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

moreover, the whole arrangement of the apprenticeship was
intended as a benefit to them, by giving them the preparation thought to
be required before they could, safely for themselves, be admitted to
unrestricted freedom,--not as a benefit to the planters, whose
acquiescence was purchased with the grant of twenty millions.
Experience having shown that no preparation at all was required, it was
preposterous to continue the restraint upon natural liberty an hour
longer, as regarded the negroes,--the only party whom we had any right
to consider in the question; and as for the planters there was the

grossest absurdity in further regarding any interests or any claims of
theirs. The arrangement of 1833, as far as regards the transition or
intermediate state, had been made under an error in fact, an error
propagated by the representations of the masters. That error was now at
an end, and an immediate alteration of the provisions to which it had
given rise was thus a matter of strict justice;--not to mention that the
planters had failed to perform their part of the contract. The Colonial
Assemblies had, except in Antigua, done nothing for the slave in return
for the large sum bestowed upon the West India body. So that in any
view there was an end of all pretext for the further delay of right and
justice.
The ground now taken by the whole Abolitionists; therefore, both in
and out of Parliament was, that the two years which remained of the
indentured apprenticeship must immediately be cut off, and freedom
given to the slaves in August, 1838, instead of 1840; The peace of the
West Indian community, and the real interests of the planters, were
affirmed to be as much concerned in this change as the rights of the
negroes themselves. Far from preparing them for becoming peaceable
subjects and contented members of society at the end of their
apprenticeship, those two years of compulsory labour would, it was
justly observed, be a period of heart-burning and discontent between
master and servant, which must, in the mean while, be dangerous to the
peace of society, and must leave, at the end of the time, a feeling of
mutual ill-will and distrust. The question could no longer be kept from
the cognizance of the negro people. Indeed, their most anxious
expectations were already pointed towards immediate liberty, and their
strongest feelings were roused to obtain it.
Of these sentiments the whole community partook; meetings were
everywhere held; petitions crowded the tables of Parliament; the press
poured forth innumerable tracts which were eagerly received; the pulpit
lent its aid to this holy cause; and discussions upon petitions and upon
incidental motions shook the walls of Parliament, while they stimulated
the zeal of the people. The Government adopted an unfortunate course,
which contributed greatly to weaken their hold on the confidence and
affections of the country; they resisted all the motions that were made

on behalf of the slaves, and appeared to regard only the interests of the
master, turning a deaf ear to the arguments of right and of justice.
It was found, during the course of these debates, that a new Slave Trade
had sprung up in the East Indies, with the sanction of an English Order
in Council. Under pretence that hands were wanted to cultivate their
estates, the Demerara planters had obtained permission to import what
they termed, with a delicacy borrowed from the vocabulary of the
African Slave Trade, "labourers" from Asia and from Africa east of the
Cape, and to make them Indentured Apprentices for a term of years. No
restrictions whatever were imposed by this unheard-of Order. No
tonnage was required in proportion to the numbers shipped, no amount
of provision, no medical assistance; no precautions were taken, or so
much as thought of, to prevent kidnapping and fraud, nay, to prevent
main force being used in any part of Eastern Africa, or of all Asia, in
carrying on board the victims of West Indian avarice; in short, a worse
Slave Trade than the African was established, and all the dominions of
the East India Company, with all the African and Asiatic coasts, as yet
independent, were given over to its ravages. This was repeatedly
denounced by Lord Brougham in the House of Lords; and although his
motion for rescinding the order was supported by Lord Lyndhurst, Lord
Ellenborough, and Lord Wharncliffe, the influence of the Government
and the planters prevailed, and the House rejected it. A bill was
afterwards brought in to check the enormities complained of; but no
remedy at all effectual is as yet applied. The official documents,
however, proved that already men had been inveigled on board, by the
agents of the Mauritius planters, in different parts of the East, and that
the mortality on that comparatively