scorned, trampled on—­should come at last to despise himself—­to believe the calumnies of his oppressors—­and to persuade himself, that it would be against his nature, to cherish any honourable sentiment or to attempt any virtuous action?  Before you boast of your superiority over us, place some of your own colour (if you have the heart to do it) in the same situation with us; and see, whether they have such innate virtue, and such unconquerable vigour of mind, as to be capable of surmounting such multiplied difficulties, and of keeping their minds free from the infection of every vice, even under the oppressive yoke of such a servitude.

But, not satisfied with denying us that indulgence, to which the misery of our condition gives us so just a claim, our enemies have laid down other and stricter rules of morality, to judge our actions by, than those by which the conduct of all other men is tried.  Habits, which in all human beings, except ourselves, are thought innocent, are, in us, deemed criminal and actions, which are even laudable in white men, become enormous crimes in negroes.  In proportion to our weakness, the strictness of censure is increased upon us; and as resources are withheld from us, our duties are multiplied.  The terror of punishment is perpetually before our eyes; but we know not, how to avert it, what rules to act by, or what guides to follow.  We have written laws, indeed, composed in a language we do not understand and never promulgated:  but what avail written laws, when the supreme law, with us, is the capricious will of our overseers?  To obey the dictates of our own hearts, and to yield to the strong propensities of nature, is often to incur severe punishment; and by emulating examples which we find applauded and revered among Europeans, we risk inflaming the wildest wrath of our inhuman tyrants.

To judge of the truth of these assertions, consult even those milder and subordinate rules for our conduct, the various codes of your West India laws—­those laws which allow us to be men, whenever they consider us as victims of their vengeance, but treat us only like a species of living property, as often as we are to be the objects of their protection—­those laws by which (it may be truly said) that we are bound to suffer, and be miserable under pain of death.  To resent an injury, received from a white man, though of the lowest rank, and to dare to strike him, though upon the strongest and grossest provocation, is an enormous crime.  To attempt to escape from the cruelties exercised upon us, by flight, is punished with mutilation, and sometimes with death.  To take arms against masters, whose cruelties no submission can mitigate, no patience exhaust, and from whom no other means of deliverance are left, is the most atrocious of all crimes; and is punished by a gradual death, lengthened out by torments, so exquisite, that none, but those who have been long familiarized, with West Indian barbarity, can hear the bare recital of them