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[5]] Americana
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 02516 4838
Gc 974.4 M781N MOORE, GEORGE HENRY, 1823- 1892. NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/notesonhistoryof1823moor
NOTES
ON THE
HISTORY OF SLAVERY
IN
MASSACHUSETTS
BY
GEORGE H. MOORE LIBRARIAN OF THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Quis nescit, primam esse historia legem, ne quid falsi dicere audeat ? deinde ne quid veri non audeat ? · -Cic. de Orat., II., 15.
NEW-YORK D. APPLETON & CO. 443 & 445 BROADWAY MDCCCLXVI
Entered, according to Act of Congrefs, in the year 1866, by GEORGE H. MOORE, In the Clerk's Office of the Diftrict Court of the United States for the Southern Diftrict of New York.
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
Stereotyped by JOHN F. TROW & Co., 50 Greene Street, New York.
IS Canner - $ 8.50
1209128
CONTENTS.
I. EARLY HISTORY OF SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS. PURITAN THEORY AND PRACTICE OF SLAVERY. .
I-10 II. THE LAW OF SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS. ITS ESTABLISHMENT AND MODIFICATION. SLAVERY HEREDITARY IN MASSACHUSETTS. RESOLVE IN 1646, TO RETURN STOLEN NEGROES TO AFRICA, NOT AN ACT HOSTILE TO SLAVERY. 10-30
III. SLAVERY OF INDIANS IN MASSACHUSETTS. AT- TEMPT TO SELL CHILDREN OF QUAKERS. . IV. STATISTICS OF SLAVE-POPULATION. LEGISLATION CONCERNING SLAVES AND SLAVERY. TAXA- TION OF SLAVE-PROPERTY. THE SLAVE-TRADE. V. EARLIEST ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENTS IN AME- RICA, IN RHODE ISLAND AND PENNSYLVANIA. CHIEF-JUSTICE SEWALL. CHARACTER AND CONDITIONS OF SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS. JAMES OTIS'S PROTEST AGAINST NEGRO-SLAV- ERY. JOHN ADAMS SHUDDERS AT HIS Doc- TRINES.
VI. " THE FREEDOM SUITS." SLAVERY CHALLENGED. MOVEMENTS IN THE LEGISLATURE BETWEEN 1767 AND 1775. · III-147
VII. THE DOCTRINE OF PRIZE IN NEGROES. ACTION OF MASSACHUSETTS IN 1776. NATIONAL LEGISLATION ON THE SUBJECT. HISTORY OF THE DOCTRINE. SOUTH CAROLINA SLAVES CAPTURED BY THE BRITISH, AND RECAPTURED BY MASSACHUSETTS VESSELS OF WAR. LEGIS-
30-48
48-72
72-III
iv
Contents.
LATIVE AND JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS OF MASSA- CHUSETTS.
148-176 VIII. PROGRESS OF PUBLIC OPINION ON SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS DURING THE REVOLUTION. ATTEMPT TO ABOLISH SLAVERY IN 1777. · SUBJECT REFERRED TO THE CONTINENTAL CON-
GRESS. THE CONSTITUTION OF 1778. CON- TROVERSY ON NEGRO EQUALITY. STATUS OF FREE NEGROES. .
176-200
IX. THE CONSTITUTION OF 1780. ALLEGED ABOLI- TION OF SLAVERY. THE QUESTION EXAMINED.
JUDICIAL LEGISLATION IN 1781-83. THE JENNISON SLAVE-CASES. APPEAL OF SLAVE- OWNERS TO THE LEGISLATURE. . . 200-223
X. ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE-TRADE. LEGISLATION AGAINST NEGROES. EXPULSION OF NEGROES
FROM THE STATE. CONCLUSION. . .
224-242 · APPENDIX.
A. THE MILITARY EMPLOYMENT OF NEGROES IN MASSACHUSETTS. 243-246
B. ADDITIONAL NOTES, ETC. . . · 246-250 C. JUDGE SAFFIN'S REPLY TO JUDGE SEWALL, 1701. 251-256
a
NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS.
I.
E find the earlieft records of the hiftory of flavery in Maffachufetts at the period of the Pequod War-a few years after the Puritan fettlement of the colony. Prior to that time an occafional offender againft the laws was punifhed by being fold into flavery or adjudged to fer- vitude; but the inftitution firft appears clearly and dif- tinctly in the enflaving of Indians captured in war. . We may hereafter add a fketch of the theories which were held to juftify the bondage of the heathen, but at pref- ent limit ourfelves to the collection of facts to illuftrate our general fubject. And at the outfet we defire to fay that in this hiftory there is nothing to comfort pro- flavery men anywhere. The ftains which flavery has left on the proud efcutcheon even of Maffachufetts, are quite as fignificant of its hideous character as the
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Notes on the History of
fatanic defiance of God and Humanity which accom- panied the laying of the corner-ftone of the Slave- holders' Confederacy.
The ftory of the extermination of the Pequods is well known. It was that warlike tribe who, in the early months of "that fatal year," 1637, were re- ported by Governor Winflow to Winthrop as follows :
"The Pecoats follow their fifhing & planting as if they had no enemies. Their women of efteem & children are gone to Long Ifland with a ftrong gard at Pecoat. They profeffe there you fhall finde them, and as they were there borne & bred, there their bones fhall be buried, & rott in defpight of the Englifh. But if the Lord be on our fide, their braggs will soon fall." M. H. S. Coll., Iv., vi., 164.
The extracts which follow explain themfelves and hardly require comment.
Roger Williams, writing from Providence [in June, 1637] to John Winthrop, fays: "I underftand it would be very gratefull to our neighbours that fuch Pequts as fall to them be not enflaved, like thofe which are taken in warr; but (as they fay is their generall cuftome) be vfed kindly, haue howfes & goods & fields given them : becaufe they voluntarily choofe to come in to them, & if not receaved will [go] to the enemie or turne wild Irifh themfelues : but of this more as I fhall vnderftand. . . . " M. H. " S. Coll., Iv., vi., 195.
Again [probably in July, 1637]: "It having againe pleafed the Moft High to put into your hands another miferable droue of Adams degenerate feede, & our brethren by nature, I am bold (if I may not
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Slavery in Mafachufetts.
offend in it) to requeft the keeping & bringing vp of one of the children. I haue fixed mine eye on this little one with the red about his neck, but I will not be peremptory in my choice, but will reft in your loving pleafure for him or any," &c. M. H. S. Coll., IV., vi., 195-6.
Again [probably 18th September, 1637]: “Sir, concerning captiues (pardon my wonted boldnefs) the Scripture is full of mysterie & the Old Teftament of types.
" If they have deserued death 'tis sinn to spare :
" If they haue not deserued death then what punifhments ? Whether perpetuall flaverie.
" I doubt not but the enemie may lawfully be weaknd & despoild of all comfort of wife & children &c., but I befeech you well weigh it after a due time of trayning vp to labour & reftraint, they ought not to be fet free : yet so as without danger of adioyning to the enemie." M. H. S. Coll., Iv., vi., 214.
Later in the fame year [Nov. 1637] Roger Wil- liams, who had promifed certain fugitive flaves to in- tercede for them, " to write that they might be vfed kindly"-fulfilled his promife in a letter to Winthrop, in which, after ftating their complaints of ill usage, &c., he adds :
" My humble defire is that all that haue thefe poor wretches might be exhorted as to walke wifely & iuftly towards them, so to make mercy eminent, for in that attribute the Father of mercy moft fhines to Adams miserable ofspring." M. H. S. Coll., Iv., vi., 218, 219.
Hugh Peter writes to John Winthrop from Salem
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Notes on the History of
(in 1637) : "Mr. Endecot and my felfe falute you in the Lord Jefus, etc. Wee haue heard of a diuidence of women and children in the bay and would bee glad of a fhare, viz. : a young woman or girle and a boy if you thinke good. I wrote to you for Some boyes for Ber- mudas, which I thinke is confiderable." M. H. S. Coll., IV., vi., 95.
In this application of Hugh Peter we have a glimpse of the beginning of the Colonial Slave-Trade. He wanted " fome boyes for the Bermudas," which he thought was " confiderable."
It would feem to indicate that this difpofition of captive Indian boys was in accordance with custom and previous practice of the authorities. At any rate, it is certain that in the Pequod War they took many prifoners. Some of thefe, who had been "difposed of to particular perfons in the country," Winthrop, I., 232, ran away, and being brought in again were "branded on the fhoulder," ib. In July, 1637, Winthrop fays, "We had now flain and taken, in all, about feven hundred. We fent fifteen of the boys and two women to Bermuda, by Mr. Peirce ; but he, miffing it, carried them to Providence Ifle," Win- throp, I., 234. The learned editor of Winthrop's Journal, referring to the fact that this proceeding in that day was probably juftified by reference to the practice or inftitution of the Jews, very quaintly ob- ferves, " Yet that cruel people never fent prifoners fo far." Ib., note.
Governor Winthrop, writing to Governor Brad- ford of Plymouth, 28th July, 1637, an account of their fuccefs againft the Pequods-"ye Lords greate
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Slavery in Mafachusetts.
mercies towards us, in our prevailing againft his & our enimies"-says :
"The prifoners were devided, fome to thofe of ye river [the Connecticut Colony] and the reft to us. Of thefe we fend the male children to Bermuda, by Mr. William Peirce, & ye women & maid children are difpofed aboute in ye tounes. Ther have now been flaine and taken, in all, aboute 700." M. H.S. Coll., Iv., iii., 360. Compare the order for " difpofing of ye Indian fquaws," in Mass. Records, I., 201.
Bradford's note to the letter quoted above, fays of their being fent to Bermuda : " But yey were car- ried to ye Weft Indeas."
Hubbard, the contemporary hiftorian of the Indian Wars, fays of thefe captives, " Of thofe who were not fo defperate or fullen to fell their lives for nothing, but yielded in time, the male Children were fent to the Bermudas, of the females fome were diftributed to the Englifh Towns ; fome were difpofed of among the other Indians, to whom they were deadly enemies, as well as to ourfelves." Narrative, 1677, p. 130.
A fubfequent entry in Winthrop's Journal gives us another glimpfe of the fubject, Feb. 26, 1638.
" Mr. Peirce, in the Salem fhip, the Defire, re- turned from the Weft Indies after feven months. He had been at Providence, and brought fome cotton, and tobacco, and negroes, etc., from thence, and falt from Tertugos ;" Winthrop, I., 254. He adds to this account that "Dry fifh and ftrong liquors are the only commodities for thofe parts. He met there two men-of-war, fet forth by the lords, etc., of Provi- dence with letters of mart, who had taken divers
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Notes on the History of
prizes from the Spaniard and many negroes." Long afterwards Dr. Belknap faid of the flave-trade, that the rum diftilled in Maffachufetts was " the mainfpring of this traffick." M. H. S. Coll., I., iv., 197.
Joffelyn fays, that " they sent the male children of the Pequets to the Bermudus." 258. M. H. S. Coll., Iv., iii., 360.1
This fingle cargo of women and children was probably not the only one fent, for the Company of Providence Ifland, in replying from London in 1638, July 3, to letters from the authorities in the ifland, direct fpecial care to be taken of the "Cannibal ne- groes brought from New England." Sainfbury's Calendar, 1574-1660, 278.2
And in 1639, when the Company feared that the number of the negroes might become too great to be managed, the authorities thought they might be fold and fent to New England or Virginia. Ib., 296.
The fhip " Defire" was a veffel of one hundred and twenty tons, built at Marblehead in 1636, one of the earlieft built in the Colony. Winthrop, I., 193.
In the Pequot War, fome of the Narraganfetts
1 Governor Winthrop in his will (1639-41) left to his fon Adam his ifland called the Governor's Garden, adding, "I give him alfo my Indians there and my boat and fuch houfehold as is there."-Winthrop's Journal, II., 360., App.
2 " We would have the Cannibal negroes brought from New England inquired after, whofe they are, and fpeciall care taken of them." P. R. O. Col. Ent. Bk., Vol. Iv., p. 124. In the preface to the Colonial Calendar, p. xxv., Mr. Sainfbury explains why no anfwers to the Company's letters are in the State Paper Office. The Bahama Iflands were governed abfolutely by a Company in London, and unfortunately the letters received by the Company have not been preferved, or if fo, it is not known where they now are. MS. Letter.
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Slavery in Mafachufetts.
joined the Englifh in its profecution, and received a part of the prifoners as flaves, for their fervices. Miantunnomoh received eighty, Ninigret was to have twenty. Mather fays of the principal engagement, " the captives that were taken were about one hundred and eighty, which were divided between the two Colonyes, and they intended to keep them as ferv- ants, but they could not endure the Yoke, for few of them continued any confiderable time with their mas- ters." Drake, 122, 146. Mather's Relation, quoted by Drake, 39. See alfo Hartford Treaty, Sept. 21, 1638, in Drake, 125. Drake's Mather, 150, 151.
Captain Stoughton, who affifted in the work of exterminating the Pequots, after his arrival in the enemy's country, wrote to the Governor of Maffachu- fetts [Winthrop] as follows : "By this pinnace, you fhall receive forty-eight or fifty women and children. . Concerning which, there is one, I formerly men- tioned, that is the faireft and largest that I faw amongft them, to whom I have given a coate to cloathe her. It is my defire to have her for a fervant, if it may ftand with your good liking, elfe not. There is a little fquaw that Steward Culacut desireth, to whom he hath given a coate. Lieut. Davenport alfo defireth one, to wit, a fmall one, that hath three ftrokes upon her ftomach, thus : - ||| +. He defireth her, if it will ftand with your liking. Sofomon, the Indian, defireth a young little fquaw, which I know not." MS. Letter in Mafs. Archives, quoted by Drake, 171.
An early traveller in New England has preferved for us the record of one of the earlieft, if not, indeed, the very firft attempt at breeding of flaves in Amer-
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Notes on the History of
ica. The following paffage from Joffelyn's Account of Two Voyages to New England, publifhed at Lon- don in 1664, will explain itfelf :
" The Second of October, [1639] about 9 of the clock in the morning Mr. Mavericks Negro woman came to my chamber window, and in her own Coun- trey language and tune fang very loud and fhrill, go- ing out to her, fhe ufed a great deal of refpect to- wards me, and willingly would have expreffed her grief in English; but I apprehended it by her coun- tenance and deportment, whereupon I repaired to my hoft, to learn of him the caufe, and refolved to intreat him in her behalf, for that I underftood be- fore, that fhe had been a Queen in her own Coun- trey, and obferved a very humble and dutiful garb ufed towards her by another Negro who was her maid. Mr. Maverick was defirous to have a breed of Ne- groes, and therefore feeing fhe would not yield by perfuafions to company with a Negro young man he had in his houfe ; he commanded him will'd fhe nill'd fhe to go to bed to her, which was no fooner done but fhe kickt him out again, this fhe took in high difdain beyond her flavery, and this was the caufe of her grief." Hoffelyn, 28.
Joffelyn vifited New England twice, and fpent about ten years in this country, from 1638-39 and 1663 to 1671. In fpeaking of the people of Bofton he mentions that the people " are well accommodated with fervants . .. of thefe fome are Englifh, others Negroes." Ibid., 182.
Mr. Palfrey fays : "Before Winthrop's arrival there were two negro flaves in Maffachufetts, held
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Slavery in Mafachufetts.
by Mr. Maverick, on Noddle's Ifland." History of New England, II., 30, note. If there is any evidence to fuftain this ftatement, it is certainly not in the authority to which he refers. On the contrary, the inference is irrefiftible from all the authorities to- gether, that the negroes of Mr. Maverick were a por- tion of thofe imported in the firft colonial flave-fhip, the Defire, of whofe voyage we have given the hiftory. It is not to be fuppofed that Mr. Maverick had waited ten years before taking the fteps towards im- proving his ftock of negroes, which are referred to by Joffelyn. Ten years' flavery on Noddle's Ifland would have made the negro-queen more familiar with the Englifh language, if not more compliant to the brutal cuftoms of flavery.
It will be obferved that this firft entrance into the flave-trade was not a private, individual fpeculation. It was the enterprife of the authorities of the Colony. And on the 13th March, 1639, it was ordered by the General Court "that 3/ 8s should be paid Leiftenant Davenport for the prefent, for charge difburfed for the flaves, which, when they have earned it, hee is to repay it back againe." The marginal note is, " Lieft. Davenport to keep ye flaues." Mafs. Rec., I., 253.
Emanuel Downing, a lawyer of the Inner Tem- ple, London, who married Lucy Winthrop, fifter of the elder Winthrop, came over to New England in 1638 .. The editors of the Winthrop papers fay of him, " There were few more active or efficient friends of the Maffachufetts Colony during its earlieft and moft critical period." His fon was the famous Sir George Downing, Englifh ambaffador at the Hague.
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Notes on the Hiftory of
In a letter to his brother-in-law, "probably writ- ten during the fummer of 1645," is a moft luminous illuftration of the views of that day and generation on the subject of human flavery. He fays :
" A warr with the Narraganfett is verie confider- able to this plantation, ffor I doubt whither yt be not fynne in vs, hauing power in our hands, to fuffer them to maynteyne the worfhip of the devill, which their paw wawes often doe; 2lie, if upon a Juft warre the Lord fhould deliver them into our hands, we might eafily haue men, women and children enough to exchange for Moores, which wilbe more gayneful pilladge for vs than wee conceive, for I doe not fee how wee can thrive vntill wee gett into a ftock of slaves fufficient to doe all our buifines, for our child- ren's children will hardly fee this great Continent filled with people, foe that our fervants will ftill defire freedom to plant for them felues, and not ftay but for verie great wages. And I fuppofe you know verie well how wee fhall maynteyne 20 Moores cheaper than one Englifhe fervant.
".The fhips that fhall bring Moores may come home laden with falt which may beare most of the chardge, if not all of yt. But I marvayle Conecticott fhould any wayes hafard a warre without your advife, which they cannot mayntayne without your helpe." M. H. S. Coll., Iv., vi., 65.
II.
WE come now to the era of pofitive legiflation on the fubject of human bondage in America. Mr.
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Slavery in Mafachufetts.
Hurd, the ableft writer on this fubject, fays : " The involuntary fervitude of Indians and negroes in the feveral colonies originated under a law not promulgated by legiflation, and refted upon prevalent views of uni- verfal jurifprudence, or the law of nations, fupported by the exprefs or implied authority of the home Gov- ernment." Law of Freedom and Bondage, § 216, I., 225.
Under this fanction flavery may very properly be faid to have originated in all the colonies, but it was not long before it made its appearance on the ftatute- book in Maffachufetts. The firft ftatute eftablifh- ing flavery in America is to be found in the famous CODE OF FUNDAMENTALS, or BODY OF LIBERTIES OF THE MASSACHUSETTS COLONY IN NEW-ENGLAND-the firft code of laws of that colony, adopted in Decem- ber, 1641. Thefe liberties had been, after a long ftruggle between the magiftrates and the people, ex- tracted from the reluctant grafp of the former. " The people had [1639] long defired a body of laws, and thought their condition very unfafe, while fo much power refted in the difcretion of magiftrates." Winthrop, I., 322. Never were the demands of a free people eluded by their public fervants with more of the contortions as well as wifdom of the ferpent. Compare Gray in M. H. S., III., viii., 208.
The fcantinefs of the materials for the particular hiftory of this renowned code is fuch as to forbid the attempt to trace with certainty to its origin the law in queftion. It is, however, obvious that it was made to provide for flavery as an exifting, subftantial fact, if not to reftrain the application of thofe higher-
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Notes on the History of
law doctrines, which the magiftrates muft have fome- times found inconvenient in adminiftration. The preamble to the Body of Liberties itfelf might have been conftrued into fome vague recognition of rights in individual members of fociety fuperior to legiflative power-although it was promulgated by the poffeffors of the moft arbitrary authority in the then actual holders of legiflative and executive power. Compare Hurd's Law of Freedom and Bondage, I., 198. Had they only learned to reafon as fome of the modern writers of Maffachufetts hiftory have done on this fubject, the poor Indians and Negroes of that day might have compelled additional legiflation if they could not vindicate their rights to freedom in the gen- eral court. For the firft article of the Declaration of Rights in 1780, is only a new edition of " the glitter- ing and founding generalities" which prefaced the Body of Liberties in 1641. Under the latter, human flavery exifted for nearly a century and a half without ferious challenge, while under the former it is faid to have been abolifhed by inference by a public opinion which ftill continued to tolerate the flave-trade.
But to the law and the teftimony. The ninety- firft article of the Body of Liberties appears as fol- lows, under the head of
" Liberties of Forreiners and Strangers.
" 91. There fhall never be any bond flaverie, vil- linage or captivitie amongft us unles it be lawfull captives taken in juft warres, and fuch ftrangers as willingly felle themfelves or are fold to us. And thefe fhall have all the liberties and Chriftian ufages
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which the law of God eftablifhed in Ifraell concerning fuch perfons doeth morally require. This exempts none from fervitude who fhall be Judged thereto by Authoritie." M. H. S. Coll., III., viii., 231.
Thefe laws were not printed, but were publifhed in manufcript1 under the fuperintendence of a com- mittee in which Deputy-Governor Endicott was affo- ciated with Mr. Downing and Mr. Hauthorne, and, Governor Winthrop fays, "eftablifhed for three years, by that experience to have them fully amended and eftablifhed to be perpetual." Mafs. Records, I., 344, 346. Winthrop's Journal, II., 55. By the ninety- eighth and laft fection of this code, it was decreed as follows :
" 98. Laftly becaufe our dutie and defire is to do nothing fuddainlie which fundamentally concerne us, we decree that thefe rites and liberties, fhall be Aud- ably read and deliberately weighed at every Generall Court that fhall be held, within three yeares next in- fueing, And fuch of them as fhall not be altered or repealed they fhall ftand fo ratified, That no man fhall infringe them without due punifhment.
" And if any Generall Court within thefe next thre yeares fhall faile or forget to reade and confider them as abovefaid, The Governor and Deputy Gov- ernor for the time being, and every Affiftant prefent at fuch Courts, fhall forfeite 20 fh. a man, and everie Deputie 10 fh. a man for each neglect, which fhall be
1 There is no reafon to doubt the authenticity of the ancient MS. which was the foundation of the very able and inftructive paper of the late Mr. Francis C. Gray on " The Early Laws of Mafachufetts," as a part of which the Body of Liberties was printed in 1843.
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Notes on the History of
paid out of their proper eftate, and not by the Coun- try or the Townes which choofe them, and whenfo- ever there fhall arife any queftion in any Court amonge the Affiftants and Affociates thereof about the explanation of thefe Rites and liberties, The Gen- erall Court onely fhall have power to interprett them." M. H. S. Coll., III., viii., 236, 237.
It is not to be doubted that at the following fef- fions of the General Court, "the lawes were read over," in accordance with this decree. And before the expiration of the three years, committees were ap- pointed to revife the Body of Liberties, and orders relating to it were paffed every year afterward until 1648, when the laws were firft printed. Gray's Re- ports, Ix., 513.1
Of this firft printed edition of the laws it is fup- pofed that no copy is now in exiftence. Ibid. This is much to be regretted, as a comparifon might pof- fibly throw fome light on the change in the law of flavery, which appears in all the fubfequent editions. Although hitherto entirely unnoticed, we regard it as highly important ; for it takes away the foundation of a grievous charge againft that God-fearing and law- abiding people. For, if "no perfon was ever born into legal flavery in Maffachufetts," there was a moft fhocking chronic violation of law in that Colony and Province for more than a century, hardly to be recon- ciled with their hiftorical reputation.
1 In the elaborate, learned, and moft valuable note of Mr. Gray, here referred to, the reader will find references to all the original authorities, which it is needlefs to repeat in this place. We have been unable to veri- fy his reference to Mafs. Records, II., 2, for proceedings of the General Court on the 20th May, 1642, in the common copies of that volume.
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