iss Martineaus, _et ed omne genus_, all have
misrepresented us! These English writers all denounce slavery, and
eulogize _Democracy_; as if an Englishman could be a Democrat, in the
modern, vulgar sense of the term, and be a consistent man!

But we do not propose, in this brief discourse, to enter into any
defence of the African slave trade. Although the evils of it are greatly
exaggerated, its evils and cruelties, its barbarities, are not justified
by the most ultra slaveholders of this age. The vile traffic was
abolished by the United States, even before the British Parliament
prohibited it. All the powers in the world have subsequently prohibited
this trade--some of the more influential and powerful of them declaring
it _piracy_, and covering the African seas with armed vessels to prevent
it!

This trade, which seems so shocking to the feelings of mankind, dates
its origin as far back as the year 1442. Antony Gonzales, a Portuguese
mariner, while exploring the coast of Africa, was the first to steal
some _Moors_, and was subsequently forced by Prince Henry of Portugal to
carry them back to Africa. In the year 1502, the Spaniards began to
steal negroes, and employ them in the mines of Hispaniola, Cuba, and
Jamaica. In 1517, the Emperor Charles V. granted a _patent_ to certain
privileged persons, _to steal exclusively_ a supply of 4,000 negroes
annually, for these islands!

African slaves were first imported into America in 1620, a century after
their introduction into the West Indies. The first cargo, of twenty
Africans, by a Dutch vessel, was brought up the James River, into
Virginia, and sold out as slaves. England then being the most commercial
of European nations, engrossed the trade; and from 1680 to 1780, there
were imported into the British Possessions alone, TWO MILLIONS OF
SLAVES--making an average annual importation of more than 20,000! And
the annual importation into America has transcended 50,000! The States
of this Union, north of Mason and Dixon's Line, commonly called the New
England States, were never, to any great extent, _slaveholding_; their
virtuous and pious minds were chiefly exercised in _slave-stealing_ and
_slave-selling_! To Old England our New England States owe their
knowledge of the art of slave-stealing; and to New England these
Southern States are wholly indebted for their slaves. They stole the
African from his native land, and sold him into bondage for the sake of
gain. They kept bu