THE 



MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 



Vol. I.] JANUARY, 1S26. [No. 1. 



NEGRO SLAVEUY: PLAN FOU ITS ABOLITION. 



Another of those meetings, for the Abolition of Negro Slavery, 

 which have already created so much excitement in our colonies, was 

 lately held at Norwich : when Lord Suffield stood forward, and after 

 vituperating the planters, and setting forth, most pathetically, all the 

 evils of slavery, proceeded to cite particular instances of peculiar cruelty 

 fc females, and concluded by alledging these alone to be a sufficient 

 "^bimd for the immediate interference of Government, and the instan- 

 taneous abolition of slavery. It is not my intention to question the 

 accuracy of the facts stated to have occurred, though it is difficult to 

 reconcile such charges with the reputed avarice of the planters, whose 

 property, depending upon the increase of their slaves, must necessarily 

 be endangered by severity to females, more especially in a state of 

 pregnancy ; calumnies such as these have been so frequently promul- 

 gated, and so frequently refuted, that it is quite unnecessary to vin- 

 dicate the large body of slave proprietors from any general inference in 

 the present case ; indeed it is altogether foreign from my purpose to 

 enter at all at this moment into the nature of slavery in our colonies : 

 it exists, and its existence, in any form, is a sufficient argument for its 

 extinction : such at least is the doctrine of the Anti-Slavery Society, 

 and stated by them to be the general feeling of the British people ; and 

 truly, if any opinion can be drawn from the numerous petitions which 

 have been presented to Parliament upon this subject, we must all arrive 

 at the same conclusion. But, whilst this society has been busy in stir- 

 ring up the feelings of the public,and preparing all these petitions, it is 

 not a little singular that no system of negro amelioration, no system of 

 emancipation, either progressive or immediate, has ever emanated from 

 their body. Dark and distant hints have, indeed, been given by indi- 

 viduals — some have suggested task-work — some copyholds — and some, 

 more bold, instant manumission ; but no connected system has ever 

 been agreed upon, and I firmly believe the whole society to be as much 

 divided amongst themselves as to the true and proper course, as the 

 Reformers in England on the great question of Parliamentary Reform. 

 On one point, however, they appear to be unanimous — that the whole 

 onus of the experiment, whatever it may be, must rest upon the colo- 

 nists alone, without the shadow of security or indemnity for the conse- \ 

 quences of its failure ; and though some have admitted the right of 

 compensation, yet none have pointed out the manner of affording it. 



M. M. New Series.— Vol. I. No. I. B 



