At the close of the seventeenth century, Massachusetts was exporting over $400,000 worth of fish annually.
"American Merchant Ships and Sailors"
Willis J. Abbot
At first the effort was made to prohibit the colonies from exporting fish.
"American Merchant Ships and Sailors"
Willis J. Abbot
Under the countenance of the laws of this country many thousands of these our fellow-creatures, entitled to the natural rights of mankind, are held as personal property in cruel bondage; and your petitioners being informed that a Bill for the Regulation of the African Trade is now before the House, containing a clause which restrains the officers of the African Company from exporting Negros, your petitioners, deeply affected with a consideration of the rapine, oppression, and bloodshed, attending this traffic, humbly request that this restriction may be extended to all persons whomsoever, or that the House would grant such other relief in the premises as in its wisdom may seem meet.
"The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament (1808), Vol. I"
Thomas Clarkson