as Butchers, Bakers, Brewers, Victuallers, Smiths, Carpenters, Taylors, Shoomakers, Joyners, Barbers, Millers and Maſons, with all other manual perſons and Artiſts." Maſs. Laws, Ed. 1672, p. 24. The law of 1698, however, appears to have been the firſt, if not the only one, in which this feature was applied to the "Negroes, Molattoes and Indians" in bondage; and may be juſtly regarded as an indication of progreſs, for it was an admiſſion that theſe unfortunate creatures had "faculties," valuable to their owners, if not to themſelves.[1]
There was little variation in theſe laws during the entire colonial period—all Indian, Negro, and Mulatto ſervants continuing to be rated as perſonal property—excepting that occaſionally ſome of thoſe who were ſervants for a term of years, but not for life, were numbered and rated as polls.
n 1716, an attempt was made to modify this feature of the legiſlation of Maſſachuſetts. The following extract from Judge Sewall's Diary is copied from the original. Though quoted by Coffin, in his Hiſtory of Newbury, 188, and Felt, in the Coll. Amer.
- ↑ The early records of the town of Boſton preſerve the fact that one Thomas Deane, in the year 1661, was prohibited from employing a negro in the manufacture of hoops under a penalty of twenty ſhillings, for what reaſon is not ſtated. Lyman's Report, 1822. Phillis Wheatley's was not the only inſtance, in Boſton, of the negro's capacity for intellectual improvement. A worthy Engliſhman, Richard Dalton, Eſq., a great admirer of the Greek claſſics, becauſe of the tenderneſs of his eyes, taught his negro boy, Cæſar, to read to him diſtinctly any Greek writer, without underſtanding the meaning or interpretation. Douglaſs, ii., 345. In the Boston Chronicle for September 21, 1769, is advertiſed:—"To be ſold, a Likely Little negroe boy, who can ſpeak the French language, and very fit for a Valet."
