Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/147

, Newton, Dalrymple, Ellison,) others rose, but were quelled, (Ellison, Newton, Falconbridge,) and others rose and succeeded, killing almost all the whites: (Falconbridge and Towne.) Mr. Towne says that, Inquiring of the slaves into the cause of these insurrections, he has been asked what business he had to carry them from their country. They had wives and children, whom they wanted to be with. After an insurrection, Mr. Ellison says he has seen them flogged, and the cook's tormentors and tongs heated to burn their flesh. Mr. Newton also adds that it is usual for captains, after insurrections and plots happen, to flog the slaves. Some captains, on board whose ships he has been, added tne thumb-screw, and one in particular told him repeatedly that he had put slaves to death, after an insurrection, by various modes of torture.

The second sort of incident on the passage is mentioned by Mr. Falconbridge in the instance of an English vessel blowing up off Galenas, and most of the men-slaves, entangled in their irons, perishing.

The third sort is described by Mr. Hercules Ross as follows. One instance, says he, marked with peculiar circumstances of horror, occurs: — About twenty years ago, a ship from Africa, with about four hundred slaves on board, struck upon some shoals, called the Morant Keys, distant eleven leagues, S.S.E. off the east end of Jamaica. The officers and seamen of the ship landed in their boats, carrying with them arms and provisions. The slaves were left on board in their irons and shackles. This happened in the night time. The Morant Keys consist of three small sandy islands, and he understood that the ship had struck upon the shoals, at about half a league to windward of them. When morning came, it was discovered that the negroes had got out of their irons, and were busy making rafts, upon which they placed the women and children, whilst the men, and others capable of swimming, attended upon the rafts, while they drifted before the wind towards the island where the seamen had landed. From an apprehension that the negroes would consume the water and provisions which the seamen had landed, they came to the resolution of destroying them by means of their fire-arms and other weapons. As the poor wretches approached the shore, they actually destroyed between three and four hundred of them. Out of the whole cargo, only thirty-three or thirty-four were saved, and brought to Kingston, where Mr. Ross saw them sold at public vendue. The ship, to the best of his recollection, was consigned to a Mr. Hugh Wallace, of the parish of St. Elizabeth's. Mr. Ross says, in extenuation of this massacre, that the crew were probably drunk, or they would not have acted so, but he does not know it to have been the case.

When the ships arrive at their destined ports, the slaves are exposed to sale. They are sold either by scramble, by public auction or by lots. The sale by scramble is thus described by Mr. Falconbridge: "In the Emilia, at Jamaica, the ship was darkened with sails, and covered around. The men-slaves were placed on the main deck, and the women on the quarter deck. The purchasers on shore were informed that a gun would be fired when they were ready to open the sale. A great number of people came on board with tallies or cards in their hands, with their own names on them, and rushed through the barricado