The New England Puritan Attitude Toward Black Slavery

By PETER W. MACKINLAY

HE Puritan involvement in black status, Negroes were considered both as slavery was a responseto a two- property and as persons before the law; T fold economic necessity: first, to hence their legal status was never rigidly provide capital, and second, to develop a fixed.“’ Due to a combination of eco- labor force. A dichotomy in the Puritan nomic and religious forces, the black attitude toward black slavery arises from slave held an indeterminate position in considering the slave as an economic unit society, a position derived from the Puri- and at the same time an element in the tan attitude toward the slave as both divine plan. The Puritan economic view property and person. and the theocratic overview led to the Although New England legislators unique position which the slave held in did not define the status of the black early New England society. John Hope slave, they did recognize the institution of Franklin identifies the distinction be- slavery and sought to justify the circum- tween the statusof the black slave and the stancesby which it was introduced to the white indentured servant by viewing the colony. With the Body of Liberties of slave’s initial status as vaguely indeter- 1641, Massachusetts became the first minate and later fixed by custom: “The colony in America to recognize the in- status of these first Negroes is not at all stitution of slavery. On the “Liberties of certain. In all probability the first were, Forreiners and Strangers” the Massa- as in the caseof Virginia, servants bound chusetts legislators ruled: to masters for a definite number of years. there shall never be any bond slaverie, vil- The desirability of a permanent labor linage or captivitie amongst us unles it be law- force led to the establishment of slavery ful captives taken in just warres, and such by custom before it was firmly entrenched strangers as willingly selle them selves or are sold to gs. And these shall have all the liberties by legal recognition.“1 Lorenzo John- and Christian usages which the law of God ston Greene views this indeterminate established in Israel1 concerning such persons status as a result of Puritan Hebraicism: doeth morally require. This exempts none “Legally, the New England slave held a from servitude who shall be Judged thereto by Authoritie.* position somewhere between that of a plantation slave and an indentured ser- The legal recognition of slavery im- vant. This was due to the influence of plied a view of the status of the slave as Jewish slavery after which the Puritans property capable of selling himself or patterned their system of involuntary being sold, and also implied a view of the servitude. The New England slave was slave as a person subject to the rights and in a measure a member of his master’s liberties of Christians. Although osten- family and, following the Hebraic tradi- sibly reducing the slave to the status of tion, was usually referred to as ‘servant,’ property, Puritan legislators created the rarely as slave. Holding this intermediate ambiguity of status in their legal code by

81 82 Old-Time New England considering the slave as an economic unit the possibility of Negro insurrections, they and as a person subject to rights estab- passed laws which stripped the Negro lished by Hebraic precedent. slave of his civil and personal rights. The After having passed the code on the modification and the restriction of the “Liberties of Forreiners and Strangers” rights of slaves gradually reduced the in the Massachusetts Body of Liberties, status of the slave. legislators next emended the law to pro- The Act of 1657 denied franchise to vide a more definite specification of the the slave by limiting the franchise to status of the slaves. The General Court those “who are at their own dispose.“s corrected the original law: “Page 5, 1j., The -Act of 1664 provided a more defi- 3, tit. Bond Slavery read ‘or such as shall nite specification for voters by limiting the willingly.“‘4 Such an emendation re- franchise to “all freeholders of competent moved the necessity of alien birth as a estate, not vicious in conversation and qualification for slavery and removed the orthodox in religion.“’ The Act of 1656 prohibition against the children of slaves reduced the role of the Negro slave in being born into slavery. Although the maintaining civil order by forbidding him Body of Liberties sought to restrict slav- the right to bear arms, thus ending the ery to the captives of just wars, later period from 1652-1656 when the Negro legislation recognized slavery as a legal was required to train in the militia with status which could be transmitted to chil- the other co1onists.l’ The Act of 1698 dren from generation to generation. denied the right to trade on the penalty Winthrop Jordan characterizes this early of whipping.l’ By forbidding the slave the legislation : “as early as 1641 the Puritan right to vote, the right to trade, the right settlers were seeking to guarantee in to serve in the militia, the legislators writing their own liberty without closing clearly defined the extent to which the off the opportunity of taking it from slave could participate in the civil affairs others whom they identified with the of the colony. Biblical term, ‘strangers.“” Other laws Puritan legislators sought to limit not which recognized the status of the slave only the civil rights of the black slave, but as property were written in 1641 and also his personal rights as well. Later I 643 and provided for the return of run- slave laws represent a body of repressive away slaves to the master.6 From 1700 legislation aimed at regulating the be- to I 7 I 9, the legal code gave the right to havior and social conduct of the Negro own property in slaves and guaranteed slave. The Act of I 703 constituted a de- that right by a system of taxation in nial of personal liberty by forbidding him which slaves were regarded as “personal to be abroad after 9 P.M. on the penalty estate.“’ of being sent to the house of correction or As the number of slaves in Massachu- on the penalty of a whipping not to ex- setts increased, Puritan legislators sought ceed ten stripes.l* The Act of 1705 for- to preserve and to protect a stable social bade the Negro to strike a Christian on the order by reducing their rights. The Body penalty of a whipping.13 The Act of of Lib&es had recognized the institution 1708 denied the Negro the right to of slavery, but stipulated certain rights, marry a white. The white entering into “Christian usages.” To maintain a stable such a marriage would be subject to a fine order and to protect themselves against of f 5 ; the clergyman contracting such a The New England Puritan Attitude Toward Black Slavery 83 marriage would be subject to a fine of Unlike Massachusetts, Connecticut f 50 ; and the Negro would be “ordered did not recognize the institution of slav- to be sold out of the province.“14 The Act ery by a direct act of legislation, but in- of I 707 further restricted personal liberty stead legalized it through regulative by denying the slave the right to social legislation and by custom. Benjamin intercourse with free Negroes “harbor- Brawley states: “It was almost by acci- ing and entertaining.“l’ Motivated by a dent that slavery was officially recog- concern for a strong social order and by nized in Connecticut in 1650. The code the fear of insurrections, Puritan legisla- of laws compiled for the colony in this tors clearly defined civil and personal year was especially hard on the Indians. liberties to regulate the behavior and con- It was enacted that certain of them who duct of slaves in the colony. incurred the displeasure of the colony The restriction of the civil and per- might be made to serve the person in- sonal liberties of black slaves ultimately jured or ‘be shipped out and exchanged determined a legal view of the slave as for Negroes.““’ In the code of 1650, a mere unit of property. Connecticut colonists passed a law pro- Due to the relative insignificance of viding for the return of runaway slaves. the number of slaves and due to the In this regulative legislation, the Puritans proximity of Massachusetts, New Hamp- recognized slavery as a legal status and shire seems to have derived its attitude defined that status as property. toward slaves from the example set by the Although Connecticut made no offi- Massachusetts colony. Isaac W. Ham- cial legal recognition of slavery, its mond maintains that “Negro slavery was legislators gradually restricted the civil never established in New Hampshire by liberties of its slaves in a manner similar any law of the province, or state; nor to the example of Massachusetts. In was it ever abolished by any legislative 1639 the colonists denied the franchise enactment.“l’ It is likely that in adopting to the Negro in the constitutions of Hart- the Massachusetts Body of Liberties, ford and New Haven, a restriction New Hampshire probably adopted the which was confirmed by the Act of I 7 I 5 same legislation and regulations which relating to free men.” The Acts of 1650 governed the liberty of the slave in Mas- and 1708 denied the negro the right to sachusetts. The legislators of New Hamp- trade on penalty of a whipping not to ex- shire passed few acts to regulate the con- ceed thirty stripes by law (1708) if the duct of slaves, and those which exist fol- goods appeared to be stolen.‘l The Act of low the pattern of the slave legislation of 1660 denied the slave the right to watch Massachusetts. For example, the Law of or to ward in the colony, and reserved I7 14 was an act to prevent men’s ser- this duty for firemen.** As in the case of vants from leaving without consent and Massachusetts, the denial of civil liberties forbade them to be abroad after 9 P.M.” determined the status of the slave and The Law of I 7 15 sought to protect the regulated his participation in colonial so- Negro by restraining the master from in- ciety. human severities.” In general, the issue In addition to restricting civil liberties, of slavery does not seem to have assumed Connecticut passed a body of legislation a role of significance during the colonial which significantly limited the personal period in New Hampshire. liberties of slaves. The Act of 1690 re- 84 Old-Time New England quired a slave to hold a pass of consent this Collonie. And at the end or terme of ten from his master if he left the bounds of yeares to sett them free, as the manner is with the English servants. And that man that will the town, otherwise he was considered a not let them goe free, or shall sell them away runaway slave and so treated.2s The Act elsewhere, to that end that they may bee en- of I 723 further restricted free movement slaved to others for a long time, hee or they by denying the right of the slave to be shall forfeit to the Colonie forty pounds.27 out-of-doors after 9 P.M.; this law also In their recognition of slavery, Rhode refused the right of the slave to social en- Island colonistsattempted to establishthe tertainment after that hour.” The body status of the black slave as that of an ap- of legislation restricting the personal prentice or an indentured white servant. liberties of slaves, including successive Like Massachusetts and Connecticut, acts in I 703, 1708, and 1730, indicates Rhode Island enacted a code of repressive the particular concern of Connecticut to legislation which restricted the civil and maintain a strong and stable social order. personal rights of slaves. The Act of Having limited the civil and personal 1663 denied both franchise and freedom liberties of the black slave, the Connecti- by stipulating that no man could become cut colonists extended legislation to pro- free unless he had “competent estate.“2s tect the stability of the society. The Act of To restrict the right to freedom further, 1702 required the owners of slaves and the Act of I 728 required from the master executorsof estatesto make provisionsfor a bond of ~IOO for each Negro set free.*’ slaves when aged and helpless.25The Rhode Island followed the general pat- legislation of 1703 and 171 I provided tern of slave repression characteristic of that upon the refusal of the former own- other New England colonies by denying ers to make provisionsfor their slaves, the civil and personal liberties. Like the other selectmen of the town would take care of New England colonies, Rhode Island them and sue the owners for the expenses created certain inconsistenciesin the le- incurred.26 The Connecticut colonists gality of slavery by granting the slave the viewed the slave as a threat to the stability ordinary procedure of arrest, trial, and of social order and produced legislation punishment by the courts unless the mas- reducing the status of the slave to prop- ter interfered.30 Despite their original erty in order to protect their society. prohibition of slavery, the Rhode Island Unlike the other New England colo- colonists presented a dichotomous legal nies, Rhode Island founded a legislative view, asserting the slave to be both a unit code with a stern prohibition of slavery. of property and a person subject to cer- In 1652 the Rhode Island legislators tain legal rights before the courts. ruled : The religious authorities of New En- Whereas, there is a common course practised gland manifested a similarly dichotomous amongst English men to buy negors, to that view of the black slave by considering him end they may have them for service or slaves as property to be repressed in order to forever; for the preventinge of such practices among us, let it be ordered, that no blacke safeguard the colony and as a human be- mankind or white being forced by covenant ing endowed with a soul capable of eter- bond, or otherwise, to serve any man or his nal salvation. The Puritans justified assighnes longer than ten yeares, or until1 slavery as a right and responsibility of they come to bee twentie four yeares of age, if they bee taken in under fourteen, from the their divine mission in the new world. time of their cominge within the liberties of Cotton Mather illustrates this dichot- The New England Puritan Attitude Toward Black Slavery 85

omy of religious attitude. According to attempted to resolve the apparent incon- Mather, the conversion of the black slave sistencyof his view of the slave as an ele- was a means to elevate the spiritual con- ment of society to be repressedand as a dition to achieve eternal salvation. At the soul capable of divine salvation. Urging same time, conversion to Christianity the conversion of all black slavesto Chris- constituted a means of maintaining a tianity, he emphasized the transformation strict social control over the slave. of the spiritual awareness of the slave. In 1693 Cotton Mather drafted the Conversion, according to Mather, was a Rules for the Society of Negroes, a body way to heighten the promise of spiritual of rules which would govern the religious salvation in the next world, not a force to life of the Negroes of the colony. Some elevate the status of the slave in this of the rules did seek to convert the slave world. He attributes the lowly status of to the Puritan moral order,31 but most the slave to a divine order which granted sought to preserve the existing social or- the slave the inferior status in this world der. These rules regulated not only social with the promise of divine salvation in the conduct but also the relationship of slave afterlife.34 to master: To urge conversion, Mather empha- sizes the duty of elevating the spiritual If any of our Number, fall into the Sin of Drunkeness, or Swearing, or Cursing, or Ly- condition of the slave. He views conver- ing, or Stealing, or notorious Disobedience or sion as a means of transforming the ab- Unfaithfulness unto their Masters, we will ject spiritual condition of the slave to ful- Admonish him of his Miscarriage and forbid fill divine potential. In such a view, the his coming to the Meeting, for at least one conversion of slaves transforms spiritual Fortnight, but except he then come with great Signs and Hopes of his Repentence, we will condition and protects the slave-and the utterly Exclude him, with Blotting his Name community-from possible evil influ- out of the List.32 ences. In the course of his argument, Mather The Rules for the Society of Negroes en- demonstratesthe methods by which social couraged slaves to become the agents of control may be maintained through the their own social repression: means of prayers and instructions. He We will, as we have Opportunity, set our would instruct the Negro slave to pray: selves to do all the Good we can, to the other “Teach me to Serve Thee, 0 Lord. And Negro-Servants in the Town; And if any of them should, at unfit Hours, be Abroad, much make me a Blessing unto those that have more, if any of them should Run away from me for their Servant.“ss In his catechism their Masters, we will afford them no Shelter. for Negroes, Mather instructs the slaves: But we will do what in us lies, that they may be discovered, and punished. And if any of us, Q. If you Serve Jesus Christ, what must are found Faulty, in this Matter, then shall you do? live no longer of us,33 A. I must Love God, and Pray to Him, and Keep the Lords Day. I must Love all Men, and In drawing together the Rules for the never Quarrel, nor be Drunk, nor be Unchast, nor Steal, nor tell a Ly, nor be Discontent Society of Negroes, Cotton Mather indi- with my Condition.36 cated his concern for the moral welfare of the slave’s soul, but subverted religious Having establishedthe methods of so- function to maintain a repressive social cial control over the Negro, Mather con- control. cludes his argument for the conversion of In The Negro Christianized, Mather slaves by denying that baptism entailed 86 Old-Time New England the legal freedom of the slave. Mather lished the equality of man, and denied emphasizes that “Christianity directs a the possibility of a Biblical justification of Slave, upon his embracing the Law of the slavery. Redeemer, to satisfy himself, That he is In the body of his argument, Sewall the Lords Freeman, ‘tho he continues a sought to undo the traditional defenses of Slave.“3’ In effect, he promises freedom slavery. To counter the view of man as to the slave in heaven while denying it to salable property, he denies the right of the him on earth. The Negro Christianized brothers of Joseph to sell him to the represents an elaborate justification for Ishmaelites: “Joseph was rightfully no slavery by suggesting conversion as a more a Slave to his Brethren, than they means of fulfilling the promise of divine were to him: and they had no more Au- salvation, while fixing the slave securely thority to Sell him, than they had to Slay to the position that society had ascribed him.“39 Arguing analogically that since him. the brethren lacked the authority to sell Despite the attempts of the legislators Joseph, Sewall denies the Puritans the and the clergy to justify the institution of right to engage in the slave trade. Next, slavery, antislavery sentiment flourished he reverses the traditional arguments de- in New England and was championed by fending slavery as a result of the curse on such prominent authorities as Judge the posterity of Cham, by claiming that: Samuel Sewall. Sewall embraced the “the Blackmores are not descended of antislavery movement at a critical point Canaan, but of Cush,“40 and thus escape in the history of the slave trade. In The the curse of slavery. Opposing Puritan Selling of Joseph; a Memorial, Sewall authorities who justified the introduction maintains that “the Numerousness of of slavery for the conversion of the Ne- Slaves at this day in the Province, and the groes, Sewall argues that merchants en- Uneasiness of them under their slavery”3s slaved only those captives taken in just incited his critical evaluation of the insti- wars, and questions the influence of the tution. In this work, Sewall reflects the Puritans in creating the strife: “by Re- Puritan ill-boding over slavery and shares ceiving, we are in danger to promote, and the contemporary prejudice which re- partake in their Barbarous Cruelties.“41 garded the Negro as inherently inferior Sewall conceives slavery as a self-per- beings who could never be integrated petuating mechanism which encouraged into colonial society on equal terms with war to fulfill the demands of trade, and their Puritan masters. denies any Biblical authority as a prece- Sewall prefaces the body of his objec- dent for the institution of slavery. To tions to slavery by asserting the universal conclude his argument against slavery in freedom of men. To develop his argu- New England, Sewall insists that the ment, he claims that the equality of men Negro could never be successfully in- is a manifestation of divine authority be- tegrated into colonial society. Despite his ginning with postlapsarian history. Sewall original assertions of the equality of all considers the “Fall of Man” the great men, his condemnation of slavery displays leveling force which endowed all men a prejudice which views the Negro as in- with an equal status before God. Unlike ferior and ultimately foreign to New many of his contemporaries, Sewall England society.” viewed Biblical history as having estab- Aroused by the antislavery sentiments The New England Puritan Attitude Toward Black Slavery 87 of Judge Sewall, Judge John Saffin re- demands of the colonies and as a person sponded with a vigorous rebuttal, defend- endowed with the promise of divine sal- ing the right of the brethren to enslave Jo- vation which Providence had entrusted seph since he was their kin. Saffin recog- to help fulfill. With the sanction of the nized the curse of Cham and captivity in British Parliament repealing the monop- a just war as justification for Negro slav- oly on the slave trade and encouraged by ery. To Sewall’s argument that the Ts- growing slave markets, New England raelites had not enslaved one another, merchants engaged in slave traffic and Safin replied : “Though the Israelites introduced slavery in significantly greater were forbidden (ordinanly) to make numbers to New England. This increase Bond men and Women of their own Na- in numbers instilled the fear for security tion, but of Strangers they might.“43 among the Puritans and motivated their Concluding his argument in defense of legislators to view the black slave as pri- slavery, Saffin appeals to the prejudices marily an economic unit. To reduce the and fears of the Puritans to demonstrate possibility of Negro insurrections, Puri- the necessity of maintaining the existing tans attempted to subvert the forces of the social order for the safety of whites.44 church to maintain social control over the The New England Puritan attitude slaves. The attempts to resolve the in- toward black slavery arose from economic consistency between the status of the necessity and chronic labor shortage. To slave as property and as person, regard- justify the introduction of slavery to the less of the economic and religious justi- New England colonies, Puritans looked fications, ultimately proved fruitless and to the Hebraic precedent of the institution resulted in the abolition of slavery which of slavery. Viewing the slave in the con- commenced in the New England colo- text of a Hebraic framework, the Puri- nies during the time of the American tans established the status of the slave Revolution. both as property to fulfill the economic

NOTES

1 John Hope Franklin, From Slawery to Statistical Association (Boston: Little, Brown, Freedom: A History of Negro Americans (New 1845), Vol. I, p. 586. York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947), p, IOI. s John Codman Hurd, The Law of Free- 2 Lorenzo Johnston Greene, The Negro in dom and Bondage in t?se United States (1866; Colo&l New England, 1620-1776 (New reprint New York: Negro Universities Press, York: Columbia University Press, x942), p. 1968), p. 256. 16. sN. B. Shurtleff, ed., Records of the Gov- 3 George H. Moore, Notes on the History ernor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in of Slavery in Massachusetts (New York: Ap- New England (Boston, 1855), Vol. 4, p. 397. pleton & Co., 1866), p. 12. lo Ibid. 4 Ibid., p. 15. I1 Ibid., p. 76. 5 Winthrop D. Jordan, White Over Black: I2 Acts and Resolves of the Province of the American Attitudes Toward the Negro, r55o- Massachusetts Bay, 1692-1714 (Boston: 1812 (Chapel Hill: University of North Wright & Potter, 1869), Vol. I, pp. 535-536. Carolina Press, r968), p. 68. I3 Acts and Resolves, Vol. I, p. 578. 6 Colonial Laws of Massachusetts, r672- 1686 (Boston, 1887), p. 51. I4 Ibid. 7 Joseph Felt, Collections of the American I5 Ibid., pp. 606-607. 88 Old-Time New England

Is Isaac W. Hammond, “Slavery in New of Rhode Island atzd Provideme Plantations, Hampshire,” Magazine of American History, 1636-1705 (Providence, 1896), (1730), pp. XXI (January-June, 1889), p. 62. 162-163. l7 Hurd, T,ie Law of Freedom and Bond- 3o William D. Johnston, Slavery in Rhode age in the United States, p. 266. Island (Providence: Rhode Island Historical Society, I 894), p. I 27. ‘s Ibid., p. 267. 31 Cotton Mather, Rules for the Society of 19 Benjamin Griffith Brawley, A Social Negroes (Boston : B. Harris, I 693). History of the American Negro (New York: Ibid. Macmillan Company, I 92 I), p. I 2. 32

*O Hurd, The Law of Freedom and Bond- 33 Ibid. age in the United States, pp. 267-268. 34 Cotton Mather, The Negro Christianized s1 J. Hammond Trumbull and Charles J. (Boston : B. Green, x706), p. I. Hoadly, ed., Public Records of the Colony of 35Ibid., p. 3 2. Connecticut (Hartford, r850-1890), Vol. 5, 86 Ibid., p. 39. p. 52 j Vol. I) p. 53’. 37 Ibid., p. 2 I. 22 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 349. 38Samuel Sewall, The Selling of Joseph; A s3 Ibid., Vol. 4, p. 40. Memorial, edited by Sidney Kaplan (North- 24 Ibid., Vol. 6, p. 39 I. amuton. Mass. : Universitv of Massachusetts 25 Ibid., Vol. 4, p. 3 75. Pre’ss, 1$69), p. 7. I 26Ibid., Vol. 4, p. 408; Vol. 5, p. 233. 3QIbid., p. 8. 27 J. R. Bartlett, ed., Records of the Colony 4o Ibid., p. I 3. of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in 41 Ibid., pp. 14-15. New England (Providence, x856-1865), Vol. 42 Jordan, White Over Black: American ‘> P. 243. Attitudes Toward the Negro, 155o-1812, p. *s Edward Channing, The Narragansett 196. Planters: A Study of Causes (Baltimore: Johns 43 Moore, Notes on the History of Slavery Hopkins University Press, 1886), p. 114. in Massachusetts, p. 2 5 3. 2QActs and Laws of His Majestys’ Colony 44Ibid., p. 256.