Maryland free press., 1866-08-09
-=stsssschusvtts ssnd sssysr5r
Slavery ihthfs country owes it's existc

oAS'SAy AA snAo Sooheiy oheS its SAi5eSuce
originally to the Ppritans of, Massachusetts,
and TO them more than any other people.
They first sold into slavery white people
as punishment for offences against the
laws, and then began to make slaves of the
natives, the Iudianss taken in war; Hugh
Peters writes to Johp Winthrop from Sa-
lep, iip i1g27sas.;;M Mr. Endecet and myself
salute you in the Lord. We have heard of
Ndiyideneeief women 'ande childrenfia the
bay, and would be glad, of q share, viz:
good. write to you for some boys for
Bermudus, which think is considerable. "
Winthrop says that some of these slaves,
who ran away and were Brought in again.
were branded ON the shoulder" and that
''the prisoners were divided. some to those
OF ye river. (the Connecticut colony and
the rest-te us.' OftheseI We send ye such
childrenoto Bermuda, by Nr. William
Pelrce, and ye woman and maid children
are disposed about in. ye. ztownes.", Il Nj
PIERCE brought back from the West indies
some cotton, tobacco, and negroes, &C.,
and salt from Tortugas,' probably in ex-
change in part for the Indians sold.r The
famous "Cooe of fundamentals, or Body
of Liberties of the Massachusetts Coloby
in New England,'' adopted ip, December,
El64l, is the first statute taking away ether
peoples HLibertiss,"i and establishing
slavery IN America. II reads as follows:
There shall never be any bond slav cry
villlnageh or captivity among us unless it
be lawful captives taken just wares, and
such strangers that willingly selle them
selves erlare sold to u.s. This statute
stood through the whole colonial period,
was never expressly repealed, sanctions
the slave trade aud the perpetual Bondage
Pef Indians and negroes, and anticipates
! by many years anything to be found in the
statutes of Maryland Virginia or South Car
t.dlfna: Two. years. late confederate New
England proyided for the equitable division
oflands- goods and t'persoits," as equally a
part of the "spoils'' Of, war. and, enacted
also the first fugitive slave law in Apefi-
ca, A Puritan Governor of Massachu-
sets, founder Of the family Of Winthrop,
bequeathed his suul to God and his Indian
Slaves to the lawful heirs of his body. The
earliest slave ship, belonging to English
colonists, was fitted out in 1915 by men,
Der Of the Puritan Church of Boston. One
of theimost distinguished statesmen and
patriots of Massachusetts,, President John
Adams, said that the difference to the
State of slave and free labor was imagia-
airy" ',i .'What matters it," said he,
"whetherla landlord, employing ten la
berers on-his farm, gives them annually as
much money as will buy them the neces.
saries of life; or gives them those necessa-
ries ut short hand2" Sd The extension of the
African slave trade from 1909 to 1893 was.
voted for in Congress by the whole of the
New England States, including Massachu-
sets, and opposed by Virginia and Della
ware. The clause of the Constitution
which provided for the increase of slavery
by prohibiting the suppression of the slave
trade for twenty years after, its. adoption
was inserted in by votes of the New Eng
land States. 1t fostered an active and
profitable trade for New England capita,
and enterprise for twenty years, BY which
large addition was made to her original
stock of Africans in the United States, and
thereby it increased slavery. This clause
Of the Constitution was specially favored;
it-was one. Of those clauses which was pro-
tected against amencment by article fifth.
In view of such facts it is not to be de-
MED that the conscience of the New. Eng
land Purltans is very flexible. and that
whatever suits their interests, that they al
ways have considered and always will con-
slider fight. However directly their raIli-
cal views otto to-day conflict with those Of
former times on the subject of slavery, the
spirit and motive of both are the same. If
the conservatives of the nation do not
stand between them and their meditated
prey. they win seize and appropriate what
remains of the property and liberties of the
South With as little scruple as they seized
and appropriated the lands and persons of
the Indians; and quote Scripture, as they
did before, to prove that the earth belongs
to the saints and that theyare the saints
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