The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1889-04-25
r,ePu r,e O" SLAVERY.


kW ~ h cs aud Most Power,
aMSn crn al Africa.
Before Lieut., Becker left Africa,
where he had spent three years, he
Md long talk with the famous Tippu
Ilh. the Richest man IN Central Africa,
on the slave trade in the Dark Con-
,incnt, Few people in Europe who
read of him have any conception of
the power and wealth this man has
acquired during his twenty-five years
in Central Africa. On Reclus's map
considerable part of the Eastern terri.
tory of the Congo State Is Indicated as
.sThe Domain of Tippu Tip" Some
idea of the immense operations of this
princely trader may be gathered from
the size of the caravan he was taking
TO Zauzibar when Becker met him at
Taiora. Some powerful chiefs were
at war in the country through which
he had travelled. and he had with him
n thousand armed slaves to guard his
ivory. His ivory porters numbered
1000 slaves, each of whom carriod
tusk. The property he was taking to
the coast included, therefore. 1000
fusks of ivory and 5000 slaves. The
procession stretched for miles along
the narrow roadway, and no such
enormous caravan had ever before
been seen in equatorial Africa.
Tippu Tip showed his intellectual
acuteness in his defence of slavery.
ssWhite men," he said, "have very fn-'
correct ideas of our manners and GUS
toms. They have the effrontery to
propose to abolish at once in other
lands institutions which quite recently
fioGrished in tscir own. | am told that
in big country called Russia, some
years ago, nearly all common people
were slaves. and great misery has be-
fallen them since they became their
own masters.
..What is the difference between a
slave and a servant? The servant is
free aud may leave his master when
he pleases. So may my slaves. I
have no guards to keep them from de-
serting me. They are too well content
with their lot to run away. If l were
unjust to them, perhaps they might
flee. But how would that help them?
They would simply fall once more into
the power of their equals, to be sold
again, to be maltreated, to be killed,
perhaps, or to toll, very likely twice as
hard as they did before.
ssYou say it is immoral to own slaves;
that slavery debases men and puts
them on a level with cattle. Now, it
does not debase a negro to exchange
the abominable yoke of negro tyrant
for the protecting care of an Arab
master, whose religion commands him
to be benevolent aud just. You say
the negroes are our brethren. Well,
we treat them quite fraternally, since
we raise our children with theirs. We
are kinder to them than you are to
your lackeys. | would not dare to
treat a negro as l have seen white
travellers treat their white servants.
If we buy men it is only because
they are offered to us, and we cannot
procure labor in any other way; and L
am sure it is better for them to fall in
to our hands than into those of tribal
enemies. who kill or further degrade
them. If you call il immoral to COM
pei men to work for their bread, men
who would rather steal it than win it
honorably, would like to ask on what
basis your morality rests.
''lf all the savages and cannibals of
Africa could be reduced to slavery their
children would some day constitute
nations, and would bless us for lifting
them out of a state of savagery. The
interior, and the African himself does
not wish to suppress il. He would sell
himself if he were emancipated. Free
dom for him means nothing more than
license to steal, to kill, to get drunk.
You come here with your theories from
Europe, but l tell you the facts as they
exist in Africa"
Lieut.. Becker says the Arabs in the
1oea rarinoS M lnn,sar sand ont ,vo
stealing expeditions, but only buv the
slaves that are brought to their mark
cts. We know, however, that they
stimulate slave hunting and all its hor-
rors by the large markets for slaves
which they maintain. Tippu Tib did
not speak of the inhuman and murder
Gus aspects of the slave trade. 1t must
be admitted, however, that in Africa
there is force in some of his arguments.
Becker saws: Between the happy,
faithful. and devoted slaves of Tippu
lib, and the wretched men slayers
and cattle thieves we meet here in a
free condition, no comparison can be
made"
The fact that this same Tippu Tib is
now in the service of white Govern
ment, and subsidized for the express
purpose of stopping slave raids and
compelling his Arab brethren to SUBJ
init to the new regime introduced from
Europe is not so strange as it appears.
This powerful person is consistent
Tippu Tib man every time. His chief
interest is ivory, and the great cost of
sending tusks by porters from the
Congo to Zanzibar has cut sadly into
his profits. He needs the Congo route
TO the sea, and he cannot get it without
cooperating with the whites. For this
reason he promised to stop slave raid
ing and to restore order in the Stanley
Falls district, and he has done it.