Belinda Sutton

Isaac Royall House, Medford, Massachusetts - Slave quarters
Belinda's petition reprinted in American Museum magazine, 1787

Belinda Sutton (born c. 1713 in the western part of the African continent), also known as Belinda Royall, was a woman born in what is now Ghana who was enslaved by the Royall family at the Royall House and Slave Quarters in Medford, Massachusetts, USA. Additional details of Sutton's family life are under ongoing research. Baptism records for a son Joseph, and a daughter Prine, appear in church records.[1] Belinda was abandoned by Isaac Royall Jr. when he fled to Nova Scotia at the beginning of the American Revolution.[2] In Royall's will, a number of enslaved people are listed, but Belinda was unique in his wishes:

"In his will he gave his slave Belinda the option of freedom, and he further 'provided that she get security that she shall not be a charge in the town of Medford.' If she did not elect freedom, he bequeathed her to his daughter Mary Erving. Other slaves were bequeathed and some were sold, but Belinda was emancipated."[3]

In February 1783, Sutton presented a petition to the Massachusetts General Court requesting a pension from the proceeds of her enslaver's estate. The vivid petition text was crafted to describe Belinda's kidnapping in Africa and subsequent hardships and to condemn the practice of slavery. Some scholars suggest that she was assisted by Prince Hall, a local free African-American anti-slavery activist of the Revolutionary War era.[4] Other scholars point to the wider Black community and the collective knowledge of prior legal cases in the Commonwealth. The first petition request suggests that Sutton was the major supporter of her daughter:

"she prays, that such allowance may be made her out of the Estate of Colonel Royall, as will prevent her, and her more infirm daughter, from misery in the greatest extreme, and scatter comfort over the short and downward path of their lives"

As a result of this petition, an annual pension of fifteen pounds and twelve shillings was awarded to her, and approved by John Hancock.[5] This pension has been cited as one of the first cases of reparation for slavery and the slave trade.[2][6]

In the 1788 petition, she is referred to as a "widow" and used the last name Sutton.[1]

Subsequent petitions to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts indicate that after two initial payments, the pension payments were not forthcoming. She continued to petition for the back payments until a final filing in 1793.[1] Later legal documents refer to the Royall servants' deaths having transpired, but when and under what circumstances remain unknown at this time.[1]

  1. ^ a b c d "Belinda Sutton and Her Petitions". The Royall House & Slave Quarters. 28 April 2013. Archived from the original on 19 March 2016. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  2. ^ a b Rivera, Alicia (20 September 2009). "Belinda Royall (1712-?) •". Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  3. ^ Halley, Janet (Spring 2008). "My Isaac Royall Legacy". Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal (10892907). 24: 117–131.
  4. ^ Finkenbine, Roy E. (2007). "Belinda's Petition: Reparations for Slavery in Revolutionary Massachusetts". The William and Mary Quarterly. 64 (1): 95–104. ISSN 0043-5597. JSTOR 4491599.
  5. ^ Massachusetts House of Representatives (19 February 1783). "On the petition of Belinda, an African". Massachusetts Anti-Slavery and Anti-Segregation Petitions, Harvard University. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  6. ^ Coates, Ta-Nehisi. "The Case for Reparations". The Atlantic. Retrieved 3 December 2017.