NEGRO. 



13 



1689 the annual importation was about 4500; and 

 between 1698 and 1707 about 25,0(10 slaves were 

 landed annually. But notwithstanding the large 

 number of interloping vessels of all nations engaged 

 in the slave-trade, England was the only power that 

 clothed the action of its seamen with the majesty of 

 national authority. Her slave-ships increased until 

 she could undertake to steal Africans for other na- 

 tions. The service that France had once performed 

 for Spain England now undertook. In 1713 Queen 

 Anne, of England, entered into a contract with liing 

 Philip V. of Spain, to import 144,000 negroes into 

 Spanish America within the space of thirty years, and 

 she advanced to Philip 200,000 crowns for the fran- 

 chise, and agreed to pay a duty of 33i crowns upon 

 each slave. The agreement was known as "The 

 Assiento," and was as follows: "Her Britannic 

 Majesty did offer and undertake, by persons whom 

 she shall appoint, to bring into the West Indies of 

 America belonging to his Catholic Majesty, in the 

 space of thirty years, 144,000 negroes, at the rate of 

 4800 in each of the said thirty years. ' ' The Assiento 

 was considered of such great importance that it be- 

 came the subject of stipulation in the preliminaries 

 of the treaty of peace at Utrecht ; and it was solemnly 

 confirmed as the sixteenth article of that treaty. 

 This enterprise, which constituted the Queen of Eng- 

 land and the King of Spain the largest slave-traders 

 in the world, seemed to promise great financial gain. 

 Philip took one-quarter of the stock and gave his note 

 for it ; Anne reserved to herself one-quarter, and the 

 remaining one-half she left for her loyal subjects. 

 For twenty years the annual importation of slaves was 

 about 15,000, divided between the Spanish and Eng- 

 lish colonies ; and for the last twenty years there were 

 imported in English ships 20,000 slaves per annum. 

 The number of slaves imported continued to increase 

 until ^just before the passage of the " Non-importation 

 Act,' when it had reached 41,000 per annum for 

 the British-American colonies, and 97,000 carried to 

 the Spanish American colonies. Between 1680 and 

 1700 the Ai'rieaii Company and private traders ex- 

 ported about 300,000 slaves from Africa: and from 

 1700 to 17*1'. from Africa to Jamaica alone 610,000. 



The total number imported into the West Indies and 

 British colonies from 1680 to 1786 may be carefully 

 stated at 2,130,000, an annual average of 20,095. 

 The loss at sea was about one-eighth of the entire 

 2, 1 30,000 slaves imported. The fleet that was engaged 

 in the slave-trade was without a parallel in the history 

 of the world. In 1771 there were 192 slave-ships 

 sailing from London, Liverpool, and Bristol, with a 

 capacity for caiTying 47, 000 slaves. There were 107 

 ships from Liverpool alone, with a capacity for 2'.i,2.~>ii 

 slaves. From 1771 to 1776 the average annual slave- 

 fleet was 150 vessels sailing from English ports alone. 

 in addition to those vessels employed by the subjects 

 of other nations and by the British colonists in Amer- 

 ica. For the half century of the slave-trade to 

 Ani'-rica, from 1700 to I7'>o. the estimated loss of life 

 upon the ocean was 250,000 Africans, who were cast 

 into tin; deep. The loss upon the land from hunger, 



>, overwork, and cruel treatment was alnmi 

 one-sixteenth of the entire number landed, whieh was. 

 in the KiiL'lish West Indies, American colonies. 

 Spanish and French possessions, about 3,000,000 

 souls. 



The rapid increase of slaves in the British-American 

 colonies led to the enactment of special laws regulating 

 the new system of labor in vogue. The laws varied in 

 the dinVrent colonies. In the Southern colonies, where 

 many whites had sold their service for a specified 



I. the law of bondage recognized two classes, 

 ' servants for a term of years, and servants for life ; ' ' 

 while in Massachusetts and other Eastern colonies 

 slavery was established by statute. In those colonies 

 where thTi- was no statute legalizing slavery it existed 

 in contemplation of law ; and many laws were enacted 



recogniiing negro slaves as real, personal, and mixed 

 property. Slaves were bought and sold at private and 

 public sales ; were disposed of by will, and, sometimes, 

 manumitted under certain declaratory and restraining 

 statutes. The slave codes of the colonies were quite 

 similar. The slaves were excluded from the ecclesias- 

 tical, civil, and militia establishments. They were not 

 competent to testify in any criminal or judicial pro- 

 ceeding, unless all the parties to the cause were 

 negroes. In some colonies the master's power over 

 the slave extended to life and limb ; in others the cor- 

 rection was restricted to moderate corporal punishment. 

 As a class the colonial slaves were governed rigorously : 

 being overworked, underfed, thinly clad, and wretch- 

 edly noused. When old and infirm they were usually 

 manumitted, and then sent forth to earn their own 

 living. This was practiced to such an alarming extent 

 that some of the colonial Legislatures required that 

 masters emancipating old slaves should furnish a bond 

 that they should not become a charge upon the com- 

 munity. The slaves were not allowed to receive in- 

 struction of any kind in schools or from private indi- 

 viduals. In rare instances they were received into the 

 communion of the Christian church : but the custom 

 was to abandon them to the most degrading and de- 

 stroying ignorance. Their marriages were by common 

 consent without the presence or official sanction of a 

 clergyman. Their immorality was due to the system 

 under which they were constrained to languish. In 

 sickness they were without nursing, and rarely secured 

 the service of a physician, and when they died they 

 were thrown into the common ditch. The free negroes 

 and niulattoes were taxed, without representation. 

 They were admitted to the church, but were without a 

 voice in ecclesiastical government. They were com- 

 pelled to train with the militia of the parish in which 

 they resided, and yet they were assigned to fatigue 

 duty alone. They could not stand for any civil office ; 

 could not cast a ballot for any candidate for office. 

 They were denied social intercourse with the whites, 

 and were forbidden to consort with slaves. They were 

 constrained to furnish their own instruction, since 

 there was no provision made by the colonies for the 

 education of their children. The opportunities for 

 young men to secure remunerative positions were rare; 

 and thus the free negroes of the colonies were confined 

 to servile employments. 



Notwithstanding the painfully obscure position the 

 free negroes and niulattoes of the colonies occupied, 

 many of them attained to a high degree of intelligence 

 and virtue, and some of them accumulated consider- 

 able property. During the colonial period there were 

 some able representatives of these people. Phillis 

 Wheatley (1753-1794), the poetess; Paul Cuffee 

 [q. v.l (1759^-1817), navigator, merchant, and philan- 

 thropist; Prirna Hall (1756-1789), soldier, politician, 

 and grand-master of the first lodge of negro masons ; 

 Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806), astronomer, philoso- 

 pher, and author ; James Durham (1762-1804), phy- 

 sician and chemist; Richard Fuller (1749-1829), math- 

 ematician,'and others, were persons whose talents have 

 attracted attention. They were not indifferent to the 

 lui-il.-hips under which their less fortunate brethren 

 Buffered, and their talents and character pleaded elo- 

 quently the cause of the oppressed. 



Although slavery existed in all the British- American 

 colonies, there was at all times more or less opposition 

 to the system. A few years prior to the war of the 

 revolution the agitation of the slavery question began 

 to take definite shape. Letters of protest appeared in 

 the colonial newspapers; the town meetings passed 

 resolutions condemnatory of slavery, and instructed the 

 representatives to the general courts to secure such 

 legislation as would put an end to slavery. The move- 

 ment assumed several aspects. An attempt was made 

 to tax the slave-trade to its death ; but this only gave 

 the trade legal recognition, and emboldened the traffick- 

 ers in human flesh. Nor was a tax levied against the 



