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Free Blacks protest South Carolina laws restricting their freedom, reminding legislators that they, too, were taxpayers.
1791 (Jan)
Free Blacks in Charleston, South Carolina, presented a petition to the state legislature protesting laws restricting their freedoms. They pointed specifically to the Act of 1740, which deprived enslaved Blacks and free Blacks of the right to testify under oath in court and the right to trial by jury. They also reminded the legislators that they were taxpaying citizens of South Carolina and were considered free citizens of the state, and thus hoped to be treated as such. At the same time, they acknowledged that they did not presume to hope that they shall be put on an equal footing with the free white citizens of the state in general. The petitioners were seeking the repeal of the objectionable clauses of the Act of 1740.
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.