Barbadoes Slaves’ Population.
Calculating on the same principles, and from West Indian accounts, it appeared that in Barbadoes also, the annual loss of Slaves has been of late under 1 per cent. Indeed if the loss had been so small in Jamaica, it probably was not greater in most of the other islands, into which, in general, the importations had been less considerable, and in which, from their several circumstances, the population was likely to be, to say the least, full as well kept up as in Jamaica itself.|Second Proposition proved.|Thus the second proposition was established, that, notwithstanding the general prevalence of so many and great abuses, the annual decrease was very inconsiderable.
Third Proposition.
The third proposition, that therefore an increase might in future be expected, must doubtless rest on the basis of probable inference; but in a case like this, in which an appeal is made to a principle of sure and unerring operation, as established by universal experience, we may hold our conclusionalmost with the certainty of absolute demonstration. If the many existing abuses would account for a great annual decrease, yet there had been no decrease at all, or a very small one; it clearly follows, that if the prevailing abuses could be done away, or even considerably mitigated, we might anticipate in future a great and rapid annual increase.
Opponents most powerful objections.
Our chief opponents of abolition in Parliament objected neither to the premises on which our reasonings concerning the West Indian population were grounded, nor to the conclusions which we drew from them. They acknowledged, as has been already stated, to the utmost extent, the guilt and cruelty of the Slave Trade. But they urged, that it would be fair to give the West Indians time for the completing of their gangs of Slaves, and for the subsiding of their prejudices; and as they warmed in argument, advancing in their positions, they contended, that from the facilities afforded by the local circumstances of the islands for smuggling, it would be found impracticable to abolish the Slave Trade without the aid of such regulations as could only be enacted by the West Indian Legislatures themselves. They trusted, however, the time would ere long arrive, when, by the general consent of all parties, this hateful traffic might beabandoned. A respite till the remainder of the century was alone asked, a period of eight years, and on the 1st of January 1801, the reign of justice and humanity was to commence, and a new and happier day was to begin to dawn on the wretched Negroes. Meanwhile, no new settlements were to be formed, a limited number of Slaves only was to be annually imported; and other regulations and measures were to be adopted, with a view to the general abolition of the Trade in human beings.
Time would fail me, were I to attempt to lay before you in detail the various discussions which subsequently took place. It may be enough to state, that the Abolitionists apprehended, that if Parliament, acknowledging the foul injustice and cruelty of the African Slave Trade, should suffer it to continue for several years on any such weak and vague grounds as those of not shocking the prejudices, and acting contrary to the wishes of the West Indian proprietors, and on such other pleas as were urged by our opponents, when it had been distinctly proved by the greatest political authorities, who, differing on most other subjects, entirely concurred on this, that the measure so far from being ultimately injurious to the West Indians, would substantially and permanentlypromote their interests, it would be in vain that we should flatter ourselves that any determination to abolish the Slave Trade at the end of eight years would ever be adhered to.
If obligations so powerful, if duties so clear and urgent, could be now so easily evaded, surely at the end of eight years some new pleas would be set up for the continuance of the trade, and the Abolitionists themselves would then be told, that, having formerly recognised the right of sacrificing the dictates of justice and humanity to considerations of expediency, they ought in common consistency to grant a new respite on the same or better grounds. Thus, period after period would be claimed from us, so long as ever the planters should choose to purchase, or as Africa should have victims to supply.
What has since passed shews that there was but too much reason for these apprehensions; for, notwithstanding that a period was fixed by a majority of the House of Commons; though a period, far longer than the longest which was then asked, has since elapsed; though it was distinctly stated that importations ought henceforth to be allowed only for keeping up the cultivation at its actual state;though numbers, prodigiously greater than any which were then stated as necessary for filling up gangs, and preparing the islands to meet abolition, have been since imported; yet the same difficulties have still been experienced, the same objections have still been urged. The wickedness and cruelty of the Slave Trade have been frankly confessed, while all our endeavours to put an end to it have been opposed with undiminished earnestness.
Objection concerning Smuggling, answered.
As to the objection, grounded on the impossibility of preventing Slaves from being smuggled into the islands, it was argued with undeniable force, that the power of this country to prevent the smuggling of Slaves to any considerable extent, had been proved by abundant and undoubted experience. Some trifling supply might be thus introduced, but in cases wherein it was far more difficult to prevent a contraband trade, regulations had been enforced somewhat strictly, which were opposite to the known and avowed interests and feelings of all the inhabitants of the West Indian islands.
Grand objection: Co-operation of Colonial Legislatures necessary:
But the consideration which appeared to weigh most powerfully against an immediate abolition was the expediency, if not the absolutenecessity, of the co-operation of the West Indian Legislatures. They, it was hoped, would enact such internal regulations as would rectify any abuses which might prevail in the system of negro management. Several of the Colonial Legislatures, it was said, had lately passed, or were now passing Acts for improving the condition and treatment of the Slaves. Similar laws might be anticipated in others of the islands; and these reforms having taken place, the domestic stock of Slaves would gradually increase; the importation would diminish, and the Slave Trade would ere long die of itself.
Considered.
It must be to suppose the Abolitionists absolutely void of all common sense, to imagine that they were not well aware how greatly the introduction and establishment of the necessary reforms in the negro system would be facilitated by the planters being willing to adopt them. But, from the very first, there was but too much reason to fear that no hearty co-operation would be afforded on their part.
In the first place it should be remembered, that they appeared to be impressed with a persuasion, that though the profit was theirs, the guilt and shame were exclusively ourown; and it was not probable that they would voluntarily consent to dissolve a contract so much to their advantage. Soon after the abolition was first proposed, this sentiment was stated in the most explicit terms by the Assembly of Jamaica. “The African trade (they say) is purely a British trade, carried on by British subjects, residing in Great Britain, on capitals of their own. The connection and intercourse between the planters of this island and the merchants of Great Britain trading to Africa, extend no further than the mere purchase of what British Acts of Parliament have declared to be legal objects of purchase.” But independently on all other considerations, the spirit of party had gone forth, and the operation of that powerful cause would alone prevent the West Indians from forwarding the views of those whom they regarded as their determined opponents; especially since their concurrence might be supposed to imply a recognition of the various abuses and evils of the West Indian system. The Abolitionists therefore found themselves very early compelled to abandon all hopes of obtaining the abolition of the Slave Trade, through the enforcement of regulations to be prescribed by the colonial legislatures. It was not going too far to argue, that the colonial assemblies neitherwere able, nor, if able, would they be willing to produce the desired effect.
Colonial Legislatures neither able nor willing to effect the abolition, by regulations as to the detail of management of Slaves.
It must be manifest to any one at all acquainted with the principles of human nature, and still more clear to any one who knows the peculiar circumstances of our West Indian settlements, that any laws which might be passed by the legislatures of the islands, would not of themselves be adequate to the end in view. Granting that the legislatures might fix the quantity of food and clothing which all masters were to allow their Slaves, that they might also prescribe the degree of labour to be exacted, the punishments to be inflicted, the instruction to be given, and other regulations with a view to moral reform; How could they see to the execution of their own laws? Put the case of a similar law, applicable to servants in this country; how impossible would it be found to enter into the interior of every family, and with more than inquisitorial power to ascertain the observance or the breach of the rules which should have been laid down for our domestic economy. How much more difficult in the West Indies, where the testimony of Negroes not being admissible, there would be no means of bringing proof of any violations of the rules prescribed. But supposing the means of enforcingthe regulations to be found, how odious, how utterly intolerable would such a system be found in its execution! Would it be borne even in this country?
But let it be remembered, that this kind of inquisition would be still less endured in the West Indies than it would be here. For, it has been often observed, and it is undeniably true, “that wherever slavery is established, they who are free are peculiarly proud and jealous of their freedom.” Mr. Edwards has more than once declared this to be true with respect to the inhabitants of our West Indian Colonies, and this principle would assuredly cause them to regard with jealousy, and resent with indignation, any interference of the officers of government in the management of their private concerns and family affairs, among which their treatment of their own Slaves must fairly be included.
But in truth all such general regulations of the kind here supposed, entering into all the detail of domestic economy, and prescribing the precise quantum of food, clothing, labour, punishment, and medical care, must be, in their own nature, inherently defective. The quantity of food which they should direct, might in some cases be greater, inothers less, than would be necessary; accordingly as the land which the Negroes had for growing their own provisions was more or less in quantity, more or less productive. Again, the medical care, the labour, the instruction, the discipline, the correction which might be called for on some estates, would not be required on others. And then all these provisions, so vexatious and invidious in their nature, were to be observed, not merely gratuitously, but it was to be expected that people would submit to them, would lend themselves to the enforcing of them, for the purpose of accelerating the period of abolition; an event which they had frankly declared they conceived would be in the highest degree injurious to their interests. Surely no credulity could be sufficient to make any one believe that laws of such a kind, and for such a purpose, and with such a premium on obeying them, could ever be carried into execution.
Proofs subsequently furnished, that no hope from Colonial Legislatures.
But if these and other arguments rendered it abundantly clear, when the question was first discussed, that the colonial legislatures neither could nor would apply any adequate reform to the existing abides, so as effectually to cooperate in measures for the abolition of the Slave Trade, there is now at least noground for doubt on that head. The question has been since brought to the test of experiment. For, an endeavour to obtain the concurrence of the colonial legislatures has since been made under the most favourable circumstances of which the nature of the case could possibly admit; and yet it is not saying too much to declare, that the endeavour has utterly failed.
On this as on other occasions, different motives would operate on different men, in prompting them to concur in the measure. For my own part, I sincerely declare, that to the respectable gentlemen who took the lead on that occasion, I give the fullest and most unreserved credit for having been actuated by an earnest desire of reforming the West Indian system. But it must be acknowledged that the transaction in some of its parts, especially since we have had new light reflected back on it from recent West Indian communications, exhibits an appearance of having been befriended by some of its promoters with a view rather to defeat, than to promote, the abolition of the Slave Trade. Be this however as it may, in the year 1796 a Committee, consisting of the most respectable West Indian proprietors, having been appointed to take into consideration what stepsshould be taken respecting the Slave Trade, resolved among other things, “That, for the joint purposes of opposing the plan of Mr. Wilberforce, and establishing the character of the West Indian Planters, it is essential that they should manifest their willingness to promote actively the cause of the Negroes, by such steps as shall be consistent with safety to the property of individuals, and the general interest of the colonies;” and they requested a most justly respected member of the House of Commons to move in Parliament, “That an address be presented to His Majesty, requesting him to recommend to the colonies the adoption of such measures, as may promote the increase of the Negroes, gradually diminish the necessity of the Slave Trade, and ultimately lead to its complete termination; and also as may conduce to their moral and religious improvement, and secure to them the certain, immediate, and active protection of the law.” This address was moved and carried with the warm support of all the West Indian party in Parliament;|Applications to the Colonies|and was transmitted, to the Governors of all the islands by the Duke of Portland, accompanied by letters urging the colonial legislatures to second the wishes of the House of Commons; private and confidential letters beingwritten to explain to the Councils in the different islands, the amicable purpose with which this otherwise perhaps questionable measure had been proposed, and assuring them, “that the adoption of some legislative provisions relative to the Negroes was indispensably necessary, not only to stop for the present, but gradually to supersede the very pretensions at a future period, to a measure of direct abolition of the Slave Trade by the mother country.”
Thus the concurrence of the West Indian legislatures was requested by their own tried friends and counsellors, on that most acceptable and pleasing ground, of superseding the abolition of the Slave Trade. It might have been conceived, that, by the administration of such a powerful opiate, theesprit de corpsof the islands would be lulled asleep; and, though it might even be from motives less pure than those of their friends at home, that they would at least adopt the line of conduct which had been recommended.
Colonial answers.
But how different has been the issue! You are already apprized of the conduct of the island of Barbadoes, to which Lord Seaforth, most honourably glad to avail himself of an opportunity of introducing the measureunder such favourable auspices, recommended the rendering a capital crime, the wilful murder of a Negro, which is now punishable only by a fine of about £.11. 10s.sterling.
The Assembly of Jamaica assert, “that the right of obtaining labourers from Africa is secured to them on the most solemn engagements; and that they never can give up, or do any act that may render doubtful, this essential right.” The General Council and General Assembly of all the Leeward islands state, “that the right of procuring labourers from Africa, has been secured to us by repeated Acts of Parliament, &c. We, therefore, never can abandon it, or do any thing that may render doubtful this essential right.” The language of these answers is but too intelligible. But some communications lately made to Parliament, render it if possible still more clear than it before was to all considerate and impartial men, that it is in vain to expect much effect from the regulations which any colonial acts may prescribe.
It may here perhaps be proper to state, that since the abolition of the Slave Trade came into question, acts have been passed for securing better treatment to the Slaves. It is no more however than justice to the Islandof Jamaica, to take this opportunity of declaring, that the Legislature of that island had passed a law rendering the murder of a Slave a capital crime, and containing various other salutary regulations, before the motion for abolishing the Slave Trade had been brought forward; though at the same time a fact then became public, which affords a curious proof how little the treatment of Slaves is really affected, one way or another, by public laws. For it appeared from the Assembly’s own communication, that, for three years immediately preceding this last reformation, an interval happening to take place between the repealing of a former consolidated Slave law for the protection and security of the Slaves,[41]and the passing of a new one, there were for three years together no laws whatever in being for the protection and security of the Slaves; and yet it was not found that the smallest difference in the treatment of the Slaves had been occasioned. They were just as well secured without laws as with them. In truth, as was before stated, the real protection of a Slave must lie in his master’s disposition to protect him.—But to resume the discussion.
What has been already urged may perhaps appear sufficient to prove, that all the colonial laws for reforming the vices of the West Indian system, must be practically inefficient. Nor can any farther argument be necessary, in order to enforce a conclusion so manifestly resulting from the circumstances of the case. To some persons however it may render the point still more clear, to know, that the inefficacy, to say no worse, of the late Colonial Slave Acts, is decisively established even on West Indian authority itself.
For, about two years ago, on the application of His Majesty’s Secretary of State to the Governors of the West Indian Islands, for information as to the manner in which the late Acts for the better protection of Slaves had been executed, it clearly appeared, that though those laws had been passed so few years before with so much pomp and circumstance, yet that their provisions had never been carried into effect. This applies not merely to the impossible regulations, so to term them, prescribing the precise quantity of the food and clothing, and labour and punishment of the Slaves, but to all those regulations which really were of perfectly easy execution. There had been the same entire neglect of the religious and moral regulations, in which theOwner’s duty was clear and easy, even granting that his success might be difficult and doubtful.
This utter neglect of the Slave laws might alone have tended to give effectual confirmation to the suspicion, that the laws had been intended for the protection of the Slave Trade, rather than of the Slaves. This indeed was plainly stated by a British Officer, who was resident in one of the islands in 1788, when one of the earliest and best of these boasted laws was enacted. It was the general language of the Colonists at the time, that its only real operation would be, to supersede any similar measures which might otherwise be adopted by the British Parliament. But much to the honour of the Governor of the only island from which any satisfactory information has been returned, he has distinctly stated,—“The Act of the Legislature, entitled, “An Act for the Encouragement, Protection, and better Government of Slaves,” appears to have been considered, from the day it was passed, until this hour, as a political measure to avert the interference of the mother country in the management of Slaves. Having said this, your Lordship will not be surprised to learn,that the 7th clause of that Bill has been wholly neglected.”
It may be proper to mention, that the clause which has been thus wholly neglected, was enacted for the express purpose of securing, as far as possible, the good treatment of the Slaves, and ascertaining the causes of their decrease. Some farther information, much to the same effect, was contained in a letter to the Secretary of State, from another correspondent, concerning the encouragement which the law had required to be given to Slaves to marry.
After this, can any reasonable expectations be entertained, that the Colonial Legislatures will cordially concur in any measures for the abolition of the Slave Trade? Can the Abolitionists be deemed uncandid, for not greatly confiding in any statutes which those assemblies may enact, in co-operation with the British Parliament, for the abolition of the Slave Trade?
Laws for the protection of Slaves ineffectual in the old French, Spanish, and Portuguese Settlements.
It ought earlier to have been stated, as an additional proof of the inefficacy of all legal regulations for the government and protection of Slaves, that they have fallen into practical disuse even in countries in which the matters do not themselves enjoy that political freedomwith which all such regulations are peculiarly at variance; and where, it might have been preconceived, a government perfectly despotic possessed abundant means of giving effect to its own regulations.
The better treatment of the Slaves in the Spanish and Portuguese Settlements, is much more to be ascribed to the influence of their religious zeal, and its happy consequences, than to the institution of a Protector among the one, or to the provisions of the Directorio on the other.
Again, under the more despotic system of government which was established in the French islands before the revolution, the Code Noir, and various other edicts, which from time to time had been issued, concerning the treatment of Slaves, were become a mere dead letter. It is a curious proof, how much the practice and the opinions and feelings produced by it may differ from the law, that the free coloured people had for an entire century been legally entitled to that equality of rights and privileges with the whites, the granting of which, by the national assembly of the mother country, produced so violent a ferment among the white inhabitants of St. Domingo; and the retractation of which, after its havingbeen granted, followed by fresh grants and fresh retractations, produced the confusion which terminated in the loss of that flourishing colony.
But besides that fundamental objection to statutes, for regulating the treatment of Slaves, and securing for them, to use the words of the colonists themselves, thecertain, immediate, and active protection of the law, that they must prove utterly inefficient;|Legal protection of Slaves in an abject state of slavery either impracticable or unsafe.|I must frankly acknowledge my opinion, that all those legal regulations which, in the various particulars of treatment, interfere between the Master and Slave; which interpose between them some external authority to which the Slave, when ill used, is to have a right to apply for protection and redress; unless, as I before observed, they are not executed, must prove in practice unspeakably dangerous. This is true at least where Slaves are in a state of such abject slavery as that which has so long prevailed in our West Indian islands, and where the Slaves so greatly outnumber the free men, and the difference between Slave and Freeman, is marked and palpable. In extreme cases of ill-treatment, or rather in cases of enormous cruelty, it might be practicable to apply some remedy, by the means of that regulation which was established in Athens,and which, with additions most grateful to a humane mind, prevails, we are assured, in the Spanish islands, of allowing the Slave when extremely ill treated, to be transferred to another owner. But this regulation is not applicable to those particulars of treatment, which are constant and systematic, such as underfeeding, overworking, and other general vices of management, whether arising out of degradation, absenteeship, speculation, the pressure of the times, or any other of the causes which have been above specified. And it is these systematic vices which constitute the real evils in the condition of the bulk of our Slaves.
In these cases of systematic management, of daily and almost hourly recurrence, the interposition of a new tribunal of appeal for checking the master’s authority, and compelling him, by the dread of penalties, to be more liberal in his allowances of food and rest, and more abstemious as to labour and punishment; in short, to force him to amend the Slave’s treatment in future in all the undefinable particulars into which it ramifies, or even to compensate to the Slave his past ill usage, would in practice be soon found productive, not only of extreme discontent, insubordination, and commotions on private properties, but of the mostfatal consequences to the safety of the whole colony. Sunk as the Slaves at present are, we are assured they do not feel into what a depth they have been depressed. We are told that they are not shocked, as we are for them, by the circumstances of a Negro sale, or by the other degrading particulars of their treatment; the spirit of the man is extinct, or rather dormant within them. But remember, the first return of life after a swoon is commonly a convulsion, dangerous at once to the party himself, and to all around him. Impart to the Slaves the consciousness of personal rights, and the means of asserting them; give the Slaves a power of appealing to the laws; and you awaken in them a sense of the dignity of their nature, you call into life a new set of most dangerous emotions; of emotions, let me repeat it, beyond measure dangerous, while you continue the humiliating and ignominious distinctions to which they now unconsciously submit. When you encourage your Slave to take account of his rights, and measure them with his enjoyments: when you thus teach him to reflect on the treatment he is receiving; to compare his own condition with that of Slaves under other masters; to deliberate about obtaining redress; and, at last, to resolve to seek it: when you thus accustomhim to think, and feel, and decide, and act; to be conscious of a wrong; to resent an injury; to go and relate the story of his ill usage, thus daring to harbour the idea of bringing his master to punishment and shame: when you even enable him to achieve this victory; Do you think that he will long endure the wrongs he now tolerates? It is a remark, if I mistake not, of an ancient historian, who had the power above all others of placing before his reader the scene he represents, that in that celebrated instance in which a whole army, being hemmed in on all sides by the enemy, was compelled, according to the barbarous practice of ancient warfare, to submit to the shameful condition of going under a sort of gallows, that each man was rendered most sensible of his own dishonour, by seeing the shameful appearance of his comrades in that disgraceful exhibition. And can you think that, when affection combines with indignation, a Negro will bear to see the wife of his bosom, or a mother the children of her rearing, driven through their daily work like the vilest of the brute creation; and that too when each man can consult with his fellow, when all they see around them almost are blacks? Above all, but here I anticipate—when St. Domingo, and the lessons which it inculcates, occur to the mind.
Surely enough has been said to shew, that there is no alternative, no practical medium, between keeping the Slaves sunk in their present state of extreme degradation, an idea for which no one, I trust, will be found hardy enough to contend, and introducing the milder system of what may not improperly be termed Patriarchal vassalage (to which the abolition is an indispensable preliminary) as the state of training and discipline for a condition in which they may be safely admitted to a still more advanced enjoyment of personal and civil rights.
Mr. Burke’s plan respecting the Slave Trade.
And in this place, where we are considering the different modes which have been proposed for effecting the abolition of the Slave Trade, it may be proper to notice another plan of gradual abolition, which has been often mentioned, though it has never been yet produced. No one can doubt that attention is justly due to it, when they are told that it claims the late Mr. Burke as its author. In duty to that great man himself, as well as to the cause which I am defending, this matter should be explained. Some years before the abolition of the Slave Trade had been named in Parliament, Mr. Burke’s attention had been drawn to that object. His stores of knowledge were so astonishingly ample and various, that it isdifficult to suppose any subject on which his great mind was not abundantly furnished. But certainly very little was known, even by men in general well-informed, concerning the nature and effects of the Slave Trade on the coast, but much more in the interior of Africa. Nor had we then obtained any of that great mass of information concerning the West Indian system of management, which was procured through the authority and influence of Government, and which could no otherwise have been obtained. Mr. Burke, however, drew up the heads of a plan for regulating the mode of carrying on the Slave Trade in Africa, and a system for securing the better treatment of the Slaves in the West Indies.
When, after the whole subject had been thoroughly investigated, a motion for the immediate abolition of the Slave Trade was made in the House of Commons; Mr. Burke honoured it with his support. He indeed stated, that he himself had formerly taken up ideas somewhat different, with a view towards the same end; but he added, expressing himself in that strong and figurative style which must, methinks, have fixed the matter of his speech firmly in the memory of all who heard him, that he at once consignedthem to the flames, and willingly adopted our mode of abolition. I can with truth declare, that in private conversation, he afterwards expressed to me his concurrence in our plan. It is a little hard, therefore, that the authority of that great man should now be pleaded against us. Still harder, that this should be the only use made of it, that, instead of any attempt to give effect to his intentions, his plan of abolishing the Slave Trade should be rendered practically subservient to the continuation of that traffic. In short, that his name should be used in complete opposition to his example. As to the nature and effect of his proposed plan, I had the opportunity of perusing it only hastily, and I have endeavoured, hitherto in vain, once more to procure a sight of it. It is still however I believe in being, and will I trust appear in some authentic form.
The plan itself was probably no more than a rough draught, or rather his first thoughts on a subject, for forming a right judgment on which, a full and exact knowledge of facts must be particularly necessary. That on any subject, even the first thoughts of so great a man claim the highest deference, I willingly allow. But may I not be permitted to indulge a persuasion, that, from farther information than itwas possible for any man then to possess, concerning the nature and effects of the Slave Trade in the interior of Africa, into which no traveller of credit had then penetrated for some centuries, Mr. Burke would have been convinced of the inefficacy of the regulations he proposed to establish for the coast. Of his West Indian regulations, I will only say, that while, unless completely neglected in practice, they would probably have excited an opposition even more efficient than abolition itself; while they would have been open from beginning to end to all objections, grounded on interference with the internal legislation of the colonies; they would, more than any other plan ever heard of, have been liable to the objections which I have lately urged against imparting personal rights and the privilege of complaining to a legal protector, so long as the Slaves remain in their present condition of extreme degradation.
Greater efficacy of abolition.
With this plan for abolishing, as by a strange perversion of terms it is styled, instead of confirming and perhaps perpetuating, the Slave Trade, by the gradual operation of colonial statutes, a plan which, though tried under the most favourable of all circumstances, has absolutely failed; which has been declared even by West Indian authority itselfto have been proposed for the sake merely of getting rid of the interference of the British Parliament; which has been clearly proved to be utterly inefficient as to practical execution, and which, if it could be executed, would immediately become inconceivably dangerous—With this measure, founded on principles essentially and unalterably incompatible, either utterly inefficient or mischievously active, compare the effects of the measure which we propose, the abolition of the Slave Trade.
The bad effects of the continual introduction of African Slaves are so manifest as scarcely to need suggesting. The annual infusion into the West Indian Colonies of a great number of human beings, from a thousand different parts of the continent, with all their varieties of languages, and manners, and customs, many of them resenting their wrongs, and burning with revenge; others deeply feeling their loss of country and freedom, and the new hardships of their altered state; must have a natural tendency to keep the whole mass into which they are brought, in a state of ferment; to prevent the Slaves in general from emerging out of their state of degradation; and to obstruct, both in them and in those who are set over them, the growth of those domestic feelings and habits, and the introductionof those more liberal modes of treatment, which might otherwise be deemed both safe, and suitable in the case of Slaves whose characters were known and who were become habituated to their situation. But the grand evil arising from the continuance of importations from Africa, is, that till they are discontinued, men will never apply their minds in earnest to effect the establishment of the breeding system.
But all farther importations being at length stopped, the Slave market now no longer holding forth any resource, the necessity for keeping up the stock would at once become palpable and urgent. All ideas of supply from without, being utterly cut off, it would immediately become the grand, constant, and incessant concern of every prudent man, both proprietor and manager, to attend, in the first instance, to the preservation and increase of his Negroes. Whatever may have been the case in the instance of men at once both liberal and opulent, the mass of owners have, practically at least, gone upon the system of working out their Slaves in a few years, and recruiting their gangs with imported Africans. The abolition would give the death-blow to this system. The opposite system, with all its charities,would force itself on the dullest intellects, on the most contracted or unfeeling heart. Ruin would stare a man in the face, if he did not conform to it. The sense of interest so much talked of, would not as heretofore, be a remote, feeble, or even a dubious impulse; but a call so pressing, loud, and clear, that its voice would be irresistible.
But the grand excellence of the operating principle of this reform is, that it will stand between the absentee master and his Slaves; and while it will promote the interest of the former, it will secure for the latter the actual enjoyment of the effects of his benevolent intentions. Managers would henceforth be forced to make breeding the prime object of their attention. And every non-resident owner would express himself in terms of an experienced Barbadian proprietor of superior rank and fortune; “That he should consider it as the fault of the manager, if he did not keep up the numbers of his Slaves.” The absent owner would have the best security of which the nature of the case admits for his Slaves being treated with liberality and kindness. The operative principle thus supplied would exactly answer the desired purpose. It would adapt itself to every variety of situation and circumstances. It wouldpenetrate into the interior of every plantation; it would ensure a due quantity of food; it would provide against too rigorous an exaction of labour, and enforce the adoption of those reforms which should be found requisite for increasing the population. Many of the improvements which must at once be introduced are perfectly manifest. But, ingenuity once set at work in this direction, a thousand discoveries will be made, a thousand reforms adopted, and, a manager’s credit and character now depending on the increase of the Negroes, not as hitherto on that of the immediate and clear returns from the estate, the former would henceforth become the great object of his study in the closet, and of his conduct in life and action.
The professional Planter’s work shews the improvements which may be suggested by a single individual of intelligence and experience, living on the spot, and superintending the whole system with an observant eye. What, then, may be expected when the ingenuity and attention of a whole community are set at work in the same direction; to effect the introduction of moral reforms, the settlement of families, the discouragement of adultery; the countenancing, by example as well as precept, among book-keepers or overseers, of moralityand decency, the neglect of which, by persons of that class, has been hitherto productive of many injurious consequences.
Let us hear therefore no more of the Slaves invincible habits of profligacy and sensuality, of their not being susceptible of the restraints, obligations, duties, and comforts of the marriage state.
Wonder not that they are now sunk into habits of gross debauchery. Not man alone, but beings in general, throughout the whole range of animated nature, instinctively seek the indulgencies and enjoyments suited to their condition and capacities. Depressed therefore nearly to a level with the brute creation, the negro Slaves instinctively adapt themselves to their level, and are immersed in merely animal pursuits. Hence it is, that those very Negroes, who in Africa are represented as so eminent for truth, so disinterested in kindness, so faithful in the conjugal and domestic relations, so hospitable, so fond of their children, of their parents, of their country, gradually lose all these amiable dispositions with the enjoyments which naturally arise out of them, and become depraved and debased by all that is selfish and mercenary, and deceitful, timid and indolent, andtyrannical.|System of management, how to be reformed.|Would you raise them from this depressed condition, remember the disease is of a moral nature. It admits therefore only of a moral cure. Take away those particulars which degrade and vilify, and thus expel from the system those circumstances which depress the Slaves below the level of domestic life.[42]Endeavour in such ways, and by such instruments, as by experience are found best fitted for the purpose, to impart to them the inestimable blessings of religious instruction and moral improvement and reform, many of them would soon shew the happy effect of these instructions, by a conduct and demeanour manifestly the result of higher principles; for I must once more raise my voice against that gross misconception of the character of the Negroes (an impeachment of the wisdom and goodness of their Creator no less than of our own), which represents them as a race of such natural baseness and brutality as to be incapable of religious impressions and improvements. Encourage marriage and the rearing of children in the only proper way; by settling the Slaves in family life, with their cottage and gardens, and with such other immunities and comforts and distinctions as will make them be respected by others and teach them to respect themselves.
I am aware that it has been by no means uncommon for such masters as have made the domestic increase their object, to give rewards to mothers for rearing their children. Surely they have forgot, that Nature, I had almost said instinct, would take care of this for them, if they would but pursue the previous course she so manifestly dictates. It is not by a reward to be given at the end of a year or two, that continual attention can be purchased, with all the ten thousand cares and assiduities and kindnesses which both by day and by night the weakness of infancy requires; they are to be bought by a different price; they are to be prompted and repaid by maternal tenderness, by domestic sympathy, and parental interest. Give but to the Slaves a home; let the children be safely born, with a tolerable prospect of happiness; and let the mothers be allowed immunities and indulgencies, especially a little time from field work, morning and evening, to attend to their infants; bring them thus acquainted with conjugal duties and conjugal feelings, with the comforts and emotions of family life, awaken in them the dormant sympathies of domestic affection, and they will soon become creatures of a higher order, for it is in the soil of domestic life that all the charities of our nature spring up and flourish. A new set of feelings will begin to unfoldthemselves. The Slaves in general will learn to feel the value of a good character, to covet the acquisition and strive for the maintenance of it. They will make it their study to gain a master’s good opinion and confidence. With hope to animate, and gratitude to warm, how soon should we witness willing industry and hearty services. To these would justly be added, for in this imperfect state the addition will doubtless be required, the fear of a master’s displeasure, and the wholesome restraint of punishment for the indolent, and refractory, and vicious. The harshness of their present bondage being transformed into the mildness of patriarchal servitude, they will become capable of still greater blessings, and more ennobling privileges. The Slaves being now admitted to be not incapable of moral obligations, they will surely be acknowledged to be fit for the lower civil functions; and, above all, there will be no pretence for maintaining that grand disqualification, which alone is sufficient to taint their whole condition with the bitterness of degradation and suffering, the utter inadmissibility of their evidence.[43]Thus they would gradually and insensibly be transformed into a native peasantry.
Is it possible to contemplate the change which has been here slightly traced, without emotions of the most lively delight? I will not now indulge myself in the pleasing task of detailing the several steps of this gratifying process; but I must state, that in many of the islands, probably in them all, the quantity of food must be increased; in the articles of clothing, lodging, and medical care, improvements must be adopted; especially the hours of working must be lessened, and wherever it is possible, task-work must be introduced; above all, that degrading practice of working the Slaves under the whip must be abandoned. Think not that it will be enough that females, when clearly pregnant, shall be spared the more laborious duties of field work. No; nor even that all the young women, without exception, shall be no longer worked under the driver’s lash; from which, in the judgment of a most respectable and intelligent planter, innumerable miscarriages happen in the earlier periods ofpregnancy. The system of whip-working itself must be entirely exploded, and in its place must be substituted the operation of those principles which are elsewhere found universally sufficient for their object, the hope of reward, and the fear of punishment.
In all these particulars I am but recommending the several reforms enforced with so much more authority by the professional Planter, to whom I have so often referred. All these are preliminary reforms, which must precede, or rather accompany that most efficient and beneficial of all improvements, the combined effect of religious and moral cultivation, with the comforts of being settled in families, and the obligations and duties of conjugal and domestic life. That it may require reflection, attention, and discretion to introduce this happy change, I mean not to deny; it will require also, that a proprietor should make up his mind to some present diminution of income, for the sake of larger ultimate returns. Possibly even some arrangements of law may here become expedient; nor will I even affirm, that in one or two particular islands there may not be instances (though it is with reluctance that one would acknowledge such a case) in which proprietors may have found it their interest hitherto towork down their gangs, and supply vacancies from the Slave market, to whom therefore the new system may be injurious, the rather, because it would of course find their Slaves nearly ground down by the want of necessaries and the excess of labour.
But with such moderate exceptions as must necessarily be anticipated in any change so great, it may be truly affirmed, to be the excellence and glory of the measure we propose, that it is likely almost from the very first to dispense blessings to every individual connected with it, in every step, from the first to the last, throughout the whole of it’s progress.
Often it happens in human affairs, that ends the most beneficial must be obtained by painful and distressing means. Inveterate diseases can rarely be cured without disgusting or painful remedies. But how gratifying is the consideration, that in the present instance, not only is our ultimate point the seat of security and happiness, but the way by which we travel to it is a way of pleasantness and peace. Its effects cannot be produced at once, but we are all the while tending to their complete enjoyment, with an uniform and uninterrupted course. The Slaves will dailygrow happier, the planters richer. The whole will be like the progress of vegetation; the effects are not at first perceptible, but the great principle, operating in ten thousand instances, will gradually change the whole face of things, and substitute fertility and beauty in the place of barrenness and desolation.
And all this happy transformation we anticipate, not from carrying into execution the speculations of the most intelligent and able men, but by quitting the ways of injustice and cruelty, and by entering on those happier paths, which, by the gracious ordination of Heaven, are, on the long run, ever found to lead to safety, prosperity, and happiness. It may be right to state one consideration, which may suggest the probability, that even from the first the island stock of Slaves may not be found inadequate to the increasing demands to be made on it.