Baton Rouge tri-weekly gazette & comet. [volume] (Baton Rouge, La.) 1865-18??, 1866-05-24
The Gazftte 4 GDtnft


SLAVERY IN MAssAcBusETTs.--.
A work hns just been given to the
Librarian OF the New York Histoii-
cal Society, p'ovi'g from existing
documents that Mapsachnsetts was
the originator and most strenuous
defender OF American slavery. The.
New York Journal Of Commerce says
in reviewing the book:
That Massachusetts was the orig.
inator and defender Of American sla
very as divine institution was well
known. But it has never before
been 30 plain as now that having
established slavery by statute law
before any other American colony,
she upheld it even after her constitn-
ton Of 1880, and the strange truth
is proven indirputably by Mr.. Moore.
that slavery was never abolished by
law in that State, bu' only ceased by
the dying off, one by one, of The old
slaves, the failure OF the people to
supply their places probably tor
economic reasons), and the conse-
quent extinction of the institution.
II was moi until 1886, by the Con
atituiional amendment, that slavery
vas legal, abolished iii Massachu.
~ II.
The records produced IL this vol
ume, show that the public sentiment
Of Massachusetts was always in Ia
vor of slavery, and that no att, mpt
to legi4laie against it was succttsiul.
That this was so, no one who knows
the Purit n history will be surprised
to learn. The whole Puritan doe
trine Of slavery is elaborairly laid
down in u very rare pamphlet by
Judge Satin, published in Boston
in 1901, and reproduced in full
in the appendix TO The present
volume. They believed III sla-
very as nm institution of God,
taught i, in The pulpi' and The family,
justified it by Scripture, aud the
Westminster Ca,rel,ism, when that
came, and the practice and law Of
Massachusetts, In her early times,
make 1t part Of the very bone aud
blood of "a Massachusetts man TO be-
lieve in negro and Indian slavery,
and to justify the sending of chip
loads Of slaves for sale in foreign
countries. Somewhere in the Der
mudas to day there may be descend
ants Of King Philip, whose wife and
son the puritans sold as slaves.
Somewhere in Africa, among the
Bedouins who traverse Sahara, there
may be the American Il dian blood,
flowing in the veins OF the descend
ants of the Christian Indians, disci-
plies of Elliot, who were shipped ms
slaves by the Puritans, and landed
and lett ut Tangirrs, to become the
prey Of the barbarlans.
We confess to astonishment at
one fact brought to light by Mr..
Moore. Somerset, the slaves IN whose
cnse Lord Mansfield made his great
decision. on which The freedom Of
English soil has been based, ii now
appears wns Massachusetts slave
carried ir III Brslon Ly bis master,
1t was then III. slave Of the New
England Puritan law that England
freed But this produced no effect
on slavery in Massachusetts, and,
after the Constitution of 1850 in hat
State, we find such advertisements
IN this in the Boston papers, giving
very clear proof that slavery was
still alive:
From The Continental Journal, March lat, 1871 /
"10 be soLp an extraordinary likely
NEGRO wENom, II years "ld; -he can he war
rnuted TO be strong, healthy and good
nu'ured; mas NO MOI ION or FREEDOM; hss
always been used To farmers kitchen -
tle0eland Herald, I'd.