Enslaved persons of record on Cape Ann

Records pertaining to enslaved individuals are sparse and often hidden from view for a variety of reasons. Even the basic information of birth, marriage, and death can be difficult to find. Between 1712 and 1783 (when owning slaves became illegal in Massachusetts),¹ In 1783 slavery became illegal in Massachusetts, based on the claim that slavery contradicted the state’s constitution, enacted in 1780, which stated that all men were equal Massachusetts Constitution and the Abolition of Slavery. www.mass.gov
98 “Negroes” and one “Indian” were recorded as baptized on Cape Ann.²All births, marriages and deaths, unless otherwise stated, reference the Vital Records of Gloucester, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849, Vol. I (Births) Vol. II (Marriages) Vol. III (Deaths) (Topsfield, Mass.: The Topsfield Historical Society, 1917). Less than half were associated with the name of an owner but nevertheless it seems that most slave-owning households had no more than one or two “servants for life” (as they were euphemistically called), although there were a few exceptions. For instance, Francis Norwood in Squam Parish, who had land and a grist mill in the vicinity of Goose Cove, had five slaves baptized in 1745, and Nathaniel Ellery, who was a merchant and maritime trader in the Harbor area of town, had six baptized between 1748 and 1764.

Based on the Parish in which these baptismal records are found, it is clear that half belonged to residents of First Parish, which before 1742 was centered in the area where Grant Circle now stands and was home to the richest citizens. After 1742 when, with the rise in ocean trading, the new merchant class moved to the Harbor, First Parish was split in two with the Harbor claiming the title of First Parish and the old church near Grant Circle becoming Fourth Parish. Conversely, among the very few recorded marriages and deaths of “Negroes”, the majority were from Second Parish, West Gloucester.³There are 70 ‘Negro’ marriages recorded, most of them unidentified as to parish, 27 of which were before 1790, and 30 ‘Negro’ deaths recorded with only 7 before 1790.

By the census of 1790 all people of color in Massachusetts were considered free, even those still residing in white-dominated households.⁴1790 Census: Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790, Massachusetts County Tables: Bristol-Essex. www.census.gov.
Cape Ann had a population count of 5,317 with 41 African Americans. Seventeen were living in 16 white households as servants, while the remaining 24 were in five independent households headed by free African-Americans. Among the 16 white households were well known Cape Ann names: Coffin, Foster, Haskell, Norwood, Rogers, Saunders, and Whittemore. The five independent African American households were those of Robin Biles, Robin Coffin, Gloster Dalton, (sometimes spelled Glocester or Gloucester), Dick Norwood and Dil Perkins.⁵A Century of Population Growth from the First Census of the United States to the Twelfth, 1790-1900, Vol. 900, p. 192, U.S. Census Office, 1909.

	Births	Marriages	Deaths
1st Parish before 1742 the Harbor to Riverdale	20	0	0
1st Parish after 1742 Central Gloucester (the Harbor)	32	1	0
2nd Parish West Gloucester;	17	3	4
3rd Parish Annisquam;	16	0	3
4th Parish Riverdale after 1742	6	0	0
5th Parish Sandy Bay (Rockport)	6	1	0
No Parish given	1	7	0

The Freeman Family

The Robin Biles named in the 1790 census was almost certainly the Robin Byles who purchased his freedom from Captain Charles Byles in 1768.⁶Account Book of Capt. Charles Byles, 1751-1778. Cape Ann Museum Archives There is evidence that Captain Byles had treated Robin and his family with some consideration during their years of slavery, occasionally paying for their medical care and leaving Robin a small bequest in his will.⁷Capt. Byles bequeathed Robin 40 shillings. Probate record: Byles, Charles (Capt.), Case #4417, April 1, 1782. Essex County, MA, Probate File Papers, 1638-1881. www.americanancestors.org,
This Robin is also most likely to have taken the name Robin (sometimes Robert) Freeman at some point after his release from bondage. He rented a house from Captain Byles⁸Robin was to pay Capt. Byles rent at the rate of £24 a year. Account Book of Capt. Charles Byles, 1751-1778. Cape Ann Museum Archives. and probably worked the adjacent farmland belonging to John Gorham Rogers, because his son, Robin Freeman Jr., purchased the property known as Robin’s Farm in 1803 at an estate auction after Rogers’ death.⁹David Low, administrator of the estate of John Gorham Rogers, deceased, sold ‘Robin’s Farm’ at auction to Robin Freeman Jr. for $850.00. Southern Essex District Registry of Deeds Book 171, p.277. www.salemdeeds.com
In 1854 Robert Freeman died at age 90, leaving his house, barn and land divided between his daughter Harriet and his son Robert. Son Robert died six years later (1860) leaving all he had inherited to the children of his “housekeeper” Joanna Cox. His will was dated 25 Jan. 1859, nine months before he and Joanna married.¹⁰Essex County Probates # 39625, 1855 & #39626, 1861.
Described as bounded on one side by “the highway … leading from Little River to Kettle Cove,”¹¹Because son Robert died before father Robert’s will was executed Harriet Johnson (nee Freeman) and her husband Hollis Johnson, and Joanna C. Freeman petitioned to clarify ownership of the property. Salem Registry of Deeds Bk. 639, p. 206. . www.salemdeeds.com
the house is now known as the Wellspring House on the corner of Essex and Magnolia Avenues.¹²The Massachusetts Historical Commission First Period Inventory No. glo.1055, Form #23, 3/9/1990, notes that the Robin Freeman who purchased the house “c.1860” had been a slave in South Carolina before escaping and coming to Cape Ann, but gives no direct reference for either statement.
Daughter Harriet married Hollis Johnson in 1854¹³Massachusetts Vital Records, Marriages, Gloucester, MA, Vol. 78, p.154, 1854 www.americanancestors.org and they had a daughter, Hattie Johnson,¹⁴Massachusetts Vital Records, Births, Gloucester, MA, Vol. 90, p.167, 1855 www.americanancestors.org
who was the last of the Freeman family to live on Cape Ann. Hattie never married and continued to live in the house until her death in 1931.¹⁵Harriet F. Johnson sold the property to Henry L. & Margaret E. Oakes in 1929 reserving the right to continue to reside on the property. Southern Essex District Registry of Deeds Book 2805, p.575. www.salemdeeds.com

The Freeman property deeds and wills were all signed, indicating literacy, even for the girls. A member of the Freeman family, also called Robin, enrolled his children and possibly a servant or two in Master Moore’s school. Master Moore taught reading, writing and arithmetic to many of Cape Ann’s youth, receiving payment in the form of cash, firewood, and other goods. According to Master Moore’s Account Book, between 1807 and 1819 he charged Robin for teaching the 3 Rs to five youngsters: Zachariah, Cato, Charles, William Task, James Middleton and a girl named Hetty.¹⁶Account Book of Joseph Moore, 1805-1830, Box P23, Cape Ann Museum Archives.

Harriet P. Johnson with her mother, Harriet F. Johnson ca.1865
courtesy of Wellspring House

Harriet Johnson, 1928 Alice M. Curtis/©Fredrik D. Bodin

The Dalton Family

Gloster Dalton was born in captivity around 1723 and may have been the slave named Gloster who was given his freedom by John Ellery of Boston in 1748. Ellery’s will, written in 1741, included the words: “… unto my kinswoman Mary Ellery … Two Hundred pounds … also my negro girl Kate and … I hereby order that my Negro Man Servant named Cornwall have his freedom immediately … [and] that my Negro Man Servant named Gloster shall remain in the service of my Executor … the space of Seven Years after my decease and then to be Manumitted or have his freedom.”¹⁷The executor was his son John Ellery of Hartford, CT. Will of John Ellery, Dec. 11, 1741 Massachusetts Wills and Probate Records, Vol. 35-37, 1740-1745, pp.109-110, case #7781. www.ancestry.com.
John Ellery was the son of William and Mary Ellery of Cape Ann and older brother of Nathaniel Ellery, who was previously cited as having owned several slaves.¹⁸Ellery Family, New England Historical & Genealogical Register, Vol. 43, p.313

Gloster Dalton was a free man in 1780, when he first appeared in Cape Ann records, and was evidently not impoverished, as his name is found on a 1782 list of taxpayers being tapped for money to finance a soldier for the Continental Army during the War of Independence.¹⁹ Gloster Dalton’s first appearance in Gloucester records was in the Selectmen’s Records, 1698-1873, CCBV3, CC60. City of Gloucester, MA, Archives. Also: Procurement Order for the Continental Army, John Low Jr., April 10, 1782. CCBV3, CC87, Box 31, FF2, 1778-1782. City of Gloucester, MA, Archives
Also in 1782, when a cartel of exchange prisoners from Halifax, Nova Scotia, made an unscheduled stop in Gloucester because of sickness, he was among those billing the town for the care and comfort of the captives. His bill was the highest at £33, even more than the doctor’s, which came in at £22.²⁰Gloucester Times, Antiquarian Papers, newspaper clipping Exchange Prisoners, Jan. 1907, Vertical File: Gloucester Dalton. Cape Ann Museum Archives. Dalton was literate and among the first to sign his name to the 1785 Charter of the Independent Christian Society of Gloucester,²¹Independent Christian Society of Gloucester Charter of Compact, September 6, 1785. Flat File, Cape Ann Museum Archives.
now known as the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church on Middle Street.

Gloster Dalton married Phillis Freeman in 1787 but, given the ages of his known children, this was probably not his first marriage. He had several children and grandchildren, one of which, Thomas Dalton (1794-1884), became a prominent Boston abolitionist and co-founder of the Massachusetts General Colored Association in 1826. A son, Zachariah, born c.1756, was also on the taxpayers’ list for the Continental Army soldiers in Gloucester. He lived in Boston but owned property on Cape Ann and when he died in 1805 left this property, which was a house and land on the southerly side of what is now Prospect Street, to his father Gloster Dalton: “I give and devise all my Estate including my house & land in Gloucester … to my honorable Father Gloucester Dalton, to hold to him for and during his life and then to go to my nephew Thomas Dalton (son of Thomas).”

In the early 1800s several free African Americans, the sons and grandsons of slaves, owned land on Cape Ann, most notably in the area overlooking Rafe’s Chasm and Norman’s Woe.²⁴Sale of land at Kettle Cove, Robert Freeman to Cato Freeman, 1808. Southern Essex District Registry of Deeds Book 207, p. 203. www.salemdeeds.com. Also: Sale of land on Western Ave., Gloucester, Hannah Honners to Scipio Dalton, 1806. Southern Essex District Registry of Deeds Book 178, p. 234. www.salemdeeds.com.
Among them were Cato Freeman, a seaman and probably a son or grandson of Robin Freeman, and Scipio Dalton, who was related to Thomas Dalton.²⁵Thomas Dalton was a witness to Scipio’s indenture. www.masshist.org Scipio was briefly indentured to Isaac Smith, a wealthy Boston merchant and slave owner.²⁶Indenture between Isaac Smith of Boston and Scipio Dalton, a Negro-Man (who now lives and for some years past has lived with the said Isaac, in the Capacity of a Servant in his Family), 20 June 1779. www.masshist.org It agrees that he will be freed two years later. Mr. Smith had a Cape Ann connection through his purchase of what is now called the Babson-Alling house from William Allen in 1765.²⁷Purchase of Babson/Alling house by Isaac Smith, Aug. 2, 1765. Southern Essex District Registry of Deeds, Book 113, p. 150. www.salemdeeds.com

Both Cato and Scipio had purchased the land between 1806 and 1808 and were living in Boston when they sold it to members of the Knowlton family in 1819. Scipio was described as a laborer but was a member of the African Masonic Lodge and a founder of the African Society, the African Baptist Church and the African School in Boston. When Gloster Dalton died in 1813, Rev. Jones, then pastor of the Independent Christian Church, wrote in the record book that Gloster was “an honest, industrious man”.

Slave Owning Families

There were few families of any wealth or social standing in the Cape Ann community that did not possess one or more slaves at some time. From the available vital records, we know that six members of the Davis family owned slaves, as did four members of the Sargent and Haskell families, three of the Norwood and Lane families and two of the Allen and Stevens families, along with single members of 15 other families. Among these slave-owners were two ministers and three church deacons. The ministers were Rev. John White, a Congregationalist and long-time pastor of the First Parish Church, who owned Prinn, a Native-American boy, baptized in 1712. The other was Rev. John Rogers who became pastor of the Fourth Parish in 1744. He was a follower of the New Light movement and a hell-fire preacher in the old Puritan tradition, who owned Cloe, baptized in 1766.³¹The Congregationalists (Old Lights) believed that man was capable of improving himself through reason and experience. Puritans, or Calvinists, (New Lights) believed in predestination: that your fate was determined by God and nothing you could do in this life would alter that.
The three church deacons were William Parsons, Philemon Warner and James Lane. William Parsons, a deacon of the First Parish Church in the Harbor area of town and a wealthy merchant, owned two slaves, Cornelius and Francesco. Philemon Warner, son of a blacksmith, was also a merchant in First Parish and owned a slave named Richard. James Lane, a fisherman in Third Parish, Annisquam, owned Cuff. Ownership of slaves was not confined to men. Three widowed women also owned slaves. Mary Denning, whose husband drowned off Cape Sable in 1729;³²Babson, John J., History of the Town of Gloucester …, 1860, p.81 Mary Lane, widow of either John who was killed by Native Americans in Maine in 1724, or of Job, a fisherman whose death is not recorded, owned Cornwell; and Anne Baker, widow of Captain Jabez Baker, whose slave Philis married Dick, one of the Norwood’s slaves, in 1763.

The slave owning members of the Davis family, according to several deeds, were variously mariners, cordwainers (shoemakers), yeomen, and ‘gentlemen’. Three of them were merchants living in the Harbor, while the other three resided in Annisquam. Annisquam was also the home of mariner Andrew Haskell, who owned two slaves, Happy and Titus, and all three of the slave-owning Lanes. William and Nathaniel Allen were both wealthy maritime merchants living in the Harbor area of town, as were the Sargents, One of these, Winthrop Sargent (Judith Sargent Murray’s father), had been one of the first to become interested in the teachings of Rev. John Murray, the father of Universalism in America.

William Stevens owned several slaves: Cobinah, Dill, Spencer and old Abraham, as well as others unnamed who probably worked on his farm at Eastern Point. Cobinah and Dill were married and had five children born into slavery. William’s mother, Mary Stevens, let it be known that her slave was to be freed after her death: “Pompey Cummins a Negro to whom Mrs. Mary Stevens, late said negro servant’s mistress, willed his freedom.” The Stevens were a wealthy merchant family living in a house on the corner of Short and Middle Streets. John Stevens was Judith Sargent Murray’s first husband, and the Stevens-Sargent Family of Gloucester had a complex history of slave ownership.

Sources other than vital records provide the names or existence of other slaves. Benjamin Ellery, who inherited the White-Ellery house after his father’s death in 1771, was a general merchant who also supplied fishing vessels. He occasionally notes in his account book that he hired out his “servant” Pomp as a farm hand or hauler, usually along with a team of oxen. A Pomp associated with the Ellery family was baptized in fourth Parish in 1764, but what became of him is unknown and his name is not among the marriages or deaths. Benjamin Ellery also indicates ownership of another slave, who was referred to merely as “ye niger.”³⁶Account Book of Benjamin Ellery, 1768-1789. Cape Ann Museum Archives

According to Thomas Allen’s account book, he rented out his slaves Bristow and Morris in the early 1700s and noted inside the back cover the birth of Leah and the death of Dinah and Pomp.³⁷ Account Book of Thomas Allen, 1725-1758. Cape Ann Museum Archives. Thomas Allen was a blacksmith and merchant and lived on the family estate in the vicinity of Grant Circle. His father Joseph Allen Sr. owned four slaves (Hagar, Member, Tom and Dinah) who were all baptized in the then still First Parish church in 1740. Joseph Allen Sr. was one of the wealthiest men in town and a strong opponent of the division of the First Parish in 1742. When he died in 1750 his estate included “eight Negro slaves” valued at £200.³⁸Probate Record: Allen, Joseph, Case #465, May 17, 1750. Essex County, MA, Probate File Papers, 1638-1881. www.americanancestors.org,

In 1773 Joseph Eveleth, owner of a sawmill on Little River, advertised a “healthy Negro Man” for sale, as he didn’t have enough work to warrant keeping him.³⁹To Be Sold, for Want of Employ Essex Gazette 6, no. 280, December 30, 1773 Other slave-owners are found in probate records. The estate of Samuel Sayward, who died in 1762, included a “Negro man Kit [worth] 6.13.4, 1 Garle [girl] 26£, 1 Do. [ditto] 24£.”⁴⁰Probate Record: Sayward, Samuel, Case #24934, 1762, Essex County, MA, Probate File Papers, 1638-1881. www.americanancestors.org John Somes, whose estate was probated in 1700, owned slaves Hercules and Andrew. In 1716 Joseph Haraden died leaving his “young negro boy Caesar” to his widow, Hannah.⁴¹Babson, John J., Notes & Additions to the History of the Town of Gloucester …, Part 1, 1876, pp.74 & 33 When Capt. Thomas Saunders’ died in 1774 his estate was charged for boarding and clothing his slave Sambo, who was old and infirm.⁴²Probate Record: Saunders, Thomas (Capt.), Case #24781, April 3, 1774. Essex County, MA, Probate File Papers, 1638-1881. www.americanancestors.org, Widow Mary Gibbs stated in her will, made in 1768, that £25 was to go to any of her relatives willing to take her “negro servant named Sam, where he is willing to go;” that her “negro maidservant Flora” was to be set free with her clothes, bed and bedding and 13 shillings and 4 pence; and her “negro girl Chloe” was to live with her nephew Thomas Saunders 3rd until she was twenty-five, when she was to be freed.⁴³ Probate Record: Gibbs, Mary, Case #10812, Feb. 27, 1769. Essex County, MA, Probate File Papers, 1638-1881. www.americanancestors.org, We know of another slave who gained his freedom only through a manumission paper signed by Nathaniel Haskell in 1777 that reads: “I remised released and set free this negro whose name is Fortune.”⁴⁴Release of slave Fortune, Nathaniel Haskell, October 25, 1777, Box P15A File 10. Cape Ann Museum Archives.

The Stevens-Sargent Slave owning family: A Case of Contradictions

Ambiguity about slave ownership happened within and between families. The Stevens and Sargent families, and their merger, is a case in point. Judith Sargent (1751-1820) married John Stevens (1741-1787) in the fall of 1769. She was eighteen, the first-born child of Winthrop and Judith (Saunders) Sargent. He was twenty-eight, the oldest surviving son of William and Elizabeth (Allen) Stevens. Both Judith and John had been reared in households that included slaves, and held slaves themselves, yet both their actions and words were sometimes at odds.

Judith’s parents lived in a large house on the corner of Main and Duncan Streets and at one point owned all the land between there and Vinson’s Cove down to the wharves in the harbor. They also owned two, unnamed, “servants for life” in 1771, according to that year’s census, yet four years later when Judith’s mother was looking for a domestic servant they turned to the Gloucester Workhouse instead of obtaining another slave because “… it would be beneficial to the Community, were she to receive a female from the house which stands among us, a shelter for the indigent, and unfortunate people.” In 1785 (two years after slavery was abolished in Massachusetts) Judith’s brother Winthrop Sargent Jr. asked her to assist in finding his “black boy”(presumably a former slave of his) a berth on a Gloucester vessel – a task she was unable to complete, she complained, due to lingering prejudice:

“No effort in my power hath been wanting. I have repeatedly solicited the masters of our fishing vessels to employ him … But these kind of people are very obstinate, and very ignorant, as well as very proud … A single objection was, in their opinion, sufficient – he was a Negro. Their crews unified together and they were determined never to make a companion of a black man. The same reason operates in regard to foreign voyages, and I am assured, that had the matter been insisted upon, by any of our owners, the ship’s company would immediately have left the vessel.”

⁴⁸Harris, Sharon M., ed., Selected Writings of Judith Sargent Murray, Oxford Univ. Press, 1995, p.94-95. Letter #408. To my brother, May 18, 1785.
-Judith Sargent Murray

Yet, when Winthrop married the wealthy widow of a southern plantation owner and took charge of her large property in Natchez, Mississippi, Judith enthusiastically described his new wife as: “in possession of an immense fortune in the Mississippi Territory, upon one of her estates, in high cultivation, is a hundred slaves … [and] her family, education, fortune, and manners, combine to render her one of the first characters in the country.” Many years later, Judith, twice widowed, also moved to Natchez, to her son-in-law Adam L. Bingaman’s plantation, Fatherland. Bingaman had his own struggle with the institution of slavery. He owned around 300 slaves who he frequently used as collateral for loans to support his rather extravagant lifestyle. Yet, after the death of his wife Julia Marie (Murray) in 1822, he formed two long lasting relationships with African-American women, joining a small group of southern white planters who were unable to legally marry but “openly loved black women” and who not only acknowledged their mixed race children but ensured that they were educated “in skills appropriate to ‘free people of color’.”

Among the enslaved persons of the Stevens-Sargent family in Gloucester were Abraham, Will, Cobinah, Spencer, and Pompey. Abraham resided with John Stevens’ parents, William and Elizabeth, on the southeastern corner of Middle and Short Streets. His illness and death was noted in Rev. Samuel Chandler’s diary after he was “sent for to see Abraham, an aged negro of Capt. Stevens, dangerously ill.” Rev. Chandler also subsequently attended and prayed at Abraham’s funeral. Slaves Dill and Cobinah and their children, as well as Spencer (who drowned, along with two companions, when a small boat tipped over) probably labored on the Stevens’ farm on Eastern Point. Yet it was William Stevens, not his older, wealthier and more influential brother John, who facilitated his mother’s request that her slave “Pompey Cummins the within named Negro servant manumitted by Mrs. Mary Stevens, his mistress” be set free at her death by purchasing, and then selling to Pompey, a small homestead. At the time of his own death William’s estate included four slaves, listed in the inventory of his possessions between a fish house and livestock. John inherited the larger portion of his father’s estate, but by 1771 John and Judith had only one “servant for life” in their household, as did John’s mother, Elizabeth, and she owned no slaves when she died seven years later. The Stevens and Sargent families exemplify ambiguities and contradictions in slave ownership as it was practiced in New England. They owned slaves while grasping their human condition, bought slaves and summarily freed others, prized slaves but devalued them, kept careful accounts of them without always giving them names, celebrated slave wealth while divesting themselves of it, loved them while using them as collateral for loans and payments for debts, and gave property to their property in the end.

Massachusetts Vital Records of Enslaved Persons on Cape Ann (1600 to 1850)

It is generally assumed that the enslavement of African captives and their families was rare, if it existed at all, in New England. This is not true. Nor is it true of the Towns and Villages on Cape Ann. Slavery was present and accepted on Cape Ann. Enslaved individuals and families lived and worked in the homes of Cape Ann families. They were born, baptized, married, and died on Cape Ann. That conclusion is based on data from Massachusetts vital records, local church documents, cemetery records, and town and other local sources.

For historians, genealogists, and individuals attempting to trace the family histories of their ancestors who were enslaved or who held slaves, official records are fragmentary, often incomplete, and hard to find. Thanks to the Massachusetts Vital Records Project (MAVR), some of that information has been gathered and organized, providing accessible vital records of enslaved individuals throughout the Commonwealth.

For more information about the lives of enslaved persons and families on Cape Ann, please see the details in the previous sections of Enslaved Persons of Record on Cape Ann on this website.

The Enumeration of Slaves in Massachusetts

The first “enumeration of all slaves, both male and female, over the age of sixteen” in Massachusetts is believed to have been ordered by Governor William Shirley, in 1754. However, some records of the various towns were not preserved, records were missing, or never recorded, and some may have been lost over time or destroyed in one way or another. In that accounting, Essex County, which includes Cape Ann along with Salem and other towns, had a total of 442 enslaved persons over age sixteen. Gloucester accounted for 61.

old map showing districts of gloucester and rockport massachusetts

Source: H.F. Walling, Map of Gloucester and Rockport, 1851

Here we recount, based on the MAVR data, the records of those enslaved individuals and families living in Cape Ann beginning in 1600 during the early colonial period and continuing up 1850. It should be remembered that Massachusetts abolished slavery by decree of the Supreme Judicial Court in 1783 as a result of court decisions in three cases known as “the Quock Walker Case.”

Massachusetts Vital Records Prior to the End of the Year 1849

The publicly available Massachusetts Vital Records Project (MAVR) is a compilation of vital records for each town and city in the Commonwealth from 1600 through 1849. It includes vital records available for all residents in Massachusetts in that time period. The records for “Indians” and “Negroes” are however, and fortunately for research purposes, listed separately from all other residents.

The MAVR includes information on births and baptisms, marriages, and deaths. They include the vital records of both the enslaved and freed persons and those who owned them and with whom they lived.

The MAVR record is admittedly fragmentary and incomplete. It is a work in progress. The last official update to the data was made in 2021. Work is being done to continually update the database. In the records of each town there is a listing of surnames in both chronological and alphabetical order.

The information in the MAVR comes from town records, church records, private records, gravestone inscriptions, and newspaper articles. The MAVR is not a primary source. It is a secondary document based upon the original records kept by town clerk officers, church records, and cemetery data.

The records provide the opportunity to gain some insight into the lives of enslaved individuals and families: the nature of their work, their relationships, moves, pregnancies, and separations from loved ones due to the conditions of their enslavement.

The Role of Churches in the Maintenance of Vital Records of Enslaved Persons and Families

The source of many of these records was from archives maintained and preserved by religious organizations, predominantly if not exclusively Christian church denominations. These data are of great historical value and without them we would have little data from which to envision the lives of the many enslaved persons on Cape Ann.

These data also suggest, according to Salem State University genealogist Elizabeth Duclos-Orsello, the connection of the individuals and families who owned and held enslaved persons to their churches and fellow congregants. It shows that they brought those enslaved persons, many of whom likely lived in the same families’ homes, into the church, at least for these religious rites and celebrations of faith. It may call into question, at least from our vantage point, over four hundred years later, how the religious faith of the enslaver’s family was reconciled with their ownership and enslavement of other human beings, some of whom may have learned, willingly or otherwise, to share the same faith and religious beliefs. Further, it raises the question of how the faiths and beliefs which the kidnaped and enslaved persons themselves had brought from their traditional families and communities, were regarded by the enslavers and their church.⁶²Duclos-Orsello, Elizabeth.2022. The Fullness of Enslaved Black Lives as Seen through Early Massachusetts Vital Records. Genealogy 6: 11

Cape Ann Town Listings in the MAVR 1600 -1850

Gloucester MAVR Vital Records 1600-1850: “Indians” and “Negroes”

The MAVR vital records for “Negroes” residing in Gloucester from 1600 to 1850 include 169 births and baptisms. There were 100 marriages of enslaved or freed persons recorded. And 59 deaths of enslaved or freed people were recorded.⁶³ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Gloucester/ One or more of the individuals may be listed several times. For example, their birth, baptism, marriage, and their death may have been recorded.

At the same time however, the figures are very likely to be an undercount of the total number of enslaved children, women, and men who lived in Gloucester during the 249 years covered by the records. This may be due to a loss of vital records or to the failure to report these events to any authority.

Births and Baptisms

The MAVR records show that from 1600 to 1850 there were a reported 169 births and baptisms among “Negroes” in Gloucester.⁶⁵ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Gloucester/aBirthsOt.shtml#Negroes. The first date for which there is a birth and baptism record for “Indians” and “Negroes” reported in Gloucester is 1687. This is for, “Prinn, servant lad to John White, bp. Aug. 10, 1712. CR1.” Interpreting the listing and its abbreviations, we see that a person identified as an “Indian” named Prinn, described as a “servant lad,” (a common euphemism for “enslaved”) belonged to John White and that Prinn was baptized (bp) on August 10, 1712, in a church in the First Parish in Gloucester. (CR1). The figure below is a copy of the MAVR page 801. It shows the listing for Prinn on the last line. This is the only birth or baptism record recorded for any “Indian” in the MAVR for Gloucester.

lists of peoples' records for 17th century gloucester MA

Source: MAVR, Pg 801

The first “Negroe” birth or baptism record in the Gloucester chronological listing was in 1732. It is for, “Cezar, servant of Elias Davis, bp. Jan. 7, 1732-3. CR1.” Here we see that Cezar, who belonged to Elias Davis, was baptized on January 7, in either 1732 or 1733 at the First Parish. There is no explanation for the lack of clarity of the year of the event. The figure below of the MAVR page 802 shows Cezar on line ten.

Source: MAVR, Pg 802

For many of the birth or baptism records no family surname is given. This applies to both a family surname for the person born or baptized, the parents of the person, or for the owner of the person (if indicated). As an example, the initial chronological record in the “Negroes” listing for persons born or baptized with no surname given is, “–––––, Samuell, s. Nathaniell and Remember, Apr. 27, 1687. CTR.” In this record, a son (s), with no surname given, was either born to or baptized by Nathaniell and Remember, on April 27, 1687, as shown in court records (CTR). It is likely that Nathaniell and Remember were the child’s parents. And it is reasonable to believe that they were both enslaved because there is no indication that they were “freed” and there is no surname for the owner (or owners) of the child’s family. This would also mean that Samuell was born into slavery.

An example of a record of a birth or baptism of a child of a freed person is for Dinah, a daughter of Robin, a freed person, and is listed as, “Dinah, d. Robin, freeman, Mar. 24, 1782. CR2.”

Another record, one of seven births or baptisms listed in the Sandy Bay area of Gloucester, is “–––––, ch. belonging to Thomas Phips, bp. Nov. 28, 1762. CR5.” This record (ch) indicates that “a child” for whom no name, gender, or age was recorded, belonging to Thomas Phips, was baptized on November 28, 1762, in a church in the Fifth Parish. The term “belonging to” is accepted as meaning “being owned and enslaved by”. The Fifth Parish was then Sandy Bay which was later renamed the Town of Rockport in 1840.

The last recorded listing of a birth or baptism in the “Negroes” section is, “Bristol, servant of Col. Sargent, Apr. 18, 1842. CR1.” This record can be seen in the figure above of page 802 of the MAVR on line 3.

Marriages

The MAVR records show that from 1600 to 1850 there were a reported 100 marriages among “Negroes” in Gloucester.

The first date for a marriage recorded for “Negroes” in the MAVR for Gloucester is on December 24, 1715, for the marriage intention by Prince and Robin Byles. This record can be seen in the figure below of page 604 of the MAVR on line 4. This was recorded in a town copy (TC) in 1775.

records of marriage intentions from 1840 in MAVR

Source: MAVR. Pg 604

Deaths

The MAVR vital records for “Negroes” residing in Gloucester from 1600 to 1850 include records of 59 deaths.

The first recorded death of an enslaved person was “Molley, w. Robin, consumption, Feb. 25, 1774. CR2.” Molley was the wife (w) of Robin, also believed to be an enslaved person though no record of ownership for either person is given. Molley died of consumption on February 25, 1774. Her death was reported in a church in the West Parish, West Gloucester (CR2). Consumption was the term used at the time for pulmonary tuberculosis, a leading cause of death in the American colonies. The record of Molley’s death is shown in the alphabetical listing shown in the figure below.

Source: MAVR, Pg 338

Also of interest, because of their mention in other parts of this website . “Phillis, w. Scipio Dalton, Aug. 22, 1807. CR2,” Phillis, the wife of Scipio Dalton, in 1807, the West Parish, West Gloucester, with no reported age and cause of death noted.

“Phillis, ch. –––––, at the almshouse, Sept. ––, 1810, a. 3 y. CR1,” , Phillis, a child of three years of age, with no recorded parent, died in the almshouse in the First Parish in Gloucester of no reported cause. An almshouse was, at the time, a parish community institutional dwelling where poor, homeless, ill, orphaned, or aged persons were housed and fed.

“Bachus, ‘thought to be upwards of a hundred years,’ bur. Nov. ––, 1811. CR6..”, whose death in 1811, at an age believed to be over 100, was recorded at the Independent Christian Church (Universalist church) in Gloucester (CR6).

“DALTON, Gloster, ‘an African, in this country from a youth,’ bur. Apr. 11, 1813, a. supposed to be 90 y. or upwards. CR6.” The death of Gloster Dalton, in 1813, was reported at Independent Christian Church (Universalist church) in Gloucester (CR6). Gloster Dalton, a freed slave, was one of signers of the original charter of the Independent Christian Church, the first Universalist church in America, established in 1779.

“Cuff, formerly servant to Dea. James Lane, dropsy, Apr. 6, 1777, a. 50 y. as supposed. CR3” ”, Third Parish, Annisquam.

“Fortune, servant of Peter Coffin, jr., ––– ––, 1779. CR2”, West Parish, West Gloucester.

“Grace, servant of Jonathan Norwood, fever, Sept. 30, 1775, a. 70 y. CR3”, Third Parish, Annisquam.

“Phillis, servant of Peter Coffin, jr., May 6, 1779. CR2”, West Parish, West Gloucester.

“Phillis, w. Scipio Dalton, Aug. 22, 1807. CR2”, West Parish, West Gloucester.

“DALTON, Phillis, wid. Gloucester, bur. Mar. 12, 1817. CR6”, Reported at the Independent Christian Church (Universalist church), Gloucester.

Among the recorded 59 deaths of enslaved or freed persons in Gloucester, nineteen (almost two-thirds of the total) died in a workhouse, poorhouse, or almshouse: two who died in an almshouse, two who died at a poorhouse, and fifteen who died at a workhouse.

It should be noted that when looking for possible ancestors, the names of some of the enslaved persons may have been spelled differently in different sources or in different years. These may be simply different spellings, or they may be the names of very different individuals, spelled differently. For example, Gloster or Gloucester; Scipio or Cipio. Cuff or Cuffee. Greece as Greace or Greeas; Sesser as Cesar or Cezar; Phillis as Philes; Dille as Dilla, Delle, or Dele; and Taff as Taft. Care should be taken in gathering verification data such as age, gender, year, town, possible surname association, and church.

As a final note, the review of the vital records of enslaved persons and their owners in Gloucester shows the multiple mention of a few members of the town’s more prominent, influential, and wealthy families, including Davis, Sargent, Norwood, Haskell, Rogers, Parsons, Lane, Allen, Stevens, and Ellery.

Manchester MAVR Vital Records 1600-1850: “Indians” and “Negroes”

The MAVR vital records for “Negroes” residing in Manchester from 1600 to 1850 include 14 births and baptisms, 14 marriages, and 12 deaths. These figures are not unduplicated. One or more individuals may be listed several times. Their birth, one or more baptism or marriage, and their death may have been recorded.

Births and Baptisms

The MAVR records show that from 1600 to 1850 there were a reported 14 births and baptisms among “Negroes” in Manchester.⁶⁸mavitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Manchester/aBirthsOt.shtml

The first date for which birth and baptism records for “Negroes” are reported in Manchester is 1728 for “Zip, ‘a Molato garl.’ “Now [1737?] belonging to John Foster, sr. ” in Boston, Dec. 25, 1728.”

The last date for which birth and baptism records for “Negroes” are reported Manchester is 1728 for George, a son born to Greace and Rachel, “George, s. Greace and Rachel, Oct. 7, 1793.” There is no indication given for the source record (e.g., church or court record) and no note regarding whether the child was reported to have been born or baptized.

Source: MAVR, Pg 128

Of some note, five of the 14 children reported to have been born or baptized between 1731 and 1747 in Manchester were sons or daughters of two Black women, one named Delle (or Dille), and one named Taff, each of whom belonged to Samuell Lee, jr. In none of the cases reported was a father identified.

The five children born into slavery in the ownership of Samuell Lee, jr. are Seser, Dille, Flowhear, Mengo, and Phillis.

BLACK, Seser, s. “of Samuell Lee, jr. Black wench Caled Delle,” Oct. 10, 1731-2
BLACK, Dille, d. Dille “belonging to Samuell Lee, jr. ” Apr. 6, 1739.
BLACK, Flowhear, ch. Dille, “belonging to Samuell Lee, jr., July 16, 1736.
BLACK, Mengo, ch. “Samuell Lee, jr. black weanch Dille,” Oct. 21, 1734.
Phillis, d. Taff, “Samuel Lee, jr. Negor woman,” Apr. 1, 1747.

They may have been born the house in which Samuell Lee, jr. lived. A house, built by John Lee, jr., at 22 Friend Street, Manchester, which was later sold to Samuel Lee Esq. around 1725. Samuel Lee Esq moved to Marblehead in 1743, leaving the house to his Samuel Lee III.

Marriages

The MAVR records show that from 1600 to 1850 there were a reported 14 marriages among “Negroes” in Manchester.⁷⁰mavitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Manchester/aMarriagesOt.shtml.

The first date for which marriage records for “Negroes” are reported in Manchester is 1762 for the marriage of Bristol and Violet who belonged to Capt. John Forster. “Bristol, and Violet, “Capt. John Forster’s,” Feb. 5, 1762.”

The last date for which marriage records for “Negroes” are reported in Manchester is 1798 for the marriage of Violet Cahale and John Roberson of Salem. “CAHALE, Violet, and John Roberson of Salem, Aug. 9, 1798.” This marriage is listed twice in the records, once under the surname Cahale and once under Roberson.

Source: MAVR, Pg 228

Deaths

The MAVR records show that from 1600 to 1850 there were a reported 14 deaths among “Negroes” in Manchester.⁷¹mavitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Manchester/aDeathsOt.shtml

The first date for which deaths records for “Negroes” are reported in Manchester is 1748. This is for “Fi–––, “Mr. Robert Herrick’s Negro Girl,” Apr. 5, 1748. CR.”

The last date for which a death record for “Negroes” is reported in Manchester is for “LEE, Greece, Sept. 13, 1834. [ Sept. 15, a. 72 y. CR]

Twelve deaths of “Negroes” residing in Manchester were reported from 1600 through 1849. With the exception of two individuals, no cause of death was identified for the deaths.

Notices of eleven of the twelve deaths were found in church records, most likely the First Congregational Church in Manchester-by-the-Sea.

(Note: The First Congregational Church in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, was formed on November 7, 1716, with 21 members. In 1843 the name of the church was changed to the Orthodox Congregational Church. The name was later changed to The Congregational Church and Parish, Essex.⁷²)www.congregationallibrary.org/nehh/series1/ManchesterMAFirst5361

Persons enslaved by members of the Lee family accounted for five of the twelve reported deaths.

Jack, servant of Capt. Samuell Lee, Dec. 21, 1749. CR
Aromena, servant of, wid. Elisabeth Lee, Mar. ––, 1758, a. 18 or 19 y. CR

Chester, servant of John Lee, Esq., Apr. 21, 1771.

Taft, “slave of Mrs. Lydia Lee,” Nov. 1, 1803, a. 76 y. CR

LEE, Greece, Sept. 13, 1834. [ Sept. 15, a. 72 y. CR]

Case Study: Marriages, Births, and Deaths of Enslaved Persons Owned by the Samuell Lee Family in Manchester

Using the MAVR records it is possible to develop a rough understanding of how the lives and relationships of enslaved persons over several generations, who were owned by the Samuell Lee family over the years of 1731 to 1778.

In comparing the birth records and the marriage records, we see that four of the five individuals who were born into and enslaved by the Lee family then, years later, were married to one another. These marriages included:

Seser, and Philes, “Belonging to Capt. Samuell Lee, Apr. 9, 1778.*
Dilla [Dele. int.], and Stephen “Sarvents to Samuell Lee, jr.,” Mar. 6, 1734.* [1733-4 CR]

A chronological listing of the births and marriages among the enslaved members of the family of Samuell Lee is as follows

BLACK, Seser, s. “of Samuell Lee, jr. Black wench Caled Delle,” Oct. 10, 1731-2 [Birth]
Dilla [Dele. int.], and Stephen “Sarvents to Samuell Lee, jr.,” Mar. 6, 1734.* [1733-4 CR] [Marriage]
BLACK, Mengo, ch. “Samuell Lee, jr. black weanch Dille,” Oct. 21, 1734. [Birth]

BLACK, Flowhear, ch. Dille, “belonging to Samuell Lee, jr., July 16, 1736. [Birth]
BLACK, Dille, d. Dille “belonging to Samuell Lee, jr. ” Apr. 6, 1739. [Birth]
Phillis, d. Taff, “Samuel Lee, jr. Negor woman,” Apr. 1, 1747. [Birth]
Jack, servant of Capt. Samuell Lee, Dec. 21, 1749. CR [Death]
Aromena, servant of, wid. Elisabeth Lee, Mar. ––, 1758, a. 18 or 19 y. CR [Death]
Chester, servant of John Lee, Esq., Apr. 21, 1771. [Death]
Seser, and Philes, “Belonging to Capt. Samuell Lee, Apr. 9, 1778.* [Marriage]
Taft, “slave of Mrs. Lydia Lee,” Nov. 1, 1803, a. 76 y. CR [Death]
LEE, Greece, Sept. 13, 1834. [ Sept. 15, a. 72 y. CR] [Death]
[George, s. Greace and Rachel, Oct. 7, 1793. (Birth)
Judath, d. Greeas and Rachal, May 16, 1790. (Birth)]

It should be noted that the names of some of the enslaved persons may have been spelled differently in different sources and in different years. These may be simply different spellings or they may be the names of different individuals, spelled differently. For example, Greece is seen spelled as Greace or Greeas; Sesser as Cesar or Cezar; Phillis as Philes; Dille as Dilla, Delle, or Dele; and Taff or Taft. Care should be taken in gathering verification data such as age, gender, year, town, possible surname association, and church.

As a final note, the review of the vital records of enslaved persons and their owners in Manchester shows the mention of a few members of the town’s more prominent, influential, and wealthy families, including Lee, Cheever, Herrick, Collins, and Forster.

Town of Essex MAVR Vital Records 1600-1850: “Indians” and “Negroes”

There currently are no records for births, baptisms, marriages, and deaths among “Indians” and “Negroes” in the Town of Essex. There are vital records available for other residents in Essex.⁷³ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Essex/.

While the search for vital records data from the Town of Essex continues, there is a clear recognition of enslaved Africans in the town. This comes from the record of the Congregational Church and Parish in Essex in a publication in celebration of their two hundredth anniversary in 1883.⁷⁴Two Centuries of Church History. Celebration of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Organization of the Congregational Church & Parish in Essex, Mass. Aug. 19-22,1883.

Record about person being sold to burnham family of essex

The text goes on to offer a “modifying” explanation of the circumstances of enslavement :

note by rev. crowell about slavery being forced on colonies by english

The full text in the document is shown below, along with the beginning of a description of the work of the congregation in support of the temperance movement.

essex church document explaining existence of slavery in new england