"How then can we, who have been concerned to publish the Gospel of
universal love and peace among mankind, be so inconsistent with ourselves,
as to purchase such as are prisoners of war, and thereby encourage this
antichristian practice; and more especially as many of these poor creatures
are stolen away, parents from children, and children from parents; and
others, who were in good circumstances in their native country, inhumanly
torn from what they esteemed a happy situation, and compelled to toil in a
state of slavery, too often extremely cruel! What dreadful scenes of murder
and cruelty those barbarous ravages must occasion in these unhappy people's
country are too obvious to mention. Let us make their case our own, and
consider what we should think, and how we should feel, were we in their
circumstances. Remember our Blessed Redeemer's positive command--to do unto
others as we would have them do unto us;--and that with what measure we
mete, it shall be measured to us again. And we intreat you to examine,
whether the purchasing of a Negro, either born here or imported, doth not
contribute to a further importation, and, consequently, to the upholding of
all the evils above mentioned, and to the promoting of man-stealing, the
only theft which by the Mosaic law was punished with death;--'He that
stealeth a man, and selleth him; or if he be found in his hand, he shall
surely be put to death.
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