The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament (1808), Volume IIClarkson, Thomas
History
The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament (1808), Volume II
Clarkson, Thomas
Slave trade -- Africa
scenes in our own islands, we must reject all moderate measures, and at
once abolish the Slave-trade. By doing this, we should procure a better
treatment for the Slaves there; and when this happy change of system should
have taken place, we might depend on them for the defence of the islands as
much as on the Whites themselves.
Upon the whole, he would give his opinion of this traffic in a few words.
He believed it to be impolitic--he knew it to be inhuman--he was certain it
was unjust--he though it so inhuman and unjust, that, if the colonies could
not be cultivated without it, they ought not to be cultivated at all. It
would be much better for us to be without them, than not abolish the
Slave-trade. He hoped therefore that members would this night act the part
which would do them honour. He declared, that, whether he should vote in a
large minority or a small one, he would never give up the cause. Whether in
the House of Parliament or out of it, in whatever situation he might ever
be, as long as he had a voice to speak, this question should never be at
rest. Believing the trade to be of the nature of crimes and pollutions,
which stained the honour of the country, he would never relax his efforts.
It was his duty to prevent man from preying upon man; and if he and his
friends should die before they had attained their glorious object, he hoped
there would never be wanting men alive to their duty, who would continue to
labour till the evil should be wholly done away. If the situation of the
Africans was as happy as servitude could make them, he could not consent to
the enormous crime of selling man to man; nor permit a practice to
continue, which put an entire bar to the civilization of one quarter of the
globe. He was sure that the nation would not much longer allow the
continuance of enormities which shocked human nature. The West Indians had
no right to demand that crimes should be permitted by this country for
their advantage; and, if they were wise, they would lend their cordial
assistance to such measures, as would bring about, in the shortest possible
time, the abolition of this execrable trade.
Mr. Dundas rose again, but it was only to move an amendment, namely, that
the word "gradually" should be inserted before the words "to be abolished"
in Mr. Wilberforce's motion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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