Page:The American Slave Trade (Spears).djvu/153

Rh of any American slave-ships, and the guilty merchants and crews were to bear, on conviction, an imprisonment of two years as well as a fine of $2,000 for a maximum penalty. The slaves were to be forfeited, but what was to be done with them was not said, although the captors were not to have them.

It was still lawful to import slaves from Africa into any State permitting the trade. On February 28, 1803, a bill became a law which provided for the forfeiture of any ship that should bring into any State, contrary to its laws, "any negro, mulatto, or other person of color" The ship-master violating this law was to be fined $1,000. Curiously enough, this law was passed on presentation of a petition from North Carolina, Some Haytian negroes had landed at Wilmington, and the North Carolinians were frightened by the thought that the Haytians were emissaries come to preach the Haytian ideas of liberty and equality.

Nevertheless the great profits in cotton planting, after Whitney invented the cotton gin, and was robbed of his rights, caused a reaction in favor of the slave-trade. To obtain more negroes for the cotton-field, South Carolina repealed her law prohibiting slave imports. What South Carolina did openly, other States did sneakingly; they smuggled slaves.

About that time the Louisiana Territory was under consideration in Congress, and many slaves were wanted there. Harper, of South Carolina, got a bill passed compelling the planters in Louisiana to import through "the limits of the United States;" the practical effect of the law being to make all slavers enter their cargoes at Charleston, after which they were at liberty to proceed to New Orleans.