Domestic slavery in Africa.

conquest by your colour, of an ebony Æthiop, or of making the best market of yourself in Africa.'

'Indeed, Henry, I think I should not repine.'

'But to be serious,' continued Mr. L., 'when the blacks have taken precedence of the whites in civilization, science, and political power, no prejudice has appeared to exist against the colour. The black Prince, Memnon, who served among the Trojan auxiliaries at the siege of Troy, is constantly spoken of, by the Greek and Latin authors, as a person of extraordinary beauty. He is qualified as the Son of Aurora, or the Morning. The prejudice against the colour of the blacks, many contend (and I shall not undertake to controvert their argument, although I freely acknowledge my own views would lead me to treat with great disapprobation any plea for amalgamation,) has grown out of the relative condition of the two races.'

Caroline here inquired, 'Have not the Africans many slaves among themselves, in Africa? If I recollect, Mr. Clapperton says the domestic slaves are numerous.'

'There is a great deal of domestic slavery in different parts of Africa; but it has been asserted that, for the most part, slavery, except as slaves are taken to be sold to the slave-merchants on the coast, is a different thing in Africa from what it is among us. I know not that it is said that the slaves are treated better than with us; but it is thought that they are there viewed more as members of the family to which they are attached than as slaves. Still, I am inclined to think that this is a gloss which a comparison would not justify.'

Henry suggested, at this point, that slavery is bad enough, in any country, and under any circumstances. Nothing,'

How slaves are taken.

said he, 'I am sure, can make amends for the loss of liberty -nothing, I mean, that man can offer.'

Mr. L. had no doubt there has been many an instance of that which Montgomery has so finely expressed,

"The broken heart which kindness never heals

The home-sick passion which the Negro feels
When toiling, fainting, in a land of canes,
His spirit wanders to his native plains,
And 'neath the shade of his paternal trees,

His little lonely dwelling there he sees,
The home of comfort."

'I have seen it stated,' said Henry, that in some parts of Africa they hunt for slaves for transportation just as they would hunt for wild beasts.'

It is said that in Bornon, for instance,' replied Mr. L., 'where the slave trade is carried on to an immense extent and is the principal traffic, the mode in which slaves are procured is very summary: A caravan of Moorish merchants arrives, and offers goods for slaves. If there are no slaves on hand they must be procured. The Sultan immediately collects his forces, marches into the country of some harmless tribe, burns their villages, destroys their fields and flocks, massacres the infirm and old, and returns with as many able bodied prisoners as he can seize. Sometimes 3,000 have been obtained in a single "ghrazie," as these expeditions are called. The way in which slaves are obtained is somewhat different in different parts of Africa, and yet is very similar in all.'

The family all exclaimed, 'How horrible!'

Mr. L. resumed, The horrors of the slave-trade in Af

Horrors of the slave trade.

rica are great. Distressing, however, as is the situation of the captive when first

"before his eyes

The terrors of captivity arise,"

his sufferings are greater in what is called the "middle passage"—that is, during the voyage, if he be shipped to a distant land. And if they be carried, to supply the northern market, across the great Desert, their sufferings are represented as even greater.

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'Driven by Arab merchants to the North of Africa, through the deep and burning sands of Sahara, scantily supplied with water, they sink in great numbers under their sufferings. Denham and his companions saw, in their journeyings, melancholy proofs of the horrors attending this "middle passage" over land. They at one time halted near a well around which were lying more than one hundred human skeletons, some of them with the skin still remaining upon the bones. They were only blacks," said the Arabs when they observed the horror of the travellers, and then began to knock about the limbs and skulls with the butt-ends of their guns. Denham says they counted in another place one hundred and seven skeletons. In other instances, they passed sixty or eighty skeletons a day scattered along over that dreary waste! About the walls of El-Hamar, they saw many, and among the rest, the skeletons of two young females, faithful friends it would seem even to death, for these skeletons lay with their fleshless arms still clasped around each other.'

Caroline felt a little faint, but after a few moments' interruption, begged her father to proceed. She had no doubt it was owing to the heat of the room. Mr. L., with some hesitancy, continued:

Sufferings of the captured in the middle passage.

While,' says Denham, while I was dozing on my horse, \about noon, overcome by the heat of the sun, I was suddenly awakened by a crashing under my feet, and found that my steed had stepped on the perfect skeletons of two human beings, cracking their brittle bones under his feet, and by one trip of his foot separating a skull from the trunk, it rolled on like a ball before him.'

' O horrid barbarity! Poor Africa!' exclaimed Caroline; 'what has she suffered! I do not wonder that that wretched continent has been represented as a widow, sitting beneath her own palm-trees, clothed in sackcloth, and weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted!'

And are they exposed to much suffering on the western coast, when taken to be sent on ship-board, to be conveyed. to other lands?' asked Henry.

'Yes, their sufferings then are great, and frequently insupportable. At the lowest estimate, it is said that an average of one hundred thousand of the African race have been seized every year, and borne across the Atlantic to supply the West Indies and the Brazilian market alone. The wars attending the capture of such a multitude, make Africa, of course, a field of blood, and a scene of great affliction.'

And then,' said Caroline, the separation of relatives and friends, occasioned by the forced removal of the captured, I have no doubt breaks a thousand hearts; O it is shocking to humanity! And how painful is it to think that much of the distress which Africa has endured, has been occasioned, perhaps, by our own countrymen; or, at least, has been caused by inducements which in our own country, this boasted land of liberty, have been held out to unprincipled men to procure slaves and bring them hither! It appears to me,

Horrors of slavery.-Slavery a reproach to our country.

Pa, that slavery in a country like ours, more than any other, is dark disgrace.'

'Yes, my daughter, it is indeed a deep stain upon our honour—a dark blot upon our country's glory. It is such a stain as no christian nation should tolerate. Much less should the stain rest upon a people distinguished above all the nations of the earth for their civil and religious blessings, and whose very DECLARATION is published to the world, boldly and solemnly asserting that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL; ENDOWED BY THEIR CREATOR WITH THE UNALIENABLE RIGHTS OF LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPI NESS.'

'I recollect, sir,' said Henry, 'some lines which forcibly illustrate the sentiment you express:

"ALL ARE BORN FREE; AND ALL WITH EQUAL RIGHTS.

So speaks the Charter of a Nation, proud

Of her unequalled liberties and laws;

While, in that nation, shameful to relate,

One man in five is born and dies a SLAVE.”

Can you repeat further? If I recollect, what follows is equally applicable, elegant, and impressive.'

'I can imperfectly. I may perhaps do injustice to the author by some omissions or alterations, as I cannot promise that I shall give the precise original in totidem verbis:

"Is this my country? this that happy land,
The wonder and the envy of the world?
O for a mantle to conceal her shame!

But why? when patriotism cannot hide
The ruin which her guilt will surely bring

If unrepented? for unless the God

Who poured his plagues on Egypt till she let
The oppress'd go free, and often pours his wrath

E