Sec. 21. "Provided that this act shall continue and be in force thirteen years, and from thence to the end of the next sessions of parliament, and no longer."
Even if this act had legalized, (as in reality it did not legalize,) the slave trade during those thirteen years, it would be impossible now to distinguish the descendants of those who were imported under it, from the descendants of those who had been previously, and were subsequently imported and sold into slavery without law. The act would therefore avail nothing towards making the existing slavery in this country legal.
The next statute, of which I find any trace, passed by parliament, with any apparent view to countenance the slave trade, was the statute of 23d George II., ch. 31. (1749-50.)
Mr. Bancroft has committed another still more serious error in his statement of the words, (for he professes to quote precise words,) of this statute. He says, (vol. 3, p. 414,)
"At last, in 1749, to give the highest activity to the trade, (meaning the slave trade,) every obstruction to private enterprize was removed, and the ports of Africa were laid open to English competition, for 'the slave trade,'—such" (says Mr. Bancroft,) "are the words of the statute—'the slave trade is very advantageous to Great Britain.'"
As words are, in this case, things—and things of the highest legal consequence—and as this history is so extensively read and received as authority—it becomes important, in a legal, if not historical, point of view, to correct so important an error as that of the word slave in this statement. "The words of the statute" are not that "the slave trade," but that "the trade to and from Africa is very advantageous to Great Britain." "The trade to and from Africa" no more means, in law, "the slave trade," than does the trade to and from China. From aught that appears, then, from so much of the preamble, "the trade to and from Africa" may have been entirely in other things than slaves. And it actually appears from another part of the statute, that trade was carried on in "gold, elephant's teeth, wax, gums and drugs."
From the words immediately succeeding those quoted by Mr. Bancroft from the preamble to this statute, it might much more plausibly, (although even from them it could not be legally) inferred that the statute legalized the slave trade, than from those pretended to be quoted by him. That the succeeding words may be seen, the title and preamble to the act are given, as follows:
"An Act for extending and improving the trade to Africa."
"Whereas, the trade to and from Africa is very advantageous to Great Britain, and necessary for supplying the plantations and colonies thereunto belonging, with a sufficient number of NEGROES at reasonable rates; and for that purpose the said trade" (i.e. "the trade to and from Africa") "ought to be free and open to all his majesty's subjects. Therefore be it enacted," &c.
"Negroes" were not slaves by the English law, and therefore the word "negroes," in this preamble, does not legally mean slaves. For aught that appears from the words of the preamble, or even from any part of the statute itself, these "negroes," with whom it is declared to be necessary that the plantations and colonies should be supplied, were free persons, voluntary emigrants, that were to be induced to go to the plantations as hired laborers, as are those who, at this day, are induced, in large numbers, and by the special agency of the English government, to go to the British West Indies. In order to facilitate this emigration, it was necessary that "the trade to and from Africa" should be encouraged. And the form of the preamble is such as it properly might have been, if such had been the real object of parliament. Such is undoubtedly the true legal meaning of this preamble, for this meaning being consistent with natural right, public policy, and with the fundamental principles of English law, legal rules of construction imperatively require that this meaning should be ascribed to it, rather than it should be held to authorize anything contrary to natural right, or contrary to the fundamental principles of British law.