Page:The African Slave Trade (Clark).djvu/91

 average number imported every year up to the present time, at about 30,000. If the profit realized on the purchase of one slave amounts, as we have shown, to $365, the total profits of one year's trade will therefore be about $11,000,000

"It is estimated that in the port of New York alone, about twelve vessels are fitted out every year for the slave trade, and that Boston and Baltimore furnish each about the same number, making a fleet of thirty-six vessels, all engaged in a commerce at which the best feelings of our nature revolt. If to these be added the slavers fitted out in other Eastern ports besides Boston, we e will have a total of about forty, which is rather under than over the actual number. Each slaver registers from 150 to 250 tons, and costs, when ready for sea, with provisions, slave equipments, and every thing necessary for a successful trip, about $8,000.

"Here, to start with, we have a capital of $320,000, the greater part of which is contributed by Northern men."

A table of costs is then given, and, —

"From this estimate, it will be seen that the amount of capital required to fit out a fleet of slavers, is about $1,500,000, upon which the profits are so immense as almost to surpass belief. In a single voyage of the fleet, 24,000 human beings are carried off from different points on the slave coasts; and of these, 4000, or one sixth of the whole number, become victims to the horrors of the middle passage, leaving 20,000 fit for market. For each of these, the trader obtains an average of $500, making a total for the whole 20,000 of $10,000,000.

"Now if we estimate the number of trips made by each vessel in a year at two, we will have this increased to $20,000,000. Each vessel, it is true, can make three, and sometimes four trips; but as some are destroyed after the first