OES RULED OUT OF THE MILITIA ESTABLISHMENT UPON
CONDITION.--POPULATION OF THE JERSEYS IN 1738 AND 1745.

The colony of New Jersey passed into the control of the English in
1664; and the first grant of political powers, upon which the
government was erected, was conveyed by the Duke of York to Berkeley
and Carteret during the same year. In the "Proprietary Articles of
Concession," the words _servants, slaves, and Christian servants_
occur. It was the intention of the colonists to draw a distinction
between "_servants for a term of years_," and "_servants for life_,"
between white servants and black slaves, between Christians and
pagans.

When slavery was introduced into Jersey is not known.[475] There is no
doubt but that it made its appearance there almost as early as in New
Netherlands. The Dutch, the Quakers, and the English held slaves. But
the system was milder here than in any of the other colonies. The
Negroes were scattered among the families of the whites, and were
treated with great humanity. Legislation on the subject of slavery did
not begin until the middle of the eighteenth century, and it was not
severe. Before this time, say three-quarters of a century, a few Acts
had been passed calculated to protect the slave element from the sin
of intoxication. In 1675 an Act passed, imposing fines and punishments
upon any white person who should transport, harbor, or entertain
"apprentices, servants, or slaves." It was perfectly natural that the
Negroes should be of a nomadic disposition. They had no homes, no
wives, no children,--nothing to attach them to a locality. Those who
resided near the seacoast watched, with unflagging interest, the
coming and going of the mysterious white-winged vessels. They hung
upon the storied lips of every fugitive, and dreamed of lands afar
where they might find that liberty for which their souls thirsted as
the hart for the water-brook. Far from their native country, without
the blessings of the Church, or the warmth of substantial friendship,
they fell into a listless condition, a somnolence that led them to
stagger against some of the regulations of the Province. Their
wandering was not inspired by any subjective, inherent, generic evil:
it was but the tossing of a weary, distressed mind under the dreadful
influences of a hateful dream. And what little there is in the early
records of the colony of New Jersey is at once a compliment to the
humanity of the master, and the d