Quock Walker

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Chief Justice William Cushing
Chief Justice William Cushing

Contents

[edit] Introduction

Quock Walker was an American slave who sued for and won his freedom in 1780 by using language in the Massachusetts Constitution that declared all men to be born free and equal. The case is credited with abolishing slavery although the 1780 constitution was never amended to prohibit it.

[edit] The Case

The Quock Walker case began by assessing the question of whether a previous master’s promise to free Quock gave him a right to freedom after the previous master died. Quock’s attorney however, did not use this argument but rather argued that slavery was contrary to the bible and the Massachusetts Constitution.

In April 1783 Quock Walker brought Nathaniel Jennison to court for assaulting him while trying to return him from running away. The Chief Justice, William Cushing, ruled in Walker’s favor and Walker was awarded 50 pounds in damages, although he originally asked for 300.

William Cushing ruled that Walker was a freeman because of the previously promised manumission. Cushing added that the Massachusetts Constitution declared that all men were free and equal and thus guaranteed their right to life, liberty, and freedom. Cushing went on to say, “Without resorting to implication in constructing the constitution, slavery is…as effectively abolished as it can be by the granting of rights and privileges wholly incompatible and repugnant to its existence.”[1]

However, the Walker-Jennison cases did not wholly end slavery in Massachusetts. There is no legal evidence that the ruling in this case effectively abolished slavery and slaves continued to be sold in Massachusetts.

[edit] Origin of Name

Quock also spelled as Kwaku, Quacko, Quork, Quock, and Qualk, is a Ghanian name meaning, "boy born on Saturday."

[edit] Birth And Family

Quock was born in Massachusetts in 1753 to slaves Mingo and Dinah, who were owned by the prominent Caldwell family of Worcester County.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Arthur Zilversmit, The First Emancipation: The Abolition of Slavery in the North (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967), 114.

[edit] References

The Quock Walker Case:"Instructions To The Jury" <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h38.html> (April 2008)

Massachusetts Historical Society African Americans and the End of Slavery In Massachusetts: Quock Walker, 2008, <http://www.masshist.org/endofslavery/?queryID=54> (April 2008)

[edit] External links

[edit] See also