338 
ed to the .slaye, to purchase his. own 
freedom, which have produced such ex- 
tensively beneficial effects in the colonial 
possessions of Spain and Portugal; 
where the slaves have been manumitted 
in large numbers, not only without inju- 
ry, but with benefit to the master, and 
with decided advantage to the public 
peace and safety. On the contrary, in 
many of our colonies, even the voluntary 
Manumission of slaves by their master 
has been obstructed, and in some ren- 
dered nearly impossible, by large fines. 
it is an universal principle of colo- 
nial Jaw, that all black or coloured 
persons are presumed and taken to he 
slaves, unless they can legally prove 
the contrary. 'The liberty, therefore, 
even of {ree persons, is thus often greatly 
endangered, and sometimes lost. They 
are liable tobe apprehended as run-away 
slaves; and they are farther liable, as 
such, to be sold into endless bondage, if 
they fail to do that which, though free, 
nay, though born perhaps in Great Bri- 
tain itself, they may be unable to do,— 
namely, to establish the fact of their 
freedom by such evidence as the colonial 
laws require. 
Let it be remembered also, that many 
thousand infants are annually born 
within the British dominions to no in- 
heritance but that of the hapless, liope- 
less, servitude which has been described; 
and the general oppressiveness of which 
might be inferred from this striking and 
most opprobrious fact alone, that, while 
in the United States of America the 
slaves increase rapidly—so rapidly as 
to double their number in twenty years 
—there is even now, in the British colo- 
nies, no increase, but on the contrary 
a diminution of their numbers. 
Such are some of the more prominent 
features of negro-slavery, as it exisis ia 
the colonies of Great Pritain. Revolting 
as they are, they form only a part of those 
circumstances of wretcheduess and de- 
gradation which might be pointed out 
as characterizing that unhappy state of 
being. 
It will hardly be alleged, that any 
man can havea right to retain his fellow- 
creatures in a state su miserable and de- 
grading as has been described. And 
the absence of such right will be still 
more apparent, if we consider how these 
slaves were originally obtained. ‘They, 
or their parents, were the victims of the 
slave-tiade. They were obtained, not 
“any awful means, or under any co- 
-ourabl pretext, but by the most undis- 
1 
Proceedings of Public Societies. 
[Nov. lL, 
guised rapine, and the most. atrocious 
fraud, Torn trom their homes and from 
every dear relation in life, barbarously 
manacled, driven like herds of cattle 
to the sea-shore, crowded into the pes- 
tilential holds of slave ships, they were 
transported to our colonics, and there 
sold into interminable bondage. 
Great Britain, itis true, has abvlished 
her African slaye-irade, and branded it 
as felony ; and it is impossible to reflect 
without exaltation on that great act of 
national justice. 
When the Britisl slave-trade was 
abolished, a confident expectation was 
entertained that the certain result of that 
measure would be the rapid mitigation 
and final extinetion of the colonial bon- 
dage which had sprung from it, and 
which in its principle is equally inde- 
fensible. 
Sixteen years, however, have now 
elapsed since the British slave-frade 
was abolished; but, during that long 
period, what effectual steps have been 
taken, either in this country or in the 
eolonies, for mitigating the rigours of 
negro-bondage, or for putting an end te 
a condition of society whichso grievously 
outrages every feeling of humanity, while 
it viclates every recognized priticiple 
both of the British constitution aud of 
the Christian religion ? 
The government and legislature of 
this country haye on various occasions, 
and in the most solenn and unequivocal 
terms, denonnced the slave-trade as 
immoral, inhuman, and unjust; but the 
Jeyal perpetuation of that state of sla- 
very, which bas been produced by it, is, 
surely, in its principle, no less immoral, 
inhuman, and unjust, than the trade 
itself, 
Notwithstanding those solemn de- 
nunciations, thousands of children are 
still annually born slaves within the 
British dominions, and upwards of 
800,000 of our fellow-creatures (the vic- 
tims of the slave-trade, or descended 
from its victims) are still retained in the 
same state of brutal depression. They 
are still driven like vattle to their un- 
compensated tail by the impulse of the 
lash. bey are still exposed to severe 
and arbitrary punishments. They are 
still bought and sold as merehandize, 
They are still denied the blessings of the 
marriage tie, and of the Christian Sab- 
bath. 
pects, they continue to be an oppressed 
and degraded race, without any adc- 
quate participation in the civil privi- 
leges, 
And, in a variety of other ress 
