17 October 1787 (editorial dating)
Black Bostonians petition for access to public education
Boston, Massachusetts
Prince Hall and other Black Bostonians petitioned the Massachusetts legislature for their children’s education. The petition argued that paying a share of public burdens entitled them to the privileges of free people, yet their children received no benefit from Boston’s free schools because they were Black. The request did not secure the requested improvement.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
Aptheker’s documentary edition dates the petition October 17, 1787 in its introduction; William H. Upton’s 1900 description of Prince Hall’s letterbook also lists an education petition to the Massachusetts legislature on that date. Neither source supplies a manuscript image here. Aptheker’s excerpt omits signatures and credits the Massachusetts Historical Society; the original signatures and legislative response remain unchecked. This editorial dating distinguishes the request from the January 1787 emigration petition and October 1796 request to Boston selectmen. NPS describes exclusion in practice despite no legal attendance bar.
Sources
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 5, p. 88; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
- National Park Service, The Black Struggle for Equal Education in Boston, 1787 to 1976, opening section and footnote 1; cites Green, ed., Equal Protection and the African American Constitutional Experience, pp. 38–39 ↗
- Herbert Aptheker, ed., A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States, vol. I, pp. 19–20, document 7; digitized Citadel edition, petition excerpt and editorial date; manuscript credited to Massachusetts Historical Society ↗
- William H. Upton, Prince Hall’s Letter Book, Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, vol. XIII (1900), p. 59, item 16; published description of the letterbook, not the petition manuscript ↗