Plantation owners retained merchant John Codman, of Massachusetts, to transport most of the slaves back to South Carolina. The Pawley family waited until the end of the war to make claims.
“It was the opinion of the court that there was no legal ground for their detention in prison and that we consequently are obliged to liberate them.”
- Chief Justice William Cushing, 1783
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John Hancock
- Massachusetts State House Art Collection
Ordered to deliver
John Hancock had been deeply involved in this issue. While waiting for a response from South Carolina in 1779 those who were free of disease were offered positons as domestic servants. Paul Revere is ordered “to deliver to the said John Hancock … on order, One Negro Man, who is a freeman and two Negro Girls from among the Negroes who are prisoners at the said Island.”
- Massachusetts Archives
Governor John Hancock
After the Revolution an
agent for the Pawley family
demanded of Massachusetts
Governor John Hancock that
the remaining South Carolina
slaves be returned. After the
war, the practice of slavery had
been ended in Massachusetts
through court decisions.
Hancock referred the case to the Massachusetts Supreme
Judicial Court. By then many former slaves had already fled,
joining the state’s free black population.
- Official portrait of Chief Justice William Cushing
Justice Cushing’s Decision
Chief Justice Cushing ruled against detaining former slaves. In an explanatory letter to South Carolina, he avoided the terms “slaves” and “property” (not wishing to acknowledge the institution of slavery.) Cushing characterized those remaining in Massachusetts as servants or laborers bound by a service contract. While the Pawley’s were entitled to their service, Massachusetts had no obligation to hold them or pay for their return. The practical effect was to free the “Pawley” slaves because the family did not have the resources to recover them.
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Library of Congress
Constitutional Issues
South Carolina Governor Benjamin Guerard bitterly objected, characterizing the Massachusetts response as “puritanism” - imposing morality on others. Some argue that this incident influenced the later debate regarding the fate of “fugitive slaves” at the 1789 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
Before the war
Prince Hall, a prominent African-American activist, joined a British army masonic lodge at Castle Island. He had been rejected by white masons in Massachusetts. Still, Hall supported the Revolution when the war for independence began.
