On my introduction to him, I asked him if he had any objection to give
me an account of the cruelties which were said to be connected with the
Slave Trade; he answered, without any reserve, that he had not; for that
he had now done with it. Never were any words more welcome to my ears
than these: "Yes--I have done with the trade;"--and he said, also, that
he was free to give me information concerning it. Was he not then one of
the very persons, whom I had so long been seeking, but in vain?
To detail the accounts which he gave me at this and at subsequent
interviews, relative to the different branches of this trade, would fill
no ordinary volume. Suffice it to say, in general terms, as far as
relates to the slaves, that he confirmed the various violent and
treacherous methods of procuring them in their own country; their
wretched condition, in consequence of being crowded together in the
passage; their attempts to rise in defence of their own freedom, and,
when this was impracticable, to destroy themselves by the refusal of
sustenance, by jumping overboard into the sea, and in other ways; the
effect also of their situation upon their minds, by producing insanity
and various diseases; and the cruel manner of disposing of them in the
West Indies, and of separating relatives and friends.
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