But the mainmost crop of São Tomé, that they harvest with great zeal, is sprung from the seed of Adam.
This is a place where they deal in the souls of men and women and children, which is a most frightful trade, and keenly cruel. Slavery is an old thing in Africa, far antedating the coming of the whites, and as it is practiced among the Africans it is no more reprehensible, I trow, than many another habit of the world. But the Portugals have refined it, here at São Tomé, into something most monstrous.
Slaves are a simple commodity to the folk of Angola and the Kongo and Loango. They are taken in wars between tribes, or are sold by their own tribesfolk to settle debts or to guarantee loans or in payment of blood money, or are placed in servitude as a punishment for theft, murder, or adultery. Once in slavery, the slave has no rank in the land, but is a mere piece of property, transmitted by inheritance or disposed of as his owner wishes. Yet other than in lack of freedom the condition of the slaves is hardly different from that of the free men. They must by law be treated properly, fed and housed, cared for in all ways. They are permitted to marry, even to marry those of free rank, and if they are diligent they can save enough to purchase their freedom, though only a few are known to do so.
All this have I seen with mine own eyes. I would not be a slave to anyone, at any time; yet will I attest that these slaves who are slaves in Africa to other black folk do not have a severely harsh life, and are more like the serfs and peasants of our older times in Europe. But how different a matter the Portugals have made of this custom of slaving!
I think they do not understand that the slaves are human beings. They regard them as mere articles of commerce, like the stacked tusks of elephantos or so many bags of pepper: something to be brought swiftly to market and sold for the best price. Strong slaves are valued, weak or sickly ones are discarded like lame horses. The demand for this merchandise is immense, for there are great plantations to be worked in the New World, and the Indians of Brazil and the Indies are poor laborers, who die or run away rather than serve their masters. But the Negro folk are good workers, and are sent by thousands upon thousands over there. The slavers of São Tomé rove all the coast, and go far inland, rounding up their human chattels and herding them toward the island. Where there are established slave-markets, the Portugals buy, exchanging liquor and gunpowder and such things for men and women. But also do they take by force, going into the jungle and stealing harmless folk away from their lives. And I have told you already how, when the Jaqqas did raid the Kongo and cause famine there, the Portugals of São Tomé went down to the isles at the mouth of the Zaire and bought children away from their own starving parents, for a few grains of food. But that is not the worst of it. For then—naked, badly fed, chained together— these people once they are enslaved are conveyed in great discomfort to the island, and laded upon evil vessels, and sent off to America with no regard for their welfare or comfort.
While I waited for my audience with the governor of São Tomé, I had me a good observing of the workings of this slave trade, and it sickened me mightily. Each day new hordes of slaves did come in from the mainland, and were stood in a certain shed to be branded, as we do brand sheep with a hot iron. I saw a branding one day, with slaves standing all in a row one by another, and singing a song of their nation, something like mundele que sumbela he kari ha belelelle, for all the world as if they were about to enjoy some happy festival. And one by one they were taken off by Portugals who put the hot metal to their flesh, stamping them on the buttock or the thigh, the men and women both. Most did not even cry out at this, though some fell from the pain. I watched this many minutes in horror, hearing the sizzle of the iron against flesh and smelling the smell of the burning, and finally I asked a Portugal, “Why do they show no fear? Why do they not cringe away from the iron? Are they so childish ignorant that they cannot know it will hurt?”
And he laughed and said, “Nay, they know it hurts. But we tell them that they that have not the mark will not be deemed persons of any account in Brazil, and so they are eager for the branding.”
Ah, the poor beguiled blackamoors!
And then they must wait for the next slave-ship that will depart. So they lie on the bare ground every night in the open air, without any covering, which makes them grow poor and faint. Some from the inland that are not used to the terrible climate of São Tomé fall ill, and they are allowed to die without medicine, which seems to me a very poor husbandry of one’s crop; but the Portugals say it is just as well that those die here, for if such inferior workers were shipped and sold and then they died, it would give the slave-sellers a bad reputation, and this culls the weaklings before they come to market. I suppose that there is some degree of sense in that, though I think there would be greater merit in preserving and strengthening the slaves, and curing and feeding them, than in allowing some by negligence to perish. That is, if one ignores all matter of human consideration and approaches this thing purely in business ways.
The time of waiting may be only a week or two, or maybe many months, if the seas are stormy. But then the ships come for them. The Portugals have constructed great dreadful slave-vessels, and it is pitiful to see how they crowd those poor wretches, six hundred and fifty or seven hundred in a ship. The men were standing in the hold, fastened to one another with stakes, for fear they should at last rise up and kill the Portugals. The women were between the decks, and those that were with child in the great cabin, and the children in the steerage pressed together like herrings in a barrel, which in that hot climate occasions an intolerable heat and stench. The voyage is generally performed in thirty or thirty-five days, the trade-wind carrying them; but sometimes they are becalmed, and then it is longer, often much longer, and I think then the suffering must be horrible. Before any ship departs, the Portugals cause the slaves they load to be baptized, it being forbidden under pain of excommunication to carry any to Brazil that are not christened. This, too, I witnessed, the forcible making of a great many new Roman Catholics, who by whips and hunger would be taught to love the mother of God and all the saints. On the ship I saw, all the men were given the name of João, and all the women the name of Maria, and the priest did exhort them all every one to confide in the mercy of God, who never forsakes those who sincerely rely on him, adding, that God sends afflictions to punish us for our sins. Well, I cry amen, for I also believe that God does not forsake those who love Him, though I hold that He sends us afflictions not as punishments but as a discipline, to make us stronger. But I do wonder how much those blacks understood of all that. They were no longer singing mundele que sumbela and the rest of that cheerful sound, but now were putting up cries that made a dismal harmony indeed.
This trade does profit the Portugals extremely much. Yet I trust they will pay it all back with full interest thereon, at the final Judgment, when they must look into the faces of their Maker and perhaps all their saints besides. And yes, I know that we English have carried our share of slaves, even such great men as Drake and Hawkins partaking in the trade. But those slaves were all bought fairly, I trow, not stolen by us from their homes and families, and they were not treated near so cruel in shipment. I do not like slavery and if I had the running of the world I think I would not encourage it; but I recognize it to be a part of life, like illness and mortality, and I cannot truly say I oppose it, only that it should be done with some regard for the welfare of the enslaved, and not in the way of the Portugals.