. The great American book of biography . eir talk about freedomwhen they possessed two thousand negro slaves. Even Peter Faneuil, whobuilt the famous Cradle of Liberty, was himself, at that very time, activelyeneaeed in the slave trade. There is some truth in the once common taunt ofthe pro-slavery orators that the North imported slaves, the South only boughtthem. Certainly there was no more active centre of the slave trade than Bris-tol Bay, whence cargoes of rum and iron goods were sent to the African coastand exchanged for human cargoes. These slaves were, however, usually taken,not to Mass
. The great American book of biography . eir talk about freedomwhen they possessed two thousand negro slaves. Even Peter Faneuil, whobuilt the famous Cradle of Liberty, was himself, at that very time, activelyeneaeed in the slave trade. There is some truth in the once common taunt ofthe pro-slavery orators that the North imported slaves, the South only boughtthem. Certainly there was no more active centre of the slave trade than Bris-tol Bay, whence cargoes of rum and iron goods were sent to the African coastand exchanged for human cargoes. These slaves were, however, usually taken,not to Massachusetts, but to the West Indies or to Virginia. One curious out-come of slavery in Massachusetts was that from the gross superstition of anegro slave, Tituba, first sprang the hideous delusions of the Salem witchcrafttrials. The negro, it may be here noted, played a not insignificant part inMassachusetts Revolutionary annals. Of negro blood was Crispus Attucks,one of the martyrs of the Boston riot; it was a negro whose shot killed the. EXECUTING NEGROES IN NEW YORK. 6o8 THE STORY OF AMERICAN SLAVERY. British General Pitcairn at Bunker Hill ; and it was a negro also who plannedthe attack on Percys supply train. As with New York and Massachusetts, so with the other colonies. Eitherslavery was introduced by greedy speculators from ^abroad or it spread easilyfrom adjoin-ng colonies. In 1776 the slave population of the thirteen colonieswas almost exactly half a million, nine-tenths of whom were to be found in theSouthern States. In the War of the Revolution the question of arming thenegroes raised bitter opposition. In the end a comparatively few were enrolled,and it is admitted that they served faithfully and with courage. Rhode Islandeven formed a regiment of blacks, and at the siege of Newport and afterwardsat Points Bridge, New York, this body of soldiers fought not only without reproachbut with positive heroism. With the debates preceding the adoption of the present Constitut
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