Existing comment:
(4) African Americans at Copp's Hill
The first mention of Africans arriving in Boston is in Governor John Winthrop's diary entry of February 26, 1638, in which he states: "Mr. Peirce, in the Salem Ship, the Desire, returned from the West Indies . . . and brought some cotton, and tobacco, and negroes, etc." For the next 145 years, the majority of Africans and African Americans who came to Boston were brought in bondage as part of the region's lucrative slave trade. Boston was one of New England's premier slave ports, importing African and West Indian slaves for New England and the southern colonies.
By the 1700s, hundreds of slaves were being imported to Boston each year. In the 1760s, the free African American community, under the leadership of Prince Hall, petitioned to end slavery in Massachusetts. At the time, slaves across the colony sued in court for their freedom. By the 1780s, slavery had ended in Massachusetts. Many slaves, free African Americans, slave owners, and slave traders are buried in Copp's Hill.
Gravestones of African Americans
The free African American community started about 1650, when a small number of Africans secured their freedom. Freed men and women such as Sebastian Ken, Angola, and Zipporah Potter settled in Boston. It is said that many former slaves lived in the North End section called "New Guinea," near the wharfs and shipyards around Copp's Hill. More than 1,000 African Americans may be buried in Copp's Hill, primarily in the area of Section A along Snow Hill Street that has fewer surviving gravestones. This may be because the stones were removed or lost, or the memorials were made of wood that has since decayed.
An example may be Thomas Paul (c. 1780-1831), the minister of the African Meeting House, on Beacon Hill from 1809 until his death in 1831. His obituary read in part, "His fame, as a preacher, is exceedingly prevalent; for his eloquence charmed the ear, and his piety commended itself to his hearers." His death record states that he was buried at Copp's Hill, but there is no marker. However, a prominent member of Paul's congregation, Abel Barbados (-1817), has a grave marker (A02.)
Prince Hall (c. 1746-1807) (D-16 & D-17) was an important member of Boston's African American community at the time of the American Revolution. After being freed from slavery in 1769, he assumed a leadership role in the African American community, drafting petitions for the abolition of slavery (1777), to protest the slave trade (1788), against the kidnapping of free Black men from Boston (1788), and objecting to the exclusion of African American children from schools (1787.) In 1775, he founded the African Lodge of the Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons of Boston, the first lodge of black Freemasonry. When he died in 1807, it appears that he was buried near his first wife, Sarah Ritchie (d. 1769), as his name is inscribed on the back of her grave marker (D-16.) On June 24th, 1895, the Prince Hall Masons erected a monument to Prince Hall adjacent to the Richie marker.
Mary (Hammond?) Augustus (c. 1734-1759) (A-7) married Ceasor Augustus (Gustus) on November 28, 1757 at New South Church. Both she and Ceasor were listed as "free negroes." Her epitaph reads: "Here lies the Body of Mary the Wife of Ceasor Augustus Servant of Mr. Robert Ball Aged 25 Years Died May 28, 1759." Robert Ball (c. 1699-1774) (D-153) was a mariner and pilot, as well as keeper of Boston Light. He and his first wife, Martha (King) (c. 1683-1765) (D-151), are also buried at Copp's Hill. |