Esther Salisbury Garner

first name
Esther Salisbury
last name
Garner
gender
female
birth, death year
1759 , 1829
first, last year in records
--, --
confidence level
indeterminate
freed status (year freed)
unknown
enslaver(s)
location(s)
Deerfield, MA  
place of origin

Bio

Esther is recorded in the vital records for Deerfield, Massachusetts, as being 70 years old when she died in July of 1829. She is probably the same woman recorded in the Deerfield church records as having lost a 5-year-old child in 1807, and a 13-month-old child in 1808. The father of that child is listed as Joseph (Salisbury). They had six children: Eunice (1797-1805), Simon (1801-1824), the 5-year-old (1802-1807), Schuyler (1805-1832), the 13-month-old (1806-1808), and Calvin (1807-1843). 

It might be possible that at some point, Joseph died and Esther remarried someone with the surname of Roberson. An "Ester Roberson" is listed in the Deerfield 1820 census as one "colored" female over the age of 45, with one male under age 14 (possibly Calvin) and one male between the ages of 14 and 25 (possibly Schuyler.) Both of these boys are recorded as being "colored." Also included is a White female under the age of 10 (possibly a child she had with Roberson.)

Perhaps before Esther's death in 1829, Roberson died and she married someone named Garner. An 1832 poor relief document from Deerfield's selectmen lists the funds provided to cover the last sickness, coffin, shroud, digging of a grave, and burial of Esther's son Schuyler who died that year. She was deceased and her remaining child, Calvin, aged 25, was deaf and mute.

Esther was 38 when she had Eunice and 48 when she had Calvin. It suggests that she began having children later in life than her White contemporaries. Perhaps this might be due to having been enslaved and waiting to have children until after she was free.