An Enslaved Black Sailor of the American Revolution?
I'm currently in the midst of transcribing an 18th-century account book owned by Lt. Richard Dodge of Wenham, Massachusetts. The account book details all labor/goods transactions between Lt. Dodge and his neighbors throughout the 1750s-1770s in this small predominantly agricultural community on the North Shore of Boston. My main interest in the accounts are the entries referencing the labor of Wenham's enslaved population. The Dodges were wealthy landowners and they enslaved men, women, and children in the 18th century throughout Essex County, Massachusetts.
One name I keep seeing in the accounts is Hampshire. He was the son of Hazard and Flora, a couple also enslaved by Lt. Dodge. In the 1760s and 1770s Hampshire was recorded performing a variety of labor for the Dodges, including hauling rocks and dung, cutting up wood, mowing, breaking up the ground for planting, working the mill, and carrying freight. The image below shows him (as "Hamsheair") mowing for "part of a Day."
Whenever I'm researching anyone in history, I do a Google search of their name in case they were mentioned in a book some kind soul has digitized. When I Googled "Hampshire Dodge," that is, Hampshire's first name plus his enslaver's surname, I came up with a very interesting hit: a 1777 crew list for the Continental Frigate Boston (see the entire book, Captain Hector McNeill of the Continental Navy here).
You can see the entry for Hampshire Dodge circled in red. It shows he was assigned to the larboard watch, and gun N 10.
Interestingly, on the same page are entries for men whose first names stand out as common names imposed upon enslaved African-descended men in the 18th century in New England: Nero Freeman, Cuff Freeman, and Caesar Fairweather. I've circled their names in yellow.
It's likely Nero and Cuff, judging by their surnames, were free when they shipped out on the Boston: it was common in New England for formerly enslaved people to take the surname "Freeman," or another surname of their own choice, rather than retain the surname of their enslaver.
It wasn't at all unusual for enslaved men to volunteer--or be volunteered--for service in the American Revolution, especially in New England. You can view and download the truly impressive Forgotten Patriots project to learn more. In the spring of 1775, Lt. Richard Dodge's son Richard Jr. became the captain of a company in the regiment of Colonel Samuel Gerrish of Newbury, and one of the men Richard Jr. enslaved, Scipio Dodge, fought alongside him. Hampshire heading off to sail in service on Boston would not have been far-fetched at all considering all of the patriotic fervor in the immediate Dodge family.
Boston would have been a brand new vessel when Hampshire sailed on her, launched from Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1776 and completed in 1777, just in time to accompany Hancock and American Tartar on a run up the coast of the North Atlantic. As far as the Dodge account books report, Hampshire had no previous experience at sea, though he may have plied one of Lt. Dodge's "canoues" through shallow local waterways. He was about to learn seamanship on his feet.
After aiding Hancock in capturing HMS Fox in a broadside attack on June 8, 1777 (above image), Boston found itself, one short month later, on July 8, 1777, in the crosshairs of the 44-gun HMS Rainbow, HMS Flora and HMS Victor. Fox, Hancock, and Boston immediately sailed in different directions so as not to provide an easy target for their pursuers. Fox was taken first after a short fight, and Hancock surrendered soon after, her captain possibly fearing HMS Rainbow was in fact a 72-gun man-o-war. Boston fled for the mouth of the Sheepscot River, just south of the town of Wiscasset in what today is the state of Maine. Boston remained in the Sheepscot, supposedly becalmed, until August. Upon their return, Captain Hector McNeill was court marshaled and dismissed from the service for failing to support Hancock during the battle.
The image below shows HMS Flora (left) in the act of recapturing Fox, while HMS Rainbow pursues Hancock in the distance to the left, and nearly out of sight to the far right is Boston, fleeing for the coast.
But what happened to Hampshire after that ill-fated cruise on Boston? Did he return home to Wenham and the Dodge farm? Was he properly celebrated as a "Son of Liberty" and granted his freedom from enslavement at last? The reality of Hampshire's fate is not that joyful.
In Wenham, Massachusetts, on April 20, 1778, an ailing Lt. Richard Dodge made out his will. Hampshire is mentioned within--apparently he did return to Wenham after his service on Boston. According to the will, Hampshire, still enslaved, was to be given to Lt. Dodge's son, Capt. Richard Dodge, Jr. upon Lt. Dodge's death.
But Hampshire is not the only enslaved person mentioned in the will. We learn that Lt. Dodge also planned to give an enslaved Black woman named Silve, along with her child, to Lt. Dodge's wife Mary upon his death.
With no context in the will and no supporting records that mention Silve or her child either in the Wenham town records or church records, we do not know what Silve's relationship to Hampshire was. They could very well have been a couple, and the child may have been theirs. If so, the terrible reality was that Lt. Dodge's inevitable death meant their family would be split apart. And on May 11, 1778, the inevitable happened.
On December 15, 1778, Lt. Richard Dodge's probate inventory--a record of all his possessions--was recorded by three Wenham men appointed by the court. Hampshire, Silve, and Silve's child are all there, but recorded as nameless property, with monetary values attached:
Hampshire--nameless here--is highlighted in the above cropped image from Lt. Dodge's probate inventory. The "value" of this man, who was likely a veteran of the Continental Navy during American Revolution, was listed at £20. Such were the brutally dehumanizing effects of slavery in that storied "cradle of liberty," 18th-century Massachusetts.