CHAPTER XXXI.
SLAVES IN THE NORTHERN COLONIES.
The earliest account we have of slavery in Massachusetts
is recorded in Josselyn's description of his
first visit to New England, in 1638. Even at that
time, slave-raising on a small scale had an existence
at the North. Josselyn says: "Mr. Maverick had a
negro woman from whom he was desirous of having a
breed of slaves; he therefore ordered his young negro
man to sleep with her. The man obeyed his master so
far as to go to bed, when the young woman kicked him
out.[1] This seems to have been the first case of an
insurrection in the colonies, and commenced, too, by a
woman. Probably this fact has escaped the notice of
the modern advocates of "Woman's Rights." The
public sentiment of the early Christians upon the
question of slavery can be seen by the following form
of ceremony, which was used at the marriage of
slaves.
This was prepared and used by the Rev. Samuel Phillips, of Andover, whose ministry there, beginning in 1710, and ending with his death, in 1771, was a
- ↑ John Josselyn.
