The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition - Thomas Clarkson
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The motion of Mr. Pitt was assented to, and the House was adjourned
accordingly.
On the next day the subject was resumed. Sir William Yonge rose, and
said, that, though he differed from the honourable mover, he had much
admired his speech of the last evening. Indeed the recollection of it
made him only the more sensible of the weakness of his own powers; and
yet, having what he supposed to be irrefragable arguments in his
possession, he felt emboldened to proceed.
And, first, before he could vote for the abolition, he wished to be
convinced, that, whilst Britain were to lose, Africa would gain. As for
himself, he hated a traffic in men, and joyfully anticipated its
termination at no distant period under a wise system of regulation: but
he considered the present measure as crude and indolent; and as
precluding better and wiser measures, which were already in train. A
British Parliament should attain not only the best ends, but by the
wisest means.
Great Britain might abandon her share of this trade, but she could not
abolish it. Parliament was not an assembly of delegates from the powers
of Europe, but of a single nation. It could not therefore suppress the
trade; but would eventually aggravate those miseries incident to it,
which every enlightened man must acknowledge, and every good man must
deplore. He wished the traffic for ever closed. But other nations were
only waiting for our decision, to seize the part we should leave them.
The new projects of these would be intemperate; and, in the zeal of
rivalship, the present evils of comparatively sober dealing would be
aggravated beyond all estimate in this new and heated auction of bidders
for life and limb. We might, indeed, by regulation give an example of
new principles of policy and of justice; but if we were to withdraw
suddenly from this commerce, like Pontius Pilate, we should wash our
hands, indeed, but we should not be innocent as to the consequences.
On the first agitation of this business, Mr. Wilberforce had spoken
confidently of other nations following our example. But had not the
National Assembly of France referred the Slave Trade to a select
committee, and had not that committee rejected the measure of its
abolition? By the evidence it appeared, that the French and Spaniards
were then giving bounties to the Slave Trade; that Denmark was desirous
of following it; that America was encouraging it; and that the Dutch had
recognized its necessity, and recommended its recovery. Things were bad
enough indeed as they were, but he was sure this rivalship would make
them worse.
He did not admit the disorders imputed to the trade in all their extent.
Pillage and kidnapping could not be general, on account of the
populousness of the country; though too frequent instances of it had
been proved. Crimes might be falsely imputed. This he admitted; but only
partially. Witchcraft, he believed, was the secret of poisoning, and
therefore deserved the severest punishment. That there should be a
number of convictions for adultery, where polygamy was a custom, was not
to be wondered at; but he feared, if a sale of these criminals were to
be done away, massacre would be the substitute.
An honourable member had asked on a former day, "Is it an excuse for
robbery to say that another would hare committed it?" But the Slave
Trade did not necessarily imply robbery. Not long since Great Britain
sold her convicts, indirectly at least, to slavery; but he was no
advocate for the trade. He wished it had begun, and that it might soon
terminate. But the means were not adequate to the end proposed.
Mr. Burke had said on a former occasion, "that in adopting measure we
must prepare to pay the price of our virtue." He was ready to pay his
share of that price; but the effect of the purchase must be first
ascertained. If they did not estimate this, it was not benevolence, but
dissipation. Effects were to be duly appreciated; and though statesmen
might rest everything on a manifesto of causes, the humbler moralist,
meditating peace and good will towards men, would venture to call such
statesmen responsible for consequences.
In regard to the colonies, a sudden abolition would be oppression. The
legislatures there should be led, and not forced, upon this occasion. He
was persuaded they would act wisely to attain the end pointed out to
them. They would see that a natural increase of their negroes might be
effected by an improved system of legislation; and that in the result
the Slave Trade would be no longer necessary.
A sudden abolition, also, would occasion dissatisfaction there. Supplies
were necessary for some time to come. The negroes did not yet generally
increase by birth. The gradation of ages was not yet duly filled. These
and many defects might be remedied, but not suddenly.
It would cause, also, distress there. The planters, not having their
expected supplies, could not discharge their debts; hence their slaves
would be seized and sold. Nor was there any provision in this case
against the separation of families, except as to the mother and infant
child. These separations were one of the chief outrages complained of in
Africa. Why, then, should we promote them in the West Indies? The
confinement on board a slave-ship had been also bitterly complained of;
but, under distraint for the debt of a master, the poor slave might
linger in a gaol twice or thrice the time of the Middle Passage.
He again stated his abhorrence of the Slave Trade; but as a resource,
though he hoped but a temporary one, it was of such consequence to the
existence of the country, that it could not suddenly be withdrawn. The
value, of the imports and exports between Great Britain and the West
Indies, including the excise and customs, was between seven and eight
millions annually; and the tonnage of the ships employed about an eighth
of the whole tonnage of these kingdoms.
He complained that in the evidence the West Indian planters had been by
no means spared. Cruel stories had been hastily and lightly told against
them. Invidious comparisons had been made to their detriment; but it was
well known that one of our best comic writers, when he wished to show
benevolence in its fairest colours, had personified it in the character
of the West Indian. He wished the slave might become as secure as the
apprentice in this country; but it was necessary that the alarms
concerning the abolition of the Slave Trade should, in the mean time, be
quieted; and he trusted that the good sense and true benevolence of the
House would reject the present motion.
Mr. Matthew Montagu rose and said a few words in support of the motion;
and after condemning the trade in the strongest manner, he declared,
that as long as he had life he would use every faculty of his body and
mind in endeavouring to promote its abolition.
Lord John Russell succeeded Mr. Montagu. He said, that although slavery
was repugnant to his feelings, he must vote against the abolition as
visionary and delusive. It was a feeble attempt, without the power, to
serve the cause of humanity. Other nations would take up the trade.
Whenever a bill of wise regulation should be brought forward, no man
would be more ready than himself to lend his support. In this way the
rights of humanity might be asserted without injury to others. He hoped
he should not incur censure by his vote; for, let his understanding be
what it might, he did not know that he had, notwithstanding the
assertions of Mr. Fox, an inaccessible heart.
Mr. Stanley (agent for the islands) rose next. He felt himself called
upon, he said, to refute the many calumnies which had for years been
propagated against the planters, (even through the medium of the pulpit,
which should have been employed to better purposes,) and which had at
length produced the mischievous measure, which was now under the
discussion of the House. A cry had been sounded forth, and from one end
of the kingdom to the other, as if there had never been a slave from
Adam to the present time. But it appeared to him to have been the
intention of Providence, from the very beginning, that one set of men
should be slaves to another. This truth was as old as it was universal.
It was recognised in every history, under every government, and in every
religion. Nor did the Christian religion itself if the comments of Dr.
Halifax, Bishop of Gloucester, on a passage of St. Paul's epistle to the
Corinthians were true, show more repugnance to slavery than any other.
He denied that the slaves were procured in the manner which had been
described. It was the custom of all savages to kill their prisoners; and
the Africans ought to be thankful that they had been carried safe into
the British colonies.
As to the tales of misery in the Middle Passage, they were gross
falsehoods; and as to their treatment in the West Indies, he knew
personally that it was, in general, indulgent and humane.
With regard to promoting their increase by any better mode of treatment,
he wished gentlemen would point it out to him. As a planter he would
thank them for it. It was absurd to suppose that he and others were
blind to their own interest. It was well known that one Creole slave was
worth two Africans; and their interest, therefore, must suggest to them,
that the propagation of slaves was preferable to the purchase of
imported negroes, of whom one half very frequently died in the
seasoning.
He then argued the impossibility of beasts doing the work of the
plantations. He endeavoured to prove that the number of these adequate
to this purpose could not be supplied with food; and after having made
many other observations, which, on account of the lowness of his voice,
could not be heard, he concluded by objecting to the motion.
Mr. William Smith rose. He wondered how the last speaker could have had
the boldness to draw arguments from scripture in support of the Slave
Trade. Such arguments could be intended only to impose on those who
never took the trouble of thinking for themselves. Could it be thought
for a moment, that the good sense of the House could be misled by a few
perverted or misapplied passages, in direct opposition to the whole
tenor, and spirit of Christianity; to the theory, he might say, of
almost every religion, which had ever appeared in the world? Whatever
might have been advanced, every body must feel that the Slave Trade
could not exist an hour, if that excellent maxim, "to do to others as we
would wish that others should do to us," had its proper influence on the
conduct of men.
Nor was Mr. Stanley more happy in his argument of the antiquity and
universality of slavery. Because a practise had existed, did it
necessarily follow that it was just? By this argument every crime might
be defended from the time of Cain. The slaves of antiquity, however were
in a situation far preferable to that of the negroes in the West Indies.
A passage in Macrobius, which exemplified this in the strongest manner,
was now brought to his recollection. "Our ancestors," says Macrobius,
"denominated the master, father of the family, and the slave, domestic,
with the intention of removing all odium from the condition of the
master, and all contempt from that of the servant." Could this language
be applied to the present state of West India slavery?
It had been complained of by those who supported the trade, that they
laboured under great disadvantages by being obliged to contend against
the most splendid abilities which the House could boast. But he believed
they laboured under one, which was worse and for which no talents could
compensate; he meant the impossibility of maintaining their ground
fairly on any of those principles, which every man within those walls
had been accustomed, from his infancy, to venerate as sacred. He and his
friends, too, laboured under some disadvantages. They had been charged
with fanaticism. But what had Mr. Long said, when he addressed himself
to those planters, who were desirous of attempting improvements on their
estates? He advised them "not to be diverted by partial views, vulgar
prejudices, or the ridicule which might spring from weak minds, from a
benevolent attention to the public good." But neither by these nor by
other charges were he or his friends to be diverted from the prosecution
of their purpose. They were convinced of the rectitude and high
importance of their object; and were determined never to desist from
pursuing it, till it should be attained.
But they had to struggle with difficulties far more serious. The West
Indian interest which opposed them, was a collected body; of great
power, affluence, connexions, and respectability.
Artifice had also been employed. Abolition and emancipation had been so
often confounded, and by those who knew better, that it must have been
purposely done, to throw an odium on the measure which was now before
them.
The abolitionists had been also accused as the authors of the late
insurrection in Dominica. A revolt had certainly taken place in that
island. But revolts there had occured frequently before. Mr. Stanley
himself, in attempting to fix this charge upon them, had related
circumstance which amounted to their entire exculpation. He had said
that all was quiet there till the disturbances in the French islands;
when some negroes from the latter had found their way to Dominica, and
had excited the insurrection in question. He had also said, that the
negroes in our own islands hated the idea of the abolition; for they
thought, as no new labourers were to come in, they should be subjected
to increased hardships. But if they and their masters hated this same
measure, how was this coincidence of sentiment to give birth to
insurrections?
Other fallacies, also, had been industriously propogated. Of the African
trade, it had been said, that the exports amounted to a million
annually; whereas, from the report on the table, it had on an average
amounted to little more than half a million; and this included the
articles for the purchase of African produce which were of the value of
140,000_l._
The East Indian Trade, also, had been said to depend on the West Indian
and the African. In the first place, it had but very little connexion
with the former at all. Its connexion with the latter was principally on
account of the saltpetre which it furnished for making gunpowder. Out of
nearly three millions of pounds in weight of the latter article, which
had been exported in a year from this country, one-half had been sent to
Africa alone; for the purposes, doubtless, of maintaining peace, and
encouraging civilization among its various tribes! Four or five thousand
persons were said, also, to depend for their bread in manufacturing guns
for the African trade; and these, it was pretended, could not make guns
of another sort.--But where lay the difficulty?--One of the witnesses
had unravelled it. He had seen the negroes maimed by the bursting of
these guns. They killed more from the butt than from the muzzle. Another
had stated, that on the sea-coast the natives were afraid to fire a
trade-gun.
In the West Indian commerce, two hundred and forty thousand tons of
shipping were stated to be employed. But here deception intruded itself
again. This statement included every vessel, great and small, which went
from the British West Indies to America, and to the foreign islands; and
what was yet more unfair, all the repeated voyages of each throughout
the year. The shipping, which could only fairly be brought into this
account, did but just exceed half that which had been mentioned.
In a similar manner had the islands themselves been overrated. Their
value had been computed, for the information of the privy council, at
thirty-six millions; but the planters had estimated them at seventy. The
truth, however, might possibly lie between these extremes. He by no
means wished to depreciate their importance; but he did not like that
such palpable misrepresentations should go unnoticed.
An honourable member (Colonel Tarleton) had disclaimed every attempt to
interest the feelings of those present, but had desired to call them to
reason and accounts. He also desired (though it was a question of
feeling, if any one ever was,) to draw the attention of the committee to
reason and accounts--to the voice of reason instead of that of
prejudice, and to accounts in the place of idle apprehensions. The
result, he doubted not, would be a full persuasion, that policy and
justice were inseparable upon this, as upon every other occasion.
The same gentleman had enlarged on the injustice of depriving the
Liverpool merchants of a business, on which were founded their honour
and their fortunes. On what part of it they founded their honour he
could not conjecture, except from those passages in the evidence, where
it appeared, that their agents in Africa had systematically practised
every fraud and villany, which the meanest and most unprincipled cunning
could suggest, to impose on the ignorance of those with whom they
traded.
The same gentleman had also lamented, that the evidence had not been
taken upon oath. He himself lamented it too. Numberless facts had been
related by eye-witnesses, called in support of the abolition, so
dreadfully atrocious, that they appeared incredible; and seemed rather,
to use the expression of Ossian, like "the histories of the days of
other times." These procured for the trade a species of acquittal, which
it could not have obtained, had the committee been authorised to
administer an oath. He apprehended, also, in this case, that some other
persons would have been rather more guarded in their testimony. Captain
Knox would not then perhaps have told the committee, that six hundred
slaves could have had comfortable room at night in his vessel of about
one hundred and forty tons; when there could have been no more than five
feet six inches in length, and fifteen inches in breadth, to about
two-thirds of his number.
The same gentleman had also dwelt upon the Slave Trade as a nursery for
seamen. But it had appeared by the muster-rolls of the slave-vessels,
then actually on the table of the house, that more than a fifth of them
died in the service, exclusive of those who perished when discharged in
the West Indies; and yet he had been instructed by his constituents to
maintain this false position. His reasoning, too, was very curious; for,
though numbers might die, yet as one half who entered were landsmen,
seamen were continually forming. Not to dwell on the expensive cruelty
of forming these seamen by the yearly destruction of so many hundreds,
this very statement was flatly contradicted by the evidence. The
muster-rolls from Bristol stated the proportion of landsmen in the trade
there at one twelfth, and the proper officers of Liverpool itself at but
a sixteenth of the whole employed. In the face again of the most glaring
facts, others had maintained that the mortality in these vessels did not
exceed that of other trades in the tropical climates. But the same
documents, which proved that twenty-three per cent were destroyed in
this wasting traffic, proved that in West India ships only about one and
a half per cent were lost, including every casualty. But the very men,
under whose management this dreadful mortality had been constantly
occurring, had coolly said, that much of it might be avoided by proper
regulations. How criminal then were they, who, knowing this, had neither
publicly proposed, nor in their practice adopted, a remedy!
The average loss of the slaves on board, which had been calculated by
Mr. Wilberforce at twelve and a half per cent., had been denied. He
believed this calculation, taking in all the circumstances connected
with it, to be true; but that for years not less than one-tenth had so
perished, he would challenge those concerned in the traffic to disprove.
Much evidence had been produced on the subject; but the voyages had been
generally selected. There was only one who had disclosed the whole
account. This was Mr. Anderson of London, whose engagements in this
trade had been very inconsiderable. His loss had only amounted to three
per cent.; but, unfortunately for the slave-traders of Liverpool, his
vessel had not taken above three-fourths of that number in proportion to
the tonnage which they had stated to be necessary to the very existence
of their trade.
An honourable member (Mr. Grosvenor) had attributed the protraction of
this business to those who had introduced it. But from whom did the
motion for further evidence (when that of the privy council was refused)
originate, but from the enemies of the abolition? The same gentleman had
said, it was impossible to abolish the trade; but where was the
impossibility of forbidding the further importation of slaves into our
own colonies? and beyond this the motion did not extend.
The latter argument had also been advanced by Sir William Yonge and
others. But allowing it its full force, would there be no honour in the
dereliction of such a commerce? Would it be nothing publicly to
recognise great and just principles? Would our example be nothing!--Yes:
every country would learn, from our experiment, that American colonies
could be cultivated without the necessity of continual supplies equally
expensive and disgraceful.
But we might do more than merely lay down principles or propose
examples. We might, in fact, diminish the evil itself immediately by no
inconsiderable part,--by the whole of our own supply; and here he could
not at all agree with the honourable baronet, in what seemed to him a
commercial paradox, that the taking away from an open trade by far the
largest customer, and the lessening of the consumption of the article,
would increase both the competition and the demand, and of course all
those mischiefs, which it was their intention to avert.
That the civilization of the Africans was promoted, as had been
asserted, by their intercourse with the Europeans, was void of
foundation, as had appeared from the evidence. In manners and dishonesty
they had indeed assimilated with those who frequented their coasts. But
the greatest industry and the least corruption of morals were in the
interior, where they were out of the way of this civilizing connexion.
To relieve Africa from famine, was another of the benign reasons which
had been assigned for continuing the trade. That famines had occurred
there, he did not doubt; but that they should annually occur, and with
such arithmetical exactness as to suit the demands of the Slave Trade,
was a circumstance most extraordinary; so wonderful, indeed, that, could
it once be proved, he should consider it as a far better argument in
favour of the divine approbation of that trade, than any which had ever
yet been produced.
As to the effect of the abolition on the West Indies, it would give
weight to every humane regulation which had been made; by substituting a
certain and obvious interest, in the place of one depending upon chances
and calculation. An honourable member (Mr. Stanley) had spoken of the
impossibility of cultivating the estates there without further
importations of negroes; and yet, of all the authorities he had brought
to prove his case, there was scarcely one which might not be pressed to
serve more or less effectually against him. Almost every planter he had
named had found his negroes increase under the good treatment he had
professed to give them; and it was an axiom, throughout the whole
evidence, that, wherever they were well used, importations were not
necessary. It had been said, indeed, by some adverse witnesses, that in
Jamaica all possible means had been used to keep up the stock by
breeding; but how preposterous was this, when it was allowed that the
morals of the slaves had been totally neglected, and that the planters
preferred buying a larger proportion of males than females!
The misfortune was, that prejudice, and not reason, was the enemy to be
subdued. The prejudices of the West Indians on these points were
numerous and inveterate. Mr. Long himself had characterised them on this
account, in terms which he should have felt diffident in using. But Mr.
Long had shown his own prejudices also: for he justified the chaining of
the Negroes on board the slave-vessels, on account of "their bloody,
cruel, and malicious dispositions." But hear his commendation of some of
the Aborigines of Jamaica, "who had miserably perished in caves, whither
they had retired to escape the tyranny of the Spaniards. These," says
he, "left a glorious monument of their having disdained to survive the
loss of their liberty and their country." And yet this same historian
could not perceive that this natural love of liberty might operate as
strongly and as laudably in the African Negro, as in the Indian of
Jamaica.
He was concerned to acknowledge that these prejudices were yet further
strengthened by resentment against those who had taken an active part in
the abolition of the Slave Trade. But it was never the object of these
to throw a stigma on the whole body of the West Indians; but to prove
the miserable effects of the trade. This it was their duty to do; and
if, in doing this, disgraceful circumstances had come out, it was not
their fault; and it must never be forgotten that they were true.