Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The practice of slavery in Massachusetts was ended gradually through case law. As an institution, it died out in the late 18th century through judicial actions litigated on behalf of slaves seeking manumission. Unlike some other jurisdictions, enslaved people in Massachusetts occupied a dual legal status of being both property and persons ...
The Porter–Phelps–Huntington House serves as an excellent lens through which to view the history of slavery in Western Massachusetts, especially in the town of Hadley. Slavery has existed in Hadley since the town's founding; the first four ministers of the town were all slave owners. [ 4 ]
The Massachusetts General Colored Association was organized in Boston in 1826 to combat slavery and racism. The Association was an early supporter of William Lloyd Garrison . Its influence spread locally and was realized within New England when they joined the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1833.
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".
An 1851 poster warning the "colored people of Boston" about policemen acting as slave catchers, pursuant to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. The Boston Vigilance Committee (1841–1861) was an abolitionist organization formed in Boston, Massachusetts, to protect escaped slaves from being kidnapped and returned to slavery in the South.
Although Boston was an important center of the abolitionist movement, its residents were by no means unanimously opposed to slavery or the Fugitive Slave Law. On the contrary, the local press excoriated Huggerford and Sheriff C. P. Sumner (father of abolitionist Charles Sumner) for not having placed more officers at the courthouse. The riot was ...
The Treason of Charles Lee (1858) The Employment of Negroes in the Revolutionary Army (1862) Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts (1866) A History of the Jurisprudence of New York (1872) Notes on the Witchcraft in Massachusetts (1883–85) Washington as an Angler (1887) He wrote numerous pamphlets.
Abolitionists brought in lecturers, including former slaves, to speak about the horrors of slavery. Frederick Douglass, a former slave and resident of the town, became an eloquent and moving orator on the lecture circuit. Slave narratives, produced by former slaves who lived in New Bedford, also provided insight about the experiences of slaves ...