Excerpt from American Slavery: And the Means of Its Abolition More than forty years ago the writer of the following pages read Wilberforce's publications on the slave trade, in which were described the various methods of procuring the slaves In Africa, the horrors of the middle passage, and their cruel treatment in the West Indies. In perusing these statements of that great philanthropist and friend of the injured African race, his feelings became, in some measure, enlisted in favor of the colored people of our land, and in opposition to the slavery upheld by our nanon. He was never sensible of feeling the prejudice against color, so often manifested; but, in his intercourse with colored persons, treated them, as he would others. And having them for many years as neighbors, and, not un frequently, as hired help, they were admitted to eat with the family at the same table. In 1824 he was invited to attend a political celebration on the 4th of July. In declining the invitation, he noticed the inconsistency of our conduct in celebrating our liberty, founded upon the principle that all men are created free and equal, and proclaiming this self-evident truth, and yet holding hundreds of thousands of our fellow men in degrading bondage. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.