To John Jay from William Hamilton, 8 March 1796
From William Hamilton
New York March 8. 1796
Honoured Sir
Be pleased to pardon my presumption in presuming to take the liberty of thus writing to you but I would not have gone so far had I not Believed you to be a person that would listen to the meanest persons who would wish to address themselves to you being confident that you will not refuse to hear my simple address. I have therefore attempted to write the following. I am dear Sir one of those whom the generality of men call Negroes my forefathers or ancestors from Africa but I am a native of New York worthy Sir when I behold many of the sons of Africa groaning under oppression some laboring with difficulty to get free & others having to bear the yoke I cannot help shedding a silent tear at the miserable misfortunes Providence hath brought upon them. But should I blame Heaven for this when it appears from the Sacred truths of the King of Heaven that his displeasure toward the perpetrators of this evil deed or rather these evil deeds when in the spirit or Prophesie Solomon beheld as I am inclined to believe these days he cried out and I returned & beheld all the oppression done under the sun & beheld all the tears of the oppressed & they had no comforter & into the hand of the oppressor was given power & so they had no comforter Therefore I praised the dead that were already dead more than the living that were yet alive how falsely & contradictory do the Americans speak when this land a land of liberty & equality a christian country when almost every part of it abounds with slavery & oppression how offended would the gentlemen be that is told by another that this is not a land of Liberty & equality when he is asked again is this a free state with respect to the negroes he has to answer no kind Sir does not every or is not every one that keeps slaves that are Negroes continually stealing but Dear Sir does not every [one] know that these slaves were stolen from their own Country or deceived a means no better & brought here & sold I mean in this Continent or some part of Christendom. When their purchasers buy them they know they were stolen property therefore they were equal to thieves Agreeable to this they know that they [the] indisputable right of these Africans & their children is liberty & freedom but those that keep them slaves take it from them & they also take it from them against their will for none are willing to be slaves just like a robber he robs them because it is in his power to do it and see that negroes are kept slaves for nought what harm have they done the Americans have they every injured them in the least why will they not let the oppressed free or are they brutes that they should be Slaves
Is there as ye sometimes tells us
Is there one who reigns on High
Does he bid them buy and sell us
Speaking from his throne the sky.1
Has God appointed us as their slaves I answer No his word says that stealeth a man and selleth him shall surely be put to death. I have already shewn that every slaveholder is stealing mens labor & liberty some men say that Negroes are like Brutes & ought to be slaves but these are unreasonable men— but may they
Deem our nation brutes no longer
Till some reason they can find
Worthy of regard and stronger
Than the colour of our kind
The intent of my writing to you was this to know whether there can be no measures taken for the recovery of the objects of pity is it not high time that the scandal of this country should be taken away that it might be called a free nation indeed & in truth is it not time that negroes should be free is it not time that robery should cease is it not that the threatening of heaven should be taken away. may kind heaven smile upon this nation incline them to do unto all men as they would all men should unto them may Negroes be manumitted may heaven diffuse its choise blessings on your head may you open your mouth & jud[g]e righteously & plead the cause of the poor & needy may your family be blessed from above So no more at present but remain your humble servant
William Hamilton
NB an answer from you will be very acceptable by the person who gives you this.2
ALS, NNC (EJ: 07312). Addressed: “To his excellency John Jay Esqr / Governour of the State of New York”. Endorsed: “William Hamilton a / black man / 8 March 1796”. William Hamilton (1773–1836) was a carpenter and community activist. He was the first president of the New York African Society for Mutual Relief, and a member of the Phoenixonian Society, and the Philomath Society. He opposed the American Colonization Society’s efforts to relocate blacks. Many of his public addresses were published. Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History (Detroit, Mich., 2006).
1. The poem quoted is William Cowper’s 1788 “The Negro’s Complaint,” Scots Magazine 54 (January 1792), 32; Town and Country Magazine 24 (April 1792), 185; Gentleman’s Magazine (December 1793). See also Joseph Jones, “The ’Distress’d’ Negro in English Magazine Verse,” Studies in English 17 (8 July 1937): 88–106.
2. No answer to this letter has been found. Under JJ’s governorship, the state legislature did pass a law on 29 March 1799 that gradually phased out the practice of slavery. “An Act for the gradual abolition of slavery,” 29 Mar. 1799, N.Y. State Laws, 22nd sess. (1799), 721–23.