Phillis Negro

Bio

On September 20, 1759 storekeeper Elijah Williams of Deerfield, Massacusetts charged Samuel Dickinson for two quarts of rum for a woman named Phillis. Samuel Barnard enslaved a woman by that name and it is possible that Dickinson bought the rum for her.

John Williams was also a storekeeper in Deerfield. On June 10, 1784, he charged Samuel Barnard for a purchase of "Gauze" by "Phillis Negro Dr." The date of the transaction raises the issue of whether Phillis was enslaved. Although Massachusetts judges ruled in separate court cases in 1781-1783 that slavery was unconstitutional under the new state constitution ratified in 1780, slavery was not formerly abolished in the state. In consequence, some Massachusetts enslavers continued to hold already-enslaved people in bondage in the years immediately following the end of the American Revolution.