Trade licensed.
Thus by the votes of
Massachusetts,
New Hampshire and
Connecticut, with those of the far
South, an additional twenty years was added to the century and a half during which the slave trade was licensed by law, and when that period had rolled around, the statesmen and thinkers of the land stood front to front with the problem of emancipation under far different, and more difficult conditions.
The General Assembly of
Virginia on more than one occason considered the subject of gradual emancipation, and as late as 1832, the advocates of such a course mustered a following almost large enough to enact their resolutions into laws.
The great difficulty, however, lay in the dangers to the community of the mere presence of such a host of slaves suddenly released from the restraints and care with which they were formerly surrounded.
The sentiment of a large, if not the dominant element of the people of
Virginia, was doubtless expressed in the words of
Robert E. Lee, who, writing in December, 1856, declared:
