To Plead Our Own Cause: African Americans in Massachusetts and the Making of the Antislavery Movement

1. Puritans and Slavery

8 to plead our own cause 1 Puritans and Slavery masters, give unto your servants, that which is Just & equal, Knowing that ye also have a master in Heaven. —colossians 4:1 Well then, poor ethiopians, do you now stretch out your Hands unto the lord; even those poor black Hands of yours, the lord calleth for them. —cotton mather the history of Puritanism and African American life are two fields of inquiry that are not often tied together. doing so, however, greatly enriches our understanding of African American religion and politics, including the origins of black abolitionist thought as well as the transatlantic influence of the Puritan movement. to understand the ideology of Puritanism and its effect on African American life in massachusetts, it is useful to briefly explore the background of the Puritan migration to the colony. Under the rule of James i and charles i in the early seventeenth century , english Puritans experienced increasing persecution for continuing the work of the Protestant reformation to purify the church of england of the remnants of catholicism. King James and King charles saw the Puritan movement as an assault on their authority, which they believed should be absolute in both civil and ecclesiastical matters. both monarchs forbade preaching by ministers, instead insisting on preapproved readings from a common prayer book. charles i also rejected the idea of a priesthood of all believers, seeking instead, as the head of the church, 8 Puritans and Slavery 9 to dictate religious belief and practices to the populace. by the 1610s and 1620s, authorities were imprisoning and executing Puritans at an alarming rate, prompting many to flee england.1 many Puritans at first fled to the netherlands. but finding that country ’s culture and manners strange, they decided to found the Plymouth colony in 1620. their primary goal was to practice their religion freely in a place where they could raise their children in a language and culture familiar to them. the Puritans who left england aboard the Arbella and six other ships in the spring of 1630 to settle the massachusetts bay colony similarly wanted to practice their religion freely, but they did not want to separate themselves completely from their english brethren, as the earlier Puritans who landed at Plymouth wanted to do.2 instead, they aspired to establish a godly community that would serve as a shining light for their brethren back in england. in his famous sermon “A model of christian charity,” probably delivered before the voyage to massachusetts, John Winthrop told his listeners: “We must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. the eyes of all people are upon us.”3 if they succeeded in establishing a godly community in new england, the Puritans believed they could bring old england back to the ways of God. Among the key beliefs of these early Puritans was the absolute sovereignty of God. For them, this was his chief attribute, even above benevolence . they believed that all men deserved damnation but that God’s benevolence had led him to choose some people as his elect, those who would find themselves in heaven after death. While one could certainly look for signs of election, a good Puritan could never be sure if he had been chosen, a mind-set that often led to great anxiety over one’s spiritual fate. Although the belief in predestination and its mysteries produced apprehension among many, it also made for a more egalitarian view toward conversion and evangelism, as ministers could argue that all people, including blacks and native Americans, might be among God’s elect.4 For the Puritans, conversion to christianity was both an experience and a process. the initial justification, or realization that one was among the elect, represented the experiential aspect of conversion. the individual might hear a particularly relevant sermon and become convinced of their sinful nature. this was often followed by a period of spiritual anguish, in which people were sure they were going to hell, followed by a feeling of relief, perhaps coming after a vision or dream about Jesus. by the end of 10 to plead our own cause the first decade of settlement, it was common for churches to require an oral account of the justification process as an admission for membership. but conversion did not end there. sanctification followed justification and was a process whereby individuals strove to live the rest of...