Banking standards under the federal reserve system

Report from the Select Committee on Slave Trade (East Coast of Africa); together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, appendix and index

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1762969653

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-142432

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Banking standards under the federal reserve system

Place of publication:: Chicago

Publisher:: A. W. Shaw Company

Year of publication:: 1928

Scope:: xxxviii, 420 Seiten

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part II. Norms and trends in individual series for all Member Banks, by districts

Collection:: Economics Books

66 MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE Rct. H. Waller. 24 July 1871- &36. That was not for export?—Not for export at that time, but ii the opportunity offered they would have exported those slaves. 937. If they could have got for them such a price as would have compensated them for the loss of their labour on their estates ?—Yes. 938. Our attention is rather directed to that portion of the trade which you have described as being carried on by the Northern Arabs ?—If you will allow me I should very much like to avail myself of the opportunity of describing the cruelties I have seen connected with the collecting of the slaves. I think I am not asking too much to be allowed to state this, because I know that many of the slaves taken from the part of the country we were in find their way to Mozambique, and that many of them find their way to Zanzibar. Dr. Livingstone recognised slaves at Zanzibar that had been brought from that part of the country, and I have recognised at Mozambique some who had recently been taken from the highlands, and indeed the slaves themselves told us where they had seen us, so that we could at once identify them as having been drawn from the country we had been in. I think that attention should be prominently called to the condition of those un fortunate people in their transit from the interior, because, though I can quite see that one’s mouth is rather closed as to the status of a slave when he gets to an Arab master, that has nothing to do with the sufferings connected with his capture. It is true that a slave is well treated by his Arab master ; as has been well observed, a man will not illtreat his slave so as to hurt him, any more than he w ill his horse, but life is so cheap in the interior of the country that this rule does not hold good at all, as far as regards what takes place before the slave is finally sold. When I first went there in 1861 (and the state of things was even worse when I left in 1864), the ordi- nary price of a slave was two yards of calico ; that is to say, for a boy 10 years of age : a woman would fetch something more if she was likely to be sold to the Kaffirs, or if she was likely to go on to one of the Portuguese farms, or to go to any of the Portuguese in Mozam bique ; she might have fetched eight yards of calico ; but the price varied very much. The process of catching the slaves is this : the slave dealer goes into the country with so many mus kets, and so many pieces of calico, and he finds out the most powerful chief, and he gives him spirits and keeps him in a state of semi-drunkenness the whole time, and tells him he must have more slaves ; he gives him muskets and powder on account, and the man immediately finds out an opportunity to settle some old outstanding quar rel with some other chief, and therefore a war breaks out. As soon as war breaks out, favour able conditions are created for the carrying on of the slave trade, because famine is sure to fol low in a country where the people are dependent on one w^et season for tilling the ground, for it is only during the wet season that corn can be sown. Then a chief without food and without the means of buying food, will sell off his people very cheaply indeed. Captures are made in war. Kidnapping is prevalent all over the country ; which leads again to all sorts of petty disputes and retaliation, and the more disturbed the country is, the cheaper slaves become ; so cheap do they at last become, that I have known children of tiie age of from eight to 10 years bought for j less corn than would go into one of our hats, i and you may easily imagine where they are i bought so cheaply, and where they fetch so large , a price on the coast, it pays the slave dealer very ■ well to collect as many as he can, knowing that , he must lose a certain proportion on the way, but ; also knowing that the remnant he saves will pay ‘ him a very large profit. It is like sending up for a large block of ice to London in the hot weather ; : you know that a certain amount will melt away before it reaches you in the country as it travels down; but that which remains will be quite suffi' | cient for your wants. 939. Chairman?^ Can you give us any idea of the comparative price of a slave on the coast, and in the interior where they are bought ?—I ' ascertained the price of slaves at Mozambique, and I found they were worth there about eight dollars, the same slaves having been bought in i the interior for a few yards of calico. I 940. Sir R. Ansirutker?^ What is the propor- ; tion of waste of life m the transit ? —It is very , difficult to say what is the waste of life in the transit without having travelled with a slave caravan the whole way. Sickness may break out; they may cross a part of the country where there is verj little food, and then many die of famine. Then, again, if there is anything like insubordination in the slave gang, the axe and knife are used very freely indeed, and an indis- i criminate slaughter takes place amongst all those i who are strong enough to be at all obstreperous, i We liberated a gang of 84 slaves one morning, : and within a few miles of the place where we ; liberated them we were shown places in the bush ; where slaves had been killed only that morning ; j one poor woman had a child on her back which | she had recently given birth to, and which she | was too weak to carry further, and the slave j dealer took it by the heels and dashed its brains ! against a tree ; another woman was ill herselfj I and could not keep in the line, and the slave dealer dashed her brains out with the axe, and she was cut out of the slave thong. They are | all united in a long string, the men being yoked I in heavy forked sticks, which are kept on theit ¡ necks from the time they are captured till the time they are delivered to the slave shipper, some times for six weeks and sometimes even three months at a time. 941. Chairman.'] What is the time generally occupied in the transit to the coast ?—It varies ; the slave gang is made up as the dealers travel about ; they do not collect all the slaves at one place and go straight to the coast, the slaves are marched to and fro in the country, to a chief here ; and to another there, wherever the dealers hear that slaves are to be sold, and then they are all ' eventually taken to the coast. The travelling is very slow ; I should say it is no uncommon thing for a slave gang to be some three months from the time it is first formed to the time it reaches the coast. The loss of life is very terrible indeed, owing to the hardships of the transit, and owing to the brutality of the drivers. 942. Dr. Livingstone, in one of his letters, ; estimates that about one-fifth reach the coast ’■> ! do you think that that would be a fair average ^ ¡ I should say that one-fifth do reach the coast, | perhaps more ; but I would also state this, that | the Doctor believes that for every slave that comes to the coast perhaps 10 lives are lost in th^ interior.

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