Written by Drew Palmer
On May 15, 1783, an anonymous anti-slavery essay entitled Vox Africanorum was published in the Maryland Gazette. Latin for “The Voice of the Africans,” Vox Africanorum serves as a meaningful example of the early anti-slavery movement in the young United States. The essay shows how Americans have always used enlightenment ideals in our founding documents to push for greater liberties and equality.
As early as 1775, many Patriots recognized the hypocrisy of a cause that advocates for liberty and freedom yet suppresses those very things for hundreds of thousands of enslaved individuals. In 1775, the first abolitionist society, the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, was founded. Similar groups formed in Rhode Island and New York. In many Northern states, anti-slavery sentiment turned into abolition when Vermont abolished slavery in 1777 (before becoming a state). Pennsylvania followed in 1780 when the state passed a gradual abolition act. Pennsylvania was followed by Massachusetts in 1783, New Hampshire, also in 1783, and Rhode Island in 1784. Vox Africanorum was published at the same period when anti-slavery energy was sweeping through the North. However, Vox Africanorum was published in Maryland, a state that did not share the same political motivation for the abolition of slavery as its Northern neighbors did. Though the institution was entrenched in the state, the anti-slavery spirit inspired by the Revolution seeped its way into the Maryland legislature in the 1780s and 1790s when the question of slavery was brought to the floor. In the 1780s, manumissions of slaves rose in Maryland. Though these events were relatively minor compared to anti- slavery laws created farther North, Vox Africanorum was published at a time when it was socially acceptable in Maryland to debate and criticize the institution of slavery.
Who wrote Vox Africanorum? We don't know. The essay was published by an anonymous author. The author writes from the perspective of a slave but offers no deeper clues about who was truly behind the pen. The author could have been one person, or a series of authors; either way, the person or persons were literate and had a grasp of the political discourse of the time. The author could have been a Black person, enslaved or free, or a white person, using the identity of an enslaved person for a more dramatic and effective plea. Regardless of who wrote the essay, it rings with Revolutionary ideals that clearly inspired the author.
American Ideals Make Slavery Hypocritical
The author firmly establishes themselves as a Patriot from the beginning of the essay. The writer acknowledges the American cause as a necessary crusade to throw off a tyrannical mother country and foster an America based on liberty and freedom. The author wrote:
To a people whose characteristic virtues are justice and fortitude, in the exercise of which they have become the wonder and astonishment of the universe, we, the black inhabitants of these United States, humbly submit the following address. When Great Britain essayed to make her first unjust and wicked attempts to forge chains to enslave America, the noble spirit of liberty and freedom uttered her voice. America, with the meekness of a lamb, remonstrated against the wickedness of the attempt; but Britain, lost to every sentiment of justice and virtue, and sunk in every vice, obstinately persisted in the rash attempt. America then, nobly animated with the love of liberty, assuming the fortitude of a lion, stepped forth, and proclaimed, “We Will be Free.” The world beheld with admiration mingled with applause, and heaven smiled approbation. Determined in her resolutions, America has borne the storms and complicated pressures of an eight years war, purchased at the price of her blood and treasure, and even at the risque of her existence, she has at length obtained her liberty, the darling object of her soul; universal joy has diffused itself through all her borders; acclamations of gratitude on this occasion, from the lips of her every freeborn son have ascended to the throne on high; the glorious deeds of America are recorded in the court of heaven.
The author further shows solidarity and support for the American cause, writing, “we have lately beheld, with anxious concern, your infant struggles in the glorious cause of liberty— We attend to your solemn declaration of the rights of mankind– to your appeals, for the rectitude of your principles, to the Almighty, who regards men of every condition and admits them to a participation of his benefices—We admired your wisdom, justice, piety, and fortitude.” After acknowledging support for the American cause, the author flips the coin and asks Americans to live up to its new ideals. The author cites the Declaration of Independence specifically, asking the reader to truly consider how all men are created equal in America while the institution of slavery thrives:
Permit us humbly to address you. Liberty is our claim. Reverence for our Great Creator, principles of humanity, and the dictates of common sense, all convince us that we have an indubitable right to liberty. Has not the wisdom of America solemnly declared it? Attend to your own declarations—“These truths are self-evident—all men are created equal; they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” We shall offer no arguments—nay, it would be insulting to the understanding of America at this enlightened period, to suppose they stood in need of arguments to prove our right to liberty. It would be to suppose she has already forgot those exalted principles she has so lately asserted with her blood. Though our bodies differ in colour from yours; yet our souls are similar in a desire for freedom. Disparity in colour, we conceive, can never constitute a disparity in rights. Reason is shocked at the absurdity. Humanity revolts at the idea
When the essay was published in May of 1783, the Revolutionary struggle was still underway. The Revolutionary War did not officially end until the Treaty of Paris was signed in September 1783. The author harnessed the current struggle of ideals still permeating Americans' minds to pose a basic question that exposed the hypocrisy of the American cause. Revolutionary language is used to ask the question of how slavery can be compatible with a nation built on ideals of liberty and freedom? The author asserts that enslaved Black people deserve the same rights in an “enlightened society.”
Black Americans Are Human Beings With Equal Rights
Perhaps one of the essay's strongest points is its assertion of equality between Black Americans and white Americans. The writer acknowledges that even though skin color is different, enslaved Blacks desire freedom just as much as white people do. “Though our bodies differ in colour from yours; yet our souls are similar in a desire for freedom. Disparity in colour, we conceive, can never constitute a disparity in rights. Reason is shocked at the absurdity. Humanity revolts the idea.” The phrase further asserts that skin color does not diminish human rights for some while increasing them for others. Both statements were radical for their time and illuminate how the Revolutionary conflict empowered many to challenge accepted racial norms that were inconsistent with Revolutionary ideals.
To further question slavery and racial disparities in America, the author asks the “fathers of YE country, friends of liberty and of mankind,” have the “laws of nature doomed us to this abject state – shut out as it were, from the benign influences of religion, knowledge, arts and science – excluded from every refinement which renders human nature happy?” Why can't enslaved Blacks enjoy the same as whites in a society that alleges principles of liberty and equality? We know today that principles of liberty and equality enshrined in the Declaration of Independence by the founding fathers were never meant for enslaved Blacks. However, the author asks the reader to consider why liberty and equality can not exist for enslaved Blacks as well. The author also challenges readers not to continue the “false policy” of Great Britain, nor allow America to conduct itself in a manner “inconsistent with her principles.” The writer carefully places most of the blame for slavery on Great Britain and casts Americans as victims of a system perpetuated by Great Britain. The writing is careful not to attack Americans. Instead, the author respects and supports the reader while challenging them to take steps to end slavery.
The American Revolution Was Not Complete
At the time of the essay’s publication, the author did not believe America was fully free, nor could it be fully free while slavery still existed:
Let America cease to exult—she has yet obtained but partial freedom. Thousands are yet groaning under their chains; slavery and oppression are not yet banished this land; the appellation of master and slave, an appellation of all others the most depressing to humanity, have still an existence. We are slaves! To whom? Is it to abandoned Britons? Permit us to refer you to facts; let them make the reply. A people who have fought—who have bled—who have purchased their own freedom by a sacrifice of their choicest heroes—will never continue the advocates for slavery.
According to the author, as long as slavery existed in America, the country had no right to celebrate the values of liberty and freedom. In a dramatic final plea, the author challenges America and its leaders to acknowledge the injustice and hypocrisy of slavery as laid out in the essay. “YE fathers of your country; friends of liberty and of mankind, behold our chains! Lend an ear to the voice of oppression— commiserate the afflictions of a helpless and abused part of the human species.” The author further looks to the reader and American leaders not for excuses but for justice. “To you we look for justice—deny it not—it is our right.”
Vox Africanorum encapsulates the growing anti-slavery sentiment across the North, which was largely inspired by Revolutionary ideals. However, the abolitionist ideals inspired by the American Revolution were short-lived in Maryland. Fearing that abolition and free Blacks would subvert the deeply entrenched racial order within the state, the Maryland legislature cracked down on civil rights and the Revolutionary anti-slavery movement. In the 1790s, a series of laws was passed prohibiting black people from testifying in freedom lawsuits. Furthermore, the legislature passed stringent vagrancy laws that allowed county governments to sell unemployed free blacks into terms of servitude. Around the turn of the nineteenth century, Maryland lawmakers stripped voting rights from free Black men and barred them from holding political office. By the 1820s, the abolition movement inspired by Revolutionary ideology had all but been forgotten in Maryland.
Even though no legislative change occurred directly from Vox Africanorum's impassioned plea, its ideological impact cannot be understated. The essay is distinctly American, showing how the beliefs that inspired the American Revolution motivated early Americans to challenge injustices that did not align with American values. Challenging hypocrisy and encouraging Americans to live up to its ideals on liberty and equality for all has been a consistently important part of America’s social history. Whether the challenge came from an anonymous pen in 1783, or from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech” in 1963, where King challenged his listeners to accept that Blacks deserve unalienable rights as described in the Declaration of Independence, Vox Africanorum's connects to what it means to be an American, challenging injustice and striving to live up to the ideals are founding fathers preached.
Endnotes
Maryland State Archives, Slavery in Maryland (Annapolis: Maryland State Archives, n.d.), accessed May 13, 2026, https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/intromsa/pdf/slavery_pamphlet.pdf, 8,9,10.
American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati, The Essay of Vox Africanorum, Maryland Gazette, May 15, 1783, accessed May 13, 2026, https://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/The-Essay-of-Vox-Africanorum-Maryland-Gazette-May-15-1783.pdf.,1,2.
Add comment
Comments