Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1847-11-24

prisoners Tor proht, in q manner similar to !
that which stimulated the old Barbarv
corsalrs to prey upon the commerce Of the |
W Medlterranean. When the time of wear
comes round to send slave caravan to the
coast, marauding parties surround a village
IN the interior in the night and set fire 10
the huts. The inhabitants, reused from
sleep, endeavor 10 escape-some by flight
and some by resistance, but all in vain.
those who resist nre oyerpowered by
numbers, and those who run are overtaken.
Sometimes villnge on the side Of hill is
auacked, and the inhabitants escape to
nelghboring caverns, whence they are
smoked by fires lighted ut the mouths. The
/ wells OF water are watched, and thirst
complies many to surrender. When all
are taken, selection is made. The
strong and healthy Of both sexes, and chill
dren OF six to seven years, are destined for
the caravan. The aged, the infrm, and
sucking infants cannot endure the journey.
10 leave them would be to condemn them
to starvation, to take them is impossible,
and they are massacred. The caravan
then sets out on foot, half naked and bare
foot, yoked together and driven by the lash.
They are thus marched hundred of miles
throug deserts and over mountains. About
one half break down on the way and are
knocked on the head. Travellers tell that
the track of q slave caravan may be traced
through the wilderness by the whitened
bodies of those whom the wild beasts have
3 devoured. The caravan reaches the coast,
the slave ship arrives, and the negroes are
inspected-those in the best condition are
selected, and the weakly are rejected.
!, 1t is the practice Of slavers, based upon
experience, to select as many of the strong.
est as will make at least one-fourth more
{ than the vessel will hold, well slowed
This is done to supply the loss Of lives that
the hardships of the voyage occasion, and
to ensure full cargo on arrival. This
wastage is greater in consequence Of the
greater care to escape detection, forced
|, upon the SLAYER by the English system ol
suppression. The negroes, under this
treatment, are attacked with peculiar dis.
order, under which they may linger for Q
week or more; but is sure to be fatal, ano
he goes overheard before the disease has
done its work.
This vessel is taken by an English
cruiser, and until very lately the practice
was to, take these negroes to the Englist
plantations and sell them for q term o
years. The proceeds was purse or blooe
money for the English officers. The
practice now is, to take these negroes, the
miserable survivors of so many scenes ol
violence, to the English settlement on the
coast of Africa, and there Of their own free
will, ship them to English plantations us
Emigrants. 1t will be seen at once thai
the English system does not prevent single
scene of violence, single outrage, nor 9
solitary black from leaving the African
coast. Ii has no other effect whatever
than to alter the destination of the miser.
able creature. Instead of Brazilian
sugar plantation, he goes to an English
plantation He is rs effectually kept from
his home, his country, and the scenes o.
his childhood, by English philanthropy a
by Brazilian cupidity. 1t is also the cast
that of five slaYers that leave the African
coast, one only may be seized-a los:
which the slavers can well afford. The
seized negroes form, however, the only
means by which the English plantations ars
supplied with laborers, and if we connec
this with their policy fnot using slave
grown sugar, the philanthropic farce be
comes complete. Had England beer
honest, and followed the example Of TIT
United States in prohibiting the introduction
of blacks on any terms into her possessions
instead Of taking part in the trade by steal
ing the blacks from second hands, there i
no doubt but the trade would have diminish
ed. When in case Of he Amistad negroes
runaway slaves reached our shores, the,
were sent back to their native Africa at tn
expense of the United States. The effec
of movements in the British West Indie
has been to diminish the production o
sugar one half, and consequently to fore
England into the purchase of slave grow
sugar, and the new government of Lor
John Russell has succeeded in removing
the distinction between free and slay
grown sugar. The practical result ha
been the ruin ofthe colonies without efec'
! fxl,~ Il Ia