"Deerfield presented a picture of slavery that went against so much of what we think we know about American slavery, for we tend to think of northerners as abolitionists rather than as slaveholders who were comfortable in that role."
"...In August 1742, Peter, like so many other slaves who managed to scrape together a bit of money, bought gloves, a snuff box and snuff, and strings of beads. He paid for some of these things by his hunting and trapping, using mink and other furs to get credit at the shops. Prince got store credit in exchange for fox skins and by pawning his violin. Others bought shoe buckles, vest buttons, tobacco and pipes. But they all, slave and free, bought gunpowder and flint and shot both for their own hunting and to defend the town. This would have been unthinkable away from the frontier, and five hundred miles farther south, this kind of slave-armed but not free-was almost unimaginable, but it was still slavery nonetheless, with people condemned to a lifetime of servitude and subject to sale."
~Mr. and Mrs. Prince, Gretchen Holbrook
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