An Appeal to the Religion, Justice, and Humanity of the Inhabitants of the British Empire: In Behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies |
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abolition Abolitionists abuses advocates African lad Almighty attaching the slaves Attorney-general of Barbadoes blessings bondage British British Empire British Parliament Burke cause character Christian circumstances civil colonial legislatures colonists Coloured condition consequences consideration crime criminal cruel cruelty declared degree Dundas duty effects emancipation endeavours especially evils extinction of slavery extreme degradation fact farther favour feelings free labourers Governor Granville Sharpe house of assembly House of Commons humanity imputed Indians instances Jamaica justice late lature laws Leeward Islands less licentious Lord manumission marriage institution master measure ment mitigation Mulattoes murder nature Negro race Negro Slaves Obeah object owners Pagan plantation planters practice prejudices prevailed principle Privy Council proposed punishment racter reforms religion religious and moral remark render scarcely Sierra Leone slave population Slave Trade strongly supposed sure tion truth West Indies West-Indian colonies West-Indian islands West-Indian proprietors West-Indian slave West-Indian system whip wretched
Popular passages
Page 1 - 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...
Page 18 - That ready perception of guilt, that prompt and decisive resolution against it, which constitutes a virtuous character, is seldom found in persons addicted to these indulgences. They prepare an easy admission for every sin that seeks it; are, in low life, usually the first stage in men's progress to the most desperate...
Page 22 - I know that of late, ashamed of being supposed to have punished witchcraft with such severity, it has been alleged, that the professors of Obeah used to prepare and administer poison to the subjects of their spells : but...
Page 10 - Province for that purpose, are of barbarous, wild, savage natures, and such as renders them wholly unqualified to be governed by the laws, customs, and practices .(<
Page 42 - The truth is, that nothing has given me more trouble than to get at the bottom of these businesses, so horribly absurd are the prejudices of the people. However, a great part of my object is answered, by the alarm my interference has excited, and the attention it has called to the business. Bills are already prepared to make murder felony ; but I fear they will be thrown out for the present in the Assembly. The Council are unanimous on the side of humanity.
Page 15 - Children, and it being unnecessary and even improper to enforce the Celebration of any religious Rites among the Slaves in order to sanctify Contracts, the faithful Performance of which can be looked for only by a regular Improvement in Religion, Morality, and Civilization...
Page 47 - they have been any considerable time in slavery, they appear lost to reason and feeling ; their spirits broken ; and their faculties sunk in a species of stupor which I am unable adequately to describe. They appear degraded even below the Negro slave. The succession of hardships, without any protecting law to which they can appeal for any alleviation or redress, seems to destroy every spring of exertion or hope in their minds. They appear indifferent to every thing around them ; abject, servile,...
Page 41 - The letters to which Lord Seaforth refers, and which accompany the above extracts, are from four of the most respectable individuals in the Island of Barbadoes, viz. Mr. INCE, the President of the Council; — MR.
Page 21 - ... House of Commons in 1790 and 1791. In all that I state concerning the religious interests of the slaves, as well as in every other instance, I must be understood to speak only of the general practice. There are, I know, resident in this country, individual owners of slaves, and some, as I believe, even in the colonies, who have been sincerely desirous that their slaves should enjoy the blessings of Christianity : though often, I lament to say, where they have desired it, their pious endeavours...
Page 35 - in the whole three kingdoms, a parent or a husband so sordid or insensible, that any sum, which the richest West Indian proprietor could offer him, would be deemed a compensation for his suffering his wife or his daughter to be subjected to the brutal outrage of the cartwhip, to the savage lust of the driver, to the indecent, and degrading, and merciless punishment of a West Indian whipping.* P.