ents, an abstract of some of the
attempts of the oppressed to throw off the yoke which held them, or
threatened to hold them, in bondage.

The first instance which has come to my knowledge in this country of
an insurrection on a small scale, occurred on Noddle's Island, now
East Boston, in 1638. In John Josselyn's account of his first voyage
to New England may be found the following. Having previously stated
that he was a guest of "Mr. Samuel Maverick, the only hospitable man
(as he says) in all the country, giving entertainment to all comers
gratis," he thus writes:--

"The second of October about 9 of the clock in the morning Mr.
Maverick's negro came to my chamber window, and in her own Countrey
language and tune sung very loud and shrill. Going out to her she
used a great deal of respect towards me, and willingly would have
expressed her grief in English, but I apprehended it by her
countenance and deportment, whereupon I repaired to my host to learn
of him the cause, and resolved to intreat him on her behalf for that
I understood before that she had been a Queen in her own Countrey,
and observed a very dutiful garb used toward her by another Negro who
was her main. Mr. Maverick was desirous to have a breed of Negroes,
and therefore seeing she would not yield by persuasion to company
with a Negro young man he had in his house, he commanded him, will'd
she, nill'd she, to go to bed with her, but she kickt him out again.
This she took in high disdain beyond her slavery, and this was the
cause of her grief."

From this statement it appears that Maverick had at least thee
slaves: but the number held in the Province, no record informs us. In
1641, the Massachusetts Colony passed the following law:--

"There shall never be any bond slaverie, villinage or captivitie
amongst us unless it be lawfull captives taken in just warres, and
such strangers as _willingly sell themselves._ And these shall have
all the liberties and christian usuages, which the law of God
established in Isreal concerning such persons doth morally require.
This exempts none from _servitude,_ who shall be judged thereto by
authority."

"He that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if _he be found in his
hand,_ he shall surely be put to death."--Ex. 21:16.

In 1646, one James Smith, a member of Boston church, brought home
two negroes from the Coast of Guinea, and had been the means of
killing near a hundred more. In consequence of this conduct, the