1722: "An Act For Laying A Duty On Negroes Imported Into This Province"

Contents

Introduction

A common economic factor that influenced Pennsylvanians' decision of whether to purchase African slaves or European servants was the duty that was imposed upon the importation of slaves. The duties, which considerably increased the investment required to obtain an African slave, were set high specifically to discourage their sale, therefore forcing buyers into purchasing the terms of European indentured servants instead. Often, the imposition of these duties were driven by the general public’s unease with the unfamiliar looks, language, sounds, cooking, rites and beliefs of newly imported Africans, and particularly by the occasional public gatherings of blacks in town on holidays.

As early as 1700, Pennsylvania slave dealers were required to pay a duty of twenty shillings “for every Negro, male or female, imported, if above sixteen years of age,” and six shillings each if below that age. Six years later the duty was raised to forty shillings “per head” on “Imported Negroes.” This duty was passed directly along to the slave buyers.

The forty shilling surcharge held steady for another six years until the colony was rocked by shocking news out of New York City of a deadly “Negro plot” there. In April 1712, several blacks in New York used arson as a method for signaling a general revolt and to ambush whites that responded to douse the blaze. Several whites were killed and many more blacks died in retaliatory fighting, or were brutally executed after order was restored. The bone-chilling news severely rattled Philadelphia area residents who, during this same period, had been observing their neighbors buying up African slaves almost as fast as they became available. In response to rising public fears about the sheer numbers of African slaves in their town, lawmakers passed a prohibitory duty act in June 1712, described as an act to “Prevent the Importation of Negroes and Indians” into the colony.

The duty of £20 per head that was mandated by the act was indeed prohibitive and might have stifled the slave trade into Pennsylvania forever, had it not been disallowed by England the following year to accommodate the Asiento with Spain. The Asiento, a particularly callous plan to bolster England’s economy and enrich its upper and merchant class, centered on a contract awarded to the English South Sea Company to supply African slaves to Spain’s colonial markets around the world. The company would buy wholesale lots of slaves in Africa and transport them to Jamaica, where the weak and sick ones would be left to die from neglect—many still in chains right on the docks—and the best slaves transported to Spanish markets in South America. Those slaves deemed healthy enough for sale, but not fit enough to command the best prices in the Spanish ports, were often transported to British North America—many of them into Pennsylvania—to be disposed of for whatever price they would bring.

Pennsylvania’s £20 duty on imported slaves, imposed the year before the Asiento was signed, posed a severe threat to the profitability of the trade, not so much because it sharply limited the number of slaves that could be shipped to Philadelphia, but because it was a model for elimination of the African slave trade that was likely to be mimicked by other British North American colonies. When England slapped down Pennsylvania’s prohibitory duty act of 1712, it not only shut down the first really effective effort to destroy the African slave trade in the new world colonies, but it likewise opened up a new and spectacularly cruel era that would forever shape the political, economic and social order here.

The Pennsylvania Assembly, in response to England's disallowal of a prohibitive duty, in 1722 reworked the legislation into a more modest £5 duty. Africans in Philadelphia were still viewed with distrust and suspicion, and the new duty was designed to limit their numbers again in favor of European indentured servants. The 1722 Act not only required detailed reports of slaves being brought in and their owners, by incoming vessels, but gave substantial enforcement powers to the appointed port Collector or his deputies. It set stiff fines and penalties for non-compliance and detailed rules for exceptions.

We, the representatives of the freemen of the province of Pennsylvania, desire that it may be enacted:

[Section I.] And be it enacted by Sir William Keith, Baronet, Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania, &c., by and with the advice and consent of the freemen of the said Province in General Assembly met, and by the authority of the same,

That for every negro which shall be imported, landed or brought into this province, at any time after the thirteenth day of this instant May, and before the thirteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and twenty-five, other than such negroes as are actually shipped for sailors and shall continue in the service of the vessel they are brought in and not be exposed to sale in this province, and other than such negroes as shall be brought or sent into this province upon their master’s immediate business and not for sale, there shall be paid, for the uses hereafter mentioned, the sum of five pounds of lawful money of America.

And that all masters of vessels and others, who shall, within the time aforesaid, bring into this province by land or water any negroes, shall forthwith make entry and give or cause to be given upon oath or affirmation, to the person hereinafter appointed to collect the said duty, a true and just account of all the negroes so imported or brought in, and to whom they respectively belong, which the said collector shall duly enter in a book for that purpose, and thereupon shall grant a permit gratis for landing the same.

And that every such importer, owner or claimer of such negroes shall immediately upon landing or bringing in thereof pay down the said duty in ready money, or otherwise become bound to the provincial treasurer, for the time being, with one or more sufficient sureties, or procure two other sufficient persons to be bound to the treasurer to answer and pay the said duty hereby imposed upon such negroes within four months next after the date of the said obligation, for which the collector shall receive of the party one shilling and six pence and no more.

And if any of the said negroes shall be imported, landed or brought in within the time aforesaid, without making entry and obtaining a permit, as aforesaid, or without paying or giving security for payment of the said duty in manner aforesaid, that then all the negroes so imported, landed or brought in, or the value thereof (if they cannot be found) shall be forfeited; one moiety (after the said duty and all charges of seizure and prosecution are deducted) shall go to the governor for support of government, and the other half (after the said deduction) to the said collector, or such other person as will sue for the same in any court of record in this province, by bill, plaint or information, wherein no essoin, protection or wager of law, nor any more than one imparlance shall be allowed.

And that the said collector of the said duty arising by this act shall have full power and authority by virtue hereof, without any further or other warrant, to enter on board any ship or vessel and into any house or other place whatsoever, where he shall suspect any of the said negroes to be concealed, and make searches and do all other matters and things which may tend to secure the true payment of the said duty and the due and orderly collection thereof. And in case of opposition or refusal, the said collector, with the assistance of the sheriff, water-bailiff, constable, or other officer (who without any further or other warrant are enabled and required under the penalty of five pounds, for every neglect or refusal in that behalf, to be recovered as aforesaid, to be aiding and assisting to the said collector) to seize the said negroes which shall be concealed, or endeavored so to be, as aforesaid, and for that end to break open doors and other things, and to do and perform all other act and acts which by this act is required to be done, for collecting, receiving and recovering of the said duty and the penalties and forfeitures therein mentioned; or for making seizures of negroes landed or brought in without making entries and paying or securing the said duty, in as full and ample manner to all intents as any of the collectors or officers of the King’s customs may or can do by the laws of Great Britain.

[Section II.] And be it further enacted, That all masters of vessels and others trading in the river Delaware, and coming into any port or place of this province, having negroes on board which by this act are liable to pay the said duty, are hereby required to comply with the directions of this act, as if such vessel came from sea directly. And that all persons obliged by this act to pay the said duty, shall apply to the said collector, without any notice given or request made by him, for their so doing.

[Section IlI] And be it further enacted, That in case any vessel shall arrive at any port, member, creek or landing place in this province, with any negro or negroes on board, and there remain for the space of twenty-four hours without making entry, under pretense of going to some other port, or any other pretense whatsoever, the master or owner of the said vessel shall give security to the said collector that he shall not land any of the said negroes without entry made and permit obtained from the said collector, under the penalty of seizure and forfeiture to be recovered as aforesaid.

Provided always, That if any of the said negroes, for which the said duty is paid or secured as aforesaid, shall, within the space of four months after importation, be exported or carried out to sea, then and in such case three-fourths of the said duties hereby imposed shall be abated for such of them as shall be exported; and on payment of the remaining one-fourth part the security given shall be delivered up and discharged, and the officer shall and may deduct out of such repayment five shillings per head for his care and trouble therein.

Provided also, That all such negroes, for which such deduction shall be made shall actually and bona fide be forthwith shipped off or sent out of this province, so as not to return again without complying with this act, under the penalty of seizure and forfeiture, as aforesaid.

Provided also, That if any person or persons shall, during the continuance of this act, transport him or themselves with their families and negroes in order to settle in this province, and shall, upon oath or affirmation, declare before the said collector, who is hereby empowered to administer the same, that such negroes so brought in are for their own service and not for sale, he or they shall not be liable to pay the said duty for such negroes, but shall forthwith give security to the said Collector (which he is hereby empowered and required to take) by a bond of the full value of such negroes, conditioned for the payment of the rates aforesaid in case such negroes shall be sold, or the property thereof directly or indirectly altered within the space of sixteen months after the date of such bond.

[Section IV.] And be it further enacted, That Owen Roberts, of Philadelphia, shall be and is hereby appointed the present collector of the said duty hereby imposed, and receiver of all fines, forfeitures and penalties hereinbefore appointed to be set, imposed and levied by virtue of this act, which the said collector is hereby empowered to demand, collect, receive and recover of and from all persons importing, landing or bringing in any negroes during the continuance of this act, and shall from time to time take all bonds required to be given, as aforesaid.

And the said collector shall keep fair and true accounts in writing of all his transactions relating to the premises, which he shall from time to time submit to the view and inspection of the provincial treasurer, and lay the same before the assembly when required.

And once in six weeks, or oftener if required, during the continuance of this act, shall pay unto the said treasurer’s hands all such sums of money as he shall receive by virtue of this act; and shall deduct out of the same for his own use five per cent for all sums so by him paid, and shall further be allowed by the said treasurer, in the final adjusting of his accounts, all reasonable charges by him expended in the prosecution of the said seizures, and recovery of any of the said fines, forfeitures and penalties in pursuance of this act.

Provided always, That the said collector before he enters upon the execution of his office shall be sworn or attested before some justice of the peace, and shall, with one or more sufficient sureties, become bound in an obligation of five hundred pounds to the treasurer, conditioned for the due and faithful execution of his said office.

And in case of the death or removal of the said collector, the provincial treasurer for the time being shall appoint another in his stead to collect the said duty during the continuance of this act.

[Section V.] And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any person or persons shall at any time be sued or prosecuted for anything done in pursuance of this act, such person or persons so sued or prosecuted may plead the general issue, and give this act and [the] special matter in evidence for their excuse or justification, and if the plaintiff or prosecutor become non-suit or forbear prosecution or suffer discontinuance, or if a verdict pass against him in such action, suit or information, the defendant shall have treble costs, as in any cases where costs by law are given to defendants.

Passed May 12, 1722. ExpIred May 13, 1725.

This Act was replaced by the 1729 "An Act For Laying A Duty On Negroes Imported Into This Province."

• The Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania from 1682 to 1801, Compiled Under the Authority of the Act of May 19, 1887 by James T. Mitchell and Henry Flanders, Commissioners, Volume 3, Regular Sessions of 1722, page 275, Act 250.
• W.E.B. DuBois, The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (1899; repr., Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995), 411-12
• “Noted Riots in New York,” New York Times, 29 July 1877, 10.
• Hugh Thomas, The Slave Trade (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997), 235-37.

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