CALCULATIONS BY OTHER AUTHORS. 39 Upwards of fifteen millions and a half of human beings forcibly torn from their native country, and doomed to perpetual slavery-themselves and their offspring-in a foreign land!* * I have endeavored, in the above estimate, to avoid error, except it be on the side of moderation. Very reputable authorities put the importations in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries considerably higher than I have assumed them. Bancroft, who appears to have carefully investigated the matter, says:― "The English slave-trade began to attain its great activity after the Asiento treaty. [That treaty was dated March 26, 1713.] From 1680 to 1700, the English took from Africa about three hundred thousand negroes, or about fifteen thousand a year. The number, during the continuance of the Asiento, may be averaged not far from thirty thousand. [It continued for thirty years, to wit, from 1713 to 1744.] Raynal considers the number of negroes exported by all European nations from Africa before 1776, to have been nine millions; and the considerate German historian of the slavetrade, Albert Hüne, deems his statement too small. A careful analysis of the colored population of America at different periods and the inference to be deduced from the few authentic records of the numbers imported, corrected by a comparison with the authentic products of slave-labor, as appearing in the annals of English commerce, seem to prove, beyond a doubt, that even the estimate of Raynal is larger than the reality."-Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. iii. p. 412. Raynal's estimate, thought too low by Hüne, is nine millions up to 1776; and, as the exportations averaged about eighty thousand a year from 1776 to 1788, that would give a million more, bringing his calculation up to ten millions if extended to 1788. But my estimate, as above, up to that year, is but eight millions four hundred thousand,—that is, upwards of a million and a half, or just sixteen per cent., below Raynal's. Bancroft thinks that we shall not err much if in the century previous to 1776 we assume the number imported by the English to have been three millions. But I have assumed the total imported by all nations in the two centuries preceding 1788 to have been eight millions. Bancroft estimates importation in a single century by one nation only at three millions. I estimate importation in two centuries by all nations at eight millions. The probability will be conceded that the former estimate is at a higher rate, in proportion, than the latter. 40 SOURCES OF SUPPLY. CHAPTER V. HOW SLAVES WERE OBTAINED IN AFRICA. BUT we cannot attain to a just conception of the aggregate of evil and suffering produced by this gigantic outrage upon human rights, nor of the loss of life attendant thereon, without considering, first, the mode in which slaves were supplied to the European traders, secondly, the manner in which they were transported to their destination, and, thirdly, the result, especially in its influence on population, in the slave colonies. As to the two first subjects, the Report of the Lords of Council-unimpeachable testimony-furnishes many suggestive particulars. It is proved, in the first place, that the sources whence slaves were obtained on the African coast were, First. As prisoners of war. The evidence as to this source of supply was obtained from almost all the witnesses who had visited the African coast. Major-General Rooke said, "When a ship arrived to purchase slaves, the King of Demel sent to the chiefs of the villages in his dominions to send him a given number; but if they were not to be procured on this requisition, the king went to war till he got as many as he wanted." During his stay at Goree of four or five months, he heard of two battles being fought for slaves.* Captain T. Wilson, employed on the business of Government in 1783 and 1784, states, as to the kingdom *Lords of Council Report, Part I. Sheet G. WARS TO OBTAIN SLAVES. 41 of Demel, "When they were at war, they made prisoners and sold them; and when they were not at war, they made no scruple of taking any of their own subjects and selling them, even whole villages at once. *** He has been told that the King of Demel can bring seventy thousand or eighty thousand men into the field."* Captain Hills:-"There was scarcely an evening in which he did not see people go out in war-dresses to obtain slaves from the neighboring villages." This was at Goree.† "The manner in which Sir George Yonge understood that slaves became so is first as prisoners of war; and these he thinks are the greatest number." This was in Senegal and Gambia; “but the same account was given to him all along the coast." The Rev. Mr. Newton :-"The greater number of slaves are captives made in war."§ Mr. Dalrymple says, "One of the modes of making slaves, adopted by the kings and great men, is by breaking up a village, that is, setting fire to it and seizing the people as they escape. This occurs sometimes in a neighbor's territory, more frequently in their own. The practice is notorious." The witness speaks of Gambia and countries adjoining.|| Another mode of procuring slaves is akin to this. They are panyared, to employ the phrase of the country,—that is, kidnapped by individuals. Dr. A. Sparrman, Inspector of the Royal Museum at Stockholm, and a traveller in the interior of Africa, *Lords of Council Report, Part I. Sheet G. † Report cited, Part I. Sheet G. 42 KIDNAPPING SLAVES. deposed, "They seize one another in the night when they have an opportunity, and sometimes invite each other to their houses and there detain and sell them to the European traders. *** The number of persons so kidnapped is considerable. He himself witnessed two instances."* Mr. Falconbridge, surgeon of slaver, testifies, "On the windward coast the negroes are afraid of stirring out at night, lest they be kidnapped. A woman, big with child, told him she was caught as she was returning from a neighbor's house."t Mr. Devoynes says, speaking of the Gold Coast, "The greater part of the slaves are brought from the interior: they are sold from hand to hand, and many of them come a great distance, it is said, from eight hundred to nine hundred miles." The next source of supply is the selling of criminals. The universal testimony is that the chief crimes for which they are sold are adultery, theft, and witchcraft, sometimes for murder. Occasionally they are sold for debt. Some stake their liberty in gambling, and are sold if they lose. Admiral Edwards said, "Adultery is the crime for which they are most usually sold. In this case the person offended has a claim not only to the man and woman offending, and to all their property, but also to their family and slaves."§ Theft is common among them. One witness (Mr. Dalzell) testifies that he purchased a son of his father, who sold him to avoid the punishment which the son *Lords of Council Report, Part I. Sheet G. Report cited, Part I. Sheet K. GAMBLERS SOLD AS SLAVES. 43 had incurred for stealing from a white man; which, the witness adds, "is never pardoned." This was in the kingdom of Dahomey.* A witness (Mr. Weaver) explained that "they understand by witchcraft the power of doing mischief by supernatural means." Another witness (Mr. Mathews) testifies that, having refused to purchase a man suspected of witchcraft, who was offered to him for sale, they tied a stone around his neck and threw him into the sea."‡ The Rev. Mr. Baggs, chaplain to Commodore Thompson during two voyages (in 1783 and 1784), says, of the African coast generally, "The revenue of the kings of the country depends on the sale of slaves. They therefore strain every nerve to accuse and condemn. Their codes of law are made subservient to the slavetrade."§ Mr. Penny deposes, "Some are made slaves in consequence of gaming, of which they are very fond. They stake themselves; first a leg, then an arm, lastly the head; and when they have lost that, they surrender themselves as slaves. If a man stake and lose a leg only, he continues gambling until he has lost the whole of himself, or is cleared."|| There is no evidence that slaves were bred for sale. The concurrent testimony is against it. There is abundant testimony in proof that as to negroes offered for sale as slaves and rejected by the slave-dealers on account of their state of health or * Lords of Council Report, Part I. Sheet L. Report cited, Part I. Sheet I. Report cited, Part I. Sheet N, 5. |