Adam was enslaved by Justice Thomas Wells of Deerfield, Massachusetts. A church record from 1734 shows that he confessed to the sin of fornication and in 1735, he "confessed ye sin of lewdness." On the same day he "assented to the Articles of ye xtian [Christian] faith, entered into covenant," and was baptized. In 1741, Adam confessed to lying and "was restored to Xtian watch." In July, 1744, "Aadom" was named on the list of 21 Deerfield residents, enslaved and free, to whom Joseph Barnard provided "syths" [scythes], probably for mowing hay.
Adam had an account at Elijah Williams's store, where, in 1743, he purchased cloth, ribbons, and two strings of beads. He paid for these items with fox skins, suggesting that he earned money for his own use by trapping small, furbearing animals such as foxes that posed a threat to chickens and other domesticated fowl in agricultural communitites.