[85] Stat. at L., II, 77–79; Col. Rec., I, 612, 613. Instances of negro crime are mentioned in MS. Records of Special Courts for the Trial of Negroes—Chester County. For a case of arson punished with death, cf. Col. Rec., IV, 243. For two negroes condemned to death for burglary, ibid., IX, 6, also 699. The punishment for the attempted rape of a white woman was the one point that caused the disapproval of the attorney-general in England, and, probably, led to the passage of the revised act in 1705–1706. Cf. MS. Board of Trade Papers, Prop., VIII, 40, Bb. For restitution by masters, which was frequently very burdensome, cf. MS. Misc. Papers, Oct. 9, 1780.
[86] Stat. at L., II, 233–236. These punishments were continued until repealed in 1780, (Stat. at L., X, 72), when the penalty for robbery and burglary became imprisonment. This bore entirely on the master, so that in 1790 Governor Mifflin asked that corporal punishment be substituted. Hazard’s Register, II, 74. For theft whipping continued to be imposed, but guilty white people were punished in the same manner. MS. Petitions, Lancaster County, 1761–1825, May, 1784. MS. Misc. Papers, July, 1780.
[87] See below, p. 111.
[88] “For that hee ... contrary to the Lawes of the Governmt and Contrary to his Masters Consent hath ... got wth child a certaine molato wooman Called Swart anna” ... MS. Rec. Court at Upland, 19; Penn MSS. Papers relating to the Three Lower Counties, 1629–1774, p. 193; MS. Minutes Abington Monthly Meeting, 27 1st mo., 1693. “David Lewis Constable of Haverfoord Returned A Negro man of his And A white woman for haveing A Baster Childe ... the negroe said she Intised him and promised him to marry him: she being examined, Confest the same: ... the Court ordered that she shall Receive Twenty one laishes on her beare Backe ... and the Court ordered the negroe never more to meddle with any white woman more uppon paine of his life.” MS. Min. Chester Co. Courts, 1697–1710, p. 24.
[89] MS. Ancient Rec. of Phila., Nov. 4, 1722.
[90] Votes and Proceedings, II, 336.
[91] Stat. at L., IV, 62. Cf. Votes and Proceedings, II, 337, 345. For marriage or cohabiting without a master’s consent a servant had to atone with extra service. Cf. Stat. at L., II, 22. This obviously would not check a slave.
[92] Apparently such a marriage had occurred in 1722. MS. Ancient Rec. Phila., Nov. 4, 1722, which mention “the Clandestine mariage of Mr Tuthil’s Negro and Katherine Williams.” The petitioner, who was imprisoned for abetting the marriage, concludes: “I have Discover’d who maried the foresd Negroe, and shall acquaint your honrs.”
[93] American Weekly Mercury, Nov. 9, 1727; Pa. Gazette, Feb. 7, 1739–1740; and passim. Mittelberger mentions them in 1750. Cf. Journey to Pennsylvania, etc., 107; MS. Register of Slaves in Chester County, 1780.
[94] “A circumstance not easily believed, is, that the subjection of the negroes has not corrupted the morals of their masters” ... Abbé Raynal, British Settlements in North America I, 163. Raynal’s authority is very poor. The assertion in the text rests rather on negative evidence. Cf. Votes and Proceedings, 1766, p. 30, for an instance of a white woman prostitute to negroes. Ibid., 1767–1776, p. 666, for evidence as to mulatto bastards by pauper white women. Also MS. Misc. Papers, Mar. 12, 1783. For a case (1715) where the guilty white man was probably not a servant cf. MS. Court Papers, Phila. Co., 1697–1732. Benjamin Franklin was openly accused of keeping negro paramours. Cf. What is Sauce for a Goose is also Sauce for a Gander, etc. (1764), 6; A Humble Attempt at Scurrility, etc. (1765), 40.