East Saginaw courier., 1866-05-16
Moore's History Of Slavery in Mas
sachusetts. "

H sachusetls'
The Pilgrim Fathers who, for the
sake of freedom to worship God,'
took refuge upon the ''stern aud rock
bound coast" Of New England, began
by enslaving the Indians with whom
they came in contact, and finished by
importing negroes from Africa. They
justified the practice of holding men
in bondage by the law of MOSES, and
the doctrine of the natural right of
the friends of God to avail themselves
of the service of his heather enemies;
and, with devout hearts and approving
consciences, loaded their briggs and
schooners with New England rum,
craved- the prayers of the congregation
for the divine blessing upon the voyage,
and set forth to traffic off that which
their descendants eventually discovered
to be poison, for slaves.
These are the times to which we
are accustomed to look back as a period
of extraordinary purity, and great
liveliness of Christian spirit. There
were giants in those days; men of
broad brims and mighty faith, and
absolute conviction who took the will
of God for granted and had no more
doubt that they had been elected from
all the world as his exclusive favorites
than they had Of their own existence.
That such men should do wrong, it is
impossible to conceive. When, as was
now and then the case, some misguided
brother. troubled with dyspeptic
conscience, lost his faith in MOSES, and
began to doubt the orthodoxy of the
traffic in Pequots and Ethiopians, they
took the short course with him, cast
him out of the congregation, and
turned him over with DATHAS and
ABRAM and the Quakers, with warning
TO leave the province at his earliest
convenience.
Slavery, however, did not prove
profitable in Massachusetts,. 1t was
only the adult negroes who paid for
their keeping; and the young ones
were given away like puppies or kit
tens, to whoever would take them,
with or without consideration. Still
philanthropy, according to the record,
made but very halting and indifier-
ent progress; and in rather unfortunate
contrast with the boastings of the
SUMMERS, the BANcRoFTs and the PAL
FREYs, touching the early birth of
anti-slavery sentiments in Massachu-
sets, is the story of negro who,
after having passed through the hands
of several masters, enlisted in the
revolutionary army soon after the
breaking out of the war. He was
sold during his period of service, and
again after he was discharged. En-
listing again, he served during the
war : his owner taking his bounty and
half his wages; and finally, old and
decrepid, was passed around from one
town to another, wherever any ono of
his former masters had resided, in
search of home, occasioning abund-
ant lawsuits between contending pre-
cincts as to which was bound to bear
the intolerable burden of his subsis-
tence.
Edom Loudon, for such was the
name of this revolutionary patriot, in
1906 was poor and had become
chargeable' to the town in which he
resided. That town magnanimously
struggled through all the courts, from
the Justices Court up to the Supreme
Court of the Commonwealth, to shift
the responsibility for the maintenance
and support of the old soldier from
itself to one Of tho numerous other
towns in which he had sojourned from
time to time, as the slave of his eleven
masters. ."-p. 90.
II will not do to say that the people
of Massachusetts are an ungrateful
people. In volume by the Reverend
GEoRoE LIvERMoRE, entitled San His
torical Research, &c"t we read the
story of very remarkable demon
made over the dead body of
runaway negro, who led the riot which
is known as the Boston Massacre; for
which breach OF the peace he should
have been soundly hogged. But the
people of Massachusetts, are peculiar
people; and had EDoM LoUDoS con-
veniently died before he became a
legal charge upon his admiring coun-
trymen it is possible that gratitude,
which never loves to be constrained,
would have broken out, and, as is the
case of CRrspus ArrvcHs, given him a
funeral:
"Crispus Attuchs was the first TO
fall he and Samuel Gray and Jonas
Caldwell were killed on the spot
Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr
we're mortally wounded The excite
nent which followed was intense