A History of Colonization on the Western Coast of Africa (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: whom were ruined by Alexander and the Grecians, and the latter by Scipio and the Romans. This fate, says Mr. Mede, was it which made Hannibal, a child of Canaan, cry out with the amazement of his soul, I acknowledge the fortune of Carthage. And ever since, the miserable remainder of this people have been slaves to a foreign yoke; first to the Saracens, who descended from Shem, and afterwards to the Turks who descended from Japheth, and they grieve under this dominion until this day. The whole continent of Africa was peopled principally by the children of Ham; and for how many ages have the better parts of the country lain under the dominion of the Romans, then of the Saracens, and now of the Turks In what wickedness, barbarity, ignorance, slavery, and misery live most of the inhabitants And of the poor negroes, how many hundreds every year are sold and bought, like beasts, in the market, and are conveyed from one quarter of the globe, to do the work of beasts in another CHAPTER II. ORIGIN OF THE COLONY AT SIERRA LEONE. In 1787 a number of gentlemen subscribed a few thousand pounds as a fund for assisting some destitute blacks, then in London, to settle at Sierra Leone. These were among the slaves who had taken refuge in the British army, during the war of the American revolution; and who on the return of the troops accompanied them to England. The question may very naturally arise, why were they not encouraged to remain in London, or to seek a settlement in some other part of the country? This question is peculiarly pertinent at this time, when the British public, or a large portion of them, can see no good reason for the existence of the American Colonization Society; and cannot understand why the free people of colour cannot be permitted peaceably to re...