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
With respect to the inhumanity of the trade, he would observe, that if
their lordships, sitting there as legislators, were to set their faces
against every thing which appeared to be inhuman, much of the security on
which their lives and property depended, might be shaken, if not totally
destroyed. The question was, not whether there was not some evil attending
the Slave-trade, but whether by the measure now before them they should
increase or diminish the quantum of human misery in the world. He believed,
for one, considering the internal state of Africa, and the impossibility of
procuring the concurrence of foreign nations in the measure, that they
would not be able to do any good by the adoption of it.
As to the impolicy of the trade, the policy of it, on the other hand, was
so great, that he trembled at the consequences of its abolition. The
property connected with this question amounted to a hundred millions. The
annual produce of the islands was eighteen millions, and it yielded a
revenue of four millions annually. How was this immense property and income
to be preserved? Some had said it would be preserved, because the Black
population in the islands could be kept up without further supplies. But
the planters denied this assertion; and they were the best judges of the
subject.
He condemned the resolution as a libel upon the wisdom of the law of the
land, and upon the conduct of their ancestors. He condemned it also,
because, if followed up, it would lead to the abolition of the trade, and
the abolition of the trade to the emancipation of the slaves in our
colonies.
The Bishop of St. Asaph (Dr. Horsley) said, that, allowing the slaves in
the West Indies even to be pampered with delicacies, or to be put to rest
on a bed of roses, they could not be happy, for--a slave would be still a
slave. The question, however, was not concerning the alteration of their
condition, but whether we should abolish the practice, by which they were
put in that condition? Whether it was humane, just, and politic in us so to
place them? This question was easily answered; for he found it difficult to
form any one notion of humanity, which did not include a desire of
promoting the happiness of others; and he knew of no other justice than
that, which was founded on the principle of doing to others, as we should
wish they should do to us. And these principles of humanity and justice
were so clear, that he found it difficult to make them clearer. Perhaps no
difficulty was greater than that of arguing a self-evident proposition, and
such he took to be the character of the proposition, that the Slave-trade
was inhuman and unjust.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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