[374] Journal H. of R., 15, 16.  General Court Records, x. 282.

[375] Slavery in Mass., p. 106.

[376] It was thought to be lost for some years, until Dr. George H. Moore secured a copy from George Brinley, Esq., of Hartford, Conn., and reproduced it in his Notes.

[377] History of Nantucket, p. 281.

[378] Coffin, p. 338; also History of Nantucket, pp. 279, 280.

[379] Coffin, p. 338.

CHAPTER XV.

THE COLONY OF MASSACHUSETTS,—­CONTINUED.

1633-1775.

     THE ERA OF PROHIBITORY LEGISLATION AGAINST SLAVERY.—­BOSTON
     INSTRUCTS HER REPRESENTATIVES TO VOTE AGAINST THE
     SLAVE-TRADE.—­PROCLAMATION ISSUED BY GOV.  DUMMER AGAINST THE
     NEGROES, APRIL 13, 1723.—­PERSECUTION OF THE
     NEGROES.—­“SUING FOR LIBERTY.”—­LETTER OF SAMUEL ADAMS TO
     JOHN PICKERING, JUN., ON BEHALF OF NEGRO MEMORIALISTS—­A
     BILL FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF THE SLAVE-TRADE PASSES.—­IS
     VETOED BY GOV.  GAGE AND FAILS TO BECOME A LAW.

The time to urge legislation on the slavery question had come.  Cultivated at the first as a private enterprise, then fostered as a patriarchal institution, slavery had grown to such gigantic proportions as to be regarded as an unwieldy evil, and subversive of the political stability of the colony.  Men winked at the “day of its small things,” and it grew.  Little legislation was required to regulate it, and it began to take root in the social and political life of the people.  The necessities for legislation in favor of slavery increased.  Every year witnessed the enactment of laws more severe, until they appeared as scars upon the body of the laws of the colony.  To erase these scars was the duty of the hour.

It was now 1755.  More than a half-century of agitation and discussion had prepared the people for definite action.  Manumission and petition were the first methods against slavery.  On the 10th of March, 1755, the town of Salem instructed their representative, Timothy Pickering, to petition the General Court against the importation of slaves.[380] The town of Worcester, in June, 1765, instructed their representative to “use his influence to obtain a law to put an end to that unchristian and impolitic practice of making slaves of the human species, and that he give his vote for none to serve in His Majesty’s Council, who will use their influence against such a law."[381] The people of Boston, in the month of May, 1766, instructed their representatives as follows:—­

     “And for the total abolishing of slavery among us, that you
     move for a law to prohibit the importation and the
     purchasing of slaves for the future."[382]