Collect Day #22, THE 1779 PETITION FOR FREEDOM
Lord, you have created every person in your image, making each a unique and beloved child. Forgive the sin of those who came before us, not only denying that enslaved people are human, but ridiculing their demand that they be recognized as equal children of God. As we repent our own blindness to the value of others, guide us to an amendment of life, so that your Kingdom may thrive throughout our land. In the name of Christ Jesus, who died for the sake of all humanity. Amen.
DAY #22, March 10, 2018
Portsmouth
THE 1779 PETITION FOR FREEDOM
Mary Jo Alibrio
Many enslaved people in Colonial Portsmouth, New Hampshire, worked in the homes, on the wharves and on the land of influential political figures of the time. Many, including Prince Whipple, also fought in wars along with or in place of their owner.
Prince was bought from slave traders by William Whipple, who would become a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The irony was not lost upon Prince Whipple or the other 19 enslaved African men who were, themselves, highly regarded Portsmouth community leaders.
Just three years after Thomas Jefferson wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” 20 Black New Hampshire men, all self-described as born in Africa, composed their own freedom statement as a petition.
The Africans’ request to the New Hampshire legislature, meeting at that time in Exeter, was simply to have their humanity recognized and their freedom restored – each having been free when a child. They also stated their prayer for a time “that the name of slave may not more be heard in a land gloriously contending for the sweets of freedom.”
The 1779 petition was submitted to the General Assembly in April of the following year. The legislators ordered that it be published in the newspaper “that any person or persons may then appear and shew (sic) cause why the prayer thereof may not be granted.” The New Hampshire Gazette published the petition July 15, 1780 but added a disclaimer that it was printed for their readers’ “amusement.” The General Assembly postponed the hearing they had scheduled and nothing more was done.
In the year 2013, New Hampshire state Sen. Martha Fuller Clark of Portsmouth presented a bill to the legislature granting freedom posthumously to the 20 men who signed the petition. It passed both houses unanimously. Gov. Maggie Hassan signed the bill into law on June 7, 2013, in Portsmouth, stating amid cheers that it corrected a “centuries-overdue wrong.” Ironically again, there was no mention of the many other Black people across New Hampshire in 1779 who also were known by “the name of slave” but could not produce a petition.
Signers of the Petition in 1779
Nero Brewster
Will Clarkson
Garrett Colton
Peter Frost
Zebulon Gardner
Ceaser Gerrish*
Seneca Hall
Cipio Hubbard
Winsor Moffat
Cato Newmarch
Jack Odiorne*
Pharaoh Roberts
Romeo Rindge *
Quam Sherburne
Pharaoh Shores*
Kittindge Tuckerman
Cato Warner
Peter Warner*
Samuel Wentworth
Prince Whipple*
*There is documentation that shows these six men gained freedom in their lifetime after the petition was written. The status of the other men is unknown.
Read the Petition at http://www.trinityhistory.org/AmH/SlavesNH1779.pdf
