Recent orders
1977
Prince Hall uses a more insistent and impatient tone than that used by Felix to demand that the slaves be freed. He stresses the urgency of the matter and impatience felt by the petitioners
Felix does not make any specific suggestions about the fate of his fellow African American slaves. He uses a humble and cautious tone in the petition to underscore the “unhappy State and Condition” that the slaves live in. Felix
writing to the Massachusetts colonial legislature
there was a growing discord between the British forces and the colonists. The colonists were frustrated with the massive corruption by the English Parliament who enacted imperial measures such as the Townshend Act
the Indemnity Act and the Tea Act of 1773 that infringed on the colonists’ liberty. The colonists stated that the corrupt English government had enslaved them. Black slaves paid close attention to these sentiments and used the language of the dissenting colonists as their own while appealing for the abolition of the institution of slavery. In the 1773 Freedom Petition by Felix and the 1777 Freedom Petition by Prince Hall