History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 75

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534

USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania > Part 75

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

"I noticed that the two female servants employed in the family had, both of them, been lately hired from on board a vessel lying in the Dela- ware, and which had recently arrived from Amsterdam with several hundred Germans, men, women and children, of that description of pro- plecalled in America redemptioners. They are the people in low circum- stances, who, bring desirons of setthing in America, and not having money to pay their passage, agree with the American captains of vessels to be taken over on condition of hiring for a term of years, on their arrival in America, to masters who are willing to advance ten or twelve guineas to be deducted out of their wages ; and it not unfrequently happens that they agree to serve two or three or four years for meat and clothes only, on condition of their passage being paid. Yet, as wages in the general are rather high in America, it will easily be supposed that an active and clever person conversant in some business will make much better terms on landing than the old or the infirm. or those who erme over ignorant of any business. I noticed many families, pirtienlarly in Pennsylvania, of gront respectability both in our Society and amongst

299

REDEMPTIONERS.

others, who had themselves come over to this country as redemption- ers, or were children of such. And it is remarkable that the German residents in this country have a character for greater industry and sta- bility than those of any other nation."

We have here the admission that even among Quakers some had come over as redemptioners to near the beginning of this century.

Redemptioners frequently ran away from their mas- ters, and advertisements appeared in the newspapers of this period of rewards being offered for their arrest and recovery. A sample is here given of three who were residents of the county. Mathias Holstein, of Upper Merion, gives notice, in the Pennsylvania Gazette of January 29, 1750-51, that " an English servant man, named Christopher Major, about thirty years of age, tall and slender' and pock-marked, run away on Saturday, the 20th instant. Whoever takes up and secures said servant, so as his master may have him again, shall have forty shillings reward and reasonable charges paid. He had a pass from his master to go to Philadelphia on the 19th instant, to return the 26th, which it is supposed he altered." Jacob Paul, ot Abington township, offers, in the Evening Post of February 15th, 1776,-

" Three dollars reward. - Ran away on the 28th of Jannary, 1776, from the subscriber, an apprentice lad, bound, by the name of Robert Mans, of a slender make, abont nineteen years of age, near five feet six inches high, and whitish hair. He had on, and took with him, our home-made light-colored country couter lined with striped linsey, an upper jacket, a pair of buckskin breeches, two home-made shirts, two good pairs of yarn hose, of a dark mixed color, one pair of strong shoes and a small-rimmed hat, made at Germantown. Whoever takes up the said apprentice and secures him in jail, so that his master gets him again, shall have the above reward and reasonable charges."

William Stroud, keeper of the prison at Norris- town, has this advertisement in the Pennsylvania Packet, under date of O tober 7, 1789,-

" Was committed to the goal of Montgomery County, a certain George Sharpe, who says he is a servant to Patrick Story. in Sussex County, State of New Jersey. His master is desired to take him away in three weeks from this date, or he will be sold for his fres."

The aforesaid advertisements, from the varied in- formation furnished, are admirably calenlated to give us an insight into the system of servitude as it for- merly prevailed here, fully confirming the harshness of the act passed in 1700, and was still practically en- foreed, though almost a century had passed away since its adoption. Respecting Jacob Paul, we know from the assessor's list of said year that he was the owner of a farm of two hundred and eighty-eight acres, kept at least two grown negro slaves, seven horses, seven eattle, and a riding-chair. It may therefore be possible from the system that prevailed, that the said lad of nineteen years of age was forced to live and be treated on a level with those slaves. As passes were required to go abroad, we see here how easy it wasto arrest such on mere suspicion, and if no owner came, to sell them for charges. Through brutal treatment the round might be kept up, and thus end at least his best days in a degrading state of bondage. We find that though the system was

diminishing, German redemptioners are mentioned in our statutes in 1817 and 1818. A law was only passed February 8, 1819, " that no female shall be ar- rested or imprisoned for or by reason of any debt con- tracted after the passage of this act." With the final abolition for the imprisonment of debts theinstitution had necessarily to die out without any special enact- ment or repeal, so slow has ever been the advance- ment and regard for popular rights, even in this great commonwealth and enlightened age.

In connection with this subject, interesting stories have been told that border on romance. For the fol- lowing narrative we are indebted to a descendant, the family ranking now among the most respectable in Lower Salford. George Heckler was a native of Lower Alsace, on the Rhine, where he was born in 1736. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to learn the tailoring trade, and at eighteen became free from his master, when he was compelled to go on his " wanderscraft " for three years as a journeyman ere he could be permitted to set up for himself. This deter. mined him to flee to America, and he arrived in Phila- delphia, September 30, 1754, in the ship "Neptune" from Rotterdam. Such was his poverty that he was unable to meet his expenses, and in consequence was sold by the captain to serve three years as a redemp- tioner. His purchaser was John Steiner, a German farmer, residing in Coventry township, Chester Co., opposite the present borough of Pottstown. The sum paid was equivalent to forty-eight dollars of our currency. After the expiration of his service he ob- tained employment in Lower Salford, where he miar- ried Christiana, daughter of Peter Freed, a substantial yeoman. Such was his industry and frugality that in 1785 he purchased his father-in-law's farm of two hundred and forty-three acres for two thousand pounds. His surplus products he generally conveyed to the Philadelphia market on horseback. lle sur- vived until August 28, 1816, at his death being eighty years of age, leaving an estate valued between thirty and forty thousand dollars.

The late Joseph J. Lewis, of West Chester, in 1828, wrote an amusing account of the "soul-drivers," a name given to those men that drove redemptioners through the country with a view of disposing of them to farmers. They generally purchased them, in lots of fifty or more, from captains of ships, to whom the redemptioners were bound for three or more years of service in payment of their passage. For awhile the trade was brisk, but at last was relinquished by reason of the numbers that ran away from those dealers or dri- vers. These ignominious gangs disappeared about the year 1785. A story is told how one of these was tricked by one of his men. The fellow, by a little manage- ment, contrived to be the last of the flock that re- mained unsold, and traveled about with his master. One night they lodged at a tavern, and in the morn- ing the young fellow, who was an Irishman, rese early, sold his master to the landlord, pocketed the money,

300

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

and hastened off. Previously, however, to his going, he took the precaution to tell the purchaser that though tolerably clever in other respects, he was rather saucy and a little given to lying ; that he had even been presumptuous enough at times to endeavor to pass for master, and that he might possibly repre- sent himself as such to him.

Though the system of servitude possessed its ad- vantages, especially to a people residing in a new and unsettled country, it had its attending drawbacks, It was a relie that originated in the long past of Europe, and, like slavery, was continued and enforced on the colonies. That it was also the means of bring- ing here numbers of vagrants, paupers and convicts there is no doubt. The evils of this system Dr. Franklin, in his paper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, of May 9, 1751, sarcastically attacked, where he says, that in return, as a proper exchange, we should furnish rattlesnakes, to be distributed through the parks and haunts of the British courtiers and office-holders, especially for the ministers, nobility and members of Parliament. With servitude has now gone its kindred evil, the inden- tured apprentice system. The laws, as well as the sentiment that uphell these, show, from the power conferred, that in the hands of the cruel, arbitrary, oppressive and avaricious they must have been often abused, to the deterioration of the morals of both parties.

Slavery.1-The early history of slavery as it ex- isted within the limits of Montgomery County has perhaps not heretofore been treated. It is a sub- ject now so at variance with existing ideas that like servitude, it becomes only the more interesting from the diversity it presents in denoting the changes going on in our social and domestic life. There is no question, but as established in Pennsylvania, it was of a rather milder character than that of the other colonies. It was a forced institution, continued and upheld by the British government as long as they possessed the authority, which an eight years' war and independence only checked. The blood shed at Brandywine, at Germantown, and the suffering at Valley Forge was also for the benefit of the African, and for which he should also be grateful, for even before the return of peace Pennsylvania had made provisions for his emancipation.

Judging from the legislation here on slavery, the im- portation of negroes must have commenced soon after the arrival of Penn. In the famous protest from the Germans at Germantown, the 18th of Second Month, 1688, to their fellow-members of the Society of Friends, they say,-

"llere is liberty of conscience, which is right and reasonable, here ought to be likewise liberty of the body, except of evil-doers, which is another case. But to bring men hither, or to rob or sell them against their will, we stand against. In Europe there are many oppressed for conscience sake ; and here are those'oppressed which are of a black color. Ah! do consider well this thing, who do it, if you would be done in this

manner? aml if done according to Christianity. This makes an ill report in those countries of Europe that the Quakers do here handle men as they there handle the cattle, and for that reason have no inclination to come hither. And who shall maintain this your cause, or plead for it? Truly we cannot do so, except you shall inform us hetter hereof, that Chris- tians have liberty to practice these things. We who profess that it is not lawful to steal, must likewise avoid to purchase such things as are stolen, but rather stop this robbing and stealing, if possible. llave not those negroes as much right to fight for their freedom as you may have to keep them slaves? We desire and require you hereby lovingly that you may inform us herein that Christians have such a liberty to do, and satisfy likewise our good friends and acquaintances in our native country, to whom it is a terror or fearful thing that men should be treated so in Pennsylvania."

From the importance of this document and the proceedings connected therewith, we regret from its length in not giving the whole. Suffice it to say that it was duly signed and transmitted to the Monthly Meeting, from thence assigned to the Quarterly Meeting at Philadelphia, and lastly to the Yearly Meeting held at Burlington, the 7th of Fifth Month, 1688, with this result on their minutes :

" A Paper being here presented by some German Friends, concerning the lawfulness and unlawfulness of buying and keeping Negroes, It was ioljulgedl not to be so proper for this Meeting to give a Positive Judgment in the Case, it having so General a Relation to many other Parts, and therefore at present they forbear it."

We see here in this evasive reply the prevailing sentiment of the English element in its favor. The moral right to uphold and countenance the institu- tion by Friends was the question, and to whom for this purpose it was alone directed. This effort at early abolition was made but little over five years after Penn's landing, and shows that slavery must have been already pretty well established to have thus claimed attention, as it existed among a body that at this time constituted a majority of the population. The Ger- mans, however, to their credit, put their theory into practice, and forbore in any manner to countenance slavery, and this result alone saved us from pos- sessing a large negro population like in all of the neighboring colonies.

Reference has been made to early legislation on this subject, a matter that has hitherto been too much overlooked. We thus find, from the proceedings of Council held July 11, 1693, that

" I'mon the request of some of the members, that an order made by the Conrt of Quarter Sessions for the Conntie of Philadelphia, the 4th in- stant, proceeding upon a presentment of the Grand Jury against the tunmultnous gatherings of the negroes of the towne of Philadelphia, on the first days of the weeke, ordering the Constables of Philadelphia, or anie other person whatsoever, to bave power to take up negrors, male or female, whom they should find gadding abroad on the first dayes of the week, without a tickett from their Master or Mistress, or not in their compiny, or to carry them to goale, there to remain that night, and that without meat or drink, and to cause them to be publicly whipt next morning with thirty-nine lashes, well laid on, on their bare backs, for which their said Master or Mistress should pay fifteen pence to the whipper att his dehverie of ym to yr Master of Mistress, and that the sait order should be Confirmed by the Lient .- Governor [Markham] and Commeill. The Lieut .- Governor and Councill, looking upon the said pre- sentment to proceed upon goud grounds, and the order of Court to be reasonable and for the benefit of the towne of Philadelphia, and that it will be a means to prevent further mischief's that might ensue upon such disorders of negroes, doe ratifie and confirme the same, and all persons are required to putt the sd order in excention."

1 By Win. J. Buck.

301

SLAVERY.

An aet was passed in 1705 "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 anel riots. A petition was sent to the assembly 4th of Twelfth Mouth, 1706-7, "from several freeman inhab- itants of the city of Philadelphia, complaining of the want of employment and lowness of wages, occasioned by the number of Negroes belonging to some of the inhabitants of the said city and others, who, being hired ont to work by the day, take away the work of the Petitioners, to their great discouragement, and praying that provisions for restraint of so many Negroes as are at present employed be made by the House, was read, and ordered to be read again."

A spirit was now being aroused from the laboring or common people that the further importation of negroes be checked by increased duties and some other restrictions. The first act was passed in 1705, another in 1710, and again in 1715, all of which the British government disallowed. In 1708 a committee of the House of Commons reported that the trade was "important and ought to be free," and again in 1711, " that the plantations ought to be supplied with negroes at reasonable rates." Good Queen Anne, who abrogated the act of 1710 prohibiting the importation of slaves into the province, three years latter congrat- ulated Parliament in having secured for the nation a new market for slaves in the Spanish dominions. So great, in fact, was the importance attached by the home government to this sinful commerce that an English merchant, in 1745, published a political treatise, entitled " The African Slave Trade the Great Pillar and Support of the British Plantation Trade in America."

Unfortunately, to the great encouragement of the traffic, the British colonists here would purchase them, and we cannot find that any particular or active efforts were made here to discontinue this by any religious denomination down almost to the Revolu- tion, and was then only brought about from the excitement attending the passage of the Stamp Act, when the questions of political liberty and the rights of man arose and were being violently agitated and foreboded revolution. The Society of Friends, en- couraged by this feeling, no doubt, now forbade its members any further purchasing or holding of slaves, under penalty of disownment. We introduce the subjeet here in this connection from the powerful influence that the Society had so long here maintained, clown at least to the opening of the French and Indian war, in 1755, when the home government forced their retirement from political positions, and were conse- quently hereafter not so accountable for subsequent proceedings. Peter Kalm, in his "Travels " in 1748 -49, thus expresses himself on the subject :

" Formerly the Negroes were brought over from Africa, and bought

by almost every one who could afford it. The Quakers alone scrupled to have slaves ; but they are no longer so nice, and they have as many Negroes as the other people. However, many cannot conquer the idea of its being contrary to the laws of Christianity to keep slaves. There are likewise several free Negroes in town, who have been lucky euongh to get a very zealous Quaker for their master, who gave them their liberty after they had faithfully served him for some tiute."

Among those early advocates for the abolition of slavery residing in our county can be mentioned the eccentric Benjamin Lay, of Abington, who wrote a book against its evils, printed by Franklin in 1737, being a 32mo. of 280 pages, wherein he calls " all slave-keepers that keep the innocent in bondage, apostates. A practice so gross and hurtful to religion, and destructive to government, beyond what words ean set forth, and yet lived in by ministers and magis- trates in America. Written for a general service, by him that sincerely desires the present and eternal wel- fare and happiness of all mankind." Hle refleets on the Society for holding slaves, and says, "The best and only way for Friends or others that now have slaves is to discharge themselves of them." Ile uses rather coarse language, and complains of his forcible ejections for speaking on the subject in their meetings. He also introduces personal allusions concerning its lead- ing and influential slave-holding members.

In the Friends' Miscellany (vol ix.), edited by John and Isaac Confly, we find this extract respecting Ab- ington Meeting :

" The concern of Friends on the subject of slavery, frequently referred to in the minutes ; connnittees were appointed to visit such members as held slaves, or were concerned in buying or selling them. In 1769 report was made that all such had been visited, and there appeared a dispo- sition prevailing in divers to set their slaves free at a suitable time. In 1776 it is noted that the labors of Friends appeared to be well treated in most instances. The next year two slaves are reported to have been manumitted by Jonathan Clayton. Several other cases of manumis- sion are afterwards noted. Selling slaves at this time was considered a disownable offense, and against the holding them Friends earnestly remonstrated with great patience and perseverence, and at length those members wbo continued obstinate in refusing to set their slaves free were disowned. It is much to the credit of Abington Monthly Meeting that but few cases of this character occurred within its limits."

We give these statements to remove an erroneous opinion, that the Friends as a body had from an early period resisted the introduction of slaves, and had even disowned members therefor. As to the latter, "it was not done until a few years previous to the passage of the emancipation law.

Among the evils attending slavery, it was not the African alone that was the sufferer. The Briton, worse than the Spaniarel, enslaved the native Indians centuries later, and the long existing period of en- lightenment did not avail. In the records of the past it is no unusual thing to find mention even here in Pennsylvania of Indian slaves. In the bill of sale, still existing, of the personal effects of Sir William Keith on his Horsham estate, to Dr. Thomas Græme and Thomas Sober, May 21, 1726, seventeen slaves are mentioned,-ten males and seven females,-of which ten were adults. One of the number is stated to be an Indian ealled Jane, with a son, wife of one of those negroes. However, an act had been passed in 1712 to

302

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

prevent the importing and selling of negroes or Indi- ans within the province, which the home government also annulled. Thomas Mayberry, a Friend, shortly after 1730 erected a forge on the Perkiomen Creek, at the present borough of Green Lane, which was chiefly carried on by the labor of negro slaves down to about the Revolution.

With the increased sentiment of popular rights, Friends took more advanced grounds. Through in- structions received from the Yearly Meeting a com- mittee was appointed to ascertain the exact number of slaves belonging to the members of Plymouth Meeting, who reported to Gwynedd Monthly Meeting, 25th of Seventh Month, 1775, that the number was eight, who possessed seventeen slaves. This effort, made with a view to their liberation, though coming at a late hour, entitles them to some credit and shows that they were not so indifferent to the subject as formerly. But still, with the powerful hokl of the British govern- ment and from the conditions imposed, it was no easy matter to carry this into execution. We will take, for instance, the case of Thos. Lancaster, Sr., a member of Plymouth Meeting and the owner of a farm of two hun- dred acres in Whitemarsh, and after whom Lancaster- ville was called. Having been prevailed upon by the Society, after several years' entreaty, he at length con- sented and we now here present for the first time in print the conditions imposed upon him to carry out this measure legally according to the royal require- ments.

" At a general Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace, held for the City and County of Philadelphia, 6th of June, A. D., 1774, Thomas Lancaster of Whitemarsh township, in this county, Yeoman, acknowl- edges himself to be held and firmly bound unto our sovereign Lord the King in the sum of Thirty Pounds lawful money of Pennsylvania to be levied on his Goods, Chattels, Lands and Tenements to the use of our said Lord the King sub conditione. That, Whereas the said Thomas Lancaster hath mnanumitted and set free from Slavery a certain Negro Man named Cato, aged about forty-six years, and if the said Thomas Lancaster, his Executors and Administrators, shall and do well and truly hold and keep harmless and indemnified the Overseers of the Poor of the City and County of Philadelphia, respectively from all costs, charges and incum- brances whatsoever which shall or may happen or accrue in case the said Negro Man shall be sick or otherwise rendered incapable of sup- porting himself Then the above obligation to be void, otherwise to be and remain in full force and virtue agreeable to an Act of Assembly in such case made and provided."

While the institution prevailed here we find from records that slaves generally possessed bnt one name, as Pompey, Cæsar, Seipio, Cato, Prince, Jamaica, Guinea, Cuff, Tom, Jupiter and Cupid. Females were commonly called Silvia, Jude, Flora, Venus, Sall, Sook and Phill. On their death they were frequently buried in their masters' orchards or on the edge of their woodlands. Friends, on this matter, also exer- cised a care that they be not placed in too close proximity. From Middletown records, Bucks County, we learn that on 6th of Third Month, 1703, "Friends are not satisfied with having negroes buried in Friends' burying-ground; therefore Robert Heaton and Thomas Stackhouse are appointed to fence off a portion for such uses." Again, from the same, Ist of Second

Month, 1738, "deceased negroes forbidden to be buried within the bounds of the graveyard belonging to this Meeting." Although the Legislature of Penu- sylvania had passed a law making it a penalty to marry a white and negro a short time before the late great Rebellion, yet had they examined the early laws they would have found such an enactment, which there is reason to believe has not been repealed. It was passed in 1725, and provided that "any Minis- ter, Pastor or Magistrate or other, whatever, joining in marriage any negro and white person" should incur a penalty of one hundred pounds.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 75

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534