The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-28 00:00:00

CURIOSITIES OF SLAVERY.

NEGRO SLAVES AND REDEMPTION SERVANTS IN
PENNSYLVANIA.

We have received the following from a correspondent :
"The first negro slaves imported into North America were
brought in a Dutch ship in 1620, and sold in Virginia. The
state of slavery in Pennsylvania was always of the mildest
character, owing probably to the mild disposition of the
Friends, or Quakers, as they are sometimes called. Hector
St. John, who wrote beforo the revolution, says—' In Penn-
sylvania they (the slaves) enjoy as much liberty as their
masters—are as well fed and as well clad; and in sickness
are as well taken care of—for, living under the same roof,
they are in effect part of the family. They think themselves
a far happier race than the lower class of whites. They are
far happier among us than those poor suffering slaves of the
South.' The first move towards emancipation in the State
of Pennsylvania was made by the Friends in the Village
of Germantown, now a part of the city of Philadelphia,
The movement was made under the direction of Mr.
Pastorius. There was no decision at the meeting, but
it set the people thinking, A meeting of Friends in 1693,
assembled at Philadelphia, under the superintendence of
George Keith, decided that the negroes should be free
'after some reasonable time of service.' In the same year
a pamphlet was published in Philadelphia exhorting friends
' not to buy except to set free.' In 1700 a bill was intro-
duced into the assembly by William Penn to regulate
negroes in their morals and marriages. In 1705 an act was
passed for the punishment of negroes, which always con-
sisted of whipping, except for crimes of great magnitude..
As early as 1705 a duty was imposed on their importation;
this was renewed in 1710, but in 1711 their introduction
was strictly forbidden, but John Bull, who was never wil-
ling to grant us more than he possibly could help, and who
long after cherished slavery, quashed the act. Again, in
1712, a petition was drawn up and signed by many citizens
of Philadelphia, proposing a tax of £2O a head. At the
same time William Southeby presented one praying for
the total abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania.' One of
the first acts after the revolution was to abolish slavery in
the State of Pennsylvania;' this act bears the date of
1780. In 1715 Jonathan Dickenson writes to his corres-
pondent in Philadelphia to " send no more negroes, for the
people do not care to buy them." Before the revolution it
was the custom to send slaves to the prison to be whipped
when they deserved punishment. The negroes had clever
ways of avoiding punishment. Watson, from whom I have
condensed most of the above, relates the following incident
—A negro was sent to the prison carrying a letter, wherein
it was requested to have him whipped. The negro, stretch-
ing himself upon a stall in the market-house near the pri-
son, pretended to have been seized with violent cramps in
the bowels. After he had succeeded in gathering a crowd
around him, he handed the letter to a negro standing near,
saying that it required an immediate answer. Poor un-
conscious Cuffy carried the letter to the prison, where he
received, much to his disgust, the flogging intended for ' the
bearer'. Ralph Sandiford, a Quaker, was the first person
who freed his slaves; this he did in 1733 ; it is, I believe, the
first instance recorded in America. The case of the Re-
demption Servants was as hard, if not harder, than that of
the slaves, England for a long time endeavoured to send us
all her conviets. In 1722 the Palatine servants were sold
for £lO for five years' service. In 1737 arrived at Annapolis
a vessel bringing 65 persons and a quantity of wigs intended
to disguise the convicts when they should land. At the
same time a lot of English servants from Bristol are adver-
tised for sale.' It was by no means the last injury that
England did us in endeavouring to force upon us her con-
victs, which she did as long as she could, indeed until the
ships that brought them were forbidden to let one of their
number land. Fortunately, however, for Pennsylvania and
New York, and indeed for almost all the Northern States,
few of this class were ever landed north of Maryland. Oc-
sionally a few of the better class who had come to grief in
the old country came to America sold as servants. The case
of Lord Altham, who left England in 1728, and served out
his time with a farmer in Pennsylvania, is well known. He
passed under the name of James Annesley. James Annes-
ley was born in 1715. Shortly after his birth his parents
separated, and he remained with his father until the
year 1772, at which time his mother died, and, his father
forming an intimacy with a Miss Gregory, he was sent to a
school in Dublin. In 1727 Lord Aida= died, and his
brother, wishing to get possession of the estates, had his
nephew enticed on board of a vessel bound for America. He
landed in Philadelphia, and was sold as a Redemptioner to
a German. After many years, he, having served out his
time, stated his case to Robert Ellis, of Philadelphia, who
procured him a passage to the West Indies, from whence he
returned to England. An action was brought against his
uncle in Nov., 1743, and the verdict was given in favour of
James the Redemptioner. The uncle appealed to the House
of Lords, but James died while the case was pending, leav-
ing his uncle in quiet possession of the title and estates.—
COAQUANNOCK.'

THE AMERICAN BLOCKADES—The United States
transport Fulton, from Port Royal, captured on the 9th of
December, the British schooner G. 0. Bigelow, 11 doys out,
from Bermuda to Newliern, N.C., with a cargo of
_salt, but
after towing her 20) miles the Fulton relinquished , her
prize on account of the violence of the gale. The steamers
Advance, Lucy, and Beauregard, from Wilmington, had
arrived at Nassau previous to the 2d of Dec. The steam-
ships Dee and Don had sailed from the above port to run
the blockade. Washington, Dec. 14.—0 n the 27th of Nov.,
the United States schooner Two Sisters captured the Eng-
lish schooner Maria Alberta, endeavouring to run the
blockade at Bayport, Florida. The United States gunboat
Kanawha captured the Alesta or the Winona, in Mobile
Bay on the 29th of Nov. Fortress Monroe, Dee, 13.—The
United States steamer Circassian, from Rio Grande, has
just arrived, bringing the celebrated blockade-runner
Minna in•tow as a prize. The cargo consisted of rifles,
powder, &c., and a valuable marine engine, intended for
some of the new Confederate Ironclads.

How MRS, OLDFIELD FIRST ATTRACTED THE
NOTICE OF FARQUHAR.—The time is at the
close of the 17th century; the scene is at the Mitre Tavern
in St. James's Market, kept by one Mrs. Voss. It is a
quiet summer evening, and after the fatigues of the day
are over, and before the later business of the night has
commenced, that buxom lady is reclining in an easy chair,
listening to a fair and bright young creature, her
resister,
Her
who is reading aloud, and is enjoying what she ads. u
ith light,
—'vea
eyes, like Kathleen's in the song, are beaming V 7
her face glowing with intelligence and feelinge picture of
a
- -e' an
h
elderly lady, their mother, turns away
fra.°ni t
ards, and held a
her husband, who had ridden in
the
turns from this, and
memories of old days, to gaze
commission under James 11.--she
witeh tender admiration on
daughter her brilliant young ; who, be it said, at this
ghatnerapprentice to a seamstress in
King-street, Westmmsl
L?..er.
present reading, is r__. But the soul of Thalia is
a neater than which A
nadyomene
under her boddice, inhteorself.
She is rapt • t, could not have laced
out,
.in t e reading,
and with book held
and face upraised, and figure dis-
playedt its very best, she enthrals her audience, a
un-
conscious herself that these are more numerous than she
liht have supposed. On the threshold of the open door
stand a couple of guests ; one of them has, to us, no name ;
the other is a gay, rollicking young fellow, smartly dressed,
a semi-military look about him, good-humour rippling over
his face) combined with an air of asknishment and delight.
This is Captain Farquhar. His sight and hearing are
wholly concentrated on that enchanted and enchanting
girl, who, unmindful of aught but the " Scornful Lady,"
continues still reading aloud the rattling comedy_ of Beau-
mont and Fletcher,—Dr. Doran's " Their litajosties'
Servants.".