it prohibited the trade "to, from, or between Europe, Asia, Africa, or America, or any places or countries whatever."
South Carolina, during this year, prohibited the trade for a period (until January 1, 1793). Delaware followed with prohibition on February 3, 1789.
On May 13, 1789, it was proposed in Congress to tax the importation of slaves at $10 a head. The national government needed money badly, but this proposal to share in the profits of the trade was never carried.
The first real step toward a national restriction of the trade under the Constitution was taken on March 23, 1790. The abolitionists had been stirring up the menagerie — if one may be allowed the only term graphically descriptive of the members in their ordinary motives and doings in connection with disagreeable topics. Petition after petition on the subject of slavery and the trade had been sent in, and Congress had continued the policy of evasion inaugurated at the Constitutional Convention. But on that date the House declared that Congress have authority to restrain the citizens of the United States from carrying on the African trade, for the purpose of supplying foreigners with slaves, and of providing, by proper regulations, for the humane treatment, during their passage, of slaves imported by the said citizens into the States admitting such importations" Further, that Congress have authority to prohibit foreigners from fitting out vessels in any port of the United States for transporting persons from Africa to any foreign port."
The vote was twenty-nine to twenty-five, and even that was obtained only because the same resolutions
