1. Jin Cole; Cato Cole; Titus: Reverend Jonathan Ashley’s house

Jin, also called Jene or Jinny Cole, was captured as a young girl in Africa. In 1738, Deerfield’s minister, the Reverend Jonathan Ashley, purchased Jin and her baby, Cato, probably in Boston. Cato was baptized in 1739 and labored for the Ashley family with his mother and Titus, another enslaved man Ashley purchased in 1750. The minister also hired out Cato and Titus to work for other residents. Both men served in the French and Indian War and had individual accounts at Elijah Williams’s Deerfield store. Cato purchased a number of items including a “Small pamphlet” in 1757. Ashley sold Titus in 1760, but Jin and Cato spent the remainder of their lives in Deerfield; Jin died in 1808, and Cato in 1825.

2. Enslaved man, name no longer known: Site of Samuel Hinsdale’s house

In 1749, Dr. Thomas Williams charged Samuel Hinsdale 4 shillings “to Phleb. Yr Servt Negroe” indicating that the Doctor treated the enslaved man, whose name is no longer known, by bloodletting, a common 18th century treatment for a variety of illnesses.

3. Caesar; Mesheck: Site of Ebenezer Hinsdale’s house

Caesar and Mesheck were enslaved here by Colonel Ebenezer Hinsdale. Mesheck was formerly enslaved by the Reverend John Williams (site 14), appearing as “The Molatto boy Meseck 80L” in the probate inventory taken after Williams’s death in 1729. Williams’s daughter Sarah may have been Mesheck’s next enslaver as the probate inventory taken after her death in 1737 included “a Molatto fellow.” By 1747, Mescheck was enslaved by Sarah’s sister Abigail and her husband Ebenezer Hinsdale, the same year he was baptized and admitted into church membership. Mesheck’s responsibilities included running Ebenezer Hinsdale’s stores in Deerfield and Hinsdale, New Hampshire. Both Caesar and Mesheck had accounts at Elijah Williams’s Deerfield store in the 1750s, and Caesar served in the French and Indian War. 

4. Woman, name no longer known; Caesar: Site of Jonathan Hoyt’s House

In 1731, Dr. Richard Crouch of Hadley, Massachusetts, prescribed “1 Dose of Purging Pills Negro” and “Blister Plaster” to an enslaved woman in Jonathan Hoyt’s household. Hoyt also enslaved Caesar, one of many men with that name, who was baptized in 1741 and treated by Dr. Thomas Williams from 1751 to 1759. Caesar served in the French and Indian War, and had an account at Elijah Williams’s Deerfield store where he purchased items such as cider and gunpowder.

5. Pompey; Adam; Peter: Site of Thomas Wells’s house

Thomas Wells enslaved Pompey, Adam, and Peter. According to the bill of sale, Peter was about 22 years old when Wells purchased him from John Cook of Windsor, Connecticut, in 1731.  Peter and Adam confessed wrongdoing before the church in 1734 and were baptized the following day. Peter was treated by Dr. Thomas Williams in 1749 and 1750. Thomas Wells’s nephew, Thomas Dickinson (site 6), inherited his uncle’s estate, including Peter, who was listed in Wells’s probate inventory: “a flail 8 d, Peter Negro £160, two Bagg & a Portmanteau 4/9, Cyder 21/8…”

6. Peter; Ishmael: Thomas Dickinson’s house

Peter, enslaved to Thomas Dickinson, was likely acquired after 1752 through Dickinson’s uncle Thomas Wells’s estate (site 5). In 1758, Dickinson paid to have Peter “dressed” and cared for by Dr. Thomas Williams. Ishmael and Hartford, also enslaved in Thomas Dickinson’s household, had accounts at Elijah Williams’s Deerfield store. Between 1753 and 1757, Ishmael purchased rum, stockings, gloves, garters, and a handkerchief. In exchange, Ishmael paid cash and performed manual labor such as digging a grave and delivering wood.  Hartford was about 23 when Dickinson purchased him in 1758. In 1762, John Russell charged Dickinson for “making a Coat for Hartford.” Hartford left Deerfield eight years later, when Dickinson sold him to William Williams of Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

7. Young girl, name no longer known: Dr. Thomas Williams’s house

Beginning in 1748, Dr. Thomas Williams’s account books recorded his care and charges for treating enslaved and free people of color of Deerfield. Those indebted to the Doctor frequently used enslaved labor to pay Dr. Williams. 

Dr. Williams himself enslaved a young woman whose name is no longer known. When she fell ill in 1757, Williams wrote to his father-in-law, “Our poor Negro girl is yet living after 36 days confinement with ye  Slow fever… medicines have not (nor ever had in my practice) much sensible effect upon that Nation.”

8. Woman, name no longer known: Site of David Field’s house

David Field enslaved one, and perhaps two, people whose names are currently not known. In 1749, Dr. Thomas Williams charged David Field for treating his “Negro” and the following year, to extract a tooth from a woman Dr. Williams identified  in his account book as, “Neg. Fem.”

9. Prince: Site of Joseph Barnard’s house

Several people enslaved by Captain Samuel Barnard of Salem, Massachusetts, labored on his property in and around Deerfield. During the 1740s, Samuel Barnard also sent Pompey, Adam, and Titus to work at his nephew Joseph Barnard’s house and store in Deerfield. In 1746, Barnard had trousers, two shirts, stockings and mittens made for Titus. In 1755, Titus married Elizabeth, an enslaved woman from Lynn, Massachusetts, a town about 100 miles from Deerfield.
In 1743, Joseph Barnard bought Prince from Dr. Thomas Wells (site 5). Prince labored for Barnard, who also earned money by hiring Prince out to work for others. In 1744, Barnard bought a coat, britches, and other items for Prince, and paid Dr. Thomas Williams to treat Prince when he was ill in the spring of 1749. When Prince escaped that fall, Joseph Barnard placed a notice in the Boston Post-Boy offering a reward for his return. By July, 1750, Prince was once again in Deerfield under Barnard’s control. Barnard paid carpenter James Crouch for making Prince’s coffin in 1752.

10. Pompey: Site of John and Ebenezer Sheldon’s house

Ensign John Sheldon of Deerfield owned seven enslaved people when he died in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1733. Sheldon was living in Hartford when he purchased “a negro lad called Lundun of about forteen years of age” in 1710. John’s son, Ebenezer inherited his father’s Deerfield house where he enslaved a man named Pompey. Pompey was baptized in Deerfield’s meetinghouse in 1741.

11. Prince: Site of Dr. Thomas Wells’s house

In 1741, Dr. Thomas Wells hired out Prince to clear land for Joseph Barnard (site 9). Two years later, Dr. Wells sold “his Negro fellow” to Barnard for £160.  In 1745, Barnard paid Wells’s widow, Sarah, for “princes Bcos, Bedsted and Cord and a Blankit,” and later, for another “old blankit on princes Bed.”

12. “Baptized upon his masters account”: Site of Deerfield’s Fourth Meetinghouse

Church members voted in 1742 that it was the “Duty of Parents & Masters to Send yr. children & Servants to Such Catachisings as their minister appoints until yy are 18 years old except married…. [and] to hear the explanation of the assemblies Catechism until they are 21 years old.” Free and enslaved residents alike were expected to attend meetinghouse services. Enslaved people sat upstairs as they were not permitted to sit on the main floor of the building. Deerfield’s ministers baptized and performed marriages for enslaved men and women, admitted enslaved members, and received those who confessed wrongdoing “into Charity with people.” In 1749, the Reverend Jonathan Ashley preached a special sermon to Deerfield’s enslaved population, urging them to “be contented with your State & Condition in this world and not murmur and complain of what God orders for you.”

13. “for their Country and for Freedom”: Civil War Monument

Community members and dignitaries gathered on September 4, 1867, to dedicate this “Soldiers’ Monument” to the Deerfield men who had died in prisons and on battlefields in the Civil War. Many residents were ardent abolitionists and Deerfield was among the first communities to erect a monument commemorating the heroism and sacrifices of those who fell in the “Great War of the Rebellion.” These beliefs eclipsed and marginalized more distant memories of the town’s slave-owning past. There was no hint in the dedication ceremony that Deerfield had once included dozens of residents held in perpetual, involuntary bondage. Instead, the monument’s inscription directly associated the “sacrifices and sufferings of the founders of the town” with the sacrifice of the fallen soldiers. Speakers commemorated and celebrated the courage and steadfastness of this “martyr band…To break the bondman’s heavy chain, That nobly great and grandly free, Our native land may smile again.”

14. Robbert Tigo; Frank; Parthena; Mesheck; Town; Coffee; Onesimus; Patience; Lemuel; Chloe: Site of the Williams’s houses and store

One of Deerfield’s earliest ministers, the Reverend John Williams, enslaved at least five people: Robbert Tigo, who died in 1695; Frank and Parthena, who were killed in a French and Indian raid on the town in 1704; and “Meseck” and Kedar, valued at £80 each in 1729. Mesheck may have been the “Molatto fellow” who appeared in his daughter Sarah Williams’s 1738 probate inventory. Mesheck was next enslaved by Sarah’s older sister Abigail and her husband Ebenezer Hinsdale (site 3). Widowed, Abigail remarried twice more but returned to Deerfield where she had two “Negro servants” baptized: Patience in 1782, and Lemuel in 1786. On her death in 1787, Abigail’s will stipulated “Negro Woman Clo Shall be intitled to her Freedom.”

The minister’s youngest son, Elijah Williams, owned a store where more than eighteen enslaved and free Black men and women had accounts between 1745 and 1775. Elijah enslaved at least three people: Town, Coffee, and Onesimus. Elijah’s son, John Williams had two “Servants for life, between 14 and 45 Years of Age” in his household in 1771. 

15. Peter Pur, also called Pompey: Site of Mehuman Hinsdale’s house and tavern

An ad Mehuman Hindale posted in the New-England Weekly Journal in December, 1728 alerts us to the presence of an enslaved Indigenous man in a Deerfield household. Hinsdale offered a substantial reward for the recovery of “a Pequot Indian, named Peter Pur, alias Pompey” and “a White young man” named John Griffith to “their Master at Deerfield.” Hinsdale was apparently unsuccessful; the advertisement is the only known record of Peter Pur’s presence in Deerfield.

16. Burying Ground

We do not know where enslaved people were buried in Deerfield. References to coffins and shrouds in Deerfield sources suggest that enslaved and other people of color were buried according to the religious customs and traditions of other New England burials. They might have been buried in unmarked graves or graves with wooden markers that deteriorated over time. In wealthier communities such as Boston, Newport, Rhode Island, and Wethersfield, Connecticut, enslaved people were buried in a special section of the town’s burying ground. By the 19^th century, records confirm that Black people were being interred in Deerfield and other town cemeteries.

17. “Remembering the enslaved Africans of Deerfield”: Memorial Hall Museum

Frank and Parthena, an African American couple enslaved  by the Reverend John Williams (site 14) were killed in a French and Indian attack on Deerfield in 1704. They are commemorated by an 1882 marble tablet in the Memorial Room.

In 2005, Shamek Weddle, a member of the African American Monument Committee, designed a memorial to enslaved Africans of Deerfield. The mahogany memorial was carved by Dimitrios Klitsas. The African American Memorial plaque was designed without words so that as our knowledge and understanding of slavery deepens so too will our ability to interpret this tragic era in American history.

18. Caesar; Lucy Terry: Ensign Ebenezer Wells’s house

Caesar was likely enslaved by Ebenezer Wells in 1734, the same year he was baptized, and was admitted to full membership in the Deerfield Church the following year. Stolen out of Africa as a child, according to local histories Lucy Terry was brought to Rhode Island around 1730 where she was sold to Samuel Terry of Enfield, Massachusetts (now Connecticut). Lucy became the enslaved property of Ebenezer Wells (1691-1758) and was baptized in 1734. In 1744, she was “admitted to the fellowship of the church.” Lucy was a gifted storyteller remembered for “her wit and wisdom.” Her surviving poem, The Bars Fight, is believed to be the first poem by an African American in North America. Lucy became a free woman soon after marrying Abijah Prince, a free Black man, in 1756. Lucy and Abijah moved with their six children to their farm in Guilford, Vermont, in 1775.

19. Phillis; Humphry; Caesar: Timothy Childs’s house

In 1741, Timothy Childs purchased nine-year-old Phillis for £100 from Reverend Nehemiah Bull of Westfield, Massachusetts. Surviving records document that Childs also enslaved Humphery and Cesar. “Umphry” was baptized in 1762. He charged three pipes to his account at Elijah Williams’s Deerfield store. Dr. Thomas Williams treated Humphrey Williams for ailments including as an injured hand and foot. Humphry dug potatoes for the doctor as credit towards his owner’s debts. Beginning in 1749, Cesar purchased a several items such as shoe buckles and a wool cap at Elijah Williams’s Deerfield store.

20.Caesar: Site of Samuel Childs’s house

Caesar,  enslaved by Samuel Childs, served in the French and Indian War (1754-1763). Caesar was one of many enslaved Africans to serve in the provincial forces and militia during the multiple conflicts of the 17^th and 18^th centuries fought between France, England, Indigenous people, and on both sides of the American Revolution. 

21. Pompey; Rebecca; Caesar: Site of Captain Jonathan Wells’s house

Church records dated June 15, 1735, show that “Pompey Servant to Justice Jonathan Wells assented to the articles of ye Christian faith Entered into Covenant and was Baptized.” In the same year, Wells’s widowed daughter-in-law, Mary Wells (1703-1750) moved into the house with property that included an enslaved woman who may have been Rebecca and “a Negro boy” called Caesar (site 22). In 1736, “Pompey Negro and Rebecca his wife” were admitted to membership in the Deerfield Church. On June 14, 1741, the Deerfield’s minister “baptized Caesar servant to the Wid. Mary Wells”; four years later, “Caesar servant to the widow Mary Wells was admitted to the communion.”  In the same year, Caesar purchased knee buckles at Elijah Williams’s store.

22. Rebecca; Caesar: Site of Jonathan and Mary Wells’s, Jr. house

The wearer of the “Negro womans cloathing” listed in Jonathan Wells Jr.’s probate inventory was likely Rebecca. Rebecca was married to Pompey who was enslaved next door in the household of Jonathan’s father (site 21). Jonathan Jr.’s inventory also listed “a Negro Boy” valued at £100. This was probably Caesar, who in 1741 was listed in church records as “servant to Widow Mary Wells. After her husband’s death, Mary moved next door to live with her father-in-law, Captain Jonathan Wells (see site 8.)

23. Fortune; Peter; woman, name no longer known: Site of Samuel Dickinson’s house

In 1737, the minister baptized Fortune “Servant to Samuell Dickinson.” In 1749, Dr. Thomas Williams treated “Peter Negro”; Peter was again seen by the doctor when he broke his arm in 1754. In 1742, Dr. Richard Crouch charged Samuel Dickinson for treating his “Negro girl.” This woman, whose name is no longer known, is likely is the “Negro Wench & 2 children” listed among the contents of the barn in Dickinson’s 1761 probate inventory: “pr Saddle Baggs 12/, Horse Collar 3/6, Negro Wench & 2 Children £30, 2 Bushel & 3 pecks Wheat 11/, Draught Chain 6/8.” The two children may have been Peter and Fortune.

24. Titus: Site of Daniel Arms’s house

Daniel Arms purchased Titus from Samuel Smith of Hatfield in 1762; Deerfield’s minister baptized Titus that same year. Arms carefully recorded in his account book the many times he earned money by hiring Titus out to labor for other residents. In 1767, “Titus Negro Confes’d the Sin of Stealing, Lying & diobedience to his Master” before the Deerfield Church. In 1771, Arms sold to Jonathan Taylor of  Charlemont, Massachusetts, “one negro man named Titus, aged thirty-one year, for twenty shillings.“

Many years later, an Arms descendent shared a community memory of Titus and several other enslaved people “belonging to some of the most respectable people” stealing food and rum and meeting at “some place of resort to cook their meal and enjoy themselves.” These gatherings offer a glimpse into a world the enslaved kept hidden from their oppressors. Such meetings were not without risk; in this case Titus and his friends were “without judge or jury sentenced to the whip.”