more than "sixty young Negroes were put under instruction, two-thirds of whom were sent out annually well-instructed in religion and capable of reading their Bible, who may carry home and diffuse this same knowledge which they shall have been taught among their poor relations and fellow slaves. And in time schools will be opened in other places and in other colonies to teach them to believe in the Son of God who shall make them free." But ninety years after, in the same State it was enacted, "If any person shall hereafter teach any slave to read or write such person if a free white person, shall be fined not exceeding one hundred dollars for such offence, and imprisonment not less than six months; or if a free person of color, shall be whipped not exceeding fifty lashes and fined not exceeding fifty dollars; and if a slave to be whipped at the discretion of the court, not exceeding fifty lashes, the informer to be entitled to one-half of the fine, and to be a competent witness. And if any free person of color or slave shall keep any school or other place of instruction for teaching any slave or free person of color, he shall be liable to the same penalties prescribed by this act on free persons of color and slaves for teaching slaves to write." 2

Slaves were prohibited under the penalty of death from the preparation or administering of any medicine whatever save with the full knowledge and consent of masters.

3

There was a relaxation of these strict regulations in some of the Northern colonies. As early as 1643 and 1646 several Negroes appear on the records of New York, then under the control of the Dutch, as land patentees. When enfranchised, as was possible even in those early days, he might and did obtain a freehold. Many scarcely appeared to know they were in bondage as they danced merrily as the best in kermis at Christ

2 Payne's' "Seventy Years."

3 Dunlop's History of New Netherlands, Vol. I, 59.

4 Brodhead's 748.

mas and Pinkster. This, however, was exceptional. Without going into particulars the general condition was, as it has been summarized in Stroud's Slave Law: "as the incidents of slavery

First. The master may determine the kind and degree and time of labor to which the slave shall be subjected.

Second. The master may supply the slave with such food and clothing only, both as to quantity and to quality as he may think proper or find convenient.

Third. He may exercise his discretion as to the kind of punishment to be administered.

Fourth.-All power over the slave may be exercised by himself or another.

Fifth.-Slaves have no legal rights of property in things real or personal; whatever they acquire belongs in point of law to the master.

Sixth.-Being a personal chattel the slave is at all times liable to be sold absolutely or mortgaged or leased.

Seventh. He may be sold by process of law for the satisfaction

of the debts of a living or a deceased master.

Eighth. He cannot be a party in any judicial tribunal in any species of action against the master."

III

NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE AND EMANCIPATION

THE events that led to the Revolution and the formation of the Union quickened the public conscience and crystallized the feeling against slavery to such a degree that public men were outspoken against it, societies were organized, and the work of the abolition of slavery was begun.

The principle in the Declaration of Independence that "All men are created equal and endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," certainly exerted a most powerful influence. The colony of Vermont, claimed in vain at intervals both by New York and New Hampshire, and which was practically independent of the thirteen, adopted a constitution in 1777 abolishing slavery. In 1780 Massachusetts framed a constitution containing a provision construed by the courts as destroying human bondage, while Pennsylvania in the same year provided for gradual emancipation, though the last slave in this commonwealth did not die until nearly the middle of the nineteenth century. New Hampshire followed the example of Massachusetts in 1783. Rhode Island and Connecticut passed gradual abolition laws in 1784. Thus five of the original thirteen colonies prior to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 placed themselves before the world as free States, to which must be added New York and New Jersey, the former in 1799, the latter in the following year, copying their example.

From the general sentiment of the time as voiced by such men as Washington, Jefferson and Franklin, nothing seemed more

NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE AND EMANCIPATION

11

certain than that slavery would in a very few years be doomed to extinction. In the Continental Congress March 1, 1784, Jefferson proposed a draft ordinance for the government of the Territory of Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi ceded already or to be ceded by individual States, to the United States, “that after the year 1800 there should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said States otherwise than in punishment of crime.”

Owing to opposition of the planting interests, led by South Carolina and Georgia this proviso was lost. But three years later when Jefferson was in Paris on a foreign mission, the ordinance of 1787, by the provisions of which slavery was to be prohibited in the territory north of the Ohio, which now includes the States of Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, was adopted by the unanimous vote of the Continental Congress of the thirteen colonies.1

1 Critical Period-Fiske.

IV

SLAVE INSURRECTIONS

SLAVE Insurrections were a constant menace to the safety and security of slavery and the laws provided against the personal liberty of the slave; his freedom of locomotion; his right to assemble in large numbers except under the supervision of the master class; his right to purchase fire arms or weapons of deadly warfare all were enacted and enforced to prevent the possibility and the effectiveness of outbreaks for freedom.

Notwithstanding these repressive measures upon the slave, the tendency of which was to make their bondage more complete and secure, there were about twenty-five recorded instances of Negro Insurrections previous to the Revolution. Among these there was one in 1687 in the Northern Neck of Virginia. As early as 1710 one was suppressed in Virginia. In 1740 one was discovered in South Carolina and what was known as the New York Slave Plot was discovered in 1741.

In 1800 the insurrection of General Gabriel was only timely prevented. It was on discovery found that fully 1,000 slaves were involved and those concerned were scattered through a large section of territory.

In 1822 the Denmark Vesey plot in South Carolina was only prevented from disastrous effects by the confession of a slave. So carefully had it been planned, so trustworthy, so faithful to the purpose of its promoters, that it was with extreme difficulty that the authorities could secure enough evidence to identify and to bring to trial those accused. Denmark Vesey whose name is given to this outbreak, was a most remarkable character. He