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
He would now try this argument of expediency by other considerations. The
best informed writers on the subject had told us, that the purchase of new
Negros was injurious to the planters. But if this statement was just, would
not the abolition be beneficial to them? That it would, was the opinion of
Mr. Long, their own historian. "If the Slave-trade," says he, "was
prohibited for four or five years, it would enable them, to retrieve their
affairs by preventing them from running into debt, either by renting or
purchasing Negros." To this acknowledgment he would add a fact from the
evidence, which was, that a North American province, by such a prohibition
alone for a few years, from being deeply plunged in debt, had become
independent, rich, and flourishing.
The next consideration was the danger, to which the islands were exposed
from the newly imported slaves. Mr. Long, with a view of preventing
insurrections, had advised, that a duty, equal to a prohibition, might be
laid on the importation of Coromantine slaves. After noticing one
insurrection, which happened through their means, he speaks of another in
the following year, in which thirty-three Coromantines, "most of whom had
been newly imported, murdered and wounded no less than nineteen Whites in
the space of an hour." To the authority of Mr. Long he would add the
recorded opinion of a Committee of the House of Assembly of Jamaica, which
was appointed to inquire into the best means of preventing future
insurrections. The Committee reported, that "the rebellion had originated,
like most others, with the Coromantines," and they proposed that a bill
should be brought in for laying a higher duty on the importation of these
particular Negros, which should operate as a prohibition. But the danger
was not confined to the introduction of Coromantines. Mr. Long accounts for
the frequent insurrections in Jamaica from the greatness of its general
importations. "In two years and a half," says he, "twenty-seven thousand
Negros have been imported--No wonder that we have rebellions!" Surely then,
when his honourable friend spoke of the calamities of St. Domingo, and of
similar dangers impending over our own islands, it ill became him to be the
person to cry out for further importations! It ill became him to charges
upon the abolitionists the crime of stirring up insurrections, who only
recommended what the Legislature of Jamaica itself had laid down in a time
of danger with an avowed view to prevent them. It was indeed a great
satisfaction to himself, that among the many arguments for prohibiting the
Slave-trade, the security of our West Indian possessions against internal
commotions, as well as foreign enemies, was among the most prominent and
forcible. And here he would ask his honourable friend, whether in this part
of the argument he did not see reason for immediate abolition. Why should
we any longer persist in introducing those latent principles of
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