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diff --git a/35222.txt b/35222.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f65360e --- /dev/null +++ b/35222.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3575 @@ +Project Gutenberg's White Slavery in the Barbary States, by Charles Sumner + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: White Slavery in the Barbary States + +Author: Charles Sumner + +Illustrator: Billings + +Release Date: February 9, 2011 [EBook #35222] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHITE SLAVERY IN BARBARY STATES *** + + + + +Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + +WHITE SLAVERY + +IN + +THE BARBARY STATES. + +BY + +CHARLES SUMNER. + + + ----Mutato nomine, de te + Fabula narratur. + + HORACE + + + And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such + things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of + God? + + EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS, Chap. ii. v. 3. + + +BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY. + +CLEVELAND, OHIO: JEWETT, PROCTOR, AND WORTHINGTON. + +LONDON: LOW AND COMPANY. + +1853. + + +Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by + +JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY, + +In the Clerk's Office of the District Court + +of the District of Massachusetts. + + +ORIGINAL DESIGNS BY BILLINGS. + +ENGRAVED BY BAKER, SMITH, AND ANDREW. + +STEREOTYPED AT THE + +BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY. + +GEO. C. RAND, PRINTER, CORNHILL. + +[Illustration] + + + + +WHITE SLAVERY + +in the + +BARBARY STATES. + + +History has been sometimes called a gallery, where, in living forms, are +preserved the scenes, the incidents, and the characters of the past. It +may also be called the world's great charnel house, where are gathered +coffins, dead men's bones, and all the uncleanness of the years that +have fled. As we walk among its pictures, radiant with the inspiration +of virtue and of freedom, we confess a new impulse to beneficent +exertion. As we grope amidst the unsightly shapes that have been left +without an epitaph, we may at least derive a fresh aversion to all their +living representatives. + +In this mighty gallery, amidst a heavenly light, are the images of the +benefactors of mankind--the poets who have sung the praise of virtue, +the historians who have recorded its achievements, and the good men of +all time, who, by word or deed, have striven for the welfare of others. +Here are depicted those scenes where the divinity of man has been made +manifest in trial and danger. Here also are those grand incidents which +attended the establishment of the free institutions of the world; the +signing of Magna Charta, with its priceless privileges of freedom, by a +reluctant monarch; and the signing of the Declaration of Independence, +the annunciation of the inalienable rights of man, by the fathers of our +republic. + +On the other hand, in ignominious confusion, far down in this dark, +dreary charnel house is tumbled all that now remains of the tyrants, the +persecutors, the selfish men, under whom mankind have groaned. Here +also, in festering, loathsome decay, are the monstrous institutions or +customs, which the earth, weary of their infamy and injustice, has +refused to sustain--the Helotism of Sparta, the Serfdom of Christian +Europe, the Ordeal by Battle, and Algerine Slavery. + +From this charnel house let me to-night draw forth one of these. It may +not be without profit to dwell on the _origin_, the _history_, and the +_character_ of a custom, which, after being for a long time a byword and +a hissing among the nations, has at last been driven from the world. The +easy, instinctive, positive reprobation, which it will receive from all, +must necessarily direct our judgment of other institutions, yet +tolerated in equal defiance of justice and humanity. I propose to +consider the subject of _White Slavery in Algiers_, or perhaps it might +be more appropriately called _White Slavery in the Barbary States_. As +Algiers was its chief seat, it seems to have acquired a current name +from that place. This I shall not disturb; though I shall speak of White +Slavery, or the Slavery of Christians, throughout the Barbary States. + +If this subject should fail in interest, it cannot fail in novelty. I am +not aware of any previous attempt to combine its scattered materials in +a connected essay. + +[Illustration] + +The territory now known as the Barbary States is memorable in history. +Classical inscriptions, broken arches, and ancient tombs--the memorials +of various ages--still bear instructive witness to the revolutions which +it has encountered.[1] Early Greek legend made it the home of terror and +of happiness. Here was the retreat of the Gorgon, with snaky tresses, +turning all she looked upon into stone; and here also the garden of the +Hesperides, with its apples of gold. It was the scene of adventure and +mythology. Here Hercules wrestled with Antaeus, and Atlas sustained, with +weary shoulders, the overarching sky. Phoenician fugitives early +transported the spirit of commerce to its coasts; and Carthage, which +these wanderers here planted, became the mistress of the seas, the +explorer of distant regions, the rival and the victim of Rome. The +energy and subtlety of Jugurtha here baffled for a while the Roman +power, till at last the whole country, from Egypt to the Pillars of +Hercules, underwent the process of "annexation" to the cormorant +republic of ancient times. A thriving population and fertile soil +rendered it an immense granary. It was filled with famous cities, one of +which was the refuge and the grave of Cato, fleeing from the usurpations +of Caesar. At a later day, Christianity was here preached by some of her +most saintly bishops. The torrent of the Vandals, first wasting Italy, +next passed over this territory; and the arms of Belisarius here +obtained their most signal triumphs. The Saracens, with the Koran and +the sword, potent ministers of conversion, next broke from Arabia, as +the messengers of a new religion, and, pouring along these shores, +diffused the faith and doctrines of Mohammed. Their empire was not +confined even by these expansive limits; but, under Musa, entered Spain, +and afterwards at Roncesvalles, in "dolorous rout," overthrew the +embattled chivalry of the Christian world led by Charlemagne. + +[Footnote 1: The classical student will be gratified and surprised by +the remains of antiquity described by Dr. Shaw, English chaplain at +Algiers in the reign of George the First, in his _Travels and +Observertions relating to Several Parts of Barbary and the Levant_, +published in 1738.] + +The Saracenic power did not long retain its unity or importance; and, as +we view this territory, in the dawn of modern history, when the +countries of Europe are appearing in their new nationalities, we discern +five different communities or states,--Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, +and Barca,--the latter of little moment, and often included in Tripoli, +the whole constituting what was then, and is still, called the Barbary +States. This name has sometimes been referred to the Berbers, or +Berebbers, constituting a part of the inhabitants; but I delight to +follow the classic authority of Gibbon, who thinks[2] that the term, +first applied by Greek pride to all strangers, and finally reserved for +those only who were savage or hostile, has justly settled, as a local +denomination, along the northern coast of Africa. The Barbary States, +then, bear their past character in their name. + +[Footnote 2: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. ix. chap. lvi. +p. 465.] + +They occupy an important space on the earth's surface; on the north, +washed by the Mediterranean Sea, furnishing such opportunities of prompt +intercourse with Southern Europe, that Cato was able to exhibit in the +Roman Senate figs freshly plucked in the gardens of Carthage; bounded on +the east by Egypt, on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the south +by the vast, indefinite, sandy, flinty wastes of Sahara, separating them +from Soudan or Negroland. In the advantages of position they surpass +every other part of Africa,--unless we except Egypt,--communicating +easily with the Christian nations, and thus, as it were, touching the +very hem and border of civilization. + +Climate adds its attractions to this region, which is removed from the +cold of the north and the burning heats of the tropics, while it is +enriched with oranges, citrons, olives, figs, pomegranates, and +luxuriant flowers. Its position and character invite a singular and +suggestive comparison. It is placed between the twenty-ninth and +thirty-eighth degrees of north latitude, occupying nearly the same +parallels with the Slave States of our Union. It extends over nearly the +same number of degrees of longitude with our Slave States, which seem +now, alas! to stretch from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rio Grande. It is +supposed to embrace about 700,000 square miles, which cannot be far from +the space comprehended by what may be called the _Barbary States of +America_.[3] Nor does the comparison end here. Algiers, for a long time +the most obnoxious place in the Barbary States of Africa, the chief seat +of Christian slavery, and once branded by an indignant chronicler as +"the wall of the barbarian world," is situated near the parallel of 36 deg. +30' north latitude, being the line of what is termed the Missouri +Compromise, marking the "wall" of Christian slavery, in our country, +west of the Mississippi. + +[Footnote 3: Jefferson, without recognizing the general parallel, +alludes to Virginia as fast sinking to be "the _Barbary_ of the +Union."--Writings, vol. iv. p. 333.] + +[Illustration] + +Other less important points of likeness between the two territories may +be observed. They are each washed, to the same extent, by ocean and sea; +with this difference, that the two regions are thus exposed on directly +opposite coasts--the African Barbary being bounded in this way on the +north and west, and our American Barbary on the south and east. But +there are no two spaces, on the surface of the globe, of equal extent, +(and an examination of the map will verify what I am about to state,) +which present so many distinctive features of resemblance; whether we +consider the parallels of latitude on which they lie, the nature of +their boundaries, their productions, their climate, or the "peculiar +domestic institution" which has sought shelter in both. + +I introduce these comparisons in order to bring home to your minds, as +near as possible, the precise position and character of the territory +which was the seat of the evil I am about to describe. It might be +worthy of inquiry, why Christian slavery, banished at last from Europe, +banished also from that part of this hemisphere which corresponds in +latitude to Europe, should have intrenched itself, in both hemispheres, +between the same parallels of latitude; so that Virginia, Carolina, +Mississippi, and Texas should be the American complement to Morocco, +Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis. Perhaps the common peculiarities of +climate, breeding indolence, lassitude, and selfishness, may account for +the insensibility to the claims of justice and humanity which have +characterized both regions. + +The revolting custom of White Slavery in the Barbary States was, for +many years, the shame of modern civilization. The nations of Europe made +constant efforts, continued through successive centuries, to procure its +_abolition_, and also to rescue their subjects from its fearful doom. +These may be traced in the diversified pages of history, and in the +authentic memoirs of the times. Literature also affords illustrations, +which must not be neglected. At one period, the French, the Italians, +and the Spaniards borrowed the plots of their stories mostly from this +source.[4] The adventures of Robinson Crusoe make our childhood familiar +with one of its forms. Among his early trials, he was piratically +captured by a rover from Salle, a port of Morocco, on the Atlantic +Ocean, and reduced to slavery. "At this surprising change of +circumstances," he says, "from a merchant to a miserable slave, I was +perfectly overwhelmed; and now I looked back upon my father's prophetic +discourse to me, that I should be miserable, and have none to relieve +me, which I thought was so effectually brought to pass, that I could not +be worse." And Cervantes, in the story of Don Quixote, over which so +many generations have shaken with laughter, turns aside from its genial +current to give the narrative of a Spanish captive who had escaped from +Algiers. The author is supposed to have drawn from his own experience; +for during five years and a half he endured the horrors of Algerine +slavery, from which he was finally liberated by a ransom of about six +hundred dollars.[5] This inconsiderable sum of money--less than the +price of an intelligent African slave in our own Southern States--gave +to freedom, to his country, and to mankind the author of Don Quixote. + +[Footnote 4: Sismondi's Literature of the South of Europe, vol. iii. +chap. 29, p. 492.] + +[Footnote 5: The exact amount is left uncertain both by Smollet and +Thomas Roscoe in their lives of Cervantes. It appears that it was five +hundred gold crowns of Spain, which, according to his Spanish +biographer, Navarrete, is 6770 reals, (_Vida de Cervantes_, p. 371.) The +real is supposed to be less than ten cents.] + +[Illustration] + +In Cervantes freedom gained a champion whose efforts entitle him to +grateful mention, on this threshold of our inquiry. Taught in the +school of slavery, he knew how to commiserate the slave. The unhappy +condition of his fellow-Christians in chains was ever uppermost in his +mind. He lost no opportunity of arousing his countrymen to attempts +for their emancipation, and for the overthrow of the "peculiar +institution"--pardon this returning phrase!--under which they groaned. +He became in Spain what, in our day and country, is sometimes called an +"Anti-Slavery Agitator"--not by public meetings and addresses, but, +according to the genius of the age, mainly through the instrumentality +of the theatre. Not from the platform, but from the stage, did this +liberated slave speak to the world. In a drama, entitled _El Trato de +Argel_, or Life in Algiers,--which, though not composed according to the +rules of art, yet found much favor, probably from its subject,--he +pictured, shortly after his return to Spain, the manifold humiliations, +pains, and torments of slavery. This was followed by two others in the +same spirit--_La Gran Sultana Dona Cattalina de Oviedo_, The Great +Sultana the Lady Cattalina of Oviedo; and _Los Banos de Argel_, The +Galleys of Algiers. The last act of the latter closes with the +statement, calculated to enlist the sympathies of an audience, that this +play "is not drawn from the imagination, but was born far from the +regions of fiction, in the very heart of truth." Not content with this +appeal through the theatre, Cervantes, with constant zeal, takes up the +same theme, in the tale of the Captive, in Don Quixote, as we have +already seen, and also in that of _El Liberal Amante_, The Liberal +Lover, and in some parts of _La Espanola Inglesa_, The English +Spanishwoman. All these may be regarded, not merely as literary labors, +but as charitable endeavors in behalf of human freedom. + +[Illustration] + +And this same cause enlisted also a prolific contemporary genius, called +by Cervantes "that prodigy," Lope de Vega, who commended it in a play +entitled _Los Cautivos de Argel_, The Captives of Algiers. At a later +day, Calderon, sometimes exalted as the Shakspeare of the Spanish +stage, in one of his most remarkable dramas, _El Principe Constante_, +The Constant Prince, cast a poet's glance at Christian slavery +in Morocco. To these works--belonging to what may be called the +literature of Anti-Slavery, and shedding upon our subject a grateful +light--must be added a curious and learned volume, in Spanish, on the +Topography and History of Algiers, by Haedo, a father of the Catholic +Church,--_Topografia y Historia de Argel por Fra Haedo_,--published in +1612; and containing also two copious Dialogues--one on Captivity (_de +la Captiudad_), and the other on the Martyrs of Algiers, (_de los +Martyres de Argel_). These Dialogues, besides embodying authentic +sketches of the sufferings in Algiers, form a mine of classical and +patristic learning on the origin and character of slavery, with +arguments and protestations against its iniquity, which may be explored +with profit, even in our day. In view of this gigantic evil, +particularly in Algiers, and in the hope of arousing his countrymen to +the generous work of emancipation, the good father exclaims,[6] in words +which will continue to thrill the soul,--so long as a single fetter +binds a single slave,--"Where is charity? Where is the love of God? +Where is the zeal for his glory? Where is desire for his service? Where +is human pity and the compassion of man for man? Certainly to redeem a +captive, to liberate him from wretched slavery, is the highest work of +charity, of all that can be done in this world." + +[Footnote 6: Pp. 140, 141.] + +[Illustration] + +Not long after the dark experience of Cervantes, another person, of +another country and language, and of a still higher character, St. +Vincent de Paul, of France, underwent the same cruel lot. Happily for +the world, he escaped from slavery, to commence at home that long career +of charity--nobler than any glories of literature--signalized by various +Christian efforts, against duels, for peace, for the poor, and in every +field of humanity--by which he is placed among the great names of +Christendom. Princes and orators have lavished panegyrics upon this +fugitive slave; and the Catholic Church, in homage to his extraordinary +virtues, has introduced him into the company of saints. Nor is he the +only illustrious Frenchman who has felt the yoke of slavery. Almost +within our own day, Arago, the astronomer and philosopher,--devoted +republican, I may add also,--while engaged, early in life, in those +scientific labors, on the coast of the Mediterranean, which made the +beginning of his fame, fell a prey to Algerine slave dealers. What +science and the world have gained by his emancipation I need not say. + +Thus Science, Literature, Freedom, Philanthropy, the Catholic Church, +each and all, confess a debt to the liberated Barbary slave. May they, +on this occasion, as beneficent heralds, commend the story of his +wrongs, his struggles, and his triumphs! + +[Illustration] + +These preliminary remarks properly prepare the way for the subject to +which I have invited your attention. In presenting it, I shall naturally +be led to touch upon the _origin of slavery_, and the principles which +lie at its foundation, before proceeding to exhibit the efforts for its +abolition, and their final success in the Barbary States. + + +I. The word _slave_, suggesting now so much of human abasement, has an +origin which speaks of human grandeur. Its parent term, _Slava_, +signifying _glory_, in the Slavonian dialects, where it first appears, +was proudly assumed as the national designation of the races in the +north-eastern part of the European continent, who, in the vicissitudes +of war, were afterwards degraded from the condition of conquerors to +that of servitude. The Slavonian bondman, retaining his national name, +was known as a _Slave_, and this term--passing from a _race_ to a +_class_--was afterwards applied, in the languages of modern Europe, to +all in his unhappy lot, without distinction of country or color.[7] It +would be difficult to mention any word which has played such opposite +parts in history--now beneath the garb of servitude, concealing its +early robes of pride. And yet, startling as it may seem, this word may +properly be received in its primitive character, in our own day, by +those among us who consider slavery essential to democratic +institutions, and therefore a part of the true _glory_ of the country! + +[Footnote 7: Gibbon's Roman Empire, vol. x. chap. 55, p. 190.] + +Slavery was universally recognized by the nations of antiquity. It is +said by Pliny, in a bold phrase, that the Lacedaemonians "invented +slavery."[8] If this were so, the glory of Lycurgus and Leonidas would +not compensate for such a blot upon their character. It is true that +they recognized it, and gave it a shape of peculiar hardship. But +slavery is older than Sparta. It appears in the tents of Abraham; for +the three hundred and eighteen servants born to him were slaves. It +appears in the story of Joseph, who was sold by his brothers to the +Midianites for twenty pieces of silver.[9] It appears in the poetry of +Homer, who stamps it with a reprobation which can never be forgotten, +when he says,[10]-- + + Jove fixed it certain, that whatever day + Makes man a slave takes half his worth away. + +[Footnote 8: Nat. Hist. lib. vii. c. 57.] + +[Footnote 9: Genesis xiv. 14; ibid, xxxvii. 28. By these and other texts +of the Scriptures, slavery, and even the _slave trade_, have been +vindicated. See Bruce's Travels in Africa, vol. ii. p. 319. After +quoting these texts, the complacent traveller says he "cannot think that +purchasing slaves is either cruel or unnatural."] + +[Footnote 10: Odyssey, book xvii.] + +In later days it prevailed extensively in Greece, whose haughty people +deemed themselves justified in enslaving all who were strangers to their +manners and institutions. "The Greek has the right to be the master of +the barbarian," was the sentiment of Euripides, one of the first of her +poets, which was echoed by Aristotle, the greatest of her +intellects.[11] And even Plato, in his imaginary republic, the Utopia of +his beautiful genius, sanctions slavery. But, notwithstanding these high +names, we learn from Aristotle himself that there were persons in his +day--pestilent abolitionists of ancient Athens--who did not hesitate to +maintain that liberty was the great law of nature, and to deny any +difference between the master and the slave; declaring openly that +slavery was founded upon violence, and not upon right, and that the +authority of the master was unnatural and unjust.[12] "God sent forth +all persons free; nature has made no man a slave," was the protest of +one of these dissenting Athenians against this great wrong. I am not in +any way authorized to speak for any Anti-slavery society, even if this +were a proper occasion; but I presume that this ancient Greek morality +substantially embodies the principles which are maintained at their +public meetings--so far, at least, as they relate to slavery. + +[Footnote 11: Pol. lib. i. c. 1.] + +[Footnote 12: Pol. lib. i. c. 3. In like spirit are the words of the +good Las Casas, when pleading before Charles the Fifth for the Indian +races of America. "The Christian religion," he said, "is equal in its +operation, and is accommodated to every nation on the globe. _It robs no +one of his freedom, violates none of his inherent rights, on the ground +that he is a slave by nature, as pretended_; and it well becomes your +Majesty _to banish_ so monstrous an oppression from your kingdoms in the +beginning of your reign, that the Almighty may make it long and +glorious."--Prescott's _Conquest of Mexico_, vol. i. p 379.] + +It is true, most true, that slavery stands on force, and not on right. +It is one of the hideous results of war, or of that barbarism in which +savage war plays a conspicuous part. To the victor, it was supposed, +belonged the lives of his captives; and, by consequence, he might bind +them in perpetual servitude. This principle, which has been the +foundation of slavery in all ages, is adapted only to the rudest +conditions of society, and is wholly inconsistent with a period of real +refinement, humanity, and justice. It is sad to confess that it was +recognized by Greece; but the civilization of this famed land, though +brilliant to the external view as the immortal sculptures of the +Parthenon, was, like that stately temple, dark and cheerless within. + +[Illustration] + +Slavery extended, with new rigors, under the military dominion of Rome. +The spirit of freedom which animated the republic was of that selfish +and intolerant character which accumulated privileges upon the Roman +citizen, while it heeded little the rights of others. But, unlike the +Greeks, the Romans admitted in theory that all men were originally free +by the law of nature; and they ascribed the power of masters over slaves +not to any alleged diversities in the races of men, but to the will of +society.[13] The constant triumphs of their arms were signalized by +reducing to captivity large crowds of the subjugated people. Paulus +Emilius returned from Macedonia with an uncounted train of slaves, +composed of persons in every department of life; and at the camp of +Lucullus, in Pontus, slaves were sold for four drachmae, or seventy-two +cents, a head. Terence and Phaedrus, Roman slaves, have, however, taught +us that genius is not always quenched, even by a degrading captivity; +while the writings of Cato the Censor, one of the most virtuous +slaveholders in history, show the hardening influence of a system which +treats human beings as cattle. "Let the husbandman," says Cato, "sell +his old oxen, his sickly cattle, his sickly sheep, his wool, his hides, +his old wagon, his old implements, _his old slave, and his diseased +slave_; and if any thing else remains, let him sell it. _He should be a +seller, rather than a buyer._"[14] + +[Footnote 13: Institute i. tit. 2.] + +[Footnote 14: Re Rustica, Sec. 2.] + +The cruelty and inhumanity which flourished in the republic, professing +freedom, found a natural home under the emperors--the high priests of +despotism. Wealth increased, and with it the multitude of slaves. Some +masters are said to have owned as many as ten thousand, while +extravagant prices were often paid, according to the fancy or caprice of +the purchaser. Martial mentions a handsome youth who cost as much as +four hundred sesteria, or sixteen thousand dollars.[15] + +[Footnote 15: Ep. iii. 62.] + +[Illustration] + +It is easy to believe that slavery, which prevailed so largely in Greece +and Rome, must have existed in Africa. Here, indeed, it found a peculiar +home. If we trace the progress of this unfortunate continent, from those +distant days of fable, when Jupiter + + did not disdain to grace + The feast of AEthiopia's blameless race,[16] + +the merchandise in slaves will be found to have contributed to the +abolition of two hateful customs, once universal in Africa--the eating +of captives, and their sacrifice to idols. Thus, in the march of +civilization, even the barbarism of slavery is an important stage of +Human Progress. It is a point in the ascending scale from cannibalism. + +[Footnote 16: Iliad, book i.] + +In the early periods of modern Europe, slavery was a general custom, +which yielded only gradually to the humane influences of Christianity. +It prevailed in all the countries of which we have any record. +Fair-haired Saxon slaves from distant England arrested the attention of +Pope Gregory in the markets of Rome, and were by him hailed as _angels_. +A law of so virtuous a king as Alfred ranks slaves with horses and oxen; +and the chronicles of William of Malmesbury show that, in our mother +country, there was once a cruel slave trade in whites. As we listen to +this story, we shall be grateful again to that civilization which +renders such outrages more and more impossible. "Directly opposite," he +says,[17] "to the Irish coast, there is a seaport called Bristol, the +inhabitants of which frequently sent into Ireland to sell those people +whom they had bought up throughout England. They exposed to sale maidens +in a state of pregnancy, with whom they made a sort of mock _marriage_. +There you might see with grief, fastened together by ropes, whole rows +of wretched beings of both sexes, of elegant forms, and in the very +bloom of youth,--a sight sufficient to excite pity even in +barbarians,--daily offered for sale to the first purchaser. Accursed +deed! infamous disgrace! that men, acting in a manner which brutal +instinct alone would have forbidden, should sell into slavery their +relations, nay, even their own offspring." From still another +chronicler[18] we learn that, when Ireland, in 1172, was afflicted with +public calamities, the people, but _chiefly the clergy, (praecipue +clericorum,)_ began to reproach themselves, as well they might, +believing that these evils were brought upon their country because, +_contrary to the right of Christian freedom_, they had bought as slaves +the English boys brought to them by the merchants; wherefore, it is +said, the English slaves were allowed to depart in freedom. + +[Footnote 17: Book ii. chap. 20, Life of St. Wolston.] + +[Footnote 18: Chronica Hiberniae, or the Annals of Phil. Flatesbury in +the Cottonian Library, Domitian A. xviii. 10; quoted in Stephens on West +India Slavery, vol. i. p. 6] + +[Illustration] + +As late as the thirteenth century, the custom prevailed on the continent +of Europe to treat all captives, taken in war, as slaves. To this, +poetry, as well as history, bears its testimony. Old Michael Drayton, in +his story of the Battle of Agincourt, says of the French,-- + + For knots of cord to every town they send, + The captived English that they caught to bind; + _For to perpetual slavery they intend + Those that alive they on the field should find._ + +And Othello, in recounting his perils, exposes this custom, when he +speaks + + Of being taken by the insolent foe, + _And sold to slavery_; of my redemption thence. + +It was also held lawful to enslave any infidel or person who did not +receive the Christian faith. The early common law of England doomed +heretics to the stake; the Catholic Inquisition did the same; and the +laws of Oleron, the maritime code of the middle ages, treated them "as +dogs," to be attacked and despoiled by all true believers. It appears +that Philip le Bel of France, the son of St. Louis, in 1296, presented +his brother Charles, Count of Valois, with a _Jew_, and that he paid +Pierre de Chambly three hundred livres for another _Jew_; as if Jews +were at the time chattels, to be given away, or bought.[19] And the +statutes of Florence, boastful of freedom, as late as 1415, expressly +allowed republican citizens to hold slaves who were not of the Christian +faith; _Qui non sunt Catholicae fidei et Christianae_.[20] And still +further, the comedies of Moliere, _L'Etourdi_, _Le Sicilien_, _L'Avare_, +depicting Italian usages not remote from his own day, show that, at +Naples and Messina, even Christian women continued to be sold as slaves. + +[Footnote 19: _Encyclopedie Methodique_, (Jurisprudence,) Art. +_Esclavage_.] + +[Footnote 20: Biot, _De l'Abolition de l'Esclavage Ancien en Occident_, +p. 440; a work crowned with a gold medal by the Institute of France, but +which will be read with some disappointment.] + +This hasty sketch, which brings us down to the period when Algiers +became a terror to the Christian nations, renders it no longer +astonishing that the barbarous states of Barbary,--a part of Africa, the +great womb of slavery,--professing Mohammedanism, which not only +recognizes slavery, but expressly ordains "chains and collars" to +infidels,[21] should maintain the traffic in slaves, particularly in +Christians who denied the faith of the Prophet. In the duty of constant +war upon unbelievers, and in the assertion of a right to the services or +ransom of their captives, they followed the lessons of Christians +themselves. + +[Footnote 21: Koran, chap. 76.] + +[Illustration] + +It is not difficult, then, to account for the origin of the cruel custom +now under consideration. Its _history_ forms our next topic. + + +II. The Barbary States, after the decline of the Arabian power, were +enveloped in darkness, rendered more palpable by the increasing light +among the Christian nations. As we behold them in the fifteenth century, +in the twilight of European civilization, they appear to be little more +than scattered bands of robbers and pirates,--"the land rats and water +rats" of Shylock,--leading the lives of Ishmaelites. Algiers is +described by an early writer as "a den of sturdy thieves, formed into a +body, by which, after a tumultuary sort, they govern;"[22] and by still +another writer, contemporary with the monstrosity which he exposes, as +"the theatre of all cruelty and sanctuarie of iniquitie, holding +captive, in miserable servitude, one hundred and twenty thousand +Christians, almost all subjects of the King of Spaine."[23] Their habit +of enslaving prisoners, taken in war and in piratical depredations, at +last aroused against these states the sacred animosities of Christendom. +Ferdinand the Catholic, after the conquest of Granada, and while the +boundless discoveries of Columbus, giving to Castile and Aragon a new +world, still occupied his mind, found time to direct an expedition into +Africa, under the military command of that great ecclesiastic, Cardinal +Ximenes. It is recorded that this valiant soldier of the church, on +effecting the conquest of Oran, in 1509, had the inexpressible +satisfaction of liberating upwards of three hundred Christian +slaves.[24] + +[Footnote 22: Harleian Miscellany, vol. v. p. 522--_A Discourse +concerning Tangiers._] + +[Footnote 23: Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. ii. p. 1565.] + +[Footnote 24: Prescott's History of Ferdinand and Isabella, vol. iii. p. +308; Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. ii. p. 813.] + +[Illustration] + +The progress of the Spanish arms induced the government of Algiers to +invoke assistance from abroad. At this time, two brothers, Horuc and +Hayradin, the sons of a potter in the Island of Lesbos, had become +famous as corsairs. In an age when the sword of the adventurer often +carved a higher fortune than could be earned by lawful exertion, they +were dreaded for their abilities, their hardihood, and their power. To +them Algiers turned for aid. The corsairs left the sea to sway the land; +or rather, with amphibious robbery, they took possession of Algiers and +Tunis, while they continued to prey upon the sea. The name of +Barbarossa, by which they are known to Christians, is terrible in modern +history.[25] + +[Footnote 25: Robertson's Charles the Fifth, book v.; Haedo, _Historia +de Argel, Epitome de los Reyes, de Argel_.] + +With pirate ships they infested the seas, and spread their ravages along +the coasts of Spain and Italy, until Charles the Fifth was aroused to +undertake their overthrow. The various strength of his broad dominions +was rallied in this new crusade. "If the enthusiasm," says Sismondi, +"which armed the Christians at an earlier day, was nearly extinct, +another sentiment, more rational and legitimate, now united the vows of +Europe. The contest was no longer to reconquer the tomb of Christ, but +to defend the civilization, the liberty, the lives, of Christians."[26] +A stanch body of infantry from Germany, the veterans of Spain and Italy, +the flower of the Castilian nobility, the knights of Malta, with a fleet +of near five hundred vessels, contributed by Italy, Portugal, and even +distant Holland, under the command of Andrew Doria, the great sea +officer of the age,--the whole being under the immediate eye of the +Emperor himself, with the countenance and benediction of the Pope, and +composing one of the most complete armaments which the world had then +seen,--were directed upon Tunis. Barbarossa opposed them bravely, but +with unequal forces. While slowly yielding to attack from without, his +defeat was hastened by unexpected insurrection within. Confined in the +citadel were many Christian slaves, who, asserting the rights of +freedom, obtained a bloody emancipation, and turned its artillery +against their former masters. The place yielded to the Emperor, whose +soldiers soon surrendered themselves to the inhuman excesses of war. The +blood of thirty thousand innocent inhabitants reddened his victory. +Amidst these scenes of horror there was but one spectacle that afforded +him any satisfaction. Ten thousand Christian slaves met him, as he +entered the town, and falling on their knees, thanked him as their +deliverer.[27] + +[Footnote 26: Sismondi, _Histoire des Francais_, tom. xvii. p. 102.] + +[Footnote 27: Robertson's Charles the Fifth, book v.] + +In the treaty of peace which ensued, it was expressly stipulated on the +part of Tunis, that all Christian slaves, of whatever nation, should be +set at liberty without ransom, and that no subject of the Emperor should +for the future be detained in slavery.[28] + +[Footnote 28: Ibid.] + +[Illustration] + +The apparent generosity of this undertaking, the magnificence with which +it was conducted, and the success with which it was crowned, drew to the +Emperor the homage of his age beyond any other event of his reign. +Twenty thousand slaves, freed by treaty, or by arms, diffused through +Europe the praise of his name. It is probable that, in this expedition, +the Emperor was governed by motives little higher than those of vulgar +ambition and fame; but the results with which it was crowned, in the +emancipation of so many of his fellow-Christians from cruel chains, +place him, with Cardinal Ximenes, among the earliest Abolitionists of +modern times. + +This was in 1535. Only a few short years before, in 1517, he had granted +to a Flemish courtier the exclusive privilege of importing four thousand +blacks from Africa into the West Indies. It is said that Charles lived +long enough to repent what he had thus inconsiderately done.[29] Certain +it is, no single concession, recorded in history, of king or emperor, +has produced such disastrous far-reaching consequences. The Fleming sold +his privilege to a company of Genoese merchants, who organized a +_systematic_ traffic in slaves between Africa and America. Thus, while +levying a mighty force to check the piracies of Barbarossa, and to +procure the abolition of Christian slavery in Tunis, the Emperor, with a +wretched inconsistency, laid the corner stone of a new system of slavery +in America, in comparison with which the enormity that he sought to +suppress was trivial and fugitive. + +[Footnote 29: Clarkson's History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, +vol. i. p. 38.] + +Elated by the conquest of Tunis, filled also with the ambition of +subduing all the Barbary States, and of extirpating the custom of +Christian slavery, the Emperor, in 1541, directed an expedition of +singular grandeur against Algiers. The Pope again joined his influence +to the martial array. But nature proved stronger than the Pope and +Emperor. Within sight of Algiers, a sudden storm shattered his proud +fleet, and he was obliged to return to Spain, discomfited, bearing none +of those trophies of emancipation by which his former expedition had +been crowned.[30] + +[Footnote 30: Robertson's Charles the Fifth, book vi.; Harleian +Miscellany, vol. iv. p. 504;--A lamentable and piteous Treatise, very +necessarye for euerye Christen manne to reade, [or the Expedition of +Charles the Fifth,] truly and dylygently translated out of Latyn into +Frenche, and out of Frenche into English, 1542.] + +[Illustration] + +The power of the Barbary States was now at its height. Their corsairs +became the scourge of Christendom, while their much-dreaded system of +slavery assumed a front of new terrors. Their ravages were not confined +to the Mediterranean. They penetrated the ocean, and pressed even to the +Straits of Dover and St. George's Channel. From the chalky cliffs of +England, and even from the distant western coasts of Ireland, +unsuspecting inhabitants were swept into cruel captivity.[31] The +English government was aroused to efforts to check these atrocities. In +1620, a fleet of eighteen ships, under the command of Sir Robert Mansel, +Vice Admiral of England, was despatched against Algiers. It returned +without being able, in the language of the times, "to destroy those +hellish pirates," though it obtained the liberation of forty "poor +captives, which they pretended was all they had in the towne." "The +efforts of the English fleet were aided," says Purchas, "by a Christian +captive, which did swim from the towne to the ships."[32] It is not in +this respect only that this expedition recalls that of Charles the +Fifth, which received important assistance from rebel slaves; we also +observe a similar deplorable inconsistency of conduct in the government +which directed it. It was in the year 1620,--dear to all the descendants +of the Pilgrims of Plymouth Rock as an epoch of freedom,--while an +English fleet was seeking the emancipation of Englishmen held in bondage +by Algiers, that African slaves were first introduced into the English +colonies of North America--thus beginning that dreadful system, whose +long catalogue of humiliation and woes is not yet complete.[33] + +[Footnote 31: Guizot's History of the English Revolution, vol. i. p. 69, +book ii.; Strafford's Letters and Despatches, vol. i p. 68. Sir George +Radcliffe, the friend and biographer of the Earl, boasts that the latter +"secured the seas from piracies, so as only one ship was lost at his +first coming, [as Lord Lieutenant to Ireland,] and no more all his time; +whereof every year before, not only several ships and goods were lost by +robbery at sea, but also Turkish men-of-war usually landed, and _took +prey of men to be made slaves_."--Ibid. vol ii. p. 434.] + +[Footnote 32: "Purchas's Pilgrims, pp. 885, 886; Southey's Naval History +of England, vol. v. pp. 60-63. There was a publication especially +relating to this expedition, entitled Algiers Voyage, in a Journall or +briefe Repertory of all Occurrents hapning in the Fleet of Ships sent +out by the Kinge his most excellent Majestie, as well against the +Pirates of Algiers as others. London. 1621. 4to.] + +[Footnote 33: Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. i. p. 187.] + +[Illustration] + +The expedition against Algiers was followed, in 1637, by another, under +the command of Captain Rainsborough, against Sallee, in Morocco. At his +approach, the Moors desperately transferred a thousand captives, British +subjects, to Tunis and Algiers. "Some Christians, that were slaves +ashore, stole away out of the towne, and came swimming aboard."[34] +Intestine feud also aided the fleet, and the cause of emancipation +speedily triumphed. Two hundred and ninety British captives were +surrendered; and a promise was extorted from the government of Sallee to +redeem the wretched captives, sold away to Tunis and Algiers. An +ambassador from the King of Morocco shortly afterwards visited England, +and, on his way through the streets of London, to his audience at court, +was attended "by four Barbary horses led along in rich caparisons, and +richer saddles, with bridles set with stones; also some hawks; _many of +the captives whom he brought over going along afoot clad in white_."[35] + +[Footnote 34: Osborne's Voyages--Journal of the Sallee Fleet, vol. ii. +p. 493. See also Mrs. Macaulay's History of England, vol. ii. chap. 4, +p. 219.] + +[Footnote 35: Strafford's Letter and Despatches, vol. ii. pp. 86, 116, +129.] + +The importance attached to this achievement may be inferred from the +singular joy with which it was hailed in England. Though on a limited +scale, it had been a _war of liberation_. The poet, the ecclesiastic, +and the statesman now joined in congratulations on its results. It +inspired the muse of Waller to a poem called _The Taking of Sallee_, in +which the submission of the slaveholding enemy is thus described:-- + + Hither he sends the chief among his peers, + Who in his bark proportioned presents bears, + To the renowned for piety and force + _Poor captives manumised_, and matchless horse. + +It satisfied Laud, and filled with exultation the dark mind of +Strafford. "Sallee, the town, is taken," said the Archbishop in a letter +to the latter, then in Ireland, "and all the captives at Sallee and +Morocco delivered; _as many, our merchants say, as, according to the +price of the markets, come to ten thousand pounds, at least_."[36] +Strafford saw in the popularity of this triumph a fresh opportunity to +commend the tyrannical designs of his master, Charles the First. "This +action of Sallee," he wrote in reply to the Archbishop, "I assure you is +full of honor, and should, methinks, _help much towards the ready +cheerful payment of the shipping moneys_."[37] + +[Footnote 36: Strafford's Letters and Despatches, vol. ii. p. 131.] + +[Footnote 37: Ibid. p. 138.] + +[Illustration] + +The coasts of England were now protected; but her subjects at sea +continued the prey of Algerine corsairs, who, according to the historian +Carte,[38] now "carried their English captives to France, _drove them in +chains overland to Marseilles, to ship them thence with greater safety +for slaves to Algiers_." The increasing troubles, which distracted and +finally cut short the reign of Charles the First, could not divert +attention from the sorrows of Englishmen, victims to Mohammedan slave +drivers. At the height of the struggles between the King and Parliament, +an earnest voice was raised in behalf of these fellow-Christians in +bonds.[39] Waller, who was orator as well as poet, exclaimed in +Parliament, "By the many petitions which we receive from the wives of +those miserable captives at Algiers, (being between four and five +thousand of our countrymen,) it does too evidently appear, that to make +us slaves at home is not the way to keep us from being made slaves +abroad." Publications pleading their cause, bearing date in 1640, 1642, +and 1647, are yet extant.[40] The overthrow of an oppression so justly +odious formed a worthy object for the imperial energies of Cromwell; and +in 1655,--when, amidst the amazement of Europe, the English sovereignty +had already settled upon his Atlantean shoulders,--he directed into the +Mediterranean a navy of thirty ships, under the command of Admiral +Blake. This was the most powerful English force which had sailed into +that sea since the Crusades.[41] Its success was complete. "General +Blake," said one of the foreign agents of government, "has ratifyed the +articles of peace at Argier, and included therein Scotch, Irish, +Jarnsey, and Garnsey-men, and all others the Protector's subjects. He +has lykewys redeemed from thence al such as wer captives ther. _Several +Dutch captives swam aboard the fleet, and so escape theyr +captivity._"[42] Tunis, as well as Algiers, was humbled; all British +captives were set at liberty; and the Protector, in his remarkable +speech at the opening of Parliament in the next year, announced peace +with the "profane" nations in that region.[43] + +[Footnote 38: Carte's History of England, vol. iv. book xxii. p. 231.] + +[Footnote 39: Waller's Works, p. 271.] + +[Footnote 40: Compassion towards Captives, urged in Three Sermons, on +Heb. xiii. 3, by Charles Fitz-Geoffrey, 1642. Libertas; or Relief to the +English Captives in Algiers, by Henry Robinson, London, 1647. Letters +relating to the Redemption of the Captive in Algiers, at Tunis, by +Edward Cason Laud, 1647. A Relation of Seven Years' Slavery under the +Turks of Algiers, suffered by an English Captive Merchant, with a +Description of the Sufferings of the Miserable Captives under that +Mercilest Tyranny, by Francis Knight, London, 1640. The last publication +is preserved in the Collection of Voyages and Travels by Osborne, vol. +ii. pp. 465-489.] + +[Footnote 41: Hume says, (vol. vii. p. 529, chap, lxi.,) "No English +fleet, except during the Crusades, _had ever before sailed in those +seas_." He forgot, or was not aware of the expedition of Sir John Mansel +already mentioned, (_ante_, p. 224,) which was elaborately debated in +the Privy Council as early as 1617, three years before it was finally +undertaken, and which was the subject of a special work. See Southey's +Naval History of England, vol. v. pp. 149-157.] + +[Footnote 42: Thurloe's State Papers, vol. iii. p. 527.] + +[Footnote 43: 2 Carlyle's Letters and Speeches of Cromwell, vol. ii. p. +235, part ix. speech v.] + +[Illustration] + +To my mind no single circumstance gives a higher impression of the +vigilance with which the Protector guarded his subjects than this +effort, to which Waller, with the "smooth" line for which he is +memorable, aptly alludes, as + + _telling dreadful news + To all that piracy and rapine use_. + +His vigorous sway was followed by the effeminate tyranny of Charles the +Second, whose restoration was inaugurated by an unsuccessful expedition +against Algiers under Lord Sandwich. This was soon followed by another, +with a more favorable result, under Admiral Lawson.[44] By a treaty +bearing date May 3d, 1662, the piratical government expressly +stipulated, "that all subjects of the King of Great Britain, now slaves +in Algiers, or any of the territories thereof, be set at liberty, and +released, upon paying the price they were first sold for in the market; +and for the time to come no subjects of his Majesty shall be bought or +sold, or made slaves of, in Algiers or its territories."[45] Other +expeditions ensued, and other treaties in 1664, 1672, 1682, and +1686--showing, by their constant recurrence and iteration, the little +impression produced upon those barbarians.[46] Insensible to justice and +freedom, they naturally held in slight regard the obligations of +fidelity to any stipulations in restraint of robbery and slaveholding. + +[Footnote 44: Rapin's History of England, vol. ii. pp. 858, 864.] + +[Footnote 45: _Recueil des Traitez de Paix_, tom. iv. p. 43.] + +[Footnote 46: Ibid. pp. 307, 476, 703, 756.] + +During a long succession of years, complaints of the sufferings of +English captives continued to be made. An earnest spirit, in 1748, found +expression in these words:-- + + O, how can Britain's sons regardless hear + The prayers, sighs, groans (immortal infamy!) + Of fellow-Britons, with oppression sunk, + In bitterness of soul demanding aid, + Calling on Britain, their dear native land, + The land of liberty![47] + +But during all this time, the slavery of blacks, transported to the +colonies under the British flag, still continued. + +[Footnote 47: The Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xviii. p. 531.] + +Meanwhile, France had plied Algiers with embassies and bombardments. In +1635 three hundred and forty-seven Frenchmen were captives there. +Monsieur de Sampson was despatched on an unsuccessful mission, to +procure their liberation. They were offered to him "for the price they +were sold for in the market;" but this he refused to pay.[48] Next came, +in 1637, Monsieur de Mantel, who was called "that noble captain, and +glory of the French nation," "with fifteen of his king's ships, and a +commission to enfranchise the French slaves." But he also returned, +leaving his countrymen still in captivity.[49] Treaties followed at a +later day, which were hastily concluded, and abruptly broken; till at +last Louis the Fourteenth did for France what Cromwell had done for +England. In 1684, Algiers, being twice bombarded[50] by his command, +sent deputies to sue for peace, and to surrender all her Christian +slaves. Tunis and Tripoli made the same submission. Voltaire, with his +accustomed point, declares that, by this transaction, the French became +respected on the coast of Africa, where they had before been known only +as slaves.[51] + +[Footnote 48: Osborne's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 468; Relation of Seven +Years' Slavery in Algiers.] + +[Footnote 49: Ibid. p. 470.] + +[Footnote 50: In the melancholy history of war, this is remarked as the +earliest instance of the _bombardment_ of a town. Sismondi, who never +fails to regard the past in the light of humanity, says, that "Louis the +Fourteenth was the first to put in practice the atrocious method, newly +invented, of bombarding towns,--of burning them, not to take them, but +to destroy them,--_of attacking, not fortifications, but private +houses,--not soldiers, but peaceable inhabitants, women and children, +and of confounding thousands of private crimes, each one of which would +cause horror, in one great public crime, one great disaster, which he +regarded only as one of the catastrophes of war_." Sismondi, _Histoire +des Francais_, tom. xxv. p. 452. How much of this is justly applicable +to the recent murder of women and children by the forces of the United +States at Vera Cruz! Algiers was bombarded in the cause of _freedom_; +Vera Cruz to extend _slavery_!] + +[Footnote 51: _Siecle de Louis XIV._ chap. 14.] + +An incident is mentioned by the historian, which unhappily shows how +little the French at that time, even while engaged in securing the +emancipation of their own countrymen, had at heart the cause of general +freedom. As an officer of the triumphant fleet received the Christian +slaves who were brought to him and liberated, he observed among them +many English, who, in the empty pride of nationality, maintained that +they were set at liberty out of regard to the King of England. The +Frenchman at once summoned the Algerines, and, returning the foolish +captives into their hands, said, "These people pretend that they have +been delivered in the name of their monarch; mine does not offer them +his protection. I return them to you. It is for you to show what you owe +to the King of England." The Englishmen were again hurried to prolonged +slavery. The power of Charles the Second was impotent in their +behalf--as was the sense of justice and humanity in the French officer +or in the Algerine government. + +Time would fail, even if materials were at hand, to develop the course +of other efforts by France against the Barbary States. Nor can I dwell +upon the determined conduct of Holland, one of whose greatest naval +commanders, Admiral de Ruyter, in 1661, enforced at Algiers the +emancipation of several hundred Christian slaves.[52] The inconsistency, +which we have so often remarked, occurs also in the conduct of France +and Holland. Both these countries, while using their best endeavors for +the freedom of their white people, were cruelly engaged in selling +blacks into distant American slavery; as if every word of reprobation, +which they fastened upon the piratical, slaveholding Algerines, did not +return in eternal judgment against themselves. + +[Footnote 52: Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xviii. p. 441.] + +[Illustration] + +Thus far I have chiefly followed the history of military expeditions. +War has been our melancholy burden. But peaceful measures were also +employed to procure the _redemption_ of slaves; and money sometimes +accomplished what was vainly attempted by the sword. In furtherance of +this object, missions were often sent by the European governments. These +sometimes had a formal diplomatic organization; sometimes they consisted +of fathers of the church, who held it a sacred office, to which they +were especially called, to open the prison doors, and let the captives +go free.[53] It was through the intervention of the superiors of the +Order of the Holy Trinity, who were despatched to Algiers by Philip the +Second of Spain, that Cervantes obtained his freedom by ransom, in +1579.[54] Expeditions of commerce often served to promote similar +designs of charity; and the English government, forgetting or +distrusting all their sleeping thunder, sometimes condescended to barter +articles of merchandise for the liberty of their subjects.[55] + +[Footnote 53: To the relations of these missions we are indebted for +works of interest on the Barbary States, some of which I am able to +mention. _Busnot, Histoire du Regne de Mouley Ishmael, a Rouen, 1714._ +This is by a father of the Holy Trinity. _Jean de la Faye, Relation, en +Forme de Journal, du Voyage pour la Redemption des Captifs, a Paris, +1725._ _Voyage to Barbary for the Redemption of Captives in 1720, by the +Mathurin-Trinitarian Fathers, London, 1735._ The last is a translation +from the French. _Braithwaite's History of the Revolutions of the Empire +of Morocco, London, 1729._ This contains a journal of the mission of +John Russel, Esq., from the English government to Morocco, to obtain the +liberation of slaves. The expedition was thoroughly equipped. "The +Moors," says the author, "find plenty of every thing but drink, but for +that the English generally take care of themselves; for, besides chairs, +tables, knives, forks, plates, table linen, &c., we had two or three +mules, loaded with wine, brandy, sugar, and utensils for punch."--P. +82.] + +[Footnote 54: Roscoe's Life of Cervantes, p. 43.] + +[Footnote 55: "The following goods, designed as a present from his +Majesty to the Dey of Algiers, to redeem near one hundred English +captives lately taken, were entered at the customhouse, viz.: 20 pieces +of broadcloth, 2 pieces of brocade, 2 pieces of silver tabby, 1 piece of +green damask, 8 pieces of Holland, 16 pieces of cambric, a gold +repeating watch, 4 silver do., 20 pounds of tea, 300 of loaf sugar, 5 +fuzees, 5 pair of pistols, an escritoire, 2 clocks, and a box of +toys."--_Gent. Mag._, iv. p. 104, (1734.)] + +[Illustration] + +Private efforts often secured the freedom of slaves. Friends at home +naturally exerted themselves in their behalf; and many families were +straitened by generous contributions to this sacred purpose. The widowed +mother of Cervantes sacrificed all the pittance that remained to her, +including the dowry of her daughters, to aid in the emancipation of her +son. An Englishman, of whose doleful captivity there is a record in the +memoirs of his son, obtained redemption through the earnest efforts of +his wife at home. "She resolved," says the story, "to use all the means +that lay in her power for his freedom, though she left nothing for +herself and children to subsist upon. She was forced to put to sale, as +she did, some plate, gold rings and bracelets, and some part of her +household goods to make up his ransom, which came to about L150 +sterling."[56] In 1642, four French brothers were ransomed at the price +of six thousand dollars. At this same period, the sum exacted for the +poorest Spaniards was "a thousand shillings;" while Genoese, "if under +twenty-two years of age, were freed for a hundred pounds sterling."[57] +These charitable endeavors were aided by the cooperation of benevolent +persons. George Fox interceded in behalf of several Quakers, slaves at +Algiers, writing "a book to the Grand Sultan and the King at Algiers, +wherein he laid before them their indecent behavior and unreasonable +dealings, showing them from their Alcoran that this displeased God, and +that Mohammed had given them other directions." Some time elapsed before +an opportunity was found to redeem them; "but, in the mean while, they +so faithfully served their masters, that they were suffered to go loose +through the town, without being chained or fettered."[58] + +[Footnote 56: MS. Memoirs of Abraham Brown.] + +[Footnote 57: Osborne's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 489; Relation of Seven +Years' Slavery in Algiers.] + +[Footnote 58: Sewell's History of the Quakers, p. 397.] + +[Illustration] + +As early as the thirteenth century, under the sanction of Pope Innocent +the Third, an important association was organized to promote the +emancipation of Christian slaves. This was known as the _Society of the +Fathers of Redemption_.[59] During many successive generations its +blessed labors were continued, amidst the praise and sympathy of +generous men. History, undertaking to recount its origin, and filled +with a grateful sense of its extraordinary merits, attributed it to the +suggestion of an angel in the sky, clothed in resplendent light, holding +a Christian captive in his right hand, and a Moor in the left. The pious +Spaniard, who narrates the marvel, earnestly declares that this +institution of beneficence was the work, not of men, but of the great +God alone; and he dwells, with more than the warmth of narrative, on the +glory, filling the lives of its associates, as surpassing far that of a +Roman triumph; for they share the name as well as the labors of the +Redeemer of the world, to whose spirit they are the heirs, and to whose +works they are the successors. "Lucullus," he says, "affirmed that it +were better to liberate a single Roman from the hands of the enemy than +to gain all their wealth; but how much greater the gain, more excellent +the glory, and more than human is it to redeem a captive! For whosoever +redeems him not only liberates him from one death, but from death in a +thousand ways, and those ever present, and also from a thousand +afflictions, a thousand miseries, a thousand torments and fearful +travails, more cruel than death itself."[60] The genius of Cervantes has +left a record of his gratitude to this Anti-Slavery Society[61]--the +harbinger of others whose mission is not yet finished. Throughout Spain +annual contributions for its sacred objects continued to be taken for +many years. Nor in Spain only did it awaken sympathy. In Italy and +France also it successfully labored; and as late as 1748, inspired by a +similar catholic spirit, if not by its example, a proposition appeared +in England "to establish a _society_ to carry on the truly charitable +design of emancipating" sixty-four Englishmen, slaves in Morocco.[62] + +[Footnote 59: Biot, _De l'Abolition de l'Esclavage Ancien_, p. 437.] + +[Footnote 60: Haedo, _Historia de Argel_, pp. 142-144; _Dialogo I. de la +Captiudad_.] + +[Footnote 61: Roscoe's Life of Cervantes, p. 50. See his story of +_Espanola Inglesa_.] + +[Footnote 62: Gentleman's Mag. xviii. p. 413.] + +War and ransom were not the only agents of emancipation. Even if history +were silent, it would be impossible to suppose that the slaves of +African Barbary endured their lot without struggles for freedom. + + Since the first moment they put on my chains, + I've thought on nothing but the weight of them, + And how to throw them off. + +These are the words of a slave in the play;[63] but they express the +natural inborn sentiments of all who have intelligence sufficient to +appreciate the great boon of freedom. "Thanks be to God," says the +captive in Don Quixote, "for the great mercies bestowed upon me; for, in +my opinion, there is no happiness on earth equal to that of liberty +regained."[64] And plain Thomas Phelps--once a slave at Machiness, in +Morocco, whence, in 1685, he fortunately escaped--in the narrative of +his adventures and sufferings, breaks forth in a similar strain. "Since +my escape," he says, "from captivity, and worse than Egyptian bondage, I +have, methinks, enjoyed a happiness with which my former life was never +acquainted; now that, after a storm and terrible tempest, I have, by +miracle, put into a safe and quiet harbor,--after a most miserable +slavery to the most unreasonable and barbarous of men, now that I enjoy +the immunities and freedom of my native country and the privileges of a +subject of England, although my circumstances otherwise are but +indifferent, yet I find I am affected with extraordinary emotions and +singular transports of joy; now I know what liberty is, and can put a +value and make a just estimate of that happiness which before I never +well understood. Health can be but slightly esteemed by him who never +was acquainted with pain or sickness; and liberty and freedom are the +happiness only valuable by a reflection on captivity and slavery."[65] + +[Footnote 63: Oronooko, act iii. sc. i. It is not strange that the +anti-slavery character of this play rendered it an unpopular performance +at Liverpool, while the prosperous merchants there were concerned in the +slave trade.] + +[Footnote 64: Don Quixote, part i. book iv. chap. 12.] + +[Footnote 65: Osborne's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 500.] + +The history of Algiers abounds in well-authenticated examples of +_conspiracy against the government_ by Christian slaves. So strong was +the passion for freedom! In 1531 and 1559, two separate plans were +matured, which promised for a while entire success. The slaves were +numerous; keys to open the prisons had been forged, and arms supplied; +but, by the treason of one of their number, the plot was betrayed to the +Dey, who sternly doomed the conspirators to the bastinado and the stake. +Cervantes, during his captivity, nothing daunted by these disappointed +efforts, and the terrible vengeance which awaited them, conceived the +plan of a general insurrection of the Christian slaves, to secure their +freedom by the overthrow of the Algerine power, and the surrender of the +city to the Spanish crown. This was in the spirit of that sentiment, to +which he gives utterance in his writings, that "for liberty we ought to +risk life itself, slavery being the greatest evil that can fall to the +lot of man."[66] As late as 1763, there was a similar insurrection or +conspiracy. "Last month," says a journal of high authority,[67] "the +Christian slaves at Algiers, to the number of four thousand, rose and +killed their guards, and massacred all who came in their way; but after +some hours' carnage, during which the streets ran with blood, peace was +restored." + +[Footnote 66: Roscoe's Life of Cervantes, pp. 32, 310, 311. In the same +spirit Thomas Phelps says: "I looked upon my condition as desperate; my +forlorn and languishing state of life, without any hope of redemption, +appeared far worse than the terrors of a most cruel death."--Osborne's +Voyages, vol. ii. p. 504.] + +[Footnote 67: British Annual Register, vol. vi. p. 60.] + +But the struggles for freedom could not always assume the shape of +conspiracies against the government. They were often _efforts to +escape_, sometimes in numbers, and sometimes singly. The captivity of +Cervantes was filled with such, in which, though constantly balked, he +persevered with determined courage and skill. On one occasion, he +attempted to escape by land to Oran, a Spanish settlement on the coast, +but was deserted by his guide, and compelled to return.[68] Another +endeavor was favored by a number of his own countrymen, hovering on the +coast in a vessel from Majorca, who did not think it wrong to aid in the +liberation of slaves! Another was promoted by Christian merchants at +Algiers, through whose agency a vessel was actually purchased for this +purpose.[69] And still another was supposed to be aided by a Spanish +ecclesiastic, Father Olivar, who, being at Algiers to procure the legal +emancipation of slaves, could not resist the temptation to lend a +generous assistance to the struggles of his fellow-Christians in bonds. +If he were sufficiently courageous and devoted to do this, he paid the +bitter penalty which similar services to freedom have found elsewhere, +and in another age. He was seized by the Dey, and thrown into chains; +for it was regarded by the Algerine government as a high offence to +further in any way the escape of a slave.[70] + +[Footnote 68: El Trato de Argel.] + +[Footnote 69: Roscoe's Life of Cervantes, pp. 31, 308, 309. I refer to +Roscoe as the popular authority. His work appears to be little more than +a compilation from Navarrete and Sismondi.] + +[Footnote 70: Ibid. p. 33. See also Haedo, _Historia de Argel_, p. 185.] + +[Illustration] + +Endeavors for freedom are animating; nor can any honest nature hear of +them without a throb of sympathy. As we dwell on the painful narrative +of the unequal contest between tyrannical power and the crushed captive +or slave, we resolutely enter the lists on the side of freedom; and as +we behold the contest waged by a few individuals, or, perhaps, by one +alone, our sympathy is given to his weakness as well as to his cause. To +him we send the unfaltering succor of our good wishes. For him we invoke +vigor of arm to defend, and fleetness of foot to escape. The enactments +of human laws are vain to restrain the warm tides of the heart. We pause +with rapture on those historic scenes, in which freedom has been +attempted or preserved through the magnanimous self-sacrifice of +friendship or Christian aid. With palpitating bosom we follow the +midnight flight of Mary of Scotland from the custody of her stern +jailers; we accompany the escape of Grotius from prison in Holland, so +adroitly promoted by his wife; we join with the flight of Lavalette in +France, aided also by his wife; and we offer our admiration and +gratitude to Huger and Bollman, who, unawed by the arbitrary ordinances +of Austria, strove heroically, though vainly, to rescue Lafayette from +the dungeons of Olmutz. The laws of Algiers--which sanctioned a cruel +slavery, and doomed to condign penalties all endeavors for freedom, and +all countenance of such endeavors--can no longer prevent our homage to +Cervantes, not less gallant than renowned, who strove so constantly and +earnestly to escape his chains; nor our homage to those Christians also +who did not fear to aid him, and to the good ecclesiastic who suffered +in his cause. + +The story of the efforts to escape from slavery in the Barbary States, +so far as they can be traced, are full of interest. The following is in +the exact words of an early writer:-- + + "One John Fox, an expert mariner, and a good, approved, and + sufficient gunner, was (in the raigne of Queene Elizabeth) + taken by the Turkes, and kept eighteen yeeres in most miserable + bondage and slavery; at the end of which time, he espied his + opportunity (and God assisting him withall) that hee slew his + keeper, and fled to the sea's side, where he found a gally with + one hundred and fifty captive Christians, which hee speedily + waying their anchor, set saile, and fell to work like men, and + safely arrived in Spaone; by which meanes he freed himselfe and + a number of poor soules from long and intolerable servitude; + after which, the said John Fox came into England, _and the + Queene (being rightly informed of his brave exploit) did + graciously entertaine him for her servant, and allowed him a + yeerly pension_."[71] + +[Footnote 71: Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. ii. p. 888.] + +[Illustration] + +There is also, in the same early source, a quaint description of what +occurred to a ship from Bristol, captured, in 1621, by an Algerine +corsair. The Englishmen were all taken out except four youths, over whom +the Turks, as these barbarians were often called by early writers, put +thirteen of their own men to conduct the ship as a prize to Algiers; and +one of the pirates, a strong, able, stern, and resolute person, was +appointed captain. "These four poor youths," so the story proceeds, +"being thus fallen into the hands of merciless infidels, began to study +and complot all the means they could for the obtayning of their freedom. +They considered the lamentable and miserable estates that they were like +to be in, as to be debarred forever from seeing their friends and +country, to be chained, beaten, made slaves, and to eat the bread of +affliction in the galleys, all the remainder of their unfortunate lives, +and, which was worst of all, never to be partakers of the heavenly word +and sacraments. Thus, being quite hopeless, and, for any thing they +knew, forever helpless, they sailed five days and nights under the +command of the pirates, when, on the fifth night, God, in his great +mercy, showed them a means for their wished-for escape." A sudden wind +arose, when, the captain coming to help take in the mainsail, two of the +English youths "suddenly took him by the breech and threw him overboard; +but, by fortune, he fell into the bunt of the sail, where, quickly +catching hold of a rope, he, being a very strong man, had almost gotten +into the ship again; which John Cook perceiving, leaped speedily to the +pump, and took off the pump brake, or handle, and cast it to William +Long, bidding him knock him down, which he was not long in doing, but, +lifting up the wooden weapon, he gave him such a palt on the pate, as +made his braines forsake the possession of his head, with which his body +fell into the sea." The corsair slave dealers were overpowered. The four +English youths drove them "from place to place in the ship, and having +coursed them from poop to the forecastle, they there valiantly killed +two of them, and gave another a dangerous wound or two, who, to escape +the further fury of their swords, leaped suddenly overboard to go seek +his captain." The other nine Turks ran between decks, where they were +securely fastened. The English now directed their course to St. Lucas, +in Spain, and "in short time, by God's ayde, happily and safely arrived +at the said port, _where they sold the nine Turks for galley slaves, for +a good summe of money, and as I thinke, a great deal more than they were +worth_."[72] "He that shall attribute such things as these," says the +ancient historian, grateful for this triumph of freedom, "to the arm of +flesh and blood, is forgetful, ungrateful, and, in a manner, +atheistical." + +[Footnote 72: Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. ii. pp. 882-883.] + +[Illustration] + +From the same authority I draw another narrative of singular success in +achieving freedom. Several Englishmen, being captured and carried into +Algiers, were sold as slaves. These are the words of one of their +number: "_We were hurried like dogs into the market, where, as men sell +hacknies in England, we were tossed up and down to see who would give +most for us; and although we had heavy hearts, and looked with sad +countenances, yet many came to behold us, sometimes taking us by the +hand, sometimes turning us round about, sometimes feeling our brawny and +naked armes, and so beholding our prices written in our breasts, they +bargained for us accordingly, and at last we were all sold._" Shortly +afterwards several were put on board an Algerine corsair to serve as +slaves. One of them, John Rawlins, who resembled Cervantes in the +hardihood of his exertions for freedom,--as, like him, he had lost the +use of an arm,--arranged a rising or insurrection on board. "O hellish +slavery," he said, "to be thus subject to dogs! O God! strengthen my +heart and hand, and something shall be done to ease us of these +mischiefs, and deliver us from these cruel Mohammedan dogs. What can be +worse? I will either attempt my deliverance at one time or another, or +perish in the enterprise." An auspicious moment was seized; and eight +English slaves and one French, with the assistance of four Hollanders, +freemen, succeeded, after a bloody contest, in overpowering fifty-two +Turks. "When all was done," the story proceeds, "and the ship cleared of +the dead bodies, Rawlins assembled his men together, and with one +consent gave the praise unto God, using the accustomed service on +shipboard, and, for want of books, lifted up their voices to God, as he +put into their hearts or renewed their memories; then did they sing a +psalm, and, last of all, embraced one another for playing the men in +such a deliverance, whereby our fear was turned into joy, and trembling +hearts exhilarated that we had escaped such inevitable dangers, and +especially the slavery and terror of bondage worse than death itself. +The same night we washed our ship, put every thing in as good order as +we could, repaired the broken quarter, set up the biticle, and bore up +the helme for England, where, by God's grace and good guiding, we +arrived at Plimouth, February 17th, 1622."[73] + +[Footnote 73: Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. ii. pp. 889-896.] + +[Illustration] + +In 1685, Thomas Phelps and Edward Baxter, Englishmen, accomplished their +escape from captivity in Machiness, in Morocco. One of them had made a +previous unsuccessful attempt, which drew upon him the punishment of the +bastinado, disabling him from work for a twelvemonth; "but such was his +love of Christian liberty, that he freely declared to his companion, +that he would adventure with any fair opportunity." By devious paths, +journeying in the darkness of night, and by day sheltering themselves +from observation in bushes, or in the branches of fig trees, they at +length reached the sea. With imminent risk of discovery, they succeeded +in finding a boat, not far from Sallee. This they took without +consulting the proprietor, and rowed to a ship at a distance, which, to +their great joy, proved to be an English man-of-war. Making known to its +commander the exposed situation of the Moorish ships, they formed part +of an expedition in boats, which boarded and burned them, in the night. +"One Moor," says the account, "we found aboard, who was presently cut in +pieces; another was shot in the head, endeavoring to escape upon the +cable; we were not long in taking in our shavings and tar barrels, and +so set her on fire in several places, she being very apt to receive what +we designed; for there were several barrels of tar upon deck, and she +was newly tarred, as if on purpose. Whilst we were setting her on fire, +we heard a noise of some people in the hold; we opened the scuttles, and +thereby saved the lives of four Christians, three Dutchmen and one +French, who told us the ship on fire was Admiral, and belonged to +Aly-Hackum, and the other, which we soon after served with the same +sauce, was the very ship which in October last took me captive." The +Englishman, once a captive, who tells this story, says it is "most +especially to move pity for the afflictions of Joseph, to excite +compassionate regard to those poor countrymen now languishing in misery +and irons, to endeavor their releasement."[74] + +[Footnote 74: Osborne's Voyages, vol. ii. pp. 497-510.] + +Even the non-resistance of Quakers, animated by a zeal for freedom, +contrived to baffle these slave dealers. A ship in the charge of people +of this sect became the prey of the Algerines; and the curious story is +told with details, unnecessary to mention here, of the effective manner +in which the ship was subsequently recaptured by the crew without loss +of life. To complete this triumph, the slave pirates were safely landed +on their own shores, and allowed to go their way in peace, acknowledging +with astonishment and gratitude this new application of the Christian +injunction to do good to them that hate you. Charles the Second, +learning from the master, on his return, that "he had been taken by the +Turks, and redeemed himself without fighting," and that he had +subsequently let his enemies go free, rebuked him, saying, with the +spirit of a slave dealer, "You have done like a fool, for you might have +had a good gain for them." And to the mate he said, "You should have +brought the Turks to me." "_I thought it better for them to be in their +own country_" was the Quaker's reply.[75] + +[Footnote 75: Sewell's History of the Quakers, pp. 392-397.] + +[Illustration] + +In the current of time other instances occurred. A letter from Algiers, +dated August 6, 1772, and preserved in the British Annual Register, +furnishes the following story:[76] "A most remarkable escape," it says, +"of some Christian prisoners has lately been effected here, which will +undoubtedly cause those that have not had that good fortune to be +treated with utmost rigor. On the morning of the 27th July, the Dey was +informed that all the Christian slaves had escaped the over-night in a +galley; this news soon raised him, and, upon inquiry, it was found to +have been a preconcerted plan. About ten at night, seventy-four slaves, +who had found means to escape from their masters, met in a large square +near the gate which opens to the harbor, and, being well armed, they +soon forced the guard to submit, and, to prevent their raising the city, +confined them all in the powder magazine. They then proceeded to the +lower part of the harbor, where they embarked on board a large rowing +polacre that was left there for the purpose, and, the tide ebbing out, +they fell gently down with it, and passed both the forts. As soon as +this was known, three large galleys were ordered out after them, but to +no purpose. They returned in three days, with the news of seeing the +polacre sail into Barcelona, where the galleys durst not go to attack +her." + +[Footnote 76: Vol. xv. p. 130.] + +[Illustration] + +In the same journal[77] there is a record of another triumph of freedom +in a letter from Palma, the capital of Majorca, dated September 3, 1776. +"Forty-six captives," it says, "who were employed to draw stones from a +quarry some leagues' distance from Algiers, at a place named Genova, +resolved, if possible, to recover their liberty, and yesterday took +advantage of the idleness and inattention of forty men who were to guard +them, and who had laid down their arms, and were rambling about the +shore. The captives attacked them with pickaxes and other tools, and +made themselves masters of their arms; and, having killed thirty-three +of the forty, and eleven of the thirteen sailors who were in the boat +which carried the stones, they obliged the rest to jump into the sea. +Being then masters of the boat, and armed with twelve muskets, two +pistols, and powder, they set sail, and had the good fortune to arrive +here this morning, where they are performing quarantine. Sixteen of them +are Spaniards, seventeen French, eight Portuguese, three Italian, one a +German, and one a Sardinian." + +[Footnote 77: Vol. xix. p. 176.] + +Thus far I have followed the efforts of European nations, and the +struggles of Europeans, unhappy victims to White Slavery. I pass now to +America, and to our own country. In the name of fellow-countryman there +is a charm of peculiar power. The story of his sorrows will come nearer +to our hearts, and, perhaps, to the experience of individuals or +families among us, than the story of Spaniards, Frenchmen, or +Englishmen. Nor are materials wanting. + +Even in the early days of the colonies, while they were yet contending +with the savage Indians, many American families were compelled to mourn +the hapless fate of brothers, fathers, and husbands doomed to slavery in +distant African Barbary. Only five short years after the landing of the +Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock,[78] it appears from the records of the town, +under date of 1625, that "two ships, freighted from Plymouth, were taken +by the Turks in the English Channel, and carried into Sallee." A little +later, in 1640, "one Austin, a man of good estate," returning +discontented to England from Quinipiack, now New Haven, on his way "was +taken by the Turks, and his wife and family were carried to Algiers, and +sold there as slaves."[79] And, under date of 1671, in the diary of the +Rev. John Eliot, the first minister of Roxbury, and the illustrious +apostle to the Indians, prefixed to the record of the church in that +town, and still preserved in manuscript, these few words tell a story of +sorrow: "We heard the sad and heavy tidings concerning the captivity of +Captain Foster and his son at Sallee." From further entries in the diary +it appears, that, after a bondage of three years, they were redeemed. +But the same record shows other victims, for whom the sympathies of the +church and neighborhood were enlisted. Here is one: "20 10m. 1674. This +Sabbath we had a public collection for Edward Howard of Boston, to +redeem him out of his sad Turkish captivity, in which collection was +gathered L12 18s. 9d., which, by God's favor, made up the just sum +desired." And not long after, at a date left uncertain, it appears that +William Bowen "was taken by the Turks;" a contribution was made for his +redemption; "and the people went to the public box, young and old, but +before the money could answer the end for which the congregation +intended it," tidings came of the death of the unhappy captive, and the +money was afterwards "improved to build a tomb for the town to inter +their ministers."[80] + +[Footnote 78: Davis's Extracts relating to Plymouth, p. 3.] + +[Footnote 79: Winthrop's Journal, vol. ii. p. 11.] + +[Footnote 80: MS. Records of First Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts.] + +Instances now thicken. A ship, sailing from Charlestown, in 1678, was +taken by a corsair, and carried into Algiers, whence its passengers and +crew never returned. They probably died in slavery. Among these was Dr. +Daniel Mason, a graduate of Harvard College, and the earliest of that +name on the list; also James Ellson, the mate. The latter, in a +testamentary letter addressed to his wife, and dated at Algiers, June +30, 1679, desired her to redeem out of captivity two of his +companions.[81] At the same period William Harris, a person of +consequence in the colony, one of the associates of Roger Williams in +the first planting of Providence, and now in the sixty-eighth year of +his age, sailing from Boston for England on public business, was also +taken by a corsair, and carried into Algiers. On the 23d February, 1679, +this veteran,--older than the slaveholder Cato when he learned +Greek,--together with all the crew, was sold into slavery. The fate of +his companions is unknown; but Mr. Harris, after remaining in this +condition more than a year, obtained his freedom at the cost of $1200, +called by him "the price of a good farm." The feelings of the people of +the colony, touched by these disasters, are concisely expressed in a +private letter dated at Boston, New England, November 10, 1680, where it +is said, "The Turks have so taken our New England ships richly loaden +homeward bound, that it is very dangerous to goe. Many of our neighbors +are now in captivity in Argeer. The Lord find out some way for their +redemption."[82] + +[Footnote 81: Middlesex [Massachusetts] Probate Files in MS.] + +[Footnote 82: William Gilbert to Arthur Bridge, MS.] + +Still later, as we enter the next century, we meet a curious notice of +the captivity of a Bostonian. Under date of Tuesday, January 11, 1714, +Chief Justice Samuel Sewell, in his journal, after describing a dinner +with Mr. Gee, and mentioning the guests, among whom were the famous +divines, Increase and Cotton Mather, adds, "It seems it was in +remembrance of his landing this day at Boston, after his Algerine +captivity. Had a good treat. Dr. Cotton Mather, in returning thanks, +very well comprised many weighty things very pertinently."[83] Among the +many weighty things very pertinently comprised by this eminent preacher, +in returning thanks, it is hoped, was a condemnation of slavery. Surely +he could not then have shrunk from giving utterance to that faith which +preaches deliverance to the captive. + +[Footnote 83: MS. Journal of Chief Justice Samuel Sewell.] + +But leaving the imperfect records of colonial days, I descend at once to +that period, almost in the light of these times, when our National +Government, justly careful of the liberty of its white citizens, was +aroused to put forth all its power in their behalf. The war of the +Revolution closed in 1783, by the acknowledgment of the independence of +the United States. The new national flag, then freshly unfurled, and +hardly known to the world, seemed to have little power to protect +persons or property from the outrages of the Barbary States. Within +three years, no less than ten American vessels became their prey. At one +time an apprehension prevailed, that Dr. Franklin had been captured. "We +are waiting," said one of his French correspondents, "with the greatest +patience to hear from you. The newspapers have given us anxiety on your +account; for some of them insist that you have been taken by the +Algerines, while others pretend that you are at Morocco, enduring your +slavery with all the patience of a philosopher."[84] The property of our +merchants was sacrificed or endangered. Insurance at Lloyd's, in London, +could be had only at advanced prices; while it was difficult to obtain +freight for American bottoms.[85] The Mediterranean trade seemed closed +to our enterprise. To a people filled with the spirit of commerce, and +bursting with new life, this in itself was disheartening; but the +sufferings of our unhappy fellow-citizens, captives in a distant land, +aroused a feeling of a higher strain. + +[Footnote 84: Sparks's Works of Franklin, ix. 506, 507; x. 230. M. Le +Veillard to Dr. Franklin, October 9, 1785.] + +[Footnote 85: Boston Independent Chronicle, April 28, 1785, vol. xvii. +No. 866; May 12, 1785, No. 868; Oct. 20, 1785, No. 886; Nov. 3, 1785, +No. 888; Nov. 17, 1785, No. 890; March 2, 1786, vol. xviii. No. 908; +April 27, 1786, No. 918.] + +As from time to time the tidings of these things reached America, a +voice of horror and indignation swelled through the land. The slave +corsairs of African Barbary were branded sometimes as "infernal crews," +sometimes as "human harpies."[86] This sentiment acquired new force, +when, at two different periods, by the fortunate escape of captives, +what seemed an authentic picture of their condition was presented to the +world. The story of these fugitives will show at once the hardships of +their lot, and the foundation of the appeal which was soon made to the +country with so much effect. + +[Footnote 86: Boston Independent Chronicle, May 18, 1786, xviii. No. +916; Sparks's Franklin, ix. 506, 507.] + +The earliest of these escapes was in 1788, by a person originally +captured in a vessel from Boston. At Algiers he had been, with the rest +of the ship's company, exposed for sale at public auction, whence he was +sent to the country house of his master, about two miles from town. +Here, for the space of eighteen months, he was chained to the +wheelbarrow, and allowed only one pound of bread a day, during all which +wretched period he had no opportunity to learn the fate of his +companions. From the country he was removed to Algiers, where, in a +numerous company of white slaves, he encountered three of his shipmates, +and twenty-six other Americans. After remaining for some time crowded +together in the slave prison, they were all distributed among the +different galleys in the service of the Dey. Our fugitive, with eighteen +other white slaves, was put on board a xebec, carrying eight +six-pounders and sixty men, which, on the coast of Malta, encountered an +armed vessel belonging to Genoa, and, after much bloodshed, was taken +sword in hand. Eleven of the unfortunate slaves, compelled to this +unwelcome service in the cause of a tyrannical master, were killed in +the contest, before the triumph of the Genoese could deliver them from +their chains. Our countryman and the few still alive were at once set at +liberty, and, it is said, "treated with that humanity which +distinguishes the Christian from the barbarian."[87] + +[Footnote 87: Boston Independent Chronicle, Oct. 16, 1778, vol. xx. No. +1042; History of the War with Tripoli, p. 59.] + +[Illustration] + +His escape was followed in the next year by that of several others, +achieved under circumstances widely different. They had entered, about +five years before, on board a vessel belonging to Philadelphia, which +was captured near the Western Islands, and carried into Algiers. The +crew, consisting of twenty persons, were doomed to bondage. Several were +sent into the country and chained to work with the mules. Others were +put on board a galley and chained to the oars. The latter, tempted by +the facilities of their position near the sea, made several attempts to +escape, which for some time proved fruitless. At last, the love of +freedom triumphing over the suggestions of humanity, they rose upon +their overseers; some of whom they killed, and confined others. Then, +seizing a small galley of their masters, they set sail for Gibraltar, +where in a few hours they landed as freemen.[88] Thus, by killing their +keepers and carrying off property not their own, did these fugitive +white slaves achieve their liberty. + +[Footnote 88: History of the War with Tripoli, p. 62. American Museum, +vol. viii. Appendix.] + +Such stories could not be recounted without producing a strong effect. +The glimpses thus opened into the dread regions of slavery gave a +harrowing reality to all that conjecture or imagination had pictured. It +was, indeed, true, that our own white brethren, heirs to the freedom +newly purchased by precious blood, partakers in the sovereignty of +citizenship, belonging to the fellowship of the Christian church, were +degraded in unquestioning obedience to an arbitrary taskmaster, sold as +beasts of the field, and galled by the manacle and the lash! It was true +that they were held at fixed prices; and that their only chance of +freedom was to be found in the earnest, energetic, united efforts of +their countrymen in their behalf. It is not easy to comprehend the exact +condition to which they were reduced. There is no reason to believe that +it differed materially from that of other Christian captives in Algiers. +The masters of vessels were lodged together, and indulged with a table +by themselves, though a small iron ring was attached to one of their +legs, to denote that they were slaves. The seamen were taught and +obliged to work at the trade of carpenter, blacksmith, and stone mason, +from six o'clock in the morning till four o'clock in the afternoon, +without intermission, except for half an hour at dinner.[89] Some of the +details of their mode of life, as transmitted to us, are doubtless +exaggerated. It is, however, sufficient to know that they were slaves; +nor is there any other human condition, which, when barely mentioned, +even without one word of description, so strongly awakens the sympathies +of every just and enlightened lover of his race. + +[Footnote 89: History of the War between the United States and Tripoli, +p. 52.] + +[Illustration] + +With a view to secure their freedom, informal agencies were soon +established under the direction of our minister at Paris; and the +_Society of Redemption_--whose beneficent exertions, commencing so early +in modern history, were still continued--offered their aid. Our agents +were blandly entertained by that great slave dealer, the Dey of Algiers, +who informed them that he was familiar with the exploits of Washington, +and, as he never expected to see him, expressed a hope, that, through +Congress, he might receive a full-length portrait of this hero of +freedom, to be displayed in his palace at Algiers. He, however, still +clung to his American slaves, holding them at prices beyond the means of +the agents. These, in 1786, were $6000 for a master of a vessel, $4000 +for a mate, $4000 for a passenger, and $1400 for a seaman; whereas the +agents were authorized to offer only $200 for each captive.[90] In 1790, +the tariff of prices seems to have fallen. Meanwhile, one obtained his +freedom through private means, others escaped, and others still were +liberated by the great liberator Death. The following list, if not +interesting from the names of the captives, will at least be curious as +evidence of the sums demanded for them in the slave market:[91]-- + + _Crew of the Ship Dolphin, of Philadelphia, captured July 30, + 1785._ + + Sequins. + + Richard O'Brien, master, price demanded, 2,000 + Andrew Montgomery, mate, 1,500 + Jacob Tessanier, French passenger, 2,000 + William Patterson, seaman, (keeps a tavern,) 1,500 + Philip Sloan, " 725 + Peleg Loring, " 725 + John Robertson, " 725 + James Hall, " 725 + + _Crew of the Schooner Maria, of Boston, captured July 25, + 1785._ + + Isaac Stevens, master, (of Concord, Mass.,) 2,000 + Alexander Forsythe, mate, 1,500 + James Cathcart, seaman, (keeps a tavern,) 900 + George Smith, " (in the Dey's house,) 725 + John Gregory, " 725 + James Hermit, " 725 + ------ + 16,475 + Duty on the above sum, ten per cent., 1,647-1/2 + Sundry gratifications to officers of the + Dey's household, 240-1/3 + ---------- + Sequins 18,362-5/6 + + This sum being equal to $34,792. + +[Footnote 90: Lyman's Diplomacy, vol. ii. p. 353.] + +[Footnote 91: Lyman's Diplomacy vol. ii. p. 357; History of the War with +Tripoli, p. 64.] + +In 1793, there were one hundred and fifteen American slaves in +Algiers.[92] Their condition excited the fraternal feeling of the whole +people, while it occupied the anxious attention of Congress and the +prayers of the clergy. A petition dated at Algiers, December 29, 1793, +was addressed to the House of Representatives, by these unhappy +persons.[93] "Your petitioners," it says, "are at present captives in +this city of bondage, employed daily in the most laborious work, without +any respect to persons. They pray that you will take their unfortunate +situation into consideration, and adopt such measures as will restore +the American captives to their country, their friends, families, and +connections; and your petitioners will ever pray and be thankful." But +the action of Congress was sluggish, compared with the swift desires of +all lovers of freedom. + +[Footnote 92: Lyman's Diplomacy, vol. ii. p. 359.] + +[Footnote 93: Ibid. p. 360.] + +Appeals of a different character, addressed to the country at large, +were now commenced. These were efficiently aided by a letter to the +American people, dated Lisbon, July 11, 1794, from Colonel Humphreys, +the friend and companion of Washington, and at that time our minister to +Portugal. Taking advantage of the general interest in lotteries, and +particularly of the custom, not then condemned, of resorting to these as +a mode of obtaining money for literary or benevolent purposes, he +suggested a grand lottery, sanctioned by the United States, or +particular lotteries in the individual states, in order to obtain the +means required to purchase the freedom of our countrymen. He then asks, +"Is there within the limits of these United States an individual who +will not cheerfully contribute, in proportion to his means, to carry it +into effect? By the peculiar blessings of freedom which you enjoy, by +the disinterested sacrifices you made for its attainment, by the +patriotic blood of those martyrs of liberty who died to secure your +independence, and by all the tender ties of nature, let me conjure you +once more to snatch your unfortunate countrymen from fetters, dungeons, +and death." + +This appeal was followed shortly after by a petition from the American +captives in Algiers, addressed to the ministers of the gospel of every +denomination throughout the United States, praying their help in the +sacred cause of Emancipation. It begins by an allusion to the day of +national thanksgiving appointed by President Washington, and proceeds to +ask the clergy to set apart the Sunday preceding that day for sermons, +to be delivered contemporaneously throughout the country in behalf of +their brethren in bonds.[94] + + "_Reverend and Respected_,-- + + "On Thursday, the 19th of February, 1795, you are enjoined by + the President of the United States of America to appear in the + various temples of that God who heareth the groaning of the + prisoner, and in mercy remembereth those who are appointed to + die. + + "Nor are ye to assemble alone; for on this, the high day of + continental thanksgiving, all the religious societies and + denominations throughout the Union, and all persons whomsoever + within the limits of the confederated States, are to enter the + courts of Jehovah, with their several pastors, and gratefully + to render unfeigned thanks to the Ruler of nations for the + manifold and signal mercies which distinguish your lot as a + people; in a more particular manner, commemorating your + exemption from foreign war; being greatly thankful for the + preservation of peace at home and abroad; and fervently + beseeching the kind Author of all these blessings graciously to + prolong them to you, and finally to render the United States of + America more and more an asylum for the unfortunate of every + clime under heaven. + + "_Reverend and Respected_,-- + + "Most fervent are our daily prayers, breathed in the sincerity + of woes unspeakable; most ardent are the imbittered aspirations + of our afflicted spirits, that thus it may be in deed and in + truth. Although we are prisoners in a foreign land, although we + are far, very far from our native homes, although our harps are + hung upon the weeping willows of slavery, nevertheless America + is still preferred above our chiefest joy, and the last wish of + our departing souls shall be _her peace, her prosperity, her + liberty forever_. On this day, the day of festivity and + gladness, remember us, your unfortunate brethren, late members + of the family of freedom, now doomed to perpetual confinement. + _Pray, earnestly pray, that our grievous calamities may have a + gracious end. Supplicate the Father of mercies for the most + wretched of his offspring. Beseech the God of all consolation + to comfort us by the hope of final restoration. Implore the + Jesus whom you worship to open the house of the prison. Entreat + the Christ whom you adore to let the miserable captives go + free._ + + "_Reverend and Respected_,-- + + "It is not your prayers alone, although of much avail, which we + beg on the bending knee of sufferance, galled by the corroding + fetters of slavery. We conjure you by the bowels of the mercies + of the Almighty, we ask you in the name of your Father in + heaven, to have compassion on our miseries, to wipe away the + crystallized tears of despondence, to hush the heartfelt sigh + of distress; _and by every possible exertion of godlike + charity, to restore us to our wives, to our children, to our + friends, to our God and to yours_. + + "Is it possible that a stimulus can be wanting? Forbid it, the + example of a dying, bleeding, crucified Savior! Forbid it, the + precepts of a risen, ascended, glorified Immanuel! _Do unto us + in fetters, in bonds, in dungeons, in danger of the pestilence, + as ye yourselves would wish to be done unto. Lift up your + voices like a trumpet; cry aloud in the cause of humanity, + benevolence, philosophy; eloquence can never be directed to a + nobler purpose; religion never employed in a more glorious + cause; charity never meditate a more exalted flight._ O that a + live coal from the burning altar of celestial beneficence might + warm the hearts of the sacred order, and impassion the feelings + of the attentive hearer! + + "_Gentlemen of the Clergy in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, + Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia_,-- + + "Your most zealous exertions, your unremitting assiduities, are + pathetically invoked. Those States in which you minister unto + the Church of God gave us birth. We are as aliens from the + commonwealth of America. We are strangers to the temples of our + God. The strong arm of infidelity hath bound us with two + chains; the iron one of slavery and the sword of death are + entering our very souls. _Arise, ye ministers of the Most High, + Christians of every denomination, awake unto charity! Let a + brief, setting forth our situation, be published throughout the + continent. Be it read in every house of worship, on Sunday, the + 8th of February. Command a preparatory discourse to be + delivered on Sunday, the 15th of February, in all churches + whithersoever this petition or the brief may come; and on + Thursday, the 19th of February, complete the godlike work._ It + is a day which assembles a continent to thanksgiving. It is a + day which calls an empire to praise. God grant that this may be + the day which emancipates the forlorn captive, and may the best + blessings of those who are ready to perish be your abiding + portion forever! Thus prays a small remnant who are still + alive; thus pray your fellow-citizens, chained to the galleys + of the impostor Mahomet. + + "Signed for and in behalf of his fellow-sufferers, by + + "RICHARD O'BRIEN, + + "In the tenth year of his captivity." + +[Footnote 94: History of the War with Tripoli, pp. 69-71.] + +The cause in which this document was written will indispose the candid +reader to any criticism of its somewhat exuberant language. Like the +drama of Cervantes, setting forth the horrors of the galleys of Algiers, +"it was not drawn from the imagination, but was born far from the +regions of fiction, in the very heart of truth." Its earnest appeals +were calculated to touch the soul, and to make the very name of slavery +and slave dealer detestable. + +And here I should do injustice to the truth of history, if I did not +suspend for one moment the narrative of this Anti-Slavery movement, in +order to exhibit the pointed parallels then extensively recognized +between Algerine and American slavery. The conscientious man could not +plead in behalf of the emancipation of his white fellow-citizens, +without confessing in his heart, perhaps to the world, that every +consideration, every argument, every appeal urged for the white man, +told with equal force in behalf of his wretched colored brother in +bonds. Thus the interest awakened for the slave in Algiers embraced also +the slave at home. Sometimes they were said to be alike in condition; +sometimes, indeed, it was openly declared that the horrors of our +American slavery surpassed that of Algiers. + +John Wesley, the oracle of Methodism, addressing those engaged in the +negro slave trade, said, as early as 1772, "You have carried the +survivors into the vilest of slavery, never to end but with life--_such +slavery as is not found among the Turks at Algiers_."[95] And another +writer, in 1794, when the sympathy with the American captives was at its +height, presses the parallel in pungent terms: "For this practice of +buying and selling slaves," he says, "we are not entitled to charge the +Algerines with any exclusive degree of barbarity. The Christians of +Europe and America carry on this commerce one hundred times more +extensively than the Algerines. It has received a recent sanction from +the immaculate Divan of Britain. Nobody seems even to be surprised by a +diabolical kind of advertisements, which, for some months past, have +frequently adorned the newspapers of Philadelphia. The French fugitives +from the West Indies have brought with them a crowd of slaves. These +most injured people sometimes run off, and their master advertises a +reward for apprehending them. At the same time, we are commonly informed +that his sacred name is marked in capitals on their breasts; or, in +plainer terms, it is stamped on that part of the body with a red-hot +iron. Before, therefore, we reprobate the ferocity of the Algerines, we +should inquire whether it is not possible to find in some other region +of this globe a systematic brutality still more disgraceful."[96] + +[Footnote 95: Wesley's Thoughts on Slavery, (1772,) p. 26.] + +[Footnote 96: Short Account of Algiers, (Philadelphia, 1794,) p. 18.] + +Not long after the address to the clergy by the captives in Algiers, a +publication appeared in New Hampshire, entitled "Tyrannical Libertymen; +a Discourse upon Negro Slavery in the United States, composed at ---- in +New Hampshire on the late Federal Thanksgiving Day,"[97] which does not +hesitate to brand American slavery in terms of glowing reprobation. +"There was a contribution upon this day," it says, "for the purpose of +redeeming those Americans who are in slavery at Algiers--an object +worthy of a generous people. Their redemption, we hope, is not far +distant. But should any person contribute money for this purpose which +he had cudgelled out of a negro slave, he would deserve less applause +than an actor in the comedy of Las Casas.... When will Americans show +that they are what they affect to be thought--friends to the cause of +humanity at large, reverers of the rights of their fellow-creatures? +Hitherto we have been oppressors; nay, murderers! for many a negro has +died by the whip of his master, and many have lived when death would +have been preferable. Surely the curse of God and the reproach of man is +against us. Worse than the seven plagues of Egypt will befall us. If +Algiers shall be punished sevenfold, truly America seventy and +sevenfold." + +[Footnote 97: From the Eagle Office, Hanover, New Hampshire, 1795.] + +To the excitement of this discussion we are indebted for the story of +"The Algerine Captive;" a work to which, though now forgotten, belongs +the honor of being among the earliest literary productions of our +country reprinted in London, at a time when few American books were +known abroad. It was published anonymously, but is known to have been +written by Royall Tyler, afterwards Chief Justice of Vermont. In the +form of a narrative of personal adventures, extending through two +volumes, as a slave in Algiers, the author depicts the horrors of this +condition. In this regard it is not unlike the story of "Archy Moore," +in our own day, displaying the horrors of American slavery. The author, +while engaged as surgeon on board a ship in the African slave trade, is +taken captive by the Algerines. After describing the reception of the +poor negroes, he says, "I cannot reflect on this transaction yet without +shuddering. I have deplored my conduct with tears of anguish; and I pray +a merciful God, the common Parent of the great family of the universe, +who hath made of one flesh and one blood all nations of the earth, that +the miseries, the insults, and cruel woundings I afterwards received, +when a slave myself, may expiate for the inhumanity I was necessitated +to exercise towards these my brethren of the human race."[98] And when +at length he is himself made captive by the Algerines, he records his +meditations and resolves. "Grant me," he says, from the depths of his +own misfortune, "once more to taste the freedom of my native country, +and every moment of my life shall be dedicated to preaching against this +detestable commerce. I will fly to our fellow-citizens in the Southern +States; I will, on my knees, conjure them, in the name of humanity, to +abolish a traffic which causes it to bleed in every pore. If they are +deaf to the pleadings of nature, I will conjure them, for the sake of +consistency, to cease to deprive their fellow-creatures of freedom, +which their writers, their orators, representatives, senators, and even +their constitutions of government, have declared to be the unalienable +birthright of man."[99] + +[Footnote 98: Chap. xxx.] + +[Footnote 99: Chap. xxxii.] + +But this comparison was presented not merely in the productions of +literature, or in fugitive essays. It was distinctly set forth, on an +important occasion, in the diplomacy of our country, by one of her most +illustrious citizens. Complaint had been made against England for +carrying away from New York certain negroes, in alleged violation of the +treaty of 1783. In an elaborate paper discussing this matter, John Jay, +at that time, under the Confederation, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, +says, "Whether men can be so degraded as, under any circumstances, to be +with propriety denominated _goods and chattels_, and, under that idea, +capable of becoming _booty_, is a question on which opinions are +unfortunately various, even in countries professing Christianity and +respect for the rights of mankind." He then proceeds, in words worthy of +special remembrance at this time: "If a war should take place between +France and Algiers, and in the course of it France should invite the +American slaves there to run away from their masters, and actually +receive and protect them in their camp, what would Congress, and indeed +the world, think and say of France, if, in making peace with Algiers, +she should give up those American slaves to their former Algerine +masters? _Is there any difference between the two cases than this_, +viz., _that the American slaves at Algiers are_ WHITE _people, whereas +the African slaves at New York were_ BLACK _people_?" In introducing +these sentiments, the Secretary remarks, "He is aware he is about to say +unpopular things; but higher motives than personal considerations press +him to proceed."[100] Words worthy of John Jay! + +[Footnote 100: Secret Journals of Congress, 1786, vol. iv. pp. 274-280.] + +The same comparison was also presented by the Abolition Society of +Pennsylvania, in an Address, in 1787, to the Convention which framed the +Federal Constitution. "Providence," it says, "seems to have ordained the +sufferings of our American brethren, groaning in captivity at Algiers, +to awaken us to a sentiment of the injustice and cruelty of which we are +guilty towards the wretched Africans."[101] Shortly afterwards, it was +again brought forward by Dr. Franklin, in an ingenious apologue, marked +by his peculiar humor, simplicity, logic, and humanity. As President of +the same Abolition Society, which had already addressed the Convention, +he signed a memorial to the earliest Congress under the Constitution, +praying it "to countenance the restoration of liberty to those unhappy +men, who alone, in this land of freedom, are degraded into perpetual +bondage; and to step to the _very verge_ of the power vested in them for +_discouraging_ every species of traffic in the persons of our +fellow-men." In the debates which ensued on the presentation of this +memorial,--memorable not only for its intrinsic importance as a guide to +the country, but as the final public act of one of the chief founders of +our national institutions,--several attempts were made to justify +slavery and the slave trade. The last and almost dying energies of +Franklin were excited. In a remarkable document, written only +twenty-four days before his death, and published in the journals of the +time, he gave a parody of a speech actually delivered in the American +Congress--transferring the scene to Algiers, and putting the American +speech in the mouth of a corsair slave dealer, in the Divan at that +place. All the arguments adduced in favor of negro slavery are applied +by the Algerine orator with equal force to justify the plunder and +enslavement of whites.[102] With this protest against a great wrong, +Franklin died. + +[Footnote 101: Brissot's Travels, vol. i. letter 22.] + +[Footnote 102: Sparks's Franklin, vol. ii. p. 517.] + +Most certainly we shall be aided, at least in our appreciation of +American slavery, when we know that it was likened, by characters like +Wesley, Jay, and Franklin, to the abomination of slavery in Algiers. But +whatever may have been the influence of this parallel on the condition +of the black slaves, it did not check the rising sentiments of the +people against White Slavery. + +The country was now aroused. A general contribution was proposed for the +emancipation of our brethren. Their cause was pleaded in churches, and +not forgotten at the festive board. At all public celebrations, the +toasts, "Happiness for all," and "Universal Liberty," were proposed, not +less in sympathy with the efforts for freedom in France than with those +for our own wretched white fellow-countrymen in bonds. On at least one +occasion,[103] they were distinctly remembered in the following toast: +"Our brethren in slavery at Algiers. May the measures adopted for their +redemption be successful, and may they live to rejoice with their +friends in the blessings of liberty." + +[Footnote 103: At Portsmouth, N. H., at a public entertainment, April 3, +1795, in honor of French successes.--Boston Independent Chronicle, vol. +xxvii. No. 1469.] + +Meanwhile, the earnest efforts of our government were continued. In his +message to Congress, bearing date December 8, 1795, President Washington +said, "With peculiar satisfaction I add, that information has been +received from an agent deputed on our part to Algiers, importing that +the terms of the treaty with the Dey and regency of that country have +been adjusted in such a manner as to authorize the expectation of a +speedy peace, and the restoration of our unfortunate fellow-citizens +from a grievous captivity." This, indeed, had been already effected on +the 5th of September, 1795.[104] It was a treaty full of humiliation for +the _chivalry_ of our country. Besides securing to the Algerine +government a large sum, in consideration of present peace and the +liberation of the captives, it stipulated for an annual tribute from the +United States of twenty-one thousand dollars. But feelings of pride +disappeared in heartfelt satisfaction. It is recorded that a thrill of +joy went through the land when it was announced that a vessel had left +Algiers, having on board all the Americans who had been in captivity +there. Their emancipation was purchased at the cost of upwards of seven +hundred thousand dollars. But the largess of money, and even the +indignity of tribute, were forgotten in gratulations on their new-found +happiness. The President, in a message to Congress, December 7, 1796, +presented their "actual liberation" as a special subject of joy "to +every feeling heart." Thus did our government construct a Bridge of Gold +for freedom. + +[Footnote 104: United States Statutes at Large, (Little & Brown's +edit.,) Treaties, vol. viii. p. 133; Lyman's Diplomacy, vol. ii. p. +362.] + +This act of national generosity was followed by peace with Tripoli, +purchased November 4, 1796, for the sum of fifty thousand dollars, under +the guaranty of the Dey of Algiers, who was declared to be "the mutual +friend of the parties." By an article in this treaty, negotiated by Joel +Barlow,--out of tenderness, perhaps, to Mohammedanism, and to save our +citizens from the slavery which was regarded as the just doom of +"Christian dogs,"--it was expressly declared that "the government of the +United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian +religion."[105] At a later day, by a treaty with Tunis, purchased after +some delay, but at a smaller price than that with Tripoli, all danger to +our citizens seemed to be averted. In this treaty it was ignominiously +provided, that fugitive slaves, taking refuge on board American merchant +vessels, and even vessels of war, should be restored to their +owners.[106] + +[Footnote 105: Article 11; Lyman's Diplomacy, vol. ii. pp. 380, 381; +United States Statutes at Large, vol. viii. p. 154.] + +[Footnote 106: Article 6; United States Statutes at Large, vol. viii. p. +157. This treaty has two dates, August, 1797, and March, 1799. William +Eaton and James Leander Cathcart were the agents of the United States at +the latter date.] + +[Illustration] + +As early as 1787, a treaty of a more liberal character had been entered +into with Morocco, which was confirmed in 1795,[107] at the price of +twenty thousand dollars; while, by a treaty with Spain, in 1799, this +slave-trading empire _expressly declared its desire that the name of +slavery might be effaced from the memory of man_.[108] + +[Footnote 107: Lyman's Diplomacy, vol. ii. p. 350; United States +Statutes at Large, vol. viii. p. 100.] + +[Footnote 108: History of the War with Tripoli, p. 80.] + +But these governments were barbarous, faithless, and regardless of the +duties of humanity and justice. Treaties with them were evanescent. As +in the days of Charles the Second, they seemed made merely to be broken. +They were observed only so long as money was derived under their +stipulations. Our growing commerce was soon again fatally vexed by the +Barbary corsairs, who now compelled even the ships of our navy to submit +to peculiar indignities. In 1801, the Bey of Tripoli formally declared +war against the United States, and in token thereof "our flagstaff +[before the consulate] was chopped down six feet from the ground, and +left reclining on the terrace."[109] Our citizens once more became the +prize of man-stealers. Colonel Humphreys, now at home in retirement, was +aroused. In an address to the public, he called again for united action, +saying, "Americans of the United States, your fellow-citizens are in +fetters! Can there be but one feeling? Where are the gallant remains of +the race who fought for freedom? Where the glorious heirs of their +patriotism? _Will there never be a truce between political parties? Or +must it forever be the fate of_ FREE STATES, _that the soft voice of +union should be drowned in the hoarse clamors of discord?_ No! Let every +friend of blessed humanity and sacred freedom entertain a better hope +and confidence."[110] Colonel Humphreys was not a statesman only; he was +known as a poet also. And in this character he made another appeal to +his country. In a poem on "The Future Glory of the United States," he +breaks forth into an indignant condemnation of slavery, which, whatever +may be the merits of its verse, should not be omitted here. + + Teach me curst slavery's cruel woes to paint, + Beneath whose weight our captured freemen faint! + * * * * * + Where am I! Heavens! what mean these dolorous cries? + And what these horrid scenes that round me rise? + Heard ye the groans, those messengers of pain? + Heard ye the clanking of the captive's chain? + Heard ye your free-born sons their fate deplore, + Pale in their chains and laboring at the oar? + Saw ye the dungeon, in whose blackest cell, + That house of woe, your friends, your children, dwell?-- + Or saw ye those who dread the torturing hour, + Crushed by the rigors of a tyrant's power? + _Saw ye the shrinking slave, th' uplifted lash, + The frowning butcher, and the reddening gash? + Saw ye the fresh blood where it bubbling broke + From purple scars, beneath the grinding stroke? + Saw ye the naked limbs writhed to and fro, + In wild contortions of convulsing woe?_ + Felt ye the blood, with pangs alternate rolled, + Thrill through your veins and freeze with deathlike cold, + Or fire, as down the tear of pity stole, + Your manly breasts, and harrow up the soul?[111] + +[Footnote 109: Lyman's Diplomacy, vol. ii. p. 384.] + +[Footnote 110: Miscellaneous Works of David Humphreys, p. 75.] + +[Footnote 111: Miscellaneous Works of David Humphreys, pp. 52, 53.] + +The people and government responded to this voice. And here commenced +those early deeds by which our navy became known in Europe. The frigate +Philadelphia, through a reverse of shipwreck rather than war, falling +into the hands of the Tripolitans, was, by a daring act of Decatur, +burned under the guns of the enemy. Other feats of hardihood ensued. A +romantic expedition by General Eaton, from Alexandria, in Egypt, across +the desert of Libya, captured Derne. Three several times Tripoli was +attacked, and, at last, on the 3d of June, 1805, entered into a treaty, +by which it was stipulated that the United States should pay sixty +thousand dollars for the freedom of two hundred American slaves; and +that, in the event of future war between the two countries, prisoners +should not be reduced to slavery, but should be exchanged rank for rank; +and if there were any deficiency on either side, it should be made up by +the payment of five hundred Spanish dollars for each captain, three +hundred dollars for each mate and supercargo, and one hundred dollars +for each seaman.[112] Thus did our country, after successes not without +what is called the glory of arms, again purchase by money the +emancipation of her white citizens. + +[Footnote 112: United States Statutes at Large, vol. viii. p. 214; +Lyman's Diplomacy, vol. ii. p. 388.] + +[Illustration] + +The power of Tripoli was, however, inconsiderable. That of Algiers was +more formidable. It is not a little curious that the largest ship of +this slave-trading state was the Crescent, of thirty-four guns, built in +New Hampshire;[113] _though it is hardly to the credit of our sister +State that the Algerine power derived such important support from her_. +The lawlessness of the corsair again broke forth by the seizure, in +1812, of the brig Edwin, of Salem, and the enslavement of her crew. All +the energies of the country were at this time enlisted in war with Great +Britain; but, even amidst the anxieties of this gigantic contest, the +voice of these captives was heard, awakening a corresponding sentiment +throughout the land, until the government was prompted to seek their +release. Through Mr. Noah, recently appointed consul at Tunis, it +offered to purchase their freedom at three thousand dollars a head.[114] +The answer of the Dey, repeated on several occasions, was, that "not for +two millions of dollars would he sell his American slaves."[115] The +timely treaty of Ghent, in 1815, establishing peace with Great Britain, +left us at liberty to deal with this enslaver of our countrymen. A naval +force was promptly despatched to the Mediterranean, under Commodore +Bainbridge and Commodore Decatur. The rapidity of their movements and +their striking success had the desired effect. In June, 1815, a treaty +was extorted from the Dey of Algiers, by which, after abandoning all +claim to tribute in any form, he delivered his American captives, ten in +number, without any ransom; and stipulated, that hereafter no Americans +should be made slaves or forced to hard labor, and still further, that +"any Christians whatever, captives in Algiers," making their escape and +taking refuge on board an American ship of war, should be safe from all +requisition or reclamation.[116] + +[Footnote 113: History of the War between the United States and Tripoli, +p. 88.] + +[Footnote 114: Noah's Travels, p. 69.] + +[Footnote 115: Ibid. p. 144; National Intelligencer of March 7, 1815.] + +[Footnote 116: United States Statutes at Large, vol. viii. p. 224; +Lyman's Diplomacy, vol. ii. p. 376.] + +It is related of Decatur, that he walked his deck with impatient +earnestness, awaiting the promised signature of the treaty. "Is the +treaty signed?" he cried to the captain of the port and the Swedish +consul, as they reached the Guerriere with a white flag of truce. "It +is," replied the Swede; and the treaty was placed in Decatur's hands. +"Are the prisoners in the boat?" "They are." "Every one of them?" "Every +one, sir." The captive Americans now came forward to greet and bless +their deliverer.[117] Surely this moment--when he looked upon his +emancipated fellow-countrymen, and thought how much he had contributed +to overthrow the relentless system of bondage under which they had +groaned--must have been one of the sweetest in the life of that hardy +son of the sea. But should I not say, even here, that there is now a +citizen of Massachusetts, who, without army or navy, by a simple act of +self-renunciation, has given freedom to a larger number of Christian +American slaves than was done by the sword of Decatur? + +[Footnote 117: Mackenzie's Life of Decatur, p. 268.] + +Thus, not by money, but by arms, was emancipation this time secured. The +country was grateful for the result; though the poor freedmen, ingulfed +in the unknown wastes of ocean, on their glad passage home, were never +able to mingle joys with their fellow-citizens. They were lost in the +Epervier, of which no trace has ever appeared. Nor did the people feel +the melancholy mockery in the conduct of the government, which, having +weakly declared that it "was not in any sense founded on the Christian +religion," now expressly confined the protecting power of its flag to +fugitive "Christians, captives in Algiers," leaving slaves of another +faith to be snatched as between the horns of the altar, and returned to +the continued horrors of their lot. + +The success of the American arms was followed speedily by a more signal +triumph of Great Britain, acting generously in behalf of all the +Christian powers. Her expedition was debated, perhaps prompted, in the +Congress of Vienna, where, after the overthrow of Napoleon, the +brilliant representatives of the different states of Europe, in the +presence of the monarchs of Austria, Prussia, and Russia, were assembled +to consider the evils proper to be remedied by joint action, and to +adjust the disordered balance of empire. Among many high concerns, here +entertained, was the project of a crusade against the Barbary States, in +order to accomplish the complete abolition of Christian slavery there +practised. For this purpose, it was proposed to form "a holy league." +This was earnestly enforced by a memoir from Sir Sidney Smith, the same +who foiled Napoleon at Acre, and who at this time was president of an +association called the "Knights Liberators of the _White_ Slaves in +Africa,"--in our day it might be called an Abolition Society,--thus +adding to the doubtful laurels of war the true glory of striving for the +freedom of his fellow-men.[118] + +[Footnote 118: Memoire sur la Necessite et les Moyens de faire cesser +les Pirateries des Etats Barbaresques. Recu, considere, et adopte a +Paris en Septembre, a Turin le 14 Octobre, 1814, a Vienne durant le +Congres. Par M. Sidney Smith. See Quarterly Review, vol. xv. p. 140, +where this is noticed. Schoell, _Histoire des Traites de Paix_, tom. xi. +p. 402.] + +This project, though not adopted by the Congress, awakened a generous +echo in the public mind. Various advocates appeared in its behalf; and +what the Congress failed to undertake was now especially urged upon +Great Britain, by the agents of Spain and Portugal, who insisted, that, +_because_ this nation had abolished the negro slave trade, it was her +_duty_ to put an end to the slavery of the _whites_.[119] + +[Footnote 119: Edinburgh Review, vol. xxvi. p. 451; Osler's Life of +Exmouth, p. 302; Mackenzie's Life of Decatur, p. 263.] + +A disgraceful impediment seemed at first to interfere. There was a +common belief that the obstructions of the Barbary States, in the +navigation of the Mediterranean, were advantageous to British commerce, +by thwarting and strangling that of other countries; and that therefore +Great Britain, ever anxious for commercial supremacy, would rather +encourage them than seek their overthrow--the love of trade prevailing +over the love of man.[120] This suggestion of a sordid selfishness, +which was willing to coin money out of the lives and liberties of +fellow-Christians, was soon answered. + +[Footnote 120: Quarterly Review, vol. xv. p. 145; Edinburgh Review, vol. +xxvi. p. 449, noticing "A Letter to a Member of Parliament, on the +Slavery of the Christians at Algiers. By Walter Croker, Esq., of +the Royal Navy. London, 1816." Schoell, _Traites de Paix_, tom. +xi. p. 402.] + +At the beginning of the year 1816, Lord Exmouth, who, as Sir Edward +Pellew, had already acquired distinction in the British navy, was +despatched with a squadron to Algiers. By his general orders, bearing +date, Boyne, Port Mahon, March 21, 1816, he announced the object of his +expedition as follows:-- + + "He has been instructed and directed by his Royal Highness, the + Prince Regent, to proceed with the fleet to Algiers, and _there + make certain arrangements for diminishing, at least_, the + piratical excursions of the Barbary States, _by which thousands + of our fellow-creatures, innocently following their commercial + pursuits, have been dragged into the most wretched and + revolting state of slavery_. + + "The commander-in-chief is confident that _this outrageous + system of piracy and slavery rouses in common the same spirit + of indignation which he himself feels_; and should the + government of Algiers refuse the reasonable demands he bears + from the Prince Regent, he doubts not but the flag will be + honorably and zealously supported by every officer and man + under his command, in his endeavors to procure the acceptation + of them by force; and _if force must be resorted to, we have + the consolation of knowing that we fight in the sacred cause of + humanity, and cannot fail of success_."[121] + +[Footnote 121: Osler's Life of Exmouth, p. 297.] + +[Illustration] + +The moderate object of his mission was readily obtained. "Arrangements +for diminishing the piratical excursions of the Barbary States" were +established. Certain Ionian slaves, claimed as British subjects, were +released, and peace was secured for Naples and Sardinia--the former +paying a ransom of five hundred dollars, and the latter of three hundred +dollars, a head, for their subjects liberated from bondage. This was at +Algiers. Lord Exmouth next proceeded to Tunis and Tripoli, where, acting +beyond his instructions, he obtained from both these piratical +governments a promise to abolish Christian slavery within their +dominions. In one of his letters on this event, he says that, in +pressing these concessions, he "acted solely on his own responsibility +and without orders, the causes and reasoning on which, upon general +principles, may be defensible; but, as applying to our own country, may +not be borne out, _the old mercantile interest being against it_."[122] +A similar distrust had been excited in another age by a similar +achievement. Admiral Blake, in the time of Cromwell, after his attack +upon Tunis, writing to his government at home, said, "And now, seeing it +hath pleased God soe signally to justify us herein, I hope his highness +will not be offended at it, nor any who regard duly the honor of our +nation, _although I expect to have the clamors of interested men_."[123] +Thus, more than once in the history of these efforts to abolish White +Slavery, did commerce, the daughter of freedom, fall under the foul +suspicion of disloyalty to her parent! + +[Footnote 122: Osler's Life of Exmouth, p. 303.] + +[Footnote 123: Thurloe's State Papers, vol. ii. p. 390.] + +Lord Exmouth did injustice to the moral sense of England. His conduct +was sustained and applauded, not only in the House of Commons, but by +the public at large. He was soon directed to return to Algiers,--which +had failed to make any general renunciation of the custom of enslaving +Christians,--to extort by force such a stipulation. This expedition is +regarded by British historians with peculiar pride. In all the annals of +their triumphant navy, there is none in which the barbarism of war seems +so much "to smooth its wrinkled front." With a fleet complete at all +points, the Admiral set sail July 25, 1816, on what was deemed a holy +war. With five line-of-battle ships, five heavy frigates, four bomb +vessels, and five gun brigs, besides a Dutch fleet of five frigates and +a corvette, under Admiral Van de Capellan,--who, on learning the object +of the expedition, solicited and obtained leave to cooperate,--on the +27th of August he anchored before the formidable fortifications of +Algiers. It would not be agreeable or instructive to dwell on the scene +of desolation and blood which ensued. Before night the fleet fired, +besides shells and rockets, one hundred and eighteen tons of powder, and +fifty thousand shot, weighing more than five hundred tons. The citadel +and massive batteries of Algiers were shattered and crumbled to ruins. +The storehouses, ships, and gun boats were in flames, while the blazing +lightnings of battle were answered, in a storm of signal fury, by the +lightnings of heaven. The power of the Great Slave Dealer was humbled. + +The terms of submission were announced to his fleet by the Admiral in an +order, dated, Queen Charlotte, Algiers Bay, August 30, 1816, which may +be read with truer pleasure than any in military or naval history. + + "The commander-in-chief," he said, "is happy to inform the + fleet of the final termination of their strenuous exertions, by + the signature of peace, confirmed under a salute of twenty-one + guns, on the following conditions, dictated by his Royal + Highness, the Prince Regent of England. + + "_First._ THE ABOLITION OF CHRISTIAN SLAVERY FOREVER. + + "_Second. The delivery to my flag of all slaves in the + dominions of the Dey, to whatever nation they may belong, at + noon to-morrow._ + + "_Third._ To deliver also to my flag all money received by him + for the redemption of slaves since the commencement of this + year, at noon also to-morrow." + +On the next day, twelve hundred slaves were emancipated, making, with +those liberated in his earlier expedition, more than three thousand, +whom, by address or force, Lord Exmouth had delivered from bondage.[124] + +[Footnote 124: Osler's Life of Exmouth, p. 334; British Annual Register, +(1816,) vol. lviii. pp. 97-106; Shaler's Sketches, pp. 279-294.] + +Thus ended White Slavery in the Barbary States. It had already died out +in Morocco. It had been quietly renounced by Tripoli and Tunis. Its last +retreat was Algiers, whence it was driven amidst the thunder of the +British cannon. + +Signal honors now awaited the Admiral. He was elevated to a new rank in +the peerage, and on his coat of arms was emblazoned a figure never +before known in heraldry--_a Christian slave holding aloft the cross and +dropping his broken fetters_.[125] From the officers of the squadron he +received a costly service of plate, with an inscription, in testimony of +"the memorable victory gained at Algiers, _where the great cause of +Christian freedom was bravely fought and nobly accomplished_."[126] But +higher far than honor were the rich personal satisfactions which he +derived from contemplating the nature of the cause in which he had been +enlisted. In his despatch to the government, describing the battle, and +written at the time, he says, in words which may be felt by others, +engaged, like him, against slavery, "In all the vicissitudes of a long +life of public service, no circumstance has ever produced on my mind +such impressions of gratitude as the event of yesterday. _To have been +one of the humble instruments in the hands of divine Providence for +bringing to reason a ferocious government, and destroying forever the +insufferable and horrid system of Christian slavery, can never cease to +be a source of delight and heartfelt comfort to every individual happy +enough to be employed in it._"[127] + +[Footnote 125: Osler's Life of Exmouth, p. 340.] + +[Footnote 126: Osler's Life of Exmouth, p. 342.] + +[Footnote 127: Ibid. 432; Shaler's Sketches of Algiers, p. 382.] + +[Illustration] + +The reverses of Algiers did not end here. Christian slavery was +abolished; but, in 1830, the insolence of this barbarian government +aroused the vengeance of France to take military possession of the whole +country. Algiers capitulated, the Dey abdicated, and this considerable +state became a French colony. + +Thus I have endeavored to present what I could glean in various fields +on the _history_ of Christian Slavery in the Barbary States. I have +often employed the words of others, as they seemed best calculated to +convey the exact idea of the scene, incident, or sentiment which I +wished to preserve. So doing, I have occupied much time; but I may find +my apology in the words of an English chronicler.[128] "Algier," he +says, "were altogether unworthy so long a discourse, _were not the +unworthinesse worthy our consideration_. I meane the cruell abuse of the +Christian name, which let us for inciting our zeale and exciting our +charitie and thankfulness more deeply weigh, to releeve those in +miseries, as we may, with our paynes, prayers, purses, and all the best +meditations." + +[Footnote 128: Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. ii. p. 1565.] + + +III. It is by a natural transition that I am now conducted to the +inquiry into the _true character_ of the evil whose history has been +traced. And here I shall be brief. + +The slavery of Christians by the Barbary States is regarded as an +unquestionable outrage upon humanity and justice. Nobody hesitates in +this judgment. Our liveliest sympathies attend these white +brethren--torn from their homes, the ties of family and friendship +rudely severed, parent separated from child and husband from wife, +exposed at public sale like cattle, and dependent, like cattle, upon the +uncertain will of an arbitrary taskmaster. We read of a "gentleman" who +was compelled to be the valet of the barbarian Emperor of Morocco;[129] +and Calderon, the pride of the Spanish stage, has depicted the miserable +fate of a Portuguese prince, condemned by infidel Moors to carry water +in a garden. But the lowly in condition had their unrecorded sorrows +also, whose sum total must swell to a fearful amount. Who can tell how +many hearts have been wrung by the pangs of separation, how many crushed +by the comfortless despair of interminable bondage? "Speaking as a +Christian," says the good Catholic father who has chronicled much of +this misery, "if on the earth there can be any condition which, in its +character and evils, may represent in any manner the dolorous passion of +the Son of God, (which exceeded all evils and torments, because by it +the Lord suffered every kind of evil and affliction,) it is, beyond +question and doubt, none other than slavery and captivity in Algiers and +Barbary, whose infinite evils, terrible torments, miseries without +number, afflictions without mitigation, it is impossible to comprehend +in a brief span of time."[130] When we consider the author's character, +as a father of the Catholic Church, it will be felt that language can no +further go. + +[Footnote 129: Braithwaite's Revolutions of Morocco, p. 233; Noah's +Travels, p. 367.] + +[Footnote 130: Haedo, _Historia_, pp. 139, 140. Besides the +illustrations of the hardships of White Slavery already introduced, I +refer briefly to the following: Edinburgh Review, vol. xxvi. pp. +452-454; Croker's Letter, pp. 11-13; Quarterly Review, vol. xv. p. 145; +Eaton's Life, p. 100; Noah's Travels, p. 366.] + +[Illustration] + +In nothing are the impiety and blasphemy of this custom more apparent +than in the auctions of human beings, where men were sold to the highest +bidder. Through the personal experience of a young English merchant, +Abraham Brown, afterwards a settler in Massachusetts, we may learn how +these were conducted. In 1655, before the liberating power of Cromwell +had been acknowledged, he was captured, together with a whole crew, and +carried into Sallee. His own words, in his memoirs still preserved, will +best tell his story.[131] "On landing," he says, "an exceeding great +company of most dismal spectators were led to behold us in our +captivated condition. There was liberty for all sorts to come and look +on us, that whosoever had a mind to buy any of us on the day appointed +for our sale together in the market, might see, as I may say, what they +would like to have for their money; whereby we had too many comfortless +visitors, both from the town and country, one saying he would buy this +man, and the other that. To comfort us, we were told by the Christian +slaves already there, if we met with such and such patrons, our usage +would not be so bad as we supposed; though, indeed, our men found the +usage of the best bad enough. Fresh victuals and bread were supplied, I +suppose to feed us up for the market, that we might be in some good +plight against the day we were to be sold. And now I come to speak of +our being sold into this doleful slavery. It was doleful in respect to +the time and manner. As to the time, it was on our Sabbath day, in the +morning, about the time the people of God were about to enjoy the +liberty of God's house; this was the time our bondage was confirmed. +Again, it was sad in respect to the manner of our selling. Being all of +us brought into the market-place, we were led about, two or three at a +time, in the midst of a great concourse of people, both from the town +and country, who had a full sight of us, and if that did not satisfy, +they would come and feel of your hand, and look into your mouth to see +whether you are sound in health, or to see, by the hardness of your +hand, whether you have been a laborer or not. The manner of buying is +this: He that bids the greatest price hath you; they bidding one upon +another until the highest has you for a slave, whoever he is, or +wherever he dwells. As concerning myself, being brought to the market in +the weakest condition of any of our men, I was led forth among the cruel +multitude to be sold. As yet being undiscovered what I was, I was like +to have been sold at a very low rate, not above L15 sterling, whereas +our ordinary seamen were sold for L30 and L35 sterling, and two boys +were sold for L40 apiece; and being in this sad posture led up and down +at least one hour and a half, during which time a Dutchman, that was our +carpenter, discovered me to some Jews, they increased from L15 to L75, +which was the price my patron gave for me, being 300 ducats; and had I +not been so weakened, and in these rags, (indeed, I made myself more so +than I was, for sometimes, as they led me, I pretended I could not go, +and did often sit down;) I say, had not these things been, in all +likelihood I had been sold for as much again in the market, and thus I +had been dearer, and the difficulty greater to be redeemed. During the +time of my being led up and down the market, I was possessed with the +greatest fears, not knowing who my patron might be. I feared it might be +one from the country, who would carry me where I could not return, or it +might be one in and about Sallee, of which we had sad accounts; and many +other distracting thoughts I had. And though I was like to have been +sold unto the most cruel man in Sallee, there being but one piece of +eight between him and my patron, yet the Lord was pleased to cause him +to buy me, of whom I may speak, to the glory of God, as the kindest man +in the place." + +[Footnote 131: MS. Memoirs.] + +This is the story of a respectable person, little distinguished in the +world. But the slave dealer applied his inexorable system without +distinction of persons. The experiences of St. Vincent de Paul did not +differ from those of Abraham Brown. That eminent character, admired, +beloved and worshipped by large circles of mankind, has also left a +record of his sale as a slave.[132] "Their proceedings," he says, "at +our sale were as follows: After we had been stripped, they gave to each +one of us a pair of drawers, a linen coat, with a cap, and paraded us +through the city of Tunis, where they had come expressly to sell us. +Having made us make five or six turns through the city, with the chain +at our necks, they conducted us back to the boat, that the merchants +might come to see who could eat well, and who not; and to show that our +wounds were not mortal. This done, they took us to the public square, +where the merchants came to visit us, precisely as they do at the +purchase of a horse or of cattle, making us open the mouth to see our +teeth, feeling our sides, searching our wounds, and making us move our +steps, trot and run, then lift burdens, and then wrestle, in order to +see the strength of each, and a thousand other sorts of brutalities." + +[Footnote 132: _Biographie Universelle_, art. Vincent de Paul.] + +And here we may refer again to Cervantes, whose pen was dipped in his +own dark experience. In his Life in Algiers, he has displayed the +horrors of the white slave market. The public crier exposes for sale a +father and mother with their two children. They are to be sold +separately, or, according to the language of our day, "in lots to suit +purchasers." The father is resigned, confiding in God; the mother sobs; +while the children, ignorant of the inhumanity of men, show an +instinctive trust in the constant and wakeful protection of their +parents--now, alas! impotent to shield them from dire calamity. A +merchant, inclining to purchase one of the "little ones," and wishing to +ascertain his bodily condition, causes him to open his mouth. The child, +still ignorant of the doom which awaits him, imagines that the inquirer +is about to extract a tooth, and, assuring him that it does not ache, +begs him to desist. The merchant, in other respects an estimable man, +pays one hundred and thirty dollars for the youngest child, and the sale +is completed. Thus a human being--one of those children of whom it has +been said, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven"--is profanely treated as +an article of merchandise, and torn far away from a mother's arms and a +father's support. The hardening influence of custom has steeled the +merchant into insensibility to this violation of humanity and justice, +this laceration of sacred ties, this degradation of the image of God. +The unconscious heartlessness of the slave dealer, and the anguish of +his victims, are depicted in the dialogue which ensues after the +sale.[133] + +[Illustration] + + MERCHANT. + + Come hither, child; 'tis time to go to rest. + + JUAN. + + _Signor, I will not leave my mother here, + To go with any one._ + + MOTHER. + + _Alas! my child, thou art no longer mine, + But his who bought thee._ + + JUAN. + + _What! then, have you, mother, + Forsaken me?_ + + MOTHER. + + _O Heavens! how cruel are ye!_ + + MERCHANT. + + _Come, hasten, boy._ + + JUAN. + + Will you go with me, brother? + + FRANCISCO. + + I cannot, Juan, 'tis not in my power;-- + May Heaven protect you, Juan! + + MOTHER. + + O my child, + My joy and my delight, God won't forget thee! + + JUAN. + + O father! mother! whither will they bear me + Away from you? + + MOTHER. + + Permit me, worthy Signor, + To speak a moment in my infant's ear. + Grant me this small contentment; very soon + I shall know nought but grief. + + MERCHANT. + + What you would say, + Say now; to-night is the last time. + + MOTHER. + + To-night + Is the first time my heart e'er felt such grief. + + JUAN. + + _Pray keep me with you, mother, for I know not + Whither he'd carry me._ + + MOTHER. + + _Alas, poor child! + Fortune forsook thee even at thy birth._ + The heavens are overcast, the elements + Are turbid, and the very sea and winds + Are all combined against me. _Thou, my child, + Know'st not the dark misfortunes into which + Thou art so early plunged, but happily + Lackest the power to comprehend thy fate._ + What I would crave of thee, my life, since I + Must never more be blessed with seeing thee, + Is that thou never, never wilt forget + To say, as thou wert wont, thy _Ave Mary_; + For that bright queen of goodness, grace, and virtue + Can loosen all thy bonds and give thee freedom. + + AYDAR. + + Behold the wicked Christian, how she counsels + Her innocent child! You wish, then, that your child + Should, like yourself, continue still in error. + + JUAN. + + _O mother, mother, may I not remain? + And must these Moors, then, carry me away?_ + + MOTHER. + + _With thee, my child, they rob me of my treasures._ + + JUAN. + + O, I am much afraid! + + MOTHER. + + 'Tis I, my child, + Who ought to fear at seeing thee depart. + Thou wilt forget thy God, me, and thyself. + What else can I expect from thee, abandoned + At such a tender age, amongst a people + Full of deceit and all iniquity? + + CRIER. + + _Silence, you villainous woman! if you would not + Have your head pay for what your tongue has done._ + +[Footnote 133: This translation is borrowed from Sismondi's Literature +of the South of Europe, by Roscoe, vol. iii. p. 381. There is a letter +of "John Dunton, Mariner," addressed to the English Admiralty in 1637, +which might furnish the foundation of a similar scene. "For my only +son," he says, "is now a slave in Algier, and but ten years of age, and +like to be lost forever, without God's great mercy and the King's +clemency, which, I hope, may be in some manner obtained."--Osborne's +Voyages, vol. ii. p. 492.] + +From this scene we gladly avert the countenance, while, from the bottom +of our hearts, we send our sympathies to the unhappy sufferers. Fain +would we avert their fate; fain would we destroy the system of slavery, +that has made them wretched and their masters cruel. And yet we would +not judge with harshness an Algerine slave owner. He has been reared in +a religion of slavery; he has learned to regard Christians, "guilty of a +skin not colored like his own," as lawful prey; and has found sanctions +for his conduct in the injunctions of the Koran, in the custom of his +country, and in the instinctive dictates of an imagined self-interest. +It is, then, the "peculiar institution" which we are aroused to +execrate, rather than the Algerine slave masters, who glory in its +influence, and, + + so perfect is their misery, + Not once perceive their foul disfigurement, + But boast themselves more comely than before. + +But there is reason to believe that the sufferings of the white slaves +were not often greater than is the natural incident of slavery. There is +an important authority which presents this point in an interesting +light. It is that of General Eaton, for some time consul of the United +States at Tunis, and whose name is not without note in the painful +annals of war. In a letter to his wife, dated at Tunis, April 6, 1799, +and written amidst opportunities of observation such as few have +enjoyed, he briefly describes the condition of this unhappy class, +illustrating it by a comparison less flattering to our country than to +Barbary. "Many of the Christian slaves," he says, "have died of grief, +and the others linger out a life less tolerable than death. Alas! +remorse seizes my whole soul, when I reflect that this is, indeed, a +copy of the very barbarity which my eyes have seen in my own native +country. And yet we boast of liberty and national justice. How +frequently have I seen in the Southern States of our own country weeping +mothers leading guiltless infants to the sales with as deep anguish as +if they led them to the slaughter, and yet felt my bosom tranquil in the +view of these aggressions upon defenceless humanity! But when I see the +same enormities practised upon beings whose complexion and blood claim +kindred with my own, I curse the perpetrators, and weep over the +wretched victims of their rapacity. _Indeed, truth and justice demand +from me the confession that the Christian slaves among the barbarians of +Africa are treated with more humanity than the African slaves among the +professing Christians of civilized America_; and yet here sensibility +bleeds at every pore for the wretches whom fate has doomed to +slavery."[134] + +[Footnote 134: Eaton's Life, p. 145.] + +Such testimony would seem to furnish a decisive standard or measure of +comparison by which to determine the character of White Slavery in the +Barbary States. But there are other considerations and authorities. One +of these is the influence of the religion of these barbarians. +Travellers remark the generally kind treatment bestowed by Mohammedans +upon slaves.[135] The lash rarely, if ever, lacerates the back of the +female; the knife or branding iron is not employed upon any human being +to mark him as the property of his fellow-man. Nor is the slave doomed, +as in other countries, where the Christian religion is professed, to +unconditional and perpetual service, without prospect of _redemption_. +Hope, the last friend of misfortune, may brighten his captivity. He is +not so walled around by inhuman institutions as to be inaccessible to +freedom. "And unto such of your slaves," says the Koran, in words worthy +of adoption in the legislation of Christian countries, "as desire a +written instrument, allowing them to redeem themselves on paying a +certain sum, write one, if ye know good in them, and give them of the +riches of God, which he hath given you."[136] Thus from the Koran, which +ordains slavery, come lessons of benignity to the slave; and one of the +most touching stories in Mohammedanism is of the generosity of Ali, the +companion of the Prophet, who, after fasting for three days, gave his +whole provision to a captive not more famished than himself.[137] + +[Footnote 135: Wilson's Travels, p. 93; Edinburgh Review, vol. xxxviii. +p. 403; Noah's Travels, p. 302; Quarterly Review, vol. xv. p. 168; +Shaler's Sketches of Algiers, p. 77.] + +[Footnote 136: Sale's Koran, chap. 24, vol. ii. p. 194. The right of +redemption was recognized by the Gentoo laws. Halhed's Code, cap. 8, Sec. +1, 2. It was unknown in the British West Indies while slavery existed +there. Stephens on West India Slavery, vol. ii. pp. 378-384. It is also +unknown in the Slave States of our country.] + +[Footnote 137: Sales's Koran, vol. ii. p. 474, note.] + +Such precepts and examples doubtless had their influence in Algiers. It +is evident, from the history of the country, that the prejudice of race +did not so far prevail as to stamp upon the slaves and their descendants +any indelible mark of exclusion from power and influence. It often +happened that they arrived at eminent posts in the state. The seat of +the Deys, more than once, was filled by humble Christian captives, who +had tugged for years at the oar.[138] + +[Footnote 138: Haedo, _Historia de Argel_, p. 122; Quarterly Review, +vol. xv. pp. 169, 172; Shaler's Sketches of Algiers, p. 77; Short +Account of Algiers, pp. 22, 25. It seems to have been supposed, that, +according to the Koran, the condition of slavery ceased when the party +became a Mussulman. Penny Cyclopaedia, art. _Slavery_; Noah's Travels, p. +302; Shaler's Sketches, p. 69. In point of fact, freedom generally +followed conversion; but I do not find any injunction on the subject in +the Koran.] + +Nor do we feel, from the narratives of captives and of travellers, that +the condition of the Christian slave was rigorous beyond the ordinary +lot of slavery. "The Captive's Story" in Don Quixote fails to impress +the reader with any peculiar horror of the life from which he had +escaped. It is often said that the sufferings of Cervantes were among +the most severe which even Algiers could inflict.[139] But they did not +repress the gayety of his temper; and we learn that in the building +where he was confined there was a chapel or oratory, in which mass was +celebrated, the sacrament administered, and sermons regularly preached +by captive priests.[140] Nor was this all. The pleasures of the theatre +were enjoyed by these slaves; and the farces of Lope de Rueda, a +favorite Spanish dramatist of the time, served, in actual +representation, to cheer this house of bondage.[141] + +[Footnote 139: _De los peores que en Argel auia._ Haedo, _Historia de +Argel_, p. 85; Navarrete, _Vida de Cervantes_, p. 361.] + +[Footnote 140: Roscoe's life of Cervantes, p. 303.] + +[Footnote 141: _Banos de Argel._] + +The experience of the devoted Portuguese ecclesiastic, Father Thomas, +illustrates this lot. A slave in Morocco, he was able to minister to his +fellow-slaves, and to compose a work on the Passion of Jesus Christ, +which has been admired for its unction, and translated into various +tongues. At last liberated through the intervention of the Portuguese +ambassador, he chose to remain behind, notwithstanding the solicitations +of relatives at home, that he might continue to instruct and console the +unhappy men, his late companions in bonds.[142] + +[Footnote 142: _Biographie Universelle_, art. Thomas de Jesus; Digby's +Board Stone of Honor, Tancredus, Sec. 9, p. 181.] + +Even the story of St. Vincent de Paul, so brutally sold in the public +square, is not without its gleams of light. He was bought by a +fisherman, who was soon constrained to get rid of him, "having nothing +so contrary except the sea." He then passed into the hands of an old +man, whom he pleasantly describes as a chemical doctor, a sovereign +maker of quintessences, very humane and kind, who had labored for the +space of fifty years in search of the philosopher's stone. "He loved me +much," says the fugitive slave, "and pleased himself by discoursing to +me of alchemy, and then of his religion, to which he made every effort +to draw me, promising me riches and all his wisdom." On the death of +this master, he passed to a nephew, by whom he was sold to still another +person, a renegade from Nice, who took him to the mountains, where the +country was extremely hot and desert. A Turkish wife of the renegade +becoming interested in him, and curious to know his manner of life at +home, visited him daily at his work in the fields, and listened with +delight to the slave, away from his country and the churches of his +religion, as he sang the psalm of the children of Israel in a foreign +land: "By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down; yea, we wept when we +remembered Zion."[143] + +[Footnote 143: _Biographie Universelle_, art. Vincent de Paul.] + +[Illustration] + +The kindness of the slave master often appears. The English merchant +Abraham Brown, whose sale at Sallee has been already described, makes +known, in his memoirs, that, after he had been carried to the house of +his master, his wounds were tenderly washed and dressed by his master's +wife, and "indeed the whole family gave him comfortable words." He was +furnished with a mat to lie on, "and some three or four days after +provided with a shirt, such a one as it was, a pair of shoes, and an old +doublet." His servile toils troubled him less than "being commanded by a +negro man, who had been a long time in his patron's house a freeman, at +whose beck and command he was obliged to be obedient for the doing of +the least about the house or mill;" and he concludes his lament on this +degradation as follows: "Thus I, who had commanded many men in several +parts of the world, must now be commanded by a negro, who, with his two +countrywomen in the house, scorned to drink out of the water pot I drank +of, whereby I was despised of the despised people of the world."[144] + +[Footnote 144: MS. Memoirs.] + +At a later day we are furnished with another authentic picture. Captain +Braithwaite, who accompanied the British minister to Morocco in 1727, in +order to procure the liberation of the British captives, after +describing their comfortable condition, adds, "I am sure we saw several +captives who lived much better in Barbary than ever they did in their +own country. Whatever money in charity was sent them by their friends in +Europe was their own, unless they defrauded one another, which has +happened much oftener than by the Moors. Several of them are rich, and +many have carried considerable sums out of the country, to the truth of +which we are all witnesses. Several captives keep their mules, and some +their servants; and yet this is called insupportable slavery among Turks +and Moors. But we found this, as well as many other things in this +country, strangely misrepresented."[145] + +[Footnote 145: Braithwaite's Revolutions in Morocco, p. 353.] + +These statements--which, to those who do not place freedom above all +price, may seem, at first view, to take the sting even from slavery--are +not without support from other sources. Colonel Keatinge, who, as a +member of a diplomatic mission from England, visited Morocco in 1785, +says of this evil there, that "it is very slightly inflicted, and as to +any labor undergone, it does not deserve the name;"[146] while Mr. +Lempriere, who was in the same country not long afterwards, adds, "To +the disgrace of Europe, the Moors treat their slaves with +humanity."[147] In Tripoli, we are told, by a person for ten years a +resident, that the same gentleness prevailed. "It is a great alleviation +to our feelings," says the writer, speaking of the slaves, "to see them +easy and well dressed, and, so far from wearing chains, as captives do +in most other places, they are perfectly at liberty."[148] We have +already seen the testimony of General Eaton with regard to slavery in +Tunis; while Mr. Noah, one of his successors in the consulate of the +United States at that place, says, "In Tunis, from my observation, the +slaves are not severely treated; they are very useful, and many of them +have made money."[149] And Mr. Shaler, describing the chief seat of +Christian slavery, says, "In short, there were slaves who left Algiers +with regret."[150] + +[Footnote 146: Keatinge's Travels, p. 250; Quarterly Review, vol. xv. p. +146. See also Chenier's Present State of Morocco, vol. i. p. 192; ii. p. +369.] + +[Footnote 147: Lempriere's Tour, p. 290. See also pp. 3, 147, 190, 279.] + +[Footnote 148: Narrative of Ten Years' Residence at Tripoli, p. 241.] + +[Footnote 149: Noah's Travels, p. 368.] + +[Footnote 150: Shaler's Sketches, p. 77.] + +A French writer of more recent date asserts with some vehemence, and +with the authority of an eye witness, that the Christian slaves at +Algiers were not exposed to the miseries which they represented. I do +not know that he vindicates their slavery, but, like Captain +Braithwaite, he evidently regards many of them as better off than they +would be at home. According to him, they were well clad and well fed, +_much better than the free Christians there_. The youngest and most +comely were taken as pages by the Dey. Others were employed in the +barracks; others in the galleys; but even here there was a chapel, as in +the time of Cervantes, for the free exercise of the Christian religion. +Those who happened to be artisans, as carpenters, locksmiths, and +calkers, were let to the owners of vessels. Others were employed on the +public works; while others still were allowed the privilege of keeping a +shop, in which their profits were sometimes so large as to enable them +at the end of a year to purchase their ransom. But these were often +known to become indifferent to freedom, and to prefer Algiers to their +own country. The slaves of private persons were sometimes employed in +the family of their master, where their treatment necessarily depended +much upon his character. If he were gentle and humane, their lot was +fortunate; they were regarded as children of the house. If he were harsh +and selfish, then the iron of slavery did, indeed, enter their souls. +Many were bought to be sold again for profit into distant parts of the +country, where they were doomed to exhausting labor; in which event +their condition was most grievous. But special care was bestowed upon +all who became ill--not so much, it is admitted, from humanity as +through fear of losing them.[151] + +[Footnote 151: _Histoire d'Alger: Description de ce Royaume, etc., de +ses Forces de Terre et de Mer, Moeurs et Costumes des Habitans, des +Mores, des Arabes, des Juifs, des Chretiens, de ses Lois, etcs._ (Paris, +1830,) chap. 27.] + +But, whatever deductions may be made from the familiar stories of White +Slavery in the Barbary States,--admitting that it was mitigated by the +genial influence of Mohammedanism,--that the captives were well clad and +well fed, much better than the free Christians there,--that they were +allowed opportunities of Christian worship,--that they were often +treated with lenity and affectionate care,--that they were sometimes +advanced to posts of responsibility and honor,--and that they were +known, in their contentment or stolidity, to become indifferent to +freedom,--still the institution or custom is hardly less hateful in our +eyes. Slavery in all its forms, even under the mildest influences, is a +wrong and a curse. No accidental gentleness of the master can make it +otherwise. Against it reason, experience, the heart of man, all cry out. +"Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, Slavery! thou art a bitter +draught! and though thousands in all ages have been made to drink of +thee, thou art no less bitter on that account." Algerine Slavery was a +violation of the law of nature and of God. It was a usurpation of rights +not granted to man. + + O execrable son, so to aspire + Above his brethren, to himself assuming + Authority usurped, from God not given! + He gave us only over beast, fish, fowl, + Dominion absolute; that right we hold + By his donation; but man over men + He made not lord, such title to himself + Reserving, human left from human free.[152] + +Such a relation, in defiance of God, could not fail to accumulate +disastrous consequences upon all in any way parties to it; for injustice +and wrong are fatal alike to the doer and the sufferer. It is notorious +that, in Algiers, it exerted a most pernicious influence on master as +well as slave. The slave was crushed and degraded, his intelligence +abased, even his love of freedom extinguished. The master, accustomed +from childhood to revolting inequalities of condition, was exalted into +a mood of unconscious arrogance and self-confidence, inconsistent with +the virtues of a pure and upright character. Unlimited power is apt to +stretch towards license; and the wives and daughters of Christian slaves +were often pressed to be the concubines of their Algerine masters.[153] + +[Footnote 152: Paradise Lost, book xii. 64-71.] + +[Footnote 153: Noah's Travels, p. 248, 253; Quarterly Review, vol. xv. +p. 168. Among the concubines of a prince of Morocco were two slaves of +the age of fifteen, one of English, and the other of French extraction. +Lempriere's Tour, p. 147. There is an account of the fate of "one Mrs. +Shaw, an Irish woman," in words hardly polite enough to be quoted. She +was swept into the harem of Muley Ishmael, who "forced her to turn +Moor;" "but soon after, having taken a dislike to her, he gave her to a +soldier."--Braithwaite's Morocco, p. 191.] + +It is well, then, that it has passed away! The Barbary States seem less +barbarous, when we no longer discern this cruel oppression! + +But the story of slavery there is not yet all told. While the Barbary +States received white slaves by sea, stolen by corsairs, they also, from +time immemorial, imported black slaves from the south. Over the vast, +illimitable sea of sand, in which is absorbed their southern +border,--traversed by camels, those "ships of the desert,"--were brought +those unfortunate beings, as merchandise, with gold dust and ivory, +doomed often to insufferable torments, while cruel thirst parched +the lips, and tears vainly moistened the eyes. They also were ravished +from their homes, and, like their white brethren from the north, +compelled to taste of slavery. In numbers they have far surpassed +their Christian peers. But for long years no pen or voice pleaded +their cause; nor did the Christian nations--professing a religion +which teaches universal humanity, without respect of persons, and +sends the precious sympathies of neighborhood to all who suffer, even +at the farthest pole--ever interfere in any way in their behalf. The +navy of Great Britain, by the throats of their artillery, argued the +freedom of all _fellow-Christians_, without distinction of _nation_; +but they heeded not the slavery of other brethren in bonds--Mohammedans +or idolaters, children of the same Father in heaven. Lord Exmouth did +but half his work. In confining the stipulation to the abolition of +Christian slavery only, this Abolitionist made a discrimination, which, +whether founded on religion or color, was selfish and unchristian. Here, +again, was the same inconsistency which darkened the conduct of Charles +the Fifth, and has constantly recurred throughout the history of this +outrage. Forgetful of the Brotherhood of the Race, Christian powers +have deemed the slavery of blacks just and proper, while the slavery +of whites has been branded as unjust and sinful. + +[Illustration] + +As the British fleet sailed proudly from the harbor of Algiers, bearing +its emancipated white slaves, and the express stipulation, that +Christian slavery was abolished there forever, it left behind in bondage +large numbers of blacks, distributed throughout all the Barbary States. +Neglected thus by exclusive and unchristian Christendom, it is pleasant +to know that their lot is not always unhappy. In Morocco, negroes are +still detained as slaves; but the prejudice of color seems not to +prevail there. They have been called "the grand cavaliers of this part +of Barbary."[154] They often become the chief magistrates and rulers of +cities.[155] They constituted the body guard of several of the emperors, +and, on one occasion at least, exercised the prerogative of the +Praetorian cohorts, in dethroning their master.[156] If negro slavery +still exists in this state, it has little of the degradation connected +with it elsewhere. Into Algiers France has already carried the benign +principle of law--earlier recognized by her than by the English +courts[157]--which secures freedom to all beneath its influence. And now +we are cheered anew by the glad tidings recently received, that the Bey +of Tunis, "for the glory of God, and to distinguish man from the brute +creation," has decreed the total abolition of human slavery throughout +his dominions. + +[Footnote 154: Braithwaite's Morocco, p. 350. See also Quarterly Review, +vol. xv. p. 168.] + +[Footnote 155: Braithwaite, p. 222.] + +[Footnote 156: Ibid. p. 381.] + +[Footnote 157: Somersett's case, first declaring this principle, was +decided in 1772. M. Schoell says, that "this fine maxim has always +obtained" in France.--_Histoire Abregee des Traites de Paix_, tom. xi. +p. 178. By the royal ordinance 1318, it was declared, that "all men are +born free (_francs_) by nature; and that the kingdom of the French +(_Francs_) should be so in reality as in name." But this "fine maxim" +was not recognized in France so completely as M. Schoell asserts. See +Encyclopedie, (de Diderot et de D'Alembert,) art. _Esclavage_.] + +Let us, then, with hope and confidence, turn to the Barbary States! The +virtues and charities do not come singly. Among them is a common bond, +stronger than that of science or knowledge. Let one find admission, and +a goodly troop will follow. Nor is it unreasonable to anticipate other +improvements in states which have renounced a long-cherished system of +White Slavery, while they have done much to abolish or mitigate the +slavery of others not white, and to overcome the inhuman prejudice of +color. The Christian nations of Europe first declared, and practically +enforced, within their own European dominions, the vital truth of +freedom, that man cannot hold property in his brother man. Algiers and +Tunis, like Saul of Tarsus, have been turned from the path of +persecution, and now receive the same faith. Algiers and Tunis now help +to plead the cause of Freedom. Such a cause is in sacred fellowship with +all those principles which promote the Progress of Man. And who can tell +that this despised portion of the globe is not destined to yet another +restoration? It was here in Northern Africa that civilization was first +nursed, that commerce early spread her white wings, that Christianity +was taught by the honeyed lips of Augustine. All these are again +returning to their ancient home. Civilization, commerce, and +Christianity once more shed their benignant influences upon the land to +which they have long been strangers. A new health and vigor now animate +its exertions. Like its own giant Antaeus,--whose tomb is placed by +tradition among the hillsides of Algiers,--it has been often felled to +the earth, but it now rises with renewed strength, to gain yet higher +victories. + +[Illustration] + + * * * * * + +[Transcribers' Note: Delivered as a Lecture before the Boston Mercantile +Library Association, February 17, 1847; this illustrated version +published in 1853.--Spelling varieties as in "stanch" (staunch) have +been maintained.--This text uses _underscores_ to indicate italic +fonts.] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of White Slavery in the Barbary States, by +Charles Sumner + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHITE SLAVERY IN BARBARY STATES *** + +***** This file should be named 35222.txt or 35222.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/2/2/35222/ + +Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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