Today I learned...

1. Massachusetts made slavery illegal in 1777.
   
2. They already had residency laws, based on England's Poor Laws, restricting who could settle in the state. Like England's poor laws, the idea was that local authorities had an obligation to assist residents who fell into poverty, so it was made difficult to move in and become a resident if you weren't financially secure.
   
3. They extended those laws to place special restrictions on people of colour. The primary reason was that newly freed slaves were thought likely to struggle to support themselves. But they applied those regulations to any non-white (racism or convenience or both, take your pick).
   
4. Moroccans were exempt from those restrictions.
   
   

That was interesting enough to learn, but then there's the Moorish Sovereign Citizens. Who, as I said, are cray cray. I'd already heard of those, but the above bit of history turns out also to be part of their justification.