[Footnote 1:  Locke, Anti-slavery, etc., p. 15.]

[Footnote 2:  Meade, Sermons of Thomas Bacon, p. 137 et seq.]

The sentiment of the clergy of this epoch was more directly expressed by Richard Baxter, the noted Nonconformist, in his “Directions to Masters in Foreign Plantations,” incorporated as rules into the Christian Directory.[1] Baxter believed in natural liberty and the equality of man, and justified slavery only on the ground of “necessitated consent” or captivity in lawful war.  For these reasons he felt that they that buy slaves and “use them as Beasts for their meer Commodity, and betray, or destroy or neglect their Souls are fitter to be called incarnate Devils than Christians, though they be no Christians whom they so abuse."[2] His aim here, however, is not to abolish the institution of slavery but to enlighten the Africans and bring them into the Church.[3] Exactly what effect Baxter had on this movement cannot be accurately figured out.  The fact, however, that his creed was extensively adhered to by the Protestant colonists among whom his works were widely read, leads us to think that he influenced some masters to change their attitude toward their slaves.

[Footnote 1:  Baxter, Practical Works, vol. i., p. 438.]

[Footnote 2:  Baxter, Practical Works, vol. i., p. 438-40.]

[Footnote 3:  Ibid., p. 440.]

The next Puritan of prominence who enlisted among the helpers of the African slaves was Chief Justice Sewall, of Massachusetts.  In 1701 he stirred his section by publishing his Selling of Joseph, a distinctly anti-slavery pamphlet, based on the natural and inalienable right of every man to be free.[1] The appearance of this publication marked an epoch in the history of the Negroes.  It was the first direct attack on slavery in New England.  The Puritan clergy had formerly winked at the continuation of the institution, provided the masters were willing to give the slaves religious instruction.  In the Selling of Joseph Sewall had little to say about their mental and moral improvement, but in the Athenian Oracle, which expressed his sentiments so well that he had it republished in 1705,[2] he met more directly the problem of elevating the Negro race.  Taking up this question, Sewall said:  “There’s yet less doubt that those who are of Age to answer for themselves would soon learn the Principles of our Faith, and might be taught the Obligation of the Vow they made in Baptism, and there’s little Doubt but Abraham instructed his Heathen Servants who were of Age to learn, the Nature of Circumcision before he circumcised them; nor can we conclude much less from God’s own noble Testimony of him, ’I know him that he will command his Children and his Household, and they shall keep the Way of the Lord.’"[3] Sewall believed that the emancipation of the slaves should be promoted to encourage Negroes to become Christians.  He could not understand how any Christian could hinder or discourage them from learning the principles of the Christian religion and embracing the faith.