George Williams - History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880 (Vol. 1&2)

305Douglass's British Settlements, vol. i. p. 531.

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

307"There is a curious illustration of 'the way of putting it' in Massachusetts, in Mr. Felt's account of this 'census of slaves,' in the Collections of the American Statistical Association, vol. i. p, 208. He says that the General Court passed this order 'for the purpose of having an accurate account of slaves in our Commonwealth, as a subject in which the people were becoming much interested, relative to the cause of liberty! " There is not a particle of authority for this suggestion—such a motive for their action never existed anywhere but in the imagination of the writer himself!"— Slavery in Mass ., p. 51, note.

308Ancient Charters and Laws of Mass., p. 748.

309Ibid.

310Slavery in Mass., p. 61.

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

312Drake's Boston, p. 574.

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

314Slavery in Mass., p. 64.

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

'Item, three negroes £133, 6 s. , 8 d. Item, flax £12, 2 s. , 8.'

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

'Fifteen sheep, old and young £3, 15 . An old gun 2

An old Negroe man 10 0

--------

£13 7 s. '"

--Coffin, p. 188.

316Slavery in Mass., pp. 64, 65.

317Drake, 583, note.

318Here is a sample of the sales of those days: "In 1716, Rice Edwards, of Newbury, shipwright, sells to Edmund Greenleaf 'my whole personal estate with all my goods and chattels as also one negro man , one cow, three pigs with timber, plank, and boards."—Coffin, p. 337.

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

320A child one year and a half old—a nursing child sold from the bosom of its mother!—and for life! —Coffin, p. 337.

321Slavery in Mass., p. 96. Note.

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

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

324Hildreth, vol. i. p. 44.

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

326Ancient Charters and Laws of Mass., p. 117.

327Mr. Palfrey relies upon a single reference in Winthrop for the historical trustworthiness of his statement that a Negro slave could be a member of the church. He thinks, however, that this "presents a curious question," and wisely reasons as follows: "As a church-member, he was eligible to the political franchise, and, if he should be actually invested with it, he would have a part in making laws to govern his master—laws with which his master, if a non-communicant, would have had no concern except to obey them. But it is improbable that the Court would have made a slave—while a slave—a member of the Company, though he were a communicant.—Palfrey, vol. ii. p. 30. Note.

328Butts vs . Penny, 2 Lev., p. 201; 3 Kib., p. 785.

329Hildreth, vol. ii. p. 426.

330Ancient Charters and Laws of Mass., p. 748.

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

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

333Slavery in Mass., p. 57, note.

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

335Ancient Charters and Laws of Mass., p. 746.

336Ibid., p. 386.

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

338Slavery in Mass., Appendix, p. 243.

339Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., vol. viii. 3d Series, p. 336.

340Lyman's Report, 1822.

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

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

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

344Chief-Justice Parker, in Andover vs. Canton, 13 Mass. p. 550.

345Slavery in Mass., p. 62.

346Mott's Sketches, p. 17.

347At the early age of sixteen, in the year 1770, Phillis was baptized into the membership of the society worshipping in the "Old South Meeting-House." The gifted, eloquent, and noble Dr. Sewall was the pastor. This was an exception to the rule, that slaves were not baptized into the Church.

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

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

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

351"Her correspondence was sought, and it extended to persons of distinction even in England, among whom may be named the Countess of Huntingdon, Whitefield, and the Earl of Dartmouth."—Sparks's Washington , vol. iii. p. 298, note.

352Sparks's Washington, vol iii. p. 299, note.

353This destroys the last hope I have nursed for nearly six years that the poem might yet come to light. Somehow I had overlooked this note.

354Sparks's Washington, vol iii. p. 288.

355Ibid., vol. iii. pp. 297, 298.

356Armistead's A Tribute to the Negro, pp. 460, 461.

357Douglass, vol. ii. p. 345, note.

358Hildreth, vol. ii. p. 426.

359Pearce vs. Lisle, Ambler, 76.

360It may sound strangely in the ears of some friends and admirers of the gifted John Adams to hear now, after the lapse of many years, what he had to say of the position Otis took. His mild views on slavery were as deserving of scrutiny as those of the elder Quincy. Mr. Adams says: "Nor were the poor negroes forgotten. Not a Quaker in Philadelphia, or Mr. Jefferson, of Virginia, ever asserted the rights of negroes in stronger terms. Young as I was, and ignorant as I was, I shuddered at the doctrine he taught; and I have all my lifetime shuddered, and still shudder, at the consequences that may be drawn from such premises. Shall we say, that the rights of masters and servants clash, and can be decided only by force? I adore the idea of gradual abolitions! But who shall decide how fast or how slowly these abolitions shall be made?"

361Hildreth, vol. ii. pp. 564, 565.

362Coffin says, "In October of 1773, an action was brought against Richard Greenleaf, of Newburyport, by Cæsar [Hendrick], a colored man, whom he claimed as his slave, for holding him in bondage. He laid the damages at fifty pounds. The council for the plaintiff, in whose favor the jury brought in their verdict and awarded him eighteen pounds' damages and costs, was John Lowell, Esq., afterward Judge Lowell. This case excited much interest, as it was the first, if not the only one of the kind, that ever occurred in the county."