SLAVERY. 



558 



of disappointment and vexation, whenever they 

 remember their own country. The negroes from 

 Angola are however usually tractable, and may 

 be taught to perform the menial services of a 

 house or stable without much pains being taken 

 with them ; and they often show great attach- 

 ment*, fidelity, and honesty. The Angola ne- 

 groes are those who most commonly exert them- 

 selves to purchase their own freedom. The 

 Congo negroes partake much of the character 

 of the Angolans, being equally tractable ; but 



* An instance occurred at Liverpool of the attachment of 

 some of these people to their master. At the commence- 

 ment of the direct trade from Brazil to Great Britain, some 

 small vessels came to Liverpool manned in part with slaves, 

 owing to their masters being ignorant that their arrival upon 

 British ground would make them free. However the men 

 themselves were soon made acquainted with this circumstance, 

 and many of them availed themselves of the advantages which 

 were to be thus obtained. One of the men belonging to a 

 small bark left his vessel, and having entered himself as a 

 seaman on board some other ship, returned to persuade three 

 of his companions to do the same ; but he was answered, that 

 they were well treated where they were, had always been 

 used kindly, and therefore had no wish to try any other way 

 of life. These three men returned to Brazil in the bark, and 

 I have heard that they were set at liberty by their master on 

 their arrival there. I hope it was so. When the advocates 

 of slavery relate such stories as these, they give them as 

 tending to prove that slaves in general are happy. Anec- 

 dotes of this kind demonstrate individual goodness in the 

 master and individual gratitude in the slave, but they prove 

 nothing generally ; they do not affect the great question ; 

 //tat is rested upon grounds which are too deeply fixed to be 

 moved by single instances of evil or of good. 



