CHAPTER I.

THE INTRODUCTION OF NEGROES INTO PENNSYLVANIA.

There were negroes in the region around the Delaware river before Pennsylvania was founded, in the days of the Dutch and the Swedes. As early as 1639 mention is made of a convict sentenced to be taken to South River to serve among the blacks there.[1] In 1644 Anthony, a negro, is spoken of in the service of Governor Printz at Tinicum, making hay for the cattle, and accompanying the governor on his pleasure yacht.[2] In 1657 Vice-director Alricks was accused of using the Company's oxen and negroes. Five years later Vice-director Beekman desired Governor Stuyvesant to send him a company of blacks. In 1664 negroes were wanted to work on the lowlands along the Delaware. A contract was to be made for fifty, which the West India Company would furnish.[3] In the same year, when the English captured New Amstel, afterward New Castle, the place was plundered, and a number of negroes were confiscated and sold. From Peter Alricks several were taken; of these eleven were restored to him.[4] At least a few were living on the shores of the Delaware River in 1677.[5] A year later an emissary was sent by the justices of New Castle to request most urgently permission to import negroes from Maryland.[6]

Thus negroes had been brought into the country before Pennsylvania was founded. Immediately after Penn's coming there is record of them in his first counties. They were certainly present in Philadelphia County in 1684, and in Chester in 1687.[7] Penn himself noticed them in his charter to the Free Society of Traders. In 1702 they were spoken of as numerous.[8] By that time merchants of Philadelphia made the importation of negroes a regular part of their business.[9] Thenceforth they are a noticeable factor in the life of the colony.

While there was an active demand for negroes, there was, nevertheless, almost from the first, strong opposition to importing them. This is evident from the fact that during the colonial period the Assembly of Pennsylvania passed a long series of acts imposing restrictions upon the traffic. In 1700 a maximum duty of twenty shillings was imposed on each negro imported. Five years later this duty was doubled.[10] By that time there had arisen a strong adverse sentiment, due partly to economic causes, since the white workmen complained that their wages were lowered by negro competition, and partly to fear aroused by an insurrection of slaves in New York.[11] Accordingly in 1712 the Assembly very boldly passed an act to prevent importation, seeking to accomplish this purpose by making the duty twenty pounds a head. The law was immediately repealed in England, the Crown not being disposed to tolerate such independent action, nor willing to allow interference with the African Company's trade.[12] Either the local feeling was too strong, or the requirements were less, since in spite of this failure there was for a while a falling off in the number imported.[13] A more moderate duty of five pounds was imposed in 1715, but again the English authorities interposed, repealing it in 1719. Meanwhile an act to continue this duty had been passed in 1717-1718, but apparently it was not submitted to the Crown. In 1720-1721 the five pound duty was again imposed, this act also not being submitted. In 1722 the duty was repeated, and once more the law expired by limitation before it was sent up for approval.[14]

Up to this time restrictive legislation had been largely frustrated. It had encountered not only the disapproval of certain classes in Pennsylvania, but the powerful opposition of the African Company, which could count on the decisive interposition of the Lords of Trade.[15] The Assembly accordingly submitted the acts long after they had been passed, and made new laws before the old ones had been disallowed.[16] Nevertheless the number of blacks in the colony had steadily increased, and in 1721 was estimated to be somewhere between twenty-five hundred and five thousand.[17] The wrath of the white laborers was correspondingly increased, and in this year they presented to the Assembly a petition asking for a law to prevent the hiring of blacks. The Assembly resolved that such a law would be injurious to the public and unjust to those who owned negroes and hired them out, but the restrictions on importing them were maintained.[18] In 1725-1726 the five pound duty was imposed again, and in the same year five pounds extra was placed upon every convict negro brought into the colony. This became law by lapse of time.[19]

In 1729 the duty was reduced to two pounds. This duty continued in force for a generation, satisfactory partly because the opposition to importing negroes seems to have been less strong, partly because white servants proved to be cheaper and more adapted to industrial demands.[20] The newspaper advertisements announce the arrival of many more cargoes of servants than of negroes; this notwithstanding the fact that white servants frequently ran away, often to enlist in the wars. Referring to this fact a message from the Assembly to the governor says that while the King has seemed to desire the importation of servants rather than of negroes, yet the enlistment acts make such property so precarious, that it seems to depend on the will of the servant and the pleasure of the officer.[21] Nevertheless the number of negroes brought in steadily dwindled. By 1750 importation had nearly ceased.[22]

A few years later the great efforts made in the last French and Indian War caused loud complaints again about enlisting servants. It was feared that people would be driven to the necessity of providing themselves with negro slaves, as property in them seemed more secure. This is probably just what occurred, for the increase of negroes is said to have been alarming.[23] As a result restrictive legislation was tried again in 1761, when the duty was made ten pounds. The law was carried only after considerable effort. While the bill was in the hands of the governor a petition was sent to him, signed by twenty-four merchants of Philadelphia, who set forth the scarcity and high price of labor, and their need of slaves. After two months' contest the bill was passed. One provision of the act was that a new settler need not pay the duty if he did not sell his slave within eighteen months.[24] In 1768 this act was renewed. In 1773 it was made perpetual, the former law having been found to be of great public utility; but the duty was raised to twenty pounds. Once more the act became law by lapse of time.[25]

The act of 1773 was the last one which the Assembly passed to limit the importation of negroes. Not only was the duty sufficiently high, now, but its presence was hardly needed.[26] A silent but powerful movement was overthrowing slavery in Pennsylvania; and in a short time the outbreak of the Revolutionary War brought the traffic to an end. Shortly thereafter, in 1780, the state did what England had never permitted while she held authority: forbade the importation of slaves entirely.[27]

The real reason for the passage of these laws is not always clear. They may have been passed either to keep negroes out,[28] or to raise revenue for the government.[29] An analysis of the laws themselves seems to show that both of these purposes were constantly in mind.[30] When, however, they are taken in connection with matters which they themselves do not mention, namely, the predominance of the Quakers in the colonial Assembly together with the abhorrence which they felt for the slave-trade and later for slavery itself,[31] it becomes probable that the predominant motive was restriction.[32] It is also probable that while the obtaining of revenue was the obvious motive in many of these acts, yet revenue was so raised precisely because Pennsylvania desired to keep negroes out; that imported slaves were taxed largely for reasons similar to those which caused the Stuarts to tax colonial tobacco, and which lead modern governments to tax spirituous liquors and opium. It may be added that Pennsylvania always held, both in colonial times and afterwards, that England forced slavery upon her. That there was much justice in this complaint the failure of the earlier legislation goes far to sustain.[33]

The negroes imported were brought sometimes in cargoes, more often a few at a time. They came mostly from the West Indies, many being purchased in Barbadoes, Jamaica, Antigua, and St. Christophers.[34] As a rule they were imported by the merchants of Philadelphia, and, being received in exchange for grain, flour, lumber, and staves, helped to make up the balance of trade between Philadelphia and the islands.[35] A few seem to have been obtained directly from Africa. When so brought, however, they were found to be unable to endure the winter cold in Pennsylvania, so that it was considered preferable to buy the second generation in the West Indies, after they had become acclimated.[36] Some were brought from other colonies on the mainland, particularly those to the south. At times Pennsylvania herself exported a few to other places.[37] The prices paid in the colony naturally fluctuated from time to time in accordance with supply and demand, and varied within certain limits according to the age and personal qualities of each negro. The usual price for an adult seems to have been somewhere near forty pounds.[38]

As to the number of negroes in Pennsylvania at different times during the colonial period almost any estimate is at best conjecture. Not only are there few official reports, but these reports, in the absence of any definite census, are of little value.[39] Apparently one of the best estimates was that made in 1721, which stated the number of blacks at anywhere between 2,500 and 5,000.[40] In 1751 it was at least widely believed that there were in Philadelphia 6,000, and it is asserted that the total number in Pennsylvania including the Lower Counties was 11,000.[41] It is probable that the same number was not much exceeded in Pennsylvania proper at any time before 1790. In these estimates no attempt was made to distinguish the free from the slaves. The number of slaves, it is true, was very near the total at both these periods, but after the middle of the century it began dwindling as the number of negro servants and free men increased. In 1780 a careful estimate placed the slaves at 6,000.[42] According to the Federal census of 1790 the number of negroes in Pennsylvania was 10,274.[43]

Of these negroes the great majority throughout the slavery period were located in the southeastern part of Pennsylvania, in and around Philadelphia. There were many in Bucks, Chester, Lancaster, Montgomery, and York counties. There were negroes near the site of Columbia by 1726. John Harris had slaves by the Susquehanna as early as 1733. In 1759 Hugh Mercer wrote from the vicinity of Pittsburg asking for two negro girls and a boy. The tax-lists and local accounts reveal their presence in many other places.[44] Doubtless a few might be traced wherever white people settled permanently. In general it may be said that they were owned in the English, Welsh, and Scotch-Irish communities. The Germans as a rule held no slaves.

Where negroes were owned they were for the most part evenly distributed, there being few large holdings. In rare instances a considerable number is recorded as belonging to one man, and the iron-masters generally had several. The tax-lists, however, indicate that the average holding was one or two, except in Philadelphia among the wealthier classes where it was double that number.[45]

The character of slavery in Pennsylvania was in many respects unique, but in no way was this so true as in connection with the number of negroes held. Generally speaking, the farther south a section lay the more slaves did it possess. Thus there were fewer in New England than in the middle colonies; there were fewer there than in the South. But to this rule Pennsylvania was an exception, for it had fewer negroes than New Jersey, and not half so many as New York.[46] This was due to two sets of causes: the first, ethical; the second, economic. The first of these are easily understood. They resulted from the character of many of the people who settled Pennsylvania, their dislike for slavery, and their refusal to hold slaves. The second are not so easily traceable, but were doubtless more powerful in their influence, for they were owing to the character of Pennsylvania's industrial growth.

The plantation system, which is most favorable to the increase of slavery, never appeared in Pennsylvania. During the whole of the eighteenth century the activities of the colony developed along two lines not favorable to negro labor: small farming, and manufacturing and commerce.[47] The small farms were almost always held by people who were too poor to purchase slaves, at least for a long while, and the kind of farming was not such as to make slavery particularly profitable. In commerce no large number of negroes was ever employed, while manufacturing demanded a higher grade of labor than slaves could give. It is true that in some cases where there was an approach to the factory system, and where the work was rough and needed little skill, slaves could answer every purpose. For this reason at the old ironworks negroes were in demand.[48] As a rule, however, this was not the case. It was because of its industrial character that Pennsylvania was peculiarly the colony of indentured white servants.

Furthermore, ethical and economic influences interacted with subtle and powerful force. Barring all other considerations, the cost of a slave was a considerable item, not to be afforded by a struggling settler; hence slavery never attained magnitude on the frontier. Before 1700 Pennsylvania was all frontier; hence it had very few negroes. In the period from 1700 to about 1750 the country between the Delaware and the Susquehanna was filled up, and the early conditions largely disappeared. It was then that the greatest number of negroes was introduced. In the period between the middle of the century and the Revolution this older country became well developed and prosperous; farms became larger and better cultivated; there were numerous respectable manufacturers and wealthy merchants. These men could easily afford to have slaves, and large importations might have been expected; but there was no great influx of negroes. Economic conditions were favorable, but ethical influences worked strongly against it. In this eastern half of Pennsylvania two racial elements predominated: the Germans and the English Quakers. The Germans had abstained from slave-holding from the first;[49] the Quakers were now coming to abhor it.[50] The same play of causes was seen again in the "old West." After 1750 in the mountains and valleys beyond the Susquehanna the earlier frontier conditions were lived over again. Here the settlers were largely Scotch-Irish, and had no dislike for slavery, but as yet the conditions of their life did not favor it. When finally western Pennsylvania passed out of the frontier stage, and its inhabitants could purchase negroes, the days of slavery in Pennsylvania were nearly over.[51] For all of these reasons from first to last Pennsylvania's slave population remained small.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Breviate. Dutch Records, no. 2, fol. 5. In _2 Pennsylvania Archives_, XVI, 234. _Cf._ Hazard, _Annals of Pennsylvania_, 49. The "Proposed Freedoms and Exemptions for New Netherland," 1640, say, "The Company shall exert itself to provide the Patroons and Colonists, on their order with as many Blacks as possible".... _2 Pa. Arch._, V, 74.

[2] C. T. Odhner. "The Founding of New Sweden, 1637-1642", translated by G. B. Keen in _Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography_, III, 277.

[3] Hazard, _Annals of Pennsylvania_, 331; O'Callaghan, _Documents relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York_, II, 213, 214. The Report of the Board of Accounts on New Netherland, Dec. 15, 1644, had spoken of the need of negroes, the economy of their labor, and had recommended the importation of large numbers. _2 Pa. Arch._, V, 88. See also Davis, _History of Bucks County_, 793.

[4] _2 Pa. Arch._, XVI, 255, 256; Hazard, _Annals of Pennsylvania_, 372. Sir Robert Carr, writing to Colonel Nicholls, Oct. 13, 1664, says, "I have already sent into Merryland some Neegars w^{c}h did belong to the late Governor att his plantation above".... _2 Pa. Arch._, V, 578.

[5] The Records of the Court of New Castle give a list of the "Names of the Tijdable prsons Living in this Courts Jurisdiction" in which occur "three negros": "1 negro woman of Mr. Moll", "1 neger of Mr. Alrichs", "Sam Hedge and neger". Book A, 197-201. Quoted in _Pa. Mag._, III, 352-354. For the active trade in negroes at this time _cf._ MS. Board of Trade Journals, II, 307.

[6] "Wth out wch wee cannot subsist".... MS. New Castle Court Records, Liber A, 406. Hazard, _Annals_, 456.

[7] "Ik hebbe geen vaste Dienstbode, als een Neger die ik gekocht heb." _Missive van Cornelis Bom, Geschreven uit de Stadt Philadelphia_, etc., 3. (Oct. 12, 1684). "Man hat hier auch Zwartzen oder Mohren zu Schlaven in der Arbeit." Letter, probably of Hermans Op den Graeff, Germantown, Feb. 12, 1684, in Sachse, _Letters relating to the Settlement of Germantown_, 25. _Cf._ also MS. in American Philosophical Society's collection, quoted in _Pa. Mag._, VII, 106: "Lacey Cocke hath A negroe" ..., "Pattrick Robbinson--Robert neverbeegood his negor sarvant".... "The Defendts negros" are mentioned in a suit for damages in 1687. See MS. Court Records of Penna. and Chester Co., 1681-1688, p. 72.

[8] MS. Ancient Records of Philadelphia, 28 7th mo., 1702.

[9] MS. William Trent's Ledger, 156. For numerous references to negroes brought from Barbadoes, see MS. Booke of acc^{tts} Relating to the Barquentine _Constant Ailse_ And^w: Dykes mast^r: from March 25th 1700 (-1702). (Pa. State Lib.)

[10] _Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania_ (edited by J. T. Mitchell and Henry Flanders), II, 107. _Ibid._, II, 285. The act of 1705-1706 was repeated in 1710-1711. _Ibid._, II, 383. _Cf._ _Colonial Records of Pennsylvania_, II, 529, 530.

[11] _Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives of the Province of Pennsylvania_, I, pt. II, 132. _Stat. at L._, II, 433.

[12] MS. Board of Trade Papers, Proprieties, IX, Q, 39, 42. _Stat. at L._, II, 543, 544.

[13] Jonathan Dickinson, a merchant of Philadelphia, writing to a correspondent in Jamaica, 4th month, 1715, says, "I must entreat you to send me no more negroes for sale, for our people don't care to buy. They are generally against any coming into the country." I have been unable to find this letter. Watson, who quotes it (_Annals of Philadelphia_, II, 264), says, "Vide the Logan MSS." _Cf._ also a letter of George Tiller of Kingston, Jamaica, to Dickinson, 1712. MS. Logan Papers, VIII, 47.

[14] _Stat. at L._, III, 117, 118; MS. Board of Trade Papers, Prop., X, 2, Q, 159; _Stat. at L._, III, 465; _Col. Rec._, III, 38, 144, 171. During this period negroes were being imported through the custom-house at the rate of about one hundred and fifty a year. _Cf._ _Votes and Proceedings_, II, 251.

[15] In 1727 the iron-masters of Pennsylvania petitioned for the entire removal of the duty, labor being so scarce. _Votes and Proceedings_, 1726-1742, p. 31. The attitude of the English authorities is explained in a report of Richard Jackson, March 2, 1774, on one of the Pennsylvania impost acts. "The Increase of Duty on Negroes in this Law is Manifestly inconsistent with the Policy adopted by your Lordships and your Predecessors for the sake of encouraging the African Trade" ... Board of Trade Papers, Prop., XXIII, Z, 54.

[16] _Votes and Proceedings_, II, 152; _Col. Rec._, II, 572, 573; _1 Pa. Arch._, I, 160-162; _Votes and Proceedings_, 1766, pp. 45, 46. For a complaint against this practice _cf._ "Copy of a Representat^n of the Board of Trade upon some pennsylvania Laws" (1713-1714). MS. Board of Trade Papers, Plantations General, IX, K, 35.

[17] O'Callaghan, _N. Y. Col. Docs._, V, 604.

[18] _Votes and Proceedings_, II, 347.

[19] _Stat. at L._, IV, 52-56, 60; _Col. Rec._, III, 247, 248, 250.

[20] _Stat. at L._, IV, 123-128; _Col. Rec._, III, 359; Smith, _History of Delaware County_, 261. For a while, no doubt, there was a considerable influx. Ralph Sandiford says (1730), "We have _negroes_ flocking in upon us since the duty on them is reduced to 40 shillings per head." _Mystery of Iniquity_, (2d ed.), 5. Many of these were smuggled in from New Jersey, where there was no duty from 1721 to 1767. Cooley, _A Study of Slavery in New Jersey_, 15, 16.

[21] Cargoes of servants are advertised in the _American Weekly Mercury_, the _Pennsylvania Packet_, and the _Pennsylvania Gazette_, _passim_. As to enlistment of servants _cf._ _Mercury_, _Gazette_, Aug. 7, 1740; _Col. Rec._, IV, 437. Complaint about this had been made as early as 1711. _Votes and Proceedings_, II, 101, 103.

[22] Smith, _History of Delaware County_, 261; Peter Kalm, _Travels into North America_, etc., (1748), I, 391.

[23] _Col. Rec._, VII, 37, 38.

[24] _Stat. at L._, VI, 104-110; _Votes and Proceedings_, 1761, pp. 25, 29, 33, 38, 39, 40, 41, 52, 55, 63; _Col. Rec._, VIII, 575, 576. "The Petition of Divers Merchants of the City of Philadelphia, To The Honble James Hamilton Esqr. Lieut. Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania, Humbly Sheweth, That We the Subscribers ... have seen for some time past, the many inconveniencys the Inhabitants have suffer'd, for want of Labourers, and Artificers, by Numbers being Inlisted for His Majestys Service and near a total stop to the importation of German and other white Servants, have for some time encouraged the importation of Negros, ... that an advantage may be gain'd by the Introduction of Slaves, w^ch will likewise be a means of reduceing the exorbitant Price of Labour, and in all Probability bring our staple Commoditys to their usual Prices." MS. Provincial Papers, XXV, March 1, 1761.

[25] _Stat. at L._, VII, 158, 159; VIII, 330-332; _Col. Rec._, IX, 400, 401, 443, ff.; X, 72, 77. The Board of Trade Journals, LXXXII, 47, (May 5, 1774), say that their lordships had some discourse with Dr. Franklin "upon the objections ... to ... _imposing Duties amounting to a prohibition upon the Importation of Negroes_."

[26] _Cf._ MS. Provincial Papers, XXXII, January, 1775.

[27] _Stat. at L._, X, 72, 73. It was forbidden by implication rather than specific regulation. It had been foreseen that an act for gradual abolition entailed stopping the importation of negroes. _Pa. Packet_, Nov. 28, 1778; _1 Pa. Arch._, VII, 79.

[28] Professor E. P. Cheyney in an article written some years ago ("The Condition of Labor in Early Pennsylvania, I. Slavery," in _The Manufacturer_, Feb. 2, 1891, p. 8) considers these laws to have been restrictive in purpose, and gives three causes for their passage, in the following order of importance: (a) dread of slave insurrections, (b) opposition of the free laboring classes to slave competition, (c) conscientious objections. I cannot think that this is correct. (a) seems to have been the impelling motive only in connection with the law of 1712, and seems rarely to have been thought of. It was urged in 1740, 1741, and 1742, when efforts were being made to pass a militia law in Pennsylvania, but it attracted little attention. _Cf._ MS. Board of Trade Papers, Prop., XV, T: 54, 57, 60.

[29] In a MS. entitled "William Penn's Memorial to the Lords of Trade relating to several laws passed in Pensilvania," assigned to the year 1690 in the collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, but probably belonging to a later period, is the following: "These ... Acts ... to Raise money ... to defray publick Exigences in such manner as after a Mature delibera[~c]on they thought would not be burthensom particularly in the Act for laying a Duty on Negroes" ... MS. Pa. Miscellaneous Papers, 1653-1724, p. 24.

[30] 1700. 20 shillings for negroes over sixteen years of age, 6 for those under sixteen. No cause given. Apparently (terms of the act) _revenue_.--1705-1706. 40 shillings--a draw-back of one half if the negro be re-exported within six months. Apparently _revenue_.--1710. 40 shillings--excepting those imported by immigrants for their own use, and not sold within a year. Almost certainly (preamble) _revenue._--1712. 20 pounds. The causes were a dread of insurrection because of the negro uprising in New York, and the Indians' dislike of the importation of Indian slaves. Purpose undoubtedly _restriction_.--1715. 5 pounds. Apparently (character of the provisions) _restriction_ and _revenue_.--1717-1718. 5 pounds. To continue the preceding. _Restriction_ and _revenue_--1720-1721. 5 pounds. To continue the preceding. _Revenue_ (preamble) and _restriction_.--1722. 5 pounds. To continue provisions of previous acts. _Revenue_ and _restriction_.--1725-1726. 5 pounds. _Revenue_ and _restriction_.--1729. 2 pounds. Reduction made probably because since 1712 none of the laws had been allowed to stand for any length of time, and because there had been much smuggling. _Revenue_ and _restriction_.--1761. 10 pounds. No cause given for the increase. _Restriction_ and _revenue_.--1768. Preceding continued--"of public utility." _Restriction_ and _revenue_.--1773. Preceding made perpetual--"of great public utility"--but duty raised to 20 pounds. _Restriction. Cf. Stat. at L._, II, 107, 285, 383, 433; III, 117, 159, 238, 275; IV, 52, 123; VI, 104; VII, 158; VIII, 330.

[31] See below, chapters IV and V.

[32] "Man hat besonders in Pensylvanien den Grundsatz angenommen ihre Einführung so viel möglich abzuhalten" ... _Achenwall's in Göttingen über Nordamerika und über dasige Grosbritannische Colonien aus mündlichen Nachrichten des Herrn Dr. Franklins_ ... _Anmerkungen_, 24, 25. (About 1760).

[33] _Stat. at L._, X, 67, 68; 1 _Pa. Arch._, I, 306. _Cf._ Mr. Woodward's speech, Jan. 19, 1838, _Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, to Propose Amendments to the Constitution_, etc., X, 16, 17.

[34] "Aus Pennsylvanien ... fahren gen Barbadoes, Jamaica und Antego. Von dar bringen sie zurück ... Negros." Daniel Falkner, _Curieuse Nachricht von Pennsylvania in Norden-America_, etc., (17O2), 192. For a negro woman from Jamaica (1715), see MS. Court Papers, Philadelphia County, 1619-1732. Also numerous advertisements in the newspapers. _Mercury_, Apr. 17, 1729, (Barbadoes); July 31, 1729, (Bermuda); July 23, 1730, (St. Christophers); Jan. 21, 1739, (Antigua). Oldmixon, speaking of Pennsylvania, says, "Negroes sell here ... very well; but not by the Ship Loadings, as they have sometimes done at Maryland and Virginia." (1741.) _British Empire in America_, etc., (2d ed.), I, 316. _Cf._ however the following: "A PARCEL of likely Negro Boys and Girls just arrived in the Sloop Charming Sally ... to be sold ... for ready Money, Flour or Wheat" ... Advt. in _Pa. Gazette_, Sept. 4, 1740. For a consignment of seventy see MS. Provincial Papers, XXVII, Apr. 26, 1766.

[35] _Cf._ MS. William Trent's Ledger, "Negroes" (1703-1708). Isaac Norris, Letter Book, 75, 76 (1732). For a statement of profit and loss on two imported negroes, see _ibid._, 77. In this case Isaac Norris acted as a broker, charging five per cent. For the wheat and flour trade with Barbadoes, see _A Letter from Doctor More ... Relating to the ... Province of Pennsilvania_, 5. (1686).

[36] Some were probably brought from Africa by pirates. _Cf._ MS. Board of Trade Papers, Prop., III, 285, 286; IV, 369; V, 408. The hazard involved in the purchase of negroes is revealed in the following: "Acco^t of Negroes D^r to Tho. Willen £17: 10 for a New Negro Man ... £15 and 50 Sh. more if he live to the Spring" ... MS. James Logan's Account Book, 91, (1714). As to the effect of cold weather upon negroes, Isaac Norris, writing to Jonathan Dickinson in 1703, says, ... "they're So Chilly they Can hardly Stir frõ the fire and Wee have Early beginning for a hard Wint^r." MS. Letter Book, 1702-1704, p. 109. In 1748 Kalm says, ... "the toes and fingers of the former" (negroes) "are frequently frozen." _Travels_, I, 392.

[37] _Mercury_, Sept. 26, 1723. MS. Penn Papers, Accounts (unbound), 27 3d mo., 1741. Also _Calendar of State Papers, America and West Indies, 1697-1698_, p. 390; _Col. Rec._, IV, 515; _Pa. Mag._, XXVII, 320.

[38] A Report of the Royal African Company, Nov. 2, 1680, purports to show the first cost: "That the Negros cost them the first price 5li: and 4li: 15s. the freight, besides 25li p cent which they lose by the usual mortality of the Negros." MS. Board of Trade Journals, III, 229. The selling price had been considered immoderate four years previous. _Ibid._, I, 236. In 1723 Peter Baynton sold "a negroe man named Jemy ... 30 £." Loose sheet in Peter Baynton's Ledger. In 1729 a negro twenty-five years old brought 35 pounds in Chester County. MS. Chester County Papers, 89. The Moravians of Bethlehem purchased a negress in 1748 for 70 pounds. _Pa. Mag._, XXII, 503. Peter Kalm (1748) says that a full grown negro cost from 40 pounds to 100 pounds; a child of two or three years, 8 pounds to 14 pounds. _Travels_, I, 393, 394. Mittelberger (1750) says 200 to 350 florins (33 to 58 pounds). _Journey to Pennsylvania in the Year 1750_, etc., 106. Franklin (1751) in a very careful estimate thought that the price would average about 30 pounds. _Works_ (ed. Sparks), II, 314. Acrelius (about 1759) says 30 to 40 pounds. _Description of ... New Sweden_, etc. (translation of W. M. Reynolds, 1874, in _Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania_, XI), p. 168. A negro iron-worker brought 50 pounds at Bethlehem in 1760. _Pa. Mag._, XXII, 503. In 1790 Edward Shippen writes of a slave who cost him 100 pounds. _Ibid._, VII, 31. It is probable that the value of a slave was roughly about three times that of a white servant. _Cf. Votes and Proceedings_ (1764), V, 308.

[39] In 1708 the Board of Trade requested the governor of Pennsylvania that very definite information on a variety of subjects relating to the negro be transmitted thereafter half yearly. Were these records available they would be worth more than all the remaining information. _Cf._ MS. Provincial Papers, I, April 15, 1708; 1 _Pa. Arch._, I, 152, 153.

[40] _N. Y. Col. Docs._, V, 604. As to the necessity for allowing so large a margin in these figures _cf._ the following. "The number of the whites are said to be Sixty Thousand, and of the Black about five Thousand." Col. Hart's Answer, etc., MS. Board of Trade Papers, Prop., XI, R: 7. (1720). "The number of People in this Province may be computed to above 40,000 Souls amongst whom we have scarce any Blacks except a few Household Servants in the City of Philadelphia" ... Letter of Sir William Keith, _ibid._, XI, R: 42. (1722). Another communication gave the true state of the case, if not the exact numbers. "This Government has not hitherto had Occasion to use any methods that can furnish us with an exact Estimate, but as near as can at present be guessed there may be about _Forty five thousand_ Souls of _Whites_ and _four thousand_ Blacks." Major Gordon's answer to Queries, _ibid._, XIII, S: 34. (1730-1731).

[41] William Douglass, _A Summary, Historical and Political, ... of the British Settlements in North-America_, etc. (ed. 1755), II, 324; Abiel Holmes, _American Annals_, etc., II, 187; Bancroft, _History of the United States_ (author's last revision), II, 391.

[42] Letter in _Pa. Packet_, Jan 1, 1780. This made allowance for the numerous runaways during the British occupation of Philadelphia. Also _ibid._, Dec. 25, 1779; 1 _Pa. Arch._, XI, 74, 75. For a higher estimate, 10,000, for 1780 but made in 1795, see MS. Collection of the Records of the Pa. Society for the Abolition of Slavery, etc., IV, 111.

[43] Slaves, 3,737; free, 6,537. Other enumerations occur, but are evidently without value. Oldmixon (1741), 3,600. _British Empire in America_, I, 321. Burke (1758), about 6,000. _An Account of the European Settlements in America_, II, 204. Abbé Raynal (1766), 30,000. _A Philosophical and Political History of the British Settlements ... in North America_ (tr. 1776), I, 163. A communication to the Earl of Dartmouth (1773), 2,000. MS. Provincial Papers, Jan. 1775; 1 _Pa. Arch._, IV, 597. Smyth (1782), over 100,000. _A Tour in the United States of America_, etc., II, 309.

[44] MS. (Samuel Wright), A Journal of Our Rem(oval) from Chester and Darby (to) Conestogo ... 1726, copied by A. C. Myers; Morgan, _Annals of Harrisburg_, 9-11; _Col. Rec._, VIII, 305, 306. Tax-lists printed in 3 _Pa. Arch._ Also Davis, _Hist. of Bucks Co._, 793; Futhey and Cope, _Hist. of Chester Co._, 423 425; Ellis and Evans, _Hist. of Lancaster Co._, 301; Gibson, _Hist. of York Co._, 498; Bean, _Hist. of Montgomery Co._, 302; Lytle, _Hist. of Huntingdon Co._, 182; Blackman, _Hist. of Susquehanna Co._, 72; Creigh, _Hist. of Washington Co._, 362; Bausman, _Hist. of Beaver Co._, I, 152, 153; Linn, _Annals of Buffalo Valley_, 66-74; Peck, _Wyoming; its History_, etc., 240.

[45] MS. Assessment Books, Chester Co., 1765, p. 197; 1768, p. 326; 1780, p. 95; MS. Assessment Book, Phila. Co., 1769. As early as 1688 Henry Jones of Moyamensing had thirteen negroes. MS. Phila. Wills, Book A, 84. An undated MS. entitled "A List of my Negroes" shows that Jonathan Dickinson had thirty-two. Dickinson Papers, unclassified. An owner in York County is said to have had one hundred and fifty. 3 _Pa. Arch._, XXI, 71. This is probably a misprint.

[46] In 1790 the numbers were as follows: New York, 21,324 slaves, 4,654 free, total 25,978; New Jersey, 11,423 slaves, 4,402 free, total 15,825; Pennsylvania, 3,737 slaves, 6,537 free, total 10,274.

[47] On Pennsylvania's amazing commercial and industrial activity see Anderson, _Historical and Chronological Deductions of the Origin of Commerce_, etc. (1762), III, 75-77.

[48] See below, p. 41.

[49] See below, chapters IV and V.

[50] See below, _ibid._

[51] Nevertheless slavery took root in the western counties, and lingered there longer than anywhere else in Pennsylvania.