Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1860-10-10
REVELATIONS OF THE SLAVE
SMUGGLER, CAPT. RICHARD
nRAKE

d Who was engaged in the African Slav
u Trade for over fifty years. from 1907. t
1857, during wkieh period he was concern
It ed in the transportation of over half mil
o lion of slaves from the African coast to A
e msrica.
/. Rev. Henry Byrd West, in his prefac
to the life of the Slave Smuggler, says
Y 1t was in the summer of 1886, while en-
f gagged in humanitarian tour of the rive
l. districts. that met with the uufortunat,
e man whose story. given in his own language
is related in the following pages. founC
4 him in deplorable condition, both ofminC
t and body. The squalid room which he Oc
: cupied was at the top of an old building il
. narrow lane leading from the Bowling
: Green to Greenwich street IT'S broker
roof admitted the rains freely. and the filthy
: rags that constituted his bed were reekine
with puddled water which covered the floor
He was entirely friendless and neglected
and would have been thrown into the street
by the landlord or agent, who kept sail
or's drinking place below. if his delirious
: situation had not precluled removal
Though familiar with scenes of suffering,
so common in the degraded localities which
hide, if they do not shelter, the poor of
New York city, could not but be shocked
at the extreme desolation presented in this
instance. The last ravages of consumption
combined with torture of mind to render
their subject a deplorable ruin of humani-
ty. Gray haired, with nearly seventy win
ters, and wasted almost to skeleton, he
seemed the naked type of Outcast poverty;
and yet there was something about his very
destitution of friends and sympathy which,
from the first. attracted my interest.
The mental state of this old man was
worse, if possible, than his bodily condi-
ton; for, in his feverish rawlings, he bias
phemed and threatened alternately all who
approached him; and uttered incoherent
words that indicated conscience afflicted
with remorse for crimes committed in his
past life. l gathered enough from broken
sentences to learn that he had been engag-
ed in the SLAVE TRADE, and my feelings
were at once pained and interested by the
unhappy sufferers despairing wretchedness.
With an assurance to his landlord tn at
would be responsible for the cost, 1 obtain
ed promise of some little attention to the
apartment, and took measures for procur-
ing food aud medicine. for want of which
the invalid was perishing.
L need not enter into history of the
three months that interviewed between my
first knowledge of Phillip Drake and his
passage to another and l hope better life |
Let it suffice that succeeded in interest |
ing him as he interested me, and that the
narrative which follows is an authentic rec
ord, as far as l can judge. 1t is simple, |
and. l believe truthful; and, though disclo-
sing enorInities almost beyond belief, docs
not, l am sure, exaggerate the horrors of
that dreadful traffic to which the mans
whole life had been sacrificed. Though the
blood curdles at such atrocities as are here
related, there is, unhappily. too much evi-
dence to corrOboratc the facts; and VIC are
fain to turn from the sickening recital, with
COwper's eloquent lines upon our lips, ap-
piled to
"THE GUINEA CAPrAIS
Lives there q savage ruder than the slave?
Cruel as death, insatiate as the grave,
False as the winds that round his vessel blow,
RemOrseless as the gulf that yawns below,
Is he who tolls upon the waiting flood,
4 Christian broker in The trade Of 6Ood!
3oisterous in speech, in action prompt and bold.
He bugs, he sells, he steals, he kIls-for GOLD :
At noon, when sky and ocean, calm and clear,
Bend round his bark, one blue, ,unbrOken sphere;
When dancing dolphins sparkle through the
brine.
And sunbeam circles DER the waters shine;
He sees no beauty in the heaven serene, :
70 soul-enchanting sweetness in the scene ;
But darkly scOwling at the glorious day. .
,urses the winds that loiter on their wayl IL
When, swoll'n with hurricanes, the pillows
rise,
o meet the lightning midway from the skies; S
When, from the burden'd hold, his shrieking t
slaves n
ire cast at midnight, to the hungry vAves.- =
lot for his victims, strangled in the deeps, y
lot for his crimes, the harden'd Pirate weeps;
ut, grimly smiling, when the storm is DER, 7
cunts his sure gains andhu-ries back for NoRE'' n
The story of Phillip Drake is but one of b
thousand similar records of Wickedness e
hich the Slave Trade of our day might n
lrnish. From oil that transpired between r
Iyself and the dying man, from intima- Il
ons and disclosures of names, places, and b
utes. that leave no doubt in my mind of s.
lie accuracy of his statements, l am con- c.
need that the traffic is at this time car IL
ed on under circumstances of barbarity 1
I'D recklesness which disgrace both civili-
ltiOn and Christianity. And when state 81