Ladyjane: “Massachusetts legislature never had the courage/fortitude/or whatever to vote on slavery.
I’ll say it again, Massachusetts never passed any laws against slavery. “
I’ll say it again: so what?
Every ten years between 1790 and 1860 the Federal Government conducted a census, just as it does today.
In all that time, Massachusetts only recorded ONE SLAVE.
Not one thousand, or one million, ONE SLAVE, period, in 1840!
So how can you fault a law, or the lack of a law, when RESULTS clearly show the absence of slavery in Massachusetts?
Indeed the great complaint from 1861 Deep South secessionists was that northern states like Massachusetts were not vigorously enough rounding up and returning their runaway Fugitive Slaves.
So, in 1860 Massachusetts was a sanctuary state, not a previously unsuspected “slave state”.
This is getting tiresome.
I made a statement that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts legislature never passed any laws against slavery.
That statement stands. Good grief you can’t argue that statement.
I am not going to say it again.
Any other inferences you want to make about that statement you may. But they are your inferences.