slaves, and large importations might have been expected; but there was no great influx of negroes. Economic conditions were favorable, but ethical influences worked strongly against it. In this eastern half of Pennsylvania two racial elements predominated: the Germans and the English Quakers. The Germans had abstained from slave-holding from the first;[49] the Quakers were now coming to abhor it.[50] The same play of causes was seen again in the “old West.” After 1750 in the mountains and valleys beyond the Susquehanna the earlier frontier conditions were lived over again. Here the settlers were largely Scotch-Irish, and had no dislike for slavery, but as yet the conditions of their life did not favor it. When finally western Pennsylvania passed out of the frontier stage, and its inhabitants could purchase negroes, the days of slavery in Pennsylvania were nearly over.[51] For all of these reasons from first to last Pennsylvania’s slave population remained small.

CHAPTER II.

Legal Status of the Slave.

The legal origin of slavery[52] in Pennsylvania is not easy to discover, for the statute of 1700, which seems to have recognized slavery there, is, like similar statutes in some of the other American colonies, very indirect and uncertain in its wording. Before this time, it is true, there occur instances where negroes were held for life, so that undoubtedly there was de facto slavery; but by what authority it existed, or how it began, is not clear. It may have grown up to meet the necessities of a new country. It may have been an inheritance from earlier colonists. More probably still, it developed by diverging from temporary servitude which, in the case of white servants at least, flourished among the earliest English settlers in the region.

It is probable that slavery existed among the Dutch of New Netherland, and possibly among the Swedes along the Delaware.[53] In 1664 their settlements passed under English authority. To regulate them the so-called “Duke of York’s Laws” were promulgated. Meanwhile around the estuary of the Delaware English colonists were settling with their negroes. In 1676, five years before Penn set out for his territories, the Duke’s laws seem to have been obeyed in part of the Delaware River country.[54] In these laws servants for life are explicitly mentioned. In them it is also ordained that no Christian shall be held in bond slavery or villenage.[55] This latter may be a tacit permission to hold heathen negroes as slaves.

Not much can be based upon the Duke of York’s laws since their meaning upon this latter point is doubtful. Moreover, when Penn founded his colony they were superseded after a short time by laws enacted in Pennsylvania assemblies. In the years following at first no act was passed recognizing slavery, but that some slaves were held there is apparent. Numerous little pieces of evidence may be accumulated indicating that there were negroes who were not being held as servants for a term of years, nor does anything appear to indicate that this was looked upon as illegal.[56] In 1685 William Penn, writing to his steward at Pennsbury, said that it would be better to have blacks to work the place, since they might be held for life.[57] In the same year by the terms of a recorded deed a negro was sold to a new master “forever.”[58] Three years later the Friends of Germantown issued their celebrated protest against slavery,[59] while in 1693 George Keith denounced the practice of enslaving men and holding them in perpetual bondage.[60] Meanwhile no law was made authorizing slavery in the colony, and no court seems to have been called upon to decide whether slavery was legal. It is not until 1700 that a statute was passed bearing upon the subject. In that year a law for the regulation of servants contains a section designed to prevent the embezzlement by servants of their masters’ goods. This section asserts that the servant if white shall atone for such theft by additional servitude at the end of his time sufficient to pay for double the value of the goods; but if black he shall be severely whipped in the most public place of the township.[61] It is probable that the law was so worded because it had come to be seen that there were few cases in which a negro could give satisfaction by additional time at the end of his term, since negroes were being held for life. If such be the case, this law may be said to contain the formal recognition of slavery in the colony.

The legal development of this slavery was rapid and brief. As it was not created by statutory enactment, so some of its most important incidents were never alluded to in the laws. The Assembly of Pennsylvania, unlike that of Virginia, never seems to have thought it necessary to define the status of the slave as property, the consequences of slave baptism, or the line of servile descent.[62] Some of these questions had been settled in other colonies before the founding of Pennsylvania, and there the results seem to have been accepted. Accordingly the steps in the development are neither obvious nor distinct. They rest not so much upon statute as upon court decisions interpreting usage, and in many cases the decisions do not come