Journal of an African Cruiser: Comprising Sketches of the Canaries, the Cape De Verds, Liberia, Madeira, Sierra Leone, and Other Places of Interest on the West Coast of AfricaBridge, Horatio
History
Journal of an African Cruiser: Comprising Sketches of the Canaries, the Cape De Verds, Liberia, Madeira, Sierra Leone, and Other Places of Interest on the West Coast of Africa
Bridge, Horatio
Africa, West -- Description and travel; Bridge, Horatio, 1806-1893
The English cruisers are doubtless very active in the pursuit of vessels
engaged in this traffic. The approbation of government and the public (to
say nothing of £5 head-money for every slave recaptured, and the increased
chance of promotion to vacancies caused by death) is a strong inducement
to vigilance. But, however benevolent may be the motives that influence
the action of Great Britain, in reference to the slave-trade, there is the
grossest cruelty and injustice in carrying out her views. Attempts are now
being made to transport the rescued slaves in great numbers to the British
West India islands, at the expense of government. It is boldly
recommended, by men of high standing in England, to carry them all thither
at once. The effect of such a measure, gloss it over as you may, would be
to increase the black labor of the British islands, by just so much as is
deducted from the number of slaves, intended for the Spanish or Brazilian
possessions. "The sure cure for the slave-trade" says Mr. Laird, "is in
our own hands. It lies in producing cheaper commodities by free labor, in
our own colonies." And, to accomplish this desirable end, England will
seize upon the liberated Africans and land them in her West India islands,
with the alternative of adding their toil to the amount of her colonial
labor, or of perishing by starvation. How much better will their condition
be, as apprentices in Trinidad or Jamaica, than as slaves in Cuba?
Infinitely more wretched! English philanthropy cuts a very suspicious
figure, when, not content with neglecting the welfare of those whom she
undertakes to protect, she thus attempts to made them subservient to
national aggrandizement. The fate of the rescued slaves is scarcely better
than that of the crews of the captured slave-vessels. The latter are
landed on the nearest point of the African coast, where death by
starvation or fever almost certainly awaits them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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