Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1821-05-22
From the New York Daily Advertiser, April II.
SLAVE TRADE.

We have often taken occasion to
speak of this subject, and always in
terms of the deepest adherence and de-
testation. Although we have laws
against the prosecution of this Internal
traffic, 1t is still carried on by our citi-
zens-vessels under false colors and fic-
titious owners, are fitted out from the
United States, owned in whole or in part
by our citizens, and the bloody atroci-
ties of the business are still practised by
our protessedly humane countrymen.
The inhabitants of other countries do the
same, Notwithstanding they have laws
prohibiting the trade; and all the cruel
ties and horrors of the +" Middle has
sage" are still inflicted on the wretched
natives of far distant quarter OF the
globe. AS a sample of evidence in sup
port of the justice ofthis remark, we ex-
tract the following passages from re-
port OF the Society of Friends in Great
Britain, made to their yearly meeting in
November last.
"Captain Kelly, of his Majesty's ship
Pheasant, captured, on the 3Oth July
last, a Portuguese schr. called the Novo
Felicidade, belonging to Princes Island,
having on board II slaves, and crew
consisting of one master and ten sailors.
This UesseL measured only eleven tons"
She was carried by captain Kelly to
Sierra Leone for adjudication, and his
judicial declaration contains the follow
ing statements
81 do further eclare, that the state in
which these unfortunate creatures were
found, is shocking to every principle of
humanity; seventeen men shackled to-
gether in pairs by the legs, and twenty
boys, one on the other, in the main hold
space measuring Is feet in length, 7
feet inches main breadth, and one foot
8 inches in height; and under them the
yams for their support.
"The space allowed for the females,
81 in number, was even more contracted
than that for the men, measuring only 9
feet 4 inches in length, feet inches
main breadth, and 2 feet 7 inches in
height"
From France, vessels 3" fit out regu-
larly at Havre, Bordeaux, and other
ports. Their chains and handouts are
put on board in boxes, and entered as il
they were other articles. The case Of
the Rodeur is very striking :-she sailed
from - in the early part OF last year,
l8l9) for the river Calabar. Having
taken in a cargo of slaves, she proceeded
with them to Guadaloupe; on the pas
sage, the poor negroes were seized with
a violent ophthalm;a, Ga disease OF the
eyes) which soon afterw ards commune
Gated itself to the crew. The disorder
had been increased from the captains
finding himself under the necessity Of
keeping his Captiyes constantly belo'f,
for they were so afflicted by their cap-
tivity that when brought upon deck, they
took every opportunity of throwing them
| selves overheard. To deter them, some
were hanged and others shot, but this
having no effect, they were obliged TO be
constantly confined between decks. In
process of time, under these cruel cir
| cumstances, the ophthalmia spread and
affected every individual both of the
| officers and crew, except one man, who
alone was left capable of steering the
| ship.
1t is remarkable that while the Rodeur
was on her passage, she passed Span
| ish slave ship, called the St. Leon, which
had left the coast of Africa some little
| time before her. 1t appeared that the
crew Of this latter vessel had also caught
the ophthalmia from their own negroes,
and that complaint had spread until NOT
even one man Of the zvhole erezv could
see to steer. In this dreadful state, the
crew of the Spanish vessel implored as
sistance of the crew of the Rodeur, whose
poices they heard as the ships ahhroach-
ed each other but the latter had none to
lend, so that the St. Leon passed on just
where the wind carried her. This ves-
| sci has never been heard of since. 1t is
presumed that both the oppressors and
| the oppressed persisted on the ocean,
either by famine, or by finding watery
grave. When the Rodeur arrived at
Guadalupe, thirty-nine negroes vho
zyere totally blind, zoere thro7vn into the
sea as being quite useless those who
had lost only one eye, were sold at We
ry low price. The crew of the Rodeur
consisted of twenty-five men. Of whom
fzvetve 7vere comhleteiy blind; five OF
the remaining ten were recovered, and
the other ,Gue each Of them lost an
eye"
BY practices like this, has what is
called PROPERTY in Slaves been originally
acquired.-And so long as men will
purchase and hold in slavery their fellow