The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — London, England, 1804-05-31 00:00:00

- many years before ever the present cetestion came to 4ie discussed in that I louse ; and those accounts gave a very favourable description of the state of Africa. The persons who published these accounts were agents for carrying on the Slave Trade. One of these stated, that the Princes in Africa used sometimes to make inroads on their own subjects ; and afterwards sell the very men whom they employ ed as assailants in doing so. No Man could deny but that the Slave Trade owed its existence to practices like these. A Mr. Moore, who wrote concerning this part of Africa in 1740, and who was an Eng lishman, stated, that all the punishments in the country were at that time commuted into slavery, and that the kings and chieftains could at any tune get Slaves by causing men to be charged with particular crimes, and, after being convieted of those, sell them. The old writers, who gave a de scription of this country before ever the trade commenced, said, that the punishments for ci imes were then very mild ; that they generally consisted of banishment; and that after having been banished for some time, they were permitted to come back again. But alter the trade corn:to-aced, men were banished for the lightest crimes ; trials and punish ment became more frequent, and punishments were commuted to slavery. It ha.l been stated by the advocates for the Slave Trade, that the coliditio.. of the negroes in Africa was so wretched, that it was an eft of humanity to take them away : that they were slaves before, and the taking them away was only commuting one slavery for :mother. It was then asked, what helm could they suffer from the trade ? To this he would answer, that their a:condition became totally changed ; that they were dragged fur ever from their native spot ; that they suffered such cruel hardships during their voyage as frequently deprived them (Whitt; and that after being landed in the %Vest Indies (if they survived the via; - age), they were doomed to continual labours. 'their condition was very different while they were slaves in their own country. There, they often heel as well as their mince's, from whom they could not be distin guished.. They were like the antient villain; or vas sals in this country ; they were not degraded ; they were not ander the whip of a merciless tyrant ; but were treated with mildness, provided they did a service of a certain limited kind. All this was at ratan' observable in the interior parts of Africa. It was proved by the accounts of traveller., partici'. larly of Mr. Parke, who says, that he could per ceive no difference between slaves and their masters. It was evident then that they were better off than any villains in Europe ever had been. And to argue fig m the mere name of slave, and to say that the es, edition of negroes was not altered, by their being taken away to the West Indies, was to betray 211 tit.. the ignorance of the state of Africa. Another as sertion, equally unfounded, had been teed ; it was that if negtoes were not taken away they would 6e massacred ' • and that such was a common prac tice along the coast. He would maintain that this was a gross mistatement and exaggeration of a very &lining fact. In one particular part of Africa, and only at a particular time of the year, it was a custom for some of the natives, at a kind of reli gious festival, to put to death all among them, who happened to be superannuated, infirm, and helpless. This was the tree state of the ease—and it must be a full answer to the false statements that depended on the testimony of only one or two partial witnesses. It andel he pored, from the testimony of old, as well as of recent witnesses. But, whatever force the argument had, he wished to know if it could be sufficient to justify a trade that gave rise to such in =enterable evils as were known to exist ? Another argument of a blasphemous nature had been used by some; it was, that the Slave Trade was authorised by Scripture. To this it was hardly necessary to an swer. There was no comparison between the state of West Indian slavery, and the servitude of antient times. But could any authority justify the treat ment which Negroes received during the Middle Pump? It was even said, that here they were treated kindly and tenderly. Was it treating our taliomereatures tenderly, to stow them so close in a confined, dark, and frightful part of a ship, that when they stretched their naked bodies on the deck, a parson could not walk through them without tread ing upon them ; and that numbers of them were eosin and dying in this dreadful situation ? At a time when a Bill was brought into that Homo to re gulate the conveyance of ,eves in ships, it was op posed, on the ground that it would be ruinous to the traders; it was stated, at the Bar, that the trade could never be carried on, if two slaves were Dot allowed for every ton. The regula tion far !Milan the amount of the tonnage was, however, adopted ; and so far from its ruin ing or abolishing the trade, it served and in creased it, because it saved the lives of numbers of wretches who otherwise would have perish ed. Now the House would have an opportunity of judging what credit those men, who could maie sues he statement% were entitle d to in other points. Is beillaito Imo stated, that the trade was a nursery for eedilial. He should indeed be grieved to think that the bulwark of this country—our navy, should be unfilled fur its support to such an abo minabkepelllt of wickedness. But he was confident that the alleNiimit was false ; for, instead of the Slave Tra. Wog any benefit to our marine, it would, as wiry, be 'ound to be a continual drain upon it. Is a very shirt time it wore away the men, who could never be preserved from the danger of contagion. One fifth of the men employed in slave-ships died on their passage every voyage. Whereas, of the men employed in the West India trade, ,hardly any died. These fads he stated on the authority of a document furnished by the op ponents of the abolition. It had also been stated, that the abolition would be injurious to our com merce and manufactures ; to this be would barely answer, by stating, from a document before the House" that only a thirty-fourth part of our exports were sent to the Coast of Africa, and that no more than one million of capital was employed in the trade. Now, with regard to the West India markets, it bad been asserted, that the stock of labourers in the West Indies could not be kept up if the trade was abolished, and if the importation of negraes was to cease. He deked the persons using such an argument to prove that the population of ne. , r„ oes in the %Vest Indies could nut be kept up. - In all other countries to which the same race of me., had been sent, they increased in population, and why cculd they not increase in the West-Indies ? In Ameri..a, the cli mate of which was not so congenial to them as that of the West-Indies, the slaves had doubled their number in a very few years. They had increased in Bencoolen and St. Helena. A cargo of slaves, who had been wrecked about 100 years ago, on the island of St. Vincent, had, under every disadvantage to seek for their subsistence, increased to that nu merous body of men, who since went by the name of Caribs. A similar increase took place among the Ist:moons, who were the descendants of those slave;, who ran away into the woods at the time we first took Jamaica from the Spaniards ? Why, then, was there a continual decrease among those slaves who were the property of the West-India Planters ? The cause was very obvious. It was the bard treat ment they met with from their masters, who never thought of keeping up their slaves by the common cours:• of nature. It appeared to them to be more expensive to sear slaves, than to import them. Mr. Hume, speaking on this subjeft, exemplified the point by a simile, when he said, that men found it more to their interest to purchase fresh slaves, in the SA me manner as they would prefer purchasi n g cattle brought from part ic lar places,when they could he bred at a le,s espence. Such were the shocking vices of the West Indian system, that the slaves there could not increase : and one of the grand causes was, that they were worn out before they could propagate; they were not sufficiently fed. In America the slaves had three times the quantite of fond they had in the West Indies; and, in Jamaica, the allowance to runaway slaves kept in prison was double what 'tad been granted to the working negroes in the "thee Islands. Another cause of the want of popu lation, and the decrease of their numbers, was the excessive labour they were obliged to undergo in proportion to their food. In America they worked by task, and the consequence was, that they assisted each other to finish their work. It was quite different in the West Indies, and of course they were worn away. Here it unfortunately happened that men of low, of little knowledge, and unfeeling dispositions, became masters of slaves, and :seed like savage ty rants over them. The bad effeel with regard to population avas not the only evil. Slaves in the West Indies were held in a state of the most able& de gradation ; they were bound down and ground to the very dust. Tr is coul.l he proved by a variety of facts. Even flee negroes were held in great de gradation, and what must he the state of those poor wretches who were not free, when they were ready to give the earnings of their whole life, even to at tain that freedom, which then was a degradation. These and a variety of other circumstances led to this conclusinn—that if the African trade was abo lished, if importation was prevented, the slaves now in the West Indies would meet a very different treatment Irons %hat they had hitherto experienced ; that the planters must, from necessity, encourage po pulation among them ; and that of COWSe they must not he worn away as they were. It appeared that a different treatment in the last ten years had pro duced a less decrease in their numbers than for merly. In Jamaica, the population had not dimi nished The constant decrease in other places was owing to the West Indian system. Let the trade from Africa be once abolished, and that system must cease. He then goosed Maloueq who bad written in de fence of the Slave Trade. That writer acknow ledged that the morality among the Blacks WAS con siderably less in St. Domingo than in other islands. because the Negro women are there treated with more indulgence immediately after bearing children, and are longer spared from work, and the children are more kindly brought up. This was evidence in the mouth of an enemy to the abolition of the Slave Trade. What reason can be assigned, why the po pulation of Slaves born in America encreascs great ly beyond that in our colonies, but that the Slaves there have more food with less lab ur ? If the system of treating the Slaves with kindness, of moderating their labour, and encreasing their food in a reason able deg ree , were fairly and universally put to the proof, he could have no doubt that the encrease of Negroes, without importation, would be adequate to all the work of the Colonies. Another grand argu ment that had been urged against the aboli t i on o f the Slave Trade was, that if we abandoned it, other Nations would carry it on, to supply our deficiency in the market. This was an argument so worthless, he could not lose any time in refuting it. A mon strous crime is to be continued, to the misery of thousands and thousands of our fellow creatures . , as long as you can go round the world and find one nation base enough, weak and wicked enough, to be engaged in its perpetration I Another argu ment, that had great influence at the time, and was perhaps more praEtically relied on than all the rest, was, that it became the House no to do violence to the feelings of the legislatures in the West India co lonies; that time ought to he given them, to see, not only the justice but the praelicabilny of the scheme for abolishing the Slave Trade; that they ought not to be driven into it, but brought over by means as conciliatory as the naeasisre professed to be humane. He had observed the progress of opini ons since that period, in the West Indies. He never should expeet a hearty co-operation on their part, in this great objed. The rage for importing Slaves is encreased ; new settlements are made, fresh lands are cultivated. 'The prejud'ces, the old feelings of the colonies are strengthened ; new irritation of mind arises on the question, of which there is new proof every year. Instead of the minds of the Colo nies being softened by time, they grow more and more attached to the system; they hug it closer and closer; and would continue to do so, till it mor tally stung them, and they paid with their lives for their fatal attachment. All these argu ments had been refitted over and over in the House ; which had come to a mature resolution to abolish the Slave Trade gradually. A majority of larger amount in numbers, of more charades. and talent, was never seen in that House, than themajori ty which voted for that abolition. But, if such was the conduet of the House in 1792, if such was the misery they then saw in the Slave Trade, that abomi nabletrade,howgreatly had these been increased since that period ? If this was examined, every humane mindwouldbewithhim. Yetheshocldnot pursuethat argument further. To those who loved their own interest ill understood, better than justice, he would use other arguments. Since the tame when he first agitated the question in the House, there was an in crease (by importation) in the black population in our 1 !ands of 300,0 1 /0 tlaves ! In Jamaica alone, the increase was 140,000. This was four or five tam s grcatei than the most exaggerated dem.o.o made at that time, for the use of the colonies, by the war melt friends of the Slave Trade. He would call on them to consider to what this tended. The immense mass of capital also, laid out in the most vulnerable part of our possessions, was a subject for their considera tion. He maintained that the West India colonies were more vulnerable than any other part of the Empire, both within, and from without. Yet how did this prodigious capital pay for its use? In Ja maica, it did not produce more than 4 per cent. per annum; in the other islands, 5 or fi per cent. The state of the islands demanded the attention of the House, in this respeet. Within the last twenty years, executions had been levied for sums amount. ing to twenty-two millions; and, of 700 estates, nearly one half were thrown up, because they would not pay for culture. Yet, such was the blind attach ment to this species of speculation, there were con tinually new adventurers. The charm indeed was in its being, in fast, a lottery ; when, though num bers are unfortunate, though the adventurers lose in the whole, yet individuals make sometimes rapid fortunes. When the slaves are brought to the market, they must be sold; and persons, often of little property, purchase them on speculation and credit. Thus the trade survives and goes on, though an actual loss to Great But it was not capital only which it employed un ' profitably. This was not the only, nor the greatest waste. The trade was a perpetual drain of our population, a drain of our troops to maintain the possession ; and this drain must incessantly grow wider and wider, to guard against the increased black population. liefore the American war, the Assembly of Jamaica called for an increase of troops, because of the increased disproportion be tween the blacks and the white inhabitants. The same demand has been increasing ; protection is claimed—at what price? and for what objets?— at the price of' thousands of your best troops, abso lutely sacrificed there ! and the object, to proted the avarice of the colonists, to secure their means of injustice, to be a safeguard to their crimes ! Every new importation of slaves demands a new drain of our best troops, and how long is this to be endur ed ; how long are these colonies to be the grave of Englishmen, for purposes foreign to their mercan tile, as well as their most important moral interests ? And is this a time to pursue this dreadful game ? At a time when our native country demands our troops, and when the state of St. Domingo will not permit its to lessen the quantity of them in our West India islands, in proportion to the black popula tion ? Is this a time to increase the importation of slaves? In Jamaica alone, within two years, the in crease of slaves by importation was 28,000. This was stated, and very justly stated, to be sufficient to account for insurrections. That the colonists themselves should nut wish for the abolition of the trade, was one of those instances of blind infatuation that appear incredible to all who are not the witnes ses of them. He wished it might not be the fore tunner, as such instances often were, of destruaion to those who cherished it. He would again remind the House of the situation of St. Domingo, with a population of 400,000 blacks ; he would remind them. that Guadaloupe has aiproportinnate popula tion of blacks. Ile would conjure the !louse, timely to introduce regulations that might avert the evils threatened by the increased Black population of our Islands, and the situation of St. Domingo. He conjured them, to seize the opportunity, still graci ously afforded by Providence. Should he be told, that the time is now improper ? (one Irene cried hear ! /war!) He, perhaps, expelled that from some. Every time he had agitated the question ha had been told so; he had been told, it would excite in surrection. Yet, in fifteen years, it had not stirred up one insurrection. his was an argument thrown out merely to the unlearned, to those not in the secret. Insurrection was not feared by those who made the outcry. It was matter of Lift, that the proprietors in Jamaica, so far from discouraging the intercourse between that Island and St. Do mingo, were anxiously giving it every facility. The newspapers of the Islands tell the slaves that the Blacks of St. Domingo have thrown off the yoke. Thi, is expressed without disguise. Shall not the House then agitate this great and necessary question, lest the Blacks of the English settle ments should read their debates ? While the WO nists are going on, adding to their danger wilfully, by adding thousands and thousands to the dispro portion between the Black and White inhabitants, is the House to abstain from a necessary discussion? Why should the House forbear, because of the fault of those who raise the cry of danger they do not believe in ? The danger, however, was great. He had great reason to fear insurrection; he did fear an insurrection; he anticipated insurrection; it surely would happen. sooner or later, as surely as death to individuals. He wished the House, however. to do I their duty, while it was yet time, whatever was the issue. It had been often argued, that it was the in terest of the islands to use their Slaves well. as it was also of the merchants to'use them well in the Waddle Passage, Those who had a knowledge of the hu man mind would know the value of this argument. If the passions of men are considered as their in terest, it is true. But not so, of an interest, the per ception of which depends on cool calculation, on which there may he discussiiia and Jiff-re:ice of opi nions. Some of the Roman Emperors may be in stanced to this effect. It is passion that governs the bulk of men, and not a speculative interest. The true argument of interest lies the other way—she is the islands, by stopping the importation of Slave:, that they may rear numbers sufficient for the sail sure of the land ; shear them, that they can have no safety with a continued importation ; and then their interests will be with the wishes of the House. lie entreated the House to look on the picture of the sufferings occasioned by the Slave Trade ; to trace it from its beginning in Africa ; to follow it through the Middle Passage ; and to pursue it to the West Indies. Let them recollea, it is in their power to put an end to these sufferings by their vote.— Perhaps this was the last time he should have the opportunity to address them on the sub jeB. Since the first time he had brought it before the House. many new Members made part of it. The Irish Members had been entirely added. He would address himself to all these. To the latter he would say—lreland boasts, that no venomous creature can live on her ground. They could also boast an infinitely greater blessing ! Their heal s arc not stained by the blood of this trade/ They are deemed brave and generous. These ualitie s are allowed them by those who have not 3 en too res favourably of them in other peets , t th em toe % use these great qualities on this occasion, and l et them wipe away from this land the only blot that stains it ! He conjured them not to become par. takers in its guilt ! He had only one word more to add. He had to speak of himself, and in that he should be short. He had been blamed by some for persevering, from time to time, in this cause ; by others, he had been condemned for not urging the question more frequently, more constantly. H e would declare, that whatever course he had taken, when he had pressed the topic on the House, and when he had been silent, he had equally considered the true interests of the cause. He had never been warped by any other motive. He had uniformly sought to abolish the Slave Trade ; and ever would, while he had a voice left to urge the cry of humanity. He reflelled on his efforts in this cause, as the glory of his life. He could not look on the event without some exultation. All that was ho. nourable and excellent in the House had joined him in behalf of that great cause. He could not look on his old friends, in this great struggle, without pe culiar gratification. He besought them to join with him now; he besought the House to wipe away this stain of blood from the nation, and not to call dot the vengeance of Heaven on its head ! Almost all had a gree d i n th e clung/Dr of the trade ; even ,marry of those who thought the time was heretofore un propitious to the abolition. He, therefore, could not doubt that he should have a large majority with hi:n. His intention was to move for leave to bring in a Bill for the Abolition of the Slave Trade at :limited period. He would not now fix any time ; that he would leave till the House should be in a Committee ; if he was successful in a Motion he should make, for the House to resolve itself into a Committee to consider the former proposition. He should therefore expea to find on his side in the first Motion, all who are of opinion that the Trade ought to be abolished, at some future and reasonable time; whatever may be determined afterwards as to the exact time. He conjured his old friends not to fall back ; and he besought those who had formerly opposed the abolition, as applied to that period, to consider how the times were since changed. Mr. Wilberforce then moved, that the House now re solve itself into a Committee of the whole House, to take the question into consideration. Mr. FULLER said, he should be glad if the land in the West-India Islands could be cultivated by the same description of persons, as land in this country. But pezuli.sr restraints on the labourer were neces. sary there to the existence of the Proprietors. The ground was so fertile, that one man scattering seeds with his hand, without previous culture, can raise crops sufficient for a family of 14 or 16 persons. It was well known in Europe, that labourers too well paid, too easily provided for, were difficult to go vern. In a country, therefore, where labour would scarcely be necessary for the poor man's want, a more rigid discipline than can be used towards free persons, must be established. A great deal had been said about the ill-treatment of the slaves in the West-India Islands, and their excessive labour, He knew these representations were fake. The best slave does not do the work of the worst labourer in Europe, and lives better than the labouring peg. pie of most countries. The blacks were stated, at being happy in Africa; but he had documents in his pocket to prose that they were wretched under their petty tyrants there, and that the slaves in the Islands dreadid no punishment so much as the being sent back to their own country (a hrag/r). Did those Gen tlemen know, who talked of the happiness of Africa, that the princes' palaces ware covered with skulls, and their courts filled with human bones, in order by terror to carry on their government ? He contended that the agitation of this question had so raised the price of slaves, that sufficient females could not be maintained to inzrease the breed in the Islands. Ile stated that Dessalines had applied to our Govan ment for an importation of slaves, to spew that evert in St. Domingo, they could not maintain the po pulation without importation. He maintained that human nature could not be governed by that mo rality which looks too nicely into the nature of all atftions ; and referred to our East India possessions, as a proof. Mr. BARHAM declared his intention to vote for the abolition of the slave-trade; and, in a most able speech, developed the motives of his change of con duet, which he, maintained, did not arise from any change of opinion, as he had only heretofore oppos ed the time; the time he thought arrived, and the means not now difficult. Even emancipation might be the final result ; but he intreated the Hon. Gen tleman not to marr this great work by obtruding ti 0 hastily and abruptly on the feelings of the colonies. Mr. W. SMI I'll beg in by paying a compliment to the sincerity and liberality of the arguments tyei b; the Hon. Gentleman who spoke last, on every oc casion u lien this question had been urged, and par. eitularly to the sentiments which he had expressed on the present Motion a- hts Hon inviable Vvieriel. 1i thought however the Hones was in a very extra ordinary situ.atiLn. After having resolved, twelve years ago, when there was only one sentiment on the subjed in the Bosse, and that was that a period should be put to this execrable traffic; they now found that after a lapse of 16 years they had not gone on a single step. What, he asked, was the proposition 1 of this night / Why that the pratftiee of buying and selling men, to make them and their postenty slaves for ever, should now be abolished. An Hon. Gent. behind him had said (Mr. Fuller) that ;Isis traffic ought to have been stopped at the mrtimencement. It there was any truth in that observation, it was clearly evident, that a fte r t h e injurious pisßice had so long prevailed, it ouglst to be abolished the moment they were convinced of its atrocious con- sequences. He was confident that the regulations which had been made to ameliorate the Middle Passage were so greatly evaded, that in his iniiiii that alma wa . a sufficient reason for the House t) abolish the traffic. He bad attended with the ut- most care to the whole evidence, and to all the at guments uhich had been brought tor ward on the subject ; and he was certain he could prove there was not one point of argurneat used by those who opposed the measure, that was not direftly contradieted by their own witnesses. He then proceeded to cite several passages from the es i-.