The IId General Head proposed, is, That this practice of making Slaves of our Brethren is likewise against the law of nature, and the Charter of this Province. The first part of this head, may be easily proved by the following texts of Scripture; Matt. vii. 12. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. Luke vi. 31. And as you would that men should do to you, do ye so to them likewise. Who is that proud one that will not receive these instructions? And who is that man that will do unto any person, either white or black, Christian or Savage, contrary to what he would that he should do to him? This would be acting contrary to reason and common sense. Would any person consent to have himself torn from his friends and native country, and be made a Slave for life, and to have his dear, dear little children continue in the same condition from one generation to another? No; surely no person would agree to that. Well then, it certainly must be contrary to the laws of nature, christianity, and subversive of the texts just quoted, which were wrote for our direction and guidance in this world. It is likewise certain, that those who carry on this Trade, do not unto men as they would men should do to them; for if these poor people which they, the Ship-masters take from their own Country and then sell for Slaves, were doing to them as they are done to, they would (were it in their power, which seldom is the case, the owners being conscious of the wrong they are doing, and dreading what naturally would follow) revenge the injury they receive in being made Slaves, and resume that Liberty again, which was wrongfully taken from them; I say, they would often revenge the injury offered them by killing the Captain of the ship who had taken them to be mancipated for life, and would serve in the same manner the Owners of the vessel if they could get them, who are no better than the Masters, in putting them into such employ. Who could find fault with them? No person. They were only retrieving the most common blessing we enjoy, Liberty, and instead of being punished, the law would protect them in so noble an action. But,
Readers, before I leave this, let me beg you to “bring the matter home to yourselves, and think whether any condition in life can be more completely miserable than that of those distressed Captives. On reflecting, that each of them had some tender attachments which were broke by the cruel separation! Some Parent or Wife who had not an opportunity of mingling tears in a parting embrace! Perhaps some Infant or aged Parent whom his labour was to feed, and vigilance protect! and himself under the dreadful apprehensions of perpetual Slavery.”
To inforce this part of the head, allow me, Reader, to intrude a little upon your time, by giving you a short account of the barbarous usage these poor Negroes meet with from their Masters in the West-Indies and Southern Provinces of North-America; on reading of which, you will not be long in concluding, that they do not in this case observe the golden rule.
The crimes attending the Slave Trade are greatly aggravated by the extreme cruel usage the Negroes meet with in the Plantations, as well with regard to food and cloathing as the hard and unreasonable labour that is exacted from them, and what cannot be forgot, the severe chastisements they frequently suffer, which is bounded by the wrath and pleasure of their hard task-masters. 1st. As to their food. In Barbadoes, &c.[1] “three quarts of corn and three herrings are a weeks allowance for a working Slave; and it is mentioned in the System of Geography, that in Jamaica the Owners of the Negro Slaves set aside for each, a piece of ground, and allow them Sundays to cultivate it, the produce of which with a few salt herrings or other salt fish is all that is allowed for their support. But need I go so far as Jamaica to prove this? No. In Virginia they do the same. 2d. As to their cloathing. In the Islands, the allowance for a Slave’s cloathing is seldom more than six yards of oznabrigs a year, and in the Southern Colonies, where the piercing westerly winds are long and sensibly felt, these poor Africans suffer much for the want of sufficient cloathing; indeed, shocking to relate! some of them are obliged to work most of the night in boiling-houses, notwithstanding the hard days work they have performed. Their Owners make great gain by their Slaves’ labour. They lay heavy burdens on them, and yet feed and cloath them very sparingly, and some scarcely at all; so that it cannot be wondered that these poor creatures are obliged to shift for their living as they do, which occasions many of them being killed in stealing potatoes or other food to satisfy hunger. If they are detected in taking any thing from the plantation they belong to, which they have so hardly laboured for, they are cruely whiped.” Lastly. With respect to the beating which these poor people meet with in the West-Indies. For the least fault they whip them most unmercifully, viz. for not being at work in half an hour after the usual notice; speaking a word which the Overseer may think saucy; not shewing respect enough to him; not doing with agility some hard piece of work ordered them; and any thing which the Overseer may take exception at. They beat them with thick clubs, and you may see their bodies all whaled in a terrible manner.
Mr. George Whitefield writes in a letter to the Planters in Virginia, Carolina, &c. “The task-masters, by their inhuman usage and unrelenting scourges have ploughed their backs and made long furrows, and at length brought them even to death.” This is the fate which great numbers in the islands and Southern Provinces meet with. When speaking of their cloathing and food, he adds, “When passing along, I have viewed your plantations cleared and cultivated, many spacious houses built, and the Owners of them faring sumptuously every day. My blood has frequently run cold within me to consider how many of your Slaves had neither convenient food to eat or proper raiment to put on, notwithstanding many of the comforts you enjoy were solely owing to their indefatigable labours.” In Virginia, &c. in case a Negro gives the slightest affront to a white person, he goes to the Negroe’s Master and demands satisfaction, the Master delivers him to the white person to take what satisfaction he pleases; who whips him, strikes him with clubs, and, as is often done, cuts off his ears, and marks him by cuting his face, or other parts of his body. What more could be done to a brute beast, who was brought up and designed for the yoke? Oh! how long will you continue in this delusion and horrid abuse of the principal workmanship of God. It is astonishing how a people who so much value themselves upon their Freedom can continue in the practice of so much oppression. Will not the groans of this afflicted and miserable people reach Heaven! And when the cup of inequity is filled, the unavoidable tendency must be the pouring forth of God’s judgments upon their oppressors. But alas! is it not too plain that this cruelty has already been the object of divine anger? For what greater judgment can befal any person than to become a prey to that obduracy of heart, that neglectfulness of God, and a callousness to every religious impression?
I could say a great deal more concerning the unparralleled cruelty that these Negroes meet with: But I apprehend more has been said already than will be believed, although it is far from coming up to the real truth; for it is impossible my pen can represent in proper colours the hard usage they meet with. The sympathizing Reader must feel the rest, for I can assist him no farther. I believe there are but few that have not heard or read of the cruel treatment of those unhappy mortals. Indeed it is almost incredible that such cruelty should be practised in any of the British dominions.
I could have quoted a dozen Authors, setting forth the inhuman punishments inflicted upon the Africans; but that would have swelled my page. I hope this short, but true narrative, for great part of which I am much obliged to Mr. Benezet, will answer the same end of raising in every breast an utter detestation and abhorrence of the horrid customs and savage usage in the Islands and Colonies abovementioned, and I make no doubt but every one will clearly see, they do not to these Negroes as they would that they should do to them.
I think it is time to leave this part and go to the last, viz. That this base custom is likewise against the Charter of this Province; as is clearly and most simply demonstrated by a clause in said Charter, granted by King William and Queen Mary, dated at Westminster, the 7th of October, in the third year of their reign, wherein, inter alia, it is established and ordained, That all and every of the Subjects of Us, our Heirs, and Successors, which shall go to and inhabit within Our said Province and territory, and every of their Children which shall happen to be born there, or on the seas in going thither, or returning from thence, shall have and enjoy all Liberties and immunities of FREE and natural Subjects within the dominions of Us, Our Heirs, and Successors, to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever, as if they and every of them were born within our realm of England. I need say but little as to this branch of the head further than to observe, that the clause of the Charter just cited, proves clearly, and which cannot be further disputed, that all and every of the Subjects, the Inhabitants of New-England, which shall come to and inhabit within the Province and territory of the same, and every of their Children which shall happen to be born there, shall have and enjoy all the Liberties, &c. of FREE and natural Subjects of the realm of England. Indeed I am sorry to mention that this Charter should have been so long subverted and remained unobserved by the Publick in so interesting a point, when by timely observance it might have saved many thousands from Slavery that are now dead and mouldered into dust. I hope this easy found light will not be too late discovered to direct and save the present Slaves from their Bondage, which many! too many! groan under: So that I expect the inhabitants of the American Provinces will not give any person an opportunity of charging them with that infamous character of making or keeping any man or woman Slaves, when they are complaining daily that their Liberties are wrested from them, and little think how they deprive these poor Black People of their Freedom, when there is as little reason for it as there is for making Slaves of British Subjects. The above cited clause in the Charter, says, Those born in or shall come to and dwell within the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay are FREE; from which I am led to think, and which every person must see, will extend to Black as well as White. But, Reader, excuse me, whoever you are, that may take offence at my construing this clause of the Charter in the manner I have done, it is only my opinion, and every one is at liberty to enjoy his own sentiments upon it as well as I; therefore I flatter myself of hearing soon, that means will be taken by the Legislature of most, if not all the Provinces of North-America, and the West-India Islands, totally prohibiting the importation of Negroes into the British Plantations; and setting at Liberty with universal consent, every Negro throughout the whole, at least in North-America, which will be an honour to human nature, to say that this great and this only remaining hinderance to the absolute freedom as well as legality of the English trade is now happily and gloriously abolished; and then we may all cry with shouts of joy! which few more countries in the four quarters of the globe can, That complete FREEDOM both in people and trade is allowed throughout the British Islands and Plantations in America and the West-Indies!
The IIId General Head proposed was, To shew the disadvantages arising from this base Trade. This head I propose to consider separately, and shall 1st. Shew the disadvantages to Africa in taking so many of its natives away yearly. 2d. Treat of the hurt and prejudice of this Trade with Europe. 3d. Shew the disadvantages to the British Plantations in America, particularly to the West-Indies, in carrying Black People thither.
The first part of this head is, To shew the disadvantages to Africa in taking so many of its natives yearly. Before I enter upon this branch it may not be improper to mention a few observations which Mr. Postlethwayt makes upon the great qualities which this country abound with. “Its situation for commerce is certainly beyond any of the other quarters of the world, for it stands in the center between the other three, and has thereby a much nearer communication with Europe, Asia, and America, than any other quarter has with the rest. It is wonderfully accommodated for commerce by the interposition of islands, and more particularly by the assistance of the trade winds, which render the navigation safe, easy, and constant. It is furnished with the greatest and most convenient navigable rivers, and perhaps with as many of them as any other of the chief parts of the world: Such are the Nile, Nubia, Niger, Natal, which are rivers of the first magnitude; besides these there are innumerable others, though not equal to the former, are yet very excellent streams, situated for navigation and commerce, and which by their noble courses penetrate far inland; if the Europeans, &c. would cultivate a human and Christian like commerce with the Africans, they might through these rivers become the medium of an endless beneficial commerce. The country is populous beyond credibility, the soil fruitful, the season for the greatest part mild and clement, and the air salubrious.” I must stop in the midst of this agreeable description, being afraid of leading myself into an undue length in this narrative of the beautious perfection of that rich and fruitful part of the world.