In 1760 the Negro was ruled out of the militia establishment upon a condition.  The law provided against the enlistment of any “young man under the age of twenty-one years, or any slaves who are so for terms of life, or apprentices,” without leave of their masters.  This was the mildest prohibition against the entrance of the slave into the militia service in any of the colonies.  There is nothing said about the employment of the free Negroes in this service; and it is fair to suppose, in view of the mild character of the laws, that they were not excluded.  In settlements where the German and Quaker elements predominated, the Negro found that his “lines had fallen unto him in pleasant places, and that he had a goodly heritage.”  In the coast towns, and in the great centres of population, the white people were of a poorer class.  Many were adventurers, cruel and unscrupulous in their methods.  The speed with which the people sought to obtain a competency wore the finer edges of their feeling to the coarse grain of selfishness; and they not only drew themselves up into the miserable rags of their own selfish aggrandizements as far as all competitors were concerned, but regarded slavery with imperturbable complacency.

In 1738 the population of the Jerseys was, whites, 43,388; blacks, 3,981.  In 1745 the whites numbered 56,797, and the blacks, 4,606.[481]

FOOTNOTES: 

[475] It is unfortunate that there is no good history of New Jersey.  The records of the Historical Society of that State are not conveniently printed, nor valuable in colonial data.

[476] Freedom and Bondage, vol. i. p. 283.

[477] The following were the instructions his lordship received, concerning the treatment of Negro slaves:  “You shall endeavour to get a law past for the restraining of any inhuman severity, which by ill masters or overseers may be used towards their Christian servants and their slaves, and that provision be made therein that the wilfull killing of Indians and negroes may be punished with death, and that a fit penalty be emposed for the maiming of them.”—­Freedom and Bondage, vol. i. p. 280, note.

[478] Freedom and Bondage, vol. i. p. 284.

[479] Hurd, vol. i. p. 285.

[480] Hurd, vol. i. p 285.

[481] American Annals, vol. ii. pp. 127, 143.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE COLONY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

1665-1775.

     THE CAROLINAS RECEIVE TWO DIFFERENT CHARTERS FROM THE CROWN
     OF GREAT BRITAIN.—­ERA OF SLAVERY LEGISLATION.—­LAW
     ESTABLISHING SLAVERY.—­THE SLAVE POPULATION OF THIS PROVINCE
     REGARDED AS CHATTEL PROPERTY.—­TRIAL OF SLAVES.—­INCREASE OF
     SLAVE POPULATION.—­THE INCREASE IN THE RICE TRADE.—­SEVERE
     LAWS REGULATING THE PRIVATE AND PUBLIC CONDUCT OF
     SLAVE.—­PUNISHMENT