cibly taken from their country, their
relations and friends, and from all that they esteemed valuable in life.
The second was the evil of slavery itself, in consequence of which the
same persons were forced into a situation where they were deprived of
the rights of men, where they were obliged to linger out their days
subject to excessive labour and cruel punishments, and where their
children were to inherit the same hard lot. Now the question was, which
of the two evils the committee should select as that to which they
should direct their attention with a view of the removal of it; or
whether, with the same view, it should direct its attention to both of
them.

It appeared soon to be the sense of the committee, that to aim at the
removal of both, would be to aim at too much, and that by doing this we
might lose all.

The question then was, which of the two they were to take as their
object? Now, in considering this question, it appeared that it did not
matter where they began, or which of them they took, as far as the end
to be produced was the thing desired. For first, if the Slave Trade
should be really abolished, the bad usage of the slaves in the colonies,
that is, the hard part of their slavery, if not the slavery itself,
would fall. For the planters and others being unable to procure more
slaves from the coast of Africa, it would follow directly, whenever this
great event should take place, that they must treat those better whom
they might then have. They must render marriage honourable among them.
They must establish the union of one man with one wife. They must give
the pregnant women more indulgences. They must pay more attention to the
rearing of their offspring. They must work and punish the adults with
less rigour. Now it was to be apprehended that they could not do these
things, without seeing the political advantages which would arise to
themselves from so doing; and that, reasoning upon this, they might be
induced to go on to give them greater indulgences, rights, and
privileges, in time. But how would every such successive improvement of
their condition operate, but to bring them nearer to the state of
freemen? In the same manner it was contended, that the better treatment
of the slaves in the colonies, or that the emancipation of them there,
when fit for it, would of itself lay the foundation for the abolition of
the Slave Trade. For if the slaves were kindly treated, that is, if
marriage were encour