In 1780, seven African-American residents of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, presented the following very thoughtful petition to the legislature. Their protest was simple: They were being taxed and were not allowed to vote. The relationship between taxation and representation, they pointed out, was “too well known to need a recital in this place.”
To the Honorable Council and House of Representatives
in General Court assembled for the State of Massachusetts Bay in New England,
March 14, An 1780. The petition of several poor Negroes and Mulattos who
are inhabitants of the town of Dartmouth humbly sheweth: That we being
chiefly of the African extract and by reason of long bondage and hard slavery
we have been deprived of enjoying the profits of our labor or the advantage
of inheriting estates from our parents as our neighbors the white people
do (having some of us not long enjoyed our own freedom), and yet of late,
contrary to the invariable custom and practice of the country, we have
been and now are taxed both in our polls and that small pittance of estate
which through much hard labor and industry we have got together to sustain
our selves and families withal.
We apprehend it therefore to be hard usage...
and doubtless will reduce us to beggary, whereby we shall become a burden
to others if not timely prevented by the interposition of your justice
and power.
And your petitioners further show that
we apprehend ourselves to be aggrieved, in that while we are not allowed
the privilege of freemen of the state, having no vote or influence in the
election of those that tax us, yet many of our color (as is well known)
have cheerfully entered the field of battle in the defense of the common
cause, and that (as we conceive) against a similar exertion of power (in
regard to taxation) too well known to need a recital in this place.