Unhappily, the United States was as laggard as England was active.

Indeed, a curious manifestation of national pride made the American flag the slaver's badge of immunity, for the Government stubbornly--and properly--refused to grant to British cruisers the right to search vessels under our flag, and as there were few or no American men-of-war cruising on the African coast, the slaver under the Stars and Stripes was virtually immune from capture.

In 1842 a treaty with Great Britain bound us to keep a considerable squadron on that coast, and thereafter there was at least some show of American hostility to the infamous traffic.
The vitality of the traffic in the face of growing international hostility is to be explained by its increasing profits.

The effect of the laws passed against it was to make slaves cheaper on the coast of Africa and dearer at the markets in America.

A slave that cost $20 would bring $500 in Georgia.