A Few Days Ago,
A Slave-Boy, Resident In Gibraltar, Wished To Turn Christian, And Was
Immediately Sent Back To Tangier, And Sold To Another Master.
Europeans, with whom I have conversed in Tangier, assure me that slaves
are generally well treated, and that cases of cruelty are rare.
Nevertheless, they eagerly seek their freedom when an opportunity
offers.
In 1833, a man of great power and influence in the Gharb
(province of Morocco), named El-Haj Mohammed Ben El-Arab, on a
remonstrance of his slaves, who stated that the English had abolished
slavery, and that they ought to have their liberty, called all his
slaves together, to the number of seventy-two, and actually took the
bold and generous resolution of liberating them. But, before releasing
them from bondage, he lectured them upon the difficulty of finding
subsistence in their new state of freedom, and then wrote out their
_Atkas_ of liberty. As might have been expected, some returned
voluntarily to servitude, not being able to get a living, whilst the
greater part obtained an honourable livelihood, enjoying the fruits of
independent freedom. It is mentioned, as an instance of fidelity, that a
negress is the gaoler of the women in Tangier. [12]
At every Moorish feast of consequence (four of which are celebrated here
in a year), the slaves of Tangier perambulate the streets with music and
dancing, dressed in their holiday clothes, to beg alms from all classes
of the population, particularly Europeans. The money collected is
deposited in the hands of their chief; to this is added the savings of
the whole year. In the spring, all is spent in a feast, which lasts
seven days. The slaves carry green ears of wheat, barley, and fresh
dates about the town. The Moorish women kiss the new corn or fruit, and
give the slaves a trifle of money. A slave, when he is dissatisfied with
his master, sometimes will ask him to be allowed to go about begging
until he gets money enough to buy his freedom. The slave puts the atka
in his mouth (which piece of written paper when signed, assures his
freedom), and goes about the town, crying, "Fedeeak Allah, (Ransom of
God!)" All depends on his luck. He may be months, or even years, before
he accumulates enough to purchase his ransom.
Tangier Moors pretend that the negroes of Timbuctoo sacrifice annually a
white man, the victim being preserved and fed for the occasion. When the
time of immolation arrives, the white man is adorned with fair flowers,
and clothes of silk and many colours, and led out and sacrificed at a
grand "fiesta." Slaves and blacks in Morocco keep the same feast, with
the difference, that not being able to get a man to sacrifice, they kill
a bullock. Such a barbarous rite may possibly be practised in some part
of Negroland, but certainly not at Timbuctoo. All these tales about
Negro cannibals I am inclined to believe inventions. There never yet has
been published a well authenticated case of negro cannibalism.
The grand cicerone for the English at Tangier, is Benoliel. He is a man
of about sixty years of age, and initiated into the sublimest mysteries
of the consular politics of the Shereefs. Ben is full of anecdotes of
everybody and everything from the emperor on the Shreefian throne, down
to the mad and ragged dervish in the streets. Our cicerone keeps a book,
in which the names of all his English guests have been from time to time
inscribed. His visitors have been principally officers from Gibraltar,
who come here for a few days sporting. On the bombardment of Tangier,
Ben left the country with other fugitives. The Moorish rabble plundered
his house; and many valuables which were there concealed, pledged by
persons belonging to Tangier, were carried away; Ben was therefore
ruined. Some foolish people at Gibraltar told Ben, that the streets of
London were paved with gold, or, at any rate, that, inasmuch as he (Ben)
had in his time entertained so many Englishmen at his hospitable
establishment at Tangier (for which, however, he was well paid), he
would be sure to make his fortune by a visit to England. I afterwards
met Ben accidentally in the streets of London, in great distress. Some
friends of the Anti-Slavery Society subscribed a small sum for him, and
sent him back to his family in Gibraltar. Poor Ben was astonished to
find as much misery in the streets of our own metropolis, as in any town
of Morocco. Regarding his co-religionists in England, Ben observed with
bitterness, "The Jews there are no good; they are very blackguards." He
was disappointed at their want of liberality, as well as their want of
sympathy for Morocco Jews. Ben thought he knew everything, and the ways
of this wicked world, but this visit to England convinced him he must
begin the world over again. Our cicerone is very shrewd; withal is
blessed with a good share of common sense; is by no means bigoted
against Mahometans or Christians, and is one of the more respectable of
the Barbary Jews. His information on Morocco, is, however, so mixed up
with the marvellous, that only a person well acquainted with North
Africa can distinguish the probable from the improbable, or separate the
wheat from the chaff. Ben has a large family, like most of the Maroquine
Jews; but the great attraction of his family is a most beautiful
daughter, with a complexion of jasmine, and locks of the raven; a
perfect Rachel in loveliness, proving fully the assertion of Ali Bey,
and all other travellers in Morocco, that the fairest women in this
country are the Jewesses. Ben is the type of many a Barbary Jew, who, to
considerable intelligence, and a few grains of what may be called fair
English honesty, unites the ordinarily deteriorated character of men,
and especially Jews, bora and brought up under oppressive governments.
Ben would sell you to the Emperor for a moderate price; and so would the
Jewish consular agents of Morocco.
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