I Was Present When A Kind-Hearted Man Was On The
Point Of Separating Forever The Men, Women, And Little
Children Of A Large Number Of Families Who Had Long Lived
Together.
I will not even allude to the many heart-sickening
atrocities which I authentically heard of; - nor would I have
mentioned the above revolting details, had I not met with
several people, so blinded by the constitutional gaiety of the
negro as to speak of slavery as a tolerable evil.
Such people
have generally visited at the houses of the upper classes, where
the domestic slaves are usually well treated, and they have
not, like myself, lived amongst the lower classes. Such
inquirers will ask slaves about their condition; they forget
that the slave must indeed be dull, who does not calculate
on the chance of his answer reaching his master's ears.
It is argued that self-interest will prevent excessive cruelty;
as if self-interest protected our domestic animals, which
are far less likely than degraded slaves, to stir up the rage
of their savage masters. It is an argument long since protested
against with noble feeling, and strikingly exemplified,
by the ever-illustrious Humboldt. It is often attempted to
palliate slavery by comparing the state of slaves with our
poorer countrymen: if the misery of our poor be caused
not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is
our sin; but how this bears on slavery, I cannot see; as well
might the use of the thumb-screw be defended in one
land, by showing that men in another land suffered from
some dreadful disease. Those who look tenderly at the slave
owner, and with a cold heart at the slave, never seem to put
themselves into the position of the latter; what a cheerless
prospect, with not even a hope of change! picture to yourself
the chance, ever hanging over you, of your wife and
your little children - those objects which nature urges even
the slave to call his own - being torn from you and sold
like beasts to the first bidder! And these deeds are done
and palliated by men, who profess to love their neighbours
as themselves, who believe in God, and pray that his Will be
done on earth! It makes one's blood boil, yet heart tremble,
to think that we Englishmen and our American descendants,
with their boastful cry of liberty, have been and are so
guilty: but it is a consolation to reflect, that we at least
have made a greater sacrifice, than ever made by any nation,
to expiate our sin.
On the last day of August we anchored for the second time
at Porto Praya in the Cape de Verd archipelago; thence we
proceeded to the Azores, where we stayed six days. On the
2nd of October we made the shore, of England; and at Falmouth
I left the Beagle, having lived on board the good little
vessel nearly five years.
Our Voyage having come to an end, I will take a short
retrospect of the advantages and disadvantages, the pains
and pleasures, of our circumnavigation of the world.
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