orbidden the
importation of slaves from abroad. But in 1803, South Carolina again
legalized the slave trade; and in 1805, Congress after a brief
interdiction removed all restrictions upon the importation of slaves
into the Louisiana Territory. The slave trade at once assumed alarming
proportions. It was officially stated that between 1803 and 1807, 39,075
negroes were brought into the port of Charleston. Eighteen hundred of
these unfortunate blacks were imported in American vessels. One half of
the consignees of these slavers were Americans, of whom thirteen were
natives of Charleston and eighty-eight of Rhode Island.

This traffic, coupled with the alarm caused by negro insurrections in
the West Indies, prepared the public mind for positive action, as the
year approached when Congress might constitutionally prohibit the
foreign slave trade. The Act of March 2, 1807, however, only partially
met the expectations of the anti-slavery people. The African slave
trade was forbidden, but negroes illegally imported were to be disposed
of as the legislatures of the several States should determine. There was
reason to fear that the Southern States would neglect to legislate on
this important matter, and that the act would be indifferently enforced.
Moreover, the coastwise slave trade for purposes of sale was not
interdicted, but forbidden only in vessels under forty tons burden.

That the Act of 1807 did not prevent the African slave trade was patent
to every one who knew conditions in the Southern Seaboard States; but
the extent of this traffic can only be surmised. During the debates on
the Missouri Bill, Tallmadge stated that fourteen thousand negroes had
been brought into the country within the last year, and the statement
was not challenged.

When the Missouri controversy was renewed in the session of December,
1819, the number of free States equaled the number of slave States. The
addition of a twenty-third State, then, would unsettle the equilibrium
between the sections in the Senate. A growing antagonism based upon
widely different economic and social organizations was coming to be
felt--felt rather than clearly perceived and openly recognized. In the
year 1800, the two sections had been nearly equal in population; in
1820, the North outnumbered the South by over half a million. This
disparity in numbers had a direct political significance, for the
national House of Representatives was beyond all question controlled by