On Friday, September 1, 2000, REDSKI9136@aol.com wrote: > I was interduced to a web site, in the last day or so,that > mentions many of our Pa. residents that owned slaves. It also list many of > their names. I have to admit that learning about this site, has really > thrown me a bit. Many of my own family's names are listed their as > slaveowners. I guess I have a lot to learn. I always thought that slavery > was from the MASON-DIXON line down into the south.I knew that it extended > into Maryland and that Delaware, seemed to stay nuetral. Slavery was practiced in all of the colonies, irrespective of the Mason-Dixon line. It was only outlawed in the Northern states between 1777 and 1804. This was easier for them to accomplish because slavery was not as interwined in their economies as it was in the South. > Though I knew of the many Indentured Slaves, I never knew our state was a > slave owning state. There is a distinction between Indentured Servitude (the correct term) and Slavery. The former was generally entered into willingly through an indenture, "a contract binding one party into the service of another for a specified term". Slavery was almost always involuntary, and the slave was considered property. See, for example, <http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/7/0,5716,117527+1+109538,00.html>. S R C A cott obert ranston nderson phssra@physics.emory.edu