tes moved very slowly. Individual States under the old
confederation prohibited slavery within their borders, and in some cases
the slave trade; but when our forefathers came together to form that
Constitution under which the nation still exists, the opposition of
certain Southern States was so vigorous that the best which could be done
was to authorize a tax on slaves of not more than ten dollars a head, and
to provide that the traffic should not be prohibited before 1808. But
there followed a series of acts which corrected the seeming failure of the
constitutional convention. One prohibited American citizens "carrying on
the slave trade from the United States to any foreign place or country."
Another forbade the introduction of slaves into the Mississippi Territory.
Others made it unlawful to carry slaves to States which prohibited the
traffic, or to fit out ships for the foreign slave trade, or to serve on a
slaver. The discussion caused by all these measures did much to build up a
healthy public sentiment, and when 1808--the date set by the
Constitution--came round, a prohibitory law was passed, and the President
was authorized to use the armed vessels of the United States to give it
force and effect. Notwithstanding this, however, the slave trade, though
now illegal and outlawed, continued for fully half a century. Slaves were
still stolen on the coast of Africa by New England sea captains, subjected
to the pains and horrors of the middle passage, and smuggled into Georgia
or South Carolina, to be eagerly bought by the Southern planters. A
Congressman estimated that 20,000 blacks were thus smuggled into the
United States annually. Lafitte's nest of pirates at Barataria was a
regular slave depot; so, too, was Amelia Island, Florida. The profit on a
slave smuggled into the United States amounted to $350 or $500, and the
temptation was too great for men to be restrained by fear of a law, which
prescribed but light penalties. It is even matter of record that a
governor of Georgia resigned his office to enter the smuggling trade on a
large scale. The scandal was notorious, and the rapidly growing abolition
sentiment demanded that Congress so amend its laws as to make manstealers
at least as subject to them as other malefactors. But Congress tried the
politician's device of passing laws which would satisfy the
abolitionists, the slave trader, and the slave owner as well. To-day the
duty of the nation seems to have been so c