Thank you for your donation in support of the exhibit

Slavery and Freedom in Northampton, 1654 to 1783

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Thank you for your commitment to this exhibit.

Your generous contribution will bring the long-ignored history of enslavement in Northampton to public view.
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The exhibit will feature life-size silhouettes of men, women, and children who were enslaved in Northampton with information about their lives obtained from primary source records. This exhibit is only possible because of funding from donors like you.​

Your support of this exhibit helps ensure that the lives of enslaved people in Northampton will no longer be buried in the historical record but will be available to be known by all.

By donating, you also strengthen the efforts of many to research and understand all aspects of our nation's complicated history.​

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Hannah, her baby, and Mingo

Shown here is the silhouette of Hannah, her baby, and Mingo.

Graphic Silhouette of Hannah, her baby, and Mingo.
(Design Division, 2025)

In 1692, Hannah was unmarried and enslaved in Northampton. She bore a child, and in court she named Mingo as the father. The court called their act a “heinous crime against the light of nature” and sentenced both Hannah and Mingo to 15 lashes. Their baby was born into slavery. The court decided that Samuel Parsons (Mingo’s enslaver) and Timothy Baker (Hannah’s enslaver) would be “joint + equal in charge of the child” until the child was nine years old. At age nine, either Parsons or Baker could buy out the other for the value of the child or they could arrange to jointly own him. In this case, the child’s wages if hired out, or the child’s value if sold, would be “divided betwixt them.”

This information is from a copy of a court session held on April 12, 1692 recorded in the Sylvester Judd manuscript (Forbes Library, Northampton, MA).

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History of Slavery in Northampton

Click this link to learn more about the History of Slavery in Northampton.

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