Page:Copley 1844 A History of Slavery and its Abolition 2nd Ed.djvu/333

Rh to existing circumstances, and by pledging themselves, as men, as christians, and as patriots, in their separate and collective capacities, to endeavour, by all prudent and lawful means, to mitigate and eventually to abolish colonial slavery throughout the British dominions. The first and most obvious means of carrying these objects into effect, was the obtaining and diffusing information on the subject; with this view they shortly afterwards published "A brief View of the Nature and Effects of Negro Slavery, as existing in the Colonies of Great Britain." In this was stated the appalling fact, that upwards of 800,000 human beings were held in a state of degrading personal slavery. Among the wretched features of their condition the following are enumerated. Being the absolute property of a fellow-man; liable to be sold or transferred at his pleasure; placed at his discretion as to the measure of labour, food, and punishment; branded like cattle with a hot iron, and thus retaining, in indelible characters, the proof of their servile state; driven to labour by the cart-whip; at certain seasons compelled to labour, not only the whole day, but also half the night; having no claim on their masters for wages; obliged to labour for their own maintenance on the sabbath-day; liable to be punished at the irresponsible discretion of their master or his agents; regarded as mere chattels, and liable to be sold for their master's debts; denied the legal sanction of marriage; having little or no access to the means of christian instruction; liable to be separated from every family tie; incapable of giving evidence in a court of law against a white person; having every obstacle thrown in the way