The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament (1808), Volume IClarkson, Thomas
History
The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament (1808), Volume I
Clarkson, Thomas
Slave trade -- Africa
"That our colonies," he continues, "want people, is a very weak argument
for so inhuman a violation of justice--Shall a civilized, a Christian
nation encourage slavery, because the barbarous, savage, lawless African
hath done it? To what end do we profess a religion whose dictates we so
flagrantly violate? Wherefore have we that pattern of goodness and
humanity, if we refuse to follow it? How long shall we continue a practice
which policy rejects, justice condemns, and piety revolts at?"
The poet Shenstone, who comes next in order, seems to have written an Elegy
on purpose to stigmatize this trade. Of this elegy I shall copy only the
following parts:
"See the poor native quit the Libyan shores,
Ah! not in love's delightful fetters bound!
No radiant smile his dying peace restores,
No love, nor fame, nor friendship heals his wound.
"Let vacant bards display their boasted woes;
Shall I the mockery of grief display?
No; let the muse his piercing pangs disclose,
Who bleeds and weeps his sum of life away!
"On the wild heath in mournful guise he stood
Ere the shrill boatswain gave the hated sign;
He dropt a tear unseen into the flood,
He stole one secret moment to repine--
"Why am I ravish'd from my native strand?
What savage race protects this impious gain?
Shall foreign plagues infest this teeming land,
And more than sea-born monsters plough the main?
"Here the dire locusts' horrid swarms prevail;
Here the blue asps with livid poison swell;
Here the dry dipsa writhes his sinuous mail;
Can we not here secure from envy dwell?
"When the grim lion urg'd his cruel chase,
When the stern panther sought his midnight prey,
What fate reserv'd me for this Christian race?
O race more polish'd, more severe, than they--
"Yet shores there are, bless'd shores for us remain,
And favour'd isles, with golden fruitage crown'd,
Where tufted flow'rets paint the verdant plain,
And ev'ry breeze shall med'cine ev'ry wound."
In the year 1755, Dr. Hayter, bishop of Norwich, preached a sermon before
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in which he bore his
testimony against the continuance of this trade.
Dyer, in his poem called The Fleece, expresses his sorrow on account of
this barbarous trade, and looks forward to a day of retributive justice on
account of the introduction of such an evil.
In the year 1760, a pamphlet appeared, entitled, "Two Dialogues on the
Mantrade, by John Philmore." This name is supposed to be an assumed one.
The author, however, discovers himself to have been both an able and a
zealous advocate in favour of the African race.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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