“31st. Fair weather, but no trade yet; we see each night towns burning, but we hear the Sestro men are many of them killed by the inland Negroes, so that we fear this war will be unsuccessful.
“The 2d of January. Last night we saw a prodigious fire break out about eleven o’clock, and this morning saw the town of Sestro burnt down to the ground, (it contained some hundred houses) so that we find their enemies are too hard for them at present; consequently our trade spoiled here, so that about seven o’clock we weighed anchor, as did also the three other vessels, to proceed lower down.”
Here follows another relation taken from an original Journal of a Surgeon who sailed out of New-York, “Being on the Coast of Guinea at a place called Basalia, the Commander of the vessel, according to custom, sent a person on shore, with a present to the King, acquainting him with his arrival, and informing him they wanted a cargo of Slaves. The King promised to furnish them, and in order to do it, set out to war against his enemies; designing also to surprise some town, and take all the people prisoners: Some time after, the King sent them word, he had not yet met with the desired success, having been twice repulsed in attempting to break up two towns; but that he still hoped to procure a number of Slaves for them, and in this design persisted, until he met his enemies in the field, where a battle was fought, which lasted three days, during which time, the engagement was so bloody that four thousand five hundred men were slain on the spot. Think (says he) what a pitiful sight it was to see the Widows weeping over their lost Husbands, Orphans deploring the loss of their Fathers, &c.” Oh! shocking spectacles! to see four or five towns burnt, and four thousand five hundred people killed, for the sake of taking three or four hundred, and you! you! Merchants, Ship-masters and Factors the cause of it all! Think you ever to get the crime of spilling so much blood repented of?
It is a known custom among the Factors who reside in Africa, and the Ship-masters who trade there, to corrupt many Negroes on the sea coast, who stop at no act of cruelty for gain. They make it a practice, to steal abundance of little Blacks of both sexes, when found on the roads, or in the fields, where their Parents keep them all day to watch the corn, &c. Can it be denied that the Africans are stolen after so many proofs of it, and if it is not direct stealth in the Ship-masters, &c. yet it is the same in effect; for if they did not go there and entice the Chiefs with money or goods, there would be no wars, as is the case at present; and there would be none stolen if the stealers were not bribed by the Factors or Ship-masters; and not only those that are made Slaves of, there would still be ten thousand others who are killed in the broils, that would be saved, were they to discontinue this base Trade.
Thus far I have shewn that they are stolen. They may say they pay for them. I answer, they give money or goods by way of price to some of the Princes and Negroes, who, for the sake of lucre, take them prisoners by war or stealth, so that what money they give these scoundrels, (forgive me the expression; for, what name can a man expect who would take his Father or Brother and sell then for gain?) who take them in these ways cannot be looked upon as a price paid in lieu, for the Negroes themselves never condescend to be mancipated, as they get none of the money that is pretendedly given for them. They at length arrive at the port, the Ship-master sell them at a most exorbitant profit, and in a few voyages he makes what he calls his fortune; this is all he aimed at and wished for; and what follows, secures his eternal destruction, unless timely repented of: For the truth of this, I could mention very striking instances of men, who I see almost every day; but I do not chuse mentioning names, for fear of seeing them contemned and despised by every well thinking person.
I need add no more on this branch, it being clear that they are stolen in every sense it can be taken; they, the Ship-masters, &c. being the sole cause of the many wars and broils that are amongst the Negro Princes and Chiefs, consequently the cause of these poor creatures being taken and made Slaves of, and of the many thousands that are killed in the wars: Besides, it is not, nor can be denied that they sell them, so that they who practise this branch of Man-stealing and selling can expect nothing but the penalties of God’s laws, which he, in his own time, will inflict, since man! indolent man! will not punish them with death, as warranted sufficiently by the above cited passage in holy writ.
Before I leave this branch it may not be improper to give my Readers a short sketch of the barbarous usage these unhappy people meet with from the Ship-masters in their passage from Africa. After they have got them on board shackled two and two together, they keep them confined below all the passage, never permitting more than two on deck at a time to take one breath of fresh air, the most common blessing we enjoy, conscious that they are doing wrong to these people, and not certain but God might raise them against the Ship-master and his crew, if they had the least opportunity to stir up an insurrection in the ship, to retrieve their Liberty which they had in their own country, and which they ought to enjoy by the laws of God, of Britain, and the Plantations.
For the Reader’s true satisfaction as to this inhuman and unchristian usage, which could be expected of no other than Barbarians, I shall here narrate some accounts which have been given by men concerned in the Slave Trade.
First, the following case is mentioned in Astley’s Collection of Voyages, by John Atkins, Surgeon on board Admiral Ogle’s squadron, “Of one Harding, Master of a vessel, in which several of the Men-slaves and a Woman-slave had attempted to rise in order to recover their Liberty; some of whom the Master of his own authority sentenced to cruel deaths, making them first eat the hearts and liver of one of those he killed. The woman he hoisted by the thumbs, whiped, and slashed with knives before other Slaves, until she died.” Oh unparralelled cruelty!
Next is an account given by a Ship-master who brought a Cargo of Slaves to Barbadoes, upon an enquiry what had been the success of the voyage, he answered, “That he had found it a difficult matter to set the Negroes a fighting with each other in order to procure the number he wanted.” This shews, Reader, what methods they practise to obtain these Slaves, by setting them a fighting with each other. “But when he had obtained his end, having filled his vessel with Slaves, a new difficulty arose from their refusal to take food: Those desperate creatures chusing rather to die with hunger than to be carried from their native country.” Upon a further enquiry how he got them to forego this desperate resolution, he answered, “That he obliged all the Negroes to come on deck, where they persisting in their resolution of not taking food, he caused his sailors to lay hold on one of the most obstinate, who chopped the poor creature into small pieces, forcing some of the others to eat a part of the mangled body; swearing to the survivors, that he would use them all one after the other in the same manner if they did not consent to eat.” This horrid execution he applauded as a good act, it having had the desired effect in causing them to take food.