Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/81

( 47 ) five dollars each, Town for a Guinea, and Mr. Hercules Ross as low as a single dollar.

Deplorable situation of the refuse or sickly slaves.

The state of such is described to be very deplorable by General Tottenham and Mr. Hercules Ross. The former says, that he once observed at Barbadoes a number of slaves that had been landed from a ship. They were brought into the yard adjoining the place of sale. Those that were not very ill were put into little huts, and those that were worse were left in the yard to die, for nobody gave them any thing to eat or drink; and some of them lived three days in that situation. The latter has frequently seen the very refuse (as they are termed) of the slaves of Guinea ships landed and carried to the vendue-masters in a very wretched state; sometimes in the agonies of death; and he has known instances of their expiring in the piazza of the vendue-master.

Separation of relatives and friends.

Mr. Newton says, that in none of the sales he saw was there any care ever taken to prevent such slaves as were relations from being separated. They were separated as sheep and lambs by the butcher. This separation of relations and friends is confirmed by Davison, Trotter, Clappeson, and Town. Fitzmaurice also mentions the same, with an exception only to infants; but Mr. Falconbridge says, that one of his captains (Frazer) recommended it to the planters never to separate relations and friends. He says he once heard of a person refusing to purchase a man's wife, and was next day informed the man had hanged himself.

Mortality on the passage &amp; frequently after sale.

With respect to the mortality of slaves in the passage, Mr. Falconbridge says, that in three voyages he purchased 1100, and lost 191; Trotter, in one voyage, about 600, and lost about 70; Millar, in one voyage, 490, and lost 180; Ellison, in three voyages, where he recollects the mortality, bought 895, and lost 356. In one of these voyages, says the latter, the slaves had the small-pox. In this cafe he has seen the platform one continued scab: eight or ten of them were hauled up dead