masters promoted, by giving them freedom, and by granting them other
privileges. He showed the great difficulty of instructing them in the
state in which they then were, and such as he himself had experienced,
both in his private and public attempts, and such as others had
experienced also. He stated the way in which private attempts of this
nature might probably be successful. He then answered all objections
against their capacities, as drawn from philosophy, form, anatomy, and
observation; and vindicated these from his own experience. And lastly,
he threw out ideas for the improvement of their condition, by an
establishment of a greater number of spiritual pastors among them; by
giving them more privileges than they then possessed; and by extending
towards them the benefits of a proper police. Mr. Ramsay had no other
motive for giving this work to the public, than that of humanity, of a
wish to serve this much-injured part of the human species. For he
compiled it at the hazard of forfeiting that friendship, which he had
contracted with many during his residence in the islands, and of
suffering much in his private property, as well as subjecting himself to
the ill-will and persecution of numerous individuals.

The publication of this book by one who professed to have been so long
resident in the islands, and to have been an eyewitness of facts,
produced, as may easily be supposed, a good deal of conversation, and
made a considerable impression, but particularly at this time, when a
storm was visibly gathering over the heads of the oppressors of the
African race. These circumstances occasioned one or two persons to
attempt to answer it, and these answers brought Mr. Ramsay into the
first controversy ever entered into on this subject, during which, as is
the case in most controversies, the cause of truth was spread.

The works which Mr. Ramsay wrote upon this subject were, the essay just