A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade / Addressed to the freeholders and other inhabitants of Yorkshire

by William Wilberforce

Together with the merchants, I must except also that considerable body, often of respectable men, who have gone over to the West Indian islands in inferior capacities, and who mean to engage in planting undertakings. The stoppage of the importations from Africa would retard, at least, if not destroy these speculations. This is a class of men, in whose interests I confess I take a lively interest; but not an interest sufficient to induce me to sanction the destruction of thousands of my fellow creatures annually, for the sake of allowing them more convenient opportunities of rising in life. I confess their interest is a matter of much more concern to me than those of the greater and more adventurous speculators. I ought, perhaps, also to except the last-mentioned class of persons. Though, in common, to afford them the opportunity of engaging in these West Indian speculations, be only to afford them an occasion of accomplishing their own ruin; yet they conceive they have an interest in the continuance of the Slave Trade, and therefore they are not actuated only by party spirit. This class is likely to increase. The few great prizes in the West Indian lottery will tempt adventurers to engage in it; and it is in vain to hope that the colonists will ever concur in the abolition of the Slave Trade, so long as there is room left for new speculations; that is, so long as there remains, in the Western hemisphere, any unsettled land capable of cultivation, and as any Negroes can be brought from Africa to work it. So long as there is any scope left for new speculations, so long there will be a set of new speculators residing in the islands, who will form the real instigators of the opposition to the proposal for abolishing the Slave Trade; and these, joined by the great mercantile body at home, will carry along with them the bulk of their brethren, the colonial proprietors resident in this country.

It is for the benefit of these classes, not for that of our old colonial proprietors, that the Slave Trade is in reality carried on. For it is undeniably true, nor will it, I presume, be contested, that by far the larger proportion of all the Slaves we import, have always been and will ever be destined to the formation of new settlements, not in maintaining and keeping up estates which had been already completed.

But surely the question has ere now occurred to you, When or where is this system to terminate? Is it to go on till our colonial settlements are brought into a state of complete cultivation? It may be worth while to spend a few moments in examining the consequences of such an admission; they were traced out by a high authority, who stated, that, even of the great island of Jamaica itself, the quantity of uncultivated land was two-thirds more than that already in cultivation.[^[47]] To suffice for the cultivation of the other parts, the complete number of 600,000 more Negroes, living at the same time, would be necessary, in addition to 256,000 now there. The calculation went on to consider the numbers which must be imported, and the length of time which, under all the waste of human life which attends the present destructive system, must elapse, in bringing the Island of Jamaica into complete cultivation by Slaves. It was found that, supposing the rate at which the cultivation and population would increase in future, to be the same as that at which they had increased hitherto, that it would not be accomplished in less than two hundred and twenty years, and it would require the exportation from Africa of greatly more than a million of our fellow creatures. For reasons which could be stated, the period here mentioned is much too short. But besides the Island of Jamaica, there are St. Vincents, Grenada, Dominica, above all, Trinidad, and the unknown extent of our future continental acquisitions, which would claim just the same right to have their cultivation completed.

Such must be admitted to be the fair consequences of prosecuting the Slave Trade, for the purpose, plainly enough avowed by the colonists in Jamaica, of bringing into cultivation the whole of the land which is still uncultivated. Would even the most determined friends of the West Indians on this side of the water go this length? I speak not of those, if any such there be, who love the Slave Trade on account of its own inherent excellencies; nor of the West Indian merchants, nor yet of the African trader. But would the less devoted friends of the Slave Trade go the length of admitting this principle? I trust they would not. Must they not then concede, that the only principle on which they can act consistently, must be that of carrying on the importation of Slaves for the sole purpose of keeping up, not of extending the cultivation. Indeed, when this great cause was argued in the House of Commons in 1792, all, I believe, of our opponents, excepting only those who were personally connected with the Slave Trade, admitted fully and frankly the principle of not opening new lands. They objected not to the ground which was taken by that great man to whom I have already so often alluded. Would the most attached friend, he asked, of the Slave Trade, think of founding a new colony, or of setting up a new Slave Trade? And it was justly and undeniably argued, nor was the position contested, that the formation of new settlements in our old islands was just as much the planting of a new colony, as if the same settlements were made in any newly discovered country. There was no difference in principle between the two cases. It was a new and voluntary establishment, made with our eyes open to all the guilt which the enterprise would involve, and all the horrors of which we professed to be sensible. The force of these arguments, when used in 1792, was granted to be irresistible; but, as if it were in absolute contempt of them, and of the practical conclusions to which they lead, we are plainly warned by the colonists, against supposing that they will ever consent to stop the importations from Africa, so long as any vacant and cultivable land remains on which to plant them. These facts, with the aweful considerations which result from them, let me most seriously urge on the conscientious deliberations of those who, contrary alas! to the expectation indulged by that great man whom I have before so often mentioned; by their fatal proposal of gradual, |The gradual abolitionists especially bound to consider these facts.| instead of immediate abolition, dashed the cup of happiness from the lips of the wretched African, at the very moment when at last he appeared likely to taste it, and who thus proved in fact the most efficient supporters of the Slave Trade. A vast majority in Parliament were then so much alive to the principles of justice and humanity, that all direct opposition would have been utterly ineffectual. But this kind of half measure, however unintentionally, exactly answered the purpose of our enemies, by giving time for the zeal of men to cool, and providing an expedient by which, aided by a little of that self deception which we are all apt to practice on ourselves on suitable occasions, they might feel the complacencies arising from an act of justice and humanity, without paying the price or making the sacrifice which those principles required.

Let me be forgiven if I speak strongly, where I feel so very deeply. It is not only because the gradual Abolitionists have been, in fact, the only real stay of that system of wickedness and cruelty which we wish to abolish; though that assertion is unquestionably true; but it is trying beyond expression that they should be the real maintainers of the Slave Trade, who reprobate it in terms of detestation as strong as any which we ourselves can utter. Nor do I mean (the declaration is made with solemnity and truth) that these expressions are not sincere. If they were not proved to be so by the general character of those who use them, my personal knowledge of some of them, and the esteem and regard I entertain for them, excludes the contrary supposition. Yet I cannot but believe, that, could they have clearly foreseen what would be the practical effect of their opposition, it would not have been continued for an hour.

Let them now, however, remember the grounds and principles on which they resisted our measure; that they themselves stated the question to be only between two different modes of abolishing the Slave Trade. They alleged, indeed, with others, the difficulty of preventing Slaves being illicitly imported into the colonies; but this was obviously an evil which never could prevail to any great extent, nor did they lay any considerable stress on it. Abjuring the most remote idea of contending for the interminable continuance of the Slave Trade, the utmost they asked was, that a short respite should be granted. The year 1800 was afterwards specifically named; the West Indians would be able, in the interval, to fill up their vacancies, to complete their gangs; in short, to improve their population, so as to be prepared to meet the new order of things.

But the gradual Abolitionists chiefly urged, that we were too hasty and violent, and that by our precipitancy we should defeat our own purpose. For, without the concurrence of the colonial legislatures, it was alleged, we could not carry our measure into effect; they advised that time, therefore, should be allowed for softening the prejudices and cooling the warmth of the colonists.

What has followed since that period? The Slave Trade, instead of eight, has now lasted fourteen years. Far more time, therefore, has been allowed the Planters for completing their gangs, than was originally proposed by any one who did not avow himself a friend to the perpetuity of the Slave Trade. A far greater number of Slaves, also, than was then in any one’s contemplation, has since been imported. So far, therefore, the Islands are better prepared for the measure.

But above all, it is now clear that we must abandon all hopes of bringing the colonial legislatures to consent cheerfully to the termination of the Slave Trade. Was it possible for the proposition to come before them, not only in a more acceptable form, but with a more gradual approach; and, if I may so say, at the end of a longer visto, than when it was presented to their notice by some of the most respectable of their own body, by men who had uniformly opposed the abolition in the British Parliament, and when they had, therefore, every reason to believe that the importation of Slaves would never be actually stopped until the measures, which were to make that importation no longer necessary, should have had, according to their own report, an effect so complete and satisfactory as to render the abolition no longer in the least objectionable; yet so strong are the prejudices of the colonists, that, even in answer to this communication, they frankly declared against abolition at any time and in any form. They intimate plainly that they look forward to the complete settlement of all the cultivable but now waste land throughout the whole of our West Indian islands.

Supposing, therefore, that the gradual Abolitionists even still retain their original opinion, that the concurrence of the Colonists is necessary to our complete success, yet considering the immense magnitude, as acknowledged by themselves, of the evil which all this time has been going on with even increased ravages; would it not be fair that they should now, at least, consent to try the effect of our less satisfactory measure? Would not this be the mode of conduct pursued by men in all the common affairs of life, when really interested for the accomplishment of any object? Supposing them to labour under some painful or dangerous disease, which was making havoc of their constitution, and wearing them down with excruciating torture, and that a particular plan of treatment should be proposed to them; supposing that, (though the plan should be recommended by various medical men of the most acknowledged superiority of skill, who, though often differing, entirely agreed in this particular, and prescribed with the most sanguine confidence) they should yet fear the plan would not answer, perhaps that it was in some way or other impracticable; supposing them also to prefer a second plan, recommended by some other practitioner; yet if there appeared to be in the way of the adoption of this second plan some practical obstacle which they could not remove, Would they suffer the disease to go on with its ravages, rather than adopt the first plan, from which they might not themselves expect much benefit, but which might yet be preferable to doing nothing at all?