The police was apparently a little more thorough than in New York, partly because of legislation, which the white mechanics procured, lessening negro competition by forbidding masters to hire out their slaves.

From travelers' accounts it would appear that the relation of master and slave in Pennsylvania was in general more kindly than anywhere else on the continent; but from the abundance of newspaper advertisements for runaways it would seem to have been of about average character.

The truth probably lies as usual in the middle ground, that Pennsylvania masters were somewhat unusually considerate.

The assembly attempted at various times to check slave importations by levying prohibitive duties, which were invariably disallowed by the English crown.
On the other hand, in spite of the endeavors of Sandiford, Lay, Woolman and Benezet, all of them Pennsylvanians, it took no steps toward relaxing racial control until the end of the colonial period.[38] [Footnote 38: E.R.Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_ (Washington, 1911); R.R.Wright, Jr., _The Negro in Pennsylvania_ (Philadelphia, 1912).] In the Northern colonies at large the slaves imported were more generally drawn from the West Indies than directly from Africa.

The reasons were several.