The Martyrdom of Man by Winwood Reade (mini ebook reader .TXT) π
The Egyptians were islanders, cut off from the rest of the world by sand and sea. They were rooted in their valley; they lived entirely upon its fruits, and happily these fruits sometimes failed. Had they always been able to obtain enough to eat, they would have remained always in the semi-savage state.
It may appear strange that Egypt should have suffered from famine, for there was no country in the ancient world where food was so abundant and so cheap. Not only did the land produce enormous crops of corn; the ditches and hollows which were filled by the overflowing Nile supplied a harvest of wholesome and nourishing aquatic plants, and on the borders of the des
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landed through an ugly surf, and the skipper made his way to a
large tree in the vicinity of the landing-place, where the
governor of the town received him in state, and regaled him
with trade-gin, by no means the most agreeable of all
compounds. The capital was situated at a distance of sixty
miles, and the captain would be carried there in a hammock,
taking with him some handsome silks and other presents for the
king. This monarch lived by hunting his neighbours and by
selling them to Europeans. There was a regular war-season, and
he went out once a year, sometimes in one direction, sometimes
in another. Kings in Africa have frequently a bodyguard of
women.
A certain king of Dahomey had developed this institution
into female regiments. These women are nominally the kingβs
wives; they are in reality old maids β the only specimens of
the class upon the continent of Africa; they are excellent
soldiers β hardy, savage, and courageous. In the siege of
Abbeokuta, the other day, an Amazon climbed up the wall; her
right arm was cut clean off, and as she fell back she pistolled
a man with her left. When the king returned from his annual
campaign, he sent to all the white men at Whydah, who received
the special title of the βkingβs friends,β and invited them up
to witness his βcustomsβ and to purchase his slaves, In the
first place, the king murdered a number of his captives to send
to his father as tokens of regard; and the traders were
mortified to see good flesh and blood being wasted on religion.
However, slaves were always in abundance. They were also
obtained from the settlements upon the coast. The Portuguese
Angola could alone be dignified with the name of colony. The
Dutch, English, and French settlements were merely fortified
factories, half castle, half shop, in which the agents lived,
and in which the dry goods, rum, tobacco, trade powder and
muskets, were stored. There were native traders, who received a
quantity of such goods on trust, and travelled into the
interior till they came to a War-town. They then ordered so
many slaves; and laid down the goods. The chief ordered out the
militia, made a night march, attacked a village just before the
dawn, killed those who resisted, carried off the rest in irons
manufactured at Birmingham, and handed them over to the trader;
who drove them down to the coast. They were then warehoused in
the fort dungeons, or in buildings called βbarracoonsβ prepared
for their reception; and as soon as a vessel was ready they
were marked and shipped. On board they were packed on the lower
deck like herrings in a cask. The cargo supposed that it also resembled
herrings, in being exported as an article of food.
The slaves believed that all white men were cannibals; that the
red caps of the trade were dyed in negro blood, and that the
white soap was made of negro brains. So they often refused to
eat; upon which their mouths were forced open with an
instrument known in surgery as speculum oris, and used in cases
of lock-jaw; and by means of this ingenious contrivance they
breakfasted and dined against their will. Exercise also being
conducive to health, they were ordered to jump up and down in
their fetters; and if they declined to do so, the application
of the cat had the desired effect, and made them exercise not
only their limbs, but also their lungs, and so promoted the
circulation of the blood and the digestion of the horse-beans
on which they were fed. Yet such was the obstinacy of these
savage creatures, that many of them sulked themselves to death;
and sometimes, when indulged with an airing on deck, the
ungrateful wretches would jump overboard, and, as they sank,
waved their hands in triumph at having made their escape. On
reaching the West Indies they were put into regular schools of
labour, and gradually broken in; and they then enjoyed the
advantage of dwelling in a Christian land. But their temporal
happiness was not increased. If a lady put her cook into the
oven because the pie was overdone; if a planter soused a slave
in the boiling sugar; if the runaway was hunted with
bloodhounds, and then flogged to pieces and hung alive in
chains; if the poor old worn-out slave was turned adrift to
die, the West Indian laws did not interfere. The slave of a
planter was βhis moneyβ it was only when a man killed another
personβs slave that he was punished; and then only by a fine.
It may be said, without exaggeration, that dogs and horses now
receive more protection in the British dominions than negroes
received in the last century.
In order to understand how so great a moral revolution has been
wrought we must return for a moment to the Middle Ages. We left
the burgher class in alliance with the kings, possessing
liberal charters, making their own laws, levying their own
taxes, commanding their own troops. Their sons were not always
merchants like themselves: they invaded the intellectual
dominions of the priests: they became lawyers, artists, and
physicians.
Then another change took place. Standing armies were invented,
and the middle class were re-enslaved. Their municipal rights
were taken from them; troops were stationed in their towns; the
nobles collected round the king, who could now reward their
loyalty with lucrative and honourable posts, the command of a
regiment, or the administration of a province. Heavy taxes were
imposed on the burghers and the peasants, and these supported
the nobles and clergy who were exempt. Aristocracy and monarchy
became fast friends, and the Crown was protected by the
thunders of the Church.
The rebellion of the German monk established an idol of ink and
paper, instead of an idol of painted wood or stone; the
Protestant believed that it was his duty to study the Bible for
himself, and so education was spread throughout the countries
of the Reformed Religion. A desire for knowledge became
general, and the academies of the Jesuits were founded in self-defence. The enlargement of the reading class gave the Book
that power which the pulpit once enjoyed, and in the hands of
Voltaire the Book began to preach. The fallacies of the Syrian
religion were exposed: and with that religion fell the doctrine
of passive obedience and divine right: the doctrine that
unbelievers are the enemies of God: the doctrine that men who
adopt a particular profession are invested with magical powers
which stream into them from other menβs finger ends: the
doctrine that a barbarous legal code was issued vivΓ’ voce by
the Creator of the world. Such notions as these are still held
by thousands in private life, but they no longer enter into the
policy of states or dictate statutes of the realm.
Voltaire destroyed the authority of the Church and Rousseau
prepared the way for the destruction of the Crown. He believed
in a dream-land of the past which had never existed: he
appealed to imaginary laws of Nature. Yet these errors were
beneficial in their day. He taught men to yearn for an ideal
state, which they with their own efforts might attain; he
inspired them with the sentiment of Liberty, and with a
reverence for the Law of Right. Virtuous principles, abstract
ideas, the future Deities of men were now for the first time
lifted up to be adored. A thousand hearts palpitated with
excitement; a thousand pens were drawn; the people that
slumbered in sorrow and captivity heard a voice bidding them
arise; they strained, they struggled, and they burst their
bonds. Jacques Bonhomme, who had hitherto gone on all fours,
discovered to his surprise that he also was a biped; the world
became more light; the horizon widened; a new epoch opened for
the human race.
The anti-slavery movement, which we shall now briefly sketch,
is merely an episode in that great rebellion against authority
which began in the night of the Middle Ages; which sometimes
assumed the form of religious heresy, sometimes of serf revolt;
which gradually established the municipal cities, and raised
the slave to the position of the tenant; which gained great
victories in the Protestant Reformation, the two English
Revolutions, the American Revolution, and the French
Revolution; which has destroyed the tyranny of governments in
Europe, and which will in time destroy the tyranny of religious
creeds.
In the middle of the eighteenth century negro slavery, although
it had frequently been denounced in books, had not attracted
the attention of the English people. To them it was something
in the abstract, something which was done beyond the seas. But
there rose an agitation which brought up its distant horrors in
vivid pictures before the mind, and produced an outcry of anger
and disgust.
It had been the custom of the Virginian or West Indian planter,
when he left his tobacco or sugar estate for a holiday in
England, to wear very broad hats and very wide trousers and to
be accompanied by those slaves who used to bring him his coffee
in the early morning, to brush away the blue-tailed fly from
his siesta, and to mix him rum and water when required. The
existence of such attendants was some what anomalous in this
island, and friends would often observe with a knowing air it
was lucky for him that Sambo was not up to English law. That
law, indeed, was undefined. Slavery had existed in England and
had died out of itself, in what manner and at what time no one
could precisely say. It was, however, a popular impression that
no man could be kept as a slave if he were once baptised. The
planters enjoyed the same kind of reputation which the nabobs
afterwards obtained: a yellow skin and a bad heart were at one
time always associated with each other. The negroes were often
encouraged to abscond, and to offer themselves before the font.
They obtained as sponsors respectable well-to-do men, who
declared that they would stand by their god-sons if it came to
a case at law. The planters were in much distress, and in order
to know the worst went to Messrs. York and Talbot, the Attorney
and Solicitor General for the time being, and requested an
opinion. The opinion of York and Talbot was this: that slaves
breathing English air did not become free; that slaves on being
baptised did not become free; and that their masters could
force them back to the plantations when they pleased.
The planters, finding that the law was on their side, at once
acted on their opinion. Advertisements appeared in the newspapers
offering rewards for runaway slaves. Negroes might be seen
being dragged along the streets in open day: they were bought
and sold at the Poultry Compter, an old city jail. Free men of
colour were no longer safe; kidnapping became a regular
pursuit.
There was a young man named Granville Sharp, whose benevolent
heart was touched to the quick by the abominable scenes which
he had witnessed more than once. He could not believe that such
was really English law. He examined the question for himself,
and, after long search, discovered precedents which overthrew
the opinion of the two great lawyers. He published a pamphlet
in which he stated his case; and not content with writing, he
also acted in the cause, aiding and abetting negroes to escape.
On one occasion a Virginian had disposed of an unruly slave to
a skipper bound for the West Indies. The vessel was lying in
the river; the unfortunate negro was chained to the mast; when
Granville Sharp climbed over the side with a writ of Habeas
Corpus in his hand. James Somersetβs body was given up, and
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