In New England, enslaved and free African Americans left few historical materials for scholars to study. There is, however, evidence of their existence in merchants’ account books, military, church, and legal records, and there are some oral histories.
Enslaved people in New England tended to be those unfit for the extremely brutal conditions on Caribbean sugar plantations, or on those of the South. Although the work experienced by the enslaved in the North was less harsh, still, they encountered cruel treatment, overwork, and substandard living conditions. Advertisements for Massachusetts enslaved run-aways offer evidence of mistreatment and active resistance. In 1749, Joseph Barnard of Deerfield placed a notice in the Boston Weekly Post-Boy offering a reward for his enslaved man, Prince. The notice described Prince’s appearance and items he took with him when he fled. It is not known where he went, but he was back in Deerfield by the time of his death in 1752.
It may be surprising that ministers would enslave people. Samuel Sewall, who served as a member of the Governor’s Council in Massachusetts from 1691-1725, wrote that African Americans were “poor silly wretches” who could “seldom use their freedom well,” and many whites viewed them as being eternal children in need of care and guidance from European Americans. The Reverend Jonathan Ashley of Deerfield claimed in a sermon that the enslaved were servants by divine dispensation and that any attempt to escape or any dissatisfaction with one’s lot in life was to the “damage of their masters but would also be to the dishonor of religion and the reproach of Christianity.” Thus, it seemed natural for ministers to enslave African Americans to better tend to their souls.
Slavery died out slowly in Massachusetts and other New England states. Inspired by the promises of the American Revolution, some African Americans took to heart and acted upon the statement that all men were “born free and equal.” In 1781, Elizabeth (“Mum Bett”) Freeman and an enslaved man named Brom successfully sued for their freedom from Colonel John Ashley of Sheffield, Massachusetts. No Massachusetts statute was passed abolishing slavery, but Brom and Bett vs. Ashley and other similar court cases helped to end it.
