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and disabled seamen; takes a mate out of one of the slave-vessels, and puts
another in prison for murder.
18. CHAPTER XVII Visits Liverpool.—Specimens of African produce.—Dock
duties.—Iron instruments used in the traffic.—His introduction to Mr. Norris.
19. CHAPTER XVIII Manner of procuring and paying seamen at Liverpool in the
Slave Trade; their treatment and mortality.—Murder of Peter Green.—
Dangerous situation of the Author in consequence of his inquiries.
20. CHAPTER XIX Author proceeds to Manchester; delivers a discourse there on
the subject of the Slave Trade.—Revisits Bristol; new and difficult situation
there; suddenly crosses the Severn at night.—Returns to London.
21. CHAPTER XX Labours of the Committee during the Author's journey.—Mr.
Sharp elected chairman.—Seal engraved.—Letters from different
correspondents to the Committee.
22. CHAPTER XXI Further labours of the Committee to February, 1788.—List of
new Correspondents.
23. CHAPTER XXII Progress of the cause to the middle of May.—Petitions to
Parliament.—Author's interviews with Mr. Pitt and Mr. Grenville.—Privy
Council inquire into the subject; examine Liverpool delegates.—Proceedings of
the Committee for the Abolition.—Motion and Debate in the House of
Commons; discussion of the general question postponed to the next Session.
24. CHAPTER XXIII Progress to the middle of July.—Bill to diminish the horrors
of the Middle Passage; Evidence examined against it; Debates; Bill passed
through both Houses.—Proceedings of the Committee, and effects of them.
25. CHAPTER XXIV Continuation from June, 1788, to July, 1789.—Author
travels in search of fresh evidence.—Privy Council resume their examinations;
prepare their report.—Proceedings of the Committee for the Abolition; and of
the Planters and others.—Privy Council report laid on the table of the House of
Commons; debate upon it.—Twelve propositions.—Opponents refuse to argue
from the report; examine new evidence of their own in the House of
Commons.—Renewal of the Middle Passage Bill.—Death and character of
Ramsay.
26. CHAPTER XXV Continuation from July, 1789, to July, 1790.—Author travels
to Paris to promote the abolition in France; his proceedings there; returns to
England.—Examination of opponents' evidence resumed in the Commons.—
Author travels in quest of new evidence on the side of the Abolition; this, after
great opposition, introduced.—Renewal of the Middle Passage Bill.—Section
of the slave-ship.—Cowper's Negro's Complaint.—Wedgewood's Cameos.
27. CHAPTER XXVI Continuation from July, 1790, to July, 1791.—Author
travels again.—Examinations on the side of the Abolition resumed in the
Commons; list of those examined.—Cruel circumstances of the times.—
Motion for the Abolition of the Trade; debates; motion lost.—Resolutions of
the Committee.—Sierra Leone Company established.
28. CHAPTER XXVII Continuation from July, 1791, to July, 1792.—Author
travels again.—People begin to leave off sugar; petition Parliament.—Motion
renewed in the Commons; debates; abolition resolved upon, but not to
commence till 1796.—The Lords determine upon hearing evidence on the
resolution; this evidence introduced; further hearing of it postponed to the next
Session
29. CHAPTER XXVIII Continuation from July, 1792, to July, 1793.—Author
travels again.—Motion to renew the Resolution of the last year in the
Commons; motion lost.—New motion to abolish the foreign Slave Trade;
motion lost.—Proceeding of the Lords
30. CHAPTER XXIX Continuation from July, 1793, to July, 1794.—Author
travels again.—Motion to abolish the foreign Slave Trade renewed, and
carried; but lost in the Lords; further proceedings there.—Author, on account
of declining health, obliged to retire from the cause
31. CHAPTER XXX Continuation from July, 1794, to July, 1799.—Various
motions within this period
32. CHAPTER XXXI Continuation from July, 1799, to July, 1805.—Various
motions within this period
33. CHAPTER XXXII Continuation from July, 1805, to July, 1806.—Author,
restored, joins the Committee again.—Death of Mr. Pitt.—Foreign Slave Trade
abolished.—Resolution to take measures for the total abolition of the trade.—
Address to the King to negotiate with foreign powers for their concurrence in
it.—Motion to prevent new vessels going into the trade.—All these carried
through both Houses of Parliament
34. CHAPTER XXXIII Continuation from July, 1806, to July, 1807.—Death of
Mr. Fox.—Bill for the total abolition carried in the Lords; sent from thence to
the Commons; amended, and passed there, and sent back to the Lords; receives
the royal assent.—Reflections on this great event
35. Map
36. Plan and Sections of a Slave Ship
PREFATORY REMARKS
TO
THE PRESENT EDITION.
The invaluable services rendered by Thomas Clarkson to the great question of the
Slave Trade in all its branches, have been universally acknowledged both at home and
abroad, and have gained him a high place among the greatest benefactors of mankind.
The History of the Abolition which this volume contains, affords some means of
appreciating the extent of his sacrifices and his labours in this cause. But after these,
with the unwearied exertions of William Wilberforce, had conducted its friends to
their final triumph, in 1807, they did not then rest from their labours. There remained
four most important objects, to which the anxious attention of all Abolitionists was
now directed.
First,—The law had been passed, forced upon the Planters, the Traders, and the
Parliament, by the voice of the people; and there was a necessity for keeping a
watchful eye over its execution.
Secondly,—The statute, however rigorously it might be enforced, left, of course, the
whole amount of the Foreign Slave traffic untouched, and it was infinitely to be
desired that means should be adopted for extending our Abolition to other nations.
Thirdly,—Some compensation was due to Africa, for the countless miseries which our
criminal conduct had for ages inflicted upon her, and strict justice, to say nothing of
common humanity and Christian charity, demanded that every means should be used
for aiding in the progress of her civilization, and effacing as far as possible the
dreadful marks which had been left upon her by our crimes.
Lastly,—Many of those whom we had transported by fraud and violence from their
native country, and still more of the descendants of others who had fallen a sacrifice to
our cruelties, and perished in the course of nature, slaves in a foreign land, remained
to suffer the dreadful evils of West India bondage. It seemed to follow, that the
earliest opportunity consistent with their own condition, should be taken to free those
unhappy beings, the victims of our sordid cruelty; and all the more to be pitied, as we
were all the more to be blamed, because one result of our transgression was the having
placed them in so unnatural a position, that their enemies might seem to be furnished
with an argument more plausible than sound, drawn from the Negro's supposed
unfitness for immediate emancipation.
In order to promote these four great objects, a society was formed in May 1807, called
the African Institution, and although, at first, its labours were chiefly directed to the
portion of the subject relating to Africa, by degrees, as the extinction of the British
Slave Trade was accomplished, its care was chiefly bestowed on West India matters,
which were more within the power of this country than the slave traffic, still carried
on by foreign nations. But it is necessary in the first place, to recite the measures by
which our own share in that enormous crime was surrendered, and the stigma partially
obliterated, which it had brought upon our national character, Thomas Clarkson bore a
forward and important part in all these useful and virtuous proceedings. His health
was now, by rest among the Lakes of Westmoreland for several years, comparatively
restored and his mind once more bent itself to the accomplishment of the grand object;
of his life, we may he permitted reverently to suggest, the end of his existence.
Mr. Stephen and others, at first, deemed the certainty of the Act passed in March
1807, being evaded under the stimulus, and the insurance against capture afforded by
the enormous profits of the traffic, so clear, that they expected the law to become,
almost from the time of its being enacted, a dead letter. There soon appeared the
strongest reasons to concur in this opinion, the result of long and close observation in
the Islands where Mr. Stephen had passed part of his life. The slave-dealers knew the
risk of penalty and forfeiture which they ran; but they also knew that if one voyage in
three or four was successful, they were abundantly remunerated for all their losses;
and, therefore, they were no more restrained by the Abolition Act, than by any
moderate increase of the cost or the risk attending their wicked adventures. This was
sure, to be the case, as long as the law only treated slavetrading as a contraband
commerce, subjecting those who drove it to nothing but pecuniary penalties. But it
was equally evident that the same persons who made these calculations of profit and
risk, while they only could lose the ship or the money by a seizure, would hesitate
before they encountered the hazard of being tried as for a crime. And, surely, if ever
these was an act which deserved to be declared felony, and dealt with as such, it was
this of slave-trading. Accordingly, in 1810, Mr. Brougham, then a member of the
House of Commons, in moving an address to the crown, (which was unanimously
agreed to,) for more vigorous measures against the traffic, both British and Foreign,
gave notice of the Bill, which he next year carried through Parliament, and which
declared the traffic to be a felony, punishable with transportation. Some years
afterwards it was by another Act made capital, under the name of Piracy, but this has
since been repealed. Several convictions have taken place under the former Act, (of
1811,) and there cannot be the least doubt that the law has proved effectual, and that
the Slave Trade has long ceased to exist as far as the British dominions are concerned.
That foreign states continue shamefully to carry it on, is no less certain. There are
yearly transported to Cuba and Brazil, above 100,000 unhappy beings, by the two
weakest nations in Europe, and these two most entirely subject to the influence and
even direct control of England. The inevitable consequence is, that more misery is
now inflicted on Africa by the criminals, gently called Slave-traders, of these two
guilty nations, than if there were no treaties for the abolition of the traffic. The number
required is always carried over, and hence, as many perish by a miserable death in
escaping from the cruisers, as reach their destination. The recitals of horror which
have been made to Parliament and the country on this dreadful subject, are enough to
curdle the blood in the veins and heart of any one endued with the common feelings of
humanity. The whole system of prevention, or rather of capture, after the crime has
been committed, seems framed with a view to exasperate the evils of the infernal
traffic, to scourge Africa with more intolerable torments, and to make human blood be
spilt like water. Our cruisers, are excited to an active discharge of their duty, by the
benefit of sharing in the price fetched when the captured ship is condemned and sold;
but this is a small sum, indeed, compared with the rich reward of head-money held
out, being so much for every slave taken on board. It is thus made the direct interest of
these cruisers, that the vessels should have their human cargoes on board, rather than
be prevented from shipping them. True, this vile policy may prove less mischievous
where no treaty exists, giving a right to seize when there are no slaves in the vessel,
because here a slave ship is suffered to pass, how clear soever her destination might
be; yet, even here, the inducement to send in boats, and seize as soon as a slave or two
may be on board, is removed, and the cruiser is told, "only let all these wretched
beings be torn from their country, and safely lodged in the vessel's hold, and your
reward is great and sure." Then, whenever there is an outfit clause, that is a power to
seize vessels fitted for the traffic, this mischievous plan tends directly to make the
cruiser let the slaver make ready and put to sea, or it has no tendency or meaning at
all. Accordingly, the course is for the cruiser to stand out to sea, and not allow herself
to be seen in the offing—the crime is consummated—the slaves are stowed away—the
pirate—captain weighs anchor—the pirate-vessel freighted with victims, and manned
by criminals fares forth—the cruiser, the British cruiser, gives chace—and then begin
those scenes of horror, surpassing all that the poet ever conceived, whose theme was
the torments of the damned and the wickedness of the fiends. Casks are filled with the
slave, and in these they are stowed away; or to lighten the vessel, they are flung
overboard by the score; sometimes they are flung overboard in casks, that the chasing
ship may be detained by endeavours to pick them up; the dying and the dead strew the
deck; women giving birth to the fruit of the womb, amidst the corpses of their
husbands and their children; and other, yet worse and nameless atrocities, fill up the
terrible picture, of impotent justice and triumphant guilt. But the guilt is not all
Spanish and Portuguese. The English Government can enforce its demands on the
puny cabinets of Madrid and Lisbon, scarce conscious of a substantive existence, in
all that concerns our petty interests: wherever justice and mercy to mankind demand
our interference, there our voice sinks within us, and no sound is uttered. That any
treaty without an outfit clause should be suffered to exist between powers so situated,
is an outrage upon all justice, all reason, all common sense. But one thing is certain,
that unless we are to go further, we have gone too far, and must in mercy to hapless
Africa retrace our steps. Unless we really put the traffic down with a strong hand, and
instantly, we must instantly repeal the treaties that pretended to abolish it, for these
exacerbate the evil a hundred fold, and are ineffectual to any one purpose but putting
money into the pockets of our men of war. The fact is as unquestionable, as it is
appalling, that all our anxious endeavours to extinguish the Foreign Slave Trade, have
ended in making it incomparably worse than it was before we pretended to put it
down; that owing to our efforts, there are thrice the number of slaves yearly torn from
Africa; and that wholly because of our efforts, two thirds of these are murdered on the
high seas and in the holds of the pirate vessels.
It is said, that when these scenes were described to an indignant nation last session of
Parliament, the actual effects of this bad system were denied, though its tendency
could not be disputed.
It was averred that "no British seaman could be capable of neglecting his duty for the
sake of increasing the gains of the station." But nothing could be more absurd than
this. Can the direct and inevitable tendency of the head-money system be doubted?
Are cruisers the only men over whom motives have no influence? Then why offer a
reward at all? When they want no stimulus to perform their duty, why tell them that if
the ship is empty, they get a hundred pounds: if laden, five thousand? They know the
rules of arithmetic;—they understand the force of numbers. But, in truth, there is not
an individual on all the coast of Africa who will be misled by such appeals, or suffer
all this to divert them from their purpose of denouncing the system. There are persons
high in rank among the best servants of the crown, who know the facts from their own
observations, and who are ready to bear witness to the truth, in spite of all the attempts
that have been made to silence them.
The other great object of the African Institution regarded the West Indies. The
preparation of the negroes for that freedom which was their absolute right, and could
only be withheld for an hour, on the ground of their not being prepared for it, and
therefore being better without it, was the first thing to be accomplished. Here the
friends of the abolition, all but Mr. Stephen, suffered a great disappointment. He alone
had uniformly-foretold that the hopes held out, as it seemed very reasonably, of better
treatment resulting from the stoppage of the supply of hands, were fallacious. All else
had supposed that interest might operate on men whom principle had failed to sway;
that they whom no feelings of compassion for their fellow-creatures could move to do
their duty, might be touched by a feeling of their own advantage, when interest
coincided with duty. The Slave-mart is now closed, it was said; surely the stock on
hand will be saved by all means, and not wasted when it can no longer be replaced.
The argument was purposely rested on the low ground of regarding human beings as
cattle, or even as inanimate chattels, and it was conceived that human life would be
regarded of as much value as the wear and tear of beasts, of furniture, or of tools.
Hence it was expected that a better system of treatment would follow, from the law
which closed the African market, and warned every planter that his stock must be
spared by better treatment, and kept up by breeding, since it no longer could be, as it
hitherto had been, maintained by new supplies.
Two considerations were, in these arguments, kept out of view, both of a practical
nature, and both known to Mr. Stephen,—the cultivation of the Islands by agents
having wholly different interests from their masters, and the gambling spirit of trading
and culture which long habit had implanted in the West Indian nature. The comforts of
the slave depended infinitely more upon the agent on the spot, than the owner
generally resident in the mother country; and though the interest of the latter might
lead to the saving of negro life, and care for negro comforts, the agent had no such
motives to influence his conduct; besides, it was with the eyes of this agent that the
planter must see, and he gave no credence to any accounts but his. Now the
consequence of cruelty is to make men at war with its objects. No one but a most
irritable person feels angry with his beast, and even the anger of such a person is of a
moment's duration. But towards an inanimate chattel even the most irritable of sane
men can feel nothing like rage. Why? Because in the one case there is little, in the
other no conflict or resistance at all. It is otherwise with a slave; he is human, and can
disobey—can even resist. This feeling always rankles in his oppressor's bosom, and
makes the tyrannical superior hate, and the more oppress his slave. The agent on the
spot feels thus, and thus acts; nor can the voice of the owner at a distance be heard,
even if interest, clearly proved, were to prompt another course. But the chief cause of
the evil is the spirit of speculation, and it affects and rules resident owners even more
than absentees. Let sugar rise in price, and all cold calculations of ultimate loss to the
gang are lost in the vehement thirst of great present gain. All, or nearly all, planters
are in distressed circumstances. They look to the next few years as their time; and if
the sun shines they must make hay. They are in the mine, toiling for a season, with
every desire to escape and realize something to spend elsewhere. Therefore they make
haste to be rich, and care little, should the speculation answer and much sugar bring in
great gain, what becomes of the gang ten years hence. Add to all this, that any
interference of the local legislatures to discourage sordid or cruel management, to
clothe the slaves with rights, to prepare them for freedom by better education, to pave
the way for emancipation by restraining the master's power, to create an intermediate
State of transition from slavery to freedom by partial liberty, as by attaching them to
the soil, and placing them in the preparatory state through which our ancestors in
Europe passed from bondage in gross to entire independence—all such measures were
in the absolute discretion; not of the planters, but of the resident agents, one of the
worst communities in the world, who had little interest in preparing for an event
which they deprecated, and whose feelings of party, as well as individually, were all
ranged on the oppressor's side. All this Mr. Stephen, enlightened by experience, and
wise by long reflection, clearly and alone foresaw; all this vision of the future was too
surely realized by the event. No improvement of treatment took place; no additional
liberality in the supplies was shown; no abstinence in the exaction of labour appeared;
no interference of the Colonial Legislature to check misconduct was witnessed; far
less was the least disposition perceived to give any rights to the slaves, any security
against oppression, any title independent of his Master, any intermediate state or
condition which might prepare him for freedom. It is enough to say, that a measure
which every man, except Mr. Stephen, had regarded as the natural, almost the
necessary effect of the abolition—attaching the slaves to the soil—was not so much as
propounded, far less adopted; it may be even said, was never mentioned in any one
local assembly of any of our numerous colonies, during the thirty years which elapsed
between the abolition and the emancipation! This is unquestionable, and it is decisive.
As soon as it began to be perceived that such was likely to be the result of the
abolition in regard to the emancipation, Mr. Stephen's authority with his coadjutors,
always high, rose in proportion to the confirmations which the event had lent his
predictions; and his zealous endeavours and unwearied labours for the subversion of
the accursed system became both more extensive and more effectual. If, however,
strict justice requires the tribute which we have paid to this eminent person's
distinguished services, justice also renders it imperative on the historian of the
Abolition in all its branches, to record an error into which he fell. Having originally
maintained that the traffic would survive the Act of 1807, in which he was right, that
Act only imposing pecuniary penalties, he persisted in the same opinion after the Act
of 1811 had made slave-trading a felony; and long after it had been effectually put
down in the British dominions, he continued to maintain that it was carried on nearly
as much as ever, reasoning upon calculations drawn from the island returns. Hence he
insisted upon a general Registry Act, as essential to prevent the continuance of an
importation which had little or no real existence. The importance of such a measure
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