In defiance of its
forbiddance and its penalties, it was well known that citizens and
vessels of the United States were still engaged in that traffic.... In
various parts of the nation, outfits were made for slave-voyages,
without secrecy, shame, or apprehension.... Countenanced by their
fellow-citizens at home, who were as ready to buy as they themselves
were to collect and to bring to market, they approached our Southern
harbors and inlets, and clandestinely disembarked the sooty offspring of
the Eastern, upon the ill fated soil of the Western hemisphere. In this
way, it had been computed that, during the last twelve months, twenty
thousand enslaved negroes had been transported from Guinea, and, by
smuggling, added to the plantation stock of Georgia and South Carolina.
So little respect seems to have been paid to the existing prohibitory
statute, that it may almost be considered as disregarded by common
consent."[49]
These voyages were generally made under the flag of a foreign nation,
and often the vessel was sold in a foreign port to escape confiscation.
South Carolina's own Congressman confessed that although the State had
prohibited the trade since 1788, she "was unable to enforce" her laws.
"With navigable rivers running into the heart of it," said he, "it was
impossible, with our means, to prevent our Eastern brethren, who, in
some parts of the Union, in defiance of the authority of the General
Government, have been engaged in this trade, from introducing them into
the country.
Pages:
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147