2022 Massachusetts Emancipation Day aka Quock Walker Day Proclamation

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b,' I �i �1 ,i ��art�i, d�� 9 � � x � ��, � ;R �CGOb�tt Ot �.CXirig#Or�, �ag�af.�jttgEt�� � r t+`x��vN` SELECT BOARD OFFICE I I i i PROCLAMATICJN Whereas: this year marks the 239th Anniversary of the third of the Quock Walker Gases that canstitutionally ended slavery in Massachusetts; and Whe�reas: Quack Walker entered the historical record on May 4, 1754,when Zedekiah Stone sold Mingo, Dinah, and 9-month-old Quock to James Caldwell of the Rutland District far 180 pounds; and Whereas: Quock Walker's parents were likely imported into Massachusetts by ship like the first enslaved Africans were imported into the l�?iassachusetts Bay Colony in 163$; and T�'hereas: in 1641 the Massachusetts Bay Colany became the first of Britain's mainland colonies ta make slavery legal; and Whereas: in 1780, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts adopted a Constitution which included Article 1, which reads, "All men are born free and ec�ual, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights;among which may bs reckoned the right af enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness."; and Wfiereas: Reverend Jonas Clazke of Lexington served as a delegate to the Constitutianal Convention; and Whereas: in 1781,Quock Walker self-emancipated and went to work on a nearby farm in Barre, Massachusetts;and Whereas: on June 12, 1�81,a jury of the Warcester County Court of Cammon Pleas determined that �Quock Wallcer was a free man and assessed Nathaniel Jennison 50 pounds for assault and battery; and Whereas: in September 1781,Nathaniel Jennison lost his appeal to the Worcester Circuit af the Supreme Judicial Caurt;and Whereas: in 1783, Justice William Cushing, Chief Justice af the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, noted in his instructions to the jury, "the idea af slavery is inconsistent with our own conduct and Constitution"; and Whereas: the Quock Walker Cases resulted in the abolition of slavery in Lexington and across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts over 70 yeazs before President Abra.ham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation; and Wherea�s: Quock Walker and his siblings acquir�d property in Barre, Massachusetts and enjoyed other liberties; and Whereas: Quock Walker's peers and their children became entrepreneurs and active abolitionists wha established the Massa.chusetts General Colored Association,the first all-Black abolitionist organization in the United States,"to promote the welfare of the race by working for the destructian of slavery"; and