Reactions to the problem
of the slave trade37thropy and the spirit of the Reformation to find their outward expression in
charitable organizations. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (or
SPG) was one, its object being to aid and educate the American Negroes. It
was founded in 1701 and it had considerable influence in Georgia. The Count of
Zinzendorf sent a group of Moravians to its leader, Thomas Bray, to help him
in his work.^22 Several Huguenots joined the movement, which was particularly
active in South Carolina, Philadelphia and New York, where it could expect
substantial support from the Anglican Church. In 1710, Colonel Christopher
Codrington set about founding two model plantations in Barbados. His idea
was to show that by treating slaves in a humane manner, by encouraging them
to marry and have children, by bringing down the mortality rate through a
reduction in the amount of work and the absence of punishment, it was pos-
sible to increase the output of the plantations and, particularly, to run on a
closed-circuit economy without having recourse to the slave trade. The results
were by no means convincing, but a path had been opened towards the suppres-
sion of the slave trade, and as an ideal, at least, the experience had a great
deal of influence by proposing an alternative to the abominations of the slave
trade which it was impossible to control.
Unqualified condemnation of slavery came mainly from the Puritans.
Their belief in personal salvation through a life of righteousness and adherence
to a strict moral code made them see slavery as the source of all iniquity.
In 1664, Richard Baxter, whom I have already mentioned, denounced the
slave traders as 'the common enemies of mankind' and condemned as a
'heinous sin' the fact of buying human beings, even if they were slaves, unless
it was for the purpose of setting them free. As for the planters, they were
'incarnate Devils'.^23 Morgan Godwyn regarded the Americans as base mat-
erialists who no longer cared for their souls, to the point of putting the slave
trade before religion;^24 at the beginning of the seventeenth century, a Puritan
called Paul Baynes accused them of living in slavery themselves, as sinners ;
in 1700, Samuel Sewall, a lawyer, declared that there were no grounds for
slavery either defacto or de jure. The effect of all these protests was admission
of the fact that the constant importation of blacks was undesirable, and that
white labour might be used instead.^26 It is also true that for the first time it
was realized that the emancipation of the Negroes and their integration would
present formidable problems.
It is clear that the suppression of the slave trade, a necessary but insuffi-
cient precondition for the abolition of slavery, was a problem in itself. If all
commerce ceased, it was evident that not only would the existing black labour
force have to be employed sparingly, but that in the long run the slaves would
have to be freed and integrated into a white society. In other words, the slave
trade made it possible to perpetuate slavery, while continuing to be a source of
manpower. America's openings to the Ocean, to Africa, to the world of slave-