USA > Massachusetts > Notes on the history of slavery in Massachusetts > Part 3
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1 " One of our fhips, which went to the Canaries with pipe-ftaves in the beginning of November laft, returned now [1645] and brought wine, and fugar, and falt, and fome tobacco, which fhe had at Barbadoes, in exchange for Africoes, which She carried from the Ifle of Maio." Winthrop's Journal, II., 219.
2 In awarding damages to Captain Smith againft his affociate in this bufinefs, they would allow him nothing for the negroes; but the reafon they give is worth quoting here :
"4. * * For the negars (they being none of his, but ftolen) we thinke meete to alowe nothing." Mafs. Records, II., 129.
This was " the Court's opinion " " by both howfes." Ib., III., 58.
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murder, man-ftealing, and Sabbath-breaking; the two firft capital by the fundamental laws of Maffachufetts, and all of them " capital by the law of God." The magiftrates doubted their authority to punifh crimes committed on the coaft of Africa; but they ordered the negroes to be fent back, as having been procured not honeftly by purchafe, but unlawfully by kidnap- ping. Hildreth, I., 282. Mafs. Records, II., 67, 129, 136, 168, 176, 196; III., 46, 49, 58, 84. Winthrop's Fournal, II., 243, 379.
In all the proceedings of the General Court on this occafion, there is not a trace of anti-flavery opinion or fentiment,1 ftill lefs of anti-flavery legifla- tion; though both have been repeatedly claimed for the honor of the colony.
III
THE colonifts of Maffachufetts affumed to them- felves "a right to treat the Indians on the footing of Canaanites or Amalekites," and practically regarded them from the firft as forlorn and wretched heathen, poffeffing few rights which were entitled to refpect. Bancroft, III., 408. Bp. Berkeley's Works, III., 247.
1 It is poffible that the petition referred to in the following extract from the Records may have related to this fubject; but it left no impreffion which can be traced.
" 29 May, 1644. Mr. Blackleach his petition about the Mores was confented to, to be comitted to the elders, to enforme us of the mind of God herein, & then further to confider it." Mafs. Records, II., 67. Mr. John Blackleach, a merchant, was of Salem as early as 1634, and repre- fentative in 1636. Some of his letters are printed in M. H. S. Coll., Iv., vii., 146-155.
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Sermon before the Soc. for the Prop. of the Gospel, 1731, p. 19. Cotton Mather's fpeculations on their origin illuftrate the temper of the times.
" We know not When or How thefe Indians firft became Inhabitants of this mighty Continent, yet we may guefs that probably the Devil decoy'd thefe miferable Salvages hither, in hopes that the Gofpel of the Lord Jefus Chrift would never come here to deftroy or difturb his Absolute Empire over them." Magnalia, Book III., Part III.
The inftructions from the Commiffioners of the United Colonies to Major Gibbons, on being fent againft the Narraganfetts in 1645, further illuftrates this fpirit.
He was directed to have " due regard to the honour of God, who is both our fword and fhield, and to the diftance which is to be obferved betwixt Chris- tians and Barbarians, as well in warres as in other negociations." Of this Hutchinfon says: "It was indeed ftrange that men, who profeffed to believe that God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, fhould upon every occafion take care to preferve this diftinction. Per- haps nothing more effectually defeated the endeavors for Chriftianizing the Indians. It feems to have done more : to have funk their fpirits, led them to intem- perance, and extirpated the whole race." Hutchinson's Collection of Papers, 151.
In 1646, the Commiffioners of the United Colo- nies made a very remarkable order, practically author- izing, upon complaint of trefpafs by the Indians, the feizure of "any of that plantation of Indians that fhall
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entertain, protect, or refcue the offender." The order further proceeds: "And, becaufe it will be chargeable keeping Indians in prifone, and if they fhould efcape, they are like to prove more infolent and dangerous after, that upon fuch feazure, the delinquent or fatis- faction be againe demanded, of the Sagamore or planta- tion of Indians guilty or accefsory as before, and if it be denyed, that then the magiftrates of the Jurifdiccon deliver up the Indians feafed to the party or parties indamaged, either to ferve, or to be fhipped out and exchanged for Negroes as the caufe will juftly beare." Plymouth Records, IX., 71.
The Commiffioners themfelves were not blind to the feverity of this proceeding, although they alleged that it was " juft."
There are here two features of hiftorical importance which the reader will not fail to notice, viz., the export for trade of Indians for Negroes, and the meafure of "juftice " in thofe days between the colonifts and the natives.
It may be obferved that in thefe notes we have not drawn the lines between the Plymouth Colony and that of the Maffachufetts Bay. In this connection they may juftly be regarded as one; indeed, they can- not be feparated, for in thefe and fimilar proceedings, to quote a fignificant proverb of that day, " the Ply- mouth faddle was always on the Bay horfe."
In 1658, June 29, certain perfons were punifhed by fines by the County Courts at Salem and Ipfwich for attending a Quaker meeting and otherwife " syding with the Quakers and abfenting themfelves from the publick ordinances." Among them were two children,
Slavery in Mafachufetts. 33
Daniel and Provided Southwick, fon and daughter to Lawrence Southwick, who were fined ten pounds, but their fines not being paid, and the parties (as is ftated in the proceedings) "pretending they have no eftates, refolving not to worke and others likewife have been fyned and more like to be fyned "-the General Court were called upon in the following year, May II, 1659, to decide what courfe fhould be taken for the fatisfaction of the fines.
This they did, after due deliberation, by a refolu- tion empowering the County Treafurers to fell the faid perfons to any of the Englifh nation at Virginia or Barbadoes-in accordance with their law for the fale of poor and delinquent debtors. To accomplifh this they wrefted their own law from its juft applica- tion, for the fpecial law concerning fines did not per- mit them to go beyond imprifonment for non-pay- ment. Mafs. Laws, 1675, p. 51. Felt's Salem, II., 58I. Mafs. Records, IV., i., 366. Mafs. Laws, 1675, p. 6. Bishop's N. E. Judged, 85. Hazard, II., 563.
The father and mother of thefe children, who had before fuffered in their eftate and perfons, were at the fame time banifhed on pain of death, and took refuge in Shelter Ifland, where they fhortly afterwards died. Mafs. Records, IV., i., 367. Hazard, II., 564. Bifhop, 83. The Treafurer, on attempting to find paffage for the children to Barbadoes, in execution of the order of fale, found "none willing to take or carry them." Thus the entire defign failed, only through the reluctance of thefe fhipmafters to aid in its confummation. Bifhop, 190. Sewel's Hift. of the Quakers, I., 278.
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Provided Southwick was fubfequently in the fame year, in company with feveral other Quaker ladies, " whipt with tenn ftripes," and afterwards "commit- ted to prifon to be proceeded with as the law directs." Mafs. Records, IV., i., 41I.
The indignant Quaker hiftorian, in recounting thefe things, fays, " After fuch a manner ye have done to the Servants of the Lord, and for Speaking to one another, . and for meeting together, ranfacking their Eftates, breaking open their Houfes, carrying away their Goods and Cattel, till ye have left none, then their wearing apparel, and then (as in Plimouth government) their Land ; and when ye have left them nothing, fell them for this which ye call Debt. Search the Records of former Ages, go through the Hiftories of the Generations that are paft ; read the Monuments of the Antients, and fee if ever there were Such a thing as this fince the Earth was laid, and the Foundations thereof in the Water, and out of the Water. . . . O ye Rulers of Bofton, ye Inhabitants of the Mafa- chufetts ! What fhall I fay unto you ? Whereunto fhall I liken ye ? Indeed, I am at a ftand, I have no Nation with you to compare, I have no People with you to parallel, I am at a lofs with you in this point ; I muft fay of you, as Balaam faid of Amalek when his eyes were open, Boston, the first of the Nations that came out thus to war against, to Stop Ifrael in their way to Canaan from Egypt." Bishop's N. E. Judged, 90.
At the time of King Philip's War, the policy and practice of the Colony of Maffachufetts, with regard to flavery, had been already long fettled upon the bafis of pofitive law. Accordingly the numerous
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" captives taken in war " were difpofed of in the ufual way. The notes which follow are mainly from the official records of the colony, and will be fufficient to fhow the general current of public opinion and action at that period.
In Auguft, 1675, the Council at Plymouth ordered the fale of a company of Indians, "being men, weo- men, and children, in number one hundred and twelve," with a few exceptions. The Treafurer made the fale "in the countryes behalfe." Plymouth Rec- ords, v., 173.
A little later the Council made a fimilar difpofi- tion of fifty-feven more (Indians) who "had come in a fubmiffive way." Thefe were condemned to per- petual fervitude, and the Treafurer was ordered and appointed " to make fale of them, to and for the ufe of the collonie, as opportunity may prefent." Ib., 174.
The accounts of the Colony of Maffachufetts for receipts and expenditures during "the late War," as ftated from 25th June, 1675, to the 23d September, 1676, give among the credits the following :
" By the following accounts received in or as filver, viz. : "Captives ; for 188 prifoners at war fold 1209128 397.13.00." Plymouth Records, x., 401.
There is a peculiar fignificance in the phrase which occurs in the Records-" fent away by the Treafurer." It means fold into flavery. Mafs. Rec- ords, v., 58.
The ftatiftics of the traffic carried on by the Trea-
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furers cannot be accurately afcertained from any four- ces now at command. But great numbers of Philip's people were fold as flaves in foreign countries. In the beginning of the war Captain Mofeley captured eighty, who were confined at Plymouth. In Sep- tember following one hundred and feventy-eight were put on board a veffel commanded by Captain Sprague, who failed from Plymouth with them for Spain. Drake, 224.
Thefe proceedings were not without witneffes againft their injuftice and inhumanity. The Apoftle Eliot's earneft remonftrance is a glorious memorial of his fearlefs devotion to reafon and humanity-to which neither rulers nor people of Maffachufetts were then inclined to liften.
"To the Honorable the Governor and Council, fitting at Bofton this 13t. of the 6t, 75, the humble petition of John Eliot, Sheweth that the terror of felling away fuch Indians unto the Ilands for perpetual flaves, who fhall yield up ymfelves to your mercy, is like to be an effectual prolongation of the warre, and fuch an exafperation of them, as may produce we know not what evil confequences, upon all the land. Chrift hath faide, bleffed are the mercyfull for they fhall ob- tain mercy. This ufeage of them is worfe than death . .. it feemeth to me, that to fell them away for flaves is to hinder the inlargement of his [Chrift's] kingdom . . . to fell foules for money feemeth to me a dangerous merchandize. If they deferve to die, it is far better to be put to death under godly governors, who will take religious care, that meanes may be ufed, that they may die penitently. . .. Deut. 23: 15-16.
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If a fugitive fervant from a Pagan Mafter might not be delivered to his mafter but be kept in Ifrael for the good of his foule, how much lefs lawful is it to fell away foules from under the light of the gofpel, into a condition, where theire foules will be utterly loft, fo far as appeareth unto man." Plymouth Colony Records, x., 451-2. Compare Mather's Magnalia, Book VII., 109 (753), concerning the neglect to profelyte the Indians, etc.
There is nothing to fhow that " the Council gave heed to the petition of Eliot," but a careful examina- tion of the archives difclofed only a report of a Com- mittee of the General Court, dated Nov. 5, 1675, and adopted by the Magiftrates and Deputies the fame day, by which feveral were to be fent away.1 MS. Letter.
In 1676, November 4th, it was ordered that where- as there is an Acte or order made by the Councell of War bearing date July, 1676, prohibiting any male
1 Eliot appears alfo to have been the firft in America to lift up his voice againft the treatment which Negroes received in New England. To- wards the end of his life, Cotton Mather ftates, " He had long lamented it with a Bleeding and Burning Paffion, that the Englifh ufed their Negro's but as their Horfes or their Oxen, and that fo little care was taken about their immortal Souls ; he look'd upon it as a Prodigy, that any wearing the Name of Chriftians fhould fo much have the Heart of Devils in them, as to prevent and hinder the Inftruction of the poor Blackamores, and confine the fouls of their miferable Slaves to a Destroying Ignorance, meerly for fear of thereby lofing the Benefit of their Vaffalage; but now he made a motion to the English within two or three Miles of him, that at fuch a time and Place they would fend their Negro's once a week to him : For he would then Catechise them, and Enlighten them, to the utmoft of his Power in the Things of their Everlafting Peace ; however, he did not live to make much Progrefs in this Undertaking." Mather's Magnalia, Book III., 207 (325). Compare also p. 209 (327).
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Indian captive to abide in this Jurifdiction that is above fourteen years of age att the beginning of his or their captivity, and in cafe any fuch fhould continue in the Collonie after the time then prefixed they fhould be forfeit to the ufe of the Govt, this Court fees caufe to ratify and confirme that order and acte, and do therefore order; that all fuch as have any fuch Indian male captive that they fhall difpofe of them out of the Collonie by the firft of December next on paine of forfeiting every fuch Indian, or Indians to the ufe of the Collonie; and the Conftables of each town of this Juridiction are hereby ordered to take notice of any fuch Indian or Indians ftaying in any of the refpective towns of this Collonie after the time prefixed, and fhall forthwith bring them to the Trea- furer to be difpofed of to the ufe of the Government as aforefaid. Plymouth Records, XI., 242.
There were a few, about five or fix, exceptions made to this order, in favor of certain Indians, who had been affured by Capt. Benjamin Church that they fhould not be fold to any foreign parts, upon good behavior, &c. Ib., 242.
The Maffachufetts General Court made an order in 1677, 24 May, that the Indian children, youths or girls, whofe parents had been in hoftility with the Colony, or had lived among its enemies in the time of the war, and were taken by force, and given or fold to any of the inhabitants of this jurifdiction, fhould be at the difpofall of their mafters or their affignes, who were to inftruct them in Civility and Chriftian reli- gion. Mafs. Records, v., 136. Note the diftinction between friendly Indians whofe children were to be held
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until 24 years of age, both in this order and in Plymouth Records, v., 207, 223.
The Court, in the following year (1678), found caufe to prohibit "all and every perfon and perfons within our jurifdiction or elfewhere, to buy any of the Indian children of any of thofe our captive falvages that were taken and became our lawfull prifoners in our late warrs with the Indians, without fpecial leave, liking and approbation of the government of this jurifdiction. Ib., 253.
In the fucceeding year (1679), the following entry appears in the records :
" In reference unto feverall Indians bought by Jonathan Hatch of Capt. Church, the brothers of the woman, defireing fhee might be releafed, appeared in Court with the faid Jonathan Hatch, and came to compofition with her for the freedom of both her and her hufband, which are two of the three Indians above named; and her brothers payed on that accompt the fume of three pounds filver mony of New England, and have engaged to pay three pounds more in the fame fpecie, and then the faid man and woman are to be releafed ; and for the third of the faid Indians, it being younge, the Court have ordered, that it fhall abide with the faid Jonathan Hatch untill it attains the age of 24 years, and then to be releafed for ever." Plymouth Records, VI., 15
It were well if the record were no worfe; but to all this is to be added the bafenefs of treachery and falfe- hood. Many of thefe prifoners furrendered, and ftill greater numbers came in voluntarily to fubmit, upon the promife that they and their wives and children
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fhould have their lives fpared, and none of them trans- ported out of the country. In one inftance, narrated by the famous Captain Church himfelf, no lefs than "eight fcore perfons" were "without any regard to the promifes made them on their furrendering them- felves, carried away to Plymouth, there fold and trans- ported out of the country." Church, 23, 24, 41, 51, 57. Baylies, in his Memoir of Plymouth Colony, Part III., PP. 47, 48, gives fome additional particulars of this affair.
" After the deftruction of Dartmouth, the Ply- mouth forces were ordered there, and as the Dart- mouth Indians had not been concerned in this out- rage, a negotiation was commenced with them. By the perfuafions of Ralph Earl, and the promifes of Captain Eels, who commanded the Plymouth forces, they were induced to furrender themfelves as prifoners, and were conducted to Plymouth. Notwithftanding the promifes by which they had been allured to fub- mit, notwithftanding the earneft, vehement, and in- dignant remonftrances of Eels, Church, and Earl, the government, to their eternal infamy, ordered the whole to be fold as flaves, and they were tranfported out of the country, being about one hundred and fixty in number. So indignant was Church at the commiffion of this vile act, that the government never forgave the warmth and the bitternefs of his expreffions, and the refentment that was then engendered induced them to withhold all command from this brave, fkilful, honeft, open-hearted and generous man, until the fear of utter deftruction compelled them, fubfequently, to entruft him with a high command. This mean and treach-
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erous conduct alienated all the Indians who were doubt- ing, and even those who were ftrongly predifpofed to join the Englifh."
Eafton, in his Relation, p. 21, says : "Philip being flead ; about a 150 Indians came in to a Plimouth Garrifon volentarly. Plimouth authority fould all for Slafes (but about fix of them) to be carried out of the country."
Church's authority from Plymouth Colony to demand and receive certain fugitives (whether men, women, or children) from the authorities of Rhode Ifland government, Auguft 28, 1676, is printed in Hough's Eafton's King Philip's War, p. 188. He was "impowered to fell and difpofe of fuch of them, and foe many as he fhall fee caufe for, there: to the In- habitants or others, for Term of Life, or for fhorter time, as there may be reafons. And his actinge, here- in, fhall at all Times be owned and juftefied by the faid Collony."
Nor did the Chriftian Indians or Praying Indians efcape the relentlefs hoftility and cupidity of the whites. Befides other cruelties, inftances are not wanting in which fome of thefe were fold as flaves, and under accufations which turned out to be utterly falfe and without foundation. Gookin's Hift. of the Chris- tian Indians.
Some of them are probably referred to by Eliot, in his letter to Boyle, Nov. 27, 1683, in which he fays, " I defire to take boldnefs to propofe a requeft. A veffel carried away a great number of our furprifed Indians, in the times of our wars, to fell them for flaves ; but the nations, whither fhe went, would not
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buy them. Finally, fhe left them at Tangier ; there they be, fo many as live, or are born there. An Englifhman, a mafon, came thence to Bofton, he told me they defired I would ufe fome means for their re- turn home. I know not what to do in it; but now it is in my heart to move your honour, fo to meditate, that they may have leave to get home, either from thence hither, or from thence to England, and fo to get home. If the Lord fhall pleafe to move your charit- able heart herein, I fhall be obliged in great thankful- nefs, and am perfuaded that Chrift will, at the great day, reckon it among your deeds of charity done unto them, for his name's fake." M. H. S. Coll., III., 183.
Cotton Mather furnifhes another extract appropri- ate in this connection.
" Moreover, 'tis a Prophefy in Deut. 28, 68. The Lord Shall bring thee into Egypt again with Ships, by the way whereof I Spake unto thee. Thou Shalt fee it no more again ; and there Shall ye be fold unto your Enemies, and no Man Shall buy you. This did our Eliot imagine accomplifhed, when the Captives taken by us in our late Wars upon them, were fent to be fold, in the Coafts lying not very remote from Egypt on the Mediterranean Sea, and fcarce any Chapmen would offer to take them off." Mather's Magnalia, Book III., Part III.
Mr. Everett, in one of the moft elaborate of his finifhed and beautiful orations, has narrated the ftory of two of the laft captives in that famous war, in a paffage of furpaffing eloquence which we venture to quote :
" Prefident Mather, in relating the encounter of
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the Ist of Auguft, 1676, the laft but one of the war, fays, ' Philip hardly efcaped with his life alfo. He had fled and left his peage behind him, alfo his fquaw and fon were taken captive, and are now prifoners at Plymouth. Thus hath God brought that grand enemy into great mifery before he quite deftroy him. It muft needs be bitter as death to him to lofe his wife and only fon (for the Indians are marvellous fond and affectionate towards their children) befides other relations, and almoft all his fubjects, and country alfo.'
" And what was the fate of Philip's wife and his fon? This is a tale for hufbands and wives, for parents and children. Young men and women, you cannot underftand it. What was the fate of Philip's wife and child ? She is a woman, he is a lad. They did not furely hang them. No, that would have been mercy. The boy is the grandfon, his mother the daughter-in-law of good old Maffafoit, the first and beft friend the Englifh ever had in New England. Perhaps-perhaps now Philip is flain, and his war- riors fcattered to the four winds, they will allow his wife and fon to go back-the widow and the orphan -to finifh their days and forrows in their native wildernefs. They are fold into flavery, Weft Indian flavery ! an Indian princefs and her child, fold from the cool breezes of Mount Hope, from the wild free- dom of a New England foreft, to gafp under the lafh, beneath the blazing fun of the tropics ! 'Bitter as death ;' aye, bitter as hell ! Is there anything,-I do not fay in the range of humanity-is there anything animated, that would not ftruggle againft this?"
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Everett's Address at Bloody Brook, 1835 ; Church, 62, 63, 67, 68.
Well might the poet record his fympathy for their fate-
" Ah ! happier they, who in the ftrife For freedom fell, than o'er the main, Thofe who in galling flavery's chain Still bore the load of hated life,- Bowed to bafe tafks their generous pride, And fcourged and broken-hearted, died !"
or in view of this phafe of civilization and progrefs, figh for that elder ftate, when all were
" Free as nature firft made man, Ere the bafe laws of fervitude began, When wild in woods the noble favage ran."
In the profecution of his admirable hiftorical labors, Ebenezer Hazard, of Philadelphia, endeavored to afcertain what was done with the fon of Philip. He wrote to the late Judge Davis, of Bofton, who was unable, at that time, to give a fatisfactory anfwer. Mr. Hazard died in 1817; but Judge Davis was afterwards enabled to furnifh a very interefting account of the affair, derived from documents communicated to him by Nahum Mitchell, Efq.
From thefe documents he learned " that the ques- tion, whether the boy fhould be put to death, was ferioufly agitated, and the opinion of learned divines was requefted on the fubject. The Rev. Mr. Cotton, of Plymouth, and the Rev. Mr. Arnold, of Marfh- field, gave the following anfwer :
" The queftion being propounded to us by our honored rulers, whether Philip's fon be a child of
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