fuch a degree of forwardness as to enable Mr. Wilberforce to prefs for the abolition. On that day he opened the debate with a moft copious difplay of the leading arguments in favour of that measure. The firit point to which he directed the attention of the committee, was the manner in which flaves were obtained on the coaft of Africa, This vaft country, he obferved, was divided into districts of different fizes, fome governed by kings, and others, and thofe the greater part, by elders. The ftate of civilization was in general very imperfect, their notions of morality extremely rude, It was natural, therefore, that when the kings or chieftains were tempted by the preffing folicitations of appetite to acts of injuftice and oppreflion, they would not be flow in the commiffion of them. This maxim, founded on the principles of human nature, accorded with the moll authentic accounts. To begin with the river Senegal; captain Wilfon and captain Hills of the navy, and M. Dalrymple of the land fervice, being at Gorce, had an opportunity of making obfervations in that quarter. On the arrival of the flave fhips, armed parties were regularly fent out in the evening, who fcoured the country, and brought in their prey in the night: thefe wretched victims were to be feen, bound back to back, in the huts on the fhore; whence they were conveyed, tied hand and foot, on board the flave fhips. The object of thefe depredations was con firmed, beyond all doubt, by the fact, that when the flave trade was ftopped, thefe expeditions alfo ceafed. This reprefentation, he oblerved, was confirmed by feveral other witneffes; who added, that these ravages, excited by prefents of brandy, gunpowder, &c. were not only carried on by one community against

another, but the kings were ftimulated to commit them, in their own territories, on their own fubjects. Individuals alo were kidnapped whilft in their flds and in their gardens. There was a univerfal fentiment of distrust and apprehenfion.

On the windward coat, by thei evidence of lieutenant Story and. Mr. Brewman, they would find all the fore-mentioned evils exifling, if poffible, in a fill higher degree. They would fee the remains of villages which had been burnt, whilst the fields of corn were ftill ftanding belide them. Here an agent was fent to eltablish a fettlement in the interior country; and his inftructions from his employers were, "to encourage the chieftains, by brandy and gunpowder, to go to war, and make flaves" Mr. How, a botanist, in the fervice of government, gave. ip evidence, that, on the arrival of an order for flaves from Cape Coast Cattle, the native chief immediately fent forth his armed parties, who in the night brought in a fupply of: all defcriptions. When captain Lills was in the river Gambia, happening to mention to the black pilot that he wanted a cabin-boy, the pilot told him he might foon obtain one; and accordingly, fome youths being on the thore with vegetables to fell, he beckoned them on board, and at the fame time intimated that. he might then take his choice. When captain Hills rejected the propofal with indignation, the pilot feemed perfectly at a lofs to account for his warmth, and dryly obferved, that flave captains would not have been fo fcrupulous. When general Rooke commanded at Gorce, a number of the natives, about a hundred and fifty, men, women, and children, came to pay him a friendly vifit. All was gaiety and merriIt was a scene to gladden

ment,

the

the faddeft, and foften the hardeft heart. But a flave captain is not fo foon put off his guard. Three English barbarians of this description preferred it as their joint request to general Rooke, to feize the whole unfufpecting multitude; alleging the precedent of a former governor, who in a fimilar cafe had confented!

The ufual proportion of children, he faid, on board the flave fhips, was one third of the whole cargo, fcarcely ever less than one fourth. The only legal way in which children could be brought into that fituation, was by whole families being fold, when the principals were condemned for witchcraft but this, by the evidence of their opponents, was not often the cafe; and, confequently, the majority of them were obtained by kidnapping, which was indeed confirmed by the teftimony of refpectable witneffes. On the flave coaft, even the administration of justice was converted into an engine of cruelty. Crimes were fabricated, falfe accufations reforted to, and men employed to feduce unwary perfons into the commiffion of crimes, with a view to the conviction and fale of the culprit.

Another effect of this trade was, that it corrupted the moral principle of those who carried it on. Every poffible fraud was employed to deceive the ignorance of the natives, by falfe weights and measures, adul. terated commodities, &c. Such indeed was the opinion the natives entertained of the flave fhips, that it had been given in evidence by many refpectable commanders in the navy, that when the fhips of war appeared off the coaft of Africa, the people were fo apprehenfive of being kidnapped, that they could not be perfuaded to come on board, till they were con

vinced that the veffels were not of the former defcription.

"But," continued Mr. Wilberforce, "let us withdraw from this difgraceful fcene, and, in the words of an emphatical writer, turn our eyes for relief to fame ordinary wickedness. But, alas! no fuch relief is yet to be enjoyed-a ftill more dreadful fcene is to fucceed. Let us reprefent to ourfelves a veffel, in a fultry climate, heaped to the very brim with thefe unhappy people, torn from their homes in the manner I have defcribed, and ignorant whither they are going."-He proceeded to ftate, that even in the year 1788, when the friends of humanity were agitating the fubject within those walls, all the mifery, all the compulfion, all the defpair, all the infanity which on a former occafion he had brought into their vicw, were actually going forward in the flave fhips; and it appeared upon the evidence, that feveral of thefe wretches voluntarily threw themfelves into the fea, and, before they expired, fhewed figns of exultation that they had efcaped. A veffel of a hundred and twenty tons, commanded by captain Knox, carried two hundred and ninety flaves, and forty-three other perfons: the flaves had not room to lie on their backs, and yet captain Knox had declared, "they flept tolerably comfortable !" Another veffel of a hundred and eight tons carried four hundred and fifty flaves; and a third, of a hundred and fifty tons, fix hundred. He next adverted to the inftance of an African captain; who, on a flave refufing to eat, had ordered hot coals to be held to his mouth, till he confepted to take food. Mr. Wilberforce fpoke of the favourable character which many creditable witnefes had given of the natives of

Africa;

Africa; of their ingenuity, tractablenefs, cheerfulness, hofpitality, and every quality that evinced them to be fitted for civilized life. To fuppose them an inferior fpecies, and the peculiar objects of the divine vengeance, he termed a grofs and impious blafphemy.

Confidering the trade in this one light, as entailing fuch complicated mifery on the continent of Africa, no petty, dubious intereft could be flated as a fufficient plea to refift the abolition. He however had little doubt but he should be able to prove, that, inftead of being ultimately injurious to the West India iflands, the abolition of the trade would in reality be beneficial to them. He would not detain the committee with arguing against the bringing of new lands into cultivation, by fresh importations of African flaves, fince, apart from every confideration of juftice and humanity, the impolicy of the measure was fufficiently clear. If they but attended to the evidence of Mr. Woolrich, and confidered the dreadful mortality that attended the opening of new lands, they would be convinced of the difference between the flow but fure progrefs of cultivation carried on in the natural way, and the attempt to force improvements. He might even appeal to the enormous fum, faid by the Weft Indians themselves to amount to more than 20,000,cool. owing to the people of this country.

The grand bafis on which were refted all the arguments of those who apprehended that the abolition might prove injurious to the Weft India iflands, he apprehended to be, that the ftock of flaves now in the islands could not be kept up by propagation. In direct refutation of this pofition, he should prove-1ft, that,

in the condition and treatment of the negroes, there were caufes fufficient to afford us reafon to expect a confiderable decrease-zdly, that this decrease, notwithstanding the difadvantages alluded to, was not fo great in fact as might be expected: nay, he might now almoft venture to fay, that in moft parts it had actually ceafed. He wished to treat the gentlemen of the West India iflands with all poffible candour: but there were fome evils neceffarily connected with a fyftem of flavery. Above all, the state of degradation to which they were reduced, deferved to be noticed, fince it produced an utter inattention to them as moral agents. They were kept to work under the whip like cattle, left totally ignorant of both religion and morality, without any regular fyftem of marriage among them; and, confequently, promifcuous intercourfe, early proftitution, and exceffive drinking, proved material caufes of their decrease.

Whatever might have been faid to the contrary, Mr. Wilberforce obferved, that it was plain from the evidence that the flaves had not been under the protection of the law. Colonial ftatutes had indeed been paffed, but they were a mere dead letter; fince, however ill treated, the flaves had not been confidered as having a right to any redrefs. An inftance of aftonishing cruelty appeared in the teftimony of Mr. Rofs, as committed by a Jew; but, though a matter of notoriety, it does not feem to have entered into the contemplation of any perfon to call him to a legal account. Some inftances had indeed occurred very lately, of convictions; one of which was, for a mafter having cut the mouth of a child from ear to ear: when the verdict of the jury evinced,

that

that the doctrine of calling mafters to account was entirely novel, as it only pronounced him "Guiltyfubject to the opinion of the court, if immoderate correction of a flave by his matter be a crime indictable." The court determined in the affirmative; and, for this horrid act of cruelty, the mafter was fined twenty-five fhillings!

In point of medical care, the flaves were but in a bad fituation; and, from pofitive evidence, it appeared that they were in general underfed. They were ufually fupported partly by their own ground, partly by an allowance from their mafter of flour or grain. In one inland, where provifion ground does not answer one year in three, the allowance was from five to nine pints of grain a week: in Dominica, from fix to feven quarts: and in St. Christopher's, where there was no provifion ground, the allow ance was but eleven pints. The capital cause of the decrease of the negroes was, however, the non-refidence of the planters: fir George Young, and many others, had feen the flaves treated in fuch a manner as they were fure their owners would have refented, had it been known to them. The fact was, that managers fought to eftablifa their characters by producing large crops, not confidering how far the flaves might fuffer from ill treatment and exceffive labour. He obferved, that in fome islands the fine for the wilful murder of a flave was 180l. and in Barbadoes, only 151.

Against the argument, that the condition of flaves was much preferable to that of free negroes, in the West Indies, Mr. Wilberforce ftated the well-known fact, that when a flave, by hard labour, and the indulgence of a kind master,

had faved a fum of money, the first ufe that he made of it was, to purchafe the releafe from this fituation of fuperior happiness, by the sacrifice of his laft fhilling. The greatest boon too with which a matter rewarded the long and faithful services of a flave, was freedom. He would not fo calumniate the West Indians, as to fuppofe that they only meant to mock thefe poor people with a real evil, for an imaginary good. Captain Wilfon, he remarked, affures us, that the funerals, which in Africa are attended with lamentations, in the Weft Indies are accompanied with every mark of exultation and joy. Thus, he trufted, he had made good his first propofition, that the caufes of decreafe were fo many and fo great, that a very confiderable decrease might be expected.

He would now proceed to fulfil his fecond propofition, and bring forth fuch facts as would ferve to prove, that in case of the abolition, a very confiderable increase might be expected. The teftimony of his opponents, he faid, furnished him with fufficient examples to prove that wherever the flaves were well treated, there was uniformly an increase in numbers: this he inftanced by referring to the evidence for a number of facts, and fhewed that in America, in Bencoolen, in St. Vincent and Jamaica, they had always very rapidly increased under tolerably favourable circumstances.

Mr. Wilberforce next proceeded to remark on the apprehended confequences of the abolition, in other views. With refpect to the lofs of feamen which the nation sustained by this pernicious trade-it appeared, by the Liverpool and Bristol mufter-rolls, that in 350 flave ships, having on board 12,263 perfons, 2,643 were loft in twelve months;

whereas,

whereas, in 452 Weft-Indiamen, having on board 7,40 perfons, 118 only were loft. He remarked the ill effects of the flave trade on both the phyfical and moral habits of the feamen, who, after they had ferved on board a flave fhip, were feldom thought fit for any other fervice. He related a fact of a veffel ftranded on the Morant Keys, near Jamaica-The crew faved themselves in the boats, and left the unhappy negroes in irons; nay, afterwards, when the poor flaves had freed themfelves from their fetters, and fwam upon rafts, &c. to the inland where the whites were, thefe latter, appréhenfive of their confuming their provifions, &c. murdered them as they landed, to the number of four hundred. He noticed alfo the well-known account of captain Collingwood; and the treatment of what are called refuse flaves, that is, thofe who were fick, and who are fometimes fold as low as a dollar. He adverted to the numbers who loft their lives on the coaft of Africa, in the most shocking manner fo that in one year, no less than fix fhips were cut off, and the crews maffacred by the natives; and concluded, that "the history of this commerce was written in characters of blood."

With refpect to the effects of the abolition on the commerce of certain places he remarked, that the flave trade conflituted only one thirtieth of the commerce of Liverpool; and the delegates from that place had declared at the bar, that they could not carry on the trade under the restrictions of the late bill proportioning the numbers to the tonnage. Of the commerce of Briftol, the flave trade conftituted a fill fmaller proportion. The trade, he faid, was a lottery, profitable indeed to fome individuals, but a lofing

trade on the whole. The manu factures exported to Africa amounted annually to the value of about 400,000l. This lofs he confiderea as a mere trifle.

The abolition of the flave trade, he proceeded to fhew, was the only means of amending the treatment and condition of flaves in the colonics. Any mode of regulating the treatment by pofitive laws in favour of the flaves, he confidered not only as inefficacious, but unfafe. If the negroes were once raised to the rank of moral agents, they would perceive that they had rights. To give them a power of appealing to laws, would awaken them to a feufe of the dignity of their nature: the firft return to life, after a fwoon, is commonly a convulfion, dangerous at once to the party himself, and to all around him. Such, in the cafe of flaves, he feared might be the confequence of the fudden communication of the confcioufnefs of civil rights. It was therefore belt and fafelt to render it indifpenfably neceffary to the planters to take care of their flaves, and to provide for their increafe by good treatment.

Mr. Wilberforce concluded with noticing the beneficial effects that might refult from a fair and open commerce with Africa, which was capable of producing the moft defirable commodities. The flave trade did not deferve the name of commerce. He faid, let the fate of his motion be what it might, he was fatisfied of one thing, which was, that "the public had already abolifhed the flave trade." Supported by this confideration, he fhould continue to perfevere, and would never abandon the object till he had accomplished it. He concluded with moving-"That the chairman be inftructed to move for leave

to bring in a bill to prevent the

further