A short sketch of the evidence for the abolition of the slave trade, delivered before a committee of the House of CommonsCrafton, William Bell
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A short sketch of the evidence for the abolition of the slave trade, delivered before a committee of the House of Commons
Crafton, William Bell
Slave trade -- Great Britain; Speeches, addresses, etc., English
If it should still be asked, “how it happens that seamen enter
for slave vessels, when such general ill usage on board of them
can hardly fail of being known?” the reply must be taken from the
evidence, “that whereas some of them enter voluntarily, the greater
part of them are trepanned; for that it is the business of certain
landlords to make them intoxicated, and get them into debt, after
which _their only alternative is a Guineaman or a Gaol_.”
In the Tenth Chapter it is proved not to be true, what some say,
that the natives of Africa are happier in the European colonies
than in their own country. They love their own country, but destroy
themselves in the colonies, &c. &c. But any comparison between the
two situations is as (H. Ross says, tho’ on another occasion) “_an
insult to common sense_.”
The Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Chapters are on the subjects
of negro population in the colonies, and plainly shew that the
importation of fresh Africans might immediately be superceded, by
the introduction of general good treatment, and of certain salutary
regulations therein suggested.
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.
The Fifteenth Chapter inquires, whether there be not a prevailing
opinion in the colonies, that it is cheaper to buy or import
slaves than thus to increase them by population. And whether the
very reverse of this opinion be not true: namely, that it is more
profitable to breed than to import. The result of this inquiry is
clearly in favour of the _immediate_ Abolition of the African Slave
Trade. The same may be said of the sixteenth _and last_ chapter, in
which it is considered. Whether it be more political to extend the
cultivation of the colonies by the continuance of the slave-trade, or
wait till the rising generation shall be capable of performing it.
Having thus taken a general view of the most striking features of
the evidence for the abolition of the traffic in the human species,
as carried on by the English on the coast of Africa, it might not
be improper to close it with the declaration of a virtuous and wise
Senator, whose indefatigable labours on behalf of the oppressed
Africans, cannot fail to insure him the unfeigned respect of every
lover of freedom and humanity:
“THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE (_says he_) IS INDISPENSIBLY
REQUIRED OF US, NOT ONLY BY RELIGION AND MORALITY, BUT BY EVERY
PRINCIPLE OF SOUND POLICY[10].”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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