276 
SLAVE. 
more cruel and degrading; so that when in after-times the 
situation of master and slave came to be viewed, as it existed 
in practice between the two, the masters seemed to have 
attained the rank of monarchs, and the slaves to have gone 
down to the condition of brutes. Hence, very early after 
the commencement of the slave-trade, the objects of it began 
to be considered as an inferior species, and even their very 
colour as a mark of it. “ The punishments for crimes of 
slaves,” says Sloane (1707), “ are usually, for rebellions, burn¬ 
ing them, by nailing them down on the ground with crooked 
sticks on every limb, and then applying the fire by degrees 
from the feet and hands, burning them gradually up to the 
head, whereby their pains are extravagant. For crimes of a 
lesser nature, gelding, or chopping off half of the foot with 
an axe. These punishments are suffered by them with great 
constancy.” The author proceeds as coolly to describe 
“ usual” whipping and other punishments, and concludes 
thus. “ After they are whipped till they are raw, some put on 
their skins pepper and salt, to make them smart; at other 
times their masters will drop melted wax on their skins, and 
use several very exquisite torments. These punishments are 
sometimes merited by the blacks, who are a very perverse 
generation of people; and though they appear harsh, yet 
are scarce equal to some of their crimes, and inferior to 
what punishments other European nations inflict on their 
slaves in the East Indies, as may be seen by Moquet, and 
other travellers.” They continued to be transported for 
years and years, till different persons, taking an interest 
in their sufferings, produced such an union of public senti¬ 
ment in their favour in England, that the parliament there 
were obliged, as it were, to consider their case, by hearing 
evidence upon it. It is from this evidence, as from the 
highest authority, which was heard in the years 1791 and 
1792, that we shall chiefly give our account of the trade in 
question. 
The treaty to which we have referred, stipulated to 
supply the Europeans with captives and convicts; but 
these .were not sufficient for their demand, on the establish¬ 
ment of their western colonies. In order, therefore, to 
augment the number, not only those who were fairly con¬ 
victed of offences were now sentenced to servitude, but 
even those who were suspected ; and with regard to prisoners 
of war, they delivered into slavery not only those who 
were taken in a state of public enmity and injustice, but 
those also who, conscious of no injury whatever, were 
taken in the arbitrary skirmishes of the venal sovereigns of 
Africa. Wars were made, not as formerly, from motives 
of retaliation and defence, but for the sake of obtaining pri¬ 
soners alone, and the advantages resulting from the sale of 
them. When an European ship came in sight, this was 
considered as a motive for war, and a signal for the com¬ 
mencement of hostilities. The despotic sovereigns of Africa, 
influenced by the venal motives of European traffic, first 
made war upon the neighbouring tribes, iu the violation of 
every principle of justice; and if they did not thus succeed 
in their main object, they turned their arms against their own 
subjects. The first villages at which they arrived were im¬ 
mediately surrounded, and afterwards set on fire; and the 
wretched inhabitants seized, as they were escaping from the 
flames. These, consisting of whole families, fathers, bro¬ 
thers, husbands, wives, and children, were instantly driven 
in chains to the merchants, and consigned to slavery. 
Many other persons were kidnapped, in order to glut the 
avarice of their own countrymen, who lay in wait for them ; 
and they were afterwards sold to the European merchants: 
while the seamen of the different ships, by every possible ar¬ 
tifice, enticed others on board, and transported them to the 
regions of servitude. 
The collectors of slaves were distributed into several 
classes. The first consisted of such black traders as pre¬ 
served a regular chain of traffic, and a regular communica¬ 
tion with each other, from the interior parts of the country 
to the sea-shore. Many of the slaves thus driven down, 
are reported to have travelled at least 1200'miles from the 
place where they were first purchased. A pistol or a sword 
may have been the full value of one of these slaves, at the 
first cost; but this price advances, as he travels towards the 
sea-shore. The second class of slave-traders is composed of 
such as travel inland, but have no chain of commerce or 
communication with the shore. At a certain distance they 
strike off in a line parallel to the shore, and visiting the fairs 
and villages in their way, drop down occasionally to the 
coast, as they have procured slaves. The third class con¬ 
sists of such as travel by water up the great rivers, in their 
canoes, which are very long, well-armed, and carry from 
50 to 70 hands. These often proceed to the distance of 
1000 miles, and bring down from 60 to 120 slaves at a time. 
The fourth class includes those who, living near the banks 
of the rivers, or the sea-shore, scarcely travel at all, but 
coming by some means or other into the possession of slaves, 
either drive them, or send them immediately to the ships 
and factories. Most of the traders now described traffic on 
their own account; but there are some of the poorer sort, 
who travel for the ships. The different sorts of goods, 
with which the traders deal for slaves in the inland country, 
may be divided into three sorts, viz., East Indian, home¬ 
made or colonial, and Venetian. The first consists of 
cowries, or small shells, which pass for money on some parts 
of the coast, blue and white baffs, romals, bandanoes, and 
other cloths and productions of the East. The second con¬ 
sists of bar-iron, muskets, powder, swords, pans and other 
hardware ; cottons, linens, spirits in great abundance, with 
other articles of less note. The third consists totally of 
beads. Almost every ship carries the three sorts of articles 
now stated, but more or less of one than of the other, ac¬ 
cording to the place of her destination ; every different part 
of the coasl requiring a different assortment, and the Afri¬ 
cans, like the Europeans, repeatedly changing their taste. 
This is particularly the case with respect to beads. The 
same kind of beads, which finds a market one year in one 
part of the coast, will probably not be saleable there the 
next. At one time the green are preferred to the yellow, 
at another the opaque to the transparent, and at another the 
oval to the round. 
The slave-trade, at the time of its subsistence, may be said 
to have beguu at the great river Senegal, and to extend to 
the farther limits of Angola, a distance of many thousand 
miles. On the rivers Senegal and Gambia, the Europeans 
proceed in their ships till they come to a proper station, and 
then send out their boats armed to different villages; and on 
their approach to them, fire a musket, or beat a drum, to 
apprise the inhabitants that they are in want of slaves. The 
country people supply them in part, and they also procure 
them from the large canoes above mentioned. 
The Moors, who inhabit the left bank of the river 
Senegal, are notorious for depredations of this sort. They 
cross the river without any previous provocation, and make 
war upon those on the other side of it, and bring them in as 
prisoners, and sell them at Fort St. Louis for slaves. Mr. 
Kiernan has seen the remains of villages, which they had 
broken up in such expeditions. 
Captains Hills and Wilson, and Mr. Wadstrom, and Lieu¬ 
tenant Dalrymple, and other morp recent travellers, inform 
us, that the kings in this part of the country do not hesitate 
to make war upon their own subjects, when in want of 
money. They send out their soldiers in the night, who 
lying before, or attacking or burning a village, seize such as 
come out of it, and return with them as slaves. 
On the river Sierra Leona there were several private fac¬ 
tories, belonging to the merchants of Europe, in which 
their agents, being white people, resided. These agents 
kept a number of boats, which were sent up the river for 
slaves; and thus they procured for the factories a regular 
supply. 
On the Windward Coast, which reaches from Cape Mount 
to Cape Palmas, the natives, when they have any slaves to 
sell, generally signify it by fires. Practices similar to those 
already recited prevail from the river Gambia to the end of 
the Windward Coast. Lieutenant Storey says, that public 
robbery is here called war. Mr. Bowman, another evi- 
"'' dence. 
