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"Review of Circumstances of Amistad Africans' Captivity," New York Journal
of Commerce, 14 Dec., 1839. p. 2.
For the Journal of Commerce.
Mr. Editor- Humanity has induced me to offer the following suggestions; and though
hastily sketched, it is to be hoped that the motive, if not their merit, may be considered
sufficient to justify their publication.
It has been said in an evening paper, in relation to the slaves who are now incarcerated
and waiting the administration of the law, that if the Spanish nation had combined
with other powers to suppress to slave trade, then it might perhaps have a more favorable
bearing and make some difference in the result. Now, in my opinion, it cannot materially
affect the question at issue, nor in fact weigh one feather in the scale of moral,
if not legal justice.
In the first place, it is conceded on all hands that the traffic in human flesh is
not only unjust and oppressive, but odius; and its advocates can cite no law in its
favor, either human or divine, but the law of violence. The greatest blessing
and prerogative conferred on man at the beginning, by the Deity, was Liberty.
Had these slaves been captured by a British or an American cruiser prior to their
disembarkation at Havana, no one will pretend to deny that they would have been instantly
freed from captivity and restored in the course of time to their native country.
No Spanish flag nor bottom could, in that event, have prevented it. Now, under these
circumstances, what new title can have been acquired to this species of property
by merely evading capture and succeeding finally in transporting them to the slave
market, the point of destination? Surely they must have been considered free to
all intents and purposes on the ocean. By what sophistry of reasoning does the mere
crossing of the ocean deprive them of their birthright and liberty? Can it be possible,
in the name of common sense, that it only requires the Havana brand to be
stamped upon their backs, to constitute them bona fide slaves?
They were bound, in my opinion, by every tie of kindred and country, and even the
law of nature itself, to resist aggression, and in exerting every effort to liberate
themselves from their cruel task-masters,--no matter what consequences might ensue.
“Self-preservation is the first law of nature,”--to argue otherwise would be to break
down all distinctions between right and wrong, and to darken with impenetrable shadows
every principle of moral justice; and those persons in whose custody they found themselves,
had no reason to complain, nor to expect, under such aggravating circumstances, anything
else but lex talionis. And I can only say for one, and I believe millions
will respond to the justice of the sentiment, that the nation which is base enough
to become an exception to that invariable rule of human policy which distinguishes
other nations, deserves the execration of all mankind.
There is no case, Mr. Editor, in the calender of human life, which presents an appeal
so irresistible to the truly benevolent, as that of the unfortunate Africans. When
we consider that these poor fellows have been ruthlessly torn from the arms of consanguinity
and friendship, and unfeelingly immured in the contaminating hold of a slave vessel,
and eventually sold, to satisfy, without a murmur, the rigorous exactions of the
cruel and rapacious, wonder must cease at an occasional sanguinary result. Nor can
I persuade myself for a moment to believe that any man can be found in the American
community to compromise his conscience and violate his feelings so far as to pronounce
the sentence of death on any one of them.
“So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that were done under the sun:
and beheld the tears of such as were afflicted, and they had no comforter; and on
the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.”
If the barnacles, Mr. Editor, which are said to be clinging to that vessel’s bottom,
had but the gift of speech, there can be no question that they would declare in a
voice of thunder the innumerable sighs and groans which have been wrung, at various
times, from the bosoms of the unfortunate. HUMANITY.
New York, Sept. 14, 1839.
