I have
undertaken, as far as my abilities would permit, the cause of injured
innocence.

London, June 1st 1786.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES

[Footnote 001: A Description of Guinea, with an Inquiry into the Rise
and Progress of the Slave Trade, &c.--A Caution to Great Britain and her
Colonies, in a short Representation of the calamitous State of the
enslaved Negroes in the British Dominions. Besides several smaller
pieces.]

[Footnote 002: They had censured the _African Trade_ in the year
1727, but had taken no publick notice of the _colonial_ slavery
till this time.]

[Footnote 003: The instance of the _Dutch_ colonists at the Cape,
in the first part of the Essay; the description of an African battle, in
the second; and the poetry of a negroe girl in the third, are the only
considerable additions that have been made.]

* * * * *

CONTENTS.

* * * * *

PART I.

The History of Slavery.

CHAP. I. Introduction.--Division of slavery into voluntary and
involuntary.--The latter the subject of the present work.--Chap. II.
The first class of involuntary slaves among the ancients, from
war.--Conjecture concerning their antiquity.--Chap. III. The second
class from piracy.--Short history of piracy.--The dance
carpoea.--Considerations from hence on the former topick.--Three
orders of involuntary slaves among the ancients.--Chap. IV. Their
personal treatment.--Exception in AEgypt.--Exception at
Athens.--Chap. V. The causes of such treatment among the ancients in
general.--Additional causes among the Greeks and Romans.--A
refutation of their principles.--Remarks on the writings of
AEsop.--Chap. VI. The ancient slave-trade.--Its antiquity.--AEgypt
the first market recorded for this species of traffick.--Cyprus the
second.--The agreement of the writings of Moses and Homer on the
subject.--The universal prevalence of the trade.--Chap. VII. The
decline of this commerce and slavery in Europe.--The causes of
their decline.--Chap. VIII. Their revival in Africa.--Short history
of their revival.--Five classes of involuntary slaves among the
moderns.--Cruel instance of the Dutch colonists at the Cape.

* * * * *

PART II.

The African Commerce or Slave-Trade.

CHAP. I. The history of mankind from the