The stories of its worst phases seem almost incredible, and we wonder that men of American blood could have been such utter brutes.

But two centuries ago the foremost men of New England engaged in the trade or profited by its fruits.

Peter Fanueil, who-built for Boston that historic hall which we call the Cradle of Liberty, and which in later years resounded with the anti-slavery eloquence of Garrison and Phillips, was a slave owner and an actual participant in the trade.

The most "respectable" merchants of Providence and Newport were active slavers--just as some of the most respectable merchants and manufacturers of to-day make merchandise of white men, women, and children, whose slavery is none the less slavery because they are driven by the fear of starvation instead of the overseer's lash.
Perhaps two hundred years from now our descendants will see the criminality of our industrial system to-day, as clearly as we see the wrong in that of our forefathers.

The utmost piety was observed in setting out a slave-buying expedition.