History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880 Volume I Part 28

[306] Drake, p. 714. I cannot understand how Dr. Moore gets 1,514 slaves in Boston in 1742, except from Dougla.s.s. His "1742" should read 1752, and his "1,514" slaves should read 1,541 slaves.

[307] "There is a curious ill.u.s.tration of 'the way of putting it' in Ma.s.sachusetts, in Mr. Felt's account of this 'census of slaves,' in the Collections of the American Statistical a.s.sociation, vol. i. p, 208. He says that the General Court pa.s.sed this order 'for the purpose of having an accurate account of slaves in our Commonwealth, _as a subject in which the people were becoming much interested, relative to the cause of liberty!_" There is not a particle of authority for this suggestion--such a motive for their action never existed anywhere but in the imagination of the writer himself!"--_Slavery in Ma.s.s_., p. 51, note.

[308] Ancient Charters and Laws of Ma.s.s., p. 748.

[309] Ibid.

[310] Slavery in Ma.s.s., p. 61.

[311] Hildreth, vol. ii. pp. 269, 270.

[312] Drake's Boston, p. 574.

[313] Spectator, No. 215, Nov. 6, 1711.

[314] Slavery in Ma.s.s., p. 64.

[315] "In the inventory of the estate of Samuel Morgaridge, who died in 1754, I find,

'Item, three negroes 133, 6_s._, 8_d._ Item, flax 12, 2_s._, 8.'

"In the inventory of Henry Rolfe's estate, taken in April, 1711, I find the following, namely,

'Fifteen sheep, old and young 3, 15_s._ An old gun 2 An old Negroe man 10 0 -------- 13 7_s._'"

--COFFIN, p. 188.

[316] Slavery in Ma.s.s., pp. 64, 65.

[317] Drake, 583, note.

[318] Here is a sample of the sales of those days: "In 1716, Rice Edwards, of Newbury, s.h.i.+pwright, sells to Edmund Greenleaf 'my whole personal estate with all my goods and chattels as also _one negro man_, one cow, three pigs with timber, plank, and boards."--COFFIN, p.

337.

[319] New-England Weekly Journal, No. 267, May 1, 1732.

[320] A child one year and a half old--a nursing child sold from the bosom of its mother!--and _for life!_--COFFIN, p. 337.

[321] Slavery in Ma.s.s., p. 96. Note.

[322] Eight years after this, on the 22d of June, 1735, Mr. Plant records in his diary: "I wrote Mr. Salmon of Barbadoes to send me a Negro." (Coffin, p. 338.) It doesn't appear that the reverend gentleman was opposed to slavery!

[323] Note quoted by Dr. Moore, p. 58.

[324] Hildreth, vol. i. p. 44.

[325] "For they tell the Negroes, that they must believe in Christ, and receive the Christian faith, and that they must receive the sacrament, and be baptized, and so they do; but still they keep them slaves for all this."--MACY'S _Hist. of Nantucket_, pp. 280, 281.

[326] Ancient Charters and Laws of Ma.s.s., p. 117.

[327] Mr. Palfrey relies upon a single reference in Winthrop for the historical trustworthiness of his statement that a Negro slave could be a member of the church. He thinks, however, that this "presents a curious question," and wisely reasons as follows: "As a church-member, he was eligible to the political franchise, and, if he should be actually invested with it, he would have a part in making laws to govern his master,--laws with which his master, if a non-communicant, would have had no concern except to obey them. But it is improbable that the Court would have made a slave--while a slave--a member of the Company, though he were a communicant.--PALFREY, vol. ii. p.

30. Note.

[328] b.u.t.ts _vs_. Penny, 2 Lev., p. 201; 3 Kib., p. 785.

[329] Hildreth, vol. ii. p. 426.

[330] Ancient Charters and Laws of Ma.s.s., p. 748.

[331] Palfrey, vol. ii. p. 30. Note.

[332] Hist. Mag., vol. v., 2d Series, by Dr. G.H. Moore.

[333] Slavery in Ma.s.s., p. 57, note.

[334] I use the term freeman, because the colony being under the English crown, there were no citizens. All were British subjects.

[335] Ancient Charters and Laws of Ma.s.s., p. 746.

[336] Ibid., p. 386.

[337] Mr. Palfrey is disposed to hang a very weighty matter on a very slender thread of authority. He says, "In the list of men capable of bearing arms, at Plymouth, in 1643, occurs the name of 'Abraham Pea.r.s.e, the Black-moore,' from which we infer ... that Negroes were not dispensed from military service in that colony" (History of New England, vol. ii. p. 30, note). This single case is borne down by the laws and usages of the colonists on this subject. Negroes as a cla.s.s were absolutely excluded from the military service, from the commencement of the colony down to the war with Great Britain.

[338] Slavery in Ma.s.s., Appendix, p. 243.

[339] Ma.s.s. Hist. Soc. Coll., vol. viii. 3d Series, p. 336.

[340] Lyman's Report, 1822.

[341] Mather's Magnalia, Book III., p. 207. Compare also p. 209.

[342] Elliott's New-England Hist., vol. ii. p. 165.

[343] Mr. Palfrey comes again with his single and exceptional case, asking us to infer a rule therefrom. See History of New England, note, p. 30.

[344] Chief-Justice Parker, in Andover vs. Canton, 13 Ma.s.s. p. 550.

[345] Slavery in Ma.s.s., p. 62.

[346] Mott's Sketches, p. 17.

[347] At the early age of sixteen, in the year 1770, Phillis was baptized into the members.h.i.+p of the society wors.h.i.+pping in the "Old South Meeting-House." The gifted, eloquent, and n.o.ble Dr. Sewall was the pastor. This was an exception to the rule, that slaves were not baptized into the Church.

[348] All writers I have seen on this subject--and I think I have seen all--leave the impression that Miss Wheatley's poems were first published in London. This is not true. The first published poems from her pen were issued in Boston in 1770. But it was a mere pamphlet edition, and has long since perished.

[349] All the historians but Sparks omit the given name of Peters. It was John.

[350] The date usually given for her death is 1780, while her age is fixed at twenty-six. The best authority gives the dates above, and I think they are correct.