negro slavery.
375
attaches itself to the Portuguese, who, as early as 1481,
built a castle on the Gold coast, and from thence ravaged
the country, and carried off the inhabitants to Portugal,
where they were sold into bondage.* In 1503 slaves were
first taken from the Portuguese settlements in Africa to
the Spanish possessions in America; and from that time
to 1511, large numbers were exported to the colonies of
* " Guinea supplied black slaves to the Moors of Africa, to redeem
their countrymen made prisoners by Alfonso V of Portugal: this
first originated the slave trade in 1442. Commences in West Indies,
1517 ; in Virginia, 1620 ; first effort for its abolition made by Gran¬
ville Sharpe, 1772; petition of the London Common Council against
it, Feb. 1, 1788; resolution of the Commons to take it into consider¬
ation in the next session, May 9, 1788; motion of Wilberforce against
it lost, March 17, 1791; its gradual abolition voted, April 26, 1792;
motion of Wilberforce negatived, April 3, 1798; Canning's attempt
to prohibit it in Trinidad fails, May 27, 1802; the act for its abolition
receives the royal assent, March 25, 1807."—Posse's Index of Dates,
Bohn's Library, Articles, "Guinea," and "Slave Trade." "To the
honor of Denmark be it spoken, the slave trade was abolished by her
five years before England performed that act of tardy justice to
humanity."—Twelve Months'* Eesid. in W. Indies, by R. R. Madden,
M. D., vol. ii., 128.
"At length, in the year 1279, Magnus became King of Sweden,
and the eleven years of his reign, with thirteen of that of his son —
during which the government, on account of his minority, was con¬
ducted by an able minister — formed the period of the greatest
improvement in its earlier history * * * His son Birger being but
eleven years old when he succeeded to the throne, the government
was administered by a regent, during thirteen years, with wisdom
and vigor; and in the interval it was enacted,* among other legis¬
lative reforms, that no man should thenceforward be bought or sold."
Miller's Philosophy of History, vol. ii., 355, Bohn's edition.—Editor.
* " The influence of Christianity in producing this ordinance appears from the
reason assigned in the law, that it was not just that one Christian should sell
another, since Jesus Christ had purchased all with his blood."—Puffend., p. 109.
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