Their perseverance in so bad a custom is stiled honour.

The slaves, thus obtained, are immediately exchanged away in commerce, that the winner may get rid of the scandal of his victory." To enumerate other instances, would be unnecessary; it will be sufficient to observe, that the servants of this class were in a far more wretched situation, than those of the former; their drudgery was more intense; their treatment more severe; and there was no retreat at pleasure, from the frowns and lashes of their despotick masters.
Having premised this, we may now proceed to a general division of slavery, into _voluntary_ and _involuntary_.

The _voluntary_ will comprehend the two classes, which we have already mentioned; for, in the first instance, there was a _contract_, founded on _consent_; and, in the second, there was a _choice_ of engaging or not in those practices, the known consequences of which were servitude.

The _involuntary_; on the other hand, will comprehend those, who were forced, without any such _condition_ or _choice_, into a situation, which as it tended to degrade a part of the human species, and to class it with the brutal, must have been, of all human situations, the most wretched and insupportable.

These are they, whom we shall consider solely in the present work.