Dear Editor.

• Author: Higgins, Patricia
• Position: LETTERS - Letter to the editor

Dear Editor,

In your June 2013 issue on page 6, you highlighted the passage of a bill in New Hampshire granting emancipation for a group of enslaved Africans who had petitioned the General Court for their freedom in 1779. Being one who initially voted "no," I want to share my thinking with your readers.

I share the desire of my colleagues to right, whenever possible, the historical wrongs of slavery. My initial vote of "no" was an expression of a deep moral conviction. For me to proclaim anyone emancipated requires me to own the authority to enslave that person, which I reject. In that sense, the freedom we have now legislated was never ours to grant or to withhold in the first place. In the words of the original petition by the enslaved Africans, "Freedom is an inherent right of the human species."

After a request for reconsideration was made, I...