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The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament (1808), Vol. I 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), Vol. I



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.


IN TWO VOLUMES.


VOL. I.


LONDON:

1808.

TO

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM, LORD GRENVILLE,
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES, EARL GREY,
(LATE VISCOUNT HOWICK),
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE FRANCIS, EARL MOIRA,
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GEORGE JOHN, EARL SPENCER,
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY RICHARD, LORD HOLLAND,
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THOMAS, LORD ERSKINE,
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EDWARD, LORD ELLENBOROUGH,
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD HENRY PETTY,
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, THOMAS GRENVILLE,
NINE OUT OF TWELVE OF HIS MAJESTY'S LATE CABINET MINISTERS, TO WHOSE WISE
AND VIRTUOUS ADMINISTRATION BELONGS THE UNPARALLELED AND ETERNAL GLORY OF
THE ANNIHILATION (AS FAR AS THEIR POWER EXTENDED) OF ONE OF THE GREATEST
SOURCES OF CRIMES AND SUFFERINGS, EVER RECORDED IN THE ANNALS OF MANKIND;
AND TO THE MEMORIES OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM PITT, AND OF THE RIGHT
HONOURABLE CHARLES JAMES FOX, UNDER WHOSE FOSTERING INFLUENCE THE GREAT
WORK WAS BEGUN AND PROMOTED, THIS HISTORY OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND
ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE IS RESPECTFULLY AND
GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED.




CHAPTER I.

_No subject more pleasing than that of the removal of evils--Evils have
existed almost from the beginning of the world--but there is a power in our
nature to counteract them--this power increased by Christianity--of the
evils removed by Christianity one of the greatest is the Slave-trade--The
joy we ought to feel on its abolition from a contemplation of the nature of
it--and of the extent of it--and of the difficulty of subduing
it--Usefulness also of the contemplation of this subject_.


I scarcely know of any subject, the contemplation of which, is more
pleasing than that of the correction or of the removal of any of the
acknowledged evils of life; for while we rejoice to think that the
sufferings of our fellow-creatures have been thus, in any instance,
relieved, we must rejoice equally to think that our own moral condition
must have been necessarily improved by the change.

That evils, both physical and moral, have existed long upon earth there can
be no doubt. One of the sacred writers, to whom we more immediately appeal
for the early history of mankind, informs us that the state of our first
parents was a state of innocence and happiness; but that, soon after their
creation, sin and misery entered into the world. The Poets in their fables,
most of which, however extravagant they may seem, had their origin in
truth, speak the same language. Some of these represent the first condition
of man by the figure of the golden, and his subsequent degeneracy and
subjection to suffering by that of the silver, and afterwards of the iron,
age. Others tell us that the first female was made of clay; that she was
called Pandora, because every necessary gift, qualification, or endowment,
was given to her by the Gods, but that she received from Jupiter at the
same time, a box, from which, when opened, a multitude of disorders sprung,
and that these spread themselves immediately afterwards among all of the
human race. Thus it appears, whatever authorities we consult, that those
which may be termed the evils of life existed in the earliest times. And
what does subsequent history, combined with our own experience, tell us,
but that these have been continued, or that they have come down, in
different degrees, through successive generations of men, in all the known
countries of the universe, to the present day?

But though the inequality visible in the different conditions of life, and
the passions interwoven into our nature, (both which have been allotted to
us for wise purposes, and without which we could not easily afford a proof
of the existence of that which is denominated virtue,) have a tendency to
produce vice and wretchedness among us, yet we see in this our constitution
what may operate partially as preventives and correctives of them. If there
be a radical propensity in our nature to do that which is wrong, there is
on the other hand a counteracting power within it, or an impulse, by means
of the action of the Divine Spirit upon our minds, which urges us to do
that which is right. If the voice of temptation, clothed in musical and
seducing accents, charms us one way, the voice of holiness, speaking to us
from within in a solemn and powerful manner, commands us another. Does one
man obtain a victory over his corrupt affections? an immediate perception
of pleasure, like the feeling of a reward divinely conferred upon him, is
noticed.--Does another fall prostrate beneath their power? a painful
feeling, and such as pronounces to him the sentence of reproof and
punishment, is found to follow.--If one, by suffering his heart to become
hardened, oppresses a fellow-creature, the tear of sympathy starts up in
the eye of another, and the latter instantly feels a desire, involuntarily
generated, of flying to his relief. Thus impulses, feelings, and
dispositions have been implanted in our nature for the purpose of
preventing and rectifying the evils of life. And as these have operated so
as to stimulate some men to lessen them by the exercise of an amiable
charity, so they have operated to stimulate others, in various other ways,
to the same end. Hence the philosopher has left moral precepts behind him
in favour of benevolence, and the legislator has endeavoured to prevent
barbarous practices by the introduction of laws.

In consequence then of these impulses and feelings, by which the pure power
in our nature is thus made to act as a check upon the evil part of it, and
in consequence of the influence which philosophy and legislative wisdom
have had in their respective provinces, there has been always, in all times
and countries, a counteracting energy, which has opposed itself more or
less to the crimes and miseries of mankind. But it seems to have been
reserved for Christianity to increase this energy, and to give it the
widest possible domain. It was reserved for her, under the same Divine
Influence, to give the best views of the nature, and of the present and
future condition of man; to afford the best moral precepts, to communicate
the most benign stimulus to the heart, to produce the most blameless
conduct, and thus to cut off many of the causes of wretchedness, and to
heal it wherever it was found. At her command, wherever she has been duly
acknowledged, many of the evils of life have already fled. The prisoner of
war is no longer led into the amphitheatre to become a gladiator, and to
imbrue his hands in the blood of his fellow-captive for the sport of a
thoughtless multitude. The stern priest, cruel through fanaticism and
custom, no longer leads his fellow-creature to the altar, to sacrifice him
to fictitious Gods. The venerable martyr, courageous through faith and the
sanctity of his life, is no longer hurried to the flames. The haggard
witch, poring over her incantations by moon-light, no longer scatters her
superstitious poison among her miserable neighbours, nor suffers for her
crime.

But in whatever way Christianity may have operated towards the increase of
this energy, or towards a diminution of human misery, it has operated in
none more powerfully than by the new views, and consequent duties, which it
introduced on the subject of charity, or practical benevolence and love.
Men in ancient times looked upon their talents, of whatever description, as
their own, which they might use or cease to use at their discretion. But
the author of our religion was the first who taught that, however in a
legal point of view the talent of individuals might belong exclusively to
themselves, so that no other person had a right to demand the use of it by
force, yet in the Christian dispensation they were but the stewards of it
for good; that so much was expected from this stewardship, that it was
difficult for those who were entrusted with it to enter into his spiritual
kingdom; that these had no right to conceal their talent in a napkin; but
that they were bound to dispense a portion of it to the relief of their
fellow-creatures; and that in proportion to the magnitude of it they were
accountable for the extensiveness of its use. He was the first, who
pronounced the misapplication of it to be a crime, and to be a crime of no
ordinary dimension. He was the first who broke down the boundary between
Jew and Gentile, and therefore the first, who pointed out to men the
inhabitants of other countries for the exercise of their philanthropy and
love. Hence a distinction is to be made both in the principle and practice
of charity, as existing in ancient or in modern times. Though the old
philosophers, historians, and poets, frequently inculcated benevolence, we
have no reason to conclude from any facts they have left us, that persons
in their days did any thing more than occasionally relieve an unfortunate
object, who might present himself before them, or that, however they might
deplore the existence of public evils among them, they joined in
associations for their suppression, or that they carried their charity, as
bodies of men, into other kingdoms. To Christianity alone we are indebted
for the new and sublime spectacle of seeing men going beyond the bounds of
individual usefulness to each other--of seeing them associate for the
extirpation of private and public misery--and of seeing them carry their
charity, as a united brotherhood, into distant lands. And in this wider
field of benevolence it would be unjust not to confess, that no country has
shone with more true lustre than our own, there being scarcely any case of
acknowledged affliction for which some of her Christian children have not
united in an attempt to provide relief.

Among the evils, corrected or subdued, either by the general influence of
Christianity on the minds of men, or by particular associations of
Christians, the African[A] Slave-trade appears to me to have occupied the
foremost place. The abolition of it, therefore, of which it has devolved
upon me to write the history, should be accounted as one of the greatest
blessings, and, as such, should be one of the most copious sources of our
joy. Indeed I know of no evil, the removal of which should excite in us a
higher degree of pleasure. For in considerations of this kind, are we not
usually influenced by circumstances? Are not our feelings usually affected
according to the situation, or the magnitude, or the importance of these?
Are they not more or less elevated as the evil under our contemplation has
been more or less productive of misery, or more or less productive of
guilt? Are they not more or less elevated, again, as we have found it more
or less considerable in extent? Our sensations will undoubtedly be in
proportion to such circumstances, or our joy to the appretiation or
mensuration of the evil which has been removed.

[Footnote A: Slavery had been before annihilated by Christianity, I mean in
the West of Europe, at the close of the twelfth century.]

To value the blessing of the abolition as we ought, or to appretiate the
joy and gratitude which we ought to feel concerning it, we must enter a
little into the circumstances of the trade. Our statement, however, of
these needs not be long. A few pages will do all that is necessary! A
glance only into such a subject as this will be sufficient to affect the
heart--to arouse our indignation and our pity,--and to teach us the
importance of the victory obtained.

The first subject for consideration, towards enabling us to make the
estimate in question, will be that of the nature of the evil belonging to
the Slave-trade. This may be seen by examining it in three points of
view:--First, As it has been proved to arise on the continent of Africa in
the course of reducing the inhabitants of it to slavery;--Secondly, in the
course of conveying them from thence to the lands or colonies of other
nations;--And Thirdly, In continuing them there as slaves.

To see it as it has been shown to arise in the first case, let us suppose
ourselves on the Continent just mentioned. Well then--We are landed--We are
already upon our travels--We have just passed through one forest--We are
now come to a more open place, which indicates an approach to habitation.
And what object is that, which first obtrudes itself upon our sight? Who is
that wretched woman, whom we discover under that noble tree, wringing her
hands, and beating her breast, as if in the agonies of despair? Three days
has she been there at intervals to look and to watch, and this is the
fourth morning, and no tidings of her children yet. Beneath its spreading
boughs they were accustomed to play--But alas! the savage man-stealer
interrupted their playful mirth, and has taken them for ever from her
sight.

But let us leave the cries of this unfortunate woman, and hasten into
another district:--And what do we first see here? Who is he, that just now
started across the narrow pathway, as if afraid of a human face? What is
that sudden rustling among the leaves? Why are those persons flying from
our approach, and hiding themselves in yon darkest thicket? Behold, as we
get into the plain, a deserted village! The rice-field has been just
trodden down around it. An aged man, venerable by his silver beard, lies
wounded and dying near the threshold of his hut. War, suddenly instigated
by avarice, has just visited the dwellings which we see. The old have been
butchered, because unfit for slavery, and the young have been carried off,
except such as have fallen in the conflict, or have escaped among the woods
behind us.

But let us hasten from this cruel scene, which gives rise to so many
melancholy reflections. Let us cross yon distant river, and enter into some
new domain. But are we relieved even here from afflicting spectacles? Look
at that immense crowd, which appears to be gathered in a ring. See the
accused innocent in the middle. The ordeal of poisonous water has been
administered to him, as a test of his innocence or his guilt. He begins to
be sick, and pale. Alas! yon mournful shriek of his relatives confirms that
the loss of his freedom is now sealed.

And whither shall we go now? The night is approaching fast. Let us find
some friendly hut, where sleep may make us forget for a while the sorrows
of the day. Behold a hospitable native ready to receive us at his door! Let
us avail ourselves of his kindness. And now let us give ourselves to
repose. But why, when our eyelids are but just closed, do we find ourselves
thus suddenly awakened? What is the meaning of the noise around us, of the
trampling of people's feet, of the rustling of the bow, the quiver, and the
lance? Let us rise up and inquire. Behold! the inhabitants are all alarmed!
A wakeful woman has shown them yon distant column of smoke and blaze. The
neighbouring village is on fire. The prince, unfaithful to the sacred duty
of the protection of his subjects, has surrounded them. He is now burning
their habitations, and seizing, as saleable booty, the fugitives from the
flames.

Such then are some of the scenes that have been passing in Africa in
consequence of the existence of the Slave-trade; or such is the nature of
the evil, as it has shown itself in the first of the cases we have noticed.
Let us now estimate it as it has been proved to exist in the second; or let
us examine the state of the unhappy Africans, reduced to slavery in this
manner, while on board the vessels, which are to convey them across the
ocean to other lands. And here I must observe at once, that, as far as this
part of the evil is concerned, I am at a loss to describe it. Where shall I
find words to express properly their sorrow, as arising from the reflection
of being parted for ever from their friends, their relatives, and their
country? Where shall I find language to paint in appropriate colours the
horror of mind brought on by thoughts of their future unknown destination,
of which they can augur nothing but misery from all that they have yet
seen? How shall I make known their situation, while labouring under painful
disease, or while struggling in the suffocating holds of their prisons,
like animals inclosed in an exhausted receiver? How shall I describe their
feelings, as exposed to all the personal indignities, which lawless
appetite or brutal passion may suggest? How shall I exhibit their
sufferings as determining to refuse sustenance and die, or as resolving to
break their chains, and, disdaining to live as slaves, to punish their
oppressors? How shall I give an idea of their agony, when under various
punishments and tortures for their reputed crimes? Indeed every part of
this subject defies my powers, and I must therefore satisfy myself and the
reader with a general representation, or in the words of a celebrated
member of Parliament, that "Never was so much human suffering condensed in
so small a space."

I come now to the evil, as it has been proved to arise in the third case;
or to consider the situation of the unhappy victims of the trade, when
their painful voyages are over, or after they have been landed upon their
destined shores. And here we are to view them first under the degrading
light of cattle. We are to see them examined, handled, selected, separated,
and sold. Alas! relatives are separated from relatives, as if, like cattle,
they had no rational intellect, no power of feeling the nearness of
relationship, nor sense of the duties belonging to the ties of life! We are
next to see them labouring, and this for the benefit of those, to whom they
are under no obligation, by any law either natural or divine, to obey. We
are to see them, if refusing the commands of their purchasers, however
weary, or feeble, or indisposed, subject to corporal punishments, and, if
forcibly resisting them, to death. We are to see them in a state of general
degradation and misery. The knowledge, which their oppressors have of their
own crime in having violated the rights of nature, and of the disposition
of the injured to seek all opportunities of revenge, produces a fear, which
dictates to them the necessity of a system of treatment by which they shall
keep up a wide distinction between the two, and by which the noble feelings
of the latter shall be kept down, and their spirits broken. We are to see
them again subject to individual persecution, as anger, or malice, or any
bad passion may suggest. Hence the whip--the chain--the iron-collar. Hence
the various modes of private torture, of which so many accounts have been
truly given. Nor can such horrible cruelties be discovered so as to be made
punishable, while the testimony of any number of the oppressed is invalid
against the oppressors, however they may be offences against the laws. And,
lastly, we are to see their innocent offspring, against whose personal
liberty the shadow of an argument cannot be advanced, inheriting all the
miseries of their parents' lot.

The evil then, as far as it has been hitherto viewed, presents to us in its
three several departments a measure of human suffering not to be
equalled--not to be calculated--not to be described. But would that we
could consider this part of the subject as dismissed! Would that in each of
the departments now examined there was no counterpart left us to
contemplate! But this cannot be. For if there be persons, who suffer
unjustly, there must be others, who oppress. And if there be those who
oppress, there must be to the suffering, which has been occasioned, a
corresponding portion of immorality or guilt.

We are obliged then to view the counterpart of the evil in question, before
we can make a proper estimate of the nature of it. And, in examining this
part of it, we shall find that we have a no less frightful picture to
behold than in the former cases; or that, while the miseries endured by the
unfortunate Africans excite our pity on the one hand, the vices, which are
connected with them, provoke our indignation and abhorrence on the other.
The Slave-trade, in this point of view, must strike us as an immense mass
of evil on account of the criminality attached to it, as displayed in the
various branches of it, which have already been examined. For, to take the
counterpart of the evil in the first of these, can we say, that no moral
turpitude is to be placed to the account of those, who living on the
continent of Africa give birth to the enormities, which take place in
consequence of the prosecution of this trade? Is not that man made morally
worse, who is induced to become a tiger to his species, or who, instigated
by avarice, lies in wait in the thicket to get possession of his
fellow-man? Is no injustice manifest in the land, where the prince,
unfaithful to his duty, seizes his innocent subjects, and sells them for
slaves? Are no moral evils produced among those communities, which make war
upon other communities for the sake of plunder, and without any previous
provocation or offence? Does no crime attach to those, who accuse others
falsely, or who multiply and divide crimes for the sake of the profit of
the punishment, and who for the same reason, continue the use of barbarous
and absurd ordeals as a test of innocence or guilt?

In the second of these branches the counterpart of the evil is to be seen
in the conduct of those, who purchase the miserable natives in their own
country, and convey them to distant lands. And here questions, similar to
the former, may be asked. Do they experience no corruption of their nature,
or become chargeable with no violation of right, who, when they go with
their ships to this continent, know the enormities which their visits there
will occasion, who buy their fellow-creature man, and this, knowing the way
in which he comes into their hands, and who chain, and imprison, and
scourge him? Do the moral feelings of those persons escape without injury,
whose hearts are hardened? And can the hearts of those be otherwise than
hardened, who are familiar with the tears and groans of innocent strangers
forcibly torn away from every thing that is dear to them in life, who are
accustomed to see them on board their vessels in a state of suffocation and
in the agonies of despair, and who are themselves in the habits of the
cruel use of arbitrary power?

The counterpart of the evil in its third branch is to be seen in the
conduct of those, who, when these miserable people have been landed,
purchase and carry them to their respective homes. And let us see whether a
mass of wickedness is not generated also in the present case. Can those
have nothing to answer for, who separate the faithful ties which nature and
religion have created? Can their feelings be otherwise than corrupted, who
consider their fellow-creatures as brutes, or treat those as cattle, who
may become the temples of the Holy Spirit, and in whom the Divinity
disdains not himself to dwell? Is there no injustice in forcing men to
labour without wages? Is there no breach of duty, when we are commanded to
clothe the naked, and feed the hungry, and visit the sick and in prison, in
exposing them to want, in torturing them by cruel punishment, and in
grinding them down, by hard labour, so as to shorten their days? Is there
no crime in adopting a system, which keeps down all the noble faculties of
their souls, and which positively debases and corrupts their nature? Is
there no crime in perpetuating these evils among their innocent offspring?
And finally, besides all these crimes, is there not naturally in the
familiar sight of the exercise, but more especially in the exercise itself,
of uncontrolled power, that which vitiates the internal man? In seeing
misery stalk daily over the land, do not all become insensibly hardened? By
giving birth to that misery themselves, do they not become abandoned? In
what state of society are the corrupt appetites so easily, so quickly, and
so frequently indulged, and where else, by means of frequent indulgence, do
these experience such a monstrous growth? Where else is the temper subject
to such frequent irritation, or passion to such little control? Yes--If the
unhappy slave is in an unfortunate situation, so is the tyrant who holds
him. Action and reaction are equal to each other, as well in the moral as
in the natural world. You cannot exercise an improper dominion over a
fellow-creature, but by a wise ordering of Providence you must necessarily
injure yourself.

Having now considered the nature of the evil of the Slave-trade in its
three separate departments of suffering, and in its corresponding
counterparts of guilt, I shall make a few observations on the extent of it.

On this subject it must strike us, that the misery and the crimes included
in the evil, as it has been found in Africa, were not like common maladies,
which make a short or periodical visit and then are gone, but that they
were continued daily. Nor were they like diseases, which from local causes
attack a village or a town, and by the skill of the physician, under the
blessing of Providence, are removed, but they affected a whole continent.
The trade with all its horrors began at the river Senegal, and continued,
winding with the coast, through its several geographical divisions to Cape
Negro; a distance of more than three thousand miles. In various lines or
paths formed at right angles from the shore, and passing into the heart of
the country, slaves were procured and brought down. The distance, which
many of them travelled, was immense. Those, who have been in Africa, have
assured us, that they came as far as from the sources of their largest
rivers, which we know to be many hundred miles in-land, and the natives
have told us, in their way of computation, that they came a journey of many
moons.