Baxter's directions to slave-holders, revived; first printed in London, in the year 1673. : To which is subjoined, a letter from the worthy Anthony Benezet, late of this city, deceased, to the celebrated abbe Raynal, with his answer, whch were first published in the Brussels gazette, March 7, 1782. — Directions to slave-holders, revived

Baxter's directions to slave-holders, revived; first printed in London, in the year 1673. : To which is subjoined, a letter from the worthy Anthony Benezet, late of this city, deceased, to the celebrated abbe Raynal, with his answer, whch were first published in the Brussels gazette, March 7, 1782. — Directions to slave-holders, revived

Table of contents

Title page

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Abstract from Baxter's Christian Directory, &c. Page 557.

Extract from the Independent Gazetteer, dated Philadelphia▪ June 15, 1782, viz. "The Liberality of Sentiment displayed in the following Letter, not only evinces that the Author's Heart must be exceedingly Humanized, but that it abounds with a Philanthropy, which reflects Honour to Human Nature.

To which the Abbot returned the following Answer,

THE CASE OF THE OPPRESSED AFRICANS.

NOTES ON THE SLAVE TRADE.

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BAXTER's DIRECTIONS TO SLAVE-HOLDERS, REVIVED; First Printed in London, in the Year 1673.

TO WHICH IS SUBJOINED, A Letter from the Worthy ANTHONY BENEZET, late of this City, deceased, to the Celebrated ABBE RAYNAL, with his Answer, which were first Published in the Brussels Gazette, March 7, 1782.

PHILADELPHIA: Printed by FRANCIS BAILEY, at Yorick's Head, in Market-Street. MDCCLXXXV.

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THE following expostulation with slave holders, is abstracted from the works of Richard Baxter, an eminent author, and dissenting preacher of the last century, and is now republished as an evidence that the same Divine principle which hath enlightened the minds of many in the present age, wich a sense of liberty, and influenced the [...] [...] [...]pose the inhumanity and injustice of the barbarous trade to Africa, for the purpose of enslaving the poor untutored Negroes, and continuing them and their offspring in bondage, was clearly seen to be unchristian and unjust, at so early a period as that in which the author wrote, viz. in 1673. And it is not because the iniquitous practice hath been since unreproved, by judicious and consciencious men, that it is not yet abolished, but rather that avarice, pride, and ignorance hath so unhappily prevailed over justice and mercy, as to continue great numbers of professing Christians in partaking of the unrighteous gain of oppression.

And in order to preserve from oblivion, and for general information, it is thought expedient to subjoin a letter from the truly pious Anthony Benezet, lately deceased, who was well known to be an uniform prudent advocate for relief of the oppressed, to the famous Abbe Raynal, with his answer, which first appeared in the Brussels gazette, of March, 1782, and from thence published in one of the news papers of this city.

Abstract from Baxter's Christian Directory, &c. Page 557.

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"Directions to those Masters, in Foreign Plantations, who have Negroes and other Slaves, being a Solution of several Cases about them.

"UNDERSTAND well how far your power over your slaves extendeth, and what limits God hath set thereto; such as is a sufficient difference between men and brutes, that they are of as good a kind as you, that is, they are reasonable creatures as well as you, and born to as much natural liberty; that they have immortal souls, and are equally capable of salvation with yourselves; Remember that God is their absolute owner, and that you have none but a derived and limited property in them; that they and you are equally under the government and laws of God;—Remember that God is their tender Father, and if they be as good, doth love them as well as you, and that the greater your power is over them, the greater your charge is of them, and your duty for them; the fourth Commandment requireth masters to see that all within their gates observe the Sabbath day, so must you exercise both your power and love to bring them to the knowledge and faith of Christ, and to the just obedience of God's commands.

Those therefore, that keep their Negroes and slaves from hearing God's word, and from becoming Christians, do openly profess contempt of Christ the Redeemer, and contempt of the souls of men, and indeed they declare that, their worldly profit is their treasure, and their God."

"If this comes to the hands of any of our natives in [Page]Barbadoes, or other islands and plantations, who are said to be guilty of this most heinous sin, yea, and to live upon it, intreat them further to consider, how cursed a crime it is to equal men to beasts? Is not this your practice? Do you not buy them and use them merely to the same end as you do your horses; to labour for your commodity, as if they were baser than you and made to serve you? Do you not see how you reproach and condemn yourselves, while you vilify them as savages and barbarous wretches? Did they ever do any thing more savage, than to use not only men's bodies as beasts, but their souls, as if they were made for nothing but to actuate their bodies in your worldly drudgery?

"Doth not the very example of such cruelty, besides your keeping them from Christianity, directly tend to teach them to hate Christianity, as if it taught men to be so much worse than dogs, or tygers?

"Do you not mark how God hath followed you with plagues? and may not conscience tell you, that it is for your inhumanity to the souls and bodies of so many? Remember the late fire at the bridge, in Barbadoes; Remember the drowning of your governor, loss of ships at sea, and the many judgments that have overtaken you, and at the present, the terrible mortality that is among you.

"Will not the example and warning of neighbouring countries rise up in judgment against you, and condemn you? You cannot but hear how odious the Spanish name is made (and thereby, alas! the Christian name also, among the West Indians) for their most inhuman cruelties in Hispaniola, Jamaica, Cuba, Peru, Mexico, and other places, which are described by Joseph Acosta, a jesuit of their own; And what comfort are you like to have, at last, in that money which is purchased at such a price? Will not your money and you perish together? Will not you have a worse than Gehazi's leprosy, with it? Yea, worse than Achan's death by stoning; and as bad as Judas his hanging himself, unless repentance shall prevent it? Do you not remember the terrible words in Jude, "Wo unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, [Page]and ran greedily after the error of Balaam; and ii. Peter, 2, 3, 14, 15, through covetousness they make merchandise of you. An heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children (or children of a curse) which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Bezor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but was rebuked for his iniquity; the dumb ass speaking with man's voice, forbad the madness of the prophet. When you shall every one hear, Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee, and then whose shall all these things be, which thou hast provided. Luke xii. 19, 20, 21."

"What men in the world doth James speak to, if not to you—James v. 1 to 4. Go to now, ye rich men, weep and bowl for your miseries that shall come upon you: Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten: your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire: Ye have heaped treasure, together for the last days: Behold the hire of the labourers which have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth, and the cries of them which have reaped, have entered the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth;" How much more then the cry of betrayed souls?

After these animadversions on the iniquity of holding and treating men as slaves, for the private emolument of the possessors, he proceeds to consider divers cases under which men are held in bondage, from whence he adduces the following conclusions.

"A nominal Christian, who by wickedness forfeiteth his life or freedom, may penally be made a slave as well as an Infidel; and a poor and needy Christian may sell himself into a harder state of servitude than he would chuse, or we could otherwise put him into; but to go aspirates, and catch up poor Negroes, or people of another land, that never forfeited life or liberty, and to make them slaves and sell them, is one of the worst kinds of thefts in the world, and such persons are to be taken for the common enemies of mankind; and they that buy them, and use them as beasts for their mere commodity, [Page]and betray, or destroy, or neglect their souls, are fitter to be called incarnate Devils, than Christians.

He then queries; "But what if men buy Negroes, or other slaves, of such as we have just cause to believe did steal them by piracy, or buy them of those who have no power to sell them, and not hire, or buy them by their own consent, or by the consent of those who had power to sell them, nor take them captives.

And answers, "It is their heinous fin to buy them, unless it be in charity to deliver them from slavery; having done it, undoubtedly they are presently bound to deliver them, because, by right, the man is his own, and therefore, no man else can have a just title to him.

Question, "But may I not sell him again, and make my money of him, seeing I leave him as I found him—?

Answer, "No; Because when you have taken possession of him, and he becomes a pretended property, then the injury that is done him is by you, which, before, was only by another; and tho' the wrong be no greater than the other did him, yet, being done by you, it is your sin.

Question, "But may I not return him to him that I bought him of?

Answer, "No; for that is but injuring him, by delivering him to another to continue the injury: To say as Pilate (I am innocent of the blood of this just man) will be no proof of your innocence: Yea, God's law bindeth you to love, and works of love, and therefore you should do your best to free him. He that is bound to help to save a man that is fallen into the hands of thieves, by the high way, if he should buy that man, as a slave, of the thieves, may not after, give him up to thieves again.

"If they be Infidels, use them so as tendeth to win them to Christ, and the love of religion, by shewing them that Christians are less worldly, less cruel and less passionate, and more wise, charitable, holy and meek than any other persons are. Wo to them, who by their cruelty, and covetousness, do scandalize even slaves, and hinder their conversion and salvation. Remember that even a slave may be one of those neighbours that you are bound [Page]to love as yourselves, and to do unto as you would be done by, if your case was his, which, if you do, you will need no more direction for his relief."

Extract from the Independent Gazetteer, dated Philadelphia▪ June 15, 1782, viz. "The Liberality of Sentiment displayed in the following Letter, not only evinces that the Author's Heart must be exceedingly Humanized, but that it abounds with a Philanthropy, which reflects Honour to Human Nature.

Brussels, March 7.

"The Abbé Raynal, whom we have the happiness to possess, together with other strangers, in this city, has just now received from a Quaker, in Philadelphia, the following letter in French, the tendency of which, entitles it to publication. It is presumed it will be read with pleasure.

My friend Abbé Raynal,

From the idea which I conceived of the justice and generosity of thy sentiments, I took the liberty of writing to thee, about 7 or 8 months past, under cover of my friend B. F. and likewise by J. B. who, we are afraid, was lost on his passage. Having received no answer, by several vessels, nor knowing whether my letters reached thee, or whether thine miscarried; and a good opportunity offering, by my friend Dr. G. I now seize it to send thee two copies of a small extract of the origin and principles of my brethren, the Quakers, whom, I observe in such of thy writings which have come to our hands, thou didst not think unworthy of thy attention.

I have nothing to add to what I already wrote thee, but shall repeat my wish of saluting thee affectionately, on the principles of reason and humanity, which constitute that grand circle of love and charity, unconfined by our parentage or country; but which, with affectionate cordiality, embraces the whole creation, earnestly desiring, to the utmost of my abilities, to promote the happiness of all men, even my enemies themselves, could I have any.

I beseech God to give thee strength, that thou mayest [Page]continue to hold up to mankind, thy brethren, principles tending to replenish their hearts with goodness, friendship and charity towards each other; that thus thou mayest do the utmost of thy power, to render men reasonable, useful, and consequently happy; and more especially, that thou mayest strenuously combat that false principle of honour, or rather intolerable pride and folly, which so strongly prevails in our nation, where the most indolent and the least useful fancy themselves, and are reputed the most noble. Let us endeavour to make them sensible, that men are noble but in an exact proportion to their being rational. The happiness which is to be found in virtue alone, is sought for by men, through the titles acquired by their fathers, for their activity in those wars which have desolated the world, or in the wealth accumulated by their ancestors; two means, generally unjust and oppressive, and consequently rather the sources of shame and humiliation. For, as the Chinese Philosopher well observed, "There is scarcely one rich man out of one hundred, who was not himself an oppressor, or the son of an oppressor."

Let us display to princes and the rulers of nations the example of Numa-Pompilius, who, by a Conduct opposite to that of Romulus, his predecessor, and most of his successors, rendered the Romans, during his long reign, so respectable and happy. Above all, my dear friend, let us represent to our compatriots the abominable iniquity of the Guinea trade. Let us put to the blush the pretended disciples of the benign Saviour of the world, for the encouragement given to the unhappy Africans, in invading the liberty of their own brethren. Let us rise, and rise with energy, against the corruption, introduced into the principles and manners of the masters and owners of slaves, by a conduct so contrary to humanity, reason and religion. Let us be still more vehement, in representing its baneful influence on the principles and manners of their wretched offspring, necessarily educated in idleness, pride, and all the vices to which human nature is liable.

How desirable it is that Lewis XVI, whose virtues [Page]and good dispositions have been so nobly praised, would set an example to the other potentates of Europe, by forbidding his subjects to be concerned in a traffick so evil in itself, and so corrupt in its consequences, and that he would also issue out ordinances, in favour of such of the Negroes who now are slaves in his dominions.

Alas! should Christianity, that law of love and charity, work its proper effect on the hearts of its pretended disciples, we would see numbers of Christians traverse Africa, and both the Indies, not to pollute themselves with slavery and slaughter, nor to accumulate wealth, the supreme wish of the present nominal Christians; but that Divine love would impel them to visit remote regions, in order to make the inhabitants acquainted with the corruption of the human heart, and invite them to seek for the influence of that grace, proposed by the gospel, by which they may obtain salvation.

I am under the necessity of concluding hastily, requesting thou wouldst excuse faults which time does not allow me to correct, and to write to me by various opportunities, the vessels bound to these parts, often missing their destination.

I am, affectionately, thy friend, A. B.

To which the Abbot returned the following Answer,

Brussels, December 26, 1781.

Your letters, sir, have miscarried, except that of July 16, 1781, which happily I received, together with the pamphlet, full of light and sensibility, which accompanied it. Never was a present more agreeable to me. My satisfaction was equal to the respect I have always had for the society of Quakers. May it please Heaven to cause all nations to adopt their principles! Men would then be happy; and the globe not stained with blood. Let us join in our supplications to the Supreme Being, that he may unite us in the bonds of a tender and unalterable charity.

I am, &c. RAYNAL.

THE CASE OF THE OPPRESSED AFRICANS.

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WE are engaged, under a sense of duty, to bear a public testimony against a species of oppression which, under the sanction of national authority, has long been exercised upon the natives of Africa, is grown up into a system of tyranny, and is unhappily become a considerable branch of the commerce of this kingdom: An oppression which, in the injustice of its origin, and the inhumanity of its progress, has not, we apprehend, been exceeded, or even equalled, in the most barbarous ages.

We are taught, both by the holy scriptures, and by the experience of ages, to believe that the Righteous Judge of the whole earth chastiseth nations for their sins, as well as individuals; and can it be expected that he will suffer this great iniquity to go unpunished? As the design of the institution of government is for a terror to evil doers, and the praise of them that do well, we wish it may be seriously considered, whether this has been made the rule of its administration in this land. Will it not rather be found, on inquiry, that, with respect to the enslaved Negroes, its benevolent purposes have been perverted; that [Page]its terrors have fallen on the innocent, while evil doers, and oppressors, have been openly encouraged?

But notwithstanding, government, in former times, have been induced by, what we conceive to be a mistaken, as well as an unjust, policy, to promote this evil, we are persuaded that many of the present members of the legislature, as true friends of civil and religious liberty, hold this unrighteous traffic in the utmost abhorrence. This persuasion, joined to the favourable reception of the petition of our last Yearly-meeting, to the House of Commons, encourages us to address you, thus freely, on this important subject; and we apprehend that the abolition of this iniquitous practice is not only required by the calls of justice and humanity, but is also consistent with sound policy. For avarice in this, as in other instances, has defeated its own purpose. Africa, so populous, and so rich in vegetable and mineral productions, instead of affording all the advantages of a well regulated commerce, is scarcely known but as a mart for slaves, and as the scene of violence and barbarities, perpetrated, in order to procure them, by men professing the Christian religion.

The arguments which have been advanced by the few writers, who have attempted to justify this inhuman business, can have no weight with generous minds. Those, in particular, which are drawn from the permission to hold slaves among the Jews, can in no wise be applied to the practice amongst us: For, blessed be the God and Father of all our mercies,* who hath made of one blood all nations of men, we now live under a dispensation essentially different from that of the law; in which many things were permitted to the Jews, because of the the hardness of their hearts. All distinctions of name and country, so far as they relate to the social duties, are now abolished.—We are taught by our blessed Redeemer, to look upon all men, even our enemies, as neighbours and brethren, and to do unto them as we would they should do unto us.

Under a dispensation so admirably adapted to promote [Page]the temporal as well as the eternal happiness of mankind, that any should deviate so far from its principles, as to encourage a practice so replete with iniquity, and in particular that this nation, generally characterized by its attachment to civil and religious liberty, should have contributed, perhaps, more than any other, to the establishment and continuance of slavery, is a most painful reflexion. It would surely have been more consistent with the avowed principles of Englishmen, both as men and as Christians, if their settlement in heathen countries had been succeeded by mild and benevolent attempts to civilize their inhabitants, and to incline them to receive the glad tidings of the gospel. But how different a conduct, towards them, has been pursued! it has not only been repugnant, in a political view, to those commercial advantages which a fair and honourable treatment might have procured, but has evidently tended to increase the barbarity of their manners, and to excite in their minds an aversion to that religion, the professors whereof so cruelly treat them.

This traffic is the principal source of the destructive wars which prevail among these unhappy people, and it is attended with consequences, the mere recital of which is shocking to humanity. The violent separation of the dearest relatives, the tears of conjugal and parental affection, the reluctance of the slaves to a voyage from which they can have no prospect of returning, must present scenes of distress which would pierce the heart of any, in whom the principles of humanity are not wholly effaced. This, however, is but the beginning of sorrows with the poor captives. Under their cruel treatment on shipboard, where, without regard to health or decency, hundreds are confined within the narrow limits of the hold, numbers perish; and, by what is called the seasoning in the islands, many are relieved by a premature death, from that series of accumulated sufferings which awaits their less happy survivors. The measure of their afflictions yet remains to be filled; being sold to the highest bidder, and branded with a hot iron, they have yet to linger on, unpitied, the whole term of their miserable existence, in [Page]excessive labour, and too often under the merciless controul of unprincipled and unfeeling men, without proper food or cloathing, or any encouragement to sweeten their toil; whilst every fault, real, or imaginary, is punished with a rigour which is but weakly restrained by the colony laws; instances of the greatest enormity, even the most wanton or deliberate murder of the slaves, being only punished, if punished at all, by trifling pecuniary fines.

But a bare enumeration of the calamities of this wretched people, would exceed the limits proposed to this short address: We think it not improper, however, to give the following extract from a late author, who was an eye witness of the miseries of this persecuted race.

If we bring this matter home, and, as Job proposed to his friends, "Put our soul in their souls stead;" if we consider ourselves, and our children, as exposed to the hardships which these people lie under, in supporting an imaginary greatness;

Did we, in such case, behold an increase of luxury and superfluity among our oppressors, and therewith feel an increase of the weight of our burdens, and expect our posterity to groan under oppression after us;

Under all this misery, had we none to plead our cause, nor any hope of relief from man, how would our cries ascend to the God of the spirits of all flesh, who judgeth the world in righteousness, and, in his own time, is a refuge for the oppressed!

When we were hunger-bitten, and could not have sufficient nourishment, but saw them in fullness, pleasing their taste with things fetched from far;

When we were wearied with labour, denied the liberty to rest, and saw them spending their time at ease; when garments, answerable to our necessities, were denied us, while we saw them cloathed in that which was costly and delicate?

Under such affliction, how would these painful feelings rise up as witnesses against their pretended devotion! And if the name of their religion were mentioned in our hearing, how would it sound in our ears, [Page]like a word which signified self-exaltation and hardness of heart!

When a trade is carried on productive of so much misery, and they who suffer by it are some thousands of miles off, the danger is the greater of not laying their sufferings to heart.

In procuring slaves from the coast of Africa, many children are stolen privately; wars also are encouraged among the Negroes; but all is at a great distance.—Many groans arise from dying men, which we hear not. Many cries are uttered by widows and fatherless children, which reach not our ears. Many cheeks are wet with tears, and faces sad with unutterable grief, which we see not. Cruel tyranny is encouraged. The hands of robbers are strengthened; and thousands reduced to the most abject slavery, who never injured us.

Were we, for the term of one year only, to be eye witnesses to what passeth in getting these slaves; was the blood which is there shed, to be sprinkled on our garments; were the poor captives, bound with thongs, heavy laden with elephants teeth, to pass before our eyes, in their way to the sea;

Were their bitter lamentations, day after day, to ring in our ears, and their mournsul cries in the night, to hinder us from sleeping!

Were we to hear the sound of the tumult, when the slaves on board the ships attempt to kill the English, and behold the issue of those bloody conflicts; what pious man could be a witness to these things, and see a trade carried on in this manner, without being deeply affected with sorrow?

Our religious society in these kingdoms, and in North America, have for many years tenderly sympathized with this unhappy people, under their complicated sufferings, and have endeavoured to procure them relief: Nor has their case been without other advocates; whose numbers we have with much satisfaction observed to increase. The expectation of many, who are anxiously concerned for the suppression of this national evil, is now, under Providence, fixed upon the wise and humane interposition of the legislature [Page]to whom, with dutiful submission, we earnestly recommend the serious consideration of this important subject; with a pleasing hope, that the result will be, a prohibition of this traffic in future and an extension of such relief to those who already groan in bondage, as justice and mercy may dictate, and their particular situations may admit. That so the blessings of those who are ready to perish may rest upon you, and this nation may no longer, on their account, remain obnoxious to the righteous judgments of the Lord, who, in the most awful manner, declared by his prophet, ‘That the land should tremble*, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein, for the iniquity of those who oppress the poor, and crush the needy;’ and who likewise pronounced a ‘Woe† unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work.’

Signed by order of the Meeting for Sufferings ‡, London the 28th Day of the Eleventh Month, 1783, by JOHN ADY, CLERK of the MEETING.

FINIS.

Notes

*

Acts xvii. 26.

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*

Amos iv and viii. chap.

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†

Jeremiah xxii. chap.

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‡

This meeting is composed of about one hundred members residing in London, who are chosen by, and correspond with, the meetings in the country. It was instituted, and thus named, during the times of persecution (anno 1675) in order to receive accounts of the sufferings of our members, and to solicit relief from those in power. It still continues to superintend the general concerns of the society during the intervals of the Yearly-meeting.

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NOTES ON THE SLAVE TRADE.

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IT may not be necessary to repeat what has been so fully declared in several modern publications, of the inconsistence of slavery with every right of mankind, with every feeling of humanity, and every precept of Christianity; nor to point out its inconsistency with the welfare, peace and prosperity of every country, in proportion as it prevails; what grievous sufferings it brings on the poor NEGROES; but more especially what a train of fatal vices it produces in their lordly oppressors and their unhappy offspring. Nevertheless for the sake of some who have not met with, or fully considered those former publications, and in hopes that some who are still active in support of slavery may be induced to consider their ways, and become more wise, the following substance of an address or expostulation made by a sensible Author, to the several ranks of persons most immediately concerned in the trade, is now republished.

"And first, to the Captains employed in this trade. Most of you know the country of Guinea, perhaps now by your means, part of it is become a dreary uncultivated wilderness; the inhabitants being murdered or carried away, so that there are few left to till [Page]the ground; but you know, or have heard, how populous, how fruitful, how pleasant it was a few years ago. You know the people were not stupid, not wanting in sense, considering the few means of improvement they enjoyed. Neither did you find them savage, treacherous, or unkind to strangers. On the contrary they were in most parts a sensible and ingenious people; kind and friendly, and generally just in their dealings. Such are the men whom you hire their own countrymen to tear away from this lovely country; part by stealth, part by force, part made captives in those wars which you raise or foment on purpose. You have seen them torn away, children from their parents, parents from their children: Husbands from their wives, wives from their beloved husbands; brethren and sisters from each other. You have dragged them who had never done you any wrong, perhaps in chains, from their native shore. You have forced them into your ships, like an herd of swine,* them who [Page]had souls immortal as your own. You have stowed them together as close as ever they could lie, without any regard to decency or conveniency—And when many of them had been poisoned by soul air, or had sunk under various hardships, ‘you have seen their remains delivered to the deep, till the sea should give up his dead.’ You have carried the survivors into the vilest slavery, never to end but with life: Such slavery as is not found among the Turks at Algiers, no, nor among the heathens in America.

[Page] May I speak plainly to you? I must. Love constrains me: Love to you, as well, as those you are concerned with. Is there a God? You know there is. Is he a just God? Then there must be a state of retribution: A state wherein the just God will reward every man according to his work. Then what reward will he render to you. O think betimes! before you drop into eternity: Think how, ‘He shall have judgment without mercy, that shewed no mercy.’ Are you a man? Then you should have a human heart. But have you indeed? What is your heart made [Page]of? Is there no such principle as compassion there? Do you never feel another's pain? Have you no sympathy? No sense of human woe? No pity for the miserable? When you saw the flowing eyes, the heaving brest, or the bleeding sides and tortured limbs of your fellow-creatures. Was you a stone or a brute? Did you look upon them with the eyes of a tiger? When you squeezed the agonizing creatures down in the ship, or when you threw their poor mangled remains into the sea, had you no relentings? Did not one tear drop from your eye, one sigh escape from your breast? Do you feel no relenting now? If you do not, you must go on till the measure of your iniquities is full. Then will the great God deal with you, as you have dealt with them, and require all their blood at your hands. And at that day it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for you: But if your heart does relent; tho' in a small degree, know it: is a call from the God of Love. And to-day, if you hear his voice, harden not your heart—To day resolve, God being your helper to escape for your life—Regard not money: All that a man hath will he give for his life. Whatever you lose, lose not your soul; nothing can countervail that lose. [Page]Immediately quit the horrid trade: At all events be an honest man.

This equally concerns every merchant who is engaged in the slave-trade. It is you that induce the African villain to sell his countrymen; and in order thereto, to steal, rob, murder men, women and children without number: by enabling the English villain to pay him for so doing; whom you over pay for his execrable labour. It is your money, that is the spring of all, that improwers him to go on, so that whatever he or the African does in this matter, is all your act and deed. And is your conscience quite reconciled to this? Does it never reproach you at all? Has gold entirely blinded your eyes and stupified your heart? Can you see, can you feel no harm therein? Is it doing as you would be done to? Make the case your own. ‘Master (said a slave at Liverpool to the merchant that owned him) what if some of my countrymen were to come here, and take away my mistress, and master Tommy and master Billy, and carry them into our country and make them slaves, how would you like it?’ His answer was worthy of a man: ‘I will never buy a slave more while I live.’ O let his resolution be yours! Have no more any part in this [Page]detestable business. Instantly leave it to those unfeeling wretches, ‘who laugh at humanity and compassion.’

And this equally concerns every person who has an estate in our American plantations: Yea all slave-holders of whatever rank and degree; seeing men-buyers are exactly on a level with men-stealers. Indeed you say, ‘I pay honestly for my goods; and I am not concerned to know how they are come by.’ Nay but you are: You are deeply concerned, to know that they are not stolen: Otherwise you are partaker with a thief, and are not a jot honester than him. But you know they are not honestly come by: You know they are procured by means nothing near so innocent as picking of pockets, house breaking, or robbery upon the highway. You know they are procured by a deliberate series of more complicated villainy (of fraud, robbery and murder) than was ever practised either by Mahometans or Pagans; in particular by murders of all kinds; by the blood of the innocent poured upon the ground like water. Now it is your money that pays the merchant, and thro' him the captain and African butchers. You therefore are guilty: Yea principally guilty, of all these frauds, robberies, and murders. You are the spring that puts all the rest in [Page]motion; they would not stir a flep without you—Therefore the blood of all these wretches, who die before their time, whether in their country or elsewhere, lies upon your head. The blood of thy brother, (for whether thou wilt believe it or no, such he is in the sight of him that made him) crieth against thee from the earth, from the ship and from the waters. O! whatever it cost, put a stop to its cry, before it be too late. Instantly, at any price, were it the half of thy goods, deliver thy self from blood guiltiness! Thy hands, thy bed, thy furniture, thy house, thy land, are at present stained with blood. Surely it is enough; accumulate no more guilt: Spill no more the blood of the innocent! Do not hire another to shed blood! Do not pay him for doing it! Whether thou art a Christian or no, shew thy self a man; be not more savage than a lion or a bear.

Perhaps thou wilt say, ‘I do not buy any NEGROES: I only use those left me by my father.’ But is it enough to satisfy your own conscience! Had your father, have you, has any man living, a right to use another as a Slave? It cannot be, even setting REVELATION aside. It cannot be, that either war, or contract, can give any man such a property in another as he has in his sheep and oxen: Much less is it possible, that any child of man, should ever be born a Slave. Liberty is the right of every human creature, as soon as he breathes the vital air. And no human law can deprive him of that right, which he derives from the law of nature. If therefore you have any regard to justice, (to say nothing of mercy, nor of the revealed law of GOD) render unto all their due. Give Liberty to whom Liberty is due, that is to every child of man, to every partaker of human nature. Let none serve you but by his own act and deed, by his own voluntary choice, away with whips, chains, and all compulsion. Be gentle towards all men. And see that you invariably do unto every one, as you would he should do unto you.

Notes

*

The following relation is inserted at the request of the author.

‘That I may contribute all in my power towards the good of mankind, by inspiring any of its individuals with a suitable abhorrence for that detestable practice of trading in our fellow creatures, and in some measure attone for my neglect of duty as a christian, in engaging in a wicked traffic, I offer to their serious consideration, some few occurrences of which I was an eye witness. That being struck with the wretched and affecting scene they may foster that humane principle, which is the noble and distinguished characteristic of man.’

About the year 1749; I sailed from Liverpool to the coast of Gainea, some time after our arrival, I was ordered to go up the country a considerable distance, upon having notice from one of the Negroe Kings, that he had a parcel of slaves to dispose of, I received my instructions and went, carrying with me an account of such goods we had on board, to exchange for the slaves we intended to purchase; upon being introduced, I presented him with a small case of spirits, a gun and some trifles, which having accepted. and understood by an interpreter what goods we had, the next day was appointed for viewing the Slaves; we found about two hundred confined in one place. But here how shall I relate the affecting fight I there beheld, the silent sorrow which appeared in the countenance of the afflicted father, and the painful anguish of the tender mother, expecting to be forever separated from their tender offspring; the distressed maid wringing her hands in presage of her future wretchedness, and the general cry of the innocent, from a fearful apprehension of the perpetual Slavery to which they were doomed. I purchased eleven, who I conducted, tied two and two, to our ship. Being but a small vessel (ninety ton) we soon purchased our cargo, consisting of one hundred and seventy Slaves, whom thou may'st reader range in thy view, as they were shackled two and two together, pent up within the narrow confines of the main deck, with the complicated distress of sickness, chains and contempt; deprived of every fond and social tie and in a great measure reduced to a slave of desperation. We had not been a fortnight at sea, before the fatal consequence of this despair appeared, they formed a design of recovering their natural right, Liberty, by raising and murdering every man on board; but the goodness of the Almighty rendered their scheme abortive, and his mercy spared us to have time to repent: The plot was discovered; the ring leader tied by the two thumbs over the barricado door, at sun rise received a number of lashes; in this situation be remained till sun-set, exposed to the insults and barbarity of the brutal crew of sailers, with full leave to exercise their cruelty at pleasure: The consequence was, the next morning the miserable sufferer was found dead, fleed from the shoulders to the waist. The next victim was a youth, who from too strong a sense of his misery refused nourishment and died disregarded and unnoticed till the hogs had fed on part of his flesh.

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Information about this book

Title statement

Baxter's directions to slave-holders, revived; first printed in London, in the year 1673. : To which is subjoined, a letter from the worthy Anthony Benezet, late of this city, deceased, to the celebrated abbe Raynal, with his answer, whch were first published in the Brussels gazette, March 7, 1782.Directions to slave-holders, revived

Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.

Publication

Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

Place of publication

Ann Arbor, MI :

Date

2011-05.

ID [DLPS]

N34072

ID [TCP]

N34072

ID [STC]

Shipton 44647

ID [NOTIS]

APY2856

ID [IMAGE-SET]

44647

ID [EVANS-CITATION]

99029942

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This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal. The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

Series

Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 ; no. 44647.

Notes

(Evans-TCP ; no. N34072)

Transcribed from: (Readex Archive of Americana ; Early American Imprints, series I ; image set 44647)

Images scanned from Readex microprint and microform: (Early American imprints. First series ; no. 44647)

Source

— Baxter's directions to slave-holders, revived; first printed in London, in the year 1673. : To which is subjoined, a letter from the worthy Anthony Benezet, late of this city, deceased, to the celebrated abbe Raynal, with his answer, whch were first published in the Brussels gazette, March 7, 1782., Directions to slave-holders, revived, Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691., Benezet, Anthony, 1713-1784., Raynal, abbé (Guillaume-Thomas-François), 1713-1796, Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Christian directory. Selections., London Yearly Meeting (Society of Friends) Meeting for Sufferings. Case of the oppressed Africans..

Extent

16 p. ; 16 cm. (8vo)

Printed by Francis Bailey, at Yorick's Head, in Market-Street.,. Philadelphia: :: MDCCLXXXV. [1785]. ("Abstract from Baxter's Christian directory, &c. page 557."--p. [4]-10.) ("The case of the oppressed Africans."--p. [11]-16. Drawn up by the London Meeting for Sufferings in 1783.)

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