Restrictions in Maryland

Restrictions in Maryland in the United States

Restrictions in Maryland (the Planting Colonies)

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: Not until the impulse of the Assiento had been felt in America, did Maryland make any attempt to restrain a trade from which she had long enjoyed a comfortable revenue. The Act of 1717, laying a duty of 40s.,36 may have been a mild restrictive measure. The duties were slowly increased to 50s. in 1754,37and £4. in 1763.38 In 1771 a prohibitive duty of £9 was laid;39 and in 1783, after the war, all importation by sea was stopped and illegally imported Negroes were freed.40

Compared with the trade to Virginia and the Carolinas, the slave-trade to Maryland was small, and seems at no time to have reached proportions which alarmed the inhabitants. It was regulated to the economic demand by a slowly increasing tariff, and finally, after 1769, had nearly ceased of its own accord before the restrictive legislation of Revolutionary times.41 Probably the proximity of Maryland to Vir23ginia made an independent slave-trade less necessary to her.

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.

Posted

in

,

by

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *