The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-01-19
NEW YORK SLAVE TRADERS.

The good old colonial times in New
York we're not exemplary in their morals
or their manners, but thefaults of those
days were of the robust, slashing sort
which form the bases of so many of the
worlds most famous romances. The
New York Slave. Traders" are the SUBJ
ject of a stirring narrative in Harpers
Magazine for January.
After the English fairly were in the
saddle, at the flag end of the seventeenth
century, three spirited forms Of industri-
al endeavor were united in contributing
handsomely to the prosperity of this
town. There was privateering: which
for the most part, at that period, was
but genteel form of piracy; there was
piracy pure and simple: which was not
genteel, but which (much in the way
that we are disposed. two hundred years
later, to regard the professional occupa-
ton of seat in the United States ,Sen-
ate) was business which paid so we'll
that those engaging init were tolerated
by respectable people; and there was
the Red Sea trade: which last, a sort
OF vicarious piracy, was cross.between
running fence and sneak -thieving
on the high-seas. And side by side with
these dashing ways of marine money.
making, and most intimately associated
with the last named variety, the slave
trade jubilantly fourished: being we'll
thought of by conservative business
men because. while ranking below pri-
watering and far below either form of
piracy in point of profits, it did.at that
time pay fairly we'll, and was com
paratively free from dangers, absolutely
respectable, and wholly inside the law.
Yet what gave slave trading it's strong:
est hold upon the affections and inter-
ests of New Workers. in those last few
years of the seventeenth century was the
opportunity that it afforded to those
avowedly engaging in it to carry on I'M
avowedly the profitable Red Sea trade
this last, in detail, beingl the despatch
hence of goods likely to hit pirates
fancy, such as strong liquors and wines
and ammunition and arms to the island
of Madagascar; where they were bar
tered at extravaganza rates-with practis
ing pirates for the articles OF value
which these latter had removed profess
sionally from Arabian merchantmen and
from the coming or going East Indian
fleets
The climax of slave portation into
New York must have been reached be-
tween the years 1730 and 1735. Accord
ing to report made by Governor Hun
ter June 3d. 1872 the population of the
colony in the year 1903 consisted of
christians, 7767, Slaves, 1907; and in
17l2 of christians, 10,511, Slaves, 1775."
Collector Kennedys figures Q726) show
importation only, and not until we come
to the census of 1871 do we find total
Of the slave population, then amounting
to 1902. This figure covers, of course,
both importation and natural increase;
as, likewise, does the return in the GEN.
sus of 1879 of scala gain OF near 1000
in only six years. From this time on
ward the urgent need for importation
ceased-as the natural increase of the
blacks. together with the very consider
able increase of the white laboring class,
provided more and more abundantly for
the colony's needs. Indeed, there must
have been sale for expectation. inasmuch
as the slave population given in the GEN.
sus of TAG, only 9107, IS not sufficient to
account for natural increase,
And 80, gradually and pleasantly-not
because anybody in the least objected to
it, but because it had served it's purpose
and no longer could be continued profit
ably-the slave-trade out of this port
came naturally to an end. So far as
public opinion went. it might have been
continued for good half-century longer
without encountering any very emphatic
objections on moral grounds. So far as
the law went, it might have been con-
tinued until the trade formally was abol-
ished by the United States government
twenty six years in the wake Of Aus
tria. fourteen years in the wake OF
France, and year in the wake of Eng
landry the act which became effective
January /. 1908. But long before either
of these obstacles was encountered, the
New York slave trade stopped for the
reason lever in this city final reason)
that it did not pay.-T Thomas A. Jan
vier in Harper'S Magazine for January.