Word: slaving
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...Englanders' "overruling influence in council ?their low cunning, and those levelling principles winch men without character and without fortune in general possess." Virginia's Carter Braxton worried similarly about the "democratical" tendencies of New Englanders. Some men in the north, meantime, scorn the southerners for their dependence on slave labor. In all sections, there persists a powerful streak of Toryism. In the Congress itself are men like Pennsylvania's John Dickinson, who, though not a Tory, held out for reconciliation with England, arguing that the break was unnecessary, or at least too sudden...
...independence was then and there born"). At a Masonic lodge, Hancock encountered both Otis and Samuel Adams, an inept businessman but master polemicist and organizer of the Sons of Liberty. These three soon became leaders in the resistance to the Stamp Act. Declared Hancock: "I will not be a slave. I have a right to the liberties and privileges of the English Constitution...
...early months of the struggle with England, especially in New England, many Negroes fought in the colonial forces, and it was informal policy to offer freedom to any slave who joined a muster. Since early this year, however, the Congress and General Washington have banned Negroes (slaves and freedmen alike) from the Continental Army-the only official exceptions being black men who have already served. The various colonies have followed suit, except for Virginia, which still permits all free men to serve in its militia. The immediate reason for the ban is to discourage slaves from leaving their masters...
...seen a very slowly growing opposition to slavery on both sides of the Atlantic. Much of it has been stirred by the belief that the rights of man are as universal as Jefferson has said. Thomas Paine of the Pennsylvania Magazine has published an article arguing that the slave, "who is proper owner of his freedom, has a right to reclaim it, however often sold." Adds Dr. Benjamin Rush, a leader of a Philadelphia antislavery movement: "The plant of liberty is of so tender a nature, that it cannot thrive long in the neighborhood of slavery...
...Court of King's Bench decision in London in favor of a runaway slave, James Somerset, brought slavery to a virtual end in England. But in the Colonies, real moves against slavery have been few. Three years ago, a group of slaves in Massachusetts petitioned the General Court to be free of bondage. Another group applied to the legislature, asking that they be allowed to work for themselves one day a week and so buy their freedom. No one answered the appeals. Though the Massachusetts legislature has been offered various bills abolishing the slave trade, all have been defeated...