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8/28/2020 Chapter 2: The Planting Colonies | Alexander Street Front Matter Title Page and Credits 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 YORK LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. LONDON AND BOMBAY 1896 Copyright, 1896, By the President and Fellows of Harvard College. 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 documents, 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 consequently 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 succeeded in rendering this monograph a small contribution to the scientific study of slavery and the American Negro. I desire to express my obligation to Dr. Albert Bushnell Hart, of Harvard University, at whose suggestion I began this work and by whose kind aid and encouragement I have brought it to a close; also I have to thank the trustees of the John F. Slater Fund, whose appointment made it possible to test the conclusions of this study by the general principles laid down in German universities. W. E. BURGHARDT Du BOIS. Wilberforce University, March, 1896. Contents CHAPTER I. https://search-alexanderstreet-com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C4387023#page/1/mode/1/chapt… 1/206 8/28/2020 Chapter 2: The Planting Colonies | Alexander Street Introductory. Page 1. Plan of the Monograph 1 2. The Rise of the English Slave-Trade 1 CHAPTER II. The Planting Colonies. Page 3. Character of these Colonies 7 4. Restrictions in Georgia 7 5. Restrictions in South Carolina 9 6. Restrictions in North Carolina 11 7. Restrictions in Virginia 12 8. Restrictions in Maryland 14 9. General Character of these Restrictions 15 CHAPTER III. The Farming Colonies. Page 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 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. Page 23. The Situation in 1774 39 24. The Condition of the Slave-Trade 40 https://search-alexanderstreet-com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C4387023#page/1/mode/1/chapt… 2/206 8/28/2020 Chapter 2: The Planting Colonies | Alexander Street 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. Page 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 CHAPTER VII. Toussaint L'Ouverture and Anti-Slavery Effort, 1787-1807. Page 40. Influence of the Haytian Revolution 70 41. Legislation of the Southern States 71 42. Legislation of the Border States 72 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 78 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 92 CHAPTER VIII. The Period of Attempted Suppression, 1807-1825. Page https://search-alexanderstreet-com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C4387023#page/1/mode/1/chapt… 3/206 8/28/2020 Chapter 2: The Planting Colonies | Alexander Street 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 112 63. Typical Cases 117 64. The Supplementary Acts, 1818-1820 118 65. Enforcement of the Supplementary Acts, 1818-1825 123 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. Page 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 161 79. Activity of the Slave-Trade, 1820-1850 162 CHAPTER XI. The Final Crisis, 1850-1870. Page 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 172 84. Public Opinion in the South 173 https://search-alexanderstreet-com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C4387023#page/1/mode/1/chapt… 4/206 8/28/2020 Chapter 2: The Planting Colonies | Alexander Street 85. The Question in Congress 175 86. Southern Policy in 1860 176 87. Increase of the Slave-Trade from 1850 to 1860 178 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. Page 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. Page A. A Chronological Conspectus of Colonial and State Legislation restricting the African Slave- 201 Trade, 1641-1787 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 Page INDEX 327 Chapter 1: 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 suppress 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 https://search-alexanderstreet-com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C4387023#page/1/mode/1/chapt… 5/206 8/28/2020 Chapter 2: The Planting Colonies | Alexander Street with the steps leading to the final suppression; and a concluding chapter seeks to sum up the results of the investigation. 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 consider 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 Sir John Hawkins's celebrated voyage took place in 1562, but probably not until 1631 2 did a regular chartered company undertake to carry on the trade.