USA > North Dakota > Early history of North Dakota: essential outlines of American history > Part 17
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ARTICLE I
"There shall be a firm and universal peace between His Britannic Majesty and the United States, and between their respective countries, territories, cities,
Benjamin Harrison
William McKinley
Theodore Roosevelt
William H. Taft
Woodrow Wilson
PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES FROM 1889 TO THE PRESENT, 1918, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF CLEVELAND FROM 1893 TO 1897 (In preceding group)
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towns and people, of every degree, without exception of places or persons. All hostilities, both by sea and land, shall cease as soon as this treaty shall have been ratified by both parties, as hereinafter mentioned. All territory, places and pos- sessions whatsoever, taken by either party from the other during the war, or which may be taken after the signing of this treaty, excepting only the islands hereinafter mentioned, shall be restored without delay, and without causing any destruction or carrying away any of the artillery or other property originally captured in the said forts or places, and which shall remain therein upon the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty, or any slaves or other private property. And all archives, records, deeds and papers, either of a public nature or belonging to private persons, which in the course of the war may have fallen into the hands of the officers of either party, shall be, as far as may be practicable forthwith restored and delivered to the proper authorities and persons to whom they respectively belong. Such of the islands in the Bay of Passamaquoddy as are claimed by both parties shall remain in the possession of the party in whose occu- pation they may be at the time of the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty, until the decision respecting the title to the said islands shall have been made in conformity with the fourth article of this treaty. No disposition made by this treaty as to such possession of the islands and territories claimed by both parties shall in any manner whatever be construed to affect the right of either.
ARTICLE II
"Immediately after the ratification of this treaty by both parties, as hereinafter mentioned, orders shall be sent to the armies, squadrons, officers, subjects and citizens of the two powers to cease from all hostilities. And to prevent all causes of complaint which might arise on account of the prizes which may be taken at sea after the said ratifications of this treaty, it is reciprocally agreed that all vessels and effects which may be taken after the space of twelve days from the said ratifications, upon all parts of the coast of North America from the latitude of twenty-three degrees north to the latitude of fifty degrees north, and as far eastward in the Atlantic Ocean as the thirty-sixth degree of west longitude from the meridian of Greenwich, shall be restored on each side ; that the time shall be thirty days in all other parts of the Atlantic Ocean north of the equinoctial line or equator, and the same time for the British and Irish channels, for the Gulf of Mexico and all parts of the West Indies; forty days for the North seas, for the Baltic and for all parts of the Mediterranean; sixty days for the Atlantic Ocean south of the equator, as far as the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope; ninety days for every other part of the world south of the equator, and 120 days for all other parts of the world without exception.
ARTICLE III
"All prisoners of war taken on either side, as well by land as by sea, shall be restored as soon as practicable after the ratifications of this treaty, as hereinafter mentioned, on their paying the debts which they have contracted during their captivity. The two contracting parties respectively engage to discharge in specie the advances which may have been made by the other for the sustenance and maintenance of such prisoners.
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ARTICLE IX
"The United States of America engage to put an end, immediately after the ratifications of the present treaty, to hostilities with all the tribes or nations of Indians with whom they may be at war at the time of such ratifications, and forth- with to restore to such tribes or nations, respectively, all the possessions, rights and privileges which they may have enjoyed or been entitled to in 1811, previous to such hostilities; provided always that such tribes or nations shall agree to desist from all hostilities against the United States of America, their citizens and subjects, upon the ratification of the present treaty being notified to such tribes or nations, and shall so desist accordingly. And His Britannic Majesty engages on his part to put an end, immediately after the ratifications of the present treaty, to hostilities with all the tribes or nations of Indians with whom he may be at war at the time of such ratifications, and forthwith to restore to such tribes or nations, respectively, all the possessions, rights and privileges which they may have enjoyed or been entitled to in 1811, previous to such hostili- ties. Provided always that such tribes or nations shall agree to desist from all hostilities against His Britannic Majesty, and his subjects, upon the ratifications of the present treaty being notified to such tribes or nations, and shall so desist accordingly."
Relative to the African slave trade Article X has the following :
"Whereas, the traffic in slaves is irreconcilable with the principles of human- ity and justice, and whereas, both His Majesty and the United States are desirous of continuing their efforts to promote its entire abolition, it is hereby agreed that both the contracting parties shall use their best endeavors to accomplish so desirable an object."
The question assumed a more practical form in Article VIII of the Webster- Ashburton Treaty, which reads as follows:
"The parties mutually stipulate that each shall prepare, equip and maintain in service on the coast of Africa a sufficient and adequate squadron or naval force of vessels of suitable numbers and descriptions, to carry in all not less than eighty guns, to enforce, separately and respectively, the laws, rights and obligations of each of the two countries for the suppression of the slave trade, the said squad- rons to be independent of each other, but the two governments stipulating, never- theless, to give such orders to the officers commanding their respective forces as shall enable them most effectively to act in concert and co-operation upon mutual consultation, as exigencies may arise, for the attainment of the true object of this article, copies of all such orders to be communicated by each Government to the other respectively."
Articles relating to the suppression of this traffic have been incorporated in the treaties with Great Britain of 1862, 1863, 1870 and 1890, the last named calling a convention at Brussels of all the great powers, "In the name of God Almighty."
The Treaty of Ghent closes with the following article :
ARTICLE XI
"This treaty, when the same shall have been ratified on both sides, without alteration by either of the contracting parties, and the ratifications mutually
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exchanged, shall be binding on both parties, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington, in the space of four months from this day, or sooner if practicable. In faith whereof we, the respective plenipotentiaries, have signed this treaty, and have thereunto affixed our seals. Done, in triplicate, at Ghent, the 24th day of December, 1814."
Signed: Gambier, Henry Goulburn, William Adams, John Quincy Adams. J. A. Bayard, H. Clay, Jonathan Russell, Albert Gallatin.
THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
Slavery had become a menace to the free people of the South, and the desire for its abolition early became manifest, the leading spirits among real lovers of mankind, both North and South, becoming outspoken in its favor. As early as 1760, the Quakers (more properly the Society of Friends) made the traffic a matter of church discipline. Previous to 1774, both Virginia and Massachusetts had taken action looking to abolition, and Benjamin Franklin was president of the first society established for the promotion of the abolition of slavery, in 1775. In 1777, Vermont adopted the constitution abolishing slavery, Massachusetts adopted a like constitution in 1780, and New Hampshire in 1783.
Gradual abolition was secured in Pennsylvania in 1780, in Rhode Island and Connecticut in 1784, in New York in 1799, and in New Jersey in 1804. The ordi- nance of 1787 made the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota, free. Congress passed an act in 1807, the year slavery was abolished in Great Britain, to take effect January 1, 1808, abolishing the slave trade. Slavery was abolished in Iowa, Oregon, Kansas, Nebraska, and parts of Colorado and Minnesota, by the Missouri Compromise (1821), rejected by the Dred Scott decision (1856), but embodied in the constitutions of these states when admitted into the Union. When this compromise was adopted, February 27, 1821, the discussion preceding the adoption was exceedingly bitter, accompanied by threats of bloodshed and secession participated in by representatives from Geor- gia, Mississippi, Kentucky and Virginia; none being more bitter than the remarks of Representative Robert R. Reid and Thomas W. Cobb, of Georgia. The best illustration of the southern mind of that period, may be found in the speech of Robert Toombs, of Georgia, in the United States Senate, January 7, 1861, who did not occupy his seat in the Senate after February 4, 1861. He was formally expelled March 14, 1861.
Much of the discussion in relation to the Missouri Compromise was in com- mittee of the whole, and no record is available of the remarks. This is especially true of the remarks of Mr. Cobb to one of the Georgia members, that "a fire has been kindled which will require seas of blood to put out," and time has shown that it was quenched by the blood shed in the Civil war.
EXTRACT FROM REID'S SPEECH, FEBRUARY, 1821
"But let gentlemen beware! Assume the Mississippi as the boundary, say, to the smiling coteaux beyond its waters, no slave shall approach, and you give a new character to its inhabitants totally distinct from that which shall belong to the people thronging on the east of your limits. You implant diversity of pursuit,
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hostility of feeling, envy, hatred, and bitter reproaches. * Sir, the firebrand, which is now cast into your society, will require blood, and the blood of free men for its quenching. Your Union shall tremble as under the force of an earth- quake. While you incautiously pull down a constitutional barrier, you make way for the dark and tumultuous and overwhelming waters of desolation. If you sow the winds, you must reap the whirlwind."
After 1821, there were forty years of bitter discussion in Congress, which had its legitimate ending in the final abolition of slavery.
LUNDY, GARRISON AND THE "LIBERATOR"
The antislavery movement headed by William Lloyd Garrison, who had been associated in Baltimore with Benjamin Lundy, the earliest promoter of freedom to the slave in the United States, began to exert its force, and in 1832, the New England Antislavery Society was formed. On December 6, 1847, Abraham Lincoln took his seat in the Thirtieth Congress as a member from the state of Illinois, and began his work for the emancipation of slaves in the District of Columbia, which was consummated in 1862, and recognized the two principles of colonization and compensation. In 1865, their work having been accomplished, Garrison's great paper, the Liberator, and the emancipation societies for which it was the voice, ceased to exist.
Slavery was finally abolished from all the territory of the United States by the proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln, January 1, 1863, and the ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution by the several states as proposed by Congress ; the Fifteenth Amendment being proposed to the legislatures by the Fortieth Congress on February 27, 1869, and declared in a proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated March 30, 1870, to have been ratified by the constitutional number of states and to have become valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of. the Constitution of the United States.
COLONIZATION OF THE BLACKS
President Thomas Jefferson, ardently opposed to slavery, in 1801 took an active interest in the colonization of the free blacks, and in 1816, the National Colonization Society, heartily encouraged by the leading spirits of the South and the Virginia Legislature of that year, was organized, and resulted in the Republic of Liberia, in Africa.
SLAVERY
In concluding, some general facts in relation to slavery may be of interest. The first attempt to establish a trading post in the Dakotas (1726) was for the purpose of securing slaves by the purchase of captives from warring tribes or by kidnapping for supplying the market in the West Indies, following the precedents established in Africa.
Pierre Bonga, one of Henry's Brigade, which instituted the first permanent settlement in Dakota Territory, was a slave brought from the West Indies. York, Captain Clark's slave, was the most attractive feature in the Lewis & Clark
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Expedition. Both left descendents in North Dakota. Other slaves were brought into the Dakotas by army officers. John Tanner, the white captive, was a slave among the Indians and sold as such from time to time, and there was some traffic in captives sold as slaves by the Indians. The system of contracts with the voyageurs resulted in virtual slavery in many cases through the system of fines and advances made by the fur companies.
The creation of the Territory of Dakota was made possible in 1861 by the withdrawal of the representatives from the slave-holding states from Congress.
Prior to A. D. 1441 slavery, which had existed in some form from the beginning of human history, had generally been confined to captives in war. Tribes and even nations were subjugated or carried away captive. Such was the case with the Israelites, who, in their distress, "hung their harps on the willows and sat down by the rivers of Babylon and wept." The time they were carried away into Egypt was recognized as an epoch from which time was reckoned. Captives were generally put on public works. The temple at Jeru- salem was builded by captives and their children. Captivity was recognized by the prophets as the just reward of iniquity ; unfortunates were sometimes sold into captivity for crime or debt, but not on account of color.
In A. D. 1441 two captains of vessels sailing under the flag of Portugal seized a number of Moors who were taken to Portugal, but were allowed to ransom themselves, and in doing so included ten black slaves in the price paid. In 1445 four negroes were made captive and taken to Portugal, and in 1448 a factory or trading post was established on the small island Arguin, from which several hundred black people, taken captive in tribal wars or kidnapped, were obtained by their agents and sent to Portugal each year, while slaves secured by other traders were taken to Tunis and Sicily.
In 1492 the trade of the Portugal company had fallen to 300, but the dis- covery of America added a new impetus to the trade in human beings, in which Columbus took an active part, the Spanish having engaged in the trade, sending large numbers of Indians to Spain and to the West Indies. Preference, however, was given to the negro slaves, regarded more valuable than the Indians in a ratio of four to one.
In 1500 Gasper Cortereal, in the service of the King of Portugal, seized fifty natives on the coast of Labrador, carried them to Portugal and sold them as slaves. Returning the next year for more captives he is supposed to have been lost at sea.
In 1520 Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, a Spanish explorer, enticed a large num- ber of Indians from the coast of South Carolina on board his ships and sailed away with them as captives. Two of his vessels were lost at sea and most of the remaining captives died. He returned five years later when he met with fierce opposition by the natives. His best ship ran aground and most of the crew were killed by the Indians.
Giovanni da Verrazzano, who visited the coast in 1524, kidnapped an Indian boy and carried him away to France. He tried to capture an eighteen-year-old girl, but she made such an outcry they feared to accomplish this purpose, being some distance from their vessel.
In 1589 De Soto, lured into the forest in a search for gold and populous and wealthy villages, forced his captives to carry supplies on his long marches,
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striking terror into the hearts of the Indians visited by his extreme cruelty. At the battle of Mobile, where he suffered so severely, his captives were released by the enemy and joined in a battle which nearly ruined his expedition.
The first negro slaves were landed in England in 1553, and in 1562 that country engaged in the slave traffic. Sir John Hawkins is credited with begin- ning the traffic, Queen Elizabeth being a sharer in the profits. Four English companies were chartered for the slave trade, Charles II and James II being members of the fourth company, with the Duke of York and James II at the head. Later the Royal African Company received aid from Parliament, their companies furnishing slaves to America, and in 1713 the privilege of supplying them to the Spanish colonies was secured to the English for thirty years, during which period 144,000 were supplied under their contract.
The French and Dutch were also engaged in this traffic. In 1605 George Weymouth, an English kidnapper, made a trip to the Maine coast for the purpose of trade and captured and carried to England five Indians whom he gave to his friends as slaves.
In 1619 a Dutch man-o'-war sold twenty negroes to the colony at James- town, but they were carried on the roll as servants, and probably treated the same as the white indentured servants who constituted a considerable portion of the colony. The same year the King sent over 100 convicts from English prisons, to be sold as servants to the colonists, and this system was pursued for many years against the protests of the people of the colony.
In 1624-5 there were in the colony thirty-three Africans who were listed as servants. The first servant for life in this colony, of which there is any definite account, was John Punch, a negro. He had run away with two white servants. They were all caught. The period of servitude of the whites was extended four years as punishment, but John Punch was sentenced to servitude for life. Slavery was made hereditary by law in Virginia in 1662, when it was provided that the issue from the mother should follow her condition of servitude.
Slavery had existed in the English settlements in the Carolinas from the beginning of the life of these colonies, and in 1672 Sir John Yeomans, governor of South Carolina, brought several negro slaves from the Barbadoes. Slavery prevailed in all of the colonies, and all of them made a practice of buying and selling captives taken in war with the Indians. Those for whom there was a market were sent to the West Indies and the others parceled out among the colonists for such use, as they were fitted.
The Carolinas in 1702-1708 sent three expeditions against the Indians warring against them and almost the entire population of seven large villages were made captive and sold as slaves. It was a common practice to kidnap the children of the Tuscaroras and sell them into slavery, and this was the cause of the Tuscarora war of 1711-13, as given in detail in Chapter I.
So common had been the practice of sending Indians to Pennsylvania to be sold as slaves that the provincial council of that colony in 1705 enacted that "Whereas the importation of Indian slaves from Carolina or other places hath been observed to give the Indians of this province some umbrage for suspicion and dissatisfaction, such importation be prohibited March 25, 1706."
June 7, 1712, an act was passed by this council forbidding the importation of Indians for slaves, but provided for the sale of those which had been imported
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for that purpose. The prisoners taken by Col. John Barnwell in his campaign against the Indians in the Tuscarora war were advertised to be sold in the Massachusetts and other colonies, and to take in these captives Pennsylvania appears to have adopted this later prohibitory provision.
It was in 1712, also, that Antoine de Crozat had the privilege of sending a ship, once a year, to Africa for a cargo of slaves to work in mines in Louisiana, one- fourth of the profits to go to King Louis XIV.
The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 caused a great increase in the demand for slaves in that portion of the South adapted to the growth of cotton.
Previous to 1776, 300,000 negro slaves had been imported by the colonies. At the first census, in 1790, the slaves in the United States were distributed as follows :
New Hampshire
158
Vermont
17
Rhode Island
952
Connecticut
2,350
Massachusetts none
New York
21,324
New Jersey
11,423
Pennsylvania
3,737
Maryland
103,036
Virginia
293,427
North Carolina
100,572
South Carolina
107,094
Georgia
29,264
Kentucky
11,830
Tennessee
3,417
Total
697,897
The number increased in 1806 to 893,041, in 1810 to 1,191,364, and in like proportion until 1860, when the slaves in the United States numbered 3,953,760, and the total number of blacks who had been bought or kidnapped and carried away from Africa had reached the enormous figure of 40,000,000, and the trade was still being carried on.
As early as 1776 slavery had become a menace and it was resolved that year by the Continental Congress that no more slaves should be imported into the colonies, but when the Constitution was adopted action was postponed on this question.
July 21, 1787, however, Congress passed by a unanimous vote a bill introduced by Nathan Dane forbidding involuntary servitude in that portion of the United States constituting the Northwest Territory.
Notwithstanding the efforts put forward in the Treaty of Ghent, the Webster- Ashburton Treaty, and other strenuous negotiations that followed, under the exist- ing treaties and agreements with France and Spain a certain number of cruisers were being maintained on the east and west coasts of Africa, and in the West Indies, for the suppression of the trade which under the laws of these countries
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was then recognized as piracy. France and Spain having become parties to this compact each country maintained its separate squadron.
In January, 1915, Capt. Owen Slicer Willey, who was an officer on one of the vessels of the United States patrol, read a paper before Burnside Post, Grand Army of the Republic, Washington, D. C., from which the following facts have been gleaned :
"In 1858, the United States brig of war 'Dolphin,' commanded by Lieut. John A. Moffitt, captured off the Island of Cuba the American brig 'Echo' of Boston from the west coast of Africa with a large cargo of African slaves. The prize was taken to Charleston, but in view of the hostility there to inter- ference with the slave trade, was sent to New York, where she was sold and the captives returned to Liberia.
"In December, 1858, the 'Wanderer' landed a cargo of slaves on the coast of Georgia, followed by another the next year, and a third attempt was made in 1860, but it was reported and believed at the time that she landed her cargo near San Antonio, Cuba. She was seized by the United States and condemned and sold.
"Early in the spring of 1860 the American bark 'William' of New York was captured by the 'Wyandotte' of the United States patrol with 680 slaves on board from the west coast of Africa for the trade in the United States. Every vessel passing was boarded by the patrol, sometimes as many as forty or fifty vessels a day. Among the slavers captured that spring were the American bark 'Wild- fire' of New York, having on board 520 slaves, captured by the 'Mohawk' and taken to Key West, and the French bark 'Bogata' with 41 I slaves. This capture was by the 'Crusader,' with which Captain Willey was then serving."
Under our laws slave-trading was piracy, but the only person convicted and executed for this crime was Nathaniel Gordon, who, in November, 1861, was convicted and executed in the State of New York. In other cases the officers and crews escaped through being used as witnesses in proceedings against the vessels which were sold, and in some instances returned to the slave trade, as was the case with the "Wanderer."
Captain Willey described the hold of the ordinary slaver, where the captives were confined during the voyage of several weeks across the seas, as a room 80 or 90 feet in length, 35 or 40 feet in width and 6 or 7 feet in height. The floor space was largely occupied by water barrels on which planks were laid, which formed the slave deck and on which there was room to sit upright but not to stand erect. The only openings were the hatches, eight to ten feet square, which were closed during bad weather for several days at a time. Into such quar- ters were cast a thousand or more naked men, women and children, the resulting filth being indescribable and the odors overpowering. Many did not have room even on the floor to recline at length; they crouched on the slave deck, pillowing their heads against each other.
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