Seven Years Quotes
“Service” referred to what was then the 7 year time of apprenticeship that a typical American apprentice was required to work for a master tradesman before he was given colonial citizenship and allowed to trade for himself. Under the bill that was passed anyone could come to the British American colonies (except Jews) by taking an oath of allegiance and paying a small fee. Holland and some thought that it discriminated against those apprentices who had come before and apprenticed themselves thus “playing by the rules.” Ever since, immigration and citizenship debates have faced the tension between the need for labor in America and the fairness to the people who had followed the earlier existing rules restricting immigration.
This was a very creative solution to the problem of slavery. Slave holders and their supports have always claimed that the paid valuable money to acquire a slave and slaves were valuable personal property. Freeing slaves was the government confiscating their wealth. The Pennsylvania solution was to say that the labor of a slave for 7 years was worth far more than the cost of a slave, so that under this law, slave owners could get their monetary value back and make a modest profit, and slavery would gradually disappear over a 7 year period if no new slavery were allowed. Although it made a lot of sense, the Southern States felt that their economy was different—that they could never get free white men to pick cotton.
