A Crossroads Resource
Unit IV: What was the American Revolution? 1760-1836
Question/Problem 2: Was the American Revolution a revolution?
American Revolution:
Reading E: Slaves
Many slaves believed that the Declaration of Independence should apply to
them. The following contains excerpts from a petition presented in 1777
to the Massachusetts legislature. Read the following and answer the
question below.
The petition of a great number of blacks detained in a state of
slavery in the bowels of a free and Christian country humbly shows that
your petitioners apprehend that they have in common with all other men a
natural and unalienable right to that freedom which the Great Parent of
the universe has bestowed equally on all mankind and which they have never
forfeited by any compact or agreement whatever. But they were unjustly
dragged by the hand of cruel power from their dearest friends and some of
them ev en torn from the embraces of their tender parents, from a
populous, pleasant, and plentiful country and in violation of laws of
nature and of nations and in defiance of all the tender feeling of
humanity, brought here either to be sold like beasts of burd en and, like
them, condemned to slavery for life -- among a people professing the mild
religion of Jesus; a people not insensible of the secrets of rational
being, nor without spirit to resent the unjust endeavors. They therefore
humbly beseech Your Hono rs to give this petition its due weight and
consideration, and cause an act of legislation to be passed whereby they
may be restored to the enjoyments of that which is the natural right of
all men, and that their children, who were born in this land of liberty,
may not be held as slaves after they arrive at the age of twenty-one
years. So may the inhabitants of this state, no longer chargeable with
the inconsistency of acting themselves the part which they condemn and
oppose in others, be prospered in their present glorious struggle for
liberty an d have those blessings for themselves.
"Negro Voices Raised For Freedom," The Annals of America, Vol.2,
1755-1783, Resistance and Revolution (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica,
1968), p. 482-483.
Question: What changes did this petition hope to achieve during the
American Revolution?
Back To Question #2