WHITE-SLAVE TRADE. 
121 
their native country, without demanding any 
money for their passage. When the vessel 
arrives in America, an advertisement is put 
into the paper, mentioning the different kinds 
of men on board, whether smiths, tailors, 
carpenters, labourers, or the like, and the peo¬ 
ple that are in want of such men flock down 
to the vessel; these poor Germans are then sold 
to the highest bidder, and the captain of the 
vessel, or the ship-holder, puts the money into 
his pocket.* 
There have been many very shocking in¬ 
stances of cruelty in the carrying on of this 
trade, vulgarly called The white-slave 1 
“ trade/’ I shall tell you but of one. While 
the yellow fever was raging in Philadelphia in 
the year 1793, at which time few vessels would 
venture to approach nearer to the city than 
Fort Mifflin, four miles below it, a captain in 
the trade arrived in the river, and hearing that 
such was the fatal nature of the infection, that 
a sufficient number of nurses could not be 
procured to attend the sick for any sum what¬ 
ever, he conceived the philanthropic idea of 
supplying this deficiency from amongst his 
passengers; accordingly he boldly sailed up to 
the city, and advertised his cargo for sale : 
A few healthy servants, generally between 
* Thousands of people were brought from the north of 
Ireland in the same way before the war with France, 
