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"But when the English, (for though the Portuguese and Spaniards had transported Africans more early to their American settlements; yet Hawkins, an Englishman, is said first to have given occasion for the present inhuman trade) a nation most highly favoured of liberty, is viewed as taking the lead in this odious traffic, and as bending down the soul in utter darkness, the more effectually to enslave the body; freedom must blush indignantly, while humanity mourns over the reproachful tale."

— Ramsay, James (1733-1789)

Author

Ramsay, James (1733-1789)

Work Title

An Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies

Place of Publication

London

Publisher

Printed and Sold by James Phillips

Date

1784

Metaphor

"But when the English, (for though the Portuguese and Spaniards had transported Africans more early to their American settlements; yet Hawkins, an Englishman, is said first to have given occasion for the present inhuman trade) a nation most highly favoured of liberty, is viewed as taking the lead in this odious traffic, and as bending down the soul in utter darkness, the more effectually to enslave the body; freedom must blush indignantly, while humanity mourns over the reproachful tale."

Metaphor in Context

Had Europe, as a much distinguished quarter of the globe, reaped no other social advantage from the establishment of Christianity than the abolition of slavery, this benefit alone would have been immense; the superiority gained by it over the rest of the world would have been incredible. And with what shame and sorrow must we remark, that she, who has been raised so high above her fellows, by the influence of this heaven-descended liberty, at this day is, and, for more than two centuries past, has been, striving with all the venturous energy of a commercial spirit, to establish slavery in the new world; in a region, where the curse of slavery was unknown, till, through an infernal love of gold, she introduced and fixed it? But when the English, (for though the Portuguese and Spaniards had transported Africans more early to their American settlements; yet Hawkins, an Englishman, is said first to have given occasion for the present inhuman trade) a nation most highly favoured of liberty, is viewed as taking the lead in this odious traffic, and as bending down the soul in utter darkness, the more effectually to enslave the body; freedom must blush indignantly, while humanity mourns over the reproachful tale. [...]
(pp. 33-4)