The number of persons engaged in the slave-trade, and the amount of capital embarked in it, exceed our powers of calculation. The city of New York has been until of late the principal port of the world for this infamous commerce; although the cities of Portland and Boston are only second to her in that distinction. Slave dealers added largely to the wealth of our commercial metropolis; they contributed liberally to the treasuries of political organizations, and their bank accounts were largely depleted to carry elections in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. It was natural for the leaders of the party which they had aided, to accord to them, as an equivalent, many facilities for carrying on their business. There is indeed no occasion for wonder at the countenance and impunity long given to such auxiliaries. If a few of them chanced to be of Knickerbocker stock, and to bear the talisman which affords admission to the higher circles of Gothamite respectability, it is only what might have been expected. There are such men everywhere, even in the Tombs.
It requires no miraculous gift to be able to perceive why the late administration at Washington was sensitive as to the visitation of American vessels of doubtful character, by the officers of British cruisers. There was no principle at stake; but the slave-dealing interest had demanded as an immunity, that the piece of bunting known as the American flag should be allowed to protect from scrutiny every suspicious ship over which it should be raised. They had the power or influence to command; and the administration obeyed.
The present administration appears to have awakened somewhat to this subject. The principal appointments for the Atlantic ports were given to men of anti-slavery proclivities. The new marshal of the southern district of New York was of different material from his predecessors, and fortunately he was no novice. He was familiar with the habits of the men engaged in the slave trade; he was ambitious and eager to signalize himself for efficiency. In three months he had seized nine vessels, and arrested twenty-eight men who had outfitted, commanded, or served on them.
The Secretary of the Interior now resolved that the business should be broken up in every port of the United States. He accordingly issued an order to the several marshals of the States and districts lying upon the seaboard, directing them to assemble at the city of New York, on the fifteenth day of August, 1861, for the purpose of agreeing upon a system of measures for the effectual suppression of the slave-trade in American ports.
Burton's old Theatre, formerly dedicated to the 'sock and buskin,' and famous during the religious revival of 1858, was now occupied by this convention of marshals. Waiving unnecessary parliamentary usages, these ministers of the law sat with closed doors, and discussed familiarly the business in which they had engaged. They investigated carefully the whole subject in its minuter details, and visited the slave brigs and schooners which had been captured and were then lying at the Atlantic Dock in Brooklyn. A plan of operations was concerted, by which the marshals of the different districts should co-operate with each other in detecting and bringing to justice persons guilty of participating in the slave-trade. The results of this measure can not fail to be beneficial; and, indeed, the marshals have already become so active and efficient, that the capitalists who have maintained this branch of commerce are actually contemplating its transferment to European ports. So much for the convocation at Burton's Theatre. Let us now examine the principal features of the traffic, and the practices of those by whom it is conducted.
SLAVE DEALING IN NEW YORK.
The principal slave captains and chief officers of vessels engaged in the slave-trade have their residences and boarding-places in the eastern wards of the city, most of them being between James and Houston Streets. They are known to every one who has an investment in the business. Indeed, they are all members of a secret fraternity, having its signs, grips, and pass-words. 'While I was in Eldridge-street jail,' said one of them, 'Captain Loretti was captured and brought there. He did not know any one, but I shook hands with him, and we became acquainted at once.'
The arrival of a slave captain from one voyage is the signal for preparation for another. Negotiations are carried on, generally in the first-class hotels. The contracts for the City of Norfolk and several other notorious slavers were made at the Astor House. The risk of detection is less at such a public place than it would be at a private office.
A man who had failed in business on Greenwich Street was recently engaged in fitting out these vessels for their African voyage. He was first sent to procure apparatus for the refining of palm oil. This was but a blind, the practice being to take out the machinery, and employ the boiler for culinary purposes, until the vessels had got out to sea, and there was no farther necessity for duping inquisitive persons. This man was also commissioned to purchase wooden ware, champagne, and other necessary articles. Such were the business agents and their duty; all was liberally paid for and promptly supplied.
As soon as a vessel is ready and officered for the voyage, measures are taken to procure a crew. Slave-traders employ for this the services of 'runners,' who constitute a caste of pariahs of the most degraded kind. A conscientious scruple would seem never to enter into their calculations. They would hardly recognize a precept of the decalogue except by the circumstance of its violation. Earning their livelihood thus basely, debauchery and crime constitute their every-day history. These persons keep a record of the names of men who have served on slave ships, or been guilty of mutiny, or other villany. So accurate is their information and so expert are they in their estimate of character, that they seldom commit a blunder, or furnish a seaman who is not the man for the vocation. The crew which they select are indeed 'picked men.' They are of every nationality, and are taken from the seamen's boarding-houses in the lower wards of the city.