[185] “I do hereby Certify that Benjamin Mifflin hath given me Directions to sell his Negro man Cuff to himself for the Sum of Sixty Pounds if he can raise the Money having Repeatedly refused from Others seventy Five Pounds and upwards for him.” MS. (1769) in Misc. Coll., Box 10, Negroes.
[186] Pa. Gazette, Mar. 5, 1751.
[187] Cf. Benezet, Some Historical Account of Guinea, 134, 135, where he laments the difficulties under which free negroes labor. Also same author, A Mite Cast into the Treasury, 13–17, where he argues that negro servants should not be held longer than white apprentices.
[188] “Die mährischen Brüder folgten diesem rühmlichen Beispiel; so auch Christen von den übrigen Bekenntnissen.” Ebeling, in Erdbeschreibung, etc., IV, 220.
[189] Cf. preamble to the act of 1780. Stat. at L., X, 67, 68. A negro twenty-one years old was manumitted because “all mankind have an Equal Natural and Just right to Liberty.” MS. Extracts Rec. Goshen Monthly Meeting, 415 (G. Cope).
[190] MS. General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, Phila. Co., 1773–1780. Franklin, Letter to Dean Woodward, Apr. 10, 1773, in Works (ed. Sparks), VIII, 42.
[191] In 1751 the number of negroes in Pennsylvania, including Delaware, was thought to be 11,000. Cf. above, p. 12. The negroes in Pennsylvania alone by 1780 probably did not exceed the same number. Of these 6,000 were said to be slaves. Cf. above, ibid. In some places by this time manumission was nearly complete. Cf. W. J. Buck, in Coll. Hist. Soc. Pa., I, 201.
[192] MSS. Misc. Coll., Box 10, Negroes.
[193] MS. Rec. Pa. Soc. Abol. Sl., I, 19, 27, 29, 43, 67, and passim.
[194] A MS. dated Phila., 1769, contains a list of persons who had promised to contribute towards purchasing a negro’s freedom. Among the memoranda are: “John Head agrees to give him Twenty Shillings and not to be Repaid ... John Benezet twenty Shillings ... Christopher Marshall /7/6.... If he can raise with my Donation enough to free him I agree to give him three pounds and not otherwise I promise Saml Emlen jur ... Joseph Pemberton by his Desire [Five erased] pounds £3.” MS. Misc. Coll., Box 10, Negroes.