THE 
 
 INJUSTICE AND IMPOLICY 
 
 OF THK 
 
 8 LAVE TRADE, 
 
 ANO OF THK 
 ir.MJSTKATKD IK A 
 
 SERMON 
 
 15Y JONATHAN*EDWARDS, D. 1). 
 
 ;>FL:vi.RKr> .IN uuc city of new HAVF.N, 
 
 Scff^temRier 1.5, 1791. 
 
Glass E l^^^ 
 
 Book J£n^ 
 
 4 
 
THE 
 
 INJUSTICE AND IMPOLICY / .; 
 
 SLAVE TRADE, 
 
 AlVD OF THE 
 
 
 ILLUSTKATED IN A 
 
 y .-^' 
 
 vV SERMON 
 
 PREACHED BEFORE THE CONNECTICUT SOCIETY FOR THE 
 
 PROMOTION OF FREEDOM, AND FOR THE RELIEF OF 
 
 PERSONS UNLAWFULLY HOLDEN IN BONDAGE, 
 
 AT THEIR ANNUAL MEETING IN NEW HAVEN, 
 September 15, 1791. 
 
 / 
 BY JONATHAN EDWARDS, D. D. 
 
 PA3T0P OF A CHURCH IN NEW HAVEN ; AFTERVVAaoS PRESIDENT OF UNION COl, 
 LEGE, SCHENECTADY. 
 
 THIRD EDITION. 
 
 3NEW HAVEN: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE 
 
 NEW HAVEN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 
 
 PRESS OF WIIITMORE & BUCKINGHAM. 
 
 1833. 
 
ii ->^ -'''■ 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 TO THE SECOJfD EDITION. 
 
 The author of this sermon was possessed of an intellect of the 
 highest order. As a logician, he was probably inferior to no in- 
 dividual of the age in which he lived. Capable alike of the pro- 
 foundest and most acute investigations, he brought the richest t.^a- 
 sures from the deepest mines of truth, and exhibited them in a light 
 which left no doubt of their character. Tn this discourse, his m c^hty 
 powers are exerted for the relief of oppressed and blee'ding humuiiity. 
 His arguments to prove slavery inconsistent with the principles of 
 Christianity, appear to us irresistible. '1 he writer is not reluctant 
 to acknowledge his desire, that the sentiments of this discourse may 
 obtain a universal prevalence in our country. For Christians at 
 the south, he entertains the sincerest respect. On the subject of 
 slavery, many individuals among them, he doubts not, maintain 
 opinions entirely correct ; others he believes are in error. Slavery, 
 say they, is an evil which admits of no remedy — it must be endured. 
 They fortify themselves in their conclusion, by the reccol lection, that 
 servants were born iti the house of Abram, and that Onesimus was 
 restored by Paul to his master. The writer hopes that these persons 
 will peruse this sermon with attention and candor. Let them not 
 be offended with the plainness and severity of some of the remarks 
 but recollecting the time and place in which they were originally 
 made, may they receive them in the spirit of Christian love.* The 
 editor, has taken the liberty to exchange a few of the author's ob- 
 solete words, for more modern phraseology ; also to omit a few 
 sentences at the conclusion of the appendix. Phocion. 
 
 *" There were giants in thjse days." — Ed. 3d Ed. 
 
Ctje JIn(ust[ce anlr Kmpolica of m Slabe STratic, ant) of ti)e Slatoers of 
 tje Slfricans. 
 
 Matthew vii. 12. 
 
 Therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do ye 
 even so to them ; for this is the law and the prophets. 
 
 This precept of our divine Lord hath always been admired 
 as most excellent ; and doubtless with the greatest reason. 
 Yet it needs some explanation, ft is not surely to be under- 
 stood in the most unlimited sense, implying that because a 
 prince expects and wishes for obedience from his subjects, 
 he is obliged to obey them : that because parents wish their 
 children to submit to their government, therefore they are to 
 submit to the government of their children : or that because 
 some men wish that others would concur and assist them to 
 the gratification of their unlawful desires, therefore they also 
 are to gratify the unlawful desires of others. But whatever 
 we are conscious, that we should, in an exchange of ci cum- 
 stances, wish, and are persuaded that we might reasonably 
 wish, that others would do to us ; that we are bound to do 
 to them. This is the general rule given us in the text ; and 
 a very extensive rule it is, reaching to the whole of our con- 
 duct : and is particularly useful to direct our conduct to- 
 ward inferiors, and those whom we have in our power. I 
 have therefore thought it a proper foundation for the dis- 
 course, which by the Society Jor the promotion of Freedom, 
 and for ^\3 relief of persons unlaufully holden in Bondage, 
 I have t/H- honor to be appointed to deliver, on the present 
 occasion. 
 
to lie down, and sometimes not room to sit up in an erect 
 posture ; the men at the same time fastened together with 
 irons by two and two : and all this in the most sultry cli- 
 mate. The consequence of the whole is, that the most dan- 
 gerous and fatal diseases are soon bred among them, where- 
 by vast numbers of those exported from Africa perish in the 
 voyage : others in dread of that slavery which is before 
 them, and in distress and despair from the loss of their pa- 
 rents, their children, their husbands, their wives, all their 
 dear connections, and their dear native country itself, starve 
 themselves to death or plunge themselves into the ocean. 
 Those who attempt in the former of those ways to escape 
 from their persecutors, are tortured by live coals applied to 
 their mouths. Those who attempt an escape in the latter 
 and fail, are equally tortured by the most cruel beating, or 
 otherwise as their persecutors please. If any of them make 
 an attempt, as they sometimes do, to recover their liberty, 
 some, and as the circumstances may be, many, are put to 
 immediate death. Others beaten, bruised, cut and mangled 
 in a most inhuman and shocking manner, are in this situa- 
 tion exhibited to the rest, to terrify them from the like at- 
 tempt in future : and some are delivered up to every species 
 of torment, whether by the application of the whip, or of 
 any other instrument, even of fire itself, as the ingenuity of 
 the ship master and of his crew is able to suggest or their 
 situation will admit ; and these torments are purposely con- 
 tinued for several days, before death is permitted to afford 
 relief to these objects of vengeance. 
 
 By these means, according to the common computation, 
 twenty-five thousand, which is a fourth part of those who 
 are exported from Africa, and by the concession of all, twen- 
 
ty thousand, annually perish, before they arrive at the places 
 of their destination in America. 
 
 But this is by no means the end of the sufferings of this un- 
 happy people. Bred up in a country spontaneously yield- 
 ing the necessaries and conveniences of savage life, they 
 have never been accustomed to labor : of course they are 
 but ill prepared to go through the fatigue and drudgery to 
 which they are doomed in their state of slavery. Therefore 
 partly by this cause, partly by the scantiness and badness of 
 their food, and partly from dejection of spirits, mortification 
 and despair, another twenty-five thousand die in the season- 
 ing, as it is called, i. e. within two years after their arrival 
 in x'^merica. This I say is the common computation. Or 
 if we will in this particular he as favorable to the trade as in 
 the estimate of the number which perishes on the passage, 
 we may reckon the number which die in the seasoning to 
 be twenty thousand. So that of the hundred thousand an- 
 nually exported from Africa to America, fifty thousand, as 
 it is commonly computed, or on the most favorable estimate, 
 forty thousand, die before they are seasoned to the country. 
 
 Nor is this all. The cruel sufferings of these pitiable be- 
 ings are not yet at an end. Thenceforward they have to 
 drag out a miserable life in absolute slavery, entirely at the 
 disposal of their mas'ers, by whom not only every venial 
 fault, every mere inadvertence or mistake, but even real 
 virtues, are liable to be construed into the most atrocious 
 crimes, and punished as such, according to their caprice or 
 rage, v/hile they are intoxicated sometimes with liquor, 
 sometimes with passion. 
 
 By these masters they are supplied with barely enough to 
 keep them from starving, as the whole expense laid out on a 
 slave for food, clothing and medicine, is commonly computed 
 
on an average at thirty shillings sterling annually. At the 
 same time, they are kept at hard labor from five o'clock in the 
 morning, till nine at night, excepting time to eat twice during 
 the day. And they are constantly under the watchful eye 
 of overseers and negro drivers, more tyrannical and cruel 
 than even their masters themselves. From these drivers, for 
 every imagined, as well as real neglect or want of exertion, 
 they receive the lash, the smack of which is all day long in 
 the ears of those who are on the plantation or in the vicinity ; 
 and it is used with such dexterity and severity, as not only 
 to lacerate the skin, but to tear out small portions of the flesh 
 at almost every stroke. 
 
 This is the general treatment of the slaves. But many 
 individuals suffer still more severely. Many, many are 
 knocked down ; some have their eyes beaten out ; some have 
 an arm or a leg broken, or chopped off; and many, for a 
 very small, or for no crime at all, have been beaten to death 
 merely to gratify the fury of an enraged master, or overseer. 
 
 Nor ought we, on this occasion, to overlook the wars 
 among the nations of Africa, excited by the trade, or the de- 
 struction attendant on those wars. Not to mention the de- 
 struction of property, the burning of towns and villages, &c., 
 it hath been determined, by reasonable computation, that 
 there are annually exported from Africa to the various parts 
 of America, one hundred thousand slaves,* as was before ob- 
 served ; that of these, six thousand are captives of war ; that 
 in the wars in which these are taken, ten persons of the vic- 
 tors and vanquished are killed, to one taken ; that, therefore 
 the taking of the six thousand captives, is attended with the 
 slaughter of sixty thousand of their countrymen. Now does 
 not justice, does not humanity, shrink from the idea, that in 
 
 * The extent of this horrid trade, is not to this day at all diminished. 
 
order to procure one slave, to gratiiy our avarice, we shoulc 
 put to death ten human beings ? Or that, in order to increase 
 our property, and that only in some small degree, we should 
 carry on a trade, or even connive at it, to support which, 
 sixty thousand of our own species are slain in war ? 
 
 These sixty thousand, added to the forty thousand who 
 perish on the passage and in the seasoning, give us an him- 
 dred thousand who are annually destroyed by the trade ; and 
 the whole advantage gained by this amazing destruction of 
 human lives, is sixty thousand slaves. For you will recol- 
 lect, that the whole number exported from Africa is an hun- 
 dred thousand ; that of these, forty thousand die on the pas- 
 sage and in the seasoning, and sixty thousand are destroyed 
 in the wars. Therefore, while one hundred and sixty thou- 
 sand are killed in the wars and are exported from Africa, but 
 sixty thousand are added to the stock of slaves. 
 
 Now when we consider all this ; vv^hen we consider the 
 miseries which this unhappy people suffer in their wars, in 
 their captivity, in their voyage to America, and during a 
 wretched life of cruel slavery : and especially when we con- 
 sider the annual destruction of an hundred thousand lives, in 
 the manner before mentioned ; who can hesitate to declare 
 this trade and the consequent slavery, to be contrary to eve- 
 ry principle of justice and humanity, of the law of nature and 
 of the law of God ? 
 
 III. This trade and this slavery are utterly wrong on the 
 ground of their impolicy. In a variety of respects they are 
 exceedingly hurtful to the state which tolerates them. 
 
 1. They are hurtful, as they deprave the morals of the peo- 
 ple. The incessant and inhuman cruelties practised in the 
 trade and in the subsequent slavery, necessarily tend to hardr 
 
 en the human heart against the tender feelings of humanity, 
 
 2 • 
 
10 
 
 in the masters of vessels, in the sailors, in the factors, in the 
 proprietors of slaves, in their children, in the overseers, in tiie 
 slaves themselves, and in all who habitually see those cruel- 
 ties. Now the eradication, or even the diminution of com- 
 passion, tenderness and humanity, is certainly a great depra- 
 vation of heart, and must be followed with correspondent 
 depravity of manners. And measures which lead to such 
 depravity of heart and manners, cannot but be extremely 
 hurtful to the state, and consequently are extremely im- 
 politic. 
 
 2. The trade is impoUtic, as it is so destructive oflhe lives of 
 seamen. The ingenious Mr. Clarkson hath, in a very satis- 
 factory manner, made it appear, that in the slave trade alone, 
 Great Britain loses annually about nineteen hundred seamen ; 
 and that this loss is more than double to the loss annually 
 sustained by Great Britain in all her other trade taken to- 
 gether. And, doubtless, we lose as many as Great Britain, 
 in proportion to the number of seamen whom we employ in 
 this trade. Now can it be pohtic to carry on a trade which 
 is so destructive of that useful part of our citizens, our seamen ? 
 
 3. African slavery is exceedingly impolitic, as it discoura- 
 ges industry. Nothing is more essential to the political 
 prosperity of any state, than industry in the citizens. But in 
 proportion as slaves are multiplied, every kind of labor be- 
 comes ignominious : and in fact, in those of the United 
 States, in which slaves are the most numerous, gentlemen 
 and ladies of any fashion, disdain to employ themselves in bu- 
 siness, which in other states is consistent with the dignity of 
 the first families and first offices. In a country filled with 
 negro slaves, labor belongs to them only, and a white man 
 is despised in proportion as he applies to it. Now how de- 
 destructive to industry in all of the lowest and middle class 
 
11 
 
 of citizens, sucli a situation and the prevalence of such ideas 
 will be, you can easily conceive. The consequence is, that 
 some will nearly starve, others will betake themselves to the 
 most dishonest practices, to obtain the means of living. 
 
 As, slavery produces indolence in the white people, so it 
 produces all those vices which are naturally connected with 
 it ; such as intemperance, lewdness and prodigality. These 
 vices enfeeble both the body and the mind, and unfit men for 
 any vigorous exertions and employments either external or 
 mental ; and those who are unfit for such exertions, are al- 
 ready a very degenerate race ; degenerate, not only in a 
 moral, but a natural sense. They are contemptible too, and 
 will soon be despised even by their negroes themselves. 
 
 Slavery tends to lewdness, not only as it produces indo- 
 lence, but as it aftords abundant opportunity for that wick- 
 edness, without either the danger and difficulty of an attack 
 on the virtue of a woman of chastity, or the danger of a con- 
 nection with one of ill fame. And we learn the too frequent 
 influence and effect of such a situation, not only from com- 
 mon fame, but from the multitude of mulattoes in countries 
 where slaves are very numerous. 
 
 Slavery has a most direct tendency to haughtiness also, 
 and a domineering spirit and conduct in the proprietors of 
 the slaves, in their children, and in all who have the control 
 of them. A man who has been bred up in domineering over 
 negroes, can scarcely avoid contracting such a habit of 
 haughtiness and domination, as will express itself in his gen- 
 eral treatment of mankind, whether in his private capacity, 
 or in any office civil or military with which he may be vested. 
 Despotism in economics naturally leads to despotism in pol- 
 itics, and domestic slavery, in a free government is a perfect 
 solecism in human affairs. - 
 
How baneful all these tendencies and effects of slavery 
 must be to the public good, and especially to the public good 
 of such a free country as ours, I need not inform you. 
 
 4. In the same proportion as industry and labor are dis- 
 couraged, is population discouraged and prevented. This is 
 another respect in which slavery is exceedingly impolitic. 
 That population is prevented in proportion as industry is dis- 
 couraged, is, I conceive, so plain that nothing needs to be said 
 to illustrate it. Mankind in general will enter into matri- 
 mony as soon as they possess the means of supporting a fam- 
 ily. But the great body of any people have no other way 
 of supporting themselves or a family, than by their own labor. 
 Of course, as labor is discouraged, matrimony is discouraged 
 and population is prevented. But the impolicy of whatever 
 produces these effects will be acknowledged by all. The 
 wealth, strength, and glory of a state depend on the number 
 of its virtuous citizens : and a state without citizens is at 
 least as great an absurdity as a king without subjects. 
 
 5. The impolicy of slavery still further appears from this, 
 that it weakens the state, and in proportion to the degree in 
 which it exists, exposes it to become an easy conquest. The 
 increase of free citizens is an increase of the strength of the 
 state. But not so with regard to the increase of slaves. 
 They not only add nothing to the strength of the state, but 
 actually diminish it in proportion to their number. Every 
 slave is naturally an enemy to the state in which he is hold- 
 en in slavery, and wants nothing but an opportunity to assist 
 in its overthrow. And an enemy within a state, is much 
 more dangerous than one without it. 
 
 These observations concerning the prevention of population 
 and weakening the state, are supported by facts which have 
 fallen within om- own observation. That the southern states, 
 
13 
 
 in vvhicli slaves are so mimeious, are in no measure so pop-^ 
 ulcus, according to the extent of territory, as the northern, 
 is a fact of universal notoriety : and that, during the late 
 war, the southern states found themselves greatly weakened 
 by their slaves, and therefore were so easily overrun by the 
 British army, is equally notorious. 
 
 From the view we have now taken of this subject, we 
 scruple not to infer, that to carry on the slave trade, and to 
 introduce slaves into our country, is not only to be guilty of 
 injustice, robbery and cruelty toward our fellow men ; but 
 it is to injure ourselves and our country ; and therefore it is 
 altogether unjustifiable, wicked and abominable. 
 
 Having thus considered the injustice and ruinous tendency 
 of the slave trade, I proceed to attend to the principal argu- 
 ments urged in favor of it. 
 
 1. It is said, that the Africans are the posterity of Ham, 
 the son of Noah ; that Canaan, one of Ham's sons, was 
 cursed by Noah to be a servant of servants ; that by Canaan 
 we are to understand Ham's posterity in general ; that as 
 his posterity are devoted by God to slavery, wB have a right 
 to enslave them. This is the argument : to which I answer : 
 
 It is indeed generally thought that Ham peopled Africa ; 
 but that the curse on Canaan extended to all the posterity «f 
 Ham, is a mere imagination. The only reason given for it, 
 is, that Canaan was only one of Ham's sons ; and that it 
 seems reasonable that the curse of Ham's conduct should 
 fall on all his posterity, if on any. But this argument is in- 
 sufficient. We might as clearly argue, that the judgments 
 denounced on the house of David, on account of his sin in 
 the matter of Uriah, must equally fall on all his posterity. 
 Yet we know, that many of them lived and died in great 
 
14 
 
 prosperity. So in every rase in which judgments are pre- 
 dicted concerning any nation or family. 
 
 It is allowed in this argument, that the curse was to fall on 
 the posterity of Ham, and not immediately on Ham himself. 
 If otherwise, it is nothing to the purpose of the slave trade, 
 or of any slaves now in existence. It being allowed, then, 
 that this curse was to fall on Ham's posterity, he who had a 
 right to curse the whole of that posterity, had the same right 
 to curse a part of it only, and the posterity of Canaan equally 
 as any other part ; and a curse on Ham's posterity, in the 
 line of Canaan, was as real a curse on Ham himself, as a 
 curse on all his posterity would have been. 
 
 Therefore we have no ground to believe, that this curse 
 respected any others, than the posterity of Canaan, who liv- 
 ed in the land of Canaan, which is well known to be remote 
 from Africa. We have a particular account, that all the 
 sons of Canaan settled in the land of Canaan ; as may be 
 seen in Gen. x. 15—20. " And Canaan begat Sidon his first 
 born, and Heth, and the Jebusite, and the Emorite, and the 
 Girgasite, and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite, 
 and the Arvadite, and the Zemorite, and the Harmathite ; 
 and aftervVard were the families of the Canaanites spread 
 abroad. And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, 
 as thou goest to Gerar, unto Gaza ; as thou goest unto 
 Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, even unto 
 Lashah." Nor have we account that any of their posterity 
 except the Carthagenians afterward removed to any part of 
 Africa : and none will pretend that these peopled Africa in 
 general ; especially considering, that they were subdued, 
 destroyed and so far extirpated by the Romans. 
 
 This curse then of the posterity of Canaan, had no refer- 
 enc^lp the inhabitants of Guinea, or of Africa in general ; 
 
15 
 
 but was fulfilled partly in Joshua's time, in the reduction and 
 servitude of the Canaanites, and especially of the Gibeonites ; 
 partly by what the Phenicians suffered from the Chaldeans' 
 Persians and Greeks ; and finally by what the Carthageni- 
 ans suffered from the Romans. 
 
 Therefore this curse gives us no right to enslave the Afri- 
 cans, as we do by the slave trade, because it has no respect 
 to the Africans whom we enslave. Nor if it had re- 
 spected them, would it have given any such right ; be- 
 cause it was not an institution of slavery, but a mere pro- 
 phecy of it. And from this prophecy we have no more 
 ground to infer the right of slavery, than we have from the 
 prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnez- 
 zar, or by the Romans, to infer their right respectively to de- 
 stroy it in the manner they did ; or from other prophecies to 
 infer the right of Judas to betray his master, or of the Jews 
 to crucify him. 
 
 2. The right of slavery is inferred from the instance of 
 Abraham, who had servants born in his house and bought 
 with his money. But it is by no means certain, that these 
 were slaves, as our negroes are. If they were, it is unac- 
 countable, that he went out at the head of an army of them 
 to fight his enemies. No West India planter would easily 
 be induced to venture himself in such a situation. It is far 
 more probable, that similar to some of the vassals under the 
 feudal constitution, the servants of Abraham were only in a 
 good measure dependant on him, and protected by him. 
 But if they were to all intents and purposes slaves, Abra- 
 ham's holding of them will no more prove the right of slave- 
 ry, than his going in to Hagar, will prove it right for any 
 man to indulge in criminal intercourse with his domestic. 
 
 3. From the divine permission given the Israelites to , buy 
 
16 
 
 servants of the nations round about them, it is argued, that 
 we have a right to buy the Africans and hold them in slavery. 
 See Lev. xxv. 44—47. " Both thy bondmen and thy bond- 
 maids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that 
 are round about you ; of them shall ye buy bondmen and 
 bondmaids. Moreover, of the children of the strangers that 
 do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their 
 families, that are with you, which they begat in your land ; 
 and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them 
 as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit 
 them for a possession ; they shall be your bondmen for ever : 
 but over your brethren the children of Israel ye shall not 
 rule one over another with rigor." But if this be at all to 
 the purpose, it is a permission to every nation under heaven 
 to buy slaves of the nations round about them ; to us, to buy 
 of our Indian neighbors ; to them, to buy of us; to the 
 French to buy of the English, and to the English to buy of 
 the French ; and so through the world. If then this argu- 
 ment be valid, every man has an entire right to engage in 
 this trade, and to buy and sell any other man of another na- 
 tion, and any other man of another nation has an entire right 
 to buy and sell him. Thus according to this construction, 
 we have in Lev. xxv. 43, &c. an institution of an universal 
 slave trade, by which every man may not only become a 
 merchant, but may rightfully become the merchandize itself 
 of this trade, and may be bought and sold like a beast. 
 Now this consequence will be given up as absurd, and 
 therefore also the construction of scripture from which it 
 follows, must be given up. Yet it is presumed, that there is 
 no avoiding that construction or the absurdity flowing from 
 it, but by admitting, that this permission to the Israelites to 
 buy slaves has no respect to us, but was in the same manner 
 
17 
 
 peculiar to theai, as tiie permission and command to subdue, 
 destroy and extirpate the v\ iiole Canaanitish nation ; and 
 therefore no more gives countenance to African slave- 
 ry, than the command to extirpate the Canaanites, gives 
 countenance to the extirpation of any nation in these days, by 
 an universal slaughter of men and women, young men and 
 maidens, infants and sucklings. 
 
 4. It is further pleaded, that there were slaves in the time of 
 the apostles ; that they did not fobrid the holding of those 
 slaves, but gave directions to servants, doubtless referring to 
 the servants of that day, to obey their masters, and count them 
 worthy of all honor. 
 
 To this the answer is, that the apostles teach the general 
 duties of servants who are righteously in the state of servi- 
 tude, as many are or may be, by hire, by indenture, and by 
 judgment of a civil court. But they do not say whether the 
 servants in general of that day were justly holden in slavery 
 or not. In like manner they lay down the general rules of 
 obedience to civil magistrates, without deciding concerning 
 the characters of the magistrates of the Roman empire in the 
 reign of Nero. And as the apostle Paul requires masters to 
 give their servants that which is just and equal, (Col. iv. i.) 
 so if any were enslaved unjustly, of course he in this text re- 
 quires of the masters of such, to give them their freedom. 
 Thus the apostles treat the slavery of that day in the same 
 manner that they treat the civil government ; and say noth- 
 ing more in favor of the former, than they say in favor of the 
 latter. 
 
 Besides, this argument from the slavery prevailing in the 
 days of the apostles, if it prove any thing, proves too much, 
 and so confutes itself. It proves that we may enslave all 
 
 captives taken in war, of any nation, and in any the most 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 unjust war, such as the wars of the Romans, which were 
 generally undertaken from the motives of ambition or ava- 
 rice. On the ground of this argument we had a right to en- 
 slave the prisoners, whom we, during the late war, took 
 from the British army ; and they had the same right to en- 
 slave those whom they took from us ; and so with respect 
 to all other nations. 
 
 5. It is strongly urged, that the negroes brought from 
 Africa are all captives of war, and therefore are justly 
 bought and holden in slavery. This is a principal argument 
 always urged by the advocates for slavery ; and in a solemn 
 debate on this subject, it hath been strongly insisted on, very 
 lately in the British parliament. Therefore it requires our 
 particular attention. 
 
 Captives in a war just on their part, cannot be justly en- 
 slaved ; nor is this pretended. Therefore the captives who 
 may be justly enslaved, must be taken in a war unjust on 
 their part. But even on the supposition, that captives in 
 such a war may be justly enslaved it will not follow that we 
 can justly carry on the slave trade, as it is commonly carried 
 on 'from the African coast. In this trade any slaves are pur- 
 chased, who are offered for sale, whether justly or unjustly 
 enslaved. No inquiry is made whether they are captives in 
 any war ; much less, whether they were captivated in a vi^ar 
 unjust on their part. 
 
 By the most authentic accounts, it appears that the wars 
 in general in Africa are excited by the prospect of gain from 
 the sale of the captives of the war. Therefore those taken 
 by the assailants in such wars, cannot be justly enslaved. 
 Beside these, many are kidnapped by those of neighboring 
 nations ; some by their own neighbors ; and some by their 
 kings or his agents ; others for debt or some trifling crime 
 
19 
 
 are condemned to perpetiial slavery ; but none of these are 
 justly enslaved. And the traders make no inquiry concern- 
 ing the mode or occasion of their first enslavement. They 
 buy all that are offered, provided they like them and the 
 price. So that the plea, that the African slaves are captives 
 in war, is entirely insufficient to justify the slave trade as now- 
 carried on. 
 
 But this is not all ; if it were ever so true that all the ne- 
 groes exported from Africa were captives in war, and that 
 they were taken in a war unjust on their part ; still they 
 could not be justly enslaved. We have no right to enslave 
 a private foe in a state of nature, after he is conquered. 
 Suppose in a state of nature one man rises against another 
 and endeavors to kill him ; in this case the person assaulted 
 has no right to kill the assailant, unless it be necessary to 
 preserve his own life. But in wars between nations, one 
 nation may no doubt secure itself against another, by other 
 means than the slavery of its captives. If a nation be victo- 
 rious in the war, it may exact some towns or a district of 
 country, by way of caution ; or it may impose a fine to de- 
 ter from future injuries. If the nation be not victorious, it 
 will do no good to enslave the captives whom it has taken. 
 It will provoke the victors, and foolishly excite vengeance 
 which cannot be repelled. 
 
 Or if neither nation be decidedly victorious, to enslave the 
 captives on either side can answer no good purpose, but must 
 at least occasion the enslaving of the citizens of the other na- 
 tion, who are now, or in future may be in a state of captivity. 
 Such a practice therefore necessarily tends to evil and not 
 good. 
 
 Besides ; captives in war are generally common soldiers 
 or common citizens; and they are generally ignorant of the 
 
20 
 
 true cause or catises of the war, and are by tlieir superiors 
 made to believe, that the war is entirely just on their part. 
 Or if this be not the case, they may by force be compelled to 
 serve in a war which they know to be unjust. In either of 
 these cases they do not deserve to be condemned to perpetual 
 slavery. To inflict perpetual slavery on these private soldiers 
 and citizens is manifestly not to do as we would wish that 
 men should do to us. If we were taken in a war unjust on 
 our part, we should not think it right to be condemned to 
 perpetual slavery. No more right is it for us to condemn 
 and hold in perpetual slaverj'^ others, who are in the same 
 situation. 
 
 6. It is argued, that as the Africans in their own country, 
 previously to the purchase of them by the African traders, 
 are captives in war ; if they were not brought up by those 
 traders, they would be put to death : that therefore to pur- 
 chase them and to subject them to slavery instead of death, is 
 an act of mercy not only lawful, but meritorious. 
 
 If the case were indeed so as is now represented, the pur- 
 chase of the negroes would be no more meritorious, than the 
 act of a man, who, if we were taken by the Algeriues, should 
 purchase us out of that slavery. This would indeed be an 
 act of benevolence, if the purchaser should set us at liberty. 
 But it is no act of benevolence to buy a man out of one state 
 into another no better. Nay, the act of ransoming a man 
 from death gives no right to the ransomer to commit a crime 
 or an act of injustice to the person ransomed. The person 
 ransomed is doubtless obligated according to his ability to 
 satisfy the ransomer for his expense and trouble. Yet the 
 ransomer has no more right to enslave the other, than the 
 man who saves the hfe of another who was about to be kill- 
 ed by a robber or an assassin, has a right to enslave him. 
 
21 
 
 The liberty of a man for life is a far greater good, than the 
 property paid for a negro on the African coast. And to de- 
 prive a man of an immensely greater good, in order to recov- 
 er one immensely less, is an immense injury and crime. 
 
 7. As to the pretense, that to prohibit or lay aside this trade, 
 would be hurtful to our commerce ; it is sufficient to ask, 
 whether on the supposition, that it were advantageous to the 
 commerce of Great Britain to send her ships to these states, 
 and transport us into perpetual slavery in the West Indies, 
 it would be right that she should go into that trade. 
 
 8. That to prohibit the slave trade would infringe on the 
 property of those, who have expended large sums to carry on 
 that trade, or of those who wish to purchase the slaves for 
 their plantations, hath also been urged as an argument in 
 favor of the trade. But the same argument would prove, 
 that if the skins and teeth of the negroes were as valuable 
 articles of commerce as furs and elephant's teeth, and a 
 merchant were to la}^ out his propert)^ in this commerce, he 
 ought by no means to be obstructed therein. 
 
 9. But others will carry on the trade, if we do not. So 
 others will rob, steal and murder, if we do not. 
 
 10. It is said, that some men are intended by nature to be 
 slaves. If this mean, that the author of nature has given 
 some men a license, to enslave others ; this is denied and 
 proof is demanded. ]f it mean, that God has made some of 
 capacities inferior to others, and that the last have a right to 
 enslave the first ; this argument will prove, that some of the 
 citizens of every country, have a right to enslave other citi- 
 zens of the same country; nay, that some have a right to 
 enslave their own brothers and sisters. But if this argu- 
 ment mean, that God in his providence suffers some men to 
 be enslaved, and that this proves, that from the beginning he 
 
22 
 
 intended they sliould be enslaved, and made them with this 
 nitention ; the answer is, that inhke manner he suffers some 
 men to be murdered, and in this sense, he intended and made 
 them to be murdered. Yet no man in his senses will hence 
 argue the lawfulness of murder. 
 
 11. It is further pretended, that no other men, than ne- 
 groes, can endure labor in the hot climates of the West In- 
 dies and the southern states. But does this appear to 
 be fact ? In all other climates, the laboring people are the 
 most healthy. And I confess I have not yet seen evidence, 
 but that those who have been accustomed to labor and are 
 inured to those climates, can bear labor there also. How- 
 ever, taking for granted the fact asserted in this objection, 
 does it follow, that the inhabitants of those countries have a 
 right to enslave the Africans to labor for them ? No more 
 surely than from the circumstance, that you are feeble and 
 cannot labor, it follows, that you have a right to enslave 
 your robust neighbor. As in all other cases, the feeble and 
 those who choose not to labor, and yet wish to have their 
 lands cultivated, are necessitated to hire the robust to labor 
 for them ; so no reason can be given, why the inhabitants of 
 hot climates should not either perform their own labor, or 
 hire those who can perform it, whether negroes or others. 
 
 If our traders went to the coast of Africa to murder the 
 inhabitants, or to rob them of their property, all would own 
 that such murderous or piratical practices are wicked and 
 abominable. Now it is as really wicked to rob a man of 
 his liberty, as to rob him of his life ; and it is much more 
 wicked, than to rob him of his property. All men agree to 
 condemn highway robbery ; and the slave trade is as much 
 a greater wickedness than highway robbery, as liberty is 
 more valuable than property. How strange is it then, that 
 
23 
 
 in the same nation highway robbery should be punished with 
 death, and the slave tjrade be encouraged by national author- 
 ity. 
 
 We all dread political slavery, or subjection to the arbitra- 
 ry power of a king or of any man or men not deriving their 
 authority from the people. Yet such a state is inconceiva- 
 bly preferable to the slavery of the negroes. Suppose that 
 in the late war we had been subdued by Great Britain ; we 
 should have been taxed without our consent. But these 
 taxes would have amounted to but a small part of our pro- 
 perty. Whereas the negroes are deprived of all their pro- 
 perty ; no part of their earnings is their own; the whole is 
 their masters. In a conquered state we should have been at 
 liberty to dispose of ourselves and of our property in most 
 cases, as we should choose. We should have been free to 
 live in this or that town or place ; in any part of the country, 
 or to remove out of the country ; to apply to this or that bu- 
 siness ; to labor or not ; and excepting a sufficiency for the 
 taxes, to dispose of the fruit of our labor to our own benefit, 
 or that of our children, or of any other person. But the un- 
 happy negroes in slavery can do none of these things. They 
 must do what they are commanded, and as much as they 
 are commanded, on pain of the lash. They must live where 
 they are placed, and must confine themselves to that spot, 
 on pain of death. 
 
 So that Great Britain in her late attempt to enslave 
 America, committed a very small crime indeed in compari- 
 son with the crime of those who enslave the Africans. 
 
 The arguments which have been urged against the slave 
 trade, are with little variation applicable to the holding of 
 slaves. He who holes a slave, continues to deprive him of 
 that liberty, which was taken from him on the coast of Af- 
 
24 
 
 rica. And if it were wrong to deprive him of it in the first 
 instance, why not in the second ? If this be true, no man 
 has a better right to retain his negro in slavery, than he 
 had to take him from his native African shores. And 
 every man who cannot show, that his negro hath by his vokm- 
 tary conduct forfeited his hberty, is obhgated immediately to 
 manumit him. Undoubtedly we should think so, were we 
 holden in the same slaverj' in which the negroes are : And 
 our text requires us to do to others, as we would that they 
 should do to us. 
 
 To hold a slave, who has a right to his liberty, is not only 
 a real crime, but a very great one. Many good Christians 
 have wondered how Abraham, the father of the faithful, 
 could take Hagar to his bed ; and how Sarah, celebrated as 
 an holy woman, could consent to this transaction : Also, 
 how David and Solomon could have so many wives and con- 
 cubines, and yet be real saints. Let such inquire how it is 
 possible, that our fathers and men now alive, universally re- 
 puted pious, should hold negro slaves, and yet be the sub- 
 jects of real piety ? And whether to reduce a man, who hath 
 the same right to liberty as any other man, to a state of ab- 
 solute slavery, or to hold him in that state, be not as great a 
 crime as concubinage or fornication. I presume it will not 
 be denied, that to commit theft or robbery every day of a 
 man's life, is as great a sin as to commit fornication in one 
 instance. But to steal a man or to rob him of his hberty is a 
 greater sin, than to steal his property, or to take it by vio- 
 lence. And to hold a man in a state of slavery, who has a 
 right to his liberty, is to be every day guilty of robbing him of 
 his liberty, or of manstealiiig. The consequence it inevita- 
 ble, that other things being the same, to hold a negro slave, 
 
25 
 
 unless he have forfeited his liberty, is a greater sin m the 
 sight of God, than concubinage or fornication. 
 
 Does this conclusion seem strange to any of you? Let me 
 entreat you to weigh it candidly before you reject it. You 
 will not deny, that liberty is more valuable than property ; 
 and that it is a greater sin to deprive a man of his whole hber- 
 ty during life, than to deprive him of his whole proper- 
 ty : or that man stealing is a greater crime than robbery. 
 Nor will you deny, that to hold in slavery a man who was 
 stolen, is substantially the same crime as to steal him. These 
 principles being undeniable, I leave it to yourselves to draw 
 the plain and necessary consequence. And if 3'our con- 
 sciences shall, in spite of all opposition, tell you, that while 
 you hold your negroes in slavery, you do wrong, exceeding- 
 ly wrong ; that you do not, as you would that men should 
 do to you ; that you commit sin in the sight of God ; that 
 you daily violate the plain rights of mankind, and that in a 
 higher degree, than if you committed theft or robbery; let 
 me beseech you not to stifle this conviction, but attend to it 
 and act accordingly ; lest you add to your former guilt, that 
 of sinning against the light of trutli, and of your own con- 
 sciences. 
 
 To convince yourselves, that your information being the 
 same, to hold a negro slave is a greater sin than fornication, 
 theft or robbery, you need only bring the matter home to 
 yourselves. I am willing to appeal to your own consciences, 
 whether you would not judge it to be a greater sin for a man 
 to hold you or your child during life in such slavery, as that 
 of the negroes, tiian for him to indulge in one instance of li- 
 centious conduct, or in one instance to steal or rob. Let 
 conscience speak, and I will submit to its decision. 
 
 This question seems to lie clearlv decided by revelation. 
 
 i 
 
26 
 
 Exod. xxi. 16. " He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or 
 if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death." 
 Thus death is, by the divine express declaration, the punish- 
 ment due to the crime of man stealing. But death is not the 
 punishment declared by God to be due to fornication, theft 
 or robbery in common cases. Therefore we have the divine 
 authority to assert, that man stealing is a greater crime than 
 fornication, theft or robbery. Now to hold in slavery a man 
 who has a right to liberty, is substantially the same crime as 
 to deprive him of his hberty. And to deprive of liberty and 
 reduce to slavery, a man who has a right to liberty, is man 
 stealing. For it is immaterial whether he be taken and re- 
 duced to slavery clandestinely or by open violence. There- 
 fore if ^the negroes have a right to liberty, to hold them in 
 slavery is man stealing, which we have seen is, by God him- 
 self, declared to be a greater crime than fornication, theft or 
 robbery. 
 
 Perhaps, though this truth be clearly demonstrable both 
 from reason and revelation, you scarcely dare receive it, be- 
 cause it seems to bear hardly on the characters of our pious 
 fathers, who held slaves. But they did it ignorantly and in 
 unbelief of the truth ; as Abraham, Jacob, David and Solo- 
 mon were ignorant, that polygamy or concubinage was 
 wrong. As to domestic slavery, our fathers lived in a time 
 of ignorance tvhich God winked at ; but now he commandeth 
 all men every where to repent of this wickedness, and to break 
 of this sin by righteousness, and this iniquity by showing mercy 
 to the poor, if it may be a lengthening out of their tranquility. 
 You therefore to whom the present blaze of light, as to this 
 subject, has reached, cannot sin at so cheap a rate as our 
 fathers. 
 
 But methmks I hear some say, I have bought my negro ; 
 
'27 
 
 1 have paid a large sum lor hiin ; 1 canuoi lose this sum, and 
 therefore I cannot manumit him. Alas ! this is hitting the 
 nail on the head. This brings into view the true cause which 
 makes it so difficult to convince men of what is right in this 
 case. You recollect the story of Amaziah's hiring an hun- 
 dred thousand men of Israel, for an hundred talents, to assist 
 him against the Edomites ; and that when by the word of 
 the Lord, he v.^as forbidden to take those hired men with him 
 to the war, he cried out, " But what shall we do for the hun- 
 dred talents, which I have given to the army of Israel ?" In 
 this case, the answer of God was, " The Lord is able to give 
 thee much more than this." To apply this to the subject be- 
 fore us, God is able to give thee much more than thou shalt 
 lose by manumitting thy slave. 
 
 You may plead, that you use your slave well ; you are not 
 cruel to him, but feed and clothe him comfortably, &,c. Still 
 every day you rob him of a most valuable and important right. 
 And a highwayman, who robs a man of his money in the 
 most easy and complaisant manner, is still a robber ; and 
 murder may be effected in a manner the least cruel and tor- 
 menting ; still it is murder. 
 
 Having now taken that view of our subject, which was pro- 
 posed, we may in reflection see abundant reason to acquiesce 
 in the institution of this society. Jf the slave trade be unjust, 
 and as gross a violation of the rights of mankind, as would 
 be, if the Africans should transport us into perpetual slavery 
 in Africa ; to unite our influence against it, is a duty which 
 we owe to mankind, to ourselv^es, and to God too. It is but 
 doing as we would that men should do to us. Nor is it enough 
 that we have formed the society ; we must do the duties of 
 it. The first of these is to put an end to the slave trade. The 
 second is (o relieve those who, contrary to the laws of the 
 
28 
 
 country, are lioldeu in boiidatre. Another is totlefeml those 
 in their remaining le«,'al and natural rights, who are by law 
 holden in bondage. Another, and not the least important 
 object of this society, I conceive to be, to increase and dis- 
 perse the light of truth with respect to the subject of African 
 slavery, and so prepare the way for its total abolition. For 
 until men in general are convinced of the injustice of the trade 
 and of the slavery itself, comparatively little can be done to 
 elfect the most important purposes of the institution. 
 
 It is not to be doubted, that the trade is even now carried 
 on from this state. Vessels are from time to time fitted out 
 for the coast of Africa, to transport the negroes to the West 
 Indies and other parts. Nor will an end be put to this trade, 
 without vigilance and strenuous exertion on the part of this 
 society, or other friends of humanity, nor without a patient 
 enduring of the opposition and odium of all who are concern- 
 ed in it, of their friends and of all who are of the opinion that 
 it is justifiable. Among these we are doubtless to reckon 
 some of large property and considerable influence. And if 
 the laws and customs of the country equally allowed of it, 
 many, and perhaps as many as now plead for the right of the 
 African slave trade, would plead for the right of kidnapping 
 us, the citizens of the United States, and of selling us into 
 perpetual slavery. If then we dare not incur the displeasure 
 of such men, we may as well dissolve the society, and leave 
 the slave trade to be carried on, and the negroes to be kid- 
 napped, and though free in this state, to be sold into perpet- 
 ual slavery in distant parts, at the pleasure of any man, who 
 wishes to make gain by such abominable practices. 
 
 Though we must expect opposition, yet if we be steady 
 and persevering, we need not fear, that we shall fail of success. 
 The advantages, which the cause has already gained, are 
 
29 
 
 many aiul great. Tliirty years ago, searcely a man in tliis 
 country thought either the slave trade or the slavery of ne- 
 groes to be ua'ong. But now how many and able advocates 
 in private life, in our legislatures, in Congress, have appeared 
 and have openly and irrefragably pleaded the rights of hu- 
 manity in this as well as other instances ? Nay, the great 
 body of the people from New Hampshire to Virginia inclu- 
 sively, have obtained such light, that in all those states, the 
 further importation of slaves is prohibited by law. In Massa- 
 chusetts and New Hampshire, slavery is totally abolished. 
 
 Nor is the light concerning this subject confined to Ameri- 
 ca. It hath appeared with great clearness in France, and 
 produced remarkable effects in the National Assembly. It 
 hath also shone in bright beams in Great Britain. It flashes 
 with splendor in the writings of Clarkson and in the proceed- 
 ings of several societies formed to abolish the slave trade. 
 Nor hath it been possible to shut it out of the British parlia- 
 ment. This light is still increasing, and in time will effect a 
 total revolution. And if we judge of the future by the past, 
 within fifty years from this time, it will be as shameful for a 
 man to hold a negro slave, as to be guilty of common robbery 
 or theft.* But it is our duty to remove the obstacles which 
 intercept the rays of this light, that it may reach not only pub- 
 lic bodies, but every individual. And when it shall have ob- 
 tained a general spread, shall have dispelled all darkness, and 
 slavery shall be no more ; it will be an honor to be recorded 
 in history, as a society which was formed, and which exerted 
 itself with vigor and fidelity, to bring about an event so ne- 
 cessary and conducive to the interests of humanity and virtue 
 to the support of the rights, and to the advancement of the 
 happiness of mankind. 
 
 * This time is at hand ! 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Some objections to the doctrine of the preceding sermon, have been 
 mentioned to the author, since the delivery of it. Of these it may be 
 proper to take some notice. 
 
 1. The slaves are in a better situation than that in which they 
 were in their own country ; especially as they have opportunity to 
 know the Christian religion and to secure the saving blessings of it. 
 Therefore it is not an injury, but a benefit to bring them into this 
 country, even though their importation be accompanied and follow- 
 ed with slavery. It is also said, that the situation of many negroes 
 under their masters is much better, than it would be, were they free 
 in this country; that they are much better fed and clothed, and are 
 much more happy ; that therefore to hold them in slavery is so far 
 from a crime, that it is a meritorious act. 
 
 With regard to thesepleas, itisto be observed, that every man hath 
 right to judge concerning his own happiness, and to choose the 
 means of obtaining or promoting it ; and to deprive him of this 
 right is the very injury of which we complain ; it is to enslave him. 
 Because we judge, that the negroes are more happy in this country, 
 in a state of slavery, than in the enjoyment of liberty in Africa, we 
 have no more right to enslave them and bring them into this country, 
 than we have to enslave any of our neighbors, who we judge would 
 be more happy under our control, than they are at present under 
 their own. Let us make the case our own. Should we believe, that 
 we were justly treated, if the Africans should carry us into perpetu- 
 al slavery in Africa, on the ground that they judged, that we should 
 be more happy in that state, than in our present situation ? 
 
 As to the opportunity which the negroes in this country are said 
 to have, to become acquainted with Christianity ; this with respect 
 to many is granted : But what follows from it ? it would be ridicu- 
 lous to pretend, that this is the motive on which they act who im. 
 port them, or they who buy and hold them in slavery. Or if this 
 were the motive, it would not sanctify either the trade or the slavery. 
 We are not at liberty to do evil, that good may come ; to commit a 
 crime more aggravated than theft or robbery, that we may make a 
 proselyte to Christianity. Neither our Lord Jesus Christ, nor any 
 one of his apostles has taught us this mode of propagating the faitli. 
 
 2. It is said, that the doctrine of the preceding sermon imputes 
 that as a crime to individuals, which is owing to the state of society. 
 This is granted ; and what follows? It is owing to the state of socie- 
 ty, that our neighbors, the Indians roast their captives : and does it 
 hence follow, that such conduct is not to be imputed to the individual 
 agents as a crime? It 1° owing to the state of society in Popish coun- 
 tries, that thousands worship the beast and the image ; and is that 
 worship therefore not imputed as a crime to those, who render it ? 
 Read the Revelation of St. John. The state of society is such, that 
 drunkenness and adultery are very common in some countries ; but 
 will it follow, that those vices are innocent in those countries. 
 
31 
 
 3. If I be ever so willing to iiiuuLiinit iny sluvo, I cannot do it 
 without being holden to maintain liim, when he shull be sick or shall 
 be old and decrepid. Therefore I have a right to hold him as a 
 slave. The same argument will prove, that you have a right to 
 enslave your children or your parents : as you are equally holden 
 to maintain them in sickness and in decrepid old age. The argu- 
 ment implies, that in order to secure the money, which you are 
 afraid the laws of your country will some time or other oblige you 
 to pay ; it is right for you to rob a free man of his liberty or be 
 guilty of man stealing. On the ground of this argument every 
 town or parish obligated by law, to maintain its helpless poor, has a 
 right to sell into perpetual slavery all the people, who may probably 
 or even possibly occasion a public expense. 
 
 4. After all, it is not safe to manumit the negroes : they would 
 cut our throats; they would endanger the peace and government of 
 the state. Or at least they would be so idle, that they would not 
 provide themselves with necessaries : of course they must live by 
 thievery and plundering. 
 
 This objection requires a different answer, as it respects the north- 
 ern, and as it respects the southern states. As it respects the north- 
 ern, in which slaves are so ihw, there is not the least foundation 
 to imagine, that they would combine or make insurrection against 
 the government ; or that they would attempt to murder their mas- 
 ters. They are much more likely to kill their masters, in order to 
 obtain their liberty, or to revenge the abuse they receive, while it is 
 still continued, than to do it after the abuse hath ceased, and they 
 are restored to their liberty. In this case, they would from a sense 
 of gratitude, or at least from a conviction of the justice of their 
 masters, feel a strong attachment, instead of a murderous disposition. 
 
 Nor is there the least danger, but that by a proper vigilance of 
 the selectmen, and by a strict execution of the laws new existing, the 
 negroes might in a tolerable degree be kept from idleness and pillering. 
 
 All this hath been verified by experiment. In Massachusetts, all 
 the negroes in the commonwealth were by their new constitution 
 liberated in a day : and none of the ill consequences objected follow. 
 ed either to the commonwealth or to individuals. 
 
 With regard to the southern states, the case is different. The ne- 
 groes in some parts of those states are a great majority of the whole, 
 and therefore the evils objected would, in case of a general manumis- 
 sion at once, be more likely to take place. But in the first place, 
 there is no prospect, that the conviction of the truth exhibited 
 in the preceding discourse, will at once take place in the minds of all 
 the holders of slaves. The utmost that can be expected is, that it 
 will take place gradually in one after another, and that of course the 
 slaves will be gradually manumitted. Therefore the evils of a gen- 
 eral manumission at once, are dreaded without reason. 
 
 If in any state the slaves should be manumitted in considerable 
 numbers at once, orso that the number of free negroes should become 
 large ; various measures might be concerted to prevent the evils fear- 
 
32 
 
 cd. One I bog leave topj^pose: That overseers of the free negroes 
 be appointed iVom among themselves, who sliall be empowered to in- 
 spect the morals and management of the rest, and report to pioper 
 authority, those who are vicious, idle, or incapable of managing their 
 own affairs, and that such authority dispose of them under proper 
 masters for a year or other term, as is done, perhaps in all the states, 
 with regard to the poor white people in like manner vicious, idle, or 
 incapable of management. Such black overseers would naturally be 
 an)bitious to discharge the duties of their office ; they would in many 
 respects have much more influence than white men with their coun- 
 trymen : and other negroes, looking forward to the same honorable 
 distinction, would endeavor to deserve it by their improvement and 
 good conduct. 
 
 But after all, this whole objection, if it were ever so entirely founded 
 on truth ; if the freed negroes would probably rise against their mas- 
 ters, or combine against government ; rests on the same ground, as 
 the apology of the robber, who murders the man whom he has rob- 
 bed. Says the robber to himself, I iuive robbed this man, and if I 
 let him go he will kill me, or he will complain to authority, and I 
 shall be apprehende 1 and hung. I must therefore kill him. There 
 is no other way of safety for me. The coincidence between this 
 reasoning and tliat of the objection under consideration, must be man- 
 ifest to all. And if this reasoning of the robber be inconclusive ; if 
 the robber have no right on that ground to kill the man whom he hath 
 robbed ; neither have the slave holders any more right to continue 
 to hold their slaves. If the robber ought to spare the life of the man 
 robbed, take his own chance, and esteem himself happy if he can 
 escape justice; so the slave holders ought immediately to let their 
 slaves go free, treat them with the utmost kindness, by such treat- 
 ment endeavor to pacify them with respect to past injuries, and esteem 
 themselves happy, if they can compromise the matter in this manner. 
 
 In all countries in which the slaves are a majority of the inhabit- 
 ants, the masters lie in a great measure at the mercy of the slaves, 
 and may most rationally expect, sooner or later, to be cut off, or driv- 
 en out by the slaves, or to be reduced to the same level and to be 
 mingled with them into one common mass. This I think is by ancient 
 and modern events demonstrated to be the natural and necessary 
 course of human affairs. The hewers of wood and drawers of water 
 among the Israelites, the Helots among the Lacedemonians, the slaves 
 among the Romans, the villains and vassals in most of the kingdoms 
 of Europe, under the feudal system, have long since mixed with the 
 common mass of the people, and shared the common privileges and 
 honors of their respective countries. And in the French West Indies 
 the mulattoes and free negroes are already become so numerous and 
 powerful a body, as to be allowed by the National Assembly to enjoy 
 the common rights and honors of free men. These facts plainly 
 show, what the whites in the West Indies and the southern states are 
 to expect concerning their posterity, that it will infallibly be amalga- 
 mated with the slave population, or else they must quit the country 
 to the Africans, whom thev have hitherto holden in bondage.