The American Slave-Trade

An Account of Its Origin, Growth and Suppression

John R. Spears

• Publisher: Papamoa Press
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781789120585
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

First published in the year 1900, American journalist, naval historian and author John R. Spears' book tells the story of American slave trading, from its early beginnings in 1619 to its end with the hanging of the last slaver in 1862. In this carefully researched history, Spears vividly recounts tales of the ship-owners who crammed 500 or more human beings into holds so filthy that half of them died before the voyage ended, and the captains who chained their human cargo to the anchor and threw them into the sea to avoid being taken with evidence. There are chapters on the first slaver pirate to be executed in the United States; the forming of the law that followed Amistad's voyage; and the notion that a man may take another life if his liberty is at stake. The American Slave-Trade chronicles facts showing the gain involved and the dreams of a slave state; the sham efforts—as well as the authentic ones—to stop slavery; and exposes the fanatical bigots—who they were and how they stood to profit. Finally, the book also details the facts relating to overcrowded ships and brutal masters in the odious traffic in African slaves.

CHAPTER I—THE TRADE IN THE EARLIEST DAYS

The Unnamed Dutch Slaver of 1619—First Slaver Fitted Out in American Waters and the First American-built Slaver—When Human Beings were Frequently a Part of a Ship’s General Cargo—How a Good Priest, through a Love of Humanity, Promoted the Traffic—Days when Christian Missionaries Found Profit in the Trade, and It Hurt the Conscience of No One Engaged in It—Kings and Nobles as Slave-Traders—A Slaver Contract that was Considered a Magnificent Triumph of Diplomacy—The Yankee Slavers’ Successful Stroke for Free Trade and Sailors’ Rights—Extent of the Early Traffic.

ON a hot day late in the month of August, 1619, while the people of the little British settlement called Jamestown, in what is now the State of Virginia, were busily engaged in the work of establishing homes on the borders of the great American wilderness, an alarm was raised that a ship was coming with the tide up from the sea. Only one more startling cry than that could have been heard—a warning that hostile Indians were coming; but in those days, when the fighting between nations nominally at peace might cost more lives than were lost in our war with Spain, the approach of an unknown ship, to a settlement as weak as Jamestown, was a most serious matter. It was the more serious for the reason that Spain, in those days, laid claim to all of North America, and was threatening to come to the Chesapeake Bay and lay waste the settlement there as an encroachment upon her rights.

The stranger was a queer-looking craft, if we may judge her by modern standards, for she was, as all ships then were, short and thick—bluff-bowed and round at the stern—while she towered so high out of water at each end that the term “forecastle,” which was then and is now applied to any structure at the bow of a ship, was a word of obvious significance. There was literally a castle on her bow, and another, called a poop, on her stern. Her sails, too, of which she carried, doubtless, two on the fore and the main masts, and one on the mizzen, were like great bags bellying out before the wind. When compared with the flat canvas of a modern ship it is easy to see that one would have difficulty in securing a crew for such a ship in these days. But more interesting than the form of either hull or sail was the row of black-muzzled cannon that projected through the bulwarks on each side; and altogether it is not mere fancy to say that the alarm of such a ship approaching Jamestown carried tremors of fear to the breasts of the weak, and added throbs to the hearts of the strong as they hurried to get their weapons and go down to the river bank to receive her.

But as the stranger drew near, the trained eyes of the colonists saw many signs to allay their fears. She was flying the Dutch flag, for one thing, and the Dutch were then the leading traders of the world. Moreover, it was apparent that her cannon were neither manned nor cast loose for action; the attitudes and the work of her crew told convincingly that trade, and not war, was wanted, and, seeing this, the ready muskets of the colonists were laid aside that a friendly welcome might be extended.

Then came the ship to the shore, where her lines were made fast to the near-by trees, and her captain walked over a gang-plank to greet the colonists under the widespread, thick-leaved branches, and tell them that he had brought merchandise to exchange for the products of the settlement.

Few more interesting ships than this are known to the history of America. The Mayflower only, of all the ships that followed Columbus, may be compared to her, and that by way of contrast, because the New England ship came with men who sought a form of liberty, while the Dutchman came to introduce a kind of slavery. Among the articles of merchandise that the Dutch captain had to offer the colonists were twenty human beings, negroes brought from the coast of Africa, and his ship was probably the first slave-trader to visit what is now the coast of the United States.

From a sailor’s point of view also the story of this slaver is remarkable; in fact, it is one of the most singular stories known to the history of commerce. Thus, we know that she hailed from Flushing, and the number of slaves that she brought. There is no doubt about her shape and rig. We are well enough assured as to where she landed, and we are even justified in saying how she was secured to the river’s bank. There is an old record containing the names of some of the slaves she landed. But her name and the name of her commander have been lost beyond recovery. She appears above our horizon like a strange sail at sea, showing unmistakably from our present point of view that something is wrong with her; we pass her close enough at hand to see on her decks men and women in distress whom we are wholly unable to relieve, and then she fades away in the mists astern, and is lost forever.

We are indebted to John Rolfe, the man that married the Indian maiden Pocahontas (and so became the most famous squaw-man in history), for the greater part of what we know about the first slave-trader to visit our shores. Rolfe was in Jamestown when the Dutchman came to Virginia waters, and it is his record that says: “a dutch man of warre that sold us twenty Negars” came to Jamestown late in August, 1619.

In other accounts this ship is called a Dutch trader, instead of a “man of warre,” while others still call her a privateer. Taking all the statements together, the truth appears to be that she was built as a cargo carrier, and yet was armed, and had a license permitting her to prey on the commerce of the enemies of Holland. Her chief business was as a trader, but incidentally she was a lawful privateer. At what point in Africa, or how, she obtained the negroes is not known.

The story of how she happened to carry her slaves to Virginia is of especial interest here because it includes that of the first ship fitted in United States territory for the slave trade.

In the year 1619 “the rapacious and unscrupulous” Captain Samuel Argali was ruler of the colony of Virginia, Argali was able, energetic, adroit, and conscienceless. Pie was what ward politicians would call a “heeler” of the Earl of Warwick, a man at once rich and unscrupulous. Among the Earl’s possessions was the ship Treasurer, and Argali owned a share of her.

During the year 1619 the Treasurer came to Virginia, armed as a privateer, and bearing a commission from the Duke of Savoy permitting her to cruise against the Spaniards. Presumably intending such a cruise, she cleared out for the West Indies, where, as her log-book shows, she fell in with a Dutch letter of marque and told him that slaves were wanted in Virginia.

It is fair to presume that the Dutchman at once headed away for the Chesapeake, because John Pory, secretary of the Virginia colony, in a letter to Sir Dudley Carleton, dated September 13, 1619, mentions “the man-of-war of Flushing,” and says: “The occasion of this ship’s coming hither was an accidental consortship in the West Indies with the Treasurer He adds that the Dutchman wanted to buy provisions, “of which the master pleaded that his vessel was in dire need.”

It is a matter of record that the Treasurer also brought negro slaves to Virginia, and a woman called Angela was sold to a Mr. Bennett. A record of her may be found in the census record of Virginia made in 1625, according to Hotten’s “Original List of Emigrants, etc.”

It is possible that the Treasurer returned ahead of the Dutchman; but, because the Dutchman was in need of food, and because John Rolfe speaks of the Dutchman’s slaves only, it is fair to infer that the Dutchman came first.

The records tell why the Treasurer landed but one slave. Says the “Declaration” of the Virginia Council, made in 1623: “Finding Captain Argali, the setter-of-her-out, departed thence, she withdrew herself instantly from the new Governor’s power, and went to the Somer Islands, then discharged her booty, which were a certain number of negroes, all of which, even those that belonged as shares unto the mariners (whereof they have not long since complained in court), were taken and placed on the said Earl’s lands, as belonging to his lordship, and so continue.”

It is perhaps worth mentioning that it has been asserted that the slaves ascribed to the Dutchman really came from the Treasurer, and that the letters and other Virginia documents relating to the matter were deliberately false, because the Virginians feared the Spanish would come to avenge the raids which the Treasurer had made in the West Indies. But a careful reading of all the available matter on the subject shows no real foundation for the assertion.

As to the Treasurer’s career, a word more must be told, because, as has been said, she was the first slaver fitted out in America. She had visited the coast occasionally as a trader between England and the colonies since 1613, but had not been in the slave-trade until 1619. In this voyage to the West Indies she was “manned with the ablest men in the colony” (see “Declaration” of 1623), but on reaching Bermuda she was declared to be unseaworthy. Her arms were taken out of her and she was broken up. The robbing of her crew was a natural incident of the trade, and in after years common enough.

One more question as to the first slave-carrying ships in the American trade remains to be considered—a question that has been raised in connection with the Spanish settlement of Florida, and with the Norse discoveries on the New England coast. If it be admitted that Eric the Red landed on the New England coast, then it is probable that he carried a woman slave ashore with him. That the Spaniards had negro slaves in their settlement in Florida is not now disputed. Peter Menendez, who held a commission of the King of Spain for a settlement in Florida, landed at St. Augustine on September 8, 1565. He undoubtedly had negro slaves in his party. If anyone wishes to make an exhaustive study of the matter of the landing of the first slaves in America, he can find nearly all the references to authorities needed in the Magazine of American History for November, 1891; but the question of interest to the present history is not when the first slaves were brought within the present limits of the United States, but when the first slave-ship came here in the prosecution of its traffic in human beings. Certainly neither the Viking nor the Spaniard came as a slave-merchant.

The first American-built slaver of which there is definite record was the ship Desire, a vessel of 120 tons, built at Marblehead, in 1636. It does not appear that she was in the trade to Africa, but Winthrop’s Journal has the following under the date of February 26, 1638:

“Mr. Pierce in the Salem ship, the Desire, returned from the West Indies after seven months. He had been at Providence, and brought some cotton and tobacco and negroes, etc., from thence, and salt from Tortugas.” To this is added a remark worth considering: “Dry fish and strong liquors are the only commodities for those parts.”

Meantime another slave-ship had come to Virginia—the Fortune, Captain Grey, of London. While on the coast of Africa she had fallen in with an Angola ship loaded with slaves, and had captured her. The slaves were carried to Virginia and exchanged for eighty-five hogsheads and five butts of tobacco, which were sold in London. This was in 1630.

That the Dutch introduced African slaves as soon as they obtained a foothold in America need not be said to those who are familiar with the history of New York. They tried, at first, after the custom of the times, to enslave the aboriginal inhabitants, but the task was found so harassing and unprofitable that they soon sought supplies of blacks from Africa. In fact enslaving red men led to such trouble that a wall was built across the lower end of Manhattan Island, where Wall Street is now found, to keep red lovers of liberty from driving the Dutch slave-catchers over the Battery beach into the bay.

The first formal mention of negro slaves in the Dutch Manhattan documents is found in the thirtieth clause of the Charter of; Liberties and Exemptions of 1629. It says: “The company will use their endeavors to supply the colonists with as many blacks as they conveniently can.” The New Project of Liberties and Exemptions of a later date says “the Incorporated West India Company shall allot to each Patroon twelve Black men and women out of the prizes in which Negroes shall be found.” Unquestionably the first slave-ships in the trade to Manhattan Island were privateers, as the first slaver in Virginia was, or they were men-of-war.

Just when the first slaver reached New York is nowhere stated, but we can prove that it was within a few years after the first blacks were landed in Virginia. In 1644 Director-General Kieft gave liberty to a number of slaves who had “served the company eighteen or nineteen years.” That is to say they had been taken into the company’s service in 1625 or 1626.

Of the introduction of negro slaves at other points along the coast nothing need be said here. It was in those earliest years a very small trade. There were no ships engaged in carrying slaves exclusively on the high seas, so far as the record shows, until about 1630, when the Fortune captured the Angola slaver. The slaves were merely a part of the “general cargo” of that day. In 1647 the Dutch on Manhattan Island wrote of “the slave-trade, that hath lain so long dormant, to the great damage of the company.” In 1635 the whole number of slaves imported into Virginia was but twenty-six. In 1642 only seven were imported, and in 1649 only seventeen. There is no record of the total importations, but it is certain that the traffic in all the colonies combined amounted to only a few hundred previous to 1650—certainly fewer in number than would have made a single cargo in later years.

Trivial as were these transactions from a commercial point of view, the facts are all of importance here, not only because they belonged to the beginning of the trade, but because they are helpful to an understanding of the light in which the colonists saw the trade. Did the colonists think, as they bargained for the blacks, that there was the beginning of a “fatal traffic” that was “imposed upon them from without”—did they “lay aside scruples against” a traffic in human beings before they exchanged their products for the “twenty Negars”?

The student who looks to see why this Virginia colony was established may see, first of all, in “The True and Sincere Declaration,” published in 1609, what the colonists said was their chief object. It reads: “To preach and baptize into the Christian Religion, and, by the propagation of the Gospell, to recover out of the armes of the Devill, a number of poore and miserable soules wrapt up unto death in almost invincible ignorance; to endeavour the fulfilling and accomplishment of the number of the elect which shall be gathered out of all corners of the earth and to add our myte to the Treasury of Heaven.”

They believed that was their chief object, but we have another view of their habits of thought.

In a letter written by Captain John Smith in 1614 we find the following regarding the sport of fishing in the waters of the colony:

“And is it not pretty sport to pull up twopence, sixpence, and twelvepence, as fast as you can haul and veer a line?”

One may search the entire literature of that day without finding another sentence so significant of the spirit of the age as well as of the colonists—the spirit that measured even its sport in fishing by counting the market value of each fish taken. In all sincerity they would proclaim that missionary work was the first object in making the settlement; they did truly wish to add their “myte” to the number of “the elect,” but with their missionary purposes there was found a proclaimed and unrepressed determination to make money. They had religious instructors who turned from a contemplation of the gold-paved streets of their heavenly home to talk of...

Table of contents

• Title page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• DEDICATION
• PREFACE
• ILLUSTRATIONS
• CHAPTER I-THE TRADE IN THE EARLIEST DAYS
• CHAPTER II-OLD-TIME SLAVER CAPTAINS AND THEIR SHIPS
• CHAPTER III-WHEN VOYAGES WENT AWRY
• CHAPTER IV-THE SLAVER AND HER OUTFIT
• CHAPTER V-ON THE SLAVE-COAST
• CHAPTER VI-THE MIDDLE PASSAGE
• CHAPTER VII-THE SLAVERS’ PROFIT
• CHAPTER VIII-SLAVER LEGISLATION IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES
• CHAPTER IX-THE EARLY WORK FOR EXTIRPATION
• CHAPTER X-THE SLAVERS OUTLAWED
• CHAPTER XI-TALES OF THE EARLIER SMUGGLERS
• CHAPTER XII
• CHAPTER XIII-INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION FOR SUPPRESSING THE TRADE
• CHAPTER XIV-THE OF THE OUTLAWED TRADE
• CHAPTER XV-THE NAVY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE
• CHAPTER XVI-FREE-NEGRO COLONIES AND THE SLAVE-TRADE
• CHAPTER XVII-TALES OF THE COASTWISE SLAVE-SHIPS
• CHAPTER XVIII-STORY OF THE AMISTAD
• CHAPTER XIX-LATTER-DAY SLAVE SMUGGLERS
• CHAPTER XX-WHEN THE END CAME
• APPENDIX A
• APPENDIX B.
• REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER