Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
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Ox.
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LETTER
TO
BOSTON:
CHARLES
C.
boston:
thurston, torry, and company,
Printers, Devonshire Street.
REV.
MOSES STUART.
Sir:
for
OFFER no apology
directing
your attention
to
may
which were entertained by the Puritanical Fathers of Massachusetts on the As you have with great propriety alluded subject of slavery. to their views respecting it, I feel assured that you will pardon me for suggesting any oversight, that, in the hurry of comknowing full well, position, may have escaped your notice
history, a false impression of the sentiments
;
that your
familiarity
Nor do
which they are here presented some respects from what imagination has
no adventitious
to stand
aid.
They
require
Never a
set of
men
none had
less to fear
"
The
"
passage in
my
I first
my
?
fellow-citizens
of Massachusetts.
country, where
Britain
;
do
we
find
it
to
have originated
From Great
against
them.
united before
it.
to
and
this is
in
our Decla-
It
same
feeling toward
in the
some of
the dele-
Guinea
trade.
Here
as
it
came from
violating
hand of Mr.
'
Jefferson.
He
is
speaking of
the king of
England
He
nature
itself,
its
most sacred
rights of life
liberty in the
who never
offended him
capturing and
carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur a miserable death in the transportation thither.
This
is
the warfare of a
Christian king
Determined
to
should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or control this execrable
commerce.'
It will
was
launched exclusively against the slave trade, and not against domestic slavery as it then existed, or ever had existed in
the colonies.
is
danger
lest
to
which you
that
it
was
at length
Britain
alone
for the
in short^^hat slavery
owed
its
intro- />
Bay, and
its
long continuance
in direct
mother country,
opposition to the
the people.
I
am
was
something analogous
to
it,
is
who may
chance
to
have attempted
to ascertain
and
well as
and
feelings,
Although
my
in-
Connecticut, and
New Haven
;
religious sentiments
and
comof
;
without intterrupnecessity
among them,
creating the
constant intercourse
they
New
To
in relation to slavery,
their early
mind
training
Democracy of
down
a speci-
men
and
of
in
it
in his
Jack Cade
it
but
it
no sense can
be
said, that
Now
us for a
moment
enthu-
He was
a gentleman of
loftiest
hierarchy.
He was
At that time there were in England white men, Englishmen, Christians, who were, and during their whole existence had been, in a condition far enough removed from a state of
freedom,
men
it
not reduced to
that
abject
condition for
it.
They
were called
scription of
'^'
villeins.
beg leave
to introduce
a short de-
" Villain or
with
villanus, in
our ancient
bondman
called also, in
Domesday book,
servus, slave.
"
villain is
" Under the Saxon government, there was, as Sir William Temple
speaks, a sort of people in condition of downright servitude, employed
in the
most
servile
effects, to the
and stock
upon
it.
These seem
folk land, from which they were removable at the lord's pleasure. On the arrival of the Normans here, it seems not improbable, that
they,
who were
give
to
some sparks of enfranchisement to such wretched persons as fell their share, by admitting them, as well as others, to the oath of
which conferred a
right of protection,
fealty,
to
every other
Sir
Edward Coke
tells
us,
villa,
in villages,
;
in rustic
work of
the
These
villains
annexed
is,
to the
manor
or land, or
were
annexed
to the
person of
They
but
if
They
was
at the
mere
;
and and
was upon
to
any
other, the
meanest
offices
to
time and
quantity.
A
if
could acquire
rto
goods
but
he purchased
villain
own
trived to dispose of
lord
for
In'many
to
was payable
to
presumed
;
marry
his
daughter
law, the
lord
and by the
common
state
property
were
in the
same
of bond-
age with
parents,
whence
who was
called
neife.''''
Lord Campbell,
"
It is
in his Life of
not generally
in
known,
'
that,
down
'
of Elizabeth,
tliere
were
England both
might
villeins regardant,'
or slaves
it."
During the
it
much out of place to preach abolition in England as it is now in Mississippi. No one doubted the rightfulness of villanage, and from viUanage to slavery, and thence to the slave
trade the transition
"
was
easy.
Bancroft says
first
The
interested
England
in the
John Hawkins.
He
;
fraudulently trans-
Queen Elizabeth
and
to
when a new
expedition
Hawkins
fire to
a city, of which the huts were covered with dry palm leaves, and out
of eight thousand inhabitants, succeeded in seizing two hundred and
fifty.
The
which
this
act of atrocity
related,
and the
lustre
ment
in the
age of Elizabeth."
"
It
is
commander,
that, far
from
its
being
demi-moor
Hawkins lived till 1595. Nothing more need be said to show the feeling which prevailed at this period in England among the masses in respect to slavery or the slave trade.
" Villeinage," says Lord Campbell again, "
finally disappeared in the reign of
is
supposed
is
to
have
diffi-
James
I.
but there
great
culty' in saying
when
it
ceased
to
in
Hume
on
It
earlier,
but
this point,
Lord Campbell
is
was
in the midst of
such influences, that the early exiles of Massachusetts were Villanage had probably been extinguished in educated.
England before
certain.
their departure
but this
is
not absolutely
The
society
was accomplished, have never been satisfactorily By some it is imputed to the benign spirit of explained.
Christianity,
silently
it
operating
in
its
legitimate
sphere
and the
is
advance of the
arts.
of disappearance
a matter of debate.
All
between
lord
and
villain
excitement.
Among
the
this shows that the connection was not in that age productive of mass of documents which the con-
would
subject.
exist that
if
would conclusively
the period of
felt
its
overthrow,
on the
Villains
and wealth.
legislation.
was
this
class
gress among them as to eradicate selfishness to a degree that would induce them, from conscientious scruples, to manumit
their
bondmen,
had gone
it
is
surpassingly
strange
that
it
should
re-
When
of their slaves,
is
still more which they had themselves imposed on the consciences of their fellow-christians. Whether they did it,
let
who
produce the
result,
have been named doubtless conspired which we now behold. A higher ap;
preciation of Christianity
in
improvements
;
agriculture
the
advancement
at
to
in civilization
all
these
elements and
silently
and imperceptibly,
which villanage should no longer bear it was perceived on all sides that the
accordance with other things.
institution
was not
in
Men
felt
it.
obtruded
itself
upon them.
Instead of operating
to
work
lu
cumbrously
chievous.
it
and
finally mis-
elements, in obedience
abandoned
such things as they no longer had occasion for lords dropped their villains when they became an incumbrance, some sooner,
some
later, as
Who
it
was
that
held on to the
we have no means
of knowing.
The
time
when
twenty years
agreed on.
which
it
happened
is
not
a loss hereafter to
know why
and when slavery ceased in Massachusetts ? Who will inquire in vain when the slave trade was abolished by the British parliament, or
Indies
?
in the
West
These dates
fixed
beyond the
possibility of
excitement than existed in the time of which we have been speaking, some men had come to the conclusion that slavery
to
be suppressed.
Had
the
same
But
setts.
let
us render justice to the early planters of MassachuTheir humanity is not to be degraded to a level of
Queen
Their
legislation, as
much
in advance of
common
associates,
having in possession
In 1641 the
people adopted a code of laws made by themselves for their own special guidance and direction. It was drawn up by
some of
their
practical
men,
after
a residence
of ten years in their adopted country, and with the light of art of sellall the experience which they had acquired in the
11
government.
Among
:
of " Liberties OF
the fol-
lowing
article
amongst us unless
such strangers
these shall have
it
in just
warres, and
to us.
as willingly selle
all
And
the liberties
of
God
require.
shall
thereto
by Authoritie."
the head of " Capitall
And under
article
:
Laws"
is
this further
"
If
any man
stealcth a
man
or
mankind he
death."
This
their
is all
They made
men, and
in
men and
stealing
it
was, as
we
shall
have occasion
They
remain a dead
letter,
demanded their exercise, was enforced, shows that the makers were in earnest. It is related by Gov. Winthrop, and as it is valuable in exhibiting the real state of affairs at that time, about which notions
somewhat crude now
prevail,
it
The
" In beginning of the winter," says the governor, " a Portugal ship
lying at Nantascot,
(now
seamen
governor
same
manned,
to require
Portugal did not reason the case with him, nor give him any time to
12
consider, but presently boarded him, and took possession, and brought
men
fell to rifling
the ship as
if
The
he was ordered
to make double restitution (as our manner is) and the seamen were made to restore what they had taken out of the ship. So the Portugal departed well satisfied.
his
to
Guinea
whom
pretending
the same) they invited them aboard one of their ships upon the Lord's
people, but the country coming down, they were forced to retire without
their
men
his
wife being there also unprovided of maintenance, and his ship and
his
to
who
Keyser refused
ship lay a
on ship board.
So the
week in the roads, and then Keyser, some means by other ships which
if
rode there,
to
he
last
were bound
to)
and arriving
at
summer, he repaired
engaged
the wines
to
if
to
the magistrates,
and
told
who
was
himself and others, and that there would be great loss in they were not presently disposed, delivered them
to to the
respond
to
Mr. Smith,
his action
away
his ship,
and
li
his
rest of the
merchants
to lose the
proceed or
interest, for then- stock and adventure, which was forty per cent., and But diverse of the magistrates all the mariners to lose their wages.
being unsatisfied with this verdict (perceiving that the jury in their displeasure against Keyser, &c., did not only regard Smith's satisfaction for his
much
to the
next General Court. " For the matter of the negroes, whereof two were brought home,
slain
the magistrates took order to have these two set at liberty, and to be
sent
home
to
what
do in
seeing
it
was
in
These proceedings
to,
excited, as they
At the next meeting of the General Com-t, the following memorial was presented bya good deal of commotion.
Richard Saltonstall
att
I
my
was
to this effect
That
ment of
cording
the gospell and the good of the people of this plantation (to
the best of
my
skill,)
to the
laws of
place.
God and
I
cases wherein
act
by
virtue of
my
my
place to act (according to the oath) in the case concerning the negers
wherein
it is
apparent that
to certain negers,
and
killed
their townes.
conceive
which are
capitall
lawes of
this jurisdiction.)
14
" The act (or
"
acts) of
God and
(as
I
The
be
" The act of chacing the negers (as aforesayde) upon the Sabboth
day (being a
servile
is
" These acts and outrages being committed where there was noe
civill
call
them
to
by
whom
conceive
this court to
be the ministers of
is,
God
in this
case
and therefore
my
humble request
venient time
may
be imprisoned by
order of this Court, and brought unto their deserved censure in con;
and
this I
have
committed
otherwise
may
be upon their
own
it
will.)
" Yrs.
in all christian
observance,
"
It
RICHARD SALTONSTALL."
was had
the
matter.
Upon a
justice to be
was
and committed
to give
answer
at
convenient
time thereabouts."
to give
answer thereabouts
be considered as a
;
The
foregoing
memorial, which
;
may
of indictment,
viz.,
murder
;
ping
Sabbath breaking
and
first
arson.
last
Little or
no
stress is laid
upon the
three.
The
is
this
who was
15
member
of the
bound
to
Guinea,
to
to
buy, negroes.
engage
They went
about
it
in
least concealment.
Why
In sim-
just enacted
their understanding,
any thing contrary to the word of God. For aught appears in the history of the times, Captain Smith, who must have given satisfactory evidence of his piety,
for a blessing
Had
we
probably
But when he
was
ac-
tempted
quired,
to
who had
in the
same
field,
He
took what
to obtain
he deemed
;
a cargo
supposing, that as
and interested
the enterprise
him in that port as others had received in London. But he made a mistake. Actions which, if they did not procure Hawkins the honor of knighthood, were no obstruction to his
to
We
have
The
which Captain
com-
Smyth
he
without delay.
may be sent home, which this court doth resolve to send And if you have any thing to alledge why you should
16
not return
him
to
it
will
be expected you
should forthwith
make
How
It
any odium,
him
triumphant, aUhough
Be-
him
the
was
felt
sure of a party
to
ing, a war broke out with the Pequods, a numerous and powerful tribe of Indians residing within the borders of Connecticut. The colonies were in imminent danger of being annihilated, and it was resolved that the most energetic measures should be adopted. The men who came to this
and accordingly
hundred
Hot
pursuit
was made
after those
who were
not involved in
Forty-
brought to Boston,
the
women and children, were spared and men having been put to death.
These captives were disposed of through the country among the inhabitants. Some of them ran away and were taken and brought back by the neighboring Indians " and those," Of another says Winthrop, " we branded on the shoulder."
;
17
lot
some sent to Consome to Massachusetts We sent fifteen necticut, and boys and two women to Bermuda by Captain Pierce, but he, The purpose missing it, carried them to Providence Isle."
for
women and
is
clearly
enough
indicated, perhaps,
" The comes out with it fiat-footed. people of Massachusetts sent a number of women and children to the West Indies and sold them for slaves." Here is the a whole community participating in the slave trade
;
sovereign capacity.
may
own
provoking,
;
when
the
was hand to hand for very life that harmless, inotfensive negroes would have been treated very differently.
But
facts are
opposed
to this hypothesis.
In 1630,
when
a
in the Bay,
He was
from being forcibly ejected, he purchased his land of the colony and being already within its limits, became subject
;
to its jurisdiction.
As
early as 1639, he
It
when
or
how
He was
power."
had it been illegal, or opposed to public sentiment. not a Puritan, but " strong for the lordly, prelatical
This gave him no hold on the sympathies of those Nevertheless, he was not molested. In a community where the most stringent laws were enforced with
about him.
the utmost inflexibility against
sion,
it is
members
of their
own
persua-
commu-
1.8
nion,
and
that, too,
would be
treated
were
between the colonies of Massachusetts Bay, The eastern Plymouth, New Haven, and Connecticut. Rhode Island, were excluded from settlements, and that of
the compact on account of the laxity of their religious opinions.
They go on
also
to
say
"
It is
that the
shall,
charge of
both in
all just
men and
all
confederation in different
abilities
proportions, according
to
and
different
charge of
(if
please
God
it
be in lands,
the said
among
to be
an
reduced to practice
upon the
after a
occasion.
known
as Philip's "War
was brought
most
fierce
and sanguina-
In disposing of the
which was
many
of the
chiefs
were executed at Boston and Plymouth, and most of the rest were sold, and shipped for slaves to Bermudas and The purpose for which the clause touching other parts."
the advantage to be derived from persons,
was
inserted in
benefit
is
now
apparent.
The
was
way made
available,
of the body
.politic.
The Plymouth
no male
be allowed
to
people, the
same
year, passed a
law that
all
persons
who had
by
the
first
i9
act,
who
to
should be be seized
:
after that
day, was
by proper
and sold for the benefit of the colony an however, was made in favor of five or six Indians exception, to whom Captain Church had pledged his word, that if they
officers
and Capt. Hawthorne, succeeded by stratagem in capturing, in a time of peace, about two hundred Indians, who had
taken sides with Philip in the
Boston.
"
Seven
or eight,
They were sent to late war. who were known to have killed
;
with great
satisfaction.
Mather relates the exThese prisoners, having been must have been sold on public
referred to, contain
The
much
It
displayed
by
their descendants.
runs thus
"
It is
his
master into
or upon other due proof, the said servant shall be delivered either to
his master, or
any other
that pursues
certificate or
proof."
New
were introduced.
of Boston
'
Josselyn,
who
spent
years
in
the
They have
some of these
are English
20
others negroes."
On
slaves.
slaves.
at this
time imported
into
Rhode
The
1684.
colonial charter
of Massachusetts
was annulled
affairs
in
of the colo-
much
regard to public
The governor, assistants, and deputies were as much chosen by the freemen as the governor, senators, and representatives are now. The principal, if not the only
difference, lay in the fact, that suffrage, instead of being universal,
was
restricted to
ery in the
first
church members, who alone could These were the men who admitted slavplace, and without whose concurrence it could
They had
established
;
the power to
law by which
it
was
a power they
its
to exercise,
proved
employed against Q,uakers, and Antinomiand Anabaptists. Very many years afterwards, and in
under the provincial charter,
efforts
altered circumstances,
were made
their vetos.
to that effect,
It is to
But those
who had
charter could
have had no suspicion that slavery was wrong. In the gloomy times that immediately preceded the extinction of
the charter,
when
their fears
21
in the air
war
when
man, and an arbitrary and venal government in England threatened them with the loss of all those privileges which
they had made such
adversity, and
sacrifices to
obtain
on record, would
we
hair
can
afford.
is
Among
''pride
them, and
a conspicuous
position,
;
in
;
wearing
" " pro-
men's hair
like
women's
faneness in
persons
turning
is
pronounced
to
town,
These
the
as
constituting
list
of evils that
of,
was
and repented
>^ "
It is
in his
numerous
in
scruple by
I
all
am
against slavery.
was
one,
of public sentiment.
The
a period to negroes
22
But by
or
whom
this request
was made,
or
on what account,
with what success, does not appear. There were many prudential and economical considerations which might have been urged for suppressing negro slavery.
We
had
"
are not
presume that
its
The
to the
African constitution.
;
For
able to blacks
much encouragement
The
humane.
"It
is
necessary not
For
if
by a
slave,
who
is
employment
and so of
other trades."
it is
far
from
on the score
Virginia
Massachusetts
prevented the
in
were enacted
first
prevailed in Virginia
;
The
and a
class of
sup-
men,
nicknamed
into
spirits,
used
embarking
for
to
White
sold in
servants
came
to
They were
England
bidder
;
be transported, and
in Virginia,
were resold
to the highest
horses at a fair."
23
This was done
son,
in old Virginia, the birth-place of Mr. Jeffer-
where
so
much
Grahame
says,
"A
have no means
or at
at
hand
any
rate disregarded.
Dr. Belknap,
who was an
which
By
inquiries
living, I
port
African trade
The
West
slaves
purchased
Indies, or in the
Southern Colonies but when these markets were price low, some of them were brought hither
one between
of children."
Dr.thirty
remember
Belknap,
who was an
abolitionist as the
were divided in
their opinions
Yet with all his knowledge of men and things as they existed an hundred years ago, and with his extensive and critical researches into colonial antiquities, he was able to name but one person, who publicly protested against it. That individual was the venerable Samuel Sewall, Chief Justice of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and one of the Judges,
who
es
;
trial
and one,
This gentle-
man, about 1716, published a pamphlet in condemnation of slavery in which he was doubtless as sincere as he was in
;
Newbury, says
there
person
who
Coleman of Nantucket.
He
24
two
persons, there appears to have been no public advocate
in Massachusetts,
till
revolution."
With one
exception, slavery
British Colonies.
was
In Massachusetts
as in
was
as
low
any
part of
I
the country.
Judge Sewall
says, in his
sympathy of another
his
philanthropist.
at
own expense
trials
set
up a school
in Boston,
were taught
Diary the
to read.
Some
and
afflictions to
which he was
His exertions do
Among
the
his "
Dark Dispensations,"
it is
many,
to
on purpose
young negroes, so that if any mischief is done by them, the credit of it comes upon him." The whites did not deem
it
felt
no gratitude towards one who attempted to teach them. There was no display of public sentiment against slavery
in Massachusetts until a short time previous to the revolution.
The Rev. W.
says
"
of Cotton Mather,
One of the
is
slavery,
so completely forgotten in
New
He
says that
of his
blessing.
Some gentlemen
was
'
in
want of a good
him
an expense of forty or
fifty
pounds.
He
describes
him as a negro
"
25
of promising aspect and temper, and says that such a present was
'
his family.'
which happened in 1728, described him as "the the first in age, in gifts, in grace first minister in the town the first in all the provinces of New England for universal literature and extensive services." The statement in your essay that Jonathan Edwards wrote There is a a vindication of the slave trade, is to the point.
his death,
; ;
He was born in 1703. Besides these distinguished and venerable men we may introduce the Rev. Dr. Stiles, who was President of Yale College. He was a settled minister in Newport, R. I., when the revotradition that
lutionary
in
war broke
out.
there, being
want of a
rum by a
slave ship
;
be exchanged for a negro boy and It is procured and brought home to him. one was actually change fair to state that his views afterwards underwent a
to the coast of Africa to
;
but he
introduced merely for the purpose of showing what the sentiments of New England, upon slavery, were at a given
is
These men, whose names have just been mentioned, were not only the most distinguished of their day, but they were all of them sons of distinguished clergymen.
They must
all
whimsical bequest
history.
is
noticed
by
and amusing
"
1698,
Tom." "In
My
my
negro boy,
to
sells
Edward
and
boards."
New
one direction.
4
England did not expend all " They had both their do-
26
mestic and their foreign slave trade, and dealt in Indians as
well
as negroes."
Many
of the slaves in
Massachusetts
Thomas
five
Steele sells to
Thus, in 1708, John Farnum, of Boston, for thirtyIn 1725, Theophilus Cotton,
all
of Hampton, deeds to Jonathan Poore, of Newbury, " indian boy Sippai, aged about sixteen."
my
And
as early as 1646,
sells to
Hilton, of
Newbury,
George
"James,
my
And
after
having given in
Garden," to
his son
Adam,
"I
give
him
also
is
my
Indians
Possi-
there and
my
there."
bly these were some of the Pequods which had been branded
on the shoulder.
It is
who came
consti-
to establish a religious
commonwealth on
these inhospitable
shores,
tute so
philanthropist.
They were
careful
Bible,
much
solicitude as the
to
On
were valiant
ters.
humane mas-
From
sprung the Putnams, and the Starks, and the Prescotts, of the
and the
27
very
brief.
They gave
the
assurance, without
the least
The
Arbella,
on her
first
voyage,
when
she
came
freighted
with as precious a cargo as ever crossed the Atlantic, carried under her hatches forty-two tons of beer, and two hogsheads
of cider.
much
trotible
and expense
to be
In 1637, the colony of Connecticut, in making provision for the forces under Captain Mason, in the Pequod war,
ordered,
and
if
there
laws to restrain
the
drinking
of
Had
gone
superfluous.
As
by law
masters.
They
legislative
God
is
Whether slavery
a question of hermeneutics.
it
Ac;
was allowable
?
it
thus,
This
it
may.
the law of
refer,
God
estab-
to
no where
authorizes oppression.
to
good
faith.
They
false
In the
same code
28
" Every
shall
man whether
libertie
have
to
come
Towne
move any
lawful,
complaint, petition,
Bill,
it
proper cognizance, so
respective manner."
be done
further,
in
And
from
of the
shall
at
length arrived,
when
were
to
be severed.
The
process
by which
it
this
was
;
effected
fortu-
affords
and
nately
every
from one
who was
the task.
which were
it
pro-
pounded sundry
to
inquiries in relation
to
slavery as
had
existed in Massachusetts.
He
requested,
among
other things,
By no
made
is
The
correspondence
is
very
full
and
explicit, the
Doctor
opinion,
which began
ago."
commencement
of this
Great Britain."
" Not much was
to feel the
He
said in a public
till
we began
rights
otTr
was then
The
own
29
and
liberties whilst
;
we encouraged
was very
and from that time both slavery and the slave trade began The principal cause was public opinion, and to be discountenanced. the present generation, at an early stage of life, imbibed that opinion,
apparent
which has grown with their growth, and strengthened with their " At the beginning of our controversy with Great Britain, strength."
several persons,
who
own
liberty,
and
at the
versy began about the year 1766, and was renewed, at various times,
till
when
it
was warmly
agitated,
commencement
Harvard Col-
lege."
ment between
ly
the
two houses,
failed before
it
was
sufficient-
matured
first
was
ostensibly
to
effect
the
object.
were afterwards made on the board without success and. then the revolution intervened, and suspended for a long
period
all
further operations.
It
may
appear invidious to
spirits
of the day
It
were
was a
gave
It
them an opportunity
liberty,
show,
all
As demands
topic that
they were thus always prepared with a would command the attention of their audience,
and
enlist the
These remarks
or to
are
the
patriots
detract an iota
30
from
their claims
upon our
gratitude,
set of
purer,
and
at the
owed its consummation, and the great length of time that was suffered to elapse after all extraneous opposition to it was
removed.
The war
setts
the revolt of
had
obtained
complete
mastery
or
over
their
affairs,
mandamus
suppressed.
councillors
the
slave
trade
was not
Had
the
so
which formerly
life,
much
of their constituents?
Such
is
by
mility,
To
inquiry,
recourse
Dr. Belknap,
describes,
who was an
He
how
and the
relation
own
He
proceeds
adoption of the
most flagrant
trated in this
By
pecting black
sent
men on
them down
came
to sail,
and went
having previously
indignation being
The
public
greatly excited against the actors in this affair, and against others
who
31
had been concerned
in the traffic in slaves,
it
to
ferment and bring good out of evil. take advantage of " Accordingly the Association of the Boston Clergy originated a equipping petition to the legislature, praying for an act to prohibit the
the
and insuring vessels bound to Africa for slaves, and providing against carrying innocent blacks from home. The petition was circulated and
by a great number of our reputable citizens. The blacks were and fortiinatehj ^irged to present a similar petition, which they did the Society of Quakers, presented at another of the same kind from a former session, was then lying on the table. All these were brought
sio-ned
;
effect
prevent the slave trade, and for granting relief to families of such un-
Com-
"
this
is
said to
have commenced
some twelve years after the last vestige of British authority had vanished from the Old Bay State and eight years after the citizens of the same had been in the full fruition of all the blessings which flow from a government of the most
;
mental
equal."
article of
which was
men
and
what avast combination of machinery was brought which the sovereign people, we are taught, had time out of mind regarded with unmitigated disgust and abhorrence. All the aid that could be drawn
And
yet,
was concentrated
to a focus
on
this
memorable occasion.
Nor does
it
was enough
32
of the Q^uakers alone were unavailing.
the transaction with the air of a
Dr. Belknap recounts
man who
has accomplished
a most
sic
it,
difficult
undertaking
Not
at
at the tardiness
is
He
is
done
We
how
Some have
sup-
to the religious
Dr.
who was an eye-witness of the whole proceeding, and, moreover, a clergyman, gives no such intimation. He ascribes
it
mainly,
if
In writing an ac-
count of the movement to which his attention had been particularly called, misrepresentation could only have been the result
of deliberate fraud.
Furthermore,
if religious
feeling
was the
moving cause, it would be evidence that piety existed in a more exalted state between 1766 and 1788 than at any former period. There is nothing to sustain such an opinion. During
the intellectual struggle that preceded the appeal to arms, the
pulpit, as a rule,
The
few exceptions, were whig. The was inestimable. But from what has been said of Dr. Edwards and Dr. Stiles, it is apparent that the conversion of a vast many of them to the side of abolition must have
been by a process extremely expeditious.
If the charge be true, that Mr. Jefferson has
value of
brought against
that while
discharging the functions pertaining to that patriotic undertaking they were even then engaged in the Guinea trade
;
it
will
which
33
spared.
It
is
The
accusation, to be sure,
is
vague and
indefinite.
We
only
know
that
by
the North
is
is
meant
New
England,
inasmuch
as the epithet
never applied to
territories
west of
in those
this
the Hudson.
New
England people
;
spirit
and a rumor of
have been
known
whole community.
By
the choice
if
make a fuss
about
it.
It is
we
clearly
who
absorbing interest
Any
thing illustrative of
There
valu-
viewed
in this light,
is
The
was
ratified in
Mas-
sachusetts
by
whiqh has
;
just
been described
and on the
same day, be it remarked, they passed another Act for suppressing and punishing of Rogues, Vagabonds, and other idle and lewd persons, the sixth section of which reads as follows
:
" Be
it
further enacted
Emperor of Morocco
or a
citi-
34
zen of some one of the United States,
(to
be evidenced by a certificate
shall
be a citizen,) shall
Commonwealth for a longer time than two months and upon complaint made to any Justice of the Peace within this Comthat
monwealth
of
any such person has been within the same more than
shall order the said person to depart out
in
Commonwealth
and
Commonto depart
wealth, upon complaint and proof made, that such person has continued
in this
Commonwealth
him or her
as aforesaid, shall
commit
of correction
Court on the
it
day
and
if
upon
trial
at said
Court
shall be
made to Commonwealth
contrary to the tenor of this act, he or she shall be whipped not ex-
ceeding ten
stripes,
;
and ordered
if
to
and
he or she
same punishment
quotiesy
The
constitution
it
had
just
been
ratified,
stances attending
were fresh
men.
The contest upon it had been arduous, and the vote, by which it was finally adopted, was a close one yet when the deed was done, no person dreamed of resisting it. There was
;
to
be no evasion.
The
by the articfle, and see it executed when circumstances should demand it, but they went further, and attempted to remove all inducements for a slave to come here, by making the place beforehand too hot for him. Massachusetts meant to act with
perfect
lision.
good
faith,
all
col-
For although
at least
was bounded
after be-
on two sides
by
slave States.
It
was long
it
New York
and
may
be news to
35
some, that
age.
New
Hampshire
at that
time held
men
in vassal-
again.
letter of Dr.
in
'
all
men
....
it
it
as a moral or political
the liberation of the
at large
;
negroes, and so
but
The
1783, and
'
State of
New
asserted that
all
men
free,
The
construction there
that all
in
who
who were
By
reason of
this construction
do not intend
to
vindicate,) the blacks in that State are in the late census distinguished
into free
limits."
So much for a contemporaneous exposition of apparently synonymous phrases. You, sir, are not without fears that St. Paul, were he to reappear, might meet with rough usage at the hands of some
calling themselves Christians, for the part he felt himself con-
strained
by
the
Holy Ghost
to take
on
and
particularly for sending a runaway back to his master. Of what punishment would they be adjudged worthy, who
in
were engaged
which has
flesh
?
just
to
come again
in the
And yet, it was passed by a senate, of which Samuel Adams was president, and approved by his Excellency, John Hancock of all the world, just the two men,
their behalf?
:
the extravagance of
whose devotion
to liberty
had rendered
them
tliat
British authorities,
36
Gage on
are
all
besides.
There
offence might
now,
as then, be
deemed
dign punishment."
It
is
in
they could expect from his opponent, Governor Bowdoin, who was looked upon as the advocate of more stringent
measures.
as
It
Hancock, with
on such a
political horizon,
would
popu-
known
it
to exist in the
notice the
proceedings of the
May 30, 1849. At their meeting, in 1848, this venerable body, on motion of a most highly respectable member, appointed a committee to prepare a report which should contain
"A
in our
Country."
of ten
was raised, and the report was the fruit of their labors. Having a year before them to mature their plans, the report was prepared with great deliberation. It appears by the record, that the report itself was not presented to the meeting
;
all
its
essential
features
vote.
The
)io
and
have seen
We
are author-
37
ized, therefore, to look
upon
it
On
is
the follow-
ing paragraph,
which
is
quoted entire
Thomas Keyson
(or Kezar)
and James Smith imported a number of slaves into Massachusetts, in 1645, the citizens of Boston denounced them, and all others engaged
in the
same
;
traffic,
as
'
'
committed them
to prison
man-
stealing
'
to
charge,
to
native country,
the
General Court
the
;
same
also,
That no black mankind, or white being, shall be forced by covenant, bond, or otherwise, to serve any man, or and that the man that will not his assigns, longer than ten years
ered law
to this effect
'
;
'
let
them go
to the
end that
they
may
to the
And
equally familiar
is
the
melancholy
England,
New
were
set aside,
and
their consciences
and
Now
to
it
what impression
?
is
this
make
should
What impression did the writer himself intend that make 7 Why, manifestly, that in 16'45, " the citizens
number of
slaves."
This
is
the gist of
so far as
are concerned.
liarities
them to their native country, are wholly unnoticed. No allusion is made to the distinction created hy law hetvveen huying men and stealing men. For aught that appears in tlie
to restore
38
document, the whole excitement was raised by the attempt to
bring negroes here in the condition of slaves
;
and that
it
had
no reference
to the
obtained.
entire
Whether
it
this is a fair
enable
reader
to
decide.
is
He
will
be struck by the
that appearance
marked by
is
we always
gown ?
Is
it
not altogether
disingenuous
And what
Rhode
Island
are
we
to infer
The most
its
obvious meaning
is,
men
and
but
that the
law limiting
whole term of
for the " covetousness and despotic authority " of the metro-
politan government.
last
up a government by purchasing
In 1644
government
for the
his abode."
'
"Thus," says
soul liberty
'
Bancroft,
on the
incorporated 'with
selves.' "
full
themIsland
Things proceeded
II.
way
In 1663 Charles
Rhode
conferred on
And
39
in relation to the
Rhode
to,
he
says,
it
"
was
all
at
new
principles,
embodied
as if
that
to
Connecticut."
Then,
no longer able
to contain himself,
then seemed, a
political
Rhode
in
existence, and
now
valid, in the
world.
It
II.
Charles
its
reception,
The probable population of Rhode Island, at the time of may have been twenty-five hundred. In one hundred
fold
;
power of
the
farmers,
protects a dense
tended commerce.
erty,
and prop-
We
which
is
Way-
was when
it
might have
been said of Newport, as a distinguished tragedian in one of his rhapsodies is reported to have said to an audience in Liverpool,
"
Every brick
in
your houses
is
cemented by the
to 1689,
blood of slaves."
Rhode
It
Island never
must be apparent,
is
the production of
to cavil
curacies,
what
will be
thought of a clergyman
who
desig-
40
what he terms the "Mother Country " as a "Foreign If Great Britain was foreign in respect to the Colonies, the Colonies must have stood in the same relation to her. But on the authority of Webster's Dictionary,
nates
Government."
"
We
call
is
jurisdiction
our
own
government."
The
Colonies
were within and under the jurisdiction of Great Britain till the revolution. Their emancipation from British supremacy was the revolution.
The
fair
acumen and historical accuracy which pervades the Report. The writer was evidently letting off steam. In conclusion, it is not improper to say a word about the
(Quakers.
foggy
sort
of notion
is
beginning to prevail,
any
rate,
been opposed
This
position, if true,
would
many
not true.
Opposition to slavery
at
Wila letter
There
is
to
and progress of
among them.
when he
New
Jersey
Penn
left
a family
among
Friends."
The
to
earliest instance of
emancipation
It
eight or
ten years after, that the yearly meeting began to lean in favor
41
In regard to the improvement of the negroes, Penn
at-
tempted to
legislate,
among
sonal safety.
There
an
is
no more reason
to suppose that
abolitionist,
They
and
so doubtless
What
Grahame
" Negro slavery lingered long
in the settlements
of the Puritans in
New
in
New
altliough in
or
its
ap-
to this
inhumanity,
America.
Las
introduction into
rigors in
Barbadoes
and the
illustrious
into the
The
clause
into the
Fundamental
Constitutions of Carolina,
this
shall
his
These sentiments of Locke did not lower him in the eyes of our ancestors. As evidence of the estimation in which his writings were held by the most zealous and enlightened advocates for liberty at the time when the flame was brightest the opinion of no one could be introduced which is entitled
to greater
last will
Jr.
In the
who
fell
a martyr
to the cause
no
less than
curs
"
42
"
I
give to
my
son,
when he
age of
fifteen years,
Algernon Sidney's Works, John Locke's Works, Lord Bacon's Works, Gordon's Tacitus, and Gate's Letters. May the Spirit of Liberty rest
upon him
how
"
Whether
it
(the
was
carried
"
"
here than
rum
to assist
them
in carrying
on
their business."
AMICUS.
W46
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