Description:

In 1730 a DS to Seize Property or Person of "Black man" James Reed in Colonial Massachusetts

Bristol County clerk Timothy Fales issued this writ of attachment to the sheriff or deputy of Bristol County to attach property worth £10 or arrest the person of James Reed of Attleboro, a laborer and "Blackman" to compel Reed's response to a suit brought by laborer Ebenezer Morse for the payment of a bill of credit for £5, 14s, 4d.

On the verso, Deputy Sheriff John Hodges reported three days later that he attached a parcel of land belonging to Reed and left a summons at Reed's "Login or Place of aboad as the Law Directs."

[AFRICAN AMERICAN.] Timothy Fales, Partially Printed Document Signed, Writ of Attachment to Sheriff of Bristol County, Massachusetts, June 9, 1730. 2 pp., 7.75" x 6.5". Expected folds; embossed wax seal intact; general toning; very good.

Excerpt
"We Command you to Attach the Goods or Estate of James Reed of Atelborrow in the County of Bristoll in ye Province of ye Masachusets Bay in new England Laborer (and Blackman) to the Value of ten Pounds Pounds; And for want thereof to take the body of the said James Reed (if he may be found in your Precinct) and him safely keep, so that you have him before Our Justices of Our Inferiour Court of Common Pleas next, to be h holden at Bristol within and for Our said County of Bristol, on the Second Tuesday of July next; Then and there in Our said Court to Answer unto Ebenezer Morse of Wrentham in ye County of Suffolk in ye Province aforesd Laborer...."

Historical Background
Unlike the antebellum South, enslaved people in colonial Massachusetts could hold and dispose of property, sue and be sued in courts, had the right to jury trials and legal counsel, and had some other legal protections. In 1700, roughly 500 African Americans lived in Massachusetts, and most were clustered in Boston and other coastal towns. A 1754 census numbered 2,720 slaves in Massachusetts over the age of sixteen, of whom 122 lived in Bristol County. By the 1750s, African slavery was well established in Massachusetts, and in 1752, black people accounted for 10 percent of Boston's population. By the eve of the American Revolution, approximately 5,250 African Americans were living in Massachusetts. While some were free, slavery as an institution did not end in Massachusetts until the 1780s.

It is unlikely that James Reed was enslaved in 1730, as this document mentions no master's name.

Timothy Fales (1690-1777) was born in Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard College in 1711. He worked as a schoolmaster in Bristol before working at sea for a few years. In 1724, he received a commission as a justice of the peace. He served as the clerk for both the Inferior Court of Common Pleas and the Court of Sessions of Bristol County. From 1760 to 1761, he served as the judge of the Bristol County Court of Common Pleas.

Ebenezer Morse (1689-1741) was born in Sherbon, Massachusetts, and by 1730 he lived in Attleboro.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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