For he justified the chaining of the Negros on
board the slave-vessels, on account of "their bloody, cruel, and malicious
dispositions." But hear his commendation of some of the Aborigines of
Jamaica, "who had miserably perished in caves, whither they had retired to
escape the tyranny of the Spaniards. These," says he, "left a glorious
monument of their having disdained to survive the loss of their liberty and
their country." And yet this same historian could not perceive that this
natural love of liberty might operate as strongly and as laudably in the
African Negro, as in the Indian of Jamaica.
He was concerned to acknowledge that these prejudices were yet further
strengthened by resentment against those who had taken an active part in
the abolition of the Slave-trade. But it was never the object of these to
throw a stigma on the whole body of the West Indians; but to prove the
miserable effects of the trade. This it was their duty to do; and if, in
doing this, disgraceful circumstances had come out, it was not their fault;
and it must never be forgotten that they were true.
That the slaves were exposed to great misery in the islands, was true as
well from inference as from facts: for what might not be expected from the
use of arbitrary power, where the three characters of party, judge, and
executioner were united! The slaves too were more capable on account of
their passions, than the beasts of the field, of exciting the passions of
their tyrants.
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