Part 1 (1/2)
An Appeal in Favor of that Cla.s.s of Americans Called Africans.
by Lydia Maria Child.
PREFACE.
Reader, I beseech you not to throw down this volume as soon as you have glanced at the t.i.tle. Read it, if your prejudices will allow, for the very truth's sake:--If I have the most trifling claims upon your good will, for an hour's amus.e.m.e.nt to yourself, or benefit to your children, read it for _my_ sake:--Read it, if it be merely to find fresh occasion to sneer at the vulgarity of the cause:--Read it, from sheer curiosity to see what a woman (who had much better attend to her household concerns) will say upon such a subject:--Read it, on any terms, and my purpose will be gained.
The subject I have chosen admits of no encomiums on my country; but as I generally make it an object to supply what is most needed, this circ.u.mstance is unimportant; the market is so glutted with flattery, that a little truth may be acceptable, were it only for its rarity.
I am fully aware of the unpopularity of the task I have undertaken; but though I _expect_ ridicule and censure, it is not in my nature to _fear_ them.
A few years hence, the opinion of the world will be a matter in which I have not even the most transient interest; but this book will be abroad on its mission of humanity, long after the hand that wrote it is mingling with the dust.
Should it be the means of advancing, even one single hour, the inevitable progress of truth and justice, I would not exchange the consciousness for all Rothchild's wealth, or Sir Walter's fame.
CHAPTER I.
BRIEF HISTORY OF NEGRO SLAVERY.--ITS INEVITABLE EFFECT UPON ALL CONCERNED IN IT.
The lot is wretched, the condition sad, Whether a pining discontent survive, And thirst for change; or habit hath subdued The soul depressed; dejected--even to love Of her dull tasks and close captivity.
WORDSWORTH.
My ear is pained, My soul is sick with every day's report Of wrong and outrage, with which this earth is filled.
There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart, It does not feel for man.
COWPER.
While the Portuguese were exploring Africa, in 1442, Prince Henry ordered Anthony Gonsalez to carry back certain Moorish prisoners, whom he had seized two years before near Cape Bajador: this order was obeyed, and Gonsalez received from the Moors, in exchange for the captives, ten negroes, and a quant.i.ty of gold dust. Unluckily, this wicked speculation proved profitable, and other Portuguese were induced to embark in it.
In 1492, the West India islands were discovered by Columbus. The Spaniards, dazzled with the acquisition of a new world and eager to come into possession of their wealth, compelled the natives of Hispaniola to dig in the mines. The native Indians died rapidly, in consequence of hard work and cruel treatment; and thus a new market was opened for the negro slaves captured by the Portuguese. They were accordingly introduced as early as 1503. Those who bought and those who sold were alike prepared to trample on the rights of their fellow-beings, by that most demoralizing of all influences, the accursed love of gold.
Cardinal Ximenes, while he administered the government, before the accession of Charles the Fifth, was pet.i.tioned to allow a regular commerce in African negroes. But he rejected the proposal with prompt.i.tude and firmness, alike honorable to his head and heart. This earliest friend of the Africans, living in a comparatively unenlightened age, has peculiar claims upon our grat.i.tude and reverence. In 1517, Charles the Fifth granted a patent for an annual supply of four thousand negroes to the Spanish islands. He probably soon became aware of the horrible and ever-increasing evils, attendant upon this traffic; for twenty-five years after he emanc.i.p.ated every negro in his dominions.
But when he resigned his crown and retired to a monastery, the colonists resumed their shameless tyranny.
Captain Hawkins, afterward Sir John Hawkins, was the first Englishman, who disgraced himself and his country by this abominable trade. a.s.sisted by some rich people in London, he fitted out three s.h.i.+ps, and sailed to the African coast, where he burned and plundered the towns, and carried off three hundred of the defenceless inhabitants to Hispaniola.
Elizabeth afterwards authorized a similar adventure with one of her own vessels. ”She expressed her concern lest any of the Africans should be carried off without their free consent; declaring that such a thing would be detestable, and call down the vengeance of Heaven upon the undertakers.” For this reason, it has been supposed that the queen was deceived--that she imagined the negroes were transported to the Spanish colonies as voluntary laborers. But history gives us slight reasons to judge Elizabeth so favorably. It was her system always to preserve an _appearance_ of justice and virtue. She was a shrewd, far-sighted politician; and had in perfection the clear head and cold heart calculated to form that character. Whatever she might believe of the trade at its beginning, she was too deeply read in human nature, not to foresee the inevitable consequence of placing power in the hands of avarice.
A Roman priest persuaded Louis the Thirteenth to sanction slavery for the sake of converting the negroes to Christianity; and thus this b.l.o.o.d.y iniquity, disguised with gown, hood, and rosary, entered the fair dominions of France. To be violently wrested from his home, and condemned to toil without hope, by Christians, to whom he had done no wrong, was, methinks, a very odd beginning to the poor negro's course of religious instruction!
When this evil had once begun, it, of course, gathered strength rapidly; for all the bad pa.s.sions of human nature were eagerly enlisted in its cause. The British formed settlements in North America, and in the West Indies; and these were stocked with slaves. From 1680 to 1786, _two million, one hundred and thirty thousand_ negroes were imported into the British colonies!
In almost all great evils there is some redeeming feature--_some_ good results, even where it is not intended: pride and vanity, utterly selfish and wrong in themselves, often throw money into the hands of the poor, and thus tend to excite industry and ingenuity, while they produce comfort. But slavery is _all_ evil--within and without--root and branch,--bud, blossom and fruit!
In order to show how dark it is in every aspect--how invariably injurious both to nations and individuals,--I will select a few facts from the ma.s.s of evidence now before me.
In the first place, its effects upon _Africa_ have been most disastrous.