Banner for African Americans and the End of Slavery in Massachusetts

African Americans and the End of Slavery in Massachusetts

的 Lives of Individual African Americans in America before 1783

"This Negro ran away from my Service before he servd me one year of ye eight wch he was to serve me & 他带走了我四十磅的财产..."
——威廉·帕克1682年11月15日的开支记录

 

在新英格兰, where the climate and the soil were not particularly favorable for large-scale agriculture, the population of enslaved people remained smaller than elsewhere in the British colonies, but slavery did exist in Massachusetts from 1638 (Dunn, p. 246)，如果不是更早的话. Enslavement was part of the fabric of British Atlantic culture. Merchants 和贸易smen owned enslaved people as a source of unpaid labor, but families of means also employed enslaved people as domestic servants. 的 贩卖一个名叫蒂朵的女奴 1737年就说明了这一点. 该交易涉及Habijah Weld(一位部长), 威廉·克拉克(医生), 阿特尔伯勒的两位重要人物, 两个哈佛毕业的, and one of them (Weld) was even known for his antislavery sentiments (殖民时期的学生). 在革命前夕, 约5,250 Black people were living in colonial Massachusetts, with the highest concentrations in important trading towns like Boston and Salem (Greene, p. 320).

书面记录

Sometimes a bill of sale or a receipt are the only evidence we have about the life of a particular enslaved person, 即使是这些文件，也往往提供不了多少洞察力. At this remove, the researcher can only speculate on the details of people's lives. 例如, a bill of sale for an enslaved man named Boston Loring, sold to Benjamin Williams of Roxbury in 1774 by Benjamin Dolbeare of Boston, 里面几乎没有利记APP官网手机版洛林本人的信息. 的 document is endorsed on the back as a "manumission," or formal release from slavery. It is unclear if Loring was freed as a result of this sale, 或者背书只是笔误. 与此形成鲜明对比的是, the 1752 will of Catherine Cornwell is an unusual glimpse into the life of this particular free Black woman living in Boston, as it lists her children and the executor of her estate, providing evidence that she owned property to leave to her heirs.

Bill of sale signed by Benjamin Dolbeare as administrator of the estate of Nathaniel Loring to Benjamin Williams regarding Boston (an enslaved person), ...
 凯瑟琳·康威尔的遗嘱，1752年2月8日

Enslaved people in Massachusetts usually lived with their owners, and had more direct contact with family members than the way of life we associate with plantation slavery in the West Indies and later in the American south. 的 Massachusetts courts recognized the right of enslaved people to hold and dispose of some property, to keep wages for work done not on their masters' time, 在法庭上提起诉讼, 以及陪审团审判的权利, 法律顾问, 以及一些法律保护. While enslaved people were generally taxed as property, they were also considered to be people by the legal system. 咖啡和奶酪, 两个住在波士顿的奴隶, 在1748年被起诉, 一系列家庭抢劫案的女性共犯. One of the indictments named two other enslaved people as witnesses to the crime. 的 written record suggests that the three alleged criminals were treated in the same legal manner, 至少一开始是这样.

的 diversified New England economy allowed African Americans to participate in a variety of occupations: domestic service, 农业, 熟练劳动和非熟练劳动, 海上交易, innkeeping, 餐饮, 以及其他小型工业. 当一个13岁的奴隶男孩叫 Bodee was sold by a Charlestown tanner to a Groton blacksmith, 他可能是被买来当学徒的, as he would have been at the right age to learn the smithing trade. Enslaved people in poor health, who were unable to work, were considered a burden. Towns passed legislation to avoid fiscal responsibility for the unemployed, 老年人, 体弱多病的人, 既受奴役又自由. 很明显, it was in an owner's interest to sell an enslaved person who was sick for any price, 甚至五先令, 一个名叫 Robin in 1747 by William Clark (the Harvard-educated physician) to Ebenezer Griggs. 的 bill of sale was endorsed as an "indemnification," or a formal release to Dr. 克拉克从照顾罗宾的财政责任中解脱出来.

Account of William Park's expenses relating to Sylvanus Warro, 15 November 1682
 Instructions to the prison keeper regarding Silvanus Warro's imprisonment, 2 March 1672

Daily life of African Americans was controlled through legislation. 1703年的一项法律禁止黑人入境, 印第安人, and people of mixed race from venturing out after 9:00 p.m.除非是替白人奴隶办事. 还有其他规定宵禁的法律, 婚姻, 购物, 牲畜所有权, 旅行, 和贸易. "Unruly" people could be punished by the law, like Sylvanus Warro, 1672年被起诉 on charges of nightwalking, disobedience, and fornication. Warro subsequently escaped from his enslaver, who filed a 1682年的控诉 收回为瓦罗支付的费用. Enslaved people could also be sold out of the province, like the woman named 明多，他被送到北卡罗来纳 1753年，他被委托给一位富有的波士顿商人. 杰里米·贝尔纳普, who accumulated historical information on slavery in Massachusetts to answer queries posed by St. 乔治·塔克, believed that enslaved people in New England were sometimes sold to work as agricultural laborers on southern plantations as a form of punishment. (见……第14页 杰里米·贝尔纳普的手稿回答了圣. 乔治·塔克对奴隶制的质疑.)

特色项目

 

Next essay: 菲丽丝·惠特蕾 >