94 the United
States prohibited their subjects from trading in slaves to foreign
countries; and in 1807, they prohibited the importation of slaves
into any of the States, to take effect at the beginning of 1808,
the earliest time possible, as we have seen, under the Constitution.
But it was not until 1820 that slave-traders were declared pirates,
punishable as such.

The prohibition of the slave trade by law did not effectually end
it, nor was the law declaring it piracy wholly effectual, though
the latter did much, through the co-operation of other nations, to
restrict it.

There were active movements in 1852 and 1858, in the South, to
revive the African slave trade, and especially was there fierce
opposition to the "piracy act." Jefferson Davis, at a convention
in Mississippi, July, 1858, advocated the repeal of the latter act,
but doubted the practicability then of abrogating the law prohibiting
slave traffic.(30)

It is worthy of mention here that April 20th, eight days after
Sumter was fired upon, Commander Alfred Taylor, commanding the
United States naval ship _Saratoga_, in the port of Kabenda, Africa,
captured the _Nightingale of Boston_, flying American colors, with
a cargo of 961 recently captured, stolen, or purchased African
negroes, destined to be carried to some American part and there
sold into slavery. This human cargo was sent to the humane Rev.
John Seys, at Monrovia, Liberia, to be provided for. One hundred
and sixty died on a fourteen-days' sea-voyage, from ship-fever and
confinement, though the utmost care was taken by Lieutenant Guthrie
and the crew of the slaver for their comfort.(31)

The laws abolishing the foreign slave trade and prohibiting the
introduction of African slaves (after 1807) into the United States
even helped to rivet slavery more firmly therein. They more than
doubled the value of a slave, and, therefore, incited slave-breeding
to supply the increasing demand in the cotton States, and in time
this proved so profitable that the South sought new territory whence
slavery could be extended, and out of which slave States could be
formed.

The "_Declaration against the Slave Trade_" of the world, signed
by the representatives of the "Powers" at the Congress of Vienna,
in 1815, and repeated at the Congress of Paris at the end of the
Napoleonic wars, was potential enough to abate but not to end this
most inhuman and sinful trade.(32)

Even as late as 1816, English merchants