SLAVE TRADE, is the name given to that com merce in slaves carried on principally between Africa and the West India Islands. This trade was begun by the Portuguese about the year 1481, when they es tablished their first fort at D'Elmina. The other na tions in Europe gradually followed the example, and a system was established by which the chiefs of the African tribes doomed their prisoners of war and their convicts to everlasting servitude, and exchanged them for the luxuries of European commerce. As the \Vest India Islands advanced in prosperity, the demand for slaves increased. Speculators and ad venturers from every part of Europe carried to the coast of Africa the alluring articles of their respec tive manufactures. Thus tempted on all sides, the African tyrants resolved to use every practicable me thod of obtaining slaves. War was excited for the pur pose of taking prisoners. The innocent were charged with crimes which they never committed. The help less were seized by violence, and the inhabitants of their own villages were sometimes carried off in a body to supply the means for the inhuman barter.
The victims thus seized are marched like cattle in droves to the river side or to the sea coast. They are coupled two and two by the neck with pieces of wood, or by other contrivances. Some are loaded with their provisions or with articles of trade for the masters. The weak must keep up with the strong, and the old must proceed at the same pace with the young.
When they reach the coast purchasers innumerable appear on all sides. The sale commences and the slaves when purchased are conveyed to their respective ships. The men are confined together two and two by fetters of iron, and put into the fore part of the ves sel, the women occupy the after part, and the boys the middle. These apartments are grated at top for the admission of light. In good weather they are brought upon deck for air. They are ranged in a row on each side of the ship, and a long chain passes through the fetters of each pair to secure them to the side of the ship. After their meals,
which consist of horse beans, rice and yams, with a little water, oil and pepper, they are forced to jump as high as their shackles will permit to the beat of the drum. When the cargo is made up. the ship weighs anchor, and the horrors of the middle passage commence.
The slave vessels vary from 12 to 800 tons, and carry from 30 to 1500 slaves. The height of the apart ments varies from three to six feet, so that in some it is impossible to stand erect, and in others to sit down. In the best ships each person has scarcely as much room as a man has in his coffin. Lying on the bare boards, suffocated by the heat and moisture exhaled from themselves, excoriated by the rolling of the ves sel, and immured in the filth of their lair, death is often the least evil which befalls them. Some destroy sel ves,and others seek revenge against their oppressors.
In this condition the blood-freighted vessel reaches its destined harbour. Wafted into the peaceful bay of a tropical shore teeming with the luxuriance of animal and vegetable life, it floats its living cargo among scenes of purity and peace. here the slaves are prepared for sale. Sometimes they arc disposed of to the highest bidder by public auction, and some times by a process called the " scramble." For this purpose the main and quarter decks are covered with sails, and the slaves are brought out into the gloomy area. The purchasers at a signal rush in among them with long ropes, and endeavour to enclose as many of them as possible. On some occasions the scramble is held on shore in an apartment or court yard, at. the doors of which the purchasers are let in in a similar manner. The terror of the poor Africans is beyond description. The women cling to each other, and some of them have been known to expire with fear. Friends are here separated for ever. The father parts from his child, and the expressions of affection which often accompany the act of separation, are checked and even punished by the merciless purchasers.