Baxter's directions to slave-holders, revived; first printed in London, in the year 1673

"And first, to the Captains employed in this trade. Most of you know the country of Guinea, perhaps now by your means, part of it is become a dreary uncultivated wilderness; the inhabitants being murdered or carried away, so that there are few left to till ⟨p. 2⟩the ground; but you know, or have heard, how populous, how fruitful, how pleasant it was a few years ago. You know the people were not stupid, not wanting in sense, considering the few means of improvement they enjoyed. Neither did you find them savage, treacherous, or unkind to strangers. On the contrary they were in most parts a sensible and ingenious people; kind and friendly, and generally just in their dealings. Such are the men whom you hire their own countrymen to tear away from this lovely country; part by stealth, part by force, part made captives in those wars which you raise or foment on purpose. You have seen them torn away, children from their parents, parents from their children: Husbands from their wives, wives from their beloved husbands; brethren and sisters from each other. You have dragged them who had never done you any wrong, perhaps in chains, from their native shore. You have forced them into your ships, like an herd of swine,^* them who ⟨p. 3⟩had souls immortal as your own. You have stowed them together as close as ever they could lie, without any regard to decency or conveniency—And when many of them had been poisoned by soul air, or had sunk under various hardships, you have seen their remains delivered to the deep, till the sea should give up his dead. You have carried the survivors into the vilest slavery, never to end but with life: Such slavery as is not found among the Turks at Algiers, no, nor among the heathens in America.

1. *The following relation is inserted at the request of the author. That I may contribute all in my power towards the good of mankind, by inspiring any of its individuals with a suitable abhorrence for that detestable practice of trading in our fellow creatures, and in some measure atone for my neglect of duty as a christian, in engaging in a wicked traffic, I offer to their serious consideration, some few occurrences of which I was an eye witness. That being struck with the wretched and affecting scene they may foster that humane principle, which is the noble and distinguished characteristic of man. About the year 1749; I sailed from Liverpool to the coast of Gainea, some time after our arrival, I was ordered to go up the country a considerable distance, upon having notice from one of the Negro Kings, that he had a parcel of slaves to dispose of, I received my instructions and went, carrying with me an account of such goods we had on board, to exchange for the slaves we intended to purchase; upon being introduced, I presented him with a small case of spirits, a gun and some trifles, which having accepted. and understood by an interpreter what goods we had, the next day was appointed for viewing the Slaves; we found about two hundred confined in one place. But here how shall I relate the affecting fight I there beheld, the silent sorrow which appeared in the countenance of the afflicted father, and the painful anguish of the tender mother, expecting to be forever separated from their tender offspring; the distressed maid wringing her hands in presage of her future wretchedness, and the general cry of the innocent, from a fearful apprehension of the perpetual Slavery to which they were doomed. I purchased eleven, who I conducted, tied two and two, to our ship. Being but a small vessel (ninety ton) we soon purchased our cargo, consisting of one hundred and seventy Slaves, whom thou may'st reader range in thy view, as they were shackled two and two together, pent up within the narrow confines of the main deck, with the complicated distress of sickness, chains and contempt; deprived of every fond and social tie and in a great measure reduced to a slave of desperation. We had not been a fortnight at sea, before the fatal consequence of this despair appeared, they formed a design of recovering their natural right, Liberty, by raising and murdering every man on board; but the goodness of the Almighty rendered their scheme abortive, and his mercy spared us to have time to repent: The plot was discovered; the ring leader tied by the two thumbs over the barricado door, at sun rise received a number of lashes; in this situation be remained till sun-set, exposed to the insults and barbarity of the brutal crew of sailors, with full leave to exercise their cruelty at pleasure: The consequence was, the next morning the miserable sufferer was found dead, fled from the shoulders to the waist. The next victim was a youth, who from too strong a sense of his misery refused nourishment and died disregarded and unnoticed till the hogs had fed on part of his flesh.