Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/405

 Manumissions, however, were not allowed except upon security thai the freed slave; should not become b burden to the parish.

In the provinces of New York and New Jersey, negro slaves were employed to a certain extent, not only as domestic servants, but as agricultural laborers. In the city of New York they constituted a sixth part of the population. The slave code of that province was hardly less harsh than that of Virginia.

In Pennsylvania, the number of slaves was small, partly owing to the ample supply of indented white servants, but partly, also, to scruples of conscience on the part of the Quakers. In the early days of the province, in 1688, some German Quakers, shortly after their arrival, had expressed the opinion that slavery was not morally lawful. George Keith had borne a similar testimony: but he was disowned as schismatic, and presently abandoning the society, was denounced as a renegade. When Penn, in 1699, had proposed to provide by law for the marriage, religious instruction, and kind treatment of slaves, he met with no response from the Quaker legislature. In 1712, to a petition in favor of emancipating the negroes, the Assembly replied, "that it was neither just nor convenient to set them at liberty." They imposed, however, a heavy duty, in effect prohibitory, and intended to be so, on the importation of negroes. This act, as we have seen, was negatived by the crown. The policy, however, was persevered in. New acts, passed from time to time, restricted importations by a duty first of five, but lately reduced to two pounds per head. The Quaker testimony against slavery was renewed by Sandiford and Lay, who brought with them to Pennsylvania a strong detestation of the system of servitude which they had seen in Barbadoes in all its rigors. The same views began presently to be perseveringly advocated by Woodman and Benezet, whose labors were not without effect upon the Quakers, some of whom set the example of emancipating their slaves. Franklin was also distinguished as an early and decided advocate for emancipation. The greater part of the slaves of Pennsylvania were to be found in Philadelphia. A fourth part of the inhabitants of that city were persons of African descent, including many, however, who had obtained their freedom.

In the tobacco growing colonies, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, slaves constituted a third part or more of the population. In South Carolina, where rice was the principal produce, they were still more numerous, decidedly outnumbering the free inhabitants.

The slave code of South Carolina, as revised and reënacted in a statute still regarded as having the force of law, had dropped from its phraseology something of the extreme harshness of the former act. It contained, also, some provisions for the benefit of the slaves, but, on the whole, was harder than before. "Whereas," says the preamble to the act of 1740, "in his majesty's plantations in America, slavery has been introduced and allowed, and the people commonly called negroes, Indians, mulattoes, and mestizoes have been deemed absolute slaves, and the subjects of property in the hands of particular persons, the extent of whose power over such slaves ought to be settled and limited by positive laws, so that the slaves may be kept in due subjection and