Answering the Cry for Freedom by Gretchen Woelfle

Author:Gretchen Woelfle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Astra Publishing House

Their petition was turned down; they still owed their taxes.

The Cuffe brothers tried another tactic. They sent another petition to the county court claiming their rights as Wampanoag Indians, “and by law not the subject of Taxation.” This didn’t work either. They spent a few hours in jail, and their taxes were still due.

“WE BEING CHIEFLY OF THE AFRICAN EXTRACT . . . ARE NOT ALLOWED THE PRIVILEGE OF FREEMEN OF THE STATE HAVING NO VOTE OR INFLUENCE IN THE ELECTION OF THOSE THAT TAX US.”

Cuffe’s court case dragged on for more than a year, until a judge ruled that the voting issue should be decided by law-makers, not a judge. He agreed to drop the case if the Cuffes paid a small tax, which they did. Two years later, in 1783, the Cuffe brothers won the day, when the Massachusetts legislature passed a law giving male African American property owners the right to vote, on the same terms as white men.

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