Star.
London, England, 1831-09-05 00:00:00

LECTURES ON NEGRO SLAVERY.

Mr. Clarkson has just finished a course of lec-
tures on negro slavery, at Clapham. He intro-
duced some curious investigations, with a view to
rebut the arguments of the colonial advocates, as
to tile mental and physical inferiority of the ne-
:ZITIOA, and as to their political and social incom-
petency. In the course of these he adduced a
hatin treatise of the celebrated Dr. J Hunter, in
which that great anatomist and naturalist aims at
demonstrating, on anatomical grounds, that the
first man must have been a nee-ro; and that the red
and white races of the human species must have
been derived from black, and not the black from
rest or white. Next the lecturer argued, from the
testimony of Herodotus, Diodorus. Siculus, Ho-
mer, and Virgil, that the original Egyptians. who
initiated all civilization, were negroes ; and ad-1
duced copies of extant representations in Egyptian',
tombs. to show the probability that there was a
aceeo royal dynasty in Egypt—under which fly-
;3tV the white or Cancassian race of the human
srecies (perhas including Britons,—who were cer-
tainly bond slaves to the Greeks and Romans
afterwards) was held in slavery.
He adduced the evidence of the degradation,
mural, physical, and intellectual, of the white
raves (including British barbarians) under the
effects of slavery, from ancient historians—and
brought forward the evidence of British Consul,
Dupuis, at Mogadore, to prove the same pernici-
ous influence on the white slaves, christian and
European, lately subjected to slavery in the Bar-
bary States. Having thus shown that the colo-
nial advocates of negro inferiority argue in a va-
rious circle, (slavery being first the reason of the
degradation—and next the degradation being as-
sig!ned as a reason for the slavery)—the lecturer
eroceitled to detail the origin and progress of ne-
gro slavery, and its condition in our colonies, at
the present time.
He referred to the resolutions brought forward byl
.Ur. Canning, in 1823, in concurrence with the
West Indian proprietors and their committee inj
!his country, ns exhibiting a picture of the actual
vontlition of the slaves in 1823, under the hands
of the colonists theniselves; and averred that both
the great measures—the abolition of the negro
slave trade in 1807, and the amelioration of colo-
nial slavery in 1823, thus proposed were frustrated,
and abortive. All that had been decreed by the
legislature, in favour of the very oppres-
sed Africans, in our colonies, was up to this
moment a dead letter. The sabbath is not a
day of rest. Work equal to six days and three
nights in the week, (during crop time, i. e. half
the year) stimulated by the cartwhip, and supported
by a miserable weekly dole of two pounds of salt-
tish, with the additional doubtful chance of rearing
a few vegetables during such intolerable exertions,
is still performed. The slave is still arrested for
his master's debts—torn front his family, and sold
as a moveable (to be considered as a mere fixture
would be happy for him.) If his son be murdered
his daughter ravished—his evidence against the
murderer and ravisher is still rejected. Punish-
ment, though ostensibly limited to thirty-nine
lashes, is still murderous ; pregnant women are
still flogged in the sight of their sons and husbands.
Indecency in flogging is still pertinaciously adhered
tn. The cartwhip still echoes from morn till night
through groves sacred to cruelty and mammon.
What has been the answer to Mr. Canning's re-
solutions ? Let Mr. Shiel state ; " Jamaica took
the cartel containing her sovereign's mandate, and
shook it dripping with negro blood in the insulted
face of England." Let Mr. Buxton record the rest
•of the reply : " Demerara replied by the murder of
11. c Christian missionary, Saiith—Barbadoes Is; the
demolition of the Methodist chapel—Berbice by
the horrible reports of the colonial fiscal—the
Bahamas by the murderous outrage of the Mosses ;"
'Nevis has since replied by the scourging depopula-
tion of the overseer \Valley—Jamaica by the bru-
tal cruelty of the Rev. Mr. Brydges to his female
slave Hilton. What has been the general answer
of all the crown, of all the chartered colonies ? One'
may fancy the hundred mouths of sonic Titaman
giant or gorgon bellowing forth the reply ? " De-
population,—wholesale massacre and murder—
weekly, daily, hourly assassination !" In ten years
there has been a decrease of 45,800 slaves in four-
teen colonies. This is the " sticking-place" to
which the cause is now "screwed,"—this the
point of the road where we now stand. Ten vic-
tims of this execrable system are despatched every
day. " While we debate, they die !" says an elo-
quent abolitionist. While we deliberate, they pe-
rish. " What was to be done ?" exclaimed the
Jecturer, "with a question on which it was dis-
graceful to speak coolly ? tOr not to be indig•
nant at such inveterate atrocities was not to be a
man. Should we still temporize, deprecate, and
fritter it away ?"
Mr. Clarkson stated it to be his firm conviction,
that unless the people of England resolved to
take the matter into their own hands, and to abo-
lish slavery at once by some decided decree like
that which was carried into effect at Hayti and
Mexico, the question would drag on another halt'
century, as it had already lingered without results
.through one past half century, and wear out the
exertions and lives of the young abolitionists, as it
had already worn out the old. He was.convinced
that it would be better to drop the subject altoge-
ther, if it acre nut resolved to demand of the legis-
lature its instant and utter abolition. It was his
province to show the uecessity, on religious and
moral grounds, and the safety and advantage to all
parties, on political grounds, of this effectual step.
Having disposed of the scriptural arguments of the
colonial advocates, Mr. C. proceeded at once to
consider the question of immediate emancipation.
Was it so very alarming a pleasure, even on the
threshold, v hen the late Lord Melville, no very
intemperate innovator, was willing that British
colonial slavery should cease in 1800 ! But look
to the consequences, say the colonists. Look to
facts, said the lecturer. They are the best as-
s ver to %a ue and iute:ested surmises. Hundreds
of thousands of negroes have been emanci-
pated at Cul:a, at the Brazils, at Sierra Leone, at
Mexico, at S. Domingo, and in our own colonies.
Ilere is an :experimental argument. Did those
einaticipateg,'negroes Ilse to cut the throats of
their benefactors' to wound the hand that smote
off their chains! Did they rebel to acquire that
whicl; they:eh:id already acquired without rebel-
lion? Preposterous argument! Did any evil Con-
equence to any party result born their. freedom ?
—None. slatever. Those tree negroes were as
respectable. as enlightened, and .as welledisposed,
as the white proprietors. At Mexico a decree,