HARVARD
HISTORICAL STUDIES
PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF
HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT FROM THE INCOME OF
enrr Warren Corre^ Jfunn
VOLUME I.
HUS
VGG>=,
THE SUPPRESSION
OF THE
AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE
TO THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
1638-1870
BY
W. E. BURGHARDT Du BOIS, PH.D. (HARV.)
SOMETIME FELLOW OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY
PROFESSOR IN WILBERFORCE UNIVERSITY
NEW IMPRESSION
NEW YORK
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
LONDON AND BOMBAY
1904
Copyright, 1896,
BY THE PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
First Edition, October, 1896
Reprinted February, 1904
UNIVERSITY PRESS:
JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
PREFACE.
THIS monograph was begun during my residence as
Rogers Memorial Fellow at Harvard University,
and is based mainly upon a study of the sources, i. e.,
national, State, and colonial statutes, Congressional doc-
uments, reports of societies, personal narratives, etc.
The collection of laws available for this research was,
I think, nearly complete ; on the other hand, facts and
statistics bearing on the economic side of the study have
been difficult to find, and my conclusions are conse-
quently liable to modification from this source.
The question of the suppression of the slave-trade is
so intimately connected with the questions as to its rise,
the system of American slavery, and the whole colonial
policy of the eighteenth century, that it is difficult to
isolate it, and at the same time to avoid superficiality on
the one hand, and unscientific narrowness of view on the
other. While I could not hope entirely to overcome
such a difficulty, I nevertheless trust that I have suc-
ceeded in rendering this monograph a small contribu-
tion to the scientific study of slavery and the American
Negro.
vi PREFACE.
I desire to express my obligation to Dr. Albert Bush-
nell Hart, of Harvard University, at whose suggestion I
began this work and by whose kind aid and encourage-
ment I have brought it to a close ; also I have to thank
the trustees of the John F. Slater Fund, whose appoint-
ment made it possible to test the conclusions of this
study by the general principles laid down in German
universities.
W. E. BURGHARDT Du BOIS.
WlLBERFORCE UNIVERSITY,
March, 1896.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
PAGE
1. Plan of the Monograph i
2. The Rise of the English Slave-Trade i
CHAPTER II.
THE PLANTING COLONIES.
3. Character of these Colonies 7
4. Restrictions in Georgia 7
5. Restrictions in South Carolina 9
6. Restrictions in North Carolina 1 1
7. Restrictions in Virginia 12
8. Restrictions in Maryland 14
9. General Character of these Restrictions 15
CHAPTER III.
THE FARMING COLONIES.
10. Character of these Colonies 16
11. The Dutch Slave-Trade 17
12. Restrictions in New York 18
13. Restrictions in Pennsylvania and Delaware 20
14. Restrictions in New Jersey 24
15. General Character of these Restrictions 25
viii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
THE TRADING COLONIES.
PAGE
16. Character of these Colonies 27
17. New England and the Slave-Trade 27
18. Restrictions in New Hampshire 29
19. Restrictions in Massachusetts 30
20. Restrictions in Rhode Island 33
21. Restrictions in Connecticut
37
22. General Character of these Restrictions 37
CHAPTER V.
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION, 1774-1787.
23. The Situation in 1774 39
24. The Condition of the Slave-Trade 40
25. The Slave-Trade and the "Association" 41
26. The Action of the Colonies 42
27. The Action of the Continental Congress 44
28. Reception of the Slave-Trade Resolution 45
29. Results of the Resolution 47
30. The Slave-Trade and Public Opinion after the War 48
31. The Action of the Confederation 50
CHAPTER VI.
THE FEDERAL CONVENTION, 1787.
32. The First Proposition 53
33. The General Debate 54
34. The Special Committee and the " Bargain " 58
35. The Appeal to the Convention 59
36. Settlement by the Convention 61
37. Reception of the Clause by the Nation 62
38. Attitude of the State Conventions , 65
39. Acceptance of the Policy 68
CONTENTS. IX
CHAPTER VII.
TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE AND ANTI-SLAVERY EFFORT, 1787-1807.
PAGE
40. Influence of the Haytian Revolution 7
41. Legislation of the Southern States 7*
42. Legislation of the Border States 7 2
43. Legislation of the Eastern States 73
44. First Debate in Congress, 1789 74
45. Second Debate in Congress, 1790 75
46. The Declaration of Powers, 1790 7 8
47. The Act of 1794 80
48. The Act of 1800 81
49. The Act of 1803 84
50. State of the Slave-Trade from 1789 to 1803 85
51. The South Carolina Repeal of 1803 86
52. The Louisiana Slave-Trade, 1803-1805 87
53. Last Attempts at Taxation, 1805-1806 91
54. Key-Note of the Period 9 2
CHAPTER VIII.
THE PERIOD OF ATTEMPTED SUPPRESSION, 1807-1825.
55. The Act of 1807 94
56. The First Question : How shall illegally imported Africans be
disposed of ? 96
57. The Second Question : How shall Violations be punished ? . . 102
58. The Third Question : How shall the Interstate Coastwise Slave-
Trade be protected ? 104
59. Legislative History of the Bill 105
60. Enforcement of the Act 108
61. Evidence of the Continuance of the Trade 109
62. Apathy of the Federal Government 1 12
63. Typical Cases 117
64. The Supplementary Acts, 1818-1820 118
65. Enforcement of the Supplementary Acts, 1818-1825 123
c CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
THE INTERNATIONAL STATUS OF THE SLAVE-TRADE, 1783-1862.
PAGE
66. The Rise of the Movement against the Slave-Trade, 1788-1807 . 131
67. Concerted Action of the Powers, 1783-1814 133
68. Action of the Powers from 1814 to 1820 134
69. The Struggle for an International Right of Search, 1820-1840 . 136
70. Negotiations of 1823-1825 138
71. The Attitude of the United States and the State of the Slave-
Trade 141
72. The Quintuple Treaty, 1839-1842 143
73. Final Concerted Measures, 1842-1862 146
CHAPTER X.
THE RISE OF THE COTTON KINGDOM, 1820-1850.
74. The Economic Revolution 151
75. The Attitude of the South 154
76. The Attitude of the- North and Congress 155
77. Imperfect Application of the Laws 158
78. Responsibility of the Government 16-1
79. Activity of the Slave-Trade, 1820-1850 162
CHAPTER XI.
THE FINAL CRISIS, 1850-1870.
80. The Movement against the Slave-Trade Laws 168
81. Commercial Conventions of 1855-1856 169
82. Commercial Conventions of 1857-1858 170
83. Commercial Convention of 1859 J 7 2
84. Public Opinion in the South 173
85. The Question in Congress 175
86. Southern Policy in 1860 176
87. Increase of the Slave-Trade from 1850 to 1860 178
CONTENTS. xi
PAGE
88. Notorious Infractions of the Laws 180
89. Apathy of the Federal Government 183
90. Attitude of the Southern Confederacy 188
91. Attitude of the United States 191
CHAPTER XII.
THE ESSENTIALS IN THE STRUGGLE.
92. How the Question Arose 194
93. The Moral Movement 195
94. The Political Movement 196
95. The Economic Movement 197
96. The Lesson for Americans 197
APPENDICES.
A. A Chronological Conspectus of Colonial and State Legislation
restricting the African Slave-Trade, 1641-1787 201
B. A Chronological Conspectus of State, National, and International
Legislation, 1788-1871 230
C. Typical Cases of Vessels engaged in the American Slave-Trade,
1619-1864 289
D. Bibliography 299
INDEX 327
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
1. Plan of the Monograph.
2. The Rise of the English Slave-Trade.
1. Plan of the Monograph. This monograph proposes to set
forth the efforts made in the United States of America, from
early colonial times until the present, to limit and suppress the
trade in slaves between Africa and these shores.
The study begins with the colonial period, setting forth in
brief the attitude of England and, more in detail, the attitude
of the planting, farming, and trading groups of colonies toward
the slave-trade. It deals next with the first concerted effort
against the trade and with the further action of the individual
States. The important work of the Constitutional Convention
follows, together with the history of the trade in that critical
period which preceded the Act of 1807. The attempt to sup-
press the trade from 1807 to 1830 is next recounted. A chapter
then deals with the slave-trade as an international problem.
Finally the development of the crises up to the Civil War is
studied, together with the steps leading to the final suppression ;
and a concluding chapter seeks to sum up the results of the in-
vestigation. Throughout the monograph the institution of slavery
and the interstate slave-trade are considered only incidentally.
2. The Rise of the English Slave-Trade. Any attempt to con-
sider the attitude of the English colonies toward the African
slave-trade must be prefaced by a word as to the attitude of
England herself and the development of the trade in her
hands. 1
1 This account is based largely on the Report of the Lords of the Com-
mittee of Council, etc. (London, 1789).
2 INTRODUCTORY. [CHAP. I.
Sir John Hawkins's celebrated voyage took place in 1562,
but probably not until 163 1 1 did a regular chartered company
undertake to carry on the trade. 2 This company was unsuc-
cessful, 3 and was eventually succeeded by the " Company of
Royal Adventurers trading to Africa," chartered by Charles II.
in 1662, and including the Queen Dowager and the Duke of
York. 4 The company contracted to supply the West Indies
with three thousand slaves annually; but contraband trade,
misconduct, and war so reduced it that in 1672 it surrendered
its charter to another company for ^34,ooo. 5 This new cor-
poration, chartered by Charles II. as the " Royal African Com-
pany," proved more successful than its predecessors, and carried
on a growing trade for a quarter of a century.
In 1698 Parliamentary interference with the trade began. By
the Statute 9 and 10 William and Mary, chapter 26, private
traders, on payment of a duty of 10% on English goods ex-
ported to Africa, were allowed to participate in the trade. This
was brought about by the clamor of the merchants, especially
the " American Merchants," who " in their Petition suggest, that
it would be a great Benefit to the Kingdom to secure the Trade
by maintaining Forts and Castles there, with an equal Duty upon
all Goods exported." 6 This plan, being a compromise between
maintaining the monopoly intact and entirely abolishing it, was
1 African trading-companies had previously been erected (e. g. by Eliz-
abeth in 1585 and 1588, and by James I. in 1618); but slaves are not
specifically mentioned in their charters, and they probably did not trade in
slaves. Cf. Bandinel, Account of the Slave Trade (1842), pp. 38-44.
2 Chartered by Charles I. Cf. Sainsbury, Cal. State Papers, Col. Ser.,
America and W. Indies, 1574-1660, p. 135.
8 In 1651, during the Protectorate, the privileges of the African trade were
granted anew to this same company for fourteen years. Cf. Sainsbury, Cal.
State Papers, Col. Ser., America and W. Indies, 1574-1660, pp. 342, 355.
4 Sainsbury, Cal. State Papers, Col. Ser., America and W.Indies, 1661-
1668, 408.
6 Sainsbury, Cal. State Papers, Col. Ser., America and W. Indies, 1669-
1674, 934, 1095-
6 Quoted in the above Report, under " Most Material Proceedings in the
House of Commons," Vol. I. Part I. An import duty of 10% on all goods,
except Negroes, imported from Africa to England and the colonies was
also laid. The proceeds of these duties went to the Royal African Company.
SECT. 2.] RISE OF ENGLISH SLA VE-TRADE. 3
adopted, and the statute declared the trade " highly Beneficial
and Advantageous to this Kingdom, and to the Plantations and
Colonies thereunto belonging."
Having thus gained practically free admittance to the field,
English merchants sought to exclude other nations by securing
a monopoly of the lucrative Spanish colonial slave-trade. Their
object was finally accomplished by the signing of the Assiento
in I7I3. 1
The Assiento was a treaty between England and Spain by
which the latter granted the former a monopoly of the Spanish
colonial slave-trade for thirty years, and England engaged to
supply the colonies within that time with at least 144,000 slaves,
at the rate of 4,800 per year. England was also to advance
Spain 200,000 crowns, and to pay a duty of 33! crowns for
each slave imported. The kings of Spain and England were
each to receive one-fourth of the profits of the trade, and the
Royal African Company were authorized to import as many
slaves as they wished above the specified number in the first
twenty-five years, and to sell them, except in three ports, at any
price they could get.
It is stated that, in the twenty years from 1713 to 1733, fif-
teen thousand slaves were annually imported into America by
the English, of whom from one-third to one-half went to the
Spanish colonies. 2 To the company itself the venture proved
a financial failure; for during the years 1729-1750 Parliament
assisted the Royal Company by annual grants which amounted
to ^9O,ooo, 3 and by 1739 Spain was a creditor to the extent of
68,000, and threatened to suspend the treaty. The war inter-
rupted the carrying out of the contract, but the Peace of Aix-la-
Chapelle extended the limit by four years. Finally, October 5,
1750, this privilege was waived for a money consideration paid
to England ; the Assiento was ended, and the Royal Company
was bankrupt.
1 Cf. Appendix A.
2 Bandinel, Account of the Slave Trade, p. 59. Cf. Bryan Edwards,
History of the British Colonies in the W. Indies (London, 1798), Book VI.
8 From 1729 to 1788, including compensation to the old company, Parlia-
ment expended .705,255 on African companies. Cf. Report, etc., as above.
4 INTRODUCTORY. [CHAP. I.
By the Statute 23 George II., chapter 31, the old company
was dissolved and a new " Company of Merchants trading to
Africa" erected in its stead. 1 Any merchant so desiring was
allowed to engage in the trade on payment of certain small
duties, and such merchants formed a company headed by nine
directors. This marked the total abolition of monopoly in the
slave-trade, and was the form under which the trade was carried
on until after the American Revolution.
That the slave-trade was the very life of the colonies had, by
1700, become an almost unquestioned axiom in British practi-
cal economics. The colonists themselves declared slaves " the
strength and sinews of this western world," 2 and the lack of
them "the grand obstruction" 3 here, as the settlements "cannot
subsist without supplies of them." 4 Thus, with merchants
clamoring at home and planters abroad, it easily became the
settled policy of England to encourage the slave-trade. Then,
too, she readily argued that what was an economic necessity in
Jamaica and the Barbadoes could scarcely be disadvantageous
to Carolina, Virginia, or even New York. Consequently, the
colonial governors were generally instructed to " give all due
encouragement and invitation to merchants and others, . . .
and in particular to the royal African company of England." 6
Duties laid on the importer, and all acts in any way restrict-
ing the trade, were frowned upon and very often disallowed.
" Whereas," ran Governor Dobbs's instructions, " Acts have
been passed in some of our Plantations in America for laying
duties on the importation and exportation of Negroes to the
great discouragement of the Merchants trading thither from the
1 Various amendatory statutes were passed: e. g., 24 George II. ch. 49,
25 George II. ch. 40, 4 George III. ch. 20, 5 George III. ch. 44, 23 George
III. ch. 65.
2 Renatus Enys from Surinam, in 1663: Sainsbury, Cat. State Papers,
Col. Ser., America and W. Indies, 1661-68, 577.
8 Thomas Lynch from Jamaica, in 1665 : Sainsbury, Cal. State Papers,
Col. Ser., America and W. Indies, 1661-68, 934.
4 Lieutenant-Governor Willoughby of Barbadoes, in 1666: Sainsbury,
Cal. State Papers, Col. Ser., America and W. Indies, 1661-68, 1281.
6 Smith, History of New Jersey (1765), p. 254; Sainsbury, Cal. State
Papers, Col. Ser., America and W.Indies, 1669-74, 367, 398, 812.
SECT. 2.] RISE OF ENGLISH SLA VE-TRADE. 5
coast of Africa ... It is our Will and Pleasure that you do
not give your assent to or pass any Law imposing duties upon
Negroes imported into our Province of North Carolina." a
The exact proportions of the slave-trade to America can
be but approximately determined. From 1680 to 1688 the
African Company sent 249 ships to Africa, shipped there
60,783 Negro slaves, and after losing 14,387 on the middle pas-
sage, delivered 46,396 in America. The trade increased early
in the eighteenth century, 104 ships clearing for Africa in 1701 ;
it then dwindled until the signing of the Assiento, standing at
74 clearances in 1724. The final dissolution of the monopoly in
1750 led excepting in the years 1754-57, when the closing of
Spanish marts sensibly affected the trade to an extraordinary
development, 192 clearances being made in 1771. The Revo-
lutionary War nearly stopped the traffic ; but by 1786 the clear-
ances had risen again to 146.
To these figures must be added the unregistered trade of
Americans and foreigners. It is probable that about 25,000
slaves were brought to America each year between 1698
and 1707. The importation then dwindled, but rose after the
Assiento to perhaps 30,000. The proportion, too, of these
slaves carried to the continent now began to increase. Of about
20,000 whom the English annually imported from 1733 to 1766,
South Carolina alone received some 3,000. Before the Revolu-
tion, the total exportation to America is variously estimated as
between 40,000 and 100,000 each year. Bancroft places the
total slave population of the continental colonies at 59,000 in
1714, 78,000 in 1727, and 293,000 in 1754. The census of 1790
showed 697,897 slaves in the United States. 2
In colonies like those in the West Indies and in South Caro-
lina and Georgia, the rapid importation into America of a mul-
1 N. C. Col. Rec., V. 1118. For similar instructions, cf. Penn. Archives,
I. 306; Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York, VI. 34; Gordon, History of the
American Revolution, I. letter 2; Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 4th Ser. X. 642.
3 These figures are from the above-mentioned Report, Vol. II. Part IV.
Nos. i, 5. See also Bancroft, History of the United States (1883), II. 274 ff ;
Bandinel, Account of the Slave Trade, p. 63; Benezet, Caution to Great
Britain, etc., pp. 39-40, and Historical Account of Guinea, ch. xiii.
6 INTRODUCTORY. [CHAP. I.
titude of savages gave rise to a system of slavery far different
from that which the late Civil War abolished. The strikingly
harsh and even inhuman slave codes in these colonies show this.
Crucifixion, burning, and starvation were legal modes of punish-
ment. 1 The rough and brutal character of the time and place
was partly responsible for this, but a more decisive reason lay
in the fierce and turbulent character of the imported Negroes.
The docility to which long years of bondage and strict disci-
pline gave rise was absent, and insurrections and acts of violence
were of frequent occurrence. 2 Again and again the danger of
planters being " cut off by their own negroes " 3 is mentioned,
both in the islands and on the continent. This condition of
vague dread and unrest not only increased the severity of laws
and strengthened the police system, but was the prime motive
back of all the earlier efforts to check the further importation
of slaves.
On the other hand, in New England and New York the
Negroes were merely house servants or farm hands, and were
treated neither better nor worse than servants in general in
those days. Between these two extremes, the system of slavery
varied from a mild serfdom in Pennsylvania and New Jersey
to an aristocratic caste system in Maryland and Virginia.
1 Compare earlier slave codes in South Carolina, Georgia, Jamaica, etc. ;
also cf. Benezet, Historical Account of Guinea, p. 75 ; Report, etc., as
above.
2 Sainsbury, Cal State Papers, Col. Ser., America and W. Indies, 1574-
1660, pp. 229, 271, 295; 1661-68, 61,412, 826, 1270, 1274, 1788; 1669-74,
508, 1244; Bolzius and Von Reck, Journals (in Force, Tracts, Vol. IV.
No. 5, pp. 9, 1 8); Proceedings of Governor and Assembly of Jamaica in
regard to the Maroon Negroes (London, 1796).
8 Sainsbury, Cal. State Papers, Col. Ser., America and W. Indies, 1 661-68,
1679.
CHAPTER II.
THE PLANTING COLONIES.
3. Character of these Colonies.
4. Restrictions in Georgia.
5. Restrictions in South Carolina.
6. Restrictions in North Carolina.
7. Restrictions in Virginia.
8. Restrictions in Maryland.
9. General Character of these Restrictions.
3. Character of these Colonies. The planting colonies are
those Southern settlements whose climate and character destined
them to be the chief theatre of North American slavery. The
early attitude of these communities toward the slave-trade is
therefore of peculiar interest ; for their action was of necessity
largely decisive for the future of the trade and for the institution
in North America. Theirs was the only soil, climate, and society
suited to slavery; in the other colonies, with few exceptions, the
institution was by these same factors doomed from the begin-
ning. Hence, only strong moral and political motives could in
the planting colonies overthrow or check a traffic so favored
by the mother country.
4. Restrictions in Georgia. In Georgia we have an example
of a community whose philanthropic founders sought to impose
upon it a code of morals higher than the colonists wished.
The settlers of Georgia were of even worse moral fibre than
their slave-trading and whiskey-using neighbors in Carolina and
Virginia ; yet Oglethorpe and the London proprietors prohib-
ited from the beginning both the rum and the slave traffic,
refusing to " suffer slavery (which is against the Gospel as well
as the fundamental law of England) to be authorised under our
THE PLANTING COLONIES. [CHAP. II.
authority." l The trustees sought to win the colonists over to
their belief by telling them that money could be better ex-
pended in transporting white men than Negroes; that slaves
would be a source of weakness to the colony; and that the
" Produces designed to be raised in the Colony would not re-
quire such Labour as to make Negroes necessary for carrying
them on." 2
This policy greatly displeased the colonists, who from 1735,
the date of the first law, to 1749, did not cease to clamor for the
repeal of the restrictions. 3 As their English agent said, they
insisted that " In Spight of all Endeavours to disguise this Point,
it is as clear as Light itself, that Negroes are as essentially
necessary to the Cultivation of Georgia, as Axes, Hoes, or any
other Utensil of Agriculture." 4 Meantime, evasions and infrac-
tions of the laws became frequent and notorious. Negroes were
brought across from Carolina and " hired " for life. 6 " Finally,
purchases were openly made in Savannah from African traders :
some seizures were made by those who opposed the principle,
but as a majority of the magistrates were favorable to the intro-
duction of slaves into the province, legal decisions were sus-
pended from time to' time, and a strong disposition evidenced
by the courts to evade the operation of the law." 6 At last, in
1749, the colonists prevailed on the trustees and the govern-
ment, and the trade was thrown open under careful restrictions,
which limited importation, required a registry and quarantine
on all slaves brought in, and laid a duty. 7 It is probable,
however, that these restrictions were never enforced, and that
the trade thus established continued unchecked until the
Revolution.
1 Hoare, Memoirs of Granville Sharp (1820), p. 157. For the act of
prohibition, see W. B. Stevens, History of Georgia (1847), I. 311.
2 [B. Martyn], Account of the Progress of Georgia (1741), pp. 9-10.
8 Cf. Stevens, History of Georgia, I. 290 ff.
4 Stephens, Account of the Causes, etc., p. 8. Cf. also Journal of Trus-
tees, II. 210; cited by Stevens, History of Georgia, I. 306.
6 McCall, History of Georgia (1811), I. 206-7.
6 Ibid.
7 Pub. Rec. Office, Board of Trade, Vol. X. ; cited by C. C. Jones, His-
tory of Georgia (1883), I. 422-5.
SECT. 5.] RESTRICTIONS IN SOUTH CAROLINA.
5. Restrictions in South Carolina. 1 South Carolina had the
largest and most widely developed slave-trade of any of the
continental colonies. This was owing to the character of her
settlers, her nearness to the West Indian slave marts, and the
early development of certain staple crops, such as rice, which
were adapted to slave labor. 2 Moreover, this colony suffered
much less interference from the home government than many
other colonies; thus it is possible here to trace the untram-
meled development of slave-trade restrictions in a typical plant-
ing community.
As early as 1698 the slave-trade to South Carolina had
reached such proportions that it was thought that " the great
number of negroes which of late have been imported into
this Collony may endanger the safety thereof." The immigra-
tion of white servants was therefore encouraged by a special
law. 3 Increase of immigration reduced this disproportion, but
Negroes continued to be imported in such numbers as to afford
considerable revenue from a moderate duty on them. About
1 The following is a summary of the legislation of the colony of South
Carolina ; details will be found in Appendix A :
1698, Act to encourage the immigration of white servants.
1703, Duty Act: los. on Africans, 2os. on other Negroes.
1714, " " additional duty.
1714, " " 2.
1714-15, " " additional duty.
1716, " " 3 on Africans, ^30 on colonial Negroes.
1717, " " ^40 in addition to existing duties.
1719, " " ^10 on Africans, ^30 on colonial Negroes.
The Act of 1717, etc., was repealed.
" 10 on Africans, ^50 on colonial Negroes.
1721,
1722,
1740,
1760,
1764,
1783,
1784,
1787,
" " ;ioo on Africans, ^150 on colonial Negroes.
" " 10 " " j5o " "
Act prohibiting importation (Disallowed).
Duty Act: additional duty of .100.
" " 3 on Africans, 20 on colonial Negroes.
<( ( (( /~r (( II
Act and Ordinance prohibiting importation.
2 Cf. Hewatt, Historical Account of S. Carolina and Georgia (1779), I
120 ff. ; reprinted in S. C. Hist. Coll. (1836), I. 108 ff.
8 Cooper, Statutes at Large of S. Carolina, II. 153.
10 THE PLANTING COLONIES. [CHAP. II.
the time when the Assiento was signed, the slave-trade so in-
creased that, scarcely a year after the consummation of that
momentous agreement, two heavy duty acts were passed, be-
cause " the number of Negroes do extremely increase in this
Province, and through the afflicting providence of God, the
white persons do not proportionately multiply, by reason
whereof, the safety of the said Province is greatly endan-
gered." 1 The trade, however, by reason of the encourage-
ment abroad and of increased business activity in exporting
naval stores at home, suffered scarcely any check, although
repeated acts, reciting the danger incident to a " great importa-
tion of Negroes," were passed, laying high duties. 2 Finally, in
1717, an additional duty of 40? although due in depreciated
currency, succeeded so nearly in stopping the trade that, two
years later, all existing duties were repealed and one of 10
substituted. 4 This continued during the time of resistance to
the proprietary government, but by 1734 the importation had
again reached large proportions. " We must therefore beg
leave," the colonists write in that year, " to inform your
Majesty, that, amidst our other perilous circumstances, we are
subject to many intestine dangers from the great number of
negroes that are now among us, who amount at least to twenty-
two thousand persons, and are three to one of all your Majesty's
white subjects in this province. Insurrections against us have
been often attempted." 6 In 1740 an insurrection under a slave,
Cato, at Stono, caused such widespread alarm that a prohibitory
duty of ;ioo was immediately laid. 6 Importation was again
1 The text of the first act is not extant: cf. Cooper, Statutes, III. 56.
For the second, see Cooper, VII. 365, 367.
2 Cf. Grimke', Public Laws of S. Carolina, p. xvi, No. 362 ; Cooper,
Statutes, II. 649. Cf. also Goriernor Johnson to the Board of Trade, Jan.
12, 1719-20; reprinted in Rivers, Early History of S. Carolina (1874),
App., xii.
8 Cooper, Statutes, VII. 368. 4 Ibid., III. 56.
6 From a memorial signed by the governor, President of the Council, and
Speaker of the House, dated April 9, 1 734, printed in Hewatt, Historical
Account of S. Carolina and Georgia (1779), II. 39; reprinted in S. C. Hist.
Coll. (1836), I. 305-6. Cf. N. C. Col. Rec., II. 421.
6 Cooper, Statutes, III. 556; Grimke', Public Laws, p. xxxi, No. 694.
Cf. Ramsay, History of S. Carolina, I. no.
SECT. 6.] RESTRICTIONS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 1 1
checked; but in 1751 the colony sought to devise a plan
whereby the slightly restricted immigration of Negroes should
provide a fund to encourage the importation of white servants,
" to prevent the mischiefs that may be attended by the great
importation of negroes into this Province." 1 Many white ser-
vants were thus encouraged to settle in the colony ; but so much
larger was the influx of black slaves that the colony, in 1760,
totally prohibited the slave-trade. This act was promptly disal-
lowed by the Privy Council and the governor reprimanded ; 2
but the colony declared that " an importation of negroes, equal
in number to what have been imported of late years, may prove
of the most dangerous consequence in many respects to this
Province, and the best way to obviate such danger will be by
imposing such an additional duty upon them as may totally
prevent the evils." 3 A prohibitive duty of .100 was accord-
ingly imposed in 1764.* This duty probably continued until the
Revolution.
The war made a great change in the situation. It has been
computed by good judges that, between the years 1775 and
1783, the State of South Carolina lost twenty-five thousand
Negroes, by actual hostilities, plunder of the British, runaways,
etc. After the war the trade quickly revived, and considerable
revenue was raised from duty acts until 1787, when by act and
ordinance the slave-trade was totally prohibited. 6 This prohi-
bition, by renewals from time to time, lasted until 1803.
6. Restrictions in North Carolina. In early times there were
few slaves in North Carolina ; 6 this fact, together with the
1 Cooper, Statutes, III. 739.
3 The text of this law has not been found. Cf. Burge, Commentaries
on Colonial and Foreign Laws, I. 737, note; Stevens, History of Georgia,
I. 286. See instructions of the governor of New Hampshire, June 30, 1761,
in Gordon, History of the American Revolution, I. letter 2.
8 Cooper, Statutes, IV. 187.
4 This duty avoided the letter of the English instructions by making the
duty payable by the first purchasers, and not by the importers. Cf. Cooper,
Statutes, IV. 187.
6 Grimke', Public Laws, p. Ixviii, Nos. 1485, 1486; Cooper, Statutes, V\\.
430.
6 Cf.;V. C. Col. Rec.,lV. 172.
12 THE PLANTING COLONIES. [CHAP. II.
troubled and turbulent state of affairs during the early colonial
period, did not necessitate the adoption of any settled policy
toward slavery or the slave-trade. Later the slave-trade to the
colony increased ; but there is no evidence of any effort to
restrict or in any way regulate it before 1786, when it was
declared that " the importation of slaves into this State is pro-
ductive of evil consequences and highly impolitic," 1 and a pro-
hibitive duty was laid on them.
7. Restrictions in Virginia. 2 Next to South Carolina, Virginia
had probably the largest slave-trade. Her situation, however,
differed considerably from that of her Southern neighbor.
The climate, the staple tobacco crop, and the society of Vir-
ginia were favorable to a system of domestic slavery, but
one which tended to develop into a patriarchal serfdom rather
than into a slave-consuming industrial hierarchy. The labor
required by the tobacco crop was less unhealthy than that
connected with the rice crop, and the Virginians were, perhaps,
on a somewhat higher moral plane than the Carolinians. There
was consequently no such insatiable demand for slaves in the
larger colony. On the other hand, the power of the Virginia
executive was peculiarly strong, and it was not possible here
1 Martin, IredelPs Acts of Assembly, I. 413, 492.
2 The following is a summary of the legislation of the colony of Vir-
ginia ; details will be found in Appendix A :
1710, Duty Act : proposed duty of $.
1723,
1727,
1732,
1736,
1740,
1754,
1755,
1757,
I75Q-.
1766,
1769,
1772,
prohibitive (?).
additional duty of 5 %.
5 %.
" 10% (Repealed, 1760).
" " 10% (Repealed, 1761).
20 % on colonial slaves.
additional duty of 10% (Disallowed?).
on colonial slaves.
Petition of Burgesses vs. Slave-trade.
1776, Arraignment of the king in the adopted Frame of Government
1778, Importation prohibited.
SECT. 7.] RESTRICTIONS IN VIRGINIA. 13
to thwart the slave-trade policy of the home government as
easily as elsewhere.
Considering all these circumstances, it is somewhat difficult
to determine just what was the attitude of the early Virginians
toward the slave-trade. There is evidence, however, to show
that although they desired the slave-trade, the rate at which
the Negroes were brought in soon alarmed them. In 1710 a
duty of $ was laid on Negroes, but Governor Spotswood
" soon perceived that the laying so high a Duty on Negros
was intended to discourage the importation," and vetoed the
measure. 1 No further restrictive legislation was attempted for
some years, but whether on account of the attitude of the
governor or the desire of the inhabitants, is not clear. With
1723 begins a series of acts extending down to the Revolution,
which, so far as their contents can be ascertained, seem to have
been designed effectually to check the slave-trade. Some of
these acts, like those of 1723 and 1727, were almost immedi-
ately disallowed. 2 The Act of 1732 laid a duty of 5%, which
was continued until 1769^ and all other duties were in addition
to this; so that by such cumulative duties the rate on slaves
reached 25% in 1755,* and 35% at the time of Braddock's
expedition. 5 These acts were found " very burthensome,"
" introductive of many frauds," and "very inconvenient," 6 and
were so far repealed that by 1761 the duty was only 15%. As
now the Burgesses became more powerful, two or more bills
proposing restrictive duties were passed, but disallowed. 7 By
1772 the anti-slave-trade feeling had become considerably
developed, and the Burgesses petitioned the king, declaring
that " The importation of slaves into the colonies from the
coast of Africa hath long been considered as a trade of great
inhumanity, and under its present encouragement, we have too
1 Letters of Governor Spotswood, in Va. Hist. Soc. Coll., New Ser.,
1.52.
2 Hening, Statutes at Large of Virginia, IV. 118, 182.
8 Ibid., IV. 317, 394; V. 28, 160, 318; VI. 217, 353; VII. 281; VIII.
190, 336, 532.
4 Ibid., V. 92 ; VI. 417, 419, 461, 466. 8 Ibid., VII. 69, 81.
e Ibid., VII. 363, 383. 7 Ibid., VIII. 237, 337.
14 THE PLANTING COLONIES. [CHAP. II.
much reason to fear will endanger the very existence of your
Majesty's American dominions. . . . Deeply impressed with
these sentiments, we most humbly beseech your Majesty to
remove all those restraints on your Majesty's governors of this
colony, which inhibit their assenting to such laws as might check
so very pernicious a commerce" 1
Nothing further appears to have been done before the war.
When, in 1776, the delegates adopted a Frame of Government,
it was charged in this document that the king had perverted his
high office into a " detestable and insupportable tyranny, by ...
prompting our negroes to rise in arms among us, those very
negroes whom, by an inhuman use of his negative, he hath
refused us permission to exclude by law." 2 Two years later,
in 1778, an " Act to prevent the further importation of Slaves "
stopped definitively the legal slave-trade to Virginia. 3
8. Restrictions in Maryland. 4 Not until the impulse of the
Assiento had been felt in America, did Maryland make any
attempt to restrain a trade from which she had long enjoyed a
comfortable revenue. The Act of 1717, laying a duty of 4Os., 6
may have been a mild restrictive measure. The duties were
1 Miscellaneous Papers, 1672-1865, in Va, Hist. Soc. Coll., New Sen,
VI. 14; Tucker, Blackstonis Commentaries, I. Part II. App., 51.
8 Hening, Statutes, IX. 112.
8 Importation by sea or by land was prohibited, with a penalty of .1000
for illegal importation and ,500 for buying or selling. The Negro was freed,
if illegally brought in. This law was revised somewhat in 1785. Cf. Hen-
ing, Statutes, IX. 471 ; XII. 182.
4 The following is a summary of the legislation of the colony of Mary-
land ; details will be found in Appendix A :
1695, Duty Act : los.
1704,
1756,
1763,
20S.
additional duty of 40^. (?)
I7S4, "
" " 20S. " 40J.(?).
2 " 4-
5 " 9-
1 783, Importation prohibited.
5 Compleat Coll. Laws of Maryland (ed. 1727), p. 191 ; Bacon, Laws of
Maryland at Large, 1728, ch. 8.
SECT. 9-] GENERAL CHARACTER OF RESTRICTIONS. 1 5
slowly increased to 50^. in I/S4, 1 and 4 in I763. 2 In 1771 a
prohibitive duty of g was laid ; 3 and in 1783, after the war, all
importation by sea was stopped and illegally imported Negroes
were freed. 4
Compared with the trade to Virginia and the Carolinas, the
slave-trade to Maryland was small, and seems at no time to
have reached proportions which alarmed the inhabitants. It
was regulated to the economic demand by a slowly increasing
tariff, and finally, after 1769, had nearly ceased of its own
accord before the restrictive legislation of Revolutionary times. 5
Probably the proximity of Maryland to Virginia made an in-
dependent slave-trade less necessary to her.
9. General Character of these Restrictions. We find in the
planting colonies all degrees of advocacy of the trade, from the
passiveness of Maryland to the clamor of Georgia. Opposition
to the trade did not appear in Georgia, was based almost solely
on political fear of insurrection in Carolina, and sprang largely
from the same motive in Virginia, mingled with some moral
repugnance. As a whole, it may be said that whatever oppo-
sition to the slave-trade there was in the planting colonies was
based principally on the political fear of insurrection.
1 Bacon, Laws, 1754, ch. 9, 14. 2 /fov/ tj I7 6 3 c h. 28.
8 Laws of Maryland since 1763: 1771, ch. 7. Cf. Ibid.: 1777, sess.
Feb-Apr., ch. 18.
4 Ibid.: 1783, sess. Apr.-June, ch. 23.
6 " The last importation of slaves into Maryland was, as I am credibly
informed, in the year 1769": William Eddis, Letters from America (Lon-
don, 1792), p. 65, note.
The number of slaves in Maryland has been estimated as follows :
In 1704, 4,475. Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York, V. 605.
171, 7,935- Ibid.
1712, 8,330. Scharf, History of Maryland, I. 377.
1719, 25,000. Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York, V. 605.
1748, 36,000. McMahon, History of Maryland, I. 313.
1 755, 46,356. Gentleman's Magazine, XXXIV. 261.
1756, 46,225. McMahon, History of Maryland, I. 313.
1761, 49,675. Dexter, Colonial Population, p. 21, note.
1782, 83,362. Encyclopedia Britannica (gth ed.), XV. 603.
1787, 80,000. Dexter, Colonial Population, p. 21, note.
CHAPTER III.
THE FARMING COLONIES.
10. Character of these Colonies.
n. The Dutch Slave-Trade.
12. Restrictions in New York.
13. Restrictions in Pennsylvania and Delaware.
14. Restrictions in New Jersey.
15. General Character of these Restrictions.
10. Character of these Colonies. The colonies of this group,
occupying the central portion of the English possessions, com-
prise those communities where, on account of climate, physical
characteristics, and circumstances of settlement, slavery as an
institution found but a narrow field for development. The
climate was generally rather cool for the newly imported slaves,
the soil was best suited to crops to which slave labor was
poorly adapted, and the training and habits of the great body
of settlers offered little chance for the growth of a slave sys-
tem. These conditions varied, of course, in different colonies ;
but the general statement applies to all. These communities of
small farmers and traders derived whatever opposition they
had to the slave-trade from three sorts of motives, economic,
political, and moral. First, the importation of slaves did not
pay, except to supply a moderate demand for household ser-
vants. Secondly, these colonies, as well as those in the South,
had a wholesome political fear of a large servile population.
Thirdly, the settlers of many of these colonies were of sterner
moral fibre than the Southern cavaliers and adventurers, and,
in the absence of great counteracting motives, were more easily
led to oppose the institution and the trade. Finally, it must be
noted that these colonies did not so generally regard them-
selves as temporary commercial investments as did Virginia and
SECT, ii.] THE DUTCH SLAVE-TRADE. I/
Carolina. Intending to found permanent States, these settlers
from the first more carefully studied the ultimate interests of
those States.
ii. The Dutch Slave-Trade. The Dutch seem to have com-
menced the slave-trade to the American continent, the Middle
colonies and some of the Southern receiving supplies from them.
John Rolfe relates that the last of August, 1619, there came to
Virginia " a dutch man of warre that sold us twenty Negars." J
This was probably one of the ships of the numerous private
Dutch trading-companies which early entered into and devel-
oped the lucrative African slave-trade. Ships sailed from Hol-
land to Africa, got slaves in exchange for their goods,_carried
the slaves to the West Indies or Brazil, and returned home
laden with sugar. 2 Through the enterprise of one of these
trading-companies the settlement of New Amsterdam was be-
gun, in 1614. In 1621 the private companies trading in the
West were all merged into the Dutch West India Company,
and given a monopoly of American trade. This company was
very active, sending in four years 15,430 Negroes to Brazil, 3
carrying on war with Spain, supplying even the English planta-
tions, 4 and gradually becoming the great slave carrier of the
day.
The commercial supremacy of the Dutch early excited the
envy and emulation of the English. The Navigation Ordinance
of 1651 was aimed at them, and two wars were necessary to
wrest the slave-trade from them and place it in the hands of the
English. The final terms of peace among other things sur-
rendered New Netherland to England, and opened the way for
England to become henceforth the world's greatest slave-trader.
Although the Dutch had thus commenced the continental slave-
trade, they had not actually furnished a very large number of
slaves to the English colonies outside the West Indies. A small
trade had, by 1698, brought a few thousand to New York, and
1 Smith, Generall Historic of Virginia (1626 and 1632), p. 126.
z Cf . Southey, History of Brazil.
8 De Laet, in O'Callaghan, Voyages of the Slavers, etc., p. viii.
4 See, e. g., Sainsbury, Cal. State Papers; Col. Ser., America and W.
Indies^ 1574-1660, p. 279.
2
18 THE FARMING COLONIES. [CHAP. III.
still fewer to New Jersey. 1 It was left to the English, with their
strong policy in its favor, to develop this trade.
12. Restrictions in New York. 2 The early ordinances of the
Dutch, laying duties, generally of ten per cent, on slaves, prob-
ably proved burdensome to the trade, although this was not
intentional. 3 The Biblical prohibition of slavery and the slave-
trade, copied from New England codes into the Duke of York's
Laws, had no practical application, 4 and the trade continued to
be encouraged in the governors' instructions. In 1709 a duty
of ^3 was laid on Negroes from elsewhere than Africa. 6 This
was aimed at West India slaves, and was prohibitive. By 1716
1 Cf. below, pp. 19, 27, notes; also Freedoms, XXX., in O'Callaghan,
Laws of New Netherland, 1638-74 (ed. 1868), p. 10; Brodhead, History
qf New York, I. 312.
3 The following is a summary of the legislation of the colony of New
York ; details will be found in Appendix A :
1709, Duty Act: ,3 on Negroes not direct from Africa (Con-
tinued by the Acts of 1710, 1711).
1711, Bill to lay further duty, lost in Council.
1716, Duty Act: 5 oz. plate on Africans in colony ships.
10 " " " " other ships.
1728, " " 4oj. on Africans, 4 on colonial Negroes.
1734, " " (?)
1753, " 40-r. " " " " (This
act was annually continued. )
[1777, Vermont Constitution does not recognize slavery.]
1785, Sale of slaves in State prohibited.
[1786, " " Vermont prohibited.]
1788, " " State "
O'Callaghan, Laws of New Netherland, 1638-74, pp. 31, 348, etc. The
colonists themselves were encouraged to trade, but the terms were not
favorable enough : Doc. reL Col. Hist. New York, I. 246 ; Laws of New
Netherland, pp. 81-2, note, 127. The colonists declared "that they are
inclined to a foreign Trade, and especially to the Coast of Africa, ... in
order to fetch thence Slaves " : O'Callaghan, Voyages of the Slavers, etc.,
p. 172.
4 Charter to William Penn, etc. (1879), p. 12. First published on Long
Island in 1664. Possibly Negro slaves were explicitly excepted. Cf.
Magazine of American History, XI. 411, and N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., I. 322.
6 Acts of Assembly, 1691-1718, pp. 97, 125, 134 ; Doc. reL Col. Hist. New
York, V. 178, 185, 293.
SECT. 12.] RESTRICTIONS IN NEW YORK. 19
the duty on all slaves was i \2\s., which was probably a mere
revenue figure. 1 In 1728 a duty of 40$. was laid, to be con-
tinued until I73/. 2 It proved restrictive, however, and on the
" humble petition of the Merchants and Traders of the City of
Bristol" was disallowed in 1735, as "greatly prejudicial to the
Trade and Navigation of this Kingdom." 3 Governor Cosby
was also reminded that no duties on slaves payable by the
importer were to be laid. Later, in 1753, the 40^. duty was
restored, but under the increased trade of those days was not
felt. 4 No further restrictions seem to have been attempted
until 1785, when the sale of slaves in the State was forbidden. 6
The chief element of restriction in this colony appears to
have been the shrewd business sense of the traders, who never
flooded the slave market, but kept a supply sufficient for the
slowly growing demand. Between 1701 and 1726 only about
2,375 slaves were imported, and in 1774 the total slave popu-
lation amounted to 2i,i49. 6 No restriction was ever put by
1 The Assembly attempted to raise the slave duty in 1711, but the Coun-
cil objected (Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York, V. 292 ff.), although, as it
seems, not on account of the slave duty in particular. Another act was
passed between 1711 and 1716, but its contents are not known (cf. title of the
Act of 1716). For the Act of 1716, see Acts of Assembly, 1691-1718, p. 224.
8 Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York, VI. 37, 38.
Ibid., VI. 32-4.
4 Ibid., VII. 907. This act was annually renewed. The slave duty re-
mained a chief source of revenue down to 1 774. Cf. Report of Governor
Tryon, in Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York, VIII. 452.
6 Laws of New York, 1785-88 (ed. 1886), ch. 68, p. 121. Substantially
the same act reappears in the revision of the laws of 1788: Ibid., ch. 40,
p. 676.
6 The slave population of New York has been estimated as follows :
In 1698, 2,170. Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York, IV. 420.
" 1703, 2,258. N. Y. Col. MSS., XLVIII.; cited in Hough,
N. Y. Census, 1855, Introd.
" 1712, 2,425. Ibid., LVIL, LIX. (a partial census).
" 1723, 6,171. Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York> V. 702.
" I73I. 7,743- Ibid., V. 929.
1737, 8,941. Ibid., VI. 133.
" 1746, 9,107. Ibid., VI. 392.
" 1749, 10,692. Ibid., VI. 550.
" 1756, 13,548. London Doc., XLIV. 123; cited in Hough, as
above.
20 THE FARMING COLONIES. [CHAP. III.
New York on participation in the trade outside the colony, and
in spite of national laws New York merchants continued to be
engaged in this traffic even down to the Civil War. 1
Vermont, who withdrew from New York in 1777, in her first
Constitution 2 declared slavery illegal, and in 1786 stopped
by law the sale and transportation of slaves within her
boundaries. 3
13. Restrictions in Pennsylvania and Delaware. 4 One of
the first American protests against the slave-trade came from
In 1771, 19,863. Ibid., XLIV. 144; cited in Hough, as above.
" 1774 21,149. Mid., " " " " "
" 1786, 18,889. Deeds in office Sec. of State, XXII. 35.
Total number of Africans imported from 1701 to 1726, 2,375, of
whom 802 were from Africa : O'Callaghan, Documentary History
of New York, I. 482.
1 Cf. below, Chapter XI.
2 Vermont State Papers, \ 779-86, p. 244. The return of sixteen slaves
in Vermont, by the first census, was an error : New England Record,
XXIX. 249.
* Vermont State Papers, p. 505.
* The following is a summary of the legislation of the colony of Pennsyl-
vania and Delaware ; details will be found in Appendix A :
1705, Duty Act: (?).
1710, " " 4os. (Disallowed).
1712, " " ^20 "
1712, " " supplementary to the Act of 1710.
1715, " " 5 (Disallowed).
1718, " "
1720, " " (?).
1722, " " (?).
1725-6, " " ;lO.
1726, " "
1729, " " 2.
I76l, " " ;lO.
I76l, ' (?).
1768, " " re-enactment of the Act of 1761.
I 773> " " perpetual additional duty of ; 10 ; total, ,20.
1775, Bill to prohibit importation vetoed by the governor
(Delaware).
1775, Bill to prohibit importation vetoed by the governor.
1778, Back duties on slaves ordered collected.
1780, Act for the gradual abolition of slavery.
1787, Act to prevent the exportation of slaves (Delaware).
1788, Act to prevent the slave-trade.
SECT. 13.] RESTRICTIONS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 2 l
certain German Friends, in 1688, at a Weekly Meeting held
in Germantown, Pennsylvania. " These are the reasons," wrote
" Garret henderich, derick up de graeff, Francis daniell Pastorius,
and Abraham up Den graef," " why we are against the traffick
of men-body, as followeth: Is there any that would be done
or handled at this manner? . . . Now, tho they are black, we
cannot conceive there is more liberty to have them slaves, as it
is to have other white ones. There is a saying, that we shall doe
to all men like as we will be done ourselves ; making no differ-
ence of what generation, descent or colour they are. And
those who steal or robb men, and those who buy or purchase
them, are they not all alike?" 1 This little leaven helped
slowly to work a revolution in the attitude of this great sect
toward slavery and the slave-trade. The Yearly Meeting at
first postponed the matter, " It having so General a Relation
to many other Parts." 2 Eventually, however, in 1696, the
Yearly Meeting advised " That Friends be careful not to en-
courage the bringing in of any more Negroes." 3 This advice
was repeated in stronger terms for a quarter-century, 4 and by
that time Sandiford, Benezet, Lay, and Woolman had begun
their crusade. In 1754 the Friends took a step farther and
made the purchase of slaves a matter of discipline. 5 Four
years later the Yearly Meeting expressed itself clearly as
" against every branch of this practice," and declared that if
" any professing with us should persist to vindicate it, and be
concerned in importing, selling or purchasing slaves, the
respective Monthly Meetings to which they belong should
manifest their disunion with such persons." 6 Further, manu-
mission was recommended, and in 1776 made compulsory. 7
1 From fac-simile copy, published at Germantown in 1880. Cf. Whittier's
poem, " Pennsylvania Hall" (Poetical Works, Riverside ed., III. 62); and
Proud, History of Pennsylvania (1797), I. 219.
2 From fac-simile copy, published at Germantown in 1880.
8 Bettle, Notices of Negro Slavery, in Penn. Hist. Soc* Mem. (1864),
I- 383.
4 Cf. Bettle, Notices of Negro Slavery, passim.
6 Janney, History of the Friends, III. 315-7.
6 Ibid., III. 317.
7 Bettle, in Penn. Hist. Soc. Mem., I. 395.
22 THE FARMING COLONIES. [CHAP. III.
The effect of this attitude of the Friends was early manifested
in the legislation of all the colonies where the sect was influen-
tial, and particularly in Pennsylvania.
One of the first duty acts (1710) laid a restrictive duty of 40^.
on slaves, and was eventually disallowed. 1 In 1712 William
Southeby petitioned the Assembly totally to abolish slavery.
This the Assembly naturally refused to attempt ; but the same
year, in response to another petition " signed by many hands,"
they passed an " Act to prevent the Importation of Negroes and
Indians," 2 the first enactment of its kind in America. This
act was inspired largely by the general fear of insurrection
which succeeded the "Negro-plot" of 1712 in New York. It
declared : " Whereas, divers Plots and Insurrections have fre-
quently happened, not only in the Islands but on the Main Land
of America, by Negroes, which have been carried on so far that
several of the inhabitants have been barbarously Murthered, an
Instance whereof we have lately had in our Neighboring Colony
of New York" 3 etc. It then proceeded to lay a prohibitive
duty of 20 on all slaves imported. These acts were quickly
disposed of in England. Three duty acts affecting Negroes,
including the prohibitory act, were in 1713 disallowed, and
it was directed that " the Dep ty Gov r Council and Assembly
of Pensilvania, be & they are hereby Strictly Enjoyned & re-
quired not to permit the said Laws ... to be from hencefor-
ward put in Execution." 4 The Assembly repealed these laws,
but in 1715 passed another laying a duty of .5, which was also
eventually disallowed. 6 Other acts, the provisions of which are
1 Penn. Col.Rec. (1852), II. 530 ; Bettle, in Penn. Hist. Soc. Mem., I. 415.
z Laws of Pennsylvania, collected, etc., 1714, p. 165; Bettle, in Penn.
Hist. Soc. Mem., I. 387.
8 See preamble of the act.
4 The Pennsylvanians did not allow their laws to reach England until
long after they were passed : Penn. Archives, 1. 161-2 ; Col. Rec., II. 572-3.
These acts were disallowed Feb. 20, 1713. Another duty act was passed in
1712, supplementary to the Act of 1710 (Col. Rec., II. 553). The contents
are unknown.
6 Acts and Laws of Pennsylvania, 1715, p. 270; Chalmers, Opinions, II.
118. Before the disallowance was known, the act had been continued by the
Act of 1718: Carey and Bioren, Laws of Pennsylvania, 1700-1802, I. 118;
Penn. Col. Rec. t III. 38.
SECT. 13.] RESTRICTIONS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 23
not clear, were passed in 1720 and 1722, , 1 and in 1725-1726
the duty on Negroes was raised to the restrictive figure of ;io. 2
This duty, for some reason not apparent, was lowered to 2 in
I729, 3 but restored again in 1761. 4 A struggle occurred over
this last measure, the Friends petitioning for it, and the Phila-
delphia merchants against it, declaring that " We, the sub-
scribers, ever desirous to extend the Trade of this Province,
have seen, for some time past, the many inconveniencys the
Inhabitants have suflfer'd for want of Labourers and artificers,
. . . have for some time encouraged the importation of Ne-
gros ; " they prayed therefore at least for a delay in passing
the measure. 5 The law, nevertheless, after much debate and
altercation with the governor, finally passed.
These repeated acts nearly stopped the trade, and the manu-
mission or sale of Negroes by the Friends decreased the number
of slaves in the province. The rising spirit of independence
enabled the colony, in 1773, to restore the prohibitive duty of
20 and make it perpetual. 6 After the Revolution unpaid duties
on slaves were collected and the slaves registered, 7 and in 1780
an " Act for the gradual Abolition of Slavery " was passed. 8
As there were probably at no time before the war more than
11,000 slaves in Pennsylvania, 9 the task thus accomplished
1 Carey and Bioren, Laws, I. 165; Penn. Col. Rec., III. 171; Settle,
in Penn. Hist. Soc. Mem., I. 389, note.
a Carey and Bioren, Laws, I. 214; Bettle, in Penn. Hist. Soc. Mem.,
I. 388. Possibly there were two acts this year.
8 Laws of Pennsylvania (ed. 1742), p. 354, ch. 287. Possibly some
change in the currency made this change appear greater than it was.
4 Carey and Bioren, Laws, I. 371 ; Acts of Assembly (ed. 1782), p. 149;
Dallas, Laws, I. 406, ch. 379. This act was renewed in 1768: Carey and
Bioren, Laws, I. 451 ; Penn. Col. Rec., IX. 472, 637, 641.
6 Penn. Col. Rec., VIII. 576.
6 A large petition called for this bill. Much altercation ensued with the
governor : Dallas, Laws, I. 671, ch. 692 ; Penn. Col. Rec., X. 77 ; Bettle,
in Penn. Hist. Soc. Mem., I. 388-9.
7 Dallas, Laws, I. 782, ch. 810. 8 Ibid., I. 838, ch. 881.
9 There exist but few estimates of the number of slaves in this colony:
In 1721, 2,500-5,000. Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York, V. 604.
"1754, 11,000. Bancroft, Hist, of United States (1883), II. 391.
" 1 760, " very few." Burnaby, Travels through N.Amer.(2& &.),? 81.
" 1775, 2,000. Penn. Archives, IV. 597.
24 THE FARMING COLONIES. [CHAP. III.
was not so formidable as in many other States. As it was,
participation in the slave-trade outside the colony was not
prohibited until i/SS. 1
It seems probable that in the original Swedish settlements
along the Delaware slavery was prohibited. 2 This measure
had, however, little practical effect ; for as soon as the Dutch got
control the slave-trade was opened, although, as it appears, to
no large extent. After the fall of the Dutch Delaware came
into English hands. Not until 1775 do we find any legisla-
tion on the slave-trade. In that year the colony attempted to
prohibit the importation of slaves, but the governor vetoed the
bill. 3 Finally, in 1776 by the Constitution, and in 1787 by law,
importation and exportation were both prohibited. 4
14. Bestrictions in New Jersey. 5 Although the freeholders
of West New Jersey declared, in 1676, that " all and every Per-
son and Persons Inhabiting the said Province, shall, as far as in
us lies, be free from Oppression and Slavery," 6 yet Negro
slaves are early found in the colony. 7 The first restrictive
measure was passed, after considerable friction between the
Council and the House, in 1713; it laid a duty of 10,
currency. 8 Governor Hunter explained to the Board of Trade
that the bill was " calculated to Encourage the Importation of
1 Dallas, Laws, II. 586.
2 Cf. Argonautica Gustaviana, pp. 21-3 ; Del. Hist. Soc. Papers, III. 10;
Hazard's Register, IV. 221, 23, 24; Hazard's Annals, p. 372; Arm-
strong, Record of Upland Court, pp. 29-30, and notes.
8 Force, American Archives, 4th Sen, II. 128-9.
4 Ibid., 5th Ser., I. 1178; Laws of Delaware, 1797 (Newcastle ed.), p.
884, ch. 145 b.
6 The following is a summary of the legislation of the colony of New
Jersey ; details will be found in Appendix A :
1713, Duty Act: ^10.
I763(?), Duty Act.
1769, " " /IS-
1774, " " ^5 on Africans, ^10 on colonial Negroes.
1786, Importation prohibited.
8 Learning and Spicer, Grants, Concessions, etc., p. 398. Probably this
did not refer to Negroes at all.
7 Cf. Vincent, History of Delaware, I. 159, 381.
8 Laws and Acts of New Jersey, 1703-17 (ed. 1717), p. 43-
SECT. 15.] GENERAL CHARACTER OF RESTRICTIONS. 2$
white Servants for the better Peopeling that Country." 1 How
long this act continued does not appear; probably, not long.
No further legislation was enacted until 1762 or 1763, when
a prohibitive duty was laid on account of " the inconvenience
the Province is exposed to in lying open to the free importation
of Negros, when the Provinces on each side have laid duties on
them." 2 The Board of Trade declared that while they did not
object to " the Policy of imposing a reasonable duty," they
could not assent to this, and the act was disallowed. 3 The Act
of 1769 evaded the technical objection of the Board of Trade,
and laid a duty of 15 on the first purchasers of Negroes,
because, as the act declared, " Duties on the Importation of
Negroes in several of the neighbouring Colonies hath, on Experi-
ence, been found beneficial in the Introduction of sober,
industrious Foreigners." 4 In 1774 a bill which, according to
the report of the Council to Governor Morris, "plainly in-
tended an entire Prohibition of all Slaves being imported from
foreign Parts," was thrown out by the Council. 5 Importation
was finally prohibited in I786. 6
15. General Character of these Restrictions. The main differ-
ence in motive between the restrictions which the planting and
the farming colonies put on the African slave-trade, lay in the
fact that the former limited it mainly from fear of insurrection,
the latter mainly because it did not pay. Naturally, the latter
motive worked itself out with much less legislation than the
former ; for this reason, and because they held a smaller num-
ber of slaves, most of these colonies have fewer actual statutes
than the Southern colonies. In Pennsylvania alone did this
1 N.J. Archives, IV. 196. There was much difficulty in passing the bill :
Ibid., XIII. 516-41.
8 Ibid., IX. 345-6- The exact provisions of the act I have not found.
8 Ibid., IX. 383, 447, 458. Chiefly because the duty was laid on the
importer.
4 Allinson, Acts of Assembly, pp. 315-6.
8 N.J. Archives, VI. 222.
6 Acts of the loth General Assembly, May 2, 1786. There are two esti-
mates of the number of slaves in this colony :
In 1738, 3,981. American Annals, II. 127.
" 1754, 4,6o6. " " II. 143-
26 THE FARMING COLONIES. [CHAP. III.
general economic revolt against the trade acquire a distinct
moral tinge. Although even here the institution was naturally
doomed, yet the clear moral insight of the Quakers checked
the trade much earlier than would otherwise have happened.
We may say, then, that the farming colonies checked the slave-
trade primarily from economic motives.
CHAPTER IV.
THE TRADING COLONIES.
1 6. Character of these Colonies.
17. New England and the Slave-Trade.
1 8. Restrictions in New Hampshire.
19. Restrictions in Massachusetts.
20. Restrictions in Rhode Island.
21. Restrictions in Connecticut.
22. General Character of these Restrictions.
1 6. Character of these Colonies. The rigorous climate of New
England, the character of her settlers, and their pronounced
political views gave slavery an even slighter basis here than in
the Middle colonies. The significance of New England in the
African slave-trade does not therefore lie in the fact that she
early discountenanced the system of slavery and stopped im-
portation; but rather in the fact that her citizens, being the
traders of the New World, early took part in the carrying slave-
trade and furnished slaves to the other colonies. An inquiry,
therefore, into the efforts of the New England colonies to sup-
press the slave-trade would fall naturally into two parts : first,
and chiefly, an investigation of the efforts to stop the participa-
tion of citizens in the carrying slave-trade; secondly, an ex-
amination of the efforts made to banish the slave-trade from
New England soil.
17. New England and the Slave-Trade. Vessels from Massa-
chusetts, 1 Rhode Island, 2 Connecticut, 3 and, to a less extent, from
1 Cf. Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, II.
449-72 ; G. H. Moore, Slavery in Massachusetts j Charles Deane, Connec-
tion of Massachusetts with Slavery.
fl Cf. American Historical Record, I. 311, 338.
8 Cf. W. C. Fowler, Local Law in Massachusetts and Connecticut, etc.,
pp. 122-6.
28 THE TRADING COLONIES. [CHAP. IV.
New Hampshire, 1 were early and largely engaged in the carry-
ing slave-trade. "We know," said Thomas Pemberton in 1795,
" that a large trade to Guinea was carried on for many years
by the citizens of Massachusetts Colony, who were the propri-
etors of the vessels and their cargoes, out and home. Some
of the slaves purchased in Guinea, and I suppose the greatest
part of them, were sold in the West Indies." 2 Dr. John Eliot
asserted that " it made a considerable branch of our com-
merce. ... It declined very little till the Revolution." 3 Yet
the trade of this colony was said not to equal that of Rhode
Island. Newport was the mart for slaves offered for sale in
the North, and a point of reshipment for all slaves. It was
principally this trade that raised Newport to her commercial
importance in the eighteenth century. 4 Connecticut, too, was
an important slave-trader, sending large numbers of horses and
other commodities to the West Indies in exchange for slaves,
and selling the slaves in other colonies.
This trade formed a perfect circle. Owners of slavers carried
slaves to South Carolina, and brought home naval stores for
their ship-building; or to the West Indies, and brought home
molasses ; or to other colonies, and brought home hogsheads.
The molasses was made into the highly prized New England
rum, and shipped in these hogsheads to Africa for more slaves. 5
1 Cf. W. C. Fowler, Local Law in Massachusetts and Connecticut, etc.,
p. 124.
8 Deane, Letters and Documents relating to Slavery in Massachusetts,
in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 5th Sen, III. 392.
8 Ibid., III. 382.
4 Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, II. 454.
6 A typical voyage is that of the brigantine " Sanderson " of Newport.
She was fitted out in March, 1752, and carried, beside the captain, two
mates and six men, and a cargo of 8.220 gallons of rum, together with
" African " iron, flour, pots, tar, sugar, and provisions, shackles, shirts, and
water. Proceeding to Africa, the captain after some difficulty sold his cargo
for slaves, and in April, 1 753, he is expected in Barbadoes, as the consignees
write. They also state that slaves are selling at ^33 to ^56 per head in lots.
After a stormy and dangerous voyage, Captain Lindsay arrived, June 17,
^753. with fifty-six slaves, "all in helth & fatt." He also had 40 oz. of
gold dust, and 8 or 9 cwt. of pepper. The net proceeds of the sale of all
this was ^1,324 3</. The captain then took on board 55 hhd. of molasses
SECT. 1 8.] RESTRICTIONS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. 29
Thus, the rum-distilling industry indicates to some extent the
activity of New England in the slave-trade. In May, 1752,
one Captain Freeman found so many slavers fitting out that,
in spite of the large importations of molasses, he could get no
rum for his vessel. 1 In Newport alone twenty-two stills were
at one time running continuously; 2 and Massachusetts an-
nually distilled 15,000 hogsheads of molasses into this "chief
manufacture." 3
Turning now to restrictive measures, we must first note the
measures of the slave-consuming colonies which tended to limit
the trade. These measures, however, came comparatively late,
were enforced with varying degrees of efficiency, and did not
seriously affect the slave-trade before the Revolution. The
moral sentiment of New England put some check upon the
trade. Although in earlier times the most respectable people
took ventures in slave-trading voyages, yet there gradually
arose a moral sentiment which tended to make the business
somewhat disreputable. 4 In the line, however, of definite legal
enactments to stop New England citizens from carrying slaves
from Africa to any place in the world, there were, before the
Revolution, none. Indeed, not until the years 1787-1788 was
slave-trading in itself an indictable offence in any New England
State.
The particular situation in each colony, and the efforts to
restrict the small importing slave-trade of New England, can
best be studied in a separate view of each community.
1 8. Restrictions in New Hampshire. The statistics of slavery
in New Hampshire show how weak an institution it always was
and 3 hhd. 27 bbl. of sugar, amounting to 911 17^. 2%d., received bills on
Liverpool for the balance, and returned in safety to Rhode Island. He had
done so well that he was immediately given a new ship and sent to Africa
again. American Historical Record, I. 315-9, 338-42.
1 Ibid., I. 316.
2 Ibid., I. 317.
8 Ibid., I. 344; cf. Weeden, Economic and Social History of New Eng-
land, II. 459.
4 Cf. New England Register, XXXI. 75-6, letter of John Baffin et al.
to Welstead. Cf. also Sewall, Protest, etc.
30 THE TRADING COLONIES. [CHAP. IV.
in that colony. 1 Consequently, when the usual instructions were
sent to Governor Wentworth as to the encouragement he must
give to the slave-trade, the House replied : " We have consid-
ered his Maj ties Instruction relating to an Impost on Negroes
& Felons, to which this House answers, that there never was
any duties laid on either, by this GovernV, and so few bro't
in that it would not be worth the Publick notice, so as to make
an act concerning them." 2 This remained true for the whole
history of the colony. Importation was never stopped by
actual enactment, but was eventually declared contrary to the
Constitution of I784. 3 The participation of citizens in the trade
appears never to have been forbidden.
19. Restrictions in Massachusetts. The early Biblical codes
of Massachusetts confined slavery to " lawfull Captives taken in
iust warres, & such strangers as willingly selle themselves or
are sold to us." 4 The stern Puritanism of early days endeavored
to carry this out literally, and consequently when a certain Cap-
tain Smith, about 1640, attacked an African village and brought
some of the unoffending natives home, he was promptly arrested.
Eventually, the General Court ordered the Negroes sent home
at the colony's expense, " conceiving themselues bound by y"
first oportunity to bear witnes against y e haynos & crying sinn
of manstealing, as also to P'scribe such timely redresse for
what is past, & such a law for y 6 future as may sufficiently deterr
all oth r s belonging to us to have to do in such vile & most
odious courses, Justly abhored of all good & iust men." 6
1 The number of slaves in New Hampshire has been estimated as follows :
In 1730, 200. N. H. Hist. Soc. Coll., I. 229.
" 1767, 633. Granite Monthly, IV. 108.
" 1773, 68 1. Ibid.
" 1773. 674. N. H. Province Papers, X. 636.
' 1775, 479. Granite Monthly, IV. 108.
" 1790, 158. Ibid.
* N. H. Province Papers, IV. 617.
Granite Monthly, VI. 377; Poore, Federal and State Constitutions,
pp. 1280-1.
4 Cf. The Body of Liberties, 91, in Whitmore, Bibliographical Sketch
of the Laws of the Massachusetts Colony, published at Boston in 1890.
6 Mass. Col. Rec., II. 168, 176; III. 46, 49, 84.
SECT. 19.] RESTRICTIONS IN MASSACHUSETTS. 3*
The temptation of trade slowly forced the colony from this
high moral ground. New England ships were early found in
the West Indian slave-trade, and the more the carrying trade
developed, the more did the profits of this branch of it attract
Puritan captains. By the beginning of the eighteenth century
the slave-trade was openly recognized as legitimate commerce ;
cargoes came regularly to Boston, and " The merchants of Bos-
ton quoted negroes, like any other merchandise demanded by
their correspondents." l At the same time, the Puritan con-
science began to rebel against the growth of actual slavery on
New England soil. It was a much less violent wrenching of
moral ideas of right and wrong to allow Massachusetts men
to carry slaves to South Carolina than to allow cargoes to
come into Boston, and become slaves in Massachusetts. Early
in the eighteenth century, therefore, opposition arose to the
further importation of Negroes, and in 1705 an act "for the
Better Preventing of a Spurious and Mixt Issue," laid a restric-
tive duty of 4 on all slaves imported. 2 One provision of this
act plainly illustrates the attitude of Massachusetts: like the
acts of many of the New England colonies, it allowed a rebate
of the whole duty on re-exportation. The harbors of New
England were thus offered as a free exchange-mart for slavers.
All the duty acts of the Southern and Middle colonies allowed
a rebate of one-half or three-fourths of the duty on the re-
exportation of the slave, thus laying a small tax on even tem-
porary importation.
The Act of 1705 was evaded, but it was not amended until
1728, when the penalty for evasion was raised to ;ioo. 3 The
act remained in force, except possibly for one period of four
years, until 1749. Meantime the movement against importation
grew. A bill " for preventing the Importation of Slaves into
this Province "was introduced in the Legislature in 1767, but
after strong opposition and disagreement between House and
Council it was dropped. 4 In 1771 the struggle was renewed.
1 Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, II. 456.
2 Mass. Province Laws, 1705-6, ch. 10.
8 Ibid., 1728-9, ch. 16; 1738-9, ch. 27.
4 For petitions of towns, cf. Felt, Annals of Salem (1849), II. 416;
32 THE TRADING COLONIES. [CHAP. IV.
A similar bill passed, but was vetoed by Governor Hutchinson. 1
The imminent war and the discussions incident to it had now
more and more aroused public opinion, and there were repeated
attempts to gain executive consent to a prohibitory law. In
1 774 such a bill was twice passed, but never received assent. 2
The new Revolutionary government first met the subject in
the case of two Negroes captured on the high seas, who were
advertised for sale at Salem. A resolution was introduced into
the Legislature, directing the release of the Negroes, and declar-
ing "That the selling and enslaving the human species is a
direct violation of the natural rights alike vested in all men by
their Creator, and utterly inconsistent with the avowed princi-
ples on which this, and the other United States, have carried
their struggle for liberty even to the last appeal." To this
the Council would not consent; and the resolution, as finally
passed, merely forbade the sale or ill-treatment of the Negroes. 3
Committees on the slavery question were appointed in 1776 and
I777, 4 and although a letter to Congress on the matter, and a
bill for the abolition of slavery were reported, no decisive action
was taken.
Boston Town Records, 1758-69, p. 183. Cf. also Otis's anti-slavery speech
in 1761: John Adams, Works, X. 315. For proceedings, see House
Journal, 1767, pp. 353, 358, 387, 390, 393, 408, 409-10, 411, 420. Cf. Samuel
Dexter's answer to Dr. Belknap's inquiry, Feb. 23, 1795, in Deane (Mass.
Hist. Soc. Coll, 5th Ser., III. 385). A committee on slave importation was
appointed in 1764. Cf. House Journal, 1763-64, p. 170.
1 House Journal, 1771, pp. 21 1,215, 2I 9> 228 > 2 34> 236, 240, 242-3 ; Moore,
Slavery in Massachusetts, pp. 131-2.
2 Felt, Annals of Salem (1849), II. 416-7; Swan, Dissuasion to Great
Britain, etc. (1773), p. x; Washburn, Historical Sketches of Leicester,
Mass., pp. 442-3; Freeman, History of Cape Cod, II. 114; Deane, in
Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 5th Ser., III. 432; Moore, Slavery in Massachu-
setts, pp. 135-40 ; Williams, History of the Negro Race in America, I. 234-6 ;
House Journal, March, 1774, pp. 224, 226, 237, etc. ; June, 1774, pp. 27, 41,
etc. For a copy of the bill, see Moore.
8 Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, 1855-58, p. 196; Force, American Ar-
chives, 5th Ser., II. 769; House Journal, 1776, pp. 105-9; General Court
Records, March 13, 1776, etc., pp. 581-9; Moore, Slavery in Massachusetts,
pp. 149-54. Cf. Moore, pp. 163-76.
4 Moore, Slavery in Massachusetts, pp. 148-9, 181-5.
SECT. 20.] RESTRICTIONS IN RHODE ISLAND. 33
All such efforts were finally discontinued, as the system was
already practically extinct in Massachusetts and the custom of
importation had nearly ceased. Slavery was eventually de-
clared by judicial decision to have been abolished. 1 The first
step toward stopping the participation of Massachusetts citizens
in the slave-trade outside the State was taken in 1785, when a
committee of inquiry was appointed by the Legislature. 2 No
act was, however, passed until 1788, when participation in the
trade was prohibited, on pain of ^50 forfeit for every slave and
200 for every ship engaged. 8
20. Restrictions in Rhode Island. In 1652 Rhode Island
passed a law designed to prohibit life slavery in the colony. It
declared that "Whereas, there is a common course practised
amongst English men to buy negers, to that end they may have
them for service or slaves forever ; for the preventinge of such
practices among us, let it be ordered, that no blacke mankind
or white being forced by covenant bond, or otherwise, to serve
any man or his assighnes longer than ten yeares, or untill they
come to bee twentie four yeares of age, if they bee taken in
under fourteen, from the time of their cominge within the liber-
1 Washburn, Extinction of Slavery in Massachusetts ; Haynes, Struggle
for the Constitution in Massachusetts / La Rochefoucauld, Travels through
the United States, II. 166.
2 Moore, Slavery in Massachusetts, p. 225.
8 Perpetual Laws of Massachusetts, 1780-89, p. 235. The number of
slaves in Massachusetts has been estimated as follows:
In 1676, 200. Randolph's Report, in Hutchinson's Coll. of
Papers, p. 485.
" 1680, 1 20. Deane, Connection of Mass, with Slavery, p. 28 ff.
" 1708, 550. Ibid. ; Moore, Slavery in Mass., p. 50.
" 1720, 2,000. Ibid.
" !735, 2,600. Deane, Connection of Mass, with Slavery, p. 28 ff.
" i749> 3,ooo. Ibid.
" 1754, 4,489. Ibid.
1763, 5,000. Ibid.
1764-5, 5,779- Ibid.
1776, 5,249. Ibid.
1784, 4,377. Moore, Slavery in Mass., p. 51.
1786, 4.371. Ibid.
1790, 6,00 1. Ibid.
3
34 THE TRADING COLONIES. [CHAP. IV.
ties of this Collonie. And at the end or terme of ten yeares
to sett them free, as the manner is with the English servants.
And that man that will not let them goe free, or shall sell them
away elsewhere, to that end that they may bee enslaved to others
for a long time, hee or they shall forfeit to the Collonie forty
pounds." x
This law was for a time enforced, 2 but by the beginning of
the eighteenth century it had either been repealed or become a
dead letter; for the Act of 1708 recognized perpetual slavery,
and laid an impost of 3 on Negroes imported. 3 This duty was
really a tax on the transport trade, and produced a steady
income for twenty years. 4 From the year 1700 on, the citizens
of this State engaged more and more in the carrying trade, until
Rhode Island became the greatest slave-trader in America.
Although she did not import many slaves for her own use,
she became the clearing-house for the trade of other colonies.
Governor Cranston, as early as 1708, reported that between
1698 and 1708 one hundred and three vessels were built in
the State, all of which were trading to the West Indies and
the Southern colonies. 5 They took out lumber and brought
back molasses, in v most cases making a slave voyage in be-
tween. From this, the trade grew. Samuel Hopkins, about
1770, was shocked at the state of the trade: more than thirty
distilleries were running in the colony, and one hundred and
fifty vessels were in the slave-trade. 6 " Rhode Island," said he,
" has been more deeply interested in the slave-trade, and has
enslaved more Africans than any other colony in New Eng-
land." Later, in 1787, he wrote: "The inhabitants of Rhode
1 R. I. Col. Rec., I. 243.
3 Cf. letter written in 1681 : New England Register, XXXI. 75-6. Cf.
also Arnold, History of Rhode Island, I. 240.
8 The text of this act is lost (Col. Rec., IV. 34; Arnold, History of
Rhode Island, II. 31). The Acts of Rhode Island were not well preserved,
the first being published in Boston in 1719. Perhaps other whole acts are
lost.
4 E. g., it was expended to pave the streets of Newport, to build bridges,
etc. : R. I. Col. Rec., IV. 191-3, 225.
6 Ibid., IV. 55-60.
6 Patten, Reminiscences of Samuel Hopkins (1843), p. 80.
SECT. 20.] RESTRICTIONS IN RHODE ISLAND. 35
Island, especially those of Newport, have had by far the greater
share in this traffic, of all these United States. This trade in
human species has been the first wheel of commerce in New-
port, on which every other movement in business has chiefly
depended. That town has been built up, and flourished in
times past, at the expense of the blood, the liberty, and happi-
ness of the poor Africans ; and the inhabitants have lived on
this, and by it have gotten most of their wealth and riches." 1
The Act of 1708 was poorly enforced. The " good inten-
tions " of its framers " were wholly frustrated " by the clandes-
tine " hiding and conveying said negroes out of the town
[Newport] into the country, where they lie concealed." 2 The
act was accordingly strengthened by the Acts of 1712 and 1715,
and made to apply to importations by land as well as by
sea. 3 The Act of 1715, however, favored the trade by admit-
ting African Negroes free of duty. The chaotic state of Rhode
Island did not allow England often to review her legislation ;
but as soon as the Act of 1712 came to notice it was disallowed,
and accordingly repealed in 1732.* Whether the Act of 1715 re-
mained, or whether any other duty act was passed, is not clear.
While the foreign trade was flourishing, the influence of the
Friends and of other causes eventually led to a movement against
slavery as a local institution. Abolition societies multiplied,
and in 1770 an abolition bill was ordered by the Assembly,
but it was never passed. 5 Four years later the city of Provi-
dence resolved that " as personal liberty is an essential part of
the natural rights of mankind," the importation of slaves and
the system of slavery should cease in the colony. 6 This
movement finally resulted, in 1774, in an act "prohibiting the
importation of Negroes into this Colony," a law which curi-
ously illustrated the attitude of Rhode Island toward the slave-
1 Hopkins, Works (1854), II. 615.
2 Preamble of the Act of 1712.
R. /. Col. Rec., IV. 131-5, 138, 143, 191-3. * Ibid., IV. 471.
6 Arnold, History of Rhode Island, II. 304, 321, 337. For a probable
copy of the bill, see Narragansett Historical Register, II. 299.
6 A man dying intestate left slaves, who became thus the property of the
city; they were freed, and the town made the above resolve, May 17, 1774,
in town meeting : Staples, Annals of Providence (1843), P- 2 36
36 THE TRADING COLONIES. [CHAP. IV.
trade. The preamble of the act declared : " Whereas, the in-
habitants of America are generally engaged in the preservation
of their own rights and liberties, among which, that of personal
freedom must be considered as the greatest ; as those who are
desirous of enjoying all the advantages of liberty themselves,
should be willing to extend personal liberty to others ; There-
fore," etc. The statute then proceeded to enact " that for the
future, no negro or mulatto slave shall be brought into this
colony; and in case any slave shall hereafter be brought in,
he or she shall be, and are hereby, rendere.d immediately
free. . . ." The logical ending of such an act would have
been a clause prohibiting the participation of Rhode Island
citizens in the slave-trade. Not only was such a clause
omitted, but the following was inserted instead : " Provided,
also, that nothing in this act shall extend, or be deemed to
extend, to any negro or mulatto slave brought from the coast
of Africa, into the West Indies, on board any vessel belong-
ing to this colony, and which negro or mulatto slave could
not be disposed of in the West Indies, but shall be brought
into this colony. Provided, that the owner of such negro or
mulatto slave give bond . . . that such negro or mulatto slave
shall be exported out of the colony, within one year from the
date of such bond ; if such negro or mulatto be alive, and in a
condition to be removed." 1
In 1779 an act to prevent the sale of slaves out of the State
was passed, 2 and in 1784, an act gradually to abolish slavery. 3
Not until 1787 did an act pass to forbid participation in the
slave-trade. This law laid a penalty of 100 for every slave
transported and 1000 for every vessel so engaged. 4
1 R. I. Col. Rec., VII. 251-2.
2 Bartletfs Index, p. 329; Arnold, History of Rhode Island, II. 444;
R.I. Col. Rec.,Vlll. 618.
R. I. Col. Rec., X. 7-8 ; Arnold, History of Rhode Island, II. 506.
4 Bartletfs Index, p. 333; Narragansett Historical Register, II. 298-9.
The number of slaves in Rhode Island has been estimated as follows :
In 1708, 426. R. I. Col. Rec., IV. 59.
" 1730, 1,648. R. I. Hist. Tracts, No. 19, pt. 2, p. 99.
" 1749, 3,077. Williams, History of the Negro Race in America, I. 281.
" 1756, 4,697. Ibid.
" I774> 376i. R. I. Col. Rec., VII. 253.
SECT. 22.] GENERAL CHARACTER OF RESTRICTIONS. 37
21. Eestrictions in Connecticut. Connecticut, in common
with the other colonies of this section, had a trade for many
years with the West Indian slave markets; and though this
trade was much smaller than that of the neighboring colonies,
yet many of her citizens were engaged in it. A map of Mid-
dleton at the time of the Revolution gives, among one hundred
families, three slave captains and " three notables " designated
as " slave-dealers." 1
The actual importation was small, 2 and almost entirely unre-
stricted before the Revolution, save by a few light, general
duty acts. In 1774 the further importation of slaves was pro-
hibited, because " the increase of slaves in this Colony is in-
jurious to the poor and inconvenient." The law prohibited
importation under any pretext by a penalty of ;ioo per slave. 3
This was re-enacted in 1784, and provisions were made for the
abolition of slavery. 4 In 1788 participation in the trade was
forbidden, and the penalty placed at ^50 for each slave and
^500 for each ship engaged. 5
22. General Character of these Restrictions. Enough has already
been said to show, in the main, the character of the opposition
to the slave-trade in New England. The system of slavery had,
on this soil and amid these surroundings, no economic justifica-
tion, and the small number of Negroes here furnished no polit-
1 Fowler, Local Law, etc., p. 124.
a The number of slaves in Connecticut has been estimated as follows :
In 1680, 30. Conn. Col. Rec., III. 298.
" l Ty>i 7- Williams, History of the Negro Race in America, I. 259.
" ! 756, 3,636. Fowler, Local Law, etc., p. 140.
" 1762, 4,590. Williams, History of the Negro Race in America, I. 260.
" 1774, 6,562. Fowler, Local Law, etc., p. 140.
" 1782, 6,281. Ibid.
" 1800, 5,281. Ibid., p. 141.
8 Conn. Col. Rec., XIV. 329. Fowler (pp. 125-6) says that the law
was passed in 1769, as does Sanford (p. 252). I find no proof of this.
There was in Connecticut the same Biblical legislation on the trade as in
Massachusetts. Cf. Laws of Connecticut (repr. 1865), p. 9; also Col.
Rec., I. 77. For general duty acts, see Col. Rec., V. 405; VIII. 22; IX.
283; XIII. 72,125.
4 Acts and Laws of Connecticut (ed. 1784), pp. 233-4.
6 Ibid., pp. 368, 369, 388.
38 THE TRADING COLONIES. [CHAP. IV.
ical arguments against them. The opposition to the importation
was therefore from the first based solely on moral grounds,
with some social arguments. As to the carrying trade, how-
ever, the case was different. Here, too, a feeble moral opposi-
tion was early aroused, but it was swept away by the immense
economic advantages of the slave traffic to a thrifty seafaring
community of traders. This trade no moral suasion, not even
the strong " Liberty" cry of the Revolution, was able wholly to
suppress, until the closing of the West Indian and Southern
markets cut off the demand for slaves.
CHAPTER V.
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION. 1774-1787.
23. The Situation in 1774.
24. The Condition of the Slave-Trade.
25. The Slave-Trade and the " Association."
26. The Action of the Colonies.
27. The Action of the Continental Congress.
28. Reception of the Slave-Trade Resolution.
29. Results of the Resolution.
30. The Slave-Trade and Public Opinion after the War.
31. The Action of the Confederation.
23. The Situation in 1774. In the individual efforts of the
various colonies to suppress the African slave-trade there may
be traced certain general movements. First, from 1638 to 1664,
there was a tendency to take a high moral stand against the
traffic. This is illustrated in the laws of New England, in
the plans for the settlement of Delaware and, later, that of
Georgia, and in the protest of the German Friends. The second
period, from about 1664 to 1760, has no general unity, but is
marked by statutes laying duties varying in design from en-
couragement to absolute prohibition, by some cases of moral
opposition, and by the slow but steady growth of a spirit un-
favorable to the long continuance of the trade. The last colo-
nial period, from about 1760 to 1787, is one of pronounced
effort to regulate, limit, or totally prohibit the traffic. Beside
these general movements, there are many waves of legislation,
easily distinguishable, which rolled over several or all of the
colonies at various times, such as the series of high duties fol-
lowing the Assiento, and the acts inspired by various Negro
" plots."
Notwithstanding this, the laws of the colonies before 1774 had
no national unity, the peculiar circumstances of each colony
40 THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION. [CHAP. V.
determining its legislation. With the outbreak of the Revolu-
tion came unison in action with regard to the slave-trade,
as with regard to other matters, which may justly be called
national. It was, of course, a critical period, a period when,
in the rapid upheaval of a few years, the complicated and
diverse forces of decades meet, combine, act, and react, until
the resultant seems almost the work of chance. In the settle-
ment of the fate of slavery and the slave-trade, however, the
real crisis came in the calm that succeeded the storm, in that
day when, in the opinion of most men, the question seemed
already settled. And indeed it needed an exceptionally clear
and discerning mind, in 1787, to deny that slavery and the slave-
trade in the United States of America were doomed to early anni-
hilation. It seemed certainly a legitimate deduction from the
history of the preceding century to conclude that, as the system
had risen, flourished, and fallen in Massachusetts, New York,
and Pennsylvania, and as South Carolina, Virginia, and Mary-
land were apparently following in the same legislative path,
the next generation would in all . probability witness the last
throes of the system on our soil.
To be sure, the problem had its uncertain quantities. The
motives of the law-makers in South Carolina and Pennsylvania
were dangerously different; the century of industrial expansion
was slowly dawning and awakening that vast economic revolu-
tion in which American slavery was to play so prominent and
fatal a r61e ; and, finally, there were already in the South faint
signs of a changing moral attitude toward slavery, which would
no longer regard the system as a temporary makeshift, but
rather as a permanent though perhaps unfortunate necessity.
With regard to the slave-trade, however, there appeared to be
substantial unity of opinion ; and there were, in 1787, few things
to indicate that a cargo of five hundred African slaves would
openly be landed in Georgia in 1860.
24. The Condition of the Slave-Trade. In 1760 England, the
chief slave-trading nation, was sending on an average to Africa
163 ships annually, with a tonnage of 18,000 tons, carrying ex-
ports to the value of 163,8 18. Only about twenty of these
ships regularly returned to England. Most of them carried
SECT. 25.] SLAVE-TRADE AND THE "ASSOCIATION." 41
slaves to the West Indies, and returned laden with sugar and
other products. Thus may be formed some idea of the size and
importance of the slave-trade at that time, although for a com-
plete view we must add to this the trade under the French,
Portuguese, Dutch, and Americans. The trade fell off some-
what toward 1770, but was flourishing again when the Revolu-
tion brought a sharp and serious check upon it, bringing down
the number of English slavers, clearing, from 167 in 1774 to 28
in 1779, and the tonnage from 17,218 to 3,475 tons. After the
war the trade gradually recovered, and by 1786 had reached
nearly its former extent. In 1783 the British West Indies
received 16,208 Negroes from Africa, and by 1787 the im-
portation had increased to 21,023. I n this latter year it was
estimated that the British were taking annually from Africa
38,000 slaves; the French, 20,000; the Portuguese, 10,000; the
Dutch and Danes, 6,000 ; a total of 74,000. Manchester alone
sent 1 80,000 annually in goods to Africa in exchange for
Negroes. 1
25. The Slave-Trade and the "Association." At the outbreak
of the Revolution six main reasons, some of which were old and
of slow growth, others peculiar to the abnormal situation of that
time, led to concerted action against the slave-trade. The first
reason was the economic failure of slavery in the Middle and
Eastern colonies; this gave rise to the presumption that like
failure awaited the institution in the South. Secondly, the new
philosophy of " Freedom " and the " Rights of man," which
formed the corner-stone of the Revolution, made the dullest
realize that, at the very least, the slave-trade and a struggle for
"liberty" were not consistent. Thirdly, the old fear of slave
insurrections, which had long played so prominent a part in
legislation, now gained new power from the imminence of war
and from the well-founded fear that the British might incite
servile uprisings. Fourthly, nearly all the American slave
markets were, in 1774-1775, overstocked with slaves, and conse-
quently many of the strongest partisans of the system were
" bulls " on the market, and desired to raise the value of their
1 These figures are from the Report of the Lords of the Committee of
Council, etc. (London, 1789).
42 THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION. [CHAP. V.
slaves by at least a temporary stoppage of the trade. Fifthly,
since the vested interests of the slave-trading merchants were
liable to be swept away by the opening of hostilities, and since
the price of slaves was low, 1 there was from this quarter little
active opposition to a cessation of the trade for a season.
Finally, it was long a favorite belief of the supporters of the
Revolution that, as English exploitation of colonial resources
had caused the quarrel, the best weapon to bring England to
terms was the economic expedient of stopping all commercial
intercourse with her. Since, then, the slave-trade had ever
formed an important part of her colonial traffic, it was one
of the first branches of commerce which occurred to the colonists
as especially suited to their ends. 2
Such were the complicated moral, political, and economic
motives which underlay the first national action against the
slave-trade. This action was taken by the " Association," a
union of the colonies entered into to enforce the policy of stop-
ping commercial intercourse with England. The movement
was not a great moral protest against an iniquitous traffic;
although it had undoubtedly a strong moral backing, it was
primarily a temporary war measure.
26. The Action of the Colonies. The earlier and largely
abortive attempts to form non-intercourse associations gener-
ally did not mention slaves specifically, although the Virginia
House of Burgesses, May 11, 1769, recommended to merchants
and traders, among other things, to agree, " That they will not
import any slaves, or purchase any imported after the first day
of November next, until the said acts are repealed." 3 Later, in
1774, when a Faneuil Hall meeting started the first successful
national attempt at non-intercourse, the slave-trade, being at the
time especially flourishing, received more attention. Even then
1 Sheffield, Observations on American Commerce, p. 28; P. L. Ford, The
Association of the First Congress, in Political Science Quarterly, VI. 615-7.
2 Cf., e.g., Arthur Lee's letter to R. H. Lee, March 18, 1774, in which
non-intercourse is declared " the only advisable and sure mode of defence " :
Force, American Archives, 4th Ser., I. 229. Cf. also Ibid., p. 240; Ford,
in Political Science Quarterly, VI. 614-5.
8 Goodloe, Birth of the Republic, p. 260.
SECT. 26.] THE ACTION OF THE COLONIES. 43
slaves were specifically mentioned in the resolutions of but
three States. Rhode Island recommended a stoppage of " all
trade with Great Britain, Ireland, Africa and the West Indies." l
North Carolina, in August, 1774, resolved in convention " That
we will not import any slave or slaves, or purchase any slave or
slaves, imported or brought into this Province by others, from
any part of the world, after the first day of November next." 2
Virginia gave the slave-trade especial prominence, and was in
reality the leading spirit to force her views on the Continental
Congress. The county conventions of that colony first took up
the subject. Fairfax County thought " that during our present
difficulties and distress, no slaves ought to be imported," and
said : " We take this opportunity of declaring our most earnest
wishes to see an entire stop forever put to such a wicked, cruel,
and unnatural trade." 8 Prince George and Nansemond Coun-
ties resolved " That the African trade is injurious to this Colony,
obstructs the population of it by freemen, prevents manufac-
turers and other useful emigrants from Europe from settling
amongst us, and occasions an annual increase of the balance of
trade against this Colony." 4 The Virginia colonial convention,
August, 1774, also declared: "We will neither ourselves im-
port, nor purchase any slave or slaves imported by any other
person, after the first day of November next, either from Africa,
the West Indies, or any other place." 5
In South Carolina, at the convention July 6, 1774, decided
opposition to the non-importation scheme was manifested,
though how much this was due to the slave-trade interest is
not certain. Many of the delegates wished at least to limit the
powers of their representatives, and the Charleston Chamber of
Commerce flatly opposed the plan of an " Association." Finally,
however, delegates with full powers were sent to Congress. The
arguments leading to this step were not in all cases on the score
1 Staples, Annals of Providence (1843), p. 235.
a Force, American Archives, 4th Ser., I. 735. This was probably copied
from the Virginia resolve.
Ibid., I. 600.
4 Ibid., I. 494, 530. Cf. pp. 523, 616, 641, etc.
6 Ibid., I. 687.
44 THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION. [CHAP. V.
of patriotism ; a Charleston manifesto argued : " The planters
are greatly in arrears to the merchants ; a stoppage of importa-
tion would give them all an opportunity to extricate themselves
from debt. The merchants would have time to settle their
accounts, and be ready with the return of liberty to renew
trade." *
27. The Action of the Continental Congress. The first Con-
tinental Congress met September 5, 1774, and on September
22 recommended merchants to send no more orders for foreign
goods. 2 On September 27 " Mr. Lee made a motion for a
non-importation," and it was unanimously resolved to import
no goods from Great Britain after December I, I774- 3 After-
ward, Ireland and the West Indies were also included, and a
committee consisting of Low of New York, Mifflin of Penn-
sylvania, Lee of Virginia, and Johnson of Connecticut were
appointed " to bring in a Plan for carrying into Effect the
Non-importation, Non-consumption, and Non-exportation re-
solved on." * The next move was to instruct this committee to
include in the proscribed articles, among other things, " Mo-
lasses, Coffee or Piemento from the British Plantations or from
Dominica" a motron which cut deep into the slave-trade
circle of commerce, and aroused some opposition. " Will, can,
the people bear a total interruption of the West India trade?"
asked Low of New York ; " Can they live without rum, sugar,
and molasses? Will not this impatience and vexation defeat the
measure?" 6
The committee finally reported, October 12, 1774, and after
three days' discussion and amendment the proposal passed.
This document, after a recital of grievances, declared that, in
the opinion of the colonists, a non-importation agreement would
best secure redress ; goods from Great Britain, Ireland, the East
1 Force, American Archives, 4th Ser., I. 511, 526. Cf. also p. 316.
8 Journals of Cong., I. 20. Cf. Ford, in Political Science Quarterly,
VI. 615-7.
8 John Adams, Works, II. 382.
* yournals of Cong. , I. 21.
8 Ibid., I. 24; Drayton, Memoirs of the American Re-volution, I. 147;
John Adams, Works, II. 394.
SECT. 28.] RECEPTION OF SLA VE-TRADE RESOLUTION. 45
and West Indies, and Dominica were excluded; and it was
resolved that " We will neither import, nor purchase any Slave
imported after the First Day of December next; after which
Time, we will wholly discontinue the Slave Trade, and will
neither be concerned in it ourselves, nor will we hire our Vessels,
nor sell our Commodities or Manufactures to those who are
concerned in it." J
Strong and straightforward as this resolution was, time unfor-
tunately proved that it meant very little. Two years later, in
this same Congress, a decided opposition was manifested to
branding the slave-trade as inhuman, and it was thirteen years
before South Carolina stopped the slave-trade or Massachusetts
prohibited her citizens from engaging in it. The passing of so
strong a resolution must be explained by the motives before
given, by the character of the drafting committee, by the
desire of America in this crisis to appear well before the world,
and by the natural moral enthusiasm aroused by the imminence
of a great national struggle.
28. Reception of the Slave-Trade Resolution. The unanimity
with which the colonists received this " Association " is not per-
haps as remarkable as the almost entire absence of comment
on the radical slave-trade clause. A Connecticut town-meeting
in December, 1774, noticed "with singular pleasure . . . the
second Article of the Association, in which it is agreed to
import no more Negro Slaves." 2 This comment appears to
have been almost the only one. There were in various places
some evidences of disapproval; but only in the State of
Georgia was this widespread and determined, and based mainly
on the slave-trade clause. 3 This opposition delayed the ratifi-
cation meeting until January 18, 1775, and then delegates from
but five of the twelve parishes appeared, and many of these
had strong instructions against the approval of the plan. Be-
1 Journals of Cong., I. 27, 32-8.
2 Danbury, Dec. 12, 1774: Force, American Archives, 4th Ser., I. 1038.
This case and that of Georgia are the only ones I have found in which the
slave-trade clause was specifically mentioned.
8 Force, American Archives, 4th Ser., I. 1033, 1136, 1160, 1163; II. 279-
281, 1544; Journals of Cong., May 13, 15, 17, 1775.
46 THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION. [CHAP. V.
fore this meeting could act, the governor adjourned it, on the
ground that it did not represent the province. Some of the
delegates signed an agreement, one article of which promised
to stop the importation of slaves March 15, 1775, i. e., four
months later than the national "Association" had directed. This
was not, of course, binding on the province ; and although a
town like Darien might declare " our disapprobation and abhor-
rence of the unnatural practice of Slavery in America"'*- yet the
powerful influence of Savannah was " not likely soon to give
matters a favourable turn. The importers were mostly against
any interruption, and the consumers very much divided." 2 Thus
the efforts of this Assembly failed, their resolutions being almost
unknown, and, as a gentleman writes, " I hope for the honour of
the Province ever will remain so." 3 The delegates to the Con-
tinental Congress selected by this rump assembly refused to
take their seats. Meantime South Carolina stopped trade with
Georgia, because it " hath not acceded to the Continental Asso-
ciation," * and the single Georgia parish of St. Johns appealed
to the second Continental Congress to except it from the gen-
eral boycott of the colony. This county had already resolved
not to " purchase any- Slave imported at Savannah (large Num-
bers of which we understand are there expected) till the Sense
of Congress shall be made known to us." 6
May 17, 1775, Congress resolved unanimously "That all
exportations to Quebec, Nova-Scotia, the Island of St. John's,
Newfaindland, Georgia, except the Parish of St. Johns, and
to East and West Florida, immediately cease." 6 These meas-
ures brought the refractory colony to terms, and the Provincial
Congress, July 4, 1775, finally adopted the " Association," and
resolved, among other things, "That we will neither import or
purchase any Slave imported from Africa, or elsewhere, after
this day." 7
The non-importation agreement was in the beginning, at least,
1 Force, American Archives, 4th Ser., I. 1136.
2 Ibid., II. 279-81. 8 Ibid., I. 1160. * Ibid., I. 1163.
6 Journals of Cong., May 13, 15, 1775-
6 Ibid., May 17, 1775.
7 Force. American Archives, 4th Sen, II. 1545.
SECT. 29.] RESULTS OF THE RESOLUTION. 47
well enforced by the voluntary action of the loosely federated
nation. The slave-trade clause seems in most States to have
been observed with the others. In South Carolina " a cargo of
near three hundred slaves was sent out of the Colony by the
consignee, as being interdicted by the second article of the
Association." l In Virginia the vigilance committee of Nor-
folk " hold up for your just indignation Mr. John Brown,
Merchant, of this place," who has several times imported slaves
from Jamaica ; and he is thus publicly censured " to the end
that all such foes to the rights of British America may be pub-
lickly known ... as the enemies of American Liberty, and
that every person may henceforth break off all dealings with
him." 2
29. Results of the Resolution. The strain of war at last
proved too much for this voluntary blockade, and after some
hesitancy Congress, April 3, 1776, resolved to allow the impor-
tation of articles not the growth or manufacture of Great
Britain, except tea. They also voted " That no slaves be im-
ported into any of the thirteen United Colonies." 3 This marks
a noticeable change of attitude from the strong words of two
years previous : the former was a definitive promise ; this is a
temporary resolve, which probably represented public opinion
much better than the former. On the whole, the conclusion
is inevitably forced on the student of this first national move-
ment against the slave-trade, that its influence on the trade was
but temporary and insignificant, and that at the end of the ex-
periment the outlook for the final suppression of the trade was
little brighter than before. The whole movement served as a
sort of social test of the power and importance of the slave-
trade, which proved to be far more powerful than the platitudes
of many of the Revolutionists had assumed.
The effect of the movement on the slave-trade in general was
to begin, possibly a little earlier than otherwise would have
been the case, that temporary breaking up of the trade which
1 Drayton, Memoirs of the American Revolution, I. 182. Cf. pp. 181-7;
Ramsay, History of S. Carolina, I. 231.
3 Force, American Archives, 4th Ser., II. 33-4.
8 Journals of Cong., II. 122.
48 THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION. [CHAP. V.
the war naturally caused. " There was a time, during the late
war," says Clarkson, " when the slave trade may be considered
as having been nearly abolished." l The prices of slaves rose
correspondingly high, so that smugglers made fortunes. 2 It is
stated that in the years 1772-1778 slave merchants of Liver-
pool failed for the sum of ^7io,ooo. 3 All this, of course,
might have resulted from the war, without the " Association ; "
but in the long run the " Association " aided in frustrating
the very designs which the framers of the first resolve had
in mind; for the temporary stoppage in the end created an
extraordinary demand for slaves, and led to a slave-trade after
the war nearly as large as that before.
30. The Slave-Trade and Public Opinion after the War. The
Declaration of Independence showed a significant drift of public
opinion from the firm stand taken in the " Association " resolu-
tions. The clique of political philosophers to which Jefferson
belonged never imagined the continued existence of the country
with slavery. It is well known that the first draft of the Decla-
ration contained a severe arraignment of Great Britain as the
real promoter of slavery and the slave-trade in America. In it
the king was charged with waging "cruel war against human
nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty
in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, cap-
tivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere,
or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This
piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the war-
fare of the Christian king of Great Britain. Determined to
keep open a market where men should be bought and sold, he
has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative
attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce.
And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of dis-
tinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in
arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has
deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he also ob-
truded them : thus paying off former crimes committed against
1 Clarkson, Impolicy of the Slave-Trade, pp. 125-8.
2 Ibid., pp. 25-6.
8 Ibid.
SECT. 30.] SLAVE-TRADE AND PUBLIC OPINION. 49
the liberties of one people with crimes which he urges them to
commit against the lives of another." 1
To this radical and not strictly truthful statement, even the
large influence of the Virginia leaders could not gain the assent
of the delegates in Congress. The afflatus of 1774 was rapidly
subsiding, and changing economic conditions had already led
many to look forward to a day when the slave-trade could suc-
cessfully be reopened. More important than this, the nation
as a whole was even less inclined now than in 1774 to denounce
the slave-trade uncompromisingly. Jefferson himself says that
this clause " was struck out in complaisance to South Carolina
and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the importa-
tion of slaves, and who, on the contrary, still wished to continue
it. Our northern brethren also, I believe," said he, " felt a little
tender under those censures ; for though their people had very
few slaves themselves, yet they had been pretty considerable
carriers of them to others." 2
As the war slowly dragged itself to a close, it became increas-
ingly evident that a firm moral stand against slavery and the
slave-trade was not a probability. The reaction which natu-
rally follows a period of prolonged and exhausting strife for
high political principles now set in. The economic forces of
the country, which had suffered most, sought to recover and
rearrange themselves ; and all the selfish motives that impelled
a bankrupt nation to seek to gain its daily bread did not long
hesitate to demand a reopening of the profitable African slave-
trade. This demand was especially urgent from the fact that
the slaves, by pillage, flight, and actual fighting, had become so
reduced in numbers during the war that an urgent demand for
more laborers was felt in the South.
Nevertheless, the revival of the trade was naturally a matter
of some difficulty, as the West India circuit had been cut off,
leaving no resort except to contraband traffic and the direct
African trade. The English slave-trade after the peace " re-
turned to its former state," and was by 1784 sending 20,000
1 Jefferson, Works (Washington, 1853-4), I. 23-4. On the Declaration
as an anti-slavery document, cf. Elliot, Debates (1861), I. 89.
2 Jefferson, Works (Washington, 1853-4), I. 19.
4
50 THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION. [CHAP. V.
slaves annually to the West Indies. 1 Just how large the
trade to the continent was at this time there are few means of
ascertaining; it is certain that there was a general reopening
of the trade in the Carolinas and Georgia, and that the New
England traders participated in it This traffic undoubtedly
reached considerable proportions ; and through the direct Afri-
can trade and the illicit West India trade many thousands of
Negroes came into the United States during the years 1783-
I 7 8 7 . 2
Meantime there was slowly arising a significant divergence
of opinion on the subject. Probably the whole country still
regarded both slavery and the slave-trade as temporary; but
the Middle States expected to see the abolition of both within
a generation, while the South scarcely thought it probable to
prohibit even the slave-trade in that short time. Such a differ-
ence might, in all probability, have been satisfactorily adjusted,
if both parties had recognized the real gravity of the matter.
As it was, both regarded it as a problem of secondary impor-
tance, to be solved after many -other more pressing ones had
been disposed of. The anti-slavery men had seen slavery die
in their own communities, and expected it to die the same way
in others, with as little active effort on their own part. The
Southern planters, born and reared in a slave system, thought
that some day the system might change, and possibly disap-
pear ; but active effort to this end on their part was ever far-
thest from their thoughts. Here, then, began that fatal policy
toward slavery and the slave-trade that characterized the na-
tion for three-quarters of a century, the policy of laissez-faire,
laissez-passer.
3 1 . The Action of the Confederation. The slave-trade was hardly
touched upon in the Congress of the Confederation, except in
the ordinance respecting the capture of slaves, and on the oc-
casion of the Quaker petition against the trade, although, dur-
ing the debate on the Articles of Confederation, the counting
1 Clarkson, Impolicy of the Slave-Trade, pp. 25-6 ; Report, etc., as above.
3 Witness the many high duty acts on slaves, and the revenue derived
therefrom. Massachusetts had sixty distilleries running in 1783. Cf. Shef-
field, Observations on American Commerce, p. 267.
SECT. 31.] ACTION OF THE CONFEDERATION. 51
of slaves as well as of freemen in the apportionment of taxes
was urged as a measure that would check further importation
of Negroes. " It is our duty," said Wilson of Pennsylvania,
" to lay every discouragement on the importation of slaves ;
but this amendment [i. e., to count two slaves as one freeman]
would give the jus trium liberorum to him who would import
slaves." 1 The matter was finally compromised by apportioning
requisitions according to the value of land and buildings.
After the Articles went into operation, an ordinance in regard
to the recapture of fugitive slaves provided that, if the capture
was made on the sea below high-water mark, and the Negro
was not claimed, he should be freed. Matthews of South Caro-
lina demanded the yeas and nays on this proposition, with the
result that only the vote of his State was recorded against it. 2
On Tuesday, October 3, 1783, a deputation from the Yearly
Meeting of the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware Friends
asked leave to present a petition. Leave was granted the fol-
lowing day, 3 but no further minute appears. According to
the report of the Friends, the petition was against the slave-
trade ; and " though the Christian rectitude of the concern was
by the Delegates generally acknowledged, yet not being vested
with the powers of legislation, they declined promoting any
public remedy against the gross national iniquity of trafficking
in the persons of fellow-men." 4
The only legislative activity in regard to the trade during
the Confederation was taken by the individual States. 5 Before
1778 Connecticut, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Vir-
ginia had by law stopped the further importation of slaves, and
importation had practically ceased in all the New England and
Middle States, including Maryland. In consequence of the
revival of the slave-trade after the War, there was then a lull in
State activity until 1786, when North Carolina laid a prohibitive
1 Elliot, Debates, I. 72-3. Cf. Art. 8 of the Articles of Confederation.
2 Journals of Cong., 1781, June 25; July 18; Sept. 21, 27; Nov. 8, 13,
30; Dec. 4.
8 Ibid., 1782-3, pp. 418-9, 425.
* Annals of Cong., I Cong. 2 sess. p. 1183.
6 Cf. above, chapters ii., iii., iv.
52 THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION. [CHAP. V.
duty, and South Carolina, a year later, began her series of tem-
porary prohibitions. In 1787-1788 the New England States
forbade the participation of their citizens in the traffic. It was
this wave of legislation against the traffic which did so much to
blind the nation as to the strong hold which slavery still had
on the country.
CHAPTER VI.
THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. 1787.
32. The First Proposition.
33. The General Debate.
34. The Special Committee and the " Bargain."
35. The Appeal to the Convention.
36. Settlement by the Convention.
37. Reception of the Clause by the Nation.
38. Attitude of the State Conventions.
39. Acceptance of the Policy.
32. The First Proposition. Slavery occupied no prominent
place in the Convention called to remedy the glaring defects of
the Confederation, for the obvious reason that few of the dele-
gates thought it expedient to touch a delicate subject which,
if let alone, bade fair to settle itself in a manner satisfactory to
all. Consequently, neither slavery nor the slave-trade is specifi-
cally mentioned in the delegates' credentials of any of the
States, nor in Randolph's, Pinckney's, or Hamilton's plans, nor
in Paterson's propositions. Indeed, the debate from May 14 to
June 19, when the Committee of the Whole reported, touched
the subject only in the matter of the ratio of representation
of slaves. With this same exception, the report of the Committee
of the Whole contained no reference to slavery or the slave-
trade, and the twenty-three resolutions of the Convention re-
ferred to the Committee of Detail, July 23 and 26, maintain the
same silence.
The latter committee, consisting of Rutledge, Randolph,
Gorham, Ellsworth, and Wilson, reported a draft of the Con-
stitution August 6, 1787. The committee had, in its delibera-
tions, probably made use of a draft of a national Constitution
made by Edmund Randolph. 1 One clause of this provided that
1 Conway, Life and Papers of Edmund Randolph, ch. ix.
54 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. [CHAP. VI.
" no State shall lay a duty on imports; " and, also, " I. No duty
on exports. 2. No prohibition on such inhabitants as the
United States think proper to admit. 3. No duties by way
of such prohibition." It does not appear that any reference to
Negroes was here intended. In the extant copy, however, notes
in Edward Rutledge's handwriting change the second clause to
" No prohibition on such inhabitants or people as the several
States think proper to admit" 1 In the report, August 6, these
clauses take the following form :
" Article VII. Section 4. No tax or duty shall be laid by the legisla-
ture on articles exported from any state ; nor on the migration or
importation of such persons as the several states shall think proper to
admit ; nor shall such migration or importation be prohibited." 2
33. The General Debate. This, of course, referred both to
immigrants (" migration ") and to slaves (" importation "). 8
Debate on this section began Tuesday, August 22, and lasted
two days. Luther Martin of Maryland precipitated the discus-
sion by a proposition to alter the section so as to allow a
prohibition or tax on the importation of slaves. The debate
immediately became general, being carried on principally by
Rutledge, the Pinckneys, and Williamson from the Carolinas;
Baldwin of Georgia; Mason, Madison, and Randolph of Vir-
ginia; Wilson and Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania; Dick-
inson of Delaware ; and Ellsworth, Sherman, Gerry, King, and
Langdon of New England. 4
In this debate the moral arguments were prominent. Colonel
George Mason of Virginia denounced the traffic in slaves as
" infernal ; " Luther Martin of Maryland regarded it as " incon-
sistent with the principles of the revolution, and dishonorable to
the American character." "Every principle of honor and
safety," declared John Dickinson of Delaware, " demands the
exclusion of slaves." Indeed, Mason solemnly averred that the
1 Conway, Life and Papers of Edmund Randolph, p. 78.
2 Elliot, Debates, I. 227.
1 Cf. Conway, Life and Papers of Edmund Randolph, pp. 78-9.
4 For the following debate, Madison's notes (Elliot, Debates, V. 457 ff.)
are mainly followed.
SECT. 33-] THE GENERAL DEBATE. 55
crime of slavery might yet bring the judgment of God on the
nation. On the other side, Rutledge of South Carolina bluntly
declared that religion and humanity had nothing to do with the
question, that it was a matter of " interest " alone. Gerry of
Massachusetts wished merely to refrain from giving direct
sanction to the trade, while others contented themselves with
pointing out the inconsistency of condemning the slave-trade
and defending slavery.
The difficulty of the whole argument, from the moral stand-
point, lay in the fact that it was completely checkmated by the
obstinate attitude of South Carolina and Georgia. Their dele-
gates Baldwin, the Pinckneys, Rutledge, and others asserted
flatly, not less than a half-dozen times during the debate, that
these States " can never receive the plan if it prohibits the slave-
trade;" that " if the Convention thought" that these States
would consent to a stoppage of the slave-trade, " the expec-
tation is vain." 1 By this stand all argument from the moral
standpoint was virtually silenced, for the Convention evidently
agreed with Roger Sherman of Connecticut that " it was better
to let the Southern States import slaves than to part with those
States."
In such a dilemma the Convention listened not unwillingly to
the non possumus arguments of the States' Rights advocates.
The " morality and wisdom " of slavery, declared Ellsworth of
Connecticut, " are considerations belonging to the States them-
selves; " let every State "import what it pleases;" the Con-
federation has not " meddled " with the question, why should
the Union? It is a dangerous symptom of centralization, cried
Baldwin of Georgia ; the " central States " wish to be the
" vortex for everything," even matters of " a local nature." The
national government, said Gerry of Massachusetts, had nothing
to do with slavery in the States ; it had only to refrain from
giving direct sanction to the system. Others opposed this
whole argument, declaring, with Langdon of New Hampshire,
that Congress ought to have this power, since, as Dickinson
tartly remarked, " The true question was, whether the national
happiness would be promoted or impeded by the importation ;
1 Cf. Elliot, Debates, V., passim.
56 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. [CHAP. VI.
and this question ought to be left to the national government,
not to the states particularly interested."
Beside these arguments as to the right of the trade and the
proper seat of authority over it, many arguments of general
expediency were introduced. From an economic standpoint,
for instance, General C. C. Pinckney of South Carolina " con-
tended, that the importation of slaves would be for the interest
of the whole Union. The more slaves, the more produce."
Rutledge of the same State declared : " If the Northern States
consult their interest, they will not oppose the increase of slaves,
which will increase the commodities of which they will become
the carriers." This sentiment found a more or less conscious
echo in the words of Ellsworth of Connecticut, " What enriches
a part enriches the whole." It was, moreover, broadly hinted
that the zeal of Maryland and Virginia against the trade had an
economic rather than a humanitarian motive, since they had
slaves enough and to spare, and wished to sell them at a high
price to South Carolina and Georgia, who needed more. In
such case restrictions would unjustly discriminate against the
latter States. The argument from history was barely touched
upon. Only once was there an allusion to " the example of all
the world" "in all ages" to justify slavery, 1 and once came the
counter declaration that " Greece and Rome were made unhappy
by their slaves." 2 On the other hand, the military weakness
of slavery in the late war led to many arguments on that score.
Luther Martin and George Mason dwelt on the danger of a ser-
vile class in war and insurrection ; while Rutledge hotly replied
that he " would readily exempt the other states from the obli-
gation to protect the Southern against them ; " and Ellsworth
thought that the very danger would " become a motive to kind
treatment." The desirability of keeping slavery out of the
West was once mentioned as an argument against the trade:
to this all seemed tacitly to agree. 3
Throughout the debate it is manifest that the Convention
had no desire really to enter upon a general slavery argument.
1 By Charles Pinckney.
2 By John Dickinson.
8 Mentioned in the speech of George Mason.
SECT. 33-] THE GENERAL DEBATE. 57
The broader and more theoretic aspects of the question were
but lightly touched upon here and there. Undoubtedly, most
of the members would have much preferred not to raise the
question at all ; but, as it was raised, the differences of opinion
were too manifest to be ignored, and the Convention, after its
first perplexity, gradually and perhaps too willingly set itself
to work to find some " middle ground " on which all parties
could stand. The way to this compromise was pointed out
by the South. The most radical pro-slavery arguments always
ended with the opinion that " if the Southern States were let
alone, they will probably of themselves stop importations." 1
To be sure, General Pinckney admitted that, " candidly, he did
not think South Carolina would stop her importations of slaves
in any short time ; " nevertheless, the Convention " observed,"
with Roger Sherman, " that the abolition of slavery seemed to be
going on in the United States, and that the good sense of the
several states would probably by degrees complete it." Eco-
nomic forces were evoked to eke out moral motives : when the
South had its full quota of slaves, like Virginia it too would
abolish the trade; free labor was bound finally to drive out
slave labor. Thus the chorus of " laissez-faire " increased ; and
compromise seemed at least in sight, when Connecticut cried,
" Let the trade alone ! " and Georgia denounced it as an " evil."
Some few discordant notes were heard, as, for instance, when
Wilson of Pennsylvania made the uncomforting remark, " If
South Carolina and Georgia were themselves disposed to get
rid of the importation of slaves in a short time, as had been
suggested, they would never refuse to unite because the impor-
tation might be prohibited."
With the spirit of compromise in the air, it was not long
before the general terms were clear. The slavery side was
strongly intrenched, and had a clear and definite demand. The
forces of freedom were, on the contrary, divided by important
conflicts of interest, and animated by no very strong and decided
anti-slavery spirit with settled aims. Under such circumstances,
1 Charles Pinckney. Baldwin of Georgia said that if the State were
left to herself, " she may probably put a stop to the evil " : Elliot, Debates,
V. 459-
58 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. [CHAP. VI.
it was easy for the Convention to miss the opportunity for a
really great compromise, and to descend to a scheme that
savored unpleasantly of " log-rolling." The student of the
situation will always have good cause to believe that a more
sturdy and definite anti-slavery stand at this point might have
changed history for the better.
34. The Special Committee and the "Bargain." Since the
debate had, in the first place, arisen from a proposition to tax
the importation of slaves, the yielding of this point by the South
was the first move toward compromise. To all but the doc-
trinaires, who shrank from taxing men as property, the argu-
ment that the failure to tax slaves was equivalent to a bounty,
was conclusive. With this point settled, Randolph voiced the
general sentiment, when he declared that he " was for commit-
ting, in order that some middle ground might, if possible, be
found." Finally, Gouverneur Morris discovered the " middle
ground," in his suggestion that the whole subject be committed,
" including the clauses relating to taxes on exports and to a
navigation act. These things," said he, " may form a bargain
among the Northern and Southern States." This was quickly
assented to ; and sections four and five, on slave-trade and capi-
tation tax, were committed by a vote of 7 to 3, 1 and section six,
on navigation acts, by a vote of 9 to 2. 2 All three clauses
were referred to the following committee: Langdon of New
Hampshire, King of Massachusetts, Johnson of Connecticut,
Livingston of New Jersey, Clymer of Pennsylvania, Dickin-
son of Delaware, Martin of Maryland, Madison of Virginia,
Williamson of North Carolina, General Pinckney of South
Carolina, and Baldwin of Georgia.
The fullest account of the proceedings of this committee is
given in Luther Martin's letter to his constituents, and is con-
firmed in its main particulars by similar reports of other dele-
gates. Martin writes: "A committee of one member from
each state was chosen by ballot, to take this part of the system
1 Affirmative: Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, North Caro-
lina, South Carolina, Georgia, 7. Negative: New Hampshire, Pennsyl-
vania, Delaware, 3. Absent: Massachusetts, I.
3 Negative: Connecticut and New Jersey.
SECT. 35.] THE APPEAL TO THE CONVENTION. 59
under their consideration, and to endeavor to agree upon some
report which should reconcile those states [i. e., South Carolina
and Georgia]. To this committee also was referred the follow-
ing proposition, which had been reported by the committee of
detail, viz. : ' No navigation act shall be passed without the
assent of two thirds of the members present in each house ' a
proposition which the staple and commercial states were solici-
tous to retain, lest their commerce should be placed too much
under the power of the Eastern States, but which these last
States were as anxious to reject. This committee of which
also I had the honor to be a member met, and took under
their consideration the subjects committed to them. I found
the Eastern States, notwithstanding their aversion to slavery,
were very willing to indulge the Southern States at least with a
temporary liberty to prosecute the slave trade, provided the
Southern States would, in their turn, gratify them, by laying no
restriction on navigation acts ; and after a very little time, the
committee, by a great majority, agreed on a report, by which
the general government was to be prohibited from preventing
the importation of slaves for a limited time, and the restrictive
clause relative to navigation acts was to be omitted." J
That the " bargain " was soon made is proven by the fact
that the committee reported the very next day, Friday, August
24, and that on Saturday the report was taken up. It was as
follows : " Strike out so much of the fourth section as was
referred to the committee, and insert ' The migration or impor-
tation of such persons as the several states, now existing, shall
think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the legislature
prior to the year 1800 ; but a tax or duty may be imposed on such
migration or importation, at a rate not exceeding the average of
the duties laid on imports.' The fifth section to remain as in the
report. The sixth section to be stricken out." 2
35. The Appeal to the Convention. The ensuing debate, 3
which lasted only a part of the day, was evidently a sort of
1 Luther Martin's letter, in Elliot, Debates, I. 373. Cf. explanations of
delegates in the South Carolina, North Carolina, and other conventions.
2 Elliot, Debates, V. 471.
8 Saturday, Aug. 25, 1787.
60 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. [CHAP. VI.
appeal to the House on the decisions of the committee. It
throws light on the points of disagreement General Pinckney
first proposed to extend the slave-trading limit to 1 808, and
Gorham of Massachusetts seconded the motion. This brought
a spirited protest from Madison : " Twenty years will produce
all the mischief that can be apprehended from the liberty to
import slaves. So long a term will be more dishonorable to the
American character than to say nothing about it in the Consti-
tution." J There was, however, evidently another " bargain "
here ; for, without farther debate, the South and the East voted
the extension, 7 to 4, only New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dela-
ware, and Virginia objecting. The ambiguous phraseology of
the whole slave-trade section as reported did not pass without
comment; Gouverneur Morris would have it read: "The im-
portation of slaves into North Carolina, South Carolina, and
Georgia, shall not be prohibited," etc. 2 This emendation was,
however, too painfully truthful for the doctrinaires, and was,
amid a score of objections, withdrawn. The taxation clause
also was manifestly too vague for practical use, and Baldwin of
Georgia wished to amend it by inserting " common impost on
articles not enumerated," in lieu of the " average " duty. 3 This
minor point gave rise to considerable argument : Sherman and
Madison deprecated any such recognition of property in man
as taxing would imply; Mason and Gorham argued that the
tax restrained the trade; while King, Langdon, and General
Pinckney contented themselves with the remark that this clause
was " the price of the first part." Finally, it was unanimously
agreed to make the duty " not exceeding ten dollars for each
person." 4
Southern interests now being safe, some Southern members
attempted, a few days later, to annul the " bargain " by restoring
the requirement of a two-thirds vote in navigation acts. Charles
Pinckney made the motion, in an elaborate speech designed to
show the conflicting commercial interests of the States; he de-
clared that " The power of regulating commerce was a pure
1 Elliot, Debates, V. 477.
3 Ibid. Dickinson made a similar motion, which was disagreed to : Ibid.
8 Ibid., V. 478.
SECT. 36.] SETTLEMENT BY THE CONVENTION. 6 1
concession on the part of the Southern States." 1 Martin and
Williamson of North Carolina, Butler of South Carolina, and
Mason of Virginia defended the proposition, insisting that it
would be a dangerous concession on the part of the South to
leave navigation acts to a mere majority vote. Sherman of
Connecticut, Morris of Pennsylvania, and Spaight of North
Carolina declared that the very diversity of interest was a secu-
rity. Finally, by a vote of 7 to 4, Maryland, Virginia, North
Carolina, and Georgia being in the minority, the Convention
refused to consider the motion, and the recommendation of the
committee passed. 2
When, on September 10, the Convention was discussing the
amendment clause of the Constitution, the ever-alert Rutledge,
perceiving that the results of the laboriously settled " bargain "
might be endangered, declared that he " never could agree to
give a power by which the articles relating to slaves might be
altered by the states not interested in that property." 3 As a
result, the clause finally adopted, September 15, had the pro-
viso : " Provided, that no amendment which may be made prior
to the year 1808 shall in any manner affect the ist and 4th
clauses in the 9th section of the ist article."*
36. Settlement by the Convention. Thus, the slave-trade arti-
cle of the Constitution stood finally as follows :
"Article I. Section 9. The Migration or Importation of such Per-
sons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall
not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight
hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importa-
tion, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person."
This settlement of the slavery question brought out distinct dif-
ferences of moral attitude toward the institution, and yet differ-
ences far from hopeless. To be sure, the South apologized for
slavery, the Middle States denounced it, and the East could only
tolerate it from afar; and yet all three sections united in con-
sidering it a temporary institution, the corner-stone of which
was the slave-trade. No one of them had ever seen a system
1 Aug. 29 : Elliot, Debates, V. 489. 2 Ibid., V. 492.
8 Ibid., V. 532. < Ibid., I. 317.
62 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. [CHAP. VI.
of slavery without an active slave-trade ; and there were prob-
ably few members of the Convention who did not believe that
the foundations of slavery had been sapped merely by putting
the abolition of the slave-trade in the hands of Congress twenty
years hence. Here lay the danger ; for when the North called
slavery " temporary," she thought of twenty or thirty years, while
the " temporary " period of the South was scarcely less than a
century. Meantime, for at least a score of years, a policy of
strict laissez-faire, so far as the general government was con-
cerned, was to intervene. Instead of calling the whole moral
energy of the people into action, so as gradually to crush this
portentous evil, the Federal Convention lulled the nation to
sleep by a " bargain," and left to the vacillating and unripe
judgment of the States one of the most threatening of the
social and political ills which they were so courageously seek-
ing to remedy.
37. Reception of the Clause by the Nation. When the pro-
posed Constitution was before the country, the slave-trade
article came in for no small amount of condemnation and
apology. In the pamphlets of the day it was much discussed.
One of the points in Mason's " Letter of Objections " was that
" the general legislature is restrained from prohibiting the fur-
ther importation of slaves for twenty odd years, though such im-
portations render the United States weaker, more vulnerable,
and less capable of defence." 1 To this Iredell replied, through
the columns of the State Gazette of North Carolina : " If all the
States had been willing to adopt this regulation [i. e., to pro-
hibit the slave-trade], I should as an individual most heartily
have approved of it, because even if the importation of slaves
in fact rendered us stronger, less vulnerable and more capable
of defence, I should rejoice in the prohibition of it, as putting
an end to a trade which has already continued too long for the
honor and humanity of those concerned in it. But as it was
well known that South Carolina and Georgia thought a fur-
ther continuance of such importations useful to them, and
would not perhaps otherwise have agreed to the new constitu-
1 P. L. Ford, Pamphlets on the Constitution, p. 331.
SECT. 37.] RECEPTION BY THE NATION. 63
tion, those States which had been importing till they were
satisfied, could not with decency have insisted upon their relin-
quishing advantages themselves had already enjoyed. Our sit-
uation makes it necessary to bear the evil as it is. It will be
left to the future legislatures to allow such importations or not.
If any, in violation of their clear conviction of the injustice of
this trade, persist in pursuing it, this is a matter between God
and their own consciences. The interests of humanity will, how-
ever, have gained something by the prohibition of this inhuman
trade, though at a distance of twenty odd years." *
" Centinel," representing the Quaker sentiment of Pennsyl-
vania, attacked the clause in his third letter, published in the
Independent Gazetteer, or The Chronicle of Freedom, November 8,
1787: " We are told that the objects of this article are slaves,
and that it is inserted to secure to the southern states the right
of introducing negroes for twenty-one years to come, against the
declared sense of the other states to put an end to an odious
traffic in the human species, which is especially scandalous and
inconsistent in a people, who have asserted their own liberty by
the sword, and which dangerously enfeebles the districts wherein
the laborers are bondsmen. The words, dark and ambiguous,
such as no plain man of common sense would have used, are
evidently chosen to conceal from Europe, that in this enlight-
ened country, the practice of slavery has its advocates among
men in the highest stations. When it is recollected that no poll
tax can be imposed on five negroes, above what three whites
shall be charged ; when it is considered, that the imposts on the
consumption of Carolina field negroes must be trifling, and the
excise nothing, it is plain that the proportion of contributions,
which can be expected from the southern states under the new
constitution, will be unequal, and yet they are to be allowed to
enfeeble themselves by the further importation of negroes till
the year 1808. Has not the concurrence of the five southern
states (in the convention) to the new system, been purchased
too dearly by the rest? " 2
1 P. L. Ford, Pamphlets on the Constitution p. 367.
2 McM aster and Stone, Pennsylvania and the Federal Convention, pp.
599-600. Cf. also p. 773.
64 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. [CHAP. VI.
Noah Webster's "Examination" (1787) addressed itself to
such Quaker scruples : " But, say the enemies of slavery, negroes
may be imported for twenty-one years. This exception is ad-
dressed to the quakers, and a very pitiful exception it is. The
truth is, Congress cannot prohibit the importation of slaves
during that period ; but the laws against the importation into
particular states, stand unrepealed. An immediate abolition of
slavery would bring ruin upon the whites, and misery upon the
blacks, in the southern states. The constitution has therefore
wisely left each state to pursue its own measures, with respect
to this article of legislation, during the period of twenty-one
years." 1
The following year the " Examination " of Tench Coxe said :
" The temporary reservation of any particular matter must ever
be deemed an admission that it should be done away. This
appears to have been well understood. In addition to the argu-
ments drawn from liberty, justice and religion, opinions against
this practice [i. e., of slave-trading], founded in sound policy,
have no doubt been urged. Regard was necessarily paid to the
peculiar situation of our southern fellow-citizens ; but they, on
the other hand, have "hot been insensible of the delicate situation
of our national character on this subject." 2
From quite different motives Southern men defended this
section. For instance, Dr. David Ramsay, a South Carolina
member of the Convention, wrote in his " Address " : " It is
farther objected, that they have stipulated for a right to pro-
hibit the importation of negroes after 21 years. On this
subject observe, as they are bound to protect us from domestic
violence, they think we ought not to increase our exposure to
that evil, by an unlimited importation of slaves. Though Con-
gress may forbid the importation of negroes after 21 years,
it does not follow that they will. On the other hand, it is
probable that they will not. The more rice we make, the more
business will be for their shipping; their interest will therefore
coincide with ours. Besides, we have other sources of supply
the importation of the ensuing 20 years, added to the natural
1 See Ford, Pamphlets, etc., p. 54. 2 Ibid., p. 146.
SECT. 38.] ATTITUDE OF THE STATE CONVENTIONS. 65
increase of those we already have, and the influx from our
northern neighbours who are desirous of getting rid of their
slaves, will afford a sufficient number for cultivating all the lands
in this state." 1
Finally, The Federalist, No. 41, written by James Madison,
commented as follows: "It were doubtless to be wished, that
the power of prohibiting the importation of slaves had not been
postponed until the year 1808, or rather, that it had been suf-
fered to have immediate operation. But it is not difficult to
account, either for this restriction on the General Government,
or for the manner in which the whole clause is expressed. It
ought to be considered as a great point gained in favor of
humanity, that a period of twenty years may terminate forever,
within these States, a traffic which has so long and so loudly
upbraided the barbarism of modern policy; that within that
period, it will receive a considerable discouragement from the
Federal Government, and may be totally abolished, by a con-
currence of the few States which continue the unnatural traffic,
in the prohibitory example which has been given by so great a
majority of the Union. Happy would it be for the unfortunate
Africans, if an equal prospect lay before them of being redeemed
from the oppressions of their European brethren !
"Attempts have been made to pervert this clause into an
objection against the Constitution, by representing it on one
side as a criminal toleration of an illicit practice, and on another,
as calculated to prevent voluntary and beneficial emigrations
from Europe to America. I mention these misconstructions, not
with a view to give them an answer, for they deserve none ;
but as specimens of the manner and spirit, in which some
have thought fit to conduct their opposition to the proposed
Government." 2
38. Attitude of the State Conventions. The records of the
proceedings in the various State conventions are exceedingly
meagre. In nearly all of the few States where records exist
1 " Address to the Freemen of South Carolina on the Subject of the Fed-
eral Constitution " : Ibid., p. 378.
3 Published in the New York Packet, Jan. 22, 1788; reprinted in Daw-
son's F&deralist, I. 290-1.
5
66 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. [CHAP. VI.
there is found some opposition to the slave-trade clause. The
opposition was seldom very pronounced or bitter; it rather
took the form of regret, on the one hand that the Convention
went so far, and on the other hand that it did not go farther.
Probably, however, the Constitution was never in danger of
rejection on account of this clause.
Extracts from a few of the speeches, pro and con, in various
States will best illustrate the character of the arguments. In
reply to some objections expressed in the Pennsylvania conven-
tion, Wilson said, December 3, 1787: " I consider this as lay-
ing the foundation for banishing slavery out of this country ;
and though the period is more distant than I could wish,
yet it will produce the same kind, gradual change, which
was pursued in Pennsylvania." 1 Robert Barnwell declared
in the South Carolina convention, January 17, 1788, that
this clause " particularly pleased " him. " Congress," he said,
" has guarantied this right for that space of time, and at its
expiration may continue it as long as they please. This ques-
tion then arises What will their interest lead them to do?
The Eastern States, as the honorable gentleman says, will be-
come the carriers of America. It will, therefore, certainly be
their interest to encourage exportation to as great an extent
as possible ; and if the quantum of our products will be dimin-
ished by the prohibition of negroes, I appeal to the belief of
every man, whether he thinks those very carriers will themselves
dam up the sources from whence their profit is derived. To
think so is so contradictory to the general conduct of mankind,
that I am of opinion, that, without we ourselves put a stop to
them, the traffic for negroes will continue forever." 2
In Massachusetts, January 30, 1788, General Heath said:
" The gentlemen who have spoken have carried the matter rather
too far on both sides. I apprehend that it is not in our power
to do anything for or against those who are in slavery in the
southern States. . . . Two questions naturally arise, if we rat-
ify the Constitution: Shall we do anything by our act to hold
the blacks in slavery? or shall we become partakers of other
1 Elliot, Debates, II. 452. 2 Ibid., IV. 296-7.
SECT. 38.] ATTITUDE OF THE STATE CONVENTIONS. 67
men's sins? I think neither of them. Each State is sovereign
and independent to a certain degree, and they have a right, and
will regulate their own internal affairs, as to themselves appears
proper." l Iredell said, in the North Carolina convention, July
26, 1788: "When the entire abolition of slavery takes place, it
will be an event which must be pleasing to every generous
mind, and every friend of human nature. . . . But as it is, this
government is nobly distinguished above others by that very
provision." z
Of the arguments against the clause, two made in the Massa-
chusetts convention are typical. The Rev. Mr. Neal said, Jan-
uary 25, 1788, that "unless his objection [to this clause] was
removed, he could not put his hand to the Constitution." 3
General Thompson exclaimed, " Shall it be said, that after we
have established our own independence and freedom, we make
slaves of others?" 4 Mason, in the Virginia convention, June
15, 1788, said: "As much as I value a union of all the states,
I would not admit the Southern States into the Union unless
they agree to the discontinuance of this disgraceful trade. . . .
Yet they have not secured us the property of the slaves we have
already. So that ' they have done what they ought not to have
done, and have left undone what they ought to have done.' " 6
Joshua Atherton, who led the opposition in the New Hamp-
shire convention, said : " The idea that strikes those who are
opposed to this clause so disagreeably and so forcibly is,
hereby it is conceived (if we ratify the Constitution) that we
become consenters to and partakers in the sin and guilt of this
abominable traffic, at least for a certain period, without any
positive stipulation that it shall even then be brought to an
end." 6
In the South Carolina convention Lowndes, January 16, 1788,
attacked the slave-trade clause. " Negroes," said he, " were
1 Published in Debates of the Massachusetts Convention, 1788, p. 217 ff.
3 Elliot, Debates, IV. 100-1.
8 Published in Debates of the Massachusetts Convention, 1788, p. 208.
* Ibid. 6 Elliot, Debates, III. 452-3.
6 Walker, Federal Convention of New Hampshire, App. 113; Elliot,
Debates, II. 203.
68 THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. [CHAP. VI.
our wealth, our only natural resource; yet behold how our
kind friends in the north were determined soon to tie up our
hands, and drain us of what we had ! The Eastern States drew
their means of subsistence, in a great measure, from their ship-
ping ; and, on that head, they had been particularly careful not
to allow of any burdens. . . . Why, then, call this a reciprocal
bargain, which took all from one party, to bestow it on the
other!" 1
In spite of this discussion in the different States, only one
State, Rhode Island, went so far as to propose an amendment
directing Congress to "promote and establish such laws and
regulations as may effectually prevent the importation of slaves
of every description, into the United States." 2
39. Acceptance of the Policy. As in the Federal Convention,
so in the State conventions, it is noticeable that the com-
promise was accepted by the various States from widely differ-
ent motives. 3 Nevertheless, these motives were not fixed and
unchangeable, and there was still discernible a certain underly-
ing agreement in the dislike of slavery. One cannot help
thinking that if the devastation of the late war had not left an
extraordinary demand for slaves in the South, if, for instance,
1 Elliot, Debates, IV. 273.
a Updike's Minutes, in Staples, Rhode Island in the Continental Con-
gress, pp. 657-8, 674-9. Adopted by a majority of one in a convention of
seventy.
* In five States I have found no mention of the subject (Delaware, New
Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, and Maryland). In the Pennsylvania conven-
tion there was considerable debate, partially preserved in Elliot's and Lloyd's
Debates. In the Massachusetts convention the debate on this clause occu-
pied a part of two or three days, reported in published debates. In South
Carolina there were several long speeches, reported in Elliot's Debates.
Only three speeches made in the New Hampshire convention seem to be extant,
and two of these are on the slave-trade : cf. Walker and Elliot. The Vir-
ginia convention discussed the clause to considerable extent : see Elliot. The
clause does not seem to have been a cause of North Carolina's delay in rati-
fication, although it occasioned some discussion : see Elliot. In Rhode
Island " much debate ensued," and in this State alone was an amendment
proposed : see Staples, Rhode Island in the Continental Congress. In New
York the Committee of the Whole " proceeded through sections 8, 9 ...
with little or no debate ": Elliot, Debates, II. 406.
SECT. 39-] ACCEPTANCE OF THE POLICY. 69
there had been in 1787 the same plethora in the slave-market
as in 1774, the future history of the country would have been
far different As it was, the twenty-one years of laissez-faire
were confirmed by the States, and the nation entered upon the
constitutional period with the slave-trade legal in three States, 1
and with a feeling of quiescence toward it in the rest of the
Union.
1 South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina. North Carolina had,
however, a prohibitive duty.
CHAPTER VII.
TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE AND ANTI-SLAVERY EFFORT,
1787-1806.
40. Influence of the Haytian Revolution.
41. Legislation of the Southern States.
42. Legislation of the Border States.
43. Legislation of the Eastern States.
44. First Debate in Congress, 1 789.
45. Second Debate in Congress, 1790.
46. The Declaration of Powers, 1790.
47. The Act of 1794.
48. The Act of 1800.
49. The Act of 1803.
50. State of the Slave-Trade from 1789 to 1803.
51. The South Carolina Repeal of 1803.
52. The Louisiana Slave-Trade, 1803-1805.
53. Last Attempts at Taxation, 1805-1806.
54. Key-Note of the Period.
40. Influence of the Haytian Revolution. The r61e which the
great Negro Toussaint, called L'Ouverture, played in the his-
tory of the United States has seldom been fully appreciated.
Representing the age of revolution in America, he rose to
leadership through a bloody terror, which contrived a Negro
" problem " for the Western Hemisphere, intensified and de-
fined the anti-slavery movement, became one of the causes,
and probably the prime one, which led Napoleon to sell
Louisiana for a song, and finally, through the interworking
of all these effects, rendered more certain the final prohibition
of the slave-trade by the United States in 1807.
From the time of the reorganization of the Pennsylvania
Abolition Society, in 1787, anti-slavery sentiment became active.
New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, and
SECT. 41.] LEGISLATION OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. 7 1
Virginia had strong organizations, and a national convention
was held in 1794. The terrible upheaval in the West Indies,
beginning in 1791, furnished this rising movement with an irre-
sistible argument. A wave of horror and fear swept over the
South, which even the powerful slave-traders of Georgia did
not dare withstand ; the Middle States saw their worst dreams
realized, and the mercenary trade interests of the East lost
control of the New England conscience.
41. Legislation of the Southern States. In a few years the
growing sentiment had crystallized into legislation. The South-
ern States took immediate measures to close their ports, first
against West India Negroes, finally against all slaves. Georgia,
who had had legal slavery only from 1755, and had since passed
no restrictive legislation, felt compelled in 1793 J to stop the
entry of free Negroes, and in 1798 2 to prohibit, under heavy
penalties, the importation of all slaves. This provision was
placed in the Constitution of the State, and, although miser-
ably enforced, was never repealed.
South Carolina was the first Southern State in which the
exigencies of a great staple crop rendered the rapid consump-
tion of slaves more profitable than their proper maintenance.
Alternating, therefore, between a plethora and a dearth of Ne-
groes, she prohibited the slave-trade only for short periods. In
1788 3 she had forbidden the trade for five years, and in 1792,*
being peculiarly exposed to the West Indian insurrection, she
quickly found it " inexpedient " to allow Negroes " from Africa,
the West India Islands, or other place beyond sea " to enter
for two years. This act continued to be extended, although
1 Prince, Digest of the Laws of Georgia, p. 786; Marbury and Crawford,
Digest of the Laws of Georgia, pp. 440, 442. The exact text of this act
appears not to be extant. Section I. is stated to have been "re-enacted by
the constitution." Possibly this act prohibited slaves also, although this is
not certain. Georgia passed several regulative acts between 1755 an d 1793-
Cf. Renne, Colonial Acts of Georgia, pp. 73-4, 164, note.
2 Marbury and Crawford, Digest, p. 30, n. The clause was penned
by Peter J. Carnes of Jefferson. Cf. W. B. Stevens, History of Georgia
(1847), II. 501.
8 Grimke', Public Laws, p. 466.
4 Cooper and Me Cord, Statutes, VII. 431.
7 2 TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE. CHAP. VII.
with lessening penalties, until iSo^. 1 The home demand in
view of the probable stoppage of the trade in 1808, the specula-
tive chances of the new Louisiana Territory trade, and the large
already existing illicit traffic combined in that year to cause
the passage of an act, December 17, reopening the African
slave-trade, although still carefully excluding " West India "
Negroes. 2 This action profoundly stirred the Union, aroused
anti-slavery sentiment, led to a concerted movement for a con-
stitutional amendment, and, failing in this, to an irresistible
demand for a national prohibitory act at the earliest consti-
tutional moment.
North Carolina had repealed her prohibitory duty act in
I79O, 3 but in 1794 she passed an "Act to prevent further
importation and bringing of slaves," etc. 4 Even the body-
servants of West India immigrants and, naturally, all free
Negroes, were eventually prohibited. 6
42. Legislation of the Border States. The Border States, Vir-
ginia and Maryland, strengthened their non-importation laws,
Virginia freeing illegally imported Negroes, 6 and Maryland pro-
hibiting even the interstate trade. 7 The Middle States took
action chiefly in the -final abolition of slavery within their bor-
ders, and the prevention of the fitting out of slaving vessels in
their ports. Delaware declared, in her Act of 1/89, that "it
is inconsistent with that spirit of general liberty which pervades
the constitution of this state, that vessels should be fitted out,
or equipped, in any of the ports thereof, for the purpose of
receiving and transporting the natives of Africa to places where
they are held in slavery," 8 and forbade such a practice under
penalty of ^500 for each person so engaged. The Pennsylvania
1 Cooper and McCord, Statutes, VII. 433-6, 444, 447.
2 Ibid, VII. 449.
8 Martin, IredelFs Acts of Assembly, I. 492.
* Ibid., II. 53.
6 Cf. Ibid., II. 94; Laws of North Carolina (revision of 1819), I. 786.
6 Virginia codified her whole slave legislation in 1792 (Va. Statutes at
Large, New Ser., I. 122), and amended her laws in 1798 and 1806
III.25I).
7 Dorsey, Laws of Maryland, 1796, I. 334.
8 Laws of Delaware, 1797 (Newcastle ed.), p. 942, ch. 194 b.
SECT. 43.] LEGISLATION OF THE EASTERN STATES. 73
Act of 1788 l had similar provisions, with a penalty of ^1000;
and New Jersey followed with an act in i/gS. 2
43. Legislation of the Eastern States. In the Eastern States,
where slavery as an institution was already nearly defunct, action
was aimed toward stopping the notorious participation of citi-
zens in the slave-trade outside the State. The prime movers
were the Rhode Island Quakers. Having early secured a law
against the traffic in their own State, they turned their attention
to others. Through their remonstrances Connecticut, in i/SS, 3
prohibited participation in the trade by a fine of ^500 on the
vessel, jC$o on each slave, and loss of insurance; this act
was strengthened in 1792,* the year after the Haytian revolt.
Massachusetts, after many fruitless attempts, finally took advan-
tage of an unusually bold case of kidnapping, and passed a
similar act in I788. 6 "This," says Belknap, "was the utmost
which could be done by our legislatures; we still have to regret
the impossibility of making a law here, which shall restrain our
citizens from carrying on this trade in foreign bottoms, and from
committing the crimes which this act prohibits, in foreign coun-
tries, as it is said some of them have done since the enacting
of these laws." 6
Thus it is seen how, spurred by the tragedy in the West
Indies, the United States succeeded by State action in pro-
hibiting the slave-trade from 1798 to 1803, in furthering the
cause of abolition, and in preventing the fitting out of slave-
trade expeditions in United States ports. The country had
good cause to congratulate itself. The national government
hastened to supplement State action as far as possible, and the
1 Dallas, Laws, II. 586.
2 Paterson, Digest of the Laws of New Jersey (1800), pp. 307-13. In
1804 New Jersey passed an act gradually to abolish slavery. The legislation
of New York at this period was confined to regulating the exportation of
slave criminals (1790), and to passing an act gradually abolishing slavery
(1799). In 1801 she codified all her acts.
8 Acts and Laws of Connecticut (ed. 1784), pp. 368, 369, 388.
4 Ibid., p. 412.
6 Perpetual Laws of Massachusetts, 1780-89, pp. 235-6.
6 Queries Respecting Slavery, etc., in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., ist Ser.,
IV. 205.
74 TOUSSAINT UOUVERTURE. [CHAP. VII.
prophecies of the more sanguine Revolutionary fathers seemed
about to be realized, when the ill-considered act of South Caro-
lina showed the weakness of the constitutional compromise.
44. First Debate in Congress, 1789. The attention of the
national government was early directed to slavery and the trade
by the rise, in the first Congress, of the question of taxing
slaves imported. During the debate on the duty bill introduced
by Clymer's committee, Parker of Virginia moved, May 13,
1789, to lay a tax of ten dollars per capita on slaves imported.
He plainly stated that the tax was designed to check the trade,
and that he was " sorry that the Constitution prevented Con-
gress from prohibiting the importation altogether." The pro-
posal was evidently unwelcome, and caused an extended debate. 1
Smith of South Carolina wanted to postpone a matter so " big
with the most serious consequences to the State he represented."
Roger Sherman of Connecticut " could not reconcile himself
to the insertion of human beings as an article of duty, among
goods, wares, and merchandise." Jackson of Georgia argued
against any restriction, and thought such States as Virginia
" ought to let their neighbors get supplied, before they imposed
such a burden upon the importation." Tucker of South Caro-
lina declared it " unfair to bring in such an important subject at
a time when debate was almost precluded," and denied the
right of Congress to " consider whether the importation of
slaves is proper or not."
Mr. Parker was evidently somewhat abashed by this on-
slaught of friend and foe, but he " had ventured to introduce the
subject after full deliberation, and did not like to withdraw it."
He desired Congress, " if possible," to " wipe off the stigma
under which America labored." This brought Jackson of
Georgia again to his feet. He believed, in spite of the " fashion
of the day," that the Negroes were better off as slaves than as
freedmen, and that, as the tax was partial, " it would be the most
odious tax Congress could impose." Such sentiments were a
distinct advance in pro-slavery doctrine, and called for a protest
from Madison of Virginia. He thought the discussion proper,
1 Annals of Cong., I Cong, i sess. pp. 336-41.
SECT. 45.] SECOND DEBATE IN CONGRESS. 7$
denied the partiality of the tax, and declared that, according to
the spirit of the Constitution and his own desire, it was to be
hoped " that, by expressing a national disapprobation of this
trade, we may destroy it, and save ourselves from reproaches,
and our posterity the imbecility ever attendant on a coun-
try filled with slaves." Finally, to Burke of South Carolina,
who thought " the gentlemen were contending for nothing,"
Madison sharply rejoined, " If we contend for nothing, the gen-
tlemen who are opposed to us do not contend for a great deal."
It now became clear that Congress had been whirled into a
discussion of too delicate and lengthy a nature to allow its fur-
ther prolongation. Compromising councils prevailed ; and it
was agreed that the present proposition should be withdrawn
and a separate bill brought in. This bill was, however, at the
next session dexterously postponed " until the next session of
Congress." 1
45. Second Debate in Congress, 1790. It is doubtful if Con-
gress of its own initiative would soon have resurrected the mat-
ter, had not a new anti-slavery weapon appeared in the shape of
urgent petitions from abolition societies. The first petition,
presented February n, 1790,2 was from the same interstate
Yearly Meeting of Friends which had formerly petitioned the
Confederation Congress. 3 They urged Congress to inquire
"whether, notwithstanding such seeming impediments, it be
not in reality within your power to exercise justice and mercy,
which, if adhered to, we cannot doubt, must produce the aboli-
tion of the slave trade," etc. Another Quaker petition from
New York was also presented, 4 and both were about to be re-
ferred, when Smith of South Carolina objected, and precipi-
tated a sharp debate. 5 This debate had a distinctly different
tone from that of the preceding one, and represents another
step in pro-slavery doctrine. The key-note of these utterances
was struck by Stone of Maryland, who " feared that if Con-
1 Annals of Cong., \ Cong. I sess. p. 903.
a Ibid., i Cong. 2 sess. pp. 1182-3.
8 Journals of Cong., 1782-3, pp. 418-9. Cf. above, p. 51.
4 Annals of Cong., i Cong. 2 sess. p. 1184.
6 Ibid., pp. 1182-91.
76 TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE. [CHAP. VII.
gress took any measures indicative of an intention to interfere
with the kind of property alluded to, it would sink it in value
very considerably, and might be injurious to a great number of
the citizens, particularly in the Southern States. He thought
the subject was of general concern, and that the petitioners
had no more right to interfere with it than any other members
of the community. It was an unfortunate circumstance, that it
was the disposition of religious sects to imagine they under-
stood the rights of human nature better than all the world
besides."
In vain did men like Madison disclaim all thought of uncon-
stitutional " interference," and express only a desire to see " If
anything is within the Federal authority to restrain such viola-
tion of the rights of nations and of mankind, as is supposed to
be practised in some parts of the United States." A storm
of disapproval from Southern members met such sentiments.
" The rights of the Southern States ought not to be threatened,"
said Burke of South Carolina. " Any extraordinary attention
of Congress to this petition," averred Jackson of Georgia, would
put slave property " in jeopardy," and " evince to the people a
disposition towards a total emancipation." Smith and Tucker
of South Carolina declared that the request asked for " uncon-
stitutional " measures. Gerry of Massachusetts, Hartley of
Pennsylvania, and Lawrence of New York rather mildly de-
fended the petitioners ; but after considerable further debate the
matter was laid on the table.
The very next day, however, the laid ghost walked again in
the shape of another petition from the " Pennsylvania Society
for promoting the Abolition of Slavery," signed by its venera-
ble president, Benjamin Franklin. This petition asked Con-
gress to " step to the very verge of the power vested in you
for discouraging every species of traffic in the persons of our
fellow-men." l Hartley of Pennsylvania called up the memorial
of the preceding day, and it was read a second time and a
motion for commitment made. Plain words now came from
Tucker of South Carolina. " The petition," he said, " contained
1 Annals of Cong., I Cong. 2 sess. pp. 1197-1205.
SECT. 45.] SECOND DEBATE IN CONGRESS. 77
an unconstitutional request." The commitment would alarm the
South. These petitions were " mischievous " attempts to imbue
the slaves with false hopes. The South would not submit to
a general emancipation without " civil war." The commitment
would " blow the trumpet of sedition in the Southern States,"
echoed his colleague, Burke. The Pennsylvania men spoke
just as boldly. Scott declared the petition constitutional, and
was sorry that the Constitution did not interdict this " most
abominable " traffic. " Perhaps, in our Legislative capacity," he
said, " we can go no further than to impose a duty of ten dol-
lars, but I do not know how far I might go if I was one of the
Judges of the United States, and those people were to come
before me and claim their emancipation ; but I am sure I would
go as far as I could." Jackson of Georgia rejoined in true South-
ern spirit, boldly defending slavery in the light of religion and
history, and asking if it was " good policy to bring forward a
business at this moment likely to light up the flame of civil
discord ; for the people of the Southern States will resist one
tyranny as soon as another. The other parts of the Continent
may bear them down by force of arms, but they will never
suffer themselves to be divested of their property without a
struggle. The gentleman says, if he was a Federal Judge, he
does not know to what length he would go in emancipating
these people ; but I believe his judgment would be of short
duration in Georgia, perhaps even the existence of such a
Judge might be in danger." Baldwin, his New-England-born
colleague, urged moderation by reciting the difficulty with which
the constitutional compromise was reached, and declaring, " the
moment we go to jostle on that ground, I fear we shall feel it
tremble under our feet." Lawrence of New York wanted to
commit the memorials, in order to see how far Congress might
constitutionally interfere. Smith of South Carolina, in a long
speech, said that his constituents entered the Union " from po-
litical, not from moral motives," and that "we look upon this
measure as an attack upon the palladium of the property of our
country." Page of Virginia, although a slave owner, urged
commitment, and Madison again maintained the appropriate-
ness of the request, and suggested that " regulations might be
78 TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE. [CHAP. VII.
made in relation to the introduction of them [i. e., slaves] into
the new States to be formed out of the Western Territory."
Even conservative Gerry of Massachusetts declared, with re-
gard to the whole trade, that the fact that " we have a right to
regulate this business, is as clear as that we have any rights
whatever."
Finally, by a vote of 43 to n, the memorials were com-
mitted, the South Carolina and Georgia delegations, Bland and
Coles of Virginia, Stone of Maryland, and Sylvester of New
York voting in the negative. 1 A committee, consisting of
Foster of New Hampshire, Huntington of Connecticut, Gerry
of Massachusetts, Lawrence of New York, Sinnickson of New
Jersey, Hartley of Pennsylvania, and Parker of Virginia, was
charged with the matter, and reported Friday, March 5. The
absence of Southern members on this committee compelled it
to make this report a sort of official manifesto on the aims of
Northern anti-slavery politics. As such, it was sure to meet
with vehement opposition in the House, even though conserva-
tively worded. Such proved to be the fact when the committee
reported. The onslaught to " negative the whole report " was
prolonged and bitter, *the debate pro and con lasting several
days. 2
46. The Declaration of Powers, 1790. The result is best seen
by comparing the original report with the report of the Com-
mittee of the Whole, adopted by a vote of 29 to 25 Monday,
March 23, 1790: 3
REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE.
WHOLE.
That, from the nature of the matters
contained in these memorials, they were
induced to examine the powers vested
in Congress, under the present Constitu-
tion, relating to the Abolition of Slavery,
and are clearly of opinion,
First. That the General Government
is expressly restrained from prohibiting
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE
First. That the migration or importa-
tion of such persons as any of the States
1 House Journal (repr. 1826), i Cong. 2 sess. I. 157-8.
2 Annals of Cong., i Cong. 2 sess. pp. 1413-7.
8 For the reports and debates, cf. Annals of Cong., I Cong. 2 sess.
pp. 1413-7, 1450-74; House Journal (repr. 1826), I Cong. 2 sess. I. 168-81.
SECT. 46.] THE DECLARATION OF POWERS.
79
the importation of such persons ' as any
of the States now existing shall think
proper to admit, until the year one thou-
sand eight hundred and eight.'
Secondly. That Congress, by a fair
construction of the Constitution, are
equally restrained from interfering in the
emancipation of slaves, who already are,
or who may, within the period mentioned,
be imported into, or born within, any of
the said States.
Thirdly. That Congress have no au-
thority to interfere in the internal regu-
lations of particular States, relative to
the instructions of slaves in the principles
of morality and religion; to their com-
fortable clothing, accommodations, and
subsistence ; to the regulation of their
marriages, and the prevention of the vio-
lation of the rights thereof, or to the
separation of children from their parents ;
to a comfortable provision in cases of
sickness, age, or infirmity ; or to the seiz-
ure, transportation, or sale of free ne-
groes ; but have the fullest confidence in
the wisdom and humanity of the Legis-
latures of the several States, that they
will revise their laws from time to time,
when necessary, and promote the objects
mentioned in the memorials, and every
other measure that may tend to the hap-
piness of slaves.
Fourthly. That, nevertheless, Con-
gress have authority, if they shall think
it necessary, to lay at any time a tax or
duty, not exceeding ten dollars for each
person of any description, the importa-
tion of whom shall be by any of the
States admitted as aforesaid.
Fifthly. That Congress have authority
to interdict, 1 or (so far as it is or may
be carried on by citizens of the United
States, for supplying foreigners) to regu-
late 1 the African trade, and to make
provision for the humane treatment of
slaves, in all cases while on their pas-
now existing shall think proper to admit,
cannot be prohibited by Congress, prior
to the year one thousand eight hundred
and eight.
Secondly. That Congress have no au-
thority to interfere in the emancipation
of slaves, or in the treatment of them
within any of the States; it remaining
with the several States alone to provide
any regulation therein, which humanity
and true policy may require.
Thirdly. That Congress have author-
ity to restrain the citizens of the United
States from carrying on the African
trade, for the purpose of supplying for-
eigners with slaves, and of providing, by
proper regulations, for the humane treat-
ment, during their passage, of slaves im-
1 A clerical error in the original : " interdict " and " regulate " should be
interchanged.
8o
TOUSSAINT VOUVERTURE.
[CHAP. VII.
ported by the said citizens into the States
admitting such importation.
Fourthly. That Congress have author,
ity to prohibit foreigners from fitting out
vessels in any port of the United States
for transporting persons from Africa to
any foreign port.
sage to the United States, or to foreign
ports, so far as respects the citizens of
the United States.
Sixthly. That Congress have also au-
thority to prohibit foreigners from fitting
out vessels in any port of the United
States, for transporting persons from
Africa to any foreign port.
Seventhly. That the memorialists be in-
formed, that in all cases to which the
authority of Congress extends, they will
exercise it for the humane objects of the
memorialists, so far as they can be pro-
moted on the principles of justice, hu-
manity, and good policy.
47. The Act of 1794. This declaration of the powers of the
central government over the slave-trade bore early fruit in the
second Congress, in the shape of a shower of petitions from
abolition societies in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut,
New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. 1 In some
of these slavery was denounced as " an outrageous violation of
one of the most essential rights of human nature," 2 and the
slave-trade as a traffic " degrading to the rights of man " and
" repugnant to reason." 3 Others declared the trade " injurious
to the true commercial interest of a nation," 4 and asked Con-
gress that, having taken up the matter, they do all in their
power to limit the trade. Congress was, however, determined
to avoid as long as possible so unpleasant a matter, and, save
an angry attempt to censure a Quaker petitioner, 6 nothing was
heard of the slave-trade until the third Congress.
Meantime, news came from the seas southeast of Carolina
and Georgia which influenced Congress more powerfully than
humanitarian arguments had done. The wild revolt of despised
slaves, the rise of a noble black leader, and the birth of a new
1 See Memorials presented to Congress, etc. (1792), published by the
Pennsylvania Abolition Society.
2 From the Virginia petition.
8 From the petition of Baltimore and other Maryland societies.
4 From the Providence Abolition Society's petition.
6 House Journal (repr. 1826), 2 Cong. 2 sess. I. 627-9; Annals of
Cong., 2 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 728-31.
SECT. 48.] THE ACT OF 1800. 8 1
nation of Negro freemen frightened the pro-slavery advocates
and armed the anti-slavery agitation. As a result, a Quaker
petition for a law against the transport traffic in slaves was
received without a murmur in I/94, 1 and on March 22 the
first national act against the slave-trade became a law. 2 It
was designed " to prohibit the carrying on the Slave Trade
from the United States to any foreign place or country,"
or the fitting out of slavers in the United States for that
country. The penalties for violation were forfeiture of the
ship, a fine of $1000 for each person engaged, and of $200 for
each slave transported. If the Quakers thought this a triumph
of anti-slavery sentiment, they were quickly undeceived. Con-
gress might willingly restrain the country from feeding West
Indian turbulence, and yet be furious at a petition like that of
I797, 3 calling attention to " the oppressed state of our brethren
of the African race " in this country, and to the interstate slave-
trade. " Considering the present extraordinary state of the West
India Islands and of Europe," young John Rutledge insisted
" that ' sufficient for the day is the evil thereof,' and that they
ought to shut their door against any thing which had a tendency
to produce the like confusion in this country." After excited
debate and some investigation by a special committee, the peti-
tion was ordered, in both Senate and House, to be withdrawn.
48. The Act of 1800. In the next Congress, the sixth, another
petition threw the House into paroxysms of slavery debate.
Wain of Pennsylvania presented the petition of certain free
colored men of Pennsylvania praying for a revision of the slave-
trade laws and of the fugitive-slave law, and for prospective
emancipation. 4 Wain moved the reference of this memorial to
a committee already appointed on the revision of the loosely
drawn and poorly enforced Act of I794- 6 Rutledge of South
1 Annals of Cong., 3 Cong, i sess. pp. 64, 70, 72; House Journal (repr.
1826), 3 Cong, i sess. II. 76, 84-5, 96-100; Senate Journal (repr. 1820), 3
Cong, i sess. II. 51.
2 Statutes at Large, I. 347-9.
8 Annals of Cong., 5 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 656-70, 945-1033.
4 Annals of Cong., 6 Cong, i sess. p. 229.
5 Dec. 12, 1799: House Journal (repr. 1826), 6 Cong, i sess. III. 535.
For the debate, see Annals of Cong., 6 Cong, i sess. pp. 230-45.
6
82 TOUSSAINT VOUVERTURE. [CHAP. VII.
Carolina immediately arose. He opposed the motion, saying,
that these petitions were continually coming in and stirring
up discord; that it was a good thing the Negroes were in
slavery; and that already "too much of this new-fangled
French philosophy of liberty and equality " had found its
way among them. Others defended the right of petition, and
declared that none wished Congress to exceed its powers.
Brown of Rhode Island, a new figure in Congress, a man
of distinguished services and from a well-known family, boldly
set forth the commercial philosophy of his State. " We want
money," said he, "we want a navy; we ought therefore to use
the means to obtain it. We ought to go farther than has yet
been proposed, and repeal the bills in question altogether, for
why should we see Great Britain getting all the slave trade to
themselves; why may not our country be enriched by that
lucrative traffic? There would not be a slave the more sold, but
we should derive the benefits by importing from Africa as well
as that nation." Wain, in reply, contended that they should
look into " the slave trade, much of which was still carrying on
from Rhode Island, Boston and Pennsylvania." Hill of North
Carolina called the House back from this general discussion to
the petition in question, and, while willing to remedy any exist-
ing defect in the Act of 1794, hoped the petition would not be
received. Dana of Connecticut declared that the paper " con-
tained nothing but a farrago of the French metaphysics of
liberty and equality ; " and that " it was likely to produce some
of the dreadful scenes of St. Domingo." The next day Rut-
ledge again warned the House against even discussing the mat-
ter, as " very serious, nay, dreadful effects, must be the inevitable
consequence." He held up the most lurid pictures of the
fatuity of the French Convention in listening to the overtures
of the " three emissaries from St. Domingo," and thus yielding
" one of the finest islands in the world " to " scenes which had
never been practised since the destruction of Carthage." " But,
sir," he continued, " we have lived to see these dreadful scenes.
These horrid effects have succeeded what was conceived once
to be trifling. Most important consequences may be the result,
although gentlemen little apprehend it. But we know the situa-
SECT. 48.] THE ACT OF 1800. 83
tion of things there, although they do not, and knowing we
deprecate it. There have been emissaries amongst us in the
Southern States ; they have begun their war upon us ; an actual
organization has commenced; we have had them meeting in
their club rooms, and debating on that subject. . . . Sir, I do
believe that persons have been sent from France to feel the
pulse of this country, to know whether these [i. e., the Negroes]
are the proper engines to make use of: these people have been
talked to ; they have been tampered with, and this is going on."
Finally, after censuring certain parts of this Negro petition,
Congress committed the part on the slave-trade to the com-
mittee already appointed. Meantime, the Senate sent down a
bill to amend the Act of 1794, and the House took this bill
under consideration. 1 Prolonged debate ensued. Brown oi
Rhode Island again made a most elaborate plea for throwing
open the foreign slave-trade. Negroes, he said, bettered their
condition by being enslaved, and thus it was morally wrong
and commercially indefensible to impose " a heavy fine and im-
prisonment ... for carrying on a trade so advantageous ; " or, if
the trade must be stopped, then equalize the matter and abolish
slavery too. Nichols of Virginia thought that surely the gen-
tlemen would not advise the importation of more Negroes ; for
while it " was a fact, to be sure," that they would thus improve
their condition, "would it be policy so to do?" Bayard of
Delaware said that " a more dishonorable item of revenue " than
that derived from the slave-trade "could not be established."
Rutledge opposed the new bill as defective and impracticable :
the former act, he said, was enough; the States had stopped
the trade, and in addition the United States had sought to pla-
cate philanthropists by stopping the use of our ships in the
trade. " This was going very far indeed." New England first
began the trade, and why not let them enjoy its profits now as
well as the English? The trade could not be stopped.
The bill was eventually recommitted and reported again. 2
1 Senate Journal (repr. 1821), 6 Cong, i sess. III. 72, 77, 88, 92; see
Ibid., Index, Bill No. 62; House Journal (repr. 1826), 6 Cong. I sess. III.,
Index, House Bill No. 247. For the debate, see Annals of Cong., 6 Cong.
i sess. pp. 686-700.
2 Annals of Cong., 6 Cong, i sess. p. 697.
84 TOUSSAINT VOUVERTURE. [CHAP. VII.
" On the question for its passing, a long and warm debate en-
sued," and several attempts to postpone it were made ; it finally
passed, however, only Brown of Rhode Island, Dent of Mary-
land, Rutledge and Huger of South Carolina, and Dickson of
North Carolina voting against it, and 67 voting for it. 1 This
Act of May 10, i8oo, 2 greatly strengthened the Act of 1794.
The earlier act had prohibited citizens from equipping slavers
for the foreign trade; but this went so far as to forbid them
having any interest, direct or indirect, in such voyages, or serv-
ing on board slave-ships in any capacity. Imprisonment for
two years was added to the former fine of $2000, and United
States commissioned ships were directed to capture such slavers
as prizes. The slaves though forfeited by the owner, were not
to go to the captor ; and the act omitted to say what disposition
should be made of them.
49. The Act of 1803. The Haytian revolt, having been among
the main causes of two laws, soon was the direct instigation to
a third. The frightened feeling in the South, when freed-
men from the West Indies began to arrive in various ports, may
well be imagined. On January 17, 1803, the town of Wilming-
ton, North Carolina, hastily memorialized Congress, stating the
arrival of certain freed Negroes from Guadeloupe, and appre-
hending " much danger to the peace and safety of the people
of the Southern States of the Union" from the "admission of
persons of that description into the United States." 3 The
House committee which considered this petition hastened to
agree " That the system of policy stated in the said memorial to
exist, and to be now pursued in the French colonial government,
of the West Indies, is fraught with danger to the peace and
safety of the United States. That the fact stated to have oc-
curred in the prosecution of that system of policy, demands
the prompt interference of the Government of the United States,
as well Legislative as Executive." 4 The result was a bill pro-
viding for the forfeiture of any ship which should bring into
1 Annals of Cong., 6 Cong. I sess. pp. 699-700.
2 Statutes at Large, II. 70.
8 Annals of Cong., 7 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 385-6.
4 Ibid., p. 424.
SECT, so.] STATE OF THE SLAVE-TRADE. 85
States prohibiting the same " any negro, mulatto, or other
person of color; " the captain of the ship was also to be pun-
ished. After some opposition 1 the bill became a law, Feb-
ruary 28, i8o3. 2
50. State of the Slave-Trade from 1789 to 1803. Meantime,
in spite of the prohibitory State laws, the African slave-trade to
the United States continued to flourish. It was notorious that
New England traders carried on a large traffic. 3 Members stated
on the floor of the House that " it was much to be regretted
that the severe and pointed statute against the slave trade had
been so little regarded. In defiance of its forbiddance and its
penalties, it was well known that citizens and vessels of the
United States were still engaged in that traffic. ... In various
parts of the nation, outfits were made for slave-voyages, without
secrecy, shame, or apprehension. . . . Countenanced by their
fellow-citizens at home, who were as ready to buy as they them-
selves were to collect and to bring to market, they approached
our Southern harbors and inlets, and clandestinely disembarked
the sooty offspring of the Eastern, upon the ill fated soil of the
Western hemisphere. In this way, it had been computed that,
during the last twelve months, twenty thousand enslaved negroes
had been transported from Guinea, and, by smuggling, added to
the plantation stock of Georgia and South Carolina. So little
respect seems to have been paid to the existing prohibitory
statute, that it may almost be considered as disregarded by
common consent." 4
These voyages were generally made under the flag of a
foreign nation, and often the vessel was sold in a foreign port
to escape confiscation. South Carolina's own Congressman
confessed that although the State had prohibited the trade since
1788, she " was unable to enforce" her laws. " With navigable
rivers running into the heart of it," said he, " it was impossible,
1 See House Bills Nos. 89 and 101 ; Annals of Cong., 7 Cong. 2 sess.
pp. 424, 459-67. For the debate, see Ibid., pp. 459-72.
2 Statutes at Large, II. 205.
8 Cf. Fowler, Local Law in Massachusetts and Connecticut, etc., p. 126.
4 Speech of S. L. Mitchell of New York, Feb. 14, 1804 : Annals of
Cong., 8 Cong, i sess. p. 1000. Cf. also speech of Bedinger : Ibid., pp. 997-8.
86 TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE. [CHAP. VII.
with our means, to prevent our Eastern brethren, who, in some
parts of the Union, in defiance of the authority of the General
Government, have been engaged in this trade, from introducing
them into the country. The law was completely evaded, and,
for the last year or two [1802-3], Africans were introduced into
the country in numbers little short, I believe, of what they would
have been had the trade been a legal one." l The same tale
undoubtedly might have been told of Georgia.
51. The South Carolina Repeal of 1803. This vast and appar-
ently irrepressible illicit traffic was one of three causes which led
South Carolina, December 17, 1803, to throw aside all pretence
and legalize her growing slave-trade ; the other two causes were
the growing certainty of total prohibition of the traffic in 1808,
and the recent purchase of Louisiana by the United States, with
its vast prospective demand for slave labor. Such a combina-
tion of advantages, which meant fortunes to planters and
Charleston slave-merchants, could not longer be withheld from
them; the prohibition was repealed, and the United States
became again, for the first time in at least five years, a legal
slave mart. This action shocked the nation, frightening South-
ern States with visions of an influx of untrained barbarians
and servile insurrections, and arousing and intensifying the
anti-slavery feeling of the North, which had long since come
to think of the trade, so far as legal enactment went, as a thing
of the past.
Scarcely a month after this repeal, Bard of Pennsylvania
solemnly addressed Congress on the matter. " For many
reasons," said he, " this House must have been justly surprised
by a recent measure of one of the Southern States. The im-
pressions, however, which that measure gave my mind, were
deep and painful. Had I been informed that some formidable
foreign Power had invaded our country, I would not, I ought
not, be more alarmed than on hearing that South Carolina had
repealed her law prohibiting the importation of slaves. . . . Our
hands are tied, and we are obliged to stand confounded, while
we see the flood-gate opened, and pouring incalculable miseries
1 Speech of Lowndes in the House, Feb. 14, 1804: Annals of Cong., 8
Cong., I sess. p. 992. Cf. Stanton's speech later: Ibid., 9 Cong. 2 sess. p. 240.
SECT. 52.] THE LOUISIANA SLA VE-TRADE. 87
into our country." 1 He then moved, as the utmost legal meas-
ure, a tax of ten dollars per head on slaves imported.
Debate on this proposition did not occur until February 14,
when Lowndes explained the circumstances of the repeal, and a
long controversy took place. 2 Those in favor of the tax argued
that the trade was wrong, and that the tax would serve as some
slight check ; the tax was not inequitable, for if a State did not
wish to bear it she had only to prohibit the trade; the tax
would add to the revenue, and be at the same time a moral
protest against an unjust and dangerous traffic. Against this
it was argued that if the tax furnished a revenue it would defeat
its own object, and make prohibition more difficult in 1808; it
was inequitable, because it was aimed against one State, and
would fall exclusively on agriculture ; it would give national
sanction to the trade ; it would look " like an attempt in the
General Government to correct a State for the undisputed
exercise of its constitutional powers ; " the revenue would be
inconsiderable, and the United States had nothing to do with
the moral principle; while a prohibitory tax would be defen-
sible, a small tax like this would be useless as a protection and
criminal as a revenue measure.
The whole debate hinged on the expediency of the measure,
few defending South Carolina's action. 3 Finally, a bill was
ordered to be brought in, which was done on the i/th. 4 An-
other long debate took place, covering substantially the same
ground. It was several times hinted that if the matter were
dropped South Carolina might again prohibit the trade. This,
and the vehement opposition, at last resulted in the postpone-
ment of the bill, and it was not heard from again during the
session.
52. The Louisiana Slave-Trade, 1803-1805. About this time
1 Annals of Cong., 8 Cong, i sess. pp. 820, 876.
2 Ibid., pp. 992-1036.
8 Huger of South Carolina declared that the whole South Carolina Con-
gressional delegation opposed the repeal of the law, although they maintained
the State's right to do so if she chose : Ibid., p. 1005.
4 Ibid., pp. 1020-36; House Journal (repr. 1826), 8 Cong, i sess. IV.
523, 578, 58, 58i-5-
88 TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE. [CHAP. VII.
the cession of Louisiana brought before Congress the question
of the status of slavery and the slave-trade in the Territories.
Twice or thrice before had the subject called for attention.
The first time was in the Congress of the Confederation,
when, by the Ordinance of i/S/, 1 both slavery and the slave-
trade were excluded from the Northwest Territory. In 1790
Congress had accepted the cession of North Carolina back
lands on the express condition that slavery there be undis-
turbed. 2 Nothing had been said as to slavery in the South
Carolina cession (i/S/), 3 but it was tacitly understood that
the provision of the Northwest Ordinance would not be applied.
In 1798 the bill introduced for the cession of Mississippi con-
tained a specific declaration that the anti-slavery clause of 1787
should not be included. 4 The bill passed the Senate, but caused
long and excited debate in the House. 5 It was argued, on the
one hand, that the case in Mississippi was different from that
in the Northwest Territory, because slavery was a legal institu-
tion in all the surrounding country, and to prohibit the institution
was virtually to prohibit the settling of the country. On the
other hand, Gallatin declared that if this amendment should not
obtain, " he knew not how slaves could be prevented from being
introduced by way of New Orleans, by persons who are not citi-
zens of the United States." It was moved to strike out the
excepting clause ; but the motion received only twelve votes,
an apparent indication that Congress either did not appreciate
the great precedent it was establishing, or was reprehensibly
careless. Harper of South Carolina then succeeded in building
up the Charleston slave-trade interest by a section forbidding
the slave traffic from " without the limits of the United States."
Thatcher moved to strike out the last clause of this amendment,
and thus to prohibit the interstate trade, but he failed to get a
second. 6 Thus the act passed, punishing the introduction of
1 On slavery in the Territories, cf. Welling, in Report Amer. Hist. Assoc.,
1891, pp. 133-60.
2 Statutes at Large, I. 108. 8 Journals of Cong., XII. I37~ 8 -
4 Annals of Cong., 5 Cong. I sess. pp. 511, 515, 53 2 -3-
6 Ibid., 5 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 1235, 1249, 1277-84, 1296-1313.
6 Ibid., p. 1313.
SECT. 52.] THE LOUISIANA SLAVE-TRADE. 89
slaves from without the country by a fine of $300 for each slave,
and freeing the slave. 1
In 1804 President Jefferson communicated papers to Congress
on the status of slavery and the slave-trade in Louisiana. 2 The
Spanish had allowed the traffic by edict in 1793, France had not
stopped it, and Governor Claiborne had refrained from inter-
ference. A bill erecting a territorial government was already
pending. 3 The Northern "District of Louisiana" was placed
under the jurisdiction of Indiana Territory, and was made sub-
ject to the provisions of the Ordinance of 1787. Various
attempts were made to amend the part of the bill referring to
the Southern Territory: first, so as completely to prohibit the
slave-trade; * then to compel the emancipation at a certain age
of all those imported ; 5 next, to confine all importation to that
from the States; 6 and, finally, to limit it further to slaves im-
ported before South Carolina opened her ports. 7 The last two
amendments prevailed, and the final act also extended to the
Territory the Acts of 1794 and 1803. Only slaves imported
before May I, 1798, could be introduced, and those must be
slaves of actual settlers. 8 All slaves illegally imported were
freed.
This stringent act was limited to one year. The next year,
in accordance with the urgent petition of the inhabitants, a bill
was introduced against these restrictions. 9 By dexterous word-
ing, this bill, which became a law March 2, i8o5, 10 swept away
1 Statutes at Large, I. 549.
2 Amer. State Papers, Miscellaneous, I. No. 177.
8 Annals of Cong., 8 Cong, i sess. pp. 106, 211, 223, 231, 233-4, 2 3&
4 Ibid., pp. 240, 1186. 5 Ibid., p. 241.
6 Ibid., p. 240. 7 Ibid., p. 242.
8 For further proceedings, see Ibid., pp. 240-55, 1038-79, 1128-9, 1185-9.
For the law, see Statutes at Large, II. 283-9.
9 First, a bill was introduced applying the Northwest Ordinance to the
Territory (Annals of Cong., 8 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 45-6); but this was re-
placed by a Senate bill (Ibid., p. 68 ; Senate Journal, repr. 1821, 8 Cong.
2 sess. III. 464). For the petition of the inhabitants, see Annals of Cong.,
8 Cong. 2 sess. p. 727-8.
10 The bill was hurried through, and there are no records of debate. Cf.
Annals of Cong., 8 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 28-69, 7 2 7> 871, 957, 1016-20, 1213-5.
In Senate Journal (repr. 1821), III., see Index, Bill No. 8. Importation
90 TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE. [CHAP. VII.
all restrictions upon the slave-trade except that relating to foreign
ports, and left even this provision so ambiguous that, later, by
judicial interpretation of the law, 1 the foreign slave-trade was
allowed, at least for a time.
Such a stream of slaves now poured into the new Territory
that the following year a committee on the matter was appointed
by the House. 2 The committee reported that they " are in
possession of the fact, that African slaves, lately imported into
Charleston, have been thence conveyed into the territory of
Orleans, and, in their opinion, this practice will be continued to
a very great extent, while there is no law to prevent it." 3 The
House ordered a bill checking this to be prepared ; and such a
bill was reported, but was soon dropped. 4 Importations into
South Carolina during this time reached enormous proportions.
Senator Smith of that State declared from official returns that,
between 1803 and 1807, 39,075 Negroes were imported into
Charleston, most of whom went to the Territories. 5
of slaves was allowed by a clause erecting a Frame of Government " similar "
to that of the Mississippi Territory.
1 Annals of Cong., 9 Cong. I sess. p. 443. The whole trade was prac-
tically foreign, for the slavers merely entered the Negroes at Charleston and
immediately reshipped them to New Orleans. Cf. Annals of Cong., 16
Cong, i sess. p. 264.
2 House Journal (repr. 1826), 9 Cong. I sess. V. 264; Annals of Cong. t
9 Cong, i sess. pp. 445, 878.
8 House Reports, 9 Cong, i sess. Feb. 17, 1806.
4 House Bill No. 123.
6 Annals of Cong., 16 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 73-7. This report covers the
time from Jan. i, 1804, to Dec. 31, 1807. During that time the following
was the number of ships engaged in the traffic :
From Charleston, 61 From Connecticut, i
" Rhode Island, 59 " Sweden, i
" Baltimore, 4 " Great Britain, 70
" Boston, i " France, 3
" Norfolk, 2
The consignees of these slave ships were natives of
Charleston 13
Rhode Island 88
Great Britain 91
France 10
202
SECT. 53-] LAST ATTEMPTS AT TAXATION. 91
53. Last Attempts at Taxation, 1805-1806. So alarming did
the trade become that North Carolina passed a resolution in
December, 1804,* proposing that the States give Congress
power to prohibit the trade. Massachusetts, 2 Vermont, 3 New
Hampshire, 4 and Maryland 5 responded; and a joint resolution
was introduced in the House, proposing as an amendment to
the Constitution " That the Congress of the United States shall
have power to prevent the further importation of slaves into the
United States and the Territories thereof." 6 Nothing came of
this effort; but meantime the project of taxation was revived.
A motion to this effect, made in February, 1805, was referred
to a Committee of the Whole, but was not discussed. Early in
the first session of the ninth Congress the motion of 1805 was
renewed; and although again postponed on the assurance
that South Carolina was about to stop the trade, 7 it finally
came up for debate January 20, i8o6. 8 Then occurred a most
stubborn legislative battle, which lasted during the whole ses-
sion. 9 Several amendments to the motion were first introduced,
The following slaves were imported :
By British vessels 1 9)949
" French 1,078
21,027
By American vessels:
Charleston merchants 2,006
Rhode Island " 7,958
Foreign " 5,717
other Northern " 930
" Southern " 1,437 18,048
Total number of slaves imported, 1804-7 39>75
It is, of course, highly probable that the Custom House returns were
much below the actual figures.
1 McMaster, History of the People of the United States, III. p. 517.
2 House Journal (repr. 1826), 8 Cong. 2 sess. V. 171 ; Mass. Resolves^
May, 1802, to March, 1806, Vol. II. A. (State House ed., p. 239).
8 House Journal (repr. 1826), 9 Cong, i sess. V. 238.
4 Ibid., V. 266.
6 Senate Journal (repr. 1821), 9 Cong, i sess. IV. 76, 77, 79.
6 House Journal (repr. 1826), 8 Cong. 2 sess. V. 171.
7 Annals of Cong., 9 Cong, i sess. p. 274.
8 Ibid., pp. 272-4, 323.
9 Ibid., pp. 346-52, 358-75, etc., to 520.
92 TOUSSAINT rOUVERTURE. [CHAP. VII.
so as to make it apply to all immigrants, and again to all " per-
sons of color." As in the former debate, it was proposed to
substitute a resolution of censure on South Carolina. All these
amendments were lost. A long debate on the expediency of
the measure followed, on the old grounds. Early of Georgia
dwelt especially on the double taxation it would impose on
Georgia ; others estimated that a revenue of one hundred thou-
sand dollars might be derived from the tax, a sum sufficient to
replace the tax on pepper and medicines. Angry charges
and counter-charges were made, e. g., that Georgia, though
ashamed openly to avow the trade, participated in it as well as
South Carolina. " Some recriminations ensued between several
members, on the participation of the traders of some of the
New England States in carrying on the slave trade." Finally,
January 22, by a vote of 90 to 25, a tax bill was ordered
to be brought in. 1 One was reported on the 27th. 2 Every
sort of opposition was resorted to. On the one hand, attempts
were made to amend it so as to prohibit importation after 1807,
and to prevent importation into the Territories ; on the other
hand, attempts were made to recommit and postpone the meas-
ure. It finally got a.^ third reading, but was recommitted to a
select committee, and disappeared until February I4- 3 Being
then amended so as to provide for the forfeiture of smuggled
cargoes, but saying nothing as to the disposition of the slaves,
it was again relegated to a committee, after a vote of 69 to 42
against postponement. 4 On March 4 it appeared again, and a
motion to reject it was lost. Finally, in the midst of the war
scare and the question of non-importation of British goods, the
bill was apparently forgotten, and the last attempt to tax im-
ported slaves ended, like the others, in failure.
54. Xey-Note of the Period. One of the last acts of this period
strikes again the key-note which sounded throughout the whole
of it. On February 20, 1806, after considerable opposition, a
bill to prohibit trade with San Domingo passed the Senate. 6 In
1 Annals of Cong., 9 Cong, i sess. pp. 374-5.
2 See House Bill No. 94.
* Annals of Cong., 9 Cong, i sess. p. 466. 4 Ibid., pp. 519-20.
6 Ibid., pp. 21, 52, 75, etc., to 138, 485-515, 1228. See House Bill No.
1 68. Cf. Statutes at Large, II. 421-2.
SECT. 54.] KEY-NOTE OF THE PERIOD. 93
the House it was charged by one side that the measure was
dictated by France, and by the other, that it originated in the
fear of countenancing Negro insurrection. The bill, however,
became a law, and by continuations remained on the statute-
books until 1809. Even at that distance the nightmare of
the Haytian insurrection continued to haunt the South, and a
proposal to reopen trade with the island caused wild John Ran-
dolph to point out the " dreadful evil " of a " direct trade be-
twixt the town of Charleston and the ports of the island of St.
Domingo." 1
Of the twenty years from 1787 to 1807 it can only be said
that they were, on the whole, a period of disappointment so
far as the suppression of the slave-trade was concerned. Fear,
interest, and philanthropy united for a time in an effort which
bade fair to suppress the trade ; then the real weakness of the
constitutional compromise appeared, and the interests of the
few overcame the fears and the humanity of the many.
1 A few months later, at the expiration of the period, trade was quietly
reopened. Annals of Cong., n Cong, i sess. pp. 443-6.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE PERIOD OF ATTEMPTED SUPPRESSION. 1807-1825.
55. The Act of 1807.
56. The First Question: How shall illegally imported Africans be dis-
posed of ?
57. The Second Question : How shall Violations be punished ?
58. The Third Question: How shall the Interstate Coastwise Slave-
Trade be protected ?
59. Legislative History of the Bill.
60. Enforcement of the Act.
61. Evidence of the Continuance of the Trade.
62. Apathy of the Federal Government.
63. Typical Cases.
64. The Supplementary Acts, 1818-1820.
65. Enforcement of the Supplementary Acts, 1818-1825.
55. The Act of 1807. The first great goal of anti-slavery
effort in the United States had been, since the Revolution, the
suppression of the slave-trade by national law. It would hardly
be too much to say that the Haytian revolution, in addition to
its influence in the years from 1791 to 1806, was one of the
main causes that rendered the accomplishment of this aim pos-
sible at the earliest constitutional moment. To the great influ-
ence of the fears of the South was added the failure of the
French designs on Louisiana, of which Toussaint L'Ouverture
was the most probable cause. The cession of Louisiana in
1803 challenged and aroused the North on the slavery question
again ; put the Carolina and Georgia slave-traders in the saddle,
to the dismay of the Border States; and brought the whole
slave-trade question vividly before the public conscience. An-
other scarcely less potent influence was, naturally, the great
SECT. 55.] THE ACT OF 1807. 95
anti-slavery movement in England, which after a mighty struggle
of eighteen years was about to gain its first victory in the British
Act of 1807.
President Jefferson, in his pacificatory message of December
2, 1806, said: "I congratulate you, fellow-citizens, on the ap-
proach of the period at which you may interpose your author-
ity constitutionally, to withdraw the citizens of the United
States from all further participation in those violations of human
rights which have been so long continued on the unoffending
inhabitants of Africa, and which the morality, the reputation,
and the best interests of our country, have long been eager to
proscribe. Although no law you may pass can take prohibitory
effect till the first day of the year one thousand eight hundred
and eight, yet the intervening period is not too long to prevent,
by timely notice, expeditions which cannot be completed before
that day." l
In pursuance of this recommendation, the very next day Senator
Bradley of Vermont introduced into the Senate a bill which, after
a complicated legislative history, became the Act of March 2,
1807, prohibiting the African slave-trade. 2
Three main questions were to be settled by this bill : first,
and most prominent, that of the disposal of illegally imported
Africans ; second, that of the punishment of those concerned
in the importation ; third, that of the proper limitation of the
interstate traffic by water.
The character of the debate on these three questions, as well
as the state of public opinion, is illustrated by the fact that forty
of the sixty pages of officially reported debates are devoted to
the first question, less than twenty to the second, and only two to
the third. A sad commentary on the previous enforcement of
State and national laws is the readiness with which it was
admitted that wholesale violations of the law would take place ;
indeed, Southern men declared that no strict law against the
slave-trade could be executed in the South, and that it was only
by playing on the motives of personal interest that the trade
1 House Journal (repr. 1826), 9 Cong. 2 sess. V. 468.
a Cf. below, 59.
96 ATTEMPTED SUPPRESSION. [CHAP. VIII.
could be checked. The question of punishment indicated the
slowly changing moral attitude of the South toward the slave
system. Early boldly said, " A large majority of people in
the Southern States do not consider slavery as even an evil." 1
The South, in fact, insisted on regarding man-stealing as a
minor offence, a "misdemeanor" rather than a "crime."
Finally, in the short and sharp debate on the interstate coast-
wise trade, the growing economic side of the slavery question
came to the front, the vested interests' argument was squarely
put, and the ? future interstate trade almost consciously provided
for.
From these considerations, it is doubtful as to how far it was
expected that the Act of 1807 would check the slave traffic; at
any rate, so far as the South was concerned, there seemed to be
an evident desire to limit the trade, but little thought that this
statute would definitively suppress it.
56. The First Question: How shall illegally imported Africans
be disposed of? The dozen or more propositions on the ques-
tion of the disposal of illegally imported Africans may be divided
into two chief heads, representing two radically opposed parties:
1. That illegally imported Africans be free, although they might
be indentured for a term of years or removed from the country.
2. That such Africans be sold as slaves. 2 The arguments on
1 Annals of Cong., 9 Cong. 2 sess. p. 238.
2 There were at least twelve distinct propositions as to the disposal of the
Africans imported :
1. That they be forfeited and sold by the United States at auction (Early's
bill, reported Dec. 15: Ibid., pp. 167-8).
2. That they be forfeited and left to the disposal of the States (proposed by
Bidwell and Early: Ibid., pp. 181, 221, 477. This was the final settlement.)
3. That they be forfeited and sold, and that the proceeds go to charities,
education, or internal improvements (Early, Holland, and Masters: Ibid.,
P- 273)-
4. That they be forfeited and indentured for life (Alston and Bidwell :
Ibid., pp. 170-1).
5. That they be forfeited and indentured for 7, 8, or 10 years (Pitkin :
Ibid., p. 1 86).
6. That they be forfeited and given into the custody of the President, and
by him indentured in free States for a term of years (bill reported from the
SECT. 56.] THE FIRST QUESTION. 97
these two propositions, which were many and far-reaching, may
be roughly divided into three classes, political, constitutional,
and moral.
The political argument, reduced to its lowest terms, ran thus :
those wishing to free the Negroes illegally imported declared that
to enslave them would be to perpetrate the very evil which the
law was designed to stop. " By the same law," they said, " we
condemn the man-stealer and become the receivers of his stolen
goods. We punish the criminal, and then step into his place,
and complete the crime." 1 They said that the objection to free
Negroes was no valid excuse ; for if the Southern people really
feared this class, they would consent to the imposing of such
penalties on illicit traffic as would stop the importation of a
single slave. 2 Moreover, " forfeiture " and sale of the Negroes
implied a property right in them which did not exist. 3 Waiving
this technical point, and allowing them to be " forfeited " to the
government, then the government should either immediately set
them free, or, at the most, indenture them for a term of years ;
otherwise, the law would be an encouragement to violators. " It
certainly will be," said they, " if the importer can find means to
evade the penalty of the act ; for there he has all the advantage
of a market enhanced by our ineffectual attempt to prohibit." 4
They claimed that even the indenturing of the ignorant bar-
barian for life was better than slavery ; and Sloan declared that
Senate Jan. 28 : House Journal (repr. 1826), 9 Cong. 2 sess. V. 575 ; Annals
of Cong,, 9 Cong. 2 sess. p. 477. Cf. also Ibid., p. 272.)
7. That the Secretary of the Treasury dispose of them, at his discretion,
in service (Quincy: Annals of Cong., 9 Cong. 2 sess. p. 183).
8. That those imported into slave States be returned to Africa or bound
out in free States (Sloan : Ibid., p. 254).
9. That all be sent back to Africa (Smilie : Ibid., p. 176).
10. That those imported into free States be free, those imported into slave
States be returned to Africa or indentured (Sloan: Ibid., p. 226).
11. That they be forfeited but not sold (Sloan and others: Ibid., p. 270).
12. That they be free (Sloan: Ibid., p. 168; Bidwell : House Journal
(repr. 1826), 9 Cong. 2 sess. V. 515).
1 Bidwell, Cook, and others: Annals of Cong., 9 Cong. 2 sess, p. 201.
z Bidwell: Ibid., p. 172.
8 Fisk: Ibid., pp. 224-5; Bidwell: Ibid.,^. 221.
4 Quincy: Ibid., p. 184.
7
98 ATTEMPTED SUPPRESSION. [CHAP. VIII.
the Northern States would receive the freed Negroes willingly
rather than have them enslaved. 1
The argument of those who insisted that the Negroes should
be sold was tersely put by Macon : " In adopting our measures
on this subject, we must pass such a law as can be executed." 2
Early expanded this : " It is a principle in legislation, as correct
as any which has ever prevailed, that to give effect to laws you
must not make them repugant to the passions and wishes of the
people among whom they are to operate. How then, in this
instance, stands the fact ? Do not gentlemen from every quarter
of the Union prove, on the discussion of every question that has
ever arisen in the House, having the most remote bearing on the
giving freedom to the Africans in the bosom of our country, that
it has excited the deepest sensibility in the breasts of those where
slavery exists? And why is this so? It is, because those who,
from experience, know the extent of the evil, believe that the
most formidable aspect in which it can present itself, is by
making these people free among them. Yes, sir, though slavery
is an evil, regretted by every man in the country, to have among
us in any considerable quantity persons of this description, is
an evil far greater than slavery itself. Does any gentleman want
proof of this? I answer that all proof is useless ; no fact can be
more notorious. With this belief on the minds of the people
where slavery exists, and where the importation will take place,
if at all, we are about to turn loose in a state of freedom all
persons brought in after the passage of this law. I ask gentle-
men to reflect and say whether such a law, opposed to the ideas,
the passions, the views, and the affections of the people of the
Southern States, can be executed ? I tell them, no ; it is im-
possible why? Because no man will inform why ? Be-
cause to inform will be to lead to an evil which will be deemed
greater than the offence of which information is given, because
it will be opposed to the principle of self-preservation, and to
the love of family. No, no man will be disposed to jeopard
his life, and the lives of his countrymen. And if no one dare
1 Annals of Cong., 9 Cong. 2 sess. p. 478; Bidwell: Ibid., p. 171.
2 Ibid., p. 172.
SECT. 56.] THE FIRST QUESTION. 99
inform, the whole authority of the Government cannot carry
the law into effect. The whole people will rise up against it.
Why? Because to enforce it would be to turn loose, in the
bosom of the country, firebrands that would consume them." *
This was the more tragic form of the argument; it also had
a mercenary side, which was presented with equal emphasis. It
was repeatedly said that the only way to enforce the law was to
play off individual interests against each other. The profit from
the sale of illegally imported Negroes was declared to be the
only sufficient " inducement to give information of their impor-
tation." 2 " Give up the idea of forfeiture, and I challenge the
gentleman to invent fines, penalties, or punishments of any sort,
sufficient to restrain the slave trade." 3 If such Negroes be
freed, " I tell you that slaves will continue to be imported as here-
tofore. . . . You cannot get hold of the ships employed in this
traffic. Besides, slaves will be brought into Georgia from East
Florida. They will be brought into the Mississippi Territory
from the bay of Mobile. You cannot inflict any other penalty,
or devise any other adequate means of prevention, than a for-
feiture of the Africans in whose possession they may be found
after importation." 4 Then, too, when foreigners smuggled in
Negroes, " who then . . . could be operated on, but the pur-
chasers ? There was the rub it was their interest alone which,
by being operated on, would produce a check. Snap their
purse-strings, break open their strong box, deprive them of their
slaves, and by destroying the temptation to buy, you put an
end to the trade, . . . nothing short of a forfeiture of the slave
would afford an effectual remedy." 5 Again, it was argued that
it was impossible to prevent imported Negroes from becoming
slaves, or, what was just as bad, from being sold as vagabonds or
indentured for life. 6 Even our own laws, it was said, recognize
the title of the African slave factor in the transported Negroes ;
1 Annals of Cong., 9 Cong, i sess. pp. 173-4.
8 Alston : Ibid., p. 170.
8 D. R. Williams: Ibid., p. 183.
4 Early : Ibid., pp. 184-5.
6 Lloyd, Early, and others : Ibid., p. 203.
6 Alston: Ibid., p. 170.
100 ATTEMPTED SUPPRESSION. [CHAP. VIII.
and if the importer have no title, why do we legislate? Why not
let the African immigrant alone to get on as he may, just as we
do the Irish immigrant? 1 If he should be returned to Africa,
his home could not be found, and he would in all probability
be sold into slavery again. 2
The constitutional argument was not urged as seriously as
the foregoing; but it had a considerable place. On the one
hand, it was urged that if the Negroes were forfeited, they were
forfeited to the United States government, which could dispose
of them as it saw fit; 8 on the other hand, it was said that the
United States, as owner, was subject to State laws, and could not
free the Negroes contrary to such laws. 4 Some alleged that the
freeing of such Negroes struck at the title to all slave property ; 5
others thought that, as property in slaves was not recognized in
the Constitution, it could not be in a statute. 6 The question
also arose as to the source of the power of Congress over the
slave-trade. Southern men derived it from the clause on com-
merce, and declared that it exceeded the power of Congress to
declare Negroes imported into a slave State, free, against the laws
of that State ; that Congress could not determine what should
or should not be property in a State. 7 Northern men replied
that, according to this principle, forfeiture and sale in Massachu-
setts would be illegal; that the power of Congress over the
trade was derived from the restraining clause, as a non-existent
power could not be restrained; and that the United States
could act under her general powers as executor of the Law of
Nations. 8
The moral argument as to the disposal of illegally imported
Negroes was interlarded with all the others. On the one side,
it began with the " Rights of Man," and descended to a stickling
1 Quincy: Annals of Cong., 9 Cong. 2 sess. p. 222; Macon: Ibid., p. 225.
3 Macon: Ibid.,^. 177.
8 Barker: Ibid., p. 171 ; Bidwell: Ibid., p. 172.
4 Clay, Alston, and Early : Ibid., p. 266. 6 Ibid.
6 Bidwell: Ibid., p. 221.
7 Sloan and others: Ibid., p. 271 ; Early and Alston : Ibid., pp. 168, 171.
8 Ely, Bidwell, and others: Ibid., pp. 179, 181, 271 : Smilie and Findley:
Ibid., pp. 225, 226.
SECT. 56.] THE FIRST QUESTION. IOI
for the decent appearance of the statute-book; on the other
side, it began with the uplifting of the heathen, and descended
to a denial of the applicability of moral principles to the ques-
tion. Said Holland of North Carolina: "It is admitted that
the condition of the slaves in the Southern States is much
superior to that of those in Africa. Who, then, will say that
the trade is immoral?" 1 But, in fact, "morality has nothing
to do with this traffic," 2 for, as Joseph Clay declared, " it must
appear to every man of common sense, that the question could
be considered in a commercial point of view only." 8 The other
side declared that, " by the laws of God and man," these cap-
tured Negroes are "entitled to their freedom as clearly and
absolutely as we are ; " 4 nevertheless, some were willing to
leave them to the tender mercies of the slave States, so long
as the statute-book was disgraced by no explicit recognition
of slavery. 6 Such arguments brought some sharp sarcasm on
those who seemed anxious " to legislate for the honor and
glory of the statute book ; " 6 some desired " to know what
honor you will derive from a law that will be broken every day
of your lives. " 7 They would rather boldly sell the Negroes
and turn the proceeds over to charity.
The final settlement of the question was as follows :
" SECTION 4. ... And neither the importer, nor any person or per-
sons claiming from or under him, shall hold any right or title whatsoever
to any negro, mulatto, or person of color, nor to the service or labor
thereof, who may be imported or brought within the United States, or
territories thereof, in violation of this law, but the same shall remain
subject to any regulations not contravening the provisions of this act,
which the Legislatures of the several States or Territories at any time
hereafter may make, for disposing of any such negro, mulatto, or person
of color." 8
1 Annals of Cong., 9 Cong. 2 sess. p. 240. Cf. Lloyd: Ibid., p. 236.
3 Holland: Ibid., p. 241.
8 Ibid., p. 227; Macon : Ibid., p. 225.
Bidwell, Cook, and others: Ibid., p. 201.
Bidwell : Ibid., p. 221. Cf. Ibid., p. 202.
Early : Ibid., p. 239.
Ibid.
Ibid., p. 1267.
102 ATTEMPTED SUPPRESSION. [CHAP. VIII.
57. The Second Question: How shall Violations be punished?
The next point in importance was that of the punishment of
offenders. The half-dozen specific propositions reduce them-
selves to two : i. A violation should be considered a crime or
felony, and be punished by death; 2. A violation should be
considered a misdemeanor, and be punished by fine and
imprisonment. 1
Advocates of the severer punishment dwelt on the enormity
of the offence. It was " one of the highest crimes man could
commit," and " a captain of a ship engaged in this traffic was
guilty of murder." z The law of God punished the crime with
death, and any one would rather be hanged than be enslaved. 3
It was a peculiarly deliberate crime, in which the offender did
not act in sudden passion, but had ample time for reflection. 4
Then, too, crimes of much less magnitude are punished with
death. Shall we punish the stealer of $50 with death, and the
man-stealer with imprisonment only? 6 Piracy, forgery, and
fraudulent sinking of vessels are punishable with death, " yet
these are crimes only against property; whereas the importation
of slaves, a crime committed against the liberty of man, and
inferior only to murder or treason, is accounted nothing but a
misdemeanor." 6 Here, indeed, lies the remedy for the evil of
freeing illegally imported Negroes, in making the penalty so
severe that none will be brought in ; if the South is sincere,
1 There were about six distinct punishments suggested :
1. Forfeiture, and fine of $5000 to $10,000 (Early's bill : Annals of Cong.,
9 Cong. 2 sess. p. 167).
2. Forfeiture and imprisonment (amendment to Senate bill : Ibid., pp.
231, 477, 483).
3. Forfeiture, imprisonment from 5 to 10 years, and fine of $1000 to
$10,000 (amendment to amendment of Senate bill: Ibid., pp. 228, 483).
4. Forfeiture, imprisonment from 5 to 40 years, and fine of $1000 to
$10,000 (Chandler's amendment: Ibid., p. 228).
5. Forfeiture of all property, and imprisonment (Pitkin: Ibid., p. 188).
6. Death (Smilie : Ibid., pp. 189-90; bill reported to House, Dec. 19:
Ibid., p. 190; Senate bill as reported to House, Jan. 28).
a Smilie: Ibid., pp. 189-90.
8 Tallmadge: Ibid., p. 233; Olin: Ibid., p. 237.
* Ely : Ibid., p. 237.
6 Smilie : Ibid., p. 236. Cf. Sloan : Ibid., p. 232.
6 Hastings : Ibid., p. 228.
SECT. 57.] THE SECOND QUESTION. 103
" they will unite to a man to execute the law." 1 To free such
Negroes is dangerous; to enslave them, wrong; to return them,
impracticable ; to indenture them, difficult, therefore, by a
death penalty, keep them from being imported. 2 Here the
East had a chance to throw back the taunts of the South, by
urging the South to unite with them in hanging the New Eng-
land slave-traders, assuring the South that " so far from
charging their Southern brethren with cruelty or severity in
hanging them, they would acknowledge the favor with grati-
tude." 3 Finally, if the Southerners would refuse to execute so
severe a law because they did not consider the offence great,
they would probably refuse to execute any law at all for the
same reason. 4
The opposition answered that the death penalty was more
than proportionate to the crime, and therefore " immoral." 5
" I cannot believe," said Stanton of Rhode Island, " that a man
ought to be hung for only stealing a negro." 6 It was argued
that the trade was after all but a " transfer from one master to
another ; " 7 that slavery was worse than the slave-trade, and
the South did not consider slavery a crime : how could it then
punish the trade so severely and not reflect on the institution? 8
Severity, it was said, was also inexpedient: severity often in-
creases crime ; if the punishment is too great, people will sym-
pathize with offenders and will not inform against them. Said
Mr. Mosely : " When the penalty is excessive or disproportioned
to the offence, it will naturally create a repugnance to the law,
and render its execution odious." 9 John Randolph argued
against even fine and imprisonment, " on the ground that such
an excessive penalty could not, in such case, be constitutionally
1 Dwight : Annals of Cong., 9 Cong. 2 sess. p. 241 ; Ely : Ibid., p. 232.
2 Mosely: Ibid., pp. 234-5.
8 Tallmadge: Ibid., pp. 232, 234. Cf. Dwight: Ibid., p. 241.
4 Varnum : Ibid., p. 243.
6 Elmer: Ibid., p. 235.
6 Ibid., p. 240.
7 Holland : Ibid., p. 240.
8 Early: Ibid., pp. 238-9; Holland: Ibid., p. 239.
9 Ibid., p. 233. Cf. Lloyd: Ibid., p. 237; Ely: Ibid., p. 232; Early.
.Ibid., pp. 238-9.
104 ATTEMPTED SUPPRESSION. [CHAP. VIII.
imposed by a Government possessed of the limited powers of
the Government of the United States." l
The bill as passed punished infractions as follows :
For equipping a slaver, a fine of $20,000 and forfeiture of the ship.
For transporting Negroes, a fine of $5000 and forfeiture of the ship
and Negroes.
For transporting and selling Negroes, a fine of $1000 to $10,000, im-
prisonment from 5 to 10 years, and forfeiture of the ship and Negroes.
For knowingly buying illegally imported Negroes, a fine of $800 for
each Negro, and forfeiture.
58. The Third Question: How shall the Interstate Coastwise
Slave-Trade be protected? The first proposition was to prohibit
the coastwise slave-trade altogether, 2 but an amendment reported
to the House allowed it " in any vessel or species of craft what-
ever." It is probable that the first proposition would have
prevailed, had it not been for the vehement opposition of Ran-
dolph and Early. 3 They probably foresaw the value which
Virginia would derive from this trade in the future, and conse-
quently Randolph violently declared that if the amendment did
not prevail, " the Southern people would set the law at defiance.
He would begin the example." He maintained that by the
first proposition " the proprietor of sacred and chartered rights
is prevented the Constitutional use of his property." 4 The Con-
ference Committee finally arranged a compromise, forbidding
the coastwise trade for purposes of sale in vessels under forty
tons. 6 This did not suit Early, who declared that the law with
this provision "would not prevent the introduction of a single
slave." 6 Randolph, too, would "rather lose the bill, he had
rather lose all the bills of the session, he had rather lose every
bill passed since the establishment of the Government, than
agree to the provision contained in this slave bill." 7 He pre-
dicted the severance of the slave and the free States, if disunion
1 Annals of Cong., 9 Cong. 2 sess. p. 484.
* This was the provision of the Senate bill as reported to the House. It
was over the House amendment to this that the Houses disagreed. Cf.
Ibid.) p. 484.
Cf. Ibid., pp. 527-8. * Ibid., p. 528.
6 Ibid., p. 626. Ibid. i Ibid.
SECT. 59-] LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF THE BILL. 10$
should ever come. Congress was, however, weary with the
dragging of the bill, and it passed both Houses with the com-
promise provision. Randolph was so dissatisfied that he had a
committee appointed the next day, and introduced an amenda-
tory bill. Both this bill and another similar one, introduced at
the next session, failed of consideration. 1
59. Legislative History of the Bill. 2 On December 12, 1805,
Senator Stephen R. Bradley of Vermont gave notice of a bill
to prohibit the introduction of slaves after 1808. By a vote
of 1 8 to 9 leave was given, and the bill read a first time on
the i/th. On the i8th, however, it was postponed until "the
first Monday in December, 1806." The presidential message
mentioning the matter, Senator Bradley, December 3, 1806,
gave notice of a similar bill, which was brought in on the 8th,
and on the 9th referred to a committee consisting of Bradley,
Stone, Giles, Gaillard, and Baldwin. This bill passed, after some
consideration, January 27. It provided, among other things, that
violations of the act should be felony, punishable with death,
and forbade the interstate coast-trade. 3
Meantime, in the House, Mr. Bidwell of Massachusetts had
proposed, February 4, 1806, as an amendment to a bill taxing
slaves imported, that importation after December 31, 1807, be
prohibited, on pain of fine and imprisonment and forfeiture of
ship. 4 This was rejected by a vote of 86 to 17. On December
3, 1806, the House, in appointing committees on the message,
"Ordered, That Mr. Early, Mr. Thomas M. Randolph, Mr.
John Campbell, Mr. Kenan, Mr. Cook, Mr. Kelly, and Mr. Van
Rensselaer be appointed a committee" on the slave-trade.
This committee reported a bill on the I5th, which was con-
sidered, but finally, December 18, recommitted. It was re-
1 Annals of Cong., 9 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 636-8 ; House Journal (repr.
1826), 9 Cong. 2 sess. V. 616, and House Bill No. 219; Ibid., 10 Cong.
I sess. VI. 27, 50; Annals of Cong., 10 Cong, i sess. pp. 854-5, 961.
2 On account of the meagre records it is difficult to follow the course of
this bill. I have pieced together information from various sources, and trust
that this account is approximately correct.
8 Cf. Senate Journal (repr. 1821), 9 Cong. 2 sess. IV., Senate Bill No. 41.
4 Annals of Cong., 9 Cong, r sess. p. 438. Cf. above, 53.
106 ATTEMPTED SUPPRESSION. [CHAP. VIII.
ported in an amended form on the iQth, and amended in
Committee of the Whole so as to make violation a mis-
demeanor punishable by fine and imprisonment, instead of a
felony punishable by death. 1 A struggle over the disposal
of the cargo then ensued. A motion by Bidwell to except
the cargo from forfeiture was lost, 77 to 39. Another motion
by Bidwell may be considered the crucial vote on the whole
bill: it was an amendment to the forfeiture clause, and read,
" Provided, that no person shall be sold as a slave by virtue of
this act"' 1 This resulted in a tie vote, 60 to 60; but the cast-
ing vote of the Speaker, Macon of North Carolina, defeated it.
New England voted solidly in favor of it, the Middle States stood
4 for and 2 against it, and the six Southern States stood solid
against it. On January 8 the bill went again to a select committee
of seventeen, by a vote of 76 to 46. The bill was reported back
amended January 20, and on the 28th the Senate bill was also
presented to the House. On the 9th, loth, and nth of Feb-
ruary both bills were considered in Committee of the Whole,
and the Senate bill finally replaced the House bill, after several
amendments had been made. 3 The bill was then passed, by a
vote of 113 to 5.* 'The Senate agreed to the amendments,
including that substituting fine and imprisonment for the death
penalty, but asked for a conference on the provision which
left the interstate coast-trade free. The six conferees suc-
ceeded in bringing the Houses to agree, by limiting the trade to
vessels over forty tons and requiring registry of the slaves. 6
1 This amendment of the Committee of the Whole was adopted by a vote
of 63 to 53. The New England States stood 3 to 2 for the death penalty ;
the Middle States were evenly divided, 3 and 3; and the South stood 5 to o
against it, with Kentucky evenly divided. Cf . House Journal (repr. 1826),
9 Cong. 2 sess. V. 504.
Ibid., V. 514-5.
8 The substitution of the Senate bill was a victory for the anti-slavery
party, as all battles had to be fought again. The Southern party, however,
succeeded in carrying all its amendments.
4 Messrs. Betton of New Hampshire, Chittenden of Vermont, Garnett and
Trigg of Virginia, and D. R. Williams of South Carolina voted against the
bill : House Journal (repr. 1826), 9 Cong. 2 sess. V. 585-6.
6 Annals of Cong., 9 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 626-7.
SECT. 59.]
HISTORY OF THE BILL.
lO/
The following diagram shows in graphic form the legislative
history of the act :
Senate.
Bradley gives notice.
Leave given ; bill read.
Postponed one year.
kJVTHM
tice. H-
read. 4-
sar. -J-
1805.
Dec. 12.
li
1806.
Feb. 4.
Notice.
Bill introduced. - -
Committed.
Reported.
Third reading.
PASSED.
Dec.
9-
'5-
19.
23-
29.
3i-
1807.
Jan. 5.
20.
26.
27.
Reported from House.
Reported to House.
17-
18.
House asks conference. -
Conference report
adopted.
Bill enrolled.
2
House.
J-Bidwell's amend-
ment.
Committee on
slave trade.
Bill reported.
Read third time;
recommitted.
Reported
amended.
Senate bill
reported.
Senate bill
amended.
PASSED.
Reported back.
House insists ;
asks conference.
Conference re-
port adopted.
March
Signed by the President. 1
1 The unassigned dates refer to debates, etc. The history of the amend-
ments and debates on the measure may be traced in the following references :
Senate (Bill No. 41).
A nnals of Cong. , 9 Cong, i sess. pp. 20-1 ;
9 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 16, 19, 23, 33, 36, 45, 47, 68, 69,
7> 7', 79, 7 93. etc.
Senate Journal (repr. 1826), 9 Cong. 1-2 sess.
IV. n, 112, 123, 124, 132, 133, 150, 158, 164, 165,
167, 168, etc.
House (Bill No. 148).
A nnals of Cong. , 9 Cong, i sess. p. 438 ; 9 Cong.
2 sess. pp. 114, 151, 167-8, 173-4, 180, 183, 189,200,
202-4, 220, 228, 231, 240, 254, 264, 266-7, 270, 273,
373.427, 477, 481, 484-6, 527, 528, etc.
House Journal (repr. 1826), 9 Cong. 1-2 sess.
V. 470, 482, 488, 490, 491, 496, 500, 504, 510, 513-6,
5'7, 540, 557, 575, 579, 581, 583-4. 585, S92 594 610,
6l 3~5> 623 1 638, 640, etc.
108 ATTEMPTED SUPPRESSION. [CHAP. VIII.
This bill received the approval of President Jefferson, March
2, 1807, and became thus the "Act to prohibit the importa-
tion of Slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of
the United States, from and after the first day of January, in
the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eight." *
The debates in the Senate were not reported. Those in the
House were prolonged and bitter, and hinged especially on the
disposal of the slaves, the punishment of offenders, and the coast-
trade. Men were continually changing their votes, and the bill
see-sawed backward and forward, in committee and out, until
the House was thoroughly worn out. On the whole, the strong
anti-slavery men, like Bidwell and Sloan, were outgeneraled by
Southerners, like Early and Williams; and, considering the
immense moral backing of the anti-slavery party from the Revo-
lutionary fathers down, the bill of 1807 can hardly be regarded
as a great anti-slavery victory.
60. Enforcement of the Act. The period so confidently
looked forward to by the constitutional fathers had at last
arrived; the slave-trade was prohibited, and much oratory
and poetry were expended in celebration of the event. In
the face of this, let as see how the Act of 1807 was enforced
and what it really accomplished. It is noticeable, in the first
place, that there was no especial set of machinery provided for
the enforcement of this act. The work fell first to the Secretary
of the Treasury, as head of the customs collection. Then,
through the activity of cruisers, the Secretary of the Navy
gradually came to have oversight, and eventually the whole
matter was lodged with him, although the Departments of State
and War were more or less active on different occasions. Later,
at the advent of the Lincoln government, the Department of the
Interior was charged with the enforcement of the slave-trade
1 Statutes at Large, II. 426. There were some few attempts to obtain
laws of relief from this bill: see, e. g., Annals of Cong., 10 Cong, i sess.
p. 1243; n Cong, i sess. pp. 34, 36-9, 41, 43, 48, 49, 380, 465, 688, 706, 2209;
House Journal (repr. 1826), 11 Cong. 1-2 sess. VII. 100, 102, 124, etc., and
Index, Senate Bill No. 8. Cf. Amer. State Papers, Miscellaneous, II. No.
269. There was also one proposed amendment to make the prohibition per-
petual: Amer. State Papers, Miscellaneous, I. No. 244.
SECT. 61.] CONTINUANCE OF THE TRADE. IOQ
laws. It would indeed be surprising if, amid so much uncer-
tainty and shifting of responsibility, the law were not poorly
enforced. Poor enforcement, moreover, in the years 1808 to
1820 meant far more than at almost any other period; for these
years were, all over the European world, a time of stirring
economic change, and the set which forces might then take
would in a later period be unchangeable without a cataclysm.
Perhaps from 1808 to 1814, in the midst of agitation and war,
there was some excuse for carelessness. From 1814 on, how-
ever, no such palliation existed, and the law was probably
enforced as the people who made it wished it enforced.
Most of the Southern States rather tardily passed the neces-
sary supplementary acts disposing of illegally imported Afri-
cans. A few appear not to have passed any. Some of these
laws, like the Alabama-Mississippi Territory Act of I8I5, 1
directed such Negroes to be " sold by the proper officer of
the court, to the highest bidder, at public auction, for ready
money." One-half the proceeds went to the informer or to the
collector of customs, the other half to the public treasury.
Other acts, like that of North Carolina in i8i6, 2 directed
the Negroes to "be sold and disposed of for the use of the
state." One-fifth of the proceeds went to the informer. The
Georgia Act of 1817 3 directed that the slaves be either sold or
given to the Colonization Society for transportation, providing
the society reimburse the State for all expense incurred, and
pay for the transportation. In this manner, machinery of
somewhat clumsy build and varying pattern was provided for
the carrying out of the national act.
61. Evidence of the Continuance of the Trade. Undoubtedly,
the Act of 1807 came very near being a dead letter. The testi-
mony supporting this view is voluminous. It consists of presi-
dential messages, reports of cabinet officers, letters of collectors
of revenue, letters of district attorneys, reports of committees
of Congress, reports of naval commanders, statements made on
1 Toulmin, Digest of the Laws of Alabama, p. 637.
a Lavus of North Carolina (revision of 1819), II. 1350.
3 Prince, Digest, p. 793.
110 ATTEMPTED SUPPRESSION. [CHAP. VIII.
the floor of Congress, the testimony of eye-witnesses, and the
complaints of home and foreign anti-slavery societies.
"When I was young," writes Mr. Fowler of Connecticut,
" the slave-trade was still carried on, by Connecticut ship-masters
and Merchant adventurers, for the supply of southern ports.
This trade was carried on by the consent of the Southern States,
under the provisions of the Federal Constitution, until 1808, and,
after that time, clandestinely. There was a good deal of con-
versation on the subject, in private circles." Other States were
said to be even more involved than Connecticut. 1 The African
Society of London estimated that, down to 1816, fifteen of the
sixty thousand slaves annually taken from Africa were shipped
by Americans. " Notwithstanding the prohibitory act of
America, which was passed in 1807, ships bearing the American
flag continued to trade for slaves until 1809, when, in conse-
quence of a decision in the English prize appeal courts, which
rendered American slave ships liable to capture and condem-
nation, that flag suddenly disappeared from the coast. Its place
was almost instantaneously supplied by the Spanish flag, which,
with one or two exceptions, was now seen for the first time on
the African coast, engaged in covering the slave trade. This
sudden substitution of the Spanish for the American flag seemed
to confirm what was established in a variety of instances by
more direct testimony, that the slave trade, which now, for the
first time, assumed a Spanish dress, was in reality only the
trade of other nations in disguise." 2
So notorious did the participation of Americans in the traffic
become, that President Madison informed Congress in his mes-
sage, December 5, 1810, that "it appears that American citi-
zens are instrumental in carrying on a traffic in enslaved Africans,
equally in violation of the laws of humanity, and in defiance of
those of their own country. The same just and benevolent
motives which produced the interdiction in force against this
criminal conduct, will doubtless be felt by Congress, in devising
1 Fowler, Historical Status of the Negro in Connecticut, in Local Law,
etc., pp. 122, 126.
3 House Reports, 17 Cong. I sess. II. No. 92, p. 32.
SECT. 6i.] CONTINUANCE OF THE TRADE. Ill
further means of suppressing the evil." 1 The Secretary of the
Navy wrote the same year to Charleston, South Carolina : " I
hear, not without great concern, that the law prohibiting the
importation of slaves has been violated in frequent instances,
near St. Mary's." 2 Testimony as to violations of the law
and suggestions for improving it also came in from district
attorneys. 3
The method of introducing Negroes was simple. A slave
smuggler says : " After resting a few days at St. Augustine,
... I agreed to accompany Diego on a land trip through the
United States, where a kaffle of negroes was to precede us,
for whose disposal the shrewd Portuguese had already made
arrangements with my uncle's consignees. I soon learned how
readily, and at what profits, the Florida negroes were sold into
the neighboring American States. The kaffle, under charge
of negro drivers, was to strike up the Escambia River, and
thence cross the boundary into Georgia, where some of our
wild Africans were mixed with various squads of native blacks,
and driven inland, till sold off, singly or by couples, on the
road. At this period [1812], the United States had declared
the African slave trade illegal, and passed stringent laws to pre-
vent the importation of negroes ; yet the Spanish possessions
were thriving on this inland exchange of negroes and mulattoes ;
Florida was a sort of nursery for slave-breeders, and many
American citizens grew rich by trafficking in Guinea negroes,
and smuggling them continually, in small parties, through the
southern United States. At the time I mention, the business
was a lively one, owing to the war then going on between the
States and England, and the unsettled condition of affairs on
the border." 4
The Spanish flag continued to cover American slave-traders.
The rapid rise of privateering during the war was not caused
1 House Journal (repr. 1826), n Cong. 3 sess. VII. p. 435.
2 House Doc.) 15 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 84, p. 5.
8 See, e. g., House Journal (repr. 1826), n Cong. 3 sess. VII. p. 575.
4 Drake, Revelations of a Slave Smuggler, p. 51. Parts of this narrative
are highly colored and untrustworthy ; this passage, however, has every ear-
mark of truth, and is confirmed by many incidental allusions.
112 ATTEMPTED SUPPRESSION. [CHAP. VIII.
solely by patriotic motives ; for many armed ships fitted out in
the United States obtained a thin Spanish disguise at Havana,
and transported thousands of slaves to Brazil and the West
Indies. Sometimes all disguise was thrown aside, and the
American flag appeared on the slave coast, as in the cases of
the "Paz," 1 the "Rebecca," the "Rosa" 2 (formerly the pri-
vateer " Commodore Perry"), the " Dorset" of Baltimore, 3 and
the " Saucy Jack." 4 Governor McCarthy of Sierra Leone
wrote, in 1817: " The slave trade is carried on most vigorously
by the Spaniards, Portuguese, Americans and French. I have
had it affirmed from several quarters, and do believe it to be
a fact, that there is a greater number of vessels employed in
that traffic than at any former period." 6
62. Apathy of the Federal Government. The United States
cruisers succeeded now and then in capturing a slaver, like the
" Eugene," which was taken when within four miles of the New
Orleans bar. 6 President Madison again, in 1816, urged Con-
gress to act on account of the " violations and evasions which,
it is suggested, are chargeable on unworthy citizens, who mingle
in the slave trade under foreign flags, and with foreign ports ;
and by collusive importations of slaves into the United States,
through adjoining ports and territories." 7 The executive was
continually in receipt of ample evidence of this illicit trade
and of the helplessness of officers of the law. In 1817 it was
reported to the Secretary of the Navy that most of the goods
1 For accounts of these slavers, see House Reports, 17 Cong, i sess. II. No.
92, pp. 30-50. The " Paz " was an armed slaver flying the American flag.
8 Said to be owned by an Englishman, but fitted in America and manned
by Americans. It was eventually captured by H. M. S. " Bann," after a
hard fight.
8 Also called Spanish schooner " Triumvirate," with American super-
cargo, Spanish captain, and American, French, Spanish, and English crew.
It was finally captured by a British vessel.
4 An American slaver of 1814, which was boarded by a British vessel.
All the above cases, and many others, were proven before British courts.
6 House Reports, 17 Cong, i sess. II. No. 92, p. 51.
6 House Doc., 15 Cong, i sess. II. No. 12, pp. 22, 38. This slaver was
after capture sent to New Orleans, an illustration of the irony of the Act
of 1807.
7 House Journal, 14 Cong. 2 sess. p. 15.
SECT. 62.] APATHY OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 113
carried to Galveston were brought into the United States ; " the
more valuable, and the slaves are smuggled in through the
numerous inlets to the westward, where the people are but too
much disposed to render them every possible assistance. Sev-
eral hundred slaves are now at Galveston, and persons have
gone from New-Orleans to purchase them. Every exertion
will be made to intercept them, but I have little hopes of
success." 1 Similar letters from naval officers and collectors
showed that a system of slave piracy had arisen since the
war, and that at Galveston there was an establishment of
organized brigands, who did not go to the trouble of sailing
to Africa for their slaves, but simply captured slavers and
sold their cargoes into the United States. This Galveston
nest had, in 1817, eleven armed vessels to prosecute the work,
and " the most shameful violations of the slave act, as well as
our revenue laws, continue to be practised." 2 Cargoes of as
many as three hundred slaves were arriving in Texas. All
this took place under Aury, the buccaneer governor; and
when he removed to Amelia Island in 1817 with the McGregor
raid, the illicit traffic in slaves, which had been going on there
for years, 3 took an impulse that brought it even to the some-
what deaf ears of Collector Bullock. He reported, May 22,
1817: "I have just received information from a source on
which I can implicitly rely, that it has already become the
practice to introduce into the state of Georgia, across the
St. Mary's River, from Amelia Island, East Florida, Africans,
who have been carried into the Port of Fernandina, subse-
quent to the capture of it by the Patriot army now in posses-
sion of it . . . ; were the legislature to pass an act giving
compensation in some manner to informers, it would have a
tendency in a great degree to prevent the practice; as the
1 House Doc., 16 Cong, i sess. III. No. 36, p. 5.
2 Ibid., 15 Cong, i sess. II. No. 12, pp. 8-14. See Chew's letter of Oct.
17. 1817: Ibid., pp. 14-16.
8 By the secret Joint Resolution and Act of 1811 (Statutes at Large, III.
471), Congress gave the President power to suppress the Amelia Island
establishment, which was then notorious. The capture was not accom-
plished until 1817.
8
114 A TTEMP TED SUPPRESSION. [CHAP. V 1 1 1 .
thing now is, no citizen will take the trouble of searching
for and detecting the slaves. I further understand, that the evil
will not be confined altogether to Africans, but will be extended
to the worst class of West India slaves." 1
Undoubtedly, the injury done by these pirates to the regu-
lar slave-trading interests was largely instrumental in extermi-
nating them. Late in 1817 United States troops seized Amelia
Island, and President Monroe felicitated Congress and the coun-
try upon escaping the "annoyance and injury" of this illicit
trade. 2 The trade, however, seems to have continued, as is
shown by such letters as the following, written three and a half
months later:
PORT OF DARIEN, March 14, 1818.
. . . It is a painful duty, sir, to express to you, that I am in possession
of undoubted information, that African and West India negroes are al-
most daily illicitly introduced into Georgia, for sale or settlement, or
passing through it to the territories of the United States for similar pur-
poses ; these facts are notorious ; and it is not unusual to see such
negroes in the streets of St. Mary's, and such too, recently captured by
our vessels of war, and ordered to Savannah, were illegally bartered by
hundreds in that city, for this bartering or bonding (as // is called, but in
reality selling,} actually took place before any decision had [been] passed
by the court respecting them. I cannot but again express to you, sir,
that these irregularities and mocking of the laws, by men who understand
them, and who, it was presumed, would have respected them, are such,
that it requires the immediate interposition of Congress to effect a sup-
pression of this traffic ; for, as things are, should a faithful officer of the
government apprehend such negroes, to avoid the penalties imposed by
the laws, the proprietors disclaim them, and some agent of the executive
demands a delivery of the same to him, who may employ them as he
pleases, or effect a sale by way of a bond, for the restoration of the
negroes when legally called on so to do ; which bond, it is understood,
is to be forfeited, as the amount of the bond is so much less than the
value of the property. . . . There are many negroes . . . recently
1 House Doc., 16 Cong. I sess. III. No. 42, pp. 10-11. Cf. Report of the
House Committee, Jan. 10, 1818: "It is but too notorious that numerous
infractions of the law prohibiting the importation of slaves into the United
States have been perpetrated with impunity upon our southern frontier."
Amer. State Papers, Miscellaneous, II. No. 441.
3 Special message of Jan. 13, 1818: House Journal, 15 Cong. I sess.
PP- 137-9-
SECT. 62.] APATHY OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 11$
introduced into this state and the Alabama territory, and which can be
apprehended. The undertaking would be great ; but to be sensible that
we shall possess your approbation, and that we are carrying the views and
wishes of the government into execution, is all we wish, and it shall be
done, independent of every personal consideration.
I have, etc. 1
This " approbation " failed to come to the zealous collector,
and on the 5th of July he wrote that, " not being favored with a
reply," he has been obliged to deliver over to the governor's
agents ninety-one illegally imported Negroes. 2 Reports from
other districts corroborate this testimony. The collector at
Mobile writes of strange proceedings on the part of the courts. 3
General D. B. Mitchell, ex-governor of Georgia and United
States Indian agent, after an investigation in 1821 by Attorney-
General Wirt, was found " guilty of having prostituted his power,
as agent for Indian affairs at the Creek agency, to the purpose
of aiding and assisting in a conscious breach of the act of Con-
gress of 1807, in prohibition of the slave trade and this from
mercenary motives." 4 The indefatigable Collector Chew of
New Orleans wrote to Washington that, " to put a stop to that
traffic, a naval force suitable to those waters is indispensable,"
and that " vast numbers of slaves will be introduced to an
alarming extent, unless prompt and effectual measures are
adopted by the general government." 5 Other collectors con-
tinually reported infractions, complaining that they could get
no assistance from the citizens, 6 or plaintively asking the ser-
vices of "one small cutter." 7
Meantime, what was the response of the government to such
representations, and what efforts were made to enforce the act?
A few unsystematic and spasmodic attempts are recorded. In
1811 some special instructions were sent out, 8 and the President
1 Collector Mclntosh, of the District of Brunswick, Ga., to the Secretary
of the Treasury. House Doc., 16 Cong, r sess. III. No. 42, pp. 8-9.
2 Ibid., pp. 6-7. 8 Ibid., pp. 11-12.
4 Amer. State Papers, Miscellaneous, II. No. 529.
6 House Doc., 16 Cong, i sess. III. No. 42, p. 7.
8 Ibid., p. 6.
7 House Reports, 21 Cong. I sess. III. No. 348, p. 82.
8 They were not general instructions, but were directed to Commander
Campbell. Cf. House Doc., 15 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 84, pp. 5-6.
Il6 ATTEMPTED SUPPRESSION. [CHAP. VIII.
was authorized to seize Amelia Island. 1 Then came the war ;
and as late as November 15, 1818, in spite of the complaints of
collectors, we find no revenue cutter on the Gulf coast. 2 During
the years 1817 and i8i8 3 some cruisers went there irregularly,
but they were too large to be effective ; and the partial suppres-
sion of the Amelia Island pirates was all that was accomplished.
On the whole, the efforts of the government lacked plan,
energy, and often sincerity. Some captures of slavers were
made ; 4 but, as the collector at Mobile wrote, anent certain cases,
" this was owing rather to accident, than any well-timed ar-
rangement." He adds : " from the Chandalier Islands to the
Perdido river, including the coast, and numerous other islands,
we have only a small boat, with four men and an inspector, to
oppose to the whole confederacy of smugglers and pirates." 5
To cap the climax, the government officials were so negli-
gent that Secretary Crawford, in 1820, confessed to Congress
that " it appears, from an examination of the records of this
office, that no particular instructions have ever been given, by
the Secretary of the Treasury, under the original or supple-
mentary acts prohibiting the introduction of slaves into the
United States." 6 Beside this inactivity, the government was
criminally negligent in not prosecuting and punishing offenders
when captured. Urgent appeals for instruction from prose-
cuting attorneys were too often received in official silence;
complaints as to the violation of law by State officers went un-
heeded ; 7 informers were unprotected and sometimes driven
1 Statutes at Large, III. 471 ff.
8 House Doc., 15 Cong. 2 sess. VI. No. 107, pp. 8-9.
8 Ibid., IV. No. 84. Cf. Chew's letters in House Reports, 21 Cong.
I sess. III. No. 348.
* House Doc., 15 Cong, i sess. II. No. 12, pp. 22, 38; 15 Cong. 2 sess.
VI. No. 100, p. 13; 1 6 Cong, i sess. III. No. 42, p. 9, etc.; House Reports,
21 Cong, i sess. III. No. 348, p. 85.
5 House Doc., 15 Cong. 2 sess. VI. No. 107, pp. 8-9.
8 House Reports, 21 Cong, i sess. III. No. 348, p. 77.
7 Cf. House Doc., 16 Cong, i sess. III. No. 42, p. II : "The Grand Jury
found true bills against the owners of the vessels, masters, and a supercargo
all of whom are discharged ; why or wherefore I cannot say, except that
it could not be for want of proof against them."
SECT. 63.] TYPICAL CASE 1 1/
from home. 1 Indeed, the most severe comment on the whole
period is the report, January 7, 1819, of the Register of the Treas-
ury, who, after the wholesale and open violation of the Act of
1807, reported, in response to a request from the House, "that
it doth not appear, from an examination of the records of this
office, and particularly of the accounts (to the date of their last
settlement) of the collectors of the customs, and of the several
marshals of the United States, that any forfeitures had been
incurred under the said act." 2
63. Typical Cases. At this date (January 7, 1819), however,
certain cases were stated to be pending, a history of which will fitly
conclude this discussion. In 1818 three American schooners
sailed from the United States to Havana; on June 2. they started
back with cargoes aggregating one hundred and seven slaves.
The schooner "Constitution" was captured by one of Andrew
Jackson's officers under the guns of Fort Barancas. The
" Louisa " and " Marino " were captured by Lieutenant Mc-
Keever of the United States Navy. The three vessels were duly
proceeded against at Mobile, and the case began slowly to drag
along. The slaves, instead of being put under the care of the
zealous marshal of the district, were placed in the hands of three
bondsmen, friends of the judge. The marshal notified the
government of this irregularity, but apparently received no
answer. In 1822 the three vessels were condemned as forfeited,
but the court " reserved " for future order the distribution of
the slaves. Nothing whatever either then or later was done
to the slave-traders themselves. The owners of the ships
promptly appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States,
and that tribunal, in 1824, condemned the three vessels and the
slaves on two of them. 3 These slaves, considerably reduced in
number " from various causes," were sold at auction for the
1 E. g, in July, 1818, one informer "will have to leave that part of the
country to save his life " : Ibid., 15 Cong. 2 sess. VI. No. 100, p. 9.
2 Joseph Nourse, Register of the Treasury, to Hon. W. H. Crawford,
Secretary of the Treasury: Ibid., 15 Cong. 2 sess. VI. No. 107, p. 5.
8 The slaves on the "Constitution" were not condemned, for the technical
reason that she was not captured by a commissioned officer of the United
States navy.
Il8 ATTEMPTED SUPPRESSION. [CHAP. VIII.
benefit of the State, in spite of the Act of 1819. Meantime,
before the decision of the Supreme Court, the judge of the
Supreme Court of West Florida had awarded to certain alleged
Spanish claimants of the slaves indemnity for nearly the whole
number seized, at the price of $650 per head, and the Secretary
of the Treasury had actually paid the claim. 1 In 1826 Lieu-
tenant McKeever urgently petitions Congress for his prize-
money of $4,415.15, which he has not yet received. 2 The
" Constitution " was for some inexplicable reason released from
bond, and the whole case fades in a very thick cloud of official
mist. In 1831 Congress sought to inquire into the final dispo-
sition of the slaves. The information given was never printed ;
but as late as 1836 a certain Calvin Mickle petitions Congress
for reimbursement for the slaves sold, for their hire, for their
natural increase, for expenses incurred, and for damages. 8
64. The Supplementary Acts, 1818-1820. To remedy the ob-
vious defects of the Act of 1807 two courses were possible: one,
to minimize the crime of transportation, and, by encouraging
informers, to concentrate efforts against the buying of smuggled
slaves ; the other, to make the crime of transportation so great
that no slaves would- be imported. The Act of 1818 tried the
first method; that of 1819, the second. 4 The latter was ob-
viously the more upright and logical, and the only method
deserving thought even in 1807; but the Act of 1818 was the
natural descendant of that series of compromises which began
1 These proceedings are very obscure, and little was said about them.
The Spanish claimants were, it was alleged with much probability, but rep-
resentatives of Americans. The claim was paid under the provisions of the
Treaty of Florida, and included slaves whom the court afterward declared
forfeited.
2 An act to relieve him was finally passed, Feb. 8, 1827, nine years after
the capture. See Statutes at Large, VI. 357.
It is difficult to get at the exact facts in this complicated case. The
above statement is, I think, much milder than the real facts would warrant,
if thoroughly known. Cf. House Reports, 19 Cong, i sess. II. No. 231 ; 21
Cong, i sess. III. No. 348, pp. 62-3, etc.; 24 Cong. I sess. I. No. 209;
Amer. State Papers, Naval, II. No. 308.
4 The first method, represented by the Act of 1818, was favored by the
South, the Senate, and the Democrats; the second method, represented
by the Act of 1819, by the North, the House, and by the as yet undeveloped
but growing Whig party.
SECT. 64.] THE SUPPLEMENTARY ACTS. 1 19
in the Constitutional Convention, and which, instead of postpon-
ing the settlement of critical questions to more favorable times,
rather aggravated and complicated them.
The immediate cause of the Act of 1818 was the Amelia
Island scandal. 1 Committees in both Houses reported bills,
but that of the Senate finally passed. There does not appear
to have been very much debate. 2 The sale of Africans for the
benefit of the informer and of the United States was strongly
urged " as the only means of executing the laws against the
slave trade as experience had fully demonstrated since the
origin of the prohibition." 3 This proposition was naturally
opposed as " inconsistent with the principles of our Govern-
ment, and calculated to throw as wide open the door to the im-
portation of slaves as it was before the existing prohibition." *
The act, which became a law April 20, i8i8, 6 was a poorly
constructed compromise, which virtually acknowledged the fail-
ure of efforts to control the trade, and sought to remedy defects
by pitting cupidity against cupidity, informer against thief. One-
1 Committees on the slave-trade were appointed by the House in 1810
and 1813; the committee of 1813 recommended a revision of the laws,
but nothing was done: Annals of Cong., n Cong. 3 sess. p. 387; 12 Cong.
2 sess. pp. 1074, 1090. The presidential message of 1816 led to commit-
tees on the trade in both Houses. The committee of the House of Repre-
sentatives reported a joint resolution on abolishing the traffic and colonizing
the Negroes, also looking toward international action. This never came to
a vote: Senate Journal, 14 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 46, 179, 180; House Journal,
14 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 25, 27, 380 ; House Doc., 14 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 77.
Finally, the presidential message of 1817 (House Journal, 15 Cong, i sess.
p. n), announcing the issuance of orders to suppress the Amelia Island
establishment, led to two other committees in both Houses. The House
committee under Middleton made a report with a bill (Amer. State Papers,
Miscellaneous, II. No. 441), and the Senate committee also reported a bill.
3 The Senate debates were entirely unreported, and the report of the
House debates is very meagre. For the proceedings, see Senate Journal,
15 Cong, i sess. pp. 243, 304, 315, 333, 338, 340, 348, 377, 386, 388, 391, 403,
406; House Journal, 15 Cong, i sess. pp. 19, 20, 29, 51, 92, 131, 362, 410,
450, 452, 456, 468, 479, 484, 492, SOS-
* Simkins of South Carolina, Edwards of North Carolina, and Pindall :
Annals of Cong., 15 Cong, i sess. p. 1740.
4 Hugh Nelson of Virginia: Annals of Cong., 15 Cong, i sess. p. 1740.
6 Statutes at Large, III. 450. By this act the first six sections of the
Act of 1807 were repealed.
120 ATTEMPTED SUPPRESSION. [CHAP. VIII.
half of all forfeitures and fines were to go to the informer, and
penalties for violation were changed as follows :
For equipping a slaver, instead of a fine of $20,000, a fine of $1000 to
$5000 and imprisonment from 3 to 7 years.
For transporting Negroes, instead of a fine of $5000 and forfeiture of
ship and Negroes, a fine of $1000 to $5000 and imprisonment from 3 to
7 years.
For actual importation, instead of a fine of $1000 to $10,000 and
imprisonment from 5 to 10 years, a fine of $1000 to $10,000, and impris-
onment from 3 to 7 years.
For knowingly buying illegally imported Negroes, instead of a fine of
$800 for each Negro and forfeiture, a fine of $1000 for each Negro.
The burden of proof was laid on the defendant, to the extent
that he must prove that the slave in question had been imported
at least five years before the prosecution. The slaves were still
left to the disposal of the States.
This statute was, of course, a failure from the start, 1 and at
the very next session Congress took steps to revise it. A bill
was reported in the House, January 13, 1819, but it was not
discussed till March. 2 It finally passed, after " much debate." 3
The Senate dropped its own bill, and, after striking out the pro-
vision for the death penalty, passed the bill as it came from the
House. 4 The House acquiesced, and the bill became a law,
March 3, i8l9, 6 in the midst of the Missouri trouble. This act
directed the President to use armed cruisers on the coasts of the
1 Or, more accurately speaking, every one realized, in view of the in-
creased activity of the trade, that it would be a failure.
2 Nov. 18, 1818, the part of the presidential message referring to the slave-
trade was given to a committee of the House, and this committee also took
in hand the House bill of the previous session which the Senate bill had re-
placed: House Journal, 15 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 9-19,42, 150, 179, 330, 334, 341,
343, 352-
8 Of which little was reported: Annals of Cong., 15 Cong. 2 sess. pp.
1430-31. Strother opposed, "for various reasons of expediency," the boun-
ties for captors. Nelson of Virginia advocated the death penalty, and, aided
by Pindall, had it inserted. The vote on the bill was 57 to 45.
4 The Senate had also had a committee at work on a bill which was
reported Feb. 8, and finally postponed: Senate Journal, 15 Cong. 2 sess.
pp. 234, 244, 311-2, 347. The House bill was taken up March 2: Annals of
Cong., 15 Cong. 2 sess. p. 280.
6 Statutes at Large, III. 532.
SECT. 64.] THE SUPPLEMENTARY ACTS. 121
United States and Africa to suppress the slave-trade ; one-half
the proceeds of the condemned ship were to go to the captors as
bounty, provided the Africans were safely lodged with a United
States marshal and the crew with the civil authorities. These
provisions were seriously marred by a proviso which Butler of
Louisiana, had inserted, with a "due regard for the interests of
the State which he represented," viz., that a captured slaver
must always be returned to the port whence she sailed. 1 This,
of course, secured decided advantages to Southern slave-traders.
The most radical provision of the act was that which directed
the President to " make such regulations and arrangements as
he may deem expedient for the safe keeping, support, and re-
moval beyond the limits of the United States, of all such negroes,
mulattoes, or persons of colour, as may be so delivered and
brought within their jurisdiction ; " and to appoint an agent in
Africa to receive such Negroes. 2 Finally, an appropriation of
$100,000 was made to enforce the act. 3 This act was in some
measure due to the new colonization movement; and the return
of Africans recaptured was a distinct recognition of its efforts,
and the real foundation of Liberia.
To render this straightforward act effective, it was necessary
to add but one measure, and that was a penalty commensurate
with the crime of slave stealing. This was accomplished by the
Act of May 15, 1820,* a law which may be regarded as the
1 Annals of Cong., 15 Cong. 2 sess. p. 1430. This insured the trial of
slave-traders in a sympathetic slave State, and resulted in the "disappear-
ance " of many captured Negroes.
2 Statutes at Large, III. 533.
8 The first of a long series of appropriations extending to 1869, of which
a list is given on the next page. The totals are only approximately correct.
Some statutes may have escaped me, and in the reports of moneys the
surpluses of previous years are not always clearly distinguishable.
4 In the first session of the sixteenth Congress, two bills on piracy
were introduced into the Senate, one of which passed, April 26. In the
House there was a bill on piracy, and a slave-trade committee reported
recommending that the slave-trade be piracy. The Senate bill and this bill
were considered in Committee of the Whole, May n, and a bill was finally
passed declaring, among other things, the traffic piracy. In the Senate
there was "some discussion, rather on the form than the substance of these
amendments," and " they were agreed to without a division " : Senate Journal^
16 Cong, i sess. pp. 238, 241, 268, 287, 314, 331, 346, 350, 409, 412, 417, 420,
122
A TTEMP TED SUPPRESSION. [CH A p. V 1 1 1
last of the Missouri Compromise measures. The act originated
from the various bills on piracy which were introduced early in
STATUTES AT LARGE.
DATE.
AMOUNT APPROPRIATED.
VOL. PAGE
in. 533-4
March 3, 1819
$100,000
764
" 3, 1823
50,000
IV. 141
" 14, 1826
32,000
" 208
March 2, 1827
( 36,710
( 20,000
302
May 24, 1828
30,000
354
March 2, 1829
16,000
" 462
" 2, 1831
16,000
" 615
Feb. 20, 1833
5,000
" 671
V. 157-8
Jan. 24, 1834
March 3, 1837
5,000
ii,4i3-S7
501
Aug. 4, 1842
10,543.42
615
IX. 96
March 3, 1843
Aug. lo, 1846
5,000
25,000
XL 90
18, 1856
8,000
227
March 3, 1857
8,000
404
XII. 21
" 3. i859
May 26, 1860
75,000
40,000
132
Feb. 19, 1861
900,000
" 219
March 2, 1861
900,000
6 39
Feb. 4, 1863
17,000
XIII. 424
Jan. 24, 1865
17,000
XIV. 226
July 25, 1866
17,000
415
- Feb. 28, 1867
17,000
XV. 58
March 30, 1868
12,500
321
March 3, 1869
12,500
Total, 50 years $2.386,666.99
48,666.99 ?
$2,338,000
5,767,500
250,000
4,000,000 ?
Minus surpluses re-appropriated (approximate)
Cost of squadron, 1843-58, @ $384,500 per year
(House Exec. Doc., 31 Cong. I sess. IX. No. 73)
Returning slaves on " Wildfire " (Statutes at Large,
XII. 41)
Approximate cost of squadron, 1858-66, probably
not less than $500,000 per year
Approximate money cost of suppressing the
slave-trade $12,355,500?
Cf. Kendall's Report: Senate Doc., 21 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. i, pp. 211-8;
Amer. State Papers, Naval, III. No. 429 E. ; also Reports of the Secre-
taries of the Navy from 1819 to 1860.
422, 424, 425; House Journal, 16 Cong. I sess. pp. 113, 280, 453, 454, 494,
518, 520, 522, 537; Annals of Cong., 16 Cong. I sess. pp. 693-4, 2231, 2236-7,
etc. The debates were not reported.
SECT. 65.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS. 123
the sixteenth Congress. The House bill, in spite of opposition,
was amended so as to include slave-trading under piracy, and
passed. The Senate agreed without a division. This law pro-
vided that direct participation in the slave-trade should be
piracy, punishable with death. 1
65. Enforcement of the Supplementary Acts, 1818-1825. A
somewhat more sincere and determined effort to enforce the
slave-trade laws now followed ; and yet it is a significant fact
that not until Lincoln's administration did a slave-trader suffer
death for violating the laws of the United States. The partici-
pation of Americans in the trade continued, declining somewhat
between 1825 and 1830, and then reviving, until it reached its
highest activity between 1840 and 1860. The development
of a vast internal slave-trade, and the consequent rise in the
South of vested interests strongly opposed to slave smuggling,
led to a falling off in the illicit introduction of Negroes after
1825, until the fifties; nevertheless, smuggling never entirely
ceased, and large numbers were thus added to the plantations
of the Gulf States.
Monroe had various constitutional scruples as to the execu-
tion of the Act of 1819; 2 but, as Congress took no action, he
at last put a fair interpretation on his powers, and appointed
Samuel Bacon as an agent in Africa to form a settlement for
recaptured Africans. Gradually the agency thus formed became
merged with that of the Colonization Society on Cape Mesurado ;
and from this union Liberia was finally evolved. 3
Meantime, during the years 1818 to 1820, the activity of the
1 Statutes at Large, III. 600-1. This act was in reality a continuation
of the piracy Act of 1819, and was only temporary. The provision was,
however, continued by several acts, and finally made perpetual by the Act of
Jan. 30, 1823 : Statutes at Large, III. 510-4, 721. On March 3, 1823, it was
slightly amended so as to give district courts jurisdiction.
2 Attorney-General Wirt advised him, October, 1819, that no part of the
appropriation could be used to purchase land in Africa or tools for the
Negroes, or as salary for the agent : Opinions of Attorneys-General, I. 314-7.
Monroe laid the case before Congress in a special message Dec. 20, 1819
(House Journal, 16 Cong, i sess. p. 57) ; but no action was taken there.
8 Cf. Kendall's Report, August, 1830 : Senate Doc., 21 Cong. 2 sess. I.
No. I, pp. 21 1-8; also see below, Chapter X.
124 ATTEMPTED SUPPRESSION. [CHAP. VIII.
slave-traders was prodigious. General James Tallmadge de-
clared in the House, February 15, 1819: "Our laws are al-
ready highly penal against their introduction, and yet, it is a
well known fact, that about fourteen thousand slaves have been
brought into our country this last year." 1 In the same year
Middleton of South Carolina and Wright of Virginia estimated
illicit introduction at 13,000 and 15,000 respectively. 2 Judge
Story, in charging a jury, took occasion to say: "We have
but too many proofs from unquestionable sources, that it [the
slave-trade] is still carried on with all the implacable rapacity
of former times. Avarice has grown more subtle in its evasions,
and watches and seizes its prey with an appetite quickened
rather than suppressed by its guilty vigils. American citizens
are steeped to their very mouths (I can hardly use too bold a
figure) in this stream of iniquity." 3 The following year, 1820,
brought some significant statements from various members of
Congress. Said Smith of South Carolina: "Pharaoh was, for
his temerity, drowned in the Red Sea, in pursuing them [the
Israelites] contrary to God's express will; but our Northern
friends have not been afraid even of that, in their zeal to fur-
nish the Southern States with Africans. They are better sea-
men than Pharaoh, and calculate by that means to elude the
vigilance of Heaven ; which they seem to disregard, if they can
but elude the violated laws of their country." 4 As late as
May he saw little hope of suppressing the traffic. 6 Sergeant
of Pennsylvania declared : " It is notorious that, in spite of
the utmost vigilance that can be employed, African negroes
are clandestinely brought in and sold as slaves." 6 Plumer of
New Hampshire stated that " of the unhappy beings, thus in
violation of all laws transported to our shores, and thrown by
force into the mass of our black population, scarcely one in a
1 Speech in the House of Representatives, Feb. 15, 1819, p. 18; published
in Boston, 1849.
8 Jay, Inquiry into American Colonization (1838), p. 59, note.
8 Quoted in Friends' Facts and Observations on the Slave Trade (ed.
1841), pp. 7-8.
4 Annals of Cong., 16 Cong, i sess. pp. 270-1.
6 Ibid., p. 698. 6 Ibid., p. 1207.
SECT. 65.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS. 12$
hundred is ever detected by the officers of the General Govern-
ment, in a part of the country, where, if we are to believe the
statement of Governor Rabun, ' an officer who would perform
his duty, by attempting to enforce the law [against the slave
trade] is, by many, considered as an officious meddler, and
treated with derision and contempt; ' . . . I have been told by
a gentleman, who has attended particularly to this subject, that
ten thousand slaves were in one year smuggled into the United
States; and that, even for the last year, we must count the num-
ber not by hundreds, but by thousands." 1 In 1821 a com-
mittee of Congress characterized prevailing methods as those
" of the grossest fraud that could be practised to deceive the
officers of government." 2 Another committee, in 1822, after
a careful examination of the subject, declare that they " find it
impossible to measure with precision the effect produced upon
the American branch of the slave trade by the laws above men-
tioned, and the seizures under them. They are unable to state,
whether those American merchants, the American capital and
seamen which heretofore aided in this traffic, have abandoned it
altogether, or have sought shelter under the flags of other
nations." They then state the suspicious circumstance that, with
the disappearance of the American flag from the traffic, " the
trade, notwithstanding, increases annually, under the flags of
other nations." They complain of the spasmodic efforts of the
executive. They say that the first United States cruiser arrived
on the African coast in March, 1820, and remained a "few
weeks ; " that since then four others had in two years made five
visits in all; but " since the middle of last November, the com-
mencement of the healthy season on that coast, no vessel has
been, nor, as your committee is informed, is, under orders for
that service." 3 The United States African agent, Ayres, re-
ported in 1823 : " I was informed by an American officer who
had been on the coast in 1820, that he had boarded 20 Ameri-
can vessels in one morning, lying in the port of Gallinas, and
1 Annals of Cong., 16 Cong. I sess. p. 1433.
2 Referring particularly to the case of the slaver " Plattsburg." Cf.
House Reports, 17 Cong, i sess. II. No. 92, p. 10.
8 ffouse Reports, 17 Cong, i sess. II. No. 92, p. 2. The President had in
126 ATTEMPTED SUPPRESSION. [CHAP. VIII.
fitted for the reception of slaves. It is a lamentable fact, that
most of the harbours, between the Senegal and the line, were
visited by an equal number of American vessels, and for the
sole purpose of carrying away slaves. Although for some years
the coast had been occasionally visited by our cruizers, their
short stay and seldom appearance had made but slight im-
pression on those traders, rendered hardy by repetition of crime,
and avaricious by excessive gain. They were enabled by a
regular system to gain intelligence of any cruizer being on the
coast." 1
Even such spasmodic efforts bore abundant fruit, and indi-
cated what vigorous measures might have accomplished. Be-
tween May, 1818, and November, 1821, nearly six hundred
Africans were recaptured and eleven American slavers taken. 2
Such measures gradually changed the character of the trade,
and opened the international phase of the question. American
slavers cleared for foreign ports, there took a foreign flag and
papers, and then sailed boldly past American cruisers, although
their real character was often well known. More stringent clear-
ance laws and consular instructions might have greatly reduced
this practice ; but nothing was ever done, and gradually the laws
became in large measure powerless to deal with the bulk of
the illicit trade. In 1820, September 16, a British officer, in his
official report, declares that, in spite of United States laws,
" American vessels, American subjects, and American capital,
are unquestionably engaged in the trade, though under other
his message spoken in exhilarating tones of the success of the government
in suppressing the trade. The House Committee appointed in pursuance of
this passage made the above report. Their conclusions are confirmed by
British reports: Parliamentary Papers, 1822, Vol. XXII., Slave Trade,
Further Papers, III. p, 44. So, too, in 1823, Ashmun, the African agent,
reports that thousands of slaves are being abducted.
1 Ayres to the Secretary of the Navy, Feb. 24, 1823 ; reprinted in Friends'
View of the African Slave-Trade (1824), p. 31.
4 House Reports, 17 Cong, i sess. II. No. 92, pp. 5-6. The slavers were
the "Ramirez," "Endymion," " Esperanza," " Plattsburg," "Science,"
"Alexander," "Eugene," " Mathilde," "Daphne," "Eliza," and "La
Pense'e." In these 573 Africans were taken. The naval officers were greatly
handicapped by the size of the ships, etc. (cf. Friends' 1 View, etc., pp. 33-
41). They nevertheless acted with great zeal.
SECT. 65.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS. 127
colours and in disguise." 1 The United States ship " Cyane " at
one time reported ten captures within a few days, adding:
" Although they are evidently owned by Americans, they are so
completely covered by Spanish papers that it is impossible to
condemn them." 2 The governor of Sierra Leone reported
the rivers Nunez and Pongas full of renegade European and
American slave-traders ; 3 the trade was said to be carried on
"to an extent that almost staggers belief." 4 Down to 1824
or 1825, reports from all quarters prove this activity in slave-
trading.
The execution of the laws within the country exhibits grave
defects and even criminal negligence. Attorney-General Wirt
finds it necessary to assure collectors, in 1819, that " it is against
public policy to dispense with prosecutions for violation of the
law to prohibit the Slave trade." 5 One district attorney writes :
" It appears to be almost impossible to enforce the laws of
the United States against offenders after the negroes have been
landed in the state." 6 Again, it is asserted that "when ves-
sels engaged in the slave trade have been detained by the
American cruizers, and sent into the slave-holding states, there
appears at once a difficulty in securing the freedom to these
captives which the laws of the United States have decreed for
them." 1 In some cases, one man would smuggle in the Afri-
cans and hide them in the woods; then his partner would "rob"
him, and so all trace be lost. 8 Perhaps 350 Africans were
officially reported as brought in contrary to law from 1818 to
1820: the absurdity of this figure is apparent. 9 A circular
1 Parliamentary Papers, 1821, Vol. XXIII., Slave Trade, Further Papers,
A, p. 76. The names and description of a dozen or more American slavers
are given: Ibid., pp. 18-21.
2 House Reports, 17 Cong. I sess. II. No. 92, pp. 15-20.
8 House Doc., 18 Cong, i sess. VI. No. 119, p. 13.
4 Parliamentary Papers, 1823, Vol. XVIII., Slave Trade, Further
Papers, A, pp. 10-11.
6 Opinions of Attorneys-General, V. 717.
8 R. W. Habershamto the Secretary of the Navy, August, 1821 ; reprinted
in Friends' View, etc., p. 47.
1 Ibid., p. 42. 8 Ibid ^ p. 43 .
* Cf. above, p. 124.
128 ATTEMPTED SUPPRESSION. [CHAP. VIII.
letter to the marshals, in 1821, brought reports of only a few
well-known cases, like that of the " General Ramirez ; " the
marshal of Louisiana had "no information." 1
There appears to be little positive evidence of a large illicit
importation into the country for a decade after 1825. It is hardly
possible, however, considering the activity in the trade, that
slaves were not largely imported. Indeed, when we note how
the laws were continually broken in other respects, absence of
evidence of petty smuggling becomes presumptive evidence that
collusive or tacit understanding of officers and citizens allowed
the trade to some extent. 2 Finally, it must be noted that during
all this time scarcely a man suffered for participating in the
trade, beyond the loss of the Africans and, more rarely, of his
ship. Red-handed slavers, caught in the act and convicted, were
too often, like La Coste of South Carolina, the subjects of ex-
ecutive clemency. 3 In certain cases there were those who even
1 Friends' View, etc., p. 42.
2 A few accounts of captures here and there would make the matter less
suspicious ; these, however, do not occur. How large this suspected illicit
traffic was, it is of course impossible to say; there is no reason why it may
not have reached many "hundreds per year.
8 Cf. editorial in Niks' s Register, XXII. 114. Cf. also the following
instances of pardons :
PRESIDENT JEFFERSON: March i, 1808, Phillip M. Topham, convicted
for "carrying on an illegal slave-trade" (pardoned twice). Pardons and
Remissions, I. 146, 148-9.
PRESIDENT MADISON: July 29, 1809, fifteen vessels arrived at New
Orleans from Cuba, with 666 white persons and 683 negroes. Every pen-
alty incurred under the Act of 1807 was remitted. (Note: "Several other
pardons of this nature were granted.") Ibid., I. 179.
Nov. 8, 1809, John Hopkins and Lewis Le Roy, convicted for importing
a slave. Ibid., I. 184-5.
Feb. 12, 1 8 io, William Sewall, convicted for importing slaves. Ibid., I.
194, 235, 240.
May 5, 1812, William Babbit, convicted for importing slaves. Ibid., \. 248.
PRESIDENT MONROE : June n, 1822, Thomas Shields, convicted for
bringing slaves into New Orleans. Ibid., IV. 15.
Aug. 24, 1822, J. F. Smith, sentenced to five years' imprisonment and
$3000 fine ; served twenty-five months and was then pardoned. Ibid., IV. 22.
July 23, 1823, certain parties liable to penalties for introducing slaves
into Alabama. Ibid., IV. 63.
SECT. 65.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS. 129
had the effrontery to ask Congress to cancel their own laws.
For instance, in 1819 a Venezuelan privateer, secretly fitted
out and manned by Americans in Baltimore, succeeded in
capturing several American, Portuguese, and Spanish slavers,
and appropriating the slaves ; being finally wrecked herself, she
transferred her crew and slaves to one of her prizes, the " Ante-
lope," which was eventually captured by a United States cruiser
and the 280 Africans sent to Georgia. After much litigation,
the United States Supreme Court ordered those captured from
Spaniards to be surrendered, and the others to be returned to
Africa. By some mysterious process, only 139 Africans now
remained, 100 of whom were sent to Africa. The Spanish
claimants of the remaining thirty-nine sold them to a certain
Mr. Wilde, who gave bond to transport them out of the coun-
try. Finally, in December, 1827, there came an innocent peti-
tion to Congress to cancel this bond. 1 A bill to that effect
passed and was approved, May 2, i828, 2 and in consequence
these Africans remained as slaves in Georgia.
On the whole, it is plain that, although in the period from
1807 to 1820 Congress laid down broad lines of legislation suf-
ficient, save in some details, to suppress the African slave trade
to America, yet the execution of these laws was criminally lax.
Aug. 15, 1823, owners of schooner "Mary," convicted of importing
slaves. Pardons and Remissions., IV. 66.
PRESIDENT J. Q. ADAMS: March 4, 1826, Robert Perry; his ship was
forfeited for slave-trading. Ibid., IV. 140.
Jan. 17, 1827, Jesse Perry; forfeited ship, and was convicted for intro-
ducing slaves. Ibid., IV. 158.
Feb. 13, 1827, Zenas Winston; incurred penalties for slave- trading.
Ibid., IV. 161. The four following cases are similar to that of Winston:
Feb. 24, 1827, John Tucker and William Morbon. Ibid., IV. 162.
March 25, 1828, Joseph Badger. Ibid., IV. 192.
Feb. 19, 1829, L. R. Wallace. Ibid., IV. 215.
PRESIDENT JACKSON: Five cases. Ibid., IV. 225, 270, 301, 393, 440.
The above cases were taken from manuscript copies of the Washington
records, made by Mr. W. C. Endicott, Jr., and kindly loaned me.
1 See Senate Journal, 20 Cong, r sess. pp. 60, 66, 340, 341, 343, 348,
352, 355; House Journal, 20 Cong. I sess. pp. 59, 76, 123, 134, 156, 169,173,
279, 634, 641, 646, 647, 688, 692.
2 Statutes at Large, VI. 376.
9
130 ATTEMPTED SUPPRESSION. [CHAP. VIII.
Moreover, by the facility with which slavers could disguise their
identity, it was possible for them to escape even a vigorous en-
forcement of our laws. This situation could properly be met
only by energetic and sincere international co-operation. The
next chapter will review efforts directed toward this end. 1
1 Among interesting minor proceedings in this period were two Senate
bills to register slaves so as to prevent illegal importation. They were both
dropped in the House; a House proposition to the same effect also came
to nothing: Senate Journal, 15 Cong, i sess. pp. 147, 152, 157, 165, 170,
188, 201, 203, 232, 237; 15 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 63, 74, 77, 202, 207, 285, 291,
297; House Journal, 15 Cong. I sess. p. 332; 15 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 303, 305,
316; 1 6 Cong, i sess. p. 150. Another proposition was contained in the
Meigs resolution presented to the House, Feb. 5, 1820, which proposed to
devote the public lands to the suppression of the slave-trade. This was
ruled out of order. It was presented again and laid on the table in 1821 :
House Journal, 16 Cong, i sess. pp. 196, 200, 227; 16 Cong. 2 sess. p. 238.
CHAPTER IX.
THE INTERNATIONAL STATUS OF THE SLAVE-TRADE.
1783-1862.
66. The Rise of the Movement against the Slave-Trade, 1788-1807.
67. Concerted Action of the Powers, 1783-1814.
68. Action of the Powers from 1814 to 1820.
69. The Struggle for an International Right of Search, 1820-1840.
70. Negotiations of 1823-1825.
71. The Attitude of the United States and the State of the Slave-Trade.
72. The Quintuple Treaty, 1839-1842.
73. Final Concerted Measures, 1842-1862.
66. The Rise of the Movement against the Slave-Trade, 1788-
1807. At the beginning of the nineteenth century England
held 800,000 slaves in her colonies; France, 250,000; Den-
mark, 27,000; Spain and Portugal, 600,000; Holland, 50,000;
Sweden, 600; there were also about 2,000,000 slaves in Brazil,
and about 900,000 in the United States. 1 This was the power-
ful basis of the demand for the slave-trade ; and against the
economic forces which these four and a half millions of en-
forced laborers represented, the battle for freedom had to be
fought
Denmark first responded to the denunciatory cries of the
eighteenth century against slavery and the slave-trade. In 1792,
by royal order, this traffic was prohibited in the Danish posses-
sions after 1802. The principles of the French Revolution
logically called for the extinction of the slave system by France.
This was, however, accomplished more precipitately than the
Convention anticipated; and in a whirl of enthusiasm engen-
dered by the appearance of the Dominican deputies, slavery and
the slave-trade were abolished in all French colonies February^
1 Cf. Augustin Cochin, in Lalor, Cyclopedia, III. 723.
132 INTERNATIONAL STATUS. [CHAP. IX.
I/94. 1 This abolition was short-lived; for at the command of
the First Consul slavery and the slave-trade were restored in
An X (I/99). 2 The trade was finally abolished by Napoleon
during the Hundred Days by a decree, March 29, 1815, which
briefly declared : " A dater de la publication du present De* cret,
la Traite des Noirs est abolie." 3 The Treaty of Paris eventually
confirmed this law. 4
In England, the united efforts of Sharpe, Clarkson, and
Wilberforce early began to arouse public opinion by means of
agitation and pamphlet literature. May 21, 1788, Sir William
Dolben moved a bill regulating the trade, which passed in July
and was the last English measure countenancing the traffic. 5
The report of the Privy Council on the subject in 1789 pre-
cipitated the long struggle. On motion of Pitt, in 1788, the
House had resolved to take up at the next session the question
of the abolition of the trade. 7 It was, accordingly, called up by
Wilberforce, and a remarkable parliamentary battle ensued,
which lasted continuously until 1805. The Grenville-Fox min-
1 By a law of Aug. n, 1792, the encouragement formerly given to the
trade was stopped. Cf. Choix de rapports, opinions et discours prononcts
a la tribune nattonale depuis 1789 (Paris, 1821), XIV. 425; quoted in
Cochin, The Results of Emancipation (Booth's translation, 1863), pp. 33,
35-8.
2 Cochin, The Results of Emancipation (Booth's translation, 1863), pp.
42-7.
8 British and Foreign State Papers, 1815-6, p. 196.
4 Ibid., pp. 195-9, 292-3; 1816-7, P- 755- I* was eventually confirmed
by royal ordinance, and the law of April 15, 1818.
6 Statute 28 George III., ch. 54. Cf. Statute 29 George III., ch. 66.
6 Various petitions had come in praying for an abolition of the slave-
trade; and by an order in Council, Feb. il, 1788, a committee of the Privy
Council was ordered to take evidence on the subject. This committee pre-
sented an elaborate report in 1789. See published Report, London, 1789.
7 For the history of the Parliamentary struggle, cf. Clarkson's and Copley's
histories. The movement was checked in the House of Commons in 1789,
1790, and 1791. In 1792 the House of Commons resolved to abolish the
trade in 1796. The Lords postponed the matter to take evidence. A bill
to prohibit the foreign slave-trade was lost in 1 793, passed the next session,
and was lost in the House of Lords. In 1795, 1796, 1798, and 1799 repeated
attempts to abolish the trade were defeated. The matter then rested until
1804, when the battle was renewed with more success.
SECT. 67.] CONCERTED ACTION OF THE POWERS. 133
istry now espoused the cause. This ministry first prohibited the
trade with such colonies as England had acquired by conquest
during the Napoleonic wars; then, in 1806, they prohibited the
foreign slave-trade; and finally, March 25, 1807, enacted the
total abolition of the traffic. 1
67. Concerted Action of the Powers, 1783-1814. During the
peace negotiations between the United States and Great Britain
in 1783, it was proposed by Jay, in June, that there be a proviso
inserted as follows : " Provided that the subjects of his Britannic
Majesty shall not have any right or claim under the convention,
to carry or import, into the said States any slaves from any part
of the world ; it being the intention of the said States entirely
to prohibit the importation thereof." 2 Fox promptly replied :
" If that be their policy, it never can be competent to us to dis-
pute with them their own regulations." 3 No mention of this
was, however, made in the final treaty, probably because it was
thought unnecessary.
In the proposed treaty of 1806, signed at London December
31, Article 24 provided that " The high contracting parties
engage to communicate to each other, without delay, all such
laws as have been or shall be hereafter enacted by their respec-
tive Legislatures, as also all measures which shall have been
taken for the abolition or limitation of the African slave trade ;
and they further agree to use their best endeavors to procure
the co-operation of other Powers for the final and complete
abolition of a trade so repugnant to the principles of justice and
humanity."*
This marks the beginning of a long series of treaties between
England and other powers looking toward the prohibition of
the traffic by international agreement. During the years 1810-
1814 she signed treaties relating to the subject with Portugal,
Denmark, and Sweden. 5 May 30, 1814, an additional article
1 Statute 46 George ///., ch. 52, r 19 ; 47 George ///., sess. I. ch. 36.
3 Sparks, Diplomatic Correspondence, X. 154.
8 Fox to Hartley, June 10, 1783; quoted in Bancroft, History of the
Constitution of the United States, I. 61.
4 Amer. State Papers, Foreign, III. No. 214, p. 151.
* British and Foreign State Papers, 1815-6, pp. 886, 937 (quotation).
134 INTERNATIONAL STATUS. [CHAP. IX.
to the Treaty of Paris, between France and Great Britain,
engaged these powers to endeavor to induce the approaching
Congress at Vienna " to decree the abolition of the Slave Trade,
so that the said Trade shall cease universally, as it shall cease
definitively, under any circumstances, on the part of the French
Government, in the course of 5 years ; and that during the said
period no Slave Merchant shall import or sell Slaves, except in
the Colonies of the State of which he is a Subject." J In ad-
dition to this, the next day a circular letter was despatched
by Castlereagh to Austria, Russia, and Prussia, expressing
the hope " that the Powers of Europe, when restoring Peace
to Europe, with one common interest, will crown this great
work by interposing their benign offices in favour of those
Regions of the Globe, which yet continue to be desolated by
this unnatural and inhuman traffic." 2 Meantime additional
treaties were secured: in 1814 by royal decree Netherlands
agreed to abolish the trade ; 3 Spain was induced by her neces-
sities to restrain her trade to her own colonies, and to endeavor
to prevent the fraudulent use of her flag by foreigners ; 4 and
in 1815 Portugal agreed to abolish the slave-trade north of the
equator. 6
68. Action of the Powers from 1814 to 1820. At the Congress of
Vienna, which assembled late in 1814, Castlereagh was inde-
fatigable in his endeavors to secure the abolition of the trade.
France and Spain, however, refused to yield farther than they
had already done, and the other powers hesitated to go to the
lengths he recommended. Nevertheless, he secured the institu-
tion of annual conferences on the matter, and a declaration by
the Congress strongly condemning the trade and declaring that
" the public voice in all civilized countries was raised to demand
its suppression as soon as possible," and that, while the definitive
1 British and Foreign State Papers, 1815-6, pp. 890-1.
* Ibid., p. 887. Russia, Austria, and Prussia returned favorable replies :
Ibid., pp. 887-8.
Ibid., p. 889.
* She desired a loan, which England made on this condition : Ibid.,
pp. 921-2.
6 Ibid., pp. 937-9. Certain financial arrangements secured this
concession.
SECT. 68.] ACTION OF THE POWERS, 1814-1820. 135
period of termination would be left to subsequent negotiation,
the sovereigns would not consider their work done until the
trade was entirely suppressed. l
In the Treaty of Ghent, between Great Britain and the United
States, ratified February 17, 1815, Article 10, proposed by Great
Britain, declared that, " Whereas the traffic in slaves is irrecon-
cilable with the principles of humanity and justice," the two
countries agreed to use their best endeavors in abolishing the
trade. 2 The final overthrow of Napoleon was marked by a
second declaration of the powers, who, " desiring to give effect
to the measures on which they deliberated at the Congress of
Vienna, relative to the complete and universal abolition of the
Slave Trade, and having, each in their respective Dominions,
prohibited without restriction their Colonies and Subjects from
taking any part whatever in this Traffic, engage to renew con-
jointly their efforts, with the view of securing final success to
those principles which they proclaimed in the Declaration of
the 4th February, 1815, and of concerting, without loss of time,
through their Ministers at the Courts of London and of Paris,
the most effectual measures for the entire and definitive abolition
of a Commerce so odious, and so strongly condemned by the
laws of religion and of nature." 3
Treaties further restricting the trade continued to be made
by Great Britain: Spain abolished the trade north of the
equator in 1817,* and promised entire abolition in 1820; Spain,
Portugal, and Holland also granted a mutual limited Right of
Search to England, and joined in establishing mixed courts. 5
The effort, however, to secure a general declaration of the powers
urging, if not compelling, the abolition of the trade in 1820, as
well as the attempt to secure a qualified international Right of
1 British and Foreign State Papers, 1815-6, pp. 939-75.
2 Amer. State Papers, Foreign, III. No. 271, pp. 735-48; U. S. Treaties
and Conventions (ed. 1889), p. 405.
8 This was inserted in the Treaty of Paris, Nov. 20, 1815 : British and
Foreign State Papers, 1815-6, p. 292.
* Ibid., 1816-7, PP- 33-74 (English version, 1823-4, p. 702 ff.).
6 Cf. Ibid., 1817-8, p. I25ff.
136 INTERNATIONAL STATUS. [CHAP. IX.
Visit, failed, although both propositions were strongly urged by
England at the Conference of iSiS. 1
69. The Struggle for an International Right of Search, 1820-1840.
Whatever England's motives were, it is certain that only a lim-
ited international Right of Visit on the high seas could suppress
or greatly limit the slave-trade. Her diplomacy was therefore
henceforth directed to this end. On the other hand, the mari-
time supremacy of England, so successfully asserted during the
Napoleonic wars, would, in case a Right of Search were granted,
virtually make England the policeman of the seas ; and if nations
like the United States had already, under present conditions,
had just cause to complain of violations by England of their
rights on the seas, might not any extension of rights by inter-
national agreement be dangerous ? It was such considerations
that for many years brought the powers to a dead-lock in their
efforts to suppress the slave-trade.
At first it looked as if England might attempt, by judicial
decisions in her own courts, to seize even foreign slavers. 2 After
the war, however, her courts disavowed such action, 3 and the
right was sought for by treaty stipulation. Castlereagh took
early opportunity to approach the United States on the matter,
suggesting to Minister Rush, June 20, 1818, a mutual but strictly
limited Right of Search. 4 Rush was ordered to give him assur-
ances of the solicitude of the United States to suppress the
traffic, but to state that the concessions asked for appeared of a
1 This was the first meeting of the London ministers of the powers accord-
ing to agreement; they assembled Dec. 4, 1817, and finally called a meeting
of plenipotentiaries on the question of suppression at Aix-la-Chapelle, begin-
ning Oct. 24, 1818. Among those present were Metternich, Richelieu, Wel-
lington, Castlereagh, Hardenberg, Bernstorff, Nesselrode, and Capodistrias.
Castlereagh made two propositions: I. That the five powers join in urging
Portugal and Brazil to abolish the trade May 20, 1820 ; 2. That the powers
adopt the principle of a mutual qualified Right of Search. Cf. British and
Foreign State Papers, 1818-9, PP- 21-88 ; Amer. State Papers, Foreign, V.
No. 346, pp. 113-122.
2 For cases, see I Acton, 240, the " Amedie," and i Dodson, 81, the
"Fortuna;" quoted in U. S. Reports, 10 IVheaton, 66.
Cf. the case of the French ship " Le Louis " : 2 Dodson, 238 ; and also
the case of the " San Juan Nepomuceno " : I Haggard, 267.
* British and Foreign State Papers, 1819-20, pp. 375-9; also pp. 220-2.
SECT. 69.] INTERNATIONAL RIGHT OF SEARCH. 137
character not adaptable to our institutions. Negotiations were
then transferred to Washington ; and the new British minister,
Mr. Stratford Canning, approached Adams with full instructions
in December, I82O. 1
Meantime, it had become clear to many in the United States
that the individual efforts of States could never suppress or
even limit the trade without systematic co-operation. In 1817
a committee of the House had urged the opening of negotia-
tions looking toward such international co-operation, 2 and a
Senate motion to the same effect had caused long debate. 3
In 1820 and 1821 two House committee reports, one of which
recommended the granting of a Right of Search, were adopted
by the House, but failed in the Senate. 4 Adams, notwithstand-
ing this, saw constitutional objections to the plan proposed by
Canning, and wrote to him, December 30: "A Compact, giv-
ing the power to the Naval Officers of one Nation to search the
Merchant Vessels of another for Offenders and offences against
the Laws of the latter, backed by a further power to seize and
carry into a Foreign Port, and there subject to the decision of
a Tribunal composed of at least one half Foreigners, irresponsi-
ble to the Supreme Corrective tribunal of this Union, and not
amenable to the controul of impeachment for official mis-
demeanors, was an investment of power, over the persons,
property and reputation of the Citizens of this Country, not
only unwarranted by any delegation of Sovereign Power to
the National Government, but so adverse to the elementary
principles and indispensable securities of individual rights, . . .
that not even the most unqualified approbation of the ends . . .
could justify the transgression." He then suggested co-opera-
1 British and Foreign State Papers, 1820-21, pp. 395-6.
* House Doc., 14 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 77.
Annals of Cong., 15 Cong, i sess. pp. 71, 73-78, 94-109. The motion
was opposed largely by Southern members, and passed by a vote of
17 to 1 6.
4 One was reported, May 9, 1820, by Mercer's committee, and passed May
12 : House Journal, 16 Cong. I sess. pp. 497, 518, 520, 526 ; Annals of Cong.,
1 6 Cong, i sess. pp. 697-9. A similar resolution passed the House next
session, and a committee reported in favor of the Right of Search : Ibid.,
1 6 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 1064-71. Cf. Ibid., pp. 476, 743, 865, 1469.
138 INTERNATIONAL STATUS. [CHAP. IX.
tion of the fleets on the coast of Africa, a proposal which was
promptly accepted. 1
The slave-trade was again a subject of international consid-
eration at the Congress of Verona in 1822. Austria, France,
Great Britain, Russia, and Prussia were represented. The Eng-
lish delegates declared that, although only Portugal and Brazil
allowed the trade, yet the traffic was at that moment carried on
to a greater extent than ever before. They said that in seven
months of the year 1821 no less than 21,000 slaves were ab-
ducted, and three hundred and fifty-two vessels entered African
ports north of the equator. " It is obvious," said they, " that
this crime is committed in contravention of the Laws of every
Country of Europe, and of America, excepting only of one,
and that it requires something more than the ordinary operation
of Law to prevent it" England therefore recommended :
1. That each country denounce the trade as piracy, with a
view of founding upon the aggregate of such separate declara-
tions a general law to be incorporated in the Law of Nations.
2. A withdrawing of the flags of the Powers from persons
not natives of these States, who engage in the traffic under the
flags of these States.
3. A refusal to admit to their domains the produce of the
colonies of States allowing the trade, a measure which would
apply to Portugal and Brazil alone.
These proposals were not accepted. Austria would agree to
the first two only; France refused to denounce the trade as
piracy ; and Prussia was non-committal. The utmost that could
be gained was another denunciation of the trade couched in
general terms. 2
70. Negotiations of 1823-1825. England did not, however,
lose hope of gaining some concession from the United States.
Another House committee had, in 1822, reported that the only
method of suppressing the trade was by granting a Right of
Search. 3 The House agreed, February 28, 1823, to request the
President to enter into negotiations with the maritime powers of
1 British and Foreign State Papers^ 1820-21, pp. 397-400.
a Ibid., 1822-3, pp. 94-110.
House Reports, 17 Cong, i sess. II. No. 92.
SECT. ;o.] NEGOTIATIONS OF 1823-1825. 139
Europe to denounce the slave-trade as piracy ; an amendment
" that we agree to a qualified right of search " was, however,
lost. 1 Meantime, the English minister was continually pressing
the matter upon Adams, who proposed in turn to denounce the
trade as piracy. Canning agreed to this, but only on condition
that it be piracy under the Law of Nations and not merely by
statute law. Such an agreement, he said, would involve a Right
of Search for its enforcement ; he proposed strictly to limit and
define this right, to allow captured ships to be tried in their own
courts, and not to commit the United States in any way to the
question of the belligerent Right of Search. Adams finally sent
a draft of a proposed treaty to England, and agreed to recognize
the slave-traffic "as piracy under the law of nations, namely:
that, although seizable by the officers and authorities of every
nation, they should be triable only by the tribunals of the
country of the slave trading vessel." 3
Rush presented this projet to the government in January,
1824. England agreed to all the points insisted on by the
United States; viz., that she herself should denounce the trade
as piracy; that slavers should be tried in their own country;
that the captor should be laid under the most effective respon-
sibility for his conduct ; and that vessels under convoy of a ship
of war of their own country should be exempt from search. In
addition, England demanded that citizens of either country cap-
tured under the flag of a third power should be sent home for
trial, and that citizens of either country chartering vessels of a
third country should come under these stipulations. 3
This convention was laid before the Senate April 30, 1824,
but was not acted upon until May 21, when it was so amended
as to make it terminable at six months' notice. The same day,
President Monroe, " apprehending, from the delay in the deci-
sion, that some difficulty exists," sent a special message to the
Senate, giving at length the reasons for signing the treaty, and
1 House Journal, 17 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 212, 280; Annals of Cong., 17
Cong. 2 sess. pp. 922, 1147-1155.
3 British and Foreign State Papers, 1823-4, pp. 409-21 ; 1824-5, pp.
828-47 ; Amer. State Papers, Foreign, V. No. 371, pp. 333-7.
8 Ibid.
140 IXTERXA TIONAL STA TUS. [CHAP. IX.
saying that " should this Convention be adopted, there is every
reason to believe, that it will be the commencement of a system
destined to accomplish the entire Abolition of the Slave Trade."
It was, however, a time of great political pot-boiling, and conse-
quently an unfortunate occasion to ask senators to settle any
great question. A systematic attack, led by Johnson of Louisi-
ana, was made on all the vital provisions of the treaty : the waters
of America were excepted from its application, and those of the
West Indies barely escaped exception; the provision which,
perhaps, aimed the deadliest blow at American slave-trade in-
terests was likewise struck out ; namely, the application of the
Right of Search to citizens chartering the vessels of a third
nation. 1
The convention thus mutilated was not signed by England,
who demanded as the least concession the application of the
Right of Search to American waters. Meantime the United
States had invited nearly all nations to denounce the trade as
piracy; and the President, the Secretary of the Navy, and a
House committee had urgently favored the granting of the Right
of Search. The bad faith of Congress, however, in the matter
of the Colombian treaty broke off for a time further negotia-
tions with England. 2
1 Amer. State Papers, Foreign, V. No. 374, p 344 ff., No. 379, pp. 360-2.
a House Reports, 18 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 70; Amer. State Papers, Foreign,
V. No. 379, pp. 364-5, No. 414, p. 783, etc. Among the nations invited by
the United States to co-operate in suppressing the trade was the United
States of Colombia. Mr. Anderson, our minister, expressed "the certain
belief that the Republic of Colombia will not permit herself to be behind
any Government in the civilized world in the adoption of energetic measures
for the suppression of this disgraceful traffic " : Ibid., No. 407, p. 729. The
little republic replied courteously ; and, as a projet for a treaty, Mr. Ander-
son offered the proposed English treaty of 1824, including the Senate
amendments. Nevertheless, the treaty thus agreed to was summarily
rejected by the Senate, March 9, 1825 : Ibid., p. 735. Another result of this
general invitation of the United States was a proposal by Colombia that the
slave-trade and the status of Hayti be among the subjects for discussion at
the Panama Congress. As a result of this, a Senate committee recommended
that the United States take no part in the Congress. This report was
finally disagreed to by a vote of 19 to 24: Ibid., No. 423, pp. 837, 860,
876, 882.
SECT. ;i.] ATTITUDE OF THE UNITED STATES. 141
71. The Attitude of the United States and the State of the Slave-
Trade. In 1824 the Right of Search was established between
England and Sweden, and in 1826 Brazil promised to abolish
the trade in three years. 1 In 1831 the cause was greatly ad-
vanced by the signing of a treaty between Great Britain and
France, granting mutually a geographically limited Right of
Search. 2 This led, in the next few years, to similar treaties with
Denmark, Sardinia, 3 the Hanse towns, 4 and Naples. 5 Such
measures put the trade more and more in the hands of Ameri-
cans, and it began greatly to increase. Mercer sought repeat-
edly in the House to have negotiations reopened with England,
but without success. 6 Indeed, the chances of success were
now for many years imperilled by the recurrence of deliberate
search of American vessels by the British. 7 In the majority of
cases the vessels proved to be slavers, and some of them fraud-
ulently flew the American flag; nevertheless, their molestation
by British cruisers created much feeling, and hindered all steps
toward an understanding : the United States was loath to have
her criminal negligence in enforcing her own laws thus exposed
by foreigners. Other international questions connected with
the trade also strained the relations of the two countries : three
different vessels engaged in the domestic slave-trade, driven by
stress of weather, or, in the " Creole " case, captured by Negroes
on board, landed slaves in British possessions ; England freed
them, and refused to pay for such as were landed after emanci-
pation had been proclaimed in the West Indies. 8 The case
1 British and Foreign State Papers ; 1823-4, and 1826-7. Brazil abol-
ished the trade in 1830.
2 This treaty was further defined in 1833: Ibid., 1830-1^.641 ff. ; 1832-3,
p. 286 ff.
8 Ibid., 1833-4, pp. 218 ff., 1059 ff.
4 Ibid., 1837-8, p. 268 ff. * Ibid., 1838-9, p. 792 ff.
6 Viz., Feb. 28, 1825; April 7, 1830; Feb. 16, 1831 ; March 3, 1831. The
last resolution passed the House : House Journal, 21 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 426-8.
7 Cf. House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, pp. 35-6, etc. ; House Re-
Ports, 27 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 283, pp. 730-55, etc.
8 These were the celebrated cases of the " Encomium," " Enterprize,"
and "Comet." Cf. Senate Doc., 24 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 174; 25 Cong.
3 sess. III. No. 216. Cf. also case of the " Creole " : Ibid., 27 Cong. 2 sess.
II.-III. Nos. 51, 137.
142 INTERNATIONAL STATUS. [CHAP. IX.
of the slaver " L'Amistad " also raised difficulties with Spain.
This Spanish vessel, after the Negroes on board had mutinied
and killed their owners, was seized by a United States vessel
and brought into port for adjudication. The court, however,
freed the Negroes, on the ground that under Spanish law they
were not legally slaves; and although the Senate repeatedly
tried to indemnify the owners, the project did not succeed. 1
Such proceedings well illustrate the new tendency of the pro-
slavery party to neglect the enforcement of the slave-trade laws,
in a frantic defence of the remotest ramparts of slave property.
Consequently, when, after the treaty of 1831, France and Eng-
land joined in urging the accession of the United States to it,
the British minister was at last compelled to inform Palmerston,
December, 1833, that "the Executive at Washington appears to
shrink from bringing forward, in any shape, a question, upon
which depends the completion of their former object the utter
and universal Abolition of the Slave Trade from an apprehen-
sion of alarming the Southern States." 2 Great Britain now
offered to sign the proposed treaty of 1824 as amended; but
even this Forsyth refused, and stated that the United States had
determined not to become " a party of any Convention on the
subject of the Slave Trade." 3
Estimates as to the extent of the slave-trade agree that the
traffic to North and South America in 1820 was considerable,
certainly not much less than 40,000 slaves annually. From
that time to about 1825 it declined somewhat, but afterward
1 Senate Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 179; Senate Exec. Doc., 31 Cong.
2 sess. III. No. 29; 32 Cong. 2 sess. III. No. 19; Senate Reports, 31 Cong.
2 sess. No. 301; 32 Cong. I sess. I. No. 158; 35 Cong, i sess. I. No. 36;
House Doc., 26 Cong. I sess. IV. No. 185 ; 27 Cong. 3 sess. V. No. 191 ;
28 Cong, i sess. IV. No. 83; House Exec. Doc., 32 Cong. 2 sess. III. No.
20; House Reports, 26 Cong. 2 sess. No. 51 ; 28 Cong, i sess. II. No. 426;
29 Cong, i sess. IV. No. 753; also Decisions of the U. S. Supreme Court,
15 Peters, 518. Cf. Drake, Revelations of a Slave Smuggler, p. 98.
8 British and Foreign State Papers, 1834-5, p. 136.
8 Ibid., pp. 135-47. Great Britain made treaties meanwhile with
Hayti, Uruguay, Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentine Confederation, Mexico,
Texas, etc. Portugal prohibited the slave-trade in 1836, except between
her African colonies. Cf. Ibid., from 1838 to 1841.
SECT. 72.] THE QUINTUPLE TREATY. 143
increased enormously, so that by 1837 tri e American importa-
tion was estimated as high as 200,000 Negroes annually. The
total abolition of the African trade by American countries then
brought the traffic down to perhaps 30,000 in 1842. A large
and rapid increase of illicit traffic followed; so that by 1847
the importation amounted to nearly 100,000 annually. One
province of Brazil is said to have received 173,000 in the years
1846-1849. In the decade 1850-1860 this activity in slave-trad-
ing continued, and reached very large proportions.
The traffic thus carried on floated under the flags of France,
Spain, and Portugal, until about 1830; from 1830 to 1840 it
began gradually to assume the United States flag; by 1845, a
large part of the trade was under the stars and stripes; by
1850 fully one-half the trade, and in the decade, 1850-1860
nearly all the traffic, found this flag its best protection. 1
72. The Quintuple Treaty, 1839-1842. In 1839 p P e Gregory
XVI. stigmatized the slave-trade " as utterly unworthy of the
Christian name; " and at the same time, although proscribed
by the laws of every civilized State, the trade was flourishing
with pristine vigor. Great advantage was given the traffic by
the fact that the United States, for two decades after the abor-
tive attempt of 1824, refused to co-operate with the rest of the
civilized world, and allowed her flag to shelter and protect the
slave-trade. If a fully equipped slaver sailed from New York,
Havana, Rio Janeiro, or Liverpool, she had only to hoist the
1 These estimates are from the following sources : British and Foreign
State Papers, 1822-3, pp. 94-110; Parliamentary Papers, 1823, XVIII.,
Slave Trade, Further Papers, A., pp. 10-11 ; 1838-9, XLIX., Slave Trade,
Class A, Further Series, pp. 115, 119, 121 ; House Doc., 19 Cong, r sess. I.
No. i, p. 93; 20 Cong, i sess. III. No. 99; 26 Cong. I sess. VI. No. 211 ;
House Exec. Doc., 31 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. I, p. 193; House Reports, 21
Cong, i sess. III. No. 348; Senate Doc., 28 Cong, i sess. IV. No. 217; 31
Cong, i sess. XIV. No. 66; 31 Cong. 2 sess. II. No.6; Amer. State Papers,
Naval, I. No. 249; Buxton, The African Slave Trade and its Remedy,
pp. 44-59; Friends' Facts and Observations on the Slave Trade (ed. 1841) ;
Friends' Exposition of the Slave Trade, 1840-50; Annual Reports of the
American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.
The annexed table gives the dates of the abolition of the slave-trade by
the various nations :
144
INTERNATIONAL STATUS.
[CHAP. IX.
stars and stripes in order to proceed unmolested on her pirati-
cal voyage ; for there was seldom a United States cruiser to be
met with, and there were, on the other hand, diplomats at
Washington so jealous of the honor of the flag that they would
prostitute it to crime rather than allow an English or a French
cruiser in any way to interfere. Without doubt, the contention
of the United States as to England's pretensions to a Right of
Visit was technically correct. Nevertheless, it was clear that if
the slave-trade was to be suppressed, each nation must either
zealously keep her flag from fraudulent use, or, as a labor-saving
device, depute to others this duty for limited places and under
special circumstances. A failure of any one nation to do one of
these two things meant that the efforts of all other nations were
to be fruitless. The United States had invited the world to join
her in denouncing the slave-trade as piracy ; yet, when such a
pirate was waylaid by an English vessel, the United States com-
plained or demanded reparation. The only answer which this
country for years returned to the long-continued exposures of
American slave-traders and of the fraudulent use of the American
flag, was a recital of cases where Great Britain had gone beyond
Date.
Slave-trade Abolished by
Right of Search Treaty with Great
Britain, made by
Arrangements for
Joint Cruising
with Great Brit-
ain, made by
1802
Denmark.
1807
Great Britain; United
States.
1813
Sweden.
1814
Netherlands.
1815
Portugal (north of the
equator).
l8i;
Spain (north of the
Portugal; Spain.
equator).
1818
France.
Netherlands.
1820
Spain.
1824
Sweden.
1829
Brazil (?).
1830
Portugal.
l8 3 x -33
France.
l8 33~39
Denmark, Hanse Towns, etc.
1841
Quintuple Treaty (Austria,
1842
Russia, Prussia).
United States.
1844
Texas.
1845
Belgium.
France.
1862
United States.
SECT. 72.] THE QUINTUPLE TREATY. 145
her legal powers in her attempt to suppress the slave-trade. 1 In
the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Secretary of
State Forsyth declared, in 1840, that the duty of the United
States in the matter of the slave-trade " has been faithfully per-
formed, and if the traffic still exists as a disgrace to humanity,
it is to be imputed to nations with whom Her Majesty's Govern-
ment has formed and maintained the most intimate connexions,
and to whose Governments Great Britain has paid for the right
of active intervention in order to its complete extirpation." 2 So
zealous was Stevenson, our minister to England, in denying the
Right of Search, that he boldly informed Palmerston, in 1841,
" that there is no shadow of pretence for excusing, much less
justifying, the exercise of any such right. That it is wholly im-
material, whether the vessels be equipped for, or actually en-
gaged in slave traffic or not, and consequently the right to search
or detain even slave vessels, must be confined to the ships or
vessels of those nations with whom it may have treaties on the
subject." 3 Palmerston courteously replied that he could not
think that the United States seriously intended to make its
flag a refuge for slave-traders ; 4 and Aberdeen pertinently
declared : " Now, it can scarcely be maintained by Mr. Steven-
son that Great Britain should be bound to permit her own
subjects, with British vessels and British capital, to carry on,
before the eyes of British officers, this detestable traffic in
human beings, which the law has declared to be piracy, merely
because they had the audacity to commit an additional offence
by fraudulently usurping the American flag." 5 Thus the dis-
pute, even after the advent of Webster, went on for a time,
involving itself in metaphysical subtleties, and apparently lead-
ing no nearer to an understanding. 6
In 1838 a fourth conference of the powers for the considera-
tion of the slave-trade took place at London. It was attended
1 Cf. British and Foreign State Papers, from 1836 to 1842.
2 Ibid., 1839-40, p. 940.
8 House Doc., 27 Cong. I sess. No. 34, pp. 5-6.
* Senate Doc., 29 Cong, i sess. VIII. No. 377, p. 56.
6 Ibid., p. 72.
6 Ibid., pp. 133-40, etc.
10
146 INTERNATIONAL STATUS. [CHAP. IX.
by representatives of England, France, Russia, Prussia, and
Austria. England laid the projet of a treaty before them, to
which all but France assented. This so-called Quintuple
Treaty, signed December 20, 1841, denounced the slave-trade
as piracy, and declared that " the High Contracting Parties
agree by common consent, that those of their ships of war
which shall be provided with special warrants and orders . . .
may search every merchant-vessel belonging to any one of the
High Contracting Parties which shall, on reasonable grounds,
be suspected of being engaged in the traffic in slaves." All
captured slavers were to be sent to their own countries for
trial. 1
While the ratification of this treaty was pending, the United
States minister to France, Lewis Cass, addressed an official
note to Guizot at the French foreign office, protesting against
the institution of an international Right of Search, and rather
grandiloquently warning the powers against the use of force to
accomplish their ends. 2 This extraordinary epistle, issued on the
minister's own responsibility, brought a reply denying that the
creation of any " new principle of international law, whereby
the vessels even of those powers which have not participated
in the arrangement should be subjected to the right of search,"
was ever intended, and affirming that no such extraordinary
interpretation could be deduced from the Convention. More-
over, M. Guizot hoped that the United States, by agreeing to
this treaty, would " aid, by its most sincere endeavors, in the
definitive abolition of the trade." 3 Cass's theatrical protest
was, consciously or unconsciously, the manifesto of that grow-
ing class in the United States who wanted no further measures
taken for the suppression of the slave-trade; toward that, as
toward the institution of slavery, this party favored a policy
of strict laissez-faire.
73. Final Concerted Measures, 1842-1862. The Treaty of
Washington, in 1842, made the first effective compromise in the
matter and broke the unpleasant dead-lock, by substituting joint
1 British and Foreign State Papers, 1841-2, p. 269 ff.
2 See below, Appendix B.
8 Senate Doc., 29 Cong, i sess. VIII. No. 377, p. 201.
SECT. 73-] FINAL CONCERTED MEASURES. 147
cruising by English and American squadrons for the proposed
grant of a Right of Search. In submitting this treaty, Tyler
said : " The treaty which I now submit to you proposes no
alteration, mitigation, or modification of the rules of the law
of nations. It provides simply that each of the two Govern-
ments shall maintain on the coast of Africa a sufficient squad-
ron to enforce separately and respectively the laws, rights,
and obligations of the two countries for the suppression of the
slave trade." 1 This provision was a part of the treaty to settle
the boundary disputes with England. In the Senate, Benton
moved to strike out this article ; but the attempt was defeated
by a vote of 37 to 12, and the treaty was ratified. 2
This stipulation of the treaty of 1842 was never properly
carried out by the United States for any length of time. 3 Con-
sequently the same difficulties as to search and visit by English
vessels continued to recur. Cases like the following were fre-
quent. The " Illinois," of Gloucester, Massachusetts, while lying
at Whydah, Africa, was boarded by a British officer, but having
American papers was unmolested. Three days later she hoisted
Spanish colors and sailed away with a cargo of slaves. Next
morning she fell in with another British vessel and hoisted
American colors ; the British ship had then no right to molest
her; but the captain of the slaver feared that she would, and
therefore ran his vessel aground, slaves and all. The senior
English officer reported that " had Lieutenant Cumberland
brought to and boarded the ' Illinois,' notwithstanding the
American colors which she hoisted, . . . the American master
of the ' Illinois ' . . . would have complained to his Government
of the detention of his vessel." 4 Again, a vessel which had
been boarded by British officers and found with American flag
1 Senate Exec. Journal, VI. 123.
2 U. S. Treaties and Conventions (ed. 1889), pp. 436-7. For the debates
in the Senate, see Congressional Globe, 27 Cong. 3 sess. Appendix. Cass re-
signed on account of the acceptance of this treaty without a distinct denial
of the Right of Search, claiming that this compromised his position in
France. Cf. Senate Doc., 27 Cong. 3 sess. II., IV. Nos. 52, 223 ; 29 Cong.
I sess. VIII. No. 377.
8 Cf . below, Chapter X.
* Senate Exec. Doc., 28 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 150, p. 72.
148 INTERNATIONAL STATUS. [CHAP. IX.
and papers was, a little later, captured under the Spanish flag
with four hundred and thirty slaves. She had in the interim
complained to the United States government of the boarding. 1
Meanwhile, England continued to urge the granting of a Right
of Search, claiming that the stand of the United States really
amounted to the wholesale protection of pirates under her
flag. 2 The United States answered by alleging that even the
Treaty of 1842 had been misconstrued by England, 3 whereupon
there was much warm debate in Congress, and several attempts
were made to abrogate the slave-trade article of the treaty. 4
The pro-slavery party had become more and more suspicious
of England's motives, since they had seen her abolition of the
slave-trade blossom into abolition of the system itself, and they
seized every opportunity to prevent co-operation with her. At
the same time, European interest in the question showed some
signs of weakening, and no decided action was taken. In 1845
France changed her Right of Search stipulations of 1833 to one
for joint cruising, 6 while the Germanic Federation, 6 Portugal, 7 and
Chili 8 denounced the trade as piracy. In 1844 Texas granted
the Right of Search to England, 9 and in 1845 Belgium signed
the Quintuple Treaty.*
Discussion between England and the United States was re-
vived when Cass held the State portfolio, and, strange to say,
the author of " Cass's Protest " went farther than any of his pre-
decessors in acknowledging the justice of England's demands.
1 Senate Exec. Doc., 28 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 150, p. 77.
2 House Doc., 27 Cong. 3 sess. V. No. 192, p. 4. Cf. British and For-
eign State Papers, 1842-3, p. 708 ff.
8 Hottse Journal, 27 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 431, 485-8. Cf. House Doc., 27
Cong. 3 sess. V. No. 192.
4 Cf. below, Chapter X.
6 With a fleet of 26 vessels, reduced to 12 in 1849 : British and Foreign
State Papers, 1844-5, p. 4 ff . ; 1849-50, p. 480.
6 Ibid., 1850-1, p. 953.
7 Portugal renewed her Right of Search treaty in 1842 : Ibid., 1841-2,
p. 527 ff-5 1842-3, p. 450.
8 Ibid., 1843-4, p. 316.
Ibid., 1844-5, P" 59 2 - There already existed some such privileges
between England and Texas.
10 Ibid., 1847-8, p. 397
SECT. 73.] FINAL CONCERTED MEASURES. 149
Said he, in 1859: " If The United States maintained that, by
carrying their flag at her masthead, any vessel became thereby
entitled to the immunity which belongs to American vessels,
they might well be reproached with assuming a position which
would go far towards shielding crimes upon the ocean from
punishment; but they advance no such pretension, while they
concede that, if in the honest examination of a vessel sailing
under American colours, but accompanied by strongly-marked
suspicious circumstances, a mistake is made, and she is found to
be entitled to the flag she bears, but no injury is committed, and
the conduct of the boarding party is irreproachable, no Govern-
ment would be likely to make a case thus exceptional in its
character a subject of serious reclamation." l While admitting
this and expressing a desire to co-operate in the suppression of
the slave-trade, Cass nevertheless steadily refused all further
overtures toward a mutual Right of Search.
The increase of the slave-traffic was so great in the decade
18501860 that Lord John Russell proposed to the governments
of the United States, France, Spain, Portugal, and Brazil, that
they instruct their ministers to meet at London in May or June,
1860, to consider measures for the final abolition of the trade.
He stated : " It is ascertained, by repeated instances, that the
practice is for vessels to sail under the American flag. If the
flag is rightly assumed, and the papers correct, no British cruizer
can touch them. If no slaves are on board, even though the
equipment, the fittings, the water-casks, and other circumstances
prove that the ship is on a Slave Trade venture, no American
cruizer can touch them." 2 Continued representations of this
kind were made to the paralyzed United States government ;
indeed, the slave-trade of the world seemed now to float securely
under her flag. Nevertheless, Cass refused even to participate in
the proposed conference, and later refused to accede to a pro-
posal for joint cruising off the coast of Cuba. 3 Great Britain
offered to relieve the United States of any embarrassment by
receiving all captured Africans into the West Indies ; but Presi-
1 British and Foreign State Papers, 1858-9, pp. 1121, 1129.
3 Ibid., 1859-60, pp. 902-3.
8 House Exec. Doc., 36 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 7.
150 INTERNATIONAL STATUS. [CHAP. IX.
dent Buchanan " could not contemplate any such arrangement,"
and obstinately refused to increase the suppressing squadron. 1
On the outbreak of the Civil War, the Lincoln administration,
through Secretary Seward, immediately expressed a willingness
to do all in its power to suppress the slave-trade. 2 Accordingly,
June 7, 1862, a treaty was signed with Great Britain granting a
mutual limited Right of Search, and establishing mixed courts for
the trial of offenders at the Cape of Good Hope, Sierra Leone,
and New York. 3 The efforts of a half-century of diplomacy
were finally crowned ; Seward wrote to Adams, " Had such a
treaty been made in 1808, there would now have been no
sedition here." 4
1 House Exec, Doc., 36 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 7.
2 Senate Exec. Doc., 37 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 57.
Senate Exec. Journal, XII. 230-1, 240, 254, 256, 391, 400, 403 ; Diplo-
matic Correspondence, 1862, pp. 141, 158; U. S. Treaties and Conventions
(ed. 1889), pp. 454-9.
* Diplomatic Correspondence , 1862, pp. 64-5. This treaty was revised in
1863. The mixed court in the West Indies had, by February, 1864, liber-
ated 95,206 Africans. Senate Exec. Doc., 38 Cong. I sess. No. 56, p. 24.
CHAPTER X.
THE RISE OF THE COTTON KINGDOM. 1820-1850.
74. The Economic Revolution.
75. The Attitude of the South.
76. The Attitude of the North and Congress.
77. Imperfect Application of the Laws.
78. Responsibility of the Government.
79. Activity of the Slave-Trade.
74. The Economic Revolution. The history of slavery and the
slave-trade after 1820 must be read in the light of the industrial
revolution through which the civilized world passed in the first
half of the nineteenth century. Between the years 1775 and
1825 occurred economic events and changes of the highest
importance and widest influence. Though all branches of in-
dustry felt the impulse of this new industrial life, yet, " if we
consider single industries, cotton manufacture has, during the
nineteenth century, made the most magnificent and gigantic
advances." l This fact is easily explained by the remarkable
series of inventions that revolutionized this industry between
1738 and 1830, including Arkwright's, Watt's, Compton's, and
Cartwright's epoch-making contrivances. 2 The effect which
1 Beer, Geschichte des Welthandeh int I9 ten Jahrhundert, II. 67.
a A list of these inventions most graphically illustrates this advance :
1738> John Jay, fly-shuttle.
John Wyatt, spinning by rollers.
1748, Lewis Paul, carding-machine.
1760, Robert Kay, drop-box.
1 769, Richard Arkwright, water-frame and throstle.
James Watt, steam-engine.
1772, James Lees, improvements on carding-machine.
1775, Richard Arkwright, series of combinations.
1779, Samuel Compton, mule.
152 RISE OF THE COTTON KINGDOM. [CHAP. X.
these inventions had on the manufacture of cotton goods is best
illustrated by the fact that in England, the chief cotton mar-
ket of the world, the consumption of raw cotton rose steadily
from 13,000 bales in 1781, to 572,000 in 1820, to 871,000 in
1830, and to 3,366,000 in i860. 1 Very early, therefore, came the
query whence the supply of raw cotton was to come. Tentative
experiments on the rich, broad fields of the Southern United
States, together with the indispensable invention of Whitney's
cotton-gin, soon answered this question : a new economic future
was opened up to this land, and immediately the whole South
began to extend its cotton culture, and more and more to throw
its whole energy into this one staple.
Here it was that the fatal mistake of compromising with
slavery in the beginning, and of the policy of laissez-faire pur-
sued thereafter, became painfully manifest ; for, instead now of a
healthy, normal, economic development along proper industrial
lines, we have the abnormal and fatal rise of a slave-labor large-
farming system, which, before it was realized, had so intertwined
itself with and braced itself upon the economic forces of an
industrial age, that a vast and terrible civil war was necessary
to displace it. The tendencies to a patriarchal serfdom, recog-
nizable in the age of Washington and Jefferson, began slowly
but surely to disappear; and in the second quarter of the cen-
tury Southern slavery was irresistibly changing from a family
institution to an industrial system.
The development of Southern slavery has heretofore been
viewed so exclusively from the ethical and social standpoint
that we are apt to forget its close and indissoluble connection
with the world's cotton market. Beginning with 1820, a little
after the close of the Napoleonic wars, when the industry of
1785, Edmund Cartwright, power-loom.
1803-4, Radcliffe and Johnson, dressing-machine.
1817, Roberts, fly-frame.
1818, William Eaton, self-acting frame.
1825-30, Roberts, improvements on mule.
Cf. Baines, History of the Cotton Manufacture, pp. 116-231; Encyclo-
pedia Britannica, 9th ed., article " Cotton."
1 Baines, History of the Cotton Manufacture, p. 215. A bale weighed
from 375 Ibs. to 400 Ibs.
SECT. 74-] THE ECONOMIC REVOLUTION. 153
cotton manufacture had begun its modern development and the
South had definitely assumed her position as chief producer of
raw cotton, we find the average price of cotton per pound, %\d.
From this time until 1845 the price steadily fell, until in the latter
year it reached 4^. ; the only exception to this fall was in the
years 1832-1839, when, among other things, a strong increase in
the English demand, together with an attempt of the young slave
power to " corner" the market, sent the price up as high as lid.
The demand for cotton goods soon outran a crop which Mc-
Cullough had pronounced "prodigious," and after 1845 the
price started on a steady rise, which, except for the checks suf-
fered during the continental revolutions and the Crimean War,
continued until i860. 1 The steady increase in the production of
cotton explains the fall in price down to 1845. In 1822 the crop
was a half-million bales ; in 1831, a million ; in 1838, a million and
a half; and in 1840-1843, two million. By this time the world's
consumption of cotton goods began to increase so rapidly that,
in spite of the increase in Southern crops, the price kept rising.
Three million bales were gathered in 1852, three and a half million
in 1856, and the remarkable crop of five million bales in i86o. 2
Here we have data to explain largely the economic develop-
ment of the South. By 1822 the large-plantation slave system
had gained footing; in 1838-1839 it was able to show its power
in the cotton " corner; " by the end of the next decade it had
not only gained a solid economic foundation, but it had built a
closed oligarchy with a political policy. The changes in price
during the next few years drove out of competition many sur-
vivors of the small-farming free-labor system, and put the slave
regime in position to dictate the policy of the nation. The
zenith of the system and the first inevitable signs of decay
came in the years 18501860, when the rising price of cotton
threw the whole economic energy of the South into its cultiva-
tion, leading to a terrible consumption of soil and slaves, to a
great increase in the size of plantations, and to increasing power
and effrontery on the part of the slave barons. Finally, when a
1 The prices cited are from Newmarch and Tooke, and refer to the Lon-
don market. The average price in 1855-60 was about "jd.
2 From United States census reports.
154 RISE OF THE COTTON KINGDOM. [CHAP. X.
rising moral crusade conjoined with threatened economic dis-
aster, the oligarchy, encouraged by the state of the cotton market,
risked all on a political coup-d 'ttat, which failed in the war of
I86I-I865. 1
75. The Attitude of the South. The attitude of the South
toward the slave-trade changed part passu with this develop-
ment of the cotton trade. From 1808 to 1820 the South half
wished to get rid of a troublesome and abnormal institution,
and yet saw no way to do so. The fear of insurrection and of
the further spread of the disagreeable system led her to consent
to the partial prohibition of the trade by severe national enact-
ments. Nevertheless, she had in the matter no settled policy :
she refused to support vigorously the execution of the laws she
had helped to make, and at the same time she acknowledged the
theoretical necessity of these laws. After 1820, however, there
came a gradual change. The South found herself supplied with
a body of slave laborers, whose number had been augmented by
large illicit importations, with an abundance of rich land, and
with all other natural facilities for raising a crop which was in
large demand and peculiarly adapted to slave labor. The in-
creasing crop caused 'a new demand for slaves, and an inter-
state slave-traffic arose between the Border and the Gulf States,
which turned the former into slave-breeding districts, and
bound them to the slave States by ties of strong economic
interest.
As the cotton crop continued to increase, this source of sup-
ply became inadequate, especially as the theory of land and
slave consumption broke down former ethical and prudential
bounds. It was, for example, found cheaper to work a slave to
death in a few years, and buy a new one, than to care for him
in sickness and old age ; so, too, it was easier to despoil rich,
new land in a few years of intensive culture, and move on to
the Southwest, than to fertilize and conserve the soil. 2 Conse-
quently, there early came a demand for land and slaves greater
than the country could supply. The demand for land showed
itself in the annexation of Texas, the conquest of Mexico, and
1 Cf . United States census reports ; and Olmsted, The Cotton Kingdom.
a Cf . Ibid.
SECT. ;6.] ATTITUDE OF NORTH AND CONGRESS. 155
the movement toward the acquisition of Cuba. The demand
for slaves was manifested in the illicit traffic that noticeably in-
creased about 1835, and reached large proportions by 1860.
It was also seen in a disposition to attack the government for
stigmatizing the trade as criminal, 1 then in a disinclination
to take any measures which would have rendered our repress-
ive laws effective; and finally in such articulate declarations
by prominent men as this : " Experience having settled the
point, that this Trade cannot be abolished by the use of force,
and that blockading squadrons serve only to make it more
profitable and more cruel, I am surprised that the attempt
is persisted in, unless as it serves as a cloak to some other pur-
poses. It would be far better than it now is, for the African, if
the trade was free from all restrictions, and left to the mitiga-
tion and decay which time and competition would surely bring
about." 2
76. The Attitude of the North and Congress. With the North as
yet unawakened to the great changes taking place in the South,
and with the attitude of the South thus in process of develop-
ment, little or no constructive legislation could be expected on
the subject of the slave-trade. As the divergence in sentiment
became more and more pronounced, there were various attempts
at legislation, all of which proved abortive. The pro-slavery
party attempted, as early as 1826, and again in 1828, to abolish
the African agency and leave the Africans practically at the
mercy of the States ; 3 one or two attempts were made to relax
1 As early as 1836 Calhoun declared that he should ever regret that the
term " piracy" had been applied to the slave-trade in our laws: Benton,
Abridgment of Debates, XII. 718.
2 Governor J. H. Hammond of South Carolina, in Letters to Clarkson,
No. I, p. 2.
8 In 1826 Forsyth of Georgia attempted to have a bill passed abolishing
the African agency, and providing that the Africans imported be disposed
of in some way that would entail no expense on the public treasury : House
Journal, 19 Cong. I sess. p. 258. In 1828 a bill was reported to the
House to abolish the agency and make the Colonization Society the agents,
if they would agree to the terms. The bill was so amended as merely to
appropriate money for suppressing the slave-trade: Ibid., 20 Cong, i sess.,
House Bill No. 190.
156 RISE OF THE COTTON KINGDOM. [CHAP. X.
the few provisions which restrained the coastwise trade ; 1 and,
after the treaty of 1842, Benton proposed to stop appropria-
tions for the African squadron until England defined her
position on the Right of Search question. 2 The anti-slavery
men presented several bills to amend and strengthen previous
laws ; 3 they sought, for instance, in vain to regulate the Texan
trade, through which numbers of slaves indirectly reached the
United States. 4 Presidents and consuls earnestly recommended
legislation to restrict the clearances of vessels bound on slave-
trading voyages, and to hinder the facility with which slavers
obtained fraudulent papers. 5 Only one such bill succeeded in
passing the Senate, and that was dropped in the House. 6
The only legislation of this period was confined to a few
appropriation bills. Only one of these acts, that of 1823,
appropriating $5O,OOO, 7 was designed materially to aid in the
suppression of the trade, all the others relating to expenses
incurred after violations. After 1823 the appropriations dwin-
dled, being made at intervals of one, two, and three years, down
to 1834, when the amount was $5,000. No further appropria-
tions were made until 1842, when a few thousands above an
unexpended surplus were appropriated. In 1843 $5,000 were
given, and finally, in 1846, $25,000 were secured; but this was the
last sum obtainable until 1 856. 8 Nearly all of these meagre appro-
1 House Journal, 20 Cong, r sess. pp. 121, 135 ; 20 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 58-9,
84, 215.
2 Congressional Globe, 27 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 328, 331-6.
8 Cf. Mercer's bill, House Journal, 21 Cong, i sess. p. 512; also
Strange's two bills, Senate Journal, 25 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 200, 313; 26 Cong.
I sess., Senate Bill No. 123.
* Senate Journal, 25 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 297-8, 300.
6 Senate Doc., 28 Cong, i sess. IV. No. 217, p. 19; Senate Exec. Doc.,
31 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 6, pp. 3, 10, etc.; 33 Cong, i sess. VIII. No. 47,
pp. 5-6 ; 34 Cong, i sess. XV. No. 99, p. 80 ; House Journal, 26 Cong,
i sess. pp. 117-8; cf. Ibid., 20 Cong, i sess. p. 650, etc.; 21 Cong. 2 sess.
p. 194, 27 Cong, i sess. pp. 31, 184; House Doc., 29 Cong, i sess. III.
No. 43, p. ii ; House Exec, Doc., 31 Cong, i sess. III. pt. i, No. 5, pp. 7-8.
6 Senate Journal, 26 Cong, i sess., Senate Bill No. 335; House Journal^
26 Cong, i sess. pp. 1138, 1228, 1257.
7 Statutes at Large, III. 764.
8 Cf. above, Chapter VIII. p. 122.
SECT. 76.] ATTITUDE OF NORTH AND CONGRESS. 157
priations went toward reimbursing Southern plantation owners
for the care and support of illegally imported Africans, and the
rest to the maintenance of the African agency. Suspiciously
large sums were paid for the first purpose, considering the fact
that such Africans were always worked hard by those to whom
they were farmed out, and often " disappeared " while in their
hands. In the accounts we nevertheless find many items like
that of $20,286.98 for the maintenance of Negroes imported on
the "Ramirez;" 1 in 1827, $5,442.22 for the "bounty, sub-
sistence, clothing, medicine," etc., of fifteen Africans; 2 in 1835,
$3,613 for the support of thirty-eight slaves for two months
(including a bill of $1,038 for medical attendance). 3
The African agency suffered many vicissitudes. The first
agent, Bacon, who set out early in 1820, was authorized by
President Monroe " to form an establishment on the island of
Sherbro, or elsewhere on the coast of Africa," and to build
barracks for three hundred persons. He was, however, warned
" not to connect your agency with the views or plans of the
Colonization Society, with which, under the law, the Government
of the United States has no concern." Bacon soon died, and
was followed during the next four years by Winn and Ayres ;
they succeeded in establishing a government agency on Cape
Mesurado, in conjunction with that of the Colonization Society.
The agent of that Society, Jehudi Ashmun, became after 1822,
the virtual head of the colony; he fortified and enlarged it, and
laid the foundations of an independent community. The suc-
ceeding government agents came to be merely official repre-
sentatives of the United States, and the distribution of free
rations for liberated Africans ceased in 1827.
Between 1819 and 1830 two hundred and fifty-two recaptured
Africans were sent to the agency, and $264,710 were expended.
The property of the government at the agency was valued at
$18,895. From 1830 to 1840, nearly $20,000 more were ex-
pended, chiefly for the agents' salaries. About 1840 the ap-
pointment of an agent ceased, and the colony became gradually
1 Cf. Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1827.
a Ibid.
s House Reports, 24 Cong \ sess. I. No. 223.
158 RISE OF THE COTTON KINGDOM. [CHAP. X.
self-supporting and independent. It was proclaimed as the
Republic of Liberia in I84/. 1
77. Imperfect Application of the Laws. In reviewing efforts
toward the suppression of the slave-trade from 1820 to 1850, it
must be remembered that nearly every cabinet had a strong, if
not a predominating, Southern element, and that consequently
the efforts of the executive were powerfully influenced by the
changing attitude of the South. Naturally, under such circum-
stances, the government displayed little activity and no enthusi-
asm in the work. In 1824 a single vessel of the Gulf squadron
was occasionally sent to the African coast to return by the route
usually followed by the slavers ; no wonder that " none of these or
any other of our public ships have found vessels engaged in the
slave trade under the flag of the United States, . . . although
it is known that the trade still exists to a most lamentable extent." z
Indeed, all that an American slaver need do was to run up a
Spanish or a Portuguese flag, to be absolutely secure from all
attack or inquiry on the part of United States vessels. Even
this desultory method of suppression was not regular: in 1826
"no vessel has been despatched to the coast of Africa for several
months," 3 and from that time until 1839 this country probably
had no slave-trade police upon the seas, except in the Gulf of
Mexico. In 1839 increasing violations led to the sending of two
fast-sailing vessels to the African coast, and these were kept there
more or less regularly ; 4 but even after the signing of the treaty
1 This account is taken exclusively from government documents : Amer.
State Papers, Naval, III. Nos. 339, 340, 357, 429 E; IV. Nos. 457 R
(i and 2), 486 H, I, p. 161 and 519 R, 564 P, 585 P; House Reports, 19
Cong. I sess. I. No. 65; House Doc., 19 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 69; 21
Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 42-3, 211-8; 22 Cong, i sess. I. No. 2, pp. 45,
272-4; 22 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 48, 229; 23 Cong, i sess. I. No. i,
pp. 238, 269; 23 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 315, 363; 24 Cong, i sess. I.
No. 2, pp. 336, 378; 24 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 450, 506; 25 Cong.
2 sess. I. No. 3, pp. 771, 850; 26 Cong, i sess. I. No. 2, pp. 534, 612; 26
Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 405, 450. It is probable that the agent became
eventually the United States consul and minister; I cannot however cite
evidence for this supposition.
a Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1824.
Ibid., 1826. * Ibid., 1839.
SECT. 77.] IMPERFECT APPLICATION OF THE LAWS. 159
of 1842 the Secretary of the Navy reports: "On the coast of
Africa we have no squadron. The small appropriation of the
present year was believed to be scarcely sufficient." 1 Between
1843 an d 1850 the coast squadron varied from two to six vessels,
with from thirty to ninety-eight guns ; z " but the force habitu-
ally and actively engaged in cruizing on the ground frequented
by slavers has probably been less by one-fourth, if we consider
the size of the ships employed and their withdrawal for purposes
of recreation and health, and the movement of the reliefs, whose
arrival does not correspond exactly with the departure of the
vessels whose term of service has expired." 3 The reports of
the navy show that in only four of the eight years mentioned
was the fleet, at the time of report, at the stipulated size of
eighty guns ; and at times it was much below this, even as late
as 1848, when only two vessels are reported on duty along the
African coast. 4 As the commanders themselves acknowledged,
the squadron was too small and the cruising-ground too large to
make joint cruising effective. 5
The same story comes from the Brazil station : " Nothing
effectual can be done towards stopping the slave trade, as our
squadron is at present organized," wrote the consul at Rio
Janeiro in 1847; "when it is considered that the Brazil station
extends from north of the equator to Cape Horn on this conti-
nent, and includes a great part of Africa south of the equator, on
both sides of the Cape of Good Hope, it must be admitted that
one frigate and one brig is a very insufficient force to protect
American commerce, and repress the participation in the slave
trade by our own vessels." 6 In the Gulf of Mexico cruisers
were stationed most of the time, although even here there were
1 Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1842.
8 British and Foreign State Papers, 1857-8, p. 1250.
8 Lord Napier to Secretary of State Cass, Dec. 24, 1857 : British and
Foreign State Papers, 1857-8, p. 1249.
4 Parliamentary Papers, 1847-8, Vol. LXIV. No. 133, Papers Relative
to the Suppression of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa, p. 2.
8 Report of Perry: Senate Doc., 28 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 150, p. 118.
6 Consul Park at Rio Janeiro to Secretary Buchanan, Aug. 20, 1847:
House Exec. Doc., 30 Cong. 2 sess. VII. No. 61, p. 7.
160 RISE OF THE COTTON KINGDOM. [CHAP. X.
at times urgent representations that the scarcity or the absence
of such vessels gave the illicit trade great license. 1
Owing to this general negligence of the government, and also to
its anxiety on the subject of the theoretic Right of Search, many
officials were kept in a state of chronic deception in regard to
the trade. The enthusiasm of commanders was dampened by
the lack of latitude allowed and by the repeated insistence
in their orders on the non-existence of a Right of Search. 2
When one commander, realizing that he could not cover the
trading-track with his fleet, requested English commanders to
detain suspicious American vessels until one of his vessels came
up, the government annulled the agreement as soon as it reached
their ears, rebuked him, and the matter was alluded to in Con-
gress long after with horror. 3 According to the orders of
cruisers, only slavers with slaves actually on board could be
seized. Consequently, fully equipped slavers would sail past
the American fleet, deliberately make all preparations for
shipping a cargo, then, when the English were not near, " sell "
the ship to a Spaniard, hoist the Spanish flag, and again sail
gayly past the American fleet with a cargo of slaves. An
English commander 'reported : " The officers of the United
States' navy are extremely active and zealous in the cause, and
1 Suppose "an American vessel employed to take in negroes at some
point on this coast. There is no American man-of-war here to obtain
intelligence. What risk does she run of being searched? But suppose
that there is a man-of-war in port. What is to secure the master of the
merchantman against her [the man-of-war's] commander's knowing all
about his [the merchant-man's] intention, or suspecting it in time to be
upon him [the merchant-man] before he shall have run a league on his way
to Texas?" Consul Trist to Commander Spence: House Doc., 27 Cong.
I sess. No. 34, p. 41.
8 A typical set of instructions was on the following plan: i. You are
charged with the protection of legitimate commerce. 2. While the United
States wishes to suppress the slave-trade, she will not admit a Right of
Search by foreign vessels. 3. You are to arrest slavers. 4. You are to
allow in no case an exercise of the Right of Search or any great interrup-
tion of legitimate commerce. To Commodore Perry, March 30, 1843:
House Exec. Doc., 35 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 104.
8 House Reports, 27 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 283, pp. 765-8. Cf. Benton's
speeches on the treaty of 1842.
SECT. 78.] RESPONSIBILITY OF THE GOVERNMENT. 1 6 1
no fault can be attributed to them, but it is greatly to be
lamented that this blemish should in so great a degree nullify
our endeavours." J .
78. Responsibility of the Government. Not only did the gov-
ernment thus negatively favor the slave-trade, but also many
conscious, positive acts must be attributed to a spirit hostile to
the proper enforcement of the slave-trade laws. In cases
of doubt, when the law needed executive interpretation, the
decision was usually in favor of the looser construction of the
law ; the trade from New Orleans to Mobile was, for instance,
declared not to be coastwise trade, and consequently, to the joy
of the Cuban smugglers, was left utterly free and unrestricted. 2
After the conquest of Mexico, even vessels bound to California,
by the way of Cape Horn, were allowed to clear coastwise, thus
giving our flag to " the slave-pirates of the whole world." 3
Attorney-General Nelson declared that the selling to a slave-
trader of an American vessel, to be delivered on the coast of
Africa, was not aiding or abetting the slave-trade. 4 So easy was
it for slavers to sail that corruption among officials was hinted
at. " There is certainly a want of proper vigilance at Havana,"
wrote Commander Perry in 1844, " and perhaps at the ports of
the United States ; " and again, in the same year, " I cannot
but think that the custom-house authorities in the United States
are not sufficiently rigid in looking after vessels of suspicious
character." 5
In the courts it was still next to impossible to secure the
punishment of the most notorious slave-trader. In 1847 a con-
sul writes : " The slave power in this city [i. e., Rio Janeiro] is
extremely great, and a consul doing his duty needs to be
supported kindly and effectually at home. In the case of the
1 Report of Hotham to Admiralty, April 7, 1847: Parliamentary Papers,
1847-8, Vol. LXIV. No. 133, Papers Relative to the Suppression of the
Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa, p. 13.
2 Opinions of Attorneys-General, III. 512.
8 Tenth Annual Report of the Amer. and Foreign Anti-Slav. Soc. t
May 7, 1850, p. 149.
* Opinions of Attorneys-General, IV. 245.
6 Senate Doc., 28 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 150, pp. 108, 132.
H
162 RISE OF THE COTTON KINGDOM. [CHAP. X.
' Fame,' where the vessel was diverted from the business in-
tended by her owners and employed in the slave trade both
of which offences are punishable with death, if I rightly read
the laws I sent home the two mates charged with these
offences, for trial, the first mate to Norfolk, the second mate to
Philadelphia. What was done with the first mate I know not.
In the case of the man sent to Philadelphia, Mr. Commissioner
Kane states that a clear prima facie case is made out, and then
holds him to bail in the sum of one thousand dollars, which
would be paid by any slave trader in Rio, on the presentation
of a draft. In all this there is little encouragement for exer-
tion." 1 Again, the "Perry" in 1850 captured a slaver which
was about to ship 1,800 slaves. The captain admitted his guilt,
and was condemned in the United States District Court at New
York. Nevertheless, he was admitted to bail of $5,000; this
being afterward reduced to $3,000, he forfeited it and escaped.
The mate was sentenced to two years in the penitentiary. 2
Also several slavers sent home to the United States by the
British, with clear evidence of guilt, escaped condemnation
through technicalities. 8
79. Activity of the Slave-Trade, 1820-1850. The enhanced
price of slaves throughout the American slave market, brought
about by the new industrial development and the laws against
the slave-trade, was the irresistible temptation that drew Ameri-
can capital and enterprise into that traffic. In the United States,
in spite of the large interstate traffic, the average price of slaves
rose from about $325 in 1840, to $360 in 1850, and to $500 in
i86o. 4 Brazil and Cuba offered similar inducements to smug-
glers, and the American flag was ready to protect such pirates.
As a result, the American slave-trade finally came to be carried
on principally by United States capital, in United States ships,
officered by United States citizens, and under the United States
flag.
Executive reports repeatedly acknowledged this fact. In
1 House Exec. Doc., 30 Cong. 2 sess. VII. No. 61, p. 18.
a Foote, Africa and the American Flag, pp. 286-90.
8 British and Foreign State Papers, 1839-40, pp. 913-4.
* Cf. United States census reports; and Olmsted, Cotton Kingdom.
SECT. 79-] ACTIVITY OF THE SLAVE-TRADE. 163
1839 " a careful revision of these laws " is recommended by the
President, in order that " the integrity and honor of our flag
may be carefully preserved." 1 In June, 1841, the President
declares : " There is reason to believe that the traffic is on the
increase," and advocates " vigorous efforts." 2 His message in
December of the same year acknowledges : " That the Ameri-
can flag is grossly abused by the abandoned and profligate of
other nations is but too probable." 3 The special message of
1845 explains at length that "it would seem" that a regular
policy of evading the laws is carried on : American vessels with
the knowledge of the owners are chartered by notorious slave
dealers in Brazil, aided by English capitalists, with this intent. 4
The message of 1849 "earnestly" invites the attention of Con-
gress " to an amendment of our existing laws relating to the
African slave-trade, with a view to the effectual suppression of
that barbarous traffic. It is not to be denied," continues the
message, " that this trade is still, in part, carried on by means
of vessels built in the United States, and owned or navigated
by some of our citizens." 5 Governor Buchanan of Liberia
reported in 1839: "The chief obstacle to the success of the
very active measures pursued by the British government for
the suppression of the slave-trade on the coast, is the American
flag. Never was the proud banner of freedom so extensively
used by those pirates upon liberty and humanity, as at this
season." 6 One well-known American slaver was boarded fifteen
times and twice taken into port, but always escaped by means
of her papers. 7 Even American officers report that the Eng-
lish are doing all they can, but that the American flag pro-
tects the trade. 8 The evidence which literally poured in from
our consuls and ministers at Brazil adds to the story of the
1 House Journal, 26 Cong, i sess. p. 118.
2 Ibid., 27 Cong, i sess. pp. 31, 184.
8 Ibid., 27 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 14, 15, 86, 113.
4 Senate Journal, 28 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 191, 227.
6 House Exec. Doc., 31 Cong, i sess. III. pt. I. No. 5, p. 7.
6 Foote, Africa and the American Flag, p. 152.
7 Ibid., pp. 152-3.
8 Ibid., p. 241.
1 64 RISE OF THE COTTON KINGDOM. [CHAP. X.
guilt of the United States. 1 It was proven that the participa-
tion of United States citizens in the trade was large and sys-
tematic. One of the most notorious slave merchants of Brazil
said : " I am worried by the Americans, who insist upon my
hiring their vessels for slave-trade." 2 Minister Proffit stated,
in 1844, that the "slave-trade is almost entirely carried on
under our flag, in American-built vessels." 3 So, too, in Cuba:
the British commissioners affirm that American citizens were
openly engaged in the traffic; vessels arrived undisguised at
Havana from the United States, and cleared for Africa as
slavers after an alleged sale. 4 The American consul, Trist, was
proven to have consciously or unconsciously aided this trade
by the issuance of blank clearance papers. 6
The presence of American capital in these enterprises, and
the connivance of the authorities, were proven in many cases
and known in scores. In 1837 the English government informed
the United States that from the papers of a captured slaver it
appeared that the notorious slave-trading firm, Blanco and Car-
ballo of Havana, who owned the vessel, had correspondents in
the United States : " at Baltimore, Messrs. Peter Harmony and
Co., in New York, Robert Barry, Esq." 6 The slaver " Martha " of
New York, captured by the "Perry, " contained among her papers
curious revelations of the guilt of persons in America who were
little suspected. 7 The slaver " Prova," which was allowed to lie
in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, and refit, was after-
1 Cf. e.g. House Doc., 28 Cong. 2 sess. IV. pt. I. No. 148; 29 Cong.
I sess. III. No. 43 ; House Exec. Doc., 30 Cong. 2 sess. VII. No. 61 ; Senate
Exec. Doc., 30 Cong. I sess. IV. No. 28; 31 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 6; 33
Cong, i sess. VIII. No. 47.
3 Foote, Africa and the American Flag, p. 218.
Ibid., p. 221.
4 Palmerston to Stevenson : House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, p. 5.
In 1 836 five such slavers were known to have cleared; in 1837, eleven; in
1838, nineteen; and in 1839, twenty-three: Ibid., pp. 220-1.
6 Parliamentary Papers, 1839, Vol. XLIX., Slave Trade, class A,
Further Series, pp. 58-9; class B, Further Series, p. no; class D, Further
Series, p. 25. Trist pleaded ignorance of the law : Trist to Forsyth, House
Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115.
6 House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115.
7 Foote, Africa and the American Flag, p. 290.
SECT. 79-] ACTIVITY OF THE SLAVE-TIRADE. 165
wards captured with two hundred and twenty-five slaves on
board. 1 The real reason that prevented many belligerent Con-
gressmen from pressing certain search claims against England
lay in the fact that the unjustifiable detentions had unfortunately
revealed so much American guilt that it was deemed wiser to
let the matter end in talk. For instance, in 1850 Congress
demanded information as to illegal searches, and President Fill-
more's report showed the uncomfortable fact that, of the ten
American ships wrongly detained by English men-of-war, nine
were proven red-handed slavers. 2
The consul at Havana reported, in 1836, that whole cargoes
of slaves fresh from Africa were being daily shipped to Texas
in American vessels, that 1,000 had been sent within a few
months, that the rate was increasing, and that many of these
slaves "can scarcely fail to find their way into the United
States." Moreover, the consul acknowledged that ships fre-
quently cleared for the United States in ballast, taking on a
cargo at some secret point. 3 When with these facts we con-
sider the law facilitating " recovery " of slaves from Texas, 4 the
repeated refusals to regulate the Texan trade, and the shelving
of a proposed congressional investigation into these matters, 5
conjecture becomes a practical certainty. It was estimated in
1838 that 15,000 Africans were annually taken to Texas, and
" there are even grounds for suspicion that there are other
places . . . where slaves are introduced." 6 Between 1847 and
1853 the slave smuggler Drake had a slave depot in the Gulf,
where sometimes as many as 1,600 Negroes were on hand, and
1 House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, pp. 121, 163-6.
2 Senate Exec. Doc., 31 Cong, i sess. XIV. No. 66.
8 Trist to Forsyth: House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115. "The
business of supplying the United States with Africans from this island is
one that must necessarily exist," because " slaves are a hundred per cent,
or more, higher in the United States than in Cuba," and this profit "is a
temptation which it is not in human nature as modified by American insti-
tutions to withstand " : Ibid.
4 Statutes at Large, V. 674.
6 Cf. above, p. 156, note 4.
8 Buxton, The African Slave Trade and its Remedy, pp. 44-5. Cf . zd
Report of the London African Soc., p. 22.
1 66 RISE OF THE COTTON KINGDOM. [CHAP. X.
the owners were continually importing and shipping. " The joint-
stock company," writes this smuggler, "was a very extensive one,
and connected with leading American and Spanish mercantile
houses. Our island 1 was visited almost weekly, by agents from
Cuba, New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, and New
Orleans. . . . The seasoned and instructed slaves were taken
to Texas, or Florida, overland, and to Cuba, in sailing-boats.
As no squad contained more than half a dozen, no difficulty
was found in posting them to the United States, without dis-
covery, and generally without suspicion. . . . The Bay Island
plantation sent ventures weekly to the Florida Keys. Slaves
were taken into the great American swamps, and there kept till
wanted for the market. Hundreds were sold as captured run-
aways from the Florida wilderness. We had agents in every
slave State ; and our coasters were built in Maine, and came out
with lumber. I could tell curious stories ... of this business
of smuggling Bozal negroes into the United States. It is growing
more profitable every year, and if you should hang all the Yankee
merchants engaged in it, hundreds would fill their places." 2 In-
herent probability and concurrent testimony confirm the sub-
stantial truth of such confessions. For instance, one traveller
discovers on a Southern plantation Negroes who can speak no
English. 3 The careful reports of the Quakers " apprehend that
many [slaves] are also introduced into the United States." 4
Governor Mathew of the Bahama Islands reports that " in more
than one instance, Bahama vessels with coloured crews have
been purposely wrecked on the coast of Florida, and the crews
forcibly sold." This was brought to the notice of the United
States authorities, but the district attorney of Florida could
furnish no information. 6
1 I. e., Bay Island in the Gulf of Mexico, near the coast of Honduras.
2 Revelations of a Slave Smuggler, p. 98.
8 Mr. H. Moulton in Slavery as it is, p. 140; cited in Facts and Obser-
vations on the Slave Trade (Friends' ed. 1841), p. 8.
4 In a memorial to Congress, 1840 : House Doc., 26 Cong, i sess. VI.
No. 211.
6 British and Foreign State Papers, 1845-6, pp. 883, 968, 989-90. The
governor wrote in reply : " The United States, if properly served by their
law officers in the Floridas, will not experience any difficulty in obtaining
SECT. 79.] ACTIVITY OF THE SLAVE-TRADE. 167
Such was the state of the slave-trade in 1850, on the thresh-
old of the critical decade which by a herculean effort was
destined finally to suppress it.
the requisite knowledge of these illegal transactions, which, I have reason
to believe, were the subject of common notoriety in the neighbourhood
where they occurred, and of boast on the part of those concerned in them " :
British and Foreign State Papers, 1845-6, p. 990.
CHAPTER XI.
THE FINAL CRISIS. 1850-1870.
80. The Movement against the Slave-Trade Laws.
81. Commercial Conventions of 1855-56.
82. Commercial Convention of 1857-58.
83. Commercial Convention of 1859.
84. Public Opinion in the South.
85. The Question in Congress.
86. Southern Policy in 1860.
87. Increase of the Slave-Trade from 1850 to 1860.
88. Notorious Infractions of the Laws.
89. Apathy of the Federal Government.
90. Attitude of the Southern Confederacy.
91. Attitude of the United States.
80. The Movement against the Slave-Trade Laws. It was not
altogether a mistaken judgment that led the constitutional
fathers to consider the slave-trade as the backbone of slavery.
An economic system based on slave labor will find, sooner or
later, that the demand for the cheapest slave labor cannot
long be withstood. Once degrade the laborer so that he can-
not assert his own rights, and there is but one limit below
which his price cannot be reduced. That limit is not his phy-
sical well-being, for it may be, and in the Gulf States it was,
cheaper to work him rapidly to death; the limit is simply the
cost of procuring him and keeping him alive a profitable
length of time. Only the moral sense of a community can
keep helpless labor from sinking to this level; and when a
community has once been debauched by slavery, its moral
sense offers little resistance to economic demand. This was
the case in the West Indies and Brazil; and although better
moral stamina held the crisis back longer in the United States,
SECT. 81.] COMMERCIAL CONVENTIONS OF 1855-56. 169
yet even here the ethical standard of the South was not able
to maintain itself against the demands of the cotton industry.
When, after 1850, the price of slaves had risen to a monopoly
height, the leaders of the plantation system, brought to the
edge of bankruptcy by the crude and reckless farming neces-
sary under a slave regime, and baffled, at least temporarily, in
their quest of new rich land to exploit, began instinctively to
feel that the only salvation of American slavery lay in the
reopening of the African slave-trade.
It took but a spark to put this instinctive feeling into words,
and words led to deeds. The movement first took definite form
in the ever radical State of South Carolina. In 1854 a grand
jury, in the Williamsburg district declared, " as our unanimous
opinion, that the Federal law abolishing the African Slave Trade
is a public grievance. We hold this trade has been and would
be, if re-established, a blessing to the American people, and a
benefit to the African himself." J This attracted only local
attention; but when, in 1856, the governor of the State, in his
annual message, calmly argued at length for a reopening of the
trade, and boldly declared that " if we cannot supply the de-
mand for slave labor, then we must expect to be supplied with
a species of labor we do not want," 2 such words struck even
Southern ears like " a thunder clap in a calm day." 3 And yet
it needed but a few years to show that South Carolina had
merely been the first to put into words the inarticulate thought
of a large minority, if not a majority, of the inhabitants of the
Gulf States.
81. Commercial Conventions of 1855-56. The growth of the
movement is best followed in the action of the Southern Com-
mercial Convention, an annual gathering which seems to have
been fairly representative of a considerable part of Southern
opinion. In the convention that met at New Orleans in 1855,
McGimsey of Louisiana introduced a resolution instructing the
Southern Congressmen to secure the repeal of the slave-trade
laws. This resolution went to the Committee on Resolutions,
1 British and Foreign State Papers, 1854-5, p. 1156.
2 Cluskey, Political Text-Book (nth ed.), p. 585.
8 De Bow's Review, XXII. 223 ; quoted from Andrew Hunter of Virginia.
I/O THE FINAL CRISIS. [CHAP. XI.
and was not reported. 1 In 1856, in the convention at Savannah,
W. B. Goulden of Georgia moved that the members of Con-
gress be requested to bestir themselves energetically to have
repealed all laws which forbade the slave-trade. By a vote
of 67 to 1 8 the convention refused to debate the motion, but
appointed a committee to present at the next convention the
facts relating to a reopening of the trade. 2 In regard to this
action a pamphlet of the day said : " There were introduced
into the convention two leading measures, viz. : the laying of
a State tariff on northern goods, and the reopening of the
slave-trade; the one to advance our commercial interest, the
other our agricultural interest, and which, when taken together,
as they were doubtless intended to be, and although they have
each been attacked by presses of doubtful service to the South,
are characterized in the private judgment of politicians as one
of the completest southern remedies ever submitted to popular
action. . . . The proposition to revive, or more properly to
reopen, the slave trade is as yet but imperfectly understood, in
its intentions and probable results, by the people of the South,
and but little appreciated by them. It has been received in
all parts of the country with an undefined sort of repugnance,
a sort of squeamishness, which is incident to all such violations
of moral prejudices, and invariably wears off on familiarity with
the subject. The South will commence by enduring, and end
by embracing the project." 3 The matter being now fully be-
fore the public through these motions, Governor Adams's
message, and newspaper and pamphlet discussion, the radical
party pushed the project with all energy.
82. Commercial Conventions of 1857-58. The first piece of
regular business that came before the Commercial Convention
at Knoxville, Tennessee, August 10, 1857, was a proposal to
recommend the abrogation of the 8th Article of the Treaty of
Washington, on the slave-trade. An amendment offered by
1 De Bow's Review, XVIII. 628.
2 Ibid., XXII. 91, 102, 217, 221-2.
8 From a pamphlet entitled " A New Southern Policy, or the Slave Trade
as meaning Union and Conservatism ; " quoted in Etheridge's speech, Feb.
21, 1857 : Congressional Globe, 34 Cong. 3 sess., Appendix, p. 366.
SECT. 82.] COMMERCIAL CONVENTIONS OF 1857-58. I? I
Sneed of Tennessee, declaring it inexpedient and against set-
tled policy to reopen the trade, was voted down, Alabama,
Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and
Virginia refusing to agree to it. The original motion then
passed ; and the radicals, satisfied with their success in the first
skirmish, again secured the appointment of a committee to
report at the next meeting on the subject of reopening the
slave-trade. 1 This next meeting assembled May 10, 1858, in
a Gulf State, Alabama, in the city of Montgomery. Spratt
of South Carolina, the slave-trade champion, presented an
elaborate majority report from the committee, and recom-
mended the following resolutions :
1. Resolved, That slavery is right, and that being right, there can be
no wrong in the natural means to its formation.
2. Resolved, That it is expedient and proper that the foreign slave
trade should be re-opened, and that this Convention will lend its influence
to any legitimate measure to that end.
3. Resolved, That a committee, consisting of one from each slave
State, be appointed to consider of the means, consistent with the duty
and obligations of these States, for re-opening the foreign slave-trade,
and that they report their plan to the next meeting of this Convention.
Yancey, from the same committee, presented a minority re-
port, which, though it demanded the repeal of the national
prohibitory laws, did not advocate the reopening of the trade
by the States.
Much debate ensued. Pryor of Virginia declared the majority
report " a proposition to dissolve the Union." Yancey declared
that " he was for disunion now. [Applause.] " He defended the
principle of the slave-trade, and said : " If it is right to buy
slaves in Virginia and carry them to New Orleans, why is it not
right to buy them in Cuba, Brazil, or Africa, and carry them
there?" The opposing speeches made little attempt to meet
1 De Bow's Review, XXIII. 298-320. A motion to table the motion on
the 8th article was supported only by Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina,
and Maryland. Those voting for Sneed's motion were Georgia, Maryland,
North Carolina, and Tennessee. The appointment of a slave-trade commit-
tee was at first defeated by a vote of 48 to 44. Finally a similar motion was
passed, 52 to 40.
THE FINAL CRISIS. [CHAP. XI.
this uncomfortable logic ; but, nevertheless, opposition enough
was developed to lay the report on the table until the
next convention, with orders that it be printed, in the mean
time, as a radical campaign document. Finally the convention
passed a resolution :
That it is inexpedient for any State, or its citizens, to attempt to
re-open the African slave-trade while that State is one of the United
States of America. 1
83. Commercial Convention of 1859. The Convention of 1859
met at Vicksburg, Mississippi, May 9-19, and the slave-trade
party came ready for a fray. On the second day Spratt called
up his resolutions, and the next day the Committee on Reso-
lutions recommended that, " in the opinion of this Convention,
all laws, State or Federal, prohibiting' the African slave trade,
ought to be repealed" Two minority reports accompanied this
resolution: one proposed to postpone action, on account of the
futility of the attempt at that time ; the other report recom-
mended that, since repeal of the national laws was improbable,
nullification by the States impracticable, and action by the
Supreme Court unlikely, therefore the States should bring in
the Africans as apprentices, a system the legality of which " is
incontrovertible." " The only difficult question," it 'was said,
" is the future status of the apprentices after the expiration of
their term of servitude." z Debate on these propositions began
in the afternoon. A brilliant speech on the resumption of the
importation of slaves, says Foote of Mississippi, " was listened
to with breathless attention and applauded vociferously. Those
of us who rose in opposition were looked upon by the excited
assemblage present as traitors to the best interests of the South,
and only worthy of expulsion from the body. The excitement
at last grew so high that personal violence was menaced, and
some dozen of the more conservative members of the convention
withdrew from the hall in which it was holding its sittings." 3
1 De Bow's Review, XXIV. 473-491, 579-605. The Louisiana delega-
tion alone did not vote for the last resolution, the vote of her delegation
being evenly divided.
2 Ibid., XXVII. 94-235.
8 H. S. Foote, in Bench and Bar of the South and Southwest, p. 69.
SECT. 84.] PUBLIC OPINION IN THE SOUTH.
173
" It was clear," adds De Bow, " that the people of Vicksburg
looked upon it [i. e., the convention] with some distrust." 1
When at last a ballot was taken, the first resolution passed by
a vote of 40 to I9. 2 Finally, the 8th Article of the Treaty of
Washington was again condemned ; and it was also suggested,
in the newspaper which was the official organ of the meeting,
that " the Convention raise a fund to be dispensed in premiums
for the best sermons in favor of reopening the African Slave
Trade." 3
84. Public Opinion in the South. This record of the Commer-
cial Conventions probably gives a true reflection of the devel-
opment of extreme opinion on the question of reopening the
slave-trade. First, it is noticeable that on this point there was
a distinct divergence of opinion and interest between the Gulf and
the Border States, and it was this more than any moral repug-
nance that checked the radicals. The whole movement repre-
sented the economic revolt of the slave-consuming cotton-belt
against their base of labor supply. This revolt was only
prevented from gaining its ultimate end by the fact that the
Gulf States could not get on without the active political co-
operation of the Border States. Thus, although such hot-heads
as Spratt were not able, even as late as 1859, to carry a substan-
tial majority of the South with them in an attempt to reopen
the trade at all hazards, yet the agitation did succeed in sweep-
ing away nearly all theoretical opposition to the trade, and left
1 De Bow's Review, XXVII. 115.
2 Ibid., p. 99. The vote was :
Yea.
Alabama, 5 votes.
Arkansas, 4 "
South Carolina, 4 "
Louisiana,
Texas,
Georgia,
Mississippi,
6
4
10
7
Total 40
Nay.
Tennessee, 12 votes.
Florida, 3 "
South Carolina, 4 "
Total 19
Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, and
North Carolina did not vote ; they
either withdrew or were not repre-
sented.
The official
8 Quoted in 26th Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc., p. 38.
organ was the True Southron.
1/4 THE FINAL CRISIS. [CHAP. XI.
the majority of Southern people in an attitude which regarded
the reopening of the African slave-trade as merely a question of
expediency.
This growth of Southern opinion is clearly to be followed in the
newspapers and pamphlets of the day, in Congress, and in many
significant movements. The Charleston Standard in a series of
articles strongly advocated the reopening of the trade; the Rich-
mond Examiner, though opposing the scheme as a Virginia paper
should, was brought to " acknowledge that the laws which con-
demn the Slave-trade imply an aspersion upon the character of
the South. 1 In March, 1859, the National Era said: "There
can be no doubt that the idea of reviving the African Slave Trade
is gaining ground in the South. Some two months ago we could
quote strong articles from ultra Southern journals against the
traffic ; but of late we have been sorry to observe in the same
journals an ominous silence upon the subject, while the advo-
cates of ' free trade in negroes ' are earnest and active." 2 The
Savannah Republican, which at first declared the movement to
be of no serious intent, conceded, in 1859, that it was gaining
favor, and that nine-tenths of the Democratic Congressional
Convention favored it; and that even those who did not advo-
cate a revival demanded the abolition of the laws. 3 A corre-
spondent from South Carolina writes, December 18, 1859: "The
nefarious project of opening it [i. e., the slave trade] has been
started here in that prurient temper of the times which manifests
itself in disunion schemes. . . . My State is strangely and ter-
ribly infected with all this sort of thing. . . . One feeling that
gives a countenance to the opening of the slave trade is, that it
will be a sort of spite to the North and defiance of their opin-
ions." 4 The New Orleans Delta declared that those who voted
for the slave-trade in Congress were men " whose names will be
honored hereafter for the unflinching manner in which they
1 Quoted in SJJtfh Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc., p. 54.
8 Quoted in 26th Report, Ibid., p. 43.
8 27th Report, Ibid., pp. 19-20.
4 Letter of W. C. Preston, in the National Intelligencer, April 3, 1863.
Also published in the pamphlet, The African Slave Trade: The Secret
Purpose, etc., p. 26.
SECT. 85.] THE QUESTION IN CONGRESS. 1/5
stood up for principle, for truth, and consistency, as well as the
vital interests of the South." l
85. The Question in Congress. Early in December, 1856, the
subject reached Congress ; and although the agitation was then
new, fifty-seven Southern Congressmen refused to declare a
re-opening of the slave-trade " shocking to the moral sentiment
of the enlightened portion of mankind," and eight refused to
call the reopening even " unwise " and " inexpedient." 2 Three
years later, January 31, 1859, it was impossible, in a House of
one hundred and ninety-nine members, to get a two-thirds vote
in order even to consider Kilgore's resolutions, which declared
" that no legislation can be too thorough in its measures, nor
can any penalty known to the catalogue of modern punishment
for crime be too severe against a traffic so inhuman and
unchristian." 3
Congressmen and other prominent men hastened with the
rising tide. 4 Dowdell of Alabama declared the repressive acts
" highly offensive ; " J. B. Clay of Kentucky was " opposed to all
these laws; " 6 Seward of Georgia declared them "wrong, and
a violation of the Constitution ; " 6 Barksdale of Mississippi
agreed with this sentiment ; Crawford of Georgia threatened a
reopening of the trade ; Miles of South Carolina was for " sweep-
ing away " all restrictions ; 7 Keitt of South Carolina wished to
withdraw the African squadron, and to cease to brand slave-
trading as piracy ; 8 Brown of Mississippi " would repeal the
law instantly ; " 9 Alexander Stephens, in his farewell address
to his constituents, said : " Slave states cannot be made with-
1 Quoted in Etheridge's speech : Congressional Globe, 34 Cong. 3 sess.
Appen., p. 366.
a House Journal, 34 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 105-10; Congressional Globe, 34
Cong. 3 sess. pp. 123-6; Cluskey, Political Text-Book (i4th ed.), p. 589.
8 House Journal, 35 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 298-9. Cf. 26th Report of the
Amer. Anti-slav. Soc., p. 45.
4 Cf. Reports of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc., especially the 26th, pp. 43-4.
6 Ibid., p. 43. He referred especially to the Treaty of 1842.
6 Ibid.; Congressional Globe, 35 Cong. 2 sess., Appen., pp. 248-50.
7 26th Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc., p. 44.
8 Ibid.; 21th Report, pp. 13-4.
9 26th Report, Ibid., p. 44.
1 76" THE FINAL CRISIS. [CHAP. XI.
out Africans. . . . [My object is] to bring clearly to your
mind the great truth that without an increase of African slaves
from abroad, you may not expect or look for many more slave
States." l Jefferson Davis strongly denied " any coincidence
of opinion with those who prate of the inhumanity and sinful-
ness of the trade. The interest of Mississippi," said he, " not
of the African, dictates my conclusion." He opposed the
immediate reopening of the trade in Mississippi for fear of a
paralyzing influx of Negroes, but carefully added : " This con-
clusion, in relation to Mississippi, is based upon my view of her
present condition, not upon any general theory. It is not sup-
posed to be applicable to Texas, to New Mexico, or to any
future acquisitions to be made south of the Rio Grande." 2
John Forsyth, who for seven years conducted the slave-trade
diplomacy of the nation, declared, about 1860: "But one
stronghold of its [i. e., slavery's] enemies remains to be car-
ried, to complete its triumph and assure its welfare, that is the
existing prohibition of the African Slave-trade." 3 Pollard, in
his Black Diamonds, urged the importation of Africans as
"laborers." "This I grant you," said he, "would be practically
the re-opening of the African slave trade ; but . . . you will find
that it very often becomes necessary to evade the letter of the
law, in some of the greatest measures of social happiness and
patriotism." 4
86. Southern Policy in 1860. The matter did not rest with
mere words. During the session of the Vicksburg Convention,
an "African Labor Supply Association " was formed, under the
presidency of J. D. B. De Bow, editor of De Bow's Review, and
ex-superintendent of the seventh census. The object of the
association was " to promote the supply of African labor." 6
In 1857 the committee of the South Carolina legislature to
1 Quoted in Lalor, Cyclopedia, III. 733; Cairnes, The Slave Power
(New York, 1862), p. 123, note; 27th Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc.,
p. 15.
2 Quoted in Cairnes, The Slave Power, p. 123, note ; 27th Report of
the Amer. Antirslav. Soc., p. 19.
8 27th Report, Ibid., p. 16; quoted from the Mobile Register.
4 Edition of 1859, PP- 63-4.
6 De Bow 's Review, XXVII. 121, 231-5.
SECT. 86.] SOUTHERN POLICY IN 1860. 177
whom the Governor's slave-trade message was referred made an
elaborate report, which declared in italics : " The South at large
does need a re-opening - of the African slave trade" Pettigrew,
the only member who disagreed to this report, failed of re-elec-
tion. The report contained an extensive argument to prove
the kingship of cotton, the perfidy of English philanthropy, and
the lack of slaves in the South, which, it was said, would show a
deficit of six hundred thousand slaves by I878. 1 In Georgia,
about this time, an attempt to expunge the slave-trade pro-
hibition in the State Constitution lacked but one vote of pass-
ing. 2 From these slower and more legal movements came
others less justifiable. The long argument on the "appren-
tice " system finally brought a request to the collector of the
port at Charleston, South Carolina, from E. Lafitte & Co., for
a clearance to Africa for the purpose of importing African
" emigrants." The collector appealed to the Secretary of
the Treasury, Howell Cobb of Georgia, who flatly refused to
take the bait, and replied that if the " emigrants " were
brought in as slaves, it would be contrary to United States
law; if as freemen, it would be contrary to their own State
law. 3 In Louisiana a still more radical movement was at-
tempted, and a bill passed the House of Representatives author-
izing a company to import two thousand five hundred Africans,
"indentured" for fifteen years "at least." The bill lacked
but two votes of passing the Senate. 4 It was said that the
Georgian, of Savannah, contained a notice of an agricultural
society which " unanimously resolved to offer a premium of
$25 for the best specimen of a live African imported into the
United States within the last twelve months." 6
It would not be true to say that there was in the South in
1860 substantial unanimity on the subject of reopening the
1 Report of the Special Committee, etc. (1857), pp. 24-5.
2 26th Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc., p. 40. The vote was 47 to 46.
House Exec. Doc., 36 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 7, pp. 632-6. For the State
law, cf. above, Chapter II. This refusal of Cobb's was sharply criticised
by many Southern papers. Cf. 26th Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc.,
P-39-
4 New York Independent, March n and April i, 1858.
6 %Gth Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc., p. 41.
12
178 THE FINAL CRISIS. [CHAP. XI.
slave-trade ; nevertheless, there certainly was a large and influ-
ential minority, including perhaps a majority of citizens of the
Gulf States, who favored the project, and, in defiance of law
and morals, aided and abetted its actual realization. Various
movements, it must be remembered, gained much of their
strength from the fact that their success meant a partial nullifi-
cation of the slave-trade laws. The admission of Texas added
probably seventy-five thousand recently imported slaves to the
Southern stock ; the movement against Cuba, which culmi-
nated in the " Ostend Manifesto " of Buchanan, Mason, and
Soule, had its chief impetus in the thousands of slaves whom
Americans had poured into the island. Finally, the series of
filibustering expeditions against Cuba, Mexico, and Central
America were but the wilder and more irresponsible attempts
to secure both slave territory and slaves.
87. Increase of the Slave-Trade from 1850 to 1860. The long
and open agitation for the reopening of the slave-trade, to-
gether with the fact that the South had been more or less
familiar with violations of the laws since 1808, led to such a
remarkable increase of illicit traffic and actual importations in
the decade 1850-1860, that the movement may almost be
termed a reopening of the slave-trade.
In the foreign slave-trade our own officers continue to report
" how shamefully our flag has been used ; " * and British offi-
cers write " that at least one half of the successful part of the
slave trade is carried on under the American flag," and this
because " the number of American cruisers on the station is so
small, in proportion to the immense extent of the slave-dealing
coast." 2 The fitting out of slavers became a flourishing busi-
ness in the United States, and centred at New York City.
" Few of our readers," writes a periodical of the day, " are
aware of the extent to which this infernal traffic is carried on,
by vessels clearing from New York, and in close alliance with
our legitimate trade ; and that down-town merchants of wealth
1 Gregory to the Secretary of the Navy, June 8, 1850 : Senate Exec. Doc.,
31 Cong, i sess. XIV. No. 66, p. z. Cf. Ibid., 31 Cong, z sess. II. No. 6.
2 Gumming to Commodore Fanshawe, Feb. 22, 1850 : Senate Exec. Doc.,
31 Cong, i sess. XIV. No. 66, p. 8.
SECT. 87.] INCREASE OF SLAVE-TRADE, 1850-60. 179
and respectability are extensively engaged in buying and sell-
ing African Negroes, and have been, with comparatively little
interruption, for an indefinite number of years." l Another
periodical says : " The number of persons engaged in the
slave-trade, and the amount of capital embarked in it, exceed
our powers of calculation. The city of New York has been
until of late [1862] the principal port of the world for this
infamous commerce ; although the cities of Portland and Bos-
ton are only second to her in that distinction. Slave dealers
added largely to the wealth of our commercial metropolis;
they contributed liberally to the treasuries of political organiza-
tions, and their bank accounts were largely depleted to carry
elections in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut." 2
During eighteen months of the years 1859-1860 eighty-five
slavers are reported to have been fitted out in New York
harbor, 3 and these alone transported from 30,000 to 60,000
slaves annually. 4 The United States deputy marshal of that dis-
trict declared in 1856 that the business of fitting out slavers
" was never prosecuted with greater energy than at present.
The occasional interposition of the legal authorities exer-
cises no apparent influence for its suppression. It is seldom
that one or more vessels cannot be designated at the wharves,
respecting which there is evidence that she is either in or has
been concerned in the Traffic." 5 On the coast of Africa " it
is a well-known fact that most of the Slave ships which visit
the river are sent from New York and New Orleans." 6
1 New York Journal of Commerce, 1857; quoted in %tyh Report of the
Amer. Anti-slav. Sac., p. 56.
2 " The Slave-Trade in New York," in the Continental Monthly, January,
1862, p. 87.
8 New York Evening Post; quoted in Lalor, Cyclopaedia, III. 733.
4 Lalor, Cyclopaedia, III. 733; quoted from a New York paper.
6 Friends 1 Appeal on behalf of the Coloured Races (1858), Appendix,
p. 41 ; quoted from the Journal of Commerce.
6 26th Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc., pp. 53-4; quoted from the
African correspondent of the Boston Journal. From April, 1857, to May,
1858, twenty-one of twenty-two slavers which were seized by British cruisers
proved to be American, from New York, Boston, and New Orleans. Cf.
25th Report, Ibid., p. 122. De Bow estimated in 1856 that forty slavers
180 THE FINAL CRISIS. [CHAP. XI.
The absence of United States war-ships at the Brazilian
station enabled American smugglers to run in cargoes, in spite
of the prohibitory law. One cargo of five hundred slaves was
landed in 1852, and the Correio Mercantil regrets "that it
was the flag of the United States which covered this act of
piracy, sustained by citizens of that great nation." 1 When the
Brazil trade declined, the illicit Cuban trade greatly increased,
and the British consul reported : " Almost all the slave expedi-
tions for some time past have been fitted out in the United
States, chiefly at New York." 2
88. Notorious Infractions of the Laws. This decade is especially
noteworthy for the great increase of illegal importations into
the South. These became bold, frequent, and notorious. Sys-
tematic introduction on a considerable scale probably com-
menced in the forties, although with great secrecy. " To have
boldly ventured into New Orleans, with negroes freshly im-
ported from Africa, would not only have brought down upon
the head of the importer the vengeance of our very philan-
thropic Uncle Sam, but also the anathemas of the whole sect
of philanthropists and negrophilists everywhere. To import
them for years, however, into quiet places, evading with im-
punity the penalty of the law, and the ranting of the thin-
skinned sympathizers with Africa, was gradually to popularize
the traffic by creating a demand for laborers, and thus to pave
the way for the gradual revival of the slave trade. To this
end, a few men, bold and energetic, determined, ten or twelve
years ago [1848 or 1850], to commence the business of im-
porting negroes, slowly at first, but surely; and for this purpose
they selected a few secluded places on the coast of Florida,
Georgia and Texas, for the purpose of concealing their stock
until it could be sold out. Without specifying other places,
let me draw your attention to a deep and abrupt pocket or
indentation in the coast of Texas, about thirty miles from
Brazos Santiago. Into this pocket a slaver could run at any
cleared annually from Eastern harbors, clearing yearly $17,000,000: De
Bow 's Review, XXII. 430-1.
1 Senate Exec. Doc., 33 Cong, i sess. VIII. No. 47, p. 13.
2 House Exec. Doc., 34 Cong, i sess. XII. No. 105, p. 38.
SECT. 88.] NOTORIOUS INFRACTIONS OF LAWS. l8l
hour of the night, because there was no hindrance at the en-
trance, and here she could discharge her cargo of movables
upon the projecting bluff, and again proceed to sea inside of
three hours. The live stock thus landed could be marched
a short distance across the main island, over a porous soil
which refuses to retain the recent foot-prints, until they were
again placed in boats, and were concealed upon some of the
innumerable little islands which thicken on the waters of the
Laguna in the rear. These islands, being covered with a thick
growth of bushes and grass, offer an inscrutable hiding place
for the ' black diamonds.' " 1 These methods became, how-
ever, toward 1860, too slow for the radicals, and the trade grew
more defiant and open. The yacht " Wanderer," arrested on
suspicion in New York and released, landed in Georgia six
months later four hundred and twenty slaves, who were never
recovered. 2 The Augusta Despatch says : " Citizens of our
city are probably interested in the enterprise. It is hinted that
this is the third cargo landed by the same company, during the
last six months." 3 Two parties of Africans were brought into
Mobile with impunity. One bark, strongly suspected of hav-
ing landed a cargo of slaves, was seized on the Florida coast ;
another vessel was reported to be landing slaves near Mobile ;
a letter from Jacksonville, Florida, stated that a bark had left
there for Africa to ship a cargo for Florida and Georgia. 4
Stephen A. Douglas said " that there was not the shadow of
doubt that the Slave-trade had been carried on quite exten-
sively for a long time back, and that there had been more
Slaves imported into the southern States, during the last year,
than had ever been imported before in any one year, even
when the Slave-trade was legal. It was his confident belief,
that over fifteen thousand Slaves had been brought into this
country during the past year [1859.] He had seen, with his
1 New York Herald, Aug. 5, 1860 ; quoted in Drake, Revelations of a
Slave Smuggler, Introd., pp. vii.-viii.
2 House Exec. Doc., 35 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 89. Cf. 26th Report of
the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc., pp. 45-9.
8 Quoted in 26th Report, Ibid., p. 46.
4 For all the above cases, cf. Ibid., p. 49.
1 82 THE FINAL CRISIS. [CHAP. XI.
own eyes, three hundred of those recently-imported, miserable
beings, in a Slave-pen in Vicksburg, Miss., and also large num-
bers at Memphis, Tenn." 1 It was currently reported that depots
for these slaves existed in over twenty large cities and towns in
the South, and an interested person boasted to a senator, about
1860, that "twelve vessels would discharge their living freight
upon our shores within ninety days from the ist of June last,"
and that between sixty and seventy cargoes had been success-
fully introduced in the last eighteen months. 2 The New York
Tribune doubted the statement ; but John C. Underwood, for-
merly of Virginia, wrote to the paper saying that he was satis-
fied that the correspondent was correct. " I have," he said,
" had ample evidences of the fact, that reopening the African
Slave-trade is a thing already accomplished, and the traffic is
brisk, and rapidly increasing. In fact, the most vital question
of the day is not the opening of this trade, but its suppression.
The arrival of cargoes of negroes, fresh from Africa, in our
southern ports, is an event of frequent occurrence." 3
Negroes, newly landed, were openly advertised for sale in the
public press, and bids for additional importations made. In
reply to one of these, the Mobile Mercury facetiously remarks :
" Some negroes who never learned to talk English, went up
the railroad the other day." 4 Congressmen declared on the
floor of the House : " The slave trade may therefore be regarded
1 Quoted in 21th Report, Ibid., p. 20. Cf. Report of the Secretary of the
Navy, 1859: Senate Exec. Doc., 36 Cong. I sess. III. No. 2.
2 27th Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc., p. 21.
8 Quoted in Ibid.
4 Issue of July 22, 1860; quoted in Drake, Revelations of a Slave
Smuggler, Introd., p. vi. The advertisement referred to was addressed to
the " Shipowners and Masters of our Mercantile Marine," and appeared in
the Enterprise (Miss.) Weekly News, April 14, 1859. William S. Price
and seventeen others state that they will "pay three hundred dollars per
head for one thousand native Africans, between the ages of fourteen and
twenty years, (of sexes equal,) likely, sound, and healthy, to be delivered
within twelve months from this date, at some point accessible by land,
between Pensacola, Fla., and Galveston, Texas; the contractors giving
thirty days' notice as to time and place of delivery ": Quoted in 2Qth Report
of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc., pp. 41-2.
SECT. 89.] APATHY OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 183
as practically re-established ; " 1 and petitions like that from the
American Missionary Society recited the fact that " this piratical
and illegal trade this inhuman invasion of the rights of men,
this outrage on civilization and Christianity this violation
of the laws of God and man is openly countenanced and
encouraged by a portion of the citizens of some of the States
of this Union." 2
From such evidence it seems clear that the slave-trade laws,
in spite of the efforts of the government, in spite even of much
opposition to these extra-legal methods in the South itself, were
grossly violated, if not nearly nullified, in the latter part of the
decade 1850-1860.
89. Apathy of the Federal Government. During the decade
there was some attempt at reactionary legislation, chiefly directed
at the Treaty of Washington. June 13, 1854, Slidell, from the
Committee on Foreign Relations, made an elaborate report to
the Senate, advocating the abrogation of the 8th Article of that
treaty, on the ground that it was costly, fatal to the health of the
sailors, and useless, as the trade had actually increased under
its operation. 3 Both this and a similar attempt in the House
failed, 4 as did also an attempt to substitute life imprisonment for
the death penalty. 5 Most of the actual legislation naturally took
the form of appropriations. In 1853 there was an attempt to
appropriate $2O,ooo. 6 This failed, and the appropriation of
1 Congressional Globe, 35 Cong, i sess. p. 1362. Cf. the speech of a dele-
gate from Georgia to the Democratic Convention at Charleston, 1860 : " If
any of you northern democrats will go home with me to my plantation, I will
show you some darkies that I bought in Virginia, some in Delaware, some
in Florida, and I will also show you the pure African, the noblest Roman of
them all. I represent the African slave trade interest of my section : " Lalor,
Cyclopaedia, III. 733.
2 Senate Misc. Doc., 36 Cong, i sess. No. 8.
8 Senate Journal, 34 Cong. 1-2 sess. pp. 396, 695-8 ; Senate Reports, 34
Cong, i sess. I. No. 195.
4 House Journal, 31 Cong. 2 sess. p. 64. There was still another attempt
by Sandidge. Cf. 26th Report of the Amer. Anti-Slav. Soc., p. 44.
6 Senate Journal, 36 Cong, i sess. p. 274; Congressional Globe, 36 Cong,
i sess. p. 1245.
6 Congressional Globe, 32 Cong. 2 sess. p. 1072.
1 84 THE FINAL CRISIS. [CHAP. XI.
$8,000 in 1856 was the first for ten years. 1 The following year
brought a similar appropriation, 2 and in 1859 3 and 1860 4
$75,000 and $40,000 respectively were appropriated. Of at-
tempted legislation to strengthen the laws there was plenty : e. g.,
propositions to regulate the issue of sea-letters and the use of
our flag ; 5 to prevent the " coolie " trade, or the bringing in of
"apprentices" or "African laborers;" 6 to stop the coastwise
trade ; 7 to assent to a Right of Search ; 8 and to amend the
Constitution by forever prohibiting the slave-trade. 9
The efforts of the executive during this period were criminally
lax and negligent. " The General Government did not exert
itself in good faith to carry out either its treaty stipulations or
the legislation of Congress in regard to the matter. If a vessel
was captured, her owners were permitted to bond her, and thus
continue her in the trade; and if any man was convicted of this
form of piracy, the executive always interposed between him and
the penalty of his crime. The laws providing for the seizure of
vessels engaged in the traffic were so constructed as to render the
duty unremunerative ; and marshals now find their fees for such
1 I. e., since 1846: Statutes at Large, XI. 90.
3 Ibid., XI. 227.
Ibid., XI. 404.
4 Ibid., XII. 21.
6 E.g., Clay's resolutions : Congressional G 'lobe, 31 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 304-9.
Clayton's resolutions: Senate Journal, 33 Cong, i sess. p. 404; House Jour-
nal, 33 Cong. I sess. pp. 1093, 1332-3 ; Congressional Globe, 33 Cong, i sess.
pp. 1591-3, 2139. Seward's bill: Senate Journal, 33 Cong, i sess. pp. 448,
451.
6 Mr. Blair of Missouri asked unanimous consent in Congress, Dec. 23,
1858, to a resolution instructing the Judiciary Committee to bring in such a
bill ; Houston of Alabama objected : Congressional Globe, 35 Cong. 2 sess.
p. 198; 26th Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc., p. 44.
7 This was the object of attack in 1851 and 1853 by Giddings : House
Journal, 32 Cong, i sess. p. 42 ; 33 Cong. I sess. p. 147. Cf. House Jour-
nal, 38 Cong, i sess. p. 46.
8 By Mr. Wilson, March 20, 1860 : Senate Journal, 36 Cong, i sess. p. 274.
9 Four or five such attempts were made : Dec. 12, 1860, House Journal,
36 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 61-2; Jan. 7, 1861, Congressional Globe, 36 Cong.
2 sess. p. 279; Jan. 23, 1861, Sotd., p. 527; Feb. I, \%6\,Ibid., p. 690; Feb.
27, 1861, Ibid., pp. 1243, I2 59-
SECT. 89.] APATHY OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 185
services to be actually less than their necessary expenses. No
one who bears this fact in mind will be surprised at the great
indifference of these officers to the continuing of the slave-trade ;
in fact, he will be ready to learn that the laws of Congress upon the
subject had become a dead letter, and that the suspicion was well
grounded that certain officers of the Federal Government had
actually connived at their violation." 1 From 1845 to l %54> in
spite of the well-known activity of the trade, but five cases
obtained cognizance in the New York district. Of these, Cap-
tains Mansfield and Driscoll forfeited their bonds of $5,000 each,
and escaped ; in the case of the notorious Canot, nothing had
been done as late as 1856, although he was arrested in 1847;
Captain Jefferson turned State's evidence, and, in the case of
Captain Mathew, a nolle prosequi was entered. 2 Between 1854
and 1856 thirty-two persons were indicted in New York, of
whom only thirteen had at the latter date been tried, and only
one of these convicted. 3 These dismissals were seldom on
account of insufficient evidence. In the notorious case of the
" Wanderer," she was arrested on suspicion, released, and soon
after she landed a cargo of slaves in Georgia; some who
attempted to seize the Negroes were arrested for larceny, and
in spite of the efforts of Congress the captain was never pun-
ished. The yacht was afterwards started on another voyage, and
being brought back to Boston was sold to her former owner for
about one third her value. 4 The bark " Emily" was seized on
suspicion and released, and finally caught red-handed on the
coast of Africa ; she was sent to New York for trial, but " dis-
appeared " under a certain .slave captain, Townsend, who had,
previous to this, in the face of the most convincing evidence,
been acquitted at Key West. 5
The squadron commanders of this time were by no means as
1 " The Slave-Trade in New York," in the Continental Monthly, January,
1862, p. 87.
2 New York Herald, July 14, 1856.
8 Ibid. Cf. Senate Exec. Doc., 37 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 53.
4 27th Report of the Amer. Anti-slew. Soc., pp. 25-6. Cf. 26th Report,
Ibid., pp. 45-9.
5 27th Report, Ibid., pp. 26-7.
1 86 THE FINAL CRISIS. [CHAP. XI.
efficient as their predecessors, and spent much of their time, ap-
parently, in discussing the Right of Search. Instead of a num-
ber of small light vessels, which by the reports of experts were
repeatedly shown to be the only efficient craft, the government,
until 1859, persisted in sending out three or four great frigates.
Even these did not attend faithfully to their duties. A letter
from on board one of them shows that, out of a fifteen months'
alleged service, only twenty-two days were spent on the usual
cruising-ground for slavers, and thirteen of these at anchor;
eleven months were spent at Madeira and Cape Verde Islands,
300 miles from the coast and 3,000 miles from the slave
market. 1 British commanders report the apathy of American
officers and the extreme caution of their instructions, which
allowed many slavers to escape. 2
The officials at Washington often remained in blissful, and
perhaps willing, ignorance of the state of the trade. While
Americans were smuggling slaves by the thousands into Brazil,
and by the hundreds into the United States, Secretary Graham
was recommending the abrogation of the 8th Article of the
Treaty of Washington ; 3 so, too, when the Cuban slave-trade
was reaching unprecedented activity, and while slavers were
being fitted out in every port on the Atlantic seaboard, Sec-
retary Kennedy naively reports : " The time has come, perhaps,
when it may be properly commended to the notice of Congress
to inquire into the necessity of further continuing the regular
employment of a squadron on this [i. e., the African] coast." 4
Again, in 1855, the government has "advices that the slave
trade south of the equator is entirely broken up;" 6 in 1856,
the reports are "favorable;" 6 in 1857 a British commander
writes : " No vessel has been seen here for one year, certainly ;
I think for nearly three years there have been no American
cruizers on these waters, where a valuable and extensive Ameri-
1 26th Report of the Amer. Anti-Slav. Soc., p. 54.
a British and Foreign State Papers, 1859-60, pp. 899, 973.
* Nov. 29, 1851 : House Exec. Doc., 32 Cong. I sess. II. pt. 2, No. 2, p. 4.
4 Dec. 4, 1852: Ibid., 32 Cong. 2 sess. I. pt. 2, No. i, p. 293.
6 Ibid., 34 Cong, i sess. I. pt. 3, No. I, p. 5.
e Ibid., 34 Cong. 3 sess. I. pt. 2, No. i, p. 407.
SECT. 89.] APATHY OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 187
can commerce is carried on. I cannot, therefore, but think that
this continued absence of foreign cruizers looks as if they were
intentionally withdrawn, and as if the Government did not care
to take measures to prevent the American flag being used to
cover Slave Trade transactions ; " l nevertheless, in this same
year, according to Secretary Toucey, " the force on the coast
of Africa has fully accomplished its main object." 2 Finally, in
the same month in which the " Wanderer " and her mates were
openly landing cargoes in the South, President Buchanan, who
seems to have been utterly devoid of a sense of humor, was
urging the annexation of Cuba to the United States as the only
method of suppressing the slave-trade ! 3
About 1859 the frequent and notorious violations of our laws
aroused even the Buchanan government; a larger appropriation
was obtained, swift light steamers were employed, and, though
we may well doubt whether after such a carnival illegal impor-
tations "entirely" ceased, as the President informed Congress, 4
yet some sincere efforts at suppression were certainly begun.
From 1850 to 1859 we have few notices of captured slavers, but
in 1860 the increased appropriation of the thirty-fifth Congress
resulted in the capture of twelve vessels with 3,119 Africans. 5
The Act of June 16, 1860, enabled the President to contract
with the Colonization Society for the return of recaptured
Africans ; and by a long-needed arrangement cruisers were to
proceed direct to Africa with such cargoes, instead of first
landing them in this country. 6
1 Commander Burgess to Commodore Wise, Whydah, Aug. 12, 1857:
Parliamentary Papers, 1857-8, vol. LXI. Slave Trade, Class A, p. 136.
2 House Exec. Doc., 35 Cong. i sess. II. pt. 3, No. 2, p. 576.
Ibid., 35 Cong. 2 sess. II. pt. I, No. 2, pp. 14-15, 31-33.
4 Senate Exec. Doc., 36 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. i, p. 24. The Report of
the Secretary of the Navy, 1859, contains this ambiguous passage: "What
the effect of breaking up the trade will be upon the United States or
Cuba it is not necessary to inquire ; certainly, under the laws of Congress
and our treaty obligations, it is the duty of the executive government to see
that our citizens shall not be engaged in it": Ibid., 36 Cong, i sess. III.
No. 2, pp. 1138-9.
6 Ibid., 36 Cong. 2 sess. III. pt. I, No. r, pp. 8-9.
6 Statutes at Large, XII. 40.
1 88 THE FINAL CRISIS. [CHAP. XI.
90. Attitude of the Southern Confederacy. The attempt, ini-
tiated by the constitutional fathers, to separate the problem of
slavery from that of the slave-trade had, after a trial of half a
century, signally failed, and for well-defined economic reasons.
The nation had at last come to the parting of the ways, one of
which led to a free-labor system, the other to a slave system
fed by the slave-trade. Both sections of the country naturally
hesitated at the cross-roads : the North clung to the delusion
that a territorially limited system of slavery, without a slave-
trade, was still possible in the South ; the South hesitated to fight
for her logical object slavery and free trade in Negroes
and, in her moral and economic dilemma, sought to make
autonomy and the Constitution her object. The real line of
contention was, however, fixed by years of development, and was
unalterable by the present whims or wishes of the contestants,
no matter how important or interesting these might be : the tri-
umph of the North meant free labor; the triumph of the South
meant slavery and the slave-trade.
It is doubtful if many of the Southern leaders ever deceived
themselves by thinking that Southern slavery, as it then was,
could long be maintained without a general or a partial reopening
of the slave-trade. Many had openly declared this a few years
before, and there was no reason for a change of opinion. Never-
theless, at the outbreak of actual war and secession, there were
powerful and decisive reasons for relegating the question tem-
porarily to the rear. In the first place, only by this means
could the adherence of important Border States be secured,
without the aid of which secession was folly. Secondly, while
it did no harm to laud the independence of the South and the
kingship of cotton in " stump " speeches and conventions, yet,
when it came to actual hostilities, the South sorely needed the
aid of Europe ; and this a nation fighting for slavery and the
slave-trade stood poor chance of getting. Consequently, after
attacking the slave-trade laws for a decade, and their execution
for a quarter-century, we find the Southern leaders inserting,
in both the provisional and the permanent Constitutions of the
Confederate States, the following article :
SECT, go.] ATTITUDE OF SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY, 189
The importation of negroes of the African race, from any foreign
country other than the slaveholding States or Territories of the United
States of America, is hereby forbidden ; and Congress is required to
pass such laws as shall effectually prevent the same.
Congress shall also have power to prohibit the introduction of slaves
from any State not a member of, or Territory not belonging to, this
Confederacy. 1
The attitude of the Confederate government toward this
article is best illustrated by its circular of instructions to its
foreign ministers :
It has been suggested to this Government, from a source of unques-
tioned authenticity, that, after the recognition of our independence by
the European Powers, an expectation is generally entertained by them
that in our treaties of amity and commerce a clause will be introduced
making stipulations against the African slave trade. It is even thought
that neutral Powers may be inclined to insist upon the insertion of such
a clause as a sine qua non.
You are well aware how firmly fixed in our Constitution is the policy
of this Confederacy against the opening of that trade, but we are in-
formed that false and insidious suggestions have been made by the agents
of the United States at European Courts of our intention to change our
constitution as soon as peace is restored, and of authorizing the impor-
tation of slaves from Africa. If, therefore, you should find, in your
intercourse with the Cabinet to which you are accredited, that any such
impressions are entertained, you will use every proper effort to remove
them, and if an attempt is made to introduce into any treaty which
you may be charged with negotiating stipulations on the subject just
mentioned, you will assume, in behalf of your Government, the position
which, under the direction of the President, I now proceed to develop.
The Constitution of the Confederate States is an agreement made
between independent States. By its terms all the powers of Government
are separated into classes as follows, viz. :
i st. Such powers as the States delegate to the General Government.
2d. Such powers as the States agree to refrain from exercising, al-
though they do not delegate them to the General Government.
3d. Such powers as the States, without delegating them to the Gen-
1 Confederate States of America Statutes at Large, 1861, p. 15, Con-
stitution, Art. i, sect. 9, i, 2.
THE FINAL CRISIS. [CHAP. XL
eral Government, thought proper to exercise by direct agreement be-
tween themselves contained in the Constitution.
4th. All remaining powers of sovereignty, which not being delegated to
the Confederate States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the States,
are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people thereof. . . . Espe-
cially in relation to the importation of African negroes was it deemed
important by the States that no power to permit it should exist in the Con-
federate Government. ... It will thus be seen that no power is dele-
gated to the Confederate Government over this subject, but that it is
included in the third class above referred to, of powers exercised directly
by the States. . . . This Government unequivocally and absolutely de-
nies its possession of any power whatever over the subject, and cannot
entertain any proposition in relation to it. ... The policy of the Con-
federacy is as fixed and immutable on this subject as the imperfection
of human nature permits human resolve to be. No additional agree-
ments, treaties, or stipulations can commit these States to the prohibition
of the African slave trade with more binding efficacy than those they
have themselves devised. A just and generous confidence in their good
faith on this subject exhibited by friendly Powers will be far more effi-
cacious than persistent efforts to induce this Government to assume the
exercise of powers which it does not possess. . . . We trust, therefore,
that no unnecessary discussions on this matter will be introduced into
your negotiations. If, unfortunately, this reliance should prove ill-
founded, you will decline continuing negotiations on your side, and
transfer them to us at home. . . . x
This attitude of the conservative leaders of the South, if it
meant anything, meant that individual State action could, when
it pleased, reopen the slave-trade. The radicals were, of course,
not satisfied with any veiling of the ulterior purpose of the new
slave republic, and attacked the constitutional provision vio-
lently. "If," said one, "the clause be carried into the perma-
nent government, our whole movement is defeated. It will
1 From an intercepted circular despatch from J. P. Benjamin, "Secre-
tary of State," addressed in this particular instance to Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar,
" Commissioner, etc., St. Petersburg, Russia," and dated Richmond, Jan. 15,
1863; published in the National Intelligencer, March 31, 1863; cf. also the
issues of Feb. 19, 1861, April 2, 3, 25, 1863 ; also published in the pamphlet,
7%i? African Slave-Trade: The Secret Purpose, etc. The editors vouch
for its authenticity, and state it to be in Benjamin's own handwriting.
SECT. 9I-] ATTITUDE OF THE UNITED STATES. IQI
abolitionize the Border Slave States it will brand our institu-
tion. Slavery cannot share a government with Democracy, it
cannot bear a brand upon it; thence another revolution . . .
having achieved one revolution to escape democracy at the
North, it must still achieve another to escape it at the South.
That it will ultimately triumph none can doubt." 1
91. Attitude of the United States. In the North, with all the
hesitation in many matters, there existed unanimity in regard
to the slave-trade ; and the new Lincoln government ushered in
the new policy of uncompromising suppression by hanging the
first American slave-trader who ever suffered the extreme pen-
alty of the law. 2 One of the earliest acts of President Lincoln
was a step which had been necessary since 1808, but had never
been taken, viz., the unification of the whole work of suppres-
sion into the hands of one responsible department. By an or-
der, dated May 2, 1861, Caleb B. Smith, Secretary of the
Interior, was charged with the execution of the slave-trade
laws, 3 and he immediately began energetic work. Early in
1861, as soon as the withdrawal of the Southern members untied
the hands of Congress, two appropriations of $900,000 each were
made to suppress the slave trade, the first appropriations com-
mensurate with the vastness of the task. These were followed
by four appropriations of $17,000 each in the years 1863 to
1867, and two of $12,500 each in 1868 and i869. 4 The first
work of the new secretary was to obtain a corps of efficient
assistants. To this end, he assembled all the marshals of the
loyal seaboard States at New York, and gave them instruction
and opportunity to inspect actual slavers. Congress also, for
1 L. W. Spratt of South Carolina, in the Southern Literary Messenger,
June, 1861, XXXII. 414, 420. Cf. also the Charleston Mercury, Feb. 13,
1861, and the National Intelligencer, Feb. 19, 1861.
2 Captain Godon of the slaver " Erie ;" condemned in the U. S. District
Court for Southern New York in 1862. Cf. Senate Exec. Doc., 37 Cong. 2
sess. I. No. i, p. 13.
Ibid., pp. 453-4.
4 Statutes at Large, XII. 132, 219, 639; XIII. 424; XIV. 226, 415;
XV. 58, 321. The sum of $250,000 was also appropriated to return the slaves
on the "Wildfire": Ibid., XII. 40-41.
192 THE FINAL CRISIS, [CHAP. XI.
the first time, offered them proper compensation. 1 The next
six months showed the effect of this policy in the fact that five
vessels were seized and condemned, and four slave-traders were
convicted and suffered the penalty of their crimes. " This is
probably the largest number [of convictions] ever obtained, and
certainly the only ones for many years." 2
Meantime the government opened negotiations with Great
Britain, and the treaty of 1862 was signed June 7, and carried
out by Act of Congress, July 1 1. 3 Specially commissioned war
vessels of either government were by this agreement authorized
to search merchant vessels on the high seas and specified coasts,
and if they were found to be slavers, or, on account of their con-
struction or equipment, were suspected to be such, they were to
be sent for condemnation to one of the mixed courts established
at New York, Sierra Leone, and the Cape of Good Hope. These
courts, consisting of one judge and one arbitrator on the part of
each government, were to judge the facts without appeal, and
upon condemnation by them, the culprits were to be punished
according to the laws of their respective countries. The area in
which this Right of Search could be exercised was somewhat
enlarged by an additional article to the treaty, signed in 1863.
In 1870 the mixed courts were abolished, but the main part of
the treaty was left in force. The Act of July 17, 1862, enabled
the President to contract with foreign governments for the ap-
prenticing of recaptured Africans in the West Indies, 4 and in
1864 the coastwise slave-trade was forever prohibited. 5 By these
measures the trade was soon checked, and before the end of
the war entirely suppressed. 6 The vigilance of the govern-
ment, however, was not checked, and as late as 1866 a squad-
ron of ten ships, with one hundred and thirteen guns, patrolled
1 Statutes at Large, XII. 368-9.
2 Senate Exec- Doc., 37 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. I, pp. 453-4.
9 Statutes at Large, XII. 531.
4 For a time not exceeding five years: Ibid., pp. 592-3.
6 By section 9 of an appropriation act for civil expenses, July 2, 1864:
Ibid., XIII. 353.
6 British officers attested this : Diplomatic Correspondence, 1862, p. 285.
SECT, pi-] ATTITUDE OF THE UNITED STATES. 1 93
the slave coast. 1 Finally, the Thirteenth Amendment legally
confirmed what the war had already accomplished, and slavery
and the slave-trade fell at one blow. 2
1 Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1866; House Exec. Doc., 39 Cong.
2 sess. IV. p. 12.
2 There were some later attempts to legislate. Sumner tried to repeal
the Act of 1803 : Congressional Globe, 41 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 2894, 2932, 4953,
5594. Banks introduced a bill to prohibit Americans owning or dealing
in slaves abroad: House Journal, 42 Cong. 2 sess. p. 48. For the legisla-
tion of the Confederate States, cf. Mason, Veto Power, 2d ed., Appendix
C, No. i.
CHAPTER XII.
THE ESSENTIALS IN THE STRUGGLE.
92. How the Question arose.
93. The Moral Movement.
94. The Political Movement.
95. The Economic Movement.
96. The Lesson for Americans.
92. How the Question Arose. We have followed a chapter
of history which is of peculiar interest to the sociologist.
Here was a rich new land, the wealth of which was to be had in
return for ordinary manual labor. Had the country been con-
ceived of as existing primarily for the benefit of its actual
inhabitants, it might have waited for natural increase or immi-
gration to supply the needed hands ; but both Europe and the
earlier colonists themselves regarded this land as existing chiefly
for the benefit of Europe, and as designed to be exploited, as
rapidly and ruthlessly as possible, of the boundless wealth of its
resources. This was the primary excuse for the rise of the
African slave-trade to America.
Every experiment of such a kind, however, where the moral
standard of a people is lowered for the sake of a material advan-
tage, is dangerous in just such proportion as that advantage
is great. In this case it was great. For at least a century, in
the West Indies and the southern United States, agriculture
flourished, trade increased, and English manufactures were
nourished, in just such proportion as Americans stole Negroes
and worked them to death. This advantage, to be sure, became
much smaller in later times, and at one critical period was, at
least in the Southern States, almost nil ; but energetic efforts
were wanting, and, before the nation was aware, slavery had
seized a new and well-nigh immovable footing in the Cotton
Kingdom.
SECT. 93.] THE MORAL MOVEMENT. IQ5
The colonists averred with perfect truth that they did not
commence this fatal traffic, but that it was imposed upon them
from without. Nevertheless, all too soon did they lay aside
scruples against it and hasten to share its material benefits.
Even those who braved the rough Atlantic for the highest
moral motives fell early victims to the allurements of this
system. Thus, throughout colonial history, in spite of many
honest attempts to stop the further pursuit of the slave-trade,
we notice back of nearly all such attempts a certain moral
apathy, an indisposition to attack the evil with the sharp
weapons which its nature demanded. Consequently, there
developed steadily, irresistibly, a vast social problem, which
required two centuries and a half for a nation of trained
European stock and boasted moral fibre to solve.
93. The Moral Movement. For the solution of this problem
there were, roughly speaking, three classes of efforts made
during this time, moral, political, and economic : that is to
say, efforts which sought directly to raise the moral standard of
the nation; efforts which sought to stop the trade by legal
enactment; efforts which sought to neutralize the economic
advantages of the slave-trade. There is always a certain
glamour about the idea of a nation rising up to crush an evil
simply because it is wrong. Unfortunately, this can seldom be
realized in real life; for the very existence of the evil usually
argues a moral weakness in the very place where extraordinary
moral strength is called for. This was the case in the early
history of the colonies ; and experience proved that an appeal
to moral rectitude was unheard in Carolina when rice had
become a great crop, and in Massachusetts when the rum-
slave-traffic was paying a profit of 100 %. That the various
abolition societies and anti-slavery movements did heroic
work in rousing the national conscience is certainly true ; un-
fortunately, however, these movements were weakest at the
most critical times. When, in 1774 and 1804, the material
advantages of the slave-trade and the institution of slavery
were least, it seemed possible that moral suasion might accom-
plish the abolition of both. A fatal spirit of temporizing,
however, seized the nation at these points; and although the
196 THE ESSENTIALS IN THE STRUGGLE, [CHAP. XII.
slave-trade was, largely for political reasons, forbidden, slavery
was left untouched. Beyond this point, as years rolled by, it
was found well-nigh impossible to rouse the moral sense of the
nation. Even in the matter of enforcing its own laws and co-
operating with the civilized world, a lethargy seized the coun-
try, and it did not awake until slavery was about to destroy
it. Even then, after a long and earnest crusade, the national
sense of right did not rise to the entire abolition of slavery.
It was only a peculiar and almost fortuitous commingling of
moral, political, and economic motives that eventually crushed
African slavery and its handmaid, the slave-trade in America.
94. The Political Movement The political efforts to limit
the slave-trade were the outcome partly of moral reprobation
of the trade, partly of motives of expediency. This legislation
was never such as wise and powerful rulers may make for a
nation, with the ulterior purpose of calling in the respect which
the nation has for law to aid in raising its standard of right.
The colonial and national laws on the slave-trade merely regis-
tered, from time to time, the average public opinion concern-
ing this traffic, and are therefore to be regarded as negative
signs rather than as. positive efforts. These signs were, from
one point of view, evidences of moral awakening; they indicated
slow, steady development of the idea that to steal even Negroes
was wrong. From another point of view, these laws showed
the fear of servile insurrection and the desire to ward off danger
from the State ; again, they often indicated a desire to appear
well before the civilized world, and to rid the " land of the
free " of the paradox of slavery. Representing such motives,
the laws varied all the way from mere regulating acts to absolute
prohibitions. On the whole, these acts were poorly conceived,
loosely drawn, and wretchedly enforced. The systematic viola-
tion of the provisions of many of them led to a widespread
belief that enforcement was, in the nature of the case, impos-
sible ; and thus, instead of marking ground already won, they
were too often sources of distinct moral deterioration. Cer-
tainly the carnival of lawlessness that succeeded the Act of
1807, and that which preceded final suppression in 1861, were
glaring examples of the failure of the efforts to suppress the
slave-trade by mere law.
SECT. 96.] THE LESSON FOR AMERICANS. 197
95. The Economic Movement. Economic measures against
the trade were those which from the beginning had the best
chance of success, but which were least tried. They included
tariff measures; efforts to encourage the immigration of free
laborers and the emigration of the slaves ; measures for chang-
ing the character of Southern industry; and, finally, plans to
restore the economic balance which slavery destroyed, by rais-
ing the condition of the slave to that of complete freedom and
responsibility. Like the political efforts, these rested in part on
a moral basis; and, as legal enactments, they were also them-
selves often political measures. They differed, however, from
purely moral and political efforts, in having as a main motive
the economic gain which a substitution of free for slave labor
promised.
The simplest form of such efforts was the revenue duty on
slaves that existed in all the colonies. This developed into
the prohibitive tariff, and into measures encouraging immigra-
tion or industrial improvements. The colonization movement
was another form of these efforts; it was inadequately con-
ceived, and not altogether sincere, but it had a sound, although
in this case impracticable, economic basis. The one great meas-
ure which finally stopped the slave-trade forever was, naturally,
the abolition of slavery, i. e., the giving to the Negro the right
to sell his labor at a price consistent with his own welfare.
The abolition of slavery itself, while due in part to direct
moral appeal and political sagacity, was largely the result of
the economic collapse of the large-farming slave system.
96. The Lesson for Americans. It may be doubted if ever
before such political mistakes as the slavery compromises of the
Constitutional Convention had such serious results, and yet, by
a succession of unexpected accidents, still left a nation in posi-
tion to work out its destiny. No American can study the con-
nection of slavery with United States history, and not devoutly
pray that his country may never have a similar social problem
to solve, until it shows more capacity for such work than it has
shown in the past. It is neither profitable nor in accordance
with scientific truth to consider that whatever the constitutional
fathers did was right, or that slavery was a plague sent from God
198 THE ESSENTIALS IN THE STRUGGLE. [CHAP. XII.
and fated to be eliminated in due time. We must face the fact
that this problem arose principally from the cupidity and care-
lessness of our ancestors. It was the plain duty of the colonies
to crush the trade and the system in its infancy : they preferred
to enrich themselves on its profits. It was the plain duty of a
Revolution based upon " Liberty " to take steps toward the
abolition of slavery: it preferred promises to straightforward
action. It was the plain duty of the Constitutional Conven-
tion, in founding a new nation, to compromise with a threat-
ening social evil only in case its settlement would thereby be
postponed to a more favorable time : this was not the case in
the slavery and the slave-trade compromises ; there never was
a time in the history of America when the system had a
slighter economic, political, and moral justification than in
1787; and yet with this real, existent, growing evil before their
eyes, a bargain largely of dollars and cents was allowed to
open the highway that led straight to the Civil War. More-
over, it was due to no wisdom and foresight on the part of the
fathers that fortuitous circumstances made the result of that
war what it was, nor was it due to exceptional philanthropy
on the part of their' descendants that that result included the
abolition of slavery.
With the faith of the nation broken at the very outset, the
system of slavery untouched, and twenty years' respite given
to the slave-trade to feed and foster it, there began, with 1787,
that system of bargaining, truckling, and compromising with
a moral, political, and economic monstrosity, which makes the
history of our dealing with slavery in the first half of the
nineteenth century so discreditable to a great people. Each
generation sought to shift its load upon the next, and the
burden rolled on, until a generation came which was both too
weak and too strong to bear it longer. One cannot, to be
sure, demand of whole nations exceptional moral foresight and
heroism ; but a certain hard common-sense in facing the com-
plicated phenomena of political life must be expected in every
progressive people. In some respects we as a nation seem to
lack this; we have the somewhat inchoate idea that we are
not destined to be harassed with great social questions, and
SECT. 96.] THE LESSON FOR AMERICANS. 199
that even if we are, and fail to answer them, the fault is with
the question and not with us. Consequently we often con-
gratulate ourselves more on getting rid of a problem than on
solving it. Such an attitude is dangerous ; we have and shall
have, as other peoples have had, critical, momentous, and
pressing questions to answer. The riddle of the Sphinx may
be postponed, it may be evasively answered now; sometime
it must be fully answered.
It behooves the United States, therefore, in the interest both
of scientific truth and of future social reform, carefully to study
such chapters of her history as that of the suppression of the
slave-trade. The most obvious question which this study sug-
gests is : How far in a State can a recognized moral wrong safely
be compromised? And although this chapter of history can
give us no definite answer suited to the ever-varying aspects of
political life, yet it would seem to warn any nation from allowing,
through carelessness and moral cowardice, any social evil to
grow. No persons would have seen the Civil War with more
surprise and horror than the Revolutionists of 1776; yet from
the small and apparently dying institution of their day arose the
walled and castled Slave-Power. From this we may conclude
that it behooves nations as well as men to do things at the very
moment when they ought to be done.
APPENDIX A.
A CHRONOLOGICAL CONSPECTUS OF COLONIAL
AND STATE LEGISLATION RESTRICTING
THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE.
1641-1787.
1641. Massachusetts : Limitations on Slavery.
"Liberties of Forreiners & Strangers": 91. "There shall never
be any bond slaverie villinage or Captivitie amongst vs, unles
it be lawfull Captives taken in iust warres, & such strangers
as willingly selle themselves or are sold to us. And those shall
have all the liberties & Christian usages w ch y 6 law of god es-
tablished in Jsraell concerning such p/ sons doeth morally require.
This exempts none from servitude who shall be Judged there to
by Authoritie."
"Capitall Laws": 10. "If any man stealeth aman or mankinde,
he shall surely be put to death" (marginal reference, Exodus
xxi. 1 6). Re-enacted in the codes of 1649, 1660, and 1672.
Whitmore, Reprint of Colonial Laws of 1660, etc. (1889),
PP- 5 2 > 54, 7 I ~ II 7-
1642, April 3. New Netherland : Ten per cent Duty.
" Ordinance of the Director and Council of New Netherland, im-
posing certain Import and Export Duties." O'Callaghan, Laws
of New Netherland (1868), p. 31.
1642, Dec. 1. Connecticut : Man-Stealing made a Capital Offence.
"Capitall Lawes," No. 10. Re-enacted in Ludlow's code, 1650.
Colonial Records, I. 77.
202 APPENDIX A.
1646, Nov. 4. Massachusetts : Declaration against Man-Stealing.
Testimony of the General Court. For text, see above, page 30.
Colonial Records, II. 168 ; III. 84.
1652, April 4. New Netherland : Duty of 15 Guilders.
" Conditions and Regulations " of Trade to Africa. O'Callaghan,
Laws of New Netherland, pp. 81, 127.
1652, May 18-20. Rhode Island : Perpetual Slavery Prohibited.
For text, see above, page 33. Colonial Records, I. 243.
1655, Aug. 6. New Netherland : Ten per cent Export Duty.
" Ordinance of the Director General and Council of New Nether-
land, imposing a Duty on exported Negroes." O'Callaghan,
Laws of New Netherland, p. 191.
1664, March 12. Duke of York's Patent : Slavery Regulated.
" Lawes establish! by the Authority of his Majesties Letters
patents, granted to his Royall Highnes James Duke of Yorke
and Albany; Bearing Date the i2th Day of March in the Six-
teenth year of the Raigne of our Soveraigne Lord Kinge
Charles the Second." First published at Long Island in
1664.
" Bond slavery " : " No Christian shall be kept in Bondslavery
villenage or Captivity, Except Such who shall be Judged
thereunto by .Authority, or such as willingly have sould, or
shall sell themselves," etc. Apprenticeship allowed. Charter
to William Penn, and Laws of the Province of Pennsylvania
(1879), pp. 3, 12.
1672, October. Connecticut : Law against Man-Stealing.
" The General Laws and Liberties of Conecticut Colonie."
"Capital Laws": 10. "If any Man stealeth a Man or Man
kinde, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall be
put to death. Exod. 21. 16." Laws of Connecticut, 1672
(repr. 1865), p. 9.
1676, March 3. West New Jersey : Slavery Prohibited (?).
"The Concessions and Agreements of the Proprietors, Free-
holders and Inhabitants of the Province of West New-Jersey,
in America."
Chap. XXIII. "That in all publick Courts of Justice for
Tryals of Causes, Civil or Criminal, any Person or Persons,
Inhabitants of the said Province, may freely come into, and at-
tend the said Courts, . . . that all and every Person and Per-
sons Inhabiting the said Province, shall, as far as in us lies, be
APPENDIX A. 203
free from Oppression and Slavery." Learning and Spicer,
Grants, Concessions, etc., pp. 382, 398.
1688, Feb. 18. Pennsylvania: First Protest of Friends against
Slave -Trade.
"At Monthly Meeting of Germantown Friends." For text, see
above, page 21. Fac-simile Copy (1880).
1695, May. Maryland: 10s. Duty Act.
" An Act for the laying an Imposition upon Negroes, Slaves, and
White Persons imported into this Province." Re-enacted in
1696, and included in Acts of 1699 and 1704. Bacon, Laws,
1695, ch. ix. ; 1696, ch. vii. ; 1699, ch. xxiii. ; 1704, ch. ix.
1696. Pennsylvania : Protest of Friends.
" That Friends be careful not to encourage the bringing in of any
more negroes." Bettle, Notices of Negro Slavery, in Penn.
Hist. Soc. Mem. (1864), I. 383.
1698, Oct. 8. South Carolina : White Servants Encouraged.
" An Act for the Encouragement of the Importation of White
Servants."
" Whereas, the great number of negroes which of late have been
imported into this Collony may endanger the safety thereof
if speedy care be not taken and encouragement given for the
importation of white servants."
i- *3 are to be given to any ship master for every male white
servant (Irish excepted), between sixteen and forty years,
whom he shall bring into Ashley river; and 12 for boys
between twelve and sixteen years. Every servant must have
at least four years to serve, and every boy seven years.
3. Planters are to take servants in proportion of one to every
six male Negroes above sixteen years.
5. Servants are to be distributed by lot.
8. This act to continue three years. Cooper, Statutes, II. 153.
1699, April. Virginia : 20s. Duty Act.
" An act for laying an imposition upon servants and slaves
imported into this country, towards building the Capitoll."
For three years; continued in August, 1701, and April, 1704.
Hening, Statutes, III. 193, 212, 225.
1703, May 6. South Carolina : Duty Act.
"An Act for the laying an Imposition on Furrs, Skinns, Liquors
and other Goods and Merchandize, Imported into and Ex-
ported out of this part of this Province, for the raising of a
204 APPENDIX A.
Fund of Money towards defraying the publick charges and
expenses of this Province, and paying the debts due for the
Expedition against St. Augustine." los. on Africans and 2os.
on others. Cooper, Statutes, II. 201.
1704, October. Maryland : 20s. Duty Act.
" An Act imposing Three Pence per Gallon on Rum and Wine,
Brandy and Spirits ; and Twenty Shillings per Poll for Negroes ;
for raising a Supply to defray the Public Charge of this Prov-
ince; and Twenty Shillings per Poll on Irish Servants, to
prevent the importing too great a Number of Irish Papists into
this Province." Revived in 1708 and 1712. Bacon, Laws,
1704, ch. xxxiii. ; 1708, ch. xvi. ; 1712, ch. xxii.
1705, Jan. 12. Pennsylvania : 10s. Duty Act.
" An Act for Raising a Supply of Two pence half penny per Pound
& ten shillings per Head. Also for Granting an Impost &
laying on Sundry Liquors & negroes Imported into this
Province for the Support of Governmt., & defraying the neces-
sary Publick Charges in the Administration thereof." Colonial
Records (1852), II. 232, No. 50.
1705, October. Virginia : 6d. Tax on Imported Slaves.
" An act for raising a publick revenue for the better support of the
Government," etc. Similar tax by Act of October, 1710.
Hening, Statutes, III. 344, 490.
1705, October. Virginia : 20s. Duty Act.
" An act for laying an Imposition upon Liquors and Slaves." For
two years; re-enacted in October, 1710, for three years, and
in October, 1712. Ibid., III. 229, 482 ; IV. 30.
1705, Dec. 5. Massachusetts : dB4 Duty Act.
" An act for the Better Preventing of a Spurious and Mixt Issue,"
etc.
6. On and after May i, 1706, every master importing Negroes
shall enter his number, name, and sex in the impost office, and
insert them in the bill of lading ; he shall pay to the com-
missioner and receiver of the impost $ per head for every
such Negro. Both master and ship are to be security for the
payment of the same.
7. If the master neglect to enter the slaves, he shall forfeit ,8
for each Negro, one-half to go to the informer and one-half to
the government.
8. If any Negro imported shall, within twelve months, be ex-
APPENDIX A. 20$
ported and sold in any other plantation, and a receipt from the
collector there be shown, a drawback of the whole duty will be
allowed. Like drawback will be allowed a purchaser, if any
Negro sold die within six weeks after importation. Mass.
Province Laws, 1705-6, ch. 10.
1708, February. Rhode Island : 3 Duty Act.
No title or text found. Slightly amended by Act of April, 1708 ;
strengthened by Acts of February, 1712, and July 5, 1715 ; pro-
ceeds disposed of by Acts of July, 1715, October, 1717, and
June, 1729. Colonial Records, IV. 34, 131-5, 138, 143, 191-3,
225, 423-4-
1709, Sept. 24. New York : 3 Duty Act.
" An Act for Laying a Duty on the Tonnage of Vessels and Slaves."
A duty of .3 was laid on slaves not imported directly from
their native country. Continued by Act of Oct. 30, 1710.
Acts of Assembly, 1691-1718, pp. 97, 125, 134; Laws of New
York, 1691-1773, p. 83.
1710, Dec. 28. Pennsylvania : 40s. Duty Act.
" An impost Act, laying a duty on Negroes, wine, rum and other
spirits, cyder and vessels." Repealed by order in Council
Feb. 20, 1713. Carey and Bioren, Laws, I. 82 ; Bettle, Notices
of Negro Slavery, in Penn. Hist, Soc. Mem. (1864), I. 415.
1710. Virginia : 5 Duty Act.
" Intended to discourage the importation " of slaves. Title and
text not found. Disallowed (?). Governor Spotswood to the
Lords of Trade, in Va. Hist. Soc. Coll., New Series, I. 52.
1711, July-Aug. New York : Act of 1709 Strengthened.
" An Act for the more effectual putting in Execution an Act of
General Assembly, Intituled, An Act for Laying a Duty on the
Tonnage of Vessels and Slaves." Acts of Assembly, 1691-1718,
P- i34-
1711, December. New York : Bill to Increase Duty.
Bill for laying a further duty on slaves. Passed Assembly; lost
in Council. Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York, V. 293.
1711. Pennsylvania : Testimony of Quakers.
"... the Yearly Meeting of Philadelphia, on a representation from
the Quarterly Meeting of Chester, that the buying and encour-
aging the importation of negroes was still practised by some
of the members of the society, again repeated and enforced
the observance of the advice issued in 1696, and further directed
206 APPENDIX A.
all merchants and factors to write to their correspondents and
discourage their sending any more negroes." Bettle, Notices of
Negro Slavery^ in Penn. Hist. Soc. Mem. (1864), I. 386.
1712, June 7. Pennsylvania : Prohibitive (?) Duty Act.
" A supplementary Act to an act, entituled, An impost act, laying
a duty on Negroes, rum," etc. Disallowed by Great Britain,
1713. Carey and Bioren, Laws, I. 87, 88. Cf. Colonial Records
(1852), II. 553.
1712, June 7. Pennsylvania : Prohibitive Duty Act.
" An act to prevent the Importation of Negroes and Indians into
this Province."
"Whereas Divers Plots and Insurrections have frequently hap-
pened, not only in the Islands, but on the Main Land of
America, by Negroes, which have been carried on so far that
several of the Inhabitants have been thereby barbarously Mur-
thered, an instance whereof we have lately had in our neigh-
boring Colony of New York. And whereas the Importation of
Indian Slaves hath given our Neighboring Indians in this
Province some umbrage of Suspicion and Dis-satisfaction. For
Prevention of all which for the future,
" Be it Enacted . . . , That from and after the Publication of this
Act, upon the Importation of any Negro or Indian, by Land or
Water, into this Province, there shall be paid by the Importer,
Owner or Possessor thereof, the sum of Twenty Pounds per
head, for every Negro or Indian so imported or brought in
(except Negroes directly brought in from the West India Islands
before the first Day of the Month called August next) unto the
proper Officer herein after named, or that shall be appointed
according to the Directions of this Act to receive the same,"
etc. Disallowed by Great Britain, 1713- Laws of Pennsyl-
" vania, collected, etc. (ed. 1714), p. 165; Colonial Records
(1852), II. 553; Burge, Commentaries, I. 737, note; Penn.
Archives, 1. 162.
1713, March 11. New Jersey : 10 Duty Act.
" An Act for laying a Duty on Negro, Indian and Mulatto Slaves,
imported and brought into this Province."
" Be it Enacted . . . , That every Person or Persons that shall here-
after Import or bring in, or cause to be imported or brought
into this Province, any Negro Indian or Mulatto Slave or
Slaves, every such Person or Persons so importing or bringing
APPENDIX A. 207
in, or causing to be imported or brought in, such Slave or
Slaves, shall enter with one of the Collectors of her Majestie's
Customs of this Province, every such Slave or Slaves, within
Twenty Four Hours after such Slave or Slaves is so Imported,
and pay the Sum of Ten Pounds Money as appointed by her
Majesty's Proclamation, for each Slave so imported, or give
sufficient Security that the said Sum of Ten Pounds, Money
aforesaid, shall be well and truly paid within three Months
after such Slave or Slaves are so imported, to the Collector or
his Deputy of the District into which such Slave or Slaves
shall be imported, for the use of her Majesty, her Heirs and
Successors, toward the Support of the Government of this
Province." For seven years; violations incur forfeiture and
sale of slaves at auction ; slaves brought from elsewhere than
Africa to pay ,10, etc. Laws and Acts of New Jersey, 1703-
1717 (ed. 1717), p. 43; N. J. Archives, ist Series, XIII.
5 l6 > S*7> 5 20 > 5 22 > 5 2 3> 5 2 7> 53 2 > 54i-
1713, March 26. Great Britain and Spain : The Assiento.
" The Assiento, or Contract for allowing to the Subjects of Great
Britain the Liberty of importing Negroes into the Spanish
America. Signed by the Catholick King at Madrid, the 26th
Day of March, 1713."
Art. I. "First then to procure, by this means, a mutual and
reciprocal advantage to the sovereigns and subjects of both
crowns, her British majesty does offer and undertake for the
persons, whom she shall name and appoint, That they shall
oblige and charge themselves with the bringing into the West-
Indies of America, belonging to his catholick majesty, in the
space of the said 30 years, to commence on the i st day of May,
1713, and determine on the like day, which will be in the year
1743, viz. 144000 negroes, Piezas de India, of both sexes, and
of all ages, at the rate of 4800 negroes, Piezas de India, in each
of the said 30 years, with this condition, That the persons
who shall go to the West-Indies to take care of the concerns of
the assiento, shall avoid giving any offence, for in such case they
shall be prosecuted and punished in the same manner, as they
would have been in Spain, if the like misdemeanors had been
committed there."
Art. II. Assientists to pay a duty of 33 pieces of eight (Escudos)
for each Negro, which should include all duties.
208 APPENDIX A.
Art. III. Assientists to advance to his Catholic Majesty 200,000
pieces of eight, which should be returned at the end of the first
twenty years, etc. John Almon, Treaties of Peace, Alliance, and
Commerce, between Great-Britain and other Powers (London,
1772), I. 83-107.
1713, July 13. Great Britain and Spain : Treaty of Utrecht.
" Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the most serene and
most potent princess Anne, by the grace of God, Queen of
Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c.
and the most serene and most potent Prince Philip V. the
Catholick King of Spain, concluded at Utrecht, the ^ Day
of July, 1713."
Art. XII. "The Catholick King doth furthermore hereby give
and grant to her Britannick majesty, and to the company of
her subjects appointed for that purpose, as well the subjects
of Spain, as all others, being excluded, the contract for intro-
ducing negroes into several parts of the dominions of his
Catholick Majesty in America, commonly called el Pacto de el
Assiento de Negros, for the space of thirty years successively,
beginning from the first day of the month of May, in the year
1713, with the same conditions on which the French enjoyed
it, or at any time might or ought to enjoy the same, together
with a tract or tracts of Land to be allotted by the said Catho-
lick King, and to be granted to the company aforesaid, com-
monly called la Compania de el Assiento, in some convenient
place on the river of Plata, (no duties or revenues being pay-
able by the said company on that account, during the time of
the abovementioned contract, and no longer) and this settle-
ment of the said society, or those tracts of land, shall be
proper and sufficient for planting, and sowing, and for feeding
cattle for the subsistence of those who are in the service of the
said company, and of their negroes ; and that the said negroes
may be there kept in safety till they are sold ; and moreover,
that the ships belonging to the said company may come close
to land, and be secure from any danger. But it shall always be
lawful for the Catholick King, to appoint an offieer in the said
place or settlement, who may take care that nothing be done
or practised contrary to his royal interests. And all who man-
age the affairs of the said company there, or belong to it, shall
be subject to the inspection of the aforesaid officer, as to all
APPENDIX A. 209
matters relating to the tracts of land abovementioned. But
if any doubts, difficulties, or controversies, should arise between
the said officer and the managers for the said company, they
shall be referred to the determination of the governor of
Buenos Ayres. The Catholick King has been likewise pleased
to grant to the said company, several other extraordinary ad-
vantages, which are more fully and amply explained in the con-
tract of the Assiento, which was made and concluded at Madrid,
the 26th day of the month of March, of this present year 1713.
Which contract, or Assiento de Negros, and all the clauses, con-
ditions, privileges and immunities contained therein, and which
are not contrary to this article, are and shall be deemed, and
taken to be, part of this treaty, in the same manner as if they
had been here inserted word for word." John Almon, Treaties
of Peace, Alliance, and Commerce, between Great-Britain and
other Powers, I. 168-80.
1714, Feb. 18. South Carolina : Duty on American Slaves.
"An Act for laying an additional duty on all Negro Slaves im-
ported into this Province from any part of America." Title
quoted in Act of 1719, 30, q. v.
1714, Dec. 18. South Carolina : Prohibitive Duty.
"An additional Act to an Act entitled 'An Act for the better
Ordering and Governing Negroes and all other Slaves.' "
9. "And whereas, the number of negroes do extremely increase
in this Province, and through the afflicting providence of God,
the white persons do not proportionably multiply, by reason
whereof, the safety of the said Province is greatly endangered ;
for the prevention of which for the future,
" Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all negro
slaves from twelve years old and upwards, imported into this
part of this Province from any part of Africa, shall pay such
additional duties as is hereafter named, that is to say : that
every merchant or other person whatsoever, who shall, six
months after the ratification of this Act, import any negro
slaves as aforesaid, shall, for every such slave, pay unto the
public receiver for the time being, (within thirty days after such
importation,) the sum of two pounds current money of this
Province." Cooper, Statutes, VII. 365.
17.15, Feb. 18. South Carolina : Duty on American Negroes.
" An additional Act to an act entitled an act for raising the sum of
210 APPENDIX A.
2000, of and from the estates real and personal of the in-
habitants of this Province, ratified in open Assembly the i&th
day of December, 1714; and for laying an additional duty on
all Negroe slaves imported into this Province from any part of
America." Title only given. Grimke', Public Laws, p. xvi,
No. 362.
1715, May 28. Pennsylvania : 5 Duty Act.
"An Act for laying a Duty on Negroes imported into this
province." Disallowed by Great Britain, 1719. Acts and
Laws of Pennsylvania, 1715, p. 270 ; Colonial Records (1852),
III. 75-6; Chalmers, Opinions, II. 118.
1715, June 3. Maryland : 20s. Duty Act.
" An Act laying an Imposition on Negroes . . . ; and also on
Irish Servants, to prevent the importing too great a Number
of Irish Papists into this Province." Supplemented April 23,
1 735, and July 25, 1754. Compleat Collection of the Laws of
Maryland (ed. 1727), p. 157 ; Bacon, Laws, 1715, ch. xxxvi.
8 ; 1735, c h- v '- J ~3 > Acts of Assembly, 1754, p. 10.
1716, June 30. South Carolina : 3 Duty Act.
" An Act for laying an Imposition on Liquors, Goods and Merchan-
dizes, Imported into and Exported out of this Province, for the
raising of a Fund of Money towards the defraying the publick
charges and expences of the Government." A duty of ^3 was
laid on African slaves, and ^30 on American slaves. Cooper,
Statutes, II. 649.
1716. New York : 5 oz. and 10 oz. plate Duty Act.
" An Act to Oblige all Vessels Trading into this Colony (except
such as are therein excepted) to pay a certain Duty ; and for
the further Explanation and rendring more Effectual certain
Clauses in an Act of General Assembly' of this Colony, Intit-
uled, An Act by which a Duty is laid on Negroes, and other
Slaves, imported into this Colony." The act referred to is not
to be found. Acts of Assembly, 1691-1718, p. 224.
1717, June 8. Maryland : Additional 20s. Duty Act.
" An Act for laying an Additional Duty of Twenty Shillings Current
Money per Poll on all Irish Servants, . . . also, the Addi-
tional Duty of Twenty Shillings Current Money per Poll on all
Negroes, for raising a Fund for the Use of Publick Schools,"
etc. Continued by Act of 1 728. Compleat Collection of the
Laws of Maryland (ed. 1727), p. 191; Bacon, Laws, 1728,
ch. viii.
APPENDIX A. 211
1717, Dec. 11. South Carolina : Prohibitive Duty.
" A further additional Act to an Act entitled An Act for the better
ordering and governing of Negroes and all other Slaves ; and
to an additional Act to an Act entitled An Act for the better
ordering and governing of Negroes and all other Slaves."
3. " And whereas, the great importation of negroes to this
Province, in proportion to the white inhabitants of the same,
whereby the future safety of this Province will be greatly
endangered ; for the prevention whereof,
" Be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all negro slaves
of any age or condition whatsoever, imported or otherwise
brought into this Province, from any part of the world, shall
pay such additional duties as is hereafter named, that is to
say : that every merchant or other person whatsoever, who
shall, eighteen months after the ratification of this Act, import
any negro slave as aforesaid, shall, for every such slave, pay
unto the public receiver for the time being, at the time of each
importation, over and above all the duties already charged on
negroes, by any law in force in this Province, the additional
sum of forty pounds current money of this Province," etc.
4. This section on duties to be in force for four years after
ratification, and thence to the end of the next session of the
General Assembly. Cooper, Statutes, VII. 368.
1718, Feb. 22. Pennsylvania : Duty Act.
" An Act for continuing a duty on Negroes brought into this
province." Carey and Bioren, Laws, I. 1 18.
1719, March 20. South Carolina : 10 Duty Act.
" An Act for laying an Imposition on Negroes, Liquors, and other
Goods and Merchandizes, imported, and exported out of this
Province, for the raising of a Fund of Money towards the de-
fraying the Publick Charges and Expences of this Government ;
as also to Repeal several Duty Acts, and Clauses and Paragraphs
of Acts, as is herein mentioned." This repeals former duty
acts (e. g. that of 1714), and lays a duty of 10 on African slaves,
and ^30 on American slaves. Cooper, Statutes, III. 56.
1721, Sept. 21. South Carolina : 10 Duty Act.
" An Act for granting to His Majesty a Duty and Imposition on
Negroes, Liquors, and other Goods and Merchandize, im-
ported into and exported out of this Province." This was a
continuation of the Act of 1719. Ibid., III. 159.
212 APPENDIX A.
1722, Feb. 23. South Carolina : 10 Duty Act.
" An Act for Granting to His Majesty a Duty and Imposition on
Negroes, Liquors, and other Goods and Merchandizes, for the
use of the Publick of this Province."
i. "... on all negro slaves imported from Africa directly, or any
other place whatsoever, Spanish negroes excepted, if above ten
years of age, ten pounds ; on all negroes under ten years of
age, (sucking children excepted) five pounds," etc.
3. " And whereas, it has proved to the detriment of some of the
inhabitants of this Province, who have purchased negroes
imported here from the Colonies of America, that they were
either transported thence by the Courts of justice, or sent off
by private persons for their ill behaviour and misdemeanours,
to prevent which for the future,
"Be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all negroes im-
ported in this Province from any part of America, after the
ratification of this Act, above ten years of age, shall pay unto
the Publick Receiver as a duty, the sum of fifty pounds, and
all such negroes under the age of ten years, (sucking children
excepted) the sum of five pounds of like current money,
unless the owner or agent shall produce a testimonial under
the hand and seal of any Notary Publick of the Colonies or
plantations from whence such negroes came last, before whom
it was proved upon oath, that the same are new negroes, and
have not been six months on shoar in any part of America,"
etc.
4. " And whereas, the importation of Spanish Indians, mustees,
negroes, and mulattoes, may be of dangerous consequence
by inticing the slaves belonging to the inhabitants of this
Province to desert with them to the Spanish settlements
near us,
" Be it therefore enadtd That all such Spanish negroes, Indians,
mustees, or mulattoes, so imported into this Province, shall
pay unto the Publick Receiver, for the use of this Province, a
duty of one hundred and fifty pounds, current money of this
Province."
19. Rebate of three-fourths of the duty allowed in case of re-
exportation in six months.
31. Act of 1721 repealed.
36. This act to continue in force for three years, and thence to
APPENDIX A. 213
the end of the next session of the General Assembly, and no
longer. Cooper, Statutes, III. 193.
1722, May 12. Pennsylvania : Duty Act.
" An Act for laying a duty on Negroes imported into this province."
Carey and Bioren, Laws, I. 165.
1723, May. Virginia : Duty Act.
" An Act for laying a Duty on Liquors and Slaves." Title only ;
repealed by proclamation Oct. 27, 1724. Hening, Statutes,
IV. 118.
1723, June 18. Rhode Island : Back Duties Collected.
Resolve appointing the attorney-general to collect back duties on
Negroes. Colonial Records, IV. 330.
1726, March 5. Pennsylvania : 10 Duty Act.
" An Act for the better regulating of Negroes in this province."
Carey and Bioren, Laws, I. 214; Bettle, Notices of Negro
Slavery, in Penn. Hist. Soc. Mem. (1864), I. 388.
1726, March 5. Pennsylvania : Duty Act.
" An Act for laying a duty on Negroes imported into this province."
Carey and Bioren, Laws, I. 213.
1727, February. Virginia : Prohibitive Duty Act (?).
" An Act for laying a Duty on Slaves imported ; and for appointing
a Treasurer." Title only found; the duty was probably pro-
hibitive ; it was enacted with a suspending clause, and was
not assented to by the king. Hening, Statutes, IV. 182.
1728, Aug. 31. New York : 2 and 4 Duty Act.
" An Act to repeal some Parts and to continue and enforce other
Parts of the Act therein mentioned, and for granting several
Duties to His Majesty, for supporting His Government in the
Colony of New York" from Sept. i, 1728, to Sept. i, 1733.
Same duty continued by Act of 1732. Laws of New York,
1691-1773, pp. 148, 171 ; Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York, VI.
32, 33. 34- 37. 38.
1728, Sept. 14. Massachusetts : Act of 1705 Strengthened.
" An Act more effectually to secure the Duty on the Importation
of Negros." For seven years ; substantially the same law re-
enacted Jan. 26, 1738, for ten years. Mass. Province Laws,
1728-9, ch. 16 ; 1738-9, ch. 27.
1729, May 10. Pennsylvania : 40s. Duty Act.
" An Act for laying a Duty on Negroes imported into this Province."
Laws of Pennsylvania (ed. 1742), p. 354, ch. 287.
214 APPENDIX A.
1732, May. Rhode Island : Repeal of Act of 1712.
"Whereas, there was an act made and passed by the General
Assembly, at their session, held at Newport, the 27th day of
February, 1711 [O. S., N. S. = 1712], entitled 'An Act for
laying a duty on negro slaves that shall be imported into
this colony,' and this Assembly being directed by His
Majesty's instructions to repeal the same;
" Therefore, be it enacted by the General Assembly . . . that the
said act ... be, and it is hereby repealed, made null and
void, and of none effect for the future." If this is the act
mentioned under Act of 1708, the title is wrongly cited; if not,
the act is lost. Colonial Records, IV. 471.
1732, May. Virginia : Five per cent Duty Act.
" An Act for laying a Duty upon Slaves, to be paid by the Buyers."
For four years ; continued and slightly amended by Acts of
J 734> i73 6 > I 73 8 > 1742, and 1745; revived February, 1752,
and continued by Acts of November, 1753, February, 1759,
November, 1766, and 1769; revived (or continued ?) by Act
of February, 1772, until 1778. Hening, Statutes, IV. 317,
394, 469; V. 28, 160, 318; VI. 217,353; VII. 281; VIII.
i9> 33 6 > 53-
1734, November. New York : Duty Act.
"An act to lay a duty on Negroes & a tax on the Slaves
therein mentioned during the time and for the uses within
mentioned." The tax was is. yearly per slave. Doc. rel. Col.
Hist. New York, VI. 38.
1734, Nov. 28. New York : 2 and 4 (?) Duty Act.
" An Act to lay a Duty on the Goods, and a Tax on the Slaves
therein mentioned, during the Time, and for the Uses men-
tioned in the same." Possibly there were two acts this year.
Laws of New York, 1691-1773, p. 186 ; Doc. rel. Col. Hist.
New York, VI. 27.
1735. Georgia : Prohibitive Act.
An " act for rendering the colony of Georgia more defensible by
prohibiting the importation and use of black slaves or negroes
into the same." W. B. Stevens, History of Georgia, I. 311 ;
[B. Martyn], Account of the Progress of Georgia (1741),
pp. 9-10 ; Prince Hoare, Memoirs of Granville Sharp (Lon-
don, 1820), p. 157.
APPENDIX A. 215
1740, April 5. South Carolina : 100 Prohibitive Duty Act.
" An Act for the better strengthening of this Province, by granting
to His Majesty certain taxes and impositions on the purchasers
of Negroes imported," etc. The duty on slaves from Amer-
ica was ^150. Continued to 1744. Cooper, Statutes^ III.
556. Cf. Abstract Evidence on Slave-Trade before Committee
of House of Commons, 1790-91 (London, 1791), p. 150.
1740, May. Virginia : Additional Five per cent Duty Act.
" An Act, for laying an additional Duty upon Slaves, to be paid by
the Buyer, for encouraging persons to enlist in his Majesty's
service : And for preventing desertion." To continue until
July i, 1744. Hening, Statutes, V. 92.
1751, June 14. South Carolina : White Servants Encouraged.
" An Act for the better strengthening of this Province, by granting
to His Majesty certain Taxes and Impositions on the pur-
chasers of Negroes and other slaves imported, and for appro-
priating the same to the uses therein mentioned, and for grant-
ing to His Majesty a duty on Liquors and other Goods and
Merchandize, for the uses therein mentioned, and for exempt-
ing the purchasers of Negroes and other slaves imported from
payment of the Tax, and the Liquors and other Goods and
Merchandize from the duties imposed by any former Act or
Acts of the General Assembly of this Province."
" Whereas, the best way to prevent the mischiefs that may be
attended by the great importation of negroes into this Prov-
ince, will be to establish a method by which such importation
should be made a necessary means of introducing a propor-
tionable number of white inhabitants into the same ; therefore
for the effectual raising and appropriating a fund sufficient for
the better settling of this Province with white inhabitants, we,
his Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the House of
Assembly now met in General Assembly, do cheerfully give
and grant unto the King's most excellent Majesty, his heirs
and successors, the several taxes and impositions hereinafter
mentioned, for the uses and to be raised, appropriated, paid
and applied as is hereinafter directed and appointed, and not
otherwise, and do humbly pray his most sacred Majesty that it
may be enacted,
i. " And be it enacted, by his Excellency James Glen, Esquire,
Governor in chief and Captain General in and over the Prov-
2l6 APPENDIX A.
ince of South Carolina, by and with the advice and consent of
his Majesty's honorable Council, and the House of Assembly
of the said Province, and by the authority of the same, That
from and immediately after the passing of this Act, there shall
be imposed on and paid by all and every the inhabitants of
this Province, and other person and persons whosoever, first
purchasing any negro or other slave, hereafter to be im-
ported, a certain tax or sum of ten pounds current money for
every such negro and other slave of the height of four feet
two inches and upwards; and for every one under that
height, and above three feet two inches, the sum of five pounds
like money ; and for all under three feet two inches, (sucking
children excepted) two pounds and ten shillings like money,
which every such inhabitant of this Province, and other person
and persons whosoever shall so purchase or buy as aforesaid,
which said sums of ten pounds and five pounds and two
pounds and ten shillings respectively, shall be paid by such
purchaser for every such slave, at the time of his, her or their
purchasing of the same, to the public treasurer of this Province
for the time being, for the uses hereinafter mentioned, set down
and appointed, under pain of forfeiting all and every such
negroes and slaves, for which the said taxes or impositions
shall not be paid, pursuant to the directions of this Act, to be
sued for, recovered and applied in the manner hereinafter
directed."
6. " And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That
the said tax hereby imposed on negroes and other slaves, paid
or to be paid by or on the behalf of the purchasers as aforesaid,
by virtue of this Act, shall be applied and appropriated as fol-
loweth, and to no other use, or in any other manner whatever,
(that is to say) that three-fifth parts (the whole into five equal
parts to be divided) of the net sum arising by the said tax, for
and during the term of five years from the time of passing this
Act, be applied and the same is hereby applied for payment of
the sum of six pounds proclamation money to every poor for-
eign protestant whatever from Europe, or other poor protestant
(his Majesty's subject) who shall produce a certificate under
the seal of any corporation, or a certificate under the hands of
the minister and church-wardens of any parish, or the minister
and elders of any church, meeting or congregation in Great
APPENDIX A. 217
Britain or Ireland, of the good character of such poor protes-
tant, above the age of twelve and under the age of fifty years,
and for payment of the sum of three pounds like money, to
every such poor protestant under the age of twelve and above
the age of two years ; who shall come into this Province within
the first three years of the said term of five years, and settle on
any part of the southern frontier lying between Pon Pon and
Savannah rivers, or in the central parts of this Province," etc.
For the last two years the bounty is 4 and 2.
7. After the expiration of this term of five years, the sum -is
appropriated to the protestants settling anywhere in the State,
and the bounty is 2 13 s. ^d., and i 6s. &d.
8. One other fifth of the tax is appropriated to survey lands,
and the remaining fifth as a bounty for ship-building, and for
encouraging the settlement of ship-builders.
14. Rebate of three-fourths of the tax allowed in case of re-
exportation of the slaves in six months.
1 6. " And be it further enacted^ the authority aforesaid, That
every person or persons who after the passing this Act shall
purchase any slave or slaves which shall be brought or im-
ported into this Province, either by land or water, from any of
his Majesty's plantations or colonies in America, that have
been in any such colony or plantation for the space of six
months ; and if such slave or slaves have not been so long in
such colony or plantation, the importer shall be obliged to
make oath or produce a proper certificate thereof, or otherwise
every such importer shall pay a further tax or imposition of fifty
pounds, over and besides the tax hereby imposed for every such
slave which he or they shall purchase as aforesaid." Actual
settlers bringing slaves are excepted.
41. This act to continue in force ten years from its passage, and
thence to the end of the next session of the General Assembly,
and no longer. Cooper, Statutes, III. 739.
1753, Dec. 12. New York : 5 oz. and 10 oz. plate Duty Act.
" An Act for granting to His Majesty the several Duties and Im-
positions, on Goods, Wares and Merchandizes imported into
this Colony, therein mentioned." Annually continued until
1767, or perhaps until 1774. Laws of New York, 1752-62,
p. 21, ch. xxvii. ; Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York, VII. 907 ;
VIII. 452.
218 APPENDIX A.
1754, February. Virginia : Additional Five per cent Duty Act.
"An Act for the encouragement and protection of the settlers
upon the waters of the Mississippi." For three years ; con-
tinued in 1755 and 1763; revived in 1772, and continued
until 1778. Hening, Statutes, VI. 417, 468; VII. 639;
VIII. 530.
1754, July 25. Maryland : Additional 10s. Duty Act.
"An Act for his Majesty's Service." Bacon, Laws, 1754, ch. ix.
1755, May. Virginia : Additional Ten per cent Duty Act.
" An act to explain an act, intituled, An act for raising the sum of
twenty thousand pounds, for the protection of his majesty's
subjects, against the insults and encroachments of the French ;
and for other purposes therein mentioned."
10. "... from and after the passing of this act, there shall be
levied and paid to our sovereign lord the king, his heirs and
successors, for all slaves imported, or brought into this colony
and dominion for sale, either by land or water, from any part
[port] or place whatsoever, by the buyer, or purchaser, after
the rate of ten per centum, on the amount of each respective
purchase, over and above the several duties already laid on
slaves, imported as aforesaid, by an act or acts of Assembly,
now subsisting,- and also over and above the duty laid by " the
Act of 1754. Repealed by Act of May, 1760, n, "... inas-
much as the same prevents the importation of slaves, and
thereby lessens the fund arising from the duties upon slaves."
Hening, Statutes, VI. 461 ; VII. 363. Cf. Dinwiddie Papers,
II. 86.
1756, March 22. Maryland : Additional 20s. Duty Act.
" An Act for granting a Supply of Forty Thousand Pounds, for his
Majesty's Service," etc. For five years. Bacon, Laws, 1756,
ch. v.
1757, April. Virginia : Additional Ten per cent Duty Act.
" An Act for granting an aid to his majesty for the better pro-
tection of this colony, and for other purposes therein men-
tioned."
22. "... from and after the ninth day of July, one thou-
sand seven hundred and fifty-eight, during the term of seven
years, there shall be paid for all slaves imported into this col-
ony, for sale, either by land or water, from any port or place
whatsoever, by the buyer or purchaser thereof, after the rate of
APPENDIX A. 219
ten per centum on the amount of each respective purchase,
over and above the several duties already laid upon slaves
imported, as aforesaid, by any act or acts of Assembly now sub-
sisting in this colony," etc. Repealed by Act of March, 1761,
6, as being " found very inconvenient." Hening, Statutes^
VII. 69, 383.
1759, November. Virginia : Twenty per cent Duty Act.
"An Act to oblige the persons bringing slaves into this colony
from Maryland, Carolina, and the West-Indies, for their own
use, to pay a duty."
i. "... from and after the passing of this act, there shall be paid
... for all slaves imported or brought into this colony and
dominion from Maryland, North-Carolina, or any other place
in America, by the owner or importer thereof, after the rate of
twenty per centum on the amount of each respective pur-
chase," etc. This act to continue until April 20, 1767; con-
tinued in 1766 and 1769, until 1773 ; altered by Act of 1772,
q. -v. Ibid., VII. 338 ; VIII. 191, 336.
1760, South Carolina : Total Prohibition.
Text not found ; act disallowed by Great Britain. Cf. Burge,
Commentaries^ I. 737, note ; W. B. Stevens, History of Georgia^
I. 286.
1761, March 14. Pennsylvania : 10 Duty Act.
" An Act for laying a duty on Negroes and Mulattoe slaves, im-
ported into this province." Continued in 1 768 ; repealed (or
disallowed) in 1780. Carey and Bioren, Laws, I. 371, 451 ;
Acts of Assembly (ed. 1782), p. 149 ; Colonial Records (1852),
VIII. 576.
1761, April 22. Pennsylvania : Prohibitive Duty Act.
" A Supplement to an act, entituled An Act for laying a duty on
Negroes and Mulattoe slaves, imported into this province."
Continued in 1768. Carey and Bioren, Laws, I. 371, 451;
Bettle, Notices of Negro Slavery, in Penn. Hist. Soc. Mem.
(1864), I. 388-9.
1763, Nov. 26. Maryland : Additional 2 Duty Act.
"An Act for imposing an additional Duty of Two Pounds per
Poll on all Negroes Imported into this Province."
i. All persons importing Negroes by land or water into this
province, shall at the time of entry pay to the naval officer the
sum of two pounds, current money, over and above the duties
220 APPENDIX A.
now payable by law, for every Negro so imported or brought
in, on forfeiture of 10 current money for every Negro so
brought in and not paid for. One half of the penalty is to go
to the informer, the other half to the use of the county schools.
The duty shall be collected, accounted for, and paid by the
naval officers, in the same manner as former duties on
Negroes.
2. But persons removing from any other of his Majesty's domin-
ions in order to settle and reside within this province, may
import their slaves for carrying on their proper occupations at
the time of removal, duty free.
3. Importers of Negroes, exporting the same within two months
of the time of their importation, on application to the naval
officer shall be paid the aforesaid duty. Bacon, Laws, 1 763,
ch. xxviii.
1763 (circa). New Jersey : Prohibitive Duty Act.
" An Act for laying a duty on Negroes and Mulatto Slaves Im-
ported into this Province." Disallowed (?) by Great Britain.
N.J. Archives, IX. 345-6, 3 8 3> 447, 45 8 -
1764, Aug. 25. South Carolina : Additional 100 Duty Act.
" An Act for laying an additional duty upon all Negroes hereafter
to be imported into this Province, for the time therein men-
tioned, to be paid by the first purchasers of such Negroes."
Cooper, Statutes, IV. 187.
1766, November. Virginia : Proposed Duty Act.
" An act for laying an additional duty upon slaves imported into
this colony."
i. "... from and after the passing of this act there shall be levied
and paid ... for all slaves imported or brought into this
colony for sale, either by land or water from any port or place
whatsoever, by the buyer or purchaser, after the rate of ten per
centum on the amount of each respective purchase over and
above the several duties already laid upon slaves imported or
brought into this colony as aforesaid," etc. To be suspended
until the king's consent is given, and then to continue seven
years. The same act was passed again in 1 769. Hening,
Statutes, VIII. 237, 337.
1766. Rhode Island : Restrictive Measure (? ).
Title and text not found. Cf. Digest of 1798, under "Slave
Trade ; " Public Laws of Rhode Island (revision of 1 82 2),
p. 441.
APPENDIX A. 221
1768, Feb. 20. Pennsylvania : Re-enactment of Acts of 1761.
Titles only found. Dallas, Laws, I. 490 ; Colonial Records (1852),
IX. 472, 637, 641.
1769, Nov. 16. New Jersey : dB!5 Duty Act.
" An Act for laying a Duty on the Purchasers of Slaves imported
into this Colony."
" Whereas Duties on the Importation of Negroes in several of the
neighbouring Colonies hath, on Experience, been found benefi-
cial in the Introduction of sober, industrious Foreigners, to
settle under His Majesty's Allegiance, and the promoting a
Spirit of Industry among the Inhabitants in general : In order
therefore to promote the same good Designs in this Govern-
ment, and that such as choose to purchase Slaves may con-
tribute some equitable Proportion of the publick Burdens," etc.
A duty of "Fifteen Pounds, Proclamation Money, is laid."
Acts of Assembly (Allinson, 1776), p. 315.
1769 (circa). Connecticut: Importation Prohibited (?).
Title and text not found. "Whereas, the increase of slaves is
injurious to the poor, and inconvenient, therefore," etc.
Fowler, Historical Status of the Negro in Connecticut, in Local
Law, etc., p. 125.
1770, Rhode Island : Bill to Prohibit Importation.
Bill to prohibit importation of slaves fails. Arnold, History of
Rhode Island (1859), II. 304, 321, 337.
1771, April 12. Massachusetts : Bill to Prevent Importation.
Bill passes both houses and fails of Governor Hutchinson's assent.
House Journal, pp. 211, 215, 219, 228, 234, 236, 240, 242-3.
1771. Maryland : Additional 5 Duty Act.
" An Act for imposing a further additional duty of five pounds cur-
rent money per poll on all negroes imported into this province."
For seven years. Laws of Maryland since 1763 : 1771* ch.
vii. ; cf. 1 7 73, sess. Nov.-Dec., ch. xiv.
1772, April 1. Virginia : Address to the King.
"... The importation of slaves into the colonies from the
coast of Africa hath long been considered as a trade of great
inhumanity, and under its present encouragement, we have too
much reason to fear will endanger the -very existence of your
majesty's American dominions. . . .
" Deeply impressed with these sentiments, we most humbly beseech
your majesty to remove all those restraints on your majesty's
222 APPENDIX A.
governors of this colony, which inhibit their assenting to such
laws as might check so very pernicious a commerce" Journals
of the House of Burgesses, p. 131 ; quoted in Tucker, Disser-
tation on Slavery (repr. 1861), p. 43.
1773, Feb. 26. Pennsylvania : Additional 10 Duty Act.
"An Act for making perpetual the act . . . [of 1761] . . . and
laying an additional duty on the said slaves." Dallas, Laws, I.
671 ; Acts of Assembly (ed. 1782), p. 149.
1774, March, June. Massachusetts : Bills to Prohibit Importation.
Two bills designed to prohibit the importation of slaves fail of the
governor's assent. First bill : General Court Records, XXX.
248, 264 ; Mass. Archives, Domestic Relations, 1643-1774, IX.
457. Second bill : General Court Records, XXX. 308, 322.
1774, June. Rhode Island: Importation Restricted.
" An Act prohibiting the importation of Negroes into this Colony."
" Whereas, the inhabitants of America are generally engaged in the
preservation of their own rights and liberties, among which, that
of personal freedom must be considered as the greatest; as
those who are desirous of enjoying all the advantages of liberty
themselves, should be willing to extend personal liberty to
others ;
"Therefore, be it enacted . . . that for the future, no negro
or mulatto slave shall be brought into this colony ; and in case
any slave shall hereafter be brought in, he or she shall be, and
are hereby, rendered immediately free, so far as respects per-
sonal freedom, and the enjoyment of private property, in the
same manner as the native Indians."
Provided that the slaves of settlers and travellers be excepted.
"Provided, also, that nothing in this act shall extend, or be
deemed to extend, to any negro or mulatto slave brought
from the coast of Africa, into the West Indies, on board any
vessel belonging to this colony, and which negro or mulatto
slave could not be disposed of in the West Indies, but shall be
brought into this colony.
"Provided, that the owner of such negro or mulatto slave give
bond to the general treasurer of the said colony, within ten
days after such arrival in the sum of ;ioo, lawful money, for
each and every such negro or mulatto slave so brought in,
that such negro or mulatto slave shall be exported out of the
colony, within one year from the date of such bond ; if such
negro or mulatto be alive, and in a condition to be removed."
APPENDIX A. 223
"Provided, also, that nothing in this act shall extend, or be
deemed to extend, to any negro or mulatto slave that may
be on board any vessel belonging to this colony, now at sea, in
her present voyage." Heavy penalties are laid for bringing in
Negroes in order to free them. Colonial Records, VII. 251-3.
[i 784, February : " It is voted and resolved, that the whole of
the clause contained in an act of this Assembly, passed at
June session, A. D. 1774, permitting slaves brought from the
coast of Africa into the West Indies, on board any vessel be-
longing to this (then colony, now) state, and who could not be
disposed of in the West Indies, &c., be, and the same is, hereby
repealed." Colonial Records, X. 8.]
1774, October. Connecticut : Importation Prohibited.
" An Act for prohibiting the Importation of Indian, Negro or
Molatto Slaves."
"... no indian, negro or molatto Slave shall at any time here-
after be brought or imported into this Colony, by sea or land,
from any place or places whatsoever, to be disposed of, left or
sold within this Colony." This was re-enacted in the revision
of 1 784, and slaves born after 1 784 were ordered to be eman-
cipated at the age of twenty-five. Colonial Records, XIV. 329 \
Acts and Laws of Connecticut (ed. 1784), pp. 233-4.
1774. New Jersey : Proposed Prohibitive Duty.
" A Bill for laying a Duty on Indian, Negroe and Molatto Slaves,
imported into this Colony." Passed the Assembly, and was re-
jected by the Council as " plainly " intending " an intire Prohi-
bition," etc. N.J. Archives, ist Series, VI. 222.
1775, March 27. Delaware : Bill to Prohibit Importation.
Passed the Assembly and was vetoed by the governor. Force,
American Archives, 4th Series, II. 128-9.
1775, Nov. 23. Virginia : On Lord Dunmore's Proclamation.
Williamsburg Convention to the public : " Our Assemblies have
repeatedly passed acts, laying heavy duties upon imported
Negroes, by which they meant altogether to prevent the horrid
traffick; but their humane intentions have been as often
frustrated by the cruelty and covetousness of a set of English
merchants." . . . The Americans would, if possible, " not only
prevent any more Negroes from losing their freedom, but
restore it to such as have already unhappily lost it." This is
evidently addressed in part to Negroes, to keep them from
joining the British. Ibid., III. 1387.
224 APPENDIX A.
1776, June 29. Virginia : Preamble to Frame of Government.
Blame for the slave-trade thrown on the king. See above, page 13.
Hening, Statutes, IX. 112-3.
1776, Aug.-Sept. Delaware : Constitution.
" The Constitution or system of Government agreed to and re-
solved upon by the Representatives in full Convention of the
Delaware State," etc.
26. " No person hereafter imported into this State from Africa
ought to be held in slavery on any pretence whatever; and
no Negro, Indian, or Mulatto slave ought to be brought into
this State, for sale, from any part of the world." Force, Ameri-
can Archives, 5th Series, I. 1174-9.
1777, July 2. Vermont : Slavery Condemned.
The first Constitution declares slavery a violation of " natural, in-
herent and unalienable rights." Vermont State Papers, 1779-
86, p. 244.
1777. Maryland . Negro Duty Maintained
"An Act concerning duties."
"... no duties imposed by act of assembly on any article or thing
imported into or exported out of this state (except duties
imposed on the importation of negroes), shall be taken or
received within two years from the end of the present session
of the general assembly." Laws of Maryland since 1763 :
1777, sess. Feb.- Apr., ch. xviii.
1778, Sept. 7. Pennsylvania: Act to Collect Back Duties.
" An Act for the recovery of the duties on Negroes and Mulattoe
slaves, which on the fourth day of July, one thousand seven
hundred and seventy- six, were due to this state," etc. Dallas,
Laws, I. 782.
1778, October. Virginia : Importation Prohibited.
" An act for preventing the farther importation of Slaves.
i. " For preventing the farther importation of slaves into this
commonwealth, Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That
from and after the passing of this act no slave or slaves shall
hereafter be imported into this commonwealth by sea or land,
nor shall any slaves so imported be sold or bought by any
person whatsoever.
2. " Every person hereafter importing slaves into this common-
wealth contrary to this act shall forfeit and pay the sum of
one thousand pounds for every slave so imported, and every
person selling or buying any such slaves shall in like manner
APPENDIX A. 22$
forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred pounds for every slave
so sold or bought," etc.
3. " And be it farther enacted. That every slave imported into
this commonwealth, contrary to the true intent and meaning
of this act, shall, upon such importation become free."
4. Exceptions are bona fide settlers with slaves not imported
later than Nov. i, 1778, nor intended to be sold ; and transient
travellers. Re-enacted in substance in the revision of October,
1785. For a temporary exception to this act, as concerns
citizens of Georgia and South Carolina during the war, see Act
of May, 1780. Hening, Statutes, IX. 471 ; X. 307; XII. 182.
1779, October. Rhode Island : Slave-Trade Restricted.
" An Act prohibiting slaves being sold out of the state, against
their consent" Title only found. Colonial Records, VIII.
618 ; Arnold, History of Rhode Island, II. 449.
1779, Vermont : Importation Prohibited.
"An Act for securing the general privileges of the people," etc.
The act abolished slavery. Vermont State Papers, 1779-86,
p. 287.
1780. Massachusetts : Slavery Abolished.
Passage in the Constitution which was held by the courts to abolish
slavery : " Art. I. All men are born free and equal, and have
certain, natural, essential, and unalienable rights ; among which
may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their
lives and liberties," etc. Constitution of Massachusetts, Part I.,
Art. i ; prefixed to Perpetual Laws (1789).
1780, March 1. Pennsylvania : Slavery Abolished.
"An Act for the gradual abolition of slavery."
5. All slaves to be registered before Nov. i.
10. None but slaves "registered as aforesaid, shall, at any time
hereafter, be deemed, adjudged, or holden, within the territories
of this commonwealth, as slaves or servants for life, but as free
men and free women ; except the domestic slaves attending
upon Delegates in Congress from the other American States,"
and those of travellers not remaining over six months, foreign
ministers, etc., " provided such domestic slaves be not aliened
or sold to any inhabitant," etc.
ii. Fugitive slaves from other states may be taken back.
14. Former duty acts, etc., repealed. Dallas, Laws, I. 838.
Cf. Penn. Archives, VII. 79 ; VIII. 720.
'5
226 APPENDIX A.
1783, April. Confederation : Slave-Trade in Treaty of 1783.
"To the earnest wish of Jay that British ships should have no
right under the convention to carry into the states any
slaves from any part of the world, it being the intention o
the United States entirely to prohibit their importation, Fox
answered promptly : ' If that be their policy, it never can be
competent to us to dispute with them their own regulations.' "
Fox to Hartley, June 10, 1783, in Bancroft, History of the Con-
stitution, I. 61. Cf. Sparks, Diplomatic Correspondence ', X. 154,
June, 1783.
1783. Maryland : Importation Prohibited.
" An Act to prohibit the bringing slaves into this state."
"... it shall not be lawful, after the passing this act, to import or
bring into this state, by land or water, any negro, mulatto,
or other slave, for sale, or to reside within this state ; and
any person brought into this state as a slave contrary to this
act, if a slave before, shall thereupon immediately cease to be
a slave, and shall be free ; provided that this act shall not
prohibit any person, being a citizen of some one of the
United States, coming into this state, with a bona fide inten-
tion of settling therein, and who shall actually reside within
this state for- one year at least, ... to import or bring in
any slave or slaves which before belonged to such person,
and which slave or slaves had been an inhabitant of some
one of the United States, for the space of three whole years
next preceding such importation," etc. Laws of Maryland
since 1 763 : 1 783, sess. April-June, ch. xxiii.
1783, Aug. 13. South Carolina : 53 and 20 Duty Act.
"An Act for levying and collecting certain duties and imposts
therein mentioned, in aid of the public revenue." Cooper,
Statutes, IV. 576.
1784, February. Rhode Island : Manumission.
" An Act authorizing the manumission of negroes, mulattoes, and
others, and for the gradual abolition of slavery." Persons born
after March, 1 784, to be free. Bill framed pursuant to a peti-
tion of Quakers. Colonial Records, X. 7-8 ; Arnold, History
of Rhode Island, II. 503.
1784, March 26. South Carolina : 3 and 5 Duty Act.
" An Act for levying and collecting certain Duties," etc. Cooper,
Statutes, IV. 607.
APPENDIX A. 227
1785, April 12. New York : Partial Prohibition.
"An Act granting a bounty on hemp to be raised within this
State, and imposing an additional duty on sundry articles of
merchandise, and for other purposes therein mentioned."
"... And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid. That
if any negro or other person to be imported or brought into
this State from any of the United States or from any other
place or country after the first day of June next, shall be sold
as a slave or slaves within this State, the seller or his or her
factor or agent, shall be deemed guilty of a public offence,
and shall for every such offence forfeit the sum of one hun-
dred pounds lawful money of New York, to be recovered by
any person," etc.
" And be it further enacted . . . That every such person im-
ported or brought into this State and sold contrary to the true
intent and meaning of this act shall be freed." Laws of
New York, 1785-88 (ed. 1886), pp. 120-21.
1785. Rhode Island : Restrictive Measure (?).
Title and text not found. Cf. Public Laws of Rhode Island (re-
vision of 1822), p. 441.
1786, March 2. New Jersey : Importation Prohibited.
" An Act to prevent the importation of Slaves into the State of
New Jersey, and to authorize the Manumission of them under
certain restrictions, and to prevent the Abuse of Slaves."
"Whereas the Principles of Justice and Humanity require that
the barbarous Custom of bringing the unoffending African
from his native Country and Connections into a State of
Slavery ought to be discountenanced, and as soon as possible
prevented ; and sound Policy also requires, in order to afford
ample Support to such of the Community as depend upon
their Labour for their daily Subsistence, that the Importation
of Slaves into this State from any other State or Country what-
soever, ought to be prohibited under certain Restrictions ; and
that such as are under Servitude in the State ought to be pro-
tected by Law from those Exercises of wanton Cruelty too
often practiced upon them ; and that every unnecessary Ob-
struction in the Way of freeing Slaves should be removed;
therefore,
i. " JBe it Enacted by the Council and General Assembly of
this State, and it is hereby Enacted by the Authority of the
228 APPENDIX A.
same, That from and after the Publication of this Act, it shall
not be* lawful for any Person or Persons whatsoever to bring
into this State, either for Sale or for Servitude, any Negro
Slave brought from Africa since the Year Seventeen Hundred
and Seventy-six ; and every Person offending by bringing into
this State any such Negro Slave shall, for each Slave, forfeit
and Pay the Sum of Fifty Pounds, to be sued for and recov-
ered with Costs by the Collector of the Township into which
such Slave shall be brought, to be applied when recovered to
the Use of the State.
2. "And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid,
That if any Person shall either bring or procure to be brought
into this State, any Negro or Mulatto Slave, who shall not have
been born in or brought from Africa since the Year above
mentioned, and either sell or buy, or cause such Negro or
Mulatto Slave to be sold or remain in this State, for the Space
of six Months, every such Person so bringing or procuring to
be brought or selling or purchasing such Slave, not born in
or brought from Africa since the Year aforesaid, shall for every
such Slave, forfeit and pay the Sum of Twenty Pounds, to be
sued for and recovered with Costs by the Collector of the
Township into which such Slave shall be brought or remain
after the Time limited for that Purpose, the Forfeiture to be
applied to the Use of the State as aforesaid.
3. " Provided always, and be it further Enacted by the Author-
ity aforesaid, That Nothing in this Act contained shall be
construed to prevent any Person who shall remove into the
State, to take a settled Residence here, from bringing all his
or her Slaves without incurring the Penalties aforesaid, except-
ing such Slaves as shall have been brought from Africa since
the Year first above mentioned, or to prevent any Foreigners
or others having only a temporary Residence in this State, for
the Purpose of transacting any particular Business, or on
their Travels, from bringing and employing such Slaves as Ser-
vants, during the Time of his or her Stay here, provided such
Slaves shall not be sold or disposed of in this State." Acts
of the Tenth General Assembly (Tower Collection of Laws).
1786, Oct. 30. Vermont : External Trade Prohibited.
" An act to prevent the sale and transportation of Negroes and
Molattoes out of this State." ;ioo penalty. Statutes of
Vermont (ed. 1787), p. 105.
APPENDIX A. 229
1786. North Carolina : Prohibitive Duty.
"An act to impose a duty on all slaves brought into this state
by land or water."
"Whereas the importation of slaves into this state is productive
of evil consequences, and highly impolitic," etc. A prohibitive
duty is imposed. The exact text was not found.
6. Slaves introduced from States which have passed emancipa-
tion acts are to be returned in three months ; if not, a bond of
^50 is to be forfeited, and a fine of ^100 imposed.
8. Act to take effect next Feb. i ; repealed by Act of 1790,
ch. 1 8. Martin, IredelFs Acts of Assembly, I. 413, 492.
1787, Feb. 3. Delaware : Exportation Prohibited.
" An Act to prevent the exportation of slaves, and for other pur-
poses." Laws of Delaware (ed. 1797), p. 884, ch. 145 b.
1787, March 28. South Carolina : Total Prohibition.
" An Act to regulate the recovery and payment of debts and for
prohibiting the importation of negroes for the time therein
mentioned." Title only given. Grimk, Public Laws, p. Ixviii,
No. 1485.
1787, March 28. South Carolina : Importation Prohibited.
" An Ordinance to impose a Penalty on any person who shall
import into this State any Negroes, contrary to the Instal-
ment Act."
i. "Be it ordained, by the honorable the Senate and House of
Representatives, met in General Assembly, and by the author-
ity of the same, That any person importing or bringing into
this State a negro slave, contrary to the Act to regulate the
recovery of debts and prohibiting the importation of negroes,
shall, besides the forfeiture of such negro or slave, be liable
to a penalty of one hundred pounds, to the use of the State,
for every such negro or slave so imported and brought in,
in addition to the forfeiture in and by the said Act prescribed."
Cooper, Statutes, VII. 430.
1787, October. Rhode Island : Importation Prohibited.
"An act to prevent the slave trade and to encourage the abo-
lition of slavery." This act prohibited and censured trade
under penalty of^ioo for each person and ^"1,000 for each
vessel. Bartlett, Index to the Printed Acts and Resolves,
P- 333 ) Narragansett Historical Register, II. 298-9.
APPENDIX B.
A CHRONOLOGICAL CONSPECTUS OF STATE,
NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL
LEGISLATION.
1788-1871.
As the State statutes and Congressional reports and bills are difficult to find, the
significant parts of such documents are printed in full. In the case of national
statutes and treaties, the texts may easily be found through the references.
1788, Feb. 22. New York : Slave-Trade Prohibited.
" An Act concerning slaves."
" Whereas in consequence of the act directing a revision of the
laws of this State, it is expedient that the several existing laws
relative to slaves, should be revised, and comprized in one.
Therefore, Be it enacted" etc.
" And to prevent the further importation of slaves into this State,
Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any
person shall sell as a slave within this State any negro, or other
person, who has been imported or brought into this State, after "
June i, 1785, " such seller, or his or her factor or agent, making
such sale, shall be deemed guilty of a public offence, and shall
for every such offence, forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds.
. . . And further, That every person so imported . . . shall
be free." The purchase of slaves for removal to another State
is prohibited under penalty of 100. Laws of New York,
1785-88 (ed. 1886), pp. 675-6.
APPENDIX B. 231
1788, March 25. Massachusetts : Slave-Trade Prohibited.
" An Act to prevent the Slave-Trade, and for granting Relief to the
Families of such unhappy Persons as may be kidnapped or
decoyed away from this Commonwealth."
" Whereas by the African trade for slaves, the lives and liberties of
many innocent persons have been from time to time sacrificed
to the lust of gain : And whereas some persons residing in this
Commonwealth may be so regardless of the rights of human
kind, as to be concerned in that unrighteous commerce :
i. "Be it therefore enacted by the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of
the same, That no citizen of this Commonwealth, or other
person residing within the same, shall for himself, or any other
person whatsoever, either as master, factor, supercargo, owner
or hirer, in whole or in part, of any vessel, directly or indirectly,
import or transport, or buy or sell, or receive on board, his or
their vessel, with intent to cause to be imported or transported,
any of the inhabitants of any State or Kingdom, in that part of
the world called Africa, as slaves, or as servants for term of
years." Any person convicted of doing this shall forfeit and
pay the sum of ^50 for every person received on board, and the
sum of ^200 for every vessel fitted out for the trade, " to be
recovered by action of debt, in any Court within this Common-
wealth, proper to try the same ; the one moiety thereof to the
use of this Commonwealth, and the other moiety to the person
who shall prosecute for and recover the same."
2. All insurance on said vessels and cargo shall be null and void ;
" and this act may be given in evidence under the general issue,
in any suit or action commenced for the recovery of insurance
so made," etc.
4. "Provided . . . That this act do not extend to vessels which
have already sailed, their owners, factors, or commanders, for and
during their present voyage, or to any insurance that shall have
been made, previous to the passing of the same." Perpetual
Laws of Massachusetts, 1780-89 (ed. 1789), p. 235.
1788, March 29. Pennsylvania : Slave-Trade Prohibited.
" An Act to explain and amend an act, entituled, ' An Act for the
gradual abolition of slavery.' "
2. Slaves brought in by persons intending to settle shall be free.
3. "... no negro or mulatto slave, or servant for term of years,"
232 APPENDIX B.
except servants of congressmen, consuls, etc., " shall be removed
out of this state, with the design and intention that the place of
abode or residence of such slave or servant shall be thereby
altered or changed, or with the design and intention that such
slave or servant, if a female, and pregnant, shall be detained
and kept out of this state till her delivery of the child of which
she is or shall be pregnant, or with the design and intention that
such slave or servant shall be brought again into this state, after
the expiration of six months from the time of such slave or
servant having been first brought into this state, without his or
her consent, if of full age, testified upon a private examination,
before two Justices of the peace of the city or county in which
he or she shall reside, or, being under the age of twenty-one
years, without his or her consent, testified in manner aforesaid,
and also without the consent of his or her parents," etc. Penalty
for every such offence, 7$-
5. "... if any person or persons shall build, fit, equip, man, or
otherwise prepare any ship or vessel, within any port of this
state, or shall cause any ship or other vessel to sail from any port
of this state, for the purpose of carrying on a trade or traffic in
slaves, to, from, or between Europe, Asia, Africa or America, or
any places or countries whatever, or of transporting slaves to or
from one port or place to another, in any part or parts of the
world, such ship or vessel, her tackle, furniture, apparel, and other
appurtenances, shall be forfeited to the commonwealth. . . .
And, moreover, all and every person and persons so building,
fitting out," etc., shall forfeit i ooo. Dallas, Laws, II. 586.
1788, October. Connecticut : Slave-Trade Prohibited.
" An Act to prevent the Slave-Trade."
"Be it enacted by the Governor, Council and Representatives in
General Court assembled, and by the Authority of the same,
That no Citizen or Inhabitant of this State, shall for himself, or
any other Person, either as Master, Factor, Supercargo, Owner or
Hirer, in Whole, or in Part, of any Vessel, directly or indirectly,
import or transport, or buy or sell, or receive on board his or her
Vessel, with Intent to cause to be imported or transported, any
of the Inhabitants of any Country in Africa, as Slaves or Servants,
for Term of Years ; upon Penalty of Fifty Pounds, for every
Person so received on board, as aforesaid ; and of Five Hundred
Pounds for every such Vessel employed in the Importation or
APPENDIX B. 233
Transportation aforesaid ; to be recovered by Action, Bill, Plaint
or Information ; the one Half to the Plaintiff, and the other Half
to the Use of this State." And all insurance on vessels and
slaves shall be void. This act to be given as evidence under
general issue, in any suit commenced for recovery of such in-
surance.
"... if any Person shall kidnap . . . any free Negro," etc., inhab-
itant of this State, he shall forfeit ;ioo. Every vessel clearing
for the coast of Africa or any other part of the world, and sus-
pected to be in the slave-trade, must give bond in .1000.
Slightly amended in 1789. Acts and Laws of 'Connecticut (ed.
1784), pp. 368-9, 388.
1788, Nov. 4. South Carolina : Temporary Prohibition.
"An Act to regulate the Payment and Recovery of Debts, and
to prohibit the Importation of Negroes, for the Time therein
limited."
1 6. "No negro or other slave shall be imported or brought into
this State either by land or water on or before the first ot
*
January, 1 793, under the penalty of forfeiting every such slave
or slaves to any person who will sue or inform for the same ;
and under further penalty of paying ^"100 to the use of the
State for every such negro or slave so imported or brought in :
Provided, That nothing in this prohibition contained shall extend
to such slaves as are now the property of citizens of the United
States, and at the time of passing this act shall be within the
limits of the said United States.
17. "All former instalment laws, and an ordinance imposing a
penalty on persons importing negroes into this State, passed the
28th day of March 1787, are hereby repealed." Grimke",
Public Laws, p. 466.
1789, Feb. 3. Delaware : Slave-Trade Prohibited.
" An additional Supplementary ACT to an act, intituled, An act to pre-
vent the exportation of slaves, and for other purposes."
" Whereas it is inconsistent with that spirit of general liberty which
pervades the constitution of this state, that vessels should be
fitted out, or equipped, in any of the ports thereof, for the pur-
pose of receiving and transporting the natives of Africa to places
where they are held in slavery; or that any acts should be
deemed lawful, which tend to encourage or promote such in-
iquitous traffic among us :
234 APPENDIX B.
i. " Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly of Delaware,
That if any owner or owners, master, agent, or factor, shall fit
out, equip, man, or otherwise prepare, any ship or vessel with-
in any port or place in this state, or shall cause any ship, or
other vessel, to sail from any port or place in this state, for the
purpose of carrying on a trade or traffic in slaves, to, from, or
between, Europe, Asia, Africa, or America, or any places or
countries whatever, or of transporting slaves to, or from, one port
or place to another, in any part or parts of the world ; such ship
or vessel, her tackle, furniture, apparel, and other appurtenances,
shall be forfeited to this state. . . . And moreover, all and every
person and persons so fitting out . . . any ship or vessel . . .
shall severally forfeit and pay the sum of Five Hundred Pounds ; "
one-half to the state, and one-half to the informer.
2. " And whereas it has been found by experience, that the act,
intituled, An ad to prevent the exportation of slaves, and for
other purposes, has not produced all the good effects expected
therefrom," any one exporting a slave to Maryland, Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, or the West Indies,
without license, shall forfeit ;ioo for each slave exported and
20 for each attempt.
3. Slaves to be tried by jury for capital offences. Laws of Dela-
ware (ed. 1797), p. 942, ch. 194 b.
1789, May 13. Congress (House) : Proposed Duty on Slaves Imported.
A tax of $10 per head on slaves imported, moved by Parker of Vir-
ginia. After debate, withdrawn. Annals of Cong., i Cong,
i sess. pp. 336-42.
1789, Sept. 19. Congress (House) : Bill to Tax Slaves Imported.
A committee under Parker of Virginia reports, " a bill concerning
the importation of certain persons prior to the year 1808."
Read once and postponed until next session. House Journal
(repr. 1826), i Cong, i sess. I. 37, 114; Annals of Cong., i
Cong, i sess., pp. 366, 903.
1790, March 22. Congress (House) : Declaration of Powers.
See above, page 78.
1790, March 22. New York : Amendment of Act of 1788.
" An Act to amend the act entitled * An act concerning slaves.' "
" Whereas many inconveniences have arisen from the prohibiting
the exporting of slaves from this State. Therefore
Be it enacted . . ., That where any slave shall hereafter be convicted
APPENDIX B. 235
of a crime under the degree of a capital offence, in the supreme
court, or the court of oyer and terminer, and general gaol deliv-
ery, or a court of general sessions of the peace within this State,
it shall and may be lawful to and for the master or mistress
to cause such slave to be transported out of this State," etc.
Laws of New York, 1789-96 (ed. 1886), p. 151.
1792, May. Connecticut : Act of 1788 Strengthened.
" An Act in addition to an Act, entitled ' An Act to prevent the
Slave Trade.' "
This provided that persons directly or indirectly aiding or assisting
in slave-trading should be fined 100. All notes, bonds, mort-
gages, etc., of any kind, made or executed in payment for any
slave imported contrary to this act, are declared null and void.
Persons removing from the State might carry away their slaves.
Acts and Laws of Connecticut (ed. 1784), pp. 412-3.
1792, Dec. 17. Virginia : Revision of Acts.
" An Act to reduce into one, the several acts concerning slaves, free
negroes, and mulattoes."
i. " Be it enacted . . ., That no persons shall henceforth be slaves
within this commonwealth, except such as were so on the seven-
teenth day of October," 1785, "and the descendants of the
females of them.
2. " Slaves which shall hereafter be brought into this common-
wealth, and kept therein one whole year together, or so long at
different times as shall amount to one year, shall be free."
4. " Provided, That nothing in this act contained, shall be con-
strued to extend to those who may incline to remove from any
of the United States and become citizens of this, if within sixty
days after such removal, he or she shall take the following oath
before some justice of the peace of this commonwealth : ' /,
A. B., do swear, that my removal into the state of Virginia,
was with no intent of evading the laws for preventing the fur-
ther importation of slaves, nor have I brought with me any
slaves, with an intention of selling them, nor have any of the
slaves which I have brought with me, been imported from Africa,
or any of the West India islands, since the first day of Novem-
ber j" 1778, etc.
53. This act to be in force immediately. Statutes at Large of
Virginia, New Series, I. 122.
236 APPENDIX B.
1792, Dec. 21. South Carolina : Importation Prohibited until 1795.
" An Act to prohibit the importation of Slaves from Africa, or
other places beyond sea, into this State, for two years; and
also to prohibit the importation or bringing in Slaves, or Ne-
groes, Mulattoes, Indians, Moors or Mestizoes, bound for a
term of years, from any of the United States, by land or by
water."
" Whereas, it is deemed inexpedient to increase the number of
slaves within this State, in our present circumstances and
situation ;
i. " JBe it therefore enacted . . ., That no slave shall be im-
ported into this State from Africa, the West India Islands, or
other place beyond sea, for and during the term of two years,
commencing from the first day of January next, which will
be in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and
ninety-three."
2. No slaves, Negroes, Indians, etc., bound for a term of years,
to be brought in from any of the United States or bordering
countries. Settlers may bring their slaves. Cooper, Statutes,
VII. 431-
1793, Dec. 19. Georgia : Importation Prohibited.
" An act to prevent the importation of negroes into this state from
the places herein mentioned." Title only. Re-enacted (?)
by the Constitution of 1798. Marbury and Crawford, Digest,
p. 442 ; Prince, Digest, p. 786.
1794, North Carolina : Importation Prohibited.
" An act to prevent the further importation and bringing of slaves
and indented servants of colour into this state."
i. " Be it enacted . . ., That from and after the first day of May
next, no slave or indented servant of colour shall be imported
or brought into this state by land or water ; nor shall any slave
or indented servant of colour, who may be imported or brought
contrary to the intent and meaning of this act, be bought, sold
or hired by any person whatever."
2. Penalty for importing, 100 per slave ; for buying or selling,
the same.
4. Persons removing, travelling, etc., are excepted. The act was
amended slightly in 1 796. Martin, Iredelfs Acts of Assembly,
n. 53, 94.
APPENDIX B. 237
1794, March 22. United States Statute : Export Slave-Trade For-
bidden.
" An Act to prohibit the carrying on the Slave Trade from the
United States to any foreign place or country." Statutes at
Large, I. 347. For proceedings in Congress, see Senate Jour-
nal (*v$t. 1820), 3 Cong, i sess. II. 51 ; House Journal (repr.
1826), 3 Cong, i sess. II. 76, 84, 85, 96, 98, 99, 100; Annals
of Cong., 3 Cong, i sess. pp. 64, 70, 72.
1794. Dec. 20. South Carolina : Act of 1792 Extended.
" An Act to revive and extend an Act entitled ' An Act to prohibit
the importation of Slaves from Africa, or other places beyond
Sea, into this State, for two years ; and also, to prohibit the im-
portation or bringing in of Negro Slaves, Mulattoes, Indians,
Moors or Mestizoes, bound for a term of years, from any of the
United States, by Land or Water.'"
i. Act of 1792 extended until Jan. i, 1797.
2. It shall not be lawful hereafter to import slaves, free Negroes,
etc., from the West Indies, any part of America outside the
United States, " or from other parts beyond sea." Such slaves
are to be forfeited and sold ; the importer to be fined ^"50 ; free
Negroes to be re-transported. Cooper, Statutes, VII. 433.
1795. North Carolina: Act against West Indian Slaves.
" An act to prevent any person who may emigrate from any of the
West India or Bahama islands, or the French, Dutch or Spanish
settlements on the southern coast of America, from bringing
slaves into this state, and also for imposing certain restrictions
on free persons of colour who may hereafter come into this
state." Penalty, ;ioo for each slave over 15 years of age.
Laws of North Carolina (revision of 1819), I. 786.
1796. Maryland : Importation Prohibited.
" An Act relating to Negroes, and to repeal the acts of assembly
therein mentioned."
" Be it enacted . . ., That it shall not be lawful, from and after
the passing of this act, to import or bring into this state, by
land or water, any negro, mulatto or other slave, for sale, or
to reside within this state ; and any person brought into this
state as a slave contrary to this act, if a slave before, shall
thereupon immediately cease to be the property of the person
or persons so importing or bringing such slave within this state,
and shall be free."
238 APPENDIX B.
2. Any citizen of the United States, coming into the State to
take up bona fide residence, may bring with him, or within one
year import, any slave which was his property at the time of re-
moval, " which slaves, or the mother of which slaves, shall have
been a resident of the United States, or some one of them, three
whole years next preceding such removal."
3. Such slaves cannot be sold within three years, except by will,
etc. In 1797, "A Supplementary Act," etc., slightly amended
the preceding, allowing guardians, executors, etc., to import
the slaves of the estate. Dorsey, Laws, I. 334, 344.
1796, Dec. 19. South Carolina : Importation Prohibited until 1799.
" An Act to prohibit the importation of Negroes, until the first day
of January, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine."
" Whereas, it appears to be highly impolitic to import negroes from
Africa, or other places beyond seas," etc. Extended by acts of
Dec. 21, 1798, and Dec. 20, 1800, until Jan. i, 1803. Cooper,
Statutes, VII. 434, 436.
1797, Jan. 18. Delaware : Codification of Acts.
" An Act concerning Negro and Mulatto slaves."
5. " . . . any Negro or Mulatto slave, who hath been or shall
be brought into this state contrary to the intent and meaning
of [the act Qf 1787] ; and any Negro or Mulatto slave who
hath been or shall be exported, or sold with an intention for
exportation, or carried out for sale from this state, contrary to
the intent and meaning of [the act of 1793], shall be, and are
hereby declared free ; any thing in this act to the contrary not-
withstanding." Laws of Delaware (ed. 1797), p. 1321, ch.
124 c.
1798, Jan. 31. Georgia : Importation Prohibited.
"An act to prohibit the further importation of slaves into this
state."
i. "... six months after the passing of this act, it shall be
unlawful for any person or persons to import into this state,
from Africa or elsewhere, any negro or negroes of any age or
sex." Every person so offending shall forfeit for the first offence
the sum of $1,000 for every negro so imported, and for every
subsequent offence the sum of $1,000, one half for the use of
the informer, and one half for the use of the State.
2. Slaves not to be brought from other States for sale after three
months.
APPENDIX B. 239
3. Persons convicted of bringing slaves into this State with a
view to sell them, are subject to the same penalties as if they
had sold them. Marbury and Crawford, Digest, p. 440.
1798, March 14. New Jersey : Slave-Trade Prohibited.
" An Act respecting slaves."
12. "And be it enacted, That from and after the passing of this act,
it shall not be lawful for any person or persons whatsoever, to
bring into this state, either for sale or for servitude, any negro
or other slave whatsoever." Penalty, $140 for each slave ; trav-
ellers and temporary residents excepted.
1 7. Any persons fitting out vessels for the slave-trade shall forfeit
them. Paterson, Digest, p. 307.
1798, April 7. United States Statute : Importation into Mississippi
Territory Prohibited.
" An Act for an amicable settlement of limits with the state of
Georgia, and authorizing the establishment of a government in
the Mississippi territory." Statutes at Large, I. 549. For
proceedings in Congress, see Annals of Cong., 5 Cong. 2 sess.
pp. 511, 512, 513, 514, 515, 532, 533, 1235, 1249, 1277-84,
1296, 1298-1312, 1313, 1318.
1798, May 30. Georgia : Constitutional Prohibition.
Constitution of Georgia :
Art. IV. ii. "There shall be no future importation of slaves into
this state from Africa, or any foreign place, after the first day
of October next. The legislature shall have no power to pass
laws for the emancipation of slaves, without the consent of
each of their respective owners previous to such emancipation.
They shall have no power to prevent emigrants, from either of
the United States to this state, from bringing with them such
persons as may be deemed slaves, by the laws of any one of the
United States." Marbury and Crawford, Digest, p. 30.
1800, May 10. United States Statute : Americans Forbidden to Trade
from one Foreign Country to Another.
" An Act in addition to the act intituled ' An act to prohibit the
carrying on the Slave Trade from the United States to any
foreign place or country.' " Statutes at Large, II. 70. For
proceedings in Congress, see Senate Journal (repr. 1821),
6 Cong, i sess. III. 72, 77, 88, 92.
1800, Dec. 20. South Carolina : Slaves and Free Negroes Prohibited.
" An Act to prevent Negro Slaves and other persons of Colour,
240 APPENDIX B.
from being brought into or entering this State." Supplemented
Dec. 19, 1801, and amended Dec. 18, 1802. Cooper, Statutes,
VII. 436, 444, 447.
1801, April 8. New York : Slave-Trade Prohibited.
" An Act concerning slaves and servants."
"... And be it further enacted, That no slave shall hereafter be
imported or brought into this State, unless the person import-
ing or bringing such slave shall be coming into this State with
intent to reside permanently therein and shall have resided
without this State, and also have owned such slave at least dur-
ing one year next preceding the importing or bringing in of
such slave," etc. A certificate, sworn to, must be obtained ;
any violation of this act or neglect to take out such certificate
will result in freedom to the slave. Any sale or limited transfer
of any person hereafter imported to be a public offence, under
penalty of $250, and freedom to the slave transferred. The
export of slaves or of any person freed by this act is forbidden,
under penalty of $250 and freedom to the slave. Transporta-
tion for crime is permitted. Re-enacted with amendments
March 31, 1817. Laws of New York, 1801 (ed. 1887), pp.
547-52 ; Laws of New York, 1817 (ed. 1817), p. 136.
1803, Feb. 28. United States Statute : Importation into States Pro-
hibiting Forbidden.
" An Act to prevent the importation of certain persons into certain
states, where, by the laws thereof, their admission is prohibited."
Statutes at Large, II. 205. For copy of the proposed bill
which this replaced, see Annals of Cong., 7 Cong. 2 sess.
p. 467. For proceedings in Congress, see House Journal
(repr. 1826), 7 Cong. 2 sess. IV. 304, 324, 347 ; Senate Jour-
nal (repr. 1821), 7 Cong. 2 sess. III. 267, 268, 269-70, 273,
275 2 7 6 > 2 79-
1803. Dec. 17. South Carolina : African Slaves Admitted.
" An Act to alter and amend the several Acts respecting the impor-
tation or bringing into this State, from beyond seas, or else-
where, Negroes and other persons of colour ; and for other
purposes therein mentioned."
i. Acts of 1792, 1794, 1796, 1798, 1800, 1802, hereby repealed.
2. Importation of Negroes from the West Indies prohibited.
3. No Negro over fifteen years of age to be imported from the
United States except under certificate of good character.
APPENDIX B. 241
5. Negroes illegally imported to be forfeited and sold, etc.
Cooper, Statutes ) VII. 449.
1804. [Denmark.
Act of 1792 abolishing the slave-trade goes into effect]
1804, Feb. 14. Congress (House): Proposed Censure of South Caro-
lina.
Representative Moore of South Carolina offered the following
resolution, as a substitute to Mr. Bard's taxing proposition of
Jan. 6 :
" Resolved, That this House receive with painful sensibility infor-
mation that one of the Southern States, by a repeal of certain
prohibitory laws, have permitted a traffic unjust in its nature,
and highly impolitic in free Governments." Ruled out of
order by the chairman of the Committee of the Whole.
Annals of Cong., 8 Cong, i sess. p. 1004.
1804, Feb. 15. Congress (House) : Proposed Duty.
"Resolved, That a tax of ten dollars be imposed on every slave
imported into any part of the United States."
" Ordered, That a bill, or bills, be brought in, pursuant to the said
resolution," etc. Feb. 16 "a bill laying a duty on slaves im-
ported into the United States " was read, but was never con-
sidered. House Journal (repr. 1826), 8 Cong, i sess. IV,
523, 578, 580, 581-2, 585 ; Annals of Cong., 8 Cong, i sess.
pp. 820, 876, 991, 1012, 1020, 1024-36.
1804, March 26. United States Statute : Slave-Trade Limited.
"An Act erecting Louisiana into two territories," etc. Acts of
1794 and 1803 extended to Louisiana. Statutes at Large,
II. 283. For proceedings in Congress, see Annals of Cong.,
8 Cong, i sess. pp. 106, 211, 223, 231, 233-4, 238, 255, 1038,
1054-68, 1069-79, 1128-30, 1185-9.
1805, Feb. 15. Massachusetts: Proposed Amendment.
" Resolve requesting the Governor to transmit to the Senators and
Representatives in Congress, and the Executives of the several
States this Resolution, as an amendment to the Constitution of
the United States, respecting Slaves" June 8, Governor's
message ; Connecticut answers that it is inexpedient ; Mary-
land opposes the proposition. Massachusetts Resolves, Feb-
ruary, 1805, p. 55 ; June, 1805, p. 18. See below, March 3,
1805.
16
242 APPENDIX B.
1805, March 2. United States Statute : Slave-Trade to Orleans Terri-
tory Permitted.
" An Act further providing for the government of the territory of
Orleans."
i. A territorial government erected similar to Mississippi, with
same rights and privileges.
5. 6th Article of Ordinance of 1787, on slaves, not to extend to
this territory.
Statutes at Large, II. 322. For proceedings in Congress, see
Annals of Cong., 8 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 28, 30, 45-6, 47, 48, 54,
59-61,69, 727-8,871-2, 957, 1016-9, 1020-1, 1201, 1209 10,
1 21 1. Cf. Statutes at Large, II. 331; Annals of Cong., 8
Cong. 2 sess., pp. 50, 51, 52, 57, 68, 69, 1213, 1215. In Jour-
nals, see Index, Senate Bills Nos. 8, n.
1805, March 3. Congress (House) : Massachusetts Proposition to
Amend Constitution.
Mr. Varnum of Massachusetts presented the resolution of the
Legislature of Massachusetts, "instructing the Senators, and
requesting the Representatives in Congress, from the said State,
to take all legal and necessary steps, to use their utmost
exertions, as soon as the same is practicable, to obtain an
amendment to the Federal Constitution, so as to authorize and
empower the Congress of the United States to pass a law,
whenever they may deem it expedient, to prevent the further
importation of slaves from any of the West India Islands,
from the coast of Africa, or elsewhere, into the United States,
or any part thereof." A motion was made that Congress have
power to prevent further importation ; it was read and ordered
to lie on the table. House Journal (repr. 1826), 8 Cong. 2 sess.
V. 171 ; Annals of Cong., 8 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 1221-2. For
the original resolution, see Massachusetts Resolves, May, 1802,
to March, 1806, Vol. II. A. (State House ed., p. 239.)
1805, Dec. 17. Congress (Senate) : Proposition to Prohibit Im-
portation.
A " bill to prohibit the importation of certain persons therein
described into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the
United States, from and after" Jan. i, 1808, was read twice
and postponed. Senate Journal (repr. 1821), 9 Cong, i sess.
IV. lo-n ; Annals of Cong., 9 Cong, i sess. pp. 20-1.
APPENDIX B. 243
1806, Jan. 20. Congress (House) : Vermont Proposed Amendment.
" Mr. Olin, one of the Representatives from the State of Vermont,
presented to the House certain resolutions of the General
Assembly of the said State, proposing an article of amendment
to the Constitution of the United States, to prevent the further
importation of slaves, or people of color, from any of the West
India Islands, from the coast of Africa, or elsewhere, into the
United States, or any part thereof ; which were read, and ordered
to lie on the table." No further mention found. House Journal
(repr. 1826), 9 Cong, i sess. V. 238 ; Annals of Cong., 9 Cong,
i sess. pp. 343-4-
1806, Jan. 25. Virginia : Imported Slaves to be Sold.
" An Act to amend the several laws concerning slaves."
5. If the jury before whom the importer is brought " shall find
that the said slave or slaves were brought into this common-
wealth, and have remained therein, contrary to the provisions
of this act, the court shall make an order, directing him, her or
them to be delivered to the overseers of the poor, to be by
them sold for cash and applied as herein directed."
8. Penalty for bringing slaves, $400 per slave ; the same for buy-
ing or hiring, knowingly, such a slave.
16. This act to take effect May i, 1806. Statutes at Large of
Virginia, New Series, III. 251.
1806, Jan. 27. Congress (House) : Bill to Tax Slaves Imported.
" A Bill laying a duty on slaves imported into any of the United
States." Finally dropped, ffoitse Journal (repr. 1826), 8
Cong. 2 sess. V. 129; Ibid., 9 Cong, i sess. V. 195, 223, 240,
242, 243-4, 248, 260, 262, 264, 276-7, 287, 294, 305, 309,
338 ; Annals of Cong., 9 Cong, i sess. pp. 273, 274, 346, 358,
372, 434, 442-4, 533.
1806, Feb. 4. Congress (House) : Proposition to Prohibit Slave-
Trade after 1807.
Mr. Bidwell moved that the following section be added to the bill
for taxing slaves imported, that any ship so engaged be
forfeited. The proposition was rejected, yeas, 17, nays, 86 ( ?).
Annals of Cong., 9 Cong, i sess. p. 438.
1806, Feb. 10. Congress (House) : New Hampshire Proposed Amend-
ment.
" Mr. Tenney . . . presented to the House certain resolutions of
the Legislature of the State of New Hampshire, ' proposing an
244 APPENDIX B.
amendment to the Constitution of the United States, so as to
authorize and empower Congress to pass a law, whenever they
may deem it expedient, to prevent the further importation of
slaves,' or people of color, into the United States, or any part
thereof." Read and laid on the table. House Journal (repr.
1826), 9 Cong, i sess. V. 266; Annals of Cong., 9 Cong, i
sess. p. 448.
1806, Feb. 17. Congress (House) : Proposition on Slave-Trade.
The committee on the slave-trade reported a resolution :
" Resolved, That it shall not be lawful for any person or persons, to
import or bring into any of the Territories of the United States,
any slave or slaves that may hereafter be imported into the
United States." House Journal, 9 Cong, i sess. V. 264, 278,
308, 345-6 ; House Reports, 9 Cong, i sess. II. Feb. 17, 1806 ;
Annals of Cong., 9 Cong, i sess. pp. 472-3.
1806, April 7. Congress (Senate) : Maryland Proposed Amendment.
" Mr. Wright communicated a resolution of the legislature of the
state of Maryland instructing their Senators and Representa-
tives in Congress to use their utmost exertions to obtain an
amendment to the constitution of the United States to prevent
the further importation of slaves ; whereupon, Mr. Wright sub-
mitted the following resolutions for the consideration of the
Senate. . . .
" Resolved, That the migration or importation of slaves into the
United States, or any territory thereof, be prohibited after the
first day of January, 1808." Considered April 10, and further
consideration postponed until the first Monday in December
next. Senate Journal (repr. 1821), 9 Cong, i sess. IV. 76-7,
79 ; Annals of Cong., 9 Cong, i sess. pp. 229, 232.
1806, Dec. 2. President Jefferson's Message.
See above, page 95. House Journal (repr. 1826), 9 Cong. 2 sess.
V. 468.
1806, Dec. 15. Congress (House): Proposition on Slave-Trade.
" A bill to prohibit the importation or bringing of slaves into the
United States, etc.," after Dec. 31, 1807. Finally merged into
Senate bill. Ibid., House Bill No. 148.
1806, Dec. 17. Congress (House) : Sloan's Proposition.
Proposition to amend the House bill by inserting after the article
declaring the forfeiture of an illegally imported slave, "And
such person or slave shall be entitled to his freedom." Lost.
Annals of Cong., 9 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 167-77, 180-89.
APPENDIX B. 245
1806, Dec. 29. Congress (House) : Sloan's Second Proposition.
Illegally imported Africans to be either freed, apprenticed, or re-
turned to Africa. Lost; Jan. 5, 1807, a somewhat similar
proposition was also lost. Ibid., pp. 226-8, 254.
1806, Dec. 31. Great Britain : Rejected Treaty.
" Treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, between His Britan-
nic Majesty and the United States of America."
" Art. XXIV. The high contracting parties engage to communi-
cate to each other, without delay, all such laws as have been
or shall be hereafter enacted by their respective Legislatures,
as also all measures which shall have been taken for the aboli-
tion or limitation of the African slave trade ; and they further
agree to use their best endeavors to procure the co-operation
of other Powers for the final and complete abolition of a trade
so repugnant to the principles of justice and humanity."
Amer. State Papers, Foreign, III. 147, 151.
1807, March 25. [England : Slave-Trade Abolished.
"An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade." Statute 47
George III., i sess. ch. 36.]
1807, Jan. 7. Congress (House) : Bid well's Proposition.
" Provided, that no person shall be sold as a slave by virtue of this
act." Offered as an amendment to 3 of House bill ; de-
feated 60 to 6 1, Speaker voting. A similar proposition was
made Dec. 23, 1806. House Journal (repr. 1826), 9 Cong.
2 sess. V. 513-6. Cf. Annals of Cong., 9 Cong. 2 sess. pp.
199-203, 265-7.
1807, Feb. 9. Congress (House) : Section Seven of House Bill.
7 of the bill reported to the House by the committee provided
that all Negroes imported should be conveyed whither the
President might direct and there be indentured as apprentices,
or employed in whatever way the President might deem best for
them and the country ; provided that no such Negroes should
be indentured or employed except in some State in which pro-
vision is now made for the gradual abolition of slavery. Blank
spaces were left for limiting the term of indenture. The report
was never acted on. Annals of Cong., 9 Cong. 2 sess. pp.
477-8-
1807, March 2. United States Statute : Importation Prohibited.
" An Act to prohibit the importation of Slaves into any port or
place within the jurisdiction of the United States, from and
246 APPENDIX B.
after the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and eight." Bills to amend 8, so as
to make less ambiguous the permit given to the internal traffic,
were introduced Feb. 27 and Nov. 27. Statutes at Large,
11.426. For proceedings in Senate, see Senate Journal (repr.
1821), 9 Cong. 1-2 sess. IV. n, 112, 123, 124, 132, 133, 150,
158, 164, 165, 167, 1 68 ; Annals of Cong., 9 Cong. 2 sess. pp.
16, 19, 23, 33, 36, 45, 47, 68, 69, 70, 71, 79, 87, 93. For
proceedings in House, see House Journal (repr. 1826), 9 Cong.
2 sess. V. 470, 482, 488, 490, 491, 496, 500, 504, 510, 513-6,
5 1 ;. 540, 557, 575' 579' 5 8l > 5 8 3~4> 5 8 5> 592, 594, 610, 613-4,
616, 623, 638, 640; 10 Cong, i sess. VI. 27, 50; Annals of
Cong., 9 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 167, 180, 200, 220, 231, 254, 264,
270.
1808, Feb. 23. Congress (Senate) : Proposition to Amend Constitution.
"Agreeably to instructions from the legislature of the state of
Pennsylvania to their Senators in Congress, Mr. Maclay sub-
mitted the following resolution, which was read for consid-
eration :
"Resolved . . ., That the Constitution of the United States be
so altered and amended, as to prevent the Congress of the
United States, and the legislatures of any state in the Union,
from authorizing the importation of slaves." No further men-
tion. Senate Journal (repr. 1821), 10 Cong, i sess. IV.
235 ; Annals of Cong., 10 Cong, i sess. p. 134. For the full
text of the instructions, see Amer. State Papers, Miscellaneous,
I. 716.
1810, Dec. 5. President Madison's Message.
" Among the commercial abuses still committed under the American
flag, ... it appears that American citizens are instrumental in
carrying on a traffic in enslaved Africans, equally in violation of
the laws of humanity, and in defiance of those of their own
country. The same just and benevolent motives which pro-
duced the interdiction in force against this criminal conduct,
will doubtless be felt by Congress, in devising further means of
suppressing the evil." House Journal (repr. 1826), n Cong.
3 sess. VII. 435.
1811, Jan. 15. United States Statute : Secret Act and Joint Reso-
lution against Amelia Island Smugglers.
Statutes at Large, III. 471 ff.
APPENDIX B. 247
1815, March 29. [France : Abolition of Slave-Trade.
Napoleon on his return from Elba decrees the abolition of the
slave-trade. Decree re-enacted in 1818 by the Bourbon dynasty.
British and Foreign State Papers, 1815-16, p. 196, note;
1817-18, p. 1025.]
1815, Feb. 18. Great Britain: Treaty of Ghent.
"Treaty of peace and amity. Concluded December 24, 1814;
Ratifications exchanged at Washington February 17, 1815;
Proclaimed February 18, 1815."
Art. X. " Whereas the traffic in slaves is irreconcilable with the
principles of humanity and justice, and whereas both His
Majesty and the United States are desirous of continuing their
efforts to promote its entire abolition, it is hereby agreed that
both the contracting parties shall use their best endeavors to
accomplish so desirable an object." U. S. Treaties and Con-
ventions (ed. 1889), p. 405.
1815, Dec. 8. Alabama and Mississippi Territory : Act to Dispose of
Illegally Imported Slaves.
" An Act concerning Slaves brought into this Territory, contrary
to the Laws of the United States." Slaves to be sold at auction,
and the proceeds to be divided between the territorial treasury
and the collector or informer. Toulmin, Digest of the Laws
of Alabama* p. 637; Statutes of Mississippi digested, etc. (ed.
1816), p. 389.
1816, Nov. 18. North Carolina: Act to Dispose of Illegally Im-
ported Slaves.
" An act to direct the disposal of negroes, mulattoes and persons
of colour, imported into this state, contrary to the provisions of
an act of the Congress of the United States, entitled ' an act to
prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place, within
the jurisdiction of the United States, from and after the first
day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and eight.' "
i. Every slave illegally imported after 1808 shall be sold for the
use of the State.
2. The sheriff shall seize and sell such slave, and pay the pro-
ceeds to the treasurer of the State.
3. If the slave abscond, the sheriff may offer a reward not ex-
ceeding one-fifth of the value of the slave. Laws of North
Carolina, 1816, ch. xii. p. 9 ; Laws of North Carolina (revision
of 1819), II. 1350.
248 APPENDIX B.
1816, Dec. 3. President Madison's Message.
"The United States having been the first to abolish, within the
extent of their authority, the transportation of the natives of
Africa into slavery, by prohibiting the introduction of slaves,
and by punishing their citizens participating in the traffick, can-
not but be gratified at the progress, made by concurrent efforts
of other nations, towards a general suppression of so great an evil.
They must feel, at the same time, the greater solicitude to give
the fullest efficacy to their own regulations. With that view,
the interposition of Congress appears to be required by the
violations and evasions which, it is suggested, are chargeable
on unworthy citizens, who mingle in the slave trade under
foreign flags, and with foreign ports ; and by collusive importa-
tions of slaves into the United States, through adjoining ports
and territories. I present the subject to Congress, with a full
assurance of their disposition to apply all the remedy which
can be afforded by an amendment of the law. The regulations
which were intended to guard against abuses of a kindred
character, in the trade between the several States, ought also
to be rendered more effectual for their humane object."
House Journal, 14 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 15-6.
1817, Feb. 11. Congress (House) : Proposed Joint Resolution.
" Joint Resolution for abolishing the traffick in Slaves, and the
Colinization \_sic\ of the Free People of Colour of the United
States."
"Resolved, . . . That the President be, and he is hereby authorized
to consult and negotiate with all the governments where min-
isters of the United States are, or shall be accredited, on the
means of effecting an entire and immediate abolition of the
traffick in slaves. And, also, to enter into a convention with
the government of Great Britain, for receiving into the colony
of Sierra Leone, such of the free people of colour of the United
States as, with their own consent, shall be carried thither. . . .
"Resolved, That adequate provision shall hereafter be made to
defray any necessary expenses which may be incurred in
carrying the preceding resolution into effect." Reported on
petition of the Colonization Society by the committee on the
President's Message. No further record. House Journal, 14
Cong. 2 sess. pp. 25-7, 380; House Doc., 14 Cong. 2 sess.
No. 77.
APPENDIX B. 249
1817, July 28. [Great Britain and Portugal : First Concession of Right
of Search.
"By this treaty, ships of war of each of the nations might visit
merchant vessels of both, if suspected of having slaves on
board, acquired by illicit traffic." This "related only to the
trade north of the equator; for the slave-trade of Portugal
within the regions of western Africa, to the south of the equator,
continued long after this to be carried on with great vigor."
Woolsey, International Law (1874), 197, pp. 331-2 ; British
and Foreign State Papers, 1816-17, pp. 85-118.]
1817, Sept. 23. [Great Britain and Spain : Abolition of Trade North
of Equator.
" By the treaty of Madrid, . . . Great Britain obtained from Spain,
for the sum of four hundred thousand pounds, the immediate
abolition of the trade north of the equator, its entire abolition
after 1820, and the concession of the same mutual right of
search, which the treaty with Portugal had just established."
Woolsey, International Law (1874), 197, p. 332; British
and Foreign State Papers, 1816-17, PP- 33~74-]
1817, Dec. 2. President Monroe's Message on Amelia Island, etc.
" A just regard for the rights and interests of the United States
required that they [i. e., the Amelia Island and Galveston
pirates] should be suppressed, and orders have been accord-
ingly issued to that effect. The imperious considerations which
produced this measure will be explained to the parties whom
it may, in any degree, concern." House Journal, 15 Cong,
i sess. p. ii.
1817, Dec. 19. Georgia : Act to Dispose of Illegally Imported Slaves.
" An Act for disposing of any such negro, mulatto, or person of
color, who has been or may hereafter be imported or brought
into this State in violation of an act of the United States,
entitled an act to prohibit the importation of slaves," etc.
i. The governor by agent shall receive such Negroes, and,
2. sell them, or,
3. give them to the Colonization Society to be transported, on
condition that the Society reimburse the State for all expense,
and transport them at their own cost. Prince, Digest, p. 793.
1818, Jan. 10. Congress (House) : Bill to Supplement Act of 1807.
Mr. Middleton, from the committee on so much of the President's
Message as related to the illicit introduction of slaves into the
2$0 APPENDIX B.
United States from Amelia Island, reported a bill in addition
to former acts prohibiting the introduction of slaves into the
United States. This was read twice and committed ; April i
it was considered in Committee of the Whole ; Mr. Middleton
offered a substitute, which was ordered to be laid on table and
to be printed ; it became the Act of 1819. See below, March
3, 1819. House Journal, 15 Cong, i sess. pp. 131, 410.
1818, Jan. 13. President Monroe's Special Message.
" I have the satisfaction to inform Congress, that the establishment
at Amelia Island has been suppressed, and without the effusion
of blood. The papers which explain this transaction, I now
lay before Congress," etc. Ibid., pp. 137-9.
1818, Feb. 9. Congress (Senate) : Bill to Register (?) Slaves.
" A bill respecting the transportation of persons of color, for sale,
or to be held to labor." Passed Senate, dropped in House ;
similar bill Dec. 9, 181 8, also dropped in House. Senate Jour-
nal, 15 Cong, i sess. pp. 147, 152, 157, 165, 170, 188, 201,
203, 232, 237 ; 15 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 63, 74, 77, 202, 207, 285,
291, 297; House Journal, 15 Cong, i sess. p. 332 ; 15 Cong.
2 sess. pp. 303, 305, 316.
1818, April 4. Congress (House) : Proposition to Amend Constitution.
Mr. Livermore's resolution :
" No person shall be held to service or labour as a slave, nor shall
slavery be tolerated in any state hereafter admitted into the
Union, or made one of the United States of America." Read,
and on the question, " Will the House consider the same ? "
it was determined in the negative. House Journal, 15 Cong.
i sess. pp. 420-1 ; Annals of Cong., 15 Cong, i sess. pp.
1675-6.
1818, April 20. United States Statute : Act in Addition to Act of
1807.
" An Act in addition to ' An act to prohibit the introduction [impor-
tation] of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction
of the United States, from and after the first day of January, in
the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eight,'
and to repeal certain parts of the same." Statittes at Large,
III. 450. For proceedings in Congress, see Senate Journal,
15 Cong, i sess. pp. 243, 304, 315, 333, 338, 340, 348, 377,
386, 388, 391, 403, 406 ; House Journal, 15 Cong, i sess. pp.
45> 45 2 > 45 6 > 468, 479> 4^4, 49 2 > 55-
APPENDIX B. 251
1818, May 4. [Great Britain and Netherlands : Treaty.
Right of Search granted for the suppression of the slave-trade.
British and Foreign State Papers, 1817-18, pp. 125-43.]
1818, Dec. 19. Georgia: Act of 1817 Reinforced.
No title found. " Whereas numbers of African slaves have been
illegally introduced into the State, in direct violation of the
laws of the United States and of this State, Be it therefore
enacted" etc. Informers are to receive one-tenth of the net
proceeds from the sale of illegally imported Africans, "Pro-
vided, nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to
extend farther back than the year 1817." Prince, Digest,
p. 798.
1819, Feb. 8. Congress (Senate) : Bill in Addition to Former Acts.
"A bill supplementary to an act, passed the 2d day of March,
1807, entitled," etc. Postponed. Senate Journal, 15 Cong.
2 sess. pp. 234, 244, 311-2, 347.
1819, March 3. United States Statute : Cruisers Authorized, etc.
"An Act in addition to the Acts prohibiting the slave trade."
Statutes at Large, III. 532. For proceedings in Congress, see
Senate Journal, 15 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 338, 339, 343, 345, 350,
362; House Journal, 15 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 9-19, 42-3, 150,
i79) 330, 334> 34i, 343. 35 2 -
1819, Dec. 7. President Monroe's Message.
" Due attention has likewise been paid to the suppression of the
slave trade, in compliance with a law of the last session.
Orders have been given to the commanders of all our public
ships to seize all vessels navigated under our flag, engaged in
that trade, and to bring them in, to be proceeded against, in
the manner prescribed by that law. It is hoped that these
vigorous measures, supported by like acts by other nations, will
soon terminate a commerce so disgraceful to the civilized
world." House Journal, 16 Cong, i sess. p. 18.
1820, Jan. 19. Congress (House) : Proposed Registry of Slaves.
" On motion of Mr. Cuthbert,
* Resolved, That the Committee on the Slave Trade be instructed
to enquire into the expediency of establishing a registry of
slaves, more effectually to prevent the importation of slaves
into the United States, or the territories thereof." No further
mention. Ibid., p. 150.
I
252 APPENDIX B.
1820, Feb. 5. Congress (House) : Proposition on Slave-Trade.
" Mr. Meigs submitted the following preamble and resolution :
" Whereas, slavery in the United States is an evil of great and in-
creasing magnitude ; one which merits the greatest efforts of
this nation to remedy : Therefore,
" Resolved, That a committee be appointed to enquire into the
expediency of devoting the public lands as a fund for the
purpose of,
" ist, Employing a naval force competent to the annihilation of
the slave trade ;
" adly, The emancipation of slaves in the United States ; and,
" 3dly, Colonizing them in such way as shall be conducive to their
comfort and happiness, in Africa, their mother country." Read,
and, on motion of Walker of North Carolina, ordered to lie on
the table. Feb. 7, Mr. Meigs moved that the House now con-
sider the above-mentioned resolution, but it was decided in the
negative. Feb. 18, he made a similar motion and proceeded
to discussion, but was ruled out of order by the Speaker. He
appealed, but the Speaker was sustained, and the House refused
to take up the resolution. No further record appears. Ibid.,
pp. 196, 200, 227.
1820, Feb. 23. Massachusetts : Slavery in Western Territory.
" Resolve respecting Slavery " :
" The Committee of both Houses, who were appointed to consider
'what measures it may be proper for the Legislature of this
Commonwealth to adopt, in the expression of their sentiments
and views, relative to the interesting subject, now before Con-
gress, of interdicting slavery in the New States, which may be
admitted into the Union, beyond the River Mississippi,' re-
spectfully submit the following report : . . .
" Nor has this question less importance as to its influence on the
slave trade. Should slavery be further permitted, an immense
new market for slaves would be opened. It is well known that
notwithstanding the strictness of our laws, and the vigilance
of the government, thousands are now annually imported from
Africa," etc. Massachusetts Resolves, May, 1819, to February,
1824, pp. I47-S 1 -
1820, May 12. Congress (House) : Resolution for Negotiation.
" Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That the
APPENDIX B. 253
President of the United States be requested to negociate with
all the governments where ministers of the United States are or
shall be accredited, on the means of effecting an entire and
immediate abolition of the slave trade." Passed House, May
12, 1820; lost in Senate, May 15, 1820. House Journal, 16
Cong, i sess. pp. 497, 518, 520-21, 526; Annals of Cong.,
16 Cong, i sess. pp. 697-700.
1820, May 15. United States Statute : Slave-Trade made Piracy.
" An act to continue in force ' An act to protect the commerce of
the United States, and punish the crime of piracy,' and also to
make further provisions for punishing the crime of piracy."
Continued by several statutes until passage of the Act of 1823,
q. v. Statutes at Large, III. 600. For proceedings in Con-
gress, see Senate Journal, 16 Cong, i sess. pp. 238, 241, 268,
286-7, 314, 331, 346, 350, 409, 412, 417, 422, 424, 425;
House Journal, 16 Cong, i sess. pp. 453, 454, 494, 518, 520,
5 22 S37> 539? 54> 54 2 - There was also a House bill, which
was dropped : cf. House Journal, 16 Cong, i sess. pp. 21,
113, 280, 453, 494.
1820, Nov. 14. President Monroe's Message.
" In execution of the law of the last session, for the suppression
of the slave trade, some of our public ships have also been
employed on the coast of Africa, where several captures have
already been made of vessels engaged in that disgraceful traffic."
Senate Journal, 16 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 16-7.
1821, Feb. 15. Congress (House) : Meigs's Resolution.
Mr. Meigs offered in modified form the resolutions submitted at
the last session :
" Whereas slavery, in the United States, is an evil, acknowledged
to be of great and increasing magnitude, . . . therefore,
"Resolved, That a committee be appointed to inquire into the
expediency of devoting five hundred million acres of the public
lands, next west of the Mississippi, as a fund for the purpose
of, in the
" First place ; Employing a naval force, competent to the annihila-
tion of the slave trade," etc. Question to consider decided in
the affirmative, 63 to 50; laid on the table, 66 to 55. House
Journal, 16 Cong. 2 sess. p. 238 ; Annals of Cong., 16 Cong.
2 sess. pp. 1168-70.
254 APPENDIX B.
1821, Dec. 3. President Monroe's Message.
"Like success has attended our efforts to suppress the slave
trade. Under the flag of the United States, and the sanction
of their papers, the trade may be considered as entirely sup-
pressed ; and, if any of our citizens are engaged in it, under
the flag and papers of other powers, it is only from a respect to
the rights of those powers, that these offenders are not seized
and brought home, to receive the punishment which the laws
inflict. If every other power should adopt the same policy,
and pursue the same vigorous means for carrying it into effect,
the trade could no longer exist." House Journal, 17 Cong.
i sess. p. 22.
1822, April 12. Congress (House) : Proposed Resolution.
" Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to
enter into such arrangements as he may deem suitable and
proper, with one or more of the maritime powers of Europe,
for the effectual abolition of the slave trade." House Reports,
17 Cong, i sess. II. No. 92, p. 4 ; Annals of Cong., 17 Cong,
i sess. p. 1538.
1822, June 18. Mississippi : Act on Importation, etc.
"An act, to reduce into one, the several acts, concerning slaves,
free negroes, a^id mulattoes."
2. Slaves born and resident in the United States, and not crimi-
nals, may be imported.
3. No slave born or resident outside the United States shall be
brought in, under penalty of $1,000 per slave. Travellers are
excepted. Revised Code of the Laws of Mississippi (Natchez,
1824), p. 369.
1822, Dec. 3. President Monroe's Message.
" A cruise has also been maintained on the coast of Africa, when
the season would permit, for the suppression of the slave-trade ;
and orders have been given to the commanders of all our pub-
lic ships to seize our own vessels, should they find any engaged
in that trade, and to bring them in for adjudication." House
Journal, 17 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 12, 21.
1823, Jan. 1. Alabama : Act to Dispose of Illegally Imported Slaves.
" An Act to carry into effect the laws of the United States pro-
hibiting the slave trade."
x. "JBe it enacted, . . . That the Governor of this state be ...
authorized and required to appoint some suitable person, as
APPENDIX B. 255
the agent of the state, to receive all and every slave or slaves
or persons of colour, who may have been brought into this
state in violation of the laws of the United States, prohibiting
the slave trade : Provided, that the authority of the said agent is
not to extend to slaves who have been condemned and sold."
2. The agent must give bonds.
3. " And be it further enacted, That the said slaves, when so
placed in the possession of the state, as aforesaid, shall be
employed on such public work or works, as shall be deemed by
the Governor of most value and utility to the public interest."
4. A part may be hired out to support those employed in public
work.
5. "And be it further enacted, That in all cases in which a
decree of any court having competent authority, shall be in
favor of any or claimant or claimants, the said slaves shall be
truly and faithfully, by said agent, delivered to such claimant
or claimants : but in case of their condemnation, they shall be
sold by such agent for cash to the highest bidder, by giving
sixty days notice," etc. Acts of the Assembly of Alabama, 1822
(Cahawba, 1823), p. 62.
1823, Jan. 30. United States Statute: Piracy Act made Perpetual.
"An Act in addition to 'An act to continue in force "An act to
protect the commerce of the United States, and punish the
crime of piracy,"'" etc. Statutes at Large, III. 510-14, 721,
789. For proceedings in Congress, see Senate Journal, 17
Cong. 2 sess. pp. 61, 64, 70, 83, 98, 101, 106, no, in, 122,
137; House Journal, 17 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 73, 76, 156, 183,
189.
1823, Feb. 10. Congress (House) : Resolution on Slave-Trade.
Mr. Mercer offered the following resolution :
" Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested
to enter upon, and to prosecute, from time to time, such ne-
gotiations with the several maritime powers of Europe and
America, as he may deem expedient, for the effectual abolition
of the African slave trade, and its ultimate denunciation as
piracy, under the law of nations, by the consent of the civilized
world." Agreed to Feb. 28 ; passed Senate. House Journal,
17 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 212, 280-82 ; Annals of Cong., 17 Cong.
2 sess. pp.928, II47-55-
1823, March 3. United States Statute : Appropriation.
" An Act making appropriations for the support of the navy," etc.
2$6 APPENDIX B.
"To enable the President of the United States to carry into effect
the act" of 1819, $50,000. Statutes at Large, III. 763, 764.
1823. President : Proposed Treaties.
Letters to various governments in accordance with the resolu-
tion of 1823: April 28, to Spain; May 17, to Buenos Ayres;
May 27, to United States of Colombia; Aug. 14, to Portugal.
See above, Feb. 10, 1823. House Doc., 18 Cong, i sess. VI.
No. 119.
1823, June 24. Great Britain : Proposed Treaty.
Adams, March 31, proposes that the trade be made piracy. Can-
ning, April 8, reminds Adams of the treaty of Ghent and asks
for the granting of a mutual Right of Search to suppress the
slave-trade. The matter is further discussed until June 24.
Minister Rush is empowered to propose a treaty involving the
Right of Search, etc. This treaty was substantially the one
signed (see below, March 13, 1824), differing principally in the
first article.
" Article I. The two high contracting Powers, having each sepa-
rately, by its own laws, subjected their subjects and citizens,
who may be convicted of carrying on the illicit traffic in slaves
on the coast of Africa, to the penalties of piracy, do hereby
agree to use their influence, respectively, with the other mari-
time and civilized nations of the world, to the end that the said
African slave trade may be recognized, and declared to be,
piracy, under the law of nations." House Doc., 18 Cong, i sess.
VI. No. 119.
1824, Feb. 6. Congress (House) : Proposition to Amend Constitution.
Mr. Abbot's resolution on persons of color :
"That no part of the constitution of the United States ought to be
construed, or shall be construed to authorize the importation
or ingress of any person of color into any one of the United
States, contrary to the laws of such state." Read first and
second time and committed to the Committee of the Whole.
House Journal, 18 Cong, i sess. p. 208; Annals of Cong.,
18 Cong, i sess. p. 1399.
1824, March 13. Great Britain : Proposed Treaty of 1824.
"The Convention:"
Art. I. " The commanders and commissioned officers of each of
the two high contracting parties, duly authorized, under the
regulations and instructions of their respective Governments, to
cruize on the coasts of Africa, of America, and of the West
APPENDIX B, 257
Indies, for the suppression of the slave trade," shall have the
power to seize and bring into port any vessel owned by sub-
jects of the two contracting parties, found engaging in the
slave-trade. The vessel shall be taken for trial to the country
where she belongs.
Art. II. Provides that even if the vessel seized does not belong to
a citizen or citizens of either of the two contracting parties,
but is chartered by them, she may be seized in the same way
as if she belonged to them.
Art. III. Requires that in all cases where any vessel of either
party shall be boarded by any naval officer of the other party,
on suspicion of being concerned in the slave-trade, the officer
shall deliver to the captain of the vessel so boarded a certifi-
cate in writing, signed by the naval officer, specifying his rank,
etc., and the object of his visit. Provision is made for the
delivery of ships and papers to the tribunal before which they
are brought.
Art. IV. Limits the Right of Search, recognized by the Conven-
tion, to such investigation as shall be necessary to ascertain
the fact whether the said vessel is or is not engaged in the slave-
trade. No person shall be taken out of the vessel so visited
unless for reasons of health.
Art. V. Makes it the duty of the commander of either nation,
having captured a vessel of the other under the treaty, to
receive unto his custody the vessel captured, and send or carry
it into some port of the vessel's own country for adjudication,
in which case triplicate declarations are to be signed, etc.
Art. VI. Provides that in cases of capture by the officer of either
party, on a station where no national vessel is cruising, the cap-
tor shall either send or carry his prize to some convenient port
of its own country for adjudication, etc.
Art. VII. Provides that the commander and crew of the captured
vessel shall be proceeded against as pirates, in the ports to
which they are brought, etc.
Art. VIII. Confines the Right of Search, under this treaty, to
such officers of both parties as are especially authorized to
execute the laws of their countries in regard to the slave-trade.
For every abusive exercise of this right, officers are to be
personally liable in costs and damages, etc.
Art. IX. Provides that the government of either nation shall inquire
17
2$8 APPENDIX B.
into abuses of this Convention and of the laws of the two coun-
tries, and inflict on guilty officers the proper punishment.
Art. X. Declares that the right, reciprocally conceded by this
treaty, is wholly and exclusively founded on the consideration
that the two nations have by their laws made the slave-trade
piracy, and is not to be taken to affect in any other way the
rights of the parties, etc. ; it further engages that each power
shall use its influence with all other civilized powers, to procure
from them the acknowledgment that the slave-trade is piracy
under the law of nations.
Art. XI. Provides that the ratifications of the treaty shall be ex-
changed at London within twelve months, or as much sooner
as possible. Signed by Mr. Rush, Minister to the Court of St.
James, March 13, 1824.
The above is a synopsis of the treaty as it was laid before the
Senate. It was ratified by the Senate with certain conditions,
one of which was that the duration of this treaty should be
limited to the pleasure of the two parties on six months' no-
tice ; another was that the Right of Search should be limited
to the African and West Indian seas : i. e., the word "America "
was struck out. This treaty as amended and passed by the
Senate (cf. above, p. 139) was rejected by Great Britain. A
counter project was suggested by her, but not accepted (cf.
above, p. 142). The striking out of the word "America" was
declared to be the insuperable objection. Senate Doc., 18 Cong.
2 sess. I. No. i, pp. 15-20 ; Niks' s Register, 3rd Series, XXVI.
230-2. For proceedings in Senate, see Amer. State Papers,
Foreign, V. 3602.
1824, March 31. [Great Britain: Slave-Trade made Piracy.
" An Act for the more effectual Suppression of the African Slave
Trade."
Any person engaging in the slave-trade " shall be deemed and
adjudged guilty of Piracy, Felony and Robbery, and being con-
victed thereof shall suffer Death without Benefit of Clergy, and
Loss of Lands, Goods and Chattels, as Pirates, Felons and
Robbers upon the Seas ought to suffer," etc. Statute 5 George
IV., ch. 17 ; Amer. State Papers, Foreign, V. 342.]
1824, April 16. Congress (House) : Bill to Suppress Slave-Trade.
" Mr. Govan, from the committee to which was referred so much
of the President's Message as relates to the suppression of the
APPENDIX B. 259
Slave Trade, reported a bill respecting the slave trade ; which
was read twice, and committed to a Committee of the Whole."
i. Provided a fine not exceeding $5,000, imprisonment not
exceeding 7 years, and forfeiture of ship, for equipping a slaver
even for the foreign trade ; and a fine not exceeding $3,000,
and imprisonment not exceeding 5 years, for serving on board
any slaver. Annals of Cong., 18 Cong, i sess. pp. 2397-8 j
House Journal, 18 Cong, i sess. pp. 26, 180, 181,323, 329,
35 6 > 423-
1824, May 21. President Monroe's Message on Treaty of 1824.
Amer. State Papers, Foreign, V. 344-6.
1824, Nov. 6. [Great Britain and Sweden : Treaty.
Right of Search granted for the suppression of the slave-trade.
British and Foreign State Papers, 1824-5, PP- 3~ 2 S-]
1824, Nov. 6. Great Britain: Counter Project of 1825.
Great Britain proposes to conclude the treaty as amended by the
Senate, if the word " America " is reinstated in Art. I. (Cf.
above, March 13, 1824.) February 16, 1825, the House Com-
mittee favors this project ; March 2, Addington reminds Adams
of this counter proposal ; April 6, Clay refuses to reopen nego-
tiations on account of the failure of the Colombian treaty.
Amer. State Papers, Foreign, V. 367 ; House Reports, 18 Cong.
2 sess. I. No. 70; House Doc., 19 Cong, i sess. I. No. 16.
1824, Dec. 7. President Monroe's Message.
" It is a cause of serious regret, that no arrangement has yet been
finally concluded between the two Governments, to secure, by
joint co-operation, the suppression of the slave trade. It was
the object of the British Government, in the early stages of the
negotiation, to adopt a plan for the suppression, which should
include the concession of the mutual right of search by the
ships of war of each party, of the vessels of the other, for
suspected offenders. This was objected to by this Govern-
ment, on the principle that, as the right of search was a
right of war of a belligerant towards a neutral power, it might
have an ill effect to extend it, by treaty, to an offence which
had been made comparatively mild, to a time of peace.
Anxious, however, for the suppression of this trade, it was
thought adviseable, in compliance with a resolution of the
House of Representatives, founded on an act of Congress, to
propose to the British Government an expedient, which should
260 APPENDIX B.
be free from that objection, and more effectual for the object,
by making it piratical. ... A convention to this effect was
concluded and signed, in London," on the i3th of March,
1824, "by plenipotentiaries duly authorized by both Govern-
ments, to the ratification of which certain obstacles have
arisen, which are not yet entirely removed." [For the removal
of which, the documents relating to the negotiation are sub-
mitted for the action of Congress] ....
" In execution of the laws for the suppression of the slave trade,
a vessel has been occasionally sent from that squadron to the
coast of Africa, with orders to return thence by the usual
track of the slave ships, and to seize any of our vessels which
might be engaged in that trade. None have been found, and,
it is believed, that none are thus employed. It is well known,
however, that the trade still exists under other flags." House
Journal, 18 Cong. 2 sess. pp. n, 12, 19, 27, 241; House
Reports > 18 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 70 ; Gales and Seaton, Register
of Debates, I. 625-8, and Appendix, p. 2 ff.
1825, Feb. 21. United States of Colombia : Proposed Treaty.
The President sends to the Senate a treaty with the United States
of Colombia drawn, as United States Minister Anderson said,
similar to that signed at London, with the alterations made by
the Senate. March 9, 1825, the Senate rejects this treaty.
Amer. State Papers, Foreign, V. 729-35.
1825, Feb. 28. Congress (House): Proposed Resolution on Slave-
Trade.
Mr. Mercer laid on the table the following resolution :
" Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested
to enter upon, and prosecute from time to time, such negotia-
tions with the several maritime powers of Europe and America,
as he may deem expedient for the effectual abolition of the
slave trade, and its ultimate denunciation, as piracy, under the
law of nations, by the consent of the civilized world." The
House refused to consider the resolution. House Journal,
18 Cong. 2 sess. p. 280 ; Gales and Seaton, Register of Debates,
I. 697, 736.
1825, March 3. Congress (House) : Proposed Resolution against Right
of Search.
" Mr. Forsyth submitted the following resolution :
"Resolved, That while this House anxiously desires that the Slave
APPENDIX B. 26l
Trade should be, universally, denounced as Piracy, and, as such,
should be detected and punished under the law of nations, it
considers that it would be highly inexpedient to enter into
engagements with any foreign power, by which all the mer-
chant vessels of the United States would be exposed to the
inconveniences of any regulation of search, from which any
merchant vessels of that foreign power would be exempted."
Resolution laid on the table. House Journal, 18 Cong. 2
sess. pp. 308-9 ; Gales and Seaton, Register of Debates, I. 739.
1825, Dec. G. President Adams's Message.
" The objects of the West India Squadron have been, to carry into
execution the laws for the suppression of the African Slave
Trade : for the protection of our commerce against vessels of
piratical character. . . . These objects, during the present
year, have been accomplished more effectually than at any
former period. The African Slave Trade has long been ex-
cluded from the use of our flag ; and if some few citizens of
our country have continued to set the laws of the Union, as
well as those of nature and humanity, at defiance, by persever-
ing in that abominable traffic, it has been only by sheltering
themselves under the banners of other nations, less earnest for
the total extinction of the trade than ours." House Journal,
19 Cong, i sess. pp. 20, 96, 296-7, 305, 323, 329, 394-5, 399.
410, 414, 421, 451, 640.
1826, Feb. 14. Congress (House) : Proposition to Repeal Parts of Act
of 1819.
" Mr. Forsyth submitted the following resolutions, viz. :
1. "Resolved, That it is expedient to repeal so much of the act of
the 3d March, 1819, entitled, 'An act in addition to the acts
prohibiting the slave trade,' as provides for the appointment
of agents on the coast of Africa.
2. " Resolved, That it is expedient so to modify the said act of the
3d of March, 1819, as to release the United States from all
obligation to support the negroes already removed to the
coast of Africa, and to provide for such a disposition of those
taken in slave ships who now are in, or who may be, here-
after, brought into the United States, as shall secure to them
a fair opportunity of obtaining a comfortable subsistence,
without any aid from the public treasury." Read and laid on
the table. Ibid., p. 258.
262 APPENDIX B.
1826, March 14. United States Statute : Appropriation.
" An Act making appropriations for the support of the navy," etc.
" For the agency on the coast of Africa, for receiving the negroes,"
etc., $32,000. Statutes at Large, IV. 140, 141.
1827, March 2. United States Statute : Appropriation.
" An Act making appropriations for the support of the Navy," etc.
"For the agency on the coast of Africa," etc., $56,710. Ibid.,
IV. 206, 208.
1827, March 11. Texas : Introduction of Slaves Prohibited.
Constitution of the State of Coahuila and Texas. Preliminary
Provisions :
Art. 13. " From and after the promulgation of the constitution
in the capital of each district, no one shall be born a slave in
the state, and after six months the introduction of slaves under
any pretext shall not be permitted." Laws and Decrees of
Coahuila and Texas (Houston, 1839), p. 314.
1827, Sept 15. Texas : Decree against Slave-Trade.
" The Congress of the State of Coahuila and Texas decrees as
follows : "
Art. i. All slaves to be registered.
Art. 2, 3. Births and deaths to be recorded.
Art. 4. " Those who introduce slaves, after the expiration of the
term specified in article 13 of the Constitution, shall be sub-
ject to the penalties established by the general law of the i3th
of July, 1824." Ibid., pp. 78-9.
1828, Feb. 25. Congress (House) : Proposed Bill to Abolish African
Agency, etc.
" Mr. McDuffie, from the Committee of Ways and Means, . . .
reported the following bill :
"A bill to abolish the Agency of the United States on the Coast
of Africa, to provide other means of carrying into effect the
laws prohibiting the slave trade, and for other purposes."
This bill was amended so as to become the act of May 24,
1828 (see below). House Reports, 21 Cong, i sess. III. No.
348, p. 278.
1828, May 24. United States Statute : Appropriation.
" An Act making an appropriation for the suppression of the slave
trade." Statutes at Large, IV. 302 ; House Journal, 20
Cong, i sess., House Bill No. 190.
1829, Jan. 28. Congress (House) : Bill to Amend Act of 1807.
The Committee on Commerce reported "a bill (No. 399) to
APPENDIX S. 263
amend an act, entitled ' An act to prohibit the importation of
slaves,' " etc. Referred to Committee of the Whole. House
Journal, 20 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 58, 84, 215. Cf. Ibid., 20
Cong, i sess. pp. 121, 135.
1829, March 2. United States Statute : Appropriation.
" An Act making additional appropriations for the support of the
navy," etc.
" For the reimbursement of the marshal of Florida for expenses
incurred in the case of certain Africans who were wrecked on
the coast of the United States, and for the expense of export-
ing them to Africa," $16,000. Statutes at Large, IV. 353, 354.
1830, April 7. Congress (House) : Resolution against Slave-Trade.
Mr. Mercer reported the following resolution :
" Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested
to consult and negotiate with all the Governments where Min-
isters of the United States are, or shall be accredited, on the
means of effecting an entire and immediate abolition of the
African slave trade ; and especially, on the expediency,
with that view, of causing it to be universally denounced as
piratical." Referred to Committee of the Whole ; no further
action recorded. House Journal, 21 Cong, i sess. p. 512.
1830, April 7. Congress (House) : Proposition to Amend Act of March
3, 1819.
Mr. Mercer, from the committee to which was referred the memo-
rial of the American Colonization Society, and also memorials,
from the inhabitants of Kentucky and Ohio, reported with a
bill (No. 412) to amend "An act in addition to the acts pro-
hibiting the slave trade," passed March 3, 1819. Read twice
and referred to Committee of the Whole. Ibid.
1830, May 31. Congress (Statute) : Appropriation.
" An Act making a re-appropriation of a sum heretofore appro-
priated for the suppression of the slave trade." Statutes at
Large, IV. 425; Senate Journal, 21 Cong, i sess. pp. 359,
360, 383 ; House Journal, 21 Cong, i sess. pp. 624, 808-11.
1830. [Brazil: Prohibition of Slave-Trade.
Slave-trade prohibited under severe penalties.]
1831, 1833. [Great Britain and France : Treaty Granting Right of
Search.
Convention between Great Britain and France granting a mutual
limited Right of Search on the East and West coasts of
264 APPENDIX B.
Africa, and on the coasts of the West Indies and Brazil.
British and Foreign State Papers, 1830-1, p. 641 ff; 1832-3,
p. 286 ff.]
1831, Feb. 16. Congress (House) : Proposed Resolution on Slave-
Trade.
" Mr. Mercer moved to suspend the rule of the House in regard
to motions, for the purpose of enabling himself to submit a
resolution requesting the Executive to enter into negotiations
with the maritime Powers of Europe, to induce them to
enact laws declaring the African slave trade piracy, and
punishing it as such." The motion was lost. Gales and
Seaton, Register of Debates, VII. 726.
1831, March 2. United States Statute : Appropriation.
" An Act making appropriations for the naval service," etc.
"For carrying into effect the acts for the suppression of the
slave trade," etc., $16,000. Statutes at Large, IV. 460, 462.
1831, March 3. Congress (House) : Resolution as to Treaties.
" Mr. Mercer moved to suspend the rule to enable him to submit
the following resolution :
" Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested
to renew, and to prosecute from time to time, such negotia-
tions with the several maritime powers of Europe and
America as he may deem expedient for the effectual abolition
of the African slave trade, and its ultimate denunciation as
piracy, under the laws of nations, by the consent of the
civilized world." The rule was suspended by a vote of 108
to 36, and the resolution passed, 1 18 to 32. House Journal,
21 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 426-8.
1833, Feb. 20. United States Statute : Appropriation.
" An Act making appropriations for the naval service," etc.
"... for carrying into effect the acts for the suppression of the
slave trade," etc., $5,000. Statutes at Large, IV. 614, 615.
1833, August. Great Britain and France : Proposed Treaty -with the
United States.
British and French ministers simultaneously invited the United
States to accede to the Convention just concluded between
them for the suppression of the slave-trade. The Secretary of
State, Mr. M'Lane, deferred answer until the meeting of Con-
gress, and then postponed negotiations on account of the
irritable state of the country on the slave question. Great
APPENDIX B. 265
Britain had proposed that " A reciprocal right of search . . .
be conceded by the United States, limited as to place, and
subject to specified restrictions. It is to be employed only
in repressing the Slave Trade, and to be exercised under a
written and specific authority, conferred on the Commander
of the visiting ship." In the act of accession, " it will be
necessary that the right of search should be extended to the
coasts of the United States," and Great Britain will in turn
extend it to the British West Indies. This proposal was
finally refused, March 24, 1834, chiefly, as stated, because
of the extension of the Right of Search to the coasts of the
United States. This part was waived by Great Britain, July
7, 1834. On Sept. 12 the French Minister joined in urging
accession. On Oct. 4, 1834, Forsyth states that the deter-
mination has "been definitely formed, not to make the
United States a party to any Convention on the subject of
the Slave Trade." Parliamentary Papers, 1835, Vol. LI.,
Slave Trade, Class B., pp. 84-92.
1833, Dec. 23. Georgia: Slave-Trade Acts Amended.
"An Act to reform, amend, and consolidate the penal laws of
the State of Georgia."
i3th Division. " Offences relative to Slaves " :
i. "If any person or persons shall bring, import, or intro-
duce into this State, or aid or assist, or knowingly become
concerned or interested, in bringing, importing, or intro-
ducing into this State, either by land or by water, or in
any manner whatever, any slave or slaves, each and every
such person or persons so offending, shall be deemed princi-
pals in law, and guilty of a high misdemeanor, and ... on
conviction, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five
hundred dollars each, for each and every slave, . . . and
imprisonment and labor in the penitentiary for any time not
less than one year, nor longer than four years." Residents,
however, may bring slaves for their own use, but must register
and swear they are not for sale, hire, mortgage, etc.
6. Penalty for knowingly receiving such slaves, $500. Slightly
amended Dec. 23, 1836, e. g., emigrants were allowed to hire
slaves out, etc. ; amended Dec. 19, 1849, so as to allow
importation of slaves from "any other slave holding State
of this Union." Prince, Digest, pp. 619, 653, 812; Cobb,
Digest, II. 1018.
266 APPENDIX B.
1834, Jan. 24. United States Statute: Appropriation.
" An Act making appropriations for the naval service," etc.
"For carrying into effect the acts for the suppression of the
slave trade," etc., $5,000. Statutes at Large, IV. 670, 671.
1836, March 17. Texas: African Slave-Trade Prohibited.
Constitution of the Republic of Texas : General Provisions :
9. All persons of color who were slaves for life before coming
to Texas shall remain so. " Congress shall pass no laws to
prohibit emigrants from bringing their slaves into the re-
public with them, and holding them by the same tenure by
which such slaves were held in the United States ; . . . the
importation or admission of Africans or negroes into this
republic, excepting from the United States of America, is
forever prohibited, and declared to be piracy." Laws of the
Republic of Texas (Houston, 1838), I. 19.
1836, Dec. 21. Texas: Slave-Trade made Piracy.
" An Act supplementary to an act, for the punishment of Crimes
and Misdemeanors."
i. " e it enacted . . . , That if any person or persons shall
introduce any African negro or negroes, contrary to the true
intent and meaning of the ninth section of the general pro-
visions of the constitution, . . . except such as are from the
United States of America, and had been held as slaves therein,
be considered guilty of piracy ; and upon conviction there-
of, before any court having cognizance of the same, shall suffer
death, without the benefit of clergy."
2. The introduction of Negroes from the United States of
America, except of those legally held as slaves there, shall be
piracy. Ibid., I. 197. Cf. House Doc., 27 Cong, i sess. No.
34, p. 42.
1837, March 3. United States Statute : Appropriation.
" An Act making appropriations for the naval service," etc.
" For carrying into effect the acts for the suppression of the slave
trade," etc., $11,413.57. Statutes at Large, V. 155, 157.
1838, March 19. Congress (Senate) : Slave-Trade with Texas, etc.
" Mr. Morris submitted the following motion for consideration :
" Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary be instructed to
inquire whether the present laws of the United States, on the
subject of the slave trade, will prohibit that trade being carried
on between citizens of the United States and citizens of the
APPENDIX B. 267
Republic of Texas, either by land or by sea ; and whether it
would be lawful in vessels owned by citizens of that Republic,
and not lawful in vessels owned by citizens of this, or lawful in
both, and by citizens of both countries ; and also whether a
slave carried from the United States into a foreign country,
and brought back, on returning into the United States, is
considered a free person, or is liable to be sent back, if
demanded, as a slave, into that country from which he or she
last came; and also whether any additional legislation by
Congress is necessary on any of these subjects." March 20,
the motion of Mr. Walker that this resolution "lie on the
table," was determined in the affirmative, 32 to 9. Senate
Journal, 25 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 297-8, 300.
1839, Feb. 5. Congress (Senate): Bill to Amend Slave-Trade Acts.
" Mr. Strange, on leave, and in pursuance of notice given, intro-
duced a bill to amend an act entitled an act to prohibit the
importation of slaves into any port in the jurisdiction of the
United States ; which was read twice, and referred to
the Committee on Commerce." March i, the Committee
was discharged from further consideration of the bill. Con-
gressional Globe, 25 Cong. 3 sess. p. 172; Senate Journal,
25 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 200, 313.
1839, Dec. 24. President Van Buren's Message.
"It will be seen by the report of the Secretary of the navy
respecting the disposition of our ships of war, that it has
been deemed necessary to station a competent force on the
coast of Africa, to prevent a fraudulent use of our flag by
foreigners.
" Recent experience has shown that the provisions in our existing
laws which relate to the sale and transfer of American vessels
while abroad, are extremely defective. Advantage has been
.taken of these defects to give to vessels wholly belonging to
foreigners, and navigating the ocean, an apparent American
ownership. This character has been so well simulated as to
afford them comparative security in prosecuting the slave trade,
a traffic emphatically denounced in our statutes, regarded with
abhorrence by our citizens, and of which the effectual sup-
pression is nowhere more sincerely desired than in the United
States. These circumstances make it proper to recommend to
your early attention a careful revision of these laws, so that . . .
268 APPENDIX B.
the integrity and honor of our flag may be carefully preserved."
House Journal, 26 Cong, i sess. pp. 117-8.
1840, Jan. 3. Congress (Senate) : Bill to Amend Act of 1807.
" Agreeably to notice, Mr. Strange asked and obtained leave to
bring in a bill (Senate, No. 123) to amend an act entitled
'An act to prohibit the importation of slaves into any port
or place within the jurisdiction of the United States from and
after the ist day of January, in the year 1808,' approved the
2d day of March, 1807 ; which was read the first and second
times, by unanimous consent, and referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary." Jan. 8, it was reported without amend-
ment ; May n, it was considered, and, on motion by Mr. King,
" Ordered, That it lie on the table." Senate Journal, 26 Cong,
i sess. pp. 73, 87, 363.
1840, May 4. Congress (Senate) : Bill on Slave-Trade.
" Mr. Davis, from the Committee on Commerce, reported a bill
(Senate, No. 335) making further provision to prevent the
abuse of the flag of the United States, and the use of un-
authorized papers in the foreign slavetrade, and for other
purposes." This passed the Senate, but was dropped in the
House. Ibid., pp. 356, 359, 440, 442; House Journal, 26
Cong, i sess. pp. 1138, 1228, 1257.
1841, June 1. Congress (House) : President Tyler's Message.
" I shall also, at the proper season, invite your attention to the
statutory enactments for the suppression of the slave trade,
which may require to be rendered more efficient in their
provisions. There is reason to believe that the traffic is on
the increase. Whether such increase is to be ascribed to
the abolition of slave labor in the British possessions in our
vicinity, and an attendant diminution in the supply of those
articles which enter into the general consumption of the world,
thereby augmenting the demand from other quarters, ... it
were needless to inquire. The highest considerations of public
honor, as well as the strongest promptings of humanity, require
a resort to the most vigorous efforts to suppress the trade."
House Journal, 27 Cong, i sess. pp. 31, 184.
1841, Dec. 7. President Tyler's Message.
Though the United States is desirous to suppress the slave-trade,
she will not submit to interpolations into the maritime code at
will by other nations. This government has expressed its
APPENDIX B. 269
repugnance to the trade by several laws. It is a matter for
deliberation whether we will enter upon treaties containing
mutual stipulations upon the subject with other governments.
The United States will demand indemnity for all depredations
by Great Britain.
" I invite your attention to existing laws for the suppression of the
African slave trade, and recommend all such alterations as may
give to them greater force and efficacy. That the American
flag is grossly abused by the abandoned and profligate of other
nations is but too probable. Congress has, not long since,
had this subject under its consideration, and its importance
well justifies renewed and anxious attention." House Journal,
27 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 14-5, 86, 113.
1841, Dec. 20. [Great Britain, Austria, Russia, Prussia, and France:
Quintuple Treaty.] British and Foreign State Papers, 1841-2,
p. 269 ff.
1842, Feb. 15. Right of Search : Cass's Protest.
Cass writes to Webster, that, considering the fact that the signing
of the Quintuple Treaty would oblige the participants to exer-
cise the Right of Search denied by the United States, or to
make a change in the hitherto recognized law of nations, he,
on his own responsibility, addressed the following protest to
the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Guizot :
"LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
" PARIS, February 13, 1842.
" SIR : The recent signature of a treaty, having for its object the
suppression of the African slave trade, by five of the powers of
Europe, and to which France is a party, is a fact of such gen-
eral notoriety that it may be assumed as the basis of any diplo-
matic representations which the subject may fairly require."
The United States is no party to this treaty. She denies the
Right of Visitation which England asserts. [Quotes from the
presidential message of Dec. 7, 1841.] This principle is
asserted by the treaty.
"... The moral effect which such a union of five great powers,
two of which are eminently maritime, but three of which have
perhaps never had a vessel engaged in that traffic, is calculated
to produce upon the United States, and upon other nations
who, like them, may be indisposed to these combined move-
ments, though it may be regretted, yet furnishes no just cause
2/0 APPENDIX B.
of complaint. But the subject assumes another aspect when
they are told by one of the parties that their vessels are to be
forcibly entered and examined, in order to carry into effect
these stipulations. Certainly the American Government does
not believe that the high powers, contracting parties to this
treaty, have any wish to compel the United States, by force,
to adopt their measures to its provisions, or to adopt its stipula-
tions . . . ; and they will see with pleasure the prompt dis-
avowal made by yourself, sir, in the name of your country,
... of any intentions of this nature. But were it otherwise,
. . . They would prepare themselves with apprehension, indeed,
but without dismay with regret, but with firmness for one
of those desperate struggles which have sometimes occurred in
the history of the world."
If, as England says, these treaties cannot be executed without
visiting United States ships, then France must pursue the same
course. It is hoped, therefore, that his Majesty will, before
signing this treaty, carefully examine the pretensions of Eng-
land and their compatibility with the law of nations and the
honor of the United States. Senate Doc., 27 Cong. 3 sess.
II. No. 52, and IV. No. 223 ; 29 Cong, i sess. VIII. No. 377,
pp. 192-5.
1842, Feb. 26. Mississippi: Resolutions on Creole Case.
The following resolutions were referred to the Committee on
. Foreign Affairs in the United States Congress, House of Repre-
sentatives, May 10, 1842 :
"Whereas, the right of search has never been yielded to Great
Britain," and the brig Creole has not been surrendered by the
British authorities, etc., therefore,
i. "Be it resolved by the Legislature of the State of Missis-
sippi, That . . . the right of search cannot be conceded to
Great Britain without a manifest servile submission, unworthy
a free nation. . . .
2. " Resolved, That any attempt to detain and search our vessels,
by British cruisers, should be held and esteemed an unjustifiable
outrage on the part of the Queen's Government ; and that any
such outrage, which may have occurred since Lord Aberdeen's
note to our envoy at the Court of St. James, of date October
thirteen, eighteen hundred and forty-one, (if any,) may well be
deemed, by our Government, just cause of war."
APPENDIX B. 2/1
3. "Resolved, That the Legislature of the State, in view of the
late murderous insurrection of the slaves on board the Creole,
their reception in a British port, the absolute connivance at
their crimes, manifest in the protection extended to them by
the British authorities, most solemnly declare their firm con-
viction that, if the conduct of those authorities be submitted
to, compounded for by the payment of money, or in any
other manner, or atoned for in any mode except by the sur-
render of the actual criminals to the Federal Government,
and the delivery of the other identical slaves to their rightful
owner or owners, or his or their agents, the slaveholding
States would have most just cause to apprehend that the
American flag is powerless to protect American property;
that the Federal Government is not sufficiently energetic in
the maintenance and preservation of their peculiar rights ; and
that these rights, therefore, are in imminent danger."
4. Resolved, That restitution should be demanded " at all
hazards." Hotise Doc., 27 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 215.
1842, March 21. Congress (House) : Giddings's Resolutions.
Mr. Giddings moved the following resolutions :
5. " Resolved, That when a ship belonging to the citizens of any
State of this Union leaves the waters and territory of such
State, and enters upon the high seas, the persons on board
cease to be subject to the slave laws of such State, and
therefore are governed in their relations to each other by, and
are amenable to, the laws of the United States."
6. Resolved, That the slaves in the brig Creole are amenable
only to the laws of the United States.
7. Resolved, That those slaves by resuming their natural liberty
violated no laws of the United States.
8. Resolved, That all attempts to re-enslave them are unconsti-
tutional, etc.
Moved that these resolutions lie on the table; defeated, 53 to
125. Mr. Giddings withdrew the resolutions. Moved to
censure Mr. Giddings, and he was finally censured. House
Journal, 27 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 567-80.
1842, May 10. Congress (House) : Remonstrance of Mississippi
against Right of Search.
" Mr. Gwin presented resolutions of the Legislature of the State
2/2 APPENDIX B,
of Mississippi, against granting the right of search to Great
Britain for the purpose of suppressing the African slave trade ;
urging the Government to demand of the British Government
redress and restitution in relation to the case of the brig
Creole and the slaves on board." Referred to the Committee
on Foreign Affairs. House Journal, 27 Cong. 2 sess. p. 800.
1842, Aug. 4. United States Statute : Appropriation.
" An Act making appropriations for the naval service," etc.
" For carrying into effect the acts for the suppression of the slave
trade," etc. $10,543.42. Statutes at Large, V. 500, 501.
1842, Nov. 10. Joint-Cruising Treaty with Great Britain.
" Treaty to settle and define boundaries ; for the final suppression
of the African slave-trade ; and for the giving up of criminals
fugitive from justice. Concluded August 9, 1842; ratifications
exchanged at London October 13, 1842 ; proclaimed Novem-
ber 10, 1842." Articles VIII., and IX. Ratified by the Sen-
ate by a vote of 39 to 9, after several unsuccessful attempts
to amend it. U. S. Treaties and Conventions (1889),
pp. 436-7 ; Senate Exec. Journal, VI. 118-32.
1842, Dec. 7. President Tyler's Message.
The treaty of Ghent binds the United States and Great Britain to
the suppression of the slave-trade. The Right of Search was
refused by the United States, and our Minister in France for
that reason protested against the Quintuple Treaty ; his conduct
had the approval of the administration. On this account the
eighth article was inserted, causing each government to keep
a flotilla in African waters to enforce the laws. If this should
be done by all the powers, the trade would be swept from the
ocean. House Journal, 27 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 16-7.
1843, Feb. 22. Congress (Senate) : Appropriation Opposed.
Motion by Mr. Benton, during debate on naval appropriations, to
strike out appropriation " for the support of Africans recap-
tured on the coast of Africa or elsewhere, and returned to
Africa by the armed vessels of the United States, $5,000."
Lost; similar proposition by Bagby, lost. Proposition to
strike out appropriation for squadron, lost. March 3, bill
becomes a law, with appropriation for Africans, but without
that for squadron. Congressional Globe, 27 Cong. 3 sess. pp.
328, 331-6; Statutes at Large, V. 615.
APPENDIX B. 2/3
1845, Feb. 20. President Tyler's Special Message to Congress.
Message on violations of Brazilian slave-trade laws by Americans.
House Journal, 28 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 425, 463 ; House Doc.,
28 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 148. Cf. Ibid., 29 Cong, i sess. III.
No. 43.
1846, Aug. 10. United States Statute: Appropriation.
" For carrying into effect the acts for the suppression of the slave
trade, including the support of recaptured Africans, and their
removal to their country, twenty-five thousand dollars." Stat-
utes at Large, IX. 96.
1849, Dec. 4. President Taylor's Message.
"Your attention is earnestly invited to an amendment of our
existing laws relating to the African slave-trade, with a view to
the effectual suppression of that barbarous traffic. It is not
to be denied that this trade is still, in part, carried on by
means of vessels built in the United States, and owned or
navigated by some of our citizens." House Exec. Doc., 31
Cong, i sess. III. No. 5, pp. 7-8.
1850, Aug. 1. Congress (House) : Bill for War Steamers.
" A bill (House, No. 367) to establish a line of war steamers to the
coast of Africa for the suppression of the slave trade and the
promotion of commerce and colonization." Read twice, and
referred to Committee of the Whole. House Journal, 3 1
Cong, i sess. pp. 1022, 1158, 1217.
1850, Dec. 16. Congress (House) : Treaty of Washington.
" Mr. Burt, by unanimous consent, introduced a joint resolution
(No. 28) * to terminate the eighth article of the treaty between
the United States and Great Britain concluded at Washing-
ton the ninth day of August, 1842.'" Read twice, and re-
ferred to the Committee on Naval Affairs. Ibid., 31 Cong.
2 sess. p. 64.
1851, Jan. 22. Congress (Senate) : Resolution on Sea Letters.
" The following resolution, submitted by Mr. Clay the 2Oth instant,
came up for consideration :
" Resolved, That the Committee on Commerce be instructed to
inquire into the expediency of making more effectual provision
by law to prevent the employment of American vessels and
American seamen in the African slave trade, and especially as
to the expediency of granting sea letters or other evidence of
national character to American vessels clearing out of the
18
2/4 APPENDIX B.
ports of the empire of Brazil for the western coast of Africa."
Agreed to. Congressional Globe, 31 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 304-9 ;
Senate Journal, 31 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 95, 102-3.
1851, Feb. 19. Congress (Senate) : Bill on Slave-Trade.
"A bill (Senate, No. 472) concerning the intercourse and trade
of vessels of the United States with certain places on the east-
ern and western coasts of Africa, and for other purposes."
Read once. Senate Journal, 31 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 42, 45,
84, 94, 159, 193-4; Congressional Globe, 31 Cong. 2 sess.
pp. 246-7.
1851, Dec. 3. Congress (House): Bill to Amend Act of 1807.
Mr. Giddings gave notice of a bill to repeal 9 and 10 of the
act to prohibit the importation of slaves, etc. from and after
Jan. i, 1808. House Journal, 32 Cong, i sess. p. 42. Cf.
Ibid., 33 Cong, i sess. p. 147.
1852, Feb. 5. Alabama : Illegal Importations.
By code approved on this date :
2058-2062. If slaves have been imported contrary to law,
they are to be sold, and one fourth paid to the agent or in-
former and the residue to the treasury. An agent is to be
appointed to take charge of such slaves, who is to give bond.
Pending controversy, he may hire the slaves out. Ormond,
Code of Alabama, pp. 392-3.
1853, March 3. Congress (Senate) : Appropriation Proposed.
A bill making appropriations for the naval service for the year end-
ing June 30, 1854. Mr. Underwood offered the following
amendment :
" For executing the provisions of the act approved 3d of March,
1819, entitled 'An act in addition to the acts prohibiting the
slave trade,' $20,000." Amendment agreed to, and bill
passed. It appears, however, to have been subsequently
amended in the House, and the appropriation does not stand
in the final act. Congressional Globe, 32 Cong. 2 sess. p. 1072 ;
Statutes at Large, X. 214.
1854, May 22. Congress (Senate) : West India Slave-Trade.
Mr. Clayton presented the following resolution, which was unani-
mously agreed to :
" Resolved, That the Committee on Foreign Relations be instructed
to inquire into the expediency of providing by law for such
restrictions on the power of American consuls residing in the
APPENDIX B. 275
Spanish West India islands to issue sea letters on the transfer
of American vessels in those islands, as will prevent the abuse
of the American flag in protecting persons engaged in the
African slave trade." June 26, 1854, this committee reported
"a bill (Senate, No. 416) for the more effectual suppression
of the slave-trade in American built vessels." Passed Senate,
postponed in House. Senate Journal, 33 Cong, i sess. pp. 404,
457-8, 472-3, 476; House Journal, 33 Cong, i sess. pp. 1093,
1332-3; Congressional Globe, 33 Cong, i sess. pp. 1257-61,
JS 11 ^ iSP^Si 2I 39-
1854, May 29. Congress (Senate) : Treaty of Washington.
Resolved, " that, in the opinion of the Senate, it is expedient, and
in conformity with the interests and sound policy of the United
States, that the eighth article of the treaty between this govern-
ment and Great Britain, of the qth of August, 1842, should be
abrogated." Introduced by Slidell, and favorably reported
from Committee on Foreign Relations in Executive Session,
June 13, 1854. Senate Journal, 34 Cong. 1-2 sess. pp. 396,
695-8; Senate Reports, 34 Cong, i sess. I. No. 195.
1854, June 21. Congress (Senate) : Bill Regulating Navigation.
" Mr. Seward asked and obtained leave to bring in a bill (Senate,
No. 407) to regulate navigation to the coast of Africa in vessels
owned by citizens of the United States, in certain cases ; which
was read and passed to a second reading." June 22, ordered
to be printed. Senate Journal^ 33 Cong, i sess. pp. 448, 451 ;
Congressional Globe, 33 Cong, i sess. pp. 1456, 1461, 1472.
1854, June 26. Congress (Senate) : Bill to Suppress Slave-Trade.
"A bill for the more effectual suppression of the slave trade in
American built vessels." See references to May 22, 1854,
above.
1856, June 23. Congress (House) : Proposition to Amend Act of 1818.
Notice given of a bill to amend the Act of April 20, 1818. House
Journal, 34 Cong, i sess. II. noi.
1856, Aug. 18. United States Statute : Appropriation.
To carry out the Act of March 3, 1819, and subsequent acts,
$8,000. Statutes at Large, XI. 90.
1856, Nov. 24. South Carolina : Governor's Message.
Governor Adams, in his annual message to the legislature, said :
" It is apprehended that the opening of this trade [/. e., the slave-
trade] will lessen the value of slaves, and ultimately destroy the
276 APPENDIX B.
institution. It is a sufficient answer to point to the fact, that
unrestricted immigration has not diminished the value of labor
in the Northwestern section of the confederacy. The cry there
is, want of labor, notwithstanding capital has the pauperism of
the old world to press into its grinding service. If we cannot
supply the demand for slave labor, then we must expect to be
supplied with a species of labor we do not want, and which is,
from the very nature of things, antagonistic to our institutions.
It is much better that our drays should be driven by slaves
that our factories should be worked by slaves that our hotels
should be served by slaves that our locomotives should be
manned by slaves, than that we should be exposed to the intro-
duction, from any quarter, of a population alien to us by birth,
training, and education, and which, in the process of time, must
lead to that conflict between capital and labor, ' which makes
it so difficult to maintain free institutions in all wealthy and
highly civilized nations where such institutions as ours do not
exist.' In all slaveholding States, true policy dictates that the
superior race should direct, and the inferior perform all menial
service. Competition between the white and black man for
this service, may not disturb Northern sensibility, but it
does not exactly suit our latitude." South Carolina House
Journal, 1856, p. 36; Cluskey, Political Text- Book, 14 edition,
P- 585-
1856, Dec. 15. Congress (House) : Reopening of Slave- Trade.
" Resolved, That this House of Representatives regards all sugges-
tions and propositions of every kind, by whomsoever made,
for a revival of the African slave trade, as shocking to the moral
sentiment of the enlightened portion of mankind ; and that any
action on the part of Congress conniving at or legalizing that
horrid and inhuman traffic would justly subject the government
and citizens of the United States to the reproach and execra-
tion of all civilized and Christian people throughout the world."
Offered by Mr. Etheridge; agreed to, 152 to 57. House
Journal, 34 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 105-11 ; Congressional Globe,
34 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 123-5, and Appendix, pp. 364-70.
1856, Dec. 15. Congress (House) : Reopening of Slave-Trade.
" Resolved, That it is inexpedient to repeal the laws prohibiting the
African slave trade." Offered by Mr. Orr ; not voted upon.
Congressional Globe, 34 Cong. 3 sess. p. 123.
APPENDIX B. 277
1856, Dec. 15. Congress (House) : Reopening of Slave-Trade.
" Resolved, That it is inexpedient, unwise, and contrary to the settled
policy of the United States, to repeal the laws prohibiting the
African slave trade." Offered by Mr. Orr j agreed to, 183 to 8.
House Journal, 34 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 111-3; Congressional
Globe, 34 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 125-6.
1856, Dec. 15. Congress (House) : Reopening of Slave-Trade.
" Resolved, That the House of Representatives, expressing, as they
believe, public opinion both North and South, are utterly op-
posed to the reopening of the slave trade." Offered by Mr.
Boyce; not voted upon. Congressional Globe, 34 Cong. 3
sess. p. 125.
1857. South Carolina : Report of Legislative Committee.
Special committee of seven on the slave-trade clause in the Gover-
nor's message report : majority report of six members, favoring
the reopening of the African slave-trade ; minority report of
Pettigrew, opposing it. Report of the Special Committee, etc.,
published in 1857.
1857, March 3. United States Statute : Appropriation.
To carry out the Act of March 3, 1819, and subsequent acts,
$8,000. Statutes at Large, XI. 227 ; House Journal, 34 Cong.
3 sess. p. 397. Cf. House Exec. Doc., 34 Cong. 3 sess. IX.
No. 70.
1858, March (?). Louisiana : Bill to Import Africans.
Passed House ; lost in Senate by two votes. Cf. Congressional
Globe, 35 Cong, i sess. p. 1362.
1858, Dec. 6. President Buchanan's Message.
" The truth is, that Cuba in its existing colonial condition, is a
constant source of injury and annoyance to the American
people. It is the only spot in the civilized world where the
African slave trade is tolerated ; and we are bound by treaty
with Great Britain to maintain a naval force on the coast of
Africa, at much expense both of life and treasure, solely for
the purpose of arresting slavers bound to that island. The
late serious difficulties between the United States and Great
Britain respecting the right of search, now so happily ter-
minated, could never have arisen if Cuba had not afforded
a market for slaves. As long as this market shall remain
open, there can be no hope for the civilization of benighted
Africa. . .
278 APPENDIX B.
"It has been made known to the world by my predecessors that
the United States have, on several occasions, endeavored to
acquire Cuba from Spain by honorable negotiation. If this
were accomplished, the last relic of the African slave trade
would instantly disappear. We would not, if we could, acquire
Cuba in any other manner. This is due to our national char-
acter. . . . This course we shall ever pursue, unless circum-
stances should occur, which we do not now anticipate, render-
ing a departure from it clearly justifiable, under the imperative
and overruling law of self-preservation." House Exec. Doc.,
35 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 2, pp. 14-5. See also Ibid., pp. 31-3.
1858, Dec. 23. Congress (House) : Resolution on Slave-Trade.
On motion of Mr. Farnsworth,
" Resolved, That the Committee on Naval Affairs be requested to
inquire and report to this House if any, and what, further legis-
lation is necessary on the part of the United States to fully
carry out and perform the stipulations contained in the eighth
article of the treaty with Great Britain (known as the ' Ash-
burton treaty ') for the suppression of the slave trade." House
Journal, 35 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 115-6.
1859, Jan. 5. Congress (Senate) : Resolution on Slave-Trade.
On motion of Mr. Seward, Dec. 21, 1858,
"Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary inquire whether
any amendments to existing laws ought to be made for the
suppression of the African slave trade." Senate Journal, 35
Cong. 2 sess. pp. 80, 108, 115.
1859, Jan. 13. Congress (Senate) : Bill on Slave-Trade.
Mr. Seward introduced " a bill (Senate, No. 510) in addition to
the acts which prohibit the slave trade." Referred to com-
mittee, reported, and dropped. Ibid., pp. 134, 321.
1859, Jan. 31. Congress (House) : Reopening of Slave-Trade.
" Mr. Kilgore moved that the rules be suspended, so as to enable
him to submit the following preamble and resolutions, viz :
" Whereas the laws prohibiting the African slave trade have become
a topic of discussion with newspaper writers and political agi-
tators, many of them boldly denouncing these laws as unwise in
policy and disgraceful in their provisions, and insisting on the
justice and propriety of their repeal, and the revival of the
odious traffic in African slaves ; and whereas recent demon-
strations afford strong reasons to apprehend that said laws are
APPENDIX B. 279
to be set at defiance, and their violation openly countenanced
and encouraged by a portion of the citizens of some of the
States of this Union ; and whereas it is proper in view of said
facts that the sentiments of the people's representatives in
Congress should be made public in relation thereto : There-
fore
** Resolved, That while we recognize no right on the part of the
federal government, or any other law-making power, save
that of the States wherein it exists, to interfere with or disturb
the institution of domestic slavery where it is established or
protected by State legislation, we do hold that Congress has
power to prohibit the foreign traffic, and that no legislation
can be too thorough in its measures, nor can any penalty known
to the catalogue of modern punishment for crime be too severe
against a traffic so inhuman and unchristian.
" Resolved, That the laws in force against said traffic are founded
upon the broadest principles of philanthropy, religion, and
humanity; that they should remain unchanged, except so far
as legislation may be needed to render them more efficient ;
that they should be faithfully and promptly executed by our
government, and respected by all good citizens.
"Resolved, That the Executive should be sustained and com-
mended for any proper efforts whenever and wherever made
to enforce said laws, and to bring to speedy punishment the
wicked violators thereof, and all their aiders and abettors."
Failed of the two-thirds vote necessary to suspend the rules
the vote being 1 1 5 to 84 and was dropped. House Journal,
35 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 298-9.
1859, March 3. United States Statute : Appropriation.
To carry out the Act of March 3, 1819, and subsequent acts, and
to pay expenses already incurred, $75,000. Statutes at Large,
XI. 404.
1859, Dec. 19. President Buchanan's Message.
"All lawful means at my command have been employed, and
shall continue to be employed, to execute the laws against the
African slave trade. After a most careful and rigorous exami-
nation of our coasts, and a thorough investigation of the sub-
ject, we have not been able to discover that any slaves have
been imported into the United States except the cargo by the
Wanderer, numbering between three and four hundred. Those
280 APPENDIX B.
engaged in this unlawful enterprise have been rigorously prose-
cuted, but not with as much success as their crimes have de-
served. A number of them are still under prosecution. [Here
follows a history of our slave-trade legislation.]
" These acts of Congress, it is believed, have, with very rare and
insignificant exceptions, accomplished their purpose. For a
period of more than half a century there has been no percepti-
ble addition to the number of our domestic slaves. . . . Reopen
the trade, and it would be difficult to determine whether the
effect would be more deleterious on the interests of the master,
or on those of the native born slave, ..." Senate Exec.
Doc., 36 Cong, i sess. I. No. 2, pp. 5-8.
1860, March 20. Congress (Senate) : Proposed Resolution.
" Mr. Wilson submitted the following resolution ; which was con-
sidered, by unanimous consent, and agreed to :
" Resolved^ That the Committee on the Judiciary be instructed to
inquire into the expediency of so amending the laws of the
United States in relation to the suppression of the African
slave trade as to provide a penalty of imprisonment for life for
a participation in such trade, instead of the penalty of forfeiture
of life, as now provided ; and also an amendment of such laws
as will include in the punishment for said offense all persons
who fit out or are in any way connected with or interested
in fitting out expeditions or vessels for the purpose of en-
gaging in such slave trade." Senate Journal, 36 Cong, i sess.
p. 274.
1860, March 20. Congress (Senate) : Right of Search.
" Mr. Wilson asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to
bring in a joint resolution (Senate, No. 20) to secure the right
of search on the coast of Africa, for the more effectual suppres-
sion of the African slave trade." Read twice, and referred to
Committee on Foreign Relations. Ibid.
1860, March 20. Congress (Senate) : Steam Vessels for Slave-
Trade.
" Mr. Wilson asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to
bring in a bill (Senate, No. 296) for the construction of five
steam screw sloops- of- war, for service on the African coast."
Read twice, and referred to Committee on Naval Affairs ;
May 23, reported with an amendment. Ibid., pp. 274,
494-5-
APPENDIX B. 28l
1860, March 26. Congress (House) : Proposed Resolutions.
" Mr. Morse submitted . . . the following resolutions ; which were
read and committed to the Committee of the Whole House on
the state of the Union, viz :
" Resolved, That for the more effectual suppression of the African
slave trade the treaty of 1842 . . . , requiring each country to
keep eighty guns on the coast of Africa for that purpose, should
be so changed as to require a specified and sufficient number
of small steamers and fast sailing brigs or schooners to be kept
on said coast. . . .
" Resolved, That as the African slave trade appears to be rapidly
increasing, some effective mode of identifying the nationality of
a vessel on the coast of Africa suspected of being in the slave
trade or of wearing false colors should be immediately adopted
and carried into effect by the leading maritime nations of the
earth ; and that the government of the United States has thus
far, by refusing to aid in establishing such a system, shown a
strange neglect of one of the best means of suppressing said
trade.
" Resolved, That the African slave trade is against the moral senti-
ment of mankind and a crime against human nature ; and that
as the most highly civilized nations have made it a criminal
offence or piracy under their own municipal laws, it ought at
once and without hesitation to be declared a crime by the code
of international law ; and that . . . the President be requested
to open negotiations on this subject with the leading powers
of Europe." . . . House Journal, 36 Cong, i sess. I. 588-9.
1860, April 16. Congress (Senate) : Bill on Slave-Trade.
" Mr. Wilson asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to
bring in a bill (Senate, No. 408) for the more effectual sup-
pression of the slave trade." Bill read twice, and ordered to lie
on the table ; May 2 1 , referred to Committee on the Judiciary,
and printed. Senate Journal, 36 Cong, i sess. pp. 394, 485 ;
Congressional Globe, 36 Cong, i sess. pp. 1721, 2207-11.
1860, May 21. Congress (House) : Buyers of Imported Negroes.
" Mr. Wells submitted the following resolution, and debate arising
thereon, it lies over under the rule, viz :
" Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary be instructed to
report forthwith a bill providing that any person purchasing
any negro or other person imported into this country in vio-
lation of the laws for suppressing the slave trade, shall not
282 APPENDIX B.
by reason of said purchase acquire any title to said negro or
person ; and where such purchase is made with a knowledge
that such negro or other person has been so imported, shall
forfeit not less than one thousand dollars, and be punished by
imprisonment for a term not less than six months." House
Journal, 36 Cong, i sess. II. 880.
1860, May 26. United States Statute : Appropriation.
To carry out the Act of March 3, 1819, and subsequent acts,
$40,000. Statutes at Large, XII. 21.
1860, June 16. United States Statute: Additional Act to Act
of 1819.
" An Act to amend an Act entitled ' An Act in addition to the
Acts Prohibiting the Slave Trade.' " Ibid., XII. 40-1 ; Senate
Journal, 36 Cong, i sess., Senate Bill No. 464.
1860, July 11. Great Britain : Proposed Co-operation.
Lord John Russell suggested for the suppression of the trade :
" i st. A systematic plan of cruising on the coast of Cuba by the
vessels of Great Britain, Spain, and the United States.
" 2d. Laws of registration and inspection in the Island of Cuba, by
which the employment of slaves, imported contrary to law,
might be detected by the Spanish authorities.
" 3d. A plan of emigration from China, regulated by the agents of
European nations, in conjunction with the Chinese authori-
ties." President Buchanan refused to co-operate on this
plan. House Exec. Doc., 36 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 7, pp.
44i-3> 446-8.
1860, Dec. 3. President Buchanan's Message.
" It is with great satisfaction I communicate the fact that since the
date of my last annual message not a single slave has been im-
ported into the United States in violation of the laws prohibit-
ing the African slave trade. This statement is founded upon
a thorough examination and investigation of the subject. In-
deed, the spirit which prevailed some time since among a por-
tion of our fellow-citizens in favor of this trade seems to have
entirely subsided." Senate Exec. Doc., 36 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. i,
p. 24.
1860, Dec. 12. Congress (House) : Proposition to Amend Consti-
tution.
Mr. John Cochrane's resolution :
" The migration or importation of slaves into the United States or
any of the Territories thereof, from any foreign country, is here-
APPENDIX B. 283
by prohibited." House Journal, 36 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 61-2 ;
Congressional Globe, 36 Cong. 2 sess. p. 77.
1860, Dec. 24. Congress (Senate) : Bill on Slave-Trade.
" Mr. Wilson asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to
bring in a bill (Senate, No. 529) for the more effectual sup-
pression of the slave trade." Read twice, and referred to
Committee on the Judiciary; not mentioned again. Senate
Journal, 36 Cong. 2 sess. p. 62 ; Congressional Globe, 36
Cong. 2 sess. p. 182.
1861, Jan. 7. Congress (House) : Proposition to Amend Constitution.
Mr. Etheridge's resolution :
5. "The migration or importation of persons held to service or
labor for life, or a term of years, into any of the States, or the Ter-
ritories belonging to the United States, is perpetually prohibited ;
and Congress shall pass all laws necessary to make said pro-
hibition effective." Congressional Globe, 36 Cong. 2 sess.
p. 279.
1861, Jan. 23. Congress (House) : Proposition to Amend Consti-
tution.
Resolution of Mr. Morris of Pennsylvania :
" Neither Congress nor a Territorial Legislature shall make any law
respecting slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punish-
ment for crime ; but Congress may pass laws for the suppres-
sion of the African slave trade, and the rendition of fugitives
from service or labor in the States." Mr. Morris asked to
have it printed, that he might at the proper time move it as an
amendment to the report of the select committee of thirty-
three. It was ordered to be printed. Ibid., p. 527.
1861, Feb. 1. Congress (House) : Proposition to Amend Consti-
tution.
Resolution of Mr. Kellogg of Illinois :
1 6. "The migration or importation of persons held to service or
involuntary servitude into any State, Territory, or place within
the United States, from any place or country beyond the limits
of the United States or Territories thereof, is forever prohib-
ited." Considered Feb. 27, 1861, and lost. Ibid., pp. 690,
i243> 1259-60.
1861, Feb. 8. Confederate States of America : Importation Prohibited.
Constitution for the Provisional Government of the Confederate
States of America, Article I. Section 7 :
284 APPENDIX B.
"i. The importation of African negroes from any foreign country
other than the slave-holding States of the United States, is
hereby forbidden ; and Congress are required to pass such laws
as shall effectually prevent the same.
" 2 . The Congress shall also have power to prohibit the introduc-
tion of slaves from any State not a member of this Confederacy."
March n, 1861, this article was placed in the permanent Con-
stitution. The first line was changed so as to read " negroes of
the African race." C. S. A. Statutes at Large, 1861-2, pp.
3. *5-
1861, Feb. 9. Confederate States of America : Statutory Prohibition.
Be it enacted by the Confederate States of America in Congress
assembled, That all the laws of the United States of America in
force and in use in the Confederate States of America on the
first day of November last, and not inconsistent with the Con-
stitution of the Confederate States, be and the same are hereby
continued in force until altered or repealed by the Congress."
Ibid., p. 27.
1861, Feb. 19. United States Statute : Appropriation.
To supply deficiencies in the fund hitherto appropriated to carry
out the Act of March 3, 1819, and subsequent acts, $900,000.
Statutes at Large, XII. 132.
1861, March 2. United States Statute : Appropriation.
To carry out the Act of March 3, 1819, and subsequent acts, and
to provide compensation for district attorneys and marshals,
$900,000. Ibid., XII. 218-9.
1861, Dec. 3. President Lincoln's Message.
" The execution of the laws for the suppression of the African slave
trade has been confided to the Department of the Interior. It
is a subject of gratulation that the efforts which have been
made for the suppression of this inhuman traffic have been re-
cently attended with unusual success. Five vessels being fitted
out for the slave trade have been seized and condemned. Two
mates of vessels engaged in the trade, and one person in equip-
ping a vessel as a slaver, have been convicted and subjected to
the penalty of fine and imprisonment, and one captain, taken
with a cargo of Africans on board his vessel, has been convicted
of the highest grade of offence under our laws, the punishment
of which is death." Senate Exec. Doc., 37 Cong. 2 sess. I.
No. i, p. 13.
AP REND IX B. 28$
1862, Jan. 27. Congress (Senate) : Bill on Slave-Trade.
"Agreeably to notice Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, asked and
obtained leave to bring in a bill (Senate, No. 173), for the more
effectual suppression of the slave trade." Read twice, and re-
ferred to Committee on the Judiciary ; Feb. 1 1, 1863, reported
adversely, and postponed indefinitely. Senate Journal, 37
Cong. 2 sess. p. 143 ; 37 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 231-2.
1862, March 14. United States Statute : Appropriation.
For compensation to United States marshals, district attorneys,
etc., for services in the suppression of the slave-trade, so much
of the appropriation of March 2, 1861, as may be expedient
and proper, not exceeding in all $10,000. Statutes at Large,
XII. 368-9.
1862, March 25. United States Statute : Prize Law.
" An Act to facilitate Judicial Proceedings in Adjudications upon
Captured Property, and for the better Administration of the
Law of Prize." Applied to captures under the slave-trade
law. Ibid., XII. 374-5 ; Congressional Globe, 37 Cong. 2 sess.,
Appendix, pp. 346-7.
1862, June 7. Great Britain : Treaty of 1862.
"Treaty for the suppression of the African slave trade. Con-
cluded at Washington April 7, 1862 ; ratifications exchanged
at London May 20, 1862 ; proclaimed June 7, 1862." Rati-
fied unanimously by the Senate. U. S. Treaties and Conven-
tions (1889), pp. 454-66. See also Senate Exec. Journal, XII.
pp. 230, 231, 240, 254, 391, 400, 403.
1862, July 11. United States Statute : Treaty of 1862 Carried into
Effect.
" An Act to carry into Effect the Treaty between the United States
and her Britannic Majesty for the Suppression of the African
Slave-Trade." Statutes at Large, XII. 531 ; Senate Journal
and House Journal, 37 Cong. 2 sess., Senate Bill No. 352.
1862, July 17. United States Statute : Former Acts Amended.
" An Act to amend an Act entitled ' An Act to amend an Act en-
titled " An Act in Addition to the Acts prohibiting the Slave
Trade.'"" Statutes at Large, XII. 592-3; Senate Journal
and House Journal, 37 Cong. 2 sess., Senate Bill No. 385.
1863, Feb. 4. United States Statute : Appropriation.
To carry out the treaty with Great Britain, proclaimed July 1 1,
1862, $17,000. Statutes at Large, XII. 639.
286 APPENDIX B.
1863, March 3. Congress : Joint Resolution.
"Joint Resolution respecting the Compensation of the Judges and
so forth, under the Treaty with Great Britain and other Persons
employed in the Suppression of the Slave Trade." Statutes
at Large, XII. 829.
1863, April 22. Great Britain : Treaty of 1862 Amended.
" Additional article to the treaty for the suppression of the African
slave trade of April 7, 1862." Concluded February 17, 1863 '>
ratifications exchanged at London April i, 1863; proclaimed
April 22, 1863.
Right of Search extended. U. S. Treaties and Conventions
(1889), pp. 466-7.
1863, Dec. 17. Congress (House) : Resolution on Coastwise Slave-
Trade.
Mr. Julian introduced a bill to repeal portions of the Act of March
2, 1807, relative to the coastwise slave-trade. Read twice, and
referred to Committee on the Judiciary. Congressional Globe,
38 Cong, i sess. p. 46.
1864, July 2. United States Statute : Coastwise Slave-Trade Pro-
hibited Forever.
9 of Appropriation Act repeals 8 and 9 of Act of 1807.
Statutes at Large, XIII. 353.
1864, Dec. 7. Great Britain : International Proposition.
" The crime of trading in human beings has been for many years
branded by the reprobation of all civilized nations. Still the
atrocious traffic subsists, and many persons flourish on the
gains they have derived from that polluted source.
" Her Majesty's government, contemplating, on the one hand, with
satisfaction the unanimous abhorrence which the crime inspires,
and, on the other hand, with pain and disgust the slave-trading
speculations which still subist [sic], have come to the conclu-
sion that no measure would be so effectual to put a stop to
these wicked acts as the punishment of all persons who can be
proved to be guilty of carrying slaves across the sea. Her
Majesty's government, therefore, invite the government of the
United States to consider whether it would not be practicable,
honorable, and humane
" i st. To make a general declaration, that the governments who
are parties to it denounce the slave trade as piracy.
" 2d. That the aforesaid governments should propose to their legis-
APPENDIX B. 287
latures to affix the penalties of piracy already existing in theu
laws provided, only, that the penalty in this case be that of
death to all persons, being subjects or citizens of one of the
contracting powers, who shall be convicted in a court which
takes cognizance of piracy, of being concerned in carrying
human beings across the sea for the purpose of sale, or for the
purpose of serving as slaves, in any country or colony in the
world." Signed,
" RUSSELL."
Similar letters were addressed to France, Spain, Portugal, Austria,
Prussia, Italy, Netherlands, and Russia. Diplomatic Corre-
spondence, 1865, pt. ii. pp. 4, 58-9, etc.
1865, Jan. 24. United States Statute : Appropriation.
To carry out the treaty with Great Britain, proclaimed July n,
1862, $17,000. Statutes at Large, XIII. 424.
1866, April 7. United States Statute : Compensation to Marshals, etc.
For additional compensation to United States marshals, district
attorneys, etc., for services in the suppression of the slave-
trade, so much of the appropriation of March 2, 1861, as may
be expedient and proper, not exceeding in all $10,000; and
also so much as may be necessary to pay the salaries of
judges and the expenses of mixed courts. Ibid., XIV. 23.
1866, July 25. United States Statute : Appropriation.
To carry out the treaty with Great Britain, proclaimed July n,
1862, $17,000. Ibid., XIV. 226.
1867, Feb. 28. United States Statute: Appropriation.
To carry out the treaty with Great Britain, proclaimed July n,
1862, $17,000. Ibid., XIV. 414-5.
1868, March 30. United States Statute : Appropriation.
To carry out the treaty with Great Britain, proclaimed July u,
1862, $12,500. Ibid., XV. 58.
1869, Jan. 6. Congress (House) : Abrogation of Treaty of 1862.
Mr. Kelsey asked unanimous consent to introduce the following
resolution :
" Whereas the slave trade has been practically suppressed ; and
whereas by our treaty with Great Britain for the suppression of
the slave trade large appropriations are annually required to
carry out the provisions thereof : Therefore,
" Resolved, That the Committee on Foreign Affairs are hereby in-
structed to inquire into the expediency of taking proper steps
288
APPENDIX B.
to secure the abrogation or modification of the treaty with
Great Britain for the suppression of the slave trade." Mr.
Arnell objected. Congressional Globe, 40 Cong. 3 sess. p. 224.
1869, March 3. United States Statute : Appropriation.
To carry out the treaty with Great Britain, proclaimed July n,
1862, $12,500; provided that the salaries of judges be paid
only on condition that they reside where the courts are held,
and that Great Britain be asked to consent to abolish mixed
courts. Statutes at Large, XV. 321.
1870, April 22. Congress (Senate) : Bill to Repeal Act of 1803.
Senate Bill No. 251, to repeal an act entitled "An act to prevent
the importation of certain persons into certain States where by
the laws thereof their admission is prohibited." Mr. Sumner
said that the bill had passed the Senate once, and that he
hoped it would now pass. Passed ; title amended by adding
"approved February 28, 1803 ;" June 29, bill passed over in
House ; July 14, consideration again postponed on Mr. Wood-
ward's objection. Congressional Globe, 41 Cong. 2 sess. pp.
2894, 2932, 4953, 5594.
1870, Sept. 16. Great Britain : Additional Treaty.
"Additional convention to the treaty of April 7, 1862, respecting
the African slave trade." Concluded June 3, 1870; ratifica-
tions exchanged at London August 10, 1870; proclaimed
September 16, 1870. U. S. Treaties and Conventions (1889),
pp. 472-6.
1871, Dec. 11. Congress (House) : Bill on Slave-Trade.
On the call of States, Mr. Banks introduced " a bill (House, No.
490) to carry into effect article thirteen of the Constitution of
the United States, and to prohibit the owning or dealing
in slaves by American citizens in foreign countries." House
Journal, 42 Cong. 2 sess. p. 48.
APPENDIX C.
TYPICAL CASES OF VESSELS ENGAGED IN THE
AMERICAN SLAVE-TRADE.
1619-1864.
THIS chronological list of certain typical American slavers is not intended to cata-
logue all known cases, but is designed merely to illustrate, by a few selected
examples, the character of the licit and the illicit traffic to the United States.
1619. . Dutch man-of-war, imports twenty Negroes into Vir-
ginia, the first slaves brought to the continent. Smith, Generall
Historic of Virginia (1626 and 1632), p. 126.
1645. Rainbowe, under Captain Smith, captures and imports African
slaves into Massachusetts. The slaves were forfeited and returned.
Massachusetts Colonial Records, II. 115, 129, 136, 168, 176; III. 13,
46, 49, 58, 84.
1655. Witte paert, first vessel to import slaves into New York.
O'Callaghan, Laws of New Netherland (ed. 1868), p. 191, note.
1736, Oct. . Rhode Island slaver, under Capt. John Griffen.
American Historical Record, I. 312.
1746. . Spanish vessel, with certain free Negroes, captured
by Captains John Dennis and Robert Morris, and Negroes sold by
them in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York ; these Negroes
afterward returned to Spanish colonies by the authorities of Rhode
Island. Rhode Island Colonial Records, V. 170, 176-7; Dawson's
Historical Magazine, XVIII. 98.
J9
290 APPENDIX C.
1752. Sanderson, of Newport, trading to Africa and West Indies.
American Historical Record, I. 315-9, 338-42. Cf. above, p. 28,
note 5.
1788 (circa). . " One or two " vessels fitted out in Connec-
ticut. W. C. Fowler, Historical Status of the. Negro in Connecticut, in
Local Law, etc., p. 125.
1801. Sally, of Norfolk, Virginia, equipped slaver; libelled and
acquitted; owners claimed damages. American State Papers, Com-
merce and Navigation, I. No. 128.
1803 (?). . Two slavers seized with slaves, and brought to
Philadelphia; both condemned, and slaves apprenticed. Robert
Sutcliff, Travels in North America, p. 219.
1804. . Slaver, allowed by Governor Claiborne to land fifty
Negroes in Louisiana. American State Papers, Miscellaneous, I.
No. 177.
1814. Saucy Jack carries off slaves from Africa and attacks British
cruiser. House Reports, 17 Cong, i sess. II. No. 92, p. 46; 21
Cong, i sess. III. No. 348, p. 147.
1816 (circa) . Paz, Rosa. Dolores, Nueva Paz, and Dorset, American
slavers in Spanish- African trade. Many of these were formerly priva-
teers. Ibid., 17 Cong, i sess. II. No. 92, pp. 45-6; 21 Cong, i sess.
III. No. 348, pp. 144-7.
1817, Jan. 17. Eugene, armed Mexican schooner, captured while
attempting to smuggle slaves into the United States. House Doc.,
15 Cong, i sess. II. No. 12, p. 22.
1817, Nov. 19. Tentativa, captured with 128 slaves and brought into
Savannah. Ibid., p. 38; House Reports, 21 Cong, i sess. III. No.
348, p. 81. See Friends' View of the African Slave Trade (1824),
pp. 44-7.
1818. . Three schooners unload slaves in Louisiana. Col-
lector Chew to the Secretary of the Treasury, House Reports, 21
Cong, i sess. III. No. 348, p 70.
1818, Jan. 23. English brig Neptune, detained by U. S. S. John
Adams, for smuggling slaves into the United States. House Doc., 16
Cong, i sess. III. No. 36 (3).
1818, June. Constitution, captured with 84 slaves on the Florida coast,
by a United States army officer. See references under 1818, June,
below.
1818, June. Louisa and Merino, captured slavers, smuggling from Cuba
to the United States ; condemned after five years' litigation. House
APPENDIX C. 291
Doc., 15 Cong. 2 sess. VI. No. 107 ; 19 Cong, i sess. VI.-IX. Nos.
121, 126, 152, 163; House Reports, 19 Cong, i sess. II. No. 231 ;
American State Papers, Naval Affairs, II. No. 308 ; Decisions of the
United States Supreme Court in 9 Wheaton, 391.
1819. Antelope, or General Ramirez. The Colombia (or Arraganta),
a Venezuelan privateer, fitted in the United States and manned by
Americans, captures slaves from a Spanish slaver, the Antelope, and
from other slavers ; is wrecked, and transfers crew and slaves to Ante-
lope ; the latter, under the name of the General Ramirez, is captured
with 280 slaves by a United States ship. The slaves were distributed,
some to Spanish claimants, some sent to Africa, and some allowed to
remain; many died. House Reports, 17 Cong, i sess. II. No. 92, pp.
5, 15; 21 Cong, i sess. III. No. 348, p. 186; House Journal, 20
Cong, i sess. pp. 59, 76, 123 to 692, passim. Gales and Seaton,
Register of Debates ; IV. pt. i, pp. 915-6, 955-68, 998, 1005 ; Ibid.,
pt. 2, pp. 2501-3 ; American State Papers, Naval Affairs, II. No.
319, pp. 750-60; Decisions of the United States Supreme Court in
10 Wheaton, 66, and 12 Ibid., 546.
1820. Endymion, Plattsburg, Science, Esperanza, and Alexander,
captured on the African coast by United States ships, and sent to
New York and Boston. House Reports, 17 Cong, i sess. II. No. 92,
pp. 6, 15 ; 21 Cong, i sess. III. No. 348, pp. 122, 144, 187.
1820. General Artigas imports twelve slaves into the United States.
Friends' View of the African Slave Trade (1824), p. 42.
1821 ( ?) . Dolphin, captured by United States officers and sent to
Charleston, South Carolina. Ibid., pp. 31-2.
1821. La Jeune Eugene, La Daphnee, La Mathilde, and L'Elize,
captured by U. S. S. Alligator ; La Jeune Eugene sent to Boston ; the
rest escape, and are recaptured under the French flag ; the French
protest. House Reports, 21 Cong, i sess. III. No. 348, p. 187 ;
Friends' View of the African Slave Trade (1824), pp. 35-41.
1821. La Pense"e, captured with 220 slaves by the U. S. S. Hornet ; taken
to Louisiana. House Reports, 17 Cong, i sess. II. No. 92, p. 5 ; 21
Cong, i sess. III. No. 348, p. 186.
1821. Esencia lands 1 1 3 Negroes at Matanzas. Parliamentary Papers,
1822, Vol. XXIL, Slave Trade, Further Papers, III. p. 78.
1826. Fell's Point attempts to land Negroes in the United States. The
Negroes were seized. American State Papers, Naval Affairs, II. No.
3'9>P- 75i-
1827, Dec. 20. Guerrero, Spanish slaver, chased by British cruiser and
grounded on Key West, with 561 slaves; a part (121) were landed at
292 APPENDIX C.
Key West, where they were seized by the collector; 250 were seized
by the Spanish and taken to Cuba, etc. House Journal, 20 Cong.
1 sess. p. 650; House Reports, 24 Cong, i sess. I. No. 268 ; 25 Cong.
2 sess. I. No. 4; American State Papers, Naval Affairs, III. No. 370,
p. 210; Niks 's Register, XXXIII. 373.
1828, March 11. General Geddes brought into St. Augustine for safe
keeping 117 slaves, said to have been those taken from the wrecked
Guerrero and landed at Key West (see above, 1827). House Doc.,
20 Cong, i sess. VI. No. 262.
1828. Blue-eyed Mary, of Baltimore, sold to Spaniards and captured
with 405 slaves by a British cruiser. Niles's Register, XXXIV. 346.
1830, June 4. Fenix, with 82 Africans, captured by U. S. S. Grampus,
and brought to Pensacola; American built, with Spanish colors.
House Doc., 21 Cong. 2 sess. III. No. 54; House Reports, 24 Cong,
i sess. I. No. 223 ; Niks'" s Register, XXXVIII. 357.
1831, Jan. 3. Comet, carrying slaves from the District of Columbia to
New Orleans, was wrecked on Bahama banks and 164 slaves taken to
Nassau, in New Providence, where they were freed. Great Britain
finally paid indemnity for these slaves. Senate Doc., 24 Cong. 2
sess. II. No. 174; 25 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 216.
1834, Feb. 4. Encomium, bound from Charleston, South Carolina, to
New Orleans, with 45 slaves, was wrecked near Fish Key, Abaco, and
slaves were carried to Nassau and freed. Great Britain eventually
paid indemnity for these slaves. Ibid.
1835, March. Enterprise, carrying 78 slaves from the District of
Columbia to Charleston, was compelled by rough weather to put
into the port of Hamilton, West Indies, where the slaves were freed.
Great Britain refused to pay for these, because, before they landed,
slavery in the West Indies had been abolished. Ibid.
1836, Aug.-Sept. Emanuel, Dolores, Anaconda, and Viper, built in
the United States, clear from Havana for Africa. House Doc., 26
Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, pp. 4-6, 221.
1837. . Eleven American slavers clear from Havana for
Africa. Ibid., p. 221.
1837, Washington, allowed to proceed to Africa by the American
consul at Havana. Ibid., pp. 488-90, 715 ff. ; 27 Cong, i sess. No.
34, pp. 1 8-2 1.
1838, Prova spends three months refitting in the harbor of Charleston,
South Carolina; afterwards captured by the British, with 225 slaves.
Ibid., pp. 121, 163-6.
APPENDIX C. 293
1838. . Nineteen American slavers clear from Havana for
Africa. House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, p. 221.
1838-9. Venus, American built, manned partly by Americans, owned
by Spaniards. Ibid., pp. 20-2, 106, 124-5, J 3 2 > J 44~S 33 ~ 2 >
475-9-
1839. Morris Cooper, of Philadelphia, lands 485 Negroes in Cuba.
Niles 's Register, LVII. 192.
1839. Edwin and George Crooks, slavers, boarded by British cruisers.
House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, pp. 12-4, 61-4.
1839. Eagle, Clara, and Wyoming, with American and Spanish flags
and papers and an American crew, captured by British cruisers, and
brought to New York. The United States government declined to
interfere in case of the Eagle and the Clara, and they were taken to
Jamaica. The Wyoming was forfeited to the United States. Ibid.,
pp. 92-104, 109, 112, 118-9, 180-4; Niles's Register, LVI. 256;
LVII. 128, 208.
1839. Florida, protected from British cruisers by American papers
House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, pp. 113-5.
1839. . Five American slavers arrive at Havana from Africa,
under American flags. Ibid., p. 192.
1839. . Twenty-three American slavers clear from Havana.
Ibid., pp. 190-1, 221.
1839. Rebecca, part Spanish, condemned at Sierra Leone. House Re-
ports, 27 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 283, pp. 649-54, 675-84.
1839. Douglas and lago, American slavers, visited by British cruisers,
for which the United States demanded indemnity. Ibid., pp. 542-65,
731-55; Senate Doc., 29 Cong, i sess. VIII. No. 377, pp. 39-45,
107-12, 116-24, 160-1, 181 2.
1839, April 9. Susan, suspected slaver, boarded by the British. House
Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, pp. 34-41.
1839, July-Sept. Dolphin (or Constitucao), Hound, Mary Gushing
(or Sete de Avril), with American and Spanish flags and papers.
Ibid., pp. 28, 51-5, 109-10, 136, 234-8; House Reports, 27 Cong.
3 sess. III. No. 283, pp. 709-15.
1839, Aug. L'Amistad, slaver, with fifty-three Negroes on board, who
mutinied ; the vessel was then captured by a United States vessel and
brought into Connecticut ; the Negroes were declared free. House
Doc., 26 Cong, i sess. IV. No. 185 ; 27 Cong. 3 sess. V. No. 191 j
28 Cong, i sess. IV. No. 83 ; House Exec. Doc., 32 Cong. 2 sess.
III. No. 20; House Reports, 26 Cong. 2 sess. No. 51 ; 28 Cong.
294 APPENDIX C.
1 sess. II. No. 426 ; 29 Cong, i sess. IV. No. 753 ; Senate Doc., 26
Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 179 ; Senate Exec. Doc., 31 Cong. 2 sess. III.
No. 29 ; 32 Cong. 2 sess. III. No. 19 ; Senate Reports, 31 Cong.
2 sess. No. 301 ; 32 Cong, i sess. I. No. 158; 35 Cong, i sess. I. No.
36; Decisions of the United States Supreme Court in 15 Peters,
518 ; Opinions of the Attorneys-General, III. 484-92.
1839, Sept. My Boy, of New Orleans, seized by a British cruiser, and
condemned at Sierra Leone. Niles's Register, LVII. 353.
1839, Sept. 23. Butterfly, of New Orleans, fitted as a slaver, and
captured by a British cruiser on the coast of Africa. House Doc., 26
Cong. 2 sess. No. 115, pp. 191, 244-7; Niks' s Register, LVII. 223.
1839, Oct. Catharine, of Baltimore, captured on the African coast by
a British cruiser, and brought by her to New York. House Doc., 26
Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, pp. 191, 215, 239-44; Niles's Register,
LVII. 119, 159.
1839. Asp, Laura, and Mary Ann Cassard, foreign slavers sailing
under the American flag. House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115,
pp. 126-7, 209-18; House Reports, 27 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 283,
p. 688 ff.
1839. Two Friends, of New Orleans, equipped slaver, with Spanish,
Portuguese, and American flags. House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V.
No. 115, pp. 120, 160-2, 305.
1839. Euphrates, of Baltimore, with American papers, seized by British
cruisers as Spanish property. Before this she had been boarded fifteen
times. Ibid., pp. 41-4; A. H. Foote, Africa and the American Flag,
p. 152-6.
1839. Ontario, American slaver, " sold " to the Spanish on shipping a
cargo of slaves. House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, pp. 45-50.
1839. Mary, of Philadelphia ; case of a slaver whose nationality was
disputed. House Reports, 27 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 283, pp. 736-8;
Senate Doc., 29 Cong, i sess. VIII. No. 377, pp. 19, 24-5.
1840, March. Sarah. Ann, of New Orleans, captured with fraudulent
papers. House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, pp. 184-7.
1840, June. Caballero, Hudson, and Crawford ; the arrival of these
American slavers was publicly billed in Cuba. Ibid., pp. 65-6.
1840. Tigris, captured by British cruisers and sent to Boston for kid-
napping. House Reports, 27 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 283, pp. 724-9;
Senate Doc., 29 Cong, i sess. VIII. No. 377, p. 94.
1840. Jones, seized by the British. Senate Doc., 29 Cong, i sess. VIII.
No - 377, PP- 131-2, i43-7> 148-60.
APPENDIX C. 295
1841, Nov. 7. Creole, of Richmond, Virginia, transporting slaves to
New Orleans ; the crew mutiny and take her to Nassau, British West
Indies. The slaves were freed and Great Britain refused indemnity.
Senate Doc., 27 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 51 and III. No. 137.
1841. Sophia, of New York, ships 750 slaves for Brazil. House Doc.,
29 Cong, i sess. III. No. 43, pp. 3-8.
1841. Pilgrim, of Portsmouth, N. H., Solon, of Baltimore, William
Jones and Himmaleh, of New York, clear from Rio Janeiro for Africa.
Ibid., pp. 8-12.
1842, May. Illinois, of Gloucester, saved from search by the American
flag ; escaped under the Spanish flag, loaded with slaves. Senate Doc.,
28 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 150, p. 72 ff.
1842. June. Shakespeare, of Baltimore, with 430 slaves, captured by
British cruisers. Ibid.
1843. Kentucky, of New York, trading to Brazil. Ibid., 30 Cong, i
sess. IV. No. 28, pp. 71-8 ; House Exec. Doc., 30 Cong. 2 sess. VII.
No. 6 1, p. 72 ff.
1844. Enterprise, of Boston, transferred in Brazil for slave-trade.
Senate Exec. Doc., 30 Cong, i sess. IV. No. 28, pp. 79-90.
1844. tTncas, of New Orleans, protected by United States papers;
allowed to clear, in spite of her evident character. Ibid., 28 Cong.
2 sess. IX. No. 150, pp. 106-14.
1844. Sooy, of Newport, without papers, captured by the British sloop
Racer, after landing 600 slaves on the coast of Brazil. House Doc.,
28 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 148, pp. 4, 36-62.
1844. Cyrus, of New Orleans, suspected slaver, captured by the British
cruiser Alert. Ibid., pp. 3-41.
1844-5. . Nineteen slavers from Beverly, Boston, Baltimore,
Philadelphia, New York, Providence, and Portland, make twenty-two
trips. Ibid., 30 Cong. 2 sess. VII. No. 61, pp. 219-20.
1844-9. . Ninety-three slavers in Brazilian trade. Senate
Exec. Doc., 31 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 6, pp. 37-8.
1845. Porpoise, trading to Brazil. House Exec. Doc., 30 Cong. 2 sess.
VII. No. 61, pp. 111-56, 212-4.
1845, May 14. Spitfire, of New Orleans, captured on the coast of
Africa, and the captain indicted in Boston. A. H. Foote, Africa ana
the American Flag, pp. 240-1 ; Niles^s Register, LXVIII. 192,
224, 248-9.
1845-6. Patuxent, Pons, Robert Wilson, Merchant, and Panther,
captured by Commodore Skinner. House Exec. Doc., 31 Cong, i
sess. IX. No. 73.
296 APPENDIX C.
1847. Fame, of New London, Connecticut, lands 700 slaves in Brazil.
House Exec. Doc., 30 Cong. 2 sess. VII. No. 61, pp. 5-6, 15-21.
1847. Senator, of Boston, brings 944 slaves to Brazil. Ibid., pp. 5-14.
1849. Casco, slaver, with no papers ; searched, and captured with 420
slaves, by a British cruiser. Senate Exec. Doc., 31 Cong, i sess. XIV.
No. 66, p. 13.
1850. Martha, of New York, captured when about to embark 1800
slaves. The captain was admitted to bail, and escaped. A. H.
Foote, Africa and the American Flag, pp. 285-92.
1850. Lucy Ann, of Boston, captured with 547 slaves by the British.
Senate Exec. Doc., 31 Cong, i sess. XIV. No. 66, pp. i-io ff.
1850. Navarre, American slaver, trading to Brazil, searched and finally
seized by a British cruiser. Ibid.
1850 (circa). Louisa Beaton, Pilot, Chatsworth, Meteor, R. de Zaldo,
Chester, etc., American slavers, searched by British vessels. Ibid.,
passim.
1851. Sept. 18. Illinois brings seven kidnapped West India Negro boys
into Norfolk, Virginia. House Exec. Doc., 34 Cong, i sess. XII. No.
105, pp. 12-14.
1852-62. . Twenty-six ships arrested and bonded for slave-
trading in the Southern District of New York. Senate Exec. Doc., 37
Cong. 2 sess. V. NQ. 53.
1852. Advance and Rachel P. Brown, of New York ; the capture of
these was hindered by the United States consul in the Cape Verd
Islands. Ibid., 34 Cong, i sess. XV. No. 99, pp. 41-5 ; House Exec.
Doc., 34 Cong, i sess. XII. No. 105, pp. 15-19.
1853. Silenus, of New York, and General de Kalb, of Baltimore,
carry 900 slaves from Africa. Senate Exec. Doc., 34 Cong, i sess.
XV. No. 99, pp. 46-52 ; House Exec. Doc., 34 Cong, i sess. XII.
No. 105, pp. 20-26.
1853. Jasper carries slaves to Cuba. Senate Exec. Doc., 34 Cong,
i sess. XV. No. 99, pp. 52-7.
1853. Camargo, of Portland, Maine, lands 500 slaves in Brazil. Ibid.,
33 Cong, i sess. VIII. No. 47.
1854. Glamorgan, of New York, captured when about to embark nearly
700 slaves. Ibid., 34 Cong, i sess. XV. No. 99, pp. 59-60.
1854. Grey Eagle, of Philadelphia, captured off Cuba by British
cruiser. Ibid., pp. 61-3.
1854. Peerless, of New York, lands 350 Negroes in Cuba. Ibid.,
p. 66.
APPENDIX C. 297
1854. Oregon, of New Orleans, trading to Cuba. Senate Exec. Doc.,
34 Cong, i sess. XV. No. 99, pp. 69-70.
1856. Mary E. Smith, sailed from Boston in spite of efforts to detain
her, and was captured with 387 slaves, by the Brazilian brig Olinda, at
port of St. Matthews. Ibid., pp. 71-3.
1857. . Twenty or more slavers from New York, New
Orleans, etc. Ibid., 35 Cong, i sess. XII. No. 49, pp. 14-21,
70-1, etc.
1857. William Clark and Jupiter, of New Orleans, Eliza Jane, of
New York, Jos. H. Record, of Newport, and Onward, of Boston,
captured by British cruisers. Ibid., pp. 13, 25-6, 69, etc.
1857. James Buchanan, slaver, escapes under American colors, with
300 slaves. Ibid., p. 38.
1857. James Titers, of New Orleans, with 1200 slaves, captured by
British cruiser. Ibid., pp. 31-4, 40-1.
1857. . Four New Orleans slavers on the African coast.
Ibid., p. 30.
1857. Cortes, of New York, captured. Ibid., pp. 27-8.
1857. Charles, of Boston, captured by British cruisers, with about 400
slaves. Ibid., pp. 9, 13, 36, 69, etc.
1857. Adams Gray and W. D. Miller, of New Orleans, fully equipped
slavers. Ibid., pp. 3-5, 13.
1857-8. Charlotte, of New York, Charles, of Maryland, etc., reported
American slavers. Ibid., passim.
1858, Aug. 21. Echo, captured with 306 slaves, and brought to Charles-
ton, South Carolina. House Exec. Doc., 35 Cong. 2 sess. II. pt. 4,
No. 2. pt. 4, pp. 5, 14.
1858, Sept. 8. Brothers, captured and sent to Charleston, South Caro-
lina. Ibid., p. 14.
1858. Mobile, Cortez, Tropic Bird ; cases of American slavers searched
by British vessels. Ibid., 36 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 7, p. 97 ff.
1858. Wanderer, lands 500 slaves in Georgia. Senate Exec. Doc., 35
Cong. 2 sess. VII. No. 8 ; House Exec. Doc., 35 Cong. 2 sess. IX.
No. 89.
1859. Dec. 20. Delicia, supposed to be Spanish, but without papers ;
captured by a United States ship. The United States courts declared
her beyond their jurisdiction. House Exec. Doc., 36 Cong. 2 sess.
IV. No. 7, p. 434.
1860. Erie, with 897 Africans, captured by a United States ship.
Senate Exec. Doc., 36 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. i, pp. 41-4.
298 APPENDIX C.
1860. William, with 550 slaves, Wildfire, with 507, captured on the
coast of Cuba. Senate Journal, 36 Cong, i sess. pp. 478-80, 492,
543, etc.; Senate Exec. Doc., 36 Cong, i sess. XL No. 44; House
Exec. Doc., 36 Cong, i sess. XII. No. 83 ; 36 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. n ;
House Reports, 36 Cong, i sess. IV. No. 602.
1861. Augusta, slaver, which, in spite of the efforts of the officials,
started on her voyage. Senate Exec. Doc., 37 Cong. 2 sess. V. No.
40; New York Tribune, Nov. 26, 1861.
1861. Storm King, of Baltimore, lands 650 slaves in Cuba. Senate
Exec. Doc., 38 Cong, i sess. No. 56, p. 3.
1862. Ocilla, of Mystic, Connecticut, lands slaves in Cuba. Ibid.,
pp. 8-13.
1864. Huntress, of New York, under the American flag, lands slaves
in Cuba. /*</., pp. 19-21.
APPENDIX D.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
COLONIAL LAWS.
[The Library of Harvard College, the Boston Public Library, and the Charle-
magne Tower Collection at Philadelphia are especially rich in Colonial Laws.]
Alabama and Mississippi Territory. Acts of the Assembly of Ala-
bama, 1822, etc.; J. J. Ormond, Code of Alabama, Montgomery,
1852 ; H. Toulmin, Digest of the Laws of Alabama, Cahawba,
1823 ; A. Hutchinson, Code of Mississippi, Jackson, 1848 ; Stat-
utes of Mississippi etc., digested, Natchez, 1816 and 1823.
Connecticut. Acts and Laws of Connecticut, New London, 1784
[-1794], and Hartford, 1796; Connecticut Colonial Records;
The General Laws and Liberties of Connecticut Colonie, Cam-
bridge, 1673, reprinted at Hartford in 1865; Statute Laws of
Connecticut, Hartford, 1821.
Delaware. Laws of Delaware, 1700-1797, 2 vols., New Castle, 1797.
Georgia. George W. J. De Renne, editor, Colonial Acts of Georgia,
Wormsloe, 1881 ; Constitution of Georgia ; T. R. R. Cobb, Digest
of the Laws, Athens, Ga., 1851; Horatio Marbury and W. H.
Crawford, Digest of the Laws, Savannah, 1 802 ; Oliver H. Prince,
Digest of the Laws, 2d edition, Athens, Ga., 1837.
Maryland. James Bisset, Abridgment of the Acts of Assembly,
Philadelphia, 1759; Acts of Maryland, 1753-1768, Annapolis,
1754 [-1768] ; Compleat Collection of the Laws of Maryland,
Annapolis, 1727 ; Thomas Bacon, Laws of Maryland at Large,
Annapolis, 1765; Laws of Maryland since 1763, Annapolis,
1787, year 1771 ; Clement Dorsey, General Public Statutory Law,
etc., 1692-1837, 3 vols., Baltimore, 1840.
300 APPENDIX D.
Massachusetts. Acts and Laws of His Majesty's Province of the Mas-
sachusetts-Bay in New-England, Boston, 1726 ; Acts and Resolves
... of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, 1692-1780
[Massachusetts Province Laws] ; Colonial Laws of Massachu-
setts, reprinted from the editions of 1660 and 1672, Boston,
1887, 1890; General Court Records; Massachusetts Archives;
Massachusetts Historical Society Collections ; Perpetual Laws of
Massachusetts, 1780-1789, Boston, 1789; Plymouth Colony
Records ; Records of the Governor and Company of the Massa-
chusetts Bay.
New Jersey. Samuel Allinson, Acts of Assembly, Burlington, 1776;
William Paterson, Digest of the Laws, Newark, 1800; William
A. Whitehead, editor, Documents relating to the Colonial History
of New Jersey, Newark, 1880-93 ; Joseph Bloomfield, Laws of
New Jersey, Trenton, 1811 ; New Jersey Archives.
New York. Acts of Assembly, 1691-1718, London, 1719; E. B.
O'Callaghan, Documentary History of New York, 4 vols., Albany,
1849-51 ; E. B. O'Callaghan, editor, Documents relating to the
Colonial History of New York, 12 vols., Albany, 1856-77 ; Laws
of New York, 1752-1762, New York, 1762 ; Laws of New York,
1777-1801, 5 vols., republished at Albany, 1886-7.
North Carolina. F. X. Martin, Iredell's Public Acts of Assembly,
Newbern, 1804; Laws, revision of 1819, 2 vols., Raleigh, 1821;
North Carolina Colonial Records, edited by William L. Saunders,
Raleigh, 1886-90.
Pennsylvania. Acts of Assembly, Philadelphia, 1 782 ; Charter and
Laws of the Province of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, 1879 > M.
Carey and J. Bioren, Laws of Pennsylvania, 1700-1802, 6 vols.,
Philadelphia, 1803; A.J.Dallas, Laws of Pennsylvania, 1700-
1781, Philadelphia, 1797; Ibid., 1781-1790, Philadelphia, 1793;
Collection of all the Laws now in force, 1 742 ; Pennsylvania
Archives ; Pennsylvania Colonial Records.
Rhode Island. John Russell Bartlett, Index to the Printed Acts and
Resolves, of ... the General Assembly, 1756-1850, Providence,
1856 ; Elisha R. Potter, Reports and Documents upon Public
Schools, etc., Providence, 1855 ; Rhode Island Colonial Records.
South Carolina. J. F. Grimke', Public Laws, Philadelphia, 1 790 ;
Thomas Cooper and D. J. McCord, Statutes at Large, 10 vols.,
Columbia, 1836-41.
Vermont. Statutes of Vermont, Windsor, 1787 ; Vermont State Papers,
Middlebury, 1823.
APPENDIX D. 301
Virginia. John Mercer, Abridgement of the Acts of Assembly, Glasgow,
1759; Acts of Assembly, Williamsburg, 1769; Collection of
Public Acts . . . passed since 1768, Richmond, 1785 ; Collections
of the Virginia Historical Society ; W. W. Hening, Statutes at
Large, 13 vols., Richmond, etc., 1819-23; Samuel Shepherd,
Statutes at Large, New Series (continuation of Hening), 3 vols.
Richmond, 1835-6.
UNITED STATES DOCUMENTS.
1789-1836. American State Papers Class I., Foreign Relations, Vols.
III. and IV. (Reprint of Foreign Relations, 1789-1828.) Class
VI., Naval Affairs. (Well indexed.)
1794, Feb. 11. Report of Committee on the Slave Trade. Amer.
State Papers, Miscellaneous, I. No. 44.
1806, Feb. 17. Report of the Committee appointed on the seventh
instant, to inquire whether any, and if any, what Additional Pro-
visions are necessary to Prevent the Importation of Slaves into
the Territories of the United States. House Reports, 9 Cong.
r sess. II.
1817, Feb. 11. Joint Resolution for abolishing the traffick in Slaves,
and the Colinization [sic] of the Free People of Colour of the
United States. House Doc., 14 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 77.
1817, Dec. 15. Message from the President . . . communicating In-
formation of the Proceeding of certain Persons who took Posses-
sion of Amelia Island and of Galvezton, [sic] during the Summer
of the Present Year, and made Establishments there. House Doc.,
15 Cong, i sess. II. No. 12. (Contains much evidence of illicit
traffic.)
1818, Jan. 10. Report of the Committee to whom was referred so
much of the President's Message as relates to the introduction of
Slaves from Amelia Island. House Doc., 15 Cong, i sess. III.
No. 46 (cf. House Reports, 21 Cong, i sess. III. No. 348).
1818, Jan. 13. Message from the President . . . communicating in-
formation of the Troops of the United States having taken pos-
session of Amelia Island, in East Florida. House Doc., 15 Cong.
i sess. III. No. 47. (Contains correspondence.)
1819, Jan. 12. Letter from the Secretary of the Navy, transmitting
copies of the instructions which have been issued to Naval Com-
manders, upon the subject of the Importation of Slaves, etc.
House Doc., 15 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 84.
302 APPENDIX D.
1819, Jan, 19. Extracts from Documents in the Departments of State,
of the Treasury, and of the Navy, in relation to the Illicit In-
troduction of Slaves into the United States. House Doc., 15
Cong. 2 sess. VI. No. 100.
1819, Jan. 21. Letter from the Secretary of the Treasury ... in
relation to Ships engaged in the Slave Trade, which have been
Seized and Condemned, and the Disposition which has been made
of the Negroes, by the several State Governments, under whose
Jurisdiction they have fallen. House Doc., 15 Cong. 2 sess. VI.
No. 107.
1820, Jan. 7. Letter from the Secretary of the Navy, transmitting
information in relation to the Introduction of Slaves into the
United States. House Doc., 16 Cong, i sess. III. No. 36.
1820, Jan. 13. Letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting
. . . Information in relation to the Illicit Introduction of Slaves
into the United States, etc., Ibid., No. 42.
1820, May 8. Report of the Committee to whom was referred ... so
much of the President's Message as relates to the Slave Trade, etc.
House Reports, 16 Cong, i sess. No. 97.
1821, Jan. 5. Message from the President . . . transmitting . . . In-
formation on the Subject of the African Slave Trade. House
Doc., 1 6 Cong. 2, sess. IV. No. 48.
1821, Feb. 7. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. House Reports,
17 Cong, i sess. No. 92, pp. 15-21.
1821, Feb. 9. Report of the Committee to which was referred so much
of the President's message as relates to the Slave Trade. House
Reports, 16 Cong. 2 sess. No. 59.
1822, April 12. Report of the Committee on the Suppression of the
Slave Trade. Also Report of 1821, Feb. 9, reprinted. (Contains
discussion of the Right of Search, and papers on European Con-
ference for the Suppression of the Slave Trade.) House Reports,
1 7 Cong, i sess. II. No. 92.
1823, Dec. 1. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. House Doc., 18
Cong, i sess. I. No. 2, p. in, ff. ; Amer. State Papers, Naval
Affairs, I. No. 258. (Contains reports on the establishment at
Cape Mesurado.) 1
1824, March 20. Message from the President ... in relation to the
Suppression of the African Slave Trade. House Doc., 18 Cong.
1 The Reports of the Secretary of the Navy are found among the documents
accompanying the annual messages of the President.
APPENDIX D. 303
i sess. VI. No. 119. (Contains correspondence on the proposed
treaty of 1824.)
1824, Dec. 1. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. Amer. State
Papers, Naval Affairs, I. No. 249.
1824, Dec. 7. Documents accompanying the Message of the President
... to both Houses of Congress, at the commencement of the
Second Session of the Eighteenth Congress : Documents from the
Department of State. House Doc., 18 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. i. pp.
1-56. Reprinted hi Senate Doc., 18 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. i.
(Matter on the treaty of 1824.)
1825, Feb. 16. Report of the Committee to whom was referred so
much of the President's Message, of the yth of December last, as
relates to the Suppression of the Slave Trade. House Reports, 18
Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 70. (Report favoring the treaty of 1824.)
1825, Dec. 2. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. House Doc., 19
Cong, i sess. I. No. i. p. 98.
1825, Dec. 27. Slave Trade : Message from the President . . . com-
municating Correspondence with Great Britain in relation to the
Convention for Suppressing the Slave Trade. House Doc., 19
Cong, i sess. I. No. 16.
1826, Feb. 6. Appropriation Slave Trade : Report of the Committee
of Ways and Means on the subject of the estimate of appropria-
tions for the service of the year 1826. House Reports, 19 Cong.
1 sess. I. No. 65. (Contains report of the Secretary of the Navy
and account of expenditures for the African station.)
1826, March, 8. Slave Ships in Alabama : Message from the President
... in relation to the Cargoes of certain Slave Ships, etc. House
Doc., 19 Cong, i sess. VI. No. 121 ; cf. Ibid., VIII. No. 126, and
IX. Nos. 152, 163 ; also House Reports, 19 Cong, i sess. II. No.
231. (Cases of the Constitution, Louisa, and Merino.)
1826, Dec. 2. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. (Part IV. of
Documents accompanying the President's Message.) House Doc.,
19 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 9, 10, 74-103.
1827, etc. Colonization Society : Reports, etc. House Doc., 19 Cong.
2 sess. IV. Nos. 64, 69; 20 Cong, i sess. III. Nos. 99, 126, and
V. No. 193 ; 20 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 114, 127-8 ; 21 Cong.
2 sess. I. No. 2, p. 211-18; House Reports, 19 Cong. 2 sess. II.
No. 101 ; 21 Cong, i sess. II. No. 277, and III. No. 348 ; 22
Cong, i sess. II. No. 277.
1827, Jan. 30. Prohibition of the Slave Trade : Statement showing the
304 APPENDIX D.
Expenditure of the Appropriation for the Prohibition of the Slave
Trade, during the year 1826, and an Estimate for 1827. House
Doc., 19 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 69.
1827, Dec. 1 and Dec. 4. Reports of the Secretary of the Navy.
Amer. State Papers, Naval Affairs, III. Nos. 339, 340.
1827, Dec. 6. Message from the President . . . transmitting ... a
Report from the Secretary of the Navy, showing the expense
annually incurred in carrying into effect the Act of March 2, 1819,
for Prohibiting the Slave Trade. Senate Doc,, 20 Cong, i sess. I.
No. 3.
1828, March 12. Recaptured Africans : Letter from the Secretary of
the Navy ... in relation to ... Recaptured Africans. House
Doc., 20 Cong, i sess. V. No. 193 ; cf. Ibid., 20 Cong. 2 sess. I.
No. 2, pp. 114, 127-8; also Amer. State Papers, Naval Affairs,
III. No. 357.
1828, April 30. Africans at Key West : Message from the President
. . . relative to the Disposition of the Africans Landed at Key
West. House Doc., 20 Cong, i sess. VI. No. 262.
1828, Nov. 27. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. Amer. State
Papers, Naval Affairs, III. No. 370.
1829, Dec. 1. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. House Doc., 21
Cong, i sess. I. No. 2, p. 40.
1830, April 7. Slave Trade . . . Report : " The committee to whom
were referred the memorial of the American Society for colonizing
the free people of color of the United States ; also, sundry memo-
rials from the inhabitants of the State of Kentucky, and a memo-
rial from certain free people of color of the State of Ohio, report,"
etc., 3 pp. Appendix. Collected and arranged by Samuel Burch.
290 pp. House Reports, 2 1 Cong, i sess. III. No. 348. (Con-
tains a reprint of legislation and documents from 14 Cong. 2 sess.
to 21 Cong, i sess. Very valuable.)
1830, Dec. 6. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. House Doc., 21
Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 42-3 ; Amer. State Papers, Naval
Affairs, III. No. 429 E.
1830, Dec. 6. Documents communicated to Congress by the President
at the opening of the Second Session of the Twenty-first Congress,
accompanying the Report of the Secretary of the Navy : Paper E.
Statement of expenditures, etc., for the removal of Africans to
Liberia. House Doc., 21 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 211-8.
1831 Jan. 18. Spanish Slave Ship Fenix : Message from the President
APPENDIX D. 305
. . . transmitting Documents in relation to certain captives on
board the Spanish slave vessel, called the Fenix. House Doc., 2 1
Cong. 2 sess. III. No. 54 ; Amer. State Papers, Naval Affairs,
III. No. 435-
1831-1835. Reports of the Secretary of the Navy. House Doc., 22
Cong, i sess. I. No. 2, pp. 45, 272-4; 22 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2,
pp. 48, 229; 23 Cong, i sess. I. No. i, pp. 238, 269; 23 Cong.
2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 315, 363 ; 24 Cong, i sess. I. No. 2, pp. 336,
3 78. Also Amer. State Papers, Naval Affairs, IV. No. 45 7, R.
Nos. i, 2 ; No. 486, H. I. ; No. 519, R. ; No. 564, P. ; No. 585, P.
1836, Jan. 26. Calvin Mickle, Ex'r of Nagle & De Frias. House Re-
ports, 24 Cong, i sess. I. No. 209. (Reports on claims connected
with the captured slaver Constitution.)
1836, Jan. 27, etc. [Reports from the Committee of Claims on cases
of captured Africans.] House Reports, 24 Cong, i sess. I. Nos.
223, 268, and III. No. 574. No. 268 is reprinted in House Re-
ports, 25 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 4.
1836, Dec. 3. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. House Doc., 24
Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 450, 506.
1837, Feb. 14. Message from the President . . . with copies of Cor-
respondence in relation to the Seizure of Slaves on board the brigs
"Encomium" and "Enterprise." Senate Doc., 24 Cong. 2 sess.
II. No. 174 ; cf. Ibid., 25 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 216.
1837-1839. Reports of the Secretary of the Navy. House Doc., 25
Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 3, pp. 762, 771, 850; 25 Cong. 3 sess. I.
No. 2, p. 613 ; 26 Cong, i sess. I. No. 2, pp. 534, 612.
1839. [L'Amistad Case.] House Doc., 26 Cong, i sess. IV. No.
185 (correspondence) ; 27 Cong. 3 sess. V. No. 191 (correspond-
ence); 28 Cong, i sess. IV. No. 83 ; House Exec. Doc., 32 Cong.
2 sess. III. No. 20; House Reports, 26 Cong. 2 sess. No. 51
(case of altered Ms.) ; 28 Cong, i sess. II. No. 426 (Report of
Committee) ; 29 Cong, i sess. IV. No. 753 (Report of Commit-
tee) ; Senate Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 179 (correspondence) ;
Senate Exec. Doc.,$\ Cong. 2 sess. III. No. 29 (correspondence);
32 Cong. 2 sess. III. No. 19 ; Senate Reports, 31 Cong. 2 sess.
No. 301 (Report of Committee) ; 32 Cong, i sess. I. No. 158
(Report of Committee) ; 35 Cong, i sess. I. No. 36 (Report of
Committee).
1840, May 18. Memorial of the Society of Friends, upon the subject
of the foreign slave trade. House Doc., 26 Cong, i sess. VI. No.
211. (Results of certain investigations.)
306 APPENDIX D.
1840, Dec. 5. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. House Doc.)
26 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 405, 450.
1841, Jan. 20. Message from the President . . . communicating . . .
copies of correspondence, imputing malpractices to the American
consul at Havana, in regard to granting papers to vessels engaged
in the slave-trade. Senate Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. III. No. 125.
(Contains much information.)
1841, March 3. Search or Seizure of American Vessels, etc. : Message
from the President . . . transmitting a report from the Secretary
of State, in relation to seizures or search of American vessels on
the coast of Africa, etc. House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115
(elaborate correspondence). See also Ibid., 27 Cong, i sess. No.
34; House Reports, 27 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 283, pp. 478-755
(correspondence) .
1841, Dec. 4. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. House Doc., 27
Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 349, 351.
1842, Jan. 20. Message from the President . . . communicating . . .
copies of correspondence in relation to the mutiny on board the
brig Creole, and the liberation of the slaves who were passengers in
the said vessel. Senate Doc., 27 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 51. See
also Ibid., III. No. 137 ; House Doc., 27 Cong. 3 sess. I. No. 2,
p. 114.
1842, May 10. Resolutions of the Legislature of the State of Mississippi
in reference to the right of search, and the case of the Ameri-
can brig Creole. House Doc., 27 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 215.
(Suggestive.)
1842, etc. [Quintuple Treaty and Cass's Protest : Messages of the
President, etc.] House Doc., 27 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 249 ; Senate
Doc., 27 Cong. 3 sess. II. No. 52, and IV. No. 223 ; 29 Cong.
1 sess. VIII. No. 377.
1842, June 10. Indemnities for slaves on board the Comet and En-
comium : Report of the Secretary of State. House Doc., 27 Cong.
2 sess. V. No. 242.
1842, Aug. Suppression of the African Slave Trade Extradition :
Case of the Creole, etc. House Doc., 27 Cong. 3 sess. I. No. 2,
pp. 105-136. (Correspondence accompanying Message of
President.)
1842, Dec. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. House Doc., 27
Cong. 3 sess. I. No. 2, p. 532.
1842, Dec. 30. Message from the President ... in relation to the
APPENDIX D. 307
strength and expense of the squadron to be employed on the coast
of Africa. Senate Doc., 27 Cong. 3 sess. II. No. 20.
1843, Feb. 28. Construction of the Treaty of Washington, etc. : Mess-
age from the President . . . transmitting a report from the Secre-
tary of State, in answer to the resolution of the House of the
22d February, 1843. House Doc., 27 Cong. 3 sess. V. No. 192.
1843, Feb. 28. African Colonization. . . . Report : " The Committee
on Commerce, to whom was referred the memorial of the friends
of African colonization, assembled in convention in the city of
Washington in May last, beg leave to submit the following report,"
etc. (16 pp.). Appendix. (1071 pp.). House Reports, 27
Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 283. [Contents of Appendix: pp. 17-408,
identical nearly with the Appendix to House Reports, 2 1 Cong,
i sess. III. No. 348 ; pp. 408-478. Congressional history of the
slave-trade, case of the Fenix, etc. (cf. House Doc., 21 Cong. 2
sess. III. No. 54) ; pp. 478-729, search and seizure of American
vessels (same as House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, pp.
1-252) ; pp. 730-755, correspondence on British search of Ameri-
can vessels, etc. ; pp. 756-61, Quintuple Treaty; pp. 762-3, Presi-
dent's Message on Treaty of 1842; pp. 764-96, correspondence
on African squadron, etc.; pp. 796-1088, newspaper extracts on
the slave-trade and on colonization, report of Colonization
Society, etc.]
1843, Nov. 25. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. House Doc., 28
Cong, i sess. I. No. 2, pp. 484-5.
1844, March 14. Message from the President . . . communicating
. . . information in relation to the abuse of the flag of the United
States in ... the African slave trade, etc. Senate Doc., 28 Cong.
i sess. IV. No 217.
1844, March 15. Report : " The Committee on the Judiciary, to whom
was referred the petition of ... John Hanes, . . . praying an
adjustment of his accounts for the maintenance of certain cap-
tured African slaves, ask leave to report," etc. Senate Doc., 28
Cong, i sess. IV. No. 194.
1844, May 4. African Slave Trade: Report: "The Committee on
Foreign Affairs, to whom was referred the petition of the Ameri-
can Colonization Society and others, respectfully report," etc.
House Reports, 28 Cong, i sess. II. No. 469.
1844, May 22. Suppression of the Slave-Trade on the coast of Africa :
Message from the President, etc. House Doc., 28 Cong, i sess.
VI. No. 263.
308 APPENDIX D.
1844, Nov. 25. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. House Doc.^ 28
Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, p. 514.
1845, Feb. 20. Slave-Trade, etc. : Message from the President . . .
transmitting copies of despatches from the American minister at
the court of Brazil, relative to the slave-trade, etc. House Doc.,
28 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 148. (Important evidence, statistics, etc.)
1845, Feb. 26. Message from the President . . . communicating . . .
information relative to the operations of the United States squad-
ron, etc. Senate Doc., 28 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 150. (Contains
reports of Commodore Perry, and statistics of Liberia.)
1845, Dec. 1. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. House Doc., 29
Cong, i sess, I. No. 2, p. 645.
1845, Dec. 22. African Slave-Trade : Message from the President . . .
transmitting a report from the Secretary of State, together with the
correspondence of George W. Slacum, relative to the African
slave trade. House Doc., 29 Cong, i sess. III. No. 43. (Con-
tains much information.)
1846, June 6. Message from the President . . . communicating . . .
copies of the correspondence between the government of the
United States and that of Great Britain, on the subject of the
right of search ; with copies of the protest of the American min-
ister at Paris against the quintuple treaty, etc. Senate Doc., 29
Cong, i sess. VIII. No. 377. Cf. Ibid., 27 Cong. 3 sess. II. No.
52, and IV. No. 223 ; House Doc., 27 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 249.
1846-1847, Dec. Reports of the Secretary of the Navy. House Doc.,
29 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 4, p. 377 ; 30 Cong, i sess. II. No. 8,
p. 946.
1848, March 3. Message from the President . . . communicating a
report from the Secretary of State, with the correspondence of Mr.
Wise, late United States minister to Brazil, in relation to the slave
trade. Senate Exec. Doc., 30 Cong, i sess. IV. No. 28. (Full
of facts.)
1848, May 12. Report of the Secretary of State, in relation to ...
the seizure of the brig Douglass by a British cruiser. Senate Exec.
Doc., 30 Cong, i sess. VI. No. 44.
1848, Dec. 4. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. House Exec.
Doc., 30 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. i, pp. 605, 607.
1849, March 2. Correspondence between the Consuls of the United
States at Rio de Janeiro, etc., with the Secretary of State, on the
subject of the African Slave Trade : Message of the President,
APPENDIX D. 309
etc. Souse Exec. Doc., 30 Cong. 2 sess. VII. No. 61. (Con-
tains much evidence.)
1849. Dec. 1. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. House Exec. Doc.,
31 Cong, i sess. III. pt. i, No. 5, pt. i, pp. 427-8.
1850, March 18. Report of the Secretary of the Navy, showing the
annual number of deaths in the United States squadron on the
coast of Africa, and the annual cost of that squadron. Senate
Exec. Doc., 31 Cong, i sess. X. No. 40.
1850, July 22. African Squadron : Message from the President . . .
transmitting Information in reference to the African squadron.
House Exec. Doc., 31 Cong, i sess. IX. No. 73. (Gives total ex-
penses of the squadron, slavers captured, etc.)
1850, Aug. 2. Message from the President . . . relative to the search-
ing of American vessels by British ships of war. Senate Exec.
Doc., 31 Cong, i sess. XIV. No. 66.
1850, Dec. 17. Message of the President . . . communicating ... a
report of the Secretary of State, with documents relating to the
African slave trade. Senate Exec. Doc., 31 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 6.
1851-1853. Reports of the Secretary of the Navy. House Exec. Doc.,
32 Cong, i sess. II. pt. 2, No. 2, pt. 2, pp. 4-5 ; 32 Cong. 2
sess. I. pt. 2, No. i, pt. 2, p. 293 ; 33 Cong, i sess. I. pt. 3, No. i,
pt. 3, pp. 298-9.
1854, March 13. Message from the President . . . communicating
. . . the correspondence between Mr. Schenck, United States Min-
ister to Brazil, and the Secretary of State, in relation to the African
slave trade. Senate Exec. Doc., 33 Cong, i sess. VIII. No. 47.
1854, June 13. Report submitted by Mr. Slidell, from the Committee on
Foreign Relations, on a resolution relative to the abrogation of the
eighth article of the treaty with Great Britain of the gth of August,
1842, etc. Senate Reports, 34 Cong, i sess. I. No. 195. (Injunc-
tion of secrecy removed June 26, 1856.)
1854-1855, Dec. Reports of the Secretary of the Navy. House Exec.
Doc., 33 Cong. 2 sess. I. pt. 2, No. i, pt. 2, pp. 386-7 ; 34 Cong,
i sess. I. pt. 3, No. i, pt. 3, p. 5.
1856, May 19. Slave and Coolie Trade : Message from the President
. . . communicating information in regard to the Slave and Coolie
trade. House Exec. Doc., 34 Cong, i sess. XII. No. 105. (Partly
reprinted in Senate Exec. Doc., 34 Cong, i sess. XV. No. 99.)
1856, Aug. 5. Report of the Secretary of State, in compliance with a
resolution of the Senate of April 24, calling for information relative
310 APPENDIX D.
to the coolie trade. Senate Exec. Doc., 34 Cong, i sess. XV.
No. 99. (Partly reprinted in House Exec. Doc., 34 Cong, i sess.
XII. No. 105.)
1856, Dec. 1. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. House Exec. Doc.,
34 Cong. 3 sess. I. pt. 2, No. i, pt. 2, p. 407.
1857, Feb. 11. Slave Trade : Letter from the Secretary of State, asking
an appropriation for the suppression of the slave trade, etc. House
Exec. Doc., 34 Cong. 3 sess. IX. No. 70.
1857, Dec. 3. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. House Exec.
Doc., 35 Cong, i sess. II. pt. 3, No. 2, pt. 3, p. 576.
1858, April 23. Message of the President . . . communicating . . .
reports of the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Navy,
with accompanying papers, in relation to the African slave trade.
Senate Exec. Doc., 35 Cong, i sess. XII. No. 49. (Valuable.)
1858, Dec. 6. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. House Exec. Doc.,
35 Cong. 2 sess. II. pt. 4, No. 2, pt. 4, pp. 5, 13-4.
1859, Jan. 12. Message of the President . . . relative to the landing of
the barque Wanderer on the coast of Georgia, etc. Senate Exec.
Doc., 35 Cong. 2 sess. VII. No. 8. See also House Exec. Doc., 35
Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 89.
1859, March 1. Instructions to African squadron : Message from the
President, etc. -House Exec. Doc., 35 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 104.
1859, Dec. 2. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. Senate Exec. Doc.,
36 Cong, i sess. III. No. 2, pt. 3, pp. 1138-9, 1149-50.
1860, Jan. 25. Memorial of the American Missionary Association, pray-
ing the rigorous enforcement of the laws for the suppression of
the African slave-trade, etc. Senate Misc. Doc., 36 Cong, i sess.
No. 8.
1860, April 24. Message from the President ... in answer to a resolu-
tion of the House calling for the number of persons . . . belong-
ing to the African squadron, who have died, etc. House Exec.
Doc., 36 Cong, i sess. XII. No. 73.
1860, May 19. Message of the President . . relative to the capture
of the slaver Wildfire, etc. Senate Exec. Doc., 36 Cong, i sess.
XI. No. 44.
1860, May 22. Capture of the slaver " William " : Message from the
President . . . transmitting correspondence relative to the capture
of the slaver " William," etc. House Exec. Doc., 36 Cong, i sess.
XII. No. 83.
1860, May 31. The Slave Trade . . . Report: "The Committee on the
APPENDIX D. 311
Judiciary, to whom was referred Senate Bill No. 464, . . . together
with the messages of the President . . . relative to the capture
of the slavers 'Wildfire' and 'William,' . . . respectfully re-
port," etc. House Reports, 36 Cong, i sess. IV. No. 602.
1860, June 16. Recaptured Africans : Letter from the Secretary of the
Interior, on the subject of the return to Africa of recaptured
Africans, etc. House Misc. Doc., 36 Cong, i sess. VII. No. 96.
Cf. Ibid., No. 97, p. 2.
1860, Dec. 1. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. Senate Exec. Doc.,
36 Cong. 2 sess. III. pt. i, No. i, pt. 3, pp. 8-9.
1860, Dec. 6. African Slave Trade : Message from the President . . .
transmitting ... a report from the Secretary of State in refer-
ence to the African slave trade. House Exec. Doc., 36 Cong.
2 sess. IV. No. 7. (Voluminous document, containing chiefly
correspondence, orders, etc., 1855-1860.)
1860, Dec. 17. Deficiencies of Appropriation, etc. : Letter from the
Secretary of the Interior, communicating estimates for deficiencies
in the appropriation for the suppression of the slave trade, etc.
House Exec. Doc., 36 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. n. (Contains names
of captured slavers.)
1861, July 4. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. Senate Exec. Doc.,
37 Cong, i sess. No. i, pp. 92, 97.
1861, Dec. 2. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. Senate Exec. Doc.,
37 Cong. 2 sess. Vol. III. pt. i, No. i, pt. 3, pp. n, 21.
1861, Dec. 18. In Relation to Captured Africans : Letter from the Sec-
retary of the Interior ... as to contracts for returning and sub-
sistence of captured Africans. House Exec. Doc., 3 7 Cong. 2 sess.
I. No. 12.
1862, April 1. Letter of the Secretary of the Interior ... in relation
to the slave vessel the "Bark Augusta." Senate Exec. Doc., 37
Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 40.
1862, May 30. Letter of the Secretary of the Interior ... in relation
to persons who have been arrested in the southern district of New
York, from the ist day of May, 1852, to the ist day of May, 1862,
charged with being engaged in the slave trade, etc. Senate Exec.
Doc., 37 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 53.
1862, June 10. Message of the President . . . transmitting a copy of
the treaty between the United States and her Britannic Majesty for
the suppression of the African slave trade. Senate Exec. Doc.,
37 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 57. (Also contains correspondence.)
312 APPENDIX D.
1862, Dec. 1. Report of the Secretary of the Navy. House Exec. Doc.,
37 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. i, pt. 3, p. 23.
1863, Jan. 7. Liberated Africans : Letter from the Acting Secretary of
the Interior . . . transmitting reports from Agent Seys in relation
to care of liberated Africans. House Exec. Doc., 37 Cong. 3 sess.
V. No. 28.
1864, July 2. Message of the President . . . communicating ... in-
formation in regard to the African slave trade. Senate Exec.
Doc., 38 Cong, i sess. No. 56.
1866-69. Reports of the Secretary of the Navy. House Exec. Doc.,
39 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. i, pt. 6, pp. 12, 18-9 ; 40 Cong. 2 sess.
IV. No. i, p. ii ; 40 Cong. 3 sess. IV. No. i, p. ix; 41 Cong.
2 sess. I. No. i, pp. 4, 5, 9, 10.
1870, March 2. [Resolution on the slave-trade submitted to the Senate
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3l6 APPENDIX D.
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APPENDIX D. 317
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. An Appeal on the Iniquity of Slavery and the Slave
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318 APPENDIX D.
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APPENDIX D. 319
[Great Britain : Parliament.] Chronological Table and Index of the
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(1889.) By Authority. London, 1890.
[Great Britain : Record Commission.] The Statutes of the Realm.
Printed by command of His Majesty King George the Third . . .
From Original Records and Authentic Manuscripts. 9 vols. London,
1810-22.
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H. Hall. Slavery in New Hampshire. (In New England Register,
XXIX. 247.)
Isaac W. Hammond. Slavery in New Hampshire in the Olden Time.
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James H. Hammond. Letters on Southern Slavery : addressed to
Thomas Clarkson. [Charleston, (?)].
Robert G. Harper. Argument against the Policy of Re-opening the
African Slave Trade. Atlanta, Ga., 1858.
Samuel Hazard, editor. The Register of Pennsylvania. 16 vols.
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Hinton R. Helper. The Impending Crisis of the South : How to
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Lewis and Sir Edward Hertslet, compilers. A Complete Collection
of the Treaties and Conventions, and Reciprocal Regulations, at present
subsisting between Great Britain and Foreign Powers, and of the Laws,
Decrees, and Orders in Council, concerning the same ; so far as they
relate to Commerce and Navigation, . . . the Slave Trade, etc. 17 vols.,
(Vol. XVI., Index.) London, 1840-90.
William B. Hodgson. The Foulahs of Central Africa, and the African
Slave Trade. [New York, ( ? )] 1843.
John Codman Hurd. The Law of Freedom and Bondage in the
United States. 2 vols. Boston and New York, 1858, 1862.
. The International Law of the Slave Trade, and the
Maritime Right of Search. (In the American Jurist, XXVI. 330.)
. The Jamaica Movement, for promoting the Enforcement
of the Slave-Trade Treaties, and the Suppression of the Slave-Trade ; with
statements of Fact, Convention, and Law : prepared at the request of
the Kingston Committee. London, 1850.
320 APPENDIX D.
William Jay. Miscellaneous Writings on Slavery. Boston, 1853.
. A View of the Action of the Federal Government, in
Behalf of Slavery. New York, 1839.
T. and J. W. Johnson. Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery in the
United States.
Alexandre Moreau de Jonnes. Recherches Statistiques sur 1'Esclavage
Colonial et sur les Moyens de le supprimer. Paris, 1842.
M. A. Juge. The American Planter : or The Bound Labor Interest in
the United States. New York, 1854.
Friedrich Kapp. Die Sklavenfrage in den Vereinigten Staaten. Got-
tingen and New York, 1854.
. Geschichte der Sklaverei in den Vereinigten Staaten
von Amerika. Hamburg, 1861.
Frederic Kidder. The Slave Trade in Massachusetts. (In New-
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George Lawrence. An Oration on the Abolition of the Slave Trade
. . . Jan. i, 1813. New York, 1813.
William B. Lawrence. Visitation and Search ; or, An Historical Sketch
of the British Claim to exercise a Maritime Police over the Vessels of all
Nations, in Peace as well as in War. Boston, 1858.
Letter from ... in London, to his Friend in America, on the . . .
Slave Trade, etc. Neyv York, 1784.
Thomas Lloyd. Debates of the Convention of the State of Penn-
sylvania on the Constitution, proposed for the Government of the United
States. In two volumes. Vol. I. Philadelphia, 1788.
London Anti-Slavery Society. The Foreign Slave Trade, A Brief
Account of its State, of the Treaties which have been entered into, and
of the Laws enacted for its Suppression, from the date of the English
Abolition Act to the present time. London, 1837.
. The Foreign Slave Trade, etc., No. 2. London, 1838.
London Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade, and for the
Civilization of Africa. Proceedings at the first Public Meeting, held at
Exeter Hall, on Monday, ist June, 1840. London, 1840.
Theodore Lyman, Jr. The Diplomacy of the United States, etc.
Second edition. 2 vols. Boston, 1828.
Hugh M'Call. The History of Georgia, containing Brief Sketches of
the most Remarkable Events, up to the Present Day. 2 vols. Savan-
nah, 1811-16.
Marion J. McDougall. Fugitive Slaves. Boston, 1891.
John Fraser Macqueen. Chief Points in the Laws of War and Neu-
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APPENDIX D. 321
R. R. Madden. A Letter to W. E. Channing, D. D., on the subject
of the Abuse of the Flag of the United States in the Island of Cuba, and
the Advantage taken of its Protection in promoting the Slave Trade.
Boston, 1839.
James Madison. Letters and Other Writings of James Madison,
Fourth President of the United States. In four volumes. Published by
order of Congress. Philadelphia, 1865.
. The Papers of James Madison, purchased by order of
Congress ; being his Correspondence and Reports of Debates during the
Congress of the Confederation and his Reports of Debates in the Federal
Convention. 3 vols. Washington, 1840.
Marana (pseudonym). The Future of America. Considered . . .
in View of ... Re-opening the Slave Trade. Boston, 1858.
E. Manning. Six Months on a Slaver. New York, 1879.
George C. Mason. The African Slave Trade in Colonial Times. (In
American Historical Record, I. 311, 338.)
Frederic G. Mather. Slavery in the Colony and State of New York.
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Samuel May, Jr. Catalogue of Anti-Slavery Publications in America,
1750-1863. (Contains bibliography of periodical literature.)
Memorials presented to the Congress of the United States of America,
by the Different Societies instituted for promoting the Abolition of
Slavery, etc., etc., in the States of Rhode-Island, Connecticut, New-
York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. Philadelphia, 1792.
Charles F. Mercer. Me' moires relatifs a 1' Abolition de la Traite
Africaine, etc. Paris, 1855.
C. W. Miller. Address on Re-opening the Slave Trade . . . August
29, 1857. Columbia, S. C., 1857.
George H. Moore. Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts.
New York, 1866.
. Slavery in Massachusetts. (In Historical Magazine, XV.
3 2 9-)
Jedidiah Morse. A Discourse . . . July 14, 1808, in Grateful Celebra-
tion of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade by the Governments of
the United States, Great Britain and Denmark. Boston, 1808.
John Pennington, Lord Muncaster. Historical Sketches of the Slave
Trade and its effect on Africa, addressed to the People of Great Britain.
London, 1792.
Edward Needles. An Historical Memoir of the Pennsylvania Society,
for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. Philadelphia, 1848.
21
322
APPENDIX D.
New England Anti-Slavery Convention. Proceedings at Boston, May
27, 1834. Boston, 1834.
Hezekiah Niles (et a/.), editors. The Weekly Register, etc. 7 1 vols.
Baltimore, 1811-1847. (For Slave-Trade, seel. 224; III. 189; V. 30,
46 ; VI. 152 ; VII. 54, 9 6 > z8 6, 35 '> VIII. 136, 190, 262, 302, Supple-
ment, p. 155 ; IX. 60, 78, 133, 172, 335 ; X. 296, 400, 412, 427 ; XI.
15, 108, 156, 222, 336, 399; XII. 58, 60, 103, 122, 159, 219, 237, 299,
347>397t4"0
Robert Norris. A Short Account of the African Slave-Trade. A new
edition corrected. London, 1789.
E. B. O'Callaghan, translator. Voyages of the Slavers St. John and
Arms of Amsterdam, 1659, 1663 ; with additional papers illustrative of
the Slave Trade under the Dutch. Albany, 1867. (New York Colo-
nial Tracts, No. 3.)
Frederick Law Olmsted. A Journey in the Back Country. New
York, 1860.
. A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States, etc. New York,
1856.
. A Journey through Texas, etc. New York, 1857.
-. The Cotton Kingdom, etc. 2 vols. New York, 1861.
Sir W. G. Ouseley. Notes on the Slave Trade ; with Remarks on the
Measures adopted for ks Suppression. London, 1850.
Pennsylvania Historical Society. The Charlemagne Tower Collection
of American Colonial Laws. (Bibliography.) Philadelphia, 1890.
Edward A. Pollard. Black Diamonds gathered in the Darkey Homes
of the South. New York, 1859.
William F. Poole. Anti-Slavery Opinions before the Year 1800. To
which is appended a fac-simile reprint of Dr. George Buchanan's Oration
on the Moral and Political Evil of Slavery, etc. Cincinnati, 1873.
Robert Proud. History of Pennsylvania. 2 vols. Philadelphia.
1797-8.
[James Ramsay.] An Inquiry into the Effects of putting a Stop to
the African Slave Trade, and of granting Liberty to the Slaves in the
British Sugar Colonies. London, 1784.
. Objections to the Abolition of the Slave Trade, with
Answers, etc. Second edition. London, 1788.
[John Ranby.] Observations on the Evidence given before the Com-
mittees of the Privy Council and House of Commons in Support of the
Bill for Abolishing the Slave Trade. London, 1791.
Remarks on the Colonization of the Western Coast of Africa, by
the Free Negroes of the United States, etc. New York, 1850.
APPENDIX D. 323
Right of Search. Reply to an " American's Examination " of the
"Right of Search, etc." By an Englishman. London, 1842.
William Noel Sainsbury, editor. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial
Series, America and the West Indies, 1574-1676. 4 vols. London,
1860-93.
George Sauer. La Traite et 1'Esclavage des Noirs. London, 1863.
George S. Sawyer. Southern Institutes ; or, An Inquiry into the Origin
and Early Prevalence of Slavery and the Slave-Trade. Philadelphia,
1858.
Selections from the Revised Statutes : Containing all the Laws relating
to Slaves, etc. New York, 1830.
Johann J. Sell. Versuch einer Geschichte des Negersclavenhandels.
Halle, 1791.
[Granville Sharp.] Extract of a Letter to a Gentleman in Maryland ;
Wherein is demonstrated the extreme wickedness of tolerating the
Slave Trade. Fourth edition. London, 1806.
A Short Account of that part of Africa Inhabited by the Negroes, . . .
and the Manner by which the Slave Trade is carried on. Third edition.
London, 1768.
A Short Sketch of the Evidence for the Abolition of the Slave-Trade.
Philadelphia, 1792.
Joseph Sidney. An Oration commemorative of the Abolition of the
Slave Trade in the United States. . . . Jan, 2. 1809. New York, 1809.
[A Slave Holder.] Remarks upon Slavery and the Slave-Trade,
addressed to the Hon. Henry Clay. 1839.
The Slave Trade in New York. (In the Continental Monthly, Jan-
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Joseph Smith. A Descriptive Catalogue of Friends' Books. (Bibli-
ography.) 2 vols. London, 1867.
Capt. William Snelgrave. A New Account of some Parts of Guinea,
and the Slave-Trade. London, 1734.
South Carolina. General Assembly (House), 1857. Report of the
Special Committee of the House of Representatives ... on so much
of the Message of His Excellency Gov. Jas. H. Adams, as relates to
Slavery and the Slave Trade. Columbia, S. C., 1857.
L. W. Spratt. A Protest from South Carolina against a Decision of the
Southern Congress : Slave Trade in the Southern Congress. (In Littell's
Living Age, Third Series, LXVIII. 801.)
. Speech upon the Foreign Slave Trade, before the Legis-
lature of South Carolina. Columbia, S. C., 1858.
324 APPENDIX D.
L. W. Spratt. The Foreign Slave Trade the Source of Political
Power, etc. Charleston, 1858.
William Stith. The History of the First Discovery and Settlement of
Virginia. Virginia and London, 1753.
George M. Stroud. A Sketch of the Laws relating to Slavery in the
Several States of the United States of America. Philadelphia, 1827.
James Swan. A Dissuasion to Great- Britain and the Colonies : from
the Slave-Trade to Africa. Shewing the Injustice thereof, etc. Revised
and Abridged. Boston, 1773.
F. T. Texugo. A Letter on the Slave Trade still carried on along the
Eastern Coast of Africa, etc. London, 1839.
R. Thorpe. A View of the Present Increase of the Slave Trade, the
Cause of that Increase, and a mode for effecting its total Annihilation.
London, 1818.
Jesse Torrey. A Portraiture of Domestic Slavery . . . and a Pro-
ject of Colonial Asylum for Free Persons of Colour. Philadelphia,
1817.
Drs. Tucker and Belknap. Queries respecting the Slavery and
Emancipation of Negroes in Massachusetts, proposed by the Hon.
Judge Tucker of Virginia, and answered by the Rev. Dr. Belknap.
(In Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, First Series,
IV. 191.)
David Turnbull. Travels in the West. Cuba ; with Notices of Porto
Rico, and the Slave Trade. London, 1840.
United States Congress. Annals of Congress, 1789-1824; Congres-
sional Debates, 1824-37 > Congressional Globe, 1833-73 > Congres-
sional Record, 1873- ; Documents (House and Senate) ; Executive
Documents (House and Senate) ; Journals (House and Senate) ; Mis-
cellaneous Documents (House and Senate) ; Reports (House and
Senate); Statutes at Large.
United States Supreme Court. Reports of Decisions.
Charles W. Upham. Speech in the House of Representatives, Mass-
achusetts, on the Compromises of the Constitution, with an Appendix
containing the Ordinance of 1787. Salem, 1849.
Virginia State Convention. Proceedings and Debates, 1829-30.
Richmond, 1830.
G. Wadleigh. Slavery in New Hampshire. (In Granite Monthly,
VI. 377-)
Emory Washburn. Extinction of Slavery in Massachusetts. (In Pro-
ceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, May, 1857. Boston,
1859-)
APPENDIX D. 325
William B. Weeden. Economic and Social History of New England,
1620-1789. 2 vols. Boston, 1890.
Henry Wheaton. Enquiry into the Validity of the British Claim to a
Right of Visitation and Search of American Vessels suspected to be
engaged in the African Slave-Trade. Philadelphia, 1842.
William H. Whitmore. The Colonial Laws of Massachusetts. Re-
printed from the Edition of 1660, with the Supplements to 1772. Con-
taining also the Body of Liberties of 1641. Boston, 1889.
George W. Williams. History of the Negro Race in America from
1619 to 1880. 2 vols. New York, 1883.
Henry Wilson. History of the Antislavery Measures of the Thirty-
seventh and Thirty-eighth United-States Congresses, 1861-64. Boston,
1864.
. History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in
America. 3 vols. Boston, 1872-7.
INDEX.
ABOLITION of slave-trade by Europe,
144 n.
Abolition Societies, organization of, 35,
70 ; petitions of, 75, 76-80.
Adams, C. F., 150.
Adams, J. Q., on Right of Search, 137;
proposes Treaty of 1824, 139 ; message,
261.
Adams, Governor of S. C., message on
slave-trade, 169, 170, 275, 276.
Advertisements for smuggled slaves,
182 n.
Africa, English trade to, 2, 5; Dutch
trade to, 17 ; Colonial trade to, 18,
28, 29, 36, 41, 71, 72; "Association"
and trade to, 41, 46; American trade
to, 85, no, in, 113, 147, 179, 180, 181-3,
185-7 ; reopening of trade to, 168-93.
African Agency, establishment, 121, 123;
attempts to abolish, 155; history, 157.
" African Labor Supply Association," 176.
African Society of London, no.
African squadron, establishment of, 120,
121 ; activity of, 125, 126, 144, 147, 156,
159, 185, 186, 187, 192.
Aix-la-Chapelle, Peace, 3 ; Congress,
136 n.
Alabama, in Commercial Convention,
171 ; State statutes, 109, 247, 254, 274.
Alston, speeches on Act of 1807, 96 n.,
99 n., icon.
Amelia Island, illicit traffic at, 113, 114,
119, 246; capture of, 116, 249.
Amendments to slave-trade clause in Con-
stitution proposed, 68, 91, io8n., 184,
241-4, 246, 250, 256, 282, 283.
American Missionary Society, petition,
183-
" L'Amistad," case of, 142, 293.
Anderson, minister to Colombia, 140 n.
" Antelope " (" Ramirez "), case of, 126 n.,
129, 271.
" Apprentices," African, importation of,
172, 177 ; Louisiana bill on, 177 ; Con-
gressional bill on, 184.
Appropriations to suppress the slave-
trade, chronological list of, 122 n. ; from
1820 to 1850, 156, 157; from 1850 to
1860, 183, 184; from 1860 to 1870, 191 ;
statutes, 251, 255, 262-4, 266, 272, 273-5,
277, 279, 282, 284, 285, 287, 288.
Argentine Confederation, 142 n.
Arkansas, 171.
Arkwright, Richard, 151.
Ashmun, Jehudi, 157.
Assiento treaty, 3, 207, 208 ; influence of,
10, 14, 39.
"Association," the, reasons leading to,
41,42; establishment of, 44, 45 ; results'
of, 46-8.
Atherton, J., speech of, 67.
" Augusta," case of the slaver, 298.
Aury, Capt., buccaneer, 113.
Austria, at Congress of Vienna, 134; at :
Congress of Verona, 138; signs Quin-
tuple Treaty, 146, 269.
Ayres, Eli, U. S. African agent, 157 ;
report of, 125, 126.
BABBIT, William, slave-trader, 128 n.
Bacon, Samuel, African agent, 123, 157.
Badger, Joseph, slave-trader, 129 n.
Baldwin, Abraham, in Federal Conven-
tion, 54, 55, 58, 60 ; in Congress, 77, 105.
Baltimore, slave-trade at, 129, 164, 166.
Banks, N. P., 193, 288.
Barancas, Fort, 117.
Barbadoes, 4.
Bard (of Pa.), Congressman, 86.
Barksdale, Wm. (of Miss.), 175.
328
INDEX.
Barnwell, Robert (of S. C.), 66.
Barry, Robert, slave-trader, 164.
Bay Island slave-depot, 166.
Bayard, J. A. (of Del.), Congressman.
83-
Bedinger, G. M. (of Ky.), 85 n.
Belgium, 148.
Belknap, J. (of Mass.), 73.
Benezet, Anthony, 21.
Benton, Thomas H., 147, 156, 272.
Betton (of N. H.), Congressman, io6n.
Biblical Codes of Law, 18, 30, 37 n.
Bidwell (of Mass.), Congressman, 96 n.,
97 n., icon., 101 n., 105-7, 108, 245.
Blanco and Caballo, slave-traders, 164.
Bland, T. (of Va.), Congressman, 78.
Bolivia, 142 n.
Border States, interstate slave-trade from,
154; legislation of, 72; see also under
individual States.
Boston, slave trade at, 31, 82, 166, 185.
Bozal Negroes, 166.
Braddock's Expedition, 13.
Bradley, S. R , Senator, 95, 105, 107.
Brazil , slave-trade to, 17 112, 143, 162,
163, 171, 180, 263; slaves in, 131 ; pro-
posed conference with, 149; squadron
on coasts of, 159.
Brazos Santiago, 180.
Brown (of Miss.), Congressman, 175.
Brown, John (of Va.), slave-trader, 47.
Brown, John (of R. I.), 82-4.
Buchanan, James A., refuses to co-operate
with England, 150; issues " Ostend
Manifesto," 178 ; as president, enforces
slave-trade laws, 187; messages, 277,
279, 282.
Buchanan, Governor of Sierra Leone, 163.
Bullock, Collector of Revenue, 113.
Burgesses, Virginia House of, petitions
vs. slave-trade, 13; declares vs. slave-
trade, 14; in " Association," 42.
Burke, Aedanus (of S. C.), 75-7.
Butler, Pierce (of S. C.), Senator, 61.
CALHOUN, J. C., 155 n.
California, vessels bound to, 161.
Campbell, John, Congressman, 105.
Campbell, Commander, U. S. N., 1150.
Canning, Stratford, British Minister, 137,
' 139-
Canot, Capt., slave-trader, 185.
Cape de Verde Islands, 186.
Cartwright, Edmund, 154.
Cass, Lewis, 146-9, 269.
Castlereagh, British Cabinet Minister,
134, 136.
Cato, insurrection of the slave, 10.
"Centinel,*' newspaper correspondent, 63.
Central America, 178.
Chandalier Islands, 116.
Chandler, John (of N. H.), 102 n.
Charles II., of England, 2.
Charleston, S. C., attitude toward "Asso-
ciation," 43, 44 ; slave-trade at, 86, 88,
90, 93, in, 164.
Chew, Beverly, Collector of Revenue,
1 13. "5-
Chili, 148.
Chittenden, Martin (of Vt), 106 n.
Claiborne, Wm., Governor of La., 89.
Clarkson, William, 48, 132.
Clay, J. B. (of Ky.), Congressman, 175.
Clay, Congressman, 100 n.
Clearance of slavers, 156, 161, 164, 184,
268, 273, 274.
Clymer, George (of Pa.), 58, 74.
Coastwise slave-trade, 95, 96, 104-6, 156,
161, 184, 192, 286.
Cobb, Howell, Sec. of the Treasury, 177.
Coles (of Va ), Congressman, 78.
Colombia, U S. of, 140, 260.
Colonies, legislation of, see under indi-
vidual Colonies, and Appendix A ;
slave-trade in, 3, 5, 15, 17, 27-9, 40-1,
48-50; status of slavery in, 5-7, 15, 16,
25-7, 37, 201, 202.
Colonization Society, 123, 155 n., 157,
197.
" Comet," case of the slaver, 141, 292.
Commercial conventions, Southern, 169-
73-
Company of Merchants Trading to Af-
rica, 4.
Compromises in Constitution, 57-62,
197-9.
Compton, Samuel, 151.
Confederate States of America, 188-91,
283, 284.
Confederation, the, 50-2, 226.
Congress of the United States, 74-108,
110,118-123,125,129,155-7,175,191-3,
234, 241-56, 258, 260-4, 266-8, 271-8,
282, 283, 285-8.
Congress of Verona, 138.
Congress of Vienna, 134, 135.
BA RN WELLFRA NCE.
329
Connecticut, restrictions in, 37, 51 ; elec-
tions in, 179 ; Colonial and State legisla-
tion, 201, 202, 221, 223, 232, 235.
"Constitution," slaver, 117, 118, 290.
Constitution of the United States, 53-69,
75, 76-80, 91, 100, 104, 108 n., 137,
184, 198, 241-4, 246, 250, 256, 282, 283.
See also Amendments and Compro-
mises.
Continental Congress, 44-7.
Cook, Congressman, 97 n., 101 n., 105.
Cosby, Governor of N. Y., 19.
Cotton, manufacture of, 151, 152; price of,
153; crop of, 153.
Cotton-gin, 152.
Cox, Tench, 64.
Cranston, Governor of R. I., 34.
Crawford, W. H., Secretary, 116, 175.
" Creole," case of the slaver, 141, 270, 295.
Crimean war, 153.
Cruising Conventions, 137, 138, 144, 147,
272, 275, 278, 282.
Cuba, cruising off, 149, 282 ; movement to
acquire, 155, 178, 187; illicit traffic to
and from, 161, 162, 164, 166, 171.
Cumberland, Lieut., R. N., 147.
" Cyane," U. S. S., 127.
DANA (of Conn.), Congressman, 82.
Danish slave-trade, 41.
Darien, Ga., 46, 114.
Davis, Jefferson, 176.
De Bow, J. D. B., 173, 176.
Declaration of Independence, 48.
Delaware, restrictions in, 24, 51, 72 ; atti-
tude toward slave-trade, 60, 68 n., 70;
Colonial and State statutes, 223, 224,
229, 233, 238.
Denmark, abolition of slave-trade, 131,
241.
Dent (of Md.), Congressman, 84.
Dickinson, John, in the Federal Conven-
tion, 54, 55, 58.
Dickson (of N. C.), Congressman, 84.
Disallowance of Colonial acts, 4,5, II, 13,
19, 22, 25, 35.
Dobbs, Governor of N. C., 4.
Dolben, Sir William, M. P., 132.
Douglas, Stephen A., 181.
Dowdell (of Ala.), Congressman, 175.
Drake, Capt., slave-smuggler, in, 165.
Driscol, Capt., slave-trader, 185.
Duke of York's Laws, 18, 202.
Dunmore, Lord, 223.
Dutch. See Holland.
Dutch West India Company, 17.
Duty, on African goods, 2 ; on slaves im-
ported, 3, 4, 5, 8-15, 18-25, 31, 34-6,
54, 58-61, 63, 65, 74-80, 86, 87, 91, 92,
197, 201-6, 209-24, 226, 229, 234, 241,
243-
Dwight, Theodore, of Conn., 103 n.
EARLY, Peter (of Ga.), 96 n., 98,99, 101-5,
1 08.
East Indies, 44.
Economic revolution, 151-4.
Edwards (of N. C.), Congressman, 119 n.
Ellsworth, Oliver (of Conn.), in Federal
Convention, 53, 54, 56.
Elmer, Congressman, 103 n.
Ely, Congressman, 100 n., 102 n.
Emancipation of slaves, 23, 32, 36, 37, 64,
66, 72, 76-80, 193, 197, 224-6.
" Encomium," case of, 141, 292.
England, slave-trade policy, 1-5, 17, 22,
35, 40-4, 47, 48, 95, 132-50, 152, 192,
207, 208, 245, 247, 249, 251, 256-9, 263,
264, 269, 272, 282, 285, 286, 288. See
Disallowance.
English Colonies. See Colonies.
" Enterprise," case of, 141, 292.
Escambia River, in.
FAIRFAX County, Virginia, 43.
Faneuil Hall, meeting in, 42.
Federalist, the, on slave-trade, 65.
Fernandina, port of, 113.
Filibustering expeditions, 178.
Findley, Congressman, icon.
Fisk, Congressman, 97 n.
Florida, 46, 99, in, 113, 118, 166,171,180,
181. See St. Mary's River and Amelia
Island.
Foote, H. S. (of Miss.), 172.
Forsyth, John, Secretary of State, 142,
145, 155 n., 176.
Foster (of N. H.), Congressman, 78.
Fowler, W. C., no.
Fox, C. J., English Cabinet Minister,
France, Revolution in, 131 ; Colonial
slave-trade of, 41, 89, 131, 247; Con-
vention of, 82, 131 ; at Congress of
Vienna, 134 ; at Congress of Verona,
138; treaties with England, 142, 148,
330
INDEX.
263, 264; flag of, in slave-trade, 143;
refuses to sign Quintuple Treaty, 146 ;
invited to conference, 149.
Franklin, Benjamin, 76.
Friends, protest of, vs. slave-trade, 21 ;
attitude towards slave-trade, 23, 26, 35,
63, 73, 205; petitions of, vs. slave trade,
5 5 l > 75> 80, 81 ; reports of, on slave-
trade, 1 66.
GAILLARD, Congressman, 105.
Gallatin, Albert, 88.
Gallinas, port of, Africa, 125.
Galveston, Tex., 113.
Garnett (of Va.), Congressman, io6n.
" General Ramirez." See " Antelope."
Georgia, slavery in, 5, 6 ; restrictions in,
7,8, 71, 177; opposition to "Associa-
tion," 45, 46; demands slave-trade, 8,
50, 55~62 ; attitude toward restrictions,
77, 78, 80, 129; smuggling to, 85, 86,
92, 99, in, 113, 114, 180, 181 ; Colonial
and State statutes, 109, 214, 236, 238,
239, 249, 251,265.
Germanic Federation, 148.
Gerry, Elbridge, in the Federal Conven-
tion, 54, 55 ; in Congress, 76, 78.
Ghent, Treaty of, 135, 247. v
Giddings, J. R., 184 n., 271, 274.
Giles, W. B. (of Va.), Congressman, 105.
Godon, Capt, slave-trader, 191 n.
Good Hope, Cape of, 150, 159, 192.
Gorham, N. (of Mass.), in Federal Con-
vention, 53, 60.
Goulden, W. B., 170.
Graham, Secretary of the Navy, 186.
Great Britain. See England.
Gregory XVI., Pope, 143.
Grenville-Fox ministry, 132.
Guadaloupe, 84.
Guinea. See Africa.
Guizot, F., French Foreign Minister, 146.
HABERSHAM, R. W., 127 n.
Hamilton, Alexander, 53.
Hanse Towns, 141.
Harmony and Co., slave-traders, 164.
Harper (of S. C.), Congressman, 88.
Hartley, David, 76, 78.
Hastings, Congressman, 102 n.
Havana, Cuba, 112, 117, 143, 161, 165.
Hawkins, Sir John, 2.
Hayti, 142 n. ; influence of the revolution,
70-4, 80-5, 92-4. See San Domingo.
Heath, General, of Mass., 66.
Henderick, Garrett, 21.
Hill (of N. C.), Congressman, 82.
Holland, participation of, in slave-trade,
17, 18, 41 ; slaves in Colonies, 131 ;
abolishes slave-trade, 134; treaty with
England, 135, 251 ; West India Com-
pany, 17.
Holland, Congressman, 96 n., 101, 103 n.
Hopkins, John, slave-trader, 12811.
Hopkins, Samuel, 34.
Horn, Cape, 159, 161.
Huger (of S. C.), Congressman, 84, 87 n.
Hunter, Andrew, 169 n.
Hunter, Governor of N. J., 24.
Hutchinson, Wm., Governor of Mass., 32.
IMPORT duties on slaves. See Duty.
Indians, 22.
Instructions to Governors, 4, n, 19, 22,
25, 30; to naval officers, 116, 160, 186.
See Disallowance.
Insurrections. See Slaves.
Iredell, James (of N. C.), 62, 67.
Ireland, 43.
JACKSON, Andrew, pardons slave-trad-
ers, i29n.
Jackson, J. (of Ga.), 74, 76, 77.
Jacksonville, Fla., 181.
Jamaica, 4.
Jay, William, 133.
Jefferson, Thomas, drafts Declaration of
Independence, 48, 49; as President,
messages on slave-trade, 89, 95, 244;
signs Act of 1807, 107 ; pardons slave-
traders, 128 n.
Jefferson, Capt., slave-trader, 185.
Joint-cruising. See Cruising Conventions.
Johnson (of Conn.), 44, 58.
Johnson (of La.), 140.
KANE, Commissioner, 162.
Kelly, Congressman, 105.
Keitt, L. M. (of S. C.), Congressman, 175.
Kenan, Congressman, 105.
Kendall, Amos, i23n.
Kennedy, Secretary of the Navy, 186.
Kentucky, io6n., 171 n, 17311.
Key West, 185.
Kilgore, resolutions in Congress, 175, 278.
FRANKLIN NAPLES.
331
King, Rufus, in Federal Convention, 54,
58, 60.
Knoxville, Tenn., 170.
LA COSTE, Capt., slave trader, 128.
Lafitte, E., and Co., 177.
Langdon, John, 54, 55, 58, 60.
Lawrence (of N. Y.), 76-8.
Laws. See Statutes.
Lee, Arthur, 42 n.
Lee, R. H., 42 n., 44.
Legislation. See Statutes.
Le Roy, L., slave-trader, 128 n.
Liberia, 121, 158. See African Agency.
LincoJjv-jVbraha, 108, 123, 150, 191,
284.
Liverpool, Eng., 48, 143.
Livingstone (of N. Y.), in Federal Con-
vention, 58.
Lloyd, Congressman, 99 n., 103 n.
London, Eng., 133, 135, 136 n., 145, 149,
i53n.
" Louisa," slaver, 117, 118.
Louisiana, sale of, 70, 94 ; slave-trade to,
72, 87-91 ; influence on S. C. repeal of
1803, 86 ; status of slave-trade to, 87-9,
171 ; State statutes, 177, 277.
Low, I. (of N. Y.), 44.
Lowndes, R. (of S. C.), 67, 86 n., 87.
MCCARTHY, Governor of Sierra Leone,
112.
McGregor Raid, the, 113.
Mclntosh, Collector of Revenue, H5n.
McKeever, Lieut., U. S. N., 117, 118.
Macon, N., 98, 100 n., 106.
Madeira, 186.
Madison, James, in the Federal Conven-
tion, 54, 58, 60; in Congress, 74-7 ; as
President, no, 112, 128 n., 246, 248.
Madrid, Treaty of, 249.
Maine, 166.
Manchester, Eng., 41.
Mansfield, Capt., slave-trader, 185.
"Marino," slaver, 117, 118.
Martin, Luther (of Md.), in the Federal
Convention, 54, 56, 58, 61.
Maryland, slavery in, 6 ; restrictions in,
14, 15, 51, 72; attitude toward slave-
trade, 61,70,80, 91 ; Colonial and State
statutes, 203, 204, 210, 218, 219, 221,
224, 226, 237, 244.
Massachusetts, in slave-trade, 27-9; re-
strictions in, 30-3, 73 ; attitude toward
slave-trade, 66, 73, 80, 91 ; Colonial and
State legislation, 201, 202, 204, 213,
221, 222, 225, 231, 241, 242, 252.
Mason, George, 54, 56, 60-2, 67.
Mason, J. M., 178.
Masters, Congressman, 96 n.
Mathew, Capt., slave-trader, 185.
Mathew, Governor of the Bahama Is-
lands, 1 66.
Matthews (of S. C.), 51.
Meigs, Congressman, 130 n., 253.
Memphis, Tenn , 182.
Mercer, John (of Va.), 137 n., 141, 156 n.
Messages, Presidential, 95, no, 112, 139,
147, 156, 163, 244, 246, 248-51, 253, 254,
259, 261, 267, 268, 272, 273, 277, 279,
282, 284.
Mesurado, Cape, 123, 157.
Mexico, treaty with England, 142 n. ; con-
quest of, 154, 161, 178-
Mexico, Gulf of, 116, 158, 159, i66iu
Mickle, Calvin, 118.
Middle Colonies, 16, 25, 51, 61.
Middleton (of S. C.), Congressman, 124.
Middletown, Conn., 37.
Mifflin, W. (of Penn.), in Continental
Congress, 44.
Miles (of S. C.), Congressman, 175.
Mississippi, slavery in, 88 ; illicit trade to,
99; legislation, 109, 247, 254, 270, 271.
Missouri, 120.
Missouri Compromise, 122.
Mitchel, Gen. D. B., 115.
Mitchel, S. L. (of N. Y.), Congressman,
85 n.
Mixed courts for slave-traders, 135, 137,
150, 192.
Mobile, Ala., illicit trade to, 116, 117, 161,
181.
Monroe, James, as President, messages
on slave-trade, 114, 139, 249, 250, 251,
254, 256, 259 ; establishment of African
Agency, 123, 157; pardons, 128 n.
Morbon, Wm., slave-trader, 129 n.
Morris, Gouverneur, in Federal Conven-
tion, 54, 58, 60, 61.
Morris, Governor of N. J., 25.
Moseley, Congressman, 103.
NANSEMOND County, Va., 43.
Naples (Two Sicilies), 141.
332
INDEX.
Napoleon I., 70, 132, 135, 247.
Navigation Ordinance, 17.
Navy, United States, 108, 112, 115-7,
120, 121, 125, 158-60, 163, 185-7, 192,
251, 273, 280, 285; reports of Secretary
of, 186, 187, 301-12.
Neal, Rev. Mr., in Mass. Convention, 67.
Negroes, character of, 6. See Slaves.
Negro plots, 10, 22, 206.
Nelson, Hugh (of Va.), 119 n., 120 n.
Nelson, Attorney-General, 161.
Netherlands. See Holland.
New England, slavery in, 6, 27, 37, 38 ;
slave-trade by, 27-30, 37, 51, 52 ; Co-
lonial statutes, see under individual
Colonies.
New Hampshire, restrictions in, 29, 30;
attitude toward slave-trade, 28, 67, 91 ;
State legislation, 243.
New Jersey, slavery in, 6 ; restrictions in,
2 4> 2 S 73 J attitude toward slavery, 60,
70, 179; Colonial and State statutes,
202, 206, 220, 221, 223, 227, 239.
New Mexico, 176.
New Netherland, 17, 201, 202.
New Orleans, illicit traffic to, 88, 112, 113,
128 n., 161, 166, 171, 179, 180.
Newport, R. I., 28, 35.
New York, slavery in, 6 ; restrictions in,
18-20; Abolition societies in, 70, 80;
Colonial and State statutes, 205, 210,
213, 214, 217, 227, 230, 234, 240.
New York City, illicit traffic at, 162, 166,
178-81, 191, 192.
Nichols (of Va.), Congressman, 83.
Norfolk, Va., 162.
North Carolina, restrictions in, IT, 12, 51,
72 ; " Association " in, 43, 50 ; recep-
tion of Constitution, 60, 61, 67 ; cession
of back-lands, 88 ; Colonial and State
statutes, 109, 229, 236, 237, 247.
Northwest Territory, 88.
Nourse, Joseph, Registrar of the Treasury,
117 n.
Nova Scotia, 46.
Nunez River, Africa, 127.
OGLETHORPE, General James, 7.
Olin (of Vt), Congressman, 102 n.
Ordinance of 1787, 88.
" Ostend Manifesto," 178.
PAGE, John (of Va.), 77.
Palmerston, Lord, 145.
Panama Congress, 140 n.
Pardons granted to slave-traders, 128 n.
Paris, France, Treaty of, 132, 134, 135 n.
Parker, R. E. (of Va.), 74, 78.
Parliament, slave-trade in, 2, 132.
Pastorius, F. D., 21.
Paterson's propositions, 53.
Peace negotiations of 1783, 133.
Pemberton, Thomas, 28.
Pennsylvania, slavery in, 6; restrictions
in, 20-3, 72, 73 ; attitude towards slave-
trade, 51, 63, 66, 77, 80; in Constitu-
tional Convention, 60; Colonial and
State statutes, 203-6, 210, 211, 213, 219,
221, 222, 224, 225, 231.
Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of
Slavery, 70, 76.
Perdido River, 116.
Perry, Commander, U. S. N., 161.
Perry, Jesse, slave-trader, 129 n.
Perry, Robert, slave-trader, 129 n.
" Perry," U. S. S., 162, 164.
Petitions, of Abolition societies, 51, 75-8,
80, 81 ; of free Negroes, 81, 82.
Pettigrew (of S. C.), 177.
Philadelphia, 162, 166.
Pinckney, Charles (of S. C.), in Federal
Convention, 53-5, 60.
Pinckney, C. C. (of S. C.), in Federal
Convention, 54-58, 60.
Pindall, Congressman, 119 n., 120 n.
Piracy, slave-trade made, 121-3, 1 3&> 1 39>
144, 148, I55n.
Pitkin, T. (of Conn.), 96 n., 102 n.
Pitt, William, 132.
Plumer, Wm. (of N. H.), 124.
Pollard, Edward, 176.
Pongas River, Africa, 127.
Portugal, treaties with England, 133, 135,
144 n., 148, 149, 249; slaves in colonies,
41, 131 ; abolition of slave-trade by, 134,
142 n. ; use of flag of, 143.
Presidents. See under individual names.
Price of slaves, 162.
Prince George County, Va., 43.
Privy Council, report to, 132.
Proffit, U. S. Minister to Brazil, 164.
Prohibition of slave-trade by Ga., 7, 71;
S. C., ii, 86; N. C., 12; Va., 14; Md.,
15; N. Y., 19; Vermont, 20; Penn.,
22,23; Del., 24; N. J., 25; N. H.,3o;
NAPOLEON SLA VE-TRADERS.
333
Mass., 33; R. I., 36; Conn., 37; United
States, 107 ; England, 133; Confederate
States, 189. See also Appendices.
Providence, R. I., 35.
Prussia at European Congresses, 134, 138,
146, 269.
Pryor, R. A. (of Va.), 171.
QUAKERS. See Friends.
Quarantine of slaves, 8.
Quebec, 46.
Quincy, Josiah, Congressman, 97 n., 100 n.
Quintuple Treaty, 146, 148, 269.
RABUN, Wm., Governor of Ga., 125.
Ramsey, David (of S. C.), 64.
Randolph, Edmund, in the Federal Con-
vention, 53, 54, 58.
Randolph, John, Congressman, 103-5.
Randolph, Thomas M., Congressman, 105.
Registration of slaves, 8, 130 n., 250, 251.
Revenue from slave-trade, 83, 87, 92, 108,
109. See Duty Acts.
Rhode Island, slave-trade in, 27, 28, 82 ;
restrictions in, 33-6 ; " Association " in,
43 ; reception of Constitution by, 68 ;
abolition societies in, 35, 70, 80; Co-
lonial and State legislation, 202, 205,
213, 214, 220, 221, 222, 225-7, 229.
Rice Crop, 9, 12.
Right of Search, 135-41, 144 n., 147-50,
156, 184, 1 86, 192, 249, 280.
Rio Grande river, 176.
Rio Janeiro, Brazil, 143, 159, 161, 162.
Rolfe, John, 17.
Royal Adventurers, Company of, 2.
Royal African Company, 2-4.
Rum, traffic in, 28, 29, 44.
Rush, Richard, Minister to England, 136.
Russell, Lord John, 149, 282, 287.
Russia in European Congresses, 134, 138,
146; signs Quintuple Treaty, 146, 269.
Rutledge, Edward, in Federal Convention,
53-6, 61.
Rutledge, John, Congressman, 81-4.
ST. AUGUSTINE, in.
St. Johns, Island of, 46.
St. Johns Parish, Ga., 46.
St. Mary's River, Fla., in, 113, 114.
" Sanderson," slaver, 28 n.
Sandiford, 21.
San Domingo, trade with, stopped, 44, 92,
93 ; insurrection in, 70, 80, 82, 93 ; dep-
uties from, 131.
Sardinia, 141.
Savannah, Ga., 8, 46, 170.
Search. See Right of Search.
Sewall, Wm., slave-trader, 128 n.
Seward, Wm. H., Secretary, 150, 275, 278.
Seward (of Ga.), Congressman, 175.
Sharpe, Granville, 132.
Sherbro Islands, Africa, 157.
Sherman, Roger, in the Federal Conven-
tion, 54, 55, 57, 60, 61 ; in Congress, 74.
Shields, Thomas, slave-trader, 128 n.
Sierra Leone, 127, 150, 192.
Sinnickson (of N. J.), Congressman, 78.
Slave Power, the, 153, 199.
Slavers : " Alexander," 1 26 n. ; " Amedie,"
136 n. ; " L'Amistad," 142 ; " Antelope "
("Ramirez"), 126, 129; "Comet," 141
n. ; " Constitution," 1 17, 1 18 ; " Creole,"
141 ; "Daphne," 126 n.; "Dorset," 112;
"Eliza," 126 n.; "Emily," 185; "Enco-
mium," i4in.;"Endymion,"i26n.; "Es-
peranza," 126 n.; "Eugene," 112, 126 n.;
"Fame," 162; " Fortuna," 136 n.;
" Illinois," 147 ; " Le Louis," 136 n. ;
" Louisa," 117 ; " Marino," 117 ; " Mar-
tha," 164 ; " Mary," 129 n. ; " Mathilde,"
i26n. ; "Paz," 112; "La Pensee,"
126 n. ; " Plattsburg," 125 n., 126 n.;
" Prova," 164 ; " Ramirez " (" Ante-
lope "), 126 n., 129; "Rebecca," 112;
"Rosa," 112; "Sanderson," 28 n. ;
"San Juan Nepomuceno," 136 n.;
"Saucy Jack," 112; "Science," I26n.;
"Wanderer," 181, 185, 187; "Wild-
fire," 191 n. ; see also Appendix C.
Slavery. See Table of Contents.
Slaves, number imported, 3, 5, 15 n., 19 n.,
20 n., 23 n., 25 n., 30 n., 33 n., 36 n., 37 n.,
85, 90, 181, 182 ; insurrections of, 6, 10,
22, 206; punishments of, 6; captured
on high seas, 32, 51, 187 ; illegal traffic
in, 85, 92, 109-18, 124-30, 165, 166, 180;
abducted, 143.
Slave-trade, see Table of Contents ; in-
ternal, i, 154; coastwise, 95, 96, 104-6,
156, 161, 184, 192, 286.
Slave-traders, 2, 3, 17, 28, 29, 31, 34, 90,
no, 116, 124-6, 145, 161, 177, 179, 181,
185 ; prosecution and conviction of, 1 16,
117, 118, 123, 124, 128, 161, 162, 184,
334
INDEX.
191, 192; Pardon of, 128; punishment
of, 30, 102, 120, 124, 129, 191, 192, 201,
253, 255, 258, 263, 281. For ships, see
under Slavers, and Appendix C.
Slidell, John, 183.
Sloan (of N. J.), Congressman, 97, icon.,
102 n., 108, 244, 245.
Smilie, John (of Pa.), Congressman, 97 n.,
100 n., 102 n.
Smith, Caleb B., 191.
Smith, J. F., slave-trader, 128 n.
Smith (of S. C.), Senator, 74-7, 90.
Smith, Capt, slave-trader, 30.
Smuggling of slaves, 72, 105, 106, 111,113,
114, 124, 125, 127, 128, 165, 180-3.
Sneed (of Tenn.), Congressman, 171.
Soule, Pierre, 178.
South Carolina, slavery in, 5, 6, 9, 10,90;
restrictions in, 9-11, 71 ; attitude toward
slave-trade, 43, 46, 47, 50, 52, 78, 80 ; in
the Federal Convention, 55-62, 66, 67 ;
illicit traffic to, 85 ; repeal of prohibi-
tion, 86, 87, 89, 92; movement to re-
open slave-trade, 169, 171, 173 n., 174;
Colonial and State statutes, 203, 209-12,
215, 219, 220, 226, 229, 233, 236-41,
275. 277-
Southeby, Wm., 22.
Southern Colonies, 7, 15. See under indi-
vidual Colonies.
Spaight, in Federal Convention, 61.
Spain, signs Assiento, 3 ; colonial slave-
trade of, 3 ; colonial slavery, 131 ; war
with Dutch, 17 ; abolishes slave-trade,
134, 135, 144 n. ; L'Amistad case with,
142; flag of, in slave-trade, no, in,
112, 143, 149, 158; treaties, 207, 208,
249.
Spottswood, Governor of Virginia, 13.
Spratt, L. W. (of S. C.), 171, 172, 191 n.
Stanton (of R. I.), Congressman, 86 n.,
103.
States. See under individual States.
Statutes, Colonial, see under names of
individual Colonies; State, 51-2, 71-2;
see under names of individual States,
and Appendices A and B ; United
States, Act of 1794, 80, 237; Act of
1800, 81, 239; Act of 1803, 84, 240;
Act of 1807, 94, 245; Act of 1818,
118, 250; Act of 1819, 120, 251; Act of
1820, 121, 253; Act of 1860, 187, 282;
Act of 1862, 192, 285; see also Appen-
dix B, 241, 242, 246, 255, 262, 263,
264, 266, 272, 273, 275, 277, 279, 284,
287, 288.
Stevens, Alexander, 175.
Stevenson, A., Minister to England, 145.
Stone (of Md.), Congressman, 75, 78, 105.
Stono, S. C., insurrection at, 10.
Sumner, Charles, 193, 288.
Sweden, 133, 141,259; Delaware Colony,
24; slaves in Colonies, 131.
Sylvester (of N. Y.), Congressman, 78.
TAYLOR, Zachary, 273.
Texas, 113, 142 n., 148, 154, 156, 165, 176,
180, 262, 266.
Treaties, 3, 133-5, 139, 141, 143, 146-8,
150, 158, 207, 208, 226, 245, 247, 249,
251, 256, 259, 263, 264, 269, 272, 275,
278, 285-8.
Trist, N., i6on., 164, 165 n.
Tyler, John, 147, 272, 273.
UNDERWOOD, John C., 182.
United States, 50, 70, 73,81,83,84,85,87,
88,94,95,100, 101, 108, in, 114,116,
117,119, 123, 125, 126, 127, 131, 133,
135-49, 152, 156, 157, 158, 161-6, 168,
178, 180, 186, 189, 191, 237, 239-41, 255,
262-4, 266, 272, 273, 275, 277, 279, 282,
284-8. See also Table of Contents.
Up de Graeff, Derick, 21.
Up den Graeff, Abraham, 21.
Uruguay, 142 n.
Utrecht, Treaty of, 208.
VAN BUREN, Martin, 267.
Van Rensselaer, Congressman, 105.
Varnum, J., Congressman, 103 n.
Venezuela, 142.
Vermont, 20, 51, 91, 224, 225, 228, 243.
Verona, Congress of, 138.
Vicksburg, Miss., 172, 173, 182.
Vienna, Congress of, 134.
Virginia, first slaves imported, 17, 289;
slavery in, 6; restrictions in, 12-14,
72 ; frame of government of, 14 ; " As-
sociation " in, 43, 47, 51 ; in the Fede-
ral Convention, 56, 57, 60, 67 ; abolition
sentiment in, 71, 74, 80; attitude on
reopening the slave-trade, 171, I73n. ;
Colonial and State statutes, 203-5,
213-5, 218-21, 223, 224, 235, 243.
SLIDELL YANCE K
335
WALLACE, L. R., slave-trader, 129*1.
Wain (of Penn.), Congressman, 81, 82.
" Wanderer," case of the slaver, 181, 185.
Washington, Treaty of (1842), 146-8, 170,
173, 183, 186, 272, 273, 275, 278.
Watt, James, 151 n.
Webster, Daniel, 145, 269.
Webster, Noah, 64.
Wentworth, Governor of N. H., 30.
West Indies, slave-trade to and from, 2,
5, 9, 17, 28, 31, 34, 36, 41, 43, 44, 50,
112, 114, 140, 149, 264; slavery in, 5,
168, 194 ; restrictions on importation of
slaves from, 18, 71, 72,84; revolution
in, 70-4, 80-5, 92-4; mixed court in,
150 n., 192.
Western territory, 78, 252.
Whitney, Eli, 152.
Whydah, Africa, 147.
Wilberforce, Wm., 132.
Wilde, R. H., 129.
" Wildfire," slaver, 191 n., 298.
" William," case of the slaver, 298.
Williamsburg district, S. C., 169.
Williamson (of N. C.), in Federal Con-
vention, 54, 58, 61.
Wilmington, N. C., 84.
Williams, D. R. (of N. C.), Congressman,
99 n., io6n., 108.
Wilson, James, in Federal Convention,
S 1 . S3- 57, 66.
Wilson (of Mass.), Congressman, 280,
283, 285.
Winn, African agent, 157.
Winston, Zenas, slave-trader, I2gn.
Wirt, William, 115, 123 n., 127.
Woolman, John, 21.
Wright, (of Va.), 124.
YANCEY, W. L., 171.
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