The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade | Page 9

they, who lived
even in early times, and favoured this great cause, may be said to have
been necessary precursors in it. And here it may be proper to observe,
that it is by no means necessary that all these should have been
themselves actors in the production of this great event. Persons have
contributed towards it in different ways:--Some have written expressly
on the subject, who have had no opportunity of promoting it by
personal exertions. Others have only mentioned it incidentally in their
writings. Others, in an elevated rank and station, have cried out
publicly concerning it, whose sayings have been recorded. All these,
however, may be considered as necessary forerunners in their day. For
all of them have brought the subject more or less into notice. They have
more or less enlightened the mind upon it. They have more or less
impressed it. And therefore each may be said to have had his share in

diffusing and keeping up a certain portion of knowledge, and feeling
concerning it, which has been eminently useful in the promotion of the
cause.
It is rather remarkable, that the first forerunners and coadjutors should
have been men in power.
So early as in the year 1503 a few slaves had been sent from the
Portuguese settlements in Africa into the Spanish colonies in America.
In 1511, Ferdinand the Fifth, king of Spain, permitted them to be
carried in greater numbers. Ferdinand, however, must have been
ignorant in these early times of the piratical manner in which the
Portuguese had procured them. He could have known nothing of their
treatment when in bondage, nor could he have viewed the few
uncertain adventurous transportations of them into his dominions in the
western world, in the light of a regular trade. After his death, however,
a proposal was made by Bartholomew de las Casas, the bishop of
Chiapa, to Cardinal Ximenes, who held the reins of the government of
Spain till Charles the Fifth came to the throne, for the establishment of
a regular system of commerce in the persons of the native Africans.
The object of Bartholomew de las Casas was undoubtedly to save the
American Indians, whose cruel treatment and almost extirpation he had
witnessed during his residence among them, and in whose behalf he
had undertaken a voyage to the court of Spain. It is difficult to
reconcile this proposal with the humane and charitable spirit of the
bishop of Chiapa. But it is probable he believed that a code of laws
would soon be established in favour both of Africans and of the natives
in the Spanish settlements, and that he flattered himself that, being
about to return and to live in the country of their slavery, he could look
to the execution of it. The cardinal, however, with a foresight, a
benevolence, and a justice, which will always do honour to his memory,
refused the proposal, not only judging it to be unlawful to consign
innocent people to slavery at all, but to be very inconsistent to deliver
the inhabitants of one country from a state of misery by consigning to it
those of another. Ximenes therefore may be considered as one of the
first great friends of the Africans after the partial beginning of the trade.

This answer of the cardinal, as it showed his virtue as an individual, so
it was peculiarly honourable to him as a public man, and ought to
operate as a lesson to other statesmen, how they admit any thing new
among political regulations and establishments, which is connected in
the smallest degree with injustice. For evil, when once sanctioned by
governments, spreads in a tenfold degree, and may, unless seasonably
checked, become so ramified, as to affect the reputation of a country,
and to render its own removal scarcely possible without detriment to
the political concerns of the state. In no instance has this been verified
more than in the case of the Slave-trade. Never was our national
character more tarnished, and our prosperity more clouded by guilt.
Never was there a monster more difficult to subdue. Even they, who
heard as it were the shrieks of oppression, and wished to assist the
sufferers, were fearful of joining in their behalf. While they
acknowledged the necessity of removing one evil, they were terrified
by the prospect of introducing another; and were therefore only able to
relieve their feelings, by lamenting in the bitterness of their hearts, that
this traffic had ever been begun at all.
After the death of cardinal Ximenes, the emperor Charles the Fifth,
who had come into power, encouraged the Slave-trade. In 1517 he
granted a patent to one of his Flemish favourites, containing an
exclusive right of importing four thousand Africans into America. But
he lived long enough to repent