James Swan

“ I beg you all would fly from the oppression and Bondage to which the poor Africans are subjected, loose the bonds from off their necks, and thereby extricate yourselves from a custom which is pernicious to your welfare here and hereafter; and as you are sensible most men have objections to this base, unlawful Trade, you ought to vindicate yourselves to the world, upon principles of reason, honesty, and humanity, and then you will not attack the persons, or invade the rights of these people. ”

“ Whether the people of this country notwithstanding their colour, are not capable of being civilized and brought into the Christian religion, as well as great numbers of the Indians of America and Asia have been; and whether the primitive inhabitants of all countries so far as we have been able to trace them were not once as savage and inhuman as the people in Africa, and whether the ancient Britons themselves of our country were not once upon a level with the Africans? ”

“ Would any person consent to have himself torn from his friends and native country, and be made a Slave for life, and to have his dear, dear little children continue in the same condition from one generation to another? ”

“ For no money can be equal to the worth of a man: Buying, I admit that word because Ship-masters and others in this Trade, say, for their justification that they purchased the Negroes, but as there are no laws, either of God or man, for the buying and stealing of Africans, I am inclined to think it cannot be suppo­sed, but they justly deserve death. ”

“ It is not easy to say what vast quantities of the above British and American productions would be exhausted yearly among so great a people, and in so very extensive a country, were the Slave Trade stopped. It is the interest of every Merchant in Britain and the Plantations who are now concerned in traffick to Africa, to cultivate the inland commerce in its utmost extent, as having no manner of concern with the Slave Trade, there being the greatest reason to believe, that where they now export twenty shillings worth of commodities thither, they would then export an hundred pound ”

“ It is astonishing how a people who so much value themselves upon their Freedom can continue in the practice of so much oppression. Will not the groans of this afflicted and miserable people reach Heaven! ”

“ Should they think themselves on a death-bed, what agonies and troubles of mind must they undergo in the thoughts of enslaving so many miserable creatures, of murdering so many thousands of innocent people in the wars they occasion, treacherously taking them out of their own country, using them barbarously, massacring numbers of them in all the cruel ways imaginable on the passage, selling them for life, and depriving them even of a comfortable living, notwithstanding they serve for nothing else ”

“ To be blessed in every thing that they do. What man will forfeit this great blessing for the sake of the service of one, two, or more Servants for life? Will he allow himself to be cursed by God in every thing that he doeth for the small gain he can make by their services? This charming promise of a blessing in all that thou doest, and the dreadful events that may take place in contradicting the command of God, I hope will make such impressions upon the minds of men, that they will not bind Servant to serve above six years ”

“ Whether, if trade was carried on with them for a series of years, as it has been with most other savage countries, and the Europeans gave no incouragement whatever to the Slave Trade, those cruel wars among the Blacks would not cease, and a fair and honourable Commerce in time take place throughout the whole country? ”

“ There can be no loss to any country (particularly to one like Africa that is yet mostly to cultivate) equal to that of depopulating it. 2d. It prevents the inland country, where the incessant broils are carried on, from defending themselves against the attacks and encroachments made on their properties by the Kings and Chiefs, whereby many thousands of their subjects being taken prisoners, are sold to the Coasters, they being nourished and caressed by the Europeans, particularly by Britain and the Colonies, in doing so, for the sake of the Slave Trade to America, and the West-Indies ”

“ Their Owners make great gain by their Slave's labour. They lay heavy burdens on them, and yet feed and cloath them very sparingly, and some scarcely at all; so that it cannot be wondered that these poor creatures are obliged to shift for their living as they do, which occasions many of them being killed in stealing potatoes or other food to satisfy hunger. If they are detected in taking any thing from the plantation they belong to, which they have so hardly laboured for, they are cruely whiped." Lastly. With respect to the beating which these poor people meet with in the West-Indies. ”

“ As detestable and shocking as these usages to the poor Negroes may appear to such whose hearts are not yet hardened by the practise of that cruelty which the love of wealth by degrees introduceth into the human mind, it will not be strange to those who have been concerned or employed in the Trade. ”

“ Whether therefore, there is not a probability that those people might in time, by proper management in the Europeans, become as wise, as industrious, as humane, and as good Christians, as the people of any other country? ”

“ And do you suppose that he who is the Parent of all nations, the Protector of all people, and the Father of all men, will not revenge the male-treatment of his offspring whom he once so loved as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believed in him should not perish, but have everlasting life? ”

“ The greatest disadvantage to Africa, by thus draining it of the inhabitants is, that it prevents them from cultivating and peopling that great fertile country, of introducing European arts and sciences amongst them, and of carrying on a friendly, civil, and christian Commerce with them into the heart of their region. ”

“ Until this is done it does not seem possible that the inland trade of that country should ever be extended to the degree it is capable of; for while the spirit of Butchery and making Slaves of each other, is promoted by the Europeans, Americans, &c. amongst those people, they will never be able to travel with safety into the heart of the country, or to cement such commercial friendship and alliance with them, as will actually introduce our arts and manufactures. ”

“ It is likewise certain, that those who carry on this Trade, do not unto men as they would men should do to them; for if these poor people which they, the Ship-masters take from their own Country and then sell for Slaves, were doing to them as they are done to, they would (were it in their power, which seldom is the case, the owners being conscious of the wrong they are doing, and dreading what naturally would follow) revenge the injury they receive in being made Slaves, and resume that Liberty again, which was wrongfully taken from them ”

“ This is the best and shortest way; for there should be no trade carried on, it being a national and provincial concern, but such as is justifiable both to God and man, and this is in direct opposition to both. But laying man's resentment aside, which is of little moment in comparison with that of the Almighty's, I counsel you once more to think of a future reckoning, consider what reasons you will be able to produce at the great and last day. You now accumulate riches and live in pleasure ”

“ So that I expect the inhabitants of the American Provinces will not give any person an opportunity of charging them with that infamous character of making or keeping any man or woman Slaves, when they are complaining daily that their Liberties are wrested from them, and little think how they deprive these poor Black People of their Freedom, when there is as little reason for it as there is for making Slaves of British Subjects. The above cited clause in the Charter, says, Those born in or shall come to and dwell within the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay are free ”

“ And as you would that men should do to you, do ye so to them likewise. Who is that proud one that will not receive these instructions? And who is that man that will do unto any person, either white or black, Christian or Savage, contrary to what he would that he should do to him? ”

“ Whether the greatest hinderance and obstruction to the European's cultivating a Christian-like and humane Commerce with those populous countries has not wholly proceeded from that unjust Traffick called the Slave Trade, which is carried on by the Europeans Americans, &c. ”

“ It is a known custom among the Factors who reside in Africa, and the Ship-masters who trade there, to corrupt many Negroes on the sea coast, who stop at no act of cruelty for gain. They make it a practice, to steal abundance of little Blacks of both sexes, when found on the roads, or in the fields, where their Parents keep them all day to watch the corn, &c. ”

“ The crimes attending the Slave Trade are greatly aggravated by the extreme cruel usage the Negroes meet with in the Plantations, as well with regard to food and cloathing as the hard and unreasonable labour that is exacted from them, and what cannot be forgot, the severe chastisements they frequently suffer, which is bounded by the wrath and pleasure of their hard task-masters. ”

“ When they are in Africa it is certain they are at a great distance; but when they come to America or the West-Indies they then dwell by us; therefore I think, from the above citations, no person can buy these people, and oblige them and their children to serve as Slaves, without incuring the displeasure of God and his punishments for disobeying his just commands. ”

“ Thus an insatiable desire of gain prevails with their Kings, who, instead of being protectors of their people, for this alluring bait laid before them, by the European and American Factors, or Ship-masters, invade the Liberties of these unhappy people, and occasion their opression. These Kings, whenever they want goods send to the Ship-masters, acquainting them they have Negroes, and sometimes the Factors and Ship-masters send to acquaint them, that they have a quantity of goods, and want Slaves for the same. ”

“ That whilst the slaving Trade of those people, continue to be the great object of the powers that trade there it is to be feared it will ever, as it does at present spirit up wars and hostilities amongst the Negro Princes and Chiefs, for the sake of making captives of each other for sale. ”

“ They may say they pay for them. I answer, they give money or goods by way of price to some of the Princes and Negroes, who, for the sake of lucre, take them prisoners by war or stealth, so that what money they give these scoundrels, (forgive me the expression; for, what name can a man expect who would take his Father or Brother and sell them for gain?) who take them in these ways cannot be looked upon as a price paid in lieu, for the Negroes themselves never condescend to be mancipated, as they get none of the money that is pretendedly given for them. ”

“ In the Islands, the allowance for a Slave's cloathing is seldom more than six yards of oznabrigs a year, and in the Southern Colonies, where the piercing westerly winds are long and sensibly felt, these poor Africans suffer much for the want of sufficient cloathing ”

“ Whether the British dominions in general have not an extent of territory sufficient to increase and multiply their inhabitants; and whether it is not their own faults that they do not increase them sufficiently to supply their Colonies and Plantations, with Whites instead of Blacks? ”

“ My blood has frequently run cold within me to consider how many of your Slaves had neither convenient food to eat or proper raiment to put on, notwithstanding many of the comforts you enjoy were solely owing to their indefatigable labours." In Virginia, &c. in case a Negro gives the slightest affront to a white person, he goes to the negroes Master and demands satisfaction, the Master delivers him to the white person to take what satisfaction he pleases; who whips him, strikes him with clubs, and, as is often done, cuts off his ears, and mark him by cuting his face, or other parts of his body. ”

“ Whether the territory of the European nations who are interested in the Colonies and Plantations in America, are not populous enough, or may be rendered so, by proper encouragement given to matrimony and the breed of foundling infants, to supply their respective Colonies with labourers in the place of Negro Slaves? ”