One definite case of drunkenness on the part of a master has come to light. Though not probable that the record is so clear, it does appear that excessive outlawries were not committed. The chief sources studied on this point were the newspapers of the period and minutes of various Quaker meetings.
CHAPTER XI
EDUCATION OF NEGROES AND INDIANS
EARLIEST TRACES OF THE NEGRO IN PENNSYLVANIA
Negroes early in Pennsylvania
To the reader of the history of Pennsylvania, the statement that the colony was established in 1681 by William Penn seems sufficient reason for thinking that was the first settlement. But there were other people already established there and among them were to be found Negroes, as is very readily ascertained from the records. The people who occupied the territory along the Delaware, later to be called Pennsylvania, before its charter as a colony was granted, were chiefly Swedes, English, and Dutch, who had crossed over the river from the neighboring colonies.[1129]
1639
1664
Gradual abolition by law of 1780
Negroes were not numerous. There remains rather scant evidence of their presence in any considerable number, but authentic record of certain instances. It is found, for example, that as early as 1639 a convict was sentenced to South River, as the Delaware was then called, to serve out his time with the Negroes.[1130] This is the earliest record found; though frequent mention is made of them after this date. In 1664, the West India Company agreed to furnish about fifty Negroes to work in the lowlands on the Delaware River.[1131] This is the earliest explicit record that is found of trafficking in Negroes in Pennsylvania. The slave trade, thus begun by the Dutch Company, was continued, now rising, now falling, till the final abolition of slavery in 1780.[1132] The law of 1780, which provided for a gradual abolition, was subjected to such frequent evasion that in 1788 it became necessary to pass another for its clarification and enforcement.[1133] By the middle of the seventeenth century, the importation of slaves had become a part of the regular work of the merchants of Philadelphia, with the exception of a few conscientious Quakers who refused to profit thereby. Records of the end of the century indicate that the number of Negroes had by that time become very considerable, though no exact figures are obtainable.[1134]