BOOK fequence of delinquency, or captivity in war. IV. The fame, or nearly the fame, account is given of the Fantyn nation by Mr. Norris; who obferves, that "a confiderable portion of the community are perfons born flaves, but that thefe have peculiar privileges, and enjoy many advantages, which the flaves of the neighbouring countries do not, and cannot be fold at the caprice of their masters." His opinion is, that the number of flaves furnifhed in the Fantyn country (about 2000 annually) is made up by delinquency and debt. Under fuch contradictory information, it occurred to me, during my refidence in Jamaica, to examine many of the Negroes themfelves. I mean Negroes newly arrived from Africa; for from those who have refided any length of time in the West Indies, it is difficult to obtain, even to enquiries of an indifferent nature, fuch anfwers as carry with them conviction of their truth. It is feldom, for inftance, that any Guiney Negro will acknowledge that he was in a state of flavery in his native country. Obferving the refpect and preheminence allowed to wealth and confequence among the Whites, and the privileges which attach to freedom in the Weft Indies, among those of his own colour who are born or rendered free, he is tempted, whether juftly or not, to affert his claim to fome degree of confideration from his paft, if not from his prefent condition; and it is a natural and excufable propenfity. Conceiving therefore that the truth might be beft obtained from Negroes recently imported, I enquired of many young people, from different parts of Africa, concerning the circumftances of their captivity and fale, and, having reduced their information to writing, I interogated many of them again on the the fame fubject, after an interval of feveral CHAP. months. If the fame account precifely was given IV. by the fame people a fecond time, I commonly confidered it as grounded in truth. On other occafions, I have examined brothers and fifters apart. If their information agreed in minute particulars, I could have no reason to suspect them of falfehood. Of five-and-twenty young perfons of both fexes whom I thus interrogated, fifteen frankly declared that they were born to flavery, and were either fold to pay the debts, or bartered away to fupply the wants of their owners. Five were fecretly kidnapped in thè interior country, and fold to black merchants, who conveyed them from an immenfe diftance to the fea-coaft, and fold them to the fhip-mafters that brought them to Jamaica. The other five appeared to have fallen victims in fome of thofe petty wars which it is probable rapacity and revenge reciprocally inftigate throughout the whole continent of Africa *. On fuch occafions, the young and the Perhaps the reader will not be difpleafed to be prefented with a few of these examinations, as they were taken down at the time, and without any view to publication. Adam (a Congo) a boy as I guefs about fourteen, his country name Sarri, came from a vaft distance inland, was waylaid and ftole, in the path about three miles from his own village, by one of his countrymen. It was early in the morning, and the man hid him all day in the woods, and marched him in the night. He was conducted in this manner for a month, and then fold to another Black man for a gun, fome powder and shot, and a quantity of falt. He was fold a fecond time for a keg of brandy. His laft-mentioned purchafer bought feveral other boys in the fame manner, and when he had collected twenty, fent them down to the feacoaft, where they were fold to a captain of a fhip. He relates further, that his father, Scindia Quante, was a chief or captain under the king, and a great warrior, and had taken many people, whom he fold as llaves. VOL. II. G Quaw BOOK the able are carried into captivity by the victors, IV. and the aged and infirm commonly murdered on the spot. By these means, and the commutation of death into flavery for crimes real and pretended, are the nations of Europe fupplied; and it cannot Quaw and Quamina (brothers) from the Gold Coast, one of them, as I guess, about twenty years old, the other eigh teen, were born flaves to a man named Banafou, who had a great many other flaves, and fold thefe two to the captain that brought them to Jamaica. On being afked for what cause their mafter fold them, they fuppofed the queftion implied a charge against them of mifconduct, and one of them replied with great quicknefs, that they were not the only flaves that were fold in Guiney without having been guilty of any crime their mafter, they said, owed money, and fold them to pay his debts. : Afiba, a Gold Coast girl, aged about fifteen, was a slave to a man named Quamina Yati. Her mafter fold her and two others to the fame captain, for a quantity of linen and other goods. Yamoufa, a Chamba youth, about fixteen, was a flave to a perfon named Soubadou; who fold him, together with a cow, for a gun, a quantity of other goods, and fome brandy. Oliver, from Affiantee-his country name Sang-a young man, as I guess, about twenty-two or twenty-three years of age. His father was a free man, a carpenter-lived in a village far from the fea. The village was attacked by a party of Fantees, who came in the night, and fet fire to the houses, and killed most of the inhabitants with guns and cutlaffesparticularly the old. The young people they took prifoners, and afterwards fold him and two others, for a piece of gold called fica, to a Black merchant, who carried them to the Fantee country.-He was afterwards fold or transferred over to fix different Black purchafers; the laft of whom carried him down to the fea-coaft, and fold him on board a fhip.—Was much frightened at the fight of White men, and thought he was to be eaten. Efther relates that fhe was born in the Ebo country, about one day's journey from the fea-coaft, where her grandmother lived, to whom she was fent on a vifit by her father. While there, the village was attacked by a body of Negroes (the knows not of what country, nor on what account) on whose approach fhe and all the women were fent into the woods, where IV. 99 cannot furely be a queftion, amongst a humane CHA P. and enlightened people, concerning the unlawfulness of a traffic thus fupported. To attempt its defence in all cafes, were to offer an infult to the common fense of mankind, and an outrage on the beft feelings of our nature. Yet a good mind may honeftly derive fome degree of confolation in confidering that all fuch of the wretched victims as were flaves in Africa, are, by being fold to the Whites, removed to a fituation infinitely more defirable, even in its worst state, than that of the best and most favoured flaves in their native country. It is, on all hands, admitted that the condition of thofe poor people, under their own governments, is the moft deplorable that we can conceive a human creature to be fubject to. They have no fecurity for property, nor protection for their perfons; they exist at the will and caprice of a mafter, who is not amenable to any law for his ill treatment of them, and who may slaughter them at his pleasure. He has in truth but very little interest in their preservation, having no means of employing them in profitable labour, and when provifions are scarce, he has even a ftrong inducement to deftroy them. The chief objection to the flave trade arifes from the great encouragement which I fear it unavoidably holds forth to acts of violence, oppreffion, and fraud among the natives towards each other. Without doubt, this is the ftrong where a party of the enemy found them, and carried away all fuch as were able to travel. The old, and those who were averfe to remove, were put to death; her grandmother among the reit. The third day fhe was fold to the White people. She has many marks about the cheft, which fhe appeals to as a proof of free birth, and afferts that her father had a plantation of corn, yams, and tobacco, and poffeffed many flaves. BOOK part of the petitioners cafe; and I admit it to be IV. fo, with that franknefs which I truft no honest Weft Indian will condemn. At the fame time it deferves very ferious confideration, whether a direct and immediate difcontinuance of the trade by the British nation only (the other nations of Europe continuing to purchase as ufual) would afford a remedy to thofe miferies, the existence of which every enlightened mind cannot but admit, and every good mind muft deplore; or rather, whether a partial and fudden abolition (fo inveterate is the evil) would not aggravate them in a high degree. In confidering this queftion, we must have in view not only the circumftances attending the Slave Trade on the Coaft, but also the fituation of the enslaved Negroes already in the Sugar Colonies. On the first head, it is to be enquired whether, fuppofing Great Britain fhould abandon her fhare in this commerce, a lefs mumber of flaves would in confequence thereof be brought down for fale in Africa? Admiral Edwards, who ferved on the station, and was on fhore feven months at a time, is decidedly of opinion that, fo long as other nations continue to purchase, the number would not be diminished in the least *; and a little reflection may perhaps convince us that his opinion is founded in reason, and the nature of the cafe. Among the commercial nations of Europe, it is true that, in moft cafes of purchase and barter, the demand and the fupply grow up together, and continue to regulate and fupport each other: but these are the arrangements of well-informed and civilifed men. Africa, it is apprehended the flave merchants In *See his evidence in the Report of the Committee of Privy Council, 1789. poffefs |