Read “'Natural and Inalienable Right to Freedom': Slaves’ Petition for Freedom to the Massachusetts Legislature, 1777.” To whom is the letter addressed? How do the slaves use religion to sway their petition? How do they compare themselves to the colonists who are fighting the British for their independence?

"Natural and Inalienable Right to Freedom" is one of the numerous petitions for freedom that groups of slaves submitted to the Massachusetts legislature. This particular petition was presented to the House of Representatives for the state of Massachusetts on January 13, 1777. In my references below, I have corrected the deficient spelling from the original document.
Throughout the petition, the slaves make references to the Christian religion in formulating their arguments. For instance, in the first sentence, the writers refer to the United States as a Christian country. They describe God, "the great parent of the universe," and the freedom that He has "bestowed equally on all mankind." The document describes how the slaves were captured and torn from their homeland, even from the arms of their parents, and sold as beasts of burden to people "professing the mild love of Jesus."
Concerning the war for independence that the United States was then fighting with Great Britain, the slaves argue that the principles that Americans are fighting for in their struggle for freedom are the same principles the slaves are invoking in their petition. They therefore request that they also receive the freedom that is the "natural right of all men."
In 1781, the chief justice of Massachusetts ruled that a slave's servitude violated a part of the state's constitution that said "men are born free and equal." This ruling caused slavery to end in Massachusetts and other states in New England.