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
But Liverpool did not depend for its consequence upon the
Slave-trade. The whole export-tonnage from that place amounted to no less
than 170,000 tons; whereas the export part of it to Africa amounted only to
13,000. Liverpool, he was sure, owed its greatness to other and very
different causes; the Slave-trade bearing but a small proportion to its
other trades.
Having gone through that part of the subject which related to the slaves,
he would now answer two objections which he had frequently heard started.
The first of these was, that the abolition of the Slave-trade would operate
to the total ruin of our navy, and to the increase of that of our rivals.
For an answer to these assertions, he referred, to what he considered to be
the most valuable part of the report, and for which the house and the
country were indebted to the indefatigable exertions of Mr. Clarkson. By
the report it appeared, that, instead of the Slave-trade being a nursery
for British seamen, it was their grave. It appeared that more seamen died
in that trade in one year than in the whole remaining trade of the country
in two. Out of 910 sailors in it, 216 died in the year, while upon a fair
average of the same number of men employed in the trades to the East and
West Indies, Petersburgh, Newfoundland, and Greenland, no more than 87
died. It appeared also, that out of 3170, who had left Liverpool in the
slave-ships in the year 1787, only 1428 had returned. And here, while he
lamented the loss which the country thus annually sustained in her seamen,
he had additionally to lament the barbarous usage which they experienced,
and which this trade, by its natural tendency to harden the heart,
exclusively produced. He would just read an extract of a letter from
Governor Parrey, of Barbadoes, to Lord Sydney, one of the secretaries of
state. The Governor declared he could no longer contain himself on account
of the ill treatment, which the British sailors endured at the hands of
their savage captains. These were obliged to have their vessels strongly
manned, not only on account of the unhealthiness of the climate of Africa,
but of the necessity of guarding the slaves, and preventing and suppressing
insurrections; and when they arrived in the West Indies, and were out of
all danger from the latter, they quarrelled with their men on the most
frivolous pretences, on purpose to discharge them, and thus save the
payment of supernumerary wages home. Thus many were left in a diseased and
deplorable state; either to perish by sickness, or to enter into foreign
service; great numbers of whom were for ever lost to their country. The
Governor concluded by declaring, that the enormities attendant on this
trade were so great, as to demand the immediate interference of the
legislature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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