Historical Society, church groups share lives of enslaved in Longmeadow

Date: 6/15/2022

LONGMEADOW – After years of research by three Longmeadow groups, the lives of 16 enslaved people who lived, worked and, in some cases, died in Longmeadow were shared at the First Church of Christ on May 22.

The event, “Say Their Names: Honoring the Lives of the Enslaved of Longmeadow, MA,” was hosted at the church. The program was put together by the First Church’s Adult Education and Social Justice teams, in collaboration with the Longmeadow Historical Society.

Melissa Cybulski, a member of the Longmeadow Historical Society, explained that the program was borne out of an academic course on reparations through the University of Massachusetts Amherst. That, along with more than two years of research into first-hand accounts and documents from church records and other town records of Longmeadow in the 1700s, allowed the society and the church’s teams to piece together the history of enslaved individuals who lived in Longmeadow.

Most of the enslaved people known to have lived in Longmeadow were purchased by Rev. Stephen Williams, the first minister at the First Church of Christ. Over his 66-year tenure as minister, Williams purchased 12 people, the first of which was a child that he bought soon after becoming minister in 1716. Williams documented his daily life in diaries, and it is those primary sources that provided much of the information on enslaved people in Longmeadow. The enslaved individuals came from both nearby and from the slave trade through the Caribbean.

The executive board of the Historical Society – Cybulski, Beth Hoff, Betsy McKee and Al McKee, read the names of each enslaved person in their records and shared what was known about their stories. At the end of each entry, the speaker recited, “Today, in front of this congregation, we say your name, we see you and we honor you.” One sunflower was added to a vase for each person named. Each of the Historical Society members pointed to the balcony seating and reminded the audience that the area used to be reserved for enslaved people and free Black people.

Nicholas

Nicholas, a child, was the first person bought by Williams after he became minister. Williams referred in his diary to Nicholas as, “My lad that I have bought,” and spoke of “correcting” him for being “disobedient” or “deceitful.” Williams sold Nicholas in late 1718, after two months of illness.

James

All that is known about James was that he was purchased for £10, five months after the sale of Nicholas. Like Nicholas, there is a reference in William’s diary to “correcting” James.

Phillis

Phillis worked in Williams’s home for the longest time of any enslaved person, almost 50 years. Willaims referred to her as “my Negro girl.” Phillis wanted to marry an enslaved man named Peter who was owned by a different person in Longmeadow. While they did eventually marry, the two were never allowed to live together. She gave birth to at least one child. Phillis died in 1774, still enslaved.

Scipio

Scipio was born into slavery and is thought by the researchers to be the son of Phillis. He died at 3-years-old, when Williams’s children brought home an illness.

Stamford

Williams’s purchase of Stamford in 1734 put him into debt. Stamford was a field hand and lived in the parsonage at the same time as Phillis. Williams wrote in his diary about his eldest son, a teenager, John, treating Stamford with “imprudence.” A pattern of this behavior toward enslaved people was documented in the diary over the following years. Stamford died in 1752.

Tobiah

All that could be found of Tobiah was a church record of his baptismal in 1747.

Jenny and Saunders

Jenny and Saunders were a married couple who were owned by Williams for more than 14 years, though the exact dates are unknown. The couple ran away from Williams more than once. Jenny died in 1761 and Saunders, just a year later.

Tom

There is a reference in William’s diary to Tom behaving “sassily and unbecoming,” and Williams tying him up until he repented. At one point, Tom ran away and WIlliams took out an ad for his capture. In the ad, Tom was described as 22 years old and “a thick fellow.” Tom was found nine days later drowned in what is believed to now be the pond at Longmeadow Country Club. It was recorded at the time that he had died by suicide.

Peter

Like many of Williams’s enslaved people, Peter worked for both Williams and for his son John, who owned a farm in Somers as an adult. Peter ran away in 1773. The Historical Society noted that William’s son John had “grown mean enough” that the rest of the Williams family was “worried” about his behavior. Williams wrote in his diary that he had considered freeing Peter but decided against it when he escaped.

Peter was described in an ad for his capture as “stout and well-set,” and “very Black.” Peter was between 30 and 40 years old at the time. Peter is never mentioned again.

Cato

Cato asked WIlliams to be sold after a year at the parsonage and inquired several times about what would happen to him once Williams, then in his 70s, died. Later in his life, Cato was noted as having outbursts and was whipped for it. Soon after he drowned in a well on John William’s property

Joseph

Not much was written about Joseph except when he had a case of measles. It is not known if Joseph was sold, but there is not mention of him in WIlliams’s will, nor of his death in Williams’s diary.

The remaining enslaved people were owned by other people within the town, including Sgt. John Cooley, a member of one of the families that settle earliest in Longmeadow.

Peter

Peter was owned by Cooley and was “dismissed to Westfield” 10 years after being baptized. It was noted that Cooley’s father-in-law lived in Westfield and owned enslaved people there.

Caesar

Caesar was enslaved by Capt. George Colton. There are several historical sources that record Caesar’s life for over 35 years in Longmeadow. Ownership was later passed to Colton’s son, Timothy.

Peter

This is the man who is thought to have married to Phillis. Like Caesar, Peter was owned by Colton, but was sent to work in the household of Colton’s daughter. Peter became ill twice over the course of his life. He died for months after Phillis in 1774.

Zickery

Zickery passed through a series of four enslavers in Longmeadow over the course of 10 years, beginning with Nathaniel Bliss. It is thought that Zickery was sold to a man in Simsbury, CT. This ZIckery was married to another enslave woman named Kitty. The two were given their choice of the owner’s children to live with after his death.

Legal slavery ended in Massachusetts in 1780, but the practice had been common, “all over the Connecticut River Valley,” said Cybulski.

Many of the enslaved people of Longmeadow, including Phillis and Scipio, were buried in the cemetery behind First Church, though none have headstones to mark their graves. Of the graves of enslaved people, he wrote in his diary about considering freeing one of his slaves, Williams once wrote that a “dark, quiet grave” was “the place where a slave is free from his master.

After the presentation, Mary Friedman, a deacon at the church told Reminder Publishing, “These people were buried in our cemetery in unmarked graves, and they cry out to us.”