4. This equally concerns every Merchant, who is engaged in the Slave-trade. It is _you_ that induce the _African_ villain to sell his countrymen; and in order thereto, to steal, rob, murder men, women and children without number: by enabling the _English_ villain to pay him for so doing; whom you over pay for his execrable labour. It is _your_ money, that is the spring of all, that impowers him to go on: so that whatever he or the _African_ does in this matter, is all _your_ act and deed. And is your conscience quite reconciled to this? Does it never reproach you at all? Has gold entirely blinded your eyes, and stupified your heart? Can you see, can you _feel_ no harm therein? Is it doing as you would be done to? Make the case your own. “Master,” said a Slave at _Liverpool_ (to the Merchant that owned him) “what if some of my countrymen were to come here, and take away my mistress, and master _Tommy_ and master _Billy_ and carry them into our country, and make them slaves, how would you like it?” His answer was worthy of a man: “I will never buy a slave more while I live.” O let his resolution be your’s! Have no more any part in this detestable business. Instantly leave it to those unfeeling wretches, “Who laugh at human nature and compassion!” Be _you_ a man! Not a wolf, a devourer of the human species! Be merciful, that you may obtain mercy! 5. And this equally concerns every gentleman that has an estate in our _American_ plantations: yea all Slave-holders of whatever rank and degree: seeing _men-buyers_ are exactly on a level with _men-stealers_. Indeed you say, “I pay honestly for my goods: and I am not concerned to know how they are come by”: nay but you are: you are deeply concerned to know they are honestly come by. Otherwise you are partaker with a thief, and are not a jot honester than him. But you know, they are not honestly come by: you know they are procured by means, nothing near so innocent as picking pockets, house-breaking, or robbery upon the high-way. You know they are procured by a deliberate series of more complicated villany, (of fraud, robbery and murder) than was ever practised either by Mahometans or Pagans: in particular by murders of all kinds; by the blood of the innocent poured upon the ground like water. Now it is _your_ money that pays the Merchant, and through him the Captain, and the _African_ butchers. _You_ therefore are guilty, yea principally guilty, of all these frauds, robberies and murders. You are the spring that puts all the rest in motion: they would not stir a step without _you_: therefore the blood of all these wretches, who die before their time, whether in the country or elsewhere, lies upon your head. _The blood of thy brother_, (for, whether thou wilt believe it or no, such he is in the sight of Him that made him) _crieth against thee from the earth_, from the ship, and from the waters. O, whatever it costs, put a stop to its cry before it be too late: instantly,