A Social History of the American Negro | Page 8

first there was some hesitancy about making
Negroes Christians, this act, like the one in Massachusetts, by
implication permitted slavery.
It was in 1632 that the grant including what is now the states of
Maryland and Delaware was made to George Calvert, first Lord
Baltimore. Though slaves are mentioned earlier, it was in 1663-4 that
the Maryland Legislature passed its first enactment on the subject of
slavery. It was declared that "all Negroes and other slaves within this
province, and all Negroes and other slaves to be hereinafter imported
into this province, shall serve during life; and all children born of any
Negro or other slave, shall be slaves as their fathers were, for the term
of their lives."
In Delaware and New Jersey the real beginnings of slavery are
unusually hazy. The Dutch introduced the system in both of these
colonies. In the laws of New Jersey the word slaves occurs as early as
1664, and acts for the regulation of the conduct of those in bondage
began with the practical union of the colony with New York in 1702.
The lot of the slave was somewhat better here than in most of the
colonies. Although the system was in existence in Delaware almost
from the beginning of the colony, it did not receive legal recognition
until 1721, when there was passed an act providing for the trial of
slaves in a special court with two justices and six freeholders.
As early as 1639 there are incidental reference to Negroes in
Pennsylvania, and there are frequent references after this date.[1] In
this colony there were strong objections to the importing of Negroes in
spite of the demand for them. Penn in his charter to the Free Society of
Traders in 1682 enjoined upon the members of this company that if
they held black slaves these should be free at the end of fourteen years,
the Negroes then to become the company's tenants.[2] In 1688 there
originated in Germantown a protest against Negro slavery that was "the
first formal action ever taken against the barter in human flesh within
the boundaries of the United States." [3] Here a small company of

Germans was assembled April 18, 1688, and there was drawn up a
document signed by Garret Hendericks, Franz Daniel Pastorius, Dirck
Op den Graeff, and Abraham Op den Graeff. The protest was addressed
to the monthly meeting of the Quakers about to take place in Lower
Dublin. The monthly meeting on April 30 felt that it could not pretend
to take action on such an important matter and referred it to the
quarterly meeting in June. This in turn passed it on to the yearly
meeting, the highest tribunal of the Quakers. Here it was laid on the
table, and for the next few years nothing resulted from it. About 1696,
however, opposition to slavery on the part of the Quakers began to be
active. In the colony at large before 1700 the lot of the Negro was
regularly one of servitude. Laws were made for servants, white or black,
and regulations and restrictions were largely identical. In 1700,
however, legislation began more definitely to fix the status of the slave.
In this year an act of the legislature forbade the selling of Negroes out
of the province without their consent, but in other ways it denied the
personality of the slave. This act met further formal approval in 1705,
when special courts were ordained for the trial and punishment of
slaves, and when importation from Carolina was forbidden on the
ground that it made trouble with the Indians nearer home. In 1700 a
maximum duty of 20s. was placed on each Negro imported, and in
1705 this was doubled, there being already some competition with
white labor. In 1712 the Assembly sought to prevent importation
altogether by a duty of £20 a head. This act was repealed in England,
and a duty of £5 in 1715 was also repealed. In 1729, however, the duty
was fixed at £2, at which figure it remained for a generation.
[Footnote 1: Turner: The Negro in Pennsylvania, 1.]
[Footnote 2: Ibid., 21.]
[Footnote 3: Faust: The German Element in the United States, Boston,
1909, I, 45.]
It was almost by accident that slavery was officially recognized in
Connecticut in 1650. The code of laws compiled for the colony in this
year was especially harsh on the Indians. It was enacted that certain of
them who incurred the displeasure of the colony might be made to

serve the person injured or "be shipped out and exchanged for
Negroes." In 1680 the governor of the colony informed the Board of
Trade that "as for blacks there came sometimes three or four in a year
from Barbadoes, and they are usually sold at the rate of £22