small importing slave-trade of New England, can best be studied in a
separate view of each community.


18. ~Restrictions in New Hampshire.~ The statistics of slavery in New
Hampshire show how weak an institution it always was in that colony.[13]
Consequently, when the usual instructions were sent to Governor
Wentworth as to the encouragement he must give to the slave-trade, the
House replied: "We have considered his Maj^{ties} Instruction relating
to an Impost on Negroes & Felons, to which this House answers, that
there never was any duties laid on either, by this Goverm^{t}, and so
few bro't in that it would not be worth the Publick notice, so as to
make an act concerning them."[14] This remained true for the whole
history of the colony. Importation was never stopped by actual
enactment, but was eventually declared contrary to the Constitution of
1784.[15] The participation of citizens in the trade appears never to
have been forbidden.


19. ~Restrictions in Massachusetts.~ The early Biblical codes of
Massachusetts confined slavery to "lawfull Captives taken in iust
warres, & such strangers as willingly selle themselves or are sold to
us."[16] The stern Puritanism of early days endeavored to carry this out
literally, and consequently when a certain Captain Smith, about 1640,
attacked an African village and brought some of the unoffending natives
home, he was promptly arrested. Eventually, the General Court ordered
the Negroes sent home at the colony's expense, "conceiving themselues
bound by y^e first oportunity to bear witnes against y^e haynos & crying
sinn of manstealing, as also to P'scribe such timely redresse for what
is past, & such a law for y^e future as may sufficiently deterr all