The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament (1808) by Thomas Clarkson

T >> Thomas Clarkson >> The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament (1808)

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THE
HISTORY
OF THE
RISE, PROGRESS, AND ACCOMPLISHMENT
OF
THE ABOLITION
OF
THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE
BY THE
BRITISH PARLIAMENT.

BY THOMAS CLARKSON, M.A.

1808.

CHAPTER I.

_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 been already 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
disposition 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.

Of this tour I shall not give the reader any very particular account. I
shall mention only those things which are most worthy of his notice in it.
At Poole in Dorsetshire I laid the foundation of a committee, to act in
harmony with that of London for the promotion of the cause. Moses Neave, of
the respectable society of the Quakers, was the chairman; Thomas Bell, the
secretary, and Ellis. B. Metford and the reverend Mr. Davis and others the
committee. This was the third committee, which had been instituted in the
country for this purpose. That at Bristol, under Mr. Joseph Harford as
chairman, and Mr. Lunell as secretary, had been the first. And that at
Manchester, under Mr. Thomas Walker as chairman, and Mr. Samuel Jackson as
secretary, had been the second.

As Poole was a great place for carrying on the trade to Newfoundland, I
determined to examine the assertion of the Earl of Sandwich in the House of
Lords, when he said, in the debate on Sir William Dolben's bill, that the
Slave-trade was not more fatal to seamen than the Newfoundland and some
others. This assertion I knew at the time to be erroneous, as far as my own
researches had been concerned: for out of twenty-four vessels, which had
sailed out of the port of Bristol in that employ, only two sailors were
upon the dead list. In sixty vessels from Poole, I found but four lost. At
Dartmouth, where I went afterwards on purpose, I found almost a similar
result. On conversing however with Governor Holdsworth, I learnt that the
year 1786 had been more fatal than any other in this trade. I learnt that
in consequent of extraordinary storms and hurricanes, no less than five
sailors had died and twenty-one had been drowned in eighty-three vessels
from that port. Upon this statement I determined to look into the
muster-rolls of the trade there for two or three years together. I began by
accident with the year 1769, and I went on to the end of 1772. About eighty
vessels on an average had sailed thence in each of these years. Taking the
loss in these years, and compounding it with that in the fatal year, three
sailors had been lost, but taking it in these four years by themselves,
only two had been lost, in twenty-four vessels so employed. On a comparison
with the Slave-trade, the result would be, that two vessels to Africa would
destroy more seamen than eighty-three sailing to Newfoundland. There was
this difference also to be noted, that the loss in the one trade was
generally by the weather or by accident, but in the other by cruel
treatment or disease; and that they, who went out in a declining state of
health in the one, came home generally recovered, whereas they, who went
out robust in the other, came home in a shattered condition.

At Plymouth I laid the foundation of another committee. The late William
Cookworthy, the late John Prideaux, and James Fox, all of the society of
the Quakers, and Mr. George Leach, Samuel Northcote, and John Saunders, had
a principal share in forming it. Sir William Ellford was chosen chairman.

From Plymouth I journeyed on to Falmouth, and from thence to Exeter, where
having meetings with the late Mr. Samuel Milford, the late Mr. George
Manning, the reverend James Manning, Thomas Sparkes, and others, a desire
became manifest among them of establishing a committee there. This was
afterwards effected; and Mr. Milford, who, at a general meeting of the
inhabitants of Exeter, on the tenth of June, on this great subject, had
been called by those present to the chair, was appointed the chairman of
it.

With respect to evidence, which was the great object of this tour, I found
myself often very unpleasantly situated in collecting it. I heard of many
persons capable of giving it to our advantage, to whom I could get no
introduction. I had to go after these many miles out of my established
route. Not knowing me, they received me coldly, and even suspiciously;
while I fell in with others, who, considering themselves, on account of
their concerns and connexions, as our opponents, treated me in an uncivil
manner.

But the difficulties and disappointments in other respects, which I
experienced in this tour, even where I had an introduction, and where the
parties were not interested in the continuance of the Slave-trade, were
greater than people in general would have imagined. One would have thought,
considering the great enthusiasm of the nation on this important subject,
that they, who could have given satisfactory information upon it, would
have rejoiced to do it. But I found it otherwise, and this frequently to my
sorrow. There was an aversion in persons to appear before such a tribunal
as they conceived the privy council to be. With men of shy or timid
character this operated as an insuperable barrier in their way. But it
operated more or less upon all. It was surprising to see what little
circumstances affected many. When I took out my pen and ink to put down the
information, which a person was giving me, he became evidently embarrassed
and frightened. He began to excuse himself from staying, by alleging that
he had nothing more to communicate, and he took himself away as quickly as
he could with decency. The sight of the pen and ink had lost me so many
good evidences, that I was obliged wholly to abandon the use of them, and
to betake myself to other means. I was obliged for the future to commit my
tables of questions to memory, and endeavour by practice to put down, after
the examination of a person, such answers as he had given me to each of
them.

Others went off because it happened that immediately on my interview, I
acquainted them with the nature of my errand, and solicited their
attendance in London. Conceiving that I had no right to ask them such a
favour, or terrified at the abruptness and apparent awfulness of my
request, some of them gave me an immediate denial, which they would never
afterwards retract. I began to perceive in time that it was only by the
most delicate management that I could get forward on these occasions. I
resolved therefore for the future, except in particular cases, that, when I
should be introduced to persons who had a competent knowledge of this
trade, I would talk with them upon it as upon any ordinary subject, and
then leave them without saying any thing about their becoming evidences. I
would take care, however, to commit all their conversation to writing, when
it was over, and I would then try to find out that person among their
relations or friends, who could apply to them for this purpose with the
least hazard of a refusal.

There were others also, who, though they were not so much impressed by the
considerations mentioned, yet objected to give their public testimony.
Those, whose livelihood, or promotion, or expectations, were dependent upon
the government of the country, were generally backward on these occasions.
Though they thought they discovered in the parliamentary conduct of Mr.
Pitt, a bias in favour of the cause, they knew to a certainty that the Lord
Chancellor Thurlow was against it. They conceived, therefore, that the
administration was at least divided upon the question, and they were
fearful of being called upon lest they should give offence, and thus injure
their prospects in life. This objection was very prevalent in that part of
the kingdom which I had selected for my tour.

The reader can hardly conceive how my mind was agitated and distressed on
these different accounts. To have travelled more than two months, to have
seen many who could have materially served our cause, and to have lost most
of them, was very trying. And though it is true that I applied a remedy, I
was not driven to the adoption of it till I had performed more than half my
tour. Suffice it to say, that after having travelled upwards of sixteen
hundred miles backwards and forwards, and having conversed with forty-seven
persons, who were capable of promoting the cause by their evidence, I could
only prevail upon nine, by all the interest I could make, to be examined.

On my return to London, whither I had been called up by the committee to
take upon me the superintendence of the evidence, which the privy council
was now ready again to hear, I found my brother: he was then a young
officer in the navy; and as I knew he felt as warmly as I did in this great
cause, I prevailed upon him to go to Havre de Grace, the great slave-port
in France, where he might make his observations for two or three months,
and then report what he had seen and heard; so that we might have some one
to counteract any false statement of things which might be made relative to
the subject in that quarter.

At length the examinations were resumed, and with them the contest, in
which our own reputation and the fate of our cause were involved. The
committee for the abolition had discovered one or two willing evidences
during my absence, and Mr. Wilberforce, who was now recovered from his
severe indisposition, had found one or two others. These added to my own
made a respectable body: but we had sent no more than four or five of these
to the council when the King's illness unfortunately stopped our career.
For nearly five weeks between the middle of November and January the
examinations were interrupted or put off so that at the latter period we
began to fear that there would be scarcely time to hear the rest; for not
only the privy council report was to be printed, but the contest itself was
to be decided by the evidence contained in it, in the existing session.

The examinations, however, went on, but they went on only slowly, being
still subject to interruption from the same unfortunate cause. Among others
I offered my mite of information again. I wished the council to see more of
my African productions and manufactures, that they might really know what
Africa was capable of affording instead of the Slave-trade, and that they
might make a proper estimate of the genius and talents of the natives. The
samples which I had collected, had been obtained by great labour, and at no
inconsiderable expense: for whenever I had notice that a vessel had arrived
immediately from that continent, I never hesitated to go, unless under the
most pressing engagements elsewhere, even as far as Bristol, if I could
pick up but a single new article. The Lords having consented, I selected
several things for their inspection out of my box, of the contents of which
the following account may not be unacceptable to the reader.

The first division of the box consisted of woods of about four inches
square, all polished. Among these were mahogany of five different sorts,
tulip-wood, satin-wood, cam-wood, bar-wood, fustic, black and yellow ebony,
palm-tree, mangrove, calabash, and date. There were seven woods of which
the native names were remembered: three of these, Tumiah, Samain, and
Jimlake, were of a yellow colour; Acajou was of a beautiful deep crimson;
Bork and Quelle were apparently fit for cabinet work; and Benten was the
wood of which the natives made their canoes. Of the various other woods the
names had been forgotten, nor were they known in England at all. One of
them was of a fine purple; and from two others, upon which the privy
council had caused experiments to be made, a strong yellow, a deep orange,
and a flesh-colour were extracted.

The second division included ivory and musk; four species of pepper, the
long, the black, the Cayenne, and the Malaguetta: three species of gum;
namely, Senegal, Copal, and ruber astringens; cinnamon, rice, tobacco,
indigo, white and Nankin cotton, Guinea corn, and millet; three species of
beans, of which two were used for food, and the other for dyeing orange;
two species of tamarinds, one for food, and the other to give whiteness to
the teeth; pulse, seeds, and fruits of various kinds, some of the latter of
which Dr. Spaarman had pronounced, from a trial during his residence in
Africa, to be peculiarly valuable as drugs.

The third division contained an African loom, and an African spindle with
spun cotton round it; cloths of cotton of various kinds, made by the
natives, some white, but others dyed by them of different colours, and
others, in which they had interwoven European silk; cloths and bags made of
grass, and fancifully coloured; ornaments made of the same materials; ropes
made from a species of aloes, and others, remarkably strong, from grass and
straw; fine string made from the fibres of the roots of trees; soap of two
kinds, one of which was formed from an earthy substance; pipe-bowls made of
clay, and of a brown red; one of these, which came from the village of
Dakard, was beautifully ornamented by black devices burnt in, and was
besides highly glazed; another, brought from Galam was made of earth, which
was richly impregnated with little particles of gold; trinkets made by the
natives from their own gold; knives and daggers made by them from our
bar-iron; and various other articles, such as bags, sandals, dagger-cases,
quivers, grisgris, all made of leather of their own manufacture, and dyed
of various colours, and ingeniously sewed together.

The fourth division consisted of the thumb-screw, speculum oris, and chains
and shackles of different kinds, collected at Liverpool. To these were
added, iron neck-collars, and other instruments of punishment and
confinement, used in the West Indies, and collected at other places. The
instrument, also, by which Charles Horseler was mentioned to have been
killed, in the former volume, was to be seen among these.

We were now advanced far into February, when we were alarmed by the
intelligence that the Lords of the Council were going to prepare their
report. At this time we had sent but few persons to them to examine, in
comparison with our opponents, and we had yet eighteen to introduce: for
answers had come into my tables of questions from several places, and
persons had been pointed out to us by our correspondents, who had increased
our list of evidences to this number. I wrote therefore to them, at the
desire of the committee for the abolition, and gave them the names of the
eighteen, and requested that all of them might be examined. I requested
also, that they would order, for their own inspection, certain muster-rolls
of vessels from Poole and Dartmouth, that they might be convinced that the
objection which the Earl of Sandwich had made in the House of Lords,
against the abolition of the Slave-trade, had no solid foundation. In reply
to my first request they informed me, that it was impossible, in the
advanced state of the session (it being then the middle of March), that the
examinations of so many could be taken; but I was at liberty, in
conjunction with the Bishop of London, to select eight for this purpose.
This occasioned me to address them again; and I then found, to my surprise
and sorrow, that even this last number was to be diminished; for I was
informed in writing, "that the Bishop of London having laid my last letter
before their Lordships, they had agreed to meet on the Saturday next, and
on the Tuesday following, for the purpose of receiving the evidence of some
of the gentlemen named in it. And it was their Lordships' desire that I
would give notice to any three of them (whose information I might consider
as the most material) of the above determination, that they might attend
the committee accordingly."

This answer, considering the difficulties we had found in collecting a body
of evidence, and the critical situation in which we then were, was
peculiarly distressing; but we had no remedy left us, nor could we
reasonably complain. Three therefore were selected, and they were sent to
deliver their testimony on their arrival in town.

But before the last of these had left the council-room, who should come up
to me but Mr. Arnold! He had but lately arrived at Bristol from Africa; and
having heard from our friends there that we had been daily looking for him,
he had come to us in London. He and Mr. Gardiner were the two surgeons, as
mentioned in the former volume, who had promised me, when I was in Bristol,
in the year 1787, that they would keep a journal of facts for me during the
voyages they were then going to perform. They had both of them kept this
promise. Gardiner, I found, had died upon the Coast, and his journal,
having been discovered at his death, had been buried with him in great
triumph. But Arnold had survived, and he came now to offer us his services
in the cause.

As it was a pity that such correct information as that taken down in
writing upon the spot should be lost (for all the other evidences, except
Dr. Spaarman and Mr. Wadstrom, had spoken from their memory only), I made
all the interest I could to procure a hearing for Mr. Arnold. Pleading now
for the examination of him only, and under these particular circumstances,
I was attended to. It was consented, in consequence of the little time
which was now left for preparing and printing the Report, that I should
make out his evidence from his journal under certain heads. This I did. Mr.
Arnold swore to the truth of it, when so drawn up, before Edward Montague,
esquire, a master in chancery. He then delivered the paper in which it was
contained to the Lords of the Council, who, on receiving it, read it
throughout, and then questioned him upon it.

At this time, also, my brother returned with accounts and papers relative
to the Slave-trade, from Havre de Grace; but as I had pledged myself to
offer no other person to be examined, his evidence was lost. Thus, after
all the pains we had taken, and in a contest, too, on the success of which
our own reputation and the fate of Africa depended, we were obliged to
fight the battle with sixteen less than we could have brought into the
field; while our opponents, on the other hand, on account of their superior
advantages, had mustered all their forces, not having omitted a single man.

I do not know of any period of my life in which I suffered so much both in
body and mind, as from the time of resuming these public inquiries by the
privy council, to the time when they were closed. For I had my weekly duty
to attend at the committee for the abolition during this interval. I had to
take down the examinations of all the evidences who came to London, and to
make certain copies of these. I had to summon these to town, and to make
provision against all accidents; and here I was often troubled by means of
circumstances, which unexpectedly occurred, lest, when committees of the
council had been purposely appointed to hear them, they should not be
forthcoming at the time. I had also a new and extensive correspondence to
keep up; for the tables of questions which had been sent down to our
correspondents, brought letters almost innumerable on this subject, and
they were always addressed to me. These not only required answers of
themselves, but as they usually related to persons capable of giving their
testimony, and contained the particulars of what they could state, they
occasioned fresh letters to be written to others. Hence the writing of ten
or twelve daily became necessary.

But the contents of these letters afforded the circumstances, which gave
birth to so much suffering. They contained usually some affecting tale of
woe. At Bristol my feelings had been harassed by the cruel treatment of the
seamen, which had come to my knowledge there: but now I was doomed to see
this treatment over again in many other melancholy instances; and
additionally to take in the various sufferings of the unhappy slaves. These
accounts I could seldom get time to read till late in the evening, and
sometimes not till midnight, when the letters containing them were to be
answered. The effect of these accounts was in some instances to overwhelm
me for a time in tears, and in others to produce a vivid indignation, which
affected my whole frame. Recovering from these, I walked up and down the
room. I felt fresh vigour, and made new determinations of perpetual warfare
against this impious trade. I implored strength that I might proceed. I
then sat down, and continued my work as long as my wearied eyes would
permit me to see. Having been agitated in this manner, I went to bed: but
my rest was frequently broken by the visions which floated before me. When
I awoke, these renewed themselves to me, and they flitted about with me for
the remainder of the day. Thus I was kept continually harassed: my mind was
confined to one gloomy and heart-breaking subject for months. It had no
respite, and my health began now materially to suffer.

But the contents of these letters were particularly grievous, on account of
the severe labours which they necessarily entailed upon me in other ways
than those which have been mentioned. It was my duty, while the privy
council examinations went on, not only to attend to all the evidence which
was presented to us by our correspondents, but to find out and select the
best. The happiness of millions depended upon it. Hence I was often obliged
to travel during these examinations, in order to converse with those who
had been pointed out to us as capable of giving their testimony; and, that
no time might be lost, to do this in the night. More than two hundred miles
in a week were sometimes passed over on these occasions.

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