Readers, I have but one favour to ask of you, which is, to peruse this Performance with an open unbiassed mind; overlooking any defects you may observe in these sheets, knowing they are the hasty and undigested thoughts of the Author, put together with more good intent than ability; after this you may either reject or practise, according to your own consciences, and the light of this Treatise, if there is any to be found in it. _Enslaving_ your fellow men, and using and massacring them as they do in the _West-Indies_ and Southern Provinces, is a matter of too great importance to be only slightly thought of. And as I hope you have the _humanity_ of _Britons_, and that _love of Liberty_, with which every true _Englishman_ is, or ought to be possessed of, you will not countenance it, but declare yourselves as I do, _well-wishers of the British Empire, and consequently enemies to_ Slavery. Accept then, Friends and Brethren in one common cause, this small token of that love and veneration which I bear to freedom, (for no country can be called free where there is one Slave) and give me leave to subscribe myself, Your Friend and humble Servant, JAMES SWAN. THE PREFACE. I had not well arrived in _America_, when casting my eyes on so many Black Slaves, I immediately found a warm inclination arise in my breast, to do my endeavours for relieving them by publishing to the world my sentiments upon their state. Scarce had I time to draw a breath of this air, before I immediately applied myself to enquire into the state of this _Slavery_, and the constitution upon which it is founded, and having met with proper preliminaries by way of foundation for a small Treatise, I set myself to work in forming, and in short finished this Pamphlet. From the consideration of the smallness of this production, and my inability to treat the subject properly, I was nigh resolving not to prefix my name hereto: But thinking again, some opposite party might take hold of that, I thought it most proper to shew my common signature, knowing the cause I defend is good and well founded.