Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1859-10-15
EFFECT OF THE SLAVE TRADE ON THE
AFRICAN TRIBES.

Mr.. Paul B. Du Chaillu, a young Franco-Amer-
lean, who has recently returned from a tour of
exploration in the interior of Africa, to which be
was impelled solely by his scientific and philan-
thropic pursuits, writes for the New York Tribune
an account ofslavery aud the effect ofthe slave trade
in that country. If be is good authority, slavery,
in all the barbarous lands which he visited, is mil
der in power and less terrible in its consequences
than the same institution among the ancient
Jews. In no part of Africa visited by him is the
condition Of servitude hereditary in families. All
are born free-even the children Of the bondwo-
men; hence, subsequent slavery is the accident of
war, the consequence of crime, or tho result of
superstition.
The effect of the foreign slave trade upon the
unfortunate tribes whom it reaches is briefly but
graphically described. Says Du Chaillu
81 come. l may say almost with tears, to the
foreign slave trade for the market Of the white
man.
Poor, down-trodden Africa When will the
civilized world cease to send it's vessels to buy thy
people; when will this most abominable trah6c
cease; when will humanity triumph over tho love
of gain; when will the natiors of the earth unite
together, and listen to the cries Of thy woes when
will they understand the sorrows Of wretchedness
we heap upon theer
I'VE know not, nor can we conceive of, the
misery which is visited on poor, b~euighted Africa,
unless we go among the numberless tribes which
people its shores. But | cannot doubt, that if the
civilized world could see how great that wicked.
ness is, there is Christianity enough and philan.
thropJ enough to end it. If the voice of one
who has been q lonely traveller and wanderel
among them can help but feebly by telling thu
miseries he has seen, and which have been occa
stoned 5y the foreign slave trade. he will be to-
glad to be able to render that service.
Ca anywhere along the shore of Africa, anC
t one is sure to see, wherever the slave trade ha
been carried on, natives who form the worst, an,
r most wretched population. There is more drunk
l enness than elsewhere, more trouble of every SORT
more wretchodness, a lower morality, moro crime
more iniquity, than is ever seen in any othe
e tribe. 1t is easy to understand this. The slave
5 dealer arrives with his cargoes of rum and O
goods. 1t is his interest to keep, I should say al
most all the time, the people in a state of drunken
ness, that he may have power over them, and tho
they may carry on their iniquitous traffic withou
scruple. So for years it goes on. until the cor
science of the natives is perfectly obliterated. W
all know that the Africans are pvor and degraded
and we all ought to know that it makes them tie
times worse when we 60 among them to establis
the slave trade. How long shall we tolerate thes
unprincipied men who carry on this iniquitou
traffic, and who care nothing for Tho woes the
: bring upon the Africans, provided their barAcoon
ashore are well filled with the spoils of the war
8 of these unfortunate tribes
= .Let US realize for a moment the woes we sen
= on this doomed land. On the arrival Of the slave
on the coast, see the frantic joy with which tn
9 natives hail its approach =! The news spread
4 from village to village, from tribe to tribe. Tn
! white man has come, and bids them begin thei
merciless work, and to resuscilate old feuds whic
r were forgotten, 20 make palavers about witche,
to bring accusations Of witchcraft, to put in fore
y the penalties of slavery, which had been unit
then forgotten, to sell people for debt, to punis
= by slavery cases OF adultery which were befor
/; passed over IS excusable in the loose moral cod
/ Of the Africans. To encourage. in many tribe
t the father to sell his children. others to find fau
with their kindred, who they say are good fc
, nothing to Jc sold.
"In the Cgalios tribe Of the Ogobai river, the
sometimes resort to such means as this 20 procur
subjects for the slave trade. When salt is scare,
and when It's want is severely felt by this tribe.
man throws salt into q lonely path. and the
hides himself ia the bush to wait for his prey
The law is, that whoever steals salt is to be cor
~dembcd 20 slsvery, and victims are never wanting
I need not hero speak of the depredations of tn
slaves. caused by tae siaso trade. among the NOR
Ashantee, where these dsspetie chiefs rsvel i
bloodshed.
"rbe result Of the slave trade Is, thai ~eoantrie