The Hillsborough recorder. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1820-1879, 1854-09-20
Africans at Hons

Africans at Homo
The last Quarterly Review contains
an article on this subject which we
have read with considerable interest.
The writer gives an account Of the me-
raj and social condition Of the negroes
inhabiting the gold coast aud the ad-
joining countries at the time they were
first discovered by the Portuguese, and
compares their condition then with
what il is now, as given by Mr.. John
Beecham, Of the London Wesleyan
Mission. The comparison shows that,
though they have had intercourse with
the civilized nations Of the earth for
four centuries. though missionaries have
labored earnestly and zealously in their
behalf, their condition remains the
same. In fact, we cannot conceive
how il could have been W orse at any
time than what it is repres ented to be
now by this article. as given by Mr..
Beecham, the concluding por ton Of
which we give below:
Scarcely has one Of their barbarous
and bloody customs been abandoned,
IRON the earliest period Of which any
thing is known Of them. They still
pave their court yards, palaces, and
even streets or market places of their
villages or towns. with the skulls Of
those butchered in war, at feasts, fune-
rails, or as sacrifices to Bossom. Still
their wives and slaves are buried alive
with the desceased husband or master.
When Adahanzen died, two hundred
and eighty Of his wives were butcher
ed before the arrival Of his successor!
which put stop to it only to increase
the flow of blood and the number Of
deaths in other ways. The remaining
living wives were buried alive amidst
dancing, singing and bewailing. the
noise Of horns, drums, muskets, yells,
groans, and screenings the women,
marching by headless trunks. bedaubed
themselves with earth and blood. Their
victims were marched along with large
knives passed through their cheeks.
The executioners struggle for the
bloody Office, while the victims lock
ON and endure with apathy. They
were too familiar with the horrid sac
rifice to show terror. or to imagine that
jail was not as it should be. Their
hands were first chopped oil, and then
their heads sa,oed of, to prolong the
amusement. Even some who assisted
to fill the grave were hustled in alive,
in order TO add to the sport or solem-
nifty Of the scene. Upon the death Of
a Kings brother four thousand victims
were thus sacrificed. These ceremo-
nies are often repeated, and hundreds
slaughtered at every rehearsal. Upon
the death Of a king Of Ashantee, a ge-
neral massacre takes place, in which
there can be no computation Of the VIC
tins.
"At their yam CUSTOMS Mr.. Bow
ditch witnessed spectacles Of the most
. appalling kind. Every caboccer, or no.
BILE, sacrificed slave as he entered the
gate. Heads and skulls formed the or
naments of their professions. Hun
drcds were slain and the streaming
and steaming blood Of the victims was
mingled in vast brass pan. with va
, rious vegetable and animal matter, fresh
, as well as putrid, to compose power
ful fsfiche. AT these customs the same
scenes Of butchery and slaughter oc>
cur. The kings executioners traverse
the city, killing all they meet. The
next day dissolution reigns over the
land. The king, during the bloody
, saturnalia, looked on eagerly, and dan
ced in his chair with delight.
. "The king Of Dahomey payes ap>
proaches to his residence and orna-
ments the battlements Of his palace
with the skulls Of his victims /; and the
great fstiche free at Badagry has its
wide. spread limbs laden with human
. carcases and limbs. There the want
of chastity is no disgrace. Murder,
: adultery, and thieyery, says Bosnian,
: are here no sins.
"rhe case Of Quaque, given by our
: author, shows how vain is the hope ol
7 effecting a national regeneration by the
education Of Africans to the Christian
: ministry. In fifty years residence al
. Cape Coast Castle he gained over no,
one Of his countrymen and dying
showed his confidence still reposed IN
his fefiche, and not in Christian rites.
Well might MIR. Beecham remark thai