Rare Book Monthly
Slavery in the United States <br> Chapter 9
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"This awful catastrophe was soon followed by others still more shocking. Suffering under the severe wound he had received, the enraged chief now seems to have concluded that all around him were enemies, and therefore determined on adopting measures the most desperate against both white and black. In the latter end of August, one division of his clan crossed the Zimvooboo, and by night fell upon some of the hamlets belonging to Umyeki. These they utterly destroyed, scarcely allowing a single man, woman, or child to escape. Setting fire to all the houses at once, the greater part perished in the flames; and those of the poor creatures that endeavoured to run off had hardly got clear of the devouring element before the spear found its way to their hearts."
"Their modes of torture are various, and, in some instances, indescribably horrid: the very idea of them produces in one's mind a chilling sensation. Some cases I have seen, and of others I have heard; and many a time have I shuddered while witnessing their effects. These alone furnish proof sufficient that paganism is abhorrent in the extreme. Beating with the induku, or club, until the offenders are almost lifeless, is a comparatively mild measure. They are more frequently bound down, and tormented by means of large black ants, with which their bodies are literally covered from head to foot. Those who are doomed to undergo this process are first pinioned to the ground at full length, and in such a manner as to render it utterly impossible for them to move hand or foot: the poisonous swarm is then let loose upon them, and their stinging powers purposely stimulated. The eyes, the ears, and even the tongue, are all made to feel the painful smart, for the insects are not unfrequently forced into the mouth. In this way many a poor female is put upon the rack, and afterwards concealed in the lonely forest or cheerless dell until her wounded flesh is in some measure healed again.
"Roasting and branding come next in order, and constitute a fiery ordeal indeed. Posts are firmly fixed in the ground, at certain distances, and to these the culprit is tied with thongs, and with his arms and legs distended to the very uttermost. A fire is then made on each side of him, at his head also, and likewise at his feet. Here he broils, and when he seems likely to expire amid the encompassing flame, the fires are partly removed; but it is only to ' shift the rack.' Hot stones are now applied to the breast, the abdomen, the inner parts of the thighs, or to the soles of the feet, which are thus burnt until the sinews shrink, and parts of the muscular system are completely destroyed."
"The Kaffer host had all this time hung back; and while the military were routing Matuwana and his warriors, they busily employed themselves in driving off all the cattle they could find, and in murdering the women and children. Previously to the attack being made, orders had indeed been given by the commanding officer, strictly prohibiting this barbarous kind of conduct: but he who lets the lion loose ought not to forget that he requires guarding. When the troops returned to the point whence they started, the field presented a scene indescribably shocking: old decrepit men, with their bodies pierced, and heads almost cut off; pregnant females ripped open; legs broken, and hands likewise severed from the arm, as if for the purpose of getting the armlets or some other trifling ornament; little children mutilated and horribly mangled; many in whom the spark of life had become quite extinct; some who were still struggling in the agonies of death, and others nearly lifeless, endeavouring to crawl about among the dead. One of the soldiers, while crossing the valley, happened to observe a Kaffer intently engaged at a distance: he immediately advanced to see what he was about, and found the brutal savage-deliberately cutting off the breasts of a helpless female, whom he had thrown down on the ground for the purpose. Without standing to ask any questions, he instantly levelled his piece, and shot the barbarian dead on the spot."
From these details it would seem sufficiently apparent, that humanity will have little cause to triumph in the abolition of slavery in the other quarters of the globe, while it continues to exist to such an extent in Africa, and while the ordinary state of society affords such spectacles of barbarity. It would only conduce to the multiplication of slaves at home, decrease their value, and, consequently, the interest of their masters to treat them well; and finally, at length, when they would have more than they knew what to do with, entail upon the superfluous prisoners of war the fate of those "who, from age or infirmity, are of no value," and are put to death. Nothing but going to the fountain-head, and planting religion and civilization in Africa itself, can possibly cure the evil effectually. For this beneficent and noble purpose, no plan was ever devised which promised so rational a triumph over barbarism and unbelief as the institution of the Colonization Society of the United States, which has been denounced by the abolitionists of England and America as an imposition on the world, calculated and intended to perpetuate the evils it professed to alleviate. That it would have been a long time in achieving its great objects, is, in the eyes of wise, reflecting persons, rather a recommendation than an objection, since all salutary changes in the economy of the world are brought about by slow degrees to an easy and almost imperceptible consummation. That it will ultimately succeed, is more than we can tell, for only time will disclose its final consequences. Still we maintain that it has all the attributes of a rational plan, depending for success on rational means, and sanctioned by rational anticipations as well as by actual experience. It is in itself the severest satire on the mad-headed schemes of the abolitionists; and this may probably be one principal reason why they denounce it so vehemently, and, by persuasion as well as misrepresentation and calumny, endeavour to deter the blacks, bond as well as free, from snatching at the only practicable mode of really bettering their situation that was ever offered to their acceptance.
Let it be borne in mind, that we are now considering this subject, not with reference to any abstract principle of divine or natural law, but on the ground of its practical operation on the happiness of those concerned. For this purpose, and as the most certain mode of deciding the question, a comparison has been instituted between the situation of the natives of Africa, bond and free, and that of the slaves of the South. As equally applicable to the subject, the inquiry will be extended to the operatives in the English manufactories, to the peasantry of Europe, and the common day-labourers of the United States.
