Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/502



HE institution of slavery has never flourished in Rhode Island. The soil was not congenial to its growth. The spirit of independence, of freedom of thought, and of religious toleration was, in its nature, hostile to human bondage. The people brought with them to America the hereditary taint of feudalism, but our free air and unrestricted liberty of movement were an offset to all such inherited tendencies. Still further, the settlers of New England belonged to the middle classes, which had never been benefited at home from vassalage. Rhode Island slaves were of the social and servant class and were not chattels in the true intent. These slaves were part and parcel of the home life and bore the family names of their owners. Sales were unusual except on the division of estates, and then the slave was usually retained in the neighborhood. Scipio Richmond, Cuff Adams, Jack Bosworth, Pomp Bicknell, Pomp and Jenny Smith, Cambridge Watson, Scipio Tiffany, Pero Allen, Prince Allen, Caesar Smith and others bore the names of the families where they were born and in whose homes they lived and were faithful servants. The affection between masters and mistresses and the colored house or farm servants was strong, and made a permanent relationship of reciprocal regard and personal interest not only possible but common. Their untutored minds, their free, social dispositions, their willing and obedient spirits, made them the objects of familiar approach and of easy control. The children of the white family learned to