Granville Sharp

“ IF natural rights, such as life and Li­berty, receive no additional strength from municipal laws, nor any human legistature has power to abridge or destroy them, un­less the owner commits some act that a­mounts to a forfeiture; If the natural Liberty of mankind consists proper­ly in a power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or controul unless by the law of nature; being a right inhe­rent in us by birth, and one of the Gifts of God to man at his creation, when he en­dued him with the faculty of free will: If an act of Parliament is controulable by the laws of God and nature ”

“ I MIGHT here, in the language of the famous JAMES OTIS, Esq ask, Is it possible for a man to have a natural right to make a Slave of himself or his posteri­ty? What man is or ever was born free, if every man is not? Can a father super­sede the laws of nature? Is not every man born as free by nature as his father? a There can be no prescription old enough to supersede the law of nature, and the grant of God Almighty, who has given to every man a natural right to be free. ”

“ To Those who think Slavery founded in Scripture, a careful and attentive perusal of the Sacred Writings would contribute more than any thing to eradicate the er­ror, they will not find even the name of Slave once mentioned therein, and applied to a servitude to be continued from parent to child in perpetuity, with approbation. ”

“ I believe very few of the advocates for freedom think that all ought to be manumitted, nay, think it would be unjust to turn out those who have spent their prime of life, and now require a support; but many are in a fit capacity to do for themselves and the public ”

“ IN another place they observe, since we are all brethren, and God has given to all men a natural right to Liberty, we al­low of no Slavery among us, unless a per­son forfeits his freedom by his crimes. ”

“ There is a farther consideration which has a plausible appearance, and may be thought to carry some weight; it is, that the merchant only purchases those who were slaves before, and possi­bly may, rather than otherwise, render their situation more tolerable. ”

“ Does it follow that it is right to enslave a man because he is black? Will short curled hair like wool, instead of Christians hair, as it is called by those whose hearts are hard as the nether mill­stone, help the argument? Can any lo­gical inference in favour of Slavery, be drawn from a flat nose‖ a long or a short face? Nothing better can be said in fa­vour of a trade that is the most shocking violation of the laws of nature ”

“ The people of Israel were under a theocracy, in which the Supreme Being was in a peculiar sense their King, and might therefore issue forth some or­ders for them, which it would not be warrantable for another people, who were in different circumstances, to observe. ”

“ Let us never forget, that an equal if not a grea­ter proportion of our own colour behave worse with all the advantages of birth, education and circumstances; and we shall blush to oppose an equitable emanci­pation, by this or the like arguments. ”

“ Upon the whole, we must own, that this little treatise is not convincing to us, though, as different persons are differently affected by the same considerations, it may prove more satisfactory to others. ”

“ Such, for instance, was the command given concerning the extirpation of the Canaanites, whom, the sovereign Arbiter of life and death might, if he had pleased, have destroyed by plague or famine, or other of those means which we term na­tural causes, and by which a wise Provi­dence fulfils its own purposes. But it would be unreasonable to infer from the manner in which the Israelites dealt with the people of Canaan, that any other na­tions have a right to pursue the same me­thod. ”