ern lest any of the Africans should be
carried off without their free consent; declaring that such a thing
would be detestable, and call down the vengeance of Heaven upon the
undertakers." For this reason, it has been supposed that the queen was
deceived--that she imagined the negroes were transported to the Spanish
colonies as voluntary laborers. But history gives us slight reasons to
judge Elizabeth so favorably. It was her system always to preserve
an _appearance_ of justice and virtue. She was a shrewd, far-sighted
politician; and had in perfection the clear head and cold heart
calculated to form that character. Whatever she might believe of the
trade at its beginning, she was too deeply read in human nature, not
to foresee the inevitable consequence of placing power in the hands of
avarice.

A Roman priest persuaded Louis the Thirteenth to sanction slavery for
the sake of converting the negroes to Christianity; and thus this
bloody iniquity, disguised with gown, hood, and rosary, entered the
fair dominions of France. To be violently wrested from his home, and
condemned to toil without hope, by Christians, to whom he had done no
wrong, was, methinks, a very odd beginning to the poor negro's course
of religious instruction!

When this evil had once begun, it, of course, gathered strength rapidly;
for all the bad passions of human nature were eagerly enlisted in its
cause. The British formed settlements in North America, and in the West
Indies; and these were stocked with slaves. From 1680 to 1786, _two
million, one hundred and thirty thousand_ negroes were imported into the
British colonies!

In almost all great evils there is some redeeming feature--_some_ good
results, even where it is not intended: pride and vanity, utterly
selfish and wrong in themselves, often throw money into the hands of the
poor, and thus tend to excite industry and ingenuity, while they produce
comfort. But slavery is _all_ evil--within and without--root and
branch,--bud, blossom and fruit!

In order to show how dark it is in every aspect--how invariably
injurious both to nations and individuals,--I will select a few facts
from the mass of evidence now before me.

In the first place, its effects upon _Africa_ have been most disastrous.
All along the coast, intercourse with Europeans has deprived the
inhabitants of their primitive simplicity, without substituting in
its place the order, refinement, and correctness of principle,
attenda