There is no documentary proof for statements of this kind. A property qualification for voting fixed by the William and Mary Charter with slight modifications carried down to 1785. Negroes acquired rights and privileges in Massachusetts not by special acts of the General Assembly, but by a judicial act of 1783 based on article one of the Declaration of Rights of the Constitution of 1780. CHAPTER III THE REDEMPTION OF AFRICA Early in his life Paul Cuffe became interested in the redemption of Africa. "The travail of my soul," said he, "is that Africa's inhabitants may be favored with reformation." The following letter to James Pemberton not only illustrates Cuffe's style and manifests his spirit but shows the redemption of Africa as the main interest of his life: WESTPORT 9th mo 14th 1808 _Worthy friend_ In Reply to thine of the 8-6 mo. I desire ever to humble myself before my Maker who hath I trust favored me to the notice of my friends. I desire that God will Bless all Our friends who hath been made willing to Rise to our assistance. Without hope of a providential hand we must ever been miserabal. As to poor me I feel very feebel and all most worn out in hard service and uncapable of doing much for my brethren the African Race but blessed be God I am what I am and all that I can conceive that God pleases to lay upon me to make me an instrument for that service I desire ever to be submissive that his will may be done and I shall not loose sight of the above but endeavor to wright thou again on the subject if thee will wright me if any further information can be given it would be kindly excepted by one who wishes well to all mankind &c. PAUL CUFFE. In this cause, however, Paul Cuffe was not struggling alone. The question of ameliorating the condition of the Negro in Africa was, at the opening of the nineteenth century, a matter of general concern. Men with a philanthropic spirit both in Denmark and Sweden had by this time investigated the problem. In France, in addition to individual activity, the society, Les Amis des Noirs, was organized. In England, interest was more pronounced than in any other European country. The African Institution, the Saint George's Bay Company, better known as the Sierra Leone Company, and the British African Colonization Society, directed efforts toward the western coast. The foundation of the Sierra Leone was laid by these societies. This same interest in advancing the civilization of Africa was found among distinguished Americans like Samuel D. Hopkins, pastor of the First Congregational Church in Newport, Rhode Island, Ezra Stiles, sometime president of Yale, and William Thornton, head of the United States Patent Office.[17]