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”The Africans.” The New York Morning Herald, 13 Sept., 1839.
The Africans
New Haven, Sept. 11, 1839.
MR. BENNETT:--The abolitionists and their coadjutors here are striving to embarrass
the main questions by perplexing and vexatious suggestions.--The Africans are held
in prison for trial by order of the District Judge, and no right-minded man can wish
to see the course of the law obstructed or biased. The attempt, therefore, to forestall
public opinions and produce an excitement in [sic] behalf of these miserable creatures,
deserves the severest reprehension. The most profound legal talents have been employed,
and every effort will be made for them; and this is perfectly right. But it is not
right to arouse the sympathies of the humane, for men who have been committed to
prison by the proper and competent authority, charged with murder, by delusive
representations of their conduct and character. The Abolitionists are determined
to battle the designs of justice, and if possible, to procure the release of the
Africans, without even the formality of a trial.
Their present plan of operation is understood to be as follows: They will move for
their discharge, on the ground that they have committed no offence against our laws,
and, therefore, that the court has no jurisdiction. Perhaps our municipal laws have
not been violated, but piracy and murder have been generally considered as offences
against the laws of nations, and a such, I presume, Judge Thompson will regard them
in this case. The project has been broached, of getting out a writ of habeas corpus,
and bringing the “poor Africans” before a judge who is known to favor the views of
Leavitt & Co., in the hope of obtaining their immediate liberty; but this is
too high-handed a measure to receive the sanction of their counsel, and will not
be undertaken.
It is impossible to predict, with any degree of certainty, what course will be taken
with them. If a formal demand is made on our government for the slaves, I do not
see on what ground it is to be denied or evaded. It if comes to a mere question of
comity, policy would dictate their delivery. But then, the President has decided
in the case of Dr. Holmes, of Vermont, that the demand must be made on the Executive
of the State; and I heard an abolitionist exultingly remark today, that Gov. Ellsworth
was a firm friend of freedom, and would not abandon the poor negroes to the
tender mercies of the slave-owners in any emergency. He does the Governor injustice,
however. I can readily believe that his sympathies are on the side of Cuffee; but
if called on to act, he will be governed by the prudential suggestions of his relative,
the Chief Justice, one of the purest, soundest, and discreetest men in the whole
country.
Many of the abolitionists here, profess to hope that Judge Thompson, of the Circuit
Court, will so instruct the grand jury, that no bill will be found against the blacks,
and then that they will of course be discharged immediately. The Judge, as is will
known, is a profound jurist, a man of great self-reliance, of perfect independence,
and stern integrity. He will act understandingly, uprightly and legally. And if the
matter is not taken out of his hands by the action of the government, Cuffee will
have justice done him.
All the whining of Levitt &. Co. about the ”distressed and suffering Africans,”
may be set down as the merest hypocritical cant. It is a rhetorical flourish, without
the color of truth to support it. They are far more comfortable than they ever were
before, and with the exception of Cinguez and his two accomplices in murder, are
apparently contented and happy. They are decently clad in fustian trowsers, and striped
shirts, have plenty to eat and nothing to do, and smoke tobacco all day long; and
every one who is at all familiar with the African character, knows that idleness
and enough to eat and drink makes a negroe's paradise. They are obviously incapable
of taking care of themselves; have none of the wants of civilized life, and the pseudo
benevolence of the Abolitionists, would be cruelty to them. The ingress and egress
of visitors furnish abundance of opportunities for them to escape, but so far from
wishing to do so, it would be difficult to drive them out of jail.
Cinguez, the leader, and several others, are undoubtedly Mandingoes. Mandingo lies
on the Atlantic, north of Siberia, in Senegambia, and is an extensive and populous
country. Of the 150,000 slaves that are annually shipped for Brazil and Cuba, from
Western Africa, Senegambia, which comprises about 37,000 square miles, furnishes
nearly three quarters, and one third of these are Mandingoes. As every thing relating
to the interior of Africa and all the details throwing light on the internal traffic
in slaves are interesting, I took pains to gather some particulars from Cinguez,
through an interpreter. The slave ships are supplied principally by capture. Some
are seized to secure real or pretended debts, and occasionally they are sold by their
relations. One of his accomplices in the murder, named [illegible], was sold by his
own brother.
All Western Africa is divided up into little tribes or vilages, and these tribes
are led by the ears by more powerful chiefs, and all the captives are bought or seized,
and immediately sent to the coast. Sometimes these chiefs attack villages, murder
the infants and the aged, and the infirm of both sexes, and drive the others down
to the coast to sell. Cinguez says his father was a chief, and that he himself was
kidnapped and sold to the Spaniards. I inferred from some reluctant admissions that
were extorted from him, however, that he was seized by Sharker, a powerful king,
near the mouth of the river Gambia, after he had sold a parcel of slaves on his own
account. The fact probably is, that Cinguez, a resolute, active, and energetic fellow,
had ben extensively engaged in the slave trade, and finally was caught in the snare
he had successfully spread for others. Quash, his brother, and Fuquorna,
and one other, whose name I could not understand, were from Cinguez’z [sic] own village,
and were sold by him to Sharker. Cinguez is shrewd and sharpwitted for a negro, and
after he had been assured by the interpreter that his designs were friendly, he communicated
with him freely, and with apparent frankness. He has a wife and there children in
Africa, and he is anxious to return, not so much to see them as to punish the treachery
of Sharker. In speaking of this cruel person, his usually dull eye blazed up with
an expression of great ferocity, and he drew his hand across his throat, indicating
thereby his thirst of vengeance. He was placed on board of a Spanish vessel with
his victims, near the mouth of the Gambia, and there he first met the miserable animals
who were his companions in the L’Amistad. The vessel in which he was embarked, in
company with 288 more slaves, was a polacre of 250 tons. The greater part of the
slaves, males and females, intermingled promiscuously, were confined in the between
decks, where the space was less than three feet. They were chained together by the
arms, legs, and necks, and so remained during the whole voyage to Havana, which lasted
six weeks. Fifty-seven slaves died on the passage. The remainder were landed at Havana,
and confined in a sort of pen for 5 weeks, when Ciguez and his present companions
were bought and shipped by Senor Ruez, for Principe.
His account of the result, and the subsequent transactions, did not very essentially
differ from these already published.
Canorna, the pretended canibal, is an Eboe, a tribe that inhabit [sic] the sea shore,
a few leagues to the southward of the equator.
They are exceedingly ignorant and debased, and this miserable and loathsome object
was almost worshipped by them, on account of his idiocy. There are 6 Eboes among
the slaves--four with the canibal, and 2 in another ward. With the exception
of the Jaloopes, perhaps there is no other tribe in Western Africa, in a state of
more hopeless ignorance and barbarism, than the Eboes. They command a less price
than any other slaves, on account of their impracticable stupidity, and the want
of physical power. They are slender and loosely built, with relaxed and feeble muscles,
and are never of much service as field hands. They sacrifice human victims to the
God Fetish, but are not canibals.
P.S.--The idea that has been suggested in some of your city papers, that the Africans
must be tried in New York, if at all, because they were captured in your waters,
is erroneous. Pirates can be tried any where.
