1799 Petition of Absalom Jones, and Others, People of Color, and Freemen Against the Slave Trade to the Coast of Guinea

The petition uses the language of the founding documents in its plea for human rights for people of color, stating "In the Constitution, and the Fugitive bill, no mention is made of Black people or Slaves—therefore if the Bill of Rights, or the declaration of Congress are of any validity, we beseech that as we are men, we may be admitted to partake of the Liberties and unalienable Rights therein held forth..." To view the whole four-page petition, click on the document images below.

(HR 6A-F4.2); Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, Record Group 233; National Archives Building, Washington, DC.

Title: 1799 Petition of Absalom Jones, and Others, People of Color, and Freemen Against the Slave Trade to the Coast of Guinea
Date: December 30, 1799
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Object Information: Paper document
Repository: Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, available through DOCSTeach.

Description:
On December 30, 1799, the Reverend Absalom Jones and 70 other free Black men from Philadelphia and its suburbs petitioned Congress for an end to the international slave trade, eventual emancipation for enslaved individuals in the United States, and protection for free Blacks from kidnapping. At the time, the 1793 Fugitive Slave Law was resulting in the apprehension of free Black people from northern states and the Chesapeake region, transporting them for sale in the south. Pennsylvania Congressman Robert Waln introduced the petition in the House of Representatives (meeting in Congress Hall) on January 2, 1800. The petition sparked contentious debate and ultimately was denied approval.

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Pages of the 1799 Petition

Click on the images below to see full-size versions. Courtesy of the Records of the U.S. House of Representatives.

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TRANSCRIPT

To the President, Senate, and House of Representatives of the United States-
The Petition of the People of Colour, Freemen within the City, and Suburbs of Philadelphia:

Humbly Sheweth,
That thankful to God our Creator and the Government under which we live, for the blessing and benefit extended to us in the enjoyment of our natural right to Liberty, and the protection of our Persons and property from the oppression and violence which so great a number of like colour and National Descent are subjected; We feel ourselves bound from a sense of these blessings to continue our respective allotments and to lead honest and peaceable lives, rendering due submission to the Laws, and exciting and encouraging each other thereto, agreeable to the uniform advice of our real friends of every denomination. - Yet" while we feel impressed with grateful sensations for the Providential favours we ourselves enjoy, We cannot be insensible of the conditions of our afflicted Brethren, suffering tinder curious circumstances in different parts of these States; but deep in, sympathizing with them. We are incited by a sense of Social duty and humbly conceive ourselves authorized to address and petition you in their behalf, believing them to be objects of representations in your public Councils, in common with ourselves and every other class of Citizens within tile .Jurisdiction of the United States, according to the declared design of the present Constitution formed by the General Convention and ratified in the different States, as set forth in the preamble thereto in tile following words--vix-"We the People of the United States in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestick tranquility, provide for the Common Defence, and to secure the blessings of Liberty, to ourselves and posterity, do ordain &c."- We apprehend this solemn Compact is violated by a trade carried on in clandestine manner to the Coast of Guinea, and another equally wicked practised openly by Citizens of some of the Southern States upon the waters of Maryland and Delaware: Men sufficiently callous as to qualify, for the brutal purpose, are employed in kidnapping those of our Brethren that are free, and purchasing others of such as claim a property? in them; thus these poor helpless victims like droves of Cattle are seized, fettered, and 1-iiirried into places provided for this most horrid traffic, Such as dark cellars and garrets, as is notorious at Northurst,

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Chester-town, Eastown, and divers other places. After a sufficient number is obtained, then, are forced on board vessels, crouded tinder ]latches, and without the least commiseration, left to deplore the sad separation of the dearest ties in nature, husband from wife, and Parents from children thus pocket'd together they are transported to Georgia and other places and there inhumanely, exposed to sale: Can any Commerce, trade, or transaction, so detestably, shock the feelings of Man, or degrade the dignity of his nature equal to this, and how increasingly is the evil aggravated when practised in a Land, high in profession of the benign doctrines of our blessed Lord who taught his followers to do unto others as they would they should do unto them!--Your petitioners desire not to enlarge the volumes [that] might be filled with the sufferings of this grossly abused class of the human species (700,000 of whom it is said are now in unconditional bondage in these United States.) but, conscious of the rectitude of our motives in a concern so affecting its, and so essentially interesting to [the] welfare of this Country, we cannot but address you as is Guardians of our Civil rights, and Patrons of equal and National Liberty, hoping you will view the subject in an impartial and unprejudiced light.--We do not wish for:- the immediate emancipation of all, knowing,- that the degraded state of many and their Native of education, would greatly disqualify for such a change; but humbly desire, you may exert every means in your power to undo the heavy burdens, and prepare way for the oppressed to go free, that every yoke may, be broken.

The Law not long since enacted Congress called the Fugitive Bill, is, in its execution found to be attended, with circumstances peculiarly hard and distressing for many of our afflicted Brethren in order to avoid the barbarities wantonly exercised upon them, or thro fear of being carried off by those Men-stealers, have been forced to seek refuge by flight; they are then hunted by armed Men, and under colour of this law, cruelly treated, shot, or brought back in chains to those who have no just claim upon them.

In the Constitution and the Fugitive bill, no mention is made of Black people or Slaves -- therefore if the Bill of Rights, or the declaration of Congress are of any validity, we beseech that we as men, we may be admitted to partake of the Liberties and unalienable Rights therein held forth firmly believing that the extending of justice and equity to all Classes would be a means of drawing down the blessing of Heaven upon this Land, for the Peace and Prosperity of which, and the real happiness of every member of the Community, we fervently pray --

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Philadelphia 30^th of December 1799
[first column]
John (his X mark) Smith
Parker (his X mark) Harris
John (his X mark) Mang
David (his X mark) Jackson
Thomas (his X mark) Caulker
Joseph Houston (his X mark) Alexander
Bartlet (his X mark) Kinney
James (his X mark) Brown
William (his X mark) Squire
Adam (his X mark) James
Henry (his X mark) Williams
Thomas (his X mark) Jicormer
Lot Rafine
Isaac (his X mark) Williams
Jacob (his X mark) Gibbs
Severn (his X mark) Cufton
James Wilson
Benjamin (his X mark) Jackson
William (his X mark) Coulson
Richard Allen
Job (his X mark) Albert

[second column]
Samuel (his X mark) Wilson
John (his X mark) Nelson
Thomas (his X mark) Watson
Edward (his X mark) Matthews
Anthony (his X mark) Williams
John (his X mark) Harris
Philip (his X mark) Johnson
Edward (X) Simon
Charles (his X mark) Caldwell
C. Wethingson
Ishmael (his X mark) Robinson
Jacob Conway
Wiley (X) Cottanse
Nathan (his X mark) Jones
John (his X mark) Jackson
Abraham D. Pee
James (his X mark) Scottern
Prince (his X mark) Sprunce
Henry (his X mark) Peters
Adam(his X mark) Luff
John (his X mark) Hall
John (his X mark) Whittieur

[third column]
Absalom Jones
John (his X mark) Jones
Charles Johnson
Stephen Saws
Robert Williams
William White
Stephen Miller
Cyrus Porter (not sure of last name)
Jacob Nicolson
Alex. Weathered
[illegible] Gray
Cha[illegible]
Thomas (his X mark) Allen
Lunar (his X mark) Brown
W[illegible] (his X mark) Riley
Charles (his X mark) Boston
Jacob (his X mark) Lancaster
Quomory Clarkson
Thomas (his X mark) Mattis
Robert Green
James (his X mark) Bowen
John (his X mark) Black
Peter (his X mark) Matthews
John (his X mark) Smith
John (his X mark) Morris
Philip (his X mark) Wills
Ignatius (his X mark) Cooper
Cato Collins


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Petition of Absalom Jones and others.

2nd January 1800

A motion was made to refer such parts of the petition as relates to laws of the United States respecting the slave trade from the United States to any foreign place or country – and the laws respecting fugitives from justice and persons escaping from the service of their masters, to the Committee appointed on the 12th day of December last, to take into consideration the laws of[illegible] the United States, relating to the Slave Trade.

3rd January, 1799

Motion of yesterday agreed to, with the following amendment. “And that such parts of the said petition, which invite Congress to legislate upon subjects from which the general government is precluded by the Constitution have a tendency to create disquiet and jealousy, and ought therefore to receive no encouragement or countenance from this House.


Note: Parentheses () are used in the transcription to distinguish between the individual's name and their "X" mark. Typically, those unable to write their full name because of illiteracy or disability would signify their agreement to a document with an "X."