I did not know that. Thanks for posting. I have been reading a very old book on anti-slavery/pro-slavery conflicts during the early statehood years of Illinois. The moral qualms about slavery and efforts to wind it down during the founding generation of our country need to be more well-known. A good understanding of history during that time would help people realize that there was no magic wand to make slavery go away, and would go a long way toward laying to rest the falsehood that “America was founded on racism.”
A reading of this little known document indicates the provisions were designed to be punitive to English trade until there was a redress of grievances. When item two related to the slave trade is read in context of item one it is clear that stopping the slave trade was economic, not moral.
Item one reads: That from and after the first day of December next, we will not import into British America, from Great Britain or Ireland, any Goods, Wares, or Merchandises whatsoever, or from any other place, any such Goods, Wares, or Merchandises as shall have been exported from Great Britain or Ireland; nor will we, after that day, import any East India Tea from any part of the World; nor any Molasses, Syrups, Paneles, Coffee, or Pimento, from the British Plantations or from Dominica; nor Wines from Madeira, or the Western Islands; nor Foreign Indigo.
As I read it, the Association was not advocating the abolition of slavery; just importation. The need for more slaves in the colonies would be through internal growth.