I’ll have to read this proclamation, thanks much for pointing it out. I was reading about all the free blacks in North who fought in the Revolutionary War and the whites who called up regiments of blacks to fight alongside them in Massachusetts especially. The south was awash in slavery of course. But the respect for blacks by white in Massachusetts was shocking to read about, and right away when their constitution was ratified in 1780 a black woman sued based on her new constitutional rights and won her freedom, followed by another black American who also won his case based on his inalienable rights. The Colored People of the Revolution is such a surpassing read I find it hard to believe it was researched and published in 1855 y a black historian who printed all the testimonies of northern whites who respected and recognized all these black Americans as equals.