13. “Petition of an African Slave, to the Legislature of Massachusetts,” Carey’s American Museum (June 1787): 463-65.


Petition from an elderly slave seeking a pension from the estate of her deceased owner. “Wherefore, casting herself at the feet of your honours, as to a body of men, formed for the reward of virtue, and the just returns of honest industry—she prays that such allowance may be made her, out of the estate of colonel [sic] Royall, as will prevent her, and her more infirm daughter, from misery in the greatest extreme, and scatter comfort over the short and downward path of their lives: and she will ever pray. BELINDA. Boston, February, 1782.”