84

THE TWO STREAMS.

CHAPTER VIII.

STRANGELY CONTRASTING FATE OF THE TWO DIVERGING STREAMS.

MORE than a third of the present representatives of these fifteen millions and a half inhabit, it will be observed, the United States. Less than two-thirds are scattered over the West Indies, Central and South America.

But what proportion, let us inquire, of the negroes shipped in slavers from Africa were the progenitors of the present colored population of the United States, and what proportion went to the West Indies and to Southern America?

Here, as in previous calculations, though the materials be insufficient for absolute accuracy, we can approximate the truth.

In the Report of the Lords of Council, so often already referred to, there is but one table bearing on the subject. It exhibits the exportation of negroes from the West Indies (then the principal place of their deposit and sale) for five years, namely, from 1783 to 1787, both inclusive,—showing that, in these five years, out of twenty thousand seven hundred and seventythree negroes exported to all parts, thirteen hundred and ninety-two went to the "States of America;" that is, only about one-fifteenth of the whole,-or two hundred and seventy-eight annually.

Since so small a proportion out of the whole export was directed to the United States, it is evident that

* Lords of Council Report, Part IV. Table No. 4.

PROTEST OF VIRGINIA AGAINST SLAVERY.

85

the demand for slaves at that time could not have been great. Nor do we find, throughout the Report, any allusion to a direct trade by slavers from the African coast to the Continental colonies. Of course it existed, but evidently not to a large extent. The public opinion, as well as the legislation, of the colonies had uniformly been against it.*

*The agency of the British Government in fastening slavery upon the Continental colonies is well known. Bancroft has placed it distinctly on record:

"The inhabitants of Virginia were controlled by the central authority on a subject of vital importance to themselves and their posterity. Their halls of legislation had resounded with eloquence directed against the terrible plague of negro slavery. Again and again they had passed laws restraining the importation of negroes from Africa; but their laws were disallowed. How to prevent them from protecting themselves against the increase of the overwhelming evil was debated by the King in Council, and on the 10th day of December, 1770, he issued an instruction, under his own hand, commanding the governor, 'under pain of the highest displeasure, to assent to no law by which the importation of slaves should be, in any respect, prohibited or obstructed.' In April, 1772, this rigorous order was solemnly debated in the Assembly of Virginia. They were very anxious for an Act to restrain the introduction of people the number of whom already in the colony gave them just cause to apprehend the most dangerous consequences. * Virginia resolved to address the King himself, who in Council had cruelly compelled the toleration of the nefarious traffic. They pleaded with him for leave to protect themselves against the nefarious traffic, and these were the words:

*

*

"The importation of slaves into the colonies from the coast of Africa hath long been considered as a trade of great inhumanity, and, under its present encouragement, we have too much reason to fear, will endanger the very existence of your Majesty's American dominions. We are sensible that some of your Majesty's subjects in Great Britain may reap emolument from this sort of traffic; but, when we consider that it greatly retards the settlement of the colonies with more useful inhabitants, and may, in time, have the most destructive influence, we presume to hope that the interest of a few will be disregarded when placed in competition with the security and happiness of such numbers of your Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects.

"Deeply impressed with these sentiments, we most humbly beseech your Majesty to remove all those restraints on your Majesty's governors

86

A KING THE PILLAR OF THE SLAVE-TRADE.

"The English Continental colonies," says Bancroft, "were, in the aggregate, always opposed to the African slave-trade. Maryland, Virginia, even Carolina, alarmed at the excessive production, and consequent low price, of their staples, at the heavy debts incurred by the purchase of slaves on credit, and at the dangerous increase of the colored population, each showed an anxious preference for the introduction of white men; and laws designed to restrict importations of slaves are scattered copiously along the records of colonial legislation. The first Continental Congress which took to itself powers of legislation gave a legal expression to the well-formed opinion of the country by resolving (April 6, 1776) that 'no slaves be imported into any of the thirteen United Colonies.'"*

of this colony which inhibit their assenting to such laws as might check so very pernicious a commerce.'

"In this manner Virginia led the host who alike condemned slavery and opposed the slave-trade. Thousands in Maryland and in New Jersey were ready to adopt a similar petition; so were the Legislatures of North Carolina, of Pennsylvania, of New York. Massachusetts, in its towns and in its Legislature, unceasingly combated the condition, as well as the sale, of slaves. There was no jealousy among one another in the strife against the crying evil; Virginia harmonized all opinions, and represented the moral sentiment and policy of them all. When her prayer reached England, Franklin, through the press, called to it the sympathy of the people. Again and again it was pressed upon the attention of the Ministers. But the Government of that day was less liberal than the tribunals; and, while a question respecting a negro from Virginia led the courts of law to an axiom that as soon as any slave sets his foot on English ground he becomes free, the King of England stood in the path of humanity, and made himself the pillar of the slave-trade. Wherever in the colonies a disposition was shown for its restraint, his servants were peremptorily ordered to maintain it without abatement."-Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. vi. pp. 413, 414, 415.

In the entire history of Great Britain there is scarcely a more disgraceful page.

Bancroft's United States, vol. iii. p. 411.

SLAVES IMPORTED IN COLONIAL DAYS.

87

As to the number of slaves actually imported during colonial days, the same historian says:

"It is not easy to conjecture how many negroes were imported into the English Continental colonies. The usual estimates far exceed the truth. Climate came in aid of opinion to oppose the introduction of them. * * * From the first they appear to have increased, though, owing to the inequality of the sexes, not rapidly in the first generation. Previous to the year 1740, there may have been introduced into our country nearly one hundred and thirty thousand.; before 1776, a few more than three hundred thousand."*

The Duke de Rochefoucault Liancourt, who travelled in the United States in 1795, says, "Nearly twenty vessels from the harbors of the United States are employed in the importation of negroes to Georgia and to the West India Isles." The duke designates the merchants of Rhode Island as the conductors of what he calls the "accursed traffic," which they "are determined to persevere in till the year 1808," the period fixed by the Constitution when it is permitted to abolish it; but, he observes, they ship only one negro for every ton of the burden of their vessels, which, moreover, he adds, "are small ones."†

The tables given in the Lords of Council's Report show that a considerable portion of the slavers in those days were but of a hundred tons burden. This was probably the capacity of the Rhode Island slavers. If so, the number of slaves annually carried by each was one hundred only; making, in all, an annual importation by them of two thousand slaves. But a portion of

Bancroft's United States, vol. iii. p. 407.

Travels by the Duke de Rochefoucault Liancourt, vol. ii. p. 292 (of English translation).

88

IMPORTATION OF SLAVES UP TO 1790.

these went to the West Indies,-another proof, it may be remarked, that the demand at home was not great. On the other hand, slaves may have been imported in English bottoms; some were in Dutch; and it is true, as already stated, that a few hundred slaves were annually brought from the West Indies.

Upon the whole, it seems a high estimate to put the annual importation, for some years after the close of the Revolutionary War, at three thousand. During that war, as commercial intercourse with foreign nations was almost wholly suspended, few or no slaves could have been imported; and the trade was probably resumed but gradually after the war. From 1776 to 1790 there were only six years when the trade could be considered open. If we estimate that two thousand five hundred were imported during each of these six years, we have fifteen thousand as the importation from 1776 to 1790.

Let us suppose Bancroft's " a few more than three hundred thousand" to mean three hundred and ten thousand, and we have the total number of slaves imported into the United States up to the year 1790, as follows:

Up to the year 1776

...............

310,000

From the year 1776 to the year 1790............... 15,000

Total imported up to 1790........... 325,000

At this point we emerge, in a measure, into light. The census commences. We know that the colored population of the United States in 1790 was seven hundred and fifty-seven thousand three hundred and sixty-three, of whom fifty-nine thousand four hundred and sixty-six were free. The three hundred and twenty-five thousand that had been imported were in that year represented by seven hundred and fiftyseven thousand three hundred and sixty-three. The