Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-01-10

THE SLAVE TRADE AMONG THE COLO.
MES.

We promised some time since TO show the part
taken by the Colonies, prior to the adoption Of the
Constitution, in the Slave Trade. 1t will be seen
that the position of sDme of the States lie not ma
terribly different from what it was II century since.
The intiUducttun of slavery into America Is
due to the Spanidrds and the Genoese merchants.
A iavorite Of Charles the Fifth Obtained a Patent
for the exclusive importation of four thousand ne.
groes into America in 1917, and sold it to some
Genoese merchants. Thus was the first regular
commerc in Slaves introduced into America.
The first slave trade Of the English was opened
on The coast OF Guinea in 1863, 10y john Hawkins,
who was assisted 10y several gentlemen in London.
lie carried three hundred negroes to llispaniula.
landing them at the pnrts of Isabella De Plata'
and Monte Christie. This voyage was so profitable
that the Slave Trade was hencelorth established.
Both these dates, it will be observed, was before
the settlement Of the present United States. The
exact period oil the introduction Of Slaves among
the colonies We do not know, but twenty-five years
after the settlement OF Plymouth, Slavery did not
exist in Massachusetts This we know, from a
singular procedure before the Massachusetts,
Courts, There was, then, O law in Massachusetts
dgairSt buying and selling Slaves. la execution
of this law, lin l6lj,) u negro, who had been
'fraudulently and iniuriuusly taken and brought
from Guinea and sold to Mr.. Williams, OF PIseat-
auua, was demanded by the General Court thai he
might be sent lack. Slavery did not then exist III
Massachusetts, and although that colony did, In
1850, formally abolish Slavery, it does not appear
that it ever existed there by law.
In 1850, f%orty-four years after the settlement Of
Connecticut, that Colony had, MS appears from the
answers to the Governor. and Council, about Mlty
slaves. There was no slave trade proper; but
once in n while, it is said, three or four negroes
came from Barbados, and were sold ut about STU
each.
In 1881, Virginia held slaves, hut how many
we know not. In the statement made by the Gov. is
this curious ~remark-true then and true ever since
-"Our thieving is our undoing; and our buying
of blacks hath extremely contributed thereto by
making more tobaccO-we are too many for that,
and too few for anything else"
In Maryland the Slave Trade existed in Ills;
for we find II law that the duties on the importa.
ton Of slaves did not extend to those vessels whose
owners were residents of the Province.
In South Carolina the rice culture was intro
duced in 1895, and this may lie regarded as the
date of the introduction of negro slavery there
In 1923 we find the Slave Trade had been 50 &C,
tive in that colony that the slave population already
exceeded the whites. In the estimate of the inhab
itants of Carolina ut that time, the following was
the result:
Whites, 1900
Slaves, Negroes and lndians) 10000
From the facts stated above, it is very evident
that Virginia and the CarDlinas were the first
great i'm porters of negroes, and they have remain
ed ever since consistent in their defence of negro
slavery.
Soon after the above date, however, Rhode Is.
lana, although OrlElhallN settleu IVY SuhheIS anu
Bsptists, began to enter into the Slave Trade. In
1880. the enumeration of Rhode Island gave this
result:
English Whites, 1892
Indians. 9S5
Negroes, l,64S
At the same time the negroes in Carolina had
increased in seven years from l6, 600, as above, tt
% 5000. and were greatly more numerous than the
whites. In consequence of this superiority, they
laid a plan for a general massacre, which was hap
PLY discovered in time to prevent it. So negro in
surrections are no new things.
We may omit any further history Of the Ameri'
can Slave Trade except TO notice its results. In
the next half century from 1870 the Ameri-
lean Slave Trade proceede1 with great activity;
especially in the Colonies of Virginia, South and
North Carolina, and Georgia. In the meantime
even the New England Colonies engaged in it, anC
New York more than once had to encou lter II ne
gro insurrection. The following are some statistic,
Of the result Of the American Slave Trade,