This may be a stupid question, but I don't get the Massachusetts connection with this "mother of slavery" thing. Please enlighten me. It's my understanding that the first legal slave owner in America (Virginia) was a free black named Anthony Johnson of Northampton County who in 1654 convinced the court that he had legal lifetime rights to a negro named John Casor. This was the first time that lifetime servitude was allowed for something other than punishment for a crime. My wife is the geneologist in the family and I remember her stating that in the (I believe) 1830 census that Massachusetts claimed no slaves in it's census. The only state in the country to do so. I've argued with those proud Mayflower folks before that we had slaves in Virginia before the Pilgrims ever set sail. I'm not trying to be a smart ass or a dumb ass or racist in any way. I just want to know what this reference is to. I came into this thread in the middle, sorry.

Keith