396 December 1748. 



to them to have confufed every thing ; but 

 fince that time, they have entertained lefs 

 difagreeable notions of the Negroes, for at 

 prefent many live among them, and they 

 even fometimes intermarry, as I myfelf 

 have feen. 



The Negroes have therefore been up- 

 wards of a hundred and thirty years in this 

 country : but the winters here efpecially in 

 New England and New York, are as fevere 

 as our Swedijh winters. I therefore very 

 carefully enquired whether the cold had 

 not been obferved, to affect the colour of 

 the Negroes, and to change it, fo that the 

 third or fourth generation from the firft that 

 came hither, were not fo black as their an- 

 ceftors. But I was generally anfwered, that 

 there was not the leaft difference of colour 

 to be perceived ; and that a Negro born 

 here of parents which were likewife born 

 in this country, and whofe anceftors both 

 men and women had all been blacks born 

 in this country, up to the third or fourth 

 generation, was not at all different in co- 

 lour, from thofe Negroes who are brought 

 diredly over from Africa. From hence 

 many people conclude, that a Negro or his 

 pofterity do not change colour, though they 

 continue ever fo long in a cold climate ; but 

 the mixing of a white man with a Negro 

 woman, or of a Negro with a white woman 



has 



