Page:Notices of Negro slavery as connected with Pennsylvania.djvu/13

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negro slavery.

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After the death of this prelate, the emperor, Charles V., in 1517, encouraged the slave trade, and granted letters patent for carrying it on;^[1] but he lived to see his error and most nobly renounced it, for he ordered and had executed a complete manumission of all African slaves in his American dominions. About this time Pope Leo X. gave to the world this noble declaration: "That not only the Christian religion, but nature herself cried out against a state of slavery." In the year 1562, in the reign of Elizabeth, the English first stained their hands with the negro traffic: Captain, afterwards Sir J. Hawkins, made a descent on the African coast, and carried away a number

↑ "When the Episcopal dignity was conferred on him, on reaching his see, the first use he made of his pastoral power was to deny the sacraments to all those who held slaves and refused to give them up, and those who bought and sold them. * * * In the latest production from the pen of Las Casas he confesses the grievous fault he had fallen into, and begs for the forgiveness of God in the most contrite terms, for the misfortunes he had brought on the poor people of Africa by the inadvertence of his counsel, and this confession (says his historian) of his error, so full of candor and contrition, should disarm the rigor of philosophy, and hold his benevolent disposition absolved before posterity. Let him, whose philanthropy is without fault, and whose nature is superior to error, cast the first stone at the memory of the venerable Las Casas."—Poems by a Slave in the Island of Cuba, and to which are prefixed two pieces descriptive of Cuban slavery and the slave traffic, by R.R. Madden, M.D., London, 1840, pp. 152, 155.—Editor.

"In 1511 Charles granted a patent to one of his Flemish favorites, containing an exclusive right of importing four thousand negroes into America. The favorite sold his patent to some Genoese merchants for 25,000 ducats, and they were the first who brought into a regular form that commerce for slaves between Africa and America, which has since been carried on to such an amazing extent."—Robertson, I. p. 321.—Editor.

[1] "When the Episcopal dignity was conferred on him, on reaching his see, the first use he made of his pastoral power was to deny the sacraments to all those who held slaves and refused to give them up, and those who bought and sold them. * * * In the latest production from the pen of Las Casas he confesses the grievous fault he had fallen into, and begs for the forgiveness of God in the most contrite terms, for the misfortunes he had brought on the poor people of Africa by the inadvertence of his counsel, and this confession (says his historian) of his error, so full of candor and contrition, should disarm the rigor of philosophy, and hold his benevolent disposition absolved before posterity. Let him, whose philanthropy is without fault, and whose nature is superior to error, cast the first stone at the memory of the venerable Las Casas."—Poems by a Slave in the Island of Cuba, and to which are prefixed two pieces descriptive of Cuban slavery and the slave traffic, by R.R. Madden, M.D., London, 1840, pp. 152, 155.—Editor.

"In 1511 Charles granted a patent to one of his Flemish favorites, containing an exclusive right of importing four thousand negroes into America. The favorite sold his patent to some Genoese merchants for 25,000 ducats, and they were the first who brought into a regular form that commerce for slaves between Africa and America, which has since been carried on to such an amazing extent."—Robertson, I. p. 321.—Editor.

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