BOOK Iir. CHAP. II. I 461 i^ 



In this liglit, if we are impartial, we ought to examine the fubjedl:; 

 not ufing flavery as an indefinite term, but confidering how far juft 

 our particular idea or definition of it is, when applied to this or that 

 fet of men, who live In a different part of the world; fince what is 

 ckcmed flavery in one place, is far from being reputed fo in another: 

 a Briton therefore, who has always lived in fruition of a rational free- 

 dom, muft not judge of every other man's feelings by his own ; be- 

 caufe thev vvlio have never experienced the fame Britifh freedom, or 

 any degree near to it, cannot poflibly hold the fame opinion of flavery 

 that a Briton does; for they know not how to diftinguifh it; and 

 with fuch, the fervitude they live under, has neither horrors nor 

 hardfhip. 



Among men of fo favage a dilpofition, as that they fcarcely differ 

 from the wild beafts of the wood in the ferocity of their manners, we 

 muft not think of introducing thofe polifhcd rules and refinements, 

 which have drawn their origin and force from the gradual civilization 

 of other nations that once were barbarous. Such men muft be ma- 

 naged at lirft as if they were beafts j they muft be tamed, before they 

 can be treated like men. Ridiculous is it, when the argument re- 

 gards fuch men, to fay, that they do not come into our colony-fcrvi- 

 tude under regular cowpaSisl True, they do not; for, if they did, they 

 would no longer be flaves, in the ufual acceptation of the term. As 

 Haves, they come into the colony from their native country ; but the 

 difference lies in this, they were flaves, abjedl flaves in Africa, and fo 

 would have continued, with infinitely greater difadvant:;ges than they 

 experience in the colony. In the former, they were fubjeft to all the 

 feverities of the moft brutal and licentious tvrannv, under men living: 

 in fomethinsf worfe than a ftate of nature. In the colonv, the owner 

 of the flave receives him with a tacit agreement that his ferviccs fhall be 

 requited with neceflary food and cloathing; a juft proportion and in- 

 terval, of reft:; Ibme leifure too for his own particular emoluments; a 

 weather-tight and convenient habitation; a profpedl of many tempo- 

 rary and occafional douceurs; and even of an independence, if his de- 

 ferts fhould claini it. Add to this, that his life is proteded by law, 

 and that his owner holds not an unlimited power over him. He en- 

 joys a more narrowed decree of liberty than fome fubjects In Britain, 

 but in feverai refpecls a much larger extent than fome others. Under 



Vol. II. Fff the 



