CONTENT S.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS

I.

• 1-2

OPINIONS OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE REPUBLIC RESPECTING

NEGROES AS SLAVES AND AS CITIZENS.

Mr. George Bancroft's comments on Chief-Justice Taney's as-

sertions

10-11

Mr. Edward Everett's strictures on the views of Mr. Jefferson

Davis

12-14

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE IN 1776

15-25

Contemporary opinion on slavery, as shown from the history of the

Declaration of Independence, 15–22.

Mr. Jefferson, 16-18.—Mr. Adams, 18-19.-Lord Mahon's error

as to the Southern Colonies, proved by Mr. Force from the history of

the Continental Association of 1774, 19-22.

Doctrine of the Declaration of Independence re-affirmed in the

Constitutions, and acted upon in the Courts, of several of the States

before the adoption of the Federal Constitution, 22–25.

THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION IN 1778.

25-26

Free negroes regarded in them as citizens, 25. —Representation by

New Jersey to Congress on the subject, 26.

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION AND THE CONSTITUTION

. 27-62

Opinions on slavery with which some of the framers of the Consti-

tution came to their work, 27-49.-Opinion of Washington before as

well as after the Convention, 28-30; he sympathizes with Lafayette in

his views of slavery, 30-32; his last will, 32-34.- Opinion of Frank-

lin, 34-41.- Opinion of John Adams, 41.—Mr. Jefferson's opinion,

42-45. Mr. Jay's opinion, 46-47.— Mr. Gadsden's opinion, 48.-

Mr. Henry Laurens's opinion, 48–49.

Opinions of the framers of the Constitution expressed in debate in

the Federal Convention, 49-62. — Mr. Pinckney of South Carolina, 51.

- Mr. Sherman, 51.- Mr. Ellsworth, 51.—Mr. Gouverneur Morris,

52-54.—Mr.
Mr. Rufus King, 54–55.—Mr. Sherman, 55.- Mr. Luther

Martin, 55.-Mr. John Rutledge, 55.-Mr. Ellsworth, 55. — Mr.

Charles Pinckney, 56. Mr. Sherman, 56.- Colonel George Mason,

56, 57.—Mr. Ellsworth, 57.-Mr. Charles Pinckney, 57.- Gene-

ral Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 57, 58. -Mr. Abraham Baldwin, 58.

- Mr. James Wilson, 58. — Mr. Gerry, 58.—Mr. Dickinson, 58–59.-

Mr. Williamson, 59.—Mr. King, 59.-Mr. Langdon, 59.-General

Pinckney, 59.—Mr. Rutledge, 59.—Mr. Gouverneur Morris, 59-60.

- Mr. Butler, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Read, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Randolph,

General Pinckney, Mr. Gorham, 60. Messrs. Madison, Morris,

Mason, Sherman, Clymer, Williamson, Morris, Dickinson, 61.

STATE CONVENTIONS FOR RATIFYING THE CONSTITUTION

62-83

Debates in the Massachusetts Convention, 62-68. New-Hamp-

shire Convention, 68-69. Pennsylvania Convention, 69–71.

Maryland Legislature, 71-74. - Virginia Convention, 74-79.

North-Carolina Convention, 79-81. South-Carolina Legislature,

81-83.

Two letters concerning the Constitution, written in 1788: one by

Dr. Ramsay of Charleston, S. C.; and the other by the Rev. Dr. Hop-

kins of Newport, R. I., 83-85.

Opinion of Dr. Paley, in 1785, on slavery, and the probable effect

upon it of "the great Revolution which had taken place in the West-

ern World," 86.

II.

OPINIONS OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE REPUBLIC RESPECTING

NEGROES AS SOLDIERS.

The practical importance of this branch of the subject at the pre-

sent time, 89-90.

66

In Massachusetts, in the earlier stages of the Revolution, negroes

appear as acting with white citizens against the British, 90-97.- The

“Boston Massacre" and Crispus Attucks, 90-92.-Peter Salem fights

at the battle of Bunker Hill, and is commemorated by the artist, the

historian, and the orator, 92–95.-Petition of Colonel Prescott and

other officers to the General Court of Massachusetts for a reward to

another "negro man," Salem Poor, as a brave and gallant soldier,"

who “behaved like an experienced officer” at Bunker Hill, 95. — Major

Lawrence commands "a company, whose rank and file are all negroes,"

and who "fight with the most determined bravery," 96-97. — Free

negroes, and sometimes slaves, took their place in the ranks with white

men; afterwards, slaves must be manumitted before becoming soldiers,

97.

Opinion of the Rev. Dr. Hopkins in 1776, on the employment of

negroes as soldiers, 98.

South Carolina, in 1775, enrols slaves in her militia as "pioneers

and laborers," 99.- Belief, in South Carolina and Georgia, that the

negroes would join the British regular troops, 100.- General Gates

forbids the recruiting of negroes, 101.- Southern delegates to Con-

gress move in vain the discharge of negroes from the army, 101. — The

Committee of Conference determine to reject them in the new enlist-

ment, 101, 102. -Washington afterwards decides to license the en-

listment of the free negroes who had served faithfully, 102. — His

decision approved by Congress, 103. General Thomas's praise of the

negro soldiers in the Massachusetts regiments, 103.

Account of Lord Dunniure's celebrated Proclamation in Virginia in

1775, and its effect, 103-110.—Public appeal to the negroes to stand

by their masters, 106, 107. — The Virginia Convention answer the Pro-

clamation, and declare pardon to slaves who had taken up arms, 107,

108.

(1776.) The British form a negro regiment at Staten Island, 110.

-The Massachusetts Legislature forbid the sale of negroes taken

prisoners from the British, 110, 111.

(1777.) Testimony of a Hessian officer, that there was no regi-

ment to be seen in which there were not negroes in abundance," 111.-

Capture of the British Major-General Prescott by Colonel Barton, with

the help of the negro man Prince, 111, 112. Dr. Thacher's account of

it, 112, 113.

(1777.) Account of the employment of negro soldiers by the State

of Connecticut, 113-117.

(1778.) Account of their employment by the State of Rhode

Island, 117–124. — Act for raising a negro regiment, 118-120.-Dis-

tinguished services rendered by Colonel Greene's black regiment in the

battle of Rhode Island, 123. Chastellux's account of this regiment in

1781, 124. Its subsequent heroic defence of Colonel Greene, 124.

(1778.) Action of the State of Massachusetts on the subject, 124–

127. — Precedent in her early legislation, negroes having been obliged

to train in the militia with white men in 1652, 124.- Proposal of Tho-

mas Kench to raise a separate corps of negroes in the spring of 1778,

125, 126. Referred to a joint committee of the General Court, to-

gether with a copy of the Rhode-Island act, 127.—Their report favor-

able, embodying the draught of a law, 127.—The subject of a separate

corps allowed to subside, and the usage continued of having negroes

"intermixed with white men," 127.

Action of the State of Maryland on the subject, 127.

Action of the State of New York, 127, 128.

(1779.) The employment of negroes as soldiers almost everywhere

prevailed, except in the States of Georgia and South Carolina, 128.

Why they were exceptions, 128.- A vigorous effort in Congress to

secure the enrolment of black troops in those States, 130, 131.- The

measure advocated by Colonel John Laurens, and by his father, Henry

Laurens, 131.-Henry Laurens's letter to Washington, 131. Wash-

ington, in reply, suggests doubts as to the policy of arming the slaves

at the South, unless the enemy set the example; but says he has never

given much thought to the subject, 131.

(1779.) Alexander Hamilton heartily supports the measure, 131.

- His strong letter to John Jay, President of Congress, 132, 133.

Congress refers the matter to a special committee; afterwards passes

resolutions, recommending to South Carolina and Georgia to raise a

force of "three thousand able-bodied negroes"; and commissions

Colonel Laurens to repair to the South on this business, 133–136. — He

writes to Washington that General Prevost, at Savannah, is " re-

enforced by a corps of blacks," 136.

(1779.) Sir Henry Clinton's Proclamation in consequence of "the

enemy's having adopted a practice of enrolling negroes among their

troops," 136.