Page:The American Slave Trade (Spears).djvu/142

 

 British Abolitionists and Their Work — After a Crusade of only Twenty Years, They Outlawed a Trade that, from a Business Point of View, had been the most Profitable in the United Kingdom — The Slave-trade and the American Constitution — Inauguration of the System of Compromises that Led to the Civil War — Slave-trade Legislation of the States — The Act of March 2, 1807.

the British-American colonies, from Massachusetts to Georgia, had become the United States of America before anything was done through a love of humanity for the legal abolition of the traffic, it is necessary, for the purposes of this history, to consider the progress of the trade, and of its opponents, very much as if no separation had taken place between the colonies and the mother country.

Although the notable decision that right should prevail in England, as far as the negro Somerset was concerned, was made in 1772, it was not until 1787 that a "Society for the Abolition of the African Slavetrade," was formed in London. However, an abolition association, or committee without special organization, was formed as early as 1783. The immediate cause of its formation was the story of the slaver Zong already related.

The first meeting of the committee was held July 7,