Three autograph letters signed to Jonathan Dickinson, from Isaac Norris, John Lewis and Samuel Tudman, each mentioning the shipment of slaves to Philadelphia.
V.p. [but Philadelphia, Jamaica or Bristol]: v.d. [June 1703 to July 1714]. Various lengths (310 x 185 mm or smaller). Address panels and docketing on versos. Condition : old folds, minor losses from opening. “Almost all the Negroes who arrived in Pennsylvania before 1730 were shipped from the West Indian islands in small lots of two or three. They were sent northward at the direct request of Pennsylvania residents for their own personal use, or on consignment to Philadelphia merchants for purposes of sale” (Wax). These letters illustrate that process and comprise: 4 June 1703: From Isaac Norris, to Dickinson in Jamaica, a lengthy letter on a variety of business matters, but closing with mention of three slaves shipped to Norris by Dickinson named Sampsoon, Quajo and Harry, "The 3 negroes are here. Sampsoon & Quajo under a course of physick. Sister Preston fear the life of both. I can get nothing bid for either of them as they are. Harry is still with me. Brother Preston would give me 50ll. for him but for thy hints he is loathe to meddle. I wish he had not come here." 6 October 1712: From Samuel Tudman, a Bristol merchant, to Dickinson in Philadelphia, a short letter on business matters with the following postscript, “Have some thoughts of being concerned your way with Negroes from Guinea, please to advise your thoughts about it, what quantity would sell, & how & what terms may Expect returns here & when.” 21 September 1714: From John Lewis a merchant in Jamaica, to Dickinson in Philadelphia, a lengthy letter on business matters, concluding, “Enclose bills of Lading for 2 Negroes which are on Account of Wm Williams & Nathanll Hering Esqrs. Returns of which you are to make (as soon as possible) in Flour” and with a postscript, “Since the above have shipped a 3d Negro which you’re to make returns in same goods.” Dickinson has docketed the letter with a detailed listing of each, with prices and names of buyers: Bristoll to Andrew Van Dike for £35; Queahe to Thomas Potts and James Turner for £30 and William Williams to himself for £30. “Friends in general and Pennsylvania Quakers in particular are credited, and it would seem rightly so, with leading the eighteenth century antislavery crusade … Little recognition has been accorded the fact that some Quaker merchants did participate in the Negro traffic, even as late as the middle of the eighteenth century” (Wax). For a discussion of Dickinson's involvement in the slave trade and with specific references to the slaves mentioned in Norris’s letter, see Wax, "Quaker Merchants and the Slave Trade" in PMHB, vol. 86, no. 2.
Three autograph letters signed to Jonathan Dickinson, from Isaac Norris, John Lewis and Samuel Tudman, each mentioning the shipment of slaves to Philadelphia.
V.p. [but Philadelphia, Jamaica or Bristol]: v.d. [June 1703 to July 1714]. Various lengths (310 x 185 mm or smaller). Address panels and docketing on versos. Condition : old folds, minor losses from opening. “Almost all the Negroes who arrived in Pennsylvania before 1730 were shipped from the West Indian islands in small lots of two or three. They were sent northward at the direct request of Pennsylvania residents for their own personal use, or on consignment to Philadelphia merchants for purposes of sale” (Wax). These letters illustrate that process and comprise: 4 June 1703: From Isaac Norris, to Dickinson in Jamaica, a lengthy letter on a variety of business matters, but closing with mention of three slaves shipped to Norris by Dickinson named Sampsoon, Quajo and Harry, "The 3 negroes are here. Sampsoon & Quajo under a course of physick. Sister Preston fear the life of both. I can get nothing bid for either of them as they are. Harry is still with me. Brother Preston would give me 50ll. for him but for thy hints he is loathe to meddle. I wish he had not come here." 6 October 1712: From Samuel Tudman, a Bristol merchant, to Dickinson in Philadelphia, a short letter on business matters with the following postscript, “Have some thoughts of being concerned your way with Negroes from Guinea, please to advise your thoughts about it, what quantity would sell, & how & what terms may Expect returns here & when.” 21 September 1714: From John Lewis a merchant in Jamaica, to Dickinson in Philadelphia, a lengthy letter on business matters, concluding, “Enclose bills of Lading for 2 Negroes which are on Account of Wm Williams & Nathanll Hering Esqrs. Returns of which you are to make (as soon as possible) in Flour” and with a postscript, “Since the above have shipped a 3d Negro which you’re to make returns in same goods.” Dickinson has docketed the letter with a detailed listing of each, with prices and names of buyers: Bristoll to Andrew Van Dike for £35; Queahe to Thomas Potts and James Turner for £30 and William Williams to himself for £30. “Friends in general and Pennsylvania Quakers in particular are credited, and it would seem rightly so, with leading the eighteenth century antislavery crusade … Little recognition has been accorded the fact that some Quaker merchants did participate in the Negro traffic, even as late as the middle of the eighteenth century” (Wax). For a discussion of Dickinson's involvement in the slave trade and with specific references to the slaves mentioned in Norris’s letter, see Wax, "Quaker Merchants and the Slave Trade" in PMHB, vol. 86, no. 2.
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