To be sure, the problem had its uncertain quantities.  The motives of the law-makers in South Carolina and Pennsylvania were dangerously different; the century of industrial expansion was slowly dawning and awakening that vast economic revolution in which American slavery was to play so prominent and fatal a role; and, finally, there were already in the South faint signs of a changing moral attitude toward slavery, which would no longer regard the system as a temporary makeshift, but rather as a permanent though perhaps unfortunate necessity.  With regard to the slave-trade, however, there appeared to be substantial unity of opinion; and there were, in 1787, few things to indicate that a cargo of five hundred African slaves would openly be landed in Georgia in 1860.

24. The Condition of the Slave-Trade. In 1760 England, the chief slave-trading nation, was sending on an average to Africa 163 ships annually, with a tonnage of 18,000 tons, carrying exports to the value of L163,818.  Only about twenty of these ships regularly returned to England.  Most of them carried slaves to the West Indies, and returned laden with sugar and other products.  Thus may be formed some idea of the size and importance of the slave-trade at that time, although for a complete view we must add to this the trade under the French, Portuguese, Dutch, and Americans.  The trade fell off somewhat toward 1770, but was flourishing again when the Revolution brought a sharp and serious check upon it, bringing down the number of English slavers, clearing, from 167 in 1774 to 28 in 1779, and the tonnage from 17,218 to 3,475 tons.  After the war the trade gradually recovered, and by 1786 had reached nearly its former extent.  In 1783 the British West Indies received 16,208 Negroes from Africa, and by 1787 the importation had increased to 21,023.  In this latter year it was estimated that the British were taking annually from Africa 38,000 slaves; the French, 20,000; the Portuguese, 10,000; the Dutch and Danes, 6,000; a total of 74,000.  Manchester alone sent L180,000 annually in goods to Africa in exchange for Negroes.[1]

25. The Slave-Trade and the “Association." At the outbreak of the Revolution six main reasons, some of which were old and of slow growth, others peculiar to the abnormal situation of that time, led to concerted action against the slave-trade.  The first reason was the economic failure of slavery in the Middle and Eastern colonies; this gave rise to the presumption that like failure awaited the institution in the South.  Secondly, the new philosophy of “Freedom” and the “Rights of man,” which formed the corner-stone of the Revolution, made the dullest realize that, at the very least, the slave-trade and a struggle for “liberty” were not consistent.  Thirdly, the old fear of slave insurrections, which had long played so prominent a part in legislation, now gained new power from the imminence of war and from the well-founded fear that the British might