Yet in the old days the trade was far from being held either cruel inhuman--indeed, vessels often set sail for the Bight of Benin to swap rum for slaves, after their owners had invoked the blessing of God upon their enterprise.

Nor were its promoters held by the community to be degraded.

Indeed, some of the most eminent men in the community engaged in it, and its receipts were so considerable that as early as 1729 one-half of the impost levied on slaves imported into the colony was appropriated to pave the streets of the town and build its bridges--however, we are not informed that the streets were very well paved.
It was not at Newport, however, nor even in New England that the importation of slaves first began, though for reasons which I will presently show, the bulk of the traffic in them fell ultimately to New Englanders.

The first African slaves in America were landed by a Dutch vessel at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619.

The last kidnapped Africans were brought here probably some time in the latter part of 1860--for though the traffic was prohibited in 1807, the rigorous blockade of the ports of the Confederacy during the Civil War was necessary to bring it actually to an end.