Crop A Boâ— alwayes bent will hardly send an Arrow to the Mark but our inconsiderate Masters regard neither the voice of Nature nor Reason but with Cruelty compel us to Labour beyond our strength and allow us no competent time of Rest or Refreshment in so much that often-times we are forc'd to work so long at the Wind-Mills until we become so Weary Dull Faint Heavy and Sleepy that we are as it were deprived of our natural Senses or like men in a maze that we fall into danger and oft times our Hands and Arms are crusht to pieces and sometimes most part of our Bodies and though sometimes these evils do befall us through Carelessness yet oft times they come by the means aforesaid So also we are forced to stand and work at the Coppers in the hot sulpherous Fumes till Nature being overcome with weariness and want of proper Rest we fall into the fierce boyling Syrups and in these disasters little or no pitty is taken of us for though some indeed profess a superfinal sorrow for our mischances it is cheifly for their own sakes not ours because thereby they have lost the worth of so much Money as we were reckon'd at not for the loss of our Lives which yet to us are as precious and of as much value as those of our proud and haughty Masters and so also they are in Thy sight O our gracious Creator for we likewise are the work of Thine hands and endued with equal Faculties both Sensitive and Intellectual As in the excess of Labour so also 〈◊〉 the hours of working our Christian and European Masters do commit great Errors compelling us to work â—ll day in the scorching heat till our Spirits are thereby exhaled and our Radical Moisture dryed up which is the fountain of Life they seldom consideâ—ing the nature of hot Climates wherein no Mortal can endure so many hours severe Labour as in colder Regions For 1 st The Constitutions of men in hot Climates are naturally weaker than in cold 2 dly They come to Maturity in fewer years 3 dly The continual Heat of the scorching Sun opens the Pores and at those innumerable Sally-ports powerfully draws out and steals away the sweet Oyl and Radical Balsom of Nature which causeth a dull faintiness and wearisom Indisposition to attend the whole Body with great Drought which proves very injurious to Health and Strength 4 thly All sorts of Foods are here of a weaker or more unfirm Nature than those of cold and as they sooner arrive to Maturity so consequently they sooner perish and corrupt For all which reason it is unreasonable to expect men should constantly and without due intermission undergo such Labour and Travel in torrid Climates as in those more temperate and refrigerating Do not hot Countries presently set open all the Gates and secret Passages of Nature even to the very Centre which weakens and evaporates the pure subtle or volatile Spirits whence follows excessive Sweating Drought Faintiness whereas on the contrary cold Climates shutting up the external Passages drives the natural heat inward and makes it more central which occasions strong natural Heats and Stomachs able to digest the firmest Foods and in great Quanties whence Persons there become strong hardy and healthy likewise most sorts of Food in cold Countries is of a firmer stronger Nature and generates a more vigorous Nourishment and firmer Flesh and Fat and their Fruits will generally keep longer good Nor did the All-wise Iehovah intend or require men to work and labour so strenuously much and long in hot Climates having in his natural Providence made no such occasion for it because there is there no Winter nor sharp saturnal Airs to cut off and destroy what the Summer brings forth but Nature here is always pregnant and teeming and displays her self in all Seasons of the year with pleasant and fragrant Fruits and prepares them to an higher degree and fitter for present Food though not so firm and lasting Besides People in hot Regions have not need of so many things there is no occasion for their Houses being so close nor furnisht with so many Circumstances of Beds and Bedding continual Fires and the like Provisional Accommodations to be laid up before-hand either for Man or Beast as also half the Clothing will furnish Nature and the same is to be understood of Foods for all things necessary to the Maintenance of Life are far easier and with half the Labour procured in hot Countries But these things our Masters never lay to heart but lay burthen upon burthen till we utterly sink under the weight of their Oppressions though many of them cannot but be sensible that they themselves though they do little or nothing but eat and drink of the choicest Meats Drinks and sleep their fill without disturbance yet they are here nothing so strong or able to endure Labour and robust Exercises as they have been and would be in cold Countries which Reflection if they had any Bowels of humane Sympathy and Compassion should encline them to moderate our Servitude and grant some Allowances of respit and Refreshment unto us such as might enable us both more cheerfully and effectually to serve them It is a custom amongst many of the great Dons of Masters to allow their Servants little more than only a small piece of Ground to raise their whole Food and Sustenance from and tho' this be hard yet that which renders it worse is that they will not allow us any sufficient time to manure it but we must abate it out of that little time which is permitted us to rest in otherwise it must be done upon their Sabbath day whereon we are allowed to rest from our ordinary Labours for our Masters but if then we must work as hard to manure our small pittance of Ground or else starve I do not find what great advantage we have of that day more than another It is also an order or custom in some Plantations where the Christians inhabit to allow their Negroes two hours Rest at Noon viz. from eleaven of the Clock till one which is a wise and righteous Law but few there are that will admit us above half that time but hurry us again to work which proves very injurious to our Healths for then the Sun which is the central heat of the Universe draws near the Meridean which does powerfully open the Pores especially of those that labour hard in the scorching beams thereof and exhales the Radical Moisture which weakens and indisposes the whole body and mind and renders us unfit for the After noons work for he that shall rest from eleaven till wo which is three hours shall thereby be rendred so lively lightsom and brisk that he shall be able to perform more labour than another man of the same natural strength that is kept to it all day long or allowed but one hours rest only and with much less prejudice to Nature This is a thing worthy to
so that then Nature is not so well able to perform her Kitchin-work in the Stomach by a perfect Concoction or Separation of the Meats and Drinks and so all the Senses are dulled and the Intellect stupified and not a few seeds of diseases are thereby sown throughout the Body Besides the long Mornings Work or Exercise has by that time pretty much wearied dulled or evaporated the brisk lively Spirits which are alwayes the main supports of Concoction and Digestion and so Nature is still rendred the more uncapable of doing her work with ease But in the Morning after Nocturnal Repose has recovered the wasted Spirits and made them Brisk Airy and full of Life the digestive faculty is fortified and rendred able to digest the same quantity of Food with much more ease and safety The same is to be understood in the Afternoon or towards Night for then the heat of the day being over and the Body becomes Cool Airy and full of Life and being a sufficient time before sleep as at Four or Five a Clock such Suppers will not Incommode Nature nor hinder Rest as late eating is apt to do especially in hot Countries and still the more in maturer Age or such as begin to be striken in years to whom such Meals are most injurious 5. Such as have due regard to their Health and Strength ought for the reasons aforesaid to Rest from Eleaven a Clock till Two in the Afternoon which will wonderfully recover their Spirits and render them much better able to go through with their Labour with a lively Vigour and to do more preparation of each of them together with the Nature and Operation of various drinks as most sorts of Wine Ale Beer Syder each spoken to distinctly by themselves c. 8. They ought to avoid the frequent eating and drinking of all Foods or Liquors in which the Sweet Quality is too highly predominant for sweet Foods are of far more dangerous consequence as to Health than most People imagin for all Sweet things when fermented in the Stomach do turn to the highest Sowerness viz. into a keen sharpness which does not only spoil the digestive faculty but infects the Blood with a Mangie Scorbutick Humour causing stoppages in all the external parts whence proceed Indispositions and akeing Loyns and feeble Joynts For the same cause it is that such as eat much Sugar or sweet food are extreamly troubled with rotten decay'd Teeth and Gumes for those dullified foods cause such a sour acid Quality as generates putrifaction which centers on the Teeth and between the Gumes and so destroys them And it were far better and more healthy for People if they would accustom themseves to Foods and Drinks in which the Bitter and Sower Qualities were more predominant especially in hot Climates where most sorts of Fruits are sweetish for the Root of all Motion Opening and Cleansing consists in the Bitter Quality for which reason the Sophys or Wise-men both of the Southern and Eastern Countries have taught the People to moderate all or most of their foods with Herbs and Fruits that are of a Bitterish Quality which does wonderfully support Nature and preserve Health whereby they attain to very great Ages as we noted before of those in Guinea and the same may be observed elsewhere for those Patriarchs whose Longevity we find Recorded did all of them live in very hot Countries But their Temperance supported Nature and so it will in a proportionable degree all that practice it And therefore if these Rules of Health be seriously regarded and followed those causeless scandals on the Climate the Heat c. of these happy Western Southern and Eastern Regions not inferior for Health or Pleasantness if rightly understood to any in the World will cease and the English Traders or Inhabitants may there extend their lives in Comfort to as good an old Age as they would have promised themselves in their Native Country But without Discretion and Temperance in Diet Drinks Exercises and Affections of the mind Diseases will certainly attend us wherever we reside and an immature Death be apt to seize us There is no Region so happy no Elevation of the Pole so temperate no Air so salubrious as to keep People in Health whether they will or no and those that obstinately violate Nature and wilfully persue courses absolutely destructive may justly be rank't amongst the number of Self-Murtherers for it matters not much whether a man kill himself all at once or by repeated Acts and degrees only the latter seems less excuseable since it has not the pretext of a sudden Temptation or Passion but seems a more deliberate design of destroying both his Body and Soul against all Cautions and Arguments from time to time offered to him both by Reason and Experience to the contrary Those therefore that would avoid the Brand of being Felo's-de-se let them before it be too late abandon Riot and Excess and embrace Temperance and Sobriety so shall they have Health of Body and Strength of mind and length of dayes here and a blissful Eternity hereafter A Caution LEt no sober well minded men nor any that profess the honourable name of Christianity be so frequent in those places of Debauchery viz Taverns and Ale-houses the first whereof being the only places of all manner of wickedness where all the high lofty state of Superfluity is practised being the haunts of evil Spirits and where their chief work is done Women are defloured and Estates spent the Soul made uncapable of Salvation the Health destroyed in a word the whole Macrocosmical man ruined and is â—he very Radix of devilish Fewds and cruel Murders Therefore let no good Christians dare to be seen in any such places for tell me I pray what pleasure or delight can a sober well-minded man take in being amongst such a devilish Croud where there is all kinds of wicked lewd Behaviour as Swearing Lying baudy Songs drunken Healths and roaring Huzza's where a man can hardly hear himself spake like the fiery unequal operations of the Elements or Sea-Tempests and Storms Now if Christian men scruple the wearing of needless O naments and Garments with other things of Gallantry and State wherefore should they not shun and avoid the greater Evils And although it be lawful to drink Wine in a Tavern and Ale in an Ale-house in cases of necessity as Travelling or the like yeâ— they ought in Cities and Towns to avoid drinking or frequenting such places whereby you will discountenance the Evils thereof and preserve your selves Harmless and Innocent 2. All sober People ought to refrain drinking between Meals especially all Gentlemen Merchants Shop-keepers c. who are the men that drink the brave noble exhilerating Liquors in Superfluity which a little custom would make most pleasant and easie besides it would free the Passages and disburthen the Stomach from all superfluous matter by which the Blood would become fine and cause it to circulate freely whence will proceed pure
murder the other at their pleasure and as for those that they save alive 't is not out of pity or kindness but to gratifie their own Covetousness by making Merchandize of them and exposing them to Slavery far worse than Death For then we are hurried from our nearest and dearest Relations the kind Husband from his loving Wife the tender Mother from her helpless Babes and Youths the comfort and joy of Age snatcht from their mourning Parents and that without any hopes of ever seeing one another again Thus are we sometimes driven many Miles by Land over partching Deserts and through howling Wildernesses down to the Sea-Coasts and and Factories being all the way miserably abus'd by our unmerciful Drivers and wearied and spent with Over-Travel Hunger Drought and excessive Heat which puts a period to many of our sweet Lives but the same when it happens is reckoned an happiness for thereby that greater and long lasting Misery is prevented which those that survive must endure for no sooner are they arrived at the Sea-side but they are sold like Beasts to the Merchant who glad of the booty puts us aboard the Ship claps us under Deck and binds us in Chains and Fetters and thrusts us into the dark noisom Hold so many and so close together that we can hardly breathe there are we in the hottest of Summer and under that scorching Climate without any of the sweet Influences of the Air or briezing Gale to refresh us suffocated stewed and parboyled altogether in a Crowd till we almost rot each other and our selves Nay many times not only our profest Enemies but our Treacherous Friends betray us to these intollerable Miseries for so far is the Root of bitterness irritated and such an Ascendent it hath got over us that for vain trifles our paltry Parents shall sell their Children and Husbands their Wives into perpetual Slavery Nor let any Christian Tyrants for this upbraid us for if it be as in truth it is a most unnatural wickedness in our People to sell them is it not upon the matter almost as bad in the Christians to buy them Nay rather is not the chiefest Crime in them since they are the Tempters and Occasioners of it for they allure our â—eople to it by offering them several sorts of Goods which they find they have most mind to And is not this a fine imployment think you for Christians to run to remotest Regions to get their innocent Fellow Creatures and make Slaves of them Whilst we are thus mew'd up in the Ship besides the inconveniencies of heat and danger of suffocation and the Torture of our Chains we also run the hazard of being half starved for the Ship-Masters out of Covetousness and for their own Lucre will not allow us fit or competent Meats or Drinks but just enough to keep Life and Soul together and that corrupt decayed stinking and unwholsome by which all our Healths and Lives are destroyed or impaired for oft times half or more of our wretched Number dye in the Voyage and others of us of more sturdy Spirits and Tempers when they see themselves thus Captiv'd scorning to preserve a Life that thenceforth would be only advantagious to others and burthensome to them by refusing all Sustenance have shortened their dayes As for the rest we are so generally wounded in our Healths by the ill â—sage we receive on Ship-board that we seldom recover our strength and when we come on Shore we find no â—etter fare nor Treatment from our â—ew Christian Masters most of them proving as sharp and Tyrannical as our â—wn Heathen Fathers and Brethren as â—hey call them for when we by the Ship-Master and Seamen have suffered so many violent Miseries and sore Opâ—ressions that we are thereby as poor weak and feeble as Death so that we â—an hardly either stand or go which â—endring us not capable to answer â—he Covetous ends of our new Masters our Afflictions are thereby doubled for when our strength fails us the inconsiderate and unmerciful Overseers make nothing to Whip and Beat us â—nd the best words they can afford us â—re Damn'd Doggs Black ugly Devils â—dle Sons of Ethiopean Whores and the â—ike Alas we expected another sort of Treatment from the Christians who boast themselves the Sons and Favourites of the God of Love and Goodness and who we have been informed are or ought to be endued with the Spirit of Meekness Innocency and doin unto all as they would be done unto We understand that to be a Christian is to live under the Government of the Divine Principle of Benignity and Well-doing from whence all good Vertues are deriv'd as streams from a Fountain But verily we find little very little or scarce any sign at all of this excellent Spirit to reign in the hearts of our Masters or Overseers but on the contrary find them over-ruled and filled with Devilishness Cruelty and Oppression which are so extream that we can as hardly bear them as the Israelites of Old could the grievous and unreasonable Burthens of Egyptian Pharoah and his Task-masters which did force them to cry unto the Lord for ease and deliverance from those cruel Bonds and Slaveries even as we do at this day To enumerate the miseries we endure by a particular Bill of 〈◊〉 would be too tedious we shall Instance in some few of the most Insufferances that all knowing Power to whom our Cries are directed knows all the several aggravations of them and the Consciences of our Masters cannot but witness to the Truth and Justice of our Complaints 1. Though we acknowledge man is born to Labour and had not hands only given him to put Victuals into his Mouth but first to use them in tilling the Earth and getting Food and all other things requisite for humane Life yet certainly the merciful God never intended that any of his Creatures should be forced to Labour beyond their natural strength nor have burthens imposed on their weary Shoulders greater than they are able to bear Labour was undoubtedly enjoyned as an exercise to preserve Health and Strength and prevent Sloth and Idleness not as a perpetual Plague to destroy Nature and make Life a Torment and Death a Courtesy yet our Flint-hearted Tyrants not content with diligent Industry and pains force us to unreasonable Labours both for toil and continuance beyond the power of Nature and whereas a good man is merciful even to his Beast they extend no Compassion to us who are of the same Species with themselves but slave us on in continual drudgery till our Heart-strings crack and our Nerves are enfeebled and our Marrow is exhausted and our Bones fall under their Burthens and our Spirits are consumed and our Souls in Weariness and Anguish wish for Death rather than Life The end of all Natures Motions is Rest nor can she perform any of her Operations without Refreshment Ground alwayes plow'd yields little encrease but must lie fallow now and then if you expect a
be considered by our Masters for it would add much to their Profit and our Health which is also their Wealth for pray tell us O you brave and swaggering Christians who exercise this strange and severe Mastership over us who sport your selves in all manner of superfluity and wantonness and grow fat with our Blood and Sweat gormandizing with the fruits procured by our Slavery and sore Labour set by your Rum-Pots your Punch-Bowls your Brandy-Bottles and the rest of your Intoxicating Enchantments for a while and stand still a little and suffer the cool of the day to overshadow you and the long obstructed Fountain of Reason in your Hearts to send forth its streams and then you will be able to tell us what heart or life strength or courage any man can have that goes to his sleep late with half his Belly-full and it may too what he did get was but of little Nourishment and that unfirm and then to be called out again as soon as 't is light and work hard till a eleaven or twelve a Clock and to have neither Mistrisses nor Maids to provide you any Breakfast and at Noon to have but one Hours rest and a poor sorry Dinner nothing but a few Potato's or Yams and these without either Butter or Bread and as soon as you have got a few of these into your Belly to be hurried again to work in the scorching Heat until it be dark Tell us I intreat you what Liveliness or Briskness would you have if you were under such Circumstances not for a day or two but from Week to Week and Moneth to Moneth and Year to Year Or would you be willing to be thus treated and dealt with if you were in our condition No no I am certain you would count it hard very hard measure and complain loudly of Cruelty and Oppression and will you can you be offended and angry with us for doing no more than what you cannot but acknowledge you would do your selves It may be you will say That Potato's Yams and the like are a brave nourishing Food And indeed so they are yet give me leave to tell you that they afford but a weak unfirm fading Nourishment in comparison of many other things that are to be eaten alone especially to People that have nothing else and continually work hard And for you that so cry up the Excellency of these things which of you all would be contented to live with such Food only for one quarter of a Year and sometimes to want that too as you know we often do I 'll warrant you would then think it miserable fare and be ready to Swear you should be starv'd and yet you might much better support your selves therewith then we â—ecause you live easie or rather idle â—ives in comparison of us for you â—ie on Beds and as long as best pleaâ—eth your selves and scarce do an Hours work in a Moneth and if you got but to your next Neighbours â—o smoke and drink you must have in Horse to carry you and a Slave to attend you and during all the hot time of the day you take your Rest or keep out of the torrid Beams of the Sun and if you with all these Advantages cannot live on bare Yams and Potatoes how do you think we can go through with our continual hard Labour with no other Provisions The truth is our Slavery hard Vsage and Burthens are greater than we can bear and yet if we complain our Remedy is like your going to Doctors when a man is sick or wants his Health viz. worse than the Disease How often are we compelled to carry heavy Burthens five six seven eight nine or ten Miles viz. an hundred Weight or more with one to follow as with a Whip and a Spur until our very Hearts ake and our Limbs fail to bear us and when we come to our Journeys end there is no Breakfast no Mornings-Draughts no Refreshment provided for us but only Water where we can find it so that we are forced to pilfer Sugar Malassus Poultrey Corn or any thing of that kind and sell it to buy a little sorry stinking rotten Fish or Flesh to give our Herbs and Roots an Hogo or Taste And then we have so many Miles to travel back and there no Rest but presently to work again till Night and when we have thus moil'd and toil d alâ— day long worse then Horses our Accomodation is worse than theirs too for we have no Meat no Provinder provided 〈◊〉 but have our Suppers not only to dress and cook but to get which oft times we hazard our Lives to procure For our Masters and Governours make strict Ordinances That it shall be lawful for any that take us a stealing Hens or any other Fowls or Provisions not only to beat and whip us at their pleasure but also to kill us and yet at the same time some of these godly Law-makers will force us that is put us upon an unavoidable Necessity to steal Provisions from our Neighbours by not allowing us any thing near sufficient Quantities of Sustenance to support and relieve the Necessities of Nature or answer the continual expence and waste of Spirits by such grievous Labours as they compel us to undergo And yet though they make such severe Laws against us it seems they themselves do not account Stealing in it self any Evil for besides their daily practice of over-reaching one another in Bargains which is but a civil way of Stealing we remember that not very long since six or seven of our Country-men who were Slaves to a great man were taken stealing of Provisions from one of his Neighbours he that took them did not use the rigour of the Law that is to kill them upon the place but very Neighbourly brings them to their Master and complains who ordered the Overseer to whip them soundly which being executed accordingly the Master commanded them to be brought before him and there complemented them in this manner You Rogues I beat and whip you not so much for Stealing as for that you suffered your selves to be caught Is not this rare Christian Equity to beat us unmercifully for that which they themselves do but Laugh at and make a Jest of Does this savour of the true Christian Spirit Nay certainly but of the depraved Hellish Nature This more than savage Cruelty and Oppression proceeds without any Compassion to Age or Sex for they have no regard to the Weaknesses Diseases or Infirmities of our Women nor of our dear and tender Infants they make our Wives during the time of their Pregnancy work equally with the rest even until the very day of their delivery or Birth of their Children which we can scarce call their Lying-in for alas they have no monethly Nurses nor groaning Cheese none of the Comforts of Ale or Wine or Caudles or rich refreshing Suppings but must be content with a few dry Potatoes and a Caudle made with stinking Mackarel or Broths of
unwholsom putrified Flesh and glad if they can get it for in truth they allow them little or nothing more than at other times and but two or three dayes Rest and then they must out again into the Field with their young and tender Babes and leave them sprauling on the Ground which is their only Nurse and Cradle nor can they expect any Rocking unless God to punish our Masters Inhumanity should send an Earthquake Nay when they cry for want of the presence and tendence of their Mothers and for lack of Sustenance our rough and churlish Overseers will hardly allow time to give them Suck If our Women be disordered by the natural Infirmities attending their Sex or by the frowardness and crying of their Children which have broken their and our short Hours of Sleep No body comes and asks Forsooth how have you rested to Night Nor cries Pray keep no Noise she has not slept well to Night No no let the case be how it will as soon as the Gray-ey'd Morning draws the Curtains of the Day and the Light begins to peep from behind the Mountains of the East the blustering Overseer blows his Horn or Sheal and then presently all Excuses set apart we and our Wives must turn out with our tender Children whether we or they be well or sick disposed or indisposed it matters not to Work we must go under the Whip and the Spur and the Sun's scorching Beams all the day long and none comes and desires them to eat a bit and drink before they go out to prevent the Wind but on the contrary if our Wives never so truly plead their Inability to labour thus they find no Ears open to hear them with pity but severe Hands and lusty Whips ready to lay on cruel Stripes upon their tender and fainting Backs and so they are forced to carry their Children with them into the Work-field and suckle them there when they can get an opportunity all day and so lug them home again at Night and have no refreshing Drinks nor proper Foods to supply them with dry or moist Nourishment These things though our hard hearted Masters regard not yet methinks our Mistrisses if not out of Christianity or good Nature yet out of respect to Woman-hood and their own Sex and by a Compassion raised from their own experience of the diffiulties of Child-bearing might be induced to prevail with their Husbands to be more tender in such cases but so far are even these counted of the softer Sex from any such â—ommiseration that where they alone have the sole command as when they are left Widdows or the like many of them are more fierce dogged pinching oppressing and severe than the men themselves But we are not only with unreasonable Beating made to labour beyond our strength and abilities of Nature but many of our Masters will not allow us Food that 's sufficient either in quantity or quality to support and maintain Health Strength and Vigour so that being pined with want as well as worn out with excessive Drudgery we oft times perish or at least become poor lean feeble and hardly able to go For as when they do allow us Ground to plant for our Nourishment the same is so little as not to be half sufficient for that purpose and so much the worse because they afford us no time to Till and Improve it So when they pretend to buy us any Food more than our Plantation-Provisions viz. either Fish or Flesh they will go to all the Merchants in the Town and diligently inquire out and buy the worst they can lay their Hands on viz. stinking decayed Flesh and rotten Fish and cry It is good enough for Negro's they care not how bad it is so they can buy it cheap Some of them indeed are so free that they will allow us one salt Mackarel or two a Week but others will afford us none which lays us under a necessity either to Starve or Steal for we are reduced to such Extremity that if a Horse dye and is buried several dayes if some of our People come to know it they will dig up the putrified stinking Carrion and make good Chear of it others will eat all the Cats Dogs Rats and Mice they can lay their Hands on So that through Necessity and the depravedness of our Minds with evil Customs we are immers'd into all the Beastiality and Uncleanness which the Christians have never endeavoured to regulate or prevent but rather the contrary By these and variety of other the like Miseries and Oppressions many of us have been brought to dispair and chuse a miserable sinful Death rather than such a wretched Life whence some have Hang'd others Drown'd themselves some cut their own Throats and procured to themselves the like violent Deaths but our Blood is of no value in the sight of our Masters which yet we doubt not but will cry unto thee O thou most just Creator and Governour of men for Revenge upon those that have been the prime occasions of all these Evils For these hard Usages and Cruelties do terribly awaken the central Wrath and sleeping Poysons of the Original Nature by which means and provocations we become sullen dogged malicious envious angry and revengeful all which devilish Dispositions are occasioned or much increased in us by the harsh Tyranny of our Masters Hence many times we neglect our Labour run away spoil our Business in the anguish of our souls continually curse our Masters and their Posterity And thence on the other side our Masters take occasion to redouble their Cruel Usages towards us and be-labour themselves to Beat and Whip us and hang us up by the Hands Feet and the like and so Bastinado us till our Bodies become like a piece of raw Flesh and we are just ready to give up the Ghost For though we are O Great Creator the Work of thy Hands and were made in thine Image and endued with rational and immortal Souls yet we are nothing more in many of our Masters esteem than their Money and if some of them could find out a way to torment and plague us ten fold more they would do it provided we might still be but able to perform our Drudgery to maintain them in Superfluity and Gluttony For our precious Lives are reckoned no more than those of so many Dogs though they cannot gratifie their Pallates and Paunches nor maintain themselves in their Luxuries and sinful Vanities but meerly by our Labours yet on any irregular Passion or devilish Humor some of them will sacrifice our Lives to their Fury and neither count it Murther nor any Sin neither did we ever hear that their Law in such Cases made Inquisition for Blood or punished those that committed such Murders otherwise than by a Fine or ordering them to pay so much Sugar for the business as if there were any Equality Proportion or Adequateness between such a Crying Crime and such a triffling Punishment Do not your