Notices of Negro Slavery as connected with Pennsylvania

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NOTICES

of

as

Beetle's Notices of Negro Slavery

NOTICES, ETC.

We trust we shall not indulge hopes too sanguine, if we should now anticipate, that by the united labors of our Society, Pennsylvania will receive that illustration of her annals, character, and resources, which has so long been due to a State whose history in many important features is unique, and whose moral conduct exhibits lessons the most instructive, and examples the most encouraging, of active practical benevolence, and the positive application of the principles of Christianity to the administration of human affairs.

When we look at the history of Pennsylvania, as exhibited in the various important advances made by her citizens towards meliorating the condition of the oppressed and injured of the human race, and the relief of the miseries which crime has brought upon our species, our recollections are far more exalted and enduring than if we could boast our descent from the most illustrious warriors and heroes whose names have been emblazoned on the historic page.

A century and a half have now nearly elapsed since the great sage and lawgiver of Pennsylvania landed on her shores, and gave the first impulse to that spirit of Christian philanthropy which has ever since continued, amid the wars and miseries of the old world, to shed its light and diffuse its warmth from the sanctuary of our native soil; and it is not the mere vaunt of egotism or the idle declamation of a contracted mind to assert, that from the humble and unpretending efforts of this youthful member of the commonwealth of nations have arisen many of those plans of benevolence which are now adopted and zealously prosecuted by the most enlightened philanthropists of all countries.

The axiom, that the object of all good government is the freedom, order, and happiness of the governed, is now considered so self-evident and undeniable, that we may hardly be able sufficiently to appreciate the great merit of William Penn in proclaiming the sound and comprehensive doctrines contained in his charter, bill of rights, and great law, at a period when the most profound statesmen held and promulgated far different ideas of the true and proper constitution of government.

In contemplating the character of Penn and his noble views and plans of melioration, we perceive for the first time an attempt to found a government upon the basis of practical Christianity, desiring no other end than the welfare of those who might live under its happy influence; we find a man the personal friend and acquaintance of a despotic prince, and under a charter obtained from him founding a government recognizing the equal rights of all its citizens, educated in times of religious intolerance and persecution, and himself a severe sufferer for conscience sake, when invested with power, granting to such as differed from him in sentiment, nay, even to his oppressors, perfect freedom of religious opinion and practice.

We find him who was educated in a country where a sanguinary code of laws made the awful doom of death the indiscriminate punishment for the petty thief and the deliberate murderer, and at a time too when such a change was certain to be pronounced a visionary innovation, advocating and adopting that system of graduated and mitigated punishments which has since received the sanction of the wisest and best of his successors.

Sound judgment, comprehensive and enlarged policy, unbroken faith, and unsullied probity, formed in her earlydays the prominent characteristics of Pennsylvanian government; and, much as they may have been aberrated from, by many of her succeeding rulers, the influence of this early example has been powerfully operative upon her character and actions from that day to the present.

It is, however, beside our object at this time to expatiate upon the conduct of Penn and his coadjutors, in the prosecution of the ennobling designs to which we have alluded; our view is simply to show that from a government and people recognizing such principles and doctrines, and, in the midst of darkness and ignorance, displaying such vivifying light and knowledge, we might rightfully expect to see a cordial and active support of all measures calculated to relieve the miseries of mankind.

Under this view of the character of the founders of our State, we might with safety anticipate that humane sympathy, that powerful and impressive precept, and that prompt and active exertion in relation to the oppressed sons of Africa, which it is the object of the present sketch briefly to delineate; and we propose now to consider the exertions of Pennsylvanians previously to the year 1770, and to make her subsequent history, from that time to the present, the subject of another memoir.

It is not necessary in this State to urge arguments to show the total hostility of slavery to Christianity, reason, and the unalienable rights of mankind; but it behooves every Pennsylvanian to speak forth his honest abhorrence boldly, and his manly indignation loudly, into those ears which are professedly open, but it is feared virtually and practically shut, to the appeals for liberty, right, and justice, of a large portion of the inhabitants of a country whose Constitution is founded upon the principle that liberty and the pursuit of happiness are unalienable rights which we receive from God, and of which no earthly power can ever rightfully dispossess us: and we trust it will be shown that, as Pennsylvania early stood forth as an advocate of this deeply-injured class of humanity, so will she now, from the known opinions of her citizens, from her local situation, and from her moral influence in our confederacy, be compelled to take a decided and prominent attitude, and to proclaim and support the sacred rights of man, regardless of the ridicule of the unprincipled, or the mercenary calculations of those with whom human flesh and sinews, and tobacco, cotton, and sugar, are equally legitimate objects of traffic. How can we, as citizens of the United States, remain silent, unconcerned spectators of an American slave-trade within our borders, in our capital city, the boasted centre of free government,—a traffic, the wretched objects of which are bred for sale as regularly as horses and cattle, and whose treatment whilst on their way to market and when in the field of labor is scarcely upon a par with our beasts of burden. This is no highly wrought picture of gone-by days, but the hourly experience and practice of the present time.

Upon a comprehensive view of the subject, we think it may be asserted boldly, and without fear of contradiction, that the worst slavery, the most total prostration of the rights of man, and the most entire degradation of the image of God, are exhibited in the bondage of the negroes. This is the slavery which is not only practiced and tolerated, on the plea that it is an entailed and unavoidable evil, but is absolutely defended in the House of Representatives of the freemen of the United States, as being consistent with Holy Scripture, and with the mild religion of our Redeemer. Negro slavery has been compared to the bondage of the Hebrews and Romans; but there is no parallel, scarcely a remote analogy between them. The slavery of the Hebrews was as the submission of sons to their fathers; the slaves formed part of one common household, of which the patriarch was the kind paternal head; they labored in common with his own offspring, they tended his flocks with his own sons and daughters, they were protected by special ordinances of the Jewish law, and at the expiration of fifty years, there was a manumission of all slaves, and every one was entitled to land and money from their masters: and, in addition to this, there was that most important of all differences, viz., that Hebrew slavery was not hereditary Even this mild kind of bondage extended no further than to those who were actually purchased by the master; their offspring were free, and instead of the heart-sickening certainty of the American slave, that the oppression under which he suffers will be perpetuated, perhaps in an aggravated form, to his latest posterity, the Jewish bondsman saw in prospective for his offspring liberty, and perhaps honor and happiness. Among the Romans, if a slave exhibited talents and became distinguished for his mental powers, he generally obtained his freedom; and many of the most illustrious poets, statesmen, and warriors of Rome were freedmen. To compare then the kind and paternal government of the Hebrew slave, his certain prospect of obtaining an honorable freedom, or the hope of the Roman servant, who felt within his breast the energies and ambition of a powerful mind, to that dull, heartless, and oppressive reality, which sits like an incubus upon the breast of an American slave, that never to him shall the light of freedom dawn, or the present abjectness of his condition be changed for his rightful station among the inhabitants of the earth; to compare the two prospects together, is to contrast the occasional overcast of bright day with the impenetrable gloom of starless midnight, or to equal the whispers of hope to the sullen silence of despair. To hear such arguments as these proceeding from the source whence they have emanated, is a bad omen; it looks like a deliberate design not to meliorate, and finally by degrees to abolish the evil, but rather, in the face of former professions, to perpetuate forever this open and palpable infringement of the very unction and spirit of our free institutions. We affect great sympathy for enslaved Spain, we profess much commiseration for degraded Italy; nay, we even reprobate the Holy Alliance, for not undertaking a crusade in favor of the quondam land of science and of song, and are almost ready ourselves to assist in driving the barbarians from her soil: but what avails this profession? Do not all our vaunts of republicanism and free government amount to sheer mockery and insult to the name of religion, justice, and liberty, so long as a large number of the States of our confederacy continue the American slavery and slave-trade.

We are well aware that this is a subject of a momentous nature, fraught with difficulty and embarrassment, and eminently deserving calm, dispassionate, and mature consideration; and we would be very far from recommending, nay, even desiring, the immediate abolition of slavery—in proportion to the magnitude of the evil will be the tardiness and difficulty of its eradication—but we do insist that no excuse whatever can be made for the breeding system, for the American slave trade, and for the extension of slavery to new and uncontaminated soils, for the toted deprivation of the negroes by law of literary, moral, and religious instruction, and that the State governments are bound to take some prospective measures, however slow in effect and remote in final execution., to clear our land from so foul a stain on the national character.

We frequently hear from those engaged in slavery strong expressions of abhorrence of the practice, and great desires for the abolition of the evil. It is believed that in many instances these professions are true and sincere, and we rejoice in the existence of such feelings; but we think we may be allowed to question their general verity, when we see, even in those States where there is least excuse for the permanent continuance of the evil, an anxious desire to defile with slavery new portions of our territories, and a steady adherence to their former cruel and degrading policy, without one solitary prospective glance at melioration, or one act which has the most remote bearing upon its abolition, but rather an increasing disposition to quench inquiry and discussion upon the subject. We shall not, however, at present, say more on these points, but proceed to our narrative.

In order to give a clear idea of the relative period at which slavery was first opposed in Pennsylvania, it may perhaps be proper to take a cursory review of the origin of the African slave trade, and of the opposition it encountered up to the year 1688.

The infamy of being the first who brought the miserable sons of Africa as slaves from their native soil attaches itself to the Portuguese, who, as early as 1481, built a castle on the Gold coast, and from thence ravaged the country, and carried off the inhabitants to Portugal, where they were sold into bondage. In 1503 slaves were first taken from the Portuguese settlements in Africa to the Spanish possessions in America; and from that time to 1511, large numbers were exported to the colonies of Spain by permission of King Ferdinand V After his death, the proposal was made to the Regent of Spain, Cardinal Ximenes, by Las Casas, Bishop of Chiapa, to establish a regular commerce in African slaves, under the plausible and well-intentioned, but fallacious pretext of substituting their labor in the colonies for that of the native Indians, who were rapidly becoming exterminated by the severity of their labor and the cruel treatment of their Spanish masters. To the immortal honor of Cardinal Ximenes, he rejected the proposition on the ground of the iniquity of slavery itself in the abstract, and also the great injustice of making slaves of one nation for the liberation of another. The Cardinal appears, therefore, to have been the first avowed opponent of this traffic in men.

After the death of this prelate, the emperor, Charles V., in 1517, encouraged the slave trade, and granted letters patent for carrying it on; but he lived to see his error and most nobly renounced it, for he ordered and had executed a complete manumission of all African slaves in his American dominions. About this time Pope Leo X. gave to the world this noble declaration: "That not only the Christian religion, but nature herself cried out against a state of slavery." In the year 1562, in the reign of Elizabeth, the English first stained their hands with the negro traffic: Captain, afterwards Sir J. Hawkins, made a descent on the African coast, and carried away a number of the natives, whom he sold to the Spaniards in Hispaniola; and although censured by the queen, it appears that he still continued to prosecute the trade. The French commenced this business about the same time, although Louis XIII. gave the royal sanction with reluctance, and only when soothed by the delusive pretext of converting the Africans to Christianity. In 1645 a law was passed by the General Assembly of Massachusetts, prohibiting the buying and selling of slaves, except those taken in lawful war or reduced to servitude for their crimes by a judicial sentence; and these were to have the same privileges as were allowed to Hebrew slaves by the law of Moses. In 1713 the Legislature of Massachusetts imposed a heavy duty on every negro imported into the State. The next in order amongst those worthy and enlightened men, who were the very early opponents of slavery, is the founder of the Society of Friends, George Fox. This pious Christian visited Barbadoes in 1671, and whilst there advised such of his brethren as held slaves to teach them the principles of religion, treat them mildly, and after certain years of labor set them free.

Contemporary with George Fox was William Edmundson, who was a worthy minister of this society, and who also was a fellow traveller with Fox in Barbadoes.Being brought before the Governor, on the charge of teaching the negroes Christianity, and thereby causing them to rebel and destroy their owners, he made an answer which we quote entire,—as it strongly shows that the same kind of clamor against giving negroes instruction which at present exists upon the same plea, that it would be inconsistent with the safety of their masters, has existed from the very beginning; and the answer which this worthy man gave to the slaveholders of that day is admirably adapted to those of the present time. In reply to the charge recited above, he says. "That it was a good thing to bring them to the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus, and to believe in him who died for them and all men, and that this would keep them from rebelling and cutting any person's throat; but if they did rebel and cut their throats, as the Governor insinuated they would, it would be their own doing in keeping them in ignorance and under oppression, in giving them liberty to be common with women like brutes, and on the other hand in starving them for want of meat and clothes convenient; thus giving them liberty in that which God restrained, and restraining them in meat and clothing."

In 1673, Richard Baxter, and, in 1680, Morgan Godwyn, both clergymen, wrote forcibly against slavery

From 1680 to 1688, it does not appear that any public opposition to slavery was made; and, as the last-mentioned year was an important era in the history of Pennsylvania, as connected with this subject, we shall now proceed to embody the comparatively scanty and imperfect materials which we have been able to collect. Soon after the first settlement of Pennsylvania, a few slaves were introduced from the West Indies; and the practice was in some degree tolerated by Friends, as well as the other early settlers of the province, on the pretence of a scarcity of laborers. The number imported, or the precise manner in which they were introduced, we have not been able to learn; the evil, however, soon became so obvious and increasing, as to excite the attention of the Society of Friends; and we may here remark that in the succeeding pages we shall often have occasion to notice the labors of this body of Christians. To the influence of their precept and example, to their moral weight in the community, and the untiring zeal and activity with which they prosecuted this work of benevolence, are mainly to be attributed the abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania.

About the year 1682, a number of persons of this society emigrated from Krieshiem, in Germany, and settled themselves in Pennsylvania; and to this body of humble, unpretending, and almost unnoticed philanthropists belongs the honor of having been the first association who ever remonstrated against negro slavery. In the year 1688, they presented a paper to the Yearly Meeting of Philadelphia, then held at Burlington, as appears by a minute of that meeting, protesting against the buying, selling, and holding men in slavery, as inconsistent with the Christian religion. The Yearly Meeting then determined that, as the subject had reference to the members of the society at large, before resolving definitively on any measure, time should be allowed for its mature consideration.

We have used many endeavors to obtain a copy of this highly interesting document; but are sorry to believe that neither the original nor the copy is in existence.We cannot, however, pass from this paper without paying a small tribute of admiration and gratitude to these early and dignified friends of human freedom and happiness.

With the information now so generally diffused in regard to the total hostility of slavery to religion and the rights of man, we cannot perhaps fully appreciate the enlightened views and clear discernment, which enabled these humble individuals to proclaim doctrines and principles so much in advance of the received opinions of the age; for at that time, as has been before remarked, negro slavery was a far less appalling and extended evil than at present. Even by many philanthropists it was esteemed rather a blessing than a curse, and was encouraged on the plausible pretence of meliorating the condition of the Africans themselves, by imbuing them with Christianity, and dispelling their mental darkness and gloom; and, by the comparative mildness of their treatment, some countenance was given to these delusive opinions. In the midst then of mitigating circumstances, did these worthy men, taking the abstract principles of right and wrong for their guide, and possessing a manly sense of the rights of their fellow creatures, proclaim to the world that, while they emigrated to enjoy their own liberty, they were willing to extend its blessings universally.

In 1696, several papers from the subordinate meetings having been read, the Yearly Meeting, after deliberation, issued this advice,—"That Friends be careful not to encourage the bringing in of any more negroes; and that such as have negroes be careful of them, bring them to meeting, and have meetings with them in their families, and restrain them from loose and lewd living, as much as in them lies, and from rambling abroad on first days." In this year also, George Keith and his friends, who had seceded from the Quakers, published a paper on the subject, containing some very sound and cogent arguments. They asserted that the negroes were men, the common objects, with the rest of mankind, of redeeming love; that they had been taken by violence from their native land, and were unjustly detained in bondage; and finally, that the whole institution of slavery was contrary to the religion of Christ, the rights of man, and sound reason and policy.

The next efforts in favor of the negroes were made by the founder of our State. A mind so liberal, expansive, and benevolent as his could not be indifferent to a subject of this highly interesting character; and, from the first introduction of slaves into Pennsylvania, he appears to have been desirous of improving their condition. Accordingly, in 1700, he introduced the subject to the monthly meeting of Philadelphia., and the following minute was made by that body, viz.:—

"Our dear friend and governor having laid before this meeting a concern that hath lain upon his mind for some time, concerning the negroes and Indians, that Friends ought to be very careful in discharging a good conscience towards them in all respects, but more especially for the good of their souls, and that they might, as frequent as may be, come to meetings on First Days; upon consideration whereof, this meeting concludes to appoint a meeting for the negroes, to be kept once a month, &c., and that their masters give notice thereof in their own families, and be present with them at the said meetings as frequent as may be."

These resolutions having been adopted without difficulty by his own immediate friends, he proceeded in his work of benevolence, and endeavored to secure a proper treatment of slaves among all descriptions of persons by a legislative act. As a preliminary to further measures he was anxious to improve their moral condition, and by degrees to fit them for liberty and happiness; and accordingly introduced into the Assembly a bill " for regulating negroes in their morals and marriages," and also a bill "for the regulation of their trials and punishments." To the great astonishment and chagrin of the worthy governor, the first of these bills was negatived, and his humane intentions for the present defeated.

This unexpected result is attributed by Clarkson, in his Life of Penn, to various reasons, viz.: the hostility which then prevailed in the Assembly to all projects emanating from the executive—the jealousies which existed between the province and territories—the influx of emigrants of a lower tone of moral feeling than the first settlers of the colony, and the diminution of Quaker influence in the Assembly; the executive council, composed wholly of members of this society, having concurred with Penn in proposing the bill.

The same causes appear to have been in operation for several years after; and we accordingly find a degree of severity and rigor in the legislative enactments of 1705, entirely at variance with the humane policy of Penn and with the benevolent laws of a very few years later date.

The law of 1705 was entitled "an act for the trial and punishment of negroes." The act provided that negroes convicted of heinous crimes, such as murder, manslaughter, burglary, rape, &c., should be tried by three justices of the peace and six freeholders of the vicinage; that the punishment of death should be awarded to such offences; that any negro convicted of carrying arms without his master's consent, should, on conviction before a magistrate, receive twenty-one lashes; and finally, that not more than four negroes should meet together without their master's permission, on the penalty of receiving any number not exceeding thirty-nine lashes, on conviction before one justice of the peace. This law was intended as a substitute for William Penn's act of 1700, for the "trial and punishment of negroes." In this same year a law was passed to prevent the importation of Indian slaves, under penalty of forfeiture to the governor; and also a bill laying a duty on all negroes imported into the province. In 1710 a law of similar character was enacted.

In 1711 the Yearly Meeting of Philadelphia, on a representation from the Quarterly Meeting of Chester, that the buying and encouraging the importation of negroes was still practised by some members of the society, again repeated and enforced the observance of the advice issued in 1696, and further directed all merchants and factors to write to their correspondents and discourage their sending any more negroes.

This year also is memorable in the annals of Pennsylvania, on account of the passage of a bill entitled, "An act to prevent the importation of negroes and Indians into the province."

We have not been able to obtain a sight of this highly important and interesting document. It is doubtful indeed whether a copy of it is in existence, as it was repealed in England, directly after its passage, by an order of council. The loss of such a law is the more to be regretted, as it evinces a striking alteration of temper and feeling in the Legislature since the enactments of 1705, a change which can only be attributed to the exertions of the friends of freedom, and the influence of more enlightened public opinion ; and as a further evidence that the minds of many of the citizens of Pennsylvania were alive to this interesting subject, and anxious to prevent the further growth and increase of what they began already to experience as a serious evil, we find, in 1712, that, undismayed by the repeal of the non-importation law of the preceding year by the court of England, a petition, "signed by many hands," praying for a duty to discourage the further importation of negroes, was presented to the Assembly, and after mature consideration, a bill laying the then enormous duty of twenty pounds per head was passed, which well-intentioned and effective law shared the same fate in the English council as the act of 1711. We may here take occasion to observe, that all the designs of the early legislators of Pennsylvania to improve the condition of her citizens, and to substitute, for the oppressive policy of the old world, a more free, humane, and happy condition of things in the new, were rendered void through the repeal, by English orders of council, of all such laws as had these noble and excellent designs in view. This circumstance will account for the little subsequent notice taken of the subject by the Legislature of our State, with the exception of a few laws, which we shall soon mention, from this period up to 1770. Our intervening history will be principally confined to the exertions of the Society of Friends and of private individuals.

In 1712, a petition was presented to the Assembly by William Southeby, praying for the total abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania; on consideration, the House decided that the prayer of the petitioner could not be granted. In the years 1715-17-21-26 and 29, different laws were passed, laying duties on negroes; these, with a bill of 1725-6, entitled an act for the better regulating of negroes in the province, are all the notices of the subject that we have been enabled to find on the votes of the Assembly up to 1761. The hostility of the English government to any supposed encroachment on the trade of the country, even in human flesh, appears to have been sufficient to prevent any further attempts to abolish this cruel traffic. Though the law of 1725-6, for the better regulating the negroes, contained some harsh provisions, it provided that the existing duty on negroes should be increased to 10l. per head; the third section obliged a master, on manumitting his slave, to give security that he should not become chargeable to the county; the fifth section enacted that no minister or magistrate should marry a negro with a white person under penalty of 100l., and that no negro be more than ten miles from home, without written permission from his master.

In 1761, we find the last effort made to check the importation of slaves previous to 1770. In this year, remonstrances were presented to the Assembly from a large number of the inhabitants of Philadelphia, representing the mischievous effects of the slave-trade, and praying for such an increase of the duty on negroes as might effectually check further importation. After much debate in the House, and altercation with the Governor, a bill increasing the impost was passed. In 1768, this bill, having expired by its limitation, was re-enacted. Thus much for the acts of Assembly.

To return to an earlier period. In the year 1712, the Yearly Meeting of Philadelphia addressed an epistle to the Yearly Meeting of Friends in London, stating that for a number of years they had been seriously concerned on account of the importation and trade in slaves, and of the detention of them and their posterity "in bondage without any limitation or time of redemption from that condition;" that the meeting, by its advice, had endeavored, and in some degree succeeded in discouraging the traffic; yet, that as "settlements increased so other traders nocked in among them over whom they had no Gospel authority," and that the number of negroes was thereby greatly increased in the province; they desired that the London Yearly Meeting would consult with Friends in the other colonies who were more engaged in slaveliolding than those in Pennsylvania; that in this matter of so general importance, a union of opinions and practice might be obtained; and further desiring the advice and counsel of English Friends in the case. These requests were acceded to, as appears by the epistle from Pennsylvania to London, in 1714; which states, that they kindly received the advice of English Friends upon the subject, and Avere one in opinion with them, "that the multiplying of negroes might be of dangerous consequence," and that, therefore, a law was obtained in Pennsylvania, imposing a duty of 20l. a head upon all imported, but the queen had been pleased to disannul it; that they heartily wished that some means could be discovered of stopping the farther importation, and desired the influence of the society in England with the government there, to endeavor to prevail on the queen to sanction such further anti-slavery laws as the Legislature of Pennsylvania might adopt. They further stated that they did not know of any Friend who was concerned in importing negroes from Africa, and concluded by desiring the Yearly Meeting of London to continue its advice and assistance to Friends in the other slaveliolding colonies. In 1715 and 16 and 19, advice was issued by the Yearly Meeting of Pennsylvania, strongly urging that Friends should not only decline importing, but also purchasing, when imported, any slaves; and that those who had them in possession, should treat them with "humanity and a Christian spirit," and endeavor to instruct them in morality and the principles of religion.