The East African Slave Trade - And the Measures Proposed for Its Extinction, as Viewed by Residents in Zanzibar #262064

To put a stop to the horrible cruelties of the slave caravan and the slave ship, is a very worthy object for any Christian nation, but then it must be followed by a real care for those who are released, or else our thropy condemns itself. Why do we dislike slavery? The only good reason is because we wish to see all our fellow men civilized and happy, because, in a word, we love our neighbours as ourselves. To take a man out of a slave dhow and cast him loose to perish in a strange country is no philanthropy. To give to our sailors five pounds a head for every slave they set free, and then grudge the freed slave one night's lodging, or one meal of food, is so absurd that unless one had seen it actually proposed it must have seemed incredible. If the British nation cannot afford to take care of the freed slave, and help him to understand the privileges and duties of a free man, it has no right Whatever to take him under its care at all, or to set ships-of-war to take him out of slavery, and leave him a prey to utter ignorance, to disease, and to starvation.