Coastwise slave trade
Encyclopedia
The coastwise slave trade existed along the eastern coastal areas of North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

. Shiploads and boatloads of slave
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

s were transported from place to place on the waterways that exist there. Hundreds of vessels of various sizes and capacities were employed in the transporting of slaves from place to place. The famous Creole case
Creole case
The Creole case was the result of a slave rebellion in 1841 on board the Creole, a ship involved in the United States coastwise slave trade.-The revolt:...

 began with a slave rebellion on board a ship that was transporting 135 slaves coastwise.

A similar slave rebellion occurred on board the Amistad in 1839, on the high seas.

Legal rights

Prior to 1807, the 1787 U.S. Constitution and the 1793 Fugitive Slave Law were the lone laws on slavery that applied nationally. Other laws on slavery applied only to the State which had enacted them. The multi-faceted 1807 Act of Congress which abolished the importation of slaves from Africa led to the creation of the blockade of Africa
Blockade of Africa
The Blockade of Africa began in 1807 when Britain outlawed the Atlantic slave trade, making it illegal for British ships to transport slaves. The Royal Navy immediately established a presence off Africa in order to enforce the ban, called the West Africa Squadron...

. The Act also regulated the coastwise slave trade, hence, it imparted legal rights to those slave traders who utilized the coastwise shipping of slaves in their business.

Greater list of laws and court rulings

The most important United States laws: statutory law
Statutory law
Statutory law or statute law is written law set down by a legislature or by a legislator .Statutes may originate with national, state legislatures or local municipalities...

s and case law
Case law
In law, case law is the set of reported judicial decisions of selected appellate courts and other courts of first instance which make new interpretations of the law and, therefore, can be cited as precedents in a process known as stare decisis...

s on slavery, were these, in the order of their enactment:
1787: The U.S. Constitution
1793: The Fugitive Slave Law
1807: The Congressional Act banning the importation of slaves
1850: The Fugitive Slave Law
1857: The Dred Scott ruling, US Supreme Court
1865: The 13th Constitutional Amendment


Often, other subsequent national laws on slavery cited either the U.S. Constitution or the 1807 Act of Congress.

Cabotage

The act of sailing along a coast and using landmarks for guidance is called cabotage, from the French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

word caboter, ("to coast," "go from cape to cape"). When slaves were the merchandise being transported by cabotage, the practise was called the coastwise slave trade.
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