has historically, and according to a fixed system, coined her own, as well as the heart's blood of others, into gold.

Conditional servitude under indentures or covenants, had from the first, existed in Virginia. The servant stood to his master in the relation of a debtor, bound to discharge the costs of emigration, by the entire employment of his powers for the benefit of his creditor. Oppression early ensued; men who had been transported into Virginia, at an expense of eight or ten pounds, were sold sometimes for forty, fifty or even threescore pounds.

The supply of white servants became a regular business, and a class of men, nicknamed Spirits, used to delude young persons, servants, and idlers, into embarking for America, as to a land of spontaneous plenty. White servants came to be a usual article of traffic. They were sold in England to be transported, and in Virginia were resold to the highest bidder, like they were purchased on shipboard, as men buy horses at a fair. In 1672, the average price in the colonies, where five years of service were due, was about ten pounds, while a negro was worth twenty or twenty-five pounds. So usual was this manner of dealing in Englishmen, that not the Scots only, who were taken in the field of Quebec, were sent into involuntary servitude in New England, but the Royalists, prisoners of the battle of Worcester, and the leaders in the insurrection of Penruddoc, in spite of the remonstrance of Haselrig and Henry Vane, were shipped to America.

At the corresponding period, in Ireland, the crowded exportation of Irish Catholics was a frequent event, and was attended by aggravations, hardly inferior to the usual atrocities of the African slave-trade. In 1685, when nearly a thousand of the prisoners condemned for participating in the insurrection of Monmouth, were sentenced to transportation, men of influence at court, with rival importunity, scrambled for the convicted insurgents as a merchantable commodity!

CHAPTER X.

Slavery brought home to the Children of "Sam"-Pure Domestic AspectOriginal existence in all the Colonies-Sam's Slave Panic in New York.

"SAM" says, with a dry laugh, "Ha! ha! my Bigots of the North!-you see by this time, that Slavery has not been the peculiar crime of my southern children! Jew and Gentile, Greek, Heathen, Infidel, and all have alike been participators in this world-entailed crime-if you must have it such-and that, therefore, to say the most of it, you can not make it appear to have originated with what you self-righteously term the God-forsaken adventurers of the South. Why, as for that, the first one of the colonies which made the prohibition of your own first pet staples, Rum and Slaves, a fundamental law of its original organization, happens to have been a southern colony-Georgia.

Yes, the mild and amiable Oglethorpe, who, in England had been a prominent champion of the repeal of the law of imprisonment for debt, and who was the founder of Georgia, obtained, by his influence with the trustees of the company, not only the prohibition of Rum and Slaves, but also a recognition of religious toleration for his colony-that same religious toleration which you had banished the great and good Roger Williams for even advocating! Among the first emigrants sent over to Savannah were forty Jews, whom you would no doubt have drawn and quartered had they attempted to effect a lodgment in your godly Plymouth! To be sure, they excluded Catholics at the same time, as was very natural, because it was from their savage persecutions that the Lutherans and Moravians-who constituted the bulk of the earliest emigrations-had fled for refuge in the wilds of the savannah.

But, as you Round Heads seem to have entirely forgotten the facts of your own early history in relation to this same subject of Slavery, it is time you were reminded of it, once for all, and you shall have the details in full, from the pen of your own peculiar historian, Hildreth-who, whatever may be his occasional brusqueries of manner when speaking of men peculiarly obnoxious for their Southernisms, is the only really competent national Historian you have ever produced. He opens this subject-which he has so ably treated-with a snarl very characteristic of the latitude of Boston, by pleasantly remarking that the results of their own idleness, inexperience, and incapacity, joined to the inevitable obstacles which every new settlement must encounter, were obstinately ascribed by the inhabitants of Georgia to that wise but ineffectual prohibition of slavery, one of the fundamental laws of the province. The convenience of the moment caused future consequences to be wholly overlooked. Every means was made use of to get rid of this prohibition. Even Whitfield and Habersham, forgetful of their former scruples, strenuously pleaded with the trustees in favor of slavery, under the old pretense of propagating in that way the Christian religion. "Many of the poor slaves in America," wrote Habersham, "have already been made freemen of the heavenly Jerusalem." The Salzburgers for a long time had scruples, but were reassured by advice from Germany: "If you take slaves in faith, and with intent of conducting them to Christ, the action will not be a sin, but may prove a benediction." Thus, as usual, the religious sentiment and its most disinterested votaries were made tools of by avarice for the enslavement of mankind. Habersham, however, could hardly be included in this class. Having thrown off the missionary, and established a mercantile house at Savannah, the first, and for a long time the only one there, he was very anxious for exportable produce. The counselors of Georgia, for the president was now so old as to be quite incapacitated for business, winked at violatious of the law, and a considerable number of negroes had been already introduced from Carolina as hired servants, under indentures for life or a hundred years. The constant toast at Savannah was "The one thing needful," by which was meant negroes. The leading men, both at

Inverness and Ebenezer, who opposed the introduction of slavery, were traduced, threatened and persecuted. (1749.)

Thus beset, the trustees yielded at last, on condition that all masters, under a mulct of £5,' should be obliged to compel their negroes to attend at some time on the Lord's day for instruction in the Christian religion'-the origin, doubtless, of the peculiarly religious character of the negroes in and about Savannah. The trustees also abolished the restrictions hitherto existing on the tenure and transfer of lands. The aged Stevens having given up his office to Henry Parker, a colonial Assembly was called, not to legislate, for that power belonged solely to the trustees, but to advise and consult. Parker was presently succeeded by Patrick Graham.

By custom or by statute, whether legal or illegal, slavery existed as a fact in every one of the Anglo-American colonies. The soil and climate of New England, made slaves of little value there, except as domestic servants. In 1701, the town of Boston had instructed its representatives in the General Court, to propose 'putting a period to negroes being slaves.'" About the same time, Sewall, a judge of the Superior Court, afterward chief justice of Massachusetts, published The Selling of Joseph,' a pamphlet tending to a similar end. But these scruples seem to have been short-lived. With the increase of wealth and luxury, the number of slaves increased also. There were in Massachusetts, in 1754, as appears by an official census, twenty-four hundred and forty-eight negro slaves over sixteen years of age, about a thousand of them in Boston-a greater proportion to the free inhabitants than is to be found at present in the city of Baltimore. Connecticut exceeded Massachusetts in the ratio of its slave population, and Rhode Island exceeded Connecticut. Newport, grown to be the second commercial town in New England, had a proportion of slaves larger than Boston. The harsh slave laws in force in the more southern colonies, were unknown, however, in New England. Slaves were regarded as possessing the same legal rights as apprentices; and masters, for abuse of their authority, were liable to indictment. Manumissions, however, were not allowed, except upon security, that the freed slaves should not become a burden to the parish. (1750).

In the provinces of New York and New Jersey, negro slaves were employed, to a certain extent, not only as domestic servants, but as agricultural laborers. In the city of New York, they constituted a sixth part of the population. The slave code of that province was hardly less harsh than that of Virginia.

In Pennsylvania the number of slaves was small, partly owing to the ample supply of indented white servants, but partly, also, to scruples of conscience on the part of the Quakers. In the early days of the province, in 1688, some German Quakers, shortly after their arrival, had expressed the opinion that slavery was not morally lawful. George Keith had borne a similar testimony; but he was disowned as schismatic, and presently abandoning the society, was denounced as a renegade. When Penn, in 1699, had proposed to provide by law for the marriage, religious instruction, and kind treatment of slaves, he met with no response from the Quaker Legislature. In 1712, to a petition in favor of emancipating the negroes, the Assembly replied, 'that it was neither just nor convenient to set them at liberty.' They imposed, however, a heavy duty, in effect prohibitory, and intended to be so, on the importation of negroes. This act, as we have seen, was negatived by the crown. The policy, however, was persevered in. New acts, passed from time to time, restricted importations by a duty first of five, but lately reduced to two pounds per head. The Quaker testimony against slavery, was renewed by Sandiford and Lay, who brought with them to Pennsylvania, a strong detestation of the system of servitude which they had seen in Barbadoes in all its rigors. The same views began presently to be perseveringly advocated by Woolman and Benezet, whose labors were not without effect upon the Quakers, some of whom set the example of emancipating their slaves. Franklin was also distinguished as an early and decided advocate for emancipation. The greater part of the slaves of Pennsylvania were to be found in Philadelphia. A fourth part of the inhabitants of that city were persons of African descent, including many, however, who had obtained their freedom. (1750).

In the tobacco growing colonies, Maryland, Virginia, and