"[14] This remained true for the whole
history of the colony. Importation was never stopped by actual
enactment, but was eventually declared contrary to the Constitution of
1784.[15] The participation of citizens in the trade appears never to
have been forbidden.
19. ~Restrictions in Massachusetts.~ The early Biblical codes of
Massachusetts confined slavery to "lawfull Captives taken in iust
warres, & such strangers as willingly selle themselves or are sold to
us."[16] The stern Puritanism of early days endeavored to carry this out
literally, and consequently when a certain Captain Smith, about 1640,
attacked an African village and brought some of the unoffending natives
home, he was promptly arrested. Eventually, the General Court ordered
the Negroes sent home at the colony's expense, "conceiving themselues
bound by y^e first oportunity to bear witnes against y^e haynos & crying
sinn of manstealing, as also to P'scribe such timely redresse for what
is past, & such a law for y^e future as may sufficiently deterr all
oth^{r}s belonging to us to have to do in such vile & most odious
courses, iustly abhored of all good & iust men."[17]
The temptation of trade slowly forced the colony from this high moral
ground. New England ships were early found in the West Indian
slave-trade, and the more the carrying trade developed, the more did the
profits of this branch of it attract Puritan captains.
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