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| Field name | Value |
|---|---|
| Collection Reference Number | GLC06757 |
| From Archive Folder | Documents Relating to 1782 |
| Title | James Madison to Edmund Pendleton regarding waiting foreign dispatches on peace talks and selling a slave |
| Date | 6 August 1782 |
| Author | Madison, James (1751-1836) |
| Recipient | Pendleton, Edmund |
| Document Type | Correspondence |
| Content Description | Awaiting news of peace talks and personal advice regarding impossibility of selling a slave. Madison notes that while European newspapers "teem with paragraphs relative to pacific negotiations" but past British policy "should always restrain our hopes of peace from circumscribing our preparations for war." In July 1782 the Earl of Sherlburne took over the ministry and in early August he agreed to enter formal negotiations with the Americans. Madison also talks about selling a slave: "Upon recollection, it will be impossible to dispose of the slave in this state[,] there being a legal institution ag[ain]st it. Even his coming into [Philadelphia] will operate as a manumission, unless the case of runaway ... [is] provided...." Pendleton had earlier asked Madison's help in helping locate a runaway slave of Pendleton's nephew and, if found, to either lodge him in jail or sell him for 100 pounds or more. See Madison Papers 5: 27 and EP's letter to JM 29 July 1782 (4: 442-3). Madison also is responding here to the unexpected Pennsylvania abolition act of 1780, which suddenly raised deep legal issues of comity. |
| Subjects | Revolutionary War Military History Global History and Civics Foreign Affairs Diplomacy Peace Slavery Slave Sale African American History President Manumission Runaway Slave Fugitive Slave Act Law Abolition |
| People | Madison, James (1751-1836) Pendleton, Edmund (1721-1803) |
| Place written | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Theme | The American Revolution; Slavery & Abolition; Law; Government & Politics |
| Sub-collection | The Gilder Lehrman Collection, 1493-1859 |
| Additional Information | Signer of the U.S. Constitution. |
| Copyright | The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History |
| Module | Settlement, Commerce, Revolution and Reform: 1493-1859 |