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Domestic Slave Trade Of The Southern States - Winfield Hazlitt Collins · The Wealth of Nations

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Speaker 1: Preface of the Domestic Slave Trade of the Southern States.
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Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by David Wales. The Domestic
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Speaker 1: Slave Trade of the Southern States by Winfield H. Collins. Preface.
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Speaker 1: When I began the study of the Domestic Slave Trade
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Speaker 1: of the Southern States, I had no idea of the
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Speaker 1: conclusions as herein found. Especially is this true of chapters
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Speaker 1: three and four. I have spared no pains to be
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Speaker 1: accurate in all statements of fact. The material for this
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Speaker 1: work was collected in the Yale University Library in New Haven, Connecticut,
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Speaker 1: and in the Congressional Library at Washington. The sources used
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Speaker 1: are to be found in the appended bibliography. The most
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Speaker 1: helpful were books of travel, newspapers and periodicals, Statistics of
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Speaker 1: Southern States, and the United States Census Reports. W. H. Collins,
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Speaker 1: Claremont College, Hickory, North Carolina, February twenty two, nineteen o four.
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Speaker 1: End of preface, Chapter one of the Domestic Slave Trade
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Speaker 1: of the Southern States by Winfield H. Collins. This LibriVox
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Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Chapter one, a sketch
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Speaker 1: of the rise of the slave trade in African states
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Speaker 1: and of the foreign slave trade of the Southern States.
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Speaker 1: It is not our intention, nor is it within our province,
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Speaker 1: to enter into details concerning the foreign slave trade. It seems, however,
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Speaker 1: that a brief account is necessary as introductory to the
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Speaker 1: subject of the domestic slave trade. The rise in Europe
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Speaker 1: of the traffic in slaves from Africa was an incident
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Speaker 1: in the commercial expansion of Portugal. It was coeval and
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Speaker 1: almost co extent with the development of commerce, and followed
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Speaker 1: in the wake of discovery and colonization. The first name
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Speaker 1: connected with it is that of Antonio Gonzalves, who was
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Speaker 1: a marine under Prince Henry the Navigator. In fourteen forty one,
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Speaker 1: he was sent to Kape Bohodor to get a vessel
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Speaker 1: load of sea wolf skins. He signalized his voyage by
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Speaker 1: the capture of some moors, whom he carried to Portugal
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Speaker 1: in fourteen forty two. These moors promised black slaves as
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Speaker 1: a ransom for themselves. Prince Henry approved of this exchange,
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Speaker 1: and Gonsalvees took the captives home and received among other things,
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Speaker 1: ten black slaves in exchange for two of them. The
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Speaker 1: king justified his act on the grounds that the Negroes
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Speaker 1: might be converted to the Christian religion, but the Moors
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Speaker 1: could not. Two years later, the Company of Lagos, started
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Speaker 1: by the King and engaged in exploration on the coast
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Speaker 1: of Africa, imported about two hundred slaves from the islands
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Speaker 1: of Nar and Tetar this year fourteen forty four. Europe
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Speaker 1: may be said to have made a distinct beginning in
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Speaker 1: the slave trade, henceforth to spread on all sides, like
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Speaker 1: the waves in stirred up water, and not like them
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Speaker 1: to become fainter and fainter as the circles widen. After
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Speaker 1: the discovery of America, the islands, which became known as
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Speaker 1: the Spanish West Indies, were speedily colonized, and the inefficiency
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Speaker 1: of the Indian as a laborer in the mines there
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Speaker 1: soon led to the substitution of the negro As early
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Speaker 1: as fifteen o two a few were employed, and in
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Speaker 1: fifteen seventeen Charles the fifth granted a patent to certain
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Speaker 1: traders for the exclusive supply of four thousand negroes annually
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Speaker 1: to the islands of Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico.
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Speaker 1: So far as known, John Hawkins was the first Englishman
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Speaker 1: to engage in the slave trade. He left England for
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Speaker 1: Sierra Leone with three ships and one hundred men in
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Speaker 1: fifteen sixty two, and having secured three hundred negroes, he
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Speaker 1: proceeded to Hispaniola, where he disposed of them, and having
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Speaker 1: had a very profitable voyage, he returned to England in
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Speaker 1: fifteen sixty three. This appears to have excited the avarice
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Speaker 1: of the British government. The next year Hawkins was appointed
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Speaker 1: to the command of one of the Queen's ships and
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Speaker 1: proceeded to Africa, where, in company with several others, it
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Speaker 1: appears he engaged in the slave trade. In sixteen twenty four,
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Speaker 1: France began the slave trade, and later Holland, Denmark, New
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Speaker 1: England and other English colonies, though the leader in the
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Speaker 1: trade and the last to abandon it was Great Britain.
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Speaker 1: The first slaves introduced into any of the English continental
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Speaker 1: colonies was in sixteen nineteen, about the last of August,
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Speaker 1: when a piratical Dutch frigate manned chiefly by English ste
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Speaker 1: stopped at Janestown, Virginia and sold the colonists twenty negroes.
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Speaker 1: Even for a long while after this, it seems importation
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Speaker 1: of negroes was merely of an occasional or incidental nature. Indeed,
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Speaker 1: in sixteen forty eight, only three hundred negroes were to
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Speaker 1: be found in Virginia. However, several shiploads were brought in
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Speaker 1: between sixteen sixty four and sixteen seventy one, and at
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Speaker 1: the latter date Virginia had two thousand slaves. During the
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Speaker 1: latter part of the seventeenth in the early part of
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Speaker 1: the eighteenth century, the importation of negroes gradually increased. In
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Speaker 1: seventeen o five, eighteen hundred negroes were brought in, and
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Speaker 1: in seventeen fifteen Virginia had twenty three thousand. By seventeen
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Speaker 1: twenty three, they were being imported into this colony at
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Speaker 1: the rate of fifteen hundred or sixteen hundred a year.
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Speaker 1: In the eighteenth century, Virginia sought from time to time
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Speaker 1: to hinder the introduction of slaves by placing heavy duties
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Speaker 1: on them. Indeed, from seventeen thirty two until the Revolution,
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Speaker 1: there were only about six months in which slaves could
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Speaker 1: be brought into Virginia free of duty. Nevertheless, in seventeen
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Speaker 1: seventy six, Virginia had one hundred and sixty five thousand slaves.
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Speaker 1: Though all the other colonies imported slaves more or less
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Speaker 1: during the same period, yet with the possible exception of
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Speaker 1: South Carolina, they fell far short of the number imported
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Speaker 1: by Virginia. In November seventeen o eight, Governor Seymour of Maryland,
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Speaker 1: writing to the English Board of Trade, stated that two thousand,
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Speaker 1: two hundred ninety negroes were imported into that colony from
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Speaker 1: Midsummer sixteen ninety eight to Christmas seventeen o seven. He
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Speaker 1: reported the trade to be running very high, six or
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Speaker 1: seven hundred having been imported during the year. In seventeen twelve,
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Speaker 1: there were eight thousand, three hundred thirty negroes in Maryland.
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Speaker 1: During about the same time Midsummer sixteen ninety one nine
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Speaker 1: to October seventeen o eight, Virginia imported six thousand, six
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Speaker 1: hundred and seven, while a northern colony, New Jersey, imported
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Speaker 1: only one hundred and fifteen. From sixteen ninety eight to
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Speaker 1: seventeen twenty six, du Bois says that South Carolina received
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Speaker 1: about three thousand slaves a year. From seventeen thirty three
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Speaker 1: to seventeen sixty six, she had forty thousand in seventeen forty,
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Speaker 1: in seventeen hundred, North Carolina had eleven hundred, seventeen thirty
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Speaker 1: two six thousand, and in seventeen sixty four about thirty thousand.
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Speaker 1: Until near the beginning of the eighteenth century, it was
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Speaker 1: rare that the English continental colonies received a shipload of
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Speaker 1: slaves direct from Africa, and even these were usually brought
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Speaker 1: in by some unlicensed interloper. It is very probable that
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Speaker 1: most of the negroes imported before this time were from Barbados,
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Speaker 1: Jamaica and other West India islands. But by the beginning
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Speaker 1: of the eighteenth century it appears that slaves were being
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Speaker 1: imported more rapidly. After the Acinto in seventeen thirteen, England
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Speaker 1: became a great carrier of slaves, and so continued until
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Speaker 1: the Revolution. The effect of this was very sensibly felt
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Speaker 1: by the colonies. Even in the later part of the
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Speaker 1: seventeenth century, some of the colonies began to show their
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Speaker 1: dislike by levying duties on further importation. In the eighteenth century,
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Speaker 1: the colonial opposition to the importation of slaves, arising probably
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Speaker 1: from a fear of insurrection, became much more pronounced. Heavy
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Speaker 1: restrictions in the form of duties were laid upon the trade.
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Speaker 1: In some cases these were so heavy as would seem
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Speaker 1: to amount to total prohibition. But the efforts on the
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Speaker 1: part of the colonies to restrict the trades were frowned
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Speaker 1: upon and often disallowed by the British government. In seventeen
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Speaker 1: fifty four, the instructions to Governor Dobbs of North Carolina
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Speaker 1: were whereas acts have been passed in some of our
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Speaker 1: plantations in America for laying duties on the importation and
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Speaker 1: exportation of negroes, to the great discouragement of the merchants
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Speaker 1: trading thither from the coast of Africa, it is our
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Speaker 1: will and pleasure that you do not give your assent
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Speaker 1: to or pass any law imposing duties upon negroes imported
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Speaker 1: into our province of North Carolina. The colonies considered the
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Speaker 1: slave trade so important to Great Britain that, at the
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Speaker 1: dawn of the Revolution some of them appear to have
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Speaker 1: had hopes of bringing her to terms by refusing to
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Speaker 1: import any more slaves. In the original draft of the
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Speaker 1: Declaration of Independence, as submitted by Jefferson, the King of
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Speaker 1: Great Britain is arigned for suppressing every legislative attempt to
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Speaker 1: prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce. It has been estimated
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Speaker 1: that in the year of the declaration, the whole number
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Speaker 1: of slaves in the thirteen colonies was five hundred two thousand,
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Speaker 1: one hundred thirty two, apportioned as follows Massachusetts three thousand,
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Speaker 1: five hundred, Rhode Island four thousand, three hundred seventy six,
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Speaker 1: Connecticut six thousand, New Hampshire six hundred twenty seven, New
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Speaker 1: York fifteen thousand, New Jersey seven thousand, six hundred, Pennsylvania
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Speaker 1: ten thousand, Delaware nine thousand, Maryland eighty thousand, Georgia sixteen thousand,
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Speaker 1: North Carolina seventy five thousand, South Carolina one hundred, ten thousand,
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Speaker 1: Virginia one hundred sixty five thousand. Two years after this,
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Speaker 1: in seventeen seventy eight, Virginia took the lead against the
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Speaker 1: introduction of slaves by passing a law prohibiting importation either
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Speaker 1: by land or sea. This law made an exception of
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Speaker 1: travelers and immigrants. Other states soon followed suit. Passing laws
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Speaker 1: to restrict it temporarily or at specified places. By eighteen
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Speaker 1: o three, all the states and territories had laws in
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Speaker 1: force prohibiting the importation of slaves from abroad. It must
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Speaker 1: not be supposed, however, that these were entirely effective. Indeed,
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Speaker 1: the statement was made in Congress February fourteenth, eighteen o four,
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Speaker 1: that in the preceding twelve months, twenty thousand enslaved negroes
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Speaker 1: had been transported from Guinea and by smuggling, added to
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Speaker 1: the plantation stock of Georgia and South Carolina. In seventeen
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Speaker 1: ninety eight, an Act of Congress establishing the Territory of
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Speaker 1: Mississippi provided that no slave should be brought within its
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Speaker 1: limits from without the United States. In eighteen o four,
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Speaker 1: when Louisiana was erected into the territories of Louisiana and Orleon,
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Speaker 1: the provision was made that only slaves which had been
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Speaker 1: imported before May one, seventeen ninety eight, might be introduced
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Speaker 1: into the territories, and these must be the bonafide property
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Speaker 1: of actual settlers, upon the pit of the inhabitants. For
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Speaker 1: the removal of the restrictions, a bill was introduced in Congress,
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Speaker 1: of which du Bois says, by dexterous wording, this bill,
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Speaker 1: which became a law March two, eighteen o five, swept
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Speaker 1: away all restrictions upon the slave trade, except that relating
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Speaker 1: to foreign ports, and left even this provision so ambiguous
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Speaker 1: that later, by judicial interpretations of the law, the foreign
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Speaker 1: slave trade was allowed, at least for a time. South
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Speaker 1: Carolina had even before this time, December seventeenth, eighteen o three,
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Speaker 1: repealed her law against the importation of slaves from Africa.
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Speaker 1: The trade was thus opened through this state for four years,
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Speaker 1: during which time thirty nine thousand, seventy five slaves were
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Speaker 1: imported through Charleston alone. The action of South Carolina in
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Speaker 1: opening the slave trade forced the question upon the attention
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Speaker 1: of Congress during eighteen o five to six. It was
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Speaker 1: much discussed, but it was not until March two, eighteen
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Speaker 1: o seven, that a bill was passed against it. This
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Speaker 1: prohibited the importation of slaves after January one, eighteen o eight,
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Speaker 1: under penalty of imprisonment for not less than five nor
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Speaker 1: more than ten years, and a fine of not less
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Speaker 1: than five thousand dollars nor more than ten thousand dollars.
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Speaker 1: This law was not entirely effective. In eighteen ten, the
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Speaker 1: Secretary of the Navy, riding to Charleston, South Carolina, says,
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Speaker 1: I hear not without great concern that the law prohibiting
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Speaker 1: the importation of slaves has been violated in frequent instances.
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Speaker 1: Near Saint Mary's Drake, a slave smuggler says that during
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Speaker 1: the War of eighteen twelve, the business of smuggling slaves
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Speaker 1: through Florida into the United States was a lively one
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Speaker 1: vincent Nolte says that in eighteen thirteen pirates captured Spanish
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Speaker 1: and other slave ships on the high seas and established
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Speaker 1: their main depot and rendezvous on the island of Barrataria,
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Speaker 1: lying near the coast adjacent to New Orleans. This place
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Speaker 1: was visited by the sugar planters, chiefly of French origin,
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Speaker 1: who bought up the stolen slaves at from one hundred
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Speaker 1: fifty dollars to two hundred dollars per head when they
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Speaker 1: could not have procured as good stock in the city
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Speaker 1: for less than six hundred or seven hundred dollars. These
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Speaker 1: were then conveyed to the different plantations through the innumerable
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Speaker 1: creeks called bayous, that communicate with each other by manifold
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Speaker 1: little branches. In eighteen seventeen to eighteen nineteen, slaves were
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Speaker 1: very high and in great demand in the South. As
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Speaker 1: a consequence, great numbers of them were smuggled in at
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Speaker 1: various places. The evidence of this is quite convincing. Amelia
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Speaker 1: Island and the town of Saint Mary's became notorious as
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Speaker 1: two of the principal rendezvous of smugglers. A writer in
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Speaker 1: Niles Register in eighteen eighteen says that a regular chain
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Speaker 1: of posts was established from the head of Saint Mary's
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Speaker 1: River to the upper country and through the Indian nation,
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Speaker 1: by means of which slaves were hurried to every part
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Speaker 1: of the country. The woodmen along the river side rode
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Speaker 1: like so many Arabs, loaded with slaves ready for market.
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Speaker 1: When ready to form a caravan, an Indian alarm was
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Speaker 1: created that the woods might be less frequented, and if
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Speaker 1: pursued in Georgia, they escaped to Florida. Mister Macintosh, collector
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Speaker 1: of the Port of Deryenne, in a letter in eighteen eighteen, says,
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Speaker 1: I am in possession of undoubted information that African and
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Speaker 1: West Indian negroes are almost daily illicitly introduced into Georgia
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Speaker 1: for sale or settlement, or passing through it to the
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Speaker 1: territories of the United States. In eighteen seventeen, it was
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Speaker 1: reported to the Secretary of the Navy that most of
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Speaker 1: the goods carried to Galveston are introduced into the United States,
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Speaker 1: the most bulky and least valuable regularly through the custom House.
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Speaker 1: The most valuable, and the slaves are smuggled in through
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Speaker 1: the numerous inlets to the westward, where the people are
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Speaker 1: but too much disposed to render them every possible assistance.
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Speaker 1: Several hundred slaves are now at Galveston Niles Register in
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Speaker 1: eighteen eighteen, quoting from the Democrat Press, has a very
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Speaker 1: interesting account of how the law against the importation of
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Speaker 1: slaves was evaded. At New Orleans. An agent would be
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Speaker 1: sent to the West Indies and even to Africa to
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Speaker 1: purchase a cargo of slaves. On the return, when the
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Speaker 1: slave ship got near Balize, the agent would leave her
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Speaker 1: go in haste to New Orleans and inform the proper
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Speaker 1: authorities that a certain vessel had come into the Mississippi,
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Speaker 1: said to be bound for New Orleans, and having on
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Speaker 1: board a certain number of negroes. Conquerrary to the law
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Speaker 1: of the United States, the vessel and cargo would be
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Speaker 1: libeled and the slaves sold at public auction. One half
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Speaker 1: of the purchase money would go to the informer and
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Speaker 1: the other to the United States. The informer and agent
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Speaker 1: was the same man and a partner in the transaction.
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Speaker 1: This was a profitable business, and about ten thousand slaves
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Speaker 1: a year are said to have been thus introduced. It
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Speaker 1: is quite evident that the illicit slave trade at this
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Speaker 1: time was very great. In eighteen nineteen, mister Middleton of
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Speaker 1: South Carolina said in Congress that, in his opinion, thirteen
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Speaker 1: thousand Africans were annually smuggled into the United States, and
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Speaker 1: mister Wright of Virginia estimated the number at fifteen thousand.
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Speaker 1: In eighteen eighteen, eighteen nineteen, and eighteen twenty, Congress passed
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Speaker 1: acts to supplement and render more effective the Act of
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Speaker 1: eighteen o seven. To Bois says that for a decade
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Speaker 1: after eighteen twenty five, there appears little positive evidence of
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Speaker 1: a large illicit importation, but thinks notwithstanding that slaves were
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Speaker 1: largely imported. Captain J. E. Alexander, in a book published
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Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty three, says that he was assured by
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Speaker 1: a planter of forty years standing that persons in New
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Speaker 1: Orleans were connected with slave traders in Cuba, and that
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Speaker 1: at certain seasons of the year they would go up
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Speaker 1: the Mississippi River and meet slave ships off the coast.
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Speaker 1: They would relieve these of their cargoes, returned to the
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Speaker 1: mainstream of the river, dropped down in flatboats, and disposed
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Speaker 1: of the negroes to those who wished them. Thomas Powell
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Speaker 1: Buxton makes the statement, upon which he claims to be
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Speaker 1: high authority, that fifteen thousand negroes were imported into Texas
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Speaker 1: from Africa in one year about eighteen thirty eight. The Liberator,
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Speaker 1: quoting the Maryland Colonization Herald, says a writer in that
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Speaker 1: paper assured in eighteen thirty eight by Pedro Blanco, one
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Speaker 1: of the largest slave traders in the coast of Africa,
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Speaker 1: that for the preceding forty years, the United States had
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Speaker 1: been his best market through the west end of Cuba
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Speaker 1: and Texas. Between eighteen forty seven and eighteen fifty three,
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Speaker 1: says du Bois, the slave smuggler Drake had a slave
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Speaker 1: depot in the Gulf, where sometimes as many as sixteen
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Speaker 1: hundred negroes were on hand, and the owners were continually
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Speaker 1: importing and shipping. Drake himself says our island was visited
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Speaker 1: almost weekly by agents from Cuba, New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston,
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Speaker 1: and New Orleans. The seasoned and instructed slaves were taken
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Speaker 1: to Texas or Florida overland and to Cuba in sailing boats.
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Speaker 1: As no squad contained more than half a dozen, no
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Speaker 1: difficulty was found in posting them to the United States
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Speaker 1: without discovery and generally without suspicion. The Bay Island Plantation
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Speaker 1: sent ventures weekly to the Florida Keys. Slave were taken
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Speaker 1: into the Great American Swamps and there kept till wanted
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Speaker 1: for market. Hundreds were sold as runaways from the Florida Wilderness.
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Speaker 1: We had agents in every slave state, and our coasters
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Speaker 1: were built in Maine and came out with lumber. I
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Speaker 1: could tell curious stories of this business of smuggling basal
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Speaker 1: negroes into the United States. It is growing more profitable
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Speaker 1: every year, and if you should hang all the Yankee
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Speaker 1: merchants engaged in it, hundreds would fill their places. Owing
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Speaker 1: to the increasing demand and to the high price of slaves.
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Speaker 1: From eighteen forty five to eighteen sixty, and to the
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Speaker 1: fact that the Southern people were becoming more and more
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Speaker 1: favorable to the reopening of the African slave trade, thus
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Speaker 1: making it easier to practice smuggling successfully. We have no
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Speaker 1: reason to doubt the truth of these accounts of this
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Speaker 1: illicit traffic. Stephen A. Douglas said in eighteen fifty nine
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Speaker 1: it was his competent opinion onion that more than fifteen
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Speaker 1: thousand slaves have been imported in the preceding year, and
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Speaker 1: that the trade have been carried on extensively for a
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Speaker 1: long while. About eighteen sixty, it was stated that twenty
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Speaker 1: large cities and towns in the South were depots for
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Speaker 1: African slaves, and sixty or seventy cargoes of slaves have
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Speaker 1: been introduced in the preceding eighteen months. It was estimated
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Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty that eighty five vessels which had been
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Speaker 1: fitted out from New York City during eighteen months of
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Speaker 1: eighteen fifty nine and eighteen sixty, would introduce from thirty
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Speaker 1: thousand to sixty thousand annually. From what has been said,
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Speaker 1: it seems to us certain that at least two hundred
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Speaker 1: seventy thousand slaves were introduced into the United States from
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Speaker 1: eighteen o eight to eighteen sixty inclusive. These we would
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Speaker 1: distribute as follows between eighteen o eight and eighteen twenty
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Speaker 1: sixty thousand, eighteen twenty to eighteen thirty fifty thousand, thirty
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Speaker 1: to eighteen forty forty thousand, eighteen forty to eighteen fifty
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Speaker 1: fifty thousand, and from eighteen fifty to eighteen sixty seventy thousand.
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Speaker 1: We consider these very moderate and even low estimates. It
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Speaker 1: will be seen later that these figures are of prime
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Speaker 1: importance in accounting for the presence of certain slaves in
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Speaker 1: the states of the extreme South. End of chapter one,
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Speaker 1: Chapter two of the Domestic Slave Trade of the Southern
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Speaker 1: States by Winfried H. Collins. This LibriVox recording is in
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Speaker 1: the public domain. Chapter two, The Causes of the Rise
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Speaker 1: and development of the Domestic Slave Trade. The prohibition of
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Speaker 1: the foreign slave trade by the states in the federal
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Speaker 1: government is the first thing to be considered in connection
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Speaker 1: with the development of the internal slave trade. Although before
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Speaker 1: eighteen o eight all the states had passed laws to
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Speaker 1: prohibit the introduction of slaves from without the United States,
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Speaker 1: yet each state had the power to reopen the trade
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Speaker 1: at will. South Carolina, perhaps thinking it might be for
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Speaker 1: the interests of the state, opened the foreign trade in
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Speaker 1: eighteen o three. During the four years following, so many
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Speaker 1: slaves were imported that the market in the United States
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Speaker 1: became over stopped, and many of the negroes were sent
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Speaker 1: to the West Indies for sale. Had the states retained
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Speaker 1: the power to import, it is not probable that the
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Speaker 1: domestic trade would ever have assumed any great importance. It
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Speaker 1: is not likely that the people of the South and
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Speaker 1: West would have paid high prices for the negroes from
23:47
Speaker 1: the border states when they could have been had from
23:50
Speaker 1: abroad for so much less. The great profits, too, which
23:55
Speaker 1: induced men to carry on the domestic trade, would have
23:58
Speaker 1: been wanting. Assuming this, then, the consequent low price of
24:03
Speaker 1: slaves in the border slave states, added to the disinclination
24:08
Speaker 1: of many of these states to make merchandise of the
24:11
Speaker 1: negro might have led as the negroes increased and became
24:15
Speaker 1: a burden upon their masters, to gradual emancipation. In eighteen
24:21
Speaker 1: o seven, however, when Congress exercised its constitutional right and
24:26
Speaker 1: prohibited the importation of slaves from without the United States.
24:31
Speaker 1: After January one, eighteen o eight, the right of the
24:35
Speaker 1: individual states to import slaves from foreign countries was lost.
24:40
Speaker 1: It is interesting to note that only a few years
24:43
Speaker 1: before the passage of the Federal Non Importation Slave Act,
24:48
Speaker 1: the vast majority of Louisiana had been purchased from France.
24:52
Speaker 1: The acquisition of this territory had a wonderful influence upon
24:56
Speaker 1: the development and continuance of the internalsis slave trade of
25:01
Speaker 1: much less influence, and we might even say of comparative insignificance,
25:07
Speaker 1: was the Florida Session of eighteen nineteen. In a very
25:11
Speaker 1: short time, this fertile region of the Louisiana purchase began
25:16
Speaker 1: to attract great numbers of immigrants, who, it seems, often
25:20
Speaker 1: brought their slaves with them, But there were many who
25:23
Speaker 1: still had to be supplied. To meet this demand, recourse
25:28
Speaker 1: was had principally to the exhausted plantations of Virginia and Maryland. Tobacco,
25:34
Speaker 1: which had been a great agricultural staple in these states,
25:38
Speaker 1: had worn out the land. The price of tobacco io
25:42
Speaker 1: from about eighteen eighteen was very low, and continued so
25:46
Speaker 1: until eighteen forty. At the same time, new states such
25:51
Speaker 1: as Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, the Carolinas and Georgia had become
25:56
Speaker 1: great tobacco states. Such quantities came to be raised as
26:01
Speaker 1: to make the culture very unprofitable in Virginia and Maryland.
26:06
Speaker 1: The condition with respect to this section could be no
26:09
Speaker 1: better illustrated than by a quotation from a speech of
26:13
Speaker 1: Thomas Marshall in the Virginia House of Delegates January twenty,
26:17
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty two. Mister Taylor of Carolina, he says, had
26:23
Speaker 1: understood that sixty thousand hogsheads of tobacco were imported from
26:27
Speaker 1: Virginia when the whole population did not exceed one hundred
26:32
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand, had the fertility of the country, by
26:35
Speaker 1: possibility remained undiminished. Virginia ought in eighteen ten to have
26:41
Speaker 1: exported two hundred and forty thousand oxheads or their equivalent
26:46
Speaker 1: in other produce, and at present nearly double that. Thus
26:51
Speaker 1: the agricultural exports of Virginia in eighteen ten would, at
26:56
Speaker 1: the estimated prices of the Custom House at that time,
26:59
Speaker 1: have been seventeen millions of dollars, and now at least
27:04
Speaker 1: thirty four While it is known that they are not
27:07
Speaker 1: of late years, greater than from three to five millions.
27:11
Speaker 1: The fact that the whole agricultural products of the state
27:14
Speaker 1: at present do not exceed in value the exports eighty
27:18
Speaker 1: or ninety years ago, when it contained not a sixth
27:22
Speaker 1: of the population, and when not a third of the
27:25
Speaker 1: surface of that state. At present Virginia was at all occupied,
27:31
Speaker 1: is however, a striking proof of the decline of its agriculture.
27:35
Speaker 1: What is now the productive value of an estate of
27:39
Speaker 1: land and negroes in Virginia. We state, as the result
27:43
Speaker 1: of extensive inquiry embracing the last fifteen years, that a
27:47
Speaker 1: very great proportion of the larger plantations with from fifty
27:52
Speaker 1: to one hundred slaves actually bring their proprietors in debt
27:56
Speaker 1: at the end of a short term of years. Notwithstanding
28:00
Speaker 1: what would once in Virginia have been deemed very sheer economy,
28:05
Speaker 1: that much the larger part of the considerable land oders
28:09
Speaker 1: are content if they barely meet their plantation expenses without
28:14
Speaker 1: a loss of capital, and that of those who make
28:17
Speaker 1: any profit it will be none but rare instances average
28:21
Speaker 1: more than one and a half percent on the capital invested.
28:26
Speaker 1: The case is not materially varied with the smaller proprietors.
28:31
Speaker 1: Mister Randolph of Roanoke, whose sayings have so generally the
28:35
Speaker 1: raciness and the truth of Proverbs, has repeatedly said in
28:40
Speaker 1: Congress that the time was coming when the masters would
28:44
Speaker 1: run away from the slaves and be advertised by them
28:47
Speaker 1: in the public papers. It seems that agriculture had taken
28:52
Speaker 1: a new start about eighteen sixteen, probably owing to the
28:55
Speaker 1: fact that tobacco was very high, being from eight to
28:59
Speaker 1: fifteen cents per pound for courel. Mercer in the Virginia
29:04
Speaker 1: Constitutional Convention of eighteen twenty nine said that in eighteen
29:09
Speaker 1: seventeen the lands of Virginia were valued at two hundred
29:13
Speaker 1: and six million dollars, and that negroes averaged three hundred
29:17
Speaker 1: dollars each, while by eighteen twenty nine lands had decreased
29:22
Speaker 1: in value to eighty million or ninety million dollars and
29:27
Speaker 1: negroes to one hundred and fifty dollars each. But while
29:30
Speaker 1: agriculture was in such a discouraging condition in the worn
29:35
Speaker 1: out states, Louisiana and other states of the Southwest were
29:39
Speaker 1: being opened up and were looked on as the land
29:42
Speaker 1: of promise. Immigrants to that favored section wrote glowing accounts
29:47
Speaker 1: of the fertility of the country and of the delightful climate.
29:52
Speaker 1: An immigrant from Maryland writes from Louisiana in eighteen seventeen,
29:57
Speaker 1: do not the climate, the soil, and productions of this
30:01
Speaker 1: country furnish allurements to the application of your negroes on
30:05
Speaker 1: our lands. In your state, a planter with ten negroes
30:09
Speaker 1: with difficulties supports a family genteelly here, well managed, they
30:15
Speaker 1: would be a fortune to him. With you, the seasons
30:18
Speaker 1: are so irregular, your crops often fail. Here, the crops
30:23
Speaker 1: are certain, and want of the necessaries of life, never
30:26
Speaker 1: for a moment causes the heart to ache. Abundance spreads
30:31
Speaker 1: the table of the poor men, and contentment smiles on
30:35
Speaker 1: every countenance. In marked contrast to the unprofitableness of slave
30:40
Speaker 1: labor in the older slave states, was their immense profit
30:44
Speaker 1: when employed on the fresh lands of the Southwest. Some
30:48
Speaker 1: planters in this section had plantations thousands of acres in
30:53
Speaker 1: extent to cultivate them, great numbers of slaves were required.
30:58
Speaker 1: If the crop were cotton, one negro was needed for
31:02
Speaker 1: every three acres, and these would yield cotton to the
31:05
Speaker 1: value of two hundred and forty dollars to two hundred
31:09
Speaker 1: and sixty dollars. The master realized upon each negro employed
31:14
Speaker 1: at least two hundred dollars annually. The income of some
31:18
Speaker 1: of these plantations was immense. It was not uncommon for
31:22
Speaker 1: a planter in Mississippi and Louisiana to have an income
31:26
Speaker 1: of thirty thousand dollars, and some of them even eighty
31:29
Speaker 1: thousand dollars two one hundred and twenty thousand dollars eighteen twenty.
31:35
Speaker 1: The enormous profits caused slaves to be very high in
31:38
Speaker 1: this section and in great demand. There were only two
31:42
Speaker 1: possible sources of supply, First, the illicit traffic already spoken of,
31:48
Speaker 1: Second the domestic slave trade. A good negro from twenty
31:52
Speaker 1: to thirty years of age would command from eight hundred
31:56
Speaker 1: dollars to twelve hundred dollars. Indeed, it is stated that
32:00
Speaker 1: at one time during this early period they sold for
32:03
Speaker 1: as much as two thousand dollars. This fact, in connection
32:08
Speaker 1: with the fact that in eighteen seventeen the average price
32:11
Speaker 1: of a negro in Virginia was only three hundred dollars
32:15
Speaker 1: and the depreciation by eighteen twenty nine to one hundred
32:19
Speaker 1: and fifty dollars gives us the reason for the rise
32:22
Speaker 1: of the domestic slave trade. It was over and again
32:26
Speaker 1: stated in the Virginia Legislature of eighteen thirty two that
32:30
Speaker 1: the value of negroes in Virginia was regulated not by
32:34
Speaker 1: their profitableness at home, but by the Southwestern demand. The
32:39
Speaker 1: great difference in the price of slaves in the buying
32:42
Speaker 1: states and the selling states was an inducement to a
32:46
Speaker 1: certain class of men to engage in the business of
32:50
Speaker 1: buying them up and carrying them south. The profits were
32:54
Speaker 1: from one third to one half on an average, after
32:58
Speaker 1: expenses were paid. Slave traders soon got rich. Williams, a
33:03
Speaker 1: Washington dealer, boasted in eighteen fifty that he made thirty
33:08
Speaker 1: thousand dollars in a few months. It is said the
33:11
Speaker 1: firm of Franklin and Armfield of Alexandria made thirty three
33:16
Speaker 1: thousand dollars in eighteen twenty nine. In eighteen thirty four,
33:20
Speaker 1: Armfield of this same firm was reputed to be worth
33:24
Speaker 1: nearly five hundred thousand dollars, which he had accumulated in
33:28
Speaker 1: the business. Ingram tells of a man who had amassed
33:32
Speaker 1: more than a million dollars in this traffic. More instances
33:36
Speaker 1: might be given, but this is enough to show that
33:39
Speaker 1: the traffic was profitable. The cultivation of rice and sugar,
33:43
Speaker 1: especially sugar, used up slaves rapidly. As a consequence, slaves
33:49
Speaker 1: were in demand in the rice and sugar sections, not
33:52
Speaker 1: only because of the expansion of these industries, but to
33:56
Speaker 1: take the place of those that died. In eighteen twenty nine,
34:00
Speaker 1: the statement was made in a report of the Agricultural
34:03
Speaker 1: Society of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that the annual loss of
34:08
Speaker 1: life on well conducted sugar plantations was two and one
34:12
Speaker 1: half percent more than the annual increase. In eighteen thirty,
34:17
Speaker 1: the Honorable J. L. Johnson, in a letter to the
34:20
Speaker 1: Secretary of the Treasury, gave evidence of a thorough study
34:24
Speaker 1: of the subject and arrived at the same conclusion. We
34:28
Speaker 1: come now to consider the one thing, the prime factor
34:32
Speaker 1: which brought about the wonderful agricultural prosperity of the Southwest. Cotton,
34:38
Speaker 1: sugar and rice could only be grown in certain limited sections,
34:43
Speaker 1: rice principally in South Carolina, and sugar in Louisiana. But
34:48
Speaker 1: the cotton field came to cover the larger part of
34:51
Speaker 1: nine great states until toward the end of the eighteenth century,
34:56
Speaker 1: the production of cotton in this country was very small.
35:00
Speaker 1: In seventeen ninety three, however, Elike Whitney invented his machine
35:04
Speaker 1: for separating the seed from the cotton. This soon revolutionized
35:09
Speaker 1: the industry. While the cotton crop of the United States
35:12
Speaker 1: in seventeen ninety three was only five million pounds, by
35:16
Speaker 1: eighteen o eight it had increased to eighty million, and
35:20
Speaker 1: remained about the same, or rather declined during the War
35:24
Speaker 1: of eighteen twelve, But the very year piece was established,
35:29
Speaker 1: its production went up to one hundred million pounds, and
35:33
Speaker 1: the year following eighteen sixteen two one hundred and twenty
35:37
Speaker 1: five million. By eighteen thirty four it had grown to
35:40
Speaker 1: four hundred and sixty million. During the whole of this period,
35:44
Speaker 1: with slight fluctuations, cotton continued high, but after eighteen thirty
35:50
Speaker 1: five it began to decline and reached low water mark
35:54
Speaker 1: at the average price of five and three quarters cents
35:57
Speaker 1: per pound in eighteen forty five, which was scarcely the
36:02
Speaker 1: cost of production. However, the crop of eighteen thirty nine,
36:06
Speaker 1: according to the census reports, was seven hundred ninety million,
36:10
Speaker 1: four hundred and seventy nine thousand, two hundred and seventy
36:13
Speaker 1: five pounds, nearly double the crop of the five years previous.
36:18
Speaker 1: During the next decade, though the price went up. After
36:21
Speaker 1: eighteen forty five, the crop increased less than two hundred
36:26
Speaker 1: million pounds, being only nine hundred and eighty seven million,
36:30
Speaker 1: six hundred thirty seven thousand, two hundred in eighteen forty nine,
36:35
Speaker 1: but during the following ten years it more than doubled,
36:39
Speaker 1: being two billion, three hundred ninety seven million, two hundred
36:43
Speaker 1: thirty eight thousand, one hundred and forty pounds in eighteen
36:47
Speaker 1: fifty nine. Of this enormous crop, the four states of Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana,
36:54
Speaker 1: and Georgia produced more than two thirds, while Virginia contributed
36:59
Speaker 1: about one one thousand, four hundred. But Virginia and North
37:03
Speaker 1: Carolina in eighteen oh one had produced more than two
37:07
Speaker 1: fifths of the cotton raised in the country. In eighteen
37:11
Speaker 1: twenty six, when according to the official reports, they reached
37:15
Speaker 1: their greatest production, Virginia grew twenty five million pounds and
37:20
Speaker 1: North Carolina eighteen million pounds, or nearly five times as
37:25
Speaker 1: much as in eighteen oh one. Yet this proportion had
37:28
Speaker 1: fallen to about one seventh. Eight years afterward, Virginia's crop
37:34
Speaker 1: had fallen to ten million pounds and North Carolinas to
37:39
Speaker 1: nine million, five hundred thousand, and their production continued to decline.
37:44
Speaker 1: Hammond says that the higher costs of raising cotton in
37:48
Speaker 1: the more northern latitudes and the uncertainty of the plant
37:52
Speaker 1: reaching maturity before the arrival of the frosts prevented the
37:57
Speaker 1: rapid growth of cotton culture in these states after eighteen thirty,
38:01
Speaker 1: which took place elsewhere, especially as the continual decline in
38:06
Speaker 1: the price of the staple only emphasized the disadvantages under
38:11
Speaker 1: which the planters of these states labored. But while decline
38:16
Speaker 1: was noticeable in the northern states, the states at the
38:19
Speaker 1: southwest were going ahead by leaps and bounds. The same
38:24
Speaker 1: year eighteen forty three, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, from which
38:29
Speaker 1: no cotton had been reported in eighteen o one, produced
38:33
Speaker 1: together two hundred and thirty two million pounds, while South
38:37
Speaker 1: Carolina increased its crops from two million to sixty five million,
38:43
Speaker 1: five hundred thousand and Georgia from ten million to seventy
38:48
Speaker 1: five million pounds. During the same time, as the cotton
38:52
Speaker 1: field extended. Of course, the demand for labor increased, and
38:56
Speaker 1: that labor was necessarily negro slave labor, for it was
39:00
Speaker 1: thought that the white man could not endure work under
39:03
Speaker 1: a tropical sun, while the organism of the negro was
39:08
Speaker 1: especially adapted to it. As a consequence, negroes were secured
39:12
Speaker 1: from every possible source. In short, negroes and cotton soon
39:18
Speaker 1: came to be inseparably associated. The amount of cotton that
39:22
Speaker 1: could be raised depended upon the number of negroes to
39:25
Speaker 1: be secured to work it. The value of a negro
39:28
Speaker 1: was measured by his usefulness in the cotton field. De
39:31
Speaker 1: Beaux estimated that in eighteen fifty, out of the two million,
39:36
Speaker 1: five hundred thousand slaves in the Southern States, about one million,
39:40
Speaker 1: eight hundred thousand of them, or nearly three fourths, were
39:44
Speaker 1: engaged in the cotton industry, leaving for all other purposes
39:49
Speaker 1: only about seven hundred thousand, or about the same number
39:53
Speaker 1: as there was in the whole United States in seventeen ninety,
39:57
Speaker 1: at which time the production of cotton was only one million,
40:02
Speaker 1: five hundred thousand pounds. Thus, it is seen that while
40:06
Speaker 1: cotton demanded all the increase of slaves from whatever source.
40:10
Speaker 1: From that time forward, all other things merely held their own. However,
40:16
Speaker 1: if we subtract the number engaged in the sugar industry,
40:20
Speaker 1: which was one hundred fifty thousand in eighteen fifty for
40:23
Speaker 1: the reason that it was a new crop developed during
40:26
Speaker 1: the early part of the century, it is noticed that
40:30
Speaker 1: other things lost. From this we conclude it was only
40:34
Speaker 1: natural that the supply slave population of the older slave states,
40:39
Speaker 1: where it was useless, was to be drained off to
40:42
Speaker 1: the cotton states. Some of the Southern papers, notably the
40:46
Speaker 1: Richmond Enquirer, over and again called attention to the relation
40:50
Speaker 1: of cotton and negroes. In eighteen fifty nine, it says,
40:54
Speaker 1: the price of cotton, it is well known, pretty much
40:57
Speaker 1: regulates the price of slaves in the setae and a
41:00
Speaker 1: bale of cotton and a likely nigger, or about well
41:05
Speaker 1: balanced in the scale of pecuniary appreciation. End of chapter two,
41:17
Speaker 1: Chapter three of the Domestic Slave Trade of the Southern
41:21
Speaker 1: States by Winfield H. Collins. This LibriVox recording is in
41:25
Speaker 1: the public domain. Chapter three, the amount and extent of
41:29
Speaker 1: the trade. We have already discussed the causes of the
41:33
Speaker 1: domestic slave trade in this chapter, it is our purpose
41:36
Speaker 1: chiefly to consider its amount and extent. In this connection,
41:41
Speaker 1: our first object will be to determine whether it was
41:44
Speaker 1: carried on as a business before eighteen o eight. It
41:48
Speaker 1: appears that there were exchanges of slaves going on among
41:51
Speaker 1: the states and territories before this time, but whether this
41:56
Speaker 1: was anything more than of an occasional or incidental nature
42:00
Speaker 1: is a question. The statutes of some of the states
42:03
Speaker 1: give some light along this line. South Carolina, in seventeen
42:07
Speaker 1: ninety two prohibited the introduction of slaves either by land
42:11
Speaker 1: or sea. Delaware, however, as early as seventeen eighty seven,
42:16
Speaker 1: passed a law which recises that sundry negroes and mulattoes,
42:20
Speaker 1: as well freemen as slaves, have been exported and sold
42:25
Speaker 1: into other states, contrary to the principles of humanity and justice,
42:29
Speaker 1: and derogatory to the honor of this state. This law
42:33
Speaker 1: prohibited their exportation without a permit. It seems to have
42:37
Speaker 1: been something more than merely incidental, for it was amended
42:42
Speaker 1: in seventeen ninety three as follows that from and after
42:46
Speaker 1: the first Duesay of October next, the Justice of the
42:49
Speaker 1: Court of General Quarter Sessions and a jail delivery, or
42:53
Speaker 1: any two of them shall have the like power to
42:56
Speaker 1: grant a license or permit to export, sell, or carry
43:01
Speaker 1: out for sale any negro or mulatto slave from the
43:05
Speaker 1: state that five Justices of the Peace in open sessions
43:09
Speaker 1: now have. We have evidence to show that by eighteen
43:13
Speaker 1: o two Alexandria, in the District of Columbia, had become
43:17
Speaker 1: a sort of depot for the sale of slaves, and
43:20
Speaker 1: that men visited it from distant parts of the United
43:23
Speaker 1: States in order to purchase them. About this time, slaves
43:28
Speaker 1: were in great demand and very high in Mississippi, and
43:31
Speaker 1: probably also in the new states of Kentucky and Tennessee. However,
43:36
Speaker 1: it is not to be supposed that the great increase
43:39
Speaker 1: of the slave population in these sections before eighteen fifteen
43:44
Speaker 1: was due to any great extent to the domestic slave trade.
43:48
Speaker 1: There were five causes which may be assigned for this increase,
43:53
Speaker 1: of which the domestic trade was probably among the least,
43:56
Speaker 1: if not the least, no doubt, the most important was
44:00
Speaker 1: the immigration of slave holders with their slaves. This immigration
44:05
Speaker 1: was considerable. The white population of Tennessee and Kentucky nearly
44:10
Speaker 1: trebled between seventeen ninety and eighteen hundred, and between eighteen
44:14
Speaker 1: hundred and eighteen ten it about doubled, and the population
44:19
Speaker 1: of Mississippi more than quadrupled. Between eighteen hundred and eighteen ten,
44:25
Speaker 1: slaves also increased in as great a ratio. Second, we
44:30
Speaker 1: consider the South Carolina slave trade from eighteen o four
44:33
Speaker 1: to eighteen oh seven, inclusive from a speech of mister
44:37
Speaker 1: Smith of South were sold in the Carolinas, but that
44:40
Speaker 1: the most of Carolina in the United States Senate, December eighth,
44:44
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty, we learned that only a small part of
44:47
Speaker 1: the negroes introduced in consequence of this trade. Them were
44:51
Speaker 1: bought by the people of the Western and Southwestern states
44:54
Speaker 1: and territories. Third was the natural increase, Fourth would be
44:58
Speaker 1: the illegal forums slave trade, and fifth is the domestic trade.
45:03
Speaker 1: It is impossible to more than approximate the relative importance
45:07
Speaker 1: of these factors. However, it seems very unlikely that the
45:12
Speaker 1: domestic trade was of much consequence before eighteen fifteen. Whatever
45:17
Speaker 1: impetus it may have received on account of the demand
45:20
Speaker 1: for slaves just prior to the South Carolina trade must
45:24
Speaker 1: have been checked by the consequent heavy importation from abroad.
45:29
Speaker 1: For on account of this, slaves fell in price, as
45:33
Speaker 1: it is said adults at this time generally sold in
45:36
Speaker 1: the Southwest at one hundred dollars each. If the domestic
45:40
Speaker 1: slave trade had assumed any importance, or even if it
45:44
Speaker 1: had been going on at all, before eighteen fifteen, it
45:48
Speaker 1: seems more than likely that it would have been remarked
45:51
Speaker 1: by travelers, many of whom both English and American, visited
45:55
Speaker 1: the Southwest and other sections of the country during the
45:59
Speaker 1: period in quest. But so far as we can find,
46:02
Speaker 1: none of them make any mention of it. Whatever. The
46:05
Speaker 1: newspapers of the time also are silent in regard to
46:09
Speaker 1: the matter. Doubtless, the rise and development of the trade
46:13
Speaker 1: was hindered or delayed by the War of eighteen twelve,
46:17
Speaker 1: but almost immediately after the close of the war it
46:20
Speaker 1: comes into notice and even prominence. In eighteen sixteen, Paulding,
46:25
Speaker 1: in his Letters from the South, writes of it from
46:28
Speaker 1: personal observation, and also tells of a man who had
46:32
Speaker 1: even thus early made money in the business. At this time, indeed,
46:38
Speaker 1: conditions were very favorable to a growth of the domestic trade.
46:42
Speaker 1: The general prosperity in the high price of agricultural products,
46:46
Speaker 1: especially cotton and sugar caused a great demand for slave
46:50
Speaker 1: labor for the new and fertile lands of the south
46:53
Speaker 1: and Southwest. In eighteen seventeen and eighteen eighteen, the buying
46:57
Speaker 1: up of the negroes for these markets was fast becoming
47:01
Speaker 1: a regular business, and it was a very common thing
47:04
Speaker 1: to see gangs of them chained and marching toward the South.
47:08
Speaker 1: They were collected from various places by dealers and shipped
47:12
Speaker 1: down the Mississippi River in flatboats. Fourteen of these, loaded
47:17
Speaker 1: with slaves for sale, were seen at Natchez at once.
47:20
Speaker 1: About this time the statement was made that eight thousand
47:25
Speaker 1: slaves were carried into Georgia in eighteen seventeen from the
47:28
Speaker 1: northern slave holding states. It would seem probable that the
47:32
Speaker 1: greater part of these may have been introduced by immigrants. However,
47:36
Speaker 1: the slave trade must have been great, for on December twenty,
47:39
Speaker 1: eighteen seventeen, the Georgia legislature passed a law to prohibit
47:44
Speaker 1: at once the importation of slaves for sale between eighteen
47:48
Speaker 1: ten and eighteen twenty slaves in the four states of Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee,
47:53
Speaker 1: and Louisiana in round numbers increased from two hundred and
47:58
Speaker 1: two thousand to three hundred thirty two thousand, and in
48:02
Speaker 1: some of the other states the increase was about as great.
48:06
Speaker 1: During the same time, the white population in the states
48:09
Speaker 1: named increased from four hundred nineteen thousand to six hundred
48:14
Speaker 1: forty five thousand. By far the greater part of this
48:17
Speaker 1: increase took place after eighteen fifteen. To prove this, we
48:22
Speaker 1: will take Louisiana as an example. In eighteen ten, she
48:26
Speaker 1: had a population of seventy six thousand, five hundred, and
48:30
Speaker 1: in eighteen fifteen, near the close of the year, her population,
48:34
Speaker 1: according to Manette, did not exceed ninety thousand, an increase
48:38
Speaker 1: of only twelve thousand, but in eighteen twenty it amounted
48:42
Speaker 1: to one hundred fifty four thousand, of which more than
48:46
Speaker 1: seventy three thousand were Negro slaves. It appears that the
48:50
Speaker 1: slaves in Louisiana increased only about two thousand or two thousand,
48:54
Speaker 1: five hundred from eighteen ten to eighteen fifteen, but between
48:59
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty fifteen in eighteen twenty there was an increase
49:02
Speaker 1: of about thirty seven thousand. This wonderful increase of population
49:08
Speaker 1: in the West and Southwest is to be accounted for
49:11
Speaker 1: by the fact that after the close of the War
49:14
Speaker 1: of eighteen twelve, immigration again set in these directions, and
49:19
Speaker 1: as most of the immigrants, without doubt were from the
49:22
Speaker 1: older southern states, they carried with them the slaves which
49:25
Speaker 1: they had in their native states. Another source from which
49:29
Speaker 1: this region received slaves at this time was through the
49:32
Speaker 1: operation of the illicit foreign trade. It is probable that
49:36
Speaker 1: ten thousand or fifteen thousand a year were thus introduced.
49:41
Speaker 1: It therefore seems that up to this time to the
49:43
Speaker 1: domestic trade is due probably only a minor part of
49:47
Speaker 1: the increase of the slave population of this section. During
49:51
Speaker 1: the twenties, however, if we are to give credit to
49:54
Speaker 1: the statements of travelers, the trade reached very great proportions. Baltimore, Norfolk, Richmond,
50:00
Speaker 1: Washington and other places had already become centers. Agents were
50:05
Speaker 1: placed in these cities to attend to purchase in shipment,
50:09
Speaker 1: and thousands and tens of thousands, such is the language
50:12
Speaker 1: of an English tourist, were purchased in Virginia and Maryland
50:16
Speaker 1: for sale in Georgia, Louisiana and other states. Plain Another
50:21
Speaker 1: Englishmen who visited the United States about the same time
50:25
Speaker 1: is more to the point it is computed. He says
50:29
Speaker 1: that every year from ten to fifteen, thousand slaves are
50:32
Speaker 1: sold from the states of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia and
50:36
Speaker 1: sent to the South. Basil Hall was informed in eighteen
50:40
Speaker 1: twenty seven or eighteen twenty eight that during certain seasons
50:44
Speaker 1: of the year, all the roads, steamboats, and packets are
50:48
Speaker 1: crowded with troops of negroes on their way to the
50:50
Speaker 1: slave markets of the South. Vessels, indeed, from the selling
50:54
Speaker 1: states are sometimes seen in New Orleans with as many
50:58
Speaker 1: as two hundred negroes abode. This transportation of negroes from
51:03
Speaker 1: the border states to the South and Southwest from about
51:06
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty six to eighteen thirty two may be partly
51:10
Speaker 1: accounted for by the probable falling off in the illicit importations,
51:15
Speaker 1: and by the fact that cotton and tobacco, which were
51:18
Speaker 1: the staples of some of the border states, were comparatively
51:22
Speaker 1: low in price, making them very unprofitable crops to cultivate
51:26
Speaker 1: in these states. The cotton raised in North Carolina and
51:30
Speaker 1: Virginia decreased almost half during this time. While it appears
51:35
Speaker 1: as if the lower price of cotton merely had the
51:38
Speaker 1: effect in the New States to increase the acreage in
51:41
Speaker 1: order to make up for the deficiency in price. In
51:45
Speaker 1: the New States, there was a wonderful increase in production
51:48
Speaker 1: during this period. Slaves therefore, were of much less productive
51:53
Speaker 1: value in the border states, while in the New States
51:56
Speaker 1: the demand for them was scarcely lessened. The New Orleans
52:00
Speaker 1: Mercantile Advertiser of January twenty one, eighteen thirty says, arrivals
52:06
Speaker 1: by sea and river within a few days have added
52:09
Speaker 1: fearfully to the number of slaves brought to this market
52:12
Speaker 1: for sale. New Orleans is the complete mart for the
52:15
Speaker 1: slave trade, and the Mississippi is becoming a common highway
52:19
Speaker 1: for the traffic. In the summer of eighteen thirty one,
52:23
Speaker 1: New Orleans imported three hundred seventy one negroes in one week,
52:27
Speaker 1: nearly all of whom were from Virginia. In the same year,
52:31
Speaker 1: August eighteen thirty one, an insurrection of slaves, in which
52:35
Speaker 1: a number of white people were murdered occurred in Southampton County, Virginia.
52:41
Speaker 1: This caused much excitement throughout the Slave States. It opened
52:45
Speaker 1: the eyes of the people to the danger of a
52:47
Speaker 1: large slave population it seemed for a while that it
52:51
Speaker 1: would have a very detrimental effect upon the domestic slave trade.
52:55
Speaker 1: For several importing states began to consider the advisability of
53:00
Speaker 1: prohibiting the further introduction of slaves. Two of the largest
53:04
Speaker 1: importing states indeed passed such laws. Louisiana, which in March
53:10
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty one had repealed her law regulating the importation
53:15
Speaker 1: of slaves, in November of the same year, at an
53:18
Speaker 1: extra session of her legislature, enacted a law against their
53:23
Speaker 1: importation for sale, and in January eighteen thirty two, Alabama
53:28
Speaker 1: followed suit. The Virginia legislature of eighteen thirty one two
53:33
Speaker 1: also took up the question of slavery, and with open doors,
53:37
Speaker 1: vigorously discussed methods of emancipation and of getting rid of
53:41
Speaker 1: the Negro population. It was recognized that the value of
53:45
Speaker 1: slaves in Virginia depended greatly upon the southern and western markets.
53:50
Speaker 1: It was feared that other buying states would follow the
53:53
Speaker 1: lead of Louisiana, thus cutting off the outlet of Virginia's
53:57
Speaker 1: surplus slaves. And while the whites were constantly emigrating, the
54:03
Speaker 1: rapidly increasing black population would tend to become congested in
54:07
Speaker 1: the state, producing a condition of society alarming to contemplate.
54:13
Speaker 1: But these forebodings were far from ever being realized. Indeed,
54:18
Speaker 1: even before the end of the year, the conjunction of
54:21
Speaker 1: two causes produced a great demand for slaves, and they
54:25
Speaker 1: were soon higher in price than they had been for years. First,
54:29
Speaker 1: planters from the cotton growing states visited Virginia in great
54:33
Speaker 1: numbers in order to make purchases of slaves, doubtless thinking
54:37
Speaker 1: they could buy cheaply, as it seemed that on account
54:40
Speaker 1: of the Southampton Insurrection, Virginia was determined to get rid
54:44
Speaker 1: of her slaves at all hazards. Second, the most important
54:48
Speaker 1: was the advance in price of cotton. This began also
54:52
Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty two. It continued to rise for several years,
54:56
Speaker 1: and by eighteen thirty six it had doubled in price,
55:00
Speaker 1: while by eighteen thirty nine its production also had nearly doubled.
55:05
Speaker 1: This increase was due almost wholly to the south and
55:08
Speaker 1: Southwest Mississippi alone, producing nearly one fourth of the entire crome.
55:14
Speaker 1: As a consequence, we should expect to note a corresponding
55:18
Speaker 1: briskness in the slave trade. Such indeed, was the case.
55:22
Speaker 1: We have no reason to think that more slaves were
55:25
Speaker 1: ever exported to the South from the northern slave states
55:29
Speaker 1: during any equal period of time than there were from
55:32
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty two to eighteen thirty six. Inclusive of these,
55:37
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty six is easily the banner year. In eighteen
55:41
Speaker 1: thirty two, it was estimated by Professor Due that Virginia
55:45
Speaker 1: annually exported for sale to other states six thousand slaves.
55:50
Speaker 1: During the thirties, or even before, the slave trade was
55:53
Speaker 1: carried on between the selling and buying states with about
55:56
Speaker 1: the same regularity as the exchanges of conon in flour, sugar,
56:01
Speaker 1: and rice. Vessels engaged in the business advertised their accommodations.
56:07
Speaker 1: One trader, John Armfield, had three which were scheduled to
56:11
Speaker 1: leave Alexandria for New Orleans alternately the first and fifteenth
56:16
Speaker 1: of each month during the shipping season. That the trade
56:20
Speaker 1: had become extensive is evidenced by the newspapers. Up to
56:24
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty, it was very uncommon to find a trader's
56:27
Speaker 1: advertisement in a newspaper, but even before eighteen thirty such
56:32
Speaker 1: advertisements had become very plentiful. One could hardly pick up
56:36
Speaker 1: a paper published in the selling states, especially those of
56:39
Speaker 1: the eastern shore of Maryland and eastern Virginia, without finding
56:43
Speaker 1: one or more. These advertisements often continued from month to
56:48
Speaker 1: month and from year to year. An example or two
56:52
Speaker 1: may be interesting Cash for Negroes. I wish to purchase
56:56
Speaker 1: six hundred or seven hundred negroes for the New Orleans market,
57:00
Speaker 1: and will give more than any purchaser that is now
57:03
Speaker 1: or hereafter may come into the market. Richard C. Woolfolk
57:08
Speaker 1: cash for Negroes. We will give cash for two hundred
57:12
Speaker 1: negroes between the ages of fifteen and twenty five years old,
57:15
Speaker 1: of both sexes. Those having that kind of property for
57:19
Speaker 1: sale will find it to their interest to give us
57:22
Speaker 1: a call. Final and Freeman. The number of slaves currently
57:26
Speaker 1: estimated to have been transported to the South and Southwest
57:30
Speaker 1: during eighteen thirty five. In eighteen thirty six, almost Stagger's belief.
57:35
Speaker 1: The Maryville, Tennessee Intelligencer made the statement in eighteen thirty
57:40
Speaker 1: six that in eighteen thirty five, sixty thousand slaves passed
57:45
Speaker 1: through a western town on their way to the southern market.
57:49
Speaker 1: Also in eighteen thirty six, the Virginia Wheeling Times says
57:55
Speaker 1: intelligent Men estimated the number of slaves exported from Virginia
57:59
Speaker 1: to during the preceding twelve months as one hundred and
58:03
Speaker 1: twenty thousand, of whom about two thirds were carried there
58:06
Speaker 1: by their masters, leaving forty thousand to have been sold.
58:11
Speaker 1: The Quarterly Anti Slavery magazine July eighteen thirty seven gives
58:16
Speaker 1: the Natchez Courier as authority for the estimate that during
58:20
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty six, two hundred and fifty thousand slaves were
58:24
Speaker 1: transported to Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas from the older
58:30
Speaker 1: slave states. A committee in eighteen thirty seven appointed by
58:34
Speaker 1: the citizens of Mobile to inquire into the cause of
58:38
Speaker 1: the prevalent financial stringency stated in their report that for
58:42
Speaker 1: the preceding four years, Alabama had annually purchased from the
58:46
Speaker 1: other states ten million dollars worth of slave property. When
58:51
Speaker 1: the panic of eighteen thirty seven came upon Mississippi, it
58:54
Speaker 1: was thought it seems to have been caused through the
58:57
Speaker 1: amount of money sent out of the state in the
59:00
Speaker 1: purchase of slaves, and Governor Lynch, upon the petition of
59:04
Speaker 1: the people, convened the legislature in extra session and in
59:08
Speaker 1: his message to it, says, the question which presents itself,
59:13
Speaker 1: and which I submit for your deliberation, is whether the
59:16
Speaker 1: passage of an act prohibiting the introduction of slaves into
59:20
Speaker 1: this state as merchandise may not have a salutary effect
59:24
Speaker 1: in checking the drain of capital annually made upon us
59:28
Speaker 1: by the sale of this description of property. The panic
59:32
Speaker 1: of eighteen thirty seven cause a falling off in the
59:35
Speaker 1: domestic slave trade, and the low price of cotton, which
59:39
Speaker 1: continued until eighteen forty six, hindered its revival. The falling
59:44
Speaker 1: off in the trade is shown by the fact that
59:47
Speaker 1: the percent of increase in the slave population of the
59:50
Speaker 1: Cotton States was scarcely half as great between eighteen forty
59:55
Speaker 1: and eighteen fifty as during the previous decade. The slave trade, however,
1:00:00
Speaker 1: seems to have become brisker in eighteen forty three. For
1:00:04
Speaker 1: while only two thousand slaves are said to have been
1:00:07
Speaker 1: sold in Washington in eighteen forty two, in eighteen forty three,
1:00:11
Speaker 1: five thousand were sold there. It does not necessarily follow, however,
1:00:16
Speaker 1: that all these were sent south. The increased number of
1:00:20
Speaker 1: sales was caused by two things. The decline in the
1:00:23
Speaker 1: price of tobacco, and the renewed activity in the sugar
1:00:26
Speaker 1: industry incident upon a new duty on sugar. This gave
1:00:31
Speaker 1: rise to a demand for slave labor upon the sugar
1:00:34
Speaker 1: plantations of the South, but it was a very limited demand.
1:00:38
Speaker 1: During this period. The decline in the value of slaves
1:00:42
Speaker 1: was great in some states, and it appears very probable
1:00:46
Speaker 1: there was a general depreciation and value. However, before eighteen
1:00:50
Speaker 1: fifty three important things had happened, each of which had
1:00:55
Speaker 1: an effect upon the slave trade. First the admission of
1:00:59
Speaker 1: Texas December eighteen forty five. Second, the gradual increase in
1:01:04
Speaker 1: the price of cotton after eighteen forty five. Third the
1:01:08
Speaker 1: discovery of gold in California. The first opened a large
1:01:12
Speaker 1: cotton country to development, and the required slave labor could
1:01:17
Speaker 1: be legally supplied only from the United States. The rise
1:01:21
Speaker 1: in cotton, which continued almost uniformly until eighteen sixty, caused
1:01:26
Speaker 1: a new impetus to be given to its culture, and
1:01:29
Speaker 1: the discovery of gold in California infused new life into
1:01:34
Speaker 1: all the channels of trade. In a few years. Indeed,
1:01:38
Speaker 1: after eighteen forty five, the demand for slaves seems to
1:01:41
Speaker 1: have been greater than the supply. A writer in the
1:01:44
Speaker 1: Richmond Examiner in eighteen forty nine says, it being a
1:01:48
Speaker 1: well ascertained fact that Virginia and Maryland will not be
1:01:52
Speaker 1: able to supply the great demand for negroes which will
1:01:55
Speaker 1: be wanted in the South this fall and next spring,
1:01:59
Speaker 1: we would guise all who are compelled to dispose of
1:02:02
Speaker 1: them in this market to defer selling until the sales
1:02:06
Speaker 1: of the present crop of cotton can be realized, as
1:02:10
Speaker 1: the price then must be very high, owing to two reasons,
1:02:14
Speaker 1: first the ravages of the cholera, and secondly the high
1:02:18
Speaker 1: price of cotton. Indeed, during the fifteen years prior to
1:02:22
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty, the demand for slaves became so great that
1:02:26
Speaker 1: it costs an increase of one hundred percent in their price. However,
1:02:30
Speaker 1: there was not a great increase in the domestic slave trade.
1:02:34
Speaker 1: According to a custom house report, there were shipped from
1:02:37
Speaker 1: Baltimore in a little less than two years in eighteen
1:02:40
Speaker 1: fifty one. In eighteen fifty two only one thousand, thirty
1:02:44
Speaker 1: three negroes. This is certainly not a large showing, though
1:02:48
Speaker 1: it is probable a great many were sent overland to
1:02:51
Speaker 1: the South from this place during the same time. In
1:02:55
Speaker 1: a speech before the Southern Convention at Savannah in eighteen
1:02:59
Speaker 1: fifty seve mister Scott of Virginia made the statement that
1:03:03
Speaker 1: not more than half the lands in the sugar and
1:03:06
Speaker 1: cotton growing states had been reduced to cultivation, and that
1:03:10
Speaker 1: all the valuable slaves in Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri
1:03:14
Speaker 1: would be required to develop them. But at this time
1:03:18
Speaker 1: the prosperity of the latter militated against the transfer of
1:03:22
Speaker 1: labor to the cotton growing states. Probably the conditions in
1:03:26
Speaker 1: the border states is best described by quoting from a
1:03:29
Speaker 1: writer in a DeBow's Review in eighteen fifty seven. The difficulty,
1:03:35
Speaker 1: he says, of procuring slaves at reasonable rates has already
1:03:39
Speaker 1: been severely felt by the cotton planters, and this difficulty
1:03:43
Speaker 1: is constantly increasing the production of rice, tobacco, wheat, Indian corn, etc.
1:03:49
Speaker 1: With stock raising in those states affords nearly as profitable
1:03:54
Speaker 1: employment for slave labor as cotton planting in other states.
1:03:58
Speaker 1: They have not, as a generally supposed a redundancy of
1:04:02
Speaker 1: slave labour, nor are they likely to have so long
1:04:07
Speaker 1: as their present prosperity continues. The recent full development of
1:04:11
Speaker 1: the rich agricultural and mineral resources of these states. Indeed,
1:04:16
Speaker 1: by an immense demand for their staple productions, have not
1:04:20
Speaker 1: only given profitable employment to slave labour, but has improved
1:04:24
Speaker 1: the pecuniary condition of the slave owner and place him
1:04:28
Speaker 1: above the necessity of parting with his slave property. Even Olmsted, inadvertently,
1:04:34
Speaker 1: no doubt, gives evidence of the prosperity of Virginia a
1:04:38
Speaker 1: little before this time, when he says that in the
1:04:41
Speaker 1: tobacco factories of Richmond and Petersburg, slaves were in great
1:04:45
Speaker 1: demand and received one hundred fifty to two hundred dollars
1:04:49
Speaker 1: and expenses a year. In North Carolina, also, good hands
1:04:54
Speaker 1: would bring about the same wages. Though the labour market
1:04:58
Speaker 1: in the border states was greater than the natural increase
1:05:01
Speaker 1: of the negro yet it was hardly to be compared
1:05:04
Speaker 1: to the Southern demand. As a consequence, when debt or necessity,
1:05:09
Speaker 1: or other reason compelled the sale of slaves, they were
1:05:12
Speaker 1: often bought by traders and exported. The statement was made
1:05:17
Speaker 1: by mister Jones of Georgia in the Savannah Convention eighteen
1:05:21
Speaker 1: fifty six that negroes were even then worth from one
1:05:25
Speaker 1: thousand to one thousand five hundred dollars each, and that
1:05:29
Speaker 1: there were ten purchasers to one sellar. Indeed, so great
1:05:34
Speaker 1: was the demand for slaves at this time that the
1:05:37
Speaker 1: advisability of reopening the African slave trade became one of
1:05:41
Speaker 1: the principal topics of discussion in Southern agricultural and commercial conventions.
1:05:47
Speaker 1: In fact, the Vicksburg Convention eighteen fifty nine passed a
1:05:51
Speaker 1: resolution in favor of reopening the African trade. The New
1:05:55
Speaker 1: Orleans newspapers during all this period give evidence of the
1:05:59
Speaker 1: demi trade. It was very common during the shipping season
1:06:03
Speaker 1: to see advertisements to the effect that the subscriber a
1:06:07
Speaker 1: Negro trader had received or had just arrived from Virginia, Maryland,
1:06:12
Speaker 1: the Carolinas, or elsewhere with a large lot of negroes
1:06:16
Speaker 1: which were offered for sale. Usually the number would be
1:06:20
Speaker 1: given as fifty, seventy five or even one hundred. This
1:06:24
Speaker 1: would be qualified by the statement that they would be
1:06:26
Speaker 1: constantly receiving fresh lots. The same advertisement would continue in
1:06:32
Speaker 1: the same paper for months and even years. Sometimes half
1:06:36
Speaker 1: a dozen of these could be found in a single
1:06:39
Speaker 1: issue of a paper. It would be impossible even to
1:06:43
Speaker 1: approximate from this source the numbers sold during any given time,
1:06:48
Speaker 1: for it is likely the number offered for sale or
1:06:51
Speaker 1: but little relation to the actual numbers sold. The states
1:06:55
Speaker 1: of Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas were most conspicuous in
1:06:59
Speaker 1: these advertisements. Writers on the subject seem to be pretty
1:07:03
Speaker 1: well agreed that during this period, or during the fifties,
1:07:07
Speaker 1: about twenty five thousand slaves were annually sold south from
1:07:12
Speaker 1: the northern slave states. It is interesting to notice in
1:07:15
Speaker 1: this connection what the census reports have to show, but
1:07:19
Speaker 1: in reading it should be remembered that no account is
1:07:22
Speaker 1: taken of the sale of slaves except as they took
1:07:26
Speaker 1: place between the buying and selling states, So the sale
1:07:29
Speaker 1: of slaves between Virginia and Maryland are not indicated, nor
1:07:34
Speaker 1: those between Mississippi and Alabama. The slave population of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi,
1:07:43
Speaker 1: South Carolina, Tennessee, and Missouri in eighteen twenty was in
1:07:47
Speaker 1: round numbers six hundred and forty four thousand. In eighteen
1:07:52
Speaker 1: thirty nine hundred ninety seven thousand, being an increase of
1:07:56
Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty three thousand. The slave population in
1:08:00
Speaker 1: the selling states of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina Kentucky
1:08:04
Speaker 1: in the District of Columbia at the same periods was
1:08:08
Speaker 1: eight hundred and seventy three thousand and nine hundred and
1:08:12
Speaker 1: ninety three thousand, respectively, being an increase in these states
1:08:17
Speaker 1: of one hundred and twenty thousand. Total increase of slaves
1:08:20
Speaker 1: in both sections during the decade four hundred and seventy
1:08:24
Speaker 1: three thousand, from which we deduct fifty thousand due to
1:08:28
Speaker 1: the illicit foreign trade, leaving four hundred and twenty three
1:08:31
Speaker 1: thousand from natural increase, or about twenty eight percent. Had
1:08:36
Speaker 1: the selling states increased at this ratio instead of one
1:08:40
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty thousand, their increase would have been two
1:08:44
Speaker 1: hundred and forty four thousand. This would seem to indicate
1:08:48
Speaker 1: that at least twelve thousand, four hundred annually were carried
1:08:52
Speaker 1: south during this decade. However, only the smaller part of
1:08:56
Speaker 1: these and those of the following decade as well, were
1:09:00
Speaker 1: transported through the operation of the domestic slave trade. Mister P. A.
1:09:04
Speaker 1: Morse of Louisiana, writing in eighteen fifty seven, says that
1:09:09
Speaker 1: the augmentation of slaves within the Cotton States was caused
1:09:13
Speaker 1: mostly by the migration of slave owners. The Virginia Times
1:09:17
Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty six says of the number of slaves
1:09:20
Speaker 1: exported during the preceding twelve months, not more than one
1:09:24
Speaker 1: third have been sold, the others having been carried by
1:09:27
Speaker 1: their owners who have removed. We conclude from these and
1:09:31
Speaker 1: other sources that at least three fifths of the removals
1:09:35
Speaker 1: of slaves from the border slave states to those farther
1:09:38
Speaker 1: south from eighteen twenty to eighteen fifty were due to emigration. Thus,
1:09:44
Speaker 1: it is shown that probably five thousand slaves were annually
1:09:48
Speaker 1: exported by the selling states from eighteen twenty to eighteen thirty.
1:09:53
Speaker 1: By means of the domestic trade in the next decade,
1:09:57
Speaker 1: adding Florida to the buying states and transferring South Carolina
1:10:02
Speaker 1: and Missouri to the selling list, we find that in
1:10:05
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty and in eighteen forty, the buying states had
1:10:09
Speaker 1: six hundred seventy two thousand and one million, one hundred
1:10:13
Speaker 1: twenty seven thousand, respectively, being an increase of four hundred
1:10:17
Speaker 1: fifty five thousand, while for the same periods the selling
1:10:21
Speaker 1: states had one hundred thirty three thousand and one million,
1:10:25
Speaker 1: three hundred sixty one thousand, being an increase of twenty
1:10:29
Speaker 1: eight thousand. The whole increase therefore was four hundred eighty
1:10:33
Speaker 1: three thousand. Deducting the forty thousand due to elicit foreign trade,
1:10:38
Speaker 1: we have four hundred forty three thousand, or about twenty
1:10:42
Speaker 1: two percent, as the natural increase. Had the selling states
1:10:46
Speaker 1: increased at the same rate, it would have been two
1:10:49
Speaker 1: hundred ninety three thousand four a decade. Deducting twenty eight thousand,
1:10:54
Speaker 1: we find that two hundred sixty five thousand can be
1:10:57
Speaker 1: accounted for only as having been exported. Deducting three fifths
1:11:02
Speaker 1: for immigration, we have, removing one hundred and six thousand
1:11:07
Speaker 1: for the domestic graphic, an average of ten thousand, six
1:11:11
Speaker 1: hundred per year. By eighteen fifty, the buying states had
1:11:16
Speaker 1: another increase of four hundred and seventy eight thousand, and
1:11:19
Speaker 1: the selling states one hundred and eighty thousand. Total increase
1:11:23
Speaker 1: from eighteen forty to eighteen fifty six hundred and fifty
1:11:27
Speaker 1: eight thousand. Deducting fifty thousand illicitly imported, we have six
1:11:32
Speaker 1: hundred and six thousand, or about twenty four percent total increase. Accordingly,
1:11:38
Speaker 1: the selling states should have a natural increase of three
1:11:42
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty six thousand. Deducting the actual number, we
1:11:46
Speaker 1: have left one hundred and forty six thousand which must
1:11:50
Speaker 1: have been transported. Deducting three fifths on account of immigration,
1:11:55
Speaker 1: there would remain about fifty eight thousand, or nearly six
1:11:58
Speaker 1: thousand per year for the day domestic trade. Adding Texas
1:12:02
Speaker 1: to the buying states in eighteen fifty, they then have
1:12:06
Speaker 1: one million, six hundred and sixty three thousand, and in
1:12:10
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty two million, two hundred ninety six thousand, or
1:12:14
Speaker 1: an increase of six hundred and thirty three thousand during
1:12:18
Speaker 1: the decade, and the selling states one million, five hundred
1:12:22
Speaker 1: and forty one thousand and one million, six hundred fifty
1:12:25
Speaker 1: seven thousand, respectively, being an increase of one hundred and
1:12:29
Speaker 1: sixteen thousand, total increase of seven hundred and forty nine thousand.
1:12:34
Speaker 1: Deducting seventy thousand which were brought in by illicit trade,
1:12:39
Speaker 1: we have a remainder of six hundred and seventy nine thousand,
1:12:43
Speaker 1: or twenty one percent natural increase. From natural increase, selling
1:12:47
Speaker 1: states should have had two hundred and seven thousand more
1:12:51
Speaker 1: than the actual Deducting three fifths on account of immigration,
1:12:56
Speaker 1: leaves a little more than eight thousand per years sold
1:12:59
Speaker 1: south annually for these ten years. It is very probable
1:13:03
Speaker 1: that the emigration to the Cotton States fell off during
1:13:07
Speaker 1: the fifties owing to the great prosperity in the border states,
1:13:11
Speaker 1: and it might be fair to reduce the number estimated
1:13:14
Speaker 1: to have been carried south by emigration to one third
1:13:18
Speaker 1: or one half, which would leave ten or twelve thousand
1:13:21
Speaker 1: per year for the domestic slave trade. We feel quite
1:13:25
Speaker 1: confident that this statistical review of the domestic slave trade,
1:13:30
Speaker 1: based as it is upon the census reports, gives a
1:13:34
Speaker 1: truer idea of the actual amount of the trade between
1:13:37
Speaker 1: the selling and the buying states than could be got
1:13:41
Speaker 1: from any other sources. End of Chapter three, Chapter four
1:13:51
Speaker 1: of the Domestic Slave Trade of the Southern States by
1:13:55
Speaker 1: Winfield H. Collins. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
1:14:00
Speaker 1: Chapter four. Were some states engaged in breeding and raising
1:14:04
Speaker 1: negroes for sale? As we now have a somewhat definite
1:14:09
Speaker 1: idea as to the amount of the domestic slave trade,
1:14:13
Speaker 1: the next question which naturally claim our attention, are were
1:14:17
Speaker 1: some states consciously and purposely engaged in breeding and raising
1:14:21
Speaker 1: negroes for the Southern market, and also what were the
1:14:24
Speaker 1: sources of supply for the trade. The former of these
1:14:28
Speaker 1: queries is no doubt the most controverted and difficult part
1:14:32
Speaker 1: of our subject. The testimony of travelers and common opinion
1:14:36
Speaker 1: generally seems to have been in the affirmative. A quotation
1:14:40
Speaker 1: or two will suffice to show the trend. The Duke
1:14:44
Speaker 1: of saxe Weimer says, many owners of slaves in the
1:14:47
Speaker 1: states of Maryland and Virginia have nurseries for slaves, whence
1:14:51
Speaker 1: the planters of Louisiana, Mississippi and other southern states draw
1:14:56
Speaker 1: their supplies. In a narrative of a visit to the
1:15:00
Speaker 1: American churches, the writer, in speaking of the accumulation of
1:15:04
Speaker 1: negroes in the Gulf States, says slaves are generally bred
1:15:08
Speaker 1: in some states as cattle for the southern market, and
1:15:13
Speaker 1: the Reverend Philo Tower, writing about twenty years later, draws
1:15:17
Speaker 1: a more vivid picture. Not only in Virginia, he says,
1:15:21
Speaker 1: but also in Maryland, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri.
1:15:26
Speaker 1: As much attention is paid to the breeding and growth
1:15:29
Speaker 1: of negroes as to that of horses and mules, it
1:15:33
Speaker 1: is a common thing for planters to command their girls
1:15:36
Speaker 1: and women married or not to have children. And I
1:15:40
Speaker 1: am told a great many negro girls are sold off
1:15:43
Speaker 1: simply and mainly because they did not have children. Undoubtedly
1:15:48
Speaker 1: some planters in all the slave states resorted to questionable
1:15:52
Speaker 1: means of increasing their slave stock, But that it was
1:15:55
Speaker 1: a general custom to multiply negroes in order to have
1:15:59
Speaker 1: them to sell is very improbable. Many of these travelers
1:16:04
Speaker 1: show prejudice. We have wondered, therefore, whether it were too
1:16:08
Speaker 1: much to assume that they had a more thought for
1:16:12
Speaker 1: the effect their narrative would produce in the North or
1:16:15
Speaker 1: in England than for its truth. Is it not probable
1:16:19
Speaker 1: that foreigners may have got their information about breeding slaves
1:16:24
Speaker 1: when in the Free States, rather than actual evidence of
1:16:27
Speaker 1: such an industry where the industry was supposed to be
1:16:31
Speaker 1: carried on. It seems, at any rate more than probable
1:16:35
Speaker 1: that the exceptional cases which they found were made to
1:16:39
Speaker 1: appear as the general rule. Then to the very fact
1:16:43
Speaker 1: that some states sold great numbers of slaves was sufficient
1:16:47
Speaker 1: evidence to some no doubt that they were engaged in
1:16:50
Speaker 1: the business of raising them for sale. It seems very
1:16:54
Speaker 1: natural that this should be inferred Consequently, travelers reported that
1:16:59
Speaker 1: certain sections were engaged in breeding and raising slaves for market.
1:17:03
Speaker 1: They made the accusation that the so called breeding states
1:17:08
Speaker 1: were in the slave breeding business for profit. But was
1:17:12
Speaker 1: it profitable? If not, why were they in this business.
1:17:16
Speaker 1: A negro above eighteen years of age would bring on
1:17:20
Speaker 1: an average about three hundred dollars in the selling States
1:17:23
Speaker 1: from eighteen fifteen to say eighteen forty five. Sometimes he
1:17:28
Speaker 1: would bring a little more, sometimes less. Between the age
1:17:32
Speaker 1: of ten and the time of sale, we will suppose
1:17:36
Speaker 1: the slave paid for his keeping, but before that time
1:17:39
Speaker 1: he would be too small to work. There was always
1:17:43
Speaker 1: some defective stock that could not be sold. This, taken
1:17:47
Speaker 1: in connection with the fact that all negroes did not
1:17:50
Speaker 1: live to be ten years of age, probably not more
1:17:53
Speaker 1: than half, we shall be under the necessity of deducting
1:17:58
Speaker 1: about one half of the three hundred dollars on this account.
1:18:01
Speaker 1: This will leave one hundred and fifty dollars or fifteen
1:18:05
Speaker 1: dollars per year for the possible expense of raising him.
1:18:09
Speaker 1: A bushel of corn a month would have been about
1:18:11
Speaker 1: eight dollars per year for corn, fifty pounds for meat
1:18:15
Speaker 1: for dollars. It is not likely he could have been
1:18:19
Speaker 1: clothed for less than three and the fifteen is gone
1:18:23
Speaker 1: with nothing left for incidentals. We think the above a
1:18:27
Speaker 1: very fair estimate. In eighteen twenty nine, the average price
1:18:31
Speaker 1: of negroes in Virginia was estimated at only one hundred
1:18:35
Speaker 1: and fifty dollars each. Why did not the border slave
1:18:39
Speaker 1: states raise hogs instead of negroes. Bacon was at a
1:18:43
Speaker 1: good price during that period. The fact is the negroes
1:18:47
Speaker 1: probably increased without any consideration for their master's wishes. In
1:18:51
Speaker 1: the matter. A planter could stop raising hogs whenever he
1:18:55
Speaker 1: might choose, but it seemed to be hardly within the
1:18:58
Speaker 1: province of the master to limit the increase of his negroes,
1:19:02
Speaker 1: and the better they were treated, evidently, the faster the increase.
1:19:07
Speaker 1: A man who had one or two hundred negroes and
1:19:10
Speaker 1: had scruples about selling them unless he should be able
1:19:13
Speaker 1: to add to his landed estate as they increased, was
1:19:17
Speaker 1: in a bad predicament. It seemed some such men had
1:19:21
Speaker 1: the welfare of their negroes at heart and used every
1:19:24
Speaker 1: means to keep them. Andrew tells of one a gentleman.
1:19:28
Speaker 1: He says, in one of the poorer counties of Virginia
1:19:32
Speaker 1: has nearly two hundred slaves, whom he employs upon a
1:19:35
Speaker 1: second rate plantation of eight thousand or ten thousand acres,
1:19:40
Speaker 1: and who constantly brought him into debt. At length, he
1:19:43
Speaker 1: found it necessary to purchase a smaller plantation of good
1:19:48
Speaker 1: land in another county, which he continues to cultivate for
1:19:52
Speaker 1: no other purpose than to support his negroes. Sometimes men
1:19:56
Speaker 1: who were in prosperous circumstances would buy life and as
1:20:00
Speaker 1: fast as their slaves increased, and settle them upon it.
1:20:04
Speaker 1: Slaves were seldom sold until they were over ten years
1:20:07
Speaker 1: of age. Consequently, if it were true that the border
1:20:11
Speaker 1: states made a business of breeding and raising them for sale,
1:20:14
Speaker 1: we should naturally expect to find in these states a
1:20:18
Speaker 1: much greater proportion under ten than in the buying states.
1:20:22
Speaker 1: To determine the truth of this, we shall have recourse
1:20:25
Speaker 1: to the census reports. The states of Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky,
1:20:29
Speaker 1: and North Carolina in eighteen thirty had in round numbers
1:20:34
Speaker 1: nine hundred and eighty four thousand slaves, of which three
1:20:37
Speaker 1: hundred and forty nine thousand were under ten years of age,
1:20:41
Speaker 1: and six hundred and thirty five thousand over. This shows
1:20:46
Speaker 1: that in these states there were one hundred and eighty
1:20:49
Speaker 1: two over ten years of age to every one hundred
1:20:52
Speaker 1: under ten. Taking an equal number of the principal cotton
1:20:56
Speaker 1: growing and slave buying states, say Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee,
1:21:02
Speaker 1: we find that they had three hundred and forty six
1:21:05
Speaker 1: thousand over ten and one hundred and ninety six thousand
1:21:09
Speaker 1: under ten. Consequently, for every one hundred and seventy six
1:21:13
Speaker 1: of the former, they had one hundred of the latter. Therefore,
1:21:17
Speaker 1: at this time the principal so called slave breeding states
1:21:22
Speaker 1: had a smaller number of slaves under ten years than
1:21:25
Speaker 1: an equal number of buying states. The numbers, it will
1:21:29
Speaker 1: be seen, differ as the ratios one hundred to one
1:21:33
Speaker 1: hundred eighty two and one hundred to one seventy six.
1:21:37
Speaker 1: In eighteen forty there were in the southern States about
1:21:41
Speaker 1: two million, four hundred and eighty six thousand slaves, of
1:21:44
Speaker 1: whom about eight hundred and forty four thousand were under
1:21:48
Speaker 1: ten years of age, on an average therefore of one
1:21:51
Speaker 1: hundred hunder ten to every one hundred and ninety four
1:21:55
Speaker 1: over Taking each state separately, we find that Virginia had
1:22:00
Speaker 1: just an average, having one hundred of the former two
1:22:03
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety four of the latter. Maryland one hundred
1:22:07
Speaker 1: to every two hundred three, Delaware one hundred to two
1:22:11
Speaker 1: hundred eighteen, District of Columbia one hundred to two hundred eighty,
1:22:16
Speaker 1: Kentucky one hundred to one hundred seventy nine, North Carolina
1:22:20
Speaker 1: one hundred to one seventy six, Missouri one hundred to
1:22:25
Speaker 1: one seventy two, South Carolina one hundred to two o five,
1:22:29
Speaker 1: Louisiana one hundred to two sixty seven, Mississippi one hundred
1:22:34
Speaker 1: to two hundred and six, Florida one hundred to two twenty,
1:22:38
Speaker 1: Georgia one hundred to one eighty eight, Arkansas one hundred
1:22:42
Speaker 1: to one ninety five, Tennessee one hundred to one seventy
1:22:46
Speaker 1: and Alabama one hundred to one ninety. Thus, it is
1:22:50
Speaker 1: shown that the buying states of Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee
1:22:55
Speaker 1: each had more children in proportion to their slave population
1:22:59
Speaker 1: than Virginia, and that Maryland and Delaware had about the
1:23:03
Speaker 1: same proportion as the buying states of Mississippi, Florida, and Arkansas.
1:23:09
Speaker 1: It would hardly be fair However, to compare the district
1:23:12
Speaker 1: of Columbia with Louisiana in eighteen sixty, we find that
1:23:17
Speaker 1: the proportion of slave children under ten years of age
1:23:21
Speaker 1: is much less in all the states than in eighteen forty.
1:23:25
Speaker 1: In Virginia, at this time there were one hundred hundred
1:23:28
Speaker 1: ten years of age to two twenty seven over that age.
1:23:32
Speaker 1: Delaware one hundred to two thirty three, Maryland one hundred
1:23:37
Speaker 1: to two twenty nine, Kentucky one hundred to two o four,
1:23:41
Speaker 1: South Carolina one hundred to two twenty four, North Carolina
1:23:45
Speaker 1: one hundred to two hundred two, Missouri one hundred to
1:23:49
Speaker 1: one ninety, Georgia one hundred to two twenty one, Louisiana
1:23:54
Speaker 1: one hundred to two eighty five, Mississippi one hundred to
1:23:57
Speaker 1: two forty two, Texas one d hundred to two hundred nine,
1:24:02
Speaker 1: Arkansas one hundred to two nineteen, Tennessee one hundred to
1:24:06
Speaker 1: two hundred, Alabama one hundred two twenty one, and Florida
1:24:12
Speaker 1: one hundred to two twenty four. This schedule shows that
1:24:16
Speaker 1: the buying states which add a greater number of slave
1:24:18
Speaker 1: children in proportion to their slave population in eighteen sixty
1:24:23
Speaker 1: than Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, were Georgia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Texas,
1:24:30
Speaker 1: and Florida. It is noticeable in both schedules that the
1:24:35
Speaker 1: state of Louisiana is an exception. The proportion of children
1:24:39
Speaker 1: there was much less than in the other states. This
1:24:43
Speaker 1: is probably due to the strenuous work on sugar plantations.
1:24:47
Speaker 1: It is also noticeable that the Western states had the
1:24:50
Speaker 1: greatest proportional number of children, which is to be accounted
1:24:55
Speaker 1: for by the healthfulness of the climate and by its
1:24:58
Speaker 1: being a rich and pros xpris farming region where negroes
1:25:02
Speaker 1: were well fed and probably free from the malarial ailments
1:25:06
Speaker 1: of some other sections. The conditions therefore were very favorable
1:25:11
Speaker 1: to the prolific Negro race. We think it would be
1:25:15
Speaker 1: only natural that one should expect to have found in
1:25:18
Speaker 1: Virginia and Maryland, which have had to bear the brunt
1:25:21
Speaker 1: of the accusation of breeding slaves, the greatest proportion of children,
1:25:26
Speaker 1: not only because of the reiterated accusations, but also on
1:25:30
Speaker 1: account of the exportation of adult slaves from these states,
1:25:34
Speaker 1: which had the tendency to heighten the proportion of children
1:25:38
Speaker 1: in these states and lessen it in the states to
1:25:41
Speaker 1: which the slaves were carried. With regard to slave breeding, Schaffner,
1:25:46
Speaker 1: a native of Virginia, says, from our own personal observation,
1:25:51
Speaker 1: since we were capable of studying the progress of human affairs,
1:25:55
Speaker 1: we are of opinion that there is less increase of
1:25:58
Speaker 1: the slaves of the so called breeding states than of
1:26:02
Speaker 1: the more southern of Gulf states. We doubt if there
1:26:05
Speaker 1: exists in America a slave owner that encourages the breeding
1:26:09
Speaker 1: of slaves for the purpose of selling them, Nor do
1:26:13
Speaker 1: we believe that any man would be permitted to live
1:26:16
Speaker 1: in any of the Southern states that did intentionally breed
1:26:20
Speaker 1: slaves with the object of selling them. Southerners generally have
1:26:24
Speaker 1: denied the accusation. When Andrew Stevenson of Virginia was Minister
1:26:30
Speaker 1: to England, he was upon one occasion taunted by Daniel
1:26:35
Speaker 1: O'Connell with belonging to a state that was noted for
1:26:38
Speaker 1: breeding slaves for the South. He indignantly denied the charge,
1:26:43
Speaker 1: and in eighteen thirty nine, the editor of the Cincinnati
1:26:47
Speaker 1: Gazette was much abused for asserting that Virginia bred slaves
1:26:51
Speaker 1: as a matter of pecuniary gain. Nehemiah Adams a clergyman
1:26:56
Speaker 1: went South in the early fifties, biased against slavery, but
1:27:01
Speaker 1: says the charge of vilely multiplying negroes in Virginia is
1:27:06
Speaker 1: one of those exaggerations of which the subject is full,
1:27:10
Speaker 1: and is reduced to this that Virginia, being an old
1:27:14
Speaker 1: state fully stocked, the surplus black population naturally flows off
1:27:20
Speaker 1: where their numbers are less. It would seem that these
1:27:24
Speaker 1: states are not only practically freed from the charge of
1:27:27
Speaker 1: multiplying slaves and raising them for market as a business,
1:27:32
Speaker 1: but that as a rule they did not sell their
1:27:34
Speaker 1: slaves unless compelled to do so by pecuniary or other embarrassments.
1:27:40
Speaker 1: Probably many planters were as conscientious about their slaves as
1:27:45
Speaker 1: Jefferson appears to have been. In a letter, he says,
1:27:49
Speaker 1: I cannot decide to sell my lands. I have sold
1:27:52
Speaker 1: too much of them already, and they are the only
1:27:55
Speaker 1: sure provision for my children. Nor would I willingly sell
1:27:59
Speaker 1: the slaves as long as there remains any prospect of
1:28:02
Speaker 1: paying my debts with their labor. It seems that he
1:28:06
Speaker 1: was finally compelled to sell some of them. Madison parted
1:28:10
Speaker 1: with some of his best land to feed the increasing
1:28:14
Speaker 1: numbers of negroes, but admitted to Harriet Martineau that the
1:28:18
Speaker 1: week before she visited him, he had been obliged to
1:28:21
Speaker 1: sell a dozen of them. And Eastwick Evans, who made
1:28:25
Speaker 1: a long tour of the country in eighteen eighteen, says,
1:28:29
Speaker 1: I know it to be a case that slave holders
1:28:32
Speaker 1: generally deprecate the practice of buying and selling slaves. No doubt,
1:28:38
Speaker 1: the planters were always glad to get rid of unruly
1:28:41
Speaker 1: and good for nothing negroes, and these were pretty sure
1:28:44
Speaker 1: to fall into the hands of traders. The slave traders
1:28:48
Speaker 1: had agents spread over the states where slaves were less
1:28:52
Speaker 1: profitable to their owners, in readiness to take advantage of
1:28:55
Speaker 1: every opportunity to secure the slaves that might in any
1:29:00
Speaker 1: way be for sale. They would even when an opportunity occurred,
1:29:05
Speaker 1: kidnap the free negroes. They also sought to buy up
1:29:09
Speaker 1: slaves as if for local and domestic use, and then
1:29:13
Speaker 1: would disappear with them. And it was a common occurrence
1:29:17
Speaker 1: for plantations and negroes to be advertised for sale. In
1:29:22
Speaker 1: one issue of the Charleston Courier in the winter of
1:29:25
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty five, were advertised several plantations and about twelve
1:29:30
Speaker 1: hundred negroes for sale. At such sales, negro traders and
1:29:36
Speaker 1: speculators from foreign near were sure to be on hand,
1:29:40
Speaker 1: attracted by the prospect of making good bargains. Probably we
1:29:44
Speaker 1: could not better close this chapter than with a quotation
1:29:48
Speaker 1: from doctor Bailey, who was editor of the National Era,
1:29:52
Speaker 1: a moderate anti slavery paper. It appears to us that
1:29:56
Speaker 1: he correctly and concisely sums up the whole matter. The
1:30:00
Speaker 1: sale of slaves to the South, he says, is carried
1:30:04
Speaker 1: on to a great extent. The slave holders do not,
1:30:07
Speaker 1: so far as I can learn, raise them for that
1:30:10
Speaker 1: special purpose. But here is a man with a score
1:30:13
Speaker 1: of slaves located on an exhausted plantation. It must furnish
1:30:18
Speaker 1: support for all. But while they increase, its capacity of
1:30:23
Speaker 1: supply decreases. The result is he must emancipate or sell.
1:30:29
Speaker 1: But he has fallen into debt, and he sells to
1:30:32
Speaker 1: relieve himself of debt and also from the excess of mouths,
1:30:36
Speaker 1: or he requires money to educate his children, or his
1:30:40
Speaker 1: negroes are sold under execution. From these and other causes,
1:30:45
Speaker 1: large numbers of slaves are continually disappearing from the state.
1:30:50
Speaker 1: The davises in Petersburg are the great slave dealers. They
1:30:54
Speaker 1: are Jews who came to that place many years ago
1:30:57
Speaker 1: as poor peddlers. These men are always in the market,
1:31:01
Speaker 1: giving the highest price for slaves. During the summer and fall.
1:31:05
Speaker 1: They buy them up at low prices, trim, shave, wash them,
1:31:10
Speaker 1: fatten them so that they may look sleek, and sell
1:31:14
Speaker 1: them to great profit. There are many planters who cannot
1:31:17
Speaker 1: be persuaded to sell their slaves. They have far more
1:31:21
Speaker 1: than they can find work for, and could at any
1:31:24
Speaker 1: time obtain a high price for them. The temptation is strong,
1:31:28
Speaker 1: for they want more money and fewer dependents, but they
1:31:32
Speaker 1: resist it, and nothing can induce them to part with
1:31:35
Speaker 1: a single slave, though they know that they would be
1:31:39
Speaker 1: greatly the gainers in a pecuniary sense, were they to
1:31:43
Speaker 1: sell one half of them. End of chapter four, Chapter
1:31:53
Speaker 1: five of the Domestic Slave Trade of the Southern States
1:31:56
Speaker 1: by Winfield H. Collins. This LibriVox recording is in the
1:32:00
Speaker 1: public domain. Chapter five the kidnapping and selling of free
1:32:05
Speaker 1: Negroes into slavery. Virginia as early as seventeen fifty three
1:32:10
Speaker 1: enacted a law against importation of free negroes for sale
1:32:14
Speaker 1: and stealing of slaves. In seventeen eighty eight, another law
1:32:18
Speaker 1: was passed against kidnapping. It recited that several evil disposed
1:32:23
Speaker 1: persons had seduced or stolen children or mulatto and black
1:32:28
Speaker 1: free persons, and that there was no law adequate for
1:32:31
Speaker 1: such offenses. This law made the penalty for such a
1:32:35
Speaker 1: crime very severe. Upon conviction, the offender was to suffer
1:32:40
Speaker 1: death without benefit of clergy. North Carolina had already seventeen
1:32:45
Speaker 1: seventy nine enacted a law with the same penalty against
1:32:50
Speaker 1: stealing slaves and kidnapping free negroes. The other southern states
1:32:55
Speaker 1: which had laws against kidnapping are Alabama, Maryland, Missessussippi, Missouri, Florida,
1:33:01
Speaker 1: South Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Georgia. Delaware, however, had the
1:33:07
Speaker 1: most interesting, as well as very severe, laws against kidnapping.
1:33:12
Speaker 1: That of seventeen ninety three required that anyone guilty of
1:33:16
Speaker 1: kidnapping or of assisting to kidnap free negroes or mulattoes
1:33:21
Speaker 1: should be whipped with thirty nine lashes on the bare
1:33:24
Speaker 1: back and stand in the pillory with both of his
1:33:27
Speaker 1: ears nailed to it, and when he came out to
1:33:30
Speaker 1: have their soft parts cut off. In eighteen twenty six,
1:33:35
Speaker 1: the penalties were made even more severe, one thousand dollars
1:33:38
Speaker 1: fine pillary one hour, to be whipped with sixty lashes
1:33:43
Speaker 1: upon the bare back, to be imprisoned from three to
1:33:46
Speaker 1: seven years, at the expiration of which he was to
1:33:49
Speaker 1: be disposed of as a servant for seven years, and
1:33:53
Speaker 1: upon second conviction, to suffer death. In eighteen thirty one,
1:33:58
Speaker 1: Congress passed a law to prevent the abduction and sale
1:34:01
Speaker 1: of free Negroes from the District of Columbia. It is
1:34:05
Speaker 1: quite evident from these laws that kidnapping was a very
1:34:09
Speaker 1: common crime. It does not appear, however, that they prevented it.
1:34:13
Speaker 1: Even as early as eighteen seventeen, it was estimated by Tory,
1:34:18
Speaker 1: who seems to have made a study of the subject,
1:34:21
Speaker 1: that several thousand legally free persons were toiling in servitude
1:34:25
Speaker 1: having been kidnapped. Free negro children were the ones who
1:34:30
Speaker 1: were most liable to be kidnapped, for the reason probably
1:34:33
Speaker 1: that they were easier managed and less likely to have
1:34:36
Speaker 1: about them proofs of their freedom. Though sometimes indeed even
1:34:41
Speaker 1: white children, whether being mistaken for Negroes or not, were
1:34:44
Speaker 1: stolen and sold into slavery. More than twenty free colored
1:34:49
Speaker 1: children were kidnapped in Philadelphia in eighteen twenty five. It
1:34:53
Speaker 1: is stated that some persons gained a livelihood by stealing
1:34:57
Speaker 1: negroes from the towns of the north and into carrying
1:35:00
Speaker 1: them to the South for sale. Statements similar to the
1:35:04
Speaker 1: following are often to be met with in the papers
1:35:07
Speaker 1: published in Slavery Times. Four negro children eighteen, seventeen, nine
1:35:12
Speaker 1: and five years respectively, first two girls, last two boys
1:35:17
Speaker 1: were kidnapped and carried off from Gallatin County, Illinois, on
1:35:21
Speaker 1: the evening of five Ultimate. The father was tied while
1:35:25
Speaker 1: the children were taken away. The kidnapping gang is regularly
1:35:29
Speaker 1: organized and is increasing. The members are well known, but
1:35:33
Speaker 1: cannot be punished on account of the disqualification of negroes
1:35:37
Speaker 1: as witnesses. About midnight on the twenty seventh of September,
1:35:42
Speaker 1: a party of eight or ten Kentuckians broke into the
1:35:46
Speaker 1: house of a mister Powell in Cats County, Michigan. While
1:35:49
Speaker 1: he was absent. They drew their pistols and bowie knives
1:35:53
Speaker 1: and dragged his wife and three children from their beds
1:35:56
Speaker 1: and bound them with cords and hurried them off to
1:35:59
Speaker 1: their ubbared wagons and started post haste for Kentucky. Probably,
1:36:04
Speaker 1: kidnapping was carried on even more extensively in the slave
1:36:08
Speaker 1: states themselves. The Liberator, quoting from the Denton Journal in
1:36:13
Speaker 1: eighteen forty nine, says three free Negro youths, a girl
1:36:17
Speaker 1: and two boys were kidnapped and taken from the county
1:36:21
Speaker 1: with intent to sell them to the South. They had
1:36:24
Speaker 1: been hired for a few days by mister James T.
1:36:27
Speaker 1: Wooters near Denton for the ostensible purpose of cutting corn stalks.
1:36:32
Speaker 1: After being a day or two in mister Wooter's employ
1:36:35
Speaker 1: they suddenly disappeared, inquiry being set on foot. It was
1:36:40
Speaker 1: after some days discovered that they had been secretly carried
1:36:44
Speaker 1: through Hunting Creek towards Worcester County, thence to Virginia. We
1:36:49
Speaker 1: learned that the negroes are now in Norfolk. They were
1:36:52
Speaker 1: carried to Richmond, where they were sold as slaves, but
1:36:55
Speaker 1: were finally recovered. Notwithstanding the harshness of the Delaware laws
1:37:00
Speaker 1: against kidnapping and the convictions under them, the business of
1:37:05
Speaker 1: kidnapping seems to have flourished there. A quotation or two
1:37:09
Speaker 1: will illustrate two young colored men freeborn were stolen from
1:37:13
Speaker 1: Wilmington a few nights ago and taken, it is supposed
1:37:18
Speaker 1: to some of the southern slave markets. Fifty or sixty persons,
1:37:22
Speaker 1: it is said, have been stolen from the lower part
1:37:25
Speaker 1: of the state in the last six months. In eighteen forty,
1:37:29
Speaker 1: the Baltimore Sun said, a most villainous system of kidnapping
1:37:33
Speaker 1: has been extensively carried on in the state of Delaware
1:37:37
Speaker 1: by a gang of scoundrels residing there, aided and abetted
1:37:41
Speaker 1: by a number of Confederates living on the eastern shore
1:37:45
Speaker 1: of this state. While discussing kidnapping in Delaware, it is
1:37:49
Speaker 1: very unlikely we should forget to mention probably the most
1:37:53
Speaker 1: notorious kidnapping gang which the domestic slave trade produced. The
1:37:58
Speaker 1: principal character of the gang, and the one from which
1:38:01
Speaker 1: it seems to have drawn its inspiration, and the one
1:38:05
Speaker 1: from which it took its name, was a woman in
1:38:08
Speaker 1: looks more like a man than a woman. Patty Cannon,
1:38:12
Speaker 1: by name well known by tradition to every Delawarean and
1:38:17
Speaker 1: eastern shore of Marylander. A son in law of hers,
1:38:21
Speaker 1: was hanged for the murder of a Negro trader. His
1:38:24
Speaker 1: widow then married one Joe Johnson, who became a noted
1:38:29
Speaker 1: character in the business of kidnapping through the aid and
1:38:32
Speaker 1: instruction of his mother in law, Patty Cannon. Johnson was
1:38:36
Speaker 1: convicted once and suffered the punishment of the latch and pillory.
1:38:40
Speaker 1: The grand jury in May eighteen twenty nine found three
1:38:44
Speaker 1: indictments for murder against Patty Cannon, but she died in
1:38:48
Speaker 1: jail May eleven of the same year. White kidnappers sometimes
1:38:53
Speaker 1: used free colored men as tools by means of which
1:38:57
Speaker 1: to ensnare other free colored men, and shared with them
1:39:01
Speaker 1: the profits of the trade. Indeed, the free colored men
1:39:05
Speaker 1: seem not to have been much averse in aiding in
1:39:08
Speaker 1: the enslavement of their brethren. They sometimes even formed kidnapping
1:39:13
Speaker 1: bands of their own and pursued the business without the
1:39:16
Speaker 1: aid of white men. Such a gang as this once
1:39:19
Speaker 1: operated near snow Hill, Maryland. It is said to have
1:39:23
Speaker 1: kidnapped and sent off several hundred free negroes. Kidnappers devised
1:39:29
Speaker 1: various schemes for the accomplishment of their purposes, some of
1:39:32
Speaker 1: them no less humorous than infamous. A man in Philadelphia
1:39:37
Speaker 1: was found to be engaged in the occupation of a
1:39:40
Speaker 1: courting and marrying mulatto women and then selling them as slaves.
1:39:45
Speaker 1: Another plan was for one or two confederates to find
1:39:48
Speaker 1: out the bodily marks of a suitable free colored person,
1:39:53
Speaker 1: after which the other confederate would go before a magistrate
1:39:57
Speaker 1: and lay claim to the ill fated negro, lay describing
1:40:00
Speaker 1: his marks, call in his accomplice as witness, and so
1:40:04
Speaker 1: get possession of the negroes. Probably the most ingenious of
1:40:08
Speaker 1: all methods of kidnapping was that brought to light in Charleston,
1:40:12
Speaker 1: South Carolina, as related by Francis Hall. The agents were
1:40:17
Speaker 1: a justice of the peace, a constable, and a slave dealer.
1:40:21
Speaker 1: A victim, having been selected one of the firm, applied
1:40:24
Speaker 1: to the justice upon a shown charge of assault or
1:40:28
Speaker 1: similar offense, for a writ, which was immediately issued and
1:40:32
Speaker 1: served by the constable, and the negro conveyed to prison.
1:40:36
Speaker 1: The constable now appears, exaggerates the dangers of his situation,
1:40:41
Speaker 1: explains how small is his chance of being liberated, even
1:40:45
Speaker 1: if innocent, by reason of the amount of jail fees
1:40:48
Speaker 1: and other legal expenses. But he knows a worthy man
1:40:52
Speaker 1: who is interested in his behalf, and will do what
1:40:55
Speaker 1: is necessary to procure his freedom. Upon no harder condition
1:41:00
Speaker 1: than an agreement to serve him for a certain number
1:41:03
Speaker 1: of years. It may be supposed the negro is persuaded,
1:41:07
Speaker 1: the worthy slave dealer now appears on the stage, the
1:41:10
Speaker 1: indenture of bondage is ratified in the presence of the
1:41:14
Speaker 1: worthy magistrate and the constable, who shares the price of blood,
1:41:19
Speaker 1: and the victim is hurried on shipboard to be seen
1:41:22
Speaker 1: no more. From the nature of our information concerning kidnapping,
1:41:27
Speaker 1: it is readily seen that we have but little basis
1:41:31
Speaker 1: for a statistical estimate of the number kidnapped. It must
1:41:35
Speaker 1: have ranged, however, from a few hundred to two or
1:41:38
Speaker 1: three thousand annually. It appears quite certain that as many
1:41:43
Speaker 1: were kidnapped as escaped from bondage, if not more. The
1:41:47
Speaker 1: Liberator alone records nearly a hundred cases of detected kidnapping
1:41:52
Speaker 1: between eighteen thirty one and eighteen sixty, but the number
1:41:57
Speaker 1: detected probably bears but little relation to the number actually kidnapped.
1:42:02
Speaker 1: As was before shown, in the cases mentioned, almost whole
1:42:06
Speaker 1: families were carried off, and that in most cases when
1:42:10
Speaker 1: a discovery was made, it was found that the kidnapping
1:42:14
Speaker 1: gang had been in the business for years. End of
1:42:18
Speaker 1: chapter five Chapter six of the Domestic Slave Trade of
1:42:28
Speaker 1: the Southern States by Winfield H. Collins. This LibriVox recording
1:42:32
Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Chapter six slave prisons, Markets,
1:42:37
Speaker 1: character of traders, et cetera. In all the large towns
1:42:41
Speaker 1: and cities were slave prisons or pins in which slaves
1:42:46
Speaker 1: were kept until enough for a drove or shipment could
1:42:49
Speaker 1: be collected. The slave prisons ranged all the way from
1:42:53
Speaker 1: a rude, whitewashed shed to large and commodious establishment accommodating
1:42:58
Speaker 1: hundreds of slaves. A description of one of these, the
1:43:02
Speaker 1: Franklin and Armfield Prison, which was in Alexandria by Andrews,
1:43:07
Speaker 1: is rather interesting. The establishment, he says, is situated in
1:43:12
Speaker 1: a retired quarter in the southern part of the city.
1:43:16
Speaker 1: It is easily distinguished as you approach it by the
1:43:20
Speaker 1: high whitewashed wall surrounding the yards, and giving to it
1:43:24
Speaker 1: the appearance of a penitentiary. The dwelling house is of brick,
1:43:28
Speaker 1: three stories high, opening directly upon the street. Over the
1:43:32
Speaker 1: front door is the name of the firm. We passed
1:43:36
Speaker 1: out of the back door of the dwelling house and
1:43:38
Speaker 1: entered a spacious yard nearly surrounded with neatly whitewashed two
1:43:43
Speaker 1: story buildings devoted to the use of the slaves. Turning
1:43:47
Speaker 1: to the left, we came to a strong grated door
1:43:50
Speaker 1: of iron opening into a spacious yard surrounded by a
1:43:54
Speaker 1: high whitewashed wall. One side of this yard was roofed,
1:43:58
Speaker 1: but the principal part was open to the air. Along
1:44:02
Speaker 1: the covered side extended a table at which the slaves
1:44:05
Speaker 1: had recently taken their dinner, which, judging from what remained,
1:44:09
Speaker 1: had been wholesome and abundant. The gate was secured by
1:44:13
Speaker 1: strong padlocks and bolts. Such was the slave prison of
1:44:17
Speaker 1: one of the largest and most prosperous slave dealing firms.
1:44:21
Speaker 1: There were many dealers who had no place of their
1:44:24
Speaker 1: own in which to keep slaves, but were depended upon
1:44:27
Speaker 1: the prisons of others. Indeed, at Washington, the city public
1:44:32
Speaker 1: prison was often used by Negro traders as a place
1:44:36
Speaker 1: of safety for their slaves. The keeper was paid by
1:44:39
Speaker 1: the traders for the privilege. This practice continued a great
1:44:43
Speaker 1: number of years. In eighteen forty three, the poet Whittier
1:44:47
Speaker 1: thus describes the prison. It is a damp, dark and
1:44:51
Speaker 1: loathsome building. We passed between two ranges of small stone
1:44:56
Speaker 1: cells filled with blacks. We noticed five five or six
1:45:00
Speaker 1: in a single cell, which seemed scarcely large enough for
1:45:04
Speaker 1: a solitary tenant. The heat was suffocating in rainy weather.
1:45:08
Speaker 1: The keeper told us that the prison was uncomfortably wet.
1:45:13
Speaker 1: In winter. There could be no fire in these cells.
1:45:16
Speaker 1: The keeper, with some reluctance, admitted that he received negroes
1:45:20
Speaker 1: from the traders and kept them until they were sold
1:45:24
Speaker 1: at thirty four cents per day. While no doubt some
1:45:28
Speaker 1: traders kept their prisons in as good condition as circumstances
1:45:33
Speaker 1: would allow, there were others, and probably the majority, who
1:45:37
Speaker 1: did not. A Northern minister describes those at Richmond in
1:45:41
Speaker 1: eighteen forty five as mostly filthy and loathesome places. In
1:45:47
Speaker 1: the buying States, two of the principal slave markets were
1:45:50
Speaker 1: Natches and New Orleans. That of Natchez is thus described
1:45:54
Speaker 1: about eighteen thirty five by Ingram. A mile from Natchez,
1:45:58
Speaker 1: we come to a cluster of rough wooden buildings in
1:46:01
Speaker 1: the angle of two roads, in front of which several
1:46:05
Speaker 1: saddle horses, either tied or held by servants, indicated a
1:46:09
Speaker 1: place of popular resort. We entered through a wide gate
1:46:13
Speaker 1: into a narrow courtyard. A line of negroes extended in
1:46:17
Speaker 1: a semicircle around the right side of the yard. There
1:46:20
Speaker 1: were in all about forty. Each was dressed in the
1:46:24
Speaker 1: usual uniform when in market, consisting of a fashionably shaped
1:46:29
Speaker 1: black fur hat, trousers of coarse corduroy velvet, good vests,
1:46:34
Speaker 1: strong shoes, and white cotton shirts. There are four or
1:46:38
Speaker 1: five markets in the vicinity of Natches several hundred slaves
1:46:42
Speaker 1: of all ages are exposed to sail. Two extensive markets
1:46:46
Speaker 1: for slaves opposite each other on the road to Washington,
1:46:49
Speaker 1: three miles from Natchez. A slave market in New Orleans
1:46:53
Speaker 1: was described in eighteen forty four as a large and
1:46:57
Speaker 1: splendidly decorated edifice which had the appearance of having been
1:47:01
Speaker 1: fitted up as a place of recreation. It had a
1:47:05
Speaker 1: number of apartments, a handsome archway, and a large green
1:47:09
Speaker 1: lawn or outer court, beautifully decorated with trees in this lawn.
1:47:14
Speaker 1: The sale of slaves was held when a trader in
1:47:17
Speaker 1: the selling states had collected enough for a shipment or
1:47:21
Speaker 1: koffl They were sent to the markets in the buying states.
1:47:25
Speaker 1: Slaves were sent south, both by land and water. In
1:47:28
Speaker 1: the winter, they were usually sent by water, but in
1:47:31
Speaker 1: summer they were often sent by land. In the transportation
1:47:36
Speaker 1: of slaves, the utmost precautions were necessary to prevent revolt
1:47:40
Speaker 1: or escape. When a kowl or drove was formed to
1:47:44
Speaker 1: undertake its march of seven or eight weeks to the south,
1:47:48
Speaker 1: the men would be chained two by two, and a
1:47:51
Speaker 1: chain passing through the double file and fastening from the
1:47:55
Speaker 1: right and left hands of those on either side of
1:47:58
Speaker 1: the chain. This seems to have been the usual method
1:48:02
Speaker 1: of securing them. The purpose was to have the men
1:48:05
Speaker 1: so completely bound as to render escape or resistance impossible.
1:48:10
Speaker 1: The girls, children and women usually were not chained, and
1:48:14
Speaker 1: even sometimes rode in the wagons which accompanied the train.
1:48:19
Speaker 1: The droves were conducted by white men, usually on horseback
1:48:23
Speaker 1: and well armed with pistols and whips. The negroes were
1:48:27
Speaker 1: usually well fed on their way south, and when they
1:48:30
Speaker 1: arrived at their destination, though their personal appearance was not improved,
1:48:35
Speaker 1: they were generally stouter and in better condition than when
1:48:38
Speaker 1: they began their march. Pains were now taken to have
1:48:42
Speaker 1: them polish their skins and dress themselves in the uniform
1:48:46
Speaker 1: suits provided for the purpose, then they were ready for market.
1:48:50
Speaker 1: At the sale, the auctioneer would descant at large upon
1:48:54
Speaker 1: the merits and capabilities of the subject. The slave, too
1:48:58
Speaker 1: often would enter into a display of his physical appearance
1:49:02
Speaker 1: with as much apparent earnestness to command a high price
1:49:05
Speaker 1: as though he were to share the profits. He would
1:49:08
Speaker 1: seem to enjoy a spirited bidding. Each negro wished to
1:49:12
Speaker 1: be sold first, as it was thought by them to
1:49:15
Speaker 1: be an evidence of superiority. At the sales and auctions,
1:49:19
Speaker 1: the purchaser was allowed the greatest freedom in the examination
1:49:23
Speaker 1: of the slaves for sale, and he would scrutinize them
1:49:26
Speaker 1: as carefully as though they were horses or cattle. The teeth, eyes, feet,
1:49:31
Speaker 1: and shoulders of both men and women were inspected, sometimes
1:49:35
Speaker 1: without any show of decency. Scars or marks of the
1:49:38
Speaker 1: lash decreased their value in market. Sometimes the sale would
1:49:43
Speaker 1: be lost for that reason. In the slave trade, there
1:49:46
Speaker 1: is no doubt that families were often separated, though Andrews
1:49:50
Speaker 1: tells of a trader sending a lot of mothers without
1:49:53
Speaker 1: their children in such a way as to lead one
1:49:56
Speaker 1: to believe such a case was exceptional. On large plantations
1:50:01
Speaker 1: were sometimes advertised to be sold in families. Nehemiah Adams
1:50:06
Speaker 1: says that in settling estates in the South, good men
1:50:09
Speaker 1: exercise as much care with regard to the disposition of
1:50:13
Speaker 1: slaves as though they were providing for white orphan children.
1:50:17
Speaker 1: Slaves are allowed to find masters and mistresses who will
1:50:21
Speaker 1: buy them. Another traveler, in speaking of the slave auction
1:50:25
Speaker 1: at Natchez, says, it is a rule seldom deviated from
1:50:29
Speaker 1: to sell families and relations together, if practicable. A Negro
1:50:34
Speaker 1: trader in my presence refused to sell a Negro girl
1:50:37
Speaker 1: for whom a planter offered a high price, because he
1:50:40
Speaker 1: would not also purchase her sister. As a rule, Negroes
1:50:44
Speaker 1: had a great dislike to be sold south. In the
1:50:47
Speaker 1: early history of the trade. This amounted to horror for them.
1:50:51
Speaker 1: Whether this dislike arose from the impression that they might
1:50:55
Speaker 1: not be treated so well or simply from the natural
1:50:59
Speaker 1: dislike of moving to a strange land is a question,
1:51:03
Speaker 1: though the latter seems much more probable. In eighteen thirty five, however,
1:51:08
Speaker 1: it appears that the Virginia slaves were not so averse
1:51:11
Speaker 1: to going south, for the reason that many who had
1:51:14
Speaker 1: gone there sent back such favorable accounts of their circumstances.
1:51:19
Speaker 1: Another phase of the domestic slave trade, which it may
1:51:22
Speaker 1: not be out of way to mention, was the traffic
1:51:25
Speaker 1: in beautiful mulatto or quadroon girls. It was a part
1:51:29
Speaker 1: of the slave trader's business to search out and obtain
1:51:33
Speaker 1: them in New Orleans or elsewhere. They were sold at
1:51:36
Speaker 1: very high prices for the purposes of prostitution or as mistresses.
1:51:42
Speaker 1: From a letter written in eighteen fifty by a slave
1:51:45
Speaker 1: dealer of Alexandria, Virginia, we quote the following, We cannot
1:51:50
Speaker 1: afford to sell the girl Emily for less than eighteen
1:51:53
Speaker 1: hundred dollars. We have two or three offers for Emily
1:51:56
Speaker 1: from gentlemen from the South. She is said to be
1:51:59
Speaker 1: the finest looking woman in this country. In New Orleans
1:52:03
Speaker 1: they often brought very high prices. The Liberator, quoting from
1:52:07
Speaker 1: the New York Sun in eighteen thirty seven concerning the
1:52:10
Speaker 1: sale of a girl at New Orleans, says the beautiful
1:52:13
Speaker 1: Martha was struck off at four thousand, five hundred dollars.
1:52:17
Speaker 1: And in the New Orleans Picayun of the same year
1:52:21
Speaker 1: was an account of a girl remarkable for her beauty
1:52:24
Speaker 1: and intelligence, who sold at seven thousand dollars in New Orleans.
1:52:29
Speaker 1: Many other instances might be given, but we think these sufficient.
1:52:34
Speaker 1: A word now with reference to slave traders and the
1:52:37
Speaker 1: general estimation in which they were held in the South,
1:52:41
Speaker 1: Ingram says, their admission into society is not recognized. Planters
1:52:47
Speaker 1: associate with them freely enough in the way of business,
1:52:51
Speaker 1: but notice them no further. A slave trader is much
1:52:55
Speaker 1: like other men. He is today a plain farmer with
1:52:59
Speaker 1: twenty thirty six endeavoring to earn a few dollars from
1:53:02
Speaker 1: the worn out land in some old homestead. He is
1:53:06
Speaker 1: in debt, and hears he can sell his slaves in
1:53:09
Speaker 1: Mississippi for twice their value in his own state. He
1:53:12
Speaker 1: takes his slaves and goes to Mississippi. He finds it profitable,
1:53:17
Speaker 1: and his inclinations prompt him to buy of his neighbors
1:53:20
Speaker 1: when he returns home and makes another trip to Mississippi.
1:53:24
Speaker 1: Thus he gets started some traders who were no doubt
1:53:28
Speaker 1: honorable men. Indeed, Andrews gives us a very pleasing picture
1:53:32
Speaker 1: of Armfield the noteed Alexandria, Virginia slave dealer. He describes
1:53:37
Speaker 1: him as a man of fine personal appearance and of
1:53:41
Speaker 1: engaging in graceful manners. Nothing, however, can reconcile the moral
1:53:46
Speaker 1: sense of the Southern public to the character of a
1:53:49
Speaker 1: trader and slaves. However honorable may be his dealings, his
1:53:53
Speaker 1: employment is accounted infamous upon the whole. No doubt the
1:53:57
Speaker 1: characterization of the slave traders by Featherstone Law was a
1:54:02
Speaker 1: true one, sorted, illiterate and vulgar men who have nothing
1:54:06
Speaker 1: whatever in common with the gentlemen of the Southern States.
1:54:11
Speaker 1: Finch says, a slave trader is considered the lowest and
1:54:14
Speaker 1: most degraded occupation, and none will engage in it unless
1:54:18
Speaker 1: they have no other means of support. Indeed, it seems
1:54:22
Speaker 1: they were accounted the abhorrence of everyone. Their descendants, when known,
1:54:28
Speaker 1: had a blot upon them and the property acquired in
1:54:31
Speaker 1: the traffic as well. End of Chapter six, Chapter seven
1:54:42
Speaker 1: of the Domestic Slave Trade of the Southern States by
1:54:45
Speaker 1: Winfield H. Collins. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
1:54:50
Speaker 1: Chapter seven Laws of the Southern States with reference to
1:54:54
Speaker 1: importation and exportation of slaves Virginia. The Assembly of Virginia
1:55:01
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy eight enacted that no slaves shall hereafter be
1:55:05
Speaker 1: imported into this Commonwealth by sea or land, nor shall
1:55:09
Speaker 1: any slave or slave so imported be sold or bought
1:55:13
Speaker 1: by any person whatever, under penalty of one thousand pounds
1:55:17
Speaker 1: for every slave imported, and five hundred pounds for every
1:55:21
Speaker 1: one either sold or bought, and the slave himself to
1:55:24
Speaker 1: be free. It was provided, however, that persons removing to
1:55:28
Speaker 1: the state from other states with the intention of becoming
1:55:32
Speaker 1: citizens of Virginia might bring their slaves with them upon
1:55:36
Speaker 1: taking the following oath within ten days of their arrival.
1:55:40
Speaker 1: I a b do swear that my removal to the
1:55:43
Speaker 1: State of Virginia was with no intention to evade the
1:55:46
Speaker 1: Act for preventing the further importation of slaves within this Commonwealth,
1:55:51
Speaker 1: Nor have I brought with me, nor have any of
1:55:54
Speaker 1: the slaves now in my possession, been imported from Africa
1:55:58
Speaker 1: or any of the West India Islands since the first
1:56:02
Speaker 1: day of November seventeen seventy eight. So help me God.
1:56:06
Speaker 1: This Act did not apply to persons claiming slaves by descent, marriage,
1:56:10
Speaker 1: or divorce, or to any citizen of Virginia who was
1:56:14
Speaker 1: then the actual owner of slaves within any of the
1:56:17
Speaker 1: United States, nor to transient travelers having slaves as necessary attendants.
1:56:24
Speaker 1: In seventeen eighty five, a law was passed declaring free
1:56:27
Speaker 1: the slaves who should afterward be imported and kept in
1:56:31
Speaker 1: the state a year, whether at one time or at
1:56:34
Speaker 1: several times a The same exceptions were made as the
1:56:38
Speaker 1: law of seventeen seventy eight. In seventeen ninety six, these
1:56:43
Speaker 1: acts were amended, making it lawful for any citizen of
1:56:46
Speaker 1: the United States residing in Virginia or owning lands there,
1:56:51
Speaker 1: to carry out any slaves born in the state and
1:56:54
Speaker 1: bring them back, provided they had neither been hired nor sold. If, however,
1:57:00
Speaker 1: they were entitled to freedom in the state to which
1:57:02
Speaker 1: they were removed, they could not again be held as
1:57:05
Speaker 1: slaves in Virginia. In eighteen o six, a law was
1:57:09
Speaker 1: passed totally prohibiting the introduction of slaves into Virginia. It
1:57:14
Speaker 1: was amended, however, in eighteen eleven, in favor of residents
1:57:18
Speaker 1: of the state, as it restored to them the same
1:57:21
Speaker 1: privileges concerning the importation of slaves which they had under
1:57:25
Speaker 1: the law of seventeen seventy eight. An Act of January ninth,
1:57:29
Speaker 1: eighteen thirteen, further amended and extended to immigrants the right
1:57:34
Speaker 1: of bringing in slaves. They were allowed to introduce only
1:57:38
Speaker 1: such slaves as they had owned for two years or
1:57:42
Speaker 1: acquired by marriage or inheritance. Anyone introducing slaves was put
1:57:47
Speaker 1: under obligation not to sell them within two years. Those
1:57:51
Speaker 1: thus importing slaves were required also to exhibit before a
1:57:55
Speaker 1: justice of the peace a written statement with the name, age, sex,
1:57:59
Speaker 1: and dax description of each slave, and to take oath
1:58:03
Speaker 1: that the account was true and that they were not
1:58:06
Speaker 1: introduced for the purpose of sale or with the intention
1:58:10
Speaker 1: of evading the laws. The last act of Virginia regarding
1:58:14
Speaker 1: the importation of slaves was that of eighteen nineteen. This
1:58:18
Speaker 1: law permitted the importation of slaves not convicted of crime
1:58:23
Speaker 1: from any of the United States. South Carolina. In seventeen
1:58:28
Speaker 1: ninety two, South Carolina passed a law to prohibit for
1:58:31
Speaker 1: two years the importation of slaves from Africa or from
1:58:36
Speaker 1: other places beyond the seas. It also prohibited the introduction
1:58:40
Speaker 1: of slaves who were bound for a term of years
1:58:43
Speaker 1: in any of the United States. An exception, however, was
1:58:47
Speaker 1: made of citizens who might acquire slaves by marriage or
1:58:51
Speaker 1: actual settlers in the state, and of travelers. This act
1:58:55
Speaker 1: was revised in seventeen ninety four and extended to seventeen
1:58:59
Speaker 1: ninety six. As revised, it totally prohibited the introduction of
1:59:04
Speaker 1: slaves into South Carolina from all places from without the
1:59:08
Speaker 1: United States. In seventeen ninety six it was extended to
1:59:12
Speaker 1: seventeen ninety nine, again extended in seventeen ninety eight to
1:59:17
Speaker 1: eighteen o one A, and in eighteen hundred it was
1:59:21
Speaker 1: again extended to eighteen o three. In eighteen hundred also
1:59:25
Speaker 1: an act was passed totally prohibiting the introduction of slaves
1:59:29
Speaker 1: into the state except by immigrants, and in eighteen o
1:59:33
Speaker 1: one it was made even more stringent. Any slaves brought
1:59:37
Speaker 1: in were to be sold by the sheriff of the
1:59:39
Speaker 1: district in which they were found. Upon the order of
1:59:42
Speaker 1: the court. It was found that the acts of eighteen
1:59:45
Speaker 1: hundred and eighteen o one were too rigorous and inconvenient.
1:59:50
Speaker 1: In eighteen o two that part of the laws which
1:59:53
Speaker 1: prevented citizens of other states from carrying their own slaves
1:59:57
Speaker 1: through South Carolina was repealed. It was provided that anyone
2:00:02
Speaker 1: who wished to pass through the state with slaves might
2:00:05
Speaker 1: do so but near the place where he was to
2:00:08
Speaker 1: enter the state, he should take the following oath before
2:00:11
Speaker 1: a magistrate or quorum. I a b do swear that
2:00:16
Speaker 1: the slaves which I am carrying through this state are
2:00:19
Speaker 1: bonafied my property, and that I will not sell, higher
2:00:22
Speaker 1: or dispose of said slaves, or either of them to
2:00:26
Speaker 1: any resident or citizen, or body, corporate or public, or
2:00:31
Speaker 1: any other person or persons whomsoever within the State of
2:00:35
Speaker 1: South Carolina, but will travel directly to the place where
2:00:39
Speaker 1: I intend to move. In eighteen o three, an Act
2:00:42
Speaker 1: repealing and amending former acts on the importation of slaves
2:00:47
Speaker 1: was enacted. The introduction of Negroes from the West Indies
2:00:51
Speaker 1: or South America was prohibited and from any of the
2:00:55
Speaker 1: other states, unless with a certificate of good character. There
2:00:59
Speaker 1: was no restriction with respect to Africa. No more laws
2:01:03
Speaker 1: regarding importation were passed until eighteen sixteen, than it was
2:01:08
Speaker 1: enacted that no slaves should be brought into the state
2:01:11
Speaker 1: from any of the United States or territories or countries
2:01:15
Speaker 1: bordering thereon. The only exception was in favor of travelers
2:01:19
Speaker 1: with not more than two slaves or settlers on their
2:01:23
Speaker 1: way to other states, who, before entering South Carolina were
2:01:27
Speaker 1: required to take an oath with regard to their slaves,
2:01:30
Speaker 1: similar to that required by the law of eighteen o two.
2:01:34
Speaker 1: This law was amended in eighteen seventeen in part as follows,
2:01:39
Speaker 1: that every inhabitant of this state who was bonified entitled
2:01:43
Speaker 1: in his or her own right, or in the right
2:01:46
Speaker 1: of his wife to any save or slaves, on the
2:01:49
Speaker 1: nineteenth of December eighteen sixteen or hereafter, shall become entitled
2:01:55
Speaker 1: to any such slave by inheritance or marriage, shall be
2:01:59
Speaker 1: permitted to them in on certain conditions. Both the law
2:02:04
Speaker 1: of eighteen sixteen and that of eighteen seventeen were repealed
2:02:08
Speaker 1: in eighteen eighteen. In eighteen twenty three, South Carolina made
2:02:12
Speaker 1: it lawful to bring into the state any slave from
2:02:15
Speaker 1: the West Indies, South America, or from Europe, or from
2:02:19
Speaker 1: any sister state which may be situated to the north
2:02:22
Speaker 1: of the Potomac River or the city of Washington. No
2:02:26
Speaker 1: slave was allowed to return to South Carolina who had
2:02:29
Speaker 1: been carried out of the state and had visited any
2:02:32
Speaker 1: of these places. The penalty was severe, it being one
2:02:36
Speaker 1: thousand dollars and forfeiture of the slave. This law was
2:02:41
Speaker 1: re enacted in eighteen thirty five, and in eighteen forty
2:02:45
Speaker 1: seven it was amended to allow slaves to return who
2:02:49
Speaker 1: could go to Cuba on board of any steamboat in
2:02:52
Speaker 1: the capacity of Stewart Cook, fireman, engineer, pilot, or mariner,
2:02:57
Speaker 1: provided he had visited none of the other restricted places.
2:03:01
Speaker 1: It was amended again in eighteen forty eight and Baltimore
2:03:05
Speaker 1: and all ports on the Chesapeake Bay in the state
2:03:08
Speaker 1: of Maryland were placed on the same footing with regard
2:03:11
Speaker 1: to the importation of slaves as the states south of
2:03:15
Speaker 1: the Potomac North Carolina. In seventeen eighty six, North Carolina
2:03:20
Speaker 1: passed her first law to restrict the importation of slaves
2:03:24
Speaker 1: from other states. It was as follows, every person who
2:03:28
Speaker 1: shall introduce into this state any slave from any of
2:03:32
Speaker 1: the United States which have passed laws for the liberation
2:03:35
Speaker 1: of slaves, shall, on complaint thereof, before any Justice of
2:03:39
Speaker 1: the Peace, be compelled by such justice, to enter into
2:03:43
Speaker 1: bond with sufficient surety in the sum of one hundred
2:03:47
Speaker 1: dollars current money for each slave, for the removing of
2:03:51
Speaker 1: such slaves to the state from whence such slave was
2:03:54
Speaker 1: brought within three months thereafter, the penalty to be recovered
2:03:59
Speaker 1: one half fe for the use of the state, the
2:04:01
Speaker 1: other half for the use of the prosecutor, or a
2:04:04
Speaker 1: failure of a compliance therewith and the person introducing such
2:04:09
Speaker 1: slaves shall also, in case of such failure forfeit and
2:04:13
Speaker 1: pay the sum of two hundred dollars, to be recovered
2:04:16
Speaker 1: by any person suing for the same and applied to
2:04:20
Speaker 1: their use. The Law of seventeen ninety four prohibited the
2:04:25
Speaker 1: introduction of slaves and indentured servants of color. Exceptions were
2:04:29
Speaker 1: made of slave owners coming to the States to reside,
2:04:33
Speaker 1: and of citizens of North Carolina inheriting slaves in other states.
2:04:38
Speaker 1: In seventeen ninety five, immigrants from the West Indies, Bahama Islands, French, Dutch,
2:04:43
Speaker 1: and Spanish settlements on the southern coast of America were
2:04:47
Speaker 1: prevented from bringing in slaves who were more than fifteen
2:04:52
Speaker 1: years of age. An Act of seventeen seventy six, however,
2:04:56
Speaker 1: allowed slaves to be brought in who belonged to residents
2:04:59
Speaker 1: near the Virginia and South Carolina boundaries. A law was
2:05:03
Speaker 1: passed in eighteen sixteen which provided that slaves brought into
2:05:07
Speaker 1: North Carolina from foreign countries contrary to the Act of
2:05:11
Speaker 1: Congress of eighteen o seven to be sold. No more
2:05:15
Speaker 1: laws concerning importation were passed after the repeal of the
2:05:19
Speaker 1: laws against importation about eighteen eighteen Georgia. Georgia passed a
2:05:26
Speaker 1: law against the importation of slaves in seventeen ninety three.
2:05:30
Speaker 1: This seemed to apply only to slaves imported from without
2:05:33
Speaker 1: the United States. In seventeen ninety eight, a new constitution
2:05:38
Speaker 1: was framed which provided that there shall be no importation
2:05:42
Speaker 1: of slaves into this State from Africa or any foreign
2:05:45
Speaker 1: place after the first of October next in eighteen seventeen,
2:05:50
Speaker 1: the following was enacted. It shall not be lawful, except
2:05:54
Speaker 1: in cases herein authorized and allowed, for any person or
2:05:58
Speaker 1: persons whatever, to bring, import or introduce into this State,
2:06:03
Speaker 1: to aid or assist, or knowingly to become concerned or
2:06:06
Speaker 1: interested in bringing, importing, or introducing into this State, either
2:06:11
Speaker 1: by land or by water, or in any manner whatsoever,
2:06:15
Speaker 1: any slave or slaves. Citizens of Georgia and those of
2:06:20
Speaker 1: other states coming to Georgia to live were permitted to
2:06:23
Speaker 1: bring in slaves for their own use. Before importing them,
2:06:27
Speaker 1: they were required to make oath before the proper authorities
2:06:31
Speaker 1: that they were not imported for sale or hire, land
2:06:34
Speaker 1: or mortgage. The act was not to extend to travelers.
2:06:38
Speaker 1: This act was repealed in eighteen twenty four, and slaves
2:06:42
Speaker 1: then were imported and disposed of without restriction. The law
2:06:47
Speaker 1: of eighteen seventeen was revised in eighteen twenty nine, modified
2:06:51
Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty six, again repealed in eighteen forty one,
2:06:56
Speaker 1: revived again in eighteen forty two. In eighteen thirty five
2:07:00
Speaker 1: a law was enacted making any one subject to fine
2:07:03
Speaker 1: and imprisonment who should bring into Georgia any male slave
2:07:08
Speaker 1: who had been to a non slaveholding state or to
2:07:11
Speaker 1: any foreign country. In eighteen forty nine, all laws and
2:07:16
Speaker 1: parts of laws civil and criminal, forbidding or in any
2:07:19
Speaker 1: manner restricting the importation of slaves into this state from
2:07:24
Speaker 1: any other slaveholding state were repealed. Cities and towns were
2:07:28
Speaker 1: given the right to regulate the sale of slaves by traders,
2:07:32
Speaker 1: and to prescribe the places in their jurisdiction where slaves
2:07:36
Speaker 1: might be kept and sold. In eighteen fifty two, so
2:07:40
Speaker 1: much of this law as had reference to importation of
2:07:43
Speaker 1: slaves was repealed, and the Act of eighteen seventeen was revived.
2:07:48
Speaker 1: But the penitentiary imprisonment clause was eliminated. The law of
2:07:52
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty two was repealed by the legislature of eighteen
2:07:56
Speaker 1: fifty five six and the Act of eighteen forty nine,
2:08:00
Speaker 1: and was revived, thus again opening the state to the
2:08:03
Speaker 1: unrestricted importation of slaves. Maryland. In seventeen eighty three, Maryland
2:08:10
Speaker 1: prohibited the importation of slaves. It was amended in seventeen
2:08:14
Speaker 1: ninety one and also in the seventeen ninety four. In
2:08:19
Speaker 1: seventeen ninety six, the General Assembly of Maryland enacted that
2:08:23
Speaker 1: it shall not be lawful, from and after the passing
2:08:26
Speaker 1: of this Act to import or bring into this State
2:08:29
Speaker 1: by land or water, any Negro, mulatto, or other slave
2:08:33
Speaker 1: for sale, or to reside within this State, And any
2:08:37
Speaker 1: person brought into this State as a slave contrary to
2:08:41
Speaker 1: this Act, if a slave before, shall thereupon immediately cease
2:08:46
Speaker 1: to be the property of the person or person so
2:08:49
Speaker 1: importing or bringing such slave within the state, and shall
2:08:53
Speaker 1: be free. Immigrants to the state were allowed to bring
2:08:57
Speaker 1: in their own slaves at the time of removal or
2:09:00
Speaker 1: within one year afterward. It was required that these slaves
2:09:04
Speaker 1: should have been within the United States three years In
2:09:09
Speaker 1: seventeen ninety seven, this law was modified in favor of
2:09:13
Speaker 1: those coming into Maryland to reside. In eighteen ten, a
2:09:17
Speaker 1: law was passed to prevent those who were slaves for
2:09:20
Speaker 1: a limited time from being sold out of state. In
2:09:24
Speaker 1: eighteen seventeen, a law was passed regulating the exportation of slaves,
2:09:29
Speaker 1: as follows that whenever any person shall purchase any slave
2:09:34
Speaker 1: or slaves within this State for the purpose of exporting
2:09:38
Speaker 1: or removing the same beyond the limits of this State,
2:09:41
Speaker 1: it shall be their duty to take from the cellar
2:09:44
Speaker 1: a bill of sale for said slave or slaves, in
2:09:47
Speaker 1: which the age and distinguishing marks, as nearly as may be,
2:09:52
Speaker 1: and the name of such slave or slaves shall be inserted,
2:09:56
Speaker 1: and the same shall be acknowledged before some justice of
2:09:59
Speaker 1: the peace of the county, where the sale shall be
2:10:02
Speaker 1: made and lodged, to be recorded in the office of
2:10:05
Speaker 1: the Clerk of the said county within twenty days, and
2:10:09
Speaker 1: the Clerk shall, immediately, on the receipt thereof, actually record
2:10:14
Speaker 1: the same and deliver a copy thereof on demand to
2:10:17
Speaker 1: the purchaser, with a certificate endorsed thereupon under the seal
2:10:22
Speaker 1: of the County of the same being duly recorded. The
2:10:26
Speaker 1: following year, eighteen eighteen, a law was passed which provided
2:10:31
Speaker 1: that any slave convicted of a crime which, in the
2:10:34
Speaker 1: judgment of the court, should not be punished by hanging,
2:10:37
Speaker 1: might be transported for sale. In eighteen forty six, the
2:10:41
Speaker 1: legislature enacted that slaves sentenced to the penitentiary should be
2:10:46
Speaker 1: publicly sold at the expiration of their service and transported.
2:10:50
Speaker 1: In eighteen thirty one, a very restrictive law was enacted.
2:10:54
Speaker 1: It prohibited the introduction of slaves into the state, either
2:10:58
Speaker 1: for sale or residence. The restrictive policy did not continue long,
2:11:03
Speaker 1: for in eighteen thirty three, the barrier to the introduction
2:11:06
Speaker 1: of slaves for residents was withdrawn. Persons removing to the
2:11:11
Speaker 1: state with the intention of becoming citizens were required to
2:11:14
Speaker 1: pay a tax on every slave introduced for the benefit
2:11:18
Speaker 1: of the state colonization society. This act was supplemented by
2:11:23
Speaker 1: another in eighteen thirty nine. Immigrants were required to make
2:11:27
Speaker 1: affidavit that it was their intention to become citizens of
2:11:30
Speaker 1: the state and to pay attax on their slaves imported
2:11:34
Speaker 1: from five to fifteen dollars according to age. In eighteen
2:11:39
Speaker 1: forty seven, a provision was made to allow guardians, executors,
2:11:44
Speaker 1: and trustees residing in the state to bring in slaves
2:11:48
Speaker 1: appointed by a last will. In eighteen fifty, all laws
2:11:52
Speaker 1: against the importation of life slaves was repealed, except such
2:11:56
Speaker 1: as extended to those who were slaves for a term
2:11:59
Speaker 1: of years or those convicted of crime in another state.
2:12:03
Speaker 1: Maryland continued open to the introduction of slaves Delaware. Delaware
2:12:10
Speaker 1: has the distinction of being the only one of the
2:12:13
Speaker 1: original Southern states to embody a declaration unfavorable to the
2:12:18
Speaker 1: importation of slaves in her first constitution. In that of
2:12:23
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy six, she says, no person hereafter imported into
2:12:28
Speaker 1: this state from Africa ought to be held in slavery
2:12:31
Speaker 1: under any pretense whatever, and no Negro, Indian or Mulatto
2:12:36
Speaker 1: ought to be brought into this state for sale from
2:12:39
Speaker 1: any part of the world. In seventeen eighty seven, a
2:12:43
Speaker 1: law was fast regulating the exportation of slaves. A permit
2:12:47
Speaker 1: was required to export negroes. A law permitting the introduction
2:12:52
Speaker 1: of slaves who were devised or inherited was enacted. The
2:12:56
Speaker 1: law against exportation was made more severe in seventeen ninety three.
2:13:02
Speaker 1: Another law was enacted to further regulate the exportation of slaves.
2:13:07
Speaker 1: It only made a slight change. Any negro exported contrary
2:13:11
Speaker 1: to the act was to have his freedom. In eighteen
2:13:14
Speaker 1: twenty eight, courts were given the right to sentence slaves
2:13:17
Speaker 1: for certain offenses to be exported. Thus those exported were
2:13:23
Speaker 1: not allowed to return to the state. There were re
2:13:26
Speaker 1: enactments in eighteen twenty seven in eighteen twenty nine concerning
2:13:30
Speaker 1: the exportation of slaves. In eighteen thirty three, a law
2:13:34
Speaker 1: was passed to enable farmers to carry slaves into Maryland
2:13:38
Speaker 1: to cultivate land without incurring any penalty. There seems to
2:13:42
Speaker 1: have been no more enactments of Delaware concerning importation or
2:13:47
Speaker 1: exportation of slaves. Louisiana. The Act of Congress in eighteen
2:13:53
Speaker 1: o four erecting Louisiana into a territory prohibited the introduction
2:13:58
Speaker 1: of slaves into it from without the United States. Only
2:14:02
Speaker 1: slaves imported before May one, seventeen ninety eight could be introduced,
2:14:06
Speaker 1: and those had to be slaves of actual settlers. An
2:14:10
Speaker 1: Act of Louisiana in eighteen ten was to prevent the
2:14:13
Speaker 1: introducing of slaves who had been guilty of crime. It
2:14:17
Speaker 1: was not until eighteen twenty six that Louisiana as a
2:14:20
Speaker 1: state passed any law against the introduction of slaves as merchandise.
2:14:25
Speaker 1: But this year it was enacted that no person or
2:14:28
Speaker 1: person shall, after the first day of June eighteen twenty six,
2:14:33
Speaker 1: bring into this state any slave or slaves with the
2:14:36
Speaker 1: intention to sell or hire. The same. Citizens of Louisiana
2:14:40
Speaker 1: and immigrants could bring in their own slaves, but were
2:14:44
Speaker 1: not allowed to hire, exchange, or sell them within two
2:14:48
Speaker 1: years after such importation. This act was repealed in eighteen
2:14:53
Speaker 1: twenty eight, but in eighteen twenty nine another law was
2:14:56
Speaker 1: passed which required that anyone who should introduce slaves above
2:15:00
Speaker 1: twelve years of age to have a certificate for each
2:15:04
Speaker 1: slave signed by two respectable and well known freeholders of
2:15:08
Speaker 1: the county from which the slaves were brought, accompanied with
2:15:12
Speaker 1: their declaration on oath that the slaves had never been
2:15:15
Speaker 1: guilty of crime and that they were of good character.
2:15:19
Speaker 1: Children under ten years of age could not be brought
2:15:22
Speaker 1: in separate from their mother. This was repealed March twenty fourth,
2:15:26
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty one, almost immediately after the Southampton massacre in Virginia.
2:15:32
Speaker 1: Louisiana called an extra session of her legislature. The only
2:15:36
Speaker 1: important act of the session was an act prohibiting importation
2:15:41
Speaker 1: of slaves for sale or hire. Immigrants and citizens were
2:15:45
Speaker 1: prohibited from bringing in slaves from Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and Arkansas.
2:15:51
Speaker 1: Those permitted to be brought in could not be sold
2:15:54
Speaker 1: or hired within five years. A certificate, as in the
2:15:58
Speaker 1: Law of eighteen twenty ane nine, was also required. It
2:16:02
Speaker 1: was amended during the same session, and the states of Tennessee, Kentucky,
2:16:06
Speaker 1: and Missouri were included in the prohibition. It was repealed
2:16:11
Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty four, and no other law with respect
2:16:14
Speaker 1: to the importation of slaves was ever enacted by Louisiana Mississippi.
2:16:21
Speaker 1: The Act of Congress in seventeen ninety eight establishing a
2:16:24
Speaker 1: government in the Mississippi Territory prohibited the importation of slaves
2:16:29
Speaker 1: from without the United States, and the Constitution of eighteen
2:16:33
Speaker 1: seventeen excluded slaves guilty of high crimes in other states.
2:16:38
Speaker 1: The Territorial Act of eighteen o eight made it unlawful
2:16:41
Speaker 1: to expose for sale in a slave above fifteen years
2:16:45
Speaker 1: of age without having previously exhibited to the Chief Justice
2:16:49
Speaker 1: of the Orphans Court of the county where offered for
2:16:52
Speaker 1: sale a certificate signed by two respectable freeholders living in
2:16:57
Speaker 1: the county from whence the slave was brought, describing the stature, complexion, sex, name,
2:17:03
Speaker 1: and not to have been guilty of any murder, crime, arson, burglary, felony,
2:17:08
Speaker 1: larceny to their knowledge or belief where he came from,
2:17:13
Speaker 1: which certificate shall be signed and acknowledged before the Clerk
2:17:16
Speaker 1: of the County from whence he came a certification by
2:17:20
Speaker 1: said clerk that those whose names are prefixed are respectable freeholders.
2:17:25
Speaker 1: Such certificates aforesaid shall be registered with the Register of
2:17:30
Speaker 1: the Orphan's Court where such slaves are sold, the seller
2:17:34
Speaker 1: taking oath that he believes said certificate is just and true.
2:17:39
Speaker 1: In eighteen nineteen, another act was passed to amend the
2:17:42
Speaker 1: law of eighteen o eight. Slaves brought into the state
2:17:46
Speaker 1: as merchandise were made subject to attacks of twenty dollars each.
2:17:50
Speaker 1: A certificate was required as in the law of eighteen
2:17:53
Speaker 1: o eight, but it was not to apply to those
2:17:56
Speaker 1: brought in for their own use by citizens and immigrants,
2:18:00
Speaker 1: except those from Louisiana and the Alabama Territory. An Act
2:18:04
Speaker 1: of eighteen twenty two reduced into one the several acts
2:18:08
Speaker 1: concerning slaves, free negroes, and mulattos, but no important changes
2:18:13
Speaker 1: were made with regard to the importation of slaves. The
2:18:17
Speaker 1: new Constitution of eighteen thirty two, like that of eighteen seventeen,
2:18:21
Speaker 1: excluded slaves guilty of high crimes in other states. It
2:18:26
Speaker 1: declared also that the introduction of slaves into this State
2:18:29
Speaker 1: as merchandise or for sale shall be prohibited from and
2:18:33
Speaker 1: after the first day of May eighteen hundred and thirty three.
2:18:38
Speaker 1: This provision of the Constitution gave rise to a great
2:18:41
Speaker 1: deal of litigation, nor was it effective in prohibiting importation
2:18:46
Speaker 1: of slaves. The latter appears from the fact that, in
2:18:49
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty seven, by an act of the Legislature, the
2:18:53
Speaker 1: business of introducing or importing slaves into this State as
2:18:57
Speaker 1: merchandise or for sale be and the same time as
2:19:01
Speaker 1: hereby prohibited. The penalty was five hundred dollars and six
2:19:05
Speaker 1: months imprisonment for each slave so brought in, and notes
2:19:09
Speaker 1: which might be given for slaves were not collectible. The
2:19:12
Speaker 1: law was repealed in eighteen forty six. Alabama. The first
2:19:17
Speaker 1: law passed by Alabama concerning the importation of slaves was
2:19:21
Speaker 1: for the purpose of carrying into effect the laws of
2:19:24
Speaker 1: the United States prohibiting the slave trade. This was enacted
2:19:28
Speaker 1: in eighteen twenty three and provided that slaves imported should
2:19:33
Speaker 1: be employed on public works or sold for the state.
2:19:37
Speaker 1: But on January thirteenth, eighteen twenty seven, it was enacted
2:19:41
Speaker 1: that if any person or persons shall bring into this
2:19:44
Speaker 1: State any slave or slaves for the purpose of sale
2:19:48
Speaker 1: or higher, or shall sell or hire any slave or
2:19:51
Speaker 1: slaves brought into this State after the first day of
2:19:54
Speaker 1: August next, such person or persons shall forfeit and pay
2:19:59
Speaker 1: thee of one thousand dollars for each negro so brought in,
2:20:04
Speaker 1: one half thereof to the person suing for the same,
2:20:08
Speaker 1: and the other half to the use of the state.
2:20:11
Speaker 1: And Moreover, any person thus offending shall be subject to indictment,
2:20:16
Speaker 1: and on conviction shall be liable to be fined as
2:20:19
Speaker 1: sum not exceeding five hundred dollars for each offense, and
2:20:23
Speaker 1: shall be imprisoned not exceeding three months, at the discretion
2:20:27
Speaker 1: of the jury trying such offense. Citizens of the state, however,
2:20:32
Speaker 1: were allowed to purchase negroes for their own use, but
2:20:35
Speaker 1: could not sell them until two years after being brought
2:20:39
Speaker 1: into the state. This law was repealed in eighteen twenty nine.
2:20:43
Speaker 1: Another prohibitive law was passed January sixteenth, eighteen thirty two,
2:20:48
Speaker 1: but immigrants were allowed to bring their own slaves with them,
2:20:51
Speaker 1: and citizens of the state could import slaves for their
2:20:55
Speaker 1: own use. When these introduced slaves, returns were to be
2:20:59
Speaker 1: made upon oath to the county courts within thirty days,
2:21:03
Speaker 1: describing them and declaring that they were not introduced for
2:21:07
Speaker 1: the purpose of sale or hire. Citizens of Alabama could
2:21:11
Speaker 1: import slaves which might have become theirs by inheritance or marriage.
2:21:16
Speaker 1: The provisions of the law did not apply to travelers
2:21:20
Speaker 1: nor to citizens temporarily removed from the state. This was
2:21:24
Speaker 1: repealed December fourth, eighteen thirty two, and no other prohibitive
2:21:29
Speaker 1: law was enacted. Kentucky. The laws passed by Virginia concerning
2:21:35
Speaker 1: importation of slaves prior to seventeen ninety were in force
2:21:39
Speaker 1: in Kentucky until seventeen ninety eight. This year, an act
2:21:43
Speaker 1: reducing into one several acts concerning slaves, free Negroes, Mulattos,
2:21:48
Speaker 1: and Indians was passed. No slaves could be imported into
2:21:52
Speaker 1: Kentucky who were introduced into the United States from foreign countries,
2:21:57
Speaker 1: except by immigrants who did not violate this prison. Citizens
2:22:01
Speaker 1: could do the same, but no slaves might be imported
2:22:05
Speaker 1: as merchandise. An act amending this was approved February eighth,
2:22:10
Speaker 1: eighteen fifteen. No one was allowed to bring slaves into
2:22:13
Speaker 1: Kentucky except those intending to settle in the state, and
2:22:17
Speaker 1: they were required to take the following oath I ab
2:22:21
Speaker 1: adu swear or affirm that my removal to the State
2:22:25
Speaker 1: of Kentucky was with an intention to become a citizen thereof,
2:22:29
Speaker 1: and that I have brought with me no slave or slaves,
2:22:33
Speaker 1: and will bring no slave or slaves to this state
2:22:36
Speaker 1: with the intention of selling them. In eighteen thirty three,
2:22:40
Speaker 1: it was enacted that each and every person who shall
2:22:43
Speaker 1: hereafter import into this State any slave or slaves, or
2:22:47
Speaker 1: shall sell or buy, or contract for the sale or
2:22:50
Speaker 1: purchase for a longer term than one year of the
2:22:54
Speaker 1: service of any such slave or slaves, knowing the same
2:22:57
Speaker 1: to have been imported, as aforesaid, he, she, or they
2:23:01
Speaker 1: so offending, shall forfeit six hundred dollars for each slave
2:23:05
Speaker 1: so imported, sold, or bought or whose service has been
2:23:09
Speaker 1: so contracted for. It was not to apply to emigrants,
2:23:14
Speaker 1: provided they took the required oath, nor to citizens of
2:23:18
Speaker 1: Kentucky who derived their title by will, dissent, distribution, marriage, gift,
2:23:24
Speaker 1: or in consideration of marriage, nor to travelers who could
2:23:27
Speaker 1: prove to the satisfaction of a jury that the slaves
2:23:31
Speaker 1: were for necessary attendance. There were minor acts and quite
2:23:35
Speaker 1: a number of acts of a private character Tennessee. Tennessee
2:23:41
Speaker 1: was originally a part of North Carolina, and the laws
2:23:44
Speaker 1: of North Carolina, which were in force at the time
2:23:47
Speaker 1: of the session of Tennessee to the United States in
2:23:50
Speaker 1: seventeen ninety, were continued in force in Tennessee. The first
2:23:55
Speaker 1: law passed by Tennessee with reference to importation of slaves
2:23:59
Speaker 1: was in eighteen twelve. It prohibited their importation as merchandise
2:24:04
Speaker 1: for a term of five years. Persons coming as settlers
2:24:08
Speaker 1: or residents who had acquired slaves by devise, marriage or
2:24:12
Speaker 1: purchase for their own use were permitted to import them.
2:24:16
Speaker 1: Immigrants were obliged to take the following oath. I A
2:24:20
Speaker 1: B do solemnly swear or affirm that I have removed
2:24:24
Speaker 1: myself and slaves to the State of Tennessee with the
2:24:27
Speaker 1: full and sole view of becoming a citizen. And that
2:24:30
Speaker 1: I have not brought my slave or slaves to this
2:24:33
Speaker 1: state with any view to the securing of the same
2:24:36
Speaker 1: against any rebellion or apprehension of rebellion. So help me God.
2:24:42
Speaker 1: No other law concerning importation was enacted until eighteen twenty six.
2:24:46
Speaker 1: It was practically the same as that of eighteen twelve,
2:24:50
Speaker 1: except that it was a perpetual act, and no one
2:24:53
Speaker 1: was allowed to introduce slaves which had been guilty of
2:24:55
Speaker 1: crimes in other states. This act continued in force until
2:24:59
Speaker 1: the eighteen fifty five, when so much of it was repealed.
2:25:03
Speaker 1: As related to the importation of slaves as merchandise Missouri, Arkansas, Florida,
2:25:10
Speaker 1: and Texas, the Constitution of Missouri eighteen twenty circumscribed the
2:25:15
Speaker 1: powers of the legislature with reference to importation of slaves
2:25:19
Speaker 1: as follows. The General Assembly shall have no power to
2:25:22
Speaker 1: pass laws to prevent bonafide immigrants to this state, or
2:25:27
Speaker 1: actual settlers therein, from bringing from any of the United
2:25:30
Speaker 1: States or from any of their territories, such persons as
2:25:34
Speaker 1: may be deemed to be slaves. So long as any
2:25:38
Speaker 1: person of the same description are allowed to be held
2:25:41
Speaker 1: as slaves by the laws of this State. They shall
2:25:45
Speaker 1: have power to pass laws to prohibit the introduction into
2:25:48
Speaker 1: this State of any slaves who may have committed any
2:25:52
Speaker 1: high crime in any other state or territory. To prohibit
2:25:56
Speaker 1: the introduction of any slave for the purpose of speculation,
2:25:59
Speaker 1: or or as an article of trade or merchandise. To
2:26:03
Speaker 1: prohibit the introduction of any slave or the offspring of
2:26:06
Speaker 1: any slave, who heretofore may have been, or who hereafter
2:26:10
Speaker 1: may be imported from any foreign country into the United
2:26:14
Speaker 1: States or any territory thereof, in contravention of any existing
2:26:20
Speaker 1: statute of the United States. The first constitutions of most
2:26:25
Speaker 1: of the other Southern states had provisions somewhat similar to these,
2:26:29
Speaker 1: among which are Arkansas, Florida, and Texas. The only laws
2:26:34
Speaker 1: passed by Missouri regarding importation were those of eighteen thirty
2:26:38
Speaker 1: five eighteen forty three. In eighteen forty five, the law
2:26:42
Speaker 1: of eighteen forty three simply prohibited the importation of slaves
2:26:46
Speaker 1: entitled to freedom at a future date and against kidnapping.
2:26:50
Speaker 1: In eighteen forty five, the law of eighteen thirty five
2:26:54
Speaker 1: was the leading one, It prohibited the introduction of any
2:26:57
Speaker 1: slave who had elsewhere committed in an an infamous crime,
2:27:01
Speaker 1: or any who had been removed from Missouri for crime,
2:27:05
Speaker 1: or any imported into the United States. Contrary to law,
2:27:09
Speaker 1: Texas and Florida as states, seem never to have prohibited
2:27:14
Speaker 1: the importation of slaves except those guilty of crime. The
2:27:19
Speaker 1: only act of Arkansas concerning importation was passed in eighteen
2:27:23
Speaker 1: thirty eight and put in force by proclamation of the
2:27:26
Speaker 1: Governor March twenty, eighteen thirty nine. It was never repealed
2:27:31
Speaker 1: so far as we could find, and is as follows.
2:27:34
Speaker 1: No person shall knowingly bring, or cause to be brought
2:27:38
Speaker 1: into this state, or hold, purchase, higher cell, or otherwise
2:27:42
Speaker 1: disposed of within the same. First, any slave who may
2:27:46
Speaker 1: have committed in any other state, territory, or district within
2:27:50
Speaker 1: the United States, or any foreign country, any offense which,
2:27:54
Speaker 1: if committed within the state, would, according to the laws thereof,
2:27:58
Speaker 1: be felony or inns infamous crime. Or Second, any slave
2:28:03
Speaker 1: who shall have been convicted in this state of any
2:28:06
Speaker 1: felony or infamous crime, and ordered to be taken or
2:28:10
Speaker 1: removed out of this state according to the laws thereof,
2:28:14
Speaker 1: or Third, any slave who shall have actually been removed
2:28:18
Speaker 1: out of this state after a conviction of felony or
2:28:21
Speaker 1: other infamous crime, although no order of removal shall have
2:28:25
Speaker 1: been made or forth, Any person or the descendant of
2:28:29
Speaker 1: any person, who shall have been imported into the United
2:28:33
Speaker 1: States or any of the territories thereof, in contravention of
2:28:37
Speaker 1: the laws of the United States and held as a
2:28:40
Speaker 1: slave end of Chapter seven, End of the Domestic Slave
2:28:46
Speaker 1: Trade of the Southern States by Winfield H. Collins,