[177] _Cf. Votes and Proceedings, 1767-1776_, p. 30. The author of _Brief Considerations on Slavery, and the Expediency of Its Abolition_ (1773) argued that the public derived benefit from the labor of adult free negroes, and that the public should pay the surety required. By an elaborate calculation he endeavored to prove that a sum of about five shillings deposited at interest by the community each year of the negro's life after he was twenty-one, would amply suffice for all requirements. Pp. 8-14 of the second part, entitled "An Account Stated on the Manumission of Slaves." He says "As the laws stand at present in several of our northern governments, the act of manumission is clogged with difficulties that almost amount to a prohibition." _Ibid._, 11. [178] _Votes and Proceedings, 1767-1776_, p. 696. [179] _Stat. at L._, X, 72. [180] Martin, _History of Chester_, 480; Watson, _Annals_, II, 265; _Pa. Mag._, VII, 82; Davis, _History of Bucks County_, 798; MS. in Miscellaneous Collection, Box 10, Negroes; Morgan, _Annals of Harrisburg_, 11; Smedley, _History of the Underground Railroad in Chester_, etc., 27; _Pa. Mag._, XII, 188; XXIX, 363, 365; MS. Rec. Christ Church, 46, 352, 356, 379, 400, 403, 404, 440, 441, 455, 475, 4126, 4330, 4356; MS. Rec. First Reformed Church, 4126, 4248; MS. Rec. St. Michael's and Zion, 97. [181] _Cf._ Conyngham's "Historical Notes," in _Mem. Hist. Soc. Pa._, I, 338. [182] See below, p. 74. [183] MS. Miscellaneous Papers, 1684-1847, Chester Co., 101 (1764). [184] They were generally held longer than apprentices or white servants--until twenty-eight or thirty years of age, but many of the Friends protested against this. MS. Diary of Richard Barnard, 24 5 mo., 1782; M.S. Minutes Exeter Monthly Meeting, Book B, 354 (1779). [185] "I do hereby Certify that Benjamin Mifflin hath given me Directions to sell his Negro man Cuff to himself for the Sum of Sixty Pounds if he can raise the Money having Repeatedly refused from Others seventy Five Pounds and upwards for him." MS. (1769) in Misc. Coll., Box 10, Negroes. [186] _Pa. Gazette_, Mar. 5, 1751. [187] _Cf._ Benezet, _Some Historical Account of Guinea_, 134, 135, where he laments the difficulties under which free negroes labor. Also same author, _A Mite Cast into the Treasury_, 13-17, where he argues that negro servants should not be held longer than white apprentices. [188] "Die mährischen Brüder folgten diesem rühmlichen Beispiel; so auch Christen von den übrigen Bekenntnissen." Ebeling, in _Erdbeschreibung_, etc., IV, 220.