, which has since been _so_ pursued, in defiance of every
principle of justice and religion. Had Negroes been brought from the
flames, to which in some countries they were devoted on their falling
prisoners of war, and in others, sacrificed at the funeral obsequies of
the great and powerful among themselves; in short had they by this
traffic been delivered from _torture_ or _death_, European merchants
_might have some excuse_ to plead in its vindication. _But according to
the common mode in which it has been conducted_, we must confess it a
difficult matter to conceive a _single_ argument in its defence. And
though policy has given countenance and sanction to the trade, yet every
candid and impartial man must confess, that it is atrocious and
unjustifiable in every light in which it can be viewed, and turns
merchants into a band of robbers, and trade into atrocious acts of fraud
and violence." Historical Account of South-Carolina and Georgia.
Anonymous. London printed in 1779--page 20, &c.

"The number of Negroe slaves bartered for in one year (viz. 1768), on
the Coast of Africa from Cape Blanco, to Rio Congo, amounted to 104,000
souls, whereof more than half (viz. 53,000) were shipped on account of
British merchants, and 6,300 on the account of British Americans." The
Law of Retribution by Granville Sharpe, Esq. page 147. note.]

But how loudly soever reason, justice, and (may I not add) religion,[9]
condemn the practice of slavery, it is acknowledged to have been very
ancient, and almost universal. The Greeks, the Romans, and the ancient
Germans also practiced it, as well as the more ancient Jews and
Egyptians. By the Germans it was transmitted to the various kingdoms
which arose in Europe out of the ruins of the Roman empire. In England
it subsisted for some ages under the name of _villeinage_.[10] In Asia
it seems to have been general, and in Africa universal, and so remains
to this day: In Europe it hath long since declined; its first declension
there, is said to have been in Spain, as early as the eighth century;
and it is alleged to have been general about the middle of the
fourteenth, and was near expiring in the sixteenth, when the discovery
of the American continent, and the eastern and western coasts of Africa
gave rise to the introduction of a new species of slavery. It took its
origin from the Portuguese, who, in order to supply the Spaniards with
persons able to sustain the fatigue of cultivating their new