Activity of the Slave-Trade in the United States
Activity of the Slave-Trade (1820–1850) and the Rise of the Cotton Kingdom (1820–1851)
In the book “The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America 1638-1870” (1), W. E. B. Du Bois explained the following: The enhanced price of slaves throughout the American slave market, brought about by the new industrial development and the laws against the slave-trade, was the irresistible temptation that drew American capital and enterprise into that traffic. In the United States, in spite of the large interstate traffic, the average price of slaves rose from about $325 in 1840, to $360 in 1850, and to $500 in 1860.43 Brazil and Cuba offered similar inducements to smugglers, and the American flag was ready to protect such pirates. As a result, the American slave-trade finally came to be carried on principally by United States capital, in United States ships, officered by United States citizens, and under the United States flag.
Executive reports repeatedly acknowledged this fact. In 1839 “a careful revision of these laws” is recommended by the President, in order that “the integrity and honor of our flag may be carefully preserved.”44 In June, 1841, the President declares: “There is reason to believe that the traffic is on the increase,” and advocates “vigorous efforts.”45 His message in December of the same year acknowledges: “That the American flag is grossly abused by the abandoned and profligate of other nations is but too probable.”46 The special message of 1845 explains at length that “it would seem” that a regular policy of evading the laws is carried on: American vessels with the knowledge of the owners are chartered by notorious slave dealers in Brazil, aided by English capitalists, with this intent.47 The message of 1849 “earnestly” invites the attention of Congress “to an amendment of our existing laws relating to the African slave-trade, with a view to the effectual suppression 164of that barbarous traffic. It is not to be denied,” continues the message, “that this trade is still, in part, carried on by means of vessels built in the United States, and owned or navigated by some of our citizens.”48 Governor Buchanan of Liberia reported in 1839: “The chief obstacle to the success of the very active measures pursued by the British government for the suppression of the slave-trade on the coast, is the American flag. Never was the proud banner of freedom so extensively used by those pirates upon liberty and humanity, as at this season.”49 One well-known American slaver was boarded fifteen times and twice taken into port, but always escaped by means of her papers.50 Even American officers report that the English are doing all they can, but that the American flag protects the trade.51 The evidence which literally poured in from our consuls and ministers at Brazil adds to the story of the guilt of the United States.52 It was proven that the participation of United States citizens in the trade was large and systematic. One of the most notorious slave merchants of Brazil said: “I am worried by the Americans, who insist upon my hiring their vessels for slave-trade.”53 Minister Proffit stated, in 1844, that the “slave-trade is almost entirely carried on under our flag, in American-built vessels.”54 So, too, in Cuba: the British commissioners affirm that American citizens were openly engaged in the traffic; vessels arrived undisguised at Havana from the United States, and cleared for Africa as slavers after an alleged sale.55 The American consul, Trist, was proven to have consciously or unconsciously aided this trade by the issuance of blank 165clearance papers.56
The presence of American capital in these enterprises, and the connivance of the authorities, were proven in many cases and known in scores. In 1837 the English government informed the United States that from the papers of a captured slaver it appeared that the notorious slave-trading firm, Blanco and Carballo of Havana, who owned the vessel, had correspondents in the United States: “at Baltimore, Messrs. Peter Harmony and Co., in New York, Robert Barry, Esq.”57 The slaver “Martha” of New York, captured by the “Perry,” contained among her papers curious revelations of the guilt of persons in America who were little suspected.58 The slaver “Prova,” which was allowed to lie in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, and refit, was afterwards captured with two hundred and twenty-five slaves on board.59 The real reason that prevented many belligerent Congressmen from pressing certain search claims against England lay in the fact that the unjustifiable detentions had unfortunately revealed so much American guilt that it was deemed wiser to let the matter end in talk. For instance, in 1850 Congress demanded information as to illegal searches, and President Fillmore’s report showed the uncomfortable fact that, of the ten American ships wrongly detained by English men-of-war, nine were proven red-handed slavers.60
The consul at Havana reported, in 1836, that whole cargoes of slaves fresh from Africa were being daily shipped to Texas in American vessels, that 1,000 had been sent within a few months, that the rate was increasing, and that many of these slaves “can scarcely fail to find their way into the United States.” Moreover, the consul acknowledged that ships frequently cleared for the United States in ballast, taking on a cargo at some secret point.61 When with these facts we consider 166the law facilitating “recovery” of slaves from Texas,62 the repeated refusals to regulate the Texan trade, and the shelving of a proposed congressional investigation into these matters,63conjecture becomes a practical certainty. It was estimated in 1838 that 15,000 Africans were annually taken to Texas, and “there are even grounds for suspicion that there are other places … where slaves are introduced.”64 Between 1847 and 1853 the slave smuggler Drake had a slave depot in the Gulf, where sometimes as many as 1,600 Negroes were on hand, and the owners were continually importing and shipping. “The joint-stock company,” writes this smuggler, “was a very extensive one, and connected with leading American and Spanish mercantile houses. Our island65 was visited almost weekly, by agents from Cuba, New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, and New Orleans…. The seasoned and instructed slaves were taken to Texas, or Florida, overland, and to Cuba, in sailing-boats. As no squad contained more than half a dozen, no difficulty was found in posting them to the United States, without discovery, and generally without suspicion…. The Bay Island plantation sent ventures weekly to the Florida Keys. Slaves were taken into the great American swamps, and there kept till wanted for the market. Hundreds were sold as captured runaways from the Florida wilderness. We had agents in every slave State; and our coasters were built in Maine, and came out with lumber. I could tell curious stories … of this business of smuggling Bozal negroes into the United States. It is growing more profitable every year, and if you should hang all the Yankee merchants engaged in it, hundreds would fill their places.”66 Inherent 167probability and concurrent testimony confirm the substantial truth of such confessions. For instance, one traveller discovers on a Southern plantation Negroes who can speak no English.67 The careful reports of the Quakers “apprehend that many [slaves] are also introduced into the United States.”68 Governor Mathew of the Bahama Islands reports that “in more than one instance, Bahama vessels with coloured crews have been purposely wrecked on the coast of Florida, and the crews forcibly sold.” This was brought to the notice of the United States authorities, but the district attorney of Florida could furnish no information.69
Such was the state of the slave-trade in 1850, on the threshold of the critical decade which by a herculean
effort was destined finally to suppress it.
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