“SIR,—­Mr. Hobby having claimed as his property a negro man now serving in the Massachusetts Regiment, you will please to order a court of inquiry, consisting of five as respectable officers as can be found in your brigade, to examine the validity of the claim, the manner in which the person in question came into service, and the propriety of his being discharged or retained in service.  Having inquired into the matter, with all the attending circumstances, they will report to you their opinion thereon; which you will report to me as soon as conveniently may be.

                              “I am, Sir, with great respect,
                                   “Your most obedient servant,
                                                  “G.  WASHINGTON.

     “P.S.—­All concerned should be notified to attend.

     “Brig.-Gen. PUTNAM.”

Enlistment in the army did not work a practical emancipation of the slave, as some have thought.  Negroes were rated as chattel property by both armies and both governments during the entire war.  This is the cold fact of history, and it is not pleasing to contemplate.  The Negro occupied the anomalous position of an American slave and an American soldier.  He was a soldier in the hour of danger, but a chattel in time of peace.

FOOTNOTES: 

[588] Felt says, in History of Salem, vol. ii. p. 278:  “Sept. 17 [1776].  At this date two slaves, taken on board of a prize, were to have been sold here; but the General Court forbid the sale, and ordered such prisoners to be treated like all others.”

[589] Resolves, p. 14.  Quoted by Dr. Moore from the original documents.

[590] Mr. Motley, “Rise of Dutch Republic,” vol. i. p. 151, says that in the sixteenth century, in wars between European states, the captor had a property in his prisoner, which was assignable.

[591] Law of Fiefdom and Bondage, vol. i. p. 158.

[592] Mr. Hurd says, “In ascribing slavery to the law of nations it is a very common error to use that term not in the sense of universal jurisprudence—­the Roman jus gentium-but in the modern sense of public international law, and to give the custom of enslaving prisoners of war, in illustration:  as if the legal condition of other slaves who had never been taken in war were not equally jure gentium according to the Roman jurisprudence” See Mr. Webster’s speech, 7th March, 1830; Works, vol. v. p. 329.

[593] Dawson’s Stony Point, pp. 111, 118.

[594] Dr. Moore thinks this the wrong name.  The resolve proves it.

[595] House Journal, p. 60.

[596] Ibid, pp. 63, 64.

[597] Resolves, p. 51.

[598] Mass.  Archives, vol. cli., pp. 202-294.

[599] The indefatigable Dr. George H. Moore copied the letter from the original manuscript.  The portions in Italics are in the handwriting of Hancock.  I have been placed under many obligations to my friend Dr. Moore.