USA > Massachusetts > Notes on the history of slavery in Massachusetts > Part 6
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theory and practice of that period on this fubject, both of which deferve to be had in everlafting re- membrance. We fhall make no apology for noticing them in this place, although their connection with the hiftory of flavery in Maffachufetts is very remote.
Among the " Acts and Orders made at the Generall Court of Election held at Warwicke this 18th day of May, anno 1652," "The Commiffioners of Provi- dence and Warwicke being lawfully mett and fett," on the fecond day of their feffion (19th May, 1652), enacted and ordered as follows, viz. :
"WHEREAS, there is a common courfe practifed among Englifhmen to buy negers, to that end they may have them for fervice or flaves for ever ; for the preventinge of fuch practices among us, let it be ordered, that no blacke mankind or white being forced by covenant bond, or otherwife, to ferve any man or his affighnes longer than ten yeares, or untill they come to bee twentiefour yeares of age, if they bee taken in under fourteen, from the time of their cominge within the liberties of this Collonie. And at the end or terme of ten yeares to fett them free, as is the manner with the Englifh fervants. And that man that will not let them goe free, or fhall fell them away elfewhere, to that end that they may be enflaved to others for a long time, hee or they fhall forfeit to the Collonie forty pounds." R. I. Records, I., 248.
This noble act ftands out in folitary grandeur in the middle of the feventeenth century, the firft legis- lative enactment in the hiftory of this continent, if not of the world, for the fuppreffion of involuntary fervitude. But, unhappily, it was not enforced, even
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in the towns over which the authority of the Com- miffioners extended. 1
The other exception to which we have referred is to be found in the following declaration againft flavery by the Quakers of Germantown, Pennfylvania, in 1688. Thefe were a "little handful " of German Friends from Cresheim, a town not far from Worms, in the Palatinate.
We are indebted to the curious and zealous refearch of Mr. Nathan Kite, of Philadelphia, for the publication of this interefting memorial. It appeared in The Friend, Vol. XVII., No. 16, January 13, 1844. The paper from which Mr. Kite copied was the original. At the foot of the addrefs, John Hart, the clerk of the Monthly Meeting, made his minute, and that paper having been then forwarded to the Quar- terly Meeting, received a few lines from Anthony Morris, the clerk of that body, to introduce it to the Yearly Meeting, to which it was then directed.
" This is to the monthly meeting held at Richard Worrell's :
" Thefe are the reafons why we are againft the traffic of men-body, as followeth : Is there any that would be done or handled at this manner? viz., to be fold or made a flave for all the time of his life ? How fearful and faint-hearted are many at fea, when they fee a ftrange veffel, being afraid it fhould be a Turk,
1 Compare Arnold, I., 240. We omit his miftaken deference to Maffa- chufetts in regard to the Act of 1646-fo long mifunderftood or mifrepre- fented as a proteft againft flavery. See ante, pp. 28-30. Alfo Bancroft, I., 174, and Hildreth, I., 373.
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and they fhould be taken, and fold for flaves into Turkey. Now, what is this better done, than Turks do? Yea, rather it is worfe for them, which fay they are Chriftians ; for we hear that the moft part of fuch negers are brought hither againft their will and con- fent, and that many of them are ftolen. Now, though they are black, we cannot conceive there is more liberty to have them flaves, as [than] it is to have other white ones. There is a faying, that we fhould do to all men like as we will be done ourfelves ; making no difference of what generation, defcent, or colour they are. And thofe who fteal or rob men, and thofe who buy or purchafe them, are they not all alike? Here is liberty of confcience, which is right and reafonable ; here ought to be likewife liberty of the body, except of evil-doers, which is another cafe. But to bring men hither, or to rob and fell them againft their will, we ftand againft. In Europe, there are many oppreffed for confcience-fake; and here there are thofe oppreffed which are of a black colour. And we who know that men muft not commit adultery -fome do commit adultery in others, feparating wives from their hufbands, and giving them to others : and fome fell the children of thefe poor creatures to other men. Ah! do confider well this thing, you who do it, if you would be done at this manner-and if it is done according to Chriftianity ! You furpafs Holland and Germany in this thing. This makes an ill report in all thofe countries of Europe, where they hear of [it,] that the Quakers do here handel men as they handel there the cattle. And for that reafon fome have no mind or inclination to come hither.
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And who fhall maintain this your caufe, or plead for it? Truly, we cannot do fo, except you fhall inform us better hereof, viz .: that Chriftians have liberty to practife thefe things. Pray, what thing in the world can be done worfe towards us, than if men fhould rob or fteal us away, and fell us for flaves to ftrange countries ; feparating hufbands from their wives and children. Being now this is not done in the manner we would be done at, [by]; therefore, we contradict, and are againft this traffic of men-body. And we who profefs that it is not lawful to fteal, muft, like- wife, avoid to purchafe fuch things as are ftolen, but rather help to ftop this robbing and ftealing, if poffible. And fuch men ought to be delivered out of the hands of the robbers, and fet free as in Europe. Then is Pennfylvania to have a good report, inftead, it hath now a bad one, for this fake, in other countries : . Efpecially whereas the Europeans are defirous to know in what manner the Quakers do rule in their province ; and moft of them do look upon us with an envious eye. But if this is done well, what fhall we fay is done evil ?
" If once thefe flaves (which they fay are fo wicked and ftubborn men,) fhould join themfelves-fight for their freedom, and handel their mafters and miftreffes, as they did handel them before; will thefe mafters and miftreffes take the fword at hand and war againft thefe poor flaves, like, as we are able to believe, fome will not refufe to do ? Or, have thefe poor negers not as much right to fight for their freedom, as you have to keep them flaves ?
" Now confider well this thing, if it is good or
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bad. And in cafe you find it to be good to handel thefe blacks in that manner, we defire and require you hereby lovingly, that you may inform us herein, which at this time never was done, viz., that Chris- tians have fuch a liberty to do fo. To the end we fhall be fatisfied on this point, and fatisfy likewife our good friends and acquaintances in our native country, to whom it is a terror, or fearful thing, that men fhould be handelled fo in Pennfylvania.
"This is from our meeting at Germantown, held ye 18th of the 2d month, 1688, to be delivered to the monthly meeting at Richard Worrell's.
" GARRET HENDERICH, DERICK OP DE GRAEFF, FRANCIS DANIEL PASTORIUS, ABRAM OP DE GRAEFF.
" At our monthly meeting, at Dublin, ye 30th 2d mo., 1688, we having infpected ye matter, above men- tioned, and confidered of it, we find it fo weighty that we think it not expedient for us to meddle with it here, but do rather commit it to ye confideration of ye quarterly meeting; ye tenor of it being related to ye truth.
" On behalf of ye monthly meeting, " Jo. HART.
" This abovementioned, was read in our quarterly meeting, at Philadelphia, the 4th of ye 4th mo., '88, and was from thence recommended to the yearly meet- ing, and the above faid Derrick, and the other two mentioned therein, to prefent the fame to ye above
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faid meeting, it being a thing of too great weight for this meeting to determine.
"Signed by order of ye meeting. " ANTHONY MORRIS."
The minutes of the Yearly Meeting, held at Bur- lington in the fame year, record the refult of this firft effort among the Quakers.
" At a Yearly Meeting, held at Burlington the 5th day of the 7th Month, 1688.
" A paper being here prefented by fome German Friends Concerning the Lawfulnefs & Unlawfulnefs of Buying & Keeping of Negroes It was adjudged not to be fo proper for this Meeting to give a Pofitive Judgment in the Cafe It having fo general a Rela- tion to many other Parts & therefore at prefent they Forbear It." Extract from the Original Minutes, copied by Nathan Kite. Compare Bettle, in Penn. Hift. Soc. Coll., I., 365.
Richard Baxter has been reprefented as having " echoed. the opinions of Puritan Maffachufetts." Bancroft, III., 412. We have already fhown that the Puritans of Maffachufetts were not hoftile to flavery. Neither was Baxter; for he expreffly recognized the lawfulnefs of the purchafe and ufe of men as flaves, although he denounced man-ftealing as piracy. The principal point of his Chriftian Directory (publifhed in 1673) in this matter, was concerning the religious obligations growing out of the relation of mafter and flave. Works, IV., 212-20., XVII., 330., XIX., 210.
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Morgan Godwyn, a clergyman of the Church of England, who wrote and publifhed in 1680 " The Negro's and Indian's Advocate, fuing for their Ad- miffion into the Church," etc., hardly intimates a doubt of the lawfulnefs of their flavery, while he pleads for their humanity and right to religion againft a very general opinion of that day, which denied them both.
Dean Berkeley, in his famous fermon before the Venerable Society in 1731, fpeaks of "the irrational contempt of the Blacks, as Creatures of another Spe- cies, who had no right to be inftructed or admitted to the Sacraments." Sermon, p. 19.
And George Keith (then Quaker), whose paper againft the practice was faid to be given forth by the appointment of the meeting held by him in the city of Philadelphia, about the year 1693, gave a ftrict charge to Friends " that they fhould fet their negroes at liberty, after fome reasonable time of Service." Gabriel Thomas's History of Pennfylvania, etc., 1698, pp. 53, 54. This was probably the pamphlet quoted by Dr. Frank- lin in his letter to John Wright, 4th November, 1789. Works, x., 403.
Keith appears fimply to have repeated the words of George Fox in Barbadoes in 1671, when he urged the religious training of the negroes, as well as kind treatment, in place of " cruelty towards them, as the manner of fome hath been and is; and that after certain years of fervitude they fhould make them free." Journal, II., 140. For a more particular account of this teftimony of Fox, see The Friend, Vol. XVII., pp. 28, 29. 4to. Phil. 1843. The explicit
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anfwer of Fox to the charge that the Quakers "taught the negroes to rebel," fhows very clearly that anti- flavery doctrines were no part of the Quaker creed at that time. Ibid., pp. 147-9. Compare 454. See alfo Ralph Sandiford's Brief Examination, etc., Preface.
And for half a century afterwards "that people were as greedy as any Body in keeping Negroes for their Gain," fo as to induce the belief that they " ap- proved of it as a People with one confent unani- moufly." Lay, 84. Ralph Sandiford, in 1729, in his " Brief Examination," etc., thus bemoaned the fact, " that it hath defaced the prefent Difpenfation."
" Had the Friends ftood clear of this Practice, that it might have been anfwered to the Traders in Slaves that there is a People called Quakers in Penn- Sylvania that will not own this practice in Word or Deed, then would they have been a burning and a fhining Light to thefe poor Heathen, and a Precedent to the Nations throughout the Univerfe which might have brought them to have feen the Evil of it in themfelves, and glorifyed the Lord on our Behalf, and like the Queen of the East, to have admired the Glory and Beauty of the Church of God. But in- ftead thereof, the tender feed in the Honeft-hearted is under Suffering, to fee both Elders and Minifters as it were cloathed with it, and their offspring after them filling up the Meafure of their Parents' Iniquity ; which may be fuffered till fuch Time that Recompence from Him that is juft to all his Creatures opens that Eye the god of this World has blinded. Though I would not be underftood to pervert the Order of the Body, which confifts of Servants and Mafters, and the
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Head cannot fay to the Foot, I have no need of thee ; but it is the Converting Men's Liberty to our Wills, who have not, like the Gibeonites, offered themfelves willingly, or by Confent given their Ear to the Door- poft, but are made fuch by Force, in that Nature that defires to Lord it over their Fellow Creatures, is what is to be abhorred by all Chriftians." pp. 9, 10.
Again, he fays in another place : "But in Time this dark Trade creeping in amongft us to the very Miniftry, becaufe of the profit by it, hath fpread over others like a Leprofy, to the Grief of the Honeft- hearted." Preface.
Public fentiment and opinion againft flavery were firft aroufed and ftimulated in America in the latter part of the feventeenth century by fympathy for the Chriftian captives, Dutch and Englifh, who were en- flaved by the Turks and the pirates of Northern Africa. Lay's " All Slave-keepers Apoftates." The efforts to ranfom and releafe thefe unfortunate perfons, excited by the terrible forrow of relatives and friends, kinfmen and countrymen, brought home to fome minds (though few) the injuftice of their own dealings with the negroes. The earlieft writers againft flavery urged that argument with peculiar force and unction, but with little effect. They feem to have made no impreffion on the legiflation of the colonies, and curious and zealous refearch only can recover the memorials of their righteous teftimonies.
The earlieft pofitive public challenge to flavery in Maffachufetts of which we have any knowledge, was in the year 1700, when a learned, pious, and honored magiftrate entered the lifts alone, and founded his 6
+
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folitary blaft in the ears of his brother magiftrates and the people, who liftened in amazement and wonder, not unmingled with forrow and contempt. His per- formance is all the more remarkable from the fact that it ftands out in the hiftory of the time feparate and diftinct as " the voice of one crying in the wildernefs."
SAMUEL SEWALL, at that time a Judge of the Superior Court, and afterwards Chief-Juftice, pub- lifhed a brief tract in 1700, entitled : "The Selling of Joseph a Memorial." It filled three pages of a folio fheet, ending with the imprint : " Bofton of the Maffa- chufetts ; Printed by Bartholomew Green and John Allen. June 24th, 1700."
The author prefented a copy of this tract "not only to each member of the General Court at the time of its publication, but alfo to numerous clergymen and literary gentlemen with whom he was intimate." MS. Letter. Compare Briffot, I., 224. Although thus extenfively circulated at that day, it has for many years been known apparently only by tradition, as nearly all the notices of it which we have feen are con- fined to the fact of its publication early in the eight- eenth century, the date being nowhere correctly ftated.
Beyond this, it appears to have been unknown to our hiftorians, and is now reproduced probably for the firft time in the prefent century. Indeed, we have met with no quotation even from it later than 1738, when it was reprinted in Pennfylvania, where anti- flavery took an earlier and deeper root, and bore earlier fruit, than in any other part of America.1
1 It was reprinted as a part of Benjamin Lay's tract, " All Slave-Keepers that keep the Innocent in Bondage, Apoftates . ," in which it occupies
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Its rarity and peculiar intereft will juftify us in placing the reprint before our readers in this con- nection. It is fomewhat remarkable that fo fignal a teftimony againft flavery fhould have efcaped the re- fearch of thofe who have in their cuftody " the hiftoric fame" of Maffachufetts. It is a moft honorable me- morial of its venerated author.
" THE SELLING OF JOSEPH A MEMORIAL. By the Hon'ble JUDGE SEWALL in New England.
“FORASMUCH as LIBERTY is in real value next unto Life; None ought to part with it themselves, or deprive others of it, but upon moft mature confideration.
" The Numeroufnefs of Slaves at this Day in the Province, and the Uneafinefs of them under their Slavery, hath put many upon thinking whether the Foundation of it be firmly and well laid ; fo as to fuftain the Vaft Weight that is built upon it. It is moft certain that all Men, as they are the Sons of Adam, are Co-heirs, and have equal Right unto Liberty, and all other outward Comforts of Life. GOD hath given the Earth [with all its commodities] unto the Sons of Adam, Pfal., 115, 16. And hath made of one Blood all Nations of Men, for to dwell on all the face of the Earth, and hath determined the Times before appointed, and the bounds of their Habitation : That they Should feek the Lord. Forafmuch then as we are the Offspring of GOD, &c. Acts 17. 26, 27, 29. Now, although the Title given by the laft ADAM doth infinitely better Men's Eftates, refpecting GOD and them- felves ; and grants them a moft beneficial and inviolable Leafe under the Broad Seal of Heaven, who were before only Tenants at Will ; yet through the Indulgence of GOD to our Firft Parents after the Fall, the outward Eftate of all and every of their Children, remains the
pp. 199-207 inclufive. The title of Lay's tract gives the imprint, " Phila- delphia, Printed for the Author, 1737 ;" but it was not publifhed until the following year. See The American Weekly Mercury, No. 973, Aug. 17-24, 1738, and following numbers ; efpecially No. 982, O&t. 19-26, 1738, in which is printed the repudiation of Lay and his book, by the Yearly Meeting.
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fame as to one another. So that Originally, and Naturally, there is no fuch thing as Slavery. Fofeph was rightfully no more a Slave to his Brethren, than they were to him; and they had no more Authority to Sell him, than they had to Slay him. And if they had nothing to do to fell him ; the Ifhmaelites bargaining with them, and paying down Twenty pieces of Silver, could not make a Title. Neither could Potiphar have any better Intereft in him than the Ifhmaelites had. Gen. 37, 20, 27, 28. For he that fhall in this cafe plead Alteration of Property, feems to have forfeited a great part of his own claim to Humanity. There is no proportion between Twenty Pieces of Silver and LIBERTY. The Commodity itfelf is the Claimer. If Arabian Gold be imported in any quantities, mnoft are afraid to meddle with it, though they might have it at eafy rates ; left it fhould have been wrong- fully taken from the Owners, it fhould kindle a fire to the Confumption of their whole Eftate. "Tis pity there fhould be more Caution ufed in buying a Horfe, or a little lifelefs duft, than there is in purchafing Men and Women : Whereas they are the Offspring of GOD, and their Liberty is,
Auro pretiofior Omni.
" And feeing GoD hath faid, He that Stealeth a Man, and Selleth him, or if he be found in his Hand, he Shall furely be put to Death. Exod. 21, 16. This Law being of Everlafting Equity, wherein Man- Stealing is ranked among the moft atrocious of Capital Crimes : What louder Cry can there be made of that Celebrated Warning.
Caveat Emptor !
" And all things confidered, it would conduce more to the Welfare of the Province, to have White Servants for a Term of Years, than to have Slaves for Life. Few can endure to hear of a Negro's being made free ; and indeed they can feldom ufe their Freedom well; yet their continual afpiring after their forbidden Liberty, renders them Unwilling Servants. And there is fuch a difparity in their Conditions, Colour, and Hair, that they can never embody with us, & grow up in orderly Families, to the Peopling of the Land; but ftill remain in our Body Politick as a kind of extravafat Blood. As many Negro Men as there are among us, fo many empty Places are there in our Train Bands, and the places taken up of Men that might make Hufbands for our Daughters. And the Sons and Daughters of New England would
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become more like Jacob and Rachel, if this Slavery were thruft quite out of Doors. Moreover it is too well known what Temptations Mafters are under, to connive at the Fornication of their Slaves ; left they fhould be obliged to find them Wives, or pay their Fines. It feems to be practically pleaded that they might be lawlefs ; 'tis thought much of, that the Law fhould have fatisfaction for their Thefts, and other Immoralities ; by which means, Holinefs to the Lord is more rarely engraven upon this fort of Servitude. It is likewife moft lamentable to think, how in taking Negroes out of Africa, and felling of them here, That which Gon has joined together, Men do boldly rend afunder ; Men from their Country, Hufbands from their Wives, Parents from their Children. How horrible is the Uncleannefs, Mortality, if not Murder, that the Ships are guilty of that bring great Crouds of thefe miferable Men and Women. Methinks when we are bemoaning the barbarous Ufage of our Friends and Kinsfolk in Africa, it might not be unreafonable to enquire whether we are not culpable in forcing the Africans to become Slaves amongft ourfelves. And it may be a queftion whether all the Benefit received by Negro Slaves will balance the Accompt of Cafh laid out upon them ; and for the Redemption of our own enflaved Friends out of Africa. Befides all the Perfons and Eftates that have perifhed there.
" Obj. I. Thefe Blackamores are of the Pofterity of Cham, and therefore are under the Curfe of Slavery. Gen. 9, 25, 26, 27.
" Anf. Of all Offices, one would not beg this ; viz. Uncall'd for, to be an Executioner of the Vindictive Wrath of God; the extent and duration of which is to us uncertain. If this ever was a Commiffion ; How do we know but that it is long fince out of Date ? Many have found it to their Coft, that a Prophetical Denunciation of Judgment againft a Perfon or People, would not warrant them to inflict that evil. If it would, Hazael might juftify himfelf in all he did againft his mafter, and the Israelites from 2 Kings 8, 10, 12.
" But it is poffible that by curfory reading, this Text may have been miftaken. For Canaan is the Perfon Curfed three times over, without the mentioning of Cham. Good Expofitors fuppofe the Curfe entailed on him, and that this Prophefie was accomplifhed in the Ex- tirpation of the Canaanites, and in the Servitude of the Gibeonites.
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Vide Pareum. Whereas the Blackmores are not defcended of Canaan, but of Cu/h. Pfal. 68, 31. Princes hall come out of Egypt [Miz- raim]. Ethiopia [Cufh] Shall foon Stretch out her hands unto God. Under which Names, all Africa may be comprehended ; and their Promifed Converfion ought to be prayed for. Fer. 13, 23. Can the Ethiopian change his Skin ? This fhows that Black Men are the Pofterity of Cu/h. Who time out of mind have been diftinguifhed by their Colour. And for want of the true, Ovid affigns a fabulous caufe of it.
Sanguine tum credunt in corpora summa vocato Ethiopum populos nigrum traxife colorem.
Metamorph. lib. 2.
" Obj. z. The Nigers are brought out of a Pagan Country, into places where the Gospel is preached.
" Anf. Evil muft not be done, that good may come of it. The extraordinary and comprehenfive Benefit accruing to the Church of God, and to Fofeph perfonally, did not rectify his Brethren's Sale of him.
" Obj. 3. The Africans have Wars one with another : Our Ships bring lawful Captives taken in thofe wars.
" Anfw. For aught is known, their Wars are much fuch as were between Jacob's Sons and their Brother Fofeph. If they be between Town and Town; Provincial or National : Every War is upon one fide Unjuft. An Unlawful War can't make lawful Captives. And by receiving, we are in danger to promote, and partake in their Barbarous Cruelties. I am fure, if fome Gentlemen fhould go down to the Brewfters to take the Air, and Fish : And a ftronger Party from Hull fhould furprife them, and fell them for Slaves to a Ship outward bound; they would think themfelves unjuftly dealt with ; both by Sellers and Buyers. And yet 'tis to be feared, we have no other Kind of Title to our Nigers. Therefore all things whatfoever ye would that men Should do to you, do you even fo to them : for this is the Law and the Prophets. Matt. 7, 12.
' Obj. 4. Abraham had Servants bought with his Money and born in his Houfe.
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" Anf. Until the Circumftances of Abraham's purchafe be re- corded, no Argument can be drawn from it. In the mean time, Charity obliges us to conclude, that He knew it was lawful and good.
"It is Obfervable that the Israelites were ftrictly forbidden the buying or felling one another for Slaves. Levit. 25. 39. 46. Fer. 34. 8-22. And GoD gaged His Bleffing in lieu of any lofs they might conceit they fuffered thereby, Deut. 15. 18. And fince the partition Wall is broken down, inordinate Self-love fhould likewife be demolifhed. GOD expects that Chriftians fhould be of a more Ingenuous and benign frame of Spirit. Chriftians fhould carry it to all the World, as the Israelites were to carry it one towards another. And for Men obftinately to perfift in holding their Neighbours and Brethren under the Rigor of perpetual Bondage, feems to be no proper way of gaining Affurance that God has given them Spiritual Freedom. Our Bleffed Saviour has altered the Meafures of the ancient Love Song, and fet it to a moft Excellent New Tune, which all ought to be ambitious of Learning. Matt. 5. 43. 44. John 13. 34. Thefe Ethiopians, as black as they are, feeing they are the Sons and Daughters of the Firft Adam, the Brethren and Sifters of the Laft ADAM, and the Offspring of GOD; They ought to be treated with a Refpect agreeable.
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