The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dissertation on Slavery, by St. George Tucker

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Title: Dissertation on Slavery
With a Proposal for the Gradual Abolition of it, in the
State of Virginia

Author: St. George Tucker

Release Date: May 3, 2010 [EBook #32239]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's note: Original spelling has been maintained and not
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A DISSERTATION ON _SLAVERY_: WITH A PROPOSAL FOR THE GRADUAL ABOLITION
OF IT, IN THE _STATE OF VIRGINIA_.

BY ST. GEORGE TUCKER, _PROFESSOR OF LAW IN THE UNIVERSITY OF WILLIAM AND
MARY, AND ONE OF THE JUDGES OF THE GENERAL COURT, IN VIRGINIA_.

_Slavery not only violates the Laws of Nature, and of civil Society, it
also wounds the best Forms of Government: in a Democracy, where all Men
are equal, Slavery is contrary to the Spirit of the Constitution.
MONTESQUIEU._

PHILADELPHIA: PRINTED FOR MATHEW CAREY, No. 118, MARKET-STREET. 1796.

TO THE

_General Assembly of Virginia_,

To whom it belongs to decide upon the expediency and practicability of a
plan for the _gradual abolition_ of _Slavery_ in this commonwealth,

The following pages are most respectfully submitted and inscribed,

BY THE AUTHOR.

_Williamsburg, in Virginia, May 20, 1796._

TO THE READER.

_The following pages form a part of a course of Lectures on Law and
Police, delivered in the University of William and Mary, in this
commonwealth. The Author considering the Abolition of Slavery in this
State, as an object of the first i