SLAVES IN THE NORTHERN COLONIES.
The earliest account we have of slavery in Massachusetts is recorded in
Josselyn’s description of his first visit to New England, in 1638. Even
at that time, slave-raising on a small scale had an existence at the
North. Josselyn says: “Mr. Maverick had a negro woman from whom he was
desirous of having a breed of slaves; he therefore ordered his young
negro man to sleep with her. The man obeyed his master so far as to go
to bed, when the young woman kicked him out.”[46] This seems to have
been the first case of an insurrection in the colonies, and commenced,
too, by a woman. Probably this fact has escaped the notice of the
modern advocates of “Woman’s Rights.” The public sentiment of the early
Christians upon the question of slavery can be seen by the following
form of ceremony, which was used at the marriage of slaves.
This was prepared and used by the Rev. Samuel Phillips, of Andover,
whose ministry there, beginning in 1710, and ending with his death, in
1771, was a prolonged and eminently distinguished service of more than
half the eighteenth century:--
“You, Bob, do now, in ye Presence of God and these Witnesses, Take
Sally to be your wife;
“Promising, that so far as shall be consistent with ye Relation
which you now Sustain as a servant, you will Perform ye Part of
an Husband towards her: And in particular, as you shall have
ye Opportunity & Ability, you will take proper Care of her in
Sickness and Health, in Prosperity & Adversity;
“And that you will be True & Faithfull to her, and will Cleave
to her only, so long as God, in his Providence, shall continue
your and her abode in Such Place (or Places) as that you can
conveniently come together. ---- ---- Do You thus Promise?
“You, Sally, do now, in ye Presence of God, and these Witnesses,
Take Bob to be your Husband;
“Promising, that so far as your present Relation as a Servant
shall admit, you will Perform the Part of a Wife towards him: and
in particular,
“You Promise that you will Love him; And that as you shall have
the Opportunity & Ability, you will take a proper Care of him in
Sickness and Health; in Prosperity and Adversity:
“And you will cleave to him only, so long as God, in his
Providence, shall continue his & your Abode in such Place (or
Places) as that you can come together. ---- ---- Do you thus
Promise? I then, agreeable to your Request, and with ye Consent of
your Masters & Mistresses, do Declare that you have License given
you to be conversant and familiar together as Husband and Wife, so
long as God shall continue your Places of Abode as aforesaid; And
so long as you Shall behave yourselves as it becometh servants to
doe:
“For you must both of you bear in mind that you remain still, as
really and truly as ever, your Master’s Property, and therefore it
will be justly expected, both by God and Man, that you behave and
conduct yourselves as Obedient and faithfull Servants towards your
respective Masters & Mistresses for the Time being:
“And finally, I exhort and Charge you to beware lest you give
place to the Devel, so as to take occasion from the license now
given you, to be lifted up with Pride, and thereby fall under the
Displeasure, not of Man only, but of God also; for it is written,
that God resisteth the Proud but giveth Grace to the humble.
“I shall now conclude with Prayer for you, that you may become
good Christians, and that you may be enabled to conduct as such;
and in particular, that you may have Grace to behave suitably
towards each Other, as also dutifully towards your Masters &
Mistresses, Not with Eye Service as Men pleasers, ye Servants of
Christ doing ye Will of God from ye heart, &c.
“[ENDORSED]
“NEGRO MARRIAGE.”
We have given the above form of marriage, _verbatim et literatim_.
In 1641, the Massachusetts Colony passed the following law:--
“There shall never be any bond slaverie, villinage, or captivitie
amongst us unless it be lawfull captives taken in just warres, and such
strangers as willingly sell themselves. And these shall have all the
liberties and Christian usages, which the law of God established in
Israel concerning such persons doth morally require. This exempts none
from servitude, who shall be judged thereto by authority.”
In 1646, one James Smith, a member of a Boston church, brought home two
negroes from the coast of Guinea, and had been the means of killing
near a hundred more. In consequence of this conduct, the General Court
passed the following order:--
“The General Court conceiving themselves bound by the first opportunity
to bear witness against the heinous and crying sin of man-stealing,
as also to prescribe such timely redress for what is passed, and such
a law for the future as may sufficiently deter all others belonging
to us to have to do in such vile and odious courses, justly abhorred
of all good and just men, do order that the negro interpreter with
others unlawfully taken, be by the first opportunity at the charge of
the country for the present, sent to his native country (Guinea) and
a letter with him of the indignation of the Court thereabouts, and
justice thereof desiring our honored Governor would please put this
order in execution.”
From this time till about 1700, the number of slaves imported into
Massachusetts was not large. In 1680, Governor Simon Bradstreet, in
answer to inquiries from “the lords of his Majesty’s privy council,”
thus writes:--
“There hath been no company of blacks or slaves brought into the
country since the beginning of this plantation, for the space of fifty
yeares, only one small vessell about two yeares since after twenty
months’ voyage to Madagascar brought hither betwixt forty and fifty
negroes, most women and children, sold for £10, £15, and £20 apiece,
which stood the merchants in near £40 apiece one with another: now and
then two or three negroes are brought hither from Barbadoes and other
of His Majesty’s plantations, and sold here for about £20 apiece, so
that there may bee within our government about one hundred, or one
hundred and twenty, and it may bee as many Scots brought hither and
sold for servants in the time of the war with Scotland, and most now
married and living here, and about halfe so many Irish brought hither
at several times as servants.”
The number of slaves at this period in the middle and southern colonies
is not easily ascertained, as few books, and no newspapers were
published in North America prior to 1704. In that year, the “Weekly
News Letter” was commenced, and in the same year the “Society for the
propagation of the Gospels in foreign parts opened a catechising school
for the slaves at New York, in which city there were then computed
to be about fifteen hundred Negro and Indian slaves,” a sufficient
number to furnish materials for the “irrepressible conflict,” which had
long before begun. The catechist, whom the Society employed, was “Mr.
Elias Neau, by nation a Frenchman, who having made a confession of the
Protestant religion in France, for which he had been confined several
years in prison, and seven years in the galleys.” Mr. Neau entered upon
his office “with great diligence, and his labors were very successful;
but the negroes were much discouraged from embracing the Christian
religion upon the account of the very little regard showed them in any
religious respect. Their marriages were performed by mutual consent
only, without the blessing of the church; they were buried by those
of their own country and complexion, in the common field, without any
Christian office; perhaps some ridiculous heathen rites were performed
at the grave by some of their own people. No notice was given of their
being sick, that they might be visited; on the contrary, frequent
discourses were made in conversation that they had no souls, and
perished as the beasts, and that they grew worse by being taught and
made Christians.”[47]
From this time forward, the increase of slaves was very rapid in
Virginia and South Carolina, and with this increase, discontent began
to show itself amongst the blacks.
FOOTNOTES:
[46] John Josselyn.
[47] Joshua Coffin