Page:Notices of Negro slavery as connected with Pennsylvania.djvu/23

Rh began already to experience as a serious evil, we find, in 1712, that, undismayed by the repeal of the non-importation law of the preceding year by the court of England, a petition, "signed by many hands," praying for a duty to discourage the further importation of negroes, was presented to the Assembly, and after mature consideration, a bill laying the then enormous duty of twenty pounds per head was passed, which well-intentioned and effective law shared the same fate in the English council as the act of 1711. We may here take occasion to observe, that all the designs of the early legislators of Pennsylvania to improve the condition of her citizens, and to substitute, for the oppressive policy of the old world, a more free, humane, and happy condition of things in the new, were rendered void through the repeal, by English orders of council, of all such laws as had these noble and excellent designs in view. This circumstance will account for the little subsequent notice taken of the subject by the Legislature of our State, with the exception of a few laws, which we shall soon mention, from this period up to 1770. Our intervening history will be principally confined to the exertions of the Society of Friends and of private individuals. In 1712, a petition was presented to the Assembly by William Southeby, praying for the total abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania; on consideration, the House