Transatlantic Slavery Quotes
The cotton industry and slavery were a very important part of the economy of Providence, RI. The Rhode Island cotton mills were supplied by Southern cotton produced by slaves and carried from the South on Rhode Island ships. Many of the southern slaves were kidnapped from Africa from Rhode Island slave trading ships. When the slave trade was made illegal, Brown was the first slave trader prosecuted. His brother, Moses Brown, a vehement abolitionist was one of the men who brought the prosecution.
Often referred to as “The Dean of Black Historians.”. Although critical of the behavior of Africans involvement in the slave trade, Person-Lynn maintains that there was a qualitative difference between African concepts of slavery where the enslavement was conceptually of human beings whereas the chattel slavery of the Atlantic trade considered the slaves as sub-human property. It is arguable as to which of the two views is the greater moral failure, but many regard it as a difference not worth much in that both views were grossly immoral and had devastating consequences for a large number of people.
At first, this law appears to be an attack on slavery. It was seen as a major step forward and an important symbol in the right direction by abolitionists. But there were Congressional agreements—a price of having a Union and a Nation—not to even discuss the legality of slavery in America. The Southerners could easily have blocked this, but they were so secure in their confidence that they did not object—to the surprise of some Northern Abolitionists. The President, Jefferson, even held slaves then. In a sense, the existing Southern slaveholders out maneuvered the abolitionists. The latter got their symbol, but the slave owners received a fortune. They could breed slaves in almost any number they wanted. And they could now sell their “property” at high prices without the competition of all the entrepreneurs who were making a quick buck in the International Slave Trade. The prices became so high that in the period before the outbreak of the Civil War over slavery. The economic value of the slaves of the South was greater than all the land, factories, minerals, crops and animas of the South all together,
