Polynesian. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu], Hawaii) 1844-1864, 1854-09-02

Catholics, and though Pope Les Y had declared
that not only the Christian religion, but natare
herself cries ont against a state Of Slavery" ind
a law of the Maryland Assembly, in 1860, 6es-
cribes the people consisting of ali Christian in
habitaIts, Slares only ercepted. In 1904, it was
enacted that white woman having child BY
negro should be punished with seven years servi-
tude, and the child doomed to servitude until 81
years old and white man having a child bv a
negress suffered the same penalty.
By the original colonial laws of Georgia, the in
PRODUCTION of slavery was prohibited. And II was
proclaimed in London in 1874, that - no settle
ment was ever before established on so humane 4
plan. Slavery, the misfortune, if not the dishonor
of other plantations, is absolutely prohibited. Let
avarce defend 1t ii will, there is an honest re-
luctance IN humanity against buying and selling,
and regarding tho of our own species, rs our
wealth and possessions" Oglethorpe thus ex-
planned the motive of the prohibition So Slavery
[ is against the Gospel as well as the fundamental
law of England. Werefdsed, as trustees, 10 make
a law permitting such horrid crime" And Won
Reck wrote that the Colony was ian asylum to
receive the distressed, and 1t was necessary there
fore, not to permit slaves in such a cOuntry-foT
SLAVES stGrce the poor Iaborer" But after all
this only two wears elapsed before several Of the
better sort of people in Savannah" pettioned for
the use of negroes" At first, slaves from Carroll
ma were hired for short periOd--then for life or
I
was no longer forbidden. Whitfield even pleaded
in favor of the introduction of slavery into Geor-
gia-asserting his belief that II would terminate
for the advantage of the Africans, and that It was
essential TO the prosperity of the country. And
the scruples of the liberty-loving Moravans were
quieted by a message from Germany in 175I, say
! ing: Z" 1t you take slaves IN faith, and with the
intent of conducting them to Christ, tie action
will not be sin, but may prove benediction.'
/ South Carolina, alone of the original thirteen
States, was from its cradle essentially planting
State with slave labor. In 1911, Sir John Yeat-
mans arrived from Barbadoes with African slaves !;
and negro slavery thus cOeyal with the first
plantations on Ashley River. While in Maryland
and Virginia the custom of employing indented
servants long prevailed, in Carona the first and
great object of the emigrant " to buy negro"
Slaves from Africa were received within the bor-
ders of every of the Colonies, but the climate
of Carolina seemed to favor the purposes of com
ncrcial avarce. and the negro multiplied
so rapidly, by lmpOrtatons that IN few years the
blacks were to the whites IN proportion of y TO
IL. And in 1861, the Provincial Assembly of
South Carolina, . to promote the public security"
imposed duty, amounting to prohibition, upon ev-
cry slave imported but this law vetoed by the
Crown inconsistent will, the interest of British
commerce" Indeed, the British Sovereign, in
l766-70 vetoed all colonial legislation prohibitory
or restrictive of slave importation; and yet Eng
idn0, 1IOC, JOhk the coast OF AIflCd lUO
negroes and made slaves of them in her colonies,
while her orators, poets and statesmen were loudly
proclalmng English virtue, IN not permitting slaves
to exist on English ground!
In March, l7I3 contract made between
Spain and other powers, for furnishing slaves to the
Spanish dominloDs ID America. In July, l7l3,
this contract was transferred to England by the
treaty of Utrecht, and thereby England obtained
the privilege of filing the New World with slaves.
No Frenchman nor Spaniard nor any other persons
might introduce a single slave int" Spanish Amer
ica, and England bad the exclusive monopoly of
the slave trade for the Gulf of Mexico on the At
lantic, all along the Pacific and lhe English
Colonies. These mODOpOsiDg privileges were
enjoyed by company-tbe AscieDtO Company
and Philip V of Spain, took quarter Of the
stock Queen Anne reserved One-tourh to her
self, and the remaining half was divided among
her favorites-thus the SOyereigns Of England nd
Spain became the largest slave merchants IN the
world. BY the treaty assigning the contract, Her
Britannia Majesty undertook to bring into the
West Indies of America, belonging to His Catho-
lie Spanish Majesty, IN the space of thirty years,
l44000 negroes, at the rate uf 4SOO each year"
These negroes cost nothing but trinkets and toys
and refuse arms, and England gained by her total
sale of slaves in America, under this contract, the
capital which built up and confirmed the British
Empire in HIAdostan.
In 1745, when the British were the greatest
save-traffcking nation in the world, it was con-
tended and promulgated in England, By the British
merchants, that the African slave trade was the
great pillar and support of the plantation trace in
America that if the slave trade should be thrown
into the hands of her rivals, and the colonies de-
pend upon white labor they would soon be undone
or shake off their dependence the British Crown,
as white men cannot be obtained as cheaply as we
have obtained Africans. Even were 1t possible
for white men to answer the end of negrnes ID
Hi 1frt-C n hItg-
bandmen, mechanics and manufacturers thus we
might dread the prosperity of Our colonies; but
while we supply them with negroes we need have
no such apprehenslons."
Previous to 1850, there were imported from At
rica to the English American colonies, about i3O,-
600 npQroes-previous to l776 ove- 3OOOOO-anG
Raynal estimates the number of negroes exported
by all European nations from Africa before l776
to have been nine millions. Bancroft thinks the
number imported into the Spanish, French and
English Continental Colonies, pTe'loG To The pro-
hIbition of the slave trade, was about 3OOOOVO to
which NAV be added more than 100000, thrown
into the sea on the passage. The gross returns to
the English for the whole traffic in negro slaves, IS
estimated at four hundred millions of dollars.
The people of Massachusetts first assumed the
right to treat the Indians on the footing of Ca
naanires or Amalekies. and always opposed the IN
PRODUCTION of slaves from abroad. In lSOl the town
of Boston instructed the representatives e" to put
period to the negroes being slaves :; whle IN I|l2
IN answer 10 a petition for the emancipation OF ne
gro slaves by law, the Legislature Of Pennsylvania
answered = 1t is neither just nor convenient to
set them at liberty" The Colonies in the aggre-
gate, were opposed to the African slave trade
MARYLAND, Virginia, and even Carolina, alarmed at
the dangerous increase Of the colnred population,
showed an anxious preference for the introduction
of white men and laws interdictlng and restrict
ing slave Importations are scattered through the
records of colonial legislation The first Cont
mental Congress, in 1776 which assumed the pow
ers of legislation resolved " that no slaves De I'M
nnrt Cd ,nfn nnr Of the thirteen ColOnies."