1751.] HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 261 



of our county, the earliest settlers having been more liberally 

 supplied with ne<iroes. 



The third kind of labor was that of the negro slave. The 

 price of negro men at this time was from £A0 even to XlOO in 

 rare instances. The few who were now imported, were brought 

 from the West Indies, as it was found that in transporting negroes 

 from Africa directly to the more northern Provinces, their health 

 suffered more than when gradually acclimated, by being taken 

 first to the West Indies, and from thence further north. Even at 

 this period the Quakers and others had manumitted a consider- 

 able number of their slaves. The law that made it obligatory on 

 the master to provide for the maintenance of the slave during 

 life, was an obstacle to emancipation, as it was found that manu- 

 mitted negroes became indolent, and in their old age were liable 

 to become chargeable.^ 



The proportion of negroes to the white population within the 

 limits of our county was much greater at this period than at 

 present. The precise proportion is not known, but in the city 

 of Philadelphia, in 1751, the blacks exceeded one-third of the 

 whole population. - 



In the computation of time throughout Great Britain and its 

 dependencies, up to the 31st of December, 1751, what w^as known 

 as "old style," continued to be used. The change to our pre- 

 sent mode of computation was effected by an Act of Parliament, 

 entitled, " An Act for regulating the commencement of the year, 

 and for correcting the Calendar now in use." The numerical 

 designation of the months adopted by the Society of Friends, 

 which made March the First Month, was legalized by an Act 

 passed by the Provincial Assembly in the ninth year of the reign 

 of Queen Anne. 



Action by the Yearly Meeting of London was immediately 

 had on the subject, which was adopted by that of Philadelphia ; 

 and as this action explains the whole subject, including the 

 numerical designation of the months used by the Society of 

 Friends, it will be given entire, as found in the records of Chester 

 Monthly Meeting : 



" Agreed that as by the late Act of Parliament for regulating 

 the commencement of the year, that it is ordered that the first 

 day of the Eleventh month next, shall be deemed the first day 

 of the year 1752, and that the month called January shall be 

 successively called the first month of the year, and not the 

 month called March as heretofore hath been our method of 

 computing. 



1 See Kalm's Travels, i. 387-395, where the .subject of labor in Pennsylvania at 

 this period is more fully discussed. 



2 The population of Philadelphia was estimated at about 11.000 whites, and 6000 

 blacks. Holme's Ann. ii. 187. 



