USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: From the Discovery of the Delaware to the Present Time (Volume 1 and 2) > Part 39
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Negro slaves were held in this county as early as 1684, and no doubt earlier. In that year, among the goods of William Pomfret, levied upon to satisfy a
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debt due Gilbert Wheeler, of Falls, was "one man." In June, 1685, William Penn hearing that James Harrison, then engaged in erecting his manor house, had great difficulty in retaining laborers, wrote him: "It were better they were blacks for then we might have them for life." He writes to Harrison, December 4, same year : "The blacks of Captain Allen I have as good as bought, so part not with them without my order." Penn was careful to provide for the free- dom of his slaves at his death. On the eve of his return to England, 1701, he made a will liberating those in Pennsylvania, which he left with James Logan. To "old Sam" he bequeathed "one hundred acres of land, to be his children's after he and his wife are dead, forever." At that time the prejudice of Friends was so strong they would not allow slaves to be buried in the same enclosure with themselves. In 1703, Middletown monthly meeting appointed Robert Heaton and Thomas Stackhouse to fence off a portion of the ground to bury negroes in. In 1738 that meeting forbade the burying of negroes in their ground. Indian slaves were imported into the colony from the Carolinas before 1709, and a few were held in this county. In February of that year the council took action in the case of an Indian boy, called Mingo, who had been brought into the province contrary to law. James Heaton, of this county, who claimed some property in him, was cited to bring him before the council.
Friends were not only the first to advocate the abolition of slavery, but the first to ameliorate the condition of the negroes while in bondage. The Ger- man Friends of Germantown urged its abolition as early as 1688, an hundred years before it was brought about, and in 1693 the meeting of Philadelphia coun- seled Friends only "to buy to set free." An article in the corporation of the Free Society of Traders provides that, "if the society should receive blacks for servants, they shall make them free at fourteen years," on certain conditions. As this charter was granted by Penn it shows his early disposition to ameliorate their hard fate. At his suggestion a meeting was appointed for negroes, 1700, and about that time he introduced a bill into the Council "for regulating negroes in their morals and marriages." In 1705 an act was passed for the trial and punishment of negroes, lashes were inflicted for petty offenses and death for crimes of magnitude. They were not allowed to carry a gun, under a penalty of twenty-one lashes, nor were four to meet together, and they were liable to be whipped if found abroad after nine o'clock at night without a pass. They were tried by a tribunal composed of two justices and a jury of six freeholders. In 1723 an act was passed preventing blacks and whites inter-marrying.
In 1696 the yearly meeting advised Friends not "to encourage the bringing in of any more negroes," and recommended they "be careful of them, bring them to meeting and have meetings with them in their families." In 1700 the Provincial Council passed an act forbidding the importation of slaves, but the Privy Council annulled it, as they did a subsequent act imposing a fine of £20 on each slave brought into the province. As the century wore on, the Assembly tried in vain to get rid of the slave trade, but the English government was with it, and the spirit of trade against its abolition. At the Falls monthly meeting, August, 1730, a proposition was entertained from the Chester quarterly, whether Friends should not be prohibited buying negroes when imported, as they were restrained importing them, and, after debate, it was referred to the respective quarterly meetings.
It was quite common for Bucks county masters to liberate their slaves by . will, and some followed Penn's example by making provision for their support. Jeremiah Langhorne. who died in Middletown, in 1742, provided in his will for the freedom of all his slaves, between thirty and forty in number. Colonel
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Henry Wynkoop, of Northampton, set all his slaves free a few years before his death, 1816, but they refused to leave the homestead. It was the custom to advertise them for sale like other property. In 1751 James Gilkyson, Southamp- ton, advertised his farm and two slaves at public sale. When they ran away a reward was offered for their apprehension, and in 1818, Garret Vanartsdalen, Northampton township, offered five dollars reward for his negro slave "Bill," who was "well set, and of good appearance." He announces that "he may be purchased at a reasonable price." Most farmers had one or more, and some held several. The men were relied on for out-door work, the women for in- doors, and at one time or another slaves were found in nearly every household that could afford them. The late Samuel Hart, in a communication to the Pennsylvania Historical Society, 1845, says: "From fifty to sixty years ago I could stand on a corner of my father's farm (twenty miles from Philadelphia, on the old York road,) commanding an extensive view of a country beautifully situated, and naturally of excellent quality, and from that spot could count six- teen farmhouses, and in every house were slaves more or less." Under the operation of the abolition law, slaves gradually disappeared.
About the time of the Revolution, Friends took more advanced ground against slavery. In 1776 the yearly meeting adopted a minute directing monthly meetings to disown those who held slaves, and subordinate meetings appointed committees to carry out these views. The report of the Bucks quarterly, 1777, says: "Some have complied so far as to give those they had in bondage their liberty, by instruments of writing under their hands and seals, but there are others who still persist in holding them as slaves." In 1778 Sarah Growden and Joseph Lovett, both members of Falls meeting, were dealt with because they refused to set their negroes frec. The efforts of Friends and others, op- posed to negro slavery, were finally crowned with success, and by act of Assembly of March 1, 1780, the institution was abolished in Pennsylvania. The act provided, among other things, that all slaves then in the State should be registered before the Ist of November, 1782. The owners of slaves in this county complied promptly with the law, and as a failure to register worked the forfeiture of the slaves, no doubt the number put on record is correct. The whole number registered in the prothonotary's office, Newtown, was five hun- dred and twenty.
As a matter of interest, to the present generation, we give the names of the registered slave owners in Bucks county, with the number of slaves and the townships they lived in :
BRISTOL .- John Clark, 8; Joseph Mc- Ilvaine, 7; William Coxe, 4; George Gil- lespie, 3; William Walton, 7: Joseph Lovett, 3; Abraham Britton. 1; John Barnley, 2; Cornelius Vancourt, 1; Isaac Wykoff, 5 .- 41.
BRISTOL BOROUGH .- William Mellvaine, 6; Charles Bessonett, 1; Archibald Mc- Elroy, 2; Joshua Wright. 2: Christian Minnick, 5; Joseph Brown, 1: William Brodnax, 2; Timothy Merrick, 1; John Dowdney, 3 .- 23.
BEDMINSTER .- Robert Robinson, 1 .- I.
BUCKINGHAM .- Adam Barr, 4; William Bennet, 4 .- 8.
BENSALEM .- Joseph Vandegrift. 2: John Swift, 7; James Benezet, 6; Isaac Larrew, I; Richard Rue, 7; William Rodman, 6; John Kidd, 10; Elizabeth Vanartsdalen. 5: John Vandegrift, 3; Henry Limebacker. 1; Abraham Larrew, 2; David Dungan, Jr., 2; James Vanartsdalen, 2; Lawrence Johnson, 1; Samuel Benezet, 1; Augustin Willett, I; Matthias Fenton, 2; Harman Vansant, 1; Daniel Severns, 1; Abraham Vandegrift. 5 .- 66.
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DURHAM .- James Morgan, 7; Richard Backhouse, 3 .- 10.
FALLS .- Daniel Larrew, 5; Samuel Rich- -ardson, 1; Sarah Haney, 2; Thomas Riche, 19; Thomas Barclay, 11 .- 38.
NEW BRITAIN- Joseph Grier, I; John Grier, 2;'James Grier, 1; William Roberts, 1; Thomas Hockley, 2; Robert Shewell, 2 .- 9.
WARWICK .- Thomas West, I; John · Ramsey, 4; John Grier, 1; John Jamison, [; John Carr, 3; Hugh Mearns, 1; Joshua Dungan, 3; Hugh Ramsey, 1; Ann Brady, 1; Jonathan Dungan, 3; William Ransey, 1 .- 20.
WRIGHTSTOWN .- Joseph Sacket, 1; Wil- liam, Thompson, 6 .- 7.
WARMINSTER .- Isaac Beans, 2; Robert Miller, 1; Estate of John Earle, 3; Joseph Hart, 5; Joseph Hart, I; Thomas Craven, 9 .- 21.
WARRINGTON .- Andrew Long, 1; Na- thaniel Erwin, 3; Richard Walker, 5; Wil- liam Long, 1; Abraham Hollas, I .- II.
MILFORI .- George Hillegas, I .- I.
NORTHANTON .- Clement Dungan, 2; Gil- liam Cornell, 9; Elias Dungan, 6; Phoebe Spear, 1; Charles Garrison, 3; Richard Leedom, 1; Gerardus Wynkoop, I : Der- rick Kræsei, 6; Gilliam Cornell, Jr., 4; George Pars.,ns, 6; Ann Lefferts, 9; Henry Wynkoop, 10; Catharine Tennant, ' 7; Helena DuBos, I; John Kræsen, 4: David Dungan, 2; James Edams, 2; Enoch Marple, I; Ren Cornell, 4; William Ben- net, 4; Isaac Fennet, 2; Jacob Bennet, I ; John Bennet, 2; David Feaster, 1; Mary 1
Corson, 2; Arthur Lefferts, 3; Isaac Ben- net, 1; Isaac Vanhorne, 1; Jeremiah Dun- gan, Jr., 2; John Hegeman, 2; Joseph Fen- ton, 2 .- 101.
MIDDLETOWN .- Richard Ruc, 8; Anthony Tate, 3; James Boyd, 4; Daniel Larrew, Jr., 3; Gershom Johnson, I .- 19.
LOWER MAKEFIELD .- John Jones, 3; Wheeler Clark, 1; Joshua Anderson, I ; Richard Stillwell, 2; James Winder, 4; Thomas Yardley, 9; John Duer, 4; James Jolly, 1; Peter Vansant, 5 .- 30.
UPPER MAKEFIELD .- Bernard Vanhorne, I; Robert Grigg, 1 .- 2.
NEWTOWN .- Hannah Harris, 11 ; Samuel Yardley, 4; Lamb Torbert, 1; Margaret Strickland, 3; Martha Murray, I; Peter Lefferts, 2; Thomas Buckman, 1 .- 23.
PLUMSTEAD .- William Hart, 1; Joseph Thomas, 1; James Ruckman, 1 .- 3.
SOUTHAMPTON .- Wilhelmus Cornell, 4; Arthur Watts, 2; Derrick Hogeland, 3; Nicholas Vanartsdalen, 3; Jacob Vansant, 2; Simon Vanartsdalen, 3; Nicholas Van- zant, 3; Jacob Vandike, 8; Thomas Fol- well, 1; John Fenton, 2; Derrick Kræsen, 4; Jonathan Willett, 6 .- 41.
TINICUM .- William Davis, 1; Robert Ramsey, 1; Nicholas Patterson, 5; William McIntyre, 1; Alexander Mitchell, 3; Thomas Stewart, I; Thomas Ramsey, I ; Robert Stewart, 1; Arthur Irwin, 6 .- 20.
Registered without residence: Joseph Thornton, 4; Elizabeth Praul, 1 ; children of Langhorne Biles, 4; Hugh Tombs, 8; John Praul, 7; Francis Wilson, I .- 25.
The distribution of the slave population in Bucks county, 1780, is worth a moment's consideration. It was concentrated in twenty townships and one borough, and no slaves were held in Springfield, Hilltown or Rockhill. As a rule they were the most numerous in the townships settled by Hollanders, namely : Northampton had one hundred and one, nearly one-fifth of the whole, while three-fourtis of the forty-one in Southampton were owned by descend- ants of the same race, and one-third of the sixty-six in Bensalem. The largest individual slave-holder was Thomas Riche. Falls, who owned nineteen, while in the townships where the Friends were the most numerous, namely: Falls, Middletown, Lower and Upper Makefield, Bristol borough and township and Wrightstown, there were one hundred and sixty-three, nearly one-third of the whole. But few shaves were owned in townships settled by the Baptists and Presbyterians, namey : Warminster, Warwick, Warrington, New Britain, New-
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town and Bedminster. In all the German townships, including Durham, which was hardly a township at that day, there were but thirty-two slaves. This indi- cates that the Germans were averse to the institution, and true to their Teutonic ancestors' love of personal liberty. Six of the seven owned by James Morgan, Durham, are reported "supposed to be in New York with the enemy." The age, as well as the name, was registered. We find the oldest to be eighty-two years, owned by Peter Vansant, of Lower Makefield, named "Richard Gibbs," while the youngest was four months. Few of them, male or female, were above the age of forty-five, and only one was above seventy. From this it might be inferred that the mild type of slavery in Bucks county was not condu- cive to long life. After this period a slave was occasionally manumitted by his master and turned out into the world to shift for himself. This was done by deed under seal and properly acknowledged. Thus, May 23, 1787, Smith Price, "of the township of Plumstead, storekeeper." freed his female slave Esther, "about twenty-five years of age." The same day Nathaniel Ellicott, of Buckirg- ham, set free his slave woman Rachel McDaniel; the 5th of April, 1788, Anthony Burton, of Bristol township, set free seven slaves, probably all he owned ; the 24th of June, 1809, William Rodman, of Bensalem, set free his negro woman, Rosetta Grant, and her two children. There has fallen under our notice a deed of sale for a "certain mulatto slave woman called Nance, aged twenty years or thereabouts," by David Kinsey, adminstrator of David Kinsey, of Sclebury,. deceased, executed February 25th, 1761. The last recorded case of manumis- sion in this county is that of Ann Bering, Doylestown township, "but late from Charleston, South Carolina," who, on the 9th of December, 1824, set iree two girls aged ten and eight years and a boy aged six, on condition they bind them- selves by indenture to serve the said Ann Bering, her heirs and assigns, until twenty-eight years of age, which was recorded August 13, 1830. Matthew Hughes, born in Buckingham, 1733, has the credit of being the first person to- move a law in the Assembly, while he was a member for this courty, for the abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania. He died at nearly an hundred, and was. buried in the Buckingham graveyard.
The slaves sensibly decreased in the next seven years, for when the census was taken, in 1790, the number reported in the county was but 254 against 520 in 1783-a falling off of a little over one-half. The cause of this isnot apparent, unless it be found in the numerous manumissions, especially anong Friends. The largest owner of slaves in 1790 was Henry Wynkoof, of Northampton, while the name of Thomas Riche, who owned nineteen in 1783. does not appear on the list. The act of 1780 gradually extinguished slavery in Penn- sylvania. In 1790 there were but 3,737; in 1800, two thousand less ; in 1810, 795, and, in 1820 there were only 211 in the whole State. Many Interesting facts in the lives of the negro slaves of Bucks county might be collected with proper effort, but we have no leisure to pursue the investigation. They were not an unimportant part of the population in their day and generation, but their lives have passed beyond the realm of history.1
General Augustin Willett. Bensalem, had a favorite old dave who bore the high-sounding name of Priam, who was with his master in the Continental army and accompanied him in all his goings. The General'sestate was charged with his support. In 1802, a black woman, named Alice, cied near Bristol at the reputed age of one hundred and sixteen. She was born at Philadelphia,
I An official return of the population of Bucks county in 1784, gives the white inhabitants, 19.580, and the negroes, slave and free, 529, total 20119.
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of slave parents from Barbadoes, and, at ten years of age, removed with her master to Dunk's ferry near where she died. She remembered seeing William Penn and James Logan. She lost her eyesight between ninety and one hundred, but it returned to her. She received the ferriage at Dunk's ferry for forty years, and, when one hundred and fifteen made a visit to Philadelphia. In 1805 a negro man, named Jack, the slave of Colonel William Chambers, died in Middle- town, about the same age as Alice. About 1863, an old slave woman, whose name, and that of her master, has escaped us, died in Bucks County Alms House, upward of one hundred years of age. She said she was present at the reception of Washington at Trenton, at the close of the Revolution. We believe. she came from Upper Makefield. In September, 1872, a negro woman, named Margaret, died in Philadelphia, over one hundred, who had an eventful life .. She was the grand-daughter of a king and queen on the Guinea coast who. were sold to a Vandegrift, of Bensalem. When slavery was abolished in Penn- sylvania, she was bound out for a term of years, but afterward resold into) slavery and carried to Virginia.
Soon after the introduction of negro slavery into America, regulations; were made for the return of fugitives, and, from this, grew our "Fugitive Slave- Law" under the constitution. These Colonial regulations only applied, at first,. to the respective Colonies, but were extended to neighboring Colonies, and' the Indian tribes. In 1627, the West India Company promised to return the. slaves of all masters who settled in New Netherlands, and a little later, the Swedish Colonists asked the same privilege. An act against fugitives was. passed in East Jersey in 1686, and, in a short time, similar laws were ex- tended to all the Colonies. In New England they were applied to every descrip- tion of servants. The authorities cite a number of international cases. The return of fugitives was prohibited in England by the famous Somersett case, 1771, when the court declared slavery could no longer exist by positive law. Our Articles of Confederation, 1781, the Treaty of Peace, 1783, and our treaties with the Indian tribes, all recognized the right of arresting fugitives. The claim in the Federal Constitution settled the question in its favor, until' the amendment of 1865 prohibited forever, and wiped out all statutes, State and Federal.
During the latter year of the slavery agitation and down to the Civil war, the "Underground Railroad,"" so called, played an important part in keeping alive the excitement and embroiling the North and South. The name, "Under- ground Railroad" is said to have been first used by some baffled Southern masters in the early days of escaped slaves, who, when the trail suddenly dis- appeared at Columbia, Pennsylvania. angrily exclaimed, "There must be an underground railroad in the neighborhood," and so there was.
"Before the end of the first decade of the nineteenth century, the hegira of Southern slaves, toward the promised land of Canada, had fairly set in. When the hunted fugitives started on their northern pilgrimage. following the light of the North Star by night and hiding during the day in barns, deep
2 The material that enables us to make this interesting addition to the chapter, is taken from Dr. Edward II. Magill's paper on the "Underground Railroad," read before the Bucks County Historical Society in January, 1898, and which he placed at our disposal. Sometimes we quote the exact text, at others we are obliged to condense to bring it within our space. We hope this will not be considered a mutilation-when resorting to this we have endeavored to give the exact substance. It makes a valuable addition to the history of Bucks county.
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woods, under hay stacks, corn shocks, or any other available place of con- cealment found on their route, they but little appreciated the long and weary way before them. Many were grieviously disappointed, on reaching a free State, by finding they were still within easy reach of their pursuing masters ; and the fact of their being sold to the far South the almost certain penalty of an attempt to secure their freedom, greatly increased their fear of recapture. The northward migration toward the land of freedom was naturally through Pennsylvania, and in this State, perhaps no counties were traversed by so large a number of fugitives as York, Adams, Chester and Lancaster. Nearly all who were accounted Abolitionists, in these and other counties, were members of the Society of Friends. A noted exception, and prominent among them, many years ago, was the Rev. Samuel Aaron of Norristown, who was a native of New Britain, this county.
"As the principal line of escape through Pennsylvania was by the way of York, Adams, Chester and Lancaster counties, the 'Underground Railroad' through Bucks was less used, and less perfectly organized. Still many slaves escaped through this county, reaching it over the northern Chester county line, by way of Norristown, coming up through Philadelphia, and there very frequently found homes and occupation with Bucks county farmers, some re- maining several years. At the home of my father, Jonathan P. Magill, Solebury, many were thus received, beginning as far back as my memory goes. Many stories of their experience as slaves and their efforts to escape were told my brother Watson and myself by our hired colored men, which stories are more or · less in my memory."
The slavery agitation was increased, and business on the "Underground Railroad" stimulated, after the issue of William Lloyd Garrison's Liberator, Boston, 1832, followed by the Genius of Universal Emancipation, Baltimore. The latter's motto, "No Union with Slaveholders," was equivalent to a declara- tion of war against human servitude, and it was not long before the bold editor occupied a cell in the county jail. This declaration of principles was signed by fifty, but only one from Bucks county, the late Robert Purvis, Bensalem. It is related, that when these pioneers in the cause were about to affix their signa- tures, a friend of James Mott remarked to him, "Remember thou art engaged in business with the South ; it may ruin thy trade to sign it ;" whereupon his wife, sitting by, said to her husband, "Put down thy name, James," and down it went. not the first time a woman's voice had turned the scale when principle was at stake.
Of the comparatively small band that joined the anti-slavery cause at this early period in Bucks county, all were interested from the beginning in the opera- tion of the "Underground Railroad." Among them, however, were some most efficient workers who did not consider themselves Garrison Abolitionists, being too cautious and conservative to place themselves under his revolutionary ban- ner. The route of northern travel through Bucks, so far as could be ascertained, was less clearly marked than through Chester and Lancaster, and the distance between stations, about ten miles, less observed. The escaping fugitives usually entered the county from the south by way of Philadelphia, but many came by the Chester county line via Norristown, heading to the north-east. After this lapse of time it is impossible to name all the families active in this humane. but "unlawful," work of aiding slaves to escape through Bucks county, and many of those omitted doubtless performed an equally meritorious part and incurred equal risk.
In the lower part of the county, among those ever ready to receive with
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sympathy these unhappy fugitives, to care for them, give or procure them em- ployment'on their northern flight, then furnish them proper credentials, take, or. send them by others on their way, sometimes covered, or disguised to avoid detection, or, when safe to do so, paying their fares and sending them on by stage. Dr. Magill mentions the following names : Robert Purvis, Barclay Ivins, the Pearces, Swains, Beanses, Lintons, Schofields, Buckmans, Janneys, Twinings, Jonathan Palmer, William Lloyd, William Burgess and Jolly Long- shore. After a journey northward ten or twenty miles, the fugitives were re- ceived and kindly cared for, until ready to go farther north, by the Atkinsons, Browns, Tregos, Blackfans, Smiths, Simpsons, Paxsons, John E. Kenderdine, Jonathan P. Magill, Jacob Heston, William H. Johnson, Joseph Fell and Ed- ward Williams.
"Having but slight acquaintance with friends of the slave in the northern end of the county, I can only say that the friends of the middle section generally forwarded fugitives to Richard Moore, Quakertown, or sometimes more directly further by stage or private conveyance, to the Vails or Jacob Singmaster, Stroudsburg. On reaching these northern points, having put so many miles of weary travel between them and their masters in the South, their feeling of security generally increased, and still more was this the case on reaching Montrose or Friendsville. In Susquehanna county, under the kind care of Israel Post, Montrose, or Caleb Calmalt, Friendsville, and other Friends to aid them, they had reached ground, on which, in those days of difficult travel, the slave-holder rarely ventured in search of his slaves. A comparatively short journey from these places brought them to the state of New York."
Quakertown, the home of Richard Moore, was the last important station in Bucks on the "Underground Railroad," and to which the lines of north- eastern Chester and most of the Bucks county lines converged. This was a point for distribution farther north, to the Lehigh and Susquehanna valleys and thence to Canada, the fugitives lying concealed by day and traveling the moun- tains and forests by night, through a region where slaveholders seldom pursued their runaways. Notwithstanding their comparative safety, such was their terror they wished to reach Canada as soon as possible. Of Richard Moore, Dr. Magill speaks as follows :
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