A gentleman resident at Sierra Leone

“ The penalty of the law is not death, but it is worse, for it reduces the convict to the most infamous degradation of life. Should you be sentenced to labour, you would be clothed with a peculiar cap, jacket, and trowsers, to designate your disgraceful state, and you must labour on the wharf or fort with a fetter and log appended to some limb, to prevent your escape. Yet, when we consider the crime, the punishment cannot be considered severe; for what can be more abominable than seizing, selling, and transporting human beings, without any crime against God or man being imputed to them? ”

“ How many innocent victims have expired at your threshold; how many torn from their country, parents, or children, have you condemned to disease, to decrepitude, to slavery, and to death?—“There is a God, all nature cries aloud,” that marks the movements of this world, and brings us to account; when you are summoned before that great tribunal for judgment, and those unfortunate Africans, whom you branded on the thigh with burning implements of torture, shall arise in evidence against you, what can you expect from the seat of Supreme Justice? ”

“ Can there be any other reason shewn why the same measures which are now in force for the extirpation of the slave trade should not have been adopted thirty years ago? The trade was then equally cruel and barbarous, equally disgraceful to man, and detestable in the sight of Heaven, as it is now rightly considered; but the merchant, the planter, and the factor, have been enriched by this lucrative commerce in their fellow-creatures, and they have received that patronage and countenance, which wealth, however obtained or employed, is seldom denied. ”

“ It is the very essence of justice to apportion punishment to offence; and could the cargoes of slaves we have constantly exhibited in this colony, could the animated skeletons that are landed here, imploring death for relief, be visible in England, an universal exclamation would involuntarily burst from that inestimable people —“Without ocular demonstration, we could not have believed that human depravity could have extended to these enormities—extirpate these monsters!” ”

“ You have violated them all; the slave trader is execrated in society, and the law of opinion, would condemn you to solitude; the verdict of the Jury, under which you now wait the sentence of the Court, is declaratory of your violation of the law of the land, and your conscience must, convict you of despising the law of God; think of the commandment, “Thou shalt not steal;” it is neither money nor fame, but liberty of which you have robbed your fellow-creatures. Human beings, created and made after God's image, you have stolen ”

“ It is really surprizing and gratifying to contemplate the great body of work that has been done in this colony for effecting the abolition in a period comparatively so small. If we survey the whole of the operations which have been gradually going forward to help Africa, since the year 1788, we shall discover that the exertions of a few months in 1812 surpass them all. The restrictions put by law on the slave trade, from time to time, certainly deserve great commendation, because they were grounded on goodness and humanity, and their benefits were practically known to the poor enslaved African ”

“ It is granted that England is desirous to remove the curse that has so long pressed on Africa; it will then appear a circumstance of great satisfaction to every humane heart, that, for the attainment of this object, a more fit character could not have been selected than the present Chief Justice of this colony, than whom no man can be a more determined hater of slavery. ”

“ It is certain that judgment might have been instantly pronounced on Samo, and he might now be carrying stone at the public works, with a log to his ancle, and a driver with a whip at his back; yet, I must repeat how much better was it to have had him reserved for the interposition of his whole African connexion, who have bound themselves to renounce the commerce in slaves for ever; and, if they resume it, have exposed themselves to inevitable discovery, by a correspondence which is now established between Sierra Leone and the Soosoo nation. ”

“ It is unjust and inhuman,—it is a foul disgrace on man,—it is an abomination in the sight of God? Of this tyranny and cruelty the prisoner has been clearly proved to be guilty, and of it the Jury ought by their verdict to convict him. This will be one great effort toward the melioration of this enslaved race, who surround us on all sides, and come almost daily into our harbour. ”

“ And how many thousands are there whose miseries have not reached me, and whom you have barbarously sold into slavery? What happiness can you have in life, if you have any reflection? What recompense can you make to man for the horrors you have caused, though in the possession of the wealth of worlds? ”

“ The leading motive for publishing the Trials of the Slave Traders is, to afford the British Legislature, the Government, and the people in general, an early and correct view of the operation of the recent slave felony act of parliament: an act which reflects the highest honour on those whose humanity was so determined and conspicuous in conducting to a happy issue the long and strenuously contested question of African emancipation. ”

“ In the case of the pardoned slave trader, we see the apprehension of a man, who had for upwards of sixteen years been in the constant practice of bartering and transporting his fellow-creatures for rum, tobacco, and gun powder. This is an object that cannot be indifferent to the coldest heart. Figure to yourself this man brought to the tribunal of justice. and there pleading innocence. Observe the progress of the evidence, and hear how slave trading is systematized in Africa, notwithstanding the most powerful nation on earth is pledged to abolish slavery. ”

“ The poor slaves were first caught by the chiefs in their wars promoted by Europeans; they were then sold to the slave factors, who again bartered them for a monstrous profit, without any stipulation as to their destination or usage. No; to the avaricious slave dealer, it matters not what becomes of the wretched victim whom he sells, except that the sooner they are destroyed, the greater will be the demand for them. ”

“ But all that England can do to break up the trade in human flesh will be of no avail, if her allies be allowed to carry it on. Portugal, it is true, is confined by treaty to trade for slaves only within her own dominions on the coast; but this is not the case with Spain. The subjects of this nation still send their vessels for cargoes of slaves; and they affect astonishment at being told, that they are not at liberty to ship them off from every part of Africa. ”

“ But should this infernal commerce be continued; if mercenary miscreants can be found, whom fines, forfeitures, and infamy, cannot controul, whom no principle of morality, liberty, justice, humanity, or policy, can restrain, but that innumerable cruelties, multifarious casualties, and premature deaths, are still continued to be heaped on the unoffending sons of Africa; if those innocent human beings are still to be torn from their country, their habitations, their parents, children, and friends, for the miserable gratification of a little rum and tobacco ”

“ It is asserted that the prisoner was apprehended out of the jurisdiction of this Court; that assertion cannot be maintained, as the Isles de Loss are considered the dependencies of Sierra Leone; they are inhabited and cultivated by British subjects, who consider, and have always acknowledged themselves amenable to British laws. I can prove beside this, my Lord, that the prisoner has often boasted of being a British subject; and this boast is now recorded in the Sierra Leone Gazette, and has never been contradicted by the prisoner. ”

“ In the cause of African emancipation, he has exhibited the deepest zeal, patiently and indefatigably devoted; notwithstanding the multiplicity of business to which he has to attend as Chief Justice, he has an ear ever ready to hear the complaint of the suffering African, and his humanity affords him prompt redress. ”

“ Among the variety of places which I visited on the coast of Africa was that of the Portuguese settlement of Bissao. From this place was once shipped a great number of slaves; and thongh its commerce is now much reduced, it still obstructs the benevolence of the British Government, in putting down the slave commerce. The inhabitants at Bissao have been habituated from infancy to slaving, and from the local situation of the country it is evident, that so long as it continues in the same hands, the trade on the windward coast cannot be totally abolished. ”

“ The cruelty and turpitude practised by the slave traders will also appear, and serve to add an increased horror towards that diabolical commerce, at the mere contemplation of which, every mind not hardened by the profits accruing from it involuntarily shudders. The facts here developed cannot fail to originate many important reflections. The legislator will consider whether something is not still necessary to be done, though he may exultingly own much has been achieved in behalf of the poor African. ”

“ Samo was a good man; he was always a very quiet man, and never engaged in any of the riots in the Rio Pongas.
[Here closed the evidence in favour of the prisoner.] Mr. Biggs, the counsel for the crown, rose in reply, and, requesting the indulgence of the Court, proceeded thus: My Lord, and Gentlemen of the Jury,
Though in this case I confidently anticipated the result of the evidence, yet that result has been the anticipation of truth ; it fully appears that every count in the indictment is supported by evidence that can neither be questioned or refuted. ”

“ England will look to you for its discharge; the happiness of thousands will rest upon it. I know the prisoners are personally known to many of you; but I have tried your integrity, and am confident—Remember your oath, that you will diligently inquire, and true presentment make; calmly and dispassionately compare the statute and the indictment, and, if the proofs will warrant, the accusation, send it for investigation before the Court and a jury, by finding the bills.
The Grand Jury found true bills of indictment against Samuel Samo and Charles Hickson. ”

“ There is ground to believe, that in England there are persons who have promoted the slave trade by their connexion in the neighbourhood of this colony, while they professed to abhor it. When these characters shall have been brought to light, we shall have many strange and wicked facts to contemplate ; and Africa will know its real enemies in the exposure of certain of its hypocritical friends. ”

“ The evidence now to be produced will discover a system, by which the men who carry on the slave trade hope to obtain the profits of a base and barbarous traffic, and yet escape the just punishment which they ought to suffer for their crimes; and it will also shew that Samuel Samo, as charged in the five counts in the indictment, did ship off from the coast of Africa as principal, and also as aider and abettor, a certain number of slaves, in the months of August, September, October, and November, 1811 ”

“ The world will always remember, and often mention, them; and it is impossible they can be forgotten by historians; for when they speak of the British legislative acts of the nineteenth century, they must dwell with delight and enthusiasm in honest praise of the names of those who contended with unrivalled eloquence, unanswerable arguments, and final success, against slavery. Besides, the reporter of these Trials, and the author of this Introduction, having no object to attain, except extending the cause of humanity, would preserve himself free from even the suspicion of adulation. ”

“ Forfeitures and confiscations were found inadequate for abolition; and the same philanthropy continuing to illumine the British senate, an act constituting the slave trade felony was passed, to render former acts more effective, and the abolition complete. The first time of making this valuable act operative has devolved on you; the principles of British jurisprudence will not tolerate slavery; liberty does not depend on complexion ”

“ It is not an individual victim of the law that is most valuable. The annihilation of this diabolical traffic is the victim to the law that we demand. Your sentence shall be deferred until the first day of the next sessions, in the hope of finding such exertions made by your friends to extirpate this trade, as will in a great measure diminish, though they may not be able to eradicate it. And in proportion to the contrition exhibited, and the zeal for its destruction manifested, the discretion which the law gives to the Court shall be extended to you ”

“ The Editor applied to the prisoner's counsel, for their notes, but could not procure them; the substance of the defence is given, with their acknowledgment and consent; abolition of the slave trade, by withdrawing from the Rio Pongas, and now establishing myself in the Isles de Loss, where I have the promise of a good piece of land, and (if it please the Almighty) I will convince the inhabitants and natives of Africa what can be done in respect to agriculture in this country. ”

“ A passport from Surinam to New York is produced, but it does not state the prisoner to be a Dutchman. The prisoner has domiciled above sixteen years in the Rio Pongas; this may be considered foreign dominions, but the chiefs of that country consider the white men as British subjects; and they also consider themselves British subjects; they have claimed, in cases of distress, British protection, and received it; they purchase, reside, and trade as British subjects, not as Africans. The prisoner has derived every advantage and protection from the English law ”