Surely, then, no age can scarcely be too immature, in which to sow the seeds of abhorrence in the young breast, against this blood-stained, demoralizing commerce! Surely, no means, however trivial, should be neglected, to arouse the spirit of youth against it! It would be tedious, and, indeed, inconsistent with the brevity of this little work, to name the number of the great and the good who have protested against, and sacrificed their time and their treasure to abolish it. Suffice it to say, that an apparently trifling incident first aroused the virtuous energies of the ardent, persevering Clarkson, in the great cause;--that a view of the produce of Africa, and proofs of the ingenuity of Africans, kindled the fire of enthusiasm in the noble and comprehensive mind of a Pitt. Nor did the flame quiver or become dim while he was the pilot of the state, though he was not decreed to see the success of perseverance in the cause of justice and humanity.
Let me, therefore, be acquitted of presumption, when I express a hope, that, trifling as is the present work, yet, as the leading events it records are not the creations of fancy, but realities that have passed; that they have not been collected for effect, or uselessly to awaken the feelings; but having been actually presented in the pursuit of a disgraceful and cruel commerce, are now offered to the view of my young readers, in order to confirm the great truths, that cruelty and oppression encouraged, soon brutalize the nature of man; divesting him of every distinguishing trait which unites him with superior intelligences, and sinking him in the scale of being far below the ravening wolf and insatiate tiger; and that the slave-trade, more especially, never fails effectually to destroy all the sympathies of humanity, and so far to barbarize those who are concerned in it, as assuredly to cause civilized man to resume the ferocity of the savage whom he presumes to despise.
Come thou, and weep with me substantial ills, And execrate the wrongs that Afric's sons, Torn from their native shore, and doom'd to bear The yoke of servitude in foreign climes, Sustain. Nor vainly let our sorrows flow, Nor let the strong emotion rise in vain. But may the kind contagion widely spread, Till, in its flame, the unrelenting heart Of avarice melt in softest sympathy, And one bright ray of universal love, Of grateful incense, rises up to heaven!"