A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade: Addressed to the freeholders and other inhabitants of YorkshireWilberforce, William
History
A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade: Addressed to the freeholders and other inhabitants of Yorkshire
Wilberforce, William
Antislavery movements -- Great Britain; Slave trade -- Great Britain
on the one hand, their more abundant revenues place them above the
necessity of resorting to such ruinous means of supplying their wants,
as the pillage of their own villages, so on the other, not coming into
immediate contact with the Slave Traders, they are not so liable to be
suddenly instigated, in the madness of intoxication, to the commission
of such outrages. The same difference in the circumstances of the
interior, prevents the administration of justice, or the native
superstitions, being resorted to in the same degree as on the coast. And
it is remarkable, that though Mr. Parke speaks of crimes as one source
of supply to the Slave Trade, we do not find in his narrative, one
single instance specified of a Slave having been so furnished.
[Sidenote: Evils of Slave Trade aggravated on the Coast.] But, above
all, let it be remembered, on the coast the grand repository of
temptations is palpable, and on the spot; of temptations commonly of
that precise kind, which, by the gratifications they hold out to the
depraved appetites, and bad passions of man, spirituous liquors,
gunpowder, and fire-arms, the incentives to acts of violence, and the
means of committing them, are apt to operate most powerfully on
uncivilized men. The love of spirituous liquors, is a passion also,
which becomes from indulgence, more craving, and difficult to be
resisted. The Captains of Slave ships, who are sound practical
philosophers, thoroughly conversant, at least, with all the bad parts of
human nature, are well aware of these propensities, and of the
advantages which may be derived from them; and hence, they often begin
by giving to the petty king or chieftain a present of brandy or rum,
anticipating the large returns for this liberality, which future acts of
depredation will supply. It is almost a happy circumstance when the
chieftain, by possessing the implements of war, is tempted to revenge
some old injury, or to ravage and carry off the inhabitants of some
neighbouring district, instead of preying on his own miserable subjects.
Meanwhile the Slave factor himself takes no part in the quarrels between
contending chieftains, but which party soever is victorious, he finds
his advantage in the war. He supplies all the contending parties with
fire-arms and ammunition, and receives all the Slaves which are made on
both sides with perfect impartiality. Under such circumstances, might we
not anticipate, what we know from positive evidence, that the factor
stirs up and inflames dissensions, from which, whoever else may be the
loser, he is sure to gain. It has been even imputed to neighbouring
chiefs, who, assisted by their respective allies, have carried on with
each other a long protracted war, that by a mutual understanding, they
have abstained from wasting each other’s territories, while each carried
on his ravages against the allies of his enemy with great activity and
success. But it is not to kings or chieftains only, that the Slave Trade
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