,,an ,,essay ,,on ,,the ,,slavery ,,and ,,commerce ,,of ,,the ,,human ,,species1 ,,particularly ,,the ,,african1 ,,translated ,,from ,a ,,latin ,,dissertation1 ,,which ,,was ,,honoured ,,with ,,the ,,first ,,prize ,,in ,,the ,,university ,,of ,,cambridge1 ,,for ,,the ,,year #aghe1 ,,with ,,additions4 99 99 99 99 99 ,neque premendo alium me extulisse velim4--,,livy4 ,m4,,dcc4,,lxxxvi4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,to ,,the ,,right ,,honourable ,,william ,,charles ,,colyear1 ,,earl ,,of ,,portmore1 ,,viscount ,,milsintown4 ,,my ,,lord1 ,the dignity of the subject of this little ,treatise1 not any persuasion of its merits as a literary composition1 encourages me to offer it to your ,lordship's patronage4 ,the cause of freedom has always been found sufficient1 in every age and country1 to attract the notice of the generous and humane2 and it is therefore1 in a more peculiar manner1 worthy of the attention and favour of a personage1 who holds a distinguished rank in that illustrious island1 the very air of which has been determined1 upon a late investigation of its laws1 to be an antidote against slavery4 ,i feel a satisfaction in the opportunity1 which the publication of this treatise affords me1 of acknowledging your ,lordship's civilities1 which can only be equalled by the respect1 with which ,i am1 ,your ,lordship's1 much obliged1 and obedient servant1 ,,thomas ,,clarkson4 99 99 99 99 99 ,books ,printed and ,sold by ,j4 ,,phillips1 ,,essay on the ,,treatment and ,,conversion of ,,african ,,slaves in the ,,british ,sugar ,colonies4 ,by the ,rev4 ,j4 ,,ramsay1 ,vicar of ,teston in ,kent1 who resided many ,years in the ,west-,indies4 ,in ,one ,volume1 ,octavo4 ,price #es bound1 or #ds in ,boards4 ,an ,,inquiry into the ,effects of putting a ,stop to the ,african ,slave ,trade1 and of granting ,liberty to the ,slaves in the ,british ,sugar ,colonies4 ,by ,j4 ,,ramsay4 ,price #f;d4 ,a ,,reply to the ,personal ,invectives and ,objections contained in two ,answers1 published by certain anonymous ,persons1 to an ,essay on the ,treatment and ,conversion of ,african ,slaves1 in the ,british ,colonies4 ,by ,,james ,,ramsay4 ,price #bs4 ,a ,,letter from ,capt4 ,j4,s4 ,,smith1 to the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,,hill1 on the ,state of the ,negroe ,slaves2 to which are added an ,introduction1 and ,remarks on ,free ,negroes1 c4 by ,j4 ,,ramsay4 ,price #f;d4 ,,thoughts on the ,slavery of the ,negroes4 ,price #d;d4 ,the ,,case of our ,fellow-,creatures1 the ,oppressed ,africans1 respectfully recommended to the serious ,consideration of the ,legislature of ,great-,britain1 by the ,people called ,quakers4 ,price #b;d4 ,a ,,serious ,,address to the ,rulers of ,america1 on the ,inconsistency of their ,conduct respecting ,slavery4 ,price #c;d4 ,a ,,caution to ,,great ,,britain and her ,colonies1 in a short ,representation of the calamitous ,state of the enslaved ,negroes in the ,british ,dominions4 ,by ,,anthony ,,benezet4 ,price #f;d4 ,a ,description of ,guinea1 its ,situation1 ,produce1 and the general ,disposition of its ,inhabitants2 with an ,inquiry into the ,rise and ,progress of the ,slave ,trade1 c4 ,by ,,anthony ,,benezet4 ,bound #bs4 #f;d4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,the ,,preface4 ,as the subject of the following work has fortunately become of late a topick of conversation1 ,i cannot begin the preface in a manner more satisfactory to the feelings of the benevolent reader1 than by giving an account of those humane and worthy persons1 who have endeavoured to draw upon it that share of the publick attention which it has obtained4 ,among the well disposed individuals1 of different nations and ages1 who have humanely exerted themselves to suppress the abject personal slavery1 introduced in the original cultivation of the ,european colonies in the western world1 ,bartholomew de las ,casas1 the pious bishop of ,chiapa1 in the fifteenth century1 seems to have been the first4 ,this amiable man1 during his residence in ,spanish ,america1 was so sensibly affected at the treatment which the miserable ,indians underwent that he returned to ,spain1 to make a publick remonstrance before the celebrated emperor ,charles the fifth1 declaring1 that heaven would one day call him to an account for those cruelties1 which he then had it in his power to prevent4 ,the speech which he made on the occasion1 is now extant1 and is a most perfect picture of benevolence and piety4 ,but his intreaties1 by opposition of avarice1 were rendered ineffectual3 and ,i do not find by any books which ,i have read upon the subject1 that any other person interfered till the last century1 when ,morgan ,godwyn1 a ,british clergyman1 distinguished himself in the cause4 ,the present age has also produced some zealous and able opposers of the colonial slavery4 ,for about the middle of the present century1 ,john ,woolman and ,anthony ,benezet1 two respectable members of the religious society called ,quakers1 devoted much of their time to the subject4 ,the former travelled through most parts of ,north ,america on foot1 to hold conversations with the members of his own sect1 on the impiety of retaining those in a state of involuntary servitude1 who had never given them offence4 ,the latter kept a free school at ,philadelphia1 for the education of black people4 ,he took every opportunity of pleading in their behalf4 ,he published several treatises against slavery1#jja and gave an hearty proof of his attachment to the cause1 by leaving the whole of his fortune in support of that school1 to which he had so generously devoted his time and attention when alive4 ,till this time it does not appear1 that any bodies of men1 had collectively interested themselves in endeavouring to remedy the evil4 ,but in the year #aged1 the religious society1 called ,quakers1 publickly testified their sentiments upon the subject1#jjb declaring1 that to live in ease and plenty by the toil of those1 whom fraud and violence had put into their power1 was neither consistent with ,christianity nor common justice4 ,impressed with these sentiments1 many of this society immediately liberated their slaves2 and though such a measure appeared to be attended with considerable loss to the benevolent individuals1 who unconditionally presented them with their freedom1 yet they adopted it with pleasure3 nobly considering1 that to possess a little1 in an honourable way1 was better than to possess much1 through the medium of injustice4 ,their example was gradually followed by the rest4 ,a general emancipation of the slaves in the possession of ,quakers1 at length took place2 and so effectually did they serve the cause which they had undertaken1 that they denied the claim of membership in their religious community1 to all such as should hereafter oppose the suggestions of justice in this particular1 either by retaining slaves in their possession1 or by being in any manner concerned in the slave trade3 and it is a fact1 that through the vast tract of ,north ,america1 there is not at this day a single slave in the possession of an acknowledged ,quaker4 ,but though this measure appeared1 as has been observed before1 to be attended with considerable loss to the benevolent individuals who adopted it1 yet1 as virtue seldom fails of obtaining its reward1 it became ultimately beneficial4 ,most of the slaves1 who were thus unconditionally freed1 returned without any solicitation to their former masters1 to serve them1 at stated wages2 as free men4 ,the work1 which they now did1 was found to better done than before4 ,it was found also1 that1 a greater quantity was done in the same time4 ,hence less than the former number of labourers was sufficient4 ,from these1 and a variety of circumstances1 it appeared1 that their plantations were considerably more profitable when worked by free men1 than when worked1 as before1 by slaves2 and that they derived therefore1 contrary to their expectations1 a considerable advantage from their benevolence4 ,animated by the example of the ,quakers1 the members of other sects began to deliberate about adopting the same measure4 ,some of those of the church of ,england1 of the ,roman ,catholicks1 and of the ,presbyterians and ,independants1 freed their slaves2 and there happened but one instance1 where the matter was debated1 where it was not immediately put in force4 ,this was in ,pennsylvania4 ,it was agitated in the synod of the ,presbyterians there1 to oblige their members to liberate their slaves4 ,the question was negatived by a majority of but one person2 and this opposition seemed to arise rather from a dislike to the attempt of forcing such a measure upon the members of that community1 than from any other consideration4 ,i have the pleasure of being credibly informed1 that the manumission of slaves1 or the employment of free men in the plantations1 is now daily gaining ground in ,north ,america4 ,should slavery be abolished there1 7and it is an event1 which1 from these circumstances1 we may reasonably expect to be produced in time7 let it be remembered1 that the ,quakers will have had the merit of its abolition4 ,nor have their brethren here been less assiduous in the cause4 ,as there are happily no slaves in this country1 so they have not had the same opportunity of shewing their benevolence by a general emancipation4 ,they have not however omitted to shew it as far as they have been able4 ,at their religious meetings they have regularly inquired if any of their members are concerned in the iniquitous ,african trade4 ,they have appointed a committee for obtaining every kind of information on the subject1 with a view to its suppression1 and1 about three or four years ago1 petitioned parliament on the occasion for their interference and support4 ,i am sorry to add1 that their benevolent application was ineffectual1 and that the reformation of an evil1 productive of consequences equally impolitick and immoral1 and generally acknowledged to have long disgraced our national character1 is yet left to the unsupported efforts of piety morality and justice1 against interest violence and oppression2 and these1 ,i blush to acknowledge1 too strongly countenanced by the legislative authority of a country1 the basis of whose government is liberty4 ,nothing can be more clearly shewn1 than that an inexhaustible mine of wealth is neglected in ,africa1 for prosecution of this impious traffick2 that1 if proper measures were taken1 the revenue of this country might be greatly improved1 its naval strength increased1 its colonies in a more flourishing situation1 the planters richer1 and a trade1 which is now a scene of blood and desolation1 converted into one1 which might be prosecuted with advantage and honour4 ,such have been the exertions of the ,quakers in the cause of humanity and virtue4 ,they are still prosecuting1 as far as they are able1 their benevolent design2 and ,i should stop here and praise them for thus continuing their humane endeavours1 but that ,i conceive it to be unnecessary4 ,they are acting consistently with the principles of religion4 ,they will find a reward in their own consciences2 and they will receive more real pleasure from a single reflection on their conduct1 than they can possibly experience from the praises of an host of writers4 ,in giving this short account of those humane and worthy persons1 who have endeavoured to restore to their fellow creatures the rights of nature1 of which they had been unjustly deprived1 ,i would feel myself unjust1 were ,i to omit two zealous opposers of the colonial tyranny1 conspicuous at the present day4 ,the first is ,mr4 ,granville ,sharp4 ,this ,gentleman has particularly distinguished himself in the cause of freedom4 ,it is a notorious fact1 that1 but a few years since1 many of the unfortunate black people1 who had been brought from the colonies into this country1 were sold in the metropolis to merchants and others1 when their masters had no farther occasion for their services2 though it was always understood that every person was free1 as soon as he landed on the ,british shore4 ,in consequence of this notion1 these unfortunate black people1 refused to go to the new masters1 to whom they were consigned4 ,they were however seized1 and forcibly conveyed1 under cover of the night1 to ships then lying in the ,thames1 to be retransported to the colonies1 and to be delivered again to the planters as merchantable goods4 ,the humane ,mr4 ,sharpe1 was the means of putting a stop to this iniquitous traffick4 ,whenever he gained information of people in such a situation1 he caused them to be brought on shore4 ,at a considerable expence he undertook their cause1 and was instrumental in obtaining the famous decree in the case of ,somersett1 that as soon as any person whatever set his foot in this country1 he came under the protection of the ,british laws1 and was consequently free4 ,nor did he interfere less honourably in that cruel and disgraceful case1 in the summer of the year #agha1 when an hundred and thirty two negroes1 in their passage to the colonies1 were thrown into the sea alive1 to defraud the underwriters2 but his pious endeavours were by no means attended with the same success4 ,to enumerate his many laudable endeavours in the extirpation of tyranny and oppression1 would be to swell the preface into a volume3 suffice it to say1 that he has written several books on the subject1 and one particularly1 which he distinguishes by the title of ,a ,limitation of ,slavery4 ,the second is the ,rev4 ,james ,ramsay4 ,this gentleman resided for many years in the ,west-,indies1 in the clerical office4 ,he perused all the colonial codes of law1 with a view to find if there were any favourable clauses1 by which the grievances of slaves could be redressed2 but he was severely disappointed in his pursuits4 ,he published a treatise1 since his return to ,england1 called ,an ,essay on the ,treatment and ,conversion of ,african ,slaves in the ,british ,sugar ,colonies1 which ,i recommend to the perusal of the humane reader4 ,this work reflects great praise upon the author1 since1 in order to be of service to this singularly oppressed part of the human species1 he compiled it at the expence of forfeiting that friendship1 which he had contracted with many in those parts1 during a series of years1 and at the hazard1 as ,i am credibly informed1 of suffering much1 in his private property1 as well as of subjecting himself to the ill will and persecution of numerous individuals4 ,this ,essay on the ,treatment and ,conversion of ,african ,slaves1 contains so many important truths on the colonial slavery1 and has come so home to the planters1 7being written by a person who has a thorough knowledge of the subject7 as to have occasioned a considerable alarm4 ,within the last eight months1 two publications have expressly appeared against it4 ,one of them is intitled ,cursory ,remarks on ,mr4 ,ramsay's ,essay2 the other an ,apology for ,negroe ,slavery4 ,on each of these ,i am bound1 as writing on the subject1 to make a few remarks4 ,the cursory remarker insinuates1 that ,mr4 ,ramsay's account of the treatment is greatly exaggerated1 if not wholly false4 ,to this ,i shall make the following reply4 ,i have the honour of knowing several disinterested gentlemen1 who have been acquainted with the ,west ,indian islands for years4 ,i call them disinterested1 because they have neither had a concern in the ,african trade1 nor in the colonial slavery3 and ,i have heard these unanimously assert1 that ,mr4 ,ramsay's account is so far from being exaggerated1 or taken from the most dreary pictures that he could find1 that it is absolutely below the truth2 that he must have omitted many instances of cruelty1 which he had seen himself2 and that they only wondered1 how he could have written with so much moderation upon the subject4 ,they allow the ,cursory ,remarks to be excellent as a composition1 but declare that it is perfectly devoid of truth4 ,but the cursory remarker does not depend so much on the circumstances which he has advanced1 7nor can he1 since they have no other existence than in his own1 brain7 as on the instrument detraction4 ,this he has used with the utmost virulence through the whole of his publication1 artfully supposing1 that if he could bring ,mr4 ,ramsay's reputation into dispute1 his work would fall of course1 as of no authenticity4 ,i submit this simple question to the reader4 ,when a writer1 in attempting to silence a publication1 attacks the character of its author1 rather than the principles of the work itself1 is it not a proof that the work itself is unquestionable1 and that this writer is at a loss to find an argument against it8 ,but there is something so very ungenerous in this mode of replication1 as to require farther notice4 ,for if this is the mode to be adopted in literary disputes1 what writer can be safe8 ,or who is there1 that will not be deterred from taking up his pen in the cause of virtue8 ,there are circumstances in every person's life1 which1 if given to the publick in a malevolent manner1 and without explanation1 might essentially injure him in the eyes of the world2 though1 were they explained1 they would be even reputable4 ,the cursory remarker has adopted this method of dispute2 but ,mr4 ,ramsay has explained himself to the satisfaction of all parties1 and has refuted him in every point4 ,the name of this cursory remarker is ,tobin3 a name1 which ,i feel myself obliged to hand down with detestation1 as far as ,i am able2 and with an hint to future writers1 that they will do themselves more credit1 and serve more effectually the cause which they undertake1 if on such occasions they attack the work1 rather than the character of the writer1 who affords them a subject for their lucubrations4 ,nor is this the only circumstance1 which induces me to take such particular notice of the ,cursory ,remarks4 ,i feel it incumbent upon me to rescue an injured person from the cruel aspersions that have been thrown upon him1 as ,i have been repeatedly informed by those1 who have the pleasure of his acquaintance1 that his character is irreproachable4 ,i am also interested myself4 ,for if such detraction is passed over in silence1 my own reputation1 and not my work1 may be attacked by an anonymous hireling in the cause of slavery4 ,the ,apology for ,negroe ,slavery is almost too despicable a composition to merit a reply4 ,i have only therefore to observe1 7as is frequently the case in a bad cause1 or where writers do not confine themselves to truth7 that the work refutes itself4 ,this writer1 speaking of the slave-trade1 asserts1 that people are never kidnapped on the coast of ,africa4 ,in speaking of the treatment of slaves1 he asserts again1 that it is of the very mildest nature1 and that they live in the most comfortable and happy manner imaginable4 ,to prove each of his assertions1 he proposes the following regulations4 ,that the stealing of slaves from ,africa should be felony4 ,that the premeditated murder of a slave by any person on board1 should come under the same denomination4 ,that when slaves arrive in the colonies1 lands should be allotted for their provisions1 in proportion to their number1 or commissioners should see that a sufficient quantity of sound wholesome provisions is purchased4 ,that they should not work on ,sundays and other holy-days4 ,that extra labour1 or night-work1 out of crop1 should be prohibited4 ,that a limited number of stripes should be inflicted upon them4 ,that they should have annually a suit of clothes4 ,that old infirm slaves should be properly cared for1 c4--,now it can hardly be conceived1 that if this author had tried to injure his cause1 or contradict himself1 he could not have done it in a more effectual manner1 than by this proposal of these salutary regulations4 ,for to say that slaves are honourably obtained on the coast2 to say that their treatment is of the mildest nature1 and yet to propose the above-mentioned regulations as necessary1 is to refute himself more clearly1 than ,i confess myself to be able to do it3 and ,i have only to request1 that the regulations proposed by this writer1 in the defence of slavery1 may be considered as so many proofs of the assertions contained in my own work4 ,i shall close my account with an observation1 which is of great importance in the present case4 ,of all the publications in favour of the slave-trade1 or the subsequent slavery in the colonies1 there is not one1 which has not been written1 either by a chaplain to the ,african factories1 or by a merchant1 or by a planter1 or by a person whose interest has been connected in the cause which he has taken upon him to defend4 ,of this description are ,mr4 ,tobin1 and the ,apologist for ,negroe ,slavery4 ,while on the other hand those1 who have had as competent a knowledge of the subject1 but not the same interest as themselves1 have unanimously condemned it2 and many of them have written their sentiments upon it1 at the hazard of creating an innumerable host of enemies1 and of being subjected to the most malignant opposition4 ,now1 which of these are we to believe on the occasion8 ,are we to believe those1 who are parties concerned1 who are interested in the practice8--,but the question does not admit of a dispute4 ,concerning my own work1 it seems proper to observe1 that when1 the original ,latin ,dissertation1 as the title page expresses1 was honoured by the ,university of ,cambridge with the first of their annual prizes for the year #aghe1 ,i was waited upon by some gentlemen of respectability and consequence1 who requested me to publish it in ,english4 ,the only objection which occurred to me was this2 that having been prevented1 by an attention to other studies1 from obtaining that critical knowledge of my own language1 which was necessary for an ,english composition1 ,i was fearful of appearing before the publick eye3 but that1 as they flattered me with the hope1 that the publication of it might be of use1 ,i would certainly engage to publish it1 if they would allow me to postpone it for a little time1 till ,i was more in the habit of writing4 ,they replied1 that as the publick attention was now excited to the case of the unfortunate ,africans1 it would be serving the cause with double the effect1 if it were to be published within a few months4 ,this argument prevailed4 ,nothing but this circumstance could have induced me to offer an ,english composition to the inspection of an host of criticks3 and ,i trust therefore that this circumstance will plead much with the benevolent reader1 in favour of those faults1 which he may find in the present work4 ,having thus promised to publish it1 ,i was for some time doubtful from which of the copies to translate4 ,there were two1 the original1 and an abridgement4 ,the latter 7as these academical compositions are generally of a certain length7 was that which was sent down to ,cambridge1 and honoured with the prize4 ,i was determined however1 upon consulting with my friends1 to translate from the former4 ,this has been faithfully done with but few#jjc additions4 ,the reader will probably perceive the ,latin idiom in several passages of the work1 though ,i have endeavoured1 as far as ,i have been able1 to avoid it4 ,and ,i am so sensible of the disadvantages under which it must yet lie1 as a translation1 that ,i wish ,i had written upon the subject1 without any reference at all to the original copy4 ,it will perhaps be asked1 from what authority ,i have collected those facts1 which relate to the colonial slavery4 ,i reply1 that ,i have had the means of the very best of information on the subject2 having the pleasure of being acquainted with many1 both in the naval and military departments1 as well as with several others1 who have been long acquainted with ,america and the ,west-,indian islands4 ,the facts therefore which ,i have related1 are compiled from the disinterested accounts of these gentlemen1 all of whom1 ,i have the happiness to say1 have coincided1 in the minutest manner1 in their descriptions4 ,it mud be remarked too1 that they were compiled1 not from what these gentlemen heard1 while they were resident in those parts1 but from what they actually saw4 ,nor has a single instance been taken from any book whatever upon the subject1 except that which is mentioned in the #bceth page2 and this book was published in ,france1 in the year #aggg1 by authority4 ,i have now the pleasure to say1 that the accounts of these disinterested gentlemen1 whom ,i consulted on the occasion1 are confirmed by all the books which ,i have ever perused upon slavery1 except those which have been written by merchants1 planters1 c4 ,they are confirmed by ,sir ,hans ,sloane's ,voyage to ,barbadoes2 ,griffith ,hughes's ,history of the same island1 printed #agej2 an ,account of ,north ,america1 by ,thomas ,jeffries1 #agfa2 all ,benezet's works1 c4 c4 and particularly by ,mr4 ,ramsay's ,essay on the ,treatment and ,conversion of the ,african ,slaves in the ,british ,sugar ,colonies2 a work which is now firmly established2 and1 ,i may add in a very extraordinary manner1 in consequence of the controversy which this gentleman has sustained with the ,cursory ,remarker1 by which several facts which were mentioned in the original copy of my own work1 before the controversy began1 and which had never appeared in any work upon the subject1 have been brought to light4 ,nor has it received less support from a letter1 published only last week1 from ,capt4 ,j4,s4 ,smith1 of the ,royal ,navy1 to the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,hill2 on the former of whom too high encomiums cannot be bestowed1 for standing forth in that noble and disinterested manner1 in behalf of an injured character4 ,i have now only to solicit the reader again1 that he will make a favourable allowance for the present work1 not only from those circumstances which ,i have mentioned1 but from the consideration1 that only two months are allowed by the ,university for these their annual compositions4 ,should he however be unpropitious to my request1 ,i must console myself with the reflection1 7a reflection that will always afford me pleasure1 even amidst the censures of the great17 that by undertaking the cause of the unfortunate ,africans1 ,i have undertaken1 as far as my abilities would permit1 the cause of injured innocence4 ,london1 ,june #ast #aghf4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,footnotes ,footnote #jja3 ,a ,description of ,guinea1 with an ,inquiry into the ,rise and ,progress of the ,slave ,trade1 c4--,a ,caution to ,great ,britain and her ,colonies1 in a short ,representation of the calamitous ,state of the enslaved ,negroes in the ,british ,dominions4 ,besides several smaller pieces4 ,footnote #jjb3 ,they had censured the ,african ,trade in the year #agbg1 but had taken no publick notice of the colonial slavery till this time4 ,footnote #jjc3 ,the instance of the ,dutch colonists at the ,cape1 in the first part of the ,essay2 the description of an ,african battle1 in the second2 and the poetry of a negroe girl in the third1 are the only considerable additions that have been made4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,contents4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,part ,i4 ,the ,history of ,slavery4 ,,chap4 ,i4 ,introduction4--,division of slavery into voluntary and involuntary4--,the latter the subject of the present work4--,chap4 ,,ii4 ,the first class of involuntary slaves among the ancients1 from war4--,conjecture concerning their antiquity4--,chap4 ,,iii4 ,the second class from piracy4--,short history of piracy4--,the dance carpoea4--,considerations from hence on the former topick4--,three orders of involuntary slaves among the ancients4--,chap4 ,,iv4 ,their personal treatment4--,exception in gypt4--,exception at ,athens4--,chap4 ,v4 ,the causes of such treatment among the ancients in general4--,additional causes among the ,greeks and ,romans4--,a refutation of their principles4--,remarks on the writings of sop4--,chap4 ,,vi4 ,the ancient slave-trade4--,its antiquity4--gypt the first market recorded for this species of traffick4--,cyprus the second4--,the agreement of the writings of ,moses and ,homer on the subject4--,the universal prevalence of the trade4--,chap4 ,,vii4 ,the decline of this commerce and slavery in ,europe4--,the causes of their decline4--,chap4 ,,viii4 ,their revival in ,africa4--,short history of their revival4--,five classes of involuntary slaves among the moderns4--,cruel instance of the ,dutch colonists at the ,cape4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,part ,,ii4 ,the ,african ,commerce or ,slave-,trade4 ,,chap4 ,i4 ,the history of mankind from their first situation to a state of government4--,chap4 ,,ii4 ,an account of the first governments4--,chap4 ,,iii4 ,liberty a natural right4--,that of government adventitious4--,government1 its nature4--,its end4--,chap4 ,,iv4 ,mankind cannot be considered as property4--,an objection answered4--,chap4 ,v4 ,division of the commerce into two parts1 as it relates to those who sell1 and those who purchase the human species into slavery4--,the right of the sellers examined with respect to the two orders of ,african slaves1 of those who are publickly seized by virtue of the authority of their prince1 and of those1 who are kidnapped by individuals4--,chap4 ,,vi4 ,their right with respect to convicts4--,from the proportion of the punishment to the offence4--,from its object and end4--,chap4 ,,vii4 ,their right with respect to prisoners of war4--,the jus captivitatis1 or right of capture explained4--,its injustice4--,farther explication of the right of capture1 in answer to some supposed objections4--,chap4 ,,viii4 ,additional remarks on the two orders that were first mentioned4--,the number which they annually contain4--,a description of an ,african battle4--,additional remarks on prisoners of war4--,on convicts4--,chap4 ,,ix4 ,the right of the purchasers examined4--,conclusion4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,part ,,iii4 ,the ,slavery of the ,africans in the ,european ,colonies4 ,,chap4 ,i4 ,imaginary scene in ,africa4--,imaginary conversation with an ,african4--,his ideas of ,christianity4--,a ,description of a body of slaves going to the ships4--,their embarkation4--,chap4 ,,ii4 ,their treatment on board4--,the number that annually perish in the voyage4--,horrid instance at sea4--,their debarkation in the colonies4--,horrid instance on the shore4--,chap4 ,,iii4 ,the condition of their posterity in the colonies4--,the lex nativitatis explained4--,its injustice4--,chap4 ,,iv4 ,the seasoning in the colonies4--,the number that annually die in the seasoning4--,the employment of the survivors4--,the colonial discipline4--,its tendency to produce cruelty4--,horrid instance of this effect4--,immoderate labour1 and its consequences4--,want of food and its consequences4--,severity and its consequences4--,the forlorn situation of slaves4--,an appeal to the memory of ,alfred4--,chap4 ,v4 ,the contents of the two preceding chapters denied by the purchasers4--,their first argument refuted4--,their second refuted4--,their third refuted4--,chap4 ,,vi4 ,three arguments1 which they bring in vindication of their treatment1 refuted4--,chap4 ,,vii4 ,the argument1 that the ,africans are an inferiour link of the chain of nature1 as far as it relates to their genius1 refuted4--,the causes of this apparent inferiority4--,short dissertation on ,african genius4--,poetry of an ,african girl4--,chap4 ,,viii4 ,the argument1 that they are an inferiour link of the chain of nature1 as far as it relates to colour1 c4 refuted4--,examination of the divine writings in this particular4--,dissertation on the colour4--,chap4 ,,ix4 ,other arguments of the purchasers examined4--,their comparisons unjust4--,their assertions1 with respect to the happy situation of the ,africans in the colonies1 without foundation4--,their happiness examined with respect to manumission4--,with respect to holy-days4--,dances1 c4--,an estimate made at ,st4 ,domingo4--,chap4 ,x4 ,the right of the purchasers over their slaves refuted upon their own principles4--,chap4 ,,xi4 ,dreadful arguments against this commerce and slavery of the human species4--,how the ,deity seems already to punish us for this inhuman violation of his laws4--,conclusion4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,errata4 ,for ,dominique1 7,footnote #ajg7 read ,domingue4 ,n4 ,b4 ,in page #ah a ,latin note has been inserted by mistake1 under the quotation of ,diodorus ,siculus4 ,the reader will find the original ,greek of the same signification1 in the same author1 at page #di4 ,editio ,stephani4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,an ,,essay ,,on ,,the ,,slavery and ,,commerce ,,of ,,the ,,human ,,species4 ,,in ,,three ,,parts4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,part ,i4 ,,the ,,history ,,of ,,slavery4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,i4 ,when civilized1 as well as barbarous nations1 have been found1 through a long succession of ages1 uniformly to concur in the same customs1 there seems to arise a presumption1 that such customs are not only eminently useful1 but are founded also on the principles of justice4 ,such is the case with respect to ,slavery3 it has had the concurrence of all the nations1 which history has recorded1 and the repeated practice of ages from the remotest antiquity1 in its favour4 ,here then is an argument1 deduced from the general consent and agreement of mankind1 in favour of the proposed subject3 but alas6 when we reflect that the people1 thus reduced to a state of servitude1 have had the same feelings with ourselves2 when we reflect that they have had the same propensities to pleasure1 and the same aversions from pain2 another argument seems immediately to arise in opposition to the former1 deduced from our own feelings and that divine sympathy1 which nature has implanted in our breasts1 for the most useful and generous of purposes4 ,to ascertain the truth therefore1 where two such opposite sources of argument occur2 where the force of custom pleads strongly on the one hand1 and the feelings of humanity on the other2 is a matter of much importance1 as the dignity of human nature is concerned1 and the rights and liberties of mankind will be involved in its discussion4 ,it will be necessary1 before this point can be determined1 to consult the ,history of ,slavery1 and to lay before the reader1 in as concise a manner as possible1 a general view of it from its earliest appearance to the present day4 ,the first1 whom we shall mention here to have been reduced to a state of servitude1 may be comprehended in that class1 which is usually denominated the ,mercenary4 ,it consisted of free-born citizens1 who1 from the various contingencies of fortune1 had become so poor1 as to have recourse for their support to the service of the rich4 ,of this kind were those1 both among the ,egyptians and the ,jews1 who are recorded in the sacred writings4#jjd ,the ,grecian ,thetes#jje also were of this description1 as well as those among the ,romans1 from whom the class receives its appellation1 the #jjf,mercenarii4 ,we may observe of the above-mentioned1 that their situation was in many instances similar to that of our own servants4 ,there was an express contract between the parties2 they could1 most of them1 demand their discharge1 if they were ill used by their respective masters2 and they were treated therefore with more humanity than those1 whom we usually distinguish in our language by the appellation of ,slaves4 ,as this class of servants was composed of men1 who had been reduced to such a situation by the contingencies of fortune1 and not by their own misconduct2 so there was another among the ancients1 composed entirely of those1 who had suffered the loss of liberty from their own imprudence4 ,to this class may be reduced the ,grecian ,prodigals1 who were detained in the service of their creditors1 till the fruits of their labour were equivalent to their debts2 the delinquents1 who were sentenced to the oar2 and the ,german enthusiasts1 as mentioned by ,tacitus1 who were so immoderately charmed with gaming1 as1 when every thing else was gone1 to have staked their liberty and their very selves4 ,the loser1 says he1 goes into a voluntary servitude1 and though younger and stronger than the person with whom he played1 patiently suffers himself to be bound and sold4 ,their perseverance in so bad a custom is stiled honour4 ,the slaves1 thus obtained1 are immediately exchanged away in commerce1 that the winner may get rid of the scandal of his victory4 ,to enumerate other instances1 would be unnecessary2 it will be sufficient to observe1 that the servants of this class were in a far more wretched situation1 than those of the former2 their drudgery was more intense2 their treatment more severe2 and there was no retreat at pleasure1 from the frowns and lashes of their despotick masters4 ,having premised this1 we may now proceed to a general division of slavery1 into voluntary and involuntary4 ,the voluntary will comprehend the two classes1 which we have already mentioned2 for1 in the first instance1 there was a contract1 founded on consent2 and1 in the second1 there was a choice of engaging or not in those practices1 the known consequences of which were servitude4 ,the involuntary2 on the other hand1 will comprehend those1 who were forced1 without any such condition or choice1 into a situation1 which as it tended to degrade a part of the human species1 and to class it with the brutal1 must have been1 of all human situations1 the most wretched and insupportable4 ,these are they1 whom we shall consider solely in the present work4 ,we shall therefore take our leave of the former1 as they were mentioned only1 that we might state the question with greater accuracy1 and1 be the better enabled to reduce it to its proper limits4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,footnotes ,footnote #jjd3 ,genesis1 ,ch4 #dg4 ,leviticus ,,xxv4 v4 #ci1 #dj4 ,footnote #jje3 ,the ,thetes appear very early in the ,grecian ,history4--kai tines auto kouroi epont',ithakes exairetoi2 he eoi autou thentes te ,dmoes787 te2 ,od4 ,homer4 ,d4 #fdb4 ,they were afterwards so much in use that1 ,murioi depou apedidonto eautous ose douleuein kata sungraphen1 till ,solon suppressed the custom in ,athens4 ,footnote #jjf3 ,the mention of these is frequent among the classics2 they were called in general mercenarii1 from the circumstances of their hire1 as quibus1 non mal prcipiunt1 qui ita jubent uti1 ut mercenariis1 operam exigendam1 justa proebenda4 ,cicero de off4 ,but they are sometimes mentioned in the law books by the name of liberi1 from the circumstances of their birth1 to distinguish them from the alieni1 or foreigners1 as ,justinian4 ,d4 #g4 #h4 #d4 --,id4 #ba4 #a4 #be4 c4 c4 c4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,,ii4 ,the first that will be mentioned1 of the involuntary1 were prisoners of war4#jjg ,it was a law1 established from time immemorial among the nations of antiquity1 to oblige those to undergo the severities of servitude1 whom victory had thrown into their hands4 ,conformably with this1 we find all the ,eastern nations unanimous in the practice4 ,the same custom prevailed among the people of the ,west2 for as the ,helots became the slaves of the ,spartans1 from the right of conquest only1 so prisoners of war were reduced to the same situation by the rest of the inhabitants of ,greece4 ,by the same principles that actuated these1 were the ,romans also influenced4 ,their ,history will confirm the fact3 for how many cities are recorded to have been taken2 how many armies to have been vanquished in the field1 and the wretched survivors1 in both instances1 to have been doomed to servitude8 ,it remains only now to observe1 in shewing this custom to have been universal1 that all those nations which assisted in overturning the ,roman ,empire1 though many and various1 adopted the same measures2 for we find it a general maxim in their polity1 that whoever should fall into their hands as a prisoner of war1 should immediately be reduced to the condition of a slave4 ,it may here1 perhaps1 be not unworthy of remark1 that the involuntary were of greater antiquity than the voluntary slaves4 ,the latter are first mentioned in the time of ,pharaoh3 they could have arisen only in a state of society2 when property1 after its division1 had become so unequal1 as to multiply the wants of individuals2 and when government1 after its establishment1 had given security to the possessor by the punishment of crimes4 ,whereas the former seem to be dated with more propriety from the days of ,nimrod2 who gave rise probably to that inseparable idea of victory and servitude1 which we find among the nations of antiquity1 and which has existed uniformly since1 in one country or another1 to the present day4#jjh ,add to this1 that they might have arisen even in a state of nature1 and have been coequal with the quarrels of mankind4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,footnotes ,footnote #jjg3 ,nomos en pasin anthropois aidios esin1 otan polemounton polis alo1 ton elonton einai kai ta somata ton en te poleis1 kai ta chremata4 ,xenoph4 ,kyrou ,paid4 ,l4 #g4 fin4 ,footnote #jjh3 ,proud ,nimrod first the bloody chace began1 ,a mighty hunter1 and his prey was man4 --,,pope4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,,iii4 ,but it was not victory alone1 or any presupposed right1 founded in the damages of war1 that afforded a pretence for invading the liberties of mankind3 the honourable light1 in which piracy was considered in the uncivilized ages of the world1 contributed not a little to the slavery of the human species4 ,piracy had a very early beginning4 ,the ,grecians1#jji says ,thucydides1 in their primitive state1 as well as the contemporary barbarians1 who inhabited the sea coasts and islands1 gave themselves wholly to it2 it was1 in short1 their only profession and support4 ,the writings of ,homer are sufficient of themselves to establish this account4 ,they shew it to have been a common practice at so early a period as that of the ,trojan war2 and abound with many lively descriptions of it2 which1 had they been as groundless as they are beautiful1 would have frequently spared the sigh of the reader of sensibility and reflection4 ,the piracies1 which were thus practised in the early ages1 may be considered as publick or private4 ,in the former1 whole crews embarked for the benefit#jaj of their respective tribes4 ,they made descents on the sea coasts1 carried off cattle1 surprized whole villages1 put many of the inhabitants to the sword1 and carried others into slavery4 ,in the latter1 individuals only were concerned1 and the emolument was their own4 ,these landed from their ships1 and1 going up into the country1 concealed themselves in the woods and thickets2 where they waited every opportunity of catching the unfortunate shepherd or husbandman alone4 ,in this situation they sallied out upon him1 dragged him on board1 conveyed him to a foreign market1 and sold him for a slave4 ,to this kind of piracy ,ulysses alludes1 in opposition to the former1 which he had been just before mentioning1 in his question to ,eumoeus4 ,did pirates wait1 till all thy friends were gone1 ,to catch thee singly with thy flocks alone2 ,say1 did they force thee from thy fleecy care1 ,and from thy fields transport and sell thee here8#jaa ,but no picture1 perhaps1 of this mode of depredation1 is equal to that1 with which#jab ,xenophon presents us in the simple narrative of a dance4 ,he informs us that the ,grecian army had concluded a peace with the ,paphlagonians1 and that they entertained their embassadors in consequence with a banquet1 and the exhibition of various feats of activity4 ,when the ,thracians1 says he1 had performed the parts allotted them in this entertainment1 some ,aenianian and ,magnetian soldiers rose up1 and1 accoutred in their proper arms1 exhibited that dance1 which is called ,karpoea4 ,the figure of it is thus4 ,one of them1 in the character of an husbandman1 is seen to till his land1 and is observed1 as he drives his plough1 to look frequently behind him1 as if apprehensive of danger4 ,another immediately appears in fight1 in the character of a robber4 ,the husbandman1 having seen him previously advancing1 snatches up his arms4 ,a battle ensues before the plough4 ,the whole of this performance is kept in perfect time with the musick of the flute4 ,at length the robber1 having got the better of the husbandman1 binds him1 and drives him off with his team4 ,sometimes it happens that the husbandman subdues the robber3 in this case the scene is only reversed1 as the latter is then bound and driven1 off by the former4 ,it is scarcely necessary to observe1 that this dance was a representation of the general manners of men1 in the more uncivilized ages of the world2 shewing that the husbandman and shepherd lived in continual alarm1 and that there were people in those ages1 who derived their pleasures and fortunes from kidnapping and enslaving their fellow creatures4 ,we may now take notice of a circumstance in this narration1 which will lead us to a review of our first assertion on this point1 that the honourable light1 in which piracy was considered in the times of barbarism1 contributed not a little to the slavery of the human species4 ,the robber is represented here as frequently defeated in his attempts1 and as reduced to that deplorable situation1 to which he was endeavouring to bring another4 ,this shews the frequent difficulty and danger of his undertakings3 people would not tamely resign their lives or liberties1 without a struggle4 ,they were sometimes prepared2 were superior often1 in many points of view1 to these invaders of their liberty2 there were an hundred accidental circumstances frequently in their favour4 ,these adventures therefore required all the skill1 strength1 agility1 valour1 and every thing1 in short1 that may be supposed to constitute heroism1 to conduct them with success4 ,upon this idea piratical expeditions first came into repute1 and their frequency afterwards1 together with the danger and fortitude1 that were inseparably connected with them1 brought them into such credit among the barbarous nations of antiquity1 that of all human professions1 piracy was the most honourable4#jac ,the notions then1 which were thus annexed to piratical expeditions1 did not fail to produce those consequences1 which we have mentioned before4 ,they afforded an opportunity to the views of avarice and ambition1 to conceal themselves under the mask of virtue4 ,they excited a spirit of enterprize1 of all others the most irresistible1 as it subsisted on the strongest principles of action1 emolument and honour4 ,thus could the vilest of passions be gratified with impunity4 ,people were robbed1 stolen1 murdered1 under the pretended idea that these were reputable adventures3 every enormity in short was committed1 and dressed up in the habiliments of honour4 ,but as the notions of men in the less barbarous ages1 which followed1 became more corrected and refined1 the practice of piracy began gradually to disappear4 ,it had hitherto been supported on the grand columns of emolument and honour4 ,when the latter therefore was removed1 it received a considerable shock2 but1 alas6 it had still a pillar for its support6 avarice1 which exists in all states1 and which is ready to turn every invention to its own ends1 strained hard for its preservation4 ,it had been produced in the ages of barbarism2 it had been pointed out in those ages as lucrative1 and under this notion it was continued4 ,people were still stolen2 many were intercepted 7some1 in their pursuits of pleasure1 others1 in the discharge of their several occupations7 by their own countrymen2 who previously laid in wait for them1 and sold them afterwards for slaves2 while others seized by merchants1 who traded on the different coasts1 were torn from their friends and connections1 and carried into slavery4 ,the merchants of ,thessaly1 if we can credit ,aristophanes#jad who never spared the vices of the times1 were particularly infamous for the latter kind of depredation2 the ,athenians were notorious for the former2 for they had practised these robberies to such an alarming degree of danger to individuals1 that it was found necessary to enact a law#jae1 which punished kidnappers with death4--,but this is sufficient for our present purpose2 it will enable us to assert1 that there were two classes of involuntary slaves among the ancients1 of those who were taken publickly in a state of war1 and of those who were privately stolen in a state of innocence and peace4 ,we may now add1 that the children and descendents of these composed a third4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,footnotes ,footnote #jji3 ,thucydides4 ,l4 #a4 sub initio4 ,footnote #jaj3 ,idem4--the strongest1 says he1 engaging in these adventures1 ,kerdous tou spheterou auton eneka kai tois asthenesi trophes4 ,footnote #jaa3 ,homer4 ,odyss4 ,l4 #ae4 #che4 ,footnote #jab3 ,xenoph4 ,kyrou ,anab4 ,l4 #f4 sub initio4 ,footnote #jac3 ouk echontos po ,aischynen toutou tou ergou pherontos de ti kai ,doxes mallon4 ,thucydides1 ,l4 #a4 sub initio4 kai euklees touto oi ,kilikes enomizon4 ,sextus ,empiricus4 ouk adoxon all'endoxon touto4 ,schol4 c4 c4 ,footnote #jad3 ,aristoph4 ,plut4 ,act4 #b4 ,scene #e4 ,footnote #jae3 ,zenoph4 ,apomnemon1 ,l4 #a4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,,iv4 ,it will be proper to say something here concerning the situation of the unfortunate men1 who were thus doomed to a life of servitude4 ,to enumerate their various employments1 and to describe the miseries which they endured in consequence1 either from the severity1 or the long and constant application of their labour1 would exceed the bounds we have proposed to the present work4 ,we shall confine ourselves to their personal treatment1 as depending on the power of their masters1 and the protection of the law4 ,their treatment1 if considered in this light1 will equally excite our pity and abhorrence4 ,they were beaten1 starved1 tortured1 murdered at discretion3 they were dead in a civil sense2 they had neither name nor tribe2 were incapable of a judicial process2 were in short without appeal4 ,poor unfortunate men6 to be deprived of all possible protection6 to suffer the bitterest of injuries without the possibility of redress6 to be condemned unheard6 to be murdered with impunity6 to be considered as dead in that state1 the very members of which they were supporting by their labours6 ,yet such was their general situation3 there were two places however1 where their condition1 if considered in this point of view1 was more tolerable4 ,the gyptian slave1 though perhaps of all others the greatest drudge1 yet if he had time to reach the temple#jaf of ,hercules1 found a certain retreat from the persecution of his master2 and he received additional comfort from the reflection1 that his life1 whether he could reach it or not1 could not be taken with impunity4 ,wise and salutary law6#jag how often must it have curbed the insolence of power1 and stopped those passions in their progress1 which had otherwise been destructive to the slave6 ,but though the persons of slaves were thus greatly secured in gypt1 yet there was no place so favourable to them as ,athens4 ,they were allowed a greater liberty of speech2#jah they had their convivial meetings1 their amours1 their hours of relaxation1 pleasantry1 and mirth2 they were treated1 in short1 with so much humanity in general1 as to occasion that observation of ,demosthenes1 in his second ,philippick1 that the condition of a slave1 at ,athens1 was preferable to that of a free citizen1 in many other countries4 ,but if any exception happened 7which was sometimes the case7 from the general treatment described2 if persecution took the place of lenity1 and made the fangs of servitude more pointed than before1#jai they had then their temple1 like the gyptian1 for refuge2 where the legislature was so attentive1 as to examine their complaints1 and to order them1 if they were founded in justice1 to be sold to another master4 ,nor was this all3 they had a privilege infinitely greater than the whole of these4 ,they were allowed an opportunity of working for themselves1 and if their diligence had procured them a sum equivalent with their ransom1 they could immediately1 on paying it down1#jbj demand their freedom for ever4 ,this law was1 of all others1 the most important2 as the prospect of liberty1 which it afforded1 must have been a continual source of the most pleasing reflections1 and have greatly sweetened the draught1 even of the most bitter slavery4 ,thus then1 to the eternal honour of gypt and ,athens1 they were the only places that we can find1 where slaves were considered with any humanity at all4 ,the rest of the world seemed to vie with each other1 in the debasement and oppression of these unfortunate people4 ,they used them with as much severity as they chose2 they measured their treatment only by their own passion and caprice2 and1 by leaving them on every occasion1 without the possibility of an appeal1 they rendered their situation the most melancholy and intolerable1 that can possibly be conceived4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,footnotes ,footnote #jaf3 ,herodotus4 ,l4 #b4 #aac4 ,footnote #jag3 ,apud gyptios1 si quis servum sponte occiderat1 eum morte damnari que ac si liberum occidisset1 jubebant leges c4 ,diodorus ,sic4 ,l4 #a4 ,footnote #jah3 ,atq id ne vos miremini1 ,homines servulos ,potare1 amare1 atq ad coenam condicere4 ,licet hoc ,athenis4 ,plautus4 ,sticho4 ,footnote #jai3 ,be me kratison esin eis to ,theseion ,dramein1 ekei d'eos an eurombou prasin menein ,aristoph4 ,hor4 ,kaka toiade paskousin oude prasin ,aitousin4 ,eupolis4 poleis4 ,footnote #jbj3 ,to this privilege ,plautus alludes in his ,casina1 where he introduces a slave1 speaking in the following manner4 ,quid tu me ver libertate territas8 ,quod si tu nolis1 siliusque etiam tuus ,vobis invitis1 atq amborum ingratiis1 ,una libella liber possum fieri4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,v4 ,as we have mentioned the barbarous and inhuman treatment that generally fell to the lot of slaves1 it may not be amiss to inquire into the various circumstances by which it was produced4 ,the first circumstance1 from whence it originated1 was the commerce3 for if men could be considered as possessions2 if1 like cattle1 they could be bought and sold1 it will not be difficult to suppose1 that they could be held in the same consideration1 or treated in the same manner4 ,the commerce therefore1 which was begun in the primitive ages of the world1 by classing them with the brutal species1 and by habituating the mind to consider the terms of brute and slave as synonimous1 soon caused them to be viewed in a low and despicable light1 and as greatly inferiour to the human species4 ,hence proceeded that treatment1 which might not unreasonably be supposed to arise from so low an estimation4 ,they were tamed1 like beasts1 by the stings of hunger and the lash1 and their education was directed to the same end1 to make them commodious instruments of labour for their possessors4 ,this treatment1 which thus proceeded in the ages of barbarism1 from the low estimation1 in which slaves were unfortunately held from the circumstances of the commerce1 did not fail of producing1 in the same instant1 its own effect4 ,it depressed their minds2 it numbed their faculties2 and1 by preventing those sparks of genius from blazing forth1 which had otherwise been conspicuous2 it gave them the appearance of being endued with inferiour capacities than the rest of mankind4 ,this effect of the treatment had made so considerable a progress1 as to have been a matter of observation in the days of ,homer4 ,for half his senses ,jove conveys away1 ,whom once he dooms to see the servile day4#jba ,thus then did the commerce1 by classing them originally with brutes1 and the consequent treatment1 by cramping their abilities1 and hindering them from becoming conspicuous1 give to these unfortunate people1 at a very early period1 the most unfavourable appearance4 ,the rising generations1 who received both the commerce and treatment from their ancestors1 and who had always been accustomed to behold their effects1 did not consider these effects as incidental3 they judged only from what they saw2 they believed the appearances to be real2 and hence arose the combined principle1 that slaves were an inferiour order of men1 and perfectly void of understanding4 ,upon this principle it was1 that the former treatment began to be fully confirmed and established2 and as this principle was handed down and disseminated1 so it became1 in succeeding ages1 an excuse for any severity1 that despotism might suggest4 ,we may observe here1 that as all nations had this excuse in common1 as arising from the circumstances above-mentioned1 so the ,greeks first1 and the ,romans afterwards1 had an additional excuse1 as arising from their own vanity4 ,the former having conquered ,troy1 and having united themselves under one common name and interest1 began1 from that period1 to distinguish the rest of the world by the title of barbarians2 inferring by such an appellation1 that they were men who were only noble in their own country2 that they had no right1 from their nature1 to authority or command2 that1 on the contrary1 so low were their capacities1 they were destined by nature to obey1 and to live in a state of perpetual drudgery and subjugation4#jbb ,conformable with this opinion was the treatment1 which was accordingly prescribed to a barbarian4 ,the philosopher ,aristotle himself1 in the advice which he gave to his pupil ,alexander1 before he went upon his ,asiatick expedition1 intreated him to use the ,greeks1 as it became a general1 but the barbarians1 as it became a master2 consider1 says he1 the former as friends and domesticks2 but the latter1 as brutes and plants2#jbc inferring that the ,greeks1 from the superiority of their capacities1 had a natural right to dominion1 and that the rest of the world1 from the inferiority of their own1 were to be considered and treated as the irrational part of the creation4 ,now1 if we consider that this was the treatment1 which they judged to be absolutely proper for people of this description1 and that their slaves were uniformly those1 whom they termed barbarians2 being generally such1 as were either kidnapped from ,barbary1 or purchased from the barbarian conquerors in their wars with one another2 we shall immediately see1 with what an additional excuse their own vanity had furnished them for the sallies of caprice and passion4 ,to refute these cruel sentiments of the ancients1 and to shew that their slaves were by no means an inferiour order of beings than themselves1 may perhaps be considered as an unnecessary task2 particularly1 as having shewn1 that the causes of this inferiour appearance were incidental1 arising1 on the one hand1 from the combined effects of the treatment and commerce1 and1 on the other1 from vanity and pride1 we seem to have refuted them already4 ,but we trust that some few observations1 in vindication of these unfortunate people1 will neither be unacceptable nor improper4 ,how then shall we begin the refutation8 ,shall we say with ,seneca1 who saw many of the slaves in question1 ,what is a knight1 or a libertine1 or a slave8 ,are they not names1 assumed either from injury or ambition8 ,or1 shall we say with him on another occasion1 ,let us consider that he1 whom we call our slave1 is born in the same manner as ourselves2 that he enjoys the same sky1 with all its heavenly luminaries2 that he breathes1 that he lives1 in the same manner as ourselves1 and1 in the same manner1 that he expires4 ,these considerations1 we confess1 would furnish us with a plentiful source of arguments in the case before us2 but we decline their assistance4 ,how then shall we begin8 ,shall we enumerate the many instances of fidelity1 patience1 or valour1 that are recorded of the servile race8 ,shall we enumerate the many important services1 that they rendered both to the individuals and the community1 under whom they lived8 ,here would be a second source1 from whence we could collect sufficient materials to shew1 that there was no inferiority in their nature4 ,but we decline to use them4 ,we shall content ourselves with some few instances1 that relate to the genius only3 we shall mention the names of those of a servile condition1 whose writings1 having escaped the wreck of time1 and having been handed down even to the present age1 are now to be seen1 as so many living monuments1 that neither the ,grecian1 nor ,roman genius1 was superiour to their own4 ,the first1 whom we shall mention here1 is the famous sop4 ,he was a ,phrygian by birth1 and lived in the time of ,croesus1 king of ,lydia1 to whom he dedicated his fables4 ,the writings of this great man1 in whatever light we consider them1 will be equally entitled to our admiration4 ,but we are well aware1 that the very mention of him as a writer of fables1 may depreciate him in the eyes of some4 ,to such we shall propose a question1 ,whether this species of writing has not been more beneficial to mankind2 or whether it has not produced more important events1 than any other8 ,with respect to the first consideration1 it is evident that these fables1 as consisting of plain and simple transactions1 are particularly easy to be understood2 as conveyed in images1 they please and seduce the mind2 and1 as containing a moral1 easily deducible on the side of virtue2 that they afford1 at the same time1 the most weighty precepts of philosophy4 ,here then are the two grand points of composition1 a manner of expression to be apprehended by the lowest capacities1 and1 7what is considered as a victory in the art7 an happy conjunction of utility and pleasure4#jbd ,hence ,quintilian recommends them1 as singularly useful1 and as admirably adapted1 to the puerile age2 as a just gradation between the language of the nurse and the preceptor1 and as furnishing maxims of prudence and virtue1 at a time when the speculative principles of philosophy are too difficult to be understood4 ,hence also having been introduced by most civilized nations into their system of education1 they have produced that general benefit1 to which we at first alluded4 ,nor have they been of less consequence in maturity2 but particularly to those of inferiour capacities1 or little erudition1 whom they have frequently served as a guide to conduct them in life1 and as a medium1 through which an explanation might be made1 on many and important occasions4 ,with respect to the latter consideration1 which is easily deducible from hence1 we shall only appeal to the wonderful effect1 which the fable1 pronounced by ,demosthenes against ,philip of ,macedon1 produced among his hearers2 or to the fable1 which was spoken by ,menenius ,agrippa to the ,roman populace2 by which an illiterate multitude were brought back to their duty as citizens1 when no other species of oratory could prevail4 ,to these truly ingenious1 and philosophical works of sop1 we shall add those of his imitator ,phoedrus1 which in purity and elegance of style1 are inferiour to none4 ,we shall add also the ,lyrick ,poetry of ,alcman1 which is no servile composition2 the sublime ,morals of ,epictetus1 and the incomparable comedies of ,terence4 ,thus then does it appear1 that the excuse which was uniformly started in defence of the treatment of slaves1 had no foundation whatever either in truth or justice4 ,the instances that we have mentioned above1 are sufficient to shew1 that there was no inferiority1 either in their nature1 or their understandings3 and at the same time that they refute the principles of the ancients1 they afford a valuable lesson to those1 who have been accustomed to form too precipitate a judgment on the abilities of men3 for1 alas6 how often has secret anguish depressed the spirits of those1 whom they have frequently censured1 from their gloomy and dejected appearance6 and how often1 on the other hand1 has their judgment resulted from their own vanity and pride6 99 99 99 99 99 ,,footnotes ,footnote #jba3 ,homer4 ,odys4 ,p4 #cbb4 ,in the latest edition of ,homer1 the word1 which we have translated senses1 is ,aretae1 or virtue1 but the old and proper reading is ,noos1 as appears from ,plato de ,legibus1 ch4 #f1 where he quotes it on a similar occasion4 ,footnote #jbb3 ,aristotle4 ,polit4 ,ch4 #b4 et inseq4 ,footnote #jbc3 ,ellesin hegemonikos1 tois de ,barbarois despotikos krasthar kai ton men os philon kai oikeion epimeleisthai1 tois de os zoois he phytois prospheresthai4 ,plutarch4 de ,fortun4 ,alexand4 ,orat4 #a4 ,footnote #jbd3 ,omne tulit punctum1 qui miscuit utile dulci4 ,horace4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,,vi4 ,we proceed now to the consideration of the commerce3 in consequence of which1 people1 endued with the same feelings and faculties as ourselves1 were made subject to the laws and limitations of possession4 ,this commerce of the human species was of a very early date4 ,it was founded on the idea that men were property2 and1 as this idea was coeval with the first order of involuntary slaves1 it must have arisen1 7if the date1 which we previously affixed to that order1 be right7 in the first practices of barter4 ,the ,story of ,joseph1 as recorded in the sacred writings1 whom his brothers sold from an envious suspicion of his future greatness1 is an ample testimony of the truth of this conjecture4 ,it shews that there were men1 even at that early period1 who travelled up and down as merchants1 collecting not only balm1 myrrh1 spicery1 and other wares1 but the human species also1 for the purposes of traffick4 ,the instant determination of the brothers1 on the first sight of the merchants1 to sell him1 and the immediate acquiescence of these1 who purchased him for a foreign market1 prove that this commerce had been then established1 not only in that part of the country1 where this transaction happened1 but in that also1 whither the merchants were then travelling with their camels1 namely1 gypt3 and they shew farther1 that1 as all customs require time for their establishment1 so it must have existed in the ages1 previous to that of ,pharaoh2 that is1 in those ages1 in which we fixed the first date of involuntary servitude4 ,this commerce then1 as appears by the present instance1 existed in the earliest practices of barter1 and had descended to the gyptians1 through as long a period of time1 as was sufficient to have made it1 in the times alluded to1 an established custom4 ,thus was gypt1 in those days1 the place of the greatest resort2 the grand emporium of trade1 to which people were driving their merchandize1 as to a centre2 and thus did it afford1 among other opportunities of traffick1 the first market that is recorded1 for the sale of the human species4 ,this market1 which was thus supplied by the constant concourse of merchants1 who resorted to it from various parts1 could not fail1 by these means1 to have been considerable4 ,it received1 afterwards1 an additional supply from those piracies1 which we mentioned to have existed in the uncivilized ages of the world1 and which1 in fact1 it greatly promoted and encouraged2 and it became1 from these united circumstances1 so famous1 as to have been known1 within a few centuries from the time of ,pharaoh1 both to the ,grecian colonies in ,asia1 and the ,grecian islands4 ,homer mentions ,cyprus and gypt as the common markets for slaves1 about the times of the ,trojan war4 ,thus ,antinous1 offended with ,ulysses1 threatens to send him to one of these places1 if he does not instantly depart from his table4#jbe ,the same poet also1 in his hymn to ,bacchus#jbf1 mentions them again1 but in a more unequivocal manner1 as the common markets for slaves4 ,he takes occasion1 in that hymn1 to describe the pirates method of scouring the coast1 from the circumstance of their having kidnapped ,bacchus1 as a noble youth1 for whom they expected an immense ransom4 ,the captain of the vessel1 having dragged him on board1 is represented as addressing himself thus1 to the steersman3 ,haul in the tackle1 hoist aloft the sail1 ,then take your helm1 and watch the doubtful gale6 ,to mind the captive prey1 be our's the care1 ,while you to gypt or to ,cyprus steer2 ,there shall he go1 unless his friends he'll tell1 ,whose ransom-gifts will pay us full as well4 ,it may not perhaps be considered as a digression1 to mention in few words1 by itself1 the wonderful concordance of the writings of ,moses and ,homer with the case before us3 not that the former1 from their divine authority1 want additional support1 but because it cannot be unpleasant to see them confirmed by a person1 who1 being one of the earliest writers1 and living in a very remote age1 was the first that could afford us any additional proof of the circumstances above-mentioned4 gypt is represented1 in the first book of the sacred writings1 as a market for slaves1 and1 in the #jbgsecond1 as famous for the severity of its servitude4 #jbh,the same line1 which we have already cited from ,homer1 conveys to us the same ideas4 ,it points it out as a market for the human species1 and by the epithet of bitter gypt1 7#jbiwhich epithet is peculiarly annexed to it on this occasion7 alludes in the strongest manner to that severity and rigour1 of which the sacred historian transmitted us the first account4 ,but1 to return4 ,though gypt was the first market recorded for this species of traffick2 and though gypt1 and ,cyprus afterwards1 were particularly distinguished for it1 in the times of the ,trojan war2 yet they were not the only places1 even at that period1 where men were bought and sold4 ,the ,odyssey of ,homer shews that it was then practised in many of the islands of the gean sea2 and the ,iliad1 that it had taken place among those ,grecians on the continent of ,europe1 who had embarked from thence on the ,trojan expedition4 ,this appears particularly at the end of the seventh book4 ,a fleet is described there1 as having just arrived from ,lemnos1 with a supply of wine for the ,grecian camp4 ,the merchants are described also1 as immediately exposing it to sale1 and as receiving in exchange1 among other articles of barter1 a number of slaves4 ,it will now be sufficient to observe1 that1 as other states arose1 and as circumstances contributed to make them known1 this custom is discovered to have existed among them2 that it travelled over all ,asia2 that it spread through the ,grecian and ,roman world2 was in use among the barbarous nations1 which overturned the ,roman empire2 and was practised therefore1 at the same period1 throughout all ,europe4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,footnotes ,footnote #jbe3 me tacha pikren ,aigypton kai ,kypron idnai4 ,hom4 ,odyss4 ,l4 #ag4 #ddh4 ,footnote #jbf3 ,l4 #bf4 ,footnote #jbg3 ,exodus4 ,ch4 #a4 ,footnote #jbh3 ,vide note #ast4 7,here shown as footnote #jbe74 ,footnote #jbi3 ,this strikes us the more forcibly1 as it is stiled eurreiten and perikallea1 beautiful and well watered1 in all other passages where it is mentioned1 but this4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,,vii4 ,this slavery and commerce1 which had continued for so long a time1 and which was thus practised in ,europe at so late a period as that1 which succeeded the grand revolutions in the western world1 began1 as the northern nations were settled in their conquests1 to decline1 and1 on their full establishment1 were abolished4 ,a difference of opinion has arisen respecting the cause of their abolition2 some having asserted1 that they were the necessary consequences of the feudal system2 while others1 superiour both in number and in argument1 have maintained that they were the natural effects of ,christianity4 ,the mode of argument1 which the former adopt on this occasion1 is as follows4 ,the multitude of little states1 which sprang up from one great one at this ra1 occasioned infinite bickerings and matter for contention4 ,there was not a state or seignory1 which did not want all the hands they could muster1 either to defend their own right1 or to dispute that of their neighbours4 ,thus every man was taken into the service3 whom they armed they must trust3 and there could be no trust but in free men4 ,thus the barrier between the two natures was thrown down1 and slavery was no more heard of1 in the west4 ,that this was not the necessary consequence of such a situation1 is apparent4 ,the political state of ,greece1 in its early history1 was the same as that of ,europe1 when divided1 by the feudal system1 into an infinite number of small and independent kingdoms4 ,there was the same matter therefore for contention1 and the same call for all the hands that could be mustered3 the ,grecians1 in short1 in heroick1 were in the same situation in these respects as the feudal barons in the ,gothick times4 ,had this therefore been a necessary effect1 there had been a cessation of servitude in ,greece1 in those ages1 in which we have already shewn that it existed4 ,but with respect to ,christianity1 many and great are the arguments1 that it occasioned so desirable an event4 ,it taught1 that all men were originally equal2 that the ,deity was no respecter of persons1 and that1 as all men were to give an account of their actions hereafter1 it was necessary that they should be free4 ,these doctrines could not fail of having their proper influence on those1 who first embraced ,christianity1 from a conviction of its truth2 and on those of their descendents afterwards1 who1 by engaging in the crusades1 and hazarding their lives and fortunes there1 shewed1 at least1 an attachment to that religion4 ,we find them accordingly actuated by these principles3 we have a positive proof1 that the feudal system had no share in the honour of suppressing slavery1 but that ,christianity was the only cause2 for the greatest part of the charters which were granted for the freedom of slaves in those times 7many of which are still extant7 were granted1 pro amore ,dei1 pro mercede anim4 ,they were founded1 in short1 on religious considerations1 that they might procure the favour of the ,deity1 which they conceived themselves to have forfeited1 by the subjugation of those1 whom they found to be the objects of the divine benevolence and attention equally with themselves4 ,these considerations1 which had thus their first origin in ,christianity1 began to produce their effects1 as the different nations were converted2 and procured that general liberty at last1 which1 at the close of the twelfth century1 was conspicuous in the west of ,europe4 ,what a glorious and important change6 ,those1 who would have had otherwise no hopes1 but that their miseries would be terminated by death1 were then freed from their servile condition2 those1 who1 by the laws of war1 would have had otherwise an immediate prospect of servitude from the hands of their imperious conquerors1 were then exchanged2 a custom1 which has happily descended to the present day4 ,thus1 a numerous class of men1 who formerly had no political existence1 and were employed merely as instruments of labour1 became useful citizens1 and contributed towards augmenting the force or riches of the society1 which adopted them as members2 and thus did the greater part of the ,europeans1 by their conduct on this occasion1 assert not only liberty for themselves1 but for their fellow-creatures also4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,,viii4 ,but if men therefore1 at a time when under the influence of religion they exercised their serious thoughts1 abolished slavery1 how impious must they appear1 who revived it2 and what arguments will not present themselves against their conduct6#jcj ,the ,portuguese1 within two centuries after its suppression in ,europe1 in imitation of those piracies1 which we have shewn to have existed in the uncivilized ages of the world1 made their descents on ,africa1 and committing depredations on the coast1#jca first carried the wretched inhabitants into slavery4 ,this practice1 however trifling and partial it might appear at first1 soon became serious and general4 ,a melancholy instance of the depravity of human nature2 as it shews1 that neither the laws nor religion of any country1 however excellent the forms of each1 are sufficient to bind the consciences of some2 but that there are always men1 of every age1 country1 and persuasion1 who are ready to sacrifice their dearest principles at the shrine of gain4 ,our own ancestors1 together with the ,spaniards1 ,french1 and most of the maritime powers of ,europe1 soon followed the piratical example2 and thus did the ,europeans1 to their eternal infamy1 renew a custom1 which their own ancestors had so lately exploded1 from a conscientiousness of its impiety4 ,the unfortunate ,africans1 terrified at these repeated depredations1 fled in confusion from the coast1 and sought1 in the interiour parts of the country1 a retreat from the persecution of their invaders4 ,but1 alas1 they were miserably disappointed6 ,there are few retreats1 that can escape the penetrating eye of avarice4 ,the ,europeans still pursued them2 they entered their rivers2 sailed up into the heart of the country2 surprized the unfortunate ,africans again2 and carried them into slavery4 ,but this conduct1 though successful at first1 defeated afterwards its own ends4 ,it created a more general alarm1 and pointed out1 at the same instant1 the best method of security from future depredations4 ,the banks of the rivers were accordingly deserted1 as the coasts had been before2 and thus were the ,christian invaders left without a prospect of their prey4 ,in this situation however1 expedients were not wanting4 ,they now formed to themselves the resolution of settling in the country2 of securing themselves by fortified ports2 of changing their system of force into that of pretended liberality2 and of opening1 by every species of bribery and corruption1 a communication with the natives4 ,these plans were put into immediate execution4 ,the ,europeans erected their forts#jcb2 landed their merchandize2 and endeavoured1 by a peaceable deportment1 by presents1 and by every appearance of munificence1 to seduce the attachment and confidence of the ,africans4 ,these schemes had the desired effect4 ,the gaudy trappings of ,european art1 not only caught their attention1 but excited their curiosity3 they dazzled the eyes and bewitched the senses1 not only of those1 to whom they were given1 but of those1 to whom they were shewn4 ,thus followed a speedy intercourse with each other1 and a confidence1 highly favourable to the views of avarice or ambition4 ,it was now time for the ,europeans to embrace the opportunity1 which this intercourse had thus afforded them1 of carrying their schemes into execution1 and of fixing them on such a permanent foundation1 as should secure them future success4 ,they had already discovered1 in the different interviews obtained1 the chiefs of the ,african tribes4 ,they paid their court therefore to these1 and so compleatly intoxicated their senses with the luxuries1 which they brought from home1 as to be able to seduce them to their designs4 ,a treaty of peace and commerce was immediately concluded3 it was agreed1 that the kings1 on their part1 should1 from this period1 sentence prisoners of war and convicts to ,european servitude2 and that the ,europeans should supply them1 in return1 with the luxuries of the north4 ,this agreement immediately took place2 and thus begun that commerce1 which makes so considerable a figure at the present day4 ,but happy had the ,africans been1 if those only1 who had been justly convicted of crimes1 or taken in a just war1 had been sentenced to the severities of servitude6 ,how many of those miseries1 which afterwards attended them1 had been never known2 and how would their history have saved those sighs and emotions of pity1 which must now ever accompany its perusal4 ,the ,europeans1 on the establishment of their western colonies1 required a greater number of slaves than a strict adherence to the treaty could produce4 ,the princes therefore had only the choice of relinquishing the commerce1 or of consenting to become unjust4 ,they had long experienced the emoluments of the trade2 they had acquired a taste for the luxuries it afforded2 and they now beheld an opportunity of gratifying it1 but in a more extentive manner4 ,avarice therefore1 which was too powerful for justice on this occasion1 immediately turned the scale3 not only those1 who were fairly convicted of offences1 were now sentenced to servitude1 but even those who were suspected4 ,new crimes were invented1 that new punishments might succeed4 ,thus was every appearance soon construed into reality2 every shadow into a substance2 and often virtue into a crime4 ,such also was the case with respect to prisoners of war4 ,not only those were now delivered into slavery1 who were taken in a state of publick enmity and injustice1 but those also1 who1 conscious of no injury whatever1 were taken in the arbitrary skirmishes of these venal sovereigns4 ,war was now made1 not as formerly1 from the motives of retaliation and defence1 but for the sake of obtaining prisoners alone1 and the advantages resulting from their sale4 ,if a ship from ,europe came but into sight1 it was now considered as a sufficient motive for a war1 and as a signal only for an instantaneous commencement of hostilities4 ,but if the ,african kings could be capable of such injustice1 what vices are there1 that their consciences would restrain1 or what enormities1 that we might not expect to be committed8 ,when men once consent to be unjust1 they lose1 at the same instant with their virtue1 a considerable portion of that sense of shame1 which1 till then1 had been found a successful protector against the sallies of vice4 ,from that awful period1 almost every expectation is forlorn3 the heart is left unguarded3 its great protector is no more3 the vices therefore1 which so long encompassed it in vain1 obtain an easy victory3 in crouds they pour into the defenceless avenues1 and take possession of the soul3 there is nothing now too vile for them to meditate1 too impious to perform4 ,such was the situation of the despotick sovereigns of ,africa4 ,they had once ventured to pass the bounds of virtue1 and they soon proceeded to enormity4 ,this was particularly conspicuous in that general conduct1 which they uniformly observed1 after any unsuccessful conflict4 ,influenced only by the venal motives of ,european traffick1 they first made war upon the neighbouring tribes1 contrary to every principle of justice2 and if1 by the flight of the enemy1 or by other contingencies1 they were disappointed of their prey1 they made no hesitation of immediately turning their arms against their own subjects4 ,the first villages they came to1 were always marked on this occasion1 as the first objects of their avarice4 ,they were immediately surrounded1 were afterwards set on fire1 and the wretched inhabitants seized1 as they were escaping from the flames4 ,these1 consisting of whole families1 fathers1 brothers1 husbands1 wives1 and children1 were instantly driven in chains to the merchants1 and consigned to slavery4 ,to these calamities1 which thus arose from the tyranny of the kings1 we may now subjoin those1 which arose from the avarice of private persons4 ,many were kidnapped by their own countrymen1 who1 encouraged by the merchants of ,europe1 previously lay in wait for them1 and sold them afterwards for slaves2 while the seamen of the different ships1 by every possible artifice1 enticed others on board1 and transported them to the regions of servitude4 ,as these practices are in full force at the present day1 it appears that there are four orders of involuntary slaves on the ,african continent2 of #jcc;convicts2 of prisoners of war2 of those1 who are publickly seized by virtue of the authority of their prince2 and of those1 who are privately kidnapped by individuals4 ,it remains only to observe on this head1 that in the sale and purchase of these the ,african commerce or ,slave ,trade consists2 that they are delivered to the merchants of ,europe in exchange for their various commodities2 that these transport them to their colonies in the west1 where their slavery takes place2 and that a fifth order arises there1 composed of all such as are born to the native ,africans1 after their transportation and slavery have commenced4 ,having thus explained as much of the history of modern servitude1 as is sufficient for the prosecution of our design1 we should have closed our account here1 but that a work1 just published1 has furnished us with a singular anecdote of the colonists of a neighbouring nation1 which we cannot but relate4 ,the learned #jcd;author1 having described the method which the ,dutch colonists at the ,cape make use of to take the ,hottentots and enslave them1 takes occasion1 in many subsequent parts of the work1 to mention the dreadful effects of the practice of slavery2 which1 as he justly remarks1 leads to all manner of misdemeanours and wickedness4 ,pregnant women1 says he1 and children in their tenderest years1 were not at this time1 neither indeed are they ever1 exempt from the effects of the hatred and spirit of vengeance constantly harboured by the colonists1 with respect to the #jce;,boshies-man nation2 excepting such indeed as are marked out to be carried away into bondage4 ,does a colonist at any time get sight of a ,boshies-man1 he takes fire immediately1 and spirits up his horse and dogs1 in order to hunt him with more ardour and fury than he would a wolf1 or any other wild beast8 ,on an open plain1 a few colonists on horseback are always sure to get the better of the greatest number of ,boshies-men that can be brought together2 as the former always keep at the distance of about an hundred1 or an hundred and fifty paces 7just as they find it convenient7 and charging their heavy fire-arms with a very large kind of shot1 jump off their horses1 and rest their pieces in their usual manner on their ramrods1 in order that they may shoot with the greater certainty2 so that the balls discharged by them will sometimes1 as ,i have been assured1 go through the bodies of six1 seven1 or eight of the enemy at a time1 especially as these latter know no better than to keep close together in a body4-- ,and not only is the capture of the ,hottentots considered by them merely as a party of pleasure1 but in cold blood they destroy the bands which nature has knit between their husbands1 and their wives and children1 c4 ,with what horrour do these passages seem to strike us6 ,what indignation do they seem to raise in our breasts1 when we reflect1 that a part of the human species are considered as game1 and that parties of pleasure are made for their destruction6 ,the lion does not imbrue his claws in blood1 unless called upon by hunger1 or provoked by interruption2 whereas the merciless ,dutch1 more savage than the brutes themselves1 not only murder their fellow-creatures without any provocation or necessity1 but even make a diversion of their sufferings1 and enjoy their pain4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,footnotes ,footnote #jcj3 ,the following short history of the ,african servitude1 is taken from ,astley's ,collection of ,voyages1 and from the united testimonies of ,smyth1 ,adanson1 ,bosman1 ,moore1 and others1 who were agents to the different factories established there2 who resided many years in the country2 and published their respective histories at their return4 ,these writers1 if they are partial at all1 may be considered as favourable rather to their own countrymen1 than the unfortunate ,africans4 ,footnote #jca3 ,we would not wish to be understood1 that slavery was unknown in ,africa before the piratical expeditions of the ,portuguese1 as it appears from the ,nubian's ,geography1 that both the slavery and commerce had been established among the natives with one another4 ,we mean only to assert1 that the ,portuguese were the first of the ,europeans1 who made their piratical expeditions1 and shewed the way to that slavery1 which now makes so disgraceful a figure in the western colonies of the ,europeans4 ,in the term ,europeans1 wherever it shall occur in the remaining part of this first dissertation1 we include the ,portuguese1 and those nations only1 who followed their example4 ,footnote #jcb3 ,the ,portuguese erected their first fort at ,d',elmina1 in the year #adha1 about forty years after ,alonzo ,gonzales had pointed the ,southern ,africans out to his countrymen as articles of commerce4 ,footnote #jcc3 ,in the ancient servitude1 we reckoned convicts among the voluntary slaves1 because they had it in their power1 by a virtuous conduct1 to have avoided so melancholy a situation2 in the ,african1 we include them in the involuntary1 because1 as virtues are frequently construed into crimes1 from the venal motives of the traffick1 no person whatever possesses such a power or choice4 ,footnote #jcd3 ,andrew ,sparrman1 ,m4,d4 professor of ,physick at ,stockholm1 fellow of the ,royal ,academy of ,sciences in ,sweden1 and inspector of its cabinet of natural history1 whose voyage was translated into ,english1 and published in #aghe4 ,footnote #jce3 ,boshies-man1 or wild ,hottentot4 99 99 99 99 99 ,end of the ,first ,part4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,part ,,ii4 ,,the ,,african ,,commerce1 ,,or ,,slave ,,trade4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,i4 ,as we explained the ,history of ,slavery in the first part of this ,essay1 as far as it was necessary for our purpose1 we shall now take the question into consideration1 which we proposed at first as the subject of our inquiry1 viz4 how far the commerce and slavery of the human species1 as revived by some of the nations of ,europe in the persons of the unfortunate ,africans1 and as revived1 in a great measure1 on the principles of antiquity1 are consistent with the laws of nature1 or the common notions of equity1 as established among men4 ,this question resolves itself into two separate parts for discussion1 into the ,african commerce 7as explained in the history of slavery7 and the subsequent slavery in the colonies1 as founded on the equity of the commerce4 ,the former1 of course1 will be first examined4 ,for this purpose we shall inquire into the rise1 nature1 and design of government4 ,such an inquiry will be particularly useful in the present place2 it will afford us that general knowledge of subordination and liberty1 which is necessary in the case before us1 and will be found1 as it were1 a source1 to which we may frequently refer for many and valuable arguments4 ,it appears that mankind were originally free1 and that they possessed an equal right to the soil and produce of the earth4 ,for proof of this1 we need only appeal to the divine writings2 to the golden age of the poets1 which1 like other fables of the times1 had its origin in truth2 and to the institution of the ,saturnalia1 and of other similar festivals2 all of which are so many monuments of this original equality of men4 ,hence then there was no rank1 no distinction1 no superiour4 ,every man wandered where he chose1 changing his residence1 as a spot attracted his fancy1 or suited his convenience1 uncontrouled by his neighbour1 unconnected with any but his family4 ,hence also 7as every thing was common7 he collected what he chose without injury1 and enjoyed without injury what he had collected4 ,such was the first situation of mankind2 #jcf;a state of dissociation and independence4 ,in this dissociated state it is impossible that men could have long continued4 ,the dangers to which they must have frequently been exposed1 by the attacks of fierce and rapacious beasts1 by the proedatory attempts of their own species1 and by the disputes of contiguous and independent families2 these1 together with their inability to defend1 themselves1 on many such occasions1 must have incited them to unite4 ,hence then was society formed on the grand principles of preservation and defence3 and as these principles began to operate1 in the different parts of the earth1 where the different families had roamed1 a great number of these societies began to be formed and established2 which1 taking to themselves particular names from particular occurrences1 began to be perfectly distinct from one another4 ,as the individuals1 of whom these societies were composed1 had associated only for their defence1 so they experienced1 at first1 no change in their condition4 ,they were still independent and free2 they were still without discipline or laws2 they had every thing still in common2 they pursued the same1 manner of life2 wandering only1 in herds1 as the earth gave them or refused them sustenance1 and doing1 as a publick body1 what they had been accustomed to do as individuals before4 ,this was the exact situation of the ,get and ,scythians#jcg1 of the ,lybians and ,goetulians#jch1 of the ,italian ,aborigines#jci1 and of the ,huns and ,alans#jdj4 ,they had left their original state of dissociation1 and had stepped into that1 which has been just described4 ,thus was the second situation of men a state of independent society4 ,having thus joined themselves together1 and having formed themselves into several large and distinct bodies1 they could not fail of submitting soon to a more considerable change4 ,their numbers must have rapidly increased1 and their societies1 in process of time1 have become so populous1 as frequently to have experienced the want of subsistence1 and many of the commotions and tumults of intestine strife4 ,for these inconveniences however there were remedies to be found4 ,agriculture would furnish them with that subsistence and support1 which the earth1 from the rapid increase of its inhabitants1 had become unable spontaneously to produce4 ,an assignation of property would not only enforce an application1 but excite an emulation1 to labour2 and government would at once afford a security to the acquisitions of the industrious1 and heal the intestine disorders of the community1 by the introduction of laws4 ,such then were the remedies1 that were gradually applied4 ,the societies1 which had hitherto seen their members1 undistinguished either by authority or rank1 admitted now of magistratical pre-eminence4 ,they were divided into tribes2 to every tribe was allotted a particular district for its support1 and to every individual his particular spot4 ,the ,germans#jda1 who consisted of many and various nations1 were exactly in this situation4 ,they had advanced a step beyond the ,scythians1 ,goetulians1 and those1 whom we described before2 and thus was the third situation of mankind a state of subordinate society4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,footnotes ,footnote #jcf3 ,this conclusion concerning the dissociated state of mankind1 is confirmed by all the early writers1 with whose descriptions of primitive times no other conclusion is reconcileable4 ,footnote #jcg3 ,justin4 ,l4 #b4 ,c4 #b4 ,footnote #jch3 ,sallust4 ,bell4 ,jug4 ,footnote #jci3 ,sallust4 ,bell4 ,catil4 ,footnote #jdj3 ,ammianus ,marcellinus4 ,l4 #ca4 ,c4 #b4 et4 inseq4 ,footnote #jda3 ,agri pro ,numero ,cultorum ab universis per vicos occupantur1 quos mox inter se secundum dignationem partiuntur4 ,tacitus4 ,c4 #bf4 de ,mor4 ,germ4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,,ii4 ,as we have thus traced the situation of man from unbounded liberty to subordination1 it will be proper to carry our inquiries farther1 and to consider1 who first obtained the pre-eminence in these primoeval societies1 and by what particular methods it was obtained4 ,there were only two ways1 by which such an event could have been produced1 by compulsion or consent4 ,when mankind first saw the necessity of government1 it is probable that many had conceived the desire of ruling4 ,to be placed in a new situation1 to be taken from the common herd1 to be the first1 distinguished among men1 were thoughts1 that must have had their charms4 ,let us suppose then1 that these thoughts had worked so unusually on the passions of any particular individual1 as to have driven him to the extravagant design of obtaining the preeminence by force4 ,how could his design have been accomplished8 ,how could he forcibly have usurped the jurisdiction at a time1 when1 all being equally free1 there was not a single person1 whose assistance he could command8 ,add to this1 that1 in a state of universal liberty1 force had been repaid by force1 and the attempt had been fatal to the usurper4 ,as empire then could never have been gained at first by compulsion1 so it could only have been obtained by consent2 and as men were then going to make an important sacrifice1 for the sake of their mutual happiness1 so he alone could have obtained it1 7not whose ambition had greatly distinguished him from the rest7 but in whose wisdom1 justice1 prudence1 and virtue1 the whole community could confide4 ,to confirm this reasoning1 we shall appeal1 as before1 to facts2 and shall consult therefore the history of those nations1 which having just left their former state of independent society1 were the very people that established subordination and government4 ,the commentaries of ,csar afford us the following accounts of the ancient ,gauls4 ,when any of their kings1 either by death1 or deposition1 made a vacancy in the regal office1 the whole nation was immediately convened for the appointment of a successor4 ,in these national conventions were the regal offices conferred4 ,every individual had a voice on the occasion1 and every individual was free4 ,the person upon whom the general approbation appeared to fall1 was immediately advanced to pre-eminence in the state4 ,he was uniformly one1 whose actions had made him eminent2 whose conduct had gained him previous applause2 whose valour the very assembly1 that elected him1 had themselves witnessed in the field2 whose prudence1 wisdom and justice1 having rendered him signally serviceable1 had endeared him to his tribe4 ,for this reason1 their kingdoms were not hereditary2 the son did not always inherit the virtues of the sire2 and they were determined that he alone should possess authority1 in whose virtues they could confide4 ,nor was this all4 ,so sensible were they of the important sacrifice they had made2 so extremely jealous even of the name of superiority and power1 that they limited1 by a variety of laws1 the authority of the very person1 whom they had just elected1 from a confidence of his integrity2 ,ambiorix himself confessing1 that his people had as much power over him1 as he could possibly have over his people4 ,the same custom1 as appears from ,tacitus1 prevailed also among the ,germans4 ,they had their national councils1 like the ,gauls2 in which the regal and ducal offices were confirmed according to the majority of voices4 ,they elected also1 on these occasions1 those only1 whom their virtue1 by repeated trial1 had unequivocally distinguished from the rest2 and they limited their authority so far1 as neither to leave them the power of inflicting imprisonment or stripes1 nor of exercising any penal jurisdiction4 ,but as punishment was necessary in a state of civil society1 it was permitted to the priests alone1 that it might appear to have been inflicted1 by the order of the gods1 and not by any superiour authority in man4 ,the accounts which we have thus given of the ancient ,germans and ,gauls1 will be found also to be equally true of those people1 which had arrived at the same state of subordinate society4 ,we might appeal1 for a testimony of this1 to the history of the ,goths2 to the history of the ,franks and ,saxons2 to1 the history1 in short1 of all those nations1 from which the different governments1 now conspicuous in ,europe1 have undeniably sprung4 ,and we might appeal1 as a farther proof1 to the ,americans1 who are represented by many of the moderns1 from their own ocular testimony1 as observing the same customs at the present day4 ,it remains only to observe1 that as these customs prevailed among the different nations described1 in their early state of subordinate society1 and as they were moreover the customs of their respective ancestors1 it appears that they must have been handed down1 both by tradition and use1 from the first introduction of government4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,,iii4 ,we may now deduce those general maxims concerning subordination1 and liberty1 which we mentioned to have been essentially connected with the subject1 and which some1 from speculation only1 and without any allusion to facts1 have been bold enough to deny4 ,it appears first1 that liberty is a natural1 and government an adventitious right1 because all men were originally free4 ,it appears secondly1 that government is a #jdb;contract because1 in these primeval subordinate societies1 we have seen it voluntarily conferred on the one hand1 and accepted on the other4 ,we have seen it subject to various restrictions4 ,we have seen its articles1 which could then only be written by tradition and use1 as perfect and binding as those1 which are now committed to letters4 ,we have seen it1 in short1 partaking of the federal nature1 as much as it could in a state1 which wanted the means of recording its transactions4 ,it appear thirdly1 that the grand object of the contrast1 is the happiness of the people2 because they gave the supremacy to him alone1 who had been conspicuous for the splendour of his abilities1 or the integrity of his life3 that the power of the multitude being directed by the wisdom and justice of the prince1 they might experience the most effectual protection from injury1 the highest advantages of society1 the greatest possible happiness4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,footnotes ,footnote #jdb3 ,the author has lately read a work1 intitled ,paley's ,moral and ,political ,philosophy1 which1 in this one respect1 favours those which have been hinted at1 as it denies that government was a contract4 ,no social compact was ever made in fact1--it is to suppose it possible to call savages out of caves and deserts1 to deliberate upon topicks1 which the experience and studies1 and the refinements of civil life alone suggest4 ,therefore no government in the universe begun from this original4 ,but there are no grounds for so absurd a supposition2 for government1 and of course the social compact1 does not appear to have been introduced at the time1 when families coming out of their caves and deserts1 or1 in other words1 quitting their former dissociated state1 joined themselves together4 ,they had lived a considerable time in society1 like the ,lybians and ,gtulians before-mentioned1 and had felt many of the disadvantages of a want of discipline and laws1 before government was introduced at all4 ,the author of this ,essay1 before he took into consideration the origin of government1 was determined1 in a matter of such importance1 to be biassed by no opinion whatever1 and much less to indulge himself in speculation4 ,he was determined solely to adhere to fact1 and1 by looking into the accounts left us of those governments which were in their infancy1 and1 of course in the least complicated state1 to attempt to discover their foundation3 he cannot say therefore1 that upon a very minute perusal of the excellent work before quoted1 he has been so far convinced1 as to retract in the least from his sentiments on this head1 and to give up maxims1 which are drawn from historical facts1 for those1 which are the result of speculation4 ,he may observe here1 that whether government was a contract or not1 it will not affect the reasoning of the present ,essay2 since where ever the contract is afterwards mentioned1 it is inferred only that its object was the happiness of the people1 which is confessedly the end of government4 ,notwithstanding this1 he is under the necessity of inserting this little note1 though he almost feels himself ungrateful in contradicting a work1 which has afforded him so much entertainment4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,,iv4 ,having now collected the materials that are necessary for the prosecution of our design1 we shall immediately enter upon the discussion4 ,if any man had originally been endued with power1 as with other faculties1 so that the rest of mankind had discovered in themselves an innate necessity of obeying this particular person2 it is evident that he and his descendants1 from the superiority of their nature1 would have had a claim upon men for obedience1 and a natural right to command3 but as the right to empire is adventitious2 as all were originally free2 as nature made every man's body and mind his own2 it is evident that no just man can be consigned to slavery1 without his own consent4 ,neither can men1 by the same principles1 be considered as lands1 goods1 or houses1 among possessions4 ,it is necessary that all property should be inferiour to its possessor4 ,but how does the slave differ from his master1 but by chance8 ,for though the mark1 with which the latter is pleased to brand him1 shews1 at the first sight1 the difference of their fortune2 what mark can be found in his nature1 that can warrant a distinction8 ,to this consideration we shall add the following1 that if men can justly become the property of each other1 their children1 like the offspring of cattle1 must inherit their paternal lot4 ,now1 as the actions of the father and the child must be thus at the sole disposal of their common master1 it is evident1 that the authority of the one1 as a parent1 and the duty of the other1 as a child1 must be instantly annihilated2 rights and obligations1 which1 as they are sounded in nature1 are implanted in our feelings1 and are established by the voice of ,god1 must contain in their annihilation a solid argument to prove1 that there cannot be any property whatever in the human species4 ,we may consider also1 as a farther confirmation1 that it is impossible1 in the nature of things1 that liberty can be bought or sold6 ,it is neither saleable1 nor purchasable4 ,for if any one man can have an absolute property in the liberty of another1 or1 in other words1 if he1 who is called a master1 can have a just right to command the actions of him1 who is called a slave1 it is evident that the latter cannot be accountable for those crimes1 which the former may order him to commit4 ,now as every reasonable being is accountable for his actions1 it is evident1 that such a right cannot justly exist1 and that human liberty1 of course1 is beyond the possibility either of sale or purchase4 ,add to this1 that1 whenever you sell the liberty of a man1 you have the power only of alluding to the body3 the mind cannot be confined or bound3 it will be free1 though its mansion be beset with chains4 ,but if1 in every sale of the human species1 you are under the necessity of considering your slave in this abstracted light2 of alluding only to the body1 and of making no allusion to the mind2 you are under the necessity also of treating him1 in the same moment1 as a brute1 and of abusing therefore that nature1 which cannot otherwise be considered1 than in the double capacity of soul and body4 ,but some person1 perhaps1 will make an objection to one of the former arguments4 ,if men1 from superiority of their nature1 cannot be considered1 like lands1 goods1 or houses1 among possessions1 so neither can cattle3 for being endued with life1 motion1 and sensibility1 they are evidently superiour to these4 ,but this objection will receive its answer from those observations which have been already made2 and will discover the true reason1 why cattle are justly to be estimated as property4 ,for first1 the right to empire over brutes1 is natural1 and not adventitious1 like the right to empire over men4 ,there are1 secondly1 many and evident signs of the inferiority of their nature2 and thirdly1 their liberty can be bought and sold1 because1 being void of reason1 they cannot be accountable for their actions4 ,we might stop here for a considerable time1 and deduce many valuable lessons from the remarks that have been made1 but that such a circumstance might be considered as a digression4 ,there is one1 however1 which1 as it is so intimately connected with the subject1 we cannot but deduce4 ,we are taught to treat men in a different manner from brutes1 because they are so manifestly superiour in their nature2 we are taught to treat brutes in a different manner from stones1 for the same reason2 and thus1 by giving to every created thing its due respect1 to answer the views of ,providence1 which did not create a variety of natures without a purpose or design4 ,but if these things are so1 how evidently against reason1 nature1 and every thing human and divine1 must they act1 who not only force men into slavery1 against their own consent2 but treat them altogether as brutes1 and make the natural liberty of man an article of publick commerce6 and by what arguments can they possibly defend that commerce1 which cannot be carried on1 in any single instance1 without a flagrant violation of the laws of nature and of ,god8 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,v4 ,that we may the more accurately examine the arguments that are advanced on this occasion1 it will be proper to divide the commerce into two parts2 first1 as it relates to those who sell1 and secondly1 as it relates to those who purchase1 the human species into slavery4 ,to the former part of which1 having given every previous and necessary information in the history of servitude1 we shall immediately proceed4 ,let us inquire first1 by what particular right the liberties of the harmless people are invaded by the prince4 ,by the right of empire1 it will be answered2 because he possesses dominion and power by their own approbation and consent4 ,but subjects1 though under the dominion1 are not the property1 of the prince4 ,they cannot be considered as his possessions4 ,their natures are both the same2 they are both born in the same manner2 are subject to the same disorders2 must apply to the same remedies for a cure2 are equally partakers of the grave3 an incidental distinction accompanies them through life1 and this--is all4 ,we may add to this1 that though the prince possesses dominion and power1 by the consent and approbation of his subjects1 he possesses it only for the most salutary ends4 ,he may tyrannize1 if he can3 he may alter the form of his government3 he cannot1 however1 alter its nature and end4 ,these will be immutably the same1 though the whole system of its administration should be changed2 and he will be still bound to defend the lives and properties of his subjects1 and to make them happy4 ,does he defend those therefore1 whom he invades at discretion with the sword8 ,does he protect the property of those1 whose houses and effects he consigns at discretion to the flames8 ,does he make those happy1 whom he seizes1 as they are trying to escape the general devastation1 and compels with their wives and families to a wretched servitude8 ,he acts surely1 as if the use of empire consisted in violence and oppression2 as if he1 that was most exalted1 ought1 of necessity1 to be most unjust4 ,here then the voice of nature and justice is against him4 ,he breaks that law of nature1 which ordains1 that no just man shall be given into slavery1 against his own consent3 he violates the first law of justice1 as established among men1 that no person shall do harm to another without a previous and sufficient provocation2 and he violates also the sacred condition of empire1 made with his ancestors1 and necessarily understood in every species of government1 that1 the power of the multitude being given up to the wisdom and justice of the prince1 they may experience1 in return1 the most effectual protection from injury1 the highest advantages of society1 the greatest possible happiness4 ,but if kings then1 to whom their own people have granted dominion and power1 are unable to invade the liberties of their harmless subjects1 without the highest injustice2 how can those private persons be justified1 who treacherously lie in wait for their fellow-creatures1 and sell them into slavery8 ,what arguments can they possibly bring in their defence8 ,what treaty of empire can they produce1 by which their innocent victims ever resigned to them the least portion of their liberty8 ,in vain will they plead the antiquity of the custom3 in vain will the honourable light1 in which piracy was considered in the ages of barbarism1 afford them an excuse4 ,impious and abandoned men6 ye invade the liberties of those1 who1 7with respect to your impious selves7 are in a state of nature1 in a state of original dissociation1 perfectly independent1 perfectly free4 ,it appears then1 that the two orders of slaves1 which have been mentioned in the history of the ,african servitude1 of those who are publickly seized by virtue of the authority of their prince2 and of those1 who are privately kidnapped by individuals1 are collected by means of violence and oppression2 by means1 repugnant to nature1 the principles of government1 and the common notions of equity1 as established among men4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,,vi4 ,we come now to the third order of involuntary slaves1 to convicts4 ,the only argument that the sellers advance here1 is this1 that they have been found guilty of offences1 and that the punishment is just4 ,but before the equity of the sentence can be allowed two questions must be decided1 whether the punishment is proportioned to the offence1 and what is its particular object and end8 ,to decide the first1 we may previously observe1 that the ,african servitude comprehends banishment1 a deprivation of liberty1 and many corporal sufferings4 ,on banishment1 the following observations will suffice4 ,mankind have their local attachments4 ,they have a particular regard for the spot1 in which they were born and nurtured4 ,here it was1 that they first drew their infant-breath3 here1 that they were cherished and supported3 here1 that they passed those scenes of childhood1 which1 free from care and anxiety1 are the happiest in the life of man2 scenes1 which accompany them through life2 which throw themselves frequently into their thoughts1 and produce the most agreeable sensations4 ,these then are weighty considerations2 and how great this regard is1 may be evidenced from our own feelings2 from the testimony of some1 who1 when remote from their country1 and1 in the hour of danger and distress1 have found their thoughts unusually directed1 by some impulse or other1 to their native spot2 and from the example of others1 who1 having braved the storms and adversities of life1 either repair to it for the remainder of their days1 or desire even to be conveyed to it1 when existence is no more4 ,but separately from these their local1 they have also their personal attachments2 their regard for particular men4 ,there are ties of blood2 there are ties of friendship4 ,in the former case1 they must of necessity be attached3 the constitution of their nature demands it4 ,in the latter1 it is impossible to be otherwise1 since friendship is founded on an harmony of temper1 on a concordance of sentiments and manners1 on habits of confidence1 and a mutual exchange of favours4 ,we may now mention1 as perfectly distinct both from their local and personal1 the national attachments of mankind1 their regard for the whole body of the people1 among whom they were born and educated4 ,this regard is particularly conspicuous in the conduct of such1 as1 being thus nationally connected1 reside in foreign parts4 ,how anxiously do they meet together6 how much do they enjoy the fight of others of their countrymen1 whom fortune places in their way6 what an eagerness do they show to serve them1 though not born on the same particular spot1 though not connected by consanguinity or friendship1 though unknown to them before6 ,neither is this affection wonderful1 since they are creatures of the same education2 of the same principles2 of the same manners and habits2 cast1 as it were1 in the same mould2 and marked with the same impression4 ,if men therefore are thus separately attached to the several objects described1 it is evident that a separate exclusion from either must afford them considerable pain4 ,what then must be their sufferings1 to be forced for ever from their country1 which includes them all8 ,which contains the spot1 in which they were born and nurtured2 which contains their relations and friends2 which contains the whole body of the people1 among whom they were bred and educated4 ,in these sufferings1 which arise to men1 both in bidding1 and in having bid1 adieu to all that they esteem as dear and valuable1 banishment consists in part2 and we may agree therefore with the ancients1 without adding other melancholy circumstances to the account1 that it is no inconsiderable punishment of itself4 ,with respect to the loss of liberty1 which is the second consideration in the punishment1 it is evident that men bear nothing worse2 that there is nothing1 that they lay more at heart2 and that they have shewn1 by many and memorable instances1 that even death is to be preferred4 ,how many could be named here1 who1 having suffered the loss of liberty1 have put a period to their existence6 ,how many1 that have willingly undergone the hazard of their lives to destroy a tyrant6 ,how many1 that have even gloried to perish in the attempt6 ,how many bloody and publick wars have been undertaken 7not to mention the numerous servile insurrections1 with which history is stained7 for the cause of freedom6 ,but if nothing is dearer than liberty to men1 with which1 the barren rock is able to afford its joys1 and without which1 the glorious fun shines upon them but in vain1 and all the sweets and delicacies of life are tasteless and unenjoyed2 what punishment can be more severe than the loss of so great a blessing8 ,but if to this deprivation of liberty1 we add the agonizing pangs of banishment2 and if to the complicated stings of both1 we add the incessant stripes1 wounds1 and miseries1 which are undergone by those1 who are sold into this horrid servitude2 what crime can we possibly imagine to be so enormous1 as to be worthy of so great a punishment8 ,how contrary then to reason1 justice1 and nature1 must those act1 who apply this1 the severest of human punishments1 to the most insignificant offence6 yet such is the custom with the ,africans3 for1 from the time1 in which the ,europeans first intoxicated the ,african princes with their foreign draughts1 no crime has been committed1 no shadow of a crime devised1 that has not immediately been punished with servitude4 ,but for what purpose is the punishment applied8 ,is it applied to amend the manners of the criminal1 and thus render him a better subject8 ,no1 for if you banish him1 he can no longer be a subject1 and you can no longer therefore be solicitous for his morals4 ,add to this1 that if you banish him to a place1 where he is to experience the hardships of want and hunger 7so powerfully does hunger compel men to the perpetration of crimes7 you force him rather to corrupt1 than amend his manners1 and to be wicked1 when he might otherwise be just4 ,is it applied then1 that others may be deterred from the same proceedings1 and that crimes may become less frequent8 ,no1 but that avarice may be gratified2 that the prince may experience the emoluments of the sale3 for1 horrid and melancholy thought6 the more crimes his subjects commit1 the richer is he made2 the more abandoned the subject1 the happier is the prince6 ,neither can we allow that the punishment thus applied1 tends in any degree to answer publick happiness2 for if men can be sentenced to slavery1 right or wrong2 if shadows can be turned into substances1 and virtues into crimes2 it is evident that none can be happy1 because none can be secure4 ,but if the punishment is infinitely greater than the offence1 7which has been shewn before7 and if it is inflicted1 neither to amend the criminal1 nor to deter others from the same proceedings1 nor to advance1 in any degree1 the happiness of the publick1 it is scarce necessary to observe1 that it is totally unjust1 since it is repugnant to reason1 the dictates of nature1 and the very principles of government4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,,vii4 ,we come now to the fourth and last order of slaves1 to prisoners of war4 ,as the sellers lay a particular stress on this order of men1 and infer much1 from its antiquity1 in support of the justice of their cause1 we shall examine the principle1 on which it subsisted among the ancients4 ,but as this principle was the same among all nations1 and as a citation from many of their histories would not be less tedious than unnecessary1 we shall select the example of the ,romans for the consideration of the case4 ,the law1 by which prisoners of war were said to be sentenced to servitude1 was the law of nations#jdc4 ,it was so called from the universal concurrence of nations in the custom4 ,it had two points in view1 the persons of the captured1 and their effects2 both of which it immediately sentenced1 without any of the usual forms of law1 to be the property of the captors4 ,the principle1 on which the law was established1 was the right of capture4 ,when any of the contending parties had overcome their opponents1 and were about to destroy them1 the right was considered to commence2 a right1 which the victors conceived themselves to have1 to recall their swords1 and1 from the consideration of having saved the lives of the vanquished1 when they could have taken them by the laws of war1 to commute blood for service4 ,hence the ,roman lawyer1 ,pomponius1 deduces the etymology of slave in the ,roman language4 ,they were called servi#jdd1 says he1 from the following circumstance4 ,it was usual with our commanders to take them prisoners1 and sell them3 now this circumstance implies1 that they must have been previously preserved1 and hence the name4 ,such then was the right of capture4 ,it was a right1 which the circumstance of taking the vanquished1 that is1 of preserving them alive1 gave the conquerors to their persons4 ,by this right1 as always including the idea of a previous preservation from death1 the vanquished were said to be slaves#jde2 and1 as all slaves1 says ,justinian1 are themselves in the power of others1 and of course can have nothing of their own1 so their effects followed the condition of their persons1 and became the property of the captors4 ,to examine this right1 by which the vanquished were said to be slaves1 we shall use the words of a celebrated ,roman author1 and apply them to the present case#jdf4 ,if it is lawful1 says he1 to deprive a man of his life1 it is certainly not inconsistent with nature to rob him2 to rob him of his liberty4 ,we admit the conclusion to be just1 if the supposition be the same3 we allow1 if men have a right to commit that1 which is considered as a greater crime1 that they have a right1 at the same instant1 to commit that1 which is considered as a less4 ,but what shall we say to the hypothesis8 ,we deny it to be true4 ,the voice of nature is against it4 ,it is not lawful to kill1 but on necessity4 ,had there been a necessity1 where had the wretched captive survived to be broken with chains and servitude8 ,the very act of saving his life is an argument to prove1 that no such necessity existed4 ,the conclusion is therefore false4 ,the captors had no right to the lives of the captured1 and of course none to their liberty3 they had no right to their blood1 and of course none to their service4 ,their right therefore had no foundation in justice4 ,it was founded on a principle1 contrary to the law of nature1 and of course contrary to that law1 which people1 under different governments1 are bound to observe to one another4 ,it is scarce necessary to observe1 as a farther testimony of the injustice of the measure1 that the ,europeans1 after the introduction of ,christianity1 exploded this principle of the ancients1 as frivolous and false2 that they spared the lives of the vanquished1 not from the sordid motives of avarice1 but from a conscientiousness1 that homicide could only be justified by necessity2 that they introduced an exchange of prisoners1 and1 by many and wise regulations1 deprived war of many of its former horrours4 ,but the advocates for slavery1 unable to defend themselves against these arguments1 have fled to other resources1 and1 ignorant of history1 have denied that the right of capture was the true principle1 on which slavery subsisted among the ancients4 ,they reason thus4 ,the learned ,grotius1 and others1 have considered slavery as the just consequence of a private war1 7supposing the war to be just and the opponents in a state of nature71 upon the principles of reparation and punishment4 ,now as the law of nature1 which is the rule of conduct to individuals in such a situation1 is applicable to members of a different community1 there is reason to presume1 that these principles were applied by the ancients to their prisoners of war2 that their effects were confiscated by the right of reparation1 and their persons by the right of punishment4-- ,but1 such a presumption is false4 ,the right of capture was the only argument1 that the ancients adduced in their defence4 ,hence ,polybius2 ,what must they1 7the ,mantinenses7 suffer1 to receive the punishment they deserve8 ,perhaps it will be said1 that they must be sold1 when they are taken1 with their wives and children into slavery3 ,but this is not to be considered as a punishment1 since even those suffer it1 by the laws of war1 who have done nothing that is base4 ,the truth is1 that both the offending and the offended parties1 whenever they were victorious1 inflicted slavery alike4 ,but if the offending party inflicted slavery on the persons of the vanquished1 by what right did they inflict it8 ,it must be answered from the presumption before-mentioned1 by the right of reparation1 or of punishment3 an answer plainly absurd and contradictory1 as it supposes the aggressor to have a right1 which the injured only could possess4 ,neither is the argument less fallacious than the presumption1 in applying these principles1 which in a publick war could belong to the publick only1 to the persons of the individuals that were taken4 ,this calls us again to the history of the ancients1 and1 as the rights of reparation and punishment could extend to those only1 who had been injured1 to select a particular instance for the consideration of the case4 ,as the ,romans had been injured without a previous provocation by the conduct of ,hannibal at ,saguntum1 we may take the treaty into consideration1 which they made with the ,carthaginians1 when the latter1 defeated at ,zama1 sued for peace4 ,it consisted of three articles#jdg4 ,by the first1 the ,carthaginians were to be free1 and to enjoy their own constitution and laws4 ,by the second1 they were to pay a considerable sum of money1 as a reparation for the damages and expence of war3 and1 by the third1 they were to deliver up their elephants and ships of war1 and to be subject to various restrictions1 as a punishment4 ,with these terms they complied1 and the war was finished4 ,thus then did the ,romans make that distinction between private and publick war1 which was necessary to be made1 and which the argument is fallacious in not supposing4 ,the treasury of the vanquished was marked as the means of reparation2 and as this treasury was supplied1 in a great measure1 by the imposition of taxes1 and was1 wholly1 the property of the publick1 so the publick made the reparation that was due4 ,the elephants also1 and ships of war1 which were marked as the means of punishment1 were publick property2 and as they were considerable instruments of security and defence to their possessors1 and of annoyance to an enemy1 so their loss1 added to the restrictions of the treaty1 operated as a great and publick punishment4 ,but with respect to the ,carthaginian prisoners1 who had been taken in the war1 they were retained in servitude3 not upon the principles of reparation and punishment1 because the ,romans had already received1 by their own confession in the treaty1 a sufficient satisfaction3 not upon these principles1 because they were inapplicable to individuals3 the legionary soldier in the service of the injured1 who took his prisoner1 was not the person1 to whom the injury had been done1 any more than the soldier in the service of the aggressors1 who was taken1 was the person1 who had committed the offence3 but they were retained in servitude by the right of capture2 because1 when both parties had sent their military into the field to determine the dispute1 it was at the private choice of the legionary soldier before-mentioned1 whether he would spare the life of his conquered opponent1 when he was thought to be entitled to take it1 if he had chosen1 by the laws of war4 ,to produce more instances1 as an illustration of the subject1 or to go farther into the argument1 would be to trespass upon the patience1 as well as understanding of the reader4 ,in a state of nature1 where a man is supposed to commit an injury1 and to be unconnected with the rest of the world1 the act is private1 and the right1 which the injured acquires1 can extend only to himself3 but in a state of society1 where any member or members of a particular community give offence to those of another1 and they are patronized by the state1 to which they belong1 the case is altered2 the act becomes immediately publick1 and the publick alone are to experience the consequences of their injustice4 ,for as no particular member of the community1 if considered as an individual1 is guilty1 except the person1 by whom the injury was done1 it would be contrary to reason and justice1 to apply the principles of reparation and punishment1 which belong to the people as a collective body1 to any individual of the community1 who should happen to be taken4 ,now1 as the principles of reparation and punishment are thus inapplicable to the prisoners1 taken in a publick war1 and as the right of capture1 as we have shewn before1 is insufficient to intitle the victors to the service of the vanquished1 it is evident that slavery cannot justly exist at all1 since there are no other maxims1 on which it can be founded1 even in the most equitable wars4 ,but if these things are so2 if slavery cannot be defended even in the most equitable wars1 what arguments will not be found against that servitude1 which arises from those1 that are unjust8 ,which arises from those ,african wars1 that relate to the present subject8 ,the ,african princes1 corrupted by the merchants of ,europe1 seek every opportunity of quarrelling with one another4 ,every spark is blown into a flame2 and war is undertaken from no other consideration1 than that of procuring slaves3 while the ,europeans1 on the other hand1 happy in the quarrels which they have thus excited1 supply them with arms and ammunition for the accomplishment of their horrid purpose4 ,thus has ,africa1 for the space of two hundred years1 been the scene of the most iniquitous and bloody wars2 and thus have many thousands of men1 in the most iniquitous manner1 been sent into servitude4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,footnotes ,footnote #jdc3 ,jure ,gentium servi nostri sunt1 qui ab hostibus capiuntur4 ,justinian1 ,l4 #a4 #e4 #e4 #a4 ,footnote #jdd3 ,serverum appellatio ex eo fluxit1 quod imperatores nostri captivos vendere1 ac per hoc servare1 nec occidere solent4 ,footnote #jde3 ,nam sive victoribus jure captivitatis servissent1 c4 ,justin1 ,l4 #d4 #c4 et passim apud scriptores antiquos4 ,footnote #jdf3 ,neque est contra naturam spoliare eum1 si possis1 quem honestum est necare4 ,cicero de officiis4 ,l4 #c4 #f4 ,footnote #jdg3 #a4 ,ut liberi suis legibus viverent4 ,livy1 ,l4 #cj4 #cg4 #b4 ,decem millia talentum argenti descripta pensionibus quis in annos quinquaginta solverent4 ,ibid4 #c4 ,et naves rostratas1 prter decem triremes1 traderent1 elephantosque1 quos haberent domitos2 neque domarent alios2 ,bellum neve in ,africa1 neve extra ,africam1 injussu ,p4 ,r4 gererent1 c4 ,ibid4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,,viii4 ,we shall beg leave1 before we proceed to the arguments of the purchasers1 to add the following observations to the substance of the three preceding chapters4 ,as the two orders of men1 of those who are privately kidnapped by individuals1 and of those who are publickly seized by virtue of the authority of their prince1 compose together1 at least#jdh1 nine tenths of the ,african slaves1 they cannot contain1 upon a moderate computation1 less than ninety thousand men annually transported3 an immense number1 but easily to be credited1 when we reflect that thousands are employed for the purpose of stealing the unwary1 and that these diabolical practices are in force1 so far has ,european injustice been spread1 at the distance of a thousand miles from the factories on the coast4 ,the slave merchants1 among whom a quantity of ,european goods is previously divided1 travel into the heart of the country to this amazing distance4 ,some of them attend the various markets1 that are established through so large an extent of territory1 to purchase the kidnapped people1 whom the slave-hunters are continually bringing in2 while the rest1 subdividing their merchandize among the petty sovereigns with whom they deal1 receive1 by an immediate exertion of fraud and violence1 the stipulated number4 ,now1 will any man assert1 in opposition to the arguments before advanced1 that out of this immense body of men1 thus annually collected and transported1 there is even one1 over whom the original or subsequent seller can have any power or right8 ,whoever asserts this1 in the first instance1 must1 contradict his own feelings1 and must consider himself as a just object of prey1 whenever any daring invader shall think it proper to attack him4 ,and1 in the second instance1 the very idea which the ,african princes entertain of their villages1 as parks or reservoirs1 stocked only for their own convenience1 and of their subjects1 as wild beasts1 whom they may pursue and take at pleasure1 is so shocking1 that it need only be mentioned1 to be instantly reprobated by the reader4 ,the order of slaves1 which is next to the former in respect to the number of people whom it contains1 is that of prisoners of war4 ,this order1 if the former statement be true1 is more inconsiderable than is generally imagined2 but whoever reflects on the prodigious slaughter that is constantly made in every ,african skirmish1 cannot be otherwise than of this opinion3 he will find1 that where ten are taken1 he has every reason to presume that an hundred perish4 ,in some of these skirmishes1 though they have been begun for the express purpose of procuring slaves1 the conquerors have suffered but few of the vanquished to escape the fury of the sword2 and there have not been wanting instances1 where they have been so incensed at the resistance they have found1 that their spirit of vengeance has entirely got the better of their avarice1 and they have murdered1 in cool blood1 every individual1 without discrimination1 either of age or sex4 ,the following#jdi is an account of one of these skirmishes1 as described by a person1 who was witness to the scene4 ,i was sent1 with several others1 in a small sloop up the river ,niger1 to purchase slaves3 we had some free negroes with us in the practice2 and as the vessels are liable to frequent attacks from the negroes on one side of the river1 or the ,moors on the other1 they are all armed4 ,as we rode at anchor a long way up the river1 we observed a large number of negroes in huts by the river's side1 and for our own safety kept a wary eye on them4 ,early next morning we saw from our masthead a numerous body approaching1 with apparently but little order1 but in close array4 ,they approached very fast1 and fell furiously on the inhabitants of the town1 who seemed to be quite surprized1 but nevertheless1 as soon as they could get together1 fought stoutly4 ,they had some fire-arms1 but made very little use of them1 as they came directly to close fighting with their spears1 lances1 and sabres4 ,many of the invaders were mounted on small horses2 and both parties fought for about half an hour with the fiercest animosity1 exerting much more courage and perseverance than ,i had ever before been witness to amongst them4 ,the women and children of the town clustered together to the water's edge1 running shrieking up and down with terrour1 waiting the event of the combat1 till their party gave way and took to the water1 to endeavour to swim over to the ,barbary side4 ,they were closely pursued even into the river by the victors1 who1 though they came for the purpose of getting slaves1 gave no quarter1 their cruelty even prevailing over their avarice4 ,they made no prisoners1 but put all to the sword without mercy4 ,horrible indeed was the carnage of the vanquished on this occasion1 and as we were within two or three hundred yards of them1 their cries and shrieks affected us extremely4 ,we had got up our anchor at the beginning of the fray1 and now stood close in to the spot1 where the victors having followed the vanquished into the water1 were continually dragging out and murdering those1 whom by reason of their wounds they easily overtook4 ,the very children1 whom they took in great numbers1 did not escape the massacre4 ,enraged at their barbarity1 we fired our guns loaden with grape shot1 and a volley of small arms among them1 which effectually checked their ardour1 and obliged them to retire to a distance from the shore2 from whence a few round cannon shot soon removed them into the woods4 ,the whole river was black over with the heads of the fugitives1 who were swimming for their lives4 ,these poor wretches1 fearing us as much as their conquerors1 dived when we fired1 and cried most lamentably for mercy4 ,having now effectually favoured their retreat1 we stood backwards and forwards1 and took up several that were wounded and tired4 ,all whose wounds had disabled them from swimming1 were either butchered or drowned1 before we got up to them4 ,with a justice and generosity1 never ,i believe before heard of among slavers1 we gave those their liberty whom we had taken up1 setting them on shore on the ,barbary side1 among the poor residue of their companions1 who had survived the slaughter of the morning4 ,we shall make but two remarks on this horrid instance of ,african cruelty4 ,it adds1 first1 a considerable weight to the statements that have been made2 and confirms1 secondly1 the conclusions that were drawn in the preceding chapter4 ,for if we even allow the right of capture to be just1 and the principles of reparation and punishment to be applicable to the individuals of a community1 yet would the former be unjust1 and the latter inapplicable1 in the present case4 ,every ,african war is a robbery2 and we may add1 to our former expression1 when we said1 that thus have many thousands of men1 in the most iniquitous manner1 been sent into servitude1 that we believe there are few of this order1 who are not as much the examples of injustice1 as the people that have been kidnapped2 and who do not additionally convey1 when we consider them as prisoners of war1 an idea of the most complicated scene of murder4 ,the order of convicts1 as it exists almost solely among those princes1 whose dominions are contiguous to the ,european factories1 is from this circumstance so inconsiderable1 when compared with either of the preceding1 that we should not have mentioned it again1 but that we were unwilling to omit any additional argument that occurred against it4 ,it has been shewn already1 that the punishment of slavery is inflicted from no other motive1 than that of gratifying the avarice of the prince1 a confederation so detestable1 as to be sufficient of itself to prove it to be unjust2 and that it is so disproportionate1 from its nature1 to the offence1 as to afford an additional proof of its injustice4 ,we shall add now1 as a second argument1 its disproportion from its continuance3 and we shall derive a third from the consideration1 that1 in civil society1 every violation of the laws of the community is an offence against the state#jej4 ,let us suppose then an ,african prince1 disdaining for once the idea of emolument3 let us suppose him for once inflamed with the love of his country1 and resolving to punish from this principle alone1 that by exhibiting an example of terrour1 he may preserve that happiness of the publick1 which he is bound to secure and defend by the very nature of his contract2 or1 in other words1 that he may answer the end of government4 ,if actuated then by this principle1 he should adjudge slavery to an offender1 as a just punishment for his offence1 for whose benefit must the convict labour8 ,if it be answered1 for the benefit of the state1 we allow that the punishment1 in whatever light it is considered1 will be found to be equitable3 but if it be answered1 for the benefit of any individual whom he pleases to appoint1 we deny it to be just4 ,the state#jea alone is considered to have been injured1 and as injuries cannot possibly be transferred1 the state alone can justly receive the advantages of his labour4 ,but if the ,african prince1 when he thus condemns him to labour for the benefit of an unoffended individual1 should at the same time sentence him to become his property2 that is1 if he should make the person and life of the convict at the absolute disposal of him1 for whom he has sentenced him to labour2 it is evident that1 in addition to his former injustice1 he is usurping a power1 which no ruler or rulers of a state can possess1 and which the great ,creator of the universe never yet gave to any order whatever of created beings4 ,that this reasoning is true1 and that civilized nations have considered it as such1 will be best testified by their practice4 ,we may appeal here to that slavery1 which is now adjudged to delinquents1 as a punishment1 among many of the states of ,europe4 ,these delinquents are sentenced to labour at the oar1 to work in mines1 and on fortifications1 to cut and clear rivers1 to make and repair roads1 and to perform other works of national utility4 ,they are employed1 in short1 in the publick work2 because1 as the crimes they have committed are considered to have been crimes against the publick1 no individual can justly receive the emoluments of their labour2 and they are neither sold1 nor made capable of being transferred1 because no government whatsoever is invested with such a power4 ,thus then may that slavery1 in which only the idea of labour is included1 be perfectly equitable1 and the delinquent will always receive his punishment as a man2 whereas in that1 which additionally includes the idea of property1 and to undergo which1 the delinquent must previously change his nature1 and become a brute2 there is an inconsistency1 which no arguments can reconcile1 and a contradiction to every principle of nature1 which a man need only to appeal to his own feelings immediately to evince4 ,and we will venture to assert1 from the united observations that have been made upon the subject1 in opposition to any arguments that may be advanced1 that there is scarcely one of those1 who are called ,african convicts1 on whom the prince has a right to inflict a punishment at all2 and that there is no one whatever1 whom he has a power of sentencing to labour for the benefit of an unoffended individual1 and much less whom he has a right to sell4 ,having now fully examined the arguments of the sellers#jeb1 and having made such additional remarks as were necessary1 we have only to add1 that we cannot sufficiently express our detestation at their conduct4 ,were the reader coolly to reflect upon the case of but one of the unfortunate men1 who are annually the victims of avarice1 and consider his situation in life1 as a father1 an husband1 or a friend1 we are sure1 that even on such a partial reflection1 he must experience considerable pain4 ,what then must be his feelings1 when he is told1 that1 since the slave-trade began1 #jecnine millions of men have been torn from their dearest connections1 and sold into slavery4 ,if at this recital his indignation should arise1 let him consider it as the genuine production of nature2 that she recoiled at the horrid thought1 and that she applied instantly a torch to his breast to kindle his resentment2 and if1 during his indignation1 she should awaken the sigh of sympathy1 or seduce the tear of commiseration from his eye1 let him consider each as an additional argument against the iniquity of the sellers4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,footnotes ,footnote #jdh3 ,the total annual exportation from ,africa1 is estimated here at #ajj1jjj men1 two thirds of whom are exported by the ,british merchants alone4 ,this estimate is less than that which is usually made1 and has been published4 ,the author has been informed by disinterested people1 who were in most of the ,west ,india islands during the late war1 and who conversed with many of the most intelligent of the negroes1 for the purpose of inquiring by what methods they had originally been reduced to slavery1 that they did not find even two in twenty1 who had been reduced to that situation1 by any other means than those mentioned above4 ,the author1 desirous of a farther confirmation of this circumstance1 stopped the press till he had written to another friend1 who had resided twenty years in the ,west-,indies1 and whose opinion he had not yet asked4 ,the following is an extract from the answer4 ,i do not among many hundreds recollect to have seen but one or two slaves1 of those imported from ,africa1 who had any scars to shew1 that they had been in war4 ,they are generally such as are kidnapped1 or sold by their tyrants1 after the destruction of a village4 ,in short1 ,i am firmly of opinion1 that crimes and war together do not furnish one slave in an hundred of the numbers introduced into the ,european colonies4 ,of consequence the trade itself1 were it possible to suppose convicts or prisoners of war to be justly sentenced to servitude1 is accountable for ninety-nine in every hundred slaves1 whom it supplies4 ,it an insult to the publick1 to attempt to palliate the method of procuring them4 ,footnote #jdi3 ,the writer of the letter of which this is a faithful extract1 and who was known to the author of the present ,essay1 was a long time on the ,african coast4 ,he had once the misfortune to be shipwrecked there1 and to be taken by the natives1 who conveyed him and his companions a considerable way up into the country4 ,the hardships which he underwent in the march1 his treatment during his captivity1 the scenes to which he was witness1 while he resided among the inland ,africans1 as well as while in the ,african trade1 gave occasion to a series of very interesting letters4 ,these letters were sent to the author of the present ,essay1 with liberty to make what use of them he chose1 by the gentleman to whom they were written4 ,footnote #jej3 ,were this not the case1 the government of a country could have no right to take cognizance of crimes1 and punish them1 but every individual1 if injured1 would have a right to punish the aggressor with his own hand1 which is contrary to the notions of all civilized men1 whether among the ancients or the moderns4 ,footnote #jea3 ,this same notion is entertained even by the ,african princes1 who do not permit the person injured to revenge his injury1 or to receive the convict as his slave4 ,but if the very person who has been injured1 does not possess him1 much less ought any other person whatsoever4 ,footnote #jeb3 ,there are instances on the ,african continent1 of parents selling their children4 ,as the slaves of this description are so few1 and are so irregularly obtained1 we did not think it worth our while to consider them as forming an order2 and1 as ,god never gave the parent a power over his child to make him miserable1 we trust that any farther mention of them will be unnecessary4 ,footnote #jec3 ,abb ,raynal1 ,hist4 ,phil4 vol4 #d4 ,p4 #aed4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,,ix4 ,it remains only now to examine by what arguments those1 who receive or purchase their fellow-creatures into slavery1 defend the commerce4 ,their first plea is1 that they receive those with propriety1 who are convicted of crimes1 because they are delivered into their hands by their own magistrates4 ,but what is this to you receivers8 ,have the unfortunate convicts been guilty of injury to you8 ,have they broken your treaties8 ,have they plundered your ships8 ,have they carried your wives and children into slavery1 that you should thus retaliate8 ,have they offended you even by word or gesture8 ,but if the ,african convicts are innocent with respect to you2 if you have not even the shadow of a claim upon their persons2 by what right do you receive them8 ,by the laws of the ,africans1 you will say2 by which it is positively allowed4--,but can laws alter the nature of vice8 ,they may give it a sanction perhaps3 it will still be immutably the same1 and1 though dressed in the outward habiliments of honour1 will still be intrinsically base4 ,but alas6 you do not only attempt to defend yourselves by these arguments1 but even dare to give your actions the appearance of lenity1 and assume merit from your baseness6 and how first ought you particularly to blush1 when you assert1 that prisoners of war are only purchased from the hands of their conquerors1 to deliver them from death4 ,ridiculous defence6 can the most credulous believe it8 ,you entice the ,africans to war2 you foment their quarrels2 you supply them with arms and ammunition1 and all--from the motives of benevolence4 ,does a man set fire to an house1 for the purpose of rescuing the inhabitants from the flames8 ,but if they are only purchased1 to deliver them from death2 why1 when they are delivered into your hands1 as protectors1 do you torture them with hunger8 ,why do you kill them with fatigue8 ,why does the whip deform their bodies1 or the knife their limbs8 ,why do you sentence them to death8 to a death1 infinitely more excruciating than that from which you so kindly saved them8 ,what answer do you make to this8 for if you had not humanely preserved them from the hands of their conquerors1 a quick death perhaps1 and that in the space of a moment1 had freed them from their pain3 but on account of your favour and benevolence1 it is known1 that they have lingered years in pain and agony1 and have been sentenced1 at last1 to a dreadful death for the most insignificant offence4 ,neither can we allow the other argument to be true1 on which you found your merit2 that you take them from their country for their own convenience2 because ,africa1 scorched with incessant heat1 and subject to the most violent rains and tempests1 is unwholesome1 and unfit to be inhabited4 ,preposterous men6 do you thus judge from your own feelings8 ,do you thus judge from your own constitution and frame8 ,but if you suppose that the ,africans are incapable of enduring their own climate1 because you cannot endure it yourselves2 why do you receive them into slavery8 ,why do you not measure them here by the same standard8 ,for if you are unable to bear hunger and thirst1 chains and imprisonment1 wounds and torture1 why do you not suppose them incapable of enduring the same treatment8 ,thus then is your argument turned against yourselves4 ,but consider the answer which the ,scythians gave the gyptians1 when they contended about the antiquity of their original#jed1 ,that nature1 when she first distinguished countries by different degrees of heat and cold1 tempered the bodies of animals1 at the same instant1 to endure the different situations3 that as the climate of ,scythia was severer than that of gypt1 so were the bodies of the ,scythians harder1 and as capable of enduring the severity of their atmosphere1 as the gyptians the temperateness of their own4 ,but you may say perhaps1 that1 though they are capable of enduring their own climate1 yet their situation is frequently uncomfortable1 and even wretched3 that ,africa is infested with locusts1 and insects of various kinds2 that they settle in swarms upon the trees1 destroy the verdure1 consume the fruit1 and deprive the inhabitants of their food4 ,but the same answer may be applied as before2 that the same kind ,providence1 who tempered the body of the animal1 tempered also the body of the tree2 that he gave it a quality to recover the bite of the locust1 which he sent2 and to reassume1 in a short interval of time1 its former glory4 ,and that such is the case experience has shewn3 for the very trees that have been infested1 and stripped of their bloom and verdure1 so surprizingly quick is vegetation1 appear in a few days1 as if an insect had been utterly unknown4 ,we may add to these observations1 from the testimony of those who have written the ,history of ,africa from their own inspection1 that no country is more luxurious in prospects1 none more fruitful1 none more rich in herds and flocks1 and none1 where the comforts of life1 can be gained with so little trouble4 ,but you say again1 as a confirmation of these your former arguments1 7by which you would have it understood1 that the ,africans themselves are sensible of the goodness of your intentions7 that they do not appear to go with you against their will4 ,impudent and base assertion6 ,why then do you load them with chains8 ,why keep you your daily and nightly watches8 ,but alas1 as a farther1 though a more melancholy proof1 of the falsehood of your assertions1 how many1 when on board your ships1 have put a period to their existence8 ,how many have leaped into the sea8 ,how many have pined to death1 that1 even at the expence of their lives1 they might fly from your benevolence8 ,do you call them obstinate then1 because they refuse your favours8 ,do you call them ungrateful1 because they make you this return8 ,how much rather ought you receivers to blush6 ,how much rather ought you receivers to be considered as abandoned and execrable2 who1 when you usurp the dominion over those1 who are as free and independent as yourselves1 break the first law of justice1 which ordains1 that no person shall do harm to another1 without a previous provocation2 who offend against the dictates of nature1 which commands1 that no just man shall be given or received into slavery against his own consent2 and who violate the very laws of the empire that you assume1 by consigning your subjects to misery4 ,now1 as a famous ,heathen philosopher observes1 from whose mouth you shall be convicted#jee1 there is a considerable difference1 whether an injury is done1 during any perturbation of mind1 which is generally short and momentary2 or whether it is done with any previous meditation and design2 for1 those crimes1 which proceed from any sudden commotion of the mind1 are less than those1 which are studied and prepared1 how great and enormous are your crimes to be considered1 who plan your ,african voyages at a time1 when your reason is found1 and your senses are awake2 who coolly and deliberately equip your vessels2 and who spend years1 and even lives1 in the traffick of human liberty4 ,but if the arguments of those1 who sell or deliver men into slavery1 7as we have shewn before7 and of those1 who receive or purchase them1 7as we have now shewn7 are wholly false2 it is evident that this commerce1 is not only beyond the possibility of defence1 but is justly to be accounted wicked1 and justly impious1 since it is contrary to the principles of law and government1 the dictates of reason1 the common maxims of equity1 the laws of nature1 the admonitions of conscience1 and1 in short1 the whole doctrine of natural religion4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,footnotes ,footnote #jed3 ,justin1 ,l4 #b4 ,c4 #a4 ,footnote #jee3 ,cicero de ,officiis4 ,l4 #a4 ,c4 #h4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,part ,,iii4 ,,the ,,slavery of the ,,africans ,,in ,,the ,,european ,,colonies4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,i4 ,having confined ourselves wholly1 in the second part of this ,essay1 to the consideration of the commerce1 we shall now proceed to the consideration of the slavery that is founded upon it4 ,as this slavery will be conspicuous in the treatment1 which the unfortunate ,africans uniformly undergo1 when they are put into the hands of the receivers1 we shall describe the manner in which they are accustomed to be used from this period4 ,to place this in the clearest1 and most conspicuous point of view1 we shall throw a considerable part of our information on this head into the form of a narrative3 we shall suppose ourselves1 in short1 on the continent of ,africa1 and relate a scene1 which1 from its agreement with unquestionable facts1 might not unreasonably be presumed to have been presented to our view1 had we been really there4 ,and first1 let us turn our eyes to the cloud of dust that is before us4 ,it seems to advance rapidly1 and1 accompanied with dismal shrieks and yellings1 to make the very air1 that is above it1 tremble as it rolls along4 ,what can possibly be the cause8 ,let us inquire of that melancholy ,african1 who seems to walk dejected near the shore2 whose eyes are stedfastly fixed on the approaching object1 and whose heart1 if we can judge from the appearance of his countenance1 must be greatly agitated4 ,alas6 says the unhappy ,african1 the cloud that you see approaching1 is a train of wretched slaves4 ,they are going to the ships behind you4 ,they are destined for the ,english colonies1 and1 if you will stay here but for a little time1 you will see them pass4 ,they were last night drawn up upon the plain which you see before you1 where they were branded upon the breast with an hot iron2 and when they had undergone the whole of the treatment which is customary on these occasions1 and which ,i am informed that you ,englishmen at home use to the cattle which you buy1 they were returned to their prison4 ,as ,i have some dealings with the members of the factory which you see at a little distance1 7though thanks to the ,great ,spirit1 ,i never dealt in the liberty of my fellow creatures7 ,i gained admittance there4 ,i learned the history of some of the unfortunate people1 whom ,i saw confined1 and will explain to you1 if my eye should catch them as they pass1 the real causes of their servitude4 ,scarcely were these words spoken1 when they came distinctly into sight4 ,they appeared to advance in a long column1 but in a very irregular manner4 ,there were three only in the front1 and these were chained together4 ,the rest that followed seemed to be chained by pairs1 but by pressing forward1 to avoid the lash of the drivers1 the breadth of the column began to be greatly extended1 and ten or more were observed abreast4 ,while we were making these remarks1 the intelligent ,african thus resumed his discourse4 ,the first three whom you observe1 at the head of the train1 to be chained together1 are prisoners of war4 ,as soon as the ships that are behind you arrived1 the news was dispatched into the inland country2 when one of the petty kings immediately assembled his subjects1 and attacked a neighbouring tribe4 ,the wretched people1 though they were surprized1 made a formidable resistance1 as they resolved1 almost all of them1 rather to lose their lives1 than survive their liberty4 ,the person whom you see in the middle1 is the father of the two young men1 who are chained to him on each side4 ,his wife and two of his children were killed in the attack1 and his father being wounded1 and1 on account of his age1 incapable of servitude1 was left bleeding on the spot where this transaction happened4 ,with respect to those who are now passing us1 and are immediately behind the former1 ,i can give you no other intelligence1 than that some of them1 to about the number of thirty1 were taken in the same skirmish4 ,their tribe was said to have been numerous before the attack2 these however are all that are left alive4 ,but with respect to the unhappy man1 who is now opposite to us1 and whom you may distinguish1 as he is now looking back and wringing his hands in despair1 ,i can inform you with more precision4 ,he is an unfortunate convict4 ,he lived only about five days journey from the factory4 ,he went out with his king to hunt1 and was one of his train2 but1 through too great an anxiety to afford his royal master diversion1 he roused the game from the covert rather sooner than was expected4 ,the king1 exasperated at this circumstance1 immediately sentenced him to slavery4 ,his wife and children1 fearing lest the tyrant should extend the punishment to themselves1 which is not unusual1 fled directly to the woods1 where they were all devoured4 ,the people1 whom you see close behind the unhappy convict1 form a numerous body1 and reach a considerable way4 ,they speak a language1 which no person in this part of ,africa can understand1 and their features1 as you perceive1 are so different from those of the rest1 that they almost appear a distinct race of men4 ,from this circumstance ,i recollect them4 ,they are the subjects of a very distant prince1 who agreed with the slave merchants1 for a quantity of spirituous liquors1 to furnish him with a stipulated number of slaves4 ,he accordingly surrounded1 and set fire to one of his own villages in the night1 and seized these people1 who were unfortunately the inhabitants1 as they were escaping from the flames4 ,i first saw them as the merchants were driving them in1 about two days ago4 ,they came in a large body1 and were tied together at the neck with leather thongs1 which permitted them to walk at the distance of about a yard from one another4 ,many of them were loaden with elephants teeth1 which had been purchased at the same time4 ,all of them had bags1 made of skin1 upon their shoulders2 for as they were to travel1 in their way from the great mountains1 through barren sands and inhospitable woods for many days together1 they were obliged to carry water and provisions with them4 ,notwithstanding this1 many of them perished1 some by hunger1 but the greatest number by fatigue1 as the place from whence they came1 is at such an amazing distance from this1 and the obstacles1 from the nature of the country1 so great1 that the journey could scarcely be completed in seven moons4 ,when this relation was finished1 and we had been looking stedfastly for some time on the croud that was going by1 we lost sight of that peculiarity of feature1 which we had before remarked4 ,we then discovered that the inhabitants of the depopulated village had all of them passed us1 and that the part of the train1 to which we were now opposite1 was a numerous body of kidnapped people4 ,here we indulged our imagination4 ,we thought we beheld in one of them a father1 in another an husband1 and in another a son1 each of whom was forced from his various and tender connections1 and without even the opportunity of bidding them adieu4 ,while we were engaged in these and other melancholy reflections1 the whole body of slaves had entirely passed us4 ,we turned almost insensibly to look at them again1 when we discovered an unhappy man at the end of the train1 who could scarcely keep pace with the rest4 ,his feet seemed to have suffered much from long and constant travelling1 for he was limping painfully along4 ,this man1 resumes the ,african4 has travelled a considerable way4 ,he lived at a great distance from hence1 and had a large family1 for whom he was daily to provide4 ,as he went out one night to a neighbouring spring1 to procure water for his thirsty children1 he was kidnapped by two slave hunters1 who sold him in the morning to some country merchants for a bar of iron4 ,these drove him with other slaves1 procured almost in the same manner1 to the nearest market1 where the ,english merchants1 to whom the train that has just now passed us belongs1 purchased him and two others1 by means of their travelling agents1 for a pistol4 ,his wife and children have been long waiting for his return4 ,but he is gone for ever from their sight3 and they must be now disconsolate1 as they must be certain by his delay1 that he has fallen into the hands of the ,christians4 ,and now1 as ,i have mentioned the name of ,christians1 a name1 by which the ,europeans distinguish themselves from us1 ,i could wish to be informed of the meaning which such an appellation may convey4 ,they consider themselves as men1 but us unfortunate ,africans1 whom they term ,heathens1 as the beasts that serve us4 ,but ah6 how different is the fact6 ,what is ,christianity1 but a system of murder and oppression8 ,the cries and yells of the unfortunate people1 who are now soon to embark for the regions of servitude1 have already pierced my heart4 ,have you not heard me sigh1 while we have been talking8 ,do you not see the tears that now trickle down my cheeks8 and yet these hardened ,christians are unable to be moved at all3 nay1 they will scourge them amidst their groans1 and even smile1 while they are torturing them to death4 ,happy1 happy ,heathenism6 which can detest the vices of ,christianity1 and feel for the distresses of mankind4 ,but we reply1 ,you are totally mistaken3 ,christianity is the most perfect and lovely of moral systems4 ,it blesses even the hand of persecution itself1 and returns good for evil4 ,but the people against whom you so justly declaim2 are not ,christians4 ,they are infidels4 ,they are monsters4 ,they are out of the common course of nature4 ,their countrymen at home are generous and brave4 ,they support the sick1 the lame1 and the blind4 ,they fly to the succour of the distressed4 ,they have noble and stately buildings for the sole purpose of benevolence4 ,they are in short1 of all nations1 the most remarkable for humanity and justice4 ,but why then1 replies the honest ,african1 do they suffer this8 ,why is ,africa a scene of blood and desolation8 ,why are her children wrested from her1 to administer to the luxuries and greatness of those whom they never offended8 ,and why are these dismal cries in vain8 ,alas6 we reply again1 can the cries and groans1 with which the air now trembles1 be heard across this extensive continent8 ,can the southern winds convey them to the ear of ,britain8 ,if they could reach the generous ,englishman at home1 they would pierce his heart1 as they have already pierced your own4 ,he would sympathize with you in your distress4 ,he would be enraged at the conduct of his countrymen1 and resist their tyranny4-- ,but here a shriek unusually loud1 accompanied with a dreadful rattling of chains1 interrupted the discourse4 ,the wretched ,africans were just about to embark3 they had turned their face to their country1 as if to take a last adieu1 and1 with arms uplifted to the sky1 were making the very atmosphere resound with their prayers and imprecations4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,,ii4 ,the foregoing scene1 though it may be said to be imaginary1 is strictly consistent with fact4 ,it is a scene1 to which the reader himself may have been witness1 if he has ever visited the place1 where it is supposed to lie2 as no circumstance whatever has been inserted in it1 for which the fullest and most undeniable evidence cannot be produced4 ,we shall proceed now to describe1 in general terms1 the treatment which the wretched ,africans undergo1 from the time of their embarkation4 ,when the ,african slaves1 who are collected from various quarters1 for the purposes of sale1 are delivered over to the receivers1 they are conducted in the manner above described to the ships4 ,their situation on board is beyond all description3 for here they are crouded1 hundreds of them together1 into such a small compass1 as would scarcely be thought sufficient to accommodate twenty1 if considered as free men4 ,this confinement soon produces an effect1 that may be easily imagined4 ,it generates a pestilential air1 which1 co-operating with1 bad provisions1 occasions such a sickness and mortality among them1 that not less than twenty thousand#jef are generally taken off in every yearly transportation4 ,thus confined in a pestilential prison1 and almost entirely excluded from the chearful face of day1 it remains for the sickly survivors to linger out a miserable existence1 till the voyage is finished4 ,but are no farther evils to be expected in the interim particularly if we add to their already wretched situation the indignities that are daily offered them1 and the regret which they must constantly feel1 at being for ever forced from their connexions8 ,these evils are but too apparent4 ,some of them have resolved1 and1 notwithstanding the threats of the receivers1 have carried their resolves into execution1 to starve themselves to death4 ,others1 when they have been brought upon deck for air1 if the least opportunity has offered1 have leaped into the sea1 and terminated their miseries at once4 ,others1 in a fit of despair1 have attempted to rise1 and regain their liberty4 ,but here what a scene of barbarity has constantly ensued4 ,some of them have been instantly killed upon the spot2 some have been taken from the hold1 have been bruised and mutilated in the most barbarous and shocking manner1 and have been returned bleeding to their companions1 as a sad example of resistance2 while others1 tied to the ropes of the ship1 and mangled alternately with the whip and knife1 have been left in that horrid situation1 till they have expired4 ,but this is not the only inhuman treatment which they are frequently obliged to undergo2 for if there should be any necessity1 from tempestuous weather1 for lightening the ship2 or if it should be presumed on the voyage1 that the provisions will fall short before the port can be made1 they are1 many of them1 thrown into the sea1 without any compunction of mind on the part of the receivers1 and without any other regret for their loss1 than that which avarice inspires4 ,wretched survivors6 what must be their feelings at such a sight6 how must they tremble to think of that servitude which is approaching1 when the very dogs of the receivers have been retained on board1 and preferred to their unoffending countrymen4 ,but indeed so lightly are these unhappy people esteemed1 that their lives have been even taken away upon speculation3 there has been an instance1 within the last five years1 of one hundred and thirty two of them being thrown into the sea1 because it was supposed that1 by this trick1 their value could be recovered from the insurers#jeg4 ,but if the ship should arrive safe at its destined port1 a circumstance which does not always happen1 7for some have been blown up1 and many lost7 the wretched ,africans do not find an alleviation of their sorrow4 ,here they are again exposed to sale4 ,here they are again subjected to the inspection of other brutal receivers1 who examine and treat them with an inhumanity1 at which even avarice should blush4 ,to this mortifying circumstance is added another1 that they are picked out1 as the purchaser pleases1 without any consideration whether the wife is separated from her husband1 or the mother from her son3 and if these cruel instances of separation should happen2 if relations1 when they find themselves about to be parted1 should cling together2 or if filial1 conjugal1 or parental affection1 should detain them but a moment longer in each other's arms1 than these second receivers should think sufficient1 the lash instantly severs them from their embraces4 ,we cannot close our account of the treatment1 which the wretched ,africans undergo while in the hands of the first receivers1 without mentioning an instance of wanton1 barbarity1 which happened some time ago2 particularly as it may be inserted with propriety in the present place1 and may give the reader a better idea of the cruelties1 to which they are continually exposed1 than any that he may have yet conceived4 ,to avoid making a mistake1 we shall take the liberty that has been allowed us1 and transcribe it from a little manuscript account1 with which we have been favoured by a person of the strictest integrity1 and who was at that time in the place where the transaction happened#jeh4 ,not long after1 says he1 7continuing his account7 the perpetrator of a cruel murder1 committed in open day light1 in the most publick part of a town1 which was the seat of government1 escaped every other notice than the curses of a few of the more humane witnesses of his barbarity4 ,an officer of a ,guinea ship1 who had the care of a number of new slaves1 and was returning from the sale-yard to the vessel with such as remained unsold2 observed a stout fellow among them rather slow in his motions1 which he therefore quickened with his rattan4 ,the slave soon afterwards fell down1 and was raised by the same application4 ,moving forwards a few yards1 he fell down again2 and this being taken as a proof of his sullen perverse spirit1 the enraged officer furiously repeated his blows1 till he expired at his feet4 ,the brute coolly ordered some of the surviving slaves to carry the dead body to the water's side1 where1 without any ceremony or delay1 being thrown into the sea1 the tragedy was supposed to have been immediately finished by the not more inhuman sharks1 with which the harbour then abounded4 ,these voracious fish were supposed to have followed the vessels from the coast of ,africa1 in which ten thousand slaves were imported in that one season1 being allured by the stench1 and daily fed by the dead carcasses thrown overboard on the voyage4 ,if the reader should observe here1 that cattle are better protected in this country1 than slaves in the colonies1 his observation will be just4 ,the beast which is driven to market1 is defended by law from the goad of the driver2 whereas the wretched ,african1 though an human being1 and whose feelings receive of course a double poignancy from the power of reflection1 is unnoticed in this respect in the colonial code1 and may be goaded and beaten till he expires4 ,we may now take our leave of the first receivers4 ,their crime has been already estimated2 and to reason farther upon it1 would be unnecessary4 ,for where the conduct of men is so manifestly impious1 there can be no need1 either of a single argument or a reflection2 as every reader of sensibility will anticipate them in his own feelings4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,footnotes ,footnote #jef3 ,it is universally allowed1 that at least one fifth of the exported negroes perish in the passage4 ,this estimate is made from the time in which they are put on board1 to the time when they are disposed of in the colonies4 ,the ,french are supposed to lose the greatest number in the voyage1 but particularly from this circumstance1 because their slave ships are in general so very large1 that many of the slaves that have been put on board sickly1 die before the cargo can be completed4 ,footnote #jeg3 ,this instance happened in a ship1 commanded by one ,collingwood4 ,on the #bith of ,november1 #agha1 fifty-four of them were thrown into the sea alive2 on the #cjth forty-two more2 and in about three days afterwards1 twenty-six4 ,ten others1 who were brought upon the deck for the same purpose1 did not wait to be hand-cuffed1 but bravely leaped into the sea1 and shared the fate of their companions4 ,it is a fact1 that the people on board this ship had not been put upon short allowance4 ,the excuse which this execrable wretch made on board for his conduct1 was the following1 that if the slaves1 who were then sickly1 had died a natural death1 the loss would have been the owners2 but as they were thrown alive into the sea1 it would fall upon the underwriters4 ,footnote #jeh3 ,this gentleman is at present resident in ,england4 ,the author of this ,essay applied to him for some information on the treatment of slaves1 so far as his own knowledge was concerned4 ,he was so obliging as to furnish him with the written account alluded to1 interspersed only with such instances1 as he himself could undertake to answer for4 ,the author1 as he has never met with these instances before1 and as they are of such high authority1 intends to transcribe two or three of them1 and insert them in the fourth chapter4 ,they will be found in inverted commas4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,,iii4 ,when the wretched ,africans are thus put into the hands of the second receivers1 they are conveyed to the plantations1 where they are totally considered as cattle1 or beasts of labour2 their very children1 if any should be born to them in that situation1 being previously destined to the condition of their parents4 ,but here a question arises1 which1 will interrupt the thread of the narration for a little time1 viz4 how far their descendants1 who compose the fifth order of slaves1 are justly reduced to servitude1 and upon what principles the receivers defend their conduct4 ,authors have been at great pains to inquire1 why1 in the ancient servitude1 the child has uniformly followed the condition of the mother4 ,but we conceive that they would have saved themselves much trouble1 and have done themselves more credit1 if instead of1 endeavouring to reconcile the custom with heathen notions1 or their own laboured conjectures1 they had shewn its inconsistency with reason and nature1 and its repugnancy to common justice4 ,suffice it to say1 that the whole theory of the ancients1 with respect to the descendants slaves1 may be reduced to this principle1 that as the parents1 by becoming property1 were wholly considered as cattle1 their children1 like the progeny of cattle1 inherited their parental lot4 ,such also is the excuse of the tyrannical receivers before-mentioned4 ,they allege1 that they have purchased the parents1 that they can sell and dispose of them as they please1 that they possess them under the same laws and limitations as their cattle1 and that their children1 like the progeny of these1 become their property by birth4 ,but the absurdity of the argument will immediately appear4 ,it depends wholly on the supposition1 that the parents are brutes4 ,if they are brutes1 we shall instantly cease to contend3 if they are men1 which we think it not difficult to prove1 the argument must immediately fall1 as we have already shewn that there cannot justly be any property whatever in the human species4 ,it has appeared also1 in the second part of this ,essay1 that as nature made1 every man's body and mind his own1 so no just person can be reduced to slavery against his own consent4 ,do the unfortunate offspring ever consent to be slaves8--,they are slaves from their birth4--,are they guilty of crimes1 that they lose their freedom8--,they are slaves when they cannot speak4--,are their parents abandoned8 ,the crimes of the parents cannot justly extend to the children4 ,thus then must the tyrannical receivers1 who presume to sentence the children of slaves to servitude1 if they mean to dispute upon the justice of their cause2 either allow them to have been brutes from their birth1 or to have been guilty of crimes at a time1 when they were incapable of offending the very ,king of ,kings4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,,iv4 ,but to return to the narration4 ,when the wretched ,africans are conveyed to the plantations1 they are considered as beasts of labour1 and are put to their respective work4 ,having led1 in their own country1 a life of indolence and ease1 where the earth brings forth spontaneously the comforts of life1 and spares frequently the toil and trouble of cultivation1 they can hardly be expected to endure the drudgeries of servitude4 ,calculations are accordingly made upon their lives4 ,it is conjectured1 that if three in four survive what is called the seasoning1 the bargain is highly favourable4 ,this seasoning is said to expire1 when the two first years of their servitude are completed3 ,it is the time which an ,african must take to be so accustomed to the colony1 as to be able to endure the common labour of a plantation1 and to be put into the gang4 ,at the end of this period the calculations become verified1 twenty thousand#jei of those1 who are annually imported1 dying before the seasoning is over4 ,this is surely an horrid and awful consideration3 and thus does it appear1 7and let it be remembered1 that it is the lowest calculation that has been ever made upon the subject7 that out of every annual supply that is shipped from the coast of ,africa1 forty thousand lives#jfj are regularly expended1 even before it can be said1 that there is really any additional stock for the colonies4 ,when the seasoning is over1 and the survivors are thus enabled to endure the usual task of slaves1 they are considered as real and substantial supplies4 ,from this period#jfa therefore we shall describe their situation4 ,they are summoned at five in the morning to begin their work4 ,this work may be divided into two kinds1 the culture of the fields1 and the collection of grass for cattle4 ,the last is the most laborious and intolerable employment2 as the grass can only be collected blade by blade1 and is to be fetched frequently twice a day at a considerable distance from the plantation4 ,in these two occupations they are jointly taken up1 with no other intermission than that of taking their subsistence twice1 till nine at night4 ,they then separate for their respective huts1 when they gather sticks1 prepare their supper1 and attend their families4 ,this employs them till midnight1 when they go to rest4 ,such is their daily way of life for rather more than half the year4 ,they are sixteen hours1 including two intervals at meals1 in the service of their masters3 they are employed three afterwards in their own necessary concerns2 five only remain for sleep1 and their day is finished4 ,during the remaining portion of the year1 or the time of crop1 the nature1 as well as the time of their employment1 is considerably changed4 ,the whole gang is generally divided into two or three bodies4 ,one of these1 besides the ordinary labour of the day1 is kept in turn at the mills1 that are constantly going1 during the whole of the night4 ,this is a dreadful encroachment upon their time of rest1 which was before too short to permit them perfectly to refresh their wearied limbs1 and actually reduces their sleep1 as long as this season lasts1 to about three hours and an half a night1 upon a moderate computation#jfb4 ,those who can keep their eyes open during their nightly labour1 and are willing to resist the drowsiness that is continually coming upon them1 are presently worn out2 while some of those1 who are overcome1 and who feed the mill between asleep and awake1 suffer1 for thus obeying the calls of nature1 by the loss of a limb#jfc4 ,in this manner they go on1 with little or no respite from their work1 till the crop season is over1 when the year 7from the time of our first description7 is completed4 ,to support#jfd a life of such unparalleled drudgery1 we should at least expect3 to find1 that they were comfortably clothed1 and plentifully fed4 ,but sad reverse6 they have scarcely a covering to defend themselves against the inclemency of the night4 ,their provisions are frequently bad1 and are always dealt out to them with such a sparing hand1 that the means of a bare livelihood are not placed within the reach of four out of five of these unhappy people4 ,it is a fact1 that many of the disorders of slaves are contracted from eating the vegetables1 which their little spots produce1 before they are sufficiently ripe3 a clear indication1 that the calls of hunger are frequently so pressing1 as not to suffer them to wait1 till they can really enjoy them4 ,this1 situation1 of a want of the common necessaries of life1 added to that of hard and continual labour1 must be sufficiently painful of itself4 ,how then must the pain be sharpened1 if it be accompanied with severity6 if an unfortunate slave does not come into the field exactly at the appointed time1 if1 drooping with sickness or fatigue1 he appears to work unwillingly1 or if the bundle of grass that he has been collecting1 appears too small in the eye of the overseer1 he is equally sure of experiencing the whip4 ,this instrument erases the skin1 and cuts out small portions of the flesh at almost every stroke2 and is so frequently applied1 that the smack of it is all day long in the ears of those1 who are in the vicinity of the plantations4 ,this severity of masters1 or managers1 to their slaves1 which is considered only as common discipline1 is attended with bad effects4 ,it enables them to behold instances of cruelty without commiseration1 and to be guilty of them without remorse4 ,hence those many acts of deliberate mutilation1 that have taken place on the slightest occasions3 hence those many acts of inferiour1 though shocking1 barbarity1 that have taken place without any occasion at all3 the very slitting#jfe of ears has been considered as an operation1 so perfectly devoid of pain1 as to have been performed for no other reason than that for which a brand is set upon cattle1 as a mark of property4 ,but this is not the only effect1 which this severity produces3 for while it hardens their hearts1 and makes them insensible of the misery of their fellow-creatures1 it begets a turn for wanton cruelty4 ,as a proof of this1 we shall mention one1 among the many instances that occur1 where ingenuity has been exerted in contriving modes of torture4 ,an iron coffin1 with holes in it1 was kept by a certain colonist1 as an auxiliary to the lash4 ,in this the poor victim of the master's resentment was inclosed1 and placed sufficiently near a fire1 to occasion extreme pain1 and consequently shrieks and groans1 until the revenge of the master was satiated1 without any other inconvenience on his part1 than a temporary suspension of the slave's labour4 ,had he been flogged to death1 or his limbs mutilated1 the interest of the brutal tyrant would have suffered a more irreparable loss4 ,in mentioning1 this instance1 we do not mean to insinuate1 that it is common4 ,we know that it was reprobated by many4 ,all that we would infer from it is1 that where men are habituated to a system of severity1 they become wantonly cruel1 and that the mere toleration of such an instrument of torture1 in any country1 is a clear indication1 that this wretched class of men do not there enjoy the protection of any laws1 that may be pretended to have been enacted in their favour4 ,such then is the general situation of the unfortunate ,africans4 ,they are beaten and tortured at discretion4 ,they are badly clothed4 ,they are miserably fed4 ,their drudgery is intense and incessant and their rest short4 ,for scarcely are their heads reclined1 scarcely have their bodies a respite from the labour of the day1 or the cruel hand of the overseer1 but they are summoned to renew their sorrows4 ,in this manner they go on from year to year1 in a state of the lowest degradation1 without a single law to protect them1 without the possibility of redress1 without a hope that their situation will be changed1 unless death should terminate the scene4 ,having described the general situation of these unfortunate people1 we shall now take notice of the common consequences that are found to attend it1 and relate them separately1 as they result either from long and painful labour1 a want of the common necessaries of life1 or continual severity4 ,oppressed by a daily task of such immoderate labour as human nature is utterly unable to perform1 many of them run away from their masters4 ,they fly to the recesses of the mountains1 where they choose rather to live upon any thing that the soil affords them1 nay1 the very soil itself1 than return to that happy situation1 which is represented by the receivers1 as the condition of a slave4 ,it sometimes happens1 that the manager of a mountain plantation1 falls in with one of these2 he immediately seizes him1 and threatens to carry him to his former master1 unless he will consent to live on the mountain and cultivate his ground4 ,when his plantation is put in order1 he carries the delinquent home1 abandons him to all the suggestions of despotick rage1 and accepts a reward for his honesty4 ,the unhappy wretch is chained1 scourged1 tortured2 and all this1 because he obeyed the dictates of nature1 and wanted to be free4 ,and who is there1 that would not have done the same thing1 in the same situation8 ,who is there1 that has once known the charms of liberty2 that would not fly from despotism8 ,and yet1 by the impious laws of the receivers1 the absence#jff of six months from the lash of tyranny is--death4 ,but this law is even mild1 when compared with another against the same offence1 which was in force sometime ago1 and which we fear is even now in force1 in some of those colonies which this account of the treatment comprehends4 ,advertisements have frequently appeared there1 offering a reward for the apprehending of fugitive slaves either alive or dead4 ,the following instance was given us by a person of unquestionable veracity1 under whose own observation it fell4 ,as he was travelling in one of the colonies alluded to1 he observed some people in pursuit of a poor wretch1 who was seeking in the wilderness an asylum from his labours4 ,he heard the discharge of a gun1 and soon afterwards stopping at an house for refreshment1 the head of the fugitive1 still reeking with blood1 was brought in and laid upon a table with exultation4 ,the production of such a trophy was the proof required by law to entitle the heroes to their reward4 ,now reader determine if you can1 who were the most execrable2 the rulers of the state in authorizing murder1 or the people in being bribed to commit it4 ,this is one of the common consequences of that immoderate share of labour1 which is imposed upon them2 nor is that1 which is the result of a scanty allowance of food1 less to be lamented4 ,the wretched ,african is often so deeply pierced by the excruciating fangs of hunger1 as almost to be driven to despair4 ,what is he to do in such a trying situation8 ,let him apply to the receivers4 ,alas6 the majesty of receivership is too sacred for the appeal1 and the intrusion would be fatal4 ,thus attacked on the one hand1 and shut out from every possibility of relief on the other1 he has only the choice of being starved1 or of relieving his necessities by taking a small portion of the fruits of his own labour4 ,horrid crime6 to be found eating the cane1 which probably his own hands have planted1 and to be eating it1 because his necessities were pressing6 ,this crime however is of such a magnitude1 as always to be accompanied with the whip2 and so unmercifully has it been applied on such an occasion1 as to have been the cause1 in wet weather1 of the delinquent's death4 ,but the smart of the whip has not been the only pain that the wretched ,africans have experienced4 ,any thing that passion could seize1 and convert into an instrument of punishment1 has been used2 and1 horrid to relate6 the very knife has not been overlooked in the fit of phrenzy4 ,ears have been slit1 eyes have been beaten out1 and bones have been broken2 and so frequently has this been the case1 that it has been a matter of constant lamentation with disinterested people1 who out of curiosity have attended the markets#jfg to which these unhappy people weekly resort1 that they have not been able to turn their eyes on any group of them whatever1 but they have beheld these inhuman marks of passion1 despotism1 and caprice4 ,but these instances of barbarity have not been able to deter them from similar proceedings4 ,and indeed1 how can it be expected that they should8 ,they have still the same appetite to be satisfied as before1 and to drive them to desperation4 ,they creep out clandestinely by night1 and go in search of food into their master's1 or some neighbouring plantation4 ,but here they are almost equally sure of suffering4 ,the watchman1 who will be punished himself1 if he neglects his duty1 frequently seizes them in the fact4 ,no excuse or intreaty will avail2 he must punish them for an example1 and he must punish them1 not with a stick1 nor with a whip1 but with a cutlass4 ,thus it happens1 that these unhappy slaves1 if they are taken1 are either sent away mangled in a barbarous manner1 or are killed upon the spot4 ,we may now mention the consequences of the severity4 ,the wretched ,africans1 daily subjected to the lash1 and unmercifully whipt and beaten on every trifling occasion1 have been found to resist their opposers4 ,unpardonable crime6 that they should have the feelings of nature6 that their breasts should glow with resentment on an injury6 that they should be so far overcome1 as to resist those1 whom they are under no obligations to obey1 and whose only title to their services consists in a violation of the rights of men6 ,what has been the consequence8--,but here let us spare the feelings of the reader1 7we wish we could spare our own7 and let us only say1 without a recital of the cruelty1 that they have been murdered at the discretion of their masters4 ,for let the reader observe1 that the life of an ,african is only valued at a price1 that would scarcely purchase an horse2 that the master has a power of murdering his slave1 if he pays but a trifling fine2 and that the murder must be attended with uncommon circumstances of horrour1 if it even produces an inquiry4 ,immortal ,alfred6 father of our invaluable constitution6 parent of the civil blessings we enjoy6 how ought thy laws to excite our love and veneration1 who hast forbidden us1 thy posterity1 to tremble at the frown of tyrants6 how ought they to perpetuate thy name1 as venerable1 to the remotest ages1 who has secured1 even to the meanest servant1 a fair and impartial trial6 ,how much does nature approve thy laws1 as consistent with her own feelings1 while she absolutely turns pale1 trembles1 and recoils1 at the institutions of these receivers6 ,execrable men6 you do not murder the horse1 on which you only ride2 you do not mutilate the cow1 which only affords you her milk2 you do not torture the dog1 which is but a partial servant of your pleasures3 but these unfortunate men1 from whom1 you derive your very pleasures and your fortunes1 you torture1 mutilate1 murder at discretion6 ,sleep then you receivers1 if you can1 while you scarcely allow these unfortunate people to rest at all6 feast if you can1 and indulge your genius1 while you daily apply to these unfortunate people the stings of severity and hunger6 exult in riches1 at which even avarice ought to shudder1 and1 which humanity must detest6 99 99 99 99 99 ,,footnotes ,footnote #jei3 ,one third of the whole number imported1 is often computed to be lost in the seasoning1 which1 in round numbers1 will be #bgjjj4 ,the loss in the seasoning depends1 in a great measure1 on two circumstances1 viz4 on the number of what are called refuse slaves that are imported1 and on the quantity of new land in the colony4 ,in the ,french windward islands of ,martinico1 and ,guadaloupe1 which are cleared and highly cultivated1 and in our old small islands1 one fourth1 including refuse slaves1 is considered as a general proportion4 ,but in ,st4 ,domingo1 where there is a great deal of new land annually taken into culture1 and in other colonies in the same situation1 the general proportion1 including refuse slaves1 is found to be one third4 ,this therefore is a lower estimate than the former1 and reduces the number to about #bcjjj4 ,we may observe1 that this is the common estimate1 but we have reduced it to #bjjjj to make it free from all objection4 ,footnote #jfj3 ,including the number that perish on the voyage1 and in the seasoning4 ,it is generally thought that not half the number purchased can be considered as an additional stock1 and of course that #ej1jjj are consumed within the first two years from their embarkation4 ,footnote #jfa3 ,that part of the account1 that has been hitherto given1 extends to all the ,europeans and their colonists1 who are concerned in this horrid practice4 ,but we are sorry that we must now make a distinction1 and confine the remaining part1 of it to the colonists of the ,british ,west ,india islands1 and to those of the southern provinces of ,north ,america4 ,as the employment of slaves is different in the two parts of the world last mentioned1 we shall content ourselves with describing it1 as it exists in one of them1 and we shall afterwards annex such treatment and such consequences as are applicable to both4 ,we have only to add1 that the reader must not consider our account as universally1 but only generally1 true4 ,footnote #jfb3 ,this computation is made on a supposition1 that the gang is divided into three bodies2 we call it therefore moderate1 because the gang is frequently divided into two bodies1 which must therefore set up alternately every other night4 ,footnote #jfc3 ,an hand or arm being frequently ground off4 ,footnote #jfd3 ,the reader will scarcely believe it1 but it is a fact1 that a slave's annual allowance from his master1 for provisions1 clothing1 medicines when sick1 c4 is limited1 upon an average1 to thirty shillings4 ,footnote #jfe3 ,a boy having received six slaves as a present from his father1 immediately slit their ears1 and for the following reason1 that as his father was a whimsical man1 he might claim them again1 unless they were marked4 ,we do not mention this instance as a confirmation of the passage to which it is annexed1 but only to shew1 how cautious we ought to be in giving credit to what may be advanced in any work written in defence of slavery1 by any native of the colonies3 for being trained up to scenes of cruelty from his cradle1 he may1 consistently with his own feelings1 represent that treatment as mild1 at which we1 who have never been used to see them1 should absolutely shudder4 ,footnote #jff3 ,in this case he is considered as a criminal against the state4 ,the marshal1 an officer answering to our sheriff1 superintends his execution1 and the master receives the value of the slave from the publick treasury4 ,we may observe here1 that in all cases where the delinquent is a criminal of the state1 he is executed1 and his value is received in the same manner2 ,he is tried and condemned by two or three justices of the peace1 and without any intervention of a jury4 ,footnote #jfg3 ,particularly in ,jamaica4 ,these observations were made by disinterested people1 who were there for three or four years during the late war4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,v4 ,some people may suppose1 from the melancholy account that has been given in the preceding chapter1 that we have been absolutely dealing in romance3 that the scene exhibited is rather a dreary picture of the imagination1 than a representation of fact4 ,would to heaven1 for the honour of human nature1 that this were really the case6 ,we wish we could say1 that we have no testimony to produce for any of our assertions1 and that our description of the general treatment of slaves has been greatly exaggerated4 ,but the receivers1 notwithstanding the ample and disinterested evidence1 that can be brought on the occasion1 do not admit the description to be true4 ,they say first1 that if the slavery were such as has been now represented1 no human being could possibly support it long4 ,melancholy truth6 the wretched ,africans generally perish in their prime4 ,let them reflect upon the prodigious supplies that are annually required1 and their argument will be nothing less than a confession1 that the slavery has been justly depicted4 ,they appeal next to every man's own reason1 and desire him to think seriously1 whether self-interest will not always restrain the master from acts of cruelty to the slave1 and whether such accounts therefore1 as the foregoing1 do not contain within themselves1 their own refutation4 ,we answer1 ,no4 ,for if this restraining principle be as powerful as it is imagined1 why does not the general conduct of men afford us a better picture8 ,what is imprudence1 or what is vice1 but a departure from every man's own interest1 and yet these are the characteristicks of more than half the world8-- --,but1 to come more closely to the present case1 self-interest will be found but a weak barrier against the sallies of passion3 particularly where it has been daily indulged in its greatest latitude1 and there are no laws to restrain its calamitous effects4 ,if the observation be true1 that passion is a short madness1 then it is evident that self-interest1 and every other consideration1 must be lost1 so long as it continues4 ,we cannot have a stronger instance of this1 than in a circumstance related in the second part of this ,essay1 that though the ,africans have gone to war for the express purpose of procuring slaves1 yet so great has been their resentment at the resistance they have frequently found1 that their passion has entirely got the better of their interest1 and they have murdered all without any discrimination1 either of age or sex4 ,such may be presumed to be the case with the no less savage receivers4 ,impressed with the most haughty and tyrannical notions1 easily provoked1 accustomed to indulge their anger1 and1 above all1 habituated to scenes of cruelty1 and unawed by the fear of laws1 they will hardly be found to be exempt from the common failings of human nature1 and to spare an unlucky slave1 at a time when men of cooler temper1 and better regulated passions1 are so frequently blind to their own interest4 ,but if passion may be supposed to be generally more than a ballance for interest1 how must the scale be turned in favour of the melancholy picture exhibited1 when we reflect that self-preservation additionally steps in1 and demands the most rigorous severity4 ,for when we consider that where there is one master1 there are fifty slaves2 that the latter have been all forcibly torn from their country1 and are retained in their present situation by violence2 that they are perpetually at war in their hearts with their oppressors1 and are continually cherishing the seeds of revenge2 it is evident that even avarice herself1 however cool and deliberate1 however free from passion and caprice1 must sacrifice her own sordid feelings1 and adopt a system of tyranny and oppression1 which it must be ruinous to pursue4 ,thus then1 if no picture had been drawn of the situation of slaves1 and it had been left solely to every man's sober judgment to determine1 what it might probably be1 he would conclude1 that if the situation were justly described1 the page must be frequently stained with acts of uncommon cruelty4 ,it remains only to make a reply to an objection1 that is usually advanced against particular instances of cruelty to slaves1 as recorded by various writers4 ,it is said that some of these are so inconceivably1 and beyond all example inhuman1 that their very excess above the common measure of cruelty shews them at once exaggerated and incredible4 ,but their credibility shall be estimated by a supposition4 ,let us suppose that the following instance had been recorded by a writer of the highest reputation1 that the master of a ship1 bound to the western colonies with slaves1 on a presumption that many of them would die1 selected an hundred and thirty two of the most sickly1 and ordered them to be thrown into the sea1 to recover their value from the insurers1 and1 above all1 that the fatal order was put into execution4 ,what would the reader have thought on the occasion8 ,would he have believed the fact8 ,it would have surely staggered his faith2 because he could never have heard that any one man ever was1 and could never have supposed that any one man ever could be1 guilty of the murder of such a number of his fellow creatures4 ,but when he is informed that such a fact as this came before a court#jfh of justice in this very country2 that it happened within the last five years2 that hundreds can come forwards and say1 that they heard the melancholy evidence with tears2 what bounds is he to place to his belief8 ,the great ,god1 who looks down upon all his creatures with the same impartial eye1 seems to have infatuated the parties concerned1 that they might bring the horrid circumstance to light1 that it might be recorded in the annals of a publick court1 as an authentick specimen of the treatment which the unfortunate ,africans undergo1 and at the same time1 as an argument to shew1 that there is no species of cruelty1 that is recorded to have been exercised upon these wretched people1 so enormous that it may not readily be believed4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,footnotes ,footnote #jfh3 ,the action was brought by the owners against the underwriters1 to recover the value of the murdered slaves4 ,it was tried at ,guildhall4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,,vi4 ,if the treatment then1 as before described1 is confirmed by reason1 and the great credit that is due to disinterested writers on the subject2 if the unfortunate ,africans are used1 as if their flesh were stone1 and their vitals brass2 by what arguments do you receivers defend your conduct8 ,you say that a great part of your savage treatment consists in punishment for real offences1 and frequently for such offences1 as all civilized nations have concurred in punishing4 ,the first charge that you exhibit against them is specifick1 it is that of theft4 ,but how much rather ought you receivers to blush1 who reduce them to such a situation6 who reduce them to the dreadful alternative1 that they must either steal or perish6 ,how much rather ought you receivers to be considered as robbers yourselves1 who cause these unfortunate people to be stolen6 ,and how much greater is your crime1 who are robbers of human liberty6 ,the next charge which you exhibit against them1 is general1 it is that of rebellion2 a crime of such a latitude1 that you can impose it upon almost every action1 and of such a nature1 that you always annex to it the most excruciating pain4 ,but what a contradiction is this to common sense6 ,have the wretched ,africans formally resigned their freedom8 ,have you any other claim upon their obedience1 than that of force8 ,if then they are your subjects1 you violate the laws of government1 by making them unhappy4 ,but if they are not your subjects1 then1 even though they should resist your proceedings1 they are not rebellious4 ,but what do you say to that long catalogue of offences1 which you punish1 and of which no people but yourselves take cognizance at all8 ,you say that the wisdom of legislation has inserted it in the colonial laws1 and that you punish by authority4 ,but do you allude to that execrable code1 that authorises murder8 that tempts an unoffended person to kill the slave1 that abhors and flies your service8 that delegates a power1 which no host of men1 which not all the world1 can possess8-- ,or1--,what do you say to that daily unmerited severity1 which you consider only as common discipline8 ,here you say that the ,africans are vicious1 that they are all of them ill-disposed1 that you must of necessity be severe4 ,but can they be well-disposed to their oppressors8 ,in their own country they were just1 generous1 hospitable3 qualities1 which all the ,african historians allow them eminently to possess4 ,if then they are vicious1 they must have contracted many of their vices from yourselves2 and as to their own native vices1 if any have been imported with them1 are they not amiable1 when compared with yours8 ,thus then do the excuses1 which have been hitherto made by the receivers1 force a relation of such circumstances1 as makes their conduct totally inexcusable1 and1 instead of diminishing at all1 highly aggravates their guilt4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,,vii4 ,we come now to that other system of reasoning1 which is always applied1 when the former is confuted2 that the ,africans are an inferiour link of the chain of nature1 and are made for slavery4 ,this assertion is proved by two arguments2 the first of which was advanced also by the ancients1 and is drawn from the inferiority of their capacities4 ,let us allow then for a moment1 that they appear to have no parts1 that they appear to be void of understanding4 ,and is this wonderful1 when1 you receivers depress their senses by hunger8 ,is this wonderful1 when by incessant labour1 the continual application of the lash1 and the most inhuman treatment that imagination can devise1 you overwhelm their genius1 and hinder it from breaking forth8--,no1--,you confound their abilities by the severity of their servitude3 for as a spark of fire1 if crushed by too great a weight of incumbent fuel1 cannot be blown into a flame1 but suddenly expires1 so the human mind1 if depressed by rigorous servitude1 cannot be excited to a display of those faculties1 which might otherwise have shone with the brightest lustre4 ,neither is it wonderful in another point of view4 ,for what is it that awakens the abilities of men1 and distinguishes them from the common herd8 ,is it not often the amiable hope of becoming serviceable to individuals1 or the state8 ,is it not often the hope of riches1 or of power8 ,is it not frequently the hope of temporary honours1 or a lasting fame8 ,these principles have all a wonderful effect upon the mind4 ,they call upon it to exert its faculties1 and bring those talents to the publick view1 which had otherwise been concealed4 ,but the unfortunate ,africans have no such incitements as these1 that they should shew their genius4 ,they have no hope of riches1 power1 honours1 fame4 ,they have no hope but this1 that their miseries will be soon terminated by death4 ,and here we cannot but censure and expose the murmurings of the unthinking and the gay2 who1 going on in a continual round of pleasure and prosperity1 repine at the will of ,providence1 as exhibited in the shortness of human duration4 ,but let a weak and infirm old age overtake them3 let them experience calamities3 let them feel but half the miseries which the wretched ,africans undergo1 and they will praise the goodness of ,providence1 who hath made them mortal2 who hath prescribed certain ordinary bounds to the life of man2 and who1 by such a limitation1 hath given all men this comfortable hope1 that however persecuted in life1 a time will come1 in the common course of nature1 when their sufferings will have an end4 ,such then is the nature of this servitude1 that we can hardly expect to find in those1 who undergo it1 even the glimpse of genius4 ,for if their minds are in a continual state of depression1 and if they have no expectations in life to awaken their abilities1 and make them eminent1 we cannot be surprized if a sullen gloomy stupidity should be the leading mark in their character2 or if they should appear inferiour to those1 who do not only enjoy the invaluable blessings of freedom1 but have every prospect before their eyes1 that can allure them to exert their faculties4 ,now1 if to these considerations we add1 that the wretched ,africans are torn from their country in a state of nature1 and that in general1 as long as their slavery continues1 every obstacle is placed in the way of their improvement1 we shall have a sufficient answer to any argument that may be drawn from the inferiority of their capacities4 ,it appears then1 from the circumstances that have been mentioned1 that to form a true judgment of the abilities of these unfortunate people1 we must either take a general view of them before their slavery commences1 or confine our attention to such1 as1 after it has commenced1 have had any opportunity given them of shewing their genius either in arts or letters4 ,if1 upon such a fair and impartial view1 there should be any reason to suppose1 that they are at all inferiour to others in the same situation1 the argument will then gain some of that weight and importance1 which it wants at present4 ,in their own country1 where we are to see them first1 we must expect that the prospect will be unfavourable4 ,they are mostly in a savage state4 ,their powers of mind are limited to few objects4 ,their ideas are consequently few4 ,it appears1 however1 that they follow the same mode of life1 and exercise the same arts1 as the ancestors of those very ,europeans1 who boast of their great superiority1 are described to have done in the same uncultivated state4 ,this appears from the ,nubian's ,geography1 the writings of ,leo1 the ,moor1 and all the subsequent histories1 which those1 who have visited the ,african continent1 have written from their own inspection4 ,hence three conclusions2 that their abilities are sufficient for their situation2--that they are as great1 as those of other people have been1 in the same stage of society2--and that they are as great as those of any civilized people whatever1 when the degree of the barbarism of the one is drawn into a comparison with that of the civilization of the other4 ,let us now follow them to the colonies4 ,they are carried over in the unfavourable situation described4 ,it is observed here1 that though their abilities cannot be estimated high from a want of cultivation1 they are yet various1 and that they vary in proportion as the nation1 from which they have been brought1 has advanced more or less in the scale of social life4 ,this observation1 which is so frequently made1 is of great importance3 for if their abilities expand in proportion to the improvement of their state1 it is a clear indication1 that if they were equally improved1 they would be equally ingenious4 ,but here1 before we consider any opportunities that may be afforded them1 let it be remembered that even their most polished situation may be called barbarous1 and that this circumstance1 should they appear less docile than others1 may be considered as a sufficient answer to any objection that may be made to their capacities4 ,notwithstanding this1 when they are put to the mechanical arts1 they do not discover a want of ingenuity4 ,they attain them in as short a time as the ,europeans1 and arrive at a degree of excellence equal to that of their teachers4 ,this is a fact1 almost universally known1 and affords us this proof1 that having learned with facility such of the mechanical arts1 as they have been taught1 they are capable of attaining any other1 at least1 of the same class1 if they should receive but the same instruction4 ,with respect to the liberal arts1 their proficiency is certainly less2 but not less in proportion to their time and opportunity of study2 not less1 because they are less capable of attaining them1 but because they have seldom or ever an opportunity of learning them at all4 ,it is yet extraordinary that their talents appear1 even in some of these sciences1 in which they are totally uninstructed4 ,their abilities in musick are such1 as to have been generally noticed4 ,they play frequently upon a variety of instruments1 without any other assistance than their own ingenuity4 ,they have also tunes of their own composition4 ,some of these have been imported among us2 are now in use2 and are admired for their sprightliness and ease1 though the ungenerous and prejudiced importer has concealed their original4 ,neither are their talents in poetry less conspicuous4 ,every occurrence1 if their spirits are not too greatly depressed1 is turned into a song4 ,these songs are said to be incoherent and nonsensical4 ,but this proceeds principally from two causes1 an improper conjunction of words1 arising from an ignorance of the language in which they compose2 and a wildness of thought1 arising from the different manner1 in which the organs of rude and civilized people will be struck by the same object4 ,and as to their want of harmony and rhyme1 which is the last objection1 the difference of pronunciation is the cause4 ,upon the whole1 as they are perfectly consistent with their own ideas1 and are strictly musical as pronounced by themselves1 they afford us as high a proof of their poetical powers1 as the works of the most acknowledged poets4 ,but where these impediments have been removed1 where they have received an education1 and have known and pronounced the language with propriety1 these defects have vanished1 and their productions have been less objectionable4 ,for a proof of this1 we appeal to the writings of an ,african girl#jfi1 who made no contemptible appearance in this species of composition4 ,she was kidnapped when only eight years old1 and1 in the year #agfa1 was transported to ,america1 where she was sold with other slaves4 ,she had no school education there1 but receiving some little instruction from the family1 with whom she was so fortunate as to live1 she obtained such a knowledge of the ,english language within sixteen months from the time of her arrival1 as to be able to speak it and read it to the astonishment of those who heard her4 ,she soon afterwards learned to write1 and1 having a great inclination to learn the ,latin tongue1 she was indulged by her master1 and made a progress4 ,her ,poetical works were published with his permission1 in the year #aggc4 ,they contain thirty-eight pieces on different subjects4 ,we shall beg leave to make a short extract from two or three of them1 for the observation of the reader4 ,from an ,hymn to the ,evening#jgj4 ,fill'd with the praise of him who gives the light1 ,and draws the sable curtains of the night1 ,let placid slumbers sooth each weary mind1 ,at morn to wake more heav'nly and refin'd2 ,so shall the labours of the day begin1 ,more pure and guarded from the snares of sin4 ----c4 c4 99 99 99 99 99 ,from an ,hymn to the ,morning4 ,aurora hail6 and all the thousand dies1 ,that deck thy progress through the vaulted skies6 ,the morn awakes1 and wide extends her rays1 ,on ev'ry leaf the gentle zephyr plays4 ,harmonious lays the feather'd race resume1 ,dart the bright eye1 and shake the painted plume4 ----c4 c4 99 99 99 99 99 ,from ,thoughts on ,imagination4 ,now here1 now there1 the roving fancy flies1 ,till some lov'd object strikes her wand'ring eyes1 ,whose silken fetters all the senses bind1 ,and soft captivity involves the mind4 ,imagination6 who can sing thy force1 ,or who describe the swiftness of thy course8 ,soaring through air to find the bright abode1 ,th' empyreal palace of the thund'ring ,god1 ,we on thy pinions can surpass the wind1 ,and leave the rolling universe behind3 ,from star to star the mental opticks rove1 ,measure the skies1 and range the realms above4 ,there in one view we grasp the mighty whole1 ,or with new worlds amaze th' unbounded soul4 ----c4 c4 99 99 99 99 99 ,such is the poetry which we produce as a proof of our assertions4 ,how far it has succeeded1 the reader may by this time have determined in his own mind4 ,we shall therefore only beg leave to accompany it with this observation1 that if the authoress was designed for slavery1 7as the argument must confess7 the greater part of the inhabitants of ,britain must lose their claim to freedom4 ,to this poetry we shall only add1 as a farther proof of their abilities1 the ,prose compositions of ,ignatius ,sancho1 who received some little education4 ,his letters are too well known1 to make any extract1 or indeed any farther mention of him1 necessary4 ,if other examples of ,african genius should be required1 suffice it to say1 that they can be produced in abundance2 and that if we were allowed to enumerate instances of ,african gratitude1 patience1 fidelity1 honour1 as so many instances of good sense1 and a sound understanding1 we fear that thousands of the enlightened ,europeans would have occasion to blush4 ,but an objection will be made here1 that the two persons whom we have particularized by name1 are prodigies1 and that if we were to live for many years1 we should scarcely meet with two other ,africans of the same description4 ,but we reply1 that considering their situation as before described1 two persons1 above mediocrity in the literary way1 are as many as can be expected within a certain period of years2 and farther1 that if these are prodigies1 they are only such prodigies as every day would produce1 if they had the same opportunities of acquiring knowledge as other people1 and the same expectations in life to excite their genius4 ,this has been constantly and solemnly asserted by the pious ,benezet#jga1 whom we have mentioned before1 as having devoted a considerable part of his time to their instruction4 ,this great man1 for we cannot but mention him with veneration1 had a better opportunity of knowing them than any person whatever1 and he always uniformly declared1 that he could never find a difference between their capacities and those of other people2 that they were as capable of reasoning as any individual ,europeans2 that they were as capable of the highest intellectual attainments2 in short1 that their abilities were equal1 and that they only wanted to be equally cultivated1 to afford specimens of as fine productions4 ,thus then does it appear from the testimony of this venerable man1 whose authority is sufficient of itself to silence all objections against ,african capacity1 and from the instances that have been produced1 and the observations that have been made on the occasion1 that if the minds of the ,africans were unbroken by slavery2 if they had the same expectations in life as other people1 and the same opportunities of improvement1 they would be equal2 in all the various branches of science1 to the ,europeans1 and that the argument that states them to be an inferiour link of the chain of nature1 and designed for servitude1 as far as it depends on the inferiority of their capacities1 is wholly malevolent and false#jgb4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,footnotes ,footnote #jfi3 ,phillis ,wheatley1 negro slave to ,mr4 ,john ,wheatley1 of ,boston1 in ,new-,england4 ,footnote #jgj3 ,lest it should be doubted whether these ,poems are genuine1 we shall transcribe the names of those1 who signed a certificate of their authenticity4 ,his ,excellency ,thomas ,hutchinson1 ,governor4 ,the ,honourable ,andrew ,oliver1 ,lieutenant ,governor4 ,the ,hon4 ,thomas ,hubbard ,the ,hon4 ,john ,erving ,the ,hon4 ,james ,pitts ,the ,hon4 ,harrison ,gray ,the ,hon4 ,james ,bowdoin ,john ,hancock1 ,esq4 ,joseph ,green1 ,esq4 ,richard ,carey1 ,esq4 ,the ,rev4 ,cha4 ,chauncy1 ,d4,d4 ,the ,rev4 ,mather ,byles1 ,d4,d4 ,the ,rev4 ,ed4 ,pemberton1 ,d4,d4 ,the ,rev4 ,andrew ,elliot1 ,d4,d4 ,the ,rev4 ,sam4 ,cooper1 ,d4,d4 ,the ,rev4 ,samuel ,mather ,the ,rev4 ,john ,moorhead ,mr4 ,john ,wheatley1 her ,master4 ,footnote #jga3 ,in the ,preface4 ,footnote #jgb3 ,as to ,mr4 ,hume's assertions with respect to ,african capacity1 we have passed them over in silence1 as they have been so admirably refuted by the learned ,dr4 ,beattie1 in his ,essay on ,truth1 to which we refer the reader4 ,the whole of this admirable refutation extends from p4 #deh4 to #dfd4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,,viii4 ,the second argument1 by which it is attempted to be proved1 that the ,africans are an inferiour link of the chain of nature1 and are designed for slavery1 is drawn from colour1 and from those other marks1 which distinguish them from the inhabitants of ,europe4 ,to prove this with the greater facility1 the receivers divide in opinion4 ,some of them contend that the ,africans1 from these circumstances1 are the descendants of ,cain#jgc3 others1 that they are the posterity of ,ham2 and that as it was declared by divine inspiration1 that these should be servants to the rest of the world1 so they are designed for slavery2 and that the reducing of them to such a situation is only the accomplishment of the will of heaven3 while the rest1 considering them from the same circumstances as a totally distinct species of men1 conclude them to be an inferiour link of the chain of nature1 and deduce the inference described4 ,to answer these arguments in the clearest and fullest manner1 we are under the necessity of making two suppositions1 first1 that the scriptures are true2 secondly1 that they are false4 ,if then the scriptures are true1 it is evident that the posterity of ,cain were extinguished in the flood4 ,thus one of the arguments is no more4 ,with respect to the curse of ,ham1 it appears also that it was limited2 that it did not extend to the posterity of all his sons1 but only to the descendants of him who was called ,canaan#jgd3 by which it was foretold that the ,canaanites1 a part of the posterity of ,ham1 should serve the posterity of ,shem and ,japhet4 ,now how does it appear that these wretched ,africans are the descendants of ,canaan8--,by those marks1 it will be said1 which distinguish them from the rest of the world4--,but where are these marks to be found in the divine writings8 ,in what page is it said1 that the ,canaanites were to be known by their colour1 their features1 their form1 or the very hair of their heads1 which is brought into the account8--,but alas6 so far are the divine writings from giving any such account1 that they shew the assertion to be false4 ,they shew that the descendants of ,cush#jge were of the colour1 to which the advocates for slavery allude2 and of course1 that there was no such limitation of colour to the posterity of ,canaan1 or the inheritors of the curse4 ,suppose we should now shew1 upon the most undeniable evidence#jgf1 that those of the wretched ,africans1 who are singled out as inheriting the curse1 are the descendants of ,cush or ,phut2 and that we should shew farther1 that but a single remnant of ,canaan1 which was afterwards ruined1 was ever in ,africa at all4--,here all is consternation4-- ,but unfortunately again for the argument1 though wonderfully for the confirmation that the scriptures are of divine original1 the whole prophecy has been completed4 ,a part of the descendants of ,canaan were hewers of wood and drawers of water1 and became tributary and subject to the ,israelites1 or the descendants of ,shem4 ,the ,greeks afterwards1 as well as the ,romans1 who were both the descendants of ,japhet1 not only subdued those who were settled in ,syria and ,palestine1 but pursued and conquered all such as were then remaining4 ,these were the ,tyrians and ,carthaginians3 the former of whom were ruined by ,alexander and the ,greeks1 the latter by ,scipio and the ,romans4 ,it appears then that the second argument is wholly inapplicable and false3 that it is false in its application1 because those1 who were the objects of the curse1 were a totally distinct people3 that it is false in its proof1 because no such distinguishing marks1 as have been specified1 are to be found in the divine writings3 and that1 if the proof could be made out1 it would be now inapplicable1 as the curse has been long completed4 ,with respect to the third argument1 we must now suppose that the scriptures are false2 that mankind did not all spring from the same original2 that there are different species of men4 ,now what must we justly conclude from such a supposition8 ,must we conclude that one species is inferiour to another1 and that the inferiority depends upon their colour1 or their features1 or their form8--,no--,we must now consult the analogy of nature1 and the conclusion will be this3 that as she tempered the bodies of the different species of men in a different degree1 to enable them to endure the respective climates of their habitation1 so she gave them a variety of colour and appearance with a like benevolent design4 ,to sum up the whole4 ,if the scriptures are true1 it is evident that the posterity of ,cain are no more2 that the curse of ,ham has been accomplished2 and that1 as all men were derived from the same stock1 so this variety of appearance in men must either have proceeded from some interposition of the ,deity2 or from a co-operation of certain causes1 which have an effect upon the human frame1 and have the power of changing it more or less from its primitive appearance1 as they happen to be more or less numerous or powerful than those1 which acted upon the frame of man in the first seat of his habitation4 ,if from the interposition of the ,deity1 then we must conclude that he1 who bringeth good out of evil1 produced it for their convenience4 ,if1 from the co-operation of the causes before related1 what argument may not be found against any society of men1 who should happen to differ1 in the points alluded to1 from ourselves8 ,if1 on the other hand1 the scriptures are false1 then it is evident1 that there was neither such a person as ,cain1 nor ,ham1 nor ,canaan2 and that nature bestowed such colour1 features1 and form1 upon the different species of men1 as were best adapted to their situation4 ,thus1 on which ever supposition it is founded1 the whole argument must fall4 ,and indeed it is impossible that it can stand1 even in the eye of common sense4 ,for if you admit the form of men as a justification of slavery1 you may subjugate your own brother3 if features1 then you must quarrel with all the world3 if colour1 where are you to stop8 ,it is evident1 that if you travel from the equator to the northern pole1 you will find a regular gradation of colour from black to white4 ,now if you can justly take him for your slave1 who is of the deepest die1 what hinders you from taking him also1 who only differs from the former but by a shade4 ,thus you may proceed1 taking each in a regular succession to the poles4 ,but who are you1 that thus take into slavery so many people8 ,where do you live yourself8 ,do you live in ,spain1 or in ,france1 or in ,britain8 ,if in either of these countries1 take care lest the whiter natives of the north should have a claim upon yourself4--,but the argument is too ridiculous to be farther noticed4 ,having now silenced the whole argument1 we might immediately proceed to the discussion of other points1 without even declaring our opinion as to which of the suppositions may be right1 on which it has been refuted2 but we do not think ourselves at liberty to do this4 ,the present age would rejoice to find that the scriptures had no foundation1 and would anxiously catch at the writings of him1 who should mention them in a doubtful manner4 ,we shall therefore declare our sentiments1 by asserting that they are true1 and that all mankind1 however various their appearances are derived from the same stock4 ,to prove this1 we shall not produce those innumerable arguments1 by which the scriptures have stood the test of ages1 but advert to a single fact4 ,it is an universal law1 observable throughout the whole creation1 that if two animals of a different species propagate1 their offspring is unable to continue its own species4 ,by this admirable law1 the different species are preserved distinct2 every possibility of confusion is prevented1 and the world is forbidden to be over-run by a race of monsters4 ,now1 if we apply this law to those of the human kind1 who are said to be of a distinct species from each other1 it immediately fails4 ,the mulattoe is as capable of continuing his own species as his father2 a clear and irrefragable proof1 that the scripture#jgg account of the creation is true1 and that ,god1 who hath made the world1 hath made of one blood#jgh all the nations of men that dwell on all the face of the earth4 ,but if this be the case1 it will be said that mankind were originally of one colour2 and it will be asked at the same time1 what it is probable that the colour was1 and how they came to assume so various an appearance8 ,to1 each of these we shall make that reply1 which we conceive to be the most rational4 ,as mankind were originally of the same stock1 so it is evident that they were originally of the same colour4 ,but how shall we attempt to ascertain it8 ,shall we ,englishmen say1 that it was the same as that which we now find to be peculiar to ourselves8--,no--,this would be a vain and partial consideration1 and would betray our judgment to have arisen from that false fondness1 which habituates us to suppose1 that every thing belonging to ourselves is the perfectest and the best4 ,add to this1 that we should always be liable to a just reproof from every inhabitant of the globe1 whose colour was different from our own2 because he would justly say1 that he had as good a right to imagine that his own was the primitive colour1 as that of any other people4 ,how then shall we attempt to ascertain it8 ,shall we look into the various climates of the earth1 see the colour that generally prevails in the inhabitants of each1 and apply the rule8 ,this will be certainly free from partiality1 and will afford us a better prospect of success3 for as every particular district has its particular colour1 so it is evident that the complexion of ,noah and his sons1 from whom the rest of the world were descended1 was the same as that1 which is peculiar to the country1 which was the seat of their habitation4 ,this1 by such a mode of decision1 will be found a dark olive2 a beautiful colour1 and a just medium between white and black4 ,that this was the primitive colour1 is highly probable from the observations that have been made2 and1 if admitted1 will afford a valuable lesson to the ,europeans1 to be cautious how they deride those of the opposite complexion1 as there is great reason to presume1 that the purest white#jgi is as far removed from the primitive colour as the deepest black4 ,we come now to the grand question1 which is1 that if mankind were originally of this or any other colour1 how came it to pass1 that they should wear so various an appearance8 ,we reply1 as we have had occasion to say before1 either by the interposition of the ,deity2 or by a co-operation of certain causes1 which have an effect upon the human frame1 and have the power of changing it more or less from its primitive appearance1 as they are more or less numerous or powerful than those1 which acted upon the frame of man in the first seat of his habitation4 ,with respect to the ,divine interposition1 two epochs have been assigned1 when this difference of colour has been imagined to have been so produced4 ,the first is that1 which has been related1 when the curse was pronounced on a branch of the posterity of ,ham4 ,but this argument has been already refuted2 for if the particular colour alluded to were assigned at this period1 it was assigned to the descendants of ,canaan1 to distinguish them from those of his other brothers1 and was therefore limited to the former4 ,but the descendants of ,cush#jhj1 as we have shewn before1 partook of the same colour2 a clear proof1 that it was neither assigned to them on this occasion1 nor at this period4 ,the second epoch is that1 when mankind were dispersed on the building of ,babel4 ,it has been thought1 that both national features and colour might probably have been given them at this time1 because these would have assisted the confusion of language1 by causing them to disperse into tribes1 and would have united more firmly the individuals of each1 after the dispersion had taken place4 ,but this is improbable3 first1 because there is great reason to presume that ,moses1 who has mentioned the confusion of language1 would have mentioned these circumstances also1 if they had actually contributed to bring about so singular an event3 secondly1 because the confusion of language was sufficient of itself to have accomplished this2 and we cannot suppose that the ,deity could have done any thing in vain3 and thirdly1 because1 if mankind had been dispersed1 each tribe in its peculiar hue1 it is impossible to conceive1 that they could have wandered and settled in such a manner1 as to exhibit that regular gradation of colour from the equator to the poles1 so conspicuous at the present day4 ,these are the only periods1 which there has been even the shadow of a probability for assigning2 and we may therefore conclude that the preceding observations1 together with such circumstances as will appear in the present chapter1 will amount to a demonstration1 that the difference of colour was never caused by any interposition of the ,deity1 and that it must have proceeded therefore from that incidental co-operation of causes1 which has been before related4 ,what these causes are1 it is out of the power of human wisdom positively to assert3 there are facts1 however1 which1 if properly weighed and put together1 will throw considerable light upon the subject4 ,these we shall submit to the perusal of the reader1 and shall deduce from them such inferences only1 as almost every person must make in his own mind1 on their recital4 ,the first point1 that occurs to be ascertained1 is1 ,what part of the skin is the seat of colour8 ,the old anatomists usually divided the skin into two parts1 or lamina2 the exteriour and thinnest1 called by the ,greeks ,epidermis1 by the ,romans ,cuticula1 and hence by us ,cuticle2 and the interiour1 called by the former ,derma1 and by the latter ,cutis1 or true skin4 ,hence they must necessarily have supposed1 that1 as the true skin was in every respect the same in all human subjects1 however various their external hue1 so the seat of colour must have existed in the ,cuticle1 or upper surface4 ,malphigi1 an eminent ,italian physician1 of the last century1 was the first person who discovered that the skin was divided into three lamina1 or parts2 the ,cuticle1 the true skin1 and a certain coagulated substance situated between both1 which he distinguished by the title of ,mucosum ,corpus2 a title retained by anatomists to the present day3 which coagulated substance adhered so firmly to the ,cuticle1 as1 in all former anatomical preparations1 to have come off with it1 and1 from this circumstance to have led the ancient anatomists to believe1 that there were but two lamina1 or divisible portions in the human skin4 ,this discovery was sufficient to ascertain the point in question3 for it appeared afterwards that the ,cuticle1 when divided according to this discovery from the other lamina1 was semi-transparent2 that the cuticle of the blackest negroe was of the same transparency and colour1 as that of the purest white2 and hence1 the true skins of both being invariably the same1 that the mucosum corpus was the seat of colour4 ,this has been farther confirmed by all subsequent anatomical experiments1 by which it appears1 that1 whatever is the colour of this intermediate coagulated substance1 nearly the same is the apparent colour of the upper surface of the skin4 ,neither can it be otherwise2 for the ,cuticle1 from its transparency1 must necessarily transmit the colour of the substance beneath it1 in the same manner1 though not in the same degree1 as the cornea transmits the colour of the iris of the eye4 ,this transparency is a matter of ocular demonstration in white people4 ,it is conspicuous in every blush2 for no one can imagine1 that the cuticle becomes red1 as often as this happens3 nor is it less discoverable in the veins1 which are so easy to be discerned2 for no one can suppose1 that the blue streaks1 which he constantly sees in the fairest complexions1 are painted1 as it were1 on the surface of the upper skin4 ,from these1 and a variety of other observations#jha1 no maxim is more true in physiology1 than that on the mucosum corpus depends the colour of the human body2 or1 in other words1 that the mucosum corpus being of a different colour in different inhabitants of the globe1 and appearing through the cuticle or upper surface of the skin1 gives them that various appearance1 which strikes us so forcibly in contemplating the human race4 ,as this can be incontrovertibly ascertained1 it is evident1 that whatever causes cooperate in producing this different appearance1 they produce it by acting upon the mucosum corpus1 which1 from the almost incredible manner in which the cuticle#jhb is perforated1 is as accessible as the cuticle itself4 ,these causes are probably those various qualities of things1 which1 combined with the influence of the sun1 contribute to form what we call climate4 ,for when any person considers1 that the mucous substance1 before-mentioned1 is found to vary in its colour1 as the climates vary from the equator to the poles1 his mind must be instantly struck with the hypothesis1 and he must adopt it without any hesitation1 as the genuine cause of the phnomenon4 ,this fact#jhc1 of the variation of the mucous substance according to the situation of the place1 has been clearly ascertained in the numerous anatomical experiments that have been made2 in which1 subjects of all nations have come under consideration4 ,the natives of many of the kingdoms and isles of ,asia1 are found to have their corpus mucosum black4 ,those of ,africa1 situated near the line1 of the same colour4 ,those of the maritime parts of the same continent1 of a dusky brown1 nearly approaching to it2 and the colour becomes lighter or darker in proportion as the distance from the equator is either greater or less4 ,the ,europeans are the fairest inhabitants of the world4 ,those situated in the most southern regions of ,europe1 have in their corpus mucosum a tinge of the dark hue of their ,african neighbours3 hence the epidemick complexion1 prevalent among them1 is nearly of the colour of the pickled ,spanish olive2 while in this country1 and those situated nearer the north pole1 it appears to be nearly1 if not absolutely1 white4 ,these are facts#jhd1 which anatomy has established2 and we acknowledge them to be such1 that we cannot divest ourselves of the idea1 that climate has a considerable share in producing a difference of colour4 ,others1 we know1 have invented other hypotheses1 but all of them have been instantly refuted1 as unable to explain the difficulties for which they were advanced1 and as absolutely contrary to fact3 and the inventors themselves have been obliged1 almost as soon as they have proposed them1 to acknowledge them deficient4 ,the only objection of any consequence1 that has ever been made to the hypothesis of climate1 is this1 that people under the same parallels are not exactly of the same colour4 ,but this is no objection in fact3 for it does not follow that those countries1 which are at an equal distance from the equator1 should have their climates the same4 ,indeed nothing is more contrary to experience than this4 ,climate depends upon a variety of accidents4 ,high mountains1 in the neighbourhood of a place1 make it cooler1 by chilling the air that is carried over them by the winds4 ,large spreading succulent plants1 if among the productions of the soil1 have the same effect3 they afford agreeable cooling shades1 and a moist atmosphere from their continual exhalations1 by which the ardour of the sun is considerably abated4 ,while the soil1 on the other hand1 if of a sandy nature1 retains the heat in an uncommon degree1 and makes the summers considerably hotter than those which are found to exist in the same latitude1 where the soil is different4 ,to this proximity of what may be termed burning sands1 and to the sulphurous and metallick particles1 which are continually exhaling from the bowels of the earth1 is ascribed the different degree of blackness1 by which some ,african nations are distinguishable from each other1 though under the same parallels4 ,to these observations we may add1 that though the inhabitants of the same parallel are not exactly of the same hue1 yet they differ only by shades of the same colour2 or1 to speak with more precision1 that there are no two people1 in such a situation1 one of whom is white1 and the other black4 ,to sum up the whole--,suppose we were to take a common globe2 to begin at the equator2 to paint every country along the meridian line in succession from thence to the poles2 and to paint them with the same colour which prevails in the respective inhabitants of each1 we should see the black1 with which we had been obliged to begin1 insensibly changing to an olive1 and the olive1 through as many intermediate colours1 to a white3 and if1 on the other hand1 we should complete any one of the parallels according to the same plan1 we should see a difference perhaps in the appearance of some of the countries through which it ran1 though the difference would consist wholly in shades of the same colour4 ,the argument therefore1 which is brought against the hypothesis1 is so far from being1 an objection1 that we shall consider it one of the first arguments in its favour3 for if climate has really an influence on the mucous substance of the body1 it is evident1 that we must not only expect to see a gradation of colour in the inhabitants from the equator to the poles1 but also different#jhe shades of the same colour in the inhabitants of the same parallel4 ,to this argument1 we shall add one that is incontrovertible1 which is1 that when the black inhabitants of ,africa are transplanted to colder1 or the white inhabitants of ,europe to hotter climates1 their children1 born there1 are of a different colour from themselves2 that is1 lighter in the first1 and darker in the second instance4 ,as a proof of the first1 we shall give the words of the ,abb ,raynal#jhf1 in his admired publication4 ,the children1 says he1 which they1 7the ,africans7 procreate in ,america1 are not so black as their parents were4 ,after each generation the difference becomes more palpable4 ,it is possible1 that after a numerous succession of generations1 the men come from ,africa would not be distinguished from those of the country1 into which they may have been transplanted4 ,this circumstance we have had the pleasure of hearing confirmed by a variety of persons1 who have been witnesses of the fact2 but particularly by many intelligent#jhg ,africans1 who have been parents themselves in ,america1 and who have declared that the difference is so palpable in the northern provinces1 that not only they themselves have constantly observed it1 but that they have heard it observed by others4 ,neither is this variation in the children from the colour of their parents improbable4 ,the children of the blackest ,africans are born white#jhh4 ,in this state they continue for about a month1 when they change to a pale yellow4 ,in process of time they become brown4 ,their skin still continues to increase in darkness with their age1 till it becomes of a dirty1 sallow black1 and at length1 after a certain period of years1 glossy and shining4 ,now1 if climate has any influence on the mucous substance of the body1 this variation in the children from the colour of their parents is an event1 which must be reasonably expected3 for being born white1 and not having equally powerful causes to act upon them in colder1 as their parents had in the hotter climates which they left1 it must necessarily follow1 that the same affect cannot possibly be produced4 ,hence also1 if the hypothesis be admitted1 may be deduced the reason1 why even those children1 who have been brought from their country at an early age into colder regions1 have been observed#jhi to be of a lighter colour than those who have remained at home till they arrived at a state of manhood4 ,for having undergone some of the changes which we mentioned to have attended their countrymen from infancy to a certain age1 and having been taken away before the rest could be completed1 these farther changes1 which would have taken place had they remained at home1 seem either to have been checked in their progress1 or weakened in their degree1 by a colder climate4 ,we come now to the second and opposite case2 for a proof of which we shall appeal to the words of ,dr4 ,mitchell#jij1 in the ,philosophical ,transactions4 ,the ,spaniards who have inhabited ,america under the torrid zone for any time1 are become as dark coloured as our native ,indians of ,virginia1 of which1 ,i myself have been a witness2 and were they not to intermarry with the ,europeans1 but lead the same rude and barbarous lives with the ,indians1 it is very probable that1 in a succession of many generations1 they would become as dark in complexion4 ,to this instance we shall add one1 which is mentioned by a late writer#jia1 who describing the ,african coast1 and the ,european settlements there1 has the following passage4 ,there are several other small ,portuguese settlements1 and one of some note at ,mitomba1 a river in ,sierra ,leon4 ,the people here called ,portuguese1 are principally persons bred from a mixture of the first ,portuguese discoverers with the natives1 and now become1 in their complexion and woolly quality of their hair1 perfect negroes1 retaining however a smattering of the ,portuguese language4 ,these facts1 with respect to the colonists of the ,europeans1 are of the highest importance in the present case1 and deserve a serious attention4 ,for when we know to a certainty from whom they are descended2 when we know that they were1 at the time of their transplantation1 of the same colour as those from whom they severally sprung2 and when1 on the other hand1 we are credibly informed1 that they have changed it for the native colour of the place which they now inhabit2 the evidence in support of these facts is as great1 as if a person1 on the removal of two or three families into another climate1 had determined to ascertain the circumstance2 as if he had gone with them and watched their children2 as if he had communicated his observations at his death to a successor2 as if his successor had prosecuted the plan1 and thus an uninterrupted chain of evidence had been kept up from their first removal to any determined period of succeeding time4 ,but though these facts seem sufficient of themselves to confirm our opinion1 they are not the only facts which can be adduced in its support4 ,it can be shewn1 that the members of the very same family1 when divided from each other1 and removed into different countries1 have not only changed their family complexion1 but that they have changed it to as many different colours as they have gone into different regions of the world4 ,we cannot have1 perhaps1 a more striking instance of this1 than in the ,jews4 ,these people1 are scattered over the face of the whole earth4 ,they have preserved themselves distinct from the rest of the world by their religion2 and1 as they never intermarry with any but those of their own sect1 so they have no mixture of blood in their veins1 that they should differ from each other3 and yet nothing is more true1 than that the ,english ,jew#jib is white1 the ,portuguese swarthy1 the ,armenian olive1 and the ,arabian copper2 in short1 that there appear to be as many different species of ,jews1 as there are countries in which they reside4 ,to these facts we shall add the following observation1 that if we can give credit to the ancient historians in general1 a change from the darkest black to the purest white must have actually been accomplished4 ,one instance1 perhaps1 may be thought sufficient4 ,herodotus#jic relates1 that the ,colchi were black1 and that they had crisped hair4 ,these people were a detachment of the thiopian army under ,sesostris1 who followed him in his expedition1 and settled in that part of the world1 where ,colchis is usually represented to have been situated4 ,had not the same author informed us of this circumstance1 we should have thought it strange#jid1 that a people of this description should have been found in such a latitude4 ,now as they were undoubtedly settled there1 and as they were neither so totally destroyed1 nor made any such rapid conquests1 as that history should notice the event1 there is great reason to presume1 that their descendants continued in the same1 or settled in the adjacent country2 from whence it will follow1 that they must have changed their complexion to that1 which is observable in the inhabitants of this particular region at the present day2 or1 in other words1 that the black inhabitant of ,colchis must have been changed into the fair ,circassian#jie4 ,as we have now shewn it to be highly probable1 from the facts which have been advanced1 that climate is the cause of the difference of colour which prevails in the different inhabitants of the globe1 we shall now shew its probability from so similar an effect produced on the mucous substance before-mentioned by so similar a cause1 that though the fact does not absolutely prove our conjecture to be right1 yet it will give us a very lively conception of the manner1 in which the phnomenon may be caused4 ,this probability may be shewn in the case of freckles1 which are to be seen in the face of children1 but of such only1 as have the thinnest and most transparent skins1 and are occasioned by the rays of the sun1 striking forcibly on the mucous substance of the face1 and drying the accumulating fluid4 ,this accumulating fluid1 or perspirable matter1 is at first colourless2 but being exposed to violent heat1 or dried1 becomes brown4 ,hence1 the mucosum corpus being tinged in various parts by this brown coagulated fluid1 and the parts so tinged appearing through the cuticle1 or upper surface of the skin1 arises that spotted appearance1 observable in the case recited4 ,now1 if we were to conceive a black skin to be an universal freckle1 or the rays of the sun to act so universally on the mucous substance of a person's face1 as to produce these spots so contiguous to each other that they should unite1 we should then see1 in imagination1 a face similar to those1 which are daily to be seen among black people3 and if we were to conceive his body to be exposed or acted upon in the same manner1 we should then see his body assuming a similar appearance2 and thus we should see the whole man of a perfect black1 or resembling one of the naked inhabitants of the torrid zone4 ,now as the feat of freckles and of blackness is the same2 as their appearance is similar2 and as the cause of the first is the ardour of the sun1 it is therefore probable that the cause of the second is the same3 hence1 if we substitute for the word sun1 what is analogous to it1 the word climate1 the same effect may be supposed to be produced1 and the conjecture to receive a sanction4 ,nor is it unlikely that the hypothesis1 which considers the cause of freckles and of blackness as the same1 may be right4 ,for if blackness is occasioned by the rays of the sun striking forcibly and universally on the mucous substance of the body1 and drying the accumulating fluid1 we can account for the different degrees of it to be found in the different inhabitants of the globe4 ,for as the quantity of perspirable fluid1 and the force of the solar rays is successively increased1 as the climates are successively warmer1 from any given parallel to the line1 it follows that the fluid1 with which the mucous substance will be stained1 will be successively thicker and deeper coloured2 and hence1 as it appears through the cuticle1 the complexion successively darker2 or1 what amounts to the same thing1 there will be a difference of colour in the inhabitants of every successive parallel4 ,from these1 and the whole of the preceding observations on the subject1 we may conclude1 that as all the inhabitants of the earth cannot be otherwise than the children of the same parents1 and as the difference of their appearance must have of course proceeded from incidental causes1 these causes are a combination of those qualities1 which we call climate2 that the blackness of the ,africans is so far ingrafted in their constitution1 in a course of many generations1 that their children wholly inherit it1 if brought up in the same spot1 but that it is not so absolutely interwoven in their nature1 that it cannot be removed1 if they are born and settled in another2 that ,noah and his sons were probably of an olive complexion2 that those of their descendants1 who went farther to the south1 became of a deeper olive or copper2 while those1 who went still farther1 became of a deeper copper or black2 that those1 on the other hand1 who travelled farther to the north1 became less olive or brown1 while those who went still farther than the former1 became less brown or white2 and that if any man were to point out any one of the colours which prevails in the human complexion1 as likely to furnish an argument1 that the people of such a complexion were of a different species from the rest1 it is probable that his own descendants1 if removed to the climate to which this complexion is peculiar1 would1 in the course of a few generations1 degenerate into the same colour4 ,having now replied to the argument1 that the ,africans are an inferiour link of the chain of nature1 as far as it depended on their capacity and colour1 we shall now only take notice of an expression1 which the receivers before-mentioned are pleased to make use of1 that they are made for slavery4 ,had the ,africans been made for slavery1 or to become the property of any society of men1 it is clear1 from the observations that have been made in the second part of this ,essay1 that they must have been created devoid of reason3 but this is contrary to fact4 ,it is clear also1 that there must have been1 many and evident signs of the inferiority of their nature1 and that this society of men must have had a natural right to their dominion3 but this is equally false4 ,no such signs of inferiority are to be found in the one1 and the right to dominion in the other is incidental3 for in what volume of nature or religion is it written1 that one society of men should breed slaves for the benefit1 of another8 ,nor is it less evident that they would have wanted many of those qualities which they have1 and which brutes have not3 they would have wanted that spirit of liberty1 that sense of ignominy and shame#jif1 which so frequently drives them to the horrid extremity of finishing their own existence4 ,nor would they have been endowed with a contemplative power2 for such a power would have been unnecessary to people in such a situation2 or rather1 its only use could have been to increase their pain4 ,we cannot suppose therefore that ,god has made an order of beings1 with such mental qualities and powers1 for the sole purpose of being used as beasts1 or instruments of labour4 ,and here1 what a dreadful argument presents itself against you receivers8 ,for if they have no understandings as you confess1 then is your conduct impious1 because1 as they cannot perceive the intention of your punishment1 your severities cannot make them better4 ,but if1 on the other hand1 they have had understandings1 7which has evidently appeared7 then is your conduct equally impious1 who1 by destroying their faculties by the severity of your discipline1 have reduced men2 who had once the power of reason1 to an equality with the brute creation4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,footnotes ,footnote #jgc3 ,genesis1 ch4 iv4 #ae4 ,footnote #jgd3 ,genesis1 ch4 ix4 #be1 #bf1 #bg4 ,footnote #jge3 ,jeremiah says1 ch4 xiii4 #bc1 ,can the thiopian change his colour1 or the leopard his spots8 ,now the word1 which is here translated thiopian1 is in the original ,hebrew the descendant of ,cush1 which shews that this colour was not confined to the descendants of ,canaan1 as the advocates for slavery assert4 ,footnote #jgf3 ,it is very extraordinary that the advocates for slavery should consider those ,africans1 whom they call negroes1 as the descendants of ,canaan1 when few historical facts can be so well ascertained1 as that out of the descendants of the four sons of ,ham1 the descendants of ,canaan were the only people1 7if we except the ,carthaginians1 who were a colony of ,canaan1 and were afterwards ruined7 who did not settle in that quarter of the globe4 ,africa was incontrovertibly peopled by the posterity of the three other sons4 ,we cannot shew this in a clearer manner1 than in the words of the learned ,mr4 ,bryant1 in his letter to ,mr4 ,granville ,sharp on this subject4 ,we learn from scripture1 that ,ham had four sons1 ,chus1 ,mizraim1 ,phut1 and ,canaan1 ,gen4 x4 #e1 #f4 ,canaan occupied ,palestine1 and the country called by his name3 ,mizraim1 ,egypt3 but ,phut passed deep into ,africa1 and1 ,i believe1 most of the nations in that part of the world are descended from him2 at least more than from any other person4 ,josephus says1 that ,phut was the founder of the nations in ,libya1 and the people were from him called 7phoutoi7 ,phuti4 ,antiq4 ,l4 #a4 c4 #g4 ,by ,lybia he understands1 as the ,greeks did1 ,africa in general3 for the particular country called ,lybia ,proper1 was peopled by the ,lubim1 or ,lehabim1 one of the branches from ,mizraim1 7,labieim ex ou ,libnes7 ,chron4 ,paschale1 p4 #bi4 ,the sons of ,phut settled in ,mauritania1 where was a country called ,phutia1 and a river of the like denomination4 ,mauritani ,fluvius usque ad prsens ,tempus ,phut dicitur1 omnisq2 circa eum ,regio ,phutensis4 ,hieron4 ,tradit4 ,hebroe4--,amnem1 quem vocant ,fut4 ,pliny1 ,l4 #e4 c4 #a4 ,some of this family settled above gypt1 near thiopia1 and were styled ,troglodyt4 7phoud ex ou troglodotai74 ,syncellus1 p4 #dg4 ,many of them passed inland1 and peopled the ,mediterranean country4 ,in process of time the sons of ,chus also1 7after their expulsion from ,egypt7 made settlements upon the sea coast of ,africa1 and came into ,mauritania4 ,hence we find traces of them also in the names of places1 such as ,churis1 ,chusares1 upon the coast3 and a river ,chusa1 and a city ,cotta1 together with a promontory1 ,cotis1 in ,mauritania1 all denominated from ,chus2 who at different times1 and by different people1 was called ,chus1 ,cuth1 ,cosh1 and ,cotis4 ,the river ,cusa is mentioned by ,pliny1 ,lib4 #e4 c4 #a4 and by ,ptolomy4 ,many ages after these settlements1 there was another eruption of the ,cushites into these parts1 under the name of ,saracens and ,moors1 who over-ran ,africa1 to the very extremity of ,mount ,atlas4 ,they passed over and conquered ,spain to the north1 and they extended themselves southward1 as ,i said in my treatise1 to the rivers ,senegal and ,gambia1 and as low as the ,gold ,coast4 ,i mentioned this1 because ,i do not think that they proceeded much farther3 most of the nations to the south being1 as ,i imagine1 of the race of ,phut4 ,the very country upon the river ,gambia on one side1 is at this day called ,phuta1 of which ,bluet1 in his history of ,juba ,ben ,solomon1 gives an account4 ,footnote #jgg3 ,when ,america was first discovered1 it was thought by some1 that the scripture account of the creation was false1 and that there were different species of men1 because they could never suppose that people1 in so rude a state as the ,americans1 could have transported themselves to that continent from any parts of the known world4 ,this opinion however was refuted by the celebrated ,captain ,cooke1 who shewed that the traject between the continents of ,asia and ,america1 was as short as some1 which people in as rude a state have been actually known to pass4 ,this affords an excellent caution against an ill-judged and hasty censure of the divine writings1 because every difficulty which may be started1 cannot be instantly cleared up4 ,footnote #jgh3 ,the divine writings1 which assert that all men were derived from the same stock1 shew also1 in the same instance of ,cush1 7,footnote #jge71 that some of them had changed their original complexion4 ,footnote #jgi3 ,the following are the grand colours discernible in mankind1 between which there are many shades2 ,white ,copper --,olive-- ,brown ,black ,footnote #jhj3 ,see note1 7,footnote #jge74 ,to this we may add1 that the rest of the descendants of ,ham1 as far as they can be traced1 are now also black1 at well as many of the descendants of ,shem4 ,footnote #jha3 ,diseases have a great effect upon the mucosum corpus1 but particularly the jaundice1 which turns it yellow4 ,hence1 being transmitted through the cuticle1 the yellow appearance of the whole body4 ,but this1 even as a matter of ocular demonstration1 is not confined solely to white people2 negroes themselves1 while affected with these or other disorders1 changing their black colour for that which the disease has conveyed to the mucous substance4 ,footnote #jhb3 ,the cutaneous pores are so excessively small1 that one grain of sand1 7according to ,dr4 ,lewenhoeck's calculations7 would cover many hundreds of them4 ,footnote #jhc3 ,we do not mean to insinuate that the same people have their corpus mucosum sensibly vary1 as often as they go into another latitude1 but that the fact is true only of different people1 who have been long established in different latitudes4 ,footnote #jhd3 ,we beg leave to return our thanks here to a gentleman1 eminent in the medical line1 who furnished us with the above-mentioned facts4 ,footnote #jhe3 ,suppose we were to see two nations1 contiguous to each other1 of black and white inhabitants in the same parallel1 even this would be no objection1 for many circumstances are to be considered4 ,a black people may have wandered into a white1 and a white people into a black latitude1 and they may not have been settled there a sufficient length of time for such a change to have been accomplished in their complexion1 as that they should be like the old established inhabitants of the parallel1 into which they have lately come4 ,footnote #jhf3 ,justamond's ,abbe ,raynal1 v4 #e4 p4 #aic4 ,footnote #jhg3 ,the author of this ,essay made it his business to inquire of the most intelligent of those1 whom he could meet with in ,london1 as to the authenticity of the fact4 ,all those from ,america assured him that it was strictly true2 those from the ,west-,indies1 that they had never observed it there2 but that they had found a sensible difference in themselves since they came to ,england4 ,footnote #jhh3 ,this circumstance1 which always happens1 shews that they are descended from the same parents as ourselves2 for had they been a distinct species of men1 and the blackness entirely ingrafted in their constitution and frame1 there is great reason to presume1 that their children would have been born black4 ,footnote #jhi3 ,this observation was communicated to us by the gentleman in the medical line1 to whom we returned our thanks for certain anatomical facts4 ,footnote #jij3 ,philos4 ,trans4 ,no4 #dgf4 sect4 #d4 ,footnote #jia3 ,treatise upon the ,trade from ,great ,britain to ,africa1 by an ,african merchant4 ,footnote #jib3 ,we mean such only as are natives of the countries which we mention1 and whose ancestors have been settled there for a certain period of time4 ,footnote #jic3 ,herodotus4 ,euterpe4 p4 #hj4 ,editio ,stephani1 printed #aegj4 ,footnote #jid3 ,this circumstance confirms what we said in a former note1 7,footnote #jhe71 that even if two nations were to be found in the same parallel1 one of whom was black1 and the other white1 it would form no objection against the hypothesis of climate1 as one of them might have been new settlers from a distant country4 ,footnote #jie3 ,suppose1 without the knowledge of any historian1 they had made such considerable conquests1 as to have settled themselves at the distance of #ajjj miles in any one direction from ,colchis1 still they must have changed their colour4 ,for had they gone in an ,eastern or ,western direction1 they must have been of the same colour as the ,circassians2 if to the north1 whiter2 if to the south1 of a copper4 ,there are no people within that distance of ,colchis1 who are black4 ,footnote #jif3 ,there are a particular people among those transported from ,africa to the colonies1 who immediately on receiving punishment1 destroy themselves4 ,this is a fact which the receivers are unable to contradict4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,,ix4 ,the reader may perhaps think1 that the receivers have by this time expended all their arguments1 but their store is not so easily exhausted4 ,they are well aware that justice1 nature1 and religion1 will continue1 as they have ever uniformly done1 to oppose their conduct4 ,this has driven them to exert their ingenuity1 and has occasioned that multiplicity of arguments to be found in the present question4 ,these arguments are of a different complexion from the former4 ,they consist in comparing the state of slaves with that of some of the classes of free men1 and in certain scenes of felicity1 which the former are said to enjoy4 ,it is affirmed that the punishments which the ,africans undergo1 are less severe than the military2 that their life is happier than that of the ,english peasant2 that they have the advantages of manumission2 that they have their little spots of ground1 their holy-days1 their dances2 in short1 that their life is a scene of festivity and mirth1 and that they are much happier in the colonies than in their own country4 ,these representations1 which have been made out with much ingenuity and art1 may have had their weight with the unwary2 but they will never pass with men of consideration and sense1 who are accustomed to estimate the probability of things1 before they admit them to be true4 ,indeed the bare assertion1 that their situation is even comfortable1 contains its own refutation1 or at least leads us to suspect that the person1 who asserted it1 has omitted some important considerations in the account4 ,such we shall shew to have been actually the case1 and that the representations of the receivers1 when stripped of their glossy ornaments1 are but empty declamation4 ,it is said1 first1 of military punishments1 that they are more severe than those which the ,africans undergo4 ,but this is a bare assertion without a proof4 ,it is not shewn even by those1 who assert it1 how the fact can be made out4 ,we are left therefore to draw the comparison ourselves1 and to fill up those important considerations1 which we have just said that the receivers had omitted4 ,that military punishments are severe we confess1 but we deny that they are severer than those with which they are compared4 ,where is the military man1 whose ears have been slit1 whose limbs have been mutilated1 or whose eyes have been beaten out8 ,but let us even allow1 that their punishments are equal in the degree of their severity3 still they must lose by comparison4 ,the soldier is never punished but after a fair and equitable trial1 and the decision of a military court2 the unhappy ,african1 at the discretion of his ,lord4 ,the one knows what particular conduct will constitute an offence#jig2 the other has no such information1 as he is wholly at the disposal of passion and caprice1 which may impose upon any action1 however laudable1 the appellation of a crime4 ,the former has it of course in his power to avoid a punishment2 the latter is never safe4 ,the former is punished for a real1 the latter1 often1 for an imaginary fault4 ,now will any person assert1 on comparing the whole of those circumstances together1 which relate to their respective punishments1 that there can be any doubt1 which of the two are in the worst situation1 as to their penal systems8 ,with respect to the declaration1 that the life of an ,african in the colonies is happier than that of an ,english peasant1 it is equally false4 ,indeed we can scarcely withhold our indignation1 when we consider1 how shamefully the situation of this latter class of men has been misrepresented1 to elevate the former to a state of fictitious happiness4 ,if the representations of the receivers be true1 it is evident that those of the most approved writers1 who have placed a considerable share of happiness in the cottage1 have been mistaken in their opinion2 and that those of the rich1 who have been heard to sigh1 and envy the felicity of the peasant1 have been treacherous to their own sensations4 ,but which are we to believe on the occasion8 ,those1 who endeavour to dress vice in the habit of virtue1 or those1 who derive their opinion from their own feelings8 ,the latter are surely to be believed2 and we may conclude therefore1 that the horrid picture which is given of the life of the peasant1 has not so just a foundation as the receivers would1 lead us to suppose4 ,for has he no pleasure in the thought1 that he lives in his own country1 and among his relations and friends8 ,that he is actually free1 and that his children will be the same8 ,that he can never be sold as a beast8 ,that he can speak his mind without the fear of the lash8 ,that he cannot even be struck with impunity8 ,and that he partakes1 equally with his superiours1 of the protection of the law8--,now1 there is no one of these advantages which the ,african possesses1 and no one1 which the defenders of slavery take into their account4 ,of the other comparisons that are usually made1 we may observe in general1 that1 as they consist in comparing the iniquitous practice of slavery with other iniquitous practices in force among other nations1 they can neither raise it to the appearance of virtue1 nor extenuate its guilt4 ,the things compared are in these instances both of them evils alike4 ,they call equally for redress#jih1 and are equally disgraceful to the governments which suffer them1 if not encourage them1 to exist4 ,to attempt therefore to justify one species of iniquity by comparing it with another1 is no justification at all2 and is so far from answering the purpose1 for which the comparison is intended1 as to give us reason to suspect1 that the comparer has but little notion either of equity or honour4 ,we come now to those scenes of felicity1 which slaves are said to enjoy4 ,the first advantage which they are said to experience1 is that of manumission4 ,but here the advocates for slavery conceal an important circumstance4 ,they expatiate indeed on the charms of freedom1 and contend that it must be a blessing in the eyes of those1 upon whom it is conferred4 ,we perfectly agree with them in this particular4 ,but they do not tell us that these advantages are confined2 that they are confined to some favourite domestick2 that not one in an hundred enjoy them2 and that they are never extended to those1 who are employed in the cultivation of the field1 as long as they can work4 ,these are they1 who are most to be pitied1 who are destined to perpetual drudgery2 and of whom no one whatever has a chance of being freed from his situation1 till death either releases him at once1 or age renders him incapable of continuing his former labour4 ,and here let it be remarked1 to the disgrace of the receivers1 that he is then made free1 not--as a reward for his past services1 but1 as his labour is then of little or no value1--to save the tax#jii4 ,with the same artifice is mention also made of the little spots1 or gardens1 as they are called1 which slaves are said to possess from the liberality of the receivers4 ,but people must not be led away by agreeable and pleasant sounds4 ,they must not suppose that these gardens are made for flowers2 or that they are places of amusement1 in which they can spend their time in botanical researches and delights4 ,alas1 they do not furnish them with a theme for such pleasing pursuits and speculations6 ,they must be cultivated in those hours1 which ought to be appropriated to rest#ajj2 and they must be cultivated1 not for an amusement1 but to make up1 if it be possible1 the great deficiency in their weekly allowance of provisions4 ,hence it appears1 that the receivers have no merit whatever in such an appropriation of land to their unfortunate slaves3 for they are either under the necessity of doing this1 or of losing them by the jaws of famine4 ,and it is a notorious fact1 that1 with their weekly allowance1 and the produce of their spots together1 it is often with the greatest difficulty that they preserve a wretched existence4 ,the third advantage which they are said to experience1 is that of holy-days1 or days of respite from their usual discipline and fatigue4 ,this is certainly a great indulgence1 and ought to be recorded to the immortal honour of the receivers4 ,we wish we could express their liberality in those handsome terms1 in which it deserves to be represented1 or applaud them sufficiently for deviating for once from the rigours of servile discipline4 ,but we confess1 that we are unequal to the task1 and must therefore content ourselves with observing1 that while the horse has one day in seven to refresh his limbs1 the happy ,african#aja has but one in fifty-two1 as a relaxation from his labours4 ,with respect to their dances1 on which such a particular stress has been generally laid1 we fear that people may have been as shamefully deceived1 as in the former instances4 ,for from the manner in which these are generally mentioned1 we should almost be led to imagine1 that they had certain hours allowed them for the purpose of joining in the dance1 and that they had every comfort and convenience1 that people are generally supposed to enjoy on such convivial occasions4 ,but this is far from the case4 ,reason informs us1 that it can never be4 ,if they wish for such innocent recreations1 they must enjoy them in the time that is allotted them for sleep2 and so far are these dances from proceeding from any uncommon degree of happiness1 which excites them to convivial society1 that they proceed rather from an uncommon depression of spirits1 which makes them even sacrifice their rest#ajb1 for the sake of experiencing for a moment a more joyful oblivion of their cares4 ,for suppose any one of the receivers1 in the middle of a dance1 were to address his slaves in the following manner3 ,africans6 ,i begin at last to feel for your situation2 and my conscience is severely hurt1 whenever ,i reflect that ,i have been reducing those to a state of misery and pain1 who have never given me offence4 ,you seem to be fond of these exercises1 but yet you are obliged to take them at such unseasonable hours1 that they impair your health1 which is sufficiently broken by the intolerable share of labour which ,i have hitherto imposed upon you4 ,i will therefore make you a proposal4 ,will you be content to live in the colonies1 and you shall have the half of every week entirely to yourselves8 or will you choose to return to your miserable1 wretched country8--,but what is that which strikes their ears8 ,which makes them motionless in an instant8 ,which interrupts the festive scene8--their country8--transporting sound6--,behold6 they are now flying from the dance3 you may see them running to the shore1 and1 frantick as it were with joy1 demanding with open arms an instantaneous passage to their beloved native plains4 ,such are the colonial delights1 by the representation of which the receivers would persuade us1 that the ,africans are taken from their country to a region of conviviality and mirth2 and that like those1 who leave their usual places of residence for a summer's amusement1 they are conveyed to the colonies--to bathe1--to dance1--to keep holy-day1--to be jovial4--,but there is something so truly ridiculous in the attempt to impose these scenes of felicity on the publick1 as scenes which fall to the lot of slaves1 that the receivers must have been driven to great extremities1 to hazard them to the eye of censure4 ,the last point that remains to be considered1 is the shameful assertion1 that the ,africans are much happier in the colonies1 than in their own country4 ,but in what does this superiour happiness consist8 ,in those real scenes1 it must be replied1 which have been just mentioned2 for these1 by the confession of the receivers1 constitute the happiness they enjoy4--,but it has been shewn that these have been unfairly represented2 and1 were they realized in the most extensive latitude1 they would not confirm the fact4 ,for if1 upon a recapitulation1 it consists in the pleasure of manumission1 they surely must have passed their lives in a much more comfortable manner1 who1 like the ,africans at home1 have had no occasion for such a benefit at all4 ,but the receivers1 we presume1 reason upon this principle1 that we never know the value of a blessing but by its loss4 ,this is generally true3 but would any one of them make himself a slave for years1 that he might run the chance of the pleasures of manumission8 ,or that he might taste the charms of liberty with a greater relish8 ,nor is the assertion less false in every other consideration4 ,for if their happiness consists in the few holy-days1 which in the colonies they are permitted to enjoy1 what must be their situation in their own country1 where the whole year is but one continued holy-day1 or cessation from discipline and fatigue8--,if in the possession of a mean and contracted spot1 what must be their situation1 where a whole region is their own1 producing almost spontaneously the comforts of life1 and requiring for its cultivation none of those hours1 which should be appropriated to sleep8--,if in the pleasures of the colonial dance1 what must it be in their own country1 where they may dance for ever2 where there is no stated hour to interrupt their felicity1 no intolerable labour immediately to succeed their recreations1 and no overseer to receive them under the discipline of the lash8--,if these therefore are the only circumstances1 by which the assertion can be proved1 we may venture to say1 without fear of opposition1 that it can never be proved at all4 ,but these are not the only circumstances4 ,it is said that they are barbarous at home4--,but do you receivers civilize them8--,your unwillingness to convert them to ,christianity1 because you suppose you must use them more kindly when converted1 is but a bad argument in favour of the fact4 ,it is affirmed again1 that their manner of life1 and their situation is such in their own country1 that to say they are happy is a jest4 ,but who are you1 who pretend to judge#ajc of another man's happiness8 ,that state which each man1 under the guidance of his maker1 forms for himself1 and not one man for another8 ,to know what constitutes mine or your happiness1 is the sole prerogative of him who created us1 and cast us in so various and different moulds4 ,did your slaves ever complain to you of their unhappiness1 amidst their native woods and desarts8 ,or1 rather1 let me ask1 did they ever cease complaining of their condition under you their lordly masters8 ,where they see1 indeed1 the accommodations of civil life1 but see them all pass to others1 themselves unbenefited by them4 ,be so gracious then1 ye petty tyrants over human freedom1 to let your slaves judge for themselves1 what it is which makes their own happiness1 and then see whether they do not place it in the return to their own country1 rather than in the contemplation of your grandeur1 of which their misery makes so large a part4 ,but since you speak with so much confidence on the subject1 let us ask you receivers again1 if you have ever been informed by your unfortunate slaves1 that they had no connexions in the country from which they have forcibly been torn away3 or1 if you will take upon you to assert1 that they never sigh1 when they are alone2 or that they never relate to each other their tales of misery and woe4 ,but you judge of them1 perhaps1 in an happy moment1 when you are dealing out to them their provisions for the week2 and are but little aware1 that1 though the countenance may be cheered with a momentary smile1 the heart may be exquisitely tortured4 ,were you to shew us1 indeed1 that there are laws1 subject to no evasion1 by which you are obliged to clothe and feed them in a comfortable manner2 were you to shew us that they are protected#ajd at all2 or that even one in a thousand of those masters have suffered death#aje1 who have been guilty of premeditated murder to their slaves1 you would have a better claim to our belief3 but you can neither produce the instances nor the laws4 ,the people1 of whom you speak1 are slaves1 are your own property1 are wholly at your own disposal2 and this idea is sufficient to overturn your assertions of their happiness4 ,but we shall now mention a circumstance1 which1 in the present case1 will have more weight than all the arguments which have hitherto been advanced4 ,it is an opinion1 which the ,africans universally entertain1 that1 as soon as death shall release them from the hands of their oppressors1 they shall immediately be wafted back to their native plains1 there to exist again1 to enjoy the sight of their beloved countrymen1 and to spend the whole of their new existence in scenes of tranquillity and delight2 and so powerfully does this notion operate upon them1 as to drive them frequently to the horrid extremity of putting a period to their lives4 ,now if these suicides are frequent1 7which no person can deny7 what are they but a proof1 that the situation of those who destroy themselves must have been insupportably wretched3 and if the thought of returning to their country after death1 when they have experienced the colonial joys1 constitutes their supreme felicity1 what are they but a proof1 that they think there is as much difference between the two situations1 as there is between misery and delight8 ,nor is the assertion of the receivers less liable to a refutation in the instance of those1 who terminate their own existence1 than of those1 whom nature releases from their persecutions4 ,they die with a smile upon their face1 and their funerals are attended by a vast concourse of their countrymen1 with every possible demonstration of joy#ajf4 ,but why this unusual mirth1 if their departed brother has left an happy place8 ,or if he has been taken from the care of an indulgent master1 who consulted his pleasures1 and administered to his wants8 ,but alas1 it arises from hence1 that he is gone to his happy country3 a circumstance1 sufficient of itself1 to silence a myriad of those specious arguments1 which the imagination has been racked1 and will always be racked to produce1 in favour of a system of tyranny and oppression4 ,it remains only1 that we should now conclude the chapter with a fact1 which will shew that the account1 which we have given of the situation of slaves1 is strictly true1 and will refute at the same time all the arguments which have hitherto been1 and may yet be brought by the receivers1 to prove that their treatment is humane4 ,in one of the western colonies of the ,europeans1 #ajgsix hundred and fifty thousand slaves were imported within an hundred years2 at the expiration of which time1 their whole posterity were found to amount to one hundred and forty thousand4 ,this fact will ascertain the treatment of itself4 ,for how shamefully must these unfortunate people have been oppressed8 ,what a dreadful havock must famine1 fatigue1 and cruelty1 have made among them1 when we consider1 that the descendants of six hundred and fifty thousand people in the prime of life1 gradually imported within a century1 are less numerous than those1 which only ten thousand#ajh would have produced in the same period1 under common advantages1 and in a country congenial to their constitutions8 ,but the receivers have probably great merit on the occasion4 ,let us therefore set it down to their humanity4 ,let us suppose for once1 that this incredible waste of the human species proceeds from a benevolent design2 that1 sensible of the miseries of a servile state1 they resolve to wear out1 as fast as they possibly can1 their unfortunate slaves1 that their miseries may the sooner end1 and that a wretched posterity may be prevented from sharing their parental condition4 ,now1 whether this is the plan of reasoning which the receivers adopt1 we cannot take upon us to decide2 but true it is1 that the effect produced is exactly the same1 as if they had reasoned wholly on this benevolent principle4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,footnotes ,footnote #jig3 ,the articles of war are frequently read at the head of every regiment in the service1 stating those particular actions which are to be considered as crimes4 ,footnote #jih3 ,we cannot omit here to mention one of the customs1 which has been often brought as a palliation of slavery1 and which prevailed but a little time ago1 and we are doubtful whether it does not prevail now1 in the metropolis of this country1 of kidnapping men for the service of the ,east-,india ,company4 ,every subject1 as long as he behaves well1 has a right to the protection of government2 and the tacit permission of such a scene of iniquity1 when it becomes known1 is as much a breach of duty in government1 as the conduct of those subjects1 who1 on other occasions1 would be termed1 and punished as1 rebellious4 ,footnote #jii3 ,the expences of every parish are defrayed by a poll-tax on negroes1 to save which they pretend to liberate those who are past labour2 but they still keep them employed in repairing fences1 or in doing some trifling work on a scanty allowance4 ,for to free a field-negroe1 so long as he can work1 is a maxim1 which1 notwithstanding the numerous boasted manumissions1 no master ever thinks of adopting in the colonies4 ,footnote #ajj3 ,they must be cultivated always on a ,sunday1 and frequently in those hours which should be appropriated to sleep1 or the wretched possessors must be inevitably starved4 ,footnote #aja3 ,they are allowed in general three holy-days at ,christmas1 but in ,jamaica they have two also at ,easter1 and two at ,whitsuntide3 so that on the largest scale1 they have only seven days in a year1 or one day in fifty-two4 ,but this is on a supposition1 that the receivers do not break in upon the afternoons1 which they are frequently too apt to do4 ,if it should be said that ,sunday is an holy-day1 it is not true2 it is so far an holy-day1 that they do not work for their masters2 but such an holy-day1 that if they do not employ it in the cultivation of their little spots1 they must starved4 ,footnote #ajb3 ,these dances are usually in the middle of the night2 and so desirous are these unfortunate people of obtaining but a joyful hour1 that they not only often give up their sleep1 but add to the labours of the day1 by going several miles to obtain it4 ,footnote #ajc3 ,bishop of ,glocester's sermon1 preached before the society for the propagation of the gospel1 at the anniversary meeting1 on the #bast of ,february1 #agff4 ,footnote #ajd3 ,there is a law1 7but let the reader remark1 that it prevails but in one of the colonies71 against mutilation4 ,it took its rise from the frequency of the inhuman practice4 ,but though a master cannot there chop off the limb of a slave with an axe1 he may yet work1 starve1 and beat him to death with impunity4 ,footnote #aje3 ,two instances are recorded by the receivers1 out of about fifty-thousand1 where a white man has suffered death for the murder of a negroe2 but the receivers do not tell us1 that these suffered more because they were the pests of society1 than because the murder of slaves was a crime4 ,footnote #ajf3 ,a negroe-funeral is considered as a curious sight1 and is attended with singing1 dancing1 musick1 and every circumstance that can shew the attendants to be happy on the occasion4 ,footnote #ajg3 ,in #if years1 ending in #aggd1 #hjj1jjj slaves had been imported into the ,french part of ,st4 ,domingo1 of which there remained only #bij1jjj in #aggd4 ,of this last number only #adj1jjj were creoles1 or natives of the island1 i4 e4 of #fej1jjj slaves1 the whole posterity were #adj1jjj4 ,considerations sur la ,colonie de ,st4 ,dominique17,see errata--should be read as ,st4 ,domingue7 published by authority in #aggg4 ,footnote #ajh3 ,ten thousand people under fair advantages1 and in a soil congenial to their constitutions1 and where the means of subsistence are easy1 should produce in a century #afj1jjj4 ,this is the proportion in which the ,americans increased2 and the ,africans in their own country increase in the same1 if not in a greater proportion4 ,now as the climate of the colonies is as favourable to their health as that of their own country1 the causes of the prodigious decrease in the one1 and increase in the other1 will be more conspicuous4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,x4 ,we have now taken a survey of the treatment which the unfortunate ,africans undergo1 when they are put into the hands of the receivers4 ,this treatment1 by the four first chapters of the present part of this ,essay1 appears to be wholly insupportable1 and to be such as no human being can apply to another1 without the imputation of such crimes1 as should make him tremble4 ,but as many arguments are usually advanced by those who have any interest in the practice1 by which they would either exculpate the treatment1 or diminish its severity1 we allotted the remaining chapters for their discussion4 ,in these we considered the probability of such a treatment against the motives of interest2 the credit that was to be given to those disinterested writers on the subject1 who have recorded particular instances of barbarity2 the inferiority of the ,africans to the human species2 the comparisons that are generally made with respect to their situation2 the positive scenes of felicity which they are said to enjoy1 and every other argument1 in short1 that we have found to have ever been advanced in the defence of slavery4 ,these have been all considered1 and we may venture to pronounce1 that1 instead of answering the purpose for which they were intended1 they serve only to bring such circumstances to light1 as clearly shew1 that if ingenuity were racked to invent a situation1 that would be the most distressing and insupportable to the human race2 it could never invent one1 that would suit the description better1 than the--colonial slavery4 ,if this then be the case1 and if slaves1 notwithstanding all the arguments to the contrary1 are exquisitely miserable1 we ask you receivers1 by what right you reduce them to so wretched a situation8 ,you reply1 that you buy them2 that your money constitutes your right1 and that1 like all other things which you purchase1 they are wholly at your own disposal4 ,upon this principle alone it was1 that we professed to view your treatment1 or examine your right1 when we said1 that the question#aji resolved itself into two separate parts for discussion2 into the ,african commerce1 as explained in the history of slavery1 and the subsequent slavery in the colonies1 as founded on the equity of the commerce4 ,now1 since it appears that this commerce1 upon the fullest investigation1 is contrary to the principles#aaj of law and government1 the dictates of reason1 the common maxims of equity1 the laws of nature1 the admonitions of conscience1 and1 in short1 the whole doctrine of natural religion1 it is evident that the right1 which is founded upon it1 must be the same2 and that if those things only are lawful in the sight of ,god1 which are either virtuous in themselves1 or proceed from virtuous principles1 you have no right over them at all4 ,you yourselves also confess this4 ,for when we ask you1 whether any human being has a right to sell you1 you immediately answer1 ,no2 as if nature revolted at the thought1 and as if it was so contradictory to your own feelings1 as not to require consideration4 ,but who are you1 that have this exclusive charter of trading in the liberties of mankind8 ,when did nature1 or rather the ,author of nature1 make so partial a distinction between you and them8 ,when did ,he say1 that you should have the privilege of selling others1 and that others should not have the privilege of selling you8 ,now since you confess1 that no person whatever has a right to dispose of you in this manner1 you must confess also1 that those things are unlawful to be done to you1 which are usually done in consequence of the sale4 ,let us suppose then1 that in consequence of the commerce you were forced into a ship2 that you were conveyed to another country2 that you were sold there2 that you were confined to incessant labour2 that you were pinched by continual hunger and thirst2 and subject to be whipped1 cut1 and mangled at discretion1 and all this at the hands of those1 whom you had never offended2 would you not think that you had a right to resist their treatment8 ,would you not resist it with a safe conscience8 ,and would you not be surprized1 if your resistance should be termed rebellion8--,by the former premises you must answer1 yes4--,such then is the case with the wretched ,africans4 ,they have a right to resist your proceedings4 ,they can resist them1 and yet they cannot justly be considered as rebellious4 ,for though we suppose them to have been guilty of crimes to one another2 though we suppose them to have been the most abandoned and execrable of men1 yet are they perfectly innocent with respect to you receivers4 ,you have no right to touch even the hair of their heads without their own consent4 ,it is not your money1 that can invest you with a right4 ,human liberty can neither be bought nor sold4 ,every lash that you give them is unjust4 ,it is a lash against nature and religion1 and will surely stand recorded against you1 since they are all1 with respect to your impious selves1 in a state of nature2 in a state of original dissociation2 perfectly free4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,footnotes ,footnote #aji3 ,see ,part ,,ii ,chapter ,i second paragraph4 ,footnote #aaj3 ,see ,part ,,ii ,chapter ,,ix last paragraph4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chap4 ,,xi4 ,having now considered both the commerce and slavery1 it remains only to collect such arguments as are scattered in different parts of the work1 and to make such additional remarks1 as present themselves on the subject4 ,and first1 let us ask you1 who have studied the law of nature1 and you1 who are learned in the law of the land1 if all property must not be inferiour in its nature to its possessor1 or1 in other words1 7for it is a case1 which every person must bring home to his own breast7 if you suppose that any human being can have a property in yourselves8 ,let us ask you appraisers1 who scientifically know the value of things1 if any human creature is equivalent only to any of the trinkets that you wear1 or at most1 to any of the horses that you ride3 or in other words1 if you have ever considered the most costly things that you have valued1 as equivalent to yourselves8 ,let us ask you rationalists1 if man1 as a reasonable being1 is not accountable for his actions1 and let us put the same question to you1 who have studied the divine writings8 ,let us ask you parents1 if ever you thought that you possessed an authority as such1 or if ever you expected a duty from your sons2 and let us ask you sons1 if ever you felt an impulse in your own breasts to obey your parents4 ,now1 if you should all answer as we could wish1 if you should all answer consistently with reason1 nature1 and the revealed voice of ,god1 what a dreadful argument will present itself against the commerce and slavery of the human species1 when we reflect1 that no man whatever can be bought or reduced to the situation of a slave1 but he must instantly become a brute1 he must instantly be reduced to the value of those things1 which were made for his own use and convenience2 he must instantly cease to be accountable for his actions1 and his authority as a parent1 and his duty as a son1 must be instantly no more4 ,neither does it escape our notice1 when we are speaking of the fatal wound which every social duty must receive1 how considerably ,christianity suffers by the conduct of you receivers4 ,for by prosecuting this impious commerce1 you keep the ,africans in a state of perpetual ferocity and barbarism2 and by prosecuting it in such a manner1 as must represent your religion1 as a system of robbery and oppression1 you not only oppose the propagation of the gospel1 as far as you are able yourselves1 but throw the most certain impediments in the way of others1 who might attempt the glorious and important task4 ,such also is the effect1 which the subsequent slavery in the colonies must produce4 ,for by your inhuman treatment of the unfortunate ,africans there1 you create the same insuperable impediments to a conversion4 ,for how must they detest the very name of ,christians1 when you ,christians are deformed by so many and dreadful vices8 ,how must they detest that system of religion1 which appears to resist the natural rights of men1 and to give a sanction to brutality and murder8 ,but1 as we are now mentioning ,christianity1 we must pause for a little time1 to make a few remarks on the arguments which are usually deduced from thence by the receivers1 in defence of their system of oppression4 ,for the reader may readily suppose1 that1 if they did not hesitate to bring the ,old ,testament in support of their barbarities1 they would hardly let the ,new escape them4 ,st4 ,paul1 having converted ,onesimus to the ,christian faith1 who was a fugitive slave of ,philemon1 sent him back to his master4 ,this circumstance has furnished the receivers with a plea1 that ,christianity encourages slavery4 ,but they have not only strained the passages which they produce in support of their assertions1 but are ignorant of historical facts4 ,the benevolent apostle1 in the letter which he wrote to ,philemon1 the master of ,onesimus1 addresses him to the following effect3 ,i send him back to you1 but not in his former capacity#aaa1 not now as a servant1 but above a servant1 a brother beloved4 ,in this manner ,i beseech you to receive him1 for though ,i could enjoin you to do it1 yet ,i had rather it should be a matter of your own will1 than of necessity4 ,it appears that the same ,onesimus1 when he was sent back1 was no longer a slave1 that he was a minister of the gospel1 that he was joined with ,tychicus in an ecclesiastical commission to the church of the ,colossians1 and was afterwards bishop of ,ephesus4 ,if language therefore has any meaning1 and if history has recorded a fact which may be believed1 there is no case more opposite to the doctrine of the receivers1 than this which they produce in its support4 ,it is said again1 that ,christianity1 among the many important precepts which it contains1 does not furnish us with one for the abolition of slavery4 ,but the reason is obvious4 ,slavery at the time of the introduction of the gospel was universally prevalent1 and if ,christianity had abruptly declared1 that the millions of slaves should have been made free1 who were then in the world1 it would have been universally rejected1 as containing doctrines that were dangerous1 if not destructive1 to society4 ,in order therefore that it might be universally received1 it never meddled1 by any positive precept1 with the civil institutions of the times2 but though it does not expressly say1 that you shall neither buy1 nor sell1 nor possess a slave1 it is evident that1 in its general tenour1 it sufficiently militates against the custom4 ,the first doctrine which it inculcates1 is that of brotherly love4 ,it commands good will towards men4 ,it enjoins us to love our neighbours as ourselves1 and to do unto all men1 as we would that they should do unto us4 ,and how can any man fulfil this scheme of universal benevolence1 who reduces an unfortunate person against his will1 to the most insupportable of all human conditions2 who considers him as his private property1 and treats him1 not as a brother1 nor as one of the same parentage with himself1 but as an animal of the brute creation8 ,but the most important doctrine is that1 by which we are assured that mankind are to exist in a future state1 and to give an account of those actions1 which they have severally done in the flesh4 ,this strikes at the very root of slavery4 ,for how can any man be justly called to an account for his actions1 whose actions are not at his own disposal8 ,this is the case with the proper#aab slave4 ,his liberty is absolutely bought and appropriated2 and if the purchase is just and equitable1 he is under the necessity of perpetrating any crime1 which the purchaser may order him to commit1 or1 in other words1 of ceasing to be accountable for his actions4 ,these doctrines therefore are sufficient to shew1 that slavery is incompatible1 with the ,christian system4 ,the ,europeans considered them as such1 when1 at the close of the twelfth century1 they resisted1 their hereditary prejudices1 and occasioned its abolition4 ,hence one1 among many other proofs1 that ,christianity was the production of infinite wisdom2 that though it did not take such express cognizance of the wicked national institutions of the times1 as should hinder its reception1 it should yet contain such doctrines1 as1 when it should be fully established1 would be sufficient for the abolition of them all4 ,thus then is the argument of you receivers ineffectual1 and your conduct impious4 ,for1 by the prosecution of this wicked slavery and commerce1 you not only oppose the propagation of that gospel which was ordered to be preached unto every creature1 and bring it into contempt1 but you oppose its tenets also3 first1 because you violate that law of universal benevolence1 which was to take away those hateful distinctions of ,jew and ,gentile1 ,greek and ,barbarian1 bond and free1 which prevailed when the gospel was introduced2 and secondly1 because1 as every man is to give an account of his actions hereafter1 it is necessary that he should be free4 ,another argument yet remains1 which1 though nature will absolutely turn pale at the recital1 cannot possibly be omitted4 ,in those wars1 which are made for the sake of procuring slaves1 it is evident that the contest must be generally obstinate1 and that great numbers must be slain on both sides1 before the event can be determined4 ,this we may reasonably apprehend to be the case3 and we have shewn#aac1 that there have not been wanting instances1 where the conquerors have been so incensed at the resistance they have found1 that their spirit of vengeance has entirely got the better of their avarice1 and they have murdered1 in cool blood1 every individual1 without discrimination1 either of age or sex4 ,from these and other circumstances1 we thought we had sufficient reason to conclude1 that1 where ten were supposed to be taken1 an hundred1 including the victors and vanquished1 might be supposed to perish4 ,now1 as the annual exportation from ,africa consists of an hundred thousand men1 and as the two orders1 of those who are privately kidnapped by individuals1 and of those1 who are publickly seized by virtue of the authority of their prince1 compose together1 at least1 nine-tenths of the ,african slaves1 it follows1 that about ten thousand consist of convicts and prisoners of war4 ,the last order is the most numerous4 ,let us suppose then that only six thousand of this order are annually sent into servitude1 and it will immediately appear that no less than sixty-thousand people annually perish in those wars1 which are made only for the purpose of procuring slaves4 ,but that this number1 which we believe to be by no means exaggerated1 may be free from all objection1 we will include those in the estimate1 who die as they are travelling to the ships4 ,many of these unfortunate people have a journey of one thousand miles to perform on foot1 and are driven like sheep through inhospitable woods and deserts1 where they frequently die in great numbers1 from fatigue and want4 ,now if to those1 who thus perish on the ,african continent1 by war and travelling1 we subjoin those#aad1 who afterwards perish on the voyage1 and in the seasoning together1 it will appear that1 in every yearly attempt to supply the colonies1 an hundred thousand must perish1 even before one useful individual can be obtained4 ,gracious ,god6 how wicked1 how beyond all example impious1 must be that servitude1 which cannot be carried on without the continual murder of so many and innocent persons6 ,what punishment is not to be expected for such monstrous and unparalleled barbarities6 ,for if the blood of one man1 unjustly shed1 cries with so loud a voice for the divine vengeance1 how shall the cries and groans of an hundred thousand men1 annually murdered1 ascend the celestial mansions1 and bring down that punishment1 which such enormities deserve6 ,but do we mention punishment8 ,do we allude to that punishment1 which shall be inflicted on men as individuals1 in a future life8 ,do we allude to that awful day1 which shall surely come1 when the master shall behold his murdered negroe face to face8 ,when a train of mutilated slaves shall be brought against him8 ,when he shall stand confounded and abashed8 ,or1 do we allude to that punishment1 which may be inflicted on them here1 as members of a wicked community8 ,for as a body politick1 if its members are ever so numerous1 may be considered as an whole1 acting of itself1 and by itself1 in all affairs in which it is concerned1 so it is accountable1 as such1 for its conduct2 and as these kinds of polities have only their existence here1 so it is only in this world1 that1 as such1 they can be punished4 ,now1 whether we consider the crime1 with respect to the individuals immediately concerned in this most barbarous and cruel traffick1 or whether we consider it as patronized#aae and encouraged by the laws of the land1 it presents to our view an equal degree of enormity4 ,a crime1 founded on a dreadful pre-eminence in wickedness1--a crime1 which being both of individuals and the nation1 must sometime draw down upon us the heaviest judgment of ,almighty ,god1 who made of one blood all the sons of men1 and who gave to all equally a natural right to liberty2 and who1 ruling all the kingdoms of the earth with equal providential justice1 cannot suffer such deliberate1 such monstrous iniquity1 to pass long unpunished#aaf4 ,but alas6 he seems already to have interfered on the occasion6 ,the violent#aag and supernatural agitations of all the elements1 which1 for a series of years1 have prevailed in those ,european settlements1 where the unfortunate ,africans are retained in a state of slavery1 and which have brought unspeakable calamities on the inhabitants1 and publick losses on the states to which they severally belong1 are so many awful visitations of ,god for this inhuman violation of his laws4 ,and it is not perhaps unworthy of remark1 that as the subjects of ,great-,britain have two thirds of this impious commerce in their own hands1 so they have suffered#aah in the same proportion1 or more severely than the rest4 ,how far these misfortunes may appear to be acts of providence1 and to create an alarm to those who have been accustomed to refer every effect to its apparent cause2 who have been habituated to stop there1 and to overlook the finger of ,god2 because it is slightly covered under the veil of secondary laws1 we will not pretend to determine8 but this we will assert with confidence1 that the ,europeans have richly deserved them all2 that the fear of sympathy1 which can hardly be restrained on other melancholy occasions1 seems to forget to flow at the relation of these2 and that we can never1 with any shadow of justice1 with prosperity to the undertakers of those1 whose success must be at the expence of the happiness of millions of their fellow-creatures4 ,but this is sufficient4 ,for if liberty is only an adventitious right2 if men are by no means superiour to brutes2 if every social duty is a curse2 if cruelty is highly to be esteemed2 if murder is strictly honourable1 and ,christianity is a lye2 then it is evident1 that the ,african slavery may be pursued1 without either the remorse of conscience1 or the imputation of a crime4 ,but if the contrary of this is true1 which reason must immediately evince1 it is evident that no custom established among men was ever more impious2 since it is contrary to reason1 justice1 nature1 the principles of law and government1 the whole doctrine1 in short1 of natural religion1 and the revealed voice of ,god4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,footnotes ,footnote #aaa3 ,epist4 to ,philemon4 ,footnote #aab3 ,the ,african slave is of this description2 and we could wish1 in all our arguments on the present subject1 to be understood as having spoken only of proper slaves4 ,the slave who is condemned to the oar1 to the fortifications1 and other publick works1 is in a different predicament4 ,his liberty is not appropriated1 and therefore none of those consequences can be justly drawn1 which have been deduced in the present case4 ,footnote #aac3 ,see the description of an ,african battle 7,footnote #jdi74 ,footnote #aad3 ,the lowest computation is #dj1jjj1 7,footnote #jfj74 ,footnote #aae3 ,the legislature has squandered away more money in the prosecution of the slave trade1 within twenty years1 than in any other trade whatever1 having granted from the year #agej1 to the year #aggj1 the sum of #cjj1jjj pounds4 ,footnote #aaf3 ,sermon preached before the ,university of ,cambridge1 by the ,rev4 ,peter ,peckard4 ,footnote #aag3 ,the first noted earthquake at ,jamaica1 happened ,june the #gth #afib1 when ,port ,royal was totally sunk4 ,this was succeeded by one in the year #afig1 and by another in the year #agbb1 from which time to the present1 these regions of the globe seem to have been severely visited1 but particularly during the last six or seven years4 ,see a general account of the calamities1 occasioned by the late tremendous hurricanes and earthquakes in the ,west-,indian islands1 by ,mr4 ,fowler4 ,footnote #aah3 ,the many ships of war belonging to the ,british navy1 which were lost with all their crews in these dreadful hurricanes1 will sufficiently prove the fact4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,finis4 99 99 99 99 99