[44] MS. (Samuel Wright), A Journal of Our Rem(oval) from Chester and Darby (to) Conestogo ... 1726, copied by A. C. Myers; Morgan, _Annals of Harrisburg_, 9-11; _Col. Rec._, VIII, 305, 306. Tax-lists printed in 3 _Pa. Arch._ Also Davis, _Hist. of Bucks Co._, 793; Futhey and Cope, _Hist. of Chester Co._, 423 425; Ellis and Evans, _Hist. of Lancaster Co._, 301; Gibson, _Hist. of York Co._, 498; Bean, _Hist. of Montgomery Co._, 302; Lytle, _Hist. of Huntingdon Co._, 182; Blackman, _Hist. of Susquehanna Co._, 72; Creigh, _Hist. of Washington Co._, 362; Bausman, _Hist. of Beaver Co._, I, 152, 153; Linn, _Annals of Buffalo Valley_, 66-74; Peck, _Wyoming; its History_, etc., 240. [45] MS. Assessment Books, Chester Co., 1765, p. 197; 1768, p. 326; 1780, p. 95; MS. Assessment Book, Phila. Co., 1769. As early as 1688 Henry Jones of Moyamensing had thirteen negroes. MS. Phila. Wills, Book A, 84. An undated MS. entitled "A List of my Negroes" shows that Jonathan Dickinson had thirty-two. Dickinson Papers, unclassified. An owner in York County is said to have had one hundred and fifty. 3 _Pa. Arch._, XXI, 71. This is probably a misprint. [46] In 1790 the numbers were as follows: New York, 21,324 slaves, 4,654 free, total 25,978; New Jersey, 11,423 slaves, 4,402 free, total 15,825; Pennsylvania, 3,737 slaves, 6,537 free, total 10,274. [47] On Pennsylvania's amazing commercial and industrial activity see Anderson, _Historical and Chronological Deductions of the Origin of Commerce_, etc. (1762), III, 75-77. [48] See below, p. 41. [49] See below, chapters IV and V. [50] See below, _ibid._ [51] Nevertheless slavery took root in the western counties, and lingered there longer than anywhere else in Pennsylvania. CHAPTER II. LEGAL STATUS OF THE SLAVE. The legal origin of slavery[52] in Pennsylvania is not easy to discover, for the statute of 1700, which seems to have recognized slavery there, is, like similar statutes in some of the other American colonies, very indirect and uncertain in its wording. Before this time, it is true, there occur instances where negroes were held for life, so that undoubtedly there was _de facto_ slavery; but by what authority it existed, or how it began, is not clear. It may have grown up to meet the necessities of a new country. It may have been an inheritance from earlier colonists. More probably still, it developed by diverging from temporary servitude which, in the case of white servants at least, flourished among the earliest English settlers in the region.