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name, prob. very young. I think this name may have been misspelt on the
rec. Gaunt; yet under Grant appears again in Col. Rec. hav. Hannah, b. 4
Apr. 1681; David, 2 Feb. 1683. Under this name came to our country many,
twelve men in one ship, the John and Sarah, from London in May 1652;
three call. James; three, John; and one, Alexander, Alister, Daniel,
Patrick, Thomas, and William, respectiv. They were among the 272 wretch.
passeng. put on board Nov. preced. "free by ordin. of Parl. 20 Oct." to be
sold here, prisoners, gleaned on the fatal
field of Worcester, 3 Sept. of
that yr. A simil. cargo, from the doleful
harvest of Dunbar, of near. the
same numb. prob. in the former yr. sent to us by the governm. at home,
had, as in his let. of 28 July 1651, from Boston, to the Lord Gen. Cromwell,
our John Cotton assures him, "not been sold for slaves to perpet.
servitude, but for 6, or 7, or 8 yrs. as we do our own." For the precise
import of these last words, that may seem intentional. ambiguous,
moderate sagacity will suggest different conject. yet far more interest
belongs to the number; and tho. it is easy enough to guess, it is difficult
to ascertain, the exact enumeration. But some in the shipm. of the former yr. must
have been Grants. Neither of these slave cargoes prob. could add much to our
wholesome population. The Comtee. of the Privy Council, a quarter
century after, sent over to Gov. Bradstreet a series of twenty-seven
questions relat. to the condition of this Col. in every particular, to wh. in
1680 he gave answers, the latter part of 17th hav. these words: "Now
when, two or three negroes are brot. hither from Barbados and other
of his Majesty's plantations, and sold here for about twenty pounds
a piece; so that there may be, within our governm. a. 100 or 120,
and it may be as many Scots brot. hither and sold for servants in the
time of the war with Scotland, and most now married and liv. here, and
about half so many Irish, brot. hither at sev. times as servants." The
"crowning mercy," as Oliver, with foresight at least equal to his piety,
entitled the result of each of those terrible days, showed its profit more
in England than among the Cols. in the West Ind. or N. A. Most of
the unhappy exiles d. of disease, we may believe, whether titled scurvy
or broken heart; and some of the sad remainder, no doubt, after close
of the years for wh. they had been sold, abandoned the land of their
sorrows. Twenty-eight and nine yrs. only had elapsed when Bradstreet
loose report, and by his reckoning, inexact as it is, We see
reason for inference, that four fifths of the young prisoners, brot. here in
1651 and 2, were not remaining. From his laxity of phrase "most
now married and liv. here," I should feel compel. to make large deduction.
See 3 Mass. Hist. Coll. VIII. 337. So that after yrs. of consideration giv.
to this subject, and dilig. inquiry for the stocks whence
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