Page:The African Slave Trade (Clark).djvu/23

 

Exodus xxi. 16. And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if be be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.

 See the dire victim torn from social life, The shrieking babe, the agonizing wife! She, wretch forlorn, is dragged by hostile hands, To distant tyrants, sold to distant lands, Transmitted miseries and successive chains, The sole sad heritage her child obtains! E'en this last wretched boon their foes deny, To live together, or together die. By felon hands, by one relentless stroke, See the fond links of feeling nature broke! The fibers twisting round a parent's heart, Torn from their grasp, and bleeding as they part. What wrongs, what injuries does Oppression plead, To smooth the crime and sanctify the deed? What strange offense, what aggravated sin? They stand convicted — of a darker skin!

commencement of this nefarious traffic dates back to the year 1503, when a few slaves were sent from the Portuguese settlements in Africa to the Spanish colonies in America. It is said, however, that before that period, in 1434, a Portuguese captain landed in Guinea, and captured some colored lads, whom he sold at a profit to the Moors settled in the south of Spain. The trade became established in Spain in the year 1517, when Charles V.