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The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament (1808), Volume I by Thomas Clarkson
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this distinguished individual than the African ought to be upon this
occasion. To him we owe it, that we no longer see our public papers
polluted by hateful advertisements of the sale of the human species, or
that we are no longer distressed by the perusal of impious rewards for
bringing back the poor and the helpless into slavery, or that we are
prohibited the disgusting spectacle of seeing man bought by his
fellow-man.--To him, in short, we owe this restoration of the beauty of our
constitution--this prevention of the continuance of our national disgrace.

I shall say but little more of Mr. Sharp at present, than that he felt it
his duty, immediately after the trial, to write to Lord North, then
principal minister of state, warning him, in the most earnest manner, to
abolish immediately both the trade and the slavery of the human species in
all the British dominions, as utterly irreconcileable with the principles
of the British constitution, and the established religion of the land.

Among other coadjutors, whom the cruel and wicked practices which have now
been so amply detailed brought forward, was a worthy clergyman, whose name
I have not yet been able to learn. He endeavoured to interest the public
feeling in behalf of the injured Africans, by writing an epilogue to the
Padlock, in which Mungo appeared as a black servant. This epilogue is so
appropriate to the case, that I cannot but give it to the reader. Mungo
enters, and thus addresses the audience:--

"Thank you, my Massas! have you laugh your fill?
Then let me speak, nor take that freedom ill.
E'en from _my_ tongue some heart-felt truths may fall,
And outrag'd Nature claims the care of all.
My tale in _any_ place would force a tear,
But calls for stronger, deeper feelings here;
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