From Slavery to Freedom

In part because it was sanctioned in the Bible, Massachusetts Puritans legalized slavery, the first English colony to do so.

A Seventeenth Century Map of Africa — **Seventeenth Century Map of Africa:**
European powers dominated the slave trade. Some Massachusetts vessels later sailed around the continent to Madagascar to avoid powerful rivals on Africa’s west coast.
*- Mr-kartographie*

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“God hath set different Orders and Degrees of Man in the World.”

- Merchant John Saffin, justifying the slave trade

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Harsh Realities
It is difficult to understand the shortsightedness and crudity of the slave trade. It flourished in a society that was generally harsh. In England, sixty percent of children died before the age of sixteen. Many who survived lived lives of appalling poverty. Those accused of crimes could face barbaric physical punishments. While some religious denominations - like the often persecuted Quakers - stressed charity and mercy others quoted the Bible to justify a punitive approach to life

Slavery in Massachusetts
On February 26, 1638 the first recorded landing of African slaves occurred in Massachusetts. Arriving on the ship Desire, they had been exchanged for Indian prisoners taken in the Pequot War. In 1641 the Massachusetts Body of Liberties recognized slavery under certain conditions: if “It be lawful captives taken in just wars... And such strangers as willingly sell themselves, Or are sold to us.” This formula did not match the reality of slavery.

Zanzibar Slave Monument, near the site of slave auctions.
- Brocken Inaglory

Governor John Winthrop

Beginnings of the slave trade.

Moral awareness

From Slavery to Freedom: Traces of the Slave Trade

In part because it was sanctioned in the Bible, Massachusetts Puritans legalized slavery, the first English colony to do so.