Colonel Phipps followed Lord Carysfort. He denied that this was a question
in which the rights of humanity and the laws of nature were concerned. The
Africans became slaves in consequence of the constitution of their own
governments. These were founded in absolute despotism. Every subject was an
actual slave. The inhabitants were slaves to the great men; and the great
men were slaves to the Prince. Prisoners of war, too, were by law subject
to slavery. Such being the case, he saw no more cruelty in disposing of
them to our merchants, than to those of any other nation. Criminals also in
cases of adultery and witchcraft became slaves by the same laws.
It had been said, that there were no regulations in the West Indies for the
protection of slaves. There were several; though he was ready to admit,
that more were necessary; and he would go in this respect as far as
humanity might require. He had passed ten months in Jamaica, where he had
never seen any such acts of cruelty as had been talked of. Those which he
had seen were not exercised by the Whites, but by the Blacks. The dreadful
stories, which had been told, ought no more to fix a general stigma upon
the planters, than the story of Mrs.
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