" Now every one of these sources of slavery had been stated to be
at this hour a source of slavery in Africa. If these practices, therefore,
were to be admitted as proofs of the natural incapacity of its inhabitants,
why might they not have been applied to ancient Britain? Why might not then
some Roman senator, pointing to British barbarians, have predicted with
equal boldness, that these were a people, who were destined never to be
free; who were without the understanding necessary for the attainment of
useful arts; depressed by the hand of Nature below the level of the human
species; and created to form a supply of slaves for the rest of the world?
But happily, since that time, notwithstanding what would then have been the
justness of these predictions, we had emerged from barbarism. We were now
raised to a situation, which exhibited a striking contrast to every
circumstance, by which a Roman might have characterized us, and by which we
now characterized Africa. There was indeed one thing wanting to complete
the contrast, and to clear us altogether from the imputation of acting even
to this hour as barbarians; for we continued to this hour a barbarous
traffic in slaves.
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