Commercial Convention of 1859 in the United States

Commercial Convention of 1859 and the Slave Final Crisis (1850–1870)

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 Convention of 1859 met at Vicksburg, Mississippi, May 9–19, and the slave-trade party came ready for a fray. On the second day Spratt called up his resolutions, and the next day the Committee on Resolutions recommended that, “in the opinion of this Convention, all laws, State or Federal, prohibiting the African slave trade, ought to be repealed.” Two minority reports accompanied this resolution: one proposed to postpone action, on account of the futility of the attempt at that time; the other report recommended that, since repeal of the national laws was improbable, nullification by the States impracticable, and action by the Supreme Court unlikely, therefore the States should bring in the Africans as apprentices, a system the legality of which “is incontrovertible.” “The only difficult question,” it was said, “is the future status of the apprentices after the expiration of their term of servitude.”9 Debate on these propositions began in the afternoon. A brilliant speech on the resumption of the importation of slaves, says Foote of Mississippi, “was listened to with breathless attention and applauded vociferously. Those of us who rose in opposition were looked upon by the excited assemblage present as traitors to the best interests of the South, and only worthy of expulsion from the body. The excitement at last grew so high that personal violence was menaced, and some dozen of the more conservative members of the convention withdrew from the hall in which it was holding its sittings.”10 “It was clear,” adds De Bow, “that the people of Vicksburg looked upon it [i.e., the convention] with some distrust.”11 When at last a ballot was taken, the first resolution passed by a vote of 40 to 19.12 Finally, the 8th Article of the Treaty of Washington was again condemned; and it was also suggested, in the newspaper which was the official organ of the meeting, that “the Convention raise a fund to be dispensed in premiums for the best sermons in favor of reopening the African Slave Trade.”13

Resources

Notes and References

1. W. E. B. Du Bois, “The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America 1638-1870” (1893), Longmans, Green and Co., London, New York, Bombay and Calcuta.

See Also

Further Reading

• American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society; Reports.
• Samuel Hazard, editor. The Register of Pennsylvania. 16 vols. Philadelphia, 1828–36.
• J.D.B. De Bow. The Commercial Review of the South and West. (Also De Bow’s Review of the Southern and Western States.) 38 vols. New Orleans, 1846–69.
• Pennsylvania Historical Society. The Charlemagne Tower Collection of American Colonial Laws. (Bibliography.) Philadelphia, 1890.
• Lewis Cass. An Examination of the Question, now in Discussion, … concerning the Right of Search. By an American. [Philadelphia, 1842.]
• John Fraser Macqueen. Chief Points in the Laws of War and Neutrality, Search and Blockade, etc. London and Edinburgh, 1862.
• Friends. Facts and Observations relative to the Participation of American Citizens in the African Slave Trade. Philadelphia, 1841.
• L.W. Spratt . The Foreign Slave Trade the Source of Political Power, etc. Charleston, 1858.