already resolved not to "purchase any Slave imported at _Savannah_
(large Numbers of which we understand are there expected) till the Sense
of Congress shall be made known to us."[22]

May 17, 1775, Congress resolved unanimously "That all exportations to
_Quebec_, _Nova-Scotia_, the Island of _St. John's_, _Newfoundland_,
_Georgia_, except the Parish of _St. John's_, and to _East_ and _West
Florida_, immediately cease."[23] These measures brought the refractory
colony to terms, and the Provincial Congress, July 4, 1775, finally
adopted the "Association," and resolved, among other things, "That we
will neither import or purchase any Slave imported from Africa, or
elsewhere, after this day."[24]

The non-importation agreement was in the beginning, at least, well
enforced by the voluntary action of the loosely federated nation. The
slave-trade clause seems in most States to have been observed with the
others. In South Carolina "a cargo of near three hundred slaves was sent
out of the Colony by the consignee, as being interdicted by the second
article of the Association."[25] In Virginia the vigilance committee of
Norfolk "hold up for your just indignation Mr. _John Brown_, Merchant,
of this place," who has several times imported slaves from Jamaica; and
he is thus publicly censured "to the end that all such foes to the
rights of _British America_ may be publickly known ... as the enemies of
_American_ Liberty, and that every person may henceforth break off all
dealings with him."[26]

29. ~Results of the Resolution.~ The strain of war at last proved too
much for this voluntary blockade, and after some hesitancy Congress,
April 3, 1776, resolved to allow the importation of articles not the
growth or manufacture of Great Britain, except tea. They also voted
"That no slaves be imported into any of the thirteen United
Colonies."[27] This marks a noticeable change of attitude from the
strong words of two years previous: the former was a definitive promise;
this is a temporary resolve, which probably represented public opinion
much better than the former. On the whole, the conclusion is inevitably
forced on the student of this first national movement against the
slave-trade, that its influence on the trade was but temporary and
insignificant, and that at the end of the experiment the outlook for the
final suppression of the trade was little brighter than before. The
whole movement served as a sort of social test of the power