Accordingly, when a slaver found his cargo infected, he would promptly throw into the sea all the ailing negroes, while still alive, in order to save the insurance.

Some of the South American states, where slaves were bought, levied an import duty upon blacks, and cases are on record of captains going over their cargo outside the harbor and throwing into the sea all who by disease or for other causes, were rendered unsalable--thus saving both duty and insurance.
In the clearer light which illumines the subject to-day, the prolonged difficulty which attended the destruction of the slave trade seems incredible.

It appears that two such powerful maritime nations as Great Britain and the United States had only to decree the trade criminal and it would be abandoned.

But we must remember that slaves were universally regarded as property, and an attempt to interfere with the right of their owners to carry them where they would on the high seas was denounced as an interference with property rights.

We see that even to-day men are very tenacious of "property rights," and the law describes them as sacred--however immoral or repugnant to common sense and common humanity they may be.