Thoughts on the Necessity of Improving the Condition of the Slaves in the British Colonies: With a View to Their Ultimate Emancipation; and on the Practicability, the Safety, and the Advantages of the Latter Measure. — John Shaqi
Thoughts on the Necessity of Improving the Condition of the Slaves in the British Colonies: With a View to Their Ultimate Emancipation; and on the Practicability, the Safety, and the Advantages of the Latter Measure.Clarkson, Thomas
Philosophy
Thoughts on the Necessity of Improving the Condition of the Slaves in the British Colonies: With a View to Their Ultimate Emancipation; and on the Practicability, the Safety, and the Advantages of the Latter Measure.
Clarkson, Thomas
Enslaved persons -- Emancipation -- West Indies, British; Slavery -- West Indies, British
becomes free by English law the moment he reaches the English shore. But
we have said enough for our present purpose. We have shown that the
slaves in our Colonies, whether they be Africans, or whether they be
Creoles, _have been unjustly deprived of their rights_. There is of
course a great debt due to them. They have a claim to a restoration to
liberty; and as this restoration was included by the Abolitionists in
their original idea of the abolition of the slavetrade, so it is their
duty to endeavour to obtain it _the first moment it is practicable_. I
shall conclude my observations on this part of the subject, in the words
of that old champion of African liberty, Mr. W. Smith, the present
Member for Norwich, when addressing the House of Commons in the last
session of parliament on a particular occasion. He admitted, alluding to
the slaves in our colonies, that "immediate emancipation might be an
injury, and not a blessing to the slaves themselves. A period of
_preparation_, which unhappily included delay, seemed to be necessary.
The ground of this delay, however, was not the intermediate advantage to
be derived from their labour, but a conviction of its expediency as it
related to themselves. We had to _compensate_ to these wretched beings
_for ages of injustice_. We were bound by the strongest obligations _to
train up_ these subjects of our past injustice and tyranny _for an equal
participation with ourselves in the blessings of liberty and the
protection of the law_; and by these considerations ought our measures
to be strictly and conscientiously regulated. It was only in consequence
of the necessity of time to be consumed in such a preparation, that we
could be justified in the retention of the Negroes in slavery _for a
single hour_; and he trusted that the eyes of all men, both here and in
the colonies, would be open to this view of the subject as their clear
and indispensable duty."
Having led the reader to the first necessary step to be taken in favour
of our slaves in the British Colonies,--namely, the procuring for them a
new and better code of laws; and having since led him to the last or
final one,--namely, the procuring for them the rights of which they have
been unjustly deprived: I shall now confine myself entirely to this
latter branch of the subject, being assured, that it has a claim to all
the attention that can be bestowed upon it; and I trust that I shall be
able to show, by appealing to historical facts, that however awful and
tremendous the work of _emancipation_ may seem, it is yet _practicable_;
that it is practicable also _without danger_; and moreover, that it is
practicable with the probability of _advantage_ to all the parties
concerned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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