"Lingakes between slaves’ behavior during their term of years and a potential speedup of emancipation could be quite explicit: Edward Griffith [ca. 1808] promised Jack and seven other adolescent slaves freedom at the age of thirty but allowed in the manumission deed that, “provided that the said negroes shall serve faithful and . . . remain . . . obedient servants until they come of age of 25 years I do hereby agree and determine that they shall be free at the age of 25 years.” Griffith’s straightforward language vividly illustrates what many more circumspect manumission deeds no doubt concealed. As master, he “determined” when Jack and the others would become free...."
~The Price of Freedom: Slavery and Manumission in Baltimore and Early National Maryland
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