SLAVE-TRADE. 



nocent, as they have more or lefs conneftion with the Eu- 

 ropeans. 



To one argument that has been alleged in favour of 

 flavery, we wifh to direft the attention of our readers, be- 

 fore we clofe this article. It has been faid, that flavery was 

 not formally aboli(hed by the gofpel, and that it therefore 

 continued for a long time after the introduftion of Chrif- 

 tianity. It has been faid, that St. Paul, having converted 

 Onefimus to the Chrittian faith, who was a fugitive flave of 

 Philemon, fent him back to his mailer. This circumftance 

 has furnifhed the receivers with a plea, that Chriftianity en- 

 courages flavery. But they have not only (trained the paf- 

 fages which they produce in fupport of their aflertions, 

 but are ignorant of hiftorical fafts. The benevolent apoftle, 

 in the letter which he wrote to Philemon, the mailer of 

 Onefimus, addrefl'es him to the following effeft : " I fend 

 him back to you, but not in his former capacity, not now 

 as a fervant, but above a fervant, a brother beloved. In 

 this manner I befeech you to receive him, for though I 

 could enjoin you to do it, yet I had rather it fliould be a 

 matter of your own will, than of neceflity." 



It appears that the fame Onefimus, when he was fent 

 back, was no longer a flave, that he was a minifter of the 

 gofpel, that he was joined with Tychicus in an ecclefiaftical 

 commifiion to the church of the Coloflians, and was after- 

 wards bilhop of Ephefus. If language, therefore, has any 

 meaning, and if hiilory has recorded a fa£l which may be 

 believed, there is no cafe more oppofite to the doftrine of 

 the receivers, than this which they produce in its fupport. 



It is faid again, that Chriftianity, among the many im- 

 portant precepts which it contains, does not furnifli us with 

 one for the abolition of flavery. But the reafon is obvious. 

 Slavery, at the time of the introduftion of the gofpel, was 

 univerfally prevalent, and if Chriftianity had abruptly de- 

 clared, that the millions of flaves fliould have been made 

 free, who were then in the world, it would have been uni- 

 verfally rejefted, as containing doftrines that were dan- 

 gerous, if not deftruftive, to fociety. In order, therefore, 

 that it might be univerfally received, it never meddled, by 

 any pofitive precept, with the civil inftitutions of the times : 

 but though it does not exprefsly fay, that " you ftiall 

 neither buy, nor fell, nor poilefs a flave," it is evident that, 

 in its general tenor, it fufBciently militates again il the 

 cuftom. 



The iirft doftrine which it inculcates is that of brotherly 

 love. It commands good will towards men. It enjoins us 

 to love our neighbour as ourfelvee, and to do unto all men, 

 as we would that they fhould do unto us. And how can 

 any man fulfil this fcheme of univerfal benevolence, who 

 reduces an unfortunate perfon, againft his will, to the moft 

 infupportable of all human conditions ; who confiders him as 

 his private property ; and treats him, not as a brother, nor 

 as one of the fame parentage with himfelf, but an animal of 

 the brute creation ? 



But the moft important doflrine is that, by which we are 

 aflured that mankind are to exill in a future flate, and to 

 give an account of thofe aftions which they have feverally 

 done in the flefti. This ftrikes at the very root of flavery. 

 For how can any man be juftly called to an account for his 

 aftions, whofe aftions are not at his own difpofal ? This is 

 the cafe with the proper flave. His liberty is abfolutcly 

 bought and appropriated ; and if the purchafe is juft and 

 equitable, he is under the neceifity of perpetrating any 

 crime, which the purchafer may order him to commit ; or, 

 in other words, of ceafing to be accountable for his aftions. 

 Thefe doftrines, therefore, are fuflicient to fliew, that 

 flavery is incompatible with the Chriftian fyftem. The 



Europeans confidered them as luch, when, at the clofe o( 

 the twelfth century, they refifted their hereditary prejudices, 

 and occafioned its abolition. Hence one, among many 

 other proofs, that Chriftianity was the produftion of infinite 

 wifdom ; that though it did not take fuch exprefs cogni- 

 zance of the wicked national inftitutions of the times, as 

 fliould hinder its reception, it fliould yet contain fuch doc- 

 trines, as, when it fliould be fully eftabliflied, would be . 

 fuflicient for the abolition of them all. See Clarkfon's 

 Eflay on the Slavery and Commerce of the human Species, 

 paflim. 



Slave-trade, Abolition of the. It is a circumftance fa- 

 vourable to the hiftorian, that this great work was never re- 

 gularly attempted till our own times ; becaufe the fadls re- 

 lating to it being frefli in every one's memory, an opportu- 

 nity has been afforded him of examining them, and of efti- 

 mating their truth : hence pofterity will have the advantage 

 of having more than ufually accurate ilatements on the fub- 

 jeft. Mr. Thomas Clarkfon, a gentleman now living, who 

 was among the warmeft patrons of this facred caufe, has 

 publiflied an account of the different meafures purfued to 

 promote it. Thefe were regiftered at the time, either by 

 himfelf, or the eilimable committee which adled in concert 

 with him. His hiftory, in two volumes oftavo, has been 

 now more than fix years before the public, and not the 

 fliadow of a doubt has been expreffed as to the authenticity 

 of any thing afterted therein ; we cannot, therefore, we 

 conceive, hand down information on this great fubjeft in a 

 more fatisfaftory manner, than by giving to the reader a 

 concife abridgment of the work itfelf. 



The great work of the abolition, according to Mr. Clark- 

 fon, was not the entire produce of his own day. It was too 

 mighty to have been accompliflied, either by a few indivi- 

 duals, or in a fliort period of time : it was neceflary that 

 men's minds fliould have been previoufly inftrufted and pre- 

 pared : hence, from the very beginning of the infamous 

 traffic, to the time when he became a public aftor in the 

 fcene of its fuppreffion, which was in the year 1787, there 

 had not been wanting good men to lift up their voices 

 againft it : and as the fentiments of thefe, who were moft of 

 them authors, had been given to the public in their refpeftive 

 works, either in poetry or profe, for a long fuccelfion of 

 years, hundreds of perfons had been then taught in England 

 to condemn it. Thefe, that is, the good men jull alluded 

 to, Mr. Clarkfon confiders as fo many necefl^ary forerun- 

 ners (indeed he gives them that title) ; and confiders them 

 alfo, though moft of them lived before his own time, as 

 fo many coadjutors in the work. The firft mentioned are 

 cardinal Ximenes, the emperor Charles V., pope Leo X., 

 queen Elizabeth of England, and Louis XIII. of France ; 

 concerning all of whom he gives anecdotes in fupport of 

 the title thus given them. 



Having fpoken firft of the men in power, Mr. Clarkfon 

 divides the forerunners who walked in humbler life into four 

 claffes. The firft confifts principally of perfons in Eng- 

 land, of various religious defcriptions, who bore their tefti- 

 mony againft the trade in their fucceflive writings up to the 

 year 1787. Among the poets were Pope, Thomfon, Shen- 

 ftone, and Cowper ; among the divines, bifliop Warburton, 

 Rd. Baxter, Beattie, Wefley, Whitfield, Wakefield, and 

 Paley ; among the others, were Montefquieu, Hutchinfon, 

 Wallis, Burke, Pottlethwaite, Day, Hartley, Millar, and 

 Granvflle Sharp. The latter, however, is to be particu- 

 larly diftinguiftied from the reft, and alfo to be borne in 

 mind ; for whereas the others had only handed down the traffic 

 in queflion as infamous, by the mention made of it in their re- 

 fpeflive works, this good man fpent whole years in bringing 



the 



