Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/118

 them £10,000, and the like sum annually until 1744, when the grant was doubled for that year. In IT 41, no grant was made.

In 1750, the "act for extending and improving the African trade" was passed, and continued in force until the close of the century.

In 1790, the whole number of forts and factories established on the coast, was about forty; fourteen belonged to the English, fifteen to the Dutch, three to the French, four to the Portuguese, and four to the Danes. The value of English goods annually exported to Africa about that time, was estimated at £800,000 sterling.

It is impossible to arrive at any exact conclusion as to the number of negroes annually carried off by the traders of various nations about this time, but there is reason to believe that it did not fall far short of 100,000. It has been estimated, that up to the close of the last century, Africa must have been defrauded of a population of 30,000,000. The principal slave importing places were the West India Islands, the British Colonies of North America, Brazil, and other settlements in South America.

Yery early after the commencement of the slave trade, the Africans began to be considered as an inferior race, and even their very color as a mark of it. Under this notion they continued to be transported for centuries, until various persons, taking an interest in their sufferings, produced such a union of public sentiment in their favor in England, that parliament was induced to consider their case by hearing evidence upon it. It is this evidence which we now propose to lay before the reader, in all its sickening and horrible details. It was heard before a select committee of the House of Commons, in the years 1790 and 1791, and we quote it as most reliable proof of the enormities of the African Slave Trade. It was given by persons, some of whom had been engaged in the traffic, and had visited all the principal parts of Africa from the river Senegal to Angola, had been up and down the rivers, and had resided on shore. This testimony covers the period from 1750 to 1790.

The trade for slaves, (says Mr. Kiernan), in the river Senegal, was chiefly with the Moors, on the northern banks, who got them very often by war, and not seldom by kidnapping; that is, lying in wait near a village, where there was no open war, and siezing whom they could. He has often heard of villages, and seen the remains of such, broken up by making the people slaves. That the Moors used to cross the Senegal to catch the negroes was spoken of at Fort Louis as notorious; and he has seen instances of it where the persons so taken were ransomed.

General Ruoke says, that kidnapping took place in the neighborhood of Goree. It was spoken of as a common practice. It was reckoned disgraceful there, but he cannot speak of the opinion about it on the Continent. He remembers two or three instances of negroes being brought to Goree, who had been kidnapped, but could not discover by whom. At their own request he immediately sent them back.