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COLLECTION TITLE:

Elizabeth Donnan papers

COLLECTION ID NUMBER/CALL NUMBER

MS 184

ACCESSION NUMBER:

None

SERIES NUMBER:

I

BOX NUMBER:

1

FOLDER NUMBER:

3

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

MANUSCRIPTS AND ARCHIVES

Yale UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

Manuscripts & Archives

L. C. Am. Col. Soc., 1827.

Richard Henry Wilde to the President and Board of Managers
of the Colonization Society.

Augusta 30. Novm 1827.

Gentn.

You are apprized that Thirty nine Africans of the cargo of
the Antelope or Gene Ramírez, were finally decreed to the
Spanish claimants, they paying the salvage to captain Jackson of
$50 per head, the Bill of the Marshal for the maintenance safe
keeping clothing etc of the slaves $6.347 and other costs and
charges in the cause amounting in the whole to [space] and
moreover giving Bond with security to export the negroes out of
the United States within a limited period.

It is I presume likewise known to you, that these people,
having been in the State of Georgie, under charge of the Marshal,
by order of the court, for more than eight years, have formed con-
nections by marriage, and many of them have children from whom,
if sent out of the country, they must be separated, as their wives
and children are the property of other persons than the Spanish
claimants.

A short time since an agent for the Spanish owners, Cuesta,
Manzanal and Brother, arrived in Savannah, bearing full powers to
William Gaston Esqr, a most respectable merchant of that city, to
receive the said slaves for the said owners, and transfer them
to the Island of Cuba, paying the charges and giving the bond be-
fore mentioned; and the agent was authorized to engage a vessel
for that purpose.

2

L. C. Am. Col. Soc, 1827,

R. H. Wilde to Pres. and Board of
Managers of the Col. Soc. Nov. 30, 1827.

I have long been apprized of the repugnance of these poor
people to depart from a country to the language and habits of
which they were accustomed; where easy labour was imposed and kind
treatment received and no one can help being struck with the
cruelty of tearing them from their wives and children, to send them
into slavery in a Spanish Colony.
I was then in Savannah, and
tho' I could not blame the owners who were merely preparing to com-
ply with a condition imposed upon them by the court, in obedience
to the laws, or the agent who really felt for the wretchedness
he saw would be inflicted, I determined if possible, though with
some risk and trouble to myself, to afford these unhappy creatures
either the chance of becoming free, or at least of suffering servi-
tude only in that mitigated form already familiar to them, in a
state of society to which they had become reconciled, in a country
whose language they had acquired and in the bosom of their families.
For this purpose, I became the purchaser of the Spanish interest,
satisfied the Marshals demands and settled all other legal claims,
as will appear by the proper vouchers, and as actually taxed by
the Court; and extend [?] into the Bonds required to transport
the slaves out of the United States.

In order that they may be sent as Freemen to Liberia, I now
offer them to your Society for the sum actually paid by me, in
cash, being less than their value as property either here or in
Cuba, without interest or any addition whatever for the trouble and
charges I have incurred on their behalf.
If a compliance with
these terms is not within the power, or considered without the

3

L.C. Am.Col.Soc. 1827,

R.H.Wilde to Pres. and Board of
Managers of the Col.Soc. Nov.30, 1827.

province of the Society, I have then to request their influence and
co-operation in support of a Petition which I shall prefer to
congress to cancel the Bond.

In order to prevent their exportation immediately, by the
Spaniards, I have been obliged as before stated to give security
that they shall be sent out of the United States within a speci-
fied time. The condition of this Bond must and will be performed
however painful to myself if Congress decline to interfere.

It is impossible to evade performance and if it were possi-
ble, I am incapable of attempting it. Should the bond be cancelled,
I propose uniting the families by purchase or exchange, without any
view to profit in that operation, and settling them within the
territories of the United States in such manner as to secure them as
much kindness and indulgence as the condition of slavery allows.

If they must continue slaves, as it is decreed by the defin-
itive sentence of the Court, I ask, can it be important to the So-
ciety or to the United States, that their captivity should be embit-
tered as much as possible, by removal to a strange land, a separa-
tion from their wives and children, harder labour and more cruel
treatment?

Since the owners of the wives and children would not sell
them into Spanish captivity, even if I was able to buy and capable
of buying them for such a purpose, which I am not, the seperation of
the husband from the wife and the parent from the child becomes
inevitable if their bonds shall be enforced.

To your hearty co-operation then, gentlemen, these unhappy
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Manuscripts & Archives

4

L.C. Am. Col. Soc. 1827.

R.H.Wilde to Pres. and Board of
Managers of the Col.Soc. Nov. 30, 1827.

beings must look in one way or the other for the preservation of
ties, almost as dear to them as life itself: and though such inter-
ference may not be strictly one of the objects of your association,
it is a work of humanity in which I look confidently for the aid
of your friends in congress should it be necessary.

I have said as little as possible of myself in relation to this
matter. A few words however may be necessary. There is no great
danger I trust, that I should seek to establish any precedent by
which the laws might be evaded, and none that I should attempt to
evade them myself. But there is much that I may suffer by the
prejudices either of my own fellow citizens or the too zealous
abolitionists.

Some may suspect me of interested motives and others impute
to me dangerous fanaticism or morbid sensibility. From the unchar-
itable constructions of both, I appeal to the terms of this offer;
to my past life, and the fair judgments of just candid and honorable
men.

For any additional information on this subject, I refer you
to the Hon. Mr Bowier [?] of the Senate, Hon. Wm Johnson of the
Supreme Court: Hon. Mr White of Florida, and Mr Key of Georgetown.
The first named gentleman, in order to avoid the delays of corres-
pondence, has full power to act for me according to his discretion
in every thing connected with this subject.

I am

Gentn

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Manuscripts & Archives

Yr Obt ?

L. C. Am. Col. Soc. Letters, 1827.

At a special meeting of the Board Decr 12 1827.
Rev J. N. Campbell in the Chair

Present -- Dr Randall -- Mr Hawley -- Mr Seaton
Mr Underwood and Mr Gurley --
Resolved.

That this Board entertain great respect for the humane pro-
ceedings of the Hon R. H Wilde in regard to the 39 captured Afri-
cans, for some years past in the custody of the U. States and
recently adjudged by the Supreme Court to the Spanish -- and that
the Board laments that it is not compatible with the principles of
the society, or within its ability to refund to Mr Wilde the amount
which he has expended in the purchase of the rights of the Spanish
claimants for the purpose of transporting them to the coast of
Africa. The Board however, hope that Congress may be prevailed on,
either humanely to refund to Mr Wilde the amount he has expended,
and authorize the Society to send the Africans to the Colony in
Africa, or absolve Mr Wilde from the obligation of tearing these
unfortunate people from their families and sending them into a state
of Slavery beyond the limits of the United States. --

L. C. Am. Col. Soc., Letters,
1828.

Cyrus Griffin to R. R. Gurley, Agent.

Natchez (Miss, 6 April 1828)

Dear Sir.

It affords me the highest gratification to say the bearer
of this letter is Prinu the captive Moor in whose behalf I ad-
dressed you in February last. Since the date of my letter he has
been manumitted and now ? to Washington at the expense
of the U. States.

Prinu, ascertaining that he was about to return to his
native country, became deeply solicitous that his aged wife might
accompany him. I immediately issued a paper for subscriptions and
so great was the respect for this unfortunate man that the sum of
two hundred dollars, the price at which his wife was valued by her
master, was raised. I believe in twenty four hours. We are able
of course to forward her and Prinu by the same conveyance. They
have children and most devoutly wish they might go with them, but
the probability of their manumission is almost precluded by the
fact that they would command in market a price beyond the reach of
Southern benevolence when applied to the slave population.

The murderous traffic. Though we cannot approve the motive which prompts Great Britain to suppress the slave-trade, we are truly grateful for her practice in respect to it. We observe that two other vessels have been captured at Bonny, on the coast of Africa, by the boats of the *Tartar* and *Thistle*. One of them was a schooner of many heavy guns and an abundance of small arms, manned by about fifty "of the most desperate fellows unhung," as the account says, and great address, as well as some very severe fighting, was necessary to take her. She had Spanish colors, but her crew, by their language, were chiefly American or English, who appeared to be excessively alarmed at their condition, after capture, fearfully looking to their well-earned reward—the gallows. On board this vessel were 450 slaves, among whom the dysentery already prevailed, by which many had died, and the dead and dying were mixed together. The other was under the Portuguese flag, and, having only just commenced business, had only about 100 slaves on board. In the former, the women, who were said to be comfortably stowed compared with the men, had a room four feet high, sixteen feet long, and nine feet wide to sleep in—one hundred of them were crammed into this place, wherein the thermometer stood at 100°. We pray that in some of the captures made, evidence may be had to convict some of the principals in this nefarious trade. The execution of a dozen or two persons living in the United States, would do much to check it, and save hundreds of lives in a year. It is remarkable that the sharks, in great numbers, always hover round a slave-ship—which they seem to know just as well as a well-beed pointer does his game.

*Niles' Register*, XXI. 163, Nov. 10, 1821.