The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African
and wrote to Capt. Thompson, expressing their approbation of it.
Thus provided, they proceeded on their voyage; and at last, worn out
by treatment, perhaps not the most mild, and wasted by sickness,
brought on by want of medicine, cloaths, bedding, &c. they reached
Sierra Leone just at the commencement of the rains. At that season of
the year it is impossible to cultivate the lands; their provisions
therefore were exhausted before they could derive any benefit from
agriculture; and it is not surprising that many, especially the
lascars, whose constitutions are very tender, and who had been cooped
up in ships from October to June, and accommodated in the manner I
have mentioned, should be so wasted by their confinement as not long
to survive it.
Thus ended my part of the long-talked-of expedition to Sierra Leone;
an expedition which, however unfortunate in the event, was humane and
politic in its design, nor was its failure owing to government: every
thing was done on their part; but there was evidently sufficient
mismanagement attending the conduct and execution of it to defeat its
success.
I should not have been so ample in my account of this transaction, had
not the share I bore in it been made the subject of partial
animadversion, and even my dismission from my employment thought
worthy of being made by some a matter of public triumph[X]. The
motives which might influence any person to descend to a petty contest
with an obscure African, and to seek gratification by his depression,
perhaps it is not proper here to inquire into or relate, even if its
detection were necessary to my vindication; but I thank Heaven it is
not. I wish to stand by my own integrity, and not to shelter myself
under the impropriety of another; and I trust the behaviour of the
Commissioners of the Navy to me entitle me to make this assertion; for
after I had been dismissed, March 24, I drew up a memorial thus:
_To the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of
his Majesty's Treasury:
The Memorial and Petition of_ Gustavus Vassa _a black Man,
late Commissary to the black Poor going to_ Africa.
HUMBLY SHEWETH,
That your Lordships' memorialist was, by the Honourable the
Commissioners of his Majesty's Navy, on the 4th of December
last, appointed to the above employment by warrant from that
board;
That he accordingly proceeded to the execution of his duty
on board of the Vernon, being one of the ships appointed to
proceed to Africa with the above poor;
That your memorialist, to his great grief and astonishment,
received a letter of dismission from the Honourable
Commissioners of the Navy, by your Lordships' orders;
That, conscious of having acted with the most perfect
fidelity and the greatest assiduity in discharging the trust
reposed in him, he is altogether at a loss to conceive the
reasons of your Lordships' having altered the favourable
opinion you were pleased to conceive of him, sensible that
your Lordships would not proceed to so severe a measure
without some apparent good cause; he therefore has every
reason to believe that his conduct has been grossly
misrepresented to your Lordships; and he is the more
confirmed in his opinion, because, by opposing measures of
others concerned in the same expedition, which tended to
defeat your Lordships' humane intentions, and to put the
government to a very considerable additional expense, he
created a number of enemies, whose misrepresentations, he
has too much reason to believe, laid the foundation of his
dismission. Unsupported by friends, and unaided by the
advantages of a liberal education, he can only hope for
redress from the justice of his cause, in addition to the
mortification of having been removed from his employment,
and the advantage which he reasonably might have expected to
have derived therefrom. He has had the misfortune to have
sunk a considerable part of his little property in fitting
himself out, and in other expenses arising out of his
situation, an account of which he here annexes. Your
memorialist will not trouble your Lordships with a
vindication of any part of his conduct, because he knows not
of what crimes he is accused; he, however, earnestly
entreats that you will be pleased to direct an inquiry into
his behaviour during the time he acted in the public
service; and, if it be found that his dismission arose from
false representations, he is confident that in your
Lordships' justice he shall find redress.
Your petitioner therefore humbly prays that your Lordships
will take his case into consideration, and that you will be
pleased to order payment of the above referred-to account,
amounting to 32l. 4s. and also the wages intended, which is
most humbly submitted.
_London, May 12, 1787._
The above petition was delivered into the hands of their Lordships,
who were kind enough, in the space of some few months afterwards,
without hearing, to order me 50l. sterling--that is, 18l. wages for
the time (upwards of four months) I acted a faithful part in their
service. Certainly the sum is more than a free negro would have had in
the western colonies!!!
* * * * *
March the 21st, 1788, I had the honour of presenting the Queen with a
petition on behalf of my African brethren, which was received most
graciously by her Majesty[Y]:
_To the_ QUEEN's _most Excellent Majesty_.
Madam,
Your Majesty's well known benevolence and humanity emboldens
me to approach your royal presence, trusting that the
obscurity of my situation will not prevent your Majesty from
attending to the sufferings for which I plead.
Yet I do not solicit your royal pity for my own distress; my
sufferings, although numerous, are in a measure forgotten. I
supplicate your Majesty's compassion for millions of my
African countrymen, who groan under the lash of tyranny in
the West Indies.
The oppression and cruelty exercised to the unhappy negroes
there, have at length reached the British legislature, and
they are now deliberating on its redress; even several
persons of property in slaves in the West Indies, have
petitioned parliament against its continuance, sensible that
it is as impolitic as it is unjust--and what is inhuman must
ever be unwise.
Your Majesty's reign has been hitherto distinguished by
private acts of benevolence and bounty; surely the more
extended the misery is, the greater claim it has to your
Majesty's compassion, and the greater must be your Majesty's
pleasure in administering to its relief.
I presume, therefore, gracious Queen, to implore your
interposition with your royal consort, in favour of the
wretched Africans; that, by your Majesty's benevolent
influence, a period may now be put to their misery; and that
they may be raised from the condition of brutes, to which
they are at present degraded, to the rights and situation of
freemen, and admitted to partake of the blessings of your
Majesty's happy government; so shall your Majesty enjoy the
heartfelt pleasure of procuring happiness to millions, and
be rewarded in the grateful prayers of themselves, and of
their posterity.
And may the all-bountiful Creator shower on your Majesty,
and the Royal Family, every blessing that this world can
afford, and every fulness of joy which divine revelation has
promised us in the next.
I am your Majesty's most dutiful and devoted servant to
command,
Gustavus Vassa,
The Oppressed Ethiopean.
No. 53, Baldwin's Gardens.
* * * * *
The negro consolidated act, made by the assembly of Jamaica last year,
and the new act of amendment now in agitation there, contain a proof
of the existence of those charges that have been made against the
planters relative to the treatment of their slaves.
I hope to have the satisfaction of seeing the renovation of liberty
and justice resting on the British government, to vindicate the honour
of our common nature. These are concerns which do not perhaps belong
to any particular office: but, to speak more seriously to every man of
sentiment, actions like these are the just and sure foundation of
future fame; a reversion, though remote, is coveted by some noble
minds as a substantial good. It is upon these grounds that I hope and
expect the attention of gentlemen in power. These are designs
consonant to the elevation of their rank, and the dignity of their
stations: they are ends suitable to the nature of a free and generous
government; and, connected with views of empire and dominion, suited
to the benevolence and solid merit of the legislature. It is a pursuit
of substantial greatness.--May the time come--at least the speculation
to me is pleasing--when the sable people shall gratefully commemorate
the auspicious æra of extensive freedom. Then shall those persons[Z]
particularly be named with praise and honour, who generously proposed
and stood forth in the cause of humanity, liberty, and good policy;
and brought to the ear of the legislature designs worthy of royal
patronage and adoption. May Heaven make the British senators the
dispersers of light, liberty, and science, to the uttermost parts of
the earth: then will be glory to God on the highest, on earth peace,
and goodwill to men:--Glory, honour, peace, &c. to every soul of man
that worketh good, to the Britons first, (because to them the Gospel
is preached) and also to the nations. 'Those that honour their Maker
have mercy on the poor.' 'It is righteousness exalteth a nation; but
sin is a reproach to any people; destruction shall be to the workers
of iniquity, and the wicked shall fall by their own wickedness.' May
the blessings of the Lord be upon the heads of all those who
commiserated the cases of the oppressed negroes, and the fear of God
prolong their days; and may their expectations be filled with
gladness! 'The liberal devise liberal things, and by liberal things
shall stand,' Isaiah xxxii. 8. They can say with pious Job, 'Did not I
weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the
poor?' Job xxx. 25.
As the inhuman traffic of slavery is to be taken into the
consideration of the British legislature, I doubt not, if a system of
commerce was established in Africa, the demand for manufactures would
most rapidly augment, as the native inhabitants will insensibly adopt
the British fashions, manners, customs, &c. In proportion to the
civilization, so will be the consumption of British manufactures.
The wear and tear of a continent, nearly twice as large as Europe, and
rich in vegetable and mineral productions, is much easier conceived
than calculated.
A case in point.--It cost the Aborigines of Britain little or nothing
in clothing, &c. The difference between their forefathers and the
present generation, in point of consumption, is literally infinite.
The supposition is most obvious. It will be equally immense in
Africa--The same cause, viz. civilization, will ever have the same
effect.
It is trading upon safe grounds. A commercial intercourse with Africa
opens an inexhaustible source of wealth to the manufacturing interests
of Great Britain, and to all which the slave trade is an objection.
If I am not misinformed, the manufacturing interest is equal, if not