Amidst all this mild and really tender indulgence to their negroes, these colonists had not the smallest scruple of conscience with regard to the right by which they held them in subjection.  Had that been the case, their singular humanity would have been incompatible with continued injustice.  But the truth is, that of law the generality of those people knew little; and of philosophy, nothing at all.  They sought their code of morality in the Bible, and there imagined they found this hapless race condemned to perpetual slavery; and thought nothing remained for them but to lighten the chains of their fellow Christians, after having made them such.  This I neither “extenuate” nor “set down in malice,” but merely record the fact.  At the same time it is but justice to record also a singular instance of moral delicacy distinguishing this settlement from every other in the like circumstances:  though, from their simple and kindly modes of life, they were from infancy in habits of familiarity with these humble friends, yet being early taught that nature had placed between them a barrier, which it was in a high degree criminal and disgraceful to pass, they considered a mixture of such distinct races with abhorrence, as a violation of her laws.  This greatly conduced to the preservation of family happiness and concord.  An ambiguous race, which the law does not acknowledge; and who (if they have any moral sense, must be as much ashamed of their parents as these last are of them) are certainly a dangerous, because degraded part of the community.  How much more so must be those unfortunate beings who stand in the predicament of the bat in the fable, whom both birds and beasts disowned?  I am sorry to say that the progress of the British army, when it arrived, might be traced by a spurious and ambiguous race of this kind.  But of a mulatto born before their arrival I only remember a single instance; and from the regret and wonder it occasioned, considered it as singular.  Colonel Schuyler, of whom I am to speak, had a relation so weak and defective in capacity, that he never was intrusted with any thing of his own, and lived an idle bachelor about the family.  In process of time a favourite negro-woman, to the great offense and scandal of the family, bore a child to him, whose colour gave testimony to the relation.  The boy was carefully educated; and when he grew up, a farm was allotted to him well stocked and fertile, but “in depth of woods embraced,” about two miles back from the family seat.  A destitute white woman, who had somehow wandered from the older colonies, was induced to marry him; and all the branches of the family thought it incumbent on them now and then to pay a quiet visit to Chalk (for so, for some unknown reason, they always called him).  I have been in Chalk’s house myself, and a most comfortable abode it was; but considered him as a mysterious and anomalous being.

I have dwelt the longer on this singular instance of slavery, existing devoid of its attendant horrors, because the fidelity and affection resulting from a bond of union so early formed between master and servant, contributed so very much to the safety of individuals, as well as the general comfort of society, as will hereafter appear.—­“Memoirs of An American Lady with Sketches of Manners and Customs In America as they existed previous to the Revolution,” Chapter VII, pp. 26-32, by Mrs. Anne Grant.