Before the revolution it was a common incident in Philadelphia to send family servants to the jail to get their dozen lashes, for acts of insubordination. This was done at the pleasure of the master, and was usually executed on receiving a written message from the owners. An old gentleman told me of a case which he witnessed:-A master sent his servant, "Hodge's Cato," with his letter, wherein he requested to have him well whipped. The black was shrewd, suspected it conveyed some ill to him, and fell upon a device to shun it. He stretched himself on the stall at the market house near the prison, affecting to have been seized with violent cramps and pains in the bowels. When he had succeeded to excite the pity of some bystanders, he begged a black fellow near him to hurry away and deliver his letter, as it was a matter requiring haste. The appeal answered the purpose fully; for, malgre all his remonstrances, he received all the lashes bespoke for "the bearer!"

When slaves were purchased in early times with intention to be taken to other colonies, there was seen, even in Philadelphia, the odious spectacle of "the drove," tied two and two, passing through the city towards the country. Several of the aged have told me of witnessing such things even in the gentle city of Penn!

Many can still remember when the slaves were allowed the last days of the fairs for their jubilee, which they employed ("light hearted wretch!") in dancing the whole afternoon in the present Washington square, then a general burying ground-the blacks joyful above, while the sleeping dead reposed below! In that field could be seen at once more than one thousand of both sexes, divided into numerous little squads, dancing, and singing, "each in their own tongue," after the customs of their several nations in Africa.

Finally, a discerning lady, who has witnessed "the former years,' and has seen the comparative happiness of the blacks—has felt, too, her strong affections and domestic relations to her family servantsthus speaks of her sense of the change produced in family comforts! "In the olden time domestic comforts were not every day interrupted by the pride and profligacy of servants. The slaves of Philadelphia were a happier class of people than the free blacks of the present day generally are, who taint the very air by their vices, and exhibit every sort of wretchedness and profligacy in their dwellings. The former felt themselves to be an integral part of the family to which they belonged. They experienced in all respects the same consideration and kindness as white servants, and they were faithful and contented." The truth is, in numerous cases where they were freed, they preferred to remain and receive their wages till their deaths.

Kalm, the Swedish traveller, speaks of the then only free negroes in Philadelphia in 1748, as having been manumitted by a Quaker master-probably referring to Ralph Sandiford, who freed all of his in the year 1733, and probably presenting to us the first instance of the kind known in our annals.

There is an ancient charity for the blacks of Philadelphia, founded VOL. II-2 I

23

as early as the year 1696, and yet, although in actual operation, is as much unknown to the mass of our citizens as if it were in Africa! It originated with the Rev. Dr. Bray, American missionary, the Bishop of London, and Mr. D'Alone, secretary to King William. Its primary object was "the conversion of adult negroes, and the education of their children" in the British plantations. Its operation with our Philadelphia blacks began about the year 1760. And in 1774, the ground rents of a large lot in our city was set apart for the payment of the expenses of two schools for blacks, one for each sex, to be educated gratuitously. "The associates" in England are per petual; and from their appointments, three of our citizens, church men, constantly serve the schools as directors and governors. Those lately in service were William Meredith, Thomas Hale, and James S. Smith, esquires. Such a charity, supported by foreigners, deserves to be better known, and especially by those blacks who may become its beneficiaries.

REDEMPTION SERVANTS.

NUMEROUS persons used to arrive every year from Germany and Ireland, who engaged themselves for a term of years to pay their passages. Some of them turned out frugal and industrious, and became in time a part of our wealthy citizens. In some few cases they appear to have been convicts from Ireland. In one case the servant was found to be a lord, and returned home to inherit his estate. The general facts are to the following effect, to wit:

In 1722, the Palatine servants were disposed of at £10 each, for five years of servitude. About this time a MS. letter of Jonathan Dickinson says, Many who have come over under covenants for four years are now masters of great estates."

1728-An advertisement reads, "Lately imported, and to be sold cheap, a parcel of likely men and women servants." These were probably servants from Europe.

1729-In New Castle government there arrived last year, says the Gazette, forty-five hundred persons, chiefly from Ireland; and at Philadelphia, in one year, two hundred and sixty-seven English and Welsh, forty-three Scotch-all servants; also, eleven hundred and fifty-five Irish, and two hundred and forty-three Palatines, of whom

none were servants.

In 1737, an article appears in the Pennsylvania Gazette to the following effect, to wit: "An errant cheat detected at Annapolis! A vessel arrived there, bringing sixty-six indentures, signed by the

mayor of Dublin, and twenty-two wigs, of such a make as if they were intended for no other use than to set out the convicts when they should go ashore." Thus these convicts were attempted, under fraudulent papers and decent wigs, to be put off as decent servants, and especially when surmounted with wigs! Same time is advertised "for sale, a parcel of English servants from Bristol."

In 1741, public information is given to merchants and captains that Augustus Gun of Cork, bellman, has power from the mayor there, to procure servants for America for this many years past.

Such an advertisement, in a Philadelphia paper, was of course an intimation that the mayor of Cork was willing to get off sundry culprits to the colonies.

In 1750, some of our good citizens take alarm at the idea of having criminals, "unwhipped of justice," imposed upon them. They thought the offences of such, when among us, swelled our criminal list. One writes upon the subject and says, "When we see our papers filled so often with accounts of the most audacious robberies, the most cruel murders, and other villanies, perpetrated by convicts from Europe, what will become of our posterity! In what could Britain injure us more than emptying her jails on us? What must we think of those merchants, who, for the sake of a little petty gain, will be concerned in importing and disposing of these abominable cargoes." From the tenor of the preceding article it is probable they got premiums in some cases for taking off such unwelcome guests. In some cases the severity of British laws pushed off young men, of good abilities, for very small offences, who made very capable clerks, storekeepers, &c., among us. I have knowledge of two or three among us, even within my memory, who rose to riches and credit here, and have left fine families. One great man, before my time, had been sold in Maryland, as an offender in Ireland. While serving his master as a common servant, he showed much ability, unexpectedly, in managing for him an important lawsuit, for which he instantly gave him free. He then came to Philadelphia, and amassed a great fortune in landed estate, now of great value among his heirs. When Kalm was here, in 1748, he speaks of wages of hired people as from 16 to £20 currency. A servant woman got from 8 to £10 a year, and laid up money. About the same rate of wages continued down to the period of the revolution. At such wages families were better served than now, and most of them were accustomed to remain in the same families for years.

The case of Lord Altham, who came to this country in 1728 when a lad, and served out his servitude, as James Annesley, with a farmer, on the Lancaster road, forms in itself a curious and interesting recital. The circumstance has furnished the groundwork for Roderick Random, and for the popular novel of Florence M'Cartey. The facts are as follows, to wit!

The facts concerning this singular case are taken from the evidence given on the trial, and may be depended on as authentic.

Arthur Annesley (Lord Altham) married Mary Sheffield, natura daughter of the Earl of Buckingham. By her, in the year 1715, he had a son, James, the subject of this memoir. In the next year the parents had some differences, which terminated in a separation. The father, contrary to the wish of the mother, took exclusive possession of his son James, and manifested much fondness for him, until the year 1722, when he formed some intimacy with Miss Gregory; and about the same time his wife died. Miss G. expecting now to become his wife, exerted herself greatly to alienate his affections from his son, by insinuating that he was not his proper child. She succeeded to get him placed from home, at a school in Dublin. In November, 1727, Lord Altham died; and his brother Richard, wishing to possess the estate and title, took measures to get rid of his nephew, James, by having him enticed on board an American vessel, which sailed from Dublin in April, 1728. He was landed at Philadelphia, then in his thirteenth year, sold as a redemptioner! and actually served out twelve years in rough labour, until a seeming accident, in the year 1740, brought him to such acquaintance, as led, in the next year, to his return home. The case was this: two Irishmen, John and William Broders, travelling the Lancaster road, in the year 1740, stopped at the house near the forty milestone, where Jaines was in service with an old German. These countrymen entering into conversation, perceived they were severally from Dumaine, in the county of Wexford, and that James Annesley was the son of Arthur. The two Broders volunteered to go back to Ireland, and testify to the discovery they had made, and actually kept their word at the trial which afterwards occurred. James subsequently stated his case to Robert Ellis, Esq., of Philadelphia, who, compassionating his case, procured a passage for him to Admiral Vernon, then in the West Indies, by whom he was afterwards landed in England. But shortly after his arrival at London, James unfortunately killed a man, for which he had to stand a trial; and then Lord Altham, the unnatural uncle, exerted himself to have him convicted, but he was nevertheless acquitted as innocent. An action was brought against the uncle, and went to trial in November, 1743, and the verdict was given in favour of James, our redemptioner. The uncle appealed to the house of lords; and while the case was pending James died, leaving the uncle in quiet possession of his illgotten estate, showing, however, while he lived, which was not long, the spectacle of a finished villain, even in an Irish nobleman. This Annesley family, is the same by whom the celebrated John Wesley descended by the mother's side.

THE STAMP ACT RESISTED.

"Society, grown weary of the load,

Shakes her encumber'd lap-and casts them out."

THE measures of the Stamp Act in England, and the oppositions and counteractions which ensued in this country, were all so many causes combining to sever those ties of union, before existing between the parent and the offspring, and leading the latter to self-government and independence.

Many who then fell into measures of resistance had little or no conception of the termination to which it led-whilst others, as by an eye of prescience, seemed to penetrate all the hidden mysteries of the future. Such a mind as the Abbe Raynal's, before the revolution commenced, fairly wrote out our destiny, calling "the American provinces the asylum of freedom, the cradle of future nations, and the refuge of distressed Europeans!"

In November, 1765, the Stamp Act was to have taken effect at Philadelphia. John Hughes, a tradesman of Philadelphia, a friend of Dr. Franklin's, who procured him the appointment, and a member of the assembly, was made the stamp-master. He affected to decline the office, but was not deemed sincere. Wherefore, when his commission arrived (some blamed Franklin for it) all the bells were muffled, the colours hoisted half-mast, and great appearances of mobbing occurred. Hughes' house was guarded and armed by his friends, &c. In the mean time the late Thomas Bradford, from the "committee of safety," (a self-created society,) with his posse, waited on the stamp-master and compelled him to a voluntary resignation; that is, he had to say it was such."

A newspaper of Bradford's, printed the day before the act was to take effect, was put all in mourning devices-having a death's head and bones, for stamp a coffin, and "Liberty at an end!"

At the same time all the storekeepers in Philadelphia resolved to import no British goods, &c. William Smith opens a store for the sale of commission domestic goods, where all the patriots are invited to make purchases. The community agree to eat no lamb meat, so that the wool might be the sooner increased for home-made fabrics. Among other resolves to live in a more frugal manner suitable to the self-denying times, they determine to restrain the usual expenses of funerals, formerly conducted with a censurable "pomp of woe." In the new mode, B. Price, Esq., was buried in an oaken coffin and iron handles, and Alderman Plumstead without pall or mourning dresses.

A long letter of his, opposing the views of his constrainers, to the commissioners of stamps in England, may be seen, with other proceedings in the case, in the Register of Pennsylvania-vol. ii. p. 244.