FURTHER REFLECTIONS ON NEGRO-SLAVERY.

THE two preceeding Letters concerning the state of the Negro-flaves in the Weft-Indies (of which I do not know who are the authors,) feem to convey a clear and distinct account of the very harsh and dreadful punishments which are fometimes inflicted on them by cruel mafters, or by the overfeers entrusted with the management of them by mafters of a different character. But these great abuses of power over them we may reasonably fuppofe to be not very frequent; and it is almost certain that, now that (by the late act of Parliament for abolishing the Slave-trade,) the Weft-India planters will be deprived of the means of purchafing new Slaves from Africa, the treatment of their present Slaves will be much milder and more careful than before. For it will now be the intereft of their mafters not to over-work their Slaves, but to require from them only fuch a moderate degree of labour as will contribute to keep them in health and vigour for many years to come, and enable them to raise families of children to affift them in their fervice to their mafters, and fupply their places when they die. And for this purpofe, the excellent inftitution of marriage, or fome fimilar and nearly equivalent union between the male and female Slaves, (by allotting one woman to one man, to the exclufion of promifcuous concubinage,) and with a great diminution of the labour of the female Slaves during their pregnancy, will, no doubt, be established in moft of the plantations, together with separate habitations for every married couple, with proper accommodations for rearing their children. And, when thefe changes in the condition of the Negro-Slaves in the West Indies fhall be effected, (which seem to me to be almost neceffary confe

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confequences of the Abolition of the Slave-Trade,) they will be fo much happier than they had been before, that they will almost cease to be objects of compaffion; though it will be still to be wished that they may, in fome future period, and by gradual emancipations of them, by their Mafters, as rewards of their good behaviour and long and faithful fervices, be advanced to the ftill better condition of British freemen. This, however, cannot be done fuddenly, without throwing those Colonies into general confufion; as has been the cafe in the rich and populous French Colony of Saint Domingo, in confequence of a wild, unjust, and, we may venture to fay, mad Decree paffed by the first French National Affembly, called the Conflituent Assembly, which ordered all the flaves in it to be immediately confidered as freemen. But this was a measure which Mr. Wilberforce, and the late Mr. Charles Fox, and Lord Grenville, and the other members of Parliament, who have for fo many years contended for the abolition of the Slave-trade, and have at length fucceeded in their noble attempt, always declared to be no part of their plan; nor, as I believe, did any of the friends to the Abolition of the Slave-Trade, out of Parliament as well as in it, throughout the whole Kingdom of Great-Britain, ever wish to fee fo unjust and dangerous a project undertaken. It was a measure fit only to be adopted by the wild and wrong-headed enthufiafts of the National Affembly of France, who, under the mildeft and most beneficent of all their kings, the virtuous Lewis the XVIth. (who had already granted to them in the Royal Seffion of the 23d of June, 1789, three weeks before the taking of the Baftille, all the conceffions and privileges effential to the permanent establishment of liberty amongst them, which had ever been wifhed-for by their most zealous and intelligent patriots,) thought fit to overturn the antient, and well-established Monarchy under which they and their

ancestors

ancestors had lived, and under which they had, but a few years before, been uncommonly fuccefsful in the war they had carried-on against England in support of the revolted English Colonies in North-America. Such a Nation only as France was at that time, under the dominion of a fort of general frenzy that feemed then to have feized them, could think of adopting fo extravagant and ruinous a meafure. The emancipation of the Negro-Slaves that are now in the English Weft-Indian Colonies muft, therefore, be brought-about by gentle degrees, and with the confent, or, rather, by the fingle and feparate acts, of their several mafters. And the best method of effecting this further happy change in their condition that I have any where met-with, is that which is described by Lieutenant John Harriott, in the 36th chapter of his curious and valuable Hiftory of his own Life and Adventures, published in two small volumes in duodecimo, in the year 1807, under the title of Struggles through Life, which I have read with great pleasure, and believe to be a very fair and faithful narrative of the several adventures and undertakings in which he has been engaged, and in which he has exhibited great proofs of Courage, Industry, found Judgement, Benevolence, and Publick fpirit, and has given excellent advice to prevent English farmers from leaving Old-England to go to NorthAmerica, and fettle there as Land-owners, in the hopes of being foon poffeffed of fome hundreds of acres of good land; brought into good cultivation; which hopes, he well observes, will, most probably, be grievously difappointed. What he has said upon this fubject brought to my recollection the following query of Doctor Berkley, the famous Bishop of Cloyne, in the former half of the laft Century. Query, "whether it is not poffible that a man may be lawful owner, in poffeffion, of a tract of land containing twenty thou fand acres, and the land very good and capable of producing

very good crops of corn, or other useful vegetables; and his title to the land be quite clear and undifputed to him and his heirs for ever; and the land clear of all mortgages, or rentcharges, or other burthens, or outgoings, whatsoever; and yet that the faid man, though fo great a land-holder, may be in want of a dinner." The Bishop had fpent a few years in North-America; and there, I conjecture, this query came into his head.-But to return to the subject of the emancipation of the Negro-Slaves in the WeftIndies, the fuggeftions of Mr. Harriott for the gradual attainment of this important change in their condition, contained in the faid 36th chapter of his useful and entertaining work, are fo judicious, and fo well-defcribed, that I shall here prefent my readers with the whole of that chapter in the author's own words.

F. M.

From LIEUTENANT JOHN HARRIOTT'S "Struggies through Life," vol. II. pages 232 to 248.

"Slavery in North America, in Turkey, Barbary, the European States, up the Mediterranean, and in the East and West Indies; Observation on Slavery; Hints for a gradual Emancipation.

"IN fome parts of my account of America, my objections to any thing that feemed to countenance slavery are cursorily mentioned; and yet I afterwards acknowledge to have purchased fome flaves. I wish to remove any appearance of inconfiftency on this head, and know not how I can do it better than by giving my opinion on the longcontested point for the abolition of flavery. It is an opinion. I gave, fome years back, to a much-valued friend, who re

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quefted it when the fubject was fo generally agitated and claimed the publick attention. It is true, fince that time, I have myfelf purchased slaves; yet have I never changed my opinion, but remain more and more confirmed in it..

"Having feen Slavery in a variety of fhapes, in different parts of the world, not to have confidered it would reflect on my humanity: I have often, very often, and with sensations that varied as the time and circumftances occurred; and I believe the sureft, fhorteft, and cleareft, way of delivering my thoughts on the fubject, will be by sketching an outline of the kinds of Slavery that have fallen within my notice. In the general acceptation of the term Slavery there is not, cannot be, a more fincere well-wisher for a proper abolition than myself. How that is best to be carried into execution, fo as to produce the greatest good and occafion the leaft evil, deferves ferious confideration.

"In North-America, taking thofe parts to the northward and eastward of Pennsylvania, the Slaves are much happier from being better fed, cloathed, and taken care of, than they would be if left entirely to their own liberty; I am an advocate, however, for restoring them to their natural rights. To enfranchise the whole immediately would not be the best poffible good for them. What has already been done (in bringing them, or their ancestors, from Africa, to make them Slaves) cannot be undone; but a continuance of the horrid traffick is unjust and wrong in the extreme.

"In Turkey and Barbary there are two (or more) kinds of Slaves: those who are bought, and the Europeans who are made prisoners of war. The firft we may clafs with the negroes in America and the Weft-Indies, while the latter are to be pitied the most of any defcription of flaves I have feen. Dreadful, indeed! is the fituation of these unhappy mortals, compared with whom the flaves in our plantations are freemen. And here we may lament that we have

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