[24] Committees on the
slavery question were appointed in 1776 and 1777,[25] and although a
letter to Congress on the matter, and a bill for the abolition of
slavery were reported, no decisive action was taken.
All such efforts were finally discontinued, as the system was already
practically extinct in Massachusetts and the custom of importation had
nearly ceased. Slavery was eventually declared by judicial decision to
have been abolished.[26] The first step toward stopping the
participation of Massachusetts citizens in the slave-trade outside the
State was taken in 1785, when a committee of inquiry was appointed by
the Legislature.[27] No act was, however, passed until 1788, when
participation in the trade was prohibited, on pain of L50 forfeit for
every slave and L200 for every ship engaged.[28]
20. ~Restrictions in Rhode Island.~ In 1652 Rhode Island passed a law
designed to prohibit life slavery in the colony. It declared that
"Whereas, there is a common course practised amongst English men to buy
negers, to that end they may have them for service or slaves forever;
for the preventinge of such practices among us, let it be ordered, that
no blacke mankind or white being forced by covenant bond, or otherwise,
to serve any man or his assighnes longer than ten yeares, or untill they
come to bee twentie four yeares of age, if they bee taken in under
fourteen, from the time of their cominge within the liberties of this
Collonie.
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