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Show vi P R E F A C E. publick remon!l:rance before the celebrated emperor Charles the fifth, declaring, that heaven would one day call him to an account for thofe cruelties, which he then had it in his power to prevent. The fpeech which he made on the occafion, is now extant, and is a moll: perfeCt piCture of benevolence and piety. But his in treaties, by the oppofition of avarice, were rendered ineffeCtual : and I do not find by any books which 1 have read upon the fubjeCl:, that any other perfon interfered till the !all: century, when Morgan God7~JIZ, a Britijh clergyman, difiinguilhed himfelf in the caufe. The prefent age has alfo produced fame zealous and able oppofers of the colonial flavery. For about the middle of the prefent century, John Woolman and Anthony Bmezet, two refpeCl:able members of the religious fociety called OEakers, devoted much of their time to the fubjeCl:. The former travelled through moil: parts of North America on foot, to hold converfations with the members of h}s ow~ feet, on the impiety of retaining thofe in a fiate of involuntary fervitude, who had never given them offence. The latter kept a free fchool at Philadelphia, for P R E F A C E. vii for the education of black people. He took every opportunity of pleading in their behalf. He publilhed feveral treatifes againfi flavery, * and gave an hearty proof of his attachment to the caufe, by leaving the whole of his fortune in fupport of that fchool, to which he had fo generoufl y devoted his time and attention when alive. Till this time it does not appear, that any bodies of men had colleCtively intere!l:ed themfelves in endeavouring to remedy the evil. But in the year 17 54, the religious · fociety, called OEakers, publickly tefiified their fentiments upon the fubjeet,ll declaring, that " to live in eafe and plenty by the toil of thofe, whom fraud and violence had put into their power, was neither confifient with Chrifiianity nor common jufiice." Impre!Ted with thefe fentiments, many of this fociety immediately liberated their flaves; and though fuch a meafure appeared to be • A Defcription of Guinea, with an Inquiry into the Rife and Progrcfs of the Slave Trade, &c.-A. Caution to Great Britain and her Colonies, in a fhort Reprefentation of the calamitous State of the enflaved Negroes in the Britifh Domi~ ions. Bcfides feveral fmallcr pieces. U They had cenfurcd the .Afritall CJ',·atle in the year 1727, but but had taken no publick notice of the (Q/onial fiavery till this time. a 4 attendecj. |