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 586 Reviezvs of Books The American Slave-Trade : An Account of its Origin, Grotcth and Suppression. By John R. Spears. (New York : Charles Scribner's Sons, 1900. Pp. xvi, 232.) For the general reader this book may have some interest. To the student of the slave-trade, in its origin, growth, or suppression, it offers nothing of value, in source-material, method, spirit or conclusions. The work has no bibliography and no index. It possesses five foot- note references, and occasional allusions to sources are scattered through the text. The preface states that the book was written "almost wholly from public documents, biographies, stories of travellers, and other sources of original information. ' ' Examination shows that G. Williams's The Liverpool Privateers, a work on the English and not the American trade, is drawn upon for statistical and other information, occasionally erroneous ; that on the earlier period of the trade the author is indebted for the "documents " cited to Mr. G. C. Mason's article in the Ameri- can Historical Record oi July and August, 1872 : and that on conditions in Africa, the "middle passage" and the profits of the trade, he ap- parently makes no distinction between "stories of travellers" on the American and on the English trade. The author's reiteration of the immorality of the trafiic is more pro- nounced than any search for underlying causes on which it was built. '■ The assertion that the British forced the trafiic on unwilling colonists in America," says Mr. Spears, " is a puling whine," for the latter did not " virtuously " struggle to resist it. Such treatment disposes of early at- tempts at restrictive legislation in short order, but it also leaves cause and effect largely untouched. The salient features in the trade — negroes in Africa, captures, mid- dle passage, profits, losses, domestic slave-trade, smuggling, restrictive legislation, — are too frequently touched upon in an illusory manner. For example, under the caption, " The Proportion of Disastrous Voyages," it is said that "something may be told of the proportion of losing to paying voyages." A citation follows from an insurance policy, showing the nature of the risks, and this statement : " For assuming these risks the underwriters charged usually ^20 in a hundred, but Mr. William Johnson got at least one policy of a hundred for ^^ 18 premium." This is all we learn of the " proportion of losing to paying voyages " in the American slave-trade. Again, we are told that " no trade ever paid such large returns on the investments." In the chapter "The Slavers' Profit ' ' eleven cases are cited, figures given on ten, all showing enormous profits. Six of these cases are taken from Williams's book, mentioned above, and are ships in the English trade. Two more are evidently trading between Cuba and Africa. Our exact information on the profits of vessels in the American slave-trade is thereby cut down to two cases. The author's unfamiliarity with primary sources leads him into oc- casional errors. There never was a " Royal Assiento " Company. Con- sequently the African Company of 1662 could not have sold out to it.