Part 3
5. And this equally concerns every gentleman that 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 they are honestly come by. 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 pockets, house-breaking, or robbery upon the high-way. You know they are procured by a deliberate series of more complicated villany, (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 through him the Captain, and the _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 motion: they would not stir a step without _you_: therefore the blood of all these wretches, who die before their time, whether in the 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 costs, put a stop to its cry before it be too late: instantly, at any price, were it the half of your goods, deliver thyself from blood-guiltiness! Thy hands, thy bed, thy furniture, thy house, thy lands 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 you are a Christian or no, shew yourself a man! Be not more savage than a lion or a bear!
6. Perhaps you will say, “I do not _buy_ any Negroes: I only _use_ those left by my father.” So far is well: 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 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 all whips, all chains, all compulsion! Be gentle toward all men, and see that you invariably do unto every one, as you would he should do unto _you_.
7. O thou God of love, thou who art loving to every man, and whose mercy is over all thy works; thou who art the Father of the spirits of all flesh, and who art rich in mercy unto all; thou who has mingled of one blood, all the nations upon the earth; have compassion upon these outcasts of men, who are trodden down as dung upon the earth! Arise and help these that have no helper, whose blood is spilt upon the ground like water! Are not these also the work of thine own hands, the purchase of thy Son’s blood? Stir them up to cry unto thee in the land of their captivity; and let their complaint come up before thee; let it enter into thy ears! Make even those that lead them away captive to pity them, and turn their captivity as the rivers in the South. O burst thou all their chains in sunder; more especially the chains of their sins: Thou, Saviour of all, make them free, that they may be free indeed!
The servile progeny of _Ham_ Seize as the purchase of thy blood! Let all the Heathens know thy name, From Idols to the living God; The dark _Americans_ convert, And shine in every Pagan heart.
FINIS
Transcriber’s Note
Clear printer’s errors have been corrected by the transcriber; as far as possible, however, original spelling and punctuation have been preserved.
In this file, text in _italics_ is indicated by underscores.