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    picture , not overcharged , but stamped with accuracy : " The importation of Africans into the United States ceased bv law on the 1 st of January ,

    1808 , and several vessels which arrived with slaves after that period were seized and their cargoes condemned . For the four preceding years , however , the merchants had prepared for the abolition of the Slave Trade , and such large importations took place that the market was

    glutted . The following are the numbers imported into Charleston up to the 1 st of January 1808 : 1804 , 5 , 386 ; 1805 , 6 , / 90 ; 1806 , 11 , 458 ; 1807 , 15 , 676 ; in all , 39 , 310 ! When I arrived , the sales for slaves were extremely dull , owing to the high price which the merchants demanded for

    them . The planters , who were pretty well stocked , were not very eager to purchase , and the merchants , knowing that a market would ultimately be found for them , were determined not — - ¦*<** w » »<— ^ -- ^ ~* -r » w »* - <^^ & « . m m ¦» » T ^ ^^ ^ J » ^— ' » * ^^ * ^* + A M ^ - ' ^*>» -- *«* " v

    to lower their demands ; in consequence of which , hundreds of these poor beings were obliged to be kept aboard the ships or in large buildings at Gadsden ' s Wharf for months

    together . The merchants , for their own interest , I suppose , had them properly attended to , and supplied with a sufficiency of provisions , but their clothing was very scanty and some unusually

    sharp weather during the winter carried off great numbers of them ! Close confinement and improper food also created a variety of disorders , which together with the dysentery and some cutaneous diseases to which the

    Negroes are subject , considerably increased the mortality . Upwards of seven hundred died in less than three months , and carpenters were daily employed at the wharf in making shells for the dead bodies . A few

    years ago , when a similar mortality took place , the dead bodies of the Negroes , to save expense , were thrown into the river and even left to be devoured by the Turkey buzzard ^ in consequence of which nobody would eat any fish , and it was upwards of

    three months before the corporation put a stop to the practice 1 These losses , instead of abating the price , served only to increase it , and many were put up at vendue , where , according to their age , size and condition , they sold for three to six hundred

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    dollars each ! ihe auctioneers IJye all in one street , near the water-side , in East Bay . They have vendues twice a week , and the place is then like Babel , crowds of people bidding

    for dead and live stock , among which Negroes and people of Colour are constantly seen ; brokers also praising the good qualities of their commodities and knocking down to the best bidder . I quitted this traffic in human flesh with disgust , though I could not refrain from laughing at

    the archness of the auctioneer , and the credulity of the bargain-buyer . In most countries people are fond of purchasing bargains , which , as Sterne says , is only buying of a b # d commodity that you don ' t vvaot , because you can get it cheaper than a good one when you do . " . ¦

    But , Mr . Editor , my pen trembles in the mere act of transcribing this horrible account . And where do these infernal scenes take "place ? Is it in the West-India Islands , the long ami

    far-famed abodes of oppression and cruelty , which the poet Montgomery wonders have not been , by the Supreme Being in his wrath , sunk into the ocean ? No : these deeds are

    wrought in a land which Washington by his arms , and Franklin by his counsels , have consecrated to ftee dom I Let the American , however , be assured that the stain of such acts is indelible . The Southern States , who are involved in ttiis disgrace , should imitate their Northern brethren

    who hold their conduct in abhorrence . Neither by their mighty rivers ,, nor by their wide-spreading lakes , nor by the thundering cataracts of Niagara , can the purple spot be obliterated . * ' It is to be lamented , " says Mr . Lambert , that the Slave Trade was ever

    introduced ; for had it not , the PF / iiles would have neglected the unhealthy spots which they now occupy , and have confined themselves to p laces more congenial to their constitutions . How many millions of acres in the

    world , far superior in every respect to those parts where Africans are indispensable , are still covered with immeasurable forests that have never yet echoed to the woodman ' s axe ! " Say

    not , then , that slavery is tlie offspring of dire necessity . Mr . Lambert tells us , among other curious things , that " " the penalty tor

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    404 Slavery in tfie United States of America *

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1826, page 404, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2550/page/24/