Having said thus much on the subject of procuring slaves in, Africa, he
would now go to that of the transportation of them. And here he had
fondly hoped, that when men with affections and feelings like our own
had been torn from their country, and everything dear to them, he should
have found some mitigation of their sufferings; but the sad reverse was
the case. This was the most wretched part of the whole subject. He was
incapable, of impressing the House with what he felt upon it. A
description of their conveyance was impossible. So much misery
condensed, in so little room was more than the human imagination had
ever before conceived. Think only of six hundred persons linked
together, trying to get rid of each other, crammed in a close vessel
with every object that was nauseous and disgusting, diseased, and
struggling with all the varieties of wretchedness. It seemed impossible
to add anything more to human misery. Yet shocking as this description
must be felt to be by every man, the transportation had been described
by several witnesses from Liverpool to be a comfortable conveyance. Mr.
Norris had painted the accommodations on board a slave-ship in the most
glowing colours.
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