The Body of Liberties was one of the earliest protections of
individual rights in America. Unlike many of the English sources of the time, the Body of Liberties was express in many of its grants and far more supportive of individual rights. The Body of Liberties also contained regulations against "Tirranny or Crueltie" toward domestic animals, which were the first American modern animal protection laws.
Slavery Some of the liberties legislated are explicitly cited as originating from biblical sources. Many of the liberties established still exist in both law and practice in the Commonwealth today, but some do not. The justification for slavery of Africans in Passage 91 of the Body of Liberties was likely based on an interpretation of scriptural passages of the
New Testament, such as
Ephesians 6:5 and
Titus 2:9. Full liberties and political rights were extended only to men who had been approved as members of their local
Puritan church. Native Americans taken prisoner during wars were shipped to the
West Indies, where they would be slaves on the sugar cane plantations. Returning ships brought African-born and -descended slaves to New England. The provision that only war captives or purchased slaves could be kept was enforced: in 1645, the owners of a ship that was determined to have brought two black men who had been kidnapped in Africa were sentenced to send them back, together with an apology from Massachusetts. Slavery was legal in Massachusetts until 1783 when the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that slavery went against the
Constitution of Massachusetts. ==References==