due. It ought to be inviolably observed. Have not these
unhappy men a better right to their liberty, and to their happiness,
than our American merchants have to the profits which they make by
torturing their kind? Let, therefore, our colonies be ruined, but let us
not render so many men miserable. Would not any of us, who should--be
snatched by pirates from his native land, think himself cruelly abused,
and at all times entitled to be free? Have not these unfortunate
Africans, who meet with the same cruel fate, the same right? Are they
not men as well as we, and have they not the same sensibility? Let us
not, therefore, defend or support a usage which is contrary to all the
laws of humanity.

"But it is false, that either we or our colonies would be ruined by the
abolition of slavery. It might occasion a stagnation of business for a
short time. Every great alteration produces that effect; because mankind
cannot, on a sudden, find ways of disposing of themselves, and of their
affairs; but it would produce many happy effects. It is the slavery
which is permitted in America, that has hindered it from becoming so
soon populous as it would otherwise have done. Let the Negroes be free,
and, in a few generations, this vast and fertile continent would be
crowded with inhabitants; learning, arts, and every thing would flourish
amongst them; instead of being inhabited by wild beasts, and by savages,
it would be peopled by philosophers, and by men."

Francis Hutcheson, professor of philosophy at the university of Glasgow,
in his _System of Moral Philosophy_, page 211, says "He who detains
another by force in slavery, is always bound to prove his title. The
slave sold, or carried into a distant country, must not be obliged to
prove a negative, that _he never forfeited his liberty_. The violent
possessor must, in all cases, shew his title, especially where the old
proprietor is well known. In this case, each man is the original
proprietor of his own liberty. The proof of his losing it must be
incumbent on those who deprive him of it by force. The Jewish laws had
great regard to justice, about the servitude of Hebrews, founding it
only on consent, or some crime or damage, allowing them always a proper
redress upon any cruel treatment, and fixing a limited time for it;
unless upon trial the servant inclined to prolong it. The laws about
foreign slaves had many merciful provisions against immoderate severity
of the masters. But under