1815-Jan.-02: In an oration delivered at the Episcopal Asbury African Church in New York, William Hamilton described slave ships as “floating hells manned wi…

1815-Jan.-02: In an oration delivered at the Episcopal Asbury African Church in New York, William Hamilton described slave ships as “floating hells manned with fiends.” He recounted a horrific incident of an infant who was tortured and eventually murdered by a ship captain for refusing to eat. Hamilton used such graphic accounts to condemn the inhumanity of the trade and the ongoing legacy of suffering initiated by European exploration. His speech served as a powerful moral indictment of the Atlantic slave system during the early years of the U.S. abolition movement.