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

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 from the above-mentioned Report, Vol. II.
Part IV. Nos. 1, 5. See also Bancroft, _History of the
United States (1883), II. 274 ff; Bandinel, Account of the Slave Trade, p. 63; Benezet, Caution to Great Britain_, etc., pp. 39-40, and Historical Account of Guinea, ch. xiii.
[18] Compare earlier slave codes in South Carolina, Georgia, Jamaica, etc.; also cf. Benezet, _Historical Account of Guinea, p. 75; Report_, etc., as above.
[19] Sainsbury, _Cal. State Papers, Col. Ser., America and W. Indies, 1574-1660, pp. 229, 271, 295; 1661-68_, ��� 61, 412, 826, 1270, 1274, 1788; 1669-74., ��� 508, 1244; Bolzius