He then read a number of extracts from
the evidence examined before the privy council, and from the histories of
those, who, having lived in Africa, had thrown light upon this subject,
before the question was agitated. All these, he said, (and similar
instances could be multiplied,) proved the truth of the resolution, that
the African Slave-trade was contrary to the principles of humanity,
justice, and sound policy.
It was moreover, he said, contrary to the principles of the religion we
professed. It was not superfluous to say this, when it had been so
frequently asserted, that it was sanctioned both by the Jewish and the
Christian dispensations. With respect to the Jews he would observe, that
there was no such thing as perpetual slavery among them. Their slaves were
of two kinds, those of their own nation, and those from the country round
about them. The former were to be set free on the seventh year; and the
rest, of whatever nation, on the fiftieth, or on the year of Jubilee. With
respect to the Christian dispensation, it was a libel to say, that it
countenanced such a traffic. It opposed it both in its spirit and in its
principle. Nay, it opposed it positively; for it classed men-stealers, or
slave-traders, among the murderers of fathers and mothers and the most
profane criminals upon earth.
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