Slavery in Pennsylvania

The first slave ship in Pennsylvania was the “Isabella”. The Isabella carried 150 African slaves. Many were bought by Quakers, In fact William Penn owned slaves and it is reported that he thought slaves were better than white servants because they “worked for life”.  Quakers later began to feel slavery was contrary to their religion and in 1696 began to object to slavery.  But many merchants and craftsmen felt they had an investment in their slaves due to training and money spent in their keep and purchase. They felt they would suffer a substantial loss of property if they would let their slaves go.

However, in the 1730's the duties on slaves were lessened leading to an increase in the amount of slaves in the colony.

In 1700 a statute was passed concerning the punishment for slaveswho committed crimes. The acts of Murder, robbery and rape would be punished by death. For a black male who attempted to rape a white woman, the punishment would be castration.

In 1721 the colony prohibited the sale of alcohol to slaves in addition to prohibiting slaves from firing a gun.

In 1723 a petition was presented before the legislature concerning Interracial marriages. The Legislature then prohibited Interracial marriages.

In 1726 a Statute stated that children of free blacks could be taken from them and sold into indenture without their permission. The children would be indentured until males turned 24 and females turned 21.

1726 was the year that the Colony dealt with their concerns over the free blacks of the Colony. They decided to make freeing blacks very difficult. It  is called “Manumission” which is the act of freeing slaves or being freed from slavery. The colony decreed that a slave holder would have to post a 30 pound bond for each black slave he freed. Other laws passed included such items as free blacks could not own slaves, blacks could not travel more than 10 miles from home with out a written “pass”. Blacks could not congregate in groups of more than three. Blacks had a curfew of 9pm.

If a black man married a white woman he could be sold back into slavery.

In 1732 Philadelphia prohibited blacks from going to church, having parties or funerals on Sundays or in the courthouse square at night.

Pennsylvania used legislature to control blacks free or enslaved.  Later however, Pennsylvania did pass the “Gradual Abolition Act” in 1780 which preceded the country by  85 years.  It stated that  slave children born after the act were free, children born before the act would be freed when they turned 28. Sadly the Gradual Abolition Act was not strongly enforced. The 1840 Census revealed that Pennsylvania still held 64 Slaves.

Sources:

"Pennsylvania Slave Law Summary and Record ." SlaveryinAmerica . org.http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/geography/slave_laws_PA.htmhttp://www.slaveryinamerica.org/geography/slave_laws_PA.htm (accessed October 9, 2011).