Thoughts upon the African slave trade

A moral and political plea condemns the buying and selling of human beings and argues that the trade conflicts with religious duties and sound public policy. The author pairs a candid personal confession of previous involvement and repentance with eyewitness observations of coastal trading practices and the suffering inflicted on captured people. The pamphlet outlines harms at home, including loss of manpower and corrupting economic incentives, and details the cruelty, deprivation, and social damage experienced by those enslaved. It concludes by urging legal and moral measures to suppress the trade and appealing to readers’ conscience and civic responsibility.