Poems (Southey)/Volume 1/Poems on the Slave-Trade
Poems
on the
Slave Trade.
When first the Abolition of the Slave-Trade was agitated in England, the friends of humanity endeavoured by two means to accomplish it—To destroy the Trade immediately by the interference of Government; or by the disuse of West-Indian productions: a slow but certain method. For a while Government held the language of justice, and individuals with enthusiasm banished sugar from their tables. This enthusiasm soon cooled; the majority of those who had made this sacrifice, (I prostitute the word, but such they thought it,) persuaded themselves that Parliament would do all, and that individual efforts were no longer necessary. Thus ended the one attempt; it is not difficult to say why the other has failed; it is not difficult to say why the Minister has once found himself in the minority, and on the side of justice. Would to God that the interests of those who dispose of us as they please, had been as closely connected with the preservation of Peace and Liberty, as with the continuance of this traffic in human flesh!
There are yet two other methods remaining, by which this traffic will probably be abolished. By the introduction of East Indian or Maple Sugar, or by the just and general rebellion of the Negroes.
To these past and present prospects the following Poems occasionally allude: to the English custom of exciting wars upon the Slave Coast that they may purchase prisoners, and to the punishment sometimes inflicted upon a Negro for murder, of which Hector St. John was an eye witness.