Memorandum of the international antislavery committee, formed by the British and Foreign Antislavery Society and the various committees of the Universal Alliance., November 25, 1874

Memorandum of the international antislavery committee, formed by the British and Foreign Antislavery Society and the various committees of the Universal Alliance.

The international antislavery committee, formed by the British and Foreign Anti-slavery Society and the various committees of the Universal Alliance in Europe, respectfully submits to the governments of all the civilized states the subjoined memorandum, to which it is desirous of drawing the benevolent attention of the powers.

At the congress of Vienna a diplomatic declaration against the traffic in negroes and the slave-trade generally was signed in that city on the 8th of February, 1815, by the plenipotentiaries of the great European powers, under the title of “Declaration of the eight courts relative to the universal abolition of the slave-trade,” the said signatories being the celebrated diplomatists Castlereagh, General Stewart, Wellington, Nesselrode, Lowenhielm, Gomez-Labrador, Palmella Saldanha, Lobo, Humboldt, Metternich, and Talleyrand, representing Great Britain, Russia, Austria, Prussia, France, Spain, Sweden, and Portugal.

The said declaration of the eight courts was affirmed anew on the 28th of November, 1822, by the resolution adopted in the diplomatic conference of Verona, by the plenipotentiaries of Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia, under the title of “Resolutions relative to the abolition of the slave-trade adopted at the conference of the 28th November, 1822.”

The efforts that have been made in pursuance of the declaration of Vienna and of the resolutions of Verona by the powers signatory of the said treaties have received the approval of all civilized nations, some of whom, though not participating as signatories of the protocols of the congress of Vienna and the resolutions of Verona, have nevertheless, since that time, suppressed slavery in their states.

The principles recognized by the governments represented at Vienna in 1815 and at Verona in 1822 have, even in their spirit, been carried much beyond the question, then dominant, of the traffic in negroes, and have been happily applied to other men of different races and conditions.

The international antislavery committee, appointed by the British and Foreign Antislavery Society and the various branches of the Universal Alliance in Europe, encouraged by the said declaration and resolutions of the above-named contracting powers, who declared in conclusion that “their obligation would not be considered as accomplished until complete success had crowned their efforts,” respectfully submits to all the civilized powers certain facts to which they pray the said powers to deign to give their benevolent consideration. These facts are as follows:

The slave-trade is still carried on by land and sea in the greater part of Africa, and principally on the eastern coast of that continent.

The slave-trade is notoriously carried on in the southern basin of the Nile and on the shores of the Red Sea. In the district of Lake Tchad great numbers of negroes are carried into slavery by the caravans, which sell them to the Mussulman population of the north of Africa, perticularly in the Fezzan, and at Tripoli, in Barbary, from which places many of them are re-exported to Turkey. The kidnaping of negroes is also quite unopposed in other parts of the interior of Africa.

The exportation of slaves continues from the coast of Mozambique to the isle of Madagascar..

In Egypt slavery and slave-markets are still tolerated. The annexation of certain territories, which to the present hour are used by the slave-traders as their hunting-grounds, who dispose of the slaves in Egypt and elsewhere, has actually served to extend slavery and the slave-traffic in that country.

Many countries subject to Turkey still retain the institution of slavery, whereby great encouragement is given to the slave-trade throughout the greater part of the Ottoman Empire.

Slavery and the trade in slaves of various races still exist in Central Asia, notably in Afghanistan and the neighboring Khanates.

The slave-trade by land and by sea is also openly carried on in the states of the Shah of Persia.

The international antislavery committee, representing the British and Foreign Anti-slavery Society and the various committees of the Universal Alliance in Europe, has thought it right to limit itself to these few instances; but it is very far from having exhausted the subject, whether regarded as to its extent or as to the various forms in which slavery and the slave-trade exist. It is not presumed to indicate the means of action which the civilized governments may adopt to arrive at the end which, the powers so nobly proposed at the congresses of Vienna and Verona.

With a view, however, to the realization of that end, the joint international committee has decided to propose, respectfully, to all the civilized states that they consent to the convocation in London, on the first Monday in February, 1875, of a semi-diplomatic conference, composed of delegates ad audiendum et ad referendum of the various governments; and that the object of the said conference be to study and take into consideration the measures to be adopted to carry into effect the engagements contracted by the signatory powers of the declaration of Vienna and the resolutions of Verona.

On behalf of the international antislavery committee.