(09 



SLAVE, SLAVERY, SLAVE-TRADE. 



SLAVE, SLAVERY, SLAVE-TRADE. 



610 



In 1833, with France, by Supplementary Convention of Paris, 22nd 

 March (further regulating the right of visitation by duly authorised 

 cruisers). 



. In 1834, with Denmark, by Treaty of Copenhagen, 26th July (con- 

 taining the accession of his Danish Majesty to the Conventions between 

 Great Britain and France of 1831 and 1833) ; with Sardinia, by Treaty 

 of Turin, 8th August (containing accession of that power to same con- 

 ventions) ; and with Sardinia, by Additional Article, signed at Turin, 

 8th December (respecting place of landing of negroes found in vessels 

 with Sardinian flag). 



In 1835, with Spain, by Treaty of Madrid, 28th June (abolishing 

 slave-trade on part of Spain henceforward, totally and finally, in all 

 parts of the world ; and regulating a reciprocal right of search) ; and 

 with Sweden, by Additional Article to Treaty of 1824, signed at Stock- 

 holm 15th June. 



In 1837, with Tuscany, by Convention signed at Florence 24th 

 November (containing accession of the Grand Duke of Tuscany to 

 French Conventions of 1831 and 1833) ; with Hanse Towns, by Con- 

 vention signed at Hamburg 9th June (to same effect) ; and with 

 Netherlands, by Additional Article to Treaty of 1818, signed at the 

 Hague 7th February. 



In 1838, with the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, by Convention 

 signed at Naples 1 4th February (containing, accession of his Sicilian 

 Majesty to French Conventions of 1831 and 1833). 



In 1839. with Republic of Venezuela, by Treaty signed at Caracas 

 15th March (abolishing for ever the traffic in slaves, so far as it con- 

 sists in the conveyance of negroes from Africa ; expressing the deter- 

 mination of Venezuela to preserve in force the provisions of a law 

 passed in February, 1825, declaring Venezuelans found engaged in 

 that trade to be pirates and punishable with death, and regulating a 

 mutual right of visitation) ; with Chile, by Treaty signed at Santiago 

 I'.'th January; with I'niguay, by Treaty signed at Montevideo 13th 

 July; with Argentine Confederation, by Treaty signed at Buenos 

 Ayreg 24th May ; and with Hayti, by Convention signed at Port-au- 

 Prince 23rd December. 



In 1S40, with Bolivia, by Treaty signed at Sucre 25th September; 

 and with Texas, by Treaty signed at London 16th November. 



In 1841, with France, by Treaty signed at Paris 20th December, 

 which however the French government afterwards refused to ratify ; 

 with Mexico, by Treaty signed at Mexico 24th February ; and with 

 Austria, Prussia, and Russia, by Treaty signed at London 20th De- 

 cember. 



In IS l->, with the United States of North America, by Treaty signed 

 at Washington 9th August (stipulating that each party shall maintain 

 on the coast of Africa a naval force, carrying in all not less than eighty 

 guns, " to enforce, separately and respectively, the laws, rights, and 

 obligations of each of the two countries for the suppression of the 

 slave-trade ; the said squadrons to be independent of each other," but 

 "to act in concert and co-operation, upon mutual consultation, as 

 exigencies may arise ") ; with the Argentine Republic ; and with the 

 Republic of Hayti. 



In 1842, the Ashburton Treaty with the United States of America, 

 by which it was stipulated that each party was to maintain a separate 

 squadron on the coast of Africa to suppress the slave-trade, but if the 

 vowel seized on suspicion was under American colours she was to be 

 delivered to an American cruiser, and if under any other to be given 

 up to the British, to be decided upon as to the fact of slave trading 

 being established, by the courts of the r^ective countries. [SEARCH, 

 RIOHT OF.] This divided action has not been found effective. With 

 Portugal, by Treaty signed at Lisbon 3rd July. 



In 1845, with Brazil ; and with France, by a Convention signed at 

 I.ndon on the 29th of May (by which each power is to keep up an 

 equal naval force on the western coast of Africa, and the right of 

 visitation in to be exercised only by cruisers of the nation whose flag is 

 carried by the suspected vessel). 



The History of the Abolition is to be found in the work under that 



y T. Clarkson, and the state of the law, as well as the treatment 



of slaves practically in the colonies, is most fully treated of in a work 



on that subject by Mr. Stephen. The writings of the late Sir John 



Jcremie also contain much useful information on the condition of 



slavery in the British colonies just before the Emancipation Act. T. 



n's other works on the nature of the traffic, which first exposed 



it to the people of this country, were published in 1787. 



The slave-trade was suppressed, but slavery continued to exist in 

 ']..- I'.i iti.fh colonies. In 1834 the British parliament passed an act by 

 which slavery was abolished in all British colonies, and twenty millions 

 sterling were voted as compensation money to the owners. This act 

 (3 & 4 \Vm. IV. c. 73) stands prominent in the history of our age. No 

 ithcr nation has imitated the example. The emancipated negroes in 

 the British colonies were put on the footing of apprenticed labourers. 

 By a subsequent act (1 Vic. c. 19) all apprenticeships were to cease 

 after the 1st of August, 1840, but the day was anticipated in all the 

 West Indian colonies by acta of the colonial legislatures. Slavery 

 exists in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies, and in the 

 southern states of the North American Union. The new republics 

 ;riish America, generally speaking, emancipated their slaves at 

 the time of the revolution. As the slave population in general does 

 r-Tt maintain its numbers by natural increase, and as plantations in 



ARTS A!D 8CJ. DrV. VOL. VH. 



America are extended, there is a demand for a fresh annual importation 

 of slaves from Africa, which are taken to Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Monte 

 Video. Since the slave-trade has been declared to be illegal, the 

 sufferings of the slaves on their passage across the Atlantic have been 

 greatly increased, owing to its being necessary for masters of slave- 

 traders to conceal their cargoes by cooping up the negroes ill a small 

 compass, and to avoid the British cruisers; they are often thrown 

 overboard in a chase. There is a considerable loss of life incident to 

 the seizing of slaves by force in the hunting excursions after negroes, 

 and in the wars between the chieftains of the interior for the purpose 

 of making captives. There is a loss on their march to the sea-coast ; 

 the loss in the middle passage is reckoned on an average at one-fourth 

 of the cargo ; and, besides this, there is a further loss, after landing, 

 in what is called the " seasoning " of the slaves. The Portuguese flag 

 has been openly used, with the connivance of the authorities, for 

 carrying on the slave-trade. The Spanish flag has also been used, 

 though with caution, owing to the treaty between England and Spain 

 which formally abolishes the slave-trade on the part of Spain. A 

 mixed commission court of Spaniards and British exists at Havana to 

 try slavers ; but pretexts are never wanting to elude the provisions of 

 the treaty. There seems indeed to be a great difficulty in obtaining 

 the sincere co-operation of all Christian powers to put down the slave- 

 trade effectually, although it is certain that in all but the Portuguese 

 and Spanish settlements the traffic has now almost entirely ceased. 



Besides the slave-trade on the Atlantic, there is another periodical 

 exportation of slaves by caravans from Soudan to the Barbary states 

 and Egypt, the annual number of which is variously estimated at 

 between twenty and thirty thousand. There is also a trade carried on 

 by the subjects of the Imaum of Muscat, who export slaves in Arab 

 vessels from Zanzibar and other ports of the eastern coast of Africa, to 

 Arabia, Persia, India, Java, and other places. The Portuguese also 

 export slaves from their settlements on the Mozambique coast, to Goa, 

 Diu, and their other Indian possessions. 



By a law of the Koran, which, however, is not always observed in all 

 Mohammedan countries, no Mussulman is allowed to enslave one of. his 

 own faith. The Moslem negro kingdoms of Soudan supply the slave- 

 trade at the expense of then- pagan subjects or neighbours, whom they 

 sell to the Moorish traders. Mohammedan powers will probably never 

 suppress this trade of their own accord. 



There is a considerable internal slave-trade in the United States of 

 North America. Negroes are bred and sold in Maryland and Virginia, 

 ami some other of the slave-holding states, and carried to the more 

 fertile lands of Alabama, Louisiana, and other southern states. But 

 the attempts of the south, for some time successful, to legalise the 

 recapturing of their escaped slaves in the non slaveholding states, has 

 at length led to a reaction. On the other hand the election of a presi- 

 dent opposed to the views of the slave states, has served as a pretext 

 for the southern states to secede from the Union, and form a new con- 

 federacy based on the fullest recognition of slavery as an institution. 

 The issue is however still pending, it being as yet uncertain whether 

 either party will mike concessions, or whether or not coercive mea- 

 sures will be employed. 



It is maintained by some that the African slave-trade cannot bo 

 effectually put down by force, and that the only chance of its ultimate 

 suppression is by civilising central Africa, by encouraging agricultural 

 industry and legitimate branches of commerce, and at the same time 

 spreading education and Christianity ; and also by giving the protec- 

 tion of the British flag to those negroes who would avail themselves of 

 it. It is certain that if other countries will not exert themselves, the 

 abolition must be postponed to this remote period. The Africans sell 

 men because they have no other means of procuring ftiropean com- 

 modities, and there seems no doubt that one result of the slave-trade 

 is to keep central Africa in a state of barbarism. Great hopes are 

 entertained, and a prospect has been afforded, that the influence of com- 

 merce will tend to lessen the hateful trade. From the western coast of 

 Africa a large amount of palm-oil is now exported, and as the cultiva- 

 tion of the plant, and the production of the oil, will render the profit 

 of the labour more productive to the rulers than the sale of the 

 labourer, it may induce them to discontinue the practice of under- 

 taking ware for the purpose of procuring captives for sale. It is also 

 hoped by many that cotton may be successfully raised in Africa. 



The amount of the slave population now existing in America is not 

 easily ascertained, In Brazil it is estimated there are 2,000,000 

 negroes, of whom three-fourths are slaves. The slaves in Cuba, accord- 

 ing to the census of 1840, numbered 425,521. In the United States 

 the number of slaves was 3,204,313 by the census of 1850, which is 

 716,989 more than the number according to the census of 1840; yet 

 ten states which returned slaves in 1840 returned none in 1850, the 

 holding of them having wholly (or virtually) ceased. 



Societies for the ultimate and universal abolition of slavery exist in 

 England, France, and the United States, and they publish their reports ; 

 and a congress was held in London, in June, 1840, of delegates from 

 many countries to confer upon the means of effecting it. The American 

 Society has formed a colony called Liberia, near Cape Mesurado, on the 

 west coast of Africa, where negroes who have obtained their freedom 

 in the United States are sent, if they are willing to go [LiBEifiA, in 

 GEOO. Div.] The English government has a colony for a similar pur- 

 pose at Sierra Leone, where negroes who have been seized on board 



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