The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839) — John Shaqi
The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839)Clarkson, Thomas
History
The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839)
Clarkson, Thomas
Slave trade -- Africa
I come now to the evil, as it has been proved to arise in the third
case; or to consider the situation of the unhappy victims of the trade,
when their painful voyages are over, or after they have been landed upon
their destined shores. And here we are to view them, first under the
degrading light of cattle: we are to see them examined, handled,
selected, separated, and sold. Alas! relatives are separated from
relatives, as if, like cattle, they had no rational intellect, no power
of feeling the nearness of relationship, nor sense of the duties
belonging to the ties of life! We are next to see them labouring; and
this for the benefit of those to whom they are under no obligation, by
any law either natural or divine, to obey. We are to see them, if
refusing the commands of their purchasers, however weary, or feeble, or
indisposed, subject to corporal punishments, and if forcibly resisting
them to death: we are to see them in a state of general degradation and
misery. The knowledge which their oppressors have of their own crime, in
having violated the rights of nature, and of the disposition of the
injured to seek all opportunities of revenge, produces a fear which
dictates to them the necessity of a system of treatment, by which they
shall keep up a wide distinction between the two, and by which the noble
feelings of the latter shall be kept down, and their spirits broken. We
are to see them again subject to individual persecution, as anger, or
malice, or any bad passion may suggest: hence the whip, the chain, the
iron-collar! hence the various modes of private torture, of which so
many accounts have been truly given. Nor can such horrible cruelties be
discovered so as to be made punishable, while the testimony of any
number of the oppressed is invalid against the oppressors, however they
may be offences against the laws. And, lastly, we are to see their
innocent offspring, against whose personal liberty the shadow of an
argument cannot be advanced, inheriting all the miseries of their
parents' lot.
The evil then, as far as it has been hitherto viewed, presents to us, in
its three several departments, a measure of human suffering not to be
equalled--not to be calculated--not to be described. But would that we
could consider this part of the subject as dismissed! would that in each
of the departments now examined there was no counterpart left us to
contemplate! But this cannot be; for if there be persons who suffer
unjustly there must be others who oppress: and if there be those who
oppress, there must be to the suffering, which has been occasioned, a
corresponding portion of immorality or guilt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account