The following sheets are intended to lay before the publick the present state of a branch of British commerce, which, ever since its existence, has been held in detestation by all good men, but at this time more particularly engages the attention of the nation, and is becoming the object of general reprobation.

Leaving to abler pens to expatiate more at large on the injustice and inhumanity of the Slave Trade, I shall content myself with giving some account of the hardships which the unhappy objects of it undergo, and the cruelties they suffer, from the period of their being reduced to a state of slavery, to their being disposed in the West India islands; where, I fear, their grievances find little alleviation. At the same time, I shall treat of a subject, which appears not to have been attended to in the manner its importance requires; that is, the sufferings and loss of the seamen employed in this trade; which, from the intemperature of the climate, the inconveniences they labour under during the voyage, and the severity of most of the commanders, occasion the destruction of great numbers annually.

And this I shall endeavour to do by the recital of a number of facts which have fallen under my own immediate observation, or the knowledge of which I have obtained from persons on whose veracity I can depend.

And happy I shall esteem myself, if an experience obtained by a series of injuries and observations, made during several voyages to the coast of Africa, shall enable me to render any service to a cause, which is become the cause of every person of humanity.

Before I proceed to the methods of obtaining slaves, and their subsequent treatment, the treatment of the sailors, and a concise account of the places on the coast of Africa, where slaves are obtained (which I purpose to annex), it may not be unnecessary to give a short sketch of the usual proceedings of the ships employed in the slave trade.