8, 1800.] Some of the slaves dealt in were actually convicted felons sold by the states in which their crimes had been committed.

The purchasers of these were generally required to give bond to transport them beyond the limits of the United States; but some of the traders broke their pledges on the chance that their breaches would not be discovered.

One of these, a certain W.H.Williams, when found offering his outlawed merchandize of twenty-four convict slaves at New Orleans in 1841, was prosecuted and convicted.

His penalty included the forfeiture of the twenty-four slaves, a fine of $500 to the state of Louisiana for each of the felons introduced, and the forfeiture to the state of Virginia of his bond in the amount of $1,000 per slave.

The total was reckoned at $48,000.[26] [Footnote 26: _Niles' Register_, LX, 189, quoting the New Orleans _Picayune_, May 2, 1841.] The slaves whom the dealers preferred to buy for distant sale were "likely negroes from ten to thirty years old."[27] Faithfulness and skill in husbandry were of minor importance, for the trader could give little proof of them to his patrons.