Slavery In Africa An Ancient Institution. It is to be noted that slavery in Africa is a native institution and is very ancient. The most common ways of becoming a slave were: (1) By being born a slave; (2) By being sold into slavery for debt; (3) By becoming a slave through capture in war; (4) By kidnapping individuals and selling them into slavery. This might be done for revenge or merely for greed and gain. (5) By being captured in a raid for slaves. This became the most fruitful source of slave supply. Domestic slavery still exists in many parts of the continent. It is so bound up with tribal and family life that it is difficult to abolish. It was recently reported as existing in Southwest Africa, in Central Africa and in Abyssinia. The British Government in 1922 decided to abolish domestic slavery in Tanganyika. Where Slaves Came From In Africa. It appears that the slaves who were brought to America from Africa came from almost every part of that continent. An indication of this is shown in the fact that the British in their attempts to suppress the slave trade concentrated at Sierra Leone, several thousand captive slaves. A study of the languages of these slaves showed that they came from all parts of the West Coast, the Upper Niger, the Sahara Desert region, Senegal, the Lake Chad region, Southwest Africa, the Zambesi Delta and the Southeastern Coast. The fact that slaves came from almost all parts of Negro Africa, throws light upon the differences in color, features, hair, etc., of the Negroes of the Western Hemisphere. These differences existed before the intermixtures that have taken place in this hemisphere between whites and Negroes; for there are among Africans, marked differences in features, hair, color, etc. There are no exact figures as to the number of slaves brought from Africa to the Western Hemisphere. This importation went on for about 360 years. This is, from about 1517 to about 1880 when the last slaves were imported into Cuba and Brazil. An estimate in the Catholic Encylopedia places the number of slaves brought from Africa at 12,000,000. Helps, "The Spanish Conquest in America" estimates that, from 1517 to 1807, not less than five or six million African slaves were imported into America. Morel, on page 19 of “The Black Man's Burden,” gives the following for the period 1666-1800: "1666-1766-Number of slaves imported by the British alone into British French and Spanish American Colonies-three millions (quarter of a million died on the voyage.) 1680-1786-Slaves imported into the British American Colonies-2,130,000, Jamaica alone absorbing 610,000. 1716-1756-An average of 70,000 slaves per annum imported into all the American colonies, or a total of 3,500,000. 1752-1762 Jamaica alone imported 71,115 slaves. 1776-1800-An average of 74,000 slaves per annum imported into all American colonies, or a total of 1,850,000. (Annual average: by British, 38,000; Portuguese, 10,000; Dutch, 4,000; French, 20,000; Danes, 2,000.") Collins, on page "20, "The Domestic Slave Trade of the Southern States," gives the following: "From 1808-1860 inclusive, 270,000 slaves were introduced into the United States as follows: NEGROES AS EXPLORERS. The charge is often brought against the Negro that one indication of his inferiority is the lack of initiative especially in the matter of being a pioneer. In contradiction, however, there are some very interesting facts such as the following concerning the part Negroes played in the discovery of America. Negroes Migrated Before Columbus. It has recently been pointed out by Professor Leo Weiner, of Harvard University, that it is very probable that Negroes from Africa had migrated to the American continent long before the first voyage of Columbus. Professor Weiner sets forth this view in a critical study from the sources which he is publishing in three volumes under the title, "Africa and the Discovery of America." He adduces facts to show that many of the practices, rites, ceremonies and words of the aborigines of the West Indian Archipelago came from Africa. He further points out that a number of supposedly Indian words are in reality of African origin, as for example, canoe and the appellations for the sweet potato and yam. Tobacco and its smoking, he brings evidence to show, were introduced into America by Africans, who in his opinion, long before the time of Columbus had crossed over to America from Guinea. Negroes Accompany Spanish Explorers. 1492. Alonzo, Pietro, a Negro is credited by some authorities as having been the pilot of the ship, Nina, of the fleet of Columbus in the discovery of America. It is further reported that he accompanied Columbus on his second voyage to America. His name is said to appear in the list of the names of those who sailed with Columbus. Pietro's name appeared in the "Libretto," 1504, as Pietro Alonzo, il nigro. This is repeated in "Paesi Nouamente Retrouati,' Venice, 1507, also in Simon Grynaeus' "Novus Orbis Regionum," Basle, 1532, also Peter Martyrs' "Decades" Seville, 1511. 1501. A Royal Edict permitted Negro slaves born in slavery among Christians to be transported from Spain to Hispaniola. 1505. 1510. 1510. 1516. 1517. 1522. 1526. 1527. These, however, were not the first African slaves brought from Spain. The first African slaves were brought over by the Spanish slaveholders, who, as they emigrated, were accompanied by their Negroes. King Ferdinand sent slaves to Hispaniola. In a letter dated September 15, of that year, he said, “I will send you more Negro Slaves as you request. I think there may be a hundred." King Ferdinand sent from Seville fifty slaves to labor in the mines of Hispaniola. Direct traffic in slaves was established between Guinea and Hispaniola. Thirty Negroes are said to have accompanied Balboa. They assisted him in building the first ship constructed on the Pacific coast of America. Charles V., of Spain, who was also Emperor of Germany and the Netherlands, granted the exclusive monopoly to Flemish noblemen to import annually 4,000 Africans to Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, and Porto Rico. This monopoly sold to some Genoese merchants for 25,000 ducats. Three hundred Negro slaves are said to have accompanied Cortez in his conquest of Mexico. Negro slaves were employed by Vanques de Ayllon in an attempt to establish a settlement on the coast of what is now North and South Carolina. This was the first introduction of Negro slavery into the territory of the United States. These slaves are said to have built the first ship constructed on the Atlantic Coast of America. A number of Negro slaves were in the expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez to conquer Florida; among them was Estevancio. A Negro Was The Discoverer of Arizona And New Mexico. 1528. The expedition, under De Narvaez, landed on the coast of Florida The expedition was unsuccessful. Estevancio, "Little Steve," a Negro, was a member of this expedition. Estevancio, was afterwards the discoverer of Arizona and one of the first persons to cross the American continent. The survivors were wrecked on the coast of what is now Texas on November 6, 1528, and were made captives by the Indians. Estevancio, with two other companions, wandered over the plains of Texas and Mexico for eight years, until on the 24th of July, 1536, the city of Mexico was reached. In 1538 he led an expedition from Mexico in search of the fabled seven cities and discovered Arizona and New Mexico. He was killed at Cibola, in what is now New Mexico. He was the first member of an alien race to visit the New Mexican Pueblos. After a lapse of three and one-half_centuries, the tradition of the killing of Estevancio still lingers in a Zuni Indian legend, which, among other things, says: "It is to be believed that a long time ago, when roofs lay over the walls of Kya-ki-me, when smoke hung over the housetops, and the ladder-rounds were still unbroken in Kya-ki-me, then the Black Mexicans came from their abodes in Everlasting Summerland. Then the Indians of So-no-li set up a great howl, and thus they and our ancients did much ill to one another. Then and thus was killed by our ancients, right where the stone stands down by the arroyo of Kya-ki-me, one of the Black Mexicans, a large man, with chilli lips." REFERENCES: Lowery. Spanish Settlements Within the Present Limits of the United States, 1513-1861, Wright, Negro Companions of Spanish Explorers, American Anthropologist. Vol. IV. N. S. 1902. 1539. African slaves accompanied the expedition of De Soto. 1540. The second settler in Alabama was a Negro. He was in the De Soto expedition. He liked the country and settled among the Indians. 1542. Three Negroes who accompanied the Corondo expedition remained behind at Triguex, near where Santa Fe, New Mexico, now is. 1562. The importation of slaves from Africa to the New World was begun by Englishmen. 1564-65. The first vessel to make the return voyage across the Pacific from the East Indies to Mexico was steered by a Negro pilot. 1565. Pedro Menendez de Aviles had a company of Negro slaves when he founded St. Augustine, Florida. They were brought from Spain and were trained artisans and agriculturists. Matthew A. Henson.-Born in Charles County, Maryland, August 8, 1866. Most noted of all the Negro explorers. Accompanied Commander Robert E. Peary on all his expeditions in search of the North Pole except one. Henson was the only civilized person with Peary in his final dash to the pole, April 7, 1909. Henson made eight trips to the Artic regions. In describing Henson's part in the discovery of the North Pole, Commander Peary said: On that bitter brilliant day in April, 1909, when the stars and stripes floated at the North Pole, Caucasian, Ethiopian, and Mongolian stood side by side at the apex of the earth, in the harmonious companionship resulting from hard work, exposure, danger and a common object. Matthew A. Henson, my Negro assistant, has been with me in one capacity or another since my second trip to Nicaragua in 1887. I have taken him on each and all of my expeditions, except the first, and also without exception on *Lip swelled from eating chilli pepper. each of my farthest sledge trips. This position I have given him primarily because of his adaptability and fitness for the work, and, secondly, on account of his loyalty. He is a better dog driver than any man living, except some of the best Esquimo hunters themselves. REFERENCE.-A Negro at the North Pole (Autobiography); Henson, M. A., New York, 1912. SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES. 1619. 1628. Ship load of Africans landed at Jamestown, Virginia. 1628. Slavery in New Jersey; abolished 1746. 1630. Slavery in Massachusetts; abolished 1780. 1631-36. Slavery in Connecticut. Gradual abolition begins 1784. Slavery in Delaware; abolished 1865. Governor Calvert of Maryland bargains with a certain ship-master for the Massachusetts and Rhode Island make slave raiding a capital offense. 1636. 1642. 1646. 1647. 1649. REFERENCE: Virginia Magazine of History. Vol. XVII p. 232. 1650. 1651. Connecticut passes an act making man-stealing a capital offense. In that year patents were granted to Negroes as follows: Anthony Johnson, REFERENCE: Russell, The Free Negro in Virginia, 1619-1865. p. 24. First Record Negro Slave Owner In United States. 1653. 1665. 1669. 1679. 1681. 1695. 1699. 1710. 1712. 1749. 1752. First record of Negro slave owner in the United States. In that year John Castor, a Negro of Northampton County, brought suit against Anthony Johnson to obtain his freedom. He claimed, according to the records "Yt hee came into Virginia for seaven or eight years of Indenture, yt hee had demanded his freedom of Anth. Johnson, his Mayster; & further sd yet hee had kept him a servant seaven years longer than hee should or ought.' Anthony Johnson referred to is evidently the same Anthony Johnson who with his wife, Mary, were among the twenty-three African residents in the colony 1624-5 when they were listed as servants. It is evident, if the complaint of John Castor is true, namely, that Johnson had held him as a servant seven years beyond the period for which he was indentured, that Anthony Johnson must have been a free man as early as 1635. It is a record that Johnson was successful in the suit which Castor brought against him and retained the services of Castor apparently for life. Slavery in South Carolina. Slavery in North Carolina. New Hampshire founded, slavery probably established; abolished 1783. Maryland places a tax on imported slaves. Virginia imposes tax to check importation of slaves. October 9. First use in Virginia of legislative power to emancipate a slave. Will, a slave of Robert Ruffin, of Surry County, Virginia, given his manumission papers by the General Assembly for revealing a slave conspiracy. Legislature of Pennsylvania passes an act restricting the increase of slaves. Slavery introduced in Georgia. From date of founding, 1733, to this time had been forbidden. Abolished, 1865. Maryland Assembly passes act forbidding manumission by will or otherwise during the last illness of the master. 1760. 1773. 1774. 1774. 1776. 1777. 1778. 1780. 1783. 1784. 1784. 1786. 1786. 1787. South Carolina attempts to restrict slave importation. Eight petitions presented to the New Jersey Assembly from the inhabitants October. Connecticut prohibits the importation of slaves. April 16. The Continental Congress unanimously resolved that “No slaves October 13. Continental Congress decides that slaves should be wholly Virginia passes an act prohibiting the slave trade. April 1. Continental Congress decides that for purposes of taxation five Continental Congress votes not to prohibit slavery in the present States of Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi. Connecticut and Rhode Island prohibit the importation of slaves. North Carolina declares slave trade "of evil consequences and highly impolitic." New Jersey passes law against slave importation. July 13. Ordinance for the Government of the territory northwest of the Ohio passes. One section declares “there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in punishment of crimes whereof the parties shall be duly convicted." SLAVERY IN THE STATES. First Compromise 1788. 1790. 1790. September 17. Constitution of the United States adopted. Article 1, Section 2 contains the following passage, tne first of a series of eompromises of the Federal Government with slavery: Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to serve for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. Article 1, Section 9 contains the following provision relative to the slave trade: The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit shall not be prohibited by Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight; but a tax of duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding Ten Dollars for each person. October. Connecticut enacts law forbidding any inhabitant of State to receive on his vessel "any inhabitants of Africa as slaves." April 2. Congress accepts from the State of North Carolina the territory now included in the State of Tennessee, with the proviso "that no regula tions made or to be made by Congress shall tend to emancipate slaves." July 16. Congress passes act accepting cessions from Maryland and Virginia for the District of Columbia upon condition that the laws of the two States should remain in force in their respective portions of the Districts, "until the time fixed for the removal of the Government thereto, and until Congress shall otherwise by law provide." Congress Passes First Fugitive Slave Law 1793. February 12. Congress passes first fugitive slave law, giving the owner or his agent the right to bring the alleged fugitive "before any magistrate |