"The above vessels are all of the first class, and commanded by long and experienced commanders.—For further information, apply to
G. W. Apperson."
This Capt. Nath. Boush is probably the same man who figures in Mr. Amfield's advertisement. But Southern traders by no means have a monopoly of this coastwise slave-trade. The barque Parthenon, Mellish, master, cleared from the port of New York, October 10, 1846, for Richmond, Virginia, avowedly "to load with slaves for the port of New Orleans."
How business-like is the following letter from a North Carolina slave-trader to his consignee in New Orleans! ("A Reproof of the American Church," p. 22):—
"Halifax, N.C. November 16, 1839.
"Dear Sir,—I have shipped in the brig Addison, prices as below:—No. 1, Caroline Ennis, $650; 2, Silvy Holland, $625; 3, Silvy Booth, $487.50; 4, Maria Pollock, $475; 5, Emeline Pollock, $475; 6, Delia Averit, $475.
"The two girls that cost $650 and $625 were bought before I shipped my first. I have a great many negroes offered to me; but I will not pay the prices they ask, for I know they will come down. I have no opposition in market. I will wait until I hear from you before I buy, and then I can judge what I must pay. Goodwin will send you the bill of lading for my negroes, as he shipped them with his own. Write often, as the times are critical, and it depends on the prices you get to govern me in buying.
"Yours, &c.
G. W. Barnes.
"Mr. Theophilus Freeman, New Orleans."
The number of slaves thus bought and sold can never be known with perfect accuracy. Hon. John G. Palfrey, in his excellent Papers on the Slave Power (p. 83), estimates the number annually sold from the more northerly Slave States at not less than forty thousand! We think his estimate within the truth.