CHAPTER V.

Origin of the Negro Race-Slavery in Africa-Commencement of the Slave-Trade-Consequences of it on the Morals of the Africans-Different Dispositions of various Nations of Africa, discoverable in the Conduct and Temper of the Slaves-Passions of the Negroes-Consequences of Slavery with Respect to their Dispositions-Their Benevolence-Filial Affection-LoquacityLove of Pleasure-Various Amusements-Religious Sentiments— Superstitions-Obeah-Natural Genius and Comprehension. Slave-Trade of England-How carried on-Slave-Ships-Situation of the Negroes at Sea--Manner of Sale at Jamaica-Treatment of the Slaves on Estates--Their Work-Food-CloathingHouses.-Arguments for the Slave-Trade considered--Injustice of it-Inhumanity-Impolicy-Immediate Abolition of it considered-Equally just and desirable-Consequences of it.-Employment of poor but industrious Emigrants from Scotland and Ireland proposed--Great Advantages likely to result from it.--Melioration of the Condition of the Slaves recommended— Giving them Education—A stated Quantity of Labour-Making their Evidence legal in a Court of Justice-Suffering them to ·acquire Property-Attention to their Morals-Discouragement of Polygamy.-Beneficial Effects of these Measures.

WHETHER Negroes are the descendants of the great parent

of mankind, is a question which has been long and unsuccessfully agitated among philosophers. By some, it has been, with considerable ingenuity argued, that the change of colour

is merely a consequence of the heat of climate, exposure to the sun, and inattention to cleanliness. Whether the operation of these causes could, during a long succession of ages, change the colour of the skin, is a question, which, from the want of experience, it will be impossible ever to decide. But, when to the difference of the colour of the Negro, we add, the peculiar shape of his scull, the flatness of his nose, the uniform thickness of his lip, the size, colour, and regularity of his teeth, the appearance and quality of his hair, the nature of his skin, and the structure of his limbs, there seem to be, in the opinion of many philosophers, insurmountable difficulties in supposing, that he descended from the same parent with the northern, European. But this investigation leads to no practical conclusion, and is only useful in exercising those thinking faculties of the philosopher, which, when properly directed, and usefully applied, are calculated to confer upon mankind, the most important benefits.

Slavery is peculiarly congenial, and seems even to be natural, to the inhabitants of warm climates. Man, untutored, though possessed of superior faculties to the other animals of the creation, is, like them, the slave of circumstances, and yields, without reflection, to the necessities of his situation. In tropical regions, the necessaries of life are so easily procured, frequently springing spontaneously, and protection from the inclemencies of Heaven are so little required, and so easily attained, that the energies of the human mind being never excited, are suffered to remain in eternal slumber. Of this situation, sloth is a natural, almost a necessary, consequence; and, indolence being the parent of weakness, submission to injustice and violence, without murmur, reflection, or resentment, generally takes place. As no effect is ever observed without an adequate cause, the prevalence of slavery throughout

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the world, but especially in tropical regions, is undoubtedly produced by some powerful and extensively operating causes, of which, those just mentioned are probably the chief.

Slavery, has, in all ages, existed in Africa. The European traffic in African slaves, which has already produced, and will certainly produce extraordinary consequences, seems first to have commenced in the year 1442 of the Christian æra. An thony Gonsalez, an enterprizing Portuguese navigator had, two years previous to this period, seized some Moors, near Cape Bojador, whom he was ordered by his prince to convey back to Africa. He landed them at a place called Rio del Oro, and received in exchange, a quantity of gold dust, and ten Negroes, with whom he returned to Lisbon. This success encouraged others to engage in a traffic so profitable; and in the year 1481, the Portuguese founded a settlement, and built a fort on the Gold Coast; and a short time afterwards, another was built at Arguin, and a third at Loango St. Paul's, on the coast of Angola. The Portuguese remained almost exclusively in possession of this trade, till the discovery of the new world by Columbus, when, in consequence of the inhuman butcheries of the inoffensive and unoffending Indians by the Spaniards, a supply of inhabitants was absolutely necessary, for the culture and preservation of their new possessions.

The origin of the African trade in slaves, to the West Indies, is attributed by some historians to a very honourable cause. According to them, the active benevolence of Las Casas, which was, in that age, a phenomenon among the Spaniards, led him to propose this traffic as a measure, which would relieve the hapless natives of the new world from that toil, to which they were totally unequal, and which tended so much to their destruction. However this may be, it is surely not uncharitable to believe, that the Spaniards were so lost to every sense of justice, and dead to every feeling of humanity,

that, had it not been for their own interests, they never would have engaged in this dreadful traffic. But from the depopulation of the new world, produced by the avarice, ambition, cruelty, and fanaticism of these pretended followers of Jesus, (their conduct how opposite to that of him, whom they affected to adore!) the African slave-trade soon became considerable; for we find, that so early as the year 1517, the Emperor. Charles V. granted a patent to some Genoese merchants, to sup> ply the Islands of St. Domingo, Jamaica, Cuba, and Porto Rico, with four thousand slaves annually. This traffic was afterwards engaged in by the French, English, and other mari time powers of Europe, and has, ever since, been constantly carried on by some, or all of these nations. And to such an extent was this trade carried on, that, in the year 1789, above seventy-four thousand slaves (besides immense numbers sent to Morocco, Barbary, Turkey, Persia and Goa, amounting, in all, to one hundred and fifty thousand) were annually im. ported into the West Indies, by the English, French, Dutch, Portuguese, and Danish.

This enormous annual supply must certainly decrease the population of Africa, as a great proportion of the Negroes exported, consists of males, and a still greater proportion of young inhabitants. These annual supplies are derived from various sources. They consist of Negroes born in slavery, condemned culprits, captives in war, and free persons, kidnapped by the villainy of the black and white agents or factors. This last class is, perhaps, of all the least considerable, and is far less numerous now, than it was at some former periods. But it cannot be denied, that in the present barbarous state of Africa, the very existence of such a trade is sufficient to excite in innumerable instances, all the hateful passions, and to produce the most horrid and frightful instances of injustice and barbarity.

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Concerning the injustice and inhumanity of a traffic, which renders one man the slave of his brother, there can scarcely be two opinions; but, though this trade cannot be too severely reprobated, and ought undoubtedly to be stigmatized with the execration of all civilized nations, and abolished by every enlightened government, yet no man possessed of the smallest degree of candour will blame the planters of Jamaica, or of any other island in the West Indies, for keeping possession of slaves, which were purchased by their forefathers, under the sanction of the existing government, and which are now become the only means of their subsistence. An abolition of the African slave-trade is a measure, which, for reasons afterwards to be mentioned, is equally consonant to justice and to good policy; but an immediate emancipation of the slaves would not only be productive of the most frightful consequences, but would, in the first instance, be an act of the most flagrant injustice to their present proprietors. If this measure be ever seriously thought of, it must be attempted gradually, and executed with the utmost caution; while the first step to this great path of justice and philanthropy, must necessarily be the payment of the value of the slaves, out of the national purse, to their present masters. The slave-trade is certainly unjust, and, in the present state of the West India islands, impolitic; But let not national philanthropy commence with injustice.

The slaves imported from Africa are natives of an immense continent, extending two thousand miles from north to south, and six hundred from east to west, inhabited by various nations, differing widely from each other, not only in civilization, religion, manners and customs, but even in the size, appearance and structure of the body. Their tempers and dispositions are also extremely different, according to the situation and circumstances of the tribe or nation to which they belong.