CHAPTER XVII. 



We are defrauded of great numbers by the pains that are taken to 

 keep the blacks from us; their masters are afraid of the influence 

 of our principles. Would not an amelioration in the condition and 

 treatment of slaves have produced more practical good to the poor 

 Africans than any attempt at their emancipation t The state of 

 society, unhappily, does not admit of this; besides, the blacks are 

 deprived of the means of instruction ; who will take the pains to 

 lead them into the way of salvation, and watch over them that they 

 may not stray, but the Methodists? Well, now their masters will 

 not let them come to hear us. What is the personal liberty of the 

 African, which he may abuse, to the salvation of his soul ; how may 



it be compared ? 



(Francis Asbury.) 



THE beginning of slavery may be dated from the 

 remotest period of which we have any account 

 in history. It prevailed particularly among the Jews, 

 the Greeks, the Romans, and the ancient Germans, 

 and was transmitted by them to the various kingdoms 

 and states which arose out of the Roman Empire. 

 African slavery took its rise from the Portuguese, 

 who, to supply the Spaniards with men to cultivate 

 their new possessions in America, procured negroes 

 from Africa whom they sold for slaves to the Ameri- 

 can Spaniards. This began in the year 1508, when 

 they imported the first negroes into Hispaniola. It 

 was about 1551 that the English began trading to 

 Guinea; at first for gold and elephants' teeth, but 



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