Page:Copley 1844 A History of Slavery and its Abolition 2nd Ed.djvu/338

320 formed the West Indian black regiments, and who, in 1819, were disbanded, liberated, and conveyed to Sierra Leone, where, on lands given them by government, they had founded several flourishing villages, and were deemed a valuable addition to the colony. Another case adduced was that of captured negroes, i. e. the cargoes of slave-ships captured at different times since the slave-trade became illegal. These were landed at Sierra Leone, in companies of from fifty to three or four hundred at a time, and immediately made free, and encouraged to cultivate the habits of civilized society. The whole number amounted to about 14,000, and their general conduct, habits, and manners, were most satisfactory. The other cases were those of St. Domingo, where nearly 500,000 persons were made free at once, and where it was satisfactorily proved that all the tumults that had arisen proceeded not from the impartation of freedom, but from subsequent oppressive attempts to take it away; and that the whole population, consisting of free blacks, were living in peace and prosperity, under wise and equitable laws of their own framing. A sixth example of emancipation was in Columbia, in America. The patriotic General Bolivar began by making free his own slaves, to the number of six or seven hundred; and afterwards representing the case to congress at Venezula, obtained a decree for the emancipation of all slaves who had assisted in achieving the independence of the republic; for the freedom of all children thereafter born of slaves; and for a tax on property, to form a fund for purchasing the freedom of adult slaves, priority being given according to character. The work of liberation went steadily