Caesar Robbins
Caesar Robbins was enslaved in Concord until the Revolution, after which he lived on the edge of the Great Field with his wife Catherine, by approval of nearby landowner Humphrey Barrett. Two of their children, Peter Robbins and Susan Robbins Garrison, raised large families here. Caesar Robins’ first house passed out of African Ownership in [...]
Thomas and Jennie Dugan
Thomas Dugan was a self-emancipated slave from Virginia. He was the third former enslaved person to own land in Concord. He and his first wife Catherine had five children. When Catherine died, Thomas married Jennie Parker of Acton, who may have been born in Africa, and after whom Nut Meadow Brook was renamed Jennie Dugan’s [...]
Zilpha (or Zipha) White
Formerly an enslaved woman, Zilpah White lived in a one-room house on the common land that bordered Walden Road. She made a living spinning flax into linen fibers. In Walden, Thoreau notes that, like other former enslaved persons, she too was harassed. He describes her living conditions as “somewhat inhumane.” And yet her ability to [...]
Cato and Phyllis Ingraham
When local squire Duncan Ingraham moved to Medford in 1795, his man Cato asked if he could marry a local (currently or formerly) enslaved person named Phyllis and bring her along. Duncan replied that Cato could marry but only if he stayed behind in Concord, severed his ties with his master, and sought no further [...]
Brister and Fenda Freeman
After 25 years of enslavement, Brister Freeman became the second former enslaved person to own land in Concord. Brister’s Hill is named after the area where he and another former enslaved person purchased an acre of “old field.” Brister and his wife Fenda, who told fortunes, had three children. Brister worked as a day labororer [...]
Colonel James Barrett
Colonel James Barrett was like many other wealthy and titled Concord men in the 1700s in that he owned humans, including a young man named Philip who is listed in a 1775 militia roll call. For a school assignment, one of James’ sons drew up a mock bill of sale in which he imagined selling [...]