wife, by whom he had another child; but here the same consequence of one man being subject to the will and pleasure of another man occurring, he was separated from this last wife and child, and brought into this country, where he remained a slave.”  Can any, whose mind is not rendered quite obdurate by the love of wealth, hear these relations, without being deeply touched with sympathy and sorrow?  And doubtless the case of many, very many of these afflicted people, upon enquiry, would be found to be attended with circumstances equally tragical and aggravating.  And if we enquire of those Negroes, who were brought away from their native country when children, we shall find most of them to have been stolen away, when abroad from their parents, on the roads, in the woods, or watching their corn-fields.  Now, you that have studied the book of conscience, and you that are learned in the law, what will you say to such deplorable cases?  When, and how, have these oppressed people forfeited their liberty?  Does not justice loudly call for its being restored to them?  Have they not the same right to demand it, as any of us should have, if we had been violently snatched by pirates from our native land?  Is it not the duty of every dispenser of justice, who is not forgetful of his own humanity, to remember that these are men, and to declare them free?  Where instances of such cruelty frequently occur, and are neither enquired into, nor redressed, by those whose duty it is to seek judgment, and relieve the oppressed, Isaiah i. 17. what can be expected, but that the groans and cries of these sufferers will reach Heaven; and what shall we do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what will ye answer him? Did not he that made them, make us; and did not one fashion us in the womb?  Job xxxi. 14.

CHAP XIV.

The expediency of a general freedom being granted to the Negroes considered. Reasons why it might be productive of advantage and safety to the Colonies.

It is scarce to be doubted, but that the foregoing accounts will beget in the heart of the considerate readers an earnest desire to see a stop put to this complicated evil, but the objection with many is, What shall be done with those Negroes already imported, and born in our families?  Must they be sent to Africa?  That would be to expose them, in a strange land, to greater difficulties than many of them labour under at present.  To let them suddenly free here, would be perhaps attended with no less difficulty; for, undiciplined as they are in religion and virtue, they might give a loose to those evil habits, which the fear of a master would have restrained.  These are objections, which weigh with many well disposed people, and it must be granted, these are difficulties in the way; nor can any general change be made, or reformation effected, without some; but the difficulties are not so great but that they may be surmounted.