[35] Cf. MS. William Trent’s Ledger, “Negroes” (1703–1708). Isaac Norris, Letter Book, 75, 76 (1732). For a statement of profit and loss on two imported negroes, see ibid., 77. In this case Isaac Norris acted as a broker, charging five per cent. For the wheat and flour trade with Barbadoes, see A Letter from Doctor More ... Relating to the ... Province of Pennsilvania, 5. (1686).
[36] Some were probably brought from Africa by pirates. Cf. MS. Board of Trade Papers, Prop., III, 285, 286; IV, 369; V, 408. The hazard involved in the purchase of negroes is revealed in the following: “Accot of Negroes Dr to Tho. Willen £17: 10 for a New Negro Man ... £15 and 50 Sh. more if he live to the Spring” ... MS. James Logan’s Account Book, 91, (1714). As to the effect of cold weather upon negroes, Isaac Norris, writing to Jonathan Dickinson in 1703, says, ... “they’re So Chilly they Can hardly Stir frõ the fire and Wee have Early beginning for a hard Wintr.” MS. Letter Book, 1702–1704, p. 109. In 1748 Kalm says, ... “the toes and fingers of the former” (negroes) “are frequently frozen.” Travels, I, 392.
[37] Mercury, Sept. 26, 1723. MS. Penn Papers, Accounts (unbound), 27 3d mo., 1741. Also Calendar of State Papers, America and West Indies, 1697–1698, p. 390; Col. Rec., IV, 515; Pa. Mag., XXVII, 320.
[38] A Report of the Royal African Company, Nov. 2, 1680, purports to show the first cost: “That the Negros cost them the first price 5li: and 4li: 15s. the freight, besides 25li p cent which they lose by the usual mortality of the Negros.” MS. Board of Trade Journals, III, 229. The selling price had been considered immoderate four years previous. Ibid., I, 236. In 1723 Peter Baynton sold “a negroe man named Jemy ... 30 £.” Loose sheet in Peter Baynton’s Ledger. In 1729 a negro twenty-five years old brought 35 pounds in Chester County. MS. Chester County Papers, 89. The Moravians of Bethlehem purchased a negress in 1748 for 70 pounds. Pa. Mag., XXII, 503. Peter Kalm (1748) says that a full grown negro cost from 40 pounds to 100 pounds; a child of two or three years, 8 pounds to 14 pounds. Travels, I, 393, 394. Mittelberger (1750) says 200 to 350 florins (33 to 58 pounds). Journey to Pennsylvania in the Year 1750, etc., 106. Franklin (1751) in a very careful estimate thought that the price would average about 30 pounds. Works (ed. Sparks), II, 314. Acrelius (about 1759) says 30 to 40 pounds. Description of ... New Sweden, etc. (translation of W. M. Reynolds, 1874, in Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, XI), p. 168. A negro iron-worker brought 50 pounds at Bethlehem in 1760. Pa. Mag., XXII, 503. In 1790 Edward Shippen writes of a slave who cost him 100 pounds. Ibid., VII, 31. It is probable that the value of a slave was roughly about three times that of a white servant. Cf. Votes and Proceedings (1764), V, 308.
[39] In 1708 the Board of Trade requested the governor of Pennsylvania that very definite information on a variety of subjects relating to the negro be transmitted thereafter half yearly. Were these records available they would be worth more than all the remaining information. Cf. MS. Provincial Papers, I, April 15, 1708; 1 Pa. Arch., I, 152, 153.
[40] N. Y. Col. Docs., V, 604. As to the necessity for allowing so large a margin in these figures cf. the following. “The number of the whites are said to be Sixty Thousand, and of the Black about five Thousand.” Col. Hart’s Answer, etc., MS. Board of Trade Papers, Prop., XI, R: 7. (1720). “The number of People in this Province may be computed to above 40,000 Souls amongst whom we have scarce any Blacks except a few Household Servants in the City of Philadelphia” ... Letter of Sir William Keith, ibid., XI, R: 42. (1722). Another communication gave the true state of the case, if not the exact numbers. “This Government has not hitherto had Occasion to use any methods that can furnish us with an exact Estimate, but as near as can at present be guessed there may be about Forty five thousand Souls of Whites and four thousand Blacks.” Major Gordon’s answer to Queries, ibid., XIII, S: 34. (1730–1731).
[41] William Douglass, A Summary, Historical and Political, ... of the British Settlements in North-America, etc. (ed. 1755), II, 324; Abiel Holmes, American Annals, etc., II, 187; Bancroft, History of the United States (author’s last revision), II, 391.
[42] Letter in Pa. Packet, Jan 1, 1780. This made allowance for the numerous runaways during the British occupation of Philadelphia. Also ibid., Dec. 25, 1779; 1 Pa. Arch., XI, 74, 75. For a higher estimate, 10,000, for 1780 but made in 1795, see MS. Collection of the Records of the Pa. Society for the Abolition of Slavery, etc., IV, 111.
[43] Slaves, 3,737; free, 6,537. Other enumerations occur, but are evidently without value. Oldmixon (1741), 3,600. British Empire in America, I, 321. Burke (1758), about 6,000. An Account of the European Settlements in America, II, 204. Abbé Raynal (1766), 30,000. A Philosophical and Political History of the British Settlements ... in North America (tr. 1776), I, 163. A communication to the Earl of Dartmouth (1773), 2,000. MS. Provincial Papers, Jan. 1775; 1 Pa. Arch., IV, 597. Smyth (1782), over 100,000. A Tour in the United States of America, etc., II, 309.
[44] MS. (Samuel Wright), A Journal of Our Rem(oval) from Chester and Darby (to) Conestogo ... 1726, copied by A. C. Myers; Morgan, Annals of Harrisburg, 9–11; Col. Rec., VIII, 305, 306. Tax-lists printed in 3 Pa. Arch. Also Davis, Hist. of Bucks Co., 793; Futhey and Cope, Hist. of Chester Co., 423 425; Ellis and Evans, Hist. of Lancaster Co., 301; Gibson, Hist. of York Co., 498; Bean, Hist. of Montgomery Co., 302; Lytle, Hist. of Huntingdon Co., 182; Blackman, Hist. of Susquehanna Co., 72; Creigh, Hist. of Washington Co., 362; Bausman, Hist. of Beaver Co., I, 152, 153; Linn, Annals of Buffalo Valley, 66–74; Peck, Wyoming; its History, etc., 240.