Thus the first effectual blow against the slave trade was struck, and the friends of the African believed that the unholy system had received its death-wound. But they did not rightly estimate the strength of human wickedness, and the power of those fiendish passions that were burning in the hearts of corrupt men. They did not see that the lust for gold would continue to seek gratification, at whatever expense of cruelty, and that brutes in human shape would laugh at compassion, sneer at just laws, and spurn the very idea of mercy.
For, what does a man engaged in this traffic know of humanity, justice, or the rights of a fellow man? What does he care for the sufferings of the captive, the shrieks of the agonized mother, the imploring looks and pathetic appeals of the dying slave? With the horrors of the middle passage constantly before him, does his heart relent? Looking down upon the crowded group of miserable, groaning victims of his cupidity, does a tear start in his eye? Throwing overboard the sick, for the sake of the insurance, does he reflect upon the infinite sacrifices he makes to gain a few dollars? A slave trader reflecting! What an absurdity! His conscience and heart moved! He has no conscience, — has no heart. Look into the soul of the captain of a slave ship, and what do you see? You need not read the vision of Dante, nor visit afterwards the regions of the lost.
Still the friends of the slave were hopeful, and
