The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-20
SLAVES IN THE STATE.
OWNED BY COLONIES, DRAGONS
 IND HISTORIANS.
some Interesting Litchheld County Facts, Which the Records From I79o to 1880 Bevenl.

| 10 lSSU BevenI.
 1 M. s, Dyer of Canton, writes to thu Hartford Courant:
 A recent item in ''The Courant" in re
 gard to an old Connecticut slave, sug' gested an inquiry as to the practice ol slaveholding in some of the towns 1T
 this section, the northern part ol
 Litchfeld county, in former days. The following are some of the more inter
 esting facts that have been discovered
 In the town of Litchfield istelf ar
 entry is made upon the records under
 date of November 23, 17S6, wherein
 General Oliver Wolcott sets free his
 negro servant Caesar and gives him
 the surnames James. The census of 1900 showed seven slaves in Ltch- field
 Three items, each of peculiar inter- est come from Goshen, north of Litch- field The first is a following adver- tisement from a New Haven paper:
 ITO be sold at the subscribers in Goshen, young, lusty and very likely negro wench, that can cook, wash and spin either flax or wool.
 "July 27, 17S0.
 Hugh Hughes"
 Another is that of the Rev. MT. Heaton, the first minister in Goshen, was the owner of two negro slaves, native Africans, named Calf, and his wife Chloe. Chloe died after 1880 at the great age of 110 years. The third from Goshen states that James Thomp- son owned slaves, "Old Hess" and his wife. He liberated them and gave them a house and some land and look ed after them during their lives.
 Over in Cornwall, west Of Goshen, the town records have the following description of slaves:
 Edward Of Ned, son of James and Patience, negroes. born at New Mil- ford, March 9, 17S0, all said negroes being then the property of MT. Ben jamin Buckingham, now the property of Herman Swift, esq, of Cornwall Peony, daughter O. the same persons born October G. 1791. the property of Heman Swift, esc." General Heman Swift, referred to above, was a very prominent citizen of Cornwall. He was judge of the court of common pleas for Litchfield county, served in the French and Indian War. and In the Revolutionary War. and was person. al friend of Washington. He died in 1874.
 The records of the town of Torring- ton east of Goshen, contain several references to slaves. among them be- ing that Abijah Holbrook, influenced by motives of humanity, and benevo- fence" emancipates two slaves, Jacob Prince ard wife, Ginne The notice is dated August IS, 1878. In 1756 "Phebe, slave of Joel Thrall,' united with the First Church in Torrington. In the history of Torrington it Is stated that a slave was owned by the wives of Deacon John Whiting and William and Matthew Grant. These women were sisters and the slave was given them by their father, MT. Foster of Meriden.
 Canaan. Norfolk and Winchester are a tier Of towns lying north of Corn wall, Goshen and Torrington. Slaves were owned in both Canaan and Nor" folk. The most interesting of all the annals of slaves, to people of this vi- cinity are those of Norfolk.
 Dudley Humphrey of Norfolk mar ried Kezia Griswold from Windsor, who long survived him and died before Is40 aged nearly 100 years. She owned l negro servant, Cate Weeks, and her daughter Deantha, who is remember 3d by some persons now living. The negroes referred to in the following ,ecords were probably the ancestors of he Dolphins, one of the best known if colored families of Winsted in recent years Fowlers History of Durham says: May II, 1764, were married Dol 1hin, negro servant of Captain Abra- nam Camp of Norfolk, and Zill, negro servant of Lieutenant David Coe of with consent of their mas CTS" Twenty-four years later, in 17SS, l he Norfolk church records say there ! were received as members Dolphin, | negro, and Zill, his wife, Abraham Camp, above mentioned, to whom Dol | ,hin belonged was deacon' in the | Norfolk church. He was an ancestor # the Hon. N. B. Stevens of this place. l
 Perhaps the best known of the Nor ok slaves were Jupiter Mars and his | amily. They were born slaves and | heir romantic early story is told on ,age 229 of Boyd's Annals of, Win hester" One of their sons, Deacon ames Mars, died in Norfolk, a few ears ago, and was well acquainted in his whole section. He went about rom town to town selling pictures and
 little sketch of himself entitled "The fife of James Mars. 8 Slave, Born and old in Connecticut" The Mars fam y lived in Winchester for some years fter 1900 on the old Waterbury river turnpike, about where the Rugg Brook eservoir now is.
 Of the cluster of towns in Litchfeld ounty which have been mentioned. has the unique distinction f being the only one where there is no irect evidence to show that slaves yere owned in the town in it's pioneer avs This may be due to the fact that
 was settled somewhat later than the thers, and to the further fact that lost of the early settlers were poor len. The most remarkable thing in with the matter on the )wn records is that the Hon. John oyd, historian of the town and stur- y abolitionist was once himself the wner of a slave, Nathan Moore, whose papers are recorded un- CT date June r, 1884. It is supposed lat MT. Boyd bought him as the easi- ;t way of procuring freedom for him. In connection with these cases of avery in Litchfield county, the fol- wing communication on some of the