Cato
Freeman
By: Doris Sherrow
Cato Freeman
was the head of a black Portland family of four, according to the
1790 census. In 1774, he had been the slave of Ebenezer White who
lived at 582 Main Street. How did he gain his freedom?
Several versions of Portland’s history
portray Cato as if he were a man in his 20s during the 1770s. The book
Black Roots in Southeastern Connecticut 1650-1900 shows that he
was about ten in early 1774. On February 16 of that year, White wrote
that Cato and a team had worked half a day for John Williams, who
was building 584 Main Street for White’s oldest son, David,
soon to be married. And White wrote Cato’s name as if it were not
the first time he had used it in the diary. Unfortunately, except for
this 1774 section on the building of David’s house, 1756 to 1779
are missing.
Curiously, White’s diary shows that
many boys, including his sons David and Daniel, and his grandsons
Elnathan and Erastus Strong, also worked for him at or before
age 10. Work consisted of planting and tending in the spring and summer,
and harvesting and wood-chopping in the fall and winter. White knew that
it could be done by a young boy--he had doubtless planted, tended and
harvested for his father when he was a child!--so there was nothing unkind
in his having 10-year-old Cato work on the farm.
Cato assumed tasks throughout the surviving
sections of the diary which match the tasks assigned to White’s son
David, who was 9 years older, and his son Daniel, who was 2 years younger
than Cato.
From 1779 to 1781, Cato is mentioned almost
daily in White’s diary. Interestingly, he is not recorded any differently
than are White’s sons, David and Daniel. Sometimes he worked with
White or the boys, sometimes he worked alone. Here are some of White’s
diary notes on Cato; I have added semicolons and a couple commas for clarity.
[Nov.8, 1779] My self Daniel & Cato clearing Ditch great Pond
[Jan.7, 1780] Exceeding cold high wind; I did little more than take care of Creatures; Cato thrash’d wheat
[March 11, 1780] My self David & Cato to ye fur Lott Lower End clearing for wheat next fall
[May 3, 1780] …Cato carting brick and &c with my team for Seth Overton all day
[May 26, 1780] Cato and my self all Day mending [fences]
[July 27, 1780] My self making hay and puling flax all Day … Cato mowing A:M in Nicholas meado; P:M he Exchanged work with David and pulled flax for him in Lt Sage’s Lot while David made hay for us
[Sept.21, 1780] Cato thrashed three bushels rye for Dan’l Lee wife [the Lees lived at 24 Pepperidge Road]
[Nov.7, 1780] …my self and Cato and Dan’l carted two load Dung into ye meado
[Dec.18, 1780] …David help’d me hew timber for stable; Cato thrashed for David; Dan’l went to school
[Jan.25, 1781]…Cato cut wood at ye Door
[Feb.3, 1781].We all, viz, self David Cato to ye great hill to sawing timber for cart hubs
[March 22, 1781] Self, David, Cato and Dan’l all ye fur lott with team
[May 14, 1781] Self at Hartford…David and Cato washing sheep
A
couple times, White noted that Cato didn’t work because he was sick,
or his teeth were hurting. Twice he wrote that Cato had taken the day
off because it was election day. In many areas, slaves took election day
off and held their own satirical "election." But mostly White
noted Cato sharing the daily workload with his boys and himself.
Ebenezer White probably held no racial prejudice.
He had been born in 1727 in a house now gone, probably in the vicinity
of Fire Station #2 on Main Street. In his neighborhood, there were perhaps
half a dozen other white families, and probably fifty Wangunk families,
primarily on nearby Penny Corner Road.
White’s father and mother, and later
White himself, often signed their names as witnesses on the Wangunks’
deeds in the 1730s and -40s. While he might have believed devoutly in
the Puritan theology of the times, he was almost certainly open and friendly
to the many Wangunks who held a strong community in the area for the first
third of the 18th century. Thus it would have been no problem for Ebenezer
White to take on a young black boy.
Both White and his brother Stephen had fought
in the French and Indian War in the late 1750s. For whatever reason, his
son David did not go off to war. White’s other son, Daniel, was too
young to join the army, not turning 18 until the year the war ended. But
Cato turned 18 in 1781, while the Revolutionary War was still raging.
On Monday, June 4, 1781, White went to Hartford
to serve one of his many terms as state representative, and brought with
him young Cato. The previous week he had ridden to Woodstock to meet with
Capt. Nehemiah Lyon, a man in his seventies charged with raising more
troops for the Continental Army. Now in Hartford, he allowed Cato to enlist
in the continental service for three years, then sold him to Capt. Lyon.
Lyon subsequently supplied Cato a bill of emancipation in trade for Cato’s
enlisting "as one of ye qota of ye town of Woodstock."
Cato and White returned to Portland, and
Cato worked on the farm for the rest of the week. On Friday, June 8, White
wrote, "…the Last Day Cato worked for me." And on Monday
the 11th, he wrote, "…Cato Bid farewell and went of[f] to begin
his three year service as soldier in ye army."
It isn’t clear why White enlisted Cato
out of Woodstock. Capt. Lyon obtained permission from the Woodstock
town fathers to free Cato in trade for three years of service. I have
never come across such permission in the town records from Chatham (Portland
and East Hampton until 1841), so perhaps Woodstock was one of a limited
number of places where a black man could be freed in payment for his service
in the Revolution. I don’t know for sure!
A bit over a year later, Ebenezer White received $51 from Lyon, his payment
for Cato. While it could be surmised that White had sold him rather than
freeing him, White had met all his needs, including two recent pairs of
shoes, as long as Cato had lived at his house. The $51 was not much money
at that time--around the same time (April 22, 1780), White had paid $60
for three quarts of wine! And White was giving up this slave precisely
when he became an adult of 18. It looks as if Ebenezer White approved
of freeing Cato, and only accepted the money from Lyon because it was
available, so why not take it?
Cato returned to White’s house on leave two or three times. Now he
was called Cato Freeman. He worked a couple days while he visited the
Whites--and was paid! When the war ended, he came back to Portland and
worked for Ebenezer White for a couple more years. In 1789, he married
Rebecca Madee of Wethersfield, and they lived in Portland with two children
by the time the census was taken in 1790.
Oddly enough, only the first third of Cato’s
life took place in Portland. By 1800, he was living in Montville, and
a bit later, in Groton or Preston. Amazingly, the 1850 census shows that
he and Rebecca were living in Chelsea, Vermont! Rebecca died at age 96
in 1853. Cato survived until March 12, 1863, when he died at the age of
100!
