Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-05-10
From the Boston Evening Telegraph.
THE COOLIE SLAVE TRADE.

The following is from the New York Journal o
Commerce, of Saturday:
"The following extract of a letter which ha;
been handed us for publication, shows how the ma
terials of the modern slave trade--the Chinese
Coolies-are obtained. To fill out the picture, We
require q narrative of The horrors of the middle
passage, which is often fatal to large numbers
and then too see the poor wretches getting out
euano at the Chincha Islands, which soon destroys
the remainder. We are crecibly informed that q
person who lay some days near those islands,, saw
eleuen 1--WE think it was) of the poor creatures jump
into the sea, preferring death by drowning to the
slow torture to which their employment subjected
them"
Extract of a letter dated Swallow, (China,) Dec,
l0th:-We have now bent our sails, and expect
to sail for Calloa in a few days. We have now on
board 700 Coolies, and expect to take 200 more.
| suppose, If God preserves our lives, we will ar
rive in rs days. / will try to explain what our
cargo consists of, viz men, Cinnamon of course,
who are called Cinnamon Coolies. As you have
been to Russia, you had a samplo-the Same as
serfs, or as our Southern negroes; but poor things,
they are torn from their parents and friends and
sent on board of oui ship, and many other ships of
our own country, as well as England.
They kidnap them and take them to the junk, as
we call it, and stay there one or two weeks, till the
captain thinks proper to take them on board our
ship, They are bought for fifteen and twenty dol
lITS per uluu, anu WIFI tu6 CdptHlu 10 Teduy " 30
on board the junk, the mate sings out, Lay aft
here" calling the boys by name, and they have to
keep the boat away from the junk for fear Of some
of the Coolies friends coming and taking them
away. We have one Cooley who has run AWAY
from five different ships. The kidnappors bring
out the Coolies the same as ut the slave market at
Mobile, for inspection. They are then made to go
through several exercises, jumping, kickir ETC.,
and then inspected by the doctor. After tIis, they
are given new clothes, ard then sent aboard the
ship, and we have to keep sentry. We have twen-
ty men armed on sentry night and day.
The Coolies have several times tried to raise and
if it had not been for two or three Coolies who
made it known, they would have taken the ship
We have plenty of ammunition ON board, and three
guns which are dashed so as to bear on the slaves
if they should rise, A ship took some from here
and sold them for $3.50 each. This ship expects tc
stay out here about two years."
The ship Sea Witch was the last vessel named
in connection with the trade, she was lost on the
coast Of Cuba. The vessel was owned by How
land & Aspinwall of New York, and is insured fol
sixty thousand dollars in Wall street. Her voyage
has been a tragical one; her captain was murdered
eighty of her human cargo died on the passage
and now the vessel is q total wreck!
The New York EIpress, with characteristic
meanness, endeavors to shoulder the blame of this
infamous business upon the Anti-Slayery men Of
the North. 1t says:
at is a very remarkable fact-that while some
of us in these northern States make so much noise
about slavery in the Southern States, we direc
little or no attention to the slave trade at our doors
especially that of our ships lawfully
engaged in the Coolie trade, or u~nlawfully sold tC
be African ~slavers. 1t should be the especial bust
ness of the puriSts, who attack others, first tC
purge themselves; but it is known, that it is Nor
thern shipping that is used for slavers on the coast
of Africa, and Northern and British shipping
mainly engaged in the Coolie trade, which turns
out to be about as bad as the African.
The British Government, in abolisbing the
African Slave Trade, substituted for it the Coole
Trade. We have Chinese slaves now instead oil
African,-not exactly Chinese redemptionists,
Chinese serfs, Chinese poems, ETC., etc. For q long
time, the British shipping ,nonopolised this bust
ness-but the demand for Chinese labor in Cuba,
and on the west coast of South America, where
African slavery has been abolished, and for which
Coolie slavery is about to be substituted, have led
our Northern freighting ships largely into the
trade. We do an immense business in Coolie
transportation, and sometimes do it horribly-as
in the Calcutta hole tragedy, noticed some time
ago."
Now the fact is, beyond all question. that the
Northern men engaged in the African slave trade,
are Northern doughfaces,- men of the New York
ErpreSs' own stamp,-men who, like that paper,
are continually clamoring against sectional parties
and finding excuses for the projects Of the slavery
extensionists, and not anti.slavery men at all.
The anti-slavery men of New England, and of Old
England, view these proceedings with adherence.
So long as the North is cursed with doughface poll
ticians and newspapers, like the Express and Jour
nal Of Commerce, of course there will be men
enough found to engage in the slave trade, or any
other nefarious traffic that promised to be profit
able.