With respect to age & decrepitude they have the bene-
fit of the laws which oblige every town to provide for
the poor & infirm; In the alms-house of this Town, there
is provision made for invalids & insane of all colours &
there is a
school for the children who are born or put there, to which
blacks have the same access as whites. When children
are of proper age to be bound out the boys to a trade or
to work on a farm & the girls to serve in families, the
persons who take them enter into indentures with ye overseers of the
poor -- the boys
are to be perfected in reading, writing & arithmetic, to
be provided with clothing & at the age of 21 to be provid-
dismissed with 2 suits of clothes & £ 20 in cash -- the girls
are to be taught reading, writing, sewing, knitting &
housewifery to be dismissed at the age of 18 with suitable
clothing. The same indentures are given for blacks
as for whites.
See Winthrop's Letter about
Refugee negroes from Southward
and Sullivan's Letter p 2 (where &c)