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
could make her.” (pp. 197–198.)
“About eight o’clock we passed a large town called Kabba, situated in
the midst of a beautiful and highly cultivated country, bearing a
greater resemblance to the centre of England, than to what I should have
supposed had been the middle of Africa.”—(p. 202).
“We passed, in the course of the day, a great many villages, inhabited
chiefly by fishermen; and in the evening, about five o’clock, arrived at
Sansanding, a very large town, containing, as I was told, from eight to
ten thousand inhabitants.”—(p. 203.)
“We accordingly rode along between the town and the river, passing by a
creek or harbour, in which I observed twenty large canoes, most of them
fully loaded, and covered with mats, to prevent the rain from injuring
the goods.
“He shewed me some gunpowder of his own manufacturing.”—(p. 206.)
“About fifteen years ago, when the present king of Bambarra’s father
desolated Maniana, the dooty of Sai had two sons slain in battle,
fighting in the king’s cause. He had a third son living; and when the
king demanded a further reinforcement of men, and this youth among the
rest, the dooty refused to send him. This conduct so enraged the king,
that when he returned from Maniana, about the beginning of the rainy
season, and found the dooty protected by the inhabitants, he sat down
before Sai, with his army, and surrounded the town with the trenches I
had now seen. After a siege of two months, the towns-people became
involved in all the horrors of famine; and whilst the king’s army were
feasting in their trenches, they saw with pleasure the miserable
inhabitants of Sai devour the leaves and bark of the bentang tree that
stood in the middle of the town. Finding, however, that the besieged
would sooner perish than surrender, the king had recourse to treachery.
He promised, that if they would open the gates, no person should be put
to death, nor suffer any injury, but the dooty alone. The poor old man
determined to sacrifice himself for the sake of his fellow-citizens, and
immediately walked over to the king’s army, where he was put to death.
His son, in attempting to escape, was caught and massacred in the
trenches; and the rest of the towns-people were carried away captives,
and sold as Slaves to the different Negro Traders.”—(p. 227.)
“The Mandingoes in particular are a very gentle race; cheerful in their
dispositions, inquisitive, credulous, simple, and fond of flattery.”—(p.
261.)
“It is impossible for me to forget the disinterested charity, and tender
solicitude, with which many of these poor heathens (from the sovereign
of Sego, to the poor women who received me at different times into their
cottages, when I was perishing of hunger) sympathized with me in my
sufferings, relieved my distresses, and contributed to my safety.”—(p.
262.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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