Page:The American Slave Trade (Spears).djvu/219

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TALES OF THE COASTWISE SLAVE-SHIPS
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a profitable sale! If the editor had added that conscienceless New York was forcing an odious traffic upon helpless but indignant Louisiana as the wicked British forced the odious traffic on their helpless but indignant American colonies the editorial would have been worth printing as a red-ink broadside to be framed for lasting preservation.

A similar editorial item in June, 1818, says that "negro trading seems to be actively carried on through certain great villains holding their headquarters in New Jersey, from whence, we trust, the good people of that State will soon chase them, A vessel with thirty-six persons of color has been seized at New Orleans for not having a manifest, etc., as required by law. She received her cargo of human beings near Perth Amboy. It is probable that the greater part of these unfortunate creatures were stolen."

That is to say, free negroes in New Jersey were kidnapped, taken on board ship, and carried to New Orleans for sale an exact counterpart of one feature of the prohibited African slave-trade. Mr. Niles did not give the name of the vessel, but it was the brig Jlary Ann, and she sailed from Perth Amboy on March 10, 1818.

Near the end of 1829 the schooner Lafayette sailed from Norfolk for New Orleans, having on board a cargo of more than one hundred slaves. The slaves rose against the crew, but were subdued, and twentyfive of them were "bolted down on the deck" for the remainder of the voyage. That was the first "mutiny"? in the coastwise trade that I have found. Others more interesting followed.

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