[145] MS. Rec. Christ Church, 4239, 4317, 4361, 4370, 4371, 4373, 4376, 4379, 4381, 4404, 4405; MS. Rec. First Reformed Church, 4158, 4315; MS. Rec. St. Michael’s and Zion, 109. Among the Friends there are very few records of such marriages. Cf. however, MS. Journal of Joshua Brown, 5 2d mo., 1774: ... “I rode to Philadelphia ... and Lodged that Night at William Browns and 5th day of the moth I Spent in town and Was at a Negro Wedding in the Eving Where Several per Mett and had a Setting with them and they took Each other and the Love of God Seemd to be Extended to them”.... A negro marriage according to Friends’ ceremony is recorded in MS. Deed Book O, 234, West Chester. Cf. Mittelberger, Journey, 106, “The blacks are likewise married in the English fashion.” There must have been much laxity, however, for only a part of which the negroes were to blame. “They are suffered, with impunity, to cohabit together, without being married, and to part, when solemnly engaged to one another as man and wife”.... Benezet, Some Historical Account of Guinea, 134.
[146] St. John Crèvecœur, Letters, 222.
[147] “Accot of Negroes Dr. ... for my Negroe Cuffee and his Wife Rose and their Daughter Jenny bot of Wm Banloft ... 76/3/10.” MS. James Logan’s Account Book, 90 (1714). “Wanted, Four or Five Negro Men ... if they have families, wives, or children, all will be purchased together.” Pa. Packet, Aug. 22, 1778. Cf. also Mercury, June 4, 1724; June 21, 1739; Independent Gazeteer, July 14, 1792. Cf. however, Benezet, Some Historical Account of Guinea, 136; Crawford, Observations upon Negro Slavery (1784), 23, 24; Pa. Packet, Jan. 1, 1780.
[148] This was not always the case. The MS. Rec. of Sandy Bank Cemetery, Delaware Co., contains the names of two negroes.
[149] MS. Minutes Middletown Monthly Meeting, 2d Book A, 171, 558, 559; Pa. Mag., VIII, 419; Isaac Comly, “Sketches of the History of Byberry,” in Mem. Hist. Soc. Pa., II, 194. There were exceptions, however. Cf. MS. Bk. of Rec. Merion Meeting Grave Yard.
[150] Bean, Hist. Montgomery Co., 302; Martin, Hist. of Chester, 80; Kalm, Travels, I, 44; Pa. Gazette, Nov. 15, 1775.
[151] Stat. at L., IV, 59; Col. Rec., II, 18; 1 Pa. Arch. XI, 667; Mercury, Apr. 12, 1739; Phila. Staatsbote, Jan. 16, 1764, Pa. Gazette, Nov. 12, 1761. For an instance of a slave killing his master, cf. MS. Supreme Court Papers, XXI, 3546. This was very rare. Pa. Mag., XIII, 449. According to Judge Bradford’s statement arson was “the crime of slaves and children.” Journal of Senate of Pa., 1792–1793, p. 52; Col. Rec., IV, 243, 244, 259; XII, 377; MS. Miscellaneous Papers, Feb. 25, 1780. Cf. especially MS. Records of Special Courts for the Trial of Negroes; Col. Rec., IX, 648; MS. Streper Papers, 55.
[152] In 1737 the Council spoke of the “insolent Behaviour of the Negroes in and about the city, which has of late been so much taken notice of”.... Col. Rec., IV, 244; Votes and Proceedings, IV, 171. As to pilfering Franklin remarked that almost every slave was by nature a thief. Works (ed. Sparks), II, 315.
[153] The following has not lost all significance. “I was much Disturbed after I came our girl Poll driving her same stroke of Impudence as when she was in Philada and her mistress so hood-winked by her as not to see it which gave me much uneasiness and which I am determined not to put up with”.... Ch. Marshall, Remembrancer, D, Aug. 4, 1777. Cf. also Remarks on the Quaker Unmasked (1764).
[154] As shown by the very careless enforcement of the special regulations.