THE FOREIGN SLAVE TRADE
VIRGINIA'S EFFORTS TO ABOLISH IT
Despite Virginia's failure to secure the immediate suppression of the
foreign slave trade, her sons were active in their efforts to restrict
its growth and at the earliest possible moment to drive the slave
ships from the seas.
In the first Congress under the constitution, April, 1789, Josiah
Parker of Virginia sought to amend the Tariff Bill under discussion by
inserting a clause levying an import tax of ten dollars upon every
slave brought into the country.
"He was sorry the constitution prevented Congress from prohibiting
the importation altogether. It was contrary to Revolution principles
and ought not to be permitted.... He hoped Congress would do all in
their power to restore to human nature its inherent privileges; to
wipe off, if possible, the stigma under which America labored; to do
away with the inconsistence in our principles justly charged upon
us; and to show by our actions, the pure beneficence of the doctrine
held out to the world in our Declaration of Independence."
Mr. Parker was supported by two other Virginians, Theodoric Bland and
James Madison, the latter declaring:
"The clause in the constitution allowing a tax to be imposed though
the traffic could not be prohibited for twenty years, was inserted,
he believed, for the very purpose of enabling Congress to give some
testimony of the sense of America with respect to the African trade.
By expressing a national disapprobation of that trade it is to be
hoped we may destroy it, and so save ourselves from reproaches and
our posterity from the imbecility ever attendant on a country filled
with slaves."[37]
But notwithstanding these appeals the movement was defeated, though
the discussion was evidently fruitful in bringing to the attention of
the country that under the constitution, Congress had authority not
only to levy a tax of ten dollars per capita on slaves imported, but
to prohibit citizens of the United States from engaging in the traffic
with foreign countries. These latter conclusions were formally
embodied in a report made to Congress on the 23rd of March, 1790, by a
committee of which Josiah Parker of Virginia was one of the leading
members. The adoption of this report stirred the opponents of the
slave trade to greater activity and numerous petitions were presented
at the next session of Congress from Maryland and Virginia and almost
every one of the Northern States. In the Virginia petition, the slave
trade was denounced as "an outrageous violation of one of the most
essential rights of human nature."[38]
In his message to Congress, at its session, 1806-7, Mr. Jefferson,
then President, brought to the attention of that body the fact that
under the constitution the time was at hand when the African slave
trade could be abolished, and urged the speedy enactment of such a
law. He said:
"I congratulate you, fellow-citizens, on the approach of a period at
which you may interpose your authority constitutionally to withdraw
the citizens of the United States from all further participation in
those violations of human rights which have so long been continued
on the unoffending inhabitants of Africa, and which the morality,
the reputation and the best interests of our country have long been
eager to proscribe."
An act was accordingly passed prohibiting the slave trade and imposing
forfeitures and fines upon ships and ships' crews engaged in the
traffic. The law also forfeited slaves so illegally imported and
provided that the disposition of such slaves should be left to the
states wherein they were found.
The African slave trade had flourished so long under the patronage and
support of the leading nations of Christendom and with the
acquiescence, at least, of the United States during the previous
twenty years, that it was difficult by simple statutory enactment to
put an end to the nefarious traffic. It will be seen, therefore, that
the trade continued from time to time between the coast of Africa, the
United States, West Indies and Brazil, despite the efforts of the
Federal authorities to enforce the laws made for its suppression. In
all these efforts Virginians, holding official places, were most
earnest and energetic in their warfare against the trade.
In his message to Congress, December 5, 1810, President Madison
declares:
"Among the commercial abuses still committed under the American flag
... it appears that American citizens are instrumental in carrying
on the traffic in enslaved Africans, equally in violation of the
laws of humanity and in defiance of those of their own country,"
and urges Congress to devise further means for suppressing the evil.
Again, in his message to Congress of December 3, 1816, President
Madison brings the subject to the attention of Congress and urges the
enactment of such amendments as will suppress violations of the
statute.
In the progress of time, certain slaves brought into the country in
violation of the act were captured and sold, thus in effect defeating
one of the prime objects of the law, which was to prevent any increase
in the slave population. Thereupon, at the session of Congress, 1819,
under the leadership of Charles Fenton Mercer and John Floyd of
Virginia a bill was passed amending the existing statute, requiring
the President to use armed cruisers off the coasts of Africa and
America to suppress the trade, providing for the immediate return to
Africa of any imported slaves, directing the President to appoint
agents to receive and care for them on their return and appropriating
One Hundred Thousand Dollars to carry out the general purposes of the
law.[39]
In the House, on motion of Hugh Nelson, of Virginia, the death penalty
was fixed as the punishment for violating the law, but this provision
was stricken out by the Senate.[40]
In February, 1823, Charles Fenton Mercer, a representative from
Virginia, in the House, secured the adoption of the following joint
resolution:
"RESOLVED, That the President of the United States be requested to
enter upon and to prosecute from time to time such negotiations with
the maritime powers of Europe and America as he may deem expedient
for the effectual abolition of the African slave trade and its
ultimate denunciation as Piracy under the laws of Nations by the
consent of the civilized world."[41]
Mr. Mercer, in urging the adoption of this resolution, denounced the
African slave trade "as a crime begun on a barbarous shore, claimed by
no civilized state, and subject to no moral law; a remnant of ancient
barbarism, a curse extended to the New World by the colonial policy of
the Old."[42]
Mr. Mercer supplemented his congressional action by visits made at his
own expense to the Governments of the Old World to urge upon them the
adoption of the policy set forth in his resolution.'[43]
It was early appreciated that unless at least a qualified "right of
search" was accorded the war vessels of the leading nations engaged in
the effort to suppress the slave trade, these efforts would be
seriously hindered. Accordingly the lower house of Congress, in May,
1821, under the leadership of Charles Fenton Mercer, from whose
committee the resolution was reported, adopted the recommendation that
a "right of search" be accorded the British Government in return for a
like privilege accorded the United States.[44] This resolution,
however, was defeated in the Senate.
Subsequently President Monroe submitted to Congress the draft of a
treaty with England embodying this provision. In a special message,
under date of May 21, 1824, he gave at length his reasons for
approving the treaty—saying:
"Should this convention be adopted there is every reason to believe
that it will be the commencement of a system destined to accomplish
the entire abolition of the slave trade."
Unfortunately, the ratification of this treaty was defeated in the
Senate, and not until 1862 was the "right of search" between Great
Britain and America established.
In his message to Congress June 1, 1841, President Tyler writes:
"I shall also at the proper season invite your attention to the
statutory enactments for the suppression of the slave trade which
may require to be rendered more effective in their provisions. There
is reason to believe that the traffic is on the increase.... The
highest consideration of public honor as well as the strongest
promptings of humanity require a resort to the most vigorous efforts
to suppress the trade."
Again, in his message of December 7, 1841, President Tyler writes:
"I invite your attention to existing laws for the suppression of the
African slave trade, and recommend all such alterations as may give
to them greater force and efficiency. That the American flag is
grossly abused by the abandoned and profligate of other nations is
but too probable."
In 1842, in the preparation of the Ashburton Treaty President Tyler
secured the insertion of a clause providing for the maintenance and
co-operation of squadrons of the United States and Great Britain off
the coast of Africa for the suppression of the trade.[45]
The ratification of this treaty was urged upon the Senate by the
President in his message of August 11, 1842, as conducive to the
abolition of what he termed the "unlawful and inhuman traffic."
Though Brazil, by statute, prohibited the African slave trade in 1831,
yet the traffic continued and in this trade citizens of the United
States as ship owners, or crew, were engaged despite the Federal
statutes against such a practice. Henry A. Wise of Virginia, Consul at
Rio Janeiro, made frequent and earnest reports to the State Department
calling the attention of the authorities to these violations. Under
date of February 18th, 1845, he writes to the Secretary of State at
Washington:
"I beseech, I implore the President of the United States to take a
decided stand on this subject. You have no conception of the bold
effrontery and the flagrant outrages of the African slave trade, and
of the shameless manner in which its worst crimes are licensed here,
and every patriot in our land would blush for our country did he
know and see, as I do, how our citizens sail and sell our flag to
the uses and abuses of that accursed practice."[46]
In his message to Congress, under date of December 4th, 1849,
President Taylor writes:
"Your attention is earnestly invited to an amendment of our existing
laws relating to the African slave trade with a view to the
effectual suppression of that barbarous traffic. It is not to be
denied that this trade is still in part carried on by means of
vessels built in the United States and owned or navigated by some of
our citizens."
The foregoing recitals will serve to illustrate the uncompromising
attitude of hostility on the part of leading Virginians toward the
African slave trade. They sought by Federal statutes and concerted
action with foreign nations to drive the pernicious traffic from the
seas. They denounced the trade as inhuman, because it stimulated men
to reduce free men to slavery and then entailed upon slaves the
horrors and dangers of the "middle passage." They resolutely opposed
any addition to the slave population of America because profoundly
convinced that every such importation was fraught with menace to the
social, economic and moral well-being of the nation and rendered more
difficult the emancipation of those who had already been brought to
her shores. As we have seen, her representatives at the first meeting
of the Continental Congress had defined Virginia's position in the
notable memorial which declared:
"The abolition of domestic slavery is the great object of desire in
those colonies, where it was unhappily introduced in their infant
state. But, previous to the enfranchisement of the slaves we have,
it is necessary to exclude all further importations from
Africa."[47]
This was the philosophy of the situation as defined by the great
statesmen of the Revolutionary period and to their views their ablest
successors in Virginia adhered down to the outbreak of the Civil War.
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Footnote 37:
_Annals of Congress_, Vol. I, col. 336.
Footnote 38:
_Suppression of the Slave Trade_, DuBois, p. 80.
Footnote 39:
_Annals of Congress_, 15th Congress, 2nd section, part I, pp. 442-3.
Footnote 40:
_Suppression of the Slave Trade_, DuBois, p. 120, Note 3.
Footnote 41:
_Annals of Congress_, 17th Congress, second session, pp. 435 and
928.
Footnote 42:
_Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America_, Wilson, Vol. I, p.
106.
Footnote 43:
_The Confederate Cause and Conduct in the War Between the States_,
McGuire and Christian, p. 17.
Footnote 44:
_Suppression of Slave Trade_, DuBois, p. 137.
Footnote 45:
_Letters and Times of the Tylers_, Tyler, Vol. II, p. 219.
Footnote 46:
_American Slave Trade_, Spear, p. 81.
Footnote 47:
_Writings of Jefferson_, Ford, Vol. I, p. 440.