Massachusetts abolished slavery judicially in Quock Walker, not by statute

Evidence

Attorney Crump echoed that sentiment: “The fact that I stand before you as a free man, and not a slave, is a testament to someone’s decision to change the course of human history. It’s a testament of our legal system—a testament that was led by the courts here in Massachusetts when Chief Justice William Cushing in 1783 judicially abolished slavery in the Quock Walker case. And it is the reason why he’s so often quoted even 250 years later, with the holding that the idea of slavery is inconsistent with our conduct and our constitution. The second historical reference is from the great Negro abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who once said, ‘genealogical trees do not flourish among slaves.’ In essence, what Frederick Douglass was saying is that slavery destroyed the African American family connection to their ancestral lineage.” — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 1254

Categorization

• QUESTION: Quock Walker (1783) is cited as the judicial abolition of slavery in Massachusetts — worth verifying against the 1780 state constitution’s role.