"[15]
Strong and straightforward as this resolution was, time unfortunately
proved that it meant very little. Two years later, in this same
Congress, a decided opposition was manifested to branding the
slave-trade as inhuman, and it was thirteen years before South Carolina
stopped the slave-trade or Massachusetts prohibited her citizens from
engaging in it. The passing of so strong a resolution must be explained
by the motives before given, by the character of the drafting
committee, by the desire of America in this crisis to appear well
before the world, and by the natural moral enthusiasm aroused by the
imminence of a great national struggle.
28. ~Reception of the Slave-Trade Resolution.~ The unanimity with which
the colonists received this "Association" is not perhaps as remarkable
as the almost entire absence of comment on the radical slave-trade
clause. A Connecticut town-meeting in December, 1774, noticed "with
singular pleasure ... the second Article of the Association, in which it
is agreed to import no more Negro Slaves."[16] This comment appears to
have been almost the only one. There were in various places some
evidences of disapproval; but only in the State of Georgia was this
widespread and determined, and based mainly on the slave-trade
clause.[17] This opposition delayed the ratification meeting until
January 18, 1775, and then delegates from but five of the twelve
parishes appeared, and many of these had strong instructions against the
approval of the plan.
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