A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade: Addressed to the Freeholders and Other Inhabitants of Yorkshire, Volume 1 |
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A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade: Addressed to the Freeholders ... William 1759-1833 Wilberforce No preview available - 2021 |
Common terms and phrases
abolishing the Slave abolition Abolitionists Africa African Slave Trade almoſt appear argument Astley's benevolent Captain carried cause character circumstances civilized coast colonies colour comforts consider considerable crimes cruelty cultivation Damel danger declared degradation Depreda disposition domeſtic effects European evils feelings firſt happiness House of Commons human important increase inhabitants injury inſtance intereſt islands Jamaica juſt justice king labour laſt leaſt legislatures Luke Hansard Mandingoes maſters ment mind misery moral moſt muſt nations natives nature Negro race Negro Slaves Negroes never opponents Parke Parliament particular persons planters practice principle produce proof punishment queſtion racter reason remark render respectable rience says scarcely sell shew Sir George Young Slave ship Slave Trade slavery sold ſtate ſtill sufferings supply supposed surely tion tory Acts town treatment truth ture urged utterly various villages Voyages Weſt West Indian West Indian Proprietors West Indies whole witnesses wretched
Popular passages
Page 380 - ... great part of the night. They lightened their labour by songs, one of which was composed extempore; for I was myself the subject of it. It was sung by one of the young women, the rest joining in a sort of chorus. The air was sweet and plaintive, and the words, literally translated, were these. "The winds roared, and the rains fell. The poor white man, faint and weary, came and sat under our tree. He has no mother to bring him milk; no wife to grind his corn.
Page 380 - The rites of hospitality being thus performed towards a stranger in distress, my worthy benefactress (pointing to the mat, and telling me that I might sleep there without apprehension) called to the female part of the family, who had stood gazing on me all the while in fixed astonishment, to resume their task of spinning cotton, in which they continued to employ themselves great part of the night.
Page 382 - On the other hand, as some counterbalance to this depravity in their nature, allowing it to be such, it is impossible for me to forget the disinterested charity, and tender solicitude, with which many of these poor heathens (from the sovereign of Sego, to the poor women. who received me at different times into their cottages when I was perishing of hunger) sympathised with me in my sufferings ; relieved my distresses ; and contributed to my safety.
Page 379 - The view of this extensive city; the numerous canoes upon the river; the crowded population, and the cultivated state of the surrounding country, formed altogether a prospect of civilization and magnificence, which I little expected to find in the bosom of Africa.
Page 380 - About sunset, however, as I was preparing to pass the night in this manner, and had turned my horse loose, that he might graze at liberty, a negro woman, returning from the labours of the field, stopped to observe me ; and perceiving that I was weary and dejected, inquired into my situation.
Page 383 - Strike me," said my attendant, "but do not curse my mother." The same sentiment I found universally to prevail, and observed in all parts of Africa, that the greatest affront which could be offered to a Negro, was to reflect on her who gave him birth.
Page 57 - In general, they are void of genius, and seem almost incapable of making any progress in civility or science. They have no plan or system of morality among them. Their barbarity to their children debases their nature even below that of brutes. They have no moral sensations; no taste but for women; gormondizing, and drinking to excess; no wish but to be idle.
Page 58 - At the end of a tortured, negrophobic passage, that shifts anxiously between piety, prevarication, and perversion, the text finally confronts its fear; nothing other than the repetition of its resemblance "in part": (Negroes) are represented by all authors as the vilest of human kind, to which they have little more pretension of resemblance than what arises from their exterior forms...
Page 380 - ... numerous in the neighbourhood, that I should have been under the necessity of climbing up the tree, and resting among the branches. About sunset, however, as I was preparing to pass the night in this manner, and had turned my horse loose, that...