Letter to Charlotte, Queen of Great Britain (Benezet)

by Anthony Benezet

To Charlotte, Queen of Great Britain.

Impressed with a sense of religious duty, and en- couraged by the opinion generally entertained of thy benevolent disposition to succour the distressed, I take the liberty, very respectfully, to offer to thy perusal some tracts which I believe faithfully describe the suffering condition of many hundred thousands of our fellow creatures of the African race, great numbers of whom, rent from every tender connexion in life, are annually taken from their native land, to endure, in the American islands and plantations, a most rigorous and cruel slavery, whereby many, very many of them, are brought to a melancholy and untimely end.

When it is considered, that the inhabitants of Great Britain, who are themselves so eminently blessed in the enjoyment of religious and civil liberty, have long been, and yet are, very deeply concerned in Ibis flagrant violation of the common rights of mankind, and that even its national authority is exerted in support of the African slave-trade, there is much reason to apprehend, that this has been, and as long as the evil exists will continue to be, an occasion of drawing down the Divine displeasure on the nation and its dependencies. May these considerations induce thee to interpose thy kind endeavours on behalf of this greatly oppressed people, whose abject situation gives them an additional claim to the pity and assistance of the generous mind; inasmuch as they are altogether deprived of the means of soliciting effectual relief for themselves; that so thou may not only be a blessed instrument in the hand of Him "by whom kings reign, and princes decree justice," to avert the awful judgments by which the empire has already been so remarkably shaken, but that the blessings of thousands ready to perish, may come upon thee, at a time when the superior advantages attendant on thy situation in this world will no longer be of any avail to thy consolation and support.

To the tracts on the subject to which 1 have thus ventured to crave thy particular attention, I have added some others, which, at different times, I have believed it my duty to publish, and which I trust will afford thee some satisfaction; their design being for the furtherance of that universal peace and good-will amongst men, which the Gospel was intended to introduce.

I hope thou wilt kindly excuse the freedom used on this occasion, by an ancient man, whose mind for more than forty years past has been much separated from the common course of the world, and long painfully exercised in the consideration of the miseries under which so large a part of mankind, equally with us the objects of redeeming love, are suffering the most unjust and grievous oppression; and who sincerely desires the temporal and eternal felicity of the Queen and her Royal Consort.

Anthony Benezet.

Philadelphia, the 25th of the 8th month, 1783.