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Read Ebook: How to Make a Shoe by Headley John Parker
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A Sketch of the Rise of the Trade in African Slaves and of the Foreign Slave Trade of the Southern States 1
The Causes of the Rise and Development of the Domestic Slave Trade 21
The Amount and Extent of the Trade 36
Were Some States Engaged in Breeding and Raising Negroes for Sale? 68
The Kidnapping and Selling of Free Negroes into Slavery 84
Slave "Prisons," Markets, Character of Traders, etc. 96
Laws of the Southern States with Reference to Importation and Exportation of Slaves 109
Bibliography 140
THE DOMESTIC SLAVE TRADE OF THE SOUTHERN STATES.
A SKETCH OF THE RISE OF THE SLAVE TRADE IN AFRICAN STATES AND OF THE FOREIGN SLAVE TRADE OF THE SOUTHERN STATES.
It is not our intention nor is it within our province to enter into details concerning the foreign slave trade. It seems, however, that a brief account is necessary as introductory to the subject of the Domestic Slave Trade.
The rise in Europe of the traffic in slaves from Africa was an incident in the commercial expansion of Portugal. It was coeval and almost coextensive with the development of commerce, and followed in the wake of discovery and colonization.
The first name connected with it is that of Antonio Gon?alvez, who was a marine under Prince Henry the Navigator. In 1441 he was sent to Cape Bojador to get a vessel load of "sea-wolves" skins. He signalized his voyage by the capture of some Moors whom he carried to Portugal. In 1442 these Moors promised black slaves as a ransom for themselves. Prince Henry approved of this exchange and Gon?alvez took the captives home and received, among other things, ten black slaves in exchange for two of them. The king justified his act on the ground that the negroes might be converted to the Christian religion, but the Moors could not. Two years later the Company of Lagos chartered by the king, and engaged in exploration on the coast of Africa, imported about two hundred slaves from the islands of Nar and Tidar. "This year Europe may be said to have made a distinct beginning in the slave trade, henceforth to spread on all sides like the waves stirred up water, and not like them to become fainter and fainter as the circles widen."
So far as known John Hawkins was the first Englishman to engage in the slave traffic. He left England for Sierra Leone with three ships and a hundred men in 1562, and having secured three hundred negroes he proceeded to Hispaniola where he disposed of them, and having had a very profitable voyage, he returned to England in 1563. This appears to have excited the avarice of the British Government. The next year Hawkins was appointed to the command of one of the Queen's ships and proceeded to Africa where in company with several others, it appears, he engaged in the slave traffic.
In 1624 France began the slave trade and later Holland, Denmark, New England and other English colonies, though the leader in the trade and the last to abandon it was Great Britain.
In the eighteenth century Virginia sought from time to time to hinder the introduction of slaves by placing heavy duties on them. Indeed, from 1732 until the Revolution there were only about six months in which slaves could be brought into Virginia free of duty. Nevertheless, in 1776 Virginia had 165,000 slaves.
Though all the other colonies imported slaves more or less during the same period, yet with the possible exception of South Carolina they fell far short of the number imported by Virginia.
In November 1708, Governor Seymour of Maryland, writing to the English Board of Trade, stated that 2,290 negroes were imported into that colony from midsummer 1698 to Christmas 1707. He reported the trade to be running very high, six or seven hundred having been imported during the year. In 1712 there were 8,330 negroes in Maryland. During about the same time Virginia imported 6,607 while a northern colony, New Jersey, imported only one hundred and fifteen from 1698 to 1726.
Du Bois says that South Carolina received about three thousand slaves a year from 1733 to 1766. She had forty thousand in 1740.
In 1700 North Carolina had eleven hundred, 1732 six thousand, and in 1764 about thirty thousand.
Until near the beginning of the eighteenth century it was rare that the English continental colonies received a shipload of slaves direct from Africa, and even these were usually brought in by some unlicensed "interloper." It is very probable that most of the negroes imported before this time were from Barbados, Jamaica and other West India Islands. But by the beginning of the eighteenth century it appears that slaves were being imported more rapidly. After the Assiento, in 1713, England became a great carrier of slaves and so continued until the Revolution. The effect of this was very sensibly felt by the colonies.
Even in the latter part of the seventeenth century some of the colonies began to show their dislike by levying duties on further importation. In the eighteenth century the colonial opposition to the importation of slaves, arising probably from a fear of insurrection, became much more pronounced. Heavy restrictions in the form of duties were laid upon the trade. In some cases these were so heavy as would seem to amount to total prohibition. But the efforts on the part of the colonies to restrict the trade were frowned upon and often disallowed by the British Government.
In 1754 the instructions to Governor Dobbs, of North Carolina, were: "Whereas, acts have been passed in some of our plantations in America for laying duties on the importation and exportation of negroes to the great discouragement of the Merchants trading thither from the coast of Africa, ... it is our will and pleasure that you do not give your assent to or pass any law imposing duties upon negroes imported into our Province of North Carolina."
The colonies considered the slave trade so important to Great Britain that at the dawn of the Revolution some of them appear to have had hopes of bringing her to terms by refusing to import any more slaves.
In the original draft of the Declaration of Independence as submitted by Jefferson, the king of Great Britain is arraigned "for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce."
It has been estimated that in the year of the Declaration the whole number of slaves in the thirteen colonies was 502,132, apportioned as follows: Massachusetts, 3,500; Rhode Island, 4,376; Connecticut, 6,000; New Hampshire, 627; New York, 15,000; New Jersey, 7,600; Pennsylvania, 10,000; Delaware, 9,000; Maryland, 80,000; Georgia, 16,000; North Carolina, 75,000; South Carolina, 110,000; Virginia, 165,000.
In 1798 an act of Congress establishing the territory of Mississippi provided that no slave should be brought within its limits from without the United States. In 1804, when Louisiana was erected into the territories of Louisiana and Orleans the provision was made that only slaves which had been imported before May 1, 1798, might be introduced into the territories and these must be the bona fide property of actual settlers.
South Carolina had even before this time , repealed her law against the importation of slaves from Africa. The trade was thus open through this State for four years, during which time 39,075 slaves were imported through Charleston alone.
The action of South Carolina in opening the slave trade forced the question upon the attention of Congress. During 1805-6 it was much discussed but it was not until March 2, 1807, that a bill was passed against it. This prohibited the importation of slaves after January 1, 1808, under penalty of imprisonment for not less than five nor more than ten years, and a fine of not less than ,000 nor more than ,000.
This law was not entirely effective. In 1810 the Secretary of the Navy writing to Charleston, South Carolina, says: "I hear not without great concern, that the law prohibiting the importation of slaves has been violated in frequent instances near St. Mary's."
Drake, a slave smuggler, says, that during the war of 1812 the business of smuggling slaves through Florida into the United States was a lively one.
Either whipping over and over, or through and through, Just as the case may be; Neither way is very new As we may clearly see.
The heel we reach in perfect order, And leave the measure neat; Some shoes are made which look much broader When put upon the feet.
Another quarter we would say, At this point we may drop, For we are now quite far away From the ankle and the top.
The edge is bevelled from heel to heel; The mark across the breast Shows us when and where we may Take a little rest.
Draw steady, until we have it close At the heel and at the toe; If these parts should be too loose It would nearly spoil the shoe.
Draw steady, or you'll make a crack, Which will there remain; Perhaps may cause us to go back, And do it over again.
We no doubt now do see the thing Taking on a shape, Which, in the end, will surely bring Us clear out of the scrape.
When moulded good, edge full from last, Trim the sole prepared; Then make a line for pegs to go, For in this we have shared.
Two rows around, just in between, Each other they are put; Use them long enough to go clear through, But save them from the foot.
The awl-hand picks up the pegs, The hammer-hand now takes, Between forefinger and the thumb, And for the hole it makes.
Piece by piece, until we stop At the proper height; A solid piece used for the top Will make it finish right.
The heel-shave is a tool so good, To smooth the heel up nice; For when around it you have gone, Its work will here suffice.
The bottom in this shape has come, And looks as if we've parted; But that's not so, as we well know We are nearer than when we started.
Our jack and company seen again, The last time for the present; To part, perhaps, will give us pain; Perhaps be very pleasant.
A burnisher for the heel, behold! Use briskly when we finish, For this tale is nearly told, Its parts seem to diminish.
Many parts have made the whole, Some parts are much effected; But when the parts are whole in one, They do become respected.
The end is reached, we trust all safe, After quite a travel; Though the road was rough from place to place, The thread did not unravel.
J. P. H., Jr.
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