[175] “An Act for the better regulating of Negroes in this Province.” Stat. at L., IV, 61 (1725–1726).
[176] “This is however very expensive for they are obliged to make a provision for the Negro thus set at liberty, to afford him subsistence when he is grown old, that he may not be driven by necessity to wicked actions, or that he may be at anybody’s charge, for these free Negroes become very lazy and indolent afterwards.” Kalm, Travels, I, 394 (1748).
[177] Cf. Votes and Proceedings, 1767–1776, p. 30. The author of Brief Considerations on Slavery, and the Expediency of Its Abolition (1773) argued that the public derived benefit from the labor of adult free negroes, and that the public should pay the surety required. By an elaborate calculation he endeavored to prove that a sum of about five shillings deposited at interest by the community each year of the negro’s life after he was twenty-one, would amply suffice for all requirements. Pp. 8–14 of the second part, entitled “An Account Stated on the Manumission of Slaves.” He says “As the laws stand at present in several of our northern governments, the act of manumission is clogged with difficulties that almost amount to a prohibition.” Ibid., 11.
[178] Votes and Proceedings, 1767–1776, p. 696.
[179] Stat. at L., X, 72.
[180] Martin, History of Chester, 480; Watson, Annals, II, 265; Pa. Mag., VII, 82; Davis, History of Bucks County, 798; MS. in Miscellaneous Collection, Box 10, Negroes; Morgan, Annals of Harrisburg, 11; Smedley, History of the Underground Railroad in Chester, etc., 27; Pa. Mag., XII, 188; XXIX, 363, 365; MS. Rec. Christ Church, 46, 352, 356, 379, 400, 403, 404, 440, 441, 455, 475, 4126, 4330, 4356; MS. Rec. First Reformed Church, 4126, 4248; MS. Rec. St. Michael’s and Zion, 97.
[181] Cf. Conyngham’s “Historical Notes,” in Mem. Hist. Soc. Pa., I, 338.
[183] MS. Miscellaneous Papers, 1684–1847, Chester Co., 101 (1764).
[184] They were generally held longer than apprentices or white servants—until twenty-eight or thirty years of age, but many of the Friends protested against this. MS. Diary of Richard Barnard, 24 5 mo., 1782; M.S. Minutes Exeter Monthly Meeting, Book B, 354 (1779).