o so wretched a
situation?

You reply, that you _buy them_; that your _money_ constitutes
your _right_, and that, like all other things which you purchase,
they are wholly at your own disposal.

Upon this principle alone it was, that we professed to view your
treatment, or examine your right, when we said, that "the question[109]
resolved itself into two separate parts for discussion; into the
_African_ commerce, as explained in the history of slavery, and the
subsequent slavery in the colonies, _as founded on the equity of the
commerce_." Now, since it appears that this commerce, upon the
fullest investigation, is contrary to "_the principles[110] 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_," it is evident that the _right_,
which is founded upon it, must be the same; and that if those
things only are lawful in the sight of God, which are either
virtuous in themselves, or proceed from virtuous principles, you _have
no right over them at all_.

You yourselves also confess this. For when we ask you, whether any human
being has a right to sell you, you immediately answer, No; as if nature
revolted at the thought, and as if it was so contradictory to your own
feelings, as not to require consideration. But who are you, that have
this exclusive charter of trading in the liberties of mankind? When did
nature, or rather the Author of nature, make so partial a distinction
between you and them? When did He say, that you should have the
privilege of selling others, and that others should not have the
privilege of selling you?

Now since you confess, that no person whatever has a right to dispose of
you in this manner, you must confess also, that those things are
unlawful to be done to you, which are usually done in consequence of the
sale. Let us suppose then, that in consequence of the _commerce_
you were forced into a ship; that you were conveyed to another country;
that you were sold there; that you were confined to incessant labour;
that you were pinched by continual hunger and thirst; and subject to be
whipped, cut, and mangled at discretion, and all this at the hands of
those, whom you had never offended; would you not think that you had a
right to resist their treatment? Would you not resist it with a safe
conscience? And would you not be surprized, if your resistance should be
term