On the trial in 1783 the jury responded to a strong anti-slavery charge from Chief Justice Cushing by returning a verdict against Jennison, and the court fined him L50 and costs.
[Footnote 5: G.H.Moore, _Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts_, pp.

181-209.] [Footnote 6: _Ibid_., p.208.So far as the present writer's knowledge extends, this item is without parallel at any other time or place.] [Footnote 7: The case of James Somerset on _habeas corpus_, in Howell's _State Trials_, XX, Sec.548.] This action prompted the negroes generally to leave their masters, though some were deterred "on account of their age and infirmities, or because they did not know how to provide for themselves, or for some pecuniary consideration."[8] The former slaveholders now felt a double grievance: they were deprived of their able-bodied negroes but were not relieved of the legal obligation to support such others as remained on their hands.
Petitions for their relief were considered by the legislature but never acted upon.

The legal situation continued vague, for although an act of 1788 forbade citizens to trade in slaves and another penalized the sojourn for more than two months in Massachusetts of negroes from other states,[9] no legislation defined the status of colored residents.

In the federal census of 1790, however, this was the only state in which no slaves were listed.
[Footnote 8: Massachusetts Historical Society _Collections_, XLIII, 386.] [Footnote 9: Moore, pp.

227-229.] Racial antipathy and class antagonism among the whites appear to have contributed to this result.