Produced by Curtis Weyant and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) Transcriber's note: Original spelling has been maintained and not standardized. The numerous short bibliographical reference notes that were originally printed as sidenotes have been set in brackets here and included directly into the text; the longer text footnotes have been renumbered for consistency. To indicate text in italic font, _underscores_ have been used. Words without italics inside longer italic sentences are indicated by =equal signs=. A DISSERTATION ON _SLAVERY_: WITH A PROPOSAL FOR THE GRADUAL ABOLITION OF IT, IN THE _STATE OF VIRGINIA_. BY ST. GEORGE TUCKER, _PROFESSOR OF LAW IN THE UNIVERSITY OF WILLIAM AND MARY, AND ONE OF THE JUDGES OF THE GENERAL COURT, IN VIRGINIA_. _Slavery not only violates the Laws of Nature, and of civil Society, it also wounds the best Forms of Government: in a Democracy, where all Men are equal, Slavery is contrary to the Spirit of the Constitution. MONTESQUIEU._ PHILADELPHIA: PRINTED FOR MATHEW CAREY, No. 118, MARKET-STREET. 1796. TO THE _General Assembly of Virginia_, To whom it belongs to decide upon the expediency and practicability of a plan for the _gradual abolition_ of _Slavery_ in this commonwealth, The following pages are most respectfully submitted and inscribed, BY THE AUTHOR. _Williamsburg, in Virginia, May 20, 1796._ TO THE READER. _The following pages form a part of a course of Lectures on Law and Police, delivered in the University of William and Mary, in this commonwealth. The Author considering the Abolition of Slavery in this State, as an object of the first importance, not only to our moral character and domestic peace, but even to our political salvation; and being persuaded that the accomplishment of so momentous and desirable an undertaking will in great measure depend upon the early adoption of some plan for that purpose, with diffidence submits to the consideration of his countrymen his ideas on a subject of such consequence. He flatters himself that the plan he ventures to suggest, is liable to fewer objections than most others that have been submitted to the consideration of the public, as it will be attended with a gradual change of condition in the blacks, and cannot possibly affect the interest either of =creditors=, or any other description of persons of the =present generation=: and posterity he makes no doubt will feel themselves relieved from a perilous and grievous burden by the timely adoption of a plan, whose operation may be felt by them, before they are borne down by a weight which threatens destruction to our happiness both public and private._ ====>The following ADDITIONAL NOTES have been received from the Author since the body of this work was printed off. _In page 20, after the word =arms=, in line 5, read this note:_