Plymouth memories of an octogenarian

by William T. Davis

I have spoken of Pompey, a colored servant, once a slave of General Nathaniel Goodwin, with whom he lived in the old tavern house. He died within my recollection, and I think he was the last of the old slaves living in Plymouth. I remember his living with Nathaniel Goodwin, Cashier of the Plymouth Bank, who lived in what was called the bank house, which stood on Court street, where the Russell building now stands. Prince, whom I also remember, was once a slave of Dr. Wm. Thomas, and lived until his death, after the death of Dr. Thomas, with his son, Judge Joshua Thomas, who died January 10, 1821, and afterwards with his widow, in the house now occupied as an inn, called the Plymouth Tavern. There is no reason to doubt that the institution of slavery was recognized, and as firmly upheld in Plymouth as in other considerable towns in the northern states. So far as the slave trade was concerned, though it was abolished by an act of Congress in 1808, there is reason to believe that in the town of Bristol, R. I., within the limits of the original Plymouth Colony, until by a Royal Commission in 1751, that town was taken from Massachusetts and added to Rhode Island, it was pursued until 1820. In that year Congress declared the trade to be piracy, and Captain Nathaniel Gordon, engaged in the trade, was in November, 1861, convicted and executed in New York. It was the generally entertained belief that one or more citizens of Bristol were engaged in the trade, which led Mr. Webster to make the following denunciatory reference to the trade in his memorable oration delivered in Plymouth on the celebration in 1820 of the anniversary of the Landing of the Pilgrims. “It is not fit that the land of the Pilgrims should bear the shame longer. I hear the sound of the hammer; I see the smoke of the furnace where manacles and fetters are still forged for human limbs. I see the visages of those who by stealth and midnight labor in this work of hell foul and dark, as may become the artificers of such instruments of misery and tortures. Let that spot be purified, or let it cease to be of New England. Let it be purified or let it be set aside from the Christian world; let it be put out of the circle of human sympathies and human regards, and let civilized man henceforth have no communion with it.”

Slavery existed in Massachusetts until the adoption of its constitution on the 15th of June, 1780. Article first of the “declaration of the Rights of the Inhabitants of the Commonwealth” declared as follows: “All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential and unalienable rights, among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness.”

Whatever may have been the intent of the framers of the constitution in constructing the above article, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts decided as early as 1781 in the case of Walker vs. Jennison that slavery was abolished in Massachusetts by the declaration of rights, and that decision has been repeatedly confirmed by later ones. But singularly enough, notwithstanding these decisions a slave was sold by auction in Cambridge as late as 1793. Precisely how many slaves there were in Plymouth when the constitution was adopted, I have no means of knowing, but it is certain that, as elsewhere at the North where soil and climate and public opinion were unfavorable, the number had been for some years gradually lessening. The growth of slavery at the south was however astonishing. It has been estimated that at various times forty million slaves were taken from the shores of Africa, and at the first census in 1790, there were 697,897 slaves in the United States. This number increased to 893,041 in 1800, to 1,191,369 in 1810, to 1,538,022 in 1820, to 2,009,043 in 1830, to 2,487,455 in 1840, to 3,204,313 in 1850, and to 3,953,760 in 1860.

I have seen an assessor’s record for the year 1740, which states that in that year there were thirty-two slaves in Plymouth between the ages of twelve and fifty, from which it may be fair to assume that there were at least fifty of all ages. The following were the owners in the above year:

Robert Brown, one; Samuel Bartlett, one; Timothy Trent, one; James Hovey, one; Hannah Jackson, one; Samuel Kempton, one; Isaac Lothrop, four; Thomas Jackson, two; Lazarus LeBaron, two; John Murdock, one; Thomas Murdock, one; Job Morton, one; Ebenezer Spooner, one; Haviland Torrey, one; David Turner, one; James Warren, one; John Watson, one; James Warren, Jr., one; Rebecca Witherell, one; Seth Barnes, one; John Bartlett, one; Stephen Churchill, one; Wm. Clark, one; Nathaniel Foster, two; Sarah Little, one; Joseph Bartlett, one.

The following slaves are mentioned in the town records at various dates:

Cæsar, Hester, Eunice, Philip and Esther, slaves of Edward Winslow in 1768; Cato and Jesse, slaves of John Foster in 1731; Britain, slave of John Winslow in 1762; Cuffee, slave of Isaac Lothrop in 1768; Nanny, slave of Samuel Bartlett in 1738; Hannah, slave of James Hovey in 1762; Cuffee, slave of George Watson in 1768; Dick, slave of Nathaniel Thomas in 1731; Phebe, slave of Haviland Torrey in 1731; Dolphin, slave of Nathaniel Thomas in 1731; Flora, slave of Priscilla Watson in 1731; Eseck, slave of George Watson in 1757; Rose, slave of William Clark in 1757; Prince, slave of Wm. Thomas in 1771; Plymouth, slave of Thomas Davis in 1753; Nannie, slave of Deacon Foster in 1741; Jane, slave of Thomas Jackson in 1760; Jack, slave of Thomas Holmes in 1739; Patience, slave of Barnabas Churchill in 1739; Pero and Hannah, slaves of John Murdock in 1756; Quamony, slave of Josiah Cotton in 1732; Kate, slave of John Murdock in 1732; Quash, slave of Lazarus LeBaron in 1756; Phillis, slave of Theophilus Cotton in 1751; Silas, slave of Daniel Diman in 1772; Venus, slave of Elizabeth Edwards in 1772; Pompey, slave of Nathaniel Goodwin in 1775; Cæsar, slave of Joshua Thomas in 1779; Venus, slave of Elizabeth Stephens in 1772; Quba, slave of Barnabas Hedge in 1775; Plato, slave of unknown in 1779; Ebed Melick, slave of Madame Thatcher of Middleboro.

Besides Pompey and Prince, Quamony Quash, an old slave, commonly called Quam, lived within my remembrance, and died April 18, 1833. Most of the slaves emancipated by the constitution, accepted their freedom, and so far as I know, only Pompey and Prince continued as servants of their old masters. A few of them squatted on land belonging to the town of Plymouth, which on that account took the name of New Guinea. Among these were Quamony, Prince, Plato and Cato, but it is probable that Prince divided his time between his home at New Guinea and the house of his old master, where I remember him a faithful servant of the widow of Judge Joshua Thomas.

It is not improbable that Plymouth was associated with the first claim made on a citizen of Massachusetts for the restoration of a slave to his master. Information concerning it I found among my grandfather’s papers. In 1808 the brig Thomas, Solomon Davie master, at some port in Delaware, received on board a slave who had deserted from his master, David M. McIlvaine, and until 1812 remained in my grandfather’s service, receiving wages as a hired man. In 1812 Mr. McIlvaine found the slave on board the brig in Baltimore, and a claim for his restoration being made, he was given up. In the meantime the slave who called himself George Thomson, bought a small house on the brow of Cole’s Hill, and in a settlement of a suit to recover wages, which my grandfather had paid to Thomson, Mr. McIlvaine, in consideration of the money paid, conveyed to my grandfather the house, and the following articles of personal property, which were in the keeping of a colored woman, named Violet Phillips, and were the property of Thompson—a blue cloth coat, fine; a black cloth coat, fine; one pair of ribbed velvet pantaloons; one black bombazet trousers; one white shirt; one white waistcoat; one black bombazet waistcoat; one black silk waistcoat; three yellow marseilles waistcoats; one pair white cotton stockings; two checked shirts; one new fur hat; one chest, and one trunk in which were the title papers to his house, and one silver watch.

Of many stories about these old slaves I have room for only one. When the use of biers, instead of hearses was universal, occasionally two of these freedmen would be hired as bearers. On one occasion, when Quamony and Plato were employed, they had heard that gloves were given to the bearers, and just as the procession was about to start, Quamony said to Plato, “Hab you hab’m glub?” “No,” said Plato, “I no hab’m no glub.” “Nor I hab’m glub nudder,” said Quamony, “We no bare widout glub, let the man in the box carry hisself.”