History of slavery in Massachusetts facts for kids

In the early days of Massachusetts, a system called chattel slavery began. This meant people were treated as property, like objects, and could be bought, sold, or inherited. This practice grew strong in the 1600s and lasted well into the 1700s. Even before the Plymouth Colony started in 1620 and the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, some forms of slavery existed in New England. But once these colonies were set up, people there started capturing, buying, and trading many enslaved people. These included both Africans and Native Americans.

While many people think of slavery mainly in the Caribbean or the American South, it was also a big part of New England's history. It was deeply connected to the economy and daily life. Historians believe that between 1755 and 1764, about 2.2% of Massachusetts's population was enslaved. Most enslaved people lived in towns that had industries or were near the coast.

Slavery in Massachusetts ended slowly through case law, which means through court decisions. By the late 1700s, it faded away because enslaved people went to court to gain their freedom, a process called manumission. Unlike in some other places, enslaved people in Massachusetts were seen as both property and persons by the law. This allowed them to go to court. A famous lawyer named Benjamin Kent helped enslaved people in court as early as 1752. He won the first "freedom suit" in the British American colonies in 1766.

After the American Revolution, court cases from 1781 argued that slavery went against Christian beliefs and the new Massachusetts constitution. From 1781 to 1783, in cases known as "the Quock Walker case," the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court used judicial review (where courts decide if a law follows the constitution) to end slavery. They said it didn't fit with the state's new constitution in 1783. This didn't free everyone right away. Instead, it told slave owners that the law would no longer protect their right to own people. Without this protection, it became less profitable to keep enslaved people. Owners then often changed the arrangement, either to indentured servitude (working for a set time) or paid jobs.

Because of these changes, Massachusetts was the only state to have zero enslaved people listed in the 1790 United States Census. Vermont had also ended slavery by 1790, but a small number of enslaved people were still recorded there.

However, a big danger for formerly enslaved people and free Black people in Massachusetts came from slave catchers. These people hunted for runaway slaves who had escaped from the South and found safety in the North. Under the laws at the time, these runaways could be caught and sent back to slavery in states where it was still legal. Many free-born Black people in the North were also falsely accused of being runaways and forced into slavery, like in the sad story of Solomon Northup.

This constant danger pushed the abolition movement in the North. It showed that Black people in free states could never truly be free until slavery ended everywhere in the United States. Massachusetts became a main center for abolitionism in the early 1800s. People like William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass, and groups like the Boston Vigilance Committee, worked hard to end slavery.

The disagreements between those who wanted to end slavery and those who supported it led directly to the American Civil War in 1861. After the war ended in 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed. Massachusetts approved it, which officially ended slavery in the United States forever. This was the final date slavery was outlawed in Massachusetts, even though it had mostly disappeared decades before.

Even after slavery ended, racial segregation (keeping people of different races separate) continued in Massachusetts. This was a legal requirement in some areas until the mid-1900s.

History of Slavery in Massachusetts

Enslaving Native American People

Europeans started enslaving Native American people in New England even before the Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded. In 1605, an English sailor named James Rosier wrote about capturing five Wabanaki men in what is now Maine. He and his crew took them to London. They hoped to teach them English and learn about Wabanaki ways to help them set up colonies in North America.

Nine years later, in 1614, English sea captain Thomas Hunt captured 24 Native Americans. He was on a trip to New England with John Smith. Plymouth Governor William Bradford later said Hunt wanted "to sell them for slaves in Spaine." One of Hunt's captives, a man named Tisquantum, managed to go to England, learn English, and return to North America. He famously helped the Plymouth colonists in 1621.

After the Plymouth Colony (1620) and the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630) were set up, colonists quickly made enslaving Native Americans a part of their lives. At first, they mainly took captives during wars. This happened a lot during the Pequot War from 1636 to 1638. In 1636, the Massachusetts General Court ordered that a Pequot person named Chausop "bee kept a slave for life."

As the war grew, colonists started trading enslaved Pequots on a much larger scale. They sold captives without needing a legal declaration. Before 1641, there were no laws about this trade. Historians say colonists acted for their own gain and later used ideas of a "just war" to excuse their actions. As historian Wendy Warren noted, by the 1600s, moving enslaved people around the Atlantic world was a common practice.

The enslavement of Pequots reached its peak in May 1637. English colonists and their Native American allies attacked and killed hundreds of Pequot people near the Mystic River. The survivors, mostly women and children, were enslaved and divided among the winners. Many colonial soldiers took captives as a reward for fighting. Some captives were sent to Boston to work as laborers or servants. Others were sold to English colonies in the Caribbean.

The number of enslaved Native Americans in Massachusetts slowed after the Pequot War. But it increased again during King Philip's War in the 1670s. Colonists again captured and enslaved people. Historian Margaret Newell says that wanting captives was a "central preoccupation" for the colonists. This often made the conflict worse. Native Americans feared being enslaved and sent to sugar plantations in the Caribbean. This made them less likely to surrender.

In 1676, a ship called the Seaflower left Boston with 180 Native American "men, women and children" who were "sentenced & [condemned] to Perpetuall Servitude & slavery." Like after the Pequot War, hundreds of captives were taken as slaves by the colonial army. They were sold to Massachusetts families or shipped overseas to help pay the colonies' war debts.

The rate of Native American slavery went down after King Philip's War ended and the 1700s began. However, forced labor did not stop. While fewer Native Americans were formally enslaved through capture, colonial courts started sentencing them to forced labor for things like theft, not paying debts, or violence. In the nearby colony of Rhode Island, courts often took Native American children from mothers they called "disorderly." These children were then given as indentured servants to colonists. Even though these contracts were supposed to be for a set time, abuses were common. Terms were long, and servants could be sold and traded if their terms were over two years.

Bringing Enslaved Africans to Massachusetts

While English colonists in Massachusetts were building a trade in enslaved Native Americans, they also started buying enslaved Africans. These two practices were connected. In 1638, the slave ship Desire took Native American captives to the Caribbean to be sold. It returned with the first recorded shipment of enslaved Africans in New England. This trade continued through the 1600s. Merchants and colonial governments exported enslaved Native Americans and traded them for more desired African laborers.

Large slave ships rarely sailed directly from Africa to Massachusetts. Instead, merchant ships traveling between Salem and Boston often returned with enslaved Africans. This steady flow of enslaved workers helped colonists by removing Native American populations and meeting the growing need for labor.

People in Massachusetts and Plymouth also took part in the larger Atlantic slave trade. At least 19 voyages in the 1600s left New England, bought or captured enslaved people in Africa, and took them to the Caribbean to be sold. While most of these enslaved people were sold in the Caribbean, many traders brought small numbers back to New England.

It's hard to know exactly how many enslaved Africans were brought to Massachusetts during the colonial period. This is because records are few, there were no strict rules, and people generally didn't care much about slavery's presence. One estimate suggests about 9,813 Africans came directly to New England between 1638 and 1770, plus 3,870 who arrived through the Caribbean. Even with rough numbers, enslaved Africans were a significant part of the workforce and community in colonial Massachusetts.

Laws About Slavery (1641–1703)

In 1641, Massachusetts passed its Body of Liberties. This law officially allowed certain types of slavery. It stated that there would be no slavery "unless it be lawfull captives taken in just warres, and such strangers as willingly selle themselves or are sold to us." It also said these people should be treated with "Christian usages." For the colonists, "strangers" eventually meant Native Americans and Africans. This made Massachusetts the first colony to allow slavery through its laws.

In 1670, Massachusetts made it legal to sell the children of enslaved people into bondage. By 1680, there were laws limiting the movement of Black people. A 1703 law required owners to pay a bond for all enslaved people. This was to protect towns if an enslaved person became poor and the owner refused to care for them.

Ending Slavery in the 1700s

By the mid-1700s, enslaving Africans was common in Massachusetts. A 1754 count showed nearly 4,500 enslaved people in the colony. However, feelings against slavery, called abolitionist sentiment, were growing. This was especially true as ideas about independence and democracy became popular.

Massachusetts did make money from the triangular trade, which involved trading enslaved people. But its economy was not as dependent on slave labor as the Southern Colonies' economies were. In 1772, a court case in England, Somerset v Stewart, decided that slavery had no legal basis on English soil. While Massachusetts courts knew about this decision, they were not forced to follow it.

Freedom Suits: Fighting for Freedom in Court

Between 1764 and 1774, seventeen enslaved people went to court in Massachusetts to sue their owners for freedom. In 1766, Benjamin Kent won the first trial in the United States (and Massachusetts) to free an enslaved person (Slew vs. Whipple).

Three other important trials happened during the American Revolutionary War. During this time, people often talked about everyone being equal. These cases were especially important after the new Massachusetts constitution was passed in 1780.

Jennison v. Caldwell

A man named Jennison claimed that Caldwell had taken his worker, Walker, away. The court sided with Jennison and gave him 25 pounds.

Quock Walker v. Jennison

This 1781 case involved an enslaved man named Quock Walker in Worcester County. Chief Justice William Cushing told the jury that the idea of slavery, treating people like "horses and cattle," had been allowed by old laws. But he said that a "different idea has taken place with the people of America." He explained that the new Massachusetts Constitution said "all men are born free and equal." He concluded that slavery was "totally repugnant" (meaning completely against) the idea of being born free.

Walker's lawyers argued that slavery went against the Bible and the new Massachusetts Constitution (1780). The jury decided that Walker was a free man under the constitution and gave him 50 pounds in damages.

Both decisions were appealed. Jennison's appeal of Walker's freedom was rejected. The Caldwells won their appeal, as a jury agreed that Walker was a free man, so they could employ him.

In September 1781, a third case was filed against Jennison for attacking Walker. Chief Justice William Cushing said that slavery was "as effectively abolished as it can be by the granting of rights and privileges wholly incompatible and repugnant to its existence." This statement helped set the stage for slavery to end in the state. On April 20, 1783, Jennison was found guilty and fined.

Even though Chief Justice Cushing's opinion should have ended slavery in Massachusetts, the state never formally abolished it until the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed in 1865. One reason might be that lawmakers didn't want to upset slave owners who would lose their "investment." Also, some white citizens worried that freed slaves might become a burden on the community, or that escaped slaves from other states would come to Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Supreme Court decisions in the Elizabeth Freeman and Quock Walker trials removed the legal support for slavery. Slavery then slowly ended "voluntarily" in the state over the next ten years. Some masters formally freed their enslaved people and paid them wages. Others were "freed" but became indentured servants for long periods. By 1790, the federal census showed no enslaved people in Massachusetts.