12 June 1707 (Old Style)
Massachusetts imposes public labor and alarm service on free Black men
Massachusetts
Massachusetts required able-bodied free Black and mixed-race men to perform highway work, street cleaning or other public labor in place of ordinary military training and watch duty. The same act required able-bodied free Black and mixed-race men aged sixteen and older to attend their local military company during an alarm and obey its officers. Neglect carried fines or additional labor.
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 act distinguishes routine training from emergency service; it does not exclude these men from every military obligation. The printed edition dates passage June 12 and publication July 4, 1707, in the calendar then used. Its separate restrictions on entertaining enslaved people are not treated as militia rules.
Sources
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 5, pp. 77–79; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified; context for the jurisdiction-specific follow-up, not a citation of this particular act
- Massachusetts Acts and Resolves, vol. I, 1707 chapter 3, sections 1–3 and 5, pp. 606–607; passage and publication dates on p. 607 ↗