The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade/Chapter 8
CHAPTER VIII.
Slave Traffic of the Levant. — Nubian Slaves.
The Mohammedan slave-trade. — Nubian slaves captured for the slave markets of the Levant. — Mohammed Ali. — Grand expeditions for hunting. — Annual tribute of slaves. — The encampment. — Attack upon the villages. — Courage of the natives. — Their heroic resistance. — Cruelty of the victors. — Destruction of villages. The captives sold into slavery.
While Central and Eastern Africa were ravaged for slaves to supply the American market, Nubia and other districts were equally laid under contribution to supply the slave markets of the Levant, of Egypt, Turkey and the East. The one may be called the Christian, the other the Mohammedan Slave Trade. The main difference between the two trades was, that while the Europeans generally bought slaves after they had been captured, the less fastidious Turks captured slaves for themselves. We have been accustomed to interest ourselves so much in the western or Christian slave-trade, that we have paid but little attention to the other. While the one trade has beon legally abolished, the other is carried on as vigorously as ever. A traffic in negroes is at present going on between Negroland and the whole of the East. While it has been declared illegal to carry away a negro from the coast of Guinea, negroes are bought and sold daily in the public slave markets of Cairo and Constantinople.
When Dr. Madden, of England, went to Egypt in 1840, as the bearer of a letter from the Anti-Slavery Convention to Mohammed AH, the ruler of Egypt, congratulating him upon his having issued an order abolishing the slave hunts, to his great surprise, he found that the order, though issued, had never been enforced, and probably never would be. The truth is, that Mohammed himself had brought the system of hunting slaves to a high degree of perfection. Nubia was his principal hunting ground, into which he permitted no intruder. His own expeditions were conducted on a grand scale; and generally took place after the rainy season. From Dr. Madden's work, we extract a description of these slave hunts: "The capturing expedition consists of from 1000 to 2000 regular foot soldiers; from 400 to 800 mounted Bedouins, armed with guns and pistols; from 300 to 500 militia, half-naked savages on dromedaries, armed with spears, and 1000 more on foot, armed with small lances. As soon as everything is ready, the march begins. They usually take from two to four field-pieces, and only sufficient bread for the first eight days. They take by force on the route such oxen, sheep, and other cattle as they may need, making no reparation and listening to no complaints, as the governor himself is present.
As soon as they arrive at the nearest mountains in Nubia, the inhabitants are asked to give the appointed number of slaves as their customary tribute. This is usually done with readiness, as they are well aware that by an obstinate refusal, they expose themselves to far greater sufferings. If the slaves are given without resistance, the inhabitants of that mountain are preserved from the horrors of an open attack; but as the food of the soldiers begins to fail about that time, the poor people are obliged to procure the necessary provisions as well as the specified number of slaves, and the Turks do not consider whether the harvest has been good or bad. All that is not freely given, the soldiers take by force. Like so many bloodhounds, they know how to discover the hidden stores, and frequently leave these unfortunate people scarcely a loaf for the next day. They then proceed on to the more distant mountains: here they consider themselves to be in the land of an enemy; they encamp near the mountain which they intend to take by storm the following day, or immediately, if it is practicable. But before the attack commences, they endeavor to settle the affair amicably: a messenger is sent to the sheik, in order to invite him to come to the camp, and to bring with him the requisite number of slaves. If the chief agrees with his subjects to the proposal, in order to prevent all further bloodshed, or if he finds his means inadequate to attempt resistance, he readily gives the appointed number of slaves. The sheik then proceeds to procure the number he has promised; and this is not difficult, for many volunteers offer themselves for their brethren, and are ready to subject themselves to all the horrors of slavery, in order to free those they love. Sometimes they are obliged to be torn by force from the embraces of their friends and relations. The sheik generally receives a dress as a present for his ready services.
But there are very few mountains that submit to such a demand. Most villages which are advantageously situated, and lie near steep precipices or inaccessible heights, that can be ascended only with difficulty, defend themselves most valiantly, and fight for the rights of liberty with a courage, perseverance, and sacrifice, of which history furnishes us with few examples. Very few flee at the approach of their enemies, although they might take refuge in the high mountains with all their goods, especially as they receive timely information of the arrival of the soldiers; but they consider such flights cowardly and shameful, and prefer to die fighting for their liberty.
If the sheik does not yield to the demand, an attack is made upon the village. The cavalry and bearers of lances surround the whole mountain, and the infantry endeavor to climb the heights. Formerly, they fired with cannon upon the villages and those places where the negroes were assembled, but, on account of the want of skill of the artillerymen, few shots, if any, took effect; the negroes became indifferent to this prelude, and were only stimulated to a more obstinate resistance. The thundering of the cannon at first caused more consternation than their effects, but the fears of the negroes ceased as soon as they became accustomed to it. Before the attack commences, all avenues to the village are blocked up with large stones or other impediments, the village is provided with water for several days, the cattle and other property taken up to the mountains; in short, nothing necessary for a proper defense is neglected. The men, armed only with lances, occupy every spot which may be defended; and even the women do not remain inactive; they either take part in the battle personally, or encourage their husbands by their cries and lamentations, and provide them with arms; in short, all are active, except the sick and aged. The points of their wooden lances are first dipped into a poison which is standing by them in an earthen vessel, and which is prepared from the juice of a certain plant. The poison is of a whitish color, and looks like milk which has been standing; the nature of the plant, and the manner in which the poison is prepared, is still a secret, and generally known only to one family in the village, who will not on any account make it known to others.
The signal for attack being given, the infantry sound the alarm, and an assault is made upon the mountain. Hundreds of lances, large stones, and pieces of wood, are then thrown at the assailants; behind every large stone a negro is concealed, who either throws his poisoned lance at the enemy, or waits for the moment when his opponent approaches the spot of his concealment, when he pierces him with his lance. The soldiers, who are only able to climb up the steep heights with great difficulty, are obliged to sling their guns over their backs, in order to have the use of their hands when climbing, and, consequently, are often in the power of the negroes before they are able to discover them. But nothing deters these robbers. Animated with avarice and revenge, they mind no impediment, not even death itself. One after another trends upon the corpse of his comrade, and thinks only of robbery and murder; and the village is at last taken, in spite of the most desperate resistance. And then the revenge is horrible. Neither the aged nor the sick are spared; women, and even children in the womb, fall a sacrifice to their fury; the huts are plundered, the little possessions of the unfortunate inhabitants carried away or destroyed, and all that fall alive into the hands of the robbers are led as slaves into the camp. When the negroes see that their resistance is no longer of any avail, they frequently prefer death to slavery; and if they are not prevented, you may see the father rip up first the stomach of his wife, then of his children, and then his own, that they may not fall alive into the hands of the enemy. Others endeavor to save themselves by creeping into holes, and remain there for several days without nourishment, where there is frequently only room sufficient to allow them to lie on their backs, and in that situation they sometimes remain for eight days. They have assured me, that if they can overcome the first three days, they may, with a little effort, continue full eight days without food. But even from these hiding-places the unfeeling barbarians know how to draw them, or they make use of means to destroy them: provided with combustibles, such as pitch, brimstone, &c., the soldiers try to kindle a fire before the entrance of the holes, and, by forcing the stinking smoke into them, the poor creatures are obliged to creep out and surrender themselves to their enemies, or they are suffocated with the smoke.
After the Turks have done all in their power to capture the living, they lead these unfortunate people into the camp; they then plunder the huts and the cattle; and several hundred soldiers are engaged in searching the mountain in every direction, in order to steal the hidden harvest, that the rest of the negroes, who were fortunate enough to escape, and have hid themselves in inaccessible caves, should not find anything on their return to nourish and continue their life.
When slaves to the number of 500 or 600 are obtained, they are sent to Lobeid, with an escort of country people, and about fifty soldiers, under the command of an officer. In order to prevent escape, a sheba is hung round the necks of the adults. A sheba is a young tree, about eight feet long, and two inches thick, and which has a fork at the top; it is so tied to the neck of the poor creature, that the trunk of the tree hangs down in the front, and the fork is closed behind the neck with a cross-piece of timber, or tied together with strips cut out of a fresh skin; and in this situation the slave, in order to walk at all, is obliged to take the tree into his hands, and to carry it before him. But none can endure this very long; and to render it easier, the one in advance takes the tree of the man behind him on his shoulder." In this way, the men carrying the sheba, the boys tied together by the wrists, the women and children walking at their liberty, and the old and feeble tottering along leaning on their relations, the whole of the captives are driven into Egypt, there to be exposed for sale in the slave-market. Thus negroes and Nubians are distributed over the East, through Persia, Arabia, India, &c.,[1]
- ↑ Dr. Madden's Egypt and Mohammed Ali.