From the founding of the English town of Northampton in 1654, until the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in the 1780s, Northampton residents enslaved Africans, Native people, and people of African descent born in America. Yet the historic record has often provided scant evidence of these individuals. Therefore, it has been a goal of this project is twofold: to identify enslaved people, enslavers, and free people of color in Northampton; and to describe their lives, and those of their children, as fully as possible.
Though originally conceived as a project about enslaved people, the project evolved over time. We recorded the free Black and free Native people who appeared in the records we reviewed. As the project progressed, the information we acquired on Native people grew to the point where we believed it would be better served by its own section. For profiles of Native people in the territory now known as Northampton, please visit Indigenous Histories. The more we researched, the more we saw both the ties between enslaved and free communities. We have included as many images of original documents as we were able to reproduce.
We acknowledge the unpaid labor of enslaved people in Northampton and their role in building Northampton's economy and society.
Though originally conceived as a project about enslaved people, the project evolved over time. We recorded the free Black and free Native people who appeared in the records we reviewed. As the project progressed, the information we acquired on Native people grew to the point where we believed it would be better served by its own section. For profiles of Native people in the territory now known as Northampton, please visit Indigenous Histories. The more we researched, the more we saw both the ties between enslaved and free communities. We have included as many images of original documents as we were able to reproduce.
We acknowledge the unpaid labor of enslaved people in Northampton and their role in building Northampton's economy and society.
Background on Slavery In Northampton
Throughout this research we have found a consistent pattern of incomplete information within official records of enslaved and free Black and Native people. No matter where you look, this country has devalued and discarded the histories of enslaved people, and during their own time the people in charge of creating these records may not have deemed them significant enough to write about. In Northampton's history, there are many people whose lives remain largely unknown because racism kept them from being able to tell their own stories or have those stories saved.
During the 1600s and 1700s, Northampton enslaved both Black and Native people. The instances of enslavement of Native people that we have found took place in the 1600s, while the enslavement of Black people was much more prevalent, and stretched from the end of the 1600s to the end of the 1700s.
In contrast to Southern plantations where there could be dozens or even hundreds of people enslaved on one site, Northampton fit the New England model that leaned toward five or fewer at each site. We do not have consistent data on exactly what the day to day tasks of people enslaved in Northampton would have been. For three women, Sylvia Church, Dinah, and Leah, it appears that they did domestic work and in childcare. There are implications that Amos Hull Sr. and Peter may have been involved in farm or livestock work, but there are also indications of more specialized trades. If Joab Binney learned his later trade while in Northampton he may have worked in a tannery, and we know that Moidore Hillhouse was hired out as a fiddler. However, for the majority of people studied in this project, we have little to no data on their day-to-day lives during their enslavement.
The core group of enslavers were families who controlled town wealth and politics, from lawyers and selectmen to General Court representatives. The family names were: Clapp, Clark, Dwight, Hawley, Hunt, Lyman, Mather, Parsons, Pomeroy, Stoddard, Strong, and Wright. This could imply that enslaving a person was a kind of status symbol, something only the rich could afford, and that they might place the person they enslaved in their home to show off their wealth, as well as forcing the enslaved person to labor for their enslavers' economic gain.
The horrors of slavery and the slave trade were normalized, but that did not mean that people were comfortable advertising what they were doing, or even simply naming it, as enslaved people were often referred for by the more ambiguous term "servant." We do not have many documents by Northampton enslavers talking about the practice, but we do have statements by Jonathan Edwards, who, despite enslaving at least four people himself, indicated that he knew slavery was cruel and, on some level, wrong. As he was a spiritual leader in Northampton, it would not be surprising if some members of his flock had come to the same conclusion, but also took the same course as he did: continuing the practice.
The About the Project page has more detail on Research Challenges and Interpretation.
During the 1600s and 1700s, Northampton enslaved both Black and Native people. The instances of enslavement of Native people that we have found took place in the 1600s, while the enslavement of Black people was much more prevalent, and stretched from the end of the 1600s to the end of the 1700s.
In contrast to Southern plantations where there could be dozens or even hundreds of people enslaved on one site, Northampton fit the New England model that leaned toward five or fewer at each site. We do not have consistent data on exactly what the day to day tasks of people enslaved in Northampton would have been. For three women, Sylvia Church, Dinah, and Leah, it appears that they did domestic work and in childcare. There are implications that Amos Hull Sr. and Peter may have been involved in farm or livestock work, but there are also indications of more specialized trades. If Joab Binney learned his later trade while in Northampton he may have worked in a tannery, and we know that Moidore Hillhouse was hired out as a fiddler. However, for the majority of people studied in this project, we have little to no data on their day-to-day lives during their enslavement.
The core group of enslavers were families who controlled town wealth and politics, from lawyers and selectmen to General Court representatives. The family names were: Clapp, Clark, Dwight, Hawley, Hunt, Lyman, Mather, Parsons, Pomeroy, Stoddard, Strong, and Wright. This could imply that enslaving a person was a kind of status symbol, something only the rich could afford, and that they might place the person they enslaved in their home to show off their wealth, as well as forcing the enslaved person to labor for their enslavers' economic gain.
The horrors of slavery and the slave trade were normalized, but that did not mean that people were comfortable advertising what they were doing, or even simply naming it, as enslaved people were often referred for by the more ambiguous term "servant." We do not have many documents by Northampton enslavers talking about the practice, but we do have statements by Jonathan Edwards, who, despite enslaving at least four people himself, indicated that he knew slavery was cruel and, on some level, wrong. As he was a spiritual leader in Northampton, it would not be surprising if some members of his flock had come to the same conclusion, but also took the same course as he did: continuing the practice.
The About the Project page has more detail on Research Challenges and Interpretation.