William Beckford

“ But suppose that the English should forego this commerce, would not other nations smuggle them into the country, and to illegality superadd extortion, to the ruin of him who shall be tempted to buy? will it not deprive us of this valuable trade without adding to humanity, and make the labour of those, who are now upon the plantations more heavy, and at last sink them down to languor and despair? would not a hasty liberation break down the bounds of justice, and obedience, introduce anarchy, confusion, licentiousness and death? ”

“ That the master profits by the labour, the skill, the independency of his slave, cannot I think, be well denied; for him he plants, for him he cleans, for him improves; and the more he is encouraged to industry, the better cloathed, the better fed, the more able will he be to labour; and if his work be apportioned to his strength, he may continue his exertions beyond the common period: but if negroes be over-wrought, and no indulgence given to their weakness, they soon wear away in body and mind, and absoluely bear the symptoms of age, when in point of years they are only in their prime. ”

“ Let the legislature look if there be not slaves of their own religion, and colour in England; if there be not others who become willing ones by a sale of their indentures to those very people whom the European attacks with so much rancour on the score of humanity abroad. Although a creole myself, I shall hope to be excused if I vindicate the feelings of my country. Let not a planter be blamed for the act of his agent, nor that agent be censured for that barbarity which absent he could not remedy, but which present he would scorn to justify. ”

“ Who can behold the numbers of unfortunate creatures, who nightly shiver in the streets, without protection, without raiment, without food, and not conclude, that there is either an error in feeling, or a weakness in the execution of our laws; and I am apt to believe, that there are many, who daily perish, under hedges, or in paths, for want of that common sustenance, which nature provides for all; for misery, however delinquent the sufferer may be, is, in itself, entitled to compassion; and real want, however occasioned, has a right to food. ”

“ We should not imagine that negroes are of a different species from ourselves, or that they are more inert in mental sensations, or less vigorous in bodily pursuits, than the natives are of other climates. It is not in the American colonies that we are to look for their exertions; we should trace them in their wilds, the interminable forests of Africa: we should behold them in their native woods, their desarts, and their waters; we should follow them in the chase of the lion, the tyger, and the crocodile, in fatigue that would melt down an European constitution ”

“ I shall therefore in my conclusion acknowledge that I am an advocate for humanity, and that in consequence of this principle, I am not an advocate for the liberation of the slave. I am an advocate for all that can make him comfortable, I am an advocate for all that can make him happy; I am an advocate for his removal from his natal soil, that he may taste the comforts of protection, the fruits of humanity, and the blessings of religion. ”

“ While now the flame of humanity seems to glow in every breast, it should not be suffered to cool; for the spark once neglected will die away, and receive, perhaps, a blaze no more; but the subject must be touched with a delicate hand, considered in all possible points of view, lest inhumanity should be the consequence of pity, the end of the petitions be thereby defeated, the intended remedy fail, and the wounds of the negroes left incapable of a cure. The comforts that must attend their future situation should originate in England, extend to Africa, and be matured in the colonies ”

“ Let us now suppose, for the sake of argument, and adverting to the adopted idea of humanity, that a total suppression of the slave trade, in consequence of the petitions shall ensue. What will the negroes gain? What shall we not lose? A restriction of our own trade will not be a restriction of that of other nations; if we forego the commerce of Africa, will the French, the Spanish, the Dutch, the Danes take up, and pursue our notions of benevolence? ”

“ If necessity can plead an excuse with the European settler, or the planter for the abuse of power, and reconcile the tyrant to the caprice of punishment,—the sufferer should not therefore meet with oppression when patient, nor cruelty when resigned—the situation of master and slave should be humanely considered; and as the first owes his bread to the latter, it is his duty from principle, as I should hope it would be from inclination, to protect him from cruelty, and preserve him from want. ”

“ A slave, from his situation commands protection; and before he can sink his master must fall; nay, he is by law considered as a fixture, as a vegetable upon the soil, which the hand of power cannot eradicate, and which must either flourish, or wither upon the spot. The necessitous labourer in England meets with no compassion for inability, no indulgence from age, no feeling from despair: he must pay, or starve ”

“ The man who gives a slave unconditional liberty, bestows upon him a curse; he is thrown at once into the world, unprotected, unprovided, and must ultimately starve, or gain his bread by those means, which have brought many unhappy wretches of this description to the gallows. If a portion of land, or a house upon the property be given to him, the other negroes will not always let him work the first, nor the overseer inhabit the last; as a slave emancipated is at all times a troublesome, often times a dangerous visitor upon a plantation. ”

“ The abuses in the colonies are certainly great; and if a more tender system of management were to be introduced, which certainly might for the comfort of the slave, and the advantage of the planter; it would be a precedent in the annals of England, that would be held forth as an example of virtuous emulation to succeeding ages: but let not humanity be too sanguine, be too hasty in its first attempt! Deliberation is the parent of success; and to be sure of worldly profit we should canvas the possibility of human means. ”

“ A planter who wishes to look forward to future independency, should not be too sanguine in his purchases, under the idea of pushing his property to decrease his debt: he should consider, that, for what he buys, notwithstanding the temptations of a long credit, he must be at last obliged to pay; he should consider besides that interest is a perpetual motion, and that even with the best prospects, hurricanes may sweep away, the blast destroy, or drought burn up his canes. ”

“ I firmly believe that there is not a description of people in the world, less occupied by uneasy sensations, who are more disposed to be, and who really are, more happy than the generality of negroes after the toil of the day is over, when assembled in their huts, conversing over their fires, and anticipating the pleasures of the approaching meal, (which generally consists of pottage, highly seasoned, and is such as may be considered a luxury in any climate) and of these the generality of them partake, to their utmost wish, at least twice a day. ”

“ The very endeavour would excite confusion, without encreasing benevolence, and establish perhaps a permanent slavery, in the stead of promoting an expected comfort. It may not only convulse the colonies, but shake their interests to the very centre; and overthrow the foundations of Western wealth, and its consequential resources for ever. If negroes can be admitted to a partial freedom, the protection of laws, and blessings of religion, it is as much perhaps as they ought to experience, and more I fear, than would make them happy ”

“ I should imagine that there are few planters who would not rejoice at the sight of a long list of negro children, as it must reflect some credit upon their humanity, that of the overseer, and upon the value of their negroes; for I have always observed those to be the most steady, the most quiet, the most obedient, and their labour the most to be depended upon, who had these tender and pleasing ties to bind them to the property. ”

“ There is no country in which either a negligent, or capricious management, an imprudent change, or a relaxation of discipline are attended with more certain expence, of ruinous consequence than in the Island of Jamaica. Negroes should be directed by a steady hand; and a regular system should be observed upon a plantation. If they are to-receive the benefits of religion, why not the privileges of society? if they are to be instructed in morals, let them profit from their introduction; and let them leave by will the little property their labour or their prudence has amassed. ”

“ There is no doubt that many negroes, even upon properties that are abundant in provisions, absolutely die, or contract incurable complaints from a want of food; and here it is in vain for the doctor to prescribe; for his skill cannot, although his remonstrances might, if attended to, have helped to avert the horrors of want. I am sorry to observe, that much reform is wanting, where one should hope that fellow-feeling would rather anticipate, than wait for the slow progress of those complaints, which cannot fail to bring the unhappy sufferer to an early grave. ”

“ They are unfeeling in the plenitude of power, and savage in the cold revenge of spilling blood. They look upon sudden or violent death in others with apathy, and will bear the approaches of their own, not only without dread, but with indifference. ”

“ A slave has no feeling beyond the present hour, no anticipation of what may come, no dejection at what may ensue: these privileges of feeling are reserved for the enlightened, whose fears may dread misfortunes that cannot arrive, and despise distress which they know must come. As the sufferings of the mind are infinitely more acute than bodily sensations; in the reverse proportion, is the slave more happy in ignorance, than those of an opposite colour are in science. ”

“ I am sorry to be obliged to say, when treating of the fatal complaints of the negroes, that humanity is sometimes totally forgotten; and that these poor, disabled creatures, whose colour and situation should excite compassion, are often left in the state of painful helplessness above described, to linger out their days, unseen, unpitied, unprovided. ”

“ An omission of his labour is not attended with a loss of bread to himself, his wife, and children; a fit of sickness is not followed by an expence, which the labour of seven days in the week will not discharge; he is not deprived of sleep by the anticipation of want, nor alarmed in his dreams by the ideal summons of an attorney, nor does he dread that utmost reach of meanness and oppression, that ne plus ultra of vindictive justice, that confines misfortune to the horrors of a jail, and sinks the sufferer, his family, and hopes to irremediable misery, and eternal despair. ”

“ Where is the man in ten thousand who can say, that he can lay himself down to rest with a healthy body, and unruffled mind; or awake without the dread of some anticipated, and overhanging affliction? These comforts are left to those whom humanity pities, and whose situation religion condemns. As negroes are not acquainted with the horrors of anticipation, they are relieved from one of the greatest curses that human nature can experience: if punishment come, it is sudden at least, and unexpected ”

“ To further the cause of humanity, no jobber should be allowed to purchase a slave, without it could be proved, that he had provisions enough at command to subsist him, at least twelve months, and so on in the regular proportions of the numbers that he may be tempted to buy; after this period, if he take kindly to his ground, he may be enabled in some measure to provide for himself. Almost every man in Jamaica, let his means be ever so many, his strength of negroes ever so great, or his situation ever so dependent, is still anxious to call in the aid of hired labour ”

“ The accidental sunshine of fortune is often found to be an ignis fatuus that leads the bewildered imagination through pleasant woods and flowery meads, that it may not be conscious of destruction, until it be plunged into the eternal abyss—the abyss that humbles pride, the retreat that strengthens suffering. ”

“ We must look for the African in a wild state; the European in a civilized one; the last may be the most useful in the supply of those wants imagination has made; the first more independent, as not having those wants to gratify. Which of the two is the most happy, the one that always craves, without the accomplishment of its wishes, or the one that is satisfied, without having its appetites to reform, I leave to those, who are fond of speculation to determine.
That negroes are cruel to one another cannot be denied ”

“ The condition of negroes in their own country, whether hereditary, or accidental, must be first considered, their customs described, their maxims explained, and polity known. If we be ascertained how, as natives they live, we may be brought to conceive what, as emigrants, they endure. That they lead a life of warfare, fatigue, and blood, we are instruted by history to believe; that the prisoners who are taken in battle, if not sold, would be treated with a cruelty, at which humanity would shudder, or would suffer the forfeit of an ignominious, or painful death ”