Edwards,
(addressing himself to his audience) "you will think that no torments
were too great for such horrible excesses. Nevertheless I am of a
different opinion. I think that death, unaccompanied with cruelty,
should be the utmost exertion of human authority over our unhappy
fellow-creatures." Torments, however, were always inflicted in these
cases. The punishment was gibbeting alive, and exposing the delinquents
to perish by the gradual effects of hunger, thirst, and parching sun; in
which situation they were known to suffer for nine days, with a
fortitude scarcely credible, never uttering a single groan. But horrible
as the excesses might have been, which occasioned these punishments, it
must be remembered, that they were committed by ignorant savages, who
had been dragged from all they held most dear; whose patience had been
exhausted by a cruel and loathsome confinement during their
transportation; and whose resentment had been wound up to the highest
pitch of fury by the lash of the driver.
But he would now mention another instance, by way of contrast, out of
the evidence. A child on board a slave-ship, of about ten months old,
took sulk and would not eat. The captain flogged it with a cat; swearing
that he would make it eat, or kill it.
Pages:
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774