Abstract
The above quotations, decrying the evils of the slave trade are from two widely disparate sources and periods. The first may be found in an anti-slave trade tract of the Society of Friends published in 1824, and the second is from the opinion in a federal case involving slave trading activities in 1860. Both are evidence of the futility of the hopes of the founding fathers in 1787, that slavery and its companion evil, the slave trade, were but temporary problems for the United States. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the cotton gin and the textile mills destroyed these hopes, and the institution of slavery became a foundation stone of southern life. Although in 1808, the slave trade was prohibited by congressional action, the absence of specific enforcement machinery led to multiple violations of the law. Profits were too great to be resisted as the demand and price for slaves rose in the United States after the War of 1812.
Recommended Citation
Stafford, Frances J.
(1967)
"Illegal Importations: Enforcement of the Slave Trade Laws Along the Florida Coast, 1810-1828,"
Florida Historical Quarterly: Vol. 46:
No.
2, Article 5.
Available at:
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol46/iss2/5
