f Nations, Putnams), 229-232, 338.

( 4) Slavery and the slave trade, in spite of the teachings of
the Koran, grew up in Mohammedan countries. The traffic in slaves,
however, had been frequently proclaimed against by the Ottoman
Porte.

( 5) But the first trace of negro slavery in America came in 1502,
only ten years after its discovery, through a decree of Ferdinand
and Isabella permitting negro slaves born in Spain, descendants of
natives brought from Guinea, to be transported to Hispaniola.--
_Life of Columbus_, by Irving (Putnams), p. 275.

( 6) _History for Ready Reference_, vol. iv., p. 2923.

II
INTRODUCTION OF SLAVERY INTO THE COLONIES

In August, 1619, a Dutch man-of-war sailed up the James River in
Virginia, landed and sold to the colony at Jamestown _twenty_
negroes as slaves. This event marked the beginning of negro slavery
in English-American colonies. Two centuries and a half did not
suffice to put an end the Ethiopian slavery and the evils of a
traffic begun on so small a scale.

One year later (1620) the Puritans landed at Plymouth Rock, bringing
with them stern religious convictions and severe morals which soon
ripened into written laws and were likewise woven into social,
political, and religious life, the resultant effect of which, on
human existence in America, is never to end. One year later still,
cotton was first planted in the virgin soil of America, where it
grew to perfection, and thenceforth becoming the staple production,
made slavery and slave-breeding profitable to the slaveholder.( 7)

The earliest importation of negro slaves into New England was to
Providence Isle in the shp _Desire_ (1637).

From Boston, Mass. (1645), the first American ship from the colonies
set sail to engage in the stealing of African negroes. Massachusetts
then held, under sanction of law, a few blacks and Indians in
bondage.( 8) But slavery did not flourish in New England. It was
neither profitable nor in consonance with the judgment of the people
generally. The General Court of Massachusetts, as early as 1646,
"bearing witness against the heinous crimes of man-stealing, ordered
the recently imported negroes to be restored, at the public charge,
to their native country, with a _letter_ expressing the indignation
of the General Court." Unfortunately, persons guilty of stealing
men could not be tried for crimes committed in foreign lands.

But the African slave trade, early found to be extrem