The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America 1638-1870 | Page 4

extraordinary development, 192 clearances being made in 1771. The
Revolutionary War nearly stopped the traffic; but by 1786 the
clearances had risen again to 146.
To these figures must be added the unregistered trade of Americans and
foreigners. It is probable that about 25,000 slaves were brought to
America each year between 1698 and 1707. The importation then
dwindled, but rose after the Assiento to perhaps 30,000. The proportion,
too, of these slaves carried to the continent now began to increase. Of
about 20,000 whom the English annually imported from 1733 to 1766,
South Carolina alone received some 3,000. Before the Revolution, the
total exportation to America is variously estimated as between 40,000
and 100,000 each year. Bancroft places the total slave population of the
continental colonies at 59,000 in 1714, 78,000 in 1727, and 293,000 in
1754. The census of 1790 showed 697,897 slaves in the United
States.[17]
In colonies like those in the West Indies and in South Carolina and
Georgia, the rapid importation into America of a multitude of savages

gave rise to a system of slavery far different from that which the late
Civil War abolished. The strikingly harsh and even inhuman slave
codes in these colonies show this. Crucifixion, burning, and starvation
were legal modes of punishment.[18] The rough and brutal character of
the time and place was partly responsible for this, but a more decisive
reason lay in the fierce and turbulent character of the imported Negroes.
The docility to which long years of bondage and strict discipline gave
rise was absent, and insurrections and acts of violence were of frequent
occurrence.[19] Again and again the danger of planters being "cut off
by their own negroes"[20] is mentioned, both in the islands and on the
continent. This condition of vague dread and unrest not only increased
the severity of laws and strengthened the police system, but was the
prime motive back of all the earlier efforts to check the further
importation of slaves.
On the other hand, in New England and New York the Negroes were
merely house servants or farm hands, and were treated neither better
nor worse than servants in general in those days. Between these two
extremes, the system of slavery varied from a mild serfdom in
Pennsylvania and New Jersey to an aristocratic caste system in
Maryland and Virginia.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] This account is based largely on the _Report of the Lords of the
Committee of Council_, etc. (London, 1789).
[2] African trading-companies had previously been erected (e.g. by
Elizabeth in 1585 and 1588, and by James I. in 1618); but slaves are
not specifically mentioned in their charters, and they probably did not
trade in slaves. Cf. Bandinel, Account of the Slave Trade (1842), pp.
38-44.
[3] Chartered by Charles I. Cf. Sainsbury, _Cal. State Papers, Col. Ser.,
America and W. Indies, 1574-1660_, p. 135.
[4] In 1651, during the Protectorate, the privileges of the African trade
were granted anew to this same company for fourteen years. Cf.

Sainsbury, _Cal. State Papers, Col. Ser., America and W. Indies,
1574-1660_, pp. 342, 355.
[5] Sainsbury, _Cal. State Papers, Col. Ser., America and W. Indies,
1661-1668_, § 408.
[6] Sainsbury, _Cal. State Papers, Col. Ser., America and W. Indies,
1669-1674_, §§ 934, 1095.
[7] Quoted in the above Report, under "Most Material Proceedings in
the House of Commons," Vol. I.
Part I. An import
duty of 10% on all goods, except Negroes, imported from Africa to
England and the colonies was also laid. The proceeds of these duties
went to the Royal African Company.
[8] Cf. Appendix A.
[9] Bandinel, Account of the Slave Trade, p. 59. Cf. Bryan Edwards,
History of the British Colonies in the W. Indies (London, 1798), Book
VI.
[10] From 1729 to 1788, including compensation to the old company,
Parliament expended £705,255 on African companies. Cf. Report, etc.,
as above.
[11] Various amendatory statutes were passed: e.g., 24 George II. ch.
49, 25 George II. ch. 40, 4 George III. ch. 20, 5 George III. ch. 44, 23
George III. ch. 65.
[12] Renatus Enys from Surinam, in 1663: Sainsbury, _Cal. State
Papers, Col. Ser., America and W. Indies, 1661-68_, § 577.
[13] Thomas Lynch from Jamaica, in 1665: Sainsbury, _Cal. State
Papers, Col. Ser., America and W. Indies, 1661-68_, § 934.

[14] Lieutenant-Governor Willoughby of Barbadoes, in 1666:
Sainsbury, _Cal. State Papers, Col. Ser., America and W. Indies,
1661-68_, § 1281.
[15] Smith, History of New Jersey (1765), p. 254; Sainsbury, _Cal.
State Papers, Col. Ser., America and W. Indies, 1669-74_., §§ 367, 398,
812.
[16] N.C. Col. Rec., V. 1118. For similar instructions, cf. Penn.
Archives, I. 306; Doc. rel. Col. Hist. New York, VI. 34; Gordon,
History of the American Revolution, I. letter 2; Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll.,
4th Ser. X. 642.
[17] These figures are