USA > Massachusetts > Notes on the history of slavery in Massachusetts > Part 17
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The only comments of the Bofton prefs on the fubject which we have feen indicate that it was sim- ply carrying out the original defign of the act, to abate pauperifm; 2 but references to it in the New York and Philadelphia papers hint at another probable caufe
1 Mr. Nell, in his work on the Colored Patriots of the American Revo- lution, notices (pp. 96-97), an African Benevolent Society, inftituted at Bofton, in 1796. He fays, its benevolent objects were fet forth in the pre- amble, which alfo expressed its loyalty as follows : " Behaving ourfelves, at the fame time, as true and faithful citizens of the Commonwealth in which we live, and that we take no one into the Society who fhall commit any in- justice or outrage againft the laws of their country." He adds a lift of the members of the " African Society." A comparifon of this lift with that above fhows that one fourth of the members were driven out of the Com- monwealth in 1800.
? See " Africanus," in The Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertifer, Bofton, September 25, 1800.
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of this ftringent and fweeping application of the ftatute.
In the year 1800, the whole country was excited by the difcovery of an alleged plot for a general infur- rection of negroes at the South. Gabriel, the negro- general, was the "hero," though not the only victim. The affair affumed at once a very ferious afpect, and the alarm was "awful" in Virginia and South Caro- lina. The party violence of the day was not flow to make ufe of it, and it was doubtlefs true, that the principles of Liberty and Equality had been in fome degree infufed into the minds of the negroes, and that the incautious and intemperate ufe of thefe words by the "fierce democracie" of that day in Virginia may have infpired them with hopes of fuccefs.
But the alarm was not confined to Virginia. Even in Bofton, fears were expreffed and meafures of pre- vention adopted. N. Y. Advertifer, Sept. 26, 1800. The Gazette of the United States and Daily Ad- vertifer, by C. P. Wayne, Vol. XVIII., No. 2493, Philadelphia, September 23, 1800, copies the "No- tice " with thefe remarks :
"The following notice has been publifhed in the Bofton papers : It feems probable, from the nature of the notice, that fome fufpicions of the defign of the negroes are entertained, and we regret to fay there is too much caufe."
Such was the act, and fuch was one of its applica- tions. Additional acts were paffed in 1798 and 1802, but this portion was neither modified nor repealed. It appears in the revifed edition of 1807, without change. In 1821, the Legiflature of Maffachufetts,
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alarmed by "the increafe of a fpecies of population, which threatened to become both injurious and bur- denfome," and, fully alive to " the neceffity of check- ing " it, appointed a committee to report a bill concerning the admiffion into the State of free Ne- groes and Mulattoes.
In the Houfe of Reprefentatives, June 7, 1821, it was "Ordered, that Meffrs. Lyman of Bofton, Bridgeman of Belchertown, Chandler of Lexington, be a Committee to take into confideration the expediency of making any alterations in the laws of this Com- monwealth concerning the admiffion into a refidence in this State of Negroes and Mulattoes, with leave to report by bill or otherwife." Journals, Vol. XLII., 62. On the 14th of June, the journal notes a Report on the Free Negroes, detailing a ftatement of facts, and authorizing the appointment of a committee to report a bill at the next feffion. Read and accepted, and the fame gentlemen were appointed. Ibid., 121. On the next day, the Houfe refufed to reconfider the vote for a committee, etc. Ibid., 129.
At the next feffion, on the 15th of January, 1822, a "report of the Committee appointed at the laft feffion concerning the admiffion into this. State of Free Negroes, praying to be difcharged from that fubject, was read, and the fame was ordered to lie on the table. The fame was afterwards accepted." Ibid., 174.
This report, written by Theodore Lyman, Jr., chairman of the Committee, was printed. It juftifies the motive which induced the appointment of the Committee by the following ftatements : "that the
Slavery in Mafachufetts. 239
black convicts in the State Prifon, on the firft of Jan- uary, 1821, formed 146} part of the black population of the State, while the white convicts, at the fame time, formed but 2140 part of the white population. It is believed that a fimilar proportion will be found to exift in all public eftablifhments of this State; as well Prifons as Poor-Houfes." The Committee, however, "found it impoffible, after all the refearch and deliberation in their power to beftow on the fub- ject, to accomplifh that duty which they undertook by the direction of the Houfe of Reprefentatives. They have not fucceeded in preparing a bill, the pro- vifions of which they could confcientioufly vindicate to this House. They have already found in the Statute Books of this Commonwealth, a law paffed in 1788, regulating the refidence in this State of certain perfons of color-they be- lieve that this law has never been enforced, and, ineffec- tual as it has proved, they would never have been the authors of placing among the Statutes, a law fo arbitrary in its principles, and in its operation fo little accordant with the institutions, feelings, and practices of the people of this Commonwealth. The Hiftory of that law has well convinced the Committee that no meafure (which they could devife) would be attended with the fmall- eft good confequence. That it would have been mat- ter of fatisfaction and congratulation to the Commit- tee if they had fucceeded in framing a law, which fhould have received the approbation of this Legifla- ture, and fhould have promifed to check and finally to overcome an evil upon which they have never been able to look with unconcern. But a law, which fhould produce that effect, would entirely depart from
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that love of humanity, that refpect for hofpitality and for the juft rights of all claffes of men, in the conftant and fuccefsful exercife of which, the inhabitants of Maffachufetts have been fingularly confpicuous." 1
The committee, however, did not recommend a repeal of the act of 1788. Is it poffible to avoid the inference that the true reafon of their failure to report a new bill, fuch as they were inftructed to prepare, was that they confidered the State amply protected by the old law?
It appears again in the revifed laws of 1823. An- other additional act was paffed in 1825, but without alteration of the provifion againft negroes ; and this ftatute, "fo arbitrary in its principle, and in its opera- tion fo little accordant with the inftitutions, feelings and practices of the people of the Commonwealth," continued to difgrace the Statute-Book of Maffachu- fetts until the firft day of April, 1834, after which time
1 Although this committee did not accomplifh their affigned tafk, they did achieve a further report, by way of addition, which deferves notice. They agreed that "it does not comport with the dignity of this State, to withhold that brief ftatement of facts, to be found in its annals, concerning the abolition of this trade in Maffachufetts-a ftatement which will prove both highly honorable, and in perfect accordance with that remarkable fpirit of wholefome and rational liberty, by which this Commonwealth has been greatly diftinguifhed from the earlieft period. But to the clear under- ftanding and better elucidation of this fubject, the committee think it ufeful to introduce the following fhort account of the exiftence of Slavery in Maffachufetts." In the elaborate ftatement which follows, there are no im- portant facts which are not already familiar to the reader of thefe notes ; but there is one idea which has, at leaft, the merit of novelty. After giving the general ftatiftics of the flave population, down to the time of the Revolution, they fay, " Thefe flaves were procured in feveral ways-either from the Dutch, in New York, from the Southern provinces in North America . . Few came by a direct trade," etc.
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its undiftinguifhed repeal, (in the general repealing fection of an act of March 29th, 1834, for the regu- lation of Gaols and Houfes of Correction,) no longer left "public opinion " to regulate its enforcement.
And here we reft. With the exception of the repeal, already mentioned, ante, p. 59, of the law pro- hibiting the intermarriage of whites with Indians, Negroes, or Mulattoes, and the obfcure ftatute of 1863, which terminated the long exclufion of the lat- ter from the ranks of the State militia, and perhaps obliterated the laft veftige of the formal legiflation of Maffachufetts againft them, there is nothing in the fubfequent hiftory or politics of the State relating to the fubject of thefe Notes. The anti-flavery agita- tions of the laft thirty years, in which Maffachufetts has borne fo confpicuous a part, have little if any hiftorical connection with the exiftence of Slavery in that Commonwealth. As "agreed on all hands," it was undoubtedly "confidered as abolifhed ;" and during thefe ftormy and portentous contefts which have changed the hiftory of the nation, it has been "put afide and covered," and "remembered only as for- gotten."
The reader of thefe Notes cannot fail to notice the ftrong refemblance in the mode of the extinction of flavery in Maffachufetts and that of villenage in 16
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England. Of the latter Lord Mansfield faid, in 1785, that "villains in grofs may in point of law fub- fift at this day. But the change of manners and cus- toms has effectually abolifhed them in point of fact." Ante, p. 115, note. If the parallel may be continued, it could be faid with equal juftice that flavery, hav- ing never been formally prohibited by legiflation in Maffachufetts, continued to "fubfift in point of law" until the year 1866, when the grand Conftitutional Amendment terminated it forever throughout the limits of the United States. It would be not the leaft remarkable of the circumftances connected with this ftrange and eventful hiftory, that, although vir- tually abolifhed before, the actual prohibition of flavery in Maffachufetts as well as Kentucky, fhould be accomplifhed by the votes of South Carolina and Georgia.
APPENDIX.
A. THE MILITARY EMPLOYMENT OF NEGROES IN MASSACHUSETTS.
THE neceffities of the fituation, for a few years after the firft fettle- ments, made everybody a foldier ; indeed, put arms in the hands of women and children.
The General Court made an order on the 27th of May, 1652, " that all Scotfmen, Negeres and Indians inhabiting with or fervants to the Englifh from the age of fixteen to fixty years, fhal be lifted, and are hereby enjoyned to attend traynings as well as the Englifh." At the feffion in May, 1656, however, this order was repealed, fo far as it related to negroes and Indians, as follows :
" For the better ordering and fettling of feverall cafes in the mili- tary companyes within this jurifdiction, which, upon experience, are found either wanting or inconvenient, it is ordered and declared by this Court and the authoritie thereof, that henceforth no negroes or Indians, although fervants to the Englifh, fhal be armed or permitted to trayne, and yt no other perfon fhall be exempted from trayning but fuch as fome law doth priviledge, or fome of the county courts or courts of affiftants, after notice of the partyes defires, to the officers of each company to which they belonge, upon juft caufe, fhal difmifs."
The law, as printed in 1660, required " every perfon above the age of fixteen years," to " duely attend all Military Exercife and fer- vice," with certain exceptions. Neither Indians, Negroes, or Slaves are among thofe exempted ; but it is reafonably certain that they were at no time permitted to bear arms during the period from 1656 down to the commencement of the Revolution. Gov. Bradftreet, in May, 1680, expreffly ftates, in anfwer to an inquiry from the Committee for Trade and Plantations as to the number of men able to bear arms-
" We account all generally from fixteen to fixty that are healthfull
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and ftrong bodys, both Houfholders and Servants fit to bear Armes, except Negros and Slaves, whom wee arme not." M. H. S. Coll., III., viii., 336.
The next enactment on the fubject was in the brief adminiftration of Sir Edmund Andros. The Act for fettling the militia, enacted by this very unpopular Governor and his Council for his Majefty's terri- tory and dominion of New England, March 24, 1687, provided " that no perfon whatfoever above fixteen years of age remain unlifted by themfelves, mafters, miftreffes or employers." Negroes and Indians are not exempted by any provifion of this act; but it is extremely doubtful whether it ever went into practical operation. One of the moft obnoxious of his meafures was his attempt to control the militia in New England. This is, however, not very important ; for after the Englifh Revolution and the eftablifhment of the new Province charter, among the earlieft of the laws was the act for regulating the militia- 1693-by which Indians and negroes were exempted from all trainings. In Sewall's tract againft flavery in 1700 (ante, p. 84), he fays, " As many Negro Men as there are among us, fo many empty places are there in our Train Bands." A later publication in the Bofton News Letter, June 10th, 1706, fhows that "Negroes do not carry Arms to defend the Country as Whites do," and further, that they could not be employed as fubftitutes for whites who were impreffed or drafted, (ante, p. 107.)
A fubfequent act for the regulating of free negroes, &c.,-1707- illuftrates their exact pofition more clearly. The recital in the pre- amble is that
" Whereas, in the feveral towns and precincts within this province, there are feveral free negroes, and mulattoes able of body, and fit for labor ; who are not charged with trainings, watches, and other fervices required of her Majeftie's fubjects ; whereof they have fhare in the benefit," &c.
The act, therefore, provided that they fhould do fervice equivalent to trainings, &c., each able-bodied free negro or mulatto fo many days' work yearly in repairing of the highways, cleanfing the ftreets, or other fervice for the common benefit of the place. See ante, pp. 60, 61.
In common with all able to bear arms, they were required to make their appearance at parade in cafes of fudden alarms, where they were to attend fuch fervice as the firft commiffioned officer of the military
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company of their precinct fhould direct, during the time the company continued in arms. This obvioufly points to menial fervice, or, at any rate, a fervice different from that of the enrolled militia.
This ftate of things continued down to the commencement of the war of the Revolution, and the firft contemporary act fhows that negroes could not be legally enrolled at that time. The general militia act of 1775, in providing for the enrolment, excepts "Negroes, In- dians, and mulattoes." The act of May, 1776, providing for a rein- forcement to the American army, provides that "Indians, negroes, and mulattoes, fhall not be held to take up arms or procure any perfon to do it in their room." The act of November 14, 1776, to provide reinforcements to the American army, excepts "Negroes, Indians, and mulattoes," and the explanatory refolve paffed on the 29th of the fame month alfo excepts " Indians, negroes, mulattoes, &c." The refolve in the fame year for taking the number of all male inhabitants above fix- teen years of age excepts "Indians, negroes, and mulattoes." This cenfus was doubtlefs taken with a view to the approaching neceffity for a draft, and even here they are excluded, although they were apparently included in the poll-lifts at the fame time-being rateable polls, if not free citizens.
It was only when the preffure of the terrible reverfes of the winter of 1776-7 came that they were included in the number of perfons liable to draft. The refolve, January 6, 1777, was "for raifing every feventh man to complete our quota," and "without any exceptions, fave the people called Quakers"-one feventh of all male perfons of fixteen years old and upwards. A refolve in Auguft of the fame year was fimilar in its object and character. But this proceeding was not allowed to pafs without remonftrance, not by the negroes, but the white men. In the Maffachufetts Legiflature, March 5, 1778, a petition of Benjamin Goddard in behalf of the felectmen, committee of fafety, and militia officers of the town of Grafton, praying that they may be excufed from raifing a feventh part of the blacks in faid town, they being exempt from military duty and free occupants on their own eftate, was read, and the petitioner had leave to withdraw his petition.
During the remainder of the war the law appears to have regarded as liable to military duty " any perfon living or refiding in any town or plantation within this State the term of three months together ;" but at the fame time, although they had the benefit of the example of
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Rhode Ifland in the organization of their famous regiment of negro flaves, an attempt in Maffachufetts to authorize the formation of a fimilar corps " does not appear to have been deemed advifable at the time."
The war came to an end, and, foon after, the very firft general militia act, paffed March 10, 1785, revived the old feature, and con- tinued the exemption of " negroes, Indians, and mulattoes " from both train-band and alarm-lift. In the time of the infurrection in 1786, negroes offered their fervices to Governor Bowdoin, to go againft the infurgents, to the number of feven hundred ; but the Council did not advife fending them.
The fubftance of the next law is the fame, although they changed the " way of putting it " by adopting the language of the United States law, in which negroes do not appear among the exempts, but are ex- cluded in the enrolment.
The militia law of June 22, 1793, authorizes the enrolment of "each and every free, able-bodied white male citizen of this, or any other of the United States, refiding within this Commonwealth," between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years, fave as excepted.
This exclufion from military employment, and the privilege of bearing arms, continued apparently without change until the year 1863, when, by Chapter 193 of the Acts of that year, approved April 27, 1863, the Maffachufetts laws were made to conform to thofe of the United States, which had already recognized and accepted the negro as a foldier.
B. ADDITIONAL NOTES, ETC.
I. Page 21. On the 9th of November, 1716, P. M., was prefented to the Houfe of Reprefentatives of Mafachufetts " a Petition of Wil- liam Brown, fon of a Freeman, by a Servant Woman, and has been fold as a flave, and is at prefent owned by Mr. Andrew Boardman, fhowing that his faid Mafter will fet him at liberty, and make him Free, if this Court will indemnify him from the Law relating to the Manu- miffion of Negroes, as to maintaining of him in cafe of Age, Difability etc., Praying the Court to indemnify him."
On the following day, this Petition was " further confidered, and the following Vote paffed thereon, viz. : Inafmuch as the Petitioner is a young able-bodied Man, and it cannot be fuppofed, that he is Manu-
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mitted, by his Mafter, to avoid charge in fupporting him, Ordered, that the Prayer of the Petitioner be Granted. And that the Petitioner be deemed Free, when fet at liberty by his Mafter, although no fecurity be given to indemnify the Town where he dwells from charge by him, and in cafe the Petitioner fhall hereafter want Support, his faid Mafter fhall not be obliged to be at the charge thereof, any Law, Ufage, or Cuftom to the contrary notwithftanding." This order was fent up for concurrence, concurred in and confented to by the Governor on the fame day, November 10th, 1716. Journal H. of R., p. 36. General Court Records, x., p. 108.
2. Page 51. Maffachufetts has enjoyed the diftinction of appearing in the firft Cenfus of the United States without any flaves among her population.
" The following anecdote connected with this fubject, it is believed, has never been made public. In 1790 a cenfus was ordered by the General Government then newly eftablifhed, and the Marfhal of the Mafachufetts diftrict had the care of making the furvey. When he inquired for flaves, moft people anfwered none : if any one faid that he had one, the marfhal would afk him if he meant to be fingular, and would tell him that no other perfon had given in any. The anfwer then was, "If none are given in, I will not be fingular ;" and thus the lift was completed without any number in the column for flaves." Life of Belknap, pp. 164-5.
Dr. Belknap's own account of this cenfus, written and publifhed in 1795, is as follows :
"In 1790, a cenfus of the United States was made by order of the federal government ; the fchedule fent out on that occafion contained three columns for free whites of feveral defcriptions, which, in the State of Maffachufetts and diftrict of Maine, amounted to 469,326; a fourth for " all other free perfons," and a fifth for " flaves." There being none put into the laft column, it became neceffary to put the blacks, with the Indians, into the fourth column, and the amount was 6001. Of this number, I fuppofe the blacks were upwards of 4000; and of the remaining 2000, many were a mixed breed, between Indians and blacks . In the fame cenfus, as hath been before obferved, no flaves are fet down to Maffachufetts. This return, made by the marfhal of the diftrict, may be confidered as the formal evidence of the abolition of Slavery in Maffachufetts, efpecially as no perfon has ap-
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peared to conteft the legality of the return." M. H. S. Coll., I., iv., 199, 204.
3. Page 53. In 1718, a committee of both Houfes prepared a bill entitled "An Act for the Encouraging the Importation of White Male Servants, and the preventing the Clandeftine bringing in of Negroes and Molattoes." It was read in Council a firft time on the 16th of June, and "fent down recommended " to the Houfe, where it was alfo read a firft time on the fame day. The next day it was read a fecond time, and " on the queftion for a third reading, decided in the negative." Journal .H. of R., 15, 16. General Court Records, x., ยท 282.
4. Pages 54, 90. The Act of 1705, Chapter 6, underwent fome changes in the Council, after it had paffed in the Houfe. It was read in Council on Monday the 3d of December, 1705, a firft time, "as paff'd in the Houfe of Reprefentatives." The next day it was read a fecond and third time " with fome Amendments and Additions agreed to." On the 5th it was "Read and Voted to be paffed into an Act." General Court Records, VIII., 187, 188, 190.
5. Page 61. A draft of Governor Dudley's letter " concerning Indian Captives from Carolina," was prefented and approved in the Houfe of Reprefentatives on the 15th of June, 1715. Journal, 28.
6. Page 65. A recent examination of the collection of Tax-Acts in the poffeffion of Ellis Ames, Efq., of Canton, Maffachufetts, enables us to add that Indian, Negro, and Mulatto fervants were eftimated pro- portionably as other perfonal eftate, according to the found judgment and difcretion of the Affeffors in each and every year from 1727 to 1775, excepting 1730, 1731, 1749, 1750. The acts for thefe years we have not feen, but it is reafonably certain that the provifion was the fame as in all the others. That of 1776 was probably fimilar to that of 1777, in which the Poll-Tax is levied on Male Polls above 16 years of age, including Negroes and Mulattoes, and fuch of them that are under the government of a Mafter or Miftrefs, to be taxed to the faid Mafter or Miftrefs refpectively, in the fame manner as Minors and Apprentices are taxed. This method continued to 1791. The act of 1793 omits the mention of Negroes and Mulattoes, taxing " minors, apprentices and fervants " as above. In 1803, fuch as are under " the immediate government " of a mafter, etc. In 1805, the fervants are omitted, and there is a feparate fection concerning minors.
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7. Page 94, and note. With reference to the flave's "right to Re- ligion," we fhould have added a word refpecting the peculiar " fepara- tion " of the religious people of Maffachufetts and their well-known " fear of polluting the ordinances ;" to which was afcribed, in this very connection, that neglect of " proper means to make men godly," which became " the mifery of New England." Stoddard's Anfwer to Jome Cafes of Confcience, etc., 1722, p. 12. It was the opinion of this writer that "if they (fervants) had proper Helps, they might be as forward in Religion, as the English." Ibid.
8. Pages 97, 101. Inftructions fimilar to thofe given to Andros in 1688 (ante, pp. 51-2, 96) were repeated to fubfequent governors of the various colonies. We have found no act paffed in accordance with thefe inftructions in Maffachufetts, or any other colony or province excepting New Hampfhire ; where fuch a law was enacted, in which the diftinction noted in the text between the Chriftian fervants or flaves, and the Indians and Negroes, is emphatically illuftrated. The Province Law of 1718, Chap. 70, is as follows (Edit. 1771, p. 101) :
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