SLAVERY 1843 Great Britain emancipated more than 12,000,000 slaves in her East Indian posses- sions. France had been as much committed to negro slavery as England, but moved sooner for its abolition. The national assembly, May 15, 1791, virtually granted equal political priv- ileges to all free men without regard to color, and this led to those struggles in Santo Do- mingo which put an end to slavery there. Napoleon*f. succeeded in restoring slavery in most of the French colonies, but failed in Hayti. In 1815, during the hundred days, he issued an order for the immediate abolition of the slave trade, which the government of Louis XVIII. reenacted, and the French slave trade ceased in 1819. The congress of Vienna denounced the slave trade. After much dis- cussion in the reign of Louis Philippe, slavery in the French colonies was abolished by the provisional government in 1848, without in- demnity to the masters. Sweden abolished slavery in 1846-'7, Denmark in 1848, and the Netherlands in 1862. Spain agreed in 1814 to abolish the slave trade in 1820. The Nether- lands abolished it in 1818, and Brazil in 1826, but the Brazilians continued to prosecute it notwithstanding. In the United States it was prohibited by law from 1808. In 1820 a law was enacted declaring it piracy, but no con- viction was obtained under this statute till November, 1861, when Nathaniel Gordon, master of a vessel called the Erie, was convict- ed at New York and executed. A similar statute was passed by the British parliament in 1825. But the trade by no means ceased because of these vigorous efforts for its abo- lition, which Great Britain and the United States supported by the presence of powerful fleets on the coast of Africa. The demand for slaves continued to be great, and the profits on the cargoes of slaves that were landed in various parts of America were so heavy that the traders could afford to lose many of their vessels. Not until the breaking out of the American civil war did the trade cease to be profitable, but that and the agitation for eman- cipation in Brazil nearly put an end to the slave trade across the Atlantic. In the inte- rior of Africa it still has considerable vigor and constant activity, although it is much shorn of its profits by the loss of foreign markets. Except in Cuba, slavery in Span- ish America has disappeared. In Brazil it continued to flourish with considerable vigor till 1871. For several years preceding that date a strong agitation for its gradual aboli- tion had existed, in which the emperor was understood to sympathize. The speech from the throne at the opening of the chamber on May 8, 1871, announced the belief of the gov- i-rruih-nt th.-it the time had arrived for the final solution of the slavery controversy, and that a Mil would be introduced for that purpose. The bill was finally acted upon Sept. 27, when t was dopted by n considerable majority. The children born of slaves from that date were to be considered free-born, but were to remain with the masters of the mothers until reaching the age of eight, when the master had the option to retain their services .until they should be 21 years of age, or to receive from the government a compensation of 600 milreis. If he should accept the compensation, the government was to take charge of the mi- nor and of his education. Every minor was to be at liberty to free himself from service by making compensation to the master pro- portioned to the period for which the service was to continue. Ill treatment or neglect of support or education was to entitle a child to his discharge from service. Children ceded or given to the government or taken from their masters by it might be delivered to privileged societies to be kept until they were 21, under an obligation securing them support and edu- cation. An emancipation fund, to be made up of certain taxes, the proceeds of certain lotteries, and other specified resources, togeth- er with donations, was to be employed annu- ally in manumitting slaves, and they were to be entitled to purchase their freedom. The following classes were to be free : slaves of the nation ; slaves given to the crown in usu- fruct; slaves of the religious orders (within seven years); slaves belonging to vacant in- heritances ; slaves who saved the lives of their masters, or the parents or children of their masters, and slaves given up by their masters. The law was received with general satisfaction. The whole number of Africans taken for slaves is estimated at 40,000,000, or nearly 100,000 per annum since the beginning of the traffic ; but for 80 years after the trade began their exportation was very limited, and prob- ably not 30,000 were taken by the Portuguese between 1444 and 1493. The greatest part of the exportation was during the years that elapsed after movements for the abolition of the trade were commenced, the demand for tropical produce having immensely increased in the present century. Some of the slaves were sold in European countries, and it was supposed that there were 15,000 in the British islands at the time of the decision of the Som- erset case. African slaves were said to be " dispersed all over Europe." Spain and France took some of them, as well as England. The number of slaves imported into those Brit- ish colonies which became the United States in 1776 is computed at 300,000 down to that year. At the first census, in 1790, the slaves in the United States numbered 697,897, all the states but Massachusetts (which then included Maine) having some servile inhabitants, though Vermont had but 17, and New Hampshire only 158. In 1800 their number was 893,041, slavery having ceased in Vermont, and but 8 slaves being left in New Hampshire. The census of 1810 showed 1,191,364 slaves, there being none in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Ohio, the last a new state, created out of territory that was a wilderness in 1776.
