of his own industry, and secure of reaping for himself the fruits of his labour, became farmer of the same field where he had formerly been compelled to toil for the benefit of another.  The odious name of master and of slave, the most mortifying and depressing of all distinctions to human nature, were abolished.  New prospects opened, and new incitements to ingenuity and enterprise presented themselves, to those who were emancipated.  The expectation of bettering their fortune, as well as that of raising themselves to a more honourable condition, concurred in calling forth their activity and genius; and a numerous class of men, who formerly had no political existence, and were employed merely as instruments of labour, became useful citizens, and contributed towards augmenting the force or riches of the society, which adopted them as members.”  William Robertson’s history of Charles the 5th, vol. 1, P. 35. ]

If instead of making slaves of the Negroes, the nations who assume the name and character of christians, would use their endeavours to make the nations of Africa acquainted with the nature of the christian religion, to give them a better sense of the true use of the blessings of life, the more beneficial arts and customs would, by degrees, be introduced amongst them; this care probably would produce the same effect upon them, which it has had on the inhabitants of Europe, formerly as savage and barbarous as the natives of Africa.  Those cruel wars amongst the blacks would be likely to cease, and a fair and honorable commerce, in time, take place throughout that vast country.  It was by these means that the inhabitants of Europe, though formerly a barbarous people, became civilized.  Indeed the account Julius Caesar gives of the ancient Britons in their state of ignorance, is not such as should make us proud of ourselves, or lead us to despise the unpolished nations of the earth; for he informs us, “That they lived in many respects like our Indians, being clad with skins, painting their bodies, &c.”  He also adds, “That they, brother with brother, and parents with children, had wives in common.”  A greater barbarity than any heard of amongst the Negroes.  Nor doth Tacitus give a more honourable account of the Germans, from whom the Saxons, our immediate ancestors, sprung.  The Danes, who succeeded them (who may also be numbered among our progenitors) were full as bad, if not worse.

It is usual for people to advance as a palliation in favour of keeping the Negroes in bondage, that there are slaves in Guinea, and that those amongst us might be so in their own country; but let such consider the inconsistency of our giving any countenance to slavery, because the Africans, whom we esteem a barbarous and savage people, allow of it, and perhaps the more from our example.  Had the professors of christianity acted indeed as such, they might have been instrumental to convince the Negroes of their error in this respect; but even this, when inquired into, will be to us an