The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade | Page 4

the leaves? Why are those persons
flying from our approach, and hiding themselves in yon darkest thicket?
Behold, as we get into the plain, a deserted village! The rice-field has
been just trodden down around it. An aged man, venerable by his silver
beard, lies wounded and dying near the threshold of his hut. War,
suddenly instigated by avarice, has just visited the dwellings which we
see. The old have been butchered, because unfit for slavery, and the
young have been carried off, except such as have fallen in the conflict,
or have escaped among the woods behind us.
But let us hasten from this cruel scene, which gives rise to so many
melancholy reflections. Let us cross yon distant river, and enter into
some new domain. But are we relieved even here from afflicting
spectacles? Look at that immense crowd, which appears to be gathered
in a ring. See the accused innocent in the middle. The ordeal of
poisonous water has been administered to him, as a test of his
innocence or his guilt. He begins to be sick, and pale. Alas! yon
mournful shriek of his relatives confirms that the loss of his freedom is
now sealed.
And whither shall we go now? The night is approaching fast. Let us
find some friendly hut, where sleep may make us forget for a while the
sorrows of the day. Behold a hospitable native ready to receive us at his
door! Let us avail ourselves of his kindness. And now let us give
ourselves to repose. But why, when our eyelids are but just closed, do
we find ourselves thus suddenly awakened? What is the meaning of the
noise around us, of the trampling of people's feet, of the rustling of the
bow, the quiver, and the lance? Let us rise up and inquire. Behold! the
inhabitants are all alarmed! A wakeful woman has shown them yon
distant column of smoke and blaze. The neighbouring village is on fire.
The prince, unfaithful to the sacred duty of the protection of his
subjects, has surrounded them. He is now burning their habitations, and
seizing, as saleable booty, the fugitives from the flames.
Such then are some of the scenes that have been passing in Africa in
consequence of the existence of the Slave-trade; or such is the nature of
the evil, as it has shown itself in the first of the cases we have noticed.

Let us now estimate it as it has been proved to exist in the second; or let
us examine the state of the unhappy Africans, reduced to slavery in this
manner, while on board the vessels, which are to convey them across
the ocean to other lands. And here I must observe at once, that, as far as
this part of the evil is concerned, I am at a loss to describe it. Where
shall I find words to express properly their sorrow, as arising from the
reflection of being parted for ever from their friends, their relatives, and
their country? Where shall I find language to paint in appropriate
colours the horror of mind brought on by thoughts of their future
unknown destination, of which they can augur nothing but misery from
all that they have yet seen? How shall I make known their situation,
while labouring under painful disease, or while struggling in the
suffocating holds of their prisons, like animals inclosed in an exhausted
receiver? How shall I describe their feelings, as exposed to all the
personal indignities, which lawless appetite or brutal passion may
suggest? How shall I exhibit their sufferings as determining to refuse
sustenance and die, or as resolving to break their chains, and,
disdaining to live as slaves, to punish their oppressors? How shall I
give an idea of their agony, when under various punishments and
tortures for their reputed crimes? Indeed every part of this subject
defies my powers, and I must therefore satisfy myself and the reader
with a general representation, or in the words of a celebrated member
of Parliament, that "Never was so much human suffering condensed in
so small a space."
I come now to the evil, as it has been proved to arise in the third case;
or to consider the situation of the unhappy victims of the trade, when
their painful voyages are over, or after they have been landed upon
their destined shores. And here we are to view them first under the
degrading light of cattle. We are to see them examined, handled,
selected, separated, and sold. Alas! relatives are separated from
relatives, as if, like cattle, they had no rational intellect, no power of
feeling the nearness of relationship, nor sense of the duties belonging to
the ties of life! We are next to see them labouring, and this for