THE LIVINGSTONS AND SLAVERY
Slavery was first introduced into North America in 1619 by the Dutch when twenty `negars` were brought over from Africa and sold to the early settlers in Jamestown, Virginia. This tragic and vile trade was to torment America for close on two hundred and fifty years before it was outlawed but its repurcussions remain.
Robert R Livingston, the Chancellor was opposed to slavery in theory; the coloured domestics at the family estate of Clermont were indeed free; but he never stood out against it in the formation of the Constitution nor in his state`s government.
Governor William Livingston of New Jersey was appointed Chairman of a committee to meet with representatives of South Carolina in 1787.
This was an attempt to persuade that state to accept the abolition of slavery and of the trade in human beings. They were given a twenty year period of grace before having to accede to the demand. The following clause in the Constitution that was authorised by Livingston`s committee stated:
`The migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand, eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or Duty may be imposed on such importation not exceeding ten dollars for each person.`
This twenty year breathing space was a liberal gesture on the part of the emergent national government reflecting its tenuous persuasion over the individual states; the ten dollar tax would seem to be a derisory face saver.
The economy of South Carolina was dependant on the slave labour: the great plantations of rice, indigo, and later cotton could never have existed without the labour of the black man. Virginia, the great supplier of tobacco to England, despatched its product direct from the plantations owners own wharves in their own ships. These wharves eventually became known as the Market or Breeding ground for the African labourer.
At the time of the drafting of the Constitution, only Massachusetts had abolished slavery although many of its inhabitants waxed rich on the profits of the evil trade.
In 1829, President Andrew Jackson was faced by a rebellion by South Carolina. "Our federal union, it must be preserved," was his challenge to the South.
In 1832, South Carolina threatened to secede from the Union and the President had Edward Livingston draw up the `Proclamation against Nullification,` a document that ran to thirty three pages.
The ramifications were eventually to manifest themselves in the Civil War that began in 1864.
