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OBSERVATIONS, &c.

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T is now many years fince I read a Pamphlet refpecting the Injustice of the Slave Trade, and the Barbarity with which Negroes were treated by their Owners in the Sugar Colonies, written by Mr. Glanville Sharpe. Though not then established in this part of the world, my business had occafioned my temporary refidence in the Weft Indies, and led me alfo much among all the British islands, from Barbadoes to St. Kitts, inclufively. I had abundant opportunities of judging how far that gentleman's remarks and ftrictures were just and merited; and I was fully convinced that he had been moft egregiously impofed upon. The greateft part of his affertions, I was fatisfied, were void of foundation, and where he seems to have been better informed, every fact is beyond measure exaggerated. If I recollect right, he quotes fome of the antient laws of Barbadoes as the rules of government of the flaves throughout the West Indies. In that inftance, and, as far as I can remember, in the whole of his pamphlet, he appeared to me to be unacquainted with his subject, and B

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I concluded, he was then, as I am convinced he is now, actuated by a zeal not according to knowledge.

It is long fince the clamour raised against the Slave Trade, and the charge against the planters for the inhumanity of their conduct towards the negroes they poffefs, have reached them. The infignificancy of the perfons from whom they originated, and the falfity of the reports they circulated, raised no other fenfations amongst them, than thofe of contempt. Some, indeed, who had a knowledge of the cruelty and mifconduct which one of the moft remarkable writers upon the fubject ufed to be guilty of towards the flaves that were under his care in one of the Windward iflands, added to their contempt, a degree of astonishment at his audacity, equal to the deteftation they formerly expreffed at his behaviour; I should not, however, have confidered any reply neceffary: but, as this charge of inhumanity, against the planters, feems now to have gained credit with many people of worth and integrity, fo far as to induce them, to confider it a duty incumbent on the good and virtuous of all denominations, to enter into a general combination, if not to procure an emancipation of all the negroes already in bondage, at least, to put a stop to what they confider as a moft fhameful traffic; by which others may be reduced to the like unhappy condition; a traffic, which is by fome, faid to be equally contrary both to the laws of God and Nature.

Amongst many others, (who I doubt not are actuated by the pureft principles of humanity and philanthropy), a gentleman, whofe character I highly revere, has written from England, to a particular friend of mine on this ifland, declaring his intention of giving a bill,

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intended to be brought into Parliament to abolish the Slave Trade, his strongest fupport and affiftance. To convince this gentleman, and thofe, who like him, act from principle, how grofsly they have been impofed upon, in being taught to think fo ill of the proprietors of flaves, I take up my pen; and doubt not, but I fhall fhew, that fo far from the negroes in the West India islands being in a state of mifery, their lot is to be envied by the generality of the peasants in every part of Europe.

In order to fulfil my purpose, it certainly is not incumbent to enter into a defence of the Slave Trade itself; and, under the present prepoffeffion of all ranks of people in favour of general liberty, the attempt may be confidered as imprudent; yet amongst those who have now fet themselves to oppofe this commerce, fsome perfons may have religious fcruples refpecting the lawfulness of it, I cannot refift the temptation of pointing out to fuch of them, as allow the Scriptures to be the word of God, that they will find it there, expreffly tolerated, at least.

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The curfe upon Canaan, indeed was "A fervant of fervants fhall he be unto his brethren. " But Noah faid, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his fervant." God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his fervant." Exod. chap. 9.v. 25. *

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*It is generally allowed by the learned, that the Europeans are the defcendants of Japheth.The Welch particularly claim to be defcended from Gomer, his eldeft fon, and they antiently called themfelves Gomeroi.

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Ifaac, when he bleffed his fon Jacob, faid unto him, "Come near now, and kiss me my fon ;-and he came

near, and kissed him, and he blessed him, and said,-let
people ferve thee, and nations bow down to thee; be
Lord over thy brethren; and let thy mother's fons bow
down to thee; Curfed be every one that curfeth thee;
and bleffed be he that bleffeth thee." Gen. 27. v. 29,
and again; verfe 27, to fhew what was meant by
Jacob's being Lord over his brethren, Ifaac fays to
Efau, "Behold, I have made him thy Lord; and all
his brethren have I given to him for fervants. That
the fale of men from very early time prevented murder,
is evident from the fame authority. Gen. chap. 37.
v. 26.
"And Judah faid unto his brethren; what
profit is it if we flay our brother, and conceal his
blood? Come, and let us fell him to the Ifhmaelites,
and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother,
and our flesh,"

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It is contended by many pious Chriftians, that the moral precepts of the Mofaic law are of eternal obligation; and few people who profess that faith, will deny the authority of the Old Teftament, as to thofe laws which are not abrogated by the New. Thus the laws of the Decalogue are allowed to be in full force; and I am inclined to believe, that whatfoeyer appears in the Bible to have been authorised by the Deity, (who was, and is,

The eldest born of Ham, who was accurfed by his father, was called Cufh, which, in the Hebrew language fignifies black. Ethiopia, under which name it is fuppofed Africa is included, is called in Scripture, the land of Cufh, and the inhabitants Cushim, or Cufhites. Is it an improbable conjecture that the Negroes are defcendants of Ham, by his eldest fon Cufh? Which may, perhaps, account for the degraded fituation thofe people have ever continued in.

and

and will be the fame, then, now, and for ever) which has not, like the ceremonial law, been forbid, or changed fince, by the fame authority, cannot be confidered as criminal. That the purchasing slaves is a very antient practice, is certain. It appears to have caused no furprize in the rest of Jacob's children, when Judah propofed the tranfaction to them; the Ifhmaelites do not feem to have looked upon it as a novelty; and the whole of the account fhews it to have been an ordinary transaction; which surely proves it was not confidered as either illegal, or uncommon.

That it was permitted by God, would be clear from the foregoing paffages: But if any doubt should still remain in the mind of the Christian reader, his fcruples will furely be removed by the following directions given by the Deity himself, to Mofes, in Mount Sinai. "Both thy bond men and thy bond maids, which thou fhalt have, fhall be of the Heathen, which are round about you; of them fhall you buy bond men and bond maids. Moreover, of the children of the ftrangers, that do fojourn among you, of them fhall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land; and they shall be your poffeffion. And ye fhall take them as an inheritance for children after you, your to inherit them for a poffeffion; they fhall be your bond men for ever: But over your brethren the children of Ifrael, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour. Lev. chap. 25, v. 44. Nor is it forbidden to the children of Ifrael to fell themselves to ftrangers; it is only provided, "in fuch cafe, that the near of kin may redeem them; and in cafe they are not redeemed before, that they should go free at the Jubilee. And, if a fojourner or ftranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth

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