Defending abolitionism from the charge of inciting slave revolt in the French colony of Saint Domingue, Clarkson argues that insurrections had always taken place. He blames the violence in Saint Domingue on the excessive importation of African slaves and their cruel treatment: "thousands are annually poured into the Islands, who have been fraudulently and forcibly deprived of the Rights of Men" (3). Clarkson also cites the conflicts between the colonists, which gave the slaves the opportunity to "vindicate for themselves the unalterable Rights of Men" (8).