In 1783, Madison, then thirty-two years old, wrote to his father about Billey’s future with a mixture of personal anxiety and political understanding. “I have judged it most prudent not to force Billey back to Va. even if could be done. . . . I am persuaded his mind is too thoroughly tainted to be a fit companion for fellow slaves in Virga.” The nature of that “taint” was that Billey had seen freedom, Madison noted. “I . . . cannot think of punishing him by transportation merely for coveting that liberty for which we have paid the price of so much blood, and have proclaimed so often to be the
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