Before dinner they were amused after the manner of their
country; instruments of music were introduced: the song and the dance were
promoted: games of chance were furnished them: the men played and sang,
while the women and girls made fanciful ornaments from beads, with which
they were plentifully supplied. They were indulged in all their little
fancies, and kept in sprightly humour. Another of them had said, when the
sailors were flogged, it was out of the hearing of the Africans, lest it
should depress their spirits. He by no means wished to say that such
descriptions were wilful misrepresentations. If they were not, it proved
that interest of prejudice was capable of spreading a film over the eyes
thick enough to occasion total blindness.
Others, however, and these men of the greatest veracity, had given a
different account. What would the house think, when by the concurring
testimony of these the true history was laid open? The slaves who had been
described as rejoicing in their captivity, were so wrung with misery at
leaving their country, that it was the constant practice to set sail in the
night, lest they should know the moment of their departure.
Pages:
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54