The Door to the Slave Bastille: The Abolitionist Assault upon the Interstate Slave Trade, 1833-1839

THE DOOR TO THE SLAVE BASTILLE: THE ABOLITIONIST ASSAULT UPON THE INTERSTATE SLAVE TRADE, 1833-1839 David L. Lightner Atits FouNDiNc convention in 1833, the American Anti-Slavery Society (AA-SS) stated in its constitution that the society intended, "in a constitutional way, to influence Congress to put an end to the domestic slave trade." The convention also endorsed a "Declaration of Sentiments," which declared that the national legislature had both the right and the obligation "to suppress the domestic slave trade between the several States."1 Despite these clear statements of abolitionist intent, the abolitionist assault upon the interstate slave trade has received little notice from historians, largely because the struggle over the expansion of slavery into the territories eclipsed it and all other antislavery issues during the climactic phase of the antislavery crusade.2 Yet the attack on the slave trade deserves to berescued from obscurity, for it was a significant facet of immediate abolitionism in the early years of that movement. Banning the interstate slave trade was advocated by many prominent abolitionists, was endorsed by two New England legislatures, and was called for in a host of abolitionist petitions, pamphlets, and speeches, many of which afford insight into the abolitionist conception of the slave-based southern economy. Agitation of the slave trade issuehelped Research for this articlewas funded in part by Research Grant 410-84-0298 of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. 1 AA-SS Constitution, Article II, Proceedings of the Anti-Slavery Convention, Assembled at Philadelphia, December4, 5, and6, 1833 (New York, 1833), 6-7; "Declaration of Sentiments," ibid., 15. 2 Considerable information may be gleaned from Richard Sewell, BallotsforFreedom: AntislaveryPolitics in the Unüed States, 1837-1860 (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1976), and William M. Wiecek, The Sources of Antislavery Constitutionalism in America, 1760-1848 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 1977). Walter Bems, "The Constitution and the Migration of Slaves," Yale Law Journal 78 (Dec. 1968): 198-228, although not concerned with the abolitionists, is a masterful investigation of the intentions of the U.S. founding fathers. Civil War History, Vol. XXXIV, No. 3, © 1988 by The Kent State University Press 236CIVIL WAR HISTORY to define the radicalism of the abolitionists, earning them denunciation not only from proslavery zealots but also from advocates of compromise and moderation. Finally, in the late 1830s the slave trade issue figured in the internal disagreements that fragmented the abolitionist movement. Before considering all of those topics, it is appropriate to first explore how and why the founders of the AA-SS came to launch their attack upon the domestic slave trade. Because they were establishing a national organization, the AA-SS founders sought to "take up those branches of the subject which are acknowledged to be of a national character," including slavery in the territories, slavery in the District of Columbia, and "the criminal and disgraceful commerce between the States, in slaves."3 The founders believed that Congress could act on each of those issues by virtue of powers granted to the legislative branch of the federal government by the U.S. Constitution. In the case of the slave trade, the abolitionists obviously had in mind the so-called "commerce clause" (Article I, section 8), giving to Congress the power to regulate commerce "among the several States," as well as with foreign nations and with the Indian tribes. The notion that Congress possessed the power to outlaw the interstate slave trade was not without precedent. In the Missouri debates of 1819-1820, congressmen from North and South had locked horns over the question of whether or not the movement of slaves across state lines could be prohibited under the commerce power. The debate focused not on the commerce clause itself but rather on the "1808 clause" (Article I, section 9), which says that "the Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to theYear one thousand eight hundred and eight." Some Northern congressmen contended that in this instance the word "migration" referred to the movement of slaves in interstate commerce and thus the clause meant...