The American Slave Trade (Spears)/Contents
- The Unnamed Dutch Slaver of 1819 — First Slaver Fitted Out in American Waters and the First American-built Slaver — When Human Beings were Frequently a Part of a Ship's General Cargo — How a Good Priest, through a Love of Humanity, Promoted the Traffic — Days when Christian Missionaries Found Profit in the Trade, and It Hurt the Conscience of No One Engaged in It — Kings and Nobles as Slave-traders — A Slaver Contract that was Considered a Magnificent Triumph of Diplomacy — The Yankee Slavers' Successful Stroke for Free Trade and Sailors' Rights — Extent of the Early Traffic, Page 1
OLD-TIME SLAVER CAPTAINS AND THEIR SHIPS
- David Lindsay as a Typical American Slaver of the Eighteenth Century — With a Rotten Ship that Showed Daylight Through Her Seams "All Round Her Bow Under Deck" He Reached the Slave-coast, Gathered His Cargo in Spite of Fevers, Deaths in the Crew, and Competition, and Finally Landed at Barbadoes with "All in Helth and Fatt" — An Astrologer's Chart for a Slaver's Voyage — Tales of the Slaver Vikings of Liverpool — Debt of Early American Commerce to the Slave-trade — John Paul Jones a Slaver, Page 21
WHEN VOYAGES WENT AWRY
- Tales of Trouble When Lying on the Slave-coast — "We are Ready to Devour One Another, for Our Case is Desprit" — A Second Mate's Unlucky Trip in a Long Boat — Sickness in the Hold as Well as Among the Crew — Cocoanuts and Oranges could not Serve in Place of Water — Story of the Mutiny on the Slaver Perfect — Risks the Underwriters Assumed — The Proportion of Disastrous Voyages,Page 31
THE SLAVER AND HER OUTFIT
- There were Tiny Ships in the Trade — One Vessel had a Capacity of 5,000 Gallons of Molasses Only, and even Open Row-boats were used in the Nineteenth Century — Dimensions of a Slaver's Timbers — The Famous Venus, a Forerunner of the Yankee Clippers — Steamers that were in the Trade — The Blubber Kettles of Whalers used for Boiling Rice and Yams — Rum, Guns, and Coin were the Favorite Articles of Traffic, but Silks, Laces, Parasols and Other Goods for the Use of Women of Education and Delicate Tastes were Wanted — A Naval Officer's Estimate for a Slaver's Outfit,Page 36
ON THE SLAVE-COAST
- Physical Features of Land and Sea — Peculiarities of the Aborigines and some Characteristics that were not Peculiar to Them — Gathering Slaves for the Market — A Trade that Degenerated from a System of Fair Barter into the Most Atrocious Forms of Piracy Conceivable — Utter Degradation of White Traders — The Slaughter at Calabar — Prices Paid for Slaves — The Barracoons of Pedro Blanco and Da Souza — When Negroes Voluntarily Sold Themselves,Page 44
THE MIDDLE PASSAGE
- Stowing Slaves for the Voyage from Africa to a Market — The Galleries — Compelled to Lie "Spoon-fashion" to Save Deck Space — A Plan by which the 'Tween Decks Space was Packed Full — Effects of the Ship's Rolling on the Manacled Cargo — Living Slaves Jettisoned to Make a Claim on the Underwriters — Horrors of "The Blood-Stained Gloria" — Blinded Crews of the Rodeur and the Leon — Suicide Among the Tortured Slaves — Pitiful Tale of a Weanling's Death — Punishing Mutiny on the American Slaver Kentucky — Slave Ships Named for Two of Our Presidents,Page 68
THE SLAVERS' PROFIT
- Nine Hundred Pounds on One Voyage of the Newport Slaver Sanderson, a Vessel that was Offered for Sale at £450 with No Buyers — One Voyage of the Liverpool Slaver Enterprise that Paid £24,430 — Details of Expenses and Receipts on a Voyage of the Ninety-ton Schooner La Fortuna — A Baltimore Schooner's Profit of $100,000 — When the Venus Cleared $200,000 — Sums Paid to Captains and Crews — Slave Transportation Compared with Modern Passenger Traffic,Page 82
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,Page 90
THE EARLY WORK FOR EXTIRPATION
- The Words and Deeds of the Fanatics — The Quakers — Slaves that were Freed by Baptism — Granville Sharp as a Liberator — A Fanatic's Political Creed Plainly Stated — Widespread Influence of the Somerset Case when the Right Prevailed in England — A Policy that would not Square Well with a Practical Business Sense of Things — The American Declaration of Independence and the Black Men,Page 98
THE SLAVERS OUTLAWED
- British Abolitionists and Their Work — After a Crusade of only Twenty Years, They Outlawed a Trade that, from a Business Point of View, had been the most Profitable in the United Kingdom — The Slave-trade and the American Constitution — Inauguration of the System of Compromises that Led to the Civil War — Slave-trade Legislation of the States — The Act of March 2, 1807,Page 106
TALES OF THE EARLIER SMUGGLERS
- A Slaver's Ferry Between Havana and the Florida Ports — Amelia Island as a Smugglers' Headquarters — The Barataria Pirates and the Smuggling Trade — Extent of the Illegal Traffic — A Georgia Governor who Left His Post to Become a Slave Smuggler,Page 122
SLAVERS DECLARED PIRATES
- Fines and Imprisonment with Rewards for Informers were not Sufficient to Stop Slave Smuggling — Workings of the Prohibitive Legislation Illustrated by the Doings of the Knife-inventor Bowie and the Pirate Lafitte — Slaves Sold BY the Pound — Influences that Led to the Piracy Act,Page 127
INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION FOR SUPPRESSING THE TRADE
- Work of British Diplomacy among the Continental Powers — When Spain agreed to Abolish the Slave-trade for a Money Consideration and Failed to Fulfil Her Contract — A Free Offer of "Sailors' Rights" which We Refused to Accept — A Shameful Record in American Slaver Legislation — The Ashburton Treaty,Page 134
TALES OF THE OUTLAWED TRADE
- How the Laws were Interpreted — Slavers that would Make a Fierce Fight — Famous American Privateers that Became Slavers — Whole Cargoes of Slaves Thrown to the Sharks to Avoid the Confiscation of Vessels — Tales of the Rapido, the Regulo, and Hemans's Brillante — A Cargo of Slaves Bound to Anchor and Chain and Thrown Overboard — A Slaver Who Coolly Murdered His Sweetheart and Child — A Trade that was Lucrative in Proportion to Its Heinousness,Page 140
THE NAVY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE
- Story of the Half-hearted, Wholly Futile Work of Blockading the African Coast — Reward of an Officer Who Earnestly Strove to Stop the Trade — An Interesting Period in the Career of Commodore M, C. Perry — American and British Squadrons Compared — The Sham Work of the Buchanan Administration,Page 148
FREE-NEGRO COLONIES AND THE SLAVE-TRADE
- England Led the Way by Establishing a Colony at Sierra Leone to Provide a Home for Negroes Carried from the United States during the Revolutionary War — The Enterprise Saved by the Sturdy Maroons — Origin of the American Society for Colonizing Free People of Color — Life of the Colonists at Cape Mesurado — The Nation of Liberia Organized — An Ape of Philanthropy,Page 160
TALES OF THE COASTWISE SLAVE-SHIPS
- Colored Men from New York Prison Sent to New Orleans and Sold — Stealing Slaves in New Jersey for the Southwest Market — Coastwise Slavers that Lost their Human Cargoes in British Islands — Madison Washington a Negro Worthy of his Name — Joshua R. Giddings and the Coastwise Trade — Extent of the Coastwise Traffic,Page 173
STORY OF THE AMISTAD
- A Cuban Coastwise Slaver that may have been Used to Smuggle Slaves Into the United States — On the Way from Havana to Puerto Principe the Slaves Overpowered the Crew, and Started Back to Africa, but were Beguiled to Long Island — Judicially Decided that Slaves Unlawfully Held have a Right to Take Human Life in a Stroke for Liberty,Page 184
LATTER-DAY SLAVE SMUGGLERS
- Notable Slave-ships that Plied between the African Coast and the Unidet States just before the Civil War — When the Wanderer Carried the Flag of the New York Yacht Club to the Congo — Troubles of a Smuggler as described in his Letter-book — A Movement for Legally Reopening the Slave-trade — Dream of a Slave EmpirePage 194
WHEN THE END CAME
- Buchanan's Administration and the Slave-trade — When the Sham Efforts to Suppress Came to an End — Story of Captain Gordon of the Erie, the First Slaver Pirate to be Executed in the United States,Page 213
PAGE
- APPENDIX A,225
- APPENDIX B,229
ILLUSTRATIONS