LANCASTER HILL,
                                        PETER BESS,
                                        BRISTER SLENFEN,
                                        PRINCE HALL,
                                        JACK PIERPONT, [his X mark.]
                                        NERO FUNELO, [his X mark.]
                                        NEWPORT SUMNER, [his X mark.]”

The following entry, bearing the same date, was made:—­

“A petition of Lancaster Hill, and a number of other Negroes praying the Court to take into consideration their state of bondage, and pass an act whereby they may be restored to the enjoyment of that freedom which is the natural right of all men.  Read and committed to Judge Sargent, Mr. Dalton, Mr. Appleton, Col.  Brooks, and Mr. Story.”

There is no record of the action of the committee, if any were ever had; but at the afternoon session of the Legislature, Monday, June 9, 1777, a bill was introduced to prevent “the Practice of holding persons in Slavery.”  It was “read a first time, and ordered to be read again on Friday next, at 10 o’clock A.M.”  Accordingly, on the 13th of June, the bill was “read a second time, and after Debate thereon, it was moved and seconded, That the same lie upon the Table, and that Application be made to Congress on the subject thereof; and the Question being put, it passed in the affirmative, and Mr. Speaker, Mr. Wendell, and Col.  Orne, were appointed a Committee to prepare a letter to Congress accordingly, and report.”  The last action, as far as indicated by the journal, was had on Saturday, June 14, when “the Committee appointed to prepare a Letter to Congress, on the subject of the Bill for preventing the Practice of holding Persons in Slavery, reported.”  It was “Read and ordered to lie."[623] And so it did “lie,” for that was the end of the matter.

Judge Sargent, who was chairman of the committee appointed on the 18th of March, 1777, was doubtless the author of the following bill:—­

     “STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY.  IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD, 1777.

     “AN ACT for preventing the practice of holding persons in
     Slavery.

“WHEREAS, the practice of holding Africans and the children born of them, or any other persons, in Slavery, is unjustifiable in a civil government, at a time when they are asserting their natural freedom; wherefore, for preventing such a practice for the future, and establishing to every person residing within the State the invaluable blessing of liberty.

“Be it Enacted, by the Council and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same,—­That all persons, whether black or of other complexion, above 21 years of age, now held in Slavery, shall, from and after the ——­ day of ——­ next, be free from any subjection to any master or mistress, who have