Slavery and Emancipation in Western Culture

David Brion Davis

Documents Package, February 2, 2006

From David Brion Davis and Steven Mintz, eds., The Boisterous Sea of Liberty: A Documentary History of America from Discovery through the Civil War, New York, Oxford University Press, 1998.

• A Critique of the Slave Trade, 1587, by Fray Tomas de Mercado
• The Shift to Slavery, Virginia Slave Laws
• The Sin of Slaveholding, 1700, by Samuel Sewall
• Fear of Slave Revolts, 1744, by Daniel Horsmanden
• The Seven Years’ War and the Growth of Antislavery Sentiment, 1757, by John Woolman
• To the Selectmen of the Town of Newfield, Massachusetts, 1806, by Peter Kiteridge
• Extracts from the Minutes of the Yearly Meeting, by the Society of Friends, September 23-28, 1776
• An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1776, by Adam Smith
• To the Inhabitants of the State of New York, December 23, 1776, by John Jay
• To James Phillips in London, November 18, 1784, by James Pemberton
• To Elbridge Gerry, April 28, 1785, by John Adams
• To John Francis Mercer, September 9, 1786, by George Washington
• Fugitive Slaves and the Constitution, Pierce Butler
• Slave Imports, the Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, by Max Farrand
• To Martha Jefferson Randolph, December 1, 1793, by Thomas Jefferson
• To Comte de Rochambeau, August 6, 1802, by General Charles Victor Emmanuel LeClerc

  From James G. Basker, ed., Amazing Grace: An Anthology of Poems about Slavery, 1660-1810, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2002.

• Pity for the Poor Africans, 1788, by William Cowper
• The Negro’s Complaint, 1788, by William Cowper

  Miscellaneous Documents

• Acct. of Sale, Charges, & Net Proceed of 63 new Negro Slaves Receivd of the Sloop Hare, July 9, 1756, by Caleb Godfrey
• The Germantown Protest, February 18, 1688, by Garret Hendericks, et al