.. prompting our negroes to rise in arms
among us, those very negroes whom, by an inhuman use of his negative, he
hath refused us permission to exclude by law."[33] Two years later, in
1778, an "Act to prevent the further importation of Slaves" stopped
definitively the legal slave-trade to Virginia.[34]
8. ~Restrictions in Maryland.~[35] Not until the impulse of the Assiento
had been felt in America, did Maryland make any attempt to restrain a
trade from which she had long enjoyed a comfortable revenue. The Act of
1717, laying a duty of 40_s._,[36] may have been a mild restrictive
measure. The duties were slowly increased to 50_s._ in 1754,[37] and L4.
in 1763.[38] In 1771 a prohibitive duty of L9 was laid;[39] and in 1783,
after the war, all importation by sea was stopped and illegally imported
Negroes were freed.[40]
Compared with the trade to Virginia and the Carolinas, the slave-trade
to Maryland was small, and seems at no time to have reached proportions
which alarmed the inhabitants. It was regulated to the economic demand
by a slowly increasing tariff, and finally, after 1769, had nearly
ceased of its own accord before the restrictive legislation of
Revolutionary times.[41] Probably the proximity of Maryland to Virginia
made an independent slave-trade less necessary to her.
9. ~General Character of these Restrictions.
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