Mr.Ramsay had no other motive for giving this work to the public, than that of humanity, or a wish to serve this much-injured part of the human species.

For he compiled it at the hazard of forfeiting that friendship, which he had contracted with many during his residence in the islands, and of suffering much in his private property, as well as subjecting himself to the ill-will and persecution of numerous individuals.
The publication of this book by one, who professed to have been so long resident in the islands, and to have been an eye-witness of facts, produced, as may easily be supposed, a good deal of conversation, and made a considerable impression, but particularly at this time, when a storm was visibly gathering over the heads of the oppressors of the African race.
These circumstances occasioned one or two persons to attempt to answer it, and these answers brought Mr.Ramsay into the first controversy ever entered into on this subject, during which, as is the case in most controversies, the cause of truth was spread.
The works, which Mr.Ramsay wrote upon this subject, were, the Essay, just mentioned, in 1784.

An Enquiry, also, into the Effects of the Abolition of the Slave-trade, in 1784.

A Reply to personal Invectives and Objections, in 1785.

A Letter to James Tobin, Esq., in 1787.