With respect to the miseries of the Middle Passage, he had said so much on
a former occasion, that he would spare the feelings of the committee as
much as he could. He would therefore simply state that the evidence, which
was before them, confirmed all those scenes of wretchedness, which he had
then described; the same suffering from a state of suffocation by being
crowded together; the same dancing in fetters; the same melancholy singing;
the same eating by compulsion; the same despair; the same insanity; and all
the other abominations which characterized the trade. New instances however
had occurred, where these wretched men had resolved on death to terminate
their woes. Some had destroyed themselves by refusing sustenance, in spite
of threats and punishments. Others had thrown themselves into the sea; and
more than one, when in the act of drowning, were seen to wave their hands
in triumph, "exulting" (to use the words of an eye-witness) "that they had
escaped." Yet these and similar things, when viewed through the African
medium he had mentioned, took a different shape and colour. Captain Knox,
an adverse witness, had maintained, that slaves lay during the night in
tolerable comfort.
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