enslavement in the puritan village

Image The parsonage of the Rev. Israel Loring, minister of Sudbury, whose words best give a human face the people he enslaved and whom others enslaved. Today it is the home of the Sudbury Historical Society. John Phelan, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0 Wikimedia Commons

In 1964, historian Sumner Chilton Powell won the Pulitzer Prize for Puritan Village, a history of the founding of colonial Sudbury in 1638, only eight years after the establishment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Today colonial Sudbury represents two modern towns: Sudbury and Wayland.

Powell’s book followed Sudbury’s first European settlers from the old world to the new as it became the second town settled west of Boston after Concord. His premise was that “one town, well-documented in relation to its specific origins, can serve as a representative study for most New England towns.”

The essence of the Puritan village remained largely intact throughout the 17th and 18th centuries: white European settlers and their descendants remained the town’s dominant presence.

But there was another story that remained hidden and largely untold.

“The underside of the puritan village is well documented - if one looks for it”

While Sudbury’s European origins and history have been comprehensively documented, existing histories of both modern Wayland and Sudbury make little or no mention of African Americans, many of whom were enslaved. Powell’s book also failed to recognize an African American presence and perhaps his book, which covered the earliest years of settlement, predates their entrance into town. Alfred Sereno Hudson’s 1889 History of Sudbury, Massachusetts devoted one page in his more-than-600 page book to “Servants,” by which he meant African or African American slaves.

Yet it turns out that the underside of the Puritan village is also well documented - if one looks for it.

Sudbury’s colonial inhabitants kept enslaved persons, bought and sold them, paid taxes on their human property and bequeathed them in wills. Both the enslaved population and their owners remained a very small proportion of the population, but the owners included some of the most prominent men in town. If you could afford an enslaved person and could use the help, there was no apparent stigma to owning one or two. Townsfolk were certainly aware that there were persons of color forced to live in their midst.

“sudbury’s colonial inhabitants kept enslaved persons, bought and sold them, paid taxes on their human property and bequeathed them in wills”

The words of the Reverend Israel Loring, Sudbury’s minister for 66 years, from 1706 to 1772, bring to life those who occupied a netherworld between property and personhood in which glimpses of personalities emerge. More than other records, his entries give a human face to the men and women he enslaved and those who were enslaved by others. Unfortunately, no words reveal the thoughts and perspectives of the enslaved persons on the events detailed in his journals.

Loring’s own relationship to an enslaved child in his household seems to have been close and intimate. Recording the family’s reaction to the death of 21-year-old Simeon, who had been born and raised in the household, Loring wrote in his diary that Simeon “was greatly beloved by the family and his death has drowned us in tears.”  Loring’s wife was so distressed that she took to her bed after the funeral, which much of Loring’s congregation attended.

“emotional attachment did not mean equality or freedom”

Unusually for an enslaved person, Simeon’s burial was marked with a gravestone. It tells us that he was the “faithful and beloved servant” of Israel Loring, buried in what is now Sudbury’s Revolutionary War Cemetery.

Yet, despite this emotional attachment, Loring never freed Simeon until he turned 21, shortly before his death. Nor did he ever mention Simeon’s mother Hannah until Simeon’s death. Emotional attachment did not mean equality or freedom.

Loring’s journals also provide insight into the relationship of the enslaved and their owners outside of his household. In Rev. Loring’s Journal for 1729, we find an intriguing entry without comment: “Heard of the sad accident fallen out in the family of Mr. Josiah Brown. His Negro man servant dangerously wounding himself by a gun, which he designedly discharged against himself, both shot and wadding went into his body.”

The lives of enslaved persons could differ radically depending on the whims of their master, who enjoyed the same complete control over them as over his horses or cattle.

At a time when slavery was legally sanctioned in Massachusetts, the treatment of enslaved persons was largely under the control of their masters.

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