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CHAPTER VIII

SLAVER LEGISLATION IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES

The Colonies often Levied Taxes on Imported Slaves, and these Duties were in Rare Cases Prohibitive, but this Legislation was always Based on Commercial Considerations Only, or else a Fear of Negro Insurrections — Great Britain Never Forced the Slave-trade on Them Against Their Virtuous Protest — Georgia's Interesting Slave History.

If there is any chapter in our history that is likely to make a patriotic student an utter pessimist, it is the chapter relating to American slave legislation. No other chapter is so disheartening; none can excite such indignation and contempt. But if we consider that at last, after two hundred and forty-two years of oppression and robbery, a time came when we did, by legal enactment, recognize that a negro man was entitled at least to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, we shall not be without hope that a time may yet come when we shall fully understand and act upon the Divine command, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self."

That the British Government, in the interest of British shipping, did, in the eighteenth century, try to encourage the slave-trade is abundantly proved by many other facts than the appropriations, amounting to £90,000, which Parliament granted, between 1729 and 1750, for building, repairing, and supporting forts and

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