Joshua was the son of Boston and both were among six people enslaved to Col. Eleazer Porter of Hadley, Massachusetts. He might have gained his freedom when Porter died in 1757. The following comes from The History of Hadley, Massachusetts:
Joshua Boston is represented by those who knew him well, as tall, erect, and portly; he was well dressed, gentlemanly in his manners, and there was much native dignity in his appearnace. His dignified aspect attracted attention in the street, and when he entered the meeting-house.... Joshua could read and write, sustained a good reputation, and was a member of the church in Hadley…His color was that of a negro….. This man in 1758 was a chattel, and was valued at 20 pounds.
It is said that “His sense of polite conduct led him always to carry his wife’s reticule [purse] to meeting for her.” In Hadley’s meetinghouse people of color sat upstairs in the gallery, with separate sections for men and women. Joshua refused to sit in the men’s section and instead sat on the porch.
In Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailor of the Revolutionary War (Vol. 2, pg. 294), a 1781 entry for Joshua records him as being 6 feet tall with black hair and a black complexion, age 35, and he gave his profession as a farmer.
Boston farmed for himself and worked on other farms in exchange for carpentry work, meat and cheese, sewing clothing, the loan of an ox team, and extra laborers, when needed. He often did business with Hadley resident Samuel Gaylord, who was a carpenter. Entries in Gaylord's journal show that Joshua boarded at his house at times.
Sometime between 1781 and 1784, Joshua married Pits Bennet. She died in 1806.
The 1790 census for Hadley lists 2 people in the “All other free persons” column for Joshua Boston, and the 1800 census lists four. One of those was a pauper, Phillis Aberdeen, whom Boston fed and sheltered for several years. In turn, in his last years, he would be cared for by an Indigenous woman named Polly Sampson (possibly Sensimon).
Joshua died in December of 1819. "On the day of his funeral, after those who attended had left the grave-yard, a singular curiosity led the sexton to descend into the grave, open the coffin and gaze once more upon the countenance of Joshua, and he delcared that it was still dignified and majestic."
Military Service
Sources Consulted
"Joshua Boston of Hadley", Marla R. Miller
History of Hadley, Massachusetts, Sylvester Judd, 1905, pp. 94, 321