New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-05-08
NUMBER 227.
THE Puritan Sentiment Always In Favor Of
slavery.
rSrBERsTrse REVELATIONS OF HISTORY.

INTERESTING REVELATIONS OF HISTORY.
From the Esr York Journal Of cornmsrca April I'll
II Is very difficult since the invention of the
printing press, to falsify history. Men write 8
: gfeaSdeai, and print great deal and when the
historian comes 70 investigate he finds here and
sLete tne inaEeflal from wach to extract the truth
70 one Wopld be interested in the history OF
: slavery IN Massachusetts, more than its history
ELSEWHERE, If It were not for the fact that during
me iast twenty-five years deliberate and organ
lzed enort has been on foot in that State to
falsfy the record of history, and her orator. and
politicians have been dinning necessarily into tbe
ears OF the nation all sorts Of untrue statements
on the subject with intent to make istorv hI Their
forclble falsehood and ceEapel belief by loud and
| presstent refteraton that Massachusetts, was the
pioneer of liberty, and that the Puritants were
| apostles of freedom. Our readers know how
thoroughly we have heretofore exposed the un.
! truthfulness of the statements made By such men
as mr. Sumner and such historians as Mr. Palfrey
But exposures produce no effect. Within the past
TWO weeks MIR. Pafrey has issued new historical
volume. In Whiee he reasserts the bold untruth
that slavery was not hereditary in Massachusetts,
and that every child born of slave was as free
as any other child in the State-a statement which
Is directly contrary to the body of court records
to the published newspapers and pamphlets, to
the whole history of Massachusetts. mr. Sumner
has tried repeatedly to give this statement the
aspect of truth by bold assertion. The history,
however, is now collected and published in a form
which Will be accessible te<all, and Mr.. Palfrey
must either correct his stereotype plates or be
diseredlted entirely as a historian, while Mr. Sum.
ner must select places for his speeches where he
cannot be reported or contradicted if he expects
to be believed by his hearers.
We have already alluded to the publication by
Appleton of " Notes on the History of Slavery in
Massachusetts, y by George H. Moore librarian of
the New York Historical society The book ia a
thin octave, elegantly printed. We commend il to
universal circulation. The revelations of this vol
unle are astounding. No man in America is more
capable OF conducting such an investigation than |
Mr. Moore. He is, we take it for granted an anti /
slavery man, but that is nothing to the present I
purpose. He Is, we know, an experienced histori-
cal investigator, and has done this work calmly I
dlspassionately in the interest of his history and
not for the purpose of proving any theory The
result OF his work is for others to comment upon /
" e have alway known some of the facts here nuh-
lshedl but vast portion of these notes is wholly
new TO our age, wholly new, we venture to think
even othe learned and industrious members Of the
Massachusetts Historical society. That Massachu-
setts was the originator and defender of American
slavery as a divine institution was well known
But 1t has never before been so plain as now that
having established slavery by statute law before
any other American colony, she upheld it even
after her constitution Of 1880, and the strange |
truth IS proved indisputably by Mr.. Moore that
slavery was never abolished by law in that State I
but only ceased by the dying off one by one, of I
the Old slaves the failure of the people to supply
their places, (probably for economic reasons, I, |
and the consequent extinction of tie institution
In point of fact it was not till lS60 by the consti-
abolished in Massachusetts,
The records produced in the volume show that
the public sentiment of Massachusetts, was ALWAYS |
in favor OF slavery, and that attempt to legs-
late against it was successful. That this was so
no one who knows the Puritan history will be sur
prised to learn. The whole Puritan doctrine of 4
| slavery is elaborately laid down in a very rare
pamphlet by Judge SafinS published in Boston in 4
170l, and reproduced in full in the appendix to the
present volume. They believed in slavery as an
institution of God taught it in the pulpit and the
| family, Justified it by scripture and the Westmin-
fnn xvha that
and law Of Massachusetts, in her early times make
it part of the very bone and blood of Massa-
chusetts man to believe in negro and Indian slavery
and to Justify the sending of ship loads of slaves
for sale in foreign countries Somewhere in the
Bermudas to-day there may be descendants of
King Phillip, whose wife and son the Purtans sold
as slaves Somewhere in Africa, among the
Bedouins who traverse Sahara, there may be the
American Indian blood, flowing in veins of the de-
scendants of the Christian Indians, disciples of
Eliot, who were shipped as slaves by the Puritans,
of the barbarans
We confess to astonishment at one fact, brought
to light by Mr. Moore. Somerset, the slave in
| whose case Lord Mansfeldmade his great decision
on which the freedom of English soil has been
| based, it now appears was q Massachusetts slave
carried from Boston by his master. 1t was then
the slave of the New England Puritan law that
| England freed. But this produced no effect on
slavery in Massachusetts, and after the Constitu-
tion of 1880 in that State, find such advertise
mentsas thisln the Boston papers, giving very
| clear proof that slavery was still alive:
:" To be sold-an extraordinary likely negro
wench, II years old she can be warranted to be
strong, healthy and good natured; has no notion
Of freedom; has always been used to farmers
kitchen, etc. II Continental Journal March 1871. |
| Think of that, Mr.. Sumner. A likely negro
weneh in Massachusetts, in lIsl, who had no no.
ton of freedom; and yet Massachusetts was al
ways against slavery and for liberty.
| Mr. Moore's book contains the material for a
vast amount of comment. We may recur to it, if
our space permit; but we recommend all who are
interested in the history of the institution of
slavery in America, to purchase and read it. The
simple truth appears that Massachusetts was the
founder Of American slavery as a divine institu.
ton. There is no longer possibility of denying
it, and the fact stands as history.