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Show 6 tion visited him with glad tidings: but he went down to death, with dusl<y dreams of African shadow-catchers and Ol>eahs hunting him. Very sad was the negro tradition, that the Great Spirit, in the l>eginning, offered the black man, whom he loved better than the buckra or white, his choice of two boxes, a big and a I(ttlc one. 'rhc black man was greedy, and chose the largest. "The buckra box was full up with pen, paper, and whip, and the negro box with hoc and bill; and hoe and bill for negro to this day." But the crude clement of good in human aflairs must work and ripen, spite of whips, and plantation-laws, and West Indian interest. Conscience rolled on its pillow, and could not sleep. We sympathize very tenderly here with the poor aggrieved planter, of whom so many unpleasant things are said; but if we saw the whip applied to old men, to tender women; and, undeniably, though I shrink to say so,- pregnant women set in the treadmill for refusing to work, when, not they, but the eternal law of animal nature refused to work;- if we saw men's backs flayed with cowhides, and "hot rum poured on, superinduced with brine or piclde, rubbed in with a cornhusk, in the scorching heat of the sun ; "-if we saw the runaways hunted with blood-hounds into swamps and hills; and, in cases of passion, a planter throwing his negro ·into a copper of boiling cane-juice,- if we saw these things with eyes, we too should wince. They are not pleasant sights. The blood is moral: the blood is anti-slavery: it runs cold in the veins: the stomach rises with disgust, and curses slavery. Well, so it happened; a good man or woman, a country-boy or girl, it would so fall out, once in a while saw these injuries, and had the indiscretion to tell of them. The horrid story ran and flew; the winds blew it all over the world. They who heard it, asked their rich and great friends, if it was true, or only missionary lies. The richest and greatest, the prime minister of England, the king's 7 privy council were obliged to say, that it was too true. It became plain to all men, the more th is business was looked into, that the crimes and cruelties of the slave-traders and slave-owners could not be overstated. 'l'hc more it was searched, the more shocking anecdotes came up, -things not to be spoken. Humane persons who were informed of the reports, insisted on proving them. Granville Sharpe was accidentally made acquainted with the sufferings of a slave, whom a West Indian planter had brought with him to London, and had beaten with a pistol on his head so badly, that his whole body became diseased, and the man useless to his master, who left him to go whither he pleased. The man applied to Mr. William Sharpe, a charitable surgeon, who attended the diseases of the poor. In process of time, he was healed. Granville Sharpe found him at his brother's, and procured a place for him in an apothecary's shop. 'l'he master accidentally met his recovered slave, and instantly endeavored to get possession of him again. Sharpe protected the slave. In consulting with the lawyers, they told Sharpe the laws were against him. Sharpe would not believe it; no presc1·iption on earth could ever render such iniquities legal. 'But the decisions are against you, and Lord Mansfield, now chief justice of England, leans to the decisions.' Sharpe instantly sat down and gave himself to the study of English law fm· more than two years, until he had proved that the opinions relied on of Talbot and Yorke, were incompatible with the former English decisions, and with the whole spirit of English law. He published his book in 1769, and he so filled the heads and hearts of his advocates, that when he brought the case of George Somerset, another slave, before Lord Mansfield, the slavish decisions were set aside, and equity affirmed. There is a sparkle of God's righteousness in Lord Mansfield's judgment, which docs the heart good. Very unwilling had that great |