(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
Contact us for information about using this image.

label levels:

A different economic system, among other factors, made slavery in the northern colonies different in some respects from slavery in the South. As in the South, however, northern slaves were still legally considered property, and could be subject to any manner of treatment. Running away was the most obvious form of individual resistance to slavery. This legal complaint against "Caesar a Labourer & Servant" owned by Nathaniel Dickinson of Deerfield, Massachusetts, suggests that resistance to slavery also took other forms. A Hampshire County Justice of the Peace issued a warrant for Caesar's arrest for stealing and for committing "other enormities" in November of 1771.

top of page