Untitled - African American History

NEGRO SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. Cxlili
beth, and in the subsequent expeditions of this most
heartless manstealer, she was a partner and protector.
The account given by an eye-witness of one of these
expeditions, exhibits an amount of brutal atrocity and
heartless cruelty but seldom equalled and never surpassed
in the subsequent history of the slave-trade. 1
During
the reign of James I (1618), a charter was granted to Sir
Robert Rich and his associates, merchants of London,
for the exclusive privilege of carrying on the slave-trade
from the coast of Guinea. A second charter was granted
to a company during the reign of Charles I (1631), and
so extensive were their operations, that at vast expense
they erected numerous forts and warehouses on the
coast of thje West Indies for the defence of their com-
merce. During the reign of Charles II (1662), a third
company with exclusive privileges was chartered. The
Duke of York, the King's brother, was at the head of
this company. They engaged to furnish the West In-
dian colonies with three thousand slaves annually.
In 1672, the fourth and last exclusive company was
chartered, under the name of the Royal African Com-
pany, including among its stockholders, the King, his
brother, the Duke of York, and others of distinguished
rank. This Company continued its existence until the
Revolution in 1688, when Parliament abolished all exclusive
charters. They continued their operations, how-
ever, seizing the ships of private traders. In 1698, the
trade to the African coast was by Act of Parliament
made free to all persons, upon the payment of certain
duties ; negroes and gold, however, were exported free
of duty. This act operating hardly upon the " Royal
African Company," Parliament voted them annually
from 1739 to 1746,