Excerpt from Slavery, in Its Present Aspects and Relations: A Sermon Preached on Fast Day, April 6, 1854, at Cambridge, Mass As a basis for intelligent remark, let us take a brief historical view Of American slavery. When Jamestown was settled in 1608, slaveholding in some form was practised nearly the whole world over. TO the early Virginia planters it was considered a neces Sity and a matter Of course. They were at first supplied with bond laborers from the mother country. These were not negroes, but white men, convicts, captives taken in war, poor debtors, and other poor people who were either kidnapped for the purpose or induced to emigrate and serve in this capacity for a time. In all these cases the term Of service was limited. But within the limits Specified, the laborers were bought and sold as cattle. The planters soon found it for their interest rather to repress than to encourage this species Of emigration, and had it not been for the African trade, the white bond men would have become early amalgamated with the free population, and long before our Revolution, Vir ginia would have been a free colony. 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.