Something was also accomplished for negroes in the maintenance of family life. In 1700 Penn, anxious to improve their moral condition, sent to the Assembly a bill for the regulation of their marriages, but much to his grief this was defeated.[142] In the absence of such legislation they came under the law which forbade servants to marry during their servitude without the master’s consent.[143] Doubtless in this matter there was much of the laxity which is inseparable from slavery, but it is said that many owners allowed their slaves to marry in accordance with inclination, except that a master would try to have his slaves marry among themselves.[144] The marriage ceremony was often performed just as in the case of white people, the records of Christ Church containing many instances.[145] The children of these unions were taught submission to their parents, who were indulged, it is said, in educating, cherishing, and chastising them.[146] Stable family life among the slaves was made possible by the conditions of slavery in Pennsylvania, there being no active interchange of negroes. When they were bought or sold families were kept together as much as possible.[147]
In one matter connected with religious observances race prejudice was shown: negroes were not as a rule buried in the cemeteries of white people.[148] In some of the Friends’ records and elsewhere there is definite prohibition.[149] They were often buried in their masters’ orchards, or on the edge of woodlands. The Philadelphia negroes were buried in a particular place outside the city.[150]
Under the kindly treatment accorded them the negroes of colonial Pennsylvania for the most part behaved fairly well. It is true that there is evidence that crime among them assumed grave proportions at times, while the records of the special courts and items in the newspapers show that there occurred murder, poisoning, arson, burglary, and rape.[151] In addition there was frequent complaint about tumultuous assembling and boisterous conduct, and there was undoubtedly much pilfering.[152] Moreover the patience of many indulgent masters was tried by the shiftless behavior and insolent bearing of their slaves.[153] Yet the graver crimes stand out in isolation rather than in mass; and it is too much to expect an entire absence of the lesser ones. The white people do not seem to have regarded their negroes as dangerous.[154] Almost never were there efforts for severe repression, and a slave insurrection seems hardly to have been thought of.[155] There are no statistics whatever on which to base an estimate, but judging from the relative frequency of notices it seems probable that crime among the negroes of Pennsylvania during the slavery period--no doubt because they were under better control—was less than at any period thereafter.
But there was a misdemeanor of another kind: negro slaves frequently ran away. Fugitives are mentioned from the first,[156] and there is hardly a copy of any of the old papers but has an advertisement for some negro at large.[157] These notices sometimes advise that the slave has stolen from his master; often that he has a pass, and is pretending to be a free negro; and occasionally that a free negro is suspected of harboring him.[158]
The law against harboring was severe and was strictly enforced. Anyone might take up a suspicious negro; while whoever returned a runaway to his master was by law entitled to receive five shillings and expenses. It was always the duty of the local authorities to apprehend suspects. When this occurred the procedure was to lodge the negro in jail, and advertise for the master, who might come, and after proving title and paying costs, take him away. Otherwise the negro was sold for a short time to satisfy jail fees, advertised again, and finally either set at liberty or disposed of as pleased the local court.[159]
This fleeing from service on the part of negro slaves, while varying somewhat in frequency, was fairly constant during the whole slavery period, increasing as the number of slaves grew larger. During the British occupation of Philadelphia, however, it assumed such enormous proportions that the number of negroes held there was permanently lowered.[160] Notwithstanding, then, the kindly treatment they received, slaves in Pennsylvania ran away. Nevertheless it is significant that during the same period white servants ran away more than twice as often.[161]
Many traits of daily life and marks of personal appearance which no historian has described, are preserved in the advertisements of the daily papers. Almost every negro seems to have had the smallpox. To have done with this and the measles was justly considered an enhancement in value. Some of the negroes kidnapped from Africa still bore traces of their savage ancestry. Not a few spoke several languages. Generally they were fond of gay dress. Some carried fiddles when they ran away. One had made considerable money by playing. Many little hints as to character appear. Thus Mona is full of flattery. Cuff Dix is fond of liquor. James chews abundance of tobacco. Stephen has a “sower countenance”; Harry, “meek countenance”; Rachel, “remarkable austere countenance”; Dick is “much bandy legged”; Violet, “pretty, lusty, and fat.” A likely negro wench is sold because of her breeding fast. One negro says that he has been a preacher among the Indians. Two others fought a duel with pistols. A hundred years has involved no great change in character.[162]
Finally, on the basis of information drawn from rare and miscellaneous sources it becomes apparent that in slavery times there was more kindliness and intimacy between the races than existed afterwards. In those days many slaves were treated as if part of the master’s family: when sick they were nursed and cared for; when too old to work they were provided for; and some were remembered in the master’s will.[163] Negroes did run away, and numbers of them desired to be free, but when manumission came not a few of them preferred to stay with their former owners. It was the opinion of an advocate of emancipation that they were better off as slaves than they could possibly be as freemen.[164]
Such was slavery in Pennsylvania. If on the one hand there was the chance of families being sold apart; if there was seen the cargo, the slave-drove, the auction sale; it must be remembered that such things are inseparable from the institution of slavery, and that on the other hand they were rare, and not to be weighed against the positive comfort and well-being of which there is such abundant proof. If ever it be possible not to condemn modern slavery, it might seem that slavery as it existed in Pennsylvania in the eighteenth century was a good, probably for the masters, certainly for the slaves.[165] The fact is that it existed in such mitigated form that it was impossible for it to be perpetuated. Whenever men can treat their slaves as men in Pennsylvania treated them, they are living in a moral atmosphere inconsistent with the holding of slaves. Nothing can then preserve slavery but paramount economic needs. In Pennsylvania, since such needs were not paramount, slavery was doomed.