Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/112

( 78 ) not recollect, was present at this execution. Sampson, next morning, was hung in chains alive, and there he hung till he was dead, which, to the best of his recollection, was seven days. The other negro was sentenced to be sent to the mines in South America, and, he believes, was sent accordingly. Neither of those two, during the time of the execution, shewed any marks or concern, or dismay that he could observe. A stronger instance of human fortitude, he declared, he never saw.

Slaves turned off when incapable of Labour.

Having now stated the substance of the evidence on the subject of offences and punishments, we come to a custom which appears too general to be passed over in silence.

Dalrymple, Forster, Captain Smith, Captain Wilson, and General Tottenham, assert that it is no uncommon thing for persons to neglect and turn off their slaves when past labour. They are turned off, say Captain Wilson, Lieutenant Davison, and General Tottenham, to plunder, beg, or starve. Captain Cook has known some take care of them; but says, others leave them to starve and die. They are often desired when old, says Mr. Fitzmaurice, to provide for themselves, and they suffer much, Mr. Clappeson knew a man who had an old, decrepid [sic] woman slave, to whom he would allow nothing. When past labour, the owner did not feed them, says Giles; and Cook states that, within his experience, they had no food but what they could get from such relations as they might have had. This is the account given by the different witnesses; and accordingly we find some of the superannuated slaves on the different estates, who wanted every thing (Harrison); others begging (Rees); others digging in the dunghill for food, (Dalrymple); and others lying, miserable objects, about the wharfs and beaches, and in the roads and streets (Jeffreys, J. Woodward and Cook). General Tottenham has often met them, and, once in particular, an old woman, past labour, who told him that her master had set her adrift to shift for herself. He saw her about three days afterwards, lying dead in the same place. This custom of turning them off when old and