Page:The American Slave Trade (Spears).djvu/128

 legislation of New Jersey, as of some other communities, was based strictly on business considerations. The only question really was, Which in the end will pay best — white or black servants?

In Pennsylvania the first law to impose a prohibitive tax was passed in 1712, and the bill itself sets forth the object in view. It began: ‘‘ Whereas divers Plots and Insurrections have frequently happened, not only in the Islands, but on the Mainland of America, by Negroes, which have been carried on so far that several of the inhabitants have been barbarously Murthered, an Instance whereof we have lately had in our Neighboring Colony of New York," etc. The act ended by imposing a duty of £20.

For fear the slaves whom they dominated might rise to secure liberty and avenge uncounted injuries, the people of Pennsylvania decided that no more slaves should come in. It was the sheer cowardice of conscious tyrants that animated those Pennsylvania legislators.

A similar state of affairs was developed in South Carolina very early — in 1698 — when it was said that "the great number of negroes which of late have been imported into this collony may endanger the safety thereof," and a special law to encourage the importation of white servants was passed. A few years later, when the King of Spain and the Queen of England went into the slave-trade in partnership, heavy duties were laid on imported negroes, because ‘‘ the number of Negroes do extremely increase," and "the safety of the said Province is greatly endangered." In 1717 a duty of £40 currency was laid, and this cut down importations so much that a duty of £10 was