You can click on the picture to enlarge it.This is a picture of Prince Hall, a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church , in Boston.
He campaigned to abolish slavery. He also tried to get the government to pay for Black education in 1787, but the Massachusetts legislature refused to do it, even though Black and white citizens all had to pay taxes. For many years, the local government also refused to find a building to create a school for the Black children of Boston. Finally, he opened a school for Black children in his home, and recruited some Harvard students to teach there.
You might not believe it, but even in 1788, a determined Black man could still win victories against the entire white power structure.
In early February 1788, three free Black men from Boston were lured onto a ship by a captain promising work. Instead, the men were kidnapped, shipped to the Caribbean, and sold as slaves.
In a February 27, 1788 petition, attacking the slave trade, Prince Hall and 21 others stated their outrage at the seizure of their fellow citizens.
he Massachusetts legislature did listen to Hall on this one issue: they outlawed slave-trading inside Massachusetts’ borders.
Governor John Hancock, and the French consul in Boston, pushed to get the men released from the French island of St. Bartholomew.
This was extremely unusual. The great majority of slaves had no governor willing to help them, North or South.
In fact, in 1793, the federal “Fugitive Slave Act” made it totally legal for escaped slaves to be kidnapped by slaveholders or their agents, anywhere in the United States. By 1850, an even more severe federal law was passed, depriving fugitive slaves of any rights, even in Massachusetts.
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He campaigned to abolish slavery. He also tried to get the government to pay for Black education in 1787, but the Massachusetts legislature refused to do it, even though Black and white citizens all had to pay taxes. For many years, the local government also refused to find a building to create a school for the Black children of Boston. Finally, he opened a school for Black children in his home, and recruited some Harvard students to teach there.
You might not believe it, but even in 1788, a determined Black man could still win victories against the entire white power structure.
In early February 1788, three free Black men from Boston were lured onto a ship by a captain promising work. Instead, the men were kidnapped, shipped to the Caribbean, and sold as slaves.
In a February 27, 1788 petition, attacking the slave trade, Prince Hall and 21 others stated their outrage at the seizure of their fellow citizens.
he Massachusetts legislature did listen to Hall on this one issue: they outlawed slave-trading inside Massachusetts’ borders.
Governor John Hancock, and the French consul in Boston, pushed to get the men released from the French island of St. Bartholomew.
This was extremely unusual. The great majority of slaves had no governor willing to help them, North or South.
In fact, in 1793, the federal “Fugitive Slave Act” made it totally legal for escaped slaves to be kidnapped by slaveholders or their agents, anywhere in the United States. By 1850, an even more severe federal law was passed, depriving fugitive slaves of any rights, even in Massachusetts.
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