The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-05-02
SOME SLATE HISTORY.

ing Postl
 When the time comes for Q general history of American slavery to be writ ten, the historian will not proceed far in his researches before it will be made manifest to him that if he would not produce a work of really stupendous proportions he must mark out some es- pecial line which he wishes to empha- sis, and hold close to it, ignoring every thing that does not immediately per tain to it. Otherwise he would become lost in the vast maze of minor subjects and considerations, many of which could be expanded into volumes with ease, but which in a general history would have to be passed by, often with nothing more than a mere reference. Slavery was so bound up with the en- tire social life of the sections in which it flourished, that it had to be adjusted to every possible phase of society, ard the result is that some very unique re- lations present themselves as most fas- cinating lines of study. But so mani- 1OAo etL liA(J lllebl LllSy SetiA pC eiNaS- quately treated only as separate stud ies, after the specialist method, unless one proposes to devote 8 lifetime to the general subject
 From the standpoint of institutional history, the most interesting period of American slavery is that previous to the revolution. At that time it was not a political question in the sense in which it became such in the following century, and one can find ample ma- terialf for historical work on the subject, all of which will be wholly free from any of that bias or animus which was caused by the political agitation of later times.
 At present the only place one can find accounts of the unique relations and conditions of slavery referred to l.
 the statute books, journals, etc, of the time. The notices are widely scattered, and many hours of labor, plodding through hundreds of pages in dust cov- cred manuscript folios, are required to find sufficient material to give anything like full view of the institution under treatment But the searcher is always prepaid for his labor, and if his patience holds out he Is sure to find some rich mine of material--rich in kind if not in duantity-which he can make use of in presenting some long forgotten phase of slavery.
 But there is often disappointment at the paucity of references to subjects presenting the greatest attraction. Talk ing Carolina as a representative slave holding colony we find many of these interesting phases there existing, but invariably there is just enough infor- nation available concerning them to make the study tantalizing. One of the most interesting of these is the manner in which slaves were held. As matter of fact they were always held as chat tels personal, yet from time to time we find mention made of the desirability of holding them as real estate. But so in frequent are these references that it is impossible to say how large a propor- tion of the owners desired to hold their negroes as real estate, or what advan- tages they thought to derive from so doing. The earliest reference to the con- dition of slave property in Carolina is found in the fundamental constitutions of the colony, which were drafted for the great Earl of Shaftesbury, president of the Carolina Lords Proprietors, by John Locke, the philosopher. In thisin- strument negroes were declared to be chattel proprety over which the owner was to have absolute power and au- thority" This description was given in contradistinction to the villein, who, under the feudal system, which the constitution proposed to establish, was to be inalienably attached to the land for all generations.
 But Locke's fine, chimerical scheme of government was never put into ope ration, although repeated efforts were made to do so, and it is quite certain that no villein was ever seen on Caro- lima soil The constitutions certainly did not contemplate negro slavery as a very extensive institution, for scant reference is made to it; but there is a i possibility that on the failure of the proprietors to settle villeins and leet- men in the plantations, the idea sug
 gested itself to make villeins, in the | feudal sense, out of the negro slaves Sir John Yeamans, who first introduced negro slaves, in 1870 wrote to the pro- l pT1eIOTS to dSk WndL dlIoN dlCe ut ldllu would be made to settlers on account l of negro servants brought into the col 1 ony. The rule was to deed one hundred and fifty acres to the colonists for each white servant who should be settled in the province, and the proprietors wrote that the same regulation would hold | good regarding negroes. The same grant would be made to negroes as we'll as Christians" was their remark able expression. There is no evidence to show however, that Governor Yea mans had any intention of settling his negro slaves on the land as leet-men, | since in his will made just before leav- | ing the Barbados for Carolina, and which is preserved in the colonial rec 1 ords. he bequeaths all his slaves to ''ye Lady Margaret Yeamans," " without ref erence to any landed property His communication to the proprietors seemed to have been purely selfish, as 1 there is nowhere in the records any mention of slaves in Carolina in any but the Yeamans family until 1878.
 In 1704 certain MT. John Stroud, a member of the parliament of the colo ny, introduced a resolution to make slaves real estate. What connection, if any, he may have had with the proprt-
 etors is not known. Only a short time previous the proprietors had suspended their hitherto assiduous efforts to force the mediaeval constitutions on the peo- l pIe, and it is possible that this resolu-