Page:Notes on the History of Slavery - Moore - 1866.djvu/90

 Head cannot ay to the Foot, I have no need of thee; but it is the Converting Men's Liberty to our Wills, who have not, like the Gibeonites, offered themelves willingly, or by Conent given their Ear to the Doorpot, but are made uch by Force, in that Nature that deires to Lord it over their Fellow Creatures, is what is to be abhorred by all Chritians." pp. 9, 10.

Again, he ays in another place: "But in Time this dark Trade creeping in amongt us to the very Minitry, becaue of the profit by it, hath pread over others like a Leproy, to the Grief of the Honet-hearted." Preface.

Public entiment and opinion againt lavery were firt aroued and timulated in America in the latter part of the eventeenth century by ympathy for the Chritian captives, Dutch and Englih, who were enlaved by the Turks and the pirates of Northern Africa. Lay's "All Slave-keepers Apotates."—The efforts to ranom and releae thee unfortunate perons, excited by the terrible orrow of relatives and friends, kinmen and countrymen, brought home to ome minds (though few) the injutice of their own dealings with the negroes. The earliet writers againt lavery urged that argument with peculiar force and unction, but with little effect. They eem to have made no impreion on the legilation of the colonies, and curious and zealous reearch only can recover the memorials of their righteous tetimonies.

The earliet poitive public challenge to lavery in Maachuetts of which we have any knowledge, was in the year 1700, when a learned, pious, and honored magitrate entered the lits alone, and founded his