“Many of these were not prisoners of war, and redeemed from savage conquerors, as some plead; and they who were such prisoners, the English, who promote the war for that very end, are the guilty authors of their being so; and if they were redeemed, as is alleged, they would owe nothing to the redeemer but what he paid for them.”

—  Thomas Paine

1770s, African Slavery in America (March 1775)

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Thomas Paine 262
English and American political activist 1737–1809

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