On January 1, 1808, the importation of slaves into the United States was banned.
1 reply on “International Slave Trade”
When slaves were discovered to have been illegally imported, they were not freed nor returned whence they came; they were confiscated and auctioned.
In some cases, those who exposed smuggling would be rewarded with half of the proceeds of auction. And it could be profitable for a smuggler to report his own smuggling, to buy-back the slaves at effectively half their prices, and then to sell them.
Despite such manipulations, a consequence of the ban was to constrain the supply of slaves, thereby increasing the marginal value of a slave, thus making manumission less likely.
None of that is to argue that the ban should not have been effected. Some people were spared the horrors of transportation in a 19th-Century slave ship, to which they certainly should not have been subjected for the sake of others. But the case illustrates how difficult it can be even to redemiate a grave social problem without further injury to victims.
1 reply on “International Slave Trade”
When slaves were discovered to have been illegally imported, they were not freed nor returned whence they came; they were confiscated and auctioned.
In some cases, those who exposed smuggling would be rewarded with half of the proceeds of auction. And it could be profitable for a smuggler to report his own smuggling, to buy-back the slaves at effectively half their prices, and then to sell them.
Despite such manipulations, a consequence of the ban was to constrain the supply of slaves, thereby increasing the marginal value of a slave, thus making manumission less likely.
None of that is to argue that the ban should not have been effected. Some people were spared the horrors of transportation in a 19th-Century slave ship, to which they certainly should not have been subjected for the sake of others. But the case illustrates how difficult it can be even to redemiate a grave social problem without further injury to victims.