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Between 1764 and 1774, seventeen slaves appeared in Massachusetts courts to sue their owners for freedom. [45] In 1766, John Adams' colleague Benjamin Kent won the first trial in the United States (and Massachusetts) to free a slave (Slew vs. Whipple). [5] [46] [47] [6] [7] [48] There were three other trials that are noteworthy, two civil and ...
The Massachusetts Body of Liberties was the first legal code established in New England, compiled by Puritan minister Nathaniel Ward. The laws were established by the Massachusetts General Court in 1641. The Body of Liberties begins by establishing the exclusive right of the General Court to legislate and dictate the "Countenance of Authority".
In 1641, the Massachusetts Bay Colony became the first colony to authorize slavery through enacted law. [67] Massachusetts passed the Body of Liberties, which prohibited slavery in many instances but allowed people to be enslaved if they were captives of war, if they sold themselves into slavery or were purchased elsewhere, or if they were ...
The law was passed after Elizabeth Key, a mixed race woman, had filed for freedom based on her having an English father, who had her baptized as a Christian, and had arranged a guardianship for her and limited indenture before his death. She was held longer and classified as a slave in an estate.
Decker's slave Harry was freed, and slaves residing in the Northwest Territory become free as per the Ordinance of 1787, and may assert their rights in court. 1820: Polly v. Lasselle: Supreme Court of Indiana: Indiana gave freedom to blacks in the state who had been held as slaves in the territory prior to Indiana's state constitutional ban on ...
As a result of Burns's trial, Massachusetts passed the most progressive liberty law the nation had seen up until 1854. [22] The law stated that slave claimants were not allowed to be on state property, fugitive slaves were required to have a trial by jury , and slave claimants had to produce two credible and unbiased witnesses to prove the ...
When they moved to Massachusetts, the Royall family brought at least 27 slaves which them, making them "the largest slaveholding family" in the colony. [ 10 ] [ 3 ] From 1732 to 1737, Royall's uncle had gradually remodelled Ten Hills Farm to include a three-story Georgian mansion (expanded from an earlier, more modest structure), a carriage ...
English colonist William Vassall (1592–1656) is remembered both for promoting religious freedom in New England and commencing his family's ownership of slave plantations in the Caribbean. A patentee of the Massachusetts Bay Company, Vassall was among the merchants who petitioned Puritan courts for greater civil liberties and religious tolerance.