19 April–17 December 1723
Boston proposes racial policing restrictions that the provincial House rejects
Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay
After fires blamed on Black residents, Boston’s town meeting approved proposals restricting Black, Indigenous and mixed-ancestry people. They included punishment for more than two servants or enslaved people gathering idly in streets, curfews, and compulsory binding of free families’ children to English masters. The town sought provincial legislation; the House rejected the bill in December.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
The town’s 19 April vote instructed representatives to seek legislation; it did not itself enact the proposed code. The House refused engrossment on 17 December. The gathering clause said more than two, with an exception for an employer’s business. Neither the proposals nor the accusations prove an organized arson conspiracy.
Sources
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 2; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
- Boston Town Records, 1700–1728, vol. 8, City Document 137 (1882; catalogue date 1883), pp. 173–175: selectmen’s proposals and town instructions, 19 April 1723 ↗
- Journals of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, 1723–1724, vol. 5, pp. 290–292: 17 December 1723 negative vote on engrossment ↗