This anonymous letter, calling for an impartial enquiry into the slave trade "following the example of the English", is signed 'Un ami des Noirs', May 1789. Based on the arguments of Thomas Clarkson and Benjamin Frossard, the pamphlet accuses the trade of causing wars in Africa, being costly, unproductive, damaging, and the cause of unnecessary suffering and deaths among the slaves, as well as high mortality rates among sailors (citing Clarkson's figures). It is argued that it would be in France's interest to abolish the slave trade, based on these factors. The pamphlet dismisses suggestions from planters that metropolitan abolitionist campaigns would ignite rebellion in the colonies as extremely improbable.