US Declaration of Independence proclaims equality while slavery persists

In Somerset’s Case, Lord Mansfield ruled that James Somerset could not be forcibly removed from England and sold abroad under the claim advanced by his enslaver. The judgment did not abolish slavery...

A petition submitted in Felix’s name demanded freedom and challenged enslavement as incompatible with natural rights. It was one of several petitions by Black people in Massachusetts that used the...

The colony restricted the importation of enslaved people and imposed penalties on traders, while existing slavery and Rhode Island’s participation in the Atlantic economy continued. The act came after...

The organization formed to assist free Black people illegally held in bondage and later broadened its work against slavery. Its founding preceded the Declaration of Independence and shows abolitionist...

During the American Revolution, Virginia’s royal governor offered freedom to enslaved people belonging to rebels who joined British forces. The offer was a military strategy, not a principled...

Vermont adopted a constitution prohibiting adult slavery, an unusually early formal restriction in the region. The provision did not resolve all forms of coerced labor or guarantee equal civic...

Pennsylvania adopted a gradual abolition law, the first such statute enacted by a US state. It did not immediately free people already enslaved and preserved forms of compulsory service for children...

A law passed in May 1782 allowed enslavers to free people by deed or will without prior legislative approval. Manumission expanded, but it remained dependent on enslavers’ decisions, often imposed...

In the Walker litigation, the state’s constitutional language of equality was applied against slavery. The decisions helped end slavery in Massachusetts through litigation and resistance by Quock...

The act declared children born to enslaved women after its passage free, while placing them in long-term service and leaving people already enslaved in bondage. It was gradual and conditional...