and barbarous as the natives of Africa. Those cruel wars amongst the
blacks would be likely to cease, and a fair and honorable commerce, in
time, take place throughout that vast country. It was by these means
that the inhabitants of Europe, though formerly a barbarous people,
became civilized. Indeed the account Julius Caesar gives of the ancient
Britons in their state of ignorance, is not such as should make us proud
of ourselves, or lead us to despise the unpolished nations of the earth;
for he informs us, "That they lived in many respects like our Indians,
being clad with skins, painting their bodies, &c." He also adds, "That
they, brother with brother, and parents with children, had wives in
common." A greater barbarity than any heard of amongst the Negroes. Nor
doth Tacitus give a more honourable account of the Germans, from whom
the Saxons, our immediate ancestors, sprung. The Danes, who succeeded
them (who may also be numbered among our progenitors) were full as bad,
if not worse.

It is usual for people to advance as a palliation in favour of keeping
the Negroes in bondage, that there are slaves in Guinea, and that those
amongst us might be so in their own country; but let such consider the
inconsistency of our giving any countenance to slavery, because the
Africans, whom we esteem a barbarous and savage people, allow of it, and
perhaps the more from our example. Had the professors of christianity
acted indeed as such, they might have been instrumental to convince the
Negroes of their error in this respect; but even this, when inquired
into, will be to us an occasion of blushing, if we are not hardened to
every sense of shame, rather than a _palliation_ of our iniquitous
conduct; as it will appear that the slavery endured in Guinea, and other
parts of Africa, and in Asia,[A] is by no means so grievous as that in
our colonies. William Moor, speaking of the natives living on the river
Gambia,[B] says, "Tho' some of the Negroes have many house slaves, which