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SLAVES IN DANVERS FAMILIES.

FROM A PAPER BY MRS. JULIA A. PHILBRICK, READ AT a MEETING OF THIS SOCIETY IN APRIL, 1892.

Having learned that the "Colored people of Danvers in the olden time, both slave and free," was the subject to be considered by our society, I have tried to recall those I have known by tradition and personally. By tradition I know that my great-grandfathers, Lt. Stephen and Lt. David Putnam, both owned slaves. Lt. Stephen bought his, and, I presume David did also, and they reckoned them as property when making their wills. Lt. Stephen lived in what is now Putnamville and his house stood where Mr. Henry White's [Alden P. White's] now stands. The name of his slave was Rose, "Old Rose," as we the grandchildren always heard her called. Some thirty-five years ago, one of the school girls of our family wrote a composition for the exhibition in District No. 4, my mother furnishing her the facts. This composition as corrected by the teacher of the school, Mr. Andrew Mack, has been preserved, and from it I quote the following: "Sometime in the month of May, 1737, a small vessel might have been seen moving slowly down a river which empties into the Gulf of Guinea. The officers on board were cold and unfeeling, agreeing well with the inhuman traffic in which they were employed. They purchased captured negroes at low rates and brought them to New England where they were sold at prices which gave large gains to the traders. Among those who landed at Boston in that summer of 1737 were two dark curly-headed children, one a boy of four years, the other a girl of twenty months, whose bright, sparkling eyes gave promise of future activity of mind and body. The boy was purchased by a man in Lynnfield, and the girl, by Lt. Stephen Putnam, for the sum of £20, and her weight was twenty pounds, avoirdupois. She was taken into the family and brought up, side by side, with his children, ten in number, some of whom were older and some younger than Rose. As soon as old enough she was given the task of taking care of the children and assisting her mistress in the work of the

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family. I cannot say that she ever attended school, but she learned her letters, and was able to read a little in her Bible, and was constant in attendance at church, walking three miles. She could remember the minister's text, but perhaps she took as much pleasure in the social meeting of her friends during the intermission hours as in the sermon. She occupied a chair near the door, which gave her a good opportunity to see the people as they entered and she noticed their attire and was observant of the changing fashions of those days. She was long remembered by the boys and girls of the parish for her generous distribution of apples, pears and cucumbers in their season, with which her capacious pockets were well filled. After the death of her master, she remained with her mistress, Miriam Putnam, who lived to the age of ninety-two. Then her time was divided between their three surviving sons, Phineas, Aaron and Stephen, where she was made welcome, though past labor. She died at the house of one of these friends and was buried in the little graveyard on the hill, now known as the Preston Street Cemetery." I will add an oft-repeated saying of hers which has come down to us, "you have had my marrow, and you must care for my bones." I think it can truly be said that the children of her master did care kindly for her in her old age, and though no stone marks the grave of this warm-hearted slave, yet the place is known, and plants, the evergreen, box and daffodils, have been placed there to mark the spot. Today I think daffodils must be blooming around her. Mr. Nichols has kindly looked up the will of Lt. Stephen Putnam for me and from it learns that it was dated Feb. 21, 1767, and probated May 5, 1772 and it mentions his wife Miriam, and three sons, Phineas, Aaron and Stephen, and gives to his wife "my negro woman servant whose name is Rose during her natural life, but if by sickness or other cause she shall be disenabled to labor, she shall be supported equally and at the charge of my three sons above named, and as to Phillis, my other negro woman servant, I give her to my three sons above named equally amongst them."* This will confirms not only the tradition that has come down to us regarding Rose but tells us there was another slave, Phillis,† of whom I never heard before, and I do not know with which of these children she lived, nor where she was buried.

*According to Danvers Vital Records, Rose, servant of widow Miriam Putnam, and Primus, servant of Hon. Benjamin Lynde, of Salem, were married Sept. 14. 1777.

† She was baptized at the First Church, Sept. 28, 1777, the servant of "Stephen Putnam or his mother.'

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Lt. David Putnam owned and lived in the house still standing on Maple street, near Newbury, known now as the birthplace of his brother, Major-General Israel. It was David who built the large front addition to the original house. His slave woman was called Kate, and the only written record we have of her is in the first item of David's will, viz., "I give to my well beloved wife Rebecca the Income of one Third part of all my Real Estate during her life, also all my Indoors moveables I give to her own Disposal, also I give to my wife my negro woman named Gin to her Disposal." This will was made in 1767 and probated in 1769. After David's death, Kate Gin remained with her mistress and was well remembered by my father, Daniel Putnam. He distinctly remembered that she set out the three willow trees at the east side of the house and close by the running brook. This was when he was about ten years old, making it about 1784. One of these trees still stands, and of it Mr. John Robinson of the Essex Institute has recently said that the trunk of this tree is larger than any other willow known to him in the County of Essex.

Kate, "Old Kate," served her mistress long and well and was doubtless given a christian burial by Joseph and Israel, sons of David and Rebecca. We think of her as laid to rest near her mistress in the Daniel and Jesse Putnam burial ground, but I am sorry to say that no one today is able to mark the exact spot where lie the bodies of either master, mistress or slave. If Deacon Jo, and his brother Israel could have foreseen that their descendants would one day be writing of "Old Kate," her master and mistress, for the Danvers Historical Society, they would, I think, out of pity for us, have erected tablets to their memory. The only apology we can offer for them today is, that the Welsh slate then in use was very costly and with difficulty obtained in this country, also the scarcity of money just after the Revolutionary War.

David had also another slave, a negro man named Zeno, who had such an ungovernable temper that Joseph and Israel allured him on board a vessel bound for the West Indies and traded him off for a hogshead of molasses, because he threatened to pitchfork their mother. Among the old papers preserved in the family is one of Dr. Samuel Holten's, for medical attendance upon some members of the family, one item of which is "eight shillings in full for Zeno's sickness," thus proving that said Zeno was no myth.

The first colored person that I knew in very early child

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hood was Phebe Lewis, generally called "Phebe Wadsworth," as she lived with, and served Dr. and Mrs. Wadsworth. Even now as I write I seem to see her up in a gallery pew in the brick meeting house, looking down upon me as she did nearly seventy years ago. Her great white eyes saw all that happened both in and around that house of worship. She gave freely of her flowers and seeds to those who called upon her master and mistress. Her pinks, large red peonies and snow balls, were much admired by the children of the parish, very few of whom are now living. Rev. Mr. Rice, in his "History of the First Church," says she was a member of this church sixteen years. She served well both master and mistress and died before them. Dr. Wadsworth had a memorial tablet erected with this inscription, "In memory of Phebe Lewis, who died Jan. 10, 1823, aged 49 years. A bright example of integrity & fidelity and an ornament to the Christian profession." This head stone stands in the Wadsworth Cemetery on Summer street. Who of us can expect or wish for a better epitaph than this given to Phebe Lewis, the colored servant, by her master, the then venerable Dr. Wadsworth?

Next I recall Mrs. Harris, a nurse, whose untiring ministrations to the sick are kindly remembered by our older people. She was born, I think, in Halifax, her father moving to Danvers when she was quite young. He lived in a little house near or in the rear of the Collins house and worked for Judge Collins. Mrs. Fowler, in her last long sickness, recalled vividly Mrs. Harris and her work, and spoke of her as one who cheered and amused her patients with her droll negro stories and songs, and also comforted them with her kind words and deeds. She sometimes wore a cap, but more commonly the bright gingham turban. She was scrupulously neat and expected others to be so. I know not when she died nor where she was buried but think it may be in the little graveyard in the rear of the Collins' house. A suitable epitaph for her would be the words of Mrs. Fowler, "A devoted Christian nurse."

In our district school, No. 4, we had two colored boys in my early childhood, one lived at the Pierce place, now Mrs. Pray's* his name was Utawa, but where he came from and whither he went I have no means of knowing. The other boy lived at Squire Ely Putnam's, was sent to him, I think, by his son the Rev. Israel W. Putnam to be a "chore" boy for his venerable father. He was a very bright, roguish boy

Now Mrs. N. S. H. Sanders.

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and sat on a bench by himself near the master's desk and amused the scholars with his many pranks for which he received many chastisements. But no punishment could stop his drollery and I think he spent but one winter here. There may be others whom I knew, but do not now recall them.

INVITATION TO A FIRE CLUB.

"Capt. J. Putnam presents his compliments to Mr. Saml. Fowler, Junr. and should be happy to have him sup in club with the Engine Company this evening at Capt. Jereh. Putnam's at 6 P. M.

"Wednesday morning, Jan. 27, 1808.
"N. B. the other firewards will be there."

-Fowler Papers, Essex Institute.

RECORD OF TRAVEL IN 1809.

From the papers in a layout of the road from Estey's tavern in Middleton to Ezra Batchelder's shop on Danvers Plain, in the April term of the Court of Sessions in 1809, the following record of travel was made at the shop of Mr. Andrew Nichols' grandfather, near the Leopold Morse house, Nichols street :

"I the Subscriber have kept an account of all the teams and chaises that have passed the shop where I work on the Road to Ezra Batchelder's in Danvers from Sept. 9th to Oct. 9th, 1808 which is as follows:

"Teams 32
"Chaises 68

"The above is as near as I can ascertain.

"JONATHAN PRINCE."

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