Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1863-01-21
SLAVERY.


to st. Domingo and Cuba in large numbers.
The plea for the capture and employment of
| the aborigines was their conversion to Chris
tlanity, which but few lived long to enjoy, as,
| under the effects of labor and the climate thev
died with rapidity too shocking to contem- :
plate.
This circumstance directed the attention of
the Spaniards to Africa, from which country
slaves were imported about the year 1903, the
licenses for that object greatly enrich ing the
| Spanish exchequer fora long period after
The introduction of Africans into Brazil and
Peru dates almost simultaneously with the
conquest of the countries by Cortez and Pr
zarro, early in the sixteenth century. By the
middle of that century the aboriginies of the
| West Indies had disappeared, and their places
were occupied by Africans, who were introdu-
ced about this period in very large numbers
| throughout the Spanish and Portuguese pos
| sessions in South America. 1t was but short
! ly subsequent that English adventurers en-
barked successfully in the slave trade, which
| they pursued under charters from Elizabeth
and James [.
| The first negro slaves were imported into
| Virginia in 1919, where they numbered about
| 1000 in 1870. 1t is believed that the first
slave ship fitted out in the English colonies
sailed from Boston in 1916 In 1924 the
| French introduced slaves into their island of
| st. christopher, and soon after into Martinique
and Guadelonpe, and shortly established sla-
very in all their American colonies The
Dutch embarked IN the traffic with other civil
lied nations; that the conclusion is inevi-
| table that all the enlightened nations of the
world who enjoyed any extended commerce
simultaneously participated IN a trade now
deemed contraband, and towards which the
world is now as equally united in hostility
Had slavery continued to expand in numbers
in other parts of America as it has grown in
the United States. there would at the present
time be more than q 900 900 of this class of
persons in the United States and the British,
French, Spanish, and Brazilian possessions.
1t is believed, however, that in all American
countries and islauds of our seas, except in
the United States, the number of slaves was
only maintained from time to time by the pros
ecution of the slave trade. While slavery in
North America extended, in l715, from and
L
its northern limit has been gradually contrac-
ting, while indications clearly point to its
western terniRi. which have doubtless been
already attained The importation of slaves
to the United States was interdicted by law in
1903. In 1774 the legislature of Rhode island
interdicted the nportat ion of slaves into that
colony, and the next year enacted law of
emancipation by declaring the children of all
slave mothers 10 be born, free. Massachusetts
abolished slavery by her bill ofrights in 1850.
In 1874 Connecticut barred the Introduction
of slaves, and declared all born after the lst of
March of that year free at the age of 26. Penn
sylvania, in 1880, by law prohibited the intro
duction of slaves, and declared free all chill |
dren of slave mothers born thereafter Vir- |
gina prohibited the Introduction of slaves |
from abroad IN 177S; Maryland in 1888 New
Hampshire abolished slavery in 1892 New
York in 1893; New Jersey in 1920. Such |
has been the progress and decline of African |
slavery in our country. where its seventies |
have been humanity compared with other
countries, and where, although among the |
last to cling to the institution, the traffic in |
this class of persons was first seriously, as it |
has been persistently, opposed. 1t may not
be out of place to state that the American
States, which in the past century abolished |
slavery, permitted the free colored popu lation
to enjoy every right consistent with their con-
diton class, and allowed bond and free to
remain during their natural lives in the State
or colony where they lived. This fact, al
though sometimes questioned, can be demon
strated beyond cavil and the contrary can on
ly be urged by such as are unfamiliar with the
subject or have an object in the misrepresen-
tation. The plan of gradual emancipation
probably tended to this result, as those who
were living in bondage continued to be slaves,
while their descendants were generally to be-
come free at such period as they were quail
fed TO maintain their own existence by labor.
An examination of the relative number at
different successive periods, until slavery be-
came extinct, must lead to conclusions that no
material deportation of slaves occurred shortly
before or after the passage of emancipation
acts-a fact which cannot be controverted;
and while it must be conceded that the nor
thern people prosecuted the slave trade at an
early period with energy and thrift, they are
entitled to the award of since rity and honesty
in giving the earliest examples of the abolition
of the institution of slavery within their own
borders.
The Governor of Minnesota sent his mes
sage to the Legislature on Tuesday. He de-
mands the removal of the Indians beyond the