in spite of threats and punishments. Others had
thrown themselves into the sea; and more than one,
when in the act of drowning, were seen to wave their
hands in triumph, “exulting” (to use the
words of an eye-witness) “that they had escaped.”
Yet these and similar things, when viewed through
the African medium he had mentioned, took a different
shape and colour. Captain Knox, an adverse witness,
had maintained, that slaves lay during the night in
tolerable comfort. And yet he confessed, that
in a vessel of one hundred and twenty tons, in which
he had carried two hundred and ninety slaves, the latter
had not all of them room to lie on their backs.
How comfortably, then, must they have lain in his
subsequent voyages! for he carried afterwards, in a
vessel of a hundred and eight tons, four hundred and
fifty; and in a vessel of one hundred and fifty tons,
no less than six hundred slaves. Another instance
of African deception was to be found in the testimony
of Captain Frazer, one of the most humane captains
in the trade. It had been said of him, that he
had held hot coals to the mouth of a slave, to compel
him to eat. He was questioned on this point; but
not admitting, in the true spirit of African logic,
that he who makes another commit a crime is guilty
of it himself, he denied the charge indignantly, and
defied a proof. But it was said to him, “Did
you never order such a thing to be done?” His
reply was, “Being sick in my cabin, I was informed
that a man-slave would neither eat, drink, nor speak.
I desired the mate and surgeon to try to persuade
him to speak. I desired that the slaves might
try also. When I found he was still obstinate,
not knowing whether it was from sulkiness or insanity,
I ordered a person to present him with a piece of
fire in one hand, and a piece of yam in the other,
and to tell me what effect this had upon him.
I learnt that he took the yam and began to eat it,
but he threw the fire overboard.” Such was
his own account of the matter. This was eating
by duresse, if anything could be called so. The
captain, however, triumphed in his expedient; and
concluded by telling the committee, that he sold this
very slave at Grenada for forty pounds. Mark
here the moral of the tale, and learn the nature and
the cure of sulkiness.
But upon whom did the cruelties, thus arising out
of the prosecution of this barbarous traffic, fall?
Upon a people with feeling and intellect like ourselves.
One witness had spoken of the acuteness of their understandings;
another, of the extent of their memories; a third,
of their genius for commerce: a fourth, of their
proficiency in manufactures at home. Many had
admired their gentle and peaceable disposition, their
cheerfulness, and their hospitality. Even they
who were nominally slaves, in Africa lived a happy
life. A witness against the abolition had described
them as sitting and eating with their masters in the
true style of patriarchal simplicity and comfort.
Were these, then, a people incapable of civilization?
The argument that they were an inferior species had
been proved to be false.