who would by no means, have engaged directly in the
Trade to
Africa, yet when the negroes were bro't hither
had no scruple about buying them, because they
supposed that an education in "a land of Gospel
light" was preferable to one in "heathenish darkness."
They supposed contended that the buying them & holding them
in servitude was justifiable by the Example of Abra-
ham & other good men of Antiquity.*
[Note in left margin: *& as his servts were circumcised, theirs were
baptized.] Labouring
people of the white complexion, complained of
the blacks as intruders, and the vulgar reprobated them
as the "seed
of Cain" & wished them back to their own Coun-
try or to a warmer climate.
Not much however was said in a for-
mal & public manner till the time of the stamp-
act; when we began to feel the weight of op-
pression from "our Mother Country" as
Brittain was
then called. The inconsistency of pleading for
our own rights & liberties whilst we encouraged
the subjugation of others was very apparent &
began to be discouraged decline. The principal Cause
was public opinion, & the present Generation having