"PAUL CUFFE,

"Dated at Dartmouth, the 22d of the 4th mo., 1781,"

As early as 1788 Massachusetts passed a law requiring all Negroes who
were not citizens, to leave the Commonwealth within two months from
the date of the publication of the law. It has been said, upon good
authority, that this law was drawn by several of the ablest lawyers in
the Bay State, and was intended to keep out all Negroes from the South
who, being emancipated, might desire to settle there. It became a law
on the 26th of March, 1788, and instead of becoming a dead letter, was
published and enforced in post-haste. The following section is the
portion of the act pertinent to this inquiry.

"V. _Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid_ [the
Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled],
that no person being an African or Negro, other than a subject of
the Emperor of Morocco, or a citizen of some one of the United
States (to be evidenced by a certificate from the Secretary of
the State of which he shall be a citizen), shall tarry within
this Commonwealth, for a longer time than two months, and upon
complaint made to any Justice of the Peace within this
Commonwealth, that any such person has been within the same more
than two months, the said Justice shall order the said person to
depart out of this Commonwealth, and in case that the said
African or Negro shall not depart as aforesaid, any Justice of
the Peace within this Commonwealth, upon complaint and proof
made that such person has continued within this Commonwealth ten
days after notice given him or her to depart as aforesaid, shall
commit the said person to any house of correction within the
county, there to be kept to hard labor, agreeable to the rules
and orders of the said house, until the Sessions of the Peace,
next to be holden within and for the said county; and the master
of the said house of correction is hereby required and directed
to transmit an attested copy of the warrant of commitment to the
said Court on the first day of their said session, and if upon
trial at the said Court, it shall be made to appear that the said
person has thus continued within the Commonwealth, contrary to
the tenor of this act, he or she shall be whipped not exceeding
ten stripes, and ordered to depart out of this Com