In _a state of nature_, where a man is supposed to commit an injury, and to be unconnected with the rest of the world, the act is _private_, and the right, which the injured acquires, can extend only to _himself:_ but in _a state of society_, where any member or members of a particular community give offence to those of another, and they are patronized by the state, to which they belong, the case is altered; the act becomes immediately _publick_, and the _publick_ alone are to experience the consequences of their injustice.

For as no particular member of the community, if considered as an individual, is guilty, except the person, by whom the injury was done, it would be contrary to reason and justice, to apply the principles of _reparation_ and _punishment_, which belong to the people as a collective body, to any individual of the community, who should happen to be taken.

Now, as the principles of _reparation_ and _punishment_ are thus inapplicable to the prisoners, taken in a _publick_ war, and as the _right of capture_, as we have shewn before, is insufficient to intitle the victors to the _service_ of the vanquished, it is evident that _slavery_ cannot justly exist at all, since there are no other maxims, on which it can be founded, even in the most equitable wars.
But if these things are so; if slavery cannot be defended even in the most _equitable_ wars, what arguments will not be found against that servitude, which arises from those, that are _unjust ?_ Which arises from those African wars, that relate to the present subject?
The African princes, corrupted by the merchants of Europe, seek every opportunity of quarrelling with one another.

Every spark is blown into a flame; and war is undertaken from no other consideration, than that _of procuring slaves:_ while the Europeans, on the other hand, happy in the quarrels which they have thus excited, supply them with arms and ammunition for the accomplishment of their horrid purpose.

Thus has Africa, for the space of two hundred years, been the scene of the most iniquitous and bloody wars; and thus have many thousands of men, in the most iniquitous manner, been sent into servitude.
* * * * * FOOTNOTES [Footnote 043: _Jure Gentium_ servi nostri sunt, qui ab hostibus capiuntur.