Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation: The Emancipation Debate 9781851965137, 9781138757394, 1851965130

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S l a v e r y , A b o l it io n a n d E m a n c ip a t io n V o lu m e 3

G eneral Editors:

Peter J . Kitson Debbie Lee

Advisory Editors: Anne K. M ellor Jam es W alvin V olum e Editors:

Srinivas Aravamudan Alan Bewell Jeffrey C ox David Dabydeen Peter J . Kitson Debbie Lee Alan Richardson Sukhdev Sandhu

SLAVERY, ABOLITION AND EMANCIPATION: W r it in g s in t h e B r it is h R o m a n t ic P e r io d

Volume 3

T H E EMANCIPATION DEBATE Edited by Debbie Lee

First published 1999 by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY I 0017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright ©Taylor & Francis 1999 © Debbie Lee introduction and notes 1999

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identificationand explanation without intent to infringe. BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA

Slavery, abolition and emancipation: writing in the British romantic period 1. English literature- 19th century- History and criticism 2. Slavery in literature 1. Kitson, Peter 820.9'355

ISBN 13: 978-1-85196-513-7 (set) ISBN 13: 978-1-13875-739-4 (hbk) (volume 3) LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING·IN·PUBLICATION DATA

Slavery, abolition, and emancipation: writings in the British Romantic Period I general introduction by Debbie Lee & Peter Kitson. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. Contents: v. 1. Black writers I edited by Sukhdev Sandhu; coruulting editor, David Dabydeen- v. 2. Debate on the abolition of the slave trade I edited by Peter Kitsonv. 3. Debate on the emancipation of the slave trade I edited by Debbie Lee- v. 4. Literary forms, verse I edited by Alan Richardson - v. 5. Literary forms, drama I edited by Jeffrey Cox- v. 6. Literary forms, fiction I edited by Srinivas Aravamudan- v. 7. Medicine and the West Indian slave trade I edited by Alan Bewell - v. 8. Theories of race I edited by Peter Kitson . ISBN 1-85196-513-0 (set : alk. paper) 1. Slavery- Great Britain- Colonies- America - History - Sources. 2. Slave trade- Great Britain- Colonies- America- History- Sources. 3. Slaves- Emancipation- Great Britain- Colonies- America- History- Sources. 4. Great Britain- Colonies -America- History- Sources. 5. Slavery in literature 1. Lee, Debbie (Debbie Jean) II. Kitson, Peter. E446.S617 1999 941'.00496-dc21 98-50499 CIP

Typtset by Tech Set Limited Gateshead

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

vi

Introduction

vii

Bibliography

xviii

Note on copy texts

xxv

William Wilberforce, An Appeal to the Religion, Justice and

Humanity o f the Inhabitants o f the British Empire, in behalf o f the Negro Slaves in the West Indies (1823)

1

Thomas Clarkson, Thoughts on the Necessity for Improving the

Conditions o f the Slaves in the British Colonies, with a view to their ultimate emancipation (1823)

81

Rev. John Hampden, A. B., A Commentary on Mr. Clarkson’s

pamphlet entitled "Thoughts on the Necessity o f Improving the Condition o f the Slaves in the British Colonies, with a view to their ultimate emancipation’ (1824) George Canning, The Speech o f the Rt. Hon. George Canning in the House o f Commons on the 16th Day o f March 1824 (1824)

145 217

James Stephen, England Enslaved by Her Own Colonies: An

Address to the Electors and People o f the United Kingdom (1826) Notes

263 331

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express heartfelt thanks to the following people: Jerry Hogle, Peter Kitson, Anne Mellor, Christine Sutphin, and Alan Richardson for early encouragement of this project; Tim Fulford, Michael Hanley, and Myron Lee for help completing footnotes; Rebecca Saraceno for editorial and organisational support.

INTRODUCTION

The Emancipation of Slaves in the Colonies One Monday in August of 1823, the well-established British plantocracy in Demerara, South America, was over-taken by some 30,000-rebel slaves.1 It started on the Le Resouvenir and Success plantations, two estates that formed a triangle with the London Missionary Society’s chapel under the parsonage of John Smith. In no time, the uprising spread across fifty estates, covering most of the land between Demerara’s two major coastal cities, Georgetown and Mahaica. Some whites escaped to these cities for protection, but others were placed in the stocks. The slaves, that is, did not enact the rebellion with violence, but in a more symbolic way: they turned the whites into the criminals by placing them in the very stocks that the planters regularly used to hold the slaves themselves. The whites, however, within hours saw the uprising as blatant evidence of what would take place if slaves were allowed even the slightest bit of freedom. The Demerara plantocracy immediately declared martial law and, with an approach that was as violent as the uprising had been non-violent, the planters killed over a hundred slaves, set fire to their huts, and sentenced the rest to 1,000 lashes or a life of hard labour in chain gangs.2 In Demerara, the slaves had been living in some of the worst conditions of any slaves in the Caribbean. Stories of lack of food, clothing, medical care, harsh working conditions, and degrading treatment by masters were used by anti-slavery agitators to bring an awareness of the realities of slavery to the British people, and these were the exact living conditions of these slaves. Demerara had been one of the spoils of war Britain had taken from the French twenty years earlier, but the colony originally had been dominated by the Dutch. Although Demerara was a newly acquired colony and thus subject to the Imperial government, the British planters fully intended to govern themselves like the older chartered British colonies such as Jamaica. They used the slave rebellion of 1823 as evidence that Imperial Britain had absolutely no business interfering with their affairs. The Demerara planters decided that this rebellion would be the perfect opportunity to teach anti-slavery advocates a lesson. In what can be interpreted as an act against all whites who advocated slave reform, the planters immediately swooped down on John Smith, the dissenting

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pastor of the chapel near the epicenter of the uprising. Smith was put on trial based on weak evidence and hearsay, but he landed in jail for the duration, which lasted several months. In the meantime, the plantocratic government and the London Committee of Guianese Planters incarcerated rebel slaves and established a narrative of outrageous proportions to justify their actions. They charged Smith and his two church officials, a black man named Quamina and his son Jack, with spear-heading the operation. The rebel plan, in the view of these Demerara planters, was nothing short of a revolution. It brought to mind the spectre of Haiti. ‘The Missionary [John Smith] was to be Emperor,’ said one British official who investigated the rebellion, ‘the black man ‘Quamina’ to be King and his son ‘Jack’ now on his trial, & next to his father the deepest in the plot, some other great personage.’3 Not surprisingly, Smith was found guilty, but he died in prison of consumption before he could be put to death under the law. Though Demerara was thousands of miles from London, and the events were extremely violent compared to the reasoned dialogues of Parliament, this particular rebellion coincided with the peak of anti­ slavery sentiment in London. Just six months before the Demarara uprising, the powerful Anti-Slavery Society had formed under the leadership of Thomas Folwell Buxton. The Society had a Duke as president, five other royals and fourteen MPs as vice presidents. It was backed by hundreds of corresponding societies throughout the nation. In effect, it enjoyed support from the full range of the British population: royalty and aristrocracy, gentlemen, middle-class merchants and professionals, the working classes both rural and urban, men and women. The Society thus founded itself on two systems, the old one that had lobbied to abolish the slave trade and accomplished it in 1807 many of the same people, such as William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson served both causes - and a new one that would be more politically viable than the original abolitionists. The Anti-Slavery Society saw itself as more wide-ranging movement than the abolitionist movement had been, harnessing people from all walks of life, and yet drawing its power from Britain’s already existing social and political systems. It did not conceive of itself as a group outside of those systems, but as an integral part of them. The year 1823 was thus an important one. Although emancipation efforts extended from 1807 to 1838, from the end of the abolition of the slave trade to the end of apprenticeship, it was this year, the year of the Demerara uprising and the year of the Anti-Slavery Society’s first meeting, that marks the movement at its most intense, most complex, and most articulate point. The pamphlets published in this volume capture how the British could say so much about such an unspeakable

Introduction

ix

institution in such a short period of time. They date from 1823, commencing with William Wilberforce’s tract, which was designed to voice the first thoughts of the newly established Anti-Slavery Society, to 1826, with James Stephen’s vehement attack on the stubborn colonial assemblies, like Demerara, and his insistence on having the Imperial government fulfil its obligation to slaves by emancipating them. Together these five pamphlets provide a full history of how the British viewed the emancipation. On a more subtle level, the writings offer a glimpse into how the British viewed themselves. The first two, Wilberforce’s An Appeal to the Religion, Justice, and Humanity o f the Inhabitants o f the British Empire (1823) and Thomas Clarkson’s

Thoughts on the Necessity o f Improving the Condition o f The Slaves in the British Colonies (1823) represent the anti-slavery position from the two men who had been instrumental in abolishing the slave trade. But this standpoint was fiercely attacked by a powerful West Indian lobby, whose arguments are made clear in John Hampden’s A Commentary on Mr. Clarkson's Pamphlet (1824). Between these two positions, George Canning, the new leader of the House of Commons, navigated a middle course, outlined in his Speech o f the Rt. Hon. George Canning, in the House o f Commons (1824). Yet some of the most enthusiastic anti­ slavery advocates, namely James Stephen, could not settle for compromise, and viewed slavery as a political battle as much as a moral one. Stephen’s England Enslaved by Her Own Colonies (1826) reminds audiences of Canning’s 1824 speech and uses the promises made there to reiterate the sorts of political changes that had to take place between the Imperial and the colonial legislatures before the slave system could be dismantled. Stephen illustrates how the personalities behind anti­ slavery, no matter how hypocritical or luke-warm their motives may appear in a late twentieth-century context, did manage to turn British energy against itself. In the end, they used what means were at their disposal to put a staggering amount of highly educated pressure on the government to change laws. Just as religious principles had driven the movement to abolish the trade, they also encouraged the emancipation movement, primarily because many of the same people were involved. But another component, just as vital as religion, was the desire to Anglicise slaves. For this very reason, the African Institution was formed in 1807, immediately after the abolition of the trade. Its purpose was to expand British influence - to civilise Africa, and also to make reparations for the long history of slavery. The abolitionists thus saw the end of the slave trade as a starting point, not an ending point. They were fairly confident in the fact that the planters, without access to a constant stream of slaves imported from Africa, would treat the slaves they did have with more

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care and attention. Planters would provide better food and clothing, but just as important, they would see to it that pregnant women had proper provisions and they would promote marriage. For without births among slaves, the plantation system would fail. The abolitionists hoped that as such changes gradually took place, emancipation would happen naturally by planters themselves. ‘For what was more reasonable to suppose,’ wrote Clarkson, ‘that, when masters could no longer obtain Slaves from Africa or elsewhere, they would be compelled individually, by a sort of inevitable necessity, or a fear of consequences, or by a sense of their own interest, to take better care of those whom they might then have in their possession?’ (p. 1). But, from 1807 onwards, one year after another rolled by without much happening. In fact, if anything, the treatment of slaves became worse, and the proof of this could be seen in the fact that just as many slaves were dying on plantations after abolition as before it. T h ere is still a progressive decrease by mortality in most of our Colonies,’ Wilberforce lamented, calling the loss of slaves because of ill treatment by masters ‘enormous’ (p. 9). Wilberforce, Clarkson, Stephen, and others now began to argue that the entire system was evil, that it degraded everyone it touched, and that until the system was dismantled, it would continue to sink both Britain and Africa into the depths of immorality. ‘The whole system is a ruinous one from the beginning to end,’ wrote Clarkson, ‘Slavery, indeed, or rather the despotism which supports slavery, has no compassion, and it is one of its characteristics

never to think o f sparing the sinews o f the wretched creature called a slave ’ (p. 56). ‘That such a system should so long have been suffered to exist in any part of the British Empire will appear, to our posterity, almost incredible,’ wrote Wilberforce (p. 32). If slaves were dying on plantations in record numbers and plantations continued to function, anti-slavery agitators suspected the obvious: Planters were importing slaves anyway. The solution, in the minds of the anti-slavery leaders, was to push for some kind of accounting system to keep track of just how many slaves were on each plantation. Under such a system, if any new ones arrived, their provenance had to be accounted for. No slave could be bought or sold unless he or she was first registered in this grand record-keeping system. And the accounting system must also give a thorough description of the health of each slave. When plantations owners could not smuggle slaves, the logic went, they would be forced to treat their own slaves more benevolently, and finally to negotiate a gradual freedom that would satisfy both the planters and the slaves. The idea was to set up a slave register in every colony, based on James Stephen’s detailed pamphlet of 1815 Reasons for Establishing a Registry o f Slaves (published under the general authorship of the

Introduction

xi

African Institution). O f all the anti-slavery leaders, Stephen had the best connections in Parliament as he was a friend of the Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval. Perceval agreed to establish the registry in the Crown colony of Trinidad, although no other colony was required to take any kind of action. Wilberforce officially put the Registry Bill forward on 13 June 1815, and the anti-slavery lobby virtually insisted that the Imperial government impose registration on the colonial legislatures. This was nothing short of declaring war. Colonial legislatures fiercely resisted blanket regulations imposed on them from above, partly because every colony thought of itself as unique. It was true that each one had its own system of governance based on the history, demographics and topography of each particular island or colony. Everyone involved in the slavery debate, both pro- and anti-slavery advocates, acknowledged this. Trinidad formerly belonged to the Spaniards, whose general Slave Laws are incomparably the mildest; St Lucia, to the French, whose code is in the next degree favourable to the Slave Population; and Demerara, to the Dutch, whose treatment of their Slaves is perhaps the least favourable,’ explained George Canning. His comments here distinguish the Crown colonies (or those colonies recently acquired by Britain and therefore directly subject to the power of the Imperial government) from the chartered colonies - that is, the older ones, which had their own systems of governance. The chartered colonies saw themselves not only as more independent, but also as more complex systems, because while they were hybrids of laws from different countries, yet they had long histories of self rule. Jamaica, for instance, was seized from the Spaniards by the British in 1655 under Cromwell. That 160-year process of merging British and Spanish laws and cultures with the slave population gave the Jamaican legislature of 1815 a sense of ownership. Colonial legislatures like Jamaica resisted not so much because they wanted free reign to treat their slaves badly but because they did not want Britain, whom they regarded as an over-bearing parent, telling them what to do. So the colonies, as well as some of Britain’s most influential politicians, found a way to defeat the Registry Bill. Castlereagh proposed instead a resolution that would seek simply to ‘persuade’ colonial legislatures to pass the Registry Act on their own accord and then to ‘strongly recommend’ better treatment of slaves, including religious instruction and better provisions. For this, Castlereagh got ample backing in Parliament. The planters, of course, had no intentions of carrying out any kind of improvements. They were more afraid of the slaves than they were of the British government. In fact, at the time the Registry Bill was being discussed in Parliament, several slave revolts sprang up in various

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colonies, and the planters blamed the anti-slavery advocates. It seems that word travelled fast from the mouths of MPs in London to the ears of slaves in the Caribbean. Planters, for one, insisted that this was the case. News of the Registry Bill, they said, had sent a ripple of hope for freedom through the slave population, and once such high hopes were disappointed, nothing but rebellion could follow. According to the planters, this was the circumstance in Barbados when, on Easter Sunday of 1816, slaves laid waste to seventy plantations. They burned cane fields and cane-trash houses while the whites fled to the nearby cities of Bridgetown and Oistins (only two white people were actually killed). Martial law was immediately established, and besides the hundred slaves who were killed in the uprising, 144 more were executed, 170 deported, and hundreds of others sentenced to excessive punishments.4 The absentee-planters who lived in London, along with merchants and ship owners, who composed a substantial portion of the House of Commons, seized on the Barbados rebellion as direct evidence that any kind of proposed reform in the Imperial government would have apocalyptic consequences. T o exp ea the planter should adopt measures to accelerate the progress of a revolution, which, according to his opinion, whether well or ill founded, may prove fatal to his interests, is expeaing too much of human nature,’ wrote Rev. John Hampden, summing up the West Indian view. Anti-slavery advocates saw things quite differendy. To them, it was expeaing too much of human nature to think that slaves would not rebel under such degrading and harsh working conditions. 'Frustration of all the hopes of the poor Slaves, and of their compassionate fellowsubjeas, will not be the only ill effea of this unfortunate course of proceedings, if it is not speedily reversed,’ wrote James Stephen. ‘Many more such horrors as those of Demerara and Jamaica,’ he said, will be the result if amelioration and emancipation are not brought into effea by the British themselves (p. 11, p. 6). In the meantime, the anti-slavery agitators found another point of contention in Britain’s trade and import laws. The trade laws were designed to abolish colonial monopolies, except in the case of West Indian interests. The West Indians, for example, had managed to get a 10s duty put on all sugar imported from Bengal, so that East India sugar was at a definite disadvantage. This was blatant injustice to both slaves and consumers, according to James Stephen, who said that the colonial monopoly ‘was relaxed only where it was restrictive on the Planter; and continued only where it made for his advantage. He may now sell his sugar where and to whom he pleases; but the English consumers are still bound as before to buy it. Foreigners may bring us what they please, except any thing that West India planters have to sell’ (p. 15). The East

Introduction

xiii

India interest, not surprisingly, joined with the anti-slavery lobby under the belief that if the West Indians were required to compete for importation prices, they would have to abolish slavery or, at the very least, improve the conditions for slaves. Together, the East Indians and the anti-slavery advocates emphasised that by instituting this competition in free trade, the problem of slavery might be solved. Early in 1823, the anti-slavery lobby gave themselves an official name, The Anti-Slavery Society, and established a regular publication, The Anti-Slavery Reporter (both of which still exist today). At this time Wilberforce’s health was failing. Even though he had given over control of the cause to younger men such as Zachary Macaulay and Thomas Folwell Buxton, he was elected to write the pamphlet that would unquestionably position the Anti-Slavery Society in the political arena. The Society’s goals were: slaves should be allowed to be attached to the soil, not bought and sold as chattel; slave evidence should be allowed in court against a free person; the driving system should be abolished; public flogging of female slaves should be abolished; slaves should be allowed a Christian marriage (Wilberforce, pp. 10-17). All of these things were designed to acknowledge the humanity of slaves, but a very specific kind of humanity: one potentially British and Christian, but in fact not quite civilised. On 15 May, 1823, the Anti-Slavery Society brought their proposal to Parliament. Thomas Folwell Buxton stated that slavery was antithetical to British and Christian principles and wanted it to be ‘gradually abolished’, taking into account, of course, the interests of all parties concerned. George Canning, the new leader of the House of Commons, took time with both the Anti-Slavery Society and the West Indian Committee, trying to steer a middle course between these two opposing positions. In March of 1824, he addressed the House, setting out the policy the government would adopt with regards to amelioration and ‘gradual emancipation.* He said the government would make an Order-inCouncil (called the Trinidad Order) to introduce new laws in the Crown colonies of Trinidad, St Lucia, and then Demerara. The government would then simply recommend the Trinidad Order to the chartered colonies. The Order had four parts: to abolish the ‘shocking and unseemly practice of the chastisement of females by the whip’; to abolish ‘the use of the whip, when applied to males, as a stimulus to labour’; to ‘provide religious instruction and worship’ and abolish Sunday markets; and to ‘encourage marriage’ (pp. 9 -17). One of the disturbing high points of Canning’s speech came when he addressed the inevitable question of immediate emancipation. ‘In dealing with the Negro,’ he said, ‘we must remember that we are dealing with a being possessing the form and strength of a man, but the intellect only

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of a child. To turn him loose in the manhood of his physical strength, in the maturity of his physical passions, but in the infancy of his uninstructed reason, would be to raise up a creature resembling the splendid fiction of a recent romance; the hero of which constructs a human form, with all the corporeal capabilities of man, and with the thews and sinews of a giant; but being unable to impart to the work of his hands a perception of right and wrong, he finds too late that he has only created a more than mortal power of doing mischief, and himself recoils from the monster which he has made (pp. 21-2). Canning’s allusion to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is one of those key places where Romantic literature and the politics of slavery explicitly come together. His reading of the novel in light of the slave issue is typical of a moderate British politician. He places emphasis on the monster who goes out to ‘glut the maw of death’5 after being abandoned by his creator, but ignores the ‘creator’s’ responsibility for the disaster. Completely overlooked from Canning’s account is Frankenstein’s ‘workshop of filthy creation’ and how often Frankenstein’s ‘human nature’ turned ‘with loathing’ from his ‘occupation, whilst, still urged on by an eagerness which perpetually increased.’6 Nor does Canning mention the horrible and inevitable consequences of Frankenstein’s activities, only the murderous deeds of the monster. In this sense, Canning implicitly calls on the language used by the West Indians to characterise the slave rebellions, from the Haitian Revolution to the Demerara uprising. ‘It must be admitted by the most infatuated admirers of the name of liberty,’ wrote John Hampden, that setting slaves free would be done so only ‘at the price of so much blood, by the dreadful excesses of human wickedness and misery, which, in the Kingdom of Hayti, have erected a monument to the disgrace of human nature’ (p. 18). Britain thus went about governing the colonies even more cautiously than Canning had proposed. As it turned out, virtually all of the colonial legislatures fiercely resisted implementing Canning’s 1824 measures, even though they had promised to support him. This evasiveness from the colonies at least forced people on both sides of the emancipation fence to re-assert their positions. In 1826, just three years later, Alexander M ’Donnell, who was secretary of the West India Committee, wrote the pamphlet The West India Legislatures Vindicated from the

charge o f having resisted the call o f the mother country for the amelioration o f slavery, where he first asserted that the colonial legislatures had improved slave conditions, and in this respect M ’Donnell’s view mirrored the option put forward by John Hampden in this volume. But M ’Donnell also expressed disappointment in Canning’s and the government’s 1824 resolutions, which the West

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Indians pronounced did doing nothing to stop the threat of slave insurrection in the colonies. M ’Donnell’s pamphlet was followed by Stephen’s vehement counter-argument in England Enslaved by Her Oum Colonies. Nothing would change for slaves or for Britain, he said, unless the Imperial Legislature took complete control of the colonies. The state of affairs might have moved more speedily, because Canning seemed willing to forge ahead and pressure the colonial legislatures to adopt the Trinidad Order, but he died in August 1827. A more conservative government under Wellington took over for the next few years, and the question of slavery virtually came to a standstill during this time. The Wellington Ministry payed lip service to Canning’s resolutions, but the West Indians knew they were safe from censure, at least for a while. Wellington resigned in November of 1830, and a more liberal Whig government with Earl Grey as Prime Minister took over. From this point forward, rapid changes and reforms finally came into fruition. Although the questions of Parliamentary Reform took precedence over Slavery Reform, as if the British had to reform themselves at home first before they could do so abroad, changes in colonies soon followed the 1832 Reform Act. This was the group of people, now in power, who had been behind the anti-slavery movement from the beginning. Henry Brougham, for instance, who had been one of the most tenacious anti-slavery advocates, was now Lord Chancellor. Grey, also a long time supporter of anti­ slavery, was determined to push anti-slavery measures and in 1831 announced a lowering of sugar duties to the colonies that adopted the Trinidad Order unconditionally. The general British population sensed the transition and all of a sudden, anti-slavery petitions flew into Parliament by the thousands. The Reform Bill went into effect on 7 June, 1832, and the anti­ slavery issue was brought forward in the very first meeting of Reformed Parliament in February 1833. James Stephen, who worked in affiliation with Grey, suggested giving slaves unconditional freedom (instead of making them purchase it) and £ 1 5 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0 as compensation to planters. But the real crux of the debate lay in Thomas Folwell Buxton’s ability to marry the British concerns with morality and their desire for sound social and economic policy. He asked:

is it certain that the colonies would remain to the country if we were resolved to retain slavery? ... How was the government prepared to act in case of a general insurrection of the negroes? ... a war against a people struggling for their rights would be the falsest position in which it was possible for England to be placed. And did the noble Lords think that the people out of doors would be content to see their resources exhausted for the purpose of crushing the inalienable rights of mankind ?7

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The agreement eventually was worked out to £20,000,000 and the slaves would undergo an apprentice system of compulsory labour for six years. (Apprenticeship was later cut short by two years because it was impracticable.) The Emancipation Act became law on 1 August, 1834. Slavery was thus ‘officially’ over in the British colonies in 1838. But nations and individuals are even today living out its consequences. Emancipation was a strangely nuanced debate, complicated by everything that was ‘new’ in early nineteenth-century Britain. A new sense of new moral consciousness gripped the nation, a new economy grew out of the Industrial Revolution, and new forms of national and international governments set the world stage. Issues of religion, human rights, middle-class capitalism, slave revolts, and political and economic revolutions permeated the debate. But the biggest question surrounding the history of slavery is why did it happen to end at this particular time? What preconditions had to exist before British lawmakers abolished slavery? This question has nagged at historians and literary scholars more doggedly than any other aspect of the history of slavery. The crux of the issue revolves around the question of who should be credited for instigating the emancipation of slaves at a time when the slave system was more profitable than it had ever been in Britain’s history. Modern historians of the emancipation movement emphasised the role of religious influence in the rise in abolition. In 1933, the Oxford historian Reginald Coupland (who was also William Wilberforce’s biographer), published The British Anti-Slavery Movement. He correlated the rise of abolitionism and emancipation with the rise of Christian ideals and humanitarianism, which he claimed were founded on transcendent principles. Coupland’s was the prevailing view among scholars until the publication of Eric Williams’s groundbreaking book Capitalism and Slavery in 1944. Williams, also an Oxford historian who went on to become Prime Minister of post-colonial Trinidad and Tobago, flatly rejected Coupland’s ideas, arguing with originality and striking persuasion that the British slave trade, with all the money and industry it created, caused the Industrial Revolution. The loss of the American colonies in 1776, Williams contended, meant that the slave trade was neither as profitable nor as important as it had been to British economics.8 Since then, scholars like Michael Craton, Hilary McD Beckles, and Barbara Bush have argued that slave revolts, resistence and rebellion provoked the anti-slavery movement as much as anything.9 Religious idealism, industrial capitalism, slave rebellions - the source of the emancipation movement in Britain is still under debate. The texts reprinted here reveal some of the complexities of the debate and begin to uncover some of the reasons why a group of British people chose this particular moment in history to put extreme pressure on the general

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population and on the lawmakers themselves. For the British of the early nineteenth century, the ending of slavery was a major national and international step. It represented the dismantling of a system of labour and also of a system that united Europe, Africa, and the Americas. But more than anything, it signified a profound step for the nation of British people - this debate initiated a review of not just the issues raised by the argument itself but their perception of themselves.

Notes 1 The account of the Demerara uprising is detailed in every history of British slavery in the Caribbean, including the pamphlets printed in this volume. The details of my account are taken primarily from Michael Craton, Empire, Enslavement, and Freedom in Caribbean (Oxford: James Currey, 1997). 2 Craton, p. 298. 3 Craton, p. 290. 4 Craton, p. 284. 5 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, or The Modem Prometheus (New York: Macmillan, 1961) p. 84. 6 Mary Shelley, p. 47. 7 Parliamentary Debates, 3rd series, XIII, 24 May, 1832. Also quoted in Craton, p. 319. 8 The contention that the slave trade and slavery were not profitable in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century is a highly contested fact among historians, mosdy because of the difficulty of verifying accurate records of the period. 9 Michael Craton, Empire, Enslavement, and Freedom in Caribbean (Oxford: James Currey, 1997); Barbara Bush, Slave Women in Caribbean Society (London: James Currey, 1990); Hilaiy McD. Beckles, Natural Rebels (New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1989).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Texts An Impartial Review o f the Question pending between Great Britain and her West Indian Colonies, respecting the abolition o f Negro Slavery submitted to the consideration o f His Majesty's ministers; the Noble House o f Lords and Honourable Commons o f England; Her West Indian merchants and proprietors resident in England; to William Wilberforce esq., and all his abolitionary friends. By a Resident and Proprietor in the West Indies (London: J. Hatchard & Son, 1824) An Appeal and caution to the British nation; with proposals for the immediate or gradual emancipation o f the slaves. By a member o f the Dominica Legislature (London: John Richardson, 1824) An Attempt to strip Negro Emancipation o f its difficulties, as well as o f its terrors: by shewing that the country has the means o f accomplishing it with justice to all parties. By A Merchant (London, 1824) Barclay, Alexander, of Jamaica, A Practical View o f the Present State o f

Slavery in the West Indies; or, an Examination o f Mr. Stephen's ‘Slavery o f the British West India Colonies' containing more particularly an account o f the actual condition o f the negroes in Jamaica; with observations on the decrease o f the slaves since the abolition o f the slave trade; and on the probable effects o f legislative emancipation (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1826) Barclay, David, An Account o f the Emancipation o f the Unity Valley Pen, in Jamaica (London: William Phillips, 1801; 2nd edn, London: J. & A. Arch, 1825) Beckford, William, A descriptive account o f the Island o f Jamaica; with remarks upon the cultivation o f the sugar-cane . . . also observations

and reflections upon what would probably be the consequences o f an abolition o f ’the slave trade and o f the emancipation o f the slaves, 2 vols (London: T. & J. Egerton, 1790) Brough, Anthony, The Importance o f the British Colonies in the West

Indies; the danger o f a general and immediate emancipation o f the negroes; and a sketch o f a plan for a safe and gradual emancipation . . . without any loan (London: Whittaker, Treacher & Arnot, 1833) Brougham, Henry, Immediate Emancipation. The Speech o f Lord Brougham in the House o f Lords . . . February 20, 1838, on Slavery

Bibliography

xix

and the Slave Trade. Corrected by his Lordship (London: J. Haddon, 1838) Burnley, William Hardin, Opinions on Slavery and Emancipation in

1823; referred to in a recent debate in the House o f Commons by Thomas Folwell Buxton, Esq. With additional observations, applicable to the Right Hon. E.G. Stanley*s plan for the extinction o f slavery (London: James Ridgway, 1833) Canning, George MP, The Speech o f the Rt. Hon. George Canning, in the House o f Commons, on the 16th Day o f March, 1824, on the laying before the House the Tapers in explanation o f the measures adopted by His Majesty*s Government, for the amelioration o f the condition o f the slave population in His Majesty*s dominions in the West Indies* (London: John Murray, 1824) Clarkson, Thomas, Thoughts on the Necessity for Improving the

Conditions o f the Slaves in the British Colonies, with a view to their ultimate emancipation (London: Richard Taylor, 1823) Emancipation in disguise, or the crisis o f the colonies, to which are added, considerations upon measures proposed for their temporary relief . . . and lastly, suggestions for a permanent plan to supply our colonies with provisions, and our Navy with certain naval stores, independent o f foreign supplies (London: J. Ridgway, 1807) Emancipation o f the Negro Slaves in the West India Colonies considered, with reference to its impolicy and injustice; in answer to Mr. Wilberforce*s Appeal. By the author o f 'A Statement o f the claims o f the West India Colonies to a protecting duty against East India Sugar* (London, 1824) Emerson, Ralph Waldo, An Address delivered in the Court House in Concord Massachusetts . . . 1 August 1844, on the anniversary o f the emancipation o f the Negroes in the British West Indies (Boston, 1844)

An Inquiry into the origin, progress, and present state o f slavery, with a plan for the gradual emancipation o f Slaves. By a member o f the Society o f Universal Goodwill in London and Norwich (London, 1789)

A Letter to W. Wilberforce . . . o n the subject o f emancipation. By an eye-witness (London, 1824) Foster, John of Bedford, To Editor o f the Globe and Traveller, o f December 9, 1823. A few remarks on the leading article o f the Globe . . . o f 1st December—To the president, a late meeting o f the planters, merchants and persons otherwise interested in the West Indian Colonies. Some remarks on the plan for the emancipation o f the Slaves (London, Bedford, 1823) Garrison, William Lloyd, An Address delivered at the Broadway Tabernacle, New York, 1 August 1838 by request o f the people o f

xx

Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation: Volume 3 color in that city, in commemoration o f the complete emancipation o f 600,000 slaves on that day, in the British West Indies (New York,

1838) Hampden, Rev. John A. B., A Commentary on Mr. Clarkson’s pamphlet

entitled Thoughts on the necessity o f improving the conditions o f the Slaves in the British colonies, with a view to their ultimate emancipation’ (London: J. Ridgway, 1824) Hancock, John, Plan for the reconciliation o f all interests in the emancipation o f West India Slaves (London, 1833) Jordan, George William and Elsie Maude Fisher, An examination o f the principles o f the Slave Registry Bill, and o f the means o f emancipation proposed by authors o f the Bill. Resolutions o f the House o f Assembly o f Barbados, etc. (London, 1816) Losh, James, The Speech o f J. Losh ... at a meeting called for the purpose o f petitioning Parliament for the improvement and gradual emancipation o f the slave population o f the British Colonies (Newcastle: T. & J. Hodgson, 1824) Macqueen, James, Geographer, The West India Colonies; the calumnies

and misrepresentations circulated against them by the Edinburgh Review, Mr. Clarkson, Mr. Cropper, etc. examined and refuted (London, 1824) Martin, Sir Henry William Bart., A Counter Appeal, in answer to 'An

Appeal* from W. Wilberforce ... designed to prove that the emancipation o f the negroes in the West Indies ... would be a breach o f national honour ... and highly injurious to the planter and slave (London, 1823) Smyth, F. G., An Apology for West Indians, and Reflections on the Policy

o f Great Britain9s interference in the internal concerns o f the West India Colonies (London: James Ridgway, 1824) Stephen, James, England Enslaved by Her Own Slave Colonies. An Address to the Electors and People o f the United Kingdom (London: Hatchard & Son, and J. & A. Arch, 1826) Stuart, Charles, Abolitionist, The West India Question . . . An outline for immediate emancipation, and remarks on compensation (London and Bristol: Simpkin, Marshall & Co, 1832; reprinted for Quarterly Magazine and Review, April 1832) Thompson, George MP, Substance o f an Address to the ladies o f

Glasgow ... upon the present aspect o f the great question o f Negro Emancipation, etc. (Glasgow, 1833) Thompson,

Andrew

D.D.,

Minister

of

St

George’s,

Edinburgh,

Immediate Emancipation. Substance o f a speech delivered at the meeting o f the Edinburgh Society o f the Abolition o f Slavery (Manchester: J. R. Wood, 1832)

Bibliography

xxi

Thomas, The Negroes9 Jubilee: a memorial o f Negro Emancipation, August 1, 1834. With a Brief History o f the Slave Trade o f its abolition, etc. (London, 1834) Wilberforce, William, An Appeal to the Religion, Justice, and Humanity o f the Inhabitants o f the British Empire, in behalf o f the Negro Slaves in the West Indies (London: J. Hatchard & Son, 1823) Winn, T . S., Emancipation, or practical advice to British slave-holders; with suggestions for General Improvement o f West India affairs Timpson,

(London, 1824) S eco n d ary

Texts

Anstey, R., The Atlantic Slave Trade and British Abolition (London, 1975) Beckles, Hilary M cD., Natural Rebels (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1989) Bender, Thomas (ed.), The Antislavery Debate: Capitalism and Abolitionism as a Problem in Historical Interpretation [essays by John Ashworth, David Brion Davis, Thomas L. Haskell] (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992) Burn, W. L., Emancipation and Apprenticeship in the British West Indies (London: Jonathan Cape, 1937; reprint, Johnson Reprint Corp., 1970) Bush, Barbara, Slave Women in Caribbean Society 1650-1838 (London: James Currey, 1990) Coupland, Sir Reginald, The British Anti-Slavery Movement (London: Frank Cass, 1933) Craton, Michael, Empire, Enslavement and Freedom in the Caribbean (Oxford: James Currey, 1997) --------, Searching for the Invisible Man (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978) --------, Testing the Chains: Resistance to Slavery in the British West Indies (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982) Craton, Michael, James Walvin and D. Wright (eds), Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation (London, 1976) Creveld, Martin Van (ed.), The Encyclopedia o f Revolutions and Revolutionaries (New York: Facts on File, 1996) Curtin, Philip, The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969) Davis, David Brion, The Problem o f Slavery in the Age o f Revolution 1770-1823 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1975) Davis, H. P., Black Democracy: The Story o f Haiti (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1929)

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Dixon, Peter, Canning: Politician and Statesman (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976) Drescher, Seymour, Econocide: British Slavery in the Era o f Abolition (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburg Press, 1977) --------, Capitalism and Antislavery (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987) Furneaux, Robin, William Wilberforce (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1974) Fyfe, Christopher, A History o f Sierra Leone (Oxford: Oxford Unversity Press, 1962) Geggus, David Patrick, Slavery, War and Revolution: The British Occupation o f Saint Domingue 1793-1798 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1982) Grams, Jack, The Great White Lie: Slavery, Emancipation, and Changing Racial Attitudes (New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 1973) James, Herman G. and Percy A. Martin, The Republics o f Latin

America: Their History, Governments and Economic Conditions (New York and London: Harper Bros, 1923) Klingberg, Frank, The Anti-Slavery Movement in England (Yale University Press, 1926; Archon Books, 1968) Knaplund, Paul, James Stephen and the British Colonial System 18131847 (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1953) Knight, Derrick, Gentleman o f Fortune: The Men Who Made Their Fortunes in the British Slave Colonies (London: Frederick Muller Ltd, 1978) Knight, Franklin W. (ed.), General History o f the Caribbean , voi. 3 (UNESCO Pub, 1997) Mathieson, William Law, British Slavery and Its Abolition 1823-1838 (London: Longmans, 1926) Parkinson, Wenda, *The Guilded African*: Toussaint UOuverture (London and New York: Quartet Books, 1978) Patterson, Orlando, Slavery and Social Death (Cambridge, MA: 1982) --------, The Sociology o f Slavery (London: Macgibbon & Kee, 1967) Pope-Hennessy, James, Sins o f the Fathers: A Study o f the Atlantic Slave Traders 1441-1807 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1968) Postma, Johannes Menne, The Dutch in the Atlantic Slave Trade 16001815 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) Rose, J. Holland, A. P. Newton and E. A. Benians (eds), The Cambridge History o f the British Empire, voi. 2, The Growth o f the New Empire 1783-1870 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961) Rout, Leslie B. Jr., The African Experience in Spanish America 1502 to thè Present (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976)

Bibliography

xxiii

Shelley, Mary, Frankenstein, or The Modem Prometheus (New York: Macmillan, 1961) Solow, Barbara L. and Stanley L. Engerman, British Capitalism and Caribbean Slavery: The Legacy o f Eric Williams (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987) Stein, Robert Louis, The French Slave Trade in the Eighteenth Century (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1979) Walvin, James. Black Ivory: A History of British Slavery (London: Fontana Press, 1993) --------, Slaves and Freedom (London, 1983) --------, Slavery and the Slave Trade (London, 1983) --------, Slaves and Slavery (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1992) Ward, J. R., British West Indian Slavery 1750-1834 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988) Wiedemann, Thomas, Greek and Roman Slavery (New York and London: Routledge, 1981) Williams, Eric, Capitalism and Slavery (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1944) --------, Cuba from Columbus to Castro: The History o f the Caribbean 1492-1962 (Andre Deutsch, 1970) Wilson, Ellen Gibson, Thomas Clarkson: A Biography (Basingstoke: Macmillan,1989) --------, John Clarkson and the African Adventure (London: Macmillan, 1980)

NOTE ON COPY TEXTS The following extracts are reproduced in facsimile, however, exceptions occur where the quality of the original text was poor and therefore would not reproduce well. Breaks between excerpts (which may cover paragraphs, chapters, or whole volumes) are indicated thus: *

*

*

In order to fit texts comfortably on to the pages of this edition, certain liberties have been taken with the format of the original: occasionally right-hand pages have become left-hand pages (and vice versa) and text from comsecutive pages has been fitted on to a single page. Endnotes in this edition refer to

Roudedge

page and line numbers.

For permission to reprint the texts, we would like to thank the Syndics of Cambridge University Library, The British Library Board and the London Library.

William Wilberforce,

,

An Appeal to the Religion Justice and Humanity o f the Inhabitants o f the British Empire in behalf o f the Negro Slaves in the West Indies

, ,

(London, 1823)

The two publications by Wilberforce, Practical Christianity (1797) and An Appeal (1823), both met with success that was occasioned by his work for the abolition of the slave trade and emancipation of the slaves in the colonies. Practical Christianity itself went into fifteen editions by 1824 in Britain, and twenty-five in the United States. It was also translated into French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and German. Wilberforce’s Appeal led to the establishment of the Anti-Slavery Society (which still exists), of which Thomas Folwell Buxton was president and Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson vice-presidents. From this group of humanitarians, who were also referred to as the ‘Clapham S e a ’ (after Clapham, the area where many of them lived) or T h e Saints’ (bestowed in Parliament in reference to their religious convictions), a massive anti­ slavery movement sprang up in small towns, in large cities, and in Parliament. Wilberforce had been one of the major forces in Parliament in bringing about the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. The abolitionists hoped that the demise of the trade would immediately improve the treatment of slaves by planters who would now have to rely on natural increase instead of importation for field labour. When this did not happen, Wilberforce initiated a ‘Registry Bill’ in Parliament in 1816. The bill imposed slave registration on all the colonies in the hope that no planter could smuggle in slaves from Africa. It also proposed measures to force planters to treat slaves in a more benevolent manner and eventually open the way for a ‘free peasantry’. The imperial legislature, however, suppressed it, giving each colonial legislature the right to pass or reject Wilberforce’s Registry Bill. Treatment of slaves did not improve, and Wilberforce grew more agitated as his health began to fail him. In 1823, John Smith, a radical missionary in Demerara, was blamed for the slave revolts that sprang up that year. The planters arrested him, tried him unfairly, and sentenced him to death. The governor, however, referred the case to English

2

Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation: Volume 3

courts, but before Smith could return, he died (probably of consumption) in prison. Wilberforce saw this as a symbolic case of the barbarities that took place in the West Indies. Probably because of his own ill health, he felt a strong emotional tie to John Smith. On 11 June 1823, at the beginning of the emancipation debates, Wilbeforce gave one of his very last and emotionally intense speeches in Parliament about the Smith case. His last speech, on 15 June 1824, was highly critical of the government for not imposing the resolutions, which had been agreed upon during the debates of the previous year. He re­ emphasised that colonial legislatures would not improve things otherwise. Many of the themes of this last speech characterise the Appeal to the Religion, Justice, and Humanity o f the Inhabitants o f the British Empire. He devotes a major portion of the work to exposing the worst conditions of the slave system, which he delineates in order of severity. Slaves are bought and sold as chattels, and the evidence of slaves cannot be admitted in court, which puts the white man above the law. The driving system reduces slaves to brute animals and the whip is a symbol of the system’s tyranny. The flogging of female slaves is disgraceful, and planters do not permit slaves to have Christian marriages. In several striking instances, Wilberforce exposes the fact that managers and overseers, who were often unmarried, sexually abuse black women. However, in this pamphlet, Wilberforce shifts the focus from the poor conditions for slaves and diverts to the broad generalization that the entire slave system is ‘evil.’ Ten years after writing his Appeal, Wilberforce was on his deathbed. He received a letter from Zachary Macaulay on 15 May 1833, which read: T h is day ten years ago the abolition of slavery was first made a question in Parliament. Last night its death-blow was struck. I send you a copy of the debate’ (quoted in Forneaux, p. 454). Wilberforce heard the news that the Bill for the Abolition of Slavery passed on 26 July, 1833, which provided £ 2 0 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0 in compensation to planters. He reportedly said, Th an k God that I should have lived to witness a day in which England is willing to give twenty million sterling for the Abolition of Slavery’ (quoted in Forneaux, p. 454). He died three days later.

Wilberforce: Appeal to the Inhabitants o f the British Empire

3

AN

A P P E A L , 268. 13s. GENERAL CONDUCT IN

1823.

The males indolent, and the greater number given to in­ ebriety. As they were not industrious in cultivation o f their lands, several of them died in great poverty, and are said to have been very turbulent and troublesome to their neigh­ bours.

Miriam Harrigan died on 31st January, 1816, manumit­ ting, (by will) twenty negroes, and giving them forty acres in Great Camanoc, one o f the Virgin Islands. In 1823, generally speaking, both men and women are idle and dis­ sipated ; they possess no stock, nor does one of them reside on his own land, or possess a house.

In 1821, Mr. Pcrcival manumitted sixteen slaves, who were nearly equal as to sexes, gave them 3 0 0 acres in Guana Island, with crop, stock, and houses, as then possessed, which had been rented to a Mr, Letsome for ¿*150 sterling per ann.; since which time these manumitted slaves have sold their stock and all their land, except five acres. GENERAL CHARACTER IN

1823.

The males exceedingly indolent; spent the money aris­ ing from sale of land in a very short time, in revelling and debauchery. The females are dependent chiefly on slaves for their sup­ port ; they seldom cohabit for any length of time with the same husband. Except one individual, they cultivate no land, have no

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stock, and possess only two huts.—Extract from a com­ munication from Dr. Stobo of Tortola.

No. V. The produce of St. Domingo, (the French settlement only) before the revolution, and so early as the year 1720, amounted, according to Raynal, (the only authority to which we have access as to this particular period) to lbs. 21,000,000 indigo; lbs. 1,400,000 white su gar; lbs. 21,000,000 muscovado, &c. &c. In the year 1754, amount of various commodities, £ \ ,261,469. According to a statistical account, the accuracy of which we have no rea­ son to suspect, the exports were in the year 1789, coffee, lbs. 84,617,828; sugar, 217,163 casks; molasses,5836 casks; indigo, lbs. 8,257,610; &c. k c . Amount of export, accord­ ing to official documents of St. Domingo, /*5,871,593. Shipping in St. Domingo trade, in the year 1789-— Vessels, 7 1 0 ; Mariners, 8466. According to Walton's estimate, from the year 1804 to 1 SOS,about seventy-five vessels arrived at St. Domingo with cargoes amounting to en), the ship and cargo shall be forfeited. It can be no sufficient excuse to say that an- Act or Acts to a like effect had existed before that period. True it is, that the As­ sembly of Jamaica, having gratified its indignant spite against Ne­ gro freedom, by an Act restraining all such intercourse with Hayti, as far as its own power of interior regulation extended, its agents soon found Government complaisant enough to lend its aid, in order to extend the penalties and right of seizure, to ships that might not be found, or cases that might not arise, within the colonial jurisdic­ tion. A July Bill for that purpose was more than once pushed, without noise or notice, through Parliament; and so effectually escaped observation, that though my attention has been pretty much given to such subjects, I must confess tny ignorance of any such measure having been adopted, till the fecent revolutions in our ma­ ritime and colonial code led me to look back with some particularity on the state of the former la\y. But when Government so materially altered its system, the mea­ sure, though not in a separate consideration new, had in its con­ nexion with those important changes, all the effect of an injurious and offensive innovation. A gentleman who at his country resi­ dence should choose to live retired, and receive no guest but his own family, would give no just offence by omitting to invite his nearest neighbour, who hod made to him the most courteous ad­ vances; but should he reverse his plan of life, and invite all his neighbours, with the exception of that particular person, the case would be completely altered, and would reasonably be considered as a disparagement or affront; and such has been our conduct towards Hayti. While all foreign bottoms were systematically excluded from out Colonial ports, with a few particular exceptions only, in the Free Port Acts, founded on regard to the convenience or ne­ cessities of our W est India Islands, as in the supply of North American flour and lumber (articles not furnished by the Haytian people), or for the sake of favouring our valuable commerce with Spanish America, while contraband by its own laws, the interdic­ tion of trade between Jam aica and Hayti placed the latter in a situation not materially different from that of our other foreign neighbours, whether in America or Europe: but when we reversed our ancient maxims, and threw open the doors of our Colonies, which we had before so jealously barred, to every state and every flag but one, the re-enacting of the former interdict against that particular country alone, gave it a new character, and made it a more invidious distinction. The effect also of such sweeping and extreme penalties, under

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the new circumstances o f the case, was unjustly to subject the com­ merce of the Haytian Republic, and of all tne nations that trade with them, to new and multiplied disadvantages and dangers, the consequences of which it is easy to foresee, will be hignly mis­ chievous, and productive of disputes, not only with Hayti, but, perhaps, with other powers. T o such of ray readers as know any thing of W est Indian navi­ gation and commerce, this will be obvious enough; especially when they recollect that all the ports in the Mexican Gulf, and o f the late Spanish continent to windward of it, as well os those of Jamaica, are now» open to every friendly flag. T o those who are uninformed on such subjects, it may be proper to remark that both Hayti and Jamaica lie directly across, or very near, the track of ships trading between North America or Europe and a great part o f the new states of South America north of B razil; and that from the effects of the trade-winds this proscription of Hayti is in such respects, though limited in form to its intercourse with Jamaica, not less re­ strictive or inconvenient in practice than if it were extended to all our W est India Colonies. It is with that British island only that the Haytians could easily or profitably trade; and there only that foreigners trading with them would often be desirous or able to touch, in their outward or homeward voyage. In consequence of these sweeping prohibitions, Hayti will be de­ barred from a large part of that commerce which would otherwise be opened to her, through her central and advantageous position, by the revolutions in Mexico and South America at large, as well as by our own change of system; and also from those benefits to which she is justly entitled by that commercial habit o f visiting the W est Indies in what is called a “ trading voyage” ; namely, a voyage destined not to a particular port or island only, but to a market, where it can best be found, or where the desired returns can most advantageously be obtained. So important is this practice deemed by the merchants of the United States in particular, that they were deposed to go to war with us for obstructing it in their trade with die Colonies o f our enemies, after we had conceded the point of permitting a trade directly with them to and from that neutral country. But now, every North American or European ship bound to the W est Indies or South America, on a trading voyage, must make an exception, in ljer papers, of Hayti or Jamaica, or b oth ; and if Hayti be not excepted, the exception o f Jamaica alone will not only be a renunciation of the new privileges that we have opened to them in that our most important island, but will leave thfcm ex­ posed to great hazard o f being seized on suspicion, if obliged by bad weather, currents, or other causes to approach near to that island in going to or returning from any market on the South American continent In this respect the Spanish-American revolutions, and our own more recent commercial revolution, will make the former restrictions operate much more severely and unfairly than they be­ fore did against the interests of the Haytian people. It should never

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Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation: Volume 3

be forgotten in framing such prohibitions, that their indirect and undesigned, are not less prejudicial to the interdicted country, than their direct and intended effects. A new commercial crime consti­ tutes of course a new ground of suspicion or false imputation, and a new ground therefore of maritime seizure and prosecution, with all the vexatious consequences that are sure to attend them in a distant part of the world; consequences peculiarly formidable when the courts that have to decide on them in the first instance are strongly disposed to favour the seizure. A prosecution in Jamaica, for trading with Hayti, is certainly not one in which an injured claimant would have the best prospects o f just redress. W hen a country is infected with the plague, or when a hostile port is under blockade, the necessity o f the case which compels us to impose such restrictions on the commerce of friendly powers, fumisnes not only an excuse, but a salvo for their dignity. But here we have the same and greater restrictions in time of peace; and on a new principle, never acted on by any other civilized power, a principle also as offensive in itself, as the practice founded upon i t ; for what does it plainly imply but that the Haytian Government is disposed to excite insurrections in Jamaica, though no part of its conduct, during above twenty years o f actual independence, has furnished the slightest pretext for the suspicion ? W here else can lie the justification of condemning both ship and cargo, not only for having touched at infected Hayti before, but even after touching at Jamaica ? In this it exceeds the restrictions of the quarantine laws; and the utmost severity of the law o f war in regard to block­ aded ports. It would have been enough for my present purpose that the Go­ vernment has in fact from complaisance toour Slave-owners departed from its own new and favourite commercial system, by impairing without necessity the general freedom of trade. But my last re­ marks show diat there is, in the tone and temper of the proceedings towards Hayti, enough to mark still more clearly a subserviency to all the bitterness of W est Indian prejudices, at the expense not only of trade, but perhaps also of our peace with the Haytian people.

Suppose President Boyer and his Council should choose to retaliate! It seems due to their own independency and dignity to do s o ; and it would be impossible for us decently to complain if they did. W e should then soon find to our cost tne importance o f these remarks. Not a ship from Jamaica could beat through the windward passage, without exposing herself to a reasonable suspicion of meaning to violate the counter prohibition, so as to warrant perhaps her being brought into the Cape, or some other Haytian port, for examination or trial. I repeat that such treatment of a country which was anxiously courting our friendship, and with wlfich France was known to be then negotiating on the basis of acknowledging its independency, was too egregious a blunder in policy to have had its origin in any thing but the enormous influence of the W est Indian party. It too

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well accounts for, and justifies the conduct of President Boyer, in at last indignandy withdrawing from us the favour, and privileges we had so ul requited, and casting himself into the arms o f France. I admit however that theHaytian people had ground enough, with­ out this last affront, for despairing that creolized England would ever recognise their independence, or cease to be the secret enemy o f their freedom; still more that she would ever be induced to enter into any connexion that might be a support to them, in the event of a new invasion, or tend to avert that calamity. Some writers have been unreasonable enough to condemn the President for agreeing to pay 150 millions of livres (six millions sterling) to France, for the relinquishment of an empty title. But his conduct was lhade by our bad policy natural and rig h t B e­ yond doubt he would gladly have avoided so heavy an incumbrance on his finances; but we had taught him that there was no other way to give to the republic, in its foreign relations, the benefit of its independency, or obtain for it decent respect, even from the country it had most highly favoured. W e had taught him also to appre­ hend, that in the event of a new invasion by France, he woula be treated by the only maritime power that durst despise her resent­ ment, and consequently by all the rest, not as a legitimate bellige­ rent, with whom neutrals might lawfully trade, but as an insurgent and a rebel* H e did well and wisely therefore, in my opinion, to prevent the evils of such a contest by as large a pecuniary sacrifice as the country could afford. H e has been blamed also for giving to France such commercial privileges as will exclude in its consequences the ships and the mer­ chandize of other countries. This perhaps was a necessary part of the price; but perhaps also, it was some gratification to reflect, that ungrateful and contemptuous Fngland had rejected the same boon when gratuitously offered, and would lose w'hat France would gain by i t I f letters from Port-au-Prince inserted in the newspapers may be trusted, Anti-British feelings have already appeared from measures beyond the terms of the Treaty. “ Not only,” it is said, “ is the duty to be increased on English goods imported, but the valuation of them, by which the amount of the duty is estimated, is capriciously doubled. W ith the French merchants, a contrary course is pursued, and the dutv on goods exported has been lowered 50 per cent in their favour, 'while that paid by the English remains unaltered.” It is added, “ British goods if imported at all must be imported in French vessels, which will give them a monopoly o f the carrying-trade with the island.” W e nave performed then that seeming miracle, the possibility of which I vainly foretold twenty years ago, as a consequence o f our infatuated policy. W e have made France popular in H a y ti! in betrayed, butchered, massacred, blood-hounded H a y ti! Nor will the matter end here. Haytian ambassadors are already arrived at the French Court, and we shall soon probably hear of a perpetual league offensive and defensive, far more formidable to the British

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W est Indie* in ftiture wars, than the family compact ever was to Europe. T h e cct up by himself, in the names

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Here then is, on both aides, the strong temptation of deep gaming, not only in the mngnitude of the chances, but the facility 01 finding the stakes. Further explanations might be given of the false estimates and delusive expectations in question. Th e prizes in a state lottery are not over rated. Every man knows the amount of what is actually gained by them, and cannot mistake a blank for a prize: but the success of the sugar planter is often a gross delusion. H e comes home for a season, with the proceeds of a lucky crop in the hands of his consignees; and, either from self-indulgence or policy, exhibits the appearances o f great prosperity. Like a comet from a distant region, he eclipses Uie regular planets of our system by his tempo­ rary blaze. H e mixes with our fashionable aristocracy, and per­ haps forms family alliances among them. H e obtains the credit of having rapidly acquired a large fortune in the W est Inched; and others are fatally excited to embark their capital or credit in the same imaginary gold-mine. W hen his consignees are overdrawn, and will advance no more, he returns to take tor the rest o f his life the lot described by Mr. Tobin,— “ to toil under a load of debt, like forty-nine out of fifty of his brethren,” consigned, according to Mr. Edwards, “ to unremitting drddgerv in the Colonies, with a hope, which eternally" mocks his grasp, of happier days and a release from his embarrassments.0 But the comet is now out of sight; and* the seducing effect of his shortlived splendour is not counteracted by the knowledge of the sad reverse. All who know the W est Indies will recognise, in many cases within their own experience, the truth of these characteristics. It may perhaps be objected that some W est India merchants at least, have been very successful, and have long maintained their credit and apparent opulence, though largely connected with the planters, and themselves owners of sugar estates. T ru e ; and their example also is fatally influential in the same way: but point out to me one W est India house of this description, raised within the last fifty years, and I will name in return six at least, who during the same period have either become bankrupts, or assigned their effects in trust for their unfortunate creditors. T h e successful few have been chiefly men who had long resided in the islands they trade with; and who have therefore been able to play the prudent game of selecting the best connexions, advancing money only to those

of his clerks or dormant partners, with none but his own capital. He actually ap* plied to Government on these grounds to sustain him b>* a loan of public money, because his ¿topping was likely to produce calamitous effects injurious to commer­ cial credit. I knew these facts from the first authority; and knew previously so much of his history and circumstances, that I can confidently assert (\e never pos­ sessed an actual capital equal to a fiftieth part of that debt. The vast slims that areJost by failures m this branch of trade, are lost, not by

the planters, who are almost always on the safe side of the books,* but generally by our manufacturers and private persons in this country, or by merchants who had no share in the profits, and did not mean therefore to take the risks, of West Indian commerce.

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planters who were safe for the time, and turning them over to eager novices in the same line of business as soon as their securities became precarious. Such mei1 are able often to reap the large benefits of Colonial consignments and factorage, without any oi those risks which counterpoise them ; because the few prosperous planters who stand in no need of loans from their correspondents in England naturally select for their consignees the safest and longest established houses, in a trade o f which they well know the perils. They are also not rarely appointed, for the same reason, receivers and testa* mentary trustees; and in that way profit largely even by the most embarrassed and sinking estates, obtaining all the benefits o f their consignments, without risking any part of their capital. Should any of my readers not be satisfied with these explanations, and with the strong testimonies I have cited as to die general case of the planters, and the loss of commercial capital in their hands, let them read, the Report of a Committee o f the House o f Commons, appointed to consider the Commercial State o f the W est India Co­ lonies, printed by order o f the House 2*th July 1807, and all doubts I am sure will be removed* They will find there, by a mass of concurrent evidence collected from the moat authoritative sources, that a return of ten per cent on the capital o f sugar planters is neces­ sary to give them a living profit, alter defraying their annual ex­ penses, ordinary and extraordinary; and yet tnat in a long series of years, taking good and bad times together, they had not averaged one-third of that amount #. It is, I am aware, a difficult thing to dislodge that prejudice long resident in the public mind, which represents the W est Indies as mines of national wealth, instead of what they really are,— gulfs for the perpetual absorption of national treasure and blood, without any adequate returns. Reason and truth in such cases gain but a * The ftill and exact statistical and economical details of Mr. Uryan Edwartu in hi* History of the West Indies, book 5, chap. 3, may also be referred to. He demonstrates from them that in Jamaica, by far the most fortunate and productive of our old colonies," the clear annual profit averaged by the planter is but seven per cent on his capital, " without charging a shilling tor making good the decrease of the Negroes, or lor the wear and tear of the buildings, or making any allowance for dead capita], or for hurricanes, fires, or other losses, which sometimes,” he says, “ destroy in a few hours the labour of ytors.” He supposes also the comparatively rare advantages of the planter’s residing on his estate, and acting with all possible prudence; and what is not more common, on his employing a 'capital- entirely bis own instead of his being in bondage to his consignees, or to other creditors, where the legal interest is six per cent. He speaks of ordinary times; and his data as to prices &c. are taken from the experience of ten years, from 1781 to 1791 , Taking ais facts, and those of the Committee together, it is manifest that the most pru* dent Jamaica planters, during a period of near forty years, cannot have made on an average so much as four per cent, instead of the ten which is necessary to save them from loss: and yet they generally use a capital borrowed at six per cent; or if borrowed at five from their consignees, are subjected to disadvantages that make the loan still dearer, and are charged compound interest on all arrears. If such is the average case, what must it be with the less fortunate and less prudent majority ? and how can it be doubted, or wondered at, that insolvency and ruin ‘Trc the ordinary perennial lot of the planters at large ?

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tardy and doubtful victory over ancient prepossessions. Witness the invincible attachment of Spain to her South American mines, and monopolies, and oppressions, the still fancied sources of her wealth and power, while all but .Spanish eyes have long seen in them the true causes of her decadency, poverty, and ruin. It seems to be one of the appointed scourges of guilt, with na­ tions as well as individuals, that long indulged immoral habits per­ vert the judgement, and give such a wrong direction to self-love, as to make them mistake even temporal evil for good, and cling to their darling offences after the baits neld out by temptation have proved to be delusive and worthless. T h e miser who began to hoard and to extort, from a too anxious dread perhaps o f the evils of poverty, continues to do so when sinking into his grave under loads of wealth that he cannot use, and imposes on himself by extreme penuriousness the very suffer­ ings he feated to incur. T h e voluptuary persists in his intempe­ rance, when his impaired health and debilitated organs refuse even the dear-bought gratifications he once derived from it, and give him nausea and pain in their stead. Nations, in like manner, have often been excited by ambition or avarice, or the pride o f freedom, to trample on the rights of others, and have fancied the bad course advantageous, long after too extensive usurpations, and protracted wars, have exhausted their resources, enfeebled their power, and plunged them in domestic slavery and wretchedness. An explanation I conceive is to be found in the inveterate asso­ ciation of ideas between the objects o f temptation, and the bad means by which they are pursued: as a horse is caught by the sieve, though you have ceased to place in it the com which was his com­ pensation for the bridle,— so men and nations who have been accus­ tomed to find, in violations o f the moral law, real or imaginary good, are prone to persist in their course when the supposed advantages have ceased, and the sin has become, to every man’s conviction but their own, a clearly gratuitous evil. There arises a strong prejudice in their minds on the immoral side, which experience can hardly correct. Some measures, and systems o f measures, would be plainly seen to be weak, if their wickedness did not serve to raise a false presumption of their wisdom. T he conduct of the powers of Europe in the New W orld pre­ sents a strong confirmation o f these views. W e see it in the past and present Colonial measures o f Spain. W hat has she gained by the cruel depopulation o f Hayti, Mexico, and Peru? W e see it at the present crisis, when, amidst her last convulsions as a coloni­ zing power, she is fondly cherishing her Slave-trade at Cuba, only to increase there the approaching revolutionary harvest of her re­ volted subjects. Portugal and Brazil illustrate in the same way the same sin-born perversion of judgement; though it is not yet quite so conspicuous to a careless observer. Nor is the conduct of France in deluging her Windward Islands with the Slavertrade, while .ratifying the in-

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dependence of S t D om ingo, less impressive on every considerate mind. T h e infatuation of our own W est Indian policy, is only not so plain to us, because we view it, under the influence which I have described, with selfish and partial eyes. W e have abolished the Slave-trade ; yet we still dream that the Slavery of our Sugar Colonies, though guilty and opprobrious, is gainful, while the wellattested experience of m ore than h alf a century has proved it directly the reverse. In what^way, let us next inauire, is the public com pensated not only for the costly sacrifices I nave noticed, but for all the waste of capital that is thus invested, and all the consequent heavy losses that fall upon British creditors, and on the public purse ? N ot cer­ tainly by the finding em ploym ent for our industrious po or; and relieving our parishes from the charge o f m aintaining a surpjus po­ pulation. If the poorer lands in this country are cultivated at a loss to the proprietors, and had therefore better in a national view Jbe thrown out of tillage, as some (Economists contend, there is this answer at least to their argum ents,— that m any hands are em ployed on such lands, which would otherwise be idle, and whose subsistence would augm ent parochial burthens. B ut in the W est Indies, we have no such com pensation : not one hard-handed m an from this country finds em ploym ent in the culture o f the sugar-cane. W e send them a few em igrants it is true ; but not o f the agricultural, or even of the servile class ; the em ploym ent of both being superseded by predial and domestic Slavery: b u tw h ileth e.se Colonies alone, am ong all our distant possessions, relieve us from none o f our pau­ pers,. they contribute largely to the increase o f that burthensom e class. H undreds and thousands of widows and children are cast upon our parishes by the privation of husbands and fathers who perish in that fatal climate, while serving there in our fleets and arm ies to make Slave-holders and their families safe. Is the compensation we are in quest of then to be found in re-' venue ? If we really derived from the pockets of o u r planters, as is absurdly pretended, the duties paid here on the im portation of their produce, it would I adm it am ount to some, though a very inade­ quate compensatory benefit. B ut that idle pretence is scarcely worth refutation. It is too gross to deceive even the m ost inconsi­ derate mind. It would be precisely the same thigg in principle to say that we are indebted to China for our duties on tea, or for our duties on tobacco to V irginia. Nay, in the form er instance, the absurdity would be less glaring ; because, if C hina did not supply us with tea, I know not where else we could obtain that specific subject o f taxation ; whereas South Am erica, the E ast Indies, and even the foreign W est India Islands, would supply us am ply w ith sugar. Y et to such preposterous argum ents are the Colonial w riters driven, in defence of their ruinous system; that they never fail to ex­ hibit with exultation accounts of the im ports of sugar, and the du­ ties received thereon in this country, assuming them as incontesté ible items in their estim ates of the value of our Colonies, and «as

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benefits too derived from Slavery, which we must lose by its termi­ nation* It was by the very same fallacies, and others of a kindred nature, that they deterred us for twenty years from renouncing the execrable Slave-trade. T h e great am ount of tonnage em ployed in W est Indian voy­ ages, has always been another of their favourite topics. W ith the loss of this benefit also, the country has been m enaced; as if it de­ pended not on our will to buy the tropical produce that we want to im port, in the E ast Indies, or in such other countries only as perm it its shipm ent in B ritish bottom s; or as if an E ast Indian were less than a W est Indian freight, or a given freight would be less bene­ ficial to the ship-owner, because the cargo was not raised by Slavelabour under a British Colonial G overnm ent W ith a like perver­ sion of the plainest commercial principles, they take credit for the whole of our exports to the W est Indies (w ithout deducting even that large p art o f them which, though they passed through their free ports, were destined for Spanish A m erica); and they threaten us with the loss of this branch of our trade also, if we disturb their interior system ; as if the costly sovereignty of islands peopled with Slaves, were a necessary mean of obtaining, for the best and cheapest m anufactures in the world, a preference from their purchasers and consumers. T h e flourishing state of our trade with the N orth Ame­ rican States since they ceased to be British, with the openings now m ade for our direct trade to every p art of the Southern continent, m ight well suffice to refute such idle alarm s if they ever had any foundation. Perhaps, however, we shall now hear of such alarm s no more; because, if they are well founded, M r. H uskisson m ust recall the boons he has recently conferred on the Colonies. W e have no longer any other security for a preference in their navigation ¿md trade, than the inherent energies of our m anufacturing industry and commerce. W h ere then, I repeat, is the value of these Colonies to be found? or rather, what is the indem nity for all that we sacrifice, and all that we annually lose by them ? O ne negative benefit, it may perhaps be replied, we certainly have by their defence. A large capital has been invested in them ; and this will be lost, it may be said,'if we abolish Slavery. B ut w hat is the capital w orth to us if we do not ? T h ere is m any a stately mansion in the building of which a large capital was spent, which the owner nevertheless finds it his interest to abandon or take down, because no rent can be obtained for it equal to the perpetual expense of its conservation and repairs. A capital so invested as to produce nothing on an average but loss, is in effect already sunk. T h e property of a Poyais stockholder would not be m ore completely annihilated, if the stock receipts and books were burnt. I g r a n t , in d e e d , t h a t th e b u b b le o f s u g a r - p l a n t i n g b y S la v e la b o u r h a s n o t y e t lo s t all its c r e d i t ; a n d th e r e f o r e o n e in d iv id u a l w h o h o ld s a p la n ta tio n , o r a m o r t g a g e o n it, m a y still fin d a n o th e r

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individual willing to purchase. So m ight the subscribers to a gam ing-house perhaps. As between the private buyer and seller, the thing, I admit, is w orth what it will sell for. lin t the question here is o f a public, not of an individual interest; and consequently o f a real, not an imaginary value; for the public has no interest in the price of the transfer from one subject to another, but only in the fructification to the national benefit of the property itself, by whatever British subjects it may be held. W h en the Colonists p u t it as an argum ent o f public policy, that a large capital is at stake in our islands, they speak, if the argum ent has any relevancy, of a national, not a private interest, in its conservation ; and this in­ terest I have shown to be a negative quantity. I f my prem ises, derived from their own testim ony, are sound, they m ight as well contend that it is for the public benefit to m aintain the establish­ m ent at C rockfords; nay much b e tte r; for though that establish­ m ent produces no national wealth, it is not m aintained, as those colonial gam ing-tables are, at a vast expens'e to the country. A nd now let us exam ine m ore particularly the other side o f this account. H ow much does the conservation of this profitless capital cost to the P arent State ? I regret much that there are no authoritative public docum ents to show the true am ount of the public expenditure in W est India services frpm the year 1792 to the present p erio d ; or even to exhibit a fair and full account of it for any portion of that time. I am aware, at least, of no such docum ent; and it is a desideratum which I hope some parliam entary friend of the Slaves will endeavour soon to supply, by moving for the necessary returns., In the Preface to my Delineation of Slavery I noticed the defect of information on this im portant subject, which obliged me there to offer a conjectural estimate, that our Sugar Colonies had cost us, during the last thirty years, a hundred and fifty millions of national debt. A zealous cham pion o f those Colonies, whose services they have publicly extolled, and richly rew arded, finds fault with this conjecture of mine as a g reat exaggeration, and says, “ it ought to be divided by five,” an estim ate which, like my own, being unsup­ ported by any data, stands consequently like that, solely on the credit which his readers may give to the guesses o f its au tho r; b ut surely the people of England ought to have better m eans of judging whether a hundred-and-fifty millions, or thirty millions only, is the nearest approach to the am ount of debt charged upon them for the maintenance of W est India Slavery., T ill that is obtained, I shall adhere to my own estim ate in oppo­ sition to Mr* M acqueen’s ; and for this reason am ong others, that my own is at least a sincere one, while it is im possible for me to read that strange work of his, or any five consecutive pages of it, without perceiving that the only standard of truth or probability with him, is the interest o f his em ployers. Even when the fullest and clearest parliam entary returns on the subject shall be obtained, his pen will be as loose as e v e r; for if he dislikes, b u t cannot hope to invalidate such evidence, he will not scruple to get rid of it by dis­

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location and m utilation of the text. Nay, he will rail in good set term s against any opponent who presum es to cite it fairly*. I have not m yself had an opportunity of exam ining with care the printed Parliam entary docum ents, which contain accounts of the public expenditure in our Slave Colonies upon the present peace establishm ent: but I am assured by a friend, who has taken pains to explore and throw together such information on this subject as can be found in tho$e documents, that the annual expense, civil and m ilitary, o n ,th e present peace establishm ent (including with the bills drawn on the T reasury expressly for this branch o f service, the value o f the naval, m ilitary, and ordnance stores sent from E urope, the expenses o f the transport service, and the pay of the navy and arm y em ployed there), considerably exceeds one million five hundred thousand pounds; which in the thirty years included • To justify such a stricture on this author, whose extraordinary work has been adopted and accredited to the public by plausive resolutions of some of the As­ semblies, and munificent rewards to boot, I will for once make an exception to my rule of leaving unnoticed all the personalities and effusions of controversial spite to which my labodrs in this cause might subject me, except they should be such as I may be bound to put into the hands of my attorney: for it may serve as a useful caution to uninformed readers of publications in defence of Slavery; anth lead them to pause and inquire carefully, not only on what these Colonial champions assert, but what they affect, and appear perhaps, to prove. Mr. Macqueen, in the few paragraphs which he is pleased to bestow on my View of Slavery, ventures thus to attack its general character and credit.—“ It exhibits a distortion

o f fa d s , and M U T IL A T IO N O F O FFIC IA L D O C U M EN TS , such as the public have again and again seen, and agaiji and again condemned and reprobated , in the publications p u t forth from the same quarter , and fo r the same object. Upon opening the volume at page 2 1 2 , the following extract upon the subject of religious establishments in the Colonies first caught m y eye: viz. ‘ T h e G O V E R N O R O F T R IN I D A D E X P R E S S E S

H I S CO N CE RN T H A T T H E R E I S N O C H U R C H , OR C H U R C H E S T A B L IS H M E N T I N T H A T

P ar l iam e n ta r y P a p e rs o f 1 8 1 8 , p . 2 1 2 . A s to n i s h m e n t” he adds, “ a nd indignation filled my mind . / had in my possession at the moment a communication from Sir Ralph Woodford, the Governor o f Trinidad, to E a rl 'Bathurst upon the same subject, and extractedfrom the same Parliamentary Papers, 2 L2 and 2 1 4 : end let the extracts speak fo r themselves.” —(Macaueen, (page 3 9 8 . ) ISL A N D .'

And how does Mr. Macqueen let this Parliamentary evidence speak for itself, or rather for himself? Surely the u astonishment and indignation” which he pro­ fesses to have felt will be no factitious feeling in the minds of ray readers, when-I 6how them that it is by resorting to the very fraud which he injuriously imputes, that of “ mutilating official documents by suppressing those parts of Sir Ralph Woodford’s letter which clearly support my proposition, and dexterously putting together distant paragraphs in it relative to aifFerent subjects, in order by a false context to mislead his readers as to the sense of the proposition itself. Sir Ralph Woodford in the letter referred to, being an answer to a circular letter from Earl liathurst to the Colonial Governors, with inquiries respecting the state of the Established Church in each island, in respect of clergymen, tithes, or stipends, writes thus: 1 “ I communicated to the protestnnt minister such parts of your Lordship’s letter as related to him more particularly, and herewith inclose a copy of M*. Clapham’s reply.

“ * In complying with the remaining instructions o f your Lordship's signification3of H is R oyal Highness's commands, it is my painful duty to observe that there are no establishments fo r the Clergy in this island. * ”

Here the reader sees my quotation fully justified; not in substance merely, but

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ill my estimate, would amount to forty-five millions sterling, ,upposing them e\'en all yeilrs of peace; whereas twenty-one of them, with tne exception of the brief peace of Amiens, were times of war ; llnd during several of them, our operations in the West Inclies were oi a very ~xtensive and costly nature; and the ('xpenditure was aggravated by frauds and peculations, afterwards discovered, to a VRst amount. If \\'e assign to those years of war, taking them together, only twice the amount of the present peace establisl1ment, we shall h3ve the further swn of thil·ty-one millions and a half, making, with the forty-five, seventy-six nud a half millions of sterling money. But the J'eader will recollect that the estimate I made was a hundred and fifty millions of puhlic debt, and that a large part of the money expended during the most expensive pel'iod of the war in the West Indies was borrowed when our funds were at the lowest points of depression. There are also many very seriolls suhjects ~f expense, which, in term~. How then, he may exclaim, does Mr. MacCJ.ueen contrive to cite this very document in support of his ,. astonishment, his mdignation," and his foul imputation of fraud? I atUII'cr, h.Y the 1JN'!!sillll>ie and honest eZ1lcdumt of l.EAI'ING OUT THE SECOND P.4RAGRAJ'II, WHICH I HAYE flllNTED WITH IT.ILlCS, ALTOGETHER!! !

But my t'irt:JolUlg illdigllmlt nnt:lgonist diu \1(\t think even this quite enough. He wished to represent me "1\.1 having quoted Sir R. WooJrord not only for whnt he had not said, but for Ihe very reverse of what he h3d llC'tnally said in tlUlt letter; IInd to this end a mc.ore elobor:lte eontrivan('e was wanted. Sir Ralrh, afler this· return to thnt which tutU the subject of inquiry in Ihe circular of Earl Rathu:':it, viz. the state of our Clmrch establu/mlC1lt in th1lt go\'ernment, proceeded in subsequent pnrAgrnphs to notice what wus IIOt the suhject of it, and ~till less of my proposition, the stete of the Spanish Rnlllnll Cut/,O/ic Cler8!/, who hor! remAinecl there from the time of the conque~t. ImmediAtely after dIe pan\graph so boldly ~uppfl..s~ed, he writes thu~; .. Whnl the CedtJa of 1783 tuas isllled, the King '1 SpiU" dulflred Ms ilttcnlioll of gilling aftt sai4rg to the Prieds, nnd c.rclllptcd ltil IICtI' n.hjcctljl"lJlI/ t!flhc. lI.'hiel,

1I11tilllOtll has ncwr h~en paid; cnd tlte Priesll halJC contin~d atl t/.e lalllC snlflr!! of 400 dollllrl, ",I,iel, Bm tuiJJ not ~lIwle nil!! pel'son to lilJC deccllt/!I in tt,is cOllntr!l,' it is tI,e ~CI CJj the poornt N~gro lIIechanic," &1.' •

.. Havll\g found the Rev. Don Jooquim ue Ari~timano at the head of the Cntholic Church, I have only to be:ll' testimony to his labours and to his di~interestedness, as to those.of the fri:ll' Jose de Hida," &1.'. ,f f have personlllll'," he adds, If taken e\'ery opportunity in my power to countenance and support their Jamlable endllllvours, but the erection of churches lInd chapels is ns incli~pen'AbJe liS the better payment of the Clergy." How could these "paragraphs be mntle to consist, the reader mny dem:and, .... ith the imputntions of falsehood ami calumny; even if the want of Il Catholic /lriesthood had been nlleged i for if the priesu have neither churches nor chape 6, nor tithes, nor Itipcnds, beyond the wages C\f the poorest NCf;To workmlUl, there would have been, if not perfect accura('y. at le3St nothing slanderous, in "'ring that thete were ne establishmenta even for the Catholic Church! But Mr. Macqueen's way of Dlaking "I,is eztracU 'Pealr jar tJ'e1IlIellJCs" is R cure for every difficulty_ He has tJl,'tunU!lI~ft 0'" thele fHUstllIes nUo.'! All the words tltnt 1 have l>rintct/ ill italicl are Sllppresud h!/ him; fuhile he givel t~e IIwuqunll ~ICOlllill'll on t"~ SpnnuA Clcrgg, tU if the subject had there COIII",~lccd !.'.' He could not reSISt the temptation of extracting from the int'losed letter of the Rev. Mr. Clapham much that i~ said by that gentleman against the Methodj~t Missionaries; though there were passages in it which, like the supprcssed pungraphs in the Governor's letter, went clearly to confirm my statement; for Mr. Clilpham complnins of the WllIlt of (III!I c"urcA in the island ~ince ) 808, when the

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though fairly chargeable in this account with the Colonies, are not to be distinguished as Colonial expenditure in the public accounts my friend lias exam ined. A m o n g th e m is th'at la m e n ta b le ite m , th e g r e a t e x p e n s e o f r e s to r in g to

o u r a r m y a n d n a v y th e m u ltitu d e s o f w e ll-d is c ip lin e d tro o p s ,

a n d a b le s e a m e n a n d m a r in e s , w h ich p e r is h in t h a t fa ta l c lim a te .

T o treat this indeed as a m ere (Economical consideration would be to w rong the feelings of my readers. It forms a pre-em inent sub­ stantive objection to that odious and impolitic system from which the necessity o f sacrificing ingloriously and cruelly so many brave men, in peace as well as w ar, arises. H ere we have another desideratum that ought to be supplied by parliam entary investigation, viz. the num ber of British soldiers and seamen that have fallen victims to disease in W est Indian service w ithin the same period of thirty years; a true account of which would be impressive and appalling. If I m istake not, such an ac­ single one it possessed was burnt down, and ascribes to that defect his want of success among the Slaves. For sonic little time after the calamity of the f i r e ” he says, “ I had no place fo r public worship; and the service o f the church has since been removed to six different rooms, none o f which could be rendered sufficiently commodious fo r the purpose. But this “ indignant iinputer of mutilations** suppresses these passages also ]! Having thus honestly made his “ extracts speak for themselves,** he proceeds thus to triumph in the fancied success of his imposture. M r. Stephen may call his conduct in this instance D E A L IN G F A I R L Y W IT H T H E : to me it appears to be conduct such as woe never before pursued by any one, to injure one country , or to mislead another. When the reader is informed that the volume in question is made up of similar M U T IL A T IO N S A ND M IS R E P R E SE N T A ­ TIO N S, he will probably think he has heard enough o f it.” And so he dismisses my “

P U B L IC

work. As the cxtremity»of this assurance may inspire a doubt whether my exposition of it is quite correct, I hope any of my readers who are in possession of iny anta­ gonist’s work and mine, and of the parliamentary document we both refer to, will take the trouble of collating them ; viz. my Delineation of Slavery, p. 212, Macqueen’s West India Colonies, 397 to 399, and the papers on Slaveiy printed by order of the House of Commons of the 10th June 1818, n. 211; and if I am found to do this writer any injustice let me be condemned as unworthy of any future confidence or credit. After all, what is the gist of tlie imputation? Why, that I had untmely and calumniously represented the Colonies as neglectful of religious establishments. Now in the very part and page of my work that is the subject of the charge, Lhad stated as strongly in the same brief way the want of them in other Colonies ac­ quired at or since the peace of 1763; and yet this champion of them all passes their cases unnoticed, selecting for the sole subject of his candid refutation, the single case of Trinidad, i. c. of a Colony where the Crown has retained the whole legislative power, and consequently is alone chargeable with the neglect. In fact, my purpose, as the reader who refers to the work will see, was to arraign, not the Assemblies, but rather the Ministry of the mother country in modem times, for having been less attentive to the interests of religion in the establishments of the new Colonies, than their predecessors had been in the old. I ought however to have done them the justice to say that in this case of Trini­ dad, they had obtained many years ago a very large grant from Parliament for building a church or churches in that island. I think it was no less than 50,000/.; but the application of it was left to the Colonial authorities ; and it appears from the mutilated letter of the Rev. Mr. Clapham that not a single church had been built. I hope when Mr. Macquccn next writes he will explain this awkward fact.

Stephen: England Enslaved by Her Own Colonies

301

count as to the arm y was once moved for, and refused on the plea that it would dishearten the troops ordered on that dreadful ser­ vice. In the same paragraph of my late w ork, in which I gave as a conjectural estim ate that the Sugar Colonies had cost us during the last thirty years at least a hunured and fifty millions in national debt incurred, I added, “ and jifly th o u sa n d l i v e s and M r. M acqueen, I observe, while he represents the form er as excessive by four fifths, finds no fault with tne latter; b ut contents him self with saying, “ that we may thank for the loss o f lives in the Colonies my g reat predecessors in N egro em ancipation, the G oddess o f reason, liberty, and e q u a lity m e a n in g , I presum e, th at F rench revolutionary principles produced the insurrection in S t D om ingo; and that our vain attem pt to suppress it and restore the cart-w nip by British arm ies, was a proper and necessary consequence. H e tacitly admits, then, my estim ate of this dreadful loss; and adm its also that it was incurred in the cause o f N egro S lav ery ; a fact too notorious indeed to be xlisputed. Now the far greater p art o f this shocking m ortality fell upon troops raised during our first arduous w ar with the F rench re­ public, when it was a current and I believe m oderate com putation that every effective soldier landed in the W est Indies had cost the country in recruiting and bounty-m oney, training, and trans­ p o rt charges, and other incidental expenses, at least a hundred pounds sterling. H ere then is an expense of five millions sterling, borrowed chiefly at times when our Stocks had sunk to their lowest depression; exclusive of all the charges after the arrival of the troops in that fatal field till they perished in loathsom e hospitals. L et this be added to the seventy-six and a half millions, and the am ount will be eighty-one millions and a half in money, w hich, having regard to the term s it was raised upon, will go far, I ap p re­ hend, to support my general estimate, independenuy o f the loss o f seamen and m arines, and all other subjects of unaccounted and incidental charge. T h e reader at least will find no difficulty in judging w hether my proposition or that of my antagonist has the best title to his confidence. M y e s tim a te o f th e n u m b e r s lo s t, h o w e v e r (a v o w e d ly , lik e th e o th e r , a m e r e g u e s s , in th e r e g r e t t e d a b s e n c e o i a u t h e n t i c i n f o r m a ­ tio n ), w a s, I n o w b e lie v e , m u c h to o l o w ; a n d it w a s th e r e f o r e , n o d o u b t, t h a t m y o p p o n e n t le ft i t u n q u e s tio n e d . I t a m o u n ts o n ly t o a b o u t 1 6 6 0 p e r a n n u m , w h ich is p r o b a b l y le ss th a n th e a v e r a g e loss in th e S u g a r C o lo n ie s c o lle c tiv e ly , e v e n o n a p e a c e e s ta b lis h ­ m e n t; a n d w h en th e e n o r m o u s d e s t r u c t i o n b y d is e a s e o f t h e l a r g e m ilita ry a n d n a v a l f o r c e s e m p lo y e d u n d e r "S ir C h a r l e s G r e y a n d S ir J o h n J a r v i s , a t t h e W i n d w a r d I s l a n d s in 1 7 9 3 , a n d u n d e r G e n e r a l A b e r c r o m b y a n d o t h e r c o m m a n d e r s in s u c c e e d i n g y e a r s (all p e r io d s o f a frig h tfu l m o r t a l i t y ) , a r e ta k e n in to th e a c c o u n t , w ith th e ta r g r e a t e r a n d l o n g c o n tin u e d w a s te o f life in S t . D o m i n g o , it will a p p e a r n o t u n lik e ly t h a t m y e s t im a t e fo r t h i r t y y e a r s , in ­ clu d in g th e

tw o

la s t

w a r s , w as

less

b y m a n y th o u s a n d s th a n t h e

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Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation: Volume 3

tru th W h a t the whole num ber of troops em barked for W est Indian service in G reat B ritain and Ireland was from the time of the first rupture with the French Republic to the end of the last war, and how many of them returned, are facts of which the public ought to be officially informed. T h e greatest em barkations by far were duying the first three years o f that period, from 1 7 9 3 to 1 7 9 6 both included; and I am not aware o f any authority to which I can refer for their am ount. From that tim e to the Peace of Amiens we had very few m ilitary o]>erations in the W est In d ie s; our contests with the French at the W indw ard Islands having ceased, and our ardour for conquest and counter­ revolution in SL D om ingo having been so well cooled by failure, calam ity, and death, that we no longer aimed at m ore than the defence of the few positions there which we hod fatally taken and retained. T h e official account of British troops actually m ustered in the W est Indies from A pril 1 7 9 6 to 1 8 0 2 , which I shall presently cite, and of the m ortality by disease am ong them , will, in respect of actual loss, show b ut a small am ount when we shall be enabled to com pare it with that of the three preceding years. T h e proportion, however, to the num ber of troops actually em ployed, will enable us in some m easure to guess at that of the form er period. T h e account I refer to is given oy the late Sir W illiam Y oung in his “ W est In ­ dia Com m on Place B ook,” p. 2 1 8 , being a collection of papers officially presented to Parliam ent while he sat in the H ouse of C om m ons; and the docum ent, I presum e, was furnished by G overn­ m ent, to justify o r recom m end the em ploym ent of Black troops, to which during that perod it had in some degree reso rted ; for the object o f the paper was to show the com parative m ortality am ong them , and the B ritish soldiers respectively, in each o f the seven years com prised in it. T h e general result of this official account is, that the average loss by death in our E uropean corps, exclusive of losses in action, during less than seven years, was no less than tw enty-one a n d a h a l f p e i' cent p e r a n n u m , while in the Black corps it was only five and threequarters per c e n t B ut this average, frightful though it is, appears by the same paper to give a very inadequate ideat)f the destruction m ade by disease am ong troops newly arrived from E urope, and the consequent m ortality of preceding years, when our grand expedi­ tions took place; for in the first year ( 1 7 9 6 ) , com puting from A pril, when we m ustered in the W e st Indies 1 9 , 6 7 6 E uropean soldiers, we lost by sickness no less than 6 4 8 4 , b ein g fo rty a n d a h a l f p e r centy calculated on the m edium o f the monthly returns, in twelve m onths, while the Black troops lost only three per cent; and by a m ore particular exam ination of the account itself, which I will print in an appendix, it will be found that the annual loss was always in the greatest ratio when the num bers m ustered were increased from those of the preceding year, which of course m ust have been by new arrivals from E urope. I find little difficulty, therefore, in giving credit to the following statem ent of a cotem porary historian :— “ From the m onth of O cto­

Stephen: England Enslaved by Her Own Colonies

303

ber 1793, when they (the British troops) first landed in St. D o­ mingo, to the month o t M a r c h fo llo w in g , the Joss in the several en­ gagem ents, or rather skirm ishes, did not exceed 100; but the vic­ tims o f disease were upw ards o f 6000, including ISO officers O r even this still m ore appalling statem ent on the same autho­ rity :— “ T h e annual m ortality was at least eaual to the annual im­ portation ; in other w ords, the deaths were always equal to the ar­ rivals f.” I f we adopt the statem ent of a loss of 6000 in five m onths, and suppose it a fair proportion of the m ortality d uring th at fatal period o f our war in S t D om ingo which is not included in the parliam en­ tary account, we shall nave a loss in that island alone o f no less than thirty-six thousand lives; and, if we add 17,173, the subse­ quent loss in W est Jndia service, com prised in that account to 1802, the total would be no less than 53,173 by disease alone, w ith­ out including any p art of the loss in Jam aica, and the W ind w ard Islands, prior to A pril 1796, the am ount of which was notoriously very great indeed ; not less, I am persuaded, than 8000 m en. T o th$ whole is to be added the loss from 1802 to the present period or to 1823, to which my form er estim ate extended ; and if we reduce the annual loss in those twenty-one years to 990 p er annum , the last annual loss com prised in the parliam entary return, we shall have a further am ount o f 20,790, m aking in all 81,963. Should this estimate o f the unaccounted loss in St. D om ingo be thought excessive, let it be observed, on the other hand, that the returns I have cited contain only the loss by disease in ou r regular infantry regiments. T h e artillery, ordnance, and other descriptions o f forces are not included, nor any p art of the heavy losses am ong our seamen and m arines, nor losses in action in either branch ot ser­ vice. T hese dreadful effects o f the climate were by no means peculiar to those Wars of ours, which may justly be called wars against N e­ gro freedom. W est India service was always terribly destructive to our arm y and navy, though that pre-em inently fatal disease, the yellow fever, began to scourge us wnen we first fought against the liberty of the Negroes, and was an ally to their cause critically and decisively im portant. N or have our devoted soldiers and seam en ceased to feel the scourge of that baneful climaMPsince they ceased to have any other em ploym ent in it than that of guarding the m as­ ters in our Colonies in time of peace from the apprehended insur­ rections of their slaves. In 1819 two regim ents (I think one o f them was the 15th) went to Jam aica, said to contain together nearly or quite 1600 men. In two m onths after their arrival they had lost 600. M y inform ant was a m ajor in the arm y, a friend on whose veracity I could quite rely, and who had ju st received the account in a letter from his brother in that island, which b rought down the sad progress of m ortality to the m onth of Septem ber or O ctober. I afterw ards had a general confirm ation o f it from other • • New Annua) Rogistcr for 170(5.

f Ibid.

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Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation: Volume 3

c h a n n e ls , w ith th e a d d itio n

t h a t th e lo s s

a b o u t 8 0 0 w ith in th e s a m e y e a r . I c o u ld q u o te m u c h in fo r m a tio n t o th e

h a d b e e n e x te n d e d to lik e e ffe c t fro m

o th e r

is la n d s , a n d a t v a r io u s p e r i o d s ; b u t u n le ss o u r p e rio d ic a ) p rin ts c o u ld b e s u p p o s e d to c o n s p ir e t o g e t h e r t o in v e n t fa c ts o f th is k in d , a n d f o rg e le tte r s fr o m th e W e s t I n d ie s to c o n firm th e m , n o r e a d e r o f th e L o n d o n n e w s p a p e r s c a n w ell d o u b t th e g e n e r a l tr u t h th a t I w ish h e r e to e s ta b lis h * . T h i s m o s t la m e n ta b le o f a ll th e e v ils e n ta ile d o n u s b y o u r S u g a r C o lo n ie s ( th e g u ilt a n d s h a m e o f m a in ta in in g th e ir in te r io r s y s te m e x c e p t e d ) is p r e -e m in e n tly , I r e p e a t, c h a r g e a b l e o n t h a t s y s te m , an d o n th e ir b ig o te d a d h e r e n c e to i t ; b e c a u s e it is th e ir c o n s e q u e n t im ­ b e c ility , t o g e t h e r w ith t h e i r a v e r s io n to B l a c k c o r p s , th e o n ly tr o o p s fit fo r th e c lim a te , t h a t a lo n e m a k e it n e c e s s a r y to m a in ta in E u r o p e a n g a r r i s o n s fo r t h e i r d e f e n c e ; th o u g h t h a t n ew s c o u r g e f r o m H e a v e n , th e y e llo w fe v e r, m o s t r e m a r k a b ly a n d u n iv e rs a lly s p a r e s th e A f r i c a n r a c e , w h ile B r i t i s h s o ld ie r s a n d se a m e n a r e its c h o s e n v ic tim s . T h e d e s tr o y in g a n g e l m a d e n o t a m o r e e n tire a n d a c c u r a t e d is tin c tio n b e tw e e n th e e n s la v e d Is r a e lite s a n d th e ir E g y p t i a n m a s te r s . • *

• I will subjoin a few extracts from many of the same tendency in newspapers that I have preserved. N e w T i m e s , July 1 9 , 1 8 2 0 .

E xtract o f a U tter from PorUmo\Uht July

17.

" This morning arrived the Iphygenin of 66 guns from Jamaica. Since her ab­ sence from England she has lost 8 5 men, including the master, lieutenant of ma­ rines, nnd six midshipmen.*' M o a n i n g C h a o n i c l e , November JO, 1 8 2 0 .

E xtract o f a U tter from Tobago.

** After mentioning an alarm from on apprehended insurrection, the writer says,

* From the great loss of troops by the late fever our garrison was reduced from nearly 2 0 0 to 3 0 men.' " N r.w T

im e s ,

January 19, 18 2 2 .

“ Letters and papers have been received from the island of Dominica dated November 9 . They contaiu the melancholy tidings of a dreadful fever, that in a few days cut off three officers, one sergeant, two corporals, nnd fifty-six privates, of His Majesty’s 5th regiment of foot, out of 1 3 7 . who landed there the month preceding. Only Colonel Ernes, Captain Thysh, Ensign Wyatt, and eleven pri­ vates were free from the attack, all the rest being either dead or in the hospital." T i m e s , November 7 , 1 8 2 5 . “ Wc have received letters from Jamaica, which we regret to state describe the visitation of that destructive disease the fever of that country, as being more fatal among the troops, and the crews of the ships, than it was in several pre­ ceding seasons. The following are extracts. 4The squadron has suffered much, particularly the Lively and Pylades; and the troops in consequence of their losses, particularly in Spanish Town, are to change their quarters. During the last eight months one regiment out of five (in numbers) have fallen victims to this de­ structive malady. The officers have fallen, out of all proportion : the 7 7 t h regiment on being embarked from Stoney Hill barracks for the north side of the island, had only one officer able to accompany them. Colonel Thornton, gover­ nor of Fort Charles, Port Royal, died on tne 2nd instant, making the third victim who held that appointment in nineteen months. He had been only fire weeks aud three days on the island.'"

Stephen: England Enslaved by Her Own Colonies

305

It m ight have been hoped and expected that the Colonists, before whose eyes this striking peculiarity of the new disease and its dreadful ravages am ong their brave defenders had been long exhi­ bited, would from pity, if not from policy, have been disposed to relax their proud and jealous prejudices, so far as to favour die ex­ perim ent of substituting in some degree Blacks for E uropean sol­ diers. B ut in this, as in all other cases, their antipathy and con­ tem pt towards the African race were proof against the loudest plead­ ings of hum anity. I m ight add, against the plainest suggestions o f prudence also ; if they had not been taught by experience to believe diat there was no sacrifice, however dreadful and however needless, that they m ight not extort from the M other C ountry, in com pliance with their darling maxims, when stoutly m aintained. T hey there­ fore persisted in opposing the resort to a soldiery exem pt from that direful plague, till G overnm ent, impelled by the extrem ity o f the case, overruled their opposition, and found, as it would do by firmness in the present controversy, that there is no difficulty and no danger in Colonial im provem ents, except when it drops the reins, and makes impotency contum acious, by proposing and en­ treating, where it ought to «act and to com m and. A t a tim e when, from the dreadful ravages of the yellow fever, a British soldier’s life am ong them was not worth six m onths’ p u r­ chase, the Colonists inexorably objected to the expedient of raising corps of Black troops, by purchase in the different islands, to assist our sickly regim ents in the m ore »laborious duties of their defence. O n an application by G eneral A bercrom by to the Assembly of B arbadocs, to which he first addressed him self for its concurrence in that plan, it gave him a positive refusal, and passed a resolution, moved in a committee of the whole H ouse by its Speaker, declaring “ that the measure would be m ore likely to prove destructive than advantageous to the defence of the island.” I f I mistake not, a like repulse was given by every Assembly to which the proposition was then made. H appily their aid, or their consent, was not necessary; for there was no law to prevent H is M ajesty from recruiting his arm y in that way 5f he pleased. Individual m asters, therefore, were tem pted by high prices to sell their slaves; and though those whom they commonly chose to p art with were of course not the best and most orderly of their class, yet the Blacktcorps thus raised (evasively and unfairly called “ the W est India Regim ents,” ) acted in both the wars in a way that did them honour as soldiers; and their services in “ fatigue parties,” as they were term ed, saved p er­ haps m ore than ten times the num ber of our E uropean troops. In no respect did their conduct afford any countenance to the fears, or rather the contem ptuous prejudices, of the privileged class. Every plausible ground o f objection, therefore, to this wise and happy expedient was rem oved. N evertheless, Colonial influence finally prevailed so far as to obtain the reduction of these invaluable corps at the peace, and the cruel transportation of m any, or m ost o f them, to distant parts of the world. T h e dreadful waste to which the British arm y is subjected, to m aintain the wretched interior system

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o f d ie S u g a r C o lo n ie s , is th u s n e e d le s s ly a n d w a n to n ly e n h a n c e d , by o u r c o m p la is a n c e fo r th e v a in t e r r o r s a n d s tu b b o r n p re ju d ic e s to w h ic h t h a t s y s te m g iv e s ris e in th e b r e a s ts o f its a d m in is tr a to r s . W h a t e v e r th e fe e lin g s o f th e W h i t e C o lo n is ts m a y b e o n th is p a in fu l s u b je c t, y o u , m y c o u n tr y m e n , I a m s u r e , w ill a g r e e w ith m e t h a t s u c h a p e r p e tu a l d r a in o f o u r b r a v e s t b lo o d is a g r e a t p u b lic c a l a m i t y ; a n d o n e t h a t s tr o n g ly r e in f o r c e s o u r o t h e r o b lig a tio n s to c o r r e c t th e g ra n d

m o r a l evil, o f S l a v e r y , fro m w h ich a lo n e it p r o ­

ceeds. S h o u ld w e s o o n b e c a lle d u p o n f o r g r e a t m ilita r y e x e r t i o n s n e a r e r h o m e (a n d w h o t h a t lo o k s to th e s t a te o f I r e l a n d c a n d e n y th e p o s s ib ility o f s u c h a n e v e n t ? ) d u r i n g th e p r e s e n t v a s tly in ­ c r e a s e d e x t e n t o f o u r d is ta n t p o s s e s s io n s , w e s h a ll p e r h a p s r e g r e t t o o la te th e v /aste o f W e s t I n d ia s e r v ic e . T h a t w a s te in d e e d is n o t th e o n ly e v il. T h e c r u e l h a r d s h ip s im p o s e d o n d ie o ffic e rs a n d s o l­ d ie r s a n d t h e i r fam ilie s, m u s t te n d in n o s m a ll d e g r e e to c h e c k th e h o n o u r a b le z e a l b y w h ich o u r a r m y is r e c r u i t e d o r e n l a r g e d . To b e s e n t o n a f o rlo rn h o p e o r s t o r m i n g p a r t y , is a d e s tin a tio n n o t so d a n g e r o u s ; a n d th e d a n g e r is c o m p e n s a te d b y g l o r y : b u t th e b r a v e m e n w h o a r e s e n t in tim e s o f p e a c e to t h e W e s t I n d ie s , h a v e n o la u r e ls to g a in , o r b o o ty to e x p e c t . T h e y h a v e to u se th e i r a r m s , if a t a ll, a g a i n s t a c r o w d o f p o o r u n a r m e d w r e tc h e s , in a n o d io u s c a u s e ; a n d th o u g h a lm o s t s u r e , w ith few e x c e p t i o n s , to p e ris h , it is n o t in t h e a r m s o f v ic to r y , o r o n t h e t u r f o f a w e ll-fo u g h t field , b u t o n th e p a lle t o f e n e r v a tin g d is e a s e , o r a m id s t th e h o r r o r s o f a n h o s p ita l o r a p e s t-h o u s e . F o r m y p a r t , w h o h a v e in tim a te ly k n o w n t h e i r h a p le s s lo t, I n e v e r h e a r o f r e g im e n ts e m b a r k in g fo r th e W e s t I n d ie s , w ith o u t s e n s a tio n s o f s y m p a th y a s p o w e rf u l a s i f I w e re s u r e th e b r a v e u n f o r tu n a te s w o u ld a ll p e ris h b y s h ip w r e c k o n th e v o y a g e . A n d h e r e , m y c o u n tr y m e n , le t m e p re s s m y a p p e a l to th o s e h u m a n e fe e lin g s b y w h ich y o u a r e m o s t d istin g u is h e d . T h e C o lo n is ts , b y d e lu s iv e r e p r e s e n ta tio n s a n d p a r tia l view s, a t t e m p t t o d is a r m t h e m ; o r e v e n t o e n lis t th e m in t h e ir o w n b a d c a u s e . T h e y in v o k e y o u r c o m p a s s io n fo r th e ir d is tr e s s a s p la n te r s , a n d fo r th e to ta l r u in w ith w h ic h th e y a s s e r t th e m s e lv e s t o b e m e n a c e d ;

th o u g h n o th in k in g

m a n a m o n g y o u w h o im p a r tia lly w e ig h s t h e a d m itte d fu cts I h a v e c i te d , c a n d o u b t t h a t t h e r e f o r m a tio n , n o t th e s u p p o r t, o f th e ir p e r ­ n ic io u s s y s te m , a lo n e c a n e ffe ctu a lly h e lp o r s a v e th e m . B u t w e re it o th e r w is e , w h a t b e n e v o le n t m in d c o u ld b e r e c o n c i le d to th e s u p ­ p o r t o f t h a t s y s te m , a t s u c h a te r r i b l e e x p e n s e o f th e liv e s o f o u r b r a v e s o ld ie r s a n d s e a m e n , a s t h a t b y w h ich a lo n e , a s w e h a v e s e e n , i t is o r c a n b e m a in ta in e d ? T h e y r e a s o n , in r e s p e c t o f th e p o o r u n ­ p itie d A f r i c a n s , a s i f p r o p e r t y w e re a ll, a n d th e b o d ily s u ffe rin g s a n d p r e m a t u r e d e a th s o f t h e ir m u c h -o p p r e s s e d B l a c k l a b o u r e r s o f n o a c co u n t. B u t c o u ld y o u a d o p t th e s a m e p a r t i a l v iew s, a n d e je c t fr o m th e p a le o f y o u r h u m a n ity a ll w h o a r e n o t o f y o u r o w n c o m ­ p le x io n a n d lin e a g e , s till h o w c a n th e y h o p e t o r e c o n c i le y o u to th e c r u e l d e s t r u c t i o n o f s u c h m u ltitu d e s o f y o u r E u r o p e a n fe llo w -su b ­ j e c t s a s a r e a n n u a lly d o o m e d t o p e r is h in t h e i r h o s p ita ls , m e r e ly to s a v e th e m f r o m th e d r e a d e d c o n s e q u e n c e s o f e x t r e m e in ju s tic e a n d o p p r e s s i o n ? T h e y a la r m y o u r fe e lin g s w ith a ffe cte d a p p r e h e n s io n s

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of danger to their own lives, and those of their wives and chil­ dren, from the effects of parliamentary interposition on behalf o f the Slaves; as if misery and despair were less likely to urge men into insurrection, than a mitigation of bondage, and a hope o f fu­ ture freedom. It is in vain that experience has universally attested the contrary, by showing that enfranchisement, when introduced by the arm of the law, has every where been safe, and disastrous only when obtained by insurgent violence. You are nevertheless desired to believe that all the w hite inhabitants o f our Sugar Colonies will be exterminated by the Blacks if you remove or relax their chains. But were we to meet them even on these extravagant premises, humanity would still have a larger interest on the side of justice than against it. From the facts that I have stated, it may be shown that our apprehensions for the safety of Jamaica probably cost us more British lives in a few years, during our late wars, than the entire amount of its whole W hite population, which its historian, Mr. Edwards, stated to be no more than 3 0 ,0 0 0 ; and it may with equal cr great probability be affirmed, that dufing the last thirtytwo years, one British soldier or seaman at the least, in the prime of life, has fallen a victim to the deathful service of the W est Indies, for every W hite man, woman, and child that all our Sugar Colo­ nies collectively contain. Their entire number, including the Co­ lonies recently acquired, is but 67,055 by the last official returns, and the estimates o f their advocates*; and I have given reasons for be­ lieving that if like evidence could be procured of all the losses in our army and navy from W est India service, the total amount since 1792 would be found at least equally, if not more than equally, large. I f it be said, in extenuation, that during this period our islands were exposed to unprecedented dangers, in consequence of the re­ volution in St. Domingo, and therefore required more than ordinary efforts, as well offensive as defensive, for their protection ; I -reply, let any reflecting reader consider the present attitude of Negro freedom in Hayti, and on the South American continent, with the known situation of Cuba; and then hope, if he can, that the next term of two-and-thirty years, compared with the last, will demand from us less numerous sacrifices of our brave troops and seamen for the security of our Slave-peopled Colonies. In one of the late manifestoes of the Assemblies, we are told that if we reform their Slavery as proposed by Government, it will require a hundred thousand British troops to defend our W est India possessions ; but the proposition might have been more justly reversed. It would cost us perhaps a hundred thousand men to withhold that reformation; and tne end, after all, would not be attained. Parliament would probably indeed be spared the trouble of abolishing Slavery; for after the most lavish waste of life and treasure that the country could afford to prevent it, the Slaves, aided probably by their enfranchised foreign brethren, would be their own deliverers.

• Mr. Macqueen m a k e s it 7 5 , 1 2 3 ; but 8 0 7 8 is his estimate for the Mauritius, wlr.uli is not included in any of these remarks.

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L e t th e C o lo n is ts p a llia te th e s e a l a r m i n g v i e w s ; a n d le t it even b e s u p p o s e d , i f th e y w ill, t h a t a f te r all th e la te e x te n s io n o f o u r S u g a r C o lo n ie s , a n d th e p o r t e n t o u s r e v o lu tio n s in th e ir v ic in a g e , we m a y p o s s ib ly still s u s ta in th e ir w r e tc h e d s y s te m in its p r e s e n t r ig o u r b y s u c h g a r r i s o n s a s w e n o w m a in ta in t h e r e ; a n d f u r t h e r , th a t n o w a r w ill o c c u r t o a u g m e n t th e d iffic u lty fo r a p e r io d o f tw e n ty y e a r s t o c o m e : — y e t , u n le ss th e y c a n c h a n g e th e p h y s ic a l e ffe cts o f th e ir c l im a t e , a t l e a s t fro m t h i r t y to fo rty th o u s a n d o f th e ir u n f o rtu n a te d e f e n d e r s w o u ld b e c o n s ig n e d w ith in t h a t p e r io d to u n tim e ly arid in g lo r io u s g r a v e s . A n d w h en a r e s u c h c r u e l s a c r if ic e s to e n d ? O n their v iew s a n d p rin c ip le s , tw e n ty , fifty, o r ev en a h u n d r e d y e a r s , w o u ld le a v e th e c a s e , a t b e s t, a s it n o w s t a n d s ; fo r th e y d o n o t d is g u is e t h e ir c la im o f r i g h t to m a k e S la v e r y p e r p e tu a l. T hey e x c l a i m lo u d ly a g a in s t th e id e a o f p ro v id in g fo r th e fr e e d o m o f in ­ f a n ts y e t u n b o r n ; a n d all th e i r p r o te s ts a g a in s t th e in v a s io n o f w h a t th e y c a ll a r i g h t o f p r o p e r t y ( a p r o p e r t y n o t o n ly in e x i s ti n g b u t fu tu r e g e n e r a t i o n s ) w ill re m a in to th e fu ll a s v a lid a t a n y g iv e n p e ­ r i o d , h o w e v e r d is ta n t, a s th e y c a n b e s u p p o s e d to b e a t th e p r e s e n t m o m e n t. N o r c a n a n y s ta te o f th e w o r ld b e im a g in e d in w h ich th e w o r k o f m e lio r a tio n a n d p r o g r e s s iv e e n f r a n c h is e m e n t c a n b e m o r e s a fe ly a tte m p te d th a n n o w . L e t th e m th e n d en i fr a n k ly w id i u s ; a n d p la in ly d e c l a r e , t h a t w h e r e a s w e h a v e a l r e a d y in th e p r e s e n t g e n e r a tio n r e d e e m e d th e m fro m w ilfu l, i f n o t c h i m e r i c a l , d a n g e r s , b y p a y in g to sa v e t h e ir p r o p e r t y m o r e th a n it w o u ld fa irly sell fo r, a n d fo r t h e ir p e r s o n s a t le a s t life fo r life, t h e y e x p e c t u s in e v e r y s u c c e e d in g g e n e r a tio n to re n e w th a t fe a rfu l p r ic e . I h a v e n o w e x a m in e d b o th sid es o f th e a c c o u n t b e tw e e n th e M o t h e r C o u n t r y a n d th e S u g a r C o lo n ie s . I h a v e sh o w n t h a t e v e r y s u p p o s a b le c o n s id e r a tio n o f b e n e fits r e c e iv e d fr o m th e m , t h a t m a y b e t h o u g h t to ju s tify o r e x p l a i n th e e x t r e m e f o r b e a r a n c e o f P a r l i a m e n t a t th e e x p e n s e o f n a tio n a l d ig n ity a n d n a tio n a l d u ty , a n d th e la v ish s a c r if ic e s w ith w h ich th e ir c o n t u m a c y h a s b e e n r e w a r d e d , is u n ­ f o u n d e d in r e a s o n a n d t r u t h . I h a v e s h o w n , o n th e o t h e r h a n d , t h a t th e y a r e e n o r m o u s in s a tia b le d r a in s o n th e t r e a s u r e a n d th e b lo o d o f th e M o t h e r C o u n t r y ; a n d w h a t is f a r th e w o r s t o f a ll, t h e i r p r e s e n t c o n d u c t a n d p r e te n s io n s , i f a c q u ie s c e d in, m u s t p l a c e u s u n d e r th e m o s t ig n o m in io u s a n d in to le r a b le y o k e th a t e v e r w as im p o s e d o n th e n e c k o f a n y n a t i o n ; b y o b lig in g u s to b e th e a b e t­ t o r s a n d s a n g u in a r y in s tr u m e n ts o f a s y s te m , th e in ju s tice a n d c r u e l ty o f w h ich w e h a v e r e c o g n is e d , a n d w h ich th e y d e n y o u r rig h t to c o n tro l. T h e imperium in impciio fo r w h ich th e y c o n ­ te n d is to c a s t u p o n th is g r e a t c o u n t r y a ll t h a t is b u r th e n s o m e , a ll t h a t is h a r s h a n d o d io u s in s o v e r e ig n ty , w ith a n in c a p a c ity fo r a ll its m o r a l d u tie s , a n d a p riv a tio n o f a ll its b e n e f ic e n t r i g h t s . I t is in e ffe c t to r e d u c e u s t o th e c o n d itio n o f th e ir o w n d r iv e r s , e x c e p t th a t w e a r e im p lic itly to e n f o r c e th e ir d e s p o tic b e h e s ts , n o t w ith th e c a r t - w h i p , b u t th e s w o r d . In o t h e r w o r d s , w e a r e to b e r e d u c e d to th e s itu a tio n d e fin e d b y th e title to th is w o r k — w e a r e t o b e t h e S laves of our own S lave-C olonies. F r o m th is d e g r a d i n g y o k e , a n d fro m all th e g u ilt a tta c h e d t o it,

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as w ell a s th e g r ie v o u s p u b lic e v ils w h ic h w c h a v e b e e n c o n s i d e r i n g , it is m y o b je c t to re d e e m y o u , b y th e o n ly p o s s ib le m e a n s ; th e c a l li n g f o r th , n o t in o p p o s itio n to , b u t in aid o £ t h e G o v e r n m e n t , y o u r o w n z e a lo u s , d e te r m in e d , a n d p e r s e v e r i n g e x e r t i o n s .

A t a late meeting in the county of N orfolk, convened for the purpose of petitioning Parliam ent on this great subject, the una­ nim ity that ultimately prevailed, was for a while suspended; by the opposition of an honourable mem ber, who, though \ie is a sincere and intelligent friend of the cause, entertained an apprehension that the proposed measure would be a virtual censure of the G o­ vernm ent, and imply a suspicion o f the sincerity o f M inisters in the pledge they had given to us by the Resolutions of M ay 1823. T h o u g h I h a v e n o t th e h o n o u r o f a n y p r i v a t e a c q u a i n t a n c e w ith t h a t g e n tle m a n , I d o u b t n o t h e w ill g i v e m e c r e d i t f o r th e a s s e r ­ tio n , t h a t in d e s ir in g to p r o m o t e s u c h m e e tin g s a n d a s t r o n g e x p r e s ­ sio n o f th e p o p u la r v o ic e t h r o u g h o u t th e c o u n t r y , I

am

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t u a te d b y a n y s p ir it h o s tile to th e A d m i n i s t r a t i o n : b u t th e p r e s e n t is a c a s e in w h ich , to m y firm c o n v ic tio n , t h e s o lic ita tio n s , a n d e v e n th e im p o r tu n ity , o f th e p e o p le a t l a r g e , a r e n e c e s s a r y to e n a b le M i ­ n is te rs to a c t u p to th e i r o w n p ro f e s s io n s a n d d e s ir e s . T h i s is n o q u e s tio n , le t u s a lw a y s r e m e m b e r , b e tw e e n G o v e r n m e n t a n d O p p o ­ sitio n ; n o r c o u ld I b e re a s o n a b ly s u s p e c te d o f p a r t i a l i t y to th e l a t t e r i f it w e re . I s c r u p le n o t, in d e e d , to c o n fe s s t h a t o u r c a u s e is, in m y e y e s , o f s u c h p a r a m o u n t i m p o r t a n c e , n o t o n ly in a m o r a l a n d r e li­ g io u s , b u t in a p o litic a l v iew , t h a t i f th e p a r t y t o w h ic h fro m p e r s o n a l p r e d ile c tio n s , a s w ell a s

g e n e r a l p o litic a l o p in io n s , 1 w as a t t a c h e d

w h ile in p u b lic life, w e re fo u n d m o r e w a n tin g in its d u ty in w h a t re la te d to C o lo n ia l S la v e r y th a n th e p a r t y g e n e r a l l y o p p o s e d t o it, I sh o u ld p r o b a b ly b e c o m e a n o p p o s itio n is t, a n d a w a rm o n e . But th o u g h I c e r ta in ly d id se e m u c h to l a m e n t a n d c o n d e m n in th e c o n ­ d u c t o f M in is te r s , in re f u s in g t h e ir s u p p o r t t o th e b ill fo r th e r e g i s t r a ­ tio n o f S la v e s , a n d th e r e f o r e felt it a p a in fu l d u ty t o p u t a n e n d to m y p a r l i a m e n t a r y c o n n e x io n w ith th e m , I h a v e fo u n d n o t h i n g in th e c o n a u c t o f th e O p p o s itio n , as a bodyye i t h e r in t h a t i n s ta n c e , o r d u r i n g a n y s ta g e o f th e s u b s e q u e n t c o n t r o v e r s i e s o n th e s e s u b je c ts , t h a t e n ­ title s it to g r e a t e r a t t a c h m e n t o r c o n f id e n c e f r o m th e fr ie n d s o f C o ­ lo n ia l r e f o r m , th a n d ie p a r t y still in p o w e r . N ay , I m u st in ju s tic e g o f u r th e r , a n d a v o w d i a t I th in k th e O p p o s itio n in th is r e s p e c t m o r e c u lp a b le th a n th e M i n i s t r y ; b e c a u s e i f its c o n d u c t h a d n o t , f r o m c o m p la is a n c e to s o m e o f its le a d in g m e m b e r s c o n n e c t e d w ith t h e C o lo n ie s , b e e n v e r y d iffe r e n t fro m w h a t m i g h t h a v e b e e n e x p e c t e d fro m W h i g s , a n d frie n d s o f M r . F o x , a m o u n tin g , a t b e s t, t o a c h il­ lin g n e u tr a lity , th e G o v e r n m e n t w o u ld h a v e b e e n b e t t e r a b le t o w ith s ta n d a n d c o n t r o l t h a t th ir d p a r t y , p o w e rf u l in its n u m b e r s a n d u n io n , b y w h ich a ll e ffe c tu a l m e a s u r e s o f C o lo n ia l r e f o r m a tio n a r e s u r e to b e p e r s e v e r in g ly o p p o s e d . W h e t h e r th o s e a r e r i g h t w h o h o ld t h a t a s y s t e m a t i c o p p o s itio n in P a r l i a m e n t o n a p r in c ip le o f p a r t y a t t a c h m e n t , is p r o d u c t i v e o f m o r e g o o d th a n e v il, I w ill n o t h e r e in q u ire . B u t o f th is I am c e r t a i n , t h a t w h en p o w e rfu l p a r t i c u l a r i n te r e s ts a r e o p p o s e d t o p u b lic

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d u t y a n d p u b lic g o o d * th e n e u t r a l it y o f o n e o f th e tw o g r e a t con« te n d in g p a r tie s , Idee th e p a r a ly s is o f a n a n ta g o n i s t m u s c le , p re v e n ts a n a tu r a l a n d h e a lth f u l a c tio n o n th e o p p o s ite s id e ; a n d t h a t th e d i s to r tio n th e r e f o r e m a y a p p e a r o n th e r i g h t h a n d , w h en th e m o rb id c a u s e is o n th e le ft. I n s u c h c a s e s h o w e v e r , d ifficu lt t h o u g h th e y a r e , th e r e is on e p o s s ib le r e m e d y ; a n d it is t h a t o f w h ich ) a s a fr ie n d , n o t a n e n e m y o f th e G o v e r n m e n t , a n d t o s t r e n g t h e n , n o t to w e a k e n its h a n d s , I w o u ld e a r n e s tly r e c o m m e n d th e a d o p tio n . M y c o u n t r y m e n , o u r C o n s titu tio n is a m o s t h a p p y o n e , f o r w h ich xve all o w e m u c h g r a t i t u d e to H e a v e n ; a n d I a m n o t o n e o f th o s e w h o th in k it c a n b e s a fe ly a n d b e n e f ic ia lly a l te r e d . B u t a m o s t es­ s e n tia l p a r t o f it is th e in flu e n c e o f th è p o p u l a r v o ic e ; a n d n e v e r is t h a t in flu e n c e m o r e p r o p e r o r n e c e s s a r y th a n w h en p o te n t p a r t i c u l a r i n te r e s ts a r e b a n d e a in P a r l i a m e n t , a n d o n b o th s id e s o f th e tw o H o u s e s , a g a in s t th e r i g h t s , th e in te re s ts , a n d th e d u tie s o f th e p u b lic a t l a r g e . T h e p r e s e n t I m a in ta in is a c a s e o f t h a t k i n d ; an d a s u r g e n t a o n e a s e v e r c a lle d fo r p o p u la r in te r p o s itio n . F e w , I b e lie v e , b u t th o s e w h o sit in P a r l i a m e n t , o r w h o h a v e a n x i o u s l y w a tc h e d o v e r th e in te r e s ts o f th e o p p r e s s e d A f r i c a n r a c e , a r e fu lly a w a r e o f th e fo rm id a b le e x t e n t o f t h a t in flu e n ce w ith w h ich w e h a v e to c o n te n d . I n a J a m a i c a n e w s p a p e r , p u b lish e d s in c e th e p r e s e n t c o n t r o v e r s y c o m m e n c e d , m u c h s u r p r is e a n d d is c o n te n t w as e x p r e s s e d a t th e in a c tio n o f th e C o lo n ia l in te r e s t in th e H o u s e o f C o m m o n s ; w h e r e it w as a s s e r te d c o n f id e n tly , a n d I d o u b t n o t fro m g o o d in fo r m a tio n , t h a t th e S u g a r C o lo n ie s h a d “ tw o h u n d r e d s u r e v o te s .” W h e t h e r th e c o m p u ta tio n w as a c c u r a t e I d o n o t p r e te n d t o d e t e r m i n e ; b u t w e ll-in f o r m e d m e m b e r s o f th e H o u s e h a v e a s ­ s u r e d m e t h a t t h e r e a r e a t l e a s t n i n e t y - s i x , w h o m th e y k n o w t o b e e i t h e r p r o p r i e t o r s o f th o s e C o lo n ie s , o r so in tim a te ly c o n n e c te d w ith t h e m , c o m m e r c i a l l y a n d o th e r w is e , t h a t th e ir v o te s c a n n o t, w ith o u t p r i v a t e s a c r if ic e s w h ic h few m e n h a v e t h e re s o lu tio n to m a k e , b e s e v e r e d fro m th e c a u s e o f th e p l a n t e r s .

I f s o , it is h ig h ly p r o b a b le

t h a t th e J a m a i c a c o m p u ta tio n is n o t b e y o n d th e t r u t h ; fo r w h a t w ith th e p e r s o n a l in flu e n c e t h a t s o m a n y m e m b e r s m u s t n a tu r a lly h a v e w ith o t h e r g e n tle m e n s ittin g in th e s a m e a s s e m b ly , a n d th e w id e -s p re a d c o n n e x i o n s o f C o lo n ia l p r o p r i e t o r s w ith th e la n d ­ h o ld e r s a n d m e r c h a n ts o f th is c o u n t r y , b y m e a n s c f w h ich m a n y m e m ­ b e r s m a y o f c o u r s e b e in flu e n c e d , it m a y b e re a s o n a b ly c o m p u te d t h a t a t le a s t tw ic e th e n u m b e r o f th o s e w h o a r e k n o w n t o b e b o u n d t o th e W e s t I n d ia n c a u s e , a r e d i r e e d y o r in d ir e c tly * b y p a r t i c u l a r in te r e s ts , o r p e r s o n a l fe e lin g s , a t t a c h e d t o i t T h e a g e n t o f B a r b a d d e s , h im s e lf a r e s p e c ta b le E n g l i s h la n d ­ h o l d e r , b o a s te d n o t l o n g s in c e a t a p u b lic m e e tin g o t th e W e s t I n d i a p la n te r s a n d m e r c h a n t s , t h a t th e y w e re e x te n s iv e ly c o n n e c te d a s in d iv id u a l* w ith th e la n d e d p r o p e r t y o f E n g l a n d ; a n d R w as a n a s s e r tio n to o w ell fo u n d e d in t r u t h . H e m ig h t h a v e a d d e d t h a t th e y c o m p r is e d in th e ir d w n b o d y , m a n y m e m b e r s o f th e U p p e r H o u s e o f P a rlia m e n t, s e v e ra l p ro p rie to rs o f b o ro u g h s, som e m en

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high in office, and others possessing the confidence and attachm ent of the m ost powerful men in the state. It is not however by num bers only that the pow er of a party is to be estim ated. T h e degree of zeal and of steadfastness with which the different members are attached to the comm on union, is of far im portance than their num erical force. A nd it is here that Seater e Colonial party in Parliam ent is truly form idable. It is a pha­ lanx, which by its close and im penetrable union, its ardour, and its discipline, m ight bid defiance to a far more num erous h o st M en of experience in Parliam ent well know how to estim ate the vast advantage o f these qualities. It is a maxim am ong them , that a small p art of the general representation, acting with determ ined concert and perseverance, would be capable o f soon or late giving law to the H ouse; except on questions to carry which the G overn­ m ent was obliged, in support o f its own existence, to p u t forth all its force steadily against them . W h ere the two g reat conflicting p ar­ ties are in contest, the case o f course is different: full houses are convened, and effort on the one side is counterpoised by equal effort on the other. B ut when neither G overnm ent nor O pposition takc9 an active p art as such, a particular party, firmly united by the pri­ vate interest of its m em bers, is sure, soon or late, to trium ph; though if the entire representation were to be polled, it w ould be left, perhaps, in a sm all m inority. T his is especially the case, I lam ent to say, in open questions, as they are called, o f a m oral kind, where there are particular in­ terests on the one side, and a sense of conscientious obligation only on the other. W itness the twenty years o f fruitless effort to abolish the now universally reprobated Slave-trade. T h a t gross national ininuity m ight have been adhered to till this hour, if L o rd G renville ana M r. Fox, when they cam e into power, had not substituted, for the shameful neutrality o f the G overnm ent, its determ ined support of the abolition. T h e present controversy turns on the sam e p rin ­ ciples, and between the same parties. It is in a m oral view nearly the same question j and the G overnm ent has strong tem ptations to act the same p art w ith L ord G renville's and M r. Fox's predecessors, if not even actively to oppose the only effectual m eans of reform , parliam entary legislation. N ever was a particular faction m ore united, m ore zealous, and indefatigable than the Colonial party on thrc*occasion. T hey con­ curred it is true, and with tacit unanim ity, in M r. C anning's reso­ lutions; but so they did in M r. Ellis's o f 1797. T h ey have no ob­ jection to refer any thing to the Assemblies. Even the Slave re­ gistration» though uiey stoutly and too effectually opposed M r. W ilberforce’s bill for it, they readily agreed should be recom m ended to those bodied who first violently exclaim ed against the plan, an d afterwards took care effectually to defeat it oy its ostensible but evasive adoption. B ut whenever any m otion has been brought for­ ward tending to induce Parliam ent to take the w ork of reform ation into its own nands, the W est Indian phalanx has always been fillly

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a r r a y e d a n d d r a w n in to a c tio n , n o t m e r e ly to o p p o s e th e p ro p o s itio n , b u t to c l a m o u r d o w n d isc u s s io n . L e t m e n o t b e u n d e rs to o d a s im p u tin g g e n e r a l l y to th e s e g e n ­ tle m e n a d is in c lin a tio n to a ll th e b e n e f ic e n t m e a s u r e s w h ich th ey a p p a r e n tly a c q u ie s c e d in , a n d w h ich s o m e o f th e m e x p r e s s l y a p ­ p ro v ed . I b e lie v e th a t th e r e a r e a m o n g th e m m a n y w h o w ou ld b e g la d if th e y c o u ld in d u c e th e A s s e m b lie s to a d o p t e ff e c tu a lly th e p r in c ip le s a n d th e p r a c t ic a l m e a n s r e c o m m e n d e d b y ‘H i s M a je s ty ’s G o v e r n m e n t ; b u t in o p p o s in g th e e x e r c i s e o f p a r l i a m e n t a r y a u ­ t h o r i t y , th e y a r e n e a r ly u n a n i m o u s ; a n d th e s in c e r ity o f t h e i r in ­ te n tio n s c a n b e o f n o a v a il to th e u n f o r tu n a te S la v e s , w h ile th e y re s is t p e r tin a c io u s ly th e o n ly m e a n s by w h ich a n y th in g r e a lly b e ­ n e fic ia l to th e m c a n p o s sib ly b e a c c o m p lis h e d . T h e r e a r e in d e e d a few , a ve?y few g e n tle m e n , c o n n e c te d w ith th e W e s t I n d ie s , w h o a c t a b e t t e r p a r t . I a m fa r f r o m o v e r lo o k ­ i n g th e h o n o u r a b le d is tin c tio n t h a t is d u e to th e m , th o u g h t o m e n ­ tio n th e ir n a m e s h e r e m ig h t b e in c o n v e n ie n t, o r n o t g r a te f u l t o th e m ­ s e lv e s . B u t th e y d o n o t b e lo n g to th e b a n d e d p a r t y w h ich th e W e s t I a d i a C o m m itte e d i r e c t s ; a n d th e r e f o r e a r e n o t p r o p e r ly w ith in th e s c o p e o f th e s e r e m a r k s .

I know well, my countrym en, that very many of you have ex­ pressed surprise and discontent, that after the intractable and con­ tum acious spirit which the Assemblies had indulged during two years, no coercive measures were brought forward in the last sessions by the members who are still faithful to our cause in the H ouse of C om m ons; and that no discussions even, except on incidental sub­ jects, took place. W e -are continually assailed with inquiries and complaints from our friends on that account. T hey say, and truly say, that defeat is better than inactio n ; and that parliam entary discussions, at least, should frequently take place, as the best means o f awakening, or keeping alive, the public attention to the irresistible m erits of our cause. I hope and believe that our parliam entary friends will act hereafter on that principle; and I congratulate you that one of the most faithful and the most powerful of them, M r. B rougham, has pledged him self to bring in a Bill for carrying the Resolutions of M ay 1823 into effect, at tlie opening of the next session. B u t le t m e , in j u s t i c e to o u r frie n d s , sh o w y o u th e e x t r a o r d i n a r y d ifficu ltie s a n d d is c o u r a g e m e n ts u n d e r w h ich th e y la b o u r , a n d fr o m w h ich th e lo u d e x p r e s s i o n o f y o u r v o ic e c a n a lo n e re lie v e th e m . I t d o e s n o t s u it th e v iew s o f o u r o p p o n e n ts t h a t th e ir c a s e s h o u ld b e d is c u s s e d a t a ll. T h e y a r e c o n s c io u s th a t n e ith e r th e s itu a tio n o f th e S la v e s , n o r th e c o n d u c t o f t h e A s s e m b lie s , w ill b e a r e x a m i ­ n a tio n . T h e y th e r e f o r e g r a v e l y p r e te n d th a t it is v e r y d a n g e r o u s to d is c u s s in P a r l i a m e n t to p ic s so in te r e s tin g to th e S la v e s , le s t th e y s h o u ld h e a r fro m o u r n e w s p a p e r s f o r s o o th , w h a t e v e r y G a z e t t e o f e v e r y C o lo n y te lls th e m f r e e ly , a n d in th e m o s t in fla m m a to ry m a n n e r , e v e ry w eek . T h e r e m o te e c h o it s e e m s is tr e m e n d o u s , th o u g h th e d i r e c t v o ic e m a y b e h e a r d th r o u g h a s p e a k i n g - t r u m p e t w ith o u t

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a la r m . N o is e a n d v io le n c e a r e t h e i r w e a p o n s in t h a t c o u n t r y ; b u t h e r e Hush is th e ir w a tc h w o r d ; a n d e v e r y g e n tle m a n w h o p r e s u m e s to s tir th e s e s u b je c ts in th e H o u s e o f C o m m o n s is u s u a lly t r e a t e d , b y c r o w d e d W e s t I n d i a b e n c h e s , w ith r u d e c l a m o u r s , s u c h - a s m a k e it v e r y d iffic u lt f o r h im t o b e h e a r d , a n d m o r e d iffic u lt s till f o r a m a n o f se n s ib ility to m a in ta in th e c o u r s e o f h is a r g u m e n t s , a n d d o j u s t i c e t o h is s u b j e c t ;

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a n ta g o n is ts , o n

th e o th e r h a n d ,

t h o u g h s p e a k in g a v o w e d ly fo r w h a t th e y d e e m t h e i r o w n p a r t i c u l a r in te r e s ts , a r e c h e e r e d lo n g e s t s p e e c h .

lo u d ly ,

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Y o u re g re t, I k now , M r . W ilb e rfo rce *s re tir e m e n t; an d so m e o f y o u p e r h a p s m a y b la m e i t F o r m y p a r t , I c o n fe s s t h a t I w a s o n e o f th e frie n d s w h o a d v is e d th e m e a s u r e ; s o , n o tw ith s ta n d in g th e a l a r m i n g d e c lin e i f h is v o ic e r o n t h e o n ly s u b je c ts w o r th e x e r t i o n , c o u ld h a v e b e e n fa ir ly h e a r d .

b u t I w o u ld n o t h a v e d o n e o f h is h e a l t h a n d s t r e n g t h , th e p a in a n d h a z a r d o f its E v e n a g a i n s t J/imy a m ia b le

a n d v e n e r a b le a s h e is, th e s e C o lo n ia l t a c t i c s w e re s o m e tim e s e m ­ p lo y e d so e ffe c tu a lly , t h a t , e n fe e b le d a s h is o n c e s o n o r o u s a n d s till m u s ic a l v o ic e h a s lo n g b e e n b y a g e a n d in firm itie s , h e m i g h t a l m o s t a s w ell h a v e u tte r e d it in vacuo a s in th e H o u s e o f C o m m o n s . S o m e W e s t I n d i a m e m b e r s h a v e b e e n n o tic e d m a k in g d i s o r d e r l y n o is e s a t th e b a r , p u r p o s e ly to d r o w n a n d p e r p l e x h im , s u c h a s th e S p e a k e r ’s in te r p o s itio n c o u ld n o t e a s ily o r e ff e c tu a lly s u p p r e s s . I f s u c h a m a n , so p r e - e m i n e n tl y e n title d to a p a t i e n t h e a r i n g o n th e s e s u b je c ts , a n d to th e g e n e r a l r e s p e c t o f a S e n a t e w h ich h is v i r ­ tu e s a n d ta le n ts h a d a d o r n e d fo r m o r e th a n f o r ty y e a r s , c o u ld n et o b ta in a tte n tio n , o u r r e m a in in g frie n d s t h e r e , y o u w ill b e lie v e , m u s t h a v e a v e r y u n p le a s a n t a n d d ifficu lt' d u ty t o p e r f o r m . T h e g reat m is fo rtu n e h e r e , a n d th e g r e a t c a l a m i t y o f o u r c a u s e in g e n e r a l , is t h a t o u r e n e m ie s a r e n u m e r o u s e n o u g h a n d p o w e rfu l e n o u g h , o n b o th s id e s o f th e h o u s e , to p r e v e n t o u r h a v in g fa v o u r o r p r o t e c t i o n fro m e ith e r. S u c h , m y c o u n t r y m e n , is o u r p o s itio n a m o n g y o u r R e p r e s e n t a ­ tiv e s in P a r l i a m e n t . Y e t I w ish it w e re o n iy th e r e t h a t C o lo n ia l in ­ flu e n ce p r e v a ils . I t is fe lt e v e n in th e C a b i n e t ; it is p o te n t in e v e r v d e p a r t m e n t o f th e s t a t e ; a n d n o in c o n s id e r a b le p a r t o f th e a r i s t o c r a c y o f th e c o u n t r y is, b y p r o p e r t y o r fa m ily c o n n e x i o n , p la c e d u n d e r its g u id a n c e o r c o n t r o l . A s t o th e c o m m e r c i a l b o d y , a g r e a t p a r t o f it, in th e p rin c ip a l s e a ts o f f o r e ig n c o m m e r c e , L o n d o n , L i v e r p o o l , B r i s t o l , a n d G la s g o w , is, d i r e c tl y o r in d ir e c tly , c h a i n e d b y p r i v a t e in te r e s t to th e C o lo n ia l c a u s e . T h o u s a n d s w h o a r e n o t th e m s e lv e s e n g a g e d in W e s t I n d ia t r a d e , a r e m u c h c o n n e c te d in b u s in e s s w ith th o s e w h o a r e ; a n d d e r iv e fro m th e m p r o f ita b le e m p lo y m e n t, w h ich m ig h t b e lo s t i f th e y w e re to g iv e o ffe n ce b y o p e n ly a c t i n g w ith u s, o r e v e n b y re f u s in g to le n d th e m s e lv e s , o n c e r t a i n o c c a s i o n s , to e x t e n d th e ra n k s o f o u r o p p o n e n ts . I n o t h e r p o litic a l c o n t r o v e r s i e s , g e n ­ tle m e n a r e c o m m o n ly s h y o f in te r f e r in g p r iv a te ly w ith th e c o n d u c t o r o p in io n s o f o t h e r s ; e s p e c ia lly w h en th e y h a v e th e k n o w n b in s o f s e lf -in te r e s t to d i r e c t t h e ir o w n ; b u t th e C o lo n is ts , a n d t h e ir c o n ­

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n e x io n s a m o n g u s, r a r e l y in th e p r e s e n t c a s e s h o w a n y s u c h s c r u p le s . T h e y a r e a s a c tiv e a n d a s s id u o u s t o m a k e p r o s e ly te s , a s a n y z e a lo t f o r a p a r t i c u l a r c r e e d , a n d as in to le r a n t a ls o o f o p p o s itio n to th e ir te n e ts ; a n d in ste a d o f d is g u is in g , th e y g e n e r a l l y b r i n g fo rw a rd a s a p e r s u a s iv e to p ic , th e i r o w n p riv a te in te r e s ts in th e q u e s tio n . “ I s h a ll b e ru in e d o r im p o v e ris h e d b y th e s e m e a s u r e s if a d o p t e d ,” is a c o m m o n a r g u m e n t a m o n g th e m ; a n d it n a tu r a lly te n d s , i f n o t to c o n v i n c e , a t le a s t to s ile n c e , th o s e w h o a r e n o t e n o u g h a tta c h e d to o u r c a u s e to e x p o s e th e m s e lv e s to e n m ity o r ill-w ill Dy s u p p o r tin g it. W i t h p u b lic m e n e s p e c ia lly , th e s e a n d o t h e r m e a n s o f in flu e n ce a r e u n s p a r in g ly e m p lo y e d . T h e c a s e , in s h o r t , is th e s a m e in E n ­ g l a n d , t h a t it w as in F r a n c e in r e la tio n to S t D o m i n g o , a n d th a t it s till is th e r e in r e g a r d to th e S l a v e - t r a d e : th e C o lo n is ts a r e to o p o w e rfu l in th e M o t h e r C o u n t r y , a n d to o a c t iv e b y th e ir s o lic ita tio n s a n d in tr ig u e s in p r i v a t e , a s w ell a s b y t h e i r p u b lic c l a m o u r s , to le t th e c la im s o f ju s t i c e a n d h u m a n ity , o r th e in te r e s ts o f th e e m p ir e a t l a r g e , h a v e t h e ir fa ir a n d n a tu r a l w e ig h t. U n d e r s u c h c i r c u m s t a n c e s , y o u o u g h t n o t to b e s u r p r is e d t h a t w e h a v e n o t a m o r e n u m e r o u s p a r t y o f a c tiv e frie n d s a m o n g o u r s ta te s ­ m e n a n d le g is la to r s . Y o u m ig h t d e e m it s t r a n g e r a t h e r t h a t t h e r e a r e y e t a few g e n e r o u s m e n in b o th H o u s e s o f P a r l i a m e n t , w h o d a r e to m a k e an o p e n s ta n d fo r n a tio n a l d u ty a n d h o n o u r , in d e ­ fia n c e , n o t o n ly o f th e fro w n s a n d c la m o u r s w ith w h ich th e y a r e p u b lic ly a s s a ile d , b u t o f th e p r iv a te r e p r o a c h e s a n d r e s e n tm e u ts o f th e ir W e s t In d ia n c b n n e x io n s a n d frie n d s . M u c h p ra is e b e to th e m fo r i t ! a n d th e fa r r i c h e r r e w a r d o f a s e lf -a p p r o v in g c o n sc ie n c e « T h e r e is a m o r e c o n v e n ie n t c o u r s e fo r th e m to ta k e . A g r e a t m a ­ j o r i t y o f th o s e w h o , in th e i r h e a r ts , w ish w ell to o u r c a u s e , e ith e r a b ­ s e n t th e m s e lv e s fro m th e ir s e a ts w h e n th e s e " delicate questions” a s th e y a r e in sid io u sly c a lle d , a r e to b e b r o u g h t f o r w a r d ; o r m a in ta in a p r u d e n t s ile n c e , a n d s te a l o u t b e fo re th e d iv is io n . I n e e d n o t c la im y o u r g r a t i t u d e fo r th o s e w h o a c t a b e t t e r p a r t

But I h o p e D r . L ushington w ill fo rg iv e m e f o r p o in tin g o u t a n h o n o u r a b le p r e - e m i ­ n e n c e to w h ich h e is w ell e n title d . T h o u g h lin k e d to W e s t In d ia n P r o p r i e t o r s b y th e n e a r e s t p r iv a te c o n n e x io n s , a n d th o u g h th e p r o s >erity o f h is r e s p e c ta b le fa m ily is in v o lv e d in t h a t o f th e S u g a r C o o n ie s; w e h a v e n o t a m o r e .s t e a d y , z e a lo u s , o r a c tiv e f r i e n d ; a n d h e is e v e r r e a d y to s a c r if i c e tim e p r e c io u s to h im a s a v e r y e m in e n t p r p fe ssio n a l m a n , w h en b y s o d o in g h e se e s a n y p r o b a b ility o f r e n d e r in g s e r v ic e t o o u r c a u s e . C a n I s a y th is, a n d n o t b e re m in d e d o f H enry B rougham? or c a n I a b s ta in fro m h a z a r d i n g his c e n s u r e a ls o , b y & p u b lic t r ib u te to h is m e r its ? I a m th e r a t h e r p r o m p te d t o d o s o , b e c a u s e h e a n d 1j till I to o k le a v e o f p a r l i a m e n t a r y life, a n d o f a ll p u b lic c o n t r o ­ v e r s y b u t th is , w e re w a r m p o litic a l o p p o n e n ts , w h o a g r e e d o n s c a r c e l y a n y o t h e r s u b je c ts th a n S la v e r y a n d th e S l a v e - t r a d e ? H e to o , I k n o w , m u s t h a v e l a r g e p e rs o n a l s a c r if ic e s to m a k e in m a in ta in in g h is g e n e r o u s a n d m a n ly c o u r s e . T h e C o lo n is ts w o u ld d o a n y th in g to g a in h i m ; o r e v e n to s u p p r e s s n v o ic e w h ich , fro m h is t r a n s ­ T h e i r n a m e s a r e w ell k n o w n , a n d d e a r to u s.

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c e n d e n t ta le n ts , a n d c o m m a n d i n g in flu e n ce yvith a p o w e rf u l p a r t y , c a n n o t b e e a s ily p u t d o w n . H e to o h a s p r o f e s s io n a l s a c r if ic e s to m a k e ; a n d w h ich n o t h i n g s h o r t o f h is a l m o s t p r e t e r n a t u r a l in ­ d u s t r y a n d e n e r g y o f m in d c o u ld e n a b le h im p o s s ib ly to m a k e , in th e tim e t h a t h e lib e r a lly d e v o te s to u s. B u t th e r e is o n e p e c u l i a r , a n d still m o r e h o n o u r a b le s a c r if i c e , fo r w h ich I h a v e lo n g e s te e m e d h im , a n d w h ich h a s h i t h e r to , I th in k , n o t b e e n p u b lic ly a c k n o w le d g e d b y th e frie n d s o f th e S la v e s , th o u g h h is a n d th e ir a n t a g o n i s t s h a v e o f te n , w ith t h e i r u su a l p e r s o n a litie s , m a d e th e o c c a s i o n o t it a s u b je c t o f r e ­ p r o a c h ^ h im . I t is n o t, I a d m it, u n tr u e , t h a t M r . B r o u g h a m w h e n a v e r y y o u n g m a n , a n d a s y e t k n o w n t o th e p u b lic o n ly b y th e e a r l i e s t la b o u r s o f n is m a s te r ly p e n , h a d im b ib e d s o m e o f th o s e e r r o n e o u s v ie w s o f th e C o lo n ia l s y s te m , a n d t h e n e c e s s ity o f m a in ta in in g it, w h ic h th o u s a n d s o f s p e c io u s b u t s e lf -in te r e s te d to n g u e s a n d p e n s h a v e lo n g to o s u c c e s s fu lly p r o p a g a t e d in th e p a r e n t s ta te . I n h is a b le a n d p ro f o u n d w o rk o n C o lo n ia l P o l i c y , n e d is tin g u is h e d to o s t r o n g l y b e tw e e n

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d e te r m in e d e n e m y ) a n d th e S la v e r y t h a t it h a d e s ta b lis h e d in th e C o l o n i e s ; n o t c e r t a i n l y in th e w a y o f ju s tif y in g th e l a t t e r , b u t s o a s t o e x t e n u a t e its o p p re s s iv e c h a r a c t e r , a n d t o p r e ju d ic e in s o m e d e r e e th e e ffo rts o f th o s e w h o a tte m p te d its p a r l i a m e n t a r y c o r r e c t i o n .

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l e h a d n e v e r b e e n in th e W e s t In d ie s ; a n d h a d th e n n a d n o c o m ­ m u n ic a tio n w ith th o s e w h o k n e w t h a t C o u n t r y , e x c e p t p e r h a p s w ith

s u c h m e n a s , fro m r e g a r d to t h e ir o w n c r e d i t a n d in t e r e s t , w e re s u r e to m is le a d a n d d e c e iv e h im . I s it th e n s t r a n g e , t h a t h e , lik e a l a r g e p a r t o f th e m o s t in te llig e n t o f E u r o p e a n p o litic ia n s , s h o u ld h a v e a d o p te d e r r o n e o u s v iew s o f th e f a c ts o n w h ich h e r e a s o n e d ? W h i l e th e C o lo n is ts o b je c t to h im th is s h o r t-liv e d e r r o r , le t m e d e r iv e fro m it a n a r g u m e n t t h a t s h o u ld w a rn th e im p a r tia l a n d U n in ­ fo rm e d a g a in s t s im ila r d e lu s io n s . G r o s s a n d d a n g e r o u s in d e e d to o r ­ d in a r y ju d g e m e n ts m u s t b e th o s e m is ts o f fa ls e h o o d a n d im p o s tu r e w h ic h s u c h a lu m in a r y c o u ld n o t, e v e n w ith h is r is in g b e a m s , a t o n c e p e n e t r a t e a n d d is p e r s e . B u t it w a s im p o s s ib le t h a t th e p e r ­ v a d in g m in d o f M r . B r o u g h a m s h o u ld n o t, in t h e p r o g r e s s o f its in ­ v e s tig a tio n s , d is c o v e r its o w n m is ta k e s , a n d th e t r u t h s fr o m w h ich it h a d d iv e r g e d . M u c h m o r e lik e ly w as it, fr o m o r d i n a r y h u m a n in ­ f ir m ity , t h a t o p in io n s o n c e g iv e n to th e p u b lic s h o u ld n o t, w h en c h a n g e d , b e w illin g ly a n d o p e n ly r e n o u n c e d . B u t h e re h e h as a d d e d t o th e fam e o f h is ta le n ts fa r h ig h e r th a n in te lle c tu a l h o n o u r . H e h a s n o t o n ly c o m b a te d t h e fa lse v iew s w ith w h ich h e w a s o n c e im p r e s s e d , b u t it w as f r o m h is o w n lip s in th e H o u s e o f C o m m o n s th a t I fir s t h e a r d th e p u b lic n o tic e o f w h a t o u r e n e m ie s p e r h a p s h a d th e n f o r g o t H e g r a t u i t o u s l y a llu d e d in a s p e e c h , n o w s e v e r a l y e a r s o ld , to n is e a r ly e r r o r , a n d c o n fe s s e d , w ith m a n ly c a n d o u r , t h a t th e t r u t h s h e w as th e n p o w e rf u lly m a in ta in in g w e r e c o n t r a r y , in s o m e p o in ts , to th e o p in io n s h e h a d o n c e e n te r ta in e d . W h en our o p p o n e n ts a g a in th in k fit to q u o te M r . B r o u g h a m ’s e a r l y , a g a in s t h is m a tu r e o p in io n s , le t th e m n o t w ith h o ld fro m h im th e h o n o u r , o r fro m o u r c a u s e th e b e n e f it, o f th is fre e a n d d ig n ifie d a v o w a l. T o r e t u r n fro m th is d i g r e s s io n .— L e t m e i n l r c a t m y r e a d e r s to

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w e ig h w ell t h a t d is h e a r te n in g c o n d itio n in w h ich th e c a u s e o f th e p o o r S la v e s a t p r e s e n t s ta n d s in P a r l i a m e n t ; a n d t o in q u ire fa irly w h a t m e a n s t h e i r a s s o c ia te d frie n d s c a n t r u s t t o fo r its fu tu re s u c c e s s , o t h e r th a n th e p o w e rfu l in flu e n c e o f th e p o p u la r v o ic e . A s to th e g o o d in te n tio n s o f o u r G o v e r n m e n t* 1 s u s p e c t th e m n o t ; a n d i f I d id , w o u ld n o t p r e m a t u r e l y d e n y o r q u e s tio n th e m . Thai w o u ld n o t a d v a n c e o u r h o p e s ; a n d I a m b o u n d in j u s t i c e t o s a y t h a t t h e r e s e e m s n o g o o d r e a s o n f o r d o u b tin g t h a t o u r M in is te r s in g e n e r a l , m o r e e s p e c ia lly th e n o b le E a r l a t th e h e a d o f th e C o lo n ia l D e p a r t ­ m e n t, a n d M r . S e c r e t a r y C a n n in g , w o u ld b e h e a r tily g la d i f th e y c o u ld c a r r y in to e ffe ct th e R e s o lu tio n s o f M a y #1 8 2 S , t o t n e i r fu ll e x ­ t e n t, b y a n y m e a n s t h a t m a y a p p e a r to th e m s e lv e s a d m is sib le . To t h e f o r m e r I m a y b e n a t u r a l ly p a r t i a l ; f o r in a d d itio n t o a s e n s e o f h is L o r d s h i p 's c la im s o n th e r e s p e c t a n d c o n f id e n c e o f a ll w h o k n o w h is m a n ly a n d a m ia b le c h a r a c t e r , I fe e l fo r h im th e g r a t i t u d e d,ue fr o m a fa th e r to th e k in d p a t r o n a n d g e n e r o u s p r o t e c t o r o f a d e ­ s e r v i n g s o n : b u t os a n a d v o c a t e o f th is s a c r e d c a u s e , I k n o w n e ith e r fr ie n d n o r fo e in w h a t its in te r e s ts d e m a n d fro m m e . W h i l e t h e r e ­ fo r e I s in c e r e ly a d m it th e fa v o u ra b le d is p o s itio n o f b o th , th o s e M i ­ n i s t e r s , 1 will n o t s c r u p le t o a d d a n o p in io n , e q u a lly s i n c e r e , t h a t th e y , w ith m o s t o f th e ir c o lle a g u e s , h a v e b e e n le u t o e n te r ta in view s o f C o lo n ia l S la v e r y g r e a t l y in a d e q u a te t o its a c tu a l g u ilt, a n d to th e, m is e r ie s a n d m is ch ie fs w h ich it i n v o l v e s ; a n d t h a t th e y h a v e b e e n le d , o n th e o t h e r h a n d , to m a g n if y , in th e ir im a g in a tio n s , t h e d ifficu l­ tie s a n d in c o n v e n ie n c e s o f p a r l i a m e n t a r y m e a s u r e s o f - r e f o r m ,

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w e ll a s t o a p p r e h e n d d a n g e r s fr o m th e m w h ich h a v e n o e x i s te n c e . N o r a r e th e s e e r r o r s w h o lly im p u ta b le to th e > d i * U o c e o f t h e c i r c u m s t a n c e s t h a t th e y h a v e t o d e a l w ith , a n d w ith w h ic h th e y h a v e n o p e rs o n a l a c q u a in ta n c e . T h e s e a r c h foi; t r u t h , w h e n im ­ p a r t i a l l y p u r s u e d , is r a r e l y u n s u c c e s s f u l ; b u t w h a t w e we t o o r e a d i l y b e l i e v e ; a n d i f th e v iew s t h a t I h a v e h e r e g iv e n o f t h e f o rm id a b le e x t e n t o f C o lo n ia l in flu e n c e in a n d o u t o f P a j r J ^ m e n t b e a t a ll c o r r e c t , M in is te r s m u s t b e to o d e s ir o u s t o a v o i d a c o llis io n w ith it, n o t to r e c e i v e w ith w illin g c r e d u l i t y a liis u c h k d o c m a tio n a s m a y le s s e n , a n d w ith c h illin g d is tr u s t a i l o u c h e v id e n c e a s m a y e n h a n c e , t h e c o n s c ie n tio u s d u ty o f ris k in g s u c h a c o n ­ f lic t. T h a t th e y in f a c t liste n w ith to o m u c h c o n f id e n c e to t h e r e p r e ­ s e n ta tio n s o f th e i r W e s t I n d ia n frie n d s a n d p artisan s^ a n d a t e n w r e r e a d y t o r e p e l th a n in v ite in fo r m a tio n o n b e h a lf o f th e p o o r nS la v e s , w h o h a v e n o v o ic e o f th e ir o w n , 1 h a y e g r e a t re a s o n to b eliev e^ an d la m e n t . Y e t it m u s t b e m a n ife s t t o e v e r y re f le c tin g m in d , a n d »m ore e s p e c ia lly t o M i n is te r s th e m s e lv e s , t h a t u p o n e v e r y o r d i n a r y r u le b y w h ic h h u m a n te s tim o n y is e s tim a te d , th e c r e d i t d u e tp «evid en ce o n th e a n t i -s l a v e r y s id e o f th is c o n t r o v e r s y U m u c h g r e a t e r th a n c a n b e r e a s o n a b ly c la im e d o n th e o t h e r . O n t h a t o f th e P l a n t e r s , s e lf -in te r e s t is n o to r io u s a n d a v o w e d ; — o n o u r s , it h a s ,n o e x i s t e n c e , e x c e p t in th e w ilful m is -s ta te m e n ts o r d is te m p e r e d im a g in a tio n s o f o u r o p p o n e n ts . T h e C o lo n is ts in d e e d lo u d ly b u t falsely a s s e r t t h a t G p y e r n r o e n t p a t r o n a g e is o u r e x c i t e m e n t a n d o u r p riz e . “ N o o n e in d iv id u a l o f

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o r d i n a r y ta l e n t,” s a y s a la te A d d r e s s fro m th e C o u n c i l a n d A s s e m b ly g f S t V i n c e n t to th e G o v e r n o r ,

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s id e , th o u g h th e r e is n o t to m y k n o w le d g e a s in g le p a s s a g e in a n y o f th e a n ti-s la v e r y p u b lic a tio n s t h a t fa ir ly s u p p o r ts th e c h a r g e . W h e n o p p r e s s io n , c r u e l t y , a n d m u r d e r a r e t o b e e x p o s e d to p u b lic v ie w (a n d th is is w h a t th e c o n t r o v e r s y in its n a t u r e d e m a n d s fro m u s), th e s p e a k in g o f th e m w ith th e r e p r o b a tio n th e y d e s e r v e , is n o t m a lic e t o th e o ffe n d e rs, b u t n e c e s s a r y j u s t i c e , t o th e s u b je c t, a n d to th e m o r a l feelin g s o f th e r e a d e r . T h e g u ilty in d iv id u a ls n o d o u b t m a y w in ce , a n d so m a y t h e a p o lo g is ts o r p a r t a k e r s o f t h e i r c r im e s , a n d e v e n a ll w h o a r e e n g a g e d in a s y s te m b y w h ich s u c h o d io u s fru its a r e -p r o d u c e d : b u t th e s e a r e c o n s e g u e n c e s o f w h ich th e y h a v e n o r i g h t to c o m p la in . T o s p a r e th e ir fe e lin g s b y a b s ta in in g fro m th e m o r a l c e n s u r e t h a t th e s u b je c t c a lls f o r , w o u ld b e to im p a ir th e j u s t e ffe ct. V e r y d iffe re n t is th e c a s e w h en th e a d v o c a te o f a n y c a u s e r e s o r t s to n e e d le s s p e rs o n a litie s , a n d b rin g s f o rw a rd a g a i n s t th e p r iv a te c h a r a c t e r o f h is o p p o n e n ts o ffen siv e im p u ta tio n s , g u ile fo re ig n to th e m e r its o f th e q u e s tio n . B u t o n w h ich sid e o f tn is c o n t r o v e r s y a r e s u c h p r a c t ic e s to b e fo u n d ? C e r t a i n l y n o t o n o u r s , in a n y p u b ­ lic a tio n w ith w h ich I a m a c q u a in te d a t l e a s t ; th o u g h few , i f a n y o f th e w o rk s o f m y f e llo w -la b o u r e rs , h a v e w h o lly e s c a p e d m y n o tic e . I b e lie v e th e y h a v e a ll t o o m u ch c o n f id e n c e in tn e s t r e n g t h o f th e ir c a u s e , if n o t a ls o to o m u c h j u s tic e a n d g e n e r o u s s e n tim e n t, to u se Sltph u n fa ir a n d p o is o n o u s w e a p o n s, e v e n in th e i r ow n d e fe n c e a g a in s t t h a t d is g ra c e fu l w a r f a r e . F o r m y ow n p a rt, I ch a lle n g e all m y o p p o n e n ts , th o u g h s o m e o f th e m , s e a te d in th e j u d ic ia l c h a i r o f lite r a r y c ritic is m , h a v e w ith a n in sid io u s a i r o f c a n d o u r a ffe cte d to c o n d e m n m e fo r 44 a t o o v ir u le n t a n d a c c u s a t o r y s p ir it f , ” to c i te a sin g le p a s s a g e in a n y o f m y n u m e ro u s w o rk s o n th is s u b je c t, t h a t is c a lc u la te d to g iv e n e e d le s s p ain to a n y m a n ’s feelin gs. I h ave•

• Address of the Council and Assembly cf St. Vincent’s to GoVernot Brisbane, September ¿th, 182 ST, published here by the West Indian party, f Qusrterly Review, No. 64.

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Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation: Volume 3

A void ed th e fa u lt s o c a r e f u lly a s e v e n to a b s ta in fr o m

m e n tio n in g

th e n a m e s o f in d iv id u a ls w h o s e c r i m e s , a t t e s t e d b y p u b lic r e c o r d s , it h a s b e e n n e c e s s a r y to n o tic e in p r o o f o f m y g e n e r a ) s tr ic tu r e s , w h e n e v e r it c o u l d b e d o n e w ith o u t m a k in g m y re f e r e n c e s to s u c h c a s e s , a n d t o th e p u b lic e v id e n c e w h ich h a d r e p o r t e d th e m im p e r­ fe ct o r in d is tin c t0 . B u t o n th e o t h e r s id e , th e s e fo u l p r a c t i c e s a r e r e s o r t e d t o w ith th e m o s t o u t r a g e o u s l ic e n c e .

N e v e r in a n y o t h e r p u b lic c o n tr o v e r s y

w qs t h e r e s u e n a m a lig n a n t u se o f p e r s o n a l c a lu m n y a n d in v e c tiv e o s th a t w h ich th e C o lo n ia l p a r t y h a s s y s te m a tic a lly e m p lo y e d a g a in s t its o p p o n e n ts in th is c a u s e . 1 e x c e p t o n ly th e p a r e n t c o n t r o v e r s y o n th e S l a v e - t r a d e , in w h ich th e h u m a n e , v ir tu o u s , a n d p io u s R a m ­ s a y , w a s o n e o f t h e fir s t d e v o te d v ic tim s o f th e s a m e illib e r a l v e n ­ gean ce. F r o m h is tim e t o th e p r e s e n t, th o s e b a s e a r t s h a v e b e e n in v a ria b ly r e s o r t e d to o n t h a t s i d e ; a n d th e lib e ls h a v e p r o g r e s s iv e ly in c r e a s e d in v ir u le n c e a g a in s t e a c h s u c c e s s iv e c o m b a t a n t o n th e sid e o f h u m a n ity a n d t r u t h , o u t r a g i n g e v e r y p r i v a t e fe e lin g , a n d v io la tin g c o m m o n d e c e n c y e v e n , to s u c h a d e g r e e , t h a t o n e o f o u r r e v e r e n a frie n d s , a f te r l o n g a c q u ie s c in g in t h e i r im p o te n t c a lu m n ie s o n h im ­ se lf, w as o b lig e d a t l a s t to r e s o r t to th e la w , to s ile n c e a t t a c k s in th e p u b lic n e w s p a p e r s o n th e s p o tle s s r e p u ta tio n o f h is w i f e ! T o s u p p o r t th e s e s h a m e fu l p r a c t ic e s , a n d o t h e r d e lu s io n s o n th e B r i t i s h p u b lic , l a r g e s u m s h a v e b e e n c o n t r i b u t e d b y th e A s s e m b lie s , a s w ell a s in d iv id u a l P l a n t e r s . S o m e o f o u r p e r io d ic a l p rin ts h a v e b e e n ta k e n in to s t a n d i n g p a y ; a n d o u r d a ily p r e s s h a s b e e n w id ely in flu e n ce d in a p o s itiv e , b u t still m o r e in a n e g a tiv e m a n n e r ; s o t h a t w h ile s c a n d a l a n d fa ls e h o o d h a v e b e e n p ro f u s e ly p r o p a g a t e d , i t h a s b e e n s o m e tim e s .e x tr e m e l y d iffic u lt, o r im p o s s ib le , to o b ta in a lik e p u b lic ity fo r d e fe n c e a n d re f u ta tio n . S u c h , m y c o u n t r y m e n , h a v e b e e n th e r e w a r d s , a n d s u c h o n l y ,— b o s o m a p p la u s e e x c e p t e d ,— o f th o s e w h o h a v e d a r e d to in v o k e y o u r h u m a n ity o n b e h a l f o f th e u n f o r tu n a te S la v e s ! C a n it b e d o u b te d

# In the Preface to the first volume of my Delineation of Slavery, p. 43 and 44,'I noticed this forbearance, and appealed to the reader for the general plan and character of the work, as calculated not to excite the passions of the vulgar, but to convince the understandings and consciences of the intelligent and dispassionate, especially gentlemen of the legal profession. If the strictures of the reviewer were just,this appeal would have been very unwise, and would have exposed me to wellmerited rebuke, but it would have called for and fairly deserved the citation of, or reference to, at least some sinelc passage inconsistent with the boast. The critic, however, has not condescended to sdpport his general censure by any such specification. He accuses me of using “ in almost every page go/iing cpiOuU or m n n u a h o n tbut I believe be will not venture to adduce a single epithet in con­ junction with the subject of it, in proof of that charge, lest his readers should feel anindignation at the fact, that would make the epithet seem faulty only in being too languid and cold. In the citation of iniquitous and barbarous laws I have Joubtless sometimes given them a right appellation, such as might be ••galling" to their authors or apologists; but as to “ injm ualiont,'* they arc foreign to the general stvlc and character of my work, and I know not what he means. I nevertheless owe thanks and gratitude to this unknowa opponent; for if unjust to the work, he is more than just in his obliging mention of its author.

Stephen: England Enslaved by Her Own Colonies

319

that many have been deterred by them from giving a like testimony ? But the system, I trust, will lose its terrors; for iteration must have spoiled its effect« Men of any reflection will not easily believe that every gentleman who, having resided in the Colonies, is an enemy to Slavery, and ventures to raise his voice against it, at the expense of offending all the friends he has there, is a profligate, a hypocrite, and a liar. But I have detained you too long, and must hasten to my practi­ cal conclusions. Such being the alarming posture of the sacred cause which you lately thought triumphant, and the formidable difficulties under which its associated friends at present labour, the important question is, what can we do to sustain it? The insidious enemies of the cause, and some of its sincere, but much-mistaken friends, exhort you to be inactive and silen t; but I should be inexcusable, knowing what I do, if I should concur in that advice, or not avow my firm conviction that your adopting it would be fatal. A l r e a d y th e C o lo n is ts o p e n ly , th o u g h I t r u s t v a in ly , b o a s t t h a t th e p o p u la r ity o f th e R e s o lu tio n s o f M a y 1 8 2 3 is o n its w a n e in th is c o u n t r y ; a n d u n le s s t h e r e s h a ll b e a re n e w e d a n d s t r o n g e x p r e s ­ sio n o f p o p u l a r fe e lin g a t th is c r i s i s , to p r o v e t h e c o n t r a r y , t h e o p i­ n io n w ill s e e m

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e n o u g h to b e lie v e t h a t th e s i n c e r e c o n c u r r e n c e o f th e A s s e m b lie s is n o t y e t h o p e le s s , a s k th e m s e lv e s w h e th e r s u c h a p e r s u a s i o n w ill n o t b e lik e ly to r e v e r s e w h a t little d is p o s itio n m a y y e t r e m a i n a m o n g th e m to a d o p t p r in c ip le s a n d m e a s u r e s t o w h ic h th e y a v o w t h e i r a v e r s io n . T o a s s is t y o u r v iew s o n t h a t q u e s tio n , I w ill s t a te a s a f a c t, w h ic h I h a v e fro m d i r e c t a n d m o s t s a t is f a c t o r y i n f o r m s tio n (th o u g h f o r th e a u t h o r 's s a k e I d a r e n o t n a m e th e s o u r c e o f i t ) , d ie w a y in w h ic h a B ill fo r th e p a r t i a l a d o p tio n o f s o m e o f t h e r e ­ fo rm s r e c o m m e n d e d b y H i s M a j e s ty 's G o v e r n m e n t w a s la te ly d e ­ fe a te d in o n e o f th e in s u la r A s s e m b lie s . T h e r e w e r e in t h a t b o d y s e v e ra l v e r y in flu e n tia l m e m b e r s , w h o f r o m p o l i c y p e r h a p s , i f n o t f r o m b e t t e r m o tiv e s , w e r e w ell d isp o s e d t o w a r d s s u c h a p a r t i a l c o m ­ p lia n c e ; a t le a s t in p o i n t o f fo rm . O th e rs w e re w o n o v e r b y th e ir p e rs u a s io n , o r b y th e in flu e n c e o f th e G o v e r n o r ; a n d t h e B i l l w a s c a r r i e d a t le n g th in to a c o m m i t t e e w ith s u c h f a v o u r a b le p r o s p e c t s , t h a t th e a u t h o r o f it a n tic ip a te d w ith c o n f id e n c e a n d e x u l t a t i o n its s p e e d ily p a s s in g in to a la w . I k n o w th is l a t t e r f a c t w ith c e r t a i n t y , h a v in g s e e n it in a l e t t e r fr o m th e g e n tle m a n h i m s e lf (w h o s e h a n d ­ w ritin g I k n o w ) to a frie n d in th is c o u n t r y . I h a d little o r n o d o u b t th e r e f o r e t h a t s u c h a n A c t w a s p a ss e d ; a n d o n t h e r e c e n t a r r i v a l o f a frie n d f r o m th e s p o t, a la te m e m b e r o f th e s a m e l e g i s l a t u r e , I w as s u r p r is e d to h e a r to th e c o n t r a r y . O n m y a s k in g th e c a u s e o f th is d is a p p o in tm e n t, h e to ld m e t h a t th e B ill h a d lo n g b e e n d e la y e d in th e c o m m itte e b y d iffe r e n c e s o n s o m e o f its d e ta ils , till a t l e n g th its e n e m ie s p r e v a ile d so f a r a s to g e t rid o f it, fo r t h e s e s s io n a t l e a s t, b y a s u g g e s tio n , fo u n d e d o n in f o r m a tio n fr o m E n g l a n d , t h a t th e s to rjn w a s b lo w in g o v e r h e r e , a n d th a t if t h e y lo o k tim e till a n o t h e r

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Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation: Volume 3

y e a r th e y w o u ld h a v e n o m o r e tr o u b le w ith s u c h a n u n p le a s a n t b u si­ n e ss . O n th is g r o u n d th e B ill w as s u ffe re d to d r o p , w ith o u t its e x ­ p r e s s r e je c tio n , o r a n y r e p o r t fr o m th e c o m m itte e . I t is n o t h o w e v e r in a view o n ly , o r c h ie fly , t o s u c h n a tu r a l effects in th e C o lo n ie s t h a t I d e p r e c a te y o u r in a c tiv ity a t th is j u n c t u r e . Its c o n s e q u e n c e s in P a r l i a m e n t , a n d a s I b e lie v e in th e C a b in e t itself* w o u ld b e fa r m o r e a d v e r s e to o u r h o p e s.

In th e C o lo n ia l A ss e m b lie s

w e h a v e n o t a p o s sib le c h a n c e o f e v e r o b ta in in g a n y s u b s ta n tia l g o o d ; a n d to o b ta in it h e re b y p a r lia m e n ta r y a u t h o r i t y , w ith o u t th e c o n ­ tin u e d a id o f th e p o p u l a r 'v o ic e , is a lm o s t e q u a lly h o p e le s s . E v e ry w h e re y o u r s u p io e n e ss w o u ld a n im a te th e e n e m ie s o f o u r c a u s e , a n d e n e r v a te , it n o t d is h e a r te n , its frie n d s . T h e G o v e r n m e n t itself, s u p p o s in g e v e n its m e m b e r s u n a n im o u s ly w ith u s ( a n d th is is m o r e t h a n w e c a n r e a s o n a b ly h o p e ), S tan d s in g r e a t n e e d o f y o u r a s s is t­ an ce. I t is a s u p p o r t w h ich n o n e o f o u r tr ie n d s in t h e A d m i n i s t r a ­ tio n c a n s o lic it o r se e m

to d e s i r e ; fo r t h a t w o u ld s p o il its e f f e c t ;

b u t i f a n y o n e o f th e m w e re k n o w n to m e to b e r e a lly a d v e r s e t o y o u r d e m o n s tr a tin g , b y p e titio n s o r o t h e r c o n s titu tio n a l m e a n s , y o u r fe e lin g s o n th is o c c a s io n , th e n I o w n h is s in c e r ity a n d r i g h t in te n ­ tio n s w o u ld a p p e a r to m e v e r y d o u b tfu l. N e v e r w a s s u c h a n e x e r c i s e o f th e r i g h t s o f th e B r i t i s h p e o p le c a lle d f o r o n m o r e u n e x c e p tio n a b le g r o u n d s . I t is a p r iv ile g e o ften p r o s titu te d to fa c tio n s o r p a r t y - s p ir i t e d p u r p o s e s ; a n d s till o f te n e r u s e d , b y p a r t i c u l a r c la s s e s o f m e n , t o p r o m o t e th e i r p r i v a t e in te r e s ts , w h e n d is tin c t fr o m , a n d p e r h a p s o p p o s e d to , th e g o o d o f th e p e o p le a t la r g e . B u t in th is c a s e , we h a v e n o fa c tio u s view s t o p r o m o t e , n o selfi&h d isp o s itio n s t o i n d u l g e : w e h a v e n o n e b u t p u r e ly n a t i o n a l , o r still h i g h e r th a n n a tio n a l, o b je c ts . F o r w h a t c a n E n g lis h m e n m o r e ju s tifia b ly a n d m e r ito r io u s ly s o lic it o f t h e i r re p r e s e n ta tiv e s in P a r l i a m e n t , th a n t o m a in ta in th e m o r a l c h a r a c t e r o f t h e i r c o u n t r y , t o d e liv e r th e m s e lv e s fr o m n a tio n a l g u ilt, a n d t o r e l e a s e th e m fr o m th e d re a d fu l n e c e s s ity o f m a in ta in in g a c r u e l o p p r e s s io n , b y d ip p in g t h e ir h a n d s , u p o n e v e r y r e s is ta n c e o f it, d e e p in in n o c e n t b lo o d . O u r a d v e r s a r ie s h a v e fu rn is h e d u s w ith a f u r t h e r a r g u m e n t ; a n d u p o n t h e ir p r in c ip le s , th o u g h c e r t a i n l y n o t o n m in e , a s t r o n g e r one. T h e y a lle g e th a t th e y s h a ll b e e n title d to in d e m n itie s , th e a m o u n t Of w h ich th e y m a g n if y b e y o n d a ll r a tio n a l b o u n d s , o u t o f th e p a b l i c p u r s e ; th e y d e m a h d t o b e in d e m n ifie d n o t o n ly fo r th e e n f r a n c h is e m e n t o f t h e i r S l a v e s , i f t h a t s h o u ld b e e n a c te d b y la w , b u t fo r e v e r y a lle v ia tio n o f th e ir b o n d a g e . W e o u g h t to in ­ d e m n ify th e m , th e y c o n te n d , fo r a b o lis h in g e v e n th o s e A g g ra v a tio n s o f S la v e r y w h ic h th e M o t h e r C o u n t r y w as s o f a r fr o m h a v i n g s a n c ­ tio n e d , t h a t s h e k n e w n o t o f th e ir e x i s te n c e , a n d th e r e a lity o f w h ich th e i r o w n A ss e m b lie s a n d p u b lic a g e n t s , u p o n h e r in q u irie s , s to u tly d e n ie d . I w ill n o t h e r e e x a m i n e th e m e r its o f th is c l a i m ; b u t i f it h a s a n y j u s t f o u n d a tio n , s u r e ly y o u r p e titio n s a r e p r e - e m i n e n tl y r i g h t a n d d e c o r o u s o n t h e p a r t o f th e p e o p l e ; a n d u sefu l, in s te a d o f e m b a r r a s s in g , t o a w e ll-in te n tio n e d G o v e r n m e n t . T h e y a r e , in th a t c a s e , v ir tu a l o ffe rs to b e a r th e p e c u n i a r y b u r th e n in c id e n t to th e

321

Stephen: England Enslaved by Her Own Colonies r e f o r m a tio n s w h ich y o u r m o r a l fe e lin g s

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w h a t c a n b e m o r e a c c e p t a b l e t o M i n i s t e r s s in c e r e ly d isp o s e d t o s u c h a w o rk ? I f w e c o u ld d o th e m s u c h in ju s tic e a s to s u p p o s e th e m n o t in e a r n e s t , th e ir w ish e s w o u ld d e s e r v e fr o m y o u n o r e g a r d ; b u t o n th e o p p o s ite , a n d I t r u s t th e r i g h t a s s u m p tio n , th e p e titio n s o f th e p e o p le c a n n o t b e to o n u m e r o u s o r i m p o r t u n a t e fo r t h e i r s a ­ tisfa ctio n a n d th e ir e a s e . A n d h e r e b y th e w a y , w e h a v e a n o t h e r a r g u m e n t , a d e c is iv e , th o u g h h i t h e r to I th in k a n e g le c te d o n e , a g a i n s t d ie c o u r s e t h a t h a s b e e n m o s t u n h a p p ily ta k e n . T h e C o lo n is ts c o n te n d (a n d i f th e ir c la im s fo r c o m p e n s a tio n a r e j u s t , th e y r i g h t l y c o n t e n d ) t h a t th e d a m a g e a n d th e in d e m n ity s h o u ld g o h a n d in h a n d ; a n d t h a t it w o u ld b e u n ju s t to th e S la v e -o w n e r to im p a ir h is p ro p e rty , f ir s t, a n d l e a v e .i t f o r s u b s e q u e n t c o n s id e r a tio n a n d e n a c t m e n t , w h e n a n d h o w h e s h a ll b e c o m p e n s a te d . But haw can this possibly consist •with refeiring the work to the Assemblies ? W h a t ! a r e th e A s s e m ­ b lies o f B a r b a d o e s ,

S t. K i t t ’s, o r J a m a i c a to d ip t h e i r h a n d s in to

th e p u r s e s o f th e p e o p le o f E n g l a n d ? C a n it b e le ft to them to a n n e x c o m p e n s a to r y p r o v is io n s to th e r e f o r m a tio n s t h e y a r e d e ­ s ire d to e n a c t ? T h i s o b v io u s c o n s id e r a tio n m i g h t su ffice t o p r o v e , i f it w e re n o t o th e rw is e su fficie n tly m a n if e s t, t h a t th e c r y fo r in d e m n itie s is a m e r e b u g b e a r to frig h te n y o u fr o m y o u r r i g h t e o u s p u r p o s e . T h e y m u st w e ll k n o w t h a t th is p a r t o f th e c a s e c a n b e e x a m i n e d a n d d is p o s e d o f b y P a r l i a m e n t a l o n e ; a n d y e t th e y te ll y o u it m u s t b e i n c o r ­ p o r a te d w ith r e f o r m s , a g a i n s t th e in te r p o s itio n o f P a r l i a m e n t in w h ic h , e v e n to th e e x t e n t o f d is c u s s io n s u p o n th e s u b je c t, th e y v e h e ­ m e n tly p r o t e s t . T h e o p p o s itio n r a is e d to u s o n th is g r o u n d , h o w e v e r , o u g h t n o t to b e n o t i c e d w ith o u t s t r o n g e r c o n d e m n a tio n th a n its m e r e in c o n ­ s is te n c y a n d in s in c e r ity d e s e r v e . F a m i l i a r th o u g h it is to u s, I h a v e n e v e r b e e n a b le to r e g a r d its c o u n t e n a n c e in P a r l i a m e n t w ith o u t a s to n is h m e n t, o r w ith o u t fe e lin g a s a n E n g l i s h m a n o u g h t to d o w h en h is c o u n t r y is d e g r a d e d a n d d is h o n o u r e d . L c t . i t b e s u p p o s e d t h a t , a s b e tw e e n th e P l a n t e r a n d th e . S t a t e , c o m p e n s a tio n o u g h t to b e a s im u lta n e o u s m e a s u r e w ith r e f o r m , o r i f y o u w ill, a p re v io u s o n e ; still, w h a t is th e re f e r e n c e to th e o n e , as a n o b je c tio n to th e o t h e r , b u t a s h a m e fu l a p p e a l t o th e a v a r i c e o r e c o n o m ic a l p r u d e n c e o f th e c o u n t r y a g a i n s t its h o n o u r a n d its c o n ­ s c i e n c e ? T o t h e m o r a l r ig h ts o f th e S l a v e , it is j u s t a s v a lid a b a r* as a p l e a o f a s s o c ia te d r o b b e r s w o u ld b e a g a i n s t m a k in g r e s titu tio n to th e in ju r e d p a r t y , t h a t it w o u ld r e q u ir e a c o n t r i b u t i o n fro m , th e gang. E v e n th is illu s tra tio n is in a d e q u a te ; fo r th e q u e s tio n h e r e is, n o t m e r e ly w h e th e r w e s h a ll r e s t o r e , b u t w h e th e r , a s th e a l t e r ­ n a tiv e , w e s h a ll a d d w r o n g to w r o n g , in flic tin g th e s a m e c a la m itie s on g e n e r a tio n s y e t u n b o r n , e n s la v in g th e o f fs p r in g , le s t w e s h o u ld h a v e to p a y fo r th e r e d e m p tio n o f the p a r e n ts , a n d s u b d u i n g a l l r e ­ s is ta n c e fr o m e i t h e r , b y th e effu sio n o f in n o c e n t b l o o d 1 N e v e r th e le s s , th is b a s e a n d o d io u s a r g u m e n t is b o ld ly a n d p e r ­ p e tu a lly b r o u g h t fo rw a rd a g a in s t u s ; a n d g r e a t l y a u g m e n ts , p e r h a p s ,

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t h e d ifficu ltie s o f th o s e w h o a r e n o t o n ly th e k e e p e r s o f th e n atio n al c o n s c i e n c e , b u t th e re s p o n s ib le s te w a r d s o f th e n a tio n a l p u r s e . In th is view' th e n a ls o , th e c a s e lo u d ly c a lls fo r p o p u l a r i n t e r p o s it i o n ; f o r h o w e v e r p o w e rfu l a n y a d m in is tr a tio n m a y b e in c o m p a ris o n w ith th e p a r t y s y s te m a tic a lly o p p o s e d to it, a s t r o n g le a g u e o f p a r t i c u l a r in te r e s ts , p o te n t e n o u g h o n b o th s id e s o f th e H o u s e o f C o m ­ m o n s to c o n t r o l th e in flu e n ce o f th e C r o w n w ith m a n y o f its ow n a d h e r e n t s , a n d a t th e s a m e tim e to n e u tr a liz e th e O p p o sitio n a s a b o d y , m a y b e m o r e th a n it c a n e f f e c tu a lly r e s i s t ; e s p e c ia lly w h en it w ill b e th e e ffe ct o f a j u s t m e a s u r e t o e n ta il a s e rio u s b u r th e n o n th e c o u n try . T h e r e a r e a c k n o w le d g e d c a s e s in w h ic h a s t r o n g e x p r e s s io n o f th e p o p u l a r v o ic e , a id e d b y a r i g h t u se o f th e e le c tiv e fr a n c h is e , is th e o n ly r e m e d y fo r p u b lic e v ils t h a t o u r C o n s titu tio n a ffo rd s. I m a y , w ith o u t o ffe n ce I h o p e t o a n y t r u l y n a tio n a l p a r t y , a llu d e to th e w ell k n o w n c a s e o f M r . F o x ’s I n d ia n B i l l , a s illu s tr a tin g th e r e ­ m ark . I s p e a k n o t in c e n s u r e o f t h a t m e a s u r e , o r d is p a r a g e m e n t o f th e g r e a t a n d n o w d e p a r te d s ta te s m e n w h o s u p p o r te d i t They m a y h a v e b e e n r i g h t in th e ir j u d g e m e n t ; — a s I d o u b t n o t th e y w e re in th e ir in te n tio n s ; — b u t a c o n c e r t o f m e n o f o p p o s ite p o litic a l p rin c ip le s w as f o r m e d , u p o n w h a t w e r e s u p p o s e d to b e p e rs o n a l a n d p a r t i c u l a r in te r e s ts , w ith a view t o g i v e law t o th e C r o w n a n d P a r l i a m e n t , in o p p o s itio n to w h a t w as c o n te n d e d t o b e th e d u ty a n d i n te r e s t o f th e c o u n t r y a t l a r g e . A n a p p e a l to th e p e o p le th e r e f o r e w a s s t r o n g l y m a d e , a n d c o r d ia lly a n s w e r e d ; a n d th e r e s u l t w as, t h a t a n ew s p ir it a p p e a r e d in th e H o u s e o f C o m m o n s , a n d th e co a litio n w as d e fe a te d . I t w a s a lle g e d o n t h a t o c c a s i o n , t h a t a fo u r th e s ta te w a s a b o u t to b e c r e a t e d , d a n g e r o u s to th e C o n s t i t u t i o n ; b u t in th e p r e s e n t c a s e it m i g h t b e w ith g r e a t e r r e a s o n a lle g e d t h a t a fo u rth e s ta te a c t u a l l y e x i s t s ; n o t in d e e d u n d e r th e m a n a g e m e n t o f a p e r ­ m a n e n t E a s t I n d ia B o a r d , b u t o f a W e s t I n d ia n C o m m itte e , w h ich , i f n o t d a n g e r o u s to th e C o n s titu tio n , is s o a t le a s t in a h ig h d e g r e e t o th e p u b lic m o r a l s , th e h o n o u r , a n d th e p r o s p e r i t y o f th is g r e a t e m p ir e . T h e s a m e r e m e d y is th e r e f o r e u r g e n t l y c a lle d f o r , in o r d e r t h a t p u b lic p rin c ip le s m a y h a v e fa ir p l a y ; a n d t h a t th e G o v e r n m e n t i ts e lf m a y f a c tio n .

b e s u s ta in e d in r i g h t m e a s u r e s a g a i n s t a to o p o w e rfu l

I c a ll u p o n y o u th e n s o le m n ly , a s f e llo w -c o u n tr y m e n a n d fello w C h r is tia n s , to e x e r t y o u r s e lv e s to th e u tm o s t o n th is g r e a t a n d in te r ­ e s tin g o c c a s i o n . I f y o u w o u ld p r e v e n t f u r t h e r s a c r if ic e s o f y o u r m a n u f a c tu r in g , c o m m e r c i a l , a n d m a r itim p in te r e s ts , o f y o u r re v e n u e s a n d m il i t a r y m e a n s , a n d o f th e s e c u r i t y e v e n o f y o u r C o lo n ie s th e m ­ s e lv e s ; i f y o u w o u ld m a in ta in th e in d e p e n d e n c e a n d d ig n ity o f y o u r P a r l i a m e n t , a n d its c o n s titu tio n a l s u p r e m a c y o v e r th e d is ta n t d e p e n ­ d e n c ie s o f th e e m p ir e , w ith o u t w h ich th e y a r e a d e g r a d i n g in c u m ­ b r a n c e a n d a n u i s a n c e ; i f y o u w o u ld r e d e e m th e s a c r e d p le d g e s y o u h a v e g iv e n to th e u n f o r tu n a te S la v e s , a n d p r e v e n t th e p e r p e tu a ­ tio n o n th e m a n d t h e i r in n o c e n t o ffs p rin g o f a b o n d a g e d is g ra c e fu l to th e B r i t i s h a n d th e C h r is tia n n a m e ; a n d if y o u w o u ld re s c u e y o u r s e lv e s f r o m th e a b h o r r e d n e c e s s ity o f im b r u in g y o u r h a n d s in

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their blood, when nnd as often as intolerable oppression urges them' to a hopeless resistance,— now, 9 is your time to be active.

now

T h e c o n s titu tio n a l a n d e ffe c tu a l p a th is p la in . Y o u a r c o r soon w ill b e s o licite d to r y o u r v o te s b y th o s e w h o w ish to b e y o u r r e ­ p r e s e n ta tiv e s in th e H o u s e o f C o m m o n s . L e t y o u r fir s t q u e s tio n to e v e r y c a n d id a te b e , A r c y o u a P r o p r i e t o r o f S la v e s , o r a W e s t I n d ia m e r c h a n t ? I f th e a n s w e r is in th e a ffirm a tiv e , I w o u ld r e c o m m e n d to y o u a p o s itiv e re fu s a l, u n le s s h e b e o n e o f th e v e r y few w h o h a v e a lr e a d y p ro v e d th e m s e lv e s t r u e frie n d s to o u r c a u s e ; o r w h o , b e in g k n o w n to y o u as a m a n o f p r o b ity a n d h o n o u r , w ill g iv e y o u th e s e c u r i t y o f h is p ro m is e h e n c e f o r th to s u p p o r t it in th e H o u s e .

But

w h o e v e r th e c a n d id a te m a y b e , d e m a n d o f h im , a s th e c o n d itio n o f y o u r s u p p o r t, th a t h e w ill s o le m n ly p le d g e h im s e lf to a tte n d in h is p la c e w h e n e v e r a n y m e a s u r e is b r o u g h t f o rw a rd fo r th e m itig a tio n a n d p r o g r e s s iv e te r m in a tio n o f S la v e r y b y p a r l i a m e n t a r y /e n a c t m e n t s ; an d

th a t h e w ill g iv e h is v o te fo r e v e r y m e a s u r e o f t h a t k in d , n o t

in c o n s is te n t w ith th e t e m p e r a t e a n d p r u d e n t s p ir it o f th e R e s o lu tio n s o f M a y 1 8 2 3 , a n d th e r e c o m m e n d a tio n s o f H i s M a j e s ty ’s G o v e r n ­ m e n t fo u n d e d on th o s e re s o lu tio n s . U n le s s s u c h a p le d g e is g iv e n in th e s e , o r e q u iv a le n t t e r m s , a n d m o r e e s p e c ia lly s o a s to e x c l u d e th e s u b te rf u g e o f still c o m m i t t i n g th e w o rk to th e A s s e m b lie s , th e e n g a g e m e n t w ill b e o f little v a lu e , o r r a t h e r o f n o n e a t a ll. A d d to th is r ig h t u se o f y o u r ow n v o te , th e w id e st a n d m o s t a c tiv e in flu e n c e y o u c a n e m p lo y w ith y o u r b r o t h e r e l e c to r s t o e n g a g e th e m t o fo llo w y o u r e x a m p le . L e t C o m m itte e s fo r th e p u r p o s e b e fo rm e d in e v e r y c o u n t y , c ity , a n d b o r o u g h in th e U n i t e d K i n g d o m , in w h ich a n y in d e p e n d e n t s u ffra g e s a r e to b e f o u n d ; a n d le t P u b l i c M e e t i n g s b e c a lle d , a n d th e e x h o r t a t i o n s o f th e P r e s s b e e m p lo y e d , to e x t e n d th e s a m e s a lu ta r y w o rk ; a n d t h a t w o r k , le t m e a d d , a l o n e ; a v o id in g a ll p o litic a l d is tin c tio n s , a n d in v itin g m e n o f b o th o r all p a r t i e s , to u n ite in p r o m o t i n g t h a t s in g le o b je c t. B u t it is n o t b y s u c h m e a n s o n ly t h a t w e s o lic it y o u r a s s is ta n c e . T h e p e titio n s o f th e p e o p le le d to th e R e s o lu tio n s o f M a ^ 1 8 2 3 . L e t th e s a m e m e a n s b e s p e e d ily e m p lo y e d a g a in fo r c a r r y i n g th e m in to e ffe ct. I t r u s t t h a t th e ta b le s o f P a r l i a m e n t s o o n a f te r its fir s t a s s e m b lin g w ill b e c o v e r e d d e e p e r th a n e v e r w ith n ew a n d e a r n e s t p e titio n s fro m e v e r y p a r t o f th e U n i t e d K i n g d o m . L e t th e m b e te m p e r a te a n d re s p e c tf u l, b u t f i r m ; a n d i f n e e d b e , r e i t e r a t e d a ls o , till t h e i r o b je c t sh a ll b e e ff e c tu a lly o b ta in e d ; a n d le t y o u r r e p r e s e n ­ ta tiv e s o n e v e r y o c c a s io n b e re q u e s te d to p r e s e n t a n d s u p p o r t t h e m .

I cannot promise, my countrymen, that by such means your gene­ rous wishes will be fully and certainly accomplished; but one end at least, and an inestimable one, you will be sure to obtain. You will deliver your own consciences from any participation in the guilt which you have used your best endeavours to restrain. T o this most .important end, indeed, one ulterior effort may be necessary. The consumers of W est India sugar are unquestionably abettors of the iniquitous means by which it is produced; and the only excuse for our consciences in not hitherto renouncing the use of it, has been the fear of prejudicing our cause by a premature resort

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to such a measure. My views on that subject being already before the public, I need not dwell upon them here; but the opinion which I now share with all the friends o f our cause whose sentiments are known to me is, that should we not obtain some satisfactory mea­ sure from Parliament in the approaching session, it will become the clear duty of all who regard Colonial Slavery as cruel and unjust, to renounce without further delay the use of its produce themselves, and to recommend the same measure to others. T h e failure of M r. Brougham’s motion, if unhappily it should fail, ought I think to be a signal throughout the country, to all the friends of reforma­ tion, that the moment is arrived for their adoption of this last resort. Mean time, let not any man who fears God, or loves his country and his fellow-creatures, think that this is a case in which he can warrantably be neutral or passive. It might be so under an arbi­ trary form o f Government; but every man in this free country who has a vote, or a voice that can influence the electors or elected, has in cases like the present a conscientious duty to perform, for the neg­ lect of which he will be justly and seriously responsible. Every de­ gree of such influence that we possess is net merely a privilege, but a trust; and the laws made or maintained by the representatives of a free people are virtually of their own enactment. L et me, in conclusion, address myself not only to my countrymen at large, but to such distinct descriptions among them, ns may be influenced by particular considerations not felt by all. T o you, friends of universal freedom, who glory in the old appel­ lation of JVhigs, and regard all absolute authority, civil or political, with pre-eminent suspicion and dislike; to you in whose eyes even the liberties of Englishmen are not perfect, or require at least ad­ ditional securities; to you my first invocation shall be made. W hat a reproach would it be to your principles, if you should not be among the foremost in endeavouring to relax the heavy and de­ grading yoke of private Slavery in our colonies? W hat, in com­ parison with that, is political thraldom, even to a foreign power; or what are civil and military despotisms, in the worst forms of them known in Europe? In what region, and in what age, was grosser vio­ lation ever done to the natural rights of man ? or, to avoid terms that have been abused, where or when did the institutions of mankind so completely annihilate, for the sake of the despotic few', every benefit that the subjugated mass can be alleged to have derived from the civil union ? You are zealous in the cause of the oppressed G reeks; and the feeling does you honour. You reprobate strongly the illiberal des­ potism that presses down its yoke on the necks of the unfortunate Spaniards; and it is a right and generous indignation. Can you then be insensible to the far more intolerable wrongs, to the far more goading oppression, which the poor Africans suffer under your own dominion ? The Greeks have not yet been driven by the cartwhip; and many a tyrant, more illiberal and ungrateful than Ferdi­ nand, is maintained by British bayonets, as he oy French ones, on the petty thrones of the Plantations. Surely, also, it ought to be a

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heart-stirring distinction, that the Greeks and Spaniards have not to accuse us as the authors of their m iseries; while there is scarcely a Slave in the British W est Indies on whom, or his ancestors, we did not originally impose the cruel yoke he wears; and that by atrocious means, which we have ourselves since confessed to have been repugnant to humanity and justice. Take the lead then, as it will well become you to do, in the pre­ sent arduous and most righteous struggle. You have, I too well know, some inconsistent partisans who would warp you from your natural course for their own private interests; but they are un­ worthy of the appellation they assume. T h e name of W h ig is a brand on the forehead of every man who is a defender of Colonial Slavery. T o you whom your opponents designate by the less popular name of Tories, I would next appeal. T h e Slave-masters strive to inlist your honest prepossessions on their side. They would persuade you that their cause is that of loyalty against disaffection, and esta­ blished government against democuatical innovation. Not so thought your Johnsons and your Humes, your Gibbons and your H orsleys; not so your Pitts and Grenvilles, nor your virtuous and lamented Percival. T he very reverse is the truth. It is the nature of the Slave system to make the masters contentious, turbulent, and im­ patient of all authority but their own (as Burke, though in more softened language, has remarked). You found it to your cost in Am erica; and you find it now in the W est Indies. Ask your Ministers who have presided in the Colonial department, in what part of the empire His Majesty’s subjects are the hardest to govern and to please ; and where they have always been the most annoyed with turbulent opposition to the constituted powers, conducted with factious violence; and I am sure the answer will be,— in the W est Indies. Their distance, their impotence in a national view, and the f eneral frivolity of their subjects of dispute with their governors, ave kept them in general from much public notice in this country. B ut their feuds are a standing nuisance in the departments o f State which have the difficult duty to examine and compose them. Slave questions are .so far from being the sole causes of agitation, that by placing all the W hiles at present in one party, or at least in the only one that dares utter a political voice, they have rather tended to lessen than increase dieir ordinary interior dissensions. At a time when no such questions were depending, I once heard the late Lord Castlereagh, then at the head of the Colonial department, complain that there was hardly a single Colony, I think he said not one, in which he had not some very troublesome petty controversy between the governors and the governed on hjs hands. T h e intemperance of their malcontent spirit is not less remarkable than its restlessness. T o the most disrespectful and contumacious remonstrances, their Assemblies scruple not to add, on very slight occasions, threatenings to stop, and sometimes actually to stop, all supplies for the support of their public interior establishments; and evert their trivial contributions of barracks, or other local provisions,

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for the accommodation of the troops which we maintain at such a fearful cost for their security. They have sometimes proceeded to suspend all legislative business till the governor at length has been compelled to dissolve them. Nor is that remedy often effectual: for resistance to the King’s Government, however rude and intempe­ rate, is almost sure to oe popular among these men who punish all resistance of their own domestic government with death. The same factious representatives are re-elected ; and the ultimate event too commonly is, that Ministers, wearied out with their pertinacity, and with the public inconveniences that ensue, make sacrifices to appease them, such as ill consist with a due regard to the maintenance of the royal authority, and the credit of its faithful delegates. A governor, for instance, is not rarely recalled, for a firmness of conduct that entitled him to applause; and when Ministers at the same time show that they approved it, by appointing him immediately to the com­ mand of some other colony. In the present case, I need not say how far they are from deserv­ ing your sympathies on the score of dutiful submission, or deference towards either the Parliament or the Crown. They set both at open defiance, and deal out menaces of forcible resistance, which, however absurd and ridiculous, do not the less manifest a turbulent and disloyal spirit. And whose arc the rights and interests that they thus violently oppose and trample on ? A disaffected populace? No; but an un­ fortunate class, mocked with the name of His Majesty’s subjects, who fondly look for protection and relief only to the King and his Government, and fain would, but cannot “ fly from petty tyrants to the throne.” Be not deceived then by the crafty pretences and idle clamours of these pseudo-loyalists; nor let vour honourable principles be disgraced by a supposed affinity to theirs. As far as constitutional interests are concerned at all, their cause is the very opposite of yours. It is plainly derogatory to the constitutional jower and glory of the Crown, that the mafs of the Colonial popuation, like the vassals of the feudal barons, should have intermediate sovereigns, to whom, much more than to the King or his laws, their allegiance must be paid. In their degraded breasts the noble sentiment of loyalty can find no place. The master, to them is every thing, and the monarch an empty name. They find that they are subjects by the sword only, not the sceptre. They find it only when their blood is to be shed, either by judicial sentence, or military execution, in the name of the King, ugainst whom they are pre­ posterously said to have offended or rebelled, in most cases of in­ subordination to their masters. Among other consequences of this odious system that ought to be offensive to every liberal and loyal heart, the authority o f the Sove­ reign is so degraded as to be actually made subordinate and mi­ nisterial to that of the m aster; not only by enforcing obedience to him, but by the actual execution of his vindicatory mandates directed to the King’s officers; and that to an extent of punishment greater than is inflicted here for most felonious offences. By the master’s

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327

order alone, without any examination of its justice, his Slaves are received into His Majesty's prisons, and, by his officers, attached to a chain and driven by cart-whips, in a file of similar victims, and of convicts judicially condemned to that harsh punishment, to hard labour in the public streets or roads*. T h e pedestals of the British throne are law, justice, and wellregulated freedom; all which this odious institution o f private Slavery subverts. Its most glorious and darling prerogative is m ercy; but of this the Slave is no object. No royal grace can absolve him from those harsh penalties which the master thinks fit to adjudge,— not even those which I have last mentioned, o f which the Crown is the executioner. How, my loyal fellow subjects, can your feelings be expected to patronize a system like this ? Servants of God, of every description, my last and surest appeal is made to you. O f whatever faitn you are, Churchmen, Dissen­ ters, Catholics, Theists of every kind ; if you believe that there is a God, the common Parent of the human race, who defights in ju s­ tice and mercy, behold a cause that demands your strenuous sup­

• Seethe most recent Act of Jamaica; and like Acts of other islands. See also my Law of Slavery, p. 251 to S54. To show the reader how this punishment is administered by the Executive Go­ vernment on the mere mandate of the master, I extract the following account of it by one of the public apologists of the system, the late Mr. Dallas. “ Negroes are often sent hither by their masters and mistresses as a punish­ ment See. ; and according to the supposed heinousness of their guilt, the correc­ tion, that is, the torture of the cattle whip, is suneradded.” “ These unhappy wretches (l have reckoned near a hundred linked to the same chain) are employed to dig and carry stones, remove rubbish, and to perform all the most fatiguing offices of the public. The chain being fixed about the leader, is carried round the bodies of the followers, leaving a sufficient distance to walk without treading on each other’s heels; and to each it is secured by a pad­ lock. As soon as they are thus yoked, the gate is thrown open, and the poor animals are driven out by a Negro driver, Attended by a White driver, both with cattle whips in their hands. Sometimes the White driver rides on a mule. “ You may imagine that in the great number of persons thus fastened to each other, without the least attention to the differences of age or of strength, it is not very probable that an equal pace among them can be kept up throughout the day as they move about. They are set upon a brisk walk almost approaching to a trot, and woe be to those whom fatigue first forces to flag. The never-ceas­ ing sound of the cattle whip long keeps a regularity in the slight sinking curve • f the intervening links of the chain; but nature will return; the feebler will begin to pull upon the stronger, the intervening links will lose their* regular curve: here they become stretched to the utmost; there they sink nearly to the ground; th$ weak add the weight of their exhausted limbs to the strong, and the strong tread upon the heels of the weak. This the drivers remedy as much as possible by their cattle whips, till nature, quite worn out, is at last driven back to the work-house.”—Dallas’s Short J ourney in the West Indies. Even after a Slave has been prosecuted capitally in the King's court and acquit­ ted, the prosecuting master has been known so far to show his contempt for the authority of the laws, as to send the injured man to be punished for an indefinite time in this cruel manner, on the same false imputation; and thus compel the Crown to be his minister of vengeance, after he nas been tried at the King's suit and pronounced by his own judges to be innocent. (See a case cited in my Low of Slavery, p. 352.) Can a greater degradation of royal authority than this be imagined ?

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p o rt.

T h e S la v e -m a s te r s w o u ld c r a f tily d iv id e y o u .

T h e y w o u ld

a v a il th e m s e lv e s o f y o u r th e o lo g ic a l d i f f e r e n c e s ; a n d e s p e c ia lly w o u ld p e r s u a d e y o u , if th e y c o u ld , t h a t th o s e Mh o e a r n e s tly m a in ­ ta in th is c a u s e o f G o d a n d m a n , a r e a ll fa n a tic s a n d e n th u s ia s ts . B u t w h a t c r e e d will be fo u n d to c o u n te n a n c e a s y s te m lik e th e ir s , w h en its tr u e n a tu r e is d e v e lo p e d ? E v e n th e M a h o m e ta n faith p r o ­ s c r ib e s it, th o u g h

in a m u c h

m ild e r fo rm , e x c e p t a s a s c o u r g e fo r

u n b e lie v e r s . W h a t th e n !

is it p u s h in g re lig io u s zeal to o fa r to s a y th a t in n o ­

c e n t fe llo w -c r e a tu r e s o u g h t n o t t o b e left in a p e r p e tu a l h e r e d ita r y S l a v e r y ? th a t u n o ffe n d in g m e n , w o m e n , a n d c h ild r e n , o u g h t n o t to b e d e p r iv e d o f a ll c i v i l a n d h u m a n r ig h ts , a n d c o n d e m n e d to to il fo r life, lik e c a t tl e , u n d e r th e w h ip s o f th e d r i v e r s ? I s it e n th u ­ s ia s m , to h o ld t h a t a S la v e r y so r ig o r o u s a s to h a v e d e s tr o y e d t h o u ­ s a n d s a n d te n s o f th o u s a n d s o f its v ic tim s in o u r S u g a r C o lo n ie s , a n d w h ich is still s o fatal th a t th e m o s t p ro lif ic o f th e h u m a n r a c e c a n n o t h u iin tain th e ir n u m b e r s in it, o u g h t to b e len ified b y l a * ’ ? I s it fa n a tic is m , to r e g a r d a b o n d a g e im p o se d b y a c k n o w le d g e d c r i m e , ns o n e t h a t c a n n o t b e rig h tf u lly p r o t r a c t e d , a n d fa s te n e d o n th e p r o g e n y fo r e v e r ? T h e n le t r e lig io n a n d w r o n g , re lig io n a n d c r u e l ty , re lig io n a n d m u r d e r , s h a k e h a n d s . T h e Thurtels a n d P roberts a m o n g us m a y c la im to be r a tio n a l r e l i g i o n i s t s ; a n d ra il a t th e ir p r o s e c u to r s as s a in ts , e n t h u s i a s t s a n d fa n a tic s . P e r h a p s in ­ d e e d th e y d o ; fo r it s e e m s to be th e fa sh io n to s tig m a tiz e b y th o s e te r m s e v e r y d e g r e e o f m o ra l se n sib ility th a t e x c e e d s o u r o w n . T o s u c h o f y o u as a r e d e e p ly im p re s s e d w ith th e tru th a n d im ­ p o r t a n c e o f th e d o c tr in e s p e c u lia r to C h r is tia n ity ,

a n d z e a lo u s fo r

th e ir p r o p a g a t i o n , a n d to s u c h o f y o u as a r e a c c u s to m e d to o b s e r v e a n d r e c o g n is e th e h a n d o f D iv in e P r o v i d e n c e in th e g o v e r n m e n t o f th e w o rld , t h e r e is m u c h m o r e t h a t I c o u ld w ish to s a y . I m ig h t a p p e a l to th e p r in c ip le s y o u h o ld m o s t s a c r e d , fo r th e d u ty o f le n d in g y o u r a id to r e f o r m an im p io u s s y s te m w h ich s h u ts o u t th e lig h t o f th e G o s p e l, a n d v io la te s in th e g r o s s e s t m a n n e r all its p r e ­ c e p ts ; w h ich k e e p s in a c r u e l th r a ld o m m e m in d s, a s w ell as b o d ie s , o f its u n f o rtu n a te v i c t i m s ; a n d a d d s to its o t h e r e n o r m itie s a n t i c h r is tia n p e r s e c u tio n . I m ig h t sh o w th e in c o n s is te n c y o f th e c h a r i ­ ta b le e ffo rts y o u a r e m a k in g to c o n v e r t y o u r fe llo w -c r e a tu r e s in th e m o s t d is ta n t a n d u n civ iliz e d re g io n s o f th e g lo b e , w h ile y o u s u ffe r y o u r fe llo w -su b je c ts to b e k e p t in p a g a n d a r k n e s s , a n d t h e v ile s t m o r a l d e g r a d a tio n , n o t b y c h o i c e , b u t b y c o m p u ls io n , t h r o u g h a d o m e s tic ty r a n n y w h ich y o u r o w n p o w e r , w ith in y o u r o w n t e r r i ­ to r ie s , im p io u sly u p h o ld s . I m ig h t p r o v e to y o u r e n tir e c o n v ic tio n h o w h o p e le ss it is th a t th e p o o r S la v e s in g e n e r a l s h o u ld b e m a d e C h r is tia n s , in m o r e th a n n a m e , b y a n y m e a n s th a t h a v e b e e n a d o p te d , o r c a n b e u se d , w ith o u t r a is in g th e ir te m p o r a l c o n d itio n . M a n y o f y o u a ls o , I d o u b t n o t, m ig h t b e s tr o n g ly im p re s s e d b y n c l e a r a n d c o m p r e h e n s iv e view o f t h a t w o n d e rfu l c h a in o f e v e n ts , w h ic h in d ic a te s , a s p la in ly a s e v e n ts u n e x p la in e d b y R e v e la tio n c a n in d ic a te , to h u m a n e y e s , th e h a n d o f D iv in e P r o v i d e n c e a v e n ­ g in g th e w ro n g s o f th e p o o r e n s la v e d A f r ic a n s , a n d fa v o u rin g , I

Stephen: England Enslaved by Her Own Colonies

329

t r u s t, o u r fe e b le e ff o r ts f o r t h e i r d e l i v e r a n c e . T h e " s ig n s o f th e tim e s ” a r e in th is r e s p e c t w ell w o r th y o f th e c a r e f u l o b s e r v a tio n o f e v e r y p io u s m i n d ; a n d it is n o p r e s u m p tio n t o d e d u c e f r o m t h e m , n o t a n ew r u l e o f c o n d u c t , b u t c o n f ir m a tio n a n d e n c o u r a g e m e n t in a p u r p o s e p r e s c r ib e d t o u s b y th e c l e a r e s t p r in c ip le s o f C h r i s t i a n d u ty * B u t I th in k it b e s t to a b s ta in a t p r e s e n t fr o m th e s e i m p o r t a n t a n d in te r e s tin g to p ic s . T o d o a n y j u s t i c e t o th e m h e r e , w o u ld b e to e x te n d to o f a r th e le n g th o f th is a d d r e s s . M y v iew s o n s o m e o f th e m a r e a l r e a d y , th o u g h p a r t i a l l y , b e f o r e th e p u b l i c ; a n d I h o p e e r e lo n g to p r e s e n t t o tn e r e lig io u s f r ie n d s o f o u r c a u s e , in a s e p a ­ r a t e p u b lic a tio n , a d e fe n c e o f th e B i b l e a g a in s t th e fo u l c h a r g e o f its c o u n te n a n c in g C o lo n ia l S l a v e r y ; t o w h ic h I p r o p o s e t o a d d a s u m m a r y o f th o s e v e r y e x t r a o r d i n a r y fa c ts a n d c o i n c i d e n c e s t h a t in d ic a te , t o m y firm c o n v ic tio n , a p u r p o s e o f D iv in e P r o v i d e n c e to a v e n g e , a n d 1 t r u s t a ls o to d e liv e r , th e lo n g o p p r e s s e d A f r ic a n r a c e . M e a n tim e , e n o u g h I t r u s t h a s b e e n s a id to s a tis fy n o t o n ly a ll w h o a r e a c t u a t e d b y C h r i s t i a n p r in c ip le s , b u t a ll w h o a r e fr ie n d s to t h e i r s p e c ie s a t l a r g e , o r to th e i r c o u n t r y , i f u n b ia s e d b y C o ­ lo n ia l in flu e n c e , t h a t it is n o w o u r d u ty to b e a c t iv e . D is m is s th e id le h o p e th a t S l a v e r y w ill e v e r b e a b o lis h e d , o r m a te r ia lly a lle v ia te d , b y th e w ill o f th e m a s t e r s , o r b y th e la w s o f W e s t Iiid ia n le g is la to r s . T h e o fte n r e p e a t e d , a n d o fte n r e f u te d p r e t e n c e o f a c t u a l im p r o v e m e n ts , b e lie v e m e , is a ll d e lu s io n .

The

w o r s t a n d m o s t d e s t r u c t i v e b r a n c h e s o f th is o p p re s s io n ( e x c e s s o f la b o u r e n f o r c e d b y b r u ta l m e a n s , a n d in su ffic ie n cy o f s u s t e n a n c e ) a r e a s p r e v a le n t a s e v e r ; a n d m u s t b e s o fro m th e n e c e s s a r y effe cts o f t h e s y s te m , till c o n tr o lle d b y p a r l i a m e n t a r y a u t h o r i t y . I a ffirm it a s a m a n w h o c e r t a i n l y k n o w s th e c a s e ; a n d w h o is p r e p a r i n g to a d d u c e s u c h e v id e n c e o f its tr u e n a tu r e a s w ill s a tis fy th e m o s t in ­ c r e d u lo u s . R e j e c t th e in sid io u s s u g g e s tio n s t h a t y o u r i n t e r f e r e n c e is n e e d ­ l e s s ; a n d t h a t it im p lie s d i s t r u s t o f o u r M in is te r s . I h ave sh ow n t h a t w ith o u t th e a id o f th e p o p u la r v o ic e th e ir g o o d in te n tio n s m u s t b e fru itle s s. T h e G o v e r n m e n t , a n d th e P a r l i a m e n t itse lf, a r e in th r a ld o m t o th e d o m in a tin g in flu e n ce o f o u r to o p o w e rf u l e n e m ie s . E x a m i n e fa ir ly th e fa c ts I h a v e a d d u c e d , a n d y o u w ill a d m it t h e y c a n n o o th e r w is e b e e x p la in e d . I t is o b v io u s , a s I b e f o r e r e ­ m a r k e d , t h a t s u p p o s in g th e C a b in e t u n a n im o u s in d e s ir in g p e titio n s fro m th e p e o p le , it is a n in te rp o s itio n w h ich th e y c a n n o t s o lic it, o r a p p e a r to a p p r o v e . W h i l e th e p r o p e r e ffe ct w o u ld b e s p o ile d , t h e o ffe n ce to th e C o lo n ia l p a r t y w o u ld b e n o t d im in is h e d , b u t e n h a n c e d . Y o u m u s t j u d g e o f th e in c lin a tio n o f M in is te r s t h e r e f o r e o n th is o c ­ c a s io n fro m th e r e a s o n o f th e c a s e , a n d fro m w h a t y o u b e lie v e o f th e ir p r i n c i p l e s ; a n d I ask o f y o u o n ly to b e lie v e th e m s i n c e r e , in th e v ie w s w h ich s o m e o f th e m h a v e s t r o n g ly p ro f e s s e d in P a r l i a m e n t , an d all o f th e m a p p a r e n t l y a d o p te d . T o a s c r ib e to th e m I n s in c e r ity in s u c h a c a s e w o u ld b e h ig h ly o ffe n siv e , a n d , a s I b e lie v e , u n ju s t. B u t s h o u ld w e s u s p e c t, o r k n o w , t h e i r w ish e s t o b e a d v e r s e t o o u rs , o u r d u tie s a s m e n , a s E n g l i s h m e n , a n d a s C h r i s t i a n s , w o u ld

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Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation: Volume 3

remain the same. We should be unworthy of nil those appellations, and dellerve to forfeit the privileges that belong to them, ir, knowing our country to be the abettor and upholder of gross injustite and oppression, we should from complaisance to any men, or f\1Iy partl. decline to exercise our constitutional rights on the side of the mjured and oppressed. Come forwatd then with your petitions; instruct your representath:es; give or withhold your suffrage, for the next Parliament; and use your personal influence throughout the country; all in such a manner as may best promote the success of this great and sacred uuse. Ifyo\1 SIlCCeed, you will give a new triumph to the British Constitution, YOII will exalt the glory of your country, in that best point, het moral elevation, and recommend her to the favour of Heaven. You may rescue also yourselves and your posterity from severe calamities, which I firmly believe are now impending over us notlfithstanding our appar~At prosperity, not only from the natural effects of our pernicious system in the Colonies, if longer persisted in, but from the just 'Vellgennce of a righteous and all-directing Providence. If you flAil, you will at least have the inestimable consolation that you have done what you could" to undo the heavy burthen and to let the oppres;ed go free," and that the sins and calamities of your country, however pernicious in their consequences to yourselves or your children, were evils which you c\)uld not avert.

APPENDIX. 'EItTUC'T""""'" Si, W. YOUI/O" Wftl India COD'IDlon PIece Book, p. i18. T ••.nu, sho"'in,J!he Morlali,y of Troops in tbe WHt Indiee (euh..in or thOM wbo (eU;D action) .Juring Suen VU", frow 1796 &0 180i incluuYe, compiled rroan RGIi· IDftUal RltlunlS collKwd by Jo .... S .. na, Esq. Cota.roiuuy iD !he Windward aDd Letward Islandl duriDC that period.

I I

Europt'8n Soldien. :::bl; Largest :::bl; force. returns.

.796. 1197. 1191. 11991800. 1801. 11102.

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Negro Soldien.

~I J;~~·I ForceJDi.d., J:~L 6484 9766 1602 1176 1221

2340 990

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NOTES William Wilberforce, An Appeal to the Religion, Justice and Humanity of the Inhabitants of the British Empire p. 5, I. 7-8: 'Slave Trade debated ... in 1792': debate on Wilberforce's motion for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, 2 April 1792, cols 1055-158. p. 7, I. 27: 'Lord Melville ... Mr. Dundas': Henry Dundas (1742-1811), 1st Viscount Melville. Served as Home Secretary, but in this context he is best known as the anti-Jacobin politician responsible for the amendment inserting the word 'gradually' in Wilberforce's House of Commons motion of April 1792 for the abolition of the slave trade. p8, 11. 26-7: 'he had even devised a plan for ameliorating ... re Slave Trade': this refers to Burke's Sketch of a Negro Code (reprinted in vol. 2 of this edition). Burke penned this in 1780, but it was not made public until 1792 when he sent it to Henry Dundas under the title 'A Lener to the Right Hon. Henry Dundas, ... with the Sketch of a Negro Code'. p. 10, I. 23: 'Bencoolen': Benkulen, a trading post on the coast of Sumatra. p. 11, I. 21: 'seasoning': a term used in the British West-Indies period in which newly arrived captives were broken into slavery on plantations. The term was also used in reference to newly arrived whites who had to become accustomed to the inclemate weather of the West Indies lest they die of fever. p. 14, 11. 5-6: 'Granville Sharpe': (1735-1813): abolitionist who was instrumental in the establishment of the colony at Sierra Leone and one of its original directors. p. 14, I. 10: 'Mr. Long, History of Jamaica': Edward Long (1734-1813). He became a judge of the vice-admiralty court in Jamaica, but left in 1769 because of ill-health. His History of Jamaica, which he revised for a second edition, outlined racist views towards Africans. Bryan Edwards's History of the British West Indies was indebted to Long's work. p. 15, I. 31: 'Mr. Otley, Chief-Justice of St. Vincent's': Drewry Ottley Esq. Chief Justice of St Vincent, resided in the West Indies from 1776, chiefly in St Vincent. He visited Antigua, Tobago, St Kins, Grenada, and St Lucia. He was in England about ten months of the time. He managed his own estates until appointed Chief Justice. p. 16, I. 5: 'Sir William Young': (1749-1815) he was Governor of Tobago and took a keen interest in travel exploration. For some years he was secretary of the African Association. In 1807 he became Governor of Tobago and remained in that position until his death. p. 16, 11. 12-13: 'Iegislarure of Grenada, ... inquiries of the Privy Council': (see notes to pp. 31-2) Part 11, 'Treatment of Slaves in the West Indies' of Report of the Lords of Committee of Council, Lambert, p. 365. p. 21, 11. 8-9: 'Meliorating Acts of 1798, Leeward Islands': 4 May 1798, an act which read: 'Act more effectually to Provide for the Support, and to extend certain Regulations for the Protection of Slaves, to promote and encourage their Increase, and generally to meliorate their condition' (see Slavery I,

332

Notes to pages 21-36

Correspondence on the Slave Trade 1804-21, June 1804, pp. 15-28; British Parliamentary Papers). p. 24, I. 3: 'Mr. B. Edwards': Bryan Edwards, (1743-1800) a West Indian merchant and author of The History Civil and Commercial of the British West Indies in two volumes (1793). Edwards succeeded Joseph Banks in 1797 as secretary of the African Association. p. 25, I. 18: 'Dr. Paley': William Paley (1743-1805) Archdeacon of Carlisle and author of Evidences of Christianity and Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy in 1785. p. 28, I. 24: Sir George Prevost, Governor of West India Island: (1767-1816) Prevost had a varied military and political career in the West Indies. In August 1794, Prevost commanded troops in St Vincent. In May 1798 he became military governor of St Lucia and in 1801 Civil Governor. In 1802 he was appointed Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of Dominica, and in 1806 he was second in command when Martinique was captured. p. 29, 11. 4-5 : House of Commons examinations of 1790-91: Abridgement of the Minutes of the Evidence, Taken Before a Committee of the Whole House, to whom it was referred to consider of the Slave Trade, 1790-1, nos 3 and 4. p. 30, 11. 24-6: Jamaica Privy Council of 1788, Obeah: Wilberforce quoted Mr Fuller (agent for Jamaica), Mr Long and Mr Chisholme, who together replied to the Privy Council's queries, enclosing papers on Obeah from Mr Rheder and from Fuller himself. See answers nos 22-6 in the Report of the Lords of the Committee of Council appointed for the condition of all matters relating to trade and foreign plantations . . . dated 11th of February, 1788, concerning the present state of the trade to Africa, and particularly the trade in slaves: Part III 'Treatment of Slaves in the West Indies.' In Sheila Lambert ed., House of Commons Sessional Papers of the Eighteenth Century, vol. 69 (Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources, 1975), pp. 215-21. p. 31, I. 31 and p. 32, 11. 5-7: Abolition proceedings and Privy Council and Obeah; agents in Jamaica and Antigua: see answers nos 22-7 in Lambert, referring to Messrs Hutchinson and Burton, joint agents for Antigua, and of Dr Adair. Dr Adair states he 'never knew any Instance of Death from the supposed Influence of Obeah-men's Spells; though daily Experience proves, that a Disease originating in a depraved Imagination, or a powerful Excitement or Depression of the mental Faculties, may derange and suspend, and even destroy, the vital powers' (Lambert, pp. 336-8). p. 33, 11. 16-17: 'Travels of Mr. Parke': Mungo Park (1771-1806) African explorer. Park was sent by Joseph Banks and the African Association in 1795 to discover the course of the Niger and visit Timbucktoo. Park succeeded Major Houghton, who had been sent in 1790 but had never returned. Park wrote his Travels into the Interior of Africa in 1798 with the help of Banks and Bryan Edwards. The work was extremely popular, going into three editions by 1799. p. 33, I. 17: 'M. Golbery': actually Silvan Meinrod Xavier de Golberry. Travelled in Africa from 1785-7, wrote Fragmens d'un voyage en Afrique, 2 vols (Paris, 1802). This was translated into English by Francis Blagdon in 1802. p. 34, I. 25: 'Hindostan': general reference meaning 'country of the Hindus', i.e. India. p. 36, I. 17: 'Mr. Pitt': William Pitt (1759-1806), Statesman. On his advice, Wilberforce took up the slave trade question but with Wilberforce ill, it was

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Pitt who brought the resolution forward on 9 May, 1788. It was supported by Fox and Burke and it was carried. In the same session, Pitt supported Sir William Dolben’s Bill for regulating the slave trade, p. 36, 1. 17: ‘Mr. Fox*: Charles James Fox (1749-1806) Statesman. He was deeply shocked with the evils of the slave trade, and when Pitt brought forward a resolution on the subject in May 1788, he declared the trade should not be regulated but destroyed. He often urged abolition of the trade in later years. p. 36, 1. 18: ‘Lord Lansdowne’: Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquis of Landsdowne (1780-1863), English politician. A cautious liberal under the Canning cabinet, he helped pass the Reform Bill in 1832. p. 36, 1. 18: ‘Lord Grey*: 3rd Earl Grey, Lord Howick (1802-94) English politician who had a number of posts including Colonial Secretary in 1846. p. 38, 1. 15: ‘Register acts*: called ‘Reasons for establishing a Registry of Slaves in the British colonies, being a Report of a Committee of the African Institution, published by order of that Society, 1815*. The Bill would force colonial legislatures to register all slaves kept in each island. Once the exact number was accounted for, no planter could add slaves smuggled in by slavers defying the Abolition laws. The Register would also force owners to treat slaves in a more benevolent manner opening the way to make them ‘free peasantry*. James Stephen brought the Registry Bill into the debate of 1815, but it was blocked by the Tory Ministry. In the spring of 1816, Wilberforce tried to bring the Registry Bill forward, which he now called ‘my chief Parliamentary object*. But Parliament suppressed it, begging to delay the Bill to wait for colonial legislatures to pass it. p. 40, 1. 14: ‘Mr. Steele*: Joshua Steele, lived in the island from 1773-90. He established a jury of older Negroes to try minor offences committed by their fellow-slaves, granted copyhold to some of the slaves who paid their rent by so many days labour in the year and encouraged task-work. See Southey, op.cit., vol. 3, p. 2, 39. p. 40, 11. 30-1: ‘Act of Parliament, 5 Geo. 2. cap. 7*: this was an act in 1731 for the recovery of debts in American plantation. ‘An Act for the more easy Recovery of Debts in His Majesty’s Plantations and Colonies in America, Lands, Horses, Negroes, ficetc. in the Plantations liable to satisfy debts*, p. 41, 11. 31-2: ‘Duke of Portland, then secretary of state for the colonies*: Lord William Cavendish Bentinck (1774-1839). Bentinck, as Governor General of Bengal in 1827, pioneered the education of Indians in Western Literature and Science. p. 42, l. 22: Letter from Burke to Dundas in 1792: this letter is referred to in Hansard, XXXIV, 1816, col. 1180. It reads: ‘In 1792, Mr. Burke, in a letter dated Easter Monday (a day which would be long memorable in the annals of Barbados), and addressed to Lord Melville (then, Mr. Dundas), submitted to him a plan for the management of the West Indies, and which plan he describe to be imperfect, but to have for its intent “the disposing the minds of the objects to receiving it without danger to themselves or to us** *. p. 43, 1. 16: ‘African Institution*: the passage of the Abolition Act of 1807 coincided with winding up the Sierra Leone Company as the colony of black settlers was turned over to crown rule and in its place arose the African Institution with much the same leadership. The new institution would watch over the execution of the law, seek a ban on the slave trade by foreign powers and promote the civilisation and happiness of Africa. Clarkson was

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Notes to pages 43-64

on the temporary committee and became director after the first meeting of 14 April 1807. The Duke of Gloucester was patron and president, Macauley was secretary and Henry Thornton was treasurer, p. 43, 11. 24-7: ‘manumission ... in Spanish colonies’: the two ordinary ways were self-purchase or through a master’s testimony. Sometimes slaves could buy their freedom through providing exceptional service to their masters or the government could grant them freedom for fighting in battle. The Spanish colonies had limited legal formalities with regards to manumission: the master simply filed a testament with a notary or, in the case of self-purchase, both parties appeared before a notary and filed a manumission document, p. 52, 1. 25: Burke drew up his plan for the reformation of the slave system in 1780 and presented it to the House of Commons in 1792. p. 53, 11. 6-7: ‘Mr. Dundas, the avowed advocate of the Colonies’: refers to 32 George HI, cols 1055-157. ‘Mr. Dundas rose to explain, but chiefly to bring his proposition to a point, by moving to insert the word ‘gradually’ in the question, by way of amendment; which he moved accordingly.' p. 54, 11. 5-6: ‘Mr. Brougham in his work on colonial policy': An Enquiry in the Colonial Policy o f European Powers , 4 vols, 1803. p. 55, 1. 4: ‘Mr. Malonet*: [V.P. Malouet] the British government made two separate agreements when they conquered, one for San Domingo and one for the French Leewards. That for San Domingo was arranged by V.P. Malouet, the owner of an estate in the island and representative of the proprietors. See Malouet, ‘Plan for the Administration of San Domingo*, 26 March 1794, Portland Papers, PWF 10430. p. 56, 1. 18: *esprit de corps*: this comes from Wilberforce’s motion in 1792 for the Abolition of the slave trade: ‘Most societies of men possess, in some degree, what is called by the French I'esprit du corps ; but these people, of all others, were linked together in bonds of mutual interest, tyranny, and injustice’. p. 57, 1. 17: Lord Seaforth, governor of Barbados: (1754-1815) In 1800, Seaforth was appointed governor of Barbados. Refers to a letter from Seaforth to Camden of 13 November 1804. p. 57, 1. 22: making the law in Barbados against the murder of a slave: refers to ‘An Act for the Better Protection of the slaves of this Island’, which includes the clause, ‘Any person killing any slave without provocation, on conviction by evidence of a white person, to suffer death, without benefit of clergy.* p. 58, 1. 21: ‘Lord Camden’: (1759-1840) John Jeffreys Pratt, 2nd Earl and 1st Marquis of Camden. p. 58,1. 29: ‘Mr Beccles, the Attorney-General': John Beckles. On 19 November 1804 and 7 January 1805, Beckles wrote Lord Seaforth describing cases of cruel murders committed upon slaves. p. 58, 1. 30: ‘Mr. Coulhurst, the Advocate-General': M. Coulthurst of Barbados. He wrote a letter to Lord Seaforth dated 25 October 1804 entitled, ‘Respecting Negroes who have of late been most wantonly and inhumanely murdered.* p. 64, 11. 8-9: ‘controversy in 1816, concerning the Registry Bill*: in 1815, James Stephen introduced a measure for the general registration of slaves. The proposition would force all planters to made a record of slaves in the colonies and in succeeding years the owners would have to make a record of any changes that had taken place. Since the absence of a name and description in the records was proof of freedom, illicit import of slaves would

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be prevented. But the main object was to improve the conditions of slaves. The abolitionists thought this would make planters more accountable, but it required an act of Parliament to enforce. On 13 June, 1815, Wilberforce proposed a motion in the House of Commons, but Castlereagh postponed it. The West Indians then organised opposition, complaining that this was a way for the imperial government to get power over the colonies who were better at legislating themselves. Wilberforce thus agreed to let the individual islands pass their own Registry Bills. By 1820, in each of the islands, Register Acts had been passed a,nd a central registry for collecting the colony registers had been established in London by an Act of Parliament. 65, I. 31: 'Colonial laws respecting Slaves, 1788-1815, ordered to be printed by the House of Commons': these are 'Copies of, or Extracts from, all such LAWS as have been enacted in any of the colonies belonging to His Majesty, in America or the West Indies, relative to the importation of slaves into the said colonies, or to the protection or good Government of Slaves, or People of Colour, since the year 1788. Also, a detailed Schedule of Colonial Acts, in order of dates, in each Island or Colony,' 1816 (226) XIX.259 mf 17.140-2. 66, 11. 14-15: Sierra Leone and the calumnated colony: see Clarkson notes (p.100, I. 42 and p. 101, I. 30) for the history of the founding of this 'free colony' by the abolitionists. It is 'calumniated' because slave owners/traders had a vested interested in it failing, because disease almost destroyed it, and because the social mix and language mix of its population led to instability. 66, 11. 25-6: 'Mr. H. Thornton': Henry Thornton (1760-1815), friend of Granville Sharpe, a philanthropist and economist who circulated immense quantities of bibles and religious books in all parts of the world, many at his own expense. He also supported William Cowper during his mental illness and John Newton. He supported Wilberforce's anti-slave trade agitation in Parliament, and took a leading role in establishing the colony at Sierra Leone. 67, 11. 10-11: 'M. Dupuis, the British consul at Mogadore': refers to the Quarterly Review 14 (7 January 1816), which was the review of The Narrative of Robert Adams, a Sailor, who was wrecked in the year 1810, on the Western Coast of Africa, was detained three years in Slavery by the Arabs of the Great Desert, and resided several Months of that Period in the City of Tombuctoo (London, 1816). Dupuis procured Adams's release from slavery to the Moors at the town of Wed-noon. Adams stayed eight months with Dupuis. The veracity of Adams's account was doubted and he was examined twice back in England. One of the reasons for this is Adams claimed that Timbuktu was filled with huts, not palaces of gold, and this opposed the European myth about Timbuktu. Dupuis vouched for Adams's truth and added notes to Adams's narrative. The passage Wilberforce quotes from is on p. 472 of the review and is n. 8, p. 145 of Adams's Narrative. 68, I. 12: Sir Charles Macarthy, Governor of Sierra Leone: (1770?-1824) in 1811 Macarthy was made lieutenant-colonel of the Royal African Corps, in 1812 the Governor of Sierra Leone. When Cape Coast Castle was taken out of the hands of the African Company, Macarthy was sent to run the government there as well. He was intensely interested in advancing the cause of Christianity and British civilisation in Africa. In 1824, Cape Coast Castle was taken by force by the Ashantees, and Macarthy was mortally wounded. His head was taken as a war-trophy by the Ashantees. 68, I. 28: 'Island of Hayti': republic occupying the Western part of

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Hispaniola. The Eastern part of the island is now called the Dominican Republic. The aboriginal name of Hispaniola was Haiti (meaning 'land of hills' or 'land of rocks'), and this name is still sometimes given to the whole island. It is also called San Domingo, Santo Domingo, and during the French occupation, Saint Domingue. p. 69, I. 23: 'the black corps': black troops in the West Indies regiment. p. 70, 11. 5-6: Trinidad, American Negroes let in by Sir Ralph Woodford: see Clarkson notes (pp. 101-2). Because of the labour shortage in Trinidad, the governor did everything he could to increase the population of workers. He accepted many soldiers who had either deserted or been disbanded from wars. For example, a Negro regiment of American refugees from the war against the United States was sent to Trinidad and disbanded in 1816, where grants of land were given to them. p. 73, 11. 6-8: Liverpool and the regulation for limiting the number of slaves to be taken by ships: 'A Bill for Providing Certain Temporary Regulations, respecting the Transportation of the Natives of Africa, in British ships, to be West Indies, and elsewhere,' in 1788. This limited the number of slaves carried per ton burden of ship; it made ventilation of the slave deck compulsory. [28 George 11, c. 54]. It was updated and made more effective by a later bill of 1789 [29 George Ill, c. 66]. pp. 74-5: 'slave populations in Cuba, Porto Rico, United States, and South America': by 1821, Spanish power in South and Central America was practically broken. Of all her Caribbean possessions, only Cuba and Puerto Rico remained. This thus refers to the Spanish and American violation of the slave trade. Thomas Clarkson, Thoughts on the Necessity of Improving the Condition of the Slaves in the British Colonies p. 83, I. 12: Mr. Dundas, Lord Melville, 1792 Parliament: Henry Dundas (1742-1811), 1st Viscount Melville, see Wilberforce note (above) for p. 7, I. 27. p. 84, I. 12: 'Algiers': Algiers was notorious after 1816 when the Dey refused British requests to abolish Christian slavery there. In July 1816 the British government responded by dispatching a Royal Naval squadron under Admiral Edward Pellew, which bombarded the town (on 27 August) until the Dey agreed to all British demands and liberated some 3,000 slaves, mostly Italian and Spanish. Europe hailed Pellew's success as a victory for Christianity. p. 86, 11. 15-16: On Pin's advice, Wilberforce took up the slave trade question. When Wilberforce was ill, it was Pin who, on 9 May 1788, brought the resolution forward. It was supported by Fox and Burke. It was carried. In the same session Pin supported Sir William Dolben's Bill for regulating the slave trade. Fox was deeply impressed with the evils of the slave trade, and when Pin brought forward a resolution on the subject in May 1788, he declared the trade should not be regulated but destroyed. He often urged abolition of the trade in later years. p. 87, I. 16: 'Mr. Clappeson': he lived in Jamaica from 1762-3, 1768-78, and 1786-9. 'The general opinion he formed, was, that the slaves were severely treated, and in a miserable state' (IV, pp. 125-8). 'Mr. Cook': Mr Mark Cook 'who arrived in Jamaica in 1774, and left it, 1790; was there three years in planting business ... the rest of the time as clerk and schoolmaster

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with different gentlemen there' (IV, pp. 104-9). 'Mr. Dalrymple': 'Lieutenant in the 75 th regiment from May to the end of September 1779. Made it his business to inquire as to the mode of obtaining slaves; had his information from French mulattos and natives. In Grenada in 1773 and from 1788-89' (Ill, pp. 116-29). Abridgement of the Minutes of the Evidence, Taken Before a Committee of the Whole House, to whom it was referred to consider of the Slave Trade, 1790-1, nos III and IV. p. 87, 11. 29-30: Act for the Better Protection and Promoting the Natural Increase and Population of Slaves within the Island of Grenada: this passed the Grenada assembly on 17 November, 1797 and received assent 9 December, 1797. The Act declared that the 'humanity and interest of the Colony' required 'compelling the owners and master of slaves sufficiently to lodge, feed, cloth and maintain them.' It decreed whipping not to exceed 39 lashes at anyone time. (see Papers Presented to the House of Commons Respecting the Slave Trade, 1804, pp. 131-9). p. 87, I. 39: 'Act of Dominica': 'An Act for the Encouragement, Protection and better Government of Slaves' passed the Dominica Assembly 17 December, 1788. Royal assent was given on 23 December, 1788. It stipulated fines for owners who neglected to feed, give 'comfortable lodging: and medical assistance to their slaves' (see Public Record Office, CO.73.9). p, 87, I. 40: 'Governor Prevost': see Wilberforce note (above) for p. 28, I. 24. p. 88,11. 7-14: Wilberforce, 1815, Registry Bill: the assemblies of Jamaica and Dominica and the Barbados Legislature all protested against Wilberforce's Bill for the compulsory registration of slaves in all the colonies. Faced with this opposition, Wilberforce withdrew the Bill on the understanding that the colonial legislatures would themselves pass Acts for compulsory registration. When they did so, however, the Acts were flawed. In Jamaica, the Act was practically disregarded. p. 88, 11. 9-10: insurrection in Barbados: on 14 April, 1816, slaves on some 60 Barbados estates rose, destroying buildings and cane-fields. Several hundred were killed the next day as troops put the rebellion down. The Governor of Barbados blamed the revolt on the slaves' belief, after the introduction of the Registry Bill, that their emancipation was desired by the British Parliament (see Sir Alan Burns, History of the British West Indies [London, 1954], p. 613). p. 88,11. 19: June 19, 1816, planters procured an address from commons to the Prince Regent: the text of the address is given in E. Williams, Documents on British West Indian History 1807-1833 (London, 1954), no. 174. p. 89, n.: Dickson's Mitigation of Slavery in Two Parts. Part I: Letters and Papers of the Late Honourable Joshua Steele. Part 11: Letter to Thomas Clarkson, Esq., M.A. by William Dickson, formerly secretary to Hon. Edward Hay, late Governor of Barbados, (London: Longman, 1814). p. 91, 11. 35-6: Pitt addressing planters in House of Commons: refers to Pitt's famous speech supporting Wilberforce's abolition motion of 2 and 3 April, 1792. Ten-thousand copies of the speech, thought at the time to be one of the greatest ever made in Parliament, were distributed by the Committee of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Hansard XXIX (1791-2) col. 1146. p. 92, I. 9: Canning to Planters in House of Commons for Registry Bill: refers to debate of 19 June, 1816. Hansard XXXIV (1816) col. 1220. George Canning (1770-1827) Tory politician, Foreign Minister 1807-9 and 1822-7, Prime Minister 1827.

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p. 92, I. 26: Lord Holland, Discussion in House of Lords regarding Registry Bill: Henry Richard Vassall Fox, third Baron Holland (1773-1840), Whig politician and Privy Councillor who was a consistent opponent of the slave trade. Refers to debate of 27 June, 1816. Hansard XXXIV (1816) col. 1276. p. 92, I. 39: 'Edward Long': (1734-1813) he became a judge of the viceadmiralty court in Jamaica, but left in 1769 because of ill-health. His History of Jamaica, which he revised for a second edition, contained racist views about Africans. Bryan Edwards's History of the British West Indies was indebted to Long's work. p. 93, I. 34: 'Partus sequitur ventrem': in general terms, this means: 'the child follows/takes after the mother'. In this case, because it has to do with slavery, it can be traced to the concept of 'accession', which is the method of acquiring ownership of a thing arising from the fact that it is in some way added to, or is the fruit of something already belonging to oneself. This may happen in three ways: (1) naturally; (2) artificially; (3) from a combined operation of nature and industry. Clarkson is referring to the first sense, 'natural'. The increase of an animal, the yield of fields, the rent of a house, etc., belong to the owner of the animal fields, and house respectively. Thus, the offspring of a female animal is the property of her owner, even though it be the result of intercourse with a male belonging to someone else. The axiom applies in the case that partus sequitur ventrem. The slave code, in accordance with the Roman law, provided that the issue of slaves, though born during the temporary use or hiring of their mothers, belonged not to the hirer but to the permanent owner. But the offspring of a slave born during a tenancy for life belonged to the tenant for life. p. 94, 11. 3-4: Evidence examined before the House of Commons in 1789-9091: Clarkson testified to the Privy Council inquiry Summer 1788 and produced his specimen chest of manufacturers in artefacts made by Africans to demonstrate Africans' ingenuity as craftsmen and show that a lucrative trade in British-made goods could replace the slave-trade. p. 95, 11. 10-12: This quotation is taken from Mitigation of Slavery, p. 50 (actually pp. 49-50). The entire quotation reads: 'For, from the moment any white servant takes possession of his post, he, without any written or verbal instruction, considers himself as fully invested with all the legal powers of the proprietor, to punish at his pleasure, according to the indefinite latitude of the laws; whether it be to gratify his lust or to display his authority. The whip, the shackles, the dungeon, are at all times in his power; and his employment of them, in his intendment, is to be construed, as by his master's order'. p. 96, 11. 22-35: Hill's Naval History, the question of Queen Elizabeth, Hawkins (Sir John): refers to John Hill, The Naval History of Britain from the earliest periods of which there are accounts in history, to the conclusion of the year MDCCLVI (London, 1756) p. 292. Refers to Hawkins's return in September 1563 from his voyage to the Guinea Coast (now Sierra Leone) and to Hispaniola. Hill quotes Elizabeth: 'She told him, that while he and his Proprietors acted with Integrity and Humanity, they should have her Protection.' Hawkins had returned with ginger, hides, sugar, and pearls bought with the proceeds of selling black prisoners into slavery. p. 97, I. 1: 'Labat': a Roman Missionary, see Jean Baptist Labat, Nouveau Voyage aux isles de I'Amerique, 8 vols, (Paris 1742). Roman here refers to Roman Catholic, not ancient Roman. Labat says in vol. 4 that Louis XIII 'ent

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toutes les peines du monde a consentir que les premiers Habitans des Isles eussent des Esclaves.' Louis, Labat continues, consented because he accepted slavery as the best means of bringing belief in the true to the Africans (pp. 295-8). 97, I. 30: William Penn in North America: Penn (1644-1718) was an English Quaker, reformer, and colonist. He was founder of Pennsylvania. As one of the Quaker trustees of West Jersey (America), he had drawn up the settlers' celebrated 'Concession and Agreements' charter. In 1681, he obtained a grant of land in North America and named it Pennsylvania, after his father. He did try to help mitigate the evils of slavery, although he held black slaves himself. 98, 11. 7-8: Lord Seaforth, 1802, repeal the law of murder of a slave: Lord Seaforth was Governor of Barbados from 1801-10. He left the island in 1806 after experiencing continued difficulties with the House of Assembly, which continued to resist his proposals for reform of colonial government (see Wilberforce entry p. 57, H. 17-22, to new law on slave murder passed in 1805). Lord Seaforth's appointment was resented by colonists because of his deafness (see D. J. Murray, The West Indies and the Development of Colonial Government 1801-1834 [Oxford: Clarendon, 1965] p. 22). 98, 11. 31-2: 'Steele, Society of Barbados': Dickson transcribes 'Miscellaneous Committee, April 10, 1786-. A paper, dated August 16, 1785, intitled, Matter for Consideration of the Committee, with an additional preamble under the title of Sketch of a Form for a Report, which read as follows: "The Report of the miscellaneous or country committee, on the second section of the subjects, in a paper referred to them (on 2 January 1783) namely concerning the Slave-Laws.'" (see Mitigation of Slavery, pp. 100-7). 99, I. 30: Mr. W. Smith, MP. for Norwich, addressing the House on the subject of slavery: could be either the speech of 1791 or 1789. William Smith (1756-1835) was a long standing supporter of Parliamentary reform of Catholic emancipation and a noted opponent of slavery, whose speech in the 1791 debate on abolition is credited with swaying William Pitt. 100, I. 42-p. 101, I. 30: First American war, Nova Scotia and the colony at Sierra Leone: in 1783 Thomas Peters and other blacks who had escaped slavery and served on the British side in the American War of Independence sailed to Nova Scotia, carrying a commendation for faithful service. Rapidly disillusioned by the discrimination they experienced there, Peters and many of the ex-slaves for whom he became spokesman, requested to be allowed to settle in Sierra Leone, the new 'free' colony which abolitionists were establishing on the African coast. Parliament approved the scheme, and set up the Sierra Leone Company in June 1791. Thomas Clarkson was a director. His brother, John Clarkson, left to found the colony in August, stopping in Halifax. Together Clarkson and the Nova Scotian blacks reached Sierra Leone in March 1792. 101, H. 35-42: '1814, British Army and Americans, Trinidad': the resettlement of ex-American slaves in Trinidad was seen at the time as a solution to the shortage of labour on the island. In 1816, a regiment of black soldiers raised in the 1814 American war was disbanded there, the men being given grants of land. 102, I. 3: Sir Ralph Woodford, Governor of Trinidad: he had inherited estates in Tobago from his father; along with the baronetcy, Woodford was considered 'respectable'. He was Governor from 1812. As Governor, he had

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opposed too rapid reform of slave laws, and argued against missionaries being allowed influence over blacks as if they were free. 102, 11. 12-3: Sierra Leone Colony from Black regiments and Waterloo, Hastings and other villages: as part of the reduction in the military after the end of the Napoleonic War, the garrison in Sierra Leone was taken over in 1819 by five companies of the second West Indian Regiment, and the Royal African Corps was disbanded. About 1,000 discharged soldiers, including some from the disbanded fourth West Indian Regiment, were given land and pensions in the colony. The villages of Waterloo and Hastings were sited on land bought from the Temne tribe, 1819. 102, I. 38: 'Governor of Sierra Leone, Sir Charles McCarthy': from 1814, the only later governor of Sierra Leone of whom the Clarkson brothers approved, Maccarthy brought the colony a liberal regime in which delinquent rents were ignored, dissidents offered amnesty and racial harmony achieved. Maccarthy was killed in January 1824 in the Ashanti War (see Ellen Gibson Wilson, John Clarkson and the African Adventure [London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1980], pp. 176-7). 102, 11. 22-3: Isles de Los: islands off the coast of Sierra Leone. On Sierra Leone, see Christopher Fyfe, A History of Sierra Leone (London: Oxford University Press, 1962). 102, I. 43: Regents Town, Sierra Leone: Regent came into being in 1816 at the behest of Governor Maccarthy, from the previous settlement of Hogbrook. Built as part of a scheme (funded by the government; run by the Church Missionary Society) to civilise resettled liberated slaves, Regent boasted the colony's first stone church. The missionary William Johnson presided there, astonishing English visitors by his success in converting the inhabitants to Christian beliefs and European manners. 104, I. 14: Mungo Park (1771-1806) African explorer, see note to Wilberforce (above) for p. 33, 11. 16-17. 104, I. 31: House of Commons, 1816: Hansard XXXIV, 19 June, 1816. Mr Manning submitted the house with a letter he had received just hours before the debate. 'It was written by a gentleman in a high legal situation in the West Indies. The letter was dated 4 May last:- "Pray tell Mr. Wilberforce", says the writer, "that until the negroes heard of the registry bill, and Mr. Stephen's book, which they call A Report of the African Society, I slept with doors and windows open; but now, although under the guns of a fort, I have loaded pistols at the side of my bed every night. In short, the measure, whatever may be the result in England, has already done more to check the progressive improvement of the state of slavery, than the society can remedy in twenty years'" (col. 1224-5). 106, I. 11: 'National Assembly': the lawmaking assembly in the early years of the French Revolution. 106, I. 11: Petition of People of the National Assembly, Saint Domingue, March 8, 1790; May 15, 1791: in October 1789, the president of the French National Assembly responded to the petition of the mulattos of Saint Domingue (modern Haiti) for the fulfillment of the recent recognition of the rights of all men to citizenship. He said, 'Not a single part of the nation shall ask in vain for its rights for the assembly.' By March 1790, however, the white colonists had exerted pressure on the Assembly to uphold slavery, and the decree of 8 March avoided the issue. Clarkson's accurate presentation of subsequent events can be compared with the accounts given by Step hen

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Alexis, Black Liberator: The Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture (London: Ernest Benn, 1949), and H.P. Davis, Black Democracy: The Story of Haiti (London: George AlIen & Unwin, 1929). 106, I. 45: 'Conventional Assembly': the National Convention succeeded the National Assembly as the chief lawmaking body of Revolutionary France. 107, I. 9: 'Sonthonax, Polverel, and another': Uger Felicite Sonthonax: a member of the Jacobin faction in the French Revolution, appointed Commissioners to Saint Domingue in April 1792 by the National Assembly with instructions to recognise only two classes on the island, freed men, regardless of colour, and slaves. Etienne Polverel was Sonthonax's fellow commissioner. Ailhaud (i.e. 'another') also a commissioner, rerurned to France soon after arrival in Saint Domingue, disgusted with his fellow commissioners. 107,11. 15-17: A quarrel between a mulatto and a white on June 20, 1793: this incident sparked the powder keg created by the appointment of Jacobin commissioners. The white officer insisted Sonthonax should punish the mulatto who had insulted him. When Sonthonax refused to do so before holding an inquiry, white colonists and seamen, determined not to concede authority to blacks and mulattos, attacked, attempting to remove the commissioners from power. After three days of fighting and rioting, the white colonists were defeated. 107, I. 42: 'Port-au-Prince': the capital of Haiti; Les Cayes: a city of Haiti, a seaport on the southwestern coast. Polverel hurried to visit these towns because in September 1793 the British invaded Saint Domingue. By December, they were two of the last four ports controlled by the French. In May 1894, Port-au-Prince fell to the British. 108, I. 30: 'Proclamation of Polverel or of Les Cayes': Polverel applied Sonthonax's proclamation to the rest of the island, lest rebellious slaves kill white colonists. 109, I. 7: Colonel Malenfant, M/moire Historique et Politique des Colomes ... : the publication details are in Clarkson's own footnote. Charles Malenfant, badly wounded in the British invasion, was imprisoned and clapped in irons by General Whyte, commander of British troops. 109, I. 30: Toussaint L'Ouverrure: the inspirational leader of black rebellion against the French in Saint Domingue, who made alliances with the Spanish, fought the invading British, and instiruted black rule. Died in a French prison in 1803. 109, I. 32: 'plain of the CuI de Sac': area near Port-au-Prince of particularly fruitful soil. 109, I. 32: 'Plantation Gouraud': a plantation on which Malenfant oversaw labour. 110, I. 32: 'Jean Fran~ois': leader of the slave rebellion of 1791 after the death of its instigator, the Jamaican Boukmann. First Toussaint's commander, then his enemy after T oussaint broke the blacks' alliance with Spain. Exiled to Cadiz in January 1796. Subsequently he was made governor of Oran, where he died in 1820. 110, I. 32: 'Biassou': boyhood friend of Toussaint. Jean Fran~ois's lieutenant in the 1791 rebellion. Later Biassou was imprisoned by Toussaint and Jean Fran~ois. Upon release, Biassou became Toussaint's enemy and, as an ally of Spain, went into exile when Toussaint gained power. 111, I. 11: 'Buonaparte': also called Napoleon I, or Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). He reimposed slavery in French dominions.

342

Notes to pages 111-15

p. 111, I. 11: 'Leclerc': Victor Emmanuel Leclerc, Napoleon's brother-in-law. Leclerc was commander-in-chief of the force sent by Napoleon to retake Saint Domingue in 1802. He organised Toussaint's capture and then died of yellow fever while trying vainly to crush black resistance in November 1802. p. 111, I. 25: 'General Lacroix': Pamphile de Lacroix, Memoirs for a History of Saint Domingue (Paris, 1819). p. 112, I. 4: General Vincent, general of brigade of artillery in Saint Domingue: Vincent was sent to Saint Domingue by Napoleon. He arrived in 1800 and was in charge of fortification there. He negotiated with Toussaint, conveying to him France's recognition of him as commander-in-chief of all rebels in Saint Domingue. He delivered Toussaint's constitution (effectively a declaration of independence from France in all but name) to Napoleon in October 1801. p. 112, I. 12: The Directory': Directoire. The Government established in France after the fall of Robespierre in 1794. It lasted until 1799 when the Consulate was established by the coup d'etat of 9 November (18th Brumaire). p. 112, I. 15: 'peace of Amiens': a treaty signed at Amiens, France on 27 March 1802 by Britain, France, Spain and the Batavian Republic establishing peace in Europe for fourteen months during the Napoleonic Wars. According to James Stephen in his Slavery of the British West India Colonies Delineated (1824), 'after the Peace of Amiens, it was felt and acknowledged by the assemblies, that their black troops had probably saved them from conquest, and from a revolution of the most terrible kind' (p. 424). p. 112, I. 18: 'First Consul': the title given Napoleon after his coup d'etat gave him power in 1800. p. 112, I. 23: 'The Antilles': alternative name of the West Indies, form the mythical 'Antilla'. Greater Antilles refers to the four largest islands - Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica. Lesser AntiIles refers to the smaller islands, principally those in the chain between Puerto Rico and South America. p. 114, 11. 10-13: Short code of rules developed by Sonthonax and Polverel, slaves get one-third of the estate; can leave in a year. The code developed after the proclamation of August 29, 1793. p. 114,11.28-9: Toussaint's Code of Rules: Toussaint's period in power in Saint Domingue saw him restore planters to estates in a successful effort to revive agricultural prosperity. His code of rules prevented slavery but from late 1800 he was organising gendarmerie companies who scoured the countryside, rounding up ex-slaves who were then forced to work on specified estates. This fermage system - effectively serfdom - was enforced by harsh punishments, including summary execution for blacks who resisted or slacked at their work. p. 115, I. 34: 'Dessalines': Jean-Jacques Dessalines (1758-1806). Emperor of Haiti. In the slave revolt of 1791 Dessalines was second to T oussaint. After T oussaint was arrested, Dessalines was crowned emperor of independent Haiti. However, his cruelty to whites and mulattos soon alienated his followers and while trying to repress a revolt led by the mulatto leader Petion, he was cut down by Henri Christophe who took his place. p. 115, I. 35: 'Christophe': Henri Christophe (1767-1820). Haitian ruler. He was a Lieutenant of Toussaint. He assassinated Dessalines and was appointed President in 1807. He was proclaimed King of Haiti as Henri I in 1811. During an insurrection against his government, he committed suicide.

Notes to pages 115-31

343

p. 115, I. 35: Petion, Alexander Sabes (1770-1818). Haitian revolutionary leader. Petion, a mulatto, fought against England and France to liberate Haiti. He became President of an independent republic in South Haiti, and from 1811-1818, he was at war with Henri Christophe, who ruled North Haiti. p. 117, I. 3: 'General Hedouille': General the Marquis Theodore Hedouville. He was a French Revolutionary soldier who had quelled royalist uprising in La Vendee, arrived at Saint Domingue as Representative of the Directory, where he attempted to limit Toussaint's power. He was expelled by Toussaint's rebellion in October 1798. p. 117, I. 11: 'State of Columbia': founded 1819 after Bolivar led his army from the plains of Orinoco to the capital of the vice-royalty of New Granada, where he established the Republic of Columbia. p. 117, I. 11: 'General Bolivar': Sim6n BoUvar (1783-1830), liberator of Venezuela, 'New Granada' (Columbia), and Peru. He dreamed of united South America in which the republics sent their representatives to a congress. p. 117, I. 17: 'Congress of Venezuela': set up by Bolivar on February 15, 1819; who addressed it on that day, submitting his plan of a constitution for the new republic (hereditary senate, president, independent judiciary). He ended his address with a plea for absolute freedom for all slaves. p. 117, I. 19: 'Congress of Columbia': this congress ratified the fundamental law establishing the Republic of Columbia in December 1819. It provided that the new republic should be divided into three departments. In 1821, the Constitutional Congress partially ratified Bolivar's decrees (as President) abolishing slavery. He had sought to have Congress 'decree the absolute freedom of all Columbians by the fact of their birth in the territory of the Republic'. Congress, however, levied a tax on inherited property to establish a fund for the manumission of slaves, so it was less than absolute and immediate freedom. Children of slaves, Congress decreed, were born free. p. 118, 1. 4: 'James Stephen': see last selection in this volume. p. 118, I. 20: 'The Honorable Joshua Steele': Vice-President of the London Society of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce. Steele was elected to this position in 1779. In 1781, he formed in Barbados a subordinate society of the same name. Reportedly, he was interested in reforming the slave system and employing poor whites, with an aim towards the enfranchisement of both. Dr. Dickson lived about 10-12 miles from Steele in Bridgetown, Barbados. The volume entitled Mitigation of Slavery is authored by Steele and Dickson. p. 124, I. 37: 'adscripti glebte': this means 'attached' or 'joined' or 'enlisted' to the soil. p. 131, I. 37: 'Pliny': (AD 23-79), Roman scholar called Gaius Plinius Secundus, or Pliny the Elder; 'Columella': (lst century AD), Roman writer on agriculture; called Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella. p. 131, 1. 37: 'Dr. Adam Smith': (1723-1790), Scottish philosopher and economist. In 1759, he published Theory of Moral Sentiments in which he wrote 'There is not a Negro from the coast of Africa who does not . . . possess a degree of magnanimity, which the soul of his sordid master is too often scarce capable of conceiving. Fortune never exerted more cruelly her empire over mankind, than when she subjected those nations of heroes to the refuse of the gaols of Europe'; in 1776 Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. (see Eric Williams, From Columbus to Castro: The History of the Caribbean 1492-1969, [Andre Deutsch, 1970] p. 210).

344

Notes to pages 132-48

p. 132, I. 12: 'Henry Botham, Esq.': he went from the East to the West Indies. He was examined by the Privy Council in 1791 for whom he also wrote a paper. The Evidence of the Privy Council states that Botham 'Went to the West Indies in 1770, and in about two years, visited all the islands, English and French, and was employed by the government in Grenada, to ascertain the difference of property there between the old and new subject. He was not long a planter in the West Indies. He directed Messrs. Bosanquet and Fatio's sugar estate there, in their partner's absence, but he carried on sugar works many years in Bencoolen, in the East Indies.' See Abridgement of the Minutes of the Evidence, Taken Before a Committee of the Whole House to whom it was referred to consider of the Slave Trade, vols 3 and 4, 1790-1. Botham's evidence is in no. IV, 1791, pp. 133-8. p. 132, I. 25: 'Bencoolen': Benkulen, port on the West coast of Sumatra. p. 133, I. 5: 'Batavia': now Jakarta, Java. pp. 134-7: Clarkson's sources are indicated here. Gaisford's Essay on the Good Effects of the Abolition of the Slave Trade was unlocatable. The references to Francklyn, Tobin, Dalling, and Jackson are located in the Abridgement of the Minutes of the Evidence, Taken Before a Committee of the Whole House to whom it was referred to consider of the Slave Trade, Nos 11, III and IV, 179091. Mr. Francklyn refers to Gilbert Franklyn, Esq who went to the West Indies in 1766, where he 'principally resided in Antiqua till the latter end of 1787. He chiefly superintended a number of negroes. He was also in Tobago and Jamaica' (No. 11, 1790, pp. 28-41). Mr. Tobin refers to James Tobin who lived 10-12 years in the West Indies 'at different times and places, particularly Nevis and St Kitts' (No. 11, 1790, pp. 92-104). Dalling is Sir John Dalling, Bart. He 'resided soldier and governor of Jamaica off and on from the taking of the Havannah till 1781' (No. 11, 1790, pp. 170-3). Jackson is Dr Jackson who 'went to Jamaica in 1774, resided there four years where he practiced medicine' (No. IV, 1791, pp. 30-4). Rev. John Hampden, A Commentary on Mr. Cla,kson's Pamphlet In the preface (not reprinted in this volume), the following quotation appears: 'absentem qui rodit amicum; Qui non d'efendit, alio culpante; Hic niger est': this is taken from Horace, Sermons 1.4.79-80. Hampden hopes to suggest that Negroes cannot be trusted, that they will slander absent friends who cannot defend themselves from guilt. Hampden, however, has pieced Horace's quotation together for his own purposes. The full citation reads: unde petium hoc in me iacis? Est auctor quis denique eorum, vixi cum quibus? Absentem qui rodit, amicum qui non defendit alio culpante, solutos qui cap tat risus hominum famamque dicacis, fingere qui non visa potest, conmissa tacere qui negquit: hic niger est, hunc tu, Romane, caveto. p. 148, I. 3: 'amis des noirs of France': the Soci~t~ des Amis des Noirs was formed in 1788; it corresponded with the London, Philadelphia, and New York abolitionist societies. In 1789 it urged France to free slaves in the colonies but like the British abolitionists, it pushed first of all for abolition of the slave trade.

Notes to pages 150-69

345

p. 150, I. 14: Clarkson collecting petitions: see headnote to Hampden. In 1823, Clarkson travelled over 10,000 miles in England, reviving seventy local antislavery organisations and establishing new ones as well as collecting petitions. In Britain's unreformed Parliament, petitions provided the best method for the unrepresented public to bring their complaints before the Government. p. 152, I. 25: Code Noir, France: in force from 1685 until it was replaced by the Code Napoleon in 1805. The Code Noir was a 60-article edict produced by Louis XIV's officials. It recognised no contradiction between the interests of colonists and the French government on the issue of slave regulation and discipline. It was worded to protect the slaves' right to life and social identity. But, it was also concerned with the owner's power over slaves. It demanded absolute obedience from the slave who could own no property and was punishable by death for striking whites. p. 156, 11. 9-13: Acts of protection; etc., in Jamaica, Grenada, Dominica, in Clarkson's pamphlet: Hampden is conflating different bills here. The Act of Grenada, not Dominica, was passed on December 9, 1797. It reads: 'An Act for the better protection and for promoting the natural increase and population of slaves within the Island of Grenada, and such of the Grenadines as are annexed to the government thereof; for compelling an adequate provision for and care of them, as well in sickness and old age as in health; and for constituting and appointing guardians to effectuate and carry into execution the regulations and purposes of the Act.' This act was established because laws for benevolence purposes intended by this Act had expired. (See Colonial Laws Respecting Slaves, Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed,S April, 1816, p. 67). p. 156, 11. 8-9: Consolidated Laws of Jamaica: this may refer to the table of Acts of Jamaica from 1788 to the present writing of the pamphlet. There is a consolidated law of 1824 called 'The Slave Trade Act 1824', but Hampden is probably not referring to this. His reference is, more likely, to the act of Jamaica Assembly called 'An Act for the subsistence, clothing and Better Regulation and Government of Slaves, of December 19, 1816'. (See Miscellaneous Papers, 1816, Volume XVII; British Official Documents.) p. 157,11.8-9: 'Partus sequitur ventrem': see note to Clarkson p. 93, I. 34. p. 159, ns: Hampden's sources are difficult to locate. For instance, there are many Modern Universal Histories for this period. Robertson's Charles V refers to William D. D. Robertson, The History and Reign of the Emperor Charles V, with a view of the progress of Society in Europe, from the subversion of the Roman Empire to the beginning of the sixteenth century, first published in 1769. p. 162: Nova Scotia, Sierra Leone, Trinidad: see Clarkson entries. p. 165, I. 6: 'Colonel Malenfant': Charles Malenfant, badly wounded in the British invasion, was imprisoned and clapped in irons by General Whyte, commander of British troops. He oversaw labour on the Gourand Plantation (see Clarkson notes). p. 165, I. 11: 'General La Croix': Pamphile de Lacroix, Memoirs for a History of Saint Domingue, Paris, 1819. Hampden clarifies his source for this in Appendix Ill. p. 169, I. 2: Republic of Columbia: Hampden expands on this is Appendix IV. p. 169, 11. 21-2: Steele on Barbados: Mitigation of Slavery in Two Parts. Part I: Letters and Papers of the Late Honourable Joshua Steele. Part 11: Letter to

346

p. p.

p.

p.

p.

p. p.

p.

p.

p.

Notes to pages 169-85

Thomas Clarkson, Esq., M.A. by William Dickson, formerly secretary to Hon. Edward Hay, late Governor of Barbados, London: Longman, 1814. 172, I. 21: Hampden's quote from Steele is not found in the text as cited. Hampden uses open quote marks, so it is difficult to tell where he has taken the 'it' from. 173, I. 2: 'Mr. Poyer': John Poyer of Speightstown published The History of Barbadoes from the first discovery of the Island in the year 1605 till the accension of Lord Seaforth, 1801. (London: J. Mawman, 1808). Poyer was pro-slavery. He attested to the belief that slaves in the West Indies were in a better position than poor whites in Britain. 173, I. 22: 'copyhold system': in early English law, this was a form of landholding defined as 'holding at the will of the lord according to the custom of the manor'. A portion of the manor was cultivated by labourers who were bound to the land and could not leave the manor. They could, however, cultivate the land for their own use. In his Mitigation of Slavery, Dickson discusses the copyhold system of Barbados used by Steele (pp. 1315). Steele paid them wages and collected rent, and they became 'copyhold Bond-Slaves' . 175,11. 12-13: 'Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts': Anglican society founded in 1701 to assist in the missionary work of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. The society owned plantations in the Caribbean, where it was involved in contradictory teachings. On the one hand, it sought to promote Christian marriage among slaves on its estates. On the other hand, it refused to abandon the use of the whip on estates, and only in 1832 did it stop slave branding by burning the letters 'society' on the chests of its new negroes. 176, n.: 'Pliny': (AD 23-79), Roman scholar called Gaius Plinius Secundus, or Pliny the Elder; Princep refers to Augustus Caesar's institutional and ideological imperial framework which he built in the first three centuries AD. Princeps was the term Augustus gave to his political position and has since come to refer to a head of state. 177, I. 2: 'Mr. Botham': see Clarkson note (above) for p. 132, I. 12. 179: Hampden is saying that Clarkson's plan was established on the fact that plantations would become more profitable if cultivated by freemen and that the land values would double, thus greatly offsetting any loss of value because of slave emancipation. Hampden argues Clarkson's argument is hypothetical, 'building castles in air'. Hampden says Clarkson, as a middle-class Briton with no financial interest in the plantation system, can make this kind of unrealistic argument. Hampden himself claims there are already free blacks in the Caribbean with no evidence of self-employment. 179, I. 28: slavery in the abstract: this was a major point of contention between anti- and pro-slavery debates, the discussion of slavery in the abstract, which even pro-slavery writers opposed, and slavery in the specific, which accounted for the economics and potential threat of slave insurrection to planters. 182, I. 14: 'Credat Judiaus': this comes from Horace, Satires, 1. 5. 100-101, 'Credat Judreus Apella, non ego'; literally, 'Let Apella the Jew believe, not 1'. The story in the Satires is that Horace passes a shrine renowned for a miracle, but he does not believe in such things, uttering this line. 185, 11. 19-20: 'Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes': this comes from Virgil, Aeneid 2. 49, 'Quicquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentis'; literally, 'Whatever it is, I fear Greeks, even those bearing gifts'.

Notes to pages 192-222

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p. 192, n.: 'Mr. Evarist': Wesleyan Missionary Society Report: Methodist missionaries suffered more opposition than other missionaries, such as Moravians, partly because they were not formally structured by the Missionary Society until 1812, but more because of the uncompromising abolitionist statement of John Wesley's Thoughts on Slavery (1774). However, Methodism, no matter how anti-slavery Wesley was, ended up being basically a conservative movement, leading to measures such as segregation in chapels (see Michael Craton, Empire, Enslavement and Freedom in the Caribbean [Oxford: James Currey, 1997] p. 270). p. 197, n.: Henry's Great Britain: Robert Henry, a historian who wrote The History of Great Britain, for the first Invasion of it by the Romans under Julius Caesar. This was first published in 1771, 12 vols, (London, 1823). p. 198, 11. 4-5: 'Slave Code': the laws regulating the treattnent of slaves by plantation owners and their personnel. Slave codes differed from colony to colony and year to year. p. 199, I. 4: 'Statute Book': book recording statues passed by Parliament. p. 201, col. 2, I. 8: 'Major Moody, Royal Engineers': Major Thomas Moody, an expert on West Indian Affairs, spent the greater part of his life in the West Indies. He had spent seven years as a mathematics master at Codrington College in Barbados. As an officer of Royal Engineers, he served various colonial posts before being one of the Home Secretaries for Foreign Parliamentary Commissioners. Major Moody's report came out March 2, 1825 titled 'Report on the Negroes Condemned to the Crown, in the Court of Vice-Admiralty, at Tortola, since the Abolition of the Slave Trade' (see Correspondence on the Slave Trade 1822-25. Parliamentary Papers, Chronological Sequence. Major Moody's report runs from pp. 49-152. Hampden quotes from p. 152). p. 206, I. 21: 'Codrington Colony': the Codringtons were feudal landlords of Gloucestershire. Christopher Codrington (1640-98) built one of the richest and most profitable estates in Barbados. The Codringtons later acquired land on other West Indian islands and established, with help from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, a theological and medical college for white Barbadians. p. 209, 11. 20-1: Memoires pour Servir 4 I'Histoire de France, sous Napoleon, ecrits a Sainte Helene par les generaux qui ont partage sa captivite by Baron Gaspard Gourgaud [i.e., Baron Gourgaud and C. J. F. T. de Montholon) (Paris, 1823) p. 194. p. 211, 11. 13-14: 'Humbolt's Travels': Baron Fredrich Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt, Personal Narrative of Travels to the equinoctial regions of a New Continent. trans. Helen Maria Williams, 3 vols (London: Longman, 1822). Hampden quotes vol. 3, p. 433 but leaves out the phrase, 'I had formed on the spot, in 1800, afrer consulting rich proprietors .. .'. p. 212, 11. 15-16: 'First Report of the New York Colonization Society': probably the New York chapter of the American Colonization Society, founded in 1817 to help resettle free blacks in the United States to Liberia and to suppress the slave trade. George Canning, The Speech of the Rt. Hon. George Canning, in the House of Commons p. 222, I. 26: 'slavery in the abstract': see headnote to Canning. See also note to Hampden (above) for p. 179, I. 28.

348

Notes to pages 223-31

p. 223, 11. 3-4: ‘settled rights of inheritance ... various ramifications of property*: in 1823, Canning accepted the position of the London Committee of West India Planters and Merchants and presented it to the government, including the abolitionists, proposing that this be the course of action for easing slaves into freedom, while at the same time providing safety of the colonies and a ‘fair and equitable consideration of the interests of private property* (quoted in Dixon, p. 257). p. 223, 1. 11: ‘passing the Resolutions of last year*: 16 May, 1823, col. 257-60. The Abolition of Slavery, a debate primarily between Folwell Buxton and Canning. Hansard New Series IX, May-July 1823. p. 227, 11. 9-10: Crown Colonies vs. Old Colonies: the old colonies, such as St Kitts, Nevis, Antigua, Barbados and Jamaica, which were settled early by English colonists, developed a pattern of colonial government based on what the settlers had come from - very much like an England in miniature, only the system did not work in the West Indies. The legislative assemblies could not govern themselves effectively and they resented interference from the British Parliament. The Crown Colonies represented the other form of colonial government in the West Indies at this time. These were territories such as St Lucia, Trinidad, Berbice and Demerara which became British possessions at the turn of the 19th century. In these places, the laws and institutions to which the people were accustomed were retained, and the Crown kept legislative power firmly in its own hands. Since power was in the hands of the Crown, it was easier in places such as Trinidad for the British government to enforce legislation in connection with abolition and emancipation. p. 228,1. 4 ff: Canning submitted a motion saying Trinidad should not be placed on the same footing. On 27 May 1802, Canning asked the House of Commons that all grants of land be delayed until the government had time to consider the manner carefully. (Ever since Trinidad came into British possession from Spain in 1796, West Indian planters had been asking for the right to buy land on the fertile and uncultivated island.) Canning also suggested in this motion that an effort should be made on the side of the British to settle the island with people who would stay there for good, he argued that European free labour should be used to cultivate the island, and he asked for protection for the Native Indians who lived there. p. 229,11. 11-13: ‘Resolutions of the West India Body in this Country, in the course of last year’: Canning here is referring to the Church of England and its missionary body the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Not only did the Society own slave plantations, its member were only interested in Christianising slaves to maintain the status quo. p. 230, 11. 23-4: ‘Ecclesiastical Establishment in the West Indies*: these included Moravians, Baptists, Catholics, Methodists, and Anglicans. Until 1754, the Anglican Church had a monopoly of Christianity. The Catholic Church became a solid force in the colonies after 1763. A number of nonconformist establishments also practiced in the West Indies in the early 19th century. p. 231, 1. 14: The Order of Council and the laws at Trinidad: Trinidad, being a crown colony, did not have a legislative assembly. The government hoped to introduce changes to the slave system in Trinidad so that it would serve as a example to other colonies that did have legislative assemblies. One of the Orders of Council was passed in 1824 that the government very much hoped other would adopt.

Notes to pages 232-67

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p. 232, 11. 23-4: 'Ca:lumque tuerilJussus, et erectos ad sidera tol/ere vultus': this comes from Ovid, Metamorphoses, I. 85-6, literally, 'rrhe Creator] ordered [mankind] to gaze upon heaven, and to lift his face, standing erect, to the stars'. p. 239, I. 1: 'Haud facilem esse viam voluit': this comes from Virgil, Georgics, 1.122, '[Pater ipse colendi]1 haud facilem esse viam voluit, primusque per artem'; literally, 'rrhe Father himself]1 by no means wanted this [farming] to be an easy road.' p. 239, I. 24: 'recent romance': this allusion refers to Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein. The novel had gone into a second edition and been adapted as stage play in 1823. p. 243, I. 30: 'arcanum of empire': this suggests a 'mystery' or 'secret' of empire. p. 244, 11. 1-2: 'penetralia of the Constitution': this suggests something held in the innermost part of the constitution. p. 244, I. 24: 'Quos ego - sed motos pra:stat componere {luctus': this comes from Virgil, Aeneid, I. 135; literally, 'For 1- but first it would be better that I calm the moving waters.' [Neptune]: 'Tantane vos generis tenuit fiducia vestri? lam caelum terramque meo sine numine, venti, Miscere, et tantas audetis wile re moles? Quos ego - sed motos praestat componere fluctus. Post mihi non simili poena commissa luetis.' p. 245, I. 1: the copy text used for this edition has the word in the top corner blacked out with 'Washington' handwritten above. A replacement page was looked for, but the same problem was encountered. The word underneath the handwriting reads 'Cushing'. p. 245, 1. 25: situation with regards to Jamaica: the legislative body resisted interference by the Imperial government regarding the new slave codes, but Canning is siting Jamaica's geographic location as a factor in its eventual acceptance of such regulations. p. 246, 11. 11-12: 'Episcopal Establishments': see n. to p. 230 (above). According to Michael Craton, 'the rapid Christianisation of British West Indian slaves after 1783 clearly had a vital effect on their general consciousness' ( Craton, Empire, Enslavement, and Freedom in the Caribbean [Oxford, James Currey, 1997] p. 269). James Stephen, England Enslaved by Her Own Colonies p. 266, I. 45: Mr. Folwell Buxton's motion for the Abolition of Slavery: House of Commons, 15 May 1823 (see Hansard IX, 1823). p. 266, I. 45: Canning's speech is at the end of the House of Common's discussion on the Amelioration of the Slave Population in the West Indies in 1824. It is also printed in this volume in its pamphlet form (see Hansard X, 1824, col. 1091-134). p. 267, I. 20: 'The Crown and the Assemblies': refers to the government in England (the House of Commons and the House of Lords), and the various colonial assemblies. Also, a distinction is made between old colonies and Crown colonies, meaning those recently taken by the crown and mode led after the British government.

350

Notes to pages 267-72

p. 267, 1. 29: ‘West India Committee*: from an early date, the London merchants and land owners with interests in the West Indies exercised considerable influence at court and later with the council for Trade and Plantations, and by 1666 were bringing considerable pressure to bear on the selection of governors and on colonial policy. They were later associated with ‘The Gentlemen Planters of London*, and it is from the group that the West India Committee descended. p. 267, 1. 30: ‘Mr. Ellis*: (1777-1855) he was an MP for Boston from 1820-1 and commissioner for customs from 1824-5. In 1830 he issued a pamphlet called ‘Series of Questions on the East India Question*, p. 267, 1. 46: ‘Spanish Inquisitors*: the tribunal to inquire into and suppress hearsay established by Innocent III at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. In Spain, its tyranny was most notorious. p. 267, 1. 46: ‘Turkish Divan*: an Oriental council presided over by a sultan; a hall where the Turkish Divan is held is a court of justice. Stephen uses this term to imply dishonesty, especially since, at this time, Turkey and Greece were at war. p. 268, 1. 34: ‘Pitt*: William Pitt (1759-1806) Statesman, see note to Wilberforce above, p. 34,1. 17. p. 2 6 8 ,1. 41: ‘May 1823*: refers to the 1823 Amelioration Debate of 15 May. p. 269, 1. 5: Demerara and Jamaica horrors: in Demerara, the Insurrection of 1823 was one of the most serious of the West Indian colonies. The governor delayed the Secretary of State’s dispatch regarding amelioration for slaves. When the slaves learned of this, they thought the delay was a posponement of the immediate emancipation. In August 1823, some 13,000 slaves were in open rebellion. Troops suppressed them under Marshall law, but the local government blames the missionaries for informing slaves of the delay, p. 269,1. 15: ‘West Indian Court’: in all the Islands, courts were established and regulated under local statute, which limited the amount of power each governor had. Governors were appointed by the Crown, p. 269, 1. 42: Missionary Smith’s trial: Rev. John Smith of the London Missionary Society who was tried by a court Marshall and found guilty of inciting slaves to rebellion in the Demerara insurrection of August 1823. He died of consumption while in prison. In the House of Commons and by public opinion in England, Smith’s trials were considered a travesty of justice, p. 269, 11. 43-4: Conspiracies of Jamaica, printed by House of Commons last session: towards the end of 1823 and early in 1824, there was unrest among the slaves. A number of arrests were made. Eleven Negroes were executed on a charge of conspiracy. However, the evidence brought against them was so weak that the House of Commons unanimously resolved in 1826 that the trials were further proof of the evils of slavery, p. 270,1.15: ‘Wilberforce’s Register Bill*: see note to Wilberforce above, p. 38,1.15 p. 270, 1. 25: ‘insurrection of Barbados’: this took place after the Registration Acts (1815-16) were talked about in Parliament and who then asked each Assembly to pass. On 14 April 1816, slaves on St Philip’s parish rose up, and within a few hours the insurrection had spread to two other parishes. By the end, over sixty buildings were destroyed and cane fields put on fire, p. 271,1. 21: a person who was elected to keep order in the streets. p. 272,1. 29: ‘Earl Bathurst’: Lord Bathurst and the Trinidad legislation. For the lengthy correspondence of Trinidad Order-in-Council, see Accounts and

'beadle’s laced hat':

Notes to pages 273-82

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p. p. p. p. p. p.

351

Papers (see Hansard, 1823 XVII; and Papers presented pursuant to address, relating to the Island of Trinidad, printed by the House of Commons, 18 February 1823). 273, 1. 23: 'esprit de corps': see Wilberforce note, p. 56, 1. 18. 274, 11. 16-17: The plantation system had a monopoly on sugar in Britain. Since the British consumers had no choice but to purchase sugar from the West Indies, there was no competition for the West Indians. The price of sugar thus increased rapidly (from 27s to 42s in one year). Stephen is arguing that a duty on foreign sugar of 36s would be needed to maintain West Indian sugar economically. 276, 1. 23: 'Isle of France': French Island, called at different times Martinique, Martinino, Madanina, Madanira, Martileno, and Metalina. 277, 1. 24: Joint-Stock Companies in the last session of Parliament. This has to do with the raising and importation of sugar from the East and West Indies. 278, 1. 42: 'Rochambeau': Leclerc was succeeded by General Donatien-MarieJospeh Rochambeau, in 1803, British warships blockaded the ports of Hispaniola, cutting off the French from food and other supplies, and the Negroes captured all the towns one by one. The French surrendered to the British, Rochambeau and 8,000 of his men were taken prisoner in Jamaica. 279, 1. 43: 'pacification with France in 1814': on 11 April 1814 Napoleon relinquished power to the allies. 279, 1. 6: 'Roman Emperors by mutinies of prretorian bands': soldiers or bodyguards of an emperor. A member of the class that is supposed to defend the established order. The Western Roman Empire (c. 410-455) was severely weakened by internal instability because of the mutinies of praetorian bands. 279, 11. 15-16: 'Monarchical and Republican ... Christophe and Petion': Henri Christophe (1767-1820). Haitian ruler, he was a Lieutenant of Toussaint. He assassinated Dessalines and was appointed President in 1807. He was proclaimed King of Haiti as Henri I in 1811. During insurrection against his government, he committed suicide. Alexander Sabes Petion (17701818). Haitian revolutionary leader. Petion, a mulatto, fought against England and France to liberate Haiti. He became President of an independent republic in South Haiti, and from 1811-18, he was at war with Henri Christophe, who ruled North Haiti. 279, 1. 21: 'Boyer': Jean-Pierre Boyer (1776-1850). Boyer was President of Haiti from 1818-43. 279, 1. 36: 'Sir Home Popham': Sir Home Riggs Popham (1762-1820) He was involved in expeditions and explorations as well as in the East India Company. He was a member of the Royal Society and an MP from 1804-12. 280, 1. 40: 'ad valorem': literally, according to the value of the goods. 281, 1. 28: 'a fortiori': an argument that is conclusive, with even stronger reason. 282, 1. 16: 'July bill': when the House wants to push a bill through quickly, knowing there will not be many people present to discuss it. 282, 1. 36: 'Free Port Acts': the first British Free Port Act was established in 1766, but after the Napoleonic Wars, the system was greatly extended. Originally, the West (ndies provided tropical produce but depended on timber, food, clothing, and other goods from Britain's American colonies and from Britain itself. When the American colonies were relinquished, and when Britain could not supply the needs of the West Indies properly, plantation profitably was severely threatened. New Trade and Navigation laws were

352

Notes to pages 282-96

thus established, allowing the West Indies to trade directly with the United States and other colonies. The Free Port Acts were part of this revised maritime code. See Frances Armytage, (London: Longman, 1953). p. 283, 1. 28 ff: Revolutions in Mexico, South America; Spanish and American Revolutions: the Mexico Revolution of 1810 was led by the revolutionary priest Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla, also called the ‘Father of Mexico’. Throughout the Spanish colonies of South America, revolutions were staged repeatedly during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, beginning with insurgents such as Simon Bolivar and José de San Marin, affecting Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, and Peru. In Spain, revolutionaries staged a coup in 1820 against King Ferdinand VII, but he was restored to power in 1823 at the Battle of Trocadero. The American colonies broke free from Britain in 1776. p. 285, 1. 11: Boyer paying 150 million livres to France: Boyer negotiated an agreement with France in 1825 whereby they would recognise Haitian independence. In return, Boyer agreed to pay an indemnity of 150 million francs as compensation for the massacre of plantation owners by black slaves during the Haitian revolutionary wars. p. 290,1. 31 : Stephen is arguing that the plantation system is actually costing the British National Treasury millions to maintain. To illustrate how economically the system is not viable, Stephen says compares it to the national lottery. He says it would be impossible to sell a £10 ticket for £20, and very difficult to sell it for any value higher than £10. Stephen emphasises here that public money is being used as a loan to sustain the plantation system. p. 294, 1. 2: ‘Spain to her South American mines’: particularly in Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and New Spain, Spanish America produced close to 90 percent of the world’s total silver and gold. p. 294, 1. 43: ‘Slave Trade at Cuba*: from 1762, Cuba became mainly a sugar producing colony. After the Haitian revolution in 1791, the Spanish saw an opportunity to dominate the sugar trade, and thus it eliminated taxes on Cuban sugar and allowed their cane brandy to be imported everywhere. By 1826, Spain was highly dependent on revenue from Cuban sugar plantations. The slaves they needed to work the fields came in mass quantities in 1792. Before that time, the slave population was actually quite small in Cuba. But by 1792, Charles IV allowed anyone to sell slaves at Spanish colonial ports, and Cuban planters were importing slaves directly from Africa. Huge numbers were imported to Cuba in between 1800 and 1826. p. 294,1. 49: France’s Windward Islands: Guadeloupe and Martinique. p. 295, 11. 9-20: Comparisons between slaves and the British poor are common in the debates on abolition and emancipation, but Stephen puts a new slant on it, employing the British poor in the West Indies. p. 296, 1. 17: Spanish America*: Spanish colonies in South America, which at this time included everything except Brazil and British, Dutch, and French Guiana. p. 296, 1. 44: ‘Poyais stockholder*: revolt of Spanish colonies in South and Central America, began in 1810. Many British subjects joined the revolution, namely Sir Gregor MacGregor. In 1821, MacGregor joined the Poyais Indians of the Moskito Coast, became their ‘cacique* and established a form of government there. But his attempts to settle Scottish immigrants on the

The Free Port System in the British West Indies: A Study in Commercial Policy

Notes to pages 296-304

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p. p.

p.

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Moskito Coast failed, and the loans he had raised for his government were never repaid. 297, I. 15: 'establishment at Crockfords': William Crockford, a Billingsgate fishmonger who became the patron of West End gamblers in London. He was perhaps the richest self-made man in Regency London. He owned one of the most fashionable gaming houses in the city along St James's St, nicknamed 'The Pandemonium', it was also derisively called 'Fishmonger's Hall'. 297, I. 28: Stephen's Delineation of Slavery: The Slavery of the British West Indies Delineated, as it exists in both law and practice as compared with the slavery of other countries, Ancient and Modem (London, 1824). 297, I. 43: 'Mr. Maqueen': James MacQueen (1778-1870), he wrote The Colonial Controversy, containing a refutation of the calumnies of the Antico/onialists; the state of Hayti, Sierra Leone, India, China, Le. The production of sugar &re. And the state of the free and slave labourers in those countries fully considered ... With a supplementary letter to Mr. Macaulay (Glasgow, 1825). 301, I. 44: 'Sir Charles Grey' (Windward Islands 1793) and 'Sir John Jarvis' (Windwards Islands 1793): expedition commanded by Admiral Sir John Jervis (afterwards Earl St Vincent) and General Sir Charles Grey (afterwards Earl Grey). They affected military takeovers of Martinique (St Pierre and Fort Royal) then went to St Lucia and then Guadeloupe. It was estimated that during 1794-6, 40,000 British soldiers died because of epidemics. Another 40,000 were discharged as unfit. 301, I. 46: 'General Abercromby': After many deaths (British soldiers butchered), some loyal slaves were armed as British soldiers called 'corps of Black Rangers' and were found to be excellent servicemen. But the British held St Georges only. In April 1796, Sir Ralph Abercromby arrived to command troops, but not before the French under Fedon murdered twenty of their prisoners of war in full view of advancing troops. 302, I. 9: 'Peace of Amiens': a treaty signed at Amiens, France on March 27, 1802 by Britain, France, Spain and the Batavian Republic establishing peace in Europe for fourteen months during the Napoleonic Wars. 302, I. 22: 'Sir William Young': Governor of Tobago. He took a keen interest in travel exploration. For some years he was secretary of the African Association. In 1807 he became Governor of Tobago and remained in that position until his death. He published the West India common-place book compiled from parliamentary and official documents; shewing the interest of Great Britain in its sugar colonies (London: R. Phillips, 1807). 302, I. 50: quotes from the New Annual Register for 1796. 'The mortality that had so fatally prevailed among the British troops in the West Indies, and the inadequate successes obtained there, to the expectations formed from sums expended on the expeditions against the French Islands, were topics of general conversation and complaint.' Annual Register for the Year 1796, (London, 1800), p. 66. 304, I. 16: yellow fever and revenge: yellow fever was thought to strike only whites who travelled to Africa and the West Indies and thus it was interpreted by anti-slavery poets and politicians as an act of divine retribution against Britain for its role in slavery. 305, I. 40: 'fatigue parties': British military: a menial or unpleasant 'chore' to be done; sometimes assigned to those who had committed some minor crime or misdemeanor.

354

Notes to pages 306-22

p. 306, I. 10: 'the state of Ireland': Step hen was referring to the 'torture, arbitrary imprisonment, and massacre that had marked the suppression of Irish dissent (Henry Granan had proclaimed that "the Irish Protestant can never be free until the Irish Catholic has ceased to be a slave").' See Oavid Brion Oavis, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution (lthaca: Cornell University Press, 1975) p. 368. p. 308, I. 41: 'imperium in imperio': literally, 'empire/dominion in/with empire'; politically, this means 'autonomy' or 'limited sovereignty'. p. 309, I. 5: Norfolk meeting and the ministers' pledge of May 1823: refers to Thomas Folwell Buxton's (the prominent Quaker) motion of May 15, 1823 for the abolition of slavery which was debated in the commons and on which Canning's speech in this volume is based. p. 309, I. 42: 'Mr. Fox': Charles James Fox (1749-1806) Statesman, see note to Wilberforce, p. 36, I. 17. p. 310, I. 24: Colonial party in parliament: the West India Comminee, and any of its supporters in Parliament. p. 311, I. 29: Lord Grenville: Baron WilIiam Wyndham Grenville (1759-1834), politician and head of the coalition 'Ministry of all the Talents', from February 1806-March 1807. His greatest achievement was the abolition of the slave trade by a bill that became law the day he left office. A proposed Catholic Relief Bill caused George III to dismiss Grenville and he never again held office in the government. p. 311, 11. 40-1: Canning vs. Ellis in the Slave Trade debate of 1797: debate in the Commons on Mr Ellis's motion for the Amelioration of the condition of Negroes in the West Indies, 6 April, 1797, Hansard XXXIII (1797-8). p. 311, I. 44: 'Wilberforce's bill': see notes above on Wilberforce, p. 64, 11. 8-9. p. 312, H. 35-6: Brougham and the Resolutions of May 1823: 15 May 1823, col. 326-38. Brougham came out very strongly in favour of immediate emancipation. p. 313, I. 20: 'in vacuo': literally 'in an empty place, in a void'. p. 314, I. 33: 'Dr. Lushington': Or Stephen Lushington 11 (1782-1873), of the Inner Temple, London. MP from 1806-41. Worked for many liberal objectives. p. 315, I. 10: Mr. Brougham's able and profound work on colonial policy: An Inquiry into Colonial Policy of the European Powers, 4 vols (Edinburgh, 1803). p. 318, I. 12: 'Ramsay': a parson and former naval surgeon, James Ramsay had been ordained for the West Indies, Ramsay had been not been able to make a living there because of his compassion for slaves. Based on the abuse of slaves he witnessed in St Kitts, he wrote in 1784 Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies (see vol. 2 of this edition). The public stir this caused provoked Ramsay to write, also in 1784, An Inquiry into the Effect of Putting a Stop to the African Slave Trade, and of Granting Liberty to the Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies. This pamphlet advocated that the best way to abolish slavery was to civilise Africa. The ships that now transported slaves would carry free immigrants to work in Africa. His idea that the improvement of Africa was the 'compensation' it deserved for the horrors of slavery was most influential on Wilberforce and Pin. p. 322, I. 16: 'Fox's Indian Bill': this put the management of the land, revenues, and commerce of the East India Company in the hands of several MPs. p. 322, I. 31: 'East India Board': part of Fox's Indian Bill. It was composed of a

Notes to pages 322-4

355

Court of Directors and a Court of Proprietors who gave instructions to nine Assistant Commissioners, each owing at least ¿2000 stock in the East India Company. They were responsible for managing the Company’s trade and revenues. p. 324, 1. 41: ‘the cause of the oppressed Greeks’: the Greek war of independence had been sparked in early 1821 against the Turks of Moldavia and Wallachia. In April the Greeks of Morea rose and massacred thousands of Turks. The Turks responded with even worse atrocities. The fighting spread to the Peloponnese and the islands, while throughout Europe public sympathy grew for the Greek cause.