[Restorer]

Thanks. It would also be interesting to know whether this trade increased or decreased over time as slavery became more of a "moral" issue over time with more northerners.

IOW, were more slaves sold rather than freed from the first northern states to outlaw slaves than with the later ones?

[PeaRidge]

That is an interesting concept that you are trying to develop.

In the above article, you can see that in the 1700s, slavery was growing in coastal cities of the North and South about evenly.

That was a function of labor demand and cost.

But to attempt to draw a moral conclusion about relative numbers freed from the "first" states to outlaw slaves would be quite a stretch in logic.

It is clear that sales of slaves continued until the 1860s. As the value of slaves began to increase, it is likely that more were sold South than were released in the North, with economics and demand being the determinants. Census counts of the period probably confirm this.

Of course in saying that, I sound more like our good friend x than I do myself.

In so far regarding morality, I think that resistance to slave ownership as a part of period morality discussion should include Jefferson, Madison, Oglethorpe, as well as generations of Southerners who rejected slavery.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is the morality of the hundreds of Boston, Newport, New York, and Philadelphia owned and outfitted slavers that continued in the practice of transporting slaves until the Civil War put an end to their lucrative business.