Head cannot ſay 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 themſelves willingly, or by Conſent given their Ear to the Doorpoſt, but are made ſuch by Force, in that Nature that deſires to Lord it over their Fellow Creatures, is what is to be abhorred by all Chriſtians." pp. 9, 10.
Again, he ſays in another place: "But in Time this dark Trade creeping in amongſt us to the very Miniſtry, becauſe of the profit by it, hath ſpread over others like a Leproſy, to the Grief of the Honeſt-hearted." Preface.
Public ſentiment and opinion againſt ſlavery were firſt arouſed and ſtimulated in America in the latter part of the ſeventeenth century by ſympathy for the Chriſtian captives, Dutch and Engliſh, who were enſlaved by the Turks and the pirates of Northern Africa. Lay's "All Slave-keepers Apoſtates."—The efforts to ranſom and releaſe theſe unfortunate perſons, excited by the terrible ſorrow of relatives and friends, kinſmen and countrymen, brought home to ſome minds (though few) the injuſtice of their own dealings with the negroes. The earlieſt writers againſt ſlavery urged that argument with peculiar force and unction, but with little effect. They ſeem to have made no impreſſion on the legiſlation of the colonies, and curious and zealous reſearch only can recover the memorials of their righteous teſtimonies.
The earlieſt poſitive public challenge to ſlavery in Maſſachuſetts of which we have any knowledge, was in the year 1700, when a learned, pious, and honored magiſtrate entered the liſts alone, and founded his
