“That the migration
or importation of such persons as any of
the states now existing
shall think proper to admit, can not
be prohibited by congress
prior to the year 1808.
“That congress have no right to interfere in the emancipation of slaves, or in the treatment of them, in any of the states, it remaining with the several states alone to provide any regulations therein which humanity and true policy require.
“That congress have authority to restrain the citizens of the United States from carrying on the African slave-trade for the purpose of supplying foreigners with slaves, and of providing by proper regulations for the humane treatment, during their passage, of slaves imported by the said citizens into the said states admitting such importation.
“That congress
have also authority to prohibit foreigners
from fitting out vessels
in any port of the United States
for transporting persons
from Africa to any foreign port.”
The census of 1790 gave the slave population of the States as follows:—
SLAVE POPULATION.—CENSUS OF 1790.
Connecticut 2,759 Delaware 8,887 Georgia 29,264 Kentucky 11,830 Maryland 103,036 New Hampshire 158 New Jersey 11,423 New York 21,324 North Carolina 100,572 Pennsylvania 3,737 Rhode Island 952 South Carolina 107,094 Vermont 17 Virginia 293,427 Territory south of Ohio 3,417
Aggregate, 697,897.
Vermont was admitted into the Union on the 18th of February, 1791; and the first article of the Bill of Rights declared that “no male person born in this country, or brought from over sea, ought to be bound by law to serve any person as a servant, slave, or apprentice after he arrives at the age of twenty-one years, nor female, in like manner, after she arrives at the age of twenty-one years, unless they are bound by their own consent after they arrive at such age, or are bound by law for the payment of debts, damages, fines, costs, or the like.” This provision was contained in the first Constitution of that State, and, therefore, it was the first one to abolish and prohibit slavery in North America.
On the 4th of February, 1791, Kentucky was admitted into the Union by Act of Congress, though it had no Constitution. But the next year a Constitution was framed. By it the Legislature was denied the right to emancipate slaves without the consent of the owner, nor without paying the full price of the slaves before emancipating them; nor could any laws be passed prohibiting emigrants from other states from bringing with them persons deemed slaves by the laws of any other states in the Union, so long as such persons should be continued as slaves in Kentucky.