_SPECIAL TEXT: "Let not man join together what God hath put asunder."_--"THE COLOR LINE," _chap. i_. _NOTES._ 1. _Introduction of African Slavery into America:_ "Some time anterior to this period (i. e., 1620 A. D.) the Spaniards and Portuguese had bought from the chiefs on the coast of Africa negro captives, and had carried them to other parts of the world, especially to South America and the West Indies, and had sold them as slaves. This traffic they had continued without intermission, and in the year 1620 a Dutch vessel brought to Jamestown twenty of these unfortunate beings and sold them to the colonists of Virginia. This was the introduction of African slavery in the British American colonies, which has been the source of so much subsequent trouble, as we shall see. By the close of the year 1620 the population of the colony amounted to nearly two thousand. Upon the subject of the introduction of African slavery in Virginia, and afterwards in all the other British colonies, out of which so much trouble and strife subsequently arose, it is quite proper here to state that a majority of the colonists at Jamestown were very much opposed to this introduction in their community of these supposed descendants of Ham as "bondsmen and bondswomen" for life. Their opposition arose, however, perhaps more from considerations looking to the best interests and future welfare of the colony, in its progress in moral and material development, than from any feelings of humanity towards the unfortunate victims of this species of commerce. The African slave trade was at that time not only tolerated by all civilized nations, but actively engaged in for profit by many of the most distinguished Christian monarchs." (Stephens' History of the United States, p. 36.) 2. _The First American Slave Ship:_ "In 1636 was built at Marblehead, in Massachusetts, the first American slave-ship; it was called the _Desire_, and was intended for the African slave-trade, in which most of the European nations were then engaged directly or indirectly. The first cargo of African slaves brought into Massachusetts was by the _Desire_, on the 20th of May, 1638. Many of the most prominent men purchased slaves out of this cargo; so that Massachusetts was a few years only behind Virginia in the introduction within the English settlements on this continent of this unfortunate race of slaves." (History of the United States, Stephens, p. 88.)