XI. SIERRA LE- Their faults owing to flavery. CHAP. Directors, who therefore hope that they will readily acquiefce in the decifions of the Court. But few fervants have escaped their unreasonable suspicion; yet great allowance will be made for this unpleasant feature in their character, if their paft fufferings be confidered, and the injustice they formerly received, and are habituated to expect, from whites. 447. In eftimating, indeed, the whole character of the N. Scotians, their past condition ought not to be overlooked. It should be remembered, that all of them were once flaves; that, like others in the fame ftate, they were probably little restrained in many branches of morals, not regularly married, destitute of parental and fcholaftic tuition; and, in short, that no one thought it his duty, to inftruct them in religion or morality. Their faculties were then degraded, their opportunities of knowledge fmall, and they had little inducement to cultivate their intellects. Doubtless they strongly felt their hardships; but they probably knew little of the true nature of civil rights; and, we may suppose, often counfounded the unavoidable evils of life, and the punishments needful in fociety, with the ills imposed by arbitrary power; for accurate difcrimination can fignify little to men involved in hopeless capivity. To the want of such discrimination, and not to any moral or intellectual defect, much of their unreafonablenefs, and fome of the abfurdeft of their claims, are obviously to be traced. And, confidering how often the advocates for fervitude have, on their part, confounded flavery, and all it's enormities, with the necessary evils of life, and the restraints of civil fociety, it need not excite surprise, if emancipated flaves, acting alfo under the bias of felf-interest, should seem to labour under a fimilar dulness and inaccuracy of understanding. 448. There is some reason to fuppofe that their fervitude prudenteman was harsher, than that of North America generally is; for This no argu ment against cipation. they they were a portion of those slaves who, in the last war, ran away from their masters and took refuge in the King's army, a conduct to which, it would feem, the worst treated would be the moft difpofed. If this prefumption of ill treatment. (confirmed as it is, by the fufferings which a few of themrecite) should be thought too derogatory from the supposed humanity of American mafters, it seems then fair to conclude, on the other hand, that they were the least sensible of mild treatment, the least attached to their masters, and the most prone to discontent. On either fuppofition, the N. Scotians may be said to furnish a less favourable specimen of emancipated flaves, than may generally be hoped for. It is hardly neceffary to remark, how very unfavourable their steps towards freedom will appear, if compared with those of flaves prudently emancipated; to whom liberty, having been' promised, to prepare them for it, might be granted, after a certain period, as the reward of merit; or might be conferred gradually, as local circumstances might recommend; privilege after privilege being added, as their diligence advanced, and as their property and interest, in maintaining focial order, fhould increafe. 449. But to return: the Nova Scotian blacks, having been born in North America, of African parents or ancestors (a few imported Africans excepted, who, as they fay, were kidnapped in their infancy) having paffed most of their lives. in flavery, probably worse than ordinary, and having then emancipated themfelves, in the way mentioned, they fulfilled, as loyalifts, the proclamations of the British generals. Their instruction appears to have been chiefly, or entirely, acquired fince their emancipation; for a few put themselves to school, to attain religious knowledge, or to improve their condition; and these are now the preachers and school-ma fters CHIA P. SIERRA LE ONA. Paft circum flances of N. Scotians. SIERRA LE ONA. CHAP. flers of the colony. After various scenes, in following the fortunes of the British army, often exposing themselves in battle, as the wounds of feveral teftify, and always getting credit for courage, though not fo uniformly for fome other virtues; being confiderably thinned by death and dispersion (a portion of them being fuppofed to have fallen into the hands of the Americans) the reft were brought to N. Scotia, at the peace, to receive, in common with the white loyalifts, the provisions and lands, promifed in the proclamations. They state that they obtained rations of provifions, but not to the extent they expected; that the white loyalifts having engroffed all the valuable lands, they got, in general, only fmall town-lots of little use; and that they were not admitted to the ufual privileges of British fubjects, nor, particularly, to trial by jury. These injuries, and the rigour of the climate of N. Scotia, induced them, as has been ftated (§ 374.) to fend a delegate of their own body, to seek redrefs from the British Government. Their reception of the proposals. 450. When Mr. Clark fon appeared in N. Scotia, as the Company's Company's agent, and ftated, in feveral public meetings of the free blacks, the propofals of the Company, and the offer of a free paffage to S. Leona, made by Government, they expressed at once the most lively joy, that they were about to be emancipated from a situation which they almost confidered as a fecond fervitude. Their eagerness to migrate appears to have rendered Mr. Clark fon fo much the more careful in guarding them against unreafonable expectations.. No allowance even of provifions, after their arrival, was promised; and the neceffity of fubfifting on their lots of land, was urged on them univerfally. But thefe declarations repressed not their ardour: they fold haftily, and for trifling prices, fuch of their little effects as could not easily be transported; transported; a few who had property affifted others to pay their debts; and several, who were heads of families, undertook to support the younger and more unprotected females, to whom no paffage was granted, except on this condition. They waited at Halifax for the ships, several weeks in tents, where, being expofed to much fevere weather, they contracted fickness. In Jan. 1793, they failed, after adopting every measure suggested for preserving order in the voyage, having thus far fhewn gratitude and obedience to Mr. Clarkson and to the Company. And, when their fubfequent conduct is confidered in connection with their past circumstances, though some expectations, excited by a few first appearances, may have been disappointed, their character may be faid to turn out as favourably, on the whole, as could be reasonably expected. Indeed a few of those emancipated flaves have afforded a moft favourable fpecimen of the African character, on whofe difpofitions Chriftianity hath had a most benign influence, and who have been, on all occafions humble and contented, the zealous friends of order and of peace. CHA P. XI. SIERRA LE ONA. not to be 451. Let it, therefore, be carefully remembered, that They ought every thing faid against the character of the N. Scotians, muft rafhly cenbe understood with various exceptions and limitations; and fured. that, the turbulence of fome, and the unreasonableness and jealousy of many of them, are more or lefs to be looked for, in any body of men, who have been so unfavourably circumftanced. Their faults are not incident to them as blacks, but as men. And who will fay, that, if he had ftruggled through a like fucceffion of vexations, hardships and disappointments, his character would not have been marked by the fame prejudices and untoward difpofitions, which belong to fome of the present colonists of S. Leona*? * See in the Append. Notes, &c. refpecting S. Leona and Bulama, NorE X. CHAP. SIERRA LE ONA. Provifion for their main. tenance, go vernment and inftruction. Slave-trade -it's hin drance to ci 452. The governor and council, as has been flated, are endeavouring, as soon as possible, to settle them on their own lands; by cultivating which, there is reason to think that, like the former colonifts, now living at Granville town, they may subsist comfortably. And if, by the bleffing of Providence, their families, substance and general prosperity should increase, it can hardly be doubted, that they will eftimate more justly their obligations to the Company.-But it is important to obferve that, both with a view to their own happiness, and the Company's great object of civilizing Africa, they should not be left without inftructors from hence, nor without a government of Europeans*.-Their children, who are about 300, all go to school, and are faid to learn quite as faft as European children; though, till lately, they had not very proper masters. The Directors propose to fpare no pains nor expense, to maintain this important part of their establishment on the best footing, and to this object, they will direct the peculiar attention of the government. For to this rifing generation of well educated blacks, they chiefly look for the gradual improvement of the colony. To them also, it seems not prefumptuous to hope, that the more distant and even interior parts of Africa, may one day owe Christianity, knowledge and civilization. 453. The progress, obstructions, and prospects of civilization among the natives, are matters so very interesting, that vilization of the Directors need not apologize for entering into them freely and particularly. And here the Slave-trade comes directly under confideration. But, waving all argument on natives. * For a time only, I prefume. (See § 443) C. B. W. |