brutalities of the traffic could have been tolerated so
long had the idea of the essential humanity of the Africa been grasped by
those who dealt in them. Instead, they were looked upon as a superior sort
of cattle, but on the long voyage across the Atlantic were treated as no
cattle are treated to-day in the worst "ocean tramps" in the trade. The
vessels were small, many of them half the size of the lighters that ply
sluggishly up and down New York harbor. Sloops, schooners, brigantines,
and scows of 40 or 50 tons burden, carrying crews of nine men including
the captain and mates, were the customary craft in the early days of the
eighteenth century.

In his work on "The American Slave-Trade," Mr. John R. Spears gives the
dimensions of some of these puny vessels which were so heavily freighted
with human woe. The first American slaver of which we have record was the
"Desire," of Marblehead, 120 tons. Later vessels, however, were much
smaller. The sloop, "Welcome," had a capacity of 5000 gallons of molasses.
The "Fame" was 79 feet long on the keel--about a large yacht's length. In
1847, some of the captured slavers had dimensions like these: The
"Felicidade" 67 tons; the "Maria" 30 tons; the "Rio Bango" 10 tons. When
the trade was legal and regulated by law, the "Maria" would have been
permitted to carry 45 slaves--or one and one-half to each ton register. In
1847, the trade being outlawed, no regulations were observed, and this
wretched little craft imprisoned 237 negroes. But even this 10-ton slaver
was not the limit. Mr. Spears finds that open rowboats, no more than 24
feet long by 7 wide, landed as many as 35 children in Brazil out of say 50
with which the voyage began. But the size of the vessels made little
difference in the comfort of the slaves. Greed packed the great ones
equally with the small. The blacks, stowed in rows between decks, the roof
barely 3 feet 10 inches above the floor on which they lay side by side,
sometimes in "spoon-fashion" with from 10 to 16 inches surface-room for
each, endured months of imprisonment. Often they were so packed that the
head of one slave would be between the thighs of another, and in this
condition they would pass the long weeks which the Atlantic passage under
sail consumed. This, too, when the legality of the slave trade was
recognized, and nothing but the dictates of greed led to overcrowding.
Time came when the trade was put under the ban of law and made akin to
piracy.