Query 6. At what period was slavery abolished ? what
were there [their] numbers and proportion to the whites at that
period ?

By comparing what is said in answer to queries 4th and
5th, it appears that the complete abolition of slavery may be
fixed at the year 1783 ; that by an enumeration made in the
following year, the number of blacks was 4,377, and their
proportion to the whites as 1 to 80.

Query 7. What is the condition of emancipated blacks ?
is any, and what provision made for their education and
maintenance during infancy, or in a state of decrepitude,
age, or insanity ?

If a comparison be made between the former and present
condition of this class of people in the New-England states,
it may be said that unless liberty be reckoned as a compen-
sation for many inconveniences and hardships, the former
condition of most of them was preferable to the present.
They have generally, though not wholly left the country,
and resorted to the maritime towns. Some are incorporated,
and their breed is mixed with the Indians of Cape-Cod and
Martha's Vineyard ; and the Indians are said to be meliorat-
ed by the mixture. Some are industrious and prudent, and
a few have acquired property ; but too many are improvident
and indolent, though a subsistence for labouring people is
here very easily obtained. Having been educated in families
where they had not been used to provide for themselves in
youth, they know not how to do it in age. Having been
accustomed to a plentiful and even luxurious mode of living,
in the houses of their masters, they are uncomfortable in
their present situation. They often suffer by damp, un-
wholesome lodgings, because they are unable to pay the rent
of better ; and they are subject to many infirmities and
diseases, especially in the winter. Those who serve in fam-
ilies of the whites, on wages, if steady and prudent, are the
best fed, the best clad, and most healthy ; but many of those
who have families of their own to support, are oppressed with
poverty and its attendant miseries.

The same provision is made by the public for the educa-
tion of their children as for those of the whites. In this
town, the committee, who superintend the free schools, have
given in charge to the school-masters to receive and instruct