The other
members of the antislavery committee performed those labors which were
necessary out of it.
This labor consisted principally in the collection of evidence with
regard to the traffic, and the presentation of it before the public
mind. In this labor Clarkson was particularly engaged. The subject was
hemmed in with the same difficulties that now beset the antislavery
cause in America. Those who knew most about it were precisely those
whose interest it was to prevent inquiry. An immense moneyed interest
was arrayed against investigation, and was determined to suppress the
agitation of the subject. Owing to this powerful pressure, many, who
were in possession of facts which would bear upon this subject,
refused to communicate them; and often, after a long and wearisome
journey in search of an individual who could throw light upon the
subject, Clarkson had the mortification to find his lips sealed by
interest or timidity. As usual, the cause of oppression was defended
by the most impudent lying; the slave trade was asserted to be the
latest revised edition of philanthropy. It was said that the poor
African, the slave of miserable oppression in his own country, was
wafted by it to an asylum in a Christian land; that the middle passage
was to the poor negro a perfect Elysium, infinitely happier than any
thing he had ever known in his own country. All this was said while
manacles, and handcuffs, and thumbscrews, and instruments to force
open the mouth, were a regular part of the stock for a slave ship, and
were hanging in the shop windows of Liverpool for sale.
For Clarkson's attention was first called to these things by observing
them in the shop window, and on inquiring the use of one of them, the
man informed him that many times negroes were sulky, and tried to
starve themselves to death, and this instrument was used to force open
their jaws.
Of Clarkson's labor in this investigation some idea may be gathered
from his own words, when, stating that for a season he was compelled
to retire from the cause, he thus speaks: -
"As far as I myself was concerned, all exertion was then over. The
nervous system was almost shattered to pieces. Both my memory and my
hearing failed me. Sudden dizzinesses seized my head. A confused
singing in the ear followed me wherever I went. On going to bed the
very stairs seemed to dance up and down under me, so that, misplacing
my foot, I sometimes fell. Talking, too, if it continued but half an
hour, exhausted me so that profuse perspiration followed, and the same
effect was produced even by an active exertion of the mind for the
like time.
"These disorders had been brought on by degrees, in consequence of the
severe labors necessarily attached to the promotion of the cause.
