СНАР. III. SLAVERY. TH H E prohibitions of the last chapter extend to the treatment of flaves, being founded upon a principle independent of the contract between masters and fervants. I define slavery to be" an obligation to labour "for the benefit of the mafter, without the con"tract or confent of the fervant." This obligation may arise, confiftently with the law of nature, from three causes : 1. From crimes. 2. From captivity. In the first case, the continuance of the flavery, as of any other punishment, ought to be proportioned to the crime; in the fecond and third cafes, it ought to cease, as foon as the demand of the injured nation or private creditor is fatisfied. The flave-trade upon the coaft of Africa is not excused by these principles. When slaves in that country are brought to market, no questions, I be 1 I believe, are asked about the origin or justice of the vendor's title. It may be prefumed, therefore, that this title is not always, if it be ever, founded of the causes above affigned. in any But defect of right in the first purchase is the least crime, with which this traffic is chargeable. The natives are excited to war and mutual depredation, for the fake of fupplying their contracts, or furnishing the market with flaves. With this the wickedness begins. The flaves, torn away from parents, wives, children, from their friends and companions, their fields and flocks, their home and country, are tranfported to the European settlements in America, with no other accommodation on shipboard, than what is provided for brutes. This is the second stage of cruelty; from which the miserable exiles are delivered, only to be placed, and that for life, in fubjection to a dominion and system of laws, the moft merciless and tyrannical that ever were tolerated upon the face of the earth; and from all that can be learned by the accounts of the people upon the spot, the inordinate authority, which the plantation laws confer upon the flave-holder, is exercifed, by the English flave-holder especially, with rigour and brutality. But neceffity is pretended; the name under which every enormity is attempted to be justified. And after all, what is the neceffity? It has never been proved that the land could not be cultivated there, as it is here, by hired fervants. It is faid that it could not be cultivated with quite the fame conveniency and cheapnefs, as by the labour of flaves: by which means, a pound of fugar, which the planter now fells for fixpence, could not be afforded under fixpence halfpenny and this is the neceffity. The great revolution which has taken place in the Western world may probably conduce (and who knows but that it was defigned?) to accelerate the fall of this abominable tyranny : and now that this conteft, and the paffions which attend it are no more, there may fucceed perhaps a feafon for reflecting, whether a legislature, which had fo long lent its affiftance to the fupport of an institution replete with human misery, was fit to be trufted with an empire, the most extenfive that ever obtained in any age or quarter of the world. Slavery was a part of the civil conftitution of moft countries, when Christianity appeared; yet no paffage is to be found in the Chriftian fcriptures, by which it is condemned or prohibited. This is true; for Christianity, foliciting admif fion into all nations of the world, abftained, as behoved it, from intermeddling with the civil inftitutions of any. But does it follow, from the filence of fcripture concerning them, that all the civil inftitutions which then prevailed were right? or that the bad fhould not be exchanged for better. Besides this, the discharging of slaves from all obligation to obey their mafters, which is the confequence of pronouncing flavery to be unlawful, would have had no better effect, than to let loofe one half of mankind upon the other. Slaves would have been tempted to embrace a religion, which afferted their right to freedom. Masters would hardly have been perfuaded to confent to claims founded upon fuch authority. The most calamitous of all contefts, a bellum fervile, might probably have enfued, to the reproach, if not the extinction of the Chriftian name. The truth is, the emancipation of flaves should, be gradual; and be carried on by provisions of law, and under the protection of civil government. Christianity can only operate as an alterative. By the mild diffufion of its light and influence, the minds of men are infenfibly prepared to perceive and correct the enormities, which folly, or wickedness, or accident, have introduced into their public establishments. In this way the Greek and Roman flavery, and fince these the feudal tyranny, has declined before it. And we trust that, as the knowledge and authority of the fame religion advance in the world, they will banish what remains of this odious inftitution. CHAP. |