|
|
|
Philadelphia Emigrationist Petition, circa 1792: An Introduction
Richard S. Newman, Roy E. Finkenbine, and Douglass Mooney
| THIS petition was discovered in the archives of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by Roy E. Finkenbine.1 Bearing the signatures of fifty-five Afro-Philadelphians, it was probably aimed at the Second Federal Congress but evidently never officially presented. If it had been presented, this petition would have constituted the earliest effort by black abolitionists to encourage federal emancipation and support black emigration (predating the petition of Absalom Jones and more than seventy Afro-Philadelphians in December 1799). Knowing that the national government would meet in Philadelphia until 1800, the city's black community sought to mobilize a federally backed program of emancipation, probably on the model of Pennsylvania's gradual abolition act of 1780 (which compelled masters to register slaves born after the act had been incorporated and guaranteed enslaved people liberty at age twenty-eight). Even proposing such federal action would have been a radical step after 1790 because the Pennsylvania Abolition Society had by that time backed away from petitions explicitly aimed at congressional emancipation. |
1
|
|
When was the document written? References to the British colony of Sierra Leone and the First Federal Congress indicate that it may have been crafted in the early 1790s. The Second Federal Congress, presumably the target of the petition drive, was in session from October 24, 1791, through March 2, 1793. Though the precise date of the petition is still unclear, it may have been produced against the backdrop of efforts to build a free black church in Philadelphia. Many white leaders initially opposed the formation of independent black churches, something Richard Allen and Absalom Jones had been discussing since 1787. That opposition may have prompted the drafting of the petition, just as the resulting formation of free black churches by 1792 may have cooled the drive to officially present it to Congress. In any event, support for the petition would come from established and soon-to-be created black institutions: eleven signers came from the Free African Society, formed in 1787, and others would be identified in the 1790s with either Saint Thomas's African Episcopal Church (led by Jones) or Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (led by Allen). |
2
|
|
Whether the petition was ever presented to any white governing officials, its political consciousness remains striking. The document's focus on the Declaration of Independence as the wellspring of American freedom—the nation's true founding document over and beyond the Constitution—prefigured antebellum abolitionists' emphasis of the same theme. Because the Constitution had delayed ending the slave trade, counted enslaved people in apportioning congressional and electoral votes, and guaranteed masters the return of fugitive slaves, Garrisonian abolitionists came to view it as a perverted document: "a covenant with death, and an agreement with hell," in William Lloyd Garrison's famous denunciation.2 The Declaration of Independence, on the other hand, seemingly sanctioned abolition and racial equality and was therefore championed by most abolitionists as the philosophical underpinning of American liberty. In the early 1790s, many Afro-Philadelphians had already arrived at this conclusion. |
. . . |
There are about 1705 more words in this article.
Please log in (or, if you are not yet an
authorized user, please go to the
User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
|
