Chap. XI.

Having now considered both the commerce and slavery, it remains only to collect such arguments as are scattered in different parts of the work, and to make such additional remarks, as present themselves on the subject.

And first, let us ask you, who have studied the law of nature, and you, who are learned in the law of the land, if all property must not be inferiour in its nature to its possessor, or, in other words, (for it is a case, which every person must bring home to his own breast) if you suppose that any human being can have a property in yourselves? Let us ask you appraisers, who scientifically know the value of things, if any human creature is equivalent only to any of the trinkets that you wear, or at most, to any of the horses that you ride: or in other words, if you have ever considered the most costly things that you have valued, as equivalent to yourselves? Let us ask you rationalists, if man, as a reasonable being, is not accountable for his actions, and let us put the same question to you, who have studied the divine writings? Let us ask you parents, if ever you thought that you possessed an authority as such, or if ever you expected a duty from your sons; and let us ask you sons, if ever you felt an impulse in your own breasts to obey your parents. Now, if you should all answer as we could wish, if you should all answer consistently with reason, nature, and the revealed voice of God, what a dreadful argument will present itself against the commerce and slavery of the human species, when we reflect, that no man whatever can be bought or reduced to the situation of a slave, but he must instantly become a brute, he must instantly be reduced to the value of those things, which were made for his own use and convenience; he must instantly cease to be accountable for his actions, and his authority as a parent, and his duty as a son, must be instantly no more.

Neither does it escape our notice, when we are speaking of the fatal wound which every social duty must receive, how considerably Christianity suffers by the conduct of you receivers. For by prosecuting this impious commerce, you keep the Africans in a state of perpetual ferocity and barbarism; and by prosecuting it in such a manner, as must represent your religion, as a system of robbery and oppression, you not only oppose the propagation of the gospel, as far as you are able yourselves, but throw the most certain impediments in the way of others, who might attempt the glorious and important task.

Such also is the effect, which the subsequent slavery in the colonies must produce. For by your inhuman treatment of the unfortunate Africans there, you create the same insuperable impediments to a conversion. For how must they detest the very name of Christians, when you Christians are deformed by so many and dreadful vices? How must they detest that system of religion, which appears to resist the natural rights of men, and to give a sanction to brutality and murder?

But, as we are now mentioning Christianity, we must pause for a little time, to make a few remarks on the arguments which are usually deduced from thence by the receivers, in defence of their system of oppression. For the reader may readily suppose, that, if they did not hesitate to bring the Old Testament in support of their barbarities, they would hardly let the New escape them.

St. Paul, having converted Onesimus to the Christian faith, who was a fugitive slave of Philemon, sent him back to his master. This circumstance has furnished the receivers with a plea, that Christianity encourages slavery. But they have not only strained the passages which they produce in support of their assertions, but are ignorant of historical facts. The benevolent apostle, in the letter which he wrote to Philemon, the master of Onesimus, addresses him to the following effect: “I send him back to you, but not in his former capacity, not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved. In this manner I beseech you to receive him, for though I could enjoin you to do it, yet I had rather it should be a matter of your own will, than of necessity.”

It appears that the same Onesimus, when he was sent back, was no longer a slave, that he was a minister of the gospel, that he was joined with Tychicus in an ecclesiastical commission to the church of the Colossians, and was afterwards bishop of Ephesus. If language therefore has any meaning, and if history has recorded a fact which may be believed, there is no case more opposite to the doctrine of the receivers, than this which they produce in its support.

It is said again, that Christianity, among the many important precepts which it contains, does not furnish us with one for the abolition of slavery. But the reason is obvious. Slavery at the time of the introduction of the gospel was universally prevalent, and if Christianity had abruptly declared, that the millions of slaves should have been made free, who were then in the world, it would have been universally rejected, as containing doctrines that were dangerous, if not destructive, to society. In order therefore that it might be universally received, it never meddled, by any positive precept, with the civil institutions of the times: but though it does not expressly say, that “you shall neither buy, nor sell, nor possess a slave,” it is evident that, in its general tenour, it sufficiently militates against the custom.

The first doctrine which it inculcates, is that of brotherly love. It commands good will towards men. It enjoins us to love our neighbours as ourselves, and to do unto all men, as we would that they should do unto us. And how can any man fulfil this scheme of universal benevolence, who reduces an unfortunate person against his will, to the most insupportable of all human conditions; who considers him as his private property, and treats him, not as a brother, nor as one of the same parentage with himself, but as an animal of the brute creation?

But the most important doctrine is that, by which we are assured that mankind are to exist in a future state, and to give an account of those actions, which they have severally done in the flesh. This strikes at the very root of slavery. For how can any man be justly called to an account for his actions, whose actions are not at his own disposal? This is the case with the proper slave. His liberty is absolutely bought and appropriated; and if the purchase is just and equitable, he is under the necessity of perpetrating any crime, which the purchaser may order him to commit, or, in other words, of ceasing to be accountable for his actions.

These doctrines therefore are sufficient to shew, that slavery is incompatible with the Christian system. The Europeans considered them as such, when, at the close of the twelfth century, they resisted their hereditary prejudices, and occasioned its abolition. Hence one, among many other proofs, that Christianity was the production of infinite wisdom; that though it did not take such express cognizance of the wicked national institutions of the times, as should hinder its reception, it should yet contain such doctrines, as, when it should be fully established, would be sufficient for the abolition of them all.

Thus then is the argument of you receivers ineffectual, and your conduct impious. For, by the prosecution of this wicked slavery and commerce, you not only oppose the propagation of that gospel which was ordered to be preached unto every creature, and bring it into contempt, but you oppose its tenets also: first, because you violate that law of universal benevolence, which was to take away those hateful distinctions of Jew and Gentile, Greek and Barbarian, bond and free, which prevailed when the gospel was introduced; and secondly, because, as every man is to give an account of his actions hereafter, it is necessary that he should be free.

Another argument yet remains, which, though nature will absolutely turn pale at the recital, cannot possibly be omitted. In those wars, which are made for the sake of procuring slaves, it is evident that the contest must be generally obstinate, and that great numbers must be slain on both sides, before the event can be determined. This we may reasonably apprehend to be the case: and we have shewn, that there have not been wanting instances, where the conquerors have been so incensed at the resistance they have found, that their spirit of vengeance has entirely got the better of their avarice, and they have murdered, in cool blood, every individual, without discrimination, either of age or sex. From these and other circumstances, we thought we had sufficient reason to conclude, that, where ten were supposed to be taken, an hundred, including the victors and vanquished, might be supposed to perish. Now, as the annual exportation from Africa consists of an hundred thousand men, and as the two orders, of those who are privately kidnapped by individuals, and of those, who are publickly seized by virtue of the authority of their prince, compose together, at least, nine-tenths of the African slaves, it follows, that about ten thousand consist of convicts and prisoners of war. The last order is the most numerous. Let us suppose then that only six thousand of this order are annually sent into servitude, and it will immediately appear that no less than sixty thousand people annually perish in those wars, which are made only for the purpose of procuring slaves. But that this number, which we believe to be by no means exaggerated, may be free from all objection, we will include those in the estimate, who die as they are travelling to the ships. Many of these unfortunate people have a journey of one thousand miles to perform on foot, and are driven like sheep through inhospitable woods and deserts, where they frequently die in great numbers, from fatigue and want. Now if to those, who thus perish on the African continent, by war and travelling, we subjoin those, who afterwards perish on the voyage, and in the seasoning together, it will appear that, in every yearly attempt to supply the colonies, an hundred thousand must perish, even before one useful individual can be obtained.

Gracious God! how wicked, how beyond all example impious, must be that servitude, which cannot be carried on without the continual murder of so many and innocent persons! What punishment is not to be expected for such monstrous and unparalleled barbarities! For if the blood of one man, unjustly shed, cries with so loud a voice for the divine vengeance, how shall the cries and groans of an hundred thousand men, annually murdered, ascend the celestial mansions, and bring down that punishment, which such enormities deserve! But do we mention punishment? Do we allude to that punishment, which shall be inflicted on men as individuals, in a future life? Do we allude to that awful day, which shall surely come, when the master shall behold his murdered negroe face to face? When a train of mutilated slaves shall be brought against him? When he shall stand confounded and abashed? Or, do we allude to that punishment, which may be inflicted on them here, as members of a wicked community? For as a body politick, if its members are ever so numerous, may be considered as an whole, acting of itself, and by itself, in all affairs in which it is concerned, so it is accountable, as such, for its conduct; and as these kinds of polities have only their existence here, so it is only in this world, that, as such, they can be punished.

“Now, whether we consider the crime, with respect to the individuals immediately concerned in this most barbarous and cruel traffick, or whether we consider it as patronized and encouraged by the laws of the land, it presents to our view an equal degree of enormity, A crime, founded on a dreadful pre-eminence in wickedness,—a crime, which being both of individuals and the nation, must sometime draw down upon us the heaviest judgment of Almighty God, who made of one blood all the sons of men, and who gave to all equally a natural right to liberty; and who, ruling all the kingdoms of the earth with equal providential justice, cannot suffer such deliberate, such monstrous iniquity, to pass long unpunished.

But alas! he seems already to have interfered on the occasion! The violent and supernatural agitations of all the elements, which, for a series of years, have prevailed in those European settlements, where the unfortunate Africans are retained in a state of slavery, and which have brought unspeakable calamities on the inhabitants, and publick losses on the states to which they severally belong, are so many awful visitations of God for this inhuman violation of his laws. And it is not perhaps unworthy of remark, that as the subjects of Great-Britain have two thirds of this impious commerce in their own hands, so they have suffered in the same proportion, or more severely than the rest.

How far these misfortunes may appear to be acts of providence, and to create an alarm to those who have been accustomed to refer every effect to its apparent cause; who have been habituated to stop there, and to overlook the finger of God, because it is slightly covered under the veil of secondary laws, we will not pretend to determine? but this we will assert with confidence, that the Europeans have richly deserved them all; that the fear of sympathy, which can hardly be restrained on other melancholy occasions, seems to forget to flow at the relation of these; and that we can never, with any shadow of justice, wish prosperity to the undertakers of those, whose success must be at the expence of the happiness of millions of their fellow-creatures.

But this is sufficient. For if liberty is only an adventitious right; if men are by no means superiour to brutes; if every social duty is a curse; if cruelty is highly to be esteemed; if murder is strictly honourable, and Christianity is a lye; then it is evident, that the African slavery may be pursued, without either the remorse of conscience, or the imputation of a crime. But if the contrary of this is true, which reason must immediately evince, it is evident that no custom established among men was ever more impious; since it is contrary to reason, justice, nature, the principles of law and government, the whole doctrine, in short, of natural religion, and the revealed voice of God.

A Description of Guinea, with an Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of the Slave Trade, &c.—A Caution to Great Britain and her Colonies, in a short Representation of the calamitous State of the enslaved Negroes in the British Dominions. Besides several smaller pieces.

They had censured the African Trade in the year 1727, but but had taken no publick notice of the colonial slavery till this time.

The instance of the Dutch colonists at the Cape, in the first part of the Essay; the description of an African battle, in the second; and the poetry of a negroe girl in the third, are the only considerable additions that have been made.

Genesis, Ch. 47. Leviticus xxv. v. 39, 40.

The Thetes appear very early in the Grecian History.

They were afterwards so much in use, that “Μυϱίοί δήπȣ ἀπεδίδονgreektο ἐαυgreektȣς, ὢϛε δȣλευέιν κατὰ συγgreekgϱαφην,” till Solon suppressed the custom in Athens.

The mention of these is frequent among the classics; they were called in general mercenarii, from the circumstances of their hire, as “quibus, non male præcipiunt, qui ita jubent uti, ut mercenariis, operam exigendam, justa prœbenda. Cicero de off.” But they are sometimes mentioned in the law books by the name of liberi, from the circumstances of their birth, to distinguish them from the alieni, or foreigners, as Justinian. D. 7. 8. 4.—Id. 21. 1. 25. &c. &c. &c.

“Νόμsinsideo ἐν ϖᾶσιν Ἀνθϱώπεις ἀ[Editor: illegible character]διός ἐςιν, ὅταν ϖολεμȣ́νgreektων ϖόλις ἁλῶ, τᾶν ἑλόνgreektων ε[Editor: illegible character][Editor: illegible character]αι ϗ̀ τὰ Σώμαgreektα τῶν ἐν τῆ ϖόλει, ϗ̀ τὰ χϱήμαgreektα.”

Thucydides. L. 1. sub initio.

Idem. — — — “the strongest,” says he, “engaging in these adventures, Κέϱδȣς τȣ͂ σφεgreektεϱȣ αύτῶν ἕνεϰα ϗ̀ τοῖς ἀσθενέσι Τϱοφῆς.”

Homer. Odyss. L. 15. 385.

Xenoph. Κυϱȣ Αναϐ. L. 6. sub initio.

ȣ̓ϰ ἔχοντός ϖω Αἰτχύνη[Editor: illegible character] τȣ́τȣ τȣ͂ ἔϱγου, φέϱονgreektsinsideo δέ τι ϗ̀ Δόξης μᾶλλον.

Aristoph. Plut. Act. 2. Scene 5.

Zenoph. Απόμνημον, L. 1.

Herodotus. L. 2. 113.

“Apud Ægyptios, si quis servum sponte occiderat, eum morte damnari æque ac si liberum occidisset, jubebant leges &c.” Diodorus Sic. L. 1.

To this privilege Plautus alludes in his Casina, where he introduces a slave, speaking in the following manner.

Homer. Odys. P. 322. In the latest edition of Homer, the word, which we have translated senses, is Αρετη, or virtue, but the old and proper reading is Νοός, as appears from Plato de Legibus, ch. 6, where he quotes it on a similar occasion.

Aristotle. Polit. Ch. 2. et inseq.

Ελλησιω ἠγεμονιϰῶς, τοῖς δὲ Βαρϐάροις δεσποϐιϰῶς χρασθαι· ϗ̀ τῶν μὲν ὡς φίλων ϗ̀ οἰϰείων ἴπιμελεῖσθαι, τοῖς δὲ ὡς ζώοις ἢ φυgreektοῖς ϖϱοσφεϱέσθαι. Plutarch. de Fortun. Alexand. Orat. 1.

Omne tulit punctum, qui miscuit utile dulci. Horace.

Μὴ τἁχα ϖιϰρὴν Α’′ιγυπgreektον ϗ̀ Κύπϱον ἴδηαι. Hom. Odyss. L. 17. 448.

L. 26.

Exodus. Ch. 1.

Vide note 1 st. page 33.

This strikes us the more forcibly, as it is stiled ἐυϱϱειgreektην and ϖιριϰαλλεα, “beautiful and well watered,” in all other passages where it is mentioned, but this.

The following short history of the African servitude, is taken from Astley’s Collection of Voyages, and from the united testimonies of Smyth, Adanson, Bosman, Moore, and others, who were agents to the different factories established there; who resided many years in the country; and published their respective histories at their return. These writers, if they are partial at all, may be considered as favourable rather to their own countrymen, than the unfortunate Africans.

We would not wish to be understood, that slavery was unknown in Africa before the piratical expeditions of the Portuguese, as it appears from the Nubian’s Geography, that both the slavery and commerce had been established among the natives with one another. We mean only to assert, that the Portuguese were the first of the Europeans, who made their piratical expeditions, and shewed the way to that slavery, which now makes so disgraceful a figure in the western colonies of the Europeans. In the term “Europeans,” wherever it shall occur in the remaining part of this first dissertation, we include the Portuguese, and those nations only, who followed their example.

The Portuguese erected their first fort at D’Elmina, in the year 1481, about forty years after Alonzo Gonzales had pointed the Southern Africans out to his countrymen as articles of commerce.

In the ancient servitude, we reckoned convicts among the voluntary slaves, because they had it in their power, by a virtuous conduct, to have avoided so melancholy a situation; in the African, we include them in the involuntary, because, as virtues are frequently construed into crimes, from the venal motives of the traffick, no person whatever possesses such a power or choice.

Andrew Sparrman, M. D. professor of Physick at Stockholm, fellow of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Sweden, and inspector of its cabinet of natural history, whose voyage was translated into English, and published in 1785.

Boshies-man, or wild Hottentot.

This conclusion concerning the dissociated state of mankind, is confirmed by all the early writers, with whose descriptions of primitive times no other conclusion is reconcileable.

Justin. L. 2. C. 2.

Sallust. Bell. Jug.

Sallust. Bell. Catil.

Ammianus Marcellinus. L. 31. C. 2. et inseq.

Agri pro Numero Cultorum ab universis per vicos occupantur, quos mox inter se secundum dignationem partiuntur. Tacitus. C. 26. de Mor. Germ.

The author has lately read a work, intitled Paley’s Moral and Political Philosophy, which, in this one respect, favours those which have been hinted at, as it denies that government was a contract. “No social compact was ever made in fact,”—“it is to suppose it possible to call savages out of caves and deserts, to deliberate upon topicks, which the experience and studies, and the refinements of civil life alone suggest. Therefore no government in the universe begun from this original.” But there are no grounds for so absurd a supposition; for government, and of course the social compact, does not appear to have been introduced at the time, when families coming out of their caves and deserts, or, in other words, quitting their former dissociated state, joined themselves together. They had lived a considerable time in society, like the Lybians and Gætulians before-mentioned, and had felt many of the disadvantages of a want of discipline and laws, before government was introduced at all. The author of this Essay, before he took into consideration the origin of government, was determined, in a matter of such importance, to be biassed by no opinion whatever, and much less to indulge himself in speculation. He was determined solely to adhere to fact, and, by looking into the accounts left us of those governments which were in their infancy, and, of course in the least complicated state, to attempt to discover their foundation: he cannot say therefore, that upon a very minute perusal of the excellent work before quoted, he has been so far convinced, as to retract in the least from his sentiments on this head, and to give up maxims, which are drawn from historical facts, for those, which are the result of speculation. He may observe here, that whether government was a con ract or not, it will not affect the reasoning of the present Essay; since where ever the contract is afterwards mentioned, it is inferred only that its object was “the happiness of the people,” which is confessedly the end of government. Notwithstanding this, he is under the necessity of inserting this little note, though he almost feels himself ungrateful in contradicting a work, which has afforded him so much entertainment.

Jure Gentium servi nostri sunt, qui ab hostibus capiuntur.

Serverum appellatio ex eo fluxit, quod imperatores nostri captivos vendere, ac per hoc servare, nec occidere solent.

Nam sive victoribus jure captivitatis servissent, &c. Justin, L. 4. 3. et passim apud scriptores antiquos.

Neque est contra naturam spoliare eum, si possis, quem honestum est necare. Cicero de officiis. L. 3. 6.

1. Ut liberi suis legibus viverent. Livy, L. 30. 37.

2. Decem millia talentûm argenti descripta pensionibus æquis in annos quinquaginta solverent. Ibid.

3. Et naves rostratas, præter decem triremes, traderent, elephantosque, quos haberent domitos; neque domarent alios; Bellum neve in Africa, neve extra Africam, injussu P. R. gererent, &c. Ibid.

The total annual exportation from Africa, is estimated here at 100,000 men, two thirds of whom are exported by the British merchants alone. This estimate is less than that which is usually made, and has been published. The author has been informed by disinterested people, who were in most of the West India islands during the late war, and who conversed with many of the most intelligent of the negroes, for the purpose of inquiring by what methods they had originally been reduced to slavery, that they did not find even two in twenty, who had been reduced to that situation, by any other means than those mentioned above. The author, desirous of a farther confirmation of this circumstance, stopped the press till he had written to another friend, who had resided twenty years in the West-Indies, and whose opinion he had not yet asked. The following is an extract from the answer. “I do not among many hundreds recollect to have been but one or two slaves, of those imported from Africa, who had any scars to shew, that they had been in war. They are generally such as are kidnapped, or sold by their tyrants, after the destruction of a village. In short, I am firmly of opinion, that crimes and war together do not furnish one slave in an hundred of the numbers introduced into the European colonies. Of consequence the trade itself, were it possible to suppose convicts or prisoners of war to be justly sentenced to servitude, is accountable for ninety-nine in every hundred slaves, whom it supplies. It is an insult to the publick, to attempt to palliate the method of procuring them.”

The writer of the letter of which this is a faithful extract, and who was known to the author of the present Essay, was a long time on the African coast. He had once the misfortune to be shipwrecked there, and to be taken by the natives, who conveyed him and his companions a considerable way up into the country. The hardships which he underwent in the march, his treatment during his captivity, the scenes to which he was witness, while he resided among the inland Africans, as well as while in the African trade, gave occasion to a series of very interesting letters. These letters were sent to the author of the present Essay, with liberty to make what use of them he chose, by the gentleman to whom they were written.

Were this not the case, the government of a country could have no right to take cognizance of crimes, and punish them, but every individual, if injured, would have a right to punish the aggressor with his own hand, which is contrary to the notions of all civilized men, whether among the ancients or the moderns.

This same notion is entertained even by the African princes, who do not permit the person injured to revenge his injury, or to receive the convict as his slave. But if the very person who has been injured, does not possess him, much less ought any other person whatsoever.

There are instances on the African continent, of parents selling their children. As the slaves of this description are so few, and are so irregularly obtained, we did not think it worth our while to confider them as forming an order; and, as God never gave the parent a power over his child to make him miserable, we trust that any farther mention of them will be unnecessary.

Abbè Raynal, Hist. Phil. vol. 4. P. 154.

Justin, L. 2. C. 1.

Cicero de Officiis. L. 1. C. 8.

It is universally allowed, that at least one fifth of the exported negroes perish in the passage. This estimate is made from the time in which they are put on board, to the time when they are disposed of in the colonies. The French are supposed to lose the greatest number in the voyage, but particularly from this circumstance, because their slave ships are in general so very large, that many of the slaves that have been put on board sickly, die before the cargo can be completed.

This instance happened in a ship, commanded by one Collingwood. On the 29th of November, 1781, fifty-four of them were thrown into the sea alive; on the 30th forty-two more; and in about three days afterwards, twenty-six. Ten others, who were brought upon the deck for the same purpose, did not wait to be hand-cuffed, but bravely leaped into the sea, and shared the fate of their companions. It is a fact, that the people on board this ship had not been put upon short allowance. The excuse which this execrable wretch made on board for his conduct, was the following, “that if the slaves, who were then sickly, had died a natural death, the loss would have been the owners; but as they were thrown alive into the sea, it would fall upon the under writers.”

This gentleman is at present resident in England. The author of this Essay applied to him for some information on the treatment of slaves, so far as his own knowledge was concerned. He was so obliging as to furnish him with the written account alluded to, interspersed only with such instances, as he himself could undertake to answer for. The author, as he has never met with these instances before, and as they are of such high authority, intends to transcribe two or three of them, and insert them in the fourth chapter. They will be found in inverted commas.

One third of the whole number imported, is often computed to be lost in the seasoning, which, in round numbers, will be 27000. The loss in the seasoning depends, in a great measure, on two circumstances, viz. on the number of what are called refuse slaves that are imported, and on the quantity of new land in the colony. In the French windward islands of Martinico, and Guadaloupe, which are cleared and highly cultivated, and in our old small islands, one fourth, including refuse slaves, is considered as a general proportion. But in St. Domingo, where there is a great deal of new land annually taken into culture, and in other colonies in the same situation, the general proportion, including refuse slaves, is found to be one third. This therefore is a lower estimate than the former, and reduces the number to about 23000. We may observe, that this is the common estimate, but we have reduced it to 20000 to make it free from all objection.

Including the number that perish on the voyage, and in the seasoning. It is generally thought that not half the number purchased can be considered as an additional stock, and of course that 50,000 are consumed within the first two years from their embarkation.

That part of the account, that has been hitherto given, extends to all the Europeans and their colonists, who are concerned in this horrid practice. But we are sorry that we must now make a distinction, and confine the remaining part of it to the colonists of the British West India islands, and to those of the southern provinces of North America. As the employment of slaves is different in the two parts of the world last mentioned, we shall content ourselves with describing it, as it exists in one of them, and we shall afterwards annex such treatment and such consequences as are applicable to both. We have only to add, that the reader must not consider our account as universally, but only generally, true.

This computation is made on a supposition, that the gang is divided into three bodies; we call it therefore moderate, because the gang is frequently divided into two bodies, which must therefore set up alternately every other night.

An hand or arm being frequently ground off.

The reader will scarcely believe it, but it is a fact, that a slave’s annual allowance from his master, for provisions, clothing, medicines when sick, &c. is limited, upon an average, to thirty shillings.

“A boy having received six slaves as a present from his father, immediately slit their ears, and for the following reason, that as his father was a whimsical man, he might claim them again, unless they were marked.” We do not mention this instance as a confirmation of the passage to which it is annexed, but only to shew, how cautious we ought to be in giving credit to what may be advanced in any work written in defence of slavery, by any native of the colonies: for being trained up to scenes of cruelty from his cradle, he may, consistently with his own feelings, represent that treatment as mild, at which we, who have never been used to see them, should absolutely shudder.

In this case he is considered as a criminal against the state. The marshal, an officer answering to our sheriff, superintends his execution, and the master receives the value of the slave from the publick treasury. We may observe here, that in all cases where the delinquent is a criminal of the state, he is executed, and his value is received in the same manner. He is tried and condemned by two or three justices of the peace, and without any intervention of a jury.

Particularly in Jamaica. These observations were made by disinterested people, who were there for three or four years during the late war.

The action was brought by the owners against the underwriters, to recover the value of the murdered slaves. It was tried at Guildhall.

Phillis Wheatley, negro slave to Mr. John Wheatley, of Boston, in New-England.

Lest it should be doubted whether these Poems are genuine, we shall transcribe the names of those, who signed a certificate of their authenticity.

His Excellency Thomas Hutchinson, Governor.

The Honourable Andrew Oliver, Lieutenant Governor.

The Hon. Thomas Hubbard

The Hon. John Erving

The Hon. James Pitts

The Hon. Harrison Gray

The Hon. James Bowdoin

John Hancock, Esq.

Joseph Green, Esq.

Richard Carey, Esq.

The Rev. Cha. Chauney, D. D.

The Rev. Mather Byles, D. D.

The Rev. Ed. Pemberton, D. D.

The Rev. Andrew Elliot, D. D.

The Rev. Sam. Cooper, D. D.

The Rev. Samuel Mather

The Rev. John Moorhead

Mr. John Wheatley, her Master.

In the Preface.

As to Mr. Hume’s assertions with respect to African capacity, we have passed them over in silence, as they have been so admirably refuted by the learned Dr. Beattie, in his Essay on Truth, to which we refer the reader. The whole of this admirable refutation extends from p. 458, to 464.

Genesis, ch. iv. 15.

Genesis, ch. ix. 25, 26, 27.

Jeremiah says, ch. xiii. 23, “Can the Æthiopian change his colour, or the leopard his spots?” Now the word, which is here translated Æthiopian, is in the original Hebrew “the descendant of Cush,” which shews that this colour was not confined to the descendants of Canaan, as the advocates for slavery assert.

It is very extraordinary that the advocates for slavery should consider those Africans, whom they call negroes, as the descendants of Canaan, when few historical facts can be so well ascertained, as that out of the descendants of the four sons of Ham, the descendants of Canaan were the only people, (if we except the Carthaginians, who were a colony of Canaan, and were afterwards ruined) who did not settle in that quarter of the globe. Africa was incontrovertibly peopled by the posterity of the three other sons. We cannot shew this in a clearer manner, than in the words of the learned Mr. Bryant, in his letter to Mr. Granville Sharp on this subject.

“We learn from scripture, that Ham had four sons, Chus, Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan, Gen. x. 5, 6. Canaan occupied Palestine, and the country called by his name: Mizraim, Egypt: but Phut passed deep into Africa, and, I believe, most of the nations in that part of the world are descended from him; at least more than from any other person.” Josephus says, “that Phut was the founder of the nations in Libya, and the people were from him called φιϐοι Phuti.” Antiq. L. 1. c. 7. “By Lybia he understands, as the Greeks did, Africa in general: for the particular country called Lybia Proper, was peopled by the Lubim, or Lehabim, one of the branches from Mizraim, Λαϐιειμ εξ ου Λιϐνες. Chron. Paschale, p. 29.

“The sons of Phut settled in Mauritania, where was a country called Phutia, and a river of the like denomination. Mauritaniæ Fluvius usque ad præsens Tempus Phut dicitur, omnisq; circa eum Regio Phutensis. Hieron. Tradit. Hebrœæ.—Amnem, quem vocant Fut.” Pliny, L. 5. c. 1. “Some of this family settled above Ægypt, near Æthiopia, and were styled Troglodytæ. Φȣδ εξ ȣ τϱωγλοδοgreektαι. Syncellus, p. 47. “Many of them passed inland, and peopled the Mediterranean country.”

“In process of time the sons of Chus also, (after their expulsion from Egypt) made settlements upon the sea coast of Africa, and came into Mauritania. Hence we find traces of them also in the names of places, such as Churis, Chusares, upon the coast: and a river Chusa, and a city Cotta, together with a promontory, Cotis, in Mauritania, all denominated from Chus; who at different times, and by different people, was called Chus, Cuth, Cosh, and Cotis. The river Cusa is mentioned by Pliny, Lib. 5. c. 1. and by Ptolomy.”

“Many ages after these settlements, there was another eruption of the Cushites into these parts, under the name of Saracens and Moors, who over-ran Africa, to the very extremity of Mount Atlas. They passed over and conquered Spain to the north, and they extended themselves southward, as I said in my treatise, to the rivers Senegal and Gambia, and as low as the Gold Coast. I mentioned this, because I do not think that they proceeded much farther: most of the nations to the south being, as I imagine, of the race of Phut. The very country upon the river Gambia on one side, is at this day called Phuta, of which Bluet, in his history of Juba Ben Solomon, gives an account.”

When America was first discovered, it was thought by some, that the scripture account of the creation was false, and that there were different species of men, because they could never suppose that people, in so rude a state as the Americans, could have transported themselves to that continent from any parts of the known world. This opinion however was refuted by the celebrated Captain Cooke, who shewed that the traject between the continents of Asia and America, was as short as some, which people in as rude a state have been actually known to pass. This affords an excellent caution against an ill-judged and hasty censure of the divine writings, because every difficulty which may be started, cannot be instantly cleared up.

The divine writings, which assert that all men were derived from the same stock, shew also, in the same instance of Cush, p. 180, that some of them had changed their original complexion.

The following are the grand colours discernible in mankind, between which there are many shades;

See note, p. 180. To this we may add, that the rest of the descendants of Ham, as far as they can be traced, are now also black, as well as many of the descendants of Shem.

Diseases have a great effect upon the mucosum corpus, but particularly the jaundice, which turns it yellow. Hence, being transmitted through the cuticle, the yellow appearance of the whole body. But this, even as a matter of ocular demonstration, is not confined solely to white people; negroes themselves, while affected with these or other disorders, changing their black colour for that which the disease has conveyed to the mucous substance.

The cutaneous pores are so excessively small, that one grain of sand, (according to Dr. Lewenhoeck’s calculations) would cover many hundreds of them.

We do not mean to insinuate that the same people have their corpus mucosum sensibly vary, as often as they go into another latitude, but that the fact is true only of different people, who have been long established in different latitudes.

We beg leave to return our thanks here to a gentleman, eminent in the medical line, who furnished us with the abovementioned facts.

Suppose we were to see two nations, contiguous to each other, of black and white inhabitants in the same parallel, even this would be no objection, for many circumstances are to be considered. A black people may have wandered into a white, and a white people into a black latitude, and they may not have been settled there a sufficient length of time for such a change to have been accomplished in their complexion, as that they should be like the old established inhabitants of the parallel, into which they have lately come.

Justamond’s Abbé Raynal, v. 5. p. 193.

The author of this Essay made it his business to inquire of the most intelligent of those, whom he could meet with in London, as to the authenticity of the fact. All those from America assured him that it was strictly true; those from the West-Indies, that they had never observed it there; but that they had found a sensible difference in themselves since they came to England.

This circumstance, which always happens, shews that they are descended from the same parents as ourselves; for had they been a distinct species of men, and the blackness entirely ingrafted in their constitution and frame, there is great reason to presume, that their children would have been born black.

This observation was communicated to us by the gentleman in the medical line, to whom we returned our thanks for certain anatomical facts.

Philos. Trans. No. 476. sect. 4.

Treatise upon the Trade from Great Britain to Africa, by an African merchant.

We mean such only as are natives of the countries which we mention, and whose ancestors have been settled there for a certain period of time.

Herodotus. Euterpe. p. 80. Editio Stephani, printed 1570.

This circumstance confirms what we said in a former note, p. 201, that even if two nations were to be found in the same parallel, one of whom was black, and the other white, it would form no objection against the hypothesis of climate, as one of them might have been new settlers from a distant country.

Suppose, without the knowledge of any historian, they had made such considerable conquests, as to have settled themselves at the distance of 1000 miles in any one direction from Colchis, still they must have changed their colour. For had they gone in an Eastern or Western direction, they must have been of the same colour as the Circassians; if to the north, whiter; if to the south, of a copper. There are no people within that distance of Colchis, who are black.

There are a particular people among those transported from Africa to the colonies, who immediately on receiving punishment, destroy themselves. This is a fact which the receivers are unable to contradict.

The articles of war are frequently read at the head of every regiment in the service, stating those particular actions which are to be considered as crimes.

We cannot omit here to mention one of the customs, which has been often brought as a palliation of slavery, and which prevailed but a little time ago, and we are doubtful whether it does not prevail now, in the metropolis of this country, of kidnapping men for the service of the East-India Company. Every subject, as long as he behaves well, has a right to the protection of government; and the tacit permission of such a scene of iniquity, when it becomes known, is as much a breach of duty in government, as the conduct of those subjects, who, on other occasions, would be termed, and punished as, rebellious.

The expences of every parish are defrayed by a poll-tax on negroes, to save which they pretend to liberate those who are past labour; but they still keep them employed in repairing fences, or in doing some trifling work on a scanty allowance. For to free a field-negroe, so long as he can work, is a maxim, which, notwithstanding the numerous boasted manumissions, no master ever thinks of adopting in the colonies.

They must be cultivated always on a Sunday, and frequently in those hours which should be appropriated to sleep, or the wretched possessors must be inevitably starved.

They are allowed in general three holy-days at Christmas, but in Jamaica they have two also at Easter, and two at Whitsuntide: so that on the largest scale, they have only seven days in a year, or one day in fifty-two. But this is on a supposition, that the receivers do not break in upon the afternoons, which they are frequently too apt to do. If it should be said that Sunday is an holy-day, it is not true; it is so far an holy-day, that they do not work for their masters; but such an holy-day, that if they do not employ it in the cultivation of their little spots, they must be starved.

These dances are usually in the middle of the night; and so desirous are these unfortunate people of obtaining but a joyful hour, that they not only often give up their sleep, but add to the labours of the day, by going several miles to obtain it.

Bishop of Glocester’s sermon, preached before the society for the propagation of the gospel, at the anniversary meeting, on the 21st of February, 1766.

There is a law, (but let the reader remark, that it prevails but in one of the colonies), against mutilation. It took its rise from the frequency of the inhuman practice. But though a master cannot there chop off the limb of a slave with an axe, he may yet work, starve, and beat him to death with impunity.

Two instances are recorded by the receivers, out of about fifty-thousand, where a white man has suffered death for the murder of a negroe; but the receivers do not tell us, that these suffered more because they were the pests of society, than because the murder of slaves was a crime.

A negroe-funeral is considered as a curious sight, and is attended with singing, dancing, musick, and every circumstance that can shew the attendants to be happy on the occasion.

In 96 years, ending in 1774, 800,000 slaves had been imported into the French part of St. Domingo, of which there remained only 290,000 in 1774. Of this last number only 140,000 were creoles, or natives of the island, i. e. of 650,000 slaves, the whole posterity were 140,000. Considerations sur la Colonie de St. Dominique, published by authority in 1777.

Ten thousand people under fair advantages, and in a soil congenial to their constitutions, and where the means of subsistence are easy, should produce in a century 160,000. This is the proportion in which the Americans increased; and the Africans in their own country increase in the same, if not in a greater proportion. Now as the climate of the colonies is as favourable to their health as that of their own country, the causes of the prodigious decrease in the one, and increase in the other, will be more conspicuous.

Page 56.

Page 115.

Epist. to Philemon.

The African slave is of this description; and we could wish, in all our arguments on the present subject, to be understood as having spoken only of proper slaves. The slave who is condemned to the oar, to the fortifications, and other publick works, is in a different predicament. His liberty is not appropriated, and therefore none of those consequences can be justly drawn, which have been deduced in the present case.

See the description of an African battle, p. 98.

The lowest computation is 40,000, see p. 140.

The legislature has squandered away more money in the prosecution of the slave trade, within twenty years, than in any other trade whatever, having granted from the year 1750, to the year 1770, the sum of 300,000 pounds.

Sermon preached before the University of Cambridge, by the Rev. Peter Peckard.

The first noted earthquake at Jamaica, happened June the 7th 1692, when Port Royal was totally sunk. This was succeeded by one in the year 1697, and by another in the year 1722, from which time to the present, these regions of the globe seem to have been severely visited, but particularly during the last six or seven years. See a general account of the calamities, occasioned by the late tremendous hurricanes and earthquakes in the West-Indian islands, by Mr. Fowler.

The many ships of war belonging to the British navy, which were lost with all their crews in these dreadful hurricanes, will sufficiently prove the fact.