[55] “No Christian shall be kept in Bondslavery villenage or Captivity, Except Such who shall be Judged thereunto by Authority, or such as willingly have sould, or shall sell themselves,” ... Laws of the Province of Pennsylvania ... preceded by the Duke of York’s Laws, etc., 12. This is not to prejudice any masters “who have ... Apprentices for Terme of Years, or other Servants for Term of years or Life.” Ibid., 12. Another clause directs that “No Servant, except such are duly so for life, shall be Assigned over to other Masters ... for above the Space of one year, unless for good reasons offered”. Ibid., 38.
[56] There is an evident distinction intended in the following: “A List of the Tydable psons James Sanderling and slave John Test and servant.” One follows the other. MS. Rec. Court at Upland, Nov. 13, 1677. In 1686 the price of a negro, 30 pounds, named in a law-suit, is probably that of a slave. MS. Minute Book. Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions. Bucks Co., 1684–1730, pp. 56, 57. A will made in 1694 certainly disposed of the within mentioned negroes for life. “I do hereby give ... powr ... to my sd Exers ... eithr to lett or hire out my five negroes ... and pay my sd wife the one half of their wages Yearly during her life or Othrwise give her such Compensac̃on for her intrest therein as shee and my sd Exe͠rs shall agree upon and my will is that the other half of their sd wages shall be equally Devided between my aforsd Children, and after my sd wife decease my will also is That the sd negroes Or such of them and their Offsprings as are then alive shall in kind or value be equally Devided between my sd Children” ... Will of Thomas Lloyd. MS. Philadelphia Wills, Book A, 267.
[57] MSS., Domestic Letters, 17.
[58] “Know all men by these presents That I Patrick Robinson Countie Clark of Philadelphia for and in Consideration of the Sum of fourtie pounds Current Money of Pennsilvania ... have bargained Sold and delivered ... unto ... Joseph Browne for himselfe, ... heirs exẽrs adm̃rs and assigns One Negro man Named Jack, To have and to hold the Said Negro man named Jack unto the said Joseph Browne for himself ... for ever. And I ... the said Negro man unto him ... shall and will warrant and for ever defend by these presents.” MS. Philadelphia Deed Book, E, 1, vol. V, 150, 151. This is similar to the regular legal formula afterward. Cf. MS. Ancient Rec. Sussex Co., 1681–1709, Sept. 22, 1709.
[60] “And to buy Souls and Bodies of men for Money, to enslave them and their Posterity to the end of the World, we judge is a great hinderance to the spreading of the Gospel” ... “neither should we keep them in perpetual Bondage and Slavery against their Consent” ... An Exhortation and Caution To Friends Concerning buying or keeping of Negroes, reprinted in Pa. Mag., XIII, 266, 268.
[61] “An Act for the better Regulation of Servants in this Province and Territories.” Stat. at L., II, 56.
[62] Cf. J. C. Ballagh, A History of Slavery in Virginia, chapter II.
[63] Cf. letter of William Edmundson to Friends in Maryland, Virginia, and other parts of America, 1675. S. Janney, History of the Religious Society of Friends, from Its Rise to the Year 1828, III, 178.
[64] The Articles Settlement and Offices of the Free Society of Traders in Pennsylvania, etc., article XVIII. This quite closely resembles the ordinance issued by Governor Rising to the Swedes in 1654, that after a certain period negroes should be absolutely free.... “efter 6 åhr vare en slafvare alldeles fri.” Sprinchorn, Kolonien Nya Sveriges Historia, 271.