History of slavery in Massachusetts

Massachusetts was the first colony in New England with slave ownership and was a center for the slave trade throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. No legislation was passed that abolished slavery until the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865 was ratified by the state. Instead, the practice of slavery was ended through case law; and as an institution it died out in the late 18th century through judicial actions litigated on behalf of slaves seeking manumission. These court cases, starting in 1781, heard arguments contending that slavery was a violation of Christian principles and also a violation of the constitution of the commonwealth. 1783 saw additional high-profile court cases that began a general trend of slaves winning their emancipation on a case-by-case basis through lawsuit. As slavery dwindled in the last decade of the 18th century in Massachusetts, many of the instances where it remained, the slaveholders sometimes applied semantics of a name change to indentured servitude to maintain their property. The 1790 federal census, however, listed no slaves. Massachusetts was a center for the abolition movement in the 19th century.

The exact date of the first African slaves in Massachusetts is unknown, but may have been as early as 1624 by a man named Samuel Maverick. The first confirmed account of slavery in the colony came in 1638 when several native prisoners taken during the Pequot War were exchanged in the West Indies for African slaves. Such exchanges become common in subsequent conflicts.

Most of the 17th century slave trade in New England was based in Massachusetts, however, direct attempts were not successful until the latter half of the century. In 1676, Boston ships began working with slave traders in Madagascar and by 1678 were selling slaves to Virginians. As for slaves imported to Massachusetts, operators preferred to trade Africans for more experienced slaves in the West Indies. Some Africans unsuitable for work in the West Indies were also brought to Massachusetts for sale. Boston ships were selling slaves to Connecticut by 1680 and Rhode Island by 1696.

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