Evidences Examined Before the House of Commons
House of Commons Evidence.
James Morley, 1760 and 1776.—On pretence of adultery, he remembers a woman sold. He learnt that this was only a pretence, from her own mouth, for she spake good English, and from the respect with which her husband, king Ephraim, treated her, when he came on board; whereas, in real cases of adultery, they are very desperate.
Sir George Young, 1767, 1768, 1771, 1772.—Has always heard, that the sovereign or chief of a district generally derives a certain profit from the sale of Slaves.
House of Commons Evidence.
Henry Hew Dalrymple, Esq. 1779.—All crimes, in the parts of Africa he was in, were punished with slavery.
James Towne, 1760, 1767.—He has repeatedly heard, both from the accused and accusers themselves, and he believes it common on the coast, to impute crimes falsely for the sake of having the accused person sold.
Notes
64 Capt. Wilson, of the Royal Navy, says, it is universally acknowledged, and he believes it to be true, that free persons are sold for real or imputed crimes, for the benefit of their judges. Soon after his arrival at Goree, the king of Damel sent a free man to him for sale, and was to have the price himself. One of the king’s guards, who came with the man, on being asked whether he was guilty of the crime imputed to him, replied, with great shrewdness—he did not conceive that was ever inquired into, or of any consequence.
65 Dr. Trotter says, that of the whole cargo, he recollects only three criminals in the ship where he was. One of these had been sold for adultery, and the other for witchcraft, whose whole family shared his fate. The first said, he had been decoyed by a woman, who told her husband of the transaction, and he was sentenced to pay a Slave; but, being poor, he was sold himself. Such stratagems are frequent. The fourth mate of the ship Brookes was so decoyed, and obliged to pay a Slave, under the threat, that trade would be stopped if he did not. The other had quarrelled with one of the Cabosheers. The Cabosher, in revenge, accused him of witchcraft. In consequence of this accusation he was sold with his family. His mother, wife, and two daughters, were sentenced with him. |House of Commons Evidence.| The women shewed the deepest affliction; the man a sullen melancholy; he refused his food, tore his throat open with his nails, and died.
66 Lieutenant Simpson, of the Royal Marines, considered two crimes as almost made on purpose to procure Slaves. These were, adultery, and the removal of Fetiches, (or of charms founded on a notion of witchcraft). As to adultery, he was warned against connecting himself with any woman not pointed out to him, for that the kings kept several, who were sent out to allure the unwary; and that, if found to be connected with these, he would be seized, and made to pay the price of a man Slave. As to fetiches, consisting of pieces of wood, old pitchers, kettles, &c. laid in the path-ways, he was warned to avoid displacing them, for if he should, the natives, who were on the watch, would seize him, and, as before, exact the price of a man Slave. These baits were laid equally for the natives, as the Europeans; but the former were better acquainted with the law, and consequently more circumspect.