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Primary source: Freedom Petition submitted by slaves to the New Hampshire state legislature, printed in newspaper, 1780.
Caption: During the revolutionary era, many slaves petitioned colonial or state legislatures for their freedom and filed freedom suits, such as the one submitted by Nero Brewster, a slave, in Portsmouth on November 12, 1779.
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The petition of Nero Brewster, and others, natives of Africa, now forcibly detained in slavery, in said state, most humbly theweth, That the God of Nature gave them life and freedom, upon terms of the most perfect equality with other men; that freedom is an inherent right of the human species, not to be surrendered, but by consent, for the sake of social life; that private or public tyranny and slavery, are alike detestable to minds conscious of the equal dignity of human nature . . .
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Freedom petition submitted by slaves to the New Hampshire state legislature, New-Hampshire Gazette; or, State Journal, and General Advertiser, 24, no. 1233 (15 July 1780).
Original at the New Hampshire Historical Society.
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