"[11]
Turning now to restrictive measures, we must first note the measures of
the slave-consuming colonies which tended to limit the trade. These
measures, however, came comparatively late, were enforced with varying
degrees of efficiency, and did not seriously affect the slave-trade
before the Revolution. The moral sentiment of New England put some check
upon the trade. Although in earlier times the most respectable people
took ventures in slave-trading voyages, yet there gradually arose a
moral sentiment which tended to make the business somewhat
disreputable.[12] In the line, however, of definite legal enactments to
stop New England citizens from carrying slaves from Africa to any place
in the world, there were, before the Revolution, none. Indeed, not until
the years 1787-1788 was slave-trading in itself an indictable offence in
any New England State.
The particular situation in each colony, and the efforts to restrict the
small importing slave-trade of New England, can best be studied in a
separate view of each community.
18. ~Restrictions in New Hampshire.~ The statistics of slavery in New
Hampshire show how weak an institution it always was in that colony.[13]
Consequently, when the usual instructions were sent to Governor
Wentworth as to the encouragement he must give to the slave-trade, the
House replied: "We have considered his Maj^{ties} Instruction relating
to an Impost on Negroes & Felons, to which this House answers, that
there never was any duties laid on either, by this Goverm^{t}, and so
few bro't in that it would not be worth the Publick notice, so as to
make an act concerning them.
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