who wrote this? was it written before or after the declaration of independence?
who wrote this? was it written before or after the declaration of independence?
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who wrote this? was it written before or after the declaration of independence?
Transcribed Image Text:Council and House of Representatives for the State of
Massachusetts-Bay in General Court assembled January 13th 1777.
The Petition of a great number of Negroes who are detained in a state of Slavery in the Bowels
of a free and Christian Country Humbly ask:
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That your Petitioners apprehend that negroes have, in common with all other Men, a natural
and unalienable right to that freedom, which the great Parent of the Universe hath bestowed
equally on all Mankind, and which they have never forfeited by any compact or agreement
whatever-But they were unjustly dragged, by the cruel hand of Power, from their dearest
friends, and some of them even torn from the embraces of their tender Parents, from a
populous, pleasant and plentiful Country-and in Violation of the Laws of Nature and of Nation
and in defiance of all the tender feelings of humanity, brought here to be sold like Beasts of
Burden, and like them condemned to slavery for Life...
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Your Honors need not to be informed that a Life of Slavery, like that of your petitioners,
deprived of every social privilege, of every thing requisite to render Life even tolerable, is far
worse than Non-Existence....They cannot but express their astonishment, that it has never been
considered, that every principle from which America has acted in the course of her unhappy
difficulties with Great-Britain, pleads stronger than a thousand arguments in favor of your
Petitioners.
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They therefore humbly beseech your Honors, to give this Petition its due weight and
consideration, and cause an Act of the Legislature to be passed, whereby they may be restored
to the enjoyment of that freedom which is the natural right of all Men-and their Children (who
were born in this Land of Liberty) may not be held as Slaves after they arrive at the age of
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twenty one years.
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