The slave trade received, at different times, the express sanction of the governments of all the commercial nations of Europe. The Spanish government, the French under Louis XIII., and the English under queen Elizabeth, formally permitted the traffic. The trade was regarded as legitimate and proper; and received the decided encouragement of the governments interested in its support.

The slave trade was abolished by Virginia, a sovereign and independent state, in 1778. To the Old Dominion, therefore, belongs the honour of having struck the first decisive blow at that inhuman traffic. Several other states of this confederacy followed. In 1792, Denmark passed a law, providing for the abolition of the trade in 1803. The importation of slaves ceased in the United States in January, 1808, and in Great Britain and her colonies in March of the same year. In 1815, Portugal provided for the abolition of the slave trade in 1823. France, in 1815, consented to its immediate abolition. Spain, in 1817, agreed to abolish it in 1820. The Netherlands prohibited it in 1818; Sweden in 1813; and Brazil in 1826.

Notwithstanding the prohibition of the slave trade by almost every government in Christendom, and the great efforts made for its effectual suppression, there is every reason to believe that it still exists to a frightful degree, and that what it may have lost in extent it has gained in cruelty. The trade is now carried on by stealth, and many restraints are added, which before the abolition of the trade were unnecessary. Mr. Walsh, in his notices of Brazil, in 1828 and 1829, says, "this horrid traffic in human flesh is nearly as extensively carried on as ever, and under circumstances perhaps of a more revolting character. The restriction of slavery to the south of the line, was, in fact, nugatory, and evaded on

all occasions. The whole number of slaves captured by our cruisers, and afterwards emancipated, for nine years, from June 1819 to July 1828, was 13,281, being about 1400 on an average each year. During that period, it is supposed that nearly 100,000 human beings were annually transported as slaves from different parts of the coast, of whom more than 43,000 were legally imported into one city alone."

CHAPTER IV.

Origin and Progress of Slavery in this Country.

SLAVERY has existed in this country from a very early period. It was introduced shortly after its settlement, contributed to its infant vigour, and has since "grown with its growth and strengthened with its strength." It was at, and after, the time of its introduction, common to all the European colonies in America. Each of the Anglo-American provinces comprised, at different times, a greater or less number of slaves; and all were equally involved in the sanction of slave holding. It is true, that the North has never contained so large a number of slaves as the South. The climate of the southern provinces, the nature of their agricultural pursuits, and the necessities of their inhabitants, induced the extensive employment of slave labour. In the North, the negro would have been a burthen, not an aid. The hardy pilgrims of New England, so far from needing the labour of the African, could scarce have spared him the means of subsistence. Had the pilgrims fainted beneath the sultry sun of the South, had they been engaged in the same pursuits as their southern brethren, and felt the same necessity for aid, they would not now be enabled to boast their exemption from a slave population. The absence of slavery in the Northern states, is wholly to be ascribed to the fact, that slaves have not been necessary nor even valuable to the inhabitants of that sec

tion of our country. It is true that they have always felt a repugnance to the introduction of Africans into the country, but that repugnance has not been more warmly cherished, or more forcibly manifested than by the people of the South; and those citizens of our Northern states who express such a holy abhorrence of slavery in other sections of our country, should be reminded that their exemption is wholly the result of the accidents of situation and climate; and that they would themselves be slave-holders, had it not been their interest, or the interest of their ancestors, to be otherwise.

The importation of slaves from Africa to the West India islands was commenced, and had attained a considerable height, before the enterprize of England, excited by the gallant Raleigh, had been turned to the settlement of North America. England had already engaged successfully in the slave trade. Hawkins, in 1562, entered into the commerce, and found its profits so great, that Queen Elizabeth herself did not scruple, not only to sanction its prosecution, but to share its responsibility and profits. This was the commencement of a pursuit which was afterwards followed by England with unequalled ardour and unequalled success. At a subsequent period, she almost monopolized the slave trade; and attained a degree of skill, hardihood and cruelty in its prosecution, which her rivals in the hateful traffic were never able to surpass. To England, that nation of philanthropists, whose people have taken so deep an interest in the subject of American slavery, is to be ascribed the importation of a majority of those wretched beings who were torn from their native country and sold into slavery. But of this hereafter.

African slaves were first introduced into the North American colonies, in 1620. A Dutch ship arrived

in Virginia, having on board twenty slaves, who were sold to individuals in the colony.-The trade thus commenced was continued, but, in consequence of the opposition of the colony, did not, for many years, become extensive. Thirty years after the first arrival of slaves in Virginia, that colony contained fifty whites to one negro. Even after seventy years had elapsed from the date of the foundation of the colony, it comprised, proportionally, much fewer slaves than several of the Northern states at the time of the war of independence. It was not until the slave trade fell into the hands of the British, and was prosecuted under the immediate smile of the English government, that the number of blacks in the North American colonies was greatly increased.

Under the auspices of the mother country, slavery was rapidly extended. The want of labourers in the Southern colonies enabled the traders, notwithstanding the opposition of the local legislatures, to throw large numbers of slaves into the country. Some years after, we find that the blacks outnumbered the whites in the South. In 1730, there were twentyeight thousand negroes in South Carolina. In 1740, the slaves in South Carolina were three times as numerous as the whites. The blacks in Virginia were also, at that period, greatly superior in numbers to their masters. For a long time afterwards, the slaves continued to be a majority. In 1763, the black population of Virginia was one hundred thousand; and the white seventy thousand. In South Carolina the blacks were ninety thousand; and the whites only forty thousand.

The slave trade, notwithstanding the repugnance of the colonies, was prosecuted up to the era of the revolution. The number of slaves continued to increase accordingly up to that time. The number of slaves, and their proportion to the whites, from