RTERS, Feb. 2, 1783.

"SIR,--Mr. Hobby having claimed as his property a negro man
now serving in the Massachusetts Regiment, you will please
to order a court of inquiry, consisting of five as
respectable officers as can be found in your brigade, to
examine the validity of the claim, the manner in which the
person in question came into service, and the propriety of
his being discharged or retained in service. Having inquired
into the matter, with all the attending circumstances, they
will report to you their opinion thereon; which you will
report to me as soon as conveniently may be.

"I am, Sir, with great respect,
"Your most obedient servant,
"G. WASHINGTON.

"P.S.--All concerned should be notified to attend.

"Brig.-Gen. PUTNAM."

Enlistment in the army did not work a practical emancipation of the
slave, as some have thought. Negroes were rated as chattel property by
both armies and both governments during the entire war. This is the
cold fact of history, and it is not pleasing to contemplate. The Negro
occupied the anomalous position of an American slave and an American
soldier. He was a soldier in the hour of danger, but a chattel in time
of peace.

FOOTNOTES:

[588] Felt says, in History of Salem, vol. ii. p. 278: "Sept. 17
[1776]. At this date two slaves, taken on board of a prize, were to
have been sold here; but the General Court forbid the sale, and
ordered such prisoners to be treated like all others."

[589] Resolves, p. 14. Quoted by Dr. Moore from the original
documents.

[590] Mr. Motley, "Rise of Dutch Republic," vol. i. p. 151, says that
in the sixteenth century, in wars between European states, the captor
had a property in his prisoner, which was assignable.

[591] Law of Fiefdom and Bondage, vol. i. p. 158.

[592] Mr. Hurd says, "In ascribing slavery to the law of nations it is
a very common error to use that term not in the sense of universal
jurisprudence--the Roman _jus gentium_-but in the modern sense of
public international law, and to give the custom of enslaving
prisoners of war, in illustration: as if the legal condition of other
slaves who had never been taken in war were not equally _jure gentium_
according to the Roman jurisprudence" See Mr. Webster's speech, 7th
March, 1830; Works, vol. v. p. 329.

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