He asks by what right a British citizen could be a slave holder, states that there were a number of British citizens who enslaved people in Brazil, some of whom hired them out for profit, that British auctioneers actually sold them, and that most of the people enslaved by Britons had been imported since the abolition of the slave trade. He argues that the British plantation owner and merchant were equally culpable with the British sailor who brought the enslaved people from Africa and liable to the death penalty if caught in charge of enslaved people.