Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/62

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CHAP. III.

The enslaved Africans come dejected on board — Cause of this Dejection — Methods of confining, airing, feeding, and exercising them — Mode of stowing them, with its bad Consequences — This Mode and its Consequences confirmed by another Species of Proof — Incidents on the Passage — Manner of selling them when arrived at their destined Ports — Deplorable Situation of the Refuse or Sickly Slaves — Separation of Relations and Friends — Mortality on the Passage, and frequently after Sale — Causes of this Mortality — Opinions of several of the Evidences on the Trade.

Enslaved Africans come dejected on board — Cause of this Dejection

The Natives of Africa having been made slaves in the manner described in the former chapters, are brought down for sale to the European ships.

On being brought on board, says Dr. Trotter, they shew signs of extreme distress and despair, from a feeling of their situation, and regret at being torn from their friends and connections; many retain those impressions for a long time; in proof of which, the slaves on board his ship being often heard in the night, making an howling melancholy noise, expressive of extreme anguish, he repeatedly ordered the woman, who had been his interpreter, to inquire into the cause. She discovered it to be owing to their having dreamt they were in their own country again, and finding themselves when awake, in the hold of a slave ship. This exquisite sensibility was particularly observable among the women, many of whom, on such occasions, he found in hysteric fits.

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