your subjects to
misery.

Now, as a famous Heathen philosopher observes, from whose mouth you
shall be convicted[055], "there is a considerable difference, whether an
injury is done, during any perturbation of mind, which is generally
short and momentary; or whether it is done with any previous meditation
and design; for, those crimes, which proceed from any sudden commotion
of the mind, are less than those, which are studied and prepared," how
great and enormous are your crimes to be considered, who plan your
African voyages at a time, when your reason is found, and your senses
are awake; who coolly and deliberately equip your vessels; and who spend
years, and even lives, in the traffick of _human liberty_.

But if the arguments of those, who _sell_ or _deliver_ men
into slavery, (as we have shewn before) and of those, who _receive_
or _purchase_ them, (as we have now shewn) are wholly false; it is
evident that this _commerce_, is not only beyond the possibility of
defence, but is justly to be accounted wicked, and justly impious, since
it is contrary to the principles of _law_ and _government_,
the dictates of _reason_, the common maxims of _equity_, the
laws of _nature_, the admonitions of _conscience_, and, in
short, the whole doctrine of _natural religion_.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES

[Footnote 054: Justin, L. 2. C. 1.]

[Footnote 055: Cicero de Officiis. L. 1. C. 8.]

* * * * *

PART III.

THE

SLAVERY of the AFRICANS

IN THE

EUROPEAN COLONIES.

* * * * *

CHAP. I.
Having confined ourselves wholly, in the second part of this Essay, to
the consideration of the _commerce_, we shall now proceed to the
consideration of the _slavery_ that is founded upon it. As this
slavery will be conspicuous in the _treatment_, which the
unfortunate Africans uniformly undergo, when they are put into the hands
of the _receivers_, we shall describe the manner in which they are
accustomed to be used from this period.

To place this in the clearest, and most conspicuous point of view, we
shall throw a considerable part of our information on this head into the
form of a narrative: we shall suppose ourselves, in short, on the
continent of Africa, and relate a scene, which, from its agreement with
unquestionable facts, might not unreasonably be presumed to have been
presented to our view, had