The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition - Thomas Clarkson
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They voted their thanks to the Rev. Mr. Clifford, for his excellent
Sermon on the Slave Trade; to the pastor and congregation of the Baptist
church at Maze Pond, Southwark, for their liberal subscription; and to
John Barton, one of their own members, for the services he had rendered
them. The latter, having left his residence in town for one in the
country, solicited permission to resign, and hence this mark of
approbation was given to him. He was continued also as an honorary and
corresponding member.
They elected David Hartley and Richard Sharpe, Esqs., into their own
body, and Alexander Jaffray, Esq., the Rev. Charles Symmons, of
Haverfordwest, and the Rev. T. Burgess (afterwards bishop of Salisbury),
as honorary and corresponding members. The latter had written
_Considerations on the Abolition of Slavery and the Slave Trade, upon
grounds of natural, religious, and political Duty_, which had been of
great service to the cause.
Of the new correspondents of the committee within this period I may
first mention Henry Taylor, of North Shields; William Proud, of Hull;
the Rev. T. Gisborne, of Yoxall Lodge; and William Ellford, Esq., of
Plymouth. The latter as chairman of the Plymouth committee, sent up for
inspection an engraving of a plan and section of a slave-ship, in which
the bodies of the slaves were seen stowed in the proportion of rather
less than one to a ton. This happy invention gave all those who saw it a
much better idea, than they could otherwise have had, of the horrors of
their transportation, and contributed greatly, as will appear,
afterwards, to impress the public in favour of our cause.
The next, whom I shall mention, was C.L. Evans, Esq., of West Bromwich;
the Rev. T. Clarke, of Hull; S.P. Wolferstan, of Stratford, near
Tamworth; Edmund Lodge, Esq., of Halifax; the Rev. Caleb Rotheram, of
Kendal; and Mr. Campbell Haliburton, of Edinburgh. The news which Mr.
Haliburton sent was very agreeable. He informed us that, in consequence
of the great exertions of Mr. Alison, an institution had been formed in
Edinburgh, similar to that in London, which would take all Scotland
under its care and management, as far as related to this great subject.
He mentioned Lord Gardenston as the chairman; Sir William Forbes as the
deputy-chairman; himself as the secretary; and Lord Napier, Professor
Andrew Hunter, Professor Greenfield, and William Creech, Adam Rolland,
Alexander Ferguson, John Dickson, John Erskine, John Campbell, Archibald
Gibson, Archibald Fletcher, and Horatius Canning, Esqrs., as the
committee.
The others were, the Rev. J. Bidlake, of Plymouth; Joseph Storrs, of
Chesterfield; William Fothergill, of Carr End, Yorkshire; J. Seymour, of
Coventry; Moses Neave, of Poole; Joseph Taylor, of Scarborough; Timothy
Clark, of Doncaster; Thomas Davis, of Milverton; George Croker Fox, of
Falmouth; Benjamin Grubb, of Clonmell in Ireland; Sir William Forbes, of
Edinburgh; the Rev. J. Jamieson, of Forfar; and Joseph Gurney, of
Norwich; the latter of whom sent up a remittance, and intelligence at
the same time, that a committee, under Mr. Leigh, so often before
mentioned, had been formed in that city[A].
[Footnote A: On the removal of Mr. Leigh from Norwich, Dr. Pretyman,
precentor of Lincoln and a prebend of Norwich, succeeded him.]
But the committee in London, while they were endeavouring to promote the
object of their institution at home, continued their exertions for the
same purpose abroad within this period.
They kept up a communication with the different societies established in
America.
They directed their attention also to the continent of Europe. They had
already applied, as I mentioned before, to the king of Sweden in favour
of their cause, and had received a gracious answer. They now attempted
to interest other Potentates in it. For this purpose they bound up in an
elegant manner two sets of the _Essays on the Slavery and Commerce of
the Human Species, and on the Impolicy of the Slave Trade_, and sent
them to the Chevalier de Pinto, in Portugal. They bound up in a similar
manner three sets of the same, and sent them to Mr. Eden (afterwards
Lord Aukland), at Madrid, to be given to the king of Spain, the Count
d'Aranda, and the Marquis del Campomanes.
They kept up their correspondence with the committee at Paris, which had
greatly advanced itself in the eyes of the French nation; so that, when
the different bailliages sent deputies to the states-general, they
instructed them to take the Slave Trade into their consideration as a
national object, and with a view to its abolition.
They kept up their correspondence with Dr. Frossard of Lyons. He had
already published in France on the subject of the Slave Trade; and now
he offered the committee to undertake the task, so long projected by
them, of collecting such arguments and facts concerning it, and
translating them into different languages, as might be useful in
forwarding their views in foreign parts.
They addressed letters also to various individuals, to Monsieur
Snetlage, doctor of laws at Halle in Saxony; to Monsieur Ladebat, of
Bordeaux; to the Marquis de Feuillade d'Aubusson, at Paris; and to
Monsieur Necker. The latter in his answer replied in part as follows:
"As this great question," says he, "is not in my department, but in that
of the minister for the colonies, I cannot interfere in it directly, but
I will give indirectly all the assistance in my power. I have for a long
time taken an interest in the general alarm on this occasion, and in the
noble alliance of the friends of humanity in favour of the injured
Africans. Such an attempt throws a new lustre over your nation. It is
not yet, however, a national object in France; but the moment may
perhaps come, and I shall think myself happy in preparing the way for
it. You must be aware, however, of the difficulties which we shall have
to encounter on our side of the water; for our colonies are much more
considerable than yours; so that in the view of political interest we
are not on an equal footing. It will therefore be necessary to find some
middle line at first, as it cannot be expected that humanity alone will
be the governing principle of mankind."
But the day was now drawing near, when it was expected that this great
contest would be decided. Mr. Wilberforce, on the 19th of March, rose up
in the House of Commons and desired the resolution to be read, by which
the house stood pledged to take the Slave Trade into their consideration
in the then session; He then moved that the house should resolve itself
into a committee of the whole house on Thursday the 23rd of April, for
this purpose. This motion was agreed to; after which he moved for
certain official documents necessary to throw light upon the subject in
the course of its discussion.
This motion, by means of which the great day of trial was now fixed,
seemed to be the signal for the planters, merchants, and other
interested persons to begin a furious opposition. Meetings were
accordingly called by advertisement. At these meetings much warmth and
virulence were manifested in debate, and propositions breathing a spirit
of anger were adopted. It was suggested there, in the vehemence of
passion, that the islands could exist independently of the mother
country; nor were even threats withheld to intimidate government from
effecting the abolition.
From this time, also, the public papers began to be filled with such
statements as were thought most likely to influence the members of the
House of Commons, previously to the discussion of the question.
The first impression attempted to be made upon them was with respect to
the slaves themselves. It was contended, and attempted to be shown by
the revival of the old argument of human sacrifices in Africa, that
these were better off in the islands than in their own country. It was
contended, also, that they were people of very inferior capacities, and
but little removed from the brute creation; whence an inference was
drawn that their treatment, against which so much clamour had arisen,
was adapted to their intellect and feelings.
The next attempt was to degrade the abolitionists in the opinion of the
house, by showing the wildness and absurdity of their schemes. It was
again insisted upon that emancipation was the real, object of the
former; so that thousands of slaves would be let loose in the islands to
rob or perish, and who could never be brought back again into habits of
useful industry.
An attempt was then made to excite their pity in behalf of the planters.
The abolition, it was said, would produce insurrections among the
slaves. But insurrections would produce the massacre of their masters;
and, if any of these should happily escape from butchery, they would be
reserved only for ruin.
An appeal was then made to them on the ground of their own interest and
of that of the people whom they represented. It was stated that the ruin
of the islands would be the ruin of themselves and of the country. Its
revenue would be half annihilated; its naval strength would decay.
Merchants, manufacturers and others would come to beggary. But in this
deplorable situation they would expect to be indemnified for their
losses. Compensation, indeed, must follow: it could not be withheld. But
what would be the amount of it? The country would have no less than from
eighty to a hundred millions to pay the sufferers; and it would be
driven to such distress in paying this sum as it had never before
experienced.
The last attempt was to show them that a regulation of the trade was all
that was now wanted. While this would remedy the evils complained of, it
would prevent the mischief which would assuredly follow the abolition.
The planters had already done their part. The assemblies of the
different islands had most of them made wholesome laws upon the subject.
The very bills passed for this purpose in Jamaica and Grenada had
arrived in England, and might be seen by the public; the great
grievances had been redressed; no slave could now be mutilated or
wantonly killed by his owner; one man could not now maltreat, or bruise,
or wound the slave of another; the aged could not now be turned off to
perish by hunger. There were laws, also, relative to the better feeding
and clothing of the slaves. It remained only that the trade to Africa
should be put under as wise and humane regulations as the slavery in the
islands had undergone.
These different statements, appearing now in the public papers from day
to day, began, in this early stage of the question, when the subject in
all its bearings was known but to few, to make a considerable impression
upon those, who were soon to be called to the decision of it. But that
which had the greatest effect upon them, was the enormous amount of the
compensation, which, it was said, must be made. This statement against
the abolition was making its way so powerfully, that Archdeacon Paley
thought it his duty to write, and to send to the committee, a little
treatise called _Arguments against the unjust Pretensions of Slave
Dealers and Holders, to be indemnified by pecuniary Allowances at the
public expense, in case the Slave Trade should be abolished_. This
treatise, when the substance of it was detailed in the public papers,
had its influence upon several members of the House of Commons; but
there were others who had been, as it were, panic-struck by the
statement. These in their fright seemed to have lost the right use of
their eyes, or to have looked through a magnifying glass. With these the
argument of emancipation, which they would have rejected at another time
as ridiculous, obtained now easy credit. The massacres too, and the
ruin, though only conjectural, they admitted also. Hence some of them
deserted our cause wholly, while others, wishing to do justice as far as
they could to the slaves on the one hand, and to their own countrymen on
the other, adopted a middle line of conduct, and would go no further
than the regulation of the trade.
While these preparations were making by our opponents to prejudice the
minds of those who were to be the judges in this contest, Mr. Pitt
presented the privy council report at the bar of the House of Commons;
and as it was a large folio volume, and contained the evidence upon
which the question was to be decided, it was necessary that time should
be given to the members to peruse it. Accordingly, the 12th of May was
appointed, instead of the 23rd of April, for the discussion of the
question.
This postponement of the discussion of the question gave time to all
parties to prepare themselves further. The merchants and planters
availed themselves of it to collect petitions to parliament from
interested persons, against the abolition of the trade, to wait upon
members of parliament by deputation, in order to solicit their
attendance in their favour, and to renew their injurious paragraphs in
the public papers. The committee for the abolition availed themselves of
it to reply to these; and here Dr. Dickson, who had been secretary to
Governor Hey, in Barbados, and who had offered the committee his
_Letters on Slavery_ before mentioned, and his services also, was of
singular use. Many members of parliament availed themselves of it to
retire into the country to read the report. Among the latter were Mr.
Wilberforce and Mr. Pitt. In this retirement they discovered,
notwithstanding the great disadvantages under which we had laboured with
respect to evidence, that our cause was safe, and that, as far as it was
to be decided by reason and sound policy, it would triumph. It was in
this retirement that Mr. Pitt made those able calculations which
satisfied him for ever after, as the minister of the country, as to the
safety of the great measure of the abolition of the Slave Trade; for he
had clearly proved, that not only the islands could go on in a
flourishing state without supplies from the coast of Africa, but that
they were then in a condition to do it.
At length the 12th of May arrived. Mr. Wilberforce rose up in the
Commons and moved the order of the day for the house to resolve itself
into a committee of the whole house, to take into consideration the
petitions which had been presented against the Slave Trade.
This order having been read, he moved that the report of the committee
of privy council, that the acts passed in the islands relative to
slaves, that the evidence adduced last year on the Slave Trade, that the
petitions offered in the last session against the Slave Trade, and that
the accounts presented to the house in the last and present session
relative to the exports and imports of Africa, be referred to the same
committee.
These motions having been severally agreed to, the House immediately
resolved itself into a committee of the whole house, and Sir William
Dolben was put into the chair.
Mr. Wilberforce began by declaring, that when he considered how much
discussion the subject, which he was about to explain to the committee,
had occasioned, not only in that House, but throughout the kingdom, and
throughout Europe; and when he considered the extent and importance of
it, the variety of interests involved in it, and the consequences which
might arise, he owned he had been filled with apprehensions, lest a
subject of such magnitude, and a cause of such weight, should suffer
from the weakness of its advocate; but when he recollected that, in the
progress of his inquiries, he had everywhere been received with candour,
that most people gave him credit for the purity of his motives, and
that, however many of these might then differ from him, they were all
likely to agree in the end, he had dismissed his fears, and marched
forward with a firmer step in this cause of humanity, justice, and
religion. He could not, however, but lament that the subject had excited
so much warmth. He feared that too many on this account were but ill
prepared to consider it with impartiality. He entreated all such to
endeavour to be calm and composed. A fair and cool discussion was
essentially necessary. The motion he meant to offer, was as reconcilable
to political expediency as to national humanity. It belonged to no party
question. It would in the end be found serviceable to all parties, and
to the best interests of the country. He did not come forward to accuse
the West India planter, or the Liverpool merchant, or indeed any one
concerned in this traffic; but, if blame attached anywhere, to take
shame to himself in common, indeed, with the whole parliament of Great
Britain, who, having suffered it to be carried on under their own
authority, were all of them participators in the guilt.
In endeavouring to explain the great business of the day, he said he
should call the attention of the House only to the leading features of
the Slave Trade. Nor should he dwell long upon these. Every one might
imagine for himself what must be the natural consequence of such a
commerce with Africa. Was it not plain that she must suffer from it?
that her savage manners must be rendered still more ferocious? and that
a trade of this nature, carried on round her coasts, must extend
violence and desolation to her very centre? It was well known that the
natives of Africa were sold as goods, and that numbers of them were
continually conveyed away from their country by the owners of British
vessels. The question then was, which way the latter came by them. In
answer to this question, the privy council report, which was then on the
table, afforded evidence the most satisfactory and conclusive. He had
found things in it, which had confirmed every proposition he had
maintained before, whether this proposition had been gathered from
living information of the best authority, or from the histories he had
read. But it was unnecessary either to quote the report, or to appeal to
history on this occasion. Plain reason and common sense would point out
how the poor Africans were obtained. Africa was a country divided into
many kingdoms, which had different governments and laws. In many parts
the princes were despotic. In others they had a limited rule. But in all
of them, whatever the nature of the government was, men were considered
as goods and property, and, as such, subject to plunder in the same
manner as property in other countries. The persons in power there were
naturally fond of our commodities; and to obtain them, (which could only
be done by the sale of their countrymen,) they waged war on one another,
or even ravaged their own country, when they could find no pretence for
quarrelling with their neighbours: in their courts of law many poor
wretches, who were innocent, were condemned; and to obtain these
commodities in greater abundance, thousands were kidnapped and torn from
their families, and sent into slavery. Such transactions, he said, were
recorded in every history of Africa, and the report on the table
confirmed them. With respect, however, to these he should make but one
or two observations. If we looked into the reign of Henry the Eighth, we
should find a parallel for one of them. We should find that similar
convictions took place; and that penalties followed conviction. With
respect to wars, the kings of Africa were never induced to engage in
them by public principles, by national glory, and least of all by the
love of their people. This had been stated by those most conversant in
the subject, by Dr. Spaarman and Mr. Wadstrom. They had conversed with
these princes, and had learned from their own mouths that to procure
slaves was the object of their hostilities. Indeed, there was scarcely a
single person examined before the privy council who did not prove that
the Slave Trade was the source of the tragedies acted upon that
extensive continent. Some had endeavoured to palliate this circumstance;
but there was not one who did not more or less admit it to be true. By
one the Slave Trade was called the concurrent cause, by the majority it
was acknowledged to be the principal motive, of the African wars. The
same might be said with respect to those instances of treachery and
injustice, in which individuals were concerned. And here he was sorry to
observe that our own countrymen were often guilty. He would only at
present advert to the tragedy at Calabar, where two-large African
villages, having been for some time at war, made peace. This peace was
to have, been ratified by intermarriages; but some of our captains, who
were there, seeing their trade would be stopped for a while, sowed
dissension again between them. They actually set one village against the
other, took a share in the contest, massacred many of the inhabitants,
and carried others of them away as slaves. But shocking as this
transaction might appear, there was not a single history of Africa to be
read, in which scenes of as atrocious a nature were not related. They,
he said, who defended this trade, were warped and blinded by their own
interests, and would not be convinced of the miseries they were daily
heaping on their fellow creatures. By the countenance, they gave it,
they had reduced the inhabitants of Africa to a worse state than that of
the most barbarous nation. They had destroyed what ought to have been
the bond of union and safety among them; they had introduced discord and
anarchy among them; they had set kings against their subjects, and
subjects against each other; they had rendered every private family
wretched; they had, in short, given birth to scenes of injustice and
misery not to be found in any other quarter of the globe.
Having said thus much on the subject of procuring slaves in, Africa, he
would now go to that of the transportation of them. And here he had
fondly hoped, that when men with affections and feelings like our own
had been torn from their country, and everything dear to them, he should
have found some mitigation of their sufferings; but the sad reverse was
the case. This was the most wretched part of the whole subject. He was
incapable, of impressing the House with what he felt upon it. A
description of their conveyance was impossible. So much misery
condensed, in so little room was more than the human imagination had
ever before conceived. Think only of six hundred persons linked
together, trying to get rid of each other, crammed in a close vessel
with every object that was nauseous and disgusting, diseased, and
struggling with all the varieties of wretchedness. It seemed impossible
to add anything more to human misery. Yet shocking as this description
must be felt to be by every man, the transportation had been described
by several witnesses from Liverpool to be a comfortable conveyance. Mr.
Norris had painted the accommodations on board a slave-ship in the most
glowing colours. He had represented them in a manner which would have
exceeded his attempts at praise of the most luxurious scenes. Their
apartments, he said, were fitted up as advantageously for them as
circumstances could possibly admit: they had several meals a day; some
of their own country provisions, with the best sauces of African
cookery; and, by way of variety, another meal of pulse, according to the
European taste. After breakfast they had water to wash themselves, while
their apartments were perfumed with frankincense and lime-juice. Before
dinner they were amused after the manner of their country; instruments
of music were introduced; the song and the dance were promoted; games of
chance were furnished them; the men played and sang, while the women and
girls made fanciful ornaments from beads, with which they were
plentifully supplied. They were indulged in all their little fancies,
and kept in sprightly humour. Another of them had said, when the sailors
were flogged, it was out of the hearing of the Africans, lest it should
depress their spirits. He by no means wished to say that such
descriptions were wilful misrepresentations. If they were not, it proved
that interest or prejudice was capable of spreading a film over the eyes
thick enough to occasion total blindness.
Others, however, and these men of the greatest veracity, had given a
different account. What would the house think, when by the concurring
testimony of these the true history was laid open? The slaves who had
been described as rejoicing in their captivity, were so wrung with
misery at leaving their country, that it was the constant practice to
set sail in the night, lest they should know the moment of their
departure. With respect to their accommodation, the right ancle of one
was fastened to the left ancle of another by an iron fetter; and if they
were turbulent, by another on the wrists. Instead of the apartments
described, they were placed in niches, and along the decks, in such a
manner, that it was impossible for any one to pass among them, however
careful he might be, without treading upon them. Sir George Yonge had
testified, that in a slave-ship, on board of which he went, and which
had not completed her cargo by two hundred and fifty, instead of the
scent of frankincense being perceptible to the nostrils, the stench was
intolerable. The allowance of water was, so deficient, that the slaves
were, frequently found gasping for life, and almost suffocated. The
pulse with which they had been said to be favoured, were absolutely
English horse-beans. The legislature of Jamaica had stated the
scantiness both of water and provisions, as a subject which called for
the interference of parliament. As Mr. Norris had said, the song and the
dance were promoted, he could not pass over these expressions without
telling the house what they meant. It would have been much more fair if
he himself had explained the word _promoted_. The truth was, that, for
the sake of exercise, these miserable wretches, loaded with chains and
oppressed with disease, were forced to dance by the terror of the lash,
and sometimes by the actual use of it. "I" said one of the evidences,
"was employed to dance the men, while another person danced the women."
Such then was the meaning of the, word _promoted_; and it might also be
observed with respect to food, that instruments were sometimes carried
out in order to force them to eat; which was the same sort of proof, how
much they enjoyed themselves in this instance also. With respect to
their singing, it consisted of songs, of lamentation for the loss of
their country. While they sung they were in tears: so that one of the
captains, more humane probably than the rest, threatened a woman with a
flogging because the mournfulness of her song was too painful for his
feelings. Perhaps he could not give a better proof of the sufferings of
these injured people during their passage, than by stating the mortality
which accompanied it. This was a species of evidence, which was
infallible on this occasion. Death was a witness which could not deceive
them; and the proportion of deaths would not only confirm, but, if
possible, even aggravate our suspicion of the misery of the transit. It
would be found, upon an average of all the ships, upon which evidence
had been given, that, exclusively of such as perished before they sailed
from Africa, not less than twelve and-a-half per cent died on their
passage: besides these, the Jamaica report stated that four and-a-half
per cent died while in the harbours, or on shore before the day of sale,
which was only about the space of twelve or fourteen days after their
arrival there; and one-third more died in the seasoning: and this in a
climate exactly similar to their own, and where, as some of the
witnesses pretended, they were healthy and happy. Thus out of every lot
of one hundred shipped from Africa, seventeen died in about nine weeks,
and not more than fifty lived to become effective labourers in our
islands.