USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Annals of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania in the olden time; being a collection of the memoirs, anecdotes, and incidents of the earliest settlements of the inland part of Pennsylvania, Vol. II > Part 31
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His successor, Richard Peters, as secretary to the proprietaries, falls into similar dissatisfaction with them ; for in his letter to them, of 1743, he says he went to Marsh creek, in Lancaster county, to warn off and dispossess the squatters, and to measure the manor land. On that occasion, the people there, to about the number of seventy, assembled and forbade them to proceed, and on their persisting, they broke the chain and compelled them to retire. He had with him a sheriff and a magistrate. They were afterwards indicted-became subdued, and made their engagements for leases. In most cases the leases were so easy that they were enabled to buy the lands ere they expired.
* Augustus Gun, of Cork, advertised in the Philadelphia paper, that he had power from the mayor of Cork, for many years, to procure servants for America.
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NEGROES AND SLAVES.
He finds his fellow guilty-of a skin Not colour'd like his own !- For such a cause Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.
IN the olden time, dressy blacks and dandy coloured beaux and belles, as we now see them issuing from their proper churches, were quite unknown. Their aspirings and little vanities have been rapidly growing since they got those separate churches, and have received their entire exemption from slavery. Once they submitted to the appellation of servants, blacks, or negroes, but now they require to be called coloured people, and among themselves, their common call of salutation is-gentlemen and ladies. Thirty to forty years ago, they were much humbler, more esteemed in their place, and more useful to themselves and others. As a whole they show an overweening fondness for display and vainglory-fondly imitating the whites in processions and banners, and in the pomp and pageantry of Masonic and Washington societies, &c. With the kindest feelings for their race, judicious men wish them wiser conduct, and a better use of the benevolent feelings which induced their emancipation among us.
We have happily been so long relieved from the curse of slavery, that it is scarcely known to the younger part of the community how many features we once possessed of a slave-owning colony. The following facts in the case will prove new to many :
The first negro slaves ever imported into North America were brought in a Dutch ship in 1620, and sold in Virginia.
The state of slavery in Pennsylvania was always of a mild cha- racter, not only from the favourable and mild feelings of the Friends in their behalf, but from the common regard they found in families in general, where their deportment was commendable. Hector St. John, Esq., who wrote concerning the state of slavery in Pennsylvania,* as it was just before the period of the Revolution, says, " In Pennsylvania they enjoy as much liberty as their masters -are as well fed and as well clad; and in sickness are tenderly taken care of -- for, living under the same roof, they are in effect a part of the family. Being the companions of their labours, and treated as such, they do not work more than ourselves, and think themselves happier than many of the lower class of whites. A far happier race among us, (he adds,) than those poor suffering slaves of the south."
The first efforts ever made in Pennsylvania towards the eman- cipation of the blacks proceeded from the Society of Friends in Germantown, the most of whom, at that period, were emigrants
* Vide his Farmer's Letters
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from Germany. These, in the year 1688, under the auspices of F. D. Pastorius, moved a petition or remonstrance to the yearly meeting of Friends, saying in effect, it was not Christian-like to buy and keep negroes. The meeting forbore then to give any posi- tive judgment in the case. But inquiry was created. Cotempo- rary with this period, William Penn himself, whose light or reflec- tions on the case were not equally awakened, says, in his letter of the 4th of 8 mo., 1685, to his steward, James Harrison, at Penns- bury, "It were better they were blacks, for then we might have them for life," intimating thereby, tnat his intended servants there were changed too often.
In 1693, the separate meeting of Friends, under George Keith, assembling at the house of Philip James, in Philadelphia, gave forth a paper declaring their sense of the duty of emancipation- " after some reasonable time of service."-Vide Gabriel Thomas.
The large original proprietors of property in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, called "the Free Society of Traders," of 1682, although as a corporation they might be said, like others, "to be without souls," conceded an article very favourable to emancipa- tion, saying, " If the society should receive blacks for servants, they shall make them free at fourteen years' end, upon condition that they will give unto the society's ware-house two-thirds of what they are capable of producing on such a parcel of land as shall be allotted to them by the society, with a stock of necessary tools." Then comes a proviso of rather singular character, saying, " And if they will not accept of these terms they shall be servants till they will accept of it!"
I have seen, among the earliest pamphlets extant of Philadelphia publication, one from the Friends' meeting of Philadelphia, of the 13th of 8 mo., 1693, giving " exhortation and caution to Friends concerning buying and keeping negroes." The sum of the counsel was, that none should attempt "to buy except, to set free." This little address contained many of the arguments now usually set forth against slavery.
In 1696, the Yearly Meeting of Friends having concerted some measures to discourage the bringing in of more slaves, and to pre- serve the morals of those they had, the subject was renewed in the year 1700, on the arrival of William Penn, in consideration of his pressing upon the Philadelphia meeting his wishes concerning the same. Their sense of the subject was expressed as follows, to wit: " Our dear friend and governor, having laid before this meeting a concern that hath laid upon his mind for some time concerning the negroes and Indians, that Friends ought to be very careful in dis- charging a good conscience towards them in all respects, but more especially for the good of their souls; upon consideration whereof, this meeting concludes to appoint a meeting for negroes, to be kept once a month, &c."
At the same time, he introduced a bill into the assembly " for
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.egulating negroes in their morals and marriages," -- also another " for their trials and punishments." The former was defeated by the jealousies then in the house. From the same causes an act of more security was substituted in 1705 against the negroes, entitled " An Act for the Trial and Punishment of Negroes." It inflicted lashes for petty offences, and death for crimes of magnitude. They were not allowed to carry a gun without license, or to be whipped if they did, twenty-one lashes-nor to meet above four together lest they might form cabals and riots. They were to be whipped if found abroad after nine o'clock at night without a pass, &c. At and before 1705, it had been in practice to bring Indians as slaves from the Carolinas, to the offence of the Pennsylvania Indians. This was prevented by an act.
In 1715, Mr. Isaac Norris, in one of his letters, speaks thus con . cerning a question in meeting respecting slaves : "Our meeting was large and comfortable, and our business would have been very well were it not for the warm pushing by some Friends, of Chester chiefly, in the business of negroes. The aim was to obtain a minute that none should buy them for the future. This was opposed as of dangerous consequence to the peace of the church, for since they could not tell how to dispose of those we have, and that many members must still possess them, and then it might fall to their lot in duty to deal with future offenders, which as it could not in itself be equitable, such must do it with an ill grace, and at best it would be a foundation for prejudice and evil speaking one of another, so that it was got over." The liberating genius of Bene- zet has since cast better lights upon this subject, perplexed as they then deemed it.
The early efforts made to repress slavery were reiterated and numerous in our provincial assembly. As early as the year 1705, a duty was imposed on their importation ; this was renewed in 1710. In 1711, they struck at the root of the evil, by forbidding their introduction in future ; but the privy council in England scandal- ized by such liberal policy in so new and so diminutive a commu- nity, whilst their policy was to cherish slavery in so many other colonies, quashed the act in an instant. The assembly, not daunted by such a repulse, again in 1712, upon petition, "signed by many hands," aimed at the same effect, by assessing the large sum of £20 a head. This was again cancelled by the same Transatlantic policy. When the petition for the £20 duty was presented, an- other was offered in the name of William Southeby, praying " for the total abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania !"
Thus early were the minds of our forefathers awake to this mani- fest. infraction of human rights, and having their consciences and feelings enlisted in the cause, though often thwarted in their pur poses, they still continued to renew their efforts, so that more than one dozen of acts may be counted upon our statute books, tending directly or indirectly to repress or abolish slavery prior to our revo-
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lution. Finally, the memorable act of 1780, when we had "set up for ourselves," for ever released us from the thraldom of " sinews bought and sold!"
A letter of 4 mo., 1715, from Jonathan Dickinson, a merchant of Philadelphia, and a Friend, to his correspondent in Jamaica, 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. Few people care to buy them, except for those who live in other provinces."-Vide the Logan MSS.
Some benevolent individual, as early as the year 1722, advertised in the Mercury Gazette of Philadelphia, that "a person, lately arrived, freely offers his services to teach his poor brethren, the male negroes, to read the Holy Scriptures without any charge."
The celebrated Whitfield embraced the benevolent scheme of ameliorating the condition of the blacks he saw in our colonies. In 1739 he published his letter to the southern planters, against the practice of slavery, and in favour of the blacks; at the same time he takes up 5000 acres on the forks of Delaware, (the same sold to Count Zindendorf for Bethlehem,) in order to erect a negro school, &c. His choice of Pennsylvania for his negro colony and settlement, showed thus early his favourable opinion of the good feelings to that race in Pennsylvania.
At the same time we may perceive that, as a slave-holding colony, the odious features of slavery were necessarily to be seen among us-such as the public buying and selling,-their arrival and land- ing from ships, &c. I give the following facts in illustration of things as they were once among us, to wit :
Year 1736- William Allen and Joseph Turner, merchants, advertise for sale some likely negroes from Barbadoes; another about the same time advertises for sale a likely breeding negro woman and her boy of two years old.
Year 1762-Messrs. Willing and Morris advertise for sale one hundred and seventy negroes just arrived from the Gold Coast.
It was the common incident of the day to vend blacks of both sexes at public sale, at the old London Coffee-house, setting up the subject upon the head of a cask, for display to the purchasers around.
After better views and feelings had long prevailed, old recollec- tions were strongly revived in an incident which occurred in the year 1800 The Ganges sloop of war captured two vessels engaged in slavery, and brought them into our Delaware -- one had one hundred and eighteen, and the other sixteen slaves. In encamping these at the Lazaretto for the benefit of free air and health, a hus- band and wife, separated in the ships, never expecting to meet again. recognized each other. Their mutual recognition was passion- ately fond and affecting. The sudden surprise and joy was too powerful for the wife, and she became a premature mother. But through the well directed kindness of the A' olition Society, she was restored to health and freedom.
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Before the revolution it was a common incident in Philadelphia to send family servants to the jail to get their dozen lashes, for acts of insubordination. This was done at the pleasure of the master, and was usually executed on receiving a written message from the owners. An old gentleman told me of a case which he witnessed :- A master sent his servant, "Hodge's Cato," with his letter, wherein he re- quested to have him well whipped. The black was shrewd, sus- pected it conveyed some ill to him, and fell upon a device to shun it. He stretched himself on the stall at the market house near the prison, affecting to have been seized with violent cramps and pains
in the bowels. When he had succeeded to excite the pity of some bystanders, he begged a black fellow near him to hurry away and deliver his letter, as it was a matter requiring haste. The appeal answered the purpose fully ; for, malgre all his remonstrances, he received all the lashes bespoke for " the bearer !"
When slaves were purchased in early times with intention to be taken to other colonies, there was seen, even in Philadelphia, the odious spectacle of " the drove," tied two and two, passing through the city towards the country. Several of the aged have told me of witnessing such things even in the gentle city of Penn !
Many can still remember when the slaves were allowed the last days of the fairs for their jubilee, which they employed (" light hearted wretch !") in dancing the whole afternoon in the present Washington square, then a general burying ground-the blacks joy- ful above, while the sleeping dead reposed below ! In that field could be seen at once more than one thousand of both sexes, divided into numerous little squads, dancing, and singing, "each in their own tongue," after the customs of their several nations in Africa.
Finally, a discerning lady, who has witnessed " the former years," and has seen the comparative happiness of the blacks-has felt, too, her strong affections and domestic relations to her family servants- thus speaks of her sense of the change produced in family comforts! "In the olden time domestic comforts were not every day interrupted by the pride and profligacy of servants. The slaves of Philadelphia were a happier class of people than the free blacks of the present day generally are, who taint the very air by their vices, and exhibit every sort of wretchedness and profligacy in their dwellings. The former felt themselves to be an integral part of the family to which they belonged. They experienced in all respects the same consideration and kindness as white servants, and they were faithful and con- tented." The truth is, in numerous cases where they were freed, they preferred to remain and receive their wages till their deaths.
Kalm, the Swedish traveller, speaks of the then only free negroes in Philadelphia in 1748, as having been manumitted by a Quaker master-probably referring to Ralph Sandiford, who freed all of his in the year 1733, and probably presenting to us the first instance of the kind known in our annals.
There is an ancient charity for the blacks of Philadelphia, founded VOL. II-2 I 23
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as early as the year 1696, and yet, although in actual operation, 1s as much unknown to the mass of our citizens as if it were in Africa! It originated with the Rev. Dr. Bray, American missionary, the Bishop of London, and Mr. D'Alone, secretary to King William. Its primary object was "the conversion of adult negroes, and the educa- tion of their children" in the British plantations. Its operation with our Philadelphia blacks began about the year 1760. And in 1774, the ground rents of a large lot in our city was set apart for the pay- ment of the expenses of two schools for blacks, one for each sex, to be educated gratuitously. "The associates" in England are per petual ; and from their appointments, three of our citizens, church men, constantly serve the schools as directors and governors. Those lately in service were William Meredith, Thomas Hale, and James S. Smith, esquires. Such a charity, supported by foreigners, deserves to be better known, and especially by those blacks who may become its beneficiaries.
REDEMPTION SERVANTS.
NUMEROUS persons used to arrive every year from Germany and Ireland, who engaged themselves for a term of years to pay their passages. Some of them turned out frugal and industrious, and be- came in time a part of our wealthy citizens. In some few cases they appear to have been convicts from Ireland. In one case the servant was found to be a lord, and returned home to inherit his estate. The general facts are to the following effect, to wit :
In 1722, the Palatine servants were disposed of at £10 each, for five years of servitude. About this time a MS. letter of Jonathan Dickinson says, "Many who have come over under covenants for four years are now masters of great estates."
1728-An advertisement reads, " Lately imported, and to be sold cheap, a parcel of likely men and women servants." These were probably servants from Europe.
1729-In New Castle government there arrived last year, says the Gazette, forty-five hundred persons, chiefly from Ireland; and at Philadelphia, in one year, two hundred and sixty-seven English and Welsh, forty-three Scotch-all servants ; also, eleven hundred and fifty-five Irish, and two hundred and forty-three Palatines, of whom none were servants.
In 1737, an article appears in the Pennsylvania Gazette to the following effect, to wit: " An errant cheat detected at Annapolis ! A vessel arrived there, bringing sixty-six indentures, signed by the
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mayor of Dublin, and twenty-two wigs, of such a make as if they were intended for no other use than to set out the convicts when they should go ashore." Thus these convicts were attempted, under fraudulent papers and decent wigs, to be put off as decent servants. and especially when surmounted with wigs! Same time is advertised " for sale, a parcel of English servants from Bristol."
In 1741, public information is given to merchants and captains that Augustus Gun of Cork, bellman, has power from the mayor there, to procure servants for America for this many years past.
Such an advertisement, in a Philadelphia paper, was of course an intimation that the mayor of Cork was willing to get off sundry cul- prits to the colonies.
In 1750, some of our good citizens take alarm at the idea of having criminals, " unwhipped of justice," imposed upon them. They thought the offences of such, when among us, swelled our criminal list. One writes upon the subject and says, " When we see our papers filled so often with accounts of the most audacious robberies, the most cruel murders, and other villanies, perpetrated by convicts from Europe, what will become of our posterity! In what could Britain injure us more than emptying her jails on us? What must we think of those merchants, who, for the sake of a little petty gain, will be concerned in importing and disposing of these abominable cargoes." From the tenor of the preceding article it is probable they got premiums in some cases for taking off such unwelcome guests. In some cases the severity of British laws pushed off young men, of good abilities, for very small offences, who made very capable clerks, storekeepers, &c., among us. I have knowledge of two or three among us, even within my memory, who rose to riches and credit here, and have left fine families. One great man, before my time, had been sold in Maryland, as an offender in Ireland. While serving his master as a common servant, he showed much ability, unex- pectedly, in managing for him an important lawsuit, for which he instantly gave him free. He then came to Philadelphia, and amassed a great fortune in landed estate, now of great value among his heirs.
When Kalm was here, in 1748, he speaks of wages of hired peo- ple as from 16 to £20 currency. A servant woman got from 8 to £10 a year, and laid up money. About the same rate of wages con- tinued down to the period of the revolution. At such wages families were better served than now, and most of them were accustomed to remain in the same families for years.
The case of Lord Altham, who came to this country in 1728 when a lad, and served out his servitude, as James Annesley, with a farmer, on the Lancaster road, forms in itself a curious and interesting recital. The circumstance has furnished the groundwork for Roderick Ran- dom, and for the popular novel of Florence M'Cartey. The facts are as follows, to wit :
The facts concerning this singular case are taken from the evidence given on the trial, and may be depended on as authentic.
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Arthur Annesley (Lord Altham) married Mary Sheffield, natural daughter of the Earl of Buckingham. By her, in the year 1715, he had a son, James, the subject of this memoir. In the next year the parents had some differences, which terminated in a separation. The father, contrary to the wish of the mother, took exclusive possession of his son James, and manifested much fondness for him, until the year 1722, when he formed some intimacy with Miss Gregory; and about the same time his wife died. Miss G. expecting now to become his wife, exerted herself greatly to alienate his affections from his son, by insinuating that he was not his proper child. She suc- ceeded to get him placed from home, at a school in Dublin. In November, 1727, Lord Altham died; and his brother Richard, wishing to possess the estate and title, took measures to get rid of his nephew, James, by having him enticed on board an American vessel, which sailed from Dublin in April, 1728. He was landed at Phila- delphia, then in his thirteenth year, sold as a redemptioner! and actually served out twelve years in rough labour, until a seem- ing accident, in the year 1740, brought him to such acquaintance, as led, in the next year, to his return home. The case was this: two Irishmen, John and William Broders, travelling the Lancaster road, in the year 1740, stopped at the house near the forty milestone, where James was in service with an old German. These country- men entering into conversation, perceived they were severally from Dumaine, in the county of Wexford, and that James Annesley was the son of Arthur. The two Broders volunteered to go back to Ireland, and testify to the discovery they had made, and actually kept their word at the trial which afterwards occurred. James subse- quently stated his case to Robert Ellis, Esq., of Philadelphia, who, compassionating his case, procured a passage for him to Admiral Vernon, then in the West Indies, by whom he was afterwards landed in England. But shortly after his arrival at London, James un- fortunately killed a man, for which he had to stand a trial ; and then Lord Altham, the unnatural uncle, exerted himself to have him con- victed, but he was nevertheless acquitted as innocent. An action was brought against the uncle, and went to trial in November, 1743, and the verdict was given in favour of James, our redemptioner. The uncle appealed to the house of lords; and while the case was pending James died, leaving the uncle in quiet possession of his ill- gotten estate, showing, however, while he lived, which was not long. the spectacle of a finished villain, even in an Irish nobleman. This Annesley family, is the same by whom the celebrated John Wesley descended by the mother's side.
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The Stamp Act resisted.
THE STAMP ACT RESISTED.
" Society, grown weary of the load, Shakes her encumber'd lap-and casts them out."
THE measures of the Stamp Act in England, and the oppositions and counteractions which ensued in this country, were all so many causes combining to sever those ties of union, before existing between the parent and the offspring, and leading the latter to self-government and independence.
Many who then fell into measures of resistance had little or no conception of the termination to which it led-whilst others, as by an eye of prescience, seemed to penetrate all the hidden mysteries of the future. Such a mind as the Abbe Raynal's, before the revo- lution commenced, fairly wrote out our destiny, calling " the Ame- rican provinces the asylum of freedom, the cradle of future nations, and the refuge of distressed Europeans !"
In November, 1765, the Stamp Act was to have taken effect at Philadelphia. John Hughes, a tradesman of Philadelphia, a friend of Dr. Franklin's, who procured him the appointment, and a mem- ber of the assembly, was made the stamp-master. He affected to decline the office, but was not deemed sincere. Wherefore, when his commission arrived (some blamed Franklin for it) all the bells were muffled, the colours hoisted half-mast, and great appearances of mobbing occurred. Hughes' house was guarded and armed by his friends, &c. In the mean time the late Thomas Bradford, from the "committee of safety," (a self-created society,) with his posse, waited on the stamp-master and compelled him to a voluntary resignation ; that is, he had to say it was such .*
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