The Longmeadow Historical Society is
committed to our mission to preserve our town's
history and inspire public awareness of the
people, places, and events that have contributed
to Longmeadow's history. We are keenly aware
that this history has always included Indigenous
people, African-Americans, and other people of
color. We strive to learn more about the
contributions and untold stories of these people
and share them with you as a way of better
understanding who we are and where we come
from. Some of these stories force us to
confront the uncomfortable truths of many New
England towns like Longmeadow. Despite a
scarcity of documents and records to help us
identify and build a fuller and more accurate
picture of these lives, we are eager to do the
work it takes to better represent the complete
picture of early Longmeadow.
Below is one piece of what we plan to be an
ongoing project to discover and honor the lives
of the previously underrepresented voices in
Longmeadow’s past. -February 2021
Slavery
Massachusetts was the first colony to
legalize slavery. In 1641, the Massachusetts
General Court passed the “Body of Liberties”
Act, which afforded slavery “the sanctity of
law.”
During his tenure as pastor of Longmeadow,
Stephen Williams owned at least nine slaves. We
know the names of some of them: Nicholas;
Phillis; Scipio; Stanford; Tobiah; Tom; Cato;
Joseph; and Peter. Although he benefitted by
owning these slaves, they often proved to be a
burden to him and he often worried about them in
his diary entries. Cato, a slave he bought in
1758, developed a taste for his master’s hard
cider. On one occasion, the man ran naked
through the town and attacked a white woman on
the common near the meeting-house. Cato was
“whipped very Severely” for this “most
Audacious” act, and 2 days later he drowned
himself in a neighbor’s well.
Eighteenth-century New Englanders believed that
slavery was part of God’s plan for
evangelization of Africans. Many would have
agreed that “it is no evil thing to bring them
out of their own heathenish country [to] where
they may have the knowledge of the True God, be
converted and eternally saved.”
The immorality of slavery was not recognized by
most New England clergy and many of them kept
slaves. In addition to Rev. Williams, the
following pastors in the Connecticut River
valley owned slaves: Rev. Jonathan Edwards
(Northampton); Rev. John Williams (Deerfield);
Rev. Robert Breck and Rev. Daniel Brewer
(Springfield); Rev. James Bridgham (Brimfield);
Rev. Nehemiah Bull and Rev. Edward Taylor
(Westfield); Rev. Jedidiah Smith (Granville);
Rev. Samuel Hopkins (West Springfield); Rev.
Noah Merrick (Wilbraham); and Rev. Ebenezer
Devotion and Rev. Ebenezer Gay (Suffield).
Other prominent families in the area also owned
slaves, including Marchant Samuel Colton of
Longmeadow and John Pynchon of Springfield.
Most of New England’s clergy worked
conscientiously to bring their black charges
into the Christian flock. Cotton Mather noted in
his “The Negro Christianized” that Christians
made better servants, since blacks who knew God
would also know their proper place. He
encouraged masters to teach their slaves to read
the Bible.
In A Good Master Well Served, Cotton Mather
further instructed Puritan masters on how to
treat their slaves. A master, in providing
these to his slaves, would be protected in his
right of authority over them.
-
Do not deny your servant work
-
Provide them with food and the necessities
of life
-
Provide them with discipline, including both
punishment and praise
-
Care for the souls of the servants, teaching
them the essential truths of the Christian
faith, calling them to repentance, and
pointing them to Christ.
While African slavery in New England differed
from slavery in other English colonies, New
England slavery was no less degrading or
dehumanizing for those who were trapped within
the system. Most households in New England that
included slaves had only one or two slaves, so
slavery had a familial nature because slaves
shared houses with their owners.
In 1780, Massachusetts passed the Declaration of
Rights. Article 1 stated that
“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.”
Several freedom suits followed quickly after
passage of Article 1 and the courts established
that enslaved persons are entitled to these
liberties. Slavery was effectively abolished in
Massachusetts in the 1780’s.
Sources
-
The Journals of the
Rev. Stephen Williams by Andrew
Medlicott
-
Stephen Williams Diary
-
Black Yankees: The
Development of an Afro-American Subculture
in Eighteenth-Century New England by
William D. Piersen
-
Black Families in
Hampden County, Massachusetts 1650–1865
by Joseph Carvalho III
-
Race and Redemption in
Puritan New England by Richard A.
Bailey
-
William B. Sprague,
Annals of the American Pulpit, 9
vols. (New York, 1859)
by Elizabeth Hoff
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