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The Debate on a Motion for the Abolition of the Slave-Trade

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The Debate on a Motion for the Abolition of the Slave-Trade This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com EKH W/T/9/tf H ic/gs -'m urr-:.-i I IN C'i.'-lVvt i DEBATE 0 N A MOTION FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE S L# V E - T R A D E, IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, O N MONDAY THE SECOND OF APRIL, 1792, REPORTED IN VETA LL. JL fl> B 3> SD si: PRINTED BY W. WOOD F^flfe, AND SOLD AT THE PRINTING - OFFICE OF ^§|e DIARY SALISBURY-SQUARE, FLE E'T>^8JL EBT. MDCCXCII. iTHjeNAW * K I DEBATE ON* MOTION fOII THE ABOLITION or t h i SLAVE-TR A D E, Sec. On Monday the 2d of April, 1792. AGREAT number of PETITI O N S* were presented* praying for the ABOLITION of the SLAVE TRADE. The Right Honourable Mr. Dundas presented one from the Inhabitants of the City of Edinburgh, and Sir Watkiw Lewes one from the Livery of London in Common Hall assembled.-— Reserred to the Committee on the Slave Trade. Mr. Wilberforce moved that all the Evidence given oil this Trade be reserred to the Committee.— Ordered; He then moved the Order of the Day, which was « for " the House to resolve itself into a Committee of the whole " House, to consider of the circumstances of the African « Slave Trade." • Tht whole number of Petitions presented to this D*y, was 508. B 2 The (.4 ) The House resolved itself into a Committee accordingly,. Sir William Dolben in the Chair : . Mr. Wilberforce. — In entering on the great business of this day, a business in itself of the first importance, and which, aster having so long occupied the minds of men, is at this moment the subject of univerfal expectation and solicitude, it is natural to imagine that I must seel no small degree of dissi dence and apprehension. It is, however, a fatisfaction to me to reflect, that it will not be necessary for me to take up so much of the time of the House, as I have selt myself compelled to do on former occasions ; for besides that I might well be content to leave the task of enforcing the proposition I {hall bring forward, to the greater abilities and more powersul elo quence of those by whom I have the honour to be supported, the whole of this subject has been already so thoroughly in vestigated ; every part of it has been so canvassed and scruti nized, that it may be sussicient for me now merely to reser you. to our past discussion?, and to spare the House and myself the pain of a laborious and minute detail. I have besore had occasion to remark, that nothing has-; tended more to prevent the impartial and candid consideration. of our arguments, than the indiscriminate censures which have sometimes been really cast on the whole body of West Indians. There may have been those who, suffering their passions to hurry them to hasty and immature conclusions, have connected With. the evils of the system, the personal character of every iadividual embarked in it, as being closely and inseparably as sociated; the charge rashly brought has been indignantly repelled; heat and acrimony have prevailed on both sides, reproaches and invectives have been mutually retorted, parties have been formed with all their consequent effects of prejudice arid bitterness, the West Indians in this state of things have grown incapable of listening dispassionately to the voice of: reason, and many perhaps of the very best and m.ost benevo lent amongst them have been the most warm, because most conscious of the injustice of the accufations they deemed cast on v { 5 ) on them, and reseating and spurning at them with emotions of honest disdain. The House will do me the justice to recollect, whatever may have been faid to the contrary, that this is a language I have never held, nor have I been kept from it by motives of deco rum or of personal civility ; it is a language to which in my heart I have never assented, and which has always appeared to me not only injudicious and impolitic, but contrary to truth and justice, and to what abundant experience has taught us of the nature of the human mind : and I the rather make this decla ration at the outset of my speech, in order, that if i'n the course of what I shall fay on a subject which cannot but excite the strongest emotions in any man who is not dead to the seelings of his nature, any over- warm or too general expressions should escape me, it may be understood what are the cool deli berate opinions of my mind. I wish to speak the words of conciliation ; I wish particularly to call on the Gentlemen of the West Indies to accompany me in my progress; I call upon them to investigate with me sully and fairly the various evils arising from the Slave Trade, and those evils especially, which belong to the West Indies. If I can but bring them tu do so, I am persuaded we cannot differ in the result : I cannot but believe that they will acknowledge the desects of their own - system, and deplore the evils with which it so abounds ; for Sir, though I have acknowledged that there are many Owners of Slaves of benevolent tempers and generous hearts, who would be glad to use their absolute power for purposes of kind ness and beneficence, yet this must not reconcile us to the system of West Indian slavery itself; pregnant as it is with- great and innumerable miseries. A Trajan and an Antoni nus do not reconcile me to a despotic monarchy ; we should distinguish in these cases between what belongs to the person and what belongs to the system ; we should rejoice indeed in a splendid exception to the ordinary character of tyranny ; but not allow ourselves to be thereby seduced into an approbation 9s tyranny. Yet ( 6 ) Yet even under a Trajan and an Antoninus the fetal effects of this system were but too discernible, though more slagrant and palpable under a Nero and Caligula. Aa impartial West Indian, therefore, instead of being incensed by the frankness of my investigation, should rather join me in it, and assist me in tracing the mischiess to their proper source ; these will appear by no means greater than might be expected from considering the various circumstances of the present case. It has been justly remarked, that aristocracy is a worse form of government than monarchy, because the people have been subject to many tyrants instead of one ; but if this be true, what shall we fay to the present case, where despotic power is not the privilege of high birth, or of extraordinary eminence, or wealth, or talents, but where it is an article to be bought at market like any other commodity, by every man who has £-4-0 in the world. There is often an elevation and liberality of mind produced by-the consciousness of superior rank and consequence and authority, which serve in some de gree to mitigate the fierceness of unrestrained power, and counteract the evils of which it is naturally productive ; but when it comes into the possession of the base and the vulgar, the evils will then be selt in their sullest extent. The causes of this we will not stop to examine, but the truth itself is im portant, and it bears directly on the present question. It sug gests to us the wretched state of the Slaves in the West In dies, where they are often liable to the uncontrouled domina tion of men of all ranks, understandings, tempers, often per haps of the most ignorant and worthless, and meanest of the human race. This is no picture of the imagination, but the very sentiment which the scene itself impresses on the mind of ajudicious observer. Every man almost who can have a horse here, might be possessed of a slave there ; who is there that con siders this, but must expect to find scenes of wretchedness and cruelty,indignation on r which it is impossible to look, without shame and But let us recollect, that this is not the whole of the present case ; for of the more opulent and more liberal West India pro prietors ( 7 ) prietors of West India properties, how many are there wh« are absent from their own estates, residing in this country, or in other parts of Europe ? They send across the Atlantic, de clarations and directions dictated by the humanity of their own minds ; but the execution of these, must be left to persons of a description altogether different. This forms a very lead ing seature in the delineation of the present system, and I wish every Gentleman to consider it in its various bearings and re lations. It is not I only that make this remark, or the friends of the Abolition of the Slave Trade ; it was long ago strongly insisted on by Mr. Long, the historian of Jamaica ; he pointed cut the abuse ; he specified the many evils which flowed from it ; he stated that the insurrections had chiefly been found to break out among the Slaves of Absentee proprietors ; he re gretted that often the Manager had an interest altogether distinct from that of the Owner ; that it was frequently his object to make large crops of sugar, regardless of the cruelties to be exercised on the Slaves, or of the ruinous load of ex- pence to be incurred, in purchasing new Slaves, to replace such as should be worn out by excessive labour ; and then at last, fays he, they retreat like a rat from a house in slames, and go with the credit of large crops on their backs to another part of the island.
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