NEGE0 SLAVERY.
377
After the death of this prelate, the emperor, Charles V.,
in 1517, encouraged the slave trade, and granted letters
patent for carrying it on; * but he lived to see his error
and most nobly renounced it, for he ordered and had
executed a complete manumission of all African slaves in
his American dominions. About this time Pope Leo X.
gave to the Avorld this noble declaration : " That not only
the Christian religion, but nature herself cried out against
a state of slavery." In the year 15G2, in the reign of
Elizabeth, the English first stained their hands Avith the
negro traffic: Captain, afterwards Sir J. HaAvkins, made a
descent on the African coast, and carried away a number
" When the Episcopal dignity Avas conferred on him, on reaching
his see, the first use he made of his pastoral power was to deny the
sacraments to all those who held slaves and refused to give them up,
and those who bought and sold them. * * * In the latest pro¬
duction from the pen of Las Casas he confesses the grievous fault he
had fallen into, and begs for the forgiveness of God in the most con¬
trite terms, for the misfortunes he had brought on the poor people of
Africa by the inadvertence of his counsel, and this confession (saj^s
his historian) of his error, so full of candor and contrition, should
disarm the rigor of philosophy, and hold his benevolent disposition
absolved before posterity. Let him, whose philanthropy is without
fault, and whose nature is superior to error, cast the first stone at the
memory of the venerable Las Casas." — Poems by a Slave in the
Island of Cuba, and to which are prefixed two pieces descriptive of
Cuban slavery and the slave traffic, by R. R. Madden, M. D., London,
1840, pp. 152, 155.—Editor.
* "In 1517 Charles granted a patent to one of his Flemish favor¬
ites, containing an exclusive right of importing four thousand negroes
into America. The favorite sold his patent to some Genoese mer¬
chants for 25,000 ducats, and they were the first who brought into a
regular form that commerce for slaves between Africa and America,
which has since been carried on to such an amazing extent."—
Robertson, I. p. 321.—Editor.
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