This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
Cover Story Black History Month


The Solicitor General, Sir Samuel Romilly, now took the floor, and thundered: I, as an individual of this country, do feel most seriously the reproachful situation in which we stand at this moment, with re- spect to the Slave Trade. Te year 1796 was the utmost limit allowed for the existence of that most abominable and disgraceful


Traffick, and yet it still subsists. It is not however stating the case fairly to say that this House


has made a pledge and that it has not done anything to redeem that pledge; for this House, in the session before the last, passed a bill for the abolition of the African Slave Trade; and it was only because another House of Parliament [the House of Lords] did not agree to it, that the Bill was lost. In a very thin House, and on a very unexpected division in


the last session, the measure was lost; and the situation in which this country stands in consequence of it, appears to me the most reproachful and the most disgraceful in which it can possibly be placed. I can very well understand that nations as well as individuals


may be guilty of the most immoral acts, from their not having the courage to inquire into all the circumstances of this Trade. But in that year this House had the courage to appoint a committee to investigate the complaints which were preferred against it. Te committee sat, and after a painful and anxious investigation,


they reported to this House a great body of evidence, by which it is established beyond the possibility of dispute, that the African Slave Trade is carried on by rapine, robbery, and murder; by encouraging and fomenting wars; by false accusations and imaginary crimes. Tus are these unhappy beings, in order to supply this Traffick


in human blood, torn from their families, relatives, and homes, not only in war, but profound peace, and after being sold in their native land, they are carried across the Atlantic, in the most deplor- able state in which it is possible to convey them alive, and under circumstances of too much horror to bear reflection. Now, Sir, after all this has been proved; after it has been ascer-


tained by indisputable evidence, that this Trade cannot be carried on without the most iniquitous practices, that rapine, robbery, and murder are the foundations of it; that men are falsely accused, and on false accusations condemned, in order to supply its victims; that wars are fomented to support this Traffick; that most disgusting cruelties attend it, in the passage of this unhappy part of our spe- cies from their native home to the place of their slavery; that they are there subjected to a cruel and perpetual bondage, I do say that this Trade ought not to be suffered to continue for an hour. It is a stain upon our national reputation, and ought to be wiped


away. Te inhumanity of the Traffick is most enormous, and such as we cannot look at without shuddering. Since the period at which we resolved to abolish this Trade, viz.


1796, no less than 360,000 individuals have been torn by us from the Coast of Africa to supply this Trade! Such is the accumulation of guilt that hangs on the English nation at this moment! I cannot, therefore, suffer this subject to pass without expressing


my most anxious wish to concur in the immediate abolition of a Traffick that has brought upon this nation such indelible disgrace.


40 | October 2011 | New African


And I do not object to the present motion, because it is perfectly consistent with that wish. But it is said that if the abolition of the Slave Trade is to take


place, it will be necessary to make compensation to those who now carry it on, for the loss which they will sustain by its continuance; and that this compensation must be a large one. Tat is a subject for a subsequent consideration. I will grant,


however, for the sake of the argument, and for the sake of the ar- gument only, that this compensation may be necessary, but then I would ask those who maintain that necessity, whether (if this be indeed a debt due from the people of England to a few individu- als), the debts of the people of England dare to be paid with the blood of the people of Africa? I do not know whether we are bound to make any compensa-


tion in this case; but if we are, the blood of our fellow creatures is not the medium through which that compensation ought to flow. Te people of England are not to consent that there should be carried on, in their name, a system of blood, rapine, robbery and murder; and that, merely because we must make compensation to some individuals. I do not see any reason to enter into the question generally,


except to observe on one point which has been stated by the noble Lord who spoke last. He seems to think that there is no mode of abolishing this Trade but with the concurrence of the colonies – that we must obtain their consent to the measure – that it must be left to their feelings. If so, I am afraid, we shall never abolish it. If we refer to the


correspondence of the West India governors, we shall find that nothing of this kind is to be expected, and that whenever we have expressed a desire to abolish the Slave Trade, the aim of the colo- nies has been to disappoint us in the attainment of that object. And I would take the liberty of asking the Noble Lord, whether


he thinks this country ought to endure the disgrace and the guilt of continuing this hateful Traffick, until the period at which the colonies shall consent to its abolition. I have assigned reasons why I could wish that not a moment of


unnecessary delay should take place … in getting rid of that stain on our national character. I am of the opinion that this Resolu- tion is consistent with that object, and therefore it has my entire concurrence.


Then, the other Liverpool MP, General Isaac Gascoyne, sensing that the debate was going against his dear Liverpool, rose and said: I must say that in what has fallen from the Right Honourable Gentleman who brought forward this Motion, and to whom we all look up to for everything which tal- ents can accomplish, nothing can be said to


be new that has been offered upon this subject: nothing has been said in addition to the arguments formerly offered, and which have been already answered by the votes of this House. Tere can therefore exist no reason for altering our opinion with respect to measures like the present. But what I would wish chiefly to impress on this House is that the repeated discussions of the subject in this House, and in other


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100