[54] Revelations of a Slave Smuggler, p. 98. Quoted by Du Bois, p. 166.
[55] 27 Report Am. Anti-Slavery So., p. 20. Du Bois: P. 181.
[56] 27 Report Am. Anti-Sl. So., p. 21. Du Bois, p. 182.
[57] J.J. Lalor: Cyclopedia, Vol. III., p. 733.
[58] This is little more than the estimate which Du Bois made before he wrote his book, "Suppression of the Slave Trade." "From 1807 to 1862 there were annually introduced into the United States from 1,000 to 15,000 Africans, and that the total number thus brought in in contravention alike of humanity and law was not less than 250,000." "Enforcement of Slave Trade Laws," in the Annual Report of the Am. Hist. Assoc. for the year 1891, p. 173. The estimate of 270,000 in the text was made after careful study, and before the writer knew of Du Bois' estimate.
THE CAUSES OF THE RISE AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE DOMESTIC SLAVE TRADE.
The prohibition of the foreign slave trade by the States and the Federal Government is the first thing to be considered in connection with the development of the internal slave trade. Although before 1808 all the States had passed laws to prohibit the introduction of slaves from without the United States, yet each State had the power to reopen the trade at will. South Carolina, perhaps, thinking it might be for the interest of the State, opened the foreign trade in 1803.[59] During the four years following so many slaves were imported that the market in the United States became overstocked and many of the negroes were sent to the West Indies for sale.[60] Had the States retained the power to import, it is not probable that the domestic trade would ever have assumed any great importance. It is not likely that the people of the South and West would have paid high prices for the negroes from the border States when they could have been had from abroad for so much less.