human rights, and united with no other rivalry than to try who should best plead the cause of the helpless. Nor could it contemplate with less respect, a chief magistrate of the first court of English judicature laboriously attentive to arguments which controverted his own former proceedings, and, in the end, deliberately establishing a judgment opposite to them-in behalf of humanity *.

* It is surprising, and to posterity will appear hardly credible, that the force of prejudice was so great in the enlightened nations of Europe at the time of these events, that the advocate of an injured race separated from those nations only by the sea, and distinguished from them only by a darker tinge of skin, thought it requisite to institute a regular inquiry, whether the natives of Africa were men-so unwilling was their unwearied champion to leave in the field the smallest point against them unassailed. A correspondence ensued with the learned Jacob Bryant on the subject. The following is Mr. Sharp's apology for writing to him :-" I am far from having any particular esteem for the Negroes; but as I think myself obliged to consider them as men, I am certainly obliged also to use my best endeavours to prevent their being treated as beasts by our unchristian countrymen, who deny them the privileges of human nature, and, in order to exercise their own brutality, will scarcely allow that Negroes are human beings. The tracing their descent, therefore, is a point of some consequence to the subject on which I am now engaged, for their defence."

On the same subject, are some marginal remarks on page 33 of an History of Jamaica by Mr. Estwick.-See Appendix, No. IV.

CHAP. V.

THE solemn and irreversible decree which had been issued in favour of Negroes in England, was attended with the utmost exultation among the anxious friends of human happiness. The general sense and feeling of the English people had long before decided the cause, and their conscious joy burst forth on occasion of the present triumph. The name of Granville Sharp became the emblem of charity he stood the acknowledged and victorious patron of African liberty. Like the inspired deliverer of the Hebrews, he had brought captives out of the house of bondage, and given them to taste the milk and honey that flowed in a land of freedom.

In consequence of these events, a new and enlarged field of action was about to be opened to his talents and his philanthropy: his efforts in behalf of an oppressed race were now to be seconded in another hemisphere. The numerous and respectable body of Quakers in North America had, for many years, been making various efforts to alleviate the condition of slaves in several provinces; and, when

* A General Epistle from the Yearly Meeting in 1754, declares it to be the "concern" of the body of Friends to bear

the news reached them of the favourable verdicts obtained in the cases of Strong and other Negroes in England, they immediately felt a desire of communicating with the author of these successes, and of co-operating with him in his meritorious labours. His tract "on the Injustice of Slavery" was procured, and an abridgment of it (as has been mentioned) published from their own press in Philadelphia; and numerous copies of it were dispersed, by every means in their power, as widely and expeditiously as possible. The final decision, on the trial in defence of Somerset, confirmed their respect for the champion of the cause.

The most cordial interchange of friendly sentiment now commenced between men, who, strangers, and far distant from one another, were alike earnestly labouring in the same benevolent attempt; and the intercourse which followed led to the most unexpected results.

On the memorable day which terminated the cause of Somerset and established the rights of all Negroes in England, Mr. Sharp received the first offering of a correspondence, instituted for the sole object of forwarding the deliverance of African and other slaves, but tending also, in its progress, to render him a partaker in the great political strife between

testimony against the iniquitous practice of slave-dealing, and to warn their members against making any purchase of Negroes. Another Epistle, to the same effect, was issued by the Yearly Meeting of London, in 1758.

Great Britain and her Colonies. His correspondent was ANTHONY BENEZET, a highly respectable member of the society called Quakers, in North America. He had established a free-school at Philadelphia for the education of Black People, and he took every opportunity which his situation gave him, of pleading in their behalf*.

A congeniality of spirit had singularly united these two philanthropists, before any correspondence was opened between them. In the copy, found in Mr. Sharp's library, of one of Benezet's works, is the following marginal note in manuscript.—

*He published several treatises against slavery, and he finally gave a hearty proof of his attachment to the cause of the slaves, by leaving the whole of his fortune in support of that school to which he had devoted his time and attention. His works are,

1. "A Description of Guinea, with an Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of the Slave Trade, &c."

2. "A Caution to Great Britain and her Colonies; in a short Representation of the calamitous State of the enslaved Negroes in the British Dominions."-This book was transmitted by the General Meeting of Quakers in Philadelphia, to the Meeting in London, with a request that it might be reprinted here, and put into the hands of the several members of Parliament; which was accordingly done: Six hundred copies were sent to the Members of both Houses. "This was done," says Benezet, "with a view to forward the design of a national inquiry."

3. "Short Aecount of that Part of Africa inhabited by Negroes."-See Mr. Clarkson's Preface to his Prize Essay, "On the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, particularly the African," 1785.

"The author of this book, as printed at Philadelphia in 1762, was Mr. Anthony, Benezet, of that city; descended of a French family, which forsook (and lost very considerable property in) France for the sake of their religion; so that the present Mr. B. is obliged to earn his bread in the laborious office of a schoolmaster, and is also unhappily involved in the errors of Quakerism: nevertheless he has a very large and extensive acquaintance, and is universally respected, not only among the whole body of Quakers, (Dr. Fothergill, and Dr. Franklin, having been his correspondents), but also by all others who know

him.

"When G. S. was involved in the first law-suit, to defend himself against a prosecution for having set a Negro slave at liberty, in 1767, he accidentally met with a copy of this book on a stall, and, without any knowledge whatever of the author, caused this edition to be printed and published, having added thereto an account of the endeavours of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel' to instruct the Negroes at New York, with two of Bishop Gibson's Letters on that subject; to which G. S. added also a Conclusion, by the Editor*.

"In 1769, G. S. having nonsuited his prosecutors, was at liberty to print his representation of the Injustice and dangerous Tendency of tolerating

In order to guard against any arguments that might be urged in favour of slavery from the Bishop's letters, wherein he seems to admit the legality of slave-holding.