The first persons who liberated their slaves, and labored to effect the abolition of the slave-trade, were some Quakers in England and North America, particularly since 1727. In 1751, the Quakers entirely abolished it among themselves. Granville Sharp, in 1772, effected the acknowledgment, by the English courts, of the principle that the slave who lands in England becomes free. The principle had been earlier adopted in France. In 1783, a petition was addressed to parliament for the abolition of the trade, which Wilberforce (q. v.) eloquently supported. He labored, at the same time, to aid the cause by his pen. But the soul of all the efforts for the abolition of the slave-trade, was Thomas Clarkson. From early youth, he devoted his whole time and fortune to this object; exposed himself to hatred and outrage, even at the haz

their dark and melancholy visages brightened up. They perceived something of sympathy and kindness in our looks, which they had not been accustomed to, and feeling, instinctively, that we were friends, they immediately began to shout and clap their hands. One or two had picked up a few Portuguese words, and cried out," Viva! vira!" The women were particularly excited. They all held up their arms; and when we bent down and shook hands with them, they could not contain their delight; they endeavored to scramble upon their knees, stretching up to kiss our hands; and we understood that they knew we had come to liberate them. Some, however, hung down their heads in apparently hopeless dejection; some were greatly emaciated, and some, particularly children, seemed dying. But the circumstance which struck us most forcibly, was, how it was possible for such a number of human beings to exist, packed up and wedged together as tight as they could cram, in low cells, three feet high, the greater part of which, except that immediately under the grated hatchways, was shut out from light or air, and this when the thermometer, exposed to the open sky, was standing in the shade, on our deck, at 89°. The space between decks was divided into two compartments, three feet three inches high; the size of one was sixteen feet by eighteen, and of the other forty by twentyone; into the first were crammed the women and girls; into the second, the men and boys: 226 fellow creatures were thus thrust into one space 238 feet square, and 336 into another space 800 feet square, giving to the whole an average of twenty-three inches, and to each of the women not more than thirteen inches, though many of them were pregnant. We also found manacles and fetters of different kinds; but it appears that they had all been taken off before we boarded. The heat of these horrid places was so great, and the odor so offensive, that it was quite impossible to enter them, even had there been room. They were measured, as above, when the slaves had left them. The officers insisted that the poor suffering creatures should be admitted on deck, to get air and water. This was opposed by the mate of the slaver, who, from a feeling that they deserv ed it, declared they would murder them all. The officers, however, persisted, and the poor beings

ard of his life, in Liverpool and Paris; made numerous journeys, and was deterred by no obstacles. He principally contributed to gain over Wilberforce, Pitt and Fox. For a full account of the protracted struggle of the friends of humanity in the British parliament against the slave-trade, and their final success, we must refer our reader to English works. It is briefly summed up in the New Edinburgh Encyclopædia. We must confine ourselves here to a short notice. The subject of the abolition of the slave-trade was introduced into the house of commons in 1788, when Pitt presented a petition against the trade. Many petitions followed, upon which the merchants immediately took the alarm. They calculated that the number of slaves in the West Indies amounted to 410,000, and that, to keep up that number, the

were all turned up together. It is impossible to conceive the effect of this eruption-507 fellow creatures, of all ages and sexes, some children, some adults, some old men and women, all in a state of total nudity, scrambling out together to taste the luxury of a little fresh air and water. They came swarming up, like bees from the aperture of a hive, till the whole deck was crowded to suffocation, from stem to stern; so that it was impossible to imagine where they could all have come from, or how they could all have been stowed away. On looking into the places where they had been crammed, there were found some children next the sides of the ship, in the places most remote from light and air; they were lying nearly in a torpid state, after the rest had turned out. The little creatures seemed indifferent as to life or death; and when they were carried on deck, many of them could not stand. After enjoying, for a short time, the unusual luxury of air, some water was brought; it was then that the extent of their sufferings was exposed in a fearful manner. They all rushed like maniacs towards it. No entreaties, or threats, or blows, could restrain them; they shrieked and struggled, and fought with one another, for a drop of this precious liquid, as if they grew rabid at the sight of it. There is nothing which slaves, in the midpassage, suffer from so much as want of water. It is sometimes usual to take out casks filled with sea-water as ballast, and when the slaves are received on board, to start the casks and refill them with fresh. On one occasion, a ship from Bahia neglected to change the contents of the casks, and on the mid-passage found, to their horror, that they were filled with nothing but salt water. All the slaves on board perished! We could judge of the extent of their sufferings from the afflicting sight we now saw. When the poor creatures were ordered down again, several of them came, and pressed their heads against our knees, with looks of the greatest anguish, at the prospect of returning to the horrid place of suffering below."

The English ship, however, was obliged, though with great reluctance, to release the slaver, as it could not be proved, after a strict examination, that he had exceeded the privilege allowed to Brazilian ships of procuring slaves south of the line.

annual importation of 10,000 was required; that the English bought in Africa 30,000 annually, and, therefore, could sell 20,000 to other nations; that in the prosecution of this trade, English manufactures to the amount of above £800,000 sterling were exported, and above £1,400,000 in value obtained in return; and that government received £256,000 annually by the slave-tax.* Liverpool and Bristol, which carried on the slavetrade most extensively, resisted its abolition so violently that Wilberforce, Fox, Pitt, and their friends, could effect nothing more than the institution of an inquiry into the trade, and the passage of some provisions for diminishing the hardships of the confinement on ship-board. At length, the house of commons was induced, in 1792, to pass a bill for the abolition of the slave-trade in 1795, by a majority of nineteen; the lords rejected this as well as the bill proposed by Wilberforce, in 1794, for prohibiting the English from selling slaves to other nations. In the mean time, the French national convention, February 4, 1794, had declared all the slaves in the French colonies free. Wilberforce brought in another bill, in 1796, providing that the slave-trade should be abolished for ever after March 1, 1797, and that all persons carrying on the trade after that time, should be transported to Botany bay for fourteen years. Fox and Pitt voted for the immediate abolition; but the bill did not pass. The African society, established by Wilberforce and Clarkson, now redoubled its efforts to convince the public of the horrors of this traffic. The colony at Sierra Leone (q. v.) was founded in consequence of the exertion of this society, whose object was to teach the negroes agriculture and the mechanic arts; and, from 1809, young Africans were instructed in various branches of knowledge in that colony. At length the cause of humanity triumphed. June 10, 1806, Fox moved that the house of commons should declare the slave-trade inconsistent with justice, humanity, and sound policy, and immediately take effective measures for its abolition. Generals Tarleton and Gascoyne opposed the mo

* Such calculations, in which the extremest human suffering is coolly weighed against pecuniary profit, excite horror; but we should not overlook the influence of habit and circumstances, in accustoming men whose dispositions are, in general, good, to what they would otherwise abhor. The frauds practised in Prussia and some other countries, before 1806, in enlisting of soldiers, were abominable; and violence was not unfrequently used to oblige men to take the oath. (See Soldier.)

tion in vain. It passed by 114 votes against fifteen. The abolition was resolved upon, and a petition was presented to the king, requesting him to take measures to induce the other powers of Europe and the American states to cooperate with Great Britain in the suppression of this traffic. The famous Abolition Act, as finally settled, passed February 5 and 6 1807, when Roscoe spoke in favor of it, though he represented Liverpool, which owed a great part of its wealth to this trade. January 1, 1808, was fixed as the time when this trade, on the part of the English, should cease. On this occasion, the British papers contained, almost unaDimously, the remark, that it was a melancholy yet undeniable fact, that king George III, the prince of Wales, and the whole royal family, with the exception of the duke of Gloucester, were opposed to the abolition. Another act, May 4, 1811, provided that all who knowingly participated in the slave-trade should be punished with fourteen years' transportstion and hard labor. In 1824, a law for declaring the slave-trade piracy, which had been already done by the U. States, was proposed by Canning, passed the two houses, and, on March 31, received the royal assent. In Denmark, king Christian VII, in 1794, declared the slave-trade unlawful after January 1, 1804; and Frederic VI promised, at the peace of Tilsit, to prohibit his subjects from taking part in the foreign slave-trade. In France, Napoleon, when first consul, promised the continuance of their liberty to the inhabitants of St. Domingo, whilst he praised the inhabitants of Isle de France for not having freed their slaves, and promised that France would never again decree the slavery of the whites by the liberation of the negroes. After the successes of the French on St. Domingo, the slave-trade was once more established: and the counsellor of state, Bruix, said, on this occasion, La liberté de Rome s'entourait d'esclaves. Plus douce parmi nous elle les relègue au loin! In 1814, lord Castlereagh obtained from Louis XVIII a promise that France would abolish the slave-trade; but, by the influence of the chamber of commerce at Nantes, this traffic was permitted for five years more. Public opinion obliged lord Castlereagh to press upon the congress of Vienna the adoption of general measures for the abolition of the slave-trade; but all that he could effect was that Spain and Portugal promised to give up the slave-trade north of the line.-See the treaty between England and

Portugal, Vienna, January 22, 1815. But a paper was drawn up, and signed by Castlereagh, Stewart, Wellington, Nesselrode, Löwenhielm, Gomez Labrador, Palmella, Saldanha, Lobo, Humboldt, Metternich and Talleyrand (Vienna, February 8, 1815), stating that the great powers would make arrangements to fix a term for the general abolition of the slave-trade, since public opinion condemned it as a stain on European civilization. February 6, 1815, Portugal provided for the total abolition of the slave-trade on January 21, 1823, and England promised to pay £300,000 as an indemnification to Portuguese subjects. Louis XVIII, by the treaty of Paris, November 20, 1815, consented to its immediate abolition, for which Napoleon had declared himself prepared, in April, 1815. Spain promised, by the treaty of September 30, 1817, to abolish the slave-trade entirely, October 31, 1820, in all the Spanish territories, even south of the line; and England, February 9, 1818, paid £400,000 as an indemnification to Spanish subjects. The king of the Netherlands prohibited his subjects from taking part in the slavetrade, after the provisions of the treaty of August 13, 1814, had been rendered more precise and extensive by the treaty concluded with England, at the Hague, May 4, 1818. Sweden had already done the same, according to the treaty of March 3, 1813. The U. States engaged, in the treaty of Ghent, December 24, 1814, to do all in their power for the entire suppression of the slave-trade. November 23, 1826, a treaty was concluded, with Brazil, for the abolition of the slave-trade; and it was accordingly prohibited after March, 1830. The laws of the U. States on this subject, were mentioned in a previous part of this article. Thus England finally succeeded in her great undertaking, prompted by motives both of humanity and interest-as the abolition of the trade would pave the way for the civilization of Northern Africa, and furnish additional markets for English manufactures in that part of the globe. In spite of these treaties, the illicit slave-trade continued, and, as we have already stated, more cruelly than before. Spanish and French vessels were, and probably are still, the ones chiefly engaged in it. The latter were considered to out-number, much, all the others put together. The *Sweden seems altogether liberally disposed towards the negroes. In 1831, the government conferred on all the free negroes on the island of St. Bartholomew the same rights with the whites; so that, in official papers, no distinction of color is to be mentioned.

English, therefore, sent ships of war to Sierra Leone, in 1816, to capture the slave-ships; but they were unable to put a stop to the trade, for the slave-markets in Brazil and Cuba offered powerful temptations to unprincipled men, and some individuals in the U. States are willing to provide them with swift vessels, calculated for their disgraceful and worse than piratical traffic. In 1832, France and England concluded a treaty, by which the two governments allow each the right of searching the other's ships, under certain circumstances, in the region of the slave-trade; and if the U. States should consent to the same arrangements, important consequences might be expected. Still more advantageous, perhaps, would it be if the U. States and Spain would conclude such a treaty, so that the vessels of the former power could search the Spanish slave-vessels in the vicinity of Cuba, which at present can be done only by the English.-The evils of slavery we have already touched on in the previous part of this article. The productiveness of slave-labor, as compared with free labor, we cannot speak of at present. It is generally considered far inferior. Some, indeed, have maintained that certain kinds of work-for instance, that required on the rice and sugar plantations could not be performed without slaves; but this is denied by others, as Bryan Edwards. The numerous insurrections on the West India islands and in the U. States have shown that the abolition of slavery is highly de

"It should appear, then," says Mr. Walsh, in his Notices of Brazil," that, notwithstanding the benevolent and persevering exertions of England, this horrid traffic in human flesh is nearly as extensively carried on as ever, and under circumstances, perhaps, of a more revolting character. The restriction of slavery to the south of the line, was, in fact, nugatory and evaded on all occa sions. The whole number of slaves captured by our cruisers, and afterwards emancipated, for nine years, from June, 1819, to July, 1828, was 13,281, being about 1400 on an average cach year. During that period, it is supposed that nearly 100,000 human beings were annually transported as slaves from different parts of the coast, of whom more than 43,000 were legally imported into one city alone. It is deeply to be regretted, therefore, that the proportion of the good to the evil is so small."

mechanic arts have come to honor, is one of the The creation of free laborers, by which the greatest revolutions which have taken place in society. It is due to the cities of the middle ages (see Cities); and great as the effects have been, still greater remain to be produced by the cultivation and intelligence which, in consequence of it, have spread, and are spreading through all classes of society.

sirable; but the difficulty is, how to bring it about. In the U. States, a colonization society has been formed, with the view of exporting as many colored persons as possible to the colony of Liberia. Virginia has lately made an appropriation, with a provision for its increase, in aid of the colonization society. (See the articles Colonization Society, and Liberia; also the Letters on the Colonization Society, &c., by M. Carey, 1832.) In England, Wilberforce proposed, June 10, 1816, in parliament, that slaves should be treated as British subjects, and that the children born in future should be educated as free persons. These were the views of Burke, Fox, Pitt, Lansdowne, Howick (the present earl Grey), &c. Wyndham and others insisted that the negroes were incapable of liberty. The registering of the slaves, proposed by Wilberforce, in order to prevent the sale and importation of new slaves, as well as the reenslaving of free persons of color in the British colonies, did not then pass. At present, the registering of the slaves is established in Trinidad, St. Lucia and Mauritius (1814), which are immediately under the crown. Schools have also been established in the British colonies for the slaves. Such religious instruction as the slaves receive, is principally afforded by missionaries. In several colonies, the greatest excitement exists against Methodist missionaries, who, the planters think, not unfrequently excite the slaves to revolt; and during the recent rebellion in Jamaica, one or two of the missionaries were shot, and most of them ordered to leave the island. The Moravian missionaries are generally much preferred. In South America, with the exception of Brazil, slavery has either been abolished or is drawing to a close. In Colombia, slave children born since the revolution, are to be free on reaching their eighteenth year. Bolivar early set free all his slaves. In Mexico, president Guerrero declared all slaves free on September 15, 1829.-For the number of slaves in the various foreign countries where slavery is permitted, we must refer the reader to the articles on these countries. There are at present eleven slaveholding states in the Union, viz. Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri. The district of Columbia, and Missouri, Arkansas and Florida territories also contain slaves. The sum total of the slaves in the U. States is 2,010,436. Of these, however, 3305 are in the state of Delaware, 2246

For information on the slavery of the blacks, see Clarkson's History of the Acolition of the Slave-Trade; Gregoire On the Literature of Negroes; Wadstrom's servations on the Slave-Trade, during e voyage in 1787 and 1788 (London, 1789; Falconbridge's Account of the Slave-Trade on the Coast of Africa (London, 1788), &c. Some account of slavery among the Greeks and Romans may be found in the works of Reitemeier (History of Slavery in Greece), Walch, Elrichs and Hurter (On the Roman Slaves), in German, (See also Comte, Sur la Législation.)

Piracy

Slavery of the Whites, in the Barbary states; a stain on the history of the European governments, as the negro slavetrade was and is on that of the nations. It never was taken into serious consideration by the monarchs of Europe collectively (though it would have been easy for them to have destroyed those nests of piracy at once), until they met at the congress of Vienna and Aix-la-Chapelle. on the Mediterranean is as old as history; but, after the Mohammedans settled on its shores, they considered the practice of it against Christians legal. The Christian slave, in the Barbary states, was entirely at the mercy of his master. In 1815, the whole number of white slaves was computed at 49,000: in Algiers, there were 1000. As early as 1270, England and France concluded a "holy alliance" for the chastisement of the people of Barbary. Philip the Bold attacked Tunis, then their chief place, and liberated all the Christian slaves. In 1389, the English, with the French, Genoese and Venetians, forming a united force under the earl of Derby (subsequently king Henry IV), made a second attack upon Tunis with the same success. When the great Algerine state, after the downfall of the Almoravides, had fallen to pieces, Oran, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli became petty independent republics, which, partly to revenge the expulsion of the Moors and Jews from Spain, devoted themselves,

from 1494, principally to piracy. Ferdinand, Charles V, Philip V, and others, attacked them in vain. (See Barbary States.) Little more success at tended the attempt of the English. Blake, in Cromwell's time, destroyed the greater part of the united fleet of Tunis : and Algiers in 1655, and liberated many prisoners; but, in 1669 and 1670, the fleet of Charles II, in connexion with that of the Netherlands, bombarded Algiers without success. The French did the same in 1682, 1683 and 1688, with a like result. In 1683, the French admiral threw 1200 bombs into the city, and burned part of it; but the dey, Mezzo Morto, ordered the French consul Vacher to be put into a mortar and thrown towards the French. From the insufficiency of the means employed, the mutual jealousy of the European powers, the fanaticism of the Moors and Turks, and the fear inspired by the Barbary states, the humiliations which Algiers received were but momentary. In Algiers, as well as in Tunis and Tripoli, a Turkish militia, eager for pillage, were in possession of the government; and all the European governments have submitted to the degradation of purchasing peace from these barbarians by regular or extraordinary presents. France alone stood on a better footing with them; and England concluded with Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli in 1662, and with Morocco in 1721, treaties which provided that no British subject should ever be made a slave, even if he should be found as a passenger on board a hostile vessel. All English vessels furnished with passes by the admiralty were to be allowed to navigate the Mediterranean unsearched; the cargoes of wrecked vessels were not to be seized, nor their crews to be made slaves; and English men-of-war were to be permitted to enter the various Barbary ports to obtain provisions, without paying any duty. But the Barbary states kept these treaties only as long as they found it convenient. Austria, not many years since, obtained letters of protection from the Porte, without tribute, for her own ships and those of Tuscany. Russia and Prussia obtained similar firmans from the Porte. Sweden and Denmark purchased peace by the payment of tribute. Portugal, from 1795, required a contribution from the Hanse towns for protecting their vessels on her coasts. Lübeck and Bremen, as late as 1806, concluded treaties with Morocco; but they were, nevertheless, obliged at length to abandon almost entirely the navigation of the Mediterra

nean. The U. States protected their national honor by sending a squadron to Algiers, in 1815, under the command of Decatur, who bombarded the city, and obliged her to declare that the flag of the republic should in future be respected. (See Lyman's Diplomacy, and our article Barbary States.) Sir Sidney Smith, in 1814, soon after the general peace, founded a society at Paris, called the Institution Anti-pirate; but it was dissolved in 1818. The attempt of Joseph Bonaparte (q. v.) to unite England and France against these pirates at the peace of Amiens was defeated by the breaking out of war soon after the conclusion of that peace. Lord Exmouth (formerly sir Edward Pellew) concluded, April 17, 1816, a treaty with the dey of Tunis, Mahmoud Pacha, which provided that prisoners should not be treated as slaves, and should be restored at the conclusion of peace. England, at the same time, undertook to protect her allies, Naples and Sardinia, against the Barbary powers. Lord Exmouth had already appeared, March 31, 1815, bei... Algiers, and forced the dey to conclude a treaty with Naples and Sardinia. But the king of Naples had to pay for every captured subject 1000 piasters, and 24,000 piasters annually, besides the usual presents; and Sardinia, for every captured subject, 500 piasters. Hanover was included in the treaty with England. Tunis gave up the Sardinian prisoners without ransom, but the Neapolitans had to pay 300 piasters each. Tripoli also declared, like Algiers, that she would abolish the slavery of Christians and introduce the common laws of Europe respecting prisoners of war. May 15, 1816, lord Exmouth appeared a second time before Algiers, to force the dey also to acknowledge the European law of nations respecting prisoners of war. The dey declared that the permission of the sultan was necessary, and captain Dundas carried the Algerine minister to Constantinople, while Exmouth returned to England. In the mean time, the dey had sent orders to Oran and Bona, that all the English, and their property, on shore and on shipboard, should be seized. This order was executed most cruelly. May 23, Turkish and Moorish soldiers surprised 359 Italian vessels, which had purchased permission to fish for coral, and were lying peaceably under the English flag in the port of Bona. The English consul was ill treated, and many Christians killed; and the cruelties did not cease until a messenger arrived, whom