Page:The American Slave Trade (Spears).djvu/17

 race by the slave-trade and slavery are more to be deplored than those inflicted upon the manifestly oppressed negro.

At first thought it may seem a story to make an American ashamed of his country. Certainly the power of the slave-ship owner in national politics before the civil war was something that makes us marvel now. From the enactment of the law that made the slave-trade piracy until Abraham Lincoln became President the policy of pretence that prevailed in connection with the slave-trade was infinitely disgraceful to the nation. But when all the facts are fairly considered, it is found that we were steadily developing, under adverse circumstances, a love of exact Justice. We washed away our shame, at last, with unstinted blood, and then a time came when our people took up arms to give liberty even to an alien race. The history of the slaver days is worth consideration if only that it may be contrasted with the history of the end of the Nineteenth Century.

This book has been written almost wholly from public documents, biographies, stories of travellers, and other sources of original information. I am under especial obligations to the work of Professor Du Bois on the suppression of the slave-trade for its full lists of references, and to Mr. A. S. Clark, without whose knowledge of the book trade I should have been unable to complete my collection of authorities.

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