Treaty of Utrecht between England and Spain, whereby the former for a period of thirty years, from 1713 to 1743, took the exclusive right of importing and selling 144,000 negroes into the Spanish Colonies at the rate of 4,800 per year, and more could be brought in on the payment of a small tax. This made England the greatest slave nation in the world, and her interest demanded, and Parliament saw to it, that nothing adverse to the use of slaves should happen in the American Colonies. The growth of slavery in America from 1715 to 1775, and the slave population in the Colonies at these two periods, were as follows:

Of the half million slaves in this country at the opening of the Revolution, 450,000 were in the Southern Colonies. The reasons for this are found in the difference in economical conditions and political and social customs which sepa

rated the Northern and Southern Colonies before the Revolution. The Northern group devoted themselves mainly to fishing, commerce and farming. The soil, espe cially in New England, was unpromising for the production of great staples, and the result in the North was concentration of the people, growth of town life, distribution of political power, great freedom of speech and press, and a wide discussion of political principles. The South devoted herself wholly to the production of three great staples, rice, indigo and tobacco, and the result in the South was just the reverse of that in the North. Great plantations were established, few cities of any importance sprang up, manufacturing did not thrive, the South importing almost every article of use or luxury. Political power was in the hands of a few, and the three great staples demanded cheap labor, working under the most destructive conditions. Thus, influenced almost entirely by environment and economical and political development, the North became the scene of freedom to individuals and protection to industries, because these things were absolutely essential to the existence and happiness of the people; and the South, by the same necessity, was dedicated to slavery and free trade.

It must not be thought that the colonial period was without any development of opposition to slavery. The German Quakers of Pennsylvania in 1688 took a stand against the use of slaves in their community, and they subsequently became the most active opponents to slavery and the slave trade. Their efforts, however, had little effect except in Pennsylvania, but it is important to mark their

action as the beginning of the abolition movement in this country. There are records in the Southern Colonies of taxes placed upon the importation of slaves prior to the decade before the Revolution, but it would appear that these taxes were more for revenue than as prohibitive means, and that they were of no value in diminishing the demand and the number of negroes imported. However, in 1769, a distinct sentiment crystallized in Virginia against the further importation of slaves, and the Legislature passed a law prohibiting it, but this was vetoed by the Royal Governor, acting under orders from the Crown; the same thing occurred in Massachusetts two years later. In 1772 Lord Mansfield proclaimed the law, "As soon as a slave sets foot on the soil of the British isles he becomes free." This decision had a marked influence on the anti-slavery sentiment, which was now strong in the Colonies, and the approach of the Revolution, with its spirit of national independence and of individual right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, seemed to promise freedom to a people who had already suffered three centuries of terrible bondage.

CHAPTER IV.

THE EARLY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.

"The policy to sustain which Mr. Lincoln was elected President in 1860 was first definitely outlined by Jefferson in 1784. It was the policy of forbidding slavery in the National Territory."

John Fiske.

The history of slavery from the opening scenes of the Revolution to the meeting of the First Congress affords a curious example of the direct influence of self-interest upon the opinions of mankind. The opening of the Revolution saw an emphatic and unanimous expression against slavery and the slave trade, and a general spirit of emancipation was abroad. Two years later this had changed, for when the Declaration was promulgated there was no mention of anti-slavery sentiments in it, and as Independence became more and more assured, the feeling against slavery seems to have weakened, and finally, when a serious attempt to perfect the Union was made, the slave question was decided by expediency and not by principle.

In 1773 and 1774, when the colonists spoke their final defiance against Great Britain, and the latter launched her retaliatory measures, the climax was reached. It is to be kept in mind that at this time slavery existed in every one of the Colonies. The First Continental Congress, representing all the Colonies except Georgia (who agreed to con