[47] Howell, State Trials, XVII., 1443-1454.
[48] Eddis, pp. 69-70.
[49] Neill, Virginia Carolorum, p. 58. Neill adds: “While some of these servants were treated with kindness, others received no more consideration than dumb, driven cattle.”
[50] P. 7.
[51] A negro servant in the family of Judge Sewall died in 1729, and the latter writing of the funeral says: “I made a good Fire, set Chairs, and gave Sack.” Diary, III., 394. The New England Weekly Journal, February 24, 1729, has a detailed account of the funeral: “A long train followed him to the grave, it’s said about 150 black, and about 50 whites, several magistrates, ministers, gentlemen, etc. His funeral was attended with uncommon respect and his death much lamented.”
[52] She complains of the great familiarity in permitting the slaves to sit at table with their masters “as they say to save time” and adds, “into the dish goes the black hoof, as freely as the white hand.” She relates a difficulty between a master and a slave which was referred to arbitration, each party binding himself to accept the decision. The arbitrators ordered the master to pay 40 shillings to the slave and to acknowledge his fault. “And so the matter ended: the poor master very honestly standing to the award.”—The Journal of Madame Knight.
[53] John Winter writes from Maine, “I Can not Conceaue which way their masters Can pay yt, but yf yt Continue this rates the servants will be masters & the masters servants.” Trelawny Papers, p. 164. John Winthrop makes a similar comment in narrating “a passage between one Rowley and his servant. The master, being forced to sell a pair of oxen to pay his servant his wages, told his servant he could keep him no longer, not knowing how to pay him the next year. The servant answered, he would serve him for more of his cattle. But how shall I do (saith the master) when all my cattle are gone? The servant replied, you shall then serve me, and so you may have your cattle again.” Winthrop gives as a reason for high wages the fact that “the wars in England kept servants from coming to us, so as those we had could not be hired, when their times were out, but upon unreasonable terms, and we found it very difficult to pay their wages to their content, (for money was very scarce).”—History of New England, II., 219-220.
[54] Lechford, Note-book, p. 107.
[55] Lechford, Note-book, p. 81.
[56] Bruce, II., 2.