USA > Massachusetts > Notes on the history of slavery in Massachusetts > Part 5
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Mr. Palfrey gives it as his opinion, that " From the reverence entertained by the Fathers of New Eng- land for the nuptial tie, it is fafe to infer that flave hufbands and wives were never parted." Hift. N. E., II., 30, note. The Fathers of New England alfo cherifhed a due regard for parental and filial duties and refponfibilities, yet it is certain that flave mothers and children were feparated. Refting upon "the law of God, eftablifhed in Ifrael," the Puritan could have had no fcruple about this matter-fuch a condition of mar- riage to the flave muft have been regarded as an axiom as it was by the Hebrew. Compare Exodus, XXI., 4, 5, 6. Mr. Palfrey's inference is not warranted by the facts.
In 1786, the legiflature of the State of Maffachu- fetts paffed an " Act for the orderly Solemnization of Marriage," by the feventh fection whereof it was enacted "that no person authorized by this act to marry fhall join in marriage any white perfon with any Negro, Indian or Mulatto, under penalty of fifty pounds ; and all fuch marriages fhall be abfolutely null and void." The prohibition continued until 1843, when it was repealed by a fpecial "act relating to marriage between individuals of certain races."
The statute of 1705 alfo provided an import duty of four pounds per head on every Negro brought into the Province from and after the Ist day of May, 1706, for the payment of which both the veffel and mafter
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were anfwerable. A penalty of double the amount of the duty on each one omitted was impofed for refufal or neglect to make the prefcribed entry of " Number, Names, and Sex, in the Impoft Office." A drawback was allowed upon exportation, and the like advantage was allowed to the purchafer of any Negro fold within the Province, in cafe of the death of his Negro within six weeks after importation or bringing into the Province.
Mr. Drake fays that, in 1727, "the traffic in flaves appears to have been more an object in Bofton than at any period before or fince." Hift. of Boston, 574, and in the following year (1728) an additional " Act more effectually to fecure the Duty on the Im- portation of Negroes" was paffed, by which more ftringent regulations were adopted to prevent the smuggling of fuch property into the Province, and the drawback was allowed on all negroes dying within twelve months.
This act expired by its own limitation in 1735, but another of a fimilar character was paffed in 1739, which recognifed the old law of 1705 as being ftill in force.1 It reduced the time for the drawback on the death of negroes to fix months after importation.
Free Negroes not being allowed to train in the
1 " Dec. 7, 1737, Col. Royal petitions the General Court, that, having lately arrived from Antigua, he has with him feveral flaves for his own ufc, and not to fell, and therefore prays that the duty on them be remitted. The duty was £4 a-head. This petition was laid on the table, and refts there yet." Brooks's Medford, 435. The act of 1739 was for ten years, and therefore expired in 1749. We have found no repeal of the old law, but the proceedings concerning the act propofed in 1767 would feem to fhow all the old acts of Impoft to be expired or obfolete.
e
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Militia, an act paffed in 1707, Chapter 2, required them to do fervice on the highways and in cleaning the ftreets, etc., as an equivalent. Thirty-three free negroes were mentioned in the minutes of the Select- men of Bofton, in 1708, to whom, according to this law, two hundred and eighteen days of labor were affigned upon the highways and other public works. Lyman's Report, 1822. The fame act prohibited them to entertain any fervants of their own color in their houfes, without permiffion of the refpective mafters or miftreffes.
In 1712, an act was paffed prohibiting the importa- tion or bringing into the Province any Indian fervants or flaves. The preamble recites the bad character of the Indians and other flaves, "being of a malicious, furley and revengeful fpirit ; rude and infolent in their behaviour, and very ungovernable.". A glimpfe of poffible future reform is to be caught in this act, for it recognizes the increafe of flaves as a "difcourage- ment to the importation of White Chriftian Servants." But its chief motive was in the peculiar circumftances of the Province "under the forrowful effects of the Rebellion and Hoftilities" of the Indians, and the fact that great numbers of Indian flaves were already held in bondage in the Province at the time.
This act had a fpecial reference to Southern In- dians, the Tufcaroras and others, captives in war, chiefly from South Carolina. Governor Dudley afterwards entered into correfpondence with other colonial governors, about preventing the fale of In- dians from that Province to the Northern colonies. Similar acts were paffed by Pennfylvania in 1712,
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New Hampshire in 1714, and Connecticut and Rhode Ifland in 1715.
Under the earlieft laws of taxation in Maffachufetts, flaves muft have been rated (if taxed at all) as polls, the owners paying for them as for other fervants and children, "fuch as take not wages." This continued until the period of the Province Charter, when, in the year 1692, "every male flave of fixteen years old and upwards " was rated "at Twenty Pounds Eftate." In 1694, "all Negro's, Molattoes and Indian Ser- vants, as well male as female, of 16 years old and up- wards, at the rate of 12d. per poll fame as other polls." In 1695, "all Negro's, Molatto, and Indian Ser- vants, males of 14 years of age and upward at the rate of 20/. eftate, and Females at 14/. eftate, unlefs difabled by infirmity." They were fubfequently in the fame year rated " as other perfonal eftate," which mode was continued in 1696, 1697, and 1698, in the latter year "according to the found judgment and difcretion of the Affeffors, not excluding faculties."
This rating for " faculties " was a prominent fea- ture in the early tax-laws of Maffachufetts, and was con- tinued after the commencement of the prefent century.1
It was applied to white men in Maffachufetts from the beginning, being intended as a juft valuation for thofe who had arts, trades, and faculties, by the pro- duce of which they were " more enabled to bear the publick charge than common laborers and Workmen,
1 Mr. Felt fays, in his memoranda, under the date of 1829, " the rating for faculties, long a prominent item in our former tax-acts, and not unfre- quently made a fubject of pleafant remark, has been dropped, like other notions of ancient cuftom." Coll. Amer. Stat. Afoc., I., 502. See also pp. 297, 374.
Slavery in Mafachufetts. 63
as Butchers, Bakers, Brewers, Victuallers, Smiths, Car- penters, Taylors, Shoomakers, Joyners, Barbers, Millers and Mafons, with all other manual perfons and Artifts." Mafs. Laws, Ed. 1672, p. 24. The law of 1698, however, appears to have been the firft, if not the only one, in which this feature was applied to the "Negroes, Molattoes and Indians " in bondage ; and may be juftly regarded as an indication of pro- grefs, for it was an admiffion that thefe unfortunate creatures had " faculties," valuable to their owners, if not to themfelves.1
There was little variation in thefe laws during the entire colonial period-all Indian, Negro, and Mu- latto fervants continuing to be rated as perfonal pro- perty-excepting that occafionally fome of thofe who were fervants for a term of years, but not for life, were numbered and rated as polls.
In 1716, an attempt was made to modify this feature of the legiflation of Maffachufetts. The fol- lowing extract from Judge Sewall's Diary is copied from the original. Though quoted by Coffin, in his History of Newbury, 188, and Felt, in the Coll. Amer.
I The early records of the town of Bofton preferve the fact that one Thomas Deane, in the year 1661, was prohibited from employing a negro in the manufacture of hoops under a penalty of twenty fhillings, for what reafon is not ftated. Lyman's Report, 1822. Phillis Wheatley's was not the only inftance, in Bofton, of the negro's capacity for intellectual im- provement. A worthy Englifhman, Richard Dalton, Efq., a great admirer of the Greek claffics, becaufe of the tendernefs of his eyes, taught his negro boy, Cæfar, to read to him diftinctly any Greek writer, without underftand- ing the meaning or interpretation. Douglass, ii., 345. In the Boston Chronicle for September 21, 1769, is advertifed :- " To be fold, a Likely Little negroe boy, who can Speak the French language, and very fit for a Valet."
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Stat. Afociation, I., 586, it is not correctly printed by either.
" 1716. I effayed June 22, to prevent Indians and Negroes being rated with Horfes and Hogs ; but could not prevail. Col. Thaxter bro't it back " [from the Deputies], "and gave as a reafon of yr" [their] " Nonagreement, They were juft going to make a New Valuation."
This concife mention of Judge Sewall's benevolent " effay," indicates that he had firft propofed the matter in the Council, of which he was then a member; and that the Council agreeing, their decifion was fent down to the Houfe for their concurrence. But the Houfe non-concurred ; and fignified by Colonel Thaxter, that they declined their affent to the refolve of the Council, for the reafon that " they were juft going to make a New Valuation ;" and as in the preceding valuations of the property of their conftituents, Indian, Negro, and Mulatto flaves had been prominent articles, they muft keep on ftill in the old track; Indians, Negroes, and Mulattoes muft ftill be valued as property, and for this fpecies of property their owners muft ftill be taxed. MS. Letter of Rev. Samuel Sewall.
In 1718, all Indian, Negro, and Mulatto fervants for life were eftimated as other Perfonal Eftate-viz : Each male fervant for life above fourteen years of age, at fifteen pounds value ; each female fervant for life, above fourteen years of age, at ten pounds value. The affeffor might make abatement for caufe of age or infirmity. Indian, Negro, and Mulatto Male fervants for a term of years were to be numbered and
Slavery in Mafachufetts. 65
rated as other Polls, and not as Perfonal Eftate.1 In 1726, the affeffors were required to eftimate Indian, Negro, and Mulatto fervants proportionably as other Perfonal Eftate, according to their found judgment and difcretion. In 1727, the rule of 1718 was reftored, but during one year only, for in 1728 the law was the fame as that of 1726; and fo it probably remained, including all fuch fervants, as well for term of years as for life, in the rateable eftates. We have feen the fupply bills for 1736, 1738, 1739, and 1740, in which this feature is the fame.
And thus they continued to be rated with horfes, oxen, cows, goats, fheep, and fwine, until after the commencement of the War of the Revolution. We have not feen the law, but Mr. Felt ftates that "in 1776 the colored polls were taxed the fame as the white polls, and fo continued to be." Coll. Amer. Stat. Afoc., I., 475. See alfo pp. 203, 311, 345, 41I.
In the inventory of Captain Paul White, in 1679, was "one negrow = 30/." In 1708, an Indian boy from South Carolina brought 35l. An Indian girl brought fifteen pounds, at Salem, in Auguft, 1710. The higheft price paid for any of a cargo brought into Bofton, by the floop Katherine, in 1727, was eighty pounds. The eftate of Samuel Morgaridge, who died in 1754, included the following : " Item, three negroes 133l. 6s. 8d." Coffin's Newbury, 188, 336. Coll. Efex Institute, I., 14. Felt's Salem, II., 416.
" The Guinea T'rade," as it was called then, fince known and branded by all civilized nations as piracy,
1 Another act of the year 1718 forbade, under heavy penalties, Mafters of Ships to carry off " any bought or hired fervant or apprentice."
5
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whofe beginnings we have noticed, continued to flourifh under the aufpices of Maffachufetts merchants down through the entire colonial period, and long after the boafted Declaration of Rights in 1780 had terminated (?) the legal exiftence of flavery within the limits of that State. Felt's Salem, II., 230, 261, 265, 288, 292, 296. To gratify thofe who are curious to fee what the inftructions given by refpectable mer- chants in Maffachufetts to their flave captains were in the year 1785, we copy them from Felt's Salem, II., 289-90; probably the only fpecimen extant.1
" Capt -.
"_, Nov. 12, 1785.
" Our brig,2 of which you have the command, being cleared at the office, and being in every other refpect complete for fea ; our orders are, that you embrace the firft fair wind and make the beft of your way to the coaft of Africa, and there inveft your cargo in flaves. As flaves, like other articles, when brought to market, generally appear to the beft advantage ; therefore, too critical an infection cannot be paid to them before purchafe ; to fee that no dangerous diftemper is lurking about them, to attend particularly to their age, to their counte- nance, to the ftraightnefs of their limbs, and, as far as poffible to the goodnefs or badnefs of their conftitution, &c. &c., will be very con- fiderable objects.
" Male or female flaves, whether full grown or not, we cannot par- ticularly inftruct you about ; and on this head fhall only obferve, that prime male flaves generally fell beft in any market. No people require more kind and tender treatment to exhilarate their fpirits, than the Africans ; and, while on the one hand you are attentive to this, re- member that on the other hand, too much circumfpection cannot be obferved by yourfelf and people, to prevent their taking the advantage
1 Brooks's Medford preferves fimilar inftructions in 1759, and a fpecimen of the flave captain's day-book on the coaft of Africa, pp. 436-7.
? This veffel was probably the Brig Favorite. Compare Felt's Salem, II., 287 and 291.
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of fuch treatment by infurrection, &c. When you confider that on the health of your flaves, almoft your whole voyage depends ; for all other rifques, but mortality, feizures and bad debts, the underwriters are accountable for ;- you will therefore particularly attend to fmoking your veffel, wafhing her with vinegar, to the clarifying your water with lime or brimftone, and to cleanlinefs among your own people, as well as among the flaves.
" As the factors on the coaft have no laws but of their own making, and of courfe fuch as fuit their own convenience, they therefore, like the Ifraelites of old, do whatfoever is right in their own eyes; in con- fequence of which you ought to be very careful about receiving gold duft, and of putting your cargo into any but the beft hands, or if it can be avoided, and the fame difpatch made, into any hands at all, on any credit. If you find that any faving can be made by bartering rum for flops, and fupplying your people with fmall ftores, you will do it; or even if you cannot do it without a lofs, it is better done than left un- done; for fhifts of clothes, particularly in warm climates, are very neceffary. As our intereft will be confiderable, and as we fhall make infurance thereon, if any accident fhould prevent your following the track here pointed out, let it be your firft object to proteft publicly, why, and for what reafon you were obliged to deviate. You are to have four flaves upon every hundred, and four at the place of fale ; the priviledge of eight hogfheads, and two pounds eight fhillings per month ; -thefe are all the compenfations you are to expect for the voyage.
" Your firft mate is to have four hogfheads privilege, and your fecond mate two, and wages as per agreement. No flaves are to be felected out as priviledged ones, but muft rife or fall with the general fales of the cargo, and average accordingly. We fhall expect to hear from you, by every opportunity to Europe, the Weft Indies, or any of thefe United States ; and let your letters particularly inform us, what you have done, what you are then doing, and what you expect to do. We could wifh to have as particular information as can be obtained, refpecting the trade in all its branches on the coaft ; to know if in any future time, it is probable a load of N. E. Rum could be fold for bills of exchange on London, or any part of Europe; or, for gold duft ; and what defpatch in this cafe might be made.
" You will be careful to get this information from gentlemen of veracity, and know of them if any other articles would anfwer from
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this quarter. We fhould be glad to enter into a contract, if the terms would anfwer, with any good factor for rum, &c. If any fuch would write us upon the fubject, and enclofe a memorandum with the prices annexed, fuch letters and memorandums fhall be duly attended to. We are in want of about five hundred weight of camwood, and one large elephant's tooth of about 80 lbs., which you will obtain. If fmall teeth can be bought from 15 to 30 lbs., fo as to fell here without a lofs, at three fhillings, you may purchafe 200 lbs. Should you meet with any curiofities on the coaft, of a fmall value, you may expend 40 or 50 gallons of rum for them. Upon your return you will touch at St. Pierre's, Martinico, and call on Mr. John Mounreau for your further advife and deftination. We fubmit the conducting of the voyage to your good judgment and prudent management, not doubting of your beft endeavours to ferve our intereft in all cafes ; and conclude with committing you to the almighty Difpofer of all events.
" We with you health and profperity,
" And are your friends and owners."
The flaves purchafed in Africa were chiefly fold in the Weft Indies, or in the Southern colonies; but when thefe markets were glutted, and the price low, fome of them were brought to Maffachufetts. The ftatiftics of the trade are fomewhat scattered, and it is difficult to bring them together, but enough is known to bring the fubject home to us. In 1795, one in- formant of Dr. Belknap could remember two or three entire cargoes, and the Doctor himfelf remembered one fomewhere between 1755 and 1765 which confifted almoft wholly of children. Sometimes the veffels of the neighboring colony of Rhode Ifland, after having fold their prime flaves in the Weft Indies, brought the remnants of their cargoes to Bofton for fale. Coll. M. H. S., I., iv., 197.
The records of the flave-trade and flavery every- where are the fame-the fame difregard of human
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rights, the fame indifference to fuffering, the fame contempt for the oppreffed races, the fame hate for thofe who are injured. It has been afferted that in Maffachufetts, not only were the miferies of flavery mitigated, but fome of its worft features were wholly unknown. But the record does not bear out the fug- geftion ; and the traditions of one town at leaft pre- ferve the memory of the moft brutal and barbarous1 of all, " raifing flaves for the market." Barry's Han- over, 175.
The firft newfpapers publifhed in America illuftrate among their advertisements the peculiar features of the inftitution to which we refer, and in their fcanty columns of intelligence may be found thrilling accounts of the barbarous murders of mafters and crews by the hands of their flave-cargoes.2 The cafe of the Amiftad negroes had its occafional parallel in the colonial hiftory of the traffic-excepting that the men of New England had a fympathy at home in the 17th and 18th centuries, which was juftly withheld from their Spanifh and Portuguefe imitators in the 19th. Nor was that region wholly exempt from the terror by day and by night of flave infurrections. In Coffin's New- bury, 153, is a notice of a confpiracy of Indian and negro flaves "to obtain their inalienable rights,"- apparently a fcheme of fome magnitude.
1 " The flave-trade can be fupported only by barbarians; for civilized nations purchafe flaves, but do not produce them." Gibbon, Extraits de mon Journal, Oct. 19, 1763. What would the hiftorian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire have faid of the Virginia of the nineteenth cen- tury !
2 Bofton News Letter, No. 1399, New England Weekly Journal, No. 214, Bofton News Letter, No. 1422, No. 1423.
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As the advantages of advertifing came to be un- derftood, the defcriptions of flave property became more frequent and explicit. Negro men, women, and children were mixed up in the fales with wearing ap- parel, Gold Watches, and other Goods1-" very good Barbados Rum" is offered with "a young negro that has had the Small Pox"2-and competitors offer "Likely negro men and women juft arrived "3- " negro men new and negro boys who have been in the country fome time,"4 and alfo "juft arrived, a choice parcel of negro boys and girls."5 "A likely negro man born in the country, and bred a Farmer, fit for any fervice," 6 "a negro woman about 22 years old, with a boy about 5 months," 7 &c., a " likely negro wo- man about 19 years and a child of about fix months of age to be fold together or apart," 8 and "a likely negro man, taken by execution, and to be fold by publick auction at the Royal Exchange Tavern in King Street, at fix o'clock this afternoon,"9 muft conclude thefe extracts.
At this point it may be neceffary to interpofe a caution with reference to the judgment which muft be pronounced againft the policy which has been illuftrated
1 Bofton News Letter, No. 1402. 2 N. E. Journal, No. 200.
' N. E. Journal, No. 217. 4 N. E. Journal, No. 230.
" Bofton News Letter, No. 1438, Auguft 12th to 19th, 1731.
6 This man was offered for fale by the Widow and Adminiftratrix to the Eftate of Thomas Amory in 1731. Bofton News Letter, No. 1413.
7 Bofton News Letter, No. 1487, July 20th to July 27th, 1732.
8 N. E. Weekly Journal, No. 267, May ift, 1732.
" The Bofton Gazette and Country Journal, No. 594, Auguft 18, 1766. This advertifement is a conclufive anfwer to the claim that "no evidence is found of fuch taking in execution in Maffachufetts." Dane's Abridgment, II., 314.
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in thefe notes ; and a recent writer of Englifh hiftory has fo clearly ftated our own views, that his language requires very little change here.
It would be to mifread hiftory and to forget the change of times, to fee in the Fathers of New England mere commonplace flavemongers ; to themfelves they appeared as the elect to whom God had given the heathen for an inheritance; they were men of ftern intellect and fanatical faith, who, believing themfelves the favorites of Providence, imitated the example and affumed the privileges of the chofen people, and for their wildeft and worft acts they could claim the fanction of religious conviction. In feizing and enflaving Indians, and trading for negroes, they were but entering into poffeffion of the heritage of the faints ; and New England had to outgrow the theol- ogy of the Elizabethan Calvinifts before it could under- ftand that the Father of Heaven refpected neither perfon nor color, and that his arbitrary favor-if more than a dream of divines-was confined to fpiritual privileges. Compare Froude's History of England, Vol. VIII., 480.
It was not until the ftruggle on the part of the colonifts themfelves to throw off the faft-clofing fhackles of Britifh oppreffion culminated in open refiftance to the mother-country, that the inconfiftency of maintaining flavery with one hand while pleading or ftriking for freedom with the other, compelled a re- luctant and gradual change in public opinion on this fubject.
If it be true that at no period of her colonial and provincial hiftory was Maffachufetts without her
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"proteftants " againft the whole fyftem; their ex- ample was powerlefs in that day and generation. The words and thoughts of a Williams, an Eliot, and a Sewall, fell unheeded and unnoticed on the ears and hearts of the magiftrates and people of their time, as the acorn fell two centuries ago in the forefts by which they were furrounded. 1
V.
BUT the humane efforts of Roger Williams and John Eliot to abate the feverity of judgment againft captives, and mitigate the horrors of flavery in Maffachufetts, hardly amounted to a pofitive proteft againft the inftitution itfelf. In their time there was no public opinion againft flavery, and probably very little exercife of private judgment againft it. Even among the Quakers the inner light had not yet dis- clofed its enormity, or awakened tender confciences to its utter wickednefs.
There were two fignal exceptions to the general
1 In this fentence, as originally printed in the Hiftorical Magazine, a " Dudley " was included among thofe indicated as having been in advance of their contemporaries on this fubject. The reference was to Paul Dudley, who was the author of a tract, publifhed in 1731, entitled, " An Effay on the Merchandife of Slaves and Souls of Men. With an Application to the Church of Rome." This title, and references to the tract by others, gave us the impreffion that it was againft Slavery ; but an opportunity recently en- joyed of examining the tract itfelf, showed the miftake. It is altogether ‹ an Application to the Church of Rome," -- in fact, "an oration againft Popery," of which Maffachufetts had a much greater horror than of flavery.
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