The Connecticut courant and Hartford weekly intelligencer — Hartford, Conn., 1775-01-02 00:00:00, page 1

chafed her,bears a child, which I educate till of age.
Now it is plain the mother of this child cannot pay
for the expense of its education, being already in
debt to the amount of all her labour as long as (he
lives.; who then (hall bear this expence? Am I oblig
ed to give it to the child ? No. It follows then
that the child when capable, ought to refund it to
me by its labour. But this, it is said, it never will
be able to do ; the expense being greater, or at least
as great as the worth of all its labour, should it live
to the ordinary age of man. Therefore lamto be
juftifted in keeping a servant so born and educated,
in perpetual servitude, to recover my just due. This
is the argument fairly Rated ; concerning which
I observe that the whole force of it depends upon the
supposition, that the expence of the education of
the child is equal to the worth of its labour through
its whole life. But this supposition I beg leave ut
terly to deny, and to subjoin my reasons.
I. If this supposition were true, a man might
beget ten sons, and they should all live with him
and serve him or his estate, till they all should have
arrived to the ordinary age of man; and yet this
man would, after all this be poorer, or at least no
richer, then if he had had no children, and had only
laboured with his own hands.
2. At this rate the whole world of mankind
would be constantly waxing poorer and poorer ; for
in this argument it is supposed and implicitly asser
ted, that no man can pay the expense of his educa
tion, even by all he can do throughout his whole
life. The necessary con sequence is that every man
leaves the world poorer than he found it, and so
the world in general in every generation, decreases
in wealth.
3. If this were so, men could not be such dupes
with refpe& to their own interest, as it seems many
of them are, who are {efficiently willing that their :
Negro servants should increase and multiply.
4. Upon this fuppobon it is altogether incredible,
that men fufficienfly sagacious as to their own in
terest, should be so overseen, as to be prevailed up
on to take a Negro child at the age of two, three,
or four years, and educate it till of mature age,
merely for the benefit of his labour in the mean
time; as lam informed is frequently done. Nay,
I was late informed of a tradfeman in the country
who took a Negro boy, I think, under the age of
three years, arid educated and taught him a good
trade, for the fake only of his labour till one and
twenty ; and thought he made a good bargain too.
5. If this do&rine be true, I fee not why every
fa her hath net a right to enclave all his children.
Doth not the law of nature teach that children are
bound to do justice and to render theirjuft debts io
'heir parents, as well as to other men ? Doth it not
further teach, that parents have a right toinfift up
on it ? Surely they are not obliged to give every
thing to their children without any retaliation. For
France, they are not obliged to bring them up to
£°"° and twenty, without taking the be
nefit rff theirwork in the mean .time, which is at
xeaft a partial edmpenfaion. "Ruf'if they have a
For the CONNECTICUT COURANT.
Concerning the right of Hereditary Slavery.
A MONG the several things which I have seen
published in different parts of America upon
the ftibjed of Negro flavesy, there is one argument
used in vindication of this flayery, which I have not
seen considered by these on the opposite fide of the
question, according to its merit ; or at lead accord
ing to'tfie weight laid upon it by those who rife it.
This argument is adduced to prove the right of
hereditary slavery, and may be expressed as follows.
Suppose I happen to be at Guinea,where there are a
number ofNegro captives devoted by their captors
to death. I being informed of it, out of mere com
panion purchase one of them, fuppoie a woman, in
order to save her from death, and pay such a price as
she by her labour does not more than refund to me
before her death. This wench, after I have pur-
Containing the Freiheit ADVICES,
M ON DAY, January 2, 1775.
CONNECTICUT
AND
Weekly
Open to all PARTIES not under the INFLUENCE of ANY.
right to a partial, why not to a complete compensa
tion ? But this, it ferns,they cannot obtain without
enhaving their children, to fay in this tafe, that pa
rental kindness and affe&ion allows of no such
thing, is nothing to the purpose. For the question is
not, what parental kindness and affection dictate ;
but what the rules of right and justice prescribed in
the law of nature dilate and allow
6. I conceive the bare consideration of expense of
education in itfelf, without having recourse to tl?e
forementioned fabborn fads, is Efficient to teach us
the fhifity of the present supposition. I pretend not
to know how all those gentlemen who use the argu
ment now under confederation, would calculate the
expence of the education of a Negro child. But
one calculation made by a gentleman of diitinguifh
ed abilities, I have seen, which was as follows.
For the firß years board, nuning, &c.
at ss. per week. - - - - _ g l3 o o
For boarding,cloathing,&c.during the
five succeeding years at 3s. per week. 39 0 0
The simple interft till the child is 18
years of age - 45 14 0
Total £'97 14 0
But I can by no means persuade myfelf that this
is ajuft computation. I cannot think that Negro
children in general cost their masters gs. per week,
- for the firft year of their lives,generally the wenches,
after recovering from lying.in, do the fame busi
ness in the family during this year, as they were
wont to do before, and over and above have the
trouble of nursing their children. A.nd as they ge
nerally suckle their children whence Can arise this,
great expence to the master? After lying-in, the
whole of it, (only we allow for the extraordinary
eating of the mother, and for the vexation of some
times hearing the brat cry) is tobe reduced to the fingk
article of cloaths ; for which jf we allow thirty
(hillings upon an average, I believe those who are
acquainted with the matter,will fay, we allow large
ly. Thusin the firft article of this calculation, we
find thirteen pounds reduced to thirty (hillings.
Again, the second article appears to me to be set
much too high. Unless I am misinformed, board
for even labouring men, can be had at the best far
mers houses in the country, for four (hillings, or four
and fix-pence per week. But every one can imagine
the difference between the expence of keeping a la
bouring white man, and that of keeping a Negro
child. The one lives upon the belt the house af
fords ; the other lives upon the very offals of the
house, the crumbs of the table, what would,general
ly be flung away or given to the dog, ifhe were not
there to eat it.---Befits,, the Negro child is not to
be considered as a boarder all this while. Before he
is fix years old, he is able to go on errands, to drive
cows, and to do many things, which are of real fer
. vice to his matter, and which matt be done by some
other person if not by him. All these things there
fore are to be taken out of the price of his board.
As to cloaths, if we make the fame allowance for
each of the five years, as we have already allowed
for the firft, I believe it will be found to be fully
equal to what is generally expended by masters for
this purpose ; for in truth their cloathes are many
times such as would be loft, ifhe did not wear
them. Now as the primary debt charged to the
child in the above calculation, is to be so greatly re
duced, the interest will be proportionably reduced.
, The true way^l conceive,to compute theexpence
.of the education qf a Negro child is, to keep an ex
a& account (or fix years before the birth of the child
of the expences of the family. Then after the birth
of the child (other things being the fame) to keep
still an exa& account of the expences of the family
f° r ^ x years ; proper allowance being made for
things which are extraordinary,both in the one case
and the other. This being done, the excels of ex
pence of the lad fix years, above that of theformer
.isto be charged to the child. This with the inter-
„THB
est, allowing that he pays for his board, &c. from
fix to eighteen, or twenty-one, is the whole expence,
of his education; and this I presume, would be
found very (mall compared with the laige sum set
Mr. Watson,
Please to insert the following iftyour heM.,
IT was not from any difafAdion to the Rev.'
Mr. Smalley (for whom I had a peculiar regard
and very high esteem, as a man of genius, and a re
al friend and brother) that I occasionally mention
ed his differing with me in sentiments about ads of
parliament ; but when I mentioned his using that
expression, " That the representatives of the pro
" vince of the Massachusetts Bay, who refufed to
" refeind the circular letter (so called) were guilty
" of right down rebellion against Majesty itself,"
I had no thought of afperfmg Mr. Smalley's charac
ter, or of offending him ; for I received it that he
(poke it as his real fentimente, which he would own
and abide by, for I knew he said it with fpitit andre
folution ; and indeed, he has appeared to he of the
fame opinion since, by faying on the day thb
Boftan alarm happened, " What! will yen fight
" against your King !” Mr. Smalley fays, in 'the
Connedicut Courant, that I could not tell aim the
time when, the place where, nor the cofrq anv in
which the expressions were uttered, nor e ioi re
circumstance befides---altho' I had told him that it
was on proxy day, either in the meeting house where
the ministers fat, or at Mr.Pitkin's, on the fame dav,
which he has not altogether forgot ; and it was on
a proxy day in the spring soon after a number of re^
prefentatives of the province of the Massachusetts-
Bay, refufed to refeind the circular letter (so called)
which occasioned much (peculation. And according
to the best of my remembrance, there was an at
tempt by many in the colony on that day to ele&
the Hon. Thomas Fitch again to the government,
&c. who had not been chosen for some time; which
occasioned some difeourfe among the ministers then
present about the propriety and expediency ofyoting
for him, since, when he was governorhor, he todk
an oath to enforce the Stamp-Act
Upon which, thte- Difeourfe was introduced a
bout the Representatives aforefaid, and their re
fufing to refeind, &c. arid I freely gave it as T.iy c
pinion, that they Were not only to be juflifed, but
highly commended for their refufing ; upon which
Mr. Smalley with an apparent warmth, locked me
in the face, and said it was right down Rebellion
in them, against Majeffyitfelf,-to refufe to refeind,
&c. It is not so strange that men should differ in
judgment in some things, as it is that so great a
man asMr, Smalley-fhould call that rebellion a
gainst Majesty itfelf, which was only a reasonable
and righteous oppofitien to tyranny and oppressi
on. I take it to be a plain case, that it cannot be
Rebellion against Majesty itfelf—unlefs it be Re
bellion against that authority with which a man or
body of men are inveiled by God and the peo
ple, but there was nothing of that nature in the
circular letter that those worthy patriotic gentle
men wrote,----nor in their refuting to refeind what
they had written, but rather a glorious aft of
loyalty to the Majesty of the British Empire, and
a noble and never to be forgotten (land, against
Ministerial Tyranny and oppreffion:----Let Mr.
Smalley fay what he will, as to the truth of the
fa&s by me averted in a former paper of your's I
solemnly, and in the fear of God, affirm them to
be Ibidfotrue, which from my acquaintance
wither. Smalley I judge to be confident' with his
former notions, be his present Tentim^nts what
tney will.----
Same. Newell.
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