CHAPTER II.

Of negroes in a state of slavery.—Preliminary observations.-Origin of the slave trade.-Portuguese settlements on the African coast.-Negroes introduced into Hispaniola in 1502, and the slave trade revived at the instance of Barth. de las Cassas, in 1517.-Hawkins's voyages to the coast, in 1562 and 1563.-African Company established by James I.-Second charter in 1631 by Charles I.-Third charter in 1662.-Fourth charter in 1672.-Effect of the Petition and Declaration of Rights in 1688.-Acts of the 9th and 10th of William and Mary, c. 26.-New regulations in 1750.-Descrip tion of the African coast.-Forts and factories.-Exports from Great Britain.-Number of negroes transported annually to the British colonies.-State of the trade from 1771 to 1787.-Number of negroes at this time exported annually by the different nations of Europe.

THE

HE progress of my work has now brought me to the contemplation of human nature in its most debased and abject state;-to the sad prospect of 450,000 reasonable beings (in the English islands only) in a state of barbarity and slavery; of

whom I will not say the major part, but-great numbers assuredly, have been torn from their native country and dearest connections, by means on which no good mind can reflect but with sentiments of disgust, commiseration, and sorrow!

I am not unapprized of the danger I incur at this juncture,* in treating on the subject of African slavery, and the slave trade. By endeavouring to remove those wild and ill founded notions which have been long encouraged by misinformed writers in Great Britain, to the prejudice of the inhabitants. of the British Sugar Islands, I am conscious, that I shall be exposed to all that "bitterness and wrath, and anger and clamour, and evil-speaking and malice," with which it has long been popular to load the unfortunate slave-holder: yet nothing is more certain than that the slave trade may be very wicked, and the planters in general very innocent. By far the greatest part of the present inhabitants of the British West Indies came into possession of their plantations by inheritance or accident. Many persons there are, in Great Britain itself, who, amidst the continual fluctuation of human affairs, and the changes incident to property, find themselves possessed of estates in the West Indies which they have never seen, and invested with powers over their fellow creatures there, which, however extensively odious, they have never abu

* Alluding to the petitions depending in parliament (1791) for an abolition of the Slave trade.

sed; some of these gentlemen, unacquainted with local circumstances, and misled by the popular outcry, humanely gave orders to emancipate all their slaves, at whatever expense; but are since convinced, that their benevolent purposes cannot be carried into effect, consistently, even with the happiness of the negroes themselves.-The Reverend Society established in Great Britain for propagating the Gospel in foreign parts, are themselves under this very predicament. That venerable body hold a plantation in Barbadoes under a devise of colonel Codrington; and they have found themselves, not only under the disagreeable necessity of supporting the system of slavery which was bequeathed to them with the land, but are induced also, from the purest and best motives, to purchase occasionally a certain number of negroes, in order to divide the work, and keep up the stock. They well know that moderate labour, unaccompanied with that wretched anxiety to which the poor of England are subject in making provision for the day that is passing over them, is a state of comparative felicity: and they know also, that men in savage life have no incentive to emulation: persuasion is lost on such men, and compulsion to a certain degree, is humanity and charity.

The question then, and the only question wherein the character of the planters is concerned, is this: -Making due allowance for human frailty under the influence of a degree of power ever danger

ous to virtue, is their general conduct towards their slaves such only as necessarily results from their situation? If to this inquiry, an affirmative be returned, surely, Christian charity, though it may lament and condemn the first establishment of a system of slavery among them, and the means by which it is still kept up and supported, will not hastily arraign those who neither introduced, nor, as I shall hereafter shew, have been wanting in their best endeavours to correct and remedy many of the evils of it.

Having premised thus much, I shall now proceed to lay before my readers some account of the origin and present state of the slave trade, between the nations of Africa and such of the states of Europe as are concerned in it: this will constitute what remains of the present chapter. In the next I shall offer some thoughts on the negro character and disposition: after which I shall treat; first, of the means by which slaves are procured in Africa; secondly, of the mode of conveying them to the West Indies; and thirdly, of their general treatment and situation when sold to the planters there: an arrangement which will afford opportunities of illustrating the foregoing observations, by enabling me to intersperse such reflections as occur to my mind, on the several petitions now depending in parliament for a total abolition of the slave trade, all, or the greatest part of which, are grounded on abuses charged to exist under those several heads,

In the year 1442, while the Portuguese, under the encouragement of their celebrated prince Henry, were exploring the coast of Africa, Anthony Gonsalez, who two years before had seized some Moors near Cape Bojador, 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.

The success of Gonsalez, not only awakened the admiration, but stimulated the avarice of his countrymen; who, in the course of a few succeeding years, fitted out no less than thirty-seven ships in pursuit of the same gainful traffic. In 1481 the Portuguese built a fort on the Gold coast; another, sometime afterwards, on the island of Arguin; and a third at Loango Saint Paul's, on the coast of Angola; and the king of Portugal took the title of lord of Guinea.

So early as the year 1502, the Spaniards began to employ a few negroes in the mines of Hispaniola; but, in the year following, Ovando, the governor of that island, forbad the further importation of them; alleging, that they taught the Indians all manner of wickedness, and rendered them less tractible than formerly.* So dreadfully rapid, however, was the decrease of these last-mentioned unfortunate people, as to induce the court of Spain,

*Herrera, decad. 1. lib. 5. c. 12.