226 : The Atlantic 



an agitation which in 1833 led to the passage of i»n act outlawing the 

 international slave trade and after this efforts of enforcement were 

 rapidly intensified, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation came in 

 1863 and in 1865 the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified. 



As the abolition movement increased its activity and the period 

 of the Civil War approached, efforts to suppress the importation of 

 slaves from Africa grew more determined. The operation of slave 

 vessels became more and more difficult and hazardous. The slavers 

 disguised their ships and in order to avoid detection carried false 

 cargoes and false manifests and also in many cases ran under false 

 colors. They kept their cargoes concealed below decks and sailed on 

 roundabout courses. 



The slave cargoes were treated with increasing brutality and care- 

 lessness. In part this was due to the fact that only brutal and desper- 

 ate men could be found to command the vessels engaged in the trade. 

 In part it may have been due to the fact that the traders and cap- 

 tains, knowing that their activities were illegal and despised, and 

 feeling a sense of guilt about the whole business, found an outlet for 

 their feelings in abusing their helpless cargo. 



In any event, when an illegal slaver was being chased and was 

 about to be captured, it was common practice to bring the slaves on 

 deck in their chains, to weight them still further and throw the 

 whole cargo overboard so that when the slaver was captured there 

 was no evidence of its activities left and no witnesses to describe 

 what had taken place on board. The details of the management of 

 the slave crews in the later days of the trade are so brutal as to for- 

 bid their inclusion in a volume such as this one designed for general 

 circulation. 



The gradual suppression of the international slave trade tended to 

 increase the price of slaves in the domestic market. The domestic 

 trade, however, continued active and brisk right up to the time of 

 the Civil War. As the production of cotton moved westward the 

 active use of slaves in the border states and in the states of the At- 

 lantic seaboard declined, but they continued to be interested in the 

 maintenance of slavery because they found a profitable market for 

 their excess slaves in Texas and in the other newer states of the West. 

 This was the background that made the Fugitive Slave Law, the 

 repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the Kansas-Nebraska Act 

 dangerous and explosive issues. 



The greatest economic benefit of the slave system was reaped not 

 by the owners and operators of slaves but by those who dealt in the 



