The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-26
PARRT, IrI.

PARRT III. The specific incidents 1 have narrated. Illustrating phases of my conflicts with the slaye-traders. might be greatly mui- tiplied. but they suffice to sive some in- sight into q unique and phenomenal fact--. that the son of South Carolina slave own CTS should be emptying his purse and irn- periliing his life to save African slaves from the cruelty and oppression of mas ters of their own color. The slave traders, with whom I had to contend were Afri-. cans themselves, buying slaves for their own uses,
 What were these uses? One of them was for the ordinary work of domestic service. The Africans made their slaves get wood and water. work the cassava and peanut fields. weave cloth. carry mer- chandise on their heads or shoulders, and procure crude rubber from the gum trees. Another use for slaves was for women as concubines to their masters. woman who bore children was valued more nisniy than the others-suc a woman would sometimes bring the large price of four goats in the market!
 elave children of the male sex were sometimes purchased by war-hke tribes and trained for special military service in the tribe; and often these shareholders became in turn the worst kind or hdnap- pers of other slaves. The saying is cur rent iA Africa. "No worse master than a slave.v
 sNot infreouently cannibal tribes bought slaves to eat. Thus the ultimate destina- tion of any caravan passing my door might be to satiate the inhuman appetite of some anthropophagistic tribe miles away.
 No wonder, then that the slaves took every chance they could get to attract my attention, and to geg me to buy them. Off,
 h tr.Gy me to purchase them. and wildly promis- ing to be my slaves forever.
 But there were two good reasons why my siave-redemption work had to be cur tailea-inadequacy of funds to meet the demands of .the situation, and the danger that my buying slaves would only foster the interior trade, when the Africans would catch men to sell to me. So found that as a regular practice. the mthod of redemption by purchase would not do.
 Only two other expedients remained One was to appeal to the European Gov ernnent under which I lived, the other to appeal to the native chieftains them selves.
 There were several difficulties about appealing to the Belgian officers of the Kongo Free State, to invoke the aid of their military power to put down the na- tive slavery. To begin with, the Belgtans did not recognize any native as a slave officially. and theoretically. ell the Africans were regarded as free men, and the European Government was considered pledged to secure them in the freedom of their persons. But practically, there were numerous grave difficulties In the way of putting this theoretical law into practical effect. The posts of the Government were placed at an average of over 100 miles apart, so that each post had jurisdiction of a territory of at least 10000 square miles, with a population of about 100000. Of this population. about one-half were slaves of the other half. If the Government undertook to enforce the theoretical freedom of these slaves, then each post would find itself at once face to face with the problem of the con- quest of a native force of over 10000 men in each district-and frequently. strangely enough, the slaves would fight with their black masters against their would-be white Mberators. In order effectively to conquer these natives, to force them tc free their slaves, e.ch post would bt obliged to maintain at least one good battalion of white troops and thousand black auxiliarieg, all well armed. Tc free by force these aboriginal slaves from their black masters,e therefore, in the whole Kongo regions would require ar army of 10000 white men, and of 10000 auxiliary blacks, at a cost of not lesl than $1OO OO0,OOO Not even England would pay this in a single decade. 1t is idle tc expect Belgium to do 1t.
 Moreover, there are reasons why 1t is extremely questionable whether the mere emancipation of flve million slaves from i've million owners in Central Africa is at present worth the blood and money necessary to accomplish this by force of arms. In the first place, this would not be done without killing at least a fourth p8 the best men of the slave-owning