he observes--"Will it be said that he, who wants to
make me a slave, does me no injury, but that he only makes use of his
rights? Where are those rights? Who hath stamped upon them so sacred a
character as to silence mine?"--
In the beginning of the next paragraph he speaks thus: "He, who supports
the system of slavery, is the enemy of the whole human race. He divides it
into two societies of legal assassins; the oppressors, and the oppressed.
It is the same thing as proclaiming to the world, If you would preserve
your life, instantly take away mine, for I want to have yours."
Going on two pages further, we find these words: "But the Negros, they say,
are a race born for slavery; their dispositions are narrow, treacherous,
and wicked; they themselves allow the superiority of our understandings,
and almost acknowledge the justice of our authority.--Yes--The minds of the
Negros are contracted, because slavery destroys all the springs of the
soul. They are wicked, but not equally so with you. They are treacherous,
because they are under no obligation to speak truth to their tyrants. They
acknowledge the superiority of our understanding, because we have abused
their ignorance. They allow the justice of our authority, because we have
abused their weakness."
"But these Negros, it is further urged, were born slaves. Barbarians! will
you persuade me, that a man can be the property of a sovereign, a son the
property of a father, a wife the property of a husband, a domestic the
property of a master, a Negro the property of a planter?"
But I have no time to follow this animated author, even by short extracts,
through the varied strains of eloquence which he displays upon this
occasion. I can only say, that his labours entitle him to a high station
among the benefactors to the African race.
The third was Dr. Paley, whose genius, talents, and learning have been so
eminently displayed in his writings in the cause of natural and revealed
religion. Dr. Paley did not write any essay expressly in favour of the
Africans. But in his Moral Philosophy, where he treated on slavery, he took
an opportunity of condemning, in very severe terms, the continuance of it.
In this work he defined what slavery was, and how it might arise
consistently with the law of nature; but he made an exception against that
which arose from the African trade.
"The Slave-trade," says he, "upon the coast of Africa, is not excused by
these principles. When s
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