This video is a tour of the Beverly Historical Society and Museum with Researcher and Education Specialist Terri L. McFadden. The exhibits include the Juno Larcom and family, John Cabot Residence, a bank, maritime exhibit, and Revolutionary War exhibit.
Recorded on 04/06/2016 06:31 PM UTC by WrldBlkHistPeri
Set at Liberty: Juno Larcom and her Family
By Terri McFadden
“...have made diligent Enquiry into the Exact Number of the Negro Slaves both males and females sixteen years and upwards.”
These are among the earliest words written about African-Americans in Beverly, the result of a census of “Negro Slaves” ordered by the Massachusetts General Court in 1754. The “diligent Enquiry” found that Beverly had 28 slaves – 12 males and 16 females over the age of 16. The total population of the town was about 2000. At this time slaves in Massachusetts made up nearly 2% of the total population. There was a deep-seated belief, harkening back to the Puritan belief in predestination, that blacks were in servitude because God willed it. Robert Rantoul wrote that although many “conscientious persons” of the time would not engage in active trade with Africa, they would buy slaves if they were offered for sale, “...because they supposed that an education in a land of gospel light was preferable to one in heathenish darkness.”
Slavery was never an important source of labor in Massachusetts, but there were more slaves in the coastal towns than in the inland communities. In the 17th century, when farming was the most common occupation, there were fewer slaves. But as maritime trade became more important in the early 1700s the slave population increased, peaking in Beverly just before the American Revolution at nearly eighty individuals.
A rather surprising number of references to one particular local black family can be found in personal memoirs, census and court records. This is the family of Juno Larcom and her husband Jethro Thistle. Juno was half Native American and half black. Her Indian mother was stolen from North Carolina and sold in New England. Juno was born about 1724 and was purchased in Portsmouth, New Hampshire by Captain Henry Herrick of Beverly. When his daughter Mary married John West in 1731, little Juno went with her mistress, although Herrick retained ownership of her. John West died in 1745 and in1750 Mary married David Larcom. When Captain Herrick died he named Mary owner of Juno. Since a women’s property legally belonged to her husband, Juno’s owner was in fact David Larcom. It was at this time that she became known as Juno Larcom, one of three surnames she used during her life. (The other names she used were Fullman and Freeman, although she eventually returned to the Larcom name.)
Sometime in the 1750s Juno and a neighbor, Jethro, slave of Jeffery Thistle, had the first of their twelve children – eleven of whom survived to adulthood. They married officially in 1751 when the First Parish Church recognized their union. They, and all their children were baptized and “claimed the covenant” becoming members. The homes of the two slave-owning families were near each other in the Pride’s Crossing area of Beverly, and it is possible that the couple were able to live together, at least for part of their marriage. During the course of Jethro’s life he was sold two more times, both times to Beverly men. In 1777 Jethro joined the Continental Army, serving for nearly a year two different regiments. He is reported to have died in Valley Forge on February 28, 1778.
Financial reverses seem to have caused David Larcom to sell at least two of Juno and Jethro’s children. A Larcom family story was passed down suggesting that when David realized that slavery would soon be abolished in the commonwealth he began selling his slaves, however this doesn’t seem to be borne out by the facts. Several of Juno’s children were sold to owners within Beverly. However, one daughter was sold to a new owner in New York; this spurred Juno into action. At this time there were several successful lawsuits brought in Massachusetts by slaves seeking their freedom. Public sentiment in Massachusetts had turned against the idea of slavery. In July 1774 Juno Larcom brought suit against David Larcom. She told the court that she had served her mistress for more than 46 years and that her master had sold her children and had treated her badly. She stated her case, and finished by saying: “Judge Ye Weather or noe I hadent ort to Be set at Liberty”. The following year the case was dismissed without a finding because David Larcom died. Perhaps the most unusual part of the matter occurred next; Juno and her family “claim’d their freedom”. The white Larcom family obviously accepted this, because they provided a home for Juno and her large household and over the years donated money towards their keep. The former slave and her family worked as laundresses.
Juno’s house stood for many years at Pride’s Crossing in Beverly. In the 1790 US Census she is listed as the head of the household. Over the years the numbers varied between 8 members and 11. She lived until 1816 when she died at age about 92. Several of her children stayed in Beverly all their lives.
Mary Larcom Dow, descendant of David Larcom wrote that“...the next house east of the station...[train station at Pride’s Crossing] was a tumble down old house innocent of paint, and black with age”. Cloe Larcom Turner, the youngest child of Juno and Jethro, lived here with another former slave named Philis Cave and her daughter Nancy. Cloe and Philis survived until the 1850s, both passing the great age of 95. The single personal object that we know that has survived from the Larcom family is Cloe’s hymnbook, recently found in the Beverly Historical Society collection. On the front leaf is a poem that Cloe wrote:
Cloe Turner is my name/Nevermyland is my station/Beverly is my dwelling place/and Christ is my salvation/When I am dead and in my grave/Only my bones are rotten/When this you read Remember me/So I won’t be forgotten.
Their lives were not easy ones and Cloe’s poem seems to indicate that she felt an outsider in the community where she had lived all her life. Like Juno Larcom, Philis Cave worked as a laundress. She was well-known as a hard worker and she continued to work well into her 80s, walking about four miles to and from her home in Pride’s Crossing to downtown. Flora Larcom Wellman, the daughter whose sale to an owner in New York prompted her mother’s lawsuit, returned to town with a husband, Pompey. Pompey was many years older and not well and both ended up in the workhouse, where Pompey died. Unemployment was a serious problem for African-Americans after the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts. By the mid-nineteenth century most of Beverly’s black population had moved to larger towns in search of work. Several of Juno’s granddaughters and daughter-in-laws stayed on and found work as housecleaners. Author Lucy Larcom wrote that they were well-respected but always seemed out of place. Cloe’s poem seems to bear this out. But nevertheless the black Larcom family had a place in the community for over 100 years and could certainly look back in pride at the brave stand their matriarch made in her quest for liberty.
Information from “Slavery and Anti-Slavery” book in the Beverly Historical Society
and notes
#342 1727 Bill of Sale – Mary Coest [?] sale to Richard Thistle a certain Negro man child of about two years of age, named Mathew, born of a Negro slave named Sue Black, late in possesion of my brother Shadrack Norton of Manchester. [This likely Jethro Thistle, Juno Larcom’s husband.]
Shadrack Norton m Elizabeth Woodbery December 25, 1709 (MVR 202) [No birth or death record for Shadrack in MVR; no record of Mary Coest birth, marriage or death.]
There are a number of people named Black listed in MVR births p 128, but no Sue Black or Matthew. All of the Negroes named “Black” are children of Dille Black.
[No Matthew Thistle listed in BVR I under “Negroes”]
# 7940 14 Oct 1735 receipt of 64 pounds for a Negro
#7941 October 28, 1742 [?date is unclear] Bill of Sale – Simon Bradstreet paid Benjamin Cleaves of Beverly 40 pounds for a Negro boy 8 yrs “with his Cloathes and appurments” #???? 14 March 1761 William West of Salem for the sum of 22 pounds paid by Benjamin Cleeves for a Negro woman named Phillis.
#7943 1762 Anna Bartlett, widow to her son William Bartlett of Beverly paid 100 pounds All the property of Anna’s husband was to be divided equally between herself and her son, William. [This document is hard to read – check terms again.]
#7944 31 March 1764 Bill of Sale Jonathan Hart of Beverly and his wife Abigail sold to John Lovett, 3rd of Beverly ½ of the Grist Mill at Sallow’s Bridge and also “my Negro girl named Cate”
#7945 22 Dec 1768 Bill of Sale Joshua dodge of Beverly and his wife Anna sold to Benjamin Cleaves a Negro girl for 5 pounds 8 shillings
#7946 25 March 1769 Bill of Sale Mary Woodberry was paid 40 pounds by William Bartlett for a negro boy Porcius age 10 years.
#7947 1767 & 1768 & 1770 Receipt for payments for mutton, pasturing a horse and “Use of Copper” William Bartlett to Robert Hale Ives
Robert Hale Ives was b 1744 son of Elizabeth (Hale) b 1725 & Benjamin Ives; No person named Copper found in the BVR
#7948 Receipt August 1770 “My Negro named Boston” on board Schooner Polly on a voyage from Boston to Philadelphia & Back again.
#7949 Bill of Sale 6 April 1773 David Larcom, Yeoman sale to James Thistle, yeoman a negro boy named Reuben age 12. [son of Juno Larcom and Jethro Thistle] Reuben [Larcom?] b 1761 [Reuben was baptized at First Parish in 1761 Reuben Larcom m Rose Lovett 25 Feb 1794. Rose (Lovett) Larcom mentioned by Lucy Larcom in her book “A New England Childhood”]
#7950 Receipt Nov 16, 1796 for wage paid to “Juno” [Larcom?] from Israel Woodberry [bpt 1 Aug 1736 2nd church]. Items include silk, yarn, whitening cloth, making striped cloth. The document also states: “To Enoch wages while living with Juno 4 ½ dollars You know what that is better than I”. [Enoch Larcom, son of Juno & Jethro was probably about 27 or older. He was baptized at First Parish Church with 3 other siblings in 1769]
#7951 Anna Bartlett
#7953 Scipio
#7954 On Board a vessel [?] a Negro Boy Pollack
#7955 Power of attorney given to Josiah Batchelder to recover wages due to Aesop Ives May 1794 Schooner Fanny
Aesop b 1775 d 1796 BVR son of Dinah Larcom [Aesop was Juno Larcoms grandson] his mother was Dinah Larcom who married 1st Esop [Aesop] Gilman 1775, he was the servant of Joseph Gilman of Exeter, NH; then Dinah Larcom m 2nd Michael Milo or Milon 5 July 1778. No record in BVR about Esop/Aesop’s death (husband of Dinah Larcom).
[The Gilman connection seems to be through Elizabeth Hale Gilman – who was first married to Col Robert Hale and 2nd to Col. John Gilman of Exeter, NH – BVR II p450.
It isn’t clear why Aesop used the name Ives – although Robert Hale Ives b 1744 s of Benjamin and Elizabeth Ives, may have owned slaves. CHECK THIS “Mrs. E. Hale” is named on the document. Elizabeth Hale b 18 July 1725 d of Robert and Elizabeth
#7956 a receipt for wages due from Aesop Ives’ fishing voyage aboard the Schooner Fanny. Josiah Batchelder Dinah and Michael Milon had at least two children Michael bp 1809 and Charles Lewis bp 4 August 1811. Another infant, also named Michael Milon s of Michael was buried in June of 1808. Michael Milon died in 19 May 1833 age 24. Charles Lewis died of “fits” at 6 months 18 January 1812. It appears that Dinah Larcom had no survivors. But see also Dinah Freeman son Amos b 1789.
See Also:
EIHC Vol 34: 64 – Bill of Sale recorded Vol 24:81
Robert Rantoul “Slavery in Mass”
EIHC Vol 7: 37 – Slavery in Essex County, George B Lori
Comments
Post a Comment