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

4. Abolition of Slavery and the Slave Trade

70 to plead our own cause 4 Abolition of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the same year that Paul cuffe and his fellow activists presented their petition for relief from taxes to the massachusetts General court, the people of the bay state ratified what is today the oldest functioning constitution in American history. drafted by John Adams, samuel Adams, and James bowdoin (the latter two of whom actively assisted the 1773 black petitioners in getting their voices heard in the legislature), the massachusetts constitution went into effect on 25 october 1780. this document, with its three equal branches of government, bicameral legislature, and strong executive, is widely known for having influenced the general frame of the U.s. constitution. to some contemporaries, it was also widely known for having led to the downfall of slavery in the state. lawyers, jurists, slaveholders, and African Americans alike interpreted the first article— “All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness”—as having effectively abolished the institution of slavery.1 the constitution was not the only factor that led to the downfall of slavery in the bay state, however; abolition came about due to a convergence of forces. in his response to a query from historian Jeremy belknap in 1795, vice President John Adams argued that slavery ended because white workers did not want to compete with slave labor. this was especially true in the tough economic times that massachusetts saw in the wake of 70 Abolition of Slavery and the Slave Trade 71 the American revolution. “the common white people,” Adams wrote, “or rather the labouring people, were the cause of rendering negroes unprofitable servants. their scoffs and insults, their continual insinuations, filled the negroes with discontent, made them lazy, idle, proud, vicious, and at length wholly useless to their masters, to such a degree that the abolition of slavery became a measure of oeconomy.”2 other correspondents gave different answers to belknap’s query respecting abolition in massachusetts. samuel dexter, a successful boston merchant and representative to the General court, responded that few had spoken against slavery or the slave trade until the stamp Act crisis. before that, most had agreed that christianizing Africans was a positive result of the trade, but afterward publications in newspaper and pamphlet form became more common. With the 1780 massachusetts constitution, blacks started taking their freedom into their own hands. dexter noted that “soon after the establishment of the constitution of massachusetts one negro after another deserted from the service of those who had been their owners, till a considerable number had revolted. some of them were seized, and remanded to their former servitude. certain individuals of these brought actions against those who had been their masters, and the success of the negroes in these suits operated to the liberation of all, who did not voluntarily remain with their former owners.”3 belknap himself credited popular opinion with bringing down the institution . Writing to st. George tucker of virginia, who was contemplating a gradual abolition plan for that state, belknap posited that antislavery publications from men such as James otis and nathaniel Appleton and the many black petitions of the 1770s had helped weaken public support for slavery. blacks were well aware of the 1772 somerset decision and began suing their masters in earnest during the 1770s, with few, if any, losing their cases, according to belknap. What finished the job in his mind was a series of court cases that culminated in 1783 with a decision that many contemporaries and later historians have interpreted as having abolished slavery in the state, one similar to the views expressed in the somerset decision. For belknap, this decision was “a mortal wound to slavery in massachusetts.”4 massachusetts’ route toward abolishing slavery varied from those of other northern states, which took action against the institution during and immediately after the revolution. slavery ended in vermont under 72 to plead our own cause the state’s 1777 constitution, passed the same year that the massachusetts legislaturedebatedabolitionbuttooknoaction.then,in1780,Pennsylvania enacted its gradual abolition law, a statute that freed no slaves immediately but liberated the children of slaves when they turned twenty-eight. in 1784 connecticut and...