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// 6 5
JOHN HATCHARD AND SON, .6, 5-7
187, PICCADILLY, LONDON.
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LECTURES
ON
BRITISH COLONIAL SLAVERY.
2 & Zºe/a 2%, ’
222.4% At 22.2%zz-',
Cázzº&zz. zeºzzzzz.
THE
SUBSTANCE OF A COURSE
O F
LECT U R ES
ON
BRITISH COLONIAL SLAVERY,
DELIVERED AT
BRADFORD, YORK, AND SCARBOROUGH.
—“C-
BY THE
REV. BENJAMIN GODWIN,
CLASSICAL TUTOR OF HORTON COLLEGE, BRADFORD, YORKSHIRE.
“Homo sum; humani nihil a me alienum puto.”—TRRENCE.
“Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them.”—HEB. xiii. 3.
LONDON :
PRINTED BY ELLERTON AND HENDERSON,
GOUGH SQUARE ;
PUBLISHED BY J. HATCHARD AND SON, PICCADILLY;
AND J. AND A. ARCH, CORN HILL.
smºsºmºs
M D C C C X X X.
PREF A C E.
—sº-
WHEN the following Lectures were delivered, the
Author had not the remotest idea of publication; but
as he has ventured to come before the Public, he begs
to say a few words in explanation of his reasons and
his object. From his earliest years he felt a hatred
to oppression: his love of liberty, civil and religious,
“ grew with his growth and strengthened with his
strength.” He no sooner heard of slavery in the Bri-
tish dominions, and the miseries necessarily attendant
on such a state, than he deeply deplored the case of
the injured Negro. He was too young to take any
part in the great struggle for the abolition of the slave
trade, though he sincerely rejoiced in that great triumph
of humanity. Since 1823, however, he has taken a more
lively interest in the subject; and towards the close of
the last year, by means of the information which was
laid before the public from time to time, his mind be-
came so strongly impressed with the subject, that it
followed him night and day: he felt that, for the peace
of his own mind, he must make some attempt on behalf
of his suffering fellow-creatures; it became a point of
conscience. The inquiry then arose, what could he do,
engaged as he was as tutor in a Dissenting college, and
pastor of a church and congregation ? The first thing
suggested was, to preach on the subject; but, besides
the probability that many might hesitate to come to a
Dissenting chapel, there were many topics connected
* } C, 4 tº ºf x 4 Y fºr
263305
vi P REFA C E.
with slavery which appeared scarcely suited to the
pulpit. He thought then of lecturing in the public
room of the Exchange; but the idea was new, and he
hesitated; but, on mentioning it to some respected
friends, he was encouraged to proceed. The experi-
ment succeeded. The delivery of the Lectures was
honoured by a numerous, respectable, and attentive
audience; and he had the happiness of seeing that his
immediate object was accomplished,—information was
extended, and a general interest was excited in the
neighbourhood. The Lectures were afterwards de-
livered, by request, at York and Scarborough. Many
invitations came from different places, to which the
Author could not attend : in fact, from the additional
labour and excitement his health began to suffer, and
his immediate duties would not admit of his proceeding
any further in this course. He received many requests
to publish, which he uniformly resisted, till it was sug-
gested, that, though there were many works extanton the
subject, yet there was not one which exhibited it as a
whole; and that, as the Lectures gave a connected and
condensed view of all the principal facts and arguments
connected with Negro slavery, the work might be use-
ful, as a kind of text-book, to those who wished at this
particular crisis to make themselves acquainted with
the subject, and might not have time or inclination to
examine the details in a large number of books and
pamphlets. With the hope of serving the cause of
Negro freedom, he has committed the Lectures to the
press. How far the Author has done right in publish-
ing, and whether the work is adapted to promote the
end which he has in view, the public will judge.
PREF AcE. vii
As to the execution, there are some circumstances
which the Author thinks entitle him to the candour of
the public. Such are his engagements, that the time de-
voted to a preparation of the Lectures for the press has
been what should have been given to rest from the fatigues
and exhaustion which his various duties occasion; and
as it was considered desirable that the work, if pub-
lished at all, should be out in time for circulation before
the meeting of Parliament, there has been, and could
be, no opportunity for a careful revision. The Lectures
were not read, nor delivered memoriter, though copious
notes had been taken : in writing them out for the
press, it was therefore impossible to secure the same
mode of expression in every instance as was employed
in the delivery ; and this also will account for the addi-
tional time requisite in preparing them for publication.
The Author wishes that he could have rendered them
in this respect more worthy the acceptance of the
Public : but he wishes this to be understood of the
composition only; for the statements which are made,
and the reasonings which are employed, he asks no
mercy: let them stand at the bar of justice. He be-
lieves that no fact produced will be found to be mate-
rially incorrect; nor is he aware of any thing unsound
in the various lines of argument which he has taken.
These, however, he is perfectly willing to submit to a
fair and honest criticism.
Bowling Cottage, near Bradford, Yorkshire,
September 7, 1830.
ERRATA.
The absence of the Author from London while the sheets were passing through
the press has occasioned several verbal inaccuracies, which it will be unne-
cessary to notice, but for which he claims the reader's indulgence. The fol-
lowing, however, as being either material to the argument, or required with
a view to the strict accuracy of quotation, he begs the reader will do him the
favour to correct.
Page 17, lines 21, 22, and 23: in the two columns of allowances, at the end of
each half line read the disjunctive or.
Page 37, line 14: after cut me, read and would give me.
Page 53, line 8: after Massa, read Jew.
Page 97, line 22: after you, read who.
Page 100, line 27: for clearest, read dearest.
— 29: for one other, read another.
Page 110, line 5: for they felt, read they probably felt.
Page 111, line 29, after are, read now.
Page 113, line 4 from bottom: for avºporoëisal, read avºporo&ising.
Page 114, line 17: after inculcates, read and.
—————— 20: there should be no break in the paragraph.
C O N T E N T S.
—º-
LECTURE I.
GENERAL VI EW OF SLAVERY.
Design and Plan of the Lectures .................................... page 1
Geographical and Historical Notices ...................................
Africa s • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * s s a e < e < e < * * * * * * * $ $ e s e s e e
The West Indies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
General View of the Slave System ....................................
White, Black, and Coloured Population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Employment of the Slaves tº a c e e s e e s e s e a e s e e º e º 'º e º e º s is e e e © tº
Cultivation of the Sugar Cane ............................
Manufacture of Sugar ....................................
Holeing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Driving Whip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Provisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Principal Features of the Slave System.................................
Proof–Resolutions of 1823 ..............................
Conclusion “.................. • & e º O C e º e º 'º º O O & 0 & © º O & Q & 0 & 1 tº $ e e s e º o e e a tº tº a e e º O g
LECTURE II.
T H E E VILS OF S L A V E R Y.
Preliminary Remarks e e s see e'e s • a s a se v e a se s w e s s e s - e s s e s s • * e s e s w w e s a e º e o e s e s e
Natural Evils • * * * * * * e s see e s s see e o e o e s - e s • e < e s e e o s so e i e s • se e s e e o e s • e e s • e s = •
The Negroes torn from Africa—Why this is noticed . . . . . . . . . .
General Treatment of the Slaves in the Colonies as to Labour,
Food, and Punishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . tº e º º
Their Situation in reference to Society at large . . . . . . . . * is º e º e º º
Inequality of Law and Right..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... ..........
The Manner in which Justice is administered ....................
The Difficulty of Redress—Inadmissibility of Evidence...... tº $ tº
The Misery inflicted on every social Feeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The whole State that of complete begradation . . . . . . . . . • * * * * *
Free Blacks and Persons of Colour not entirely exempt . . . . . . . .
3.
4.
ib.
6
9
ib.
il
12
ib.
I3
15
17
19
2I
24
26
28
ib.
31
43
ib.
44
47
52
54
60
X Con TENTs.
Moral Evils of the System .......................................... page 61
On the Victims of its Oppression . . . . . . •e º e º º is º e . . . . . . . . . . . . ib.
A Re-action on all who administer the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Particular Evils resulting from it. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - tº º ſº º tº e º O & • • 64
With Reference to Africa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .• . . . . ‘. . . . . . . . . . . • ‘7 I
Political Evils. -
Maintained at a vast Expense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Bounties, &c.. . . . . . . . . .............. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Waste of Human Life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ib.
To the Injury of our Commerce and Manufactures . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
National Guilt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . tº gº º ºn e º . . . . . . . . . 79
LECTURE III.
THE UN LAWFULN ESS OF S L A V ERY.
Objections to the Statements of the last Lecture noticed ......... 81
That the Slaves are better off than our Peasantry ............ 82
That they are contented and happy if left to themselves........ 84
That it is the Interest of the Planters to use their Slaves well .. 86
That the Accounts of the Miseries of Slavery are exaggerated .. 88
Preliminary Explanations ............................................... 89
Slavery a Violation of the natural Rights of Man .................. 90
What they are, and in what Cases they may be suspended . . . . 91
Application to our Colonial Slavery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Objections or supposed Palliations ....... ............................. 95
A Participation in the original Act denied . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . ib.
The Slaves originally Captives or Criminals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
The Negroes an inferior Race . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * c e º e º 'º e s tº c s e e 97
Contrary to the Spirit and Practice of the British Constitution ... 100
Explanatory Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 101
Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Law of Nations violated by Slavery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 104
Notice of Arguments derived from the general Prevalence and An-
tiquity of Slavery—Acts of Parliament—and Jewish Slavery. 106
Opposed to the Nature and Tendency of Christianity............... 112
Concessions tº a c e 9 e e g º e º ºs e e º e e s tº tº e º e º 'º e º g º e º gº tº º Gº e º sº º º tº º ºs ib.
Views which Christianity gives of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . e e º e º 'º e • 114
Views which it gives of Man . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
The Dispositions which it inculcates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
The Duties which it requires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
LECTURE IV.
T H E A B O LITION OF S L A V E R Y.
A View of what has already been done .............................. 119
The Origin of Colonial Slavery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . ib.
The Progress and Extent of the Slave Trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
CON TENTS. xi
1st Period.—By whom reprobated. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 122
State of Slavery in the Colonies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Granville Sharpe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
The Decision of the Judges in Westminster Hall . . . . . . . . . . ib.
2d Period.—Warious Advocates of the Negroes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
132 Slaves thrown overboard alive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ib.
Efforts of Friends.......... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ib.
Mr. Clarkson and Mr. Wilberforce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Society formed for the Abolition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ib.
The great Contest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
The Abolition of the Slave Trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
3d Period.—State of the Slaves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ib.
Resolutions of 1823. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
4th Period.—Conduct of Government and of Colonial Authorities 133
Review of what has been done . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
In the Crown Colonies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . tº º º º ib.
In the Chartered Colonies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
. The Condition in which the Slaves are still left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Inquiry into the Duty of the Friends of Religion and of Humanity 139
The Slaves claim our Sympathy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ib.
Are entitled to our active Efforts on their Behalf. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
What is the Object to which our Efforts should be directed?...... 143
Should it be Amelioration or Abolition ? .................... ib.
Its supposed Interference with vested Rights.................... 145
The Question of Compensation considered....................... • 149
Should we aim at gradual or immediate Abolition? . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Reasons on both Sides. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ib
In what Manner should we seek the Abolition of Slavery P ...... 156
- Should we discourage Slave Produce 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Petitions © e º e º e o e º 0 & 0 & © e º O C & © tº c e o O e º O e º e º O C C C C C C & © tº º O & © tº G 164:
Elections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • - - - - - - - - - 165
Appeals on the Condition of the enslaved Negroes to
Our Benevolence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Our Patriotism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ib.
Our Piety e e & © e º & © Q & © tº s e e º e e e e s e e o w w C & e º s e e e º e º ſe e º e s e e º s 168
Two Cautions ............................................................... 168
Conclusion tº tº C C C C C C C C C C C C e º O O © 9 Q & O C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C e o e º O C C C C & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 0 & 0 & © O C & O C. 170
STATISTICAL VIEW OF THE BRITISH SLAVE COLONIES.
CHARTERED COLONIES.
CROWN COLONIES.

36ermubg.
Free
Whites| Slaves | Blacks,
&c.
5,500. 4,650
500
The Bermudas are a cluster of islands, discovered
by J. Bermuda, a Spaniard, 1527. Bermuda the
principal island.
Size of Bermuda, about 30 miles long and 2 broad.
Lat. 32 deg. 35 min. N., Long. 63 deg. 28 min. W.
Some of them colonized by the English 1612.
Principally engaged in shipping and trading.
33ajāmag.
Whites
4,000
Slaves
9,500
Free
2,800
A great number of islands, mostly uninhabited, al-
together 400 or 500. Discovered by Columbus
1492. St. Salvador the first, called also Cat island.
Colonized by the English in part 1629. Establish-
ed with a Governor 1672.
Produce : Principally corn and cotton.
Lat. of Bahama 28 deg. 45 min. N., Long. 78 deg.
35 mim. W. * -
3|amaica.
Whites | Slaves
Free
15,000;331,000|40,000
Discovered by Columbus, May 3, 1494. Possessed
by Spain. Captured by the English, May 1655,
under Cromwell: then only 1500 Whites. Greatly
enriched by the Buccaneers. In 1661 a procla-
mation by Charles II. to encourage settling.
Produce : Sugar, cotton, coffee, pimento, ginger,
mahogany, &c. -
Size: 150 miles long, 40 broad. Lat. 18 deg. 12
min. N., Long. 76 deg. 45 min. W.
Chief Towns: Spanish Town, Kingston, Port Royal.
r
White Slaves
800, 5,400
tjirgin ſigleg ot
(Tortola.
Free
607
Discovered by Columbus 1493, about 40 in all, very
Small. Taken possession of by some Dutch Buc-
cameers, who were driven out by the English in
1666: at least from Tortola. Some of them ceded
to the Danes.
Produce : Sugar, cotton, &c.
Size of Tortola, 15 miles by 6. Lat. 17 deg. 50 min.
N., Long, 63 deg. W.
%intigua.
White slaves' Free
200030000 4,500
Discovered by Columbus. Colonized by a few
English 1632.
Produce : Sugar, &c.
ize : Upwards of 50 miles in circumference.
17 deg. 30 min. N., Long. 62 deg. 5 min. W.
Lat.
£10mit5etrat.
|
White Slaves | Free
500 6,000 700
Discovered by Columbus.
Christopher's 1632.
Produce : Sugar, cottom, &c.
Size: About 9 miles long and 9 in breadth. Lat.
16 deg. 54 min., Long. 62 deg. 34 min.
Colonized from St.
Dominica.
Whites! Slaves | Free
800 14,500 3,600
Discovered by Columbus on a Sunday 1493. Pos-
sessed by various claimants: taken by the English
1759.
Produce : Sugar, coffee, ginger, &c.
Size: 29 miles long, about 16 in breadth. Lat. 15
deg. 30 min. N., Long. 61 deg. 20 min. W.
33ārbaïdeg.
Whites! Slaves Free
15,000 81,000 5,000
Discovered, as is supposed, by the Portuguese, but
uninhabited. Colonized by the English 1624.
Produce : Sugar, ginger, cotton, &
Size: 21 miles long, 14 broad.
min. N., Long. 59 deg. 50 min.
C.
Lat. 13 deg. 10
$f. Wintent'g.
Whites slaves Pree
1,300 23,500 2,900
Discovered by Spaniards, but not possessed. Pos-
sessed by various claimants, but ceded to England
1763. Captured by the French 1779. Restored
1783.
Produce : Sugar, coffee, cotton, &c.
Size : Length 24 miles, breadth 18.
10 min. N., Long. 61 deg. W.
N.B. A few of the native Charibs remained here
not long since.
Lat. 13 deg.
$f.QTijrigtopijet'g.
White | Slaves | Free
1,800||19,500|2,500
Discovered by Columbus 1493. Colonized by the
#ºn 1623: taken by the French 1782: restored
783.
Produce : Sugar, cotton, &c. : remarkably fertile.
Size: About 42 miles in circumference. Lat. 17
deg. 15 min. N., Long. 63 deg. 17 min. W.
TNebíg.
Whitel Slaves
Free
800 9,000||1,800
Discovered by Columbus. Colonized by the English
1628.
Produce : Sugar, &c.
Size: A single mountain, rising like a come, 24
miles round. Lat. 16 deg. 10 min. N., Long. 6
deg. 50 min. W.
(Bºrgllalya.
Whites slaves Free
800 24,500 3,700
Discovered by Columbus 1498. Taken possession
of by the French 1650. Captured by the English
1762 : by the French 1779. Restored to the
English 1783.
Produce : Sugar, cotton, coffee, &c.
Size: About 24 miles long, medium breadth 10.
Lat. 12 deg. N., Long. 61 deg. 40 min. W.
N.B. The Grenadines between this and St. Vincent
belong some to Grenada and some to St. Vincent.
Tobago.
Whites! Slaves
350| 12,700
Free
1,200
Discovered by Columbus 1498. Possessed by various
colonists, French, &c. Ceded to the English 1763.
Captured and retakem.
Produce : Sugar, coffee, ginger, &c.
Size : About 30 miles long, 9 in breadth.
deg. 16 min. N., Long. 60 deg. W.
Lat. II
$5t. £ucia.
Free
Whites| Slaves | Blacks,
- C.
1,100 13,500 4,000
Discovered on St. Lucia's day. Its possession has
often been contested, especially by the French
and English. After many captures and cessions,
finally possessed by the English.
Produce : Sugar, cotton, coffee, &c.
Size: About 32 miles long. Lat. 13 deg. 30 min. N.,
Long. 60 deg. W.
43,000 35,500|29,000
(ſtiltibaly.
Whites! Slaves | Free
3,500 23,000|16,000
Discovered by Columbus in his third voyage, 1498.
Taken by Sir Walter Raleigh 1595: by the
French 1676. Captured by the British 1797, and
finally ceded by the peace of Amiens.
Produce : Sugar, coffee, tobacco, ginger, &c.
Size: About 150 miles long, 45 broad. Lat. 9 deg.
48 min. to 10 deg. 42 min. N., Long. 60 deg. 6
min. to 61 deg. 36 min. W.
330mljurag.
Whites| Slaves
300 2,450
Free
2,800
|
On the Continent of America. The first establish-
ment of the English on this coast was in 1730 near
Cape Honduras, in the neighbourhood of the
Mosquito Indians. Principal town, Belise.
Exports mahogamy. Lat. 18 deg., Long. 89 deg. W.
This is not properly a Crown, neither is it a Char-
tered colony, but a sort of dependency of Jamaica.
£3emerara.
Whites
3,000
Free
6,000
Slaves
70,000
This, together with Essequibo, form one government
in Dutch Guiana, on two rivers, the Demerara
and Essequibo. Formerly belonging to the Dutch,
but captured and now possessed by the English.
Produce : Sugar, cottom, coffee, &c. Plantations
by the rivers.
Lat. 6 deg. 40 min. N., Long. 57 deg. 45 min. W.
36erbice. -
Whites Free
600 21,000 1,000
Slaves
A colony in Guiana, South America, formerly be-
longing to the Dutch, on a river of the same name,
on the banks of which the plantations run for
many miles. Captured by the English in 1803.
Produce : Sugar, cotton, coffee, &c.
Lat. of the entrance of the river 6 deg. 30 min. N.,
Long. 57 deg. 20 min. W.
(Tape of QRoot 390 pe.
Whites. Slaves | Tree
Discovered by Bart. Diaz, a Portuguese, 1487.
Portuguese, English, and Dutch, made use of it
for some time as a place of refreshment. After-
wards in the possession of the Dutch. Captured
by the British arms 1795. Afterwards restored,
but recaptured and finally retained by the English.
Produce : Grain, wine, wool, hides, &c.
Lat. 34 deg. 29 min. S., Long. 18 deg. 23 min. E.
#lauritiuſ;.
Whites! Slaves | Free
An island in the Indian Ocean, discovered by the
Dutch 1598; afterwards abandoned: taken pos-
session of by the French 1720, and called the Isle
of France. Captured by the English 1810.
Produce : Sugar, &c.
Size: In circuit about 150 miles. Lat. 20 deg. 12
8,000 76,000||15,100
min. S., Long. 58 deg. 27 min. E.
N.B. In this tabular view, perfect numerical accuracy is not pretended. It is hoped, however, that there are no material errors, and that it is adapted to give a fair general view of our Slave Colonies.
bj” The Binder
is requested to let this Table face page 1.
SUBSTANCE OF FOUR LECTURES,
&c. &c.
LECTURE I.
IN presenting myself to your notice as a Lecturer, the inquiry
is very natural and reasonable, why I thus solicit your attention.
My reply is, that I stand forward on behalf of suffering humanity,
and venture to plead the cause of nearly a million of my fellow-
creatures and fellow-subjects.
On most of the topics to which I shall advert, the press
has, I admit, communicated ample and authentic information;
and through the same medium many powerful appeals have
been made to the public feeling. But all that is printed is not
read; oral instruction is frequently more effectual than written
information ; and, in addresses to the conscience or the feelings,
there is a power in the living voice which all the machinery of
the press cannot command. Hence, on the most sacred themes,
the written Scriptures have not rendered the labours of preachers
unnecessary or unprofitable. Most of the sciences have long
been taught in this manner in our great seminaries of learning ;
and now the importance of public lectures in conveying know-
ledge begins to be generally recognised, so that this mode of
instruction is becoming increasingly prevalent. We have, in
the present day, lecturers in almost every branch of science,
and in every department of knowledge, traversing the country,
enlightening the public mind, and exciting an interest in lite-
rature, in philosophy, in politics.
The commodious, I may say elegant, building in which we
B
2 LECT U R ES ON S L A V E R Y.
are now assembled, the erection of which is an honour to those
under whose auspices it was raised, and an ornament to the town
in which we live, was scarcely finished, when it was occupied
by a gentleman who called your attention to the wonders of the
Heavens. He was succeeded, with scarcely an interval, by ano-
ther, who taught the power of Eloquence and the graces of
Elocution, and who by his recitations afforded no less amuse-
ment than instruction. I venture now to follow in the train,
but with a far different object. You contemplated with pleasure
the harmony, the beauty, and the glory of the celestial pheno-
mena: I ask you now to behold the wretchedness and misery of
earthly scenes. I hold out no promise of pleasure and amuse-
ment: I have to tell a tale of woe, and that not the fiction of
creative fancy, framed only for the excitement of sensibility, but
real facts and serious truths.-My subject is SLAVERY |
The very term is shocking to an Englishman who has not
been familiarized to the sad scene till he has ceased to feel.
A love of freedom seems to be drawn in with the very air we
breathe. Liberty is the spirit which pervades our laws; it is the
presiding genius of the constitution. The history of Britain is
that of a perpetual struggle for civil and religious liberty. It is
a subject on which our historians love to dwell; its blessings are
sung by our poets; and often have its inspirations kindled the
fire of eloquence and the glow of fancy, while the walls of the
British senate have resounded with the favourite theme.
My object in the present lectures is, in the first place, to com-
municate information. I believe this is needed. I cannot think
that, if all England knew the present state of Slavery in the
British dominions, and what is paid in public property and human
life to support it, the system would be tolerated by a free and
generous people. The condition of the enslaved Negro must,
I think, when known, touch a sympathetic cord in every heart,
where interest and prejudice do not indurate the feelings and
exclude conviction. I wish my present auditory to know, that
they may feel ; and to feel, that they may act. The subject is
one that should excite commiseration, but not despair. It is
LECTU. R. E. J. 3
an evil of long standing, of enormous extent, and of tremendous
power, both in the infliction of misery and in the resistance
which it opposes to every effort of amelioration ; but it is not
beyond the reach of remedy. It can be removed—it must be
removed—and sooner or later it will be removed, in mercy or
in judgment. And that we may contribute our portion of aid
towards the peaceable extinction of this cruel and degrading
system, is the final object I propose in these lectures.
I confess that, though accustomed to public speaking, I expe-
rience much diffidence on the present occasion ; nor is it without
a considerable expense of feeling that I engage in this under-
taking. But there were two things which strongly urged me to
it: the one, a sympathy for the poor suffering Negro; the other,
a sense of duty. I felt bound in conscience to contribute my
mite of influence towards the removal of an evil, which, while it
inflicts unnumbered miseries on hundreds of thousands of our
fellow-creatures and fellow-subjects, is a foul blot on our national
character, and a crying sin in the sight of Heaven. If I fail in
exciting that portion of interest which I humbly hope will attend
these lectures, I shall still have the satisfaction of an approving
conscience. It was a high commendation bestowed by the
Saviour on a poor woman of old, “She hath done what she
could.”
The plan I propose is, first, to give a general view of the state
of Slavery, as it exists in the British dominions; then, to shew
more fully the evils of the system ; after which I shall en-
deavour to prove the unlawfulness of it. I shall then give a
sketch of what has been done towards the abolition of Slavery ;
and close with an inquiry as to the duty of British Christians
with reference to this subject. .
The present lecture will comprise a view of the general cha-
racter of Slavery, as it exists in the British Colonies. I hope it
will not be deemed superfluous if I commence by a few brief
notices of the country from which, for ages, the Slaves have
been imported, and of that which is the place of their hard ser-
vitude.
4 LECTURES ON SLA V E R Y.
Africa, which furnishes our colonies with Slaves, is a quarter
of the Globe which is considerably larger than Europe. It is,
indeed, a vast peninsula to the south of Europe, connected with
Asia by the Isthmus of Suez. The Mediterranean Sea is its
northern boundary ; on the east, the Arabian Gulf, or Red
Sea, stretches contiguously from the Isthmus of Suez to the
Straits of Babelmandel; from thence to the Cape of Good
Hope, which is its southern extremity, the Indian Ocean washes
its coasts ; and from this point northward, to the Straits of
Gibraltar, the Atlantic Ocean forms its western limit. Its figure
is triangular, the base of which is its northern coast, and its
vertex the Cape of Good Hope. From its most northerly cape,
Bona, in the Mediterranean, which is in 37 deg. 10 min. N. Lat.,
to the Cape of Good Hope, in 34 deg. 29 min. S. Lat., the
distance is about 4980 miles. From Cape Verd, its most
westerly point, in 17 deg. 33 min. W. Long. to Cape Guar-
dafui, in 51 deg. 20 min. E. Long., the extent is about 4790
miles. The far greater part of it, as you will perceive by the
map, lies in the Torrid Zone. “Those parts, however, that lie
near the coasts, or in valleys, and on the banks of the rivers,
are very fertile and productive ; and the country in general is
capable of great improvement by cultivation. Its situation for
commerce is preferable to that of any other quarter of the
globe, as it has a more easy communication with Europe, Asia,
and America, than either of these has with the rest *.”
A great portion of this vast continent was unknown to those
ancient geographers whose works have come down to modern
times. The Greeks and Romans knew but little of the interior:
their information extended principally to the northern states,
with Egypt and Ethiopia to the east. If Africa now ranks low
in civilization, and is considered the most degraded of the four
quarters of the world, there was a time when she ranked high,
and if not equal, was second only to Asia. Before imperial Rome
was known even by name, Thebes the wealthy and the great
* Rees's Cyclop. art. Africa.
LECTUR E [. 5
was celebrated in Homeric song *, and Memphis was renowned
as first in power and magnificence. When Greece was in a state
of barbarism, Egypt shone unrivalled in the light and glory of
science; its population was immense, and its wealth boundless.
Nor was Ethiopia without a name. At a later period Carthage, on
the coasts of the Mediterranean, was, in riches and grandeur
and power, the rival of Rome, and contended long with her for
the great prize of universal empire. Other kingdoms and states
of Northern Africa dared also, at different times, to enter into
conflict with the mistress of the world. At an early period
Christianity was introduced into Africa, which gave birth to many
of the fathers of the church, eminent for their learning and piety:
Origen, Tertullian, Cyprian, and Augustine, were all natives of
Africa, which at one time numbered among its ecclesiastical of
ficers several hundred bishops. And at a later period, when the
dark ages almost threatened the extinction both of Christianity
and of human science, the Moors of Africa were distinguished
for their superior learning and genius and gallantry. Since
then Africa has gone back in civilization: a number of semi-
barbarous states on the northern coasts, some of which extend
even to the Great Desert, are subject to the Mohammedan
power; but Egypt, which is still nominally dependent on the
Grand Porte, seems rising of late into considerable importance,
under its present intelligent and enterprising Pacha.
One remarkable feature of this country is the immense Desert,
which, extending from east to west, through nearly the whole of
Africa, to the very borders of Egypt, in a breadth of eight or
nine hundred miles, separates the northern states from the in-
terior, and from those regions whence the Negroes are brought
for sale to Europeans. South of the great desert is a vast tract
of country called Negroland, or Nigritia, through which the river
$3. 'ové ào a 6méaç
Awyvtriac, 60, TAéiora öopowc ev Krmplara Keirat,
- t y
At S' Earopºrv\ot stol, Öumkoo tot 3 av. čkaorov.
Avépec &otyvävot avv in Towavv Kat oxea puu.
6 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
Niger runs; these names being evidently derived from the colour
of the inhabitants. The population of this part of Africa has
never been correctly ascertained: it comprises a great variety
of states and tribes, in very different degrees of civilization. It
has for more than two centuries been annually drained of im-
mense numbers of its inhabitants, to be exported as slaves to the
opposite shores of the Atlantic. A long line of coast has been
resorted to for this purpose, by European traders, extending
from the river Senegal to the kingdom of Angola. But it is not
only from places contiguous to the coast that the unhappy Ne-
groes are drawn: they come sometimes from the very centre of
Africa, a journey of many weeks, and even of months, to be
transported to a distant land, there to wear out their lives in
perpetual bondage.
Let me now take you, not in the suffocating hold of a slave
ship, but on the wings of fancy, from the shores of Africa, west-
ward, across the Atlantic Ocean, to those islands which were the
first fruits of discovery to the enterprise of Columbus, when the
intelligence of a new world was announced to astonished Europe.
It was on the 12th of October, 1492*, that this illustrious naviga-
tor first beheld one of those islands now called the Bahamas, of
which he took possession in the name of Ferdinand and Isabella
of Spain, and gave to it the name of St. Salvador. Subsequently,
and at different intervals, the other islands, together with the
great continent of North and South America, were discovered.
This great man had no idea that a vast continent intervened be-
tween the western shores of Europe and the eastern extremity
of Asia, which then went by the general name of India. He
supposed that by a western passage he had arrived at the Indian,
or Asiatic, islands, and that the continent was not far distant.
These were therefore called the Indian Islands; and after the
discovery of the new continent they were called the West In-
dies, Asiatic India acquiring the designation of the East Indies.
The term West Indies now includes all those islands which ex-
* Robertson's Hist. of America, book ii.
LECT U R E I. - 7
tend from the Bahamas in the north, to Trinidad, near the coast
of South America; and Honduras, Demerara, and Berbice,
colonies on the adjacent continent, belonging to the British
Crown, are also commonly comprised under this term.
When the Europeans first visited these islands, they were be-
lieved by the simple inhabitants to have descended from heaven:
the scenes which this part of the world has since witnessed have,
to the lasting shame of humanity, lamentably proved the contrary.
'Nature, in these islands, appearing to the first discoverers in all
her loveliness, adorned with every form of beauty, and exhibiting
the richest fertility, at once astonished and delighted them; but
it is among the inscrutable mysteries of Providence, that from
the first period of their discovery they have continued to be the
scenes of the most shocking depravity and heart-sickening mi-
sery. No sooner were they known than their original inha-
bitants became the victims of the sordid avarice and wanton bar-
barity of their intruders: their beautiful isles resounded with the
cries of the tortured natives, and the earth was dyed with their
blood. And since the period of these atrocious cruelties, by
which the aborigines were soon exterminated, Africa has been
stripped of her children to supply the waste, and to minister to
the luxuries and to the insatiable cupidity of Europeans;–the
soil has been watered with their tears; the air has resounded
with their groans; and thousands, and hundreds of thousands,
nay, millions, have there worn out their lives in bitterest bondage.
Besides the general appellation of West Indies, by which the
whole of these islands are designated, they are also divided into
the Greater and Lesser Antilles, the Caribbee Isles, and the
Windward and Leeward Islands. These terms, however, have
not been always uniformly applied, nor are they now in general
use ; so that it is less necessary to fix their respective limits.
The largest of these islands is Cuba, belonging to Spain: its
length is about 700 miles, its average breadth about 70.—The
next in size is St. Domingo, called by the Spaniards Hispaniola,
and by the natives Hayti. This is now a free and prosperous
empire of Blacks and persons of Colour, who, after a desperate
S LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
struggle against the legions of Bonaparte, secured, by force of
arms, the personal freedom which had previously been granted
to them by the French Convention, but which, in 1802, Bona-
parte iniquitously attempted to wrest from them. The national
independence of this Negro state has been since formally recog-
nised by France.—Jamaica, the next in size, was formerly Spa-
nish, but is now possessed by the English : its length is about
120 miles, and its average breadth about 40.—The smaller islands
have been possessed as colonies by the Spaniards, the English,
the French, the Dutch, and the Danes; but the greater part of
them now belong to the British Crown, partly by colonization,
and partly by conquest.—Besides their produce for home con-
sumption, their exports consist principally in sugar, rum, cotton,
coffee, dye-woods, and some spices.
In addition to the various islands in the West Indies belong-
ing to Great Britain in which slavery prevails, there are three
colonies on the adjacent continent of South America (Demerara,
Berbice, and Honduras), and also the colonies of the Cape of
Good Hope, and the Mauritius (a small island in the Indian
Ocean), where the bulk of the population are in the same un-
happy state of bondage.
Of these colonies—twenty in all—six, viz. Berbice, the Cape
of Good Hope, Demerara, Mauritius, St. Lucia, and Trinidad,
are directly subject to the British Crown, and receive their laws
from the King in council, through the medium of the local au-
thorities appointed by him. These are termed Crown Colonies.
The case of Honduras is anomalous. The other thirteen, which
are called Chartered Colonies, have each a legislature of its own,
consisting of a governor and council appointed by the King,
and an assembly chosen by the White proprietors. These le-
gislatures have the power of making laws, which are in force when
approved by the governor, though not established permanently
till they receive the assent of the King of Great Britain. The
chartered colonies are, Antigua, Bahamas, Barbadoes, Bermuda,
Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Christo-
pher's, St. Vincent's, Tobago, and Tortola.
LECTUR. E. I. . . . 9
To avoid a lengthened description, I must now beg leave to
refer to a tabular view, which is prefixed to this lecture, and
which exhibits all the slave colonies of Great Britain, the time
and manner of their first possession by the British Crown, their
extent, population, produce, &c.
Let us now take a general view of the system itself, not at
present to enter into a detail of its many enormities—that we
shall reserve for another occasion—but to notice its principal cir-
p. cumstances, and to pourtray its more prominent features. Look,
then, “with your mind's eye,” on those beautiful islands already
referred to. You see the population distinguished by their
colour. Here are white men, black men, and those who are
partially tinged with the sable hue. None of them are the
original inhabitants: these were long ago exterminated by men
who called themselves Christians! Some have sprung from
Europe, but the greater part from Africa. These White men,
who bear themselves so haughtily, and who appropriate to
themselves all power, and all the luxuries which a tropical
climate can yield, are either Europeans or the descendants of
Europeans, who, for the love of enterprise or in pursuit of gain,
Heft their native shores in the different kingdoms and states of
the old world.—These Blacks also are a race of foreigners,
natives of Africa, or the children of Africans–Negroes, who
came hither, not from motives either of enterprise or gain, but
bound as prisoners, and sold, as so many head of cattle, to the
highest bidder.—Those who by different shades have a less dark
complexion, are called, generally, People of Colour*, and are
the offspring of a mixed race. As the children of female slaves
are, by the colonial laws, born slaves, many of the children
* Under this general term several distinctions are included, which, according
to Mr. Edwards, in his History of the West Indies, are thus specified:—The
offspring of a Black Woman by a Mulatto Man, or vice versa, is a Sambo.
Black Woman – – White Man - - - - - a Mulatto.
Mulatto Woman - White Man - - - - - a Quadroon.
Quadroon Woman - White Man - - - - a Mestize.
The offspring of a Mestize by a White Man are White by law.—Creoles are
those who, whether white or black, have been born in the colonies.
C
10 LECTU RES ON SLAVERY.
of the white lords of these islands have, by the vices of their
parents, the miserable inheritance of slavery entailed on them;
while this illicit intercourse has frequently produced the pur-
chase of the freedom of such children by the white parent, or,
in cases where the parent was also the owner, the gratuitous
manumission of both mothers and children. There are also
considerable numbers of free Blacks in these Colonies, who
have had their freedom bequeathed or given to them by hu-
mane proprietors, or who have found means to purchase
it, or who are the descendants of those who had obtained their
freedom in some of these ways. In all our slave colonies,
the whole number of White inhabitants is not supposed to
exceed from 80 to 90,000 ; a considerably larger number
are free Blacks and People of Colour; but the great mass
of the population, consisting of about 800,000, are enslaved
Negroes.
And this immense majority, whose misfortune it is to have a skin
different in colour ſrom our own, are claimed as the property,
and treated as the property, of their fellow-creatures | In the
British slave colonies upwards of 800,000 are thus possessed
by comparatively a few free men, chiefly Whites. But how was
this property acquired : In the same way, in many instances, as
you came by your cattle, your horses and dogs. You may have
obtained them by bequest, or by inheritance; you may have
purchased them together, as the live stock of an estate ; or you
may have selected them individually; or they may be the breed-
ing produce of your stock. Just so was this property in human
flesh acquired: and those who hold them insist on possessing
them, as you do your cattle, male and female, till their last breath
is drawn, unless they previously sell them to others: they claim
an absolute right of property in them and theirs, not to the third
and fourth generation, but for ever ! -
But how came this kind of property to exist? How came
this article of traffic in the market? The planters tell you that
they, or those from whom they received them, bought them
honestly in the market.—But who brought them there 2 That
* - LECTUR. E. I. - 11 .
merciless dealer in human flesh, the slave-captain.—And where
did he procure them? Of slave-merchants or agents on the
African coast; and these, perhaps, of others in the interior.—
But how were they first deprived of freedom The greater part
by wars excited for the express purpose of furnishing supplies
for the slave-market, and receiving articles of commerce in
return ; by the burning of villages and towns, in order to sur-
prise the helpless fugitives; by false accusations, mock trials ;
by kidnapping some, by decoying others—in short, by every
mode of force and fraud which an inhuman spirit of avarice
could suggest *.
Let us now glance at their situation and employment in the
colonies. Some are employed as domestic slaves, when and
how the owner pleases: by day or by night, on Sundays or other
days, in any measure or degree, with any or with no remune-
ration, with what kind or quantity of food the owner of the
human beast may choose. Male or female, young or old, weak
or strong, may be punished, with or without reason, as caprice or
passion may prompt. When the drudge does not suit, he may
be sold, like a horse that has seen his best days, for some
inferior purpose, till like a worn-out beast he dies, unpitied
and forgotten In some cases slaves of this kind are purchased,
not because their personal services are needed, but as a profit-
able speculation, to be let out to hire. Some, having had the
opportunity to learn a trade, pay their owners a stipulated sum
per week, or month, or otherwise, and have the surplus earnings
for themselves; with which, it may happen, if they are indus-
trious, and have their health, and are successful, they may, in
course of time, lay up a sum to purchase their own freedom, or
that of a wife or child. But the owner may charge what he
pleases for his time: if he be covetous, may screw him to the
last farthing; or, if he need money, may sell him to some
distant part of the colony, to any other proprietor, who, again,
may do with him just as he pleases.
* See “Cries of Africa,” by Mr. Clarkson; with “Abstract of Evidence
before a select Committee of the House of Commons, in 1790 and 1791,”
chap. i. t
12 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
But the greatest number of these degraded beings are doomed
to field labour, and that in a climate the heat of which is intense,
and almost unremitted. Almost all the tillage of the soil, which
in our agricultural processes we perform by horses and oxen
assisted by machinery, is in the colonies carried on by the
manual operations of the enslaved Negroes. The cultivation of
cotton, coffee, sugar, indeed of all the productions of the plan-
tations, devolves on them. It is the culture of the last-men-
tioned article, sugar, which appears to expose them to the most
toilsome drudgery and the severest treatment. While my plan
does not allow of giving a particular description of every kind
of produce which employs slave labour, I feel desirous that my
audience should know in what manner that luxury of our tea-
table and of our confectionary is raised.
Sugar is the produce of a reed, or cane, the botanical name
of which is arundo saccharifera. “It is a pointed reed,”
says Mr. Edwards “, “terminating in leaves or blades, whose
edges are finely and sharply serrated. The body of the cane is
strong, but brittle, and, when ripe, of a fine straw colour inclin-
able to yellow ; and it contains a soft, pithy substance, which
affords a copious supply of juice, of a sweetness the least cloy-
ing and most agreeable in nature. The intermediate distance
between each joint of the cane varies according to the nature
of the soil: in general, it is from one to three inches in length,
and from half an inch to an inch in diameter. The length of
a whole cane depends likewise upon circumstances: in strong
lands richly manured I have seen some that measured twelve
feet from the stole to the upper joint: the general height, how-
ever (the flag part excluded), is from three feet and a half to
seven feet; and in very rich lands the stole, or root, has been
known to put forth upwards of one hundred suckers, or shoots.”
—The sugar-cane is propagated by cuttings; the most proper
season of planting which is, according to the same author,
between August and the beginning of November : so that, as
the canes are ordinarily ripe in from twelve to fifteen months,
* Fdwards's History of the West Indies, book V. chap. i.
LECT"U R E I. - 13
they are fit for the mill in the beginning of the second year.
“In most parts of the West Indies it is usual to hole and plant
a certain proportion of the cane (commonly one third) in annual
succession. The common yielding of this land, on an average,
is seven hogsheads of 16 cwt. to ten acres, which are cut
annually”.” The canes, when cut, are carried to the mill, which
consists of strong rollers, through which the canes are passed,
and which are worked by wind, water, cattle, or steam. By this
means the juice is expressed, from which, after it has been cla-
rified and has undergone various processes, the sugar is obtained.
From the refuse, which is skimmed from the cane-juice, and
the molasses, which are drained from the sugar, rum is pro-
duced by distillation. * t t
The first important operation in sugar planting, after the
ground has been duly prepared, is that of holeing, which Mr.
Edwards thus describes:—“The quantity of land intended to be
planted, being cleared of weeds and other incumbrances, is first
divided into several plats of certain dimensions, commonly from
fifteen to twenty acres each : the spaces between each plat, or
division, are left wide enough for roads, for the convenience of
carting, and are called intervals. Each plat is then subdivided,
by means of a line and wooden pegs, into small squares of about
three feet and a half. Sometimes, indeed, the squares are a
foot larger; but this circumstance makes but little difference.
The Negroes are then placed in a row in the first line, one to a
square, and directed to dig out with their hoes the several
squares, commonly to the depth of five or six inches. The
mould which is dug up being formed into a bank at the lower
side, the excavation, or cane-hole, seldom exceeds fifteen inches
in width at the bottom, and two feet and a half at the top. The
Negroes then fall back to the next line, and proceed as before +.”
—Into these holes the cuttings are placed, and covered with
mould : and as they grow the earth is drawn round them, and
the ground kept cleared of weeds. As vegetation proceeds,
* Rees's Cyclop., art. Sugar. - *
† Edwards's Hist, of West Indies, book V. chap. i.
14 LECTUR ES ON SLAVERY.
the joints increase in number, one growing out of another. A
field of canes, when in full blossom, is said to be one of the
most beautiful objects in nature. The field labour of the
Negroes, when employed in holeing, is thus described by a
gentleman of unimpeachable veracity, who spent many years in
the West Indies*.
“In holeing a cane-piece—i.e. in turning up the ground with
hoes into parallel trenches, for the reception of the cane plants—
the slaves, of both sexes, from twenty to fourscore in number,
are drawn out in a line, like troops on a parade, each with a hoe
in his hand, and close to them in the rear is stationed a driver,
or several drivers, in number duly proportioned to that of the
gang. Each of the drivers, who are always the most active and
vigorous Negroes on the estate, has in his hand, or coiled round
his neck, from which, by extending the handle, it can be dis-
engaged in a moment, a long, thick, and strongly plaited whip,
called a cart-whip ; the report of which is as loud, and the lash
as severe, as those of the whips in common use with our wag-
goners; and which he has authority to apply at the instant when
his eye perceives an occasion, without any previous warning.
Thus disposed, their work begins, and continues without in-
terruption for a certain number of hourst, during which, at the
peril of the drivers, an adequate portion of the land must be
holed.
“As the trenches are generally rectilinear, and the whole
line of holers advance together, it is necessary that every hole or
section of the trench should be finished in equal time with the
rest; and if any one or more Negroes were allowed to throw in
the hoe with less rapidity or energy than their companions in
other parts of the line, it is obvious that the work of the latter
must be suspended; or else, such part of the trench as is passed
* “The Slavery of the British West India Colonies delineated,” by J. Stephen,
Esq. vol. I. App. p. 477; where the statement here quoted is vindicated by
unexceptionable references.
# The hours of field labour extend by law in Jamaica from five in the morning
to seven in the evening, with intervals of half an hour for breakfast, and two
hours at noon.
LECTUR. E. I. 15
over by the former will be more imperfectly formed than the
rest. It is therefore the business of the drivers, not only to
urge forward the whole gang with sufficient speed, but sedu-
lously to watch that all in the line, whether male or female, old
or young, strong or feeble, work as nearly as possible in equal
time, and with equal effect. The tardy stroke must be quickened,
and the languid invigorated; and the whole line made to dress,
in the military phrase, as it advances. No breathing time, no
resting on the hoe, no pause of languor, to be repaid by brisker
exertion on return to work, can be allowed to individuals. All
must work or pause together. -
“I have taken this species of work as the strongest example.
But other labours of the plantation are conducted on the same
principle, and, as nearly as may be practicable, in the same
IIla III) 62’.
“When the nature of the work does not admit of the slaves
being drawn up in a line abreast, they are disposed, when the
measure is feasible, in some other regular order, for the facility.
of the driver's superintendance and coercion. In carrying the
canes, for instance, from the field to the mill”, they are marched
in files, each with a bundle on his head, and with a driver in the
rear: his voice quickens their pace, and his whip, when neces-
sary, urges on those who attempt to deviate or loiter in their
march.”
As we shall often have, in the subsequent lectures, to refer to
that terrible instrument of coercion and punishment, the cart-
whip, let me here briefly describe its use and power. The quo-
tation which I shall make is from the same work of Mr. Stephen
to which I have already adverted:#.
“A long, thick, and strongly plaited whip, with a short
* On most estates the canes are carried on the backs of mules, or in carts,
from the field to the mill. -
+ “The Slavery of the British West-India Colonies delineated,” vol. I. p. 49,
50; where Mr. S. has amply corroborated his account of the whip by quotations
from Mr. Beckford and Dr. Collins, both avowed apologists of colonial slavery;
and from Dr. Pinckard, who has not in his work taken either side of the ques-
tion. See Beckford's “Account of Jamaica,” vol. II. p. 51; Dr. Pinckard's
16 LECTURES ON SL A V ERY.
handle, is coiled and slung like a sash over their shoulders (i. e.
of the drivers), except when extended in the hand for use, as the
ensign of their fearful office; and, being long trained to the
expert use of it, they well know how to direct, and how to ag-
gravate or mitigate, its inflictions, at the will of their employers,
or their own. They have an emulation in the loudness of the
report which they produce from this instrument of torture, the
sound of which is enough to make the stoutest of its male
patients tremble; and the smack of the cart-whip, frequently
repeated from a distant cane-piece, serves often, instead of a
bell or conch-shell, to summon the Negroes from their huts at
the earliest dawn to the theatre of their morning labours. The
drivers, however, can when they please, in actual punishment,
produce a loud report without proportionate severity of stripes;
and, on the other hand, when told to cut, as the phrase is, they
can easily inflict a gash at every stroke, so as to make even a
few lashes a tremendous punishment. A planter, who valued
himself on his humanity, once pointed out to me a driver of his
then passing by, as a man whose strength of arm and adroitness
in the use of the whip were uncommonly great, and who had also
a cruel disposition. I once actually saw the fellow, said he, lay
open the flank of a mule he was driving, cutting fairly through
its tough hide at a single stroke. He added, that he had him
punished for it; and that it was his general injunction, to him and
to other drivers, not to cut the Negroes in their whippings, upon
pain of being laid down and flogged themselves. Cutting does
not merely mean drawing blood and peeling off the scarf-skin, for
those are the effects of almost every stripe on the naked body
with this instrument, however leniently applied, but it means
cutting through the cutis, or true skin, into the muscles or
“Notes on the West Indies,” vol. I. p. 257; and Dr. Collins's “Practical Rules
for the Management and Treatment of Negro Slaves in the Sugar Colonies,”
1803, p. 209. To which may be added the testimony of Mr. Barrett, whose
language in the assembly of Jamaica was, “I do say, that 39 lashes with this
horrid instrument can be made more grievous than 500 lashes with a cat.” He
calls it also an “odious, horrid, detestable instrument, when used for the
punishment and torture of slaves;” “an engine of cruelty,” &c. See extracts
from his speech, in vol. I. pp. 306, 307, “Anti-Slavery Reporter.”
L ECTUR. E. I. 17
flesh below: and this is so usual in cart whippings, when
regularly inflicted for a serious fault, that confinement to the
hospital during the cure is an ordinary consequence, and large
scars or weals remain during the life of the patient. To be ex-
empt from such vestiges of severe punishment received, is
regarded as a distinction creditable to the character of a planta-
tion slave, and enhancing his value to a purchaser.” -
How are the Negroes supported? in what manner do they live?
In the Leeward Islands, comprising Antigua, St. Christo-
pher’s, Nevis, Montserrat, and Tortola, with a slave population
of about 62,000, the slaves receive from their masters an
allowance of food, fixed by law; but so inadequate to the com-
fortable sustentation of life, that it does not amount to much
more than a third of the stipulated allowance in the island
of Jamaica to run-away slaves, or other delinquents, confined in
the workhouses and prisons. This will appear from the follow-
ing comparison of the two scales of allowance:
The weekly Legal Allowance of the Weekly Legal Allowance of Persons con-
adult Labouring Slaves in the Lee- fined in the Prisons and Workhouses
ward Islands. of Jamaica.
9 Pints of unground corn 16 Pints of unground corn
8 Pints of wheat or other flour 21 Pints of wheat or other flour
20 Pounds of yams 56 Pounds of yams
30 Pounds of plantains 56 Full-grown plantains equal to about
75 to 80 pounds.
The legal allowance of the Leeward Islands to working
men, therefore, might easily be shewn to be a starving al-
lowance, being little more than one-third of the allowance
which is indispensable to the comfortable subsistence of the
labourer.
In Barbadoes, Demerara, and Berbice, the slaves are fed
from provisions grown by the labour of the whole gang and dealt
out to them by the master, but without the legal limit by which
the allowance of the Leeward-Island slave is stinted to the
smallest quantity by which his life can be sustained. But if
there be no direct legal sanction in these three colonies for the
D
18 LECT U R ES ON S L A V E R Y.
same cruelly penurious system in feeding the slaves which dis-
graces the legislature of the Leeward Islands, yet it is obvious,
that to the discretion, or rather to the caprice or avarice of the
owner alone, it is left to decide as to the quantity of food which
shall be allowed to the slave for his sustentation and comfort;
and neither in these three colonies, nor in the Leeward Islands,
is a single hour allotted to the slave by law, which he can
employ for eking out his scanty allowance, on any day except
on Sunday. -
In all the other West-India colonies the slaves have usually
provision grounds allotted to them.*, and a few days in the
year, besides Sundays, assigned to them for labouring in these
grounds for their sustenance f ; the number of days varying in
different colonies. In Tobago it amounts to thirty-five ; in
Jamaica the number is twenty-six ; in Trinidad it amounts
only to from fourteen to seventeen ; and to about the same in
the other colonies. On these, in addition to the Sundays, the
Negroes raise vegetables for their own use; and the surplus, if
any, they bring on Sundays to market, at a distance frequently
of many miles, sometimes ten, twenty, or even thirty ; the sale
of which enables them to purchase a few trifling articles, either
of food or apparel. In addition, they are generally allowed a
few salt herrings, or other fish, weekly ; and they receive also
annually from their masters a small quantity of clothing, the
least and the cheapest that can possibly cover them. A few of
the moreindustrious keep a few poultry, and perhaps a pig, which
also become articles of traffic. And thus individual slaves
sometimes succeed, by dint of extreme parsimony, in acquiring
a little property; by which, after a length of time, they are
enabled to purchase their freedom. This, however, is a very
rare occurrence indeed in the case of field slaves.—Their huts
are built by themselves, often of very rude materials, but some-
* As Jamaica, Grenada, St. Vincent's, Trinidad, Tobago, Dominica, St.
Lucia, &c.
f These provision grounds are frequently at a considerable distance from the
homestall of the plantation ; sometimes three, six, or even ten miles. See.
“Facts illustrative of the Negro Slaves in Jamaica,” by T. Cooper, 1824.
LECTURE I. 19
times with materials furnished by their owners; and are gene-
rally, for the sake of convenience, near the buildings where the
manufacture of sugar is conducted, though seldom with much
regard to order in their position. . .
Allow me now, in drawing this first lecture towards a close, to
give a summary of the principal characteristics of our colonial
slavery, as it existed in the colonies prior to the year 1824,
when measures were first taken for its mitigation.
1. Perpetual bondage, to the last moment of the slave's
earthly existence, and to all his descendants to the latest pos-
terity, unless the owner voluntarily relinquished his claim.
2. Compulsory and uncompensated labour. There was no
covenant between him and his master; no stipulated remunera-
tion for a certain quantity of labour; no hope of reward cheered
him. In the house, a pure despotism controuled him; in the
field, the fear of the driver’s lash was ever before him.
3. The right of property was exercised over the Negro slave.
His owner claimed him as his goods and chattels. He might be
sold by private sale or public auction ; individually, or “in lots to
suit the purchaser;” with his family, or separated for ever from
them. He might be exchanged for other marketable commodi-
ties; might be mortgaged; might be taken in execution for debts
Or taxes. -
4. Very great obstructions existed to the manumission of the
enslaved Negroes. Should a slave by any means happen to ob-
tain a sum sufficient to purchase his freedom, a heavy tax threw
a formidable difficulty in the way, or a bond to a considerable
amount was required; which operated also powerfully against
the bestowal of freedom by gift or bequest. In all the colonies,
without exception, it was entirely at the owner's option whether
he should part with his slave for any price.
5. The Colonial bondman was liable, within certain limits, to
severe and arbitrary punishment—without any trial; without
any means of legal redress; whether his offence were real or ima-
ginary; by the owner, the attorney, the overseer, the manager,
and the driver.
20 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
6. Females were subject to the same degrading and severe
punishments, and that in a manner as indecent * as it was
cruel; not only at the order of the magistrate, but at the will of
the master, or of any of his subordinate agents.
7. No legal rights of property were possessed by the slave: so
that if by his industry, or the kindness of friends, he happened to
obtain any, it was possessed, not as a matter of right, but by
sufferancet, and was legally the property of his master.
8. The sacred rite of marriage, instituted by the great Crea-
tor himself, was set at nought by this system. No legal sanction
protected the slave in the enjoyment of conjugal rights; and pro-
miscuous intercourse was not only permitted, but even encou-
raged, throughout the colonies, and more especially by the general
example of licentiousness among the Whites themselves.
9. The evidence of slaves was not admitted against a White
or free man in a court of justice. He might give testimony
against a fellow-slave, even in cases which affected his life; but
when a white or free man was concerned, it was universally
rejected. . . .
10. No means of any kind had been provided by law for the
education and religious instruction of the slave. While the
master reaped the profits of his labour, till, worn out with toil,
he sunk into the tomb, he had in almost all cases too much reason.
to say “No man careth for my soul.” * *
11. And, finally, the beneficent arrangements of the Creator, in
providing one day in seven for bodily rest and holy worship, were
frustrated, by the necessity of the poor slave's labouring for him-
self on that sacred day, and by the Sunday markets i.
* See Bickell's “West Indies,” pp. 48, 49.
+ See this illustrated, and the condition of the West-India slave, in this re-
spect, compared with that of the villein, when vassalage existed in England.
Stephen's “Slavery of the Brit. W. Ind. Col. delineated,” vol. i. pp. 46,47.
f “It (i. e. Sunday) is the only market-day which the poor Negroes and
Coloured Slaves have ; and instead of worshipping their God, they are either
cultivating their portions of land to preserve life, or trudging like mules with
heavy loads, five, ten, or even twenty miles, to a market, to sell the little surplus
of their provision-grounds, or to barter it for a little salt fish to season their poor
meals; or, what is much worse, to spend, very often, the value in new destructive
rum, which intoxicates them, and drowns for a short time the reflection that they
are despised and burdened slaves, -
LECTURE I. . 21
To shew that these were, what in too many respects they still
are, the true and genuine features of the system, I need only to
refer to the unanimous Resolutions of the House of Commons in
May 1823, when the subject was formally brought before it by Mr.
Buxton; and to the sentiments of his Majesty's Ministers, ex-
pressed in those Resolutions, which were proposed by themselves,
and in their subsequent official correspondence with the colonial
authorities. This testimony is the more remarkable, considering
how great was the influence of the West-India body in Parlia-
ment, and how long and powerfully it had operated to shut out.
from public reprehension the wrongs and the actual miseries of
hundreds of thousands of enslaved British subjects. On the motion
of the late Mr. Canning, it was then unanimously resolved by the
House of Commons,
“ 1st. That it is expedient to adopt effectual and decisive
measures for meliorating the condition of the slave population in
his Majesty's dominions. -
“ 2d. That, through a determined and persevering, but judi-
cious and temperate, enforcement of such measures, this House
looks forward to a progressive improvement in the character of
the slave population; such as may prepare them for a participa-
tion in those civil rights and privileges which are enjoyed by
other classes of his Majesty's subjects.
“ 3d. That this House is anxious for the accomplishment of
“I shall never forget the horror and disgust which I felt on going on shore,
for the first time, in Kingston, in the month of August 1819: it was on a Sun-
day, and I had to pass by the Negro market, where several thousands of human
beings, of various nations and colour, but principally Negroes, instead of wor-
shipping their Maker on his Holy Day, were busily employed in all kinds of
traffic in the open streets. Here were Jews, with shops and standings as at a
fair, selling old and new clothes, trinkets, and small wares, at cent, per cent.
to adorn the Negro person: there were low Frenchmen and Spaniards, and
people of Colour, in petty shops and with stalls; some selling their bad rum, gin,
tobacco, &c., others salt provisions and small articles of dress, and many of
them bartering with the slave, or purchasing his surplus provisions to retail again:
poor free people and servants also, from all parts of the city, to purchase vege-
tables, &c. for the following week. The different noises and barbarous tongues
recalled to one's memory the confusion of Babel; but the drunkenness of some,
with the imprecations and obscenities of others, put one in mind rather of a
Pandemonium, or residence of devils.”—“The West Indies as they are,” by Rev.
R. Bickell, p. 66, 67.-1825,
22 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
this purpose at the earliest period that may be compatible with
the well-being of the slaves, the safety of the colonies, and with
a fair and equitable consideration of the interests of private
property. - -
... “4th. That these resolutions be laid before his Majesty.”
. These resolutions were subsequently adopted with the same
unanimity by the House of Lords.
Here, then, it was assumed, not only that his Britannic Majesty
had slaves in his dominions, but that one class of his Majesty's
subjects consisted of slaves;–that such was the condition of the
enslaved subjects of Britain, as absolutely to require the “deci-
sive and effectual’’ interference of Parliament to relieve them ;—
and that nothing but a “ determined and persevering enforce-
ment” of its humane intentions could rescue these unhappy beings
from their miserable thraldom. - -
In consequence of this measure on the part of the House of
Commons, his Majesty's Government immediately proposed to
introduce into our slave colonies the following reforms:
To provide the means of religious instruction and Christian
education for the slave population.
To put an end to markets and to labour on the Sunday, and
to appropriate that day entirely to rest and recreation, and
to religious worship and instruction ; and instead of Sunday,
to allow them equivalent time on other days for the cultiva-
tion of their provision-grounds.
To admit the testimony of slaves in courts of justice. -
To legalize the marriages of slaves, and to protect them in the
enjoyment of their connubial rights.
To protect the slaves by law in the acquisition and possession
of property, and in its transmission by bequest or otherwise.
To remove all the existing obstructions to manumission, and to
grant to the slave the power of redeeming himself and his
wife and children at a fair price.
To prevent the separation of families by sale or otherwise.
To prevent the seizure and sale of slaves detached from the
estate or plantation to which they belong.
LECT U R F | . 23
To restrain generally the power, and to prevent the abuse, of
arbitrary punishment at the will of the master.
To abolish the degrading corporal punishment of females.
To abolish the use of the driving-whip in the field, either as an
emblem of authority or as a stimulus to labour.
To establish savings' banks for the use of the slaves.
These, then, were the measures of amelioration proposed by
Government, and with the professed concurrence of the West-
India body themselves who were resident in England. And what
point of oppression, or of degradation, which has been alleged of
this system, is not here either admitted or implied ? Does not
the application of a remedy involve the admission of an evil? If,
therefore, in charging these evils on the system its administra-
tors conceived themselves to be libelled, they were libelled by
the British Parliament, by the Government, by their own patrons
and supporters. .
It may be necessary here to make two or three remarks. The
state of slavery varied somewhat in different colonies. Their en-
actments and usages might bear upon the slave with more or less
severity, according to circumstances: but, with specific distinc-
tions, there was a general similitude in the law and the practice
of all our slave colonies. It is also admitted that the condition of
the slaves may be considerably modified by the views and dispo-
sitions of the owners, if resident among them, or of the overseers
or managers who exact and superintend their labours: some
have more humanity, more calmness and consideration, than
others. It does not follow that every slave suffers all the evils
to which his condition exposes him ; but he is subject to all these
miseries, and cannot help himself—many suffer them to the full,
and all may. The Resolutions of 1823, and the measures which
followed them, have produced some changes; but small, indeed,
has been the measure of improvement. The promise they held
out has yet produced little better than disappointment; it has
been a “hope deferred, which maketh the heart sick.” The boon
which the Government of England vouchsafed to ask of the co-
lonial legislatures for these poor wretches has been contemp-
24 LECT U R ES ON SLA V E R Y.
tuously refused, or evaded; or eked out in so scanty a manner, that
next to nothing has hitherto been done; and even in the Crown
colonies Government has fallen far short of its pledges. The
particulars we shall reserve for a future occasion, and only here
remark, that the great mass of evil still remains in undiminished
malignity. -
What a strange and afflicting state of society is here pre-
sented to our view And that, not in the dark ages of ignorance
and barbarity, but in the Nineteenth century, amidst the wide
diffusion of knowledge, the numerous and ever-increasing plans
of benevolence, and the strong professions of liberality, which
mark the present age Such usages existing, not among
hordes of savages, but among men civilized, enlightened, and
calling themselves Christians ! Found, not in the territories of
some despotic tyrant, but in the dominions of Britain, whose
boasted glory is the freedom of her constitution, the liberty of
her subjects, the wise and just administration of her laws, the
equal rights of all! A state of society so foreign to all we have
ever seen, or can conceive of, that it is difficult for one who has
a British heart, with a British education, to realize or even to
believe it. And we could not have believed it, we would not
have believed such libels on our common nature, but for the
irresistible evidence of its existence.
Happy for us, we are natives of Britain, and live in the land
of freedom : we see no such sights, we hear no such sounds.
The West Indies may shine in nature's glory; may boast of
scenery which is enchanting, fruits the most exquisite, and a
soil which is fertility itself; but give me England—though
rugged be its coasts, and changeful its climate; though, while a
summer's splendour shines on these colonies, our streams are
stagnant with ice, and our fields covered with snow. Snow,
and ice, and vapours may exist here—but Slavery cannot. I
had rather hear the wintry blast than the sound of the driver's
whip, or the groans of the lacerated slave. I had rather see the
drifting snow covering every thing that is green, than the
luxuriant cane-field with its gang of slaves, and the torturer
LECTU. R. E. I. 25
behind them. Here one law is for all; the rich and the poor,
the master and the servant. No man can possess as property,
or buy or sell or barter, a fellow-creature: no human being is
appraised, put up to auction, seized for another's debts, or
sold for taxes. None can take our children from us. Our wives
and daughters are not exposed to brutal insults or degrading
punishments: in our homes they find an asylum ; and not a noble
in the land can touch them there, nor dares even the Sovereign
to injure them. Our offspring inherit, not our chains, but our
freedom. We peaceably pursue, according to our inclinations
and duties, the various occupations of life ; and the law throws
over us the shelter of its protection. We “sit under our own
vine and under our own fig-tree, none daring to make us
afraid.” . . . . . . . . . * , - . * . .
But in the enjoyment of all this comfort, this peace, this free-
dom, do you not hear the sighs of the slave wafted over the
Atlantic? Do not the groans of his misery reach your heart?
Is he not saying, “Pity me, O my friends, for the hand of the
oppressor is upon me! Pity me, your fellow-subject, O ye who
boast of liberty, and whose benevolence reaches even to the
ends of the earth. Pity me, ye British Christians; for ye only
can relieve me. Am I not a man, and a brother?” -
26 I, ECT U R FS ON SL A V E R Y.
LECTURE II.
How emphatic is the expression which a sacred writer employs
when speaking of the state in which we live! he calls it, “this
present evil world.” This term is not applied to the globe which
we inhabit: it is ever obedient to the laws by which the great
Creator governs it, and completely answers the end for which it
was made. On its surface are a thousand forms of beauty and
of grandeur. Its productions are such as minister not only to
the necessities, but to the convenience and happiness, of man,
and of every inferior creature made to exist upon it. Its hills
and its valleys, its springs and rivers, the ocean that washes its
shores, and the atmosphere which surrounds it—the whole is
good, and was at its creation pronounced “ very good.” But
innumerable are the evils which swarm upon its surface, and in-
termingle themselves with human society. There is, in this
probationary state, much evil which is unavoidable. The present
is, more or less, a state of suffering to all. But by far the greatest
portion, and the worst of the evils, are of man's own making.
Too often does man become the scourge, the oppressor, the tor-
mentor of man; and, in addition to the miseries incident to frail
humanity, creates a large mass of supernumerary and unneces-
sary evil. Perhaps there are but few objects which exhibit this
more strongly than slavery; the slavery which prevails in the co-
lonies of Great Britain and of other European Powers, and which
scarcely finds a parallel amongst the most barbarous nations.
From the view already given of the state of our colonies, and
the features of this odious system which have been already de-
scribed, its enormous evils must be apparent; but it is not, I
conceive, superfluous to take a more particular survey of it.
While most acknowledge that it is an evil generally, few, I
LECTURE E. I. 27
imagine, think of its many ramifications. Let us now, therefore,
notice its stupendous and varied powers of mischief.
And let me earnestly entreat my audience not to shrink from
this survey because the picture is revolting; let them not turn
away from the view because it is distressing to the feelings.
Why was our nature endowed with sensibilities which are pained
at the sight of misery, but that they should prompt us to suceour
and relieve the wretched : It is a wise and merciful ordination
of Providence, not to trust the help of the miserable solely to our
* judgment. This is too cold and slow in its decisions: while we
deliberate, a wretch may perish. But this sympathetic pain is
an inward impulse, a powerful instinct, urging us to assist the
helpless, to succour the weak, to relieve the wretched, if we
would avoid being miserable ourselves. Ought we to shut our
eyes to the agonizing struggle of a drowning man, if there be the
most distant possibility of helping him, lest, forsooth, we should
be pained at the sight, and be at the trouble of attempting his
rescue 2
There are some persons who affect to disbelieve all that is
said of the misery of the Negro slave, and who boldly contradict
the descriptions of the wretchedness of his condition which have
been given by those who advocate his freedom. The laws, they
tell us, may be somewhat severe in their letter, but the spirit of
their administration is mild and benignant. All that formerly
had the appearance of rigour or cruelty is now become obsolete.
And sometimes they affect to treat with contempt the ignorance,
and at other times they are filled with a virtuous indignation at
the falsehood, of those who affirm that the slaves are in a condi-
tion the most degraded and unhappy.—Nor is this to be wondered
at, when we consider the numbers who are interested in the
continuance of this system, the agency which is employed,
and the sums which are expended to prevent the public from
calling for Parliamentary interference, I shall, however, ad-
vance nothing but what I conscientiously believe to be true.
The facts will be drawn principally from official documents laid
before Parliament, and from the statements and admissions of
28 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
those who are planters, or who are friendly to the system : in all
cases I shall give my authority, and leave you to judge both of
the credibility of the statements and the conclusions which I
draw from them. .
Far be it from me to wish to excite hostility against any body
of men: there is not the individual upon earth that I would
willingly injure “in mind, body, or estate.” I have no resent-
ments to gratify in this matter: I have no interests but those of
humanity to seek. It is the measures which I condemn—the
system which I deprecate.
Our colonial slavery exhibits so many evils of so many diffe-
rent kinds, they are so varied and complex, that I scarcely know
where to begin. It affects not only Africa, but America; it
reaches even to Europe and Asia. Its dark shadows are stretched
over black men and white, the slave and the slave-holder:
it comprehends almost every kind of sin, and nearly every form
and degree of suffering. I shall therefore classify these evils,
and consider them under three general heads—natural, moral,
and political.
By natural evil I mean misery, suffering of every kind. What-
ever evil attends this system, affecting man in his physical con-
stitution, his intellectual powers, his relation to his fellow-crea-
tures—whatever makes the slave a sufferer—I include under this
general head. -
Let it be remembered, that the 800,000 slaves now in our
colonies were either brought from Africa, or are the children or
descendants of those who were so brought. By the abolition of
the slave trade, no slave was allowed to be imported into our
colonies from the 1st of March 1808; but as a great part of the
Negroes were young when introduced, there must be still many
surviving who were torn from their native land.
Here, then, we should begin. And were we now to detail all
the heart-rending miseries of their first capture, and the horriſy-
ing circumstances of the middle passage *, which the investiga-
tions of Parliament brought to light, and which have long been
* The technical term for the voyage from the African coast to the West Indies.
LECTUR. E. l I. 29
before the public, we should, indeed, have to tell such a tale of
woe as scarcely finds a parallel in the annals of human suffering.
But we shall not harrow up your feelings by a relation of all the
cold-blooded atrocities of barbarous chiefs, and piratical bands,
and private adventurers, and kidnappers, and agents, and slave-
merchants, and slave-captains. We shall not attempt a descrip-
tion of the midnight horrors of villages attacked, and the escape
of the trembling fugitives from the flames, to fall into the hands
of the traders in human flesh. We shall pass by the dreadful sepa-
ration, in such circumstances, of husband and wife, parent and
child—their passage over mountains and through deserts, chained
together like convicts—their agonizing reflections and terrible
anticipations—their situation when jammed by hundreds, like
bales of goods, between the low decks of their floating dungeon—
the putrid air, the stench, the filth, and the diseases which were
thus generated—the silent despair, the frantic madness, the self-
murders, the lingering deaths, the wretches thrown overboard
alive;—the various causes which destroyed about a fourth or fifth
part of this living cargo during the passage. The unutterable,
inconceivable sufferings of these poor wretches, from their first
seizure till their sale in the colonies, we shall not dwell upon ; not
because the introduction of them in this place would be improper
or irrelevant, but because we do not wish to repeat such horrors,
which have been so long before the public, and to which refe-
rence has so often been made *. -
If it be asked, why they should be at all noticed, since
Parliament has abolished this trade? we reply, in the first place,
because they form a part and parcel of the system; and be-
cause, while this country retains in slavery the victims of its
former rapine, it encourages other nations to connive at the
* If the reader wishes to see these circumstances detailed, he may read chaps.
i. ii. and iii. of “An Abstract of the Evidence delivered before a Select Committee
of the House of Commons in the Year 1790 and 1791, on the Part of the Peti-
tioners for the Abolition of the Slave Trade;” or he may see extracts from this
evidence in a pamphlet by Mr. T. Clarkson, entitled “The Cries of Africa.
The Reports of the African Institution generally may also be referred to.
30 LECTURES ON SLA V ERY.
continuance of the trade. Besides, it was slavery which origin-
ated the slave trade and all its abominations. It is no wonder
that those who advocate the continuance of slavery feel sore on
this point, and manifest the utmost anxiety that the horrible
cruelties attendant on the procuring of their slaves should be
forgotten. They never will, they never can, be forgotten, while
slavery exists; mor, in estimating the amount of evil which this
system has produced, must they ever be omitted.—Because
secondly, as we have already noticed, numbers still survive in
our colonies who were the subjects of these atrocious cruelties.
Parliament has branded with disgrace, and now visits with death,
the practice to which they fell victims; it has pronounced the
slave trade to be piracy: but what compensation could this Act
afford to those who had been thus wickedly torn from their native
land, and sold into hopeless bondage? And, thirdly, in order to
shew the obligations we are under to make all the reparation
that can be made to the surviving slaves. If men’s rights are
entailed by hereditary descent, are not also their wrongs : If
those who are now born with the yoke of slavery on their necks
are in that condition only because their fathers were wickedly
enslaved, are they not the representatives of the injuries which
their parents suffered from white men, under the consequences
of which they themselves now groan º' We can give no in-
demnification to the myriads who, torn from their native Africa,
have died in slavery: we owe it all, and we owe it with interest,
to the surviving slaves.—Let us proceed to take a brief view of
the sufferings to which their present condition exposes them.
That it is a state of severe distress and cruel suffering to the
African, must be evident from this one fact, that during the
time of “seasoning,” as it is called, many thousands died.
This period was considered to be of the duration of two or three
years; and such was the oppressive severity of their new con-
dition, that, added to the effect of their grief, no small portion
of these unhappy beings sunk under it, and thus escaped a pro-
longation of their miseries. -
LECTURE I I, . 31
Let us first advert to their general treatment. Under this head
I include their labour, their mode of living, and the punishments
to which they are liable.
Whatever be their situation, predial or domestic, their labour
is entirely forced, and not voluntary. The only limits of a slave's
labour, are his own physical capabilities and his owner's will”.
The only problem for the slave proprietor to solve is, how much
can he gain by his article; what is the greatest possible amount
which he can extract from all, male and female, old and young,
consistently with his own interests. If an extra portion of
labour during a short time be considered, as it often may be,
more advantageous than more moderate labour during a longer
period, interest will, in most cases, prefer the increased gain to
the slave's comfort, or even life. And terrible indeed must be
the condition of the slaves, when a planter is either struggling
with his sinking fortunes, and ready to make the most desperate
efforts to protract the period of his ruin; or is desirous to take
advantage of a great rise in the price of the commodity which he
cultivates, in order to increase his gains. Is it likely that in such
circumstances he will be very scrupulous about over-working
his human cattle? Failures in planting speculations are more
common than in perhaps any department of trade or commerce,
and they often either originate in the waste of Negro life, or
directly lead to it.
In respect to field labour, one of the clauses of the Jamaica
Slave Law provides that the slaves shall not be compelled to
work in the field before five in the morning, nor after seven
in the evening; and that they shall have half an hour for break-
fast, and two hours for dinner +. The Rev. Richard Bickell,
who was for some time curate of Port Royal, says that the
slaves “are generally summoned from their slumbers, by the
cracking of the driver's whip, about half an hour before day-
* The colonial laws have, indeed, sometimes regulated the hours offield labour,
but in their regulations they have obviously proceeded on the principle of ex-
acting the maximum of which the slave is capable.
+ See Colonial Acts of Jamaica, St. Vincent's, Grenada, &c.
32 LECT U R ES ON SLAVERY.
light*.” Mr. De la Beche, the proprietor of a sugar estate in
Jamaica, in his account of the island, mentions from five to
seven one half of the year, and from half past five to half past
six the other half, as the hours of labour.—But this is not all;
as it is well known that, after the labour of the field is ended, the
Negroes on most of the plantations are compelled to collect
grass for the horses and cattle, from the hedge-rows, and
wherever it may be found, and to bring to the homestall each
a bundle. It cannot therefore be supposed that it is before
eight or nine at night, perhaps not so soon, that the poor Negro,
jaded and exhausted, gets home to his hut, then to cook and eat his
evening's meal; and after a brief repose to be summoned again to
the field. In this daily toil it must be remembered that he works
under the constant impulse of the whip, or the dread of it; that
females are equally compelled to this drudgery, and the weak as
well as the strong. Nor is it likely that in such cases the
drivers or managers would be very forward to admit the plea of
weakness, or of indisposition; on the contrary, they naturally
lean to the side of suspecting that the plea is a fictitious one,
framed to escape labour. Does not Major Moody himself, one
of the ablest advocates of the planters and their system, admit
the excessive toil of field slaves, when he contends that nothing
but constant coercion can produce this labour !
But the severity of their toil is greatly increased during a con-
siderable part of the year. In crop-time. (varying in its duration
from four to five or six months) the law places no limit to the
hours of labour, except that it interdicts the sugar-mill on Sun-
days; but even this provision for rest on the Sabbath, there is too
much reason to believe, is not always observed. The Rev. Mr.
Bickell says that “the crop-time generally lasts from Christmas
to June or July.” The Rev. Mr. Cooper states that where he
was situated it continued five months ; and that “ the plan that
was followed on Georgia estate, was to begin the manufac-
ture of sugar on Sunday evening, and to continue it, generally
* P. 47, “West Indies as they are.”
LECTURE II. 33
without intermission, either day or night, till about midnight the
following Saturday; when the work stops for about eighteen or
twenty hours, to commence again on the Sunday evening. In
order to prevent any interruption of this process during the week,
the slaves capable of labour are, with some necessary excep-
tions, divided into two gangs, or spells, which, besides being
both fully occupied in the various occupations of the plantation
during the day, are engaged the whole of the night, on alternate
nights, in the business of sugar making. Their labour during
* crop-time is thus equal to six days and three nights in the week.
And in the exaction of this labour no distinction is made be-
tween men and women: both are subject to the same unvary-
ing rule *. In some cases, it appears, that, instead of working
the whole of alternate nights during crop-time, they work the
half of every night. Can it excite surprise, that, with such la-
bour as this, the mortality among the slaves is such as to be
continually diminishing their number 2
Nor are the slaves exempt from considerable hardships as to
their food and manner of living.—Can it be supposed, that, in
addition to the vegetables of his own raising, a few herrings
weekly, or two pounds of salt fish, are sufficient to sustain a man
under all this labour in the open air in such a climate' Besides,
after the fatigue of what is equal to six days and three nights of la-
bourin the week, during crop time, will not many a slave be inclined
to enjoy a little rest for his wearied frame, on the only day on which
he can cease from toil, even to the neglect of his provision grounds,
which may be several miles distant : And, indeed, what, alterna-
tive can there be, throughout the whole of the year, but that
of either labouring for himself on the day of rest, or living on
short allowance : I have already shewn you, that in some of the
colonies, where they have not provision grounds, the quantity of
food prescribed by law is not equal to the jail allowance of
Jamaica. And as to these legal allowances, Mr. Stephen has, in
his “Delineation of the Slavery of the West Indies,” adduced
undeniable proof that they are in many, if not in most cases, but a
$ {{ Negro Slavery,” p. 48,
F
34 LECTUR ES ON SLAVERY.
dead letter”. In the petitions of 1811, and 1823, the Assembly
of Jamaica—and what can be higher authority for the fact?—de-
clare, that, owing to the general distress of the planters, their
slaves are in danger of “absolute want;" that they cannot
give to them their usual “comforts” and “remuneration”—
(what these usual comforts and remuneration are, we have already
seen);-and therefore they apprehend, from their “rage and de-
spair,” a general revolution. That is, that their half-famished
slaves will rise on them, through the miseries of starvation. Who,
of all the friends of abolition, ever gave a stronger representa-
tion than this, supposing it to be true, of the miseries to which
the slave population are liable through a deficiency of food and
other comforts : For how should this be, if the masters did not
withhold from their slaves the time necessary for raising food :
There are, no doubt, attorneys, overseers, and managers,
whose humanity, though not personally interested in the welfare
of the slaves, may induce them to treat the infirm and diseased
with kindness; yet what must become of the weak and sickly
when this is not the case ? Dr. Williamson, who lived for some
years in Jamaica, on an estate of the Earl of Harewood, with
reference to the labour of the healthy being imposed on those
who are weakly and unable to bear it, observes, that “it is too
true that due consideration is not sometimes given to this pointh.”
The same author also affords proof, that, whatever may be the
humane intentions of proprietors, the inconsiderate, not to say
inhuman, conduct of those who have the management of the
slaves, sometimes occasions increased illness to the sickly Negro,
and even loss of life.
The punishments to which they are ever subject, form a terri-
ble item in the catalogue of the slaves' miseries. I do not here
mean punishments inflicted by magisterial authority, but those
to which they are liable from their task-masters, at their mere
caprice, without any trial, and for any or for no offence. The
owner has an almost unlimited power of punishment over his
* Pp. 99. 100.
+ “Medical and Miscellaneous Observations relative to the West India
Islands,” vol. ii. p. 223.
4
LECTURE I 1. 35
slaves, both male and female. Till of late years, indeed, the
killing or dismemberment of a slave, by his owner, was in several
of the colonies either not punished at all, or by a small fine, or
short imprisonment. The number of lashes has been reduced
in a few instances, but in general it is limited by law to thirty-
nine * by the owner or manager, and to a less number by the
driver. Even in the boasted Acts of amelioration, which profess
to restrain the masters' power of arbitrary punishment, there are
terms introduced which render the whole nugatory, or nearly
so: such as, “ on the same day”—“ for the same fault”—“at
the same time”—or “until the slave shall have recovered from
the effects of any former punishment.”
But, besides this power of the owner or manager, for the em-
ployment of which no one has a right to call him to account;
the driver possesses also the power of summary punishment, and,
besides the presence and actual infliction of the lash as a mere
stimulus to exertion, as a waggoner stimulates the horses of his
team, not unfrequently exercises that power. If the Negroes are
late in the field in the morning, or after dinner, he may inflict
the lash, within certain limits, on their bare bodies, whether they
be men or woment. If they flag in their work, through idle-
ness, or weakness, or fatigue, the driving whip may be employed
to quicken them. Dr. Collins, who was himself a planter, says
that “it is generally bestowed with rigour on the weakest of
the gang, and those who are so unfortunate as not to be in fa-
vour with this sub-despotſ.” “If any offend more than ordi-
narily, Master Driver, who has almost unlimited power, takes him
or her from the ranks, and, having two or three strong Negroes
to hold the culprit down, lays on lashes with all his might.
Thirty-nine is the number specified by law, beyond which even
a white man cannot legally go in one day ;” (and ten the number
a driver may inflict by his own authority); “but I have seen a
* A member of the Jamaica legislature declared, as we have already noticed,
that thirty-nine lashes with the whip can be made more grievous than five
hundred with the cat.
+ See testimony of the Rev. T. Cooper, “Negro Slavery,” p. 60.
| Quoted by Mr. Stephen in the work before mentioned, p. 53.
36 LEC'I'U.R.ES ON SLAVERY.
black driver lay on, most unmercifully, upwards of forty at one
time, whilst his fellow-slave was crying out for mercy, so that he
could be heard a quarter of a mile from the spot”.” And no
wonder that such should be his cries, since Mr. Cooper, in the
work already referred to, says that “each lash, when the skin
is tender, and not rendered callous by repeated punishments,
makes an incision on the parts to which it is applied, and thirty
or forty such lashes leave them in a dreadfully lacerated and
bleeding state. Even those that have become the most callous
cannot long resist the force of this terrible instrument, when ap-
plied by a skilful hand, but become also raw and bloody: indeed,
no strength of skin can withstand its reiterated application f.”
Dr. Williamson, already quoted, who was an advocate for the
colonial system, observes to the same effect: “If, in a warm
day, we pass by a gang when they are uncovered behind, it is a
reproach to every white man to observe in them the recently la-
cerated sores, or the deep furrows which, though healed up,
leave the marks of cruel punishment.” If it were necessary, many
other testimonies might be adduced to the same purpose.
Besides this mode of punishment, there are stocks on the
estate, in which, at the pleasure of the overseers or managers, the
slaves are put for any length of time; frequently working by day
with the gang in the field, and being confined in the stocks all
night. They may also be sent, without any order of a magistrate,
to the workhouse, or jail; and there ordered, besides being worked
in pairs chained together by the neck during the period of their
confinement, to receive thirty-nine lashes at their going in and
at their coming out. Sometimes a whole gang may be seen
thus fastened together, with a driver attending them. Such
power can scarcely fail of being abused to cruel purposes; and
many affecting instances of this kind might be adduced, to corro-
borate those narrated by Mr. Cooper in pp. 63, 64, of the work
from which we have already made quotations.
We shall now call as a witness, an officer of one of the colo-
* Rev. R. Bickell, ut sup. p. 13. + P. 61.
f Referred to in “Negro Slavery,” p. 83.
LECTURE II. - 37
nies, appointed for the protection of the slaves, but not having,
apparently, any very favourable leaning towards them. Let the
Fiscal of Berbice step forward.-The following extracts are
from the minutes of this officer; which were laid before the
House of Commons, and ordered to be printed by them the
23d of June, 1825. The papers are official, and the facts recent.
“Complaint of the woman Minkie, belonging to Thomas C.
Jones:–Says, Mr. Jones took her out of the barracks on Tues-
day; after I got home he sent me to Mr. Henry ; he would not
buy me. He sent me to another gentleman : I do not know
his name, but he lives in town; they both said my master asked
too much money for me, and sent me back. H begged for a
pass to look for an owner; he said no, he would put me down
and cut me” more than the law gives. I was then laid down,
and tied to three stakes, and Chance flogged me with a cart-
whip ; I got a severe flogging; I saw Mr. Layfield at his door
with another gentleman ; and Mr. Kerschner, the baker, saw it
from his window. Mr. Jones bought me from Mr. Logie of
Demerara. I have marks of severe punishment visible on me,
old and recent floggings, all inflicted by Jones.
“ Exhibits the wounded parts”, which are covered with a
plaister, by order of the doctor, and apparently lacerated to that
degree that the court judged it expedient to direct her not to
uncover it.
“Mr. Jones said he had flogged her, and broke her mouth
for her insolence. He had thirty-nine laid on her, and they
were well inflicted. When he sent for her, he had no intention
of flogging her; but after sending her to three persons for sale,
and not succeeding, he told her, she had often deserved a flog-
ging ; he then directed her to be flogged, and that they should
be well laid on, which was done.”
What an affecting instance is this of the miseries to which
those unhappy beings are subject, who are so entirely at the
mercy of haughty, capricious, or passionate owners! Here is a
* Other words are here substituted for the expressions in the Fiscal's report,
for decency's sake. * .
38 LECTUR ES ON SLAVERY.
female whose body is lacerated to that degree that the court
could not endure to behold it; and for what dreadful crime !
The author of this cruelty does not even pretend that there was
any, or that it was necessary that any charge of guilt should be
substantiated to justify the infliction of these lacerations on a
helpless female : he does not hesitate to declare that they were
at his order “well inflicted;” and that he had done more than
she complained of, he had “broken her mouth”-—and why? be-
cause he had sent her, being probably in want of money, to
three persons for sale, who did not choose to take his offer
And this is the way Mr. Jones takes to soothe his irritation.
But when he beholds what he has done in cold blood, he has no
visitings of compunction; he seems actually to glory in it, and
to look with haughty and indignant scorn on any appearance of
interference And what could these magistrates do to help this
wretched female 2 There was no evidence to shew that her
master had gone beyond the number of stripes which the law
then allowed". She must again return, and be completely in the
power of the same ruthless and vindictive being, with the recol-
lection on his mind that she had dared to call him before a ma-
gistrate.—We do not say that all actually receive this treat-
ment, but this is the treatment to which all are subject, and with-
out any violation of colonial law.
The following case also deserves notice : it is taken from the
same official report.—Mrs. Saunders, a widow lady, who had
been twice before cited before the Fiscal, appears before him
again on the 8th of September 1823, to answer to the complaint
of the Negro David: “That he is too much punished with the
whip and tamarind rods; that he is employed to work in the
kitchen, garden, and also to cook; that he is swollen, and the soles
of his feet flogged with tamarind rods; that his mistress says he
is lazy, which is the cause of his being flogged; he was flogged
with the whip lately; he has a beating at his heart, the cause of
his illness; his body (I veil the indecent expressions employed in
the original) shews that he has been lately punished, not to any
* Since that period, the law of Berbice has fixed the number at twenty-five.
LECTURE II. 39
excess, but the punishment much neglected. Soles of his feet
examined; shew no marks of punishment. The Negro appears
to be in a dropsy, and as such is treated by the doctor who has
the charge of the barracks.”
The son of this lady undertakes to defend his mother. He
says “that the Negro is a very bad character;” that “little or
no work is done by him, for on the least harsh word he runs
away: he is a constant run-away. My mother will not allow him
to be flogged, because he bears the marks of former punishment
so evidently. He did receive a slight punishment for running
away; this punishment was inflicted by two small boys with ta-
marind rods, and it was to endeavour to shame him. My brother
brought him to town five days ago to cook, and why he has run
away I do not know. He was flogged by said boys under his feet
with tamarind rods, on account of his back being cut up.”
Here it is evident that the Negro is ill, is treated as such by
the doctor, and appears to the Fiscal “to be in a dropsy.” There
are, nevertheless, evident marks of recent punishment, which
the Fiscal does not think was excessive, though “the punish-
ment” had been “ much neglected.” What do these colonial
terms mean? Is it not that the gashes and wounds were such
as needed surgical aid, but that they had not received it? But
so habituated had the Fiscal been to such scenes, that, in his
judgment, the punishment was not “to any excess!” Observe,
too, the manner in which the son of this lady pleads her cause. Not
only is the propensity of this diseased slave to make his escape
adduced, but the clemency of his mistress is also pleaded : she
will not, in her humanity, allow him to be flogged, because—“he
bears the marks of former punishment so evidently!” He was
flogged under his feet with tamarind rods—“ on account of his
back being cut up!” Such are the tender mercies of a female
slave-owner
The manager of the plantation Providence, it appears, on one
occasion laid a Negro on the ground with two drivers over him,
who gave him fifty lashes. His innocence being afterwards
40 LECTUR FS ON SLAVERY.
proved, he went to the manager for redress: the manager told
him, “If you do not hold your tongue, I will put you in the
stocks.” He then went to his owner, Mr. Henry, who answered,
“I cannot help it; it is not my fault; the punishment you had
was the manager's fault.” As he could get no redress from
either master or manager, he came to the Fiscal. The manager
endeavoured to justify himself; admitting that he had flogged
him, but only to the extent of thirty-nine lashes (the number
allowed by law for any or for no offence), and confined him in
the stocks every night for a week.-And what was the redress
which the suffering Negro obtained? The Fiscal, whose office
it was to protect the slaves, reprimanded the manager for punish-
ing a Negro on such slight grounds!
We shall, in this place, adduce only one more fact from the
Berbice Fiscal's official reports. Mr. Grade, the manager of
l’Esperance, is charged by the slaves with various acts of
severity. A pregnant woman, named Rosa, was employed
picking coffee with some other women. Thinking they did not
pick enough, or well, Mr. Grade ordered the driver Zondag to
flog them. The driver did so. Rosa had previously objected
to working, as being too big, and being unable to stoop ; but the
manager overruled the objection, and she went to pick the
coffee on her knees. When Zondag came to her, he said to
the manager, “This woman is big with child !” The manager
replied, “Give it to her till the blood flies out.” She was
flogged with the whip doubled. This was on Friday. She was
sent to the field on Saturday, but, being seized with pains in her
loins, was sent thence to the hospital. The doctor examined
her and ordered her to the field again. The consequences were
such, on the Sunday, as might be expected; dreadful indeed,
but I forbear to mention them. The driver Zondag, and several
others, confirmed the above statement. The driver being par-
ticularly asked, whether, on his representing that Rosa was
pregnant, the manager had used the expression, “Never mind,
flog her till the blood comes,” replied, “Yes.”
LECTURE II. . 41
These are only a few cases out of a long and horrible list from
one colony only *. In the Mauritius, which is much further
removed from the observation of the mother country, atrocities
have been perpetrated to which all that has yet been mentioned
is “as nothing, and vanity l’ But I will not harrow up your
feelings by a recital of the inhuman, the diabolical cruelties,
the multiplied lashes, the ponderous chains, the barbarous mu-
tilations, the slow murders, and all the horrors which brand with
eternal infamy the slave system of that island, and those who
administer it #.
Allow me to adduce one more fact from another quarter, in
proof of the misery to which slaves are exposed from the arbitrary
punishments of their owners: it is taken from a dispatch of
Mr. Secretary Huskisson to the Governor of the Bahamas,
dated 28th September, 1827.-
“I have received your dispatch of the 3d July last, trans-
mitting the minutes of evidence on the trial of Henry and Helen
Moss, suggesting certain considerations in their favour, and
recommending a remittal of the fine which formed a part of the
sentence.
“These persons have been found guilty of a misdemeanor,
for their cruelty to their slave Kate ; and those facts of the
case, which are proved beyond dispute, appear to be as follows:
“Kate was a domestic slave, and is stated to have been
guilty of theft: she is also accused of disobedience, in refusing
to mend her clothes and do her work, and this was the more
immediate cause of her punishment. On the 22d of July, 1826,
she was confined in the stocks, and she was not released till the
8th of August following, being a period of seventeen days.
The stocks were so constructed that she could not sit up or lie
down at pleasure, and she remained in them night and day.
During this period she was flogged repeatedly, one of the over-
* The reader will find a much larger selection in a pamphlet entitled “The
Slave Colonies of Great Britain,” and in the Anti-Slavery Reporters, No. 5 and
16, from which the above cases have been extracted.
+ See No. 44 of the Anti-Slavery Reporter, which contains statements from
official papers, and from living witnesses, enough to make one's blood run cold.
G
42 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
seers thinks about six times; and red pepper was rubbed upon
her eyes, to prevent her sleeping. Tasks were given her which,
in the opinion of the same overseer, she was incapable of
performing ; sometimes because they were beyond her powers,
at other times because she could not see to do them on account
of the pepper having been rubbed on her eyes; and she was
flogged for failing to accomplish these tasks. A violent dis-
temper had been prevalent on the plantation during the summer.
It is in evidence, that one of the days of Kate's confinement she
complained of fever, and that one of the floggings which she
received was the day after she had made the complaint. When
she was taken out of the stocks she appeared to be cramped, and
was then again flogged. The very day of her release she was
sent to field labour (though heretofore a house servant); and on
the evening of the third day ensuing was brought before her
owners, as being ill and refusing to work, and she then again
complained of having fever. They were of opinion that she had
none then, but gave directions to the driver, if she should be ill,
to bring her to them for medicines in the morning. The driver
took her to the Negro-house, and again flogged her; though at
this time, apparently, without orders from her owners to do so.
In the morning at seven o'clock she was taken to work in the
field, where she died at noon.
“The facts of the case are, thus far, incontrovertibly esta-
blished; and I deeply lament, that, heinous as the offences are
which this narrative exhibits, I can discover no material pal-
liation of them amongst the other circumstances detailed in the
evidence.”
A bill of indictment for murder was preferred against Mr. and
Mrs. Moss: the grand jury threw it out. The Attorney-general
preferred two other bills, for misdemeanors; one against Mrs.
Moss, the other against Mr. Moss and his wife; upon both of
which a verdict of guilty was returned. And what was the con-
dign punishment for such fatal cruelty? Five months’ imprison-
ment, and a fine of 300l. currency!—But it may be said, that the
misconduct of one or two does not prove any thing against the
LECTURE II. 43
whole. But the witnesses who deposed to the character of Mr.
and Mrs. Moss represent them as standing high for humanity
among slave-owners. The most respectable people of the island
petitioned for a mitigation of their punishment, visited them in
prison, did every thing to identify themselves with them, and
finally, on their liberation from jail, gave them a public dinner
as a matter of triumph ! &
Enough has been said on this part of the subject, and on
authority which cannot be disputed. We shall now consider
the condition of the enslaved Negro in another view ; not with
reference to his master only, but in his relation to society
at large. And here again the evils of the system stand out in
dreadful prominence.
There is in these colonies a complete inequality of law and
right. What is right in the one is wrong in the other; what is
tolerable in the white man, is punished in the black; what is
a venial fault in the master is highly criminal in the slave; and
criminality and punishment have a relation to the different of
fenders precisely the reverse of what they have in all other cases.
In the laws of God, and in all human laws which are founded on
justice, superior advantages render men more responsible, and,
of course, give to their bad actions a higher degree of crimi-
nality: but here the educated White is considered in the eye of
the law as less guilty, and the poor ignorant Black the greater
delinquent. The law is fastidiously delicate in punishing the
master, but ruthless and vindictive when the slave is concerned.
Till of late years the slave was liable to the punishment of death
for almost every thing: he might, in some colonies, be mutilated
for the act of running away from severe usage : for endeavouring
by force to break his chains, he might be burnt alive by inches,
or hung up to perish in a cage *. Mr. Stephen mentions +, that
when he was in Barbadoes he was present at a trial for murder,
in the event of which, two Negroes, convicted of the offence,
* This actually took place in Jamaica: see “Edwards's Hist, of the W.
Indies,” vol. ii. b. iv. ch. 3. One was slowly burnt; and of the other two that
were gibbeted, one lingered till the eighth day, the other till the ninth. -
f “Slavery of the Brit. W. India Colonies delineated,” vol. i. p. 309, note,
44 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
were burnt alive *. At that very time and place, had the White
man, for whose death they suffered, murdered either of them, he
would have been subject to a fine of 15l. currency; that is, about
111. sterling.
It is true, that the agitation of the subject in Parliament, owing
to the efforts which were made to procure the abolition of the
slave trade, and the public attention which has since that period
been directed to the state of the colonies, have produced many
alterations in these shameless, brutal, penal statutes +; but,
unfortunately, the same spirit of a most unequal distribution of
justice pervades even the recent meliorating Acts. Let a few
specimens suffice.
In the new slave law of the Bahamas of 1824, it was enacted,
§§ 52–54, that a slave aiding a slave to depart from the Bahama
islands shall suffer transportation, or any other punishment not
extending to life or limb. A White committing the same of
fence shall forfeit 100l., and be imprisoned for not more than
twelve months.-$ 17. A person wantonly or cruelly treating
a slave is liable to be punished by fine or imprisonment, or both,
at the discretion of the court: and §§ 14, 15, The wilful mutila-
tion of a slave is made liable to be punished by a fine not eac-
ceeding 100l. (currency), and imprisonment not exceeding twelve
months. But $48, Any slave offering violence, by striking or
otherwise, to any white person, shall be punished, at the discre-
tion of two justices, with any punishment short of life and limb.
In the new consolidated and amended slave act of Barbadoes
of 1826, it is enacted, § 27, that “any slaves guilty of quarrel-
ling or fighting with one another; or of insolent language orges-
tures to or OF any person ; or of swearing, or uttering any ob-
scene speeches; or of drunkenness; or making, selling, throwing,
* Mr. Jeffries, a Master in the Navy, gave evidence before the Select Com-
mittee of the House of Commons that he was present at the execution of seven
INegroes for the murder of a White man, in Tobago, in 1774; whose right arms
were chopped off: they were then dragged to seven stakes, and a fire, consisting
of trash and dry wood, was lighted about them, and they were burnt to death.
+ That the usages in the colonies fully equalled, and even exceeded, the in-
humanity of their laws, see “Abstract of Evidence before a Select Committee of
the House of Commons, in the Years 1790 and 1791,” pp. 52 to 89.
LECTU R E II. 45
or firing squibs, serpents, or other fire-works; or of cock-fighting
or gaming; or of riding on a faster gait than a walk, or of driv-
ing upon a faster gait than a gentle trot, on any road, street, or
lane of the island; or of cruelly whipping, beating, or ill-using
any horse, mule, ass, or other cattle; or of negligently driving
any waggon, cart, carriage, &c.; or of ANY disorderly conduct
or misbehaviour; shall, on conviction before any justice of the
peace, be whipped at his discretion, not exceeding thirty-nine
stripes.”—Now contrast with this the provisions respecting the
aggressions of a White man: § 44 enacts, that any person who
wantonly commits cruelty towards a slave, by whipping, bruising,
or beating, &c. shall be fined, by any two justices, not less than
25l., and not exceeding 100l.; and § 45 subjects any white or
free person maiming or dismembering a slave to be imprisoned
not less than six months, and fined not less than £100, the in-
terest of which to be an annuity for the slave for life, and the
slave to be transferred (not liberated) to some master of humane
repute. Slaves who strike, or offer, or dare to strike, or use
any violence towards their master or mistress, shall, for the first
offence, suffer death without benefit of clergy, transportation,
or such other punishment as the court may think fit to inflict; and
for the second, death without benefit of clergy. And $43, If
any slave shall be killed in the attempt to main or injure any
white person, the person killing any such slave shall not be
punished for the same, either criminally or otherwise.
What, indeed, could be expected from a system of legislation,
when the oppressors make laws for the oppressed, slave-owners
for the slaves? Who can seriously suppose that the habits and
prejudices of those who are accustomed to slavery are favourable
to the formation of a code of laws which shall effectually protect
them from the overbearing tyranny of white men? Can it be
reasonably expected, that a system which has its foundation in
the perversion of all right should produce laws distinguished for
their justice? “Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of
thistles?” Did not the Speaker of one of these legislatures (that
of Barbadoes), on lately passing a bill which, professing to adopt
46 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
reforms forced on them by the voice of the British people, never-
theless contained enactments that would disgrace the Bar-
bary States if they were to attempt to legislate on such a
subject, congratulate the assembly on the monument of benevo-
lence which they had reared, and for which they might anticipate
the admiring gratitude of posterity? -
It is no wonder, in such circumstances, that the administration
of the laws is such as to shock all our ideas of what is right
and proper. The following cases are extracted from Jamaica
newspapers.
“Public Advertiser, Kingston, Jamaica, April 22d, 1825.
“Sentence.—For manslaughter—The prisoner was put to the
dock, and by his council, Mr. Recorder, pleaded his clergy. His
honour then passed sentence:—‘You were indicted for the wilful
murder of a female slave, but the jury only found you guilty of man-
slaughter. It appeared in evidence, that you were amusing yourself
by discharging a loaded gun through the window of your dwelling-
house; after some time, this gun was reloaded by one of your com-
panions, and you proposed firing it over an assemblage of Negroes: he
declined; when You PoinTED OUT A NEGRO OF YOUR own PRoPERTy,
AND PROPOSED To FIRE AT HIM : he again declined: you then re-
newed your proposal to fire it over the crowd; and upon his refusing,
you seized the gun ; the result was, that this female slave, who was
sitting in the crowd, was shot, and the melancholy event was soon
announced to you by the cries and lamentations of her mother. By
your Heedless conDUCT you have hurried a fellow-creature out of
existence, you have bereft a mother of a child, and you have affixed
a stain upon your own character, which it will require a long life of
prudence and humanity to obliterate. The humane jury who tried
you, accompanied their verdict with a recommendation to mercy. We
will give that recommendation its due weight, and not inflict the full
extent of punishment upon you; we hope, however, that the punish- -
ment we shall inflict will act as a warning to others, and make a due
impression on yourself.’ The prisoner was then sentenced to Twelve
Months' IMPRISONMENT.”
By the side of this place the following notice, taken from the
Royal Jamaica Gazette, June 11th to 18th, 1825. “Richard
Price, a Wangee, marked REID on the right, and apparently
LECTURE 1 I. 47
H on the left shoulder; he was sentenced, at a slave court, to
twelve months' hard labour in the workhouse, for offering vio-
lence to a White person *.”
On the 2d of March, 1826, Mr. Denman brought forward a
motion, respecting the trials of certain slaves in Jamaica
charged with conspiracy and rebellion. In the debate which
followed, the most gross and scandalous perversion of justice,
in the trial and execution of many unhappy Negroes, was ad-
mitted on all hands ; and though the original motion of Mr.
Denman was not carried, the House came unanimously to the
following resolution,--
“That this House sees, in the proceedings which have been
brought under its consideration, with respect to the late trials
of slaves in Jamaica, further proof of the evils inseparably
attendant upon a state of slavery ; and derives therefrom in-
creased conviction of the propriety of the Resolutions passed by
this House on the 15th of May, 1823.”
It must have been no feeble impression, no slight conviction
of the mal-administration of justice, which, in a House where the
colonial interests are so strongly supported by members connected
with the West Indies, and where the Ministers of the Crown
have always manifested a leaning towards the planters’ side of
the question, could produce such a resolution without a dissen-
tient voice.
What unprejudiced person could read the trial of Smith the
Missionary, who was martyred by the justice of Demerara; and
that of the poor slaves, some of whom were condemned to be hung,
and others had what was represented as a merciful commutation
of punishment, being doomed to receive a thousand lashes and
to work in chains for life, without shuddering at the cruel
mockery of justice, which has left a stain of infamy on that
colony, that ages will not wipe out? -
It forms no small part of the evil which presses on the slave,
that, whatever injury he receives from a white man, especially
* Copied from the Anti-Slavery Reporter, No. 9.
48 LECTU R ES ON SLAVERY.
from his master, to whose power he is constantly subject, redress
is very difficult, if not impracticable. It must be so from the
very nature of his condition. If he receive an injury, to whom
can he appeal: To the justices They are all white men; most
of them planters, whose education and habits strongly predis-
pose them in favour of their own caste”. Nor have they, in Ja-
maica at least, the advantage of a jury, except the offence for
which they are tried subjects them to death, transportation, or
hard labour for more than one year. They may be imprisoned,
compelled to work in chains, receive any punishment of the
whip, short of life and limb, at the discretion of justices. But
should they be tried by a jury, still it is a jury of White men, con-
nected more or less with the planters, and whose sympathies are
all in favour of their own class. The case, we may naturally
suppose, must be strong indeed to produce a conviction in fa-
vour of the injured Black.
Another serious obstacle in the way of redress is, the inad-
missibility of slave evidence. This, till very lately, was complete.
The evidence of slaves against slaves was always admitted; and
many have been put to death on no other testimony: but against
white men it was of no avail f. The bardship of this was into-
lerable; the obstruction which it placed in the way of justice
almost insuperable. An enraged slave owner had but to send
his white dependants out of the way, and he might maim or
murder to whatever extent his passion might carry him. How
many deeds of cruelty and blood have thus been screened from
the punishment of human laws, the great day of retribution only
will reveal l “I know,” said the Attorney-General of Tobago,
“ as a magistrate, cases of extreme cruelty that have passed
unpunished for want of slave evidence.” “It is very common,
when they wish to be cruel, to send free persons out of the way.
I have known many such cases.” The Chief Justice of the
y
* See a very striking and affecting case of this kind mentioned by Mr.
Bickell, who was present when some half-starved and cruelly mangled female
Negroes and their children sought in vain redress from a sitting of ma-
gistrates. “West Indies as they are,” pp. 28, 29, &c.
+See “Slavery of W. Indies delineated,” by Mr. Stephen, pp. 167, &c. &c.
LECTURE II 49
same island, Mr. Pigott, testifies as follows: “A manager sent
all free persons out of the way, and then gave a Negro one
hundred and fifty lashes. The Negro was brought in a state
of which he might have died, to us, the sitting magistrates. We
had no means of proving it. I proposed a bill to admit slave
evidence, or to make the accused purge himself on oath. The
bill was not approved *.” .*
When Mr. Denman brought forward the motion already
mentioned, in the House of Commons, on the 2d March 1826,
he thus alluded to some cases of great atrocity, which had been
publicly stated in the House of Assembly in Jamaica, during
the discussion of a bill to admit, in a very qualified and re-
stricted manner, the testimony of slaves.
“Another case, Mr. Stewart (the gentleman who brought
forward the bill), said, was of very recent date. “In this town
(Spanish Town) a white man, a monster of cruelty, concealed a
female slave in a room, where, with a hot iron used for burning
marks on cattle, he disfigured and mutilated the poor creature,
who was so unfortunate as to be in his power. He trusted to
the effect of the law which prevented slaves from giving evi-
dence; but it chanced that a young free man of colour, suspecting
what was going forward, peeped through a crevice, and saw the
horrid scene. On his evidence the owner of the slave was con-
victed and punished.’ -
“Another fact was related by Mr. Mais: “There is one
instance, which, because of recent occurrence, I must take leave
to mention. It is the case of a female slave, who on her return
home was met by a free man of colour, who had been out
shooting. A little dog, which accompanied her, barked, and
probably might have snapped at the man. This irritated him,
and he threatened to shoot the dog : the woman, alarmed for his
safety, called out, “Oh don’t shoot him; don’t shoot my dog;”
upon which the man turned angrily upon her, and said, “ Not
* Extracts from “A Report on the Civil and Criminal Justice of the West
Indies,” by Mr. Dwarris, quoted in the Third Report of the Anti-Slavery
Society for 1825.
}]
50 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
shoot him? I'll shoot you, if you say much,” and with little
ceremony lodged the contents of his piece in her side. This
was in the face of day, in the presence of many persons, but
who, being slaves, were not qualified to give testimony on the
occasion, and the offender escaped.’”
In the Crown colonies, and in Grenada and Tobago, slave
evidence is now admitted. In any of the other colonies the
pretended concession of the right is so extremely partial, and
is attended with so many conditions and restrictions, as entirely
to nullify every benefit to be derived from such a provision,
It must also be taken into the account, that on the poor
slave’s application to a magistrate for redress, though thus
trammeled with respect to evidence, he is liable to receive a very
severe flogging, in addition to the injury of which he complains,
should he fail to prove his complaint to the satisfaction of the
magistrate. In that case, he is not only replaced, with the
mortification of unredressed grievances, under the despotism of
an owner or overseer incensed against him by the very circum-
stance of his complaining, but may return bleeding under
additional punishment for having had the temerity to complain.
A document appeared in the daily papers in October 1823,
which Mr. Stephen notices in his “Delineation of Slavery,”
purporting to be “an official notification, by Sir Ralph Wood-
ford, Governor of Trinidad, of his having punished two Negro
slaves, one with seventy-five and the other with a hundred
lashes, for a complaint against their master, which that Governor
says he had upon investigation proved to be groundless; and
he orders these tremendous punishments to be inflicted, in the
presence of deputations of ten slaves from each of the neigh-
bouring estates, for the express purpose of deterring them from
like offences *.”
In the returns of the Fiscal of Berbice, from which extracts
have been already made, there are several instances of this kind:
some are ordered to receive fifty lashes, and others seventy-five,
* In a note to p. 115, vol. i.
LECTURE II, 51
for venturing to appear before him, when they could not
establish to his satisfaction the truth of their complaints. We
shall only, however, give the particulars of one case, in which
the decision of this gentleman appears somewhat curious. It is
from the plantation Port Moraunt, dated 27th March 1823.
“Ness states, That he is the driver over the women, and the
manager asked him last Sunday why he did not go to work; and
he answered that he had not been ordered to do so, or he would
have gone to work, as he did not wish to do any thing without
the manager's orders. The manager then offered to flog him;
but he made his escape, and came to your Honour for redress.
“The complainant in this instance was punished by the acting
Fiscal for having left the estate and come to town to complain
without any cause, and when he had been guilty of disobedience
of orders and neglect of duty; and the manager was warned
of the impropriety and illegality of working the Negroes on
Sunday.”
What an instructive illustration is this, of the probability of
an injured slave's obtaining redress, and the encouragement
which he has to seek it ! First, we perceive that the slave has
no right to question either the morality or legality of whatever a
manager orders him to do ; that to refuse to violate the laws of
God and man, at the bidding of his employer, is “disobedience
of orders,” which subjects him to the lash. Secondly, that to
endeavour to escape from a severe and unjust punishment, threat-
ened by the manager, subjects him to punishment from the fiscal;
—that it is a flagrant crime to solicit the interposition of the
Protector of Slaves to save him from undeserved torture;—that,
if he wishes to seek redress, he must suffer all that enraged passion
may inflict, in order to entitle him to complain. And lastly, that,
when the white master has acted in open violation of the Divine
laws, as well as of those of the colony, he is warned only of the
“impropriety and illegality of the act;” while he receives a gua-
rantee, in the flogging of the complainant, that he may henceforth
work his Negroes on Sundays with impunity; for what slave, after
this, would remonstrate 7 Thus the slave is punished for ap-
52 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
pealing to the laws which are made to protect him, and the
master is rewarded for breaking them. So much for colonial
justice, and slave protection " '
There is another class of sufferings at which we shall briefly
glance, which arises from those social feelings which the God of
nature has imparted to man. Depressed and degraded as is the
condition of the slave, he is still susceptible of strong affection
and ardent attachment. In his native Africa, and in his state of
exile and of bondage, the Negro is allowed to possess a con-
siderable share of sensibility. Gratitude to a benefactor,
attachment to a friend, love to the woman of his choice (though
the law has long refused to her the sanctions of a wife), filial
affection, and tender regard for his offspring, still remain to him,
amidst all the vices which his enslaved condition has engendered:
but in all his social feelings he is exposed to the keenest misery
by this wretched system. If he has a wife, he dares not protect
her from the driver's lash, from cruel and indecent punishment,
or from the white man's outrage. If he has daughters, he dares
not defend them from brutality and violence. If he murmur,
there is the tormenting lash : if he resist, it is death !
And, besides this, there are the separations to which they are
liable, by which the nearest ties may be burst asunder. On the
estates of wealthy proprietors this, perhaps, occurs less fre-
quently ; but in other cases, what is to prevent its daily
occurrence : One of a family may be seized and sold for debts
or taxes — it may be a husband, wife, father, mother, or
child;—or a needy slave-holder may be pinched for money. How
affecting is the relation of Mr. Gilgrass, one of the Methodist
missionaries.—
“A master of slaves, who lived near usin Kingston, Jamaica,
exercised his barbarities on a Sabbath morning, while we were
worshipping God in the chapel; and the cries of the female
sufferers have frequently interrupted us in our devotions. But
there was no redress for them, or for us. This man wanted
money; and one of the female slaves having two fine children, he
sold one of them, and the child was torn from her maternal
LECTURE II. - 53
affection. In the agony of her feelings she made a hideous
howling, and for that crime was flogged. Soon after he sold
her other child. This ‘turned her heart within her,’ and im-
pelled her into a kind of madness. She howled night and day
in the yard; tore her hair; ran up and down the streets and the
parade, rending the heavens with her cries, and literally watering
the earth with her tears. Her constant cry was, “Da wicked
massa, he sell me children. Will no buckra massa pity Nega 2
What me do? Me no have no child!’ As she stood before my
window she said, ‘My Massa' (lifting up her hands towards
heaven), “do, me Massa Minister, pity me? Me heart do so,'
(shaking herself violently); ‘me heart do so, because me have no
child. Me go a massa house, in massa yard, and in me hut,
and me no see em;’ and then her cry went up to God. I durst
not be seen looking at her.”
Mr. Bradnack, another missionary, says, “I know an instance
of a Negro and his wife being sold to different islands, after
living together twenty-four years, and raising a family of
children ¥.” r
One case more I beg leave to mention, which was stated at a
public meeting by Mr. T. Pennock.
“A few years ago it was enacted, that it should not be legal
to transport once established slaves from one island to another :
and a gentleman owner, finding it advisable to do so before the
Act came in force, the removal of great part of his live stock was
the consequence. He had a female slave, a Methodist, and
highly valuable to him (and not the less so for being the mother
of eight or nine children), whose husband, also of our connexion,
was the property of another resident on the island, where I
happened to be at the time. Their masters not agreeing on a
sale, separation ensued, and I went to the beach to be an eye-
witness of their behaviour in the greatest pang of all. One by
one the man kissed his children, with the firmness of a hero,
and, blessing them, gave as his last words—(oh ! will it be be-
* “A Defence of the Wesleyan Methodist Missions in the West Indies,” &c.
by the Rev. R. Watson, pp. 25, 26.
54 LECTU RES ON SLAVERY.
lieved, and have no influence upon our veneration for the Negro !)
‘Farewell ! Be honest and obedient to your master!’ At
length he had to take leave of his wife: there he stood (I have
him in my mind's eye at this moment), five or six yards from the
mother of his children, unable to move, speak, or do any thing
but gaze, and still to gaze, on the object of his long affection,
soon to cross the blue wave for ever from his aching sight. The
fire of his eyes alone gave indication of the passion within, until,
after some minutes' standing thus, he fell senseless on the sand,
as if suddenly struck down by the hand of the Almighty. Nature
could do no more ; the blood gushed from his nostrils and mouth,
as if rushing from the terrors of the conflict within ; and amid the
confusion occasioned by the circumstance the vessel bore off his
family for ever from theisland ' After some days he recovered, and
came to ask advice of me! What could an Englishman do in
such a case ? I felt the blood boiling within me, but I con-
quered. I brow-beat my own manhood, and gave him the hum-
blest advice I could afford *.”
These agonizing separations cannot now take place, it is true,
by a removal to another island, except by an evasion of the law;
but they may still be repeated by a transfer to another owner
in some distant part of the same colony, so that the parties thus
severed may never meet again.
In fact, their whole state is that of complete degradation; and
the manner in which they are treated is assimilated, as much as
possible, to that of cattle. We can scarcely conceive of a lower
state of debasement than that to which the Negro slave is re-
duced. What is it which constitutes the great distinction
between man and the brutes that perish : The elephant is
stronger, the horse is fleeter. He has not the eye of the eagle,
nor the scent of the hound; but he has a mind—an immaterial
spirit, an immortal soul. This intellectual principle is capable
of acquiring knowledge on every subject, and of extending its
knowledge perpetually ; of judging what is right and wrong in
human conduct; of governing the appetites of the body ; of
* Newcastle Courant, Miay 2, 1829.
LECTURE II. 55
searching into the wonders of nature; of interchanging its ideas
with others for mutual benefit; of perceiving the glories of the
Creator, the wonders of Redeeming Mercy, of holding intercourse
with “the Father of our spirits,” and of being prepared, by a
course of instruction and moral discipline, for the sublime en-
joyments of the heavenly state. By the communication of know-
ledge the powers of the mind are brought into activity, and by this
exercise acquire additional strength; but without this the mind
lies dormant; the man sinks into a mere animal, with barely suffi-
cient glimmerings of reason to supply the want of those instincts
which guide the brute creation to the accomplishment of the
purposes of their existence. “For the soul to be without
knowledge is not good.” But what means are taken to instruct
and educate the British slave? On some few plantations a little
is done—alas ! how little; in the vast majority of instances
nothing, and worse than nothing. How can it be otherwise,
since the children at five or six years old are commonly sent to
work in gangs, under the terror of the whip or switch; and their
whole future life is destined to unremitting toil, without even
the privilege of the Christian Sabbath free from their provision-
grounds or market.
The building of more churches, which are still very inade-
quate for the population, and the appointment of curates, in
Jamaica, seem to have done but little towards the instruction of
the poor slaves. For, however willing the curates may be to
instruct them, the planters appear to impede all their kind in-
tentions of this nature. Mr. Stewart declares that “nine-tenths
of the people are in a state of utter ignorance of all religion.”
And, alluding to the provision made for the newly-appointed
curates, he asks, “What, then, has been done, by this newly
established order of clergy in Jamaica, in return for the generous
encouragement of the Legislature? Little more than, as was
predicted, to assist the rectors in the performance of those duties
which they were well able to discharge without such assistance.
The curates have, in fact, been accused of utter neglect and in-
efficiency in their offices, as far as regards the duties for which
56 L ECTU. R. ES ON SLAV ER Y.
they were expressly appointed by the Legislature. It is but fair,
however, to state what has been said in exculpation of them,
which, if true, shifts much of the blame from them, and fixes it
elsewhere. A writer in one of the public prints of this island
(1820) complained that ‘ the curates had done nothing in the
way of their calling, except saving the rectors the trouble of
performing the whole of their proper and exclusive duties—in
other words, doing that which is not, and neglecting to do that
which is, expressly required of them by the Legislature, namely,
visiting the plantations, at stated times, for the purpose of bap-
tizing and instructing the slaves in the Christian faith; provided,
however, it is with the consent of their owners' In reply to this
charge, another writer (supposed to be a clergyman) says, “Has
he’ (the first-named writer) “allowed the curate of his parish an
opportunity of discharging the functions of his office towards his
Negro servants, agreeably to the tenor of the Act on which he
lays so much stress : If not, he has no reason to complain of
neglect: if he has, he is almost a solitary instance, as, to my
knowledge, some curates have applied to many proprietors, trus-
tees, and managers of properties, expressing not only their will-
ingness, but their desire, to be called upon to discharge the active
duties of their office in the instruction of the ignorant slaves, but
in no single instance have their services been accepted: and
surely it cannot be expected that any man, who has a proper re-
gard for himself, would intrude on the property of another,
though for the most praise-worthy purposes, with the apprehen-
sion in view of being turned off it.’
“The allegation thus publicly brought forward by this apo-
logist has not been satisfactorily replied to ; and we must there-
fore conclude that there is a general disinclination on the
part of the planters to have their slaves instructed in Chris-
tianity”.”
* “View of the past and present State of the Island of Jamaica, by J. Stewart,
late of Jamaica,” pp. 291, &c. Mr. Stewart, it will be recollected, is not an
abolitionist.
Perhaps the significant phrase, applied sometimes in these islands to acts
which are intended, not so much for practical benefit to the slaves, as to pacify
LECTURE II. 57.
In the year 1817 Mr. Cooper was sent, by a humane and
wealthy proprietor resident in England, to his own estate in
Jamaica, for the express purpose of instructing the slaves; but
found such obstacles in the way, that, after some years' resi-
dence, he returned discouraged.
It will not, I trust, be deemed invidious to say, that perhaps
most that has been dome of this kind has been effected by mis-
sionaries sent out by the various religious societies not con-
nected with the Church of England. Yet through what difficul-
ties has this been effected ! Have they not been commonly op-
posed, slandered, persecuted, and had the greatest obstructions
placed in their way ? What bitter malignity was manifested to-
wards the martyr of Demerara, who, if not brought to the stake,
was destroyed by the miseries and horrors of his mock trials and
captivity—buried like a traitor, and not even his wife allowed
to attend his funeral. The outrages committed on the Metho-
dists at Barbadoes, the persecuting acts of the Jamaica legisla-
ture, the death of one missionary in a loathsome dungeon, the
imprisonment of others”, with a number of other things of a si-
milar nature, all prove the aversion of the slave owners generally
to the instruction and religious education of the Negroes. What
has been effected in instructing these poor creatures has been
the people of England, may be applied to the Curates' Act, “It was made for
England, not for the colonies.” Mr. Bickell observes, that “the proviso in
the Act alluded to above '' (viz. that the consent of proprietors or managers
must first be obtained) “ has had the effect of a general veto.”
The following is the testimony of Mr. Fish, a most respectable missionary,
who spent many years in Jamaica. Writing to the Committee of the Wesleyan
Missionary Society, he says,
“When the law to prohibit preaching in 1807 took place, Samuel V–––,
Esq., whose Negroes were under the instruction of a Baptist preacher, by his
own desire, being in company with John P——, Esq., a member of the Assembly,
and a Judge of the Supreme Court, he asked him, ‘Pray, sir, what was the
clause of the Consolidated Slave Act recommending the instruction of the Negroes
by their owners, &c. made for?' Mr. P replied, “O that was made FOR
ENGLAND;' meaning, to blind the people of this country. The habitual, and
I may say almost universal, neglect of that law, from the time it was made , proves
that Mr. P−–’s assertion was a true one.”
See also No. 51 of the “Anti-Slavery Reporter,” an article entitled “Co-
lonial Secrets revealed.” - - * * *
* See the Appendix to the Report of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary So-
ciety for 1829. .
I
58 I, ECTURES ON SLAVERY.
partly by the permission of a few humane proprietors; or by the
indifference of others as to what the slaves did, provided they had
their quantum of labour; and notwithstanding the opposition of
the planters generally. As far as the efforts of the great body of
colonists are concerned, the slaves are kept in a state of brutal
ignorance; and no legal provision whatever has been made for
their instruction in any of the colonies. -
Like cattle too they have been suffered, and even encouraged,
to herd together; not with the sanctity of marriage, but in pro-
miscuous intercourse. Since the loud and deep reprobation of
England has been heard across the Atlantic there has been a
shew of patronising marriage ; but small indeed are the sanc-
tions which the law affords to this state, and few are the en-
couragements which the Negro has to enter it. Some have
taken wives of their own accord, and have been faithful; this
however, appears to be the exception, rather than the rule.
In 1826 a document was printed by the House of Commons,
called “Returns from the Slave Colonies,” which embrace a period
of five years, from January 1821 to December 1825. From
these we find, that in Barbadoes, which contains about 80,000
slaves, only one marriage among them took place in these five
years, and that none was ever celebrated there before. In De-
merara, containing about 75,000; in Berbice, containing 22,000;
in Tobago, containing 14,000; in the Virgin Islands, containing
upwards of 5,000; there was but one marriage among the slaves
during that period. What must be the state of society, where
nearly 200,000 human beings, male and female, are herding to-
gether for five years with only one couple legally married By
the returns from Jamaica it appears, that in eleven parishes, con-
taining 173,000 slaves, sixy-eight marriages had taken place in
these five years—that is, about thirteen in a year—in the other
parishes, with but one exception, marriage had prevailed chiefly
where the Methodist preachers had obtained a footing”. Thus,
then, among the general mass of the slave population, that in-
–"
*See copious extracts from this document in the Anti-Slavery Reporter,
No. 19.
LECTURE II. 59
tercourse, which has been the substitute for marriage, has been,
from one generation to another, almost as promiscuous as among
herds of cattle.
There is, indeed, a dreadful and debasing consistency in the
whole of their treatment. They are, as we have already noticed,
bought, and sold, and bred, and worked, and flogged, and
branded, more like brute animals than human beings. If any
thing is construed into insurrection, they are shot at like wild
beasts. If, having escaped, they make the least resistance, they
may be cut down: and if taken, are compelled to work in chains;
or are placed by night in the stocks; or may have a large collar
fastened on their necks, like beasts which are accustomed to
break through an enclosure, or to stray beyond their limits.
The following are extracts from a list of Run-aways, and Work-
house Sales, copied “verbatim et literatim” by the Rev. R.
Bickell from the Jamaica Journal published Nov. 8, 1823".
** RUN-AWAYS.
“In St. Andrew’s Workhouse, Oct. 30.
“Betty, a Papa, 5 ft. 1 in. marked ISL on right shoulder,
and has country marks on her face and breast, to James Seton Lane,
Esq., Cool-Shade, St. Thomas's in the Vale.—Sept. 9.
“In Kingston Workhouse, Oct. 31.
“John Stephens, a likely young Creole Negro man, 5 ft. 6% in.
marked M I on left shoulder, has a large scar on the left side of his
throat, and other scars between his shoulders and neck, to the estate
of Mr. Mark, of Black River, dec.—Aug. 5.
- “In Morant Bay Workhouse, Oct. 16.
“Cudjoe, a Creole, 5 ft. 1 in. has marks of cutlass chops on his
back, which he states to have received several years ago when taken
up as a run-away, to Dr. Paulin, Grove, Manchester.—Oct. 12.
“Hannibal, a Creole, 5 ft. 1% in. has marks of cutlass chops on
his shoulders and on right hand, which he states to have received se-
veral years ago on being taken up as a run-away, to Mr. Biggs,
Endeavour Plantation, Manchester.—Oct. 12.”
In the Jamaica Royal Gazette, from Saturday June 14th to
Saturday June 21st, 1823, from which Mr. T. Clarkson has made
many extracts, there are advertisements of so many “prime Ne-
* “West Indies as they are,” pp. 38, &c.
60 LEGTU RES ON SLAVERY.
groes, with" so many “head of stock;” of another lot “seized,
together with a cart, by the Deputy Marshal,” for their master's
debts; run-away slaves, some branded, others chained together,
and others with iron collars on at the time of their escape; some
distinguished by their scars and floggings, and a girl by “the
scars on her back and stomach from flogging.”
There is one consequence of this system, to which, in con-
cluding this branch of the subject, I shall briefly advert; and
that is, the mischiefs which it inflicts even on free Blacks and
Persons of Colour. The contempt with which they are treated,
in proportion as their colour approaches to that of the enslaved
race, is notorious. No intercourse of equality can be held with
them, whatever be their qualifications; no wealth, nor talents,
nor virtue, can remove the proscription. -
There is also a presumption against the freedom of this per-
secuted race. If the written document be lost, the freedom, pur-
chased or bequeathed, may prove of no avail. The free Black or
Person of Colour may be seized, and sold again to bondage: his
captors have no need of proving that he is a slave; it is sufficient
if he cannot, to the satisfaction of his White judges, prove his
freedom. Hence it is no uncommon thing for advertisements
to appear in the colonial papers, describing the person of a black
or coloured man who has been apprehended as a run-away, “who
declares that he is free, but has no document to prove his free-
dom,” and who, “if not claimed by such a time will be sold to
pay expenses!” In the Returns already referred to there are
notices of this kind.
In the parish of Westmoreland, on the 21st of August, 1821–
“John Williams, a Negro man, a pretended Curaçoa.” No evidence of
freedom produced. Sold from Workhouse in January.
In the parish of Port Royal.—“Joseph Franks, a black, com-
mitted as a run-away 9th October, 1821; ” sold for payment offees on
6th March, 1822, having no documents.
In the parish of Manchester.—“Eleanor Davison, committed July
22, 1824:” being able to produce no document whatever, or to adduce
any kind of proof of her freedom, was ordered to be sold, according
to law. i -
Such are the hardships to which even the ſrce of African de-
LECTURE II. 61
scent are exposed: and all who have any tinge of the Negro's skin
are under the ban. Though they have escaped from the galling
yoke, it has left its mark, which they are doomed perpetually to
wear. The curse of slavery pursues them, and ceases not to tor-
ment and afflict them, as long as any memento remains that
their ancestors were persecuted Africans. It is upon the enslaved
Negro that the full and central darkness of the eclipse rests;
but the free Black and Coloured population are all involved
in its penumbral shadows.
We shall now proceed to notice the moral evil, the sin and
iniquity, connected with our colonial slavery. It is as fruitful
of crime as it is of suffering. It is altogether a system of op-
pression, and cruelty, and injustice, in which virtue can find no
place, or in which, if any good can be found, it is in opposition
to its natural tendency.
First, if we regard its victims, what can be expected of
them 2 Destitute of all instruction, worked like brutes, and
punished more severely; crushed by the iron hand of oppression
into the very dust; having every thing to fear, and nothing to
hope for ; without any impelling motive but that of terror; with
scarcely any possibility of enjoyment but what arises from his
mere animal nature, what virtue can we look for in the poor
slave? If his appetites and passions are checked, it is not by
the operation of principle, but by the dread of corporeal
punishment. Can any thing manly or generous be expected
from those who are debased to the condition of brutes, who are
kept in a state of perpetual and abject servility? Can we sup-
pose that a very nice sense of justice will be entertained by
those who are constantly treated with injustice; who know it, and
feel it; who see the White man sin with impunity, and the Black
man often suffering without crime ! Can we be so unreasonable
as to look for undeviating honesty and integrity in those who
are conscious that they are the subjects of continued wrong,
inflicted by those whom they regard as so much their superiors
in knowledge? Are they not constantly taught by the conduct
62 I, ECTURES ON SLAVERY.
of White men, that power is right; and that, therefore, whatever
they are able to do with impunity they have a right to do? Must
they not feel that fraud and cunning are the only weapons with
which they can engage the White man and obtain any advan-
tage? Shall we then wonder, as we are told by all who
know the Negro character, that, in the midst of all their igno-
rance, there is a shrewdness which seems natural to them; that
the system of oppression under which they live cherishes the ha-
bits of falsehood and petty theft? Can purity and chastity exist in
such circumstances as theirs, where there is no protection of the
marriage union; where all are allowed to herd together as the
beasts of the field, and have, in the conduct of the White men,
so bad an example before their eyes? What means are used to
enlighten their minds or form their morals! Can any plant of
virtue vegetate without the light of knowledge and the culture
of instruction ? What are they suffered to know of Christianity,
but its outward forms; and what impressions must they receive
of it from their Christian masters ? Can they see any thing in
it which is attractive? What motives have they to embrace it?
Ignorant alike of the doctrines and the duties, the Divine con-
solations and the holy precepts of Christianity, they remain
Pagaas in a Christian land, without even an object of idolatrous
worship; “having no hope, and without God in the world.” Let
not, then, the abettors of slavery, who trample their fellow-crea-
tures beneath their feet, tell us, in their own justification, of the
degraded state, the abject minds, and the vices of the slaves: it
is upon the system which thus brutifies a human being, that the
reproach falls in all its bitterness.
But the evil does not rest here: it has a re-action, which
suffers neither the slave-owner nor his white dependents to escape
with impunity. Such is the constitution of things, that we cannot
inflict an injury without suffering from it ourselves. In doing
good we receive good: he who blesses another benefits himself;
but he who sins against his fellow-creature does his own soul a
grievous wrong. The oppressor is, in reality, in a worse con-
dition than the oppressed. If we rightly consider the case of
LECTURE II. 63
those who administer this system, the scenes to which they have
been familiarized from their infancy, the habits which they have
formed, the prejudices which they have acquired, and the in-
evitable tendency of unlimited power to corrupt the human
heart, we shall consider them as much the objects of pity, in a
moral estimate, as the poor Negro. “Perhaps it is,” says Mr.
Birkbeck, “in its depraving influence on the moral senses of both
slave and master that slavery is most deplorable. Brutal cruelty,
we may hope, is a rare and transient mischief; but the degrada-
tion of soul is universal. All America is now suffering in morals
through the baneful influence of Negro slavery partially tole-
rated, corrupting justice at the very source.”
Mr. Fearon declares, in his Sketches of America, that “the
existence of slavery in the United States has a most visible
effect on the national character. It necessarily brutalizes the
minds of the southern and western inhabitants; it lowers, indeed,
the tone of humane and correct feeling throughout the Union,
and imperceptibly contributes to the existence of that great
difference which there exists between theory and practice”.”
Mr. Jefferson, quoted by Lieutenant F. Hall in his “Travels
in Canada and the United States,” says, “There must, doubtless,
be an unhappy influence on the manners of the people, produced
by the existence of slavery among us. The whole commerce
between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most
boisterous passions; the most unremitting despotism on the one
part, and degrading submission on the other. Our children see
this, and learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal. The
parent storms; the child looks on, catches the lineaments of
wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives
loose to the worst of passions; and, thus nursed, educated, and
daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with
odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy who can
retain his morals and manners undepraved in such circum-
stances tº.”
* PP. 378, 379. tº † Notes, p. 241.
64 LECTUR. ES ON SLAVERY.
Who, indeed, with a knowledge of the human heart, could
consider the peculiar character of modern slavery, independently
of the facts which have been adduced, but must come to the con-
clusion that its influence on the moral character is most permicious,
and its tendency unequivocally demoralizing : To have an ab-
solute possession of a hundred or a thousand human beings; to
work them, punish them, dispose of them, as the owner lists; to
have them trembling at his frown, crouching beneath his power,
subservient to all his wishes, is more than human nature can
endure without serious injury: in such circumstances I would
not trust even a Howard or a Wilberforce. It must minister to
some of the worst propensities of human nature: selfishness,
pride, haughtiness, anger, revenge, a spirit of domination that
cannot brook restraint and must not be crossed, seem to be its
necessary results.
How can a correct sense of justice be maintained in the mind
of a man who invades the natural rights of his fellow-men, claims
them and theirs as his property, and treats them like his cattle 7.
Must it not tend to destroy in a considerable measure the cha-
rities of our nature—at least greatly to impair those sensibilities
and sympathetic affections which render us alive to the pleasures
and the pains of our fellow-creatures: By being familiarized to
scenes which at first shock us, we cease to feel; and by the re-
petition of acts which for a time offend our conscience, even our
conscience may become “seared as with a hot iron.”
In a voluptuous climate, in a state of society in which but
little regard is paid to marriage, in which the utmost subser-
viency is exacted, on the severest penalties, from every slave,
male and female, is it not likely that sensual indulgences will
prevail at the expense of virtue!
Is there any reason to conclude, that where, by universal con-
sent, the sacredness of that day is violated which Christianity con-
secrates to Divine worship and religious instruction, religion it-
self can be much regarded ?
Such would naturally be the reasonings, a priori, of any con-
siderate mind, when reflecting on the tendencies of our slave
LECTU R E II. 65
system; and the conclusions to which they would lead us are
supported by the testimony of enlightened and impartial men, and
by the admissions even of those who are averse to its abolition.
Mr. Edwards, who in his History advances every thing
which can extenuate the evils of West-Indian slavery, observes,
that “it very frequently happens that the lowest white person,
considering himself as greatly superior to the richest and best
educated free man of colour, will disdaim to associate with a
person of the latter description; treating him as the Egyptians
treated the Israelites, with whom they held it an abomination
to eat bread”.” -
The Rev. R. Bickell affirms, that, “such is the pride and
jealousy of the colonists against any having the least tinge in
them, that, however worthy, wealthy, or well-educated they may
be, the males are deprived of most privileges, and shut out from
all trusts and offices; and the females, however fair and chaste they
may be (for many of them are as fair and chaste as the white
women, and particularly, as to the latter, those who have been
educated in Britain), are not allowed to marry the lowest white
man: at least, if a white man were to marry one of them he
would be scouted and persecuted as a thief and a vagabond, and
shunned as though he were a monster, or would infect them with
the plague ‘F.” º
Mr. Stewart says, “Wherever slavery exists there must be
many things attending it unfavourable to the improvement of the
minds and manners of the people : arbitrary habits are acquired ;
irritation and violent passions are engendered, partly, indeed, by
the perverseness of the slaves; and the feelings are gradually
blunted by the constant exercise of a too unrestrained power,
and the scenes to which it is continually giving birth.”—“Human
nature is shaped and governed by the force of early habits and
of example. The very children, in some families, are so used to
* “History of the West Indies,” vol. ii. p. 20, ed. 1793.
+ “West Indies as they are,” pp. 113, 114. In the Appendix, Note 17, Mr.
B. gives some striking instances of the most insufferable pride and haughtiness
of this kind.
IS
66 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
see or hear the Negro servants whipped for the offences they
commit, that it becomes a sort of amusement to them *.”
What can shew in a more striking manner the lamentable
tendency of slavery to harden the heart, and to suppress the
benevolent feelings, than its effect on the female character? In
the gentler sex we naturally look for all that is kind and
compassionate. If the charities of our nature are not enthroned
in the heart of woman, where shall we look for them : A kind
and tender-hearted compassion is identified with all our ideas of
feminine loveliness. This appears to be characteristic of the sex
in every part of the world, whatever colour happens to tinge the
skin. More than once was Mr. Park, the African traveller,
indebted to the humane sympathies of Negro females, for food,
and shelter, and every hospitality, when in a land of strangers.
But nothing, it seems, can withstand the hardening tendency of
slavery. We do not wonder to hear frequently of men who,
though when first they beheld the miseries of the enslaved Negro
they were horrified, become by degrees so accustomed to these
things as to lose all feeling; when even females are rendered so
totally indifferent, through habit, to the sufferings of their slaves,
as not only to be reconciled to them, but to take an active part
in their infliction. Mr. Stewart remarks, that “it unfortunately
happens that the females, as well as the males, are too apt to
contract domineering and harsh ideas with respect to their
slaves; ideas ill suited to the natural softness and humanity of
the female heart.” And, alluding to the punishment of slaves
in the presence of children, he adds, “Such inflictions may in
time be viewed with a sort of savage gratification: in the males
it may produce brutality of mind; and in the females, to say the
least of it, an insensibility of human misery and a cold contem-
plation of its distresses.”—“Such is the power of habit over the
heart, that the woman accustomed to the exercise of severity
soon loses all the natural softness of her sex f.”
—r
# “ View of the past and present State of the Island of J amaica,” p. 170.
t Ibid, pp. 171, 172.
LECTURE II. 67
.The following fact is related on the authority of Captain W.
F. Owen of the Royal Navy”.- .
When his Majesty's ships, the Leven and the Barracouta, em-
ployed in surveying the coasts of Africa, were at Mozambique
in 1823, the officers were introduced to the family of Senor
Manuel Pedro d'Almeydra, a native of Portugal, who was a con-
siderable merchant settled on that coast; and it was an opinion
agreed in by all, that Donna Sophia d’Almeydra was the most
superior woman they had seen since they had left England.
Captain Owen, the leader of the expedition, expressing to Senor
d'Almeydra his detestation of slavery, the Senor replied, “You
will not be long here before you change your sentiments. Look
at my Sophia there. Before she would marry me, she made me
promise that I should give up the slave trade. When we first
settled at Mozambique, she was continually interceding for the
slaves, and she constantly wept when I punished them: and now
she is among the slaves from morning to night; she regulates
the whole of my slave establishment; she inquires into every
offence committed by them, pronounces sentence upon the of
fender, and stands by and sees him punished.”
In the report of the Fiscal of Berbice, the name of a lady stands
prominent for the cruelties of which her slaves complain: in the
Bahamas, the wife of a slave owner was convicted of a series of
barbarities which terminated in the death of an unhappy being
of her own sex : and in the Mauritius, cruelties almost surpass-
ing belief were perpetrated by a Madame Nayle, on the person
of a female slave, who expired under the hands of her tormentorst.
The licentiousness of manners which prevails in the slave co-
lonies, and which obviously arises from the system, appears,
by the testimony of men of all parties, who have had oppor-
tunity of personal observation, to be beyond dispute. What
else originated the People of Colour, as the marriage of a White
-------º
.* Anti-Slavery Reporter, No. 32, pp. 171, 172. - -- . . .
+ This last case, with several others of atrocious cruelty, the Editor of the
Anti-Slavery Reporter states on the authority of informants who are willing, if it
should be deemed necessary, to come forward with their names. No. 44, pp.
391, 392. ‘. . . . . .
6S LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
man to one of the Negro race is hardly known 2. But if the whites
think that marriage with blacks, or even with persons of colour,
is so infamous, they do not think it at all dishonourable to live with
them in open and lawless concubinage : this is practised, says
the Historian of the West Indies, “by white men of all ranks or
conditions.” “The fact is too notorious to be concealed or con-
troverted *.” Dr. Williamson too, who resided several years
on an estate belonging to the Earl of Harewood in Jamaica,
though an apologist for the system, makes the same admissions.
Speaking of the reckless licentiousness of the Negroes, he adds,
“And the truth requires that it should not be concealed, the
Whites on estates follow the same habits, on many occasions, to a
greater extent-f.” Mr. Stewart speaks in terms equally strong
of “the most gross and open licentiousness” which “prevails
among all ranks of the Whitesi.”
The Rev. R. Bickell observes, that “It is a well known and
notorious fact, that very few of the white men in the West
Indies marry, except a few professional men, and some few
merchants in the towns, and here and there, in the country, a
proprietor or large attorney. Most of the merchants and shop-
keepers in the towns, and the whole of the deputy planters (viz.
overseers) in all parts of the country, have what is called a
housekeeper, who is their concubine, or mistress, and is generally
a free woman of colour; but the book-keepers, who are too
poor and too dependent to have any kind of establishment,
generally take some mulatto or black female slave from the
estate where they are employed, or live in a more general state
of licentiousness. This is so very common a vice, and so far
* “Edwards's History of the West Indies,” book IV. chap. i.
t The Doctor adds, “Black or Brown mistresses are considered necessary
appendages to every establishment: even a young book-keeper, coming from
Europe, is generally instructed to provide himself; and however repugnant may
seem the idea at first, his scruples are overcome; he conforms to general custom.”
See “Medical and Miscellaneous Observations relative to the West India
Islands, by T. Williamson, M.D.” vol. i. p. 49.
f “Past and present State of Jamaica,” p. 173. “Every unmarried white
man, and of every class, has his black or brown mistress, with whom he lives
openly.” -
LECTURE II. 69
from being accounted scandalous, that it is looked upon by
every person as a matter of course; and if a newly married
young man happens to have brought a few moral or religious
ideas with him from Great Britain, he is soon deprived of them
by taunt and ridicule, and is in a short time unblushingly amal-
gamated into the common mass of hardened and barefaced
licentiousness *.”
The white ladies are, indeed, exempted from this general
charge; but what must be the state of society and the tone of
morals, when all this open profligacy has not the least tendency
to lower a man's character, even in the estimation of females of
respectability “If a gentleman pays his addresses to a lady, it
is not thought necessary, as a homage to her delicacy, to get
rid, a priori, of his illicit establishment; nor is the lady so
unreasonable as to expect such a sacrifice.”—“But the most
striking proof of the low estimate of moral and religious obliga-
tion here, is the fact that the man who lives in open adultery—
that is, who keeps his brown or black mistress, in the very face
of his wife and family, and of the community—has generally as
much outward respect shewn him, and is as much countenanced,
visited, and received into company, especially if he be a man of
some weight and influence in the community, as if he had been
guilty of no breach of decency or dereliction of moral duty-f.”
After such statements, we are fully prepared for the informa-
tion, that there exists a very general inattention to the duties of
religion, and that Christianity is little better than a name. We
have, indeed, much to deplore in our own country; but we are
thankful that Sabbath breaking is not an act of necessity; that
Sunday markets are not universal, and established by law. “A
great market,” says Dr. Williamson, “is kept for the Negroes”
(he is speaking of the manner in which Sunday is spent), “which
is, in truth, also a market for the Whites. The merchants attend
at their stores and counting-houses.” “Where the Sabbath is
* “West Indies as they are,” pp. 104, 105.
f “Past and present State of Jamaica,” by Mr. Stewart, pp. 174, 175.
70 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
violated, the manners of the mass of people are vicious, regard-
less of every commendable principle, and afford examples of
human depravity which, it is with reluctance I must say, is too
applicable to that country” (i. e. Jamaica). “It must be ad-
mitted that the means of religious instruction to Negroes
in Jamaica are yet extremely defective; and it is still more
painful to add, that the White inhabitants are culpably inattentive
to public religious duties. It were well if that were all. Con-
tempt for religion is openly avowed by a great proportion of those
to be met with in that country “.”
The author of the “Past and present State of Jamaica.” fully
corroborates this view. He speaks of “the gross immorality
which too generally prevails among all ranks-f.” “In the towns
a more genteel society is to be found than on the plantations;
but the state of morals is much the same : and as to the respect
paid to religion, it will be sufficient to say, that, with a very few
exceptions, the congregations in the churches consist usually of
a few White ladies, and a respectable proportion of free People
of Colour and Blacks f.” “Very few of the slaves have it in
their power to attend church : they are either in attendance on
their owners, or their time is occupied in a necessary attention
to their own affairs : for Sunday is not a day of rest and relaxa-
tion to the plantation slave ; he must work on that day, or
starve $.” And, speaking of those who engage in the planting
line, though they may have received the most respectable edu-
cation, they “are too prone to contract depraved habits from the
example and conversation of those with whom they are too often
obliged to associate. They are, indeed, not in a situation to
foster and maintain the principles and opinions in which they
have been educated. The Sabbath is as any other day to them;
not a day of rest and religious observance, but one made up of
a mixture of toil and amusement; and when they look round and
see the universal licentiousness that prevails, they are too apt to
lose the sense of moral distinctions ||.”
* “Medical and Miscellaneous Observations on the West India Islands.”
+ P. 170. f P. 182. § P. 151. || P. 181.
LECTURE II. 71
If it were necessary to adduce any further testimony, we might
refer to Mr. Bickell, who, as a pious clergyman, felt particular
interest in the religious state of the colony in which he resided,
made it the subject of much inquiry, and had every opportunity
of forming a correct judgment on this point. His statements,
in the Second Part of the work from which we have already made
several quotations, and which goes considerably into detail on
this topic, fully corroborate all that has been already advanced *.
The evils, therefore, of this system, in a moral point of view,
affect not only the slave but the slave-owner: it spreads a con-
tagion from which but few escape who come within its reach.
We cannot but conclude, in the language of Mr. Stewart, that,
“ doubtless, there is in the very nature of slavery, in its mildest
form, something unfavourable to the cultivation of moral feel-
ing +.” And as we have shewn that it is in a form far from being
mild that it exists in our colonies, we perceive the truth of the
dying testimony of one who fell a victim to its vices, and who, to
a question put to him a few minutes before his execution, by
a clergyman that attended him, replied, “Sir, slavery is a bad
system; it is even worse for the masters than it is for the
slavesi.”
But to take a complete view of all the moral mischief which
slavery has produced, we must look to Africa. The slave trade
is but the child of slavery: and what a scene of almost unvarying
horror has this occasioned for ages along many hundreds of
miles of the western coast of Africa, and considerably in the in-
terior also? Bodily suffering and mental anguish have not been
the only injuries which it has inflicted: it has excited perpetual
wars; encouraged robbery and murder on every scale, from the
forces which a prince could command to the individual ruffian
and kidnapper: it has converted the administration of justice
into an engine for the safe commission of crime, and multiplied
_* “West Indies as they are:” Part II. on the Sabbath, Religion, Morality,
Marriages, &c. -
t “View of the past and present State of Jamaica,” p. 181.
f “Anti-Slavery Reporter,” No. 32, p. 173.
72 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
to an enormous extent the means of offence to the great Creator,
and of violence and wrong to his creatures +.
From a commercial intercourse with Europe—enlightened,
Christianized Europe—what advantages might not Africa have
expected | But what has she obtained : Her civilization has
been retarded, her morality corrupted, her sense of justice ex-
tinguished, and her crimes multiplied; she has been encouraged
in robbery and violence and fraud, by men calling themselves
Christians; she has been taught to hate and despise the religion
of White men. -
Tell us not that we are unjustly charging the system with evils
for which, now that England has abolished the slave trade, it is
no longer accountable. How were the millions of slaves pro-
cured that have been transported to our colonies? Or how were
the scanty residue of them, the 800,000, obtained, who are now
groaning in bondage? Have the evils which slavery originated
in Africa ceased to exist? The innumerable mischiefs which it
has produced have stamped it with a stain so foul and deep,
as to dishonour all who are connected with it, to disgrace the
individual who becomes its advocate, and to consign it to the
everlasting reprobation of all the friends of God and man.
In noticing the multifarious evils of this system, we must not
omit those which are of a political nature. On this part of the
subject I shall but briefly dwell. Our remarks on the various
evils of slavery have already extended to a length which was not
anticipated; and I freely confess that political economy and the
mysteries of commerce have not been my favourite studies. It
might be supposed, that to reconcile the British people to the
continuance of a system so pregnant with evil, entailing so much
misery, and leading to so much crime, there must be some im-
portant national advantages resulting from it. This, however,
does not appear to be the case. The colonists are, indeed, loud
in their assertions of the great benefits which the mother country
* See the Abstract of Evidence before the House of Commons, and Mr.
Clarkson's “Cries of Africa.”
LECTURE II. 73
receives from these colonies—such as, the employment of our
commercial industry and capital, the large accessions of our
annual income by the duties on colonial produce, the employ-
ment of our shipping, and the nursery which it forms for the
navy. But it does not appear that there is any national advantage
which arises from this system which would not be equally secured
if it were altogether abolished; and certainly there are some
serious disadvantages with which it must always be attended.
Some may derive a gain from the continuance of this iniquitous
system; but if a few fill their coffers from the uncompensated
toils of the enslaved Negro, the nation in general suffers.
That our slave colonies are maintained at a vast expense, no
one will attempt to deny; and that this is an expense, if not en-
tirely created, yet most materially increased, by the slave system,
must be obvious to every considerate mind. Even during a time
of peace, the cost is very considerable. How is it, it may well be
asked, that 800,000 Blacks allow themselves to be ground down
in oppression by a mere handful of Whites? It is because a
military force from England keeps them in awe; because if,
goaded to madness by insufferable wrongs, and weary of injus-
tice and oppression, they assert their right to freedom, they are
met by the convincing arguments of English balls and bayonets,
and have their complaints silenced by the roar of artillery. Our
peace establishment for these colonies appears to be upwards of
two millions annually—and that at a time when the nation is
groaning beneath the waight of taxation. A very able writer
concludes, after a careful and sober estimate, that “the actual
amount wrung in taxes from our distressed population for the
direct maintenance of slavery is 2,195,804l.”
What, then, must be the expenditure in maintaining these
colonies in war, when the jealous policy of the slave-owners fears
to entrust any portion of their defence to the oppressed slaves,
and when their terrors of insurrection are multiplied by the pro-
bability of the descent of an enemy on their coast; especially
since an empire of free Blacks, who have broken their chains,
is seen increasing in wealth and power among the West-India
L
74 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
islands ! For what purpose was it, but to uphold the slave
system, that those armaments were fitted out which helped to drain
the British treasury in the fruitless attacks on St. Domingo? It
has been calculated that one hundred and fifty millions were in
the course of twenty years added to the National Debt by this
kind of expenditure in the West Indies *, for which we are
now compelled to pay interest in taxes. -
But this is not all the expense which slavery costs the British
nation. Such, it appears, is the deterioration of the soil, owing
in a great measure to the employment of slaves instead of cattle,
and the consequent deficiency of manure; such is the disadvan-
tage of slave cultivation, when compared with that of free labour:#;
that this system would of itself fall, if it were not artificially main-
tained. The West-India body are ever wearying Parliament for
assistance and protection to keep up their monopoly; and are
constantly declaring that they cannot come into competition in
any other than the home market; and, by their Parliamentary
influence, they have succeeded in obtaining such commercial re-
gulations as raise the price of their own produce at the public
expense, by imposing heavy additional duties on the produce of
all other countries. Thus the British people are made to pay for
the support of slavery, and to remunerate the slave proprietors
for continuing a system which they abhor. It is calculated that
we are paying, in bounties, and in the effect of protecting duties,
upwards of a million and a half annually , and that several hun-
dreds a year of the public money are, on an average, put into
the pockets of every planter §: thus a subsidy is actually given
by the British nation for the maintenance of slavery.
But there is also an expenditure of another kind, which is not
frequently taken into the account, a most distressing loss of
* See “England enslaved by her own Slave Colonies,” by J. Stephen, Esq.
§. 45, &c., where Mr. Stephen gives reasons for this estimate, in reply to Mr.
acqueen.
+ “ Relief for West-Indian Distress,” by James Cropper, pp. 21, 22, &c.;
and “A Letter to M. Jean-Baptiste Say, on the comparative Expense of Free
and Slave Labour,” passim.
f “Anti-Slavery Reporter,” No. 57, p. 180.
§ “Anti-Slavery Reporter,” No. 22, p. 316, note.
LECTUR E II. 75
human life. Such is the unhealthiness of the climate, and the
dreadful ravages of disease to which Europeans are exposed in
the West Indies, that but a small proportion of our soldiers who
go on this service ever return. And when, in addition to the
mortality of our own colonies, that ill-fated attempt to reduce the
Blacks of St. Domingo to the slavery from which they had eman-
cipated themselves was made, the victims of disease exceeded
6,000 in five months; so that in that single island, if these five
months were a fair average, no less than 36,000 lives were lost
by disease alone!” Were it not for the terror with which this
system inspires the slave-holders—for a dread of retaliation
of African wrongs perpetually haunts them—Black soldiers
might be employed as their defenders in time of war; and in
peace the lives of Europeans need not, in such frightful numbers,
be sacrificed to the unhealthiness of the climate, in order to keep
an enslaved population in awe.—Some idea may be formed of
the perilous nature of the West-India service by the following
instances, quoted by Mr. Stephen, taken principally from the
public papers. “In 1819, two regiments went to Jamaica, said
to contain together nearly, or quite, 1,500 men: in two months
after their arrival they lost 600;” and “ the loss had extended
to about 800 within the same year.” In Tobago, in 1820, a fever
reduced a garrison of “nearly 200 to 80 men.” In Dominica,
November 9th 1822, it is stated, that out of 137 soldiers, who
landed there in the month preceding, only the “ colonel,” a
“captain,” an “ensign,” and “eleven privates, were free from
the attack, all the rest being either dead or in the hospital.” In
1825, it appears that “in Jamaica, in the course of eight months,
one regiment out of five (in numbers) fell victims to the fever of
that country +.”
During the wars subsequent to the French Revolution, a
Black corps was raised in the West Indies by a British General,
notwithstanding the opposition of the colonists, and, it is said,
“acted in both the wars in a way that did them honour as sol-
diers f.” In the tabular view of the mortality of the troops in
* “England enslaved by her own Slave Colonies,” by J. Stephen, Esq. p. 53.
t Ibid. pp. 54, 55, and notes, i Ibid. p. 57.
76 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
the West Indies from disease alone, appended to the pamphlet
of Mr. Stephen, including seven years from 1796, it may be seen,
that the average loss by death in our European corps, exclusive of
losses in action, was no less than twenty-one and a half per cent.
per annum, while in the Black corps it was only five and three
quarters per cent. “This most lamentable of all evils,” says the
author just alluded to, “entailed on us by our sugar colonies
(the guilt and shame of maintaining their interior system alone
excepted), is pre-eminently, I repeat, chargeable on that system,
and on their bigoted adherence to it; because it is their conse-
quent imbecility, together with their aversion to Black corps, the
only troops fit for the climate, that alone makes it necessary to
maintain European garrisons for their defence; though that new
... scourge from Heaven, the yellow fever, most remarkably and
universally spares the African race, while British soldiers and
seamen are its chosen victims. The destroying angel made not
a more entire and accurate distinction between the enslaved
Israelites and their Egyptian masters *.” It seems, then, that
in the course of one generation we have paid for the preser-
vation of West-India property as much as it is all worth; and
that “one British soldier or seaman, at the least, in the prime of
life, has fallen a victim to the deathful service of the West Indies,
for every White man, woman, and child that all our sugar colo-
nies collectively contain +.”
Nor have our commercial and manufacturing interests escaped
the mischiefs of this system. Had it not been for our colonial
slavery, how vast would have been the field for commercial enter-
prise which Africa would have afforded ? All along that vast
extent of coast which the slave trade has rendered more barba-
rous than those parts of the country which never saw a European,
civilization might have been advanced, by an intercourse with
more enlightened nations. The capabilities of this part of Africa
are immeasurable: a productive soil, an immense population,
large rivers, commodious harbours, its proximity to Europe—all
shew what it might have been, had its advantages been improved
-*
* “England enslaved,” &c. p. 55. + Ibid., p. 59.
LECTURE II. 77
to the purposes of lawful intercourse, instead of being demoralized
and wasted and ruined by that iniquitous system, which blights
and withers whatever it touches. All the commodities of a tro-
pical climate might have been received in exchange for our
manufactures; Africa would have been enlightened, and perhaps
christianized, and Europe been enriched. It is impossible to
estimate the loss which, in this respect, slavery has occasioned.
We have also parted with immense advantages, which would
have arisen from the friendship and commerce of the new empire
of Hayti. After the sacrifice of tens of thousands of our men,
and many millions of our money, to rivet again the chains of
slavery on the Blacks of St. Domingo, when they had accom-
plished their freedom by a complete triumph over British
bravery and French tyranny, they would have purchased the
friendly intercourse of Britain at almost any price: but, in
accordance with the prejudices of the slave colonies, we perti-
naciously resisted every friendly overture; treated the rising
empire with more than a studied neglect, with a marked disdain;
till at length we threw it into the arms of France, with a hundred
and fifty millions of livres as the price of her friendship ; lost for
ever the advantages of having the alliance and commerce of
Hayti; and, in the event of another war with France, exposed
Jamaica at least, if not the other islands, to the most imminent
peril. ".
The “citadel of the Antilles” (i. e. the large island of St.
Domingo) “might,” says the gentleman who has promised to
the world a history of that island, “have been the bulwark of
Jamaica; but now it will be a place of arms and an enormous
ever-teeming barrack for their enemies. Woe to the British
regiments when we next draw the sword | Twice ten thousand
inglorious graves await them in Jamaica. Meantime, let us
place to the account of our slave colonies the loss of a commerce
of vast importance to our merchants, our manufacturers, and our
ship-owners, and capable of an indefinite increase. For those
colonies, and by their baneful influence, we sunk many millions
to reclaim the Haytians into slavery ; for them and their
78 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
gratification, we have cast away the compensation which the folly
and crimes of Buonaparte would have given us. France, not
England, will have the indemnities for the past: England, not
France, will have the dangers and mischiefs of the future.
While we are paying the interest of a debt, probably amounting
to eighty millions or more, contracted for the St. Domingo war,
the French proprietors, whose crimes and insanity we abetted,
are receiving by our gift many millions of livres per annum.
For the sake of slavery, we sinned, and bled, and squandered
And for the sake of slavery we have rejected that reparation
which fortune, in spite of our folly, had placed within our
grasp *.”
By the same system our trade to the East Indies is ob-
structed, and our manufactures at home considerably affected.
On every article imported from the East, or any other place,
which our slave colonies can furnish, such an additional duty is
laid as either to exclude it entirely from the market, or, by
raising its price, to diminish its consumption. A duty of 10l.
per ton more (being fifty per cent. on the prime cost) is laid on
East than on West India sugar : 28l. per ton more is laid on
East than on West India coffee. So on cotton, wool, rum, cocoa,
and other articles—such as dye-woods, mahogany, hides, &c.
there are higher duties. And yet, with these disadvantages,
since our trade with India has been partially opened, both our
exports and imports have largely increased; and, from the im-
mense population of the East, our trade with it, if unnecessary
restrictions were removed, would admit of an indefinite exten-
sion. It appears, that from the time when this partial opening
of the trade took place, in 1815, the exports and imports have
been greatly augmented. In cotton goods the increase has been
astonishing. In 1814 it is stated that the export of cotton
goods to India was 213,408 yards of plain, and 604,800 yards
of printed : in 1826 it had increased to 16,000,601 yards of
* “England enslaved by her own Slaves Colonies,” by J. Stephen, Esq., pp.
29, 30. The whole of the statement relative to our conduct towards St.
Domingo, from p. 18 to 30, is well worth an attentive perusal.
LECTURE II. 79
plain, and 10,218,502 yards of printed; the quantity of plain
cottons being seventy-five times as much as in 1814. Could we,
therefore, by the equalization of the duties, take the sugar and
other produce of the East in return for our manufactures, the
price of sugar would be lowered, its consumption increased, the
revenue benefited, and a greater number of our half-famished
workmen would be employed, and prevented from seeking in a
foreign land that sustenance which their native country denies.
I shall now close this lecture with very briefly noticing one
more view of British slavery, which partakes, indeed, both of
a moral and political character; I mean, the national guilt
connected with the continuance of such a monstrous system of
evil.
There is One, who is the Creator of the black man and the white,
and who is “no respecter of persons.” His glance surveys the
universe, His eye witnesses every action, and in the book of His
remembrance is every deed recorded. He is just and merciful:
injustice and cruelty are as opposite to His character as darkness
to light. He weighs in the balances individuals and nations, and
will render to all according to their deeds. The punishments as
well as the rewards of individuals are reserved principally to a
future state ; but as no nation or state can appear as such be-
fore his bar, they are punished or rewarded in this life. National
guilt brought proud Babylon to the dust, destroyed commercial
Tyre, and annihilated the Jews as a nation, scattering them to
the four winds of heaven. In His estimation of guilt and applica-
tion of punishment, the advantages enjoyed are always taken into
the account. What, then, must be the guilt of Britain in main-
taining a system so iniquitous ! How long did she bear her part
in that horrid traffic which spread so much suffering and crime
on the coast of Africa! And still she retains in iron bondage the
helpless victims of that trade, which she now calls infamous. He
who sitteth in the heavens, the enemy of the oppressor, the re-
fuge of the oppressed and the avenger of his wrongs, has seen
all the horrors of the middle passage, has heard every groan that
has burst from the Negro's bosom in the place of his captivity,
S0 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
year after year, and age after age. Consider all the cruelty,
and injustice, and licentiousness, attending this system for such
a length of time; and all this upheld by a nation the most en-
lightened, the most evangelized, and in many respects the most
favoured, in the whole world! O how dark the spot, how deep
the stain of guilt that rests on Britain, and that will rest on her
as long as this system is maintained l—The national guilt which
is contracted by our thus upholding slavery is not to be reckoned
as one of its least evils.
Endeavour, then, to combine the whole in one view—to take in
the full idea of this mighty mass of evil, in all the sufferings of
mind and body which it inflicts, in all its brutalizing effects and
demoralizing tendencies on the slave and on his master, the
miseries which it entails on man, and the guilt which it incurs
in the sight of God, and you will have some conception of the
multiplied and horrifying EVILS of SLAVERY.
LECTU R ES ON S L A V E R Y. 81
LECTURE III.
BEFORE I proceed to the topic which is to be the principal point
of discussion in this lecture, I beg leave briefly to refer to that
which was last delivered, in order to notice the principal objec-
tions which are made against any strong representation of the
miseries of Negro slavery. From all who are interested in the
continuance of this cruel system, as deriving from it their gains,
and from all who on various accounts become its advocates *, it is
to be expected that an opposition will be made to every attempt
to expose its enormities; and the aim of such, of course, will be
to persuade the public, either that these evils do not exist, or at
* These are, in the first place, all the proprietors resident in England, and
all the planters abroad, with all their subordinate agents, from the book-keeper
to the great attorney; together with all the White men of the colonies who make
a profit of the system, and all who leave Europe to court the favours of fortune
in planting speculations. Next are those who have mortgages on estates and slaves
in the colonies, the number of which is considerable, whose capital is in whole
or in part embarked in this undertaking. There are, moreover, the merchants and
consignees connected with the colonies, with the tradesmen whom they em-
ploy: and to these may be added, for such are always to be found, those whose
talents are let out to hire, and who live by their pens. And so handsome has
been the remuneration which some of these champions of slavery have received,
that it is no wonder others should be tempted to start in the same lucrative career,
since it is well known, that, besides the munificence of Colonial Assemblies, the
West-India body at home possess a large fund, levied by a kind of tax on West-
India produce, to support their interests. We cannot be surprised, therefore,
that editors of newspapers and writers in periodicals should be co-workers with
those who bind the bonds of oppression on their fellow-men. There is also
another class of persons who come in as auxiliaries, who have incidentally visited
for a short season some of the colonies, and have partaken of the good cheer
of the planters, and have felt bound in honour to believe all that was told them
of their slaves' happiness, but who never were permitted to gaze on the naked
deformities of the system; and who, when they have returned home, as in duty
bound, have lauded the humanity of the planters to the skies, and with a wonder-
ful flippancy talked of the comforts and enjoyments of a plantation slave, as
though it were a truly enviable condition; while they may know no more of the
interior of the slave system than those who have been sitting at home at their
own fire-side, and not perhaps half as much as those who, having never set their
foot in these colonies, have had free access to documents furnished by the colo-
nists themselves. *-
M
82 LECTUREs on slav ERY.
least that slavery is not so bad a thing as it is generally repre-
sented and supposed to be ; so that if by this means they can
succeed in reconciling the nation to its continuance, or in pre-
venting the British people from demanding its abolition, their
object"will be accomplished. Let us examine the principal and
most plausible statements which are made with this view.
It has often been repeated, that the slaves in our colonies are
much better off than the peasantry of England or Ireland, or than
our poor manufacturers. I must confess I can scarcely hear
with calmness such an assertion. Is it not a sufficient reply, that
the colonial bondsman is a slave, the British labourer a free man?
Would the latter be willing to exchange conditions? This is a
fair test by which the truth of such an assertion may be tried, and
here I would be content to rest the whole merits of the case. I
would ask the poorest wretch that breathes the air of Britain,
who toils from morning to night for a scanty subsistence, and
beholds with agonizing distress his whole family pining in poverty,
for what consideration he would sell himself, the partner of his
misfortunes, and their half-famished offspring, with all their de-
scendants for ever, into perpetual bondage? For the market
price of a slave 3–For the most princely fortune which any slave-
holder possesses?—For the whole slave colonies themselves, with
all their wealth 7 No : he would reject the offer with disdain ;
he would consider the very proposal as an insult; he would
say, Give me poverty, and want, and all the ills of life, rather than
the everlasting bondage of me and mine.—Shame on the man,
who calls himself a Briton, and yet can for one moment compare
a West-Indian slave with a poor but free peasant of England!
But on what is the comparison founded? Is there not some-
thing deceptive and disengenuous in the very way in which the
statement is made? Is it meant, as it would seem to imply, that
the general condition of Negro slaves is better than that of the
English labourers? No such thing: few would have the hardi-
hood to make such an assertion. What does it then mean?
Why, that there are some slaves who happen to have a better
situation than others; who are fortunate enough to meet with
LECTURE III. 83
kind masters; who have better clothing and houses, and more to
eat and drink, than some of the most wretched and unemployed
labourers in England. That this may be the case in some in-
stances we admit; but that it is general we cannot for a moment
believe. The Rev. Mr. Bickell, who was an eye-witness, says,
“What can be more absurd, than to hear it constantly reiterated
that the Negroes in our colonies are better fed and better clothed
than the British peasantry? I have seen a good deal of the
state of the English poor, having served curacies in Somerset-
shire, Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire, and Wiltshire, besides
having an intimate acquaintance with Devonshire; and I can
conscientiously say, that I never saw any one, even a pauper,
who lived in the mean hoggish way that the slaves in the West
Indies do *.” The same respectable author proceeds with a
comparison of their clothing and their huts, and comes to a simi-
lar conclusion. -
And in point of labour, would our peasantry or manufacturers
gain by the exchange? What advantage could it be to them to
substitute, for the plough and the loom, the daily field-toil of the
Negro slave wielding the hoe, under a scorching sun, “steadily
coerced" by the driving whip, from the dawn of the morning to
the shadows of night, with scarcely time to cook and eat his coarse
vegetable mess? Or, if the men could support this fatigue,
whether weak or strong, would the females of the lower classes
be capable of enduring it? If even this were borne by our
labouring poor, how would they stand the season of crop, when,
in addition to the fatigues of the day, they are forced to toil three
nights in the week, or the half of every night?
But these are not the only circumstances to be taken into
the account, in estimating the comparative happiness of a man's
condition: he has other sources of pleasure and of pain besides
those which arise from his senses and appetites. Is he not
a rational, a social being : Has he not the common feelings of
* “West Indies as they are," pp. 56, 57.
84 LECTUREs on SLAVERY.
human nature? Has he no love for the mother of his children,
no yearnings of affection for his offspring : Why, then, speak
of him as a mere animal, and compare him only in those points
in which a brute can be equally as happy? Is the English la-
bourer or the Irish peasant driven to his work by the lash? Can
his employer at his pleasure lay him down and lacerate his naked
flesh with the cart-whip? Dares his master, or any of his dele-
gates, to insult his wife or daughter in his presence? And if he
should, in such a case, lift up his hand to defend them, is he
liable to death & Does he see them driven in the field like him-
self; and may the object of his tenderest affection be stripped in
the presence of the whole gang, and flogged “till the blood flies
out?” May his wife and children be seized, and sold by auction,
or by private sale, to meet him no more on this side the grave?
If he seek redress for his wrongs from a magistrate, does he
fear a tremendous flogging for complaining?—But I will not
pursue the odious comparison: such an assertion can only be
made artfully or ignorantly. To compare the condition of Negro
slaves generally with that of the labouring poor of Britain, is most
preposterous; it is an insult to common sense.
|But it is, again, said, that, with all the disadvantages of his
situation, the slave is contented and happy if left to himself. Let
the colonists furnish an answer to this. What do they mean by
so frequently talking of insurrections; and insinuating that per-
petual danger exists; and hinting at the dreadful consequences
of revolt? Why are they afraid to trust these contented and
happy people with arms, even to assist in the defence of the
islands ! Why must they need the awe which the presence of a
military force inspires, in order to keep them in this happy con-
dition? How is it that the colonial newspapers teem with adver-
tisements of run-away slaves? Are contented men accustomed
to run away from all their comfort and happiness, especially at
the risk of being hunted down, or sabred, or shot, if they sur-
render not to their pursuers, and, if they do surrender, of receiv-
ing a frightful punishment 2 Are the nocturnal stocks, the
LECT U R E III. 85
workhouse chain, the iron collar, the marks of the brand and
of the whip, indices of a contented and happy population ?
But if it could be proved that the slave is so perfectly con-
tented, in a condition of hopeless and helpless servitude, subject
to the completest despotism, placed entirely at the will and ca-
price of another, it would only prove the degrading, ruinous
tendency of the slave system; which, instead of raising the poor
Negro in the scale of being, and teaching him to feel and think
like a man, depresses him to the condition of a hound, that
remains faithful to his owner whatever be his fare, and frisks
and fawns, like a “contented and happy” dog, about the master
who feeds and who whips him.
The slave happy And what is the nature of his happiness :
Thus it is described by a slave-owner: “The improvident Negro,
far from pining in misery, dances and sleeps, trifles and dreams
away life, thoughtless, careless, and happily ignorant of his own
unprotected condition, and of the impotent fury of the laws.”
Little time, forsooth, has he for dancing and sleeping and
trifling ; and his day-dreams must often be of a very terrific
nature : but if in such a condition a man, endowed with the
feelings of human nature and the capabilities of a rational soul,
can “trifle and dream life away,” the more is he to be pitied.
But it is here conceded that his happiness arises from sheer
ignorance, from a brutal stupidity: it is only when he is “ left
to himself,” when he is “ignorant of his unprotected condition,”
and knows nothing of the “fury of the laws,” that he is happy.
And what a picture is here given of the felicity of a human
being, possessing a rational and immortal spirit! We perceive,
however, by this West-Indian view of slave happiness, the be-
nevolence of those who oppose the impartation of knowledge to
the Negro mind. Let not a ray of light fall on the mental
vision of a slave; let him know nothing of Christianity but a
few outward and lifeless forms; make him as stupid and thought-
less as a beast, with no reflection on the past, no care for the
future, no sense of wrongs, no idea of right, no care for his
soul, no knowledge that he has one ; and in this condition give
86 LEC'ſ U. RES ON SLA V ERY.
him enough to eat and drink, and allow him the indulgence of
his sensual appetites; and you have the model of a perfect slave,
in the very heaven of his enjoyment! -
But it is further said, that it is the interest of planters to use
their slaves well: and therefore, without any reference to a sense
of justice or to the feelings of humanity, the same principle
which is sufficient to induce a man to take care of his cattle
must operate in favour of the slave. That this species of selfish-
ness may, in the absence of higher motives, do something for the
poor slave, we readily admit ; but that it is a sufficient guarantee
for his comfort and general welfare we deny, for these reasons:
first, that this motive, where it exists, is not so uniform and
certain in its operation as to secure its object; and in the next
place, that there are cases where there is no room for its
operation, and where it may even act in direct opposition to the
welfare of the slave.
It is a man's interest, we know, to use his cattle well, and to
take care that those who work them treat them properly; but,
notwithstanding this, does not the brute creation groan under
the cruelties of man How many are injured through mere
wantonness' how many through thoughtlessness 1 and how
many a noble animal has been shamefully abused in a moment of
passion | Besides, the owners of cattle are not always with
them, and may even never see many of them; and men who
have no interest in them may have the care and the working of.
them. Certainly, in the opinion of our legislature, this motive
was not deemed sufficient, or why was an Act of Parliament
passed to prevent cruelty to animals' And for similar reasons
the interest of the slave-owner in his slaves is no sufficient
security against ill treatment. Thoughtlessness, wantonness,
inebriety, the ebullitions of anger, or that irritation which blinds
the mind even to a man's own interests, may work misery to the
slave—as in the case of the young gentleman, already mentioned,
who shot a slave for sport; or of Mr. and Mrs. Moss, for instance,
who by a series of cruelties destroyed a female who might long
have served them. It must also be remembered, that most of
LECTURE III. 87
the great proprietors live in England, and perhaps never see a
single slave that belongs to them : their estates are there
entrusted to attorneys, some of whom have a great many pro-
perties of this kind under their care, and generally receive
a per-centage on the produce. “These arrangements,” says a
respectable planter, “would not affect the comfort of the
Negroes, if the attorney took the same interest in them that the
proprietor must necessarily do but here matters become altered;
for the interest of the attorney is to make as much as possible
from the estate, and the Negroes become only a secondary
consideration.” This agent has the appointment of overseers,
and other subordinate officers, to whom the management of the
estate is left, with but few visits of inspection. “Another evil,”
observes the author just quoted, “arises from this system. The
overseers look up to this person for patronage, and seldom
trouble their heads about the proprietors: they study his interest
before that of the proprietors; and think more of making large
crops to benefit their employer, than they do of improving the
condition of the people *.”
But the interest of the master does not always run pa-
rallel with the slave's welfare. It may happen that circum-
stances may be such, that a degree of labour which is
destructive to the slave may enrich his owner; that the gains
arising from an extra effort, during a certain state of the
markets, may afford an ample indemnification for the loss of a
few Negroes, and the injury which the rest may receive. When
the cause to be tried is, the master’s gain against the slave's
comfort or life, there is great danger of a verdict against the
slave: at least, as far as self-interest is concerned, it makes
against him. And when it is further considered, that many of
the slave estates are held in trust, or on life interest, or on other
uncertain tenures; that in the lottery of planting speculations
much of this kind of property is perpetually changing hands;
that often a planter may have to make a desperate struggle to
* “Notes on Jamaica, by Henry de la Beche, Esq.” p. 37.
SS LECTUR ES ON S L A V ERY.
retrieve his almost ruined affairs, or to prevent, at any risk
which may afford the chance of saving him, the impending
catastrophe; it will be obvious that the interest of the master
and the welfare of the slave may frequently be placed in dread-
ful competition.
In fine: the advocates of emancipation are often charged with
giving an exaggerated account of the evils of slavery. That
every slave does not suffer all the evils to which his condition
exposes him, that some masters and managers are more humane
and considerate than others, we have already admitted ; but that
our colonial slavery works in a manner most pernicious to the
comfort and the life of the enslaved Negro, is evident from the
undeniable fact of the constant decrease of the slave population.
It appears that from 1818 to 1824, a period of six years, of the
eighteen West India colonies there was an increase in only
two ; in all the others a decrease: so that, on the whole, there
was an actual decrease, after deducting the manumissions, of
full twenty-eight thousand 1 + There must, then, be some cause
constantly and fatally at work thus to counteract the laws of
nature. Among the most miserable of our population there is
a continued increase—those very people who, the colonists
would have us believe, are so much worse off in every respect
than their slaves. In every condition, except that of slavery in
our colonies, the Negroes, who are known to be a prolific
race, multiply: the Maroons of Jamaica increase ; the free
Blacks of the various colonies increase; St. Domingo has, it is
said, in about twenty years doubled its population. The con-
clusion, therefore, is inevitable, there must be some peculiarity
in the slave system to produce this waste of life: their labour
must be excessive, their food scanty, or their treatment severe;
some or all of these causes must exist to occasion this decrease.
In the Anti-Slavery Reporter, No. 54, are given the names
of eleven most respectable proprietors in Jamaica, whose slaves,
taken together, amounted in 1824 to 10,204 ; where, it may be
+ Anti-Slavery Reporter, No. 26.
LECTURE 111. 89
presumed, the treatment is not worse than on other estates.
By returns made to the parish vestries on oath, the apparent
decrease, in two years ending March 1826, was 359: so that, at
this rate of mortality, in a little more than fifty-seven years the
whole would become extinct! And on all these estates, it seems,
the number of women is greater than that of the men. Re-
membering the increase of the Negroes in all other circum-
stances, it is impossible to account for this fact, on the supposition
that they are well fed, and moderately worked, and properly
treated. -
And, in conclusion, let it be observed that the charges ad-
vanced in the last Lecture were not founded on mere imagina-
tion; or on reports which, by circulation, received many touches
and alterations, till truth itself became caricatured ; but on the
testimony of eye-witnesses of respectability, on the representa-
tion of planters, on the publication of their own gazettes, and
on the official returns made by order of Parliament. If our
description of slavery be deeply coloured and strongly drawn,
those only are to be blamed who have furnished the picture, and
not those who hold it up to the abhorrence of all who love their
fellow-creatures, and who fear their Maker.
We shall now proceed to consider the unlawfulness of
Slavery. - -
A system productive of such consequences as those which we
have noticed, must have something in it which is essentially
wrong. A tree which bears such fruit cannot be good. It is a
rule applicable to systems as well as to men, “By their fruit ye
shall know them.” But, it may be said, the abuses of a system
are not to be charged upon it: Christianity has been abused,
and liberty has been abused, and the very administration of
justice has been abused; and what is there, however good and
lawful, which has not met with the same fate & But we shall
endeavour to shew that the evils of slavery are not merely inci-
dental—are not the abuses of what is in itself right and proper—
but that our colonial slavery is inherently, essentially, incurably
evil; that no modifications can destroy this its essential qua-
N
90 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
lity ; and that though its luxuriances may be pruned, and some of
its branches lopped off, the evil still remains, and will remain,
until the axe be laid at the root of the tree. - -
By Slavery I do not mean those restrictions of civil or reli-
gious liberty, which, however wrong and galling, cannot, but in
a highly figurative sense, be called slavery : nor do I mean that
restraint under which an offender is put for any term of years, or
even for his life (would that this punishment were more gene-
rally substituted for the death of the transgressor!); but I mean,
what the colonists contend for, a right and property in their
fellow-creatures, as goods and chattels; “a property in fee,”
to use Lord Seaford's words, in the flesh and blood of a human
being, and of all who may descend from him for ever. -
When I say that slavery is unlawful, I do not mean that
human enactments have not been made in its favour, but I do
mean that no human laws can make that “lawful and right”
which is essentially wrong, and which is contrary to the eternal
and immutable principles of justice. Nor can it be supposed
that I mean that it is unlawful to endure slavery ; its unlawfulness
consists in imposing it on others : it is the infliction, not the
unavoidable suffering, of an injury, which is wrong.
The practice of slavery in our colonies is a flagrant viola-
tion of the dearest natural rights of man.
There are certain advantages, which are necessary to the well-
being of man, and to the possession and enjoyment of which he is
by nature entitled, as being the gift of the Creator: these are
generally called the natural rights of man: consequently, to de-
prive him of the enjoyment of these would be the infliction of a
wrong, the commission of an act of injustice. Civil rights are
those which man possesses as a member of society; and which vary
according to the peculiar laws and institutions of each separate
community : but the natural rights of man are those which he
possesses by nature; which are common to all human beings,
and which are the same in every part of the world. The
“rights and liberties” of man, as a member of society, “are no
other,” says Blackstone, “than either that residuum of natural
LECT U R E I I I. 91
liberty which is not required by the laws of society to be sacri-
ficed to public convenience; or else those civil privileges which
society hath engaged to provide, in lieu of the natural liberties
so given up by individuals”.” The natural rights of man are,
according to Paley, “A man's right to his life, limbs, and
liberty ; his right to the produce of his personal labour; to the
use, in common with others, of air, light, water. If a thousand
different persons, from a thousand different corners of the world,
were cast together upon a desert island, they would from the
first be every one entitled to these rights-f.” The great
lawyer already quoted observes, that “The absolute rights of
man, considered as a free agent, endowed with discernment to
know good from evil, and with power of choosing those mea-
sures which appear to him most desirable, are usually summed
up in one general appellation, and denominated the natural
liberty of mankind. This natural liberty consists, properly, in a
power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or con-
troul, unless by the law of nature: being a right inherent in us
by birth, and one of the gifts of God to man at his creation,
when he endued him with the faculty of free will. But every
man, when he enters into society, gives up a part of his
natural liberty, as the price of so valuable a purchase; and, in
consideration of receiving the advantages of mutual commerce,
obliges himself to conform to those laws which the community
has thought proper to establish i.” -
These rights, then, are antecedent to all law, that is, to all
human enactments. Human laws may take them as their basis,
may define and regulate them ; but they do not create them and
cannot destroy them. “Those rights which God and nature
have established, and are therefore called natural rights—such as
are life and liberty—need not the aid of human laws to be more
effectually invested in every man than they are ; neither do they
* Blackstome's Commentaries on the Laws of England. Oxford edition,
1765, vol. i. p. 125.
+ Paley's Moral Philosophy, book ii. ch. 10.
j Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. i. p. 121.
92 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
receive any additional strength when declared by the municipal
laws to be inviolable. On the contrary, no human legislature
has power to abridge or destroy them, unless the owner himself
shall commit some act which amounts to a forfeiture *.” In a
state of society, it is obviously necessary that the exercise of these
rights should receive some restrictions. As we give up a portion
of the produce of our labour, to which we are naturally entitled,
to procure the more certain enjoyment of the rest; so we give
up a portion of that liberty, to which we have an equal claim,
that the rest may be better secured and more safely enjoyed.
The perfection of all human laws is, therefore, to guarantee to
all the greatest portion of their natural rights which is con-
sistent with the well-being of society. “The first and primary
end of all human laws is, to maintain and regulate these absolute
rights of individuals +.”
Man, then, it is admitted by the highest authorities, has rights
as the creature of God, as a rational and accountable being, for
the possession of which he is not indebted to others, and which no
fellow-creature is authorized to deprive him of; and were any
laws made to destroy them, those very laws would be criminal, as
sanctioning a manifest injustice, and being in direct opposition
to the laws of nature.
There are, however, two ways in which, with certain im-
portant limitations, these rights may be occasionally alienated—by
voluntary consent, and as a punishment for crime. -
A man may, for important reasons which appear to him to
justify the sacrifice, surrender the possession of some of his
rights, for a term of years, or for his life ; but there are limits
beyond which he is not authorized to go. For, first, the conces-
sion must include only himself: it cannot extend to others; it can-
not embrace his descendants, at least beyond the minority of his
own children. That contract cannot be binding by which a man
disposes of what he does not, and cannot, possess; it would be
neither more nor less than giving away or selling the property of
* Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. i. p. 54. + Ibid. p. 120.
LECTURE III. - 93
others: and he that, on the pretence of such a gift or purchase,
should take possession of it, would be guilty of robbery. Nor
can he make any such surrender of his rights as interferes with
his moral agency, or is inconsistent with his duty to God. His
responsibility cannot be made over to another; he may as well
talk of assigning over his interest in another world. No con-
tract can bind him to act contrary to his conscience, or, when
the commands of both are opposite, to obey man rather than
God. No engagement can be valid which prevents him from
seeking his highest happiness in this world and in that which is
to come, since this is the very end of his being. He cannot
assign to another the unrestricted use of his body and limbs, or,
which is the same, make them over as the property of another :
they must be his as long as he lives; he is responsible for the use
of them. He cannot give away his life: he is accountable to
God for this gift; from Him he received it, and only when He
calls for it has he any right to surrender it. -
But as a member of society, in that social compact which
binds together as one community all the individuals composing
a state, it is understood to be stipulated, that every person re-
tains his own rights, only on the condition of not violating those
of others. By that very act by which he injures the rights of
others, he forfeits his own, in that way, and to that extent, which
the laws of the community in which he lives may determine.
And here also there are restrictions to be observed. The forfeit
must not exceed the wrong committed; the reparation to society
must be such as justice sanctions, and the nature of the case re-
quires. The produce of the delinquent’s labour may be trans-
ferred to others; he may be deprived of his liberty; and, in the
administration of justice in most countries, the criminal, in some
cases, forfeits his life. Whether any individual or community
has just authority to proceed to this extremity, I confess I have
serious doubts; but certainly the punishment, of whatever kind
it be, must be confined to the transgressor, it must not alight on
the innocent: it would be subversive of all justice to extend it
94 LECTUR lºS ON SL A V E R Y.
to unborn children, by depriving them of rights which they never
forfeited.
Now apply these principles to our colonial slavery. The na-
tural rights of man do not depend on the colour of his skin, but +
on his possessing human nature, his being a rational and
accountable creature of God. And what has he done to alienate
those rights which are inherent in man : Has he made a con-
tract with the slave owner; has he voluntarily consigned himself,
his liberty and labour, to another ? This is not pretended. He
was made a slave, and is kept a slave, by force; it is at the peril
of his life that he attempts to snap a link of his chain, or loosen a
single rivet of his fetters. What crime has he perpetrated that
could justify so severe a doom, unless he be charged with the
commission of treason against the majesty of the white man, by
being born black? Whom has he murdered 2 where was the
scene of his robberies and burglaries? when was he tried ? and
who passed sentence upon him : He has been the sufferer, and
not the aggressor; and yet we behold him spoiled of his rights,
deprived of all that is dear to man. His liberty is not abridged
that it might be rendered more secure; but it is gone; not a shred
is left. The produce of his labour is not his own, his wife and
children are not his own, his property in his own body and limbs
is denied: his owner claims universal and unrestricted obedience.
He must not think for a moment whether what he is enjoined be
consistent with the will of God; he has nothing to do but with
the will of his master : he must not reflect on the morality of an
action—a slave must have no conscience 1 In fact, as far as
lawless power can go towards it, he is deprived of the essential
attributes of man: he is made a beast, with only so much of
reason allowed him as will enable him to work his master's plea-
sure. What spoliation, what robbery, what crime against pro-
perty, to which the laws of England assign the most dis-
graceful and dreadful punishment, can equal this? Think not
the language severe: I know of no term sufficiently strong to
express my abhorrence of a system which thus sacrifices the
L ECTUR E I I I. 95
most valuable interests, the dearest rights of man, to the lust of
wealth and the love of domination. But the right, as far as a
just title is concerned, still remains: every Negro in our colo-
nies is entitled to his liberty, his limbs, the produce of his la-
bour—to all the privileges of a man. He may be denied the
possession and enjoyment of these advantages, but the right to
possess and enjoy them cannot be taken from him. Not all the
cruel codes of the Antilles, nor the statutes of the British Par-
liament, nor the force employed to make the bonds of his servi-
tude firm, can extinguish it: and it will remain to condemn and
to execrate the system, till the genius of Britain shall redress
the Negro's wrongs, and proclaim freedom through all her co-
lonies. - . *
The patrons of slavery, however, attempt frequently to justify
it, or at least to rebut the charge of wrong and injustice, by deny-
ing all participation in the original act by which the Negroes
were deprived of freedom. Long and stoutly did the colonists
contend for the slave trade; its dreadful evils and its crying in-
justice were as much denied as those of slavery are now ; but
since the British legislature has abolished the nefarious trade,
and only other nations participate in its cruel gains, even the
planters are found joining in the hue and cry to hunt it down.
The slave trade, in which they no longer engage, they condemn
as iniquitous ; but slavery itself is just and right. What a mi-
serable fallacy is this We have already shewn, that, as to the
guilt incurred, they are both identified. The slave trade is
felonious ; and it was just as much so before the British Parlia-
ment pronounced it felony as since : it is one of those crimes
which are styled mala in se, “which acquire no additional turpi-
tude by being declared unlawful by a human legislature *.” But
if it be felonious to make men slaves, is it less so to keep them
slaves, and to make all their children slaves : If it be wrong to
commit a theft, can it be right to retain the stolen property :
The slave trade was only the creature of slavery, and in some
respects was the less evil of the two, as the agent is deemed less
* Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. i. p. 54.
96 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
guilty than the principal. The rule holds here, Qui facit per
alium facit per se. The retaining of them in bondage is but a
continuation of the first outrage. If it is wrong to imprison a
man falsely, can his detention be less than an aggravation of
the injury : If, therefore, the first act was robbery and injustice,
it vitiates the whole tenure of possession : if the Negro was
unjustly consigned to bondage, then he and his posterity are
suffering wrong as long as this bondage continues, and a wrong
which is accumulating, instead of diminishing, by the course of
years. Right and wrong, justice and injustice, are so essentially
different, that no length of time can convert the one into the
other. If the first act, by which they were torn from their native
land and deprived of all their rights, was unjust, the perpetua-
tion of their wrongs can never become right—never—never.
But it has been said, in apology for the system, that the slaves
were originally captives taken in war, or criminals who had for-
feited their liberty to the justice of their country; and that, being
already in a state of slavery, the purchase was lawful, and the
transfer even beneficial to the unhappy beings; that it was, in
fact, an act of charity. But suppose they were all captives taken
in war, or criminals doomed to slavery; do we think that captives
are justly enslaved' that criminals, with their families and their
relatives, and all their descendants for ever, are justly consigned
to this wretched fate for some such crime as witchcraft, and on
such proof as that of the accused individual not being able to
drink poisoned water with impunity? Shall men, therefore, of
superior civilization, by purchasing those who are enslaved in this
manner, sanction these cruel deeds, and encourage the perpetra-
tors of them to proceed in such a course? Shall men who call
themselves Christians seal the doom of these unfortunate sufferers,
and, by keeping them in slavery, justify the barbarity which made
them slaves?
But the premises are not true : there is not even this pretence
to plead. The slaves were not, for the most part, taken in war,
unless by war we understand every piratical expedition for the
purpose of making slaves, every plundering horde, every kidnap-
LECTURE III. 97
ping ambush, and every attack of barbarous chiefs on their own
unoffending subjects, when they could not resist the tempting
offers of the European slave-dealers. In fact, the whole system
of continued warfare to which the slave trade gave rise, was that
of fighting, burning, plundering, to obtain slaves. Every bold
adventurer, who wished to enrich himself, turned man-stealer;
and, to complete the whole, the administration of justice became,
in most cases, a mere pretence for making slaves, in order to
obtain the articles which the slave-dealer offered in exchange *.
But, still, having been enslaved, it was an act of kindness to
remove them from their own barbarous countrymen, and place
them in the hands of Christian slave-owners F.—Taken from
Africa in charity, to save them from greater miseries Kind
and benevolent men, we were not aware of all your philan-
thropy! O happy slaves! the too thoughtless subjects of so much
mercy ! Ye human live-stock, packed like bales of goods, and
comfortably secured by fetters to the deck, and crammed below
lest the air of heaven should breathe upon you, while the gallant
ship dances over the waves, as though it participated in the joy
of your deliverance Why do you so inconsiderately groan, and
faint, and become diseased, and die—wickedly die with grief, on
your passage to all the felicities of a slave plantation 1 And you
labour without reward, and toil without hope, in a colonial pa-
radise, and see your children sold, and your wives flogged, and
are surrounded with all the emblems of happiness, the whips, and
collars, and chains, and stocks; and, you ungrateful Negroes,
who give your fiscals and protectors the trouble of stifling your
groans, and teaching you contentment, by administering bleeding
stripes for your complaints, you know not the charity of these
White men, nor appreciate the tenderness of their compassion!
The last plea which I shall notice in this place is, that the
Negroes are of an inferior race, and are not entitled to the same
* See “Abstract of Evidence before the House of Commons,” already re-
ferred to : chap. i. “on the Enormities committed by the Natives of Africa on
the Persons of one another to procure Slaves for the Europeans.”
f That slavery in Africa admits of much more comfort and happiness than in
our colonies, see chap. x. of the above Abstract. - - -
O
98 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
usage as White men; and that, while it would be unlawful to hold
Whites in slavery, it is right to enslave the Blacks!—But, admit-
ting this inferiority, instead of justifying us in inflicting on them
the miseries of slavery, it would give them a claim on our com-
passion; unless, indeed, we could prove, as some have attempted,
that they are brute animals sent for the use of man. Supposing
that “ the retreating forehead and depressed vertex" indicated
mental inferiority in the Negro, does it prove that he is not a
human being, that he has not an immortal soul, that he is not an
accountable creature ? Does it prove that he is not capable of
every rational act, and every social feeling, which is essential to a
man? Does it prove that the Negro race are less the children
of “our Father who is in heaven,” or authorize us to refuse a
practical recognition of their being a part of the human family?"
But I believe facts will bear me out in the assertion, that,
whatever may be the prejudices of planters, or the ingenious the-
ories of speculative men, there is not that characteristic inferiority
in the Negro race which is sometimes imagined. That they are
capable of all the benevolent and social feelings of our nature,
is evident from the concurrent testimony of travellers and resi-
dents in Africa, and even of many of the colonists themselves.
Instances can be produced in which a slave has hazarded his
own life for the protection of a master by whom he has been
treated with kindness. In the attempts which have been made
to instruct Negro children in the United States, at Sierra Leone,
and in the West Indies, the uniform conviction on the minds of
those engaged in teaching them has been, that they are not infe-
rior to European children, whenever they possess the same advan-
tages. The evidence before a Select Committee of the House of
Commons, in 1790 and 1791, of those who had visited the interior
* It is not much to be wondered at that Mr. Long, in his “History of Jamaica,”
should endeavour to prove that the Negro is more nearly allied to the ouran-
outang than to a man; or that many of the colonists at the present day should,
as Mr. Bickell declares they do, “ look upon the Blacks as much beneath them-
selves as the brutes are beneath the Negroes:” it is quite necessary to their own
justification. “Il est impossible,” says Montesquieu, “que nous supposions
que ces gens-la solent des hommes; parceque sinous les supposions des hommes,
on commenceroit à croire que nous ne sommes pas nous-mêmes Chretiens.”
LECTURE III. 99
of Africa, and had seen their various manufactures, gives a most
favourable idea of their ingenuity and industry". Nor are there
wanting instances in the Negro race of a power of intellect and
loftiness of moral character which would be an honour to any
human being. Are there not men of education and respectability
in most or all of our colonies, who are free Blacks and persons
of Colour? Yes; and among this despised and persecuted race
there have been instances of high attainments in literature, in
science, and in theology: so that, considering their immense
disadvantages, the wonder is, not that the number of such is so
small, but that there are any F. Have there not been heroes,
and politicians, and legislators in Hayti : Can the West-India
islands, since their first discovery by Columbus, boast a name
that deserves comparison with that of Toussaint L'Ouverture?
The very generation of Negroes that had been slaves, formed a
scheme of government and shewed a spirit of legislation which
might put our colonial assemblies to the blush.
Why, then, are we told of their vast inferiority, while kept in
a state of degradation which renders mental and moral improve-
ment almost impossible; which stints the growth of every thing
that is generous and manly; which tends to destroy every spring
of virtuous action, and to bring a human being as nearly as pos-
sible to the condition of a brute? How just is the remark of an
intelligent traveller, who had an opportunity of observing the
effects of slavery tº: “Cut off hope for the future, and freedom
for the present; superadd a due pressure of bodily suffering and
personal degradation; and you have a slave, who, of whatever
zone, nation, or complexion, will be, what the poor African is,
torpid, debased, and lowered beneath the standard of humanity.”
Loosen the shackles of the slaves; let them feel the invigorating
influence of freedom ; let hope enter their bosoms, and the pro-
wº
* “Abstract,” &c. chap. v.
... t I beg leave to recommend to the perusal of the reader “Biographical
Sketches and interesting Anecdotes of Persons of Colour, compiled by Å. Mott;”
and if any one can read these simple anecdotes of the Negro without deep emo-
tions of pity, of admiration, and of thankfulness to Him who is “no respecter of
persons,” I do not envy his feelings. ... . -
Í Lieutenant Hall, in his “ Account of Travels in the United States.”
100 LECTURES ON SLA W ERY.
spect of reward cheer them; let them walk erect, like men; and
they will soon refute the foul calumny of their great and inevi-
table inferiority to those who have a white skin. That such a
state of hopeless and helpless bondage has a necessary tendency
thus to degrade the mind, is evident from its effects on Europeans,
as well as on Africans. “It was remarked by M. Dupuis, the
British consul at Mogadore, that even the generality of European
Christians, after a long captivity and severe treatment among
the Arabs, appeared at first exceedingly stupid and insensible.
“If, he adds, “they have been any considerable time in slavery,
they appear lost to reason and feeling; their spirits broken ; and
their faculties sunk in a species of stupor which I am unable
adequately to describe. They appear degraded even below the
Negro slave. The succession of hardships, without any pro-
tecting law to which they can appeal for any alleviation or
redress, seems to destroy every spring of exertion or hope in
their minds. They appear indifferent to every thing around
them; abject, servile, and brutish *.’” Since, then, the very
condition of the Negro slaves sufficiently accounts for their ap-
parent inferiority, it is unnecessary and unphilosophical to seek
for any other cause.
We ask, then, with confidence, do any of these worthless
pleas afford the shadow of a pretence for depriving the Negro
of those rights which the God of nature has given him, by keeping
him in perpetual slavery : Do not they leave the accusation
untouched ? Is not the charge fully substantiated, that our
colonial slavery is a flagrant and wicked violation of the clearest
rights of man? -
We advance one other charge : it is contrary to the spirit and
practice of the British Constitution.—“By constitution we
says Lord Bolingbroke, “whenever we speak with
propriety and exactness, that assemblage of laws, institutions,
and customs, derived from certain fixed principles of reason,
mean,”
* “An Appeal to the Religion, Justice, and Humanity of the Inhabitants of
the British Empire in Behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies,” by
W. Wilberforce, Esq. pp. 47, 48. -
LECTURE III. I01
directed to certain fixed objects of public good, that compose
the general system according to which the community hath
agreed to be governed *.” And what is the great object of the
British constitution? It is, to secure to every subject the enjoy-
ment of his natural rights, as far as is consistent with the safety
and welfare of the whole community; and the enjoyment of
these is what we call freedom, or liberty. Because our system
of laws and institutions is formed to secure this, we call it a free
constitution ; and on this account it has been the admiration of
foreigners and the glory of Britons. It is for this that all the
apparatus of law and justice is provided, from the courts of
Westminster Hall to the justice-room of the county magistrate;
it is for this that the throne is erected, and the sovereign
maintained in royal dignity as the great executive power; it is
for this that both houses of Parliament meet, that the judges go
their circuits, and that every officer of justice is appointed, from
the king to the constable ; it is, indeed, for the accomplishment
of this object, in a manner more or less direct, that all
the taxes of every kind are levied : whatever abuses may
creep in, whatever anomalies may be detected, the whole frame
of civil government is carried on with this view. The “rights
of all mankind,” says Blackstone, “in most other countries of
the world being now more or less debased and destroyed, they
at present may be said to remain, in a peculiar and emphatical
manner, the rights of the people of England. And these may
be reduced to three principal or primary articles, the right of
personal security ; the right of personal liberty; and the right of
private property.” It was to secure the rights and liberties of
British subjects that our ancestors struggled hard and long, and
in the end successfully, in resisting the encroachments of
arbitrary power. It was for this that Magna Charta was ob-
tained, for this the Bill of Rights was passed, and for this the
succession to the throne was fixed and limited. For this object
thousands have bled, mountains of treasure have been expended;
* Lord Bolingbroke's Works, vol. ii. p. 130.
102 LECTURES ON SLA V E R Y .
and that their liberties might not perish, a people naturally
loyal took up arms against their sovereign. For this, was an
hereditary monarch driven from the throne, and the house of
Hanover called to occupy it. With what a jealous eye has every
movement of government been watched by the people l How
anxious have they been to repair every defect of freedom which
time and change may have produced in the constitution | Is
there a session of parliament which passes without numerous
petitions and debates on some points or other connected with
the liberty of the subject? The most memorable Acts passed
during the reign of George the Fourth, are those which have
given the full enjoyment of their civil rights to numerous bodies
of people, on whom, on account of religious opinions, some
restrictions were laid. - -
Prompted by this love of freedom, how often have the British
people not only manifested a sympathy with other nations when
groaning beneath oppression and tyranny, but have been ab-
solutely prodigal both of their treasure and their blood in order
to assist them in shaking off the yoke | What a burst of feeling
was produced by the first effort of Spain to resist the tyranny of
Napoleon, and with what alacrity did the British armies fly to her
aid ' What sympathies were awakened throughout the nation
when Greece ventured to assert her freedom; and with what
transports of joy was the prospect of her liberation hailed ! Why
was it that the thunder of the British cannon rolled over the
head of the proud Algerine, and shook his towers of defence to
the dust? It was not to obtain cessions of territory, nor to in-
crease the revenue by foreign tribute, but it was to abolish
slavery, and to set the captives free. With what a feeling of
generous pride did every bosom swell when England was hailed
as the liberator of Europe! - . .
But what a strange and glaring inconsistency is here! She
sends her armies to Spain and Portugal, and her fleets to
Algiers and Navarino, to break the arm of oppression, and to
rescue foreigners from slavery ; and she sends her armies and
her fleets to the West Indies to rivet the chains of slavery on
LECTURE IRI. - 103
her own subjects, and to bind fast the yoke of oppression 1 She
has loaded herself with debt for the liberties of Europe; and she
has added many millions to that enormous debt to maintain
slavery in her own colonies —But, as something like an apology
for what could not be defended on principle, it was asserted by
a statesman, whose generous predilections in favour of liberty.
were apparently shackled by his political connexions, that “ in
the colonies the Constitution has not full play.” If he had said
it has not fair play, he certainly would have spoken the truth :
its operation is full and free enough in favour of the White man;
it is obstructed only to the disadvantage of the Black. Under
the shadow of its protection the planter and the slave-holder are
willing to sit, but the unhappy Negro is forbidden to expect
from it either shelter or repose. To say that the Constitution
has not full play in the colonies, is but little to the purpose: has
it any existence there, or is it a dead letter & Ifit has there any
being at all, is it not perpetually outraged by the practice of
slavery Here are 800,000 human beings, the great majority
of the population, a large proportion of whom were born subjects
of his Britannic Majesty, who are suffering the most grievous
wrongs, deprived of their dearest rights, in the name of the
British people, and by the sanction of the British government
Does, then, the Constitution authorize one British subject to
make another British subject a slave, and to keep him so 2 Or.
are we to be told, that, in any part of his Majesty's dominions,
there is a class of subjects to whom the Constitution affords no
more protection than to the brutes that perish : Was it not an
express condition, in all the charters which empowered the
colonies to make laws for themselves, that “the laws and
statutes to be made under them are not to be repugnant, but as
near as may be agreeable, to the laws and statutes of this our
k ngdom of Great Britain : " But no one will pretend that
there is any agreement between the slave codes of the West
Indies, and the laws and statutes of Great Britain. To compare
them would be a burlesque, unless it were meant to shew their
mutual repugnance. Their object is exactly opposite; that of the
104 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
one being to perpetuate slavery, and of the other to secure and
regulate freedom. - -
In the laws of the British constitution, founded professedly on
the laws of nature and the principles of justice, one great object
is ever kept in view, that the offender only shall be punished,
while the innocent is protected in the full enjoyment of his
rights; but in the slave colonies we have the monstrous absur-
dity of crime sanctioned and innocence punished . Those who
deprive their fellow-creatures of their rights, who forcibly take
from them their liberty and the produce of their labour, are per-
mitted to triumph in their violence, and to justify their wrongs;
while those who have committed no crime suffer one of the severest
punishments, short of death, which man can inflict on man. If
in England an innocent individual were committed to prison,
or sent to the hulks for life, by some man of power, without any
offence alleged, the whole nation would be in an uproar, and
the walls of St. Stephen would resound with execrations on the
tyrant who had dared thus to treat a British subject; but in our
colonies, without the least pretence of guilt, are British subjects
deprived of every right which is dear to man, and doomed to pains
and penalties compared with which, in many cases, the tread-
mill would be a blessing and Botany Bay a paradise ! In fine, the
slavery of our colonies is a mockery of all law, a contempt of
all right, and a stigma of reproach on the British constitution, to
which it is in the highest degree repugnant. -
If, however, there is any portion of the population of our colo-
nies who cannot be considered as British subjects, and who are
not, on that account, entitled to the benefits of the constitution ;
the law of nations, as applicable to foreigners, must apply to
them. They either form a part of his Majesty's subjects, or they
do not; in the latter case they are aliens. And is there no law
to regulate our conduct towards such Are we at liberty to take
away any man's life, or property, or freedom, and to inflict on
him what injury we please, because he is not a fellow-subject
with us? Though no human enactments bind us, there are laws
which “are founded in those relations of justice that existed in
§
LECT"U R I, III. 105
the nature of things antecedent to any positive precept. These
are the eternal, immutable laws of good and evil, to which the
Creator himself in all his dispensations conforms; and which he
has enabled human reason to discover, so far as they are neces-
sary to the conduct of human actions. Such, among others, are
the principles, that we should live honestly, should hurt no-
body, and should render to every one his due ; to which three
general precepts Justinian has reduced the whole doctrine of
law”,” All these, as we have already seen, the slavery of our
colonies violates in the most palpable manner. On the laws of
nature, the jus gentium, or law of nations, is founded; the great
principle of which is, according to Cicero, “ that no one should
injure another for the sake of his own advantage F.” This law,
according to the modern and general use of the term, may be
considered as a certain rule of action, recognised by all civilized
states—especially by the various divisions of the European fa-
mily—by which their conduct towards each other, and towards
foreigners generally, is regulated both in war and in peace.
Now in this understood and generally recognised code the
following are articles : That no subjects of another state shall be
forcibly injured, or made captives, but in time of war;—that no
war shall be made or declared before a case of injury is made out ;
—that captives shall not be barbarously treated; and that their
captivity shall not continue longer than the war. But what have
these foreigners done 7 Was there ever an injury alleged why
war should be made on them : “The poor Negroes have only
wept: they challenged to no combat; they had nothing to op-
pose to the strength of the violators of their liberties, but the
sighings of a broken heart, and the low murmurs of despair laps-
ing into idiotcyf.” And yet they were made captives, and are
held in bondage, and are treated with a rigour with which no
* Blackstone's Com. vol. i. p. 40.
t Cicero de Officiis, lib. iii. c. 5: “Neque vero hoc solum natura, id est, jure
gentium, sed etiam legibus populorum, quibus in singulis civitatibus respublica
continetur, codem modo constitutum est, ut non liceat sui commodi causa nocere
alteri.”
: “Observations on the Demerara Memorial,” p. 39.
IP
..] 06 L E(XT U R ES ON SLAVERY.
JEuropean power could treat prisoners of war, and are doomed
to wear out their lives in slavery, and to entail all the miseries
of their condition on their posterity for ever ! I ask then, in the
name of humanity, in His name who made the black man as well
as the white, why is this flagrant act of injustice committed ?
Why, if they are not as subjects entitled to the benefits of the
British constitution, are these unoffending foreigners, in defi-
ance of the law of nations, doomed to a degrading and perpetual
slavery :
It is no justification of the practice to say, that it is generally
prevalent; that France, and Spain, and other powers, have
slavery in their dominions. We deeply lament the fact, but we
cannot admit the plea. If others plunder and oppress, it is no
reason that we should ; nor is it any excuse if we do. It is one
of the worst and most unavailing pleas of a transgressor, that
others have done the same. The new states of South America
are, however, shaming the old world, with all its boasted
superiority, and paying homage to justice, by the abolition of
slavery ; while Britain—free, generous, and enlightened Britain
—retains it!
Nor is it of any avail to plead its antiquity. What vice is
there, whether private or public, individual or national, which
might not be excused by the admission of such a plea '. When-
ever man has possessed the power to oppress his fellow-creatures,
and to make them the instruments of his own pleasure or
profit, he has rarely failed to exercise it. Considerations of
what is right and equitable have too little force, when opposed to
the inclinations and passions of the human heart. Men will do
wrong in the very face of punishment: what, then, will check them
when they are sure of impunity ? The lawless abuse of power is
almost as old as the creation; but it is not on that account less
criminal. What if Egypt, and Greece, and Rome, had slaves,
are they to be our patterns 2 We are much indebted to them
for science, less for politics, and still less for morals. Shall the
'conduct of nations, to whose gods all human vices were attributed,
whose morality had no fixed principles, on whom the light of
LECTURE III, . . --- 107
Divine Revelation never shone, be pleaded in justification of
those who live, not in the infancy, but at a very advanced stage
of the world's improvement; and who, in addition to the light of
science, have the superior advantage of the Christian Revelation?
Or if slavery, in the mitigated form of villeinage, existed during
the dark ages in England, surely it is no reason that the relics
of a barbarous age should be revived, with increased severity, in
our colonies, and be continued even in the nineteenth century !
The statutes of the British Parliament are sometimes pleaded;
but these, whatever they may be, do not prove that the practice
is consistent with justice and humanity, and that it ought to be
continued. Many laws have been repealed precisely for this
reason, that they were neither just nor humane ; and we must
repeat, that no law can make that right which is essentially
wrong, any more than an Act of Parliament can make two and,
two five. Too much stress is often laid on this circumstance ;
especially when it is asserted, or insinuated, that colonial slavery
is founded on British law. No assertion can be more unjust.
The Parliament has, indeed, recognised it by its Acts as an ex-
isting institution; but it had its origin in the barbarous practice
of unprincipled adventurers. And little did the legislature or
the people of England know of the monstrous evils of the sys-
tem, when, by their commercial regulations, they inadvertently
gave it the kind of sanction which is now pleaded in its favour.
It was not until the conscience of the country was awakened by
a view of the horrors of the slave trade, that all the cruelty and
iniquity of colonial slavery became known. Had it been exhi-
bited to our legislators, when seeking their protection, in its true
colours, in all probability it would not have been countenanced
for a moment. As long, however, as any of those enactments
remain which, directly or indirectly, sanction what is so criminal
in the sight of God, and so foul an injury to man, so long will
they disgrace our statute book, dishonour the nation, and hold
us up to the world as the most inconsistent people on the earth’
When other resources fail, strange as it may appear, the
108 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
Scriptures are quoted in favour of this cruel practice”; and
it is argued, that as by Divine authority the ancient Jews
were permitted to hold slaves, the highest possible sanction is
given to the slavery of our colonies. Now there are two things
which militate against this argument: Jewish servitude and
colonial slavery are so dissimilar that we cannot argue from one
to the other; and, whatever was its condition among the Jews,
it affords no precedent to us.
It is needless now to refer to the temporary servitude to
which an Israelite might, in certain cases, be subject: it is the
bond-service of the heathen only which can be adduced by the
advocates of slavery, in order to defend their system; and
in this there are many important points of difference. Their
servitude was altogether of a domestic character. The bondmen
obtained by war, or by purchase, were incorporated into the
* It is with an ill grace that slave-holders quote Scripture in defence of
a system which is not only opposed to the great moral principles of the Bible,
but which treats with contempt some of its most express precepts. There is,
for instance, no command more solemnly and forcibly enjoined than the obser-
vance of a seventh portion of time for religious purposes: “Remember the sab-
bath-day to keep it holy. Sir days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but
the seventh is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work ;
thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, thy maid-servant
(TnpNº Tiny, thy male slave, northy female slave, as the colonists would call
it); northy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates.” (Ex. xx. 8–-10.)
This command remains in all its force, as to the portion of time to be thus em-
ployed, though under the Christian dispensation the day is altered. The only
ground on which a slave-holder, whose slaves are compelled to break the Sab-
bath habitually, is entitled to appeal to the Scriptures, is the argumentum ad ho-
minum ; it is because his opponents profess to revere them. Would it not be
just to reply; Your appeal is fruitless : it is to an authority which, in point of
practice at least, you do not acknowledge. You treat the precepts of the Bible
as of no authority : what right have you to plead its precedents If the one has
no authority as a rule, surely the other has none as a warrant.
To affirm, indeed, that the Bible affords a sanction to West-India slavery, is,
in my view, a gross libel on the Sacred Records—it is a most important and fatal
concession to the infidel. Prove only that it sanctions such injustice, cruelty,
and oppression; that it supports the principle that power gives right, which is
the basis on which the system stands; that it warrants one man to hold as his
property a hundred or a thousand of his fellow-creatures, and, while he tramples
on the dearest rights of man, to make them the mere instruments of his avarice
and luxury; and you go far to prove that it does not proceed from a God of jus-
tice and mercy. To prove that the slave system of our colonies is scriptural, is
like an attempt to prove that the Bible is a forgery, and its religion a cheat.
LECTURE III. . 109
family, and considered a part of it. If they had to labour, it
was in no occupation in which any of the household would have
thought themselves degraded by taking a part. But who ever saw
White men toiling on a plantation by the side of the Negroes?
To employ even White convicts in this manner would be felt as
an outrage on the whole community. The labour of the slave
on the sugar-estate, urged by the driving whip, with the super
added toil of crop-time, is such as no free man or hired servant,
according to the colonists, could be induced to undergo, and
nothing but constant “steady coercion” would keep the Ne-
groes subjected to it. But there was nothing like planting spe-
culations among the Hebrews, to enrich a few by wearing out
the lives of thousands in unremitting toil and hopeless misery.
There was no broad line of distinction between the Hebrew
servant and the family of which he formed a part. “The heir,”
says St. Paul,” as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a
servant (3eXoc, the term for “a slave”), though he be lord of
all*.” Can this be affirmed of the West-India slave and his
young lord '—A Hebrew servant might fill the highest offices,
connected with the family, of trust and honour; and, if of ap-
proved fidelity and good conduct, he might expect the kindest
regards and most ample remuneration. “A wise servant (Tily)
shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall have
part of the inheritance among the brethren't.” The wealthy
patriarch Abraham had also designed to make a servant of this
kind his heir. What would be thought of such things in our
colonies : A man who should communicate his intention of giving
to a trusty slave “part of the inheritance among the brethren,”
or of leaving to him the whole of his fortune, would be deemed
insane.
If the servant of an Israelite lost but a tooth through the vio-
lence of his master, he was free : but when a ruffian of one of
our colonies boasted, that, in addition to a horrible flogging, he
had “broken the mouth” of a poor female slave, there was no
wresºrºw-
* Gal. iv. 1. - † Prov, xvii. 2.
110 LECTURES ON SLAV ERY.
redress: she was sent home, to be again subject to the same
treatment. . . . .
Our translators have done well in avoiding the terms “slave,”
and “slavery,” with reference to the purchased servants of the
Hebrews: they felt that in so rendering it they would have done
injustice to the sacred text, by suggesting ideas which the words
were not meant to convey. A slave, in the colonial sense, signifies
something more than a perpetual servant—it includes all that is
degraded, and abject, and helpless. The term could not be ap-
plied to a free man, especially to a man of respectability, but in
contempt, and it would be immediately resented as such. Among
the Hebrews it had no such necessary and inevitable associa-
tions: it is applied to Israel as a nation, to prophets, to kings,
and even to the Great Messiah”. If it had some ideas in com-
mon, it had many in which there was no agreement. Long,
long, must the colonial assemblies go on with their “meliorating
acts,” before they can compare their wretched slavery with the
servitude of the Hebrews. And when they have brought it to
this point, they will be as far as ever from being able to justify
the enslaving of their fellow-creatures by the example of the
ancient Jews.
We observe, then, in the next place, that whatever was the
nature of slavery or servitude among the Jews, it has no au-
thority as a precedent for us. For, first, many of the institutions
of Moses were evidently adapted to a people in the very infancy
of civilization : we are in a situation so different, that what was
allowable in them, might be culpable in us. And, further, some g
things, respecting which regulations were given, seem to be
tolerated for the time being, rather than sanctioned and ap-
proved. Such was the case with polygamy, which might be de-
fended on the same principle as slavery.
And let it also be remembered, that the Jews lived under a
—-r—
* It may, I think, be safely said that the Hebrews had no word in their lan-
guage for slave, in the full meaning of the West-Indian term. The same thay
be observed of the Greek of the New Testament, as the sacred writers appear to
use 3exos in the same general sense of Tiny, as signifying a person who renders
service of any kind to God or man. . . . -
LECTURE III. . . . III
special and peculiar dispensation; no nation ever was, or ever
can be, in similar circumstances. They were raised up as a na-
tion for purposes which have long since been accomplished, and
therefore for reasons which no longer exist. They were to be
the depositaries of Divine truth and religious ordinances, while
error and idolatry were covering the whole earth; they were to
preserve the knowledge and the worship of the true God, until
the appearance of the great Messiah to bless the Gentile world.
Their civil polity was a theocracy: God was their king and their
lawgiver; he dwelt among them, by the visible emblem of his
presence, the cloud of glory. These peculiarities gave them an
importance which distinguished them from all other people; they
were “a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.” They were
raised up not only for mercy, but for judgment: they were the
rod of God's anger, the scourge of the guilty nations of Canaan.
When God saw that the measure of their iniquity was full, he
gave the Israelites commission to march through the wilderness,
to enter the land of Canaan, to put the inhabitants thereof to
the sword, and to take their country as an inheritance. No-
thing but a Divine commission would have authorized this. All
the surrounding nations were therefore under sentence of death;
a sentence passed by the great Judge of all for long-continued
national crimes. Their being reduced to the state of bondsmen
was therefore a mitigation of punishment, and might, by finally
incorporating them with the favoured nation, be an eminent
blessing to them and their posterity. But will our colonists set
up a claim of distinction like that which the ancient Israelites
possessed ? “The middle wall of partition is broken down,” and
all nations and people are on a level before God. Have they
received a commission from Heaven to extirpate or enslave the
Negro race? We have just as good a precedent for making
conquests of foreign nations, and putting their inhabitants to the
sword, as the planters have for slavery.—But are they willing to
abide by the regulations of the Mosaic institutes ? “He that
stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand,
112 LECTUR ES ON SLAVERY.
he shall surely be put to death *.” The sabbath breaker was
stoned to death : if this law were put in force, what would be-
come of our colonies :
It would probably be replied, that the constitutions of the
Jewish code are no longer in force; that the whole frame of that
economy has passed away. We admit it; and with the admis-
sion we see the argument perish which is founded on Jewish
servitude. All that was national and ceremonial is gone, and
only what was of moral, and therefore of unchangeable, obliga-
tion is incorporated in the new dispensation. A new system
was introduced by the Son of God, of clearer light, and châ-
racterized by a purer morality and a more diffusive benevolence,
the motto of which is, “ Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace, good will towards men.”
We shall not find it difficult, then, to shew, in the last place,
that the slavery of our colonies is opposed to the spirit and ten-
dency of Christianity. And on this we would be content to rest
the whole issue of the case. And why should it not rest here?
The planters profess Christianity; the government is declared to
be Christian ; we are told that “Christianity is part and parcel
of the law of the land;” both Houses of Parliament have Chris-
tian worship before they proceed to business: if, therefore, the
slavery of our colonies be opposed to the principles and practice
of Christianity, why should a Christian nation continue it, or
suffer it to be continued, in any of its dependencies :
But that we may not be accused of unfairness, let us make all
the concessions which can justly be claimed. And, first, it is ad-
mitted that there is no distinct precept in the Christian Scrip-
tures which forbids slavery, of one kind or another. But
neither is there any warrant for it; and so far nothing is proved
on either side. There are many things, which are not by any
express precept forbidden, which yet are quite irreconcilable with
the holy and benevolent nature of the religion of Christ. In
the absence of either precept or prohibition, we must judge of
* Exod. xxi. 16.
LECTURE III. 113
the propriety of any action or course of conduct by the bearing
which Christian principles have on it; by its accordance or other-
wise with the general nature and spirit of the system. Now slavery
is so opposite to the general tendency of Christianity, that it
would require some very express warrant, at least something
more than mere negative authority, to support it *.
It is also true, that when Christianity commenced its mild
and merciful career slavery existed in every part of the Roman
empire; and though many slaves, and masters of slaves, em-
braced Christianity, yet the Apostles did not explicitly declare
this state to be unlawful, nor command the immediate release
of every slave. There were, however, very important reasons
for this. The statement of Paley is so satisfactory on this point,
that I beg leave to quote his words:—“Christianity, soliciting
admission into all the nations of the world, abstained, as behoved
it, from intermeddling with the civil institutions of any. But
does it follow from the silence of Scripture concerning them,
that all the civil institutions which then prevailed were right 2 or
that the bad should not be exchanged for better? Besides this,
the discharging of slaves from all obligation to obey their
masters, which is the consequence of pronouncing slavery to be
unlawful, would have had no better effect than to let loose one
half of mankind upon the other. Slaves would have been
tempted to embrace a religion which asserted their right of free-
dom; masters would hardly have consented to claims founded
upon such authority ; the most calamitous of all contests, a bel-
lum servile, might probably have ensued, to the reproach, if not
the extinction, of the Christian name t.” As, however, the in-
fluence of this system of mercy was extended, “the Greek and
Roman slavery, and since these, the feudal tyranny, has de-
clined before it i.”
* What would St. Paul have thought of the manner in which slaves were pro-
cured for our colonies, who ranks “men-stealers ” among murderers of fathers,
and murderers of mothers, and other atrocious criminals? A “man-stealer’”
(ověparoğısa.) means one who kidnapped others and reduced them to slavery.
+ Paley's Moral Philosophy, book iii. part ii. ch. iii.
1 The same argument which would support slavery, would justify the most
cruel despotism. Did St. Paul denounce Nero and that form of government,
Q
114 LECTUR ES ON SLAVERY,
It is granted, also, that servants (§eXoi) are exhorted “to be
obedient to their own masters,” and “to shew all good fidelity.”
Such are still the exhortations of every Christian missionary :
and such is the conduct of the poor enslaved Negroes who have
heard and embraced the Gospel. But why is this submissive
conduct urged on the slaves? Not on account of the just claims
of the master, but to take away every cause of reproach on the
Gospel; “that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour
in all things.” It was never imagined that it is incompatible
with Christianity that a man should meekly suffer wrongs for
which there is no redress, or that he should even decline assert-
ing his rights “for conscience sake;” but the question is,
whether Christianity justifies the infliction of such wrongs as
abject and hopeless slavery implies?
The genius and tendency of the Christian religion may be
ascertained by a brief reference to the views which it imparts, the
dispositions which it inculcates, and the dutiès which it enjoins.
Are the views which it gives us of God and man, and of our re-
lations to each, such as can lend any sanction to the practice of
enslaving, or holding in a state of slavery, our fellow-creatures?
It leads our minds to the contemplation of an infinitely glo-
rious Being, who is as good as he is great; whose justice is such,
that not an individual, of whatever rank in the scale of existence,
of all the unnumbered myriads that have had and shall have
a being, shall have to complain of an injury done to him; whose
benevolence is boundless as the universe, and lasting as eternity.
He is represented as the Creator of all, black or white, bond or
free ; the common Parent of all mankind ; to whom all may
address the language, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” He
is the Benefactor of all : He has created the world, and formed all
the arrangements of nature for the benefit of mankind. The sun
shines, the winds blow, the rains descend, the earth produces,
for the African as well as for the European. He is the Governor
which had become so unqualified a despotism as utterly to despise all popular
rights? But who would argue from his silence that Christianity gives a sanction
to tyranny, and exonerates those who destroy the liberties of mankind
- LECTURE III. 115
of all; “His kingdom ruleth over all.” All are bound to obey
and serve Him: none can claim an independence: He holds all
responsible, of every rank, and colour, and clime. He will be
the Judge of all. Poor and rich, princes and people, the planter
and the Negro ; all must stand before His tribunal, to be judged,
not according to the colour of their skin, but “according to
their works.” Can such views, and the sentiments which they
are adapted to produce, accord with slavery :
And what does Christianity teach us with reference to man?
That we are all sprung from one common stock, whatever changes
a difference of climate, and food, and manner of living may have
produced;—that whether the hair be woolly or lank; the skin
black, or red, or white; whatever be the protuberances of the
skull, the shape of the nose, or the position of the cheek-bones;
“God hath made of one blood all nations of men.” It abolishes
all national distinctions, and declares that we are all brethren,
forming part of one great family, of which the Creator himself
is the head. That, as all are born in the same way, grow in the
same way, and alike descend into the dust; so the bodies of all
shall be revivified, when “the trumpet shall sound and the dead
shall be raised.” What, then, is the essential difference, that
one man should buy and sell a fellow-man, or claim an absolute
property in a human being : -
And as Christianity recognises no difference in the physical
nature of man, so it admits not of a moral distinction.—Does it
allow the White man to suppose that he is free from that inherent
depravity which it ascribes to all? Does the charge of trangres-
sion apply less to him than to the Negro ! It contains no ex-
emption in favour of the European or the slave-owner, when it
declares that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God; ” that “except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God.” Its address to all, without exception, is,
“Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
And do not the merciful provisions of the Gospel extend to
the Black as well as to the White, to the uncivilized as well as
to the polished? Is there one Redeemer for the planter, and
116 LEC'I' U R ES ON SLAVERY.
another for his slave? Must not the sins of both be pardoned
by the same atoning sacrifice? Does the Divine Spirit dis-
dain to visit the bosom of the Negro, or to purify his heart, be-
'cause of the colour of his skin? All the promises and invita-
tions of the Gospel are as much addressed to the slave as to his
master. The same sources of consolation are open to all ; the
same enemy tempts all; the same grace is sufficient for all; and
the same heaven will bless and reward every humble follower of
the Saviour, whether he be black or white. “They shall come
from the east, and the west, and the north, and the south; and
shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the
kingdom of God.”
Now are these views consistent with that state of degradation
to which one man reduces another when he makes him a slave;
and when the substance of all he can allege is, that he is a White
man and the other is a Negro ! We do not wonder that the
planters are so jealous of their slaves' receiving Christian instruc-
tion ; that missionaries are obliged to be so cautious and select
even in the parts of Scripture which they read; that it is, in fact,
almost impossible for the most prudent and cautious teacher of
Christianity, who wishes to give efficient instruction to the Ne-
groes in the doctrines and duties and privileges of Christianity,
to avoid the charge of making “statements which lead to insubor-
dination,” giving ideas of equality which are inconsistent with the
relation of slave and slave-owner. The planters feel how contrary
their system is to Christianity. They are afraid of their slaves
hearing any thing of it, except its outward forms, and its precepts
of obedience to masters ; and it requires no foresight to predict,
nor is it rashness to assert, that the colonists never will, and never
can be, generally and thoroughly in earnest to christianize their
slaves, till they make up their minds to the speedy abolition of
slavery. A pious slave will not have recourse to violence, but
slavery cannot endure the light of Christianity.
The dispositions which the Gospel of Christ inculcates militate
no less against slavery. It teaches us, that love is the life and
soul of all religion: “He that loveth not, knoweth not God;
LECTUR E 1 II, , 117
for God is love.” Love to God and love to man ever attend
the reception of genuine Christianity—a supreme regard to
God, and a benevolent regard to man. “He that loveth not his
brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God, whom he hath
not seen 2 ” Nor is the measure of it to be small : “Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself.” What a delightful portraiture
is drawn of charity by the same Apostle that condemns “man-
stealing !” It “suffereth long, and is kind :” it cannot, therefore,
deliberately injure. So far from doing evil to another, it
“thinketh no evil.” It is not selfish, looking only to personal
gains and gratifications, but it expands the heart with a dis-
interested generosity; “seeking not her own.” And so deeply
does this charity enter into the nature of Christianity, that a man
possessed of heavenly gifts and miraculous powers, without it
would be but “as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.” How
constantly are we, in the writings of the New Testament, moved
to all that is merciful and kind, both by the infinite benevolence
of our common Father, and by the example of the blessed
Redeemer For “if God so loved us, we ought also to love
one another.” We are to forbear and to forgive; to be “tender-
hearted ;” to “weep with them that weep, and to rejoice with
them that rejoice.” And can this tenderness of charity, with all
its holy sympathies, be reconciled to the practice of our colonial
slavery? - -
We lastly mention the duties which it enjoins. All the rules
of conduct which it prescribes, in relation to our dealings with
our fellow-men, may be summed up in a brief precept of the
Old Testament, “Do justly and love mercy.” Justice must be
rendered to every one ; but not merely justice; mercy must mark
our conduct. Every thing like oppression, injustice, or want of
kind consideration, is reprobated in the strongest terms. But,
is it doing justice to withhold the “hire of the labourer;” to
deprive him of his right to his person, to his liberty, to the
produce of his industry? to deprive him of the rights of a
husband and a father ? Is there mercy in any part of the slave
system : Has it one feature of tenderness and charity ? Without
118 LECTURES ON . SLAVERY.
multiplying examples, there is one general rule, which we shall
finally mention, which, for its importance and value, has been
called “the golden rule :” “All things whatsoever ye would
that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” If we are
in doubt as to the rule of duty in any given case, if there is no
express and distinct precept which applies, here is a standard
by which the most illiterate may determine: Let self-love pass
the sentence and decide the point. This is a rule the applica-
tion of which slavery cannot endure. When the planters adopt
this principle, slavery will be no more. When the British
Parliament act upon the plain and undeniable rule of that
Christianity which they say is “part and parcel of the law of the
land,” they will no longer balance financial or commercial con-
siderations against the rights and comforts of 800,000 of their
fellow-creatures; they will no longer allow the petty legislatures
of the dependent colonies to mock them by evasive laws; but,
with the generosity and sympathy of British Christians, they
will “bind up the broken in heart, and bid the captive go free.”
sIAECTURE IV. 119
LECTURE IV.
THE last topic of discussion to which I shall now proceed is,
THE ABOLITION of SLAVERY ; as an introduction to which,
permit me to give a brief view of the manner in which this
deadly plant took root in our colonies. We have already had
occasion to notice the general prevalence of slavery, in some
form or other, from the remotest times. It may be considered,
indeed, as co-existent with the exercise of lawless power, and as
originating in the barbarous practices of men who acted on the
principle that power gives right. Under the benign influence
of Christianity, juster views of the rights of man were acquired,
and a tone of feeling produced by which that kind of slavery
which prevailed in Europe for ages had given way, and in most
of its states had become extinct; when in the fifteenth century
it was revived, in an aggravated form, in the colonies of the new
world. “In the year 1442, while the Portuguese, under the en-
couragement of their celebrated Prince Henry, were exploring
the coast of Africa, Anthony Gonsalez, who two years before had
seized some Moors near Cape Bajador, was by that prince
ordered to carry his prisoners back to Africa: he landed them
at Rio del Oro, and received from the Moors, in exchange, ten
Blacks and a quantity of gold dust, with which he returned to
Lisbon *.” This new kind of commerce appearing to be a
profitable speculation, others of the same nation soon embarked
in it. Towards the close of the same century, the Spaniards,
having discovered and taken possession of the West India
islands, in their inordinate thirst for gold compelled the
unfortunate natives to work in the mines of Hispaniola; and,
according to Mr. Clarkson, “as early as 1503 a few slaves
* “Edwards's History of the West Indies,” vol. ii. p. 37.
120 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
were sent by the Portuguese to the Spanish colonies.” In
1511, Ferdinand the Fifth of Spain allowed a larger importation
of these unhappy beings. Such were the cruelties which the
natives of these newly discovered colonies suffered, while com-
pelled to the severest labours by their avaricious oppressors, that
their diminishing numbers threatened a speedy extinction of
their race; when Bartholomew de Las Casas entreated Cardinal
Ximenes, who held the reins of government till Charles the Fifth
ascended the throne, to allow a regular commerce in African
Negroes: this, however, the cardinal, much to his honour, re-
fused. But in 1517, Charles the Fifth granted a patent for the
exclusive supply of 4,000 Negroes annually to Hispaniola,
Cuba, Jamaica, and Porto Rico. This patent was afterwards
assigned to some Genoese merchants; and thus the Spanish
colonies were regularly supplied. This great prince was not, in
all probability, aware of the dreadful evils attending this horrible
traffic, nor of the crying injustice of permitting it; for in 1542,
when he made a code of laws for his Indian subjects, he liberated
all the Negroes, and by a word put an end to their slavery.
When, however, he resigned his crown, and retired into a mo-
nastery, and the minister of his mercy, Pedro de la Gasca,
returned to Spain, the imperious tyrants of these new dominions
returned to their former practices, and fastened the yoke on the
suffering and unresisting Negroes. .
Captain, afterwards Sir John Hawkins, was the first English-
man who disgraced himself and his country by engaging in this
nefarious traffic. Conceiving that it would be a profitable
speculation, he obtained the assistance of some wealthy persons
in London; and in 1562, having fitted out three ships, and
sailed to the coast of Africa, he fell on the defenceless Negroes
sword in hand, burned and plundered their towns, and, seizing on
300, sailed with them to Hispaniola; sold them ; and with other
articles of merchandize, the price of blood, arrived in England *.
e-
* This atrocious act, the commencement of the English slave-trade, was per-
petrated at Sierra Leone, on the very spot where Free-town now stands, erected
with the design of repairing in some measure the wrongs of Africa.
LECTURE IV. 121
He was afterwards appointed to one of the Queen's ships, to
proceed on the same adventure. But Elizabeth appears to have
been deceived; “for,” says Hill, the naval historian, quoted by
Clarkson, having questioned Hawkins, “she expressed her
concern lest any of the Africans should be carried off without
their free consent, in which case she declared that ‘it would be
detestable, and call down the vengeance of Heaven upon the
undertakers *.’” It seems, then, that it was represented to the
government at home that it was as labourers, taken away vo-
luntarily, that they were transported to the Spanish colonies, and
not as slaves.
It appears also from Labat, a Roman missionary, that in
order to induce Louis XIII. to sanction the practice of slavery
in his colonies, he was persuaded that it was for the good of the
Negroes' souls and the glory of God, this being the only way of
converting them to Christianity. Deceived by this hypocritical
representation, the monarch gave his consent.
Having thus commenced, this shameful traffic proceeded, and
gathered strength day by day. As British settlements were
formed in the West-India islands, during the reign of the two
Charleses, the colonists commenced plantations and stocked them
with slaves. The Buccaneers enriched these settlements with
their spoils, and, accustomed as they were to deeds of blood, to
cruelty and rapine, the enslaving of their fellow-creatures would
shock no feeling of their minds. Mr. Edwards says, that from
1700 to 1786 the number imported into Jamaica was 610,000 !
“I say this,” he observes, “on sufficient evidence, having in my
possession lists of all the entries.” “The total import into all
* What, then, would Elizabeth have said, had she known the depredations of
this fiend in human shape? A companion of Captain Hawkins in this expe.
dition, speaking of their arrival at Sambula, says, “In this island we stayed
certain dayes, going every day on shore to take the inhabitants with burning and
spoiling their towns.” And Mr. Edwards, though averse to the abolition of the
slave-trade, says, “In regard to Hawkins himself, he was, I admit, a murderer and
a robber. His avowed purpose in sailing to Guinea, was to take, by stratagem
or force, and carry away, the unsuspecting natives, in the view of selling them
as slaves to the people of Hispaniola. In this pursuit his object was present
profit; and his employment and pastime, devastation and murder.” (Edwards's
Hist, W.Indies, vol. ii. pp. 43,44). -
R
122 LECT U R ES ON SL A V E R Y.
the British colonies from 1680 to 1786, may be put at 2,130,000.”
In 1771, which he considers the most flourishing period of the
trade, there sailed from England to the coast of Africa one
hundred and ninety-two ships provided for the importation of
47,146 Negroes. And now, he observes (1793), the whole num-
ber annually exported from Africa by all the European powers
is 74,000, of which 38,000 are imported by the British *. In this
abominable traffic in human beings Britain did not take the
lead, but, having once embarked in it, she threw into it her ac-
customed energy, and soon surpassed all the rest.
Thus we see that Mammon, at whose shrine the original na-
tives of the West-India islands were sacrificed by thousands
and tens of thousands, was the cruel deity by whose inspira-
tions Negro slavery was commenced ; fraud and hypocrisy
pleaded his cause, while treachery and violence were the agents
he employed. Unprincipled adventurers, for the love of gain,
embarked in this unholy enterprise ; governments, imposed on,
or not aware of the enormities of the system, first tolerated and
then encouraged it, till long custom gave it a kind of sanction;
and this horrid upas, blighting and withering all that comes
within its pestilential influence, struck deep root in our colonies:
there it still flourishes, the black man's plague, and the white
man’s curse; and will continue its mischiefs, till it is uprooted by
human benevolence, or perishes smitten with the vengeance of
offended Heaven.
On taking a survey of what has been done by the friends of
humanity towards the extinction of this evil, we perceive three
distinct steps of advance:—the decision of the judges in West-
minster Hall in 1772, which banished Negro slavery from Eng-
land ; the Act of Parliament passed in 1807, which abolished
the slave trade; and the unanimous resolutions of the House of
Commons in 1823, which pledged Parliament to the extinction
of slavery. These are three prominent points, which may serve
as way-marks, and which conveniently divide our historical no-
* Edwards's History of the West Indies, vol. ii. pp. 55, 56, 57.
LECTURE IV. I23
tices into four periods, from the commencement of slavery in our
colonies to the present time.
The first long and gloomy period extends to 1772, when a ray
of hope faintly beamed on the enslaved Negro. During the
whole of this time slavery reigned uncontrouled ; the savage
demon exulted in the triumph obtained over the cries of nature,
the voice of conscience, and the remonstrances of religion.
From the very centre of Africa to the shores of America, on
the land and on the ocean, was one vast scene of suffering. Bar-
barities without a parallel were perpetrated constantly and sys-
tematically. Men seemed to have lost their own nature, and to
be converted into fiends: not only did a hard-hearted selfishness
extinguish all sense of humanity, but a horrid taste for cruelty,
a delight in gratuitous suffering, were in many cases generated
by this system. In our colonies, deeds of darkness were per-
petrated undisturbed by the light. No one had lifted the cur-
tain; only the planters and their friends had been behind the
scenes: with the exception of a few individuals, the British
public knew nothing of what was going on in the West Indies.
During the whole of this time, the colonial assemblies legislated
according to their own hearts' desire. The slave owners had
almost unlimited power to beat and torture and mutilate, even
kill, their wretched Negroes, with only, in most cases, the risk of
a small fine ; and this risk, from the non-reception of slave evi-
dence and the state of society, there was but little danger of in-
curring. In certain cases, the miserable Negroes might be
burned to death by a slow fire, or hung up in a cage to perish by
starvation. The evidence given subsequently before the House
of Commons exhibits a mass of suffering at which the heart
sickens, but of which the people and government of England were
then ignorant. Such was the dreadfuwaste of life, that large
annual importations were necessary to keep up the number of
slaves. And this triumphant and unmolested reign of slavery in
the British dominions continued for upwards of a century and
a half.
As far, however, as the true nature of the system was known,
124 LECTUR ES ON SLAW ER Y.
it was from its earliest history reprobated by the wise and good.
We have seen that Ximenes set his face against it; that Charles
the Fifth repented of the sanction which he had given it in the
earlier part of his reign, and as the fruits of this repentance
liberated all the slaves in the Spanish colonies; that Elizabeth
protested against any violence being employed ; that Louis the
Thirteenth admitted it only on the supposition that it would fa-
cilitate the conversion of the Negroes. The first person in Eng-
land who, as far as we can now learn, bore his public testimony
against Negro slavery, was a clergyman of the name of Godwyn,
who published a treatise on the subject, dedicated to the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury. About the same time, Mr. Baxter, an
eminent Nonconformist, reprobated, in his “Christian Directory,”
the cruelties practised towards the Negroes; and some other
writers followed in the same track. This was in the seventeenth
century; in the following century several travellers, poets, and
divines entered their protest against the iniquity of the system;
among the latter were Dr. Hayter Bishop of Norwich, the cele-
brated Bishop Warburton, and Dr. Samuel Johnson. But though
the names of these friends of the oppressed might crowd the pages
of a book, yet, when we consider the length of time and extent
of country over which they spread, they seem indeed “like
angels' visits, few and far between.”
At length appeared Granville Sharp, the morning star of
Negro freedom.
The planters and merchants had for some time been ac-
customed to bring slaves with them to England: many of these
ran away from their masters, and received the protection of the
inhabitants. As a notion was at this time generally prevalent,
that the Negroes, if baptized into the Christian faith, could not be
claimed as slaves, many of them applied to clergymen for bap-
tism ; and some responsible citizens of London became sponsors
on the occasion, who conceived themselves bound to defend the
Negroes' right to freedom in these circumstances. This gave
rise to frequent contentions; till at length, in 1729, the Attorney
and Solicitor General gave it as their opinion that a slave was
LECTURE IV. 125
not made free by coming to England, even though he should be
baptized. This, of course, gave boldness to the holders of slaves:
the British newspapers were defiled with advertisements for run-
away slaves, with their marks; and with notices of Negroes for
sale. In the year 1765, a poor Negro, of the name of Strong,
was so unmercifully beaten and ill used by his master that he was
rendered unfit for service, and in a helpless and crippled state
was turned adrift. Applying to Mr. Sharp's brother, a medical
gentleman of great humanity, Granville Sharp became ac-
quainted with him, and soon felt a lively interest in his fate. By
the kind attentions of these gentlemen he was restored to health
and comfort; and then the ruthless master, who, having reduced
him to the most deplorable condition by his barbarity, had
abandoned him, seized on him as his prey, to drag him on board
a ship for the West Indies. Granville Sharp espoused his
cause; a severe contest ensued, which terminated in the rescue
of the poor Negro. But, still, all who were engaged in the ad-
ministration of English law were strongly influenced by the high
authority of the Attorney and Solicitor General, who had pro-
nounced an opinion against the freedom of the slave; Mr. Sharp,
therefore, with a disinterested philanthropy gave himself up for
some years to the study of the legal question, and in 1769 pro-
duced a work on the subject, which was considered by some emi-
ment professional men to be decisive. Several sharp struggles
ensued, but the glowing zeal of his benevolence was not to be
damped by difficulties. At length, in the case of one Somerset,
after it had been argued in the courts of Westminster for three
sessions, in January, February, and May 1772, the memorable
decision was pronounced by the judges, that as soon as a slave
sets his foot on the English soil he becomes free. This was a
glorious triumph of humanity, after an arduous struggle of seven
years, commenced and carried on principally by a comparatively
obscure individual ;-an instructive example of what may be
achieved, in spite of the most formidable difficulties, by per-
severing and zealous efforts in a good cause: and the name of
Granville Sharp is enrolled in the imperishable annals of hu-
126 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
manity, surrounded by a brighter halo of glory than ever sur-
rounded the brows of an Alexander or a Caesar.
But though the genius of Britain thus drew a circle around
our native land, into which the fiend of slavery dared not to enter,
he was still permitted to riot in all his accustomed excesses from
the coasts of Africa to the West-India colonies. The second
period, however, will bring us to the year 1807, in which his
power received a considerable check. By the struggles and the
decision above mentioned, a deeper and more general interest
was excited in the fate of the oppressed Africans. Many, of
various ranks and parties and religious denominations, stood
boldly forward to plead their cause ; among whom may be
mentioned the venerable Mr. Wesley, who, while he was labour-
ing with unremitting zeal to free the minds of men from error
and vice, would have broken the fetters of the slave, and fully
recognised him as “a man and a brother.” The first person
who had the boldness and humanity to bring the subject before
the British Parliament, was Mr. David Hartley, member for
Hull (the son of the celebrated Dr. Hartley), who in 1776
denounced the iniquity of the slave-trade in the House of
Commons, and, having laid on the table some of the chains that
were used, moved that “the slave-trade was contrary to the
laws of God and the rights of men.” His motion was seconded
by Sir George Saville, member for Yorkshire.
One circumstance, which soon after produced a considerable
impression, was a suit brought against the underwriters for a loss
caused by the captain of a slave-ship throwing overboard one
hundred and thirty-two Negroes alive 1 This barbarous wretch
was not tried for the murder of these one hundred and thirty-
two human beings in cold blood; and were it not that his owners
attempted to recover their value from the underwriters, who
resisted the demand, this horrid transaction would have sunk
into oblivion, and these poor wretches might have gone, without
notice or pity, after the thousands that had perished in the
same manner, or in a way equally barbarous.
From a very early period the society of Friends did themselves
LECT U R E IV. 127
honour by espousing the cause of humanity, and in the most
public manner protesting against slavery and the slave-trade,
both in England and in America. By them was the first
association formed in favour of the slaves ; and by them was
the first petition presented to Parliament on this subject, in 1783.
The first town which sent up a petition against slavery was
Bridgewater, in 1784.
In the year last mentioned, Dr. Peckard, in a sermon preached
before the University of Cambridge, warmly advocated the
Negroes' cause ; and when he was Vice-chancellor of that
university he gave, in 1785, as a prize essay, the subject,
“Anne liceat invitos in servitutem dare 7° “Is it right to
make slaves of others against their will ?” Mr. Thomas Clarkson,
who had already obtained literary honours, engaged, with
youthful ambition, in a contest for this prize ; but while he was
collecting facts and circumstances to support his thesis, his mind
was so powerfully impressed as to allow him no rest, till at
length, with an elevated and generous devotion, he resolved on
giving up his time, his talents, his whole soul and body, to the
cause of Negro freedom. He was soon brought into contact
with many others whose minds were strongly excited on this
subject, and, among the rest, was introduced to Mr.Wilberforce,
a name dear to humanity, who pledged himself to bring the
matter forward in the House of Commons. On the 22d of May,
1787, a society was formed for the abolition of the slave trade.
From this period the labours of the Committee were great,
and the exertions of those who sought the abolition of this horrid
traffic were incessant. Mr. Clarkson travelled many thousands
of miles to collect information and procure evidence; many
appeals were made to the public and to the government by the
press; a deep interest was excited ; and an active and determin-
ed spirit of opposition was manifested. On the 9th of May
1788, Mr. Pitt, on account of the illness of Mr. Wilberforce,
brought the subject before Parliament: this was, however, only
to obtain a pledge to take it into early consideration during the
next session. Accordingly, in 1789 Mr. Wilberforce made his
128 LECTUR ES ON SLAVERY.
first motion relative to the slave trade, which met with great
opposition, and which was followed by very warm discussions in
the House.
The contest now became most animated, both in and out of
Parliament. On the one hand were the planters, the great slave
proprietors resident in England, the West-India merchants, the
African merchants, the slave captains, and all who gained their
living by this barbarous trade, and thought that their “craft was
in danger.” By these the most strenuous efforts were made to
defeat the measures of the abolitionists, and to retain their posi-
tion. Those who opposed the slave trade were denounced as
rash innovators, as mad enthusiasts: witnesses were found who
deposed before the House of Commons, not only as to the ne-
cessity, but the actual mercy and charity, of the slave trade :
the middle passage was declared to be the happiest time of a
Negro’s life, and his situation in the plantations as really en-
viable. The most fearful outcries were made of the danger of
parliamentary interference, and alarming representations were
industriously circulated of the certainty of the insurrection of
the Negroes and the massacre of all the White men, the ruin of
the colonies, and the irreparable injury which would be sustained
by our commerce and our navy. The injustice, further, of inter-
fering “with vested rights,” and destroying the property of
thousands to please the wild benevolence of fanatics, was loudly
denounced ; and, to intimidate the nation, compensation was
demanded to an amount so enormous as it was known could not
be given : in a word, all the means of a numerous and wealthy
body of men were put in requisition to prevent the cessation of
the most horribly cruel and iniquitous trade in which men
had ever engaged. -
On the other hand, all the friends of humanity, of freedom,
and of religion, were on the alert, and rallied round the standard
which the committee in London had reared ; Churchmen, and
Dissenters of every name; all ranks, from the prince to the
cottager, united their efforts. Witnesses were brought from
various parts of the kingdom, who had been residents in
L ECT U R E I V. 129
Africa or the West Indies; the press was kept constantly at
work, and information was circulated through the country in
every form : in short, every means that the ingenuity of benevo-
lence could suggest was zealously employed to hasten the ex-
tinction of this inhuman traffic.
But we cannot, consistently with our plan, enter into all the
particulars of this arduous struggle, or attempt to describe the
incessant exertions, the unwearied toils, the deep anxieties, the
hopes and fears, the successes and defeats, the encouragements
and despondency, which, as the tide of battle fluctuated, at-
tended this great contest. Sometimes, when the measure seemed
on the point of being carried, it was defeated by the dexterous
manoeuvring of the opponents; when it had with the greatest
difficulty passed the Commons, it was rejected by the Lords.
New enemies started forward in the ranks of opposition, and
new friends as unexpectedly arose: now the excitement of
public feeling, expended in fruitless efforts, seemed relapsing
into apathy; and now it was animated with redoubled zeal: one
while the friends of the injured African were ready to retire in
despair, and nothing appeared to be left to them but to weep
over sufferings and wrongs which they could not redress ; and
again they rallied their forces, girded on their armour, and rushed
to the breach : till at length, after a contest of twenty years,
victory declared on the side of humanity ". In 1807 a bill was
brought into the House of Lords for the abolition of the slave
trade, by Lord Grenville, then at the head of the administration ;
which, having passed, was introduced into the Commons by
Lord Howick, now Earl Grey : on the 25th of March it received
the royal signature. By this it was enacted that no slave should
be imported into our colonies after March 1, 1808+.
The next great movement in favour of Negro freedom was in
1823. This third period of our historical sketch embraces six-
teen years. By the important Act which abolished the slave
* For a particular account of this memorable struggle, see Clarkson's “History
of the Abolition of the Slave Trade,” 2 vols. 8vo. &
+ The United States abolished the slave trade about the same time.
S
130 LECT U R ES O'N S L A V E R Y .
trade, the cruelties perpetrated in Africa, with all the horrors
of the passage to the colonies, ceased, so far as the British were
concerned. This was indeed considered as a glorious achieve-
ment of benevolence. But still no reparation was made to those
who had been the victims of acknowledged cruelty and injustice:
they were left to suffer all the wrongs and miseries which had
been inflicted on them under the sanction of the British nation.
The law made no provision for those who were actually suf-
fering ; it was only a preventive measure. The Negroes were
recognised as stolen property, as a people “robbed and spoiled,”
but not the least effort was made towards restitution: this seemed
such a stretch of justice, as even the friends of the Negroes
dared not ask, and were almost afraid to name. Great as was
the triumph gained over brutal cruelty and sordid avarice and in-
justice, it is humiliating to human nature to reflect, that the furthest
point to which the tardy justice of a Christian nation could go,
was to refrain from the most impious and systematic barbarities
which the world ever witnessed, without advancing a single
step towards a reparation of the wrongs they had committed.
The act of plunder was denominated infamous, but the prey was
retained It was soon after declared by the legislature felonious,
and at length piratical, to make the Negroes slaves; but to keep
those in slavery who had suffered the wrong was permitted as a
thing lawful and right!
The principal occurrence of the period now under considera-
tion was, that at the Congress of Vienna, in 1815, the repre-
sentatives of all the great powers of Europe declared the slave
trade to be inhuman, immoral, and unjust, and pledged them-
selves to effect its universal abolition. It is deeply to be re-
gretted that this pledge has not been redeemed : up to this
period, though Spain and Portugal and France have declared
slave-trading to be illegal, they still dishonour themselves by
conniving at the continuance of this odious traffic. France, in
1814, had pledged herself to the termination of this trade in
five years : upon the return of Napoleon from Elba, he at once
pronounced it abolished : on the restºration of Louis XVIII, a
LECTUR. H. IV. 131
similar decree was passed : yet to this hour no effective measures
have been adopted to secure its operation ; it is still, and that
with the knowledge of the French government, carried on by
that nation to a great extent *. -
During the twenty years' struggle for the abolition of the
slave trade, the monstrous evils of the slave system, as it existed
in the West Indies, were brought under notice; and one great
reason why the friends of the Negroes did not at once direct
their attention to the entire and immediate abolition of slavery,
as well as of the slave trade, was, that they believed, that, when a
further importation of Negroes was impracticable, such would
be the improvement in the treatment of those already domesti-
cated in the colonies, that their condition would be greatly ame-
liorated, and a certain, though gradual, extinction of slavery itself
would follow. In this, however, the abolitionists subsequently
found that they were greatly mistaken. Year after year passed
away without any material improvement in the state of slavery,
or any satisfactory ground to hope for the final extinction of
that oppressive system ; and at length the conviction was forced
upon them, that nothing but Parliamentary interference could
afford any hope of essential benefit to the slaves, or hold out
any prospect of the termination of their wretched bondage. In
order to accomplish this object, a Society was formed, under the
patronage and presidency of his Royal Highness the Duke of
Gloucester, comprising, among others, various members of both
Houses of Parliament, and all the surviving leaders in the last
great contest. A full exposition of the actual state of slavery
at that time in the British colonies having been laid before the
public in various works t, the almost immediate result was the
presentation of numerous petitions to Parliament, which, had
time permitted, would have been greatly multiplied. On the
* This was written before the recent revolution, which has produced the ex-
pulsion of the Bourbons from France, The prospects opened by this event, in
respect to slavery and the slave trade, are consoling to humanity. -
t Among many others may be mentioned pamphlets by Mr. Wilberforce,
Mr. Clarkson, and Mr. Macaulay, followed by Mr. Stephen's more elaborate
work, entitled “Delineation of Negro Slavery.”
132 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
15th of May, 1823, Mr. Buxton brought forward in the House
of Commons the following resolution, “That the state of slavery
is repugnant to the principles of the British Constitution and
of the Christian Religion; and that it ought to be gradually abo-
lished throughout the British dominions, with as much expe-
dition as may be consistent with a due regard to the well-being
of the parties concerned.” - - - - -
Mr. Buxton in the course of his speech signified, that, if his
motion were adopted, it was his intention to follow it up with
certain measures, which he then generally stated. The object of
them was, First, to ameliorate the present condition of the
slaves; and with this view to consider them no longer as
chattels in the eye of the law ; to render their testimony
admissible in courts of law ; to confer upon them rights of
property ; to give the presumption of freedom to the Negro,
and to place the burden of proof on those who claim him
as a slave ; to remove existing obstructions to manumission;
to abolish the inter-colonial slave-trade; to restrain arbitrary
punishments, and to abolish the driving system ; to give a legal
sanction to the marriages of slaves; to provide for them effectual
religious instruction; to give them Sunday exclusively for repose
and worship, and to allow them other sufficient time to cultivate
their provision grounds and attend the market; and to prevent
any slave-owner from being appointed a governor, judge, or
attorney-general in any slave colony. Secondly, to make pro-
vision for the emancipation of the present race of slaves (a pro-
vision which, it must be confessed, fell far below the claims of
those injured people on the justice, to say nothing of the hu-
manity, of the British nation), by enabling the slave to purchase
his freedom, by the payment at once of a fair price for his re-
demption, or of a fifth part of that price at a time, in return for
an additional day in the week to be employed for his own
benefit, till he might be enabled to purchase the whole. Thirdly,
to prevent the slavery of their future race, by fixing a day
after which all their children should be born free.
Mr. Canning, on the part of his Majesty's government, pro-
LECTURE IV. + 133
posed, as a substitute for Mr. Buxton's motion, the Resolutions
which have been already specified *, which were, after much dis-
cussion, passed without any division; Mr. Canning having in-
timated his willingness to adopt almost all the ameliorations in
the present condition of the slaves which had been suggested by
Mr. Buxton. The resolutions, however, were not passed without
a strong protest, on the part of Mr. Buxton and his friends, against
confiding, as Mr. Canning stated to be his intention, the work
of amelioration to the colonial authorities.—Thus passed these
famous Resolutions, with the express concurrence of the West
Indians then in Parliament, but with distinct expressions of dis-
trust of their efficacy by the abolitionists, whom experience had
convinced that the plan proposed by Mr. Canning, of referring
the work of reform to the colonial assemblies, would lead to
no beneficial results. But, however deficient those Resolutions
might have proved in doing justice to an injured people, and in
making reparation for their cruel wrongs, there were certain
important points gained by them, which must not be overlooked.
If the strong-hold of slavery was not carried, some positions
were obtained in advance, of great importance to future opera-
tions. It was admitted, by the unanimous voice of Parliament,
that the slaves were his Majesty's subjects, and that their con-
dition required the interference of the British Parliament.
Parliament also, by its resolutions, pledged itself to the final
abolition of slavery.
The fourth period of our historical sketch brings us down to
the present time, and includes the seven years which have
elapsed since the resolutions of 1823 were adopted.
As no doubt was at that time entertained of the sincerity of
his Majesty’s ministers, a strong and general hope was excited
that the severities of the slave system would be at once greatly
mitigated, and that at some future, and not distant, period
freedom would be conferred on the slaves. The carrying of
these Resolutions into effect was, therefore, at the request
of the ministers of the Crown, left to them. They were, how-
-1–
* Page 21.
134 LECTU R. ES ON SLA V E R Y.
ever, warned, by those who well knew the inveteracy of colonial
despotism, against trusting to the legislation of slave-owners for
any effectual relief on behalf of those whom they held in
bondage; but, to obviate the fears of those who sighed over the
prospect of the delay which was to be apprehended in relieving
the miseries of their enslaved fellow-creatures, it was intimated
in Parliament, by Mr. Canning himself, in terms sufficiently plain
and strong, that, should the colonies refuse to adopt the mea-
sures of reform which would be urged upon them, proper steps
should be taken to compel them to do so.-The wishes of Go-
vernment on the subject were speedily forwarded to the colonial
authorities ; and they were called upon, in the most distinct and
urgent manner, to introduce forthwith into their slave codes such
enactments as should secure the proposed reforms. But,
instead of receiving with becoming respect the mild and con-
ciliatory overtures of the British government, the colonies with
one voice, as had been anticipated by the abolitionists, rejected
the propositions in the most peremptory manner, and that in a
way, in many instances, highly insulting to the mother country.
The speeches delivered on the occasion, in some of their legis-
lative assemblies, were of the most violent description; and the
colonial journals indulged in outrageous abuse, not only of those
22
whom they considered as “abolitionists,” to whom every term
of contempt was applied which their rage and malignity could
suggest, but also of his Majesty’s ministers themselves. In De-
merara a disturbance arose among the slaves, who, though they
committed no serious act of violence, and only, as far as it
appears, suspended their labour in order to inquire and ascer-
tain from the Governor what was the relief to which they sup-
posed they were entitled by the instructions of the Crown,
yet were declared to be in a state of rebellion, and, while
endeavouring to negociate with the military officers, were fired
upon : many were slain; many more were taken or dispersed;
and the rest soon submitted to the means employed to quell
them. Some of them were hung, and others condemned to receive
a thousand lashes and to work in chains for life; and, to com-
plete the catastrophe, a holy and devoted missionary, by a trial
L ECTUR E IV. 135
which was a mockery of justice, was sentenced to a traitor's
death. Plots also were pretended to be discovered in Jamaica,
among the slaves, for rising on the White men, and, by a
proceeding so shameless that even the West-India proprietors
in Parliament concurred in reprobating it, were many unfor-
tunate Negroes condemned and hung.
In the midst of the opposition and clamour of the colonies,
an Order in Council was framed, in March 1824, for the Island of
Trinidad, embodying many of the proposed measures of reform,
but wholly omitting some that were most material, and in
others falling short of the plans originally contemplated, and even
promised, by Government. But even in Trinidad, a colony
wholly dependent on the Crown, the colonists refused their
concurrence, until a peremptory mandate from the Sovereign
leaving them no alternative, obliged them to submit implicitly to
the regulations laid down in the Order of Council. The other
Crown colonies were required to conform to it; but their compliance
was so hesitating and imperfectthat years were wasted in frivolous
discussions and injurious concessions.—To the colonies having
legislatures of their own, this Order was held out as a model for
their imitation, and was strenuously urged on their adoption; but
the recommendation was met either by an absolute refusal, or by
a partial, evasive, and ineffective compliance. Thus the work
of reform proceeded with all possible slowness. In the Houses
of Assembly the ordinary language was that of bluster and de-
fiance; even threats of asserting their independence were fre-
quently thrown out; and as for those modifications of their
slave code, which they condescended most reluctantly to intro-
duce, though lauded, by the colonists abroad and by West-India
proprietors at home, as monuments of benevolence, they bear so
many evident traces of injustice, oppression, and cruelty, as
clearly to establish the fact of the utter incompetency of slave-
owners to legislate for the extinction of slavery.
In 1824 Mr. Brougham brought forward the case of the
missionary Smith, and held up the conduct of the authorities of
Demerara in this nefarious transaction to the just execration of
136 L ECT U R ES O N S L A V E R Y.
mankind. Mr. Denman subsequently exposed to the British
Parliament the shameful administration of justice in Jamaica,
by which many unfortunate Negroes were condemned to suffer
death ; and Dr. Lushington, Mr. Buxton, and others, also ex-
posed with great ability and effect, at different times, various acts
of colonial oppression. Information on the state of things in the
colonies, derived principally from documents laid beforé Par-
liament, continued to be circulated among the public ; and in
1826 the people again raised their voice, and by very numerous
petitions remonstrated with Parliament on the total inefficiency
of all the measures hitherto adopted. Nothing effective, how-
ever, has as yet been done. A few (so called) meliorating provi-
sions have been adopted by some of the chartered colonies ; but
they are, in general, of little or no value, either from the want of
the subsidiary or corresponding provisions requisite to give them
effect, or from the absence of all adequate sanctions to ensure their
execution. For the regulation of the Crown colonies, an order
in council, consolidating all former orders into one, was issued in
February of the present year *, and exhibits a sketch of the
measures of reform which Government is prepared to enforce
on the Crown colonies, and to recommend, but only to recommend,
to the legislative adoption of the rest. -
The amount of all that has yet been done, in consequence of
the Resolutions of 1823, may be thus stated:—In those colonies
where the Crown has undeniable and full power to legislate,
and to do all for the enslaved population which justice and hu-
manity dictate, only the following reforms are to be introduced :
No slave-owner can fill the office of protector, though he may
that of assistant-protector : Sunday markets are abolished, but
no time is given in lieu of Sunday, either for markets or provision
grounds : the use of the driving whip in the field is prohibited:
the flogging of females is discontinued: arbitrary punishment
by the master or his delegate is restricted to twenty-five lashes :
punishments on plantations are to be recorded: the marriage of
* Just about the time these Lectures were first delivered.
LECT U R E I V. - 137
slaves is legalized, with a saving clause respecting the owner's
rights to the slave's wife and children: slave property is protected :
families are not to be separated by sale: the enslaved Negro has
a right to purchase his freedom whenever he has the power, but
under some unnecessary and absurd restrictions: slave testimony
is admitted: slaves are not to be punished for complaining, un-
less a magistrate considers their motive culpable.—Such is the
whole that Government, even where their power of legislation
is uncontrouled, seem disposed to do for the oppressed and in-
jured slave. And even with respect to the reforms actually
adopted, they leave the great mass of evil still remaining ; while
it is to be feared, that, as the administration of the ameliorating
laws is still to a great extent in the hands of the slave owners,
their full benefit will not be secured. And although the officer
who is appointed the chief Protector must not himself possess
slaves, yet, as he constantly resides among slave owners, and
lives on terms of hospitality with them, I have not, I confess,
such faith in human nature as to believe that he will not imbibe
such a portion of their prejudices as will operate to the serious
disadvantage of the unhappy Negroes.
In the Chartered Colonies very much less has been done than
in the Crown Colonies. Two of them have abolished Sunday
markets, but without securing other time for marketing and
labour. In two or three of the colonies, the driving whip, in
the field or for punishment, has been replaced by the cat; and
females, when flogged, are to be flogged decently. The power of
arbitrary punishments still generally extends to thirty-nine lashes
at one time, but in a few small colonies is limited to twenty-five.
Slave marriages are authorized, but encumbered with many most
unreasonable impediments. Slave property is still without any
efficient protection. The regulations introduced to prevent the
separation of families by sale, are wholly inadequate to their end.
Slave testimony is admitted only in two colonies : in the others
it is so fettered with conditions as to render it of no benefit to
the slave. In one colony the presumption of the law is in
favour of freedom.——Such then, after seven years of expostula-
T
138 LECTUR ES ON SLA V ERY.
tion and remonstrance on the part of the British government,
of anxious expectation on the part of the people, and of refusal
and evasion on the part of the colonies, is the result of all that
has been done for the suppression of this murderous system, or
for the relief of those whom it unjustly holds in bondage 1 All
the worst features, therefore, of this degrading slavery still remain,
to criminate all who engage in it, and all who tolerate and
sanction it. Compulsory and severe labour, uncompensated
toil, a constant liability to dreadful lacerations at the will of the
owner or manager, and the probability of a severe flogging for
even attempting to seek redress, are common to all these colonies.
In most of them, families may still be sold in different lots, and
separated for ever; females may be flogged in a cruel and in-
decent manner ; grievous obstacles are thrown in the way of
slave marriages; a slave has no right to purchase his freedom,
even if he should have the means ; his evidence against a white
or free man is not received ; and his property is destitute of all
legal security. In not one of the colonies is effectual legal
provision made for the education or religious instruction of the
slaves or their children; no day is given to them instead of
Sunday, to labour for themselves, so as to secure an oppor-
tunity for rest and holy worship on that day. They are, in fact,
still degraded from the rank of human beings; possessed as
chattels; claimed as “property in fee;” worked, and whipped,
and sold, privately or by auction, at the master's pleasure ; and
they constitute an article of traffic, as much as cattle *. In
short, all the boasted ameliorations of colonial law leave the
poor slave suffering the bitterest wrongs from his oppressors,
deprived of man's dearest rights, ignorant, and brutalized, with
no motive to exertion but fear, and with no hope of seeing
better days but from the determined and persevering exertions
of British benevolence.
* For a particular statement of the reforms actually and professedly made in
our slave colonies, see Anti-Slavery Reporter, Nos. 11, 21, 28–34, 38, 52, 58;
also the Examination of an Abstract of the British West-Indian Statutes for the
Protection and Government of Slaves published by the West-India Body, in the
Anti-Slavery Reporter, No. 61, and No. 65, p. 369.
L EGTU R E 1 W. 139
Let us now take a practical view of the question, and inquire
what is the duty of the friends of religion and humanity re-
specting their enslaved fellow-creatures and fellow-subjects.
We should, in the first place, cherish a lively sympathy for
them. It is sufficient to entitle them to this, that they are suffer-
ing human beings. That man is certainly not to be envied
who can hear unmoved of the distress of a fellow-creature, of
whatever clime or colour he may be. Can he make any preten-
tions to Christianity who is destitute of its benevolence and ten-
derness : Let the sentiment of a heathen rebuke him : “I am a
man : whatever pertains to a human being interests me.” He
scarcely deserves the name of man who cannot give his sympathy
to distress, or drop a tear over suffering humanity. But those
for whom we are now pleading have additional claims, they are
our fellow-subjects. We live under a government which secures
our freedom, but rivets the chains of slavery on them ; which
takes away from them the very blessings which it is the chief end
of government to secure to all. While that government care-
fully protects our persons and our property, it gives to ano-
ther the Negro's labour, the Negro's wife and children, the
property in his own body and limbs; and by legal enactments
authorizes the wanton or capricious laceration of his flesh, and
recognises him as a saleable article *. But not only are they
fellow-creatures and fellow-subjects, but they owe all the mise-
ries under which they groan, all the wrongs which they suffer, to
the British nation. By whom were they first deprived of liberty 2
By British slave-dealers or their agents. And how were they
transported from their native Africa to our colonies 2 In British
ships, by British sailors. By whom are they now bought and
sold and worked and flogged ? By British slave-owners, or their
deputies. By whom is a considerable portion of those wretched
beings possessed? By British nobles, and senators, and merchants,
by men much of whose wealth has been extracted from the unpaid
* See the Consolidated Act for the Crown colonies.
140 LECT U R ES ON SLA V E R Y.
toil of Negro slaves. There is, then, no class of sufferers in the
British dominions who have stronger claims on our sympathy.
There are some who affect to ridicule the sensibility of those
who mourn over the Negro's wrongs. I pity such, whether the
fault is in their understanding or their heart. Are the charities
of our nature to be guided by the colour of the skin 2 Does not
a human heart beat in his bosom and human blood flow in his
veins 2 Has he not the affections and antipathies, the joys and
sorrows, the hopes and fears, which are common to humanity 2
Is he not a man, possessing rational faculties, and an immortal
soul capable of being prepared for all the blessedness of heaven :
But the enslaved Negroes are sometimes represented as de-
graded to a point below our sympathy. And how are they so
degraded, but by that debasing system which prevents the intro-
duction of knowledge to the understanding, which obstructs the
exercise of every virtuous affection, and which inflicts on their
minds injuries more serious and deplorable than even those
which their bodies suffer ? On this account, therefore, they are
entitled to the greater commiseration.
Let it not be stated, as a plea for apathy, that the story of the
Negro's sufferings has been oft repeated, and is now grown
stale. Is it not the continuance of their wrongs, still unre-
dressed, that occasions this repetition : And is this to diminish
our sympathy : Are our feelings of commiseration to be in an
inverse ratio to their sufferings : How unchristian, how despi-
cable, is that selfishness, which turns away from the considera-
tion of the miseries of others—like the priest and the Levite,
who, to spare themselves the pain of feeling for the wounded
Samaritan and the trouble of helping him, “passed by on the
other side.” God has given the power of sympathy to man,
that every sufferer might have an advocate in the heart of his
fellow-creature ; and he who attempts to repress his sympathies,
or who does not allow them their proper play, sins against the
law of his nature, and endeavours to frustrate the kind inten-
tions of his Creator. We must not allow our charity to be
exhausted while a sufferer remains. By cherishing a lively
LECTURE 1 V. 141
commiseration in our own minds, others will catch the emotion,
and that general and powerful fellow-feeling will be produced,
in which alone, under God, the help of the Negro is placed.
There is one thing, however, which has a considerable ten-
dency to prevent that strong and general sentiment of com-
passion for the enslaved population of our colonies which their
unhappy condition claims: it is the distance to which the place
of their bondage and of their sufferings is removed from us.
Slavery would not have been endured so long, had the scene of
its mischiefs been nearer to England. That which is near ge-
nerally affects us more sensibly than that which is remote; and
in proportion to the distance of any scene of action or of
suffering, we seem to lose the impression of its reality. But this
is an illusion. There lie the West-India islands on the bosom
of the ocean, in all their beauty; and the same sun which shines
on us lights them up with a still more glorious splendour: while
there, as truly, do all the unspeakable miseries of slavery spread
their gloomy shadows over the thousands of our race who inhabit
them. What though the depths of the Atlantic roll between us
and the plantations, and their gangs, and their drivers, and all their
degrading apparatus of brutal coercion; are these colonial scenes,
therefore, merely ideal & Endeavour to dispel the illusion, and
to give to them their living reality. While you are enjoying the
blessings of freedom, think of those who are toiling in bondage.
While the holy pleasures and calm repose of the Christian Sab-
bath are delighting and refreshing your spirits, let your thoughts
revert to those to whom it brings no rest; who are toiling on
their plantation grounds for a scanty subsistence, or busily occu-
pied in the Sunday market. While you behold your children
with all the fondness of parental affection, and form your plans
for their future welfare, oh think on those whose infants are
born to the sad inheritance of slavery ; who belong not to their
parents, but to their masters; whom neither a father's love nor a
mother’s fondness can rescue from the iron grasp of oppression.
Think on their unrequited toil, their constant exposure to cruel
punishments and brutal insults. Think of the deep degradation
142 LECTUR ES ON SL A V E R Y e
to which these human beings, heirs with yourselves of immor-
tality, are reduced ; spoiled of all their rights, and suffering in-
tolerable wrongs. And, in realizing with compassion and tender-
ness their unhappy condition, you will obey the injunction of
the Divine word, “Remember them that are in bonds, as bound
with them.” -
And if their claims to commiseration are thus just and strong,
they certainly are entitled to something more—to those prompt
and decisive efforts on their behalf which shall cause their
sufferings to cease. And it is most certain, that if you, the Bri-
tish public, do not act, nothing effectual will be done to this end.
To talk of trusting to the planters so to ameliorate the condition
of the slaves as to prepare them for emancipation, is the wildest
folly : it is to suppose them to act contrary to all their preju-
dices, and habits, and imagined interests; it is out of the course
of nature. Can slave-owners be expected voluntarily to adopt
regulations which shall diminish their own power, lessen the dis-
tance between them and their slaves, and prepare the Negroes
to be as free as themselves? What excise laws should we have,
if it were left to smugglers to frame them : And do not the
proceedings of the colonial legislatures fully justify all that has
been said of their incompetency 2 What were the laws which
existed in these colonies before the investigations of Parliament
in 1788, but a libel on legislation and a disgrace to human na-
ture ? In some of them, while the enslaved Negro must not lift
a hand in his defence against wanton cruelty, or even to save his
own life, the most barbarous mutilations inflicted on a slave, nay,
even his murder, was only punishable by small fines and imprison-
ment. Look even at the meliorating acts, which have been passed
since the iniquity of the system was brought to light and the
public voice raised against it, and they will shew how little is to
be expected from slave-holding legislators. And have even
these worthless reforms been voluntary 7 All the ameliorations,
every degree of improvement in the legal condition of the
slaves, have been wrung from them, like drops of blood, by the
voice of the British people, the resolutions of Parliament, and
L ECTUR E IV. I43
the fear that, if something were not conceded, all would be lost.
Allow me to repeat the appropriate language of an illustrious
statesman, now no more, which, often as it has been quoted,
will never cease to be repeated while slavery exists. “Trust
not the masters of slaves in what concerns legislation for slavery.
However specious their laws may appear, depend upon it they
must be ineffectual in their operations. It is in the nature of
things that they should be so. . . . Let, then, the British House of
Commons do their part themselves. Let them not delegate the
trust of doing it to those who cannot execute that trust fairly.
Let the evil be remedied by an assembly of free-men, by the go-
vernment of a free people, and not by the masters of slaves.
Their laws can never reach, could never cure the evil”.”
But let us not attempt to justify our inactivity by referring
the matter exclusively to Government, or leaving it with Par-
liament. What measure of popular liberty has the Government
ever adopted uninfluenced by the people : What step has it ever
taken on behalf of the slaves, till it has been called upon again
and again by the voice of the public : If it is true that the
people can do nothing in this business without Parliament, it is,
perhaps, equally true, that Parliament will do nothing in it with-
out the people. What put an end to the slave trade 2 What .
produced the resolutions of 1823: What has effected the few
reforms which have taken place? Not the spontaneous move-
ments of the planters abroad, or of the legislature at home, but
the strong feeling of the people of England. It is to the
generous sympathy and energetic efforts of the British public,
that 800,000 unfortunate slaves are now looking, as their
only hope.
But what is the object, the great and principal object, to
which our efforts should be directed 7 Should it be amelioration,
or abolition ? To render their slavery less miserable, or to abolish
slavery altogether ? On this point, every principle of justice,
every feeling of humanity, every dictate of religion, are all
* Mr. Canning's speech in 1799, on the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
144 I, ECTUR. ES ON S L A V E R Y.
in unison, and say “Let this abomination cease: seek the ea-
tinction of slavery, and seek nothing less.” Every feeling
heart must be gratified when the amount of human suffering is in
any degree lessened; every pious and virtuous mind must rejoice
at the diminution of the power and extent of vice: but to aim at
the removal of but a part of these evils, would be a defective be-
nevolence, a spurious piety. What should we think of that
man’s morality, who should persuade a drunkard to get in-
toxicated not quite so often, or not quite so deeply ; a high-
wayman, to rob with less violence ; or a swindler, to cheat in
smaller sums ? Whatever may be the policy of the world,
Christianity makes no compromise with vice, will admit of no
partial abandonment of sin : it demands that it be removed
at once, and for ever, though it be as dear and as profitable
as a “right eye” or “a right hand.” And is not this a
Christian nation ? And is not slavery a sin 7 Is it not cruel
oppression, foul injustice, and flagrant crime? Shall we, then,
seek merely to mend it ! Modify slavery as you will, as
long as slavery exists it is an evil which ought not to be en-
dured. As long as one man is permitted to make his fellow-
creature an article of sale ; to claim a property in him, his
wife and children, and all their descendants ; as long as he can
buy, and possess, and work as cattle, a hundred or a thousand
human beings, as much the creatures of God, as much entitled
to the blessings of redeeming mercy, as much the heirs of im-
mortality, as himself; so long wickedness and injustice will con-
tinue the curse and condemnation of the system. The question
is, comparatively, of small importance, how much or how little of
bodily suffering it produces; it is an essential, an incurable
evil : it is like the house, under the Mosaic economy, in which
the “fretting leprosy" was found, the cleansing and repairing
of which were vain; the pestilent infection of which endangered
not only its inmates but the whole community; which, therefore,
whatever remonstrance was made, whatever loss might be sus-
tained, was destined, not to gradual dilapidation, but to com-
plete and speedy demolition.
LECTURE I W. - 145
But it is objected, by the friends of slavery, that this would be
an unjustifiable interference with “vested rights,” and with pro-
perty legally possessed. And what are those rights : The right to
do wrong with impunity the right of one man to take away the
rights of another | Was ever language so preposterously mis-
applied ?—And what is this property 2 The body and limbs of a
man—the wives and children of other men! The very claim is
impious. These boasted rights are flagrant wrongs; this pro-
perty is the forcible and fraudulent possession of what belongs
to another. God gave the Negro, life, and limbs, and facul-
ties, to provide for himself and his offspring : what right
have any to set up an adverse claim : What title could the
African kidnapper or the European slave-captain give 7–But
“the statutes of Parliament have recognised this property.” We
have before proved that no human enactment can render that
right which is in itself wrong; and that no law is of any validity
which is contrary to the law of nature. If, therefore, the British
Parliament, unacquainted with the real state of the case, or influ-
enced by interested men, has committed a mistake in legisla-
tion, is that any reason why it should persist in its error?
If, by allowing one class of his Majesty’s subjects to enslave ano-
ther class, the Parliament has done wrong, the sooner it retraces
its steps the better. If it has by erroneous legislation recog-
nised a property which cannot exist, and the exercise of a power
which violates all justice, human and divine; is it to be prevented
from a return to rectitude by the complaints of those who have
taken advantage of its errors to oppress their fellow-men? The
injustice consists in the enactment of such statutes, not in their
repeal; the wrong lies in permitting its subjects to hold slaves,
not in withdrawing that permission. What deference should
we pay to laws framed by any of the Barbary states to perpe-
tuate the bondage of those whom their piracies had enslaved 2
What sympathy should we have with the swarthy tyrants who
should complain of their losses if the victims of their despotism
were rescued from their grasp 2 With what emotions should we
hear them talk of their “vested rights,” and of “property recog-
U
146 LECTUR ES ON SL A V E R Y.
mised by law " Do, then, the essential principles of justice
vary with geographical position; or do virtue and vice depend on
the colour of a man’s skin?
But if the Negroes are liberated, full compensation, it is said,
must be given to the slave-owners. As this is a subject on which
considerable difference of opinion exists, let me devote a few
moments to a dispassionate consideration of it. Perhaps it will
be found in this, as in most cases, that truth lies between the
extremes. The amount of indemnification which some claim
on behalf of the planter, as necessary to satisfy the claims of
justice, is most enormous; is more, perhaps, than all the slave
colonies are worth. The object in making these extravagant
demands is, in all probability, to deter a people already labouring
under the pressure of an immense national debt from prosecut-
ing a work of benevolence which would cost them so dear. This
is no new expedient; its effect was tried when the abolition of
the slave trade was in agitation. There are those, on the other
hand, who totally reject these claims, on any ground. The prin-
ciple on which compensation is claimed by the advocates of the
colonists is, that when by a legal enactment any are deprived of
their property, or a portion of it, provision is always made
for full indemnification :-if a man's house be taken down, or his
garden be appropriated to the object of the enactment, compen-
sation is provided as a matter of course.—But in all such cases
there is this important difference; the property is of a kind which
it is presumed has been lawfully acquired and possessed, and the
enjoyment of which is no infraction of the rights of others. But
this cannot be said of the assumed property in human beings. In
property the possession of which implies any breach of morality,
or which was acquired by unjust means, there is no recognition of
the principle of indemnification. If a person by force or fraud
becomes possessed of an estate, he is always liable to be called
upon for restitution: he has no title. If he sellitor bequeath it, the
transfer does not create a title: the purchaser buys it at a hazard.
If it pass through a hundred hands, the original owner, or his
legal representative, has still a claim ; and the law, when ap-
$
Lecture iv. - TA7
pealed to, compels restitution, without any indemnification to
him who has come into the possession of the property with a
defective title *. Now the possession of slaves is a tenure of
this kind: there can be no title; nothing can supply the original
deficiency. If the law at any time recognised it, it was a
mistake, and in that case recantation is a virtue. The pro-
perty in question is the Negro's body; the rightful claimant
still lives; and if the restitution is made which justice demands,
the loss, in the natural course of things, falls on those who have
speculated in this unholy traffic, or who inherit the fruits of
their ancestors' misdoings; and it is thus that Providence
sometimes visits “the sins of the fathers upon the children to
the third and fourth generation.” The Parliament of Britain
has made the acknowledgment, in the face of the world, that
the manner in which the Negroes were made slaves was felo-
nious, and that, of course, those who were enslaved suffered un-
speakable wrongs; but it stopped short, when it should have
gone on. By the abolition of the slave trade it so far “ceased to
do evil,” but in omitting to make restitution it proved that it had
not yet sufficiently “learned to do well:” it prohibited the en-
slaving of any more Negroes, with the exception of the new-born
infants of black British subjects, but provided no reparation for
*
* The planters seem fully to understand and to act on this principle, however
they might object to its application when it makes against them. In the new
slave law of Barbadoes is an enactment to this effect:–$$ 25, 26. Any white,
free person, or slave, buying of a slave stolen goods, knowing them to be stolen,
shall be punished as the actual stealer would be. And if any stolen goods are
found in the possession of any white or free person, or slave, although it can-
not be proved that it was with the knowledge of their being stolen, yet such
person, if a white or free person, shall be proceeded against as receivers of
stolen goods are proceeded against in England, and shall be taken and deemed
and punished as accessary to the felony after the fact. Now, substitute the
term persons, for goods, and how will the case stand with reference to the Negroes?
Then the holders of slaves nust be proceeded against as the receivers of stolen
goods are in England—that is, in the first place, restitution is made of all the
property which remains,without a thought about compensation; in the next place,
condign punishment follows. We ask only for restitution of what remains of
about two millions of Negro slaves stolen, and purchased knowing them to be
stolen: as for the punishment, we leave it to their consciences who have com-
mitted the wrong, and to a Higher Tribunal.
148 LECTUREs on SLAVERY. -
those who had already been grievously wronged : they were
left to suffer all the injuries arising from a deprivation of their
dearest rights. It is not, then, strictly on the ground of right or
justice that the planters can claim indemnification, since the
releasing of their slaves is only a restitution of that which was
wickedly acquired, and could never be lawfully possessed. But
there is a party which, on the very highest grounds, claims
compensation—it is the injured Negro. The present generation
have most of them a just claim to remuneration for years of
hard and unrequited labour; and all of them are entitled to it for
all the miseries of mind and body which their enslaved condition
has entailed on them, and because they are the just representa-
tives of all the wrongs which their fathers suffered, of the
thousands and tens of thousands that perished on the African
coast and in the middle passage, and of the hundreds of thou-
sands who found a premature grave in the colonies through ex-
cessive labour and cruel treatment.
But there is another view which may be taken of the case.
The planters do not stand alone in the guilt of the system. There
are three parties,—the sufferer, the aggressor, and the abettor.
The first thing to be considered is, in all justice, the repa-
ration of the wrongs of the sufferer—compensation to the Negro.
He should not only be liberated, but every possible care is
owed to him, to instruct his mind, to elevate his character, and
to put him in possession of the blessings of Christianity. This is
the only atonement we can make to those who have suffered so
much from British injustice.—In the next place, here is a party
by whom the wrongs have been inflicted and perpetuated. From
them, every thing is required that can indemnify the Negro for
his long bondage, and his unjust deprivation of almost all human
rights. They may complain of the loss attending restitution; so
would the purchasers of stolen property; but boldly to claim
such an indemnification, as though their dealings and doings had
been most virtuous, and their property most justly acquired and
possessed, is intolerable.—There is, however, a third party, to
LECTURE I V. . 149
which they may reasonably look; and that is, the British Par-
liament, which by its sanction became an abettor of the
injustice, and a participator in the guilt; and, inasmuch as the
nation also has encouraged and upheld the system by the pur-
chase and consumption of slave produce, the people of England
cannot be considered as entirely free from being “partakers of
other men's sins.” Let, then, these two parties, the slave-
holders and the British nation, share the loss, in what propor-
tions the Parliament may in its wisdom think fit; or, in other
words, let such an indemnification be given to the planters as
Parliament may deem to be just. And there is no national
expense which could be incurred, which the people would
bear more cheerfully than that which might attend an act of
justice and humanity for which, with the exception of interested
persons, the whole kingdom is sighing.
We have, we think satisfactorily, proved that it is the duty
of British Christians to seek the abolition, and not merely the
amelioration of slavery. Another important inquiry now occurs:
Should we aim at the gradual or the immediate emancipation of the
enslaved Negroes 2 There are advocates for each of these modes
of accomplishing the great object. The following is a brief sum-
mary of the arguments on either side. It must, however, be
premised, that this is a question not between the friends of
slavery and the advocates of Negro freedom, but between those
who are alike convinced of the essential and monstrous evils of
the present system, and are desirous of effecting its complete
extinction ; who all agree that Negro slavery is a violation of
man's dearest rights, and contrary to the principles of Chris-
tianity. But while all admit the principle of the Negro's right
to freedom, not at some distant time, but now, many of their
ablest advocates have taken such a view of the difficulties of the
case as has led them to prefer some plan of gradual abolition,
more or less speedy. Let us first notice the grounds on which
they proceed, and then briefly advert to the plans which have
been proposed. e
It is said, that as the arrangements which it will be necessary
150 LECTUREs on slav ERY.
to enter into with the planters will involve considerable pecuniary
sacrifices, by a gradual mode of proceeding the difficulty arising
from this cause will be diminished. To this it is replied, that as
the nation has already paid dearly for the share it has had in the
guilt of slavery, in what it has cost to support the colonial mono-
poly, the compensation which the planters are entitled to expect,
on account of the sanction which the British Parliament has
given to their practices, is considerably lessened : and further,
that if in the continuance of this system there is a violation of
the great principles of morality, no consideration of expediency
can justify it, seeing that “what is morally wrong cannot
be politically right.” Shall the Negroes go on to perish in
bondage till the present race die off, because we and the planters
cannot settle the pecuniary question ? The Negroes' claim to
freedom stands first, and is paramount to all the rest; and this
therefore ought to be settled, whatever becomes of other claims.
Is it not a compromise of principle, a sacrifice of justice to ex-
pediency, to withhold a right because it is inconvenient to be
just 2 In how many ways can we in our expenditure be profuse,
even to prodigality ? Is it only when an act of national
justice is concerned that we are to be parsimonious !
But it is said, that an attempt gradually to abolish slavery will
be more likely to succeed, as it will produce less irritation in the
minds of the planters, and meet with less opposition. It is,
however, to be feared that no measures, which tend obviously and
ultimately to rescue the Negro from the grasp of the slave-owner,
will ever be received with cordiality. The violent hostility of
the colonists to the measures for ameliorating slavery proposed
by the government, for the last seven years, gives but little
reason to hope for their concurrence in abolishing it. As long as
slavery is permitted to continue, so long will there be a deter-
mined opposition to every advance in favour of freedom. The
longer the struggle is protracted the more provoking will be the
irritation. Slave-owners will never be conciliated but by our
abandoning the cause of the Negro altogether. -
But fears have been expressed, that, if the Negroes were
º
LECTURE IV. • 151
liberated in their present condition, they would be excited to
commit the most serious acts of violence on their masters, and that
“anarchy, confusion, warfare, and blood, would be the dreadful
effects of the too hasty and mistaken boon.” But it is thought,
on the other hand, that these are imaginary fears, for which
neither reason nor facts afford any foundation. Would the laws
cease to have any power? Would the force which it is now
necessary to maintain in these colonies, in order to defend
slavery, be of no avail when the Negroes were free ? Is it im-
practicable to make any regulations which should provide for all
the possible evils that might be supposed to attend a transition
from bondage to liberty? Is there not something unnatural in
the supposition, that by bestowing on a body of men a most im-
portant blessing we should fire them with rage and indignation?
Is there not more danger to be apprehended from the con-
tinuance of our cruel system : What is there wanting now, but
opportunity and power, to induce the Negroes to burst asunder
the chains of their bondage, and to assert those rights which they
all know are their due ! If some Christophe, or Toussaint,
or some black Bolivar, should arise among them, how dread-
ful might be the struggle, and how perilous the consequences !
It was not long since a mere handful of Maroons put the
whole island of Jamaica in jeopardy. A free black peasantry
would constitute the strength of the colonies: the danger really
arises from their being held in bondage. But what are the
facts on which the opinion in question is grounded ? The
Negroes have been rather characterized by patient suffering
than by furious atrocity. Would the fierce Indian of America
have endured like the suffering African? The poor Negroes
have, indeed, been sometimes driven by cruel usage to rise on
their masters: and can this surprise us? “Oppression makes a
wise man mad:” no wonder that it should goad on the Negro to
acts of insubordination. We only wonder that they have not risen
en masse, and long before this driven every white man into the
sea. But what facts are there to justify those fears, which are
the pretext for keeping 800,000 of our fellow-creatures in a state
152 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
of abject bondage? It is perfectly irrelevant to cite instances
of tumult and insurrection and slaughter, when enslaved Ne-
groes have been making a violent effort to burst their chains
and to obtain their rights; these instances have been more rare
than might have been expected. But where are the proofs of
wanton ferocity, and delight in the destruction of white men,
which Negroes, freed by law, have exhibited ? Are they to be
found among the 25,000 rescued Africans of Sierra Leone : Or
among the hundred thousand free blacks and persons of colour in
our colonies? Or among the numerous slaves that were planted in
Nova Scotia after the first American war, and in Trinidad after
the second war with America? Or among the multitudes who,
without any preparation, were lately enfranchised in Columbia
and in Mexico 2–But we are referred to St. Domingo, and
to the massacres which attended the revolution in that island.
Mr. Clarkson*, however, has satisfactorily shewn that the
dreadful outrages and massacres which are brought forward
to frighten the advocates of Negro freedom, “occurred in the
days of slavery, before the proclamations of Santhomax and
Polverel; ” that “they were occasioned, too, not originally by
the slaves themselves, but by quarrels between the white and
coloured planters, and between the royalists and the revolu-
tionists, who, for the purpose of wreaking their vengeance
upon each other, called in the aid of the slaves. And as to the
insurgent Negroes of the north, in particular, who filled that
part of the colony in those years with terror and dismay, they
were originally put in motion, according to Malenfant, by the
royalists themselves, to strengthen their own cause, and to put
down the partizans of the French Revolution.” In 1793, a
proclamation was issued by Santhonax, which “promised free-
dom to all the blacks who were willing to range themselves
under the banner of the republic;” and subsequently his col-
league, Polverel, extended the proclamation of Negro freedom
to the whole island, not only without any fears as to the safety
* Thoughts on the Necessity of Improving the Condition, &c., pp. 19, &c.
LECTURE IV. 153
of the masters, but as being “necessary to the personal safety
of the white planters.” In the following year the Conventional
Assembly of France passed a decree for the abolition of slavery
throughout the whole of the French colonies; and so far from
its being attended with “ warfare and blood,” a witness of
these transactions has published to the world the fact, that the
Negroes remained quiet, continued to labour on the same
plantations, and, provided no attempt was made to reduce them
again to slavery, or to restore the cart-whip, manifested the ut-
most docility and most patient industry. And are we, in the
face of all these facts, to be frightened into the timid conces-
sion of protracted bondage for the present race, with the faint
hope of freedom, thrown to an unknown distance in the future,
to be enjoyed, perhaps, only by an unborn generation?
But it has been further stated, that the interests of the en-
slaved Negroes render a gradual emancipation desirable; that,
such is the debased condition to which slavery has reduced them,
they are disqualified for the enjoyment of freedom. But, on
the other hand, will a continuance in this state give them the
requisite qualification? Was slavery ever known to “clothe" a
man “with the virtuous restraints of social life?”—But their pre-
sent state may be improved. This may have been thought prac-
ticable when we were less acquainted with the system; but recent
experience has proved how utterly abortive must be every
attempt materially to improve that state, so long as their degrading
bondage shall continue. It is hopeless to expect that the planters
ever will, or can, be sincere in preparing their slaves for freedom.
Is there not also something unnatural and cruel in an argument
of this kind ' It makes the very injuries they have suffered from
their oppressors a reason why they should not be rescued from
their grasp. If they had been less injured, they might have
obtained their liberty; but they have suffered so much wrong that
they must continue in slavery :—because their fellow-creatures
have so deeply oppressed them, they must now not be relieved.
Is not this giving a bonus for crime, and encouraging the slave-
holders, if they wish to retain their slaves, to keep them as far
X
154 LECTUR ES ON SLAVERY.
from improvement as possible? There must be something un-
sound in an argument which involves so much injustice, and so
many contradictions. The greater the injuries which they have
endured by being deprived of their rights, the stronger is the
reason that all these injuries should be speedily effaced, by a
full restitution, with interest, of all they have been deprived of,
if that were by any means possible. But in what does this dis-
qualification for freedom consist! It must be a strong case
indced which would warrant us in keeping our fellow-creatures
in a state which even the advocates for gradual abolition admit is
contrary to all justice, and repugnant to Christianity. They are
not able, it is said, to value freedom | This is altogether a gra-
tuitous assumption ; but if it were true, they should be taught
its worth, not by keeping them in bondage, but by allowing
them to taste its blessings. But why do some of them toil out
their lives, in addition to the rigorous exactions of their task-
masters, year after year, in order, by almost imperceptible de-
grees, to raise a sum, with the hope before them of being able
at some distant time to purchase their freedom ' Why are the
work-houses never empty of run-away slaves? Why have those
insurrections been raised, which have exposed the wretched
Negroes to all the merciless cruelties of West-Indian retribu-
tion? Does all this arise from an indifference to freedom? And
if they could not properly value it, is that a reason why we
should deprive them of what God has given to man as his birth-
right?—But, we are told, they would not make a good use of their
freedom! This is a presumption which is destitute of proof. Are
the free Blacks in our colonies, or in any part of the world,
less peaceable, less loyal, less moral, than the Whites among
whom they live? There are only two ways in which there could
be a fear of their abusing their liberty,+by injuring society, or
by injuring themselves. As to acts of general outrage, we
have shewn that both reason and facts prove that the alarm is
unfounded; and as to any disorderly conduct which might be
apprehended, surely such municipal regulations might be framed
as would provide against it: and any difficulty or expense at-
LecTURE IV. 155
tending them, together with all the ſorbearance which the case
might require, would be the least atonement which could be
made to the Negroes for all the grievous wrongs which they
have suffered. And what is the injury which the enfranchised
Negro would be likely himself to receive by obtaining his free-
dom & Would he be more licentious than he is encouraged to be
now 7 Would he be more debarred from the means of education
and religious instruction, when he has his Sabbaths to himself,
and needs not to fear to be flogged and chained for praying 3–
But “he would be idle, and through his improvidence might perish
for want l” But what is it which makes him now, after a week's
severe labour for his master, toil in his provision grounds on a
Sunday ? Necessity: he must work on that day, says Mr. Stewart,
or starve. And would there not be a similar motive if he were
free ?–In fine, it appears that such reasoning proceeds on a
false principle: it assumes that the Negro would be the same
abject, hopeless, improvident being, when free, as he is now in
his enslaved condition. We have already seen, by the testimony
of the Consul at Mogadore, what effect slavery had even upon
Europeans, in the total debasement and brutal stupidity which it
produced; and in the interesting volumes of Dr. Walsh ample and
most cheering evidence is afforded of the happy effect of free-
dom on the Negro character; leading him to the conclusion,
“that a European had no pretext but his own cupidity, for im-
piously thrusting his fellow-man from that rank in the creation
which the Almighty has assigned him, and degrading him below
the lot of the brutes that perish *.” That intelligent traveller
Baron Humboldt, from witnessing Negro industry in South
America, bears his testimony to the fact that “the unhappy slaves
are capable of becoming peasants, farmers, and land-holders.”—
The Negroes, it is said, are idle ! But what have they now to
work for? What motive have they to put forth every energy to get
through their work?—They are improvident! But what stimulus
have they to economy 2 Would not the hope of receiving their
* See “Notes on the Brazils, by the Rev. Dr. Walsh,” vol. i. pp. 134–141.
156 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
earnings be a better stimulus than the cart-whip ! When a man
works under the influence of fear, his spirits are soon jaded; he
has no life; his strength is soon exhausted. Let hope stimulate
him, and he works cheerfully; his spirits support him, and
with a much less expenditure of strength he can perform the
same labour. Do not the Negroes work every where, when they
are free—in North and South America, in Sierra Leone, in
Hayti, and in our own colonies? The comparative state of pau-
perism among the free Blacks and Persons of Colour, and the
Whites, seems decisive on this point. From a tabular view,
constructed from the returns furnished by the colonial authori-
ties, and laid before Parliament in 1826, it appears that “ in
a free Black and Coloured population, amounting to about
‘88,000, only 227 have received even occasional relief as pau-
pers, being one in each 387 individuals; while of about 63,400
Whites, 1675 have received such relief, being one in 38 *.”
The experiment, also, of Mr. Steele in Barbadoes, is equally de-
cisive in proving, that, when there is a prospect of remuneration,
the Negroes will not only work cheerfully, but in a manner
much more advantageous to their employers than coerced labour
can be ‘f.
Such are the arguments by which a gradual emancipation is:
supported, and such the objections which are made to this pro-
tracted method of proceeding. Let us now advert to some of
the plans of this kind which have been brought forward, not to
notice them in long detail, but to point out the principal features
in each.
Some have proposed, by a series of ameliorations only, without
any compulsory manumissions, gradually and almost imperceptibly
to extinguish slavery.—In addition to what has already been
stated, it may be observed, that this is impracticable ; and
hence it is that the boldest champions of slavery do not object
to the plan: on the contrary, the most inveterate slave-holders
readily agree to it, because they know, that, while it amuses us, it
* Anti-Slavery Reporter, vol. ii. p. 17.
t Clarkson's Thoughts on the Necessity, &c. pp. 31, 32, &c.
LECTURE IV. - 157
is perfectly harmless to their system. When, after the experi-
ment already made, might such an approximation be supposed
to reach the desired point : Not, at least, before the equinoctial
points had completed their revolution through all the signs. When
will the period arrive when the slave-masters will consider their
bondmen fit for freedom? Can it be expected that they will give
effect to measures which shall prepare their slaves for liberty?
We might as well expect water to run up hill, or a miser to
be lavish of his gold.
Another plan suggested is, to make all the children born after
a fixed time free, and in the mean while to improve the condi-
tion of the present slaves.—As for any material improvement in
the state of the slaves, the whole nation now considers it as hope-
less: to talk of it is mere trifling, so long as they continue the
property of slave-owners. This part of the plan must therefore be
given up, for reasons already stated. The emancipation of the
future children is important, and good so far as it goes, but it
leaves the actual and existing evil untouched. Those who have
felt all the miseries of slavery are for that reason to be left to a
perpetuation of its evils, while the charities of our hearts are to
be transferred from their proper objects to a race in prospect. Iſ
government were actually preparing for the enfranchisement of
the Negroes now living, and were to adopt this as an immediate
measure, to arrest at once the progress of the evil, we might
indeed rejoice; but as a compromise, to pacify those who are in-
dignant at the Negro's wrongs and are labouring for his
freedom; as the price of abandoning the present race; who could,
who ought, to entertain it for a moment? Humanity shudders
at the thought of transferring all the compassion and all the
energetic effort, which, if well directed, and steadily and perse-
veringly employed, might rescue from their miserable thraldrom
those whose wrongs have been innumerable, to a generation
which has never seen the light, to children who may hereafter
exist? º
It has been proposed to enfranchise all the females.—This
goes much further: the freedom of the future children would
158 LECTURES ON SL A V E R Y.
then be secured, and much grievous suffering in the persons of
the females would be averted. Still, in this case, must all the
unfortunate males be left to toil in nearly hopeless bondage ; and
small would be the protection they could afford to their wives and
children. If so much could be accomplished, it would indeed be
a pity if the measure should not be extended, so as to complete
the work of mercy and of justice.
Another plan has been, to give the Negro one day in the week
to labour for himself, and allow him, as soon as he has saved
money enough, to purchase another day; and so on till he has
procured the redemption of the whole of his time.—This, it seems,
is already the law in the Spanish colonies, or something very
similar to it; and the result of all the efforts of a free and ge-
nerous nation is to place the English slaves in as good a condi-
tion as the slaves of Spain' But why should the injured Negro
be forced to give, instead of being empowered to receive, a
compensation ? Remuneration is first and principally due to
him who has been robbed, and spoiled, and crushed to the dust,
by this wretched system;-and must he, instead of receiving
reparation for his wrongs, be forced, by his toil and sweat, to
pay for that freedom to which he has as just a right as to the air
he breathes?
In fine, to every plan, except to that which gives substantial
justice to the injured Negro, there seem to be serious objec-
tions; and nothing short of his complete release from his cruel,
tyrannical, and unchristian bonds, in the speediest manner, can
render to him full justice.
But it may be asked, How is then their release to be effected
in a way that shall be both just and practicable : I do not deny
that great difficulties may attend the question, and difficulties
which it will require the wisdom of Parliament to surmount; but
they are difficulties chiefly arising, not from the untractableness
of the slaves, but from the inveterate prejudices and obstinacy
of the masters. It would, however, be presumptuous in me to
enter into details on such a subject, adverse, especially, as I am,
on principle, to all temporary expedients. But, in truth, it seems
LECTURE IV. - 159
neither necessary, nor perhaps advisable, in our applications to the
legislature, to attempt to sketch out specific plans: this might only
divide, where all should be united. It will be for the wisdom
of Parliament to determine the best practicable mode of carry-
ing the wishes of the nation into effect. Our course is plain
and straight-forward: let all our efforts be directed, at once
and unceasingly, to the complete extinction of slavery in all the
British dominions, as early as the adoption of the necessary mea-
sures, and the carrying of them into effect, will allow.
Excuse the length to which the remarks on this subject have
been extended (too brief, perhaps, for its importance), but it
was impossible to pass over entirely this part of the great ques-
tion, in treating on the Abolition of Slavery.
Having considered at some length the object to which our
efforts should be directed, we shall now notice the manner in
which we should seek its accomplishment. An inquiry con-
nected with this part of our subject has excited some attention,
and certainly deserves consideration: Should we abstain from
the produce of slave labour, and discourage as far as possible
its consumption ? There are many articles of this kind which
it is difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish : there are, how-
ever, two which may be considered as staple commodities of our
slave colonies in general—these are, sugar and rum. It is well
known, that what occasions the severest labour to the Negroes,
the most frequent punishments, and the most dreadful waste of
life, is the culture of the sugar-cane, and the manufacture of the
sugar and rum which are its produce. If spirits must be taken,
surely it will be no great sacrifice to substitute any other in-
stead of rum. But the use of sugar, which may be ranked, if
not among the necessaries, yet among the comforts of life,
stands on very different ground. Its use is neither immoral nor
unhealthy. Nor is the disuse of it necessary to discountenance
slavery, since it may be obtained from countries where it is
raised by free labour. But the sugar of the West Indies
160 LECTU R ES ON SLAVERY.
and the Mauritius is raised solely by the toil of the unrequited
slave, and is the main support of the slave system.
There are many who, from feelings of humanity, apart from
every other consideration, abstain from slave-grown sugar.
And shall we blame those who on such an account exercise
self-denial? How many unspeakable miseries are endured,
how many wrongs are inflicted, how much crime is committed,
and how many lives are shortened, in the production of this
article ! Must it not lessen the pleasure of the tea-table and
of the dessert, when a reflecting and humane mind considers
how much suffering to others his enjoyments have cost?
When David's valiant men broke through the host of the Phi-
listines, and brought their chief water from the well of Bethle-
hem, his generous and feeling heart would not allow him to
taste it, though his lips were parched with feverish thirst:
“My God forbid it me,” said he, “that I should do this thing!
shall I drink the blood of those men that have put their lives in
jeopardy? for with the jeopardy of their lives they brought it.”
There are some who take still higher ground: who cannot,
consistently with their views of religion, sanction a system of
violence and cruelty by consuming slave-grown sugar. And who
shall censure the resolution to avoid being “partakers of other
men's sins?” Does it not deserve a serious inquiry, by every
conscientious person who knows the injustice and multiplied
wickedness of the system, how far it is right in him to counte-
nance it, by consuming or dealing in the article which is thus
produced ? In every case of abstinence of this kind there is also
a protest made, practically and forcibly, against the iniquity of
slavery, which cannot fail of some effect on others.
But there is another ground on which the disuse of slave
sugar is advocated ; its supposed tendency towards the abolition
of the slave system. That this would promote the objectif it were
sufficiently general, is unquestionable. Even by diminishing the
Negro's value as a slave, it would facilitate his freedom. It
is ascertained that the average consumption of sugar in England
I, ECTURE IV. 161
annually is about twenty-three pounds to every individual of the
population; and it appears, from colonial returns, that the average
proportion of sugar raised in a year for each slave is about five
hundred-weight: consequently, one slave less would be necessary
for every twenty-five persons who should abstain from slave sugar.
If, then, the whole of those in England who hate slavery were
resolutely to refuse to purchase sugar raised by slaves, the
system would be materially discouraged. A great proportion
of those who are seeking the extinction of slavery have not
acted on this plan: they are hoping that Parliament will listen
to the wishes of the nation, and by its own enactments render a
measure of this kind unnecessary: should their hopes be disap-
pointed, they will in all probability have recourse to this as a
last resort. Whether, all things considered, such persons act
wisely and properly, I will not attempt to decide. There are,
however, some pleas entered against the disuse of slave sugar,
the futility of which it requires not many words to prove. “It is
of little use,” say some, “to attempt it: what can one individual,
or a few persons, do? If all would adopt this plan it might suc-
ceed, and we should then have no objection to unite.” But
numbers are composed of units: let each do his part, and the
part of the whole will be done. Our example may induce
others to act in a similar manner. But whatever be the conduct
of others, let it be our individual concern to act fully up to our
sense of duty. As we shall not suffer for the delinquencies of
others, so the conduct of others, if it fail in what we think right,
is no excuse for us.-" But East-India sugar is dearer, and not
so good.” As to price, there ought to be no difference in sugars
of similar qualities; and that free-labour sugar can be applied
to every domestic purpose is sufficiently proved by the fact that
many large and respectable families use this only *. And what
is that benevolence worth which refuses so small a sacrifice in
* After the delivery of this lecture in Bradford, the attention of the com-
pany was invited to the inspection of wines, conserves, and confectionary of
various kinds, made with East-India sugar, which some ladies had provided for
the occasion,
Y
162 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
the pursuit of its object?—But we are told that “slaves are em-
ployed in the cultivation of sugar in the East Indies.” And what
is there which the advocates of West-India slavery have not
asserted in support of their system : It has been proved, in Parlia-
ment and out of Parliament, again and again, that in Bengal, the
province where the sugar we consume is raised, no slaves what-
ever are employed in its cultivation, but free labourers only *.
Lastly : it has been supposed that by lessening the consump-
tion of sugar you would injure the slave, and render his condition
still worse. This has often been disproved. We shall not go
at length into the argument, but briefly advert to circumstances
which appear satisfactorily to prove the contrary. First, the
greater the quantity of sugar that is raised, the greater must be
the number of slaves employed in its culture: and the culture of
sugar is the most deathful of their employments; and, judging by
the comparative waste of human life in the different colonies,
the slave will be found to work the harder and fare the worse in
proportion to the quantity of sugar which is raised. Let no one
deceive himself, by imagining that by augmenting the value of
slave labour you secure his better treatment. It will still be
only a balance between life and gold. If the gain in the in-
creased quantity or in the higher price of sugar be greater than
the loss in the wear and tear of the human machinery, will the
needy or the avaricious planter hesitate for a moment: If the
greater consumption, and consequently the greater culture, of
sugar increased the comfort and tended to the welfare of the
slaves, their population would be found, generally speaking, to
increase in proportion. But the very reverse of this is the
case; and, with slight variations, the waste of human life is ge-
nenerally proportioned to the quantity of sugar annually raised
per slave in each colony respectively +. -
But whatever subordinate means may now be adopted, or, in
* See a “Letter to W. Whitmore, Esq.,” on this subject.
+ See this clearly exhibited in a tabular view formed from returns made to
Parliament from each colony, in the Anti-slavery Reporter, No. 26, also in the
Second Report of the Anti-slavery Society.
LECTURE IV. 168
the event of their failure, whatever ultimate measures may be
contemplated, our present great effort must be to move the Par-
liament of Britain to put an end to slavery. It is our privilege
to approach, with our entreaties, complaints, and remonstrances,
this august assembly. To one class of his Majesty's subjects this
privilege is denied, or, what amounts to the same thing, its
exercise is impossible. There is a power which effectually in-
tervenes between them and the paternal government of the
empire. In vain they sigh for that interposition which alone can
give them aid : they must not, dare not ask it. But we can give
utterance to their groans, and make their wrongs speak in the
senate of the nation. We can, on their behalf, invoke a power
which, if its mighty voice is uttered, their oppressors must
regard. It is but for Parliament to issue its imperial mandate,
and the object is accomplished; it is only for the British
legislature to throw around the Negroes the aegis of its pro-
tection, and they are safe. We should smile at the bluster-
ing menaces of these little legislatures, and their organs the
colonial gazettes, were it not for an indignation, which we can
scarcely repress, at the outrageous inconsistency of those who
abuse and threaten the mother country for the least imagin-
ed interference with their rights, while they can enslave their
fellow-creatures by thousands, and without remorse or pity de-
prive them of all that is dear to man. In these colonies there
is a free Black and Coloured population, whose loyalty and
attachment to Britain are well known, and whose efforts, with-
out the interference of a single British soldier, if confided in,
would ensure the failure of any attempt to disturb the public
peace “. The White colonists talk of their independence 1 But
* The spirit and temper of the People of Colour may be seen by the
following extracts from The Watchman, a newspaper published by the People
of Colour in Jamaica: they relate to some violent language, which had been
used in the House of Assembly of that island, respecting a disruption from
Great Britain and an union with the United States. “We can tell every
contumacious member of the House of Assembly, that, if America had ten
times the population she possesses, she would find herself incapable of wresting
this or any other of the colonies from the mighty grasp of the parent state.”—
“Jamaica would rise in mass.” “Before the tocsin of war is sounded, the
House of Assembly would do well to commence the system of exterminating
164 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
what could they do without England? Would they bring their
sugars here, if they could find a better market elsewhere? Would
they compel us to save a million or two annually, by purchasing
the produce of free labour? What would they do without our
armies and our fleets to defend them, and our bounties and
protecting duties to maintain their monopoly? Their independ-
ence in this case would be that of a fragile boat cut adrift from
the vessel to which it belonged, in the midst of the ocean. But
the colonists know better, and all their vapouring is but to serve
a purpose. However great the clamour of opposition which
might be raised, in the prospect of a restoration of their rights
to the unjustly enslaved Negroes, it would soon subside, if that
measure were once carried in Parliament. What awful predic-
tions were uttered by the colonists and their supporters, while
the abolition of the slave-trade was pending!'. What an outcry of
alarm and ruin was then raised ' And now, what is become of all
their dismal forebodings? So it would be in a short time with
the enfranchisement of the slaves; and succeeding generations
will in this, as in the former case, smile and marvel at all the
boisterous threatenings and abuse which are now employed to
deter us from our purpose ; and at those ill-omened vaticinations
which they are now croaking in our ears. -
The power of the British Parliament is like that of those
mighty engines with which you are surrounded * : its potency,
the Coloured population, who are loyal to a man.”—“In the Assembly of Ja-
maica,” it is added, “if they dared to unfold the flag of rebellion, every man of
them would be hanged in twenty-four hours, without reference to judge or jury.
England has a standing army in her loyal and devoted subjects of Jamaica; so
that the puny threat of a seditious Assembly excites only a return of ridicule
and contempt.” -
It is gratifying to find that the People of Colour, who are numerous, and
many of them wealthy and respectable, are likely to be important coadjutors in
carrying into effect the wishes of the British nation respecting the extinction of
slavery. In this they are wise; for as long as that hateful system continues they
will be subject to an unmerited degradation: they never can, in the very nature
of things, rise to their proper level in society, till Negro slavery be abolished.
On their views with reference to this subject, see some interesting extracts in
the Anti-slavery Reporter, No. 60.
* It will be remembered that these Lectures were first delivered in the midst
of a manufacturing population.
LECT"U R E IV. s 165
when brought properly into action, is resistless. But if this be
the steam engine, public opinion is the steam, without which it
will never work; but, set in motion by that, it can do wonders.
“If the whole of the middle class of society in this country,”
said Lord Calthorpe, “were but strongly to express their opi-
nion, slavery could not continue a single day.” It is the busi-
ness, then, of every friend of the oppressed Negro to raise and
bring into action this mighty engine, by circulating information,
by forming auxiliary societies, by holding meetings—by every
means which can warm the humane feelings of the heart, and keep
them warm—till from millions of free and generous hearts that
expansive agent shall arise, and, issuing through innumerable
petitions into both Houses of Parliament, shall set the giant power
of that engine at work, which by one sublime stroke of its arm
shall dash in pieces the fetters of 800,000 slaves.
And let us remember how important it is, to the accomplish-
ment of our object, that Parliament be composed of men who
with fearless integrity will advocate the cause of our fellow-
subjects. This depends in a great measure on the people them-
selves. Whenever you are called to exercise the elective fran-
chise, let this be an essential qualification in every candidate,
that he will vote for the abolition of slavery in the speediest
practicable manner. Listen not to professions of a willingness
to ameliorate their condition, and to favour a gradual abolition—
these are, in general, meant only to deceive—let the early
extinction of slavery be the pledge required. Not only is this
of consequence to the liberation of the Negroes from their
thraldom, but be assured that the advocates of slavery are not
fit persons to be entrusted with the liberties of Englishmen.
Friends of humanity, lovers of freedom, followers of the Sa-
viour, what further considerations need be adduced to urge you
to exertion on the poor slaves' behalf? If the statements which
we have made are true, if the arguments which we have advanced
are sound, who can be justified in remaining an inactive spec-
tator of the great conflict now pending between the genius of
liberty and the demon of oppression ? .
166 LECT U R ES ON SLAW FR Y.
What an appeal does the condition of the enslaved Negroes
make to your benevolence 1—If it is benevolent to feed the
hungry, to clothe the naked, to relieve the poor; surely it is no
less so by the hope of freedom to “bind up the broken in heart;”
by the prospect of liberation from their wrongs to “comfort
those that mourn; ” to raise a human being from the condition
of a labouring beast to that of a man; and to give the opportu-
nity of instruction to those who are “perishing for lack of
knowledge.” In how many channels does British benevolence
flow! how diversified are the objects which it embraces! There is
scarcely an ill that afflicts mankind, which it does not regard.
Its activity is brought to bear on whatever relates to the body or
the mind, to the wants of the rising race or to the infirmities of
age, to the sufferings of our own countrymen or to those of
foreigners. To meet these various exigencies, what sums are
expended, what efforts are made, what an apparatus of means
is put in requisition | And shall the case of the unhappy slaves
form the only exception? On this occasion alone, shall bene-
volence be dormant, when its aid is implored on behalf of nearly
a million of human beings, who, under the sanction of the Bri-
tish government, are pining away their lives in bitter bondage,
destructive alike to their bodies and their souls; and who are
annually diminishing in number through the various mischiefs of
the slave system :
Is not a strong appeal also made to your patriotism 7–If you
love your country, and wish her to rank high among the nations,
aid in wiping from her character this foul stain, and in relieving her
from the just, and therefore bitter, reproach of boasting of liberty
and yet retaining slaves; of persuading other nations to cease
from man-stealing, while she will not give up the fruits of her
past plunder; of sacrificing at once to God and mammon. If
you wish your own loved country to take the lead in just and
humane legislation, urge her at once to interpose in favour of
Negro freedom; or she will, in all probability, be soon compelled to
take a mortifying position, in the rear of those of whom she has
always been in advance. If you wish those judgments to be
LECTURE IV. 167
averted which have always sooner or later overtaken every na-
tion that has sanctioned vice and oppression; if you wish England
to avoid the fate of Nineveh and Babylon and Tyre; arise, and,
with a voice so strong and general as must compel attention,
bid her, in the name of Him who can dry up every stream of our
commerce, blast our prosperity, and bring our glory to the dust;
bid her, in the name of that just and merciful Being, who is the
God of the Black man as well as of the White, without delay
to “loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens,
to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.” So
will “the blessing of him that was ready to perish ’ come
upon us; so may we hope for the favour and protection of
Him who “rules in the armies of heaven, and amongst the in-
habitants of the earth.” -
Nor is your piety less the object of appeal.—Where can
we see so much sin and so much suffering to awaken every
feeling of Christian compassion, and to call for the exercise of
Christian zeal, as in our slave colonies : What a field would be
open for the pious missionary if all our slaves were liberated! No
people to whom the Gospel has been sent have appeared to
embrace it so willingly, and to submit to its instructions with so
much docility, as these poor slaves, when opportunity has been
afforded to them. And remember, that in these colonies there
are twenty or thirty thousand of them who have joined various
religious societies, whom we are taught to consider as “brethren
in the Lord.” And these fellow-creatures, fellow-subjects, and
fellow-Christians, are subject to the most brutal treatment.
Themselves, their wives, their children, may have their flesh
mangled by the whip, may be sold by auction, may be prevented
from the enjoyment of every Christian privilege, and from the
performance of every religious duty but what is strictly private,
at the mere will and pleasure of any persecuting slave-master.
They may be, and some of them have been, and are, flogged and
worked in chains, like felons, for attending religious meetings
and for attempting to pray ! Can you rest on your pillows
while you remember these things? Can you think of the mar-
16S LECTUR ES ON SLAVERY,
tyred Smith and Grimsdall ; of the vexatious persecutions of
those holy and disinterested men who have left all the endear-
ments of home, not for the gains of commerce, or the pursuit of
science, but to bring the poor suffering Negro to an acquaint-
ance with the Saviour, and to pour into his heart the consola-
tions which he so much needs: can you think of these things,
and feel your conscience easy while no strenuous effort is made
to abolish that unholy, unchristian, inhuman system, from which
it all springs? For the sake of all that the slave suffers ; for the
sake of all the immorality and guilt which the system entails on
the planters; for the sake of England, which is defiled by this
polluted and accursed thing; for the sake of Europe, to whom
England should be an example; for the sake of the whole
human family; rise from your supineness, put forth all your ener-
gies, nor rest till you have chased this destructive demon from
the British dominions.
Allow me to caution you against two things which might
relax your efforts.—In the first place, do not reckon on an easy
victory. This is no time to slumber. The adverse interests are
numerous and powerful. Several of the Nobility are slave-
holders; and in the House of Commons there is a phalanx of
West-India proprietors and merchants whose united votes
are formidable to Ministers. The wealth of those who are in-
terested in the support of slavery is immense, their connexions
extensive, and their influence great; a considerable portion of
the periodical press appears to be enlisted in their service.
Nothing can ensure success to this sacred cause, but a deter-
mined, united, and persevering effort.
Nor, on the other hand, yield to such a desponding view
of the case as renders exertion hopeless. In such a country,
under such a government, at such a time as this, when the
power of public opinion, if steadily maintained, is sure to bear
down every obstacle, what may not persevering effort accom-
plish? What has it not accomplished? There is no need to
ransack history to furnish proof of this, though our national
records are rich in instructive examples of success: our own
LECTURE Iv. - I69
times supply us with memorable instances of what has been
effected by united, determined, and unwearied exertion.
What was it that at length opened India to the light of
Christianity, and has extinguished the fires of the Indian
suttee : What was it which has restored the conscientious
Dissenter to the full privileges of the British constitution ; and
has determined the great question respecting the Roman
Catholics, so long agitated and so strenuously opposed ?
Did not the abolition of the slave trade itself encounter quite
as much opposition as is now made, or can be made, to the
enfranchisement of the enslaved Negroes ' Yet, as often as
the friends of humanity were driven back, they returned again
to the attack, determined rather to die in the breach than to
surrender their arms or to give up their cause ; and after a
contest of twenty years the great object was obtained, and
success crowned their efforts. Let no failures of the past,
no difficulties of the present, discourage us. What if the
conflict be arduous and long, if many a campaign remains yet to
be fought; the prize, the glorious prize of humanity, for which
we are contending, is worth it all.
And in this holy warfare let each be determined to do his
part; let no one be content to leave it to others: every one may
contribute something to the general stock of power and effect.
You that have property, spare it not in such a cause, when funds
are necessary. You who have time, give a portion of it freely
to advance such an object. You who have influence, exert it
in the cause of misery. Masters of families, heads of semina-
ries, let all within your respective spheres imbibe a spirit of
hatred to slavery and compassion for the injured Negro. Let
the kind efforts of that sex be brought into requisition in whose
hearts charity has ever found an asylum, and whose influence we
feel from the cradle to the tomb. Let the ministers of religion
engage the sympathies of their listening audiences on behalf of
this truly Christian object; and let all who pray, present the
sorrows and the sufferings of the injured African before our
common “Father who is in heaven.”
Z
170 LECTURES ON SLAVERY.
Be assured our cause must finally triumph. Whether this
enemy of the African fall by our hands or not, fall he must;
whether this evil be removed by gentle means or by some vio-
lent catastrophe, removed it certainly will be: it is an unsightly
excrescence on the institutions of civilized society, which will
not be allowed to continue : it is a sight too revolting, now that
the light of day shines on it, for the nineteenth century to en-
dure. See the changes that are taking place in South America,
in the neighbourhood of some of our slave colonies; and all in
favour of freedom. Look at Hayti, within sight of Jamaica: till
lately a slave island; now an empire of free Blacks, fast rising
in power, increasing rapidly in numbers and in wealth. Will
not the slaves inevitably become acquainted with the whole case ?
The light which has arisen is penetrating every crevice, and, in
spite of every effort to prevent it, it will reach the Negro race.
Look at the general aspect of the times—the vast increase of
knowledge, the march of popular liberty, the tremblings of des-
potism —is it possible that slavery can be perpetuated: The
angel of freedom is on his march; the doom of slavery is already
pronounced; the milstone is cast into the sea which is the type
and presage of its fall, its utter disappearance, to be seen no
more. Oh that Britain may be wise, and accomplish that work
of mercy, which the course of events may otherwise effect in a
manner which all may deplore
But, whatever may be the result of our efforts, let them not
cease. “Be not weary in well-doing.” We are accountable
for our fidelity and diligence, but not for our success. We are
in a world in which error, and vice, and “spiritual wickedness
in high places,” are making war on the peace and happiness of
mankind. Every friend of truth and justice and humanity and
piety is called to a holy warfare; to range himself under these
2
sacred banners, in order by combined and vigorous efforts to
purify the vices of a sinful world, and to lessen the miseries of a
suffering world. This cause will ultimately prevail, whether we
do our part or not ; but happy for us if we shall be found to
have aided its triumphs . The hour is coming when we shall
LECTURE IV. 171
retire from the field; and, oh! will it not refresh our spirits in that
solemn season to remember that we have not lived entirely for
ourselves; that we have, through the Divine blessing, done
something to make the miserable happy, and to raise 800,000 ---
wretched slaves to the privileges of men and to the happiness of '...”
Christianity? And should we meet in a brighter world, uniting
with that assembly which shall be composed of men “of all
nations and people and tongues and kindred,” those whom
our efforts have contributed to emancipate and christianize,
will it not repay all our “labour of love,” even if it could be
multiplied a thousand-fold?
F IN I S.
Ellerton and Henderson, Printers,
Gough Square, London.
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