The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 827 pages of information about The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839).

The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 827 pages of information about The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839).
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.

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