timber, and furs were exported in such quantities as to employ more than 500 ships and 7000 sailors. Sugar, wines and liquors, and most kinds of manufactured articles, were imported; but some manufactures flourished almost from the start. The ale brewed in Philadelphia soon became deservedly famous. Bradford's printing - press and papermill have already been mentioned, and good German glass was made at Germantown and Manheim. By the middle of the eighteenth century, the export of pig iron to England reached 3000 tons.

Slaves and

In such a community negro slavery could not come to be regarded as an economic necessity. As a rule, every farmer owned servants. the house in which he dwelt, and the land which he cultivated with the aid of the members of his family and hired servants. But there were a good many indented white servants,1 partly convicts and kidnapped waifs, but in greater part Irish and German "redemptioners" who sold themselves into temporary servitude to defray the cost of their ocean voyage. In the eighteenth century, probably more such redemptioners came to Pennsylvania than to any of the other colonies. They were in general kindly treated. The regular term of service was four years, with five days additional for every day of truancy. They could not be sold out of the province without their consent freely given in open court, or before a justice of the peace; and good behaviour entitled them at the end of their service to a suit of clothes and a

1 I have discussed the subject of indented servants at some length in Old Virginia and her Neighbours, ii. 177–189.

set of farm tools. These white freedmen often became useful and respectable members of society.

Quaker opposition to slavery.

From the first there were negro slaves in Pennsylvania, used mostly for household service, but seldom as field-hands except in Delaware. But the Quaker conscience was aroused on the subject of slavery at a time when other Christians could see nothing wrong in it. The Memorial of 1688, in which the German Friends of Germantown protested against "the buying and keeping of negroes," is still in existence. During the next half-century the assembly laboured assiduously to check the importation of slaves by imposing prohibitory duties on such traffic. Some years before 1776 slaves had ceased to be brought into Pennsylvania. In 1758 the Yearly Meeting enjoined all Friends to set free their slaves, "making a Christian provision for them." Many complied, but a few held out until "in 1776 a declaration of independence for all slaves held by Friends was decreed, and monthly meetings were directed, after proper effort, to exclude from membership all Quakers who refused to comply."1 Long before the Revolution the practice of manumission had been sufficiently frequent to create a much larger class of free blacks than could be found in any of the other colonies.

The Quaker spirit in dealing with pauperism and crime was equally admirable, although with regard to capital punishment it proved impossible to realize the ideal of Penn and confine the death penalty to cases of murder and treason. The list 1 Sharpless, A Quaker Experiment, pp. 31–33.

Crimes and

ments.

of capital offences grew to fourteen, including highway robbery, horse-stealing, and counterfeiting. In 1731 Catherine Bevan was burned alive at Newcastle for the murder of her husband. It was intended to strangle her punishbefore the fire could reach her, but a sudden outburst of flame severed the rope and drove away the executioner, so that she died in torment. For larceny, fornication, and assault, the usual penalties were pillory and whipping-post. It was said that the indented white servants furnished the great majority of offenders. In 1703 we find the grand jury presenting all persons known to play at cards in public; nine persons at one time for selling strong drink without a license; John Walker for using Sassafras Street as a ropewalk;" three barbers for "trimming people on First-day," etc.1

66

Philan

The practice in such matters was therefore not very different from that of the other colonies. But Pennsylvania was honourably distinguished for the good care of prisons and the humanity of prison discipline. Visitors from Europe remarked upon Philadelphia prisons as the best in the world. Philadelphia had also the thropy. only lunatic asylum in America that was managed upon something like modern methods. It had, moreover, an excellent hospital, a reform school, and no city in the world devoted a larger share of time and thought to philanthropic purposes. In all this we see the direct influence of Quakerism, and of the ideals of William Penn.

1 Watson's Annals of Philadelphia, i. 308, 309.

Hamilton's

Penn.

Indeed, to cite the words of the illustrious lawyer, Andrew Hamilton, on retiring from his place as speaker of the assembly, in 1739: "It tribute to is not to the fertility of our soil or the commodiousness of our rivers that we ought chiefly to attribute the great progress this province has made within so small a compass of years in improvements, wealth, trade, and navigation, and the extraordinary increase of people who have been drawn from every country in Europe; it is all due to the excellency of our Constitution. Our foreign trade and shipping are free from all imposts except those small duties payable to His Majesty by the statute laws of Great Britain. The taxes are inconsiderable, for the sole power of raising and disposing of public money is lodged in the assembly. . . . By many years' experience we find that an equality among religious societies, without distinguishing one sect with greater privileges than another, is the most effective method to discourage hypocrisy, promote the practice of moral virtues, and prevent the plagues and mischiefs which always attend religious squabbling. This is our Constitution, and this Constitution was framed by the wisdom of Mr. Penn."

of Pennsyl

Hamilton was right in attributing the extraordiSignificance nary increase of people drawn from all vania's rapid parts of Europe to the excellency of growth. Penn's ideas. Although Pennsylvania began her existence seventy-five years later than Virginia and fifty-two years later than the colony of Massachusetts Bay, although she was the youngest of all the colonies save Georgia, yet before the

Revolution she had come to rank next after Virginia and Massachusetts in populousness. The chief elements in this rapid increase were two great streams of immigration - the Palatinate German and Scotch-Irish streams - which were drawn thither in consequence of Penn's ideas. One of the most interesting aspects in which to consider Pennsylvania is as the chief centre of diffusion of the people who became afterward the pioneers of the democratic West. In our next and concluding chapter, something must be said concerning this matter.