St. 乔治·塔克's Queries on Slavery in Massachusetts

"I heartily pitty the Southern States that still suffer the evil of Slavery..."
——纳撒尼尔·阿普尔顿，1795年2月26日

St的信. 乔治·塔克 to Jeremy Belknap (with enclosed 查询), 24 January 1795

1795年1月，圣. 乔治·塔克, 弗吉尼亚法官, wrote to the founder of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 波士顿牧师和学者杰里米·贝尔纳普. 这封信 included a set of eleven 查询 regarding the history of slavery in Massachusetts. 一个废奴主义者, Tucker was interested in the advent and eventual abolition of slavery in New England (and Massachusetts in particular), hoping that he could use the information to help bring an end to slavery in Virginia.

应塔克的要求, Belknap circulated a list of the 查询 to a number of prominent Massachusetts citizens, 包括副总统约翰·亚当斯. Belknap compiled the responses into a document that he forwarded to Tucker in April 1795. Belknap's responses (see online presentation of 他的草稿)也是刊登于 Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society1795年出版的第一卷第四卷.

除了贝尔纳普, many of the respondents were early members of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 这段对话中的字母, as well as draft manuscripts of both the circular letter and compiled responses, form part of the Jeremy Belknap papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society. The bulk of these responses, as well as Tucker's original 查询, were 刊登于 Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society，第五辑，第三卷，1877年. 另外, the correspondence between Belknap and Tucker continued for many months after Belknap sent his compiled responses. Their dialogue on slavery and abolition reveals a great deal about race relations in the eighteenth century. St. 乔治·塔克最终投票成为通讯委员 of the Historical Society; a distinction he politely declined.

Letter from John Adams to Jeremy Belknap, 21 March 1795
Letter from Nathaniel Appleton to Jeremy Belknap, 26 February 1795

Most of the men queried by Tucker and Belknap were adamant in their belief that slavery as an institution was morally wrong. 然而, they tempered their beliefs with fears related to the economic condition of freed Black people, and the perceived problems associated with civil rights. 在一个 letter to Jeremy Belknap dated 21 March 1795, John Adams suggested that "[j]ustice" for enslaved people, 不仅意味着自由, but that "they should not be abandoned by their Masters and turned loose upon a world in which they have no capacity to procure even a subsistence." 在一个 1795年2月26日的信, Nathaniel Appleton stated that he "heartily [pitied] the Southern States that still suffer the evil of Slavery."

然而, some other responses illustrate the difficult and prejudicial state of race relations in the 1790s. 詹姆斯•温斯洛普在1795年3月4日的一封信中, stated that although some African Americans had produced literary works that were "not contemptible," they were not "estimated for speculative abilities." 在一个 letter to Jeremy Belknap dated 27 November 1795, Tucker himself said that "Blacks and Mulattoes should be excluded from all the valuable rights of Citizenship" and that "narrow as this policy may appear, I am persuaded it is necessary for the preservation of the peace of Society." He proposed using this denial of equal citizenship (along with other means) to prompt formerly enslaved people to leave the United States.

这本书信集, 查询, and printed materials is also noteworthy from a historiographical perspective because it contains the recollections and opinions of people who lived through the end of slavery in Massachusetts. It provides multiple contemporary sources of information about slavery in colonial Massachusetts written by some of the most prominent citizens of the Commonwealth.

African Americans and the End of Slavery in Massachusetts

St. 乔治·塔克's Queries on Slavery in Massachusetts

Tucker's request and responses gathered by Belknap

贝尔纳普对塔克问题的回答

正在进行的讨论（通过通信）