awaits

In 1782, as the Revolutionary War raged on and the design of what would become the Great Seal of the United States was finalized, a Black woman named Belinda Sutton petitioned the Massachusetts legislature for reparations from her enslaver and won. Sutton claimed that she had been “denied the enjoyment of one morsel of the immense wealth, part whereof hath been accumulated by her own industry.” She successfully argued her claim and was granted 15 pounds and 12 shillings per year from the wealth accumulated by the Royall family on the Ten Hills Plantation as restitution for her 40 years of enslavement. Unbeknownst to her, Sutton and her petition (which can be read in full at the end of this article) would set the stage for a centuries-long movement to repair the harms of the trans-Atlanti...