[65] “Let no blacks be brought in directly. and if any come out of Virginia, Maryld. [or elsewhere erased] in families that have formerly bought them elsewhere Let them be declared (as in the west jersey constitutions) free at 8 years end.” “B. F. Abridgmt. out of Holland and Germany.” Penn MSS. Ford vs. Penn. etc., 1674–1716, p. 17.
[66] Cf. Pa. Mag., IV, 28–30.
[67] Ibid., XIII, 265–270.
[68] Negro servants are mentioned. See Pa. Mag., VII, 106. Cf. below, p. 54. Little reliance can be placed upon the early use of this word.
[69] I have found no instance where a negro was indisputably a servant in the early period. The court records abound in notices of white servants.
[70] Laws of the Province of Pennsylvania ... 1682–1700, p. 153 (1683), 211, 213 (1693). For running away white servants had to give five days of extra service for each day of absence. Ibid., 166 (1683), 213 (1693). Harboring cost the offender five shillings a day. Ibid., 152 (1683), 212 (1693).
[71] Ibid., 113 (1682); ibid., 102 (Laws Agreed upon in England).
[72] Ibid., 152. “No Servant white or black ... shall at anie time after publication hereof be Attached or taken into Execution for his Master or Mistress debt” ...
[73] The rearing of slave children was regarded as a burden by owners. A writer declared that in Pennsylvania “negroes just born are considered an incumbrance only, and if humanity did not forbid it, they would be instantly given away.” Pa. Packet, Jan. 1, 1780. In 1732 the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas ordered a man to take back a negress whom he had sold, and who proved to be pregnant. He was to refund the purchase money and the money spent “for Phisic and Attendance of the Said Negroe in her Miserable Condition.” MS. Court Papers. 1732–1744. Phila. Co., June 9, 1732.
[74] The Roman doctrine of partus sequitur ventrem. This was never established by law in Pennsylvania, and during colonial times was never the subject of a court decision that has come down. That it was the usage, however, there is abundant proof. In 1727 Isaac Warner bequeathed “To Wife Ann ... a negro woman named Sarah ... To daughter Ann Warner (3) an unborn negro child of the above named Sarah.” MS. Phila. Co. Will Files, no. 47, 1727. In 1786 the Supreme Court declared that it was the law of Pennsylvania, and had always been the custom. 1 Dallas 181.