Introductory material
Reading edition
BOOK THE FIRST.
PETER WHEELER IN CHAINS.
DEDICATED TO
Every body who hates oppression, and don’t believe that it is right, under any circumstances, to buy and sell the image of the Great God Almighty; and to all who love Human Liberty well enough to help to break every yoke, that the oppressed may go free——God bless all such!
“I own I am shocked at the purchase of slaves,
And fear those that buy them and sell them are knaves;
What I hear of their hardships, their tortures and groans,
Is almost enough to draw pity from stones.”
Cowper.