Part 1 (2/2)

[Footnote 8: ”About the same time (the reign of queen Elizabeth) a traffic in the human species, called Negroes, was introduced into England, which is one of the most odious and unnatural branches of trade the sordid and avaricious mind of mortals ever invented.--It had been carried on before this period by Genoese traders, who bought a patent from Charles the fifth, containing an exclusive right of carrying Negroes from the Portuguese settlements in Africa, to America and the West Indies; but the English nation had not yet engaged in the iniquitous traffic.--One William Hawkins, an expert English seaman, having made several voyages to the coast of Guinea, and from thence to Brazil and the West Indies, had acquired considerable knowledge of the countries. At his death he left his journals with his son, John Hawkins, in which he described the lands of America and the West Indies as exceedingly rich and fertile, but utterly neglected for want of hands to improve them. He represented the natives of Europe as unequal to the task in such a scorching climate; but those of Africa as well adapted to undergo the labours requisite. Upon which John Hawkins immediately formed a design of transporting Africans into the western world; and having drawn a plan for the execution of it, he laid it before some of his opulent neighbours for encouragement and approbation. To them it appeared promising and advantageous. A subscription was opened and speedily filled up, by Sir Lionel Ducket, Sir Thomas Lodge, Sir William Winter, and others, who plainly perceived the vast profits that would result from such a trade. Accordingly three s.h.i.+ps were fitted out, and manned by an hundred select sailors, whom Hawkins encouraged to go with him by promises of good treatment and great pay. In the year 1562 he set sail for Africa, and in a few weeks arrived at the country called Sierra Leona, where he began his commerce with the Negroes. While he trafficked with them, he found the means of giving them a charming description of the country to which he was bound; the unsuspicious Africans listened to him with apparent joy and satisfaction, and seemed remarkably fond of his European trinkets, food, and clothes. He pointed out to them the barrenness of the country, and their naked and wretched condition, and promised if any of them were weary of their miserable circ.u.mstances, and would go along with him, he would carry them to a plentiful land, where they should _live happy_, and _receive_ an abundant _recompence_ for their labours. He told them the country was inhabited by such men as himself and his jovial companions, and _a.s.sured_ them of _kind usage_ and _great friends.h.i.+p_. In short, the Negroes were overcome by his flattering promises, and _three hundred_ stout fellows accepted his offer, and consented to embark along with him. Every thing being settled on the most amicable terms between them, Hawkins made preparations for his voyage. But in the night before his departure his Negroes were attacked by a large body from a different quarter; Hawkins, being alarmed with the shrieks and cries of dying persons, ordered his men to the a.s.sistance of his slaves, and having surrounded the a.s.sailants, carried a number of them on board as prisoners of war. The next day he set sail for Hispaniola with his cargo of human creatures; but during the pa.s.sage, he treated the prisoners of war in a different manner from his volunteers. Upon his arrival he disposed of his cargo to great advantage; and endeavoured to inculcate on the Spaniards who bought the negroes the same distinction to be observed: but they having _purchased all at the same rate_, considered them as slaves of the same condition, and consequently treated all alike.”

Hawkins having returned to England, soon after made preparations for a second voyage. ”In his pa.s.sage he fell in with the Minion man of war, which accompanied him to the Coast of Africa. After his arrival he began as formerly to traffic with the Negroes, endeavouring by persuasions and _prospects_ of _reward_, to induce them to go along with him--but now they were more reserved and jealous of his designs, and as none of their neighbours had returned, they were apprehensive he had killed and eat them. The crew of the man of war observing the Africans backward and suspicious, began to laugh at his gentle and dilatory methods of proceeding, and proposed having immediate recourse to force and compulsion--but Hawkins considered it as cruel and unjust, and tried by persuasions, promises and threats, to prevail on them to desist from a purpose so unwarrantable and barbarous. In vain did he urge his authority and instructions from the Queen: the bold and headstrong sailors would hear of no restraints. Drunkenness and avarice are deaf to the voice of humanity. They pursue their violent design, and, after several unsuccessful attacks, in which _many_ of them lost their _lives_, the cargo was at length compleated by barbarity and force.

”Hence arose that horrid and inhuman practice of dragging Africans into slavery, which has since been _so_ pursued, in defiance of every principle of justice and religion. Had Negroes been brought from the flames, to which in some countries they were devoted on their falling prisoners of war, and in others, sacrificed at the funeral obsequies of the great and powerful among themselves; in short had they by this traffic been delivered from _torture_ or _death_, European merchants _might have some excuse_ to plead in its vindication. _But according to the common mode in which it has been conducted_, we must confess it a difficult matter to conceive a _single_ argument in its defence. And though policy has given countenance and sanction to the trade, yet every candid and impartial man must confess, that it is atrocious and unjustifiable in every light in which it can be viewed, and turns merchants into a band of robbers, and trade into atrocious acts of fraud and violence.” Historical Account of South-Carolina and Georgia.

Anonymous. London printed in 1779--page 20, &c.

”The number of Negroe slaves bartered for in one year (viz. 1768), on the Coast of Africa from Cape Blanco, to Rio Congo, amounted to 104,000 souls, whereof more than half (viz. 53,000) were s.h.i.+pped on account of British merchants, and 6,300 on the account of British Americans.” The Law of Retribution by Granville Sharpe, Esq. page 147. note.]

But how loudly soever reason, justice, and (may I not add) religion,[9]

condemn the practice of slavery, it is acknowledged to have been very ancient, and almost universal. The Greeks, the Romans, and the ancient Germans also practiced it, as well as the more ancient Jews and Egyptians. By the Germans it was transmitted to the various kingdoms which arose in Europe out of the ruins of the Roman empire. In England it subsisted for some ages under the name of _villeinage_.[10] In Asia it seems to have been general, and in Africa universal, and so remains to this day: In Europe it hath long since declined; its first declension there, is said to have been in Spain, as early as the eighth century; and it is alleged to have been general about the middle of the fourteenth, and was near expiring in the sixteenth, when the discovery of the American continent, and the eastern and western coasts of Africa gave rise to the introduction of a new species of slavery. It took its origin from the Portuguese, who, in order to supply the Spaniards with persons able to sustain the fatigue of cultivating their new possessions in America, particularly the islands, opened a trade between Africa and America for the sale of Negroes, about the year 1508. The expedient of having slaves for labour was not long peculiar to the Spaniards, being afterwards adopted by other European colonies [Hargrave, ib.]: and though some attempts have been made to stop its progress in most of the United States, and several of them have the fairest prospects of success in attempting the extirpation of it, yet is others, it hath taken such deep root, as to require the most strenuous exertions to eradicate it.

[Footnote 9: See the various tracts on this subject, by Granville Sharpe, Esq. of London.]

[Footnote 10: The condition of a _villein_ had most of the incidents I have before described in giving the idea of _slavery_, in general. His services were uncertain and indeterminate, such as his lord thought fit to require; or as some of our ancient writers express it, he knew not in the evening what he was to do in the morning, he was bound to do whatever he was commanded. He was liable to beating, imprisonment, and every other chastis.e.m.e.nt his lord could devise, except killing and maiming. He was incapable of acquiring property for his own benefit; he was himself the subject of property; as such saleable and transmissible.

If he was a villein regardant he pa.s.sed with the land to which he was annexed, but might be severed at the will of his lord; if he was a villein in gross, he was an hereditament, or a chattel real, according to his lord's interest; being descendible to the heir, where the lord was absolute _owner_, and transmissible to the executor where the lord had only a term of years in him. Lastly, the slavery extended to the issue, if the father was a villein, our law deriving the condition of the child from that of the father, contrary to the Roman law, in which the rule was, _partus sequitur ventum_. Hargrave's Case of Negroe Somerset, page 26 and 27.

The same writer refers the origin of va.s.salage in England, princ.i.p.ally to the wars between the British, Saxon, Danish, and Norman nations, contending for the sovereignty of that country, in opposition to the opinion of judge Fitzherbert, who supposes villeinage to have commenced at the conquest. Ib. 27, 28. And this he proves from Spelman and other antiquaries. Ib. The writ _de nativo habendo_, by which the lord was enabled to recover his villein that had absconded from him, creates a presumption that all the natives of England were at some period reduced to a state of villeinage, the word _nativus_, which signified a villein, most clearly designating the person meant thereby to be a _native_: this etymon is obvious, as well from the import of the word _nativus_, as from the history of the more remote ages of Britain. Sir Edward c.o.ke's Etymology, ”_quia plerumque nasc.u.n.tur servi_,” is one of those puerile conceits, which so frequently occur in his works, and are unworthy of so great a man.

Barrington in his observations upon _magna carta_ c. 4. observes, that the villeins who held by servile tenures were considered as so many negroes on a sugar plantation; the words ”_liber h.o.m.o_,” in magna carta, c. 14. with all deference to sir Edward c.o.ke, who says they mean a _free-holder_, I understand as meaning _a free man_,[Liber h.o.m.o, &c. the t.i.tle of _freeman_ was formerly _confined_ to the _n.o.bility_ and _gentry_ who were _descended_ of free ancestors.--Burgh's Political Disquisitions, vol. iii. p. 400, who cites Spelman's Glossary, voc.

Liber h.o.m.o.] as contradistinguished from a _villein_: for in the very next sentence the words ”et _villa.n.u.s_ alterius quam noster,” occur.

Villeins must certainly have been numerous at that day, to have obtained a place in the Great Charter. It is no less an evidence that their condition was in a state of melioration.

In Poland, at this day, the peasants seem to be in an absolute state of slavery, or at least of villeinage, to the n.o.bility, who are the land-holders.]

The first introduction of Negroes into Virginia happened, as we have already mentioned, in the year 1620; from that period to the year 1662 there is no compilation of our laws, in print, now to be met with. In the revision made in that year, we find an act declaring that no Englishman, trader, or other, who shall bring in any Indians as servants and a.s.sign them over to any other, shall sell them for _slaves_, nor for any other time than English of like age should serve by act of a.s.sembly [1662. c. 136.]. The succeeding session all children born in this country were declared to be bond, or free, according to the condition of the mother [1662. Sess. d. c. 12.]. In 1667 it was declared, ”That the conferring of baptism doth not alter the condition of the person baptized, as to his bondage or freedom [1667. c. 2.].” This was done, ”that divers masters freed from this doubt may more carefully endeavour the propagating of Christianity, by permitting their slaves to be baptized.” It would have been happy for this unfortunate race of men if the same tender regard for their bodies, had always manifested itself in our laws, as is shewn for their souls in this act. But this was not the case; for two years after, we meet with an act, declaring, ”That if any slave resist his master, or others, by his master's orders correcting him, and by the extremity of the correction should chance to die, such death should not be accounted felony: but the master or other person appointed by his master to punish him, be acquit from molestation: _since it could not be presumed that prepensive malice_, which alone makes _murder felony_, should induce any man to destroy his own estate.”[11] This cruel and tyrannical act was, at three different periods [1705. c. 49. 1723. c. 4. 1748. c. 31.] re-enacted, with very little alteration; and was not finally repealed till the year 1788 [1788. c. 23.]--above a century after it had first disgraced our code.

In 1668 we meet with the first traces of emanc.i.p.ation, in an act which subjects Negroe women set free to the tax on t.i.theables [1668. c. 7.].

Two years after [1670. c. 5.], an act pa.s.sed prohibiting _Indians_ or Negroes, manumitted, or otherwise set free, though baptized, from purchasing Christian servants [1670. c. 12.]. From this act it is evident that _Indians_ had _before_ that time been made slaves, as well as Negroes, though we have no traces of the original act by which they were reduced to that condition. An act of the same session recites that disputes had arisen whether Indians taken in war by any other nation, and by that nation sold to the English, are servants for _life_, or for a term of years; and declaring that all _servants_, not being Christians, imported into this country by _s.h.i.+pping_, shall be _slaves_ for their life-time; but that what shall come by land, shall serve, if boys and girls, until thirty years of age; if men and women twelve years, and no longer. On a rupture with the Indians in the year 1679 it was, for the _better encouragement of soldiers_, declared that what _Indian_ prisoners should be _taken in war_ should be free purchase to the soldier _taking_ them [1679. c. 1.]. Three years after it was declared that all _servants_ brought into this country by sea or land, not being Christians, whether Negroes, Moors, mulattoes or Indians, except Turks and Moors in amity with Great Britain, and all Indians which should thereafter be sold by neighbouring Indians, or any others trafficking with us, as slaves, should be slaves to all intents and purposes [1682. c. 1.]. This act was re-enacted in the year 1705, and afterwards in 1753 [1705 c. 49. 1753. c. 2.], nearly in the same terms.

In 1705 an act was made, authorising a free and open trade for all persons, at all times, and at all places, with all Indians whatsoever [1705 c. 52.]. On the authority of this act, the general court in April term 1787 decided that no Indians brought into Virginia since the pa.s.sing thereof, nor their descendants, can be slaves in this commonwealth.[12] In October 1778 the general a.s.sembly pa.s.sed the first act which occurs in our code for prohibiting the importation of slaves [1778. c. 1.]; thereby declaring that no slave should thereafter be brought into this commonwealth by land, or by water; and that every slave imported contrary thereto, should upon such importation be free: with an exception as to such as might belong to persons migrating from the other states, or be claimed by descent, devise, or marriage, or be at that time the actual property of any citizen of this commonwealth, residing in any other of the United States, or belonging to travellers making a transient stay, and carrying their slaves away with them.--In 1705 this act unfortunately underwent some alteration, by declaring that slaves thereafter brought into this commonwealth, and kept therein one whole _year together_, or so long at different times as shall _amount to a year_, shall be free. By this means the difficulty of proving the right to freedom will be not a little augmented: for the fact of the first importation, where the right to freedom immediately ensued, might have been always proved without difficulty; but where a slave is subject to removal from place to place, and his right to freedom is postponed for so long a time as a whole year, or perhaps several years, the provisions in favour of liberty may be too easily evaded. The same act declares that no persons shall thenceforth be slaves in this commonwealth, except such as were so on the first day of that session (Oct. 17th, 1785), and the descendants of the females of them. This act was re-enacted in the revisal made in 1792 [See acts of 1794, c. 103.].

In 1793 an additional act pa.s.sed, authorising and requiring any justice of the peace having notice of the importation of any slaves, directly or indirectly, from any part of Africa or the West Indies, to cause such slave to be immediately apprehended and transported out of the commonwealth [Edit. of 1794. c. 164.]. Such is the rise, progress, and present foundation of slavery in Virginia, so far as I have been able to trace it. The present number of slaves in Virginia, is immense, as appears by the census taken in 1791, amounting to no less than 292,427 souls: nearly two-fifths of the whole population of the commonwealth.[13] We may console ourselves with the hope that this proportion will not increase, the further importation of slaves being prohibited, whilst the free migrations of white people hither is encouraged. But this hope affords no other relief from the evil of slavery, than a diminution of those apprehensions which are naturally excited by the detention of so large a number of oppressed individuals among us, and the possibility that they may one day be roused to an attempt to shake off their chains.

[Footnote 11: Among the Israelites, according to the Mosaical law, ”If a man smote his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he died under his hand, he should surely be punished--notwithstanding if he continue a day or two, he should not be punished [Exod. c. 21]:” for, saith the text, he is _his money_. Our legislators appear to have adopted the reason of the latter clause, without the humanity of the former part of the law.]

[Footnote 12: Hannah and other Indians, against Davis.--Since this adjudication, I have met with a ma.n.u.script act of a.s.sembly made in 1691 c. 9 ent.i.tled, ”An Act for a free Trade with Indians,” the enacting clause of which is in the very words of the act of 1705. c. 52. A similar t.i.tle to an act of that session occurs in the edition of 1733.

p. 94. and the chapter is numbered as in the ma.n.u.script. If this ma.n.u.script be authentic (which there is some reason to presume, it being copied in some blank leaves at the end of Purvis's edition, and apparently written about the time of the pa.s.sage of the act), it would seem that no Indians brought into Virginia for more than a century, nor any of their descendents, can be retained in slavery in this commonwealth.]

[Footnote 13: Although it be true that the number of slaves in the _whole_ state bears the proportion of 292,427, to 747,610, the whole number of souls in the state, that is, nearly as _two_ to _five_; yet this proportion is by no means _uniform_ throughout the state. In the forty-four counties lying upon the Bay, and the great rivers of the state, and comprehended by a line including Brunswick, c.u.mberland, Goochland, Hanover, Spottsylvania, Stafford, Prince William and Fairfax, and the counties eastward thereof, the number of slaves is 196,542, and the number of free persons, including free Negroes and mulattoes, 198,371 only. So that the blacks in that populous and extensive district of country are _more numerous_ than the whites. In the second cla.s.s, comprehending nineteen counties, and extending from the last mentioned line to the Blue Ridge, and including the populous counties of Frederick and Berkeley, beyond the Blue Ridge, there are 82,286 slaves, and 136,251 free persons; the number of free persons in that cla.s.s not being two to one, to the slaves. In the third cla.s.s the proportion is considerably increased; the eleven counties of which it consists contain only 11,218 slaves, and 76,281 free persons. This cla.s.s reaches to the Allegany ridge of mountains: the fourth and last cla.s.s, comprehending fourteen counties westward of the third cla.s.s, contains only 2,381 slaves, and 42,288 free persons. It is obvious from this statement that almost all the dangers and inconveniences which may be apprehended from a state of slavery on the one hand, or an attempt to abolish it, on the other, will be confined to the people eastward of the blue ridge of mountains.]

Whatever inclination the first inhabitants of Virginia might have to encourage slavery, a disposition to check its progress, and increase, manifested itself in the legislature even before the close of the last century. So long ago as the year 1669 we find the t.i.tle of an act [Edit.

of 1733. c. 12.], laying an imposition upon _servants_, and _slaves_, imported into this country; which was either continued, revised, or increased, by a variety of temporary acts, pa.s.sed between that period and the revolution in 1776.[14]--One of these acts pa.s.sed in 1723, by a marginal note appears to have been repealed by proclamation, Oct. 24, 1724. In 1732 a duty of five per cent. was laid on slaves imported, to be paid by the buyers; a measure calculated to render it as little obnoxious as possible to the _English_ merchants trading to Africa, and not improbably suggested by them, to the privy council in England. The preamble to this act is in these remarkable words, ”We your majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, &c. taking into our serious consideration the exigencies of your government here, and that the duty laid upon liquors will not be sufficient to defray the necessary expences thereof, do humbly represent to your majesty, that _no other_ duty can be laid upon our import or export, without oppressing your subjects, than a duty upon _slaves imported_, to be paid by the buyers, _agreeable to your majesty's instructions_ to your lieutenant governor.”

This act was only for the short period of four years, but seems to have been continued from time to time till the year 1751, when the duty expired, but was revived the next year. In the year 1740 an additional duty of five per cent. was imposed for four years, for the purpose of an expedition against the Spaniards, &c. to be likewise paid by the buyers: and in 1742 the whole duty was continued till July 1, 1747.--The act of 1752, by which these duties were revived and continued (as well as several former acts), takes notice that the duty had been found _no ways burdensome to the traders_ in slaves. In 1754 an additional duty of five per cent. was imposed for the term of three years, by an act for encouraging and protecting the settlers on the Missisippi: this duty, like all the former, was to be paid by the buyers. In 1759 a duty of 20 per cent. was imposed upon all slaves imported into Virginia from Maryland, North Carolina, or other places in America, to continue for seven years. In 1769 the same duty was further continued. In the same session the duty of five per cent. was continued for three years, and an additional duty of ten per cent. to be likewise paid by the buyers, was imposed for seven years; and a further duty of five per cent. was, by a separate act of the same session, imposed for the better support of the contingent charges of government, to be paid by the buyers. In 1772 all these duties were further continued for the term of five years from the expiration of the acts then in force: the a.s.sembly at the same time pet.i.tioned the throne,[15] _to remove all those restraints which inhibited_ his majesty's governors a.s.senting to such _laws_ as _might check so very pernicious a commerce_, as that of slavery.

[Footnote 14: The following is a list of the acts, or t.i.tles of acts, imposing duties on slaves imported, which occur in the various compilations of our laws, or in the Sessions Acts, or Journals.

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