w England as in Virginia, Newport being the New England centre of the
Guinea Trade. From 1707 to 1732 a tax of three guineas a head was
imposed in Rhode Island on each negro imported--on "Guinea blackbirds."
It would be idle to dwell now on the cruelty of that horrid traffic, the
sufferings on board the slavers from lack of room, of food, of water,
of air. But three feet three, inches was allowed between decks for the
poor negro, who, accustomed to a free, out-of-door life, thus crouched
and sat through the passage. No wonder the loss of life was great. It
was chronicled in the newspapers and letters of the day in cold,
heartless language that plainly spoke the indifference of the public to
the trade and its awful consequences. I have never seen in any Southern
newspapers advertisements of negro sales that surpass in heartlessness
and viciousness the advertisements of our New England newspapers of the
eighteenth century. Negro children were advertised to be given away in
Boston, and were sold by the pound as was other merchandise. Samuel
Pewter advertised in the _Weekly Rehearsal_ in 1737 that he would sell
horses for ten shillings pay if the horse sale were accomplished, and
five shillings if he endeavored to sell and could not; and for negroes
"_sixpence a pound_ on all he sells, and a reasonable price if he does
not sell."

Many letters still exist of advices from ship-owners to ship-captains,
advice as to the purchase, care, and choice of captives, "to get one old
man for a Lingister; to worter ye Rum & sell by short mesuer &c. &c."
Negro-stealing by Americans continued till 1864, when a brig sailing
westward from Africa on that iniquitous errand, was lost at sea--a grim
ending to three centuries of incredible and unchristian cruelty.

The first anti-slavery tract published in America was written by Judge
Sewall in the year 1700--"The Selling of Joseph." His timid protest but
little availed, though he persevered in his belief and his opposition to
the day of his death. Other colonists who were opposed to the traffic
were willing to buy slaves, that the poor heathen might be brought up in
a Christian land, be led away from their idols--Abraham and the
patriarchs were given as authorities in justification of thus doing. One
respectable Newport elder, who sent many a profitable venture to the
Gold Coast for "black ivory," always gave pious thanks in meeting on the
Sunday after the safe arrival of a slaver, "that a grac