House Unpassed Legislation 1798, Docket 4730, SC1/series 230, Petition of Primis Grant

Petition subject: Support for transportation to Africa Original: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:10935270 Date of creation: 1798-01-06 Petition location: [Salem?] Legislator, committee, or address that the petition was sent to: Several names from a committee Selected signatures:Primis GrantLody GrantSamuel WillisSummons KimblandDeliverance TaylorCato BostenJackson AustineEnoch Humphry JuniorJoab HumphryDiamond ElkyCaesar Grambee Actions taken on dates: 1798-03 Legislative action: Referred March 1798 Total signatures: 12 Legislative action summary: Referred Females of color signatures: 1 Males of color signatures: 9 Unidentified signatures: 2 Female only signatures: No Identifications of signatories: descended from African origin, blacks, [males of color], [females of color], ["Africans"], ["negro slaves"] Prayer format was printed vs. manuscript: Manuscript Signatory column format: not column separated Additional non-petition or unrelated documents available at archive: no additional documents Additional archivist notes: constitution, freedom, [“that they are descended from African origin-that they, or their ancestors, were transported from their native Country, to this land, by force, and under circumstances of ignominy and degradation-that, tho the laws have relaxed their severity in regard to their condition, and the subscribers are declared free, yet there still exists such an invincible distinction of [complexion?], and such a mortifying inferiority, derived from that distinction and a sense of their degraded and unhappy station in society, that they are deprived of ambition and enterprise, their minds are unmanned, their genius shackled, and they are left destitute of those incitements to industry, exertion, and virtues…”], ["They are treated as a different race of beings. Tho born here, they are considered by others and cannot divest themselves of the idea, that they are still strangers in a foreign land, a land, which, so long as they continue in it, they and their children are destined to serve, but not enjoy."], [petition wrapper: "negro slaves"] Location of the petition at the Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth: House Unpassed 1798, Docket 4730 Acknowledgements: Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-5105612), Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University, Institutional Development Initiative at Harvard University, and Harvard University Library.