GO BACK TO THE PREVIOUS CENTURY

HUMAN ENSLAVEMENT, ETC. IN THE EARLY 18TH CENTURY

“The of America had human for almost one hundred years before that custom was recognized as a social disease and people began to fight it. Imagine that. Wasn’t that a match for Auschwitz? What a beacon of liberty we were to the rest of the world when it was perfectly acceptable here to own other human beings and treat them as we treated cattle. Who told you we were a beacon of liberty from the very beginning? Why would they lie like that? Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, and not many people found that odd. It was as though he had an infected growth on the end of his nose the size of a walnut, and everybody thought that was perfectly OK.” – Kurt Vonnegut, FATES WORSE THAN DEATH, page 84

THOMAS JEFFERSON

NOTE: In this series of files, you may be startled to discover, an attempt is being made to untangle the issues of slavery and race in such manner as to allow for a factoid which the US Supreme Court has not once recognized: that not all enslaved Americans were non-white. For instance seamen who were “crimped” or “shanghaied” might or might not have been black but nevertheless had been reduced by force or trickery to a longterm and dangerous condition of involuntary servitude (this term “to crimp” had originated in the 18th Century in England and characterized the occupation of luring or forcing men into sea duty either for the navy or for the merchant marine).

NOTE ALSO: Binary opposites, such as “war vs. peace,” “slavery vs. antislavery,” etc. are mirrors to each other. The problem is never which of the two is the proper alternative but rather, the problem is always how to shatter such a conceptual mirror — so that both images can simultaneously safely be dispensed with. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1700

Three Rhode Island vessels sailed from Newport to Africa, and then to Barbados with cargos of slaves.

A minister of the Church of England in Newport was pulling together the 1st public library to be found in Rhode Island. This was the Reverend Thomas Bray, and the library amounted to approximately a hundred volumes, 57 of which were of a theological character useful only for preachers. The other volumes were also of a generally religious bent, and over and above these there were on file about a hundred pastoral letters. We can probably guess –guess safely– that nowhere in these religious volumes, and nowhere in these pastoral letters, would we have been able to encounter any troubling thoughts about the iniquity of the international slave trade. READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT

In Scotland, the expectation of a criminal upon conviction was that if he or she were not hung, he or she would be sentenced to life enslavement. SLAVERY

From the late 1600s into the early 1700s, in the New England colonies, there was a general prejudice and caution in regard to anyone with a French accent, whether or not they identified themselves as Catholic. Particularly in regions near Canada such as upstate New York and Pennsylvania, there was a general fear of sneak attacks by the Indian tribes with whom the French trappers and traders of the interior were known to have allied. Any man with a French accent might find himself accused of spying for the Jesuits, even if he was a longtime neighbor and even if he insisted that his parents had been Huguenot refugees who had fled France in fear of being made galley slaves.1 SLAVERY

Popish priests were banned from Boston and from surrounding areas. All French Catholics were imprisoned and all citizens of French extraction, regardless of religion, were required to register with the police. People were being warned that they had better not be heard to speak French.

In the Virginia colony, however, they appeared to be able to distinguish between Catholic Frenchmen and Protestant Frenchmen. A settlement of Huguenots having been paid for by donations from the English, the overlords of Virginia promised them land in the area of Norfolk. Once they had arrived, however, the found that this prime land had been swapped out, under their feet, by William Byrd, and that they would need to settle on 10,000 acres out on the frontier, just west of present-day Richmond, more than 20 miles distant from any other white settlement. Byrd wanted them there in order to discourage the Monocan natives who had lived there from moving back into the area. They named their town Manakintowne.

1. During this period the Pope himself, in the Papal States, was holding galley slaves to row him to and fro. These slaves might be in one or another of the following categories: “convicted criminals condemned to a life sentence” — “captured non-Christian prisoners of war” — “bonavoglie, so-called ‘volunteers’ who through indigence had sold themselves into slavery, and could be released at the end of their contracted period of service in the galleys on condition of good conduct.” 194 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1701

Alexander Selkirk (Alexander Selcraig) returned to Largo, Scotland, where he had grown up, but almost immediately he got in a fight with his brothers. As a joke they had given him a mug of seawater.In Scotland, DANIEL DEFOE

a habeas corpus act expressly excluded the workers in the coal mines and the salt pans. Those who were white slaves for life were not to be protected under such a law.

1702

In New-York, the Slave Regulating Act brought increasing control over blacks.

1703

A census revealed a population in New-York of 4,375. Of 818 heads of families, fewer than half were of Dutch origin. As an interesting statistic, the average white family that owned slaves, owned 2.4 slaves.

Since Massachusetts slaveholders had gotten into the practice of granting “liberty” to slaves who had become chronically ill or aged in order to relieve themselves of the onus of supporting a nonproductive person, a law was enacted required that these slaveholders post a security bond during proceedings. You could no longer just set someone free. This law would remain on the books until 1807. (Later, accusations of not supporting ill or aged slaves would become, self-righteously, one of the most pronounced charges that Northerners would make against the wicked Southern slavemasters.)2

May 6: In order to pay for South Carolina’s military expedition against St. Augustine, Florida, its legislature imposed a general duty on imports and exports, to include a poll tax of 10 shillings per head on the import of Africans, and a poll tax of 20 shillings on the import of anyone else (presumably meaning white bond servants and apprentices): “An Act for the laying an Imposition on Furrs, Skinns, Liquors and other Goods and Merchandize, Imported into and Exported out 2. Legally, there was a distinction between a slaveowner and a slaveholder. The owner of a slave might rent the custody and use of that slave out for a year, in which case the distinction would arise and be a meaningful one in law, since the other party to such a transaction would be the holder but not the owner. However, in this Kouroo database, I will ordinarily be deploying the term “slaveholder” as the normative term, as we are no longer all that concerned with the making of such fine economic distinctions but are, rather, concerned almost exclusively with the human issues involved in the enslavement of other human beings. I use the term “slaveholder” in preference to “slaveowner” not only because no human being can really own another human being but also because it is important that slavery never be defined as the legal ownership of one person by another — in fact not only had human slavery existed before the first such legislation but also it has continued long since we abolished all legal deployment of the term “slave.” “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 195 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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of this part of this Province, for the raising of a Fund of Money towards defraying the publick charges and expenses of this Province, and paying the debts due for the Expedition against St. Augustine.” 10s. on Africans and 20s. on others. Cooper, STATUTES, II. 201. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY

1704

Robert Beverley, in HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE OF VIRGINIA, published his memories of Nathaniel Bacon’s 1676 test of self-government in Virginia. Beverley had sided with Governor Berkeley during this dispute and, although his later recounting of events was not wholly dispassionate, in it he demonstrated himself to be at the very least a shrewd and thoughtful observer.

CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE

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all other taxes, which was an excessive burden. They likewise laid amercements of seventy, fifty, or thirty pounds of tobacco, as the cause was on every law case tried throughout the country. Besides all this, they applied the balance, remaining due upon account Of the two shilling per hogshead, and fort duties, to this use. Which taxes and amercements fell heaviest on the poor people, the effect of whose labor would not clothe their wives and children. This made them desperately uneasy, especially when, after a whole year’s patience under all these pressures, they had no encouragement from their agents in England, to hope for remedy; nor any certainty when they should be eased of those heavy impositions. Thirdly, Upon the back of all these misfortunes came out the act of 25 Car. II. for better securing the plantation trade. By this act several duties were laid on the trade from one plantation to another. This was a new hardship, and the rather, because the revenue arising by this act was not applied to the use of the plantations wherein it was raised: but given clear away; nay, in that country it seemed to be of no other use, but to burden the trade, or create a good income to the officers; for the collector had half, the comptroller a quarter, and the remaining quarter was subdivided into salaries; till it was lost. By the same act also very great duties were laid on the fisheries of the plantations, if manufactured by the English inhabitants there; while the people of England were absolutely free from all customs. Nay, though the oil, blubber and whale bone, which were made by the inhabitants of the plantations, were carried to England by Englishmen, and in English built ships, yet it was held to a considerable duty, more than the inhabitants of England paid. These were the afflictions that country labored under when the fourth accident happened, viz., the disturbance offered by the Indians to the frontiers.... This addition of mischief to minds already full of discontent, made people ready to vent all their resentment against the poor Indians. There was nothing to be got by tobacco; neither could they turn any other manufacture to advantage; so that most of the poorer sort were willing to quit their unprofitable employments, and go volunteers against the Indians. At first they flocked together tumultuously, running in troops from one plantation to another without a head, till at last the seditious humor of Colonel Nathaniel Bacon led him to be of the party. This gentleman had been brought up at one of the Inns of court in England, and had a moderate fortune. He was young, bold, active, of an inviting aspect, and powerful elocution. In a word, he was every way qualified to head a giddy and unthinking multitude. Before he had been three years in the country, he was, for his extraordinary qualifications, made one of the council, and in great honor and esteem among the people. For this reason he no sooner gave countenance to this riotous mob, but they all presently fixed their eyes upon him for their general, and accordingly made their addresses to him. As soon as he found this, he harangued them publicly. He aggravated the Indian mischiefs, complaining that they were occasioned for want of a due regulation of their trade. He recounted particularly the other grievances and pressures they lay under, and pretended that he accepted of their command with no other intention but to do them and the country service, in which he was willing to encounter the greatest difficulties and dangers. He farther assured them he would never lay down his arms till he had revenged their sufferings upon the Indians, and redressed all their other grievances. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 199 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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By these insinuations he wrought his men into so perfect an unanimity, that they were one and all at his devotion. He took care to exasperate them to the utmost, by representing all their misfortunes. After he had begun to muster them, he dispatched a messenger to the governor, by whom he aggravated the mischiefs done by the Indians, and desired a commission of general to go out against them. This gentleman was in so great esteem at that time with the council, that the governor did not think fit to give him a flat refusal; but sent him word he would consult the council, and return him a farther answer. In the mean time Bacon was expeditious in his preparations, and having all things in readiness, began his march, depending on the authority the people had given him. He would not lose so much time as to stay for his commission; but dispatched several messengers to the governor to hasten it. On the other hand, the governor, instead of a commission, sent positive orders to him to disperse his men and come down in person to him, upon pain of being declared a rebel. This unexpected order was a great surprise to Bacon, and not a little trouble to his men. However, he was resolved to prosecute his first intentions, depending upon his strength and interest with the people. Nevertheless, he intended to bait upon the governor, but not altogether defenceless. Pursuant to this resolution, he took about forty of his men down with him in a sloop to Jamestown VA, where the governor was with his council. Matters did not succeed there to Mr. Bacon’s satisfaction, wherefore he expressed himself a little too freely. For which, being suspended from the council, he went away again in a huff with his sloop and followers. The governor filled a long boat with men, and pursued the sloop so close, that Colonel Bacon moved into his boat to make more haste. But the governor had sent up by land to the ships at Sandy Point, where he was stopped and sent down again. Upon his return he was kindly received by the governor, who, knowing he had gone a step beyond his instructions in having suspended him, was glad to admit him again of the council; after which he hoped all things might be pacified. Notwithstanding this, Colonel Bacon still insisted upon a commission to be general of the volunteers, and to go out against the Indians; from which the governor endeavored to dissuade him, but to no purpose, because he had some secret project in view. He had the luck to be countenanced in his importunities, by the news of fresh murder and robberies committed by the Indians. However, not being able to accomplish his ends by fair means, he stole privately out of town; and having put himself at the head of six hundred volunteers, marched directly to Jamestown, where the assembly was then sitting. He presented himself before the assembly, and drew up his men in battalia before the house wherein they sat. He urged to them his preparations; and alledged that if the commission had not been delayed so long, the war against the Indians might have been finished. The governor resented this insolent usage worst of all, and now obstinately refused to grant him anything, offering his naked breast against the presented arms of his followers. But the assembly, fearing the fatal consequences of provoking a discontented multitude ready armed, who had the governor, council and assembly entirely in their power, addressed the governor to grant Bacon his request. They prepared themselves the commission, constituting him general of the forces of Virginia, and brought it to the governor to be signed. 200 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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The occasion of this rebellion is not easy to be discovered: but ’tis certain there were many things that concurred towards it. For it cannot be imagined, that upon the instigation of two or three traders only, who aimed at a monopoly of the Indian trade, as some pretend to say, the whole country would have fallen into so much distraction; in which people did not only hazard their necks by rebellion, but endeavored to ruin a governor, whom they all entirely loved, and had unanimously chosen; a gentleman who had devoted his whole life and estate to the service of the country, and against whom in thirty-five years experience there had never been one single complaint. Neither can it be supposed, that upon so slight grounds, they would make choice of a leader they hardly knew, to oppose a gentleman that had been so long and so deservedly the darling of the people. So that in all probability there was something else in the wind, without which the body of the country had never been engaged in that insurrection. Four things may be reckoned to have been the main ingredients towards this intestine commotion, viz., First, The extreme low price of tobacco, and the ill usage of the planters in the exchange of goods for it, which the country, with all their earnest endeavors, could not remedy. Secondly, The splitting the colony into proprieties, contrary to the original charters; and the extravagant taxes they were forced to undergo, to relieve themselves from those grants. Thirdly, The heavy restraints and burdens laid upon their trade by act of Parliament in England. Fourthly, The disturbance given by the Indians. Of all which in their order. First, Of the low price of tobacco, and the disappointment of all sort of remedy, I have spoken sufficiently before. Secondly, Of splitting the country into proprieties. King Charles the Second, to gratify some nobles about him, made two great grants out of that country. These grants were not of the uncultivated wood land only, but also of plantations, which for many years had been seated and improved, under the encouragement of several charters granted by his royal ancestors to that colony. Those grants were distinguished by the names of the Northern and Southern grants of Virginia, and the same men were concerned in both. They were kept dormant some years after they were made, and in the year 1674 begun to be put in execution. As soon as ever the country came to know this, they remonstrated against them; and the assembly drew up an humble address to his majesty, complaining of the said grants, as derogatory to the previous charters and privileges granted to that colony, by his majesty and his royal progenitors. They sent to England Mr. Secretary Ludwell and Colonel Park, as their agents to address the king, to vacate those grants. And the better to defray that charge, they laid a tax of fifty pounds of tobacco per poll, for two years together, over and above

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With much reluctancy the governor signed it, and thereby put the power of war and peace into Bacon’s hands. Upon this he marched away immediately, having gained his end, which was in effect a power to secure a monopoly of the Indian trade to himself and his friends. As soon as General Bacon had marched to such a convenient distance from Jamestown VA that the assembly thought they might deliberate with safety, the governor, by their advice, issued a proclamation of rebellion against him, commanding his followers to surrender him, and forthwith disperse themselves, giving orders at the same time for raising the militia of the country against him. The people being much exasperated, and General Bacon by his address and eloquence having gained an absolute dominion over their hearts, they unanimously resolved that not a hair of his head should be touched, much less that they should surrender him as a rebel. Therefore they kept to their arms, and instead of proceeding against the Indians they marched back to Jamestown, directing their fury against such of their friends and countrymen as should dare to oppose them.... By this time the governor had got together a small party to side with him. These he furnished with sloops, arms and ammunition, under command of Major Robert Beverley, in order to cross the bay and oppose the malcontents. By this means there happened some skirmishes, in which several were killed, and others taken prisoners. Thus they were going on by a civil war to destroy one another, and lay waste their infant country, when it pleased God, after some months’ confusion, to put an end to their misfortunes, as well as to Bacon’s designs, by his natural death. He died at Dr. Green’s in Gloucester county. But where he was buried was never yet discovered, though afterward there was great inquiry made, with design expose his bones to public infamy. In the meanwhile those disorders occasioned a general neglect of husbandry, and a great destruction of the stocks Of cattle, so that people had a dreadful prospect want and famine. But the malcontents being thus disunited by the loss of their general, in whom they all confided, they began to squabble among themselves, and every man’s business was, how to make the best terms he could for himself. Lieutenant General Ingram (whose true name was Johnson) and Major General Walklate, surrendered, condition of pardon for themselves and their followers though they were both forced to submit to an incapacity of bearing office in that country for the future. Peace being thus restored, Sir William Berkeley returned to his former seat of government, and every man to his several habitation.... When this storm, occasioned by Bacon, was blown over, and all things quiet again, Sir William Berkeley called an assembly, for settling the affairs of the country, and for making reparation to such as had been oppressed After which a regiment of soldiers arrived from England, which were sent to suppress the insurrection; but they, coming after the business was over, had no occasion to exercise their courage.... With the regiment above mentioned arrived commissioners, to enquire into the occasion and authors of this rebellion; and Sir William Berkeley came to England: where from the time of his arrival, his sickness obliged him to keep his chamber till he died; so that he had no opportunity of kissing the king’s hand. But his majesty declared himself well satisfied with his conduct in Virginia, and was very kind to him during his sickness, often enquiring after his health, and commanding him not to hazard it by too early 202 an endeavor to come to court.Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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Edmund S. Morgan has asserted that the Southrons had sought to prevent a replay of Bacon’s Rebellion by “racism, to separate dangerous free whites from dangerous slave blacks by a screen of racial contempt,” in accordance with Sir Francis Bacon’s advice, that the wise ruler divides and breaks off “all factions and combinations that are adverse to the state, and setting them at a distance, or at least distrust among themselves.” RACE Theodore W. Allen has commented on this strategy that: [J]ust as the overthrow of the tenancy in the 1620s had cleared the way for the institution of chattel bond-servitude, so the defeat of Bacon’s Rebellion cleared the way for the establishment of the system of lifelong hereditary chattel bond-servitude.

What this Southron strategy did not contemplate was that circumstances might be brought to occur, in which the Southern black slaves could be divided away from the protection of their rich white owners, and then slaughtered by the Southern poor whites in a spasm of genocide, bringing about the destruction not only of the black slaves which these poor whites had been trained so to contemn, but also their Southron rich white owners who could not survive as such if divested of their investment in their chattel servants. —Which is very much what almost would be brought about in consequence of Captain John Brown’s 1859 attempt to equip an army of escaping slaves with pikes at Harpers Ferry! SLAVERY

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts opened a formal school of catechism for the blacks of New-York, to prepare them for Christian baptism. One of the things which would have to happen, in order to legitimate such an activity, would be the development of an ideology according to which the slavemasters might be reassured that regardless of conversion, regardless of baptism, regardless of literacy, regardless of whatever, a slave would remain a slave would remain a slave. That new ideology would be difficult to develop, since the rule had always been that Christians might not enslave Christians — yet that new ideology would develop apace, and when it developed it would of course be linked with race — the new ideology would be, it goes without saying, that despite the fact that a Christian is a Christian is a Christian, a nigger is a nigger is a nigger. (Sorry for needing to deploy the N-word, but I am determined that the utter repugnance of such developments accurately be characterized.) One of the white teachers, name of Elias Neau, was found to be extraordinarily effective with his black students. Why was he so effective? He was effective because his black students were aware that their teacher had once himself served in chains, as a — being as he was a Huguenot. 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 gallies.

The blacks could almost trust such a person — and trust does immensely help the learning process along.

José de Zuniga y Cerda, Governor of Florida, proclaimed in his Order for Apalachee Province that “Any negro of Carolina, Christian or not, free or slave, who wishes to come fugitive, will be [given] complete liberty, so that those who do not wish to stay here may pass to other places as they see fit, with their freedom papers which I hereby grant them by word of the king.” MANUMISSION

The English forces from South Carolina destroyed most of the Spanish Catholic missions remaining outside the vicinity of St. Augustine in North Florida.

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June 7/9: There is still in existence a bill of sale and a deed for “one Negro boy” named Felix. The seller was Benjamin Allen (1652-1723) of Rehoboth and the purchaser was Thomas Allen of Swansey. (“Felix,” by the way, means “happy.”) SLAVERY RHODE ISLAND

October: Maryland imposed a “poll tax” duty of 20 shillings each on the import of Negroes to defray the public expense of those of them who proved to be useless for labor, and on the import of Irish Servants to guard against the possibility that so many of them might accumulate as to be able to mount a Papist servile insurrection. “An Act imposing Three Pence per Gallon on Rum and Wine, Brandy and Spirits; and Twenty Shillings per Poll for Negroes; for raising a Supply to defray the Public Charge of this Province; and Twenty Shillings per Poll on Irish Servants, to prevent the importing too great a Number of Irish Papists into this Province.” Revived in 1708 and 1712. Bacon, LAWS, 1704, Chapter XXXIII; 1708, Chapter XVI; 1712, Chapter XXII. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY John Evelyn’s diary entries for this month: October 1: ... The weather exceedingly faire & seasonable, so as the yeare has ben wonderfully plentifull in all the fruits of the Earth, so as seldom a more propitious yeare has ben known, God make us thankfull. The seige of Landau yet continuing, its redition is hourely expected: Sir G. Rooke & Mediterranean fleete come home safly: The losse on both sides very greate, but the Victory acknowledged on our side: The unhapy D. of Bavaria, retired to Flanders having lost his glorious Country:

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October 22: ... The Queene [on one side] Lords & Comm: with extraordinary expressions of grace and kindnesse, congratulating their meeting, after the late Successes, & intimations of need of supplys to finish the humbling the French &c: & the Lords & Commons satisfaction of her government, & the like Congratulations of successe in Germany, gave hopes of a perfect and unanimous agreement of this Sessions just now begun:

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1705

Over the strenuous objections of Magistrate Samuel Sewall, the Massachusetts Bay colony created an “Act for the Better Preventing of a Spurious and Mixt Issue” which proscribed not only interracial fornication but also interracial marriage. Section 1 prohibited fornication of “any negro or molatto man” “with an English woman,

or a woman of any other Christian nation within this province,” punishable by whipping of both partners, the selling of the man out of the province within six months (after continuous imprisonment), and pressing the woman into servitude if she is unable to maintain a child. Section 2 banned fornication of “any Englishman, or man of another Christian nation within this province” “with a negro, or molatto woman,” punishable by whipping of only the man, who also shall pay a fine of five pounds and, if applicable, child support, and by the selling of the woman out of the province. Section 4 prohibited the contracting of matrimony between one of “her majesty’s English or Scottish subjects, [or] of any other Christian nation within this province” and “any negro or molatto,” threatening persons authorized who solemnize such a marriage with a fine of 50 pounds.

This act also provided that “if any Negro or mulatto shall presume to smite or strike any person of the English or other Christian nation, such Negro or mulatto shall be severely whipped, at the discretion of the justices before whom the offender shall be convicted.”

In Virginia, meanwhile, in a continuous series of enactments designed to split the laboring class by fostering the contempt of poor whites toward both blacks and reds as their inherent inferiors, and also because the discriminatory miscegenation law of 1691 was wasting precious labor resources by banishing offenders from the colony, the assembly determined it would punish intermarriage only with 6 months imprisonment and a fine of 10 pounds sterling. A white woman bearing the illegitimate child of a black or mulatto was to be fined 15 pounds sterling or do 5 years of servitude. The child, though free, would be a servant until age 30 for the benefit of the parish, the profit to go to needy white families. The punishment for a black or red slave being found unruly was to be dismemberment and although masters could not whip a “Christian white servant” without an order from a justice of the peace, they might freely chastise their blacks in accordance with their own judgment. The legislature also ordered that the possessions of black and red slaves were to be confiscated by the church warden and the proceeds of sale were to be expended upon needy whites. Henceforward such persons would be considered to be able to claim ownership over nothing at all. This Virginia assembly passed a law legalizing permanent enslavement: “All servants imported and brought into this country, by sea or land, who were not Christians in their native country ... shall be ... slaves, and as such be here bought and sold notwithstanding a conversion to Christianity afterwards.” SLAVERY

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The Virginia Assembly reaffirmed its decision of 1691 that it was permissible for planters to purchase captives from the native American tribes in a “free and open trade for all persons at all times and at all places with all Indians whatsoever.” It would not be noted either during this era or when this law would again be reaffirmed, in 1733, that such purchasing of enslaved persons from native Americans necessarily involved a presumption that a native American seller was a free man, entitled as such to enter into contracts at law — and that therefore it was actually quite impermissible under the existing understanding of the nature of the law for any native American ever to be thus reduced to a condition of enslavement!

During this year Virginia assessed a penalty for ministers who officiated at an interracial intermarriage: 10,000 pounds of tobacco. Their Assembly passed a law legalizing lifelong slavery: “all servants imported and brought into this country, by sea or land, who were not christians in their native country... shall be... slaves, and as such be here bought and sold notwithstanding a conversion to christianity afterwards.”

January 12: To raise revenue for its government, Pennsylvania levied a “poll tax” duty of 10 shillings per head upon the importation of negroes, and a duty of two pence halfpenny per pound upon the importation of sundry liquors. “An Act for Raising a Supply of Two pence half penny per Pound & ten shillings per Head. Also for Granting an Impost & laying on Sundry Liquors & negroes Imported into this Province for the Support of Governmt., & defraying the necessary Publick Charges in the Administration thereof.” COLONIAL RECORDS (1852), II. 232, No. 50. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY

October: Virginia placed a poll tax or tariff on the importation of fresh slaves, 6d. per head. “An act for raising a publick revenue for the better support of the Government,” etc. Similar tax by Act of October, 1710. Hening, STATUTES, III. 344, 490. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE Virginia placed a 20s. duty on slaves, and in addition a duty on liquors. “An act for laying an Imposition upon Liquors and Slaves.” For two years; re-enacted in October, 1710, for three years, and in October, 1712. Hening, STATUTES, III. 229, 482; IV. 30.

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December 5: In order better to prevent a spurious and mixt issue (presumably they were speaking of miscegenation, and consequent racial amalgamation), and in order to raise revenue for the government, Massachusetts enacted a £4 duty. “An act for the Better Preventing of a Spurious and Mixt Issue,” etc. § 6. On and after May 1, 1706, every master importing Negroes shall enter his number, name, and sex in the impost office, and insert them in the bill of lading; he shall pay to the commissioner and receiver of the impost £4 per head for every such Negro. Both master and ship are to be security for the payment of the same. § 7. If the master neglect to enter the slaves, he shall forfeit £8 for each Negro, one-half to go to the informer and one-half to the government. § 8. If any Negro imported shall, within twelve months, be exported and sold in any other plantation, and a receipt from the collector there be shown, a drawback of the whole duty will be allowed. Like drawback will be allowed a purchaser, if any Negro sold die within six weeks after importation. MASS. PROVINCE LAWS, 1705-6, Chapter 10. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: The early Biblical codes of Massachusetts confined slavery to “lawfull Captives taken in iust warres, & such strangers as willingly selle themselves or are sold to us.”3 The stern Puritanism of early days endeavored to carry this out literally, and consequently when a certain Captain Smith, about 1640, attacked an African village and brought some of the unoffending natives home, he was promptly arrested. Eventually, the General Court ordered the Negroes sent home at the colony’s expense, “conceiving themselues bound by ye first oportunity to bear witnes against ye haynos & crying sinn of manstealing, as also to P’scribe such timely redresse for what is past, & such a law for y^e future as may sufficiently deterr all othrs belonging to us to have to do in such vile & most odious courses, iustly abhored of all good & iust men.”4 The temptation of trade slowly forced the colony from this high moral ground. New England ships were early found in the West Indian slave-trade, and the more the carrying trade developed, the more did the profits of this branch of it attract Puritan captains. By the beginning of the eighteenth century the slave- trade was openly recognized as legitimate commerce; cargoes came regularly to Boston, and “The merchants of Boston quoted negroes, like any other merchandise demanded by their correspondents.”5 At the same time, the Puritan conscience began to rebel against the growth of actual slavery on New England soil. It was a much less violent wrenching of moral ideas of right and wrong to allow Massachusetts men to carry slaves to

3. Cf. THE BODY OF LIBERTIES, § 91, in Whitmore, BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE LAWS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS COLONY, published at Boston in 1890. 4. MASSACHUSETTS COLONIAL RECORD, II. 168, 176; III. 46, 49, 84. 5. Weeden, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND, II. 456. 208 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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South Carolina than to allow cargoes to come into Boston, and become slaves in Massachusetts. Early in the eighteenth century, therefore, opposition arose to the further importation of Negroes, and in 1705 an act “for the Better Preventing of a Spurious and Mixt Issue,” laid a restrictive duty of £4 on all slaves imported.6 One provision of this act plainly illustrates the attitude of Massachusetts: like the acts of many of the New England colonies, it allowed a rebate of the whole duty on re- exportation. The harbors of New England were thus offered as a free exchange-mart for slavers. All the duty acts of the Southern and Middle colonies allowed a rebate of one-half or three-fourths of the duty on the re-exportation of the slave, thus laying a small tax on even temporary importation. The Act of 1705 was evaded, but it was not amended until 1728, when the penalty for evasion was raised to £100.7 The act remained in force, except possibly for one period of four years, until 1749. Meantime the movement against importation grew. A bill “for preventing the Importation of Slaves into this Province” was introduced in the Legislature in 1767, but after strong opposition and disagreement between House and Council it was dropped.8 In 1771 the struggle was renewed. A similar bill passed, but was vetoed by Governor Hutchinson.9 The imminent war and the discussions incident to it had now more and more aroused public opinion, and there were repeated attempts to gain executive consent to a prohibitory law. In 1774 such a bill was twice passed, but never received assent.10 The new Revolutionary government first met the subject in the case of two Negroes captured on the high seas, who were advertised for sale at Salem. A resolution was introduced into the Legislature, directing the release of the Negroes, and declaring “That the selling and enslaving the human species is a direct violation of the natural rights alike vested in all men by their Creator, and utterly inconsistent with the avowed principles on which this, and the other United States, have carried their struggle for liberty even to the last appeal.” To this the Council would not consent; and the resolution, as finally passed, merely forbade the sale or ill-treatment of the Negroes.11 Committees on the slavery question were appointed in 1776 and 1777,12 and although a letter to Congress on the matter, and a bill for the abolition of slavery were reported, no 6. MASSACHUSETTS PROVINCE LAWS, 1705-6, ch. 10. 7. MASSACHUSETTS PROVINCE LAWS, 1728-9, ch. 16; 1738-9, ch. 27. 8. For petitions of towns, cf. Felt, ANNALS OF SALEM (1849), II. 416; BOSTON TOWN RECORDS, 1758-69, page 183. Cf. also Otis’s anti-slavery speech in 1761; John Adams, WORKS, X. 315. For proceedings, see HOUSE JOURNAL, 1767, pages 353, 358, 387, 390, 393, 408, 409-10, 411, 420. Cf. Samuel Dexter’s answer to Dr. Belknap’s inquiry, Feb. 23, 1795, in Deane (MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLL., 5th Ser., III. 385). A committee on slave importation was appointed in 1764. Cf. HOUSE JOURNAL, 1763-64, page 170. 9. HOUSE JOURNAL, 1771, pages 211, 215, 219, 228, 234, 236, 240, 242-3; Moore, SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS, pages 131-2. 10. Felt, ANNALS OF SALEM (1849), II. 416-7; Swan, DISSUASION TO GREAT BRITAIN, etc. (1773), page x; Washburn, HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF LEICESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, pages 442-3; Freeman, HISTORY OF CAPE COD, II. 114; Deane, in MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLL., 5th Ser., III. 432; Moore, SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS, pages 135-40; Williams, HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA, I. 234-6; HOUSE JOURNAL, March, 1774, pages 224, 226, 237, etc.; June, 1774, pages 27, 41, etc. For a copy of the bill, see Moore. 11. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY PROCEEDINGS, 1855-58, page 196; Force, AMERICAN ARCHIVES, 5th Ser., II. 769; HOUSE JOURNAL, 1776, pages 105-9; GENERAL COURT RECORDS, March 13, 1776, etc., pages 581-9; Moore, SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS, pages 149-54. Cf. Moore, pages 163-76. 12. Moore, SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS, pages 148-9, 181-5. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 209 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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decisive action was taken. All such efforts were finally discontinued, as the system was already practically extinct in Massachusetts and the custom of importation had nearly ceased. Slavery was eventually declared by judicial decision to have been abolished.13 The first step toward stopping the participation of Massachusetts citizens in the slave-trade outside the State was taken in 1785, when a committee of inquiry was appointed by the Legislature.14 No act was, however, passed until 1788, when participation in the trade was prohibited, on pain of £50 forfeit for every slave and £200 for every ship engaged.15

1706

The Reverend Cotton Mather recounted the captivity narrative told to him by Hannah Emerson Duston, in GOOD FETCH’D OUT OF EVIL: A COLLECTION OF MEMORABLES RELATING TO OUR CAPTIVES. (If you remember, Mrs. Duston waited until the children had said their Christian prayers, and had drifted to sleep, before she whacked them on their little heads with a hatchet and recovered their scalps, for the Salem scalp reward, with a knife.) It seems that, on the authority of ancient Jews, if one is armed with sufficient determination one may bring good by doing great harm. Since there is no record that anyone ever has gone broke by underestimating the cupidity of his or her audience, perhaps we will not be surprised to learn that this book sold 1,000 copies in the first week.

Here then is the manner in which the Reverend’s atrocity story is rendered in the 1852 edition of his MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA; OR THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF NEW-ENGLAND (Volume 2, Article XXV, pages 634-636):

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13. Washburn, EXTINCTION OF SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS; Haynes, STRUGGLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION IN MASSACHUSETTS; La Rochefoucauld, TRAVELS THROUGH THE UNITED STATES, II. 166. 14. Moore, SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS, page 225. 15. PERPETUAL LAWS OF MASSACHUSETTS, 1780-89, page 235. The number of slaves in Massachusetts has been estimated as follows: — In 1676, 200. Randolph’s REPORT, in HUTCHINSON’S COLL. OF PAPERS, page 485. “ 1680, 120. Deane, CONNECTION OF MASSACHUSETTS WITH SLAVERY, page 28 ff. “ 1708, 550. Deane, CONNECTION OF MASSACHUSETTS WITH SLAVERY; Moore, SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS, page 50. “ 1720, 2,000. Moore, SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS, page 50 “ 1735, 2,600. Deane, CONNECTION OF MASSACHUSETTS WITH SLAVERY, page 28 ff. “ 1749, 3,000. Deane, CONNECTION OF MASSACHUSETTS WITH SLAVERY, page 28 ff. “ 1754, 4,489. Deane, CONNECTION OF MASSACHUSETTS WITH SLAVERY, page 28 ff. “ 1763, 5,000. Deane, CONNECTION OF MASSACHUSETTS WITH SLAVERY, page 28 ff. “ 1764-5, 5,779. Deane, CONNECTION OF MASSACHUSETTS WITH SLAVERY, page 28 ff. “ 1776, 5,249. Deane, CONNECTION OF MASSACHUSETTS WITH SLAVERY, page 28 ff. “ 1784, 4,377. Moore, SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS, page 51. “ 1786, 4,371. Moore, SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS, page 51 “ 1790, 6,001. Moore, SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS, page 51 210 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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On March 15, 1697, the salvages made a descent upon the skirts of Haverhill, murdering and captivating about thirty-nine persons, and burning about half a dozen houses. In this broil, one Hannah Dustan, having lain in about a week, attended with her nurse, Mary Neff, a body of terrible Indians drew near unto the house where she lay, with designs to carry on their bloody devastations. Her husband hastened from his employments abroad unto the relief of his distressed family; and first bidding seven of his eight children (which were from two to seventeen years of age) to get away as fast as they could unto some garrison in the town, he went in to inform his wife of the horrible distress come upon them. Ere she could get up, the fierce Indians were got so near, that, utterly despairing to do her any service, he ran out after his children; resolving that on the horse which he had with him, he would ride away with that which he should in this extremity find his affections to pitch most upon, and leave the rest unto the care of the Divine Providence. He overtook his children, about forty rod from his door; but then such was the agony of his parental affections, that he found it impossible for him to distinguish any one of them from the rest; wherefore he took up a courageous resolution to live and die with them all. A party of Indians came up with him; and now, though they fired at him, and he fired at them, yet he manfully kept at the rear of his little army of unarmed children, while they marched off with the pace of a child of five years old; until, by the singular providence of God, he arrived safe with them all unto a place of safety about a mile or two from his house. But his house must in the mean time have more dismal tragedies acted at it. The nurse, trying to escape with the new- born infant, fell into the hands of the formidable salvages; and those furious tawnies coming into the house, bid poor Dustan to rise immediately. Full of astonishment, she did so; and sitting down in the chimney with an heart full of most fearful expectation, she saw the raging dragons rifle all that they could carry away, and set the house on fire. About nineteen or twenty Indians now led these away, with about half a score other English captives; but ere they had gone many steps, they dash’d out the brains of the infant against a tree; and several of the other captives, as they began to tire in the sad journey, were soon sent unto their long home; the salvages would presently bury their hatchets in their brains, and leave their carcases on the ground for birds and beasts to feed upon. However, Dustan (with her nurse) notwithstanding her present condition, travelled that night about a dozen miles, and then kept up with their new masters in a long travel of an hundred and fifty miles, more or less, within a few days ensuing, without any sensible damage in their health, from the hardships of their travel, their lodging, their diet, and their many other difficulties.

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These two poor women were now in the hands of those whose “tender mercies are cruelties;” but the good God, who hath all “hearts in his own hands,” heard the sighs of these prisoners, and gave them to find unexpected favour from the master who hath laid claim unto them. That Indian family consisted of twelve persons; two stout men, three women, and seven children; and for the shame of many an English family, that has the character of prayerless upon it, I must now publish what these poor women assure me. ’Tis this: in obedience to the instructions which the French have given them, they would have prayers in their family no less than thrice every day; in the morning, at noon, and in the evening; nor would they ordinarily let their children eat or sleep, without first saying their prayers. Indeed, these idolaters were, like the rest of their whiter brethren, persecutors, and would not endure that these poor women should retire to their English prayers, if they could hinder them. Nevertheless, the poor women had nothing but fervent prayers to make their lives comfortable or tolerable; and by being daily sent out upon business, they had opportunities, together and asunder, to do like another Hannah, in “pouring out their souls before the Lord.” Nor did their praying friends among our selves forbear to “pour out” supplications for them. Now, they could not observe it without some wonder, that their Indian master sometimes when he saw them dejected, would say unto them, “What need you trouble your self? If your God will have you delivered, you shall be so!” And it seems our God would have it so to be. This Indian family was now travelling with these two captive women, (and an English youth taken from Worcester, a year and a half before,) unto a rendezvous of salvages, which they call a town, some where beyond Penacook; and they still told these poor women that when they came to this town, they must be stript, and scourg’d, and run the gantlet through the whole army of Indians. They said this was the fashion when the captives first came to a town; and they derided some of the faint-hearted English, which, they said, fainted and swooned away under the torments of this discipline. But on April 30, while they were yet, it may be, about an hundred and fifty miles from the Indian town, a little before break of day, when the whole crew was in a dead sleep, (reader, see if it prove not so!) one of these women took up a resolution to imitate the action of Gael upon Siberia; and being where she had not her own life secured by any law unto her, she thought she was not forbidden by any law to take away the life of the murderers by whom her child had been butchered. She heartened the nurse and the youth to assist her in this enterprize; and all furnishing themselves with hatchets for the purpose, they struck such home blows upon the heads of their sleeping oppressors, that ere they could any of them struggle into any effectual resistance, “at the feet of these poor prisoners, they bow’d, they fell, they lay down; at their feet they bow’d, they fell; where they bow’d, there they fell down dead.” Only one squaw escaped, sorely wounded, from them in the dark; and one boy, whom they reserved asleep, intending to bring him away with them, suddenly waked, and scuttled away from this desolation. But cutting off the scalps of the ten wretches, they came off, and received fifty pounds from the General Assembly of the province, as a recompence of their action; besides which, they received many “presents of congratulation” from their more private friends: but none gave ’em a greater taste of bounty than Colonel Nicholson, The Governour of Maryland, who, hearing of their action, sent ’em a very generous token of his favour.

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The Reverend, also during this year, in his THE NEGRO CHRISTIANIZED, originated the “stewardship” argument which is being recycled today by “religious greens” to justify the pacification of the planet under benevolent human control — that as God’s steward each slavemaster had a duty to Christianize his black slaves, to make their souls white as snow. His congregation made the good Reverend the gift of one black man, who had originated in Burkina Faso and who had as a child there been variolated against the small pox. The Reverend bestowed upon his new slave the name Onesimus, a gift more precious than rubies.

June 10: In the Boston News Letter, there was an editorial in favor of importing fresh white indentured servants rather than obtaining fresh black slaves by way of the international slave trade. It is the considered opinion of researcher Charles E. Clark that what was going on was that “the executive leadership of the province enlisted the News Letter in what proved eventually to be a successful legislative campaign.”

1707

The white mechanics of Philadelphia demonstrated in protest against competition from native American slaves.

By the time of his death in Providence, Rhode Island, Gideon Crawford had become a quite respectable local property owner: for instance, he had become the proud owner of two black slaves valued at £56, as well as of swords, pistols, and small arms valued at £10, 18s.

It was in this year that the original portion of the house that would come to be known as the “Stephen Hopkins House” in Providence was erected. (However, this house did not at this time pertain to his family, and he would not purchase it from John Field until he reached the age of 36.)

Spring: In Rhode Island, after the wife of a slaveholder of Kingstown, Thomas Mumford, was found murdered, one of the family’s slaves was found dead on the shore at Little Compton. It was presumed that this black man had thrown himself into the bay “by reason he would not be taken alive.” When the body was brought into the harbor of Newport, the assembly ordered that the head, legs, and arms be cut from the torso and the parts “hung up in some public place, near to town, to public view and his body to be burnt to ashes that it may, if it please God, be something of a terror to others from perpetrating the like barbarity for the future.” READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT

1708

South Carolina had 2,400 white adults, 1,100 red slaves, and 2,900 black slaves.

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Britain’s Caribbean colonies were importing 20,000 slaves per year by official estimate — but many of these actually were for re-export to North and South America.

The population of Rhode Island at this point, its first census, was 7,181. Of the 426 black people in the colony, 220 were in Newport (folks there would become so worried that the local black population was too numerous, that they would put a special tax on every new black slave imported!16) THE TRAFFIC IN MAN-BODY W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: In 1652 Rhode Island passed a law designed to prohibit life slavery in the colony. It declared that “Whereas, there is a common course practised amongst English men to buy negers, to that end they may have them for service or slaves forever; for the preventinge of such practices among us, let it be ordered, that no blacke mankind or white being forced by covenant bond, or otherwise, to serve any man or his assighnes longer than ten yeares, or untill they come to bee twentie four yeares of age, if they bee taken in under fourteen, from the time of their cominge within the liberties of this Collonie. And at the end or terme of ten yeares to sett them free, as the manner is with the English servants. And that man that will not let them goe free, or shall sell them away elsewhere, to that end that they may bee enslaved to others for a long time, hee or they shall forfeit to the Collonie forty pounds.”17 This law was for a time enforced,18 but by the beginning of the eighteenth century it had either been repealed or become a dead letter; for the Act of 1708 recognized perpetual slavery, and laid an impost of £3 on Negroes imported.19 This duty was really a tax on the transport trade, and produced a steady income for twenty years.20 From the year 1700 on, the citizens of this State engaged more and more in the carrying trade, until Rhode Island became the greatest slave-trader in America. Although she did not import many slaves for her own use, she became the clearing- house for the trade of other colonies. Governor Cranston, as early as 1708, reported that between 1698 and 1708 one hundred and three vessels were built in the State, all of which were trading to the West Indies and the Southern colonies.21 They took out lumber and brought back molasses, in most cases making a slave voyage in between. From this, the trade grew. Samuel Hopkins, about 1770, was shocked at the state of the trade: more than thirty distilleries were running in the colony, and one hundred and fifty vessels were in the slave-trade.22 “Rhode Island,” said he, “has been more deeply interested in the slave- trade, and has enslaved more Africans than any other colony in 16. Notice, if you please: this fact of prior taxation to interfere with the addition of new slaves, motivated not by any desire to purge the earth of the iniquity of the international slave trade but by a simple, self-serving fear of large numbers of black people, or a distaste for blackness (a “Negrophobia”), offers an interesting new perspective on the later banning of the international slave trade. Said banning may or may not have been motivated by the fine motivations that would be being offered in self-justification! 17. RHODE ISLAND COLONIAL RECORD, I. 240. 18. Cf. letter written in 1681: NEW ENGLAND REGISTER, XXXI. 75-6. Cf. also Arnold, HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND, I. 240. 19. The text of this act is lost (COLONIAL RECORD, IV. 34; Arnold, HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND, II. 31). The Acts of Rhode Island were not well preserved, the first being published in Boston in 1719. Perhaps other whole acts are lost. 20. E.g., it was expended to pave the streets of Newport, to build bridges, etc.: RHODE ISLAND COLONIAL RECORD, IV. 191-3, 225. 21. RHODE ISLAND COLONIAL RECORD, IV. 55-60. 22. Patten, REMINISCENCES OF SAMUEL HOPKINS (1843), page 80. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 215 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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New England.” Later, in 1787, he wrote: “The inhabitants of Rhode Island, especially those of Newport, have had by far the greater share in this traffic, of all these United States. This trade in human species has been the first wheel of commerce in Newport, on which every other movement in business has chiefly depended. That town has been built up, and flourished in times past, at the expense of the blood, the liberty, and happiness of the poor Africans; and the inhabitants have lived on this, and by it have gotten most of their wealth and riches.”23 The Act of 1708 was poorly enforced. The “good intentions” of its framers “were wholly frustrated” by the clandestine “hiding and conveying said negroes out of the town [Newport] into the country, where they lie concealed.”24 The act was accordingly strengthened by the Acts of 1712 and 1715, and made to apply to importations by land as well as by sea.25 The Act of 1715, however, favored the trade by admitting African Negroes free of duty. The chaotic state of Rhode Island did not allow England often to review her legislation; but as soon as the Act of 1712 came to notice it was disallowed, and accordingly repealed in 1732.26 Whether the Act of 1715 remained, or whether any other duty act was passed, is not clear. While the foreign trade was flourishing, the influence of the Friends and of other causes eventually led to a movement against slavery as a local institution. Abolition societies multiplied, and in 1770 an abolition bill was ordered by the Assembly, but it was never passed.27 Four years later the city of Providence resolved that “as personal liberty is an essential part of the natural rights of mankind,” the importation of slaves and the system of slavery should cease in the colony.28 This movement finally resulted, in 1774, in an act “prohibiting the importation of Negroes into this Colony,” — a law which curiously illustrated the attitude of Rhode Island toward the slave-trade. The preamble of the act declared: “Whereas, the inhabitants of America are generally engaged in the preservation of their own rights and liberties, among which, that of personal freedom must be considered as the greatest; as those who are desirous of enjoying all the advantages of liberty themselves, should be willing to extend personal liberty to others; — Therefore,” etc. The statute then proceeded to enact “that for the future, no negro or mulatto slave shall be brought into this colony; and in case any slave shall hereafter be brought in, he or she shall be, and are hereby, rendered immediately free....” The logical ending of such an act would have been a clause prohibiting the participation of Rhode Island citizens in the slave-trade. Not only was such a clause omitted, but the following was inserted instead: “Provided, also, that nothing in this act shall extend, or be deemed to extend, to any negro or mulatto slave brought from the coast of Africa, into the West 23. Hopkins, WORKS (1854), II. 615. 24. Preamble of the Act of 1712. 25. RHODE ISLAND COLONIAL RECORD, IV. 131-5, 138, 143, 191-3. 26. RHODE ISLAND COLONIAL RECORD, IV. 471. 27. Arnold, HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND, II. 304, 321, 337. For a probable copy of the bill, see NARRAGANSETT HISTORICAL REGISTER, II. 299. 28. A man dying intestate left slaves, who became thus the property of the city; they were freed, and the town made the above resolve, May 17, 1774, in town meeting: Staples, ANNALS OF PROVIDENCE (1843), page 236. 216 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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Indies, on board any vessel belonging to this colony, and which negro or mulatto slave could not be disposed of in the West Indies, but shall be brought into this colony. Provided, that the owner of such negro or mulatto slave give bond ... that such negro or mulatto slave shall be exported out of the colony, within one year from the date of such bond; if such negro or mulatto be alive, and in a condition to be removed.”29 In 1779 an act to prevent the sale of slaves out of the State was passed,30 and in 1784, an act gradually to abolish slavery.31 Not until 1787 did an act pass to forbid participation in the slave-trade. This law laid a penalty of £100 for every slave transported and £1000 for every vessel so engaged.32

Prince Walker was born. (He would be sold as a slave in Woburn MA in 1751, and would die at the age of 115 years in 1823.)

1709

September 24: New York enacted a £3 “Duty on the Tonnage of Vessels and Slaves ... not inported directly from their native country.” “An Act for Laying a Duty on the Tonnage of Vessels and Slaves.” [Continued by Act of Oct. 30, 1710. ACTS OF ASSEMBLY, 1691-1718, pages 97, 125, and 134; LAWS OF NEW YORK, 1691-1773, page 83.]33 INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: The early ordinances of the Dutch, laying duties, generally of ten per cent, on slaves, probably proved burdensome to the trade, although this was not intentional.34 The Biblical prohibition of slavery and the slave-trade, copied from New England codes into the Duke of

29. RHODE ISLAND COLONIAL RECORD, VII. 251-2. 30. BARTLETT’S INDEX, page 329; Arnold, HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND, II. 444; RHODE ISLAND COLONIAL RECORD, VIII. 618. 31. RHODE ISLAND COLONIAL RECORD, X. 7-8; Arnold, HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND, II. 506. 32. BARTLETT’S INDEX, page 333; NARRAGANSETT HISTORICAL REGISTER, II. 298-9. The number of slaves in Rhode Island has been estimated as follows: — In 1708, 426. RHODE ISLAND COLONIAL RECORD, IV. 59. In 1730, 1,648. RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL TRACTS, No. 19, pt. 2, page 99. In 1749, 3,077. Williams, HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA, I. 281. In 1756, 4,697. Williams, HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA, I. 281. In 1774, 3,761. RHODE ISLAND COLONIAL RECORD, VII. 253. 33. The following is a summary of the legislation of the colony of New York; details will be found in W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: — 1709, Duty Act: £3 on Negroes not direct from Africa (Continued by the Acts of 1710, 1711). 1711, Bill to lay further duty, lost in Council. 1716, Duty Act: 5 oz. plate on Africans in colony ships. 10 oz. plate on Africans in other ships. 1728, Duty Act: 40s. on Africans, £4 on colonial Negroes. 1732, Duty Act: 40s. on Africans, £4 on colonial Negroes. 1734, Duty Act: (?) 1753, Duty Act: 40s. on Africans, £4 on colonial Negroes. (This act was annually continued.) [1777, Vermont Constitution does not recognize slavery.] 1785, Sale of slaves in State prohibited. [1786, Sale of slaves in Vermont prohibited.] 1788, Sale of slaves in State prohibited. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 217 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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York’s Laws, had no practical application,35 and the trade continued to be encouraged in the governors’ instructions. In 1709 a duty of £3 was laid on Negroes from elsewhere than Africa.36 This was aimed at West India slaves, and was prohibitive. By 1716 the duty on all slaves was £1 12½s., which was probably a mere revenue figure.37 In 1728 a duty of 40s. was laid, to be continued until 1737.38 It proved restrictive, however, and on the “humble petition of the Merchants and Traders of the City of Bristol” was disallowed in 1735, as “greatly prejudicial to the Trade and Navigation of this Kingdom.”39 Governor Cosby was also reminded that no duties on slaves payable by the importer were to be laid. Later, in 1753, the 40s. duty was restored, but under the increased trade of those days was not felt.40 No further restrictions seem to have been attempted until 1785, when the sale of slaves in the State was forbidden.41 The chief element of restriction in this colony appears to have been the shrewd business sense of the traders, who never flooded the , but kept a supply sufficient for the slowly growing demand. Between 1701 and 1726 only about 2,375 slaves were imported, and in 1774 the total slave population amounted to 21,149.42 No restriction was ever put by New York on participation in the trade outside the colony, and in spite of national laws New York merchants continued to be engaged in this traffic even down to the Civil War.43 Vermont, who withdrew from New York in 1777, in her first Constitution44 declared slavery illegal, and in 1786 stopped by law the sale and transportation of slaves within her boundaries.45

1710

The Virginia colony’s legislature enacted a £5 duty “intended to discourage the importation” of slaves. There is evidence that this revenue act may have been disallowed. Neither title nor text have been found.

“Governor Spotswood to the Lords of Trade” in VIRGINIA HISTORICAL

34. O’Callaghan, LAWS OF NEW NETHERLAND, 1638-74, pages 31, 348, etc. The colonists themselves were encouraged to trade, but the terms were not favorable enough: DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, I. 246; LAWS OF NEW NETHERLAND, pages 81-2, note, 127. The colonists declared “that they are inclined to a foreign Trade, and especially to the Coast of Africa, ... in order to fetch thence Slaves”: O’Callaghan, VOYAGES OF THE SLAVERS, etc., page 172. 35. CHARTER TO WILLIAM PENN, etc. (1879), page 12. First published on Long Island in 1664. Possibly Negro slaves were explicitly excepted. Cf. MAGAZINE OF AMERICAN HISTORY, XI. 411, and N.Y. HIST. SOC. COLL., I. 322. 36. ACTS OF ASSEMBLY, 1691-1718, pages 97, 125, 134; DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, V. 178, 185, 293. 37. The Assembly attempted to raise the slave duty in 1711, but the Council objected (DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, V. 292 ff.), although, as it seems, not on account of the slave duty in particular. Another act was passed between 1711 and 1716, but its contents are not known (cf. title of the Act of 1716). For the Act of 1716, see ACTS OF ASSEMBLY, 1691-1718, page 224. 38. DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, VI. 37, 38. 39. DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, VI. 32-4. 40. DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, VII. 907. This act was annually renewed. The slave duty remained a chief source of revenue down to 1774. Cf. REPORT OF GOVERNOR TRYON, in DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, VIII. 452. 41. LAWS OF NEW YORK, 1785-88 (ed. 1886), ch. 68, page 121. Substantially the same act reappears in the revision of the laws of 1788: LAWS OF NEW YORK, 1785-88 (ed. 1886), ch. 40, page 676. 218 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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SOCIETY COLL., New Series, I. 52. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: Next to South Carolina, Virginia had probably the largest slave-trade. Her situation, however, differed considerably from that of her Southern neighbor. The climate, the staple tobacco crop, and the society of Virginia were favorable to a system of domestic slavery, but one which tended to develop into a patriarchal rather than into a slave-consuming industrial hierarchy. The labor required by the tobacco crop was less unhealthy than that connected with the rice crop, and the Virginians were, perhaps, on a somewhat higher moral plane than the Carolinians. There was consequently no such insatiable demand for slaves in the larger colony. On the other hand, the power of the Virginia executive was peculiarly strong, and it was not possible here to thwart the slave-trade policy of the home government as easily as elsewhere. Considering all these circumstances, it is somewhat difficult to determine just what was the attitude of the early Virginians toward the slave-trade. There is evidence, however, to show that although they desired the slave-trade, the rate at which the Negroes were brought in soon alarmed them. In 1710 a duty of £5 was laid on Negroes, but Governor Spotswood “soon perceived that the laying so high a Duty on Negros was intended to discourage the importation,” and vetoed the measure.46 No further restrictive legislation was attempted for some years, but whether on account of the attitude of the governor or the desire of the inhabitants, is not clear. With 1723 begins a series of acts extending down to the Revolution, which, so far as their contents can be ascertained, seem to have been designed effectually to check the slave-trade. Some of these acts, like those of 1723 and 1727, were almost immediately disallowed.47 The Act of 1732 laid a duty of 5%, which was continued until 1769,48 and all other duties were in addition to this; so that 42. The slave population of New York has been estimated as follows: — In 1698, 2,170. DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, IV. 420. In 1703, 2,258. N.Y. COL. MSS., XLVIII.; cited in Hough, N.Y. CENSUS, 1855, Introd. In 1712, 2,425. N.Y. CENSUS, 1855, LVII., LIX. (a partial census). In 1723, 6,171. DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, V. 702. In 1731, 7,743. DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, V. 929. In 1737, 8,941. DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, VI. 133. In 1746, 9,107. DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, VI. 392. In 1749, 10,692. DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, VI. 550. In 1756, 13,548. LONDON DOC., XLIV. 123; cited in Hough, as above. In 1771, 19,863. LONDON DOC., XLIV. 144; cited in Hough, as above. In 1774, 21,149. LONDON DOC., XLIV. 144; cited in Hough, as above. In 1786, 18,889. DEEDS IN OFFICE SEC. OF STATE, XXII. 35. Total number of Africans imported from 1701 to 1726, 2,375, of whom 802 were from Africa: O’Callaghan, DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF NEW YORK, I. 482. 43. Cf. below, Chapter XI.

44. VERMONT STATE PAPERS, 1779-86, page 244. The return of sixteen slaves in Vermont, by the first census, was an error: NEW ENGLAND RECORD, XXIX. 249. 45. VERMONT STATE PAPERS, page 505. 46. LETTERS OF GOVERNOR SPOTSWOOD, in VA. HIST. SOC. COLL., New Ser., I. 52. 47. Hening, STATUTES AT LARGE OF VIRGINIA, IV. 118, 182. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 219 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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by such cumulative duties the rate on slaves reached 25% in 1755,49 and 35% at the time of Braddock’s expedition.50 These acts were found “very burthensome,” “introductive of many frauds,” and “very inconvenient,”51 and were so far repealed that by 1761 the duty was only 15%. As now the Burgesses became more powerful, two or more bills proposing restrictive duties were passed, but disallowed.52 By 1772 the anti-slave-trade feeling had become considerably developed, and the Burgesses petitioned the king, declaring that “The importation of slaves into the colonies from the coast of Africa hath long been considered as a trade of great inhumanity, and under its present encouragement, we have too much reason to fear will endanger the very existence of your Majesty’s American dominions.... Deeply impressed with these sentiments, we most humbly beseech your Majesty to remove all those restraints on your Majesty’s governors of this colony, which inhibit their assenting to such laws as might check so very pernicious a commerce.”53 Nothing further appears to have been done before the war. When, in 1776, the delegates adopted a Frame of Government, it was charged in this document that the king had perverted his high office into a “detestable and insupportable tyranny, by ... prompting our negroes to rise in arms among us, those very negroes whom, by an inhuman use of his negative, he hath refused us permission to exclude by law.”54 Two years later, in 1778, an “Act to prevent the further importation of Slaves” stopped definitively the legal slave-trade to Virginia.55

December 28: The legislature of Pennsylvania laid a 40-shilling duty on “Negroes, wine, rum and other spirits, cyder and vessels.” (This would be repealed by order in Council on February 20, 1713: Carey and Bioren, LAWS, I. 82; Bettle, “Notices of Negro Slavery” in PENN. HIST. SOC. MEM., 1864, I. 415.) INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY

1711

The Religious Society of Friends in Pennsylvania agreed with the righteousness of, and agreed to implement, the petition “against the traffic of menbody” with which they had been being struggling since 1688.56 “... the Yearly Meeting of Philadelphia, on a representation from the Quarterly Meeting of Chester, that the buying and 48. Hening, STATUTES AT LARGE OF VIRGINIA, IV. 317, 394; V. 28, 160, 318; VI. 217, 353; VII. 281; VIII. 190, 336, 532. 49. Hening, STATUTES AT LARGE OF VIRGINIA, V. 92; VI. 417, 419, 461, 466. 50. Hening, STATUTES AT LARGE OF VIRGINIA, VII. 69, 81. 51. Hening, STATUTES AT LARGE OF VIRGINIA, VII. 363, 383. 52. Hening, STATUTES AT LARGE OF VIRGINIA, VIII. 237, 337. 53. MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS, 1672-1865, in VA. HIST. SOC. COLL., New Ser., VI. 14; Tucker, BLACKSTONE’S COMMENTARIES, I. Part II. App., 51. 54. Hening, STATUTES AT LARGE OF VIRGINIA, IX. 112. 55. Importation by sea or by land was prohibited, with a penalty of £1000 for illegal importation and £500 for buying or selling. The Negro was freed, if illegally brought in. This law was revised somewhat in 1785. Cf. Hening, STATUTES AT LARGE OF VIRGINIA, IX. 471; XII. 182. 220 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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encouraging the importation of negroes was still practised by some of the 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.” Bettle, “Notices of Negro Slavery,” in PENN. HIST. SOC. MEM. (1864), I. 386.

Two of the original four signers were still alive57 and as far as the people of Pennsylvania were concerned, the days of international slave trade and of slave trading in general were over. Done done done. Been there done that got the T-shirt!

July/August: The New York assembly strengthened its previous act placing a duty on the tonnage of vessels and slaves. “An Act for the more effectual putting in Execution an Act of General Assembly, Intituled, An Act for Laying a Duty on the Tonnage of Vessels and Slaves.” ACTS OF ASSEMBLY, 1691-1718, page 134.58 INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY

December: The New York assembly attempted to increase the duty on slaves, but in the state Council this proposal was defeated. Bill for laying a further duty on slaves. Passed Assembly; lost in Council. DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, V. 293. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY

56. Unfortunately, the Quakers of Rhode Island would not initially be in accord with this new sentiment against the traffic in menbody. Below appears the rotting hulk of the Jem, as of the Year of Our Lord 1891 at Fort Adams near Newport on Aquidneck Island:

57. Refer to the poem “The Pennsylvania Pilgrim” by Friend John Greenleaf Whittier about one of the four original signers of this petition, Francis Daniel Pastorius: “The world forgets, but the wise angels know.” “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 221 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1712

In a New-York that at this point had reached a population of 5,840, one of the blacks who had been taught to read and write by the Huguenot catechism instructor Ellis Neau was charged with involvement in a slave plot. Did this mean that it was demonstrably unwise to teach American slaves to read and write, even barely enough to be able to receive the gospel of Christ? Defenders of the agenda of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts would be able to point out that although this black had indeed been taught to read and to write up to a certain level as part of their class, in preparation for a baptismal ceremony, in fact after his execution –guess what– he had been discovered to have been quite innocent of any involvement in that slave plot. SERVILE INSURRECTION In the year 1712 a considerable number of negroes of the Carmantee and Pappa Nations formed a plot to destroy all the English, in order to obtain their liberty; and kept their conspiracy so secret, that there was no suspicion of it till it came to the very execution. However, the plot was by God’s Providence happily defeated. The plot was this. The negroes sat fire to a house in York city, and Sunday night in April, about the going down of the moon. The fire alarmed the town, who from all parts ran to it; the conspirators planted themselves in several streets and lanes leading to the fire, and shot or stabbed the people as they were running to it. Some of the wounded escaped, and acquainted the Government, and presently by the firing of a great gun from the fort, the inhabitants were called under arms and pretty easily scattered the negroes; they had killed about 8 and wounded 12 more. In their flight some of them shot themselves, others their wives, and then themselves; some absconded a few days, and then killed themselves for fear of being taken; but a great many were taken, and 18 of them suffered death. This wicked conspiracy was at first apprehended to be general among all the negroes, and opened the mouths of many to speak against giving the negroes instruction. Mr. Neau durst hardly appear abroad for some days; his school was blamed as the main occasion of this barbarous plot. On examination, only two of all his school were so much as charged with the plot, and on full trial the guilty negroes were found to be such as never came to Mr. Neau’s school; and what is very observable, the persons, whose negroes were found to be most guilty, were such as were the declared opposers of making them Christians. However a great jealousy was now raised, and the common cry very 58. The following is a summary of the legislation of the colony of New York; details will be found in W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: — 1709, Duty Act: £3 on Negroes not direct from Africa (Continued by the Acts of 1710, 1711). 1711, Bill to lay further duty, lost in Council. 1716, Duty Act: 5 oz. plate on Africans in colony ships. 10 oz. plate on Africans in other ships. 1728, Duty Act: 40s. on Africans, £4 on colonial Negroes. 1732, Duty Act: 40s. on Africans, £4 on colonial Negroes. 1734, Duty Act: (?) 1753, Duty Act: 40s. on Africans, £4 on colonial Negroes. (This act was annually continued.) [1777, Vermont Constitution does not recognize slavery.] 1785, Sale of slaves in State prohibited. [1786, Sale of slaves in Vermont prohibited.] 1788, Sale of slaves in State prohibited. 222 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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loud against instructing the negroes.

Of course, if it were going to be allowed that some slaves might read and write, then it would be necessary to institute some sort of program to ensure that whatever reading materials became available to them would include nothing having any problematic ideas. For instance, it would be exceedingly unwise to allow a slave access to such opinion pieces as the Declaration of Independence (when events would work their way around to that document getting written), with its rank celebration of the notion of personal “freedom. AN INFORMED CITIZENRY

In the colony of New York in this year, it was being made more difficult for a white slavemaster to legally manumit his black slaves.

Queen Anne’s Proclamation Against Vice generated fresh supplies of felons for transportation.

Mingo, a slave of Wait Winthrop, the chief justice of Massachusetts, was executed in Charlestown for “forcible buggery,” i.e. male rape.South Carolina implemented the English buggery law. HOMOSEXUALITY

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Sir William Keith superseded Gookin as Governor of Pennsylvania.

He would continue in that office till the year 1726, making deceptive and flattering pretensions to young Benjamin Franklin. Hannah Penn, the executrix of the Penn estate, would be displeased with him as he tended to side with the people against her family’s interest.

Abraham Redwood, the father, arrived on the North American continent. We don’t know whether he initially settled his family in Newport, in Salem, or somewhere between these two towns. However, we know that Friend Abraham Redwood, the son, would grow up in Newport on Rhode Island’s Aquidneck Island. As a young man may well have gotten his education in Philadelphia. Following the death of his father and his older siblings, he would come into immense wealth as the owner of the sugar plantation “Cassada Garden” in Antigua and its large population of slaves.

February 27: At Newport, Rhode Island the General Assembly laid a duty upon the import of negro slaves. (Several decades later, His Majesty the King of England would order them to repeal this duty on the import of negro slaves into the colony — and they would obediently render this revenue act of theirs null and void.) INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE

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April 7: In a slave revolt in New-York, buildings had been set afire and 9 of the white men who had come to stop the blazes had been killed. Refer to Kenneth Scott’s “The Slave Insurrection in New York in 1712,” New York Historical Quarterly, Volume XLV, No. 1, January 1961. White soldiers pursued 23 slaves into a wooded swamp which was near what is now City Hall Park, and at that point 6 committed suicide. The remaining 17 were captured and 15 of them would be burned alive, one would be hung up in chains to starve, and one would be tied face down to a wheel lying on the ground and would –while an assemblage of whites counted cadence– have his bones crushed, blow by blow, by a white man wielding a sledgehammer.

Hey, no more Mr. Nice Guy!

As a result of this disturbance it became the law, that if a solitary negro were found off his owner’s land with, in his hand, anything which might function as a weapon, or if 3 were seen in company with one another off their master’s property without his authorization even without anything which might function as a weapon, the punishment would be 40 lashes across the back. SLAVERY

There would be, in the colony of New-York, yet another rebellion beginning with arson still to come, in March/ April 1741. SERVILE INSURRECTION

June 7: In order to cope with its fears of servile insurrection after “Divers Plots and Insurrections,” Pennsylvania enacted a prohibitive tariff on the importation of Negro slaves, Indian slaves, rum, and other objectionable items of import (this tariff would be disallowed by Great Britain in 1713). “A supplementary Act to an act, entituled, An impost act, laying a duty on Negroes, rum,” etc. Carey and Bioren, LAWS, I. 87, 88. Cf. COLONIAL RECORDS (1852), II. 553. “An act to prevent the Importation of Negroes and Indians into this Province.” “Whereas Divers Plots and Insurrections have frequently happened, not only in the Islands, but on the Main Land of America, by Negroes, which have been carried on so far that several of the Inhabitants have been thereby barbarously Murthered, an instance whereof we have lately had in our neighboring Colony of New York. And whereas the Importation of Indian Slaves hath given our Neighboring Indians in this Province some umbrage of Suspicion and Dis-satisfaction. For Prevention of all which for the future, “Be it Enacted ..., That from and after the Publication of this Act, upon the Importation of any Negro or Indian, by Land or Water, into this Province, there shall be paid by the Importer, Owner or Possessor thereof, the sum of Twenty Pounds per head, for every Negro or Indian so imported or brought in (except Negroes directly brought in from the West India Islands before the first Day of the Month called August next) unto the proper Officer herein after named, or that shall be appointed according to the Directions of this Act to receive the same,” etc. LAWS OF PENNSYLVANIA, COLLECTED, etc. (ed. 1714), page 165; COLONIAL RECORDS (1852), II. 553; Burge, COMMENTARIES, I. 737, note; PENN. ARCHIVES, I. 162. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 225 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: One of the first American protests against the slave-trade came from certain German Friends, in 1688, at a Weekly Meeting held in Germantown, Pennsylvania. “These are the reasons,” wrote “Garret henderich, derick up de graeff, Francis daniell Pastorius, and Abraham up Den graef,” “why we are against the traffick of men-body, as followeth: Is there any that would be done or handled at this manner?... Now, tho they are black, we cannot conceive there is more liberty to have them slaves, as it is to have other white ones. There is a saying, that we shall doe to all men like as we will be done ourselves; making no difference of what generation, descent or colour they are. And those who steal or robb men, and those who buy or purchase them, are they not all alike?”59 This little leaven helped slowly to work a revolution in the attitude of this great sect toward slavery and the slave-trade. The Yearly Meeting at first postponed the matter, “It having so General a Relation to many other Parts.”60 Eventually, however, in 1696, the Yearly Meeting advised “That Friends be careful not to encourage the bringing in of any more Negroes.”61 This advice was repeated in stronger terms for a quarter-century,62 and by that time Sandiford, Benezet, Lay, and Woolman had begun their crusade. In 1754 the Friends took a step farther and made the purchase of slaves a matter of discipline.63 Four years later the Yearly Meeting expressed itself clearly as “against every branch of this practice,” and declared that if “any professing with us should persist to vindicate it, and be concerned in importing, selling or purchasing slaves, the respective Monthly Meetings to which they belong should manifest their disunion with such persons.”64 Further, manumission was recommended, and in 1776 made compulsory.65 The effect of this attitude of the Friends was early manifested in the legislation of all the colonies where the sect was influential, and particularly in Pennsylvania. One of the first duty acts (1710) laid a restrictive duty of 40s. on slaves, and was eventually disallowed.66 In 1712 William Southeby petitioned the Assembly totally to abolish slavery. This the Assembly naturally refused to attempt; but the same year, in response to another petition “signed by many hands,” they passed an “Act to prevent the Importation of Negroes and Indians,”67 — the first enactment of its kind in America. This act was inspired largely by the general fear of insurrection which succeeded the “Negro-plot” of 1712 in New York. It declared: “Whereas, divers Plots and Insurrections have frequently happened, not only in the Islands but on the Main Land of America, by Negroes, which have been carried on so far that several of the inhabitants have been barbarously Murthered, 59. From fac-simile copy, published at Germantown in 1880. Cf. Whittier’s poem, “Pennsylvania Hall” (POETICAL WORKS, Riverside ed., III. 62); and Proud, HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA (1797), I. 219. 60. From fac-simile copy, published at Germantown in 1880. 61. Bettle, NOTICES OF NEGRO SLAVERY, in PENN. HIST. SOC. MEM. (1864), I. 383. 62. Cf. Bettle, NOTICES OF NEGRO SLAVERY, PASSIM. 63. Janney, HISTORY OF THE FRIENDS, III. 315-7. 64. HISTORY OF THE FRIENDS, III. 317. 65. Bettle, in PENN. HIST. SOC. MEM., I. 395. 66. PENN. COL. REC. (1852), II. 530; Bettle, in PENN. HIST. SOC. MEM., I. 415. 67. LAWS OF PENNSYLVANIA, COLLECTED, etc., 1714, page 165; Bettle, in PENN. HIST. SOC. MEM., I. 387. 226 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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an Instance whereof we have lately had in our Neighboring Colony of New York,”68 etc. It then proceeded to lay a prohibitive duty of £20 on all slaves imported. These acts were quickly disposed of in England. Three duty acts affecting Negroes, including the prohibitory act, were in 1713 disallowed, and it was directed that “the Depty Govr Council and Assembly of Pensilvania, be & they are hereby Strictly Enjoyned & required not to permit the said Laws ... to be from henceforward put in Execution.”69 The Assembly repealed these laws, but in 1715 passed another laying a duty of £5, which was also eventually disallowed.70 Other acts, the provisions of which are not clear, were passed in 1720 and 1722,71 and in 1725-1726 the duty on Negroes was raised to the restrictive figure of £10.72 This duty, for some reason not apparent, was lowered to £2 in 1729,73 but restored again in 1761.74 A struggle occurred over this last measure, the Friends petitioning for it, and the Philadelphia merchants against it, declaring that “We, the subscribers, ever desirous to extend the Trade of this Province, have seen, for some time past, the many inconveniencys the Inhabitants have suffer’d for want of Labourers and artificers, ... have for some time encouraged the importation of Negroes;” they prayed therefore at least for a delay in passing the measure.75 The law, nevertheless, after much debate and altercation with the governor, finally passed. These repeated acts nearly stopped the trade, and the manumission or sale of Negroes by the Friends decreased the number of slaves in the province. The rising spirit of independence enabled the colony, in 1773, to restore the prohibitive duty of £20 and make it perpetual.76 After the Revolution unpaid duties on slaves were collected and the slaves registered,77 and in 1780 an “Act for the gradual Abolition of Slavery” was passed.78 As there were probably at no time before the war more than 11,000 slaves in Pennsylvania,79 the task thus accomplished was not so formidable as in many other States. As it was, participation in the slave-trade outside the colony was not prohibited until 1788.80 68. See preamble of the act. 69. The Pennsylvanians did not allow their laws to reach England until long after they were passed: PENN. ARCHIVES, I. 161-2; COL. REC., II. 572-3. These acts were disallowed Feb. 20, 1713. Another duty act was passed in 1712, supplementary to the Act of 1710 (COL. REC., II. 553). The contents are unknown. 70. ACTS AND LAWS OF PENNSYLVANIA, 1715, page 270; Chalmers, OPINIONS, II. 118. Before the disallowance was known, the act had been continued by the Act of 1718: Carey and Bioren, LAWS OF PENNSYLVANIA, 1700-1802, I. 118; PENN. COL. REC., III. 38. 71. Carey and Bioren, LAWS, I. 165; PENN. COL. REC., III. 171; Bettle, in PENN. HIST. SOC. MEM., I. 389, note. 72. Carey and Bioren, LAWS, I. 214; Bettle, in PENN. HIST. SOC. MEM., I. 388. Possibly there were two acts this year. 73. LAWS OF PENNSYLVANIA (ed. 1742), page 354, ch. 287. Possibly some change in the currency made this change appear greater than it was. 74. Carey and Bioren, LAWS, I. 371; ACTS OF ASSEMBLY (ed. 1782), page 149; Dallas, LAWS, I. 406, ch. 379. This act was renewed in 1768: Carey and Bioren, LAWS, I. 451; PENN. COL. REC., IX. 472, 637, 641. 75. PENN. COL. REC., VIII. 576. 76. A large petition called for this bill. Much altercation ensued with the governor: Dallas, LAWS, I. 671, ch. 692; PENN. COL. REC., X. 77; Bettle, in PENN. HIST. SOC. MEM., I. 388-9. 77. Dallas, LAWS, I. 782, ch. 810. 78. LAWS, I. 838, ch. 881. 79. There exist but few estimates of the number of slaves in this colony: — In 1721, 2,500-5,000. DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, V. 604. In 1754, 11,000. Bancroft, HIST. OF UNITED STATES (1883), II. 391. In 1760, very few. Burnaby, TRAVELS THROUGH N. AMER. (2d ed.), page 81. In 1775, 2,000. PENN. ARCHIVES, IV 597. 80. Dallas, LAWS, II. 586. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 227 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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It seems probable that in the original Swedish settlements along the Delaware slavery was prohibited.81 This measure had, however, little practical effect; for as soon as the Dutch got control the slave-trade was opened, although, as it appears, to no large extent. After the fall of the Dutch Delaware came into English hands. Not until 1775 do we find any legislation on the slave-trade. In that year the colony attempted to prohibit the importation of slaves, but the governor vetoed the bill.82 Finally, in 1776 by the Constitution, and in 1787 by law, importation and exportation were both prohibited.83

1713

Jack was born in about this year, the Concord church’s record listing him as “Jack, Negro.” His owner was Benjamin Barron, a farmer and cordwainer (shoemaker) who lived at 53 Lexington Road. He would take the given name “John” after being granted his freedom, making himself “John Jack,” having been before that late- life manumission merely another black slave with no need for more of an identity than this “Jack.”

81. Cf. ARGONAUTICA GUSTAVIANA, pages 21-3; DEL. HIST. SOC. PAPERS, III. 10; HAZARD’S REGISTER, IV. 221, §§ 23, 24; HAZARD’S ANNALS, page 372; Armstrong, RECORD OF UPLAND COURT, pages 29-30, and notes. 82. Force, AMERICAN ARCHIVES, 4th Ser., II. 128-9. 83. AMERICAN ARCHIVES, 5th Ser., I. 1178; LAWS OF DELAWARE, 1797 (Newcastle ed.), page 884, ch. 145 b. 228 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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At Eastern Point in Gloucester, the 1st “schooner,” a faster fishing boat, was launched from Cape Ann, by Andrew Robinson. The objective was to reduce sailing time to and from Georges Bank, and thus render the salt cod business more cost-effective.

On April 11, 1713,84 the Treaty of Utrecht granted the South Sea Company a monopoly, “asientos,” to import 4,800 African slaves per year for a period of 30 years into Spain’s American colonies to date from May 1, 1713. (The French had previously held this monopoly, and before them the Dutch.) This South Sea Company had been two years earlier in anticipation of receiving these asientos: the company was essentially a British finance company rather than a trading firm, but this began the most active period of British participation in the slave trade.

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The South Sea Company chartered in this year was deeply involved with the British government, which invested in the Spanish trade in the hope that profits would pay off the national debt. The first governor of the company was Robert Harley, Chancellor of the Exchequer; when he would fall from power in 1714, he would be succeeded at first by the prince of Wales, and then by King George I himself. The trade consisted primarily of slaves; by contract, 4,800 each year were shipped from Africa to the Spanish West Indies. Although this business was not a great success, shares of the company kept soaring in price until, in 1720, the bubble collapsed — the greatest stock-market crash in English history up to that time. Much of the British elite lost large sums of money. The shareholders included such leading authors as Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe, Alexander Pope, Gay, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. By luck and good management of the crisis, Robert Walpole took control of the government; his dominance would last for more than twenty years. Hubble Bubble; all is smoke, Hubble Bubble; all is broke, Farewell your Houses, Lands and Flocks For all you have is now in Stocks. — Anonymous pamphlet

March 11: The colony of New Jersey imposed a £10 “Duty on Negro, Indian and Mulatto Slaves, imported and brought into this Province.”85 “Be it Enacted ..., That every Person or Persons that shall hereafter Import or bring in, or cause to be imported or brought into this Province, any Negro Indian or Mulatto Slave or Slaves, every such Person or Persons so importing or bringing in, or causing to be imported or brought in, such Slave or Slaves, shall enter with one of the Collectors of her Majestie’s Customs of this Province, every such Slave or Slaves, within Twenty Four Hours after such Slave or Slaves is so Imported, and pay the Sum of Ten Pounds Money as appointed by her Majesty’s Proclamation, for each Slave so imported, or give sufficient Security that the said Sum of Ten Pounds, Money aforesaid, shall be well and truly paid within three Months after such Slave or Slaves are so imported, to the Collector or his Deputy of the District into which such Slave or Slaves shall be imported, for the use of her 84. There is not just one date associated with the Peace of Utrecht because this was not one but a complex series of treaties. The April 11th date was when Louis XIV recognized the English succession as established in the house of Hanover and confirmed the renunciation of the claims to the French throne of Louis's grandson, Philip V of Spain. The French fortifications of Dunkirk were to be razed and the harbor filled up, and the Hudson Bay territory, Acadia, St. Kitts, and Newfoundland were ceded to England. By a commercial treaty England and France granted each other most-favored-nation treatment. By a treaty with the Netherlands France agreed to surrender to Austria the Spanish Netherlands still in French hands; these were to be held in trust by the Netherlands until the conclusion of a treaty between the Netherlands and the Holy Roman emperor. A commercial treaty between France and the Netherlands was also signed. France furthermore restored Savoy and Nice to Victor Amadeus II, recognizing him as king of Savoy. France also signed a treaty with Portugal and one with Prussia confirming the kingship of the Prussian rulers. The July 13th date, on the other hand, was when an Anglo-Spanish treaty confirmed the clauses of the Anglo-French treaties relating to the English and French successions. Spain ceded Gibraltar and Minorca to Great Britain and ceded Sicily (to be exchanged in 1720 for Sardinia) to Savoy. Britain and Spain signed the Asiento, an agreement giving Britain the sole right to the slave trade with Spanish America. The March 7th, 1714 date was when Louis XIV and Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI made their peace, and the September 7th, 1714 date was when the Treaty of Baden completed the settlement, restoring the right bank of the Rhine to the empire and confirming Austria in possession of the formerly Spanish Netherlands, of Naples, and of Milan. The November 15th, 1715 date was when the Third Barrier Treaty regulated trade relations between the Dutch and Austrian Netherlands. 85. The following is a summary of the legislation of the colony of New Jersey; details will be found in W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: — 1713, Duty Act: £10. 1763 (?), Duty Act. 1769, Duty Act: £15. 1774, Duty Act: £5 on Africans, £10 on colonial Negroes. 1786, Importation prohibited. 230 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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Majesty, her Heirs and Successors, toward the Support of the Government of this Province.” For seven years; violations incur forfeiture and sale of slaves at auction; slaves brought from elsewhere than Africa to pay £10, etc. LAWS AND ACTS OF NEW JERSEY, 1703-1717 (edition of 1717), page 43; N.J. ARCHIVES, 1st Series, XIII. 516, 517, 520, 522, 523, 527, 532, 541. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: Although the freeholders of West New Jersey declared, in 1676, that “all and every Person and Persons Inhabiting the said Province, shall, as far as in us lies, be free from Oppression and Slavery,”86 yet Negro slaves are early found in the colony.87 The first restrictive measure was passed, after considerable friction between the Council and the House, in 1713; it laid a duty of £10, currency.88 Governor Hunter explained to the Board of Trade that the bill was “calculated to Encourage the Importation of white Servants for the better Peopeling that Country.”89 How long this act continued does not appear; probably, not long. No further legislation was enacted until 1762 or 1763, when a prohibitive duty was laid on account of “the inconvenience the Province is exposed to in lying open to the free importation of Negros, when the Provinces on each side have laid duties on them.”90 The Board of Trade declared that while they did not object to “the Policy of imposing a reasonable duty,” they could not assent to this, and the act was disallowed.91 The Act of 1769 evaded the technical objection of the Board of Trade, and laid a duty of £15 on the first purchasers of Negroes, because, as the act declared, “Duties on the Importation of Negroes in several of the neighbouring Colonies hath, on Experience, been found beneficial in the Introduction of sober, industrious Foreigners.”92 In 1774 a bill which, according to the report of the Council to Governor Morris, “plainly intended an entire Prohibition of all Slaves being imported from foreign Parts,” was thrown out by the Council.93 Importation was finally prohibited in 1786.94

March 26: The “Assiento,” a formal permission, was issued by the King of Spain to Great Britain, to legitimate the importation of slaves from Africa, by English vessels, into Spanish ports in the New World. W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: Having thus gained practically free admittance to the field, English merchants sought to exclude other nations by securing a monopoly of the lucrative Spanish colonial slave-trade. Their object was finally accomplished by the signing of the Assiento in 1713. 86. Leaming and Spicer, GRANTS, CONCESSIONS, etc., page 398. Probably this did not refer to Negroes at all. 87. Cf. Vincent, HISTORY OF DELAWARE, I. 159, 381. 88. LAWS AND ACTS OF NEW JERSEY, 1703-17 (ed. 1717), page 43. 89. N.J. ARCHIVES, IV. 196. There was much difficulty in passing the bill: N.J. ARCHIVES, XIII. 516-41. 90. N.J. ARCHIVES, IX. 345-6. The exact provisions of the act I have not found. 91. N.J. ARCHIVES, IX. 383, 447, 458. Chiefly because the duty was laid on the importer. 92. Allinson, ACTS OF ASSEMBLY, pages 315-6. 93. N.J. ARCHIVES, VI. 222. 94. ACTS OF THE 10TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY, May 2, 1786. There are two estimates of the number of slaves in this colony: — In 1738, 3,981. AMERICAN ANNALS, II. 127. In 1754, 4,606. AMERICAN ANNALS, II. 143. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 231 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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The Assiento was a treaty between England and Spain by which the latter granted the former a monopoly of the Spanish colonial slave-trade for thirty years, and England engaged to supply the colonies within that time with at least 144,000 slaves, at the rate of 4,800 per year. England was also to advance Spain 200,000 crowns, and to pay a duty of 33½ crowns for each slave imported. The kings of Spain and England were each to receive one-fourth of the profits of the trade, and the Royal African Company were authorized to import as many slaves as they wished above the specified number in the first twenty-five years, and to sell them, except in three ports, at any price they could get. It is stated that, in the twenty years from 1713 to 1733, fifteen thousand slaves were annually imported into America by the English, of whom from one-third to one-half went to the Spanish colonies.95 To the company itself the venture proved a financial failure; for during the years 1729-1750 Parliament assisted the Royal Company by annual grants which amounted to £90,000,96 and by 1739 Spain was a creditor to the extent of £68,000, and threatened to suspend the treaty. The war interrupted the carrying out of the contract, but the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle extended the limit by four years. Finally, October 5, 1750, this privilege was waived for a money consideration paid to England; the Assiento was ended, and the Royal Company was bankrupt.

The document is of interest because it constitutes, in its selection of a racial term rather than a point-of-origin term such as “West Africans” or a legal term such as “slaves,” evidence that the troublesome identification of the legal status of enslavement with the racial status of being a black person was in fact already being made as of this date. The preamble to this document would read, in translation into English: The Asiento “The Assiento, or Contract for allowing to the Subjects of Great Britain the Liberty of importing Negroes into the Spanish America. Signed by the Catholick King at Madrid, the 26th Day of March, 1713.” Art. I. “First then to procure, by this means, a mutual and reciprocal advantage to the sovereigns and subjects of both crowns, her British majesty does offer and undertake for the persons, whom she shall name and appoint, That they shall oblige and charge themselves with the bringing into the West-Indies of America, belonging to his catholick majesty, in the space of the said 30 years, to commence on the 1st day of May, 1713, and determine on the like day, which will be in the year 1743, viz. 144000 negroes, Piezas de India, of both sexes, and of all ages, at the rate of 4800 negroes, Piezas de India, in each of the said 30 years, with this condition, That the persons who shall go to the West-Indies to take care of the concerns of the assiento, shall avoid giving any offence, for in such case they shall be prosecuted and punished in the same manner, as they would have been in Spain, if the like misdemeanors had been committed there.” 95. Bandinel, ACCOUNT OF THE SLAVE TRADE, page 59. Cf. Bryan Edwards, HISTORY OF THE BRITISH COLONIES IN THE W. INDIES (London, 1798), Book VI. 96. From 1729 to 1788, including compensation to the old company, Parliament expended £705,255 on African companies. Cf. REPORT OF THE LORDS OF THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL, etc. 232 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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Art. II. Assientists to pay a duty of 33 pieces of eight (Escudos) for each Negro, which should include all duties. Art. III. Assientists to advance to his Catholic Majesty 200,000 pieces of eight, which should be returned at the end of the first twenty years, etc. John Almon, TREATIES OF PEACE, ALLIANCE, AND COMMERCE, BETWEEN GREAT-BRITAIN AND OTHER POWERS (London, 1772), I. 83- 107. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY

July 13: On this day a treaty was arranged between red and white in New England, following Queen Anne’s War. At Newport, Rhode Island, the military stores of gunpowder were given over to the charge of the treasurer and the cannon were all coated in tar for preservation, and laid out in long rows upon logs along Governor’s Wharf. READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT

The native headmen and the British negotiators signed these papers at Portsmouth, New Hampshire (see following). This treaty may well have spawned the world’s-record longest book title! A history, by Samuel Penhallow, would be entitled THE HISTORY OF THE WARS OF NEW-ENGLAND, WITH THE EASTERN INDIANS. OR, A NARRATIVE OF THEIR CONTINUED PERFIDY AND CRUELTY, FROM THE 10TH OF AUGUST, 1703. TO THE PEACE RENEWED 13TH OF JULY, 1713. AND FROM THE 25TH OF JULY, 1722. TO THEIR SUBMISSION 15TH DECEMBER, 1725. WHICH WAS RATIFIED AUGUST 5TH 1726. BY SAMUEL PENHALLOW, ESQR. ; [TWO LINES OF LATIN TEXT].

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The Treaty of Utrecht between Great Britain and Spain. “Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the most serene and most potent princess Anne, by the grace of God, Queen of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. and the most serene and most potent Prince Philip V the Catholick King of Spain, concluded at Utrecht, the 2/13 Day of July, 1713.” Art. XII. “The Catholick King doth furthermore hereby give and grant to her Britannick majesty, and to the company of her subjects appointed for that purpose, as well the subjects of Spain, as all others, being excluded, the contract for introducing negroes into several parts of the dominions of his Catholick Majesty in America, commonly called el Pacto de el Assiento de Negros, for the space of thirty years successively, beginning from the first day of the month of May, in the year 1713, with the same conditions on which the French enjoyed it, or at any time might or ought to enjoy the same, together with a tract or tracts of Land to be allotted by the said Catholick King, and to be granted to the company aforesaid, commonly called la Compania de el Assiento, in some convenient place on the river of Plata, (no duties or revenues being payable by the said company on that account, during the time of the abovementioned contract, and no longer) and this settlement of the said society, or those tracts of land, shall be proper and sufficient for planting, and sowing, and for feeding cattle for the subsistence of those who are in the service of the said company, and of their negroes; and that the said negroes may be there kept in safety till they are sold; and moreover, that the ships belonging to the said company may come close to land, and be secure from any danger. But it shall always be lawful for the Catholick King, to appoint an officer in the said place or settlement, who may take care that nothing be done or practised contrary to his royal interests. And all who manage the affairs of the said company there, or belong to it, shall be subject to the inspection of the aforesaid officer, as to all matters relating to the tracts of land abovementioned. But if any doubts, difficulties, or controversies, should arise between the said officer and the managers for the said company, they shall be referred to the determination of the governor of Buenos Ayres. The Catholick King has been likewise pleased to grant to the said company, several other extraordinary advantages, which are more fully and amply explained in the contract of the Assiento, which was made and concluded at Madrid, the 26th day of the month of March, of this present year 1713. Which contract, or Assiento de Negros, and all the clauses, conditions, privileges and immunities contained therein, and which are not contrary to this article, are and shall be deemed, and taken to be, part of this treaty, in the same manner as if they had been here inserted word for word.” John Almon, TREATIES OF PEACE, ALLIANCE, AND C OMMERCE, BETWEEN G REAT-BRITAIN AND OTHER P OWERS, I. 168-80. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY

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1714

February 18: South Carolina placed a duty on “all Negro Slaves imported into this Province from any part of America,” by “America” presumably meaning from anywhere in the New World as opposed to, say, Africa. “An Act for laying an additional duty on all Negro Slaves imported into this Province from any part of America.” Title quoted in Act of 1719, §30, q.v. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE

December 8, day: James Honeyman wrote to Gabriel Bernon about Bernon’s gift of a female slave to his daughter Sarah.

December 18: South Carolina, in order to make the duty on the import of new slaves more prohibitive, enacted “An additional Act to an Act entitled ‘An Act for the better Ordering and Governing Negroes and all other Slaves.’” “And whereas, the number of negroes do extremely increase in this Province, and through the afflicting providence of God, the white persons do not proportionally multiply, by reason whereof, the safety of the said Province is greatly endangered; for the prevention of which for the future, “Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all negro slaves from twelve years old and upwards, imported into this part of this Province from any part of Africa, shall pay such additional duties as is hereafter named, that is to say: — that every merchant or other person whatsoever, who shall, six months after the ratification of this Act, import any negro slaves as aforesaid, shall, for every such slave, pay unto the public receiver for the time being, (within thirty days after such importation,) the sum of two pounds current money of this Province.” Cooper, STATUTES, VII. 365. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY

1715

Black slaves at this point comprised 24% of the population of the Virginia colony (up from less than 5% in 1671).

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The LAWS OF MARYLAND, Chapter 44, Section 25, provided that any white women caught having a sexual relationship with a black man was to be reduced to forced servitude. North Carolina prohibited interracial marriage. The Reverend Increase Mather remarried, with Anne Lake Cotton, a relative of his first wife (clearly, this classifies as an intra-racial marriage, the good kind — and anyway, the union wasn’t being consummated in Maryland or North Carolina).

February 18: South Carolina placed “an additional duty on all Negroe slaves imported into this Province from any part of America.” “An additional Act to an act entitled an act for raising the sum of £2000, of and from the estates real and personal of the inhabitants of this Province, ratified in open Assembly the 18th day of December, 1714; and for laying an additional duty on all Negroe slaves imported into this Province from any part of America.” Title only given. Grimké, PUBLIC LAWS, p. xvi, No. 362. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY

May 25, Wednesday: John Burrill of Lynn was elected Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Nathaniel Byfield, Dr. John Clarke, and Elisha Cooke were among the councillors chosen by the representatives and the former council.

May 28: Pennsylvania enacted a £5 duty on the importation of Negro slaves. “An Act for laying a Duty on Negroes imported into this province.” Disallowed by Great Britain, 1719. ACTS AND LAWS OF PENNSYLVANIA, 1715, page 270; COLONIAL RECORDS (1852), III. 75-6; Chalmers, OPINIONS, II. 118. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE

June 3: The colony of Maryland laid a prohibitive imposition of 20 shillings per head “on Negroes ...; and also on Irish Servants, to prevent the importing too great a Number of Irish Papists into this Province.”

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Supplemented April 23, 1735, and July 25, 1754. COMPLEAT COLLECTION OF THE LAWS OF MARYLAND (ed. 1727), p. 157; Bacon, LAWS, 1715, Chapter XXXVI. §8; 1735, Chapter VI. §§1-3; ACTS OF A SSEMBLY, 1754, page 10. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY

1716

The Quaker meetinghouse on Nantucket Island, erected in 1711, was expanded at this point so that it would seat the more than 300 Friends who desired to take part in silent worship. At this point some Quakers of the Newport, Rhode Island community were engaging in the “triangular trade,” involving as one of its legs the bulk manufacture of rum and as another of its legs the international slave trade,97 and some black slaves were present on Nantucket, where at least one Quaker, Friend Stephen Hussey, was a slaveholder. During this year an Englishman, Friend John Farmer, was making a missionary tour of the colonies attempting to persuade us that chattel slavery was “not in agreement with Truth.” Winning the support of Friend Priscilla Starbuck Coleman, Friend John was able to persuade the monthly meeting on the island into a minute depicting enslavement as immoral. It was “not agreeable to Truth for Friends to purchase slaves and keep them for a term of life.”98 This declaration made the Nantucket monthly meeting the 1st group of Friends anywhere in the world to disavow human enslavement, but it would seem that the island’s Quakers would fall back somewhat from their commitment to racial fairness, for some sixteen years, while Friend John’s success on the island

97. Below appears the rotting hulk of the slave ship Jem, as of the Year of Our Lord 1891 at Fort Adams near Newport on Aquidneck Island:

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would not be matched by any great success on the mainland of the American colonies — in fact, in the Philadelphia meeting, he would be put under dealing (visited by an official committee and struggled with), and he would, eventually, be publicly disowned by the Friends. Furthermore, the Friends in England would honor the American disownment, so that Friend John would come to be regarded as troublesome on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

Flushing Quakers who would speak out against slavery would include Friend Horseman Mullenix and Friend Matthew Franklin, who would come with another antislavery Friend John, an American one, Friend John Woolman (not yet born), when he would travel on Paumanok Long Island and visit their monthly meeting to speak against slavery.

Costumes of Philadelphia Quakers

It as at about this point that New Bedford, a Quaker whaling town, began its formal opposition to the institution of slavery, and thus began its career as a sanctuary for runaway slaves. This would be the city of origin for Friend Daniel Ricketson, and would be the city of refuge for .

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Here is an American bill of sale for a human being, dating to July 16th of this year:

In this year New York enacted a rather mysterious “5 oz. and 10 oz. plate Duty Act,” rather mysterious because we have only the title and none of the text. According to the title it had something to do with a Duty laid on Negroes, and other Slaves, imported into this Colony: “An Act to Oblige all Vessels Trading into this Colony (except

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such as are therein excepted) to pay a certain Duty; and for the further Explanation and rendring more Effectual certain Clauses in an Act of General Assembly of this Colony, Intituled, An Act by which a Duty is laid on Negroes, and other Slaves, imported into this Colony.” The act referred to is not to be found. ACTS 99 OF ASSEMBLY, 1691-1718, p. 224. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY

June 30: South Carolina laid a duty of £3 on slaves brought fresh from Africa, but of £30 on slaves brought from elsewhere in the New World. “An Act for laying an Imposition on Liquors, Goods and Merchandizes, Imported into and Exported out of this Province, for the raising of a Fund of Money towards the defraying the publick charges and expences of the Government.” A duty of £3 was laid on African slaves, and £30 on American slaves. Cooper, STATUTES, II. 649. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE

1717

Maryland enacted “that if any free Negro or mulatto intermarry with any white woman, or if any white man shall intermarry with any Negro or mulatto woman, such Negro or mulatto shall become a slave during life, excepting mulattos born of white women, who, for such intermarriage, shall only become servants for seven years, to be disposed of as the justices of the county court, where such marriage so happens, shall think fit; to be applied by them towards the support of a public school within the said county. And any white man or white woman who shall intermarry as aforesaid, with any Negro or mulatto, such white man or white woman shall become servants during the term of seven years, and shall be disposed of by the justices as aforesaid, and be applied to the uses aforesaid.” (Interracial marriage was also proscribed in this year in the STATUTES AT LARGE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, Number 383.)

The Newport, Rhode Island monthly meeting of the Religious Society of Friends expressed concern over the importing and keeping of slaves from the West Indies and elsewhere. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE

99. The following is a summary of the legislation of the colony of New York; details will be found in W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: — 1709, Duty Act: £3 on Negroes not direct from Africa (Continued by the Acts of 1710, 1711). 1711, Bill to lay further duty, lost in Council. 1716, Duty Act: 5 oz. plate on Africans in colony ships. 10 oz. plate on Africans in other ships. 1728, Duty Act: 40s. on Africans, £4 on colonial Negroes. 1732, Duty Act: 40s. on Africans, £4 on colonial Negroes. 1734, Duty Act: (?) 1753, Duty Act: 40s. on Africans, £4 on colonial Negroes. (This act was annually continued.) [1777, Vermont Constitution does not recognize slavery.] 1785, Sale of slaves in State prohibited. [1786, Sale of slaves in Vermont prohibited.] 1788, Sale of slaves in State prohibited. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 243 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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June 8: The colony of Maryland imposed an additional 20-shilling poll tax (duty per capita) on the importation of any more Irish servants and on any more Negroes. “An Act for laying an Additional Duty of Twenty Shillings Current Money per Poll on all Irish Servants, ... also, the Additional Duty of Twenty Shillings Current Money per Poll on all Negroes, for raising a Fund for the Use of Publick Schools,” etc. Continued by Act of 1728. COMPLEAT COLLECTION OF THE LAWS OF MARYLAND (edition of 1727), page 191; Bacon, LAWS, 1728. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY

December 11: Because “the great importation of negroes to this Province [South Carolina], in proportion to the white inhabitants of the same” was creating a prospect of servile insurrection in which “the future safety of this Province will be greatly endangered,” for the following four years the colony would be exacting an additional prohibitive duty of £40 per capita –over and above all previous imposts– on any additional “negro slaves of any age or condition whatsoever, imported or otherwise brought into this Province, from any part of the world.” “A further additional Act to an Act entitled An Act for the better ordering and governing of Negroes and all other Slaves; and to an additional Act to an Act entitled An Act for the better ordering and governing of Negroes and all other Slaves.” § 3. “And whereas, the great importation of negroes to this Province, in proportion to the white inhabitants of the same, whereby the future safety of this Province will be greatly endangered; for the prevention whereof, “Be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all negro slaves of any age or condition whatsoever, imported or otherwise brought into this Province, from any part of the world, shall pay such additional duties as is hereafter named, that is to say: — that every merchant or other person whatsoever, who shall, eighteen months after the ratification of this Act, import any negro slave as aforesaid, shall, for every such slave, pay unto the public receiver for the time being, at the time of each importation, over and above all the duties already charged on negroes, by any law in force in this Province, the additional sum of forty pounds current money of this Province,” etc. § 4. This section on duties to be in force for four years after ratification, and thence to the end of the next session of the General Assembly. Cooper, STATUTES, VII. 368. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: South Carolina had the largest and most widely developed slave-trade of any of the continental colonies. This was owing to the character of her settlers, her nearness to the West Indian slave marts, and the early development of certain staple crops, such as rice, which were adapted to slave labor.100 Moreover, this colony suffered much less interference

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from the home government than many other colonies; thus it is possible here to trace the untrammeled development of slave- trade restrictions in a typical planting community. As early as 1698 the slave-trade to South Carolina had reached such proportions that it was thought that “the great number of negroes which of late have been imported into this Collony may endanger the safety thereof.” The immigration of white servants was therefore encouraged by a special law.101 Increase of immigration reduced this disproportion, but Negroes continued to be imported in such numbers as to afford considerable revenue from a moderate duty on them. About the time when the Assiento was signed, the slave-trade so increased that, scarcely a year after the consummation of that momentous agreement, two heavy duty acts were passed, because “the number of Negroes do extremely increase in this Province, and through the afflicting providence of God, the white persons do not proportionately multiply, by reason whereof, the safety of the said Province is greatly endangered.”102 The trade, however, by reason of the encouragement abroad and of increased business activity in exporting naval stores at home, suffered scarcely any check, although repeated acts, reciting the danger incident to a “great importation of Negroes,” were passed, laying high duties.103 Finally, in 1717, an additional duty of £40,104 although due in depreciated currency, succeeded so nearly in stopping the trade that, two years later, all existing duties were repealed and one of £10 substituted.105 This continued during the time of resistance to the proprietary government, but by 1734 the importation had again reached large proportions. “We must therefore beg leave,” the colonists write in that year, “to inform your Majesty, that, amidst our other perilous circumstances, we are subject to many intestine dangers from the great number of negroes that are now among us, who amount at least to twenty-two thousand persons, and are three to one of all your Majesty’s white subjects in this province. Insurrections against us have been often attempted.”106 In 1740 an insurrection under a slave, Cato, at Stono, caused such widespread alarm that a prohibitory duty of £100 was immediately laid.107 Importation was again checked; but in 1751 the colony sought to devise a plan whereby the slightly restricted immigration of Negroes should provide a fund to encourage the importation of white servants, “to prevent the mischiefs that may be attended by the great importation of negroes into this Province.”108 Many white servants were thus encouraged to settle in the colony; but so much larger was the influx of black slaves that the colony, in 1760, totally prohibited the slave-trade.

101. Cooper, STATUTES AT LARGE OF S. CAROLINA, II. 153. 102. The text of the first act is not extant: cf. Cooper, STATUTES, III. 56. For the second, see Cooper, VII. 365, 367. 103. Cf. Grimké, PUBLIC LAWS OF S. CAROLINA, page xvi, No. 362; Cooper, STATUTES, II. 649. Cf. also GOVERNOR JOHNSON TO THE BOARD OF TRADE, Jan. 12, 1719-20; reprinted in Rivers, EARLY HISTORY OF S. CAROLINA (1874), App., xii. 104. Cooper, STATUTES, VII. 368. 105. Cooper, STATUTES, III. 56. 106. From a memorial signed by the governor, President of the Council, and Speaker of the House, dated April 9, 1734, printed in Hewatt, HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF S. CAROLINA AND GEORGIA (1779), II. 39; reprinted in S.C. Hist. Coll. (1836), I. 305-6. Cf. N.C. COL. REC., II. 421. 107. Cooper, STATUTES, III. 556; Grimké, PUBLIC LAWS, page xxxi, No. 694. Cf. Ramsay, HISTORY OF S. CAROLINA, I. 110. 108. Cooper, STATUTES, III. 739. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 245 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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This act was promptly disallowed by the Privy Council and the governor reprimanded;109 but the colony declared that “an importation of negroes, equal in number to what have been imported of late years, may prove of the most dangerous consequence in many respects to this Province, and the best way to obviate such danger will be by imposing such an additional duty upon them as may totally prevent the evils.”110 A prohibitive duty of £100 was accordingly imposed in 1764.111 This duty probably continued until the Revolution.

1718

The act of 1718 reaffirming the Transportation of Convicts made such “transportation” the routine alternative to a death sentence of hanging or burning at the stake.

February 22: Pennsylvania renewed its duty on the importation of black slaves. “An Act for continuing a duty on Negroes brought into this province.” Carey and Bioren, LAWS, I. 118. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY

109. The text of this law has not been found. Cf. Burge, COMMENTARIES ON COLONIAL AND FOREIGN LAWS, I. 737, note; Stevens, HISTORY OF GEORGIA, I. 286. See instructions of the governor of New Hampshire, June 30, 1761, in Gordon, HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, I. letter 2. 110. Cooper, STATUTES, IV. 187. 111. This duty avoided the letter of the English instructions by making the duty payable by the first purchasers, and not by the importers. Cf. Cooper, STATUTES, IV. 187. 246 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1719

March 20: As part of an act “for laying an Imposition on Negroes, Liquors, and other Goods and Merchandizes, imported, and exported out of this Province,” the colony of South Carolina legislated a duty of £10 on new slaves brought straight from Africa, but of £30 on slaves brought from elsewhere in the New World. “An Act for laying an Imposition on Negroes, Liquors, and other Goods and Merchandizes, imported, and exported out of this Province, for the raising of a Fund of Money towards the defraying the Publick Charges and Expences of this Government; as also to Repeal several Duty Acts, and Clauses and Paragraphs of Acts, as is herein mentioned.” This repeals former duty acts (e.g. that of 1714), and lays a duty of £10 on African slaves, and £30 on American slaves. Cooper, STATUTES, III. 56. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY

1720

James Brown and Nicholas Brown (grandfather of the Nicholas Brown, Jr. who would give the family name to the College of Rhode Island, making it into Brown University) began to establish, centered in Rhode Island, one of the foremost business families in the colonies. They not only traded, they sponsored local businesses which would provide them with materials for trade. For instance, in order to deal in the triangular trade, needing rum to ship to the coast of Africa, they encouraged local distilleries.112

May 6: In South Carolina a slave revolt resulted in the deaths of two whites, Benjamin Cattle and a woman, and also a black youth. Forces were immediately raised, and sent after them, twenty- three of whom were taken, six convicted, three executed, and three escaped. SERVILE INSURRECTION

James Brown and Nicholas Brown (grandfather of the Nicholas Brown, Jr. who would give the family name to the College of Rhode Island, making it into Brown University) began to establish, centered in Rhode Island, one of the foremost business families in the colonies. They not only traded, they sponsored local businesses which would provide them with materials for trade. For instance, in order to deal in the triangular trade, needing rum to ship to the coast of Africa, they encouraged local distilleries.113

112. The Providence Browns, not counting a fifth brother who had died young: brothers Nicholas Brown (1729-1791), Joseph (1733-1785), John (1736-1803), and Moses Brown (1738-1836), uncles Obadiah (1712-1762) and Elisha (1717-1802). 113. The Providence Browns, not counting a fifth brother who had died young: brothers Nicholas Brown (1729-1791), Joseph (1733-1785), John (1736-1803), and Moses Brown (1738-1836), uncles Obadiah (1712-1762) and Elisha (1717-1802). “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 247 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1721

September 21: Gabriel Bernon wrote to the Reverend James Honeyman.

As a continuation of legislation that originated in 1719, the colony of South Carolina granted to His Majesty the King of Great Britain a Duty and Imposition of £10 per head on Negroes being imported or exported (plus Duties and Impositions on Liquors and other Goods and Merchandize). “An Act for granting to His Majesty a Duty and Imposition on Negroes, Liquors, and other Goods and Merchandize, imported into and exported out of this Province.” This was a continuation of the Act of 1719. Cooper, STATUTES, III. 159. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY

1722

February 23: The colony of South Carolina imposed tariffs of £10 per imported adult slave and £5 per imported juvenile slave as “Duty and Imposition on Negroes, Liquors, and other Goods and Merchandizes, for the use of the Publick of this Province.” § 1. “ ... on all negro slaves imported from Africa directly, or any other place whatsoever, Spanish negroes excepted, if above ten years of age, ten pounds; on all negroes under ten years of age, (sucking children excepted) five pounds,” etc.... § 3. “And whereas, it has proved to the detriment of some of the inhabitants of this Province, who have purchased negroes imported here from the Colonies of America, that they were either transported thence by the Courts of justice, or sent off by private persons for their ill behaviour and misdemeanours, to prevent which for the future, “Be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all negroes imported in this Province from any part of America, after the ratification of this Act, above ten years of age, shall pay unto the Publick Receiver as a duty, the sum of fifty pounds, and all such negroes under the age of ten years, (sucking children excepted) the sum of five pounds of like current money, unless the owner or agent shall produce a testimonial under the hand and seal of any Notary Publick of the Colonies or plantations from whence such negroes came last, before whom it was proved upon oath, that the same are new negroes, and have not been six months on shoar in any part of America,” etc. § 4. “And whereas, the importation of Spanish Indians, mustees, negroes, and mulattoes, may be of dangerous consequence by

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inticing the slaves belonging to the inhabitants of this Province to desert with them to the Spanish settlements near us, “Be it therefore enacted That all such Spanish negroes, Indians, mustees, or mulattoes, so imported into this Province, shall pay unto the Publick Receiver, for the use of this Province, a duty of one hundred and fifty pounds, current money of this Province.”... § 19. Rebate of three-fourths of the duty allowed in case of re- exportation in six months.... § 31. Act of 1721 repealed.... § 36. This act to continue in force for three years, and thence to the end of the next session of the General Assembly, and no longer. Cooper, STATUTES, III. 193. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY

May 12: Pennsylvania laid a duty “on Negroes imported into this province” (Carey and Bioren, LAWS, I. 165). INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY

October: Near the mouth of the Rappahannock River in Virginia, approximately 200 slaves of color gathered with an intent to attack a church and kill the white people inside. When it was discovered, this group dispersed. SERVILE INSURRECTION

1723

No Virginia slave was to be manumitted by his or her master, except by an action of the Governor and the Council as an award for “meritorious service.” This function would be taken over by the legislature in 1775 and until 1782 slaves could be manumitted only by special act of the legislature. The permissive emancipation stature of 1782 would allow a slavemaster to manumit his Negroes provided he, or his estate if freed by will, were responsible for the support of the sick or crippled, all females under 18 or over 45, and all males under 21, or over 45.

In Virginia it was also enacted that if any female mulatto or Indian, by law obliged to serve till thirty or thirty- one, would have a child during her servitude — such child was to serve the same master to the same age.

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A new meetinghouse for the Religious Society of Friends was built in Lynn, replacing the old meetinghouse that had been erected in about 1678, on Broad Street opposite Nahant Street.

Friend James Logan, Mayor of Philadelphia, perceiving that his maturing “Negro boy” was beginning to show some unnatural “inclinations to the wrong Colour” (to wit seeming to pay attention to some female of other than African descent), took immediate action to rectify the situation. He sold his young slave south.

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According to the Anglo-Norman law of England, murder is not actionable if the victim can be shown to have been of the Irish persuasion. Similarly, according to a law which Virginia enacted in this year, “manslaughter of a slave is not punishable”: If from the beginning of the 18th Century in Anglo-America the term “negro” meant slave, except when explicitly modified by the word “free,” so under English law the term “hibernicus,” Latin for “Irishman,” was the legal term for “unfree.” If African-Americans were obliged to guard closely any document they might have attesting their freedom, so in Ireland, at the beginning of the 14th Century, letters patent, attesting to a person’s Englishness, were cherished by those who might fall under suspicion of trying to “pass.” If under Anglo-American slavery “the rape of a female slave was not a crime, but a mere trespass on the master’s property,” so in 1278 two Anglo- Normans brought into court and charged with raping Margaret O’Rorke were found not guilty because “the said Margaret is an Irishwoman.” If a law enacted in Virginia in 1723 provided that “manslaughter of a slave is not punishable,” so under Anglo-Norman law it sufficed for acquittal to show that the victim in a killing was Irish. Anglo-Norman priests granted absolution on the grounds that it was “no more sin to kill an Irishman than a dog or any other brute.” If the Georgia Supreme Court ruled in 1851 that “the killing of a negro” was not a felony, but upheld an award of damages to the owner of an African- American bond-laborer murdered by another “white” man, so an English court freed Robert Walsh, an Anglo-Norman charged with killing John Mac Gilmore, because the victim was “a mere Irishman and not of free blood,” it being stipulated that “when the master of the said John shall ask damages for the slaying, he [Walsh] will be ready to answer him as the law may require.” If in 1884 the United States Supreme Court, citing much precedent authority, including the Dred Scott decision, declared that Indians were legally like immigrants, and therefore not citizens except by process of individual naturalization, so for more than four centuries, until 1613, the Irish were regarded by English law as foreigners in their own land. If the testimony of even free African-Americans was inadmissible, so in Anglo-Norman Ireland native Irish of the free classes were deprived of legal defense against English abuse because they were not “admitted to English law,” and hence had no rights that an Englishman was bound to respect.”

May: The legislature of the Virginia Colony passed an Act “for laying a Duty on Liquors and Slaves.” We have the title only. This would be repealed by proclamation on October 27, 1724. Hening, STATUTES, IV. 118. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY

June 18: Rhode Island resolved that its attorney-general needed to collect, from various persons, accumulated back duties on Negroes that had not been being paid into the colony’s coffers. Resolve appointing the attorney-general to collect back duties

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on Negroes. COLONIAL RECORDS, IV. 330. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY

December 24: In the pages of the American Weekly Mercury, Andrew Bradford was offering to sell a very likely Negro Woman fit for all manner of housework, as washing, starching, ironing, et cetera:

SLAVERY

According to the Concord Town Record, “Charles Heywood son of Decon Samll Heywood & Elisabeth his wife was born December 24:1723”

1724

A Rhode Island vessel, it has been noted by Alexander Boyd Hawes, was being used in the international slave trade. We do not know this vessel’s name or the number of people it carried in its cargo from the African coast, but we do know that its arrival was being awaited by Thomas Amory of Boston. Hawes has extrapolated from the available evidence of 106 cargos for which we have ship manifests, averaging to 1.37 slaves per ton of vessel weight, that an average cargo of slaves for a Rhode Island negrero during the period 1724-1774 was 109 persons of color, and inferred from this statistic that approximately a total of nearly 52,000 souls would be being transported before the American Revolution in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

Although such numbers are mere estimates, they do clearly indicate the great magnitude of the crime.

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For the following decade, King Agaja of Dahomey in West Africa would be temporarily disrupting the supply for the international slave trade; such trading patterns would resume in the 1740s.

In this year the Natchez tribe, a direct descendant of the ancient Mississippian culture, revolted against the attempts of a local French plantation to impose new taxes and to confiscate lands in its central village, and the French determined to exterminate them. (After five years of hostilities the “Great Sun” of the Natchez would be captured along with 480 others and sold into slavery in the Caribbean — the tribe would no longer exist.)

African slaves outnumbered whites two to one in South Carolina.

Mary Matthews, tried for her life in Salem for allegedly murdering her bastard, was found not guilty. She was jailed for the cost of her prosecution and, when she could not pay, was sold to her jailor, Paul Langdon, carpenter of Salem, to serve him for five years. SLAVERY

April 8: The Boston Weekly Journal issued a reminder of the continuous peril to white Americans, of servile insurrection among their slaves of color. Eternal race vigilance is the price of race liberty! Every reasonable man ought to remember their first villanous attempt at New York, and how many good innocent people were murdered by them, and had it not been for the garrison there, that city would have been reduced to ashes, and the greatest part of the inhabitants murdered. “I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return.” — W.H. Auden, September 1, 1939

November: The New England Courant issued a reminder of the continuous peril to white Americans, of servile insurrection among their slaves of color. Eternal race vigilance is the price of race liberty! It is well known what loss the town of Boston sustained by fire not long since, when almost every night for a considerable time together, some building or other and sometimes several in the same night were either burned to the ground or some attempts made to do it. It is likewise well known that those villanies were carried on by Negro servants, the like whereof we never felt before from unruly servants, nor ever heard of the like happening in any place attended with the like circumstances.

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1725

In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, two vessels were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of something more than 200 souls would have been being transported over the dread during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

In Concord, John Barker, Daniel Brooks, William Wheeler, George Farrar, and John Flint were Selectmen. Ordinarily, Concord’s five selectmen acted as Overseers of the Poor and as Assessors, but in this period there was in addition a board of five Overseers of the Poor.

In Concord, John Flint continued as Town Clerk.

In Concord, Samuel Chandler continued as Town Treasurer.

William Wilson was Concord’s deputy and representative to the General Court.

There were 6,000 blacks in the former Dutch colony of New York. Almost all, at this point in the English ascendancy, had become slaves.

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There are some problems with the following table. The first problem is that it makes it appear that there were considerably fewer persons of color in Concord, than there actually were, because it counts only heads of households. The second problem, more important, is that it makes the magic date 1780 of the “Massachusetts Bill of Rights” far more significant, in the elimination of Northern slavery, than actually it was. Precious little seems actually to have happened to improve the lives of persons of color in Massachusetts, or their societal standing, in that year. Concord MA Population

1679 ? 480 whites 1706 ? 920 whites 1725 6 slaves 1,500 whites 1741 21 slaves ? 1754 19 slaves ? 1780: Passage of the Massachusetts Bill of Rights 1783 15 blacks 1,306 whites 1790 29 blacks 1,556 whites 1800 38 blacks 1,641 whites 1810 28 blacks 1,605 whites 1820 34 blacks 1,754 whites 1830 28 blacks 1,993 whites

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January 7: Captain James Hester sailed his vessel from Rhode Island toward Africa. He was up to no good. MIDDLE PASSAGE

September 30: Captain James Hester brought his negrero, which had just been on a trip to the Guinea coast of Africa for slaves, into the safe harbor of Newport, Rhode Island. MIDDLE PASSAGE

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1726

In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, two negreros were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of something more than 200 souls would have been being transported over the dread Middle Passage during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

Attorney-General Sir Philip Yorke, who would later be made Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, and Solicitor- General Charles Talbot, were asked after a supper at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, by representatives of colonial planters, for advice as to whether property in slaves would be “determined or varied” in any way by their being brought onto English soil. The hour was late and the influence of food and beverage noticeable. This pair of notables delivered themselves of remarks to the effect that slavery was as legal within England as elsewhere — and these remarks would be taken to represent a legal ruling which would stand in England for the next more than four decades.

“EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST INDIES”: On the other part, appeared the reign of pounds and shillings, and all manner of rage and stupidity; a resistance which drew from Mr. Huddlestone in Parliament the observation, “That a curse attended this trade even in the mode of defending it. By a certain fatality, none but the vilest arguments were brought forward, which corrupted the very persons who used them. Every one of these was built on the narrow ground of interest, of pecuniary profit, of sordid gain, in opposition to every motive that had reference to humanity, justice, and religion, or to that great principle which comprehended them all.”

March 5: Pennsylvania levied a £10 duty on each black slave imported into the province. “An Act for the better regulating of Negroes in this province.” Carey and Bioren, LAWS, I. 214; Bettle, NOTICES OF NEGRO SLAVERY, in PENN. HIST. SOC. MEM. (1864), I. 388. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 257 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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“An Act for laying a duty on Negroes imported into this province.” Carey and Bioren, LAWS, I. 213. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY

1727

In Rhode Island harbors, during this year, Alexander Boyd Hawes was able before his untimely death to discover no record of any vessel being fitted out for the international slave trade. During this year, would you believe, we would seem to have been more or less behaving ourselves (unless there has been some little neglect in our recordkeeping)!

However, during this year a young native American in Portsmouth, Rhode Island attempted to kill the white man who owned him. No existing law seeming to apply to such a circumstance, the general assembly set as the punishment that this slave be branded on the forehead with the letter R with a hot iron, then whipped at the tail of a cart at each of the corners in Newport, then sold out of the colony — with the proceeds of the sale going to cover the costs of this punishment. READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT

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Benjamin Franklin founded the “Junto,” or Leathern Apron Club. Among other attitudes, this club was opposed to slavery.114

Quakers in England urged the abolition of human slavery.

February: The colonial legislature of Virginia enacted a duty, which was probably in a prohibitive amount, on any further importation of slaves. “An Act for laying a Duty on Slaves imported; and for appointing a Treasurer.” Title only found; the duty was probably prohibitive; it was enacted with a suspending clause, and was not assented to by the king. Hening, STATUTES, IV. 182. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE

114. Franklin was well aware that there was such a thing as slavery, since 1.) he owned slaves himself, and since 2.) he had a slave pen behind his print shop and sold slaves placed on consignment with him out of this pen, to other Philadelphians who had the ready cash to purchase them, and received a negotiated portion of their purchase price as his compensation. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 259 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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February 28: Friend Abraham Redwood got married with Martha Coggeshall of Newport. Soon after their marriage, the couple would build their town house on the west side of Thames Street, across from Fair Street, where Salas’s Restaurant is now located. They would have their entire plot, including its gardens, enclosed by brick walls fitted with ornamental wrought iron gates they would import from London in 1731. The private wharf for the family’s sailing vessels, a distribution point for the sugar produced on his slave plantation “Cassada Garden” on the island of Antigua, was located behind this house, in what is now referred to as the Perry Mill Wharf Area. In addition to their town house, the family owned an estate of more than 140 acres on West Main Road across from Union Street in Portsmouth, extending down to the Narragansett Bay, which they purchased from Martha Coggeshall Redwood’s father, Daniel Coggeshall. There they would build their summer house in 1743. They would develop one of the first botanical gardens in America and introduce all sorts of tropical fruits and flowers. They would live the good life.

Presumably, since they had beaucoup black slaves down on the island of Antigua –chopping cane for them in the tropical sun– they would have had black servants around their home, there in Rhode Island as well.

1728

In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, some 6 negreros were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of something like 650 souls would have been being transported over the dread Middle Passage during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

Maryland extended its law to prohibit intermarriage and cohabitation between free mulatto women and black slaves, subjecting black women who had bastard children by white men to the same penalties as were being inflicted upon white women who had children by black men. AMALGAMATION

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February 16: At “Rhoad Island and Providence plantations in New England,” Gabriel Bernon made his will in English (proven copy, 1735/1736). In the will he disposed of various artifacts and properties, inclusive of “Negro man woman and 4 children £500.” His desire was that “Negro man Manuel, Negro woman Peggy, to be at disposition of wife also the Negro boy and girl and the product of them, if sold,” which accounts for four of this family of six human beings, and then, casually mentioned, “One Negro child being with daughter Esther Powell, is left to her,” and “and a boy has been given to daughter,” seems to account for the final two members, unnamed, of this family of six human beings.115 PROVIDENCE RHODE ISLAND

April 22: In Massachusetts, John Hancock of Lexington (presumably the grandfather of our revolutionary John Hancock, living from 1671 to 1752) paid Isaac Powers of Littleton £85 for a Certain Negro slave boy called Jack. To all People to whom these presents shall Come Greeting, Know yee, that I Isaac Powers of Littleton in ye County of Middlesex in the Province of ye Massachusets bay in New England Yeoman — for & in Consideration of Eighty five pounds Currant mony of New England to me in hand well & truly paid by John Hancock of Lexington in sd. County Clerk the receipt whereof At the Executing of these presents I acknow: ledge unto my full satisfaction & of & from Every part and parcel thereof do fully absolutely & for Ever Acquitt & discharge ye sd: John Hancock his heirs Exes. & Admins: by these presents Have Given Granted, bargained, sold, Aliened, Enfeoffed & Conveyed, & do by these presents Give Grant, bargain, sell Aliene, Enfeoff, Convey & Confirm unto him the sd: John Hancock a Certain Negro boy called Jack. To Have & To Hold the sd: Negro, from the day of the date of these presents, dureing the whole Term of his natural life, and to him the sd: John Hancock his heirs Exes: Admins: and Assigns, & to his & their sole use benefitt & behooff for Ever. And I the sd: Isaac Powers do hereby Covenant & Engage that at ye Executing of these presents I am the sole & proper owner of ye abovegranted Negro, & have in myself Good right full power & lawfull Authority to dispose of him, and the sale of sd: Negro at abovesd: I will for Ever Warrant and defend from the claims & challenges of all manner of persons whatsoever, & will do what may be further needfull 115. A statistic that we have, dating to 1703, is that 37% of the Dutch households in the American colonies, 44% of the English households, and 50% of the Huguenot households possessed slaves. Looking at the above will created by this wealthy Providence, Rhode Island citizen of Huguenot extraction, I am somewhat surprised at its casualness. It seems clear that at this point in American history, merely passing an owned Negro from person to person within a white family, and merely passing an owned Negro along from generation to generation, amounts to no big deal, with there being no worry to be sure to dot every “i” and cross every “t” of the formal documentation. Clearly, there is no concern whatever that the transaction might be scrutinized or challenged. –This is in very marked contrast with manumission documents, which tend to be on their face much more “worried,” more precise and legalistic (perhaps for good reason). We note in this context that in 1687, while these Huguenots were embarking for the New World, one who had already arrived reported back to her co-religionists still in Europe that in America it was very easy to maintain control over one’s servants — since one could always count on help in this regard from the native Americans: You can bring with you hired help in any Vocation whatever.... You may also own Negroes and Negresses; ... there is no Danger that they will leave you, nor Hired help likewise, for the Moment one is missing from the Town you have only to notify the Savages, who, provided you promise them Something, and describe the Man to them, he is right soon found. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 261 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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for ye Confirmation of the sale of sd: negro Jack to ye said John Hancock his heirs & assigns. In Wittness whereof I the sd: Isaac Powers have hereunto putt my hand & seall this twenty second day of Aprill Anno Domi: one thousand seven hundred & twenty Eight, In the first year of his majes: Reign. Isaac powers Signed, Sealed, & delivd: In presence of N Prentice John mason jur. [over] Isaac Powers Deed of Sale to Mr: Hancock

May 24: An advertisement in the American Weekly Mercury asked for the detection and interception of an Indian Woman of about 17 years of age of a middle stature and indifferent fat, having a face pitted by the small pox, who had on this day run away from her master John McComb, Junier [sic].

SLAVERY

July 10: A Massachusetts deed documents that William Lawrence of Groton paid £95 to Benjamin Bancroft, a Charlestown tanner, for one enslaved Negro Boy, aged about Thirteen years — Named Bodee To Have & To Hold the Said Negro Boy. Know All men by these presents That I Benjamin Bancraft of Charlestown in the County of Middlesex in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England — Tanner for & in Consideration of the Sum of Ninty [ninety] five Pounds in Good Bills of Publick Credit To me in hand, paid before the Insealing & Delivery hereof by William — Lawrance of Groton in ye. County and Province aforesd. Black- -Smith The Receipt whereof to full content & Satisfaction I — Do hereby Acknowledge Have, And by these presents — Do Bargain Sell, Assign Set over & Deliver unto the — Said William Lawrance one Negro Boy, aged about Thirteen years — Named Bodee To Have & To Hold the Said Negro Boy unto the Said William Lawrance his heirs Executors — Administrators and. assigns To his & their only proper use

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And behoofe forever. And I the Said Benjamin Bancraft for my Selfe[self] my heirs Executors & Administrators Do cove- nant promise and agree to & with the Said Lawrance his heirs Executors Administrators and assigns To warrant — and Defend ye. Said Negro To him & them forever by these presents, against the Lawfull[lawful] Claims & Demands of all — & every person and persons whomsoever In witness — whereof togather[together] with ye. Delivery of Said Negro Boy I — have hereunto Set my hand & Seal ye. Tenth Day of July Anno Domi. 1728. In ye. Second Year of his Majesties[Majesty’s] Reign — Benjamin Bancroft Signed Sealed & Delivered In presence of Jacob ames Robert Blood [over] Bena Bancraft 32 1728

August 31: New York enacted a £2 and £4 duty that may have had to do, among other things, with duties on slave cargoes. “An Act to repeal some Parts and to continue and enforce other Parts of the Act therein mentioned, and for granting several Duties to His Majesty, for supporting His Government in the Colony of New York” from Sept. 1, 1728, to Sept. 1, 1733. Same duty continued by Act of 1732. LAWS OF NEW YORK, 1691-1773, pages 148 and 171; DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, VI. 32, 33, 34, 37, 38.116 INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: The early ordinances of the Dutch, laying duties, generally of ten per cent, on slaves, probably proved burdensome to the trade, although this was not intentional.117 The Biblical prohibition of slavery and the slave-trade, copied from New England codes into the Duke of York’s Laws, had no practical application,118 and the trade 116. The following is a summary of the legislation of the colony of New York; details will be found in W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: — 1709, Duty Act: £3 on Negroes not direct from Africa (Continued by the Acts of 1710, 1711). 1711, Bill to lay further duty, lost in Council. 1716, Duty Act: 5 oz. plate on Africans in colony ships. 10 oz. plate on Africans in other ships. 1728, Duty Act: 40s. on Africans, £4 on colonial Negroes. 1732, Duty Act: 40s. on Africans, £4 on colonial Negroes. 1734, Duty Act: (?) 1753, Duty Act: 40s. on Africans, £4 on colonial Negroes. (This act was annually continued.) [1777, Vermont Constitution does not recognize slavery.] 1785, Sale of slaves in State prohibited. [1786, Sale of slaves in Vermont prohibited.] 1788, Sale of slaves in State prohibited. 117. O’Callaghan, LAWS OF NEW NETHERLAND, 1638-74, pages 31, 348, etc. The colonists themselves were encouraged to trade, but the terms were not favorable enough: DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, I. 246; LAWS OF NEW NETHERLAND, pages 81-2, note, 127. The colonists declared “that they are inclined to a foreign Trade, and especially to the Coast of Africa, ... in order to fetch thence Slaves”: O’Callaghan, VOYAGES OF THE SLAVERS, etc., page 172. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 263 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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continued to be encouraged in the governors’ instructions. In 1709 a duty of £3 was laid on Negroes from elsewhere than Africa.119 This was aimed at West India slaves, and was prohibitive. By 1716 the duty on all slaves was £1 12½s., which was probably a mere revenue figure.120 In 1728 a duty of 40s. was laid, to be continued until 1737.121 It proved restrictive, however, and on the “humble petition of the Merchants and Traders of the City of Bristol” was disallowed in 1735, as “greatly prejudicial to the Trade and Navigation of this Kingdom.”122 Governor Cosby was also reminded that no duties on slaves payable by the importer were to be laid. Later, in 1753, the 40s. duty was restored, but under the increased trade of those days was not felt.123 No further restrictions seem to have been attempted until 1785, when the sale of slaves in the State was forbidden.124 The chief element of restriction in this colony appears to have been the shrewd business sense of the traders, who never flooded the slave market, but kept a supply sufficient for the slowly growing demand. Between 1701 and 1726 only about 2,375 slaves were imported, and in 1774 the total slave population amounted to 21,149.125 No restriction was ever put by New York on participation in the trade outside the colony, and in spite of national laws New York merchants continued to be engaged in this traffic even down to the Civil War.126 Vermont, who withdrew from New York in 1777, in her first Constitution127 declared slavery illegal, and in 1786 stopped by law the sale and transportation of slaves within her boundaries.128

118. CHARTER TO WILLIAM PENN, etc. (1879), page 12. First published on Long Island in 1664. Possibly Negro slaves were explicitly excepted. Cf. MAGAZINE OF AMERICAN HISTORY, XI. 411, and N.Y. HIST. SOC. COLL., I. 322. 119. ACTS OF ASSEMBLY, 1691-1718, pages 97, 125, 134; DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, V. 178, 185, 293. 120. The Assembly attempted to raise the slave duty in 1711, but the Council objected (DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, V. 292 ff.), although, as it seems, not on account of the slave duty in particular. Another act was passed between 1711 and 1716, but its contents are not known (cf. title of the Act of 1716). For the Act of 1716, see ACTS OF ASSEMBLY, 1691-1718, page 224. 121. DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, VI. 37, 38. 122. DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, VI. 32-4. 123. DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, VII. 907. This act was annually renewed. The slave duty remained a chief source of revenue down to 1774. Cf. REPORT OF GOVERNOR TRYON, in DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, VIII. 452. 124. LAWS OF NEW YORK, 1785-88 (ed. 1886), ch. 68, page 121. Substantially the same act reappears in the revision of the laws of 1788: LAWS OF NEW YORK, 1785-88 (ed. 1886), ch. 40, page 676. 125. The slave population of New York has been estimated as follows: — In 1698, 2,170. DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, IV. 420. In 1703, 2,258. N.Y. COL. MSS., XLVIII.; cited in Hough, N.Y. CENSUS, 1855, Introd. In 1712, 2,425. N.Y. CENSUS, 1855, LVII., LIX. (a partial census). In 1723, 6,171. DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, V. 702. In 1731, 7,743. DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, V. 929. In 1737, 8,941. DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, VI. 133. In 1746, 9,107. DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, VI. 392. In 1749, 10,692. DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, VI. 550. In 1756, 13,548. LONDON DOC., XLIV. 123; cited in Hough, as above. In 1771, 19,863. LONDON DOC., XLIV. 144; cited in Hough, as above. In 1774, 21,149. LONDON DOC., XLIV. 144; cited in Hough, as above. In 1786, 18,889. DEEDS IN OFFICE SEC. OF STATE, XXII. 35. Total number of Africans imported from 1701 to 1726, 2,375, of whom 802 were from Africa: O’Callaghan, DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF NEW YORK, I. 482. 126. Cf. below, Chapter XI.

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September 14: The colony of Massachusetts strengthened the Act of 1705 imposing a duty on the importation of Negro slaves. “An Act more effectually to secure the Duty on the Importation of Negroes.” For seven years; substantially the same law re- enacted Jan. 26, 1738, for ten years. MASS. PROVINCE LAWS, 1728-9, ch. 16; 1738-9, ch. 27. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: The early Biblical codes of Massachusetts confined slavery to “lawfull Captives taken in iust warres, & such strangers as willingly selle themselves or are sold to us.”129 The stern Puritanism of early days endeavored to carry this out literally, and consequently when a certain Captain Smith, about 1640, attacked an African village and brought some of the unoffending natives home, he was promptly arrested. Eventually, the General Court ordered the Negroes sent home at the colony’s expense, “conceiving themselues bound by ye first oportunity to bear witnes against ye haynos & crying sinn of manstealing, as also to P’scribe such timely redresse for what is past, & such a law for ye future as may sufficiently deterr all othrs belonging to us to have to do in such vile & most odious courses, iustly abhored of all good & iust men.”130 The temptation of trade slowly forced the colony from this high moral ground. New England ships were early found in the West Indian slave-trade, and the more the carrying trade developed, the more did the profits of this branch of it attract Puritan captains. By the beginning of the eighteenth century the slave- trade was openly recognized as legitimate commerce; cargoes came regularly to Boston, and “The merchants of Boston quoted negroes, like any other merchandise demanded by their correspondents.”131 At the same time, the Puritan conscience began to rebel against the growth of actual slavery on New England soil. It was a much less violent wrenching of moral ideas of right and wrong to allow Massachusetts men to carry slaves to South Carolina than to allow cargoes to come into Boston, and become slaves in Massachusetts. Early in the eighteenth century, therefore, opposition arose to the further importation of Negroes, and in 1705 an act “for the Better Preventing of a Spurious and Mixt Issue,” laid a restrictive duty of £4 on all slaves imported.132 One provision of this act plainly illustrates the attitude of Massachusetts: like the acts of many of the New England colonies, it allowed a rebate of the whole duty on re- exportation. The harbors of New England were thus offered as a free exchange-mart for slavers. All the duty acts of the Southern and Middle colonies allowed a rebate of one-half or three-fourths of the duty on the re-exportation of the slave, thus laying a small tax on even temporary importation. The Act of 1705 was evaded, but it was not amended until 1728, 127. VERMONT STATE PAPERS, 1779-86, page 244. The return of sixteen slaves in Vermont, by the first census, was an error: NEW ENGLAND RECORD, XXIX. 249. 128. VERMONT STATE PAPERS, page 505. 129. Cf. THE BODY OF LIBERTIES, § 91, in Whitmore, BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE LAWS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS COLONY, published at Boston in 1890. 130. MASSACHUSETTS COLONIAL RECORD, II. 168, 176; III. 46, 49, 84. 131. Weeden, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND, II. 456. 132. MASSACHUSETTS PROVINCE LAWS, 1705-6, ch. 10. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 265 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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when the penalty for evasion was raised to £100.133 The act remained in force, except possibly for one period of four years, until 1749. Meantime the movement against importation grew. A bill “for preventing the Importation of Slaves into this Province” was introduced in the Legislature in 1767, but after strong opposition and disagreement between House and Council it was dropped.134 In 1771 the struggle was renewed. A similar bill passed, but was vetoed by Governor Hutchinson.135 The imminent war and the discussions incident to it had now more and more aroused public opinion, and there were repeated attempts to gain executive consent to a prohibitory law. In 1774 such a bill was twice passed, but never received assent.136 The new Revolutionary government first met the subject in the case of two Negroes captured on the high seas, who were advertised for sale at Salem. A resolution was introduced into the Legislature, directing the release of the Negroes, and declaring “That the selling and enslaving the human species is a direct violation of the natural rights alike vested in all men by their Creator, and utterly inconsistent with the avowed principles on which this, and the other United States, have carried their struggle for liberty even to the last appeal.” To this the Council would not consent; and the resolution, as finally passed, merely forbade the sale or ill-treatment of the Negroes.137 Committees on the slavery question were appointed in 1776 and 1777,138 and although a letter to Congress on the matter, and a bill for the abolition of slavery were reported, no decisive action was taken. All such efforts were finally discontinued, as the system was already practically extinct in Massachusetts and the custom of importation had nearly ceased. Slavery was eventually declared by judicial decision to have been abolished.139 The first step toward stopping the participation of Massachusetts citizens in the slave-trade outside the State was taken in 1785, when a committee of inquiry was appointed by the Legislature.140 No act was, however, passed until 1788, when participation in the trade was prohibited, on pain of £50 forfeit for every slave and £200 for every ship engaged.141

133. MASSACHUSETTS PROVINCE LAWS, 1728-9, ch. 16; 1738-9, ch. 27. 134. For petitions of towns, cf. Felt, ANNALS OF SALEM (1849), II. 416; BOSTON TOWN RECORDS, 1758-69, page 183. Cf. also Otis’s anti-slavery speech in 1761; John Adams, WORKS, X. 315. For proceedings, see HOUSE JOURNAL, 1767, pages 353, 358, 387, 390, 393, 408, 409-10, 411, 420. Cf. Samuel Dexter’s answer to Dr. Belknap’s inquiry, Feb. 23, 1795, in Deane (MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLL., 5th Ser., III. 385). A committee on slave importation was appointed in 1764. Cf. HOUSE JOURNAL, 1763-64, page 170. 135. HOUSE JOURNAL, 1771, pages 211, 215, 219, 228, 234, 236, 240, 242-3; Moore, SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS, pages 131-2. 136. Felt, ANNALS OF SALEM (1849), II. 416-7; Swan, DISSUASION TO GREAT BRITAIN, etc. (1773), page x; Washburn, HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF LEICESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, pages 442-3; Freeman, HISTORY OF CAPE COD, II. 114; Deane, in MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLL., 5th Ser., III. 432; Moore, SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS, pages 135-40; Williams, HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA, I. 234-6; HOUSE JOURNAL, March, 1774, pages 224, 226, 237, etc.; June, 1774, pages 27, 41, etc. For a copy of the bill, see Moore. 137. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY PROCEEDINGS, 1855-58, page 196; Force, AMERICAN ARCHIVES, 5th Ser., II. 769; HOUSE JOURNAL, 1776, pages 105-9; GENERAL COURT RECORDS, March 13, 1776, etc., pages 581-9; Moore, SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS, pages 149-54. Cf. Moore, pages 163-76. 138. Moore, SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS, pages 148-9, 181-5. 139. Washburn, EXTINCTION OF SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS; Haynes, STRUGGLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION IN MASSACHUSETTS; La Rochefoucauld, TRAVELS THROUGH THE UNITED STATES, II. 166. 140. Moore, SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS, page 225. 266 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1729

In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, some 4 negreros were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of something like 430 souls would have been being transported over the dread Middle Passage during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

The lawyers of the London Assurance insurance company were asked to advise in regard to the following requested policy: “A policy of insurance was made on Ship and Goods at and from London to the Coast of Africa and thence to Carolina upon interest with the following Warranty: The Assured hath agreed to warrant the ship sheathed, to take upon himself all Averages arising by Death and Insurrection of Negroes and all Loss and Damage by prohibited trade.” This slaver had proceeded to the coast of Africa where its captain had traded its outward-bound cargo for Negroes, elephant tusks, and gold dust. Before this slaver had made the Carolina coast, however, there had been an insurrection, the cargo of enslaved people had killed two of the mariners, the ship had taken fire, and the master and remainder of the mariners had escaped in the ship’s boat. The negroes ran the ship ashore and, it may be supposed, were able to swim to land before the ship had been beaten to pieces in the surf, with the loss of the remainder of its cargo. The question the insurance company was posing to its lawyers was as follows: “Whether the Warranty does not exclude the insurer as to all Damage to Ship and Cargo arising by means of the Insurrection, or whether such damage only as was sustained by loss of the Negroes, or how far and as to what Damage will this Warranty be construed to extend?” Their counsel 141. PERPETUAL LAWS OF MASSACHUSETTS, 1780-89, page 235. The number of slaves in Massachusetts has been estimated as follows: — In 1676, 200. Randolph’s REPORT, in HUTCHINSON’S COLL. OF PAPERS, page 485. “ 1680, 120. Deane, CONNECTION OF MASSACHUSETTS WITH SLAVERY, page 28 ff. “ 1708, 550. Deane, CONNECTION OF MASSACHUSETTS WITH SLAVERY; Moore, SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS, page 50. “ 1720, 2,000. Moore, SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS, page 50 “ 1735, 2,600. Deane, CONNECTION OF MASSACHUSETTS WITH SLAVERY, page 28 ff. “ 1749, 3,000. Deane, CONNECTION OF MASSACHUSETTS WITH SLAVERY, page 28 ff. “ 1754, 4,489. Deane, CONNECTION OF MASSACHUSETTS WITH SLAVERY, page 28 ff. “ 1763, 5,000. Deane, CONNECTION OF MASSACHUSETTS WITH SLAVERY, page 28 ff. “ 1764-5, 5,779. Deane, CONNECTION OF MASSACHUSETTS WITH SLAVERY, page 28 ff. “ 1776, 5,249. Deane, CONNECTION OF MASSACHUSETTS WITH SLAVERY, page 28 ff. “ 1784, 4,377. Moore, SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS, page 51. “ 1786, 4,371. Moore, SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS, page 51 “ 1790, 6,001. Moore, SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS, page 51 “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 267 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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replied: “I think the loss of the Negroes will be expressly within the Warranty and must be sustained by the Assured, and so I think it will be also as to ye burning of the Ship, if the same was burnt by the Negroes, or if such burning was a consequence of the insurrection.” (There still remains an uncorroborated verbal tradition, at this insurance company, that in the middle of the 18th Century part of an insured cargo of slaves –each of whom was branded on the thigh– had been jettisoned when heavy weather was encountered on the Middle Passage, and then a claim for General Average had been presented by the owners. The Act of 1799 would put an end to such insurance practices: “No loss of damage shall hereafter be recoverable on Account of the Mortality of Slaves by natural Death, or ill-treatment, or against Loss by throwing overboard of Slaves on any Account whatsoever, for restraints and detainments of princes, and people of Africa, caused through any Aggression for the Purpose of procuring Slaves.” Acts abolishing the slave trade, in 1806 and 1811, would include heavy penalties for insurers of slaves or slaveships.)

January: When three slaves in Antigua conspired to destroy the English, their plot was discovered two or three days before the day on which they were planning to launch their assault, and in retaliation the English burned two of the three alive. The account reads: ’Twas admirable to see how long they stood before they died, the great wood not readily burning, and their cry was water, water! SERVILE INSURRECTION

January 2: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: A likely young Negro Man, fit for Plantation Work, to be sold very reasonable. Enquire of the Printer hereof, SLAVERY FRANKLIN

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and know further.

May 10: Pennsylvania levied a 40-shilling duty on each black slave imported into the province. “An Act for laying a Duty on Negroes imported into this Province.” LAWS OF PENNSYLVANIA (ed. 1742), p. 354, ch. 287. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE

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1730

In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, two negreros were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of at least 200 souls would have been being transported over the dread Middle Passage during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

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In Virginia, a slave conspiracy was discovered in Norfolk and Princess Anne counties. SERVILE INSURRECTION

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August: A servile insurrection occurred in Williamsburgh, Virginia when a rumor spread among the slaves that upon the arrival of a Colonel Spotswood, all baptized persons were to be manumitted. This was said to be a special dictate of His Majesty the King of England. The rumor caused great celebration and irregularity among the black population. Five counties called up their white militias to follow the bands of celebrating slaves, with orders to execute any who could not be induced to return to their stations.

Some slaves in South Carolina managed to arm themselves after a fashion in a plot to destroy all whites. Their revolt was scheduled on a Sabbath day.

A slave who had plundered and burned a house in Malden, Massachusetts explained that he was anguished because his master had sold him to a man in Salem whom he did not like.

1731

In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, some 4 negreros were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of something like 436 souls would have been being transported over the dreadful Middle Passage during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

Captain George Scott of Rhode Island was returning from Guinea with a cargo of slaves when they rose up killing three of the crewmembers. Soon all the white crewmembers would die, except the captain and the ship’s boy. SERVILE INSURRECTION

November 27: Per The Pennsylvania Gazette: To be SOLD, A Likely Negro Wench, about Fifteen Years old, has had the Small pox, been in the Country above a SLAVERY Year, and talks English. Enquire of the Printer hereof. FRANKLIN

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1732

In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, some 5 negreros were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of something like 545 souls would have been being transported over the dreadful Middle Passage during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

Aboard the schooner of Captain John Major of Portsmouth, New Hampshire slaves murdered everyone and seized the vessel and its cargo. SERVILE INSURRECTION “I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return.” — W.H. Auden, September 1, 1939

The issue of race slavery had been submerged among the Quakers on Nantucket Island for some sixteen years after the visit of Friend John Farmer, and the enactment of the initial Quaker minute recognizing human enslavement as “not agreeable to Truth for Friends to purchase slaves and keep them for a term of life.” At this point, however, Friend Elihu Coleman, the son of Friend Priscilla Starbuck Coleman, wrote a tract on the immorality of enslaving fellow human beings, and got it approved by the Nantucket meeting. (It would not be until the 1740s and 1750s that a reform movement against slavery would sweep over the American Friends.)

March 9: In Massachusetts, James Dolbeare paid William Richardson £90 for his Negro slave Loran, who was about 21 years of age. To all People unto whom this — Present Bill of Sale Shall come. William Richardson of Lancaster within the County of Worcester and Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England Yeoman Sendeth Greeting Know ye That I the Said william “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 273 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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Richardson for and in Consideration of the Sum of Ninety Pounds — In good Public bills of Credit of the Province aforesaid to me in hand at and before the — Ensealing and Delivery of these Presents well and truly Paid by James Dolbear of Boston within the County of Suffolk and Province aforesaid Brazier the Receipt whereof I Do hereby Acknowledge Have Granted — Bargained and Sold And by these Presents — Do grant Bargain Sell and Confirm unto — the Said James Dolbear My Negro man named or Called Loran aged Twenty one years or thereabouts To Have and to Hold the Said negro man Loran unto the Said James Dolbear his Executors adminrs. and Assignes to his and their only Proper — use benefit and behoof for ever. and I the Said william Richardson for my Self my Executors & Administrators Do hereby Covenant and agree to and with the Said James — Dolbear his Executors Administrators and Assignes to Warrant and Defend — the Said Negro man Loran unto the Said — James Dolbear his Executors Administrators and Assignes for Ever against the Lawful Claims and Demands of all and Every — Person and Persons whatsoever In Witness whereof I have hereunto Sett my hand and Seal the ninth Day of march Anno Domi 1732. and in the Fifth year of His — majesty's Reign — William Richardson Signed Sealed & Delivd in presence of. } Ezekl. Goldthwait Antho. Woulfe Received on the Day of the Date hereof of of the aforenamed James Dolbear ye Sum of Ninety pounds being ye. Consideration money before Expressed — P William Richardson £ 90 — — [over] Bill of Sale for Negro Loran 1736 March 9th from Willm. Richardson to James Dolbeare for £ 90 —

April: There was a cargo (slave) insurrection in which a Captain Perkins was killed aboard his vessel, one out of Rhode Island. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE 274 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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May: In obedience to the instructions of the King of England, Rhode Island: repealed its Act of 1712 laying a duty upon the import of negro slaves into this colony. “Whereas, there was an act made and passed by the General Assembly, at their session, held at Newport, the 27th day of February, 1711 [Old Style, New Style 1712], entitled ‘An Act for laying a duty on negro slaves that shall be imported into this colony,’ and this Assembly being directed by His Majesty’s instructions to repeal the same; — “Therefore, be it enacted by the General Assembly ... that the said act ... be, and it is hereby repealed, made null and void, and of none effect for the future.” [If this is the act mentioned under Act of 1708, the title is wrongly cited; if not, the act is lost. COLONIAL RECORDS, IV. 471.] INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY

May: The colony of Virginia placed a 5% duty “upon Slaves, to be paid by the Buyers.” For four years; continued and slightly amended by Acts of 1734, 1736, 1738, 1742, and 1745; revived February, 1752, and continued by Acts of November, 1753, February, 1759, November, 1766, and 1769; revived (or continued?) by Act of February, 1772, until 1778. Hening, STATUTES, IV. 317, 394, 469; V. 28, 160, 318; VI. 217, 353; VII. 281; VIII. 190, 336, 530. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE

May 18: Per The Pennsylvania Gazette: A Likely young Negro Fellow, about 19 or 20 Years of Age, to be disposed of: he is very fit for Labour, being SLAVERY us’d to Plantation Work, and has had the Small Pox. FRANKLIN Enquire of the Printer hereof.

June 8: Per The Pennsylvania Gazette: There is a Pond and Brook from it, nigh Plymouth in N.E. (as I am informed142) where never Herring had been seen, while other Brooks were full; but a certain Man143 carried a Tub full of Water with a Number of them newly taken, and emptied ’em into that Pond; and ever after

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they went up that Brook.

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June 9: General James Oglethorpe was granted a charter for a colony of Georgia.

READ THE FULL TEXT At this point, in South Carolina, Purrysburg was being settled by French and Swiss Protestants.

This new colony of Georgia was being intended as a buffer against Spanish Florida, as a way to intercept and prevent the southward escape of black bond-laborers to the Spanish or to friendly Creek tribes along the Gulf Coast.

Because the Georgia colony was being originating with such an objective, at first the colony would attempt to exclude all “Negroes.” W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: In Georgia we have an example of a community whose philanthropic founders sought to impose upon it a code of morals higher than the colonists wished. The settlers of Georgia were of even worse moral fibre than their slave- trading and whiskey-using neighbors in Carolina and Virginia; yet Oglethorpe and the London proprietors prohibited from the beginning both the rum and the slave traffic, refusing to “suffer slavery (which is against the Gospel as well as the fundamental law of England) to be authorised under our authority.”144 The trustees sought to win the colonists over to their belief by telling them that money could be better expended in transporting white men than Negroes; that slaves would be a source of weakness to the colony; and that the “Produces designed to be raised in the Colony would not require such Labour as to make Negroes necessary for carrying them on.”145 This policy greatly displeased the colonists, who from 1735, the 144. Hoare, MEMOIRS OF GRANVILLE SHARP (1820), page 157. For the act of prohibition, see W.B. Stevens, HISTORY OF GEORGIA (1847), I. 311. 145. [B. Martyn, ACCOUNT OF THE PROGRESS OF GEORGIA (1741), pages 9-10.] “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 277 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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date of the first law, to 1749, did not cease to clamor for the repeal of the restrictions.146 As their English agent said, they insisted that “In Spight of all Endeavours to disguise this Point, it is as clear as Light itself, that Negroes are as essentially necessary to the Cultivation of Georgia, as Axes, Hoes, or any other Utensil of Agriculture.”147 Meantime, evasions and infractions of the laws became frequent and notorious. Negroes were brought across from Carolina and “hired” for life.148 “Finally, purchases were openly made in Savannah from African traders: some seizures were made by those who opposed the principle, but as a majority of the magistrates were favorable to the introduction of slaves into the province, legal decisions were suspended from time to time, and a strong disposition evidenced by the courts to evade the operation of the law.”149 At last, in 1749, the colonists prevailed on the trustees and the government, and the trade was thrown open under careful restrictions, which limited importation, required a registry and quarantine on all slaves brought in, and laid a duty.150 It is probable, however, that these restrictions were never enforced, and that the trade thus established continued unchecked until the Revolution. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE

146. Cf. Stevens, HISTORY OF GEORGIA, I. 290 ff. 147. Stephens, ACCOUNT OF THE CAUSES, etc., page 8. Cf. also JOURNAL OF TRUSTEES, II. 210; cited by Stevens, HISTORY OF GEORGIA, I. 306. 148. McCall, HISTORY OF GEORGIA (1811), I. 206-7. 149. McCall, HISTORY OF GEORGIA (1811), I. 206-7. 150. PUB. REC. OFFICE, BOARD OF TRADE, Vol. X.; cited by C.C. Jones, HISTORY OF GEORGIA (1883), I. 422-5. 278 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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This policy of local opposition to local human enslavement, based not upon principle but upon expedience, would persist for a mere two decades before the institution of human enslavement would trickle across its borders from the plantations of South Carolina and it would develop its own tradition of a white planter aristocracy.

June 26: Per The Pennsylvania Gazette: A Very likely young Negro Man to be sold; He has been SLAVERY twelve Months in the Country, and speaks English. FRANKLIN Enquire of the Printer hereof.

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August 7: Per The Pennsylvania Gazette: A likely New Negro Boy to be disposed of; He is about SLAVERY eighteen Years of Age. Enquire of the Printer hereof. FRANKLIN

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1733

White people were being warned that it might not prove to be such a red hot idea, for them to emigrate to the English colonies in America:

(Black people were, however, not being so warned. Indeed, they might even be provided with free transportation! :-) “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 281 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, some 7 negreros were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of something like 763 souls would have been being transported over the dreadful Middle Passage during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

We know, for instance, of a vessel clearance obtained by Wickham on December 11, 1733.

The Molasses Act passed by the British Parliament imposed heavy duties on molasses, sugar, and rum imported from non-British West Indies islands and increased the cost of rum. Americans were consuming 3.75 American gallons of rum per capita per year.

Smugglers would evade the Molasses Act and trade slaves for molasses and sugar in the non-British West Indies to sell to New England distillers to be made into rum which would be carried to Africa and traded for slaves to trade for molasses in the Indies.

(You will instantly notice, since you are paying attention, that this tax on molasses, since molasses was one of the legs of the triangular trade, amounted to about the same thing as a tax on the international slave trade — except, of course that it smelled nicer.)

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The Virginia Assembly had decided as of 1691 that planters might purchase captives from the native American tribes in a “free and open trade for all persons at all times and at all places with all Indians whatsoever.” It had not been noted then or when this law was initially reaffirmed in 1705, and still was not noticed even at this late date, the Year of Our Lord 1733, that such purchasing of enslaved persons from native Americans necessarily involved a presumption that a native American seller was a free man, entitled as such to enter into contracts at law — and that therefore it was actually quite impermissible under the existing understanding of the nature of the law for any native American ever to be thus reduced to a condition of enslavement!

London Assurance undertook £300 on Capt. Theo Weight, and £75 on Edward Morris, a boy of about 14 years, “that they and neither of them shall not be carried into slavery….” In the event of a claim being presented, one supposes that this insurance money would have been used for the payment of a ransom, perhaps from . The early books of The London Assurance are full of slavery transactions such as this one, in which the proper copper sheathing of hulls was obviously a matter of primary consideration while the matter of “Death and Insurrection of Negroes” was considered of secondary importance: “Captain Richard Pinnell [Director of London Assurance from 1726 to 1738] 30th August, 1733 on the Mary Snow and Goods, both or either, according to the Assured’s interest, at and from London to the Coast of Africa and at and from thence to her port of discharge in the British West Indies. Warranted sheathed, and free from all damage by prohibited trade, and free from the death of Slaves either Natural, Violent, or Voluntary. £800.” In a similar risk on 10 October 1733, on the Penelope Snow for the same trader, for £300, it was stated that “the Assured doth hereby agree to warrant the ship sheathed, to take on himself all loss and damage arising by Death and Insurrection of Negroes.” On Saturday, June 15, 1728, the following entry having to do with insurance at £10 per Negro in the cargo was made in the underwriting record: “Henry Neale, Esq.[Director of London Assurance from 1720 to 1747], on 50 negroes in the Benedicta Brigantina (Arthur Reymond, Captain) at and from Gambia to Virginia. The Assured doth hereby agree to warrant the ship sheathed, to take on himself all Averages arising by Death and Insurrection of negroes, and all loss or damage by prohibited trade. £500 @ 3%”

May 10: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: THERE is to be sold a very likely Negro Woman aged about Thirty Years who has lived in this City, from her Childhood, and can wash and iron very well, cook SLAVERY Victuals, sew, spin on the Linen Wheel, milk Cows, and FRANKLIN do all Sorts of House work very well. She has a Boy of about Two Years old, which is to go with her. The Price as reasonable as you can agree. And also another very likely Boy aged about Six Years, who is Son of the abovesaid Woman. He will be sold with his Mother, or by himself, as the Buyer pleases. Enquire of the Printer.

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1734

In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, some 3 negreros were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of something like 325 souls would have been being transported over the dreadful Middle Passage during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

The three examples we now know about involve port clearances obtained by Mumford on July 8, 1734, by Godfrey on August 26, 1734, and by Scott on October 14, 1734.

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During this 1734/1735 school year, at Harvard College: Rule #20: No Freshman shall mingo [sic] against the College wall or go into the fellows [sic] cuzjohn [sic].

(We note here that although “to mingo” was vulgar slang for taking a leak, urinating, nevertheless “Mingo” was a !)

Thus, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in this year, Mingo, age about twenty, Dinah, age about nineteen, and Quock, age about nine months, passed in a cash transaction from the ownership of one white man to the ownership of another white man:

SLAVERY Aaron Whittemore of Concord graduated from Harvard College. Aaron Whittemore, son of Benjamin Whittemore was born Dec. 13, 1711 and grad. Harvard 1734. He was ordained at Pembroke, N.H., March 1, 1737 and died Nov. 16, 1767 aged 55.151

November: In New York, a Duty Act of 1 shilling yearly on Negroes and Slaves: “An act to lay a duty on Negroes & a tax on the Slaves therein mentioned during the time and for the uses within mentioned.” The tax was 1s. yearly per slave. DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, VI. 38. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE

November 28: In New York, a £2 and £4 (?) Duty on Goods and Tax on Slaves Act. The question would be, do these two entries refer to one revenue act, or were there in this year two different revenue acts?

151. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston MA: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy, 1835

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“An Act to lay a Duty on the Goods, and a Tax on the Slaves therein mentioned, during the Time, and for the Uses mentioned in the same.” Possibly there were two acts this year. LAWS OF NEW YORK, 1691-1773, p. 186; DOC. REL. COL. HIST. NEW YORK, VI. 27. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE

1735

The Trustees of Georgia prohibited both human slavery and “ardent spirits” such as rum (by way of contrast, beer, since it was considered a temperance drink, was encouraged). An “act for rendering the colony of Georgia more defensible by prohibiting the importation and use of black slaves or negroes into the same.” W.B. Stevens, HISTORY OF GEORGIA, I. 311; [B. Martyn], ACCOUNT OF THE PROGRESS OF GEORGIA (1741), pp. 9-10; Prince Hoare, MEMOIRS OF GRANVILLE SHARP (London, 1820), p. 157. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE

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In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, some 9 negreros were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of something like 981 souls would have been being transported over the dreadful Middle Passage during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

In approximately this year a person named Cudgoe was born. We don’t at this point know whether he was born in Rhode Island or in Africa, but we know what his life trajectory would be — he would be used all his life by American white men as a useful object of labor, in 1768 he would be passed from hand to hand as a piece of property, he would almost be present for the signing of our Declaration of Independence in 1776 (almost but not quite), and then in extreme old age in 1806 he would finally again come to the white man’s attention (but, only as a needy neglected object of charity).

Also during this year the slave cargo aboard the Dolphin, a London vessel on the coast of Africa, attempted unsuccessfully to take control of their lives. Not being able to proceed any further than seizing control of the powder room, they blew up themselves, the crew, and the vessel. SERVILE INSURRECTION

November 13: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: A likely young Negro Wench, who is a good Cook and can wash well, to be disposed of. Enquire of the Printer SLAVERY hereof. FRANKLIN

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1736

In this year or the following one Broteer Furro (Venture Smith), who had been returned to his father’s tribe, would after six months back at home be taken by a tribe originating about 150-200 miles to the east around the region called Anamaboo on the coast of present-day Ghana, about 6,000 strong, “instigated by some white nation.” He and others were force-marched some 400-500 miles to the west. He and others of his tribe were marched as captives to one or another of the slave castles that lined this coast. Broteer Furro was rowed out to a Rhode Island vessel officered by Captain Collingwood152 and Mate Thomas Mumford. Once on board, he was purchased by the vessel’s steward, Robert Mumford, as a private investment, for four gallons of rum and a piece of calico. This slavetrader would give the name “Venture” to Broteer Furro as an indication of his new status as Robert Mumford’s private investment. The vessel would be carrying a total of 260 in its cargo for the Middle Passage, of whom at least 60 would die in transit of the small pox. My father discovered the [invaders] and immediately began to discharge arrows at them. This alarmed both me and the women, who, being unable to make any resistance, betook ourselves to the tall, thick reeds not far off, and left the old king to fight alone. For some time I beheld him defending himself with great courage and firmness, till at last he was obliged to surrender. My father was closely interrogated respecting his money. But as he gave them no account of it, he was instantly cut and pounded on his body. All this availed not in the least to make him give up his money, but the continued torment obliged him to sink and expire. He thus died without informing his enemies where his money lay. The shocking scene is to this day fresh in my memory. After destroying the old prince, [the enemy] decamped and marched towards the sea lying to the west, taking with them myself and the women prisoners. All the march I had very hard tasks imposed on me. I was obliged to carry on my head a large flat stone used for grinding our corn, weighing as much as 25 pounds; besides victuals, mat, and cooking utensils. Though I was pretty large and stout [for] my age, yet these burdens were very grievous to me, being only six years and a half old. We were then come to a place called in Africa, Anamaboo. The enemies’ provisions were then almost spent, as well as their strength. [Knowing this,] the inhabitants attacked them, and took [their] prisoner, flocks, and all their effects. I was then taken a second time. I and other prisoners were put on board a canoe and rowed away to a vessel belonging to Rhode Island. I was bought on board by one Robert Mumford, a steward of said vessel, for four gallons of rum and a piece of calico, and called Venture on account of his having purchased me with his own private venture. After an ordinary passage, except great mortality by the small pox, which broke out on board, we arrived at the island of Barbados, but when we reached it, there were found, out of the 152. This Captain may well have been the James Collingwood who in 1740 commanded the Charming Betty as a privateer vessel out of Rhode Island, and the slaver vessel in question may well have been the Charming Betty in a previous existence, since in 1733 it had been used to transport German immigrants from the Palatinate to Philadelphia, and since late in 1740 it would arrive in the port of Philadelphia with a shipment of fine cloth and spices which included not only English goods but also goods from the Caribbean. 288 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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260 that sailed from Africa, not more than 200 alive.

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In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, some 10 vessels were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of something like 1,090 souls would have been being transported over the dreadful Middle Passage during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

Examples would include the schooner Haddock, under Captain Aldridge, James Brown’s sloop Mary, under Captain John Godfrey, the brigantine Marigold, under Captain T.T. Taylor, and an unidentified vessel under Captain John Cahoon.

According to Appendix C. to W.E. Burghardt Du Bois’s THE SUPPRESSION OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1638-1870, there was also a negrero the name of which we do not know, sailing out of Rhode Island in October under Captain John Griffen (AMERICAN HISTORICAL RECORD, I. 312).

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January 27: John Brown was born. His father James Brown was a Providence, Rhode Island shipowner, who owned four black slaves and participated in the international slave trade, which is to say, he was willing to make money out of the misery of other human beings. John would be raised as a Baptist and as an adult, would like his father before him participate in the international slave trade.

And, he would loudly and indignantly claim that this was all right: good for father, good for son, end of story. (Evidently being baptized means never needing to admit that you’re one sorry son of a bitch.)

April/May: At Providence, Rhode Island, James Brown was preparing the negrero sloop Mary for a voyage to obtain 100 new slaves along the coast of Africa. THE TRAFFIC IN MAN-BODY

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September: A “little hunchback” named Benjamin Lay, 59 years old, who had relocated his family from the Barbadoes to Pennsylvania because of his fear of “the Evil and the Danger” of the institution of human enslavement, sat in the quarterly meeting for business of the Religious Society of Friends, in Concord PA near Philadelphia:

9th Month, 1736, as I sat in Concord Meeting House, it was their Quarterly Meeting; I may say it was a sweet and comfortable time to me; it came into and arose in my mind, in Love of Truth, that if our Slave Keepers had been, or now would be faithful to God, the Truth, and would bring up their Negroes to some Learning, Reading and Writing, and endeavour to the utmost of their power in the sweet Love of Truth to instruct and teach ’em the principles of truth and righteousness, and learn them some Honest Trade or Imployment and then set them free; and all the time Friends are teaching them let them know that they intend to let them go free in a very reasonable time: and that our Religious Principle will not allow of such Severity, as to keep them in everlasting Bondage and Slavery.

Friend Benjamin found that the response from other Quakers was to accuse that

I loved the Negroes better than I did my Friends.

However, Friend Benjamin was able to persuade the local printer Benjamin Franklin to run his material opposed to human enslavement through the presses. Franklin, you see, although he bought and sold negroes, and owned them himself for his personal use, was a believer in freedom of the printer, and had no objections to running any sort of materials through his printing presses, as long as this met with the stipulations of his personal religion (that is to say, that it was paid for in full and in advance).

September 30: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: A Negro Boy about 18 Years of Age; also a young Servant Mans Time for 4 Years, a Weaver by Trade, to be disposed SLAVERY of. Enquire of the Printer hereof. FRANKLIN

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1737

In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, some 7 negreros were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of something like 749 souls would have been being transported over the dreadful Middle Passage during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.153

153. Clearly, there’s a terminology problem here. In an effort to resolve this terminology issue, at the Republican National Convention in New York City in August 2004 –at which the Republican Party would for four days make an effort to strip from its face its mask of hostility to the plight of the downtrodden and reveal its true countenance of benevolent conservatism and concern– these people would be sensitively referred to by a Hoosier Republican running for the US Senate as “involuntary immigrants.”

So, perhaps, this is a good point at which to insert a story about involuntary immigrants that has been passed on to us by Ram Varmha, a retired IBM engineer whose father had briefly served as Maharaja after the independence of Cochin. He relates the story as narrated to him by his paternal grandmother who lived in Thripoonithura, Cochin: “When my grandmother (born 1882) was a young girl she would go with the elder ladies of the family to the Pazhayannur Devi Temple in Fort Cochin, next to the Cochin Lantha Palace built by the Dutch (Landers = Lantha), which was an early establishment of the Cochin royal family before the administration moved to Thripoonithura. My grandmother often told us that in the basement of the Lantha Palace, in a confined area, a family of Africans had been kept locked up, as in a zoo! By my Grandmother’s time all the Africans had died. But, some of the elder ladies had narrated the story to her of ‘Kappiries’ (Africans) kept in captivity there. It seems visitors would give them fruits and bananas. They were well cared for but always kept in confinement. My grandmother did not know all the details but according to her, ‘many’ years earlier, a ship having broken its mast drifted into the old Cochin harbor. When the locals climbed aboard, they found a crewless ship, but in the hold there were some chained ‘Kappiries’ still alive; others having perished. The locals did not know what to do with them. Not understanding their language and finding the Africans in chains, the locals thought that these were dangerous to set free. So they herded the poor Africans into the basement of the Cochin Fort, and held them in captivity, for many, many years! I have no idea when the initial incident happened, but I presume it took place in the late 1700s or early 1800s. This points to the possibility that it was, in fact, a slave ship carrying human cargo from East Africa to either the USA or the West Indies. An amazing and rather bizarre story. Incidentally, this is not an ‘old woman's tale’! Its quite reliable. My grandmother would identify some of the older ladies who had actually seen the surviving Kappiries.” “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 293 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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The press of Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia printed ALL SLAVE KEEPERS THAT KEEP THE INNOCENT IN BONDAGE... for the author, Friend Benjamin Lay.

RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

January 17: In Massachusetts, Dr. William Clark of Attleborough paid £130 to Habjiah Weld for a slave Negro Woman Named Dido. To all People to whom these presents Shall Come Greeting. Know ye that I Habijah Weld of Attleborough In ye County of Bristol in His Majesties Province of ye Massachusetts Bay in New England Clerk. for and in Consideration of the Sum of one Hundred and thirty pounds in good Bills of Credit to me in Hand before ye Enseal ing and Delivery of these Presents Well and truly paid by Mr. William Clark of Attleborough afores’d Physician ye Receipt whereof I do hereby acknow ledge. Have Granted Bargained & Sold and by these presents do Grant Bargain & Sell unto ye S’d Mr Willm. Clark my Negro Woman Named Dido aged about twenty three years. to Have and to Hold ye S’d Negro Woman Unto ye S’d William Clark His Executors administrators and assigns to His and their only proper use Benefit and behoof for- ever. and I ye S’d Habijah Weld for my Self my Heirs Executors and Administrators do Covenant and agree to and with Mr Willm Clark His Executors Admin istrators & assigns. in manner & form following that is to say that I am ye Rightful owner of ye S’d Negro woman and will warrant Him ye S’d Clark His Executors Administrators & Assigns against ye Lawful Claims and Demands of any person or Persons whatsoever In witness whereof I have hereunto set my Hand & seal the Seventeenth Day of January Anno Domini one thousand seven Hundred thirty & six seven and in ye tenth year of His Majesties Reign Habijah Weld Signed Sealed & Delivered In Presence of us Daniel Read John Chadwick [over] Dr Wm. Clark’s Deed from Abijah Weld 1737 —

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October 13 In The Pennsylvania Gazette: TO BE SOLD, A VERY good Negro of 20 Years of Age, that has had the Small Pox, and can handle a broad Ax and narrow Ax well, and handles a Mallet and Chizzel very SLAVERY well; also handles an Oar very well, and will be a good FRANKLIN Hand for a Ferry. Enquire of the Printer hereof.

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1738

In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, some 6 negreros were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of something like 654 souls would have been being transported over the dread Middle Passage during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

Two inventions important to the development of the cloth industry occurred during this year. John Jay devised the fly-shuttle and John Wyatt devised a technique for spinning by rollers. Because these developments would have an impact on the demand for bales of cotton as a raw material for cloth, it would eventually have an impact on the demand for field labor to grow this cotton, and therefore would have consequences in terms of human slavery — and in terms of the international slave trade.154

W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: The and the slave- trade after 1820 must be read in the light of the industrial revolution through which the civilized world passed in the first half of the nineteenth century. Between the years 1775 and 1825 occurred economic events and changes of the highest importance and widest influence. Though all branches of industry felt the impulse of this new industrial life, yet, “if we consider single industries, cotton manufacture has, during the nineteenth century, made the most magnificent and gigantic advances.”155 This fact is easily explained by the remarkable series of inventions that revolutionized this industry between 1738 and 1830, including Arkwright’s, Watt’s, Compton’s, and Cartwright’s epoch-making contrivances.156 The effect which these inventions had on the manufacture of cotton goods is best illustrated by the fact that in England, the chief cotton market of the world, the consumption of raw cotton rose steadily from 13,000 bales in 1781, to 572,000 in 1820, to 871,000 in 1830, 154. Bear in mind that in early periods the Southern states of the United States of America produced no significant amount of cotton fiber for export — such production not beginning until 1789. In fact, according to page 92 of Seybert’s STATISTICS, in 1784 a small parcel of cotton that had found its way from the US to Liverpool had been refused admission to England, because it was the customs agent’s opinion that this involved some sort of subterfuge: it could not have originated in the United States. 155. Beer, GESCHICHTE DES WELTHANDELS IM 19TEN JAHRHUNDERT, II. 67. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 297 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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and to 3,366,000 in 1860.157 Very early, therefore, came the query whence the supply of raw cotton was to come. Tentative experiments on the rich, broad fields of the Southern United States, together with the indispensable invention of Whitney’s cotton-gin, soon answered this question: a new economic future was opened up to this land, and immediately the whole South began to extend its cotton culture, and more and more to throw its whole energy into this one staple. Here it was that the fatal mistake of compromising with slavery in the beginning, and of the policy of laissez-faire pursued thereafter, became painfully manifest; for, instead now of a healthy, normal, economic development along proper industrial lines, we have the abnormal and fatal rise of a slave-labor large farming system, which, before it was realized, had so intertwined itself with and braced itself upon the economic forces of an industrial age, that a vast and terrible civil war was necessary to displace it. The tendencies to a patriarchal serfdom, recognizable in the age of Washington and Jefferson, began slowly but surely to disappear; and in the second quarter of the century Southern slavery was irresistibly changing from a family institution to an industrial system. The development of Southern slavery has heretofore been viewed so exclusively from the ethical and social standpoint that we are apt to forget its close and indissoluble connection with the world’s cotton market. Beginning with 1820, a little after the close of the Napoleonic wars, when the industry of cotton manufacture had begun its modern development and the South had definitely assumed her position as chief producer of raw cotton, we find the average price of cotton per pound, 8½d. From this time until 1845 the price steadily fell, until in the latter year it reached 4d.; the only exception to this fall was in the years 1832-1839, when, among other things, a strong increase in the English demand, together with an attempt of the young to “corner” the market, sent the price up as high as 11d. The demand for cotton goods soon outran a crop which McCullough had pronounced “prodigious,” and after 1845 the price started on a steady rise, which, except for the checks suffered during the continental revolutions and the Crimean War, continued until 1860.158 The steady increase in the production of cotton explains the fall in price down to 1845. In 1822 the crop was a half- million bales; in 1831, a million; in 1838, a million and a half; 156. A list of these inventions most graphically illustrates this advance: — 1738, John Jay, fly-shuttle. John Wyatt, spinning by rollers. 1748, Lewis Paul, carding-machine. 1760, Robert Kay, drop-box. 1769, Richard Arkwright, water-frame and throstle. James Watt, steam-engine. 1772, James Lees, improvements on carding-machine. 1775, Richard Arkwright, series of combinations. 1779, Samuel Compton, mule. 1785, Edmund Cartwright, power-loom. 1803-4, Radcliffe and Johnson, dressing-machine. 1817, Roberts, fly-frame. 1818, William Eaton, self-acting frame. 1825-30, Roberts, improvements on mule. Cf. Baines, HISTORY OF THE COTTON MANUFACTURE, pages 116-231; ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA, 9th ed., article “Cotton.” 157. Baines, HISTORY OF THE COTTON MANUFACTURE, page 215. A bale weighed from 375 lbs. to 400 lbs. 158. The prices cited are from Newmarch and Tooke, and refer to the London market. The average price in 1855-60 was about 7d. 298 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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and in 1840-1843, two million. By this time the world’s consumption of cotton goods began to increase so rapidly that, in spite of the increase in Southern crops, the price kept rising. Three million bales were gathered in 1852, three and a half million in 1856, and the remarkable crop of five million bales in 1860.159 Here we have data to explain largely the economic development of the South. By 1822 the large-plantation slave system had gained footing; in 1838-1839 it was able to show its power in the cotton “corner;” by the end of the next decade it had not only gained a solid economic foundation, but it had built a closed oligarchy with a political policy. The changes in price during the next few years drove out of competition many survivors of the small-farming free-labor system, and put the slave régime in position to dictate the policy of the nation. The zenith of the system and the first inevitable signs of decay came in the years 1850-1860, when the rising price of cotton threw the whole economic energy of the South into its cultivation, leading to a terrible consumption of soil and slaves, to a great increase in the size of plantations, and to increasing power and effrontery on the part of the slave barons. Finally, when a rising moral crusade conjoined with threatened economic disaster, the oligarchy, encouraged by the state of the cotton market, risked all on a political coup-d’état, which failed in the war of 1861-1865.160

June 22: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: To be SOLD for her Passage, A LIKELY young Woman, well cloathed, can sew and do Household Work. Term of Time SLAVERY as you can agree with her. N.B. Her Passage is 8 l. Also FRANKLIN a Breeding Negro Woman about 20 Years of Age, can do any Houshold Work. Enquire of the Printer hereof. VIRGINIA, JUNE 2, 1738

December 28: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: RUN from the Subscriber, in Northumberland County, Virginia, on Sunday the 12th of Nov. Inst. two English Convict Servants; one named Robert Shiels, a Gardner; is a lusty well set Fellow, about 26 Years of Age, with long black Hair, but it’s suppos’d may cut it off. His wearing Apparel was a coarse Felt Hat, two oznabrigs Shirts, a Virginia Cloth Jacket and Breeches, and a large blue Jacket, old Virginia Stockings, and a Pair or more of Negro Shoes. The other named William Roberts, a Shoemaker, who also goes by the Name of William Simmons, is a middle siz’d Man, about 23 Years of Age, much pitted with the Small Pox; He has Letters on one SLAVERY Hand mark’d with Gun powder, and on one of his Arms a FRANKLIN darted Heart, and on the other Arm this Name, MARY ROBERTS. His wearing Apparel was an old fine Hat, a 159. From United States census reports. 160. Cf. United States census reports; and Olmsted, THE COTTON KINGDOM. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 299 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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small Wigg, one fine Shirt and an oznabrigs one, a Swan skin Jacket, an old Coat tarr’d and patch’d, old fine Cloth Breeches, blue worsted Stockings, handsome square toe’d Shoes, and large brass Buckles. They went away in an old great Canoe. Whoever secures the said Servants, and brings or causes them to be brought to my House, in Northumberland County aforesaid, or B. Franklin, Printer in Philadelphia, shall have three Pistoles Reward fore each, besides what the Law allows, paid by Peter Presly. N.B. They are bold stout Fellows and will make Resistance; and if taken, must be well guarded, or they will escape.

1739

Spain cancelled England’s contract to import slaves into the Spanish colonies. Complaints of the English engaged in the international slave trade on the one hand and the complaints of Spanish planters on the other were causing such a din that King Philip V had just gotten fed up. Cancellation of this contract, along with other differences of opinion, would lead to the War of Jenkin’s Ear.

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According to Herman Moll’s MODERN HISTORY: OR THE PRESENT STATE OF ALL NATIONS, published at Dublin, Rhode Island was noticeably religious. MOLL’S MODERN HISTORY

In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, some 10 negreros were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of something like 1,090 souls would have been being transported over the dread Middle Passage during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

On about one Middle Passage voyage out of ten, or more, the cargo would make some gesture toward saving themselves. SERVILE INSURRECTION

In a very few of these cases, as happened with the in West Indies waters, slaves might manage to take over a ship, and ’s BENITO CERENO is in fact based on a true story; the usual outcome, however, was that they would simply be killed, or would be captured and then put to death by torture.

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February 22: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: TO BE LET A HOUSE at the upper End of Walnut Street at the Corner of Fifth Street, with Three 50 Foot Lots fronting Walnut Street, being very fit for a Butcher or Carter. Enquire of Susanna Yeldhall living in the said SLAVERY House, or of B. Franklin, and know further. Also to be FRANKLIN SOLD A Negro Woman, fit for Household Work: Enquire as above.

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September 9: Some 80 slaves of Stono in South Carolina tried to escape to the south. In the previous year, the Spanish governor of Florida, not as a way to abolish slavery but merely as a neat-o way to disrupt the affairs of the British colonies to his north, had offered to manumit any British colonial slaves who could make their way to St. Augustine. There was a battle when this “Cato’s Conspiracy” marching column was intercepted by whites, in which 44 of the blacks and 25 of the whites were killed. MANUMISSION

November 15: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: A Negro Man to be sold, who has been used to the House SLAVERY Carpenter’s Trade: Enquire of the Printer hereof. FRANKLIN

1740

Following the three servile insurrections that had occurred in South Carolina during the previous year, there was another such event in which some 40,000 slaves would take part, which would kill another 20 of the white people. W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: We find in the planting colonies all degrees of advocacy of the trade, from the passiveness of Maryland to the clamor of Georgia. Opposition to the trade did not appear in Georgia, was based almost solely on political fear of insurrection in Carolina, and sprang largely from the same motive in Virginia, mingled with some moral repugnance. As a whole, it may be said that whatever opposition to the slave- trade there was in the planting colonies was based principally on the political fear of insurrection. “I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return.” — W.H. Auden, September 1, 1939

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The slavery system in colonial America was fully developed. A Virginia law of this year declared slaves to be “chattel personal in the hands of their owners and possessors for all intents, construction, and purpose whatsoever.”

The Negro Act of 1740 of the province of South Carolina: If any slave, who shall be out of the house or plantation where such slave shall live, or shall be usually employed, or without some white person in company with such slave, shall refuse to submit to undergo the examination of any white person, it shall be lawful for such white person to pursue, apprehend, and moderately correct such slave; and if such slave shall assault and strike such white person, such slave may be lawfully killed. — 2 BREVARD’S DIGEST, 231 The province of course included legislation preventing the education of slaves: Whereas, the having of slaves taught to write, or suffering them to be employed in writing, may be attended with great inconveniences, Be it enacted, That all and every person and persons whatsoever, who shall hereafter teach, or cause any slave or slaves to be taught to write, or shall use or employ any slave as a scribe in any manner of writing whatsoever, hereafter taught to write, every such person or persons shall, for every such offence, forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds current money. — 2 BREVARD’S DIGEST, 243

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Slavery was not an institution practiced solely by Southerners. For instance, here is a painting in which the well-to-do Potter family of the coastal town of Matunuck, in Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is being served, in this year, by that acceptable symbol of well-to-do-ness, a :

Matunuck is down in the southwestern district, that is to say, it was part of the “Providence Plantations” portion of the colony known as “Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.” Yes, there were slave plantations in this Providence Plantations district. There were more slaves here, than in the rest of New England put together.

In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, some 19 negreros were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of something like 2,070 souls would have been being transported over the dreadful Middle Passage during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

January 29: According to the Concord Town Record, “Jonas Wheeler ye son of Benjamin Wheeler and Rebekah his Wife died January.29:1739/40”

In The Pennsylvania Gazette: TO BE SOLD, A Likely young Negro Fellow, by Trade a Bricklayer and Plaisterer, has had the Small Pox. SLAVERY Enquire of the Printer hereof. FRANKLIN

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April 5: The colony of South Carolina enacted a £100-per-head prohibitive duty to be paid by purchasers of Negroes from Africa, and of £150-per-head to be paid by purchasers of Negroes obtained elsewhere in the New World. “An Act for the better strengthening of this Province, by granting to His Majesty certain taxes and impositions on the purchasers of Negroes imported,” etc. The duty on slaves from America was £150. Continued to 1744. Cooper, STATUTES, III. 556. Cf. ABSTRACT EVIDENCE ON SLAVE-TRADE BEFORE COMMITTEE OF HOUSE OF COMMONS, 1790-91 (London, 1791), p. 150. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: South Carolina had the largest and most widely developed slave-trade of any of the continental colonies. This was owing to the character of her settlers, her nearness to the West Indian slave marts, and the early development of certain staple crops, such as rice, which were adapted to slave labor.161 Moreover, this colony suffered much less interference from the home government than many other colonies; thus it is possible here to trace the untrammeled development of slave- trade restrictions in a typical planting community. As early as 1698 the slave-trade to South Carolina had reached such proportions that it was thought that “the great number of negroes which of late have been imported into this Collony may endanger the safety thereof.” The immigration of white servants was therefore encouraged by a special law.162 Increase of immigration reduced this disproportion, but Negroes continued to be imported in such numbers as to afford considerable revenue from a moderate duty on them. About the time when the Assiento was signed, the slave-trade so increased that, scarcely a year after the consummation of that momentous agreement, two heavy duty acts were passed, because “the number of Negroes do extremely increase in this Province, and through the afflicting providence of God, the white persons do not proportionately multiply, by reason whereof, the safety of the said Province is greatly endangered.”163 The trade, however, by reason of the encouragement abroad and of increased business activity in exporting naval stores at home, suffered scarcely any check, although repeated acts, reciting the danger incident to a “great importation of Negroes,” were passed, laying high duties.164 Finally, in 1717, an additional duty of £40,165 although due in depreciated currency, succeeded so nearly in stopping the trade that, two years later, all existing duties were repealed and one of £10 substituted.166 This continued during the time of resistance to the proprietary government, but by 1734 the importation had again reached large proportions. “We must therefore beg leave,” the colonists write in that year, “to inform your Majesty, that, amidst our other perilous

161. Cf. Hewatt, HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF S. CAROLINA AND GEORGIA (1779), I. 120 ff.; reprinted in S.C. HIST. COLL. (1836), I. 108 ff. 162. Cooper, STATUTES AT LARGE OF S. CAROLINA, II. 153. 163. The text of the first act is not extant: cf. Cooper, STATUTES, III. 56. For the second, see Cooper, VII. 365, 367. 164. Cf. Grimké, PUBLIC LAWS OF S. CAROLINA, page xvi, No. 362; Cooper, STATUTES, II. 649. Cf. also GOVERNOR JOHNSON TO THE BOARD OF TRADE, Jan. 12, 1719-20; reprinted in Rivers, EARLY HISTORY OF S. CAROLINA (1874), App., xii. 165. Cooper, STATUTES, VII. 368. 166. Cooper, STATUTES, III. 56. 306 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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circumstances, we are subject to many intestine dangers from the great number of negroes that are now among us, who amount at least to twenty-two thousand persons, and are three to one of all your Majesty’s white subjects in this province. Insurrections against us have been often attempted.”167 In 1740 an insurrection under a slave, Cato, at Stono, caused such widespread alarm that a prohibitory duty of £100 was immediately laid.168 Importation was again checked; but in 1751 the colony sought to devise a plan whereby the slightly restricted immigration of Negroes should provide a fund to encourage the importation of white servants, “to prevent the mischiefs that may be attended by the great importation of negroes into this Province.”169 Many white servants were thus encouraged to settle in the colony; but so much larger was the influx of black slaves that the colony, in 1760, totally prohibited the slave-trade. This act was promptly disallowed by the Privy Council and the governor reprimanded;170 but the colony declared that “an importation of negroes, equal in number to what have been imported of late years, may prove of the most dangerous consequence in many respects to this Province, and the best way to obviate such danger will be by imposing such an additional duty upon them as may totally prevent the evils.”171 A prohibitive duty of £100 was accordingly imposed in 1764.172 This duty probably continued until the Revolution.

April 16: In Boston, Mary Mountire made a deposition in regard to her ownership of the slaves Kent and Sambo. The Samuel Adams who signed this document was the brewer and deacon of the Old South Church who at various times was a justice of the peace, town selectman, and representative to the General Court, Samuel Adams, Sr. (1689-1748), the father of the Sam Adams of revolutionary fame. Suffolk ss Boston Apl. 16 1740. Mary Mountire of Boston aforsd widow after being carefully examined and Cautioned to Testifie the whole Truth made Oath that Kent Negroeman and Sambo Negroeman — are her Slaves, and not the Estate of George Janverin of Boston aforsd. Decd. that She the Deponant with her own money bought Sd. Kent of mr. John Forland of Boston aforsd. and Sambo of one mr. Clark of Barbados that She bought Sd. Kent and Sambo Since Sd. Janverin s last departure f[rom] Boston aforesd. and that Sd. Negroes are her Sole pro[perty] Taken this month day & year [illegible] at Boston aforsd. at the [illegible] Susanah Jan[verin] widow of the Decd. the [illegible] Beautenau [Boutineau?] of Boston aforesd. mercht.

167. From a memorial signed by the governor, President of the Council, and Speaker of the House, dated April 9, 1734, printed in Hewatt, HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF S. CAROLINA AND GEORGIA (1779), II. 39; reprinted in S.C. Hist. Coll. (1836), I. 305-6. Cf. N.C. COL. REC., II. 421. 168. Cooper, STATUTES, III. 556; Grimké, PUBLIC LAWS, page xxxi, No. 694. Cf. Ramsay, HISTORY OF S. CAROLINA, I. 110. 169. Cooper, STATUTES, III. 739. 170. The text of this law has not been found. Cf. Burge, COMMENTARIES ON COLONIAL AND FOREIGN LAWS, I. 737, note; Stevens, HISTORY OF GEORGIA, I. 286. See instructions of the governor of New Hampshire, June 30, 1761, in Gordon, HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, I. letter 2. 171. Cooper, STATUTES, IV. 187. 172. This duty avoided the letter of the English instructions by making the duty payable by the first purchasers, and not by the importers. Cf. Cooper, STATUTES, IV. 187. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 307 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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[illegible] appearing desired the Deponent might be carefully [e]xamined & Cautioned but refused to be present at the [deposi]tion thereof — before me — Samuel Adams Jusce Peace [Address partly illegible] For By [illegible] Esqr Clerk of the Inferior Court of Comon Pleas for the County of Suffolk [over] Slaves 1740

April 17, Easter Sunday

May: The colonial legislature of Virginia laid an additional duty of 5% “upon Slaves, to be paid by the Buyer, for encouraging persons to enlist in his Majesty’s service: And for preventing desertion.” According to Hening (STATUTES, V. 92) this was to continue until July 1, 1744. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE SLAVERY

December 4: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: TO BE SOLD A Likely young Negro Woman, can Wash or Iron, or do any kind of houshold Work, and is fit for either SLAVERY Town or Country; with two Children. Enquire of George FRANKLIN Harding, Skinner, m or the Printer hereof.

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1741

In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, some 7 negreros were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of more than 760 souls would have been being transported over the dreadful Middle Passage during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

In this year of King George’s War, five privateer vessels were attacking the shipping of the Spanish enemies of the British crown out of Newport, Rhode Island.

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How to keep a large number of slaves from eating you out of house and home? –Indigo was introduced into South Carolina in this year, by Elizabeth Lucas Pinckney, as a labor-intensive crop for the slaves on her father’s plantation near Wappoo Heights to grow.173

The following is from the colonial law of North Carolina: Notice of the commitment of runaways — viz., 1741, c. 24, 29. “An act concerning servants and slaves.” Copy of notice containing a full description of such runaway and his clothing. — The sheriff is to “cause a copy of such notice to be sent to the clerk or reader of each church or chapel within his county, who are hereby required to make publication thereof by setting up the same in some open and convenient place, near the said church or chapel, on every Lord’s day, during the space of two months from the date thereof.” 1741, c. 24, 45. — “Which proclamation shall be published on a Sabbath day at the door of every church or chapel, or, for want of such, at the place where divine service shall be performed in the said county, by the parish clerk or reader, immediately after divine service; and if any slave or slaves, against whom proclamation hath been thus issued, stay out and do not immediately return home, it shall be lawful for any person or persons whatsoever to kill and destroy such slave or slaves by such way or means as he or she shall think fit, without accusation or impeachment of any crime for the same.” 173. The indigo plant, a member of the pulse family the crushed leaves and stems of which can be used to dye cotton cloth, originated chiefly in India, hence its name Indigofera Tinctoria. 310 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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January 15: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: TO BE SOLD, A Likely young Negro Woman, can Wash or Iron, or do any kind of houshold Work, and is fit for SLAVERY either Town or Country; with Two Children. Enquire of FRANKLIN George Harding, Skinner, of the Printer hereof.

March/April: In New-York, a series of suspicious fires and reports of slave conspiracy led to a general hysteria174 similar to the hysteria that had developed in Spring 1712.

The series of “suspicious” fires began with the destruction of Fort George, the Governor’s residence. This set off a panic among the white residents, that the enslaved community (numbering over 2,000 out of the city’s population of 11,000) was intending in servile insurrection to set fire to the city, in order to kill whites as they attempted to extinguish the flames.175 The resulting Salem-like (or McCarthyesque) show trials, held throughout that spring and summer, would find over 100 slaves guilty of arson and/or conspiracy to commit murder. About 70 would be deported, 18 hanged, and 13 burned at the stake. Commenting on the Scorsese movie “Gangs of New York”: “In my own research of New York history, through first-person accounts and newspaper reports, I have found that our past was often at least as violent and squalid, if not more so, than the movie depicts.” — Kevin Baker

174. Read all about it in Jill Lepore’s new LIBERTY, SLAVERY, AND CONSPIRACY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MANHATTAN (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005). —This just in: anything written by Jill Lepore is worth your undivided attention. Also relevant: Thomas J. Davis’s A RUMOR OF REVOLT (Amherst MA: U of Massachusetts P, 1985) and Daniel Horsmanden’s THE NEW YORK CONSPIRACY (Boston MA: Beacon Press, 1971). 175. Clearly, there’s a terminology problem here. In an effort to resolve this terminology issue, at the Republican National Convention in New York City in August 2004 –at which the Republican Party would for four days make an effort to strip from its face its mask of hostility to the plight of the downtrodden and reveal its true countenance of benevolent conservatism and concern– these people would be sensitively referred to by a Hoosier Republican running for the US Senate as “involuntary immigrants.”

So, perhaps, this is a good point at which to insert a story about involuntary immigrants that has been passed on to us by Ram Varmha, a retired IBM engineer whose father had briefly served as Maharaja after the independence of Cochin. He relates the story as narrated to him by his paternal grandmother who lived in Thripoonithura, Cochin: “When my grandmother (born 1882) was a young girl she would go with the elder ladies of the family to the Pazhayannur Devi Temple in Fort Cochin, next to the Cochin Lantha Palace built by the Dutch (Landers = Lantha), which was an early establishment of the Cochin royal family before the administration moved to Thripoonithura. My grandmother often told us that in the basement of the Lantha Palace, in a confined area, a family of Africans had been kept locked up, as in a zoo! By my Grandmother’s time all the Africans had died. But, some of the elder ladies had narrated the story to her of ‘Kappiries’ (Africans) kept in captivity there. It seems visitors would give them fruits and bananas. They were well cared for but always kept in confinement. My grandmother did not know all the details but according to her, ‘many’ years earlier, a ship having broken its mast drifted into the old Cochin harbor. When the locals climbed aboard, they found a crewless ship, but in the hold there were some chained ‘Kappiries’ still alive; others having perished. The locals did not know what to do with them. Not understanding their language and finding the Africans in chains, the locals thought that these were dangerous to set free. So they herded the poor Africans into the basement of the Cochin Fort, and held them in captivity, for many, many years! I have no idea when the initial incident happened, but I presume it took place in the late 1700s or early 1800s. This points to the possibility that it was, in fact, a slave ship carrying human cargo from East Africa to either the USA or the West Indies. An amazing and rather bizarre story. Incidentally, this is not an ‘old woman's tale’! Its quite reliable. My grandmother would identify some of the older ladies who had actually seen the surviving Kappiries.” “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 311 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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Per Daniel Horsmanden’s THE NEW-YORK CONSPIRACY, OR THE HISTORY OF THE NEGRO PLOT: WITH THE JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE CONSPIRATORS AT NEW-YORK IN THE YEARS 1741-2: TOGETHER WITH SEVERAL INTERESTING TABLES CONTAINING THE NAMES OF THE WHITE AND BLACK PERSONS ARRESTED ON ACCOUNT OF THE CONSPIRACY, THE TIMES OF THEIR TRIALS, THEIR SENTENCES, THEIR EXECUTIONS BY BURNING AND HANGING, NAMES OF THOSE TRANSPORTED, AND THOSE DISCHARGED: WITH A VARIETY OF OTHER USEFUL AND HIGHLY INTERESTING MATTER (1741/1742), and A JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS IN THE DETECTION OF THE CONSPIRACY FORMED BY SOME WHITE PEOPLE, IN CONJUNCTION WITH NEGRO AND OTHER SLAVES, FOR BURNING THE CITY OF NEW-YORK IN AMERICA AND MURDERING THE INHABITANTS (1744): The parties accused of the conspiracy were numerous, and business by degrees multiplied so fast upon the grand jury, which bore the burthen of this inquiry, that there would have been an immediate necessity for others to have lent a helping hand in taking examinations from the beginning, if the judges had not found it expedient to examine the persons accused, upon their first taking into custody, whereby it seemed most likely the truth would bolt out, before they had time to cool, or opportunity of discoursing in the jail with their confederates, who were before committed. The examinations thus taken by the judges, were soon after laid before the grand jury, who interrogated the parties therefrom in such manner, as generally produced from them the substance of the same matter, and often something more, by which means there accrued no small advantage; for though were the last examination brought to light new discover, yet it will be seldom found, there is any thing in such further examinations contradictory to the former, but generally a confirmation of them; and in such case, the setting forth the same at large, may not be thought a useless tautology; not that this will happen often, and where it does, it will be chiefly found in the examinations and confessions of negroes, who, in ordinary cases, are seldom found to hold twice in the same story; which, for its rarity therefore, if it carried not with it the additional weight of the greater appearance of truth, may make this particular the more excusable; and further, this is a diary of the proceedings, that is to be exhibited, therefore, in conformity to that plan, nothing should be omitted, which may be of use. All proper precautions were taken by the judges, that the criminals should be kept separate; and they were so, as much as the scanty room in the jail would admit of; and new apartments were fitted up for their reception: but more particular care was taken, that such negroes as had made confession and discovery, and were to be made use of as witnesses, should be kept apart from the rest, and as much from each other, as the accommodations would allow of, in order to prevent their caballing from each other first, as well upon the trials, as otherwise, and then generally confronted with the persons they accused, who were usually sent for and taken into custody upon such examinations, if they were to be met with; which was the means of bringing many others to a confession, as well as were newly taken up, as those who had long before been committed, perhaps upon slighter grounds, and had insisted upon their innocence; for they had generally the cunning not to own their guilt, till they knew

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their accusers. But notwithstanding this was the ordinary method taken, both by the judges and grand jury, to send for the parties as soon as impeached, (which however might sometimes through hurry be omitted) yet several who happened then to be out of the way, were afterwards forgot, and slipped through our fingers, from the multiplicity of business in hand, as will hereafter appear; which therefore is particularly recommended to the notice of their owners. The trouble of examining criminals in general, may be easily guessed at; but the fatigue in that of negroes, is not to be conceived, but by those that have undergone the drudgery. The difficulty of bringing and holding them to the truth, if by chance it starts through them, is not to be surmounted, but by the closest attention; many of them have a great deal of craft; their unintelligible jargon stands them in great stead, to conceal their meaning; so that an examiner must expect to encounter with much perplexity, grope through a maze of obscurity, be obliged to lay hold of broken hints, lay them carefully together, and thoroughly weigh and compare them with each other, before he can be able to see the light, or fix those creatures to any certain determinate meaning.

March 18, Wednesday: The 1640 Dutch church on Manhattan Island was destroyed by rebellious slaves. About one o’clock this day a fire broke out of the roof of his majesty’s house at Fort George, within this city, near the chapel; when the alarm of fire was first given, it was observed from the town, that the middle of the roof was in a great smoke, but not a spark of fire appeared on the outside for a considerable time.... Upon the chapel bell’s ringing, great numbers of people, gentlemen and others, came to the assistance of the lieutenant governor and his family; and ... most of the household goods, etc. were removed and saved.... But the fire got hold of the roof ... and an alarm being given that there was gun powder in the fort, whether through fear and an apprehension that there was, or whether the hint was given by some of the conspirators themselves, with artful design to intimidate the people, and frighten them from giving further assistance, we cannot say; though the lieutenant governor declared to every body that there was none there.... Such was the violence of the wind, and the flames spread so fast, that in about an hour and a quarter's time the house was burnt down to the ground....

July 30: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: TO BE SOLD, A Likely young Negro Woman, fit for either SLAVERY Town of Country Business. Enquire of the Printer hereof. FRANKLIN

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December 31: Believing that Roman Catholic priests had on orders from Spain been inciting slaves to burn New-York, and that this had been the cause of the series of suspicious fires that had broken out in the Big Apple during March and April of this year, 4 whites and 18 blacks were hanged and 13 blacks were burned at the stake. For their supposed complicity or affiliation in servile insurrection, 71 slaves were “deported,” that is, sold south. (General James Oglethorpe would report this news to the trustees in a letter of May 28, 1742. He would also mention fires at Charles Town, and a Negro insurrection in Carolina in which Mr. Bathurst and above 20 white people and 40 Negroes were killed.)

1742

In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, some 8 negreros were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of more than 870 souls would have been being transported over the dreadful Middle Passage during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

In this year of King George’s War, five privateer vessels were in operation against Spanish shipping out of Newport, Rhode Island:

1741 5

1742 5

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1744 11

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“In the United States, every possible encouragement should be given to privateering in time of war with a commercial nation ... to distress and harass the enemy and compel him to peace.” — Thomas Jefferson, 1812

“If privateering had not been already well established in the British Empire when Rhode Island first took to the sea, Rhode Islanders would have had to invent it. It suited them well. — Hawes, Alexander Boyd, page 65176

February 16: Friend Ebenezer Slocum of Dartmouth in the Massachusetts Bay Colony sold his black slave Kofi to his nephew, another Quaker, Friend John Slocum (this document is still in existence). A few years later, at about the age of 25 when he had earned enough to be able to purchase himself, Kofi would be manumitted. PAUL CUFFE John Slocum, a devout Quaker, was influenced deeply by the 1733 denunciation of slavery by the Nantucket Meeting, the first condemnation of its nature in America. Reflection upon this denunciation led to Slocum’s decision to offer Kofi the opportunity to purchase his freedom. Through the performance of supplemental work following his daily duties, Kofi bought his freedom in the mid-1740s.

April 15: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: To be SOLD, A Likely Irish Servant Girl, about 19 years of Age, fit for Country Work, has about 3 years and half SLAVERY to serve. Also, a likely stout young Negro Fellow about FRANKLIN 20 years of Age. Enquire of the Printer hereof.

176. Hawes, Alexander Boyd. OFF SOUNDINGS: ASPECTS OF THE MARITIME HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND. Chevy Chase MD: Posterity Press, 1999

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1743

In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, some 5 negreros were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of something like 545 souls would have been being transported over the dreadful Middle Passage during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

Of course, the international trade in new slaves was not being exclusively monopolized by slavers operating out of tiny Rhode Island. In Nürnberg in this year, Homann Hereditors issued its very nice hand-colored engraved map of GUINEA PROPIA, NEC NON NIGRITIAE VEL TERRAE NIGRORUM MAXIMA PARS . . . indicating just which sections of the African coast were being patronized by the English negreros, the Dutch negreros, the French negreros, and the Danish negreros:

In this year of King George’s War, ten privateer vessels were in operation against Spanish shipping out of Newport, Rhode Island:

1741 5

1742 5

1743 10

1744 11

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“In the United States, every possible encouragement should be given to privateering in time of war with a commercial nation ... to distress and harass the enemy and compel him to peace.” — Thomas Jefferson, 1812

“If privateering had not been already well established in the British Empire when Rhode Island first took to the sea, Rhode Islanders would have had to invent it. It suited them well. — Hawes, Alexander Boyd, page 65177

Friend John Woolman became a taylor, a surveyor, a conveyancer, a schoolmaster, and a “recommended minister,” and began to make Quaker ministerial journeys.

In regard to slavery he went directly to the slavemasters of Maryland’s east shore, and directly the shipowners of the Rhode Island coast, and set an example by refusing to use any article manufactured with the aid of enslaved labor. While it might seem that those who worked to free the enslaved would look forward to welcoming them into their religious fellowship, Quakers were not necessarily committed to taking that next step. Rarely did Friends of European descent invite people of African descent to learn about their Quaker beliefs, and even more rarely did they try to interest them in becoming members. ... the assertion that Friends were fundamentally not concerned for the well-being of the enslaved African. Some historians maintain that they abolished enslavement among themselves to preserve the purity of the Religious Society of Friends, not to restore freedom to people of African descent.178 177. Hawes, Alexander Boyd. OFF SOUNDINGS: ASPECTS OF THE MARITIME HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND. Chevy Chase MD: Posterity Press, 1999

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He worked with Moravian missionaries to the Native American villages of Pennsylvania.179

About the twenty-third year of my age, I had many fresh and heavenly openings, in respect to the care and providence of the Almighty over his creatures in general, and over man as the most noble amongst those which are visible. And being clearly convinced in my judgment that to place my whole trust in God was best for me, I felt renewed engagements that in all things I might act on an inward principle of virtue, and pursue worldly business no further than as truth opened my way. About the time called Christmas I observed many people, both in town and from the country, resorting to public-houses, and spending their time in drinking and vain sports, tending to corrupt one another; on which account I was much troubled. At one house in particular there was much disorder; and I believed it was a duty incumbent on me to speak to the master of that house. I considered I was young, and that several elderly friends in town had opportunity to see these things; but though I would gladly have been excused, yet I could not feel my mind clear. The exercise was heavy; and as I was reading what the Almighty said to Ezekiel, respecting his duty as a watchman, the matter was set home more clearly. With prayers and tears I besought the Lord for His assistance, and He in loving-kindness gave me a resigned heart. At a suitable opportunity I went to the public- house; and seeing the man amongst much company, I called him aside, and in the fear and dread of the Almighty expressed to him what rested on my mind. He took it kindly, and afterwards showed more regard to me than before. In a few years afterwards he died, middle-aged; and I often thought that, had I neglected my duty in that case, it would have given me great trouble; and I was humbly thankful to my gracious Father, who had supported me herein. My employer, having a negro woman,180 sold her, and desired me to write a bill of sale, the man being waiting who bought her. The thing was sudden; and though I felt uneasy at the thoughts 178. Pages 183-184 in Donna McDaniel’s and Vanessa Julye’s FIT FOR FREEDOM, NOT FOR FRIENDSHIP: QUAKERS, AFRICAN AMERICANS, AND THE MYTH OF RACIAL JUSTICE (Philadelphia: Quaker Press of Friends General Conference, 2009). 179. JOURNAL, Chapter II 1743-1748 His first Journey, on a Religious Visit, in East Jersey. Thoughts on Merchandising, and Learning a Trade. Second Journey into Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. Third Journey through part of West and East Jersey. Fourth Journey through New York and Long Island to New England. And his fifth Journey to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and the Lower Counties on Delaware. 318 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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of writing an instrument of slavery for one of my fellow- creatures, yet I remembered that I was hired by the year, that it was my master who directed me to do it, and that it was an elderly man, a member of our Society, who bought her; so through weakness I gave way, and wrote it; but at the executing of it I was so afflicted in my mind, that I said before my master and the Friend that I believed slave-keeping to be a practice inconsistent with the Christian religion. This in some degree abated my uneasiness; yet, as often as I reflected seriously upon it, I thought I should have been clearer if I had desired to be excused from it, as a thing against my conscience; for such it was. Some time after this a young man of our Society spoke to me to write a conveyance of a slave to him, he having lately taken a negro into his house. I told him I was not easy to write it; for though many of our meeting and in other places kept slaves, I still believed the practice was not right, and desired to be excused from the writing. I spoke to him in goodwill; and he told me that keeping slaves was not altogether agreeable to his mind; but that the slave being a gift made to his wife, he had accepted her.

No image of Friend John ever was made

180. Note by Friend John Greenleaf Whittier: The number of slaves in New Jersey at the commencement of Friend John Woolman’s labours for emancipation was undoubtably large. As late as 1800 there were 12,422. Perth Amboy was a place of deposit for the newly imported Africans, and long barracks were erected for their accommodation. In Spring 1734, when Woolman was a lad of fourteen, a servile insurrection took place, which had for its object the massacre of the masters, and an alliance with native Americans of the back woods who were allied to the French. Some years later a negro convicted of crime was burned alive at Perth Amboy. An immense number of negroes, gathered from all the neighbouring townships, were compelled to be witnesses of the slow torment of the victim. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 319 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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Here is how Waldo Emerson would depict this incident:

“EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST INDIES”: John Woolman of New Jersey, whilst yet an apprentice, was uneasy in his mind when he was set to write a bill of sale of a negro, for his master. He gave his testimony against the traffic, in Maryland and Virginia.

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January 13: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: To be SOLD, A Likely Negro Boy, about 14 Years of Age, SLAVERY fit for Town of Country. Enquire of the Printer. FRANKLIN

February 10: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: TO BE SOLD, A Likely Negro Lad, about 17 Years of Age, who can talk English, Spanish and Dutch, and is fit for SLAVERY either Town or Country Business. Enquire of the Printer FRANKLIN hereof.

February 17: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: TO BE SOLD, A Likely strong Negro Woman about 19 Years of Age, fit for either Town or Country Business. Enquire of the Printer hereof. SLAVERY To be SOLD, A Negro Man Twenty two Years of Age, of FRANKLIN uncommon Strength and Activity, very fit for a Farmer, or a laborious Trade, he understands the best Methods of managing Horses, and is very faithful in the Employment: Any Person that wants such a one may see him by enquiring of the Printer hereof.

March 31: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: To be SOLD, A Negro Woman, fit for any Sort of household Work and can use her Needle. Also, very reasonably, a SLAVERY new Fishing Net, thirty Feet long, and tanned. Enquire FRANKLIN of the Printer hereof.

July 14: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: A Strong likely lusty Negro Man, that has been very much used to Plantation work, to be sold, Enquire of the SLAVERY Printer hereof. FRANKLIN

July 28: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: TO BE SOLD, A Likely able Negro Man about 30 Years of SLAVERY Age, who has long bee n employ’d in the Painter’s Trade. FRANKLIN Enquire of the Printer.

September 29: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: To be SOLD, A Likely young Negro Woman fit for Town or SLAVERY Country Business. Enquire of the Printer hereof. FRANKLIN

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1744

Isaac Davis was born to Mary Gibson Davis and Ezekial Davis. He would be a gunsmith by trade and would live with his wife Hannah and children in Acton. He would be said to have been so moved on one Sunday by a sermon on the state of the colonies that at its conclusion he applauded, and then asked the minister to repeat the sermon.

The Acton Town Meeting had for four years been pestering Ammi Ruhammah Faulkner and Samuel Jones, owners of the Mill Corner Dam of South Acton for four years, to open their dam so that alewives and other spawning ocean fish might get upstream. At this point the dam owners in frustration took the problem to the Middlesex Superior Court, pointing out that no alewives had been seen in the brook for more than two decades, and the court advised the Acton Town Meeting that the dam was “so formed in Nature” that opening it would cause “an unspeakable damage” which “cannot ... ever serve the Public or any Private Interest.”

In Concord, Samuel Heywood, Joseph Wright, John Jones, Ephraim Jones, and Nathaniel Whittemore were Selectmen.

In Concord, Samuel Heywood was again Town Clerk.

James Minott was Concord’s deputy and representative to the General Court.

It was in approximately this year that Brister Freeman of Concord was born. We don’t know whether his enslavement was something that happened in Africa, or whether he was born in slavery here on the American continent. As a young child, we may presume, he was the property of housewright Timothy Wesson of Lincoln, because Wesson owned a child whom he had baptized as “Bristol” just before the wedding of his daughter Abigail Wesson to John Cuming in Concord on February 8, 1753.181 The period from 1744 to 1760 was remarkable for the large drafts of men and money from the town [of Concord] to carry on that series of wars which then took place between the Indians and French on one part and the English and the Americans on the other. ... There were three foot companies and a troop in Concord; and all the able-bodied men from 16 to 60 years of age were enrolled. They, as well as their arms, were pressed into the service when required. Sometimes whole companies were called upon to perform actual service at once; and few escaped the call at some time, either to go themselves, or furnish a substitute in those troublesome wars.

In particular, Jonathan Hoar of Concord would be an officer in the provincial service during the war.

181. “Bristol,” “Boston,” and “Cambridge” were relatively common slave names. The child, who may have been the father-in-law’s present to the bride and bridegroom, would grow to be 5 feet 7 inches tall. 322 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, two negreros were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of something more than 200 souls would have been being transported over the dreadful Middle Passage during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

“When one is happy in forgetfulness, facts get forgotten.” — Robert Pen Warren, 1961 THE LEGACY OF THE CIVIL WAR

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The New England Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends advised against the further importing of slaves.182

INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE

March 1: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: TO BE SOLD, A Likely Negro Girl, fit for Town or Country SLAVERY 182. Below appears the rotting hulk of the slave ship Jem, as of the Year of Our Lord 1891 at Fort Adams near Newport on FRANKLIN Aquidneck Island:

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Business. Enquire of the Printer hereof.

August 2: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: TO BE SOLD, A Likely Negro Man, fit for Town or Country SLAVERY Business. Enquire of the Printer hereof. FRANKLIN

August 16: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: To be SOLD, A NEGRO Woman, that has had the Small-Pox, strong and able to do all Manner of Household Work. Enquire of the Printer hereof. SLAVERY TO BE SOLD, A LIKELY Negro Boy, fit for Town or Country FRANKLIN Business. Enquire of the Printer hereof.

September 27: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: TO BE SOLD, A LIKELY NEGRO MAN, fit for Town or Country SLAVERY Business. Enquire of the Printer hereof. FRANKLIN

November 1: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: To be SOLD, A likely Negro Woman, than can do all Manner of Houshold Work; also a likely Negro Man, by Trade a SLAVERY Distiller, but fit for any Business, either in Town or FRANKLIN Country. Enquire of the Printer hereof.

December 6: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: To be SOLD, A Likely Negro Woman, fit for Town or Country Business, and had been a good deal used to House SLAVERY work. Enquire of the Printer hereof. FRANKLIN

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1745

In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, a couple of negreros were being fitted out in this year for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of more than 200 souls would have been being transported over the dreadful Middle Passage during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

By this point in King George’s War, at least 13 to 15 privateer vessels out of Newport, Rhode Island were upon the seas, seeking the Spanish enemies of the crown and their shipping:

1741 5

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READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT

“In the United States, every possible encouragement should be given to privateering in time of war with a commercial nation ... to distress and harass the enemy and compel him to peace.” — Thomas Jefferson, 1812

“If privateering had not been already well established in the British Empire when Rhode Island first took to the sea, Rhode Islanders would have had to invent it. It suited them well. — Hawes, Alexander Boyd, page 65183

Baldini published a letter written by Amerigo Vespucci upon his return to Spain from his 2d voyage, to Lorenzo di Pier Francesco deMedici in Firenzi. The adventuring astronomer and merchant had described his trip and the animals, flowers, fragrances, trees, and the stars he saw in the skies of the areas of his voyage. He wrote about the grayish and brownish color of the natives on the different islands. He wrote about an anaconda so large that men became frightened and returned to the ship. They had loaded their ship with natives to take back to Spain and enslave — perhaps they were saving them from the big squeeze of this big snake? SLAVERY

The “lairds” of Scotland had an agenda to break the power of the clans over the Highlands, so that this area could be used for the growing of marketable sheep rather than the growing of nonnegotiable humans. During this year and the next there would be an uprising of the Highland peasants in opposition to this plan, the 2nd Jacobite rising, led by Bonnie Prince Charlie, attempting but failing to restore the exiled House of Stuart to the British throne. The rebellion would be finally quelled by the battle of Culloden in the following year, after which a number of these Scottish rebels would be coming to the New World as new white slaves. The British Parliament banned the wearing of the kilt (that had been invented in 1727 by an Englishman but which had at this point become a symbol of local pride for Scots workmen).184

Through the patronage of Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, whose cook he had married, Robert Paterson had obtained the lease of a quarry at Gatelawbrig, but at this point, since he was a pronounced Cameronian, he was taken prisoner by retreating Jacobites and his house plundered. He would subsequently devote himself to cutting and erecting stones for the graves of the Covenanters, and would for 40 years wander from place to place in the lowlands.

183. Hawes, Alexander Boyd. OFF SOUNDINGS: ASPECTS OF THE MARITIME HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND. Chevy Chase MD: Posterity Press, 1999

184. Walter Scott would claim, in an essay in 1805, that the Scottish kilt went back to the 3rd Century. This was of course puffery. It is the Scottish long shirt that went back to the 3rd Century. A shirt may be a dress, as in a shirt-dress, but a skirt it ain’t, and no matter what you call it, a kilt is a skirt not a shirt. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 327 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1746

In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, only one vessel was being fitted out for the international slave trade. I don’t know whether this vessel was being fitted out in Providence harbor, or in Bristol harbor, or in Newport harbor, but if an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then what this means is that more than a hundred souls would have been being transported over the dreadful Middle Passage during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

(It was on January 7, 1746 that Captain Pollipus Hammond of the sloop Anstis received his sailing orders.)

Captains John Dennis and Robert Morris, privateers out of Rhode Island, captured a French vessel near Cape Tiburon and brought it to Newport, where its black crewmembers were sold into slavery in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York. This brought a protest from the Governor of Cuba, that these particular black seamen had in Cuba been not slaves but free men. Learning of this, the Rhode Island General Assembly voted that an apology be tendered, and that the black sailors be purchased from their purchasers –who were to be fully reimbursed– and the seamen set free and allowed to depart at will. Of course, no consideration was given to the paying of back wages for services rendered, but a message was sent to Cuba: this adventure into the international slave trade had been a mere inadvertent error (RHODE ISLAND COLONIAL RECORDS, V. 170, 176- 7; Dawson’s Historical Magazine, XVIII. 98.

Lucy Terry’s poem “Bars Fight,” commemorating the Deerfield Massacre. Terry was black and a slave.185

April 3: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: A LIKELY lusty Negro Fellow to be dispos’d of, fit for SLAVERY either Town or Country Business. Enquire of the Printer FRANKLIN hereof.

185. At a later point in her life she would attempt, unsuccessfully of course, to persuade the Board of Trustees of williams college to accept her son. 328 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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August 14: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: To be SOLD, A Likely young Negro Woman and Child (Bermuda born} has had the Small Pox and Measles; can SLAVERY Wash, Iron, Cook, and do all manner of House Work well. FRANKLIN Enquire of the Printer hereof.

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1747

The slaves of the cargo of a Rhode Island negrero commanded by Captain Beers rose when off Cape Coast Castle and murdered the captain and crew except the two mates — who managed to swim to shore. SERVILE INSURRECTION

It has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes that in this year in Rhode Island harbors alone, some 5 such vessels were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of more than 540 souls would have been being transported over the dreadful Middle Passage during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

In this year and the following one, Rhode Island would have two or three privateer vessels upon the seas, seeking the Spanish enemies of the British crown and the capture or destruction of their shipping.

“In the United States, every possible encouragement should be given to privateering in time of war with a commercial nation ... to distress and harass the enemy and compel him to peace.” — Thomas Jefferson, 1812

“If privateering had not been already well established in the British Empire when Rhode Island first took to the sea, Rhode Islanders would have had to invent it. It suited them well. — Hawes, Alexander Boyd, page 65186

186. Hawes, Alexander Boyd. OFF SOUNDINGS: ASPECTS OF THE MARITIME HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND. Chevy Chase MD: Posterity Press, 1999

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There were a number of donations of books and a number of cash contributions to the Redwood Library that was being formed in Newport, Rhode Island. A number of the Jews of the local synagogue would contribute, including Aaron Lopez.

(Presumably this contribution would come somewhat later than the establishment of the library, since it is said that Aaron, then known as Duarte, would still be in Lisbon until 1750.)

The largest initial contribution would be from a Quaker slaveholder and philanthropist, Friend Abraham Redwood, who donated £500 sterling for the purchase of “a collection of useful Books suitable for a Publick

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Library.” The library would therefore be named in Friend Abraham’s honor:

So, if we pose for ourselves the question, whether the expensive books that provided the basis for the Redwood Library had the sweat of unpaid labor on their pages, the answer would not be “No, for the donation of the Jewish slavetrader Lopez came somewhat later,” but would instead be “Yes, because the donation of the Quaker slaveholder Redwood was wealth extracted from the sweat of unpaid labor.”187

Thomas Dugan was born into American slavery. SLAVERY

Slavery wasn’t just for colored people. In Scotland, the Parliament reconsidered and reconfirmed the lifetime enslavement of the workers in coal mines and salt pans. SLAVERY

James Sibbald was born in this year or early in the following one to a farmer at Whitlaw in Roxburghshire. John Sibbald would have his son educated at the local grammar school, in Selkirk, Scotland.

A consignment of enslaved Scottish rebels was sent out from the port of Liverpool on May 5, 1747 on the Gildart, Captain Richard Holme, and arrived at Port North, Potomack, Maryland on August 5, 1747: Allen, John Gibson, John MacPherson, John Annon, Alexander Golder, John Magriger, Duncan Atkin, William Grant, William Magriger, Mark 187. In case you haven’t noticed, in the American popular mind Quakerism has been closely associated with antislavery righteousness, while the Jewish faith has been, at least in some circles, closely associated with enslavement iniquity. –It is, therefore, worth paying attention to information that complicates such popular perceptions. 332 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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Bailey, George Gray, John Macluff, Kenard Beard, William Halton, John Miller, Farquir Black, James Johnson, Richard Mitchell, George Bower, John Keath, James Ogilvie, John Brand, James Kemno, Joseph Paddy, John Brodey, John Kirkgill, William Patent, John Brown, Andrew Knoles, William Price, Ralph Buccanon, John Lammon, John Robinson, Danie: Cameron, Dougle Lang, Thomas Russell, John Cameron, Malcum Lawson, William Scott, David Campbell, John Lucky, John Shade, William Carrey, John MacDonald, Alexander Shippard, John Chop, James MacDonald, Anguish Smith, Andrew Cristy, James MacDonald, Anguish Smith, Andrew Crittton, John MacDonald, Angus Smith, James Dick, David MacDonald, Donald Smith, William Donaldson, James MacDonald, John Steward, Alexander Dow, John MacDonald, John Steward, Alexander Duff, Robert MacDonald, Ronald Stroon, James Duncan, John MacInny, Alexander Thompson, William Duncan, Peter MacIntosh, Alexander Wallace, George Fleming, Alexander MacKiney, Donald White, Robert Gaddish, Alexander MacLain, John Wood, David Gardner, Nicholas MacLain, Malcum Yates, Francis SLAVERY

February 17: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: To be SOLD, A Likely Negro woman, with a man child, fit SLAVERY for town or country business. Enquire of the Printer FRANKLIN hereof.

March 24: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: To be SOLD, A Prime able young Negro man, fit for laborious work, in town or country, that has had the small pox: As also a middle aged Negro man, that has SLAVERY likewise had the smallpox. Enquire of the printer FRANKLIN hereof. Or otherwise they will be exposed to sale by publick vendue, on Saturday the 11th of April next, at 12 o’clock, at the Indian king, in Market street.

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April 23: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: To be Sold, A Likely young Negro Wench, fit for town or country, and is a good cook. Enquire of the Printer SLAVERY hereof. FRANKLIN

June 25: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: A Likely negro man to be sold, about 24 years of age, and is acquainted with Country business. Enquire of the SLAVERY printer hereof. FRANKLIN

July 29: In Massachusetts, William Waitt sold a Negro Man Called Peter Aged abt. Twenty Seven Years of a Midle Stature and Slave for his life for £350 old tender to James Dalton, a well-to-do Boston shipmaster and businessman. Know all men by these presents That I William Wait of Malden in the — County of Midlesex in New England Marinr. Yeoman for & in Consideration of The Sum of Three hundred and fifty — pounds old Tenr. to me paid by James — Dalton of Boston in the County of Suffolk marinr. have and Do hereby Sell Unto The said James Dalton his heires & asss — a Negro Man Called Peter Aged abt. Twenty Seven Years of a Midle Stature — and Slave for his life to hold Unto the Said. James Dalton his heires or asss — dureing the life of said Negro and I do — avouch That I have good right to dispose and Sell said Negro in Manner aforesd — dated this 29th. of July 1747 William Waitt Present Jos Lawrence

October 24: In Massachusetts, the slave Robin was in poor health — and so an “indenture” document was made out in which responsibility for Robin was transferred from the white man William Clark to the white man Ebenezer Griggs. The cost of this transfer was five shillings (whether said “indenture” was of any assistance to poor Robin in his health plight is anyone’s guess). This Indenture made this twenty fourth day of October Anno Domini 1747 Between William Clarke of Boston in the County of Suffolk in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England Physician on the on the one Part & Ebenezer Griggs of Dudley in the County of Worcester in the Province aforesaid Husbandman on the other Part Witnesseth that Whereas the Said Wm. Clarke in Consideration of his Negro Man Robin his being in an infirm state of health & for the farther Consideration of five shillings to him in hand paid hath given & Granted & doth by these 334 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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presents give and Grant to him the said Ebenezer Griggs his said Negro Man Robin and hereby covenants with the said Ebenezer that the said Negro is his lawfull property & farther to Warrant him to the said Ebenezer against the lawfull claims & demands of all Persons whatsoever Now the said Ebenezer doth hereby covenant & agree with the said William to take and Receive the said Negro Man Robin & him to Keep & maintain with sufficient & Sutable Victuals drink & Lodgings & Cloths in Sickness & in health & to save harmless the said William from all costs & Charges whatsoever that may accrue on account of the said Negro In Witness whereof the Parties have hereunto. interchangeably set their hands & Seals the Day and year before Written Ebenezer Griggs Signed and Delivered in presence of B Townsend Nath Perkins [over] Ebenezer Grigg's Endemni- fication to Dr. Wm. Clarke 24th Octor. 1747

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1748

In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, some 3 negreros were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of more than 325 souls would have been being transported over the dreadful Middle Passage during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

An invention important to the development of the cloth industry occurred during this year. Lewis Paul devised a carding machine. Because this development would have an impact on the demand for bales of cotton as a raw material for cloth, it would have an impact on the demand for field labor to grow this cotton, and therefore would have consequences in terms of human slavery — and in terms of the international slave trade.188 This was the year of the “grace” experience of John Newton. “Amazing Grace” therefore seems a most inappropriate title for a movie about the crusade against the British slave trade. The hymn would be written by the Reverend Newton (played in Michael Apted’s film by Albert Finney) not about his belated awareness that the business in which he had been engaged was immoral, but about his famous religious “rebirth” experience years before he had become the captain of a negrero vessel. This religious experience was not what led him to abandon the slave trade, but rather, was part of the context that led him to enter upon this immoral way to make a living. The religious awakening he had experienced after a near-fatal illness and a dangerous shipwreck had caused him to seek to become a respectable person, turning away from a youth spent in general dissipation. It would be after getting right with God in this way that he would enter the slave trade and make quite a success of himself, rising to be a captain of a slaving ship and thereby winning the approval of his girlfriend’s parents for their union. He would be writing hymns as his ship lay at anchor along West African shores, collecting its cargo of black slaves. For three decades after his experience of “grace” during this year, nothing would suggest to this man that there was anything wrong with how he was earning his living. It would not be until after he had retired from the slave trade (largely it seems for reasons of health, rather than due to any spiritual uneasiness) and taken up other employment on land, that he would gradually be brought to question the rightfulness of human enslavement. In short, “Amazing Grace” is a record of the religious experience that had turned Newton toward becoming a slavetrader, rather than of any mature reflection that had turned him away from it.

188. Bear in mind that in early periods the Southern states of the United States of America produced no significant amount of cotton fiber for export — such production not beginning until 1789. In fact, according to page 92 of Seybert’s STATISTICS, in 1784 a small parcel of cotton that had found its way from the US to Liverpool had been refused admission to England, because it was the customs agent’s opinion that this involved some sort of subterfuge: it could not have originated in the United States. 336 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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Also, although the script of this movie tells a pleasant enough personal story, it displays no awareness of the historical influences that had led to the opposition to the continuance of the international slave trade. In the movie, Friend Thomas Clarkson (played in Apted’s film by Rufus Sewell), is portrayed as one who turned William Wilberforce’s anti-slavery sentiments into action, but Friend Thomas did not originate these attitudes. Nor did Olaudah Equiano, himself a slavetrader (played in Apted’s film by Youssou N’Dour). The preface to his ESSAY ON THE SLAVERY AND COMMERCE OF THE HUMAN SPECIES, written in 1785, acknowledges the priority of the writings of New Jersey’s Friend John Woolman, whose ESSAY ON THE KEEPING OF NEGROES was first published in Philadelphia in 1754, and the priority of the writings of Pennsylvania’s Friend Anthony Benezet, who published a number of anti-slavery works in Philadelphia during the same period, and acknowledges the stance of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting taken in 1754 to absolutely condemn all human slavery. This was not only before either Clarkson or Wilberforce had been born, but also while a saved-by- grace John Newton was still captaining his negrero vessel in the international slave trade.

The “Amazing Grace” movie was meant to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the passing of the bill that allowed the slave trade in the British Empire, an event that constitutes its climactic scene, but the movie leaves it unclear that this legislation did nothing to abolish slavery. The best source for Wilberforce’s actual racial attitudes is Jack Gratus’s 1973 THE GREAT WHITE LIE: SLAVERY, EMANCIPATION AND CHANGING RACIAL ATTITUDES (Hutchinson of London). Actually he was opposed to the immediate abolition of slavery, and this opposition would allow it to persist in Jamaica and other British colonies for another 30 long years, and one is entitled to one’s ambivalence about such a track record. Wilberforce (played in Apted’s film by Ioan Gruffudd) feared that enslavement had such an impact on the mind of an enslaved person, that it could not be so readily ended: “I look to the improvement of their minds, and to the diffusion among them of those domestic charities which will render them more fit, than I fear they now are, to bear emancipation.” W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: The history of slavery and the slave- trade after 1820 must be read in the light of the industrial revolution through which the civilized world passed in the first half of the nineteenth century. Between the years 1775 and 1825 occurred economic events and changes of the highest importance and widest influence. Though all branches of industry felt the impulse of this new industrial life, yet, “if we consider single industries, cotton manufacture has, during the nineteenth century, made the most magnificent and gigantic advances.”189 This fact is easily explained by the remarkable series of inventions that revolutionized this industry between 1738 and 1830, including Arkwright’s, Watt’s, Compton’s, and Cartwright’s epoch-making contrivances.190 The effect which these inventions had on the manufacture of cotton goods is best illustrated by the fact that in England, the chief cotton market of the world, the consumption of raw cotton rose steadily from

189. Beer, GESCHICHTE DES WELTHANDELS IM 19TEN JAHRHUNDERT, II. 67. 190. A list of these inventions most graphically illustrates this advance: — 1738, John Jay, fly-shuttle. John Wyatt, spinning by rollers. 1748, Lewis Paul, carding-machine. 1760, Robert Kay, drop-box. 1769, Richard Arkwright, water-frame and throstle. James Watt, steam-engine. 1772, James Lees, improvements on carding-machine. 1775, Richard Arkwright, series of combinations. 1779, Samuel Compton, mule. 1785, Edmund Cartwright, power-loom. 1803-4, Radcliffe and Johnson, dressing-machine. 1817, Roberts, fly-frame. 1818, William Eaton, self-acting frame. 1825-30, Roberts, improvements on mule. Cf. Baines, HISTORY OF THE COTTON MANUFACTURE, pages 116-231; ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA, 9th ed., article “Cotton.” “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 337 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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13,000 bales in 1781, to 572,000 in 1820, to 871,000 in 1830, and to 3,366,000 in 1860.191 Very early, therefore, came the query whence the supply of raw cotton was to come. Tentative experiments on the rich, broad fields of the Southern United States, together with the indispensable invention of Whitney’s cotton-gin, soon answered this question: a new economic future was opened up to this land, and immediately the whole South began to extend its cotton culture, and more and more to throw its whole energy into this one staple. Here it was that the fatal mistake of compromising with slavery in the beginning, and of the policy of laissez-faire pursued thereafter, became painfully manifest; for, instead now of a healthy, normal, economic development along proper industrial lines, we have the abnormal and fatal rise of a slave-labor large farming system, which, before it was realized, had so intertwined itself with and braced itself upon the economic forces of an industrial age, that a vast and terrible civil war was necessary to displace it. The tendencies to a patriarchal serfdom, recognizable in the age of Washington and Jefferson, began slowly but surely to disappear; and in the second quarter of the century Southern slavery was irresistibly changing from a family institution to an industrial system. The development of Southern slavery has heretofore been viewed so exclusively from the ethical and social standpoint that we are apt to forget its close and indissoluble connection with the world’s cotton market. Beginning with 1820, a little after the close of the Napoleonic wars, when the industry of cotton manufacture had begun its modern development and the South had definitely assumed her position as chief producer of raw cotton, we find the average price of cotton per pound, 8½d. From this time until 1845 the price steadily fell, until in the latter year it reached 4d.; the only exception to this fall was in the years 1832-1839, when, among other things, a strong increase in the English demand, together with an attempt of the young slave power to “corner” the market, sent the price up as high as 11d. The demand for cotton goods soon outran a crop which McCullough had pronounced “prodigious,” and after 1845 the price started on a steady rise, which, except for the checks suffered during the continental revolutions and the Crimean War, continued until 1860.192 The steady increase in the production of cotton explains the fall in price down to 1845. In 1822 the crop was a half- million bales; in 1831, a million; in 1838, a million and a half; and in 1840-1843, two million. By this time the world’s consumption of cotton goods began to increase so rapidly that, in spite of the increase in Southern crops, the price kept rising. Three million bales were gathered in 1852, three and a half million in 1856, and the remarkable crop of five million bales in 1860.193 Here we have data to explain largely the economic development of the South. By 1822 the large-plantation slave system had gained footing; in 1838-1839 it was able to show its power in the cotton “corner;” by the end of the next decade it had not

191. Baines, HISTORY OF THE COTTON MANUFACTURE, page 215. A bale weighed from 375 lbs. to 400 lbs. 192. The prices cited are from Newmarch and Tooke, and refer to the London market. The average price in 1855-60 was about 7d. 193. From United States census reports. 338 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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only gained a solid economic foundation, but it had built a closed oligarchy with a political policy. The changes in price during the next few years drove out of competition many survivors of the small-farming free-labor system, and put the slave régime in position to dictate the policy of the nation. The zenith of the system and the first inevitable signs of decay came in the years 1850-1860, when the rising price of cotton threw the whole economic energy of the South into its cultivation, leading to a terrible consumption of soil and slaves, to a great increase in the size of plantations, and to increasing power and effrontery on the part of the slave barons. Finally, when a rising moral crusade conjoined with threatened economic disaster, the oligarchy, encouraged by the state of the cotton market, risked all on a political coup-d’état, which failed in the war of 1861-1865.194

Naples would be under the Bourbons until 1860.

France incorporated its corps of slave galleys with its navy. SLAVERY

July 12: There exists a copy of a printed warrant form with its blanks filled in, that is for the arrest of Anna Grafton a spinster of Boston, Massachusetts and two Negro Slaves, Cuffe and Quoma, on the charge of having taken items from three homes (on the back of the form, Constable William Nichols indicates that Grafton, Cuffe, and Quoma were taken under arrest on July 25, 1748). Suffolk, ss. To the Sheriff of the County of Suffolk, his Under- Sheriff or Deputy, or to any of the Constables of the Town of Boston & Roxbury Greeting. Whereas the Grand Inquest for the Body of the County of Suffolk, have upon their Oaths presented, that Anna Grafton of Boston spinster Cuffe a Negro Slave of sd. Boston of Benjn. Colman & Quoma a Negro Slave belonging to Jacob Royal Esqr. did enter ye Dwelling house of Joshua Cheever Esqr. and carry away sundry things of the Value of Twenty eight pounds — Witnesses Joshua Cheever Esqr. David Jenkins, Two Negroes one belonging to Mrs. Skinner the other to Mr. Cheever — 2 The Jurors present Ann Grafton, Cuffee a Negro & Quoma a Negro as Above for Stealing from Abigail Walcut of Boston Widow sundry things to the Value of Forty pounds — Witnesses Abigail Walcutt Edward Forster — 3 The Jurors present Ann Grafton Cuffe & Quoma Negroes as Above for Stealing sundry things from Walter Mc Alpine of Boston Bookbinder of the Value of Twenty pounds — Witnesses Walter McAlpine — These are therefore in His Majesty’s Name, to Will and Require you to Attach the Bodys of the said Grafton Cuffee & Quoma if they may be found in your Precinct, and them carry before One or more of His Majesty’s Justices of the Peace in said County of Suffolk, in order to their being secured, to make Answer to said Presentments, at the – Court of General Sessions to be Holden at Boston, in and for said County of Suffolk, on Monday 194. Cf. United States census reports; and Olmsted, THE COTTON KINGDOM. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 339 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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the 25th Day of July Currt. at ten o Clock before noon You are also alike required to Summon the Persons named as Witnesses to the respective Presentments to appear at the same Time, to give Evidence on His Majesty’s behalf. Hereof fail not, and make Return of your Doings therein, unto the said Court. Dated at Boston, the 12th Day of July. In the 22d Year of His Majesty’s Reign, Annoque Domini, 1748. By order of Court Atte. Middlecott Cookeller Suffolk ss Boston July the 25 1748 I have taken ye Bodeys of a Graffton Cuffe and Quamo and they are under bonds for apperanc to this Court and I have Sumonsd ye Witnesses – Wm Nichols Constable Sarves 6/ Suffolk ss Boston July the 25. 1748 I have taken ye Bodeys of ye above Persons on a Second Presentment and Securd them to answer to this Court and have Sumonsd ye Witness Wm Nichols Constable Sarves 5/ Suffolk ss Boston July the 25 1748 I have taken ye Bodeys of ye above Persons on a thurd Presentment and have Securd them in order to appear at this Court and have Sumonsd ye Witnesses Wm Nichols Constable Sarves 4/ — [label] Boston Grafton, Cuffee, Quoma 1748

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1749

In Rhode Island harbors alone, during this year alone, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, some 7 negreros were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of more than 750 souls would have been being transported during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone.

For instance, on January 4, 1749 Captain Pollipus Hammond of the brig Success received his sailing orders.

In this year the Rhode Island, which had sailed from New-York in about the timeframe January-April, began its cargo-purchasing along the African coastline at , stopped in at Badui or Badin (the script of the trading book at the New-York Historical Society is not clear), and was at Annemboo or Anemobu just before beginning the Middle Passage.

At this point the settlers of the colony of Georgia finally persuaded their governor to abandon the restrictions that that colony had imposed in 1732, on the importation of negroes for slave labor: W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: In Georgia we have an example of a community whose philanthropic founders sought to impose upon it a code of morals higher than the colonists wished. The settlers of Georgia were of even worse moral fibre than their slave- trading and whiskey-using neighbors in Carolina and Virginia; yet Oglethorpe and the London proprietors prohibited from the beginning both the rum and the slave traffic, refusing to “suffer slavery (which is against the Gospel as well as the fundamental law of England) to be authorised under our authority.”195 The trustees sought to win the colonists over to their belief by telling them that money could be better expended in transporting white men than Negroes; that slaves would be a source of weakness to the colony; and that the “Produces designed to be raised in the Colony would not require such Labour as to make Negroes necessary for carrying them on.”196

195. Hoare, MEMOIRS OF GRANVILLE SHARP (1820), page 157. For the act of prohibition, see W.B. Stevens, HISTORY OF GEORGIA (1847), I. 311. 196. [B. Martyn, ACCOUNT OF THE PROGRESS OF GEORGIA (1741), pages 9-10.] “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 341 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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This policy greatly displeased the colonists, who from 1735, the date of the first law, to 1749, did not cease to clamor for the repeal of the restrictions.197 As their English agent said, they insisted that “In Spight of all Endeavours to disguise this Point, it is as clear as Light itself, that Negroes are as essentially necessary to the Cultivation of Georgia, as Axes, Hoes, or any other Utensil of Agriculture.”198 Meantime, evasions and infractions of the laws became frequent and notorious. Negroes were brought across from Carolina and “hired” for life.199 “Finally, purchases were openly made in Savannah from African traders: some seizures were made by those who opposed the principle, but as a majority of the magistrates were favorable to the introduction of slaves into the province, legal decisions were suspended from time to time, and a strong disposition evidenced by the courts to evade the operation of the law.”200 At last, in 1749, the colonists prevailed on the trustees and the government, and the trade was thrown open under careful restrictions, which limited importation, required a registry and quarantine on all slaves brought in, and laid a duty.201 It is probable, however, that these restrictions were never enforced, and that the trade thus established continued unchecked until the Revolution.

England recognized human slavery and the plantation system in her colonies in the North American southlands. In an analysis published in the British press which might have led people to anticipate an American revolution, Josiah Tucker warned that as soon as the American colonies no longer needed the protection of the mother country, they would find themselves to be independent. –But this peril was not imminent, for there was in this year in New England such an extraordinarily severe drought that to keep the livestock alive hay needed to be imported from England.

April 8: In Connecticut, Israel Putnam sold a 16-year-old named Phillis to John Payson: Know all men by these present that I Israel Putnam, of Mothlake in the County of Windham & Colony of Connecticut in & for the consideration of one hundred & fifty pound of old tenor bills of credit paid before the ensealing proof or receipt wherof to full content I do hereby acknowledg do sell grant and bargain to John Payson of Pomfret in the county aforesaid his heirs & assigns a Negro girl aged about sixteen years named Phillis to serve him or them during her natural life promising honestly to defend him to them against the lawful claims of any persons whatsoever as witnesseth my hand & seal this eighth day of April 1749. Israel Putnam SLAVERY

197. Cf. Stevens, HISTORY OF GEORGIA, I. 290 ff. 198. Stephens, ACCOUNT OF THE CAUSES, etc., page 8. Cf. also JOURNAL OF TRUSTEES, II. 210; cited by Stevens, HISTORY OF GEORGIA, I. 306. 199. McCall, HISTORY OF GEORGIA (1811), I. 206-7. 200. McCall, HISTORY OF GEORGIA (1811), I. 206-7. 201. PUB. REC. OFFICE, BOARD OF TRADE, Vol. X.; cited by C.C. Jones, HISTORY OF GEORGIA (1883), I. 422-5. 342 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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August 17: In The Pennsylvania Gazette: To be SOLD, TO be sold cheap, a very likely young Negro wench, about 18 years of age: Also fine Palm oyl, by the SLAVERY half dozen pound, or lesser quantity. Enquire of the FRANKLIN printer hereof.

November 14: In Massachusetts, Malachy Salter, Jr. sold a “Negro Boy” slave to Captain James Dalton: Boston Novr. 14. 1749. Recd. of Capt. James Dalton One hundred & Eighty Five pounds old tenor in full for a Negro Boy sold him this day at Publick [Public] Vendue [Venue] -- £ 185 -- [symbol] Malachy Salter junr.

CONTINUE TO READ CHRONOLOGICALLY

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2012. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at .

“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST

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Prepared: December 31, 2012

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ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT

GENERATION HOTLINE

This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, upon someone’s request we have pulled it out of the hat of a pirate that has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (depicted above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of data modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture. This is data mining. To respond to such a request for information, we merely push a button.

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Commonly, the first output of the program has obvious deficiencies and so we need to go back into the data modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and do a recompile of the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process which you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.

First come first serve. There is no charge. Place your requests with . Arrgh.

346 Copyright 2012 Austin Meredith