This book is a study of crime and punishment, or, more precisely, a story of crime that was not punished. Federal laws forbade the service of American citizens, vessels, and port facilities in the Af­ rican slave trade, yet for a quarter century American criminals greatly aided the smuggling of African Negroes into Cuba and Brazil, and at length even brought Africans into the United States itself. Yet the federal government could do little to crush the trade. This study is concerned with the reasons for this impotence.