Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH COLONIAL LITERATURE
Servitus perfecta voluntaria, inter Christianum Christiainum, ex parte
servi patientis saepe est licita, quia est necessaria: sed ex parte domini agentis,
procurando exercendo, vix potest esse licita: quia non convenit regulae illi
generali:
Quaecunque volueritis ut faciant vobis homines, ita vos facite eis. Matt. 7.1.
Perfecta servitus poenae, non potest jure locum habere, nisi ex delicto gravi
quod ultimum supplicum aliquo modo meretur: quia Libertas ex naturali
aestimatione proxime accedit ad vitam ipsam, eidem a multis proeferri solet.
Ames. Cas. Consc. Lib. 5. Cap. 23. Thes. 2, 3.
2.11.2 Reading and Review Questions
1. What intrinsic rights does Sewall attribute to Joseph? Why? How?
2. How does Sewall characterize slave-holders? What Biblical allusions
does he make to shape this characterization?
3. What concrete distinctions does Sewall make between blacks and whites?
Why? How do these distinctions support his condemnation of slavery?
4. How, and to what eect, does Sewall refute the argument that, because
slave-holders bring blacks to the “light” of Christianity, slavery benets
blacks?
5. How convincing is Sewall’s argument against slave-holders’ using
Abrahams purchase of servants as justication for their enslaving
blacks? Why?
2.12 GABRIEL THOMAS
(1661–1714)
Gabriel Thomas was born at Poentmoil, Wales. A friend of William Penn and a
member of the Society of Friends, Thomas sailed for Pennsylvania on the John and
Sarah, arriving near the time of that colony’s inception. He lived in Pennsylvania
for fteen years before returning to England. There, Thomas published his
description in England, an account that sought to encourage settlements along
the Delaware River. Eight or so years after the publication of his book, Thomas
returned to America. He settled in Prime Hook Neck, in modern-day Delaware,
where he died in 1714.
2.12.1 From An Historical and Geographical Account of the
Province and Country of Pensilvania; and of West-New-
Jersey in America
Pensilvania lies between the Latitude of Forty and Forty re Degrees; West-
Jersey on the East, Virginia the West, Mary-Land South, and Canada on the
North. In Length three hundred, and in Breadth one hundred and eighty Miles.
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