Page:Copley 1844 A History of Slavery and its Abolition 2nd Ed.djvu/224

206 in others, where they had no personal interest in the concern, their sentiments proved influential on those who had, and gradually prepared the way for actual and combined effort, in which some of the parties now introduced to the reader took a distinguished and efficient part.



It has been a general observation, that the greatest darkness immediately precedes sun-rise, and the excessive aboundings of misery and oppression are generally the precursors of relief and deliverance. It was so in the case of the oppressed Israelites in Egypt, and it was so in that of the oppressed Africans. It had been a common practice with planters, merchants, and others, resident in the West Indies, when they occasionally came to England, to bring with them negro slaves to act as servants during their stay. It was perfectly natural that persons thus circumstanced should compare their own condition of slavery and hardship with the freedom and comfort enjoyed by servants in England. Such a comparison would, of course, make them very unwilling to return to the islands, and in consequence many of them absconded. The masters advertised, or otherwise searched for them, and, when found, they were seized and carried away by force.

There was a notion prevalent, that such proceedings were not sanctioned by the English laws, but that all persons who were baptized became free. The former idea was, after a long struggle,