most as disagreeable a situation as the slaves.

From the founding of the colony of Maryland in 1632 down to the
Revolutionary War, there is no record left us that any effort was ever
made to cure the most glaring evils of slavery. For the Negro this was
one long, starless night of oppression and outrage. No siren's voice
whispered to him of a distant future, propitious and gracious to
hearts almost insensible to a throb of joy, to minds unconscious of
the feeblest rays of light. Being _absolute_ property, it was the
right of the master to say how much food, or what quantity of
clothing, his slave should have. There were no rules by which a slave
could claim the privilege of ceasing from labor at the close of the
day. No, the master had the same right to work his slaves after
nightfall as to drive his horse morning, noon, and night. Poor
clothes, rough and scanty diet, wretched quarters, overworked,
neglected in body and mind, the Negroes of Maryland had a sore lot.

The Revolution was nearing. Public attention was largely occupied with
the Stamp Act and preparations for hostilities. The Negro was left to
toil on; and, while at this time there was no legislation sought for
slavery, there was nothing done that could be considered hostile to
the institution. The Negroes hailed the mutterings of the distant
thunders of revolution as the precursor of a new era to them. It did
furnish an opportunity for them in Maryland to prove themselves
patriots and brave soldiers. And how far their influence went to
mollify public sentiment concerning them, will be considered in its
appropriate place. Suffice it now to say, that cruel and hurtful,
unjust and immoral, as the institution of slavery was, it had not
robbed the Negro of a lofty conception of the fundamental principles
that inspired white men to resist the arrogance of England; nor did it
impair his enthusiasm in the cause that gave birth to a new republic
amid the shock of embattled arms.

FOOTNOTES:

[414] Dr. Abiel Holmes, in his American Annals, vol. ii. p. 5, says,
"Maryland now contained about thirty-six thousand persons, of white
men from sixteen years of age and upwards, and negroes male, and
female from sixteen to sixty." I infer from this statement that
slavery was in existence in Maryland in 1634; and I cannot find any
thing in history to lead me to doubt but that slavery was born with
the colony.

[415] Cabinet Cyclopaedia, vol. i. p. 61.

[416] See Bacon