Page 224 - American Stories, A History of the United States

Read the Document Absalom Jones, Sermon on the Abolition of the International Slave Trade (1808) 8.1

8.2

8.3

8.4

8.5

the internAL sLAVe trAde Although the external slave trade was officially outlawed in 1808,
the commerce in humans persisted. An estimated 250,000 African slaves were brought illicitly to the
United States between 1808 and 1860. The internal slave trade also continued. Folk artist Lewis Miller sketched
this slave coffle marching from virginia to new owners in Tennessee under the watchful eyes of mounted white
overseers.

In December 1806, Jefferson urged Congress to prepare legislation outlawing the
slave trade. In early 1807, legislators debated how to end the embarrassing commerce.
The issue cut across party lines. Northern representatives generally favored a strong
bill; some even wanted to make smuggling slaves into the country a capital offense.
But the northerners could not figure out what to do with black people captured by
the customs agents who would enforce the legislation. To sell these Africans would
involve the federal government in slavery, which many northerners found morally
repugnant. Nor was there much sympathy for freeing them. Ignorant of the English
language and lacking personal possessions, these blacks seemed unlikely to long sur-
vive free in the South.
Southern congressmen responded with threats and ridicule. They told their north-
ern colleagues that no one in the South regarded slavery as evil. It was naive, therefore,
to expect planters to enforce a ban on the slave trade or inform federal agents when
they spotted a smuggler. The notion that these culprits deserved capital punishment
seemed viciously inappropriate.
The bill that Jefferson finally signed in March 1807 probably pleased no one. The
law prohibited importing slaves into the United States after January 1, 1808. When
customs officials captured a smuggler, the slaves were to be turned over to state author-
ities and disposed of according to local custom. Southerners did not cooperate. Afri-
can slaves continued to pour into southern ports. Even more blacks would have been Quick Check
imported had Britain not also outlawed the slave trade in 1807. The Royal Navy then Why did the United States
captured American slave smugglers off the coast of Africa. When anyone complained, government not outlaw slavery
the British explained that they were merely enforcing the laws of the United States. altogether in 1807?

191