🏃🏽‍♂️ [[Reflecting on and challenging my old research]] - See the short version in [my blog](https://older-in-hokkaido.blogspot.com/2026/07/how-enslaved-people-sued-for-freedom-in.html). The concept of enslaved people having agency in ending their own slavery was something that I started exploring in grad school papers 1980s and published in 1996. - Gettings, Robert. (1996). [*Contributions of African-Americans to the Ending of Slavery in Massachusetts*](https://hokusei.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/686/files/KJ00000491185.pdf). Journal of Hokusei Junior College (32):41 - 48. I found these two later research articles that made me consider the topic more deeply: - Blanck, E. V. (1998). _Reaching for freedom: Black resistance and the roots of a gendered African-American culture in late eighteenth century Massachusetts_, Master's thesis, College of William & Mary. W&M ScholarWorks. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-yxr6-3471 - Cameron, C. A. (2010). _To plead our own cause: African Americans in Massachusetts and the making of the antislavery movement, 1630-1835_ Doctoral dissertation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. doi: https://doi.org/10.17615/psha-8p87 YT Shorts Test I tested the new Notebook LM Short video production with these three sources by simply clicking on a button but with no specific prompt. <div style="position:relative;width:360px;max-width:100%;aspect-ratio:9/16;"> <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/C6-Bocku79g" style="width:100%;height:100%;border:none;" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen> </iframe> </div> ### 1. The video: According to the sources, Adam was an enslaved man owned by Judge John Saffin. In 1694, Saffin rented Adam to a tenant named Thomas Shepard for a term of seven years, drawing up a legal document that promised Adam his freedom at the end of the term provided he went about his work "chearfully, quietly, and industriously". Saffin later claimed that he only made this promise to appeal to Adam's "natural Reason" and force him into obedience. After two years, Adam allegedly became "insolent" and "outragious," leading Shepard to ask Saffin to take him back early. In March 1700, Adam left Saffin's house and sought out Samuel Sewall, a prominent Massachusetts magistrate and author of the anti-slavery tract _The Selling of Joseph_. Sewall presented the 1694 contract to Saffin and argued that Adam should be freed, but Saffin reneged on his promise, claiming Adam had not fulfilled his end of the bargain. Adam ultimately sued for his freedom, and the case (_Adam v. Saffin_) went to the Superior Court of Judicature. Despite Saffin calling multiple witnesses to testify that Adam was an "unruly Servant," Adam won his freedom in 1703 after two years of litigation. Adam's case was indicative of early freedom suits in the state, which were usually won on technical contractual grounds—such as broken promises or invalid ownership titles—rather than moral or legal arguments against the institution of slavery itself. Following his victory, Adam remained in Boston, where he lived as a free man and occasionally appeared in city records fulfilling public service duties required of free blacks. --- ### 2. *Contributions of African-Americans to the Ending of Slavery in Massachusetts* My journal article, argues that **African Americans played a crucial and active role in the abolition of slavery in the state by 1790**. While historians have traditionally credited the end of slavery to the courts, revolutionary ideology, and benevolent white citizens, I tried to make the point that enslaved and free African Americans were not passive victims, but vital actors who actively dismantled the institution. There were several key methods of African American resistance and contribution: - **Legal Challenges and Freedom Suits:** African Americans proactively sued their masters for their freedom and damages. Notable successful cases include Jenny Slew in 1765, as well as the landmark 1783 cases of Quock Walker and Mum Bett (Elizabeth Freeman), who successfully utilized the Massachusetts Constitution's assertion that "all men were created equal". These individuals often relied on their social networks and the support of sympathetic white middle-class patrons to navigate the courts. - **Political Lobbying and Petitions:** In the 1770s, an African American leadership class emerged, taking their case directly to the governor and legislature to demand abolition. Leaders like Prince Hall, who also founded the African-American Freemasons, spearheaded petition campaigns. They strategically lobbied influential white politicians, such as Samuel Adams and Samuel Dexter, to push for legislative relief. - **Utilizing the Press:** African Americans used publications to sway public opinion. Phillis Wheatley published anti-slavery letters and poems in local papers, and Briton Hammon published the first American slave narrative in Boston in 1760. - **Military Service and Direct Action:** The American Revolution provided new avenues for emancipation. Many enslaved individuals gained freedom by serving in the military or the navy, while others used the wartime disruption to run away. Military service also emboldened African Americans; for instance, veteran Felix Cuff actively repulsed an armed party of white men trying to return runaway slaves to their masters, and then successfully prosecuted the party's leader for rioting. - **Everyday Defiance and Community Building:** African Americans frequently resisted through "illegal" means, primarily by running away or through "unruly behavior". Despite colonial laws prohibiting them from gathering, they formed a clandestine "alley society," meeting for drinking, dancing, and music, which helped forge a cohesive African-American culture while eroding labor efficiency. While the ideological shifts of the Revolutionary era and specific court decisions were important, **it was the persistent, multifaceted resistance of African Americans—from writing petitions to fleeing their captors—that chipped away at the social conventions supporting slavery**, making emancipation a reality in Massachusetts. --- ### 3. _Reaching for freedom: Black resistance and the roots of a gendered African-American culture in late eighteenth century Massachusetts_ Emily V. Blanck’s thesis argues that both enslaved men and women played crucial roles in dismantling slavery in Massachusetts, yet their specific methods of resistance inadvertently fostered a rigidly gender-divided post-emancipation culture. Because enslaved women worked primarily as isolated domestic servants, they largely engaged in individual acts of defiance, such as arson, poisoning, and, most significantly, filing freedom suits against their masters. Women successfully weaponized Revolutionary rhetoric and white society's "civilizing" ideals in court to win their freedom, creating legal precedents that effectively destroyed the institution of slavery. Conversely, enslaved men enjoyed greater mobility and dominated group forms of public resistance, including petition campaigns and Black Election Days. To convince white authorities of their capacity for freedom and citizenship, Black organizers deliberately mimicked the patriarchal structures of white Massachusetts society in these public performances. For example, during Black Election Days, women were excluded from voting or holding the office of the governor, contrasting with similar Afro-Atlantic festivals in other regions where both kings and queens were elected. Ultimately, Blanck contends that while Black women's legal challenges were instrumental in abolishing slavery, the male-led group protests established a precedent that ironically marginalized Black women from public life and leadership in the resulting free society. --- ### 4. _To plead our own cause: African Americans in Massachusetts and the making of the antislavery movement, 1630-1835_ Cameron, C. A. (2010). _To plead our own cause: African Americans in Massachusetts and the making of the antislavery movement, 1630-1835_ [Doctoral dissertation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]. Christopher Alain Cameron’s dissertation argues that **the "radical" abolitionist movement was built upon a long continuum of African American activism in Massachusetts beginning in the colonial era**. The study explores how Puritan covenant theology inadvertently provided enslaved people with access to legal rights, literacy, and Christian fellowship. By appropriating white religious and republican rhetoric, early black writers—such as Phillis Wheatley, Caesar Sarter, and Lemuel Haynes—transformed the Puritan jeremiad and natural rights ideologies into a powerful antislavery discourse. **This intellectual foundation spurred organized political resistance, including freedom suits and collective petitions to the legislature in the 1770s**, which directly contributed to the legal abolition of slavery in Massachusetts by 1783. Following emancipation, leaders like Prince Hall focused on **community building through autonomous institutions**, such as the African Masonic Lodge and the African Baptist Church. These organizations fostered black solidarity, facilitated interstate abolitionist networks, and educated the next generation of activists. Ultimately, the dissertation demonstrates that **the strategies of nineteenth-century radicals like David Walker and Maria Stewart were directly inherited from these eighteenth-century pioneers**, highlighting African Americans' continuous and central role in dismantling slavery.