1779 Petition to the New Hampshire Government

Nineteen self-proclaimed “Natives of Africa” wrote a petition to the New Hampshire government demanding the abolition of slavery and questioned “from what Authority they [enslavers] assume the Power to dispose of our Lives, Freedom and Property...” They utilized the wording of the Revolutionary era to acknowledge their own understanding of being free under the “God of Nature” and fully deserving of the “Rights of Mankind” just as their white European-American enslavers and government officials.

Courtesy of New Hampshire State Archives.

Title: 1779 Petition to the New Hampshire Government for the Abolition of Slavery by Prince Whipple & 18 Other "Natives of Africa"
Date: 1779
Location: Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Object Information: Paper document
Repository: New Hampshire State Archives. Item has not been digitized.

Description:
This was a 1779 four-page handwritten petition to the New Hampshire Council and House of Representatives to abolish slavery in the state devised and signed by Prince Whipple and eighteen other individuals of African descent. Prince Whipple was an enslaved aide, bodyguard, and soldier to General William Whipple, Jr., a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Prince Whipple was present in Philadelphia with his enslaver during the Second Continental Congress when he likely heard the ideas of freedom being discussed throughout the city and within the Whipple household of Philadelphia around the time of the signing of the Declaration. The petition was written, presented, and eventually dismissed as being ill-timed while the nation was at war with Britain. Prince Whipple and four other men were eventually manumitted, while the fourteen other signers died as enslaved individuals until posthumously 233 years later in March 2013, Senator Martha Fuller Clark resubmitted the petition and it was unanimously passed in the New Hampshire Senate to free the 14 men.

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Pages of the 1779 Petition

Click on the images below to see full-size versions. Courtesy of New Hampshire State Archives.

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TRANSCRIPT

State of New Hampshire
To The Hon^ble the Council and House of representative of said State now sitting at Exeter in and for said State

The Petition of Nero Brewster, Pharaoh Rogers, Romeo Rindges, Cato Newmarch, Cesar Garrish, Zebulon Gardner, Quam Sherburne, Samuel Wentworth, Will Clarkson, Jack Odiorne, Cipio Hubbard, Seneca Hall, Peter Warner, Cato Warner, Pharoah Shores, Winsor Moffatt, Garrett Colton, Kittindge Tuckerman, Peter Warner, Prince Whipple, Natives of Africa now forcibly detained in Slavery in said State most Humbly Sheweth That the God of Nature gave them Life and freedom upon the Terms of the most perfect Equality with other men, That Freedom is an inherent Right of the human Species, not to be surrendered but by Consent for the Sake of social Life; That private or publick Tyranny and Slavery are alike detestable to Minds, conscious of the capable Dignity of human Nature; that in Power and authority of Individuals, derived solely from a Principle of Coercion, against the Will of Individuals, and to dispose of their Persons and Properties, consists the compleatist Idea of private and political Slavery; That all men being ameniable to the Deity for the ill Improvement of the Blessings of his Providence, They hold themselves in Duty bound, strenuously to exert every Faculty of their Minds, to obtain that Blessing of Freedom which they are justly entitled to from the Donation of the beneficient Creator; That thro’ Ignorance and brutish Violence of their native Countrymen, and by sinister Designs of others, (who ought to have taught them better) and by the avarice of both, They, while but Children, and incapable of Self-Defence, whose Infancy might have prompted Protection, were seized, imprisoned, and transported from their native Country, where, (Tho’ Ignorance and Inchristianity prevailed) They were born free to a Country, where (tho’ Knowledge, Christianity and Freedom, are their Boast) They are compelled, and their unhappy Posterity, to drag on their Lives in miserable Servitude. – Thus, often is the Parent’s Cheek wet for the Lots of a Child, torn by the cruel hand of Violence from her aking Bosom! Thus, often, and in vain, is the Infant’s Sigh, for the nurturing Care of it’s bereaved Parent! and thus, do the Ties of Nature and Blood, become Victims, to cherish the Vanity and Luxury of a Fellow-Mortal! Can this be Right? Forbid it gracious Heaven!

Permit again your humble Slaves to lay before this Honorable assembly, some of those grievances which they daily experience and feel; Tho’ Fortune hath dealt out our portions with rugged hand, yet hath she smiled in the Disposal of our Persons to those who claim us as their Property; of them, as Masters, we do not complain: But, from what Authority They assume the Power to dispose of our Lives, Freedom and Property, we would wish to know; Is it from the sacred Volumes of Christianity? There we believe it is not to be found! but here hath the cruel hand of Slavery made us incompetent Judges, hence Knowledge is hid from our Minds! Is it from the Volumes of the Laws? Of these also Slaves can not be Judges, but those we are told are founded in Reason and Justice; it cannot be found there! Is it from the Volumes of Nature? No. Here we can read with others! of this Knowledge, Slavery cannot wholly deprive us; Here, we know that we ought to be free agents! Here, we feel the Dignity of Human Nature! Here, we feel the Passions and Desires of men, tho’ check’d by the Rod of Slavery! Here, we feel a Just Equality! Here, we know that the God of Nature made us free! Is their authority assumed from Custom? if so, Let that Custom be abolished, which is not founded in Nature, Reason nor Religion. Should the Humanity and Benevolence of this Honorable Assembly restore us to that State of Liberty of which we have been so long deprived, We conceive that those, who are our present Masters, will not be Sufferers by our Liberation, as we have most of us spent our whole Strength and the Prime of our Lives in their Service; And as Freedom inspires a noble Confidence, and gives the Mind an Emulation to vie in the noblest Efforts of Interprize, and as Justice and Humanity are the Result of your Deliberations, we fondly Hope that the Eye of Pity and the Heart of Justice may commiserate our Situation and put us upon the Equality of Freemen, and give us an opportunity of evincing to the World our Love of Freedom, by exerting ourselves in her Cause, in opposing the Efforts of Tyranny and Oppression over the Country in which we ourselves have been so injuriously enslaved.

Therefore, your humble Slaves most devoutly Pray, for the Sake of injured Liberty, for the Sake of Justice, Humanity, and the Rights of Mankind; for the Honour of Religion, and by all that is dear, that your Honours would graciously interpose in our Behalf, and enact such Laws and Regulations as in your Wisdom you may think proper, whereby we may regain our Liberty and be rank’d in the Class of free agents, and that the Name of Slave may not more be heard in a Land gloriously contending for the Sweets of Freedom; And your humble Slaves as in Duty bound will ever Pray.

Portsmouth, Nov. 12, 1779.

Seneca Hall
Peter Warner
Cato Warner
Pharaoh Shores
Windsor Moffatt
Garrett Colton
Kittindge Tuckerman
Peter Frost
Prince Whipple
Nero Brewster
Pharaoh Rogers
Romeo Rindge
Cato Newmarch
Cesar Gerrish
Zebulon Gardner
Quam Sherburne
Samuel Wentworth
Will Clarkson
Jack Odiorne
Cipio Hubbard

State of New Hampshire: In the House of Representatives April 25, 1780 (pencil 12 Nov 1779)

Upon reading and considering the foregoing Petition
Vote: That the Petitioners be heard thereon before the General Assembly on the first Friday of their next session, & that they in the meantime cause the substance of the Petition and order of Court thereon to be published three weeks successively in the New Hampshire Gazette that any person or persons may then appear and shew cause why the prayer thereof may not be granted.

Sent (???) for concurrence
John Langdon, Speaker

In Council the same day read & Concurr’d
J. Pearson D. Levy

[title handwritten upside down] Petition of Negro Servants – 1779 & 1780