1767: “Ran away from his Master, Eleazer Weld of Roxbury… a Boy of about 18 Years of Age named Thomas Smith”[1]

1769: “Ran away from the Subscriber [Eleazer Weld]… a Negro Man Servant named Prince, about 18 years of Age”[2]

1785: Elizabeth Patten, 8-year-old girl bound to Eleazer Weld for housewifery[3]

Introduction
Until the late 20th/21st century, the American Revolutionary War was portrayed simply as a fight for freedom and independence. American colonists often described British rule as “tyranny” and “slavery.” Yet, in all of the colonies, including Massachusetts, chattel slavery – the enslaving of human beings and their children as property to be bought, sold, and forced to work without wages – existed at the same time as the fight for liberty and the establishment of the first modern republic.[4]

Eleazer Weld, Revolutionary War Hero with a Double Standard
Jamaica Plain’s Eleazer Weld exemplified that contradiction. By the late 1700s, Eleazer Weld (b. 1736) was known as a patriot who fought in the Revolutionary War. His military service was exemplary. He served in the Continental Army from February 4, 1776 through October 11, 1780, first as a Lieutenant and later as a Lieutenant Colonel and fought at the battles of Dorchester Heights and Castle Island, among others. Weld was an American patriot who served for almost four years to achieve the dream of independence and liberty.[5]

Eleazer Weld was one of the original founders of the Third Parish of Roxbury (now First Church in Jamaica Plain) in 1773 and was buried in its burial ground in 1800. In the 1780s, Weld served as Justice of the Peace and Selectman of Roxbury, which included Jamaica Plain at the time. Duties included resolving boundary disputes, removing undesirables, and witnessing indenture transactions.[6]

Eleazer Weld also enslaved and indentured people, both African and White for at least 28 years. Weld actively stole the freedom of others even while he fully committed himself to the ideals of the American Revolution. Two of those people ran away, presumably to live under better conditions than those imposed by Weld. It appears that for Weld, aspirations of independence and liberty must have applied only to wealthy White men.

Weld’s estate was located on land awarded to his great grandfather Captain Joseph Weld for his participation in the Pequot War of 1636-7.[7] The colonial legislature granted Weld 278 acres between South and Centre Streets in much of the present-day Arnold Arboretum. The area included the Sawmill (or Bussey) Brook which runs through the Arboretum towards Stony Brook and the marsh that currently meets visitors at the Arborway main entrance. Eleazer Weld lived in the first Weld Hall as did several generations of the family before him.[8],[9]

The 1771 Roxbury tax records show Weld owned 25 acres of pasture, 5 acres of tillage, 10 acres of meadow and a dwelling house. The estate produced 75 bushels of grain, four tons of salt marsh hay and seven tons of fresh meadow hay per year.[10]

Eleazer Weld’s 1771 tax record also reveals him to be a “Servant Owner” of one “Servant for Life.” Today, the term “servant” is used to define someone who is employed and paid to serve another person. However, in the 1600s and 1700s, “servant” could refer to three different financial relationships: 1) a person who was employed and paid, 2) an indentured person who served for a limited period of time stipulated by a contract in an unpaid capacity in return for room, board, clothing and training or 3) a “servant for life,” what today we would call an enslaved person.

In other words, the 1771 tax record shows that Eleazer Weld was an enslaver, and the person he enslaved was counted as property to be taxed.

Prince, “Servant for Life”

Runaway ad - Prince enslaved by Eleazer Weld - Boston Evening-Post, February 1, 1769

We don’t know the exact identity of the “Servant for Life” listed for Eleazer Weld in 1771 tax record, but we do know something about at least one person Weld enslaved in this era. In 1769, two Boston papers ran ads on three different dates in both February and March for “a Negro Man Servant named Prince, about 18 Years of Age” signed by Eleazer Weld.[11] Prince is described as five feet tall, and well built, except for small legs. One of his upper front teeth was broken. He “talks good English.” Weld must have hoped that these details would enable White people to recognize and return Prince to him.

A possible insight into Prince’s life as an enslaved person might be gleaned from the description of “a large Scar on his Belly occasioned by a Scald.” How was Prince scalded? Was he assigned to dangerous work with hot liquids as a child? Similarly, one of Prince’s front teeth was broken “nigh halfway to his Gum.” How did that event occur and what, if any, attention did he receive for injuries that were likely painful?

The ad says that Prince took with him a blue broadcloth coat and waistcoat [vest] with plain yellow metal buttons, a double-breasted flannel jacket, a plain brown one, two pairs of stockings, two pairs of shoes including one with shoe strings, two striped woolen shirts and a felt hat.

The ad’s focus on Prince’s clothing is typical of runaway ads of the time. Clothes were difficult to discard or replace in a pre-industrial world so the exactness of their description was aimed at finding and reclaiming Prince.[1 2 ]

Eleazer Weld offered a four dollar reward for the return of Prince. It is worth noting that Weld was so eager to get his “property” back that he placed the ad three times over a period of two months. Did Prince’s escape succeed?

Thomas Smith, Indentured or Enslaved?

Runaway ad - Thomas Smith indentured by Eleazer Weld - Boston Post-Boy April 18, 1767

Another person Hidden Jamaica Plain initially suspected as Weld’s “Servant for Life” of the 1771 tax records was Thomas Smith. Eleazer Weld advertised for the return of the runaway Thomas Smith in the Boston Post-Boy on April 18, 1767.[13] Thomas Smith is described as a “Boy about 18 Years of Age… a short thick Lad, freckled Face, and black curl’d Hair; he carried off with him sundry different Sorts of Apparell.” Weld offered three coppers reward for the return of Thomas Smith. Considering how to interpret the ad, the description of Thomas Smith does not describe him as “a Negro” as does the ad for Prince. Nor does it specify the clothing he took with him as in the ad for Prince.

And even in 1767, a reward of three coppers was not a high amount of money. Compared, the three coppers award for Thomas Smith would be worth about $3 in 2023 and the four dollars award for Prince would be worth about $160.[14] Even if other measures are used, the ratio shows that an enslaved person like Prince was clearly much more valuable to Eleazer Weld. This ratio is similar to other rewards offered for indentured versus enslaved runaways of the time.[15]

All indicators suggest that Thomas Smith was likely indentured with a term that would expire at age 21. With only three years left on the indenture, and the greater success Smith might have in running away were he White, Eleazer Weld was not investing heavily to find him.

Elizabeth Patten, Indentured for Housewifery

Elizabeth Patten Indenture to Eleazer Weld - June 25, 1785, Digital Commonwealth

Found among the records of the Boston Overseers of the Poor are lists of White, African and Indigenous children who were indentured in the eighteenth century.[16] In some cases, parents with children, particularly boys, voluntarily entered indenture agreements for the children to provide unpaid labor in return for receiving training, food, clothing and shelter. However, “binding out” was also a labor system that forced many poor children, children of unwed mothers and orphans to serve as servants or apprentices. The average term of service was just over ten years, with indenture usually ending at age 21 for boys and 18 for girls.

In Boston, the majority of children bound out were from the almshouse rather than family homes. The indenture system was encouraged by the local towns to avoid responsibility for contributing to the welfare of orphaned and poor children. In return for room and board, these children were forced to provide unpaid labor to their indenturers.

It is likely that Thomas Smith was indentured to Eleazer Weld as a child. We know for certain that on June 25, 1785, Eleazer Weld bound Elizabeth Patten, an eight-year-old girl, for the trade of “Housewifery.”[17] The indenture was to last until her 18th birthday on November 16, 1795, and she was to serve Eleazer Weld for 3,796 days.

Called an “apprentice” in the indenture document, Elizabeth was required by the terms of the indenture to serve, keep close the family’s secrets and obey their commandments. She was not to play cards, dice or other unlawful games. The indenture document stated that she could not commit fornication or marry during her term as an apprentice. Nor could she frequent taverns, ale houses, or places of gaming.

In return, Eleazer Weld’s wife Mary (née Hatch) would teach Elizabeth to “Knit Sew & Spin & All other Branchs of Good housewifery and to Read and Write.” The Welds were to provide for Elizabeth “sufficient and wholesome Meat and Drink, with Washing, Lodging & clothing and other Necessaries.” At the end of the indenture, they were to “Dismiss the Apprentice with two Good Suits of wairing apparel, fitting for all parts of her Body – one for the Lord’s Day, the other for Working days.”

Witness to Indenture of Dick Morey
In addition to indenturing Elizabeth Patten to himself, Eleazer Weld served as a witness to the indentures of other children in his capacity as a Justice of the Peace and Selectman of Roxbury. In 1786, Weld witnessed the involuntary indenture of six-year-old Dick Morey to David Stoddard Greenough of Jamaica Plain.

Dick Morey Indenture, September 6, 1786, Massachusetts Historical Society

Dick Morey, described in documents as “Molatto,” was the son of an enslaved African woman named Binah and an unknown father. At the age of five, on July 30, 1785, Dick was sold for 5 pounds by his Jamaica Plain enslaver John Morey to David Stoddard Greenough, who lived on the estate at 12 South Street in Jamaica Plain, today known as the Loring Greenough House. The bill of sale clearly treated young Dick as Morey’s property, transferring him to Greenough “in the Capacity of a Servant until he shall attain to the Age of Twenty one Years.” Dick was indentured, not enslaved, and thus would be free when he attained adulthood, but in the intervening 16 years he would be forced to provide unpaid labor to Greenough.[18],[19]

The next year on September 6, 1786, Greenough changed the legal basis to a formal indenture using a standard printed form which would be more legally enforceable in light of changes in Massachusetts case law stemming from the 1783 Quock Walker court case which opened the way to emancipation.[20] Subsequently, on March 14, 1787 Selectman Eleazer Weld supported Dick Morey’s involuntary indenture as an apprentice to be instructed in farming by witnessing that Greenough had crossed out the part of the form that stated that Dick “doth voluntarily and of his own free Will and Accord, and with the Consent of his” parents, bind himself to Greenough. No mention was made of Dick’s mother Binah.[21],[22]

Weld’s Contradictions
Eleazer Weld was an enslaver and indenturer who participated in and supported those systems for presumably his entire life. His contradictions included his commitment to the ideals of the American Revolution while actively stealing the freedom of others. He searched for runaway enslaved and indentured people but at the same time admired William Gordon, the fervent pro-Revolution, anti-slavery first minister of First Church in Jamaica Plain, so much that he named his son William Gordon Weld. Eleazer Weld’s war heroism and public service contributions do not erase his actions to enslave and indenture others. Eleazer Weld’s life was defined by his contradictions.

Note on the Authors: Hidden Jamaica Plain
Note on Terminology

Notes

[1] Massachusetts Constitution and the Abolition of Slavery
https://www.mass.gov/guides/massachusetts-constitution-and-the-abolition-of-slavery#:~:text=It%20is%20generally%20agreed%20that,participated%20in%20the%20slave%20trade.

[2] Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution, Secretary of the Commonwealth, 1891, p. 820-821

[3] Massachusetts Historical Society, “Legal Papers of John Adams, Vol. 1, Record of Suffolk Court of General Sessions, Boston, 1768 https://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/view/LJA01d101

[4] The Pequot War was largely a capture-and-kill mission by the English. Furthermore, captive Pequot men were loaded onto the vessel Desire in Boston to be sold into slavery in the Caribbean. The Desire then returned to Boston in 1638 with enslaved Africans for sale. The Pequot War was a major catalyst in launching the African slave trade in Massachusetts. An estimated 166 transatlantic enslaving voyages over the next 150 years began in Boston. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pequot-War. https://www.bostonharborislands.org/blog/ship-desire/

[5] Jamaica Plain Historical Society website, “Weld Family” https://www.jphs.org/people/2005/4/14/weld-family.html?rq=weld

[6] Annals and Reminiscences of Jamaica Plain by Harriet Manning Whitcomb

[7] 1771 Massachusetts Tax Survey Database https://legacy.sites.fas.harvard.edu/~hsb41/masstax/masstax.cgi

[8] Ad published by Eleazer Weld in the Boston Evening Post on February 1, 1769 and the Boston Post Boy March 12, 1769

[9]Levelers and Fugitives: Runaway Advertisements and the Contrasting Political Economies of Mid-Eighteenth-Century Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, Barry Levy, Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid Atlantic Studies, Vol. 78, No. 1 (Winter 2011), Penn State University Press

[10] Ad published by Eleazer Weld in the Boston Post Boy, April 18, 1767

[11] Measuring Worth https://eh.net/howmuchisthat/
Pounds Sterling to Dollars https://www.uwyo.edu/numimage/currency.htm
CPI Inflation Calculator. https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1769?amount=4

[12] Rewards Offered in 1798, Boston 1775 blog by J.L. Bell, December 1, 2022 https://boston1775.blogspot.com/search?q=rewards+offered+in+1798

[13] Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Children Bound Out 1756-1790 https://www.colonialsociety.org/node/3093

[14] Document of indenture: Servant: Patten, Elizabeth. Master: Weld, Eleazer. Town of Master:Roxury. Selectment of the town of Roxbury autograph document signed to the Overseers of the poor of the town of Boston: Endorsement Certificate for Eleazer Weld, Digital Commonwealth, https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:q524mr730

[15] Massachusetts Historical Society, Bill of sale from John Mory to David Stoddard Greenough for Dick (an enslaved person), 30 July 1785 https://www.masshist.org/database/669

[16] Dick Morey “in the Capacity of a Servant,” Boston 1775 blog by J.L. Bell, November 11, 2022 https://boston1775.blogspot.com/2022/11/dick-morey-in-capacity-of-servant.html

[17] Long Road to Justice: The African American Experience in the Massachusetts Courts http://www.longroadtojustice.org/topics/slavery/quock-walker.php

[18] Massachusetts Historical Society, Indenture between David Stoddard Greenough and Dick Morey, witnessed by selectmen of Roxbury, 6 September 1786 https://www.masshist.org/database/701

[19]Dick Morey “in the Capacity of a Servant,” Boston 1775 blog by J.L. Bell, November 11, 2022 https://boston1775.blogspot.com/2022/11/dick-morey-in-capacity-of-servant.html

Prince, Thomas Smith, and Elizabeth Patten: Enslaved and Indentured by Eleazer Weld in Jamaica Plain