of force?
And, finally, have not they who have been enabled to make these
statements, knowing all the circumstances connected with them, found
their own zeal increased, and their own courage and perseverance
strengthened; and have they not, by the communication of them to others,
produced many friends and even labourers in the cause?

CHAPTER III.

Forerunners continued to 1787; divided from this time into four
classes.--First class consists principally of persons in Great Britain
of various descriptions: Godwyn; Baxter; Tryon; Southern; Primatt;
Montesquieu; Hutcheson; Sharp; Ramsay; and a multitude of others,
whose names and services follow.

I have hitherto traced the history of the forerunners in this great
cause only up to about the year 1640. If I am to pursue my plan, I am to
trace it to the year 1787. But in order to show what I intend in a
clearer point of view, I shall divide those who have lived within this
period, and who will now consist of persons in a less elevated station,
into four classes: and I shall give to each class a distinct
consideration by itself.

Several of our old English writers, though they have not mentioned the
African Slave Trade, or the slavery consequent upon it, in their
respective works, have yet given their testimony of condemnation against
both. Thus our great Milton:--

O execrable son, so to aspire,
Above his brethren, to himself assuming
Authority usurpt, from God not given;
He gave us only over beast, fish, fowl,
Dominion absolute; that right we hold
By his donation; but man over men
He made not lord, such title to himself
Reserving, human left from human free.

I might mention Bishop Saunderson and others, who bore a testimony
equally strong against the lawfulness of trading in the persons of men,
and of holding them in bondage; but as I mean to confine myself to those
who have favoured the cause of the Africans specifically, I cannot admit
their names into any of the classes which have been announced.

Of those, who compose the first class, defined as it has now been, I
cannot name any individual who took a part in this cause till between
the years 1670 and 1680; for in the year 1640, and for a few years
afterwards, the nature of the trade and of the slavery was but little
known, except to a few individuals, who were concerned in them; and it
is obvious that these would neither endanger their own interest nor
proclaim their own guilt