Forfeiture shall be recovered levied and applied in the Manner herein before directed. In an Act for the better regulation of the public inns and taverns, also passed Mar. 8, 1773, it was declared and enacted that: Whereas by two acts of the Legislature of this Colony heretofore passed it is enacted, That if any Tavernkeeper or Innholder shall sell any Spirituous Liquor to any Apprentice, Servant, or Negro or other Slave without the Consent of his, her or their Master or Mistress, every such person or persons so offending shall forfeit forty Shillings: which Forfeiture being conceived insufficient; in order therefore more effectually to prevent so pernicious a practice, BE IT FURTHER ENACTED by the Authority aforesaid, That if any Inn-holder or Tavern-keeper shall after the passing of this Act, be convicted of Selling Spirituous Liquors of any Kind, to any Apprentice, Servant, or Negro or other Slave in either of the aforesaid Counties, contrary to the true Intent and meaning of the abovementioned Acts, the Licence of every Inn-holder or Tavernkeeper so offending shall be and is hereby declared void from the Time of such conviction, and such Inn-holder or Tavern-keeper shall be and is hereby declared incapable of receiving any further Licence for holding a Public Inn or Tavern for the Space of three Years from the Time of such Conviction. By the Act of Mar. 9, 1774, it was provided that a slave breaking or defacing milestones on any highway should on conviction be imprisoned in the county jail and receive 39 lashes on his bare back. An act was passed Ap. 1, 1775, " to encourage the destroying of Wolves and Panthers in the Counties of Albany, Ulster, Orange and Dutchess." It provided bounties for killing such animals, regulated the manner of proof of the killing, fixed the amounts to be paid, and closed with the following provision: And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That every native free Indian, free Negro, or Slave, who shall have actually killed or destroyed any Wolf or Wolves, Whelp or Whelps, Panther or Panthers within any of the Counties aforesaid and carry the Head or Heads thereof with the intire Skin thereon to any of the Justices or Supervisors of the County wherein such Wolves, Whelps or Panthers are killed or destroyed, and bring such Evidence, or give such Reasons to the Satisfaction of the said Justice or Supervisor that such Wolf or Wolves, Whelp or Whelps Panther or Panthers were killed within the said County where such Justices or Supervisors were appointed or chosen, in such case the said Justice or Supervisor is hereby impowered required & directed to give a Certificate to the Master or Mistress of such Slave, or to any such Native or free Indian or free Negro in the same Manner and form as is herein before directed to be given, and such Master or Mistress native or free Indian or free Negro shall be intitled to & receive the same reward as is given by this Act as aforesaid, This Act to be in force from the passing thereof, until the first Day of January which will be in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eightyfive. The last colonial law relating to slaves was passed Ap. 3, 1775, and provided for the assessment of slaves in the county of Orange, as follows: Males, 15 years old and under 40 years, £30; and females of the same age, £20. Males 40 years old and under 50 years, £15; and females of the same age, £10. Males 10 years old and under 15 years, £18; and females of the same age, £12. Males 7 years old and under 10 years, £10; and females of the same age, £8. "During the colonial period the average price of both male and female slaves varied from $150 to $250." Sometimes female slaves brought higher prices than males, according as supply and demand varied. Just before the revolution slaves brought their highest prices, and during the revolution the prices varied greatly. In the life of Catherine Schuyler, by Mary Gay Humphreys, is a picture of slavery at Albany in revolutionary times, charmingly drawn and well worthy of reproduction: There was a retinue of servants attached to each of the prominent houses. Slavery preserved in Albany in great measure its patriarchal form. In the Schuyler household the slaves all descended from two old women brought from Africa when they were young. Mrs Grant gives an amusing account of the "rivalries in excellence" between these two tribes. "Diana was determined that in no respect of excellence Maria's children should surpass hers; and Maria was equally determined that Diana's brood should not surpass hers. If Maria's son Prince cut down wood with more dexterity and dispatch than any one in the province, the mighty Caesar, son of Diana, cut down wheat 1 and threshed it better than he. His sister Betty, who to her misfortune was a beauty of her kind, and possessed wit equal to her beauty, was the best seamstress and laundress I have known, and plain unpretending Rachel, sister to Prince, wife to Tytus, alias Tyte, and head cook, dressed dinners that might have pleased Apicius." For every department of the household there was a slave allotted. They hoed, drilled, shod horses, made cider, raised hemp and tobacco, looked after the horses and the garden, made and mended the shoes, spun, wove, made nets, canoes, attended to the fishing, carpentering, each household sufficient unto itself. Slavery probably never took a more unobjectionable form. The negroes were treated with even familiarity; each was allowed his own garden, and was encouraged to raise pets. As in the South, each boy had his boy, and each girl her maid who was given to her on her marriage. Here they lived, and multiplied to old age, no slave being sold unless he proved unmanageable or to be a corrupt influence; and in this case, the threat to send the refractory one to Jamaica or the Barbadoes was usually sufficient. Later, in the more demoralizing days following the Revolution, there were negro troubles at Albany similar to those in earlier times in New York. Such a period was in 1793, when the "Bet of Philip Van Schaick, a handsome wench," and Dinah, prompted by Pomp, a favorite Albany negro, carried coals in a shoe and occasioned one of the famous fires of Albany. The two girls were tried, sentenced, and speedily executed, in accordance with the summary judgment of the times. Pomp, from his great popularity, had a stay, but subsequently suffered the same fate. Pinxter, one of the three Dutch fetes of the year, belonged to the negroes. It was observed the Monday following Whitsunday. and generally continued through the week. There was a colored harlequin. For many years this was personated by a well-known Guinea negro known as King Charley. Dressed in a cast-off coat of the military, decked out with colored ribbons, his legs bare and a little black hat with a pompon on one side, he was seated on a hollow log, which had each end covered with skins and served as a drum for dancing. Other negroes had eelpots covered with skin which they beat with their hands while they sang a song that had a refrain "Hi-a bomba bomba," which it was supposed was brought over from Africa. To this music the negroes danced. There were also gingerbread booths and side shows, and under the charge of the elderly women all the young gentry were taken out to see the sights. Number of slaves in colonial New York The statistics in respect to the number of slaves in the colony of New York are somewhat obscure in that the terms, " blacks" and "slaves" are not always interchangeable. There were some free "blacks", but perhaps not enough to affect the result seriously if we call all "blacks" slaves. Precisely what proportion were free, and what slaves, can not be ascertained. The earliest statement as to numbers is that in 1698 there were 2170 negroes in the province. At about that time, John Gra ham, a prominent man and ex-official, had "one overseer, two white servants and 33 slaves." In 1714, Dutchess county had a population of 445, of which 29 were slaves. In 1703 five counties had 7767 whites and 1301 slaves; and in 1712, 10,511 whites and 1775 slaves. In the entire province, there were: In 1723,whites, 34,393; "negroes and other slaves", 6171; total, 40,564; In 1756, whites, 83,223; "blacks ", 13,542; total, 96,765; In 1771, whites, 148,124; "blacks ", 19,883; total, 168,007; In 1774, (estimated) whites 161,098; "blacks ", 21,149; total, 182,247. By the ratio of increase shown from 1771 to 1774, it is estimated that there were in 1776, whites, 169,148; "blacks", 21,993; total, 191,741; or the "black" population was about 111% of the entire population at the time of the revolution and when the colony became the state. A very full census of slaves in certain counties was made in 1755, a detailed statement of which appears in Documentary history of the state of New York vol. 3. The statement is unique and worth examining. In 1746, a census of the province-Albany county not included-gives, whites, 51,872; "blacks ", 9107. În 1726 the collector at New York renders "An account of what Negro Slaves have been Imported into His Majesties Province of New York as taken from the Custom House Books between the year 1701 and this present year 1726," from which it appears that 1573 were imported from the West Indies, and 822 from the coast of Africa, a total of 2395. The largest number imported in any year was in 1718, when 447 were brought from the West Indies and 70 from Africa, 517 in all. The collector' adds "that all the Negroes in the foregoing Account have been Imported by Private Traders and that none have been imported during that time by the African Company." DuBois, in his work, Suppression of the African slave-trade to the United States of America, gives the following estimate of the slave population of New York. Year Slaves 1698 2,170 Doc. rel. col. hist. N. Y. 4:420 1703 2,283 N. Y. col. mss, 48: 45 [originals in N. Y. state library]; cited in Hough, N. Y. census, 1855, introd. 1712 2,425 N. Y. col. mss, 57: 175-80, 59: 16-19 [originals in N. Y. state library] (a partial census) 1723 6,171 Doc. rel. col. hist. N. Y. 5:702 1731 7,202 Doc. rel. col. hist. N. Y. 5:929 1737 8,941 1746 9,107 1749 10,692 Doc. rel. col. hist. N. Y. 6: 133. Doc. rel. col. hist. N. Y. 6:392 Doc. rel. col. hist. N. Y. 6:550 1756 13,542 Doc. rel. col. hist. N. Y. 8:450 1771 19,883 Doc. rel. col. hist. N. Y. 8:457 1774 21,149 Doc. rel. col. hist. N. Y. 8:449 1786 18,889 Deeds in office of sec. of state, 22:351 DuBois also refers to the following authorities: Brodhead's Hist. of state of New York, 1: 184 O'Callaghan's Hist. of New Netherland, p. 384 Booth's Hist. of city of New York, p. 270 Horsemander's Negro plot 1 In the above table figures have been corrected in several instances by comparison with the original records; and, in the place of several references to documentary matter not easily accessible, references to more accessible printed copies are here given, for the convenience of readers who may wish to verify statements.-Ed. |