theme of sorrow, of misery, want, woe, and degradation,of injustice, cruelty and oppression, as exhibited in the history, progress, and principles, and character of British colonial slavery; to point out the actual condition of 800,000 human beings now in a state of degrading bondage; and to ascertain what it was their duty, as Englishmen and as Christians, to do on this great and momentous question. That question was simply, whether, in the year 1832, there was justice enough, courage enough, piety enough, in the British nation, to declare, at once and for ever, that the system of slavery should be abolished,-a question involving the interests and welfare of all men who were held in slavery throughout the world. (Applause.) Christianity taught that they were to do unto others as they would that others should do unto them, and that they should remember those who were in bonds, as if they themselves were in bondage too. If they observed these divine precepts,-if they were disposed to yield obedience to the high behests of heaven, all wordly considerations must sink to nothing in their eyes before those sublime and all-comprehensive passages of Holy Writ. (Hear.) Religion taught them to consider all mankind, without exception, as their brethren and friends; and the time would come when even the oppressor of the negro would be compelled, with fear and shame, to own his victim as a brother, and to give an account of the wrongs and injuries that had been heaped upon him. (Hear, hear.) 'Not only has the negro been denied the enjoyment of civil rights-not only has he been doomed to hew wood and draw water' for the white man; but the benefits of religion have been denied his teachers have been persecuted and banished-the house in which he worshipped his God, and in which he was taught to lift his eyes in hope and confidence to one common Father-that house has been razed to its foundation; thus particularly, even in the present day, has his right to hope for immortality been denied, and he has been consigned to ignorance and vice, to the labor and treatment of a brute on earth, and the destiny of a brute hereafter. Yet his pale oppressor has proudly claimed immortality for himself, and has contemplated that immortality without dread of the judgment awaiting him for his ruthless conduct towards his sable victim. But (and I thank Heaven) a title to immortality is not the exclusive prerogative of the white man; they must both die the same death-both mingle with the same earth-both be resolved into the same element-both be judged at the same tribunal-by the same rule-both admitted to the same heaven, or banished to the same hell. Yes! let the oppressor die! let men bear his corse to the tomb decked with the trappings of an earthly splendor! let them write his epitaph on marble, and celebrate virtues which he never had, and let them say, high on his escutcheon, RESURGAM, RESURGAM, RESURGAM! I shall rise again; and I will visit the grave of the lowly negro, the enslaved, insulted, degraded, and lacerated negro, and I will write upon the sod that covers his remains, RESURgam, RESURGAM, RESURGAM! I shall rise again.' He was not there to vilify any party; he was not there, as had been most falsely represented, to make an attack upon property and vested rights; but he stood there on Christian principles, only to claim for the negro equality of rights; to elevate the negro from that state of degradation in which the avarice of mankind had placed him; to bestow upon him not merely civil liberty, but, under the blessing of God, that more hallowed, more glorious, and more eduring liberty, which senators or magistrates could not give, and all the powers of earth nor hell take away. 'A liberty unsung By poets, and by senators unpraised, A liberty, which persecution, fraud, Oppression, prisons, have no power to bind; Which whoso tastes can be enslaved no more.' (Applause.) He took his stand upon the broad and immutable principles of justice and mercy, truth and love, and asked whether Englishmen, on these grounds, would not open the prison doors and bid the oppressed go free; would not Mr. Borthwick; but the testimony of that gentleman was set against a thousand proofs that no liberty of conscience was enjoyed in the West Indies. On the subject of liberty of life and limbs, I will quote from a work entitled West Indies as they are;' written by the Rev. R. Bickell, a clergyman of the established church, a member of Cambridge-a most singular coincidence this, as the gentleman recently in London, in the course of a debate described himself as having been schooled at Cambridge, to whom the testimony, therefore, of a brother Cantab must be peculiarly grateful-late naval chaplain at Port-Royal; sometime curate of that Parish, and previously of the city of Kingston. The distress and terror among a gang of negroes, when the marshall's deputy, with his dogs, and other assistants, comes to levy in a large way, cannot be conceived by those who, happily for themselves, have never been spectators of such scenes, and can scarcely be described by those who have witnessed them. I was once on a coffee mountain (staying for a few days with a brother clergyman, who had permission to reside there) on which were about seventy or eighty negroes, the proprietor was much in debt, and was aware that one or two of his largest creditors had for some time wished to make a levy on his slaves to pay themselves; but by keeping his gates locked, and the fences round the dwelling house and negro-houses in good repair, he had hitherto baffled the Argus-eyed deputy and his deputies. The night after I arrived on the property, however, I was awaked, about an hour before daylight, by a great noise, as of arms, with cries of women and children; I at first scarce knew what it was, but in a few minutes a private servant, who did not belong to the property (and who was in the yard, beyond the reach of the seizors) came to my window and informed me that it was the marshall's deputies making a levy on the negroes, and that the noire proceeded from the clashing of weapons; for some of the slaves, he said, had stoutly resisted. I then alarmed my friend, being nearer to the scene of action than he was, and we determined to go out to see that no improper use was made of the tremendous power given to these Cereleruses. By the time we arrived at the negro-houses the resistance had ceased; for the negroes being divided, had been overcome by the myrmidons of the law, they being eight or ten in number. One poor fellow, however, was being dragged along like a thief by a fierce and horrid looking Irishman, who had been one of M'Gregors freebooters, and who, when we came near, grasped his victim more tightly, and brandished his broadsword over the poor creature with the grin and growl of a demon, as much as to say, you dog, I will annihilate you and them too, if they attempt to interfere; though, of course, we had not the least intention of interfering; we were only quiet spectators.' So much for liberty of life and limb. Take a specimen, in that state of happy freedom, of food, raiment, &c. 'Children also in many instances are allowed to go quite naked, and I have seen boys and girls, seven or eight years of age, in a state of nature, running about some houses, who for the sake of common decency ought to be clothed; and it is very common to see black boys and girls, twelve or thirteen years of age, almost men and women, in nothing but a shift or shirt, waiting at table; so little are the decencies of life observed towards them. What can be more absurd than to hear it constantly reiterated, that the negroes in our colonies are better fed and better clothed than the British peasantry? None but a bigoted and low-minded planter, or some interested professional resident, who cannot return to reside in this country, would compare the coarse yams, and cocoas, and the stringy indigestible plantains, with a few bad or rotten herrings, to the wholesome bread of this country, and to potatoes and other fine vegetables, with a small portion of fresh meat or bacon, which the English cottager enjoys. I have seen a good deal of the state of the English poor, having served curacies in Somersetshire, Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire, and Wiltshire, besides having an intimate acquaintance with Devonshire; and I can conscientiously say, that I never saw any one, even a pauper, who lived in the mean, hoggish way that the slaves in the West Indies do. I can assert with much truth, that the coarsest Irish potatoes, with a little milk and salt, are preferable to the negro yams and green plantains, at least, I would sooner have them; and I think most of the British poor would approve of my taste, had they an opportunity of judging. The English poor are also much better clothed; for where is there a poor cottager that has not a decent cloth of fustian coat, of any color he pleases,. with other parts of his dress suitable, independent of good and warm stockings, and sound shoes to keep his feet from the gravel and dirt? But what has the slave? He has for his best (from his master, as I before observed,) a large baize surtout, which hangs about him like a sack, and would as well fit any person you please as himself; and, moreover, a pair of coarse trowsers and coarse shirt of Oznabugh, which, with the coarsest kind of hat is his whole wardrobe; for this is the general livery or badge of slavery. The female slaves are clothed as much inferior to our poor women, and both negro men and women are without stockings and shoes, and generally go in a half-dressed state, viz: without coats or gowns; the womens' petticoats up to their knees; and very often before fresh supplies are given out, many of them are in a ragged state, and some almost in a state of nudity; and yet it is said, they are better off than the poor in Great Britain!' What does my opponent now say to the blessings of Slavery-what becomes of his four parlors and saloon now -his wine for the old and infirm-and his thousand comforts, about which the English peasant knows nothing! He next artfully appealed to the money-getting propensities of the people of England, and said the emancipation of the slave might lead to a diminution in the manufactures of this country, and stop the sale of British calicoes. In proof he instances the island of Hayti. I will now quote an article extracted from the Parliamentary paper, No. 178: HAYTI. — In a bulky Parliamentary document of last Session, numbered 578, entitled, "Papers relating to the American Tariff," we have discovered the following facts respecting the trade of Hayti with the United States. The exports from the United States to Hayti appear to consist of fish, oil, naval stores, cheese, flour, lumber, carriages, hats, saddlery, beer, shoes, iron, copper and brass ware, gun-powder, &c.; and the paper to which we refer, (p. 178,) states, that in the last year, (1826,) "The export trade with Hayti, despised Hayti, in domestic products, amounted to 1,251,910 dollars, Onesimus was. Then I claim it for the Methodist converts. (Applause.) In the name of those who worship in this place-In the name of GOD-I claim it for the Methodist converts in the West Indies-in the name of the venerable George Marsden (who was present) I claim it for them. There are many Onesimuses there. Many whose names, though they are recorded on the parchments of men as their property, are written in the book of life. I have them, says their GOD and our GOD, and their names are written on the palms of my hands.' I claim it for the Baptist couverts. (Cheers.) I claim it for Mr. Knibb's communicants. I claim it for Swiney, whose back was scourged for praying for the safety of his master. (Great cheering.) I claim it for the Moravian converts-I claim it for the Church convertsI claim it for all who love the LORD JESUS CHRIST. (Enthusiastic cheering.) Are they free? Perhaps our friend will reply to that. But I came not here to enter into disquisitions of abstract rights, but to put an end to real injustice-real infamy. I came not here to discuss abstract metaphysical questions, but to endeavor to put an end to the debasement of the sufferers, and of those who are parties to its continuance. Then he gave us a very beautiful quotation from Juvenal; to show you that slavery should exist now, he shows you the cruelties practised many years ago; that ancient cruelty should justify modern crime. Behold this tree; it never has brought forth good fruit. Make ancient slavery a thousand times worse if you will, there is no security in modern slavery; and though one only may be slain to-day, 400 may be slain in one establishment to-morrow. And this quotation is made in a Christian country. If this be done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry? Shame to the St. James's street conclave, that they cannot find better arguments; but they shall see presently, that slavery in 1832 is a hundred times worse than it was in the days of the Romans. One of my opponents, who, judging from appearances, was apparently pot-valiant, said I suppose Mr. Thompson has never been in the Colonies. What is his inference from that? Why, that my evidence ought not to be received; but I never gave him any evidence of my own. I believe his friend has never been in the Colonies, if so, the same reasoning will apply to him. |