Bryan Edwards: “Shipmates”

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Abstract

I am afraid that cowardice and dissimulation have been properties of slavery in all ages, and will continue to do so, to the end of the world. It is a situation that necessarily suppresses many of the best affections of the human heart. If it calls forth any latent virtues, they are those of sympathy and compassion towards persons in the same condition of life; and accordingly, we find that the Negroes in general are strongly attached to their countrymen, but, above all, to such of their companions as came in the same ship with them from Africa. This is a striking circumstance: the term shipmate is understood among them as signifying a relationship of the most endearing nature; perhaps as recalling the time when the sufferers were cut off together from their common country and kindred, and awakening reciprocal sympathy, from the remembrance of mutual affliction.

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