The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition - Thomas Clarkson
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The extraordinary part which the Lord Chancellor Thurlow took upon this
occasion, was ascribed at the time by many who moved in the higher
circles, to a shyness or misunderstanding which had taken place between
him and Mr. Pitt on other matters; when, believing this bill to have
been a favourite measure with the latter, he determined to oppose it.
But whatever were his motives (and let us hope that he could never have
been actuated by so malignant a spirit as that of sacrificing the
happiness of forty thousand persons for the next year to spite the
gratification of an individual), his opposition had a mischievous
effect, on account of the high situation in which he stood; for he not
only influenced some of the Lords themselves, but, by taking the cause
of the slave-merchants so conspicuously under his wing, he gave them
boldness to look up again under the stigma of their iniquitous calling,
and courage even to resume vigorous operations after their disgraceful
defeat. Hence arose those obstacles which will be found to have been
thrown in the way of the passing of the bill from this period.
Among the Lords who are to be particularly noticed as having taken the
same side as the Lord Chancellor in this debate, were the Duke of
Chandos and the Earl of Sandwich. The former foresaw nothing but
insurrections of the slaves in our islands, and the massacre of their
masters there, in consequence of the agitation of this question. The
latter expected nothing less than the ruin of our marine. He begged the
house to consider how, by doing that which might bring about the
abolition of this traffic, they might lessen the number of British
sailors; how, by throwing it into the hands of France they might
increase those of a rival nation; and how, in consequence, the flag of
the latter might ride triumphant on the ocean. The Slave Trade was
undoubtedly a nursery for our seamen. All objections against it in this
respect were ill-founded. It was as healthy as the Newfoundland and many
other trades.
The debate having closed, during which nothing more was done than
filling up the blanks with the time when the bill was to begin to
operate, the committee was adjourned. But the bill after this dragged on
so heavily, that it would be tedious to detail the proceedings upon it
from day to day. I shall, therefore, satisfy myself with the following
observations concerning them:--The committee sat not less than five
different times, which consumed the space of eight days, before a final
decision took place. During this time, so much was it an object to throw
in obstacles which might occupy the little remaining time of the
session, that other petitions were presented against the bill, and leave
was asked, on new pretences contained in these, that counsel might be
heard again. Letters also were read from Jamaica, about the mutinous
disposition of the slaves there, in consequence of the stir which had
been made about the abolition; and also from merchants in France, by
which large offers were made to the British merchants to furnish them
with slaves. Several regulations also were proposed in this interval,
some of which were negatived by majorities of only one or two voices. Of
the regulations which were carried, the most remarkable were those
proposed by Lord Hawkesbury (afterwards Liverpool); namely, that no
insurance should be made on the slaves, except against accidents by fire
and water; that persons should not be appointed as officers of vessels
transporting them, who had not been a certain number of such voyages
before; that a regular surgeon only should be capable of being employed
in them; and that both the captain and surgeon should have bounties, if,
in the course of the transportation, they had lost only two in a hundred
slaves. The Duke of Chandos again, and Lord Sydney, were the more
conspicuous among the opposers of the humane bill; and the Duke of
Richmond, the Marquis Townshend, the Earl of Carlisle, the Bishop of
London, and Earl Stanhope, among the most strenuous supporters of it. At
length it passed by a majority of nineteen to eleven votes.
On the 4th of July, when the bill had been returned to the Commons, it
was moved, that the amendments made in it by the Lords should be read;
but as it had become a money-bill in consequence of the bounties to be
granted, and as new regulations were to be incorporated in it, it was
thought proper that it should be wholly done away. Accordingly Sir
William Dolben moved, that the further consideration of it should be put
off till that day three months. This having been agreed upon, he then
moved for leave to bring in a new bill. This was accordingly introduced,
and an additional clause was inserted in it, relative to bounties, by
Mr. Pitt. But on the second reading, that no obstacle might be omitted
which could legally be thrown in the way of its progress, petitions were
presented against it, both by the Liverpool merchants and the agent for
the island of Jamaica, under the pretence that it was a new bill. Their
petitions, however, were rejected, and it was committed and passed
through its regular stages, and sent up to the Lords.
On its arrival there on the 5th of July, petitions from London and
Liverpool still followed it. The prayer of these was against the general
tendency of it, but it was solicited also that counsel might be heard in
a particular case; the solicitation was complied with; after which the
bill was read a second time, and ordered to be committed.
On the 7th, when it was taken next into consideration, two other
petitions were presented against it. But here so many objections were
made to the clauses of it as they then stood, and such new matter
suggested that the Duke of Richmond, who was a strenuous supporter of
it, thought it best to move that the committee then sitting should be
deferred till that day seven-night, in order to give time for another
more perfect to originate in the lower house.
This motion having been acceded to, Sir William Dolben introduced a new
one for the third time into the Commons. This included the suggestions
which had been made in the Lords. It included also a regulation, on the
motion of Mr. Sheridan, that no surgeon should be employed as such in
the slave-vessels, except he had a testimonial that he had passed a
proper examination at Surgeon's Hall. The amendments were all then
agreed to, and the bill was passed through its several stages.
On the 10th of July, being now fully amended it came for a third time
before the Lords; but it was no sooner brought forward than it met with
the same opposition as it had experienced before. Two new petitions
appeared against it; one from a certain class of persons in Liverpool,
and another from Miles Peter Andrews, Esq., stating that if it passed
into a law it would injure the sale of his gunpowder, and that he had
rendered great services to the government during the last war, by his
provision of that article. But here the Lord Chancellor Thurlow reserved
himself for an effort, which, by occasioning only a day's delay, would,
in that particular period of the session have totally prevented the
passing of the bill. He suggested certain amendments for consideration
and discussion which, if they had agreed upon, must have been carried
again to the lower House, and sanctioned there before the bill could
have been complete. But it appeared afterwards, that there would have
been no time for the latter proceeding. Earl Stanhope, therefore,
pressed this circumstance peculiarly upon the lords who were present. He
observed that the king was to dismiss the parliament next day, and
therefore they must adopt the bill as it stood, or reject it altogether.
There was no alternative, and no time was to be lost: accordingly, he
moved for an immediate division on the first of the amendments proposed
by Lord Thurlow. This having taken place, it was negatived. The other
amendments shared the same fate; and thus, at length, passed through the
Upper House, as through an ordeal as it were of fire, the first bill
that ever put fetters upon that barbarous and destructive monster, the
Slave Trade.
The next day, or on Friday, July the 11th, the king gave his assent to
it, and, as Lord Stanhope had previously asserted in the House of Lords,
concluded the session.
While the legislature was occupied in the consideration of this bill,
the lords of the council continued their examinations, that they might
collect as much light as possible previously to the general agitation of
the question in the next session of parliament. Among others I underwent
an examination: I gave my testimony first, relative to many of the
natural productions of Africa, of which I produced the specimens. These
were such as I had collected in the course of my journey to Bristol and
Liverpool, and elsewhere. I explained, secondly, the loss and usage of
seamen in the Slave Trade. To substantiate certain points, which
belonged to this branch of the subject, I left several depositions and
articles of agreement for the examination of the council. With respect
to others, as it would take a long time to give all the data upon which
calculations had been made, and the manner of making them, I was desired
to draw up a statement of particulars, and to send it to the council at
a future time. I left also depositions with them, relative to certain
instances of the mode of procuring and treating slaves.
The committee also for effecting the abolition of the Slave Trade
continued their attention, during this period, towards the promotion of
the different objects which came within the range of the institution.
They added the Rev. Dr. Coombe, in consequence of the great increase of
their business, to the list of their members.
They voted thanks to Mr. Hughes, vicar of Ware, in Hertfordshire, for
his excellent answer to Harris's _Scriptural Researches on the Licitness
of the Slave Trade_, and they enrolled him among their honorary and
corresponding members. Also thanks to William Roscoe, Esq., for his
Answer to the same. Mr. Roscoe had not affixed his name to this pamphlet
any more than to his poem of _The Wrongs of Africa_; but he made himself
known to the committee as the author of both. Also thanks to William
Smith and Henry Beaufoy, Esqrs., for having so successfully exposed the
evidence offered by the slave merchants against the bill of Sir William
Dolben, and for having drawn out of it so many facts, all making for
their great object the abolition of the Slave Trade.
As the great question was to be discussed in the approaching sessions,
it was moved in the committee to consider of the propriety of sending
persons to Africa and the West Indies, who should obtain information
relative to the different branches of the system as they existed in each
of these countries, in order that they might be able to give their
testimony, from their own experience, before one or both of the houses
of parliament, as it might be judged proper. This proposition was
discussed at two or three several meetings. It was, however, finally
rejected, and principally on the following grounds--First, It was
obvious that persons sent out upon such an errand would be exposed to
such dangers from varying causes, that it was not improbably that both
they and their testimony might be lost. Secondly, Such persons would be
obliged to have recourse to falsehoods, that is, to conceal or
misrepresent the objects of their destination, that they might get their
intelligence with safety; which falsehoods the committee could not
countenance. To which it was added, that few persons would go to these
places, except they were handsomely rewarded for their trouble; but this
reward would lessen the value of their evidence, as it would afford a
handle to the planters and slave-merchants to say that they had been
bribed.
Another circumstance which came before the committee was the
following:--Many arguments were afloat at this time relative to the
great impolicy of abolishing the Slave Trade, the principal of which
was, that, if the English abandoned it, other foreign nations would take
it up; and thus, while they gave up certain national profits themselves,
the great cause of humanity would not be benefited, nor would any moral
good be done by the measure. Now there was a presumption that, by means
of the society instituted in Paris, the French nation might be awakened
to this great subject; and that the French government might in
consequence, as well as upon other considerations, be induced to favour
the general feeling upon this occasion. But there was no reason to
conclude, either than any other maritime people, who had been engaged in
the Slave Trade, would relinquish it, or that any other, who had not yet
been engaged in it, would not begin it when our countrymen should give
it up. The consideration of these circumstances occupied the attention
of the committee; and as Dr. Spaarman, who was said to have been
examined by the privy council, was returning home, it was thought
advisable to consider whether it would not be proper for the committee
to select certain of their own books on the subject of the Slave Trade,
and send them by him, accompanied by a letter, to the King of Sweden, in
which they should entreat his consideration of this powerful argument
which now stood in the way of the cause of humanity, with a view that,
as one of the princes of Europe, he might contribute to obviate it, by
preventing his own subjects, in case of the dereliction of this commerce
by ourselves, from embarking in it. The matter having been fully
considered, it was resolved that the proposed measure would be proper,
and it was accordingly adapted. By a letter received afterwards from Dr.
Spaarman, it appeared that both the letter and the books had been
delivered, and received graciously; and that he was authorized to say,
that, unfortunately, in consequence of those hereditary possessions
which had devolved upon His Majesty, he was obliged to confess that he
was the sovereign of an island which had been principally peopled by
African slaves, but that he had been frequently mindful of their hard
case. With respect to the Slave Trade, he never heard of an instance in
which the merchants of his own native realm had embarked in it; and as
they had preserved their character pure in this respect, he would do all
he could that it should not be sullied in the eyes of the generous
English nation, by taking up, in the case which had been pointed out to
him, such an odious concern.
By this time I had finished my _Essay on the Impolicy of the Slave
Trade_, which I composed from materials collected chiefly during my
journey to Bristol, Liverpool, and Lancaster. These materials I had
admitted with great caution and circumspection; indeed I admitted none
for which I could not bring official and other authentic documents, or
living evidences if necessary, whose testimony could not reasonably be
denied; and when I gave them to the world, I did it under the impression
that I ought to give them as scrupulously as if I were to be called upon
to substantiate them upon oath. It was of peculiar moment that this book
should make its appearance at this time. First, Because it would give
the lords of the council, who were then sitting, an opportunity of
seeing many important facts, and of inquiring into their authenticity;
and it might suggest to them, also, some new points, or such as had not
fallen within the limits of the arrangement they had agreed upon for
their examinations on this subject: and secondly, Because, as the
members of the House of Commons were to take the question into
consideration early in the next sessions, it would give them, also, new
light and information upon it before this period. Accordingly the
committee ordered two thousand copies of it to be struck off, for these
and other objects; and though the contents of it were most diligently
sifted by the different opponents of the cause, they never even made an
attempt to answer it. It continued, on the other hand, during the
inquiry of the legislature, to afford the basis or grounds upon which to
examine evidences on the political part of the subject; and evidences
thus examined continued in their turn to establish it.
Among the other books ordered to be printed by the committee within the
period now under our consideration, were a new edition of two thousand
of the DEAN OF MIDDLEHAM'S _Letter_, and another of three thousand of
FALCONBBIDGE'S _Account of the Slave Trade_.
The committee continued to keep ups, during the same period, a
communication with many of their old correspondents, whose names have
been already mentioned. But they received, also, letters from others,
who had not hitherto addressed them: namely, from Ellington Wright, of
Erith; Dr. Franklin, of Philadelphia; Eustace Kentish, Esq., high
sheriff for the county of Huntingdon; Governor Bouchier; the Reverend
Charles Symmons, of Haverfordwest; and from John York and William
Downes, Esquires, high sheriffs for the counties of York and Hereford.
A letter, also, was read in this interval from Mr. Evans, a dissenting
clergyman, of Bristol, stating that the elders of several Baptist
churches, forming the western Baptist association, who had met at,
Portsmouth Common, had resolved to recommend it to the ministers and
members of the same, to unite with the committee in the promotion of the
great object of their institution.
Another from Mr. Andrew Irvin, of the Island of Grenada, in which he
confirmed the wretched situation of many of the slaves there, and in
which he gave the outlines of a plan for bettering their condition, as
well as that of those in the other islands.
Another from I.L. Wynne, Esq., of Jamaica. In this he gave an afflicting
account of the suffering and unprotected state of the slaves there,
which it was high time to rectify. He congratulated the committee on
their institution, which he thought would tend to promote so desirable
an end; but desired them not to stop short of the total abolition of the
Slave Trade, as no other measure would prove effectual against the evils
of which he complained. This trade, he said, was utterly unnecessary, as
his own plantation, on which his slaves had increased rapidly by
population, and others which he knew to be similarly circumstanced,
would abundantly testify. He concluded by promising to give the
committee such information from time to time as might be useful on this
important subject.
The session of parliament having closed, the committee thought it right
to make a report to the public: in which they gave an account of the
great progress of their cause since the last; of the state in which they
then were; and of the unjustifiable conduct of their opponents, who
industriously misrepresented their views, but particularly by
attributing to them the design of abolishing slavery: and they concluded
by exhorting their friends not to relax their endeavours on account of
favourable appearances; but to persevere, as if nothing had been done,
under the pleasing hope of an honourable triumph.
And now having given the substance of the labours of the committee from
its formation to the present time, I cannot conclude this chapter
without giving to the worthy members of it that tribute of affectionate
and grateful praise, which is due to them for their exertions in having
forwarded the great cause which was intrusted to their care. And this I
can do with more propriety, because, having been so frequently absent
from them when they were engaged in the pursuit of this their duty, I
cannot be liable to the suspicion, that in bestowing commendation upon
them I am bestowing it upon myself. From about the end of May, 1787, to
the middle of July, 1788, they had no less than fifty-one committees.
These generally occupied them from about six in the evening till about
eleven at night. In the intervals between the committees they were often
occupied, having each of them some object committed to his charge. It is
remarkable, too, that though they were all, except one, engaged in,
business or trade, and though they had the same calls as other men for
innocent recreation, and the same interruptions of their health, there
were individuals who were not absent more than five or six times within
this period. In the course of the thirteen months, during which they had
exercised this public trust, they had printed, and afterwards
distributed, not at random, but judiciously, and through, respectable
channels, (besides 26,526 reports, accounts of debates in parliament,
and other small papers,) no less than 51,432 pamphlets, or books.
Nor, was the effect, produced within this short period otherwise than
commensurate with the efforts used. In May, 1787, the only public notice
taken of this great cause was by this committee of twelve individuals,
of whom all were little known to the world except Mr. Granville Sharp.
But in July, 1788, it had attracted the notice of several distinguished
individuals in France and Germany; and in our own country it had come
within the notice of the government, and a branch of it had undergone a
parliamentary discussion and restraint. It had arrested, also, the
attention of the nation, and it had produced a kind of holy flame, or
enthusiasm, and this to a degree and to an extent never before
witnessed. Of the purity of this flame no better proof can be offered,
than that even Bishops deigned to address an obscure committee,
consisting principally of Quakers; and that Churchmen and Dissenters
forgot their difference of religious opinions, and joined their hands,
all over the kingdom, in its support.
CHAPTER XXIV.
[Sidenote: Continuation from June 1788 to July 1789.--Author travels to
collect further evidence; great difficulties in obtaining it; forms
committees on his tour.--Privy council resume the examinations; inspect
cabinet of African productions; obliged to leave many of the witnesses
in behalf of the abolition unexamined; prepare their report--Labours of
the committee in the interim.--Proceedings of the planters and
others.--Report laid on the table of the House of Commons.--Introduction
of the question, and debate there; twelve propositions deduced from the
report and reserved for future discussion; day of discussion arrives;
opponents refuse to argue from the report; require new evidence; this
granted and introduced; further consideration of the subject deferred to
the next session.--Renewal of Sir William Dolben's bill.--Death and
character of Ramsay.]
Matters had now become serious. The gauntlet had been thrown down and
accepted. The combatants had taken their stations, and the contest was
to be renewed, which was to be decided soon on the great theatre of the
nation. The committee by the very act of their institution had
pronounced the Slave Trade to be criminal. They, on the other hand, who
were concerned in it, had denied the charge. It became the one to prove,
and the other to refute it, or to fall in the ensuing session.
The committee, in this perilous situation, were anxious to find out such
other persons as might become proper evidences before the privy council.
They had hitherto sent there only nine or ten, and they had then only
another, whom they could count upon for this purpose, in their view. The
proposal of sending persons to Africa, and the West Indies, who might
come back and report what they had witnessed, had already been
negatived. The question then was, what they were to do. Upon this they
deliberated, and the result was an application to me to undertake a
journey to different parts of the kingdom for this purpose.
When this determination was made, I was at Teston, writing a long letter
to the privy council on the ill usage and mortality of the seamen
employed in the Slave Trade, which it had been previously agreed should
be received as evidence there. I thought it proper, however, before I
took my departure, to form a system of questions upon the general
subject. These I divided into six tables. The first related to the
productions of Africa, and the dispositions and manners of the natives.
The second, to the methods of reducing them to slavery. The third, to
the manner of bringing them to the ships, their value, the medium of
exchange, and other circumstances. The fourth, to their transportation.
The fifth, to their treatment in the colonies. The sixth, to the seamen
employed in the trade. These tables contained together one hundred and
forty-five questions. My idea was that they should be printed on a small
sheet of paper, which should be folded up in seven or eight leaves, of
the length and breadth of a small almanac, and then be sent in franks to
our different correspondents. These, when they had them, might examine
persons capable of giving evidence, who might live in their
neighbourhoods, or fall in their way, and return us their examinations
by letter.
The committee having approved and printed the tables of questions, I
began my tour. I had selected the southern counties from Kent to
Cornwall for it. I had done this, because these included the great
stations of the ships of war in ordinary; and as these were all under
the superintendence of Sir Charles Middleton, as comptroller of the
navy, I could get an introduction to those on board them. Secondly,
because sea-faring people, when they retire from a marine life, usually
settle in some town or village upon the coast.