Note 52 — Chapter XVII · THE LAST VOYAGE OF AN AMERICAN SLAVER

From the factors the doctor learned something about the manner in which the slave trade was carried on at that time. A trader, Portuguese always, procured consent from a head of a strong tribe to establish himself among them and paid liberally in presents for the privilege. Consent obtained, a barracoon was at once built and each member of the tribe was a self-constituted guardian to protect it; a scale of prices was agreed upon for negroes, according to age and sex, averaging two fathoms or four yards of calico, one flint-lock musket, one six-pound keg of coarse powder, one two-gallon keg of rum, some beads and brass wire; an English value of about eight dollars gold for each negro captured by this tribe from neighboring and weaker ones. There had been a lower rate of prices until within a few years when competition had slowly increased the rates.