ON THE SLAVE-TRADE.

To the EDITOR of the BRITISH PRESS.

April 3, 1805.

SIK, It is a very important and ftriking truth, worthy the ferious confideration of all thofe who doubt the enormous wickedness of Weft-Indian Slavery, that its most re fpectable champions, and even thofe among them who, by an affectation of candour, have made the most powerful impreffion on the publick mind, have been obliged to refort to grofs mifreprefentations of the facts upon which they reafon. Sometimes, in order to deprive of our fympathy the wretched victims of colonial despotifm, fallacious representations have been wilfully given of their conduct and character; at other times, in order to draw a veil over their fufferings and wrongs, advantage has been taken of the ignorance of the European Publick refpecting Weft-Indian affairs, by diclofing just so much of a particular fact, as would furnish a bafis for an inference oppofite to the truth, and invidiously fuppreffing the reft.

Of this practice, Mr. Brougham, in his able work, entitled, An Inquiry into the Colonial Policy of the European Powers, has given fome examples in writers of the first reputation among the Apologifts of the Weft-Indian fyftem.

The cart-whip is the planter's ordinary inftrument, both of coercion and punishment. When used for the former purpose by the driver in the field, it is generally applied to the poor labourers in their working posture, without stopping to ftrip them of the clothes by which their backs may

happen

happen to be defended. The effect is fufficiently fevere ; yet not so much so as commonly to leave permanent marks on the body. But when a punishment is to be deliberately inflicted, the patient is ftretched upon the ground, with his limbs extended, and the cart-whip, (which, in the hands of an expert driver, is a moft mercilefs inftrument of torture,) is vertically applied, with all his force, and with an iteration fometimes extending to an hundred lashes, upon that fleshy part of the naked frame, which alone can receive fuch extreme discipline, without great danger to life. Not only is the scarf-skin peeled-off by every contact of the lash, but deep incifions are made, which often leave lasting scars of fhocking appearance: from these fears very few fieldnegroes are wholly exempt.

This general and notorious fact having been noticed by the Abolitionists, in the first difcuffion on the Slave-trade, but without a diftinct fpecification, as it would feem, of the part of the body which bore thefe badges of cruelty, a tour to the Windward Islands was written by one WeftIndian planter of great eminence (Sir William Young), and published in a well-known work of another, (Hiftory of the Weft-Indies, by Mr. Bryan Edwards), in which the following paffage appears: "I particularly noticed every negro whom I met, or overtook, on the road; of those, I counted eleven who were dreffed as field-negroes, with only trowfers on, and, adverting to the evidence on the Slave-trade, I particularly remarked that not one of the eleven had a fingle mark, or fear, of the whip, &c.-Never paffing a flave, without obferving his back, either in the field, or on the road, or wenches washing in the river, I have not feen one back marked, befides that of the woman obferved on Mr. G.'s eftate, &c."

Sir William Young's object in bringing-forward this statement is obviously to difcredit the accounts which have

been

been given of the feverity of West-Indian bondage. He is himself owner of feveral plantations, and therefore muft have had ample means of afcertaining the real ftate of the cafe. But fuch is the unfairness of the impreffion which his account is calculated to produce,-an unfairness which could not escape the notice of any man having the flightest acquaintance with Weft-Indian affairs,-that Mr. Edwards thought himself bound, (from regard, it is to be prefumed, to his own character for veracity,) to fubjoin to the paffage the following note: "In the Weft-Indies the punishment of whipping is commonly inflicted, not on the backs of the negroes, as practifed in the discipline of the British foldiers, but, more humanely and with much lefs danger, on the partes pofteriores. It is therefore no proof that the negroes whom Sir William Young infpected had escaped flagellation, because their shoulders bore no impreffion of the whip. This acknowledgment I owe to truth and candour."

The candid annotator well knew that, if the just and neceffary sentence of a court-martial were to be executed. by the fame inftrument, and to the fame extent, as the arbitrary and, often, capricious mandate of a Weft-Indian overfeer, the back could not be the feat of punishment without certain death to the fufferer.

But of the candour of Mr. Edwards, as an hiftorian, in what regards this hapless race, Mr. Brougham has furnished ample illustration; and one inftance of it well deferves to be noticed. A Mr. Gallifer, a planter of St. Domingo, was celebrated for his mild treatment of his flaves; and the confequence of his lenity was, that they increased in numbers very rapidly; but, about the year 1773, this gentleman died, and the negroes found a new mafter of an oppofite character, who treated them fo badly, that their numbers, instead of increafing as before, continually declined. These facts were publifhed by Mr. Clark fon, in 1788, in

his

his Effay on the Impolicy of the Slave-trade; and as that period was three years anterior to the Revolution in St. Domingo, of course there could be no room for fufpicion, that, with a view to the events of that Revolution, Mr. Clarkson could have devifed or misreprefented the fact of the reverse of treatment upon Gallifer's eftate, which had taken place fifteen years before he wrote; yet Mr. Edwards, in his Hiftory of St. Domingo, for the purpose of supporting an abfurd and mifchievous calumny on the oppreffed African race (the charge of their being wholly deftitute of the natural sentiment of gratitude), has inferted the former part of Mr. Clarkfon's anecdote, but wholly fuppreffed the death of Mr. Gallifer, and the change of treatment by the new master, and has then given a fhocking account of the exceffes committed in the infurrection by the negroes of this eftate; as if the peculiar indulgence and kind treatment of their owner had produced the effect of making them more ferocious than the reft of the infurgents.

Of fuch mifrepresentation, if wilful, for such a purpose, it would be difficult to fpeak with the reprehenfion it deferves; and yet, as Mr. Brougham obferves, the mutilation of the cafe could not be accidental. It would be difficult, indeed, to believe, that fo induftrious an advocate as Mr. Edwards had not read the work of fo diftinguished an opponent as Mr. Clarkson, whose very words too he in part ufes upon this occafion. Befides, Mr. Edwards had been at Cape François, in the near neighbourhood of this estate, during the infurrection; and he tells us, with Mr. Clarkfon, that the name of Mr. Gallifer had been proverbial for his humanity" As happy as Gallifer's negroes:" it could hardly have escaped his notice, that fo remarkable a character, who had been dead near twenty years, was not living at that interefting period. And even were it poffible to acquit this writer of wilful mifreprefentation in this

cafe

case, his rashness, in confidently afferting fo extraordinary an inftance of depravity in direct oppofition to the truth of the cafe, must be fatal to his credit as an hiftorian.

It is painful to make such obfervations on a writer now no more; but Mr. Edwards, under the mask of an affected candour and moderation, has done more to mislead the publick mind, at the expence of truth, and of the oppreffed African race, than all the other advocates of the SlaveSyftem united: and we must not fuffer the cause of millions now living, and myriads yet unborn, to be prejudiced by false tenderness to the memory of the dead.

Your's,

AN ABOLITIONIST.

ON