residing in the Province to be as free as the Kings Subjects
in GB -- that by the Laws of
Engld no man could be deprived
of his liberty but by sentence of Law ye verdict of a Jury
That the Laws of the Province respecting an evil
existing & attempting to mitigate or regulate it
did not authorise it -- & on some Occasions it was
pleaded that tho' the Parents were in slavery
yet that no disability of that kind could descend
to Children
[Written in right margin: Judge Dawes.]
During the Revolution War --
-- The public opinion was so generally & so strongly
in favour of the abolition of slavery that in some of
the Country towns, votes were passed in Town-meetings
that they would have no slaves among them & that
they would not exact of Masters any bonds for the
maintenance of liberated Blacks if they should be-
come incapable of supporting themselves. [Many
of the blacks taking occasion of the genl
sentiment
& the assertion in ye Declaration of Rights asked their freedom
& obtained it; others took it
without leave & when taken up as deserters, pleaded ye
aforesd clause & obtd their freedom in ye judicial Courts; these
decisions operated to the emancipation of all except some &cbut
some of the aged & prudent persons, who
tho't it best to continue in the families where
they had been well used, & experience has proved yt they acted right.]
[Written in right margin: "*This to come in at ye next page." Also noted
in margin: "Sullivan's Letter p. 1."] In
New Hampshire (where
I then resided) those blacks who enlisted into the
army for 3 years are were entitled to a bounty which
they
gave to their Masters recd
as the price of their lib-
erty & then masters dld up their bills of sale & gave them a
Certificate