12. The natives of the kingdom of Benin are a reasonable and good-natured people. They are sincere and inoffensive, and do no injustice either to one another or to strangers. They are eminently civil and courteous: if you make them a present, they endeavour to repay it double. And if they are trusted, till the ship returns the next year, they are sure honestly to pay the whole debt. Theft is punished among them, although not with the same severity as murder. If a man and woman of any quality, are taken in adultery, they are certain to be put to death, and their bodies thrown on a dunghill, and left a prey to wild beasts. They are punctually just and honest in their dealings; and are also very charitable: the King and the great Lords taking care to employ all that are capable of any work. And those that are utterly helpless they keep for God’s sake; so that here also are no beggars. The inhabitants of Congo and Angola are generally a quiet people. They discover a good understanding, and behave in a friendly manner to strangers, being of a mild temper and an affable carriage.——Upon the whole therefore the Negroes who inhabit the coast of Africa, from the river Senegal to the Southern bounds of Angola, are so far from being the stupid, senseless, brutish, lazy barbarians, the fierce, cruel, perfidious Savages they have been described, that on the contrary, they are represented by them who have no motive to flatter them, as remarkably sensible, considering the few advantages they have for improving their understanding: as industrious to the highest degree, perhaps more so than any other natives of so warm a climate: as fair, just and honest in all their dealings, unless where white men have taught them to be otherwise: and as far more mild, friendly and kind to strangers, than any of our forefathers were. Our forefathers! Where shall we find at this day, among the fair-faced natives of Europe, a nation generally practising the justice, mercy, and truth, which are found among these poor Africans? Suppose the preceding accounts are true, (which I see no reason or pretence to doubt of,) and we may leave England and France, to seek genuine honesty in Benin, Congo, or Angola.
III.
We have now seen what kind of country it is, from which the Negroes are brought: and what sort of men (even white men being the judges) they were in their own country. Enquire we, thirdly, In what manner are they generally procured, carried to, and treated in America.
1. First. In what manner are they procured? Part of them by fraud. Captains of ships from time to time, invited Negroes to come on board, and then carried them away. But far more have been procured by force. The Christians landing upon their coasts, seized as many as they found, men, women and children, and transported them to America. It was about 1551, that the English began trading to Guinea: at first, for gold and Elephant’s teeth, but soon after, for men. In 1556, Sir John Hawkins sailed with two ships to Cape Verd, where he sent eighty men on shore to catch Negroes. But the natives flying, they fell farther down, and there set the men on shore, “to burn their towns and take the inhabitants.” But they met with such resistance, that they had seven men killed, and took but ten Negroes. So they went still farther down, till having taken enough, they proceeded to the West-Indies and sold them.
2. It was some time before the Europeans found a more compendious way of procuring African Slaves, by prevailing upon them to make war upon each other, and to sell their prisoners. Till then they seldom had any wars: but were in general quiet and peaceable. But the white men first taught them drunkenness and avarice, and then hired them to sell one another. Nay, by this means, even their Kings are induced to sell their own subjects. So Mr. Moore (Factor of the African Company in 1730) informs us, “When the King of Barsalli wants goods or brandy, he sends to the English Governor at James’ Fort, who immediately sends a sloop. Against the time it arrives, he plunders some of his neighbours’ towns, selling the people for the goods he wants. At other times he falls upon one of his own towns, and makes bold to sell his own subjects.” So Mons. Brue says, “I wrote to the King” (not the same) “if he had a sufficient number of slaves I would treat with him. He seized three hundred of his own people, and sent word he was ready to deliver them for goods.” He adds, “Some of the natives are always ready” (when well paid) “to surprize and carry off their own countrymen. They come at night without noise, and if they find any lone cottage, surround it and carry off all the people.”—Barbot, (another French Factor) says, “Many of the Slaves sold by the Negroes are prisoners of war, or taken in the incursions they make into their enemy’s territories. Others are stolen. Abundance of little Blacks of both sexes, are stolen away by their neighbours, when found abroad on the road, or in the woods, or else in the corn-fields, at the time of year when their parents keep them there all day to scare away the devouring birds.” That their own parents sell them, is utterly false: Whites not Blacks, are without natural affection!
3. To set the manner wherein Negroes are procured in a yet stronger light, it will suffice to give an extract of two voyages to Guinea on this account. The first is taken verbatim from the original manuscript of the Surgeon’s Journal.
“Sestro, Dec. 29, 1724. No trade to-day, though many traders came on board. They informed us, that the people are gone to war within land, and will bring prisoners enough in two or three days; in hopes of which we stay.
“The 30th. No trade yet: but our traders came on board to-day, and informed us the people had burnt four towns: so that to-morrow we expect slaves off.
“The 31st, Fair weather; but no trading yet. We see each night towns burning. But we hear many of the Sestro men are killed by the inland Negroes: so that we fear this war will be unsuccessful.
“The second of January. Last night we saw a prodigious fire break out about eleven o’clock, and this morning see 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, and consequently our trade spoiled here. Therefore about seven o’clock we weighed anchor, to proceed lower down.”