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 INTRODUCTORY.

Slavery in the United States after the Fugitive Slave law was enacted,assumed its most hideous aspect. When in colonial times it pervaded more or less all the colonies, it was not regarded as a special source of profit, and the value was but little more than nominal. After the adoption of the Constitution, State after State provided for its abolition till it was finally limited to the States south of Mason & Dixon’s line and the Ohio river. The invention of the cotton gin and the profitableness of the culture of cane and cotton enhanced the value of slave property, and so far increased the demand for this kind of labor that the raising of slaves for the Southern market became a large source of income to the northern Slave States. In process of time they were held as mere chattels, without legal rights, and could not make bargains, marriage contracts, or perform any act whatever in which the law granted them any protection. In the eye of the law they were as much property as horses and cattle. This legal ownership enabled the masters to supply the slave auctions with human chattels, and caused great anguish to the poor wretches who were subject to sale and separation of kindred with no legal redress against any cruelty which might be inflicted. In the District of Columbia was a large slave mart, but it was so repugnant to Northern sentiments that finally the traffic was abolished there, but was continued at Alexandria, which was receded to Virginia.

At an early date the moral sense of many of the people of the North was aroused to the enormity of the crime of slavery and measures were taken for its abolition. The first slaves brought to this country were sold from a Dutch vessel at Jamestown, Va., in 1619. There were twenty of them. From that time up to 1776 three hundred thousand were imported. In the Continental Congress it was resolved that no more slaves should be brought to this country, but on the adoption of the Constitution, Congress was prohibited from abolishing the slave trade till 1808. In the meantime Anti-Slavery Societies were formed in several States, and Benj. Franklin was President of such an organization. The Quakers persistently protested against human bondage, and