ept in servitude as a matter of course; debtors were slaves to
their creditors, and even children were sold by their parents. Yet there
were great differences between the tribes--the Coromantees, for example,
were particularly troublesome, and the Foulahs often dangerous. The
first slave-traders took their cargoes from the more northern coasts,
and from this cause, perhaps, as well as the want of proper supervision
in the Indies, runaways, or Simerons, were mentioned at very early
periods. Later, the trade was carried on in a particularly judicious
manner, and the more docile tribes selected, to be sold in the colonies
as "Prime Gold Coast Negroes."

In their native countries these people were all virtually slaves to
their chiefs, and as such were liable to be sold at any time. The
authority was unlimited; the slightest offence meant slavery; death was
the only alternative. Often when, for some reason or other, the negro
was rejected by the trader, he was executed at once. Adultery was
punished by the sale of both offenders, and debtors could be sold by
their creditors. Bryan Edwards, author of a history of the West Indies,
took much pains to procure information from the slaves themselves,
through an interpreter; and as they had no reason to misrepresent their
cases, we can safely give the outlines of one.

The most interesting story is, perhaps, that of the boy Adam, a Congo,
about fourteen years of age when he was brought to Jamaica. His country
was named Sarri, and was situated a long distance from the coast. While
walking one morning through a path, about three miles from his native
village, the boy was captured by one of his countrymen. With his
prisoner the man hid himself in the woods during the whole of the day,
and at night stole away from the neighbourhood, going on like this for a
whole month. Then he came to the country of another tribe, where he sold
the boy for a gun, some powder and shot, and a little salt. His new
owner afterwards sold Adam for a keg of brandy to another black man who
was going about collecting slaves, and when twenty had been collected
they were taken to the coast and sold to a Jamaica captain.

Of the five-and-twenty interrogated by Bryan Edwards, fifteen frankly
declared that they had been born in slavery, and were sold to pay the
debts, or bartered to supply the wants, of their owners. Five were
secretly kidnapped in the interior, and sold to black merchants; the
other five fell in