From Boston, Ma.s.s. (1645), the first American ship from the colonies set sail to engage in the stealing of African negroes. Ma.s.sachusetts then held, under sanction of law, a few blacks and Indians in bondage.( 8) But slavery did not flourish in New England. It was neither profitable nor in consonance with the judgment of the people generally. The General Court of Ma.s.sachusetts, as early as 1646, "bearing witness against the heinous crimes of man-stealing, ordered the recently imported negroes to be restored, at the public charge, to their native country, with a _letter_ expressing the indignation of the General Court." Unfortunately, persons guilty of stealing men could not be tried for crimes committed in foreign lands.
But the African slave trade, early found to be extremely profitable, and hence popular, did not cease. England, then as now, the most enterprising of commercial nations on the high seas, engrossed the trade, in large part, from 1680 to 1780. In 1711, there was established a slave depot in New York City on or near what is now Wall Street; and about the same time a depot was established for receiving slaves in Boston, near where the old Franklin House stood.
From New England ships, and perhaps from others, negroes were landed and sent to these and other central slave markets.
But few of these freshly stolen negroes were sold to Northern slaveholders. Slave labor was not even then found profitable in the climate of the North. The bondsman went to a more southern clime, and to the cotton, rice, and tobacco fields of the large plantations of the South.
As late as 1804-7, negroes from the coast of Africa were brought to Boston, Bristol, Providence, and Hartford to be sold into slavery.
Shipowners of all the coast colonies, and later of all the coast States of the United States, engaged in the slave trade.
But it was among the planters of Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas that slaves proved to be most profitable. The people in these sections were princ.i.p.ally rural; plantations were large, not subject to be broken up by frequent part.i.tion, if at all. The crops raised were better suited to cultivation by slaves in large numbers; and the hot climate was better adapted to the physical nature of the African negro.
The first inhabitants of the South preferred a rural life, and on large plantations. The Crown grants to early proprietors favored this, especially in the Virginia and Carolina colonies. The Puritans did not love or foster slavery as did the Cavalier of the South.
Castes or cla.s.ses existed among the Southern settlers from the beginning, which, with other favoring causes, made it easier for slavery to take root and prosper, and ultimately fasten itself upon and become a dominating factor in the whole social and political fabric of the South. Slavery there soon came to be considered of paramount importance in securing a high social status or a high, so-called, civilization.
But we have, by this brief _resume_, sufficiently shown that the responsibility for the introduction and maintenance of slavery and the slave trade does not rest exclusively on any of our early colonies, North or South, nor on any one race or nationality of the world; it remains now to show, in a summary way, how slavery and the slave trade were treated and regarded by the different sections of the United States after allegiance to England was thrown off.
While slavery died out from local and natural causes, if not wholly for moral, social, and religious reasons, in the States north of Maryland, it flourished and ripened into strength and importance in States south, casting a controlling influence and power over the whole of the United States socially, and for the most part dominating the country politically. The greatest statesmen and brightest intellects of the North, though convinced of the evils of slavery and of its fatal tendencies, were generally too cowardly to attack it politically, although but about one fifth of the whole white population of the slave states in 1860, or perhaps at any time, was, through family relationship, or otherwise, directly or indirectly interested in slaves or slave labor.
Old political parties were in time disrupted, and new ones were formed on slavery issues.
The slavery question rent in twain the Methodist Episcopal and Presbyterian churches. The followers of Wesley and Calvin divided on slavery. It was always essentially an aristocratic inst.i.tution, and hence calculated to benefit only a few of the great ma.s.s of freemen.
In 1860, there was in the fifteen slave States a white population of 8,039,000 and a slave population of 3,953,696. Of the white population only 384,884 were slaveholders, and, including their families, only about 1,600,000 were directly or indirectly interested in slaves or their labor. About 6,400,000 (80 per cent.) of the whites in these States had, therefore, no interest in the inst.i.tution, and yet they were wholly subordinated to the few who were interested in it.
Curiously enough, slavery continued to exist, until a comparatively recent period, in many of the States that had early declared it abolished. The States formed out of the territory "Northwest of the River Ohio" cannot be said to have ever been slave States.
The sixth section of the Ordinance of 1787 prohibited slavery forever therein. The slaves reported in such States were only there by tolerance. They were free of right. The Const.i.tution of Illinois, as we shall presently see, did not at first abolish slavery; only prohibited the introduction of slaves.
The rebellion of the thirteen colonies in 1776 and the war for independence did not grow out of slavery; that war was waged neither to perpetuate nor to abolish it. The Puritan and Cavalier, the opponents and the advocates of slavery and the slave trade, alike, fought for independence, and, when successful, united in the purpose to foster and build up an American Republic, based on the sovereignty of individual citizenship, but ignoring the natural rights of the enslaved negro.
The following table, compiled from the United States Census Reports, may be of interest.
It shows the number of slaves reported in each State and Territory of the United States at each Federal census.( 9)
_North_ 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 Cal. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Conn... . 2,759 951 310 97 25 17 ... ...
Ills... . ... ... 168 917 747 331 ... ...
Ind. ... ... 135 237 190 3 3 ... ...
Iowa ... ... ... ... ... ... 16 ... ...
Kansas . . ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 2 Maine . . ... ... ... ... 2 ... ... ...
Ma.s.s... . ... ... ... ... 1 ... ... ...
Mich... . ... ... 24 ... 32 ... ... ...
Minn... . ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Neb. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 15 N. H... . 158 8 ... ... 3 1 ... ...
N. J... . 11,423 12,422 10,851 7,557 2,254 674 236 18 N. Y... . 21,324 20,343 15,017 10,088 75 4 ... ...
Ohio ... ... ... ... ... 6 3 ... ...
Oregon . . ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Penn... . 3,737 1,706 796 211 403 64 ... ...
R. I... . 952 381 108 48 17 5 ... ...
Utah ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 26 29 Vermont . . 17 ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Wis. ... ... ... ... ... ... 11 ... ...
------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ Totals . 40,370 35,646 27,510 19,108 3,568 1,129 262 64
/South/ 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 D. C. ... ... ... 3,244 5,395 6,377 6,119 4,694 3,687 3,185 Ala... ... ... . . ... . ... . . 41,879 117,549 253,532 342,844 435,080 Ark... ... ... . . ... . ... . . 1,617 5,476 19,935 47,100 111,115 Del... ... . 8,887 6,153 4,177 4,509 3,292 2,605 2,290 1,798 Florida ... ... . . ... . ... . . ... . . 16,501 25,717 39,310 61,745 Ga. ... ... 29,264 59,404 105,218 149,654 217,531 280,944 381,682 462,198 Ky. ... ... 11,830 40,434 80,561 126,732 165,213 182,258 210,981 225,483 La. ... ... ... . ... . 34,660 69,064 109,588 168,452 244,809 331,726 Md. ... ... 103,036 105,635 111,502 107,397 102,994 89,737 90,368 87,189 Miss. ... ... ... 3,489 17,088 32,814 65,659 195,211 309,878 436,631 Mo. ... ... ... . ... . 3,011 10,222 25,091 58,240 87,422 114,931 N. C. ... . . 100,572 133,296 168,824 205,017 245,601 245,817 288,548 331,059 S. C. ... . . 107,094 146,151 196,365 258,475 315,401 327,088 384,984 402,406 Tenn. ... . . 3,417 13,584 44,535 80,107 141,603 183,059 239,459 275,719 Tex... ... ... . . ... . ... . . ... . . ... . . ... . . 58,161 182,566 Va. ... ... 293,427 345,796 392,518 425,153 469,757 449,087 472,528 490,865 ------- ------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- Totals ... . 657,527 857,095 1,163,854 1,519,017 2,005,475 2,486,326 3,204,051 3,953,696 ------- ------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- Grand totals . 697,897 892,741 1,191,364 1,538,125 2,009,043 2,487,455 3,204,313 3,953,760
( 7) It is curious to note that 1621 dates the first bringing into Virginia and America bee-hives for the production of honey.
( 8) The following letter of Cotton Mather will show the Puritan"s intolerance of Wm. Penn and his Society of Friends, and the prevailing opinion in his time on slavery and the slave trade.
"Boston, Ma.s.sachusetts, September, 3, 1681.
"To ye Aged and Beloved John Higginson: There be now at sea a skipper (for our friend Esaias Holderoft of London did advise me by the last packet that it would sail sometime in August) called ye _Welcome_ (R. Green was master), which has aboard a hundred or more of ye heretics and malignants called Quakers, with W. Penn, who is ye scamp at ye head of them.
"Ye General court has accordingly given secret orders to master Malachi Huxtell of ye brig _Porpoise_ to waylaye ye said _Welcome_ as near ye coast of Codd as may be, and make captives of ye Penn and his unG.o.dly crew, so that ye Lord may be glorified, and not mocked on ye soil of this new country with ye heathen worshippe of these people. Much spoil can be made by selling ye whole lot to Barbadoes, where slaves fetch good prices in rumme and sugar. We shall not only do ye Lord great service by punishing the Wicked, but shall make gayne for his ministers and people. Yours in the bowels of Christ,
"Cotton Mather."
( 9) Slavery was abolished in the District of Columbia by law of Congress, pa.s.sed April 16, 1862.
President Lincoln"s proclamation of January 1, 1863, emanc.i.p.ated all slaves in the seceded States (save in Tennessee and in parts of Louisiana and Virginia excepted therefrom) to the number of 3,063,395; those remaining were freed by the thirteenth amendment to the Const.i.tution, December 18, 1865.
III DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
The Declaration of Independence, though accepted at once and to be regarded through all time by the liberty-loving world as the best and boldest declaration in favor of human rights, and the most p.r.o.nounced protest against oppression of the human race, is totally silent as to the rights of the slaves in the colonies. It is true that Jefferson in his draft of this instrument, in the articles of indictment against King George III., used this language:
"He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in the transportation thither, ... determined to keep open a market where white men should be bought and sold; he has prost.i.tuted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce."
To conciliate Georgia and South Carolina, this part of the indictment was struck out. These colonies had never sought to restrain, but had always fostered the slave trade. Jefferson, in his _Autobiography_ (vol. i, p. 19), suggests that other sections sympathized with Georgia and South Carolina in this matter.
"Our Northern brethren ... felt a little tender under these censures: for though their people had very few slaves themselves, yet they had been considerable carriers of them to others."
Jefferson said King George preferred the advantage:
"of a few British corsairs to the lasting interests of the American States and to the rights of human nature, deeply wounded by this infamous practice."(10)
While it is not true, as has often been claimed, that England is solely responsible for the introduction of slavery into her American colonies, it is true that her King and Parliament opposed almost every attempt to prohibit it or to restrict the importation of slaves. Colonial legislative enactments of Virginia and other colonies directed against slavery were vetoed by the King or by his command by his royal governors. Such governors were early forbidden to give their a.s.sent to any measure restricting slavery in the American colonies, and this policy was pursued until the colonies became independent.(11)
The treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States, signed at Paris, September 3, 1783, contained a stipulation that Great Britain should withdraw her armies from the United States "with all convenient speed, and without causing any destruction, or _carrying_ away any _negroes or other property_ of the American inhabitants." Both governments thus openly recognized, not only the existence of slavery in the United States, but that slaves were merely _property_.
While slavery was deeply seated in the colonies and had many advocates, including noted divines, who preached the "divinity of slavery," there were, in 1776, and earlier, many great men, South as well as North, who looked confidently to an early emanc.i.p.ation of slaves, and who were then active in suppressing the African slave trade, among whom were Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, and the two Adamses.
Washington presided at a "Fairfax County Convention," before the Revolution. It resolved that "no slaves ought to be imported into any of the British colonies"; and Washington himself expressed "the most earnest wish to see an entire stop forever put to such a wicked, cruel, and unnatural trade."(12)
John Wesley, when fully acquainted with American slavery and the slave trade, p.r.o.nounced the latter as "_the execrable sum of all villanies_," and he inveighed against the former as the wickedest of human practices.
The Continental Congress of 1776 resolved, "that no slaves be imported into any of the thirteen United Colonies."
There had then been imported by the cruel traffic above 300,000 blacks, bought or stolen from the African sh.o.r.e; and the blacks then const.i.tuted twenty per cent. of the total population, a greater per centum than at any time since.