William Bell Crafton

“ Some people seem inclined to lend an ear to tales of human woe, and feel a certain gratification in beholding the exhibitions of tragedy, or in the perusal of pathetic poetry, and the like. Even the case of the oppressed Africans, when represented by their favourite bards, or appearing in the form of the “Dying Slave,” or the “Negro’s Complaint,” seem to possess, if not charms to please, at least powers forcibly to attract their willing attention, and to win their sympathetic regard. ”

“ By the Second Chapter it appears that the Europeans, by means of the trade in slaves, are the occasion of the before-mentioned enormities; that they sometimes use additional means to excite the natives to practise them, often attempt themselves to steal the natives, and succeed, force trade as they please, and are guilty of injustice in their dealings. In proof of this charge, we learn from the evidence that Africans receive European goods in exchange for slaves—that they declare when ships cease to come (as in times of war) slaves cease to be taken. ”

“ The slaves are so crouded below, that it is impossible to walk among them without treading upon them. Dr. Trotter has seen the slaves drawing their breath with all those laborious and anxious efforts for life, which are observed in expiring animals, subjected by experiment to foul air, or in the exhausted receiver of an air pump: they cry out—‘we are dying,’ and many are irrecoverably lost by suffocation, having had no previous signs of indisposition. They are closely wedged together, and have not so much room as a man in his coffin, either in length or breadth. ”

“ Now we have a body of EVIDENCE to which to appeal; of evidence, possessing every essential of credibility. The witnesses have declared before the Select Committee of the House of Commons, what they themselves saw: they had the best opportunities of observation, and they are disinterested. And now it appears, that one half of the tale of human misery hath not been told: and that every principle, that can bind a man [4] of honour and conscience, [1] loudly calls for the prohibition of the iniquitous traffic. ”

“ They sometimes dream of being in their own country, and when they awake shew their despair by howling and shrieking in a most dreadful manner. The women go into fits. In the course of the voyage, the slaves are chained to the deck every day from eight in the morning to four o’clock in the afternoon. They are fed twice a day with rice, yams, and horse-beans, and now and then a little beef and bread: after each of these two meals they are allowed half a pint of water: and are forced to jump in their irons, which, by the slave dealers, is called making them dance. ”

“ In the Ninth Chapter we find that the seamen employed in the slave trade are in general barbarously used. They are worse fed both in quantity and quality of food than the seamen in other trades. They have little or no shelter night or day from the inclemency of the weather during the whole of the middle passage. They are inhumanly treated when ill, and subjected to the fury of the impassioned officers for very trifles. A boy, to avoid the cruel treatment of his officer, jump’d overboard, and was drowned. A man was killed with a hand spike for being very ill and unable to work. ”

“ In the sale no care is taken to prevent the reparation of relations; they are separated (says the evidence) like sheep and lambs by the butcher. Making the slaves walk the plank, is a term used for throwing them overboard when provisions are scarce. Sometimes the ships lose more than half their cargoes by the small-pox; at others they bury a quarter or one-third on the passage, owing to various other causes of mortality: and it is confessed by the planters, [6] that half the slaves die in the seasoning, after arrival in the West-Indies. ”

“ We may certainly conclude, that whoever is not a friend to the liberty of the meanest subject, is not fit to be entrusted with that of the state: and even those who have no vote, are nevertheless comprehended in our idea of the public mind,—nor is any man of sense and virtue, let his situation in a free country be what it may, to be deemed of no account. ”

“ The slaves have little or no redress against ill-usage of any sort; the laws to restrict punishment are a mere farce, and universally disregarded, or when pretended to be observed they are in divers ways effectually evaded: besides, the evidence of a Black is in no case whatever admitted against a White Man; which circumstance alone is enough to deprive the negroes of all legal protection whatever, were the laws, in other respects, ever so just and salutary. ”

“ Many are sold for crimes falsely imputed; the Judges participate in the profits of the sale, and are therefore strongly induced to condemn the innocent. Crimes are invented and multiplied for the purpose of traffic. The great men dress up and employ women, to entice young men to be connected with them, that they may be convicted of adultery and sold. The slaves are separated without the least regard to ties of consanguinity, or the pathetic expostulations and remonstrances of nature. When slave-ships are on the Coast the natives go armed, but are no where safe. ”

“ VIRTUE, say moralists, is so transcendently beautiful, that she need but be seen, to be universally admired: and is not VICE so hateful, that the more its features are viewed, the more it will be avoided? ”

“ The particular instances mentioned in the evidence, of slaves dying in consequence of severe and cruel treatment from their masters, were not punished, though generally known; nor do the perpetrators of these barbarities appear to have suffered any disgrace!
If you speak to a negro of future punishments, he says,——“Why should a poor negro be punished? he does no wrong? fiery cauldrons, and such things, are reserved for white people, as punishments for the oppression of slaves.” ”

“ The traffic in the human species, particularly as carried on by the Europeans on the coast of Africa, has so horrible an aspect, that nothing, one should think, but the Mask, under which it has been concealed, could have prevented all the civilized nations in the world uniting to drive the detested Monster from the face of the earth. ”

“ The best allowance of food is at Barbadoes, which is a pint of grain for twenty four hours, and half a rotten herring when to be had. When the [14] herrings are unfit for the whites, they are bought up by planters for the slaves. Some allow nine pints of corn a week, and about one pound of salt fish, which is the greatest allowance mentioned in the whole course of the evidence. Some have no provision but what they raise themselves, and they are frequently so fatigued by the labour of the rest of the week, as scarcely to be able to work for their own support on the Sunday. ”

“ In the Sixth and Seventh Chapters it appears that the natives possess industry and a spirit of commerce, sufficient for carrying on a new trade; that their country abounds with, and might easily be made still more productive of, many and various articles of commerce; but that the traffic in slaves is an insuperable impediment to opening a new trade. ”

“ That extreme DELICACY which deprives us, if not of the disposition, yet of the ability to encounter suffering for the sake of, and in order to help our brethren in affliction, and under the severest oppression, is detrimental to its possessor, and injurious to the community; it renders compassion a painful, useless thing, and makes beneficence fruitless. ”

“ No situation can be conceived so dreadful and disgusting as that of slaves when ill of the flux. In the Alexander (A. Falconbridge says) the deck was covered with blood and mucus, and resembled a slaughter-house; the stench and foul air were intolerable. The slaves, shackled together, frequently quarrel, and make a great disturbance. Some refuse food and medicine, and declare they want to die. In such cases compulsion is used. The ships are so fitted up as to prevent, by net-work, the slaves jumping overboard ”

“ The sailors when sick are beaten for being lazy, till they die under the blows!
“If this be the real situation of things, how happens it (the reader may perhaps ask) that the objects of such tyranny and oppression should not obtain redress, and that our courts of law should not have to decide upon more cases of this kind, than they have at present?” It is answered, “these objects are generally without friends and money, without which the injured will seek for justice but in vain; and because the peculiarity of their situation is an impediment to their endeavours for redress.” ”

“ Under this head, we learn that Kidnapping, or as the natives call it, Panyaring, is very common, that war is made on purpose to procure slaves. The king’s soldiers set fire to villages in the night, and seize the wretched inhabitants as they attempt to escape from the flames, and many perish, either by the fire or sword, in the execution of this horrid purpose. ”

“ In the Preface to this important volume of evidence we read of rewards offered for taking run-away negroes alive or dead—of laws being required to be made to prevent the practice of cutting off ears, noses, and tongues—of breaking limbs and putting out eyes—to prevent distempered, maimed, and worn out negroes from infesting towns—to prevent aged and infirm negroes being driven from the plantations to starve. ”

“ The Fourth Chapter gives an account of the general estimation and treatment of the slaves in the West-Indies. Dr. Jackson says, that the negroes are generally esteemed a species of inferior beings, whom the right of purchase gives the owner a power of using at his will. T. Woolrich says, he never knew the best master in the West-Indies use his slaves so well, as the worst master his servants in England: that their state is inconceivable—that a sight of a gang would convince more than all words.
Slaves are either Field Slaves, or in or out Door Slaves. ”

“ The thumbscrew is an instrument of torture, the application of it sometimes occasions mortifications, of which the negroes die. An instance occurs of the cruelty of a captain to an infant only nine months old, which one would suppose too shocking to be true, were it not corroborated by other specimens of as great cruelty in various parts of the evidence. ”

“ Some employ other means to destroy themselves, and others go mad: Some resolve to starve, and means are ineffectually used to wrench open their teeth: they persist in their resolution, and effect their purpose, in spite of the utmost pains to prevent it. ”

“ Sometimes when they have been at the pains of clearing their land, their masters take it for canes, and give them wood land instead of it. This hardship some have so taken to heart as to die. Putrid carcases are burnt; if they were buried, the slaves would dig them up and eat them, which would breed distempers among them. They are sometimes driven by extreme hunger to steal at the hazard of their lives. They are badly clothed; one half of them go almost naked. The slaves in general have no bed or bedding at all. ”

“ The evidence proves that instances of wanton cruelty, and inhuman treatment in general, are numerous, various and frequent. One man, with both his legs in irons and his neck in an iron collar, was chained to the boat for three months, and very often most inhumanly beaten for complaining of his situation, both by the captain and other officers. ”

“ The slaves sometimes work so long that they cannot help sleeping, and then it not unfrequently happens, that their arms are caught in the mill and torn off. They are said to be allowed one day in seven for rest, but this time is necessarily employed in raising food for the other days, and gathering grass for their master’s cattle. ”

“ The Fourteenth Chapter is employed to demonstrate, from the evidence before the committee, that the colonists would be able to carry on the necessary cultivation of their lands, without a fresh importation of slaves while the generation immediately succeeding the regulations proposed, were growing up to supply the vacancies occasioned by the natural deaths of the slaves of all ages, now in their possession. ”

“ Sir W. Young is of opinion, that a trade to Africa in the natural productions of the country, would not be attended with more inconvenience to the health of the seamen employed in it, than the present West-India Trade. ”

“ In the Fifth Chapter, it is proved, by such as have seen them in their own country, that the natives of Africa are equal to the Europeans in their natural capacities, feelings, affections, and moral character. They manufacture gold and iron, in some respects, equal to the European Artists—also cloth and leather with uncommon neatness ”

“ After severe whipping, they are worked all day without food, except what their friends may give them out of their own poor pittance. They are returned to their stocks at night, and worked next day as before. This cruel treatment his made many commit suicide. Cook has known fourteen slaves, who, in consequence thereof, ran into the woods and cut their throats together. These severe punishments are frequent. The scars made by whipping last to old age. T. Woolrich has seen their backs one undistinguished mass of lumps, holes, and furrows. They sometimes die of mortification of the wounds. ”

“ Kidnapping is professionally followed; large parties go up the country three [6] hundred miles to drive down captives—they go a wood-ranging, and pick up every one they meet, and strip them naked. The purchasers generally say, they do not care how the sellers come by their slaves. ”

“ The field-slaves begin their work at break of day. They work in rows, without exception under the whip of drivers, and the weak are made to keep up with the strong. They continue their labour (with two intermissions, half an hour during the morning, and two hours at noon) till sun set. In the intervals they are made to pick grass for the cattle. ”