It can be difficult to apply the idea of "free" or "enslaved" to people who may have experienced both throughout their lifetimes. The people featured on this page are Black people who lived in Northampton at some point between 1654 and 1810, and for whom there is no documentation that we have seen that suggests they were ever enslaved.
Dinah
Since we cannot confirm that the Dinah whom Sylvester Judd noted as “There seems to a Dinah also at Moses Kingsley’s—not a slave” (Judd manuscript, Northampton vol. 1, p. 65), we have created a separate entry for her. This may refer to the same Dinah whom Joseph and Mercy Bartlett enslaved, but since we currently do not have proof of that, and Dinah was a very common name, we are including a separate entry in recognition of the fact that she might be a different person.
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Noah Gomer
Noah Willhoughby Gomer (spelled Gomar in the accompanying source) was born in Wethersfield, Connecticut, on July 10, 1776. His parents were Quash and Eleanor Smith Gomar. His siblings were named Midar, Tabitha, Catherine, Gomer, Francis, Aaron, Moses, Mary, and Elinor. (It is possible he had an additional sibling who died unnamed as an infant.)
Noah’s father, Quash Gomar, was born in Angola, according to his gravestone, between 1730 and 1732. He was enslaved as a seventeen-year-old in 1748 and brought to the United States, eventually living in Wethersfield, Connecticut. Quash was enslaved in Wethersfield by a man named John Smith. Click here to read more about Noah Gomer. |
Lydia Hill
On April 8, 1770, Lydia Hill was admitted to church membership in Northampton. She was described as a “negro.” The inclusion of a last name suggests that she was a free person at this time (First Church of Christ Records, section 2, p. 10).
Lydia Hill is named in a court record from 1778 summarized in the Judd manuscript: “Lydia Hill, negro + her children on the town 1775. Matthew Phelps paid for 3 quarts + part of room 3/6…John Wright's wife as midwife 6/. She died 1778. Elisha Pay as charged 35/ a week for keeping her…+c 60/week. He paid on coffin 36/. 3 pts…27/. 1 Sugar 6// one old sheet 20/. pt honey 4/“ (Judd Manuscript, Northampton vol. 3 p. 79). Click here to read more about Lydia Hill. |
Agrippa Hull
Since Agrippa Hull’s life has been documented in standalone articles and books, this entry will simply outline some major milestones of his life. For a more comprehensive biography, see Friends of Liberty by Gary Nash, Graham Russell, and Gao Hodges. This book is particularly informative for anyone who wants details of his service in the Revolutionary War, which only will be touched on briefly here.
Agrippa Hull was born in Northampton on March 7, 1759, to Bathsheba and Amos Hull. He lived there for the first six years of his life. When his mother was evicted from her home in 1765, he was sent to be fostered by Joab and Rose Binney in Stockbridge, MA. Click here to read more about Agrippa Hull. |
Amos Hull Jr.
Amos Hull Jr. was listed as the “son of Amos Negro” in his baptismal record (September 15, 1754) (First Church of Christ records). There is no mother listed in the genealogy record (as was common for children of married parents), but his mother was most probably Bathsheba Hull.
We have very little confirmed information about his childhood, but it is possible that when his mother was forced off of her land, he was placed in Hadley. Click here to read more about Amos Hull Jr. |
Asaph Hull
Asaph Hull was listed as the “Son of Amos Negro” in First Church of Christ records. (He was born on October 16, 1755, and baptized on November 23, 1755.) Though no mother was listed in any genealogical records (as was common for children of married parents), his mother was probably Bathsheba Hull (First Church of Christ records). In 1762, Asaph Hull was placed as an indentured servant in Fairfield, CT, with Seth Pomeroy Jr., son of the Northampton gunsmith and soldier.
Click here to read more about Asaph Hull. |
Margaret Hull
Margaret Hull was baptized on August 14, 1757. She was the third child of Amos Hull, most probably with his wife, Bathsheba Hull, though no mother was listed for any of the Hull children in church records. (Judd manuscript, Hull genealogy)
Margaret Hull died as an infant or young child (we do not know her exact age because we only know the baptism date, not the birth date) on December 24, 1757. The First Church records recorded no name or gender for her when they recorded her death, just listing Amos Hull as her father. (First Church of Christ Records). |
Margaret Hull
Margaret Hull was baptized on February 8, 1761. She was the fifth child of Amos Hull and Bathsheba Hull, though no mother was listed for any of the Hull children in church records. She was the second Hull child to be named Margaret. In the 18th century, it was a common for families who lost a child to give the next child of the same sex the same name as the child who had passed away (Judd manuscript, Hull genealogy).
After Bathsheba Hull was forced from her home, Margaret was the only child who remained in Northampton. Click here to read more about Margaret Hull. |
Ishmael
Ishmael is referred to in a genealogical entry in the Judd manuscript as “Ishmael Negro.” This entry is the only document we have about Ishmael’s life. We can infer that he was probably an adult in 1714, when his child was born, but that is a fairly wide range. He was married to Johanah, and their child was named Peter (Judd manuscript, Genealogy Record). It is possible that he is the same person as the other entry for Ishmael, but we have no evidence to suggest it currently.
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Johanah
Johanah is listed as the wife of "Ishmael Negro” in Sylvester Judd’s genealogical record for Ishmael. Judd does not list a birth date or any other information for her, but her son Peter was born in 1714, so she would have been of childbearing age during that year, implying a birthdate in the late 1600s (Judd manuscript, genealogy record).
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Jonah
Jonah’s death was recorded in the Northampton Register of Deaths on December 26, 1740. That record referred to him as “negro child,” so we know that if it refers to the same Jonah who was enslaved by Ebenezer Pomeroy, he was enslaved and baptized when he was very young (Register of the Deaths in Northampton, p. 24).
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Peter Ladue
The only record we currently have for Peter Ladue is the 1755 record of his service in the French and Indian War. He is listed as part of the company commanded by Captain Elisha Hawley (History of Northampton Massachusetts, vol. 2, p. 609).
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Philemon Lee
Philemon Lee was a free Black man who was warned out of Northampton multiple times in the 1760s. We believe that he had light skin or a possible mixed-race heritage, as one legal filing referred to him as “mulatto.” Before he came to Northampton, he lived in Simsbury, CT, and his profession was listed as “laborer.” He was married to Bathsheba Hull.
On June 18, 1766, a warrant was filed for Lee to be warned out of Northampton. This warrant was recorded in court records on August 26: “the following were warned to depart out of the said Town by Abner Barnard Constable to wit Philemon Lee on the fifth..." Click here to read more about Philemon Lee and warning out. |
Medford
Medford was listed as “a free negro” in the First Church of Christ records. The record is dated October 30, 1765, but it is unclear whether this a baptism or death date (First Church of Christ records).
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Polly Palmer
Polly Palmer was listed as “black” in the Northampton register of deaths; she died on September 13, 1811 (Register of the deaths in Northampton: from the first settlement of the town in 1653 to August 1824, p. 67). We currently know nothing else about Palmer.
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Paul
Paul was a child in Northampton who was indentured to John Wait of Southampton sometime in the 1770s, but the exact date is not written on the record.
The text of the indenture is as follows, “bind a certain Poor Child named Paul the son of Lydia a Negro Woman living in Sd. town of Northampton to be apprentice to John Wait of Southampton..." Click here to read more about Paul. |
Peter
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Robert
Robert was a Black man referred to as “Robert Negro” in two cases tried in the Inferior Court session at Northampton on November 10, 1767. These records refer to Robert as a laborer by profession who lived in Hadley, MA.
In the first case, Robert was accused of breaking and entering into John Strickland’s house on October 25, 1767. Also in residence in the house were John Clark, his wife (unnamed in the record), and his daughter, Mary Clark. Once in the house, Robert was accused of “being in the same house with the intent to commit fornication with and have carnal knowledge of the said Mary Clark then being in Bed in the said house.” Click here to read more about Robert. |
Sampson
Sampson was indentured to Stephen Belden. At the time of Belden’s 1735 will, Sampson was described as an “Indian servant man” who had five years and eight months left on his term. However, the will noted that this was conditional—he would be released after that time “provided he behave himself.” The will left Sampson to Belden’s wife, Mindwell Wright (Probate record of Stephen Belden).
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Sylvia
Sylvia died at age 19 in 1802. We know nothing about her except for her death record, which listed her as “a negro woman living with Gn. Joseph Lyman” (First Church of Christ records). Another record in that same volume lists a “dead birth [born to] a negro…named Sylvia.” We do not know if this referred to Sylvia (who would have been about 15 at the time), or Sylvia Church. (See entry for Sylvia Church).
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Cornelius Thompson
Cornelius Thomson was described as “negro” in the Hampshire Gazette when he was convicted of theft in Northampton in 1790. He was a resident of Conway, Massachusetts (Hampshire Gazette).
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