USA > Massachusetts > Notes on the history of slavery in Massachusetts > Part 10
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1 The reader will fee hereafter, in the frequent ufe of this parliamentary phrafe by the Legiflature of Maffachufetts, that an order to "Subfide " con- tinued to be their favorite method of reducing anti-flavery inflammation.
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That terror of infurrection, fo often and aptly illuftrated in the common phrafe of "fleeping over a volcano," that continuous and awful dread which confcious tyranny feels, but hates to acknowledge, we have already faid, was not unknown even in Maffa- chufetts, where the fervile clafs was always a com- paratively fmall element of the population. In times of civil commotion and popular excitement, the danger was more imminent, and the fear was more freely expreffed.
During the difficulties between the people of the town of Bofton and the Britifh foldiers in 1768, John Wilfon, a captain in the 59th Regiment, was accufed of exciting the flaves againft their mafters, affuring them that the foldiers had come to procure their free- dom; and that, "with their affiftance, they fhould be able to drive the Liberty Boys to the devil." He was arrefted on the complaint of the felectmen, and was bound over for trial ; " but, owing to the manœu- vres of the Attorney-General, the indictment was quafhed, and Wilfon left the Province about the fame time." Drake's Boston, 754.
There was a fimilar alarm in September, 1774. It is noticed in one of the letters of Mrs. John Adams to her hufband, dated at Bofton Garrifon, 22d Sep- tember, 1774.
"There has been in town a confpiracy of the negroes. At prefent it is kept pretty private, and was difcovered by one who endeavored to diffuade them from it. He being threatened with his life, applied to Juftice Quincy for protection. They con- ducted in this way, got an Irifhman to draw up a pe-
9
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tition to the Governor [Gage], telling him they would fight for him provided he would arm them, and en- gage to liberate them if he conquered. And it is faid that he attended fo much to it, as to confult Percy 1 upon it, and one Lieutenant Small has been very bufy and active. There is but little faid, and what fteps they will take in confequence of it I know not. I wifh moft fincerely there was not a flave in the prov- ince ; it always appeared a moft iniquitous fcheme to me to fight ourfelves for what we are daily robbing and plundering from thofe who have as good a right to freedom as we have. You know my mind upon this fubject." Adams Letters, I., 24.
In 1771, the fubject of the Slave-Trade was again introduced into the Legiflature. On the 12th April, in that year, a bill "to prevent the Importation of Slaves from Africa" was read the firft time and ordered to a fecond reading on the following day at ten o'clock. Journal, 211. On the 13th, the bill was read the fecond time, and the further confideration was postponed till the following Tuefday morning. Ibid., 215. On the 16th the bill was re-committed. Ibid., 219.
On the 19th, a " Bill to prevent the Importation of Negro Slaves into this Province" was read the firft time and ordered a fecond reading "to-morrow at eleven o'clock." Ibid., 234. On the 20th, it was " read a fecond time and ordered to be read again on Monday next, at Three o'clock." On the 22d, it
1 Brigadier-General the Right Honorable Hugh, Earl Percy, after- wards Duke of Northumberland, was Colonel of the 5th Regiment, or Northumberland Fufileers, at that time ftationed in Bofton.
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was read the third time, and paffed to be engroffed. Ibid., 236. On the 24th, it was read and paffed to be enacted. Ibid., 240.
It was duly fent to the Council for concurrence, and on the fame day, " James Otis, Efq., came down from the honorable Board, to propofe an Amendment on the engroffed bill for preventing the Importation of Slaves from Africa, and laid the Bill on the Table ;" whereupon " The Houfe took the propofed Amend- ment into confideration, and concur'd with the honor- able Board therein, then the Bill was fent up to the honorable Board." Ibid., 242-3.
We have been unable to procure any record of the doings of the Council on the fubject, excepting the following entry in the Records of the General Court :
" Wednesday, April 24, 1771, etc. etc. An En- groffed Bill intituled ' An Act to prevent the Im- portation of Negro Slaves into this Province ' having paffed the Houfe of Reprefentatives to be Enacted. In Council, Read a third time and paffed a con- currence to be enacted."
This act failed to obtain the approval of Governor Hutchinfon, and we are fortunately able to prefent his views on the fubject, as communicated to Lord Hillfborough, Secretary of State for the Colonies, in a letter dated May, 1771.
"The Bill which prohibited the importation of Negro Slaves appeared to me to come within his Majefty's Inftruction to Sir Francis Bernard, which reftrains the Governor from Affenting to any Laws of a new and unufual nature. I doubted befides
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whether the chief motive to this Bill which, it is faid, was a fcruple upon the minds of the People in many parts of the Province of the lawfulnefs, in a meerly moral refpect, of fo great a reftraint of Liberty, was well founded, flavery by the Provincial Laws giving no right to the life of the fervant and a flave here con- fidered as a Servant would be who had bound him- felf for a term of years exceeding the ordinary term of human life, and I do not know that it has been de- termined he may not have a Property in Goods, not- withftanding he is called a Slave.
" I have reafon to think that thefe three 1 bills will be again offered to me in another Seffion, I having in- timated that I would tranfmit them to England that I might know his Majefty's pleafure concerning them." 27 Mafs. Archives, 159-60.
Thefe are interefting and important fuggeftions. It is apparent that at this time there was no fpecial inftruction to the royal governor of Maffachufetts, forbidding his approval of acts againft the flave-trade. Hutchinfon evidently doubted the genuinenefs of the " chief motive" which was alleged to be the infpira- tion of the bill, the "meerly moral " fcruple againft flavery ; but his reafonings furnifh a ftriking illuftra- tion of the changes which were going on in public opinion, and the gradual softening of the harfher features of flavery under their influence. The non- importation agreements throughout the Colonies, by which America was trying to thwart the commercial felfifhnefs of her rapacious Mother, had rendered the
1 The other two bills were a Marine Corporation Bill and a Salem Militia Bill.
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provincial viceroys peculiarly fenfitive to the flighteft manifeftation of a difpofition to approach the facred precincts of thofe prerogatives by which King and Parliament affumed to bind their diftant dependencies : and the " fpirit of non-importation" which Maffa- chufetts had imperfectly learned from New York was equally offenfive to them, whether it interfered with their cherifhed " trade with Africa," or their favorite monopolies elfewhere.
In 1773, the attempt to difcourage the flave-trade was renewed. The reprefentatives from Salem had been inftructed, May 18, 1773, to ufe their exertions to prevent the importation of negroes into Maffachu- fetts "as repugnant to the natural rights of mankind, and highly prejudicial to the Province." Felt, An- nals, II., 416. The town of Medford alfo directed their member to "ufe his utmoft influence to have a final period put to that moft cruel, inhuman and un- chriftian practice, the flave-trade." Swan's Diffuafion, etc., Revifed Ed., 1773, p. x. The town of Leicefter, May 19, 1773, inftructed their reprefentative on this fubject, as follows :
" And, as we have the higheft regard for (fo as even to revere the name of) liberty, we cannot behold but with the greateft abhorrence any of our fellow crea- tures in a ftate of flavery.
" Therefore we ftrictly enjoin you to ufe your ut- moft influence that a ftop may be put to the flave- trade by the inhabitants of this Province; which, we apprehend, may be effected by one of thefe two ways : either by laying a heavy duty on every negro im- ported or brought from Africa or elfewhere into this
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Province; or, by making a law, that every negro brought or imported as aforefaid fhould be a free man or woman as foon as they come within the jurifdic- tion of it; and that every negro child that fhall be born in faid government after the enacting fuch law fhould be free at the fame age that the children of white people are; and, from the time of their birth till they are capable of earning their living, to be main- tained by the town in which they are born, or at the expenfe of the Province, as fhall appear moft reafon- able.
"Thus, by enacting fuch a law, in procefs of time will the blacks become free; or, if the Honorable Houfe of Reprefentatives fhall think of a more eligible method, we fhall be heartily glad of it. But whether you can juftly take away or free a negro from his mafter, who fairly purchafed him, and (although illegally ; for fuch is the purchafe of any perfon againft their confent, unlefs it be for a capital offence) which the cuftom of this country has juftified him in, we fhall not determine ; but hope that unerring Wifdom will direct you in this and in all your other important undertakings." Washburn's Leicefter, 442.
The town of Sandwich, in Barnftable County, voted, May 18, 1773, " that our reprefentative is in- ftructed to endeavor to have an Act paffed by the Court, to prevent the importation of flaves into this country, and that all children that fhall be born of fuch Africans as are now flaves among us, fhall, after fuch Act, be free at 21 years of age." Freeman's His- tory of Cape Cod, II., 114.
There may have been other towns in which fimilar
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meafures were taken to influence the action of the Legiflature, but we have no knowledge of any beyond thofe already noticed. The negroes themfelves alfo began to move in the matter, encouraged by the " fpirit of liberty which was rife in the land."
On the 25th June, 1773, in the afternoon feffion of the Houfe of Reprefentatives, a petition was read " of Felix Holbrook, and others, Negroes, praying that they may be liberated from a State of Bondage, and made Freemen of this Community ; and that this Court would give and grant to them fome part of the unimproved Lands belonging to the Province, for a Settlement, or relieve them in fuch other Way as fhall feem good and wife upon the Whole." Upon this it was " ordered, that Mr. Hancock, Mr. Green- leaf, Mr. Adams, Capt. Dix, Mr. Paine, Capt. Heath, and Mr. Pickering confider this Petition, and report what may be proper to be done." Journal, p. 85.
This " Committee on the Petition of Felix Hol- brook, and others, in behalf of themfelves and others ; praying to be liberated from a State of Slavery, re- ported " on the 28th June, 1773, P. M., "that the further Confideration of the Petition be referred till next Seffion," and it was fo referred accordingly. Ibid., 94.
Among other indications of the growing intereft in the fubject, is the fact that at the annual commence- ment of Harvard College, Cambridge, July 21, 1773, a forenfic difputation on the legality of enflaving the Africans was held by two candidates for the bachelor's degree; namely, Theodore Parfons and Eliphalet Pearfon, both of whom were natives of Newbury.
.
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The queftion was "whether the flavery, to which Africans are in this province, by the permiffion of law, fubjected, be agreeable to the law of nature?" The work was publifhed at Bofton, the fame year, in an octavo pamphlet of forty-eight pages. Coffin's New- bury, 339.
The following letter alfo fhows that the bufinefs before the Legiflature was not wholly neglected or for- gotten during the interval between the feffions.
SAMUEL ADAMS TO JOHN PICKERING, JR. " Bofton, Jan'. 8, 1774. " Sir,
" As the General Affembly will undoubtedly meet on the 26th of this month, the Negroes whofe petition lies on file, and is referred for confideration, are very folicitous for the Event of it, and having been in- formed that you intended to confider it at your leifure Hours in the Recefs of the Court, they ear- neftly with you would compleat a Plan for their Re- lief. And in the meantime, if it be not too much Trouble, they afk it as a favor that you would by a Letter enable me to communicate to them the general outlines of your Defign. I am, with fincere regard," etc.
On the 26th January, 1774, P. M., " a Petition of a number of Negro Men, which was entered on the Journal of the 25th of June laft, and referred for Con- fideration to this Seffion," was "read again, together with a Memorial of the fame Petitioners and Ordered, that Mr. Speaker, Mr. Pickering, Mr. Hancock, Mr.
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Adams, Mr. Phillips, Mr. Paine, and Mr. Greenleaf confider the fame and report." Journal, 104.
All this preliminary preparation refulted at length in "a Bill to prevent the Importation of Negroes and others as Slaves into this Province," which was read the firft time on the 2d March, 1774, and ordered to be read again the next day. Ibid., 221. On the 3d, it was read the fecond time in the morning, and in the afternoon the third time, and paffed to be en- groffed, when it was fent up to the Council Board for concurrence, by Col. Gerrifh, Col. Thayer, Col. Bowers, Mr. Pickering, and Col. Bacon. Ibid., 224. On the 4th March, the bill was returned as "paffed in Council with Amendments." Ibid., 226. On the 5th, the Houfe voted to concur with the Council, ibid., 228; and on the 7th, paffed the bill to be enacted. ibid., 237. On the 8th, it received the final fanction of the Council, and only required the approval of the Governor to become a law. That approval, however, it failed to obtain ; the only reafon given in the record being " the Secretary faid [on returning the approved bills] that his Excellency had not had time to confider the other Bills that had been laid before him."1 Ibid., 243. Compare alfo for Council proceedings, General Court Records, xxx., 248, 264.
To this hiftory, derived from the records, we are fortunately able to add a copy of the Bill itfelf, which is preferved in the Mafs. Archives, Domestic Relations, 1643-1774, Vol. 9, 457.
1 The General Court was prorogued March 9th, and diffolved March 30th, 1774. General Court Records, XXX., 280-81.
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ANNO REGNI REGIS GEORGII TERTII &C DECIMO QUARTO
AN Act to prevent the importation of Negroes or other Perfons as Slaves into this Province; and the purchafing them within the fame ; and for making provifon for relief of the children of fuch as are already Subjected to flavery Negroes Mulattoes & Indians born within this Province.
WHEREAS the Importation of Perfons as Slaves into this Province has been found detrimental to the intereft of his Majefty's fubjects therein; And it being apprehended that the abolition thereof will be beneficial to the Province-
Be it therefore Enacted by the Governor Council and Houfe of Reprefentatives that whofoever fhall after the Tenth Day of April next import or bring into this Province by Land or Water any Negro or other Perfon or Perfons whether Male or Female as a Slave or Slaves fhall for each and every fuch Perfon fo imported or brought into this Province forfeit and pay the fum of one hundred Pounds to be recov- ered by prefentment or indictment of a Grand Jury and when fo recovered to be to his Majefty for the ufe of this Government : or by action of debt in any of his Majefty's Courts of Record and in cafe of fuch recovery the one moiety thereof to be to his majefty for the ufe of this Government the other moiety to the Perfon or Perfons who fhall fue for the fame.
And be it further Enacted that from and after the Tenth Day of April next any Perfon or Perfons that fhall purchafe any Negro or other Perfon or Perfons as a Slave or Slaves imported or brought into this Province as aforefaid fhall forfeit and pay for every Negro or other Perfon fo purchafed Fifty Pounds to be recovered and difpofed of in the fame way and manner as before directed.
And be it further Enacted that every Perfon, concerned in im- porting or bringing into this Province, or purchafing any fuch Negro or other Perfon or Perfons as aforefaid within the fame ; who fhall be unable, or refufe, to pay the Penalties or forfeitures ordered by this Act ; fhall for every fuch offence fuffer Twelve months imprifonment without Bail or mainprife.
Provided allways that nothing in this act contained fhall extend to fubject to the Penalties aforefaid the Mafters, Mariners, Owners or
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Freighters of any fuch Veffel or Veffels, as before the faid Tenth Day of April next fhall have failed from any Port or Ports in this Province, for any Port or Ports not within this Government, for importing or bringing into this Province any Negro or other Perfon or Perfons as Slaves who in the profecution of the fame voyage may be imported or brought into the fame. Provided he fhall not offer them or any of them for fale.
Provided alfo that this act fhall not be conftrued to extend to any fuch Perfon or Perfons, occafionally hereafter coming to refide within this Province, or paffing thro' the fame, who may bring fuch Negro or other Perfon or Perfons as neceffary fervants into this Province pro- vided that the ftay or refidence of fuch Perfon or Perfons fhall not exceed Twelve months or that fuch Perfon or Perfons within faid time fend fuch Negro or other Perfon or Perfons out of this Province there to be and remain, and alfo that during faid Refidence fuch Negro or other Perfon or Perfons fhall not be fold or alienated within the fame. V And be it further Enacted and declared that nothing in this act contained Jhall extend or be construed to extend for retaining or hold- ing in perpetual fervitude any Negro or other Person or Persons now inflaved within this Province but that every fuch Negro or other Perfon or Perfons Shall be intituled to all the Benefits fuch Negro or other Perfon or Perfons might by Law have been intituled to, in cafe this act had not been made.
In the Houfe of Reprefentatives March 2, 1774. Read a firft & fecond Time. March 3, 1774. Read a third Time & paffed to be engroffed. Sent up for Concurrence.
T. CUSHING, Spkr.
In Council March 3, 1774. Read a firft Time. 4. Read a fecond Time and paffed a Concurrence to be Engroffed with the Amend- ment at V dele the whole Claufe. Sent down for Concurrence. THOS. FLUCKER, Secry.
In the Houfe of Reprefentatives March 4, 1774. Read and con- curred.
T. CUSHING, Spkr.
That portion of the title to the bill which we have
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italicized is ftricken out in the original. We have alfo retained and italicized the claufe which was ftricken out by the amendment of the Council. They form a part of the hiftory of the bill, though not of the bill itfelf as " paffed to be enacted."
Such was the refponfe of the Great and General Court of Maffachufetts to the petition of her negro- flaves in 1773-4. They prayed that they might be "liberated from a State of Bondage, and made Free- men of the Community ; and that this Court would give and grant to them fome part of the unimproved Lands belonging to the Province for a Settlement, or relieve them in fuch other Way as fhall feem good and wife upon the Whole." Not one of their prayers was anfwered. It would feem that an attempt was made to include in the bill, an indirect legiflative approval of fome of the doctrines maintained by Counfel for the negroes in the "freedom fuits;" but even this failed ; and a prohibitory act againft the importation of flaves was offered to the Governor for his ap- proval, which it was known beforehand could not be obtained.
Whether Hutchinfon had actually received an in- ftruction from the Crown on the fubject at this time or not, there is no room for doubt as to the general policy of Great Britain. She had aided her colonial offspring to become flaveholders ; fhe had encouraged her merchants in tempting them to acquire flaves ; the herfelf excelled all her competitors in flave- ftealing; and from the reign of Queen Anne, the flave-trade was among her moft envied and cherifhed monopolies, its protection and increafe being a princi-
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pal feature in her commercial policy. The great " diftinction " of the Treaty of Utrecht, as the Queen expreffly called it, was that the Affiento or Contract for furnifhing the Spanifh Weft Indies with Negroes, fhould be made with England, for the term of thirty years, in the fame manner as it had been enjoyed by the French for ten years before. Queen's Speech, 6 June, 1712.
This was what her great ftatesmen and divines of the Church of England were fo eager and proud to fecure for their country ! For all her facrifices in the war, the millions of treafure she had fpent, the blood of her children fo prodigally fhed, with the glories of Blenheim, of Ramillies, of Oudenarde, and Malpla- quet, England found her confolation and reward in seizing and enjoying, as the lion's fhare1 of refults of the Grand Alliance againft the Bourbons, the exclu- five right for thirty years of felling African flaves to the Spanifh Weft Indies and the Coaft of America ! Compare Macknight's Bolingbroke, 346-8. Who will wonder that men who had thus been taught to believe " that the Negro-Trade on the Coaft of Africa was the chief and fundamental fupport of the Britifh Colonies and Plantations " in America, fhould frown upon legiflation in the colonies fo utterly inconfiftent with the interefts of Britifh Commerce, or that the
1 By the articles of the Grand Alliance, England and all the other states fubfcribing them were pledged neither to enter into any feparate treaty with the enemy, nor feek to negotiate for themfelves any exceptional privi- lege to the exclufion of the other members of the Confederacy. Of courfe this obligation was totally difregarded by England, who infisted on the conceffion of the Affiento Contract by France and Spain before the pro- pofals for peace were even communicated to the rest of the Allies !
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modeft efforts of Maffachufetts in 1774, fhould be met by Hutchinfon and Gage with the fame fpirit which, in 1775, dictated the reply of the Earl of Dartmouth to the earneft remonftrance of the Agent of Jamaica againft the policy of the government : " We cannot allow the colonies to check or dis- courage, in any manner, a traffic fo beneficial to the nation." Bridges' Jamaica, II., 475. Notes.
We cannot be accufed of belittling the refiftance thus prefented to any colonial interference with the flave-trade, when we exprefs our regret that the legis- lative annals of Maffachufetts record no attempt to repeal the local laws by which flavery had been eftablifhed, regulated, and maintained. Such a mea- fure, which fhould alfo have granted the relief prayed for by the negroes in their petition, and embodied the wife fuggeftions of the town of Leicefter (ante, p. 133), might well have encountered lefs ferious oppofition from the fervants of the Crown than this twice-re- jected non-importation act of 1774.1
In the brief feffion of the General Court at Salem, in June, 1774, after Hutchinfon's fucceffor, Gage, the laft Royal Governor, had commenced his adminiftra- tion, the fame bill fubftantially, for the variations are unimportant, was hurried through the forms of legis- lation. It was introduced, read a firft, fecond, and third time, and paffed to be engroffed on the fame day,
1 The rhetorical flourifhes with which Lord Mansfield ornamented his decifion in the famous cafe of Somerfet would have furnifhed an excellent preamble to fuch an act. The cafe was well known in Maffachufetts, having been reprinted more than once. But the General Court of Maffa- chufetts had no more intention than Lord Mansfield had power to abolifh flavery at that period.
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Ioth June. Journal, 27. On the 16th, the engroffed bill was read and paffed to be enacted. Ibid., 41. In the Council, on the fame day, it was read a third time and paffed a concurrence to be enacted. Gen. Court Records, xxx., 322. On the following day, June 17th, the General Court was diffolved. Like that of which it was a copy, the bill appears " not to have been con- fented to by the Governor."
The fact is not to be difguifed that thefe efforts were political movements againft the government as much as anything elfe. Sympathy for the flave, and moral fcruples againft flavery, became lefs urgent and troublefome after the royal negative had become powerlefs againft the legiflation of the people of Maffachufetts. The fact that moft of the States were flow or relaxed their efforts, after the power came into their hands, and they were "uncontrolled by the action of the Mother Country," would not diminifh the credit due to Maffachufetts, if fhe had taken the lead and maintained it. But that honor is not hers ! Nor did the feparate action of any of the States effectually limit, much lefs deftroy, this infamous traffic.
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