Existing comment:
Moves toward Freedom in Northern States
Although Vermont would not officially join the union until 1791, its legislature prohibited slavery in 1777. Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey soon followed. In 1780 the Pennsylvania legislature enacted an Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery. The legislators wrote that they rejoiced "to extend a portion of that freedom to others which has been extended to us." Rights provided by the act for freed blacks included recognition of marriage contracts, protection of orphaned or abandoned children, and equality before the law. Blacks had the right to vote but rarely exercised it. In 1838 voting rights in Pennsylvania were rescinded. |