument
is known among surgeons, having been invented to assist them in
wrenching open the mouth as in the case of a locked jaw; but it had got
into use in this trade.

[Illustration: Thumb screw]

[Illustration: Speculum oris]

On asking the seller of the instruments on what occasion it was used
there, he replied that the slaves were frequently so sulky as to shut
their mouths against all sustenance, and this with a determination to
die; and that it was necessary their mouths should be forced open to
throw in nutriment, that they who had purchased them might incur no loss
by their death.

The town-talk of Liverpool was much of the same nature as that at
Bristol on the subject of this trade. Horrible facts concerning it were
in everybody's mouth; but they were more numerous, as was likely to be
the case where eighty vessels were employed from one port, and only
eighteen from the other. The people, too, at Liverpool seemed to be more
hardened, or they related them with more coldness or less feeling. This
may be accounted for from the greater number of those facts, as just
related, the mention of which, as it was of course more frequent,
occasioned them to lose their power of exciting surprise. All this I
thought in my favour, as I should more easily, or with less
obnoxiousness, come to the knowledge of what I wanted to obtain.

My friend William Rathbone, who had been looking out to supply me with
intelligence, but who was desirous that I should not be imposed upon,
and that I should get it from the fountainhead, introduced me to Mr.
Norris for this purpose. Norris had been formerly a slave-captain, but
had quitted the trade, and settled as a merchant in a different line of
business. He was a man of quick penetration, and of good talents, which
he had cultivated to advantage, and he had a pleasing address both as to
speech and manners. He received me with great politeness, and offered me
all the information I desired. I was with him five or six times at his
own house for this purpose. The substance of his communications on these
occasions I shall now put down, and I beg the reader's particular
attention to it, as he will be referred to it in other parts of this
work.

With respect to the produce of Africa, Mr. Norris enumerated many
articles in which a new and valuable trade might be opened, of which he
gave me one, namely, the black pepper from Whidàh before mentioned. This
he gave me, to use his own expressions, as one argument among many
others of the impolicy of the Slave Trade, which, by turning the
attention of the inhabitants to the persons of one another for sale,
hindered foreigners from discovering, and themselves from cultivating,
many of the valuable productions of their own soil.

On the subject of procuring slaves, he gave it as his decided opinion
that many of the inhabitants of Africa were kidnapped by each other, as
they were travelling on the roads, or fishing in the creeks, or
cultivating their little spots. Having learned their language, he had
collected the fact from various quarters, but more particularly from the
accounts of slaves whom he had transported in his own vessels. With
respect, however, to Whidàh, many came from thence who were reduced to
slavery in a different manner. The king of Dahomey, whose life (with the
wars and customs of the Dahomans) he said he was then writing, and who
was a very despotic prince, made no scruple of seizing his own subjects,
and of selling them, if he was in want of any of the articles which the
slave-vessels would afford him. The history of this prince's life he
lent me afterwards to read, while it was yet in manuscript, in which I
observed that he had recorded all the facts now mentioned. Indeed he
made no hesitation to state them, either when we were by ourselves, or
when others were in company with us. He repeated them at one time in the
presence both of Mr. Cruden and Mr. Coupland. The latter was then a
slave-merchant at Liverpool. He seemed to be fired at the relation of
these circumstances. Unable to restrain himself longer, he entered into
a defence of the trade, both as to the humanity and the policy of it;
but Mr. Norris took up his arguments in both these cases, and answered
them in a solid manner.

With respect to the Slave Trade as it affected the health of our seamen,
Mr. Norris admitted it to be destructive; but I did not stand in need of
this information, as I knew this part of the subject, in consequence of
my familiarity with the muster-rolls, better than himself.

He admitted it also to be true, that they were too frequently
ill-treated in this trade. A day or two after our conversation on this
latter subject he brought me the manuscript journal of a voyage to
Africa, which had been kept by a mate, with whom he was then acquainted.
He brought it to me to read, as it might throw some light upon the
subject on which we had talked last. In this manuscript various
instances of cruel usage towards seamen were put down, from which it
appeared that the mate, who wrote it, had not escaped himself.

At the last interview we had, he seemed to be so satisfied of the
inhumanity, injustice, and impolicy of the trade, that he made me a
voluntary offer of certain clauses, which he had been thinking of, and
which, he believed, if put into an Act of Parliament, would judiciously
effect its abolition. The offer of these clauses I embraced eagerly. He
dictated them, and I wrote. I wrote them in a small book which I had
then in my pocket. They were these:--

No vessel, under a heavy penalty, to supply foreigners with slaves.

Every vessel to pay to government a tax for a register on clearing out
to supply our own islands with slaves.

Every such vessel to be prohibited from purchasing or bringing home any
of the productions of Africa.

Every such vessel to be prohibited from bringing home a passenger, or
any article of produce, from the West Indies.

A bounty to be given to every vessel trading in the natural productions
of Africa. This bounty to be paid in part out of the tax arising from
the registers of the slave-vessels.

Certain establishments to be made by government in Africa, in the
Bananas, in the Isles de Los, on the banks of the Camaranca, and in
other places, for the encouragement and support of the new trade to be
substituted there.

Such then were the services, which Mr. Norris, at the request of William
Rathbone, rendered me at Liverpool, during my stay there; and I have
been very particular in detailing them, because I shall be obliged to
allude to them, as I have before observed, on some important occasions
in a future part of the work.

On going my rounds one day, I met accidentally with Captain Chaffers.
This gentleman either was or had been in the West India employ. His
heart had beaten in sympathy with mine, and he had greatly favoured our
cause. He had seen me at Mr. Norris's, and learned my errand there. He
told me he could introduce me in a few minutes, as we were then near at
hand, to Captain Lace, if I chose it. Captain Lace, he said, had been
long in the Slave Trade, and could give me very accurate information
about it. I accepted his offer. On talking to Captain Lace, relative to
the productions of Africa, he told me that mahogany grew at Calabar. He
began to describe a tree of that kind, which he had seen there. This
tree was from about eighteen inches to two feet in diameter, and about
sixty feet high, or, as he expressed it, of the height of a tall
chimney. As soon as he mentioned Calabar, a kind of horror came over me.
His name became directly associated in my mind with the place. It almost
instantly occurred to me, that he commanded the Edgar out of Liverpool,
when the dreadful massacre there, as has been related, took place.
Indeed I seemed to be so confident of it, that, attending more to my
feelings than to my reason at this moment, I accused him with being
concerned in it. This produced great confusion among us. For he looked
incensed at Captain Chaffers, as if he had introduced me to him for this
purpose. Captain Chaffers again seemed to be all astonishment that I
should have known of this circumstance, and to be vexed that I should
have mentioned it in such a manner. I was also in a state of trembling
myself. Captain Lace could only say it was a bad business. But he never
defended himself, nor those concerned in it. And we soon parted, to the
great joy of us all.

Soon after this interview, I began to perceive that I was known in
Liverpool, as well as the object for which I came. Mr. Coupland, the
slave-merchant, with whom I had disputed at Mr. Norris's house, had
given the alarm to those who were concerned in the trade, and Captain
Lace, as may be now easily imagined, had spread it. This knowledge of me
and of my errand was almost immediately productive of two effects, the
first of which I shall now mention.

I had a private room at the King's Arms tavern, besides my bed-room,
where I used to meditate and to write; but I generally dined in public.
The company at dinner had hitherto varied but little as to number, and
consisted of those, both from the town and country, who had been
accustomed to keep up a connexion with the house. But now things were
altered, and many people came to dine there daily with a view of seeing
me, as if I had been some curious creature imported from foreign parts.
They thought, also, they could thus have an opportunity of conversing
with me. Slave-merchants and slave-captains came in among others for
this purpose. I had observed this difference in the number of our
company for two or three days. Dale, the master of the tavern, had
observed it also, and told me in a good-natured manner, that many of
these were my visitors, and that I was likely to bring him a great deal
of custom. In a little time, however, things became serious; for they,
who came to see me, always started the abolition of the Slave Trade as
the subject for conversation. Many entered into the justification of
this trade with great warmth, as if to ruffle my temper, or at any rate
to provoke me to talk. Others threw out, with the same view, that men
were going about to abolish it, who would have done much better if they
had stayed at home. Others said they had heard of a person turned mad,
who had conceived the thought of destroying Liverpool, and all its
glory. Some gave as a toast, Success to the trade, and then laughed
immoderately, and watched me when I took my glass to see if I would
drink it. I saw the way in which things were now going, and I believed
it would be proper that I should come to some fixed resolutions; such
as, whether I should change my lodgings, and whether I should dine in
private; and if not, what line of conduct it would become me to pursue
on such occasions. With respect to changing my lodgings and dining in
private, I conceived, if I were to do either of these things, that I
should be showing an unmanly fear of my visiters, which they would turn
to their own advantage. I conceived too, that, if I chose to go on as
before, and to enter into conversation with them on the subject of the
abolition of the Slave Trade, I might be able, by having such an
assemblage of persons daily, to gather all the arguments which they
could collect on the other side of our question, an advantage which I
should one day feel in the future management of the cause. With respect
to the line, which I should pursue in the case of remaining in the place
of my abode and in my former habits, I determined never to start the
subject of the abolition myself--never to abandon it when started--never
to defend it but in a serious and dignified manner--and never to
discover any signs of irritation, whatever provocation might be given
me. By this determination I abided rigidly. The King's Arms became now
daily the place for discussion on this subject. Many tried to insult me,
but to no purpose. In all these discussions I found the great advantage
of having brought Mr. Falconbridge with me from Bristol; for he was
always at the table; and when my opponents, with a disdainful look,
tried to ridicule my knowledge, among those present, by asking me if I
had ever been on the coast of Africa myself, he used generally to reply,
"But I have. I know all your proceedings there, and that his statements
are true." These and other words put in by him, who was an athletic and
resolute-looking man, were of great service to me. All disinterested
persons, of whom there were four or five daily in the room, were
uniformly convinced by our arguments, and took our part, and some of
them very warmly. Day after day we beat our opponents out of the field,
as many of the company acknowledged, to their no small notification, in
their presence. Thus, while we served the cause by discovering all that
could be said against it, we served it by giving numerous individuals
proper ideas concerning it, and of interesting them in our favour.

The second effect which I experienced was, that from this time I could
never get any one to come forward as an evidence to serve the cause.
There were, I believe, hundreds of persons in Liverpool, and in the
neighbourhood of it, who had been concerned in this traffic, and who had
left it, all of whom could have given such testimony concerning it as
would have insured its abolition. But none of them would now speak out.
Of these, indeed, there were some, who were alive to the horrors of it,
and who lamented that it should still continue. But yet even these were
backward in supporting me. All that they did was just privately to see
me, to tell me that I was right, and to exhort me to persevere: but as
to coming forward to be examined publicly, my object was so unpopular,
and would become so much more so when brought into parliament, that they
would have their houses pulled down, if they should then appear as
public instruments in the annihilation of the trade. With this account I
was obliged to rest satisfied; nor could I deny, when I considered the
spirit, which had manifested itself, and the extraordinary number of
interested persons in the place, that they had some reason for their
fears; and that these fears were not groundless, appeared afterwards;
for Dr. Binns, a respectable physician belonging to the religious
society of the Quakers, and to whom Isaac Hadwen had introduced me, was
near falling into a mischievous plot, which had been laid against him,
because he was one of the subscribers to the institution for the
abolition of the Slave Trade, and because he was suspected of having
aided me in promoting that object.




CHAPTER XVIII.

Hostile disposition towards the author increases, on account of his
known patronage of the seamen employed in the Slave Trade; manner of
procuring and paying them at Liverpool; their treatment and
mortality.--Account of the murder of Peter Green; trouble taken by the
author to trace it; his narrow escape.--Goes to Lancaster, but returns
to Liverpool; leaves the latter place.


It has appeared that a number of persons used to come and see me, out of
curiosity, at the King's Arms tavern; and that these manifested a bad
disposition towards me, which was near breaking out into open insult.
Now the cause of all this was, as I have observed, the knowledge which
people had obtained relative to my errand at this place. But this
hostile disposition was increased by another circumstance, which I am
now to mention. I had been so shocked at the treatment of the seamen
belonging to the slave-vessels at Bristol, that I determined, on my
arrival at Liverpool, to institute an inquiry concerning it there also.
I had made considerable progress in it, so that few seamen were landed
from such vessels, but I had some communication with them; and though no
one else would come near me, to give me any information about the trade,
these were always forward to speak to me, and to tell me their
grievances, if it were only with the hope of being able to get redress.
The consequence of this was, that they used to come to the King's Arms
tavern to see me. Hence, one, two, and three, were almost daily to be
found about the door; and this happened quite as frequently after the
hostility just mentioned had shown itself, as before. They, therefore,
who came to visit me out of curiosity, could not help seeing my sailor
visiters; and on inquiring into their errand, they became more than ever
incensed against me.

The first result of this increased hostility towards me was an
application from some of them to the master of the tavern, that he would
not harbour me. This he communicated to me in a friendly manner, but he
was by no means desirous that I should leave him. On the other hand, he
hoped I would stay long enough to accomplish my object. I thought it
right, however, to take the matter into consideration; and having
canvassed it, I resolved to remain with him, for the reasons mentioned
in the former chapter. But, that I might avoid doing anything that would
be injurious to his interest, as well as in some measure avoid giving
unnecessary offence to others, I took lodgings in Williamson Square,
where I retired to write, and occasionally to sleep, and to which place
all seamen, desirous of seeing me, were referred. Hence I continued to
get the same information as before, but in a less obnoxious and
injurious manner.

The history of the seamen employed in the slave-vessels belonging to the
port of Liverpool, I found to be similar to that of those from Bristol.

They who went into this trade were of two classes. The first consisted
of those who were ignorant of it, and to whom generally improper
representations of advantage had been made, for the purpose of enticing
them into it. The second consisted of those who, by means of a regular
system, kept up by the mates and captains, had been purposely brought by
their landlords into distress, from which they could only be extricated
by going into this hateful employ. How many have I seen, with tears in
their eyes, put into boats, and conveyed to vessels, which were then
lying at the Black Rock, and which were only waiting to receive them to
sail away!

The manner of paying them in the currency of the islands was the same as
at Bristol. But this practice was not concealed at Liverpool, as it was
at the former place. The articles of agreement were printed, so that all
who chose to buy might read them. At the same time it must be observed,
that seamen were never paid in this manner in any other employ; and that
the African wages, though nominally higher for the sake of procuring
hands, were thus made to be actually lower than in other trades.

The loss by death was so similar, that it did not signify whether the
calculation on a given number was made either at this or the other port.
I had, however, a better opportunity at this than I had at the other, of
knowing the loss, as it related to those whose constitutions had been
ruined, or who had been rendered incapable by disease, of continuing
their occupation at sea. For the slave-vessels which returned to
Liverpool, sailed immediately into the docks, so that I saw at once
their sickly and ulcerated crews. The number of vessels, too, was so
much greater from this, than from any other port, that their sick made a
more conspicuous figure in the infirmary; and they were seen also more
frequently in the streets.

With respect to their treatment, nothing could be worse. It seemed to me
to be but one barbarous system from the beginning to the end. I do not
say barbarous, as if premeditated, but it became so in consequence of
the savage habits gradually formed by a familiarity with miserable
sights, and with a course of action inseparable from the trade. Men in
their first voyages usually disliked the traffic; and if they were happy
enough then to abandon it, they usually escaped the disease of a
hardened heart. But if they went a second and a third time, their
disposition became gradually changed. It was impossible for them to be
accustomed to carry away men and women by force, to keep them in chains,
to see their tears, to hear their mournful lamentations, to behold the
dead and the dying, to be obliged to keep up a system of severity amidst
all this affliction,--in short, it was impossible for them to be
witnesses, and this for successive voyages, to the complicated mass of
misery passing in a slave-ship, without losing their finer feelings, or
without contracting those habits of moroseness and cruelty which would
brutalize their nature. Now, if we consider that persons could not
easily become captains (and to these the barbarities were generally
chargeable by actual perpetration, or by consent) till they had been two
or three voyages in this employ, we shall see the reason why it would be
almost a miracle, if they, who were thus employed in it, were not rather
to become monsters, than to continue to be men.

While I was at Bristol, I heard from an officer of the Alfred, who gave
me the intelligence privately, that the steward of a Liverpool ship,
whose name was Green, had been murdered in that ship. The Alfred was in
Bonny river at the same time, and his own captain, (so infamous for his
cruelty, as has been before shown,) was on board when it happened. The
circumstances, he said, belonging to this murder, were, if report were
true, of a most atrocious nature, and deserved to be made the subject of
inquiry. As to the murder itself, he observed, it had passed as a
notorious and uncontradicted fact.

This account was given me just as I had made an acquaintance with Mr.
Falconbridge, and I informed him of it; he said he had no doubt of its
truth; for in his last voyage he went to Bonny himself, where the ship
was then lying, in which the transaction happened: the king and several
of the black traders told him of it. The report then current was simply
this, that the steward had been barbarously beaten one evening; that
after this he was let down with chains upon him into a boat, which was
alongside of the ship, and that the next morning he was found dead.

On my arrival at Liverpool, I resolved to inquire into the truth of this
report. On looking into one of the wet docks, I saw the name of the
vessel alluded to; I walked over the decks of several others, and got on
board her. Two people were walking up and down her, and one was leaning
upon a rail by the side. I asked the latter how many slaves this ship
had carried in her last voyage; he replied he could not tell; but one of
the two persons walking about could answer me, as he had sailed out and
returned in her. This man came up to us, and joined in conversation. He
answered my questions and many others, and would have shown me the ship,
but on asking him how many seamen had died on the voyage, he changed his
manner, and said, with apparent hesitation, that he could not tell. I
asked him next, what had become, of the steward Green. He said he
believed he was dead. I asked how the seamen had been used. He said, not
worse than others. I then asked whether Green had been used worse than
others. He replied, he did not then recollect. I found that he was now
quite upon his guard, and as I could get no satisfactory answer from him
I left the ship.

On the next day I looked over the muster-roll of this vessel; on
examining it, I found that sixteen of the crew had died; I found also
the name of Peter Green; I found, again, that the latter had been put
down among the dead. I observed, also, that the ship had left Liverpool
on the 5th of June, 1786, and had returned on the 5th of June, 1787, and
that Peter Green was put down as having died on the 19th of September;
from all which circumstances it was evident that he must, as my Bristol
informant asserted, have died upon the Coast.

Notwithstanding this extraordinary coincidence of name, mortality, time,
and place, I could gain no further intelligence about the affair till
within about ten days before I left Liverpool; when among the seamen,
who came to apply to me in Williamson Square was George Ormond. He came
to inform me of his own ill-usage; from which circumstance I found that
he had sailed in the same ship with Peter Green. This led me to inquire
into the transaction in question, and I received from him the following
account.

Peter Green had been shipped as steward. A black woman, of the name of
Rodney, went out in the same vessel; she belonged to the owners of it,
and was to be an interpretess to the slaves who should be purchased.
About five in the evening, some time in the month of September, the
vessel then lying in Bonny river, the captain, as was his custom, went
on shore. In his absence, Rodney, the black woman, asked Green for the
keys of the pantry, which he refused her, alleging that the captain had
already beaten him for having given them to her on a former occasion,
when she drank the wine. The woman, being passionate, struck him, and a
scuffle ensued, out of which Green extricated himself as well as he
could.

When the scuffle was over the woman retired to the cabin, and appeared
pensive. Between eight and nine in the evening, the captain, who was
attended by the captain of the Alfred, came on board; Rodney immediately
ran to him, and informed him that Green had made an assault upon her.
The captain, without any inquiry, beat him severely, and ordered his
hands to be made fast to some bolts on the starboard side of the ship
and under the half deck, and then flogged him himself, using the lashes
of the cat-of-nine-tails upon his back at one time, and the double
walled knot at the end of it upon his head at another; and stopping to
rest at intervals, and using each hand alternately, that he might strike
with the greater severity.

The pain had now become so very severe, that Green cried out, and
entreated the captain of the Alfred, who was standing by, to pity his
hard case, and to intercede for him. But the latter replied, that he
would have served me in the same manner. Unable to find a friend here,
he called upon the chief mate; but this only made matters worse, for the
captain then ordered the latter to flog him also; which he did for some
time, using however only the lashes of the instrument. Green then called
in his distress upon the second mate to speak for him; but the second
mate was immediately ordered to perform the same cruel office, and was
made to persevere in it till the lashes were all worn into threads. But
the barbarity did not close here; for the captain, on seeing the
instrument now become useless, ordered another, with which he flogged
him as before, beating him at times over the head with the double-walled
knot, and changing his hands, and cursing his own left hand for not
being able to strike so severe a blow as his right.

The punishment, as inflicted by all parties, had now lasted two hours
and a half, when George Ormond was ordered to cut down one of the arms,
and the boatswain the other, from the places of their confinement; this
being done, Green lay motionless on the deck. He attempted to utter
something, Ormond understood it to be the word water; but no water was
allowed him. The captain, on the other hand, said he had not yet done
with him, and ordered him to be confined with his arms across, his right
hand to his left foot, and his left hand to his right foot. For this
purpose the carpenter brought shackles, and George Ormond was compelled
to put them on. The captain then ordered some tackle to be made fast to
the limbs of the said Peter Green, in which situation he was then
hoisted up, and afterwards let down into a boat, which was lying
alongside the ship. Michael Cunningham was then sent to loose the
tackle, and to leave him there.

In the middle watch, or between one and two next morning, George Ormond
looked out of one of the port-holes, and called to Green, but received
no answer. Between two and three, Paul Berry, a seaman, was sent down
into the boat, and found him dead. He made his report to one of the
officers of the ship. About five in the morning the body was brought up,
and laid on the waist near the half-deck door. The captain on seeing the
body when he rose, expressed no concern, but ordered it to be knocked
out of irons, and to be buried at the usual place of interment for
seamen, or Bonny Point. I may now observe, that the deceased was in good
health before the punishment took place, and in high spirits; for he
played upon the flute only a short time before Rodney asked him for the
keys, while those seamen, who were in health, danced.

On hearing this cruel relation from George Ormond, who was throughout a
material witness to the scene, I had no doubt in my own mind of the
truth of it; but I thought it right to tell him at once that I had seen
a person, about four weeks ago, who had been the same voyage with him
and Peter Green, but yet who had no recollection of these circumstances.
Upon this he looked quite astonished, and began to grow angry; he
maintained he had seen the whole; he had also held the candle himself
during the whole punishment. He asserted that one candle and half of
another were burnt out while it lasted. He said also that, while the
body lay in the waist, he had handled the abused parts, and had put
three of his fingers into a hole, made by the double walled knot, in the
head, from whence a quantity of blood and, he believed, brains issued.
He then challenged me to bring the man, before him; I desired him upon
this to be cool, and to come to me the next day, and I would then talk
with him again upon the subject.

In the interim I consulted the muster-roll of the vessel again; I found
the name of George Ormond; he had sailed in her out of Liverpool, and
had been discharged at the latter end of January in the West Indies, as
he had told me. I found also the names of Michael Cunningham and of Paul
Berry, whom he had mentioned. It was obvious also that Ormond's account
of the captain of the Alfred being on board at the time of the
punishment tallied with that given me at Bristol by an officer of that
vessel, and that his account of letting down Peter Green into the boat
tallied with that which Mr. Falconbridge, as I mentioned before, had
heard from the king and the black traders in Bonny river.

When he came to me next day, he came in high spirits. He said he had
found out the man whom I had seen. The man, however, when he talked to
him about the murder of Peter Green, acknowledged every thing concerning
it. Ormond intimated that this man was to sail again in the same ship
under the promise of being an officer, and that he had been kept on
board, and had been enticed to a second voyage, for no other purpose
than that he might be prevented from divulging the matter. I then asked
Ormond, whether he thought the man would acknowledge the murder in my
hearing. He replied, "that, if I were present, he thought he would not
say much about it, as he was soon to be under the same captain, but that
he would not deny it. If, however, I were out of sight, though I might
be in hearing, he believed he would acknowledge the facts."

By the assistance of Mr. Falconbridge, I found a public-house, which had
two rooms in it: nearly at the top of the partition between them was a
small window, which a person might look through by standing upon a
chair. I desired Ormond, one evening, to invite the man into the larger
room, in which he was to have a candle, and, to talk with him on the
subject. I proposed to station myself in the smallest in the dark, so
that by looking through the window I could both see and hear him, and
yet be unperceived myself. The room, in which I was to be, was one where
the dead were frequently carried to be owned. We were all in our places
at the time appointed. I directly discovered that it was the same man
with whom I had conversed on board the ship in the wet docks. I heard
him distinctly relate many of the particulars of the murder, and
acknowledge them all. Ormond, after having talked with him some time,
said, "Well, then, you believe Peter Green was actually murdered?" He
replied, "If Peter Green was not murdered, no man ever was." What
followed I do not know. I had heard quite enough; and the room was so
disagreeable in smell, that I did not choose to stay in it longer than
was absolutely necessary.

I own I was now quite satisfied that the murder had taken place, and my
first thought was to bring the matter before the mayor, and to take up
three of the officers of the ship. But, in mentioning my intention to my
friends, I was dissuaded from it. They had no doubt but that in
Liverpool, as there was now a notion that the Slave Trade would become a
subject of parliamentary inquiry, every, effort would be made to
overthrow me. They were of opinion also that such of the magistrates, as
were interested in the trade, when applied to for warrants of
apprehension, would contrive to give notice to the officers to escape.
In addition to this they believed, that so many in the town were already
incensed against me, that I should be torn to pieces, and the house
where I lodged burnt down, if I were to make the attempt. I thought it
right therefore to do nothing for the present; but I sent Ormond to
London, to keep him out of the way of corruption, till I should make up
my mind as to further proceedings on the subject.

It is impossible, if I observe the bounds I have prescribed myself, and
I believe the reader will be glad of it on account of his own feelings,
that I should lay open the numerous cases, which came before me at
Liverpool, relative to the ill-treatment of the seamen in this wicked
trade. It may be sufficient to say, that they harassed my constitution,
and affected my spirits daily. They were in my thoughts on my pillow
after I retired to rest, and I found them before my eyes when I awoke.
Afflicting, however, as they were, they were of great use in the
promotion of our cause: for they served, whatever else failed, as a
stimulus to perpetual energy: they made me think light of former
labours, and they urged me imperiously to new. And here I may observe,
that among the many circumstances which ought to excite our joy on
considering the great event of the abolition of the Slave Trade, which
has now happily taken place, there are few for which we ought to be more
grateful, than that from this time our commerce ceases to breed such
abandoned wretches: while those, who have thus been bred in it, and who
may yet find employment in other trades, will, in the common course of
nature, be taken off in a given time, so that our marine will at length
be purified from a race of monsters, which have helped to cripple its
strength, and to disgrace its character.

The temper of many of the interested people of Liverpool had now become
still more irritable, and their hostility more apparent than before. I
received anonymous letters, entreating me to leave it, or I should
otherwise never leave it alive. The only effect which this advice had
upon me, was to make me more vigilant when I went out at night. I never
stirred out at this time without Mr. Falconbridge; and he never
accompanied me without being well armed. Of this, however, I knew
nothing until we had left the place. There was certainly a time when I
had reason to believe that I had a narrow escape. I was one day on the
pier-head with many others looking at some little boats below at the
time of a heavy gale. Several persons, probably out of curiosity, were
hastening thither. I had seen all I intended to see, and was departing,
when I noticed eight or nine persons making towards me. I was then only
about eight or nine yards from the precipice of the pier, but going from
it. I expected that they would have divided to let me through them;
instead of which they closed upon me and bore me back. I was borne
within a yard of the precipice, when I discovered my danger; and
perceiving among them the murderer of Peter Green, and two others who
had insulted me at the King's Arms, it instantly struck me that they had
a design to throw me over the pier-head; which they might have done at
this time, and yet have pleaded that I had been killed by accident.
There was not a moment to lose. Vigorous on account of the danger, I
darted forward. One of them, against whom I pushed myself, fell down:
their ranks were broken; and I escaped, not without blows, amidst their
imprecations and abuse.

I determined now to go to Lancaster, to make some inquiries about the
Slave Trade there. I had a letter of introduction to William Jepson, one
of the religious society of the Quakers, for this purpose. I found from
him, that, though there were slave-merchants at Lancaster, they made
their outfits at Liverpool, as a more convenient port. I learnt too from
others, that the captain of the last vessel, which had sailed out of
Lancaster to the coast of Africa for slaves, had taken off so many of
the natives treacherously, that any other vessel known to come from it
would be cut off. There were only now one or two superannuated captains
living in the place. Finding I could get no oral testimony, I was
introduced into the Custom-house. Here I just looked over the
muster-rolls of such slave-vessels as had formerly sailed from this
port; and having found that the loss of seamen was precisely in the same
proportion as elsewhere, I gave myself no further trouble, but left the
place.

On my return to Liverpool, I was informed by Mr. Falconbridge, that a
ship-mate of Ormond, of the name of Patrick Murray, who had been
discharged in the West Indies, had arrived there. This man, he said, had
been to call upon me in my absence, to seek redress for his own bad
usage; but in the course of conversation he had confirmed all the
particulars as stated by Ormond, relative to the murder of Peter Green.
On consulting the muster-roll of the ship, I found his name, and that he
had been discharged in the West Indies on the 2nd of February. I
determined, therefore, to see him. I cross-examined him in the best
manner I could. I could neither make him contradict himself, nor say
anything that militated against the testimony of Ormond. I was
convinced, therefore, of the truth of the transaction; and, having
obtained his consent, I sent him to London to stay with the latter, till
he should hear further from me. I learnt also from Mr. Falconbridge,
that visitors had continued to come to the King's Arms during my
absence; that they had been very liberal of their abuse of me; and that
one of them did not hesitate to say (which is remarkable) that "I
deserved to be thrown over the pierhead."

Finding now that I could get no further evidence; that the information
which I had already obtained was considerable[A]; and that the committee
had expressed an earnest desire, in a letter which I had received, that
I would take into consideration the propriety of writing my Essay on the
_Impolicy of the Slave Trade_ as soon as possible, I determined upon
leaving Liverpool.

[Footnote A: In London, Bristol, and Liverpool, I had already obtained
the names of more than 20,000 seamen, in different voyages, knowing what
had become of each.]

I went round accordingly and took leave of my friends. The last of these
was William Rathbone, and I have to regret, that it was also the last
time I ever saw him. Independently of the gratitude I owed him for
assisting me in this great cause, I respected him highly as a man: he
possessed a fine understanding with a solid judgment: he was a person of
extraordinary simplicity of manners. Though he lived in a state of
pecuniary independence, he gave an example of great temperance, as well
as of great humility of mind: but however humble he appeared, he had
always the courage to dare to do that which was right, however it might
resist the customs or the prejudices of men. In his own line of trade,
which was that of a timber-merchant on an extensive scale, he would not
allow any article to be sold for the use of a slave-ship, and he always
refused those, who applied to him for materials for such purposes. But
it is evident that it was his intention, if he had lived, to bear his
testimony still more publicly upon this subject; for an advertisement,
stating the ground of his refusal to furnish anything for this traffic
upon Christian principles, with a memorandum for two advertisements in
the Liverpool papers, was found among his papers at his decease.




CHAPTER XIX

Author proceeds to Manchester; finds a spirit rising among the people
there for the abolition of the Slave Trade; is requested to deliver a
discourse on the subject of the Slave Trade; heads of it, and
extracts.--Proceeds to Keddleston, and Birmingham; finds a similar
spirit at the latter place.--Revisits Bristol; new and difficult
situation there.--Author crosses the Severn at night; unsuccessful
termination of his journey; returns to London.


I now took my departure from Liverpool, and proceeded to Manchester,
where I arrived on the Friday evening. On the Saturday morning, Mr.
Thomas Walker, attended by Mr. Cooper and Mr. Bayley of Hope, called
upon me. They were then strangers to me. They came, they said, having
heard of my arrival, to congratulate me on the spirit which was then
beginning to show itself among the people of Manchester, and of other
places, on the subject of the Slave Trade, and which would
unquestionably manifest itself further by breaking out into petitions to
parliament for its abolition. I was much surprised at this information.
I had devoted myself so entirely to my object, that I had never had time
to read a newspaper since I left London. I never knew, therefore, till
now, that the attention of the public had been drawn to the subject in
such a manner. And as to petitions, though I myself had suggested the
idea at Bridgewater, Bristol, Gloucester, and two, or three other
places, I had only done it provisionally, and this without either the
knowledge or the consent of the committee. The news, however, as it
astonished, so it almost overpowered me with joy. I rejoiced in it,
because it was a proof of the general good disposition of my countrymen;
because it showed me that the cause was such as needed only to be known,
to be patronized; and because the manifestation of this spirit seemed to
me to be an earnest, that success would ultimately follow.

The gentleman now mentioned took me away with them, and introduced me to
Mr. Thomas Phillips. We conversed, at first, upon the discoveries made
in my journey; but in a little time, understanding that I had been
educated as a clergyman, they came upon me with one voice, as if it had
been before agreed upon, to deliver a discourse the next day, which was
Sunday, on the subject of the Slave Trade. I was always aware that it
was my duty to do all that I could with propriety to serve the cause I
had undertaken, and yet I found myself embarrassed at their request.
Foreseeing, as I have before related, that this cause might demand my
attention to it for the greatest part of my life, I had given up all
thoughts of my profession. I had hitherto but seldom exercised it, and
then only to oblige some friend. I doubted, too, at the first view of
the thing, whether the pulpit ought to be made an engine for political
purposes, though I could not but consider the Slave Trade as a mass of
crimes, and therefore the effort to get rid of it as a Christian duty. I
had an idea, too, that sacred matters should not be entered upon without
due consideration, nor prosecuted in a hasty, but in a decorous and
solemn manner. I saw besides that, as it was then two o'clock in the
afternoon, and this sermon was to be forthcoming the next day, there was
not sufficient time to compose it properly. All these difficulties I
suggested to my new friends without any reserve. But nothing that I
could urge would satisfy them. They would not hear of a refusal, and I
was obliged to give my consent, though I was not reconciled to the
measure.

When I went into the church it was so full that I could scarcely get to
my place; for notice had been publicly given, though I knew nothing of
it, that such a discourse would be delivered. I was surprised, also, to
find a great crowd of black people standing round the pulpit. There
might be forty or fifty of them. The text that I took, as the best to be
found in such a hurry, was the following:--"Thou shalt not oppress a
stranger, for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers
in the land of Egypt."

I took an opportunity of showing, from these words, that Moses, in
endeavouring to promote among the children of Israel a tender
disposition towards those unfortunate strangers who had come under their
dominion, reminded them of their own state when strangers in Egypt, as
one of the most forcible arguments which could be used on such an
occasion. For they could not have forgotten that the Egyptians "had made
them serve with rigour; that they had made their lives bitter with hard
bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the
field; and that all the service, wherein they made them serve, was with
rigour." The argument, therefore, of Moses was simply this:--"Ye knew
well, when ye were strangers in Egypt, the nature of your own feelings.
Were you not made miserable by your debased situation there? But if so,
you must be sensible that the stranger, who has the same heart, or the
same feelings with yourselves, must experience similar suffering, if
treated in a similar manner. I charge you, then, knowing this, to stand
clear of the crime of his oppression."

The law, then, by which Moses commanded the children of Israel to
regulate their conduct with respect to the usage of the stranger, I
showed to be a law of universal and eternal obligation, and for this,
among other reasons, that it was neither more nor less than the
Christian law, which appeared afterwards, that we should not do that to
others which we should be unwilling to have done unto ourselves.

Having gone into these statements at some length, I made an application
of them in the following words:--

"This being the case, and this law of Moses being afterwards established
into a fundamental precept of Christianity, I must apply it to facts of
the present day, and I am sorry that I must apply it to--ourselves.

"And first,--Are there no strangers whom we oppress? I fear the wretched
African will say, that he drinks the cup of sorrow, and that he drinks
it at our hands. Torn from his Native soil, and from his family and
friends, he is immediately forced into a situation, of all others the
most degrading, where he and his progeny are considered as cattle, as
possessions, and as the possessions of a man to whom he never gave
offence.

"It is a melancholy fact, but it can be abundantly proved, that great
numbers of the unfortunate strangers, who are carried from Africa to our
colonies, are fraudulently and forcibly taken from their native soil. To
descant but upon a single instance of the kind must be productive of
pain to the ear of sensibility and freedom. Consider the sensations of
the person, who is thus carried off by the ruffians, who have been
lurking to intercept him. Separated from everything which he esteems in
life, without the possibility even of bidding his friends adieu, beheld
him overwhelmed in tears--wringing his hands in despair--looking
backwards upon the spot where all his hopes and wishes lay;--while his
family at home are waiting for him with anxiety and suspense--are
waiting, perhaps, for sustenance--are agitated between hope and
fear--till length of absence confirms the latter, and they are
immediately plunged into inconceivable misery and distress.

"If this instance, then, is sufficiently melancholy of itself, and is at
all an act of oppression, how complicated will our guilt appear who are
the means of snatching away thousands annually in the same manner, and
who force them and their families into the same unhappy situation,
without either remorse or shame!"

Having proceeded to show, in a more particular manner than I can detail
here, how, by means of the Slave Trade, we oppressed the stranger, I
made an inquiry into the other branch of the subject, or how far we had
a knowledge of his heart.

To elucidate this point, I mentioned several specific instances out of
those which I had collected in my journey, and which I could depend upon
as authentic, of honour--gratitude--fidelity--filial, fraternal, and
conjugal affection--and of the finest sensibility on the part of those
who had been brought into our colonies from Africa in the character of
slaves; and then I proceeded for a while in the following words:--

"If, then, we oppress the stranger, as I have shown, and if, by a
knowledge of his heart, we find that he is a person of the same passions
and feelings as ourselves, we are certainly breaking, by means of the
prosecution of the Slave Trade, that fundamental principle of
Christianity, which says, that we shall not do that unto another which
we wish should not be done unto ourselves, and, I fear, cutting
ourselves off from all expectation of the Divine blessing. For how
inconsistent is our conduct! We come into the temple of God; we fall
prostrate before Him; we pray to Him, that He will have mercy upon us.
But how shall He have mercy upon us, who have had no mercy upon others!
We pray to Him, again, that He will deliver us from evil. But how shall
He deliver us from evil, who are daily invading the rights of the
injured African, and heaping misery on his head!"

I attempted, lastly, to show, that, though the sin of the Slave Trade
had been hitherto a sin of ignorance, and might, therefore, have so far
been winked at, yet as the crimes and miseries belonging to it became
known, it would attach even to those who had no concern in it, if they
suffered it to continue either without notice or reproach, or if they
did not exert themselves in a reasonable manner for its suppression. I
noticed particularly, the case of Tyre and Sidon, which were the Bristol
and the Liverpool of those times. A direct judgment had been pronounced
by the prophet Joel against these cities, and, what is remarkable, for
the prosecution of this same barbarous traffic. Thus, "And what have ye
to do with me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? Ye
have cast lots for my people. Ye have sold a girl for wine. The children
of Judah, and the children of Jerusalem, have ye sold unto the Grecians,
that ye might remove them far from their own border. Behold! I will
raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will
recompense your wickedness on your own heads." Such was the language of
the prophet; and Tyre and Sidon fell, as he had pointed out, when the
inhabitants were either cut off, or carried into slavery.

Having thrown out these ideas to the notice of the audience, I concluded
in the following words:--

"If, then, we wish to avert the heavy national judgment which is hanging
over our heads, (for must we not believe that our crimes towards the
innocent Africans lie recorded against us in heaven?) let us endeavour
to assert their cause. Let us nobly withstand the torrent of the evil,
however inveterately it may be fixed among the customs of the times;
not, however, using our liberty as a cloak of maliciousness against
those, who, perhaps, without due consideration, have the misfortune to
be concerned in it, but upon proper motives, and in a proper spirit, as
the servants of God; so that if the sun should be turned into darkness,
and the moon into blood, and the very heaven should fall upon us, we may
fall in the general convulsion without dismay, conscious that we have
done our duty in endeavouring to succour the distressed, and that the
stain of the blood of Africa is not upon us."

From Manchester I proceeded to Keddleston in Derbyshire, to spend a day
with Lord Scarsdale, and to show him my little collection of African
productions, and to inform him of my progress since I last saw him. Here
a letter was forwarded to me from the Reverend John Toogood, of Keington
Magna in Dorsetshire, though I was then unknown to him. He informed me
that he had addressed several letters to the inhabitants of his own
county, through their provincial paper, on the subject of the Slave
Trade, which letters had produced a considerable effect. It appeared,
however, that, when he began them, he did not know of the formation of
our committee, or that he had a single coadjutor in the cause.

From Keddleston I turned off to Birmingham, being desirous of visiting
Bristol in my way to London, to see if anything new had occurred since I
was there. I was introduced by letter, at Birmingham, to Sampson and
Charles Lloyd, the brothers of John Lloyd, belonging to our committee,
and members of the religious society of the Quakers. I was highly
gratified in finding that these, in conjunction with Mr. Russell, had
been attempting to awaken the attention of the inhabitants to this great
subject, and that in consequence of their laudable efforts, a spirit was
beginning to show itself there, as at Manchester, in favour of the
abolition of the Slave Trade. The kind manner in which these received
me, and the deep interest which they appeared to take in our cause, led
me to an esteem for them, which, by means of subsequent visits, grew
into a solid friendship.

At length I arrived at Bristol about ten o'clock on Friday morning. But
what was my surprise, when almost the first thing I heard from my friend
Harry Gandy was, that a letter had been despatched to me to Liverpool,
nearly a week ago, requesting me immediately to repair to this place;
for that in consequence of notice from the lords of the Admiralty,
advertised in the public papers, the trial of the chief mate, whom I had
occasioned to be taken up at Bristol, for the murder of William Lines,
was coming on at the Old Bailey, and that not an evidence was to be
found. This intelligence almost paralyzed me. I cannot describe my
feelings on receiving it. I reproached myself with my own obstinacy for
having resisted the advice of Mr. Burges, as has been before explained.
All his words now came fresh into my mind. I was terrified, too, with
the apprehension that my own reputation was now at stake. I foresaw all
the calumnies which would  be spread, if the evidences were not
forthcoming on this occasion. I anticipated, also, the injury which the
cause itself might sustain, if, at our outset, as it were, I should not
be able to substantiate what I had publicly advanced; and yet the mayor
of Bristol had heard and determined the case,--he had not only examined,
but re-examined, the evidences,--he had not only committed, but
re-committed, the accused: this was the only consolation I had. I was
sensible, however, amidst all these workings of my mind, that not a
moment was to be lost, and I began, therefore, to set on foot an inquiry
as to the absent persons.

On waiting upon the mother of William Lines, I learnt from her, that two
out of four of the witnesses had been bribed by the slave-merchants, and
sent to sea, that they might not be forthcoming at the time of the
trial; that the two others had been tempted also, but that they had been
enabled to resist the temptation; that, desirous of giving their
testimony in this cause, they had gone into some coal-mine between Neath
and Swansea, where they might support themselves till they should be
called for; and that she had addressed a letter to them, at the request
of Mr. Gandy, above a week ago, in which she had desired them to come to
Bristol immediately, but that she had received no answer from them. She
then concluded, either that her letter had miscarried, or that they had
left the place.

I determined to lose no time, after the receipt of this intelligence;
and I prevailed upon a young man, whom my friend Harry Gandy had
recommended to me, to set off directly, and to go in search of them. He
was to travel all night, and to bring them, or, if weary himself with
his journey, to send them up, without ever sleeping on the road. It was
now between twelve and one in the afternoon. I saw him depart. In the
interim I went to Thompson's, and other places, to inquire if any other
of the seamen, belonging to the Thomas, were to be found; but, though I
hunted diligently till four o'clock, I could learn nothing satisfactory.
I then went to dinner, but I grew uneasy. I was fearful that my
messenger might be at a loss, or that he might want assistance on some
occasion or other. I now judged that it would have been more prudent if
two persons had been sent, who might have conferred with each other, and
who might have divided, when they had reached Neath, and gone to
different mines, to inquire for the witnesses. These thoughts disturbed
me. Those, also, which had occurred when I first heard of the vexatious
way in which things were situated, renewed themselves painfully to my
mind. My own obstinacy in resisting the advice of Mr. Burges, and the
fear of injury to my own reputation, and to that of the cause I had
undertaken, were again before my eyes. I became still more uneasy: and I
had no way of relieving my feelings, but by resolving to follow the
young man, and to give him all the aid in my power.

It was now near six o'clock. The night was cold and rainy and almost
dark. I got down, however, safe to the passage-house, and desired to be
conveyed across the Severn. The people in the house tried to dissuade me
from my design. They said no one would accompany me, for it was quite a
tempest. I replied that I would pay those handsomely who would go with
me. A person present asked me if I would give him three guineas for a
boat. I replied I would. He could not for shame retract. He went out,
and in about half an hour brought a person with him. We were obliged to
have a lanthorn as far as the boat. We got on board, and went off. But
such a passage I had never before witnessed. The wind was furious. The
waves ran high. I could see nothing but white foam. The boat, also, was
tossed up and down in such a manner that it was with great difficulty I
could keep my seat. The rain, too, poured down in such torrents that we
were all of us presently wet through. We had been, I apprehend, more
than an hour in this situation, when the boatmen began to complain of
cold and weariness. I saw, also, that they began to be uneasy, for they
did not know where they were. They had no way of forming any judgment
about their course, but by knowing the point from whence the wind blew,
and by keeping the boat in a relative position towards it. I encouraged
them as well as I could, though I was beginning to be uneasy myself, and
also sick. In about a quarter of an hour they began to complain again.
They said they could pull no longer. They acknowledged, however, that
they were getting nearer to the shore, though on what part of it they
could not tell. I could do nothing but bid them hope. They then began to
reproach themselves for having come out with me. I told them I had not
forced them, but that it was a matter of their own choice. In the midst
of this conversation I informed them that I thought I saw either a star
or a light straight forward. They both looked at it and pronounced it to
be a light, and added with great joy that it must be a light in the
Passage-house; and so we found it; for in about ten minutes afterwards
we landed, and, on reaching the house, learnt that a servant maid had
been accidentally talking to some other person on the stair-case, near a
window, with a candle in her hand, and that the light had appeared to us
from that circumstance.

It was now near eleven o'clock. My messenger, it appeared, had arrived
safe about five in the evening, and had proceeded on his route. I was
very cold on my arrival, and sick also. There seemed to be a chilliness
all over me, both within and without. Indeed I had not a dry thread
about me. I took some hot brandy and water, and went to bed; but
desired, as soon as my clothes were thoroughly dried, to be called up,
that I might go forward. This happened at about two in the morning, when
I got up. I took my breakfast by the fire-side. I then desired the
post-boy, if he should meet any persons on the road, to stop and inform
me, as I did not know whether the witnesses might not be coming up by
themselves, and whether they might not have passed my messenger without
knowing his errand. Having taken these precautions, I departed. I
travelled on, but we met no one. I traced, however, my messenger through
Newport, Cardiff, and Cowbridge. I was assured, also, that he had not
passed me on his return; nor had any of those passed me whom he was
seeking. At length, when I was within about two miles of Neath I met
him. He had both the witnesses under his care. This was a matter of
great joy to me. I determined to return with them. It was now nearly two
in the afternoon. I accordingly went back, but we did not reach the
Passage-house again till nearly two the next morning.

During our journey, neither the wind nor the rain had much abated. It
was quite dark on our arrival. We found only one person, and he had been
sitting up in expectation of us. It was in vain that I asked him for a
boat to put us across the water. He said all the boatmen were in bed;
and, if they were up, he was sure that none of them would venture out.
It was thought a mercy by all of them that we were not lost last night.
Difficulties were also started about horses to take us another way.
Unable, therefore, to proceed, we took refreshment and went to bed.

We arrived at Bristol between nine and ten the next morning; but I was
so ill that I could go no further; I had been cold and shivering ever
since my first passage across the Severn; and I had now a violent sore
throat and a fever with it. All I could do was to see the witnesses off
for London, and to assign them to the care of an attorney, who should
conduct them to the trial. For this purpose I gave them a letter to a
friend of the name of Langdale. I saw them depart. The mother of William
Lines accompanied them. By a letter received on Tuesday, I learnt that
they had not arrived in town till Monday morning at three o'clock; that
at about nine or ten they found out the office of Mr. Langdale; that, on
inquiring for him, they heard he was in the country, but that he would
be home at noon; that, finding he had not then arrived, they acquainted
his clerk with the nature of their business, and opened my letter to
show him the contents of it; that the clerk went with them to consult
some other person on the subject, when he conveyed them to the Old
Bailey; but that, on inquiring at the proper place about the
introduction of the witnesses, he learnt that the chief mate had been
brought to the bar in the morning, and, no person then appearing against
him, that he had been discharged by proclamation. Such was the end of
all my anxiety and labour in this affair. I was very ill when I received
the letter; but I saw the necessity of bearing up against the
disappointment, and I endeavoured to discharge the subject from my mind
with the following wish, that the narrow escape which the chief mate had
experienced, and which was entirely owing to the accidental
circumstances now explained, might have the effect, under Providence, of
producing in him a deep contrition for his offence, and of awakening him
to a serious attention to his future life[A].

[Footnote A: He had undoubtedly a narrow escape; for Mr. Langdale's
clerk had learnt that he had no evidence to produce in his favour. The
slave-merchants, it seems, had counted most upon bribing those who were
to come against him, to disappear.]

I was obliged to remain in Bristol a few days longer in consequence of
my illness; but as soon as I was able I reached London, when I attended
a sitting of the committee after an absence of more than five months. At
this committee it was strongly recommended to me to publish a second
edition of my _Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species_,
and to insert such of the facts in it in their proper places, out of
those collected in my late travels, as I might judge to be productive of
an interesting effect. There appeared, also, an earnest desire in the
committee, that, directly after this, I should begin my _Essay on the
Impolicy of the Slave Trade_.

In compliance with their wishes, I determined upon both these works; but
I resolved to retire into the country, that, by being subject to less
interruption there, I might the sooner finish them. It was proper,
however, that I should settle many things in London before I took my
departure from it; and, among these, that I should find out George
Ormond and Patrick Murray, whom I had sent from Liverpool on account of
the information they had given me relative to the murder of Peter Green.
I saw no better way than to take them before Sir Sampson Wright, who was
then at the head of the police of the metropolis. He examined and
cross-examined them several times, and apart from each other. He then
desired their evidence to be drawn up in the form of depositions, copies
of which he gave to me. He had no doubt that the murder would be proved.
The circumstances of the deceased being in good health at nine o'clock
in the evening, and of his severe sufferings till eleven, and of the
nature of the wounds discovered to have been made on his person, and of
his death by one in the morning, could never, he said, be done away by
any evidence who should state that he had been subject to other
disorders which might have occasioned his decease. He found himself,
therefore, compelled to apply to the magistrates of Liverpool, for the
apprehension of three of the principal officers of the ship; but the
answer was that the ship had sailed, and that they whose names had been
specified were then, none of them, to be found in Liverpool.

It was now for me to consider whether I would keep the two witnesses,
Ormond and Murray, for a year, or perhaps longer, at my own expense, and
run the hazard of the death of the officers in the interim, and of other
calculable events. I had felt so deeply for the usage of the seamen in
this cruel traffic, which indeed had embittered all my journey, that I
had no less than nine prosecutions at law upon my hands on their
account, and nineteen witnesses detained at my own cost. The committee
in London could give me no assistance in these cases. They were the
managers of the public purse for the abolition of the Slave Trade, and
any expenses of this kind were neither within the limits of their
object, nor within the pale of their duty. From the individuals
belonging to it, I picked up a few guineas by way of private
subscription, and this was all. But a vast load still remained upon me,
and such as had occasioned uneasiness to my mind. I thought it,
therefore, imprudent to detain the evidences for this purpose for so
long a time, and I sent them back to Liverpool. I commenced, however, a
prosecution against the captain at common law for his barbarous usage of
them, and desired that it might be pushed on as vigorously as possible;
and the result was, that his attorney was so alarmed, particularly after
knowing what had been done by Sir Sampson Wright, that he entered into a
compromise to pay all the expenses of the suit hitherto incurred, and to
give Ormond and Murray a sum of money as damages for the injury which
they themselves had sustained. This compromise was acceded to. The men
received the money, and signed the release, (of which I insisted upon a
copy,) and went to sea again in another trade, thanking me for my
interference in their behalf. But by this copy, which I have now in my
possession, it appears that care was taken by the captain's attorney to
render their future evidence in the case of Peter Green almost
impracticable; for it was there wickedly stated, "that George Ormond and
Patrick Murray did then and there bind themselves in certain penalties
that they would neither encourage nor support any action at law against
the said captain, by or at the suit or prosecution of any other of the
seamen now or late on board the said ship, and that they released the
said captain also from all manner of actions, suits, and cause and
causes of action, informations, prosecutions, and other proceedings
which they then had, or ever had, or could or might have, by reason of
the said assaults upon their own persons, or _other wrongs or injuries
done by the said captain heretofore and to the date of this
release_[A]."

[Footnote A: None of the nine actions before mentioned ever came to a
trial; but they were all compromised by paying sums to the injured
parties.]




CHAPTER XX

Labours of the committee during the author's journey; Quakers the
first to notice its institution; General Baptists the
next.--Correspondence opened with American societies for
Abolition.--First individual who addressed the committee was Mr.
William Smith.--Thanks voted to Ramsay.--Committee prepares lists of
persons to whom to send its publications; Barclay, Taylor, and
Wedgewood, elected members of the committee.--Letters from Brissot and
others.--Granville Sharp elected chairman,--Seal ordered to be
engraved.--Letters from different correspondents, as they offered
their services to the committee.


The committee, during my absence, had attended regularly at their posts;
they had been both vigilant and industrious; they were, in short, the
persons who had been the means of raising the public spirit which I had
observed first at Manchester, and afterwards as I journeyed on. It will
be proper, therefore, that I should now say something of their labours,
and of the fruits of them: and if, in doing this, I should be more
minute for a few pages than some would wish, I must apologize for myself
by saying, that there are others who would be sorry to lose the
knowledge of the particular manner in which the foundation was laid, and
the superstructure advanced, of a work which will make so brilliant an
appearance in our history, as that of the abolition of the Slave Trade.

The committee having dispersed five hundred circular letters, giving an
account of their institution in London and its neighbourhood, the
Quakers were the first to notice it. This they did in their yearly
epistle, of which the following is an extract:--"We have also thankfully
to believe there is a growing attention in many, not of our religious
society, to the subject of negro slavery; and that the minds of the
people are more and more enlarged to consider it as an aggregate of
every species of evil, and to see the utter inconsistency of upholding
it by the authority of any nation whatever, especially of such as
punish, with loss of life, crimes whose magnitude bears scarce any
proportion to this complicated iniquity."

The General Baptists were the next; for on the 22nd of June, Stephen
Lowdell and Dan Taylor attended as a deputation from the annual meeting
of that religious body, to inform the committee, that those whom they
represented approved their proceedings, and that they would countenance
the object of their institution.

The first individual who addressed the committee was Mr. William Smith,
the late member for Norwich. In his letter, he expressed the pleasure he
had received in finding persons associated in the support of a cause in
which he himself had taken a deep interest. He gave them advice as to
their future plans. He promised them all the co-operation in his power:
and he exhorted them not to despair, even if their first attempt should
be unsuccessful; "for consolation," says he, "will not be wanting. You
may rest satisfied that the attempt will be productive of some good;
that the fervent wishes of the righteous will be on your side, and that
the blessing of those who are ready to perish will fall upon you." And
as Mr. Smith was the first person to address the committee as an
individual after its formation, so, next to Mr. Wilberforce and the
members of it, he gave the most time and attention to the promotion of
the cause.

On the 5th of July, the committee opened a correspondence, by means of
William Dillwyn, with the societies of Philadelphia and New York, of
whose institution an account has been given. At this sitting a due sense
was signified of the services of Mr. Ramsay, and a desire of his
friendly communications when convenient.

The two next meetings were principally occupied in making out lists of
the names of persons in the country, to whom the committee should send
their publications for distribution. For this purpose, every member was
to bring in an account of those whom he knew personally, and whom he
believed not only to be willing, but qualified on account of their
judgment and the weight of their character, to take an useful part in
the work which was to be assigned to them. It is a remarkable
circumstance, that when the lists were arranged, the committee, few as
they were, found they had friends in no less than thirty-nine
counties[A], in each of which there were several, so that a knowledge of
their institution could now be soon diffusively spread.

[Footnote A: The Quakers, by means of their discipline, have a greater
personal knowledge of each other, than the members of any other
religious society. But two-thirds of the committee were Quakers, and
hence the circumstance is explained. Hence also nine-tenths of our first
coadjutors were Quakers.]

The committee having now fixed upon their correspondents, ordered five
hundred of the circular letters which have been before mentioned, and
five thousand of the _Summary View_, an account of which has been given
also, to be printed.

On account of the increase of business, which was expected in
consequence of the circulation of the preceding publications, Robert
Barclay, John Vickris Taylor, and Josiah Wedgewood, Esq., were added to
the committee; and it was then resolved, that any three members might
call a meeting when necessary.

On the 27th of August, the new correspondents began to make their
appearance. This sitting was distinguished by the receipt of letters
from two celebrated persons. The first was from Brissot, dated Paris,
August the 18th, who, it may be recollected, was an active member of the
National Convention of France, and who suffered in the persecution of
Robespierre. The second was from Mr. John Wesley, whose useful labours
as a minister of the Gospel, are so well known to our countrymen.

Brissot, in his letter, congratulated the members of the committee, on
having come together for so laudable an object. He offered his own
assistance towards the promotion of it. He desired, also, that his
valuable friend Claviere (who suffered also under Robespierre) might be
joined to him, and that both might be acknowledged by the committee, as
associates in what he called this heavenly work. He purposed to
translate and circulate through France such publications as they might
send him from time to time; and to appoint bankers in Paris, who might
receive subscriptions, and remit them to London, for the good of their
common cause. In the mean time, if his own countrymen should be found to
take an interest in this great cause, it was not improbable that a
committee might be formed in Paris, to endeavour to secure the
attainment of the same object from the government in France.

The thanks of the committee were voted to Brissot for this disinterested
offer of his services, and he was elected an honorary and corresponding
member. In reply, however, to his letter, it was stated that, as the
committee had no doubt of procuring from the generosity of their own
nation sufficient funds for effecting the object of their institution,
they declined the acceptance of any pecuniary aid from the people of
France; but recommended him to attempt the formation of a committee in
his own country, and to inform them of his progress, and to make to them
such other communications as he might deem necessary upon the subject
from time to time.

Mr. Wesley, whose letter was read next, informed the committee of the
great satisfaction which he also had experienced, when he heard of their
formation. He conceived that their design, while it would destroy the
Slave Trade, would also strike at the root of the shocking abomination
of slavery also. He desired to forewarn them that they must expect
difficulties and great opposition from those who were interested in the
system; that these were a powerful body; and that they would raise all
their forces, when they perceived their craft to be in danger. They
would employ hireling writers, who would have neither justice nor mercy.
But the committee were not to be dismayed by such treatment, nor even if
some of those who professed goodwill towards them, should turn against
them. As for himself, he would do all he could to promote the object of
their institution. He would reprint a new and large edition of his
_Thought on Slavery_, and circulate it among his friends in England and
Ireland, to whom he would add a few words in favour of their design. And
then he concluded in these words: "I commend you to Him who is able to
carry you through all opposition, and support you under all
discouragements."

On the 4th, 11th, and 18th of September, the committee were employed
variously. Among other things, they voted their thanks to Mr. Leigh, a
clergyman of the Established Church, for the offer of his services for
the county of Norfolk. They ordered, also, one thousand of the circular
letters to be additionally printed.

At one of these meetings a resolution was made, that Granville Sharp,
Esq. be appointed chairman. This appointment, though now first formally
made in the minute book, was always understood to have taken place; but
the modesty of Mr. Sharp was such that, though repeatedly pressed, he
would never consent to take the chair; and he generally refrained from
coming into the room till after he knew it to be taken. Nor could he be
prevailed upon, even after this resolution, to alter his conduct: for
though he continued to sign the papers, which were handed to him by
virtue of holding this office, he never was once seated as the chairman,
during the twenty years in which he attended at these meetings. I
thought it not improper to mention this trait in his character.
Conscious that he engaged in the cause of his fellow-creatures, solely
upon the sense of his duty as a Christian, he seems to have supposed
either that he had done nothing extraordinary to merit such a
distinction, or to have been fearful lest the acceptance of it should
bring a stain upon the motive, on which alone he undertook it.

On the 2nd and 16th of October two sittings took place; at the latter of
which a sub-committee, which had been appointed for the purpose, brought
in a design for a seal. An African was seen, (as in the figure[A],) in
chains, in a supplicating posture, kneeling with one knee upon the
ground, and with both his hands lifted up to heaven, and round the seal
was observed the following motto, as if he was uttering the words
himself,--"Am I not a Man and a Brother?" The design having been
approved of, a seal was ordered to be engraved from it. I may mention
here that this seal, simple as the design was, was made to contribute
largely, as will be shown in its proper place, towards turning the
attention of our countrymen to the case of the injured Africans, and of
procuring a warm interest in their favour.

[Footnote A: The figure is rather larger than that in the seal.]

[Illustration: Seal]

On the 30th of October several letters were read: one of these was from
Brissot and Claviere conjointly; in this they acknowledged the
satisfaction they had received on being considered as associates in the
humane work of the abolition of the Slave Trade, and correspondents in
France for the promotion of it. They declared it to be their intention
to attempt the establishment of a committee there, on the same
principles as that in England; but, in consequence of the different
constitutions of the two governments, they gave the committee reason to
suppose, that their proceedings must be different, as well as slower
than those in England, for the same object.

A second letter was read from Mr. John Wesley. He said that he had now
read the publications which the committee had sent him, and that he
took, if possible, a still deeper interest in their cause. He exhorted
them to more than ordinary diligence and perseverance; to be prepared
for opposition; to be cautious about the manner of procuring information
and evidence, that no stain might fall upon their character; and to take
care that the question should be argued, as well upon the consideration
of interest as of humanity and justice, the former of which he feared
would have more weight than the latter; and he recommended them and
their glorious concern, as before, to the protection of Him who was able
to support them.

Letters were read from Dr. Price, approving the institution of the
committee; from Charles Lloyd of Birmingham, stating the interest which
the inhabitants of that town were taking in it; and from William
Russell, Esq. of the same place, stating the same circumstance, and that
he would co-operate with the former in calling a public meeting, and in
doing whatever else was necessary for the promotion of so good a cause.
A letter was read also from Manchester, signed conjointly by George
Barton Thomas Cooper, John Ferriar, Thomas Walker, Thomas Phillips,
Thomas Butterworth Bayley, and George Lloyd, Esqrs., promising their
assistance from that place. Two others were read from John Kerrich,
Esq., of Harleston, and from Joshua Grigby, Esq., of Drinkston, each
tendering their services, one for the county Of Norfolk, and the other
for the county of Suffolk. The latter concluded by saying, "With respect
to myself, in no possible instance of my public conduct can I receive so
much sincere satisfaction, as I shall, by the vote I will most assuredly
give in parliament, in support of this most worthy effort to suppress a
traffic, which is contrary to all the feelings of humanity, and the laws
of our religion."

A letter was read also at this sitting from Major Cartwright, of
Marnham, in which he offered his own services, in conjunction with those
of the Rev. John Charlesworth, of Ossington, for the county of
Nottingham.

"I congratulate you," says he, in this letter, "on the happy prospect of
some considerable step at least being taken, towards the abolition of a
traffic, which is not only impious in itself, but of all others tends
most to vitiate the human mind.

"Although procrastination is generally pernicious in cases depending
upon the feelings of the heart, I should almost fear that, without very
uncommon exertions, you will scarcely be prepared early in the next
sessions, for bringing the business into parliament with the greatest
advantage. But, be that as it may, let the best use be made of the
intermediate time; and then, if there be a superintending Providence,
which governs everything in the moral world, there is every reason to
hope for a blessing on this particular work."

The last letter was from Robert Boucher Nickolls, dean of Middleham, in
Yorkshire. In this he stated that he was a native of the West Indies,
and had travelled on the continent of America. He then offered some
important information to the committee as his mite, towards the
abolition of the Slave Trade, and as an encouragement to them to
persevere. He attempted to prove, that the natural increase of the
negroes already in the West Indian islands would be fully adequate to
the cultivation of them, without any fresh supplies from Africa; and
that such natural increase would be secured by humane treatment. With
this view, he instanced the two estates of Mr. MacMahon and of Dr. Mapp,
in the island of Barbados. The first required continual supplies of new
slaves, in consequence of the severe and cruel usage adopted upon it.
The latter overflowed with labourers in consequence of a system of
kindness, so that it almost peopled another estate. Having related these
instances, he cited others in North America, where, though the climate
was less favourable to the constitution of the Africans, but their
treatment better, they increased also. He combated, from his own
personal knowledge, the argument, that self-interest was always
sufficient to insure good usage, and maintained that there was only one
way of securing it, which was the entire abolition of the Slave Trade.
He showed in what manner the latter measure would operate to the desired
end: he then dilated on the injustice and inconsistency of this trade,
and supported the policy of the abolition of it, both to the planter,
the merchant, and the nation.

This letter of the Dean of Middleham, which was a little Essay of
itself, was deemed of so much importance by the committee, but
particularly as it was the result of local knowledge, that they not only
passed a resolution of thanks to him for it, but desired his permission
to print it.

The committee sat again on the 13th and 22nd of November. At the first
of these sittings, a letter was read from Henry Grimston, Esq., of
Whitwell Hall, near York, offering his services for the promotion of the
cause in his own county. At the second, the Dean of Middleham's answer
was received. He acquiesced in the request of the committee; when five
thousand of his letters were ordered immediately to be printed.

On the 22nd a letter was read from Mr. James Mackenzie, of the town of
Cambridge, desiring to forward the object of the institution there. Two
letters were read also, one from the late Mr. Jones, tutor of Trinity
College, and the other from Mr. William Frend, fellow of Jesus College.
It appeared from these, that the gentlemen of the University of
Cambridge were beginning to take a lively interest in the abolition of
the Slave Trade, among whom Dr. Watson, the bishop of Llandaff, was
particularly conspicuous. At this committee two thousand new _Summary
View_ were ordered to be printed, and the circular letter to be prefixed
to each.




CHAPTER XXI.

Labours of the committee continued to February, 1788.--Committee elect
new members; vote thanks to Falconbridge and others; receive letters
from Grove and others; circulate numerous publications; make a report;
send circular letters to corporate bodies; release negroes unjustly
detained; find new correspondents in Archdeacon Paley, the Marquis de
la Fayette, Bishop of Cloyne, Bishop of Peterborough, and in many
others.


The labours of the committee, during my absence, were as I have now
explained them; but as I was obliged, almost immediately, on joining
them, to retire into the country to begin my new work, I must give an
account of their further services till I joined them again, or till the
middle of February, 1788.

During sittings which were held from the middle of December, 1787, to
the 18th of January, 1788, the business of the committee had so
increased, that it was found proper to make an addition to their number.
Accordingly James Martin and William Morton Pitt, Esquires, members of
parliament, and Robert Hunter, and Joseph Smith, Esquires, were chosen
members of it.

The knowledge also of the institution of the society had spread to such
an extent, and the eagerness among individuals to see the publications
of the committee had been so great, that the press was kept almost
constantly going during the time now mentioned. No fewer than three
thousand lists of the subscribers, with a circular letter prefixed to
them, explaining the object of the institution, were ordered to be
printed within this period, to which are to be added fifteen hundred of
BENEZET'S _Account of Guinea_, three thousand of the DEAN of MIDDLEHAM'S
_Letters_, five thousand _Summary View,_ and two thousand of a new
edition of the _Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species_, which I had
enlarged before the last of these sittings from materials collected in
my late tour.

The thanks of the committee were voted during this period to Mr.
Alexander Falconbridge, for the assistance he had given me in my
inquiries into the nature of the Slave Trade.

As Mr. Falconbridge had but lately returned from Africa, and as facts
and circumstances, which had taken place but a little time ago, were
less liable to objections (inasmuch as they proved the present state of
things) than those which happened in earlier times, he was prevailed
upon to write an account of what he had seen during the four voyages he
had made to that continent; and accordingly, within the period which has
been mentioned, he began his work.

The committee, during these sittings, kept up a correspondence with
those gentlemen who were mentioned in the last chapter to have addressed
them. But, besides these, they found other voluntary correspondents in
the following persons, Capell Lofft, Esq., of Troston, and the Reverend
B. Brome, of Ipswich, both in the county of Suffolk. These made an
earnest tender of their services for those parts of the county in which
they resided. Similar offers were made by Mr. Hammond, of Stanton, near
St. Ives, in the county of Huntingdon, by Thomas Parker, Esq., of
Beverly, and by William Grove, Esq., of Litchfield, for their respective
towns and neighbourhoods.

A letter was received also within this period from the society
established at Philadelphia, accompanied with documents in proof of the
good effects of the manumission of slaves, and with specimens of writing
and drawing by the same. In this letter the society congratulated the
committee in London on its formation, and professed its readiness to
co-operate in any way in which it could me made useful.

During these sittings, a letter was also read from Dr. Bathurst,
afterwards bishop of Norwich, dated Oxford, December 17th, in which he
offered his services in the promotion of the cause.

Another was read, which stated that Dr. Home, president of Magdalen
College in the same university, and afterwards bishop of the same see as
the former, highly favoured it.

Another was read from Mr. Lambert, fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge,
in which he signified to the committee the great desire he had to
promote the object of their institution. He had drawn up a number of
queries relative to the state of the unhappy slaves in the islands,
which he had transmitted to a friend, who had resided in them, to
answer. These answers he purposed to forward to the committee on their
arrival.

Another was read from Dr. Hinchliffe, bishop of Peterborough, in which
he testified his hearty approbation of the institution, and of the
design of it, and his determination to support the object of it in
parliament. He gave in at the same time a plan, which he called
_Thoughts on the Means of Abolishing the Slave Trade in Great Britain
and in our West Indian Islands_, for the consideration of the committee.

At the last of these sittings, the committee thought it right to make a
report to the public relative to the state and progress of their cause;
but as this was composed from materials which the reader has now in his
possession, it may not be necessary to produce it.

On the 22nd and 29th of January, and on the 5th and 12th of February,
1788, sittings were also held. During these, the business still
increasing, John Maitland, Esq., was elected a member of the committee.

As the correspondents of the committee were now numerous, and as these
solicited publications for the use of those who applied to them, as well
as of those to whom they wished to give a knowledge of the subject, the
press was kept in constant employ during this period also. Five thousand
two hundred and fifty additional _Reports_ were ordered to be printed,
and also three thousand of FALCONBRIDGE'S _Account of the Slave Trade_,
the manuscript of which was now finished. At this time, Mr. Newton,
rector of St. Mary Woolnoth in London, who had been in his youth to the
coast of Africa, but who had now become a serious and useful divine,
felt it his duty to write his _Thoughts on the African Slave Trade_. The
committee, having obtained permission, printed three thousand copies of
these also.

During these sittings, the chairman was requested to have frequent
communication with Dr. Porteus, bishop of London, as he had expressed
his desire of becoming useful to the institution.

A circular letter also, with the report before mentioned, was ordered to
be sent to the majors of several corporate towns.

A case also occurred, which it may not be improper to notice. The
treasurer reported that he had been informed by the chairman, that the
captain of the Albion, merchant ship, trading to the Bay of Honduras,
had picked up at sea, from a Spanish ship, which had been wrecked, two
black men, one named Henry Martin Burrowes, a free native of Antigua,
who had served in the royal navy, and the other named Antonio Berrat, a
Spanish negro; that the said captain detained these men on board his
ship, then lying in the river Thames, against their will; and that, he
would not give them up. Upon this report, it was resolved that the cause
of these unfortunate captives should be espoused by the committee. Mr.
Sharp accordingly caused a writ of habeas-corpus to be served upon them;
soon after which he had the satisfaction of reporting, that they had
been delivered from the place of their confinement.

During these sittings the following letters were read also:

One from Richard How, of Apsley, offering his services to the committee.

Another from the Reverend Christopher Wyvill, of Burton Hall, in
Yorkshire, to the same effect.

Another from Archdeacon Plymley, (afterwards Corbett,) in which he
expressed the deep interest he took in this cause of humanity and
freedom, and the desire he had of making himself useful as far as he
could towards the support of it; and he wished to know, as the Clergy of
the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry were anxious to espouse it also,
whether a petition to parliament from them, as a part of the Established
Church, would not be desirable at the present season.

Another from Archdeacon Paley, containing his sentiments on a plan for
the abolition of the Slave Trade, and the manumission of slaves in our
islands, and offering his future services, and wishing success to the
undertaking.

Another from Dr. Sharp, prebendary of Durham, inquiring into the
probable amount of the subscriptions which might be wanted, and for what
purposes, with a view of serving the cause.

Another from Dr. Woodward, bishop of Cloyne, in which he approved of the
institution of the committee. He conceived the Slave Trade to be no less
disgraceful to the legislature and injurious to the true commercial
interests of the country, than it was productive of unmerited misery to
the unhappy objects of it, and repugnant both to the principles and the
spirit of the Christian religion. He wished to be placed among the
assertors of the liberty of his fellow-creatures, and he was therefore
desirous of subscribing largely, as well as of doing all he could, both
in England and Ireland, for the promotion of such a charitable work.

A communication was made, soon after the reading of the last letter,
through the medium of the Chevalier de Ternant, from the celebrated
Marquis de la Fayette of France. The Marquis signified the singular
pleasure he had received on hearing of the formation of a committee in
England for the abolition of the Slave Trade, and the earnest desire he
had to promote the object of it. With this view, he informed the
committee that he should attempt the formation of a similar society in
France. This he conceived to be one of the most effectual measures he
could devise for securing the object in question; for he was of opinion,
that if the two great nations of France and England were to unite in
this humane and Christian work, the other European nations might be
induced to follow the example.

The committee, on receiving the two latter communications, resolved,
that the chairman should return their thanks to the Bishop of Cloyne,
and the Marquis de la Fayette, and the Chevalier de Ternant, and that he
should inform them, that they were enrolled among the honorary and
corresponding members of the society.

The other letters read during these sittings were to convey information
to the committee, that people in various parts of the kingdom had then
felt themselves so deeply interested in behalf of the injured Africans,
that they had determined either on public meetings, or had come to
resolutions, or had it in contemplation to petition parliament, for the
abolition of the Slave Trade. Information was signified to this effect
by Thomas Walker, Esquire, for Manchester; by John Hoyland, William
Hoyles, Esquire, and the Reverend James Wilkinson, for Sheffield; by
William Tuke, and William Burgh, Esquire, for York; by the Reverend Mr.
Foster, for Colchester; by Joseph Harford and Edmund Griffith, Esquires,
for Bristol; by William Bishop, Esquire, the mayor, for Maidstone; by
the Reverend R. Brome and the Reverend J. Wright, for Ipswich; by James
Clarke, Esquire, the mayor, for Coventry; by Mr. Jones, of Trinity
College, for the University of Cambridge; by Dr. Schomberg, of Magdalen
College, for the University of Oxford; by Henry Bullen, Esquire, for
Bury St. Edmunds; by Archdeacon Travis, for Chester; by Mr. Hammond, for
the county of Huntingdon; by John Flint, Esquire, (afterwards Corbett,)
for the town of Shrewsbury and county of Salop; by the Reverend Robert
Lucas, for the town and also for the county of Northampton; by Mr.
Winchester, for the county of Stafford; by the Reverend William Leigh,
for the county of Norfolk; by David Barclay, for the county of Hertford;
and by Thomas Babington, Esquire, for the county of Leicester.




CHAPTER XXII.

Further progress to the middle of May.--Petitions begin to be sent to
parliament.--The king orders the privy council to inquire into the
Slave Trade.--Author called up to town; his interviews with Mr. Pitt,
and with Mr.(afterwards Lord) Grenville.--Liverpool delegates examined
first; these prejudice the council; this prejudice at length
counteracted.--Labours of the committee in the interim.--Public
anxious for the introduction of the question into parliament.--Message
of Mr. Pitt to the committee concerning it.--Day fixed for the
motion.--Substance of the debate which followed.--Discussion of the
general question deferred till the next sessions.


By this time the nature of the Slave Trade had, in consequence of the
labours of the committee and of their several correspondents, become
generally known throughout the kingdom. It had excited a general
attention, and there was among the people a general feeling in behalf of
the wrongs of Africa. This feeling had also, as may be collected from
what has been already mentioned, broken out into language: for not only
had the traffic become the general subject of conversation, but public
meetings had taken place, in which it had been discussed, and of which
the result was, that an application to parliament had been resolved upon
in many places concerning it. By the middle of February not fewer than
thirty-five petitions had been delivered to the Commons, and it was
known that others were on their way to the same house.

This ferment in the public mind, which had shown itself in the public
prints even before the petitions had been resolved upon, had excited the
attention of government. To coincide with the wishes of the people on
this subject, appeared to those in authority to be a desirable thing. To
abolish the trade, replete as it was with misery, was desirable also;
but it was so connected with the interest of individuals, and so
interwoven with the commerce and revenue of the country, that a hasty
abolition of it without a previous inquiry appeared to them to be likely
to be productive of as much misery as good. The king, therefore, by an
order of council dated February the eleventh, 1788, directed that a
committee of Privy Council should sit as a board of trade, "to take into
their consideration the present state of the African Trade, particularly
as far as related to the practice and manner of purchasing or obtaining
slaves on the coast of Africa, and the importation and sale thereof,
either in the British colonies and settlements, or in the foreign
colonies and settlements in America or the West-Indies; and also as far
as related to the effects and consequences of the trade both in Africa
and in the said colonies and settlements, and to the general commerce of
this kingdom; and that they should report to him in council the result
of their inquiries, with such observations as they might have to offer
thereupon."

Of this order of council Mr. Wilberforce, who had attended to this great
subject, as far as his health would permit, since I left him, had
received notice; but he was then too ill himself to take any measures
concerning it. He therefore wrote to me, and begged of me to repair to
London immediately, in order to get such evidence ready as we might
think it eligible to introduce when the council sat. At that time, as
appears from the former chapter, I had finished the additions to my
_Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species_, and I had now
proceeded about half way in that of the Impolicy of it. This summons,
however, I obeyed, and returned to town on the fourteenth of February,
from which day to the twenty-fourth of May I shall now give the history
of our proceedings.

My first business in London was to hold a conversation with Mr. Pitt
previously to the meeting of the council, and to try to interest him, as
the first minister of state, in our favour. For this purpose Mr.
Wilberforce had opened the way for me, and an interview took place. We
were in free conversation together for a considerable time, during which
we went through most of the branches of the subject. Mr. Pitt appeared
to me to have but little knowledge of it. He had also his doubts, which
he expressed openly, on many points. He was at a loss to conceive how
private interest should not always restrain the master of the slave from
abusing him. This matter I explained to him as well as I could; and if
he was not entirely satisfied with my interpretation of it, he was at
least induced to believe that cruel practices were more probable than he
had imagined. A second circumstance, of the truth of which he doubted,
was the mortality and usage of seamen in this trade; and a third was the
statement by which so much had been made of the riches of Africa, and of
the genius and abilities of her people; for he seemed at a loss to
comprehend, if these things were so, how it happened that they should
not have been more generally noticed before. I promised to satisfy him
upon these points, and an interview was fixed for this purpose the next
day.

At the time appointed, I went with my books, papers, and African
productions. Mr. Pitt examined the former himself. He turned over leaf
after leaf, in which the copies of the muster-rolls were contained, with
great patience; and when he had looked over above a hundred pages
accurately, and found the name of every seaman inserted, his former
abode or service, the time of his entry, and what had become of him,
either by death, discharge, or desertion, he expressed his surprise at
the great pains which had been taken in this branch of the inquiry; and
confessed, with some emotion, that his doubts were wholly removed with
respect to the destructive nature of this employ; and he said, moreover,
that the facts contained in these documents, if they had been but fairly
copied, could never be disproved. He was equally astonished at the
various woods and other productions of Africa, but most of all at the
manufactures of the natives in cotton, leather, gold, and iron, which
were laid before him. These he handled and examined over and over again.
Many sublime thoughts seemed to rush in upon him at once at the sight of
these, some of which he expressed with observations becoming a great and
a dignified mind. He thanked me for the light I had given him on many of
the branches of this great question. And I went away under a certain
conviction that I had left him much impressed in our favour.

My next visit was to Mr. (afterwards Lord) Grenville. I called upon him
at the request of Mr. Wilberforce, who had previously written to him
from Bath, as he had promised to attend the meetings of the privy
council during the examinations which were to take place. I found, in
the course of our conversation, that Mr. Grenville had not then more
knowledge of the subject than Mr. Pitt; but I found him differently
circumstanced in other respects, for I perceived in him a warm feeling
in behalf of the injured Africans, and that he had no doubt of the
possibility of all the barbarities which had been alleged against this
traffic. I showed him all my papers and some of my natural productions,
which he examined. I was with him the next day, and once again
afterwards, so that the subject was considered in all its parts. The
effect of this interview with him was of course different from that upon
the minister. In the former case I had removed doubts, and given birth
to an interest in favour of our cause. But I had here only increased an
interest, which had already been excited, I had only enlarged the mass
of feeling, or added zeal to zeal, or confirmed resolutions and
reasonings. Disposed in this manner originally himself, and strengthened
by the documents with which I had furnished him, Mr. Grenville
contracted an enmity to the Slave Trade, which was never afterwards
diminished[A].

[Footnote A: I have not mentioned the difference between these two
eminent persons, with a view of drawing any invidious comparisons, but
because, as these statements are true, such persons as have a high
opinion of the late Mr. Pitt's judgment, may see that this great man did
not espouse the cause hastily, or merely as a matter of feeling, but
upon the conviction of his own mind.]

A report having gone abroad that the committee of privy council would
only examine those who were interested in the continuance of the trade,
I found it necessary to call upon Mr. Pitt again, and to inform him of
it, when I received an assurance that every person whom I chose to send
to the council in behalf of the committee should be heard. This gave
rise to a conversation relative to those witnesses whom we had to
produce on the side of the abolition. And here I was obliged to disclose
our weakness in this respect. I owned with sorrow that, though I had
obtained specimens and official documents in abundance to prove many
important points, yet I had found it difficult to prevail upon persons
to be publicly examined on this subject. The only persons we could then
count upon, were Mr. Ramsay, Mr. H. Gandy, Mr. Falconbridge, Mr. Newton,
and the Dean of Middleham. There was one, however, who would be a host
of himself, if we could but gain him. I then mentioned Mr. Norris. I
told Mr. Pitt the nature[A] and value of the testimony which he had
given me at Liverpool, and the great zeal he had discovered to serve the
cause. I doubted, however, if he would come to London for this purpose,
even if I wrote to him; for he was intimate with almost all the owners
of slave-vessels in Liverpool, and, living among these, he would not
like to incur their resentment by taking a prominent part against them.
I therefore entreated Mr. Pitt to send him a summons of council to
attend, hoping that Mr. Norris would then be pleased to come up, as he
would be enabled to reply to his friends that his appearance had not
been voluntary. Mr. Pitt, however, informed me, that a summons from a
committee of privy council, sitting as a board, was not binding upon the
subject; and therefore that I had no other means left, but of writing to
him, and he desired me to do this by the first post.

[Footnote A: See his evidence, Chap. XVII.]

This letter I accordingly wrote, and sent it to my friend William
Rathbone, who was to deliver it in person, and to use his own influence
at the same time; but I received for answer, that Mr. Norris was then in
London. Upon this I tried to find him out, to entreat him to consent to
an examination before the council. At length I found his address; but
before I could see him, I was told by the Bishop of London that he had
come up as a Liverpool delegate in support of the Slave Trade.
Astonished at this information, I made the bishop acquainted with the
case, and asked him how it became me to act; for I was fearful lest, by
exposing Mr. Norris, I should violate the rights of hospitality on the
one hand, and by not exposing him that I should not do my duty to the
cause I had undertaken on the other. His advice was, that I should see
him, and ask him to explain the reasons of his conduct. I called upon
him for this purpose, but he was out. He sent me, however, a letter soon
afterwards, which was full of flattery; and in which, after having paid
high compliments to the general force of my arguments, and the general
justice and humanity of my sentiments on this great question, which had
made a deep impression upon his mind, he had found occasion to differ
from me, since we had last parted, on particular points, and that he had
therefore less reluctantly yielded to the call of becoming a
delegate,--though notwithstanding he would gladly have declined the
office if he could have done it with propriety.

At length the council began their examinations. Mr. Norris, Lieutenant
Matthews, of the navy, who had just left a slave employ in Africa, and
Mr. James Penny, formerly a slave captain, and then interested as a
merchant in the trade, (which three were the delegates from Liverpool,)
took possession of the ground first. Mr. Miles, Mr. Weuves, and others,
followed them on the same side. The evidence which they gave, as
previously concerted between themselves, may be shortly represented
thus:--They denied that kidnapping either did or could take place in
Africa, or that wars were made there for the purpose of procuring
slaves. Having done away these wicked practices from their system, they
maintained positions which were less exceptionable, as that the natives
of Africa generally became slaves in consequence of having been made
prisoners in just wars, or in consequence of their various crimes. They
then gave a melancholy picture of the despotism and barbarity of some of
the African princes, among whom the custom of sacrificing their own
subjects prevailed. But, of all others, that which was afforded by Mr.
Norris on this ground was the most frightful. The King of Dahomey, he
said, sported with the lives of his people in the most wanton manner. He
had seen at the gates of his palace two piles of heads, like those of
shot in an arsenal. Within the palace, the heads of persons, newly put
to death, were strewed at the distance of a few yards in the passage,
which led to his apartment. This custom of human sacrifice by the King
of Dahomey was not on one occasion only, but on many; such as on the
reception of messengers from neighbouring states, or of white merchants,
or on days of ceremonial. But the great carnage was once a year, when
the poll-tax was paid by his subjects. A thousand persons, at least,
were sacrificed annually on these different occasions. The great men,
too, of the country, cut off a few heads on festival-days. From all
these particulars the humanity of the Slave Trade was inferred, because
it took away the inhabitants of Africa into lands where no such
barbarities were known. But the humanity of it was insisted upon by
positive circumstances also; namely, that a great number of the slaves
were prisoners of war, and that in former times all such were put to
death, whereas now they were saved: so that there was a great accession
of happiness to Africa since the introduction of the trade.

These statements, and those of others on the same side of the question,
had a great effect, as may easily be conceived, upon the feelings of
those of the council who were present. Some of them began immediately to
be prejudiced against us. There were others who even thought that it was
almost unnecessary to proceed in the inquiry, for that the trade was
actually a blessing. They had little doubt that all our assertions
concerning it would be found false. The Bishop of London himself was so
impressed by these unexpected accounts, that he asked me if
Falconbridge, whose pamphlet had been previously sent by the committee
to every member of the council, was worthy of belief, and if he would
substantiate publicly what he had thus written: but these impressions
unfortunately were not confined to those who had been present at the
examinations. These could not help communicating them to others. Hence,
in all the higher circles (some of which I sometimes used to frequent) I
had the mortification to hear of nothing but the Liverpool evidence, and
of our own credulity, and of the impositions which had been practised
upon us: of these reports the planters and merchants did not fail to
avail themselves. They boasted that they would soon do away all the idle
tales which had been invented against them. They desired the public only
to suspend their judgment till the privy council report should be out,
when they would see the folly and wickedness of all our allegations. A
little more evidence, and all would be over. On the 22nd of March,
though the committee council had not then held its sittings more than a
month, and these only twice or thrice a week, the following paragraph
was seen in a morning paper:--"The report of the committee of privy
council will be ready in a few days. After due examination it appears
that the major part of the complaints against this trade are
ill-founded. Some regulations, however, are expected to take place,
which may serve in a certain degree to appease the cause of humanity."

But while they, who were interested, had produced this outcry against
us, in consequence of what had fallen from their own witnesses in the
course of their examinations, they had increased it considerably by the
industrious circulation of a most artful pamphlet among persons of rank
and fortune at the west end of the metropolis, which was called,
_Scriptural Researches on the Licitness of the Slave Trade_. This they
had procured to be written by R. Harris, who was then clerk in a
slave-house in Liverpool, but had been formerly a clergyman and a
Jesuit. As they had maintained in the first instance, as has been
already shown, the humanity of the traffic, so, by means of this
pamphlet they asserted its consistency with revealed religion. That such
a book should have made converts in such an age is surprising; and yet
many, who ought to have known better, were carried away by it; and we
had now absolutely to contend, and almost degrade ourselves by doing so,
against the double argument of the humanity and the holiness of the
trade.

By these means, but particularly by the former, the current of opinion
in particular circles ran against us for the first month, and so strong,
that it was impossible for us to stem it at once; but as some of the
council recovered from their panic, and their good sense became less
biassed by their feelings, and they were in a state to hear reason,
their prejudices began to subside. It began now to be understood among
them, that almost all the witnesses were concerned in the continuance of
the trade. It began to be known also, (for Mr. Pitt and the Bishop of
London took care that it should be circulated,) that Mr. Norris had but
a short time before furnished me at Liverpool with information, all of
which he had concealed[A] from the council, but all of which made for
the abolition of it. Mr. Devaynes also, a respectable member of
parliament, who had been in Africa, and who had been appealed to by Mr.
Norris, when examined before the privy council, in behalf of his
extraordinary facts, was unable, when summoned, to confirm them to the
desired extent. From this evidence the council collected, that human
sacrifices were not made on the arrival of White traders, as had been
asserted; that there was no poll-tax in Dahomey at all; and that Mr.
Norris must have been mistaken on these points, for he must have been
there at the time of the ceremony of watering the graves, when about
sixty persons suffered. This latter custom moreover appeared to have
been a religious superstition of the country, such as at Otaheite, or in
Britain in the time of the Druids, and to have had nothing to do with
the Slave Trade[B]. With respect to prisoners of war, Mr. Devaynes
allowed that the old, the lame, and the wounded, were often put to death
on the spot; but this was to save the trouble of bringing them away. The
young and the healthy were driven off for sale; but if they were not
sold when offered, they were not killed, but reserved for another
market, or became house-slaves to the conquerors. Mr. Devaynes also
maintained, contrary to the allegations of the others, that a great
number of persons were kidnapped in order to be sold to the ships; and
that the government, where this happened, was not strong enough to
prevent it. But besides these drawbacks from the weight of the testimony
which had been given, it began to be perceived by some of the lords of
the council, that the cruel superstitions which had been described,
obtained only in one or two countries in Africa, and these of
insignificant extent; whereas at the time, when their minds were carried
away, as it were by their feelings, they had supposed them to attach to
the whole of that vast continent. They perceived also, that there were
circumstances related in the evidence by the delegates themselves, by
means of which, if they were true, the inhumanity of the trade might be
established, and this to their own disgrace. They had all confessed that
such slaves, as the White traders refused to buy, were put to death; and
yet that these traders, knowing that this would be the case, had the
barbarity uniformly to reject those whom it did not suit them to
purchase. Mr. Matthews had rejected one of this description himself,
whom he saw afterwards destroyed. Mr. Penny had known the refuse thrown
down Melimba rock. Mr. Norris himself, when certain prisoners of war
were offered to him for sale, declined buying them because they appeared
unhealthy; and though the king then told him that he would put them to
death, he could not be prevailed upon to take them but left them to
their hard fate; and he had the boldness to state afterwards, that it
was his belief that many of them actually suffered.

[Footnote A: This was also the case with another witness, Mr. Weuves. He
had given me accounts, before any stir was made about the Slave Trade,
relative to it, all of which he kept back when he was examined there.]

[Footnote B: Being a religion custom, it would still have gone on,
though the Slave Trade had been abolished: nor could the merchants at
any time have bought off a single victim.]

These considerations had the effect of diminishing the prejudices of
some of the council on this great question: and when this was perceived
to be the case, it was the opinion of Mr. Pitt, Mr. Grenville, and the
Bishop of London, that we should send three or four of our own evidences
for examination, who might help to restore matters to an equilibrium.
Accordingly, Mr. Falconbridge, and some others, all of whom were to
speak to the African part of the subject, were introduced. These
produced a certain weight in the opposite scale. But soon after these
had been examined, Dr. Andrew Spaarman, professor of physic, and
inspector of the museum of the royal academy at Stockholm, and his
companion, C.B. Wadstrom, chief director of the assay-office there,
arrived in England. These gentlemen had been lately sent to Africa by
the late king of Sweden, to make discoveries in botany, mineralogy, and
other departments of science. For this purpose the Swedish ambassador at
Paris had procured them permission from the French government to visit
the countries bordering on the Senegal, and had insured them protection
there. They had been conveyed to the place of their destination, where
they had remained from August 1787, to the end of January 1788; but
meeting with obstacles which they had not foreseen, they had left it,
and had returned to Havre de Grace, from whence they had just arrived in
London, on their way home. It so happened, that by means of George
Harrison, one of our committee, I fell in unexpectedly with these
gentlemen. I had not long been with them, before I perceived the great
treasure I had found. They gave me many beautiful specimens of African
produce. They showed me their journals, which they had regularly kept
from day to day. In these I had the pleasure of seeing a number of
circumstances minuted down, all relating to the Slave Trade, and even
drawings on the same subject. I obtained a more accurate and
satisfactory knowledge of the manners and customs of the Africans from
these, than from all the persons put together whom I had yet seen. I was
anxious, therefore, to take them before the committee of council, to
which they were pleased to consent; and as Dr. Spaarman was to leave
London in a few days, I procured him an introduction first. His evidence
went to show, that the natives of Africa lived in a fruitful and
luxuriant country, which supplied all their wants, and that they would
be a happy people, if it were not for the existence of the Slave Trade.
He instanced wars which he knew to have been made by the Moors upon the
Negroes, (for they were entered upon wholly at the instigation of the
White traders,) for the purpose of getting slaves, and he had the pain
of seeing the unhappy captives brought in on such occasions, and some of
them in a wounded state. Among them, were many women and children, and
the women were in great affliction. He saw also the king of Barbesin
send out his parties on expeditions of a similar kind, and he saw them
return with slaves. The king had been made intoxicated on purpose, by
the French agents, or he would never have consented to the measure. He
stated also, that in consequence of the temptations held out by
slave-vessels coming upon the coast, the natives seized one another in
the night, when they found opportunity; and even invited others to their
houses, whom they treacherously detained, and sold at these times; so
that every enormity was practised in Africa, in consequence of the
existence of the trade. These specific instances made a proper
impression upon the lords of the council in their turn; for Dr. Spaarman
was a man of high character; he possessed the confidence of his
sovereign; he had no interest whatever in giving his evidence on this
subject, either on one or the other side; his means of information too
had been large; he had also recorded the facts which had come before
him, and he had his journal, written in the French language, to produce.
The tide, therefore, which had run so strongly against us, began now to
turn a little in our favour.

While these examinations were going on, petitions continued to be sent
to the House of Commons, from various parts of the kingdom. No less than
one hundred and three were presented in this session. The city of
London, though she was drawn the other way by the cries of commercial
interest, made a sacrifice to humanity and justice: the two universities
applauded her conduct by their own example. Large manufacturing towns,
and whole counties, expressed their sentiments and wishes in a similar
manner. The Established Church in separate dioceses, and the Quakers and
other dissenters, as separate religious bodies, joined in one voice upon
this occasion.

The committee, in the interim, were not unmindful of the great work they
had undertaken, and they continued to forward it in its different
departments. They kept up a communication by letter with most of the
worthy persons, who have been mentioned to have written to them, but
particularly with Brissot and Claviere; from whom they had the
satisfaction of learning, that a society had at length been established
at Paris, for the abolition of the Slave Trade in France. The learned
Marquis de Condorcet had become the president of it. The virtuous Duc de
la Rochefoucauld and the Marquis de la Fayette had sanctioned it by
enrolling their names as the two first members. Petion, who was placed
afterwards among the mayors of Paris, followed. Women also were not
thought unworthy of being honorary and assistant members of this humane
institution; and among these were found the amiable Marchioness of la
Fayette, Madame de Poivre, widow of the late intendant of the Isle of
France, and Madame Necker, wife of the first minister of state.

The new correspondents, who voluntarily offered their services to the
committee, during the first part of the period now under consideration,
were S. Whitcomb, Esq., of Gloucester; the Rev. D. Watson, of Middleton
Tyas, Yorkshire; John Murlin, Esq., of High Wycomb; Charles Collins,
Esq., of Swansea; Henry Tudor, Esq., of Sheffield; the Rev. John Hare,
of Lincoln; Samuel Tooker, Esq., of Moorgate, near Rotherham; the Rev.
G. Walker, and Francis Wakefield, Esq., of Nottingham; the Rev. Mr.
Hepworth, of Burton-upon-Trent; the Rev. H. Dannett, of St. John's,
Liverpool; the Rev. Dr. Oglander, of New College, Oxford; the Rev. H.
Coulthurst, of Sidney College, Cambridge; R. Selfe, Esq., of
Cirencester; Morris Birkbeck, of Hanford, Dorsetshire; William Jepson,
of Lancaster; B. Kaye, of Leeds: John Patison, Esq., of Paisley; J.E.
Dolben, Esq., of Northamptonshire; the Rev. Mr. Smith, of Wendover; John
Wilkinson, Esq., of Woodford; Samuel Milford, Esq., of Exeter; Peter
Lunel, Esq., treasurer of the committee at Bristol; James Pemberton, of
Philadelphia; and the president of the Society at New York.

The letters from new correspondents during the latter part of this
period, were the following:--

One from Alexander Alison, Esq., of Edinburgh, in which he expressed it
to be his duty to attempt to awaken the inhabitants of Scotland to a
knowledge of the monstrous evil of the Slave Trade, and to form a
committee there, to act in union with that of London, in carrying the
great object of their institution into effect.

Another from Elhanan Winchester, offering the committee one hundred of
his sermons, which he had preached against the Slave Trade, in Fairfax
county, in Virginia, so early as in the year 1774.

Another from Dr. Frossard, of Lyons, in which he offered his services
for the South of France, and desired different publications to be sent
him, that he might be better qualified to take a part in the promotion
of the cause.

Another from Professor Bruns, of Helmstadt, in Germany, in which he
desired to know the particulars relative to the institution of the
committee, as many thousands upon the continent were then beginning to
feel for the sufferings of the oppressed African race.

Another from Rev. James Manning, of Exeter, in which he stated himself
to be authorized by the dissenting ministers of Devon and Cornwall, to
express their high approbation of the conduct of the committee, and to
offer their services in the promotion of this great work of humanity and
religion.

Another from William Senhouse, Esq., of the island of Barbados. In this
he gave the particulars of two estates, one of them his own, and the
other belonging to a nobleman, upon each of which the slaves, in
consequence of humane treatment, had increased by natural population
only. Another effect of this humane treatment had been, that these
slaves were among the most orderly and tractable in that island. From
these and other instances he argued, that if the planters would, all of
them, take proper care of their slaves, their humanity would be repaid
in a few years, by a valuable increase in their property, and they would
never want supplies from a traffic, which had been so justly condemned.

Two others, the one from Travers Hartley, and the other from Alexander
Jaffray, Esqrs., both of Dublin, were read. These gentlemen sent certain
resolutions, which had been agreed upon by the chamber of commerce and
by the guild of merchants there, relative to the abolition of the Slave
Trade. They rejoiced, in the name of those whom they represented, that
Ireland had been unspotted by a traffic, which they held in such deep
abhorrence; and promised, if it should be abolished in England, to take
the post active measures to prevent it from finding an asylum in the
ports of that kingdom.

The letters of William Senhouse, and of Travers Hartley, and of
Alexander Jaffray, Esqrs., were ordered to be presented to the committee
of privy council, and copies of them to be left there.

The business of the committee having almost daily increased within this
period, Dr. Baker and Bennet Langton, Esq., who were the two first to
assist me in my early labours, and who have been mentioned among the
forerunners and coadjutors of the cause, were elected members of it. Dr.
Kippis also was added to the list.

The honorary and corresponding members, elected within the same period,
were the Dean of Middleham; T.W. Coke, Esq., member of parliament, of
Holkham, in Norfolk; and the Rev. William Leigh, who has been before
mentioned, of Little Plumstead, in the same county. The latter had
published several valuable letters in the public papers, under the
signature of Africanus: these had excited great notice, and done much
good. The worthy author had now collected them into a publication, and
had offered the profits of it to the committee. Hence this mark of their
respect was conferred upon him.

The committee ordered a new edition of three thousand of the Dean of
Middleham's Letters to be printed. Having approved of a manuscript,
written by James Field Stanfield, a mariner, containing observations
upon a voyage which he had lately made to the coast of Africa for
slaves, they ordered three thousand of these to be printed also. By this
time, the subject having been much talked of, and many doubts and
difficulties having been thrown in the way of the abolition, by persons
interested in the continuance of the trade, Mr. Ramsay, who has been
often so honourably mentioned, put down upon paper all the objections
which were then handed about, and also those answers to each, which he
was qualified, from his superior knowledge of the subject, to suggest.
This he did, that the members of the legislature might see the more
intricate parts of the question unravelled, and that they might not be
imposed upon by the spurious arguments which were then in circulation
concerning it. Observing also the poisonous effect which _The Scriptural
Researches on the Licitness of the Slave Trade_ had produced upon the
minds of many, he wrote an answer on scriptural grounds to that
pamphlet. These works were sent to the press, and three thousand copies
of each of them were ordered to be struck off.

The committee, in their arrangement of the distribution of their books,
ordered NEWTON'S _Thoughts_, and RAMSAY'S _Objections and Answers_, to
be sent to each member of both houses of parliament.

They appointed also three sub-committees for different purposes: one to
draw up such facts and arguments respecting the Slave Trade, with a view
of being translated into other languages, as should give foreigners a
suitable knowledge of the subject; another to prepare an answer to
certain false reports which had been spread relative to the object of
their institution, and to procure an insertion of it in the daily
papers; and a third to draw up rules for the government of the society.

By the latter end of the month of March, there was an anxious
expectation in the public, notwithstanding the privy council had taken
up the subject, that some notice should be taken, in the lower house of
parliament, of the numerous petitions which had been presented there.
There was the same expectation in many of the members of it themselves.
Lord Penrhyn, one of the representatives for Liverpool, and a planter
also, had anticipated this notice, by moving for such papers relative to
ships employed, goods exported, produce imported, and duties upon the
same, as would show the vast value of the trade, which it was in
contemplation to abolish. But at this time Mr. Wilberforce was ill, and
unable to gratify the expectations which had been thus apparent. The
committee, therefore, who partook of the anxiety of the public, knew not
what to do. They saw that two-thirds of the session had already passed.
They saw no hope of Mr. Wilberforce's recovery for some time. Rumours
too were afloat, that other members, of whose plans they knew nothing,
and who might even make emancipation their object, would introduce the
business into the house. Thus situated, they waited, as patiently as
they could, till the 8th of April[A], when they resolved to write to Mr.
Wilberforce, to explain to him their fears and wishes, and to submit it
to his consideration, whether, if he were unable himself, he would
appoint some one in whom he could confide, to make some motion in
parliament on the subject.

[Footnote A: Brissot attended in person at this committee in his way to
America, which it was then an object with him to visit.]

But the public expectation became now daily more visible. The
inhabitants of Manchester, many of whom had signed the petition for that
place, became impatient, and they appointed Thomas Walker and Thomas
Cooper, Esquires, as their delegates, to proceed to London to
communicate with the committee on this subject, to assist them in their
deliberations upon it, and to give their attendance while it was under
discussion by the legislature.

At the time of the arrival of the delegates, who were received as such
by the committee, a letter came from Bath, in which it was stated that
Mr. Wilberforce's health was in such a precarious state, that his
physicians dared not allow him to read any letter which related to the
subject of the Slave Trade.

The committee were now again at a loss how to act, when they were
relieved from this doubtful situation by a message from Mr. Pitt, who
desired a conference with their chairman. Mr. Sharp accordingly went,
and on his return made the following report: "He had a full
opportunity," he said, "of explaining to Mr. Pitt that the desire of the
committee went to the entire abolition of the Slave Trade. Mr. Pitt
assured him that his heart was with the committee as to this object, and
that he considered himself pledged to Mr. Wilberforce, that the cause
should not sustain any injury from his indisposition; but at the same
time observed, that the subject was of great political importance, and
it was requisite to proceed in it with temper and prudence. He did not
apprehend, as the examinations before the privy council would yet take
up some time, that the subject could be fully investigated in the
present session of parliament; but said he would consider whether the
forms of the house would admit of any measures that would be obligatory
on them to take it up early in the ensuing session."

In about a week after this conference, Mr. Morton Pitt was deputed by
the minister to write to the committee, to say that he had found
precedents for such a motion as he conceived to be proper, and that he
would submit it to the House of Commons in a few days.

At the next meeting, which was on the 6th of May, and at which Major
Cartwright and the Manchester delegates assisted, Mr. Morton Pitt
attended as a member of the committee, and said that the minister had
fixed his motion for the 9th. It was then resolved, that deputations
should be sent to some of the leading members of parliament, to request
their support of the approaching motion. I was included in one of these,
and in that which was to wait upon Mr. Fox. We were received by him in a
friendly manner. On putting the question to him, which related to the
object of our mission, Mr. Fox paused for a little while, as if in the
act of deliberation; when he assured us unequivocally, and in language
which could not be misunderstood, that he would support the object of
the committee to its fullest extent, being convinced that there was no
remedy for the evil, but in the total abolition of the trade.

At length, the 9th, or the day fixed upon, arrived, when this important
subject was to be mentioned in the House of Commons for the first
time[A], with a view to the public discussion of it. It is impossible
for me to give, within the narrow limits of this work, all that was then
said upon it; and yet as the debate which ensued was the first which
took place upon it, I should feel inexcusable if I were not to take some
notice of it.

[Footnote A: David Hartley made a motion some years before in the same
house, as has been shown in a former part of this work; but this was
only to establish a proposition, That the Slave Trade was contrary to
the Laws of God and the Rights of Man.]

Mr. Pitt rose. He said he intended to move a resolution relative to a
subject which was of more importance than any which had ever been
agitated in that house. This honour he should not have had, but for a
circumstance which he could not but deeply regret, the severe
indisposition of his friend Mr. Wilberforce, in whose hands every
measure which belonged to justice, humanity, and the national interest,
was peculiarly well placed. The subject in question was no less than
that of the Slave Trade. It was obvious from the great number of
petitions which had been presented concerning it, how much it had
engaged the public attention, and consequently how much it deserved the
serious notice of that house, and how much it became their duty to take
some measure concerning it. But whatever was done on such a subject,
every one would agree, ought to be done with the maturest deliberation.
Two opinions had prevailed without doors, as appeared from the language
of the different petitions. It had been pretty generally thought that
the African Slave Trade ought to be abolished. There were others,
however, who thought that it only stood in need of regulations. But all
had agreed that it ought not to remain as it stood at present. But that
measure which it might be the most proper to take, could only be
discovered by a cool, patient, and diligent examination of the subject
in all its circumstances, relations, and consequences. This had induced
him to form an opinion that the present was not the proper time for
discussing it; for the session was now far advanced, and there was also
a want of proper materials for the full information of the house. It
would, he thought, be better discussed, when it might produce some
useful debate, and when that inquiry which had been instituted by His
Majesty's Ministers, (he meant the examination by a committee of privy
council,) should be brought to such a state of maturity as to make it
fit that the result of it should be laid before the house. That inquiry,
he trusted, would facilitate their investigation, and enable them the
better to proceed to a decision which should be equally founded on
principles of humanity, justice, and sound policy. As there was not a
probability of reaching so desirable an end in the present state of the
business, he meant to move a resolution to pledge the house to the
discussion of the question early in the next  session. If by that time
his honourable friend should be recovered, which he hoped would be the
case, then he (Mr. Wilberforce) would take the lead in it; but should it
unfortunately happen otherwise, then he (the Chancellor of the
Exchequer) pledged himself to bring forward some proposition concerning
it. The house, however, would observe, that he had studiously avoided
giving any opinion of his own on this great subject. He thought it wiser
to defer this till the time of the discussion should arrive. He
concluded with moving, after having read the names of the places from
whence the different petitions had come, "That this house will, early in
the next session of parliament, proceed to take into consideration the
circumstances of the Slave Trade complained of in the said petitions,
and what may be fit to be done thereupon."

Mr. Fox began by observing, that he had long taken an interest in this
great subject, which he had also minutely examined, and that it was his
intention to have brought something forward himself in parliament
respecting it; but when he heard that Mr. Wilberforce had resolved to
take it up, he was unaffectedly rejoiced, not only knowing the purity of
his principles and character, but because, from a variety of
considerations as to the situations in which different men stood in the
house, there was something that made him honestly think it was better
that the business should be in the hands of that gentleman than in his
own. Having premised this, he said that, as so many petitions, and these
signed by such numbers of persons of the most respectable character, had
been presented, he was sorry that it had been found impossible that the
subject of them could be taken up this year, and more particularly as he
was not able to see, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer had done, that
there were circumstances, which might happen by the next year, which
would make it more advisable and advantageous to take it up then, than
it would have been to enter upon it in the present session. For
certainly there could be no information laid before the house, through
the medium of the lords of the council, which could not more
advantageously have been obtained by themselves, had they instituted a
similar inquiry. It was their duty to advise the king, and not to ask
his advice. This the constitution had laid down as one of its most
essential principles; and though in the present instance he saw no cause
for blame, because he was persuaded His Majesty's Ministers had not
acted with any ill intention, it was still a principle never to be
departed from, because it never could be departed from without
establishing a precedent which might lead to very serious abuses. He
lamented that the privy council, who had received no petitions from the
people on the subject, should have instituted an inquiry, and that the
House of Commons, the table of which had been loaded with petitions from
various parts of the kingdom, should not have instituted any inquiry at
all. He hoped these petitions would have a fair discussion in that
house, independently of any information that could be given to it by His
Majesty's Ministers. He urged again the superior advantage of an inquiry
into such a subject carried on within those walls over any inquiry
carried on by the lords of the council. In inquiries carried on in that
house, they had the benefit of every circumstance of publicity; which
was a most material benefit indeed, and that which of all others made
the manner of conducting the parliamentary proceedings of Great Britain
the envy and the admiration of the world. An inquiry there was better
than an inquiry in any other place, however respectable the persons
before and by whom it was carried on. There, all that could be said for
the abolition or against it might be said. In that house every relative
fact would have been produced, no information would have been withheld,
no circumstance would have been omitted, which was necessary for
elucidation; nothing would have been kept back. He was sorry, therefore,
that the consideration of the question, but more particularly where so
much human suffering was concerned, should be put off to another
session, when it was obvious that no advantage could be gained by the
delay.

He then adverted to the secrecy which the Chancellor of the Exchequer
had observed relative to his own opinion on this important subject. Why
did he refuse to give it? Had Mr. Wilberforce been present, the house
would have had a great advantage in this respect, because doubtless he
would have stated in what view he saw the subject, and in a general way
described the nature of the project he meant to propose. But now they
were kept in the dark as to the nature of any plan, till the next
session. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had indeed said, that it had
been a very general opinion that the African Slave Trade should be
abolished. He had said again, that others had not gone so far, but had
given it as their opinion, that it required to be revised and regulated.
But why did he not give his own sentiments boldly to the world on this
great question? As for himself, he (Mr. Fox) had no scruple to declare
at the outset, that the Slave Trade ought not to be regulated, but
destroyed. To this opinion his mind was made up; and he was persuaded
that, the more the subject was considered, the more his opinion would
gain ground; and it would be admitted, that to consider it in any other
manner, or on any other principles than those of humanity and justice,
would be idle and absurd. If there were any such men, and he did not
know but that there were those, who, led away by local and interested
considerations, thought the Slave Trade might still continue under
certain modifications, these were the dupes of error, and mistook what
they thought their interest, for what he would undertake to convince
them was their loss. Let such men only hear the case further, and they
would find the result to be, that a cold-hearted policy was folly when
it opposed the great principles of humanity and justice.

He concluded by saying that he would not oppose the resolution, if other
members thought it best to postpone the consideration of the subject;
but he should have been better pleased if it had been discussed sooner;
and he certainly reserved to himself the right of voting for any
question upon it that should be brought forward by any other member in
the course of the present session.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, that nothing he had heard had
satisfied him of the propriety of departing from the rule he had laid
down for himself, of not offering, but of studiously avoiding to offer,
any opinion upon the subject till the time should arrive when it could
be fully argued. He thought that no discussion which could take place
that session, could lead to any useful measure, and therefore, he had
wished not to argue it till the whole of it could be argued. A day would
come, when every member would have an opportunity of stating his
opinion; and he wished it might be discussed with a proper spirit on all
sides, on fair and liberal principles, and without any shackles from
local and interested considerations.

With regard to the inquiries instituted before the committee of privy
council, he was sure, as soon as it became obvious that the subject must
undergo a discussion, it was the duty of His Majesty's Ministers to set
those inquiries on foot, which should best enable them to judge in what
manner they could meet or offer any proposition respecting the Slave
Trade. And although such previous examinations by no means went to
deprive that house of its undoubted right to institute those inquiries;
or to preclude them, they would be found greatly to facilitate them.
But, exclusive of this consideration, it would have been utterly
impossible to have come to any discussion of the subject, that could
have been brought to a conclusion in the course of the present session.
Did the inquiry then before the privy council prove a loss of time? So
far from it, that, upon the whole, time had been gained by it. He had
moved the resolution, therefore, to pledge the house to bring on the
discussion early in the next session, when they would have a full
opportunity of considering every part of the subject: first, whether the
whole of the trade ought to be abolished; and, if so, how and when. If
it should be thought that the trade should only be put under certain
regulations, what those regulations ought to be, and when they should
take place. These were questions which must be considered; and therefore
he had made his resolution as wide as possible, that there might be room
for all necessary considerations to be taken in. He repeated his
declaration, that he would reserve his sentiments till the day of
discussion should arrive; and again declared, that he earnestly wished
to avoid an anticipation of the debate upon the subject. But if such
debate was likely to take place, he would withdraw his motion, and offer
it another day.

A few words then passed between Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox in reply to each
other; after which Lord Penrhyn rose. He said there were two classes of
men, the African merchants, and the planters, both of whose characters
had been grossly calumniated. These wished that an inquiry might be
instituted, and this immediately, conscious that the more their conduct
was examined the less they would be found to merit the opprobrium with
which they had been loaded. The charges against the Slave Trade were
either true or false. If they were true, it ought to be abolished; but
if upon inquiry they were found to be without foundation, justice ought
to be done to the reputation of those who were concerned in it. He then
said a few words, by which he signified, that, after all, it might not
be an improper measure to make regulations in the trade.

Mr. Burke said, the noble lord, who was a man of honour himself, had
reasoned from his own conduct, and, being conscious of his own
integrity, was naturally led to imagine that other men were equally just
and honourable. Undoubtedly the merchants and planters had a right to
call for an investigation of their conduct, and their doing so did them
great credit. The Slave Trade also ought equally to be inquired into.
Neither did he deny that it was right his Majesty's ministers should
inquire into its merits for themselves. They had done their duty; but
that House, who had the petitions of the people on their table,
neglected it, by having so long deferred an inquiry of their own. If
that House wished to preserve their functions, their understandings,
their honour, and their dignity, he advised them to beware of committees
of privy council. If they suffered their business to be done by such
means, they were abdicating their trust and character, and making way
for an entire abolition of their functions, which they were parting with
one after another, Thus:--


  Star after star goes out, and all is night.


If they neglected the petitions of their constituents, they must fall,
and the privy-counsel be instituted in their stead. What would be the
consequence? His Majesty's Ministers, instead of consulting them, and
giving them the opportunity of exercising their functions of
deliberation and legislation, would modify the measures of government
elsewhere, and bring down the edicts of the privy council to them to
register. Mr. Burke said, he was one of those who wished for the
abolition of the Slave Trade. He thought it ought to be abolished, on
principles of humanity and justice. If, however, opposition of interests
should render its total abolition impossible, it ought to be regulated,
and that immediately. They need not send to the West Indies to know the
opinions of the planters on the subject. They were to consider first of
all, and abstractedly from all political, personal, and local
considerations, that the Slave Trade was directly contrary to the
principles of humanity and justice, and to the spirit of the British
constitution; and that the state of slavery, which followed it, however
mitigated, was a state so improper, so degrading, and so ruinous to the
feelings and capacities of human nature, that it ought not to be
suffered to exist. He deprecated delay in this business, as well for the
sake of planters as of the slaves.

Mr. Gascoyne, the other member for Liverpool, said he had no objection
that the discussion should stand over to the next session of parliament,
provided it could not come on in the present, because he was persuaded
it would ultimately be found that his constituents, who were more
immediately concerned in the trade, and who had been so shamefully
calumniated, were men of respectable character. He hoped the privy
council would print their Report when they had brought their inquiries
to a conclusion, and that they would lay it before the House and the
public, in order to enable all concerned to form a judgment of what was
proper to be done relative to the subject next session. With respect,
however, to the total abolition of the Slave Trade, he must confess that
such a measure was both unnecessary, visionary, and impracticable; but
he wished some alterations or modifications to be adopted. He hoped
that, when the House came to go into the general question, they would
not forget the trade, commerce, and navigation of the country.

Mr. Rolle said, he had received instruction from his constituents to
inquire if the grievances, which had been alleged to result from the
Slave Trade, were well founded; and, if it appear that they were, to
assist in applying a remedy. He was glad the discussion had been put off
till next session, as it would give all of them an opportunity of
considering the subject with more mature deliberation.

Mr. Martin desired to say a few words only. He put the case, that,
supposing the slaves were treated ever so humanely, when they were
carried to the West Indies, what compensation could be made them for
being torn from their nearest relations, and from everything that was
dear to them in life? He hoped no political advantage, no national
expediency, would be allowed to weigh in the scale against the eternal
rules of moral rectitude. As for himself, he had no hesitation to
declare, in this early stage of the business, that he should think
himself a wicked wretch if he did not do everything in his power to put
a stop to the Slave Trade.

Sir William Dolben said, that he did not then wish to enter into the
discussion of the general question of the abolition of the Slave Trade,
which the Chancellor of the Exchequer was so desirous of postponing; but
he wished to say a few words on what he conceived to be a most crying
evil, and which might be immediately remedied, without infringing upon
the limits of that question. He did not allude to the sufferings of the
poor Africans in their own country, nor afterwards in the West India
islands, but to that intermediate state of tenfold misery which they
underwent in their transportation. When put on board the ships, the poor
unhappy wretches were chained to each other, hand and foot, and stowed
so close, that they were not allowed above a foot and a half for each
individual in breadth. Thus crammed together like herrings in a barrel,
they contracted putrid and fatal disorders; so that they who came to
inspect them in a morning had occasionally to pick dead slaves out of
their rows, and to unchain their carcasses from the bodies of their
wretched fellow-sufferers, to whom they had been fastened. Nor was it
merely to the slaves that the baneful effects of the contagion thus
created were confined. This contagion affected the ships' crews, and
numbers of the seamen employed in the horrid traffic perished. This
evil, he said, called aloud for a remedy, and that remedy ought to be
applied soon; otherwise no less than ten thousand lives might be lost
between this and next session. He wished therefore this grievance to be
taken into consideration, independently of the general question; and
that some regulations, such as restraining the captains from taking
above a certain number of slaves on board, according to the size of
their vessels, and obliging them to let in fresh air, and provide better
accommodation for the slaves during their passage, should be adopted.

Mr. Young wished the consideration of the whole subject to stand over to
the next session.

Sir James Johnstone, though a planter, professed himself a friend to the
abolition of the Slave Trade. He said it was highly necessary that the
House should do something respecting it; but whatever was to be done
should be done soon, as delay might be productive of bad consequences in
the islands.

Mr. L. Smith stood up a zealous advocate for the abolition of the Slave
Trade. He said that even Lord Penrhyn and Mr. Gascoyne, the members for
Liverpool, had admitted the evil of it to a certain extent; for
regulations or modifications, in which they seemed to acquiesce, were
unnecessary where abuses did not really exist.

Mr. Grigby thought it his duty to declare, that no privy council report,
or other mode of examination, could influence him. A traffic in the
persons of men was so odious, that it ought everywhere, as soon as ever
it was discovered, to be abolished.

Mr. Bastard was anxious that the House should proceed to the discussion
of the subject in the present session. The whole country, he said, had
petitioned; and was it any satisfaction to the country to be told, that
the committee of privy council were inquiring? Who knew anything of what
was doing by the committee of privy council, or what progress they were
making? The inquiry ought to have been instituted in that House, and in
the face of the public, that everybody concerned might know what was
going on. The numerous petitions of the people ought immediately to be
attended to. He reprobated delay on this occasion; and as the honourable
baronet, Sir William Dolben, had stated facts which were shocking to
humanity, he hoped he would move that a committee might be appointed to
inquire into their existence, that a remedy might be applied, if
possible, before the sailing of the next ships for Africa.

Mr. Whitbread professed himself a strenuous advocate for the total and
immediate abolition of the Slave Trade. It was contrary to nature, and
to every principle of justice, humanity, and religion.

Mr. Pelham stated, that he had very maturely considered the subject of
the Slave Trade; and had he not known that the business was in the hands
of an honourable member, (whose absence from the house, and the cause of
it, no man lamented more sincerely than he did,) he should have ventured
to propose something concerning it himself. If it should be thought that
the trade ought not to be entirely done away, the sooner it was
regulated the better. He had a plan for this purpose, which appeared to
him to be likely to produce some salutary effects. He wished to know if
any such thing would be permitted to be proposed in the course of the
present session.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer said he should be happy, if he thought
the circumstances of the house were such as to enable them to proceed to
an immediate discussion of the question; but as that did not appear,
from the reasons he had before stated, to be the case, he could only
assure the honourable gentleman, that the same motives which had induced
him to propose an inquiry into the subject early in the next session of
parliament, would make him desirous of receiving any other light which
could be thrown upon it.

The question having been then put, the resolution was agreed to
unanimously. Thus ended the first debate that ever took place in the
Commons, on this important subject. This debate, though many of the
persons concerned in it abstained cautiously from entering into the
merits of the general question, became interesting, in consequence of
circumstances attending it. Several rose up at once to give relief, as
it were, to their feelings by utterance; but by so doing they were
prevented, many of them, from being heard. They who were heard, spoke
with peculiar energy, as if warmed in an extraordinary manner by the
subject. There was an apparent enthusiasm in behalf of the injured
Africans. It was supposed by some, that there was a moment, in which, if
the Chancellor of the Exchequer had moved for an immediate abolition of
the trade, he would have carried it that night; and both he and others,
who professed an attachment to the cause, were censured for not having
taken a due advantage of the disposition which was so apparent. But
independently of the inconsistency of doing this on the part of the
ministry, while the privy council were in the midst of their inquiries,
and of the improbability that the other branches of the legislature
would have concurred in so hasty a measure; what good would have accrued
to the cause, if the abolition had been then carried? Those concerned in
the cruel system would never have rested quietly under the stigma under
which they then laboured. They would have urged, that they had been
condemned unheard. The merchants would have said, that they had had no
notice of such an event, that they might prepare, a way for their
vessels in other trades. The planters would have said, that they had had
no time allowed them to provide such supplies from Africa as might
enable them to keep up their respective stocks. They would, both of
them, have called aloud for immediate indemnification. They would have
decried the policy of the measure of the abolition; and where had it
been proved? They would have demanded a reverse of it; and might they
not in cooler moments have succeeded? Whereas, by entering into a
patient discussion of the merits of the question; by bringing evidence
upon it; by reasoning upon that evidence night after night, and year
after year, and thus by disputing the ground inch as it were by inch,
the abolition of the Slave Trade stands upon a rock, upon which it never
can be shaken. Many of those who were concerned in the cruel system have
now given up their prejudices, because they became convinced in the
contest. A stigma too has been fixed upon it, which can never be erased:
and in a large record, in which the cruelty and injustice of it have
been recognised in indelible characters, its impolicy also has been
eternally enrolled.




CHAPTER XXIII.

Continuation to the middle of July.--Anxiety of Sir William Dolben to
lessen the horrors of the Middle Passage till the great question
should be discussed; brings in a bill for that purpose; debate upon
it.--Evidence examined against it; its inconsistency and
falsehoods.--Further debate upon it.--Bill passed, and carried to the
Lords; vexatious delays and opposition there; carried backwards and
forwards to both houses.--At length finally passed.--Proceedings of
the committee in the interim; effects of them.


It was supposed, after the debate, of which the substance has been just
given, that there would have been no further discussion of the subject
till the next year; but Sir William Dolben became more and more affected
by those considerations which he had offered to the house on the ninth
of May. The trade, he found, was still to go on. The horrors of the
transportation, or Middle Passage, as it was called, which he conceived
to be the worst in the long catalogue of evils belonging to the system,
would of course accompany it. The partial discussion of these, he
believed, would be no infringement of the late resolution of the house.
He was desirous, therefore, of doing something in the course of the
present session, by which the miseries of the trade might be diminished
as much as possible, while it lasted, or till the legislature could take
up the whole of the question. This desire he mentioned to several of his
friends; and as these approved of his design, he made it known on the
twenty-first of May in the House of Commons.

He began by observing, that he would take up but little of their time.
He rose to move for leave to bring in a bill for the relief of those
unhappy persons, the natives of Africa, from the hardships to which they
were usually exposed in their passage from the coast of Africa to the
colonies. He did not mean, by any regulations he might introduce for
this purpose, to countenance or sanction the Slave Trade, which, however
modified, would be always wicked and unjustifiable. Nor did he mean, by
introducing these, to go into the general question which the house had
prohibited. The bill which he had in contemplation, went only to limit
the number of persons to be put on board to the tonnage of the vessel
which was to carry them, in order to prevent them from being crowded too
closely together; to secure to them good and sufficient provisions; and
to take cognizance of other matters, which related to their health and
accommodation; and this only till parliament could enter into the
general merits of the question. This humane interference he thought no
member would object to. Indeed, those for Liverpool had both of them
admitted, on the ninth of May, that regulations were desirable; and he
had since conversed with them, and was happy to learn that they would
not oppose him on this occasion.

Mr. Whitbread highly approved of the object of the worthy baronet, which
was to diminish the sufferings of an unoffending people. Whatever could
be done to relieve them in their hard situation, till parliament could
take up the whole of their case, ought to be done by men living in a
civilized country, and professing the Christian religion: he therefore
begged leave to second the motion which had been made.

General Norton was sorry that he had not risen up sooner. He wished to
have seconded this humane motion himself. It had his most cordial
approbation.

Mr. Burgess complimented the worthy baronet on the honour he had done
himself on this occasion, and congratulated the house on the good, which
they were likely to do by acceding, as he was sure they would, to his
proposition.

Mr. Joliffe rose, and said that the motion in question should have his
strenuous support.

Mr. Gascoyne stated, that having understood from the honourable baronet
that he meant only to remedy the evils, which were stated to exist in
transporting the inhabitants of Africa to the West Indies, he had told
them that he would not object to the introduction of such a bill. Should
it however interfere with the general question, the discussion of which
had been prohibited, he would then oppose it. He must also reserve
another case for his opposition; and this would be, if the evils of
which it took cognizance should appear not to have been well founded. He
had written to his constituents to be made acquainted with this
circumstance, and he must be guided by them on the subject.

Mr. Martin was surprised how any person could give an opposition to such
a bill. Whatever were the merits of the great question, all would allow,
that if human beings were to be transported across the ocean, they
should be carried over with as little suffering as possible to
themselves.

Mr. Hamilton deprecated the subdivision of this great and important
question, which the house had reserved for another session. Every
endeavour to meddle with one part of it, before the whole of it could be
taken into consideration, looked rather as if it came from an enemy than
from a friend. He was fearful that such a bill as this would sanction a
traffic, which should never be viewed but in a hostile light, or as
repugnant to the feelings of our nature, and to the voice of our
religion.

Lord Frederic Campbell was convinced that the postponing of all
consideration of the subject till the next session was a wise measure.
He was sure that neither the house nor the public were in a temper
sufficiently cool to discuss it properly. There was a general warmth of
feeling, or an enthusiasm about it, which ran away with the
understandings of men, and disqualified them from judging soberly
concerning it. He wished, therefore, that the present motion might be
deferred.

Mr. William Smith said, that if the motion of the honourable Baronet had
trespassed upon the great question reserved for consideration, he would
have opposed it himself; but he conceived the subject which it
comprehended might with propriety be separately considered; and if it
were likely that a hundred, but much more a thousand, lives would be
saved by this bill, it was the duty of that house to adopt it without
delay.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, though he meant still to conceal his
opinion as to the general merits of the question, could not be silent,
here. He was of opinion that he could very consistently give this motion
his support. There was a possibility (and a bare possibility was a
sufficient ground with him) that in consequence of the resolution lately
come to by the house, and the temper then manifested in it, those
persons who were concerned in the Slave Trade might put the natives of
Africa in a worse situation, during their transportation to the
colonies, even than they were in before, by cramming additional numbers
on board their vessels, in order to convey as many as possible to the
West Indies before parliament ultimately decided on the subject. The
possibility, therefore, that such a consequence might grow out of their
late resolution during the intervening months between the end of the
present and the commencement of the next session, was a good and
sufficient parliamentary ground for them to provide immediate means to
prevent the existence of such an evil. He considered this as an act of
indispensable duty, and on that ground the bill should have his support.

Soon after this the question was put, and leave was given for the
introduction of the bill.

An account of these proceedings of the house having been sent to the
merchants of Liverpool, they held a meeting, and came to resolutions on
the subject. They determined to oppose the bill in every stage in which
it should be brought forward, and, what was extraordinary, even the
principle of it. Accordingly, between the 21st of May and the 2nd of
June, on which latter day the bill having been previously read a second
time was to be committed, petitions from interested persons had been
brought against it, and consent had been obtained, that both council and
evidence should be heard.

The order of the day having been read on the 2nd of June for the house
to resolve itself into a committee of the whole house, a discussion took
place relative to the manner in which the business was to be conducted.
This being over, the counsel began their observations; and, as soon as
they had finished, evidence was called to the bar in behalf of the
petitions which had been delivered.

From the 2nd of June to the 17th the house continued to hear the
evidence at intervals, but the members for Liverpool took every
opportunity of occasioning delay. They had recourse twice to counting
out the house; and at another time, though complaint had been made of
their attempts to procrastinate, they opposed the resuming of their own
evidence with the same view; and this merely for the frivolous reason,
that, though there was then a suitable opportunity, notice had not been
previously given. But in this proceeding, other members feeling
indignant at their conduct, they were overruled.

The witnesses brought by the Liverpool merchants against this humane
bill were the same as they had before sent for examination to the privy
council, namely, Mr. Norris, Lieutenant Matthews, and others. On the
other side of the question it was not deemed expedient to bring any. It
was soon perceived that it would be possible to refute the former out of
their own mouths, and to do this seemed more eligible than to proceed in
the other way. Mr. Pitt, however, took care to send Captain Parrey, of
the Royal Navy, to Liverpool, that he might take the tonnage and
internal dimensions of several slave-vessels, which were then there,
supposing that these, when known, would enable the house to detect any
misrepresentations, which the delegates from that town might be disposed
to make upon this subject.

It was the object of the witnesses, when examined, to prove two things:
first, that regulations were unnecessary, because the present mode of
the transportation was sufficiently convenient for the objects of it,
and was well adapted to preserve their comfort and their health. They
had sufficient room, sufficient air, and sufficient provisions. When
upon deck, they made merry and amused themselves with dancing. As to the
mortality, or the loss of them by death in the course of their passage,
it was trifling. In short, the voyage from Africa to the West Indies
"was one of the happiest periods of a Negro's life."

Secondly, that if the merchants were hindered from taking less that two
full sized, or three smaller Africans, to a ton, then the restrictions
would operate not as the regulation, but as the utter ruin of the trade.
Hence the present bill, under the specious mask of a temporary
interference, sought nothing less than its abolition.

These assertions having been severally made, by the former of which it
was insinuated that the African, unhappy in his own country, found in
the middle passage, under the care of the merchants, little less than an
Elysian retreat, it was now proper to institute a severe inquiry into
the truth of them. Mr. Pitt, Sir Charles Middleton, Mr. William Smith,
and Mr. Beaufoy, took a conspicuous part on this occasion, but
particularly the two latter, to whom much praise was due for the
constant attention they bestowed upon this subject. Question after
question was put by these to the witnesses; and from their own mouths
they dragged out, by means of a cross-examination as severe as could be
well instituted, the following melancholy account:--

Every slave, whatever his size might be, was found to have only five
feet and six inches in length, and sixteen inches in breadth, to lie in.
The floor was covered with bodies stowed or packed according to this
allowance: but between the floor and the deck or ceiling were often
platforms or broad shelves in the mid-way, which were covered with
bodies also. The height from the floor to the ceiling, within which
space the bodies on the floor and those on the platforms lay, seldom
exceeded five feet eight inches, and in some cases it did not exceed
four feet.

The men were chained two and two together by their hands and feet, and
were chained also by means of ring-bolts, which were fastened to the
deck. They were confined in this manner at least all the time they
remained upon the coast, which was from six weeks to six months as it
might happen.

Their allowance consisted of one pint of water a day to each person, and
they were fed twice a day with yams and horsebeans.

After meals they jumped up in their irons for exercise. This was so
necessary for their health, that they were whipped if they refused to do
it; and this jumping had been termed dancing.

They were usually fifteen and sixteen hours below deck out of the
twenty-four. In rainy weather they could not be brought up for two or
three days together. If the ship was full, their situation was then
distressing. They sometimes drew their breath with anxious and laborious
efforts, and some died of suffocation.

With respect to their health in these voyages, the mortality, where the
African constitution was the strongest, or on the windward coast, was
only about five in a hundred. In thirty-five voyages, an account of
which was produced, about six in a hundred was the average number lost.
But this loss was still greater at Calabar and Bonny, which were the
greatest markets for slaves. This loss, too, did not include those who
died, either while the vessels were lying upon the Coast, or after their
arrival in the West Indies, of the disorders which they had contracted
upon the voyage. Three and four in a hundred had been known to die in
this latter case.

But besides these facts, which were forced out of the witnesses by means
of the cross-examination which took place, they were detected in various
falsehoods.

They had asserted that the ships in this trade were peculiarly
constructed, or differently from others, in order that they might carry
a great number of persons with convenience; whereas Captain Parrey
asserted, that out of the twenty-six, which he had seen, ten only had
been built expressly for this employ.

They had stated the average height between decks at about five feet and
four inches. But Captain Parrey showed, that out of the nine he
measured, the height in four of the smallest was only four feet eight
inches, and the average height in all of them was but five feet two.

They had asserted that vessels under two hundred tons had no platforms.
But by his account the four just mentioned were of this tonnage, and yet
all of them had platforms either wholly or in part.

On other points they were found both to contradict themselves and one
another. They had asserted, as before mentioned, that if they were
restricted to less than two full-grown slaves to a ton, the trade would
be ruined. But in examining into the particulars of nineteen vessels,
which they produced themselves, five of them only had cargoes equal to
the proportion which they stated to be necessary to the existence of the
trade. The other fourteen carried a less number of slaves (and they
might have taken more on board if they had pleased); so that the average
number in the nineteen was but one man and four-fifths to a ton, or ten
in a hundred below their lowest standard[A]. One again said, that no
inconvenience arose in consequence of the narrow space allowed to each
individual in these voyages. Another said, that smaller vessels were
more healthy than larger, because, among other reasons, they had a less
proportion of slaves as to number on board.

[Footnote A: The falsehood of their statements in this respect was
proved again afterwards by facts. For, after the regulation had taken
place, they lost fewer slaves and made greater profits.]

They were found also guilty of a wilful concealment of such facts, as
they knew, if communicated, would have invalidated their own testimony.
I was instrumental in detecting them on one of these occasions myself.
When Mr. Dalzell was examined, he was not wholly unknown to me; my
Liverpool muster-rolls told me that he had lost fifteen seamen out of
forty in his last voyage. This was a sufficient ground to go upon; for
generally, where the mortality of the seamen has been great, it may be
laid down that the mortality of the slaves has been considerable also. I
waited patiently till his evidence was nearly closed, but he had then
made no unfavourable statements to the house. I desired, therefore, that
a question might be put to him, and in such a manner, that he might know
that they, who put it, had got a clue to his secrets. He became
immediately embarrassed; his voice faltered; he confessed with trembling
that he had lost a third of his sailors in his last voyage. Pressed hard
immediately by other questions, he then acknowledged that he had lost
one hundred and twenty, or a third of his slaves, also. But would he say
that these were all he had lost in that voyage? No; twelve others had
perished by an accident, for they were drowned. But were no others lost
beside the one hundred and twenty and the twelve? None, he said, upon
the voyage, but between twenty and thirty before he left the Coast. Thus
this champion of the merchants, this advocate for the health and
happiness of slaves in the middle passage, lost nearly a hundred and
sixty of the unhappy persons committed to his superior care, in a single
voyage!

The evidence, on which I have now commented, having been delivered, the
counsel summed up on the 17th of June, when the committee proceeded to
fill up the blanks in the bill. Mr. Pitt moved that the operation of it
be retrospective, and that it commence from the 10th instant. This was
violently opposed by Lord Penrhyn, Mr. Gascoyne, and Mr. Brickdale, but
was at length acceded to.

Sir William Dolben then proposed to apportion five men to every three
tons in every ship under one hundred and fifty tons burden, which had
the space of five feet between the decks, and three men to two tons in
every vessel beyond one hundred and fifty tons burden, which had equal
accommodation in point of height between the decks. This occasioned a
very warm dispute, which was not settled for some time, and which gave
rise to some beautiful and interesting speeches on the subject.

Mr. William Smith pointed out in the clearest manner many of the
contradictions, which I have just stated in commenting upon the
evidence; indeed he had been a principal means of detecting them. He
proved how little worthy of belief the witnesses had shown themselves,
and how necessary they had made the present bill by their own
confession. The worthy baronet, indeed, had been too indulgent to the
merchants, in the proportion he had fixed of the number of persons to be
carried to the tonnage of their vessels. He then took a feeling view of
what would be the wretched state of the poor Africans on board, even if
the bill passed as it now stood; and conjured the house, if they would
not allow them more room, at least not to infringe upon that which had
been proposed.

Lord Belgrave (afterwards Grosvenor) animadverted with great ability
upon the cruelties of the trade, which he said had been fully proved at
the bar. He took notice of the extraordinary opposition which had been
made to the bill then before them, and which he believed every
gentleman, who had a proper feeling of humanity, would condemn. If the
present mode of carrying on the trade received the countenance of that
house, the poor unfortunate African would have occasion doubly to curse
his fate. He would not only curse the womb that brought him forth, but
the British nation also, whose diabolical avarice had made his cup of
misery still more bitter. He hoped that the members for Liverpool would
urge no further opposition to the bill, but that they would join with
the house in an effort to enlarge the empire of humanity; and that,
while they were stretching out the strong arm of justice to punish the
degraders of British honour and humanity in the East, they would with
equal spirit exert their powers to dispense the blessings of their
protection to those unhappy Africans, who were to serve them in the
West.

Mr. Beaufoy entered minutely into an examination of the information,
which had been given by the witnesses, and which afforded unanswerable
arguments for the passing of the bill. He showed the narrow space which
they themselves had been made to allow for the package of a human body,
and the ingenious measures they were obliged to resort to for stowing
this living cargo within the limits of the ship. He adverted next to the
case of Mr. Dalzell, and showed how one dismal fact after another, each
making against their own testimony, was extorted from him. He then went
to the trifling mortality said to be experienced in these voyages, upon
which subject he spoke in the following words: "Though the witnesses are
some of them interested in the trade, and all of them parties against
the bill, their confession is, that of the negroes of the windward
coast, who are men of the strongest constitution which Africa affords,
no less on an average than five in each hundred perish in the voyage,--a
voyage, it must be remembered but of six weeks. In a twelvemonth, then,
what must be the proportion of the dead? No less than forty-three in a
hundred, which is seventeen times the usual rate of mortality; for all
the estimates of life suppose no more than a fortieth of the people, or
two and a half in the hundred, to die within the space of a year. Such
then is the comparison. In the ordinary course of nature the number of
persons, (including those in age and infancy, the weakest periods of
existence,) who perish in the space of a twelvemonth, is at the rate of
but two and a half in a hundred; but in an African voyage,
notwithstanding the old are excluded and few infants admitted, so that
those who are shipped are in the firmest period of life, the list of
deaths, presents an annual mortality of forty-three in a hundred. It
presents this mortality even in vessels from the windward coast of
Africa; but in those which sail to Bonny, Benin, and the Calabars, from
whence the greatest proportion of the slaves are brought, this mortality
is increased by a variety of causes, (of which the greater length of the
voyage is one,) and is said to be twice as large which supposes that in
every hundred the deaths annually amount to no less than eighty-six. Yet
even the former comparatively low mortality; of which the counsel speaks
with so much satisfaction, as a proof of the kind and compassionate
treatment of the slaves, even this indolent and lethargic destruction
gives to the march of death seventeen times its usual speed. It is a
destruction, which, if general but for ten years, would depopulate the
world, blast the purposes of its creation, and extinguish the human
race."

After having gone with great ability through the other branches of the
subject, he concluded in the following manner:--"Thus I have considered
the various objections which have been stated to the bill, and am
ashamed to reflect that it could be necessary to speak so long in
defence of such a cause; for what, after all, is asked by the proposed
regulations? On the part of the Africans, the whole of their purport is,
that they whom you allow to be robbed of all things but life, may not
unnecessarily and wantonly be deprived of life also. To the honour; to
the wisdom, to the feelings of the house, I now make my appeal,
perfectly confident that you will not tolerate, as senators, a traffic
which, as men, you shudder to contemplate, and that you will not take
upon yourselves the responsibility of this waste of existence. To the
memory of former parliaments the horrors of this traffic will be an
eternal reproach; yet former parliaments have not known, as you on the
clearest evidence now know, the dreadful nature of this trade. Should
you reject this bill, no exertions of yours to rescue from oppression
the suffering inhabitants of your eastern empire; no records of the
prosperous state to which, after a long and unsuccessful war, you have
restored your native land; no proofs; however splendid, that under your
guidance Great Britain has recovered her rank, and is again the
arbitress of nations, will save your names from the stigma of
everlasting dishonour. The broad mantle of this one infamy will cover
with substantial blackness the radiance of your glory, and change to
feelings of abhorrence the present admiration of the world. But pardon
the supposition of so impossible an event. I believe that justice and
mercy may be considered as the attributes of your character, and that
you will not tarnish their lustre on this occasion."

The Chancellor of the Exchequer rose next; and after having made some
important observations on the evidence (which took up much time), he
declared himself most unequivocally in favour of the motion made by the
honourable baronet. He was convinced that the regulation proposed would
not tend to the abolition of the trade; but if it even went so far, he
had no hesitation openly and boldly to declare, that if it could not be
carried on in a manner different from that stated by the members for
Liverpool, he would retract what he had said on a former day against
going into the general question; and, waving every other discussion than
what had that day taken place, he would give his vote for the utter
annihilation of it at once. It was a trade, which it was shocking to
humanity to hear detailed. If it were to be carried, on as proposed by
the petitioners, it would, besides its own intrinsic baseness, be
contrary to every humane and Christian principle, and to every sentiment
that ought to inspire the breast of man; and would reflect the greatest
dishonour on the British senate and the British nation. He, therefore,
hoped that the house, being now in possession of such information as
never hitherto had been brought before them, would in some measure
endeavour to extricate themselves from that guilt, and from that
remorse, which every one of them ought to feel for having suffered such
monstrous cruelties to be practised upon an helpless and unoffending
part of the human race.

Mr. Martin complimented Mr. Pitt in terms of the warmest panegyric on
his noble sentiments, declaring that they reflected the greatest honour
upon him both as an Englishman and as a man.

Soon after this the house divided upon the motion of Sir William Dolben.
Fifty-six appeared to be in favour of it, and only five against it. The
latter consisted of the two members for Liverpool and three other
interested persons. This was the first division which ever took place on
this important subject. The other blanks were then filled up, and the
bill was passed without further delay.

The next day, or on the 18th of June, it was carried up to the House of
Lords. The slave-merchants of London, Liverpool, and Bristol,
immediately presented petitions against it, as they had done in the
lower house. They prayed that counsel might open their case; and though
they had been driven from the Commons on account of their evidence, with
disgrace, they had the effrontery to ask that they might call witnesses
here also.

Counsel and evidence having been respectively heard, the bill was
ordered to be committed the next day. The Lords attended according to
summons. But on a motion by Dr. Warren, the Bishop of Bangor, who stated
that the Lord Chancellor Thurlow was much indisposed, and that he wished
to be present when the question was discussed, the committee was
postponed.

It was generally thought that the reason for this postponement, and
particularly as it was recommended by a prelate, was that the Chancellor
might have an opportunity of forwarding this humane bill. But it was
found to be quite otherwise. It appeared that the motive was, that he
might give to it, by his official appearance as the chief servant of the
crown in that house, all the opposition in his power. For when the day
arrived which had been appointed for the discussion, and when the Lords
Bathurst and Hawkesbury (afterwards Liverpool) had expressed their
opinions, which were different, relative to the time when the bill
should take place, he rose up and pronounced a bitter and vehement
oration against it. He said, among other things, that it was full of
inconsistency and nonsense from the beginning to the end. The French had
lately offered large premiums for the encouragement of this trade. They
were a politic people, and the presumption was, that we were doing
politically wrong by abandoning it. The bill ought not to have been
brought forward in this session. The introduction of it was a direct
violation of the faith of the other house. It was unjust, when an
assurance had been given that the question should not be agitated till
next year, that this sudden fit of philanthropy, which was but a few
days old, should be allowed to disturb the public mind, and to become
the occasion of bringing men to the metropolis with tears in their eyes
and horror in their countenances, to deprecate the ruin of their
property, which they had embarked on the faith of parliament.

The extraordinary part which the Lord Chancellor Thurlow took upon this
occasion, was ascribed at the time by many who moved in the higher
circles, to a shyness or misunderstanding which had taken place between
him and Mr. Pitt on other matters; when, believing this bill to have
been a favourite measure with the latter, he determined to oppose it.
But whatever were his motives (and let us hope that he could never have
been actuated by so malignant a spirit as that of sacrificing the
happiness of forty thousand persons for the next year to spite the
gratification of an individual), his opposition had a mischievous
effect, on account of the high situation in which he stood; for he not
only influenced some of the Lords themselves, but, by taking the cause
of the slave-merchants so conspicuously under his wing, he gave them
boldness to look up again under the stigma of their iniquitous calling,
and courage even to resume vigorous operations after their disgraceful
defeat. Hence arose those obstacles which will be found to have been
thrown in the way of the passing of the bill from this period.

Among the Lords who are to be particularly noticed as having taken the
same side as the Lord Chancellor in this debate, were the Duke of
Chandos and the Earl of Sandwich. The former foresaw nothing but
insurrections of the slaves in our islands, and the massacre of their
masters there, in consequence of the agitation of this question. The
latter expected nothing less than the ruin of our marine. He begged the
house to consider how, by doing that which might bring about the
abolition of this traffic, they might lessen the number of British
sailors; how, by throwing it into the hands of France they might
increase those of a rival nation; and how, in consequence, the flag of
the latter might ride triumphant on the ocean. The Slave Trade was
undoubtedly a nursery for our seamen. All objections against it in this
respect were ill-founded. It was as healthy as the Newfoundland and many
other trades.

The debate having closed, during which nothing more was done than
filling up the blanks with the time when the bill was to begin to
operate, the committee was adjourned. But the bill after this dragged on
so heavily, that it would be tedious to detail the proceedings upon it
from day to day. I shall, therefore, satisfy myself with the following
observations concerning them:--The committee sat not less than five
different times, which consumed the space of eight days, before a final
decision took place. During this time, so much was it an object to throw
in obstacles which might occupy the little remaining time of the
session, that other petitions were presented against the bill, and leave
was asked, on new pretences contained in these, that counsel might be
heard again. Letters also were read from Jamaica, about the mutinous
disposition of the slaves there, in consequence of the stir which had
been made about the abolition; and also from merchants in France, by
which large offers were made to the British merchants to furnish them
with slaves. Several regulations also were proposed in this interval,
some of which were negatived by majorities of only one or two voices. Of
the regulations which were carried, the most remarkable were those
proposed by Lord Hawkesbury (afterwards Liverpool); namely, that no
insurance should be made on the slaves, except against accidents by fire
and water; that persons should not be appointed as officers of vessels
transporting them, who had not been a certain number of such voyages
before; that a regular surgeon only should be capable of being employed
in them; and that both the captain and surgeon should have bounties, if,
in the course of the transportation, they had lost only two in a hundred
slaves. The Duke of Chandos again, and Lord Sydney, were the more
conspicuous among the opposers of the humane bill; and the Duke of
Richmond, the Marquis Townshend, the Earl of Carlisle, the Bishop of
London, and Earl Stanhope, among the most strenuous supporters of it. At
length it passed by a majority of nineteen to eleven votes.

On the 4th of July, when the bill had been returned to the Commons, it
was moved, that the amendments made in it by the Lords should be read;
but as it had become a money-bill in consequence of the bounties to be
granted, and as new regulations were to be incorporated in it, it was
thought proper that it should be wholly done away. Accordingly Sir
William Dolben moved, that the further consideration of it should be put
off till that day three months. This having been agreed upon, he then
moved for leave to bring in a new bill. This was accordingly introduced,
and an additional clause was inserted in it, relative to bounties, by
Mr. Pitt. But on the second reading, that no obstacle might be omitted
which could legally be thrown in the way of its progress, petitions were
presented against it, both by the Liverpool merchants and the agent for
the island of Jamaica, under the pretence that it was a new bill. Their
petitions, however, were rejected, and it was committed and passed
through its regular stages, and sent up to the Lords.

On its arrival there on the 5th of July, petitions from London and
Liverpool still followed it. The prayer of these was against the general
tendency of it, but it was solicited also that counsel might be heard in
a particular case; the solicitation was complied with; after which the
bill was read a second time, and ordered to be committed.

On the 7th, when it was taken next into consideration, two other
petitions were presented against it. But here so many objections were
made to the clauses of it as they then stood, and such new matter
suggested that the Duke of Richmond, who was a strenuous supporter of
it, thought it best to move that the committee then sitting should be
deferred till that day seven-night, in order to give time for another
more perfect to originate in the lower house.

This motion having been acceded to, Sir William Dolben introduced a new
one for the third time into the Commons. This included the suggestions
which had been made in the Lords. It included also a regulation, on the
motion of Mr. Sheridan, that no surgeon should be employed as such in
the slave-vessels, except he had a testimonial that he had passed a
proper examination at Surgeon's Hall. The amendments were all then
agreed to, and the bill was passed through its several stages.

On the 10th of July, being now fully amended it came for a third time
before the Lords; but it was no sooner brought forward than it met with
the same opposition as it had experienced before. Two new petitions
appeared against it; one from a certain class of persons in Liverpool,
and another from Miles Peter Andrews, Esq., stating that if it passed
into a law it would injure the sale of his gunpowder, and that he had
rendered great services to the government during the last war, by his
provision of that article. But here the Lord Chancellor Thurlow reserved
himself for an effort, which, by occasioning only a day's delay, would,
in that particular period of the session have totally prevented the
passing of the bill. He suggested certain amendments for consideration
and discussion which, if they had agreed upon, must have been carried
again to the lower House, and sanctioned there before the bill could
have been complete. But it appeared afterwards, that there would have
been no time for the latter proceeding. Earl Stanhope, therefore,
pressed this circumstance peculiarly upon the lords who were present. He
observed that the king was to dismiss the parliament next day, and
therefore they must adopt the bill as it stood, or reject it altogether.
There was no alternative, and no time was to be lost: accordingly, he
moved for an immediate division on the first of the amendments proposed
by Lord Thurlow. This having taken place, it was negatived. The other
amendments shared the same fate; and thus, at length, passed through the
Upper House, as through an ordeal as it were of fire, the first bill
that ever put fetters upon that barbarous and destructive monster, the
Slave Trade.

The next day, or on Friday, July the 11th, the king gave his assent to
it, and, as Lord Stanhope had previously asserted in the House of Lords,
concluded the session.

While the legislature was occupied in the consideration of this bill,
the lords of the council continued their examinations, that they might
collect as much light as possible previously to the general agitation of
the question in the next session of parliament. Among others I underwent
an examination: I gave my testimony first, relative to many of the
natural productions of Africa, of which I produced the specimens. These
were such as I had collected in the course of my journey to Bristol and
Liverpool, and elsewhere. I explained, secondly, the loss and usage of
seamen in the Slave Trade. To substantiate certain points, which
belonged to this branch of the subject, I left several depositions and
articles of agreement for the examination of the council. With respect
to others, as it would take a long time to give all the data upon which
calculations had been made, and the manner of making them, I was desired
to draw up a statement of particulars, and to send it to the council at
a future time. I left also depositions with them, relative to certain
instances of the mode of procuring and treating slaves.

The committee also for effecting the abolition of the Slave Trade
continued their attention, during this period, towards the promotion of
the different objects which came within the range of the institution.

They added the Rev. Dr. Coombe, in consequence of the great increase of
their business, to the list of their members.

They voted thanks to Mr. Hughes, vicar of Ware, in Hertfordshire, for
his excellent answer to Harris's _Scriptural Researches on the Licitness
of the Slave Trade_, and they enrolled him among their honorary and
corresponding members. Also thanks to William Roscoe, Esq., for his
Answer to the same. Mr. Roscoe had not affixed his name to this pamphlet
any more than to his poem of _The Wrongs of Africa_; but he made himself
known to the committee as the author of both. Also thanks to William
Smith and Henry Beaufoy, Esqrs., for having so successfully exposed the
evidence offered by the slave merchants against the bill of Sir William
Dolben, and for having drawn out of it so many facts, all making for
their great object the abolition of the Slave Trade.

As the great question was to be discussed in the approaching sessions,
it was moved in the committee to consider of the propriety of sending
persons to Africa and the West Indies, who should obtain information
relative to the different branches of the system as they existed in each
of these countries, in order that they might be able to give their
testimony, from their own experience, before one or both of the houses
of parliament, as it might be judged proper. This proposition was
discussed at two or three several meetings. It was, however, finally
rejected, and principally on the following grounds--First, It was
obvious that persons sent out upon such an errand would be exposed to
such dangers from varying causes, that it was not improbably that both
they and their testimony might be lost. Secondly, Such persons would be
obliged to have recourse to falsehoods, that is, to conceal or
misrepresent the objects of their destination, that they might get their
intelligence with safety; which falsehoods the committee could not
countenance. To which it was added, that few persons would go to these
places, except they were handsomely rewarded for their trouble; but this
reward would lessen the value of their evidence, as it would afford a
handle to the planters and slave-merchants to say that they had been
bribed.

Another circumstance which came before the committee was the
following:--Many arguments were afloat at this time relative to the
great impolicy of abolishing the Slave Trade, the principal of which
was, that, if the English abandoned it, other foreign nations would take
it up; and thus, while they gave up certain national profits themselves,
the great cause of humanity would not be benefited, nor would any moral
good be done by the measure. Now there was a presumption that, by means
of the society instituted in Paris, the French nation might be awakened
to this great subject; and that the French government might in
consequence, as well as upon other considerations, be induced to favour
the general feeling upon this occasion. But there was no reason to
conclude, either than any other maritime people, who had been engaged in
the Slave Trade, would relinquish it, or that any other, who had not yet
been engaged in it, would not begin it when our countrymen should give
it up. The consideration of these circumstances occupied the attention
of the committee; and as Dr. Spaarman, who was said to have been
examined by the privy council, was returning home, it was thought
advisable to consider whether it would not be proper for the committee
to select certain of their own books on the subject of the Slave Trade,
and send them by him, accompanied by a letter, to the King of Sweden, in
which they should entreat his consideration of this powerful argument
which now stood in the way of the cause of humanity, with a view that,
as one of the princes of Europe, he might contribute to obviate it, by
preventing his own subjects, in case of the dereliction of this commerce
by ourselves, from embarking in it. The matter having been fully
considered, it was resolved that the proposed measure would be proper,
and it was accordingly adapted. By a letter received afterwards from Dr.
Spaarman, it appeared that both the letter and the books had been
delivered, and received graciously; and that he was authorized to say,
that, unfortunately, in consequence of those hereditary possessions
which had devolved upon His Majesty, he was obliged to confess that he
was the sovereign of an island which had been principally peopled by
African slaves, but that he had been frequently mindful of their hard
case. With respect to the Slave Trade, he never heard of an instance in
which the merchants of his own native realm had embarked in it; and as
they had preserved their character pure in this respect, he would do all
he could that it should not be sullied in the eyes of the generous
English nation, by taking up, in the case which had been pointed out to
him, such an odious concern.

By this time I had finished my _Essay on the Impolicy of the Slave
Trade_, which I composed from materials collected chiefly during my
journey to Bristol, Liverpool, and Lancaster. These materials I had
admitted with great caution and circumspection; indeed I admitted none
for which I could not bring official and other authentic documents, or
living evidences if necessary, whose testimony could not reasonably be
denied; and when I gave them to the world, I did it under the impression
that I ought to give them as scrupulously as if I were to be called upon
to substantiate them upon oath. It was of peculiar moment that this book
should make its appearance at this time. First, Because it would give
the lords of the council, who were then sitting, an opportunity of
seeing many important facts, and of inquiring into their authenticity;
and it might suggest to them, also, some new points, or such as had not
fallen within the limits of the arrangement they had agreed upon for
their examinations on this subject: and secondly, Because, as the
members of the House of Commons were to take the question into
consideration early in the next sessions, it would give them, also, new
light and information upon it before this period. Accordingly the
committee ordered two thousand copies of it to be struck off, for these
and other objects; and though the contents of it were most diligently
sifted by the different opponents of the cause, they never even made an
attempt to answer it. It continued, on the other hand, during the
inquiry of the legislature, to afford the basis or grounds upon which to
examine evidences on the political part of the subject; and evidences
thus examined continued in their turn to establish it.

Among the other books ordered to be printed by the committee within the
period now under our consideration, were a new edition of two thousand
of the DEAN OF MIDDLEHAM'S _Letter_, and another of three thousand of
FALCONBBIDGE'S _Account of the Slave Trade_.

The committee continued to keep ups, during the same period, a
communication with many of their old correspondents, whose names have
been already mentioned. But they received, also, letters from others,
who had not hitherto addressed them: namely, from Ellington Wright, of
Erith; Dr. Franklin, of Philadelphia; Eustace Kentish, Esq., high
sheriff for the county of Huntingdon; Governor Bouchier; the Reverend
Charles Symmons, of Haverfordwest; and from John York and William
Downes, Esquires, high sheriffs for the counties of York and Hereford.

A letter, also, was read in this interval from Mr. Evans, a dissenting
clergyman, of Bristol, stating that the elders of several Baptist
churches, forming the western Baptist association, who had met at,
Portsmouth Common, had resolved to recommend it to the ministers and
members of the same, to unite with the committee in the promotion of the
great object of their institution.

Another from Mr. Andrew Irvin, of the Island of Grenada, in which he
confirmed the wretched situation of many of the slaves there, and in
which he gave the outlines of a plan for bettering their condition, as
well as that of those in the other islands.

Another from I.L. Wynne, Esq., of Jamaica. In this he gave an afflicting
account of the suffering and unprotected state of the slaves there,
which it was high time to rectify. He congratulated the committee on
their institution, which he thought would tend to promote so desirable
an end; but desired them not to stop short of the total abolition of the
Slave Trade, as no other measure would prove effectual against the evils
of which he complained. This trade, he said, was utterly unnecessary, as
his own plantation, on which his slaves had increased rapidly by
population, and others which he knew to be similarly circumstanced,
would abundantly testify. He concluded by promising to give the
committee such information from time to time as might be useful on this
important subject.

The session of parliament having closed, the committee thought it right
to make a report to the public: in which they gave an account of the
great progress of their cause since the last; of the state in which they
then were; and of the unjustifiable conduct of their opponents, who
industriously misrepresented their views, but particularly by
attributing to them the design of abolishing slavery: and they concluded
by exhorting their friends not to relax their endeavours on account of
favourable appearances; but to persevere, as if nothing had been done,
under the pleasing hope of an honourable triumph.

And now having given the substance of the labours of the committee from
its formation to the present time, I cannot conclude this chapter
without giving to the worthy members of it that tribute of affectionate
and grateful praise, which is due to them for their exertions in having
forwarded the great cause which was intrusted to their care. And this I
can do with more propriety, because, having been so frequently absent
from them when they were engaged in the pursuit of this their duty, I
cannot be liable to the suspicion, that in bestowing commendation upon
them I am bestowing it upon myself. From about the end of May, 1787, to
the middle of July, 1788, they had no less than fifty-one committees.
These generally occupied them from about six in the evening till about
eleven at night. In the intervals between the committees they were often
occupied, having each of them some object committed to his charge. It is
remarkable, too, that though they were all, except one, engaged in,
business or trade, and though they had the same calls as other men for
innocent recreation, and the same interruptions of their health, there
were individuals who were not absent more than five or six times within
this period. In the course of the thirteen months, during which they had
exercised this public trust, they had printed, and afterwards
distributed, not at random, but judiciously, and through, respectable
channels, (besides 26,526 reports, accounts of debates in parliament,
and other small papers,) no less than 51,432 pamphlets, or books.

Nor, was the effect, produced within this short period otherwise than
commensurate with the efforts used. In May, 1787, the only public notice
taken of this great cause was by this committee of twelve individuals,
of whom all were little known to the world except Mr. Granville Sharp.
But in July, 1788, it had attracted the notice of several distinguished
individuals in France and Germany; and in our own country it had come
within the notice of the government, and a branch of it had undergone a
parliamentary discussion and restraint. It had arrested, also, the
attention of the nation, and it had produced a kind of holy flame, or
enthusiasm, and this to a degree and to an extent never before
witnessed. Of the purity of this flame no better proof can be offered,
than that even Bishops deigned to address an obscure committee,
consisting principally of Quakers; and that Churchmen and Dissenters
forgot their difference of religious opinions, and joined their hands,
all over the kingdom, in its support.




CHAPTER XXIV.

Continuation from June 1788 to July 1789.--Author travels to collect
further evidence; great difficulties in obtaining it; forms committees
on his tour.--Privy council resume the examinations; inspect cabinet
of African productions; obliged to leave many of the witnesses in
behalf of the abolition unexamined; prepare their report--Labours of
the committee in the interim.--Proceedings of the planters and
others.--Report laid on the table of the House of
Commons.--Introduction of the question, and debate there; twelve
propositions deduced from the report and reserved for future
discussion; day of discussion arrives; opponents refuse to argue from
the report; require new evidence; this granted and introduced; further
consideration of the subject deferred to the next session.--Renewal of
Sir William Dolben's bill.--Death and character of Ramsay.


Matters had now become serious. The gauntlet had been thrown down and
accepted. The combatants had taken their stations, and the contest was
to be renewed, which was to be decided soon on the great theatre of the
nation. The committee by the very act of their institution had
pronounced the Slave Trade to be criminal. They, on the other hand, who
were concerned in it, had denied the charge. It became the one to prove,
and the other to refute it, or to fall in the ensuing session.

The committee, in this perilous situation, were anxious to find out such
other persons as might become proper evidences before the privy council.
They had hitherto sent there only nine or ten, and they had then only
another, whom they could count upon for this purpose, in their view. The
proposal of sending persons to Africa, and the West Indies, who might
come back and report what they had witnessed, had already been
negatived. The question then was, what they were to do. Upon this they
deliberated, and the result was an application to me to undertake a
journey to different parts of the kingdom for this purpose.

When this determination was made, I was at Teston, writing a long letter
to the privy council on the ill usage and mortality of the seamen
employed in the Slave Trade, which it had been previously agreed should
be received as evidence there. I thought it proper, however, before I
took my departure, to form a system of questions upon the general
subject. These I divided into six tables. The first related to the
productions of Africa, and the dispositions and manners of the natives.
The second, to the methods of reducing them to slavery. The third, to
the manner of bringing them to the ships, their value, the medium of
exchange, and other circumstances. The fourth, to their transportation.
The fifth, to their treatment in the colonies. The sixth, to the seamen
employed in the trade. These tables contained together one hundred and
forty-five questions. My idea was that they should be printed on a small
sheet of paper, which should be folded up in seven or eight leaves, of
the length and breadth of a small almanac, and then be sent in franks to
our different correspondents. These, when they had them, might examine
persons capable of giving evidence, who might live in their
neighbourhoods, or fall in their way, and return us their examinations
by letter.

The committee having approved and printed the tables of questions, I
began my tour. I had selected the southern counties from Kent to
Cornwall for it. I had done this, because these included the great
stations of the ships of war in ordinary; and as these were all under
the superintendence of Sir Charles Middleton, as comptroller of the
navy, I could get an introduction to those on board them. Secondly,
because sea-faring people, when they retire from a marine life, usually
settle in some town or village upon the coast.

Of this tour I shall not give the reader any very particular account. I
shall mention only those things which are most worthy of his notice in
it. At Poole, in Dorsetshire, I laid the foundation of a committee, to
act in harmony with that of London for the promotion of the cause. Moses
Neave, of the respectable society of the Quakers, was the chairman;
Thomas Bell, the secretary; and Ellis B. Metford and the Reverend Mr.
Davis and others the committee. This was the third committee which had
been instituted in the country for this purpose. That at Bristol, under
Mr. Joseph Harford as chairman, and Mr. Lunell as secretary, had been
the first: and that at Manchester, under Mr. Thomas Walker as chairman,
and Mr. Samuel Jackson as secretary, had been the second.

As Poole was a great place for carrying on the trade to Newfoundland, I
determined to examine the assertion of the Earl of Sandwich in the House
of Lords, when he said, in the debate on Sir William Dolben's bill, that
the Slave Trade was not more fatal to seamen than the Newfoundland and
some others. This assertion I knew at the time to be erroneous, as far
as my own researches had been concerned: for out of twenty-four vessels,
which had sailed out of the port of Bristol in that employ, only two
sailors were upon the dead list. In sixty vessels from Poole, I found
but four lost. At Dartmouth, where I went afterwards on purpose, I found
almost a similar result. On conversing, however, with Governor
Holdsworth, I learnt that the year 1786 had been more fatal than any
other in this trade. I learnt that in consequence of extraordinary
storms and hurricanes, no less than five sailors had died and twenty-one
had been drowned in eighty-three vessels from that port. Upon this
statement I determined to look into the muster-rolls of the trade there
for two or three years together. I began by accident with the year 1769,
and I went on to the end of 1772. About eighty vessels on an average had
sailed thence in each of these years. Taking the loss in these years,
and compounding it with that in the fatal year, three sailors had been
lost; but taking it in these four years by themselves, only two had been
lost in twenty-four vessels so employed. On comparison with the Slave
Trade, the result would be, that two vessels to Africa would destroy
more seamen than eighty-three sailing to Newfoundland. There was this
difference also to be noted, that the loss in the one trade was
generally by the weather or by accident, but in the other by cruel
treatment or disease; and that they who went out in a declining state of
health in the one, came home generally recovered; whereas they, who went
out robust in the other, came home in a shattered condition.

At Plymouth I laid the foundation of another committee. The late William
Cookworthy, the late John Prideaux, and James Fox, all of the society of
the Quakers, and Mr. George Leach, Samuel Northcote and John Saunders,
had a principal share in forming it. Sir William Ellford was chosen
chairman.

From Plymouth I journeyed on to Falmouth, and from thence to Exeter,
where having meetings with the late Mr. Samuel Milford, the late Mr.
George Manning, the Reverend James Manning, Thomas Sparkes, and others,
a desire became manifest among them of establishing a committee there.
This was afterwards effected; and Mr. Milford, who at a general meeting
of the inhabitants of Exeter, on the 10th of June, on this great
subject, had been called by those present to the chair, was appointed
the chairman of it.

With respect to evidence, which was the great object of this tour, I
found myself often very unpleasantly situated in collecting it. I heard
of many persons capable of giving it to our advantage, to whom I could
get no introduction. I had to go after these many miles out of my
established route. Not knowing me, they received me coldly, and even
suspiciously; while I fell in with others, who, considering themselves,
on account of their concerns and connexions, as our opponents, treated
me in an uncivil manner.

But the difficulties and disappointments in other respects which I
experienced in this tour,--even where I had an introduction, and where
the parties were not interested in the continuance of the Slave
Trade,--were greater than people in general would have imagined. One
would have thought, considering the great enthusiasm of the nation on
this important subject, that they who could have given satisfactory
information upon it, would have rejoiced to do it. But I found it
otherwise; and this frequently to my sorrow. There was an aversion in
persons to appear before such a tribunal as they conceived the privy
council to be. With men of shy or timid character this operated as an
insuperable barrier in their way. But it operated more or less upon all.
It was surprising to see what little circumstances affected many. When I
took out my pen and ink to put down the information which a person was
giving me, he became evidently embarrassed and frightened. He began to
excuse himself from staying, by alleging that he had nothing more to
communicate, and he took himself away as quickly as he could with
decency. The sight of the pen and ink had lost me so many good
evidences, that I was obliged wholly to abandon the use of them, and to
betake myself to other means. I was obliged for the future to commit my
tables of questions to memory; and endeavour by practice to put down,
after the examination of a person, such answers as he had given me to
each of them.

Others went off, because it happened that immediately on my interview, I
acquainted them with the nature of my errand and solicited their
attendance in London. Conceiving that I had no right to ask them such a
favour, or terrified at the abruptness and apparent awfulness of my
request some of them gave me an immediate denial, which they would never
afterwards retract. I began to perceive in time that it was only by the
most delicate management that I could get forward on these occasions. I
resolved, therefore, for the future, except in particular cases, that
when I should be introduced to persons who had a competent knowledge of
this trade, I would talk with them upon it as upon any ordinary subject,
and then leave them without saying anything about their becoming
evidences. I would take care, however, to commit all their conversation
to writing when it was over; and I would then try to find out that
person among their relations or friends, who could apply to them for
this purpose, with the least hazard of a refusal.

There were others, also, who, though they were not so much impressed by
the considerations mentioned, yet objected to give their public
testimony. Those whose livelihood, or promotion, or expectations, were
dependent upon the government of the country, were generally backward on
these occasions. Though they thought they discovered in the
parliamentary conduct of Mr. Pitt, a bias in favour of the cause, they
knew to a certainty that the Lord Chancellor Thurlow was against it.
They conceived, therefore, that the administration was at least divided
upon the question, and they were fearful of being called upon, lest they
should give offence, and thus injure their prospects in life. This
objection was very prevalent in that part of the kingdom which I had
selected for my tour.

The reader can hardly conceive how my mind was agitated and distressed
on these different accounts. To have travelled more than two months,--to
have seen many who could have materially served our cause,--and to have
lost most of them,--was very trying. And though it is true that I
applied a remedy, I was not driven to the adoption of it, till I had
performed more than half my tour. Suffice it to say, that after having
travelled upwards of sixteen hundred miles backwards and forwards, and
having conversed with forty-seven persons, who were capable of promoting
the cause by their evidence, I could only prevail upon nine, by all the
interest I could make, to be examined.

On my return to London, whither I had been called up by the committee,
to take upon me the superintendence of the evidence, which the privy
council was now ready again to hear, I found my brother: he was then a
young officer in the navy; and as I knew he felt as warmly as I did in
this great cause, I prevailed upon him to go to Havre de Grace, the
great slave-port in France, where he might make his observations for two
or three months, and then report what he had seen and heard; so that we
might have some one to counteract any false statement of things, which
might be made relative to the subject in that quarter.

At length the examinations were resumed, and with them the contest, in
which our own reputation and the fate of our cause were involved. The
committee for the abolition had discovered, one or two willing evidences
during my absence; and Mr. Wilberforce, who was now recovered from his
severe indisposition, had found one or two others. These, added to my
own, made a respectable body; but we had sent no more than four or five
of these to the council, when the king's illness unfortunately stopped
our career. For nearly five weeks between the middle of November and
January, the examinations were interrupted or put off, so that at the
latter period we began to fear, that there would be scarcely time to
hear the rest; for not only the privy council report was to be printed,
but the contest itself was to be decided by  the evidence contained in
it, in the existing session.

The examinations, however, went on; but they went on only slowly, being
still subject to interruption from the same unfortunate cause. Among
others I offered my mite of information again. I wished the council to
see more of my African productions and manufactures, that they might
really know what Africa was capable of affording, instead of the Slave
Trade; and that they might make a proper estimate of the genius and
talents of the natives. The samples which I had collected, had been
obtained by great labour, and at no inconsiderable expense: for whenever
I had notice that a vessel had arrived immediately from that continent,
I never hesitated to go, unless under the most pressing engagements
elsewhere, even as far as Bristol, if I could pick up but a single new
article. The lords having consented, I selected several things for their
inspection out of my box,--of the contents of which the following
account may not be unacceptable to the reader:--

The first division of the box consisted of woods of about four inches
square, all polished. Among these were mahogany of five different sorts,
tulip-wood, satin-wood, cam-wood, bar-wood, fustic, black and yellow
ebony, palm-tree, mangrove, calabash, and date. There were seven woods,
of which the native names were remembered; three of these, Tumiah,
Samain, and Jimlake, were of a yellow colour; Acajoú was of a beautiful
deep crimson; Bork and Quellé were apparently fit for cabinet work; and
Benten was the wood of which the natives made their canoes. Of the,
various other woods the names had been forgotten, nor were they known in
England at all. One of them was of a fine purple; and from two others,
upon which the privy council had caused experiments to be made, a strong
yellow, a deep orange, and a flesh-colour were extracted.

The second, division included ivory and musk; four species of pepper,
the long, the black, the Cayenne, and the Malaguetta; three species of
gum, namely, Senegal, Copal, and ruber astringens; cinnamon, rice,
tobacco, indigo, white and Nankin cotton, Guinea corn, and millet; three
species of beans, of which two were used for food, and the other for
dyeing orange; two species of tamarinds, one for food, and the other to
give whiteness to the teeth; pulse, seeds, and fruits of various kinds,
some of the latter of which Dr. Spaarman had pronounced; from a trial
during his residence in Africa, to be peculiarly valuable as drugs.

The third division contained an African loom, and an African spindle
with spun cotton round it; cloths of cotton of various kinds made by the
natives, some white, but others dyed by them of different colours, and
others in which they had interwoven European silk; cloths and bags made
of grass, and fancifully coloured; ornaments made of the same materials;
ropes made from a species of aloes and others, remarkably strong, from
glass and straw; fine string made from the fibres of the roots of trees;
soap of two kinds; one of which was formed from an earthy substance;
pipe-bowls made of clay, and of a brown red; one of these, which came
from the village of Dakard, was beautifully ornamented by black devices
burnt in, and was besides highly glazed; another brought from Galam, was
made of earth, which was richly impregnated with little particles of
gold; trinkets made by the natives from their own gold; knives and
daggers made by them from our bar-iron; and various other articles, such
as bags, sandals, dagger-cases, quivers, grisgris, all made of leather
of their own manufacture, and dyed of various colours, and ingeniously
sewed together.

The fourth division consisted of the thumb-screw, speculum oris, and
chains and shackles of different kinds, collected at Liverpool. To these
were added, iron neck-collars, and other instruments of punishment and
confinement used in the West Indies, and collected at other places. The
instrument also, by which Charles Horseler was mentioned to have been
killed, in a former chapter, was to be seen among these.

We were now advanced far into February, when we were alarmed by the
intelligence that the lords of the council were going to prepare their
report: At this time we had sent but few persons to them to examine, in
comparison with our opponents, and we had yet eighteen to introduce: for
answers had come into my tables of questions from several places, and
persons had been pointed out to us by our correspondents, who had
increased our list of evidences to this number. I wrote therefore to
them, at the desire of the committee for the abolition, and gave them
the names of the eighteen, and requested also, that they would order,
for their own inspection; certain muster-rolls of vessels from Poole and
Dartmouth, that they might be convinced that the objection which the
Earl of Sandwich had made in the House of Lords, against the abolition
of the Slave Trade, had no solid foundation. In reply to my first
request they informed me, that it was impossible, in the advanced state
of the session, (it being then the middle of March,) that the
examinations of so many could be taken; but I was at liberty, in
conjunction with the Bishop of London, to select eight for this purpose.
This occasioned me to address them again; and I then found, to my
surprise and sorrow, that even this last number was to be diminished;
for I was informed in writing, "that the Bishop of London having laid my
last letter before their lordships, they had agreed to meet on the
Saturday next, and on the Tuesday following, for the purposes of
receiving the evidence of some of the gentlemen named in it. And it was
their lordships' desire that I would give notice to any three of them
(whose information I might consider the most material) of the above
determination, that they might attend the committee accordingly."

This answer, considering the difficulties we had found in collecting a
body of evidence, and the critical situation in which we were, was
peculiarly distressing; but we had no remedy left us, nor could we
reasonably complain. Three therefore were selected, and they were sent
to deliver their testimony on their arrival in town.

But before the last of these had left the council room, who should come
up to me but Dr. Arnold? He had but lately arrived at Bristol from
Africa; and having heard from our friends there that we had been daily
looking for him, he had come to us in London. He and Mr. Gardiner were
the two surgeons, as mentioned in the former chapter, who had promised
me, when I was in Bristol, in the year 1787, that they would keep a
journal of facts during the voyages they were then going to perform.
They had both kept this promise. Gardiner, I found, had died upon the
coast; and his journal, having been discovered at his death, had been
buried with him in great triumph. But Arnold had survived, and he came
now to offer us his services in the cause.

As it was a pity that such correct information as that taken down in
writing upon the spot should be lost (for all the other evidences,
except Dr. Spaarman and Mr. Wadstrom, had spoken from their memory
only), I made all the interest I could to procure a hearing for Mr.
Arnold. Pleading now for the examination of him only, and under these
particular circumstances, I was attended to. It was consented, in
consequence of the little time which was now left for preparing and
printing the report, that I should make out his evidence from his
journal under certain heads. This I did. Mr. Arnold swore to the truth
of it, when so drawn up, before Edward Montague, Esquire, a master in
Chancery. He then delivered the paper in which it was contained to the
lords of the council, who, on receiving it, read it throughout, and then
questioned him upon it.

At this time, also, my brother returned with accounts and papers
relative to the Slave Trade from Havre de Grace; but as I had pledged
myself to offer no other person to be examined, his evidence was lost.
Thus, after all the pains we had taken, and in a contest, too, on the
success of which our own reputation and the fate of Africa depended, we
were obliged to fight the battle with sixteen less than we could have
brought into the field; while our opponents, on the other hand, on
account of their superior advantages, had mustered all their forces, not
having omitted a single man.

I do not know of any period of my life in which I suffered so much, both
in body and mind, as from the time of resuming these public inquiries by
the privy council, to the time when they were closed. For I had my
weekly duty to attend at the committee for the abolition during this
interval. I had to take down the examinations of all the evidences who
came to London, and to make certain copies of these. I had to summon
these to town, and to make provision against all accidents; and here I
was often troubled, by means of circumstances, which unexpectedly
occurred, lest, when committees of the council had been purposely
appointed to hear them, they should not be forthcoming at the time. I
had also a new and extensive correspondence to keep up; for the tables
of questions which had been sent down to our correspondents, brought
letters almost innumerable on this subject, and they were always
addressed to me. These not only required answers of themselves, but as
they usually related to persons capable of giving their testimony, and
contained the particulars of what they could state, they occasioned
fresh letters to be written to others. Hence the writing often of ten or
twelve daily became necessary.

But the contents of these letters afforded the circumstances, which gave
birth to so much suffering. They contained usually some affecting tale
of woe. At Bristol my feelings had been harassed by the cruel treatment
of the seamen, which had come to my knowledge there: but now I was
doomed to see this treatment over again in many other melancholy
instances; and, additionally, to take in the various sufferings of the
unhappy slaves. These accounts I could seldom get time to read till late
in the evening, and sometimes not till midnight, when the letters
containing them were to be answered. The effect of these accounts was in
some instances to overwhelm me for a time in tears, and in others to
produce a vivid indignation, which affected my whole frame. Recovering
from these, I walked up and down the room: I felt fresh vigour, and made
new determinations of perpetual warfare against this impious trade. I
implored strength that I might succeed. I then sat down, and continued
my work as long as my wearied eyes would permit me to see. Having been
agitated in this manner, I went to bed; but my rest was frequently
broken by the visions which floated before me. When I awoke, these
renewed themselves to me, and they flitted about with me for the
remainder of the day. Thus I was kept continually harassed: my mind was
confined to one gloomy and heart-breaking subject for months. It had no
respite, and my health began now materially to suffer.

But the contents of these letters were particularly grievous, on account
of the severe labours which they necessarily entailed upon me in other
ways than those which have been mentioned. It was my duty, while the
privy council examinations went on, not only to attend to all the
evidence which was presented to us by our correspondents, but to find
out and select the best. The happiness of millions depended upon it.
Hence I was often obliged to travel during these examinations, in order
to converse with those who had been pointed out to us as capable of
giving their testimony; and, that no time might be lost, to do this in
the night. More than two hundred miles in a week were sometimes passed
over on these occasions.

The disappointments too, which I frequently experienced in journeys,
increased the poignancy of the, suffering, which arose from a
contemplation of the melancholy cases which I had thus travelled to
bring forward to the public view. The reader at present can have no idea
of these. I have been sixty miles to visit a person, of whom I had
heard, not only as possessing important knowledge, but as espousing our
opinions on this subject. I have at length seen him. He has applauded my
pursuit at our first interview. He has told me, in the course of our
conversation, that neither my own pen, nor that of any other man, could
describe adequately the horrors, of the Slave Trade, horrors which he
himself had witnessed. He has exhorted me to perseverance in this noble
cause. Could I have wished for a more favourable reception!--But mark
the issue. He was the nearest relation of a rich person concerned in the
traffic; and if he were to come forward with his evidence publicly, he
should ruin all his expectations from that Quarter. In the same week I
have visited another at a still greater distance. I have met with
similar applause. I have heard him describe scenes of misery which he
had witnessed, and on the relation of which he himself almost wept. But
mark the issue again.--"I am a surgeon," says he; "through that window
you see a spacious house; it is occupied by a West Indian. The medical
attendance upon his family is of considerable importance to the temporal
interests of mine. If I give you my evidence I lose his patronage. At
the house above him lives a East Indian. The two families are connected:
I fear, if I lose the support of one, I shall lose that of the other
also: but I will give you privately all the intelligence in my power."

The reader may now conceive the many miserable hours I must have spent,
after such visits, in returning home; and how grievously my heart must
have been afflicted by these cruel disappointments, but more
particularly where they arose from causes inferior to those which have
been now mentioned, or from little frivolous excuses, or idle and
unfounded conjectures, unworthy of beings expected to fill a moral
station in life. Yes, O man! often in these solitary journeyings have I
exclaimed against the baseness of thy nature, when reflecting on the
little paltry considerations which have smothered thy benevolence, and
hindered thee from succouring an oppressed brother. And yet, on a
further view of things, I have reasoned myself into a kinder feeling
towards thee. For I have been obliged to consider ultimately, that there
were both lights and shades in the human character; and that, if the bad
part of our nature was visible on these occasions, the nobler part of it
ought not to be forgotten. While I passed a censure upon those, who were
backward in serving this great cause of humanity and justice, how many
did I know, who were toiling in the support of it! I drew also this
consolation from my reflections, that I had done my duty; that I had
left nothing untried or undone; that amidst all these disappointments I
had collected information, which might be useful at a future time; and
that such disappointments were almost inseparable from the prosecution
of a cause of such magnitude, and where the interests of so many were
concerned:--

Having now given a general account of my own proceedings, I shall state
those of the committee; or show how they contributed, by fulfilling the
duties of their several departments, to promote the cause in the
interim.

In the first place they completed the rules, or code of laws, for their
own government.

They continued to adopt and circulate books, that they might still
enlighten the public mind on the subject, and preserve it interested in
favour of their institution. They kept the press indeed almost
constantly going for this purpose. They printed, within the period
mentioned, RAMSAY'S, _Address on the proposed Bill for the Abolition;
The Speech of Henry Beaufoy, Esq., on Sir William Dolben's Bill_, of
which an extract is given in Chap. xxiii.; _Notes by a Planter on the
two Reports from the Committee of the Honourable House of Assembly of
Jamaica_; _Observations on the Slave Trade_ by Mr. Wadstrom; and
DICKSON'S _Letters on Slavery._ These were all new publications. To
those they added others of less note, with new editions of the old.

They voted their thanks to the Rev. Mr. Clifford, for his excellent
Sermon on the Slave Trade; to the pastor and congregation of the Baptist
church at Maze Pond, Southwark, for their liberal subscription; and to
John Barton, one of their own members, for the services he had rendered
them. The latter, having left his residence in town for one in the
country, solicited permission to resign, and hence this mark of
approbation was given to him. He was continued also as an honorary and
corresponding member.

They elected David Hartley and Richard Sharpe, Esqs., into their own
body, and Alexander Jaffray, Esq., the Rev. Charles Symmons, of
Haverfordwest, and the Rev. T. Burgess (afterwards bishop of Salisbury),
as honorary and corresponding members. The latter had written
_Considerations on the Abolition of Slavery and the Slave Trade, upon
grounds of natural, religious, and political Duty_, which had been of
great service to the cause.

Of the new correspondents of the committee within this period I may
first mention Henry Taylor, of North Shields; William Proud, of Hull;
the Rev. T. Gisborne, of Yoxall Lodge; and William Ellford, Esq., of
Plymouth. The latter as chairman of the Plymouth committee, sent up for
inspection an engraving of a plan and section of a slave-ship, in which
the bodies of the slaves were seen stowed in the proportion of rather
less than one to a ton. This happy invention gave all those who saw it a
much better idea, than they could otherwise have had, of the horrors of
their transportation, and contributed greatly, as will appear,
afterwards, to impress the public in favour of our cause.

The next, whom I shall mention, was C.L. Evans, Esq., of West Bromwich;
the Rev. T. Clarke, of Hull; S.P. Wolferstan, of Stratford, near
Tamworth; Edmund Lodge, Esq., of Halifax; the Rev. Caleb Rotheram, of
Kendal; and Mr. Campbell Haliburton, of Edinburgh. The news which Mr.
Haliburton sent was very agreeable. He informed us that, in consequence
of the great exertions of Mr. Alison, an institution had been formed in
Edinburgh, similar to that in London, which would take all Scotland
under its care and management, as far as related to this great subject.
He mentioned Lord Gardenston as the chairman; Sir William Forbes as the
deputy-chairman; himself as the secretary; and Lord Napier, Professor
Andrew Hunter, Professor Greenfield, and William Creech, Adam Rolland,
Alexander Ferguson, John Dickson, John Erskine, John Campbell, Archibald
Gibson, Archibald Fletcher, and Horatius Canning, Esqrs., as the
committee.

The others were, the Rev. J. Bidlake, of Plymouth; Joseph Storrs, of
Chesterfield; William Fothergill, of Carr End, Yorkshire; J. Seymour, of
Coventry; Moses Neave, of Poole; Joseph Taylor, of Scarborough; Timothy
Clark, of Doncaster; Thomas Davis, of Milverton; George Croker Fox, of
Falmouth; Benjamin Grubb, of Clonmell in Ireland; Sir William Forbes, of
Edinburgh; the Rev. J. Jamieson, of Forfar; and Joseph Gurney, of
Norwich; the latter of whom sent up a remittance, and intelligence at
the same time, that a committee, under Mr. Leigh, so often before
mentioned, had been formed in that city[A].

[Footnote A: On the removal of Mr. Leigh from Norwich, Dr. Pretyman,
precentor of Lincoln and a prebend of Norwich, succeeded him.]

But the committee in London, while they were endeavouring to promote the
object of their institution at home, continued their exertions for the
same purpose abroad within this period.

They kept up a communication with the different societies established in
America.

They directed their attention also to the continent of Europe. They had
already applied, as I mentioned before, to the king of Sweden in favour
of their cause, and had received a gracious answer. They now attempted
to interest other Potentates in it. For this purpose they bound up in an
elegant manner two sets of the _Essays on the Slavery and Commerce of
the Human Species, and on the Impolicy of the Slave Trade_, and sent
them to the Chevalier de Pinto, in Portugal. They bound up in a similar
manner three sets of the same, and sent them to Mr. Eden (afterwards
Lord Aukland), at Madrid, to be given to the king of Spain, the Count
d'Aranda, and the Marquis del Campomanes.

They kept up their correspondence with the committee at Paris, which had
greatly advanced itself in the eyes of the French nation; so that, when
the different bailliages sent deputies to the states-general, they
instructed them to take the Slave Trade into their consideration as a
national object, and with a view to its abolition.

They kept up their correspondence with Dr. Frossard of Lyons. He had
already published in France on the subject of the Slave Trade; and now
he offered the committee to undertake the task, so long projected by
them, of collecting such arguments and facts concerning it, and
translating them into different languages, as might be useful in
forwarding their views in foreign parts.

They addressed letters also to various individuals, to Monsieur
Snetlage, doctor of laws at Halle in Saxony; to Monsieur Ladebat, of
Bordeaux; to the Marquis de Feuillade d'Aubusson, at Paris; and to
Monsieur Necker. The latter in his answer replied in part as follows:
"As this great question," says he, "is not in my department, but in that
of the minister for the colonies, I cannot interfere in it directly, but
I will give indirectly all the assistance in my power. I have for a long
time taken an interest in the general alarm on this occasion, and in the
noble alliance of the friends of humanity in favour of the injured
Africans. Such an attempt throws a new lustre over your nation. It is
not yet, however, a national object in France; but the moment may
perhaps come, and I shall think myself happy in preparing the way for
it. You must be aware, however, of the difficulties which we shall have
to encounter on our side of the water; for our colonies are much more
considerable than yours; so that in the view of political interest we
are not on an equal footing. It will therefore be necessary to find some
middle line at first, as it cannot be expected that humanity alone will
be the governing principle of mankind."

But the day was now drawing near, when it was expected that this great
contest would be decided. Mr. Wilberforce, on the 19th of March, rose up
in the House of Commons and desired the resolution to be read, by which
the house stood pledged to take the Slave Trade into their consideration
in the then session; He then moved that the house should resolve itself
into a committee of the whole house on Thursday the 23rd of April, for
this purpose. This motion was agreed to; after which he moved for
certain official documents necessary to throw light upon the subject in
the course of its discussion.

This motion, by means of which the great day of trial was now fixed,
seemed to be the signal for the planters, merchants, and other
interested persons to begin a furious opposition. Meetings were
accordingly called by advertisement. At these meetings much warmth and
virulence were manifested in debate, and propositions breathing a spirit
of anger were adopted. It was suggested there, in the vehemence of
passion, that the islands could exist independently of the mother
country; nor were even threats withheld to intimidate government from
effecting the abolition.

From this time, also, the public papers began to be filled with such
statements as were thought most likely to influence the members of the
House of Commons, previously to the discussion of the question.

The first impression attempted to be made upon them was with respect to
the slaves themselves. It was contended, and attempted to be shown by
the revival of the old argument of human sacrifices in Africa, that
these were better off in the islands than in their own country. It was
contended, also, that they were people of very inferior capacities, and
but little removed from the brute creation; whence an inference was
drawn that their treatment, against which so much clamour had arisen,
was adapted to their intellect and feelings.

The next attempt was to degrade the abolitionists in the opinion of the
house, by showing the wildness and absurdity of their schemes. It was
again insisted upon that emancipation was the real, object of the
former; so that thousands of slaves would be let loose in the islands to
rob or perish, and who could never be brought back again into habits of
useful industry.

An attempt was then made to excite their pity in behalf of the planters.
The abolition, it was said, would produce insurrections among the
slaves. But insurrections would produce the massacre of their masters;
and, if any of these should happily escape from butchery, they would be
reserved only for ruin.

An appeal was then made to them on the ground of their own interest and
of that of the people whom they represented. It was stated that the ruin
of the islands would be the ruin of themselves and of the country. Its
revenue would be half annihilated; its naval strength would decay.
Merchants, manufacturers and others would come to beggary. But in this
deplorable situation they would expect to be indemnified for their
losses. Compensation, indeed, must follow: it could not be withheld. But
what would be the amount of it? The country would have no less than from
eighty to a hundred millions to pay the sufferers; and it would be
driven to such distress in paying this sum as it had never before
experienced.

The last attempt was to show them that a regulation of the trade was all
that was now wanted. While this would remedy the evils complained of, it
would prevent the mischief which would assuredly follow the abolition.
The planters had already done their part. The assemblies of the
different islands had most of them made wholesome laws upon the subject.
The very bills passed for this purpose in Jamaica and Grenada had
arrived in England, and might be seen by the public; the great
grievances had been redressed; no slave could now be mutilated or
wantonly killed by his owner; one man could not now maltreat, or bruise,
or wound the slave of another; the aged could not now be turned off to
perish by hunger. There were laws, also, relative to the better feeding
and clothing of the slaves. It remained only that the trade to Africa
should be put under as wise and humane regulations as the slavery in the
islands had undergone.

These different statements, appearing now in the public papers from day
to day, began, in this early stage of the question, when the subject in
all its bearings was known but to few, to make a considerable impression
upon those, who were soon to be called to the decision of it. But that
which had the greatest effect upon them, was the enormous amount of the
compensation, which, it was said, must be made. This statement against
the abolition was making its way so powerfully, that Archdeacon Paley
thought it his duty to write, and to send to the committee, a little
treatise called _Arguments against the unjust Pretensions of Slave
Dealers and Holders, to be indemnified by pecuniary Allowances at the
public expense, in case the Slave Trade should be abolished_. This
treatise, when the substance of it was detailed in the public papers,
had its influence upon several members of the House of Commons; but
there were others who had been, as it were, panic-struck by the
statement. These in their fright seemed to have lost the right use of
their eyes, or to have looked through a magnifying glass. With these the
argument of emancipation, which they would have rejected at another time
as ridiculous, obtained now easy credit. The massacres too, and the
ruin, though only conjectural, they admitted also. Hence some of them
deserted our cause wholly, while others, wishing to do justice as far as
they could to the slaves on the one hand, and to their own countrymen on
the other, adopted a middle line of conduct, and would go no further
than the regulation of the trade.

While these preparations were making by our opponents to prejudice the
minds of those who were to be the judges in this contest, Mr. Pitt
presented the privy council report at the bar of the House of Commons;
and as it was a large folio volume, and contained the evidence upon
which the question was to be decided, it was necessary that time should
be given to the members to peruse it. Accordingly, the 12th of May was
appointed, instead of the 23rd of April, for the discussion of the
question.

This postponement of the discussion of the question gave time to all
parties to prepare themselves further. The merchants and planters
availed themselves of it to collect petitions to parliament from
interested persons, against the abolition of the trade, to wait upon
members of parliament by deputation, in order to solicit their
attendance in their favour, and to renew their injurious paragraphs in
the public papers. The committee for the abolition availed themselves of
it to reply to these; and here Dr. Dickson, who had been secretary to
Governor Hey, in Barbados, and who had offered the committee his
_Letters on Slavery_ before mentioned, and his services also, was of
singular use. Many members of parliament availed themselves of it to
retire into the country to read the report. Among the latter were Mr.
Wilberforce and Mr. Pitt. In this retirement they discovered,
notwithstanding the great disadvantages under which we had laboured with
respect to evidence, that our cause was safe, and that, as far as it was
to be decided by reason and sound policy, it would triumph. It was in
this retirement that Mr. Pitt made those able calculations which
satisfied him for ever after, as the minister of the country, as to the
safety of the great measure of the abolition of the Slave Trade; for he
had clearly proved, that not only the islands could go on in a
flourishing state without supplies from the coast of Africa, but that
they were then in a condition to do it.

At length the 12th of May arrived. Mr. Wilberforce rose up in the
Commons and moved the order of the day for the house to resolve itself
into a committee of the whole house, to take into consideration the
petitions which had been presented against the Slave Trade.

This order having been read, he moved that the report of the committee
of privy council, that the acts passed in the islands relative to
slaves, that the evidence adduced last year on the Slave Trade, that the
petitions offered in the last session against the Slave Trade, and that
the accounts presented to the house in the last and present session
relative to the exports and imports of Africa, be referred to the same
committee.

These motions having been severally agreed to, the House immediately
resolved itself into a committee of the whole house, and Sir William
Dolben was put into the chair.

Mr. Wilberforce began by declaring, that when he considered how much
discussion the subject, which he was about to explain to the committee,
had occasioned, not only in that House, but throughout the kingdom, and
throughout Europe; and when he considered the extent and importance of
it, the variety of interests involved in it, and the consequences which
might arise, he owned he had been filled with apprehensions, lest a
subject of such magnitude, and a cause of such weight, should suffer
from the weakness of its advocate; but when he recollected that, in the
progress of his inquiries, he had everywhere been received with candour,
that most people gave him credit for the purity of his motives, and
that, however many of these might then differ from him, they were all
likely to agree in the end, he had dismissed his fears, and marched
forward with a firmer step in this cause of humanity, justice, and
religion. He could not, however, but lament that the subject had excited
so much warmth. He feared that too many on this account were but ill
prepared to consider it with impartiality. He entreated all such to
endeavour to be calm and composed. A fair and cool discussion was
essentially necessary. The motion he meant to offer, was as reconcilable
to political expediency as to national humanity. It belonged to no party
question. It would in the end be found serviceable to all parties, and
to the best interests of the country. He did not come forward to accuse
the West India planter, or the Liverpool merchant, or indeed any one
concerned in this traffic; but, if blame attached anywhere, to take
shame to himself in common, indeed, with the whole parliament of Great
Britain, who, having suffered it to be carried on under their own
authority, were all of them participators in the guilt.

In endeavouring to explain the great business of the day, he said he
should call the attention of the House only to the leading features of
the Slave Trade. Nor should he dwell long upon these. Every one might
imagine for himself what must be the natural consequence of such a
commerce with Africa. Was it not plain that she must suffer from it?
that her savage manners must be rendered still more ferocious? and that
a trade of this nature, carried on round her coasts, must extend
violence and desolation to her very centre? It was well known that the
natives of Africa were sold as goods, and that numbers of them were
continually conveyed away from their country by the owners of British
vessels. The question then was, which way the latter came by them. In
answer to this question, the privy council report, which was then on the
table, afforded evidence the most satisfactory and conclusive. He had
found things in it, which had confirmed every proposition he had
maintained before, whether this proposition had been gathered from
living information of the best authority, or from the histories he had
read. But it was unnecessary either to quote the report, or to appeal to
history on this occasion. Plain reason and common sense would point out
how the poor Africans were obtained. Africa was a country divided into
many kingdoms, which had different governments and laws. In many parts
the princes were despotic. In others they had a limited rule. But in all
of them, whatever the nature of the government was, men were considered
as goods and property, and, as such, subject to plunder in the same
manner as property in other countries. The persons in power there were
naturally fond of our commodities; and to obtain them, (which could only
be done by the sale of their countrymen,) they waged war on one another,
or even ravaged their own country, when they could find no pretence for
quarrelling with their neighbours: in their courts of law many poor
wretches, who were innocent, were condemned; and to obtain these
commodities in greater abundance, thousands were kidnapped and torn from
their families, and sent into slavery. Such transactions, he said, were
recorded in every history of Africa, and the report on the table
confirmed them. With respect, however, to these he should make but one
or two observations. If we looked into the reign of Henry the Eighth, we
should find a parallel for one of them. We should find that similar
convictions took place; and that penalties followed conviction. With
respect to wars, the kings of Africa were never induced to engage in
them by public principles, by national glory, and least of all by the
love of their people. This had been stated by those most conversant in
the subject, by Dr. Spaarman and Mr. Wadstrom. They had conversed with
these princes, and had learned from their own mouths that to procure
slaves was the object of their hostilities. Indeed, there was scarcely a
single person examined before the privy council who did not prove that
the Slave Trade was the source of the tragedies acted upon that
extensive continent. Some had endeavoured to palliate this circumstance;
but there was not one who did not more or less admit it to be true. By
one the Slave Trade was called the concurrent cause, by the majority it
was acknowledged to be the principal motive, of the African wars. The
same might be said with respect to those instances of treachery and
injustice, in which individuals were concerned. And here he was sorry to
observe that our own countrymen were often guilty. He would only at
present advert to the tragedy at Calabar, where two-large African
villages, having been for some time at war, made peace. This peace was
to have, been ratified by intermarriages; but some of our captains, who
were there, seeing their trade would be stopped for a while, sowed
dissension again between them. They actually set one village against the
other, took a share in the contest, massacred many of the inhabitants,
and carried others of them away as slaves. But shocking as this
transaction might appear, there was not a single history of Africa to be
read, in which scenes of as atrocious a nature were not related. They,
he said, who defended this trade, were warped and blinded by their own
interests, and would not be convinced of the miseries they were daily
heaping on their fellow creatures. By the countenance, they gave it,
they had reduced the inhabitants of Africa to a worse state than that of
the most barbarous nation. They had destroyed what ought to have been
the bond of union and safety among them; they had introduced discord and
anarchy among them; they had set kings against their subjects, and
subjects against each other; they had rendered every private family
wretched; they had, in short, given birth to scenes of injustice and
misery not to be found in any other quarter of the globe.

Having said thus much on the subject of procuring slaves in, Africa, he
would now go to that of the transportation of them. And here he had
fondly hoped, that when men with affections and feelings like our own
had been torn from their country, and everything dear to them, he should
have found some mitigation of their sufferings; but the sad reverse was
the case. This was the most wretched part of the whole subject. He was
incapable, of impressing the House with what he felt upon it. A
description of their conveyance was impossible. So much misery
condensed, in so little room was more than the human imagination had
ever before conceived. Think only of six hundred persons linked
together, trying to get rid of each other, crammed in a close vessel
with every object that was nauseous and disgusting, diseased, and
struggling with all the varieties of wretchedness. It seemed impossible
to add anything more to human misery. Yet shocking as this description
must be felt to be by every man, the transportation had been described
by several witnesses from Liverpool to be a comfortable conveyance. Mr.
Norris had painted the accommodations on board a slave-ship in the most
glowing colours. He had represented them in a manner which would have
exceeded his attempts at praise of the most luxurious scenes. Their
apartments, he said, were fitted up as advantageously for them as
circumstances could possibly admit: they had several meals a day; some
of their own country provisions, with the best sauces of African
cookery; and, by way of variety, another meal of pulse, according to the
European taste. After breakfast they had water to wash themselves, while
their apartments were perfumed with frankincense and lime-juice. Before
dinner they were amused after the manner of their country; instruments
of music were introduced; the song and the dance were promoted; games of
chance were furnished them; the men played and sang, while the women and
girls made fanciful ornaments from beads, with which they were
plentifully supplied. They were indulged in all their little fancies,
and kept in sprightly humour. Another of them had said, when the sailors
were flogged, it was out of the hearing of the Africans, lest it should
depress their spirits. He by no means wished to say that such
descriptions were wilful misrepresentations. If they were not, it proved
that interest or prejudice was capable of spreading a film over the eyes
thick enough to occasion total blindness.

Others, however, and these men of the greatest veracity, had given a
different account. What would the house think, when by the concurring
testimony of these the true history was laid open? The slaves who had
been described as rejoicing in their captivity, were so wrung with
misery at leaving their country, that it was the constant practice to
set sail in the night, lest they should know the moment of their
departure. With respect to their accommodation, the right ancle of one
was fastened to the left ancle of another by an iron fetter; and if they
were turbulent, by another on the wrists. Instead of the apartments
described, they were placed in niches, and along the decks, in such a
manner, that it was impossible for any one to pass among them, however
careful he might be, without treading upon them. Sir George Yonge had
testified, that in a slave-ship, on board of which he went, and which
had not completed her cargo by two hundred and fifty, instead of the
scent of frankincense being perceptible to the nostrils, the stench was
intolerable. The allowance of water was, so deficient, that the slaves
were, frequently found gasping for life, and almost suffocated. The
pulse with which they had been said to be favoured, were absolutely
English horse-beans. The legislature of Jamaica had stated the
scantiness both of water and provisions, as a subject which called for
the interference of parliament. As Mr. Norris had said, the song and the
dance were promoted, he could not pass over these expressions without
telling the house what they meant. It would have been much more fair if
he himself had explained the word _promoted_. The truth was, that, for
the sake of exercise, these miserable wretches, loaded with chains and
oppressed with disease, were forced to dance by the terror of the lash,
and sometimes by the actual use of it. "I" said one of the evidences,
"was employed to dance the men, while another person danced the women."
Such then was the meaning of the, word _promoted_; and it might also be
observed with respect to food, that instruments were sometimes carried
out in order to force them to eat; which was the same sort of proof, how
much they enjoyed themselves in this instance also. With respect to
their singing, it consisted of songs, of lamentation for the loss of
their country. While they sung they were in tears: so that one of the
captains, more humane probably than the rest, threatened a woman with a
flogging because the mournfulness of her song was too painful for his
feelings. Perhaps he could not give a better proof of the sufferings of
these injured people during their passage, than by stating the mortality
which accompanied it. This was a species of evidence, which was
infallible on this occasion. Death was a witness which could not deceive
them; and the proportion of deaths would not only confirm, but, if
possible, even aggravate our suspicion of the misery of the transit. It
would be found, upon an average of all the ships, upon which evidence
had been given, that, exclusively of such as perished before they sailed
from Africa, not less than twelve and-a-half per cent died on their
passage: besides these, the Jamaica report stated that four and-a-half
per cent died while in the harbours, or on shore before the day of sale,
which was only about the space of twelve or fourteen days after their
arrival there; and one-third more died in the seasoning: and this in a
climate exactly similar to their own, and where, as some of the
witnesses pretended, they were healthy and happy. Thus out of every lot
of one hundred shipped from Africa, seventeen died in about nine weeks,
and not more than fifty lived to become effective labourers in our
islands.

Having advanced thus far in his investigation, he felt, he said, the
wickedness of the Slave Trade to be so enormous, so dreadful, and
irremediable, that he could stop at no alternative short of its
abolition, A trade founded on iniquity, and carried on with such
circumstances of horror, must be abolished, let the policy of it be what
it might; and he had from this time determined, whatever were the
consequences, that he would never rest till he had effected that
abolition. His mind had, indeed, been harassed by the objections of the
West India planters, who had asserted, that the ruin of their property
must be the consequence of such a measure. He could not help, however,
distrusting their arguments. He could not believe that the Almighty
Being, who had forbidden the practice of rapine and bloodshed, had made
rapine and bloodshed necessary to any part of his universe. He felt a
confidence in this persuasion, and took the resolution to act upon it.
Light, indeed, soon broke in upon him. The suspicion of his mind was
every day confirmed by increasing information, and the evidence he had
now to offer upon this point was decisive and complete. The principle
upon which he founded the necessity of the abolition was not policy, but
justice: but though justice were the principle of the measure, yet he
trusted he should distinctly prove it to be reconcilable with our truest
political interest.

In the first place, he asserted that the number of the slaves in our
West India islands might be kept up without the introduction of recruits
from Africa; and to prove this, he would enumerate the different sources
of their mortality. The first was the disproportion of the sexes, there
being, upon an average, about five males imported to three females: but
this evil, when the Slave Trade was abolished, would cure itself. The
second consisted in the bad condition in which they were brought to the
islands, and the methods of preparing them for sale. They arrived
frequently in a sickly and disordered state, and then they were made up
for the market by the application of astringents, washes, mercurial
ointments, and repelling drugs, so that their wounds and diseases might
be hid. These artifices were not only fraudulent but fatal; but these,
it was obvious, would of themselves fall with the trade. A third was,
excessive labour joined with improper food; and a fourth was, the
extreme dissoluteness of their manners. These, also, would both of them
be counteracted by the impossibility of getting further supplies: for
owners, now unable to replace those slaves whom they might lose, by
speedy purchases in the markets, would be more careful how they treated
them in future, and a better treatment would be productive of better
morals. And here he would just advert to an argument used against those
who complained of cruelty in our islands, which was, that it was the
interest of masters to treat their slaves with humanity: but surely it
was immediate and present, not future and distant interest, which was
the great spring of action in the affairs of mankind. Why did we make
laws to punish men? It was their interest to be upright and virtuous:
but there was a present impulse continually breaking in upon their
better judgment, and an impulse, which was known to be contrary to their
permanent advantage. It was ridiculous to say that men would be bound by
their interest, when gain or ardent passion urged them. It might as well
be asserted, that a stone could not be thrown into the air, or a body
move from place to place, because the principle of gravitation bound
them to the surface of the earth. If a planter in the West Indies found
himself reduced in his profits, he did not usually dispose of any part
of his slaves; and his own gratifications were never given up, so long
as there was a possibility of making any retrenchment in the allowance
of his slaves.--But to return to the subject which he had left: he was
happy to state, that as all the causes of the decrease which he had
stated might be remedied, so, by the progress of light and reformation,
these remedies had been gradually coming into practice; and that, as
these had increased, the decrease of slaves had in an equal proportion
been lessened. By the gradual adoption of these remedies, he could prove
from the report on the table, that the decrease of slaves in Jamaica had
lessened to such a degree, that from the year 1774 to the present it was
not quite one in a hundred, and that, in fact, they were at present in a
state of increase; for that the births in that island, at this moment,
exceeded the deaths by one thousand or eleven hundred per annum.
Barbados, Nevis, Antigua, and the Bermudas, were, like Jamaica,
lessening their decrease, and holding forth an evident and reasonable
expectation of a speedy state of increase by natural population. But
allowing the number of Negroes even to decrease for a time, there were
methods which would insure the welfare of the West India islands. The
lands there might be cultivated by fewer hands, and this to greater
advantage to the proprietors and to this country, by the produce of
cinnamon, coffee, and cotton, than by that of sugar. The produce of the
plantations might also be considerably increased, even in the case of
sugar, with less hands than were at present employed, if the owners of
them would but introduce machines of husbandry. Mr. Long himself, long
resident as a planter, had proved, upon his own estate, that the plough,
though so little used in the West Indies, did the service of a hundred
slaves, and caused the same ground to produce three hogsheads of sugar,
which, when cultivated by slaves, would only produce two. The division
of work, which, in free and civilized countries, was the grand source of
wealth, and the reduction of the number of domestic servants, of whom
not less than from twenty to forty were kept in ordinary families,
afforded other resources for this purpose. But, granting that all these
suppositions should be unfounded, and that everyone of these substitutes
should fail for a time, the planters would be indemnified, as is the
case in all transactions of commerce, by the increased price of their
produce in the British market. Thus, by contending against the
abolition, they were defeated in every part of the argument. But he
would never give up the point, that the number of the slaves could be
kept up, by natural population, and without any dependence whatever on
the Slave Trade. He therefore called upon the house again to abolish it
as a criminal waste of life--it was utterly unnecessary--he had proved
it so by documents contained in the report. The merchants of Liverpool,
indeed, had thought otherwise, but he should be cautious how he assented
to their opinions. They declared last year that it was a losing trade at
two slaves to a ton, and yet they pursued it when restricted to five
slaves to three tons. He believed, however, that it was upon the whole a
losing concern; in the same manner as the lottery would be a losing
adventure to any company who should buy all the tickets. Here and there
an individual gained a large prize, but the majority of adventurers
gained nothing. The same merchants, too, had asserted, that the town of
Liverpool would be mined by the abolition. But Liverpool did not depend
for its consequence upon the Slave Trade. The whole export-tonnage from
that place amounted to no less than 170,000 tons; whereas the export
part of it to Africa amounted only to 13,000. Liverpool, he was sure,
owed its greatness to other and very different causes; the Slave Trade
bearing but a small proportion to its other trade.

Having gone through that part of the subject which related to the
slaves, he would now answer two objections which he had frequently heard
stated. The first of these was, that the abolition of the Slave Trade
would operate to the total ruin of our navy, and to the increase of that
of our rivals. For an answer to these assertions, he referred to what he
considered to be the most valuable part of the report, and for which the
House and the country were indebted to the indefatigable exertions of
Mr. Clarkson. By the report it appeared, that, instead of the Slave
Trade being a nursery for British seamen, it was their grave. It
appeared that more seamen died in that trade in one year than in the
whole remaining trade of the country in two. Out of 910 sailors in it,
216 died in the year, while upon a fair average of the same number of
men employed in the trades to the East and West Indies, Petersburgh,
Newfoundland, and Greenland, no more than eighty-seven died. It appeared
also, that out of 3170, who had left Liverpool in the slave-ships in the
year 1787, only 1428 had returned. And here, while he lamented the loss
which the country thus annually sustained in her seamen, he had
additionally to lament the barbarous usage which they experienced, and
which this trade, by its natural tendency to harden the heart,
exclusively produced. He would just read an extract of a letter from
Governor Parrey, of Barbados, to Lord Sydney, one of the secretaries of
state. The Governor declared he could no longer contain himself on
account of the ill treatment, which the British sailors endured at the
hands of their savage captains. These were obliged to have their vessels
strongly manned, not only on account of the unhealthiness of the climate
of Africa, but of the necessity of guarding the slaves, and preventing
and suppressing insurrections; and when they arrived in the West Indies,
and were out of all danger from the latter, they quarrelled with their
men on the most frivolous pretences, on purpose to discharge them, and
thus save the payment of supernumerary wages home. Thus many were left
in a diseased and deplorable state; either to perish by sickness, or to
enter into foreign service; great numbers of whom were for ever lost to
their country. The Governor concluded by declaring, that the enormities
attendant on this trade were so great, as to demand the immediate
interference of the legislature.

The next objection to the abolition was, that if we were to relinquish
the Slave Trade, our rivals, the French, would take it up; so that,
while we should suffer by the measure, the evil would still go on, and
this even to its former extent. This was, indeed, a very weak argument;
and, if it would defend the continuance of the Slave Trade, might
equally be urged in favour of robbery, murder, and every species of
wickedness, which, if we did not practise, others would commit. But
suppose, for the sake of argument, that they were to take it up, what
good would it do them? What advantages, for instance, would they derive
from this pestilential commerce to their marine? Should not we, on the
other hand, be benefited by this change? Would they not be obliged to
come to us, in consequence of the cheapness of our manufactures, for
what they wanted for the African market? But he would not calumniate the
French nation so much as to suppose that they would carry on the trade,
if we were to relinquish it. He believed, on the other hand, that they
would abolish it also. Mr. Necker, the minister of France, was a man of
religious principle; and, in his work upon the administration of the
finances, had recorded his abhorrence of this trade. He was happy also
to relate an anecdote of the king of France, which proved that he was a
friend to the abolition; for, being petitioned to dissolve a society,
formed at Paris, for the annihilation of the Slave Trade, his majesty
answered, that he would not, and was happy to hear that so humane an
association was formed in his dominions. And here, having mentioned the
society in Paris, he could not help paying a due compliment to that
established in London for the same purpose, which had laboured with the
greatest assiduity to make this important subject understood, and which
had conducted itself with so much judgment and moderation as to have
interested men of all religions, and to have united them in their cause.

There was another topic which he would submit to the notice of the
House, before he concluded. They were perhaps not aware that a fair and
honourable trade might be substituted in the natural productions of
Africa, so that our connexion with that continent in the way of
commercial advantage need not be lost. The natives had already made some
advances in it; and if they had not appeared so forward in raising and
collecting their own produce for sale as in some other countries, it was
to be imputed to the Slave Trade: but remove the cause, and Africa would
soon emerge from her present ignorant and indolent state. Civilization
would go on with her as well as with other nations. Europe, three or
four centuries ago, was in many parts as barbarous as Africa at present,
and chargeable with as bad practices. For what would be said, if, so
late as the middle of the thirteenth century, he could find a parallel
there for the Slave Trade?--Yes. This parallel was to be found even in
England. The people of Bristol, in the reign of Henry the Seventh, had a
regular market for children, which were bought by the Irish: but the
latter having experienced a general calamity, which they imputed as a
judgment from Heaven on account of this wicked traffic, abolished it.
The only thing, therefore, which he had to solicit of the House, was to
show that they were now as enlightened as the Irish were four centuries
back, by refusing to buy the children of other nations. He hoped they
would do it. He hoped, too, they would do it in an unqualified manner.
Nothing less than a total abolition of the trade would do away the evils
complained of. The legislature of Jamaica, indeed, had thought that
regulations might answer the purpose. Their report had recommended, that
no person should be kidnapped, or permitted to be made a slave, contrary
to the customs of Africa. But might he not be reduced to this state very
unjustly, and yet by no means contrary to the African laws? Besides, how
could we distinguish between those who were justly or unjustly reduced
to it? Could we discover them by their physiognomy?--But if we could,
who would believe that the British captains would be influenced by any
regulations; made in this country, to refuse to purchase those who had
not been fairly, honestly? and uprightly enslaved? They who were offered
to us for sale, were brought, some of them, three or four thousand
miles, and exchanged like cattle from one hand to another, till they
reached the coast. But who could return these to their homes, or make
them compensation for their sufferings during their long journeyings? He
would now conclude by begging pardon of the House for having detained
them so long. He could indeed have expressed his own conviction in fewer
words. He needed only to have made one or two short statements, and to
have quoted the commandment, "Thou shalt do no murder." But he thought
it his duty to lay the whole of the case, and the whole of its guilt,
before them. They would see now that no mitigations, no palliatives,
would either be efficient or admissible. Nothing short of an absolute
abolition could be adopted. This they owed to Africa: they owed it, too,
to their own moral characters. And he hoped they would follow up the
principle of one of the repentant African captains, who had gone before
the committee of privy council as a voluntary witness, and that they
would make Africa all the atonement in their power for the multifarious
injuries she had received at the hands of British subjects. With respect
to these injuries, their enormity and extent, it might be alleged in
their excuse, that they were not fully acquainted with them till that
moment, and therefore not answerable for their former existence: but now
they could no longer plead ignorance concerning them. They had seen them
brought directly before their eyes, and they must decide for themselves,
and must justify to the world and their own consciences the facts and
principles upon which their decision was formed.

Mr. Wilberforce having concluded his speech, which lasted three hours
and a half, read, and laid on the table of the House, as subjects for
their future discussion, twelve propositions which he had deduced from
the evidence contained in the privy council report, and of which the
following is the abridged substance:--

1. That the number of slaves annually carried from the coast of Africa,
in British vessels, was about 38,000, of which, on an average, 22,500
were carried to the British islands, and that of the latter only 17,500
were retained there.

2. That these slaves, according to the evidence on the table, consisted,
first, of prisoners of war; secondly, of free persons sold for debt, or
on account of real or imputed crimes, particularly adultery and
witchcraft; in which cases they were frequently sold with their whole
families, and sometimes for the profit of those by whom they were
condemned; thirdly, of domestic slaves sold for the profit of their
masters, in some places at the will of the masters, and in others, on
being condemned by them for real or imputed crimes; fourthly, of persons
made slaves by various acts of oppression, violence, or fraud, committed
either by the princes and chiefs of those countries on their subjects,
or by private individuals on each other; or, lastly, by Europeans
engaged in this traffic.

3. That the trade so carried on, had necessarily a tendency to occasion
frequent and cruel wars among the natives; to produce unjust convictions
and punishments for pretended or aggravated crimes; to encourage acts of
oppression, violence, and fraud, and to obstruct the natural course of
civilization and improvement in those countries!

4. That Africa in its present state furnished several valuable articles
of commerce, which were partly peculiar to itself, but that it was
adapted to the production of others, with which we were now either
wholly or in great part supplied by foreign nations. That an extensive
commerce with Africa might be substituted in these commodities, so as to
afford a return for as many articles as had annually been carried
thither in British vessels: and, lastly, that such a commerce might
reasonably be expected to increase, by the progress of civilization
there.

5. That the Slave Trade was peculiarly destructive to the seamen
employed in it; and that the mortality there had been much greater than
in any British vessels employed upon the same coast in any other service
or trade.

6. That the mode of transporting the slaves from Africa to the West
Indies necessarily exposed them to many and grievous sufferings, for
which no regulations could provide an adequate remedy; and that in
consequence thereof a large proportion had annually perished during the
voyage.

7. That a large proportion had also perished in the harbours in the West
Indies, from the diseases contracted in the voyage, and the treatment of
the same, previously to their being sold; and that this loss amounted to
four and a half percent of the imported slaves.

8. That the loss of the newly-imported slaves, within the three first
years after their importation, bore a large proportion to the whole
number imported.

9. That the natural increase of population among the slaves in the
islands appeared to have been impeded principally by the following
causes:--First, by the inequality of the sexes in the importations from
Africa. Secondly, by the general dissoluteness of manners among the
slaves, and the want of proper regulations for the encouragement of
marriages, and of rearing children among them. Thirdly, by the
particular diseases which were prevalent among them, and which were, in
some instances, to be attributed to too severe labour, or rigorous
treatment; and in others to insufficient or improper food. Fourthly, by
those diseases, which affected a large proportion of negro-children in
their infancy, and by those to which the negroes, newly imported from
Africa, had been found to be particularly liable.

10. That the whole number of the slaves in the island of Jamaica, in
1768, was about 167,000, in 1774, about 193,000, and in 1787, about
256,000: that by comparing these numbers with the numbers imported and
retained in the said island during all these years, and making proper
allowances, the annual excess of deaths above births was in the
proportion of about seven-eighths per cent.; that in the first six years
of this period it was in the proportion of rather more than one on every
hundred; that in the last thirteen years of the same it was in the
proportion of about three-fifths on every hundred; and that a number of
slaves, amounting to fifteen thousand, perished during the latter
period, in consequence of repeated hurricanes, and of the want of
foreign supplies of provisions.

11. That the whole number of slaves in the island of Barbados was, in
the year, 1764, about 70,706; in 1774, about 74,874; in 1780, about
68,270; in 1781, after the hurricane, about 63,248, and in 1786, about
62,115; that, by comparing these numbers with the number imported into
this island, (not allowing for any re-exportation,) the annual excess of
deaths above births in the ten years, from 1764 to 1774, was in, the
proportion of about five on every hundred; that in the seven years, from
1774 to 1780, it was in the proportion of about one and one-third on
every hundred; that between the years 1780 and 1781 there had been a
decrease in the number of slaves, of about 5000; that in the six years,
from 1781 to 1786, the excess of deaths was in the proportion of rather
less than seven-eighths on every hundred; that in the four years, from,
1783 to 1786, it was in the proportion of rather less than one-third on
every hundred; and that during the whole period, there was no doubt that
some had been exported from the island, but considerably more in the
first part of this period than in the last.

12. That the accounts from the Leeward Islands, and from Dominica,
Grenada, and St. Vincent's, did not furnish sufficient grounds for
comparing the state of population in the said islands, at different
periods, with the number of slaves, which had been from time to time
imported there, and exported therefrom; but that from the evidence which
had been received, respecting the present state of these islands, as
well as that of Jamaica and Barbados, and from a consideration of the
means of obviating the causes, which had hitherto operated to impede the
natural increase of the slaves, and of lessening the demand for manual
labour, without diminishing the profit of the planters, no considerable
or permanent inconvenience would result from discontinuing the further
importation of African slaves.

These propositions having been laid upon the table of the House, Lord
Penrhyn rose in behalf of the planters; and next, after him, Mr.
Gascoyne, (both members for Liverpool,) in behalf of the  merchants
concerned in the latter place. They both predicted the ruin and misery
which would inevitably follow the abolition of the trade. The former
said, that no less than seventy millions were mortgaged upon lands in
the West Indies, all of which would be lost. Mr. Wilberforce, therefore,
should have made a motion to pledge the House to the repayment of this
sum, before he had brought forward his propositions. Compensation ought
to have been agreed upon as a previous necessary measure. The latter
said, that in consequence of the bill of last year, many ships were laid
up, and many seamen out of employ. His constituents had large capitals
engaged in the trade, and, if it were to be wholly done away, they would
suffer from not knowing where to employ them: they both joined in
asserting, that Mr. Wilberforce had made so many misrepresentations in
all the branches of this subject, that no reliance whatever was to be
placed on the picture, which he had chosen to exhibit. They should
speak, however, more fully to this point when the propositions were
discussed.

The latter declaration called up Mr. Wilberforce again, who observed
that he had no intention of misrepresenting any fact: he did not know
that he had done it in any one instance; but, if he had, it would be
easy to convict him out of the report upon the table.

Mr. Burke then rose. He would not, he said, detain the committee long:
indeed, he was not able, weary and indisposed as he then felt himself,
even if he had an inclination to do it; but as on account of his other
parliamentary duty, he might not have it in his power to attend the
business now before them in its course, he would take that opportunity
of stating his opinion upon it.

And, first, the House, the nation, and all Europe were under great
obligations to Mr. Wilberforce for having brought this important subject
forward. He had done it in a manner the most masterly, impressive, and
eloquent. He had laid down his principles so admirably, and with so much
order and force, that his speech had equalled anything he had ever heard
in modern oratory, and perhaps it had not been excelled by anything to
be found in ancient times. As to the Slave Trade itself, there could not
be two opinions about it, where men were not interested. A trade begun
in savage war, prosecuted with unheard-of barbarity, continued during
the transportation with the most loathsome imprisonment, and ending in
perpetual exile and slavery, was a trade so horrid in all in
circumstances, that it; was impossible to produce a single argument in
its favour. On the ground of prudence, nothing could be said in defence
of it, nor could it be justified by necessity. It was necessity alone
that could be brought to justify inhumanity; but no case of necessity
could be made out strong enough to justify this monstrous traffic. It
was therefore the duty of the House to put an end to it, and this
without further delay. This conviction, that it became them to do it
immediately, made him regret (and it was the only thing he regretted in
the admirable speech he had heard) that his honourable friend should
have introduced propositions on this subject. He could have wished that
the business had been brought to a conclusion at once, without voting
the propositions which had been read to them. He was not over fond of
abstract propositions; they were seldom necessary, and often occasioned
great difficulty, embarrassment, and delay. There was, besides, no
occasion whatever to assign detailed reasons for a vote, which nature
herself dictated, and which religion enforced. If it should happen that
the propositions were not carried in that House or the other, such a
complication of mischiefs might follow, as might occasion them heartily
to lament that they were ever introduced. If the ultimate resolution
should happen to be lost, he was afraid the propositions would pass as
waste paper, if not be injurious to the cause at a future time.

And now, as the House must bring this matter to an issue, he would beg
their attention to a particular point. He entreated them to look further
than the present moment, and to ask themselves if they had fortified
their minds sufficiently to bear the consequences which might arise from
the abolition of the Slave Trade, supposing they should decide upon it.
When they abandoned it, other foreign powers might take it up, and
clandestinely supply our islands with slaves. Had they virtue enough to
see another country reaping profits, which they themselves had given up;
and to abstain from that envy natural to rivals, and firmly to adhere to
their determination? If so, let them thankfully proceed to vote the
immediate abolition of the Slave Trade. But if they should repent of
their virtue, (and he had known miserable instances of such repentance,)
all hopes of future reformation of this enormous evil would be lost.
They would go back to a trade they had abandoned with redoubled
attachment, and would adhere to it with a degree of avidity and
shameless ardour, to their own humiliation, and to the degradation and
disgrace of the nation in the eyes of all Europe. These were
considerations worth regarding, before they took a decisive step in a
business, in which they ought not to move with any other determination
than to abide by the consequences at all hazards. The honourable
gentleman (who to his eternal honour had introduced this great subject
to their notice) had, in his eloquent oration, knocked at every door,
and appealed to every passion, well knowing that mankind were governed
by their sympathies. But there were other passions to be regarded; men
were always ready to obey their sympathies when it cost them nothing;
but were they prepared to pay the price of their virtue on this great
occasion? This was the question. If they were, they would do themselves
immortal honour, and would have the satisfaction of having done away a
commerce, which, while it was productive of misery not to be described,
most of all hardened the heart and vitiated the human character.

With respect to the consequences mentioned by the two members for
Liverpool, he had a word or two to offer upon them. Lord Penrhyn had
talked of millions to be lost and paid for; but seeing no probability of
any loss ultimately, he could see no necessity for compensation. He
believed on the other hand, that the planters would be great gainers by
those wholesome regulations, which they would be obliged to make, if the
Slave Trade were abolished. He did not however flatter them with the
idea that this gain would be immediate. Perhaps they might experience
inconveniences at first, and even some loss. But what then? With their
loss, their virtue would be the greater. And in this light he hoped the
House would consider the matter; for, if they were called upon to do an
act of virtuous energy and heroism, they ought to think it right to
submit to temporary disadvantages for the sake of truth, justice,
humanity, and the prospect of greater happiness.

The other member, Mr. Gascoyne, had said that his constituents, if the
trade were abolished, could not employ their capitals elsewhere. But
whether they could or not, it was the duty of that House, if they put
them into a traffic which was shocking to humanity and disgraceful to
the nation, to change their application, and not to allow them to be
used to a barbarous purpose. He believed, however, that the merchants of
Liverpool would find no difficulty on this head. All capitals required
active motion; it was in their nature not to remain passive and
unemployed; they would soon turn them into other channels. This they had
done themselves during the American war; for the Slave Trade was almost
wholly lost, and yet they had their ships employed, either as transports
in the service of government or in other ways.

And as he now called upon the House not to allow any conjectural losses
to become impediments in the way of the abolition of the Slave Trade, so
he called upon them to beware how they suffered any representations of
the happiness of the state of slavery in our islands to influence them
against so glorious a measure. Admiral Barrington had said in his
testimony, that he had often envied the condition of the slaves there.
But surely, the honourable admiral must have meant, that, as he had
often toiled like a slave in the defence of his country, (as his many
gallant actions had proved,) so he envied the day when he was to toil in
a similar manner in the same cause. If, however, his words were to be
taken literally, his sensations could only be accounted for by his
having seen the negroes in the hour of their sports, when a sense of the
misery of their condition was neither felt by themselves not visible to
others. But their appearance on such occasions did by no means disprove
their low and abject state. Nothing made a happy slave but a degraded
man. In proportion as the mind grows callous to its degradation, and all
sense of manly pride is lost, the slave feels comfort. In fact, he is no
longer a man. If he were to define a man, he would say with Shakespeare,


  Man is a being holding large discourse,
  Looking before and after.


But, a slave was incapable of looking before and after; he had no motive
to do it; he was a mere passive instrument in the hands of others to be
used at their discretion. Though living, he was, dead as to all
voluntary agency; though moving amidst the creation with an erect form,
and with the shape and semblance of a human being, he was a nullity as a
man.

Mr. Pitt thanked his honourable friend Mr. Wilberforce for having at
length introduced this great and important subject to the consideration
of the House. He thanked him also for the perspicuous, forcible, and
masterly manner in which he had treated it. He was sure that no argument
compatible with any idea of justice could be assigned for the
continuation of the Slave Trade. And at the same time that he was
willing to listen with candour and attention to everything that could be
urged on the other side of the question, he was sure that the
principles, from which his opinion was deduced, were unalterable. He had
examined the subject with the anxiety which became him, where the
happiness and interests of so many thousands were concerned, and with
the minuteness which would be expected of him, on account of, the
responsible situation which he held; and he averred that it was
sophistry, obscurity of ideas, and vagueness of reasoning, which alone
could have hitherto prevented all mankind (those immediately interested
in the question excepted) from agreeing in one and the same opinion upon
the subject. With respect to the propriety of introducing the individual
propositions which had been offered, he differed with Mr. Burke, and he
thanked his honourable friend Mr. Wilberforce for having chosen the only
way in which it could be made obvious to the worlds that they were
warranted on every ground of reason and of fact in coming to that vote,
which he trusted would be the end of their proceeding. The grounds for
the attainment of this end were distinctly stated in the propositions.
Let the propositions be brought before the House, one by one, and argued
from the evidence, and it would then be seen that they were such as no
one, who was not deaf to the language of reason, could deny. Let them be
once entered upon the journals of that House, and it was almost
impossible they should fail. The abolition must be voted; as to the mode
of it, or how it should be effected, they were not at present to discuss
it; but he trusted it would be such as would not invite foreign powers
to supply our islands with slaves by a clandestine trade. After a debt,
founded on the immutable principles of justice, was found to be due, it
was impossible but the country had means to cause it to be paid. Should
such an illicit proceeding be attempted; the only language which it
became us to adopt, was, that Great Britain had resources to enable her
to protect her islands, and to prevent that traffic from being
clandestinely carried on by them, which she had thought fit from a
regard to her character to abandon. It was highly becoming Great Britain
to take the lead of other nations in such a virtuous and magnificent
measure, and he could not but have confidence that they would he
inclined to share the honour with us, or be pleased to follow us as
their example. If we were disposed to set about this glorious work in
earnest, they might he invited to concur with us by a negotiation to be
immediately opened for that purpose. He would only now observe, before
he sat down, in answer to certain ideas thrown out, that he could by no
means acquiesce in any compensation for losses which might be sustained
by the people of Liverpool or by others in any other part of the
kingdom, in the execution of this just and necessary undertaking.

Sir William Yonge said, he wanted no inducement to concur with the
honourable mover of the propositions, provided the latter could be
fairly established, and no serious mischiefs were to arise from the
abolition. But he was apprehensive, that many evils might follow in the
case of any sudden or unlooked-for decrease in the slaves. They might be
destroyed by hurricanes. They might be swept off by many fatal
disorders. In these cases, the owners of them would not be able to fill
up their places, and they who had lent money upon the lands, where the
losses had happened, would foreclose their mortgages. He was fearful,
also, that a clandestine trade would be carried on, and then the
sufferings of the Africans, crammed up in small vessels, which would be
obliged to be hovering about from day to day, to watch an opportunity of
landing, would be ten times greater than any which they now experienced
in the legal trade. He was glad, however, as the matter was to be
discussed, that it had been brought forward in the shape of distinct
propositions, to be grounded upon the evidence in the privy council
report.

Mr. Fox observed that he did not like, where he agreed as to the
substance of a measure, to differ with respect to the form of it. If,
however, he differed in any thing in the present case, it was with a
view rather to forward the business than to injure it, or to throw
anything like an obstacle in its way. Nothing like either should come
from him. What he thought was, that all the propositions were not
necessary to be voted previously to the ultimate decision, though some
of them undoubtedly were. He considered them as of two classes: the one,
alleging the grounds upon which it was proper to proceed to the
abolition; such as that the trade was productive of inexpressible
misery, in various ways, to the innocent natives of Africa; that it was
the grave of our seamen, and so on; the other merely answering
objections which might be started, and where there might be a difference
of opinion. He was, however, glad that the propositions were likely to
be entered upon the journals; since, if, from any misfortune, the
business should be deferred, it might succeed another year. Sure he was
that it could not fail to succeed sooner or later. He highly approved of
what Mr. Pitt had said relative to the language it became us to hold out
to foreign powers, in case of a clandestine trade. With respect,
however, to the assertion of Sir William Yonge that a clandestine trade
in slaves would be worse than a legal one, he could not admit it. Such a
trade, if it existed at all, ought only to be clandestine. A trade in
human flesh and sinews was so scandalous, that it ought not openly to be
carried on by any government whatever, and much less by that of a
Christian country. With regard to the regulation of the Slave Trade, he
knew of no such thing as a regulation of robbery and murder. There was
no medium. The legislature must either abolish it, or plead guilty of
all the wickedness which had been shown to attend it. He would now say a
word or two with respect to the conduct of foreign nations on this
subject. It was possible that these, when they heard that the matter had
been discussed in that House, might follow the example, or they might go
before us and set one themselves. If this were to happen, though we
might be the losers, humanity would be the gainer. He himself had been
thought sometimes to use expressions relative to France, which were too
harsh, and as if he could only treat her as the enemy of this country.
Politically speaking, France was our rival. But he well knew the
distinction between political enmity and illiberal prejudice. If there
was any great and enlightened nation in Europe, it was France, which was
as likely as any country upon the face of the globe to catch a spark
from the light of our fire, and to act upon the present subject with
warmth and enthusiasm. France had often been improperly stimulated by
her ambition; and he had no doubt but that, in the present instance, she
would readily follow its honourable dictates.

Mr. (afterwards Lord) Grenville would not detain the house by going into
a question which had been so ably argued; but he should not do justice
to his feelings, if he did not express publicly to his honourable
friend, Mr. Wilberforce, the pleasure he had received from one of the
most masterly and eloquent speeches he had ever heard; a speech which,
while it did honour to him, entitled him to the thanks of the House, of
the people of England, of all Europe, and of the latest posterity. He
approved of the propositions as the best mode of bringing this great
question to a happy issue. He was pleased, also, with the language which
had been held out with respect to foreign nations, and with our
determination to assert our right of preventing our colonies from
carrying on any trade which we had thought it our duty to abandon.

Aldermen Newnham, Sawbridge, and Watson, though they wished well to the
cause of humanity, could not, as representatives of the city of London,
give their concurrence to a measure which would injure it so essentially
as the abolition of the Slave Trade. This trade might undoubtedly be put
under wholesome regulations, and made productive of great commercial
advantages; but, if it were abolished, it would render the city of
London one scene of bankruptcy and ruin. It became the house to take
care, while they were giving way to the goodness of their hearts, that
they did not contribute to the ruin of the mercantile interests of their
country.

Mr. Martin stated that he was so well satisfied with the speech of the
honourable gentleman who had introduced the propositions, and with the
language held out by other distinguished members on this subject, that
he felt himself more proud than ever of being an Englishman. He hoped
and believed that the melancholy predictions of the worthy aldermen
would not prove true, and that the citizens of London would have too
much public spirit to wish that a great national object (which
comprehended the great duties of humanity and justice) should be set
aside, merely out of consideration to their own private interests.

Mr. Dempster expected, notwithstanding all he had heard, that the first
proposition submitted to them would have been to make good out of the
public purse all the losses individuals were liable to sustain from an
abolition of the Slave Trade. This ought to have been, as Lord Penrhyn
had observed, a preliminary measure. He did not like to be generous out
of the pockets of others. They were to abolish the trade, it was said,
out of a principle of humanity. Undoubtedly they owed humanity to all
mankind; but they also owed justice to those who were interested in the
event of the question, and had embarked their fortunes on the faith of
parliament. In fact he did not like to see men introducing even their
schemes of benevolence to the detriment of other people; and much less
did he like to see them going to the colonies, as it were upon their
estates, and prescribing rules to them for their management. With
respect to his own speculative opinion, as it regarded cultivation, he
had no objection to give it. He was sure that sugar could be raised
cheaper by free-men than by slaves. This the practice in China
abundantly proved; but yet neither he, nor any other person, had a right
to force a system upon others. As to the trade itself, by which the
present labourers were supplied, it had been considered by that House as
so valuable that they had preferred it to all others, and had annually
voted a considerable sum towards carrying it on. They had hitherto
deemed it an essential nursery for our seamen. Had it really been such
as had been represented, our ancestors would scarcely have encouraged
it; and therefore, upon these and other considerations, he could not
help thinking that they would be wanting in their duty if they abolished
it altogether.

Mr. William Smith would not detain the House long at that late hour upon
this important subject; but he could not help testifying the great
satisfaction he felt at the manner, in which the honourable gentleman
who opened the debate (if it could be so called) had treated it. He
approved of the propositions as the best mode of bringing the decision
to a happy issue. He gave Mr. Fox great credit for the open and manly
way in which he had manifested his abhorrence of this trade, and for the
support he meant to give to the total and unqualified abolition of it;
for he was satisfied, that the more it was inquired into, the more it
would be found that nothing short of abolition would cure the evil. With
respect to certain assertions of the members for Liverpool, and certain
melancholy predictions about the consequences of such an event, which
others had held out, he desired to lay in his claim for observation upon
them when the great question should come before the House.

Soon after this the House broke up; and the discussion of the
propositions, which was the next parliamentary measure intended, was
postponed to a future day, which was sufficiently distant to give all
the parties concerned, time to make the necessary preparations for it.

Of this interval the committee for the abolition availed themselves, to
thank Mr. Wilberforce for the very able and satisfactory manner in which
he had stated to the House his propositions for the abolition of the
Slave Trade, and for the unparalleled assiduity and perseverance with
which he had all along endeavoured to accomplish this object, as well as
to take measures themselves for the further promotion of it. Their
opponents availed themselves of this interval also. But that which now
embarrassed them, was the evidence contained in the privy council
report. They had no idea, considering the number of witnesses they had
sent to be examined, that this evidence, when duly weighed, could by
right reasoning have given birth to the sentiments which had been
displayed in the speeches of the most distinguished members of the House
of Commons, or to the contents of the propositions which had been laid
upon their table. They were thunderstruck as it were by their own
weakness; and from this time they were determined, if possible, to get
rid of it as a standard for decision, or to interpose, every
parliamentary delay in their power.

On the 21st of May, the subject came again before the attention of the
House. It was ushered in, as was expected, by petitions collected in the
interim, and which were expressive of the frightful consequences which
would attend the abolition of the Slave Trade. Alderman Newnham
presented one from certain merchants in London; Alderman Watson another
from certain merchants, mortgagees, and creditors of the sugar-islands;
Lord Maitland, another from the planters of Antigua; Mr. Blackburne,
another from certain manufacturers of Manchester; Mr. Gascoyne, another
from the corporation of Liverpool; and Lord Penrhyn, others from
different interested bodies in the same town.

Mr. Wilberforce then moved the order of the day for the House to go into
a committee of the whole house on the report of the privy council, and
the several matters of evidence already upon the table relative to the
Slave Trade.

Mr. Alderman Sawbridge immediately arose, and asked Mr. Wilberforce if
he meant to adduce any other evidence, besides that in the privy council
report, in behalf of his propositions, or to admit other witnesses, if
such could be found, to invalidate them. Mr. Wilberforce replied, that
he was quite satisfied with the report on the table. It would establish
all his propositions. He should call no witnesses himself; as to
permission to others to call them, that must be determined by the House.

This question and this answer gave birth immediately to great disputes
upon the subject. Aldermen Sawbridge, Newnham, and Watson; Lords Penrhyn
and Maitland; Messrs. Gascoyne, Marsham, and others, spoke against the
admission of the evidence which had been laid upon the table. They
contended that it was insufficient, defective, and contradictory; that
it was _ex parte_ evidence; that it had been manufactured by ministers;
that it was founded chiefly on hearsay, and that the greatest part of it
was false; that it had undergone no cross-examination; that it was
unconstitutional; and that, if they admitted it, they would establish a
dangerous precedent, and abandon their rights. It was urged on the other
hand by Mr. Courtenay, that it could not be _ex parte_ evidence, because
it contained testimony on both sides of the question. The circumstance,
also, of its being contradictory, which had been alleged against it,
proved that it was the result of an impartial examination. Mr. Fox
observed, that it was perfectly admissible. He called upon those, who
took the other side of the question, to say why, if it was really
inadmissible, they had not opposed it at first. It had now been a long
time on the table, and no fault had been found with it. The truth was,
it did not suit them; and they were determined by a side-wind, as it
were, to put an end to the inquiry. Mr. Pitt observed, that, if
parliament had previously resolved to receive no evidence on a given
subject but from the privy council, such a resolution, indeed, would
strike at the root of the privileges of the House of Commons; but it was
absurd to suppose that the House could upon no occasion receive
evidence, taken where it was most convenient to take it, and subject
throughout to new investigation, if any one doubted its validity. The
report of the privy council consisted, first, of calculations and
accounts from the public offices; and, next, of written documents on the
subject: both of which were just as authentic as if they had been laid
upon the table of that House. The remaining part of it consisted of the
testimony of living witnesses, all of whose names were published; so
that if any one doubted their veracity, it was open to him to re-examine
all or each of them. It had been said by adversaries that the report on
the table was a weak and imperfect report, but would not these have the
advantage of its weakness and imperfection? It was strange, when his
honourable friend, Mr. Wilberforce, had said, "Weak and imperfect as the
report may be thought to be, I think it strong enough to bear me out in
all my propositions," that they, who objected to it, should have no
better reason to give than this, "We object, because the ground of
evidence on which you rest is too weak to support your cause." Unless it
were meant to say (and the meaning seemed to be but thinly disguised)
that the House ought to abandon the inquiry, he saw no reason whatever
for not going immediately into a committee; and he wished gentlemen to
consider whether it became the dignity of their proceedings to obstruct
the progress of an inquiry, which the House had pledged itself to
undertake. Their conduct, indeed, seemed extraordinary on this occasion.
It was certainly singular that; while the report had been five weeks
upon the table, no argument had been brought against its sufficiency;
but that on the moment when the House was expected to come to an
ultimate vote upon the subject, it should be thought defective,
contradictory, unconstitutional, and otherwise objectionable. These
objections, he was satisfied, neither did nor could originate with the
country gentlemen; but they were brought forward; for purposes not now
to be concealed, by the avowed enemies of this noble cause.

In the course of the discussion which arose upon this subject, every
opportunity was taken to impress the House with the dreadful
consequences of the abolition! Mr. Heriniker read a long letter from the
King of Dahomey to George the First, which had been found among the
papers of James, first Duke of Chandos, and which had remained in the
family till that time. In this, the King of Dahomey boasted of his
victory over the King of Ardrah and how he had ornamented the pavement
and walls of his palace with the heads of the vanquished. These
cruelties, Mr. Henniker said, were not imputable to the Slave Trade.
They showed the Africans to be naturally a savage people, and that we
did them a great kindness by taking them from their country. Alderman
Sawbridge maintained that, if the abolition passed, the Africans who
could not be sold as slaves would be butchered at home; while those who
had been carried, to our islands would be no longer under control. Hence
insurrections, and the manifold evils which belonged to them. Alderman
Newnham was certain that the abolition would be the ruin of the trade of
the country. It would affect even the landed interest and the funds. It
would be impossible to collect money to diminish the national debt.
Every man in the kingdom would feel the abolition come home to hit.
Alderman Watson maintained the same argument, and pronounced the trade
under discussion to be a merciful and humane trade.

Compensation was also insisted upon by Mr. Drake, Alderman Newnham, Mr.
Senniker, Mr. Cruger, and others. This was resisted by Mr. Burke; who
said, that compensation in such a case would be contrary to every
principle of legislation. Government gave encouragement to any branch of
commerce while it was regarded as conducive to the welfare of the
community; or compatible with humanity and justice; but they were
competent to withdraw their countenance from it, when it was found to be
immoral, and injurious, and disgraceful to the state: They who engaged
in it knew the terms under which they were placed, and adopted it with
all the risks with which it was accompanied; and of consequence it was
but just, that they should be prepared to abide by the loss which might
accrue, when the public should think it right no longer to support it.
But such a trade as this it was impossible any longer to support. Indeed
it was not a trade. It was a system of robbery. It was a system, too,
injurious to the welfare of other nations. How could Africa ever be
civilized under it? While we continued to purchase the natives, they
must remain in a state of barbarism. It was impossible to civilize
slaves. It was contrary to the system of human nature. There was no
country placed under such disadvantageous circumstances, into which the
shadow of improvement had ever been introduced.

Great pains were taken to impress the house with the propriety of
regulation. Sir Grey Cooper; Aldermen Sawbridge, Watson, and Newnham;
Mr. Marsham, and Mr. Cruger, contended strenuously for it instead of
abolition. It was also stated, that the merchants would consent to any
regulation of the trade which might be offered to them.

In the course of the debate much warmth of temper was manifested on both
sides. The expression of Mr. Fox in a former debate, "that the Slave
Trade could not be regulated, because there could be no regulation of
robbery and murder," was brought up, and construed by planters in the
house as a charge of these crimes upon themselves. Mr. Fox, however,
would not retract the expression. He repeated it. He had no notion,
however, that any individual would have taken it to himself. If it
contained any reflection at all, it was on the whole parliament, who had
sanctioned such a trade. Mr. Molyneux rose up, and animadverted severely
on the character of Mr. Ramsay, one of the evidences in the privy
council report, during his residence in the West Indies. This called up
Sir William Dolben and Sir Charles Middleton in his defence, the latter
of whom bore honourable testimony to his virtues from an intimate
acquaintance with him, and a residence in the same village with him, for
twenty years. Mr. Molyneux spoke also in angry terms of the measure of
abolition. To annihilate the trade, he said, and to make no compensation
on account of it, was an act of swindling. Mr. Macnamara called the
measure hypocritical, fanatic, and methodistical. Mr. Pitt was so
irritated at the insidious attempt to set aside the privy council
report, when no complaint had been alleged against it before, that he
was quite off his guard, and he thought it right afterwards to apologize
for the warmth into which he had been betrayed. The Speaker, too, was
obliged frequently to interfere. On this occasion no less than thirty
members spoke. And there had probably been few seasons, when so much
disorder had been discoverable in that house.

The result of the debate was, a permission to those interested in the
continuance of the Slave Trade to bring counsel to the bar on the 26th
of May, and then to introduce such witnesses, as might throw further
light on the propositions in the shortest time: for Mr. Pitt only
acquiesced in this new measure on a supposition, "that there would be no
unnecessary delay, as he could by no means submit to the ultimate
procrastination of so important a business." He even hoped (and in this
hope he was joined by Mr. Fox) that those concerned would endeavour to
bring the whole of the evidence they meant to offer at the first
examination.

On the day appointed, the house met for the purposes now specified; when
Alderman Newnham, thinking that such an important question should not be
decided but in a full assembly of the representatives of the nation,
moved for a call of the House on that day fortnight. Mr. Wilberforce
stated that he had no objection to such a measure; believing the greater
the number present the more favourable it would be to his cause. This
motion, however, produced a debate and a division, in which it appeared
that there were one hundred and fifty-eight in favour of it, and
twenty-eight against it. The business of the day now commenced. The
house went into a committee, and Sir William Dolben was put into the
chair. Mr. Serjeant Le Blanc was then called in. He made an able speech
in behalf of his clients; and introduced John Barnes, Esquire, as his
first witness, whose examination took up the remainder of the day. By
this step they who were interested in the continuance of the trade,
attained their wishes, for they had now got possession of the ground
with their evidence; and they knew they could keep it, almost as long as
they pleased, for the purposes of delay. Thus they, who boasted, when
the privy council examinations began, that they would soon do away all
the idle tales which had been invented against them, and who desired the
public only to suspend their judgment till the report should come out,
when they would see the folly and wickedness of all our allegations,
dared not abide by the evidence which they themselves had taught others
to look up to as the standard by which they were desirous of being
judged: thus they, who had advantages beyond measure in forming a body
of evidence in their own favour, abandoned that which they had
collected. And here it is impossible for me not to make a short
comparative statement on this subject, if it were only to show how
little can be made out, with the very best opportunities, against the
cause of humanity and religion. With respect to ourselves, we had almost
all our witnesses to seek. We had to travel after them for weeks
together. When we found them, we had scarcely the power of choice. We
where obliged to take them as they came. When we found them, too, we had
generally to implore them to come forward in our behalf. Of those so
implored, three out of four refused, and the plea for this refusal was a
fear lest they should injure their own interests. The merchants, on the
other hand, had their witnesses ready on the spot. They had always ships
in harbour, containing persons who had a knowledge of the subject, they
had several also from whom to choose. If one man was favourable to their
cause in three of the points belonging to it, but was unfavourable in
the fourth, he could be put aside and replaced. When they had thus
selected them, they had not to entreat, but to command their attendance.
They had no fear, again, when they thus commanded, of a refusal on the
ground of interest; because these were promoting their interest by
obliging these who employed them. Viewing these and other circumstances,
which might be thrown into this comparative statement, it was some
consolation to us to know, amidst the disappointment which this new
measure occasioned, and our apparent defeat in the eyes of the public,
that we had really beaten our opponents at their own weapons, and that,
as this was a victory in our own private feelings, so it was the presage
to us of a future triumph.

On the 29th of May, Mr. Tierney made a motion to divide the
consideration of the Slave Trade into two heads, by separating the
African from the West Indian part of the question. This he did for the
more clear discussion of the propositions, as well as to save time. This
motion, however, was overruled by Mr. Pitt.

At length, on the 9th of June, by which time it was supposed that new
light, and this in sufficient quantity, would have been thrown upon the
propositions, it appeared that only two witnesses had been fully heard.
The examinations, therefore, were continued, and they went on till the
23rd. On this day, the order for the call of the house, which had been
prolonged, standing unrepealed, there was a large attendance of members.
A motion was then made, to get rid of the business altogether, but it
failed. It was now seen, however, that it was impossible to bring the
question to a final decision in this session; for they who were
interested in it, affirmed that they had yet many important witnesses to
introduce. Alderman Newnham, therefore, by the consent of Mr.
Wilberforce, moved that "the further consideration of the subject be
deferred to the next session." On this occasion, Mr. William Smith
remarked, that though the decision on the great question was thus to be
adjourned, he hoped the examinations at least would be permitted to go
on. He had not heard any good reason why they might not be carried on
for some weeks  longer. It was known that the hearing of evidence was,
at all times thinly attended. If, therefore, the few members who did
attend, were willing to give up their time a little longer, why should
other members complain of an inconvenience in the suffering of which
they took no share? He thought that by this the examination of witnesses
on the part of the merchants might be finished, and of consequence the
business brought into a very desirable state of forwardness against the
ensuing session. These observations had not the desired effect, and the
motion of Mr. Alderman Newnham was carried without a division. Thus the
great question, for the elucidation of which all the new evidences were
to be heard at the very first examination, in order that it might be
decided by the 9th of June, was, by the intrigue of our opponents,
deferred to another year.

The order of the day for going into the further consideration of the
Slave Trade having been discharged, Sir William Dolben rose to state,
that it was his intention to renew his bill of the former year, relative
to the conveyance of the unhappy Africans from their own country to the
West Indies, and to propose certain alterations in it. He made a motion
accordingly, which was adopted; and he and Mr. Wilberforce were desired
to prepare the same.

This bill he introduced soon afterwards, and it passed; but not without
opposition. It was a matter, however, of great pleasure to find that the
worthy baronet was enabled by the assistance of Captain (afterwards
Admiral) Macbride, and other naval officers in the house, to carry such
clauses, as provided in some degree for the comfort of the poor seamen
who were seduced into this wicked trade. They could not, indeed, provide
against the barbarity of their captains; but they secured them a space
under the half deck in which to sleep. They prescribed a form of
muster-rolls, which they were to see and sign in the presence of the
clearing officer. They regulated their food, both as to kind and
quantity; and they preserved them from many of the impositions to which
they had been before exposed.

From the time when Mr. Wilberforce gave his first notice this session to
the present, I had been variously employed, but more particularly in the
composition of a new work. It was soon perceived to be the object of our
opponents, to impress upon the public the preference, of regulation to
abolition. I attempted, therefore, to show the fallacy and wickedness of
this notion. I divided the evils belonging to the Slave Trade into two
kinds. These I enumerated in their order. With respect to those of the
first kind, I proved that they were never to be remedied by any acts of
the British parliament. Thus, for instance, what bill could alter the
nature of the human passions? What bill could prevent fraud and violence
in Africa, while the Slave Trade existed there? What bill could prevent
the miserable victims of the trade from rising, when on board the ships,
if they saw an opportunity, and felt a keen sense of their oppression?
Those of the second I stated to admit of a remedy, and after making
accurate calculations on the subject of each, I showed that those
merchants who were to do them away effectually, would be ruined by their
voyages. The work was called _An Essay on the Comparative Efficiency of
Regulation or Abolition as applied to the Slave Trade_.

The committee, also, in this interval, brought out their famous print of
the plan and section of a slave-ship, which was designed to give the
spectator an idea of the sufferings of the Africans in the Middle
Passage, and this so familiarly, that he might instantly pronounce upon
the miseries experienced there. The committee at Plymouth had been the
first to suggest the idea; but that in London had now improved it. As
this print seemed to make an instantaneous impression of horror upon all
who saw it, and as it was therefore very instrumental, in consequence of
the wide circulation given it, in serving the cause of the injured
Africans, I have given the reader a copy of it in the annexed plate, and
I will now state the ground or basis upon which it was formed.

It must be obvious that it became the committee to select some one ship,
which had been engaged in the Slave Trade, with her real dimensions, if
they meant to make a fair representation of the manner of the
transportation. When Captain Parrey, of the royal navy, returned from
Liverpool, to which place Government had sent him, he brought with him
the admeasurement of several vessels which had been so employed, and
laid them on the table of the House of Commons. At the top of his list
stood the ship Brookes. The committee, therefore, in choosing a vessel
on this occasion, made use of the ship Brookes; and this they did,
because they thought it less objectionable to take the first that came,
than any other. The vessel, then, in the plate is the vessel now
mentioned, and the following is her admeasurement as given in by Captain
Parrey.

                                                                    Ft.  In.
Length of the lower deck, gratings, and bulk heads included at A A  100  0
Breadth of beam on the lower deck inside, B B                       25   4
Depth of hold ooo, from ceiling to ceiling                          10   0
Height between decks from deck to deck                              5    8
Length of the men's room, C C, on the lower deck                    46   0
Breadth of the men's room, C C, on the lower deck                   25   4
Length of the platform, D D, in the men's room                      46   0
Breadth of the platform in the men's room, on each side             6    0
Length of the boys' room, E E                                       13   9
Breadth of the boys' room                                           25   0
Breadth of platform, F F, in boys' room                             6    0
Length of women's room, G G                                         28   6
Breadth of women's room                                             23   6
Length of platform, H H, in women's room                            28   6
Breadth of platform in women's room                                 6    0
Length of the gun-room, I I, on the lower deck                      10   6
Breadth of the gun-room on the lower deck                           12   0
Length of the quarter-deck, K K                                     33   6
Breadth of the quarter-deck                                         19   6
Length of the cabin, L L                                            14   0
Height of the cabin                                                 6    2
Length of the half-deck, M M                                        16   6
Height of the half-deck                                             6    2
Length of the platform, N N, on the half-deck                       16   6
Breadth of the platform on the half-deck                            6    0
Upper deck, P P


The committee, having proceeded thus far, thought that they should now
allow certain dimensions for every man, woman, and child; and then see
how many persons, upon such dimensions and upon the admeasurements just
given, could be stowed in this vessel. They allowed, accordingly, to
every man slave 6 ft. by 1 ft. 4in. for room, to every woman 5 ft. by 1
ft. 4 in., to every boy 5 ft. by 1 ft. 2 in., and to every girl 4 ft. 6
in. by 1 ft. They then stowed them, and found them as in the annexed
plate, that is, they found, (deducting the women stowed in z of figures
6 and 7, which spaces, being half of the half-deck, were allowed by Sir
William Dolben's last bill to the seamen,) that only 450 could be stowed
in her; and the reader will find, if he should think it worthwhile to
count the figures in the plate, that, on making the deduction mentioned,
they will amount to this number.

The committee then thought it right to inquire how many slaves the act
of Sir William Dolben allowed this vessel to carry, and they found the
number to be 454; that is, they found it allowed her to carry four more
than could be put in without trespassing upon the room allotted to the
rest; for we see that the bodies of the slaves, except just at the head
of the vessel, already touch each other, and that no deduction has been
made for tubs or stanchions to support the platforms and decks.

[Illustration: Slave Ship]

[Illustration: Slave Ship]

[Illustration: Slave Ship]

[Illustration: Slave Ship]

Such was the picture which the committee were obliged to draw, if they
regarded mathematical accuracy, of the room allotted to the slaves in
this vessel. By this picture was exhibited the nature of the Elysium
which Mr. Norris and others had invented for them during their
transportation from their own country. By this picture were seen also
the advantages of Sir William Dolben's bill; for many, on looking at the
plate, considered the regulation itself as perfect barbarism. The
advantages, however, obtained by it were considerable; for the Brookes
was now restricted to 450 slaves, whereas it was proved that she carried
609 in a former voyage.

The committee, at the conclusion of the session of parliament, made a
suitable report. It will be unnecessary to detail this, for obvious
reasons. There was, however, one thing contained in it, which ought
not to be omitted. It stated, with appropriate concern, the death of
the first controversial writer, and of one of the most able and
indefatigable labourers in their cause. Mr. Ramsay had been for some
time indisposed. The climate of the West Indies, during a residence of
twenty years, and the agitation in which his mind had been kept for
the last four years of his life, in consequence of the virulent
attacks on his word and character by those interested in the
continuance of the trade, had contributed to undermine his
constitution. During his whole illness he was cheerful and composed;
nor did he allow it to hinder him, severe as it was, from taking any
opportunity which offered, of serving those unhappy persons for whose
injuries he had so deeply felt. A few days only before he died, I
received from him probably the last letter he ever wrote, of which the
following is an extract:

    "My health has certainly taken a most alarming turn; and, if
    some considerable alteration does not take place for the
    better in a very little time, it will be all over with me: I
    mean as to the present life. I have lost all appetite, and
    suffer grievously from an almost continual pain in my
    stomach, which leaves me no enjoyment of myself, but such as
    I can collect from my own reflections, and the comforts of
    religion. I am glad the bill for the abolition is in such
    forwardness. Whether it goes through the house or not, the
    discussion attending it will have a most beneficial effect.
    The whole of this business I think now to be in such a train,
    as to enable me to bid farewell to the present scene with the
    satisfaction of not having lived in vain, and of having done
    something towards the improvement of our common nature; and
    this at no little expense of time and reputation. The little
    I have now written is my utmost effort; yet yesterday I
    thought it necessary to write an answer to a scurrilous libel
    in _The Diary_ by one Scipio. On my own account he should
    have remained unnoticed; but our great cause must be kept
    unsullied."

Mr. Ramsay was a man of active habit, of diligence and perseverance in
his undertakings, and of extraordinary application. He was of mild and
humble manners. He possessed a strong understanding, with great
coolness and courage. Patriotism and public spirit were striking
traits in his character. In domestic life he was amiable: in the
ministry, exemplary and useful; and he died to the great regret of his
parishioners; but most of all to that of those who moved with him in
his attempts to bring about the important event of the abolition of
the Slave Trade.




CHAPTER XXV.

Continuation from July 1789 to July 1790.--Author travels to Paris to
promote the abolition in France; attends the committees of the Friends
of the Negroes.--Counter-attempts of the committee of White
Colonists.--An account of the deputies of Colour.--Meeting at the Duke
de la Rochefoucauld's.--Mirabeau espouses the cause; canvasses the
National Assembly.--Distribution of the section of the slave-ship
there.--Character of Brissot.--Author leaves Paris and returns to
England.--Examination of merchants' and planters' evidence resumed in
the House of Commons.--Author travels in search of evidence in favour
of the abolition; opposition to the hearing of it.--This evidence is
at length introduced.--Renewal of Sir William Dolben's
bill.--Distribution of the section of the slave-ship in England; and
of Cowper's Negro's Complaint; and of Wedgewood's Cameos.


We usually find, as we give ourselves up to reflection, some little
mitigation of the afflictions we experience; and yet of the evils
which come upon us, some are often so heavy as to overpower the
sources of consolation for a time, and to leave us wretched. This was
nearly our situation at the close of the last session of parliament.
It would be idle not to confess that circumstances had occurred which
wounded us deeply. Though we had foiled our opponents at their own
weapons, and had experienced the uninterrupted good wishes and support
of the public, we had the great mortification to see the enthusiasm of
members of parliament beginning to cool; to see a question of humanity
and justice (for such it was when it was delivered into their hands)
verging towards that of commercial calculation; and finally to see
regulation, as it related to it, in the way of being substituted for
abolition; but most of all were we affected, knowing as we did the
nature and the extent of the sufferings belonging to the Slave Trade,
that these should be continued to another year. This last
consideration almost overpowered me. It had fallen to my lot, more
than to that of any other person, to know these evils, and I seemed
almost inconsolable at the postponement of the question. I wondered
how members of parliament, and these Englishmen, could talk as they
did on this subject; how they could bear for a moment to consider
their fellow-man as an article of trade; and how they should not count
even the delay of an hour, which occasioned so much misery to
continue, as one of the most criminal actions of their lives.

It was in vain, however, to sink under our burdens. Grief could do no
good; and if our affairs had taken an unfavourable turn, the question
was, how to restore them. It was sufficiently obvious that, if our
opponents were left to themselves, or without any counteracting
evidence, they would considerably soften down the propositions, if not
invalidate them in the minds of many. They had such a power of selection
of witnesses, that they could bring men forward who might say with truth
that they had seen but very few of the evils complained of, and these in
an inferior degree. We knew, also, from the example of the Liverpool
delegates, how interest and prejudice could blind the eyes, and how
others might be called upon to give their testimony, who would dwell
upon the comforts of the Africans when they came into our power; on the
sprinkling of their apartments with frankincense; on the promotion of
music and the dance among them; and on the health and festivity of their
voyages. It seemed, therefore, necessary that we should again be looking
out for evidence on the part of the abolition. Nor did it seem to me to
be unreasonable, if our opponents were allowed to come forward in a new
way, because it was more constitutional, that we should be allowed the
same privilege. By these means the evidence, of which we had now lost
the use, might be restored; indifference might be fanned into warmth;
commercial calculation might be overpowered by justice; and abolition,
rising above the reach of the cry of regulation, might eventually
triumph.

I communicated my ideas to the committee, and offered to go round the
kingdom to accomplish this object. The committee had themselves been
considering what measures to take, and as each in his own mind had come
to conclusions similar with my own, my proposal was no sooner made than
adopted.

I had not been long upon this journey when I was called back. Mr.
Wilberforce, always solicitous for the good of this great cause, was of
opinion that, as commotions had taken place in France, which then aimed
at political reforms, it was possible that the leading persons concerned
in them might, if an application were made to them judiciously, be
induced to take the Slave Trade into their consideration, and
incorporate it among the abuses to be done away. Such a measure, if
realized, would not only lessen the quantity of human suffering, but
annihilate a powerful political argument against us. He had a
conference, therefore, with the committee on this subject; and, as they
accorded with his opinion, they united with him in writing a letter to
me, to know if I would change my journey, and proceed to France.

As I had no object in view but the good of the cause, it was immaterial
to me where I went, if I could but serve it; and therefore, without any
further delay, I returned to London.

As accounts had arrived in England of the excesses which had taken place
in the city of Paris, and of the agitated state of the provinces through
which I was to pass, I was desired by several of my friends to change my
name. To this I could not consent; and, on consulting the committee,
they were decidedly against it.

I was introduced as quickly as possible, on my arrival at Paris, to the
friends of the cause there, to the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, the Marquis
de Condorcet, Messieurs Pétion de Villeneuve, Clavière, and Brissot, and
to the Marquis de la Fayette. The latter received me with peculiar marks
of attention. He had long felt for the wrongs of Africa, and had done
much to prevent them. He had a plantation in Cayenne, and had devised a
plan, by which the labourers upon it should pass by degrees from slavery
to freedom! With this view he had there laid it down as a principle,
that all crimes were equal, whether they were committed by Blacks or
Whites, and ought equally to be punished. As the human mind is of such a
nature, as to be acted upon by rewards as well as punishments, he
thought it unreasonable, that the slaves should have no advantage from a
stimulus from the former. He laid it down therefore as another
principle, that temporal profits should follow virtuous action. To this
he subjoined a reasonable education to be gradually given. By
introducing such principles, and by making various regulations for the
protection and comforts of the slaves, he thought he could prove to the
planters, that there was no necessity for the Slave Trade; that the
slaves upon all their estates would increase sufficiently by population;
that they might be introduced gradually, and without detriment, to a
state of freedom; and that then the real interests of all would be most
promoted. This system he had began to act upon two years before I saw
him. He had also, when the society was established in Paris, which took
the name of "The Friends of the Negroes," enrolled himself a member of
it.

The first public steps taken after my arrival in Paris were at a
committee of the Friends of the Negroes, which was but thinly attended.
None of those mentioned, except Brissot, were present. It was resolved
there, that the committee should solicit an audience of Mr. Necker; and
that I should wait upon him, accompanied by a deputation consisting of
the Marquis de Condorcet, Monsieur de Bourge, and Brissot de Warville:
secondly, that the committee should write to the president of the
National Assembly, and request the favour of him to appoint a day for
hearing the cause of the Negroes; and thirdly, that it should be
recommended to the committee in London to draw up a petition to the
National Assembly of France, praying for the abolition of the Slave
Trade by that country. This petition, it was observed, was to be signed
by as great a number of the friends to the cause in England, as could be
procured. It was then to be sent to the committee at Paris, who would
take it in a body to the place of its destination.

I found great delicacy as a stranger in making my observations upon
these resolutions, and yet I thought I ought not to pass them over
wholly in silence, but particularly the last. I therefore rose up, and
stated that there was one resolution, of which I did not quite see the
propriety; but this might arise from my ignorance of the customs, as
well as of the genius and spirit of the French people. It struck me that
an application from a little committee in England to the National
Assembly of France was not a dignified measure, nor was it likely to
have weight with such a body. It was, besides, contrary to all the
habits of propriety in which I had been educated. The British Parliament
did not usually receive petitions from the subjects of other nations. It
was this feeling which had induced me thus to speak.

To these observations it was replied, that the National Assembly of
France would glory in going contrary to the example of other nations in
a case of generosity and justice, and that the petition in question, if
it could be obtained, would have an influence there, which the people of
England, unacquainted with the sentiments of the French nation, would
hardly credit.

To this I had only to reply, that I would communicate the measure to the
committee in London, but that I could not be answerable for the part
they would take in it.

By an answer received from Mr. Necker, relative to the first of these
resolutions, it appeared that the desired interview had been obtained;
but he granted it only for a few minutes, and this principally to show
his good-will to the cause: for he was then so oppressed with business
in his own department, that he had but little time for any other. He
wrote to me, however, the next day, and desired my company to dinner. He
then expressed a wish to me, that any business relative to the Slave
Trade might be managed by ourselves as individuals, and that I would
take the opportunity of dining with him occasionally for this purpose.
By this plan, he said, both of us would save time. Madame Necker, also,
promised to represent her husband, if I should call in his absence, and
to receive me, and converse with me on all occasions in which this great
cause of humanity and religion might be concerned.

With respect to the other resolutions, nothing ever came of them; for we
waited daily for an answer from the president during the whole of his
presidency, but we never received any; and the committee in London, when
they had read my letter, desired me unequivocally to say, that they did
not see the propriety of the petition which it had been recommended to
them to obtain.

At the next meeting it was resolved, that a letter should be written to
the new president for the same purpose as the former. This, it was said,
was now rendered essentially necessary; for the merchants, planters, and
others interested in the continuance of the Slave Trade, were so alarmed
at the enthusiasm of the French people in favour of the new order of
things, and of any change recommended to them, which had the appearance
of prompting the cause of liberty, that they held daily committees to
watch and to thwart the motions of the friends of the Negroes. It was
therefore thought proper, that the appeal to the Assembly should be
immediate on this subject, before the feelings of the people should
cool, or before they, who were thus interested, should poison the minds
by calculations of loss and gain. The silence of the former president
was already attributed to the intrigues of the planters' committee. No
time therefore was to be lost. The letter was accordingly written, but
as no answer was ever returned to it, they attributed this second
omission to the same cause.

I do not really know whether interested persons ever did, as was
suspected, intercept the letters of the committee to the two presidents
as now surmised; or whether they ever dissuaded them from introducing so
important a question for discussion, when the nation was in such a
heated state; but certain it is, that we had many, and I believe
barbarous, enemies to encounter. At the very next meeting of the
committee, Clavière produced anonymous letters which he had received,
and in which it was stated that, if the society of the Friends of the
Negroes did not dissolve itself, he and the rest of them would be
stabbed. It was said that no less than three hundred persons had
associated themselves for this purpose. I had received similar letters
myself; and on producing mine, and comparing the handwriting in both it
appeared that the same persons had written.

In a few days after this, the public prints were filled with the most
malicious representations of the views of the committee. One of them
was, that they were going to send twelve thousand muskets to the Negroes
in St. Domingo, in order to promote an insurrection there. This
declaration was so industriously circulated, that a guard of soldiers
was sent to search the committee-room; but these were soon satisfied
when they found only two or three books and some waste paper. Reports
equally unfounded and wicked were spread also in the same papers
relative to myself. My name was mentioned at full length, and the place
of my abode hinted at. It was stated at one time, that I had proposed
such wild and mischievous plans to the committee in London relative to
the abolition of the Slave Trade, that they had cast me out of their own
body, and that I had taken refuge in Paris, where I now tried to impose
equally on the French nation. It was stated at another, that I was
employed by the British government as a spy, and that it was my object
to try to undermine the noble constitution which was then forming for
France. This latter report, at this particular time, when the passions
of men were so inflamed, and when the stones of Paris had not been long
purified from the blood of Foulon and Berthier, might have cost me my
life; and I mentioned it to General la Fayette, and solicited his
advice. He desired me to make a public reply to it: which I did. He
desired me also to change my lodging to the Hotel de Yorck, that I might
be nearer to him; and to send to him if there should be any appearance
of a collection of people about the hotel, and I should have aid from
the military in his quarter. He said, also, that he would immediately
give in my name to the Municipality; and that he would pledge himself to
them, that my views were strictly honourable.

On dining one day at the house of the Marquis de la Fayette, I met the
deputies of colour. They had arrived only the preceding day from St.
Domingo, I was desired to take my seat at dinner in the midst of them.
They were six in number; of a sallow or swarthy complexion, but yet it
was not darker than that of some of the natives of the south of France.
They were already in the uniform of the Parisian National Guards; and
one of them wore the cross of St. Louis. They were men of genteel
appearance and modest behaviour. They seemed to be well informed, and of
a more solid cast than those whom I was in the habit of seeing daily in
this city. The account which they gave of themselves was this. The white
people of St. Domingo consisting of less than ten thousand persons, had
deputies then sitting in the National Assembly. The people of colour in
the same island greatly exceeded the whites in number. They amounted to
thirty thousand, and were generally proprietors of lands. They were
equally free by law with the former, and paid their taxes to the
mother-country in an equal proportion. But in consequence of having
sprung from slaves they had no legislative power, and moreover were
treated with great contempt. Believing that the mother-country was going
to make a change in its political constitution, they had called a
meeting on the island, and this meeting had deputed them to repair to
France, and to desire the full rights of citizens, or that the free
people of colour might be put upon an equality with the whites. They
(the deputies) had come in consequence. They had brought with them a
present of six millions of livres to the National Assembly, and an
appointment to General la Fayette to be commander-in-chief over their
constituents, as a distinct body. This command, they said, the general
had accepted, though he had declined similar honours from every town in
France, except Paris, in order to show that he patronized their cause.

I was now very anxious to know the sentiments which these gentlemen
entertained on the subject of the Slave Trade. If they were with us,
they might be very useful to us; not only by their votes in the
Assembly, but by the knowledge of facts which they would be able to
adduce there in our favour. If they were against us, it became me to be
upon my guard against them, and to take measures accordingly. I
therefore stated to them at once the nature of my errand to France, and
desired their opinion upon it. This they gave me without reserve. They
broke out into lavish commendations of my conduct, and called me their
friend. The Slave Trade, they said, was the parent of all the miseries
in St. Domingo, not only on account of the cruel treatment it occasioned
to the slaves, but on account of the discord which it constantly kept up
between the whites and people of colour, in consequence of the hateful
distinctions it introduced. These distinctions could never be
obliterated while it lasted. Indeed both the trade and the slavery must
fall, before the infamy, now fixed upon a skin of colour, could be so
done away, that whites and blacks could meet cordially, and look with
respect upon one another. They had it in their instructions, in case
they should obtain a seat in the Assembly, to propose, an immediate
abolition of the Slave Trade, and an immediate amelioration of the state
of slavery also, with a view to its final abolition in fifteen years.

But time was flying apace; I had now been nearly seven weeks in Paris,
and had done nothing. The thought of this made me uneasy, and I saw no
consoling prospect before me. I found it even difficult to obtain a
meeting of the Friends of the Negroes. The Marquis de la Fayette had no
time to attend. Those of the committee, who were members of the National
Assembly, were almost constantly engaged at Versailles. Such of them as
belonged to the Municipality, had enough to do at the Hotel deVille.
Others were employed either in learning the use of arms, or in keeping
their daily and nightly guards. These circumstances made me almost
despair of doing anything for the cause at Paris, at least in any
reasonable time. But a new circumstance occurred, which distressed me
greatly; for I discovered, in the most satisfactory manner, that two out
of the six at the last committee were spies. They had come into the
society for no other reason than to watch and report its motions; and
they were in direct correspondence with the slave-merchants at Havre de
Grace. This matter I brought home to them afterwards, and I had the
pleasure of seeing them excluded from all our future meetings.

From this time I thought it expedient to depend less upon the committee,
and more upon my own exertions; and I formed the resolution of going
among the members of the National Assembly myself, and of learning from
their own mouths the hope I ought to entertain relative to the decision
of our question. In the course of my endeavours I obtained a promise
from the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, the Comte de Mirabeau the Abbé
Siéyes, Monsieur Bergasse, and Monsieur Pétion de Villeneuvé, five of
the most approved members of the National Assembly, that they would meet
me if I would fix a day. I obtained a similar promise from the Marquis
de Condorcet, and Clavière and Brissot, as members selected from the
committee of the Friends of the Negroes. And Messieurs de Roveray and Du
Monde, two Genevese gentlemen at Versailles, men of considerable
knowledge and interest, and who had heard of our intended meeting, were
to join us at their own request. The place chosen was the house of the
Bishop of Chartres at Versailles.

I was now in hope that I should soon bring the question to some issue;
and on the 4th of October I went to dine with the Bishop of Chartres to
fix the day. We appointed the 7th. But how soon, frequently, do our
prospects fade! From the conversation which took place at dinner, I
began to fear that our meeting would not be realised. About three days
before, the officers of the Garde du Corps had given the memorable
banquet, recorded in the annals of the revolution, to the officers of
the regiment of Flanders, which then lay at Versailles. This was a topic
on which the company present dwelt. They condemned it as a most fatal
measure in these heated times; and were apprehensive that something
would grow immediately out of it, which might endanger the king's
safety. In passing afterwards through the streets of Versailles my fears
increased. I met several of that regiment in groups. Some were
brandishing their swords. Others were walking arm in arm, and singing
tumultuously. Others were standing and conversing earnestly together.
Among the latter I heard one declare with great vehemence, "that it
should not be; that the revolution must go on." On my arrival at Paris
in the evening, the Palais Royal was full of people; and there were
movements and buzzings among them, as if something was expected to
happen. The next day, when I went into the streets, it was obvious what
was going to take place. Suffice it to say, that the next evening the
king and queen were brought prisoners into Paris. After this, things
were in such an unsettled state for a few days, and the members of the
National Assembly were so occupied in the consideration of the event
itself, and of the consequences which might attend it, that my little
meeting, of which it had cost me so much time and trouble to procure the
appointment, was entirely prevented.

I had now to wait patiently till a new opportunity should occur. The
Comte de Mirabeau, before the departure of the king, had moved, and
carried the resolution, that "the Assembly was inseparable from his
majesty's person." It was expected, therefore, that the National
Assembly would immediately transfer its sittings to Paris. This took
place on the 19th. It was now more easy for me to bring persons
together, than when I had to travel backward and forward to Versailles.
Accordingly, by watching my opportunities, I obtained the promise of
another meeting. This was held afterwards at the Duke de la
Rochefoucauld's. The persons before mentioned were present; except the
Comte de Mirabeau, whose occupations at that moment made it utterly
impossible for him to attend.

The duke opened the business in an appropriate manner; and concluded, by
desiring each person to give his opinion frankly and unequivocally as to
what might be expected of the National Assembly relative to the great
measure of the abolition of the Slave Trade.

The Abbé Siéyes rose up, and said it would probably bring the business
within a shorter compass if, instead of discussing this proposition at
large, I were to put to the meeting my own questions. I accordingly
accepted this offer, and began by asking those present "how long it was
likely that the present National Assembly would sit?" After some
conversation, it was replied that "it would sit till it had completed
the constitution, and interwoven such fixed principles into it, that the
legislature which should succeed it might have nothing more to do than
to proceed on the ordinary business of the state. Its dissolution would
probably not take place till the month of March."

I then asked them, "whether it was their opinion that the National
Assembly would feel itself authorized to take up such a foreign question
(if I might be allowed the expression) as that of the abolition of the
Slave Trade." The answer to this was, "that the object of the National
Assembly was undoubtedly the formation of a constitution for the French
people. With respect to foreign possessions, it was very doubtful
whether it were the real interest of France to have any colonies at all;
but while it kept such colonies under its dominion, the assembly would
feel that it had the right to take up this question; and that the
question itself would naturally spring out of the bill of rights, which
had already been adopted as the basis of the constitution."

The next question I proposed was, "whether they were of opinion that the
National Assembly would do more wisely, in the present situation of
things, to determine upon the abolition of the Slave Trade now, or to
transfer it to the legislature, which was to succeed it in the month of
March."

This question gave birth to a long discussion, during which much
eloquence was displayed; but the unanimous answer, with the reasons for
it, may be conveyed in substance as follows:--"It would be most wise,"
it was said, "in the present Assembly, to introduce the question to the
notice of the nation, and this as essentially connected with the bill of
rights, but to transfer the determination of it, in a way the best
calculated to ensure success, to the succeeding legislature. The
revolution was of more importance to Frenchmen than the abolition of the
Slave Trade. To secure this was their first object, and more
particularly because the other would naturally flow from it; but the
revolution might be injured by the immediate determination of the
question. Many persons in the large towns of Bourdeaux, Marseilles,
Rouen, Nantes, and Havre, who were now friends to it, might be converted
into enemies. It would also be held up by those who wished to produce a
counter-revolution, (and the ignorant and prejudiced might believe it,)
that the Assembly had made a great sacrifice to England by thus giving
her an opportunity of enlarging her trade. The English House of Commons
had taken up the subject, but had done nothing; and though they, who
were then present, were convinced of the sincerity of the English
minister who had introduced it, and that the trade must ultimately fall
in England, yet it would not be easy to persuade many bigoted persons in
France of these truths. It would, therefore, be most wise in the
Assembly only to introduce the subject as mentioned; but if
extraordinary circumstances should arise, such as a decree that the
deputies of Colour should take their seats in the Assembly, or that
England should have begun this great work, advantage might be taken of
them, and the abolition of the Slave Trade might be resolved upon in the
present session."

The last question I proposed was this:--"If the determination of this
great question should be proposed to the next legislature, would it be
more difficult to carry it then than now?"

This question also produced much conversation; but the answer was
unanimous, "that there would be no greater difficulty in the one than in
the other case; for that the people would daily more and more admire
their constitution; that this constitution would go down to the next
legislature, from whence would issue solid and fixed principles, which
would be resorted to as a standard for decision on all occasions. Hence
the Slave Trade, which would be adjudged by it also, could not possibly
stand. Add to which, that the most virtuous members in the present would
be chosen into the new legislature, which, if the constitution were but
once fairly established, would not regard the murmurs of any town or
province." After this a desultory conversation took place, in which some
were of opinion that it would be proper, on the introduction of the
subject into the Assembly, to move for a committee of inquiry, which
should collect facts and documents against the time when it should be
taken up with a view to its final discussion.

As it now appeared to me that nothing material would be done with
respect to our cause till after the election of the new legislature, I
had thoughts of returning to England to resume my journey in quest of
evidence; but I judged it right to communicate first with the Comte de
Mirabeau and the Marquis de la Fayette, both of whom would have attended
the meeting just mentioned, if unforeseen circumstances had not
prevented them.

On conversing with the first, I found that he differed from those whom I
had consulted. He thought that the question, on account of the nature
and urgency of it, ought to be decided in the present legislature. This
was so much his opinion, that he had made a determination to introduce
it there himself; and had been preparing for his motion. He had already
drawn up the outlines of a speech for the purpose; but was in want of
circumstantial knowledge to complete it. With this knowledge he desired
me to furnish him. He then put his speech into my hand, and wished me to
take it home and peruse it. He wrote down, also, some questions, and he
gave them to me directly afterwards, and begged I would answer them at
my leisure.

On conversing with the latter, he said, "that he believed with those of
the meeting that there would be no greater difficulty in carrying the
question in the succeeding than in the present legislature; but this
consideration afforded an argument for the immediate discussion of it;
for it would make a considerable difference to suffering humanity
whether it were to be decided now or then. This was the moment to be
taken to introduce it; nor did he think that they ought to be deterred
from doing it by any supposed clamours from some of the towns in France.
The great body of the people admired the constitution, and would support
any decisions which were made in strict conformity to its principles.
With respect to any committee of inquiry, he deprecated it. The Slave
Trade, he said, was not a trade. It dishonoured the name of commerce. It
was piracy. But if so, the question which it involved was a question of
justice only; and it could not be decided, with propriety by any other
standard." I then informed him that the Comte de Mirabeau had undertaken
to introduce it into the Assembly. At this he expressed his uneasiness.
"Mirabeau," says he, "is a host in himself; and I should not be
surprised if by his own eloquence and popularity only he were to carry
it; and yet I regret that he has taken the lead in it. The cause is so
lovely that even ambition, abstractedly considered, is too impure to
take it under its protection, and not to sully it. It should have been
placed in the hands of the most virtuous man in France. This man is the
Duc de la Rochefoucauld. But you cannot alter things now. You cannot
take it out of his hands. I am sure he will be second to no one on this
occasion."

On my return to my hotel, I perused the outlines of the speech which the
Comte de Mirabeau had lent me. It afforded a masterly knowledge of the
evils of the trade, as drawn from reason only. It was put together in
the most striking and affecting manner. It contained an almost
irresistible appeal to his auditors by frequent references to the
ancient system of things in France, and to their situation and prospects
under the new. It flowed at first gently like a river in a level
country; but it grew afterwards into a mountain-torrent, and carried
everything before it. On looking at the questions which he had written
down for me, I found them consist of three. 1. What are the different
ways of reducing to slavery the inhabitants of that part of Africa which
is under the dominion of France? 2. What is the state of society there
with respect to government, industry, and the arts? 3. What are the
various evils belonging to the transportation of the Africans from their
own country?

It was peculiarly agreeable to me to find, on reading the first two
questions, that I had formed an acquaintance with Monsieur Geoffroy de
Villeneuve, who had been aide-du-camp to the Chevalier de Boufflers at
Goree; but who was then at his father's house in Paris. This gentleman
had entertained Dr. Spaarman and Mr. Wadstrom; and had accompanied them
up the Senegal, when under the protection of the French government in
Africa. He had confirmed to me the testimony which they had given before
the privy council: but he had a fund of information on this subject,
which went far beyond what these possessed, or I had ever yet collected
from books or men. He had travelled all over the kingdom of Cayor on
foot; and had made a map of it. His information was so important, that I
had been with him for almost days together to take it down. I
determined, therefore, to arrange the facts which I had obtained from
him, of which I had now a volume, that I might answer the two first
questions, which had been proposed to me; for it was of great importance
to the Comte de Mirabeau, that he should be able to appeal, in behalf of
the statements in his speech to the Assembly, to an evidence on the
spot.

In the course of my correspondence with the Comte, which continued with
but little intermission for six weeks, many circumstances took place,
which were connected with the cause, and which I shall now detail in
their order.

On waiting upon Mr. Necker, at his own request, he gave me the pleasing
intelligence, that the committee of finances, which was then composed of
members of the National Assembly, had resolved, though they had not yet
promulgated their resolution, upon a total abolition of all the bounties
then in existence in favour of the Slave Trade.

The Deputies of Colour now began to visit me at my own hotel. They
informed me, that they had been admitted, since they had seen me, into
the National Assembly. On stating their claims, the president assured
them, that they might take courage; for that the assembly knew no
distinction between Blacks and Whites, but considered all men as having
equal rights. This speech of the president, they said, had roused all
the White Colonists in Paris. Some of these had openly insulted them.
They had held also a meeting on the subject of this speech; at which
they had worked themselves up so as to become quite furious. Nothing but
intrigue was now going forward among them to put off the consideration
of the claims of the free People of Colour. They, the deputies, had been
flattered by the prospect of a hearing no less than six times; and, when
the day arrived, something had constantly occurred to prevent it.

At a subsequent interview, they appeared to be quite disheartened; and
to be grievously disappointed as to the object of their mission. They
were now sure, that they should never be able to make head against the
intrigues and plots of the White Colonists. Day after day had been fixed
as before for the hearing of their cause. Day after day it had been
deferred in like manner. They were now weary with waiting. One of them,
Ogé, could not contain himself, but broke out with great warmth--"I
begin," says he, "not to care whether the National Assembly will admit
us or not. But let it beware of the consequences. We will no longer
continue to be beheld in a degraded light. Dispatches shall go directly
to St. Domingo; and we will soon follow them. We can produce as good
soldiers on our estates, as those in France. Our own arms shall make us
independent and respectable. If we are once forced to desperate
measures, it will be in vain that thousands will be sent across the
Atlantic to bring us back to our former state." On hearing this, I
entreated the deputies, to wait with patience. I observed to them, that
in a great revolution, like that of France, things, but more
particularly such as might be thought external, could not be discussed
either so soon or so rapidly as men full of enthusiasm would wish.
France would first take care of herself. She would then, I had no doubt,
extend her care to her Colonies. Was not this a reasonable conclusion,
when they, the deputies, had almost all the first men in the Assembly in
their favour? I entreated them therefore to wait patiently; as well as
upon another consideration, which was, that by an imprudent conduct they
might not only ruin their own cause in France, but bring indescribable
misery upon their native land.

By this time a large packet, for which I had sent, from England arrived.
It consisted of above a thousand of the plan and section of a
slave-ship, with an explanation in French. It contained, also, about
five hundred coloured engravings, made from two views, which Mr.
Wadstrom had taken in Africa. The first of these represented the town of
Joal, and the king's military on horseback returning to it, after having
executed the great pillage, with their slaves. The other represented the
village of Bain; from whence ruffians were forcing a poor woman and her
children to sell them to a ship, which was then lying in the Roads. Both
these scenes Mr. Wadstrom had witnessed. I had collected, also, by this
time, one thousand of my Essays on the _Impolicy of the Slave Trade_,
which had been translated into the French language. These I now wished
to distribute, as preparatory to the motion of Mirabeau, among the
National Assembly. This distribution was afterwards undertaken and
effected by the Archbishop of Aix, the Bishop of Chartres, the Marquis
de la Fayette, the Duc de la Rochefoucauld, the Comte de Mirabeau,
Monsieur Necker, the Marquis de Condorcet, Messieurs Pétion de
Villeneuve, Bergasse, Clavière and Brissot, and by the Marchioness de la
Fayette, Madame Necker, and Madame de Poivre, the latter of whom was the
widow of the late intendant of the Isle of France.

This distribution had not been long begun, before I witnessed its
effects. The virtuous Abbé Gregoire, and several members of the National
Assembly, called upon me. The section of the slave-ship, it appeared,
had been the means of drawing them towards me. They wished for more
accurate information concerning it. Indeed, it made its impression upon
all who saw it. The Bishop of Chartres once told me, that, when he first
espoused our cause, he did it at once; for it seemed obvious to him that
no one could, under the Christian dispensation, hold another as his
slave; and it was no less obvious, where such an unnatural state
existed, that there would be great abuses; but that, nevertheless, he
had not given credit to all the tales which had been related of the
Slave Trade, till he had seen this plate; after which there was nothing
so barbarous which might not readily be believed. The Archbishop of Aix,
when I first showed him the same plate, was so struck with horror, that
he could scarcely speak: and when Mirabeau first saw it, he was so
impressed by it, that he ordered a mechanic to make a model of it in
wood, at a considerable expense. This model he kept afterwards in his
dining-room. It was a ship in miniature, about a yard long, and little
wooden men and women, which were painted black to represent the slaves,
were seen stowed in their proper places.

But while the distribution of these different articles thus contributed
to make us many friends, it called forth the extraordinary exertions of
our enemies. The merchants and others interested in the continuance of
the Slave Trade wrote letters to the Archbishop of Aix, beseeching him
not to ruin France; which he would inevitably do, if, as then president,
he were to grant a day for hearing the question of the abolition. Offers
of money were made to Mirabeau from the same quarter, if he would
totally abandon his motion. An attempt was made to establish a colonial
committee, consisting of such planters as were members of the National
Assembly, upon whom it should devolve to consider and report upon all
matters relating to the Colonies, before they could be determined there.
Books were circulated in abundance in opposition to mine. Resort was
again had to the public papers, as the means of raising a hue and cry
against the principles of the Friends of the Negroes. I was again
denounced as a spy; and as one sent by the English minister to bribe
members in the Assembly to do that in a time of public agitation, which
in the settled state of France they could never have been prevailed upon
to accomplish. And as a proof that this was my errand, it was requested
of every Frenchman to put to himself the following question, "How it
happened that England, which had considered the subject coolly and
deliberately for eighteen months, and this in a state of internal peace
and quietness, had not abolished the Slave Trade?"

The clamour which was now made against the abolition pervaded all Paris,
and reached the ears of the king; Mr. Necker had a long conversation
with him upon it; the latter sent for me immediately. He informed me
that His Majesty was desirous of making himself master of the question,
and had expressed a wish to see my _Essay on the Impolicy of the Slave
Trade_; he desired to have two copies of it, one in French, and the
other in English, and he would then take his choice as to which of them
he would read; he (Mr. Necker) was to present them. He would take with
him, also, at the same time, the beautiful specimens of the manufactures
of the Africans, which I had lent to Madame Necker out of the cabinet of
Monsieur Geoffroy de Villeneuve and others; as to the section of the
slave-ship, he thought it would affect His Majesty too much, as he was
then indisposed. All these articles, except the latter, were at length
presented; the king bestowed a good deal of time upon the specimens; he
admired them, but particularly those in gold. He expressed his surprise
at the state of some of the arts in Africa. He sent them back on the
same day on which he had examined them, and commissioned Mr. Necker to
return me his thanks, and to say that he had been highly gratified with
what he had seen; and with respect to the _Essay on the Impolicy of the
Slave Trade_, that he would read it with all the seriousness which such
a subject deserved.

My correspondence with the Comte de Mirabeau was now drawing near to its
close. I had sent him a letter every other day for a whole month, which
contained from sixteen to twenty pages; he usually acknowledged the
receipt of each; hence many of his letters came into my possession:
these were always interesting, on account of the richness of the
expressions they contained. Mirabeau even in his ordinary discourse was
eloquent; it was his peculiar talent to use such words, that they who
heard them were almost led to believe that he had taken great pains to
cull them for the occasion. But this his ordinary language was the
language also of his letters; and as they show a power of expression, by
which the reader may judge of the character of the eloquence of one, who
was then undoubtedly the greatest orator in France, I have thought it
not improper to submit one of them to his perusal in the annexed
note[A]. I could have wished, as far as it relates to myself, that it
had been less complimentary. It must be observed, however, that I had
already written to him more than two hundred pages with my own hand; and
as this was done at no small expense, time, and trouble, and solely to
qualify him for the office of doing good, he could not but set some
value upon my labours.

[Footnote A: Je fais toujours mille remercimens plus empressés et plus
affectueux à Monsieur Clarkson pour la vertueuse profusion de ses
lumières, de ses recherches, et de ses travaux. Comme ma motion, et tous
ses développemens sont entièrement prêts, j'attends avec une vive
impatience ses nouvelles lettres, afin d'achever de classer les faits et
les raisonnemens de Monsieur Clarkson, et, cette déduction entièrement
finie, de commencer à manoeuvrer en tactique le succès douteux de cette
périlleuse proposition. J'aurai l'honneur de le recevoir Dimanche depuis
onze heures, et même dix du matin jusqu'à midi, non seulement avec un
vif plaisir, mais avec une sensible reconnaissance. 25_th__Décembre_,
1789.]

When our correspondence was over, I had some conversation with him
relative to fixing a day for the motion. But he judged it prudent,
previously to this, to sound some of the members of the Assembly on the
subject of it. This he did, but he was greatly disappointed at the
result; there was not one member, out of all those with whom he
conversed, who had not been canvassed by the planters' committee; and
though most of them had been proof against all its intrigues and
artifices, yet many of them hesitated respecting the abolition at that
moment. There was a fear in some that they should injure the revolution
by adopting it; others, who had no such fears, wished for the
concurrence of England in the measure, and suggested the propriety of a
deputation there for that purpose previously to the discussion of the
question in France. While others maintained that, as England had done
nothing, after having had it so long under consideration, it was fair to
presume that she judged it impolitic to abandon the Slave Trade; but if
France were to give it up, and England to continue it, how would
humanity be the gainer?

While the Comte de Mirabeau was continuing his canvass among the members
of the National Assembly, relative to his motion, attempts were again
made in the public papers to mislead them; emancipation was now stated
to be the object of the friends of the negroes. This charge I repelled,
by addressing myself to Monsieur Beauvet. I explained to him the views
of the different societies which had taken up the cause of the Africans;
and I desired him to show my letter to the planters. I was obliged also
to answer publicly a letter by Monsieur Mosneron de Laung. This writer
professed to detail the substance of the privy council report. He had
the injustice to assert that three things had been distinctly proved
there: First, that slavery had always existed in Africa; Secondly, that
the natives were a bloody people, addicted to human sacrifice, and other
barbarous customs; and, Thirdly, that their soil was incapable of
producing any proper articles for commerce. From these premises he
argued, as if they had been established by the unanimous and
uncontradicted testimony of the witnesses; and he drew the conclusion,
that not only had England done nothing in consequence, but that she
never would do anything which should affect the existence of this trade.

But these letters had only just made their appearance in the public
papers, when I was summoned to England; parliament, it appeared, had
met, and I was immediately to leave Paris. Among those of whom I had but
just time to take leave, were the deputies of colour. At this, my last
conference with them, I recommended moderation and forbearance, as the
best gifts I could leave them; and I entreated them rather to give up
their seats in the Assembly, than on that account to bring misery on
their country; for that with patience their cause would ultimately
triumph. They replied, that I had prescribed to them a most difficult
task; they were afraid that neither the conduct of the white colonists
nor of the National Assembly could be much longer borne; they thanked
me, however, for my advice. One of them gave me a trinket, by which I
might remember him; and as for himself, he said he should never forget
one, who had taken such a deep interest in the welfare of his mother[A].
I found, however, notwithstanding all I said, that there was a spirit of
dissatisfaction in them, which nothing but a redress of their grievances
could subdue; and that, if the planters should persevere in their
intrigues, and the National Assembly in delay, a fire would be lighted
up in St. Domingo, which could not easily be extinguished. This was
afterwards realized: for Ogé, in about three months from this time, left
his companions, to report to his constituents in St. Domingo the state
of their mission; when hearing, on his arrival in that island, of the
outrageous conduct of the whites of the committee of Aquin, who had
begun a persecution of the people of colour, for no other reason than
that they had dared to seek the common privileges of citizens, and of
the murder of Ferrand and Labadie, he imprudently armed his slaves. With
a small but faithful band he rushed upon superior numbers, and was
defeated; taking refuge at length in the Spanish part of St. Domingo, he
was given up, and his enemies, to strike terror into the people of
colour, broke him upon the wheel. From this time reconciliation between
the parties became impossible; a bloody war commenced, and with it all
those horrors which it has been our lot so frequently to deplore. It
must be remembered, however, that the Slave Trade, by means of the cruel
distinctions it occasioned, was the original cause; and though the
revolution of France afforded the occasion, it was an occasion which
would have been prevented, if it had not been for the intrigues and
injustice of the whites.

[Footnote A: Africa.]

Another upon whom I had time to call was the amiable bishop of Chartres.
When I left him, the Abbé Siéyes, who was with him, desired to walk with
me to my hotel; he there presented me with a set of his works, which he
sent for while he staid with me; and, on parting, he made use of this
complimentary expression, in allusion, I suppose, to the cause I had
undertaken,--"I am pleased to have been acquainted with the friend of
man."

It was necessary that I should see the Comte de Mirabeau and the Marquis
de la Fayette before I left Paris, I had written to each of them to
communicate the intelligence of my departure, as soon as I received it.
The comte, it appeared had nearly canvassed the Assembly; he could count
upon three hundred members, who, for the sake of justice, and without
any consideration of policy or of consequences, would support his
motion. But alas! what proportion did this number bear to twelve
hundred! About five hundred more would support him, but only on one
condition, which was, if England would give an unequivocal proof of her
intention to abolish the trade. The knowledge of these circumstances, he
said, had induced him to write a letter to Mr. Pitt. In this he had
explained how far he could proceed without his assistance, and how far
with it. He had frankly developed to him the mind and temper of the
Assembly on this subject; but his answer must be immediate, for the
white colonists were daily gaining such an influence there, that he
forsaw that it would be impossible to carry the measure, if it were long
delayed. On taking leave of him he desired me to be the bearer of the
letter, and to present it to Mr. Pitt.

On conversing with the Marquis de la Fayette, he lamented deeply the
unexpected turn which the cause of the Negroes had lately taken in the
Assembly. It was entirely owing to the daily intrigues of the White
Colonists. He feared they would ruin everything. If the Deputies of
Colour had been heard on their arrival, their rights would have been
acknowledged. But now there was little probability that they would
obtain them. He foresaw nothing but desolation in St. Domingo. With
respect to the abolition of the Slave Trade, it might be yet carried;
but not unless England would concur in the measure. On this topic he
enlarged with much feeling. He hoped the day was near at hand, when two
great nations, which had been hitherto distinguished only for their
hostility, one toward the other, would unite in so sublime a measure;
and that they would follow up their union by another, still more lovely,
for the preservation of eternal and universal peace. Thus their future
rivalships might have the extraordinary merit of being rivalships in
good. Thus the revolution of France, through the mighty aid of England,
might become the source of civilization, of freedom, and of happiness to
the whole world. No other nations were sufficiently enlightened for such
an union, but all other nations might be benefited by it.

The last person whom I saw was Brissot. He accompanied me to my
carriage. With him, therefore, I shall end my French account; and I
shall end it in no way so satisfactory to myself, as in a very concise
vindication of his character, from actual knowledge, against the attacks
of those who have endeavoured to disparage it; but who never knew him.
Justice and truth, I am convinced, demand some little declaration on
this subject at my hands. Brissot then was a man of plain and modest
appearance. His habits, contrary to those of his countrymen in general,
were domestic. In his own family he set an amiable example, both as a
husband and as a father. On all occasions he was a faithful friend. He
was particularly watchful over his private conduct. From the simplicity
of his appearance, and the severity of his morals, he was called "The
Quaker;" at least in all the circles which I frequented. He was a man of
deep feeling. He was charitable to the poor as far as a slender income
permitted him. But his benevolence went beyond the usual bounds. He was
no patriot in the ordinary acceptation of the word; for he took the
habitable globe as his country and wished to consider every foreigner as
his brother.

I left France, as it may be easily imagined, much disappointed, that my
labours, which had been of nearly six months continuance, should have
had no better success; nor did I see, in looking forward, any
circumstances that were consoling with respect to the issue of them
there; for it was impossible that Mr. Pitt, even if he had been inclined
to write to Mirabeau, circumstanced as matters then were with respect to
the hearing of evidence, could have given him a promise, at least of a
speedy abolition; and, unless his answer had been immediate, it would
have arrived, seeing that the French planters were daily profiting by
their intrigues, too late to be effectual.

I had but just arrived in England, when Mr. Wilberforce made a new
motion in the House of Commons on the subject of the Slave Trade. In
referring to the transactions of the last session, he found that
twenty-eight days had been allotted to the hearing of witnesses against
the abolition, and that eleven persons only had been examined in that
time. If the examinations were to go on in the same manner, they might
be made to last for years. He resolved, therefore, to move, that,
instead of hearing evidence in future in the house at large, members
should hear it in an open committee above stairs; which committee should
sit notwithstanding any adjournment of the house itself. This motion he
made; and in doing it he took an opportunity of correcting an erroneous
report; which was, that he had changed his mind on this great subject.
This was, he said, so far from being the case, that the more he
contemplated the trade, the more enormous he found it, and the more he
felt himself compelled to persevere in endeavours for its abolition.

One would have thought that a motion, so reasonable and so
constitutional, would have met with the approbation of all; but it was
vehemently opposed by Mr. Gascoyne, Alderman Newnham, and others. The
plea set up was, that there was no precedent for referring a question of
such importance to a committee. It was now obvious, that the real object
of our opponents in abandoning decision by the privy council evidence
was delay. Unable to meet us there, they were glad to fly to any
measure, which should enable them to put off the evil day. This charge
was fixed upon them in unequivocal language by Mr. Fox; who observed
besides, that if the members of the house should then resolve to hear
evidence in a committee of the whole house as before, it would amount to
a resolution, that the question of the abolition of the Slave Trade
should be put by, or at least that it should never be decided by them.
After a long debate, the motion of Mr. Wilberforce was voted without a
division; and the examination of witnesses proceeded in behalf of those
who were interested in the continuance of the trade.

This measure having been resolved upon, by which despatch in the
examinations was promoted, I was alarmed lest we should be called upon
for our own evidence, before we were fully prepared. The time which I
had originally allotted for the discovery of new witnesses, had been
taken up, if not wasted, in France. In looking over the names of the
sixteen, who were to have been examined by the committee of privy
council, if there had been time, one had died, and eight, who were
sea-faring people, were out of the kingdom. It was time, therefore, to
stir immediately in this business. Happily, on looking over my letters,
which I found on my arrival in England, the names of several had been
handed to me, with the places of their abode, who could give me
information on the subject of our question. All these I visited with the
utmost despatch. I was absent only three weeks. I had travelled a
thousand miles in this time, had conversed with seventeen persons, and
had prevailed upon three to be examined.

I had scarcely returned with the addition of these witnesses to my list,
when I found it necessary to go out again upon the same errand. This
second journey arose in part from the following circumstances. There was
a matter in dispute relative to the mode of obtaining slaves in the
rivers of Calabar and Bonny. It was usual, when the slave-ships lay
there, for a number of canoes to go into the inland country. These went
in a fleet. There might be from thirty to forty armed natives in each of
them. Every canoe, also, had a four or a six-pounder (cannon) fastened
to her bow. Equipped in this manner they departed; and they were usually
absent from eight to fourteen days. It was said that they went to fairs,
which were held on the banks of these rivers, and at which there was a
regular show of slaves. On their return they usually brought down from
eight hundred to a thousand of these for the ships. These lay at the
bottom of the canoes; their arms and legs having been first bound by the
ropes of the country. Now the question was, how the people, thus going
up these rivers, obtained their slaves?

It was certainly a very suspicious circumstance, that such a number of
persons should go out upon these occasions; and that they should be
armed in such a manner. We presumed, therefore, that, though they might
buy many of the slaves, whom they brought down, at the fairs which have
been mentioned, they obtained others by violence, as opportunity
offered. This inference we pressed upon our opponents, and called upon
them to show what circumstances made such warlike preparations necessary
on these excursions. To this they replied readily, "The people in the
canoes," said they, "pass through the territories of different petty
princes; to each of whom, on entering his territory, they pay a tribute
or toll. This tribute has been long fixed; but attempts frequently have
been made to raise it. They who follow the trade cannot afford to submit
to these unreasonable demands; and therefore they arm themselves in case
of any determination on the part of these petty princes to enforce
them." This answer we never judged to be satisfactory. We tried
therefore, to throw light upon the subject, by inquiring if the natives
who went upon these expeditions usually took with them as many goods as
would amount to the number of the slaves they were accustomed to bring
back with them. But we could get no direct answer, from any actual
knowledge, to this question. All had seen the canoes go out and return;
but no one had seen them loaded, or had been on board them. It appeared,
however, from circumstantial evidence, that though the natives on these
occasions might take some articles of trade with them, it was impossible
from appearances that they could take them in the proportion mentioned.
We maintained, then, our inference as before; but it was still uniformly
denied.

How then were we to decide this important question? for it was said that
no white man was ever permitted by the natives to go up in these canoes.
On mentioning accidentally the circumstances of the case, as I have now
stated them, to a friend, immediately on my return from my last journey,
he informed me that he himself had been in company, about a year before,
with a sailor, a very respectable-looking man, who had been up these
rivers. He had spent half an hour with him at an inn. He described his
person to me; but he knew nothing of his name, or of the place of his
abode. All he knew was, that he was either going, or that he belonged
to, some ship of war in ordinary; but he could not tell at what port. I
might depend upon all these circumstances if the man had not deceived
him; and he saw no reason why he should.

I felt myself set on fire, as it were, by this intelligence, deficient
as it was; and I seemed to determine instantly that I would, if it were
possible, find him out. For if our suspicions were true that the natives
frequently were kidnapped in these expeditions, it would be of great
importance to the cause of the abolition to have them confirmed; for as
many slaves came annually from these two rivers, as from all the coast
of Africa besides. But how to proceed on so blind an errand was the
question. I first thought of trying to trace the man by letter; but this
might be tedious. The examinations were now going on rapidly. We should
soon be called upon for evidence ourselves; besides, I knew nothing of
his name. I then thought it to be a more effectual way to apply to Sir
Charles Middleton, as comptroller of the navy, by whose permission I
could board every ship of war in ordinary in England, and judge for
myself. But here the undertaking seemed very arduous, and the time it
would consume became an objection in this respect, that I thought I
could not easily forgive myself, if I were to fail in it. My
inclination, however, preponderated this way. At length I determined to
follow it; for, on deliberate consideration, I found that I could not
employ my time more advantageously to the cause; for as other witnesses
must be found out somewhere, it was highly probable that, if I should
fail in the discovery of this man, I should, by moving among such a
number of sea-faring people, find others who could give their testimony
in our favour.

I must now inform the reader, that ships of war in ordinary, in one of
which this man was reported to be, are those which are out of
commission, and which are laid up in the different rivers and waters in
the neighbourhood of the king's dock-yards. Every one of these has a
boatswain, gunner, carpenter, and assistants on board. They lie usually
in divisions of ten or twelve; and a master in the navy has a command
over every division.

At length I began my journey. I boarded all the ships of war lying in
ordinary at Deptford, and examined the different persons in each. From
Deptford I proceeded to Woolwich, where I did the same. Thence I
hastened to Chatham, and then, down the Medway, to Sheerness. I had now
boarded above a hundred and sixty vessels of war. I had found out two
good and willing evidences among them; but I could gain no intelligence
of him who was the object of my search.

From Chatham I made the best of my way to Portsmouth harbour. A very
formidable task presented itself here; but the masters' boats were ready
for me, and I continued my pursuit. On boarding the Pegase, on the
second day, I discovered a very respectable person in the gunner of that
ship. His name was George Millar. He had been on board the Canterbury
slaveship at the dreadful massacre at Calabar. He was the only
disinterested evidence living, of whom I had yet heard. He expressed his
willingness to give, his testimony, if his presence should be thought
necessary in London. I then continued my pursuit for the remainder of
the day. On the next day I resumed and finished it for this quarter. I
had now examined the different persons in more than a hundred vessels in
this harbour, but I had not discovered the person I had gone to seek.

Matters now began to look rather disheartening, I mean as far as my
grand object was concerned. There was but one other port left, and this
was between two and three hundred miles distant. I determined, however,
to go to Plymouth. I had already been more successful in this tour, with
respect to obtaining general evidences than in any other of the same
length; and the probability was, that as I should continue to move among
the same kind of people, my success would be in a similar proportion
according to the number visited. These were great encouragements to me
to proceed. At length I arrived at the place of my last hope. On my
first day's expedition I boarded forty vessels, but found no one in
these who had been on the coast of Africa in the Slave Trade. One or two
had been there in king's ships; but they had never been on shore. Things
were now drawing near to a close; and, notwithstanding my success as to
general evidence in this journey, my heart began to beat. I was restless
and uneasy during the night. The next morning I felt agitated again
between the alternate pressure of hope and fear; and in this state I
entered my boat. The fifty-seventh vessel, which I boarded in this
harbour was the Melampus frigate. One person belonging to it, on
examining him in the captain's cabin, said he had been two voyages to
Africa; and I had not long discoursed with him before I found, to my
inexpressible joy, that he was the man. I found, too, that he unravelled
the question in dispute precisely as our inferences had determined it.
He had been two expeditions up the river Calabar in the canoes of the
natives. In the first of these, they came within a certain distance of a
village. They then concealed themselves under the bushes, which hung
over the water from the banks. In this position they remained during
day-light; but at night they went up to it armed, and seized all the
inhabitants, who had not time to make their escape. They obtained
forty-five persons in this manner. In the second, they were out eight or
nine days, when they made a similar attempt, and with nearly similar
success. They seized men, women, and children, as they could find them
in the huts. They then bound their arms, and drove them before them to
the canoes. The name of the person, thus discovered on board the
Melampus, was Isaac Parker. On inquiring into his character from the
master of the division, I found it highly respectable. I found, also,
afterwards, that he had sailed with Captain Cook, with great credit to
himself, round the world. It was also remarkable that my brother, on
seeing him in London, when he went to deliver his evidence, recognised
him as having served on board the Monarch man-of-war, and as one of the
most exemplary men in that ship.

I returned now in triumph. I had been out only three weeks, and I had
found out this extraordinary person, and five respectable witnesses
besides. These, added to the three discovered in the last journey, and
to those provided before, made us more formidable than at any former
period; so that the delay of our opponents, which we had looked upon as
so great an evil, proved in the end truly serviceable to our cause.

On going into the committee-room of the House of Commons on my return, I
found that the examinations were still going on in the behalf of those
who were interested in the continuance of the trade; and they went on
beyond the middle of April, when it was considered that they had closed.
Mr. Wilberforce moved accordingly, on the 23rd of the same month, that
Captain Thomas Wilson, of the royal navy, and that Charles Berns
Wadstrom and Henry Hew Dalrymple, Esqrs., do attend as witnesses on the
behalf of the abolition. There was nothing now but clamour from those on
the opposite side of the question. They knew well that there were but
few members of the House of Commons, who had read the privy council
report. They knew, therefore, that if the question were to be decided by
evidence, it must be decided by that which their own witnesses had given
before parliament. But this was the evidence only on one side. It was
certain, therefore, if the decision were to be made upon this basis,
that it must be entirely in their favour. Will it then be believed that
in an English House of Commons there could be found persons, who could
move to prevent the hearing of any other witnesses on this subject; and,
what is more remarkable, that they should charge Mr. Wilberforce,
because he proposed the hearing of them, with the intention solely of
delay? Yes, such persons were found; but happily only among the friends
of the Slave Trade. Mr. Wilberforce, in replying to them, could not help
observing that it was rather extraordinary that they, who had occasioned
the delay of a whole year, should charge him with that of which they
themselves had been so conspicuously guilty. He then commented for some
time on the injustice of their motion. He stated, too, that he would
undertake to remove from disinterested and unprejudiced persons many of
the impressions which had been made by the witnesses against the
abolition; and he appealed to the justice and honour of the house in
behalf of an injured people; under the hope that they would not allow a
decision to be made till they had heard the whole of the case. These
observations, however, did not satisfy all those who belonged to the
opposite party. Lord Penrhyn contended for a decision without a moment's
delay. Mr. Gascoyne relented; and said, he would allow three weeks to
the abolitionists, during which their evidence might be heard. At
length, the debate ended; in the course of which Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox
powerfully supported Mr. Wilberforce; when the motion was negatived
without any attempt at a division.

The witnesses in behalf of the abolition of the Slave Trade now took
possession of the ground which those in favour of it had left. But what
was our surprise, when only three of them had been heard, to find that
Mr. Norris should come forward as an evidence! This he did to confirm
what he had stated to the privy council as to the general question; but
he did it more particularly, as it appeared afterwards, in the
justification of his own conduct: for the part which he had taken at
Liverpool, as it related to me, had become a subject of conversation
with many. It was now well known what assistance he had given me there
in my pursuit; how he had even furnished me with clauses for a bill, for
the abolition of the trade; how I had written to him, in consequence of
his friendly co-operation, to come up as an evidence in our favour; and
how at that moment he had accepted the office of a delegate on the
contrary side. The noise which the relation and repetition of these and
other circumstances had made, had given him, I believe, considerable
pain. His friends, too, had urged some explanation as necessary. But how
short-sighted are they who do wrong! By coming forward in this imprudent
manner, he fixed the stain only the more indelibly on himself; for he
thus imposed upon me the cruel necessity of being examined against him;
and this necessity was the more afflicting, to me, because I was to be
called upon not to state facts relative to the trade, but to destroy his
character as an evidence in its support. I was to be called upon, in
fact, to explain all those communications which have been stated to have
taken place between us on this subject. Glad indeed should I have been
to have declined this painful interference. But no one would hear of a
refusal. The Bishop of London, Mr. Pitt, and Mr. Wilberforce considered
my appearance on this occasion as an imperious duty to the cause of the
oppressed. It may be perhaps sufficient to say that I was examined; that
Mr. Norris was present all the time; that I was cross-examined by
counsel; and, that after this time, Mr. Norris seemed to have no
ordinary sense of his own degradation; for he never afterwards held up
his head or looked the abolitionists in the face, or acted with energy
as a delegate, as on former occasions.

The hearing of evidence continued to go on in behalf of the abolition of
the trade. No less than twenty-four witnesses altogether were heard in
this session. And here it may not be improper to remark, that during the
examination of our own witnesses, as well as the cross-examination of
those of our opponents, no counsel were ever employed. Mr. Wilberforce
and Mr. William Smith undertook this laborious department; and as they
performed it with great ability, so they did it with great liberality
towards those who were obliged to come under their notice, in the course
of this fiery ordeal.

The bill of Sir William Dolben was now to be renewed. On this occasion
the enemies of the abolition became again conspicuous; for on the 26th
of May, they availed themselves of a thin house to propose an amendment,
by which they increased the number of the slaves to the tonnage of the
vessel. They increased it, too, without taking into the account, as had
hitherto been done, the extent of the superficies of the vessels which
were to carry them. This was the third indecorous attempt against what
were only reasonable and expected proceedings in the present session.
But their advantage was of no great duration; for the very next day, the
amendment was rejected on the report by a majority of ninety-five to
sixty-nine, in consequence, principally, of the private exertions of Mr.
Pitt. Of this bill, though it was renewed in other years besides the
present, I shall say no more in this _History_; because it has nothing
to do with the general question. Horrible as it yet left the situation
of the poor slaves in their transportation, (which the plate has most
abundantly shown,) it was the best bill which could be then obtained;
and it answered to a certain degree the benevolent wishes of the worthy
baronet who introduced it: for if we could conclude, that these voyages
were made more comfortable to the injured Africans, in proportion as
there was less mortality in them, he had undoubtedly the pleasure of
seeing the end, at least partially, obtained; though he must always have
felt a great drawback from it, by reflecting that the survivors, however
their sufferings might have been a little diminished, were reserved for
slavery.

The session was now near its close; and we had the sorrow to find,
though we had defeated our opponents in the three instances which have
been mentioned, that the tide ran decidedly against us, upon the general
question, in the House of Commons. The same statements which had struck
so many members with panic in the former sessions, such as that of
emancipation, of the ruin and massacre of the planters, and of
indemnification to the amount of seventy millions, had been
industriously kept up, and this by a personal canvass among them. But
this hostile disposition was still unfortunately increased by
considerations of another sort. For the witnesses of our opponents had
taken their ground first. No less than eleven of them had been examined
in the last sessions. In the present, two-thirds of the time had been
occupied by others on the same side. Hence the impression upon this
ground also was against us; and we had yet had no adequate opportunity
of doing it away. A clamour was also raised, where we thought it least
likely to have originated. They (the planters), it was said, had
produced persons in elevated life, and of the highest character, as
witnesses; whereas we had been obliged to take up with those of the
lowest condition. This idea was circulated directly after the
introduction of Isaac Parker, before mentioned, a simple mariner, and
who was now contrasted with the admirals on the other side of the
question. This outcry was not only ungenerous, but unconstitutional. It
is the glory of the English law, that it has no scale of veracity which
it adapts to persons, according to the station which they may be found
to occupy in life. In our courts of law, the poor are heard as well as
the rich; and if their reputation be fair, and they stand proof against
the cross-examinations they undergo, both the judge and the jury must
determine the matter in dispute by their evidence. But the House of
Commons was now called upon by our opponents, to adopt the preposterous
maxim of attaching falsehood to poverty, or of weighing truth by the
standard of rank and riches.

But though we felt a considerable degree of pain in finding this adverse
disposition among so many members of the Lower House, it was some
consolation to us to know that our cause had not suffered with their
constituents,--the people. These were still warmly with us. Indeed,
their hatred of the trade had greatly increased. Many circumstances had
occurred in this year to promote it. The committee, during my absence in
France, had circulated the plate of the slave-ship throughout all
England. No one saw it but he was impressed. It spoke to him in a
language which was at once intelligible and irresistible. It brought
forth the tear of sympathy in behalf of the sufferers, and it fixed
their sufferings in his heart. The committee, too, had been particularly
vigilant during the whole of the year with respect to the public papers.
They had suffered no statement in behalf of those interested in the
continuance of the trade to go unanswered. Dr. Dickson, the author of
the _Letters on Slavery_, before mentioned, had come forward again with
his services on this occasion; and, by his active co-operation with a
sub-committee appointed for the purpose, the coast was so well cleared
of our opponents, that, though they were seen the next year again,
through the medium of the same papers, they appeared only in sudden
incursions, as it were, during which they darted a few weapons at us;
but they never afterward ventured upon the plain to dispute the matter,
inch by inch, or point by point, in an open and manly manner.

But other circumstances occurred to keep up a hatred of the trade among
the people in this interval, which, trivial as they were, ought not to
be forgotten. The amiable poet Cowper had frequently made the Slave
Trade the subject of his contemplation. He had already severely
condemned it in his valuable poem _The Task_. But now he had written
three little fugitive pieces upon it. Of these, the most impressive was
that which he called _The Negro's Complaint_, and of which the following
is a copy:--


  Forced from home and all its pleasures,
    Afric's coast I left forlorn,
  To increase a stranger's treasures,
    O'er the raging billows borne;
  Men from England bought and sold me,
    Paid my price in paltry gold;
  But, though theirs they have enroll'd me,
    Minds are never to be sold.

  Still in thought as free as ever,
    What are England's rights, I ask,
  Me from my delights to sever,
    Me to torture, me to task?
  Fleecy locks and black complexion
    Cannot forfeit Nature's claim;
  Skins may differ, but affection
    Dwells in black and white the same.

  Why did all-creating Nature
    Make the plant, for which we toil?
  Sighs must fan it, tears must water,
    Sweat of ours must dress the soil.
  Think, ye masters, iron-hearted,
    Lolling at your jovial boards,
  Think, how many backs have smarted
    For the sweets your cane affords.

  Is there, as you sometimes tell us,
    Is there one, who rules on high;
  Has he bid you buy and sell us,
    Speaking from his throne, the sky?
  Ask him, if your knotted scourges,
    Fetters, blood-extorting screws,
  Are the means, which duty urges
    Agents of his will to use?

  Hark! he answers. Wild tornadoes,
    Strewing yonder sea with wrecks,
  Wasting towns, plantations, meadows,
    Are the voice with which he speaks.
  He, foreseeing what vexations
    Afric's sons should undergo,
  Fixed their tyrants' habitations
    Where his whirlwinds answer--No.

  By our blood in Afric wasted,
    Ere our necks received the chain;
  By the miseries, which we tasted
    Crossing, in your barks, the main;
  By our sufferings, since you brought us
    To the man-degrading mart,
  All-sustained by patience, taught us
    Only by a broken heart:

  Deem our nation brutes no longer,
    Till some reason you shall find
  Worthier of regard, and stronger,
    Than the colour of our kind.
  Slaves of gold! whose sordid dealings
    Tarnish all, your boasted powers,
  Prove that you have human feelings,
    Ere you proudly question ours.


This little piece Cowper presented in manuscript to some of his friends
in London; and these, conceiving it to contain a powerful appeal in
behalf of the injured Africans, joined in printing it. Having ordered it
on the finest hot-pressed paper, and folded it up in a small and neat
form, they gave it the printed title of _A Subject for Conversation at
the Tea-table_. After this, they sent many thousand copies of it in
franks into the country. From one it spread to another, till it
travelled almost over the whole island. Falling at length into the hands
of the musician, it was set to music; and it then found its way into the
streets, both of the metropolis and of the country, where it was sung as
a ballad; and where it gave a plain account of the subject, with an
appropriate feeling, to those who heard it.

Nor was the philanthropy of the late Mr. Wedgewood less instrumental in
turning the popular feeling in our favour. He made his own manufactory
contribute to this end. He took the seal of the committee, as exhibited
in Chap. XX., for his model; and he produced a beautiful cameo, of a
less size, of which the ground was a most delicate white, but the Negro,
who was seen imploring compassion in the middle of it, was in his own
native colour. Mr. Wedgewood made a liberal donation of these, when
finished, among his friends. I received from him no less than five
hundred of them myself. They, to whom they were sent, did not lay them
up in their cabinets, but gave them away likewise. They were soon, like
_The Negro's Complaint_, in different parts of the kingdom. Some had
them inlaid in gold on the lid of their snuff-boxes. Of the ladies,
several wore them in bracelets, and others had them fitted up in an
ornamental manner as pins for their hair. At length the taste for
wearing them became general; and thus fashion, which usually confines
itself to worthless things, was seen for once in the honourable office
of promoting the cause of justice, humanity, and freedom.

I shall now only state that the committee took as members within its own
body, in the period of time which is included in this chapter, the
Reverend Mr. Ormerod, chaplain to the Bishop of London, and Captain
James Bowen, of the royal navy; that they elected the Honourable
Nathaniel Curzon (afterwards Lord Scarsdale), Dr. Frossard, of Lyons,
and Benjamin Garlike, Esq., then secretary to the English embassy at the
Hague, honorary and corresponding members; and that they concluded their
annual labours with a suitable report, in which they noticed the
extraordinary efforts of our opponents to injure our cause in the
following manner:--"In the progress of this business, a powerful
combination of interest has been excited against us. The African trader,
the planter, and the West India merchant, have united their forces to
defend the fortress, in which their supposed treasures lie. Vague
calculations and false alarms have been thrown out to the public, in
order to show that the constitution, and even the existence, of this
free and opulent nation depend on its depriving the inhabitants of a
foreign country of those rights and of that liberty which we ourselves
so highly and so justly prize. Surely, in the nature of things, and in
the order of Providence, it cannot be so. England existed as a great
nation long before the African commerce was known amongst us, and it is
not to acts of injustice and violence that she owes her present rank in
the scale of nations."




CHAPTER XXVI.

--Continuation from July, 1790, to July, 1791.--Author travels again
throughout the kingdom; object of his journey.--Motion in the House of
Commons to resume the hearing of evidence in favour of the abolition;
list of all those examined on this side of the question; machinations
of interested persons, and cruel circumstances of the times previously
to the day of decision.--Motion at length made for stopping all
further importation of Slaves from Africa; debates upon it; motion
lost.--Resolutions of the committee for the Abolition of the Slave
Trade.--Establishment of the Sierra Leone Company.


It was a matter of deep affliction to us to think, that the crimes and
sufferings inseparable from the Slave Trade were to be continued to
another year. And yet it was our duty, in the present moment, to
acquiesce in the postponement of the question. This postponement was not
now for the purpose of delay, but of securing victory. The evidence, on
the side of the abolition, was, at the end of the last session, but half
finished. It was impossible, for the sake of Africa, that we could have
then closed it. No other opportunity might offer in parliament for
establishing an indelible record in her favour, if we were to neglect
the present. It was our duty, therefore, even to wait to complete it,
and to procure such a body of evidence, as should not only bear us out
in the approaching contest, but such as, if we were to fail, would bear
out our successors also. It was possible, indeed, if the inhabitants of
our islands were to improve in civilization, that the poor slaves might
experience gradually an improved treatment with it; and so far testimony
now might not be testimony for ever; but it was utterly impossible,
while the Slave Trade lasted, and the human passion continued to be the
same, that there should be any change for the better in Africa; or that
any modes, less barbarous, should come into use for procuring slaves.
Evidence, therefore, if once collected on this subject, would be
evidence for posterity. In the midst of these thoughts another journey
occurred to me as necessary for this purpose; and I prayed, that I might
have strength to perform it in the most effectual manner; and that I
might be daily impressed, as I travelled along, with the stimulating
thought, that the last hope for millions might possibly rest upon my own
endeavours.

The committee highly approved of this journey; Mr. Wilberforce saw the
absolute necessity of it also, and had prepared a number of questions,
with great ingenuity, to be put to such persons as might have
information to communicate. These I added to those in the tables, which
have been already mentioned, and they made together a valuable
collection on the subject.

This tour was the most vexatious of any I had yet undertaken; many still
refused to come forward to be examined, and some on the most frivolous
pretences, so that I was disgusted, as I journeyed on, to find how
little men were disposed to make sacrifices for so great a cause. In one
part of it I went over nearly two thousand miles, receiving repeated
refusals; I had not secured one witness within this distance; this was
truly disheartening. I was subject to the whims and caprice of those
whom I solicited on these occasions[A]; to these I was obliged to
accommodate myself. When at Edinburgh, a person who could have given me
material information declined seeing me, though he really wished well to
the cause; when I had returned southward as far as York, he changed his
mind, and he would then see me; I went back that I might not lose him.
When I arrived, he would give me only private information. Thus I
travelled, backwards and forwards, four hundred miles to no purpose. At
another place a circumstance almost similar happened, though with a
different issue. I had been for two years writing about a person, whose
testimony was important. I had passed once through the town in which he
lived, but he would not then see me; I passed through it now, but no
entreaties of his friends could make him alter his resolution. He was a
man highly respectable as to situation in life, but of considerable
vanity. I said therefore to my friend, on leaving the town, You may tell
him that I expect to be at Nottingham in a few days, and though it be a
hundred and fifty miles distant, I will even come back to see him if he
will dine with me on my return. A letter from my friend announced to me,
when at Nottingham, that his vanity had been so gratified by the thought
of a person coming expressly to visit him from such a distance, that he
would meet me according to my appointment; I went back; we dined
together; he yielded to my request; I was now repaid, and I returned
towards Nottingham in the night. These circumstances I mention, and I
feel it right to mention them, that the reader may be properly impressed
with the great difficulties we found in collecting a body of evidence in
comparison with our opponents. They ought never to be forgotten; for if
with the testimony, picked up as it were under all these disadvantages,
we carried our object against those who had almost numberless witnesses
to command, what must have been the merits of our cause! No person can
indeed judge of the severe labour and trials in these journeys. In the
present, I was out four months; I was almost over the whole island; I
intersected it backwards and forwards both in the night and in the day;
I travelled nearly seven thousand miles in this time, and I was able to
count upon twenty new and willing evidences.

Having now accomplished my object, Mr. Wilberforce moved on the 4th of
February in the House of Commons, that a committee be appointed to
examine further witnesses in behalf of the abolition of the Slave Trade,
This motion was no sooner made, than Mr. Cawthorne rose, to our great
surprise, to oppose it. He took upon himself to decide that the House
had heard evidence enough. This indecent motion was not without its
advocates. Mr. Wilberforce set forth the injustice of this attempt, and
proved, that out of eighty-one days which had been given up to the
hearing of evidence, the witnesses against the abolition had occupied no
less than fifty-seven. He was strenuously supported by Mr. Burke, Mr.
Martin, and other respectable members. At length the debate ended in
favour of the original motion, and a committee was appointed
accordingly.

The examinations began again on February 7th, and continued till April
5th, when they were finally closed. In this, as in the former session,
Mr. Wilberforce and Mr. William Smith principally conducted them; and
indeed it was necessary that they should have been present at these
times; for it is perhaps difficult to conceive the illiberal manner in
which our witnesses were treated by those on the other side of the
question. Men who had left the trade upon principle, and who had come
forward, against their apparent interest, to serve the cause of humanity
and justice, were looked upon as mercenaries and culprits, or as men of
doubtful and suspicious character; they were brow-beaten; unhandsome
questions were put to them; some were kept for four days under
examination. It was however highly to their honour that they were found
in no one instance to prevaricate, nor to waver as to the certainty of
their facts.

But this treatment, hard as it was for them to bear, was indeed good for
the cause; for, coming thus pure out of the fire, they occasioned their
own testimony, when read, to bear stronger marks of truth than that of
the generality of our opponents; nor was it less superior when weighed
by other considerations. For the witnesses, against the abolition were
principally interested; they, who were not, had been hospitably received
at the planters' tables. The evidence, too, which they delivered, was
almost wholly negative. They had not seen such and such evils; but this
was no proof that the evils did not exist. The witnesses, on the other
hand, who came up in favour of the abolition, had no advantage in making
their several assertions. In some instances they came up against their
apparent interest, and, to my knowledge, suffered persecution for so
doing. The evidence also which they delivered was of a positive nature.
They gave an account of specific evils, which had come under their own
eyes; these evils were never disproved; they stood therefore on a firm
basis, as on a tablet of brass. Engraved there in affirmative
characters, a few of them were of more value than all the negative and
airy testimony which had been advanced on the other side of the
question.

That the public may judge, in some measure, of the respectability of the
witnesses in favour of the abolition, and that they may know also to
whom Africa is so much indebted for her deliverance, I shall subjoin
their names in the three following lists. The first will contain those
who were examined by the privy council only; the second those who were
examined by the privy council and the House of Commons also; and the
third those who were examined-by the House of Commons only.

LIST I.

LIST II.

LIST III.

The evidence having been delivered on both sides, and then printed, it
was judged expedient by Mr. Wilberforce, seeing that it filled three
folio volumes, to abridge it. This abridgement was made by the different
friends of the cause. William Burgh, Esq., of York; Thomas Babington,
Esq., of Rothley Temple; the Rev. Thomas Gisborne, of Yoxall Lodge; Mr.
Campbell Haliburton, of Edinburgh; George Harrison, with one or two
others of the committee, and myself, were employed upon it. The greater
share, however, of the labour, fell upon Dr. Dickson. That no
misrepresentation of any person's testimony might be made, Matthew
Montagu, Esq., and the Honourable E.J. Elliott, members of Parliament,
undertook to compare the abridged manuscripts with the original text,
and to strike out or correct whatever they thought to be erroneous, and
to insert whatever they thought to have been omitted. The committee for
the abolition, when the work was finished, printed it at their own
expense, Mr. Wilberforce then presented it to the House of Commons, as a
faithful abridgement of the whole evidence. Having been received as
such, under the guarantee of Mr. Montague and Mr. Elliott, the committee
sent it to every individual member of that House.

The book having been thus presented, and a day fixed for the final
determination of the question, our feelings became almost insupportable;
for we had the mortification to find, that our cause was going down in
estimation, where it was then most important that it should have
increased in favour. Our opponents had taken advantage of the long delay
which the examination of evidence had occasioned, to prejudice the minds
of many of the members of the House of Commons against us. The old
arguments of emancipation, massacre, ruin, and indemnification, had been
kept up; but, as the day of final decision approached, they had been
increased. Such was our situation at this moment, when the current was
turned still more powerfully against us by the peculiar circumstances of
the times. It was, indeed, the misfortune of this great cause to be
assailed by every weapon which could be turned against it. At this time,
Thomas Paine had published his _Rights of Man_. This had been widely
circulated. At this time, also, the French revolution had existed nearly
two years. The people of England had seen, during this interval, a
government as it were dissected. They had seen an old constitution taken
down, and a new one put up, piece by piece, in its stead. The
revolution, therefore, in conjunction with the book in question, had had
the effect of producing dissatisfaction among thousands; and this
dissatisfaction was growing, so as to alarm a great number of persons of
property in the kingdom, as well as the government itself. Now will it
be believed that our opponents had the injustice to lay hold of these
circumstances, at this critical moment, to give a death-blow to the
cause of the abolition? They represented the committee, though it had
existed before the French revolution, or the _Rights of Man_ were heard
of, as a nest of Jacobins; and they held up the cause, sacred as it was,
and though it had the support of the minister, as affording an
opportunity of meeting for the purpose of overthrowing the state. Their
cry succeeded. The very book of the abridgment of the evidence was
considered by many members as poisonous as that of the _Rights of Man_.
It was too profane for many of them to touch; and they who discarded it,
discarded the cause also.

But these were not the only circumstances which were used as means, at
this critical moment, to defeat us. News of the revolution, which had
commenced in St. Domingo, in consequence of the disputes between the
whites and the people of colour, had, long before this, arrived in
England. The horrible scenes which accompanied it, had been frequently
published as so many arguments against our cause. In January, new
insurrections were announced as having happened in Martinique. The
negroes there were described as armed, and the planters as having
abandoned their estates for fear of massacre. Early in the month of
March, insurrections in the smaller French islands were reported. Every
effort was then made to represent these as the effects of the new
principles of liberty, and of the cry for abolition. But what should
happen, just at this moment, to increase the clamour against us? Nothing
less than an insurrection in Dominica.--Yes!--An insurrection in a
British island. This was the very event for our opponents. "All the
predictions of the planters had now become verified. The horrible
massacres were now realizing at home." To give this news still greater
effect, a meeting of our opponents was held at the London Tavern. By a
letter read there, it appeared that "the ruin of Dominica was now at
hand." Resolutions were voted, and a memorial presented to government,
"immediately to despatch such a military force to the different islands,
as might preserve the whites from destruction, and keep the negroes in
subjection during the present critical state of the slave bill." This
alarm was kept up till the 7th of April, when another meeting took
place, to receive the answer of government to the memorial. It was there
resolved that, "as it was too late to send troops to the islands, the
best way of preserving them would be to bring the question of the Slave
Trade to an immediate issue; and that it was the duty of the government,
if they regarded the safety of the islands, to oppose the abolition of
it."  Accounts of all these proceedings were inserted in the public
papers. It is needless to say that they were injurious to our cause.
Many looked upon the abolitionists as monsters. They became also
terrified themselves. The idea with these was, that unless the
discussion on this subject was terminated, all would be lost. Thus,
under a combination of effects, arising from the publication of the
_Rights of Man_, the rise and progress of the French revolution, and the
insurrections of the negroes in the different islands, no one of which
events had anything to do with the abolition of the Slave Trade, the
current was turned against us; and in this unfavourable frame of mind
many members of parliament went into the House, on the day fixed for the
discussion, to discharge their duty with respect to this great question.

On the 18th of April, Mr. Wilberforce made his motion. He began by
expressing a hope, that the present debate, instead of exciting asperity
and confirming prejudice, would tend to produce a general conviction of
the truth of what in fact was incontrovertible; that the abolition of
the Slave Trade was indispensably required of them, not only by morality
and religion, but by sound policy. He stated that he should argue the
matter from evidence. He adverted to the character, situation, and means
of information of his own witnesses; and having divided his subject into
parts, the first of which related to the manner of reducing the natives
of Africa to a state of slavery, he handled it in the following
manner:--

He would begin, he said, with the first boundary of the trade. Captain
Wilson and Captain Hills, of His Majesty's navy, and Mr. Dalrymple, of
the land service, had concurred in stating, that in the country
contiguous to the river Senegal, when slave-ships arrived there, armed
parties were regularly sent out in the evening, who scoured the country,
and brought in their prey. The wretched victims were to be seen in the
morning bound back to back in the huts on shore, whence they were
conveyed, tied hand and foot, to the slave-ships. The design of these
ravages was obvious, because, when the Slave Trade was stopped, they
ceased. Mr. Kiernan spoke of the constant depredations by the Moors to
procure slaves. Mr. Wadstrom confirmed them. The latter gentleman showed
also that they were excited by presents of brandy, gunpowder, and such
other incentives; and that they were not only carried on by one
community against another, but that the kings were stimulated to
practise them in their territories, and on their own subjects: and in
one instance a chieftain, who, when intoxicated, could not resist the
demands of the slave merchants, had expressed, in a moment of reason, a
due sense of his own crime, and had reproached his Christian seducers.
Abundant also were the instances of private rapine. Individuals were
kidnapped, whilst in their fields and gardens. There was an universal
feeling of distrust and apprehension there. The natives never went any
distance from home without arms; and when Captain Wilson asked them the
reason of it, they pointed to a slave-ship then lying within sight.

On the windward coast, it appeared from Lieutenant Story and Mr. Bowman,
that the evils just mentioned existed, if possible, in a still higher
degree. They had seen the remains of villages, which had been burnt,
whilst the fields of corn were still standing beside them, and every
other trace of recent desolation. Here an agent was sent to establish a
settlement in the country, and to send to the ships such slaves as he
might obtain. The orders he received from his captain were, that "he was
to encourage the chieftains by brandy and gunpowder to go to war, to
make slaves." This he did. The chieftains performed their part in
return. The neighbouring villages were surrounded and set on fire in the
night. The inhabitants were seized when making their escape; and, being
brought to the agent, were by him forwarded to his principal on the
coast. Mr. How, a botanist in the service of Government, stated, that on
the arrival of an order for slaves from Cape Coast Castle, while he was
there, a native chief immediately sent forth armed parties, who brought
in a supply of all descriptions in the night.

But he would now mention one or two instances of another sort, and these
merely on account of the conclusion, which was to be drawn from them.
When Captain Hills was in the river Gambia, he mentioned accidentally to
a Black pilot, who was in the boat with him, that he wanted a cabin-boy.
It so happened that some youths were then on the shore with vegetables
to sell. The pilot beckoned to them to come on board; at the same time
giving Captain Hills to understand, that he might take his choice of
them; and when Captain Hills rejected the proposal with indignation, the
pilot seemed perfectly at a loss to account for his warmth; and drily
observed, that the slave-captains would not have been so scrupulous.
Again, when General Rooke commanded at Goree, a number of the natives,
men, women, and children, came to pay him a friendly visit. All was
gaiety and merriment. It was a scene to gladden the saddest, and to
soften the hardest, heart. But a slave-captain was not so soon thrown
off his guard. Three English barbarians of this description had the
audacity jointly to request the general, to seize the whole unsuspicious
multitude and sell them. For this they alleged the precedent of a former
governor. Was not this request a proof of the frequency of such acts of
rapine? for how familiar must such have been to slave-captains, when
three of them dared to carry a British officer of rank such a flagitious
proposal! This would stand in the place of a thousand instances. It
would give credibility to every other act of violence stated in the
evidence, however enormous it might appear.

But he would now have recourse for a moment to circumstantial evidence.
An adverse witness, who had lived on the Gold Coast, had said that the
only way in which children could he enslaved, was by whole families
being sold when the principals had been condemned for witchcraft. But he
said at the same time, that few were convicted of this crime, and that
the younger part of a family in these cases was sometimes spared. But if
this account were true, it would follow that the children in the
slave-vessels would be few indeed. But it had been proved, that the
usual proportion of these was never less than a fourth of the whole
cargo on the coast, and also, that the kidnapping of children was very
prevalent there.

All these atrocities, he said, were fully substantiated by the evidence;
and here he should do injustice to his cause, if he were not to make a
quotation from the speech of Mr. B. Edwards in the Assembly of Jamaica,
who, though he was hostile to his propositions, had yet the candour to
deliver himself in the following manner there. "I am persuaded," says
he, "that Mr. Wilberforce has been rightly informed as to the manner in
which slaves are generally procured. The intelligence I have collected
from my own negroes abundantly confirms his account; and I have not the
smallest doubt, that in Africa the effects of this trade are precisely
such as he has represented them. The whole, or the greatest part, of
that immense continent is a field of warfare and desolation; a
wilderness, in which the inhabitants are wolves towards each other. That
this scene of oppression, fraud, treachery, and bloodshed, if not
originally occasioned, is in part (I will not say wholly) upheld by the
Slave Trade, I dare not dispute. Every man in the Sugar Islands may be
convinced that it is so, who will enquire of any African negroes, on
their first arrival, concerning the circumstances of their captivity.
The assertion that it is otherwise, is mockery and insult."

But it was not only by acts of outrage that the Africans were brought
into bondage. The very administration of justice was turned into an
engine for that end. The smallest offence was punished by a fine equal
to the value of a slave. Crimes were also fabricated; false accusations
were resorted to; and persons were sometimes employed to seduce the
unwary into practices with a view to the conviction and the sale of
them.

It was another effect of this trade, that it corrupted the morals of
those who carried it on. Every fraud was used to deceive the ignorance
of the natives by false weights and measures, adulterated commodities,
and other impositions of a like sort. These frauds were even
acknowledged by many who had themselves practised them, in obedience to
the orders of their superiors. For the honour of the mercantile
character of the country, such a traffic ought immediately to be
suppressed.

Yet these things, however clearly proved by positive testimony, by the
concession of opponents, by particular inference, by general reasoning,
by the most authentic histories of Africa, by the experience of all
countries and of all ages,--these things, and (what was still more
extraordinary) even the possibility of them, were denied by those who
had been brought forward on the other side of the question. These,
however, were chiefly persons who had been trading-governors of forts in
Africa, or who had long commanded ships in the Slave Trade. As soon as
he knew the sort of witnesses which was to be called against him, he had
been prepared to expect much prejudice. But his expectations had been
greatly surpassed by the testimony they had given. He did not mean to
impeach their private characters, but they certainly showed themselves
under the influence of such gross prejudices, as to render them
incompetent judges of the subject they came to elucidate. They seemed
(if he might so say) to be enveloped by a certain atmosphere of their
own; and to see, as it were, through a kind of African medium. Every
object which met their eyes came distorted and turned from its true
direction. Even the declarations, which they made on other occasions,
seemed wholly strange to them. They sometimes not only forgot what they
had seen, but what they had said; and when to one of them his own
testimony to the privy council was read, he mistook it for that of
another, whose evidence he declared to be "the merest burlesque in the
world."

But the House must be aware that there was not only an African medium,
but an African logic. It seemed to be an acknowledged axiom in this,
that every person who offered a slave for sale had a right to sell him,
however fraudulently he might have obtained him. This had been proved by
the witnesses who opposed him. "It would have stopped my trade," said
one of them, "to have asked the broker how he came by the person he was
offering me for sale."--"We always suppose," said another, "the broker
has a right to sell the person he offers us."--"I never heard of such a
question being asked," said a third; "a man would be thought a fool who
should put such a question."--He hoped the House would see the practical
utility of this logic. It was the key-stone which held the building
together. By means of it, slave-captains might traverse the whole coast
of Africa, and see nothing but equitable practices. They could not,
however, be wholly absolved, even if they availed themselves of this
principle to its fullest extent; for they had often committed
depredations themselves; especially when they were passing by any part
of the coast, where they did not mean to continue or to go again. Hence
it was (as several captains of the navy and others had declared on their
examination), that the natives, when at sea in their canoes, would never
come near the men-of-war, till they knew them to be such. But finding
this, and that they were not slave-vessels, they laid aside their fears,
and came and continued on board with unsuspecting cheerfulness. With
respect to the miseries of the Middle Passage, he had said so much on a
former occasion, that he would spare the feelings of the committee as
much as he could. He would therefore simply state that the evidence,
which was before them, confirmed all those scenes of wretchedness which
he had then described: the same suffering from a state of suffocation,
by being crowded together; the same dancing in fetters; the same
melancholy singing; the same eating by compulsion; the same despair; the
same insanity; and all the other abominations which characterized the
trade. New instances however had occurred, where these wretched men had
resolved on death to terminate their woes. Some had destroyed themselves
by refusing sustenance, in spite of threats and punishments. Others had
thrown themselves into the sea; and more than one, when in the act of
drowning, were seen to wave their hands in triumph, "exulting" (to use
the words of an eye-witness) "that they had escaped." Yet these and
similar things, when viewed through the African medium he had mentioned,
took a different shape and colour. Captain Knox, an adverse witness, had
maintained, that slaves lay during the night in tolerable comfort. And
yet he confessed, that in a vessel of one hundred and twenty tons, in
which he had carried two hundred and ninety slaves, the latter had not
all of them room to lie on their backs. How comfortably, then, must they
have lain in his subsequent voyages! for he carried afterwards, in a
vessel of a hundred and eight tons, four hundred and fifty; and in a
vessel of one hundred and fifty tons, no less than six hundred slaves.
Another instance of African deception was to be found in the testimony
of Captain Frazer, one of the most humane captains in the trade. It had
been said of him, that he had held hot coals to the mouth of a slave, to
compel him to eat. He was questioned on this point; but not admitting,
in the true spirit of African logic, that he who makes another commit a
crime is guilty of it himself, he denied the charge indignantly, and
defied a proof. But it was said to him, "Did you never order such a
thing to be done?" His reply was, "Being sick in my cabin, I was
informed that a man-slave would neither eat, drink, nor speak. I desired
the mate and surgeon to try to persuade him to speak. I desired that the
slaves might try also. When I found he was still obstinate, not knowing
whether it was from sulkiness or insanity, I ordered a person to present
him with a piece of fire in one hand, and a piece of yam in the other,
and to tell me what effect this had upon him. I learnt that he took the
yam and began to eat it, but he threw the fire overboard." Such was his
own account of the matter. This was eating by duresse, if anything could
be called so. The captain, however, triumphed in his expedient; and
concluded by telling the committee, that he sold this very slave at
Grenada for forty pounds. Mark here the moral of the tale, and learn the
nature and the cure of sulkiness.

But upon whom did the cruelties, thus arising out of the prosecution of
this barbarous traffic, fall? Upon a people with feeling and intellect
like ourselves. One witness had spoken of the acuteness of their
understandings; another, of the extent of their memories; a third, of
their genius for commerce: a fourth, of their proficiency in
manufactures at home. Many had admired their gentle and peaceable
disposition, their cheerfulness, and their hospitality. Even they who
were nominally slaves, in Africa lived a happy life. A witness against
the abolition had described them as sitting and eating with their
masters in the true style of patriarchal simplicity and comfort. Were
these, then, a people incapable of civilization? The argument that they
were an inferior species had been proved to be false.

He would now go to a new part of the subject. An opinion had gone forth
that the abolition of the trade would be the ruin of the West India
Islands. He trusted he should prove that the direct contrary was the
truth; though, had he been unable to do this, it would have made no
difference as to his own vote. In examining, however, this opinion; he
should exclude the subject of the cultivation of new lands by fresh
importations of slaves. The impolicy of this measure, apart from its
inhumanity, was indisputably clear. Let the committee consider the
dreadful mortality which attended it. Let them look to the evidence of
Mr. Woolrich, and there see a contrast drawn between the slow, but sure,
progress of cultivation carried on in the natural way, and the attempt
to force improvements, which, however flattering the prospect at first,
soon produced a load of debt, and inextricable embarrassments. He might
even appeal to the statements of the West Indians themselves, who
allowed that more than twenty millions were owing to the people of this
country, to show that no system could involve them so deeply as that on
which they had hitherto gone. But he would refer them to the accounts of
Mr. Irving, as contained in the evidence. Waving, then, the
consideration of this part of the subject, the opinion in question must
have arisen from a notion, that the stock of slaves, now in the islands,
could not be kept up by propagation; but that it was necessary, from
time to time, to recruit them with imported Africans. In direct
refutation of this position he should prove: First, that, in the
condition and treatment of the Negroes, there were causes sufficient to
afford us reason to expect a considerable decrease, but particularly
that their increase had not been a serious object of attention:
Secondly, that this decrease was in fact, notwithstanding, very
trifling; or rather, he believed, he might declare it had now actually
ceased: and, Thirdly, he should urge many direct and collateral facts
and arguments, constituting on the whole an irresistible proof, that
even a rapid increase might henceforth be expected.

He wished to treat the West Indians with all possible candour: but he
was obliged to confess, in arguing upon these points, that whatever
splendid instances there might be of kindness towards their slaves,
there were some evils of almost universal operation, which were
necessarily connected with the system of slavery. Above all, the state
of degradation to which they were reduced, deserved to be noticed, as it
produced an utter inattention to them as moral agents; they were kept at
work under the whip like cattle; they were left totally ignorant of
morality and religion; there was no regular marriage among them; hence
promiscuous intercourse, early prostitution, and excessive drinking,
were material causes of their decrease. With respect to the instruction
of the slaves in the principles of religion, the happiest effects had
resulted, particularly in Antigua, where, under the Moravians and
Methodists, they had so far profited, that the planters themselves
confessed their value as property had been raised one-third by their
increased habits of regularity and industry.

Whatever might have been said to the contrary, it was plainly to be
inferred from the evidence that the slaves were not protected by law.
Colonial statutes had indeed been passed, but they were a dead letter;
since, however ill they were treated, they were not considered as having
a right to redress. An instance of astonishing cruelty by a Jew had been
mentioned by Mr. Ross; it was but justice to say, that the man was held
in detestation for it, but yet no one had ever thought of calling him to
a legal account. Mr. Ross conceived a master had a right to punish his
slave in whatever manner he might think proper; the same was declared by
numberless other witnesses. Some instances indeed had lately occurred of
convictions. A master had wantonly cut the mouth of a child, of six
months old, almost from ear to ear. But did not the verdict of the jury
show, that the doctrine of calling masters to an account was entirely
novel, as it only pronounced him "Guilty, subject to the opinion of the
court, if immoderate correction of a slave by his master be a crime
indictable!" The court determined in the affirmative; and what was the
punishment of this barbarous act?--A fine of forty shillings currency,
equivalent to about twenty-five shillings sterling.

The slaves were but ill off in point of medical care. Sometimes four or
five, and even eight or nine thousand of them, were under the care of
one medical man; which, dispersed on different and distant estates, was
a greater number than he could possibly attend to.

It was also in evidence that they were in general under-fed; they were
supported partly by the produce of their own provision-ground, and
partly by an allowance of flour and grain from their masters. In one of
the islands, where provision-ground did not answer one year in three,
the allowance to a working Negro was but from five to nine pints of
grain per week: in Dominica, where it never failed, from six to seven
quarts: in Nevis and St. Christopher's, where there was no
provision-ground, it was but eleven pints. Add to this, that it might be
still less, as the circumstances of their masters might become
embarrassed, and in this case both an abridgment of their food and an
increase of their labour would follow.

But the great cause of the decrease of the slaves was in the
non-residence of the planters. Sir George Yonge, and many others, had
said, they had seen the slaves treated in a manner which their owners
would have resented if they had known it. Mr. Orde spoke in the
strongest terms of the misconduct of managers. The fact was, that these
in general sought to establish their characters by producing large crops
at a small immediate expense; too little considering how far the slaves
might suffer from ill-treatment and excessive labour. The pursuit of
such a system was a criterion for judging of their characters, as both
Mr. Long and Mr. Ottley had confessed.

But he must contend, in addition to this, that the object of keeping up
the stock of slaves by breeding had never been seriously attended to.
For this he might appeal both to his own witnesses and to those of his
opponents, but he would only notice one fact. It was remarkable that,
when owners and managers were asked about the produce of their estates,
they were quite at home as to the answer; but when they were asked about
the proportion of their male and female slaves, and their infants, they
knew little about the matter. Even medical men were adepts in the art of
planting, but when they were asked the latter questions, as connected
with breeding and rearing, they seemed quite amazed, and could give no
information upon the subject of them.

Persons, however, of great respectability had been called as witnesses
who had not seen the treatment of the Negroes as he had now described
it. He knew what was due to their characters, but yet he must enter a
general protest against their testimony. "I have often," says Mr. Ross,
"attended both governors and admirals upon tours in the island of
Jamaica, but it was not likely that these should see much distress upon
these occasions. The white people and drivers would take care not to
harrow up the feelings of strangers of distinction by the exercise of
the whip, or the infliction of punishments, at that particular time;
and, even if there were any disgusting objects, it was natural to
suppose that they would then remove them." But in truth these gentlemen
had given proofs that they were under the influence of prejudice. Some
of them had declared the abolition would ruin the West Indies; but this,
it was obvious, must depend upon the practicability of keeping up the
stock without African supplies; and yet, when they were questioned upon
this point, they knew nothing about it; hence they had formed a
conclusion without premises. Their evidence, too, extended through a
long series of years; they had never seen one instance of ill-treatment
in the time, and yet, in the same breath, they talked of the amended
situation of the slaves, and that they were now far better off than
formerly. One of them, to whom his country owed much, stated that a
master had been sentenced to death for the murder of his own slave; but
his recollection must have failed him, for the murder of a slave was not
then a capital crime. A respectable governor also had delivered an
opinion to the same effect; but, had he looked into the statute-book of
the island, he would have found his error.

It had been said that the slaves were in a better state than the
peasantry of this country; but when the question was put to Mr. Ross,
did he not answer, "that he would not insult the latter by a
comparison!"

It had been said again, that the Negroes were happier as slaves than
they would be if they were to be made free. But how was this
reconcilable with facts? If a Negro under extraordinary circumstances
had saved money enough, did he not always purchase his release from this
situation of superior happiness by the sacrifice of his last shilling?
Was it not also notorious, that the greatest reward which a master
thought he could bestow upon his slave for long and faithful services
was his freedom.

It had been said again, that Negroes, when made free, never returned to
their own country. But was not the reason obvious? If they could even
reach their own homes in safety, their kindred and connexions might be
dead. But would they subject themselves to be kidnapped again; to be
hurried once more on board a slave-ship, and again to endure and survive
the horrors of the passage? Yet the love of their native country had
been proved beyond a doubt; many of the witnesses had heard them talk of
it in terms of the strongest affection. Acts of suicide, too, were
frequent in the islands, under the notion that these afforded them the
readiest means of getting home. Conformably with this, Captain Wilson
had maintained that the funerals, which in Africa were accompanied with
lamentations and cries of sorrow, were attended, in the West Indies with
every mark of joy.

He had now, he said, made good his first proposition--that in the
condition of the slaves there were causes, which should lead us to
expect, that there would be a considerable decrease among them. This
decrease in the island of Jamaica was but trifling, or, rather, it had
ceased some years ago; and if there was a decrease, it was only on the
imported slaves. It appeared from the privy council report, that from
1698 to 1730 the decrease was three and a-half per cent.; from 1730 to
1755 it was two and a-half per cent.; from 1755 to 1768 it was lessened
to one and three-quarters; and from 1768 to 1788 it was not more than
one per cent. This last decrease was not greater than could be accounted
for from hurricanes and consequent famines, and from the number of
imported Africans who perished in the seasoning. The latter was a cause
of mortality, which, it was evident, would cease with the importations.
This conclusion was confirmed in part by Dr. Anderson, who, in his
testimony to the Assembly of Jamaica, affirmed that there was a
considerable increase on the properties of the island, and particularly
in the parish in which he resided.

He would now proceed to establish his second proposition, that from
henceforth a very considerable increase might be expected. This he might
support by a close reasoning upon the preceding facts; but the testimony
of his opponents furnished him with sufficient evidence. He could show,
that wherever the slaves were treated better than ordinary, there was
uniformly an increase in their number. Look at the estates of Mr.
Willock, Mr. Ottley, Sir Ralph Payne, and others. In short, he should
weary the committee, if he were to enumerate the instances of
plantations, which were stated in the evidence to have kept up their
numbers only from a little variation in their treatment. A remedy also
had been lately found for a disorder, by which vast numbers of infants
had been formerly swept away. Mr. Long, also, had laid it down, that
whenever the slaves should bear a certain proportion to the produce,
they might be expected to keep up their numbers; but this proportion
they now exceeded. The Assembly of Jamaica had given it also as their
opinion, "that when once the sexes should become nearly equal in point
of number, there was no reason to suppose, that the increase of the
Negroes by generation would fall short of the natural increase of the
labouring poor in Great Britain." But the inequality, here spoken of,
could only exist in the case of the African Negroes, of whom more males
were imported than females; and this inequality would be done away soon
after the trade should cease.

But the increase of the Negroes, where their treatment was better than
ordinary, was confirmed in the evidence by instances in various parts of
the world. From one end of the continent of America to the other, their
increase had been undeniably established; and this to a prodigious
extent, though they had to contend with the severe cold of the winter,
and in some parts with noxious exhalations in the summer. This was the
case, also, in the settlement of Bencoolen in the East Indies. It
appeared from the evidence of Mr. Botham, that a number of Negroes, who
had been imported there in the same disproportion of the sexes as in
West Indian cargoes, and who lived under the same disadvantages, as in
the islands, of promiscuous intercourse and general prostitution, began,
after they had been settled a short time, annually to increase.

But to return to the West Indies.--A slave-ship had been, many years
ago, wrecked near St. Vincent's. The slaves on board, who escaped to the
island, were without necessaries; and, besides, were obliged to maintain
a war with the native Caribbs: yet they soon multiplied to an
astonishing number; and, according to Mr. Ottley, they were now on the
increase. From Sir John Dalrymple's evidence it appeared that the
domestic slaves in Jamaica, who were less worked than those in the
field, increased; and from Mr. Long, that the free Blacks and Mulattoes
there increased also.

But there was an instance which militated against these facts (and the
only one in the evidence), which he would now examine. Sir Archibald
Campbell had heard that the Maroons in Jamaica, in the year 1739,
amounted to three thousand men fit to carry arms. This supposed their
whole number to have been about twelve thousand; but in the year 1782,
after a real muster by himself, he found, to his great astonishment,
that the fighting men did not then amount to three hundred. Now the fact
was, that Sir Archibald Campbell's first position was founded upon
rumour only, and was not true; for, according to Mr. Long, the Maroons
were actually numbered in 1749, when they amounted to about six hundred
and sixty in all, having only a hundred and fifty men fit to carry arms.
Hence, if when mustered by Sir Archibald Campbell he found three hundred
fighting men, they must from 1749 to 1782 have actually doubled their
population.

Was it possible, after these instances, to suppose that the Negroes
could not keep up their numbers, if their natural increase were made a
subject of attention? The reverse was proved by sound reasoning. It had
been confirmed by unquestionable facts. It had been shown, that they had
increased in every situation, where there was the slightest circumstance
in their favour. Where there had been any decrease, it was stated to be
trifling; though no attention appeared to have been paid to the subject.
This decrease had been gradually lessening; and, whenever a single cause
of it had been removed (many still remaining), it had altogether ceased.
Surely these circumstances formed a body of proof which was
irresistible.

He would now speak of the consequences of the abolition of the Slave
Trade in other points of view; and first, as to its effects upon our
marine. An abstract of the Bristol and Liverpool muster-rolls had been
just laid before the House. It appeared from this, that in three hundred
and fifty slave-vessels, having on board twelve thousand two hundred and
sixty-three persons, two thousand six hundred and forty-three were lost
in twelve months; whereas in four hundred and sixty-two West Indiamen,
having on board seven thousand six hundred and forty persons, one
hundred and eighteen only were lost in seven months. This rather
exceeded the losses stated by Mr. Clarkson. For their barbarous usage on
board these ships, and for their sickly and abject state in the West
Indies, he would appeal to Governor Parry's letter; to the evidence of
Mr. Ross; to the assertion of Mr. B. Edwards, an opponent; and to the
testimony of Captains Sir George Yonge and Thompson, of the Royal Navy.
He would appeal, also, to what Captain Hall, of the Navy, had given in
evidence. This gentleman, after the action of the 12th of April,
impressed thirty hands from a slave-vessel, whom he selected with the
utmost care from a crew of seventy; and he was reprimanded by his
admiral, though they could scarcely get men to bring home the prizes,
for introducing such wretches to communicate disorders to the fleet.
Captain Smith of the Navy had also declared, that when employed to board
Guineamen to impress sailors, although he had examined near twenty
vessels, he never was able to get more than two men, who were fit for
service; and these turned out such inhuman fellows, although good
seamen, that he was obliged to dismiss them from the ship.

But he hoped the committee would attend to the latter part of the
assertion of Captain Smith. Yes: this trade, while it injured the
constitutions of our sailors, debased their morals. Of this, indeed,
there was a barbarous illustration in the evidence. A slave-ship had
struck on some shoals, called the Morant Keys, a few leagues from the
east end of Jamaica. The crew landed in their boats, with arms and
provisions, leaving the slaves on board in their irons. This happened in
the night. When morning came, it was discovered that the Negroes had
broken their shackles, and were busy in making rafts; upon which
afterwards they placed the women and children. The men attended upon the
latter, swimming by their side, whilst they drifted to the island where
the crew were. But what was the sequel? From an apprehension that the
Negroes would consume the water and provisions, which had been landed,
the crew resolved to destroy them as they approached the shore. They
killed between three and four hundred. Out of the whole cargo only
thirty-three were saved, who, on being brought to Kingston, were sold.
It would, however, be to no purpose, he said, to relieve the Slave Trade
from this act of barbarity. The story of the Morant Keys was paralleled
by that of Captain Collingwood; and were you to get rid of these,
another, and another, would still present itself, to prove the barbarous
effects of this trade on the moral character.

But of the miseries of the trade there was no end. Whilst he had been
reading out of the evidence the story of the Morant Keys, his eye had
but glanced on the opposite page, and it met another circumstance of
horror. This related to what were called the refuse-slaves. Many people
in Kingston were accustomed to speculate in the purchase of those, who
were left after the first day's sale. They then carried them out into
the country, and retailed them. Mr. Ross declared, that he had seen
these landed in a very wretched state, sometimes in the agonies of
death, and sold as low as for a dollar, and that he had known several
expire in the piazzas of the vendue-master. The bare description
superseded the necessity of any remark. Yet these were the familiar
incidents of the Slave Trade.

But he would go back to the seamen. He would mention another cause of
mortality, by which many of them lost their lives. In looking over
Lloyd's list, no less than six vessels were cut off by the irritated
natives in one year, and the crews massacred. Such instances were not
unfrequent. In short, the history of this commerce was written
throughout in characters of blood.

He would next consider the effects of the abolition on those places
where it was chiefly carried on. But would the committee believe, after
all the noise which had been made on this subject, that the Slave Trade
composed but a thirtieth part of the export trade of Liverpool, and that
of the trade of Bristol it constituted a still less proportion? For the
effects of the abolition on the general commerce of the kingdom, he
would refer them to Mr. Irving; from whose evidence it would appear,
that the medium value of the British manufactures, exported to Africa,
amounted only to between four and five hundred thousand pounds annually.
This was but a trifling sum. Surely the superior capital, ingenuity,
application, and integrity of the British manufacturer would command new
markets for the produce of his industry, to an equal amount, when this
should be no more. One branch, however, of our manufactures, he
confessed, would suffer from the abolition; and that was the manufacture
of gunpowder; of which the nature of our connexion with Africa drew from
us as much as we exported to all the rest of the world besides.

He hastened, however, to another part of the argument. Some had said,
"We wish to put an end to the Slave Trade, but we do not approve of your
mode. Allow more time. Do not displease the legislatures of the West
India islands. It is by them that those laws must be passed, and
enforced, which will secure your object." Now he was directly at issue
with these gentlemen. He could show, that the abolition was the only
certain mode of amending the treatment of the slaves, so as to secure
their increase: and that the mode which had been offered to him, was at
once inefficacious and unsafe. In the first place, how could any laws,
made by these legislatures, be effectual, whilst the evidence of Negroes
was in no case admitted against White men? What was the answer from
Grenada? Did it not state, "that they who were capable of cruelty, would
in general be artful enough to prevent any but slaves from being
witnesses of the fact?" Hence it had arisen, that when positive laws had
been made, in some of the islands, for the protection of the slaves,
they had been found almost a dead letter. Besides, by what law would you
enter into every man's domestic concerns, and regulate the interior
economy of his house and plantation? This would be something more than a
general excise. Who would endure such a law? And yet on all these and
innumerable other minutiae must depend the protection of the slaves,
their comforts, and the probability of their increase. It was
universally allowed, that the Code Noir had been utterly neglected in
the French islands, though there was an officer appointed by the crown
to see it enforced. The provisions of the Directorio had been but of
little more avail in the Portuguese settlements, or the institution of a
Protector of the Indians, in those of the Spaniards. But what degree or
protection the slaves would enjoy might be inferred from the admission
of a gentleman, by whom this very plan of regulation had been
recommended, and who was himself no ordinary person, but a man of
discernment and legal resources. He had proposed a limitation of the
number of lashes to be given by the master or overseer for one offence.
But, after all, he candidly confessed, that his proposal was not likely
to be useful, while the evidence of slaves continued inadmissible
against their masters. But he could even bring testimony to the
inefficacy of such regulations. A wretch in Barbados had chained a Negro
girl to the floor, and flogged her till she was nearly expiring. Captain
Cook and Major Fitch, hearing her cries, broke open the door and found
her. The wretch retreated from their resentment, but cried out
exultingly, "that he had only given her thirty-nine lashes (the number
limited by law) at any one time; and that he had only inflicted this
number three times since the beginning of the night," adding, "that he
would prosecute them for breaking open his door; and that he would flog
her to death for all any one, if he pleased; and that he would give her
the fourth thirty-nine before morning."

But this plan of regulation was not only inefficacious, but unsafe. He
entered his protest against the fatal consequences which might result
from it. The Negroes were creatures like ourselves; but they were
uninformed, and their moral character was debased. Hence they were unfit
for civil rights. To use these properly they must be gradually restored
to that level, from which they had been so unjustly degraded. To allow
them an appeal to the laws, would be to awaken in them a sense of the
dignity of their nature. The first return of life, after a swoon, was
commonly a convulsion, dangerous at once to the party himself and to all
around him. You should first prepare them for the situation, and not
bring the situation to them. To be under the protection of the law was
in fact to be a freeman; and to unite slavery and freedom in one
condition was impracticable. The abolition, on the other hand, was
exactly such an agent as the case required. All hopes of supplies from
the coast being cut off, breeding would henceforth become a serious
object of attention; and the care of this, as including better clothing,
and feeding, and milder discipline, would extend to innumerable
particulars, which an act of assembly could neither specify nor enforce.
The horrible system, too, which many had gone upon, of working out their
slaves in a few years, and recruiting their gangs with imported
Africans, would receive its death-blow from the abolition of the trade.
The opposite would force itself on the most unfeeling heart. Ruin would
stare a man in the face, if he were not to conform to it. The
non-resident owners would then express themselves in the terms of Sir
Philip Gibbs, "that he should consider it as the fault of his manager,
if he were not to keep up the number of his slaves." This reasoning
concerning the different tendencies of the two systems was self-evident;
but facts were not wanting to confirm it. Mr. Long had remarked, that
all the insurrections and suicides in Jamaica had been found among the
imported slaves, who, not having lost the consciousness of civil rights,
which they had enjoyed in their own country, could not brook the
indignities to which they were subjected in the West Indies. An instance
in point was afforded also by what had lately taken place in the island
of Dominica. The disturbance there had been chiefly occasioned by some
runaway slaves from the French islands. But what an illustration was it
of his own doctrine to say, that the slaves of several persons, who had
been treated with kindness, were not among the number of the insurgents
on that occasion!

But when persons coolly talked of putting an end to the Slave Trade
through the medium of the West India legislatures, and of gradual
abolition, by means of regulations, they surely forgot the miseries
which this horrid traffic occasioned in Africa during every moment of
its continuance. This consideration was conclusive with him, when called
upon to decide whether the Slave Trade should be tolerated for a while,
or immediately abolished. The divine law against murder was absolute and
unqualified. Whilst we were ignorant of all these things, our sanction
of them might, in some measure, be pardoned. But now, when our eyes were
opened, could we tolerate them for a moment, unless we were ready at
once to determine, that gain should be our god, and, like the heathens
of old, were prepared to offer up human victims at the shrine of our
idolatry?

This consideration precluded also the giving heed for an instant to
another plea, namely, that if we were to abolish the trade it would be
proportionably taken up by other nations.  But, whatever other nations
did, it became Great Britain, in every point of view, to take a forward
part. One half of this guilty commerce had been carried on by her
subjects. As we had been great in crime we should be early in our
repentance. If Providence had showered his blessings upon us in
unparalleled abundance, we should show ourselves grateful for them by
rendering them subservient to the purposes for which they were intended.
There would be a day of retribution, wherein we should have to give an
account of all those talents, faculties, and opportunities with which we
have been intrusted. Let it not then appear that our superior power had
been employed to oppress our fellow-creatures, and our superior light to
darken the creation of God. He could not but look forward with delight
to the happy prospects which opened themselves to his view in Africa,
from the abolition of the Slave Trade, when a commerce, justly deserving
that name, should be established with her; not like that, falsely so
called, which now subsisted, and which all who were interested for the
honour of the commercial character (though there were no superior
principle) should hasten to disavow. Had this trade indeed been ever so
profitable, his decision would have been in no degree affected by that
consideration. "Here's the smell of blood on the hand still, and all the
perfumes of Arabia cannot sweeten it."

He doubted whether it was not almost an act of degrading condescension
to stoop to discuss the question in the view of commercial interest. On
this ground, however, he was no less strong than on every other. Africa
abounded with productions of value, which she would gladly exchange for
our manufactures, when these were not otherwise to be obtained: and to
what an extent her demand might then grow, exceeded almost the powers of
computation. One instance already existed of a native king, who being
debarred by his religion the use of spirituous liquors, and therefore
not feeling the irresistible temptation to acts of rapine which they
afforded to his countrymen, had abolished the Slave Trade throughout all
his dominions, and was encouraging an honest industry.

For his own part, he declared that, interested as he might be supposed
to be in the final event of the question, he was comparatively
indifferent as to the present decision of the House upon it. Whatever
they might do, the people of Great Britain, he was confident, would
abolish the Slave Trade when, as would then soon happen, its injustice
and cruelty should be fairly laid before them. It was a nest of
serpents, which would never have existed so long but for the darkness in
which they lay hid. The light of day would now be let in on them, and
they would vanish from the sight. For himself, he declared he was
engaged in a work which he would never abandon; the consciousness of the
justice of his cause would carry him forward, though he were alone; but
he could not but derive encouragement from considering with whom he was
associated. Let us not, he said, despair; it is a blessed cause, and
success ere long will crown our exertions. Already we have gained one
victory; we have obtained for these poor creatures the recognition of
their human nature[A], which, for a while, was most shamefully denied
them. This is the first fruits of our efforts; let us persevere, and our
triumph will be complete. Never, never, will we desist till we have
wiped away this scandal from the Christian name; till we have released
ourselves from the load of guilt under which we at present labour; and
till we have extinguished every trace of this bloody traffic, which our
posterity, looking back to the history of these enlightened times, will
scarcely believe had been suffered to exist so long, a disgrace and a
dishonour to our country.

[Footnote A: This point was actually obtained by the evidence before the
House of Commons; for, after this, we heard no more of them as an
inferior race.]

He then moved, that the chairman be instructed to move for leave to
bring in a bill to prevent the further importation of slaves into the
British colonies in the West Indies.

Colonel Tarleton immediately rose up, and began by giving an historical
account of the trade from the reign of Elizabeth to the present time. He
then proceeded to the sanction which parliament had always given it;
hence it could not then be withdrawn without a breach of faith: hence,
also, the private property embarked in it was sacred; nor could it be
invaded, unless an adequate compensation were given in return.

They who had attempted the abolition of the trade were led away by a
mistaken humanity; the Africans themselves had no objection to its
continuance.

With respect to the middle passage, he believed the mortality there to
be on an average only five in the hundred; whereas in regiments sent out
to the West Indies, the average loss in the year was about ten and a
half per cent.

The Slave Trade was absolutely necessary, if we meant to carry on our
West India commerce; for many attempts had been made to cultivate the
lands in the different islands by white labourers, but they had always
failed.

It had also the merit of keeping up a number of seamen in readiness for
the state. Lord Rodney had stated this as one of its advantages on the
breaking out of a war. Liverpool alone could supply nine hundred and
ninety-three seamen annually.

He would now advert to the connexions dependent upon the African trade.
It was the duty of the House to protect the planters, whose lives had
been, and were then, exposed to imminent, dangers, and whose property
had undergone an unmerited, depreciation. To what could this
depreciation, and to what could the late insurrection at Dominica be
imputed, which had been saved from horrid carnage and midnight-butchery
only by the adventitious arrival of two British regiments? They could
only be attributed to the long delayed question of the abolition of the
Slave Trade; and if this question were to go much longer unsettled,
Jamaica would be endangered also.

To members of landed property he would observe, that the abolition would
lessen the commerce of the country, and increase the national debt and
the number of their taxes. The minister, he hoped, who patronized this
wild scheme had some new pecuniary resource in store to supply the
deficiencies it would occasion.

To the mercantile members he would speak thus: "A few ministerial men in
the house had been gifted with religious inspiration, and this had been
communicated to other eminent personages in it: these enlightened
philanthropists had discovered that it was necessary, for the sake of
humanity, and for the honour of the nation, that the merchants concerned
in the African trade should be persecuted, notwithstanding the sanction
of their trade by Parliament, and notwithstanding that such persecution
must aggrandize the rivals of Great Britain." Now how did this language
sound? It might have done in the twelfth century, when all was bigotry
and superstition; but let not a mistaken humanity, in these enlightened
times, furnish a colourable pretext for any injurious attack on property
or character.

These things being considered, he should certainly oppose the measure in
contemplation. It would annihilate a trade, whose exports amounted to
eight hundred thousand pounds annually, and which employed a hundred and
sixty vessels, and more than five thousand seamen. It would destroy also
the West India trade, which was of the annual value of six millions; and
which employed one hundred and sixty thousand tons of shipping, and
seamen in proportion. These were objects of too much importance to the
country to be hazarded on an unnecessary speculation.

Mr. Grosvenor then rose. He complimented the humanity of Mr.
Wilberforce, though he differed from him on the subject of his motion.
He himself had read only the privy council report, and he wished for no
other evidence. The question had then been delayed two years; had the
abolition been so clear a point as it was said to be, it could not have
needed either so much evidence or time.

He had heard a good deal about kidnapping, and other barbarous
practices. He was sorry for them. But these were the natural
consequences of the laws of Africa; and it became us as wise men to turn
them to our own advantage. The Slave Trade was certainly not an amiable
trade. Neither was that of a butcher; but yet it was a very necessary
one.

There was great reason to doubt the propriety of the present motion. He
had twenty reasons for disapproving it. The first was, that the thing
was impossible. He needed not, therefore to give the rest. Parliament,
indeed might relinquish the trade. But to whom? To foreigners, who would
continue it, and without the humane regulations which were applied to it
by his countrymen.

He would give advice to the House on this subject, in the words which
the late Alderman Beckford used a different occasion:--"Meddle, not with
troubled waters; they will be found to be bitter waters; and the waters
of affliction." He again admitted, that the Slave Trade was not an
amiable trade; but he would not gratify his humanity at the expense of
the interests of his country; and he thought we should not too curiously
inquire into the unpleasant circumstances which attended it.

Mr. James Martin succeeded Mr. Grosvenor. He said he had been long aware
how much self-interest could pervert the judgment; but he was not
apprized of the full power of it, till the Slave Trade became a subject
of discussion. He had always conceived that the custom of trafficing in
human beings had been incautiously begun, and without any reflection
upon it; for he never could believe that any man, under the influence of
moral principles, could suffer himself knowingly to carry on a trade
replete with fraud, cruelty, and destruction; with destruction indeed,
of the worst kind, because it subjected the sufferers to a lingering
death. But he found now, that even such a trade as this could be
sanctioned.

It was well observed, in the petition from the University of Cambridge
against the Slave Trade, "that a firm belief in the providence of a
benevolent Creator assured them that no system, founded on the
oppression of one part of mankind, could be beneficial to another." He
felt much concern, that in an assembly of the representatives of the
country, boasting itself zealous, not only for the preservation of its
own liberties, but for the general rights of mankind, it should be
necessary to say a single word upon such a subject; but the
deceitfulness of the human heart was such, as to change the appearances
of truth, when it stood in opposition to self-interests. And he had to
lament that even among those, whose public duty it was to cling to the
universal and eternal principles of truth, justice, and humanity, there
were found some who could defend that which was unjust, fraudulent, and
cruel.

The doctrines he had heard that evening ought to have been reserved for
times the most flagrantly profligate and abandoned. He never expected
then to learn that the everlasting laws of righteousness were to give
way to imaginary, political, and commercial expediency; and that
thousands of our fellow-creatures were to be reduced to wretchedness,
that individuals might enjoy opulence, or government a revenue.

He hoped that the House, for the sake of its own character, would
explode these doctrines with all the marks of odium they deserved; and
that all parties would join in giving a death-blow to this execrable
trade. The royal family would, he expected, from their known
benevolence, patronize the measure. Both Houses of Parliament were now
engaged in the prosecution of a gentleman accused of cruelty and
oppression in the East. But what were these cruelties, even if they
could be brought home to him, when compared in number and degree to
those which were every day and every hour committed in the abominable
traffic which was now under their discussion! He considered, therefore,
both Houses of Parliament as pledged upon this occasion. Of the support
of the bishops he could have no doubt; because they were to render
Christianity amiable, both by their doctrine and their example. Some of
the inferior clergy had already manifested a laudable zeal in behalf of
the injured Africans. The University of Cambridge had presented a
petition to that House worthy of itself. The sister-university had, by
one of her representatives, given sanction to the measure. Dissenters of
various denominations, but particularly the Quakers, (who, to their
immortal honour, had taken the lead in it,) had vied with those of the
Established Church in this amiable contest. The first counties, and some
of the largest trading towns, in the kingdom had espoused the cause. In
short, there had never been more unanimity in the country, than in this
righteous attempt.

With such support, and with so good a cause, it would be impossible to
fail. Let but every man stand forth who had at any time boasted of
himself as an Englishman, and success would follow. But if he were to be
unhappily mistaken as to the result, we must give up the name of
Englishmen. Indeed, if we retained it, we should be the greatest
hypocrites in the world; for we boasted of nothing more than of our own
liberty; we manifested the warmest indignation at the smallest personal
insult; we professed liberal sentiments towards other nations: but to do
these things, and to continue such a traffic, would be to deserve the
hateful character before mentioned. While we could hardly bear the sight
of anything resembling slavery, even as a punishment, among ourselves,
how could we consistently entail an eternal slavery upon others?

It had been frequently, but most disgracefully, said, that "we should
not be too eager in setting the example: let the French begin it." Such
a sentiment was a direct libel upon the ancient, noble, and generous
character of this nation. We ought, on the other hand, under the
blessings we enjoyed, and under the high sense we entertained of our own
dignity as a people, to be proudly fearful, lest other nations should
anticipate our design, and obtain the palm before us. It became us to
lead. And if others should not follow us, it would belong to them to
glory in the shame of trampling under foot the laws of reason, humanity,
and religion.

This motion, he said, came strongly recommended to them. The honourable
member who introduced it was justly esteemed for his character. He was
the representative, too of a noble county, which had been always ready
to take the lead in every public measure for the good of the community,
or for the general benefit of mankind; of a county, too, which had had
the honour of producing a Saville. Had his illustrious predecessor been
alive, he would have shown the same zeal on the same occasion. The
preservation of the unalienable rights of all his fellow-creatures was
one of the chief characteristics of that excellent citizen. Let every
member in that House imitate him in the purity of their conduct and in
the universal rectitude of their measures, and they would pay the same
tender regard to the rights of other countries as to those of their own;
and, for his part, he should never believe those persons to be sincere
who were loud in their professions of love of liberty, if he saw that
love confined to the narrow circle of one community, which ought to be
extended to the natural rights of every inhabitant of the globe.

But we should be better able to bring ourselves up to this standard of
rectitude, if we were to put ourselves into the situation of those whom
we oppressed. This was the rule of our religion. What should we think of
those who should say, that it was their interest to injure us?  But he
hoped we should not deceive ourselves so grossly as to imagine that it
was our real interest to oppress any one. The advantages to be obtained
by tyranny were imaginary, and deceitful to the tyrant; and the evils
they caused to the oppressed were grievous, and often insupportable.

Before he sat down, he would apologize if he had expressed himself too
warmly on this subject. He did not mean to offend any one. There were
persons connected with the trade, some of whom he pitied on account of
the difficulty of their situation. But he should think most contemptibly
of himself as a man if he could talk on this traffic without emotion. It
would be a sign to him of his own moral degradation. He regretted his
inability to do justice to such a cause; but if, in having attempted to
forward it, he had shown the weakness of his powers, he must console
himself with the consideration, that he felt more solid comfort in
having acted up to sound public principles, than he could have done from
the exercise of the most splendid talents, against the conviction of his
conscience.

Mr. Burdon rose, and said he was embarrassed to know how to act. Mr.
Wilberforce had in a great measure met his ideas. Indeed he considered
himself as much in his hands; but he wished to go gradually to the
abolition of the trade. He wished to give time to the planters to
recruit their stocks. He feared the immediate abolition might occasion a
monopoly among such of them as were rich, to the detriment of the less
affluent. We ought, like a judicious physician, to follow nature, and to
promote a gradual recovery.

Mr. Francis rose next. After complimenting Mr. Wilberforce, he stated
that personal considerations might appear to incline him to go against
the side which he was about to take, namely, that of strenuously
supporting his motion. Having himself an interest in the West Indies, he
thought that what he should submit to the House would have the double
effect of evidence, and argument; and he stated most unequivocally his
opinion, that the abolition of the Slave Trade would tend materially to
the benefit of the West Indies.

The arguments urged by the honourable mover were supported by the facts,
which he had adduced from the evidence, more strongly than any arguments
had been supported in any speech he had ever heard. He wished, however,
that more of these facts had been introduced into the debate; for they
were apt to have a greater effect upon the mind than mere reasonings,
however just and powerful. Many had affirmed that the Slave Trade was
politic and expedient; but it was worthy of remark, that no man had
ventured to deny that it was criminal. Criminal, however, he declared it
to be in the highest degree; and he believed it was equally impolitic.
Both its inexpediency and injustice had been established by the
honourable mover. He dwelt much on the unhappy situation of the negroes
in the West Indies, who were without the protection of government or of
efficient laws, and subject to the mere caprice of men, who were at once
the parties, the judges, and the executioners.

He instanced an overseer, who, having thrown a negro into a copper of
boiling cane-juice, for a trifling offence, was punished merely by the
loss of his place, and by being obliged to pay the value of the slave.
He stated another instance of a girl of fourteen, who was dreadfully
whipped for coming too late to her work. She fell down motionless after
it; and was then dragged along the ground, by the legs, to an hospital;
where she died. The murderer, though tried, was acquitted by a jury of
his peers, upon the idea, that it was impossible a master could destroy
his own property. This was a notorious fact. It was published in the
_Jamaica Gazette;_ and it had even happened since the question of the
abolition had been started.

The only argument used against such cruelties, was the master's interest
in the slave; but he urged the common cruelty to horses, in which their
drivers had an equal interest with the drivers of men in the colonies,
as a proof that this was no security. He had never heard an instance of
a master being punished for the murder of his slave. The propagation of
the slaves was so far from being encouraged, that it was purposely
checked, because it was thought more profitable and less troublesome to
buy a full grown negro, than to rear a child. He repeated that his
interest might have inclined him to the other side of the question; but
he did not choose to compromise between his interest and his duty; for,
if he abandoned his duty, he should not be happy in this world; nor
should he deserve happiness in the next.

Mr. Pitt rose; but he said it was only to move, seeing that justice
could not be done to the subject this evening, that the further
consideration of the question might be adjourned to the next.

Mr. Cawthorne and Colonel Tarleton both opposed this motion, and Colonel
Phipps and Lord Carhampton supported it.

Mr. Fox said, the opposition to the adjournment was uncandid and
unbecoming. They who opposed it well knew that the trade could not bear
discussion. Let it be discussed; and, although there were symptoms of
predetermination in some, the abolition of it must be carried. He would
not believe that there could be found in the House of Commons men of
such hard hearts and inaccessible understandings, as to vote an assent
to its continuance, and then go home to their families, satisfied with
their vote, after they had been once made acquainted with the subject.

Mr. Pitt agreed with Mr. Fox, that from a full discussion of the subject
there was every reason to augur that the abolition would be adopted.
Under the imputations, with which this trade was loaded, gentlemen
should remember, they could not do justice to their own characters,
unless they stood up, and gave their reasons for opposing the abolition
of it. It was unusual also to force any question of such importance to
so hasty a decision. For his own part, it was his duty, from the
situation in which he stood, to state fully his own sentiments on the
question; and, however exhausted both he and the House might be, he was
resolved it should not pass without discussion, as long as he had
strength to utter a word upon it. Every principle that could bind a man
of honour and conscience, would impel him to give the most powerful
support he could to the motion for the abolition.

The motion of Mr. Pitt was assented to, and the House was adjourned
accordingly.

On the next day the subject was resumed. Sir William Yonge rose, and
said, that, though he differed from the honourable mover, he had much
admired his speech of the last evening. Indeed the recollection of it
made him only the more sensible of the weakness of his own powers; and
yet, having what he supposed to be irrefragable arguments in his
possession, he felt emboldened to proceed.

And, first, before he could vote for the abolition, he wished to be
convinced, that, whilst Britain were to lose, Africa would gain. As for
himself, he hated a traffic in men, and joyfully anticipated its
termination at no distant period under a wise system of regulation: but
he considered the present measure as crude and indolent; and as
precluding better and wiser measures, which were already in train. A
British Parliament should attain not only the best ends, but by the
wisest means.

Great Britain might abandon her share of this trade, but she could not
abolish it. Parliament was not an assembly of delegates from the powers
of Europe, but of a single nation. It could not therefore suppress the
trade; but would eventually aggravate those miseries incident to it,
which every enlightened man must acknowledge, and every good man must
deplore. He wished the traffic for ever closed. But other nations were
only waiting for our decision, to seize the part we should leave them.
The new projects of these would be intemperate; and, in the zeal of
rivalship, the present evils of comparatively sober dealing would be
aggravated beyond all estimate in this new and heated auction of bidders
for life and limb. We might, indeed, by regulation give an example of
new principles of policy and of justice; but if we were to withdraw
suddenly from this commerce, like Pontius Pilate, we should wash our
hands, indeed, but we should not be innocent as to the consequences.

On the first agitation of this business, Mr. Wilberforce had spoken
confidently of other nations following our example. But had not the
National Assembly of France referred the Slave Trade to a select
committee, and had not that committee rejected the measure of its
abolition? By the evidence it appeared, that the French and Spaniards
were then giving bounties to the Slave Trade; that Denmark was desirous
of following it; that America was encouraging it; and that the Dutch had
recognized its necessity, and recommended its recovery. Things were bad
enough indeed as they were, but he was sure this rivalship would make
them worse.

He did not admit the disorders imputed to the trade in all their extent.
Pillage and kidnapping could not be general, on account of the
populousness of the country; though too frequent instances of it had
been proved. Crimes might be falsely imputed. This he admitted; but only
partially. Witchcraft, he believed, was the secret of poisoning, and
therefore deserved the severest punishment. That there should be a
number of convictions for adultery, where polygamy was a custom, was not
to be wondered at; but he feared, if a sale of these criminals were to
be done away, massacre would be the substitute.

An honourable member had asked on a former day, "Is it an excuse for
robbery to say that another would hare committed it?" But the Slave
Trade did not necessarily imply robbery. Not long since Great Britain
sold her convicts, indirectly at least, to slavery; but he was no
advocate for the trade. He wished it had begun, and that it might soon
terminate. But the means were not adequate to the end proposed.

Mr. Burke had said on a former occasion, "that in adopting measure we
must prepare to pay the price of our virtue." He was ready to pay his
share of that price; but the effect of the purchase must be first
ascertained. If they did not estimate this, it was not benevolence, but
dissipation. Effects were to be duly appreciated; and though statesmen
might rest everything on a manifesto of causes, the humbler moralist,
meditating peace and good will towards men, would venture to call such
statesmen responsible for consequences.

In regard to the colonies, a sudden abolition would be oppression. The
legislatures there should be led, and not forced, upon this occasion. He
was persuaded they would act wisely to attain the end pointed out to
them. They would see that a natural increase of their negroes might be
effected by an improved system of legislation; and that in the result
the Slave Trade would be no longer necessary.

A sudden abolition, also, would occasion dissatisfaction there. Supplies
were necessary for some time to come. The negroes did not yet generally
increase by birth. The gradation of ages was not yet duly filled. These
and many defects might be remedied, but not suddenly.

It would cause, also, distress there. The planters, not having their
expected supplies, could not discharge their debts; hence their slaves
would be seized and sold. Nor was there any provision in this case
against the separation of families, except as to the mother and infant
child. These separations were one of the chief outrages complained of in
Africa. Why, then, should we promote them in the West Indies? The
confinement on board a slave-ship had been also bitterly complained of;
but, under distraint for the debt of a master, the poor slave might
linger in a gaol twice or thrice the time of the Middle Passage.

He again stated his abhorrence of the Slave Trade; but as a resource,
though he hoped but a temporary one, it was of such consequence to the
existence of the country, that it could not suddenly be withdrawn. The
value, of the imports and exports between Great Britain and the West
Indies, including the excise and customs, was between seven and eight
millions annually; and the tonnage of the ships employed about an eighth
of the whole tonnage of these kingdoms.

He complained that in the evidence the West Indian planters had been by
no means spared. Cruel stories had been hastily and lightly told against
them. Invidious comparisons had been made to their detriment; but it was
well known that one of our best comic writers, when he wished to show
benevolence in its fairest colours, had personified it in the character
of the West Indian. He wished the slave might become as secure as the
apprentice in this country; but it was necessary that the alarms
concerning the abolition of the Slave Trade should, in the mean time, be
quieted; and he trusted that the good sense and true benevolence of the
House would reject the present motion.

Mr. Matthew Montagu rose and said a few words in support of the motion;
and after condemning the trade in the strongest manner, he declared,
that as long as he had life he would use every faculty of his body and
mind in endeavouring to promote its abolition.

Lord John Russell succeeded Mr. Montagu. He said, that although slavery
was repugnant to his feelings, he must vote against the abolition as
visionary and delusive. It was a feeble attempt, without the power, to
serve the cause of humanity. Other nations would take up the trade.
Whenever a bill of wise regulation should be brought forward, no man
would be more ready than himself to lend his support. In this way the
rights of humanity might be asserted without injury to others. He hoped
he should not incur censure by his vote; for, let his understanding be
what it might, he did not know that he had, notwithstanding the
assertions of Mr. Fox, an inaccessible heart.

Mr. Stanley (agent for the islands) rose next. He felt himself called
upon, he said, to refute the many calumnies which had for years been
propagated against the planters, (even through the medium of the pulpit,
which should have been employed to better purposes,) and which had at
length produced the mischievous measure, which was now under the
discussion of the House. A cry had been sounded forth, and from one end
of the kingdom to the other, as if there had never been a slave from
Adam to the present time. But it appeared to him to have been the
intention of Providence, from the very beginning, that one set of men
should be slaves to another. This truth was as old as it was universal.
It was recognised in every history, under every government, and in every
religion. Nor did the Christian religion itself if the comments of Dr.
Halifax, Bishop of Gloucester, on a passage of St. Paul's epistle to the
Corinthians were true, show more repugnance to slavery than any other.

He denied that the slaves were procured in the manner which had been
described. It was the custom of all savages to kill their prisoners; and
the Africans ought to be thankful that they had been carried safe into
the British colonies.

As to the tales of misery in the Middle Passage, they were gross
falsehoods; and as to their treatment in the West Indies, he knew
personally that it was, in general, indulgent and humane.

With regard to promoting their increase by any better mode of treatment,
he wished gentlemen would point it out to him. As a planter he would
thank them for it. It was absurd to suppose that he and others were
blind to their own interest. It was well known that one Creole slave was
worth two Africans; and their interest, therefore, must suggest to them,
that the propagation of slaves was preferable to the purchase of
imported negroes, of whom one half very frequently died in the
seasoning.

He then argued the impossibility of beasts doing the work of the
plantations. He endeavoured to prove that the number of these adequate
to this purpose could not be supplied with food; and after having made
many other observations, which, on account of the lowness of his voice,
could not be heard, he concluded by objecting to the motion.

Mr. William Smith rose. He wondered how the last speaker could have had
the boldness to draw arguments from scripture in support of the Slave
Trade. Such arguments could be intended only to impose on those who
never took the trouble of thinking for themselves. Could it be thought
for a moment, that the good sense of the House could be misled by a few
perverted or misapplied passages, in direct opposition to the whole
tenor, and spirit of Christianity; to the theory, he might say, of
almost every religion, which had ever appeared in the world? Whatever
might have been advanced, every body must feel that the Slave Trade
could not exist an hour, if that excellent maxim, "to do to others as we
would wish that others should do to us," had its proper influence on the
conduct of men.

Nor was Mr. Stanley more happy in his argument of the antiquity and
universality of slavery. Because a practise had existed, did it
necessarily follow that it was just? By this argument every crime might
be defended from the time of Cain. The slaves of antiquity, however were
in a situation far preferable to that of the negroes in the West Indies.
A passage in Macrobius, which exemplified this in the strongest manner,
was now brought to his recollection. "Our ancestors," says Macrobius,
"denominated the master, father of the family, and the slave, domestic,
with the intention of removing all odium from the condition of the
master, and all contempt from that of the servant." Could this language
be applied to the present state of West India slavery?

It had been complained of by those who supported the trade, that they
laboured under great disadvantages by being obliged to contend against
the most splendid abilities which the House could boast. But he believed
they laboured under one, which was worse and for which no talents could
compensate; he meant the impossibility of maintaining their ground
fairly on any of those principles, which every man within those walls
had been accustomed, from his infancy, to venerate as sacred. He and his
friends, too, laboured under some disadvantages. They had been charged
with fanaticism. But what had Mr. Long said, when he addressed himself
to those planters, who were desirous of attempting improvements on their
estates? He advised them "not to be diverted by partial views, vulgar
prejudices, or the ridicule which might spring from weak minds, from a
benevolent attention to the public good." But neither by these nor by
other charges were he or his friends to be diverted from the prosecution
of their purpose. They were convinced of the rectitude and high
importance of their object; and were determined never to desist from
pursuing it, till it should be attained.

But they had to struggle with difficulties far more serious. The West
Indian interest which opposed them, was a collected body; of great
power, affluence, connexions, and respectability.

Artifice had also been employed. Abolition and emancipation had been so
often confounded, and by those who knew better, that it must have been
purposely done, to throw an odium on the measure which was now before
them.

The abolitionists had been also accused as the authors of the late
insurrection in Dominica. A revolt had certainly taken place in that
island. But revolts there had occured frequently before. Mr. Stanley
himself, in attempting to fix this charge upon them, had related
circumstance which amounted to their entire exculpation. He had said
that all was quiet there till the disturbances in the French islands;
when some negroes from the latter had found their way to Dominica, and
had excited the insurrection in question. He had also said, that the
negroes in our own islands hated the idea of the abolition; for they
thought, as no new labourers were to come in, they should be subjected
to increased hardships. But if they and their masters hated this same
measure, how was this coincidence of sentiment to give birth to
insurrections?

Other fallacies, also, had been industriously propogated. Of the African
trade, it had been said, that the exports amounted to a million
annually; whereas, from the report on the table, it had on an average
amounted to little more than half a million; and this included the
articles for the purchase of African produce which were of the value of
140,000_l._

The East Indian Trade, also, had been said to depend on the West Indian
and the African. In the first place, it had but very little connexion
with the former at all. Its connexion with the latter was principally on
account of the saltpetre which it furnished for making gunpowder. Out of
nearly three millions of pounds in weight of the latter article, which
had been exported in a year from this country, one-half had been sent to
Africa alone; for the purposes, doubtless, of maintaining peace, and
encouraging civilization among its various tribes! Four or five thousand
persons were said, also, to depend for their bread in manufacturing guns
for the African trade; and these, it was pretended, could not make guns
of another sort.--But where lay the difficulty?--One of the witnesses
had unravelled it. He had seen the negroes maimed by the bursting of
these guns. They killed more from the butt than from the muzzle. Another
had stated, that on the sea-coast the natives were afraid to fire a
trade-gun.

In the West Indian commerce, two hundred and forty thousand tons of
shipping were stated to be employed. But here deception intruded itself
again. This statement included every vessel, great and small, which went
from the British West Indies to America, and to the foreign islands; and
what was yet more unfair, all the repeated voyages of each throughout
the year. The shipping, which could only fairly be brought into this
account, did but just exceed half that which had been mentioned.

In a similar manner had the islands themselves been overrated. Their
value had been computed, for the information of the privy council, at
thirty-six millions; but the planters had estimated them at seventy. The
truth, however, might possibly lie between these extremes. He by no
means wished to depreciate their importance; but he did not like that
such palpable misrepresentations should go unnoticed.

An honourable member (Colonel Tarleton) had disclaimed every attempt to
interest the feelings of those present, but had desired to call them to
reason and accounts. He also desired (though it was a question of
feeling, if any one ever was,) to draw the attention of the committee to
reason and accounts--to the voice of reason instead of that of
prejudice, and to accounts in the place of idle apprehensions. The
result, he doubted not, would be a full persuasion, that policy and
justice were inseparable upon this, as upon every other occasion.

The same gentleman had enlarged on the injustice of depriving the
Liverpool merchants of a business, on which were founded their honour
and their fortunes. On what part of it they founded their honour he
could not conjecture, except from those passages in the evidence, where
it appeared, that their agents in Africa had systematically practised
every fraud and villany, which the meanest and most unprincipled cunning
could suggest, to impose on the ignorance of those with whom they
traded.

The same gentleman had also lamented, that the evidence had not been
taken upon oath. He himself lamented it too. Numberless facts had been
related by eye-witnesses, called in support of the abolition, so
dreadfully atrocious, that they appeared incredible; and seemed rather,
to use the expression of Ossian, like "the histories of the days of
other times." These procured for the trade a species of acquittal, which
it could not have obtained, had the committee been authorised to
administer an oath. He apprehended, also, in this case, that some other
persons would have been rather more guarded in their testimony. Captain
Knox would not then perhaps have told the committee, that six hundred
slaves could have had comfortable room at night in his vessel of about
one hundred and forty tons; when there could have been no more than five
feet six inches in length, and fifteen inches in breadth, to about
two-thirds of his number.

The same gentleman had also dwelt upon the Slave Trade as a nursery for
seamen. But it had appeared by the muster-rolls of the slave-vessels,
then actually on the table of the house, that more than a fifth of them
died in the service, exclusive of those who perished when discharged in
the West Indies; and yet he had been instructed by his constituents to
maintain this false position. His reasoning, too, was very curious; for,
though numbers might die, yet as one half who entered were landsmen,
seamen were continually forming. Not to dwell on the expensive cruelty
of forming these seamen by the yearly destruction of so many hundreds,
this very statement was flatly contradicted by the evidence. The
muster-rolls from Bristol stated the proportion of landsmen in the trade
there at one twelfth, and the proper officers of Liverpool itself at but
a sixteenth of the whole employed. In the face again of the most glaring
facts, others had maintained that the mortality in these vessels did not
exceed that of other trades in the tropical climates. But the same
documents, which proved that twenty-three per cent were destroyed in
this wasting traffic, proved that in West India ships only about one and
a half per cent were lost, including every casualty. But the very men,
under whose management this dreadful mortality had been constantly
occurring, had coolly said, that much of it might be avoided by proper
regulations. How criminal then were they, who, knowing this, had neither
publicly proposed, nor in their practice adopted, a remedy!

The average loss of the slaves on board, which had been calculated by
Mr. Wilberforce at twelve and a half per cent., had been denied. He
believed this calculation, taking in all the circumstances connected
with it, to be true; but that for years not less than one-tenth had so
perished, he would challenge those concerned in the traffic to disprove.
Much evidence had been produced on the subject; but the voyages had been
generally selected. There was only one who had disclosed the whole
account. This was Mr. Anderson of London, whose engagements in this
trade had been very inconsiderable. His loss had only amounted to three
per cent.; but, unfortunately for the slave-traders of Liverpool, his
vessel had not taken above three-fourths of that number in proportion to
the tonnage which they had stated to be necessary to the very existence
of their trade.

An honourable member (Mr. Grosvenor) had attributed the protraction of
this business to those who had introduced it. But from whom did the
motion for further evidence (when that of the privy council was refused)
originate, but from the enemies of the abolition? The same gentleman had
said, it was impossible to abolish the trade; but where was the
impossibility of forbidding the further importation of slaves into our
own colonies? and beyond this the motion did not extend.

The latter argument had also been advanced by Sir William Yonge and
others. But allowing it its full force, would there be no honour in the
dereliction of such a commerce? Would it be nothing publicly to
recognise great and just principles? Would our example be nothing!--Yes:
every country would learn, from our experiment, that American colonies
could be cultivated without the necessity of continual supplies equally
expensive and disgraceful.

But we might do more than merely lay down principles or propose
examples. We might, in fact, diminish the evil itself immediately by no
inconsiderable part,--by the whole of our own supply; and here he could
not at all agree with the honourable baronet, in what seemed to him a
commercial paradox, that the taking away from an open trade by far the
largest customer, and the lessening of the consumption of the article,
would increase both the competition and the demand, and of course all
those mischiefs, which it was their intention to avert.

That the civilization of the Africans was promoted, as had been
asserted, by their intercourse with the Europeans, was void of
foundation, as had appeared from the evidence. In manners and dishonesty
they had indeed assimilated with those who frequented their coasts. But
the greatest industry and the least corruption of morals were in the
interior, where they were out of the way of this civilizing connexion.

To relieve Africa from famine, was another of the benign reasons which
had been assigned for continuing the trade. That famines had occurred
there, he did not doubt; but that they should annually occur, and with
such arithmetical exactness as to suit the demands of the Slave Trade,
was a circumstance most extraordinary; so wonderful, indeed, that, could
it once be proved, he should consider it as a far better argument in
favour of the divine approbation of that trade, than any which had ever
yet been produced.

As to the effect of the abolition on the West Indies, it would give
weight to every humane regulation which had been made; by substituting a
certain and obvious interest, in the place of one depending upon chances
and calculation. An honourable member (Mr. Stanley) had spoken of the
impossibility of cultivating the estates there without further
importations of negroes; and yet, of all the authorities he had brought
to prove his case, there was scarcely one which might not be pressed to
serve more or less effectually against him. Almost every planter he had
named had found his negroes increase under the good treatment he had
professed to give them; and it was an axiom, throughout the whole
evidence, that, wherever they were well used, importations were not
necessary. It had been said, indeed, by some adverse witnesses, that in
Jamaica all possible means had been used to keep up the stock by
breeding; but how preposterous was this, when it was allowed that the
morals of the slaves had been totally neglected, and that the planters
preferred buying a larger proportion of males than females!

The misfortune was, that prejudice, and not reason, was the enemy to be
subdued. The prejudices of the West Indians on these points were
numerous and inveterate. Mr. Long himself had characterised them on this
account, in terms which he should have felt diffident in using. But Mr.
Long had shown his own prejudices also: for he justified the chaining of
the Negroes on board the slave-vessels, on account of "their bloody,
cruel, and malicious dispositions." But hear his commendation of some of
the Aborigines of Jamaica, "who had miserably perished in caves, whither
they had retired to escape the tyranny of the Spaniards. These," says
he, "left a glorious monument of their having disdained to survive the
loss of their liberty and their country." And yet this same historian
could not perceive that this natural love of liberty might operate as
strongly and as laudably in the African Negro, as in the Indian of
Jamaica.

He was concerned to acknowledge that these prejudices were yet further
strengthened by resentment against those who had taken an active part in
the abolition of the Slave Trade. But it was never the object of these
to throw a stigma on the whole body of the West Indians; but to prove
the miserable effects of the trade. This it was their duty to do; and
if, in doing this, disgraceful circumstances had come out, it was not
their fault; and it must never be forgotten that they were true.

That the slaves were exposed to great misery in the islands, was true as
well from inference as from facts: for what might not be expected from
the use of arbitrary power, where the three characters of party, judge,
and executioner were united! The slaves, too, were more capable on
account of their passions, than the beasts in the field, of exciting the
passions of their tyrants. To what a length the ill-treatment of them
might be carried, might be learnt from, the instance which General
Tottenham mentioned to have seen in the year 1780 in the streets of
Bridge Town, Barbados: "A youth about nineteen (to use his own words in
the evidence), entirely naked, with an iron collar about his neck,
having five long projecting spikes. His body both before and behind was
covered with wounds. His belly and thighs were almost cut to pieces,
with running ulcers all over them; and a finger might have been laid in
some of the weals. He could not sit down, because his hinder part was
mortified; and it was impossible for him to lie down, on account of the
prongs of his collar." He supplicated the General for relief. The latter
asked who had punished him so dreadfully? The youth answered, his master
had done it. And because he could not work, this same master, in the
same spirit of perversion, which extorts from Scripture a justification
of the Slave Trade, had fulfilled the apostolic maxim, that he should
have nothing to eat. The use he meant to make of this instance was to
show the unprotected state of the slaves. What must it be, where such an
instance could pass not only unpunished, but almost unregarded! If, in
the streets of London, but a dog were to be seen lacerated like this
miserable man, how would the cruelty of the wretch be execrated, who had
thus even abused a brute!

The judicial punishments also inflicted upon the Negro showed the low
estimation, in which, in consequence of the strength of old customs and
deep-rooted prejudices, they were held. Mr. Edwards, in his speech to
the Assembly at Jamaica, stated the following case, as one which had
happened in one of the rebellions there. Some slaves surrounded the
dwelling-house of their mistress. She was in bed with a lovely infant.
They deliberated upon the means of putting her to death in torment. But
in the end one of them reserved her for his mistress; and they killed
her infant with an axe before her face. "Now," says Mr. Edwards,
(addressing himself to his audience) "you will think that no torments
were too great for such horrible excesses. Nevertheless I am of a
different opinion. I think that death, unaccompanied with cruelty,
should be the utmost exertion of human authority over our unhappy
fellow-creatures." Torments, however, were always inflicted in these
cases. The punishment was gibbeting alive, and exposing the delinquents
to perish by the gradual effects of hunger, thirst, and parching sun; in
which situation they were known to suffer for nine days, with a
fortitude scarcely credible, never uttering a single groan. But horrible
as the excesses might have been, which occasioned these punishments, it
must be remembered, that they were committed by ignorant savages, who
had been dragged from all they held most dear; whose patience had been
exhausted by a cruel and loathsome confinement during their
transportation; and whose resentment had been wound up to the highest
pitch of fury by the lash of the driver.

But he would now mention another instance, by way of contrast, out of
the evidence. A child on board a slave-ship, of about ten months old,
took sulk and would not eat. The captain flogged it with a cat; swearing
that he would make it eat, or kill it. From this and other ill-treatment
the child's legs swelled. He then ordered some water to be made hot to
abate the swelling. But even his tender mercies were cruel; for the
cook, on putting his hand into the water, said it was too hot. Upon this
the captain swore at him, and ordered the feet to be put in. This was
done. The nails and skin came off. Oiled cloths were then put round
them. The child was at length tied to a heavy log. Two or three days
afterwards, the captain caught it up again; and repeated that he would
made it eat, or kill it. He immediately flogged it again, and in a
quarter of an hour it died. But, after the child was dead, whom should
the barbarian select to throw it overboard, but the wretched mother? In
vain she started from the office. He beat her, till he made her take up
the child and carry it to the side of the vessel. She then dropped it
into the sea, turning her head the other way that she might not see it.
Now it would naturally be asked, was not this captain also gibbeted
alive? Alas! although the execrable barbarity of the European exceeded
that of the Africans before mentioned, almost as much as his
opportunities of instruction has been greater than theirs, no notice
whatsoever was taken of this horrible action; and a thousand similar
cruelties had been committed in this abominable trade with equal
impunity: but he would say no more. He would vote for the abolition, not
only as it would do away all the evils complained of in Africa and the
Middle Passage; but as it would be the most effectual means of
ameliorating the condition of those unhappy persons, who were still to
continue slaves in the British colonies.

Mr. Courtenay rose. He said, he could not but consider the assertion of
Sir William Yonge as a mistake, that the Slave Trade, if abandoned by
us, would fall into the hands of France. It ought to be recollected,
with what approbation the motion for abolishing it, made by the late
Mirabeau, had been received; although the situation of the French
colonies might then have presented obstacles to carrying the measure
into immediate execution. He had no doubt, if parliament were to begin,
so wise and enlightened a body as the National Assembly would follow the
example. But even if France were not to relinquish the trade, how could
we, if justice required its abolition, hesitate as to our part of it?

The trade, it had been said, was conducted upon the principles of
humanity. Yes: we rescued the Africans from what we were pleased to call
their wretched situation in their own; country, and then we took credit
for our humanity; because, after having killed one half of them in the
seasoning, we substituted what we were again pleased to call a better
treatment than that which they would have experienced at home.

It had been stated that the principle of war among savages was a general
massacre. This was not true. They frequently adopted the captives into
their own families; and, so far from massacring the women and children,
they often gave them the protection which the weakness of their age and
sex demanded.

There could be no doubt, that the practice of kidnapping; prevailed in
Africa. As to witchcraft, it had been made a crime in the reign of James
the First in this country, for the purpose of informations; and how much
more likely were informations to take place in Africa, under the
encouragement afforded by the Slave Trade! This trade, it had been said,
was sanctioned by twenty-six acts of parliament. He did not doubt but
fifty-six might be found, by which parliament had sanctioned witchcraft
of the existence of which we had now no belief whatever....

It had been said by Mr. Stanley that the pulpit had been used as an
instrument of attack on the Slave Trade. He was happy to learn it had
been so well employed; and he hoped the Bishops would rise up in the
House of Lords, with the virtuous indignation which became them, to
abolish a traffic so contrary to humanity, justice, and religion.

He entreated every member to recollect, that on his vote that night
depended the happiness of millions; and that it was then in his power to
promote a measure, of which the benefits would be felt over one whole
quarter of the globe; that the seeds of civilization might, by the
present bill, be sown all over Africa: and the first principles of
humanity be established in regions where they had hitherto been excluded
by the existence of this execrable trade.

Lord Carysfort rose, and said, that the great cause of the abolition had
flourished by the manner in which it had been opposed. No one argument
of solid weight had been adduced against it. It had been shown, but
never disproved, that the colonial laws were inadequate to the
protection of the slaves; that the punishments of the latter were most
unmerciful; that they were deprived of the right of self-defence against
any White man; and, in short, that the system was totally repugnant to
the principles of the British constitution.

Colonel Phipps followed Lord Carysfort. He denied that this was a
question in which the rights of humanity and the laws of nature were
concerned. The Africans became slaves in consequence of the constitution
of their own governments. These were founded in absolute despotism.
Every subject was an actual slave. The inhabitants were slaves to the
great men, and the great men were slaves to the prince. Prisoners of
war, too, were by law subject to slavery. Such being the case, he saw no
more cruelty in disposing of them to our merchants, than to those of any
other nation. Criminals, also, in cases of adultery and witchcraft,
became slaves by the same laws.

It had been said, that there were no regulations in the West Indies for
the protection of slaves. There were several; though he was ready to
admit that more were necessary; and he would go in this respect as far
as humanity might require. He had passed ten months in Jamaica, where he
had never seen any such acts of cruelty as had been talked of. Those
which he had seen were not exercised by the Whites, but by the Blacks.
The dreadful stories which had been told, ought no more to fix a general
stigma upon the planters, than the story of Mrs. Brownrigg to stamp this
polished metropolis with the general brand of murder. There was once a
haberdasher's wife (Mrs. Nairne) who locked up her apprentice girl, and
starved her to death; but did ever any body think of abolishing
haberdashery on this account? He was persuaded the Negroes in the West
Indies were cheerful and happy. They were fond of ornaments; but it was
not the characteristic of miserable persons to show a taste for finery.
Such a taste, on the contrary, implied a cheerful and contented mind. He
was sorry to differ from his friend Mr. Wilberforce, but he must oppose
his motion.

Mr. Pitt rose, and said, that from the first hour of his having had the
honour to sit in parliament down to the present, among all the
questions, whether political or personal, in which it had been his
fortune to take a share, there had never been one in which his heart was
so deeply interested as in the present; both, on account of the serious
principles it involved, and the consequences connected with it.

The present was not a mere question of feeling. The argument, which
ought, in his opinion, to determine the committee, was, that the Slave
Trade was unjust. It was, therefore, such a trade as it was impossible
for him to support, unless it could be first proved to him, that there
were no laws of morality binding upon nations; and that it was not the
duty of a legislature to restrain its subjects, from invading the
happiness of other countries, and from violating; the fundamental
principles of justice.

Several had stated the impracticability of the measure before them. They
wished to see the trade abolished; but there was some necessity for
continuing it, which they conceived to exist. Nay, almost every, one, he
believed, appeared to wish that the further importation of slaves might
cease, provided, it could be made out that, the population of the West
Indies could be maintained without it. He proposed, therefore, to
consider the latter point; for, as the impracticability of keeping up
the population there appeared to operate as the chief objection, he
trusted that, by showing it to be ill founded, he should clear away all
other obstacles whatever; so that, having no ground either of justice or
necessity to stand upon, there could be no excuse left to the committee
for resisting the present motion.

He might reasonably, however, hope that they would not reckon any small
or temporary disadvantage, which might arise from the abolition, to be a
sufficient reason against it. It was surely not any slight degree of
expediency, nor any small balance of profit, nor any light shades of
probability on the one side, rather than on the other, which would
determine them on this question. He asked pardon even for the
supposition. The Slave Trade was an evil of such magnitude, that there
must be a common wish in the committee at once to put an end to it, if
there were no great and serious obstacles. It was a trade, by which
multitudes of unoffending nations were deprived of the blessings of
civilization, and had their peace and happiness invaded. It ought,
therefore, to be no common expediency, it ought to be nothing less than
the utter ruin of our islands, which it became those to plead, who took
upon them to defend the continuance of it.

He could not help thinking that the West India gentlemen had manifested
an over great degree of sensibility as to the point in question; and
that their alarms had been unreasonably excited upon it. He had examined
the subject carefully for himself: and he would now detail those
reasons, which had induced him firmly to believe, not only that no
permanent mischief would follow from the abolition, but not even any
such temporary inconvenience as could be stated to be a reason for
preventing the House from agreeing to the motion before them; on the
contrary, that the abolition itself would lay the foundation for the
more solid improvement of all the various interests of those colonies.

In doing this he should apply his observations chiefly to Jamaica, which
contained more than half the slaves in the British West Indies; and if
he should succeed in proving that no material detriment could arise to
the population there, this would afford so strong a presumption with
respect to the other islands, that the House could no longer hesitate
whether they should, or should not, put a stop to this most horrid
trade.

In the twenty years ending in 1788, the annual loss of slaves in Jamaica
(that is, the excess of deaths above the births,) appeared to be one in
the hundred. In a preceding period the loss was greater; and, in a
period before that greater still; there having been a continual
gradation in the decrease through the whole time. It might fairly be
concluded, therefore, that (the average logs of the last period being
one per cent.) the loss in the former part of it would be somewhat more,
and in the latter part somewhat less, than one per cent; insomuch that
it might be fairly questioned, whether, by this time, the births and
deaths in Jamaica might not be stated as nearly equal. It was to be
added, that a peculiar calamity, which swept away fifteen thousand
slaves, had occasioned a part of the mortality in the last-mentioned
period. The probable loss, therefore, now to be expected, was very
inconsiderable indeed.

There was, however, one circumstance to be added, which the West India
gentlemen, in stating this matter, had entirely overlooked; and which
was so material, as clearly to reduce the probable diminution in the
population of Jamaica down to nothing. In all the calculations he had
referred to of the comparative number of births and deaths, all the
Negroes in the island were included. The newly imported, who died in the
seasoning, made apart; but these swelled, most materially, the number of
the deaths. Now, as these extraordinary deaths would cease, as soon as
the importation ceased, a deduction of them ought to be made from his
present calculation.

But the number of those, who thus died in the seasoning, would make up
of itself nearly the whole of that one per cent. which had been stated.
He particularly pressed an attention to this circumstance; for the
complaint of being likely to want hands in Jamaica, arose from the
mistake of including the present unnatural deaths, caused by the
seasoning, among the natural and perpetual muses of mortality. These
deaths, being erroneously taken into the calculations, gave the planters
an idea that the numbers could not be kept up. These deaths, which were
caused merely by the Slave Trade, furnished the very ground, therefore,
on which the continuance of that trade had been thought necessary.

The evidence as to this point was clear; for it would be found in that
dreadful catalogue of deaths, arising from the seasoning and the
passage, which the House had been condemned to look into, that one half
died. An annual mortality of two thousand slaves in Jamaica might be
therefore charged to the importation; which, compared with the whole
number on the island, hardly fell short of the whole one per cent.
decrease.

Joining this with all the other considerations, he would then ask, could
the decrease of the slaves in Jamaica be such--could the colonies be so
destitute of means--could the planters, when by their own accounts they
were establishing daily new regulations for the benefit of the
slaves--could they, under all these circumstances, be permitted to plead
that total impossibility of keeping up their number, which they had
rested on, as being indeed the only possible pretext for allowing fresh
importations from Africa? He appealed, therefore, to the sober judgment
of all, whether the situation of Jamaica was such, as to justify a
hesitation in agreeing to the present motion.

It might be observed, also, that, when the importations should stop,
that disproportion between the sexes, which was one of the obstacles to
population, would gradually diminish; and a natural order of things be
established. Through the want of this natural order, a thousand
grievances were created, which it was impossible to define; and which it
was in vain to think that, under such circumstances, we could cure. But
the abolition, of itself, would work this desirable effect. The West
Indians would then feel a near and urgent interest to enter into a
thousand little details, which it was impossible for him to describe,
but which would have the greatest influence on population. A foundation
would thus be laid for the general welfare of the islands; a new system
would rise up, the reverse of the old; and eventually both their general
wealth and happiness would increase.

He had now proved far more than he was bound to do; for, if he could
only show that the abolition would not be ruinous, it would be enough.
He could give up, therefore, three arguments out of four, through the
whole of what he had said, and yet have enough left for his position. As
to the Creoles, they would undoubtedly increase. They differed in this
entirely from the imported slaves, who were both a burthen and a curse
to themselves and others. The measure now proposed would operate like a
charm; and, besides stopping all the miseries in Africa and the passage,
would produce even more benefit in the West Indies than legal
regulations could effect.

He would now just touch upon the question of emancipation. A rash
emancipation of the slaves would be mischievous. In that unhappy
situation, to which our baneful conduct had brought ourselves and them,
it would be no justice on either side to give them liberty. They were as
yet incapable of it; but their situation might be gradually amended.
They might be relieved from everything harsh and severe; raised from
their present degraded state; and put under the protection of the law.
Till then, to talk of emancipation was insanity. But it was the system
of fresh importations, which interfered with these principles of
improvement; and it was only the abolition which could establish them.
This suggestion had its foundation in human nature. Wherever the
incentive of honour, credit, and fair profit appeared, energy would
spring up; and when these labourers should have the natural springs of
human action afforded them, they would then rise to the natural level of
human industry.

From Jamaica he would now go to the other islands. In Barbadoes the
slaves had rather increased. In St. Kitts the decrease for fourteen
years had been but three-fourths per cent.; but here many of the
observations would apply, which he had used in the case of Jamaica. In
Antigua many had died by a particular calamity. But for this, the
decrease would have been trifling. In Nevis and Montserrat there was
little or no disproportion of the sexes; so that it might well be hoped,
that the numbers would be kept up in these islands. In Dominica some
controversy had arisen about the calculation; but Governor Orde had
stated an increase of births above the deaths. From Grenada and St.
Vincent's no accurate accounts had been delivered in answer to the
queries sent them; but they were probably not in circumstances less
favourable than in the other islands.

On a full review, then, of the state of the Negro population in the West
Indies, was there any serious ground of alarm from the abolition of the
Slave Trade? Where was the impracticability, on which alone so many had
rested their objections? Must we not blush at pretending, that it would
distress our consciences to accede to this measure, as far as the
question of the Negro population was concerned?

Intolerable were the mischiefs of this trade, both in its origin, and
through every stage of its progress. To say that slaves could be
furnished us by fair and commercial means was ridiculous. The trade
sometimes ceased, as during the late war. The demand was more or less
according to circumstances. But how was it possible, that to a demand so
exceedingly fluctuating the supply should always exactly accommodate
itself? Alas! We made human beings the subject of commerce; we talked of
them as such; and yet we would not allow them the common principle of
commerce, that the supply must accommodate itself to the consumption. It
was not from wars, then, that the slaves were chiefly procured. They
were obtained in proportion as they were wanted. If a demand for slaves
arose, a supply was forced in one way or other; and it was in vain,
overpowered as we then were with positive evidence, as well as the
reasonableness of the supposition, to deny that by the Slave Trade we
occasioned all the enormities which had been alleged against it.

Sir William Yonge had said, that if we were not to take the Africans
from their country, they would be destroyed. But he had not yet read
that all uncivilized nations destroyed their captives. We assumed,
therefore, what was false. The very selling of them implied this; for,
if they would sell their captives for profit, why should they not employ
them so as to receive a profit also? Nay, many of them, while there was
no demand from the slave merchants, were often actually so employed. The
trade, too, had been suspended during the war; and it was never said, or
thought, that any such consequence had then followed.

The honourable baronet had also said, to justification of the Slave
Trade, that witchcraft commonly implied poison, and was therefore a
punishable crime; but did he recollect that not only the individual
accused, but that his whole family, were sold as slaves? The truth was,
we stopped the natural progress of civilization in Africa. We cut her
off from the opportunity of improvement. We kept her down in a state of
darkness, bondage, ignorance, and bloodshed. Was not this an awful
consideration for this country? Look at the map of Africa, and see how
little useful intercourse had been established on that vast continent!
While other countries were assisting and enlightening each other, Africa
alone had none of these benefits. We had obtained as yet only so much
knowledge of her productions, as to show that there was a capacity for
trade, which we checked. Indeed, if the mischiefs there were out of the
question, the circumstance of the Middle Passage alone would, in his
mind, be reason enough for the abolition. Such a scene as that of the
slave-ships passing over with their wretched cargoes to the West Indies,
if it could be spread before the eyes of the House, would be sufficient
of itself to make them vote in favour of it; but when it could be added,
that the interest even of the West Indies themselves rested on the
accomplishment of this great event, he could not conceive an act of more
imperious duty, than that which was imposed upon the House, of agreeing
to the present motion.

Sir Archibald Edmonstone rose, and asked whether the present motion went
so far as to pledge those who voted for it to a total and immediate
abolition.

Mr. Alderman Watson rose next. He defended the Slave Trade as highly
beneficial to the country, being one material branch of its commerce.
But he could not think of the African trade without connecting it with
the West Indian. The one hung upon the other. A third important branch
also depended upon it, which was the Newfoundland fishery; the latter
could not go on, if it were not for the vast quantity of inferior fish
bought up for the Negroes in the West Indies, and which quite unfit for
any other market. If, therefore, we destroyed the African, we destroyed
the other trades. Mr. Turgot, he said, had recommended in the National
Assembly of France the gradual abolition of the Slave Trade. He would,
therefore, recommend it to the House to adopt the same measure, and to
soften the rigours of slavery by wholesome regulations; but an immediate
abolition he could not countenance.

Mr. Fox at length rose. He observed that some expressions which he had
used on the preceding day, had been complained of as too harsh and
severe. He had since considered them, but he could not prevail upon
himself to retract them; because, if any gentleman, after reading the
evidence on the table, and attending to the debate, could avow himself
an abettor of this shameful traffic in human flesh, it could only be
either from some hardness of heart, or some difficulty of understanding,
which he really knew not how to account for.

Some had considered this question as a question of political, whereas,
it was a question of personal, freedom. Political freedom was
undoubtedly a great blessing; but when it came to be compared with
personal, it sunk to nothing. To confound the two, served, therefore, to
render all arguments on either perplexing and unintelligible. Personal
freedom was the first right of every human being. It was a right, of
which he who deprived a fellow-creature was absolutely criminal in so
depriving him, and which he who withheld was no less criminal in
withholding. He could not, therefore, retract his words with respect to
any, who (whatever respect he might otherwise have for them) should, by
their vote of that night, deprive their fellow-creatures of so great a
blessing. Nay, he would go further. He would say, that if the House,
knowing what the trade was by the evidence, did not, by their vote, mark
to all mankind their abhorrence of a practice so savage, so enormous, so
repugnant to all laws human and divine, they would consign their
character to eternal infamy.

That the pretence of danger to our West Indian islands from the
abolition of the Slave Trade was totally unfounded, Mr. Wilberforce had
abundantly proved; but if there were they who had not been satisfied
with that proof, was it possible to resist the arguments of Mr. Pitt on
the same subject? It had been shown, on a comparison of the births and
deaths in Jamaica, that there was not now any decrease of the slaves.
But if there had been, it would have made no difference to him in his
vote; for, had the mortality been ever so great there, he should have
ascribed it to the system of importing Negroes, instead of that of
encouraging their natural increase. Was it not evident that the planters
thought it more convenient to buy them fit for work, than to breed them?
Why, then, was this horrid trade to be kept up?--To give the planters
truly the liberty of misusing their slaves, so as to check population:
for it was from ill-usage only that, in a climate so natural to them,
their numbers could diminish. The very ground, therefore, on which the
planters rested the necessity of fresh importations, namely, the
destruction of lives in the West Indies, was itself the strongest
argument that could be given, and furnished the most imperious call upon
parliament for the abolition of the trade.

Against this trade innumerable were the charges. An honourable member,
Mr. Smith, had done well to introduce those tragical stories which had
made such an impression upon the House. No one of these had been yet
controverted. It had, indeed, been said; that the cruelty of the African
captain to the child was too bad to be true; and we had been desired to
look at the cross-examination of the witness, as if we should find
traces of the falsehood in his testimony there. But his
cross-examination was peculiarly honourable to his character; for, after
he had been pressed in the closest manner by some able members of the
House, the only inconsistency they could fix upon him was, whether the
fact had happened on the same day of the same month of the year 1764 or
the year 1765.

But it was idle to talk of the incredibility of such instances. It was
not denied that absolute power was exercised by the slave-captains; and
if this was granted, all the cruelties charged upon them would naturally
follow. Never did he hear of charges so black and horrible as those
contained in the evidence on the table. They unfolded such a scene of
cruelty, that if the House, with all their present knowledge of the
circumstances, should dare to vote for its continuance, they must have
nerves of which he had no conception. We might find instances, indeed,
in history, of men violating the feelings of nature on extraordinary
occasions. Fathers had sacrificed their sons and daughters, and husbands
their wives; but to imitate their characters, we ought to have not only
nerves as strong as the two Brutuses, but to take care that we had a
cause as good; or that we had motives for such a dereliction of our
feelings as patriotic as those which historians had annexed to these
when they handed them to the notice of the world.

But what was our motive in the case before us?--to continue a trade
which was a wholesale sacrifice of a whole order and race of our
fellow-creatures, which carried them away by force from their native
country, in order to subject them to the mere will and caprice, the
tyranny and oppression of other human beings, for their whole natural
lives, them and their posterity for ever!! O most monstrous wickedness!
O unparalleled barbarity! And, what was more aggravating, this most
complicated scene of robbery and murder which mankind had ever
witnessed, had been honoured by the name of trade.

That a number of human beings should be at all times ready to be
furnished as fair articles of commerce, just as our occasions might
require, was absurd. The argument of Mr. Pitt on this head was
unanswerable. Our demand was fluctuating: it entirely ceased at some
times: at others it was great and pressing. How was it possible, on
every sudden call, to furnish a sufficient return in slaves, without
resorting to those execrable means of obtaining them, which were stated
in the evidence? These were of three sorts, and he would now examine
them.

Captives in war, it was urged, were consigned either to death or
slavery. This, however, he believed to be false in point of fact. But
suppose it were true; did it not become us, with whom it was a custom,
founded in the wisest policy, to pay the captives a peculiar respect and
civility, to inculcate the same principles in Africa? But we were so far
from doing this, that we encouraged wars for the sake of taking, not
men's goods and possessions, but men themselves; and it was not the war
which was the cause of the Slave Trade, but the Slave Trade which was
the cause of the war. It was the practice of the slave-merchants to try
to intoxicate the African kings in order to turn them to their purpose.
A particular instance occurred in the evidence of a prince, who, when
sober, resisted their wishes; but in the moment of inebriety he gave the
word for war, attacked the next village, and sold the inhabitants to the
merchants.

The second mode was kidnapping. He referred the House to various
instances of this in the evidence: but there was one in particular, from
which we might immediately infer the frequency of the practice. A black
trader had kidnapped a girl and sold her; but he was presently
afterwards kidnapped and sold himself; and, when he asked the captain
who bought him, "What! do you buy me, who am a great trader?" the only
answer was, "Yes, I will buy you, or her, or anybody else, provided any
one will sell you;" and accordingly both the trader and the girl were
carried to the West Indies, and sold for slaves.

The third mode of obtaining slaves was by crimes committed or imputed.
One of these was adultery. But was Africa the place, where Englishmen,
above all others, were to go to find out and punish adultery? Did it
become us to cast the first stone? It was a most extraordinary
pilgrimage for a most extraordinary purpose! And yet upon this plea we
justified our right of carrying off its inhabitants. The offence alleged
next was witchcraft. What a reproach it was to lend ourselves to this
superstition!--Yes: we stood by; we heard the trial; we knew the crime
to be impossible; and that the accused must be innocent: but we waited
in patient silence for his condemnation; and then we lent our friendly
aid to the police of the country, by buying the wretched convict, with
all his family; whom, for the benefit of Africa, we carried away also
into perpetual slavery.

With respect to the situation of the slaves in their transportation, he
knew not how to give the House a more correct idea of the horrors of it,
than by referring them to the printed section of the slave-ship; where
the eye might see what the tongue must fall short in describing. On this
dismal part of the subject he would not dwell. He would only observe,
that the acts of barbarity, related of the slave-captains in these
voyages, were so extravagant, that they had been attributed in some
instances to insanity. But was not this the insanity of arbitrary power?
Who ever read the facts recorded of Nero without suspecting he was mad?
Who would not be apt to impute insanity to Caligula--or Domitian--or
Caracalla--or Commodus--or Heliogabalus? Here were six Roman emperors,
not connected in blood, nor by descent, who, each of them, possessing
arbitrary power, had been so distinguished for cruelty, that nothing
short of insanity could be imputed to them. Was not the insanity of the
masters of slave-ships to be accounted for on the same principles?

Of the slaves in the West Indies it had been said, that they were taken
from a worse state to a better. An honourable member, Mr. W. Smith, had
quoted some instances out of the evidence to the contrary. He also would
quote one or two others. A slave under hard usage had run away. To
prevent a repetition of the offence his owner sent for his surgeon, and
desired him to cut off the man's leg. The surgeon refused. The owner, to
render it a matter of duty in the surgeon, broke it. "Now," says he,
"you must cut it off; or the man will die." We might console ourselves,
perhaps, that this happened in a French island; but he would select
another instance, which had happened in one of our own. Mr. Ross heard
the shrieks of a female issuing from an out-house; and so piercing, that
he determined to me what was going on. On looking in he perceived a
young female tied up to a beam by her wrists, entirely naked, and in the
act of involuntary writhing and swinging; while the author of her
torture was standing below her with a lighted torch in his hand, which
he applied to all the parts of her body as it approached him. What crime
this miserable woman had perpetrated he knew not; but the human mind
could not conceive a crime warranting such a punishment.

He was glad to see that these tales affected the House. Would they then
sanction enormities, the bare recital of which made them shudder? Let
them remember that humanity did not consist in a squeamish ear. It did
not consist in shrinking and starting at such tales as these; but in a
disposition of the heart to remedy the evils they unfolded. Humanity
belonged rather to the mind than to the nerves. But, if so, it should
prompt men to charitable exertion. Such exertion was necessary in the
present case. It was necessary for the credit of our jurisprudence at
home, and our character abroad. For what would any man think of our
justice, who should see another hanged for a crime, which would be
innocence itself, if compared with those enormities, which were allowed
in Africa and the West Indies under the sanction of the British
parliament?

It had been said, however, in justification of the trade, that the
Africans were less happy at home than in the Islands. But what right had
we to be judges of their condition? They would tell us a very different
tale, if they were asked. But it was ridiculous to say, that we bettered
their condition, when we dragged them from everything dear in life to
the most abject state of slavery.

One argument had been used, which for a subject so grave was the most
ridiculous he had ever heard. Mr. Alderman Watson had declared the Slave
Trade to be necessary on account of its connexion with our fisheries.
But what was this but an acknowledgment of the manner, in which these
miserable beings, were treated? The trade was to be kept up, with all
its enormities, in order that there might be persons to consume the
refuse fish from Newfoundland, which was too bad for anybody else to
eat.

It had been said that England ought not to abolish the Slave Trade,
unless other nations would also give it up. But what kind of morality
was this? The Trade was defensible upon no other principle than that of
a highwayman. Great Britain could not keep it upon these terms. Mere
gain was not a motive for a great country to rest on, as a justification
of any measure. Honour was its superior; and justice was superior to
honour.

With regard to the emancipation of those in slavery, he coincided with
Mr. Wilberforce and Mr. Pitt; and upon this principle, that it might be
as dangerous to give freedom at once to a man used to slavery, as, in
the case of a man who had never seen day-light, to expose him all at
once to the full glare of a meridian sun.

With respect to the intellect and sensibility of the Africans, it was
pride only, which suggested a difference between them and ourselves.
There was a remarkable instance to the point in the evidence, and which
he would quote. In one of the slave-ships was a person of consequence; a
man, once high in a military station, and with a mind not insensible to
the eminence of his rank. He had been taken captive and sold; and was
then in the hold, confined promiscuously with the rest. Happening in the
night to fall asleep, he dreamed that he was in his own country; high in
honour and command; caressed by his family and friends; waited on by his
domestics; and surrounded with all his former comforts in life. But
awaking suddenly, and finding where he was, he was heard to burst into
the loudest groans and lamentations on the miserable contrast of his
present state; mixed with the meanest of his subjects; and subjected to
the insolence of wretches a thousand times lower than himself in every
kind of endowment. He appealed to the House, whether this was not as
moving a picture of the miserable effects of the Slave Trade, as could
be well imagined. There was one way, by which they might judge of it.
Let them make the case their own. This was the Christian rule of
judging; and, having mentioned Christianity, he was sorry to find that
any should suppose, that it had given countenance to such a system of
oppression. So far was this from being the case, that he thought it one
of the most splendid triumphs of this religion, that it had caused
slavery to be so generally abolished on its appearance in the world. It
had done this by teaching us, among other beautiful precepts, that, in
the sight of their Maker, all mankind were equal. Its influence appeared
to have been more powerful in this respect than that of all the ancient
systems of philosophy; though even in these, in point of theory, we
might trace great liberality and consideration for human rights. Where
could be found finer sentiments of liberty than in Demosthenes and
Cicero? Where bolder assertions of the rights of mankind, than in
Tacitus and Thucydides? But, alas! these were the holders of slaves: It
was not so with those who had been converted to Christianity. He knew,
however, that what he had been ascribing to Christianity had been
imputed by others to the advances which philosophy had made. Each of the
two parties took the merit to itself. The philosopher gave it to
philosophy, and the divine to religion. He should not, then, dispute
with either of them; but, as both coveted the praise, why should they
not emulate each other by promoting this improvement in the condition of
the human race?

He would now conclude by declaring, that the whole country, indeed the
whole civilized world, must rejoice that such a bill as the present had
been moved for, not merely as a matter of humanity, but as an act of
justice; for he would put humanity out of the case. Could it be called
humanity to forbear committing murder? Exactly upon this ground did the
motion stand; being strictly a question of national justice. He thanked
Mr. Wilberforce for having pledged himself so strongly to pursue his
object till it was accomplished; and, as for himself, he declared, that,
in whatever situation he might ever be, he would use his warmest efforts
for the promotion of this righteous cause.

Mr. Stanley (the member for Lancashire) rose, and declared that, when he
came into the house, he intended to vote against the abolition; but that
the impression made both on his feelings and on his understanding was
such, that he could not persist in his resolution. He was now convinced
that the entire abolition of the Slave Trade was called for equally by
sound policy and justice. He thought it right and fair to avow manfully
this change in his opinion. The abolition, ho was sure, could not long
fail of being carried. The arguments for it were irresistible.

The Honourable Mr. Ryder said that he came to the house not exactly in
the same circumstances as Mr. Stanley, but very undecided on the
subject. He was, however, so strongly convinced by the arguments he had
heard, that he was become equally earnest for the abolition.

Mr. Smith (member for Pontefract) said, that he should not trouble the
House, at so late an hour, further than to enter his protest, in the
most solemn manner, against this trade, which he considered as most
disgraceful to the country, and contrary to all the principles of
justice and religion.

Mr. Sumner declared himself against the total, immediate, and
unqualified abolition, which he thought would wound at least the
prejudices of the West Indians, and might do mischief; but a gradual
abolition should have his hearty support.

Major Scott declared there was no member in the house, who would give a
more independent vote upon this question than himself. He had no concern
either in the African or West Indian trades; but in the present state of
the finances of the country, he thought it would be a dangerous
experiment to risk any one branch of our foreign commerce. As far as
regulation would go, he would join in the measure.

Mr. Burke said he would use but few words. He declared that he had for a
long time had his mind drawn towards this great subject. He had even
prepared a bill for the regulation of the trade, conceiving at that time
that the immediate abolition of it was a thing hardly to be hoped for;
but when he found that Mr. Wilberforce had seriously undertaken the
work, and that his motion was for the abolition, which he approved much
more than his own, he had burnt his papers; and made an offering of them
in honour of this nobler proposition, much in the same manner as we
read, that the curious books were offered up and burnt at the approach
of the Gospel. He highly applauded the confessions of Mr. Stanley and
Mr. Ryder. It would be a glorious tale for them to tell their
constituents, that it was impossible for them, however prejudiced, if
sent to hear, discussion in that House, to avoid surrendering up their
hearts and judgments at the shrine of reason.

Mr. Drake said, that he would oppose the abolition to the utmost. We
had, by a want of prudent conduct, lost America. The House should be
aware of being carried away by the meteors with which they had been
dazzled. The leaders, it was true, were for the abolition; but the minor
orators, the dwarfs, the pigmies, he trusted, would that night carry the
question against them. The property of the West Indians was at stake;
and, though men might be generous with their own property, they should
not be so with the property of others.

Lord Sheffield reprobated the overbearing language which had been used
by some gentlemen towards others, who differed in opinion from them on a
subject of so much difficulty as the present. He protested against a
debate, in which he could trace nothing like reason; but, on the
contrary, downright phrensy, raised perhaps by the most extraordinary
eloquence. The abolition, as proposed, was impracticable. He denied the
right of the legislature to pass a law for it. He warned the Chancellor
of the Exchequer to beware of the day, on which the bill should pass, as
the worst he had ever seen.

Mr. Milnes declared, that he adopted all those expressions against the
Slave Trade, which had been thought so harsh; and that the opinion of
the noble lord had been turned in consequence of having become one of
the members for Bristol. He quoted a passage from Lord Sheffield's
pamphlet; and insisted that the separation of families in the West
Indies, there complained of by himself, ought to have compelled him to
take the contrary side of the question.

Mr. Wilberforce made a short reply to some arguments in the course of
the debate; after which, at half-past three in the morning, the House
divided. There appeared for Mr. Wilberforce's motion eighty-eight, and
against it one hundred and sixty-three; so that it was lost by a
majority of seventy-five votes.

By this unfavourable division the great contest, in which we had been so
long engaged, was decided. We were obliged to give way to superior
numbers. Our fall, however, grievous as it was, was rendered more
tolerable by the circumstance of having been prepared to expect it. It
was rendered more tolerable, also, by other considerations; for we had
the pleasure of knowing, that we had several of the most distinguished
characters in the kingdom, and almost all the splendid talents of the
House of Commons[A], in our favour. We knew, too, that the question had
not been carried against us either by evidence or by argument; but that
we were the victims of the accidents and circumstances of the times. And
as these considerations comforted us, when we looked forward to future
operations on this great question, so we found great consolation as to
the past, in believing, that, unless human constitutions were stronger
than they really were, we could not have done more than we had done
towards the furtherance of the cause.

[Footnote A: It is a pity that no perfect list was ever made of this or
of any other division in the House of Commons on this subject. I can
give, however, the names of the following, members, as having voted for
Mr.  Wilberforce's motion at this time.

Mr. Pitt,           Lord Bayham,           Mr. Duncombe,
Mr. Fox,            Lord Arden,            Mr. Martin,
Mr. Burke,          Lord Carysfort,        Mr. Milnes,
Mr. Grey,           Lord Muncaster,        Mr. Steele,
Mr. Windham,        Lord Barnard,          Mr. Coke,
Mr. Sheridan,       Lord North,            Mr. Eliott,
Mr. Whitbread,      Lord Euston,           Mr. Montagu,
Mr. Courtenay,      General Burgoyne,      Mr. Bastard,
Mr. Francis,        Hon. R. Fitzpatrick,   Mr. Stanley,
Mr. Wilberforce,    Sir William Dolben,    Mr. Plumer,
Mr. Ryder,          Sir Henry Houghton,    Mr. Beaufoy,
Mr. William Smith,  Sir Edward Lyttleton,  Mr. I.H. Browne,
Mr. John Smyth,     Sir William Scott,     Mr. G.N. Edwards,
Mr. Robert Smith,   Mr. Samuel Thornton,   Mr. W.M. Pitt,
Mr. Powys,          Mr. Henry Thornton,    Mr. Bankes,
Lord Apsley,        Mr. Robert Thornton,

]

The committee for the abolition held a meeting soon after this our
defeat. It was the most impressive I ever attended. The looks of all
bespoke the feelings of their hearts. Little was said previously to the
opening of the business; and, after it was opened, it was conducted with
a kind of solemn dignity, which became the occasion. The committee, in
the course of its deliberations, came to the following resolutions:--

That the thanks of this committee be respectfully given to the
illustrious minority of the House of Commons, who lately stood forth the
assertors of British justice and humanity, and the enemies of a traffic
in the blood of man.

That our acknowledgments are particularly due to William Wilberforce,
Esq., for his unwearied exertions to remove this opprobrium of our
national character; and to the right honourable William Pitt, and the
right honourable Charles James Fox, for their virtuous and dignified
co-operation in the same cause.

That the solemn declarations of these gentlemen, and of Matthew Montagu
and William Smith, Esqrs., that they will not relinquish, but with life,
their struggle for the abolition of the Slave Trade, are not only highly
honourable to themselves as Britons, as statesmen, and as Christians,
but must eventually, as the light of evidence shall be more and more
diffused, be seconded by the good wishes of every man not immediately
interested in the continuance of that detestable commerce.

And lastly, that anticipating the opposition they should have to sustain
from persons trained to a familiarity with the rapine and desolation
necessarily attendant on the Slave Trade, and sensible, also, of the
prejudices which implicitly arise from long-established usages, this
committee consider the late decision in the House of Commons as a delay,
rather than a defeat. In addressing a free and enlightened nation on a
subject, in which its justice, its humanity, and its wisdom are
involved, they cannot despair of final success; and they do hereby,
under an increasing conviction of the excellence of their cause, and in
conformity to the distinguished examples before them, renew their firm
protestation, that they will never desist from appealing to their
countrymen, till the commercial intercourse with Africa shall cease to
be polluted with the blood of its inhabitants.

These resolutions were published, and they were followed by a suitable
report.

The committee, in order to strengthen themselves for the prosecution of
their great work, elected Sir William Dolben, Bart., Henry Thornton,
Lewis Alexander Grant, and Matthew Montagu, Esqrs., who were members of
parliament, and Truman Harford, Josiah Wedgewood, jun., Esq., and John
Clarkson, Esq., of the royal navy, as members of their own body; and
they elected the Rev. Archdeacon Plymley (afterwards Corbett) an
honorary and corresponding member, in consequence of the great services
which he had rendered their cause in the shires of Hereford and Salop,
and the adjacent counties of Wales.

The several committees, established in the country, on receiving the
resolutions and report as before mentioned, testified their sympathy in
letters of condolence to that of London on the late melancholy occasion;
and expressed their determination to support it as long as any vestiges
of this barbarous traffic should remain.

At length the session ended; and though, in the course of it, the
afflicting loss of the general question had occurred, there was yet an
attempt made by the abolitionists in parliament, which met with a better
fate. The Sierra Leone Company received the sanction of the Legislature.
The object of this institution was to colonize a small portion of the
coast of Africa. They, who were to settle there, were to have no concern
in the Slave Trade, but to discourage it as much as possible. They were
to endeavour to establish a new species of commerce, and to promote
cultivation in its neighborhood by free labour. The persons more
generally fixed upon for colonists, were such Negroes, with their wives
and families, as chose to abandon their habitations in Nova Scotia.
These had followed the British arms in America; and had been settled
there, as a reward for their services, by the British government. My
brother, just mentioned to have been chosen a member of the committee,
and who had essentially served the great cause of the abolition on many
occasions, undertook a visit to Nova Scotia, to see if those in question
were willing to undergo the change; and in that case to provide
transports, and conduct them to Sierra Leone. This object he
accomplished. He embarked more than eleven hundred persons in fifteen
vessels, of all which he took the command. On landing them he became the
first Governor of the new colony. Having laid the foundation of it, he
returned to England; when a successor was appointed. From that time many
unexpected circumstances, but particularly devastations by the French in
the beginning of the war, took place, which contributed to ruin the
trading company which was attached to it. It is pleasing, however, to
reflect, that though the object of the institution, as far as mercantile
profit was concerned, thus failed, the other objects belonging to it
were promoted. Schools, places of worship, agriculture, and the habits
of civilized life were established. Sierra Leone, therefore, now
presents itself as the medium of civilization for Africa. And, in this
latter point of view, it is worth all the treasure which has been lost
in supporting it; for the Slave Trade, which was the great obstacle to
this civilization, being now happily abolished, there is a metropolis,
consisting of some hundreds of persons, from which may issue the seeds
of reformation to this injured continent; and which, when sown, may be
expected to grow into fruit without interruption. New schools may be
transplanted from thence into the interior. Teachers, and travellers on
discovery, may be sent from thence in various directions, who may return
to it occasionally as to their homes. The natives, too, able now to
travel in safety, may resort to it from various parts. They may see the
improvements which are going on from time to time. They may send their
children to it for education; and thus it may become the medium[A] of a
great intercourse between England and Africa, to the benefit of each
other.

[Footnote A: To promote this desirable end an association took place
last year, called The African Institution, under the patronage of the
Duke of Gloucester, as president, and of the Mends to the African cause,
particularly of such as were in parliament, and as belonged to the
committee for the abolition of the Slave Trade.]




CHAPTER XXVII.

--Continuation from July 1791 to July 1792.--Author travels round the
kingdom again; object of his journey.--People begin to leave off the
use of sugar; to form committees; and to send petitions to
Parliament.--Motion made in the House of Commons for the immediate
abolition of the trade; Debates upon it; Abolition resolved upon, but
not to commence till 1796.--Resolution taken to the Lords; latter
determine upon hearing evidence; Evidence at length introduced;
further hearing of it postponed to the next session.


The defeat which we had just sustained, was a matter of great triumph to
our opponents. When they considered the majority in the House of Commons
in their favour, they viewed the resolutions of the committee, which
have been detailed, as the last spiteful effort of a vanquished and
dying animal, and they supposed that they had consigned the question to
eternal sleep. The committee, however, were too deeply attached to the
cause, vanquished as they were, to desert it; and they knew, also, too
well the barometer of public feeling, and the occasion of its
fluctuations, to despair. In the year 1787, the members of the House of
Commons, as well as the people, were enthusiastic in behalf of the
abolition of the trade. In the year 1788, the fair enthusiasm of the
former began to fade. In 1789, it died. In 1790, prejudice started up as
a noxious weed in its place. In 1791, this prejudice arrived at its
growth. But to what were these changes owing? To delay; during which the
mind, having been gradually led to the question as a commercial, had
been gradually taken from it as a moral object. But it was possible to
restore the mind to its proper place. Add to which, that the nation had
never deserted the cause during this whole period.

It is much to the honour of the English people, that they should have
continued to feel for the existence of an evil which was so far removed
from their sight. But at this moment their feelings began to be
insupportable. Many of them resolved, as soon as parliament had rejected
the bill, to abstain from the use of West Indian produce. In this state
of things, a pamphlet, written by William Bell Crafton, of Tewksbury,
and called _A Sketch of the Evidence, with a Recommendation on the
Subject to the serious Attention of People in general_, made its
appearance; and another followed it, written by William Fox, of London,
_On the Propriety of abstaining from West India Sugar and Rum_. These
pamphlets took the same ground. They inculcated abstinence from these
articles as a moral duty; they inculcated it as a peaceable and
constitutional measure; and they laid before the reader a truth which
was sufficiently obvious, that, if each would abstain, the people would
have a complete remedy for this enormous evil in their own power.

While these things were going on, it devolved upon me to arrange all the
evidence on the part of the abolition under proper heads, and to abridge
it into one volume. It was intended that a copy of this should be sent
into different towns of the kingdom, that all might know, if possible,
the horrors (as far as the evidence contained them) of this execrable
trade; and as it was possible that these copies might lie in the places
where they were sent, without a due attention to their contents, I
resolved, with the approbation of the committee, to take a journey, and
for no other purpose than personally to recommend that they might be
read.

The books, having been printed, were despatched before me. Of this tour
I shall give the reader no other account than that of the progress of
the remedy, which the people were then taking into their own hands. And
first I may observe, that there was no town, through which I passed, in
which there was not some one individual who had left off the use of
sugar. In the smaller towns there were from ten to fifty by estimation,
and in the larger from two to five hundred, who made this sacrifice to
virtue. These were of all ranks and parties. Rich and poor, churchmen
and dissenters, had adopted the measure. Even grocers had left off
trading in the article, in some places. In gentlemen's families, where
the master had set the example, the servants had often voluntarily
followed it; and even children, who were capable of understanding the
history of the sufferings of the Africans, excluded, with the most
virtuous resolution, the sweets, to which they had been accustomed, from
their lips. By the best computation I was able to make from notes taken
down in my journey, no fewer than three hundred thousand persons had
abandoned the use of sugar.

Having travelled over Wales, and two-thirds of England, I found it would
be impossible to visit Scotland on the same errand. I had already, by
moving upwards and downwards in parallel lines, and by intersecting
these in the same manner, passed over six thousand miles. By the best
calculation I could make, I had yet two thousand to perform. By means of
almost incessant journeyings night and day, I had suffered much in my
health. My strength was failing daily. I wrote, therefore, to the
committee on this subject; and they communicated immediately with Dr.
Dickson, who, on being applied to, visited Scotland in my stead. He
consulted first with the committee at Edinburgh relative to the
circulation of the Abridgment of the Evidence. He then pursued his
journey, and, in conjunction with the unwearied efforts of Mr. Campbel
Haliburton, rendered essential service to the cause for this part of the
kingdom.

On my return to London, I found that the committee had taken into their
own body T.F. Forster, B.M. Forster, and James West, Esqrs., as members;
and that they had elected Hercules Boss, Esq., an honorary and
corresponding member, in consequence of the handsome manner in which he
had come forward as an evidence, and of the peculiar benefit which had
resulted from his testimony to the cause.

The effects of the two journeys by Dr. Dickson and myself were soon
visible. The people could not bear the facts, which had been disclosed
to them by the Abridgment of the Evidence. They were not satisfied, many
of them, with the mere abstinence from sugar; but began to form
committees to correspond with that of London. The first of these
appeared at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, so early as the month of October. It
consisted of the Rev. William Turner, as chairman, and of Robert
Ormston, William Batson, Henry, Taylor, Ralph Bambridge, George Brown,
Hadwen Bragg, David Sutton, Anthony Clapham, George Richardson, and
Edward Prowit. It received a valuable addition afterwards by the
admission of many others. The second was established at Nottingham. The
Rev. Jeremiah Bigsby became the president, and the Revs. G. Walker and
J. Smith, and Messrs. Dennison, Evans, Watson, Hart, Storer, Bott,
Hawkesley, Pennington, Wright, Frith, Hall, and Wakefield, the
committee. The third was formed at Glasgow, under the patronage of David
Dale, Scott Montcrieff, Robert Graham, Professor Millar, and others.
Other committees started up in their turn. At length public meetings
began to take place, and after this petitions to be sent to parliament;
and these so generally, that there was not a day for three months,
Sundays excepted, in which five or six were not resolved upon in some
places or other in the kingdom.

Of the enthusiasm of the nation at this time none can form an opinion
but they who witnessed it. There never was perhaps a season when so much
virtuous feeling pervaded all ranks. Great pains were taken by
interested persons in many places to prevent public meetings. But no
efforts could avail. The current ran with such strength and rapidity,
that it was impossible to stem it. In the city of London a remarkable
instance occurred. The livery had been long waiting for the common
council to begin a petition; but the lord mayor and several of the
aldermen stifled it. The former, indignant at this conduct, insisted
upon a common hall. A day was appointed; and, though the notice given of
it was short, the assemblage was greater than had ever been remembered
on any former occasion. Scarcely a liveryman was absent, unless sick, or
previously engaged. The petition, when introduced, was opposed by those
who had prevented it in the common council. But their voices were
drowned amidst groans and hissings. It was shortly after carried; and it
had not been signed more than half an hour, before it was within the
walls of the House of Commons. The reason of this extraordinary despatch
was, that it had been kept back by intrigue so late, that the very hour
in which it was delivered to the House, was that in which Mr.
Wilberforce was to make his new motion.

And as no petitions were ever more respectable than those presented on
this occasion, as far as they breathed the voice of the people, and as
far as they were founded on a knowledge of the object which they
solicited, so none were ever more numerous, as far as we have any record
of such transactions. Not fewer than three hundred and ten were
presented from England; one hundred and eighty-seven from Scotland; and
twenty from Wales. Two other petitions also for the abolition came from
England, but they were too late for delivery. On the other side of the
question, one was presented from the town of Reading for regulation, in
opposition to that for abolition from the same place. There were also
four against abolition. The first of these was from certain persons at
Derby, in opposition to the other from that town. The second was from
Stephen Fuller, Esq., as agent for Jamaica. The third from J. Dawson,
Esq., a slave-merchant at Liverpool. And the fourth from the merchants,
planters, mortgagees, annuitants, and others concerned in the West
Indian colonies. Taking in all these statements, the account stood
thus:--for regulation there was one; against all abolition there were
four; and for the total abolition of the trade five hundred and
nineteen.

On the 2nd of April Mr. Wilberforce moved the order of the day; which
having been agreed to, Sir William Dolben was put into the chair.

He then began by soliciting the candid attention of the West Indians to
what he was going to deliver to the House. However others might have
censured them indiscriminately, he had always himself made a distinction
between them and their system. It was the latter only which he
reprobated. If aristocracy had been thought a worse form of government
than monarchy, because the people had many tyrants instead of one, how
objectionable must be that form of it, which existed in our colonies!
Arbitrary power could be bought there by any one, who could buy a slave.
The fierceness of it was doubtless restrained by an elevation of mind in
many, as arising from a consciousness of superior rank and consequence:
but, alas! it was too often exercised there by the base and vulgar. The
more liberal, too, of the planters were not resident upon their estates.
Hence a promiscuous censure of them would be unjust, though their system
would undoubtedly be odious.

As for the cure of this monstrous evil, he had shown, last year, that
internal regulations would not produce it. These could have no effect,
while the evidence of slaves was inadmissible. What would be the
situation of the bulk of the people of this country, if only gentlemen
of five hundred a-year were admitted as evidences in our courts of law?
Neither was the cure of it in the emancipation of the slaves. He did not
deny that he wished them this latter blessing. But, alas, in their
present degraded state, they were unfit for it! Liberty was the child of
reason and order. It was, indeed, a plant of celestial growth, but the
soil must be prepared for its reception. He, who would see it flourish
and bring forth its proper fruit, must not think it sufficient to let it
shoot in unrestrained licentiousness. But if this inestimable blessing
was ever to be imparted to them, the cause must be removed, which
obstructed its introduction. In short, no effectual remedy could be
found but in the abolition of the Slave Trade.

He then took a copious view of the advantages, which would arise both to
the master and to the slave, if this traffic were done away; and having
recapitulated and answered the different objections to such a measure,
he went to that part of the subject, in which he described himself to be
most interested.

He had shown, he said, last year, that Africa was exposed to all the
horrors of war; and that most of these wars had their origin in the
Slave Trade. It was then said, in reply, that the natural barbarity of
the natives was alone sufficient to render their country a scene of
carnage. This was triumphantly instanced in the King of Dahomey. But his
honourable friend Lord Muncaster, then in the House, had proved in his
interesting publication, which had appeared since, called _Historical
Sketches of the Slave Trade, and of its Effects in Africa_, addressed to
the people of Great Britain, that the very cruelties of this king, on
which so much stress had been laid, were committed by him in a war,
which had been undertaken expressly to punish an adjacent people for
having stolen some of his subjects and sold them for slaves.

He had shown, also, last year, that kings were induced to seize and sell
their subjects, and individuals each other, in consequence of the
existence of the Slave Trade.

He had shown, also, that the administration of justice was perverted, so
as to become a fertile source of supply to this inhuman traffic; that
every crime was punished by slavery; that false accusations were made to
procure convicts; and that even the judges had a profit on the
convictions.

He had shown again, that many acts of violence were perpetrated by the
Europeans themselves. But he would now relate others which had happened
since. The captain of an English vessel, lying in the river Cameroons,
sent his boat with three sailors and a slave to get water. A Black
trader seized the latter, and took him away. He alleged in his defence,
that the captain owed him goods to a greater amount than the value of
the slave; and that he would not pay him. This being told on board, the
captain, and a part of his crew, who were compelled to blacken their
naked bodies that they might appear like the natives, went on shore at
midnight, armed with muskets and cutlasses. They fired on the trader's
dwelling, and killed three of his children on the spot. The trader,
being badly wounded, died while they were dragging him to the boat; and
his wife, being wounded also, died in half an hour after she was on
board the ship. Resistance having been made to these violent
proceedings, some of the sailors were wounded, and one was killed.

Some weeks after this affray, a chieftain of the name of Quarmo went on
board the same vessel to borrow some cutlasses and muskets. He was
going, he said, into the country to make war; and the captain should
have half of his booty. So well understood were the practices of the
trade, that his request was granted. Quarmo, however, and his
associates, finding things favourable to their design, suddenly seized
the captain, threw him overboard, hauled him into their canoe, and
dragged him to the shore; where another party of the natives, lying in
ambush, seized such of the crew as were absent from the ship. But how
did these savages behave, when they had these different persons in their
power? Did they not instantly retaliate by murdering them all? No--they
only obliged the captain to give an order on the vessel to pay his
debts. This fact came out only two: months ago in a trial in the Court
of Common Pleas--not in trial for piracy and murder, but in the trial of
a civil suit, instituted by some of the poor sailors, to whom the owners
refused their wages, because the natives, on account of the villainous
conduct of their captain, had kept them from their vessel by detaining
them as prisoners on shore. This instance, he said, proved the dreadful
nature of the Slave Trade, its cruelty, its perfidy, and its effect on
the Africans as well as on the Europeans, who carried it on. The cool
manner in which the transaction was conducted on both sides, showed that
these practices were not novel. It showed also the manner of doing
business in the trade. It must be remembered, too, that these
transactions were carrying on at the very time when the inquiry
concerning this trade was going forward in Parliament, and whilst the
witnesses of his opponents were strenuously denying not only the actual,
but the possible, existence of any such depredations.

But another instance happened only in August last. Six British ships,
the Thomas, Captain Philips; the Wasp, Captain Hutchinson; the Recovery,
Captain Kimber, of Bristol; the Martha, Captain Houston; the Betsey,
Captain Doyle; and the Amachree, (he believed,) Captain Lee, of
Liverpool; were anchored off the town of Calabar. This place was the
scene of a dreadful massacre about twenty years before. The captains of
these vessels, thinking that the natives asked too much for their
slaves, held a consultation, how they should proceed; and agreed to fire
upon the town unless their own terms were complied with. On a certain
evening they notified their determination to the traders; and told them,
that, if they continued obstinate, they would put it into execution the
next morning. In this they kept their word. They brought sixty-six guns
to bear upon the town; and fired on it for three hours. Not a shot was
returned. A canoe then went to offer terms of accommodation. The parties
however not agreeing, the firing recommenced; more damage was done; and
the natives were forced into submission. There were no certain accounts
of their loss. Report said that fifty were killed; but some were seen
lying badly wounded, and others in the agonies of death by those who
went afterwards on shore.

He would now say a few words relative to the Middle Passage, principally
to show, that regulation could not effect a cure of the evil there. Mr.
Isaac Wilson had stated in his evidence, that the ship, in which he
sailed, only three years ago, was of three hundred and seventy tons; and
that she carried six hundred and two slaves. Of these she lost one
hundred and fifty-five. There were three or four other vessels in
company with her, and which belonged to the same owners. One of these
carried four hundred and fifty, and buried two hundred; another carried
four hundred and sixty-six, and buried seventy-three; another five
hundred and forty-six, and burled one hundred and fifty-eight; and from
the four together, after the landing of their cargoes, two hundred and
twenty died. He fell in with another vessel, which had lost three
hundred and sixty-two; but the number, which had been bought, was not
specified. Now if to these actual deaths, during and immediately after
the voyage, we were to add the subsequent loss in the seasoning, and to
consider that this would be greater than ordinary in cargoes which were
landed in such a sickly state, we should find a mortality, which, if it
were only general for a few months, would entirely depopulate the globe.

But he would advert to what Mr. Wilson said, when examined, as a
surgeon, as to the causes of these losses, and particularly on board his
own ship, where he had the means of ascertaining them. The substance of
his reply was this--That most of the slaves laboured under a fixed
melancholy, which now and then broke out into lamentations and plaintive
songs, expressive of the loss of their relations, friends, and country.
So powerfully did this sorrow operate, that many of them attempted in
various ways to destroy themselves, and three actually effected it.
Others obstinately refused to take sustenance; and when the whip and
other violent means were used to compel them to eat, they looked up in
the face of the officer, who unwillingly executed this painful task, and
said, with a smile, in their own language, "Presently we shall be no
more." This, their unhappy state of mind, produced a general languor and
debility, which were increased in many instances by an unconquerable
aversion to food, arising partly from sickness, and partly, to use the
language of the slave-captains, from sulkiness. These causes naturally
produced the flux. The contagion spread; several were carried off daily;
and the disorder, aided by so many powerful auxiliaries, resisted the
power of medicine. And it is worth while to remark, that these grievous
sufferings were not owing either to want of care on the part of the
owners, or to any negligence or harshness of the captain; for Mr. Wilson
declared, that his ship was as well fitted out, and the crew and slaves
as well treated, as anybody could reasonably expect.

He would now go to another ship. That, in which Mr. Claxton sailed as a
surgeon, afforded a repetition of all the horrid circumstances which had
been described. Suicide was attempted, and effected; and the same
barbarous expedients were adopted to compel the slaves to continue an
existence, which they considered as too painful to be endured. The
mortality, also, was as great. And yet here, again, the captain was in
no wise to blame. But this vessel had sailed since the regulating act.
Nay, even in the last year, the deaths on shipboard would be found to
have been between ten and eleven per cent, on the whole number exported.
In truth, the House could not reach the cause of this mortality by all
their regulations. Until they could cure a broken heart--until they
could legislate for the affections, and bind by their statutes the
passions and feelings of the mind, their labour would be in vain.

Such were the evils of the Passage. But evils were conspicuous
everywhere in this trade. Never was there, indeed, a system so replete
with wickedness and cruelty. To whatever part of it we turned our eyes,
whether to Africa, the Middle Passage, or the West Indies, we could find
no comfort, no satisfaction, no relief. It was the gracious ordinance of
Providence, both in the natural and moral world, that good should often
arise out of evil. Hurricanes cleared the air; and the propagation of
truth was promoted by persecution, Pride, vanity, and profusion
contributed often; in their remoter consequences, to the happiness of
mankind. In common, what was in itself evil and vicious, was permitted
to carry along with it some circumstances of palliation. The Arab was
hospitable; the robber brave. We did not necessarily find cruelty
associated with fraud, or meanness with injustice. But here the case was
far otherwise. It was the prerogative of this detested traffic to
separate from evil its concomitant good, and to reconcile discordant
mischiefs. It robbed war of its generosity; it deprived peace of its
security: we saw in it the vices of polished society, without its
knowledge or its comforts; and the evils of barbarism without its
simplicity. No age, no sex, no rank, no condition, was exempt from the
fatal influence of this wide-wasting calamity. Thus it attained to the
fullest measure of pure, unmixed, unsophisticated wickedness; and,
scorning all competition and comparison, it stood without a rival in the
secure, undisputed, possession of its detestable preeminence.

But, after all this, wonderful to relate, this execrable traffic had
been defended on the ground of benevolence! It had been said, that the
slaves were captives and convicts, who, if we were not to carry them
away, would be sacrificed, and many of them at the funerals of people of
rank, according to the savage custom of Africa. He had shown, however,
that our supplies of slaves were obtained from other quarters than
these. But he would wave this consideration for the present. Had it not
been acknowledged by his opponents that the custom of ransoming slaves
prevailed in Africa? With respect to human sacrifices, he did not deny
that there might have been some instances of these; but they had not
been proved to be more frequent than amongst other barbarous nations;
and, where they existed, being acts of religion, they would not be
dispensed with for the sake of commercial gain. In fact, they had
nothing to do with the Slave Trade; only perhaps, if it were abolished,
they might, by means of the civilization which would follow, be done
away.

But, exclusively of these sacrifices, it had been asserted, that it was
kindness to the inhabitants to take them away from their own country.
But what said the historians of Africa, long before the question of the
abolition was started? "Axim," says Bosman, "is cultivated, and abounds
with numerous large and beautiful villages: its inhabitants are
industriously employed in trade, fishing, or agriculture."--"The
inhabitants of Adom always expose large quantities of corn to sale,
besides what they want for their own use."--"The people of Acron husband
their grounds and time so well, that every year produces a plentiful
harvest." Speaking of the Fetu country, he says,--"Frequently, when
walking through it, I have seen it abound with fine well-built and
populous towns, agreeably enriched with vast quantities of corn and
cattle, palm-wine, and oil. The inhabitants all apply themselves,
without distinction, to agriculture; some sow corn; others press oil,
and draw wine from the palm-trees."

Smith, who was sent out by the royal African company in 1726, assures
us, "that the discerning natives account it their greatest unhappiness,
that they were ever visited by the Europeans. They say that we
Christians introduced the traffic of slaves; and that before our coming
they lived in peace. But, say they, it is observable, wherever
Christianity comes, there come swords and guns, and powder and ball,
with it."

"The Europeans," says Bruce, "are far from desiring to act as
peace-makers among them. It would be too contrary to their interests;
for the only object of their wars is to carry off slaves; and, as these
form the principal part of their traffic, they would be apprehensive of
drying up the source of it, were they to encourage the people to live
well together."

"The neighbourhood of the Damel and Tin keep them perpetually at war,
the benefit of which accrues to the Company, who buy all the prisoners
made on either side; and the more there are to sell, the greater is
their profit; for the only end of their armaments is to make captives,
to sell them to the white traders."

Artus, of Dantzic, says, that in his time "those liable to pay fines
were banished till the fine was paid; when they returned to their houses
and possessions."

Bosman affirms, "that formerly all crimes in Africa were compensated by
fine or restitution, and, where restitution was impracticable, by
corporal punishment."

Moore says, "Since this trade has been used, all punishments have been
changed into slavery. There being an advantage in such condemnation,
they strain the crimes very hard, in order to get the benefit of selling
the criminal. Not only murder, theft, and adultery, are punished by
selling the criminal for a slave, but every trifling crime is punished
in the same manner."

Loyer affirms that "the King of Sain, on the least pretence, sells his
subjects for European goods. He is so tyrannically severe, that he makes
a whole village responsible for the fault of one inhabitant; and on the
least offence sells them all for slaves."

Such, he said, were the testimonies, not of persons whom he had
summoned; not of friends of the abolition; but of men who were
themselves, many of them, engaged in the Slave Trade. Other testimonies
might be added; but these were sufficient to refute the assertions of
his opponents, and to show the kind services we had done to Africa by
the introduction of this trade.

He would just touch upon the argument, so often repeated, that other
nations would carry on the Slave Trade, if we abandoned it. But how did
we know this? Had not Denmark given a noble example to the contrary? She
had consented to abolish the trade in ten years; and had she not done
this, even though we, after an investigation for nearly five years, had
ourselves hung back? But what might not be expected, if we were to take
up the cause in earnest; if we were to proclaim to all nations the
injustice of the trade, and to solicit their concurrence in the
abolition of it! He hoped the representatives of the nation would not be
less just than the people. The latter had stepped forward, and expressed
their sense more generally by petitions, than in any instance in which
they had ever before interfered. To see this great cause thus triumphing
over distinctions and prejudices was a noble spectacle. Whatever might
be said of our political divisions, such a sight had taught us that
there were subjects still beyond the reach of party; that there was a
point of elevation, where we ascended above the jarring of the
discordant elements, which ruffled and agitated the vale below. In our
ordinary atmosphere clouds and vapours obscured the air, and we were the
sport of a thousand conflicting winds and adverse currents; but here we
moved in a higher region, where all was pure and clear, and free from
perturbation and discomposure:


  As some tall cliff, that lifts its awful form,
  Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm;
  Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
  Eternal sunshine settles on its head.


Here then, on this august eminence, he hoped we should build the Temple
of Benevolence; that we should lay its foundation deep in Truth and
Justice; and that we should inscribe upon its gates, "Peace and Good
Will to Men." Here we should offer the first-fruits of our benevolence,
and endeavour to compensate, if possible, for the injuries we had
brought upon our fellow-men.

He would only now observe, that his conviction of the indispensable
necessity of immediately abolishing this trade remained as strong as
ever. Let those who talked of allowing three or four years to the
continuance of it, reflect on the disgraceful scenes which had passed
last year. As for himself, he would wash his hands of the blood which
would be spilled in this horrid interval. He could not, however, but
believe, that the hour was come, when we should put a final period to
the existence of this cruel traffic. Should he unhappily be mistaken, he
would never desert the cause; but to the last moment of his life he
would exert his utmost powers in its support. He would now move, "That
it is the opinion of this committee, that the trade carried on by
British subjects for the purpose of obtaining slaves on the coast of
Africa, ought to be abolished."

Mr. Baillie was in hopes that the friends of the abolition would have
been contented with the innocent blood which had been already shed. The
great island of St. Domingo had been torn to pieces by insurrections.
The most dreadful barbarities had been perpetrated there. In the year
1789, the imports into it exceeded five millions sterling. The exports
from it in the same year amounted to six millions; and the trade
employed three hundred thousand tons of shipping, and thirty thousand
seamen. This fine island, thus advantageously situated, had been lost in
consequence of the agitation of the question of the Slave Trade. Surely
so much mischief ought to have satisfied those who supported it; but
they required the total destruction of all the West Indian colonies,
belonging to Great Britain, to complete the ruin.

The honourable gentleman, who had just spoken, had dwelt upon the
enormities of the Slave Trade. He was far from denying that many acts of
inhumanity might accompany it; but as human nature was much the same
everywhere, it would be unreasonable to expect among African traders, or
the inhabitants of our islands, a degree of perfection in morals, which
was not to be found in Great Britain itself. Would any man estimate the
character of the English nation by what was to be read in the records of
the Old Bailey? He himself, however, had lived sixteen years in the West
Indies, and he could bear testimony to the general good usage of the
slaves.

Before the agitation of this impolitic question the slaves were
contented with their situation. There was a mutual confidence between
them and their masters: and this continued to be the case till the new
doctrines were broached. But now depots of arms were necessary on every
estate; and the scene was totally reversed. Nor was their religious then
inferior to their civil state. When the English took possession of
Grenada, where his property lay, they found them baptized and instructed
in the principles of the Roman Catholic faith. The priests of that
persuasion had indeed been indefatigable in their vocation; so that
imported Africans generally obtained within twelve months a tolerable
idea of their religious duties. He had seen the slaves there go through
the public mass in a manner, and with a fervency, which would have done
credit to more civilized societies. But the case was now altered; for,
except where the Moravians had been, there was no trace in our islands
of an attention to their religious interests.

It had been said that their punishments were severe. There might be
instances of cruelty; but these were not general. Many of them were
undoubtedly ill disposed; though not more, according to their number, on
a plantation, than in a regiment, or in a ship's crew. Had we never
heard of seamen being flogged from ship to ship, or of soldiers dying in
the very act of punishment? Had we not also heard, even in this country
of boasted liberty, of seamen being seized, and carried away, when
returning from distant voyages, after an absence of many years; and this
without even being allowed to see their wives and families? As to
distressed objects, he maintained, that there was more wretchedness and
poverty in St. Giles's, than in all the West Indian islands belonging to
Great Britain.

He would now speak of the African and West Indian trades. The imports
and exports of these amounted to upwards of ten millions annually; and
they gave employment to three hundred thousand tons of shipping, and to
about twenty-five thousand seamen. These trades had been sanctioned by
our ancestors in parliament. The acts for this purpose might be classed
under three heads. First, they were such as declared the colonies, and
the trade thereof, advantageous to Great Britain, and therefore entitled
to her protection. Secondly, such as authorized, protected, and
encouraged the trade to Africa, as advantageous in itself, and necessary
to the welfare and existence of the sugar colonies: and, Thirdly, such
as promoted and secured loans of money to the proprietors of the said
colonies, either from British subjects, or from foreigners. These
acts[A], he apprehended, ought to satisfy every person of the legality
and usefulness of these trades. They were enacted in reigns
distinguished for the production of great and enlightened characters. We
heard then of no wild and destructive doctrines like the present. These
were reserved for this age of novelty and innovation. But he must remind
the House, that the inhabitants of our islands had as good a right to
the protection of their property, as the inhabitants of Great Britain.
Nor could it be diminished in any shape without full compensation. The
proprietors of lands in the ceded islands, which were purchased of
government under specific conditions of settlement, ought to be
indemnified. They also (of whom he was one), who had purchased the
territory granted by the crown to General Monkton, in the island, of St.
Vincent, ought to be indemnified also. The sale of this had gone on
briskly, till it was known that a plan was in agitation for the
abolition of the Slave Trade. Since that period, the original purchasers
had done little or nothing, and they had many hundred acres on hand,
which would be of no value, if the present question was carried. In
fact, they had a right to compensation. The planters generally spent
their estates in this country. They generally educated their children in
it. They had never been found seditious, or rebellious; and they
demanded of the Parliament of Great Britain that protection, which, upon
the principles of good faith, it was in duty bound to afford them in
common with the rest of his majesty's loyal subjects.

[Footnote A: Here he quoted them specifically.]

Mr. Vaughan stated that, being a West Indian by birth, and connected
with the islands, he could speak from his own knowledge. In the early
part of his life he was strongly in favour of the abolition of the Slave
Trade. He had been educated by Dr. Priestley, and the father of Mrs.
Barbauld; who were both of them friends to that question. Their
sentiments he had imbibed; but, although bred at the feet of Gamaliel,
he resolved to judge for himself, and he left England for Jamaica.

He found the situation of the slaves much better than he had imagined.
Setting aside liberty, they were as well off as the poor in Europe. They
had little want of clothes or fuel; they had a house and garden found
them, were never imprisoned for debts, nor deterred from marrying
through fear of being unable to support a family; their orphans and
widows were taken care of, as they themselves were when old and
disabled; they had medical attendance without expense; they had private
property, which no master ever took from them; and they were resigned to
their situation, and looked for nothing beyond it. Perhaps persons might
have been prejudiced by living in the towns, to which slaves were often
sent for punishment; and where there were many small proprietors; or by
seeing no negro otherwise than as belonging to the labouring poor; but
they appeared to him to want nothing but liberty; and it was only
occasionally that they were abused.

There were two prejudices with respect to the colonies, which he would
notice. The first was, that cruel usage occasioned the inequality of
births and deaths among the slaves. But did cruelty cause the excess of
deaths above births in the city of London? No--this excess had other
causes. So it had among the slaves. Of these more males were imported
than females: they were dissolute too in their morals; they had also
diseases peculiar to themselves. But in those islands where they nearly
kept up their numbers, there was this difficulty, that the equality was
preserved by the increase on one estate compensating for the decrease on
another. These estates, however, would not interchange their numbers;
whereas, where freedom prevailed, the free labourers circulated from one
employer to another, and appeared wherever they were wanted.

The second was, that all chastisement of the slaves was cruelty. But
this was not true. Their owners generally withdrew them from public
justice; so that they, who would have been publicly executed elsewhere,
were often kept alive by their masters, and were found punished again
and again for repeating their faults. Distributive justice occasioned
many punishments; as one slave was to be protected against every other
slave: and, when one pilfered from another, then the master interfered.
These punishments were to be distinguished from such as arose from
enforcing labour, or from the cruelty of their owners. Indeed he had
gone over the islands, and he had seen but little ill usage. He had seen
none on the estate where he resided. The whip, the stocks, and
confinement, were all the modes of punishment he had observed in other
places. Some slaves belonging to his father were peculiarly well off.
They saved money, and spent it in their own way.

But notwithstanding all he had said, he allowed that there was room for
improvement; and particularly for instilling into the slaves the
principles of religion. Where this should be realized, there would be
less punishment, more work, more marriages, more issue, and more
attachment to masters. Other improvements would be the establishment of
medical societies; the introduction of task-work; and grants of premiums
and honorary distinctions both to fathers and mothers, according to the
number of children which they should rear. Besides this, Negro evidence
should be allowed in the courts of law, it being left to the discretion
of the court or jury to take or reject it, according to the nature of
the case. Cruel masters also should be kept in order in various ways.
They should he liable to have their slaves taken from them, and put in
trust. Every instrument of punishment should be banished, except the
whip. The number of lashes should be limited; and the punishment should
not be repeated till after intervals. These and other improvements
should be immediately adopted by the planters. The character of the
exemplary among them was hurt by being confounded with that of lower and
baser men. He concluded by stating, that the owners of slaves were
entitled to compensation, if, by means of the abolition, they should not
be able to find labourers for the cultivation of their lands[A].

[Footnote A: Mr. Vaughan declared in a future stage of the debate, that
he wished to see a prudent termination both of the Slave Trade and of
slavery; and that, though he was the eldest son of his father, he never
would, on any consideration, become the owner of a slave.]

Mr. Henry Thornton conceived, that the two last speakers had not spoken
to the point. The first had described the happy state of the slaves in
the West Indies. The latter had made similar representations; but yet
had allowed, that much improvement might be made in their condition. But
this had nothing to do with the question then before them. The manner of
procuring slaves in Africa was the great evil to be remedied. Africa was
to be stripped of its inhabitants to supply a population for the West
Indies. There was a Dutch proverb, which said, "My son; get money,
honestly if you can--but get money:" or, in other words, "Get slaves,
honestly if you can--but get slaves." This was the real grievance; and
the two honourable gentlemen, by confining their observations to the
West Indies, had entirely overlooked it.

Though this evil had been fully proved, he could not avoid stating to
the House some new facts, which had come to his knowledge as a director
of the Sierra Leone Company, and which would still further establish it.
The consideration, that they had taken place since the discussion of the
last year on this subject, obliged him to relate them.

Mr. Falconbridge, agent to the Company, sitting one evening in Sierra
Leone, heard a shout, and immediately afterwards the report of a gun.
Fearing an attack, he armed forty of the settlers, and rushed with them
to the place from whence the noise came. He found a poor wretch, who had
been crossing from a neighbouring village, in the possession of a party
of kidnappers, who were tying his hands. Mr. Falconbridge, however,
dared not rescue him, lest, in the defenceless state of his own town,
retaliation might be made upon him.

At another time a young woman, living half a mile off, was sold, without
any criminal charge, to one of the slave-ships. She was well acquainted
with the agent's wife, and had been with her only the day before. Her
cries were heard; but it was impossible to relieve her.

At another time a young lad, one of the free settlers who went from
England, was caught by a neighbouring chief, as he was straggling alone
from home, and sold for a slave. The pretext was, that some one in the
town of Sierra Leone had committed an offence. Hence the first person
belonging to it, who could be seized, was to be punished. Happily the
free settlers saw him in his chains; and they recovered him, before he
was conveyed to the ship.

To mark still more forcibly the scenes of misery, to which the Slave
Trade gave birth, he would mention a case stated to him in a letter by
King Naimbanna. It had happened to respectable person, in no less than
three instances, to have some branches of his family kidnapped, and
carried off to the West Indies. At one time three young men, Corpro,
Banna, and Marbrour, were decoyed on board a Danish slave-ship, under
pretence of buying something, and were taken away. At another time
another relation piloted a vessel down the river. He begged to be put on
shore, when he came opposite to his own town; but he was pressed to
pilot her to the river's mouth. The captain then pleaded the
impracticability of putting him on shore; carried him to Jamaica; and
sold him for a slave. Fortunately, however, by means of a letter, which
was conveyed there, the man, by the assistance of the governor, was sent
back to Sierra Leone. At another time another relation was also
kidnapped. But he had not the good fortune, like the former, to return.

He would mention one other instance. A son had sold his own father, for
whom he obtained a considerable price: for, as the father was rich in
domestic slaves, it was not doubted that he would offer largely for his
ransom. The old man accordingly gave twenty-two of these in exchange for
himself. The rest, however, being from that time filled with
apprehensions of being on some ground or other sold to the slave-ships,
fled to the mountains of Sierra Leone, where they now dragged on a
miserable existence. The son himself was sold, in his turn, soon after.
In short, the whole of that unhappy peninsula, as he learnt from
eye-witnesses, had been desolated by the trade in slaves. Towns were
seen standing without inhabitants all over the coast; in several of
which the agent of the Company had been. There was nothing but distrust
among the inhabitants. Every one, if he stirred from home, felt himself
obliged to be armed.

Such was the nature of the Slave Trade. It had unfortunately obtained
the name of a trade; and many had been deceived by the appellation; but
it was war, and not trade. It was a mass of crimes, and not commerce. It
was that which prevented the introduction of a trade in Africa; for it
was only by clearing and cultivating the lands, that the climate could
be made healthy for settlements; but this wicked traffic, by dispersing
the inhabitants, and causing the lands to remain uncultivated, made the
coast unhealthy to Europeans. He had found, in attempting to establish a
colony there, that it was an obstacle which opposed itself to him in
innumerable ways; it created more embarrassments than all the natural
impediments of the country; and it was more hard to contend with than
any difficulties of climate, soil, or natural disposition of the people.

He would say a few words relative to the numerous petitions which were
then on the table of the House. They had shown, in an extraordinary
manner, the opinion of the people. He did not wish to turn this into a
constitutional question; but he would observe, that it was of the utmost
consequence to the maintenance of the constitution of this country, that
the reputation of parliament should be maintained. But nothing could
prejudice its character so much, as a vote, which should lead the people
to believe that the legislative body was the more corrupt part of it,
and that it was slow to adopt moral principles.

It had been often insinuated that parliament, by interfering in this
trade, departed from its proper functions; No idea could be more absurd;
for, was it not its duty to correct abuses? and what abuses were greater
than robbery and murder? He was, indeed, anxious for the abolition. He
desired it, as a commercial man, on account of the commercial character
of the country. He desired it for the reputation of parliament, on which
so materially depended the preservation of our happy constitution; but
most of all he prayed for it for the sake of those eternal principle's
of justice, which it was the duty of nations, as well as of individuals,
to support.

Colonel Tarleton repeated his arguments of the last year. In addition to
these he inveighed bitterly against the abolitionists, as a junto of
secretaries, sophists, enthusiasts, and fanatics. He condemned the
abolition as useless, unless other nations would take it up. He brought
to the recollection of the House the barbarous scenes which had taken
place it in St. Domingo, all of which, he said, had originated in the
discussion of this question. He described the alarms, in which the
inhabitants of our own islands were kept, lest similar scenes should
occur from the same cause. He ridiculed the petitions on the table.
Itinerant clergymen, mendicant physicians, and others, had extorted
signatures from the sick, the indigent, and the traveller. School-boys
were invited to sign them, under the promise of a holiday. He had
letters to produce, which would prove all these things though he was not
authorized to give up the names of those who had written them.

Mr. Montagu said, that, in the last session, he had simply entered his
protest against the trade; but now He could be no longer silent; and as
there were many, who had conceived regulation to be more desirable than
abolition, he would himself to that subject.

Regulation, as it related to the manner of procuring slaves, was utterly
impossible; for how could we know the case of each individual, whom we
forced away into bondage? Could we establish tribunals all along the
coast, and in every ship, to find it out? What judges could we get for
such an office? But, if this could not be done upon the coast, how could
we ascertain the justness of the captivity of by far the greatest
number, who were brought from immense distances inland?

He would not dwell upon the proof of the inefficiency of regulations, as
to the Middle Passage. His honourable friend, Mr. Wilberforce, had
shown, that, however the mortality might have been lessened in some
ships by the regulations of Sir William Dolben, yet, wherever a
contagious disorder broke out, the greatest part of the cargo was swept
away. But what regulations by the British parliament could prevent these
contagions, or remove them suddenly, when they appeared?

Neither would regulations be effectual, as they related to the
protection of the slaves in the West Indies. It might, perhaps, be
enacted, as Mr. Vaughan had suggested, that their punishments should be
moderate; and that the number of lashes should be limited. But the
colonial legislatures had already done as much, as the magic of words
alone could do, upon this subject; yet the evidence upon the table
clearly proved, that the only protection of slaves was in the clemency
of their masters. Any barbarity might be exercised with impunity,
provided no White person were to see it, though it happened in the sight
of a thousand slaves. Besides, by splitting the offence, and inflicting
the punishment at intervals, the law could be evaded, although the fact
was within the reach of the evidence of a White man. Of this evasion
Captain Cook, of the 89th regiment, had given a shocking instance; and
Chief Justice Ottley had candidly confessed, that "he could devise no
method of bringing a master, so offending, to justice, while the
evidence of the slave continued inadmissible." But perhaps councils of
protection, and guardians of the slaves, might be appointed. This,
again, was an expedient which sounded well, but which would be nugatory
and absurd. What person would risk the comfort of his life by the
exercise of so invidious an interference? But supposing that one or two
individuals could be found, who would sacrifice all their time, and the
friendship of their associates, for the good of the slaves; what could
they effect? Could they be in all places at once? But even if acts of
barbarity should be related to them, how were they to come at the proof
of them?

It appeared, then, that no regulations could be effectual until the
slaves were admitted to give their evidence; but to admit them to this
privilege in their present state, would be to endanger the safety and
property of their masters. Mr. Vaughan had, however, recommended this
measure with limitations, but it would produce nothing but discontent;
for how were the slaves to be persuaded that it was fit they should be
admitted to speak the truth, and then be disbelieved and disregarded?
What a fermentation would such conduct naturally excite in men dismissed
with injuries unredressed, though abundantly proved, in their
apprehension, by their testimony? In fact, no regulations would do.
There was no cure for these evils, but in the abolition of the Slave
Trade. He called upon the planters to concur with his honourable friend,
Mr. Wilberforce, in this great measure. He wished them to consider the
progress which the opinion of the injustice of this trade was making in
the nation at large, as manifested by the petitions; which had almost
obstructed the proceedings of the House by their perpetual introduction.
It was impossible for them to stifle this great question. As for
himself, he would renew his profession of last year, that he would never
cease, but with life, to promote so glorious an end.

Mr. Whitbread said, that even if he could conceive, that the trade was,
as some had asserted it to be, founded on principles of humanity; that
the Africans were rescued from death in their own country; that, upon
being carried to the West Indies, they were put under kind masters; that
their labour there was easy; that at evening they returned cheerful to
their homes; that in sickness they were attended with care; and that
their old age was rendered comfortable; even then he would vote for the
abolition of the Slave Trade, inasmuch as he was convinced that that
which was fundamentally wrong, no practice could justify.

No eloquence could persuade him, that the Africans were torn from their
country and their dearest connexions, merely that they might lead a
happier life; or that they could be placed under the uncontrolled
dominion of others without suffering. Arbitrary power would spoil the
hearts of the best; hence would arise tyranny on the one side, and a
sense of injury on the other. Hence the passions would be let loose, and
a state of perpetual enmity would follow.

He needed only to go to the accounts of those who defended the system of
slavery, to show that it was cruel. He was forcibly struck last year by
an expression of an honourable member, an advocate for the trade, who,
when he came to speak of the slaves, on selling off the stock of a
plantation, said that they fetched less than the common price, because
they were damaged. Damaged! What! Were they goods and chattels? What an
idea was this to hold out of our fellow-creatures! We might imagine how
slaves were treated, if they could be spoken of in such a manner.
Perhaps these unhappy people had lingered out the best part of their
lives in the service of their master. Able then to do but little, they
were sold for little! and the remaining substance of their sinews was to
be pressed out by another, yet more hardened than the former, and who
had made a calculation of their vitals accordingly.

As another proof, he would mention a passage in a pamphlet, in which the
author, describing the happy situation of the slaves, observed, that a
good negro never wanted a character; a bad one could always be detected
by his weals and scars. What was this but to say, that there were
instruments in use which left indelible marks, behind them; and who
would say that these were used justly?

An honourable gentleman, Mr. Vaughan, had said, that setting aside
slavery, the slaves were better off than the poor in this country. But
what was it that we wished to abolish! Was it not the Slave Trade, which
would destroy in time the cruel distinction he had mentioned? The same
honourable gentleman had also expressed his admiration of their
resignation; but might it not be that resignation which was the
consequence of despair?

Colonel Tarleton had insinuated that the petitions on the table had been
obtained in an objectionable manner. He had the honour to present one
from his constituents, which he would venture to say had originated with
themselves, and that there did not exist more respectable names in the
kingdom than those of the persons who had signed it. He had also
asserted, that there was a strong similitude in their tenour and
substance, as if they had been manufactured by the same persons. This
was by no means to be wondered at. There was surely but one plain tale
to tell, and it was not surprising that it had been clothed in nearly
the same expressions. There was but one boon to ask, and that was--the
abolition of this wicked trade.

It had been said by another, (Mr. Baillie,) that the horrible
insurrections in St. Domingo arose from the discussion of the question
of the Slave Trade. He denied the assertion; and maintained that they
were the effect of the trade itself. There was a point of endurance,
beyond which human nature could not go, at which the mind of man rose by
its native elasticity with a spring and violence proportioned to the
degree to which it had been depressed. The calamities in St. Domingo
proceeded from the Slave Trade alone; and, if it were continued, similar
evils were to be apprehended in our own islands. The cruelties which the
slaves had perpetrated in that unfortunate colony they had learnt from
their masters. Had not an African eyes? Had he not ears? Had he not
organs, senses, and passions? If you pricked him, would he not feel the
puncture, and bleed? If you poisoned him, would he not die? and, if you
wronged him, would he not revenge? But he had said sufficient, for he
feared he could not better the instruction.

Mr. Milbank would only just observe, that the policy of the measure of
the abolition was as great as its justice was undeniable. Where slavery
existed, everything was out of its natural place. All improvement was at
an end; there must also, from the nature of the human heart, be
oppression. He warned the planters against the danger of fresh
importations, and invited their concurrence in the measure.

Mr. Dundas (afterwards Viscount Melville) declared that he had always
been a warm friend to the abolition of the Slave Trade, though he
differed from Mr. Wilberforce as to the mode of effecting it.

The abolitionists, and those on the opposite side of the question, had,
both of them, gone into extremes. The former were for the immediate and
abrupt annihilation of the trade; the latter considered it as
essentially necessary to the existence of the West Indian islands, and
therefore laid it down that it was to be continued for ever. Such was
the vast distance between the parties. He would now address himself to
each.

He would say first, that he agreed with his honourable friend, Mr.
Wilberforce, in very material points. He believed the trade was not
founded in policy; that the continuation of it was not essential to the
preservation of our trade with the West Indian islands; and that the
slaves were not only to be maintained, but increased there, by natural
population. He agreed, too, as to the propriety of the abolition. But
when his honourable friend talked of direct and abrupt abolition, he
would submit it to him, whether he did not run counter to the prejudices
of those who were most deeply interested in the question; and whether,
if he could obtain his object without wounding these, it would not be
better to do it? Did he not also forget the sacred attention which
parliament had ever shown to the private interests and patrimonial
rights of individuals?

Whatever idea men might then have of the African trade, certain it was
that they, who had connected themselves with it, had done it under the
sanction of parliament. It might also be well worth while to consider,
(though the conduct of other nations ought not to deter us from doing
our duty,) whether British subjects in the West Indies might not be
supplied with slaves under neutral flags. Now he believed it was
possible to avoid these objections, and at the same time to act in
harmony with the prejudices which had been mentioned. This might be done
by regulations, by which we should effect the end much more speedily
than by the way proposed. By regulations, he meant such as would
increase the breed of the slaves in the West Indies; such as would
ensure a moral education to their children; and such as would even in
time extinguish hereditary slavery. The extinction, however, of this was
not to be effected by allowing the son of an African slave to obtain his
freedom on the death of his parent. Such a son should be considered as
born free; he should then be educated at the expense of the person
importing his parents; and, when arrived at such a degree of strength as
might qualify him to labour, he should work for a term of years for the
payment of the expense of his education and maintenance. It was
impossible to emancipate the existing slaves at once; nor would such an
emancipation be of any immediate benefit to themselves; but this
observation would not apply to their descendants, if trained and
educated in the manner he had proposed.

He would now address himself to those who adopted the opposite extreme;
and he thought he should not assume too much when he said, that if both
slavery and the Slave Trade could be abolished with safety to their
property, it deeply concerned their interests to do it. Such a measure,
also, would only be consistent with the principles of the British
constitution. It was surely strange that we, who were ourselves free,
should carry on a Slave Trade with Africa, and that we should never
think of introducing cultivation into the West Indies by free labourers.

That such a measure would tend to their interest he had no doubt. Did
not all of them agree with Mr. Long, that the great danger in the West
Indies arose from the importation of the African slaves there? Mr. Long
had asserted, that all the insurrections there arose from these. If this
statement was true, how directly it bore upon the present question! But
we were told, also, by the same author, that the Slave Trade gave rise
to robbery, murder, and all kinds of depredations on the coast of
Africa. Had this been answered? No: except indeed it had been said that
the slaves were such as had been condemned for crimes. Well, then, the
imported Africans consisted of all the convicts, rogues, thieves, and
vagabonds in Africa. But would the West Indians choose to depend on
fresh supplies of these for the cultivation of their lands, and the
security of their islands, when it was also found that every
insurrection had arisen from them? It was plain the safety of the
islands was concerned in this question. There would be danger so long as
the trade lasted. The planters were, by these importations, creating the
engines of their own destruction. Surely they would act more to their
own interest if they would concur in extinguishing the trade, than by
standing up for its continuance.

He would now ask them, what right they had to suppose that Africa would
for ever remain in a state of barbarism. If once an enlightened prince
were to rise up there, his first act would be to annihilate the Slave
Trade. If the light of heaven were ever to descend upon that continent,
it would directly occasion its downfall. It was their interest then to
contrive a mode of supplying labour, without trusting to precarious
importations from that quarter. They might rest assured that the trade
could not continue. He did not allude to the voice of the people in the
petitions then lying on the table of the House; but he knew certainly,
that an idea not only of the injustice, but of the impolicy, of this
trade had been long entertained by men of the most enlightened
understandings in this country. Was it then a prudent thing for them to
rest on this commerce for the further improvement of their property?

There was a species of slavery, prevailing only a few years ago, in the
collieries in certain boroughs in Scotland. Emancipation there was
thought a duty by parliament: but what an opposition there was to the
measure! Nothing but ruin would be the consequence of it! After several
years struggle the bill was Carried. Within a year after, the ruin so
much talked of vanished in smoke, and there was an end of the business.
It had also been contended that Sir William Dolben's bill would be the
ruin of Liverpool: and yet one of its representatives had allowed, that
this bill had been of benefit to the owners of the slave-vessels there.
Was he then asking too much of the West Indians, to request a candid
consideration of the real ground of their alarms? He would conclude by
stating, that he meant to propose a middle way of proceeding. If there
was a number of members in the House, who thought with him, that this
trade ought to be ultimately abolished, but yet by moderate measures,
which should neither invade the property nor the prejudices of
individuals, he wished them to unite, and they might then reduce the
question to its proper limits.

Mr. Addington, the speaker, (now Viscount Sidmouth,) professed himself
to be one of those moderate persons called upon by Mr. Dundas. He wished
to see some middle measure suggested. The fear of doing injury to the
property of others, had hitherto prevented him from giving an opinion
against a system, the continuance of which he could not countenance.

He utterly abhorred the Slave Trade. A noble and learned lord, who had
now retired from the bench, said on a certain occasion, that he pitied
the loyalty of that man, who imagined that any epithet could aggravate
the crime of treason. So he himself knew of no language which could
aggravate the crime of the Slave Trade. It was sufficient for every
purpose of crimination, to assert, that man thereby was bought; and
sold, or that he was made subject to the despotism of man. But though he
thus acknowledged the justice due to a whole continent on the one side,
he confessed there were opposing claims of justice on the other. The
case of the West Indians deserved a tender consideration also.

He doubted, if we were to relinquish the Slave Trade alone, whether it
might not be carried on still more barbarously than at present; and
whether, if we were to stop it altogether, the islands could keep up
their present stocks. It had been asserted that they could. But he,
thought that the stopping of the imputations could not be depended upon
for this purpose, so much as a plan for providing them with more
females.

With the mode suggested by his right honourable friend, Mr. Dundas, he
was pleased, though he, did not wholly agree to it. He could not grant
liberty to the children born in the islands. He thought, also, that the
trade ought to be permitted for ten or twelve years longer, under such
arrangements as should introduce a kind of management among the slaves
there, favourable to their interests, and of course to their future
happiness. One species of regulation which he should propose, would be
greater encouragement to the importation of females than of males, by
means of a bounty on the former till their numbers should be found
equal. Rewards also might be given to those slaves who should raise a
certain number of children; and to those who should devise means of
lightening negro-labour. If the plan of his honourable friend should
comprehend these regulations, he would heartily concur in it. He wished
to see the Slave Trade abolished. Indeed it did not deserve the name of
a trade. It was not a trade, and ought not to be allowed. He was
satisfied, that in a few years it would cease to be the reproach of this
nation and the torment of Africa. But under regulations like these, it
would cease without any material injury to the interests of others.

Mr. Fox said, that after what had fallen from the two last speakers, he
could remain no longer silent. Something so mischievous had come out,
and something so like a foundation had been laid for preserving, not
only for years to come, but for ever, this detestable traffic, that he
should feel himself wanting in his duty, if he were not to deprecate all
such deceptions and delusions upon the country.

The honourable gentlemen had called themselves moderate men: but upon
this subject he neither felt, nor desired to feel, anything like a
sentiment of moderation. Their speeches had reminded him of a passage in
MIDDLETON'S _Life of Cicero_. The translation of it was defective,
though it would equally suit his purpose. He says, "To enter into a
man's house, and kill him, his wife, and family, in the night, is
certainly a most heinous crime, and deserving of death; but to break
open his house, to murder him, his wife, and all his children in the
night, may be still very right, provided it be done with moderation."
Now, was there anything more absurd in this passage, than to say, that
the Slave Trade might be carried on with moderation; for, if you could
not rob or murder a single man with moderation, with what moderation
could you pillage and wound a whole nation? In fact, the question of the
abolition was simply a question of justice. It was only, whether we
should authorize by law, respecting Africa, the commission of crimes,
for which, in this country, we should forfeit our lives: notwithstanding
which, it was to be treated, in the opinion of these honourable
gentlemen, with moderation.

Mr. Addington had proposed to cure the disproportion of the sexes in the
islands, by a bounty on the importation of females; or, in other words,
by offering a premium to any crew of ruffians, who would tear them from
their native country. He would let loose a banditti against the most
weak and defenceless of the sex. He would occasion these to kill
fathers, husbands, and brothers, to get possession of their relatives,
the females, who, after this carnage, were to be reserved for--slavery.
He should like to see the man, who would pen such a moderate clause for
a British parliament.

Mr. Dundas had proposed to abolish the Slave Trade, by bettering the
state of the slaves in the islands, and particularly that of their
offspring. His plan, with respect to the latter, was not a little
curious. They were to become free, when born; and then they were to be
educated, at the expense of those to whom their fathers belonged. But it
was clear, that they could not be educated for nothing. In order,
therefore, to repay this expense, they were to be slaves for ten or
fifteen years. In short, they were to have an education, which was to
qualify them to become freemen; and after they had been so educated,
they were to become slaves. But as this free education might possibly
unfit them for submitting to slavery; so, after they had been made to
bow under the yoke for ten or fifteen years, they might then, perhaps,
be equally unfit to become free; and therefore, might be retained as
slaves for a few years longer, if not for their whole lives. He never
heard of a scheme so moderate, and yet so absurd and visionary.

The same honourable gentleman had observed, that the conduct of other
nations should not hinder us from doing, our duty; but yet neutrals
would furnish, our islands with slaves. What was the inference from this
moderate assertion, but that we might as well supply them ourselves? He
hoped, if we were yet to be supplied, it would never be by Englishmen.
We ought no longer to be concerned in such a crime.

An adversary, Mr. Baillie, had said, that it would not be fair to take
the character of this country from the records of the Old Bailey. He did
not at all wonder, when the subject of the Slave Trade was mentioned,
that the Old Bailey naturally occurred to his recollection. The facts,
which had been described in the evidence, were associated in all our
minds with the ideas of criminal justice. But Mr. Baillie had forgot the
essential difference between the two cases. When we learnt from these
records, that crimes were committed in this country, we learnt also,
that they were punished with transportation and death. But the crimes
committed in the Slave Trade were passed over with impunity. Nay, the
perpetrators were even sent out again to commit others.

As to the mode of obtaining slaves, it had been suggested as the least
disreputable, that they became so in consequence of condemnation as
criminals. But he would judge of the probability of this mode by the
reasonableness of it. No less than eighty thousand Africans were
exported annually by the different nations of Europe from their own
country. Was it possible to believe that this number could have been
legally convicted of crimes, for which they had justly forfeited their
liberty? The supposition was ridiculous. The truth was, that every
enormity was practised to obtain the persons of these unhappy people; He
referred those present to the case in the evidence of the African
trader, who had kidnapped and sold a girl, and who was afterwards
kidnapped and sold himself. He desired them to reason upon the
conversation which had taken place between the trader and the captain of
the ship on this occasion. He desired them also to reason upon the
instance mentioned this evening, which had happened in the river
Cameroons, and they would infer all the rapine, all the desolation, and
all the bloodshed, which had been placed to the account of this
execrable trade.

An attempt had been made to impress the House with the horrible scenes
which had taken place in St. Domingo, as an argument against the
abolition of the Slave Trade; but could any more weighty argument be
produced in its favour? What were the causes of the insurrections there?
They were two. The first was the indecision of the National Assembly,
who wished to compromise between that which was right and that which was
wrong on this subject. And the second was the oppression of the people
of colour, and of the slaves. In the first of the causes we saw
something like the moderation of Mr. Dundas and Mr. Addington. One day
this Assembly talked of liberty, and favoured the Blacks. Another day
they suspended their measures and favoured the Whites. They wished to
steer a middle course; but decision had been mercy. Decision even
against the planters would have been a thousand times better than
indecision and half measures. In the mean time, the people of colour
took the great work of justice into their own hands. Unable, however, to
complete this of themselves, they called in the aid of the slaves. Here
began the second cause; for the slaves, feeling their own power, began
to retaliate on the Whites. And here it may be observed, that, in all
revolutions, the clemency or cruelty of the victors will always be in
proportion to their former privileges, of their oppression. That the
slaves then should have been guilty of great excesses, was not to be
wondered at; for where did they learn their cruelty? They learnt it from
those who had tyrannized over them. The oppression, which they
themselves had suffered, was fresh in their memories, and this had
driven them to exercise their vengeance so furiously. If we wished to
prevent similar scenes in our own islands, we must reject all moderate
measures, and at once abolish the Slave Trade. By doing this, we should
procure a better treatment for the slaves there; and when this happy
change of system should have taken place, we might depend on them for
the defence of the islands as much as on the whites themselves.

Upon the whole, he would give his opinion of this traffic in a few
words. He believed it to be impolitic--he knew it to be inhuman--he was
certain it was unjust--he thought it so inhuman and unjust, that, if the
colonies could not be cultivated without it, they ought not to be
cultivated at all. It would be much better for us to be without them,
than, not abolish the Slave Trade. He hoped therefore that members would
this night act the part which would do them honour. He declared, that,
whether he should vote in a large minority or a small one, he would
never give up the cause. Whether in Parliament or out of it, in whatever
situation he might ever be, as long as he had a voice to speak, this
question should never be at rest. Believing the trade to be of the
nature of crimes and pollutions, which stained the honour of the
country, he would never relax his efforts. It was his duty to prevent
man from preying upon man; and if he and his friends should die before
they had attained their glorious object, he hoped there would never be
wanting men alive to their duty, who would continue to labour till the
evil should be wholly done away. If the situation of the Africans was as
happy as servitude could make them, he could not consent to the enormous
crime of selling man to man; nor permit a practice to continue, which
put an entire bar to the civilization of one quarter of the globe. He
was sure that the nation would not much longer allow the continuance of
enormities which shocked human nature. The West Indians had no right to
demand that crimes should be permitted by this country for their
advantage; and, if they were wise, they would lend their cordial
assistance to such measures, as would bring about, in the shortest
possible time, the abolition of this execrable trade.

Mr. Dundas rose again, but it was only to move an amendment, namely,
that the word "gradually" should be inserted before the words "to be
abolished" in Mr. Wilberforce's motion.

Mr. Jenkinson (afterwards Earl of Liverpool) said, that the opinions of
those who were averse to the abolition had been unfairly stated. They
had been described as founded on policy, in opposition to humanity. If
it could be made out that humanity would be aided by the abolition, he
would be the last person to oppose it. The question was not, he
apprehended, whether the trade was founded in injustice and oppression:
he admitted it was. Nor was it, whether it was in itself abstractedly an
evil: he admitted this also; but whether, under all the circumstances of
the case, any considerable advantage would arise to a number of our
fellow-creatures from the abolition of the trade in the manner in which
it had been proposed.

He was ready to admit, that the Africans at home were made miserable by
the Slave Trade, and that, if it were universally abolished, great
benefit would arise to them. No one, however, would assert, that these
miseries arose from the trade as carried on by Great Britain only. Other
countries occasioned as much of the evil as we did; and if the abolition
of it by us should prove only the transferring of it to those countries,
very little benefit would result from the measure.

What then was the probability of our example being followed by foreign
powers? Five years had now elapsed since the question was first started,
and what had any of them done? The Portuguese continued the trade. The
Spaniards still gave a bounty to encourage it. He believed there were
agents from Holland in this country, who were then negotiating with
persons concerned in it in order to secure its continuance. The
abolition also had been proposed in the National Assembly of France, and
had been rejected there. From these circumstances he had a right to
infer, that if we gave up the trade, we should only transfer it to those
countries: but this transfer would be entirely against the Africans. The
mortality on board English ships, previously to the regulating bill, was
four and an-eighth per cent. Since that time it had been reduced to
little more than three per cent[A]. In French ships it was near ten, and
in Dutch ships from five to seven, per cent. In Portuguese it was less
than either in French or Dutch, but more than in English ships since the
regulating bill. Thus the deaths of the Africans would be more than
doubled, if we were to abolish the trade.

[Footnote A: Mr. Wilberforce stated it on the same evening to be between
ten and eleven per cent. for the last year. The number then exported
from Africa to our islands was rather more than 22,000, of whom more
than 2,300 died.]

Perhaps it might be replied, that the importations being stopped in our
own islands, fewer Africans would experience this misery, because fewer
would be taken from their own country on this account. But he had a
right to infer, that as the planters purchased slaves at present, they
would still think it their interest to have them. The question then was,
whether they could get them by smuggling. Now it appeared by the
evidence, that many hundred slaves had been stolen from time to time
from Jamaica, and carried into Cuba. But if persons could smuggle slaves
out of our colonies, they could smuggle slaves into them; but
particularly when the planters might think it to their interest to
assist them.

With respect to the slaves there, instances had been related of their
oppression, which shocked the feelings of all who heard them: but was it
fair to infer from these their general ill usage? Suppose a person were
to make a collection of the different abuses, which had happened for a
series of years under our own happy constitution, and use these as an
argument of its worthlessness; should we not say to him, that in the
most perfect system which the human intellect could form some defects
would exist; and that it was unfair to draw inferences from such partial
facts? In the same manner he would argue relative to the alleged
treatment of the slaves. Evidence had been produced upon this point on
both sides. He should not be afraid to oppose the authorities of Lord
Rodney, and others, against any, however respectable, in favour of the
abolition. But this was not necessary. There was another species of
facts, which would answer the same end; Previously to the year 1730 the
decrease of the slaves in our islands was very considerable. From 1730
to 1755 the deaths were reduced to only two and a-half per cent, above
the births; from 1755 to 1768 to only one and three-fourths; and from
1768 to 1788 to only one per cent. This then, on the first view of the
subject, would show, that whatever might have been the situation of
slaves formerly, it had been gradually improved. But if, in addition to
this, we considered the peculiar disadvanges under which they laboured;
the small proportion of females to males; and the hurricanes, and
famines, which had swept away thousands, we should find it physically
impossible, that they could have increased as related, if they had been
treated as cruelly as the friends of the abolition had described.

This species of facts would enable him also to draw still more important
conclusions; namely, that as the slaves in the West Indies had gradually
increased, they would continue to increase; that very few years would
pass, not only before the births were equal to the deaths, but before
they were more numerous than the deaths; and that if this was likely to
happen in the present state of things, how much more would it happen, if
by certain regulations the increase of the slaves should be encouraged?

The only question then was, whether it was more advantageous to breed or
to import. He thought he should prove the former; and if so, then this
increase was inevitable, and the importations would necessarily cease.

In the first place, the gradual increase of the slaves of late years
clearly proved, that such increase had been encouraged. But their price
had been doubled in the last twenty years. The planter, therefore, must
feel it his interest to desist from purchasing, if possible. But again,
the greatest mortality was among the newly imported slaves. The diseases
they contracted on the passage, and their deaths in the seasoning, all
made for the same doctrine. Add to this, that slaves bred in the islands
were more expert at colonial labour, more reconciled to their situation,
and better disposed towards their masters than those who were brought
from Africa.

But it had been said, that the births and deaths in the islands were now
equal; and that therefore no further supply was wanted. He denied the
propriety of this inference. The slaves were subject to peculiar
diseases. They were exposed also to hurricanes and consequent famines.
That the day, however, would come, when the stock there would be
sufficient, no person who attended to the former part of his argument
could doubt. That they had gradually increased, were gradually
increasing, and would, by certain regulations, increase more and more,
must be equally obvious. But these were all considerations for
continuing the traffic a little longer.

He then desired the House to reflect upon the state of St. Domingo. Had
not its calamities been imputed by its own deputies to the advocates for
the abolition? Were ever any scenes of horror equal to those which had
passed there? And should we, when principles of the same sort were
lurking in our own islands, expose our fellow-subjects to the same
miseries, who, if guilty of promoting this trade, had, at least, been
encouraged in it by ourselves?

That the Slave Trade was an evil, he admitted. That the state of slavery
itself was likewise an evil, he admitted; and if the question was, not
whether we should abolish, but whether we should establish these, he
would be the first to oppose himself to their existence; but there were
many evils, which we should have thought it our duty to prevent, yet
which, when they had once arisen, it was more dangerous to oppose than
to submit to,--The duty of a statesman was, not to consider abstractedly
what was right or wrong, but to weigh the consequences which were likely
to result from the abolition of an evil, against those which were likely
to result from its continuance. Agreeing then most perfectly with the
abolitionists in their end, he differed from them only in the means of
accomplishing it. He was desirous of doing that gradually, which he
conceived they were doing rashly. He had therefore drawn up two
propositions. The first was, That an address be presented to His
Majesty, that he would recommend to the colonial assemblies to grant
premiums to such planters, and overseers, as should distinguish
themselves by promoting the annual increase of the slaves by birth; and
likewise freedom to every female slave, who had reared five children to
the age of seven years. The second was, That a bounty of five pounds per
head be given to the master of every slave-ship, who should import in
any cargo a greater number of females than males, not exceeding the age
of twenty-five years. To bring, forward these propositions, he would now
move that the chairman leave the chair.

Mr. Este wished the debate to be adjourned. He allowed there were many
enormities in the trade, which called for regulation. There were two
propositions before the House: the one for the immediate, and the other
for the gradual, abolition of the trade. He thought that members should
be allowed time to compare their respective merits. At present his own
opinion was, that gradual abolition would answer the end proposed in the
least exceptionable manner.

Mr. Pitt rejoiced that the debate had taken a turn, which contracted the
question into such narrow limits. The matter then in dispute was merely
as to the time at which the abolition should take, place. He therefore
congratulated the House, the country, and the world, that this great
point had been gained; that we might now consider this trade as having
received its condemnation; that this curse of mankind was seen in its
true light; and that the greatest stigma on our national character,
which ever yet existed, was about to be removed! Mankind, he trusted,
were now likely to be delivered from the greatest practical evil that
ever afflicted the human race--from the most severe and extensive
calamity recorded in the history of the world.

His honourable friend (Mr. Jenkinson) had insinuated, that any act for
the abolition would be evaded. But if we were to enforce this act with
all the powers of the country, how could it fail to be effectual? But
his honourable friend had himself satisfied him, upon this point. He had
acknowledged, that the trade would drop of itself, on account of the
increasing dearness of the commodity imported. He would ask then, if we
were to leave to the importer no means of importation but by smuggling;
and if, besides all the present disadvantages, we were to load him with
all the charges and hazards of the smuggler, would there be any danger
of any considerable supply of fresh slaves being poured into the islands
through this channel? The question under these circumstances, he
pronounced, would not bear a dispute.

His honourable friend had also maintained, that it would be inexpedient
to stop the importations immediately, because the deaths and births in
the islands were as yet not equal. But he (Mr. Pitt) had proved last
year, from the most authentic documents, that an increase of the births
above the deaths had already taken place. This then was the time for
beginning the abolition. But he would now observe, that five years had
elapsed since these documents were framed; and therefore the presumption
was, that the black population was increasing at an extraordinary rate.
He had not, to be sure, in his consideration of the subject, entered
into the dreadful mortality arising from the clearing of new lands.
Importations for this purpose were to be considered, not as carrying on
the trade, but as setting on foot a Slave Trade, a measure which he
believed no one present would then support. He therefore asked his
honourable friend, whether the period he had looked to was now arrived?
whether the West Indies, at this hour, were, not in a state in which
they could maintain their population?

It had been argued, that one or other of these two, assertions was
false; that either the population of the slaves must be decreasing,
(which the abolitionists denied,) or, if it was increasing, the slaves
must have been well treated. That their population was rather increasing
than otherwise, and also that their general treatment was by no means so
good as it ought to have been, were both points which had been proved by
different witnesses. Neither were they incompatible with each other. But
he would see whether the explanation of this seeming contradiction would
not refute the argument of expediency, as advanced by his honourable
friend. Did the slaves decrease in numbers?--Yes. Then ill usage must
have been the cause of it; but if so, the abolition was immediately
necessary to, restrain it. Did they, on the other hand, increase?--Yes.
But if so, no further importations, were wanted. Was their population
(to take a middle course) nearly stationary, and their treatment neither
so good nor so bad as it might be?--Yes. But if so, this was the proper
period for stopping further supplies; for both the population and the
treatment would be improved by such a measure.

But he would show again the futility of the, argument of his honourable
friend. He himself had admitted that it was in the power of the
colonists to correct the various abuses, by which the Negro population
was restrained. But, they could not do this without improving the
condition of their slaves; without making them approximate towards the
rank of citizens; without giving them some little interest in their
labour, which would occasion them to work with the energy of men. But
now the Assembly of Grenada had themselves stated, "that though the
Negroes were allowed the afternoons of only one day in every week they
would do as much work in that afternoon, when employed for their own
benefit as in the whole day, when employed in their masters' service."
Now, after, this, confession, the House might burn all his calculations
relative to the Negro population; for, if it had not yet quite reached
the desirable state which he had pointed out, this confession had
proved, that further supplies were not wanted. A Negro, if he worked for
himself, could do double work. By an improvement then in the mode of
labour, the work in the islands could be doubled. But if so, what would
become of the argument of his honourable friend? for then only half the
number of the present labourers were necessary.

He would now try this argument of expediency by other considerations.
The best informed writers on the subject had told us, that the purchase
of new Negroes was injurious to the, planters. But if this statement was
just, would not the abolition be beneficial to them? That it would, was
the opinion of Mr. Long, their own historian. "If the Slave Trade," says
he, "was prohibited for four or five years, it would enable them to
retrieve their affairs by preventing them from running into debt, either
by renting or purchasing Negroes." To this acknowledgment he would add a
fact from the evidence, which was, that a North American province, by
such a prohibition alone for a few years from being deeply plunged in
debt, had become independent, rich, and flourishing.

The next consideration was the danger, to which the islands, were
exposed from the newly imported slaves. Mr. Long, with a view of
preventing insurrections, had advised, that a duty equal to a
prohibition, might be laid on the importation of Coromantine slaves.
After noticing one insurrection, which happened through their means, he
speaks of another in the following year, in which thirty-three
Coromantines, "most of whom had been newly imported, murdered and
wounded no less than nineteen Whites in the, space of an hour." To the
authority of Mr Long he would add the recorded opinion of a committee of
the House of Assembly of Jamaica, which was appointed to inquire into
the best means of preventing future insurrections. The committee
reported, that "the rebellion had originated, like most others, with the
Coromantines," and they proposed that a bill should he brought in for
laying a higher duty on the importation of these particular Negroes,
which should operate as a prohibition. But the danger was not confined
to the introduction of Coromantines. Mr. Long accounts for the frequent
insurrections in Jamaica from the greatness of its general importations.
"In two years and a-half," says he, "twenty-seven thousand Negroes have
been imported.--No wonder that we have rebellions!" Surely then, when
his honourable friend spoke of the calamities of St. Domingo, and of
similar dangers impending over our own islands, it ill became him to be
the person to cry out for further importations! It ill became him to
charge upon the abolitionists the crime of stirring up insurrections,
who only recommended what the legislature of Jamaica itself had laid
down in a time of danger with an avowed view to prevent them. It was,
indeed, a great satisfaction to himself, that among the many arguments
for prohibiting the Slave Trade, the security of our West Indian
possessions against internal commotions, as well as foreign enemies, was
among the most prominent and forcible. And here he would ask his
honourable friend, whether in this part of the argument he did not see
reason for immediate abolition. Why should we any longer persist in
introducing those latent principles of conflagration, which, if they
should once burst forth, might annihilate the industry of a hundred
years? which might throw the planters back a whole century in their
profits, in their cultivation, and in their progress towards the
emancipation of their slaves? It was our duty to vote that the abolition
of the Slave Trade should be immediate, and not to leave it to he knew
not what future time or contingency.

Having now done with the argument of expediency, he would consider the
proposition of his right honourable friend Mr. Dundas; that, on account
of some patrimonial rights of the West Indians, the prohibition of the
Slave Trade would be an invasion of their legal inheritance. He would
first observe, that, if this argument was worth anything, it applied
just as much to gradual as to immediate abolition. He had no doubt,
that, at whatever period we should say the trade should cease; it would
be equally, set up; for it would certainly be just as good an argument
against the measure in seventy years hence, as it was against it now. It
implied also, that Parliament had no right to stop the importations: but
had this detestable traffic received such a sanction, as placed it more
out of the jurisdiction of the legislature for ever after, than any
other branch of our trade? In what a situation did the proposition of
his honourable friend place the legislature of Great Britain! It was
scarcely possible to lay a duty on anyone article, which might not in
someway affect the property of individuals. But if the laws respecting
the Slave Trade implied a contract for its perpetual continuance, the
House could never regulate any other of the branches of our national
commerce.

But any contract for the promotion of this trade must, in his opinion,
have been void from the beginning: for if it was an outrage upon
justice, and only another name for fraud, robbery, and murder, what
pledge could devolve upon the legislature to incur the obligation of
becoming principals in the commission of such enormities by sanctioning
their continuance?

But he would appeal to the acts themselves. That of 23 George II. c. 31,
was the one upon which the greatest stress was laid. How would the House
be surprised to hear that the very outrages committed in the prosecution
of this trade had been forbidden by that act! "No master of a ship
trading to Africa," says the act, "shall by fraud, force, or violence,
or by any indirect practice whatever, take on board or carry away from
that coast any Negro, or native of that country, or commit any violence
on the natives, to the prejudice of the said trade; and every person so
offending, shall for every such offence forfeit one hundred pounds." But
the whole trade had been demonstrated to be a system of fraud, force,
and violence; and therefore the contract was daily violated, under which
the Parliament allowed it to continue.

But why had the trade ever been permitted at all? The preamble of the
act would show: "Whereas the trade to and from Africa is very
advantageous to Great Britain, and necessary for supplying the
Plantations and Colonies thereunto belonging with a sufficient number of
Negroes at reasonable rates, and for that purpose the said trade should
be carried on."--Here then we might see what the Parliament had in view,
when it passed this act. But no one of the occasions, on which it
grounded its proceedings, now existed. He would plead, then, the act
itself as an argument for the abolition. If it had been proved that,
instead of being very advantageous to Great Britain, it was the most
destructive to her interests--that it was the ruin of her seamen--that
it stopped the extension of her manufactures;--if it had been proved, in
the second place, that it was not now necessary for the supply of our
Plantations with Negroes;--if it had been further established, that it
was from the beginning contrary to the first principles of justice, and
consequently that a pledge for its continuance, had one been attempted
to be given, must have been absolutely void--where in this act of
parliament was the contract to be found, by which Britain was bound, as
she was said to be, never to listen to her own true interests and to the
cries of the natives of Africa? Was it not clear, that all argument,
founded on the supposed pledge of Parliament, made against those who
employed it?

But if we were not bound by existing laws to the support of this trade,
we were doubly criminal in pursuing it; for why ought it to be abolished
at all? Because it was incurable injustice. Africa was the ground on
which he chiefly rested; and there it was, that his two honourable
friends, one of whom had proposed gradual abolition, and the other
regulation, did not carry their principles, to their full extent. Both
had confessed the trade to be a moral evil. How much stronger, then, was
the argument, for immediate than for gradual abolition! If on the ground
of a moral evil it was to be abolished at last, why ought it not now?
Why was injustice to be suffered to remain for a single hour? He knew of
no evil, which ever had existed, nor could he imagine any to exist,
worse than the tearing of eighty thousand persons annually from their
native land, by a combination of the most civilized nations, in the most
enlightened quarter of the globe; but more, especially by that nation,
which called herself the most free and the most happy of them all.

He would now notice the objection, that other nations would not give up
the Slave Trade, if we were to renounce it. But if the trade were
stained, but by a thousandth part of the criminality which he and
others, after a thorough investigation of the subject, charged upon it,
the House ought immediately to vote for its abolition. This miserable
argument, if persevered in, would be an eternal bar to the annihilation
of the evil. How was it ever to be eradicated, if every nation was thus
prudentially to wait till the concurrence of all the world should be
obtained! But it applied a thousand times more strongly in a contrary
way. How much more justly would other nations say, "Great Britain, free
as she is, just and honourable as she is, not only has not abolished,
but has refused to abolish, the Slave Trade. She has investigated it
well. Her senate has deliberated upon it. It is plain, then, that she
sees no guilt in it." With this argument we should furnish the other
nations of Europe, if we were again to refuse to put an end to this
cruel traffic; and we should have from henceforth not only to answer for
our own, but for their crimes also. Already we have suffered one year to
pass away; and now, when the question was renewed, not only had this
wretched argument been revived, but a proposition had been made for the
gradual abolition of the trade. He knew, indeed, the difficulty of
reforming long established abuses; but in the present case, by proposing
some other period than the present, by prescribing some condition, by
waiting for some contingencies, perhaps till we obtained the general
concurrence of Europe, (A concurrence which he believe never yet took
place at the commencement of any one improvement in policy or morals,)
he fared that this most enormous evil would never be redressed. Was it
not folly to wait for the stream to run down before we crossed the bed
of its channel? Alas! we might wait for ever. The river would still flow
on. We should be no nearer the object which we had in view, so long as
the step, which could alone bring us to it was not taken.

He would now proceed to the civilization of Africa; and, as his eye had
just glanced upon a West Indian law in the evidence upon the table, he
would begin with an argument, which the sight of it had suggested to
him. This argument had been ably answered in the course of the evening;
but he would view it in yet another light. It had been said, that the
savage disposition of the Africans rendered the prospect of their
civilization almost hopeless. This argument was indeed of long standing;
but, last year, it had been supported upon a new ground. Captain Frazer
had stated in his evidence, that a boy had been put to death at Cabenda,
because there were those who refused to purchase him as a slave. This
single story was deemed by him, and had been considered by others, as a
sufficient proof of the barbarity of the Africans, and of the inutility
of abolishing the Slave Trade. But they, who had used this fact, had
suppressed several circumstances relating to it. It appeared, on
questioning Captain Frazer afterward, that this boy had previously run
away from his master three several times; that the master had to pay his
value, according to the custom of the country, every time he was brought
back; and that partly from anger at the boy for running away so
frequently, and partly to prevent a repetition of the same expense, he
determined to destroy him. Such was the explanation of the signal
instance, which was to fix barbarity on all Africa, as it came out in
the cross-examination of Captain Frazer. That this African master was
unenlightened and barbarous, he freely admitted; but what would an
enlightened and civilized West Indian have done in a similar case? He
would quote the law, passed in the West Indies in 1722, which he had
just cast his eye upon in the book of evidence, by which law this very
same crime of running away was by the legislature, of an island, by the
grave and deliberate sentence of an enlightened legislature, punished
with death; and this, not in the case only of the third offence, but
even in the very first instance. It was enacted, "That, if any Negro or
other slave should withdraw himself from his master for the term of six
months, or any slave, who was absent, should not return within that
time, every such person should suffer death." There was also another
West Indian law, by which every Negro was armed against his fellow
Negro, for he was authorized to kill every runaway slave; and he had
even a reward held out to him for so doing. Let the House now contrast
the two cases. Let them ask themselves which of the two exhibited the
greater barbarity; and whether they could possibly vote for the
continuance of the Slave Trade, upon the principle that the Africans had
shown themselves to be a race of incorrigible barbarians?

Something like an opposite argument, but with a like view, had been
maintained by others on this subject. It had been said, in justification
of the trade, that the Africans had derived some little civilization
from their intercourse with us. Yes; we had given them just enough of
the forms of justice to enable them to add the pretext of legal trials
to their other modes of perpetrating the most atrocious crimes. We had
given them just enough of European improvements, to enable them the more
effectually to turn Africa into a ravaged wilderness. Alas! alas! we had
carried on a trade with them from this civilized and enlightened
country, which, instead of diffusing knowledge, had been a check to
every laudable pursuit. We had carried a poison into their country,
which spread its contagious effects from one end of it to the other, and
which penetrated to its very centre, corrupting every part to which it
reached. We had there subverted the whole order of nature; we had
aggravated every natural barbarity, and furnished to every man motives
for committing, under the name of trade, acts of perpetual hostility and
perfidy against his neighbour. Thus had the perversion of British
commerce carried misery instead of happiness to one whole quarter of the
globe. False to the very principles of trade, misguided in our policy,
unmindful of our duty, what almost irreparable mischief had we done to
that continent! How should we hope to obtain forgiveness from heaven, if
we refused to use those means which the mercy of Providence had still
reserved to us for wiping away the guilt and shame, with which we were
now covered? If we refused even this degree of compensation, how
aggravated would be our guilt! Should we delay, then, to repair these
incalculable injuries? We ought to count the days, nay the very hours,
which intervened to delay the accomplishment of such a work.

On this great subject, the civilization of Africa, which, he confessed,
was near his heart, he would yet add a few observations. And first he
would say, that the present deplorable state of that country, especially
when we reflected that her chief calamities were to be ascribed to us,
called for our generous aid, rather than justified any despair, on our
part, of her recovery, and still less a repetition of our injuries. On
what ground of theory or history did we act, when we supposed she was
never to be reclaimed? There was a time, which it might be now fit to
call to remembrance, when human sacrifices, and even this very practice
of the Slave Trade existed in our own island. Slaves, as we may read in
HENRY's _History of Great Britain_, were formerly an established article
of our exports. "Great numbers," he says, "were exported like cattle
from the British coast, and were to be seen exposed for sale in the
Roman markets."--"Adultery, witchcraft, and debt," says the same
historian, "were probably some of the chief sources of supplying the
Roman market with British slaves--prisoners taken in war were added to
the number--there might be also among them some unfortunate gamesters,
who, after having lost all their goods, at length staked themselves,
their wives, and their children." Now every one of these sources of
slavery had been stated to be at this hour a source of slavery in
Africa. If these practices, therefore, were to be admitted as proofs of
the natural incapacity of its inhabitants, why might they not have been
applied to ancient Britain? Why might not then some Roman senator,
pointing to British barbarians, have predicted with equal boldness, that
these were a people who were destined never to be free; who were without
the understanding necessary for the attainment of useful arts; depressed
by the hand of nature below the level of the human species, and created
to form a supply of slaves for the rest of the world? But, happily,
since that time, notwithstanding what would then have been the justness
of these predictions, we had emerged from barbarism. We were now raised
to a situation which exhibited a striking contrast to every circumstance
by which a Roman might have characterized us, and by which we now
characterized Africa. There was indeed one thing wanting to complete the
contrast, and to clear us altogether from the imputation of acting even
to this hour as barbarians; for we continued to this hour a barbarous
traffic in slaves; we continued it even yet, in spite of all our great
pretensions. We were once as obscure among the nations of the earth, as
savage in our manners, as debased in our morals, as degraded in our
understandings, as these unhappy Africans. But in the lapse of a long
series of years, by a progression slow, and for a time almost
imperceptible, we had become rich in a variety of acquirements. We were
favoured above measure in the gifts of Providence, we were unrivalled in
commerce, pre-eminent in arts, foremost in the pursuits of philosophy
and science, and established in all the blessings of civil society; we
were in the possession of peace, of liberty, and of happiness; we were
under the guidance of a mild and a beneficent religion; and we were
protected by impartial laws and the purest administration of justice; we
were living under a system of government, which our own happy experience
led us to pronounce the best and wisest, and which had become the
admiration of the World. From all these blessings we must for ever have
been excluded, had there been any truth in those principles, which some
had not hesitated to lay down as applicable to the case of Africa; and
we should have been at this moment little superior, either in morals,
knowledge, or refinement, to the rude inhabitants of that continent.

If then we felt that this perpetual confinement in the fetters of brutal
ignorance would have been the greatest calamity which could have
befallen us; if we viewed with gratitude the contrast between our
present and our former situation; if we shuddered to think of the misery
which would still have overwhelmed us, had our country continued to the
present times, through some cruel policy, to be the mart for slaves to
the more civilized nations of the World;--God forbid that we should any
longer subject Africa to the same dreadful scourge, and exclude the
sight of knowledge from her coasts, which had reached every other
quarter of the globe!

He trusted we should no longer continue this commerce, and that we
should no longer consider ourselves as conferring too great a boon on
the natives of Africa in restoring them to the rank of human beings, He
trusted we should not think ourselves too liberal, if, by abolishing the
Slave Trade, we gave them the same common chance of civilization with
other parts of the World. If we listened to the voice of reason and duty
this night, some of us might live to see a reverse of that picture, from
which we how turned our eyes with shame. We might live to behold the
natives engaged in the calm occupations of industry, and in the pursuit
of a just commerce. We might behold the beams of science and philosophy
breaking in upon their land, which at some happy period in still later
times might blaze with full lustre; and joining their influence to that
of pure religion, might illuminate and invigorate the most distant
extremities of that immense continent. Then might we hope, that even
Africa (though last of all the quarters of the globe) should enjoy at
length, in the evening of her days, those blessings, which had descended
so plentifully upon us in a much earlier period of the world. Then also
would Europe, participating in her improvement and prosperity, receive
an ample recompense for the tardy kindness (if kindness it could be
called) of no longer hindering her from extricating herself out of the
darkness, which, in other more fortunate regions, had been so much more
speedily dispelled.


      --------Nos primus equis Oriens afflavit anhelis;
      Illìc sera rubens accendit lumina Vesper.


Then might be applied to Africa those words, originally used indeed with
a different view:


      His demùm exactis------
      Devenere locos laetos, et amoena vireta
      Fortunatorum nemorum, sedesque beatas;
      Largior hìc campos aether et lumine vestit
      Purpureo.


It was in this view--it was as an atonement for our long and cruel
injustice towards Africa, that the measure proposed by his honourable
friend Mr. Wilberforce most forcibly recommended itself to his mind. The
great and happy change to be expected in the state of her inhabitants
was, of all the various benefits of the abolition, in his estimation the
most extensive and important. He should vote against the adjournment;
and he should also oppose every proposition which tended either to
prevent, or even to postpone for an hour, the total abolition of the
Slave Trade.

Mr. Pitt having concluded his speech (at about six in the morning), Sir
William Dolben, the chairman, proposed the following questions:--The
first was on the motion of Mr. Jenkinson, "that the chairman do now
leave the chair." This was lost by a majority of two hundred and
thirty-four to eighty-seven. The second was on the motion of Mr. Dundas,
"that the abolition should be, gradual;" when the votes for gradual
exceeded those for immediate by one hundred and ninety-three to one
hundred and twenty-five. He then put the amended question, that "it was
the opinion of the committee that the trade ought to be gradually
abolished."  The committee having divided again, the votes for a gradual
abolition were, two hundred and thirty, and those against any abolition
were eighty-five.

After this debate, the committee for the abolition of the Slave Trade
held a meeting. They voted their thanks to Mr. Wilberforce for his
motion, and to Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, and those other members of the House
who had supported it. They resolved, also, that the House of Commons,
having determined that the Slave Trade ought to be gradually abolished,
had by that decision manifested their opinion, that it was cruel and
unjust. They resolved, also, that a gradual abolition of it was not an
adequate remedy for its injustice and cruelty; neither could it be
deemed a compliance with the general wishes of the people, as expressed
in their numerous and urgent petitions to Parliament; and they resolved
lastly, that the interval in which the Slave Trade should be permitted
to continue, afforded a prospect of redoubled cruelties and ravages on
the coast of Africa; and that it imposed therefore an additional
obligation on every friend to the cause to use all constitutional means
to obtain its immediate abolition.

At a subsequent meeting they voted their thanks to the right honourable
Lord Muncaster, for the able support he had given to the great object of
their institution by his _Historical Sketches of the Slave Trade, and of
its Effects in Africa_; addressed to the people of Great Britain; and
they elected the Rev. Richard Gifford, and the Rev. Thomas Gisborne,
honorary and corresponding members; the first on account of his
excellent sermon before-mentioned, and other services; and the latter on
account of his truly Christian and seasonable pamphlet, entitled
_Remarks on the Late Decision of the House of Commons, respecting the
Abolition of the Slave Trade_.

On the 23rd of April, the House of Commons resolved itself into a
committee of the whole House, to consider the subject again; and Mr.
Beaufoy was put into the chair.

Mr. Dundas, upon whom the task of introducing a bill for the gradual
abolition of the Slave Trade now devolved, rose to offer the outlines of
a plan for that purpose. He intended, he said, immediately to abolish
that part of the trade, by which we supplied foreigners with slaves. The
other part of it was to be continued seven years from the 1st of January
next. He grounded the necessity of its continuance till this time upon
the documents of the Negro population in the different islands. In many
of these, slaves were imported, but they were re-exported nearly in
equal numbers. Now, all these he considered to be in a state to go on
without future supplies from Africa. Jamaica and the ceded islands
retained almost all the slaves imported into them. This he considered as
a proof that these had not attained the same desirable state; and it was
therefore necessary, that the trade should be continued longer on this
account. It was his intention, however, to provide proper punishments,
while it lasted, for abuses both in Africa and in the Middle Passage, He
would take care, as far as he could, that none but young slaves should
be brought from the Coast of Africa. He would encourage establishments
there for a new species of traffic. Foreign nations should be invited to
concur in the abolition. He should propose a praedial rather than a
personal service for the West Indies, and institutions, by which the
slaves there should be instructed in religious duties. He concluded by
reading several resolutions, which he would leave to the future
consideration of the House.

Mr. Pitt then rose. He deprecated the resolutions altogether. He denied
also the inferences which Mr. Dundas had drawn from the West Indian
documents relative to the Negro population. He had looked aver his own
calculations from the same documents again and again, and he would
submit them, with all their data, if it should be necessary, to the
House.

Mr. Wilberforce and Mr. Fox held the same language. They contended also,
that Mr. Dundas had now proved, a thousand times more strongly than
ever, the necessity of immediate abolition. All the resolutions he had
read were operative against his own reasoning. The latter observed, that
the Slave-traders were in future only to be allowed to steal innocent
children from their disconsolate parents.

After a few observations by Lord Sheffield, Mr. Drake, Colonel Tarleton,
and Mr. Rolle, the House adjourned.

On the 25th of April it resumed the consideration of the subject. Mr.
Dundas then went over his former resolutions, and concluded by moving,
"that it should not be lawful to import any African Negroes into any
British colonies, in ships owned or navigated by British subjects, at
any time after the 1st of January, 1800."

Lord Mornington (now Marquis Wellesley) rose to propose an amendment. He
congratulated his countrymen, that the Slave Trade had received its
death-wound. This traffic was founded in injustice; and between right
and wrong there could be no compromise. Africa was not to be sacrificed
to the apparent good of the West Indies. He would not repeat those
enormities out of the evidence, which had made such a deep impression
upon the House. It had been resolved, that the trade should be
abolished. The question then was, how long they were to persevere in the
crime of its continuance? One had said, that they might be unjust for
ten years longer; another, only till the beginning of the next century.
But this diversity of opinion had proceeded from an erroneous statement
of Mr. Dundas against the clear and irrefragable calculations of Mr.
Pitt. The former had argued, that, because Jamaica and the ceded islands
had retained almost all the slaves which had been, imported into them,
they were therefore not yet in a situation to support their population
without further supplies from Africa. But the truth was, that the
slaves, so retained, were kept, not to maintain the population there,
but to clear new land. Now the House had determined, that the trade was
not to be continued for this purpose. The population, therefore, in the
islands was sufficient to continue the ordinary cultivation of them.

He deprecated the idea, that the Slave Trade had been so sanctioned by
the acts of former Parliaments, that the present could make no
alteration in it. Had not the House altered the import of foreign sugar
into our islands? a measure, which at the time affected the property of
many. Had they not prohibited the exports of provisions from America to
the same quarter; Again, as to compacts, had the Africans ever been
parties to these? It was rather curious also, when King James the Second
gave a charter to the slave-trader, that he should have given them a
right to all the south of Africa, and authority over every person born
therein! But, by doing this, it was clear that he gave them a right
which he never possessed himself. After many other observations, he
concluded by moving, "that the year 1793 be substituted in the place of
the year 1800."

In the course of the debate, which followed, Mr. Burdon stated his
conviction of the necessity of immediate abolition; but he would support
the amendment, as the shortest of the terms proposed.

Mr. Robert Thornton would support it also, as the only choice left him.
He dared not accede to a motion, by which we were to continue for seven
years to imbrue our hands in innocent blood.

Mr. Ryder (now Earl of Harrowby) would not support the trade for one
moment, if he could avoid it. He could not hold a balance with gold in
one scale, and blood in the other.

Mr. William Smith exposed the wickedness of restricting the trade to
certain ages. The original motion, he said, would only operate as a
transfer of cruelty from the aged and the guilty to the young and the
innocent. He entreated the House to consider, whether, if it related to
their own children, any one of them would vote for it.

Mr. Windham had hitherto felt a reluctance to speaking, not from the
abstruseness, but from the simplicity, of the subject; but he could not
longer be silent, when he observed those arguments of policy creeping
again out of their lurking-places, which had fled before eloquence and
truth. The House had clearly given up the policy of the question. They
had been determined by the justice of it. Why were they then to be
troubled again with arguments of this nature? These, if admitted, would
go to the subversion of all public as well as private morality. Nations
were as much bound as individuals to a system of morals, though a breach
in the former could not be so easily punished. In private life morality
took pretty good care of itself. It was a kind of retail article, in
which the returns were speedy. If a man broke open his neighbour's
house, he would feel the consequences.  There was an ally of virtue, who
rendered it the interest of individuals to be moral, and he was called
the executioner. But as such punishment did not always await us in our
national concerns, we should substitute honour as the guardian of our
national conduct. He hoped the West Indians would consider the character
of the mother-country, and the obligations to national as well as
individual justice. He hoped, also, they would consider the sufferings,
which they occasioned both in Africa, in the passage, and in the West
Indies. In the passage, indeed, no one was capable of describing them.
The section of the slave-ship; however, made up the deficiency of
language, and did away all necessity of argument, on this subject.
Disease there had to struggle with the new affliction of chains and
punishment. At one view were the irksomeness of a goal, and the miseries
of an hospital; so that the holds of these vessels put him in mind of
the regions of the damned. The trade, he said, ought immediately to be
abolished. On a comparison of the probable consequences of the abolition
of it, he saw on one side only doubtful contingencies, but on the other
shame and disgrace.

Sir James Johnstone contended for the immediate abolition of the trade.
He had introduced the plough into his own plantation in the West Indies,
and he found the land produced more sugar than when cultivated in the
ordinary way by slaves. Even for the sake of the planters, he hoped the
abolition would not be long delayed.

Mr. Dundas replied: after which a division took place. The number of
votes in favour of the original motion were one hundred and fifty-eight,
and for the amendment one hundred and nine.

On the 27th of April the House resumed the subject. Mr. Dundas moved, as
before, that the Slave Trade should cease in the year 1800; upon which
Lord Mornington moved, that the year 1795 should be substituted for the
latter period.

In the course of the debate, which followed, Mr. Hubbard said, that he
had voted against the abolition, when the year 1793 was proposed; but he
thought that, if it were not to take place till 1795, sufficient time
would be allowed the planters. He would support this amendment; and he
congratulated the House on the prospect of the final triumph of truth,
humanity, and justice.

Mr. Addington preferred the year 1796 to the year 1795.

Mr. Alderman Watson considered the abolition in 1796, to be as
destructive as if it were immediate.

A division having taken place, the number of votes in favour of the
original motion were one hundred and sixty-one, and in favour of Lord
Mornington's amendment for the year 1795, one hundred and twenty-one.
Sir Edward Knatchbull, however, seeing that there was a disposition in
the House to bring the matter to a conclusion, and that a middle line
would be preferred, moved that the year 1796 should be substituted for
this year 1800. Upon this the House divided again; when there appeared
for the original motion only one hundred and thirty-two, but for the
amendment one hundred and fifty-one.

The gradual abolition having been now finally agreed upon for the year
1796, a committee was named, which carried the resolution to the Lords.

On the 8th of May, the Lords were summoned to consider it; Lord
Stormont, after having spoken for some time, moved, that they should
hear evidence upon it. Lord Grenville opposed the motion on account of
the delay, which would arise from an examination of the witnesses by the
House at large: but he moved that such witnesses should be examined by a
committee of the House. Upon this a debate ensued, and afterwards a
division; when the original motion was carried by sixty-three against
thirty-six.

On the 15th of May, the Lords met again. Evidence was then ordered to be
summoned in behalf of those interested in the continuance of the trade.
At length it was introduced; but on the 5th of June, when only seven
persons had been examined, a motion was made and carried, that the
further examinations should be postponed to the next session.




CHAPTER XXVIII.

Continuation from July 1792 to July 1793.--Author travels round the
kingdom again.--Motion to renew the resolution of the last year in the
Commons; motion lost.--New motion in the Commons to abolish the
foreign Slave Trade; motion lost.--Proceedings of the Lords.


The resolution adopted by the Commons, that the trade should cease in
1796, was a matter of great joy to many; and several, in consequence of
it, returned to the use of sugar. The committee, however, for the
abolition did not view it in the same favourable light. They considered
it as a political manoeuvre to frustrate the accomplishment of the
object. But the circumstance, which gave them the most concern, was the
resolution of the Lords to hear evidence. It was impossible now to say,
when the trade would cease, the witnesses in behalf of the merchants and
planters, had obtained possession of the ground; and they might, keep
it, if they chose, even till the year 1800, to throw light upon a
measure which was to be adopted in 1796. The committee found too, that
they had again the laborious task before them of finding out new persons
to give testimony in behalf of their cause; for some of their former
witnesses were dead, and others were out of the kingdom; and unless they
replaced these, there would be no probability of making out that strong
case in the Lords, which they had established in the Commons. It
devolved therefore upon me once more to travel for this purpose: but as
I was then in too weak a state to bear as much fatigue as formerly, Dr.
Dickson relieved me, by taking one part of the tour, namely, that to
Scotland, upon himself.

These journeys we performed with considerable success; during which, the
committee elected Mr. Joseph Townsend of Baltimore, in Maryland, an
honorary and corresponding member.

Parliament having met, Mr. Wilberforce, in February 1793, moved, that
the House resolve itself into a committee of the whole House on Thursday
next, to consider of the circumstances of the Slave Trade. This motion
was opposed by Sir William Yonge, who moved, that this day six months
should be substituted for Thursday next. A debate ensued: of this,
however, as well as of several which followed. I shall give no account;
as it would be tedious to the reader to hear a repetition of the same
arguments. Suffice it to say, that the motion was lost by a majority of
sixty-one to fifty-three.

This sudden refusal of the House of Commons to renew their own vote of
the former year, gave great uneasiness to the friends of the cause. Mr.
Wilberforce, however, resolved that the session should not pass without
an attempt to promote it in another form; and accordingly, on the 14th
of May, he moved for leave to bring in a bill to abolish that part of
the Slave Trade, by which the British merchants supplied foreigners with
slaves. This motion was opposed like the former; but was carried by a
majority of seven. The bill was then brought in; and it passed its first
and second reading with little opposition; but on the 5th of June,
notwithstanding the eloquence of Mr. Pitt and of Mr. Fox, and the very
able speeches of Mr. Francis, Mr. Courtenay, and others, it was lost by
a majority of thirty-one to twenty-nine.

In the interval between these motions, the question experienced in the
Lords considerable opposition. The Duke of Clarence moved that the House
should not proceed in the consideration of the Slave Trade till after
the Easter recess. The Earl of Abingdon was still more hostile
afterwards. He deprecated the new philosophy. It was as full of mischief
as the Box of Pandora. The doctrine of the abolition of the Slave Trade
was a species of it; and he concluded by moving, that all further
consideration of the subject be postponed. To the epithets, then
bestowed upon the abolitionists by this nobleman, the Duke of Clarence
added those of fanatics and hypocrites, among whom he included Mr.
Wilberforce by name. All the other Lords, however, who were present,
manifested such a dislike to the sentiments of the Earl of Abingdon,
that he withdrew his motion.

After this, the hearing of evidence on the resolution of the House of
Commons was resumed; and seven persons were examined before the close of
the session.




CHAPTER XXIX.

--Continuation from July 1793 to July 1794.--Author travels round the
kingdom again.--Motion to abolish the foreign Slave Trade renewed in
the Commons; and carried; but lost in the Lords; further proceedings
there.--Author, on account of his declining health, obliged to retire
from the cause.


The committee for the abolition could not view the proceedings of both
Houses of Parliament on this subject during the year 1793, without being
alarmed for the fate of their question. The only two sources of hope,
which they could discover, were in the disposition then manifested by
the Peers, as to the conduct of the Earl of Abingdon, and in their
determination to proceed in the hearing of evidence. The latter
circumstance indeed was the more favourable, as the resolution, upon
which the witnesses were to be examined, had not been renewed by the
Commons. These considerations, however, afforded no solid ground for the
mind to rest upon. They only broke in upon it, like faint gleams of
sunshine, for a moment, and then were gone. In this situation, the
committee could only console themselves by the reflection, that they had
done their duty. In looking, however, to their future services, one
thing, and only one, seemed practicable; and this was necessary; namely,
to complete the new body of evidence, which they had endeavoured to form
in the preceding year. The determination to do this rendered another
journey on my part indispensable; and I undertook it, broken down, as my
constitution then was, beginning it in September 1793, and completing it
in February 1794.

Mr. Wilberforce, in this interval, had digested his plan of operations;
and accordingly, early in the session of 1794, he asked leave to renew
his former bill, to abolish that part of the trade, by means of which
British merchants supplied foreigners with slaves. This request was
opposed by Sir William Yonge; but it was granted; on a division of the
House, by a majority of sixty-three to forty votes.

When the bill was brought in, it was opposed by the same member; upon
which the House divided; and there appeared for Sir William Yonge's
amendment thirty-eight votes, but against it fifty-six.

On a motion for the recommitment of the bill, Lord Sheffield divided the
House, against whose motion there was a majority of forty-two. And, on
the third reading of it, it was opposed again; but it was at length
carried.

The speakers against the bill were: Sir William Yonge, Lord Sheffield,
Colonel Tarleton, Alderman Newnham and Messrs; Payne, Este, Lechaiere,
Cawthorae, Jenkinson, and Dent. Those who spoke in favour of it were:
Messrs. Pitt, Fox, William Smith, Whitbread, Francis, Burdon, Vaughan,
Barham, and Serjeants Watson and Adair.

While the foreign Slave-bill was thus passing through its stages in the
Commons, Dr. Horsley, Bishop of Rochester, who saw no end to the
examinations, while the witnesses were to be examined at the bar of the
House of Lords, moved, that they should be taken in future before a
committee above-stairs. Dr. Porteus, Bishop of London, and the Lords
Guildford, Stanhope, and Grenville, supported this motion. But the Lord
Chancellor Thurlow, aided by the Duke of Clarence, and by the Lords
Mansfield, Hay, Abingdon, and others, negatived it by a majority of
twenty-eight.

At length the bill itself was ushered into the House of Lords. On
reading it a second time, it was opposed by the Duke of Clarence, Lord
Abingdon, and others. Lord Grenville and the Bishop of Rochester
declined supporting it. They alleged as a reason, that they conceived
the introduction of it to have been improper, pending the inquiry on the
general subject of the Slave Trade. This declaration brought up the
Lords Stanhope and Lauderdale, who charged them with inconsistency as
professed friends of the cause. At length the bill was lost. During
these discussions the examination of the witnesses was resumed by the
Lords; but only two of them were heard in this session[A].

[Footnote A: After this the examinations wholly dropped in the House of
Lords.]

After this decision the question was in a desperate state; for if the
Commons would not renew their own resolution, and the Lords would not
abolish the foreign part of the Slave-trade, what hope was there of
success? It was obvious too, that in the former House, Mr. Pitt and Mr.
Dundas voted against each other. In the latter, the Lord Chancellor
Thurlow opposed every motion in favour of the cause. The committee
therefore were reduced to this;--either they must exert themselves
without hope, or they must wait till some change should take place in
their favour. As far as I myself was concerned, all exertion was then
over. The nervous system was almost shattered to pieces. Both my memory
and my hearing failed me. Sudden dizzinesses seized my head. A confused
singing in the ears followed me, wherever I went. On going to bed the
very, stairs seemed to dance up and down under me, so that, misplacing
my foot, I sometimes fell. Talking too, if it continued but half an
hour, exhausted me, so that profuse perspirations followed; and the same
effect was produced even by an active exertion of the mind for the like
time. These disorders had been brought on by degrees in consequence of
the severe labours necessarily attached to the promotion of the cause.
For seven years I had a correspondence to maintain with four hundred
persons with my own hand. I had some book or other annually to write in
behalf of the cause. In this time I had travelled more than thirty-five
thousand miles in search of evidence, and a great part of these journeys
in the night. All this time my mind had been on the stretch. It had been
bent too to this one subject; for I had not even leisure to attend to my
own concerns. The various instances of barbarity, which had come
successively to my knowledge within this period, had vexed, harassed,
and afflicted it. The wound which these had produced, was rendered still
deeper by those cruel disappointments before related, which arose from
the reiterated refusal of persons to give their testimony, after I had
travelled hundreds of miles in quest of them. But the severest stroke
was that inflicted by the persecution, begun and pursued by persons
interested in the continuance of the trade, of such witnesses as had
been examined against them; and whom, on account of their dependent
situation in life, it was most easy to oppress. As I had been the means
of bringing these forward on these occasions, they naturally came to me,
when thus persecuted, as the author of their miseries and their ruin.
From their supplications and wants it would have been ungenerous and
ungrateful to have fled[A]. These different circumstances, by acting
together, had at length brought me into the situation just mentioned;
and I was therefore obliged, though very reluctantly, to be borne out of
the field, where I had placed the great honour and glory of my life.

[Footnote A: The late Mr. Whitbread, to whom one day in deep affliction
on this account I related accidentally a circumstance of this kind,
generously undertook, in order to make my mind easy upon the subject, to
make good all injuries, which should in future arise to individuals from
such persecution; and he repaired these, at different times, at a
considerable expense. I feel it a duty to divulge this circumstance, out
of respect to the memory of one of the best of men, and of one, whom, if
the history of his life were written, it would appear to have been an
extraordinary honour to the country to have produced.]




CHAPTER XXX.

Continuation from July 1794 to July 1799.--Various motions within this
period.


I purpose, though it may seem abrupt after the division which has
hitherto been made of the contents of this volume, to throw the events
of the next five years into one chapter.

Mr. Wilberforce and the members of the committee, whose constitutions
had not suffered like my own, were still left; and they determined to
persevere in the promotion of their great object as long as their health
and their faculties permitted them. The former, accordingly, in the
month of February, 1795, moved in the House of Commons for leave to
bring in a bill for the abolition of the Slave Trade. This motion was
then necessary, if, according to the resolution of that House, the Slave
Trade was to cease in 1796. It was opposed, however, by Sir William
Yonge, and unfortunately lost by a majority of seventy-eight to
fifty-seven.

In the year 1796, Mr. Wilberforce renewed his efforts in the Commons. He
asked leave to bring in a bill for the abolition of the Slave Trade, but
in a limited time. The motion was opposed as before; but on a division,
there were for it ninety-three, and against it only sixty-seven.

The bill having been brought in, was opposed in its second reading; but
it was carried through it by a majority of sixty-four to thirty-one.

In a future stage it was opposed again; but it triumphed by a majority
of seventy-six to thirty-one. Mr. Elliott was then put into the chair.
Several clauses were adopted; and the first of March, 1797, was fixed
for the abolition of the Trade: but in the next stage of it, after a
long speech from Mr. Dundas, it was lost by a majority of seventy-four
against seventy.

Mr. Francis, who had made a brilliant speech in the last debate,
considering that nothing effectual had been yet done on this great
question, and wishing that a practical beginning might be made, brought
forward soon afterwards, a motion relative to the improvement of the
condition of the slaves in the West Indies. This, after a short debate,
was negatived without a division. Mr. William Smith also moved an
address to His Majesty, that he would be pleased to give directions to
lay before the House copies of the several acts relative to regulations
in behalf of the slaves, passed by the different colonial assemblies
since the year 1788. This motion was adopted by the House. Thus passed
away the session of 1796.

In the year 1797, while Mr. Wilberforce was deliberating upon the best
measure for the advancement of the cause, Mr. C. Ellis came forward with
a new motion. He began by declaring, that he agreed with the
abolitionists as to their object; but he differed with them as to the
mode of attaining It. The Slave Trade he condemned as a cruel and
pernicious system; but, as it had become an inveterate evil, he feared
it could not be done away all at once, without injury to the interests
of numerous individuals, and even to the Negroes themselves. He
concluded by moving an address to His Majesty, humbly requesting, that
he would give directions to the governors of the West Indian islands, to
recommend it to the colonial assemblies to adopt such measures as might
appear to them best calculated to ameliorate the condition of the
Negroes, and thereby to remove gradually the Slave Trade; and likewise
to assure His Majesty of the readiness of this House to concur in any
measure to accelerate this desirable object; This motion was seconded by
Mr. Barham, It was opposed, however, by Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Pitt, and
others; but was at length carried by a majority of ninety-nine to
sixty-three.

In the year 1798, Mr. Wilberforce asked leave to renew his former bill,
to abolish the Slave Trade within a limited time. He was supported by
Mr. Canning, Mr. Hobhouse, Sir Robert Buxton, Mr. Bouverie, and others.
Messrs. Sewell, Bryan Edwards, Henniker, and C. Ellis, took the opposite
side of the question. Mr. Ellis, however, observed, that he had no
objection to restricting the Slave Trade to plantations already begun in
the colonies; and Mr. Barham professed; himself a friend to the
abolition, if it; could be accomplished in a reasonable way. On a
division, there appeared to be for Mr. Wilberforce's motion
eighty-three, but against it eighty-seven.

In the year 1799 Mr. Wilberforce, undismayed by these different
disappointments, renewed his motion. Colonel M. Wood, Mr. Petrie, and
others, among whom were Mr. Windham and Mr. Dundas, opposed it. Mr.
Pitt, Mr. Fox, Mr. W. Smith, Sir William Dolben, Sir R. Milbank, Mr.
Hobhouse, and Mr. Canning, supported it. Sir R. Milbank contended, that
modifications of a system, fundamentally wrong, ought not to be
tolerated by the legislature of a free nation, Mr. Hobhouse said, that
nothing could be so nefarious as this traffic in blood. It was unjust in
its principles it was cruel in its practice: it admitted of no
regulation whatever. The abolition of it was called for equally, by
morality and sound policy, Mr. Canning exposed the folly of Mr. Dundas,
who bad said, that as Parliament had, in the year 1787, left the
abolition to the colonial assemblies, it ought not to be taken out of
their hands. This great event, he observed, could only be accomplished
in two ways; either by these assemblies, or by the Parliament of
England. Now the members of the Assembly of Jamaica had professed that
they would never abolish the trade. Was it not, therefore, idle to rely
upon them for the accomplishment of it? He then took a very
comprehensive view of the arguments, which had been offered in the
course of the debate, and was severe upon the planters in the House,
who, he said, had brought into familiar use certain expressions, with no
other view than to throw a veil over their odious system. Among these
was, "their right to import labourers." But never was the word
"labourers" so prostituted, as when it was used for slaves. Never was
the word "right" so prostituted, not even when "the rights of man" were
talked of; as when the right to trade in man's blood was asserted, by
the members of an enlightened assembly. Never was the right of importing
these labourers worse defended than when the antiquity, of the Slave
Trade, and its foundation on the ancient acts of parliament, were
brought forward in its support. We had been cautioned not to lay our
unhallowed hands on the ancient institution of the Slave Trade; nor to
subvert a fabric, raised by the wisdom of our ancestors, and consecrated
by a lapse of ages. But on what principles did we usually respect the
institutions of antiquity? We respected them, when we saw some shadow of
departed worth and usefulness; or some memorial of what had been
creditable to mankind. But was this the case with the Slave Trade? Had
it begun in principles of justice or national honour, which the changes
of the world alone had impaired? Had it to plead former services and
glories in behalf of its present disgrace? In looking at it we saw
nothing but crimes and sufferings from the beginning--nothing but what
wounded and convulsed our feelings--nothing but what excited indignation
and horror. It had not even to plead what could often be said in favour
of the most unjustifiable wars. Though conquest had sometimes originated
in ambition, and in the worst of motives, yet the conquerors and the
conquered were sometimes blended afterwards into one people; so that a
system of common interest arose out of former differences. But where was
the analogy of the eases? Was it only at the outset that we could trace
violence and injustice on the part of the Slave Trade? Were the
oppressors and the oppressed so reconciled, that enmities ultimately
ceased? No. Was it reasonable then to urge a prescriptive right, not to
the fruits of an ancient and forgotten evil, but to a series of new
violences; to a chain of fresh enormities; to cruelties continually
repeated; and of which every instance inflicted a fresh calamity, and
constituted a separate and substantial crime?

The debate being over, the House divided; when it appeared that there
were for Mr. Wilberforce's motion seventy-four, but against it
eighty-two.

The motion for the general abolition of the Slave Trade having been thus
lost again in the Commons, a new motion was made there soon after, by
Mr. Henry Thornton, on the same subject. The prosecution of this
traffic, on certain parts of the coast of Africa, had become so
injurious to the new settlement at Sierra Leone, that not only its
commercial prospects were but its safety endangered. Mr. Thornton,
therefore brought in a bill to confine the Slave Trade within certain
limits. But even this bill, though it had for its object only to free a
portion of the coast from the ravages of this traffic, was opposed by
Mr. Gascoyne, Dent, and others. Petitions also were presented against
it. At length, after two divisions, on the first of which there were
thirty-two votes to twenty-seven, and on the second thirty-eight to
twenty-two, it passed through all its stages.

When it was introduced into the Lords the petitions were renewed against
it. Delay also was interposed to its progress by the examination of
witnesses. It was not till the fifth of July that the matter was brought
to issue. The opponents of the bill, at that time, were the Duke of
Clarence, Lord Westmoreland, Lord Thurlow, and the Lords Douglas and
Hay, the two latter being Earls of Morton and Kinnoul, in Scotland. The
supporters of it were Lord Grenville, who introduced it, Lord
Loughborough, Lord Holland, and Dr. Horsley, Bishop of Rochester: the
latter was peculiarly eloquent. He began his speech, by arraigning the
injustice and impolicy of the trade:--"injustice," he said, "which no
considerations of policy could extenuate; impolicy, equal in degree to
its injustice."

He well knew that the advocates for the Slave Trade had endeavoured to
represent the project for abolition, as a branch of jacobinism; but they
who supported it proceeded upon no visionary motives of equality, or of
the imprescriptible rights of man. They strenuously upheld the
gradations of civil society: but they did, indeed, affirm that these
gradations were, both ways, both as they ascended and as they descended,
limited. There was an existence of power, to which no good king would
aspire; and there was an extreme condition of subjection, to which man
could not be degraded without injustice; and this they would maintain,
was the condition of the African, who was torn away into slavery.

He then explained the limits of that portion of Africa, which the bill
intended to set apart as sacred to peace and liberty. He showed that
this was but one-third of the coast; and, therefore, that two-thirds
were yet left for the diabolical speculations of the slave merchants. He
expressed his surprise that such witnesses, as those against the bill,
should have been introduced at all: he affirmed that their oaths were
falsified by their own log-books; and that, from their own accounts, the
very healthiest of their vessels were little better than pestilential
gaols. Mr. Robert Hume, one of these witnesses, had made a certain
voyage: he had made it in thirty-three days: he had shipped two hundred
and sixty-five slaves, and he had lost twenty-three of them. If he had
gone on losing his slaves, all of whom were under twenty-five years of
age, at this rate, it was obvious, that he would have lost two hundred
and fifty-three of them, if his passage had lasted for a year. Now, in
London only, seventeen would have died of that age, out of one thousand
within the latter period.

After having exposed the other voyages of Mr. Hume in a similar manner,
he entered into a commendation of the views of the Sierra Leone company,
and then defended the character of the Africans in their own country, as
exhibited in the Travels of Mr. Mungo Park. He made a judicious
discrimination with respect to slavery, as it existed among them: he
showed that this slavery was analogous to that of the heroic and
patriarchal ages, and contrasted it with the West Indian in an able
manner.

He adverted, lastly, to what had fallen from the learned counsel, who
had supported the petitions of the slave-merchants. One of them had put
this question to their Lordships, "If the Slave Trade were as wicked as
it had been represented, why was there no prohibition of it in the Holy
Scriptures?" He then entered into a full defence of the Scriptures on
this ground, which he concluded by declaring, that, as St. Paul had
coupled men-stealers with murderers, he had condemned the Slave Trade in
one of its most productive modes, and generally in all its modes. And
here it is worthy of remark, that the word used by the apostle on this
occasion, and which has been translated men-stealers, should have been
rendered slave traders. This was obvious from the scholiast of
Aristophanes, whom he quoted. It was clear, therefore, that the Slave
Trade, if murder was forbidden, had been literally forbidden also.

The learned counsel, too, had admonished their lordships, to beware how
they adopted the visionary projects of fanatics. He did not know in what
direction this shaft was shot; and he cared not. It did not concern him.
With the highest reverence for the religion of the land, with the
firmest conviction of its truth, and with the deepest sense of the
importance Of its doctrines, he was proudly conscious, that the general
shape and fashion of his life bore nothing of the stamp of fanaticism.
But he begged leave, in his turn, to address a word of serious
exhortation to their lordships. He exhorted them to beware how they were
persuaded to bury, under the opprobrious name of fanaticism, the regard
which they owed to the great duties of mercy and justice, for the
neglect of which (if they should neglect them) they would be answerable
at that tribunal, where no prevarication of witnesses could misinform
the judge; and where no subtlety of an advocate, miscalling the names of
things, putting evil for good and good for evil, could mislead his
judgment.

At length the debate ended: when the bill was lost by a majority of
sixty-eight to sixty-one, including personal votes and proxies.

I cannot conclude this chapter without offering a few remarks. And,
first, I may observe, as the substance of the debates has not been given
for the period which it contains, that Mr. Wilberforce, upon whom too
much praise cannot be bestowed for his perseverance from year to year,
amidst the disheartening circumstances which attended his efforts,
brought every new argument to which either the discovery of new light,
or the events of the times, produced. I may observe also, in justice to
the memories of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox, that there was no debate within
this period, in which they did not take a part; and in which they did
not irradiate others from the profusion of their own light; and thirdly,
that in consequence of the efforts of the three, conjoined with those of
others, the great cause of the abolition was secretly gaining ground.
Many members who were not connected with the trade, but who had yet
hitherto supported it, were on the point of conversion. Though the
question had oscillated backwards and forwards, so that an ordinary
spectator could have discovered no gleam of hope at these times, nothing
is more certain, than that the powerful eloquence then displayed had
smoothed the resistance to it, had shortened its vibrations, and had
prepared it for a state of rest.

With respect to the West-Indians themselves, some of them began to see
through the mists of prejudice, which had covered them. In the year
1794, when the bill for the abolition of the foreign Slave Trade was
introduced, Mr. Vaughan and Mr. Barham supported it. They called upon
the planters in the House to give way to humanity, where their own
interests could not be affected by their submission. This, indeed, may
be said to have been no mighty thing; but it was a frank confession of
the injustice of the Slave Trade, and the beginning of the change which
followed, both with respect to themselves and others.

With respect to the old friends of the cause, it is with regret I
mention, that it lost the support of Mr. Windham within this period; and
this regret is increased by the consideration, that he went off on the
avowed plea of expediency against moral rectitude; a doctrine, which, at
least upon this subject, he had reprobated for ten years. It was,
however, some consolation, as far as talents were concerned, (for there
can be none for the loss of virtuous feeling,) that Mr. Canning, a new
member, should have so ably supplied his place.

Of the gradual abolitionists, whom we have always considered as the most
dangerous enemies of the cause, Mr. Jenkinson (afterwards Earl of
Liverpool), Mr. Addington (subsequently Lord Sidmouth), and Mr. Dundas
(afterwards Lord Melville), continued their opposition during all this
time. Of the first two I shall say nothing at present; but I cannot pass
over the conduct of the latter. He was the first person, as we have
seen, to propose the gradual abolition of the Slave Trade; and he fixed
a time for its cessation on the 1st of January, 1800. His sincerity on
this occasion was doubted by Mr. Fox at the very outset; for he
immediately rose and said, that "something so mischievous had come out,
something so like a foundation had been laid for preserving, not only
for years to come, but for anything he knew, for ever, this detestable
traffic, that he felt it his duty immediately to deprecate all such
delusions upon the country." Mr. Pitt, who spoke soon afterwards, in
reply to an argument advanced by Mr. Dundas, maintained, that "at
whatever period the House should say that the Slave Trade should
actually cease, this defence would equally be set up; for it would be
just as good an argument in seventy years hence, as it was against the
abolition then." And these remarks Mr. Dundas verified in a singular
manner within this period: for in the year 1796, when his own bill, as
amended in the Commons, was to take place, he was one of the most
strenuous opposers of it; and in the year 1799, when in point of
consistency it devolved upon him to propose it to the House, in order
that the trade might cease on the 1st of January, 1800, (which was the
time of his own original choice, or a time unfettered by parliamentary
amendment,) he was the chief instrument of throwing out Mr.
Wilberforce's bill, which promised even a longer period to its
continuance: so that it is obvious, that there was no time, within his
own limits, when the abolition would have suited him, notwithstanding
his profession, "that he had always been a warm advocate for the
measure."




CHAPTER XXXI.

Continuation from July 1799 to July 1805.--Various motions within this
period.


The question had now been brought forward in almost every possible way,
and yet had been eventually lost. The total and immediate abolition had
been attempted; and then the gradual. The gradual again had been tried
for the year 1798, then for 1795, and then for 1796, at which period it
was decreed, but never allowed to be executed. An Abolition of a part of
the trade, as it related to the supply of foreigners with slaves, was
the next measure proposed; and when this failed, the abolition of
another part of it, as it related to the making of a certain portion of
the coast of Africa sacred to liberty, was attempted; but this failed
also. Mr. Wilberforce therefore thought it prudent, not to press the
abolition as a mere annual measure, but to allow members time to digest
the eloquence, which had been bestowed upon it for the last five years,
and to wait till some new circumstances should favour its introduction.
Accordingly he allowed the years 1800, 1801, 1802, and 1803, to pass
over without any further parliamentary notice than the moving for
certain papers; during which he took an opportunity of assuring the
House, that he had not grown cool in the cause, but that he would
agitate it in a future session.

In the year 1804, which was fixed upon for renewed exertion, the
committee for the abolition of the Slave Trade elected James Stephen,
Zachary Macaulay, Henry Brougham, Esqrs., and William Phillips, into
their own body. Four other members, also, Robert Grant, and John
Thornton, Esqrs., and William Manser and William Allen, were afterwards
added to the list. Among, the reasons for fixing upon this year, one may
be assigned, namely, that the Irish members, in consequence of the union
which had taken place between the two countries, had then all taken
their seats in the House of Commons; and that most of them were friendly
to the cause.

This being the situation of things, Mr. Wilberforce, on the 30th of
March, asked leave to renew his bill for the abolition of the Slave
Trade within a limited time, Mr. Fuller opposed the motion. A debate
ensued. Colonel Tarleton, Mr. Devaynes, Mr. Addington, and Mr. Manning
spoke against it, however, notwithstanding his connection with the West
Indies, said he would support it, if an indemnification were offered to
the planters, in case any actual loss should accompany the measure.

Sir William Geary questioned the propriety of immediate abolition.

Sir Robert Buxton, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, and Mr. Barbara spoke in favour of
the motion.

Mr. William Smith rose, when the latter had seated himself, and
complimented him on this change of sentiment, so honourable to him,
inasmuch as he had espoused the cause of humanity against his supposed
interest as a planter. Mr. Leigh said that he would not tolerate such a
traffic for a moment. All the feelings of nature revolted at it. Lord de
Blaquiere observed, "it was the first time the question had been
proposed to Irishmen as legislators. He believed it would be supported
by most of them. As to the people of Ireland, he could pledge himself
that they were hostile to this barbarous traffic." An amendment having
been proposed by Mr. Manning, a division took place upon it, when leave
was given to bring in the bill, by a majority of one hundred and
twenty-four to forty-nine.

On the 7th of June, when the second reading of the bill was moved, it
was opposed by Sir W. Yonge, Dr. Laurence, Mr. C. Brook, Mr. Dent, and
others. Among these Lord Castlereagh professed himself a friend to the
abolition of the trade, but he differed as to the mode. Sir J.
Wrottesley approved of the principle of the bill, but would oppose it in
some of its details. Mr. Windham allowed the justice, but differed as to
the expediency, of the measure. Mr. Deverell professed himself to have
been a friend to it; but he had then changed his mind. Sir Laurence
Parsons wished to see a plan for the gradual extinction of the trade.
Lord Temple affirmed that the bill would seal the death-warrant of every
White inhabitant of the islands. The second reading was supported by Sir
Ralph Milbank, Messrs. Pitt, Fox, William Smith, Whitbread, Francis,
Barham, and Grenfell, and Sir John Newport. Mr. Grenfell observed, that
he could not give a silent vote, when the character of the country was
concerned. When the question of the abolition first came before the
public, he was a warm friend to it; and from that day to this he had
cherished the same feelings. He assured Mr. Wilberforce of his constant
support. Sir John Newport stated that the Irish nation took a virtuous
interest in this noble cause. He ridiculed the idea that the trade and
manufactures of the country would suffer by the measure in
contemplation; but, even if they should suffer, he would oppose it.
"Fiat justitia, ruat coelura," Upon a division, there appeared for the
second reading one hundred, and against it forty-two.

On the 12th of June, when a motion was made to go into a committee upon
the bill, it was opposed by Messrs. Fuller, C. Brook, C. Ellis, Dent,
Deverell, and Manning: and it was supported by Sir Robert Buxton, Mr.
Barham, and the Hon. J.S. Cocks. The latter condemned the imprudence of
the planters. Instead of profiting by the discussions, which had taken
place, and making wise provisions against the great event of the
abolition, which would sooner or later take place, they had only thought
of new stratagems to defeat it. He declared his abhorrence of the trade,
which he considered to be a national disgrace. The House divided: when
there were seventy-nine for the motion, and against it, twenty.

On the 27th of June the bill was opposed in its last stage by Sir W.
Young, Messrs. Dickenson, Mr. Rose, Addington, and Dent.; and supported
by: Messrs. Pitt, W. Smith, Francis, and Barham; when it was carried by
a majority of sixty-nine to thirty-six. It was then taken up to the
Lords; but on a motion of Lord Hawkesbury, then a member of that House,
the discussion of it was postponed to the next year.

The session being ended, the committee for the abolition of the Slave
Trade, increased its number, by the election of the Right Honourable
Lord Teignmouth, Dr. Dickson, and Wilson Birkbeek, as members.

In the year 1805, Mr. Wilberforce renewed his motion of the former year.
Colonel Tarleton, Sir William Yonge, Mr. Puller, and Mr. Gascoyne
opposed it. Leave, however, was given him to introduce his bill.

On the second reading of it, a serious opposition took place; and an
amendment was moved for postponing it till that day six months. The
amendment was opposed by Mr. Fox and Mr. Huddlestone. The latter could
not help lifting his voice against this monstrous traffic in the sinews
and blood of man, the toleration of which had so long been the disgrace
of the British legislature. He did not charge the enormous guilt
resulting from it upon the nation at large; for the nation had washed
its hands of it by the numerous petitions it had sent against it; and it
had since been a matter of astonishment to all Christendom, how the
constitutional guardians of British freedom should have sanctioned
elsewhere the greatest system of cruelty and oppression in the world.

He said that a curse attended this trade even in the mode of defending
it. By a certain fatality, none but the vilest arguments were brought
forward, which corrupted the very persons who used them. Every one of
these was built on the narrow ground of interest--of pecuniary
profit--of sordid gain--in opposition to every high consideration--to
every motive that had reference to humanity, justice, and religion--or
to that great principle which comprehended them all. Place only before
the most determined advocate of this odious traffic the exact image of
himself in the garb and harness of a slave, dragged and whipped about
like a beast; place this image also before him, and paint it as that of
one without a ray of hope to cheer him; and you would extort from him
the reluctant confession, that he would not endure for an hour the
misery to which he condemned his fellow-man for life. How dared he,
then, to use this selfish plea of interest against the voice of the
generous sympathies of his nature? But even upon this narrow ground, the
advocates for the traffic had been defeated. If the unhallowed argument
of expediency was worth anything when opposed to moral rectitude, or if
it were to supercede precepts of Christianity, where was a man to stop,
on what was he to draw? For anything he knew, it might be physically
true, that human blood was the best manure for the land; but who ought
to shed it on that account? True expediency, however, was, where it ever
would be found, on the side of that system which was most merciful and
just. He asked how it happened, that sugar could be imported cheaper
from the East Indies than from the West, notwithstanding the vast
difference of the length of the voyages, but on account of the impolicy
of slavery; or that it was made in the former case by the industry of
free men, and in the latter by the languid drudgery of slaves.

As he had had occasion to advert to the Eastern part of the world, he
would make an observation upon an argument, which had been collected
from that quarter. The condition of the Negroes in the West Indies had
been lately compared with that of the Hindoos. But he would observe that
the Hindoo, miserable as his hovel was, had sources of pride and
happiness, to which not only the West Indian slave, but even his master,
was a stranger. He was to be sure a peasant; and his industry was
subservient to the gratifications of an European lord; but he was, in
his own belief, vastly superior to him. He viewed him as one of the
lowest cast. He would not on any consideration eat from the same plate.
He would not suffer his son to marry the daughter of his master, even if
she could bring him all the West Indies as her portion. He would
observe, too, that the Hindoo peasant drank his water from his native
well; that, if his meal were scanty, he received it from the hand of
her, who was most dear to him; that, when he laboured, he laboured for
her and his offspring. His daily task being finished, he reposed with
his family. No retrospect of the happiness of former days, compared with
existing misery, disturbed his slumber, nor horrid dreams occasioned him
to wake in agony at the dawn of day. No barbarous sounds of cracking
whips reminded him, that with the form and image of a man his destiny
was that of the beast of the field. Let the advocates for the bloody
traffic state what they had to set off on their side of the question
against the comforts and independence of the man, with whom they
compared the slave.

The amendment was supported by Sir William Yonge, Sir William Pulteney,
Colonel Tarleton, Messrs. Gascoyne, C. Brook, and Hiley Addington. On
dividing the House upon it, there appeared for it seventy-seven, but
against it only seventy.

This loss of the question, after it had been carried in the last year by
so great a majority, being quite unexpected, was a matter of severe
disappointment; and might have discouraged the friends of the cause in
this infancy of their renewed efforts, if they had not discovered the
reason of its failure. After due consideration it appeared, that no
fewer than nine members, who had never been absent once in sixteen years
when it was agitated, gave way to engagements on the day of the motion,
from a belief that it was safe. It appeared also, that out of the great
number of Irish members, who supported it in the former year, only nine
were in the House, when it was lost. It appeared also that, previously
to this event, a canvass, more importunate than had heard of on any
former occasion, had been made among the latter by those interested in
the continuance of the trade. Many of these, unacquainted with the
detail of the subject, like the English members, admitted the dismal
representations, which were then made to them. The desire, of doing good
on the one hand, and the fear of doing injury on the other, perplexed
them; and in this dubious state they absented themselves at the time
mentioned.

The causes of the failure having been found accidental, and capable of a
remedy, it was resolved that an attempt should be made immediately in
the House in a new form. Lord Henry Petty signified his intention of
bringing in a bill for the abolition of the foreign part of the Slave
Trade; but the impeachment of Lord Melville, and other weighty matters
coming on, the notice was not acted upon in that session.




CHAPTER XXXII.

--Continuation from July 1805 to July 1806--Author returns to his duty
in the committee--Travels again round the kingdom--Death of Mr.
Pitt--His character, as it related to the question--Motion for the
abolition of the foreign Slave-Trade--Resolution to take measures for
the total abolition of it--Address to the King to negotiate with
foreign powers for their concurrence in it--Motion to prevent any new
vessel going into the trade--these carried through both Houses of
Parliament.


It was now almost certain, to the inexpressible joy of the committee,
that the cause, with proper vigilance, could be carried in the next
session in the House of Commons. It became them therefore to prepare to
support it. In adverting to measures for this purpose, it occurred to
them, that the House of Lords, if the question should be then carried to
them from the Commons, might insist upon hearing evidence on the general
subject. But, alas, even the body of witnesses, which had been last
collected, was broken by death or dispersion! It was therefore to be
formed again. In this situation it devolved upon me, as I had now
returned to the committee after an absence of nine years, to take
another journey for this purpose.

This journey I performed with extraordinary success. In the course of it
I had also much satisfaction on another account. I found the old friends
of the cause still faithful to it. It was remarkable, however, that the
youth of the rising generation knew but little about the question. For
the last eight or nine years the committee had not circulated any books;
and the debates in the Commons during that time had not furnished them
with the means of an adequate knowledge concerning it. When, however, I
conversed with these, as I travelled along, I discovered a profound
attention to what I said; an earnest desire to know more of the subject;
and a generous warmth in favour of the injured Africans, which I foresaw
could soon be turned into enthusiasm. Hence I perceived that the cause
furnished us with endless sources of rallying: and that the ardour which
we had seen with so much admiration in former years, could be easily
renewed.

I had scarcely finished my journey, when Mr. Pitt died. This event took
place in January 1806, I shall stop therefore to make a few observations
upon his character, as it related to this cause. This I feel myself
bound in justice to do, because his sincerity towards it has been
generally questioned.

The way, in which Mr. Pitt became acquainted with this question, has
already been explained. A few doubts having been removed, when it was
first started, he professed himself a friend to the abolition. The first
proof, which he gave of his friendship to it is known but to few; but it
is, nevertheless, true, that so early as in 1788, he occasioned a
communication to be made to the French government, in which he
recommended an union of the two countries for the promotion of the great
measure. This proposition seemed to be then new and strange to the Court
of France; and the answer was not favourable.

From this time his efforts were reduced within the boundaries of his own
power. As far, however, as he had scope, he exerted them. If we look at
him in his parliamentary capacity, it must be acknowledged by all, that
he took an active, strenuous, and consistent part, and this year after
year, by which he realized his professions. In my own private
communications with him, which were frequent, he never failed to give
proofs of a similar disposition. I had always free access to him. I had
no previous note or letter to write for admission. Whatever papers I
wanted, he ordered. He exhibited also in his conversation with me on
these occasions marks of a more than ordinary interest in the welfare of
the cause. Among the subjects, which were then started, there was one,
which was always near his heart. This was the civilization of Africa. He
looked upon this great work as a debt due to that continent for the many
injuries we had inflicted upon it: and had the abolition succeeded
sooner, as in the infancy of his exertions he had hoped, I know he had a
plan, suited no doubt to the capaciousness of his own mind, for such
establishments in Africa, as he conceived would promote in due time this
important end.

I believe it will be said, notwithstanding what I have advanced, that if
Mr. Pitt had exerted himself as the Minister of this country in behalf
of the abolition, he could have carried it. This brings the matter to an
issue; for unquestionably the charge of insincerity, as it related to
this great question, arose from the mistaken notion, that, as his
measures in Parliament were supported by great majorities, he could do
as he pleased there. But they who hold this opinion, must be informed,
that there were great difficulties, against which he had to struggle on
this subject! The Lord Chancellor Thurlow ran counter to his wishes
almost at the very outset. Lord Liverpool, and Mr. Dundas, did the same.
Thus, to go no further, three of the most powerful members of the
cabinet were in direct opposition to him. The abolition then, amidst
this difference of opinion, could never become a cabinet measure; but if
so, then all his parliamentary efforts in this case wanted their usual
authority, and he could only exert his influence as a private man[A].

[Footnote A: This he did with great effect on one or two occasions. On
the motion of Mr. Cawthorne in 1791, the cause hung as it were by a
thread; and would have failed that day, to my knowledge, but for his
seasonable exertions.]

But a difficulty, still more insuperable, presented itself, in an
occurrence which took place in the year 1791, but which is much too
delicate to be mentioned. The explanation of it, however, would convince
the reader, that all the efforts of Mr. Pitt from that day were rendered
useless, I mean, as to bringing the question, as a Minister of State, to
a favourable issue.

But though Mr. Pitt did not carry this great question, he was yet one of
the greatest supporters of it; He fostered it in its infancy. If, in his
public situation, he had then set his face against it, where would have
been our hope? He upheld it also in its childhood; and though in this
state of its existence it did not gain from his protection all the
strength Which it was expected it would have acquired, he yet kept it
from falling, till his successors, in whose administration a greater
number Of favourable circumstances concurred to give it vigour, brought
it to triumphant maturity.

Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox, having been called to the head of the
executive government on the death of Mr. Pitt, the cause was ushered
into Parliament under new auspices. In a former year His Majesty had
issued a proclamation by which British merchants were forbidden (with
certain defined exceptions) to import slaves into the colonies, which
had been conquered by the British arms in the course of the war. This
circumstance afforded an opportunity of trying the question in the House
of Commons with the greatest hope of success. Accordingly Sir A. Pigott,
the Attorney-General, as an officer of the crown, brought in a bill on
the thirty-first of March 1806, the first object of which was, to give
effect to the proclamation now mentioned. The second was, to prohibit
British subjects from being engaged in importing slaves into the
colonies of any foreign power whether hostile or neutral. And the third
was, to prohibit British subjects and British capital from being
employed in carrying on the Slave Trade in foreign ships; and also to
prevent the outfit of foreign ships from British ports.

Sir A. Pigott, on the introduction of this bill, made an appropriate
speech. The bill was supported by Mr. Fox, Sir William Yonge, Mr. Brook,
and Mr. Bagwell; but opposed by Generals Tarleton and Gascoyne, Mr.
Rose, Sir Robert Peel, and Sir Charles Price. On the third reading, a
division being called for, there appeared for it thirty-five, and
against it only thirteen.

On the 7th of May it was introduced into the Lords. The supporters of it
there were, the Duke of Gloucester, Lord Grenville, the Bishops of
London and St. Asaph, the Earl of Buckinghamshire and the Lords Holland,
Lauderdale, Auckland, Sidmouth, and Ellenborough. The opposers were, the
Dukes of Clarence and Sussex, the Marquis of Sligo, the Earl of
Westmoreland, and the Lords Eldon and Sheffield. At length a division
took place, when there appeared to be in favour of it thirty-three, and
against it eighteen.

During the discussions, to which this bill gave birth, Lord Grenville
and Mr. Fox declared in substance, in their respective Houses of
Parliament, that they felt the question of the Slave Trade to be one,
which involved the dearest interests of humanity, and the most urgent
claims of policy, justice, and religion; and that, should they succeed
in affecting its abolition, they would regard that success as entailing
more true glory on their administration, and more honour and advantage
on their country, than any other measure, in which they could he
engaged. The bill having passed, (the first, which dismembered this
cruel trade,) it was thought proper to follow it up in a prudent manner;
and, as there was not then time in the advanced period of the session to
bring in another for the total extinction of it, to move a resolution,
by which both Houses should record those principles, on which the
propriety of the latter measure was founded. It was judged also
expedient that Mr. Fox, as the Prime Minister in the House of Commons,
should introduce it there.

On the 10th of June Mr. Fox rose. He began by saying that the motion,
with which he should conclude, would tend in its consequences to effect
the total abolition of the Slave Trade; and he confessed that, since he
had sat in that House (a period of between thirty and forty years), if
he had done nothing else, but had only been instrumental in carrying
through this measure, he should think his life well spent; and should
retire quite satisfied, that he had not lived in vain.

In adverting to the principle of the trade, he noticed some strong
expressions of Mr. Burke concerning it. "To deal in human flesh and
blood," said that great man, "or to deal, not in the labour of men, but
in men themselves, was to devour the root, instead of enjoying the fruit
of human diligence."

Mr. Fox then took a view of the opinions of different members of the
House on this great question; and showed that, though many had opposed
the abolition, all but two or three, among whom were the members for
Liverpool, had confessed, that the trade ought to be done away. He then
went over the different resolutions of the House on the subject, and
concluded from thence, that they were bound to support his motion.

He combated the argument, that the abolition would ruin the West Indian
islands. In doing this he paid a handsome compliment to the memory of
Mr. Pitt, whose speech upon this particular point was, he said, the most
powerful and convincing of any he had ever heard. Indeed they, who had
not; heard it, could have no notion of it. It was a speech, of which he
would say with the Roman author, reciting the words of the Athenian
orator, "Quid esset, si ipsum audivissetis!" It was a speech no less
remarkable for splendid eloquence, than for solid sense and convincing
reason; supported by calculations founded on facts, and conclusions
drawn from premises, as correctly as if they had been mathematical
propositions; all tending to prove that, instead of the West Indian
plantations suffering an injury, they would derive a material benefit by
the abolition of the Slave Trade. He then called upon the friends of
this great man to show their respect for his memory by their votes; and
he concluded with moving, "that this House, considering the African
Slave Trade to be contrary to the principles of justice, humanity, and
policy, will, with all practicable expedition, take effectual measures
for the abolition of the said trade, in such a manner, and at such a
period, as may be deemed advisable."

Sir Ralph Milbank rose, and seconded the motion.

General Tarleton rose next. He deprecated the abolition, on account of
the effect which it would have on the trade and revenue of the country.

Mr. Francis said the merchants of Liverpool were at liberty to ask for
compensation; but he, for one, would never grant it for the loss of a
trade, which had been declared to be contrary to humanity and justice.
As an uniform friend to this great cause, he wished Mr. Fox had not
introduced a resolution, but a real bill for the abolition of the Slave
Trade. He believed that both Houses were then disposed to do it away. He
wished the golden opportunity might not be lost.

Lord Castlereagh thought it a proposition, on which no one could
entertain a doubt, that the Slave Trade was a great evil in itself; and
that it was the duty and policy of Parliament to extirpate it; but he
did not think the means offered were adequate to the end proposed. The
abolition, as a political question, was a difficult one. The year 1796
had been once fixed upon by the House, as the period when the trade was
to cease; but, when the time arrived, the resolution was not executed.
This was a proof, either that the House did not wish for the event, or
that they judged it impracticable. It would be impossible, he said, to
get other nations to concur in the measure; and even if they were to
concur, it could not be effected. We might restrain the subjects of the
parent-state from following the trade; but we could not those in our
colonies. A hundred frauds would be committed by these, which we could
not detect. He did not mean by this, that the evil was to go on for
ever. Had a wise plan been proposed at first, it might have been
half-cured by this time. The present resolution would do no good. It was
vague, indefinite, and unintelligible. Such resolutions were only the
slave-merchants' harvests. They would go for more slaves than usual in
the interim. He should have advised a system of duties on fresh
importations of slaves, progressively increasing to a certain extent;
and that the amount of these duties should be given to the planters, as
a bounty to encourage the Negro population upon their estates. Nothing
could be done, unless we went hand in hand with the latter. But he
should deliver himself more fully on this subject, when any thing
specific should be brought forward in the shape of a bill.

Sir S. Romilly, the Solicitor-General, differed from Lord Castlereagh;
for he thought the resolution of Mr. Fox was very simple and
intelligible. If there was a proposition vague and indefinite, it was
that advanced by the noble lord, of a system of duties on fresh
importations, rising progressively, and this under the patronage and
co-operation of the planters. Who could measure the space between the
present time and the abolition of the trade, if that measure were to
depend upon the approbation of the colonies.

The cruelty and injustice of the Slave Trade had been established by
evidence beyond a doubt. It had been shown to be carried on by rapine,
robbery, and murder; by fomenting and encouraging wars; by false
accusations; and imaginary crimes. The unhappy victims were torn away
not only in the time of war, but of profound peace. They were then
carried across the Atlantic, in a manner too horrible to describe; and
afterwards subjected to eternal slavery. In support of the continuance
of such a traffic, he knew of nothing but assertions already disproved,
and arguments already refuted. Since the year 1796, when it was to cease
by a resolution of Parliament, no less than three hundred and sixty
thousand Africans had been torn away from their native land. What an
accumulation was this to our former guilt!

General Gascoyne made two extraordinary assertions: First, that the
trade was defensible on Scriptural ground.--"Both thy bondmen and thy
bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen, that are
round about thee; of them shall you have bondmen and bondmaids. And thou
shalt take them as an heritance for thy children after thee to inherit
them for a possession; they shall be thy bondmen for ever." Secondly,
that the trade had been so advantageous to this country, that it would
have been advisable even to institute a new one, if the old had not
existed.

Mr. Wilberforce replied to General Gascoyne. He then took a view of the
speech of Lord Castlereagh, which he answered point by point. In the
course of his observations he showed that the system of duties
progressively increasing, as proposed by the noble lord, would be one of
the most effectual modes of perpetuating the Slave Trade. He exposed,
also, the false foundation of the hope of any reliance on the
co-operation of the colonists. The House, he said, had, on the motion of
Mr. Ellis, in the year 1797, prayed his Majesty to consult with the
colonial legislatures to take such measures, as might conduce to the
gradual abolition of the African Slave Trade. This address was
transmitted to them by Lord Melville. It was received in some of the
islands with a declaration, "that they possibly might, in some
instances, endeavour to improve the condition of their slaves; but they
should do this, not with any view to the abolition of the Slave Trade;
for they considered that trade as their birth-right, which could not be
taken from them; and that we should deceive ourselves by supposing, that
they would agree to such a measure."

He desired to add to this the declaration of General Prevost in his
public letter from Dominica. Did he not say, when asked what steps had
been taken there in consequence of the resolution of the House in 1797,
"that the act of the legislature, entitled an act for the encouragement,
protection, and better government of slaves, appeared to him to have
been considered, from the day it was passed until this hour, as a
political measure to avert the interference of the mother country in the
management of the slaves."

Sir William Yonge censured the harsh language of Sir Samuel Romilly, who
had applied the terms rapine, robbery, and murder to those, who were
connected with the Slave Trade. He considered the resolution of Mr. Fox
as a prelude to a bill for the abolition of that traffic, and this bill
as a prelude to emancipation, which would not only be dangerous in
itself, but would change the state of property in the islands.

Lord Henry Petty, after having commented on the speeches of Sir Samuel
Romilly and Lord Castlereagh, proceeded to state his own opinion on the
trade; which was, that it was contrary to justice, humanity, and sound
policy, all of which he considered to be inseparable. On its
commencement in Africa the wickedness began. It produced there fraud and
violence, robbery and murder. It gave birth to false accusations, and a
mockery of justice. It was the parent of every crime, which could at
once degrade and afflict the human race. After spreading vice and misery
all over this continent, it doomed its unhappy victims to hardships and
cruelties which were worse than death. The first of these was
conspicuous in their transportation. It was found there, that cruelty
begat cruelty; that the system, wicked in its beginning, was equally so
in its progress; and that it perpetuated its miseries wherever it was
carried on. Nor was it baneful only to the objects, but to the promoters
of it. The loss of British seamen in this traffic was enormous.
One-fifth of all, who were employed in it, perished; that is, they
became the victims of a system, which was founded on fraud, robbery, and
murder; and which procured to the British nation nothing but the
execration of mankind. Nor had we yet done with the evils which attended
it; for it brought in its train the worst of all moral effects, not only
as it respected the poor slaves, when transported to the colonies, but
as it respected those who had concerns with them there. The arbitrary
power, which it conferred, afforded men of bad dispositions full scope
for the exercise of their passions; and it rendered men,
constitutionally of good dispositions, callous to the misery of others.
Thus it depraved the nature of all who were connected with it. These
considerations had made him a friend to the abolition, from the time he
was capable of reasoning upon it. They were considerations, also, which
determined the House, in the year 1782, to adopt a measure of the same
kind as the present. Had anything happened to change the opinion of
members, since? On the contrary, they had now the clearest evidence,
that all the arguments then used against the abolition were fallacious;
being founded, not upon truth, but on assertions devoid of all truth,
and derived from ignorance or prejudice.

Having made these remarks, he proved, by a number of facts, the folly of
the argument, that the Africans laboured under such a total degradation
of mental and moral faculties, that they were made for slavery.

He then entered into the great subject of population. He showed that in
all countries, where there were no unnatural hardships, mankind would
support themselves. He applied this reasoning to the Negro population in
the West Indies; which he maintained could not only be kept up, but
increased, without any further importations from Africa.

He then noticed the observations of Sir William Yonge, on the words of
Sir Samuel Romilly; and desired him to reserve his indignation for
those, who were guilty of acts of rapine, robbery, and murder, instead
of venting it on those, who only did their duty in describing them.
Never were accounts more shocking than those lately sent to government
from the West Indies. Lord Seaforth, and the Attorney-General, could not
refrain, in explaining them, from the use of the words murder and
torture. And did it become members of that House (in order to
accommodate the nerves of the friends of the Slave Trade) to soften down
their expressions, when they were speaking on that subject; and to
desist from calling that murder and torture, for which a Governor, and
the Attorney-General, of one of the islands could find no better name?

After making observations relative to the co-operation of foreign powers
in this great work, he hoped that the House would not suffer itself to
be drawn, either by opposition or by ridicule, to the right or to the
left; but that it would advance straight forward to the accomplishment
of the most magnanimous act of justice, that was ever achieved by any
legislature in the world.

Mr. Rose declared, that on the very first promulgation of this question,
he had proposed to the friends of it the very plan of his noble friend
Lord Castlereagh; namely, a system of progressive duties, and of
bounties for the promotion of the Negro population. This he said to show
that he was friendly to the principle of the measure. He would now
observe, that he did not wholly like the present resolution. It was too
indefinite. He wished, also, that something had been said on the subject
of compensation. He was fearful, also, lest the abolition should lead to
the dangerous change of emancipation. The Negroes, he said, could not be
in a better state, or more faithful to their masters, than they were. In
three attacks made by the enemy on Dominica, where he had a large
property, arms had been put into their hands; and every one of them had
exerted himself faithfully. With respect to the cruel acts in Barbados,
an account of which had been sent to government by Lord Seaforth and the
Attorney-General of Barbados, he had read them; and never had he read
anything on this subject with more horror. He would agree to the
strongest measures for the prevention of such acts in future. He would
even give up the colony, which should refuse to make the wilful murder
of a slave felony. But as to the other, or common, evils complained of,
he thought the remedy should be gradual; and such also as the planters
would concur in. He, would nevertheless not oppose the present
resolution.

Mr. Barham considered compensation but reasonable, where losses were to
accrue from the measure, when it should be put in execution; but he
believed that the amount of it would be much less than was apprehended.
He considered emancipation, though so many fears had been expressed
about it, as forming no objection to the abolition, though he had
estates in the West Indies himself. Such a measure, if it could be
accomplished successfully, would be an honour to the country, and a
blessing to the planters; but preparation must be made for it by
rendering the slaves fit for freedom, and by creating in them an
inclination to free labour. Such a change could only be the work of
time.

Sir John Newport said that the expressions of Sir S. Romilly, which had
given such offence, had been used by others; and would be used with
propriety, while the trade lasted. Some slave-dealers of Liverpool had
lately attempted to prejudice certain merchants of Ireland in their
favour. But none of their representations answered; and it was
remarkable, that the reply made to them was in these words. "We will
have no share in a traffic, consisting in rapine, blood, and murder." He
then took a survey of a system of duties progressively increasing, and
showed that it would be utterly inefficient; and that there was no real
remedy for the different evils complained of, but in the immediate
prohibition of the trade.

Mr. Canning renewed his professions of friendship to the cause. He did
not like the present resolution; yet he would vote for it. He should
have been better pleased with a bill, which would strike at once at the
root of this detestable commerce.

Mr. Manning wished the question to be deferred to the next session. He
hoped compensation would then be brought forward as connected with it.
Nothing, however, effectual could be done without the concurrence of the
planters.

Mr. William Smith noticed, in a striking manner, the different
inconsistencies in the arguments of those, who contended for the
continuance of the trade.

Mr. Windham deprecated not only the Slave Trade, but slavery also. They
were essentially connected with each other. They were both evils, and
ought both of them to be done away. Indeed, if emancipation would follow
the abolition, he should like the latter measure the better. Rapine,
robbery, and murder, were the true characteristics of this traffic. The
same epithets had not indeed been applied to slavery, because this was a
condition, in which some part of the human race had been at every period
of the history of the world. It was, however, a state, which ought not
to be allowed to exist. But, notwithstanding all these confessions, he
should weigh well the consequences of the abolition before he gave it
his support. It would be, on a balance between the evils themselves and
the consequences of removing them, that he should decide for himself on
this question.

Mr. Fox took a view of all the arguments, which had been advanced by the
opponents of the abolition; and having given an appropriate answer to
each, the House divided, when there appeared for the resolution one
hundred and fourteen, and against it but fifteen.

Immediately after this division, Mr. Wilberforce moved an address to His
Majesty, "praying that he would be graciously pleased to direct a
negotiation to be entered into, by which foreign powers should be
invited to co-operate with His Majesty in measures to be adopted for the
abolition of the African Slave Trade."

This address was carried without a division. It was also moved and
carried, that "these resolutions be communicated to the Lords; and that
their concurrence should be desired therein."

On the 24th of June, the Lords met to consider of the resolution and
address. The Earl of Westmoreland proposed that both counsel and
evidence should be heard against them; but his proposition was
overruled.

Lord Grenville then read the resolution of the Commons. This resolution,
he said, stated first, that the Slave Trade was contrary to humanity,
justice, and sound policy. That it was contrary to humanity was obvious;
for humanity might be said to be sympathy for the distress of others, or
a desire to accomplish benevolent ends by good means. But did not the
Slave Trade convey ideas the very reverse of this definition? It
deprived men of all those comforts, in which it pleased the Creator to
make the happiness of his creatures to consist,--of the blessings of
society,--of the charities of the dear relationships of husband, wife,
father, son, and kindred,--of the due discharge of the relative duties
of these--and of that freedom, which in its pure and natural sense was
one of the greatest gifts of God to man.

It was impossible to read the evidence, as it related to this trade,
without acknowledging the inhumanity of it, and our own disgrace. By
what means was it kept up in Africa? By wars instigated, not by the
passions of the natives, but by our avarice. He knew it would be said in
reply to this, that the slaves, who were purchased by us, would be put
to death, if we were not to buy them. But what should we say, if it
should turn out, that we were the causes of those very cruelties, which
we affected to prevent? But, if it were not so, ought the first nation
in the world to condescend to be the executioner of savages?

Another way of keeping up the Slave Trade was by the practice of
man-stealing. The evidence was particularly clear upon this head. This
practice included violence, and often bloodshed. The inhumanity of it
therefore could not be doubted.

The unhappy victims, being thus procured, were conveyed, he said, across
the Atlantic in a manner which justified the charge of inhumanity again.
Indeed the suffering here was so great, that neither the mind could
conceive, nor the tongue describe, it. He had said on a former occasion,
that in their transportation there was a greater portion of misery
condensed within a smaller space, than had ever existed in the known
world. He would repeat his words; for he did not know, how he could
express himself better on the subject. And, after all these horrors,
what was their destiny? It was such, as justified the charge in the
resolution again: for, after having survived the sickness arising from
the passage, they were doomed to interminable slavery.

We had been, he said, so much accustomed to words, descriptive of the
cruelty of this traffic, that we had almost forgotten their meaning. He
wished that some person, educated as an Englishman, with suitable powers
of eloquence, but now for the first time informed of all the horrors of
it, were to address their lordships upon it, and he was sure, that they
would instantly determine that it should cease. But the continuance of
it had rendered cruelty familiar to us; and the recital of its horrors,
had been so frequent, that we could now hear them stated without being
affected as we ought to be. He intreated their lordships, however, to
endeavour to conceive the hard case of the unhappy victims of it; and as
he had led them to the last stage of their miserable existence, which
was in the colonies, to contemplate it there. They were there under the
arbitrary will of a cruel task-master from morning till night. When they
went to rest, would not their dreams be frightful? When they awoke,
would they not awake--


  --only to discover sights of woe,
  Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
  And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
  That comes to all; but torture without end
  Still urges?--


They knew no change, except in the humour of their masters, to whom
their whole destiny was entrusted. We might, perhaps, flatter ourselves
with saying, that they were subject to the will of Englishmen. But
Englishmen were not better than others, when in possession of arbitrary
power. The very fairest exercise of it was a never-failing corrupter of
the heart. But suppose it were allowed that self-interest might operate
some little against cruelty; yet where was the interest of the overseer
or the driver? But he knew it would be said, that the evils complained
of in the colonies had been mitigated. There might be instances of this;
but they could never be cured, while slavery existed. Slavery took away
more than half of the human character. Hence the practice, where it
existed, of rejecting the testimony of the slave: but, if this testimony
was rejected, where could be his redress against his oppressor?

Having shown the inhumanity, he would proceed to the second point in the
resolution, or the injustice of the trade. We had two ideas of justice,
first, as it belonged to society by virtue of a social compact; and,
secondly, as it belonged to men, not as citizens of a community, but as
beings of one common nature. In a state of nature, man had a right to
the fruit of his own labour absolutely to himself; and one of the main
purposes, for which he entered into society, was that he might be better
protected in the possession of his rights. In both cases therefore it
was manifestly unjust, that a man should be made to labour during the
whole of his life, and yet have no benefit from his labour. Hence the
Slave Trade and the colonial slavery were a violation of the very
principle, upon which all law for the protection of property was
founded. Whatever benefit was derived from that trade, to an individual,
it was derived from dishonour and dishonesty. He forced from the unhappy
victim of it that, which the latter did not wish to give him; and he
gave to the same victim that, which he in vain attempted to show was an
equivalent to the thing he took,--it being a thing for which there was
no equivalent; and which, if he had not obtained by force, he would not
have possessed at all. Nor could there be any answer to this reasoning,
unless it could be proved, that it had pleased God to give to the
inhabitants of Britain a property in the liberty and life of the natives
of Africa. But he would go further on this subject. The injustice
complained of was not confined to the bare circumstance of robbing them
of the right to their own labour. It was conspicuous throughout the
system. They, who bought them, became guilty of all the crimes which had
been committed in procuring them, and when they possessed them, of all
the crimes which belonged to their inhuman treatment. The injustice in
the latter case amounted frequently to murder. For what was it but
murder to pursue a practice, which produced untimely death to thousands
of innocent and helpless beings? It was a duty, which their lordships
owed to their Creator, if they hoped for mercy, to do away this
monstrous oppression.

With respect to the impolicy of the trade, (the third point in the
resolution,) he would say at once, that whatever was inhuman and unjust
must be, impolitic. He had, however, no objection to argue the point
upon its own particular merits: and, first, he would observe, that a
great man, Mr. Pitt, now no more, had exerted his vast powers on many
subjects, to the admiration of his hearers; but on none more
successfully than on the subject of the abolition of the Slave Trade. He
proved, after making an allowance for the price paid for the slaves in
the West Indies, for the loss of them in the seasoning, and for the
expense of maintaining them afterwards; and comparing these particulars
with the amount in value of their labour there, that the evils endured
by the victims of the traffic were no gain to the master, in whose
service they took place. Indeed, Mr. Long had laid it down in his
_History of Jamaica_, that the best way to secure the planters from ruin
would be to do that which the resolution recommended. It was notorious,
that when any planter was in distress, and sought to relieve himself by
increasing the labour on his estate, by means of the purchase of new
slaves, the measure invariably tended to his destruction. What then was
the importation of fresh Africans, but a system tending to the general
ruin of the islands?

But it had often been said, that without fresh importations the
population of the slaves could not be supported in the islands. This,
however, was a mistake. It had arisen from reckoning the deaths of the
imported Africans, of whom so many were lost in the seasoning, among the
deaths of the Creole slaves. He did not mean to say that, under the
existing degree of misery, the population would greatly increase; but,
he would maintain, that if the deaths and the births were calculated
upon those, who were either born, or who had been a long time in the
islands, so as to be considered as natives, it would be found that the
population had not only been kept up, but that it had been increased.

If it was true, that the labour of a free-man was cheaper than that of a
slave; and, also, that the labour of a long-imported slave was cheaper
than that of a fresh-imported one; and, again, that the chances of
mortality were much more numerous among the newly-imported slaves in the
West Indies, than among those of old standing there, (propositions,
which he took to be established,) we should see new arguments for the
impolicy of the trade.

It might be stated also, that the importation of vast bodies of men, who
had been robbed of their rights, and grievously irritated on that
account, into our colonies, (where their miserable condition opened new
sources of anger and revenge,) was the importation only of the seeds of
insurrection into them. And here he could not but view with astonishment
the reasoning of the West Indian planters, who held up the example of
St. Domingo as a warning against the abolition of the Slave Trade;
because the continuance of it was one of the great causes of the
insurrections and subsequent miseries in that devoted island. Let us but
encourage importations in the same rapid progression of increase every
year, which took place in St. Domingo, and we should witness the same
effect in our own islands.

To expose the impolicy of the trade further, he would observe, that it
was an allowed axiom, that as the condition of man was improved, he
became more useful. The history of our own country, in very early times,
exhibited instances of internal slavery, and this to a considerable
extent. But we should find that; precisely in proportion as that slavery
was ameliorated, the power and prosperity of the country flourished.
This was exactly applicable to the case in question. There could be no
general amelioration of slavery in the West Indies, while the Slave
Trade lasted: but if we were to abolish it, we should make it the
interest of every owner of slaves to do that, which would improve their
condition, and which, indeed, would lead ultimately to the annihilation
of slavery itself. This great event, however, could not be accomplished
at once; it could only be effected in a course of time.

It would be endless, he said, to go into all the cases, which would
manifest the impolicy of this odious traffic. Inhuman as it was, unjust
as it was, he believed it to be equally impolitic; and if their
Lordships should be of this opinion also, he hoped they would agree to
that part of the resolution, in which these truths were expressed. With
respect to the other part of it, or that they would proceed to abolish
the trade, he observed, that neither the time, nor the manner of doing
it, were specified. Hence, if any of them should differ as to these
particulars, they, might yet vote for the resolution, as they were not
pledged to anything definite in these respects, provided they thought
that the trade should be abolished at some time or other: and he did not
believe that there was any one of them, who would sanction its
continuance for ever.

Lord Hawkesbury said, that he did not mean to discuss the question, on
the ground of justice and humanity, as contradistinguished from sound
policy. If it could fairly be made out that the African Slave Trade was
contrary to justice and humanity, it ought to be abolished. It did not,
however, follow, because a great evil subsisted, that therefore it
should be removed; for it might be comparatively a less evil, than that
which would accompany the attempt to remove it. The noble lord, who had
just spoken, had exemplified this; for though slavery was a great evil
in itself, he was of opinion that it could not be done away, but in a
course of time.

A state of slavery, he said, had existed in Africa from the earliest
time; and, unless other nations would concur with England in the measure
of the abolition, we could not change it for the better.

Slavery had existed also throughout all Europe. It had now happily, in a
great measure, been done away. But how? Not by acts of parliament, for
these might have retarded the event, but by the progress of
civilization, which removed the evil in a gradual and rational manner.

He then went over the same ground of argument, as when a member of the
Commons in 1792. He said that the inhumanity of the abolition was
visible in this, that not one slave less would be taken from Africa; and
that such as were taken from it, would suffer more than they did now, in
the hands of foreigners. He maintained also, as before, that the example
of St. Domingo afforded one of the strongest arguments against the
abolition of the trade. And he concluded by objecting to the resolution,
inasmuch as it could do no good, for the substance of it would be to be
discussed again in a future session.

The Bishop of London, Dr. Porteus, began, by noticing the concession of
the last speaker, namely, that if the trade was contrary to humanity and
justice, it ought to be abolished. He expected, he said, that the noble
lord would have proved that it was not contrary to these great
principles, before he had supported its continuance; but not a word had
he said to show that the basis of the resolution in these respects was
false. It followed then, he thought, that as the noble lord had not
disproved the premises; he was bound to abide by the conclusion.

The ways, he said, in which the Africans were reduced to slavery in
their own country, were by wars,--many of which were excited for the
purpose,--by the breaking up of villages, by kidnapping and by
conviction for a violation of their own laws. Of the latter class many
were accused falsely, and of crimes which did not exist. He then read a
number of extracts from the evidence examined before the privy council,
and from the histories of those, who, having lived in Africa, had thrown
light upon this subject before the question was agitated. All these, he
said, (and similar instances could be multiplied,) proved the truth of
the resolution, that the African Slave Trade was contrary to the
principles of humanity, justice, and sound policy.

It was moreover, he said, contrary to the principles of the religion we
professed. It was not superfluous to say this, when it had been so
frequently asserted that it was sanctioned both by the Jewish and the
Christian dispensations. With respect to the Jews he would observe, that
there was no such thing as perpetual slavery among them. Their slaves
were of two kinds, those of their own nation, and those from the country
round about them. The former were to be set free on the seventh year;
and the rest, of whatever nation, on the fiftieth, or on the year of
Jubilee. With respect to the Christian dispensation, it was a libel to
say that it countenanced such a traffic. It opposed it both in its
spirit and in its principle; nay, it opposed it positively, for it
classed men-stealers, or slave traders, among the murderers of fathers
and mothers, and the most profane criminals upon earth.

The antiquity of slavery in Africa, which the noble lord had glanced at,
afforded, he said, no argument for its continuance. Such a mode of
defence would prevent for ever the removal of any evil; it would justify
the practice of the Chinese, who exposed their infants in the streets to
perish; it would also justify piracy, for that practice existed long
before we knew anything of the African Slave Trade.

He then combatted the argument, that we did a kindness to the Africans
by taking them from their homes; and concluded, by stating to their
lordships, that, if they refused to sanction the resolution, they would
establish these principles, "that though individuals might not rob and
murder, yet that nations might--that though individuals incurred the
penalties of death by such practices, yet that bodies of men might
commit them with impunity for the purposes of lucre;--and that for such
purposes they were not only to be permitted, but encouraged."

The Lord Chancellor (Erskine) confessed that he was not satisfied with
his own conduct on this subject. He acknowledged, with deep contrition,
that, during the time he was a member of the other House, he had not
once attended when this great question was discussed.

In the West Indies he could say, personally, that the slaves were well
treated, where he had an opportunity of seeing them. But no judgment was
to be formed there with respect to the evils complained of; they must be
appreciated as they existed in the trade. Of these he had also been an
eye-witness. It was on this account that he felt contrition for not
having attended the House on this subject, for there were some cruelties
in this traffic which the human imagination could not aggravate. He had
witnessed such scenes over the whole coast of Africa; and he could say,
that if their lordships could only have a sudden glimpse of them, they
would be struck with horror, and would be astonished that they could
ever have been permitted to exist. What then would they say to their
continuance year after year, and from age to age?

From information, which he could not dispute, he was warranted in
saying, that, on this continent, husbands were fraudulently and forcibly
severed from their wives, and parents from their children; and that all
the ties of blood and affection were torn up by the roots. He had
himself seen the unhappy natives put together in heaps in the hold of a
ship, where, with every possible attention to them, their situation must
have been intolerable. He had also heard proved, in courts of justice,
facts still more dreadful than those which he had seen. One of these he
would just mention. The slaves on board a certain ship rose in a mass to
liberate themselves, and having advanced far in the pursuit of their
object, it became necessary to repel them by force. Some of them
yielded, some of them were killed in the scuffle, but many of them
actually jumped into the sea and were drowned, thus preferring death to
the misery of their situation; while others hung to the ship, repenting
of their rashness, and bewailing with frightful noises their horrid
fate. Thus the whole vessel exhibited but one hideous scene of
wretchedness. They who were subdued and secured in chains were seized
with the flux, which carried many of them off. These things were proved
in a trial before a British jury, which had to consider whether this was
a loss which fell within the policy of insurance, the slaves being
regarded as if they had been only a cargo of dead matter. He could
mention other instances, but they were much too shocking to be
described. Surely their lordships could never consider such a traffic to
be consistent with humanity or justice. It was impossible.

That the trade had long subsisted there was no doubt, but this was no
argument for its continuance. Many evils of much longer standing had
been done away, and it was always our duty to attempt to remove them.
Should we not exult in the consideration, that we, the inhabitants of a
small island, at the extremity of the globe, almost at its north pole,
were become the morningstar to enlighten the nations of the earth, and
to conduct them out of the shades of darkness into the realms of light;
thus exhibiting to an astonished and an admiring world the blessings of
a free constitution? Let us then not allow such a glorious opportunity
to escape us.

It had been urged that we should suffer by the abolition of the Slave
Trade; he believed that we should not suffer. He believed that our duty
and our interest were inseparable; and he had no difficulty in saying,
in the face of the world, that his own opinion was, that the interests
of a nation would be best preserved by its adherence to the principles
of humanity, justice, and religion.

The Earl of Westmoreland said, that the African Slave Trade might be
contrary to humanity and justice, and yet it might be politic; at least,
it might be inconsistent with humanity, and yet not be inconsistent with
justice; this was the case when we executed a criminal, or engaged in
war.

It was, however, not contrary to justice, for justice, in this case,
must be measured by the law of nations. But the purchase of slaves was
not contrary to this law. The Slave Trade was a trade with the consent
of the inhabitants of two nations, and procured by no terror, nor by any
act of violence whatever. Slavery had existed from the first ages of the
world, not only in Africa, but throughout the habitable globe, among the
Persians, Greeks, and Romans; and he would compare, with great advantage
to his argument, the wretched condition of the slaves in these ancient
states with that of those in our colonies. Slavery too had been allowed
in a nation which was under the especial direction of Providence; the
Jews were allowed to hold the heathen in bondage. He admitted that what
the learned prelate had said relative to the emancipation of the latter
in the year of jubilee was correct; but he denied that his quotation
relative to the stealers of men referred to the Christian religion. It
was a mere allusion to that which was done contrary to the law of
nations, which was the only measure of justice between states.

With respect to the inhumanity of the trade, he would observe, that if
their lordships, sitting there as legislators, were to set their faces
against everything which appeared to be inhuman, much of the security on
which their lives and property depended might be shaken, if not totally
destroyed. The question was, not whether there was not some evil
attending the Slave Trade, but whether by the measure now before them
they should increase or diminish the quantity of human misery in the
world. He believed, for one, considering the internal state of Africa,
and the impossibility of procuring the concurrence of foreign nations in
the measure, that they would not be able to do any good by the adoption
of it.

As to the impolicy of the trade, the policy of it, on the other hand,
was so great, that he trembled at the consequences of its abolition. The
property connected with this question amounted to a hundred millions.
The annual produce of the islands was eighteen millions, and it yielded
a revenue of four millions annually. How was this immense property and
income to be preserved? Some had said it would be preserved, because the
black population in the islands could be kept up without further
supplies; but the planters denied this assertion, and they were the best
judges of the subject.

He condemned the resolution as a libel upon the wisdom of the law of the
land; and upon the conduct of their ancestors. He condemned it also,
because, if followed up, it would lead to the abolition of the trade,
and the abolition of the trade to the emancipation of the slaves in our
colonies.

The Bishop of St. Asaph (Dr. Horsley) said, that, allowing the slaves in
the West Indies even to be pampered with delicacies, or to be put to
rest on a bed of roses, they could not be happy, for--a slave would be
still a slave. The question, however, was not concerning the alteration
of their condition, but whether we should abolish the practice, by which
they were put in that condition? Whether it was humane, just, and
politic in us so to place them? This question was easily answered; for
he found it difficult to form any one notion of humanity, which did not
include a desire of promoting the happiness of others; and he knew of no
other justice than that, which was founded on the principle of doing to
others, as we should wish they should do to us. And these principles of
humanity and justice were so clear, that he found it difficult to make
them clearer. Perhaps no difficulty was greater than that of arguing a
self-evident proposition, and such he took to be the character of the
proposition, that the Slave Trade was inhuman and unjust.

It had been said, that slavery had existed from the beginning of the
world. He would allow it. But had such a trade as the Slave Trade ever
existed before? Would the noble Earl, who had talked of the slavery of
ancient Rome and Greece, assert, that in the course of his whole
reading, however profound it might have been, he had found anything
resembling such a traffic? Where did it appear in history, that ships
were regularly fitted out to fetch away tens of thousands of persons
annually, against their will, from their native land; that these were
subject to personal indignities and arbitrary punishments during their
transportation; and that a certain proportion of them, owing to
suffocation and other cruel causes, uniformly perished? He averred, that
nothing like the African Slave Trade was ever practised in any nation
upon earth.

If the trade then was repugnant, as he maintained it was, to justice and
humanity, he did not see how, without aiding and abetting injustice and
inhumanity, any man could sanction it: and he thought that the noble
baron (Hawkesbury) was peculiarly bound to support the resolution; for
he had admitted that if it could be shown, that the trade was contrary
to these principles, the question would be at an end. Now this
contrariety had been made apparent, and his lordship had not even
attempted to refute it.

He would say but little on the subject of revealed religion, as it
related to this question, because the reverend prelate, near him, had
spoken so fully upon it. He might observe, however, that at the end of
the sixth year, when the Hebrew slave was emancipated, he was to be
furnished liberally from the flock, the floor, and the wine-press of his
master.

Lord Holland lamented the unfaithfulness of the noble baron (Hawkesbury)
to his own principles, and the inflexible opposition of the noble earl
(Westmoreland), from both which circumstances he despaired for ever of
any assistance from them to this glorious cause. The latter wished to
hear evidence on the subject, for the purpose, doubtless, of delay. He
was sure, that the noble earl did not care what the evidence would say
on either side; for his mind was made up, that the trade ought not to be
abolished.

The noble earl had made a difference between humanity, justice, and
sound policy. God forbid, that we should ever admit such distinctions in
this country! But he had gone further, and said, that a thing might be
inhuman, and yet not unjust; and he put the case of the execution of a
criminal in support of it. Did he not by this position confound all
notions of right and wrong in human institutions? When a criminal was
justly executed, was not the execution justice to him who suffered, and
humanity to the body of the people at large?

The noble earl had said also, that we should do no good by the
abolition, because other nations would not concur in it. He did not know
what other nations would do; but this he knew, that we ourselves ought
not to be unjust because they should refuse to be honest. It was,
however, self-obvious, that, if we admitted no more slaves into our
colonies, the evil would be considerably diminished.

Another of his arguments did not appear to be more solid; for surely the
Slave Trade ought not to be continued, merely because the effect of the
abolition might ultimately be that of the emancipation of the slaves; an
event, which would be highly desirable in its due time.

The noble lord had also said, that the planters were against the
abolition, and that without their consent it could never be
accomplished. He differed from him in both these points: for, first, he
was a considerable planter himself, and yet he was a friend to the
measure: secondly, by cutting off all further supplies, the planters
would be obliged to pay more attention to the treatment of their slaves,
and this treatment would render the trade unnecessary.

The noble earl had asserted also, that the population in the West Indies
could not be kept up without further importations; and this was the
opinion of the planters, who were the best judges of the subject. As a
planter he differed from his lordship again. If, indeed, all the waste
lands were to be brought into cultivation, the present population would
be insufficient. But the government had already determined, that the
trade should not be continued for such a purpose. We were no longer to
continue pirates, or executioners for every petty tyrant in Africa, in
order that every holder of a bit of land in our islands might cultivate
the whole of his allotment; a work, which might require centuries.
Making this exception, he would maintain, that no further importations
were necessary. Few or no slaves had been imported into Antigua for many
years; and he believed, that even some had been exported from it. As to
Jamaica, although in one year fifteen thousand died in consequence of
hurricane and famine, the excess of deaths over the births during the
twenty years preceding 1788 was only one per cent. Deducting, however,
the mortality of the newly imported slaves, and making the calculation
upon the Negroes born in the island or upon those who had been long
there, he believed the births and the deaths would be found equal. He
had a right therefore to argue that the Negroes, with better treatment
(which the abolition would secure), would not only maintain but increase
their population, without any aid from Africa. He would add, that the
newly imported Africans brought with them not only disorders which
ravaged the plantations, but danger from the probability of
insurrections. He wished most heartily for the total abolition of the
trade. He was convinced, that it was both inhuman, unjust, and
impolitic. This had always been his opinion as an individual since he
was capable of forming one. It was his opinion then as a legislator. It
was his opinion as a colonial proprietor; and it was his opinion as an
Englishman, wishing for the prosperity of the British empire.

The Earl of Suffolk contended, that the population of the slaves in the
islands could be kept up by good treatment, so as to be sufficient for
their cultivation. He entered into a detail of calculations from the
year 1772 downwards in support of this statement. He believed all the
miseries of St. Domingo arose from the vast importation of Africans. He
had such a deep sense of the inhumanity and injustice of the Slave
Trade, that, if ever he wished any action of his life to be recorded, it
would be that of the vote he should then give in support of the
resolution.

Lord Sidmouth said, that he agreed to the substance of the resolution,
but yet he could not support it. Could he be convinced that the trade
would be injurious to the cause of humanity and justice, the question
with him would be decided; for policy could not be opposed to humanity
and justice. He had been of opinion for the last twenty years, that the
interests of the country and those of numerous individuals were so
deeply blended with this traffic, that we should be very cautious how we
proceeded. With respect to the cultivation of new lands, he would not
allow a single Negro to be imported for such a purpose; but he must have
a regard to the old plantations. When he found a sufficient increase in
the Black population to continue the cultivation already established
there, then, but not till then, he would agree to an abolition of the
trade.

Earl Stanhope said he would not detain their lordships long. He could
not, however, help expressing his astonishment at what had fallen from
the last speaker; for he had evidently confessed that the Slave Trade
was inhuman and unjust, and then he had insinuated, that it was neither
inhuman nor unjust to continue it. A more paradoxical or whimsical
opinion, he believed, was never entertained, or more whimsically
expressed in that house. The noble viscount had talked of the interests
of the planters; but this was but a part of the subject; for surely the
people of Africa were not to be forgotten. He did not understand the
practice of complimenting the planters with the lives of men, women, and
helpless children by thousands, for the sake of their pecuniary
advantage; and they, who adopted it, whatever they might think of the
consistency of their own conduct, offered an insult to the sacred names
of humanity and justice.

The noble Earl (Westmoreland) had asked what would be the practical
effect of the abolition of the Slave Trade. He would inform him. It
would do away the infamous practices which took place in Africa; it
would put an end to the horrors of the passage; it would save many
thousands of our fellow-creatures from the miseries of eternal slavery;
it would oblige the planters to treat those better, who were already in
that unnatural state; it would increase the population of our islands;
it would give a death-blow to the diabolical calculations, whether it
was cheaper to work the Negroes to death and recruit the gangs by fresh
importations, or to work them moderately and to treat them kindly. He
knew of no event, which would be attended with so many blessings.

There was but one other matter, which he would notice. The noble baron
(Hawkesbury) had asserted, that all the horrors of St. Domingo were the
consequence of the speculative opinions which were current in a
neighbouring kingdom on the subject at liberty. They had, he said, no
such origin. They were owing to two causes; first, to the vast number of
Negroes recently imported into that island; and, secondly, to a
scandalous breach of faith by the French legislature. This legislature
held out the idea not only of the abolition of the Slave Trade, but also
of all slavery; but it broke its word. It held forth the rights of man
to the whole human race, and then, in practice, it most infamously
abandoned every article in these rights; so that it became the scorn of
all the enlightened and virtuous part of mankind. These were the great
causes of the miseries of St. Domingo, and not the speculative opinions
of France.

Earl Grosvenor could not but express the joy he felt at the hope, after
all his disappointments, that this wicked trade would be done away. He
hoped that his Majesty's ministers were in earnest, and that they would,
early in the next session, take this great question up with a
determination to go through with it; so that another year should not
pass before we extended the justice and humanity of the country to the
helpless and unhappy inhabitants of Africa.

Earl Fitzwilliam said he was fearful lest the calamities of St. Domingo
should be brought home to our own islands. We ought not, he thought, too
hastily to adopt the resolution on that account. He should therefore
support the previous question.

Lord Ellenborough said, he was sorry to differ from his noble friend
(Lord Sidmouth), and yet he could not help saying that if after twenty
years, during which this question had been discussed by both Houses of
Parliament, their lordships' judgments were not ripe for its
determination, he could not look with any confidence to a time when they
would be ready to decide it.

The question then before them was short and plain. It was, whether the
African Slave Trade was inhuman, unjust, and impolitic. If the premises
were true, we could not too speedily bring it to a conclusion.

The subject had been frequently brought before him in a way which had
enabled him to become acquainted with it; and he was the more anxious on
that account to deliver his sentiments upon it as a peer of Parliament,
without reference to anything he had been called upon to do in the
discharge of his professional duty. When he looked at the mode in which
this traffic commenced, by the spoliation of the rights of a whole
quarter of the globe; by the misery of whole nations of helpless
Africans; by tearing them from their homes, their families, and their
friends; when he saw the unhappy victims carried away by force; thrust
into a dungeon in the hold of a ship, in which the interval of their
passage from their native to a foreign land was filled up with misery,
under every degree of debasement, and in chains; and when he saw them
afterwards consigned to an eternal slavery, he could not but contemplate
the whole system with horror. It was inhuman in its beginning, inhuman
in its progress, and inhuman to the very end.

Nor was it more inhuman than it was unjust. The noble earl,
(Westmoreland,) in adverting to this part of the question had considered
it as a question of justice between two nations, but it was a moral
question. Although the natives of Africa might be taken by persons
authorized by their own laws to take and dispose of them, and the
practice, therefore, might be said to be legal as it respected them, yet
no man could doubt, whatever ordinances they might have to sanction it,
that it was radically, essentially, and in principle, unjust; and
therefore there could be no excuse for us in continuing it. On the
general principle of natural justice, which was paramount to all
ordinances of men, it was quite impossible to defend this traffic; and
he agreed with the noble baron (Hawkesbury) that, having decided that it
was inhuman and unjust, we should not inquire whether it was impolitic.
Indeed, the inquiry itself would be impious; for it was the common
ordinance of God, that that which was inhuman and unjust, should never
be for the good of man. Its impolicy, therefore, was included in its
injustice and its inhumanity. And he had no doubt, when the importations
were stopped, that the planters would introduce a change of system among
their slaves which would increase their population, so as to render any
further supplies from Africa unnecessary. It had been proved, indeed,
that the Negro population in some of the islands was already in this
desirable state. Many other happy effects would follow. As to the losses
which would arise from the abolition of the Slave Trade, they, who were
interested in the continuance of it, had greatly over-rated them. When
pleading formerly in his professional capacity for the merchants of
Liverpool at their lordships' bar, he had often delivered statements,
which he had received from them, and which he afterwards discovered to
be grossly incorrect. He could say from his own knowledge, that the
assertion of the noble earl (Westmoreland), that property to the amount
of a hundred millions would be endangered, was wild and fanciful. He
would not however deny, that some loss might accompany the abolition;
but there could be no difficulty in providing for it. Such a
consideration ought not to be allowed to impede their progress in
getting rid of an horrible injustice.

But it had been said that we should do but little in the cause of
humanity by abolishing the Slave Trade; because other nations would
continue it. He did not believe they would. He knew that America was
about to give it up. He believed the states of Europe would give it up.
But, supposing that they were all to continue it, would not our honour
be the greater? Would not our virtue be the more signal? for then


  --Faithful we
  Among the faithless found:


to which he would add, that undoubtedly we should diminish the evil, as
far as the number of miserable beings was concerned, which was
accustomed to be transported to our own colonies.

Earl Spencer agreed with the noble viscount (Sidmouth), that the
amelioration of the condition of the slaves was an object, which might
be effected in the West Indies; but he was certain, that the most
effectual way of improving it would be by the total and immediate
abolition of the Slave Trade; and for that reason he would support the
resolution. Had the resolution held out emancipation to them, it would
not have had his assent; for it would have ill become the character of
this country, if it had been once promised, to have withheld it from
them. It was to such deception that the horrors of St. Domingo were to
be attributed. He would not enter into the discussion of the general
subject at present. He was convinced that the trade was what the
resolution stated it to be, inhuman, unjust, and impolitic. He wished
therefore, most earnestly indeed, for its abolition. As to the mode of
effecting it, it should be such as would be attended with the least
inconvenience to all parties. At the same time he would not allow small
inconveniences to stand in the way of the great claims of humanity,
justice, and religion.

The question was then put on the resolution, and carried by a majority
of forty-one to twenty. The same address also to His Majesty, which had
been agreed upon by the Commons, was directly afterwards moved. This
also was carried, but without the necessity of a division.

The resolution and the motion having passed both Houses, one other
parliamentary measure was yet necessary to complete the proceedings of
this session. It was now almost universally believed, in consequence of
what had already taken place there, that the Slave Trade had received
its death-wound; and that it would not long survive it. It was supposed,
therefore, that the slave-merchants would, in the interim, fit out not
only all the vessels they had, but even buy others, to make what might
be called their last harvest. Hence, extraordinary scenes of rapine and
murder would be occasioned in Africa. To prevent these, a new bill was
necessary. This was accordingly introduced into the Commons. It enacted,
but with one exception, that from and after the first of August, 1806,
no vessel should clear out for the Slave Trade, unless it should have
been previously employed by the same owner or owners in the said trade,
or should be proved to have been contracted for previously to the 10th
of June, 1806, for the purpose of being employed in that trade. It may
now be sufficient to say that this bill also passed both Houses of
Parliament; soon after which the session ended.




CHAPTER XXXIII.

--Continuation from July 1806, to March 1807.--Death of Mr. Fox.--Bill
for the total abolition of the Slave Trade carried in the House of
Lords; sent from thence to the Commons; amended and passed there;
carried back, and passed with its amendments by the Lords; receives
the royal assent.--Reflections on this great event.


It was impossible for the committee to look back to the proceedings of
the last session, as they related to the great question under their
care, without feeling a profusion of joy, as well as of gratitude to
those, by whose virtuous endeavours they had taken place. But, alas, how
few of our earthly pleasures come to us without alloy! a melancholy
event succeeded. We had the painful intelligence, in the month of
October 1806, that one of the oldest and warmest friends of the cause
was then numbered with the dead.

Of the character of Mr. Fox, as it related to this cause, I am bound to
take notice. And, first, I may observe, that he professed an attachment
to it almost as soon as it was ushered into the world. Early in the year
1788, when he was waited upon by a deputation of the committee, his
language was, as has appeared in the first volume, "that he would
support their object to its fullest extent, being convinced that there
was no remedy for the evil but in the total abolition of the trade."

His subsequent conduct evinced the sincerity of his promises. He was
constant in his attendance in Parliament whenever the question was
brought forward; and he never failed to exert his powerful eloquence in
its favour. The countenance, indeed, which he gave it, was of the
greatest importance to its welfare; for most of his parliamentary
friends, who followed his general political sentiments, patronized it
also. By the aid of these, joined to that of the private friends of Mr.
Pitt, and of other members, who espoused it without reference to party,
it was always so upheld, that after the year 1791 no one of the defeats
which it sustained, was disgraceful. The majority on the side of those
interested in the continuance of the trade was always so trifling, that
the abolitionists were preserved a formidable body, and their cause
respectable.

I never heard whether Mr. Fox, when he came into power, made any
stipulations with His Majesty on the subject of the Slave Trade: but
this I know, that he determined upon the abolition of it, if it were
practicable, as the highest glory of his administration, and as the
greatest earthly blessing which it was in the power of the Government to
bestow; and that he took considerable pains to convince some of his
colleagues in the cabinet of the propriety of the measure.

When the resolution, which produced the debates in parliament, as
detailed in the last chapter, was under contemplation, it was thought
expedient that Mr. Fox, as the minister of state in the House of
Commons, should introduce it himself. When applied to for this purpose
he cheerfully undertook the office, thus acting in consistency with his
public declaration in the year 1791, "that in whatever situation he
might ever be, he would use his warmest efforts for the promotion of
this righteous cause."

Before the next measure, or the bill to prevent the sailing of any new
vessel in the trade after the 1st of August, was publicly disclosed, it
was suggested to him, that the session was nearly over; that he might
possibly weary both Houses by another motion on the subject; and that,
if he were to lose it, or to experience a diminution of his majorities
in either, he might injure the cause, which was then in the road to
triumph. To this objection he replied, "that he believed both Houses
were disposed to get rid of the trade; that his own life was precarious;
that if he omitted to serve the injured Africans on this occasion, he
might have no other opportunity of doing it; and that he dared not,
under these circumstances, neglect so great a duty."

This prediction relative to himself became unfortunately verified; for
his constitution, after this, began to decline, till at length his
mortal destiny, in the eyes of his medical attendants, was sealed. But
even then, when removed by pain and sickness from the discussion of
political subjects, he never forgot this cause. In his own sufferings he
was not unmindful of those of the injured Africans. "Two things," said
he, on his death-bed, "I wish earnestly to see accomplished,--peace with
Europe--and the abolition of the Slave Trade." But knowing well, that we
could much better protect ourselves against our own external enemies,
than this helpless people against their oppressors, he added, "but of
the two I wish the latter." These sentiments he occasionally repeated,
so that the subject was frequently in his thoughts in his last illness.
Nay, "the very hope of the abolition (to use the expression of Lord
Howick in the House of Commons) quivered on his lips in the last hour of
it." Nor is it improbable, if earthly scenes ever rise to view at that
awful crisis, and are perceptible, that it might have occupied his mind
in the last moment of his existence. Then indeed would joy ineffable,
from a conviction of having prepared the way for rescuing millions of
human beings from misery, have attended the spirit on its departure from
the body; and then also would this spirit, most of all purified when in
the contemplation of peace, good-will, and charity upon earth, be in the
fittest state, on gliding from its earthly cavern, to commix with the
endless ocean of benevolence and love.

At length the session of 1807 commenced. It was judged advisable by Lord
Grenville, that the expected motion on this subject should, contrary to
the practice hitherto adopted, be agitated first in the Lords.
Accordingly, on the 2nd of January he presented a bill, called an act
for the abolition of the Slave Trade; but he then proposed only to print
it, and to let it lie on the table, that it might be maturely
considered, before it should be discussed.

On the 4th, no less than four counsel were heard against the bill.

On the 5th the debate commenced. But of this I shall give no detailed
account; nor, indeed, of any of those which followed it. The truth is,
that the subject has been exhausted. They, who spoke in favour of the
abolition, said very little that was new concerning it. They, who spoke
against it, brought forward, as usual, nothing but negative assertions
and fanciful conjectures. To give therefore what was said by both
parties at these times, would be but useless repetition[A]. To give, on
the other hand, that which was said on one side only would appear
partial. Hence I shall offer to the reader little more than a narrative
of facts upon these occasions.

[Footnote A: The different debates in both Houses on this occasion would
occupy the half of another volume. This is another circumstance, which
reconciles me to the omission. But that, which reconciles me the most
is, that they will be soon published. In these debates justice has been
done to every individual concerned in them.]

Lord Grenville opened the debate by a very luminous speech. He was
supported by the Duke of Gloucester, the Bishop of Durham (Dr.
Barrington), the Earls Moira, Selkirk, and Roslyn, and the Lords
Holland, King, and Hood. The opponents of the bill were the Duke of
Clarence, the Earls of Westmoreland and St. Vincent, and the Lords
Sidmouth, Eldon, and Hawkesbury.

The question being called for at four o'clock in the morning, it
appeared that the personal votes and proxies in favour of Lord
Grenville's motion amounted to one hundred, and those against it to
thirty-six. Thus passed the first bill in England, which decreed, that
the African Slave Trade should cease. And here I cannot omit paying to
his Highness the Duke of Gloucester the tribute of respect, which is due
to him, for having opposed the example of his royal relations on this
subject in behalf of an helpless and oppressed people. The sentiments
too, which he delivered on this occasion, ought not to be forgotten.
"This trade," said he, "is contrary to the principles of the British
constitution. It is, besides, a cruel and criminal traffic in the blood
of my fellow-creatures. It is a foul stain on the national character. It
is an offence to the Almighty. On every ground therefore on which a
decision can be made; on the ground of policy, of liberty, of humanity,
of justice, but, above all, on the ground of religion, I shall vote for
its immediate extinction."

On the 10th of February, the bill was carried to the House of Commons.
On the 20th counsel were heard against it; after which, by agreement,
the second reading of it took place. On the 23rd the question being put
for the commitment of it, Lord Viscount Howick (now Earl Grey) began an
eloquent speech. After he had proceeded in it some way, he begged leave
to enter his protest against certain principles of relative justice,
which had been laid down. "The merchants and planters," said he, "have
an undoubted right, in common with other subjects of the realm, to
demand justice at our hands. But that, which they denominate justice,
does not correspond with the legitimate character of that virtue: for
they call upon us to violate the rights of others, and to transgress our
own moral duties. That, which they distinguish as justice, involves in
itself the greatest injury to others. It is not, in fact, justice, which
they demand, but--favour--and favour to themselves at the expense of the
most grievous oppression of their fellow-creatures."

He then argued the question on the ground of policy. He showed, by a
number of official documents, how little this trade had contributed to
the wealth of the nation, being but a fifty-fourth part of its export
trade; and he contended that as four-sevenths of it had been cut off by
His Majesty's proclamation, and the passing of the foreign slave bill in
a former year, no detriment of any consequence would arise from the
present measure.

He entered into an account of the loss of seamen, and of the causes of
the mortality, in this trade.

He went largely into the subject of negro-population, in the islands
from official documents, giving an account of it up to the latest date.
He pointed out the former causes of its diminution, and stated how the
remedies for these would follow.

He showed how, even if the quantity of colonial produce should be
diminished for a time, this disadvantage would, in a variety of
instances, be more than counterbalanced by advantages, which would not
only be great in themselves, but permanent.

He then entered into a refutation of the various objections which had
been made to the abolition, in an eloquent and perspicuous manner; and
concluded by appealing to the great authorities of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox
in behalf of the proposed measure. "These precious ornaments," he said,
"of their age and country, had examined the subject with all the force
of their capacious minds. On this question they had dismissed all
animosity--all difference of opinion--and had proceeded in union; and he
believed, that the best tribute of respect we could show, or the most
splendid monument we could raise, to their memories, would be by the
adoption of the glorious measure of the abolition of the Slave Trade."

Lord Howick was supported by Mr. Roscoe, who was then one of the members
for Liverpool; by Mr. Lushington, Mr. Fawkes, Lord Mahon, Lord Milton,
Sir John Doyle, Sir Samuel Romilly, Mr. Wilberforce, and Earl Percy, the
latter of whom wished that a clause might be put into the bill, by which
all the children of slaves, born after January 1810, should be made
free. General Gascoyne and Mr. Hibbert opposed the bill. Mr. Manning
hoped that compensation would be made to the planters in case of loss.
Mr. Bathurst and Mr. Hiley Addington preferred a plan for gradual
abolition to the present mode. These having spoken, it appeared on a
division, that there were for the question two hundred and eighty-three,
and against it only sixteen.

Of this majority I cannot but remark, that it was probably the largest
that was ever announced on any occasion, where the House was called upon
to divide. I must observe, also, that there was such an enthusiasm among
the members at this time, that there appeared to be the same kind and
degree of feeling, as manifested itself within the same walls in the
year 1788, when the question was first started. This enthusiasm, too,
which was of a moral nature, was so powerful, that it seemed even to
extend to a conversion of the heart; for several of the old opponents of
this righteous cause went away, unable to vote against it; while others
of them staid in their places, and voted in its favour.

On the 27th of February, Lord Howick moved, that the House resolve
itself into a committee on the bill for the abolition of the Slave
Trade. Sir C. Pole, Messrs. Hughan, Brown, Bathurst, Windham, and Fuller
opposed the motion; and Sir R. Milbank, and Messrs. Wynne, Barham,
Courtenay, Montague, Jacob, Whitbread, and Herbert (of Kerry), supported
it. At length the committee was allowed to sit _pro formâ_, and Mr.
Hobhouse was put into the chair. The bill then went through it, and, the
House being resumed, the report was received and read.

On the 6th of March, when the committee sat again, Sir C. Pole moved,
that the year 1812 be substituted for the year 1807, as the time when
the trade should be abolished. This amendment produced a long debate,
which was carried on by Sir C. Pole, Messrs. Fuller, Hiley Addington,
Rose, Gascoyne, and Bathurst, on one side; and by Mr. Ward, Sir P.
Francis; General Vyse, Sir T. Turton, Mr. Whitbread, Lord Henry Petty,
Messrs. Canning, Stanhope, Perceval, and Wilberforce on the other. At
length, on a division, there appeared to be one hundred and twenty-five
against the amendment, and for it only seventeen. The chairman then read
the bill, and it was agreed that he should report it with the amendments
on Monday. The bill enacted, that no vessel should clear out for slaves
from any port within the British dominions after the 1st of May, 1807,
and that no slave should be landed in the colonies after the 1st of
March, 1808.

On the 16th of March, on the motion of Lord Henry Petty, the question
was put, that the bill be read a third time. Mr. Hibbert, Captain
Herbert, Mr. T.W. Plomer, Mr. Windham, and Lord Castlereagh, spoke
against the motion. Sir P. Francis, Mr. Lyttleton, Mr. H. Thornton, and
Messrs. Barham, Sheridan, and Wilberforce supported it. After this the
bill was passed without a division[A].

[Footnote A: S. Lushington, Esq., M.P. for Yarmouth, gave his voluntary
attendance and assistance to the committee, during all these motions,
and J. Bowdler, Esq., was elected a member of it.]

On Wednesday, the 18th, Lord Howick, accompanied by Mr. Wilberforce and
others, carried the bill to the Lords. Lord Grenville, on receiving it,
moved that it should be printed, and that, if this process could be
finished by Monday, it should be taken into consideration on that day.
The reason of this extraordinary haste was, that His Majesty, displeased
with the introduction of the Roman Catholic officers' bill into the
Commons, had signified his intention to the members of the existing
administration, that they were to be displaced.

This uneasiness, which, a few days before, had sprung up among the
friends of the abolition, on the report that this event was probable,
began now to show itself throughout the kingdom. Letters were written
from various parts, manifesting the greatest fear and anxiety on account
of the state of the bill, and desiring answers of consolation. Nor was
this state of the mind otherwise than what might have been expected upon
such an occasion; for the bill was yet to be printed. Being an amended
one, it was to be argued again in the Lords. It was then to receive the
royal assent. All these operations implied time; and it was reported
that the new ministry[A] was formed; among whom were several who had
shown a hostile disposition to the cause.

[Footnote A: The only circumstance, which afforded comfort at this time,
was, that the Hon. Spencer Perceval and Mr. Canning were included in it,
who were warm patrons of this great measure.]

On Monday, the 23rd, the House of Lords met. Such extraordinary
diligence had been used in printing the bill, that it was then ready.
Lord Grenville immediately brought it forward. The Earl of Westmoreland
and the Marquis of Sligo opposed it. The Duke of Norfolk and the Bishop
of Llandaff (Dr. Watson) supported it. The latter said, that this great
act of justice would be recorded in heaven. The amendments were
severally adopted without a division. But here an omission of three
words was discovered, namely, "country, territory, or place," which, if
not rectified, might defeat the purposes of the bill. An amendment was
immediately proposed and carried. Thus the bill received the last
sanction of the Peers. Lord Grenville then congratulated the House on
the completion, on its part, of the most glorious measure that had ever
been adopted by any legislative body in the world.

The amendment now mentioned occasioned the bill to be sent back to the
Commons. On the 24th, on the motion of Lord Howick, it was immediately
taken into consideration there, and agreed to; and it was carried back
to the Lords, as approved of, on the same day.

But though the bill had now passed both houses, there was an awful fear
throughout the kingdom lest it should not receive the royal assent
before the ministry was dissolved. This event took place the next day;
for on Wednesday, the 25th, at half past eleven in the morning, His
Majesty's message was delivered to the different members of it, that
they were then to wait upon him to deliver up the seals of their
offices. It then appeared that a commission for the royal assent to this
bill, among others, had been obtained. This commission was instantly
opened by the Lord Chancellor (Erskine), who was accompanied by the
Lords Holland and Auckland; and as the clock struck twelve, just when
the sun was in its meridian splendour to witness this august act, this
establishment of a Magna Charta for Africa in Britain, and to sanction
it by its most vivid and glorious beams, it was completed. The ceremony
being over, the seals of the respective offices were delivered up; so
that the execution of this commission was the last act of the
administration of Lord Grenville; an administration, which, on account
of its virtuous exertions in behalf of the oppressed African race, will
pass to posterity, living through successive generations in the love and
gratitude of the most virtuous of mankind.

Thus ended one of the most glorious contests, after a continuance for
twenty years, of any ever carried on in any age or country. A contest,
not of brutal violence, but of reason. A contest between those who felt
deeply for the happiness and the honour of their fellow-creatures, and
those, who, through vicious custom and the impulse of avarice, had
trampled under foot the sacred rights of their nature, and had even
attempted to efface all title to the divine image from their minds.

Of the immense advantages of this contest I know not how to speak;
indeed, the very agitation of the question which it involved has been
highly important. Never was the heart of man so expanded; never were its
generous sympathies so generally and so perseveringly excited. These
sympathies, thus called into existence, have been useful in the
preservation of a national virtue. For anything we know, they may have
contributed greatly to form a counteracting balance against the
malignant spirit, generated by our almost incessant wars during this
period, so as to have preserved us from barbarism.

It has been useful also in the discrimination of moral character; in
private life it has enabled us to distinguish the virtuous from the more
vicious part of the community[A]. It has shown the general
philanthropist; it has unmasked the vicious in spite of his pretension
to virtue. It has afforded us the same knowledge in public life; it has
separated the moral statesman from the wicked politician. It has shown
us who, in the legislative and executive offices of our country, are fit
to save, and who to destroy, a nation.

[Footnote A: I have had occasion to know many thousand persons in the
course of my travels on this subject, and I can truly say, that the part
which these took on this great question was always a true criterion of
their moral character. Some indeed opposed the abolition, who seemed to
be so respectable, that it was difficult to account for their conduct;
but it invariably turned out, in the course of time, either that they
had been influenced by interested motives, or that they were not men of
steady moral principle. In the year 1792, when the national enthusiasm
was so great, the good were as distinguishable from the bad, according
to their disposition to this great cause, as if the divine Being had
marked them, or, as a friend of mine the other day observed, as we may
suppose the sheep to be from the goats on the day of judgment.]

It has furnished us also with important lessons. It has proved what a
creature man is! how devoted he is to his own interest! to what a length
of atrocity he can go, unless fortified by religious principle! But as
if this part of the prospect would be too afflicting, it has proved to
us, on the other hand, what a glorious instrument he may become in the
hands of his Maker; and that a little virtue, when properly leavened, is
made capable of counteracting the effects of a mass of vice!

With respect to the end obtained by this contest, or the great measure
of the abolition of the Slave Trade as it has now passed, I know not how
to appreciate its importance; to our own country, indeed, it is
invaluable. We have lived, in consequence of it, to see the day, when it
has been recorded as a principle in our legislation, that commerce
itself shall have its moral boundaries. We have lived to see the day
when we are likely to be delivered from the contagion of the most
barbarous opinions. They who supported this wicked traffic, virtually
denied that man was a moral being; they substituted the law of force for
the law of reason: but the great act now under our consideration has
banished the impious doctrine, and restored the rational creature to his
moral rights. Nor is it a matter of less pleasing consideration, that,
at this awful crisis, when the constitutions of kingdoms are on the
point of dissolution, the stain of the blood of Africa is no longer upon
us, or that we have been freed (alas, if it be not too late!) from a
load of guilt, which has long hung like a mill-stone about our necks,
ready to sink us to perdition.

In tracing the measure still further, or as it will affect other lands,
we become only the more sensible of its importance; for can we pass over
to Africa; can we pass over to the numerous islands, the receptacles of
miserable beings from thence; and can we call to mind the scenes of
misery which have been passing in each of these regions of the earth,
without acknowledging that one of the greatest sources of suffering to
the human race has, as far as our own power extends, been done way? Can
we pass over to these regions again, and contemplate the multitude of
crimes which the agency necessary for keeping up the barbarous system
produced, without acknowledging that a source of the most monstrous and
extensive wickedness has been removed also? But here, indeed, it becomes
us peculiarly to rejoice; for though nature shrinks from pain, and
compassion is engendered in us when we see it become the portion of
others, yet what is physical suffering compared with moral guilt? The
misery of the oppressed is, in the first place, not contagious like the
crime of the oppressor; nor is the mischief which it generates either so
frightful or so pernicious. The body, though under affliction, may
retain its shape; and, if it even perish, what is the loss of it but of
worthless dust? But when the moral springs of the mind are poisoned, we
lose the most excellent part of the constitution of our nature, and the
divine image is no longer perceptible in us; nor are the two evils of
similar duration. By a decree of Providence, for which we cannot be too
thankful, we are made mortal. Hence the torments of the oppressor are
but temporary; whereas the immortal part of us, when once corrupted, may
carry its pollutions with it into another world.

But, independently of the quantity of physical suffering, and the
innumerable avenues to vice, in more than a quarter of the globe, which
this great measure will cut off, there are yet blessings, which we have
reason to consider as likely to flow from it. Among these we cannot
overlook the great probability that Africa, now freed from the vicious
and barbarous effects of this traffic, may be in a better state to
comprehend and receive the sublime truths of the Christian religion. Nor
can we overlook the probability that, a new system of treatment
necessarily springing up in our islands, the same bright sun of
consolation may visit her children there. But here a new hope rises to
our view. Who knows but that emancipation, like a beautiful plant, may,
in its due season, rise out of the ashes of the abolition of the Slave
Trade, and that, when its own intrinsic value shall be known, the seed
of it may be planted in other lands? And looking at the subject in this
point of view, we cannot but be struck with the wonderful concurrence of
events as previously necessary for this purpose, namely, that two
nations, England and America, the mother and the child, should, in the
same month of the same year, have abolished this impious traffic;
nations, which at this moment have more than a million of subjects
within their jurisdiction to partake of the blessing; and one of which,
on account of her local situation and increasing power, is likely in
time to give, if not law, at least a tone to the manners and customs of
the great continent on which she is situated.

Reader! Thou art now acquainted with the history of this contest!
Rejoice in the manner of its termination! And, if thou feelest grateful
for the event, retire within thy closet, and pour out thy thanksgivings
to the Almighty for this his unspeakable act of mercy to thy oppressed
fellow-creatures.

THE END.

       *       *       *       *       *




LONDON: JOHN W. PARKER, ST. MARTIN'S LANE

A SELECT LIST OF BOOKS

PUBLISHED BY

JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND,

LONDON.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE SLAVE-TRADE and SLAVERY.--HISTORY of the RISE, PROGRESS, and
ACCOMPLISHMENT, of the ABOLITION of the AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE by the
British Parliament. By THOMAS CLARKSON, M.A. A NEW EDITION, with
Prefatory Remarks on the subsequent ABOLITION of SLAVERY, and a Portrait
from a highly-approved Picture, recently painted by HENRY ROOM.
_Published under the Direction of the_ CENTRAL NEGRO-EMANCIPATION
COMMITTEE. One large Volume. Octavo.

THE SCRIPTURAL CHARACTER of the ENGLISH CHURCH CONSIDERED, in a SERIES
of SERMONS, with Notes and Illustrations. By the Rev. DERWENT COLERIDGE,
M.A.

The series of Sermons, bearing the above title, were written exclusively
for perusal, and are arranged as a connected whole. The author has
adopted this form to avail himself of the devotional frame of mind,
presupposed on the part of the reader, in this species of composition;
but he has not deemed it as necessary to preserve with strictness the
conventional style of the pulpit, for which these discourses were never
intended: they may, consequently, be taken as a series of Essays, or as
the successive chapters of a general work.

THE CATHOLIC CHARACTER of CHRISTIANITY; in a SERIES of LETTERS to a
FRIEND. By the Rev. FREDERICK NOLAN, LL.D., F.B.S., Vicar of
Prittlewell, and Author of _The Evangelical Character of Christianity_,
&c.

The Profits arising from the First Edition of this Work, will be given
to the Fund for erecting a Memorial to the Martyred Bishops at Oxford.

A MANUAL of CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES; or an Account of the Constitution,
Ministers, Worship, Discipline, and Customs of the Early Church; with an
Introduction, containing a Complete and Chronological Analysis of the
Works of the Antenicene Fathers. Compiled from the Works of Augusti, and
other sources. By the Rev. J. E. RIDDLE, M.A., Author of an
_English-Latin_ and _Latin-English Dictionary_, _Luther and his Times_,
&c. _In the Press_.

It has been the object of the writer, to construct a History of
Christian Antiquities sufficiently copious and accurate for the use of
the student in divinity, and at the same time instructive and acceptable
to the general reader: a work popular in point of structure and style,
but containing the substance of the more scholastic and expensive
volumes of Bingham, and embodying information collected by modern
divines, who have investigated the history and usages of the early
church. Such a compendium was a desideratum in our theological
literature. Our language has hitherto possessed no book fit to occupy
the same place, in relation to the history of the church, as that which
has long been maintained by the Antiquities of Potter and Adam, in
connexion with the histories of Greece and Rome. And the author of the
present volume hopes he may be permitted to say, that, in the absence of
more able labourers in this department, he has endeavoured, by means
especially of foreign aid, to remove the want which he has described.

THE WORKS OF DOCTOR DONNE, Dean of Saint Paul's in 1619-1631; with a
Memoir of his Life, and Critical Notices of his Writings. By HENRY
ALFORD, M.A., Vicar of Wymeswold, and late Fellow of Trinity College,
Cambridge. With a fine Portrait from an Original Picture by VANDYKE. Six
Volumes Octavo.

A HISTORY of the INDUCTIVE SCIENCES, from the Earliest Times to the
Present. By the Rev. WILLIAM WHEWELL, B.D., F.R.S.; Pres. Geol. Society,
and Professor of Casuistry in the University of Cambridge. Three
Volumes, Octavo.

THE NEW CRATYLUS; or, CONTRIBUTIONS towards a more ACCURATE KNOWLEDGE of
the GREEK LANGUAGE. By JOHN WILLIAM DONALDSON, M.A., Fellow of Trinity
College, Cambridge.

A NEW SYSTEM OF LOGIC, and Developement of the Principles of Truth and
Reasoning; in which a System of Logic, applicable to Moral and Practical
Subjects, is for the first time proposed. By SAMUEL RICHARD BOSANQUET,
A.M., of the Inner Temple.

The RISE and PROGRESS of the ENGLISH CONSTITUTION; with an HISTORICAL
and LEGAL INTRODUCTION and NOTES. By ARCHIBALD JOHN STEPHENS, M.A.,
F.R.S., &c. Two Volumes, 30s.

The Introduction is embodied in the first volume, and extends from the
earliest period of authentic history up to the termination of the reign
of William III.; and the Saxon institutions, tenure of lands, domesday,
the royal prerogative, origin and progress of the legislative
assemblies, privileges of Lords and Commons, pecuniary exactions,
administration of justice, gradual improvements in the laws, judicial
powers of the Peers, borough institutions, infamy of the Long
Parliament, national dissensions, and the principles under which the
executive power was intrusted to the Prince of Orange, have experienced
every illustration.

The doctrinal changes in the Anglican Church which were effected under
the Tudors, are justified by a reference to the records and practice of
the primitive Church, and the doctrinal schismatic points of Roman
Catholic faith relating to the canons of Scripture, seven sacraments,
sacrifice of the mass, private and solitary mass, communion in one kind,
transubstantiation, image worship, purgatory, indulgences, confession
and penance, absolution, &c., are clearly established as being in direct
opposition to the opinions of the early fathers, and the fundamental
doctrines of Christianity.

The text of De Lolme is incorporated in the second volume, and the notes
affixed extend to great length, and embody very valuable and diversified
information relative to the rights, qualifications, and
disqualifications of members of Parliament and their constituents; the
unions of Scotland and Ireland with England; the origin, rise, and
progress of the civil law under nine periods of the Roman history; civil
process in the English courts of law; history of the courts of equity,
and the principles under which they act; trial by jury, and an analysis
of criminal offences, and the statutes under which they are punishable,
with an analysis of crimes that were committed in 1837, and of the
sentences passed. There are likewise tables of the public income and
expenditure in the year ended January 5, 1837; of the church revenues,
in which will be found information relative to the number of benefices
in each diocese; total amount of incomes, gross and net, of the
incumbents in each diocese, also the averages of each respectively;
number of curates in each diocese; total amount of their stipends, and
average thereof; also four scales of the incomes of the beneficed
clergy; and genealogical tables from the Saxon and Danish kings, to
Queen Victoria.

FROM THE PRESS OF JOHN W. PARKER.

MEMOIRS of the LIFE, CHARACTER, and WRITINGS, of BISHOP BUTLER, Author
of _The Analogy_. By THOMAS BARTLETT, M.A., One of the Six Preachers of
Canterbury Cathedral, and Rector of Kingstone, Kent. Dedicated, by
Permission, to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury. Octavo, with an
original Portrait.

       *       *       *       *       *

ELIZABETHAN RELIGIOUS HISTORY. By HENRY SOAMES, M.A., Author of _The
History of the Reformation; The Anglo-Saxon Church_, &c.

This Work is intended to fill a long-acknowledged chasm in English
literature, and especially in that which peculiarly concerns the Church
of England. Both Romanists and Protestant Dissenters have been attentive
to the important reign of Elizabeth, and by saying very little of each
other, have given an invidious colouring to both the Church and the
Government. The present work is meant to give every leading fact in
sufficient detail, but to avoid unnecessary particulars. It reaches from
the establishment of the Thirty-nine Articles, in 1563, to the
Hampton-Court Conference, in 1604.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE ANGLO-SAXON CHURCH; its HISTORY, REVENUES, and General Character. By
the Rev. HENRY SOAMES, M.A., Author of the _Elizabethan Religious
History_. A NEW EDITION.

       *       *       *       *       *

HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH; from the Ascension of Jesus Christ to
the Conversion of Constantine. By the late EDWARD BURTON, D.D.

       *       *       *       *       *

HISTORY of the CHURCH of ENGLAND, to the REVOLUTION in 1688; embracing
Copious Histories of the Thirty-Nine Articles, the Translation of the
Bible, and the Compilation of the Book of Common Prayer. By THOMAS
VOWLER SHORT, D.D. NEW EDITION, in One large Volume.

       *       *       *       *       *

The EARLY CHRISTIANS; their MANNERS and CUSTOMS, TRIALS and SUFFERINGS.
By the Rev. WILLIAM PRIDDEN, M.A. Second Edition.

       *       *       *       *       *

HISTORY OF POPERY; the Origin, Growth, and Progress of the Papal Power;
its Political Influence in the European States-System, and its Effects
on the Progress of Civilization; an Examination of the Present State of
the Romish Church in Ireland; a History of the Inquisition; and
Specimens of Monkish Legends.

LUTHER and HIS TIMES; History of the Rise and Progress of the German
Reformation. By the Rev. J. E. RIDDLE, M.A., Author of _First Sundays at
Church._

       *       *       *       *       *

POPULAR HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION, in Germany, Switzerland, and Great
Britain; and of its chief Promoters, Opposers, and Victims. By THOMAS
FOX.

       *       *       *       *       *

* HISTORY OF MOHAMMEDANISM, and the PRINCIPAL MOHAMMEDAN SECTS. By W.C.
TAYLOR, LL.D.

       *       *       *       *       *

* The CRUSADERS; SCENES, EVENTS, and CHARACTERS, from the Times of the
Crusades. By THOMAS KEIGHTLEY. Two Vols.

       *       *       *       *       *

* READINGS IN BIOGRAPHY; a Selection of the Lives of Eminent Men of all
Nations.

The design of this work is to give an account of the lives of the
Leaders in the most important revolutions which history records, from
the age of Sesostris to that of Napoleon. Care has been taken to select
those personages concerning whom information is most required by the
historical student.

       *       *       *       *       *

LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM JONES, by the late LORD TEIGNMOUTH. With Notes,
Selections from his Works, and a Memoir of his Noble Biographer, by the
Rev. SAMUEL CHARLES WILKS, M.A. 2 Vols., 10_s_. 6_d_.

SIR WILLIAM JONES was not only the most eminent linguist, but in many
respects one of the most remarkable men, of the last century; and LORD
TEIGNMOUTH'S Memoir of him has been justly accounted one of the most
interesting, instructive, and entertaining pieces of modern biography.

       *       *       *       *       *

* LIVES OF BRITISH SACRED POETS. By R. A. WILLMOTT, Esq., Trin. Coll.
Camb. Now complete, in Two Volumes, at 4_s_. 6_d_. each.

The FIRST SERIES contains an Historical Sketch of Sacred Poetry, and the
Lives of the English Sacred Poets preceding MILTON.

The SECOND SERIES commences with MILTON, and brings down the Lives to
that of BISHOP HEBER inclusive.

       *       *       *       *       *

* LIVES OF EMINENT CHRISTIANS. By RICHARD B. HONE, M.A., Vicar of Hales
Owen. Three Volumes, 4_s_. 6_d_. each.

Vol. I. ARCHBISHOP USHER, DOCTOR HAMMOND, JOHN EVELYN, BISHOP WILSON.

Vol. II.

BERNARD GILPIN, PHILIP DE MORNAY, BISHOP BEDELL, DOCTOR HORNECK.

Vol. III.

BISHOP RIDLEY, BISHOP HALL, The HONORABLE ROBERT BOYLE.

BIBLE BIOGRAPHY; HISTORIES OF THE LIVES AND CONDUCT OF THE PRINCIPAL
CHARACTERS OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT. By E. FARR, _Author of a New
Version of the Book of Psalms_. 4_s._ 6_d._

BIBLE NARRATIVE chronologically arranged, in the words of the authorized
Version; continued by an Historical Account of the Jewish Nation: and
forming a Consecutive History from the Creation of the World to the
Termination of the Jewish Polity. _Dedicated by permission to the Lord
Bishop of Winchester_. 7_s._

THE EVIDENCE OF PROFANE HISTORY TO THE TRUTH OF REVELATION. DEDICATED,
BY SPECIAL PERMISSION, TO HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN. With numerous Graphic
Illustrations. 10_s._ 6_d._

It is the object of this Work to exhibit, from traces afforded in the
records and monuments, both sacred and profane, of the ancient world, an
unity of purpose maintained by the all-controlling providence of God.

STUDENT'S MANUAL OF ANCIENT HISTORY; ACCOUNTS OF THE PRINCIPAL NATIONS
OF ANTIQUITY. By W.C. TAYLOR, LL.D. 10_s._ 6_d._

The design of this work is to supply the student with an outline of the
principal events in the annals of the ancient world, and at the same
time to lead him to the consideration of the causes that produced the
principal revolutions recorded. The geographical position, natural
productions, and progress of civilization, in all the great monarchies
and republics, have been diligently investigated, and their effect on
the fortunes of the state pointed out. Thus the philosophy of history is
made to illustrate the narrative without interrupting it.

STUDENT'S MANUAL OF MODERN HISTORY; THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE
PRINCIPAL EUROPEAN NATIONS, THEIR POLITICAL HISTORY, AND THE CHANGES IN
THEIR SOCIAL CONDITION; WITH A HISTORY OF THE COLONIES FOUNDED BY
EUROPEANS, AND GENERAL PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. By the same Author.
10_s._ 6_d._

*FAMILY HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By the Rev. G.R. GLEIG, M.A. With PICTORIAL
ILLUSTRATIONS. 3 Vols., 6_s._ 6_d._ each.

The main purpose of the FAMILY HISTORY OF ENGLAND has been to unite
objects which in such undertakings are not always found to coincide;
namely, to render the study of English History not merely instructive,
but interesting and amusing. For this purpose, the greatest care has
been taken to seize upon all those striking features in the detail of
events, which not only convey to the mind of the reader a vivid picture
of scenes past, but induce him to argue from effects to their causes.
While the philosophy of history, therefore, is sedulously taught, it is
taught in a manner calculated to gratify both young and old, by
affording to the one class ample scope to reflection; to the other,
matter that stirs and excites, while it conveys sound moral instruction.

A HISTORY OF LONDON; THE PROGRESS OF ITS INSTITUTIONS; THE MANNERS AND
CUSTOMS OF ITS PEOPLE. By CHARLES MACKAY. 7_s._

Of the Histories of London which have hitherto appeared, some have been
too voluminous and costly for the general reader, and others too
exclusively addressed to the citizen, the antiquarian, or the traveller.
The object of the present Volume is to furnish in a tangible form, and
at a small price, a general and popular view of the progress of
civilization, and of the origin and progress of those events which have
raised London to its present importance. The work, however, is not
confined to a history of events, but contains graphic pictures of the
manners and customs of the people, their sports and pastimes, at
different periods, and the characteristic incidents of their domestic
history.

GERMANY, BOHEMIA, AND HUNGARY, VISITED IN 1837. By the Rev. G.R. GLEIG,
M.A., Chaplain to the Royal Hospital, Chelsea. Three Volume's, Post
Octavo. 1_l._ 11_s._ 6_d._

The principal design of this work is to give some account of the state
of society as it now exists in Bohemia and Hungary. In order to reach
these countries, the Author was, of course, obliged to pass through a
large portion of Germany, where the social condition of the people, as
well as the civil, ecclesiastical, and military establishments,
attracted his attention. Upon these he touches, more especially in
reference to Prussia, towards which the eyes of the rest of Europe are
at present anxiously turned. But his great design was to obtain and
communicate information, respecting countries into which few Englishmen
are accustomed to penetrate. Hence a large portion of his tour, both in
Bohemia and Hungary, was performed on foot; and the acquaintance which
he was thereby enabled to form with all ranks and conditions of the
people, was at once more intimate and more familiar than could have
taken place had he travelled by a more usual mode of conveyance. He
looked into the cottage as well as the palace, and he has given some
account of both.

GERMANY; THE SPIRIT OF HER HISTORY, LITERATURE, SOCIAL CONDITION, AND
NATIONAL ECONOMY; illustrated by Reference to her Physical, Moral, and
Political Statistics, and by Comparison with other Countries. By BISSET
HAWKINS, M.D., Oxon., F.R.S., &c. 10_s._ 6_d._

TREVES; SOME ACCOUNT OF THE CITY OF TREVES, AND OF ITS ROMAN
ARCHITECTURAL REMAINS. From the German of WYTTENBACH. Edited, with
NOTES, by DAWSON TURNER, Esq., and illustrated from Drawings made on the
spot. Octavo. _Nearly Ready._

RESEARCHES IN BABYLONIA, ASSYRIA, AND CHALDAEA; forming part of the
Labours of the Euphrates Expedition, and _published with the sanction of
the Right Hon. the President of the Board of Control_, By WILLIAM
AINSWORTH, F.G.S., F.R.G.S. With Illustrations, Maps, &c. 12_s._ 6_d._

EGYPT AND SINAI. By M. DUMAS, with Notes by the Translator. Uniformly
with _Three Weeks in Palestine and Lebanon_.

THREE WEEKS IN PALESTINE AND LEBANON. With many Engravings.   3_s._

A  little volume from the Traveller's notes. Descriptions of Baalbec,
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blended with remarks upon the natives, the incidents of the journey, and
the observations and reflections which naturally occur to a Clergyman in
travelling through the Holy Land.

NOTES ON INDIAN AFFAIRS; by the late Hon. F.J. SHORE, Judge of the Civil
Court and Criminal Sessions of Furrukhabad. 2 Vols., 26s.

The facts and opinions contained in this Work are the result of more
than fifteen years' residence in India--during which period the Author
held various situations in the Police, Revenue, and Judicial
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Official, with all classes of the Natives.

SCOTLAND; SKETCHES OF ITS COASTS AND ISLANDS, AND OF THE ISLE OF MAN;
descriptive of the Scenery, and illustrative of the progressive
Revolution in the Condition of the Inhabitants of those Regions. By LORD
TEIGNMOUTH, M.P.  2 Vols., with Maps, 21_s_.

THE WEST INDIES; THE NATURAL AND PHYSICAL HISTORY OF THE COLONIES; AND
THE MORAL, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE INHABITANTS, BEFORE
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M.D., F.R.S.E., &c.  With Maps. 10_s_. 6_d_.

NEW ZEALAND; AN ACCOUNT OF THE POSITION, EXTENT, SOIL AND CLIMATE,
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TWO YEARS AT SEA: NARRATIVE OF A VOYAGE TO THE SWAN RIVER AND VAN
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Residence in the Burman Empire, and of the Services and Sufferings of
the Missionaries in that Country. By JANE ROBERTS. With Engravings,
5_s_.

MUNGO PARK; HIS LIFE AND TRAVELS: WITH AN ACCOUNT OF HIS DEATH, FROM THE
JOURNAL OF ISAACO, THE SUBSTANCE OF LATER DISCOVERIES RELATIVE TO HIS
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CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS; HIS LIFE, VOYAGES, AND DISCOVERY OF THE NEW WORLD.
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NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION TO GREENLAND, SENT BY ORDER OF THE KING OF
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NEW POCKET GUIDE TO LONDON AND ITS ENVIRONS; containing Descriptions,
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other Anecdotes, connected by History of Tradition with the Places
described. With a Map of the Environs. By JOHN H. BRADY, F.R.A.S.  7_s_.

THE DOMESTIC GARDENER'S MANUAL; being an Introduction to Practical
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NATURALIST'S KALENDAR, and an Appendix on the Operations of Forcing,
including the Culture of Vines in Pots. By JOHN TOWERS, C.M.H.S. Second
Edition, Enlarged and Improved. One large Volume, Octavo.

Most of the works on gardening which have come under my observation, are
not only expensive, but appear to have been written almost exclusively
for the affluent;--for those who possess, or can afford to possess, all
the luxuries of the garden. We read of the management of hot-houses,
green-houses, forcing-houses; of nursery-grounds, shrubberies, and other
concomitants of ornamental gardening. Now, although it is acknowledged
that many useful ideas may be gathered from these works, still it is
obvious that they are chiefly written for those whose rank in life
enables them to employ a chief gardener and assistants, qualified for
the performance of the many operations required in the various
departments of large gardens. As I profess to have a very different
object in view, I address this book to those, who, without aiming to
become professional gardeners, wish, nevertheless, to acquire so much of
the art of Gardening as shall enable them to conduct its more common and
essential operations with facility and precision.

       *       *       *       *       *

MUSICAL HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, AND CRITICISM; being a General Survey of
Music from the earliest Period to the Present Time. By GEORGE HOGARTH.
_A new and enlarged edition, in Two Volumes.__10s. 6d._

       *       *       *       *       *

LECTURES on ASTRONOMY, delivered at KING'S COLLEGE, London, by the Rev.
HENRY MOSELEY, M.A., F.R.S., Professor of Natural Philosophy and
Astronomy in that Institution. With numerous Illustrations. 5_s._ 6_d._

       *       *       *       *       *

*MECHANICS APPLIED TO THE ARTS. By PROFESSOR MOSELEY, of King's College,
London. A New Edition, corrected and improved. With numerous Engravings.
_6s. 6d._

       *       *       *       *       *

A MANUAL OF CHEMISTRY, by W.T. BRANDE, F.R.S., Prof, Chem. R.I., and of
Her Majesty's Mint. 30_s._

Although Three Editions of the _Manual of Chemistry_ have already
appeared, the present may be considered as a new work. It has been
almost wholly re-written; everything new and important in the Science,
both in English and Foreign Works, has been embodied; and it abounds in
references to Authorities.

       *       *       *       *       *

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF CHEMICAL PHILOSOPHY: being a preparatory
View of the Forces which concur to the Production of Chemical Phenomena.
By J. FREDERIC DANIELL, F.R.S. Professor of Chemistry in King's College,
London; and Lecturer on Chemistry and Geology in the Hon. East India
Company's Military Seminary at Addiscombe; and Author of _Meteorological
Essays_. 16_s_.

FROM THE PRESS OF JOHN W. PARKER.

* A FAMILIAR HISTORY of BIRDS; their Nature, Habits, and Instincts. By
EDWARD STANLEY, D.D., F.L.S., Lord Bishop of Norwich; President of the
Linnaean Society. Two Vols., with Engravings. 7_s_.

       *       *       *       *       *

BRITISH SONG BIRDS; Popular Descriptions and Anecdotes of the Songsters
of the Groves. By NEVILLE WOOD. _7s_.

       *       *       *       *       *

OUTLINES OF GENERAL PATHOLOGY. By GEORGE FRECKLETON, M.D., Cantab.,
Fellow of the Royal Coll. of Physicians. 7_s_.

       *       *       *       *       *

* POPULAR PHYSIOLOGY; familiar Explanations of interesting Facts
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To trace the finger of God in the works of creation, to consider "the
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contemplating Infinite Power working out the dictates of Infinite
Goodness,--that intellectual satisfaction which attends upon our being
allowed, even imperfectly, to comprehend some small part of the designs
of Infinite Wisdom.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE DOCTRINE OF LIMITS, with its Applications; namely, The First Three
Sections of Newton--Conic Sections--The Differential Calculus. By the
Rev. WILLIAM WHEWELL, B.D., &c. 9_s._

       *       *       *       *       *

THE MECHANICAL EUCLID. By the Rev. WILLIAM WHEWELL, B.D., Fellow and
Tutor of Trin. Coll. Cambridge. 5_s._ 6_d._

       *       *       *       *       *

AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE on the DIFFERENTIAL and INTEGRAL CALCULUS. By the
Rev. T.G. HALL, M.A., Professor of Mathematics, King's College, London.
12_s_. 6_d_.

       *       *       *       *       *

LECTURES upon TRIGONOMETRY, and the APPLICATION of ALGEBRA to GEOMETRY.
Second Edition, corrected. 7_s._ 6_d._

       *       *       *       *       *

DYNAMICS, or a TREATISE on MOTION; to which is added, a SHORT TREATISE
on ATTRACTIONS. By SAMUEL EARNSHAW, M.A., of St. John's College,
Cambridge. Octavo, with many Cuts. 14_s._

       *       *       *       *       *

THE MAGAZINE OF POPULAR SCIENCE; complete in Four large Volumes, Octavo.
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This work furnishes the general reader with popular and connected views
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THE STUDENT'S MANUAL OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY; comprising Descriptions,
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In this work certain prominent subjects have been selected with which it
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may be called our HOUSEHOLD INSTRUMENTS, namely, the Thermometer, the
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       *       *       *       *       *

* READINGS in SCIENCE; familiar EXPLANATIONS of Appearances and
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       *       *       *       *       *

* EASY LESSONS IN MECHANICS: with Familiar Illustrations of the
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       *       *       *       *       *

HOUSE I LIVE IN; or Popular Illustrations of the Structure and Functions
of the Human Body. Edited by T.C. GIRTIN. 2_s_. 6_d_.

"I am fearfully and wonderfully made!"

       *       *       *       *       *

* MINERALS AND METALS; their Natural History and Uses in the Arts: with
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Familiar as we are, from our earliest years, with the various articles
manufactured from the Metals, for purposes of use and comfort, the
nature and properties of the metals themselves, and the means by which
they are obtained, are comparatively little known.

       *       *       *       *       *

* OUTLINES of ASTRONOMY. By the Rev. T.G. HALL, M.A., Professor of
Mathematics, King's College, London. With Cuts. 10_d._

       *       *       *       *       *

* The ELEMENTS of BOTANY. With many Engravings. NEW EDITION, Enlarged
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The principles of this beautiful and important science are explained in
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       *       *       *       *       *

THE ELEMENTS of POLITICAL ECONOMY, abridged from the _Principles of
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       *       *       *       *       *

MANUAL of INSTRUCTION in VOCAL MUSIC, chiefly with a View to PSALMODY.
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THE MERCHANT AND THE FRIAR; _TRUTHS and FICTIONS_ of the _MIDDLE AGES_
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Her Majesty's Exchequer. 8_s._

       *       *       *       *       *

LETTERS of EMINENT PERSONS; selected and Illustrated, and with an
Introduction, Critical and Anecdotical, by R.A. WILLMOTT, Trinity Coll.
Camb. Author of the _Lives of British Sacred Poets_.  7_s._ 6_d._
       *       *       *       *       *

LIGHT IN DARKNESS; or, THE RECORDS OF A VILLAGE RECTORY. 3_s._ 6_d._

THE VILLAGE.             THE GOOD AUNT.             THE VILLAGE APOTHECARY.
THE RETIRED TRADESMAN.   THE VILLAGE SCHOOLMASTER.  THE DESERTED WIFE.
THE FAMILY AT THE HALL;
OR, PRIDE AND POVERTY.


       *       *       *       *       *

READINGS in NATURAL THEOLOGY; Or, the Testimony of Nature to the Being,
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       *       *       *       *       *

* READINGS in ENGLISH PROSE LITERATURE; containing choice Specimens OF
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This volume is intended to furnish the general reader with some valuable
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reader familiar with the beauties and the peculiarities of the various
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       *       *       *       *       *

* READINGS IN POETRY; a Selection from the Works of the best English
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A MANUAL of Poetry, comprising the gems of the standard English Poets.
Care has been taken to select such pieces and passages as best
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UNIVERSAL MYTHOLOGY; an Account of the most important Mythological
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John's Coll., Camb. 7_s._

The Mythology of Greece and Rome has hitherto been studied almost
exclusively, though neither the most important, nor the most
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up their difficulties, and explained their allegories. * * * * This
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THE CAMBRIDGE PORTFOLIO; a Periodical Work comprising Papers
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       *       *       *       *       *

DISSERTATIONS ON THE EUMENIDES OF AESCHYLUS, with the Greek Text, and
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       *       *       *       *       *

THE FROGS OF ARISTOPHANES, with ENGLISH NOTES, for the Use of Schools
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       *       *       *       *       *

THE AULULARIA of PLAUTUS, with Notes by JAMES HILDYARD, M.A., Fellow of
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       *       *       *       *       *

SCHLEIERMACHER'S INTRODUCTIONS TO THE DIALOGUES of PLATO; translated
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Cambridge. 12_s._ 6_d._

       *       *       *       *       *

ADRIAN, a TALE of ITALY, in Three Cantos; with the STAR OF DESTINY, and
other Poems. By HENRY COOK, Esc. 7_s._ 6_d._

       *       *       *       *       *

THE BRITISH MONTHS, a Poem, in Twelve Parts. By RICHARD MANT, D.D., Lord
Bishop of Down and Connor.  2 Vols., 9_s._

       *       *       *       *       *

THE STORY of CONSTANTINE; a Poem. By the Rev. THOMAS E. HANKINSON, M.A.,
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following SEATONIAN PRIZE POEMS:

ETHIOPIA STRETCHING FORTH HER HAND. 1s. 6d. JACOB, 1s. ISHMAEL, 1s. PAUL
AT PHILIPPI, 2s.

       *       *       *       *       *

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THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIVING; by HERBERT MAYO, F.R.S., Senior Surgeon of the
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SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS.

DIVERSITIES OF CONSTITUTION; Temperament; Habit; Diathesis.

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Of EXERCISE: Exercise of Boys; on the Physical Education of Girls;
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Of SLEEP.

Of BATHING.

Of CLOTHING.

Of AIR and CLIMATE.

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       *       *       *       *       *

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CONTENTS.--Rules of Diet for different Constitutions.--Treatment of the
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       *       *       *       *       *

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