[135] Cf. MS. Yearly Meeting Advices, 1682–1777, “Negroes or Slaves.”
[136] Cranz, The Ancient and Modern History of the Brethren ... Unitas Fratrum, 600, 601; Ogden, An Excursion into Bethlehem and Nazareth in Pennsylvania, 89, 90; I Pa. Arch., III, 75; Pa. Mag., XXIX, 363.
[137] Cf. Bean, History of Montgomery County, 302.
[138] MS. Records of Christ Church, Phila., I, 19, 43, 44, 46, 49, 132, 168, 271, 273, 274, 276, 277, 280, 281, 282, 283, 288, 293, 306, 312, 314, 333, 337, 341, 342, 344, 352, 353, 359, 371, 379, 383, 388, 392, 397, 399, 416, 440, 441. Baptisms were very frequent in the years 1752 and 1753. Very many of the slaves admitted were adults, whereas in the case of free negroes at the same period most of the baptisms were of children.
[139] William Macclanechan, writing to the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1760, says: “On my Journey to New-England, I arrived at the oppulent City of Philadelphia, where I paid my Compliments to the Rev’d Dr. Jenney, Minister of Christ’s Church in that City, and to the Rev’d Mr. Sturgeon, Catechist to the Negroes.” H. W. Smith, Life and Correspondence of the Rev. William Smith, I, 238.
[140] “Many negroes came, ... some enquiring, have I a soul?” Gillies and Seymour, Memoirs of the Life and Character of ... Rev. George Whitefield (3d ed.), 55. “I believe near Fifty Negroes came to give me Thanks, under God, for what has been done to their Souls.... Some of them have been effectually wrought upon, and in an uncommon Manner.” A Continuation of the Reverend Mr. Whitefield’s Journal, 65, 66. “Visited a Negroe and prayed with her, and found her Heart touched by Divine Grace. Praised be the Lord, methinks one Negroe brought to Jesus Christ is peculiarly sweet to my Soul.” W. Seward, Journal of a Voyage from Savannah to Philadelphia, etc., Apr. 18, 1740.
[141] “This afternoon a Negro man from Cecil County maryland preached in orchard opposite to ours. there was Sundry people, they said he spoke well for near an hour.” MS. Ch. Marshall’s Remembrancer, E, July 13, 1779.
[142] “Then (the pror and Gov.) proposed to them the necessitie of a law ... about the marriages of negroes.” Col. Rec., I, 598, 606, 610; Votes and Proceedings, I, 120, 121; Bettle, “Notices of Negro Slavery as connected with Pennsylvania,” in Mem. Hist. Soc. Pa., VI, 368; Clarkson, Life of Penn, II, 80–82. Clarkson attributes the defeat to the lessening of Quaker influence, the lower tone of the later immigrants, and temporary hostility to the executive. More probably the bill failed because stable marriage relations have always been found incompatible with the ready movement and transfer of slave property; and because at this early period the slaveholders recognized this fact, and were not yet disposed to allow their slaves to marry.
[143] Stat. at L., II, 22. Cf. Commonwealth v. Clements (1814), 6 Binney 210.
[144] St. John Crèvecœur, Letters, 221; Kalm, Travels, I, 391. Kalm adds that it was considered an advantage to have negro women, since otherwise the offspring belonged to another master.