5. Thus they are _procured_. But in what numbers and in what manner are
they carried to _America_?----Mr. _Anderson_ in his history of Trade
and Commerce, observes, “_England_ supplies her _American_ Colonies
with Negro-slaves, amounting in number to about a hundred thousand
every year.” That is, so many are taken on board our ships; but at
least ten thousand of them die in the voyage: about a fourth part more
die at the different Islands, in what is called the Seasoning. So that
at an average, in the passage and seasoning together, thirty thousand
die: that is, properly are murdered. O earth, O sea, cover not thou
their blood!
6. When they are brought down to the shore in order to be sold, our
Surgeons thoroughly examine them, and that quite naked, women and men,
without any distinction: those that are approved are set on one side.
In the mean time a burning iron, with the arms or name of the Company,
lies in the fire, with which they are marked on the breast. Before they
are put into the ships, their masters strip them of all they have on
their backs: so that they come on board stark naked, women as well
as men. It is common for several hundred of them to be put on board
one vessel: where they are stowed together in as little room as it is
possible for them to be crowded. It is easy to suppose what a condition
they must soon be in, between heat, thirst and stench of various kinds.
So that it is no wonder, so many should die in the passage; but rather
that any survive it.
7. When the vessels arrive at their destined port, the Negroes are
again exposed naked, to the eyes of all that flock together, and
the examination of their purchasers; then they are separated to the
plantations of their several masters, to see each other no more. Here
you may see mothers hanging over their daughters, bedewing their naked
breasts with tears, and daughters clinging to their parents, till the
whipper soon obliges them to part. And what can be more wretched than
the condition they then enter upon? Banished from their country, from
their friends and relations for ever, from every comfort of life, they
are reduced to a state scarce any way preferable to that of beasts of
burden. In general a few roots, not of the nicest kind, usually yams or
potatoes, are their food, and two rags, that neither screen them from
the heat of the day, nor the cold of the night their covering. Their
sleep is very short, their labour continual, and frequently above their
strength; so that death sets many of them at liberty, before they have
lived out half their days. The time they work in the _West-Indies_, is
from day-break to noon, and from two o’clock till dark: during which
time they are attended by overseers, who, if they think them dilatory,
or think any thing not so well done as it should be, whip them most
unmercifully, so that you may see their bodies long after whealed and
scarred usually from the shoulders to the waist. And before they are
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