Third. The destruction of the natives of the West India islands, estimated at 4,000,000, by the Spaniards, by which a demand for negro slaves was created. Fourth. The first importation of negro slaves into Hispaniola by the Spanish in 1501. Fifth. The discovery and occupation of the American Continent by the commercial nations of Europe-the Spaniards, Portuguese, English, French, Dutch, Swedes, Danes, etc. Sixth. The enslaving of the aborigines on the continent by the Spaniards and Portuguese. Seventh. The rapid extension of the slave-trade and slavery throughout the settled portion of the American continent. Eighth. The commercial nations of Europe enter upon the slave-trade and supply their American colonies, giving it a moral support based on the ancient superstitious notion that in capturing the heathen and enslaving them, they were saving souls. Ninth. The European nations protect the slave-trade and slavery by legislation and treaties, and follow it up most vigorously as the foundation of their African and American commerce for upward of two and a half centuries. In elucidating the second point, that of the culminating period of commercial slavery in America, which period may be said to run from 1775 to the first of the nineteenth century, the following facts are stated : First. The entire American continent, with the West India islands, was slave territory. Second. The entire labor or service in all that part of the world was performed by negro and Indian slaves. Third. All the exports were the products of slave labor. Fourth. By royal edicts, legislative enactments and common law, the right of man to own property in man was protected throughout America in the strongest manner possible. Fifth. All the European nations having possessions in America, were actively engaged in the slave-trade, and in supplying their colonies with slaves. Sixth. The moral, legal, territorial, industrial and commercial status of slavery was complete throughout America. Seventh. The number of negro slaves was, in Estimated number of free civilized inhabitants on the American continent and West India The third point-the decline of Commercial Slavery in America is represented in the following facts: First. Initiatory measures of abolition by Rhode Island in 1770; by Virginia in 1778; by Pennsylvania in 1780; by Maryland in 1783; by Connecticut in 1784; by North Carolina in 1786; by Canada in 1793; in all of which slavery became gradually extinct, except in Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina. Slavery abolished in Massachusetts in 1783 and in New Hampshire in 1792. Slavery prohibited in the Northwest Territory by Ordinance of 1787. Second. Slave-trade abolished by Denmark in 1803; by the United States in 1808; by England in 1808; by Holland in 1814; by France in 1819; by Spain in 1822; by Portugal in 1823; by Brazil, 1850. Third. The liberation of the aborigines inhabiting Spanish America and held in slavery, numbering 7,000,000 and upward, during the Spanish American revolutions, extending from 1810 to 1825. Fourth; The abolition of negro slavery by New Grenada and Venezuela in 1823; by Guatemala, comprising the Central American States, in 1824 by La Plata gradually, commencing in 1813; by Mexico and Yucatan in 1829; by Chili in 1833. By Peru gradually, commencing in 1821, and becoming extinct in 1855. Fifth. The abolition of slavery in the English colonies by England in 1834, by which 781,697 slaves were liberated; the abolition of slavery in the French colonies by France in 1848, by which 239,937 slaves were liberated; the abolition of slavery in the Danish Colonies by Denmark in 1848; the abolition of slavery in the Swedish Colonies by Sweden in 1847; the abolition of slavery in Dutch Guiana by Holland in 1851. Sixth. The measures taken by the government of Brazil, in accordance with public opinion, to substitute free for slave labor, by which slavery is gradually becoming extinct in that great empire. Seventh. The decline of slavery in the American States of Delaware, Maryland, Missouri and in Western Virginia; the settlement of Western Texas by free laborers, and the general decay of the institution throughout the South, as elucidated by the U. S. census statistics. Eighth. The total disappearance of the moral status of slavery throughout the civilized world. GRAND RESULTS. The following are the grand results which thus far indicate the decline of commercial slavery in America: Area of the American Continent and West Indian Islands, all slave territory up to 1783 Brazil Present area of slave territory in America. Cuba and Porto Rico Southern States, U. S. Square Miles. 14,130,208 11,235,532 Gain of free upon slave territory in America since 1783 . Excess of slave above free civilized population in America, 1790 4,063,138 Excess of free civilized population over slave population in 57,820,222 We cannot, at this moment, give with any degree of accuracy the amount of exports from all America during the latter part of the eighteenth century, when slavery was universally prevalent. It is sufficient to know that they were all the product of slave labor, a large amount being in the precious metals taken from the mines in Spanish America by the Indian slaves. The amount of exports from America, in 1860, may be stated with accuracy, in round numbers, at Of this amount, slave products are : Brazil, $700,000,000 $50,000,000 This is a gain of nearly two-thirds in free over slave labor, within sixty years. THE SLAVE-TRADE. The extent of the slave-trade, from 1500 to 1850, a period of 350 years, we estimate as follows: of 350 years 60,000 3,000,000 80,000 4,000,000 65,000 3,250,000 Total importation of negro slaves into America during a period We put forth this estimate with the remark, that any statement of the number of negro slaves imported into America since its discovery by Columbus, must be based mainly on conjecture, guided by such facts as can be gathered in history. In the first place, no thorough or complete official records of this traffic were kept by the nations engaged in it. Their interests in the business required a suppression of definite information relative to its prosecution. Those companies who held the legal monopoly of the trade, invariably transcended the prescribed limits, and it is well known that outside parties the contrabandistas-imported far more slaves than the legal monopolists. Special privileges-such as taking a certain number of negro servants and laborers to the New World--were also granted to Spanish discoverers, conquerors and colonists. In numerous ways, therefore, the number of negro slaves taken to America reached an amount, every year, of which the various parties engaged in the trade, and the authorities, were entirely unconscious; and in giving in round numbers, say 14,000,000, as the sum total of negro slaves imported into America, we are probably below the mark rather than above it. But now, the only remaining trade in slaves is with Cuba, and the importation cannot exceed 10,000 per annum, and in a very few years the trade will probably be entirely extinct; and then, according to our calculation, the progressive working of the inexorable laws that regulate capital and |