the slave-trade was not a private, individual speculation.  It was the enterprise of the authorities of the colony.  And on the 13th of March, 1639, it was ordered by the General Court “that 3_l_ 8_s_ should be paid Lieftenant Davenport for the present, for charge disbursed for the slaves, which, when they have earned it, hee is to repay it back againe.”  The marginal note is “Lieft.  Davenport to keep ye slaves.” (Mass.  Rec. i. 253.[271]) So there can be no doubt as to the permanent establishment of the institution of slavery as early as 1639, while before that date the institution existed in a patriarchal condition.  But there isn’t the least fragment of history to sustain the haphazard statement of Emory Washburn, that slavery existed in Massachusetts “from the time Maverick was found dwelling on Noddle’s Island in 1630."[272] We are sure this assertion lacks the authority of historical data.  It is one thing for a historian to think certain events happened at a particular time, but it is quite another thing to be able to cite reliable authority in proof of the assertion.[273] But no doubt Mr. Washburn relies upon Mr. Palfrey, who refers his reader to Mr. Josselyn.  Palfrey says, “Before Winthrop’s arrival, there were two negro slaves in Massachusetts, held by Mr. Maverick, on Noddle’s Island."[274] Josselyn gives the only account we have of the slaves on Noddle’s Island.  The incident that gave rise to this scrap of history occurred on the 2d of October, 1639.  Winthrop was chosen governor in the year 1637.[275] It was in this year, on the 26th of February, that the slave-ship “Desire” landed a cargo of Negroes in the colony.  Now, if Mr. Palfrey relies upon Josselyn for the historical trustworthiness of his statement that there were two Negroes in Massachusetts before Winthrop arrived, he has made a mistake.  There is no proof for the assertion.  That there were three Negroes on Noddle’s Island, we have the authority of Josselyn, but nothing more.  And if the Negro queen who kicked Josselyn’s man out of bed had been as long in the island as Palfrey and Washburn indicate, she would have been able to explain her grief to Josselyn in English.  We have no doubt but what Mr. Maverick got his slaves from the ship “Desire” in 1638, the same year Winthrop was inaugurated governor.

In Massachusetts, as in the other colonies, slavery made its way into individual families first; thence into communities, where it was clothed with the garment of usage and custom;[276] and, finally, men longing to enjoy the fruit of unrequited labor gave it the sanction of statutory law.  There was not so great a demand for slaves in Massachusetts as in the Southern States; and yet they had their uses in a domestic way, and were, consequently, sought after.  As early as 1641 Massachusetts adopted a body of fundamental laws.  The magistrates,[277] armed with authority from the crown of Great Britain, had long exercised a power which well-nigh trenched upon the personal