--With respect to
    holy-days.--Dances, &c.--An estimate made at St. Domingo.--Chap. X.
    The right of the purchasers over their slaves refuted upon their own
    principles.--Chap. XI. Dreadful arguments against this commerce and
    slavery of the human species.--How the Deity seems already to punish
    us for this inhuman violation of his laws.--Conclusion.


       *       *       *       *       *


ERRATA.

    For _Dominique_, (Footnote 107) read _Domingue_.

    N. B. In page 18 a Latin note has been inserted by mistake, under
    the quotation of Diodorus Siculus. The reader will find the original
    Greek of the same signification, in the same author, at page 49.
    Editio Stephani.


       *        *        *        *        *



AN ESSAY

ON THE SLAVERY and COMMERCE

OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.


IN THREE PARTS.


       *       *       *       *       *



PART I.

THE HISTORY OF SLAVERY.


       *        *        *        *        *



CHAP. I.

When civilized, as well as barbarous nations, have been found, through a
long succession of ages, uniformly to concur in the same customs, there
seems to arise a presumption, that such customs are not only eminently
useful, but are founded also on the principles of justice. Such is the
case with respect to _Slavery_: it has had the concurrence of all
the nations, which history has recorded, and the repeated practice of
ages from the remotest antiquity, in its favour. Here then is an
argument, deduced from the general consent and agreement of mankind, in
favour of the proposed subject: but alas! when we reflect that the
people, thus reduced to a state of servitude, have had the same feelings
with ourselves; when we reflect that they have had the same propensities
to pleasure, and the same aversions from pain; another argument seems
immediately to arise in opposition to the former, deduced from our own
feelings and that divine sympathy, which nature has implanted in our
breasts, for the most useful and generous of purposes. To ascertain the
truth therefore,