New Britain herald., 1919-01-28

| Of West Simsbury page 40, that Lon
! don was a native African, imported
when a little child and became the
; slave Of Col John Chester, Sen of
! Wethersfield. He VS. at one time
i Governor of the blacks for Connecti-
! cut. He was made free in the prime
/ of life presumably before he first en-
listed in 1856. He had an Indian wo-
man for wife named Betty and late
in life resided at a place called Indian
, Hill in West Simsbury, now Canton
His wife died in 1887 and after that
he became a pauper supported by
the town of New Hartford He died
late in the eighteenth Century aged
about so. 1t is possible, but not pro-
hable, that there may have been two
different Negroes in the vicinity by
the name of London, but I find no
record or circumstances which indi-
Gates that there was more than one
Negro London.
Jacob BrandeEec owned the
Covenant" at New Britain July 81,
1855. FIe was engaged in the West
India trade and ran vessels from
Rocky Hill. He was the owner of a,
Negro boy slave named GUAM" from
Guinea. According to Miss Nort1's
History of Borlen, he was very home
sick and begged to go hack to Guinea
to see his m other. AT one time he was
at Rocky Hill where there was a key
of powder in the attic One day the
hoys told Guam that if he would go
up and sit on that keg and strike
fire he would go % Guinea. On missing
the boy Mrs Brandcgee went un
the attic stairs and saw the boy on the
key in the act of striking a flint. She
ran for her life and escaped, but the
roof of the house was blown off and
the boys mangled body found in the
garden. This happened in 1854 as
appears by Stiles History of Wethers-
field, Vol. /, page 944 which gives g.,
somewhat different version of the af-
fair as taken from the Boston Gazette
of July 80, 1854.
Referring again to the Census Of
1880 which gives the number of slaves
in the town of Berlin as four: Jona-
than Barnes and Ephraim HOLSTER or
kensington, had one slave each but
I have been unable to locate the own
or or owners of the other two, and
hence 7 have no proof that there were
any slaves in New Britain at that
time. Newington from first to last has
had quite a number of slave owners,
including the Rev. Mr. Belden and
others hereinhefore named. Lemuell
Whittloscy of Maple Hill had one slave
in 1890. OF the u slaves in South
inGt0n, Daniel Bradley and Josiah An
Oh CwS had one each. They livedE1n the
Shuttle Meadow diStrtC The Rev.
William Robinson then had one and
had previously owned others. His inn.
mediate predecessor. the Rev. Benia-,
min Chapman, had several slaves. The
following concerning them IS taken
from Trimlows Sketches, page 10&.
after one Thanksgiving dinner they
were seated out doors at the southi
end of the house when one exclaimed
Pete, how bis is Cod Don't know,
nobody know dat I know dat Welt
den how Big Why he is Just as biSt
rs Ntassa Chapman"
Chapman's slaves were so we'll fed
that to live like Chapman's niggers,''
became proverbiaI. Two of the boy
slaves, Prince and Peter Duplex, Werei
given each Il big piece of gingerbread
and sent out of doors. While they|
were eating il, Peter said prince, WEI
live as we'll as God-We hab ginger
bread and cider, and d2r's nothing
better dan dat." Prince replied, We
cannot lib as we'll as God, for we hap.
gingerbread and cider only in de VIM
ter and God can hab dem all de time.'''