An appeal to the religion, justice and humanity of the inhabitants of the British Empire, in behalf of the Negro slaves in the West Indies / by Wm. Wilberforce, Esq., M.P.

  • Wilberforce, William, 1759-1833.
Date:
1823
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An appeal to the religion, justice and humanity of the inhabitants of the British Empire, in behalf of the Negro slaves in the West Indies / by Wm. Wilberforce, Esq., M.P. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    Slaves is never admitted against White men, the difficulty of legally establishing the facts is so great,that White men are in a manner put beyond the reach of the law.” It is due also to the late Sir William Young, long one of the most active opponents of the abolition, to state, that he likewise, when Governor of Tobago, acknowledged, as a radical defect in the administration of justice, that the lav/ of evidence “ covered the most guilty European with impunity.” The same concession was made by both houses of the legislature of Grenada, in the earliest inquiries of the Privy Council. The only difficulty, as they stated, that had been found in putting an effectual stop to gross and wanton cruelty towards slaves, was that of bringing home the proof of the fact against the delinquent by satisfactory evidence, those who were capable of the guilt, being in general art- ful enough to prevent any but slaves being witnesses of the fact. tc As the matter stands,” they add, “ though we hope the instances in this island are at this day not frequent, yet it mustbe admitted with regret,that the persons prosecuted, arid who certainly were guilty, have escaped for want ot legal proof.” It is obvious that the same cause must produce the same effect in all our other slave colonies, although there has not been found the same candour in confessing it. The next evil which I shall specify, for which the ex- treme degradation of these poor beings, in the eyes of their masters, can alone account, is the driving system. Not being supposed capable of being governed like other human beings, by the hope of reward, or the fear of punishment, they are subjected to the immediate impulse or present terror of the whip, and are driven at their w ork like brute animals. Lower than this it is scarcely possible for man to be depressed by man. If such treatment does not find him vile and despised, it must infallibly make him so. Let it not however be supposed, that the only evil of this truly odious system is its outraging the moral cha- racter of the human species, or its farther degrading the