Part 180

If now we recur to negro slavery, it does not appear when it was first introduced into the colony. … When Josslyn was here in 1638, he found Mr. Maverick the owner of three negro slaves. He probably acquired them from a ship which brought some slaves from the West Indies in that year. And this is the first importation of which we have any account. But Maverick was not properly a member of Winthrop's Company. He came here before they left England, and had his establishment, and lived by himself, upon Noddle's Island. … The arrival of a Massachusetts ship with two negroes on board, whom the master had brought from Africa for sale, in 1645, four years after the adoption of the Body of Liberties, furnished an opportunity to test the sincerity of its framers, in seeking to limit and restrict slavery in the colony. … Upon information that these negroes had been forcibly seized and abducted from the coast of Africa by the captain of the vessel, the magistrates interposed to prevent their being sold. But though the crime of man-stealing had been committed, they found they had no cognizance of it, because it had been done in a foreign jurisdiction. They, however, went as far towards reaching the wrong done as they could; and not only compelled the ship-master to give up the men, but sent them back to Africa, at the charge of the colony. … And they made this, moreover, an occasion, by an act of legislation of the General Court, in 1646, 'to bear witness,' in the language of the act, 'against the heinous and crying sin of man-stealing, as also to prescribe such timely redress for what is past, and such a law for the future, as may sufficiently deter all others belonging to us to have to do in such vile and most odious courses, justly abhorred of all good and just men.' … In 1767 a bill to restrain the importing of slaves passed the popular branch of the General Court, but failed in the Council. Nor would it have availed if it had passed both branches, because it would have been vetoed by the Governor; acting under instructions from the Crown. {2921} This was shown in 1774, when such a bill did pass both branches of the General Court, and was thus vetoed. These successive acts of legislation were a constantly recurring illustration of the truth of the remark of a modern writer of standard authority upon the subject, that—'though the condition of slavery in the colonies may not have been created by the imperial legislature, yet it may be said with truth that the colonies were compelled to receive African slaves by the home government.' … The action of the government [of Massachusetts] when reorganized under the advice of the Continental Congress, was shown in September, 1776, in respect to several negroes who had been taken in an English prize-ship and brought into Salem to be sold. The General Court, having learned these facts, put a stop to the sale at once. And this was accompanied by a resolution on the part of the House—'That the selling and enslaving the human species is a direct violation of the natural rights alike vested in them by their Creator, and utterly inconsistent with the avowed principles on which this and the other States have carried on their struggle for liberty.' … In respect to the number of slaves living here at any one time, no census seems to have been taken of them prior to 1754. … In 1708, Governor Dudley estimates the whole number in the colony at 550; 200 having arrived between 1698 and 1707. Dr. Belknap thinks they were the most numerous here about 1745. And Mr. Felt, upon careful calculation, computes their number in 1754 at 4,489. … In 1755, Salem applied to the General Court to suppress slavery. Boston did the same in 1766, in 1767, and … in 1772. In 1773 the action of the towns was more general and decided." In 1780, the then free state of Massachusetts framed and adopted a constitution, the opening declaration of which was that "'all men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights.' … When [the next year] the highest judicial tribunal in the State was called upon to construe and apply this clause, they gave a response which struck off the chains from every slave in the commonwealth."

_E. Washburn, Slavery as it once Prevailed in Massachusetts (Lowell Inst. Lectures, 1869: Massachusetts and its Early History, lecture 6)._

ALSO IN: _W. B. Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, chapters 12 and 22 (volume 2)._

_Letters and Documents relating to Slavery in Massachusetts (Massachusetts Historical Society Collection, Fifth Series, v. 3)._

SLAVERY: Modern: Negro: A. D. 1652. First Antislavery enactment in Rhode Island.

See RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1651-1652.

SLAVERY: Modern: Negro: A. D. 1658. Introduction of slavery in Cape Colony.

See SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1486-1806.

SLAVERY: Modern: Negro: A. D. 1669-1670. Provided for in Locke's Fundamental Constitutions for the Carolinas.

See NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1669-1693.

SLAVERY: Modern: Negro: A. D. 1680. Early importance in South Carolina. Indian slavery also established.

See SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1680.

SLAVERY: Modern: Negro: A. D. 1685-1772. Black slaves in England.

"The extensive proprietary interests which, during last century, English merchants and members of the English aristocracy held in the American colonies and the West Indies, involved the possession also on their part of many slaves. Many of these black slaves were trained to act as household servants and personal attendants, and in this capacity accompanied their owners when travelling. The presence of black slaves in this country was therefore not an unfamiliar sight; but it will perhaps startle many readers to know that in 1764, according to the estimate of the 'Gentleman's Magazine' of the period, there were upwards of 20,000 black slaves domiciled in London alone, and that these slaves were openly bought and sold on 'Change.' The newspapers of the day represent these slaves as being upon the whole rather a trouble to their owners. For one thing, they ceased to consider themselves 'slaves' in this so-called 'free country'; hence they were often unwilling to work, and when forced to labour were generally sullen, spiteful, treacherous, and revengeful. They also frequently, as we shall find from the press advertisements of the day, made their escape, necessitating rewards being offered for their recapture. For instance, in the' London Gazette' for March, 1685, there is an advertisement to the effect that a black boy of about 15 years of age, named John White, ran away from Colonel Kirke on the 15th inst. 'He has a silver collar about his neck, upon which is the colonel's coat of arms and cipher; he has upon his throat a great scar: &c. A reward is offered for bringing him back. In the 'Daily Post' of August 4, 1720, is a similar notice. … Again, in the 'Daily Journal' for September 28, 1728, is an advertisement for a runaway black boy. It is added that he had the words 'My Lady Bromfield's black in Lincoln's Inn Fields' engraved on a collar round his neck. … That a collar was considered as essential for a black slave as for a dog is shown by an advertisement in the 'London Advertiser' for 1756, in which Matthew Dyer, working-goldsmith at the Crown in Duck Lane, Orchard Street, Westminster, intimates to the public that he makes' silver padlocks for Blacks or Dogs; collars,' &c. … In the 'Tatler' for 1709, a black boy, 12 years of age, 'fit to wait on gentleman,' is offered for sale at Dennis's Coffee-house, in Finch Lane, near the Royal Exchange. From the 'Daily Journal ' of September 28, 1728, we learn that a negro boy, 11 years of age, was similarly offered for sale at the Virginia Coffee-house. … Again, in the 'Public Ledger' for December 31, 1761, we have for sale 'A healthy Negro Girl, aged about 15 years; speaks good English, works at her needle, washes well, does household work, and has had the small-pox.' So far these sales seem to have been effected privately; but later on we find that the auctioneer's hammer is being brought into play. In 1763, one John Rice was hanged for forgery at Tyburn, and following upon his execution was a sale of his effects by auction, 'and among the rest a negro boy.' He brought £32. The 'Gentleman's Magazine' of the day, commenting upon the sale of the black boy, says that this was 'perhaps the first custom of the kind in a free country.' … The 'Stamford Mercury' for [1771] bears record that 'at a sale of a gentleman's effects at Richmond, a Negro Boy was put up and sold for £32.' The paper adds: 'A shocking instance in a free country!' The public conscience had indeed for many years been disturbed on this question, the greater number in England holding that the system of slavery as tolerated in London and the country generally should be declared illegal. From an early period in last century the subject had not only been debated in the public prints and on the platform, but had been made matter of something like judicial decision. {2922} At the first, legal opinion was opposed to the manumission of slaves brought by their masters to this country. In 1729, Lord Talbot, Attorney-general, and Mr. Yorke, Solicitor-general, gave an opinion which raised the whole question of the legal existence of slaves in Great Britain and Ireland. The opinion of these lawyers was that the mere fact of a slave coming into these countries from the West Indies did not render him free, and that he could be compelled to return again to those plantations. Even the rite of baptism did not free him—it could only affect his spiritual, not his temporal, condition. It was on the strength of this decision that slavery continued to flourish in England until, as we have seen, there were at one time as many as 20,000 black slaves in London alone. Chief-justice Holt had, however, expressed a contrary opinion to that above given; and after a long struggle the matter was brought to a final issue in the famous case of the negro Somersett. On June 22, 1772, it was decided by Lord Mansfield, in the name of the whole bench, that 'as soon as a slave set foot on the soil of the British Islands, he became free.' From that day to the present this has remained the law of our land as regards slavery. The poet Cowper expressed the jubilant feeling of the country over Lord Mansfield's dictum when he sung: … 'Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs receive our air, that moment they are free.'"

_Black Slaves in England (Chamber's Journal, January 31, 1891)._

ALSO IN: _H. Greeley, History of the Struggle for Slavery Extension or Restriction, pages 2-3._

SLAVERY: Modern: Negro: A. D. 1688-1780. Beginning and growth or Antislavery sentiment among the Quakers. Emancipation in Pennsylvania.

"So early as the year 1688, some emigrants from Kriesheim in Germany, who had adopted the principles of William Penn, and followed him into Pennsylvania, urged in the yearly meeting of the Society there, the inconsistency of buying, selling, and holding men in slavery, with the principles of the Christian religion. In the year 1696, the yearly meeting for that province took up the subject as a public concern, and the result was, advice to the members of it to guard against future importations of African slaves, and to be particularly attentive to the treatment of those, who were then in their possession. In the year 1711, the same yearly meeting resumed the important subject, and confirmed and renewed the advice, which had been before given. From this time it continued to keep the subject alive; but finding at length, that, though individuals refused to purchase slaves, yet others continued the custom, and in greater numbers that it was apprehended would have been the case after the public declarations which had been made, it determined, in the year 1754, upon a fuller and more serious publication of its sentiments; and therefore it issued, in the same year, … [a] pertinent letter to all the members within its jurisdiction. … This truly Christian letter, which was written in the year 1754, was designed, as we collect from the contents of it, to make the sentiments of the Society better known and attended to on the subject of the Slave-trade. It contains … exhortations to all the members within the yearly meeting of Pennsylvania and the Jerseys, to desist from purchasing and importing slaves, and, where they possessed them, to have a tender consideration of their condition. But that the first part of the subject of this exhortation might be enforced, the yearly meeting for the same provinces came to a resolution in 1755, That if any of the members belonging to it bought or imported slaves, the overseers were to inform their respective monthly meetings of it, that 'these might treat with them, as they might be directed in the wisdom of truth.' In the year 1774, we find the same yearly meeting legislating again on the same subject. By the preceding resolution they, who became offenders, were subjected only to exclusion from the meetings for discipline, and from the privilege of contributing to the pecuniary occasions of the Society; but by the resolution of the present year, all members concerned in importing, selling, purchasing, giving, or transferring Negro or other slaves, or otherwise acting in such manner as to continue them in slavery beyond the term limited by law or custom, were directed to be excluded from membership or disowned. … In the year 1776, the same yearly meeting carried the matter still further. It was then enacted, That the owners of slaves, who refused to execute proper instruments for giving them their freedom, were to be disowned likewise."

_T. Clarkson, History of the Abolition of the Slave-Trade, volume 1, chapter 5._

In 1780 Pennsylvania adopted an act for the gradual emancipation of all slaves within its territory, being the first among the States to perform that great act of justice.

_W. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay, Popular History of the United States, volume 3, chapter 7._

SLAVERY: Modern: Negro: A. D. 1698-1776. England and the Slave-trade. The Assiento contract with Spain.

After the opening of the slave trade to the English by Hawkins, in 1562-1564, "the traffic in human flesh speedily became popular. A monopoly of it was granted to the African Company, but it was invaded by numerous interlopers, and in 1698 the trade was thrown open to all British subjects. It is worthy of notice that while by the law of 1698 a certain percentage was exacted from other African cargoes for the maintenance of the forts along that coast, cargoes of negroes were especially exempted, for the Parliament of the Revolution desired above all things to encourage the trade. Nine years before, a convention had been made between England and Spain for supplying the Spanish West Indies with slaves from the island of Jamaica, and it has been computed that between 1680 and 1700 the English tore from Africa about 300,000 negroes, or about 15,000 every year. The great period of the English slave trade had, however, not yet arrived. It was only in 1713 that it began to attain its full dimensions. One of the most important and most popular parts of the Treaty of Utrecht was the contract known as the Assiento, by which the British Government secured for its subjects during thirty years an absolute monopoly of the supply of slaves to the Spanish colonies. The traffic was regulated by a long and elaborate treaty, guarding among other things against any possible scandal to the Roman Catholic religion from the presence of heretical slave-traders, and it provided that in the 30 years from 1713 to 1743 the English should bring into the Spanish West Indies no less than 144,000 negroes, or 4,800 every year; that during the first 25 years of the contract they might import a still greater number on paying certain moderate duties, and that they might carry the slave trade into numerous Spanish ports from which it had hitherto been excluded. {2923} The monopoly of the trade was granted to the South Sea Company, and from this time its maintenance, and its extension both to the Spanish dominions and to her own colonies, became a central object of English policy. A few facts will show the scale on which it was pursued From Christmas 1752 to Christmas 1762 no less than 71,115 negroes were imported into Jamaica. In a despatch written at the end of 1762, Admiral Rodney reports that in little more than three years 40,000 negroes had been introduced into Guadaloupe. In a discussion upon the methods of making the trade more effectual, which took place in the English Parliament in 1750, it was shown that 46,000 negroes were at this time annually sold to the English colonies alone. A letter of General O'Hara, the Governor of Senegambia, written in 1766, estimates at the almost incredible figure of 70,000 the number of negroes who during the preceding fifty years had been annually shipped from Africa. A distinguished modern historian, after a careful comparison of the materials we possess, declares that in the century preceding the prohibition of the slave trade by the American Congress, in 1776, the number of negroes imported by the English alone, into the Spanish, French, and English colonies can, on the lowest computation, have been little less than three millions, and that we must add more than a quarter of a million, who perished on the voyage and whose bodies were thrown into the Atlantic."

_W. E. H. Lecky, History of English in the 18th Century, chapter 5 (volume 2). _

ALSO IN: _G. Bancroft, History of the United States. (Author's last revision), part 3, chapter 16 (volume 2)._

_D. Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, volume 4, pages 141-157._

See, also, UTRECHT: A. D. 1712-1714; AIX LA CHAPELLE: THE CONGRESS; ENGLAND: A. D. 1739, 1741; GEORGIA: A. D. 1738-1743; ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1580-1777.

SLAVERY: Modern: Negro: A. D. 1713-1776. Maintained in the American colonies by the English Crown and Parliament.

"The success of the American Revolution made it possible for the different states to take measures for the gradual abolition of slavery and the immediate abolition of the foreign slave-trade. On this great question the state of public opinion in America was more advanced than in England. … George III. … resisted the movement for abolition with all the obstinacy of which his hard and narrow nature was capable. In 1769 the Virginia legislature had enacted that the further importation of negroes, to be sold into slavery, should be prohibited. But George III. commanded the governor to veto this act, and it was vetoed. In Jefferson's first draft of the Declaration of Independence, this action of the king was made the occasion of a fierce denunciation of slavery, but in deference to the prejudices of South Carolina and Georgia the clause was struck out by Congress. When George III. and his vetoes had been eliminated from the case, it became possible for the States to legislate freely on the subject."

_J. Fiske, T/w Critical Period of American History, page 71._

"During the regal government, we had at one time obtained a law which imposed such a duty on the importation of slaves as amounted nearly to a prohibition, when one inconsiderate assembly, placed under a peculiarity of circumstance, repealed the law. This repeal met a joyful sanction from the then sovereign, and no devices, no expedients, which could ever after be attempted by subsequent assemblies, and they seldom met without attempting them, could succeed in getting the royal assent to a renewal of the duty. In the very first session held under the republican government, the assembly passed a law for the perpetual prohibition of the importation of slaves. This will in some measure stop the increase of this great political and moral evil, while the minds of our citizens may be ripening for a complete emancipation of human nature."

_T. Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, query 8._

"It has been frequently stated that England is responsible for the introduction of negro slavery into British America; but this assertion will not stand the test of examination. … It is, however, true that from a very early period a certain movement against it may be detected in some American States, that there was, especially in the Northern Provinces, a great and general dislike to the excessive importation of negroes, and that every attempt to prohibit or restrict that importation was rebuked and defeated by England. … The State Governors were forbidden to give the necessary assent to any measures restricting it, and the English pursued this policy steadily to the very eve of the Revolution."

_W. E. H. Lecky, History of England in the 18th Century, chapter 5 (volume 2)._

SLAVERY: Modern: Negro: A. D. 1717. Introduction into Louisiana.

See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1717-1718.

SLAVERY: Modern: Negro: A. D. 1735-1749. Questioned early in Georgia. Slavery prohibited at the beginning, and finally introduced.

See GEORGIA: A. D. 1735-1749.

SLAVERY: Modern: Negro: A. D. 1741. The pretended Negro Plot in New York.

See NEW YORK: A. D. 1741.

SLAVERY: Modern: Negro: A. D. 1756. Extent and distribution in the English American colonies.

"The number of African slaves in North America in 1756, the generation preceding the Revolution, was about 292,000. Of these Virginia had 120,000, her white population amounting at the same time to 173,000. The African increase in Virginia had been steady. In 1619 came the first 20, and in 1649 there were 300. In 1670, there were 2,000. In 1714, there were 23,000. In 1756, there were 120,000. The 172,000 who, in addition to these, made up the African population of America, were scattered through the provinces from New England to Georgia."

_J. E. Cooke, Virginia, page 367._

SLAVERY: Modern: Negro: A. D. 1769-1785. The ending of slavery in Connecticut and New Hampshire.