The Design of the following SHORT SKETCH is not to supersede, in any Degree, more important Publications, but, on the Contrary, to extend their Circulation, and promote their Influence.
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SHORT SKETCH, &c.
VIRTUE, say moralists, is so transcendently beautiful, that she need but be seen, to be universally admired: and is not VICE so hateful, that the more its features are viewed, the more it will be avoided? The traffic in the human species, particularly as carried on by the Europeans on the coast of Africa, has so horrible an aspect, that nothing, one should think, but the Mask, under which it has been concealed, could have prevented all the civilized nations in the world uniting to drive the detested Monster from the face of the earth. This Mask is, however, at length taken away, and the traffic stands exposed in all its real, unalterable deformity. The People are now called upon to behold, to feel, and judge for themselves. The representations of former writers on this subject were roundly denied; the facts they stated were not only contradicted, but deemed impossible, and the authors themselves were accused of slander. Now we have a body of EVIDENCE to which to appeal; of evidence, possessing every essential of credibility. The witnesses have declared before the Select Committee of the House of Commons, what they themselves saw: they had the best opportunities of observation, and they are disinterested. And now it appears, that one half of the tale of human misery hath not been told: and that every principle, that can bind a man of honour and conscience,[1] loudly calls for the prohibition of the iniquitous traffic. Hard indeed must those hearts be, and inaccessible those understandings,[2] which such evidence cannot reach!
The Evidence delivered before the Select Committee of the House of Commons is very voluminous, occupying two thousand pages in folio. But a judicious Abstract and Arrangement of the Evidence, on the Part of the Petitioners for the Abolition of the Slave Trade,[3] has been published, and in a short compass, contains the evidence of well informed persons on that subject.
In the Preface to this important volume of evidence we read of rewards offered for taking run-away negroes alive or dead—of laws being required to be made to prevent the practice of cutting off ears, noses, and tongues—of breaking limbs and putting out eyes—to prevent distempered, maimed, and worn out negroes from infesting towns—to prevent aged and infirm negroes being driven from the plantations to starve. We meet also with such kind of PREAMBLES to acts as the following, viz.
‘Whereas the extreme cruelty and inhumanity of the managers, overseers, and book-keepers of estates, have frequently driven slaves into the woods, and occasioned rebellions, internal insurrections, &c. And whereas also it frequently happens, that slaves come to their deaths by hasty and severe blows and other improper treatment of overseers and book-keepers, in the heat of passion; and when such accidents do happen, the victims are entered in the plantation-books, as having died of convulsions, fits, or other causes not to be accounted for; and to conceal the real truth of the cause of the death of such slave or slaves, he or they is or are immediately put under ground, &c. Other preambles of a similar complexion, respecting the lodging, food, and clothes of negroes, are here to be met with. We also find that run-away negroes, when advertised, are described by the various brands upon their shoulders, breasts, cheeks, and foreheads. A woman is described with a wooden leg; a man as having both his ears cropt, and another by his nose and ears being cut off.’ Cornwall Chronicle, Nov. 7, 1789. Other instances occur within the year 1791.
The FIRST CHAPTER contains an account of the Enormities committed by the Natives of Africa on the persons of one another, to procure slaves for the Europeans, proved by the testimony of such as have visited that continent—and confirmed by accounts from the slaves themselves, after their arrival in the West-Indies.