The extinction, however, of this was
not to be effected by allowing the son of an African slave to obtain his
freedom on the death of his parent. Such a son should be considered as born
free. He should then be educated at the expense of the person importing his
parents; and, when arrived at such a degree of strength as might qualify
him to labour, he should work for a term of years for the payment of the
expense of his education and maintenance. It was impossible to emancipate
the existing slaves at once; nor would such an emancipation be of any
immediate benefit to themselves: but this observation would not apply to
their descendants, if trained and educated in the manner he had proposed.
He would now address himself to those who adopted the opposite extreme: and
he thought he should not assume too much, when he said, that if both
slavery and the Slave-trade could be abolished with safety to their
property, it deeply concerned their interests to do it. Such a measure,
also, would only be consistent with the principles of the British
Constitution. It was surely strange that we, who were ourselves free,
should carry on a Slave-trade with Africa; and that we should never think
of introducing cultivation into the West Indies by free labourers.
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