An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species Part 14

"Many ages after these settlements, there was another eruption of the _Cus.h.i.+tes_ into these parts, under the name of _Saracens_ and _Moors_, who over-ran _Africa_, to the very extremity of Mount Atlas. They pa.s.sed over and conquered _Spain_ to the north, and they extended themselves southward, as I said in my treatise, to the rivers _Senegal_ and _Gambia_, and as low as the _Gold Coast_. I mentioned this, because I do not think that they proceeded much farther: most of the nations to the _south_ being, as I imagine, of the race of _Phut_. The very country upon the river _Gambia_ on one side, is at this day called _Phuta_, of which _Bluet_, in his history of _Juba Ben Solomon_, gives an account."]

[Footnote 077: When America was first discovered, it was thought by some, that the scripture account of the creation was false, and that there were different species of men, because they could never suppose that people, in so rude a state as the Americans, could have transported themselves to that continent from any parts of the known world. This opinion however was refuted by the celebrated Captain Cooke, who shewed that the traject between the continents of Asia and America, was as short as some, which people in as rude a state have been actually known to pa.s.s. This affords an excellent caution against an ill-judged and hasty censure of the divine writings, because every difficulty which may be started, cannot be instantly cleared up.]

[Footnote 078: The divine writings, which a.s.sert that all men were derived from the _same stock_, shew also, in the same instance of _Cush_, (Footnote 075), that some of them had changed their original complexion.]

[Footnote 079: The following are the grand colours discernible in mankind, between which there are many shades;

White } { Copper }--Olive--{ Brown } { Black ]

[Footnote 080: See note, (Footnote 075). To this we may add, that the rest of the descendants of _Ham_, as far as they can be traced, are now also black, at well as many of the descendants of _Shem_.]

[Footnote 081: Diseases have a great effect upon the _mucosum corpus_, but particularly the jaundice, which turns it yellow. Hence, being transmitted through the cuticle, the yellow appearance of the whole body. But this, even as a matter of ocular demonstration, is not confined solely to white people; negroes themselves, while affected with these or other disorders, changing their black colour for that which the disease has conveyed to the _mucous_ substance.]

[Footnote 082: The cutaneous pores are so excessively small, that one grain of sand, (according to Dr. Lewenhoeck's calculations) would cover many hundreds of them.]

[Footnote 083: We do not mean to insinuate that the same people have their _corpus mucosum_ sensibly vary, as often as they go into another lat.i.tude, but that the fact is true only of different people, who have been long established in different lat.i.tudes.]

[Footnote 084: We beg leave to return our thanks here to a gentleman, eminent in the medical line, who furnished us with the above-mentioned facts.]

[Footnote 085: Suppose we were to see two nations, contiguous to each other, of black and white inhabitants in the same parallel, even this would be no objection, for many circ.u.mstances are to be considered. A black people may have wandered into a white, and a white people into a black lat.i.tude, and they may not have been settled there a sufficient length of time for such a change to have been accomplished in their complexion, as that they should be like the old established inhabitants of the parallel, into which they have lately come.]

[Footnote 086: Justamond's Abbe Raynal, v. 5. p. 193.]

[Footnote 087: The author of this Essay made it his business to inquire of the most intelligent of those, whom he could meet with in London, as to the authenticity of the fact. All those from _America_ a.s.sured him that it was strictly true; those from the West-Indies, that they had never observed it there; but that they had found a sensible difference in themselves since they came to England.]

[Footnote 088: This circ.u.mstance, which always happens, shews that they are descended from the same parents as ourselves; for had they been a distinct species of men, and the blackness entirely ingrafted in their const.i.tution and frame, there is great reason to presume, that their children would have been born _black_.]

[Footnote 089: This observation was communicated to us by the gentleman in the medical line, to whom we returned our thanks for certain anatomical facts.]

[Footnote 090: Philos. Trans. No. 476. sect. 4.]

[Footnote 091: Treatise upon the Trade from Great Britain to Africa, by an African merchant.]

[Footnote 092: We mean such only as are _natives_ of the countries which we mention, and whose ancestors have been settled there for a certain period of time.]

[Footnote 093: Herodotus. Euterpe. p. 80. Editio Stephani, printed 1570.]

[Footnote 094: This circ.u.mstance confirms what we said in a former note, (Footnote 085), that even if two nations were to be found in the same parallel, one of whom was black, and the other white, it would form no objection against the hypothesis of climate, as one of them might have been new settlers from a distant country.]

[Footnote 095: Suppose, without the knowledge of any historian, they had made such considerable conquests, as to have settled themselves at the distance of 1000 miles in any one direction from _Colchis_, still they must have changed their colour. For had they gone in an Eastern or Western direction, they must have been of the same colour as the _Circa.s.sians_; if to the north, whiter; if to the south, of a copper.

There are no people within that distance of _Colchis_, who are black.]

[Footnote 096: There are a particular people among those transported from Africa to the colonies, who immediately on receiving punishment, destroy themselves. This is a fact which the _receivers_ are unable to contradict.]

CHAP. IX.

The reader may perhaps think, that the _receivers_ have by this time expended all their arguments, but their store is not so easily exhausted. They are well aware that justice, nature, and religion, will continue, as they have ever uniformly done, to oppose their conduct.

This has driven them to exert their ingenuity, and has occasioned that multiplicity of arguments to be found in the present question.

These arguments are of a different complexion from the former. They consist in comparing the state of _slaves_ with that of some of the cla.s.ses of _free_ men, and in certain scenes of felicity, which the former are said to enjoy.

It is affirmed that the punishments which the Africans undergo, are less severe than the military; that their life is happier than that of the English peasant; that they have the advantages of manumission; that they have their little spots of ground, their holy-days, their dances; in short, that their life is a scene of festivity and mirth, and that they are much happier in the colonies than in their own country.

These representations, which have been made out with much ingenuity and art, may have had their weight with the unwary; but they will never pa.s.s with men of consideration and sense, who are accustomed to estimate the probability of things, before they admit them to be true. Indeed the bare a.s.sertion, that their situation is even comfortable, contains its own refutation, or at least leads us to suspect that the person, who a.s.serted it, has omitted some important considerations in the account.

Such we shall shew to have been actually the case, and that the representations of the _receivers_, when stripped of their glossy ornaments, are but empty declamation.

It is said, first, of _military punishments_, that they are more severe than those which the _Africans_ undergo. But this is a bare a.s.sertion without a proof. It is not shewn even by those, who a.s.sert it, how the fact can be made out. We are left therefore to draw the comparison ourselves, and to fill up those important considerations, which we have just said that the _receivers_ had omitted.

That military punishments are severe we confess, but we deny that they are severer than those with which they are compared. Where is the military man, whose ears have been slit, whose limbs have been mutilated, or whose eyes have been beaten out? But let us even allow, that their punishments are equal in the degree of their severity: still they must lose by comparison. The soldier is never punished but after a fair and equitable trial, and the decision of a military court; the unhappy African, at the discretion of his Lord. The one knows what particular conduct will const.i.tute an offence[097]; the other has no such information, as he is wholly at the disposal of pa.s.sion and caprice, which may impose upon any action, however laudable, the appellation of a crime. The former has it of course in his power to avoid a punishment; the latter is never safe. The former is punished for a real, the latter, often, for an imaginary fault.

Now will any person a.s.sert, on comparing the whole of those circ.u.mstances together, which relate to their respective punishments, that there can be any doubt, which of the two are in the worst situation, as to their penal systems?

With respect to the declaration, that the life of an _African_ in the colonies is happier than that of an _English_ peasant, it is equally false. Indeed we can scarcely withhold our indignation, when we consider, how shamefully the situation of this latter cla.s.s of men has been misrepresented, to elevate the former to a state of fict.i.tious happiness. If the representations of the _receivers_ be true, it is evident that those of the most approved writers, who have placed a considerable share of happiness in the _cottage_, have been mistaken in their opinion; and that those of the rich, who have been heard to sigh, and envy the felicity of the _peasant_, have been treacherous to their own sensations.

But which are we to believe on the occasion? Those, who endeavour to dress _vice_ in the habit of _virtue_, or those, who derive their opinion from their own feelings? The latter are surely to be believed; and we may conclude therefore, that the horrid picture which is given of the life of the _peasant_, has not so just a foundation as the _receivers_ would, lead us to suppose. For has he no pleasure in the thought, that he lives in his _own country_, and among his relations and friends? That he is actually _free_, and that his children will be the same? That he can never be _sold_ as a beast? That he can speak his mind _without the fear of the lash_?

That he cannot even be struck _with impunity_? And that he partakes, equally with his superiours, of the _protection of the law_?--Now, there is no one of these advantages which the _African_ possesses, and no one, which the defenders of slavery take into their account.

Of the other comparisons that are usually made, we may observe in general, that, as they consist in comparing the iniquitous practice of slavery with other iniquitous practices in force among other nations, they can neither raise it to the appearance of virtue, nor extenuate its guilt. The things compared are in these instances both of them evils alike. They call equally for redress[098], and are equally disgraceful to the governments which suffer them, if not encourage them, to exist.

To attempt therefore to justify one species of iniquity by comparing it with another, is no justification at all; and is so far from answering the purpose, for which the comparison is intended, as to give us reason to suspect, that the _comparer_ has but little notion either of equity or honour.

We come now to those scenes of felicity, which slaves are said to enjoy.

The first advantage which they are said to experience, is that of _manumission_. But here the advocates for slavery conceal an important circ.u.mstance. They expatiate indeed on the charms of freedom, and contend that it must be a blessing in the eyes of those, upon whom it is conferred. We perfectly agree with them in this particular. But they do not tell us that these advantages are _confined_; that they are confined to some _favourite domestick_; that not _one in an hundred_ enjoy them; and that they are _never_ extended to those, who are employed in the _cultivation of the field_, as long as they can work. These are they, who are most to be pitied, who are destined to _perpetual_ drudgery; and of whom _no one whatever_ has a chance of being freed from his situation, till death either releases him at once, or age renders him incapable of continuing his former labour. And here let it be remarked, _to the disgrace of the receivers_, that he is then made free, not--_as a reward for his past services_, but, as his labour is then of little or no value,--_to save the tax_[099].

With the same artifice is mention also made of the little spots, or _gardens_, as they are called, which slaves are said to possess from the _liberality_ of _the receivers_. But people must not be led away by agreeable and pleasant sounds. They must not suppose that these gardens are made for _flowers_; or that they are places of _amus.e.m.e.nt_, in which they can spend their time in botanical researches and delights. Alas, they do not furnish them with a theme for such pleasing pursuits and speculations! They must be cultivated in those hours, which ought to be appropriated to rest[100]; and they must be cultivated, not for an amus.e.m.e.nt, but to make up, _if it be possible_, the great deficiency in their weekly allowance of provisions. Hence it appears, that the _receivers_ have no merit whatever in such an appropriation of land to their unfortunate slaves: for they are either under the necessity of doing this, or of _losing_ them by the jaws of famine. And it is a notorious fact, that, with their weekly allowance, and the produce of their spots together, it is often with the greatest difficulty that they preserve a wretched existence.