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                                                                         ON THE
                                             STATE OF SLAVERY IN VIRGINIA


IN the preceding Enquiry ('a) into the abfolute rights of the citizens of United America, we muft not be underftood as if those rights were equally and univerfally the privilege of all the inhabitants of the United States, or even of all thofe, who may challenge this land of freedom as their native country. Among the bleffings which the Almighty hath fhowered down on thefe ftates, there is a large portion of the bittereft draught that ever flowed from the cup of affliction. Whilft Amer- ica hath been the land of promife to Eu- ropeans, and their defcendants, it hath been the vale of death to millions of the wretched fons of Africa. The genial light of liberty, which hath here fhone with un- rivalled luftre on the former, hath yielded no comfort to the latter, but to them hath proved a pillar of darkness, whilft it hath 

('a) The fubject of a preceding Lecture, with

which the prefent was immediately connected, was An Enquiry into the Rights of Perfons, as Citizens of the United States of America. 

                                              B