14 



Chapter 



THE SLAVERS 



V^LAVERY had an important place in the development of 

 Atlantic travel and Atlantic history. Today we may wince a little at 

 having to make such an admission but we can somewhat temper our 

 regret by recollecting that until one hundred and fifty years ago, 

 slavery, in some form or other, was an accepted fact in most parts of 

 the world. It had existed for a long time; it was sometimes regretted 

 by moralists and philosophers but more usually accepted by others 

 as an inherent part of social organization. It was part of an Old 

 World tradition and when transferred to the New World it was ac- 

 cepted as long as it seemed to have economic and social utility. For 

 centuries the slave trade from Africa to America was the subject of 

 official recognition and regulation and a subject of negotiation in 

 diplomatic exchanges between governments. Until the opening of 

 the nineteenth century it was energetically pursued by respected citi- 

 zens of many countries on both sides of the Atlantic. 



Whatever its moral results, the physical and practical results of 

 slavery were far-reaching. It was started in a modest and genteel 

 way by the Portuguese and first seriously developed by the Spaniards 

 in the West Indies. It was, together with fishing and whaling, one of 

 the few employments open to the men and vessels of the British- 

 American colonies. In the beginning, slaving was often undertaken 

 as a side line or combined with other trade but gradually it became 

 a separate venture and tended to develop a special type of vessel. 



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