ABSTRACT
The long period of the Atlantic slave trade marked a most important stage in the developing history of racial attitudes. The vicarious African experience was certainly more significant than domestic British race relations. Many people in Britain had seen Negroes but for few was this more than a fleeting, isolated experience. The African experience was also a more significant component of British racial attitudes than the New World slave systems. The Negro could largely be taken for granted by West Indians whose major preoccupations were with the role of sugar colonies within the British mercantile system. Throughout the eighteenth century West Indian pro-slavery propaganda dwelt on the general depravity of African manners and on the specific cruelty of native tyrants. Opposing propagandists differed only in their claims about whether the slave trade was a valid means of enabling Negroes to realize their human potential.
