John Randolph Spears

“ There they stood in rows and as the brawny slaver, whip in hand, paced to and fro, they sang their home-songs, and danced, each with his free foot slapping the deck.
When the slaves tried to kill themselves because they believed in the resurrection and a life in their old homes after death, some of the slaver captains mutilated the bodies of the dead by cutting off and carrying along the heads or other portions of the bodies, and telling the slaves that thus the dead would be wholly unable to exist, or, at any rate, to enjoy the life they hoped for after death. ”

“ Said an eloquent coast chief when the English began to negotiate with him for the abolition of the slave traffic:
"I and my army are ready, at all times, to fight the enemies of England, and do anything the English may ask of me, except to give up the slave-trade. No other trade is known to my people. It is the source of their glory and wealth. ”

“ At first thought it may seem a story to make an American ashamed of his country. Certainly the power of the slave-ship owner in national politics before the civil war was something that makes us marvel now. From the enactment of the law that made the slave-trade piracy until Abraham Lincoln became President the policy of pretence that prevailed in connection with the slave-trade was infinitely disgraceful to the nation. But when all the facts are fairly considered, it is found that we were steadily developing, under adverse circumstances, a love of exact Justice. ”

“ While slave-holders were holding conventions in which to advocate the reopening of the slave-trade, the abolitionists were in a thousand ways proclaiming the right of every human being to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. A few were even proclaiming the strange doctrine that the superior race, instead of having, by virtue of its superiority, the right to oppress the weak, was, by the example and command of Almighty God, bound to uplift and carry the burden of the weak. ”

“ The ills of the slave-trade as described by the witnesses before the English Parliament became widely known in this country, and the abolitionists, led by the persistent Quakers, kept nagging Congress with petitions for the abolition of slavery, but Congress went on, brushing these aside, until the shadow of the storm raised in Hayti by Toussaint L'Ouverture darkened the southern horizon. The slaves of the great island just east of Cuba arose, and in a day, so to speak, had asserted and maintained the principle that all men are born free and equal. ”

“ Built for speed, and manned by men who had seen service in voyages for legal plunder, these privateers were the ideal slavers. They went down the slave-coast flying any flag that pleased the fancy. If they fell in with a slaver of less force than their own they transferred her cargo to their own decks. If they met a small cruiser they cleared for action, and it is a matter of record that they made such a good fight, in many cases, that they beat off armed agents of the law. ”

“ If we speak of Liberia alone we must say it was founded on cowardice and indolence. At the same time many upright, sincere, self-sacrificing people were connected with both colonies. The tales of what some people sulfered to promote the interests of the unfortunate blacks are heart-rending.
It is true that the idea of forming a free-negro colony was considered in the American colonies before our Revolutionary war, but it was not until Sierra Leone was established that anything practical was done here. ”

“ The noise of the conflict on the Duke of York was a signal to the other ships, on most of which the natives were attacked in like manner. And then came the inhabitants of the New Town; for the slaver captains had arranged that they should hide in the mangroves along shore until the attack was made, when they were to come out with canoes and pick up the Old Town people who might be swimming for the shore. And these, being mad with their thirst for blood, killed more than they took out of the water for slaves. ”

“ That slaves were few in number during the earlier years of the trade is certain. That is to say, the great men of every tribe held a few of their neighbors as personal property. They were detained in various ways, but chiefly through taking prisoners in the fights with neighboring tribes, for strange as it may seem now, the presence of slaves in a tribe indicated some degree of mercy in the minds of the slaveowners. Instead of killing everybody, old and young, when attacking an enemy, these slave-owners saved some alive. ”

“ Even as late as 1870, Great Britain and the United States had to strengthen still further their agreement for the suppression of the trade, because a few slavers were yet on the high seas. It was not until about 1886 that the Spaniards (and some American citizens) ceased to own slaves in Cuba, but the slave-trade began its death throes — it for the first time felt a real strangling pressure on its throat — when this treaty was made. Detailed stories of some of the slavers owned in New York but trading to Cuba are to be had by the student in sufficient number. ”

“ Time had been when the long and dangerous voyage had made vikings of those engaged in it, but as the profits grew and swelled before the eyes of the slavers all other views were fogged from sight, and from brave men, really striving to do right, they were, within half a century, degraded to a level beyond which there was no depth conceivable. And degradation is the inevitable fate of everyone who deliberately ignores justice in his treatment of inferiors. Get rich he may, but be degraded hell-low he shall be. ”

“ He saw the evil likely to arise through trade jealousies between the separate and independent though neighboring colonies, and a union of all was effected under a constitution providing for a government somewhat like that of the United States. No white man could become a land-owner under the laws, but all adult black males were voters, and slavery was absolutely prohibited. It failed of making a nation of the colonies only because "the American Colonization Society retained the right to veto the acts of the local legislature." ”

“ When the colonists united to oppose British oppression, the talk about slavery and slaves, which had reference to their own condition, turned their thoughts to the unfortunate negro slaves, and on Thursday, October 20, 1774, they signed an agreement that they would "not purchase any slave imported after the first day of December next; after which time we will wholly discontinue the slave-trade, and will neither be concerned in it ourselves, nor will we hire our vessels, nor sell our commodities or manufactures to those who are concerned in it." ”

“ Great Britain was entirely willing that every British slaver should be treated so, but even John Quincy Adams was constrained to declare to the British authorities, at the behest of the slaver power, that the slave-trade was "statutory piracy" — something different from high-sea robbery. It could never be allowed by the people of the United States that an American slaver should be treated as a high-sea robber by any other power than an American court! ”

“ Although the British-American colonies, from Massachusetts to Georgia, had become the United States of America before anything was done through a love of humanity for the legal abolition of the traffic, it is necessary, for the purposes of this history, to consider the progress of the trade, and of its opponents, very much as if no separation had taken place between the colonies and the mother country. ”

“ The odds against Captain "Billy" were tremendous, but what he lacked in men and arms he made up by his magnificent pluck. The privateersmen swarmed to his deck, "but never a Dago that got over the rail lived to return."
More famous still as a fighter was Captain Hugh Crow, the one-eyed slaver of Liverpool, "one of the bravest, shrewdest, quaintest and most humorous old sea-dogs that ever breathed"; but he was of a later date than Lindsay or Boates, being, in fact, captain of the last lawful Liverpool slaver. ”

“ Previous to that massacre, according to Captain Canot, British officers were known, sometimes, to admire a good fighter so much as to let him escape — even to help him escape after capture!
When there was no hope in a fight, the only way to escape condemnation was to get rid of the slaves before the cruiser could get an officer alongside. That legislators should not have foreseen the effect of this law or its interpretation, is no great wonder, But that the rule should have remained in force as it did is a shocking exhibit in the civilization of the day. ”

“ As long as a people "holds its life in its hand, ready to give it for its honor (though a foolish honor) ; for its love (though a foolish love) ; for its business (though a foolish business) , there is hope for it." The slave-owners, too, held their lives in their hands. No higher proof of their sincerity is known to man. Nathan Hale, whose statue stands in the City Hall Park of New York, reached out both hands (albeit with sorrow) when he welcomed to the further shore the spirits of those Americans who cheerfully went to their death in the David torpedo-boat, of Charleston harbor. ”

“ But by the laws of Great Britain there was no such thing as property in man. "All men were born free," by her law, and the negroes who were held in slavery, contrary to their will, were justified in taking the lives of their masters in order to obtain their natural right. Having carried the brig into British waters, the slaves, under British laws, became free; and the result was that they all remained free except five who voluntarily continued the voyage to New Orleans. ”

“ War, crime, and superstition supplied the great men of the tribes with servants, and these they would sell on occasion. That they might also sell wives and children scarcely need be said, though sons were rarely sold save in time of famine, even in the mild slaveholding days before the white slaver came — days when slaves were, on the whole, treated as members of the slave-holder's family. ”

“ On learning her fate they went in chase of Johnson, captured him, and, bringing him to the ship, offered him for sale.
"You won't buy me, whom you know to be a great trading man, will you, captain?" said Jolinson, in remonstrance.
"If they will sell you I will buy you, be you what you may," replied the captain, and the kidnapping Ben Johnson became a slave himself. This story is especially interesting because of the picture it gives of the workings of the captain's mind. He would not kidnap a negro himself, but he would buy of anyone under any circumstances. ”

“ The price in the United States would have been increased by the laws, only for the fact that Virginia had become an exporter of slaves; but, as it was, the price was already high enough to yield a profit that now seems well-nigh incredible. The slave that cost $20 in Africa would, if landed in fairly good order in Georgia bring no less than $500 net, even after allowing for dividing with underground agents there. In short, outlawing the trade enhanced its attractiveness in every way to the wilder spirits. ”

“ In America the New England colonies took the lead in the slave-trade. Barefooted boys waded through the snow to find berths in the forecastles of the colony ships, and, hard as sailor life was then, they found more comforts afloat than on the farms they left behind. ”

“ Granville Sharp, as the friend of one oppressed negro, had asked that question, standing alone, in other years. Now tens of thousands of the mightiest, most heroic souls of the earth were standing up to answer it, not by words alone but by freely giving their life blood. ”

“ Straightway the people of the coast who, in the ordinary course of their lives would never have owned a slave, began bringing slaves to the ships. Two or three would paddle off in a canoe at night, bringing one that was bound and gagged, and the purchase of those who were manifestly kidnapped became the regular custom of the trade. ”

“ Rhode Island had one hundred and fifty vessels in the African slave-trade in 1770. Hopkins wrote in that year saying: "Rhode Island has been more deeply interested in the slave-trade, and has enslaved more Africans than any other colony in New England."
In 1787 he wrote again: "This trade in human species has been the first wheel of commerce in Newport, on which every other movement in business has depended. That town has been built up, and flourished in times past" on the slave-trade, "and by it [the inhabitants] have gotten most of their wealth and riches." ”

“ The negro was to be a slave for life — a mere laborer whose value was as that of a horse. But a large proportion of the white slaves became, at last, business men who would develop the natural resources of the country, and build the nation.
And all this is to say, with emphasis, that the prohibitive legislation of New Jersey, as of some other communities, was based strictly on business considerations. ”

“ The sea here makes a great scoop into the land, as if the Brazilian part of the South American continent had been broken out of the hollow in the African coast. Two great rivers and a host of smaller streams come down to the sea within its limits, and its contour, as a whole, is that of a mighty gulf, but there is neither bay nor inlet throughout its whole extent that forms a good harbor for shipping. ”

“ Importation of slaves was prohibited under penalty of a fine of £100 per negro, and £1,000 per ship, but there was nothing in her legislation, or in any other legislation then extant, to prevent her shipowners reaping the profits of the open trade to South Carolina. It was right hard work to induce legislators in those days to shut off absolutely a business wherein a man could make $90,000 profit in one round voyage of a ship worth less than $10,000. ”

“ Granville Sharp, in fighting the battle of an unfortunate negro, prepared the way in England for the discussion of slavery and the slave-trade on their merits, The voiceless negro through him appealed to the justice and humanity of the dominant race. ”

“ No other trade ever had such an exalted origin, and yet the cruelties and horrors of it far surpass those described in any other branch of history. The soldiers who have looted cities, the pirates who have made passengers and sailors walk the plank, and the religious zealots who have burned their opponents at the stake, were more merciful than the slave-traders. ”

“ As for the defeated negroes who were not killed, they were carried down to the sea and sold. And as time passed the passion for blood grew on the raiders until it was greater than their greed. They tortured to death many whom they might have sold. Before the end of the eighteenth century these raids, called wars by those who owned the slave-ships, were the chief source of supply for the coast market, and after the trade was declared illegal they were, practically, the only source of supply ”

“ She appears above our horizon like a strange sail at sea, showing unmistakably from our present point of view that something is wrong with her; we pass her close enough at hand to see on her decks men and women in distress whom we are wholly unable to relieve, and then she fades away in the mists astern, and is lost forever. ”