On the genealogy list for Berks County, Pa, a participant shares tidbits
from old newspapers. One of the stories posted a week or so ago told the
story of two children of a PA family who came up missing and were presumed
to have been "captured to be sold into slavery". The news story did not
state the color of the family, but I would presume they were persons of
some color.

What law allowed such goings on?  Wasn't there anyplace where families of
color could live as free men and women?

                                 Anne

At 08:00 AM 4/24/03 -0400, you wrote:
>I was out of town yesterday when the subject of slavery came up again, but
>had I been here, I would have pointed out, as Margie Young-Taylor finally
>did, that the color of a person's skin was irrelevant to his or her status
>as slave or free. If his or her mother had been held in slavery, he or she
>was born into slavery. The 1806 law that required freed slaves to leave the
>state unless permission was obtained from the legislature to remain (later
>amended to allow county courts to grant such permissions) was simply to rid
>the state of freed slaves, who were not deemed on the whole to be a
>wholesome presence in a slave society.
>
>Brent Tarter
>The Library of Virginia
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>
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Anne Pemberton
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