We don’t know the name of one of the earliest orators against slavery.
He was a West Indian who apparently was a former slave fortunate enough to be educated.
He was also intimately familiar with slavery and the slave trade in that region.
The themes and arguments advanced in this oration will be repeated by countless anti-slavery speakers for the next eight decades.
It is not clear where this address was given but the author who was living in England felt by publishing the text of his speech he would reach a wider audience.
The speech appeared in the journal, American Museum in 1789.