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<br /> Whe�eas: this year marks the 240th A.nnlversary af the third of the Quock Walker Cases that 4
<br /> constitu.tianally ended slavery in Ma�sachusetts; and
<br /> W�Ce�eas: Quack Walk.�r entered the hi�torical recard on May 4, 1�754, when Zedekiah Stone sold Mingo,
<br /> Dinah, and 9-month-old Quock to James �aldwell of the Rutland Dis�rict for 180 pounds; and
<br /> Whe�eas: Quoc� Walker's parents were likely imported in�o Massachusetts by ship li1�e the �rst enslaved
<br /> Africans were imported into the Massachuse��s Bay Colony in 163$; and
<br /> Whe�eas. in 1641 the Massachu�etts �ay�olony became the �rs�of Britain's mainland calonies to make
<br /> slavery legal; and
<br /> Whe�eas: in 17$0, the Commonwealth of 1Vlassachusetts adopted a Constitutian which included Article 1,
<br /> tivhich reads,
<br /> "All men are born free and equal, and have ce�tain natural, essential, and unalienable�ights; among
<br /> which may be reckoned the�ight of enjoying and defending thei�lives and libe�ties,• that of acqui�ing,
<br /> passessing, and protectzng p�operty,• in fine, that of seeking and obtaining thei�safety and happiness.";
<br /> and
<br /> Whe�eacs: Reverend Janas Clark� of Lexington served as a delegate to the Constitutional �onvention; and
<br /> Whe�eas; in 1781, C�uock Walker self-emancipated and went to work an a nearby farm in Barre,
<br /> � Massachusetts; and
<br /> Whe�eas: an June 12, 1781, a jury of the Worcester County Court af Common Pleas det�r�nined that
<br /> Quock Walker was a free man and assess�d Nathaniel Jennison 50 pounds for assault and
<br /> battery; and
<br /> Whereas: in �eptember 17$l, Nathaniel Jennison lost his appeal�o the Worcester�ircuit of the Supreme
<br /> Judlcial �ourt; and
<br /> Whe�eas: in 1783, Justice William�ushing, Chief Justice of the Massachusetts �upreme Judicial�ourt,
<br /> noted in his instructions to the jury, "the idea of slavery is inc�nsistent with our own conduct and
<br /> Canstitution"; and
<br /> Whe�eas: the Quack Walker cases resulted in the abolitlon of slavery in Le�ing�on and across the
<br /> Commonwealth of Massachusetts over 70 years before President Abraham Lincoln's
<br /> Emancipatian Proclamatian; and
<br /> Whereas: Quock Walker and his siblings acquired property in Barre, Massachusetts and �njoyed o�her
<br /> liberties; and
<br /> Whereas: Quock Walker'�peers and�heir children becam� entrepren�urs and active abolitionists who
<br /> established�h� Massa�husetts �eneral Colored Association, the flrst all-Black abolitianist
<br /> organization in the Unit�d �tates, `�ta promote the welfare of the rac�by warking for the
<br /> des�ructian of slavery'�; and
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