Sinfulness of American slavery Author:Charles Elliott Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE ENSLAVEMENT OF CHILDREN. As the enslavement of children, as soon as they are born, is become now the substitute of the African slave-trade... more », and, therefore, the support of slavery, which feeds and supplies its victims, it will deserve particular attention. We will, therefore, devote a short chapter exclusively to its consideration. The following are the arguments and considerations which we bring against it: 1. No one can ever be born a slave. Liberty is the natural right of every human being, as soon as he breathes the air; and no human law can justly deprive him of that right, which he derives from the law of nature. "All men are created free and equal." In this light it is considered in the Roman or civil law, as appears from the following quotation from the Institutes of Justinian: "Liberty is a natural faculty, which belongs to every man, unless he is deprived of it by force or by law. Slavery is a constitution of the law of nations, by which any one is subjected to the dominion of another, Contrary To Nature." According to this, liberty is the natural faculty, privilege, or right of every person; and every one possesses it, till 'he is deprived of it by force or law. While slavery is contrary to nature, it is a constitution, or institution, of the law of nations. Hence, every child of man is free, till he is made a slave. He is never born a slave. If one were born a slave, then all must be born slaves, because all are born alike; nor do we hear of any manumissions from a state of nature, that persons should be free, which must be the case, were men born " Libertas quidem est naturalis facultas ejus, quod cuique facere libet, nisi siquid vi aut jure prohibetur. Serritus autem est constitutio juris gentium, qua quis dominio alieno contra natu...« less