N34072:12
Baxter's directions to slave-holders, revived; first printed in London, in the year 1673
Baxter's directions to slave-holders, revived; first printed in London, in the year 1673. : To which is subjoined, a letter from the worthy Anthony Benezet, late of this city, deceased, to the celebrated abbe Raynal, with his answer, which were first published in the Brussels gazette, March 7, 1782.Baxter's directions to slave-holders, revived; first printed in London, in the year 1673. : To which is subjoined, a letter from the worthy Anthony Benezet, late of this city, deceased, to the celebrated abbe Raynal, with his answer, whch were first published in the Brussels gazette, March 7, 1782.
Philadelphia: printed by Francis Bailey, 1785
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
"If this comes to the hands of any of our natives in ⟨p. 5⟩Barbados, or other islands and plantations, who are said to be guilty of this most heinous sin, yea, and to live upon it, entreat them further to consider, how cursed a crime it is to equal men to beasts? Is not this your practice? Do you not buy them and use them merely to the same end as you do your horses; to labour for your commodity, as if they were baser than you and made to serve you? Do you not see how you reproach and condemn yourselves, while you vilify them as savages and barbarous wretches? Did they ever do any thing more savage, than to use not only men's bodies as beasts, but their souls, as if they were made for nothing but to actuate their bodies in your worldly drudgery?
"If this comes to the hands of any of our natives in ⟨p. 5⟩Barbadoes, or other islands and plantations, who are said to be guilty of this most heinous sin, yea, and to live upon it, intreat them further to consider, how cursed a crime it is to equal men to beasts? Is not this your practice? Do you not buy them and use them merely to the same end as you do your horses; to labour for your commodity, as if they were baser than you and made to serve you? Do you not see how you reproach and condemn yourselves, while you vilify them as savages and barbarous wretches? Did they ever do any thing more savage, than to use not only men's bodies as beasts, but their souls, as if they were made for nothing but to actuate their bodies in your worldly drudgery?
"Doth not the very example of such cruelty, besides your keeping them from Christianity, directly tend to teach them to hate Christianity, as if it taught men to be so much worse than dogs, or tigers?
"Doth not the very example of such cruelty, besides your keeping them from Christianity, directly tend to teach them to hate Christianity, as if it taught men to be so much worse than dogs, or tygers?