To his Excellency Thomas Gage Governor: —*

To the Honourable His Majesty's Council, and the Honourable House of Representatives of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in General Court assembled, June - Anno Domini 1774.

The Petition of us the Subscribers, in behalf of all those, who, by divine permission, are held in a State of Slavery within the Bowels of a Free Country.

Humbly Sheweth

That your petitioners apprehend, they have in common with other men, a natural right to be free, and without molestation, to enjoy such property, as they may acquire by their industry, or by any other means not detrimental to their fellow men; and that no person can have any just claim to their services unless by the laws of the land they have forfeited them, or by voluntary compact become servants; neither of which is our case; but we were dragged by the cruel hand of power, some of us from our dearest connections, and others stolen from the bosoms of tender parents and brought hither to be enslaved. Thus are we deprived of every thing that has a tendency to make life even tol [erable.] Whenever any social connections are formed among

[able

embittered by the cruel consideration of deprived of enjoying life in the same agrefel]low men, who were made by the Inherit the like salvation with us. tion, we are rendered incapable of the Supreme Governor of the universe, to the duties, which are due unto him. an intolerable grievance, we are

often under the necessity of obeying man, not only in omission of, but frequently in opposition to the laws of God. So inimical is Slavery to religion! As we are hinder'd by our situation from an observance of the Laws of God, so we cannot reap an equal benefit from the Laws of the Land with other subjects. We are informed, there is no law of this Province, whereby our

This petition was drawn up by a more skilful hand, as regards penmanship and orthography. - EDS.

i

masters can claim our services, mere custom is the tyrant that
keeps us in bondage, and deprives us of that use of the law,
which our fellow men, who we believe under God are no better
than us, are entitled to and do enjoy. We do not claim rigid
justice, but as we are deserving like other men, of some com-
pensation for all our toils and sufferings; we would therefore in
addition to our prayer, that all of us, excepting such as are now
infirm through age, or otherways unable to support themselves,
may be liberated and made free men of this community, and be
entitled to all the privileges and immunities of its free and
natural born subjects. Further humbly ask that your Excel-
lency and Honours would be pleased to give and grant to us
some part of the unimproved land, belonging to the province,
for a settlement, that each of us may there quietly sit down
under his own fig tree [and enjoy] the fruits of his labour.
We humbly

Honours, will give this sch

consideration: and pray

cause and act of the Legislative
the slaves throughout this

obtain their freedom from

at the same time prohibiting any being sent out of the Province, previous to the said acts taking place; or at least to declare, that there is no Law whatever for keeping us in Bondage.

But if your Excellency and Honours cannot in wisdom adopt this plan of relief for us, we humbly and earnestly request, that you would release us from bondage by such other ways or means, as to your Excellency and Honours shall seem good and wise upon the whole. And your Petitioners, as in duty bound shall ever pray.

To the Honorable Counsel & House of [Representatives for the State of Massachusitte Bay in General Court assembled, Jan. 13, 1777.*

The petition of A Great Number of Blackes detained in a State of slavery in the Bowels of a free & Christian Country Humbly shuwith that your Petitioners apprehend that thay have in Common with all other men a Natural and Unaliable Right to that freedom which the Grat Parent of the Unavers hath Bestowed equalley on all menkind and which they have Never forfuted by any Compact or agreement whatever - but thay wher Unjustly Dragged by the hand of cruel Power from their Derest friends and sum of them Even torn from the Embraces of their tender Parents-from A popolous Pleasant and plentiful contry and in violation of Laws of Nature and off Nations and in defiance of all the tender feelings of humanity Brough hear Either to Be sold Like Beast of Burthen & Like them Condemnd to Slavery for Life - Among A People Profesing the mild Religion of Jesus A people Not Insensible of the Secrets of Rationable Being Nor without spirit to Resent the unjust endeavours of others to Reduce them to a state of Bondage and Subjection your honouer Need not to be informed that A Life of Slavery Like that of your petioners Deprived of Every social privilege of Every thing Requiset to Render Life Tolable is far worse then Nonexistance.

[In imitation of the Lawdable Example of the Good People of these States your petiononers have Long and Patiently waited the Evnt of petition after petition By them presented to the Legislative Body of this state and cannot but with Grief Reflect that their Sucess hath ben but too similar they Cannot but express their Astonishment that It has Never Bin Consirdered that Every Principle from which Amarica has Acted in the Cours of their unhappy Deficultes with Great Briton Pleads Stronger than A thousand arguments in favowrs of your petioners they therfor humble Beseech your honours to give this

*This petition, in an improved form, is on the files at the State House in Massachusetts Archives, Vol. 212, p. 182. It is signed by Prince Hall and a few others. EDS.

tel:

petion its due weight & consideration and cause an act of the Legislatur to be past Wherby they may Be Restored to the Enjoyments of that which is the Naturel Right of all men — and their Children who wher Born in this Land of Liberty may not be heald as Slaves after they arive at the age of Twenty one years so may the Inhabitance of thes Stats No longer chargeable with the inconsistancey of acting themselves the part which thay condem and oppose in others Be prospered in their present Glorious struggle for Liberty and have those Blessing to them, &c.

BRIEF OF LEVI LINCOLN

IN THE

SLAVE CASE TRIED 1781.*

Jennison vs. Caldwell.

1 Quest. Is Quork Jennison's servant.

2dly. Did he [that is, Caldwell] entice and seduce him or rescue him.

Is he a servant by his own consent.

Is he a born slave. Mr. Sprague reads a bill of sale to James Caldwell, May 4, 1754.

Is there any thing peculiar to his form or person that makes him a slave we differ. But we differ as much from them, as they do from us- are born in the same manner, our bones clothed with the same kind of flesh, live and die in the same manner. Is there any thing therefore in his person.

Is he a slave by the custom of the country. A custom must be general. It is not a general custom. It has ever been against the principles of some to make slaves, who have freed them.

It must be undisputed. It has always been disputed in the Genl Ct. and courts of justice and else where.

*This case was tried before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts at the September term, 1781. Caleb Strong and Levi Lincoln were counsel for the plaintiff, and Judge Sprague and William Stearns for the defendant. This brief of Levi Lincoln has been literally copied, with all its clerical errors, from the original in his own handwriting, in a volume of his briefs in the Library of the American Antiquarian Society. The paper is in the form of two briefs. In the heading of the second there is an error in the Christian name of one of the defendants. They were John and Seth Caldwell. This brief has been used by Professor Emory Washburn in an interesting article on the Extinction of Slavery in Massachusetts," in the Proceedings of this Society for May, 1857. For a history of this case, and an account of the several trials, all of which substantially involved the question as to the slavery or freedom of the negro, Quork Walker, see Judge Gray's paper read before this Society at the April meeting, 1874, in the Proceedings.-EDS.