Ancestor Punished for Offering a Sympathetic Ear to a Slave in 1681 Massachusetts
Sarah Chandler Cleaves: 1638-1689 or 1638-1713
On three prior occasions I have run across enslaved people
in my genealogical research, and to my horror, my ancestors were their
enslavers. But this time I was relieved that my ancestor, Sarah Chandler
Cleaves, was not the slaveholder. Instead, it appears she treated a slave more
like a friend than an unequal, and listened to the woman’s complaints with
sympathy. Sadly, this behavior got Sarah into trouble with her community, and
didn’t help the tragic enslaved woman either.
Sarah Chandler, my eighth-great-grandaunt, was born in Roxbury
in the Massachusetts Bay Colony around 1638 to parents William and Annis
Chandler (my ninth-great-grandparents). Her parents had arrived in the colony
only a year earlier with their four older children. William Chandler died when
Sarah was three years old, and she was raised by her stepfather, John Dane.
Sarah married another Roxbury man, William Cleaves, November
4, 1659. She appears in her mother’s will of 1672, and she, along with her
sister Hannah, received household goods and livestock. Sarah and William had
several children before William was killed by Native Americans during King Phillip’s
War on April 29, 1676. Sarah was left a widow with six young children ranging
from an infant to a sixteen year old.
Sarah apparently had been a bit of a rebel in the eyes of
her Puritan neighbors. The records of her church, kept by the minister, Rev.
Eliot, state that she was censured for some sort of misbehavior in 1670. She
was only “restored to full communion” a full five years later, so the sin must
have been serious, or she must have been stubbornly unrepentant.
As a result, it probably wasn’t all that surprising that in
1681 she found herself in trouble again, this time for chatting with a young
enslaved woman who worked for one of her neighbors. Probably most Puritan women
would have ignored the slave rather than talk to her, but not Sarah. The young
African woman, Maria, was apparently unhappy with her mistress; perhaps Sarah
offered a sympathetic ear. No one knows what was said, but one night afterwards
Maria set fire to her owners’ house and to a neighboring house. The community
sought to punish Sarah along with the young arsonist.
Here is the account of the proceedings against Sarah, who by
now was remarried, as recorded in Rev. Eliot’s church records:
“1681 M[onth] 7 day 4
Sister Cleaves (alias Stevens) was publically [sic] admonished for unseasonably
entertaining and corrupting other folks servants & children, & hath
corrupted Mr. Lams neger who is discontent and her Mrs. House on fire in the
dead of night and also Mr. Swans. One Girl was burned & all the rest had
much ado to escape with their lives. “
Please note that the use of the “n” word was in the original
text. I will be charitable and assume Rev. Eliot was referring to the woman’s
place of origin along the Niger River in Africa. However, in present-day
America the word--no matter what spelling was used or what the original intent
or meaning of the reference was in the historical text--is a slur. Therefore, I
will use “n____” for any subsequent quotes in the remainder of this post.
It sounds as if the final incident with Maria was not the
only one leading to Sarah’s charge—she is accused of “unseasonably entertaining
and corrupting” servants in the plural, and people’s children as well! I cannot
imagine what sort of behavior these rigid Puritans considered “corrupting.” Was
she talking too freely? Was she joking with them? Criticizing their owners or parents?
Offering them alcoholic drinks? Offering sexual favors? Other mentions of “unseasonable
entertainment” in colonial court and church records refer to such disparate
actions as playing music and prostitution—not quite equal sins in my
estimation!
I have been unable to find out how severe a punishment
public admonishment was—whether physical punishment usually accompanied a
verbal tongue-lashing, or was just occasionally used. (I have found references
to young men being publicly admonished by whip, but don’t know if whipping was
always part of the public spectacle.)
Whatever the admonishment involved, Sarah does not appear to
have been isolated or cut off from the community as a result. She was already
twice a widow when this charge of corruption occurred in 1881, and it appears
she went on to marry two more times before her death. Her spouses’ names and
marriage dates all still need confirmation, as does the date of her death. Some
sources say she died at age 51 in 1889, just eight years after her admonishment.
Other sources list a death date of December 1713, which would mean she was over
seventy years old.
Sadly, poor enslaved Maria’s death date was quite clearly
recorded. Maria was transported to nearby Boston (Roxbury eventually becomes a
Boston neighborhood) for trial. Increase Mather noted the results in his diary:
“[1681 September] 22.
There were 3 persons executed in Boston[.] An Englishman for a Rape. A n___ man
for burning a house at Northampton & a n___ woman who burnt 2 houses at
Roxbury July 12 — in one of wch a child was burnt to death.* The n____ woman
was burned to death — the 1st yt has suffered such a death in N.E.”
Map of Massachusetts Bay Colony in late 1600s
The Massachusetts Bay Colony court records provide more
detail:
“Maria, a n___ servant
to Joshua Lambe of Roxbury, in the county of Suffoike in New England, being
presented by the Grand Jury was indicted by the name of Maria N____ for not
having the feare of God before hir eyes and being instigated by the devil at or
upon the eleventh of July last in the night did wittingly, willingly and
feloniously set on fire the dwelling house of Thomas Swann of said Roxbury by
taking a Coale from under a still and carried it into another roome and laide
it on the floore neere the doore and presently went and crept into a hole at a
back doore of thy Masters Lambs house and set it on fier also taking a live
coale betweene two chips and carried it into the chamber by which also it was
consumed. As by uour Confession will appeare contrary to the peace of our Souevaigne
Lord the King his croune.
The prisoner at the
bar pleaded and acknowledged herself to be guilty of said fact. And accordingly
the next day being again brought to the bar and sentenced of death pronounced
against her by the honorable Governor, yet she should go from the bar to the
prison from whence she came and thence to the place of execution and there be
burnt.
Thy Lord be merciful
to thy soul.”
I wonder what Mr. Lambe had done to the unfortunate Maria
that led her to set fire to his house. Another enslaved man executed along with
Maria, also for committing arson, had suffered brutally under his master. The court
record states that the man, Jack, had:
“Run away from Mr.
Samuell Wolcot because he always beates him sometimes with 100 blows so that he
hath told his master that he would sometime or other hang himself”.
This is proof that no matter how rigid Puritan morals seemed
to be, they had little respect for the basic rights of people of a different
race or religion. Poor Jack’s master should have been executed along with him
for beating a human being so viciously that he wanted to kill himself to escape
the cruelty. But the court seemed unconcerned with this abuse of Jack. The
Puritans appear to have been a brutal group who believed they were doing the
Lord’s work despite committing acts that we now see as inherently evil.
Running afoul of the law in seventeenth century Massachusetts
Bay Colony was a hazardous thing. While Sarah Chandler Cleaves escaped with admonishment
for her sins, Maria and Jack paid for theirs with their lives.
Sources:
Records Relating to the Early History of Boston ... Boston
(Mass.). Registry Department
The Town of Roxbury: Its Memorable Persons and Places, Its History and Antiquities,
with Numerous Illustrations of Its Old Landmarks and Noted Personages. Francis Samuel Drake. Municipal Printing
Office, Oct 1878, reprinted 1908 - Roxbury (Boston, Mass.)
English Origins of New England Families, Vol. II . https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=FLHG-EnglishOrigins1Vol2&h=190079&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt
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