Auence by granting extenfive credit, and drink. At night, when the party C giving giving injuries being fuggefted to him, he made the following animated declaration : If a man rob me of my money, I can forgive him; if a man fhould fhoot at me, or try to ftab me, I can forgive him; if a man fhould fell me and all my family to a flave fhip, fo that we should pass all the reft of our days in flavery, in the Weft Indies, I can forgive him; but, (added he, rifing from his feat with much emotion), if a man takes away the character of the people of my country, I never can forgive him. If a man fhould try to kill me, or fhould fell me and my family for flaves, he would do an injury to as many as he might kill or fell; but if any one takes away the character of black people, that man injures black people all over the world; and, when he has once taken away their character, there is nothing which he may not do to black people ever after. The man will beat black men, and fay, O, it is only a black man, why should not I beat him? That man will make flaves of black people; for, when he has taken away their character, he will fay, O, they are only black people, why fhould not I make them flaves? That man will take away all the people of Africa, if he can catch them; and if you ask him, But why do you take away all these people? he will fay, O, they are only black people, they are not like white people, why should not I take them? That is the reafon why I cannot forgive the man who takes away the character of the peo ple of my country." The negro character certainly varies with the local peculiarities of education, manners, and habits; fome nations are more crafty, more ferocious, and uncivilizéd than others; but they are neither incurably stupid, ignorant, nor wicked; nor can they be charged with great er enormities than other nations in the fame state of civilization. As the process of deterioration has been going on without intermiffion fo about two centuries, it ought not to excite our furprise, if the negro character had even acquired a peculiar degree of malignancy. The emotions in the breast of the favage derive a degree of wildness and ferocity from the ruggedness of the objects which furround him; numerous objects affect his mind, which do not injure his perfon; and whatever acts upon. the moral frame, tends to establish a phyfical habit. The expreffion of the features is gradually moulded to characterize the predominant paffion, and every affection of the corporeal fyltem re-acts upon the animating mind. Should therefore the negro character have actually degenerated, this would not conftitute an anamolous, fact in the hiftory of man. Where the intellectual powers are left uncultivated, the paffions acquire fuperior energy and violence. The understanding is much lefs cultivated among the Negroes than among Europeans; but their paffions, whether benevolent or malevolent, are proportionably more violent. No people are more fenfible of difrefpect, contempt, or injury, and none are more prompt or violent in refenting them. But though their tempers are violent, they are not unmanageable: Though. addicted to hatred and revenge, they are equally fufceptible of love, affection, and gratitude. In maternal, filial, and fraternal affection, they must be allowed to furpafs Europeans; though the ardour of their pa ternal and conjugal affections be damped by the practice of polygamy, which cannot fail to diffipate the energies of the most tender paffions, To unprotected strangers their hof, pitality is liberal, difinterefted, and free from oftentation; to white perfons in whom they have confidence, their partiality is exceffive, extending even to their drefs, commodities, and manners. It is true, that in those districts where the flave-trade chiefly prevails, the the inhabitants are fhy and referved, and always carry arms in their hands; but this is the neceffary effect of that infecurity which the practice of kidnapping has introduced. It is true, that in their intercourfe with Europeans, both fraud and violence are often difplayed; but thefe are the confequence of the frauds of Europeans, and their own inaccurate notions of property. As the Europeans practife every fpecies of injuftice, not only with refpect to the quantity of trading goods, but alfo by their adul, teration; as they ufe every degree of fraud and violence in trepanning their perfons, the natives, in order to trade on equal terms, are forced to refort to a fimilar conduct. Their ideas with respect to property are very different from thofe of Europeans. Occupied chiefly by their natural wants, they eafily part with their fuperfluities to thofe who may want them. In their rude arts there is no divifion of labour; in the cultivation of their fields, there is not even an individuality. The inhabitants of every diftrict carry on their agricultural operations in concert, and fhare, in common, the products of their harvest. From this arrangement, the idea of a common intereft is continually fuggefted to the canton or diftri&t; but the idea of exclufive property is at the fame time rendered more indefinite and vague. The unlimited exercife of the law of hofpitality renders the poffeffion of property more ufelefs, as well as more uncertain, as the industrious are forced to fhare their fuperfluities with the indolent. If a perfon has been neg ligent in providing the neceffaries of life, he has only to difcover where there is provifion, and he muft obtain a fhare. If he enter a houfe during a repaft, and give the ufual falutation, the mafter must invite him to partake. The laws of hofpitality are not reftricted to diet; and begging is not reckoned difgraceful, Thofe who are C indolent in the occupations of planting or hunting, commonly difplay greater activity in trade. Thefe favage philofophers are ftrenuous advocates for equality of property, and are convinced that no perfon has a right to enjoy any fuperfluity which is needed by another. The confequence of this fublime doctrine is, that if an induftrious man procures a spare shirt, a pair of trowfers, or any kind of utenfil, the firft perfon to whom its poffeffion would be convenient, may demand ita refignation with the utmolt propriety. In this cafe, the puffeffor dare not give a fimple refufal; he must talk the palaver, or reply to the reafons which the beggar offers, with others for its detention. When the pleaders on both fides happen to be eloquent, the fubject is often worn ufelefs by the poffeffor, before the caufe can be terminated. Thus there are few motives for perfonal affiduity, as the rich are only the ftewards of the poor. 2 In a rude ftate, man is rather made for feeling than thinking. To relieve the littlefsnefs, occafioned by the abfence of powerful external impreffions, when the refource of industry fails, from the deficiency of motives to exertion, he is apt to have recourfe to the artificial exhilaration which intoxication produces. In a ftate of intoxication, reafon and propriety of conduct defert the most refined and civilized men, but the brutal propenfities of the favage are aggravated to diabolical frenzy. In this frantic ftate, the negro chiefs have often been induced to make bargains moft prejudicial to their interefts, and to iffue orders moft fatal to their fubjects, that in their fober hours they would gladly retra&t. been Though on the coaft of Africa, from Arguin to Adel, numerous commercial establishments have formed by different nations fince it was firft difcovered by the Portugueze, the natives of all those countries have been fuffered to remain in their ori ginal ginal rude ftate. Till lately, the commerce on the manners and morals, Portugueze were the only nation that, on the fecurity and happinefs, of the with their fubjugation, had attempt Africans, has begun to be perceived. ed their improvement. The Portu- by the natives themselves; many of gueze did not confine themselves to whom, though occafiona ly engaged trading factories, but formed large in the flave trade, have expreffed their colonies under a regular government joy at the profpect of its abolition. on the coafts They attempted to in- They not only complain of the frauds ftruct the natives in the cultivation and the impofitions of the whites, but of their foil, and taught them a reli of the general infecurity they have gion which tended to foften their introduced. So early as the year manners as well as to reform their 1787, the chief of Almammy not morals. In Loango, Congo, Angola, only prohibited the flave-trade in his and Benguila, they have been fo fe own territories, but refufed to allow dulous in the converfion of the ne- the French to march their flaves from groes, that they are believed to have Gallam through his country, fo that made them better Chriftians than they were obliged to change their them felves. From Benin, Guinea, route. As a Marabout, having in his and Negritia, they were expelled by youth received an education fuperior the other European powers, co opeto that of other black princes, he rating with the natives, before their rendered himfelf entirely independent eftablishments had acquired folidity. of the whites, ranfomed his fubjects They have till various factories in when feized by the Moors, and enthefe countries; and, at different couraged them to raife cattle, to culplaces of the coaft, a mongrel race tivate the land, and to practise all are found, who boaft their Portu kinds of induftry. Falconbridge's gueze extraction, though they have character of the negroes is unquefadopted the manners of the negroes tionably juft: “ They feaft," faid he, and their modes of life. In colour "round graves; and were they to they are hardly diftinguishable from "fee their country in flames, they the darkest negroes; a fact which "would cry, let it burn, without infeems to show, that Europeans, adopt-"terrupting their finging, dancing, ing the negro manner of life, would in time acquire the negroe hue. In feveral of these countries, the Portugueze miffions, from the want of a fteady and perfevering fupport, have experienced a great declination of influence. Their nation, however, has the credit of trading in Africa produce to greater extent than any other nation, and of carrying on the flavetrade with as much humanity as it is poffible to unite with fo inhuman a traffic. Their flave-vaffels are never crowded, and are navigated chiefly by black mariners, who fympathize more with the fufferings of their countrymen than the whites. Before the flaves are fhipped, they are cate chized and receive the rite of baptifm. The pernicious effects of European 6.6 or drinking. They are equally in"fenfible of grief and neceffity: They " fing till they die, and dance into "the grave." In fpite of this infenfibility, or rather levity of character, they have learned to estimate the character of the traders. Though thofe who are immediately concerned in the flave trade say, "good for black man to love white 66 man, and not hurt but make trade 66 It is very with him, because white man's fhips "bring all the good things and ftrong. liquors into black man's country; yet the moft difcerning fcruple not to declare, that wherever white man comes, there comes a fword, a gunpowder, and ball. They are defirous of educating their children in white man's fashion, that he may read book and and learn to be fo well as white rogue, man; for, fay they, if white man not read, he be no better rogue than black man. Thus it appears that all intercourse with the negroes, as it has been carried on upon commercial principles, has tended uniformly to the debafement of their underftandings, and the degradation of their moral natures; every kind of connec tion has been fatal, like the touch of the putrid fide of the gigantic devil, in which the negroes of Anto, on the Gold Coaft, believe. This circumftance has induced fome of the friends of humanity, who have interested themfelves in the fate of the African na tions, to regard with extreme fufpicion the introduction of every species of commercial fpeculation into those fyftems of colonization which have been founded upon principles of humanity. But furely every method, by which the curiofity of the favage may be rouzed, and his industry excited, without calling his malevolent paffions into exertion, mult ultimately tend to the amelioration of his focial state. Agriculture is the principle of vitality in a colony, but the production of the raw materials of manufacture, or the acquifition of the materials of exchange and barter, conftitutes its credit, and creates its in. fluence as a province or a nation. AGRICULTURAL COLONY IN ACCOUNT OF THE SWEDISH DESIGN OF AN From the fame. FROM ROM the, difcovery of Weft Africa by the Portugueze to the Jatter part of the 18th century, the fame iniquitous commercial principles continued to regulate the intercourfe of white men with their fable brethren, to degrade the negro, and difgrace the European. The immenfe edifice of flavery ftill continued to infult the eyes of the fons of freedom; and, undeterred by the groans of anguifh, the clanking of chains, and the echo of the whip that refound through the pile, free men wounded deeply the liberties which they boafted, by affuming the lafh of the tafkmafter. Who first attempted to demolish the infernal prifon-houfe, and to raife over its ruins the temple of freedom? Who first attempted to vindicate infulted humanity, and to burft the chains which the fanction of ages had rivetted? The Swedish nation may claim the glory of forming the firft fpecific plan for alleviating the evils which the inhuman man-trade has occafioned in Africa; and the Danes of carrying into execution the first agricultural eftablishment, for inftructing the negroes in the cultiva tion of their fertile foil, and teaching them to avenge their wrongs on the abettors of flavery, by rearing a bulwark for freedom in the Land of Slaves. The Swedish defign of establishing a colony in Africa, which, by its original organization, might exclude every political, financial, and mereantile principle, which appeared to be inconfiftent with the happiness of mankind, though it only terminated in exploring a part of that continent, originated in the purest and most difinterested motives. In the year 1779, fome members of a fociety, formed for diffufing thofe principles of civilization which appeared to be best calculated for promoting focial order and general happinefs, met at Norkioping in Sweden, to confider the colonization and cultivation of wafte lands in Europe, upon philanthropical principles. What feemed imprag. ticable |