Jul 18, 2022 | 18th Century, North America, Transcription
Debt Act of 1732 Jefferson’s Notes on Debt Recovery Act (1732) In his copy of Parliament’s Debt Act of 1732, Thomas Jefferson situates Britain’s latest imperial encroachment within the existing body of colonial trade restrictions already in place. In the...
Jul 18, 2022 | 18th Century, Correspondence, North America, Transcription
Slavery in the courts Governor Gooch to Mr. Popple (1736) A letter from the colonial governor of Virginia, William Gooch, explaining why the colony passed a law denying the vote to free Black colonists. About The following is a letter from the colonial governor of...
Feb 24, 2022 | 18th Century, England, Legal Case, Transcription
Somerset v. Steuart (1772) Introduction James Somerset was the enslaved personal manservant of Charles Steuart, a Scottish-born Virginia merchant who became the chief customs officer charged with enforcing the unpopular Stamp Act and Townshend Duties in the northern...
Feb 24, 2022 | 17th Century, Book, England, Transcription
Henry Pitman Henry Pitman’s A Relation of the Great Suffering (1689) Introduction In February 1685, Charles II died, and his brother James II was crowned king. James II had many political opponents, partly due to his Catholicism (they worried that he...
Jun 9, 2021 | 18th Century, Correspondence, England, Transcription
George III Correspondences on the Slave Trade (1778) Below are three correspondences which document King George III’s comments on the slave trade. Introduction The following are three correspondences which document George III’s comments on the slave trade....
Jun 9, 2021 | 17th Century, Slave Code, Transcription
Jamaica Jamaica Slave Code: Governing Slaves(1664) “An Act for the better ordering & Governing of Negro Slaves” Based on the Barbados Slave Act, the Jamaica Assembly adopted its first slave law in 1664. After the English took control of the island, the...
