The Slavery Question

American

LAVE

be. The American Republic is a great slaveholding nation, and, viewed in its slaveholding character, might fitly be termed also, the American Despotism. The highest form of freedom is here enjoyed by about twenty m

one twentieth part of the whole period of time since Adam. Nine generations of slaves, under a crushing weight

, and most disgraceful to christian civilization. Its history, although not fully written, except by heaven's recording angel, cannot be read by a humane person, even in its fragmentary form, without the dee

h we hear so much from those who would palliate the atrocities of the slave trade, were excited by the traders themselves, and so far from palliating, only add blackness to the darkness of their crimes. The old Roman soldier, who enslaved a national enemy whom he valiantly met and conquered in

n, or patriotism, but CUPIDITY

ld, unfeeling a

uption of deg

elled their bosoms; not one philanthropic purpose strengthened their courage; not one humane pulsation throbbed in their hearts. The slaver went on its long voyage under the patronage of th

th, insatiate

nds that round

s the gulf th

ls upon the w

oker in the tr

of the estates to be worked. Had those men been unwilling to grow rich upon unrewarded toil, the slaver never would have sailed to Africa and

2d. Parties of the crew were sent out to surprise and carry off innocent children and youth as they went to the fields or gathered in groups to play in the groves. Think of the anguish of those African mothers and of the distress of their affrighted children! 3d. Villages were fired in the night, and as many of the defenseless inhabitants as could be capt

, a Portuguese captain name Alonzo Gonzales, landed in Guinea, and carried away some colored lads, whom he sold advantageously to Moorish families settled

his period it is said, and generally believed that Bartolomeo las Cas, a Catholic Priest, influenced by a feeling of pity toward the Indians, whom the Spaniards were enslaving, proposed to Ximenes the regular importation of negroes. Whether this be

nhabitants, that he lost seven men, and only captured ten. He continued his depredations until his ship was loaded with human beings, which he sold in America.[1] The trade was now vigorously prosecuted by the christian nations of Europe. It is said that Charles the V., Louis XIII. and Queen E

he trade went on vigorously-cupidity triumphing over conscience and

oted. At the time this good man lifted his voice against this traffic, it will be remembered that it was a

rons, by two and two: and all this in the most sultry climate. The consequence of the whole is, that the most dangerous and fatal diseases are soon bred among them, whereby vast numbers of those exported from Africa perish in the voyage; others in dread of that slavery which is before them, and in distress and despair from the loss of their parents, their children, their husbands, their wives, all their dear connections, and their dear native country itself, starve themselves to death, or plunge themselves into the ocean. Those who attempt in the former of those ways to escape from their persecutors, are tortured by live coals placed to their mouths. Those who attempt an escape in the latter and fail, are equally tortured

urth part of those who are exported from Africa, and by the concession of all, twenty tho

of one. Sixty thousand then in the time of Jonathan Edwards were slain in battle, 40,000 destroyed on the voyage and in the seasoning, making an annual destruction o

ng those three hundred years God only knows. Rum had excited wars among the natives, and the whole coast, and far into the interior was turned into a battle field. No one was safe. The poor African could not lie down securely at night, for men

the victims of this traffic! Ten millions; one-half of whom were murdered in Africa; one fourth during the "middle passage;" and the remaining fourth reduced to proper

few years ago. This ship was examined by the officers of a British man-of-war.

s and 226 females, making in all 562, and had been out 1

them. Some, however, hung down their heads, in apparently hopeless dejection, some were greatly emaciated, and some, particularly children, seemed dying. But the circumstance which struck us most forcibly, was, how it was possible for such a number of human beings to exist, packed up and wedged together as tight as they could cram, in low cells, three feet high, the greater part of which, except that immediately under the hatchways, was shut out from light or air, and this when the thermometer, exposed to the open sky, was stand-in the shade, on our deck at 89°. The space between the decks was divided into two compartments, three feet, three inches high; the size of one was 16 feet by 18 feet, and of the other 40 feet by 21 feet; into the first there were crammed the women and girls, into the second the men and boys; 226 fellow beings were thus thrust into one space 288 feet square, and 336 into another 800 feet square, giving to the whole an average of 23 inches, and to each of the women, not more than thirteen. The heat of these horrid places was so great and the odor so offensive, that it was quite impossible to enter them even had there been room. They were measured as above when the slaves had left them. The officers insisted that the poor suffering creatures should be admitted on deck to get air and water. This was opposed by the mate of the slaver, who, from a feeling that they deserved it, declared they would murder them all. The officers (of the Eng. ship,) however, persisted, and t

defenseless victims, as it was found upon examination that it had not violated a v

unutterable woes. The history of this wickedness will never be fully known until the general judgment. Then will the ocean have a tale to tell of the thousands who were smothered in the slave prisons which floated upon her bosom, and of th

place in 1795. This bill was rejected in the House of Lords. About this time the National Assembly in France, declared all the slaves in the French colonies free. Mr. Wilberforce brought into the British Parliament another bill in 1796, which provided that this trade should be abolished forever after 1797-but this bill was lost also. The efforts of the friends of humanity were redoubled, and in "1806 Fox moved that the House of Commons should declare the slave trade inconsistent with justice, humanity and sound policy,

ntinued, and with increased barbarity, and is even yet carrie

gard to the comfort or lives of the captured; that the whole civilized world, after an experience of centuries, became horrified at its terrible iniquity; that now the trade is declared

other agitators, and, though powerfully defended by avarice and interest; though hoary with age; though protected by statesmen, by the commercial and planting interests, that attack was vigorously followed up u