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Pirates, Sugar, Debtors, and Slaves: Political Economy and the Case for Gradual Abolition in New York

Neglecting commerce and abusing slaves could bring a society to ruin. In the spring of 1786, ‘Americanus’ sought to impress these lessons from ancient history on New Yorkers. ‘The method in which the Spartans treated their slaves, formed the strongest proof of the pernicious influence of their government’, wrote the pseudonymous essayist in the New-York Journal. ‘Americanus’ also lamented: ‘The rights of mankind, gratitude, and selfinterest, were all equally neglected by them in their treatment of slaves.’ Moreover, the folly of Lycurgus the lawgiver extended beyond slavery to the entire Spartan political economy. The law maintained an artificial conformity of conditions amongst citizens, rather than giving free play either to their ‘industry’ or to the ‘natural’ pursuit of ‘happiness’. Thus, slavery produced an internal threat to safety, while the larger system restricting consumption left Sparta unprepared to handle the wealth inevitably acquired by this warrior society. Republican citizens – ancient or modern – were better off mastering commerce than mastering men. In the wake of independence, many New Yorkers projected for their state and nation a future emphasizing trade, growth, development, and economic autonomy. This study examines how commentaries published and initiatives covered in New York’s burgeoning fleet of newspapers during the late eighteenth century portrayed slavery as undermining the legitimacy of consumption, wealth, and power in New York’s growth-oriented political economy. Slavery, at home and abroad, appeared as a practical roadblock and a symbolic converse of this political and economic vision, deterring free trade and confining the potential of free labour. This article emphasizes that anti-slavery arguments attained heightened relevance through subjects that seemed to speak more directly to matters of political economy than did straightforward denunciation of black bondage. Specifically, Algerian piracy, sugar production, and debtor imprisonment