whose air is too pure for slavery to breathe,
and on whose shores, if the captive’s foot but
touch, his fetters of themselves fall off. (Cheers.)
To the resistless progress of this great principle
I look with a confidence which nothing can shake;
it makes all improvement certain—it makes
all change safe which it produces; for none can
be brought about, unless all has been accomplished
in a cautious and salutary spirit. So now the
fulness of time is come; for our duty being at
length discharged to the African captive, I have
demonstrated to you that every thing is ordered—every
previous step taken—all safe, by experience
shown to be safe, for the long-desired consummation.
The time has come—the trial has been
made—the hour is striking: you have
no longer a pretext for hesitation, or faltering,
or delay. The slave has shown, by four years’
blameless behavior and devotion, unsurpassed by any
English peasant, to the pursuit of peaceful industry,
that he is as fit for his freedom as any lord
whom I now address. I demand his rights—I
demand his liberty without stint, in the names of justice
and of law—in the name of reason—in
the name of God, who has given you no right to
work injustice. I demand that your brother be
no longer trampled upon as your slave. (Hear,
hear.) I make my appeal to the Commons, who represent
the free people of England; and I require at their
hands the performance of that condition for which
they paid so enormous a price—that condition
which all their constituents are in breathless
anxiety to see fulfilled! I appeal to his
house—the hereditary judges of the first
tribunal in the world—to you I appeal
for justice. Patrons of all the arts that humanize
mankind, under your protection I place humanity herself!
To the merciful Sovereign of a free people I call
aloud for mercy to the hundreds of thousands in
whose behalf half a million of her Christian sisters
have cried aloud, that their cry may not have risen
in vain. But first I turn my eye to the throne
of all justice, and devoutly humbling myself before
Him who is of purer eyes than to behold any longer
such vast iniquities—I implore that the
curse over our heads of unjust oppression be averted
from us—that your hearts may be turned
to mercy—and that over all the earth His
will may at length be done!
* * * * *
INDEX.
ABSCONDING from labor,
Accident in a boiling house,
Aged negro,
Allowance to Apprentices,
“Amalgamation,”
American Consul, (See Consul.)
American Prejudice,
Amity Hall Estate,
Anderson, Wm. II. Esq.,
Anguilla,
Annual Meeting of Missionaries,
Antigua, Dimensions of,
" Sugar Crop of,
Applewhitte, Mr.
Appraisement of Apprentices,
Apprentice, provisions respecting the,
Apprenticeship compared with slavery,
Apprenticeship System,
" Design
of,
" Good
effect of,
" No preparation