Episode 9: Voices of Freedom | Enslaved Petitions & Early Abolition in Revolutionary America
In this episode of Creating America, host Will Sarris reads powerful but often overlooked voices from the Revolutionary era—documents written by enslaved people demanding the same freedom the colonies claimed for themselves.
You’ll hear the 1773 petition of enslaved men in Massachusetts asking for their liberty and the right to return to Africa, the 1779 New Hampshire petition signed by Prince Whipple and other enslaved men asserting that freedom is a natural human right, and excerpts from the 1780 Pennsylvania Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery—the first legislative step toward ending…
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