“Oh! oh! oh! how you forget!” exclaimed Max. “History says that she began in 1563 to import slaves from Africa into the West Indies; and the trade was not finally abolished till the spring of 1807. Also, that by the Peace of Utrecht, in 1713, England obtained a monopoly of the slave-trade, and engaged to furnish Spanish America with one hundred and forty-four thousand negroes in thirty-three years; that a great slave-trading company was formed in England, and Queen Anne took one-quarter of the stock; that the King of Spain took another quarter, so that the two sovereigns became the greatest slave-dealers in Christendom.
“That company brought slaves into the American colonies, and to some extent slavery was forced upon them by what they then called the mother country. Queen Anne directed the New York colonial government to encourage the Royal African Company, and see that the colony was furnished with plenty of merchantable negroes at moderate rates.
“In the face of such facts, can you deny that England was largely responsible for the slavery that has proved such a curse to this country in years past?”
Albert’s countenance wore a discomfited expression, and instead of replying to Max’s query, he turned to his father with the question, “Is he correct, sir, in the statements he has been making?”
“I am afraid he is,” replied Mr. Austin, “though some of his facts had slipped my memory till he brought them up. Europe has no right to twit America on the subject of slavery or the slave trade; especially now when negro slavery no longer exists in any part of the Union.”
“And our government abolished the slave trade in the same year that yours did,” remarked Captain Raymond.
“Yes,” acknowledged Mr. Austin, “but the act for the abolition of slavery throughout the British colonies was passed thirty years before Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation set the last of the negroes free in this country.”
“True; but as a set-off against that, remember that the first negroes brought to Massachusetts (the first in New England) were sent home at the public expense, by the General Court of the colony.
“That was in 1640. In 1652, Roger Williams and Gorton made a decree against slavery in Rhode Island; while as late as 1672, white slaves were sold in England, to be transported to Virginia.”
“Not sold into perpetual slavery, however,” said Mr. Austin.