The Injustice and Impolicy of the Slave Trade and Slavery of Africans

VOTED, That the President return the Thanks of this Society to the Rev. Doctor EDWARDS, for his Sermon this Day delivered before the Society, and that he request▪ a Copy thereof, that it may be printed.

The Injustice and Impolicy of the SLAVE-TRADE, and of the Slavery of the Africans.

THIS precept of our divine Lord hath always been admired as most excellent; and doubtless with the greatest reason. Yet it needs some explanation. It is not surely to be understood in the most unlimited sense, implying that because a prince expects and wishes for obedience from his subjects, he is obliged to obey them; that because parents wish their children to submit to their government, therefore they are to submit to the government of their children: or that because some men wish that others would concur and assist them to the gratification of their unlawful desires, therefore they also are to gratify the unlawful desires 〈◊〉 others, But whatever we are conscious, that we should, in an exchange of circumstances, wish, and are persuaded that we might reasonably wish, th •• others would do to us; that we are bound to do to them. This is the general rule given us in the text; and a very extensive rule it is, reaching to the whole of our conduct: and is particularly useful to direct our conduct toward inferiors, and those whom we have in our power. I have therefore thought it a proper foundation for the discourse which by The Society for the Promotion of Freedom, and for the Relief of Persons unlawfully holden in Bondage, I have the honor to be appointed to deliver, on the present occasion.

This divine maxim is most properly applicable to the slave-trade, and to the slavery of the Africans. Let us then make the application.

Should we be willing, that the Africans or any other nation should purchase us, our wives and children, transport us into Africa, and there sell us into perpetual and absolute slavery? Should we be willing, that they by large bribes and offers of a gainful traffic should entice our neighbors to kidnap and sell us to them, and that they should hold in perpetual and cruel bondage, not only ourselves, but our posterity through all generations? Yet why is it not as right for them to treat us in this manner, as it is for us to treat them in the same manner? Their color indeed is different from our's. But does this give us a right to enslave them? The nations, from Germany to Guinea, have complexions of every shade, from the fairest white to a jetty black: and if a black complexion subject a nation or an individual to slavery; where shall slavery begin? or where shall it end?

I propose to mention a few reasons against the right of the slave-trade—and then to consider the principal arguments, which I have ever heard urged in favor of it.—What will be said against the slave-trade will generally be equally applicable to slavery itself; and if conclusive against the former, will be equally conclusive against the latter.

As to the slave-trade, I conceive it to be unjust in itself—abominable, on account of the cruel manner in which it is conducted—and totally wrong, on account of the impolicy of it, or its destructive tendency to the moral and political interests of any country.

I. It is unjust in itself.—It is unjust in the same sense, and for the same reason, as it is to steal, to rob, or to murder. It is a principle, the truth of which hath in this country been generally if not universally acknowledged, ever since the commencement of the late war, that all men are born equally free. If this be true, the Africans are by nature equally entitled to freedom as we are; and therefore we have no more right to enslave, or to afford aid to enslave them, than they have to do the same to us. They have the same right to their freedom, which they have to their property, or to their lives. Therefore to enslave them is as really and in the same sense wrong, as to steal from them, to rob, or to murder them.

There are indeed cases, in which men may justly be deprived of their liberty, and reduced to slavery; as there are cases, in which they may be justly deprived of their lives. But they can justly be deprived of neither, unless they have by their own voluntary conduct forfeited it. Therefore still the right to liberty stands on the same basis with the right to life. And that the Africans have done something, where by they have forfeited their liberty, must appear, before we can justly deprive them of it; as it must appear, that they have done something, whereby they have forfeited their lives, before we may justly deprive them of these.

II. The slave-trade is wicked and abominable, on account of the cruel manner in which it is carried on.

Beside the stealing or kidnapping of men, women and children, in the first instance, and the instigation of others to this abominable practice; the inhuman manner in which they are transported to America, and in which they are treated on their passage and in their subsequent slavery, is such as ought forever to deter every man from acting any part in this business, who has any regard to justice or humanity. They are crowded so closely into the holds and between the decks of vessels, that they have scarcely room to lie down, and sometimes not room to sit up in an erect posture; the men at the same time fastened together with irons by two and two; and all this in the most sultry climate. The consequence of the whole is, that the most dangerous and fatal diseases are soon bred among them, whereby vast numbers of those exported from Africa perish in the voyage: others in dread of tha • slavery which is before them, and in distress and despair, from the loss of their parents, their children, their husbands, their wives, all their dear connections, and their dear native country itself, starve themselves to death, or plunge themselves into the ocean. Those who attempt in the former of those ways to escape from their persecutors, are tortured by live coals applied to their mouths. Those who attempt an escape in the latter and fail, are equally tortured by the most cruel beating, or otherwise as their persecutors please. If any of them make an attempt, as they sometimes do, to recover their liberty, some, and as the circumstances may be, many, are put to immediate death. Others beaten, bruised, cut and mangled, in a most inhuman and shocking manner, are in this situation exhibited to the rest, to terrify them from the like attempt in future: and some are delivered up to every species of torment, whether by the application of the whip, or of any other instrument, even of fire itself, as the ingenuity of the ship-master and of his crew is able to suggest, or their situation will admit; and these torments are purposely continued for several days, before death is permitted to afford relief to th • se objects of vengeance.

By this means, according to the common computation, twenty-five thousand, which is a fourth part of those who are exported from Africa, and by the concession of all, twenty thousand, annually perish, before they arrive at the places of their destination in America.

But this is by no means the end of the sufferings of this unhappy people. Bred up in a country spontaneously yielding the necessaries and conveniences of savage life, they have never been accustomed to labor: of course, they are but ill prepared to go through the fatigue and drudgery to which they are doomed in their state of slavery. Therefore partly by this cause, partly by the scantiness and badness of their food, and partly from dejection of spirits, mortification and despair, another twenty-five thousand die in the seasoning, as it is called, i. e. within two years of their arrival in America. This I say is the common computation. Or if we will in this particular be as favorable to the trade 〈◊〉 in the estimate of the number which perishes on the passage, we may reckon the number which dies in the seasoning to be twenty thousand. So that of the hundred thousand annually exported from Africa to America, fifty thousand, as it is commonly computed, or on the most favorable estimate, forty thousand, die before they are seasoned to the country.

Nor is this all. The cruel sufferings of these pitiable beings are not yet at an end, Thence forward they have to drag out a miserable life in absolute slavery, entirely at the disposal of their masters, by whom not only every venial fault, every mere inadvertence or mistake, but even real virtues, are liable to be construed into the most atrocious crimes, and punished as such, according to their caprice or rage, while they are intoxicated sometimes with liquor, sometimes with passion.

By these masters they are supplied with barely enough to keep them from starving, as the whole expense laid out on a slave for food, clothing and medicine, is commonly computed on an average at thirty shillings sterling annually. At the same time they are kept at hard labor from five o'clock in the morning, till nine at night, excepting time to eat twice during the day. And they are constantly under the watchful eye of overseers and Negro-drivers, more tyrannical and cruel than even their masters themselves. From these drivers, for every imagined as well as real neglect or want of exertion, they receive the lash, the smack of which is all day long in the ears of those who are on the plantation or in the vicinity; and it is used with such dexterity and severity, as not only to lacerate the skin, but to tear out small portions of the flesh at almost every stroke.

This is the general treatment of the slaves. But many individuals suffer still more severely. Many, many are knocked down; some have their eyes beaten out; some have an arm or a leg broken, or chopped off; and many, for a very small or for no crime at all, have been beaten to death merely to gratify the fury of an enraged master or overseer.

Nor ought we on this occasion to overlook the wars among the nations of Africa excited by the trade, or the destruction attendant on those wars. Not to mention the destruction of property, the burning of towns and villages, &c▪ it hath been determined by reasonable computation, that there are annually exported from Africa to the various parts of America, one hundred thousand slaves, as was before observed; that of these six thousand are captives of war; that in the wars in which these are taken, ten persons of the victors and vanquished are killed, to one taken; that therefore the taking of the six thousand captives is attended with the slaughter of sixty thousand of their countrymen. Now does not justice, does not humanity shrink from the idea, that in order to procure one slave to gratify our avarice, we should put to death ten human beings? Or that in order to increase our property, and that only in some small degree, we should carry on a trade, or even connive at it, to support which sixty thousand of our own species are slain in war?

These sixty thousand, added to the forty thousand who perish on the passage and in the seasoning, give us an hundred thousand who are annually destroyed by the trade; and the whole advantage gained by this amazing destruction of human lives is sixty thousand slaves. For you will recollect, that the whole number exported from Africa in an hundred thousand; that of these forty thousand die on the passage and in the seasoning, and sixty thousand are destroyed in the wars. Therefore while one hundred and sixty thousand are killed in the wars and are exported from Africa▪ but sixty thousand are added to the stock of slaves.

Now when we consider all this 〈◊〉 when we consider the miseries which this unhappy people suffer in their wars, in their captivity, in their voyage to America, and during a wretched life of cruel slavery▪ and especially when we consider the annual destruction of an hundred thousand lives in the manner before mentioned; who can hesitate to declare this trade and the consequent slavery to be contrary to every principle of justice and humanity, of the law of nature and of the law of God?

III. This trade and this slavery are utterly wrong on the ground of impolicy. In a variety of respects they are exceedingly hurtful to the state which tolerates them.

1. They are hurtful, as they deprave the morals of the people.—The incessant and inhuman cruelties practiced in the trade, and in the subsequent slavery, necessarily tend to harden the human heart against the tender feelings of humanity in the masters of vessels, in the sailors, in the factors, in the proprietors of these slaves, in their children, in the overseers, in the slaves themselves, and in all who habitually see those cruelties. Now the eradication or even the diminution of compassion, tenderness and humanity, is certainly a great depravation of heart, and must be followed with correspondent depravity of manners. And measures which lead to such depravity of heart and manners, cannot but be extremely hurtful to the state, and consequently are extremely impolitic.

2. The trade is impolitic, as it is so destructive of the lives of seamen. The ingenious Mr. Clarkson hath in a very satisfactory manner made it appear, that in the slave-trade alone Great-Britain loses annually about nineteen hundred seamen; and that this loss is more than double to the loss annually sustained by Great-Britain in all her other trade taken together. And doubtless we lose as many as Great-Britain in proportion to the number of seamen whom we employ in this trade. Now can it be politic to carry on a trade which is so destructive of that useful part of our citizens, our seamen?

3. African slavery is exceedingly impolitic, as it discourages industry. Nothing is more essential to the political prosperity of any state, than industry in the citizens. But in proportion as slaves are multiplied, every kind of labor becomes ignominious: and in fact in those of the United States, in which slaves are the most numerous, gentlemen and ladies of any fashion disdain to employ themselves in business, which in other states is consisten • with the dignity of the first families and first offices. In a country filled with Negro slaves, labor belongs to them only, and a white man is despised in proportion as he applies to it. Now how destructive to industry in all of the lowest and middle class of citizens, such a situation and the prevalence of such ideas will be, you can easily conceive. The consequence is, that some will nearly starve, others will betake themselves to the most dishonest practices, to obtain the means of living.

As slavery produces indolence in the white people, so it produces all those vices which are naturally connected with it; such as intemperance, lewdness and prodigality. These vices enfeeble both the body and the mind, and unfit men for any vigorous exertions and employments either external or mental. And those who are unfit for such exertions, are already a very degenerate race; degenerate, not only in a moral, but a natural sense. They are contemptible too, and will soon be despised even by their Negroes themselves.

Slavery tends to lewdness, not only as it produces indolence, but as it affords abundant opportunity for that wickedness, without either the danger and difficulty of an attack on the virtue of a woman of chastity, or the danger of a connection with one of ill fame. A planter with his hundred wenches about him is in some respects at least like the Sultan in his seraglio, and we learn the too frequent influence and effect of such a situation, not only from common fame, but from the multitude of mulattoes in countries where slaves are very numerous.

Slavery has a most direct tendency to haughtiness also, and a domineering spirit and conduct in the proprietors of the slaves, in their children, and in all who have the control of them. A man who has been bred up in domineering over Negroes, can scarcely avoid contracting such a habit of haughtiness and domination, as will express itself in his general treatment to mankind, whether in his private capacity, or in any office, civil or military, with which he may be vested. Despotism in economics naturally leads to despotism in politics, and domestic slavery in a free government is a perfect solicism in human affairs.

How baneful all these tendencies and effects of slavery must be to the public good, and especially to the public good of such a free country as our's, I need not inform you.

4. In the same proportion as industry and labor are discouraged, is population discouraged and prevented. This is another respect in which slavery is exceedingly impolitic. That population is prevented in proportion as industry is discouraged, is, I conceive, so plain, that nothing needs to be said to illustrate it. Mankind in general will enter into matrimony as soon as they possess the means of supporting a family. But the great body of any people have no other way of supporting themselves or a family, than by their own labor. Of course as labor is discouraged, matrimony is discouraged, and population is prevented.—But the impolicy of whatever produces these effects will be acknowledged by all. The wealth, strength and glory of a state depend on the number of its virtuous citizens: and a state without citizens is at least as great an absurdity, as a king without subjects.

5. The impolicy of slavery still further appears from this, that it weakens the state, and in proportion to the degree in which it exists, exposes it to become an easy conquest.—The increase of free citizens is an increase of the strength of the state. But not so with regard to the increase of slaves. They not only add nothing to the strength of the state, but actually diminish it in proportion to their number. Every slave is naturally an enemy to the state in which he is holden in slavery, and wants nothing but an opportunity to assist in its overthrow. And an enemy within a state, is much more dangerous than one without it.

These observations, concerning the prevention of population and weakening the state, are supported by facts, which have fallen within our own observation. That the southern states, in which slaves are so numerous, are in no measure so populous, according to the extent of territory, as the northern, 〈◊〉 a fact of universal notoriety▪ and that during the late war, the southern states found themselves greatly weakened by their slaves, and therefore were so easily over-run by the British army, is equally notorious.

From the view we have now taken of this subject we scruple not to infer, that to carry on the slave-trade, and to introduce slaves into our country, is not only to be guilty of injustice, robbery and cruelty, toward our follow-men; but it is to injure ourselves and our country; and therefore it is altogether unjustifiable, wicked and abominable.

Having thus considered the injustice and ruinous tendency of the slave-trade, I proceed to attend to the principal arguments urged in favor of it.

1. It is said, that the Africans are the posterity of Ham, the son of Noah; that Canaan, one of Ham's sons, was cursed by Noah▪ to be a servant of servants; that by Canaan we are to understand Ham's posterity in general; that as his posterity are devoted by God to slavery, we have a right to enslave them.—This is the argument: to which I answer:

It is indeed generally thought that Ham peopled Africa; but that the curse on Canaan extended to all the posterity of Ham is a mere imagination. The only reason given for it is, that Canaan was only one of Ham's sons; and that it seems reasonable, that the curse of Ham's conduct should fall on all his posterity, if on any. But this argument is insufficient. We might as clearly argue, that the judgments denounced on the house of David, on account of his sin in the matter of Uriah, must equally fall on all his posterity. Yet we know, that many of them lived and died in great prosperity. So in every case in which judgments are predicted concerning any nation or family.

It is allowed in this argument, that the curse was to fall on the posterity of Ham, and not immediately on Ham himself: if otherwise, it is nothing to the purpose of the slave-trade, or of any slaves now in existence. It being allowed then, that this curse was to fall on Ham's posterity, he who had a right to curse the whole of that posterity, had the same right to curse a part of it only, and the posterity of Canaan equally as any other part; and a curse on Ham's posterity in the line of Canaan was as real a curse on Ham himself, as a curse on all his posterity would have been.

Therefore we have no ground to believe, that this curse respected any others, than the posterity of Canaan, who lived in the land of Canaan, which is well known to be remote from Africa. We have a particular account, that all the sons of Canaan settled in the land of Canaan; as may be seen in Gen. x. 15—20.

—Nor have we account that any of their posterity except the Carthaginians afterward removed to any part of Africa: and none will pretend that these peopled Africa in general; especially considering, that they were subdued, destroyed, and so far extirpated by the Romans.

This curse then of the posterity of Canaan, had no reference to the inhabitants of Guinea, or of Africa in general; but was fulfilled partly in Joshua's time, in the reduction and servitude of the Canaanites, 〈◊〉 especially of the Gibeonites; partly by what the Phen ••••• s suffered from the Chaldeans, Persians and Gr ••• s; and finally by what the Carthaginians suffered from the Romans.

Therefore this curse gives us no right to enslave the Africans, as we do by the slave-trade, because it has no respect to the Africans whom we enslave. Nor if it had respected them, would it have given any such right; because it was not an institution of slavery, but a mere prophecy of it. And from this prophecy we have no more ground to infer the right of slavery, than we have from the prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, or by the Romans, to infer their right respectively to destroy it in the manner they did; or from other prophecies to infer the right of Judas to betray his master, or the Jews to crucify him.

2. The right of slavery is inferred from the instance of Abraham, who had servants born in his house and bought with his money.—But it is by no means certain, that these were slaves as our Negroes are. If they were, it is unaccountable, that he went out at the head of an army of them to fight his enemies. No West-India planter would easily be induced to venture himself in such a situation. It is far more probable, that similar to some of the vassals under the feudal constitution, the servants of Abraham were only in a good measure dependent on him, and protected by him. But if they were to all intents and purposes slaves, Abraham's holding of them will no more prove the right of slavery, than his going in to Hagar, will prove it right for any man to cohabit with his wench.

3. From the divine permission given the Israelites to buy servants of the nations round about them, it is argued, that we have a right to buy the Africans and hold them in slavery. See Lev. xxv. 44—47.

But if this be at all to the purpose, it is a permission to every nation under heaven to buy slaves of the nations round about them; to us, to buy of our Indian neighbors; to them, to buy of us; so the French, to buy of the English, and to the English to buy of the French; and so through the world. If then this argument be valid, every man has an entire right to engage in this trade, and to buy and sell any other man of another nation, and any other man of another nation has an entire right to buy and sell him. Thus, according to this construction, we have in Lev. xxv. 43, &c. an institution of an universal slave-trade, by which every man may not only become a merchant, but may rightfully become the merchandize itself of this trade, and may be bought and sold like a beast.—Now this consequence will be given up as absurd, and therefore also the construction of scripture, from which it follows, must be given up. Yet it is presumed, that there is no avoiding that construction or the absurdity flowing from it, but by admitting, that this permission to the Israelites to buy slaves has no respect to us, but was in the same manner peculiar to them, as the permission, and command to subdue, destroy and extirpate the whole Canaanitish nation; and therefore no more gives countenance to African slavery, than the command to extirpate the Canaanites, gives countenance to the extirpation of any nation in these days, by an universal slaughter of men and women, young men and maidens, infants and sucklings.

4. It is further pleaded, that there were slaves in the time of the apostles; that they did not forbid the holding of those slaves, but gave directions to servants, doubtless referring to the servants of that day, to obey their masters, and count them worthy of all honor.

To this the answer is, that the apostles teach the general duty of servants who are righteously in the state of servitude, as many are or may be, by hire, by indenture, and by judgment of a civil court. But they do not say, whether the servants in general of that day were justly holden in slavery or not. In like manner they lay down the general rules of obedience to civil magistrates, without deciding concerning the characters of the magistrates of the Roman empire in the reign of Nero. And as the apostle Paul requires masters to give their 〈◊〉 that which is just and equal (Col. iv. • ) so if any were enslaved unjustly, of course be in this 〈◊〉 requires of the masters of such, to give them their freedom.—Thus the apostles great the slavery of that day in the same manner that they treat the civil government; and say nothing more in favor of the former, than they say in favor of the latter.

Besides, this argument from the slavery▪ prevailing in the days of the apostles, if it prove anything, proves too much, and so confutes itself. It proves, that we may enslave all captives taken in war, of any nation, and in any the most unjust war, such as the wars of the Romans, which were generally undertaken from the motives of ambition or avarice. On the ground of this argument we had a right to enslave the prisoners, whom we, during the late war, took from the British army; and they had the same right to 〈◊〉 those whom they took from 〈◊〉 ; and so with respect to all other nations.

5. It is strongly urged, that the Negroes brought from Africa are all captives of war, and therefore are justly bought and holden in slavery.—This is a principal argument always urged by the advocates for slavery; and in a 〈◊〉 debate on this subject, it hath been strongly insisted on very lately, in the British parliament. Therefore it requires our particular attention.

Captives in a war just on their part, cannot be justly enslaved; nor is this pretended. Therefore the captives, who may be justly enslaved, must be taken in a war unjust on their part. But even on the supposition, that captives in such a war may be justly enslaved, it will not follow, that we can justly carry on the slave-trade, as it is commonly carried on from the African coast. In this trade any slaves are purchased, who are offered for sale, whether justly or unjustly enslaved. No enquiry is made whether they were captives in any war; much less, whether they were captivated in a war unjust on their part.

By the most authentic accounts, it appears, that the wars in general in Africa are excited by the prospect of gain from the sale of the captives of the war. Therefore those taken by the assailants in such wars, cannot be justly enslaved. Beside these, many are kidnapped by those of neighbouring nations▪ some by their own neighbors; and some by their kings or their 〈◊〉 others for debt or some •• i • ling crime are condemned to perpetual slavery.—But none of these are justly enslaved. And the traders make no enquiry concerning the mode or occasion of their first enslavement. They buy all that are offered, provided they like them and the price.—So that the plea, that the African slaves are captives in war, is entirely insufficient to justify the slave-trade as now carried on.

But this is not all▪ if it were ever so true, that all the Negroes exported from Africa were captives in war, and that they were taken in a war unjust on their p •• t▪ still they could not be justly enslaved.—We have no right to enslave a private for in a state of nature, after he is conquered. Suppose in a state of nature one man rises against another, and endeavors to kill him; in this case the persons assaulted has no right to kill the assailant, unless it be necessary to preserve his own life. But in wars between nations, one nation may no doubt secure itself against another, by other means than the slavery of its captives. If a nation be victorious in the war, it may exact some towns or a district of country, by way of caution; or it may impose a fine to deter from future injuries. If the nation be no • victorious, it will do no good to enslave the captives whom it has taken. It will provoke the victors and foolishly excite vengeance which cannot be repelled.

Or if neither nation be decidedly victorious, to enslave the captives on either side can answer no good purpose, but must at least occasion the enslaving of the citizens of the other nation, who are now or in future may be in a state of captivity. Such a practice therefore necessarily tends to evil, and not good.

Besides; captives in war are generally common soldiers or common citizens; and they are generally ignorant of the true cause or causes of the war, and are by their superiors made to believe, that the war is entirely just on their part. Or if this be not the case, they may by force be compelled to serve in a war which they know to be unjust. In either of these cases, they do not deserve to be condemned to perpetual slavery. To inflict perpetual slavery on these private soldiers and citizens is manifestly not to do as we would wish that men should do to us. If we were taken in a war unjust on our part, we should not think it right to be condemned to perpetual slavery. No more right is it for us to condemn and hold in perpetual slavery others, who are in the same situation.

6. It is argued, that as the Africans in their own country, previously to the purchase of them by the African traders, are captives in war; if they were not bought up by those traders, they would be put to death▪ that therefore to purchase them, and to subject them to slavery instead of death, is an act of mercy, not only lawful but meritorious.

If the case were indeed so as is now represented, the purchase of the Negroes would be no more meritorious, than the act of a man, who if we were taken by the Algerines, should purchase us out of that slavery. This would indeed be an act of benevolence, if the purchaser should set us at liberty. But it is no act of benevolence to buy a man out of one state into another no better. Nay, the act of ransoming a man from death, gives no right to the ransom • to commit a crime or an act of injustice to the person ransomed. The person ransomed is doubtless obligated according to his ability to satisfy the ransomer for his expense and trouble. Yet the ransomer has no more right to enslave the other, than the man who saves the life of another, who was about to be killed by a robber or an assassin, has a right to enslave him▪—The liberty of a man for life is a far greater good, than the property paid for a Negro on the African coast. And to deprive a man of an immensely greater good, in order to recover one immensely less, is an immense injury and crime.

7. As to the pretence, that to prohibit or lay aside this trade, would be hurtful to our commerce; it is sufficient to ask; whether on the supposition, that it were advantageous to the commerce of Great-Britain to send her ships to these states, and transport us into perpetual slavery in the West-Indies, it would be right that she should go into that trade.

8. That to prohibit the slave-trade would infringe on the property of those, who have expended large sums to curry on that trade, or of those who wish to purchase the slaves for their plantations▪ hath also been urged as an argument in-favor of the trade▪—But the same argument would prove, 〈◊〉 that if the skins and teeth of the Negroes were as valuable articles of commerce as furs and elephants' teeth, and a merchant were to lay out his property in this commerce, he ought by no means to be obstructed therein.

9. But others will carry on the trade, if we do not.—So others will rob, steal and murder, if we do not.

10. It is said, that some men are intended by nature to be slaves.—If this mean, that the author of nature has given some men a license to enslave others; this is denied, and proof is demanded. If it mean, that God hath made some of capacities inferior to others, and that the last have a right to enslave the first▪ this argument will prove, that some of the citizens of every country, have a right to enslave other citizens of the same country; nay, that some have a right to enslave their own brothers and sisters.—But if this argument mean, that God in his providence suffers some men to be enslaved, and that this proves, that from the beginning he intended they should be enslaved, and made them with this intention; the answer is, that in like manner he suffers some men to be murdered, and in this sense▪ he intended and made them to be murdered. Yet no man in his senses will hence argue the lawfulness of murder.

11. It is further pretended, that no other men, than Negroes▪ can endure labor in the hot climates of the West-Indies, and the southern states▪—But does this appear to be fact? In all other climates, the laboring people are the most healthy. And I confess I have not yet seen evidence, but that those who have been accustomed to labor, and are inured to those climates, can bear labor there also.—However, taking for granted the fact asserted in this objection, does it follow, that the inhabitants of those countries have a right to enslave the Africans to labor for them? No more surely than from the circumstance, that you are feeble and cannot labor, it follows, that you have a right to enslave your robust neighbor. As in all other cases, he feeble and those who choose not to labor, and ye • with to have their lands cultivated, are necessitated to hire the robust to labor for them; so no reason can be given, why the inhabitants of not climates should not either perform their own labor, of hire those who can perform it, whether Negroes or others.

If our traders went to the coast of Africa to murder the inhabitants, or to rob them of their property, all would own that such murderous or practical practices are wicked and abominable. Now it is as really wicked to rob a man of his liberty, as to rob him of his life; and it is much more wicked, than to rob him of his property. All men agree to condemn highway robbery. And the slave-trade is as much a greater wickedness than highway robbery, as liberty is more valuable than property. How strange is it then, that in the same nation highway robbery should be punished with death, and the slave-trade be encouraged by national authority?

We all dread political slavery, or subjection to the arbitrary power of a king, or of any man or men not deriving their authority from the people. Yet such a state is inconceivably preferable to the slavery of the Negroes. Suppose that in the late war we had been subdued by Great-Britain; we should have been taxed without our consent. But these taxes would have amounted to but a small part of our property. Whereas the Negroes are deprived of all their property; no part of their earnings is their own; the whole is their masters.—In a conquered state we should have been at liberty to dispose of ourselves and of our property, in most cases, as we should choose. We should have been free to live in this or that town or place; in any part of the country, or to remove out of the country; to apply to this or that business; to labor or not; and excepting a sufficiency for the taxes, to dispose of the fruit of our labor to our own benefit, or that of our children, or of any other person. But the unhappy. Negroes in slavery can do none of these, things. They must do what they are commanded, and as much as they are commanded, on pain of the lash. They must live where they are placed, and must confine themselves to that spot▪ on pain of death.

So that Great-Britain in her late attempt to enslave America, committed a very small crime indeed, in comparison with the crime of those who enslave the Africans.

The arguments which have been urged against the slave-trade, are with little variation applicable▪ to the holding of slaves. He who holds a slave, continues to deprive him of that liberty, which was taken from him on the coast of Africa. And if it were wrong to deprive him of it in the first instance, why not in the second? If this be true, no man hath a better, right to retain his Negro in slavery, than he had to take him from his native African shores. And every man who cannot show, that his Negro hath by his voluntary conduct forfeited his liberty, is obligated immediately to manumit him. Undoubtedly we should think so, were we holden in the same slavery in which the Negroes are: and our text requires us to do to others, as we would that they should do to us.

To hold a slave, who has a right to his liberty, is not only a real crime, but a very great one. Many good Christians have wondered how Abraham, • he father of the faithful, could take Hagar to his bed; and how Sarah, celebrated as an holy woman, could consent to this transaction: also, how David and Solomon could have so many wives and concubines, and yet be real saints. Let such inquire how it is possible that our fathers, and men now alive, universally reputed pious, should hold Negro slaves, and yet be the subjects of real piety? And whether to reduce a man, who hath the same right to liberty as any other man, to a state of absolute slavery, or to hold him in that state, be not as great a crime as concubinage or fornication. I presume it will not be denied, that to commit theft or robbery every day of a man's life, is as great a sin as to commit fornication in one instance. But to steal a man, or to rob him of his liberty, is a greater sin than to steal his property, or to take it by violence. And to hold a man in a state of slavery, who has a right to his liberty, is to be every day guilty of robbing him of his liberty, or of man-stealing. The consequence is inevitable, that other things being the same, to hold a Negro slave, unless he have forfeited his liberty, is a greater sin in the sight of God than concubinage or fornication.

Does this conclusion seem strange to any of you? Let me entreat you to weigh it candidly, before you reject it. You will not deny, that liberty is more valuable than property: and that it is a greater sin to deprive a man of his whole liberty during life, than to deprive him of his whole property; or that man-stealing is a greater crime than robbery. Nor will you deny, that to hold in slavery a man who was stolen, is substantially the same crime as to steal him. These principles being undeniable, I leave it to yourselves to draw the plain and necessary consequence. And if your consciences shall, in spite of all opposition, tell you, that while you hold your Negroes in slavery, you do wrong, exceedingly wrong; that you do not, as you would that men should do to you; that you commit sin in the sight of God; that you daily violate the plain rights of mankind, and that in a higher degree, than if you committed these or robbery; let me beseech you not to stifle this conviction, but attend to it and act accordingly; lest you add to your former guilt, that of sinning against the light of truth, and of your own consciences.

To convince yourselves, that, your information being the same, to hold a Negro slave is a greater sin than fornication, theft or robbery, you need only bring the matter home to yourselves. I am willing to appeal to your own consciences, whether you would not judge it to be a greater sin for a man to hold you or your child during life in such slavery as▪ that of the Negroes, than for him to spend one night in a brother, or in one instance to steal or rob. Let conscience speak, and I will submit to its decision.

This question seems to be clearly decided by revelation. Exod. xxi. 16.

Thus death is, by the divine express declaration, the punishment due to the crime of man-stealing. But death is not the punishment declared by God to be due to fornication, theft or robbery, in common cases. Therefore we have the divine authority to assert, that man-stealing is a greater crime than fornication, theft or robbery. Now to hold in slavery a man who has a right to liberty, is substantially the same crime as to deprive him of his liberty. And to deprive of liberty, and reduce to slavery, a man who has a right to liberty, is man-stealing For it is immaterial, whether he be taken and reduced to slavery clandestinely, or by open violence. Therefore if the Negroes have a right to liberty; to hold them in slavery is manumitting, which we have seen is, by God himself, declared to be a greater crime than fornication, theft or robbery.

Perhaps, though this truth be clearly demonstrable, both from reason and revelation, you scarcely dare receive it, because it seems to bear hardly on the characters of our pious fathers, who held slaves But they did it ignorantly, and in unbelief of the truth; as Abraham; Jacob, David and Solomon, were ignorant that polygamy or concubinage was wrong. As to domestic slavery, our fathers lived in a time of ignorance, which God winked at but now be commandeth all men everywhere to repent of this wickedness, and to break off this sin by righteousness, and this iniquity by showing mercy to the poor, if it may be a lengthening out of their tranquility. You therefore to whom the present blaze of light as to this subject has reached, cannot sin at so cheap a rate as our fathers.

But methinks I hear some say, I have bought my Negro. I have paid a large sum for him; I cannot lose this sum, and therefore I cannot manumit him.—Alas! this is bitting the nail on the head. This brings into view the true cause which makes it so difficult to convince men of what is right in this case.—You recollect the story of Amaziah's hiring an hundred thousand men of Israel; for an hundred talents, to assist him against the Edomites▪ and that when by the word of the Lord, he was forbidden to take those hired men with him to the war, he cried out,

In this case, the answer of God was —To apply this to the subject before us▪ God is able to give thee much more than thou shalt lose by man •• ritting thy slave.

You may plead, that you use your sla •• ▪ well; you are not cruel to him, but feed and clothe him comfortably, &c. Still every day you rob him of a most valuable and important right. And a highwayman, who robs a man of his money in the most easy and complai • ant manner, is still a robber; and murder may be effected in a manner the least cruel and tormenting; still it is murder.

Having now taken that view of our subject which was proposed, we may in reflection see abundant reason to acquiesce in the institution of this society. If the slave-trade be unjust, and as gross a violation of the rights of mankind, as would be, if the Africans should transport us into perpetual slavery in Africa; to unite our influence against it, is a duty which we owe to mankind, to ourselves, and to God too. It is but doing as we would that men should do to us.—Nor is it enough that we have formed the society; we must do the duties of it. The first of these is to put an end to the slave-trade. The second is to relieve those who, contrary to the laws of the country, are holden in bondage. Another is to defend those in their remaining legal and natural rights, who are by law holden in bondage. Another, and not the least important object of this society, I conceive to be, to increase and disperse the light of truth with respect to the subject of African slavery, and so prepare the way for its total abolition. For until men in general are convinced of the injustice of the trade, and of the slavery itself, comparatively little can be done to effect the most important purposes of the institution.

It is not to be doubted, that the trade is even now carried on from this state. Vessels are from time to time fitted out for the coast of Africa, to transport the Negroes to the West-Indies and other parts. Nor will an end be put to this trade, without out vigilance and strenuous exertion on the part of this society; or other friends of humanity; nor without a patient enduring of the opposition and odium of all who are concerned in it, of their friends, and of all who are of the opinion that it is justifiable. Among these we are doubtless to reckon some of large property, and considerable influence. And if the laws and customs of the country equally allowed of it, many, and perhaps as many as now plead for the right of the African slave-trade, would plead for the right of kidnapping us, the citizens of the United States, and of selling us into perpetual slavery.—If then we dare not occur the displeasure of such men, we may as well dissolve the society, and leave the slave-trade to be carried on, and the Negroes to be kidnapped; and though free in this state, to be sold into perpetual slavery in distant parts, at the pleasure of any man, who wishes to make gain by such abominable practices.

Though we must expect opposition, yet if we be steady and persevering, we need not fear that we shall fail of success. The advantages, which the cause has already gained, are many and great. Thirty years ago scarcely a man in this country thought either the slave-trade or the slavery of Negroes to be wrong. But now how many and able advocates in private life, in our legislatures▪ in Congress, have appeared, and have openly and irrefragably pleaded the rights of humanity in this as well as other instances? Nay, the great body of the people, from New-Hampshire to Virginia inclusively, have obtained such light, that in all those states the further importation of slaves is prohibited by law. And in Massachusetts and New-Hampshire, slavery is totally abolished.

Nor is the light concerning this subject confined to America. It hath appeared with great clearness in France, and produced remarkable effects in the National Assembly. It hath also shone in bright beams in Great-Britain. It flashes with splendor in the writings of Clarkson, and in the proceedings of several societies formed to abolish the slave-trade▪ Nor hath it been possible to shut it out of the British parliament. This light is still increasing▪ and in time will effect a total revolution. And if we judge of the future by the past, within fifty years from this time, it will • e as shameful for a man to hold a Negro slave, as to be guilty of common robbery or these. But it is our duty to remove the obstacles which intercept the rays of this light, that it may reach not only public bodies, but every individual. And when it shall have obtained a general spread, shall have dispelled all darkness, and slavery shall be no more, it will be an honor to be recorded in history as a society which was formed, and which exerted itself with vigou • and fidelity, to bring about an event so necessary and conducive to the interests of humanity and virtue, to the support of the rights, and to the advancement of the happiness of mankind.

APPENDIX.

SOME objections to the doctrine of the preceding sermon have been mentioned to the author, since the delivery of it. Of these it may be proper to take some notice.

1. The slaves are in a better situation than that in which they were in their own country; especially as they have opportunity to know the Christian religion, and to secure the saving blessings of it. Therefore it is not an injury, but a benefit, to bring them into this country, even though their importation be accompanied and followed with slavery. It is also said, that the situation of many Negroes under their masters is much better than it would be were they free in this country; that they are much better fed and clothed, and are much more happy; that therefore to hold them in slavery is so far from a crime, that it is a meritorious act.

With regard to these pleas, it is to be observed, that every man hath a right to judge concerning his own happiness, and to choose the means of obtaining or promoting it; and to deprive him of this right is the very injury of which we complain; it is to enslave him. Because we judge, that the Negroes are more happy in this country, in a state of slavery, than in the enjoyment of liberty in Africa, we have no more right to enslave them and bring them into this country, than we have to enslave any of our neighbors, who we judge would be more happy under our control, than they are at present under their own. Let us make the case our own. Should we believe that we were justly treated, if the Africans should carry us into perpetual slavery in Africa, on the ground that they judged that we should be more happy in that state, than in our present situation?

As to the opportunity which the Negroes in this country are said to have, to become acquainted with Christianity; this with respect to many is granted: but what follows from it? It would be ridiculous to pretend that this is the motive on which they act who import them, or they who buy and hold them in slavery. Or if this were the motive, it would not sanctify either the trade or the slavery. We are not at liberty to do evil, that good may come; to commit a crime more aggravated than theft or robbery, that we may make a proselyte to Christianity. Neither our Lord Jesus Christ, nor any one of his apostles, has taught us this mode of propagating the faith.

2. It is said, that the doctrine of the preceding sermon imputes that as a crime to individuals, which is owing to the state of society. This is granted; and what follows? It is owing to the state of society, that our neighbors the Indians roast their captives: and does it hence follow, that such conduct is not to be imputed to the individual agents as a crime? It is owing to the state of society in Popish countries, that thousands worship the beast and his image: and is that worship therefore not to be imputed as a crime to those who render it? Read the Revelation of St. John. The state of society is such, that drunkenness and adultery are very common in some countries; but will it follow, that those vices are innocent in those countries?

3. If I be ever so willing to manumit my slave, I cannot do it without being holden to maintain him, when he shall be sick, or shall be old and decrepit. Therefore I have a right to hold him as a slave.—The same argument will prove, that you have a right to enslave your children or your parents; as you are equally holden to maintain them in sickness and in decrepit old age.—The argument implies, that in order to secure the money, which you are afraid the laws of your country will some time or other oblige you to pay; it is right for you to rob a free man of his liberty, or be guilty of man-stealing. On the ground of this argument, every town or parish obligated by law to maintain its helpless poor, has a right to sell into perpetual slavery all the people who may probably or even possibly occasion a public expense.

4. After all, it is not safe to manumit the Negroes: they would cut our throats; they would endanger the peace and government of the state. Or at least they would be so idle, that they would not provide themselves with necessaries; of course, they must live by thievery and plundering.

This objection requires a different answer, as it respects the northern, and as it respects the southern states. As it respects the northern, in which slaves are so few, there is not the least foundation to imagine, that they would combine or make insurrection against the government; or that they would attempt to murder their masters. They are much more likely to kill their masters, in order to obtain their liberty, or to revenge the abuse they receive, while it is still continued, than to do it after the abuse hath ceased, and they are restored to their liberty. In this case, they would from a sense of gratitude, or at least from a conviction of the justice of their masters, feel a strong attachment, instead of a murderous disposition.

Nor is there the least danger, but that by a proper vigilance of the select-men, and by a strict execution of the laws now existing, the Negroes might in a tolerable degree be kept from idleness and pilfering.

All this hath been verified by experiment. In Massachusetts, all the Negroes in the commonwealth were by their new constitution liberated in a day: and none of the ill consequences objected followed either to the commonwealth or to individuals.

With regard to the southern states, the case is different. The Negroes in some parts of those states are a great majority of the whole, and therefore the evils objected would, in case of a general manumission at once, be more likely to take place. But in the first place there is no prospect that the Conviction of the truth, exhibited in the preceding discourse, will at once take place in the minds of all the holders of slaves. The utmost that can be expected, is that it will take place gradually in one after another, and that of course the slaves will be gradually manumitted. Therefore the evils of a general manumission at once, are dreaded without reason.

If in any state the slaves should be manumitted in considerable numbers at once, or so that the number of free Negroes should become large; various measures might be concerted to prevent the evils feared. One I beg leave to propose: that overseers of the free Negroes be appointed from among themselves, who shall be empowered to inspect the morals and management of the rest, and report to proper authority those who are vicious, idle or incapable of managing their own affairs; and that such authority dispose of them under proper masters for a year or other term, as is done perhaps in all the states, with regard to the poor white people in like manner vicious, idle, or incapable of management. Such black overseers would naturally be ambitious to discharge the duties of their office; they would in many respects have much more influence than white men with their countrymen: and other Negroes looking forward to the same honorable distinction, would endeavor to deserve it by their improvement and good conduct.

But, after all, this whole objection, if it were ever so entirely founded on truth—if the freed Negroes would probably rise against their masters, or combine against government, rests on the same ground as the apology of the robber, who murders the man whom he has robbed. Says the robber to himself, I have robbed this man, and now if I let him go he will kill me, or he will complain to authority, and I shall be apprehended and hung. I must therefore kill him. There is no other way of safety for me.—The coincidence between this reasoning and that of the objection under consideration, must be manifest to all. And if this reasoning of the robber be inconclusive; if the robber have no right on that ground to kill the man whom he hath robbed; neither have the slave-holders anymore right to continue to hold their slaves. If the robber ought to spare the life of the man robbed, take his own chance, and esteem himself happy, if he can escape justice; so the slave-holders ought immediately to let their slaves go free, treat them with the utmost kindness, by such treatment endeavor to pacify them with respect to past injuries, and esteem themselves happy, if they can compromise the matter in this manner.

In all countries, in which the slaves are a majority of the inhabitants, the masters lie in a great measure at the mercy of the slaves, and may most rationally expect sooner or later to be cut off, or driven out by the slaves, or to be reduced to the same level, and to be mingled with them into one common mass. This I think is, by ancient and modern events, demonstrated to be the natural and necessary course of human affairs. The hewers of wood and drawers of water among the Israelites, the Helots among the Lacedemonians, the slaves among the Romans, the villains and vassals in most of the kingdoms of Europe under the feudal system, have long since mixed with the common mass of the people, and shared the common privileges and honors of their respective countries. And in the French West-Indies the Mulattoes and free Negroes are already become so numerous and powerful a body, as to be allowed by the National Assembly to enjoy the common rights and honors of free men. These facts plainly show, what the whites in the West-Indies and the southern states are to expect concerning their posterity, that it will infallibly be a m • ngrel breed, or else they must quit the country to the Negroes whom they have hitherto holden in bondage.

Thus it seems, that they will be necessitated by Providence to make in one way or another compensation to the Negroes for the injury which they have done them. In the first case, by taking them into affinity with themselves, giving them their own sons and daughters in marriage, and making them and their posterity the heirs of all their property and all their honors, and by raising their color to a partial whiteness, whereby a part at least of that mark which brings on them so much contempt will be wiped off. In the other case, by leaving to them all their real estates. It is manifest, by the bare stating of the two cases, that the compensation in the latter case is by much the least. In the former case, the compensation will include all that is included in the latter, and much more. If therefore our southern brethren, and the inhabitants of the West-Indies, would balance their accounts with their Negro slaves at the cheapest possible rate, they will doubtless judge it prudent, to leave the country, with all their houses, lands and improvements, to their quiet possession and dominion; as otherwise Providence will compel them to much dearer settlement, and one attended with a circumstance inconceivably more mortifying than the loss of all their real estates, I mean the mixture of their blood with that of the Negroes into one common posterity.

At •• ast it is to be hoped, that these considerations will induce them to forbear any further importation of slaves, as the more numerous the slaves are, the more dangerous they will be, and the more deeply tinged will be the color of their mulatto posterity.

It is not to be doubted, but that the Negroes in these northern states also will, in time, mix with the common mass of the people. But we have this consolation, that as they are so small a proportion of the inhabitants, when mixed with the rest, they will not produce any very sensible diversity of color.

A short Sketch of the Evidence for the Abolition of the SLAVE-TRADE, delivered before a Committee of the British House of Commons.

VIRTUE, say moralists, is so transcendently beautiful, that she need but be seen, to be universally admired: and is not VICE so hateful, that the more its features are viewed, the more it will be avoided? The traffic in the human species, particularly as carried on by the Europeans on the coast of Africa, has so horrible an aspect, than nothing, one should think, but the MASK, under which it has been concealed, could have prevented all the civilized nations in the world uniting to drive the detested monster from the face of, the earth. This MASK is, however, at length taken away, and the traffic stands exposed in all its real, unalterable deformity. The PEOPLE are now called upon to behold, to feel, and judge for themselves. The representations of former writers on this subject were roundly denied; the facts they stated were not only contradicted, but deemed impossible, and the authors themselves were accused of slander. Now we have a body of EVIDENCE to which to appeal; of evidence, possessing every essential of credibility. The witnesses have declared before the Select Committee of the House of Commons, what they themselves saw: they had the best opportunities of observation, and they are disinterested. And now it appears, that one half of the tale of human misery hath not been told; and that every principle, than can bind a man of honor and conscience loudly calls for the prohibition of the iniquitous traffic. Hard indeed must those hearts be, and inaccessible those understandings , which such evidence cannot reach!

The evidence delivered before the Select Committee of the House of Commons is very voluminous, occupying two thousand pages in folio. But a judicious Abstract and Arrangement of the Evidence, on the Part of the Petitioners for the Abolition of the Slave-Trade , has been published, and in a short compass contains the evidence of well informed persons on that subject.

In the preface to this important volume of evidence we read of rewards offered for taking runaway Negroes alive or dead —of laws being required to be made to prevent the practice of cutting off ears, noses and tongues— of breaking limbs and putting one eyes —to prevent distempered, maimed, and worn out Negroes from infesting towns—to prevent aged and infirm Negroes being driven from the plantations to starve. We meet also with such kind of preambles to acts as the following, viz.

'Whereas the extreme cruelty and inhumanity of the managers, overseers, and book-keepers of estates, have frequently driven slaves into the woods, and occasioned rebellions, internal insurrections, &c. And whereas also it frequently happens, that slaves come to their deaths by hasty and severe blows, and other improper treatment of overseers and book-keepers, in the heat of passion; and when such accidents do happen, the victims are entered in the plantation-books as having died of convulsions, fits, or other causes not to be accounted for: and to conceal the real truth of the cause of the death of such slave or slaves, he or they is or are immediately put under ground,' &c. Other preambles of a similar complexion, respecting the lodging, food and clothes of Negroes, are here to be met with. We also find that runaway negroes, when advertised, are described by the various brands upon their shoulders, breasts, cheeks, and foreheads. A woman is described with a wooden leg; a man as having both his ears cropped, and another by his nose and ears being cut off. Cornwall Chronicle, Nov 7, 1789. Other instances occur within the year 1791.

The FIRST CHAPTER contains an account of the enormities committed by the natives of Africa on the persons of one another, to procure slaves for the Europeans, proved by the testimony of such as have visited that continent—and confirmed by accounts from the 〈◊〉 themselves, after their arrival in the West-Indies.

Under this head, we learn that kidnapping, or, as the natives call it, panyaring, is very common; that war is made on purpose to procure slaves. The king's soldiers set fire to villages in the night, and seize the wretched inhabitants as they attempt to escape from the flames, and many perish either by the fire or sword in the execution of this horrid purpose. A boy, who was carried away in the night from his father's house, says, he believes both his parents were killed; he is sure that one was; and that many others were killed, and some taken. Various instances are mentioned of consummate treachery employed in making captives. Kidnapping is professionally followed; large parties go up the country three hundred miles, to drive down captives—they go a wood-ranging, and pick up everyone they meet, and strip them naked. The purchasers generally say, they do not care how the sellers come by their slaves. Many are sold for crimes falsely imputed▪ the Judges participate the profits of the fall, and are therefore strongly induced to condemn the innocent. Crimes are invented and multiplied for the purpose of traffic. The great men dress up and employ women, to entice young men to be connected with them, that they may be convicted of adultery, and sold. The slaves are separated without the least regard to ties of consanguinity, or the pathetic expostulations and remonstrances of nature. When slave-ships are on the coast, the natives go armed, but are nowhere safe. The man, invited to drink with his neighbor, on rising to go, is seized by two of them, and a large dog: and this mode of seizure is common.

By the SECOND CHAPTER it appears that the Europeans, by means of the trade in slaves, are the occasion of the before mentioned enormities; that they sometimes use additional means to excite the natives to practice them, often attempt themselves to steal the natives, and succeed, force trade as they please, and are guilty of injustice in their dealings. In proof of this charge, we learn from the evidence, that Africans receive European goods in exchange for s • aves—that they declare when ships cease to come (as in times of war) slaves cease to be taken. African dealers make the Princes drunk, in order to overcome their aversion to unprovoked war: they furnish the natives with arms and ammunition, and excite 〈◊〉 to pillage.

The term war, in Africa, is used in general to signify pillage; and when many towns are seen blazing in the night, the natives say war is carrying on.

The traders advance goods to Chiefs, to induce them to seize their subjects or neighbors. Capt. Patterson set two villages at variance, and brought prisoners from both sides. It is not uncommon to make the natives drunk, and then buy them▪ General ••• ke says, that it was proposed to him, by three English captains of ships, to kidnap a hundred, or a hundred and fifty men, women and children, king Damel's subjects, who had come to G • ree in consequence of the friendly intercourse between him and Damel: he refused, and was much shocked by the proposition. They said such things had been done by a former Governor. Two men, black traders, were invited on board, intoxicated, and captured when asleep. The Gregson's people, in running down the coast, kidnapped thirty-two of the natives. The Dobson's boat▪ of Liverpool, had stolen a man and woman; the Captain, on the remonstrance of Caps. Briggs, who told him there would be no more trade if he did not deliver up his 〈◊〉 captives▪ restored them; upon which the natives loaded a boat with yams; goats; fowls, honey, and palm wine, and would take nothing for them;—a striking instance of forgiveness of injuries, and of unmerited kindness 〈◊〉 .

We then meet with as opposite an exhibition of character as can possibly be conceived 〈◊〉 three or four hundred Africans cruelly massacred or 〈◊〉 off, by means of the treacherous contrivance of 〈◊〉 English Captains, in Old Calabar 〈◊〉 —But 〈◊〉 i • turn our eyes for relief to some ordinary wickedness some consider Frauds as a necessary part of the traffic; they put false 〈◊〉 into powder 〈◊〉 cut off two or three yards from the middle of 〈◊〉 of cloth, adulterate spirits, and soul 〈◊〉 articles given. Besides these, there are others who pay in bottles, which hold but half the 〈◊〉 of the samples shewn; use false steel yards and weights, and • ell such guns as burn on firing▪ so that 〈◊〉 of the natives of the wind ward coast are without their 〈◊〉 and thumbs on this account, and it has become a saying, that these guns kill more out of the 〈…〉 the 〈◊〉 .

The THIRD CHAPTER contains an account of the 〈◊〉 of the enslaved Africans, and of the method of 〈…〉 feeding, and exercising them 〈◊〉 on the 〈◊〉 , and the manner of selling them when 〈◊〉 at their destined ports; the deplorable 〈◊〉 of the refuse, or sickly slaves; separation of relations and friends; mortality on the passages, and frequently after 〈◊〉 ▪ and the causes of this m •••• lity.

On being brought on board, says▪ Dr. Trotter, they show signs of extreme distress and despair, from a feeling of their situation, and regret at being torn from their friends and connections. They sometimes 〈◊〉 of being in their own country, and when they 〈◊〉 show their despair by howling and shrieking 〈…〉 manner. The women 〈◊〉 into fits 〈◊〉 course of the voyage, the slaves are 〈◊〉 to the 〈◊〉 every day, from eight in the morning to four o'clock in the afternoon. They are 〈◊〉 a day with a rice, 〈…〉 and horse 〈◊〉 , and how and then a little 〈◊〉 of and 〈◊〉 after 〈◊〉 of 〈◊◊〉 means they are allowed half a pins of 〈◊〉 and are for •• d to jump in 〈…〉 which by the slave 〈◊〉 is called making th •• dance, 〈…〉 frequently 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 , their 〈◊〉 , when it is very painful to 〈…〉 , they are compelled to dance by a cat-of- 〈◊〉 . The Captains order them to sing and 〈◊〉 songs of 〈◊〉 , the subjects of which are their 〈…〉 send the sides of never returning home the 〈◊〉 remembers the very words upon these occasion.

The slaves are so • rouded below▪ that it is impossible to 〈◊〉 among them without treading upon them▪ Dr. Trotter has seen the slaves drawing their breath with all those laborious and anxious efforts for life, which are observed in expiring animals, subjected by experiment to foul air, or in the exhausted receiver of an air pump: they cry out—'we are dying, and many are irrecoverably lost by suffocation, having had no previous signs of indisposition. They are closely wedged together, and have not so much room as a man in his coffin▪ either in length or breadth. They sometimes go •• own well at night, and are found dead in the morning. Alexander Falconbridge was never among them for ten minutes together below, but his shirt was as wet as if dipped in water. Sometimes the dead and living are found shackled together. They lie on the bare planks, and the prominent parts of their bones, about the shoulder-blade and knees, have frequently been seen bare. No situation can be conceived so dreadful and disgusting as that of slaves when ill of the flux. In the Alexander (A. Falconbridge says) the deck was covered with blood and mucus, and resembled, a slaughter-house; the stench and foul air were intolerable. The slaves▪ shackled together, frequently quarrel and make a great disturbance. Some refuse food and medicine, and declare they want to die. In such ••• es compulsion is used. The ships are so fitted up as to prevent, by net-work, the slaves jumping overboard; notwithstanding which they often attempt it, and sometimes succeed, showing signs of exultation in the very jaws of death. Some employ other means to destroy themselves, and others 〈◊〉 . Some resolve to •• rve, and means are ineffectually used to wrench open their teeth; they persist in their resolution, and effect their purpose, in spite of the utmost pains to prevent it. When severely chastised for not taking their food, they have looked up with a smile and said, "presently we shall be no more." The thumb-screw is an instrument of torture; the application of it sometimes occasions mortifications, of which the Negroes die. An instance occurs of the cruelty of a Captain to an infant only nine months old, which one would suppose too shocking to be true, were it not corroborated by other specimens of as great cruelty in various parts of the evidence. After a series of tortures the infant-expired, and its savage murderer, not yet satisfied, would suffer none of the people on deck to throw the body overboard, but called the mother, the wretched mother, to perform this last sad office to her murdered child. Unwilling, as it might naturally be supposed she was, to comply, "he beat her," regardless of the indignant murmurs of her fettered countrymen, whom in the barbarous plenitude of secure tyranny he permitted to be spectators of this horrible scene—"he beat her, until he made her take up the child, and carry it to the side of the vessel, and then she dropped it into the sea, turning her head another way, that she might not see it !" Another instance occurs in this chapter, not perhaps of more cruelty, though of greater magnitude.

A ship from Africa, with about four hundred slaves on board, struck upon some shoals, called the Morant Keys, distant eleven leagues S. S. E. off the east end of a Jamaica. The officers and seamen of the ship landed in their, boats, carrying with them arms and provisions. The slaves were left on board in their irons and shackles. This happened in the night time. When morning came, it was discovered that the Negroes had got out of their irons, and were busy making rafts, upon which they placed the women and children; the men who were capable of swimming attended upon the rafts, whilst they drifted before the wind towards the island where the seamen had landed. From an apprehension that the Negroes would consume the water and provisions which the seamen had landed, they came to the resolution of destroying them, by means of their fire arms and other weapons. As the poor wretches approached the shore, they actually destroyed between three and four hundred of them. Out of the whole cargo only thirty-three or thirty-four were saved and brought to Kingston, where they wore sold at public vendue.

When the ships arrive at their destined ports, the cargo of slaves is sold, either by scramble of vendue. The sale by scramble is described.—A great number of people come on board with 〈◊〉 in their hands (the ship being first darkened with sails, and covered round; the men slaves placed on the main deck, and the women on the quarter deck) and rus • through the barricado door with th • ferocity of brutes. Some have three or four handkerchiefs tied together, to encircle as many as they think fit for their purpose. This is a very general mode of sale; and so terrifies the poor Negroes, that forty or fifty at a time have leaped into the sea▪ these, however the witness believes, have been taken up again: the women have got away, and run about the town as if they were mad. The slaves sold by public • uctio • or vendue are generally the refuse, or sickly slaven. These are in such a state of health, that they fell greatly under price. They have been knows to be sold for five dollars, a guinea, and even a single dollar each. Some that are deemed not worth buying are left to expire in the place of 〈◊〉 , for nobody gives them anything to eat or drink, and some of them live three days in that situation! In the sale no care is taken to prevent the separation of relations; they are separated (says the evidence) like sheep and lambs by the butcher. Making the slaves walk the plank, is a term used for throwing them overboard when provisions are scarce. Sometimes the ships loss • more than half their cargoes by the small-pox; at others they bury a quarter or one third on the passage, owing to various other causes of mortality: and it is confessed by the planters. , that half she slaves die in the seasoning, after arrival in the West-Indies, Surgeon Wilson says, that of the death of two thirds of those who died in his ship, the primary cause was melancholy. The disorders which carry off the slaves in such numbers are ascribed by Falconbridge to a diseased mind, sudden transitions from heat to cold, a putrid atmosphere, wallowing in their own excrements, and being shackled together.

The Captains, surgeons, &c▪ who have quitted the African slave-trade, uniformly declare the reason to have been, that they could not conscientiously continue in it they say, that it is an unnatural, iniquitous, and villainous trade, founded on injustice and treachery; manifestly carried on by oppression and cruelty, and not unfrequently terminating in murder. Captain Hall says, he quitted it (in opposition to lucrative offers) from a conviction that it was perfectly illegal, and founded in blood.

The FOURTH CHAPTER gives an account of the general estimation and treatment of the slaves in the West-Indies. Dr. Jackson says, that the Negroes are generally esteemed a species of inferior beings, where the right of purchase gives the owner a power of using at his will. T • Wool rich says, he never 〈◊〉 best master in the West-Indies use his slaves so well, as the worst master his servants in England▪ that their state is inconceivable—that a sight of a gang would convince more than all words.

Slaves are either field-slaves, or in or out door slaves.

The field-slaves begin their work at break of day. They work in rows, without exception, under the whip of drivers, and the weak are made to keep up with the strong. They continue their labor (with two intermissions, half an hour during the morning, and two hours at noon) till sun-set. In the Intervals they are made to pick grass for the cattle. Cook has known pregnant women worked and flogged a few days before their delivery. Some, however, are a little indulged when in that state. After the month they work with the children on their backs. In the crop-season the labor is of much longer duration . The slaves sometimes work so long that they cannot help sleeping, and then it not unfrequently happens, that their arms are caught in the mill and torn off. They are said to be allowed one day in seven for rest, but this time is necessarily employed in raising food for the other days, and gathering grass for their masters cattle. The best allowance of food is at Barbados, which is a pint of grain for twenty-four hours, and half a rotten herring, when to be had. When the herrings are unfit for the whites, they are bought up by planters for the slaves. Some allow nine pints of corn a week, and about one pound of salt fish, which is the greatest allowance mentioned in the whole course of the evidence. Some have no provision but what they raise themselves, and they are frequently so fatigued by the labor of the rest of the week, as scarcely to be able to work for their own support on the Sunday. And the land allotted them for this purpose is often at the distance of three miles from their houses; it would, however, be quite ample for their support, were they allowed time sufficient for its cultivation. Sometimes when they have been at the pains of clearing their land, their masters take it for canes, and give them wood-land instead of it. This hardship some have so taken to heart as to die. Putrid carcases are burnt; if they were buried, the slaves would dig them up and eat them, which would breed distempers among them. They are sometimes driven by extreme hunger to steal, at the hazard of their lives. They are badly clothed; one half of them go almost naked. The slaves in general have no bed or b • dding at all. Their houses are built with four poles, and that •••• . They have little or no property. All the evidence (to whom the question has been proposed) agree in answering, that they never knew or heard of a field-slave ever amassing such a sum, as enabled him to purchase his own freedom. The artificers, such as house-carpenters, coopers, masons, the drivers and head-slaves, are better off. The owners of women let them out for prostitution, and flog them, if they do not bring home full wages.

The Negroes, when whipped, are suspended by the arms, with weights at their feet. They are first whipped with a whip made of cow-skin (which cuts, out the flesh, whereas the military whips out only the skin) and afterwards with ebony bushes (which are more prickly than thorn bushes in this country) in order to let out the congealed blood. Dr. Harrison thinks the whipping too severe to be inflicted on any human being: he could lay two or three fingers into the wounds of a man whipped for not coming when he was called. Many receive from one hundred and fifty to two hundred lashes at a time; and in two or three days this is repeated: they wash the raw parts with pickle; this appears, from the convulsions it occasions, more cruel than whipping; but it is done to prevent mortification. After severe whipping, they are worked all day without food, except what their friends 〈…〉 out of 〈◊〉 own 〈…〉 . They are 〈◊〉 the stocks at night, and worked next day as before. This cruel ••• atment has made many 〈…〉 . Cook has known sources slaves who, in consequence thereof, 〈◊〉 into the woods, and cut their throats together. These severe punishments are frequent. The scars made by whipping last to old age. T. Woolrich has seen their backs one undistinguished mass of lamps, holes, and furrows. They sometimes die of mortification of the wounds. A planter ••• gged his driver to death, and boasted of having so done. 〈…〉 the head of extraordinary punishment, (for 〈◊〉 a ready named any reckoned only ordinary) the nation is made of iron dollars with • ooks 〈◊〉 heavy cattle 〈…〉 and a half hundred weight fast 〈◊〉 them, which the Negroes are 〈◊〉 to drag after them, 〈◊〉 working in the field, suspending by the hands 〈◊〉 the fingers 〈◊〉 •• ogging with ebony bushes 〈…〉 forced to go on all sounds, updates to get up, being tied up to the branches of 〈◊〉 , with a heavy weight round the neck, exposed to 〈…〉 fun—thumb • orews; a man was put on the pic • •• so long as to occasion a mortification of his foot and hand, on su • pi •••• of robbing his masters, a public officer of a sum of money, which is afterwards appeared the master had taken himself. Yet the master was privy to the punishment, and the slave had no compensation. He was punished by order of the master, who did not then choose to make it known that he himself had made use of the money. A girl's ears were nailed to a post, afterwards torn aways▪ and clipt off close to her head, with a pair of large sciss • rs; besides this, she was unmercifully flogged, and all for—BREAKING A PLATE, OR SPILLING A CUP OF TEA▪ A Negro, impelled by hunger, had stolen part of a turkey, his master caused him to be held down, and with his own hands, took a hammer and punch, and knocked out four of his teeth. The hand is cut off, if lifted up against a white man and the leg for running away. A planter sent for a surgeon to cut off the leg of a Negro who had ran away. On the surgeon's refusing to do it, the planter took an iron bar, and broke the leg in pieces, and then the surgeon took it off. This planter did many such acts of cruelty, and all with impunity. The practice of dropping hot lead upon the Negroes, is here mentioned, H. Ross saw a young female suspended by her wrists to a tree swinging to and fro, while her master applied a lighted torch to the different parts of her writhing body. It was notorious that Rushie tortured so many of his Negroes to death; that he was obliged to •• ll his estate. Another planter, is, the same island , destroyed forty slaves out of sixty (in three years) by severity. The rest of the conduct of this infamous wretch was concealed by the Committee of the House of Commons, 〈◊〉 containing circumstances too horrible to be given to the world. We, however, go on to read of knocking on the head and stabbing, of a hot iron forced between the teeth, of a slave thrown into the boiling juice, and killed, of a Negro shot, and his head cut off. And it appears, that the women, deemed of respectability and rank, not only order and superintend, out sometimes actually inflict with their own hands severe punishments on their slaves.

The offenses for which the before mentioned punishments are inflicted are, not coming into the field in time, not picking a sufficient quantity of grass, not appearing willing to work, when in fact sick and not able; for staying too long on an errand, for not coming immediately when called, for not bringing home (the women) the full weekly sum enjoined by their owners; for running away, and for theft, to which they are often driven by hunger.

Under the head of "extraordinary punishments," some appear to have suffered for running away, or for lifting up a hand against a white man, or for breaking a plate, or spilling a cup of tea, or to extort confession. Others again, in the moments of sudden resentment, and one on a diabolical pretext, which the master held out to the world to conceal his own villainy, and which he knew to be false.

The slaves have little or no redress against ill usage of any sort; the laws to restrict punishment are a mere farce, and universally disregarded, or when pretended to be observed, they are in divers ways effectually evaded: besides, the evidence of a black is in no case whatever admitted against a white man; which circumstance alone is enough to deprive the Negroes of all legal protection whatever, were the Laws, in other respects, ever so just and salutary. Lieutenant Davidson was so hurt at the severe and frequent whippings of one of the women, that he complained to a magistrate, who said, "he had nothing to do with it."

The particular instances mentioned in the evidence, of slaves dying in consequence of severe and cruel treatment from their masters, were not punished, though generally known; nor do the perpetrators of these barbarities appear to have suffered any disgrace!

If you speak to a Negro of future punishments, he says,—"Why should a poor Negro be punished? he does no wrong; fiery cauldrons, and such things, are reserved for white people, as punishments for the oppression of slaves."

In the FIFTH CHAPTER it is proved, by such as have seen them in their own country, that the natives of Africa are equal to the Europeans in their natural capacities, feelings, affections, and moral character. They manufacture gold and iron, in some respects equal to the European artists—also cloth and leather with uncommon neatness; the former they did blue, yellow, brown and orange. They are skilled in making indigo and soap, and pottery wares, and prepare fall for their own use from the sea water. They also make ropes with aloes. With respect to their moral character, they are very honest and hospitable grateful and affectionate, harmless and innocent; punctual in their dealings, and as capable of virtue as the whites. They are susceptible of all the social virtues: generosity, fidelity, and gratitude, are allowed them by Dr. Stuart. These virtues Dr. Jackson enumerates, and adds charity to all in distress, and a strong attachment on the part of parents to their children. T. Woolrich says, he never knew of an African, who could express himself, that did not believe in the existence of a Supreme Being.

In the SIXTH and SEVENTH CHAPTERS it appears, that the natives possess industry and a spirit of commerce, sufficient for carrying on a new trade; that their country abounds with, and might easily be made still more productive of, many and various articles of commerce; but that the traffic in slaves is an insuperable impediment to opening a new trade.

In the TENTH CHAPTER it is proved not to be true, what some say, that the natives of Africa are happier in the European colonies than in their own country. They love their own country, but destroy themselves in the colonies, &c. &c. But any comparison between the two situations, is (as H. Ross says, though on another occasion)

The ELEVENTH, TWELETH and THIRTEENTH CHAPTERS, are on the subject of Negro population in the colonies, and plainly show that the importation of fresh Africans might immediately be superceded▪ by the introduction of general good treatment and of certain salutary regulations therein suggested.

The FOURTEENTH CHAPTER is employed to demonstrate, from the evidence before the committee, that the colonists would be able to carry on the necessary cultivation of their lands, without a fresh importation of slaves, while the generation immediately succeeding the regulations proposed were growing up, to supply the vacancies occasioned by the natural deaths of the slaves of all ages, now is their possession.

The FIFTEENTH CHAPTER enquires, whether there be not a prevailing opinion, in the colonies, that it is cheaper to buy 〈◊〉 import slaves than thus to increase them by population. And whether the very severe of this opinion be not true: namely, that it is more profitable to breed than to import. The result of this enquiry is clearly in favor of the immediate abolition of the African slave-trade. The same may be said of the 〈◊〉 and last chapter, in which it is considered, whether is be more political to extend the cultivation of the colonies by the continuance of the slave-trade, or wait till the rising generation shall be capable of performing it.

Having thus taken a general view of the most striking features of the evidence for the abolition of the traffic in the human species, as carried on by the English on the coast of Africa; it might not be improper to close it with the declaration of a 〈◊〉 and wise S ••• tory, whose indefatigable labors on 〈◊〉 half of the oppressed Africans cannot said to insure him the unfeigned respect of every love of freedom and humanity.

"THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE-TRADE ( 〈◊〉 ) IS 〈◊〉 S •• LY REQUIRED, 〈…〉 AND MORALTEN, 〈…〉 OF • OUND POLICY

The noble exo • dium of another able advocate of the same righteous cause, must not 〈◊〉 be omitted in the place, the House of Commons bring no •• 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 of this 〈…〉 evidenced having had the facts undeniably established, knowing, in short, what • he slave trade was, 〈◊〉 declared, that if they did not, by the 〈…〉 to all mankind their abhorrence of a practice so enormous, so savage, so 〈◊〉 to all laws, human and divine, it would be 〈◊〉 scan •• l • ous, 〈…〉 des ••• ing, in the eyes of the country, and of the world, than thy vote 〈◊〉 House of Commons had ever given. He desired them 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 , before they gave their votes, what, they were about to do 〈◊〉 . If they voted that the slave-trade should not be abolished, they would, by their vote that • ight, give a parliamentary 〈◊〉 to 〈…〉 for and 〈…〉 for as system of rapine 〈◊〉 and murder, the slave 〈◊〉 had now most thereby 〈…〉

〈◊〉 remains now to recommend, as earnestly and as, strongly as possible, to the inhabitant of •• is land of, freedom individually, a particular and serious 〈◊〉 to THIS ABSOLUTE NECESSITY, ON EV ••• CONSIDERATION OF MORALITY AND JUSTICE, OF PUTTING AN END TO A PRACTICE SO PREGNANT WITH CIRCUMSTANCES OF TERROR AND ALARM TO THIS COUNTRY.

Much has been lately done, by the un • ted friends of equitable freedom, in circulating throughout the kingdom important information on this interesting subject: but much remains yet to be done▪ The minds of many have been informed, and their indignation justly kindled, by the history of a commerce▪ 〈◊〉 written throughout in characters of blood. But the understandings, it is to be feared, of a great majority of the people of England, are still unenlightened. Should the foregoing short sketch of the evidence awaken the feelings, or quicken the attention, of any, in favor of their greatly injured fellowcreatures, the oppressed Africans, it is much to be wished, that they will not hastily dismiss the subject 〈◊〉 their recollection▪ or suffer its p • inful impressions to be made in vain: but seek a further acquaintance with the evidence▪ which the more they examine, the str •• ge • will be their inducements t • 〈◊〉 every power and faculty they possess, for the purpose of procuring the abolition of the slave-trade. Let no one say,

—for the greatest numbers consist of 〈◊〉 , and the most mighty exertions of states and emp ••• are but aggregates of individual ability▪ Next to members of Parliament, all who have any just influence in the election of them, are particularly concerned to consider, how far the attainment of the great and we have in view may depend upon their conduct. We may certainly conclude, that whoever is no • a friend to the liberty of the meanest subject, is not fit to be entrusted with that of the state: and even those who have no vote, are nevertheless comprehended in our idea of the public mind—nor is any man of sense and virtue, let his situation in a free country be what it may, to be deemed of no account. Upon his judgment, his voice (if not his vote) his example, much may depend. The discovery of truth, the communication of useful knowledge, and the exemplary recommendation of ••••• ous conduct, may dignify a plebean, as well as add luster to a crown. Even a Negro slave, amidst the horrors of a middle passage, and debased by every external circumstance of degradation and misery that the imagination can conceive, shall divide his meagr • morsel with the inhuman monster in distress, who stole him from his native country, and his nearest connections, thereby returning all the GOOD in his power, for all the EVIL his merciless enemy could inflict, and giving an example of true benevolence of heart and real greatness of mind, unsurpassed in the history of civilized nations, and worthy of the best and purest of all religions:—" if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink ." Let no one, therefore▪ think too meanly of himself, when called upon to assist in a good cause, seeing that, from the most abject state of human wretchedness, a lesson may sometimes be learnt, and an influence imp • rted, which the proudest philosophy need not blush to own. The abolition of the slave-trade is an object of such high importance, and so nearly concerns everyone who has a mind to comprehend▪ and a heart to feel, that no communication or assistance is too small, nor any too great, to be exerted upon this occasion.

Some people seem inclined to lend an ear to tales of human woe, and feel a certain gratification in beholding the exhibitions of tragedy, or in the perusal of pathetic p •• try, and the like. Even the case of the oppressed Africans, when represented by their favourite bards, or appearing in the form of the " Dying Slave," or the Negro's Complaint," seem to possess, if not charms to please, at least powers forcibly to attract their w • l • ing attention, and to win their sympathetic regard. Yet the evidence delivered before the House of Commons, containing a true and faithful account of the miseries and wickedness attendant upon the traffic in their fellow-creatures, unembellished by flourishes of rhetoric, undecorated with the splendid habiliments of poetry, is almost in vai • recommended to their notice. Should they be prevailed upon to cast their eye over a few pages of the shocking history, they presently shut up the book—it makes them shudder—they have read enough—such horrid barbarities, such complicated sufferings, are not to be endured, even in imagination▪ But let such remember—"that humanity consists not in a squeamish ear—it consists not in a starting or shrinking at such • ales as these, but in a disposition of heart to relieve misery, and to prevent the repetition of cruelty:—humanity appertains rather to the mind than to the nerves, and prompts men to real, disinterested endeavors to give happiness to their fellow-creatures. " It is therefore to be wished that no affectation of extreme sensibility, or real effeminacy of manners, may disincline, or disqualify, for the service of humanity. That extreme delicacy which deprives us, if not of the disposition, yet of the ability, to encounter suffering for the sake of, and in order to help our brethren in affliction, and under the severest oppression, is detrimental to its possessor, and injurious to the community; it renders compassion a painful, useless thing, and makes beneficence fruitless.

To the busy and the gay " a great book is a great evil." TWO THOUSAND PAGES IN FOLIO, written (like Ezekiel's roll) within and without—lamentations, mourning, and woe, stand but little chance of obtaining their notice—even THE ABSTRACT O • THE EVIDENCE would detain some of them too long from their eager pursuits of business, or their favourite schemes of pleasure. This HASTY SKETCH will not, however, it may be presumed, encroach too much upon their time▪ and well rewarded will the compiler of it be, if it should prove a stimulus to further investigation of the evidence. No one knows what opportunities he may have, or how far his influence may extend, to assist the endeavors now using for the abolition of a trade, the continued carrying on of which, after bring so fully appri • ed of 〈◊〉 dreadful enormity, may be expected, (without the smallest • incture of superstitious • ea • ) to expose th •• nation to the just punishment of 〈◊〉 .

Three nations, Juvan, Tuba • , and 〈◊〉 , are mentioned in scripture▪ as having their principal trade at Ty •• , in the •• lling of 〈◊〉 . This circumstance has been appealed to in vindication of the African slave-trade:—but mark the sequel. In the following chapter, verse 18, the prophet address • the Prince of Tyre thus:—

—A prophecy which has been remarkably fulfilled.

The great leader in the debates of the House of Commons, on this momentous subject, has declared, —