But this trade was
conducted in part, both before and after the independence of America, by
our own countrymen. It was, secondly, an object with these to annihilate
slavery in America; and this they have been instruments in accomplishing to
a considerable extent. But any abolition of slavery within given boundaries
must be a blow to the Slave-trade there. The American Quakers, lastly,
living in a land where both the commerce and slavery existed, were in the
way of obtaining a number of important facts relative to both, which made
for their annihilation; and communicating many of these facts to those in
England, who espoused the same cause, they became fellow-labourers with
these in producing the event in question.
The Quakers in America, it must be owned, did most of them originally as
other settlers there with respect to the purchase of slaves. They had lands
without a sufficient number of labourers, and families without a sufficient
number of servants, for their work. Africans were poured in to obviate
these difficulties, and these were bought promiscuously by all.
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