It  was  simply  because  negro  labor  was  more  profitable  in  the
South  than  in  the  North  that  the  importation  of  negro  slaves
had  been,  and  continued  to  be,  chiefly  directed  to  the  Southern
ports.*  For  the  same  reason  slavery  was  abolished  by  the  States
of  the  Northern  section  (though  it  existed  in  several  of  them  for
more  than  fifty  years  after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution),
while  the  importation  of  slaves  into  the  South  continued  to  be
carried  on  by  Northern  merchants  and  Northern  ships,  without
interference  in  the  traffic  from  any  quarter,  until  it  was  pro-
hibited by  the  spontaneous  action  of  the  Southern  States  them-
selves.
The  Constitution  expressly  forbade  any  interference  by  Con-
gress with  the  slave-trade— or,  to  use  its  own  language,  with  the
"  migration  or  importation  of  such  persons  "  as  any  of  the  States
should  think  proper  to  admit — "prior  to  the  year  1808."  Dur-
ing the  intervening  period  of  more  than  twenty  years,  the  mat-
ter was  exclusively  under  the  control  of  the  respective  States.
Nevertheless,  every  Southern  State,  without  exception,  either
had  already  enacted,  or  proceeded  to  enact,  Jaws  forbidding  the
importation  of  slaves.f     Virginia  was  the  first  of  all  the  States,

*  It  will  be  remembered  that,  during  her  colonial  condition,  Virginia  made  stren-
uous efforts  to  prevent  the  importation  of  Africans,  and  was  overruled  by  the  Crown ;
also,  that  Georgia,  under  Oglethorpe,  did  prohibit  the  introduction  of  African  slaves
until  1752,  when  the  proprietors  surrendered  the  charter,  and  the  colony  became  a
part  of  the  royal  government,  and  enjoyed  the  same  privileges  as  the  other  colonies.
