Page:The American Slave Trade (Spears).djvu/76

 children scarcely need be said, though sons were rarely sold save in time of famine, even in the mild slaveholding days before the white slaver came — days when slaves were, on the whole, treated as members of the slave-holder's family. In connection with these facts we must remember that the Africans, having food and raiment, were therewith content. They did not try to accumulate fortunes, and so had no need for many workmen. Slaves were few in number on this coast before the white man came.

The story of the first American voyage to Africa of which we have a definite record tells us somewhat of methods employed in obtaining slave cargoes. A Boston ship, called the Rainbowe, commanded by one Captain Smith, went away to Madeira with saltfish and staves. Sailing thence with the proceeds of her sale, she "touched on the coast of Guinea" for slaves. She found some London slave-vessels already here, with their captains very much disgruntled because trade was dull. There were very few slaves for sale, that is, and to liven matters a little, the Yankees and the Londoners united, and "on pretence of some quarrel with the natives landed a ‘murderer' — the expressive name of a small cannon — attacked a negro village on Sunday, killed many of the inhabitants, and made a few prisoners, two of whom fell to the share of the Boston ship."

That was in 1645 — just twenty-six years after the Dutchman landed the slaves in Virginia as recorded by John Rolfe, the first American squaw-man. False pretence, outrage, and the slaughter of innocents characterized the first-recorded gathering of slaves in which an American had part. They "killed many of