8. ~Restrictions in Maryland.~[35] Not until the impulse of the Assiento had been felt in America, did Maryland make any attempt to restrain a trade from which she had long enjoyed a comfortable revenue. The Act of 1717, laying a duty of 40_s._,[36] may have been a mild restrictive measure. The duties were slowly increased to 50_s._ in 1754,[37] and L4. in 1763.[38] In 1771 a prohibitive duty of L9 was laid;[39] and in 1783, after the war, all importation by sea was stopped and illegally imported Negroes were freed.[40] Compared with the trade to Virginia and the Carolinas, the slave-trade to Maryland was small, and seems at no time to have reached proportions which alarmed the inhabitants. It was regulated to the economic demand by a slowly increasing tariff, and finally, after 1769, had nearly ceased of its own accord before the restrictive legislation of Revolutionary times.[41] Probably the proximity of Maryland to Virginia made an independent slave-trade less necessary to her. 9. ~General Character of these Restrictions.~ We find in the planting colonies all degrees of advocacy of the trade, from the passiveness of Maryland to the clamor of Georgia. Opposition to the trade did not appear in Georgia, was based almost solely on political fear of insurrection in Carolina, and sprang largely from the same motive in Virginia, mingled with some moral repugnance. As a whole, it may be said that whatever opposition to the slave-trade there was in the planting colonies was based principally on the political fear of insurrection. FOOTNOTES: [1] Hoare, _Memoirs of Granville Sharp_ (1820), p. 157. For the act of prohibition, see W.B. Stevens, _History of Georgia_ (1847), I. 311. [2] [B. Martyn, _Account of the Progress of Georgia_ (1741), pp. 9-10.] [3] Cf. Stevens, _History of Georgia_, I. 290 ff. [4] Stephens, _Account of the Causes_, etc., p. 8. Cf. also _Journal of Trustees_, II. 210; cited by Stevens, _History of Georgia_, I. 306. [5] McCall, _History of Georgia_ (1811), I. 206-7. [6] _Ibid._ [7] _Pub. Rec. Office, Board of Trade_, Vol. X.; cited by C.C. Jones, _History of Georgia_ (1883), I. 422-5. [8] The following is a summary of the legislation of the colony of South Carolina; details will be found in Appendix A:--