Vulgar words in Some Historical Account of Guinea, Its Situation, Produce, and the General Disposition of Its Inhabitants - An Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of the Slave Trade, Its Nature and Lamentable Effects (Page 1)
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2 he says, "Should we have read concerning the Greeks or Romans of old, that they traded with a view to make slaves of their own species, when they certainly knew that this would involve in schemes of blood and murder, of destroying, or enslaving each other; that they even fomented wars, and engaged whole nations and tribes in open hostilities, for their own private advantage; that they had no detestation of the violence and cruelty, but only feared the ill success of their inhuman enterprises; that they carried men like themselves, their brethren, and the off-spring of the same common parent, to be sold like beasts of prey, or beasts of burden, and put them to the same reproachful trial, of their soundness, strength, and capacity for greater bodily service; that quite forgetting and renouncing the original dignity of human nature, communicated to all, they treated them with more severity, and ruder discipline, than even the _ox_ or the _ass_, who are _void of understanding_--should we not, if this had been the case, have naturally been led to despise all their _pretended refinements of morality_; and to have concluded, that as they were not nations destitute of politeness, they must have been _entire strangers to virtue and benevolence_?